It is being reported by Fightful Select that former NXT Women’s Champion Mandy Rose has been released by WWE.
Fightful Select has learned that Mandy Rose has been released by WWE.
WWE officials felt they were put in a tough position based on the content she was posting on her FanTime page. They felt like it was outside of the parameters of her WWE deal. pic.twitter.com/RZSiQ53XPf
In a social media post, Fightful’s Sean Ross Sappa states that “WWE officials felt they were put in a tough position based on the content she was posting on her BrandArmy page. They felt like it was outside the parameters of her WWE deal.”
Rose dropped the NXT Women’s Championship to Roxanne Perez after 413 days as champion on the Dec. 13 episode of NXT. Rose has been with WWE since 2015 after being runner-up in the last Tough Enough season.
More details will be provided as they get revealed.
Diva Dirt hopes to see Mandy Rose back in a wrestling ring soon.
Roxanne Perez is the new NXT Women’s Champion after defeating Mandy Rose on the Dec. 13 episode of NXT. Perez earned her title shot after becoming the Iron Survivor at Deadline in a number one contender match. Perez becoming the NXT Women’s Champion ends the impressive 413-day reign for Rose.
The title match was originally set for New Year’s Evil in January, but after the start of this week’s NXT, Perez challenged Rose to the match on tonight’s episode instead. In a segment to start the show, the two Iron Survivor winners Perez and Grayson Waller exchanged words. This caused the NXT Champion Bron Breakker to come out and side with Perez against Waller. After the men separated themselves from the segment, Rose attacked Perez from behind.
The match took place in the main event. In the final moments of the match, Mandy hit Kiss the Rose and went for the cover but only got a near fall much to her surprise. She then went to put away Perez once again but Perez reversed it and hit Pop Rox for the three count – crowning her the new champion.
Elsewhere on this episode of NXT, Toxic Attraction took on Ivy Nile & Tatum Paxley. The NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions Katana Chance & Kayden Carter were on commentary for the match. The match ended in a disqualification after the champions got involved and pulled Toxic Attraction out of the ring causing all three teams to brawl.
Next week there will be a Triple Threat match between all three teams for the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships.
Lyra Valkyria (Aoife Valkyrie) made her official NXT debut. The former NXT UK talent had her first match in 15 months against Amari Miller. She was victorious off a frog splash.
The polls for the 2022 Year End Women’s Wrestling Fan Awards are still open!! The polls will close this Saturday on Dec. 17.
If you have not yet voted please make sure you do so. You can do that by clicking on this link here.
Diva Dirt is partnering with Ring the Belle once again this year so you can watch the nomination video below to see all the categories and who is nominated.
Thank you to everyone who has participated as we celebrate the women’s wrestling that entertained us in 2022!
Check back in with Diva Dirt & Ring the Belle for the winners that you as the fans voted on! Results will come shortly after the polls close.
We’ve reached the fallout from NXT Deadline and we have a new number one contender! Roxanne Perez will be facing Mandy Rose at New Year’s Evil in January after defeating four other women in the Iron Survivor Challenge Match. Also in that match were Cora Jade, Indi Hartwell, Kiana James, and Zoey Stark.
What we already have advertised for tonight is a tag team match between Ivy Nile & Tatum Paxley taking on Toxic Attraction’s Gigi Dolin & Jacy Jayne. This match although not officially a number one contender’s match will likely push forward the next challengers for the tag champions Kayden Carter & Katana Chance.
Also Lyra Valkyria will make her NXT debut tonight. She was known in NXT UK as Aoife Valkyrie and has now made her way to the states. This will be her first match since an injury has had her out for over a year.
As always, feel free to discuss tonight’s show in the comment section below.
And if you haven’t posted in this year’s Year End Women’s Fan Awards please do so by clicking here. The polls are still open until Saturday, Dec. 17.
She took on Bayley to start off Raw this week and came away with the victory after delivering Twisted Bliss. The WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Dakota Kai and IYO SKY accompanied Bayley to the ring. However, Becky Lynch arrived and attacked both Kai and SKY taking them out threw the crowd and away from the ring prior to the match starting. Belair came out to ringside to watch the match.
After Bliss picked up the victory she went to give Belair a hug in the ring and caught the Raw Women’s Champion in Sister Abigail. She wouldn’t execute the move releasing Belair as the two backed away from one another. Just before the Sister Abigail tease, the Bray Wyatt symbol appeared on the big screen behind Belair.
The second match of the night was the advertised Candice LeRae taking on IYO SKY. The two have a lot of history from NXT and LeRae was looking to finally get a win over SKY.
Prior to the match, LeRae had a backstage segment with Johnny Gargano and Dexter Lumis. For another week, Nikki Cross appeared behind LeRae spying on her. SKY would end up winning the match after delivering her moonsault. Damage CTRL celebrated in the ring following SKY’s win. LeRae is still winless against SKY in singles matches.
Lastly, the third women’s match had Asuka taking on Rhea Ripley. Although we have seen this match recently, this time felt different as Asuka came to the ring and wrestled without her normal face makeup on. During the match, commentary brought up Asuka’s recent Twitter postings being unusual. For those who have not been caught up, Asuka has been posting her prior to WWE character Kana frequently on social media since last week.
Asuka would take the loss in this match after she spit mist in the face of Dominik Mysterio. This allowed Ripley to deliver the Riptide.
Kylie Rae has been booked to work a taped WWE Main Event match this evening prior to Raw. She faces Dana Brooke and is going by the name Briana Ray.
It was reported by both PWInsider and Fightful last week that Rae attended a WWE tryout throughout the week. She was joined by a few other indie talents and this was a separate tryout compared to the recent open ones.
Rae has previously appeared for AEW, IMPACT, and NWA among many indie promotions. There is no word at this time if she has been offered a contract.
Diva Dirt will provide further updates as they present themselves.
The Dec. 12 edition of Raw that will take place tonight has two women’s matches already set up.
After two Triple Threat matches last week, the winners from those – Alexa Bliss and Bayley – will be facing off tonight to determine the number one contender for Biana Belair’s Raw Women’s Championship.
The second women’s match will be IYO SKY vs. Candice LeRae. The two reignite their rivalry from NXT with the match tonight. LeRae has already defeated Dakota Kai, can she do the same against SKY?
NXT talent has been seeing the main roster a bit this year as they have been utilized over the year on both main roster dark matches and WWE Main Event. Names such as Fallon Henley, Kiana James, Alba Fyre, Wendy Choo, Zoey Stark, and most recently Katana Chance are some of those that have been on Main Event weekly.
In a report from Fightful Select on Dec. 11, they state that there have been pitches for numerous NXT talent to be called up to the main roster. Since the return of crowds in 2021, NXT talent has been working these dark matches and also Main Event. One NXT source indicated to Fightful that WWE higher ups feel it gives them a more accurate reflection of how a talent would immediately connect with a main roster audience, since they’re largely working in front of the same few hundred people weekly in NXT.
It was reiterated that appearing on Main Event doesn’t mean that there’s been a pitch for a call-up or plans for one. Instead, WWE is trying to get looks at talent on the road outside of the Performance Center. Several NXT talents have shared with Fightful that they see being on Main Event as a reward.
At this time there were no names for the women’s roster given for pitches via this report. This doesn’t mean there haven’t been any, but Fightful has only confirmed names for the men – Cameron Grimes and Von Wagner.
Check back in with Diva Dirt for more news and results from the women of NXT.
After the attack on Shotzi on the Dec. 9 episode of SmackDown, the talent has confirmed she will be out for six weeks with a broken hand. She was attacked by Shayna Baszler and SmackDown Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey in the parking lot before the show took place. Her hand was said to be slammed in a car door.
Shotzi recently faced Rousey for the SmackDown Women’s Championship in a losing effort at Survivor Series WarGames.
Shotzi was set to take on Baszler in a one-on-one match but that would not take place. Instead, Baszler teamed up with Rousey to face Liv Morgan and the returning Tegan Nox. Morgan and Nox picked up the victory which has placed them in a Women’s Tag Team Title match this Friday. Raquel Rodriguez made her way out to the ring to cause the distraction.
Rodriguez has been part of Baszler’s storyline of injuring talent. It started with Natalya‘s broken nose, followed up with Rodriguez’s broken elbow, and now Shotzi’s hand.
Check back in with Diva Dirt this Friday for the live SmackDown Discussion Post!
Scarlett has made her way into the squared circle in WWE and has successfully picked up her first wins during two WWE Live shows over the weekend. She teamed up with Karrion Kross and on both nights defeated the team of Emma and Madcap Moss. The SmackDown brand had their Holiday Tour Saturday show in Wheeling, West Virginia while Sunday’s was in Charleston, West Virginia.
The only other match Scarlett has done since signing with WWE was a dark match before SmackDown in June 2021 against Shotzi in a losing effort. Scarlett is known to be an in-ring competitor outside of WWE and during her time away from the company had various matches on the indie scene picking up consistent victories.
She did have one match in 2016 on WWE Raw where she was an enhancement talent in a quick loss to Nia Jax.
Full results from this weekend’s WWE Live Holiday Tour were as follows (courtesy of Cagematch) –
SmackDown
Sat. Dec. 10 & Sun. Dec. 11 (same results on both nights)
Scarlett & Karrion Kross defeated Emma & Madcap Moss
The OC (Mia Yim, Karl Anderson, and Luke Gallows) defeated The Judgment Day (Rhea Ripley, Damian Priest, and Dominik Mysterio)
Check back in with Diva Dirt today for the Raw Discussion Post to discuss Alexa Bliss vs. Bayley in a number one contender match and also Candice LeRae taking on IYO SKY.
Two women’s matches kicked off NXT Deadline on December 10.
The last NXT premium live event of the year opened up with the first-ever women’s Iron Survivor Challenge. Roxanne Perez and Zoey Stark were the first two entrants until Kiana James joined. Stark was the first to score a fall when she pinned Perez to send her to the penalty box for 90 seconds. Cora Jade came in next and scored a fall over James before Indi Hartwell entered last and sent Perez back to the penalty box. Perez finally scored a fall over Stark to give everyone but James one point.
Perez pulled ahead when she hit Pop Rox on her rival Jade. After 90 seconds, Jade returned to the bout but struggled to score another fall before the clock hit 25 minutes. Perez was declared the winner and has now earned a future NXT Women’s Championship match. That match will take place on Jan. 10 at New Year’s Evil.
Photo: WWE
Right after the Iron Survivor Challenge, Alba Fyre had her chance at revenge against Isla Dawn. The action was hard-fought in and out the ring, but it wasn’t without Dawn’s mysterious antics. The original referee was taken out after black goo began falling out of his mouth. After a new ref came in, Dawn sent Fyre into an exposed turnbuckle and planted her for the three-count.
The tag division received some minor developments during a pair of backstage segments. In one interview, Katana Chance and Kayden Carter interrupted Ivy Nile and Tatum Paxley to give them props and tease a future match. Later on, Nile and Paxley attacked Toxic Attraction when they confronted the champs, which led to all three teams brawling until they were pulled apart. It is now confirmed that Nile and Paxley will face Toxic Attraction on Tuesday’s new episode.
Looking ahead, NXT’s next televised special will be New Year’s Evil on January 10, while the next PLE will be Vengeance Day on February 4 in Charlotte, NC.
What did you think of Deadline? Do you think Roxanne Perez will dethrone Mandy Rose? Sound off with your thoughts below!
Want to own a piece of history? Check out Ring Post Journal’s 2021 Women’s Wrestling Year in Review, available exclusively on Amazon. The collector’s book features stories, results and stats from WWE, AEW, IMPACT, NWA, ROH and more. A portion of proceeds will be donated to National Alliance on Mental Illness in honor of Daffney.
The event took place on Dec. 10, and this ended the reign of Martinez at 220 days. This is Athena’s first win for this championship, and she is now one of four women to win this title. The inaugural champion was Rok-C (Roxanne Perez) followed by Deonna Purrazzo.
Tonight’s NXT Deadline has two women’s matches on the card –
For Diva Dirt’s Preview & Prediction of tonight’s event you can click here.
Isla Dawn vs. Alba Fyre
Iron Survivor Challenge Match – Number One Contender
Cora Jade vs. Roxanne Perez vs. Zoey Stark vs. Indi Hartwell vs. Kiana James
The rules for the Iron Survivor Challenge are as follows:
Five Superstars will compete in this unique 25-minute match as they battle each other and the clock.
Two Superstars will start the match, and every five minutes a new Superstar will enter the match until all five are in the ring.
The goal is to have the most falls when the clock hits 25 minutes.
Falls can be won at any time via pinfall, submission, or disqualification.
When a Superstar scores a fall, they will earn one point.
However, when a Superstar loses a fall, that Superstar must pay the penalty. They are forced out of the ring and into a penalty box for 90 seconds.
Once the 90 seconds are up, the Superstar can re-enter the match.
The Superstar who has scored the most falls when the clock hits 25 minutes will be named the Iron Survivor and become the No. 1 Contender to the NXT Championship and NXT Women’s Championship, respectively.
As always, feel free to discuss tonight’s show below.
Tonight, NXT’s next pay-per-view event Deadline will be taking place and there are two women’s matches on the card. It will also be historic in the first ever Iron Survivor Challenge Matches. There will be one for both the women and the men.
First, Alba Fyre will be taking on Isla Dawn. Fyre was perhaps moments away from becoming the NXT Women’s Champion in a Last Woman Standing Match weeks ago against Mandy Rose. As Fyre ascended a ladder to put the final nail in Rose’s coffin on the announce table, Dawn made her NXT debut and it was Fyre who would come crashing down through the announce table as Rose moved out of the way.
Now, Fyre wants some revenge against the NXT witch.
Super stoked for Isla to finally be on NXT. In early NXT UK days, Isla was one I felt that faded in the background, however, in the latter days of NXT UK and as she had title matches with Meiko Satomura, Isla really started coming into her own. Even though Fyre continues to lose her matches recently against Rose, I think it is time for her to put over Isla and finally head to the main roster. Her time in developmental can’t be any more vital at this point.
Winner: Isla Dawn
GARY:
Very excited for this match and to see two fellow Scots put on an incredible match. I really feel this can go either way, I think this could be Fyre’s exit from NXT and so could see her getting the win especially after back-to-back losses to Rose but Dawn is a fresh face and needs to be established. I am convinced WWE will give this to Fyre but my pick is the girl who needs it more and that’s Isla Dawn.
Winner: Isla Dawn
COLBY:
I was worried this card would only have the one women’s match, but WWE came through at the last minute. Fyre vs. Dawn is worthy of a spot on this card after Dawn cost Fyre her last shot at the Women’s Championship. The two crossed paths a few times in NXT UK, but it wasn’t a major rivalry like this is shaping up to be. Booking wise, it could be tough, though. Alba Fyre is in need a win after several losses to Mandy. On the other hand, Isla Dawn is just getting introduced to stateside audiences, and it would probably be a mistake to have her lose here. Fyre can go under, but she needs to head to the main roster imminently.
Winner: Isla Dawn
Next up we have the Iron Survivor Challenge. A first for NXT/WWE, this match will have five superstars battling it out to become the number one contender for the NXT Women’s Champion.
The participants were picked by a panel of WWE Hall of Famers including Molly Holly and Alundra Blayze. Four of them were chosen and they were Zoey Stark, Kiana James, Cora Jade, and Roxanne Perez. The fifth woman earned her way into the match by winning a Triple Threat. Indi Hartwell is the fifth participant after defeating Wendy Choo and Fallon Henley.
The rules for the Iron Survivor Challenge are as follows:
Five Superstars will compete in this unique 25-minute match as they battle each other and the clock.
Two Superstars will start the match, and every five minutes a new Superstar will enter the match until all five are in the ring.
The goal is to have the most falls when the clock hits 25 minutes.
Falls can be won at any time via pinfall, submission, or disqualification.
When a Superstar scores a fall, they will earn one point.
However, when a Superstar loses a fall, that Superstar must pay the penalty. They are forced out of the ring and into a penalty box for 90 seconds.
Once the 90 seconds are up, the Superstar can re-enter the match.
The Superstar who has scored the most falls when the clock hits 25 minutes will be named the Iron Survivor and become the No. 1 Contender to the NXT Championship and NXT Women’s Championship, respectively.
PREDICTIONS –
NICK:
What should be the obvious answer here is Roxanne takes the win, and even though I am still leaning towards that I think Indi will take it. Indi seems to really have been pushed after her winning that fifth spot. Her moment with Mandy after the match showed some fire inside of her to go after the championship. Plus, I am not convinced the winner of this Iron Survivor Challenge will win end Mandy’s reign. So saving Roxanne for later makes sense to me.
I want to start by saying I am very happy to see Kiana James in this match, I would never have picked her for it but she really deserves it. I really do find this one hard to call so I’m going to go out there with a really out there pick. Roxanne seems the obvious choice as the most clear face in the match but I think we could see a tie in this match type if it returns but maybe not the first one… I’m going to go with Roxanne getting the win but I hope to be surprised
Winner: Roxanne Perez
COLBY:
NXT’s women’s division is in a rather good spot right now that there are several women that could—maybe even deserve to—be in this match. With that said, I’m pleased with the lineup we have as all five have a strong case. Cora and Roxanne have been tied together for months as their rivalry came to a head at the last NXT PLE. Naturally, both should be aiming for a title shot going forward. Zoey Stark recently turned heel and has had start and stop moments for various reasons. Kiana James has really grown on me, so I’m looking forward to seeing what she can do in a unique bout like this. And Indi Hartwell rounds out the field as someone who is a veteran to the roster but has struggled to find their spot as NXT continues to evolve. For me, it’s down to Roxanne and Indi as potential winners as long as Mandy is still champion. Given how high up WWE is on Roxanne, I’m going to stick with her as the one to be the Iron Survivor, and the one who dethrones Mandy in 2023.
Winner: Roxanne Perez
Check back in with Diva Dirt tonight for a NXT Deadline Discussion Post!
*Please note that this article contains spoilers from the most recent IMPACT tapings.*
IMPACT Wrestling had its first night of two tapings in Pembroke Pines, Fla. in the Charles Dodge Center. The following has been reported by PWInsider for what took place on Dec. 9.
The second day of tapings takes place today on Dec. 10. Diva Dirt will provide those spoilers once available. At that show it is scheduled for Masha Slamovich to take on Taylor Wilde.
Don’t forget if you haven’t voted in this year’s Diva Dirt & Ring The Belle Year End Women’s Fan Awards click here.
This will be Soho’s first match since AEW All Out where she was injured by Melo who gave her a broken nose that had her out for months. They were in tag team belt for the AAA World Mixed Tag Team Titles where Melo and Sammy Guevara were defending the gold against Soho and Ortiz.
Soho returned to TV on the Nov. 30 episode of Dynamite when she immediately went after Melo attacking her from behind in the ring.
Elsewhere in AEW, on the Dec. 9 episode of Rampage, Hikaru Shida defeated The Bunny to retain the Regina Di Wave Championship. This will give Shida a shot at the AEW Women’s World Championship in an upcoming match against the champion Jamie Hayter.
A second women’s match has been added to this Saturday’s ROH Final Battle pay-per-view. It will air on the preshow Zero Hour.
AEW’s Willow Nightingale will go one-on-one with Trish Adora. Both women are familiar with the ROH brand as they both were part of the ROH women’s division prior to ROH’s hiatus at the end of 2021.
These two women have only had one singles match against each other in their careers. It was in 2021 at a WWR indie event where Adora defeated Nightingale after a 15-minute affair.
The women’s match on the main card that has been previously announced is for the ROH Women’s World Championship. The champion Mercedes Martinez will be defending against Athena.
A women’s tag team title match is set for next week’s SmackDown as the champions Damage CTRL will defend against Liv Morgan & Tegan Nox.
On the Dec. 9 episode of SmackDown, Morgan and Nox picked up a big win against the team of Shayna Baszler and the SmackDown Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey. This was Nox’s first match since returning to WWE last week and her first match overall since she was released last November. The scheduled match was originally set to be a singles match between Baszler and Shotzi but that did not happen.
Baszler continues her domination over the women’s division. First, she took Natalya out by breaking her nose, she then took out Raquel Rodriguez by breaking her elbow, and now they turned their attention to Shotzi. Before the show started, Shotzi had her hand smashed in a car door by Baszler & Rousey in the parking lot.
Fast forward to the tag team match, Morgan and Nox picked up the win thanks to a distraction by Rodriguez. Still nursing the injured elbow, Rodriguez made her way to the ring with officials trying to stop her. Rousey was distracted by this and left the ring apron heading toward Rodriguez. This caused the referee to be distracted as well.
Baszler had Morgan in the Kirifuda Clutch but Morgan was able to escape. With the referee’s back still turned, Nox hit the Shiniest Wizard on Baszler. Morgan would then pin Baszler for the victory. This has earned them a tag team title match that they will have next week against Damage CTRL.
Elsewhere on SmackDown, the valets finally got physical. In a men’s match between Legado del Fantasma and The Viking Raiders, Zelina Vega was on commentary while Valhalla was at ringside. During the bout, Hit Row’s music would play and B-Fab would walk out to the stage with a steel chair to take a seat. This distracted the men in the ring before Top Dolla and Ashante Thee Adonis would attack both Legado and the Raiders causing the match to end in a no contest.
The three teams would fight with the women finally getting involved. Valhalla would enter the ring to go after Hit Row which got B-Fab involved. She delivered a kick to the head of Valhalla who would roll out of the ring. B-Fab would then take Valhalla and throw her into Vega who was sitting at commentary.
Tonight’s SmackDown has one match confirmed from what went down last week and Shotzi will be taking on Shayna Baszler. Last week, Baszler defeated Emma and continued the attack after the match. Shotzi and Raquel Rodriguez would come down to make the save.
But will the match actually take place? Before the show, Shotzi had her hand smashed in a car door by Ronda Rousey and Baszler.
It’s that time! As the year comes to an end, it is time to vote in the 2022 Year End Women’s Wrestling Fan Awards.
Last week, the nomination process took place as many of you nominated who you wanted in each category to be an option to vote on and we thank you for participating. Below is each category that you can vote on one time each and the winners will be presented by the end of the year.
Diva Dirt has partnered with Ring the Belle again this year and they will have the “time to vote” video on their YouTube page. It will go over all of the categories and the nominees for this year that you see below!
Polls will stay up until Dec. 17 —- Happy Voting!
Thank you to all the readers/viewers who participated in the nomination process and also everyone who is voting. Another great year of women’s wrestling is in the books!
Check back in with Diva Dirt and Ring the Belle for the winners!
Scarlett will reportedly be stepping into the ring at this weekend’s WWE Live Event. According to PWInsider, Scarlett will be teaming up with Karrion Kross to take on Emma and Madcap Moss.
Scarlett made her return to WWE alongside Kross in August. The couple was released from WWE in November 2021 during one of the many “budget cuts” throughout that year. She had not made her debut on the main roster at that time as she was not brought up with Kross. During her time with WWE, Scarlett has only entered the ring one time and that was for a SmackDown dark match against Shotzi in June 2021. During her time away from WWE, Scarlett wrestled several matches in the early part of 2022 on the indie scene, winning each match she entered.
Scarlett was internally listed for a dark match prior to last week’s SmackDown.However, that did not take place. According to a previous report by Fightful Select, Scarlett was set to team with Karrion Kross and Damian Priest to take on Matt Riddle, Braun Strowman, and Liv Morgan. However, that didn’t happen and instead, it was Legado Del Fantasma with Zelina Vega and Priest who faced Riddle, Strowman, Moss, and Liv Morgan.
The reason for the change is that Scarlett was never informed of a planned match. Those that Fightful spoke to chalked it up to either an internal error or a nixed pitch that was done well before last Friday. One source stated, “her being in a match would have surprised her.”
Other matches set for this weekend’s live events include –
The December 8 episode of IMPACT featured one match from the Knockouts division as the IMPACT World Championship open challenge took up the second hour of the show.
Last week, Tasha Steelz challenged Savannah Evans to take on Taya Valkyrie after the duo lost to Death Dollz at Over Drive. The two clashed as scheduled and proved to be solid opponents for each other. In the closing minutes, Evans tried to keep Valkyrie grounded with a headlock, but “La Wera Loca” outsmarted her with a leg lock that pivoted into a chinlock of her own. “The Cannibal” came back with a full-nelson slam that kept one-half of the Knockouts Tag Team Champions down for the three-count. A victory for Evans may lead to yet another tag team title clash.
Before that match, Knockouts World Champion Jordynne Grace and Mickie James met face-to-face for a photoshoot as the two prepare for their must-see Title vs. Career match on January 13 at Hard to Kill in Atlanta.
No Knockouts matches were confirmed for next week’s show, however IMPACT Wrestling is taping the rest of their content leading up to Hard to Kill this Friday and Saturday in Pembroke Pines, Florida. The following Knockouts matches are set for the two-day tapings and will air in the coming weeks:
Knockouts World Championship – Winter Warfare Street Fight: Jordynne Grace (c) vs. Tasha Steelz
Tasha Steelz & Savannah Evans vs. Mickie James & Jordynne Grace
What did you think of this week’s IMPACT? Do the upcoming advertised matches intrigue you? Sound off below!
Want to own a piece of history? Check out Ring Post Journal’s 2021 Women’s Wrestling Year in Review, available exclusively on Amazon. The collector’s book features stories, results and stats from WWE, AEW, IMPACT, NWA, ROH and more. A portion of proceeds will be donated to National Alliance on Mental Illness in honor of Daffney.
It is being reported by PWInsider that Mercedes Varnado (Sasha Banks) will be brought in for NJPW’s upcoming event Wrestle Kingdom 17. The event will take place over the course of two nights, January 4 and January 21.
According to the report, Varnado is expected to be at the event according to several sources close to the situation. PWInsider state that while it is unknown whether she will be appearing before the live crowd, they are told that NJPW will be bringing her into the event.
In October, Varnado teased the idea of wrestling former WWE star and current inaugural IWGP Women’s Champion KAIRI in STARDOM. STARDOM shares the same corporate owner as NJPW and the two promotions have been having crossover events utilizing STARDOM women on NJPW shows. Varnado has been training recently in the United States and in Mexico.
KAIRI is already set to defend the IWGP Women’s Championship against Tam Nakano on Jan. 4. However, the second night on Jan. 21 has not had a match determined.
Varnado has not wrestled since she and Naomi walked out of WWE prior to an episode of Raw back in May. They have not been listed internally on the WWE roster but have still had their active profiles on WWE.com.
Varnado recently trademarked her real name as well as some other terms .
Fightful stated they will also reach out to find any further details to support PWInsider’s report.
PWInsider is reporting that Sasha Banks will be at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom.
We've not confirmed this as of yet
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) December 8, 2022
We'll compile everything we can find out about the Sasha Banks/Mercedes situation, NJPW, AEW and more for a https://t.co/jy8u4a8usI post today.
Are we going to be getting heel Asuka with a debut of Kana?
Asuka was last seen on the Dec. 5 episode of Raw where she was in a Triple Threat match to determine who would go on to have a number one contender match. She was unable to win as she was pinned by Bayley and then further dealt with a Riptide by Rhea Ripley after the match was over.
Since her loss on Monday, Asuka has been posting many photos and most recently a video in reference to her former character Kana. A character that has yet to be shown on WWE television that she used in Japan prior to signing with WWE.
Verstossen sei auf ewig, Verlassen sei auf ewig, Zertrümmert sei'n auf ewig Alle Bande der Natur.
Disowned may you be forever, Abandoned may you be forever, Destroyed be forever All the bonds of nature. pic.twitter.com/AcNCSOzAOe
Asuka has been teaming with Alexa Bliss for the past number of months and the two even won the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships that they held for only five days. A big focus has been on Bliss potentially turning back to her dark side with the references to her former character and the Bray Wyatt symbol appearing behind her on multiple occasions. But how about Asuka?
Will we be seeing Kana in WWE soon or is Asuka just playing with our emotions?
AEW Women’s World Champion Jamie Hayter sat down for a pre-taped interview with Tony Schiavone. She made it known that she’s at the top now and will be a fighting champion. She’s going to be watching Hikaru Shida defend her Regina Di WAVE Championship against The Bunny on Friday’s Rampage and is willing to defend her world title against the winner.
#AEW Women's World Champion @jmehytr is giving one of the girls the opportunity of a lifetime.
After that, The Baddies took on Kiera Hogan, Madison Rayne, and Skye Blue in a trios match. Blue worked the first half of the match with Velvet and Grey tagging in and out. In the end, Cargill pinned Rayne to win the bout for The Baddies. There was noticeable tension between the TBS Champion and the recently returned Velvet. Are The Baddies bound to implode?
Later on, Britt Baker interrupted Saraya’s backstage interview with Schiavone. Baker handed Saraya tickets to the January 11 episode of Dynamite and issued a challenge for her to find a partner to take on Baker and Hayter.
In addition to Shida vs. Bunny, this Friday’s Rampage will also feature appearances from Athena, Ruby Soho, and Tay Melo. No women’s matches are confirmed yet for Winter is Coming, although Julia Hart will be present for House of Black’s in-ring return.
What did you think of Dynamite? Who do you think will team up with Saraya next month? Sound off below!
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Ronda Rousey successfully defended her SmackDown Women’s Championship at the Survivor Series WarGames premium live event at the end of November. Her opponent was Shotzi and although this was the first big singles title match for her WWE career, the match received some high criticism from fans.
In particular, during the match, there was a spot on the ring apron where Shotzi delivers a DDT. The move was not executed properly and Rousey in particular received most of the backlash from it.
Rousey recently explained on a live stream about what went wrong in the match and actually stated it was her that pitched the idea.
Ronda Rousey candidly opens up about what happened at War Games, She takes accountability for the DDT spot and feels really bad for Shotzi. They worked on the match for 2 weeks but time got cut. She also says she came back this time to help put over new talent like Shotzi & Liv pic.twitter.com/f0IbMoXVrd
“Let me explain what happened,” she started to explain. “I actually pitched that spot because I love that she does that. We couldn’t practice in my ring because the ropes are too loose. We couldn’t practice it when we got to the area because there are these big cages. I’ve taken DDTs before, but I’ve never helped anybody over to the floor, so they were like, ‘Okay you have to have your hand here on her leg, the other hand on her hip, and you’re going to guide her over.’ Everyone was so focused on ‘guide her over, guide her to the floor,’ that it was literally all that was on my mind when it happened. When she went over it was like, ‘guide her.’ When she was down, I was like, ‘Oh fuck. Ahhh, just go to where you’re supposed to go.’ I fucked it up because I was so concerned with keeping somebody safe and a lot of time, when you see me do something for the first time, it’s the first time I ever did it. I was really concerned with keeping Shotzi safe and I made it look bad. You know what, sorry. Apparently, I deserve to be fired or burned. It reminds me of Monty Python, ‘BURN HER!’ There weren’t calls to fire anybody when Madcap Moss and Big E were spiked on their heads. ‘BURN HER ANYWAY!” I’m so sorry that I was so concerned with keeping someone safe that I made the bump look bad.” (Fightful)
After explaining how the match before hers went over by six minutes she says that they were concerned on the SmackDown Women’s Title match going over as well. With the Triple Threat and still a WarGames match in the show, they wanted to make sure there was enough time.
She continues, “I was bummed though because we worked on that match for two weeks and we were really excited about it. I feel like I really failed Shotzi. I really wanted to showcase her shit and make all of her shit look great and show everyone how great she is. That’s one main reason I wanted to come back for this run, to showcase the new talent. Sho everyone how great Liv is, Shotzi is, Raquel, and Shayna and showcase all of these women that haven’t been getting the attention that I think they deserve.”
Adding to the time issue, “I’ve never heard everybody so stressed about time as I was leading up to that pay-per-view. We literally only had eight minutes to do everything. When we hit eight minutes, ‘alright, you gotta go,’ I’m not gonna argue. They pay me to show up and do what they say to do. I’m bummed though. I feel like I failed Shotzi. Sorry. I’ll do better. I’ll make it up to her. I’ll let her beat my ass.”
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