We are in the throngs of summer, and things are about to heat up in the wrestling world. This supersized edition of my Knotfest Wrestling column features a recap of last night's RAW, a preview of all the wrestling shows happening the rest of this week, and a ton of news and reports from the weekend.
First, I just want to remind everyone that every Monday at 7pm eastern, 4pm pacific, my colleagues Alicia Atout, Colin Young, and Jordan Olds talk about all the news in the world of wrestling. If you missed last night's show, here is the stream:
WWE RAW Recap and Highlights
Here are the notable moments on RAW this week.
- Brock Lesnar showed up to further hype his last man standing match with Roman Reigns at SummerSlam. Alpha Academy randomly attacked Lesnar. After having his way with both Chad Gable and Otis, Lesnar F-5'd Otis through the announcers table in an incredible feat.
- It looks as though the WWE RAW Women's Championship match will feature Becky Lynch vs. Bianca Belair. Becky distracted Bianca causing her to be counted out during a title defense against Carmella. I can see this leading to a rematch next week.
- Finn Balor and Rey Mysterio wrestled for the first time ever, and had a pretty good match. 30 years into his career, Rey did a jumping super-hurracanrana off the top rope. What a legend! During the match, The Judgment Day (Finn and Damien Priest) kept alluding to how washed up Rey was and that his son, Dominick should join them and dominate. Balor beat Rey in the match.
- R-Truth had a funny segment where he tried to convince the Usos and Street Profits that he (Truth) should be the special guest ref for their Summer Slam match.
- Logan Paul will be on Raw next week to address the Miz.
- Dolph Ziggler returned, watching the main event of Lashley and Riddle vs. Theory and Seth Rollins. Ziggler prevented Theory from cheating. Ziggler ended up attacking Theory to close the show.
Here are some videos:
TV Previews for this Week
WWE NXT 2.0 is live tonight on USA Network and here's what you can expect from the card:
- Apollo Crews vs. Giovanni Vinci
- NXT Women's Championship - Mandy Rose (c) vs. Roxeanne Perez
- Solo Sikoa vs. Von Wagner
- JD McDonagh (the former Jordan Devlin) debuts
Make sure to catch tonight's AEW Dark, as it will feature a AEW All Atlantic title defense from PAC against New Japan's Shota Umino, and a match from Tokyo Joshi Pro featuring AEW Women's World Champ Thunder Rosa vs. Miyu Yamashita from Saturday’s TJPW Summer Sun Princess 2022 event. The show airs for free on AEW's Youtube.
AEW Dynamite this Wednesday looks to be a loaded show, it's billed as Fyter Fest Week 1. Already announced for the show are:
- AEW World Tag Team Championship: The Young Bucks (c) vs. Keith Lee & Swerve Strickland vs. Powerhouse Hobbs & Ricky Starks
- AEW Interim World Champion Jon Moxley vs. Konosuke Takeshita (non-title match)
- AEW TNT Championship: Wardlow (c) vs. Orange Cassidy
- Claudio Castagnoli vs. Jake Hager
- Serena Deeb vs. Anna Jay
- Christian Cage will talk, Luchasaurus in action
- Chris Jericho will appear
Next week on Dynamite, they are doing a Barbed Wire match for Eddie Kingston vs. Chris Jericho with the rest of the Jericho Appreciation Society locked in a shark cage above the ring. This is being done to cross-promote Discovery's Shark Week. Coincidentally, The Rock has been named Master of Ceremonies for Shark Week.
Scheduled for IMPACT this Thursday on AXS TV:
- Honor No More (Mike Bennett, Eddie Edwards, Kenny King, Matt Taven) vs. Bullet Club (Gallows, Anderson, Chris Bey, Ace Austin)
- Josh Alexander, MCMG (Alex Shelly, Chris Sabin) vs. Violent by Design
- Mickie James vs. Chelsea Green
- James Storm vs. Steve Maclin
- Masha Slamovich vs. Tenille Dashwood
Two matches have been announced for Friday's Smackdown.
- SmackDown Women's Champion Liv Morgan faces Natalya in a championship contender's match. (If Natalya wins, she gets a shot)
- Theory vs. Madcap Moss
New Japan's annual G1 tournament starts this Saturday night. Usually, some of the best matches of the year in all of pro wrestling happen during this tournament. If you've been wanting to get into New Japan but didn't know where to start, this is the perfect time.
News from around the internet
According to F4W's Bryan Alvarez, the reason you shouldn't expect John Cena at WWE Summer Slam this year is because he is currently filming the second season of his awesome HBO Max series, Peacemaker.
Bryan Danielson is still out, recovering from a concussion suffered at AEW Double or Nothing. There is no timetable for his return. “I don’t think it was a good thing Bryan
Khan also confirmed that Adam Cole is out with a concussion. “He had no contact between Double or Nothing and Forbidden Door. He was on commentary. He had been cleared to wrestle,” Khan said. “So now, I’m also gonna take some time
Fans of Vice's Dark Side of the Ring have noticed casting calls by the producer looking for an actor to portray Andy Kaufman. No word on if this is for a reported new season of the series, or another series on the wrestling territories that the Dark Side producers are working on for Vice.
NXT star Io Shirai is not expected to resign with WWE and will likely be heading back to Japan. She is married to NJPW's EVIL.
Mick Foley announced he has signed a new legends contract with WWE, giving WWE exclusive rights to Foley's merch.
The reporters who broke the blockbuster story on Vince McMahon paying women hush money offered some very interesting quotes during a recent interview with Busted Open Radio. Namely, they think more stories will pop up, but they are not currently sitting on any news.
If you are in the Orlando area, you can get free tickets to go see a taping of AEW Dark at Universal Studios this weekend.
The mystery vignettes on RAW seem to be suggesting Edge's return.
Zelina Vega is sporting a new look:
The excellent 1998 documentary, Hitman: Wrestling with Shadows is streaming free on Tubi.
Speaking of John Cena, a fun video has surfaced of him attending the Vh1 Hip Hop Awards in 2006
