WWE

Bitesize Round-up (1st January 2026 – 11th January 2026)

Raw’s Stranger Things Special Is Strangely Depressing, and More Than a Little Awkward

“Raw” celebrated its first year on Netflix with what should have been a marquee event: a crossover with Stranger Things, the biggest television show in the world, which absolutely cleans up in the demo. The stars were aligned. WWE was celebrating a key anniversary, and Netflix was determined to ensure every last human being on the planet watched the freshly uploaded series finale. They should have been a perfect tag team.

Unfortunately for WWE, who themselves are normally cast in the most villainous of roles, they instead found themselves as the Marty Jannetty of the pairing, left to fend for themselves as Shawn Michaels swanned off and big-timed them. Yes, after an impressive opening that saw Michael Cole and Corey Graves emerge from the van from The Squawk with the Stranger Things theme playing and Demogorgon graphics invading the screen, it all went downhill from there.

The series theme would be played on a loop, but as the night progressed it began to feel like WWE had been jilted at the altar. No one was expecting Millie Bobby Brown or Winona Ryder to show up at a wrestling show, but surely Netflix could have wrangled at least one cast member? Wouldn’t it have been great to have Robin and Vickie cheering in the front row as Rhea and Iyo won the tag team titles? Could Steve “The Hair” Harrington not have bumped shoulders with CM Punk?* Hell, could they not have got at least one of the kids to film a video on their phones?

*(Editor’s Note: Absolutely not, my fave would never do this.)

Even with the painfully awkward no-showing from the show’s stars, there was still much that WWE could have done in this situation. After a strong start, they simply drew attention to the cast’s absence by refusing to use any creativity to co-promote. Would it really have been that hard to put together a silly video package comparing Vecna to Bron Breakker? Or to use Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” to soundtrack one of the pre-match hype videos? Honestly, the over-promising and under-delivering for this anniversary edition of “Raw” was staggering.

RhIyo Take the Titles and Refocus Raw Around Longer-Term Storytelling

In one of the rare, unquestioned triumphs of WWE’s booking department in the past year, Iyo Sky and Rhea Ripley’s heated rivals-to-inseparable-best-friends storyline culminated in them defeating the Kabuki Warriors to capture the tag team titles on the 5 January anniversary edition of “Raw”. The match itself, after an early hiccup, was great, with Iyo and Asuka providing fast-paced action while Rhea Ripley wrecked shop. Kairi Sane, for her part, continues to revitalise her flagging career in the tag team context, pulling off some of the match’s flashier spots (a flying double stomp to an opponent suspended across the top rope) and taking the most brutal of bumps.

RhIyo’s rise to prominence has been a long time coming. Fans have been campaigning for WWE’s two top female stars to unite since their strange opposites-attract chemistry was first noted in NXT. Since then, the pair have been pitted as career rivals, with Sky given the role as the one woman Rhea Ripley has never been able to defeat (a fact which Iyo gleefully reminds her of at every opportunity). Beyond simply giving the fans what they want, the decision to make the women’s tag team titles the 1A storyline on “Raw” has led to a resurgence of the women’s division across the board. While the writing on the men’s side has become stilted and generic, the tag teams of Liv Morgan and Roxanne Perez, Bayley and Lyra Valkyria, and Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss have resulted in a blend of layered and conflicted interpersonal storytelling.

Rhea and Iyo’s joyful friendship is, of course, underwritten by their own fearsome history as singles opponents, but each team has its own dynamic. Asuka is presented as a cruel mentor, bullying and manipulating Kairi to turn her heartbreak into bitter resentment. Meanwhile, Liv and Roxy’s relationship is underwritten by suspicion. Roxy was positioned as Finn’s inside woman, designed to replace Liv, but the pair have seemed to bond as Finn’s attention has drifted elsewhere. Charlotte Flair might be a horrifically wooden actress, but by making fun of her own pretentiousness via the medium of Alexa Bliss, WWE has successfully shaken the fan resentment that saw Flair booed out of the building repeatedly in 2025 (although I must note that Charlotte’s in ring work has deteriorated to a terrifying degree).

The result is that, while WWE’s house style is inherently inorganic, the promos and angles in the women’s division have the pleasing weight of history behind them. When Nia Jax and Lash Legend troll Alexa Bliss backstage, they can draw on Charlotte’s long history of deceit and self-centredness to undermine Alexa’s trust. This character-based approach is genuinely refreshing when compared to The Vision, who spent months ponderously introducing themselves over and over again in 15-minute-long segments — let alone a myriad of platitudinous “so, what do you want to talk about?” Cody Rhodes promos where the writers gave him absolutely nothing to sink his teeth into.

The proof is, of course, in the pudding. Not only are RhIyo drawing the biggest reactions on “Raw” (outside of CM Punk) while delivering high-quality action, they are already a commercial success. The pair’s first collaborative T-shirt sold out within 15 hours of launch on WWE.com — which is quite the feat, especially when considering how inherently ugly WWE’s designs always prove to be.

© WWE

Drew Falls on His Arse to Capture WWE World Title as “Plans Change”

There are, of course, two major stories to be told here: one in-ring and one behind the scenes. The latter is arguably the more interesting, although little is known at the time of writing beyond the fact that WWE decided, as late as the Wednesday before Cody Rhodes was due to defend his title in Berlin, to go ahead with the title change. The decision was designed to freshen things up and inject some more dynamism into the build to “Mania”, but whether Triple H has decided to scrap the planned matches or not remains to be seen. Based on the tensions coming out of WarGames, it would certainly be easy enough to run with Roman Reigns vs CM Punk vs Cody Rhodes in a triple-threat all-star main event, which would have the added benefit of creating a sense of genuine intrigue surrounding the other world title match. However, Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer appear to have confirmed that a triple threat is not the plan. Equally, Cody vs Roman III is no longer scheduled and, at the time of writing, the card is up in the air, with Roman Reigns said to be the odd man out.

Now turning attention back to the Three Stages of Hell match itself, it was a compelling, if strangely booked, affair. Across 30 minutes, Drew and Cody served up plenty of engaging action and clearly had the crowd — who were absolutely baying for a title change — hooked. The only real issues were creative. The first fall was strange. The angle going into the match was that Drew had taken revenge on Cody (who had gate-crashed his home) by breaking into his tour bus, burning his picture with Dusty in front of his eyes and even going so far as to steal his father’s gold watch. Drew’s explicitly stated plan was that he’d requested a straight singles match, knowing that Cody wouldn’t be able to control his emotions and would get disqualified, leaving Drew halfway to victory. All in all, a perfectly logical set-up.

So how did Drew’s plan play out? Well, just three minutes into the match, with the referee distracted, he punted Cody in the balls, surprised him with a Claymore and scored the pin (lol wut?). Truth be told, I’m still not sure how to feel about it now. In the context of the match, it was a shot out of the blue that ensured the crowd were on their toes for the rest of the bout, but it also rendered two months of storyline worthless in three minutes flat. Thankfully, the second fall was the star of the show, with Cody and Drew reliving the ’90s by walking and brawling across the arena. Cody would peak the action with an impressive balcony dive and a brutal-looking CrossRhodes through the announce table to even the match.

The “good old-fashioned cage match… with no outside interference” was as infuriating as the opening fall from a booking point of view, but both men worked incredibly hard. Cody would play the hero with superplexes and cutters off the cage, and the pair would battle to create dramatic moments, including a simultaneous crotching spot with both men falling from the top rope. However, with the drama peaking and the crowd chanting “this is awesome”, the booking yet again intruded to take the mood down. Drew was crawling his way to victory; he even had the door open when… a masked man appeared.

It was the returning Jacob Fatu, who got a riotous reaction as he beat Drew back into the cage and then drew even louder cheers when he turned his assault towards Cody. At this point, McIntyre, who was knocked loopy, simply fell out of the cage to win the most prestigious title in the promotion. It was literally a slip-on-a-banana-peel win, but it didn’t have to be. Cody can take a loss; in fact, they gave Drew a clear visual victory when Jacob stopped him from exiting the cage. Why not let Drew win and, as he’s celebrating, cut the lights and have Jacob Fatu appear to destroy both men? That way, your title’s credibility is protected, Drew garners momentum, and Jacob gets to make a shock return by taking out the two prime suspects for his backstage assault back in November.

Instead, not only did Drew end up celebrating by falling on his arse, Jacob didn’t even get to stand tall. In a baffling decision, Cody snuck up behind Fatu and rammed his head into the cage, so that the final image of the show was Jacob lying crumpled at Cody’s feet.

Kendal Grey Shines in Defeat, but It’s Long Past Time to Call Up Jacy Jayne

It’s worth remembering, as another white-hot babyface contender is fed into the woodchipper, that Jacy Jayne herself should not be blamed for her ultra-dominant booking. Since unseating Stephanie Vaquer as NXT Women’s Champion, she has, along with Ethan Page, been the consistent force holding an at-times appallingly booked Tuesday night TV show together. Her work has come on in leaps and bounds in every conceivable regard, and she may have found her perfect dance partner in the determined Kendal Gray and her hapless sweetheart best friend, Wren Sinclair. The hotly anticipated clash between the Evolve and NXT women’s champions did not disappoint. Jacy was rock-solid in her work, with convincing striking and tidy fundamentals, while Kendal was an unrelenting whirlwind of throws, switches and inventive counters. The match-up in many ways felt like the natural heir to Bayley and Sasha Banks — the first meeting of the women’s division’s best base and most gifted young star — albeit with the personalities reversed.

The nearfalls proved so compelling and well plotted that the entire Performance Center rose to its feet for the final stretch, completely hoodwinked by what they thought was the sight of Kendal turning the tide. The atmosphere was frenzied and the crowd was ready to erupt, but with the help of a distraction, Jacy recovered and hit the Roaring Encore to retain her title. Jacy and Fallon Henley are too good to be languishing in NXT. Their strong work and well-developed characters would be greatly appreciated on “SmackDown” or “Raw”, but by staying on “NXT” they risk extinguishing the fans’ sense of hope. Lola Vice, Tatum Paxley and Kendal Grey have all had the rug pulled out from underneath them — will Sol Ruca be the one who finally gets to stand tall?

© WWE

Breakker Crashes Out, Following Defeat To Punk in a Kamikaze Main Event

With the benefit of time to reflect and having had the opportunity to let things play out, it’s clear that, on balance, WWE made the right decision in having CM Punk retain the World Heavyweight title on the Stranger Things edition of “Raw”. At the time, Punk’s victory sparked backlash, with fans decrying a sense of tiresome stasis as another young star was forced to wait for his moment, but subsequent weeks’ television have injected some real life into the “WrestleMania” build.

Punk’s win only works in the context of Drew McIntyre upsetting Cody Rhodes over on “Smackdown” (which was not the plan at the time) and in light of the excellent follow-up angle that took place on the next week’s “Raw”. Rhodes’ defeat has blown the “WrestleMania” card and Royal Rumble result wide open, while taking the stale Roman–Cody III plans off the table entirely. With “SmackDown” now in flux and all the promotion’s major players (Roman, Cody, Punk) no longer tied into predictable storylines, having Punk’s reign continue feels less regressive.

The biggest upshot of Punk’s win has been the development of Breakker’s hot-headed Steiner-like character. Banned from “Raw” by Adam Pearce, in a brilliant angle he speared poor Dragon Lee to death after sprinting down the entrance ramp. At that point, he got in Pearce’s face and, with a screaming match in full flow, Pearce put his hands on Bron. At this moment, Breakker flipped out and, in a bout of psychopathic roid rage, powered Pearce into the corner to scream at him while shaking him by the lapels. Pearce, a former wrestler, stood up to this well and asserted himself as a GM. Suddenly, the edge that begun to ebb away from Bron’s character had returned in spades. This is the psycho killer fans want to see main-event “WrestleMania”, not the scripted dork reciting “Spear 1, 2, 3” a fortnight ago.

The plot thickened when Pearce suspended Breakker without pay, only for Heyman to note that Pearce made a mistake by putting his hands on Bron — foreshadowing the slippery legalese Heyman will likely rely on to have the suspension lifted.

The match itself was a wilder ride than either Bron or Punk anticipated. The story seemed well laid out: Punk started slow and was going through the gears, before his uber-athletic opponent exploded and overwhelmed him. So far, so good — but just as the action was really picking up, Bron went for his signature top-rope Frankensteiner, but Punk’s right leg was on the wrong side of the rope. With Punk trapped in position and unable to flip, Bron went straight down and landed on his head. Punk thought fast, following up with a second-rope elbow drop, but it was a horrific near-miss. That said, the botch didn’t derail the match; it only added to the frenzied intensity and, truth be told, it wasn’t even the scariest spot of the match. The near-deadliest moment came when Bron countered a suicide dive by clocking Punk with an overhand right that caused him to crash face (and/or head) first onto the floor with a gruesome thud. It was a moronic moment, but an ungodly satisfying one. From there on, it was nothing but big spots and nearfalls, with Punk finally gaining control by countering Bron’s spear with an ugly knee to the face, which set up the GTS.

Oba Femi Leaves NXT Without Putting Anyone Over

Regular watchers of “NXT” will know that the above statement is not exactly true. During his tenure in NXT, Oba Femi did a fantastic job of putting over both Tony D’Angelo and Ricky Saints — however, his final act on the brand was to defeat the brilliant Leon Slater and then leave the NXT title in the middle of the ring. The angle was well constructed in isolation. Having celebrated his win, the camera cut back to Ava, who was addressing the Evolve locker room, rallying them to step up and fill the shoes of NXT stars departing for the main roster, when she was suddenly alerted to something happening in the ring. When the camera cut back to ringside, the belt was left in the centre of the ring in a solitary spotlight as the crowd gasped.

Ava’s solution to this problem in storyline was to announce a six-way ladder match (a company tradition at this point) and a series of qualifying matches. This announcement itself was interrupted by the (re-)debuting Keanu Carver, who obliterated a host of NXT mid-carders in a pleasingly reckless fashion. The goal appears to be to hot-shot Evolve talent into the mix with more established NXT acts like Ricky Starks and Myles Borne. This is a good idea, as the NXT mid-card is thin. There are those with promise (Stacks, Tavion Heights, Josh Briggs, Shiloh Hill), but they are far from ready, while there are too many middling talents struggling to gain traction (Lexis King, Jasper Troy) and stars who seem perma-trapped in NXT (Tony D, Ethan Page).

Most worryingly for NXT is the fact that the question of who should win the title is almost impossible to answer. Compared to a women’s division so overflowing with big characters and breakout stars, the men’s division has little to offer. Given that Ethan Page has been ruled out of the tournament for contrived storyline reasons, I imagine if you were to ask fans who they’d like to see as champion, they might legitimately say the newly arrived and preposterously gimmicked Shiloh Hill. Whatever the case, NXT needs to find some stars pronto. Perhaps this is where the newly signed Powerhouse Hobbs comes in.

© WWE

Bitesize Round-up (12th January 2026 – 24th January 2026)

Saturday Night’s Main Event Revitalising Ailing Four Match PLE Model

It feels like an eternity since WWE really knocked it out of the park with one of their four-match premium live events or TV specials, but the 24 January 2026 edition of “Saturday Night’s Main Event” finally struck the perfect balance. The show came flying out of the gate with a wild brawl between Jacob Fatu and Cody Rhodes that spilled across the arena, with fans screaming and elderly concession workers legitimately cowering in fear. Their match never officially started, but this rough-and-ready angle was undoubtedly more exciting than a match that everyone knew would end in a non-finish. There were extreme levels of contrivance – a Helen Lovejoy-esque security guard screaming “won’t somebody please think of the Rumble” before getting slammed through a table – but it was all part of the surreal fun. By the time Drew McIntyre arrived to Jackknife Powerbomb Cody through a table and lay out Fatu, the crowd had been whipped into a frenzy.

Hot on their heels came (arguably) the match of the night, as RhIyo (Iyo Sky and Rhea Ripley) successfully defended their titles against Liv Morgan and Roxanne Perez of The Judgment Day. There was some sloppiness, but that played into the chaotic intensity of an all-action match that was chock-full of ultra-hard kicks, with Liv, Iyo and Roxy all eating boots to the face, while Rhea took a gnarly bump on the top of her head. The action peaked with a very convincing false finish. Iyo Sky appeared to have the match won when an interfering Raquel Rodriguez pulled out Rhea Ripley’s legs, causing her to fall on top of the referee just as he was counting three. Raquel would powerbomb Iyo on the floor before Stephanie Vaquer arrived to run off Rodriguez. Then, following a series of excellent nearfalls, Rhea Ripley would blind-tag Iyo Sky just as she was being hit with Ob-Liv-Ion. Liv Morgan was none the wiser and was soon crushed with Riptide, allowing the babyfaces to retain. This match had super heat and generally rocked.

Then in poignant display, Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles came out to play loving tribute to their storied rivalry in NJPW. Nakamura was in his traditional gear and Styles wore a mask in a callback to their legendary clash at “Wrestle Kingdom 10”, which Michael Cole fully explained on commentary. Due to their age, the match was wrestled at 0.5x speed, but the hard striking, clever exchanges and compelling submission battles made for an excellent bout. Nakamura dominated the entire first half of the match, using his striking to counter everything Styles attempted, whereas Styles dominated the second half by destroying Nakamura’s leg with dragonscrews. Nakamura would, perhaps surprisingly given the Gunther storyline, survive the Calf Crusher, but ultimately succumb to the Styles Clash after a series of dramatic nearfalls. The highlight of the match was undoubtedly hearing a big WWE crowd roaring along with the hard forearms and stiff leg kicks the pair threw. They could not summon the intensity or precision of yesteryear, but as tributes go, this was lovely – a must-watch for long-term fans of both men.

In these circumstances, the main event simply couldn’t fail. It was the least dynamic and most traditional WWE-style match on the card: an all-star fatal four-way where wrestlers would periodically sleep on the outside as two workers ran spots in the ring. Nevertheless, in front of a hot Montreal crowd, a Sami Zayn main event was never going to disappoint. Randy Orton was incredibly over and Trick Williams was effective as the one out-and-out heel in the match, semi-regularly cutting his opponents off with leg lariats. Damian Priest felt like the odd man out, but it can’t be said that he put a foot wrong. After a parade of DDTs and announce-table back suplexes by Orton, Sami eventually found time to race in and blast Priest with a Helluva Kick to eke out the victory and send the crowd home happy. With this win, Sami is headed to Saudi Arabia to face Drew McIntyre for the WWE World Title.

Magical Atmosphere In Belfast Soundtracks Finn Bálor’s Forlorn World Title Forray

The Irish and Northern Irish collectively are famed for atmosphere; it so often is, as they are keen to remind us, the Irish Bhoys making all the noise time and time again. But even with high expectations, it was a shock to see the feverish atmosphere that was whipped up on “Raw” as Finn Bálor squared off with CM Punk for the World Heavyweight Title. This was legitimately reminiscent of a great Arena México crowd, in large part because the sold-out crowd was fully invested in the match. Whether or not they actually believed that Bálor could win, they decided to suspend their disbelief for one magical evening.

After a deafening sing-along to “Cult of Personality”, the commentators seemed genuinely shocked at Punk’s popularity, but when Finn came out to his NXT theme the decibel count exploded. The noise was so loud Finn managed to miss the cue for his famous entrance pose because he couldn’t hear the music. In this context, Punk’s ultra-slow-build main-event style worked a treat, with the crowd biting on every nearfall as they eased through the gears. Punk would survive the Coup de Grâce and hit his rolling GTS to retain his title (Finn’s sell of the final knee was tremendous).

Fourth Time Lucky: Becky Finally Gets Something Out Of Maxxine

Maxxine Dupri’s and Becky Lynch’s rivalry has been dragged out across a staggering six matches and, given that Becky has never won cleanly or convincingly, a seventh match may well be on the cards. The first Becky and Maxxine match was wildly over-praised, largely because the crowd was hot for the underdog victory and were happy to overlook Maxxine’s awkward hesitations, stiff movements and awful selling. Maxxine has improved greatly, but she still isn’t good. Worryingly, after showing some initial promise, Max appeared high on her own supply and started adding more complex sequences and preposterous spots to her arsenal that have routinely seen her matches fall apart.

Thankfully, when the pair clashed in Belfast in front of a hot crowd, it seemed like Becky Lynch had taken charge. She worked a hard, aggressive and simple match. Becky would not relent; she kept pushing on offence during the commercial break and structured the match to be full of neat nearfalls, but with minimal convoluted sequences or intricate spots. Instead, Maxxine simply stuck to hard clotheslines, big crossbodies and ankle-lock counters – and was all the better for it. Naturally, at the end of what was undoubtedly the best match of her career to date, Maxxine totally whiffed on the key kick. Becky was sent head-first into the turnbuckle that she herself had exposed and all Maxxine had to do was kick her in the face; instead, she kicked high above Becky’s head right as the camera zoomed in. Oops.

Ultimately, it mattered little. When Natalya turned heel by putting Becky’s foot on the rope, the crowd erupted. Becky’s clever pre-match promo burying Northern Ireland and Rory McIlroy ensured the fans were behind Maxxine, and she did garner genuine sympathy as Natalya forced her to tap over and over again. Hopefully Becky Lynch will now be free from Maxxine. She’s done her level best to elevate her opponent, but in truth she’s sacrificed far too much credibility cowering in the face of an opponent no one takes seriously. Becky is so good on promos that she will undoubtedly recover, but it’s impossible to shake the feeling that Becky has wasted half a year on a project that was doomed from the get go.

© WWE

NXT Exodus Revitalises Product at the Expense of Star Power

The first “NXT” of the new “starless” era was a revelation, in spite of the departures of Trick Williams, Oba Femi, Je’Von Evans and Jordynne Grace. The frustrating booking remained, with droning wooden heel promos blighting the otherwise excellent women’s division (Blake Monroe & Izzi Dame, hang your heads in shame) and Tony D’Angelo’s stern, silent tough-guy act continues to draw no interest or reaction, but the show has proudly refocused around wrestling. Fresh faces were highlighted up and down the card. Elio LeFleur (the former wXw/APC standout Aigle Blanc) was allowed to go and rip it up with Ethan Page; Sean Legacy and Eli Knight got to showcase their athleticism in an “Evolve” showcase; Shiloh Hill was given time to impress with his enthusiasm and intensity; and even Chase U had the opportunity to break out of their comedy-geek presentation and show off their flying skills. The highlight, however, was the fantastic and frantic main-event tag between ZaRuca, WrenQCC and Fatal Influence.

“NXT” is blessed with tremendous depth of female talent and, with the big male stars absent, Sol Ruca and Kendal Grey were given a long main event to truly steal the show. Best of all, progress was not only in the ring. Jaida Parker returned to cut an excellent and authentic promo, as it seems HBK is finally prepared to get behind one of the most naturally charismatic women on the entire roster. Jaida was organic and real, a startling contrast to Blake Monroe, who interrupted her to cut a stilted and jarringly hollow monologue in response.

A Report from the Frontlines: The Strange Phenomenon of Modern Ticket Sales under TKO

Many moons ago, when I was a young hipster writing about the emerging music scenes in Shoreditch, Camberwell and Brixton, I used to have a pretty good handle on the movement of ticket sales for live events. After all, I worked for Sony Records and, believe it or not, Lily Allen was my boss (although she wasn’t exactly hands-on), so I’ve always understood the golden rule: you move the majority of your tickets in week one (usually day one, in fact) and the final week (normally the final two days before the show). The former captures the level of hype surrounding your artist and the strength of their diehard fans, and the latter last-minute sales usually reflect the buzz that you can generate within the week via promotion, along with your more casual audience making a last-minute decision to go for a night out.

Therefore, you might well think the idea that WWE announced a big European tour including a date at Wembley Arena (noticeably smaller than the O2) and sold about 50% of the tickets early on and the rest in the final few weeks unsurprising. However, something noticeably different is happening in 2026. The vast majority of wrestling fans are now fully aware of WWE’s (and, to be fair, AEW’s) model of starting with sky-high prices and periodically slashing the price point as the event approaches. I myself, as I’ve done with “All In” and “Forbidden Door” in years past, was monitoring the sales closely, as it was my goal to pay the minimum value for the best-quality seat.

Unlike with AEW, where there was a slow drip-feed of sales, WWE’s surges were gigantic and entirely related to the pricing. The seat I ended up sitting in was a floor seat within the first ten rows of the ring. This seat’s initial retail price was £638. Watching as the months passed by, it truly looked like WWE was on course for a disastrous attendance, with a respectable crowd in the stands but the floor and lower bowl largely empty. After Christmas (which sparked a fair few sales), the first big jump in ticket sales came about two weeks ago when top prices fell from £638 to £420 and cheaper seats were cut in half. This remained far outside my price range, so I held on. Tickets were then cut to £205, and this did cause substantial movement and led WWE to open up more blocks on the hard-camera side and in the corner by the entranceway.

Finally, the day before the show, the price dropped to £75, £99, £150 and £175, depending on where you chose to sit. I decided to pay £150 to pick up one of the three remaining seats in my row. It’s more than I’d like to pay — I was targeting £75 — but it’s also the closest I’ve ever sat at a major promotion’s wrestling show and is roughly the same as the price I paid to sit at the very top of the O2 Arena to watch Iyo Sky vs Rhea Ripley headline “Raw” the year before.

Now comes the depressing part: because I’d monitored the ticket sales very closely, I had a very good idea which rows — and exactly who in my row — had paid full price or close to it. There were, of course, the superfans with replica belts — wrestling’s equivalent of Swifties or Blinks — but more worryingly, it was the kids and families. WWE has children in an absolute chokehold (they love the product and they really bloody love Cody Rhodes in particular). But — and this isn’t the first time this has happened — I had the awkward experience of knowing that the family of five next to me had shelled out £3,190 to be there and, unlike me, they’d bought a lorry-load of merch on top of that (for the record, they didn’t seem like rich people, as far as I could tell).

When showtime arrived, WWE announced a sell-out, and this was more or less true. There was a scattering of unsold seats and a small section around the hard cam that remained unsold, but truth be told, they sold out their initial allocation, added several more blocks and sold them all out as well, with the vast majority of the sales happening in the final two days. As I mentioned before, I’m used to seeing significant movement in ticket sales in the final weeks, but I’ve never seen movement on this level and with such clear and obvious responses to pricing changes. I can only conclude that wrestling fans have now been trained to monitor ticket prices like hawks. This last-second sell-out was no fluke, but it was surreal.

© WWE

Observations from Attending SmackDown Live in London

Firstly, I have to say I had a great time. Even if we were somewhat short-changed on the length of the Sami Zayn–Ilja Dragunov rematch, this was a card stacked with meaningful action (thanks to the Number One Contenders tournament) and two big, meaty angles. Secondly, despite all the hometown wrestlers losing (a Vince staple), this card did feel like it was custom-designed for the UK/European market, with Drew McIntyre, Leon Slater, Kit Wilson, Giulia and Nathan Frazer (who wrestled Fénix in an excellent pre-show sprint) featured prominently (and respectfully).

Maybe the response will be different stateside, but the biggest shocker for WWE creative might be the runaway popularity of Kit Wilson. His new slick pop theme and his promos on toxic masculinity have seen him wildly cheered across Europe, and he got a riotous reception in the UK. The character is, of course, designed to be a paper-thin heel for fans to laugh at, but Kit is a strong performer and did an excellent job of not only laying out Matt Cardona before continuing to impishly strut to his theme, but also cutting a killer promo (during the commercial break). With the whole crowd standing and applauding him, Kit improvised and found the one person sitting down and ranted about his entitlement as a manspreader.

Don’t be fooled, Kit’s character is a totally moronic one-note comedy routine by design, but the crowd heartily cheered him. WWE may have massively misjudged their own audience, because what was supposed to be a sneering, weak, woke heel in creative’s eyes is being embraced as a smart, funny and endearing fan favourite. The shelf life will be limited, of course, but it will be genuinely interesting to see if there is a split between European crowds, who seem to be all on board with Kit’s message, and American audiences, who WWE is presumably expecting to boo this character. Either way, this is WWE’s second attempt at an “evil wokey” (their perspective, not mine) following the Joe Gacy debacle in NXT. In both cases, the characters failed to generate the desired reaction — hopefully, sooner rather than later, they will take the hint.

Carmelo Hayes Is Fully Rehabbed Following Babyface Turn and US Title Run

Seeing Carmelo Hayes arrive at Wembley Arena, it was staggering to witness just how effectively he has salvaged his disastrous main-event run through the quality of his in-ring performances. After being the No. 1 Draft Pick of “SmackDown”, Melo’s main-roster run was defined by a string of defeats that saw him relegated to a comedy tag team with The Miz. For the longest time it seemed that, despite his prodigious talents, he was destined to be a flop. Then, mercifully, his run with The Miz was cut short, Melo turned face, and proceeded to (verbally) dunk on Miz in weekly backstage segments while ripping it up in the ring. Through his continuation of the US Title open challenge, somewhat improbably, Melo has managed not only to pick up the baton from Ilja Dragunov and Sami Zayn, but arguably surpass them.

When Hayes sauntered to the ring at Wembley, the crowd met him with deafening rhythmic chants of “Melo, Melo”, which sadly were not featured in the TV broadcast. He, of course, went on to have a phenomenal match with Leon Slater, where the UK native was thoroughly cheered, but Melo was never, not for one second, booed. Melo has been on a tear, having excellent matches with Johnny Gargano, Leon Slater and, most recently, Ilja Dragunov. Melo is the perfect opponent for Ilja; his ungodly slickness is beautifully at odds with the Russian’s vicious blunt-force. The only concern for Melo going forward is the spectre of The Miz. He still lingers in the background of Melo’s storyline, and it would be a tragedy if Melo’s great run were to be sacrificed in a foolhardy attempt to rehabilitate Mike Mizanin in 2026.

After Excellent Raw Main Event, AJ Styles Puts His Career on the Line Unexpectedly

AJ Styles had been gunning for Gunther since the Austrian retired John Cena back in November. The storyline was simple enough: AJ Styles wanted to beat some respect into Gunther and prove he was a hypocrite and a coward by making him tap out in the middle of the ring. In a brilliant and pleasingly old-school “Raw” main event in Germany, AJ eschewed his usual Styles Clash set-up sequences and instead tried to trap his opponent in the Calf Crusher over and over again. The idea that Gunther’s weakness is submissions has clearly caught on, as the WWE crowd was uncharacteristically hot for every battle to the ropes. Eventually, Styles would roll Gunther away from the ropes, trapping him in the centre of the ring. Gunther would then, in a show of either cowardice or intelligence depending on your perspective, tap out on AJ’s thighs but away from the referee’s vision. AJ would release the hold, celebrate, and in the confusion eat a powerbomb and lose.

The bombshell came the following week. AJ would try to goad Gunther into a rematch, playing up the fact that he made Gunther tap, but the Austrian simply laughed in his face, claiming to have outsmarted his rival. Gunther would go on to say he had no interest in pulling double duty at the Royal Rumble unless AJ Styles put his career on the line. Later in the show, following a call to his wife, AJ would agree to Gunther’s stipulation. This choice, while shockingly abrupt and unceremonious, has proved genuinely intriguing, especially with various news outlets confirming that AJ’s WWE contract expires in February. There are a plethora of options, including AJ defeating Gunther only for the Austrian to go on to win the Royal Rumble later in the show. The best aspect of the angle is the uncertainty. After a year where WWE felt painfully predictable, they are finally presenting fans with main-event matches where the results feel genuinely unpredictable and the stakes are real.

© WWE

“WWE Royal Rumble 2026”

31st January 2026
Company Announced Attendance: “Sell Out” (citation needed)
Riyadh Season Stadium, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

By David Hayter

Coming into the 2026 Royal Rumble, WWE appeared to have finally captured some of the energy and momentum that had been squandered by Triple H’s slow-as-molasses, steady-as-she-goes booking in the past twelve months. The decision to scrap the leaked WrestleMania main event of Cody Rhodes vs Roman Reigns threw open the gamut of possibilities, and WWE fans seemed genuinely excited as they began to explore their own pet theories (a surprisingly large amount of which seemed to revolve around LA Knight). Three events in particular seemed to galvanise the promotion: Jacob Fatu returning to unintentionally help Drew McIntyre snatch the WWE World Championship from Cody Rhodes, Gunther cruelly forcing AJ Styles to put his career on the line, and RhIyo (Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky) winning the Women’s Tag Team Championships.

Suddenly, the biggest stars on WWE’s roster were in fresh and exciting match-ups where the results seemed genuinely in doubt (provided you’re not reading Shinsuke Nakamura’s Instagram posts). To top it off, Trick Williams, Je’Von Evans and Jordynne Grace had arrived on the main roster, with Oba Femi hot on their heels. Fresh blood, fresh ideas, genuine intrigue – an injection of everything the frankly stale product had been sorely lacking since SummerSlam.

However, with renewed hope comes raised expectations, and fans got understandably carried away – and, I have to admit, I did too. When the Rumble kicked off in the eerily vacant and artificially lit Riyadh Season Stadium, a little voice in the back of my head said: “maybe, just maybe, they’ll make a star in one night and have Sol Ruca or Oba Femi win the big one”. This was, of course, a foolish thought. This is Paul Levesque’s paint-by-numbers, glacially paced promotion: what we gain in stability and (largely) logical booking, we lose in creative dynamism and anything resembling unpredictability. We’d had our fill of surprises with Drew McIntyre’s title win; now it was time for the favourites to sweep the board.

Roman Reigns would win the men’s Royal Rumble, while Liv Morgan would claim the women’s prize. They were both the overwhelming bookies’ favourites and much of the fan backlash to this event stems from this inherent predictability, combined with a lack of nostalgic or truly unexpected surprises. Oddly, the anger that fuelled the swarm of hyperbolic TikTok meltdowns in the immediate aftermath of the men’s Royal Rumble would subside by the end of Monday Night Raw. One hot, worked-shoot promo battle between CM Punk and Roman Reigns was enough to convince fans that Roman’s uber-predictable win was, in fact, exactly what they wanted all along. This speaks to the difficulty of booking in the age of instant reactions: fan sentiment is paradoxical. They want twists, turns, surprises, spectacle and the shock of new in the moment – and yet, in the long run, they are desperate to see epic showdowns between the company’s biggest (and oldest) stars.

Truth be told, there is likely no real way to avoid the Rumble winners disappointing fans in years to come, but WWE could have cushioned the blow by having some semblance of a plan. Roman Reigns was last seen in a putridly pedestrian post-Survivor Series angle where he made nice with both CM Punk and Cody Rhodes. Given that his Rumble win seems to have been ordained long in advance, the fault lies squarely with Levesque for failing to conjure a more dynamic, to build anticipation for this victory. Thankfully, Roman would do a masterful job of recasting the tepid moment of mutual appreciation that closed Survivor Series. During his promo on the post-Rumble Raw, he would claim that Punk manipulated him into joining forces and then patronised him like a young boy in the aftermath, but none of that depth actually existed back in November.

Saudi Stadium Sucks The Life Out Of The Royal Rumble

Nevertheless, backlash to Rumble winners is nigh-on a tradition at this point. The newer and far more interesting sense of outrage stemming from this show came from the location itself, for a somewhat unexpected reason. We here at the Social Suplex have discussed the rightful backlash to Saudi Arabia’s frighteningly effective sportswashing campaign at some length, but sadly the success of the Kingdom’s never-ending Riyadh Season is undeniable at this point. In fact, most WWE fans barely bother to comment on the Saudi influence in 2026, bar the odd howl of displeasure at WrestleMania being moved away from the States. However, the Rumble kicked off an almighty fuss online, not due to any crass propagandising, but because the atmosphere and the aesthetics of the event were atrocious.

Readers who no longer watch WWE might be surprised to learn that Saudi Arabia has become something of a hotbed for WWE fandom in recent years. The last few Saudi shows have drawn rowdy, passionate, engaged and informed fans who often put their American counterparts to shame. However, reports from local sources suggest that touts used the Royal Rumble as an opportunity to buy up vast swathes of the stadium and resell the tickets at prices so unfathomably high that they made WWE’s absurd face-value prices seem reasonable. The result was a half-empty stadium for SmackDown and a Royal Rumble crowd that felt remarkably flat by Saudi standards.

Worse still, the stadium that was constructed in a month specifically for this show came fitted with obnoxious lights on either side of each fan’s seat. These weird lights not only lent the show an uncanny sense of unreality, but also made the building appear largely empty to viewers watching at home. This wasn’t the case – the building appeared to be 90% full in reality – but it felt gaudy and vacuous on screen. Depressingly, fan videos from the building confirmed that the event was aggressively policed, with security routinely telling chanting fans to sit down – and only easing up on the restrictions for the main event. These factors, combined with an open-air stadium’s innate ability to dissipate sound, led to one of the most sterile Rumbles outside of the Covid-19 pandemic.

WWE’s global fanbase were already uneasy, if not outright resentful, of the idea that the Kingdom would be hosting two nights of WrestleMania – after the Rumble, a real sense of dejection surrounds next year’s event.

© WWE

AJ Styles’ WWE Career Is At An End Follow Brilliant Gunther Rematch

Who knew AJ Styles was such a tease? In one of the more intriguing moments in modern wrestling history, on the 10th anniversary of his WWE debut, and having been brutally choked out by Gunther, AJ Styles had taken his gloves off and was about to lay them down in the centre of the ring when, without warning, he changed his mind. Shaking his head and rallying an overjoyed crowd, Styles put his gloves back on and defiantly hit his Phenomenal One pose. Going further, Styles would begin to walk away, trudge back to the ring and… soak in the cheers some more, without giving any visual indication that he had actually retired.

Styles’ actions have, of course, sent the rumour mill into overdrive, with fans speculating that, with his WWE contract expected to expire in February, Styles could squeeze in a series of dream matches in AEW, NJPW or even TNA before calling it a day. Triple H and Peter Rosenberg seem insistent that Styles’ wrestling career is over and, before this post-match angle, insiders had reported that AJ was loyal to WWE and was likely to take up a non-wrestling position within the promotion. But at this precise moment, who can honestly say what the future holds?

Returning to the match itself, it was a fantastic battle between a cocksure bully and a tenacious veteran underdog. AJ Styles cannot summon the speed or spectacular athleticism he possessed in the noughties, but for one night he was determined to bring back his devil-may-care bumping style. One of the aspects of wrestling that truly set AJ apart as a performer was his ability to imprint his every move with a unique AJ Styles flavour. He wasn’t gimmicky or over-the-top, but he was always distinct in his movements. That sense of dynamic individuality extended to his bumping: AJ was famed for his late tucks, high flailing back-body-drop bumps and sideways tumbling. As he aged, AJ began to take it easier, taking more regulation flat-back bumps, but tonight he was fired up. Every time Gunther threw, slammed or chopped him, AJ launched himself arse over tea kettle, haphazardly flinging himself towards the canvas at the oddest of angles, only to tuck right in the nick of time. It was glorious.

The story of the match was simple: AJ would endure Gunther’s beatings and make ever more believable comebacks before eventually trapping his Austrian foe in the Calf Crusher – the move Gunther may (or may not, depending on your perspective) have actually submitted to some weeks earlier on Raw. The submission battle that ensued was tremendous, with the crowd living and dying with each man’s battle to the ropes, before Gunther managed to reverse the crusher into his signature sleeper.

The finish of the match was perfect. AJ would attempt a series of complex reversals into the Styles Clash, but it was Gunther who ultimately came good with the best counter of all. The Austrian would cut off the Phenomenal Forearm, trapping AJ on the top rope. AJ would wriggle to the electric-chair position, seemingly setting up for a poisonrana. Then, in a brilliant moment, Gunther would pop AJ up into the air and, with the crowd on the edge of their seats, rather than doing a cool manoeuvre, he’d lock in the sleeper, drawing a defeated groan from the crowd. AJ would do a fantastic job of fighting for his life, elbowing and kicking at Gunther’s thighs to escape, but eventually Gunther would trap his limbs and AJ would pass out cold, a whisker away from the ropes. In a beautifully immersive touch, the referee would have to revive AJ and inform the confused Styles that his career was now over.

Liv Morgan Triumphs In An Uneven Woman’s Rumble, But Sol Snatches The Limelight

There’s no two ways about it: the agenting of the men’s and women’s Rumbles was largely rotten. The actual work, execution of spots and creativity of some of the sequences was impressive, but the decision to load up the ring with so many bodies, with so little happening for so long, was a major misfire that the workers themselves could not control. The Women’s Rumble was, by and large, a success, but one that came in three distinct stages. The opening portion of the match was frankly terrible. The tone was set by teammates Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss who, smartly in kayfabe, pretended to fight each other and instead hugged and posed. This was logical, if uninteresting, but at least if the pair wouldn’t fight each other they would of course dominate the competition, right? Wrong. Kiana James would run to the ring third, run wild, get cut off, eat a finisher and then Alexa and Charlotte would decide not to eliminate her (this would become a trend).

There would be the odd spark here and there (Lola Vice received a nice reaction as she ran wild) and, while there were few actual botches, the action felt sloppy and directionless. Becky Lynch and Charlotte would engage in a heinous brawl before the first real elements of story began to unfold. Charlotte, who has been criticised in storyline for being entirely self-centred, would boot Nia Jax and Alexa Bliss off the apron. The only problem was Charlotte missed Alexa and didn’t convincingly knock Nia into her either, so Alexa simply had to hop down to the floor of her own accord. Things would only get worse from there as Maxxine Dupri began to dominate the Rumble with her not remotely credible intense shooter gimmick. She would appear to have Becky Lynch in trouble until Natalya, now recast as the more serious Nattie, made her entrance. Bizarrely, despite turning on Dupri, Nattie did not eliminate her; Becky got that honour. Nattie would instead eliminate Becky, who continued her Donald Trump gimmick by immediately denying the results and claiming a conspiracy as her feet never touched the floor (they of course did).

From here on in, the Rumble settled down into a long section typified by good action, but little in the way of drama. Giulia and Lyra upped the workrate of the match significantly, while Raquel Rodriguez and Lash Legend had the crowd oohing and aahing at an array of power spots. Lash Legend was clearly designed to be the star of the match. She scored five eliminations including Charlotte, Iyo Sky and The Bella Twins, and much of the match was structured to ensure she had the best workers in the company bumping hard for her offence. The other standout was Sol Ruca. The phenomenally talented NXT star simply oozes a laid-back and naturalistic charisma and she was given the freedom to uncork every elaborate springboard spot in her arsenal to wow the crowd. Best of all, Sol had the intelligence to make herself stand out visually. While 29 women opted for the typical Saudi bodysuits, Sol wore baggy jeans and a chequered long-sleeve that perfectly suited her surfer/skater aesthetic.

With the meat-and-potatoes mid-portion of the Rumble at an end, it was time for the match to finally get good. The stars began to arrive en masse. Iyo Sky, Rhea Ripley, Asuka, Kairi and Liv Morgan – finally it felt like the real Rumble winners and main event storylines had arrived. Iyo Sky would run rings around everyone, particularly Asuka, leading to the first big storyline beat of the Rumble. Asuka had just about survived elimination, but found herself caught, dangling with her foot bent back on the apron. Kairi, desperate to save Asuka, would do battle with Iyo, but when she countered the Angel’s Wings by landing on her feet and tried to blast Iyo with the Sliding D, Iyo moved and Kairi would clobber Asuka in the back of the head, causing her elimination. Iyo would then promptly dump Kairi. Given that Asuka had been cruelly bullying and beating Kairi into submission, this was a big moment, but sadly the cameras cut away before we saw how Asuka would react and – inexplicably – the elimination was not followed up with an angle on Raw.

Brie Bella’s surprise entry would inspire the loudest ovation of the entire evening from the Saudi crowd, but after briefly running wild and setting up a potential tag match with Bayley and Lyra, she was merely fodder to get more heat on Lash Legend. Then the match really kicked it up a gear. Iyo would try to outmanoeuvre Lash with her speed, but when both women ended up on the apron, Iyo would attempt to take Lash down with a hanging heel hook (not the best idea, it turns out). Lash would manage to hang on to the ropes and boot Sky hard in the face, causing Iyo to crash to the floor. This would naturally enrage Rhea Ripley, but she would have to team with enemy Raquel Rodriguez to eliminate Legend. Then, in arguably the spot of the night, as Rhea was celebrating Lash’s elimination, Raquel hoisted her up for the Tejana Bomb, marched her across the ring and threw her hard, back-first, across the apron in a gruesome spot to shockingly eliminate Ripley. Liv would then craftily eliminate her teammate and storyline best friend Raquel with a neat inside-out Oblivion.

The final three women were Sol Ruca, Tiffany Stratton fresh from entering at 30, and the eventual winner Liv Morgan. The final sequence was masterfully plotted out to showcase and contrast Stratton and Ruca’s athleticism with Liv’s craftiness. There was one awkward spot where Morgan no-sold the Prettiest Moonsault Ever, but aside from that the final few minutes were defined by fast-paced, nerve-racking action. Sol would attempt a Sol Snatcher on the apron and Tiffany would shove her to the floor, but as soon as she did, Liv surprised her with an inverted Oblivion to win the Rumble.

Truth be told, this is a hard Rumble to rate: it started badly, became totally fine and then ended with a genuine bang. So perhaps save yourself some time and watch from entrant 15 onwards.

© WWE

Sami Zayn Is Brutalised By Drew McIntrye In His Home Away From Home

The WWE World Championship match between Sami Zayn and Drew McIntyre has proved oddly divisive, but for my money it was a really compelling clash. The trouble lies not so much in the quality of the work, but the mood music. Sami was brilliant in resiliently enduring Drew’s heavy-handed offence and rallying the crowd with great dives and hope spots, but the decision to follow AJ Styles’ retirement with the absolute murder of a hometown hero was a baffling one. The Saudi crowd adores Sami Zayn and yet, while they certainly weren’t flat for this match, it was clear that in this moment they needed to be inspired.

This match, however, was designed to crush and smother all hope. Sami was desperate and intense, sneaking in slivers of offence wherever he could, but the message read loud and clear: Drew McIntyre is on a whole ’nother level – he’s bigger, he’s badder, and he is unquestionably better. Sami would come flying across the ring in the dying moments to blast Drew with a Helluva Kick, but the Scotsman kicked out with ease. Sami would line up for his finisher again, but this time he’d run straight into a brutal Claymore. Drew, not breaking a sweat, would lift Sami up onto his knees and then casually extinguish Sami’s chances with a second, decisive Claymore before sauntering over to secure the pinfall. Their record now stands at 12–0 and the world title feels entirely out of reach for Sami Zayn. After this defeat, you wonder if the Saudi faithful will be able to buy Sami as a legitimate contender going forward. This was one hell of a comedown.

Caught Between The Past And The Present The Men’s Rumble Fails To Inspire

The men’s Royal Rumble was, from start to finish, a better-worked and agented affair than the women’s equivalent – and yet it left fans feeling wholly unsatisfied. The reason for this disconnect likely comes from the final taste the matches left in fans’ mouths. The women’s edition started poorly, but climaxed at the absolute peak of the drama with a memorable final sequence fought out between three believable winners. The men’s Rumble, on the other hand, delivered a higher quality of action throughout, but seemed to peak in terms of drama and intrigue about three-quarters of the way through, before simmering down to a final four of Roman Reigns, Randy Orton, Logan Paul and Gunther. On paper, that sounds like an ideal blend with the company’s two most obnoxious heels set against its two most beloved veteran babyfaces. Instead, fans watching around the world saw only a foregone conclusion, with a solitary credible winner in the mix.

This is a shame, as large swathes of the match were highly effective. The gaps between entrances were kept shorter than the women’s variant, resulting in a pacy and action-packed affair. The match was front-loaded with big shocks. First, that Oba Femi would enter at No. 1 and square off with one of the favourites to win the entire Rumble, Bron Breakker. Except, of course, they wouldn’t. A masked man aping Seth Rollins’ mannerisms would instead attack Bron on the way to the ring, hitting a Curb Stomp before fleeing through the crowd. Then, with the crowd stunned, Oba would eliminate Bron with ease. Oba soon became the story of the match. He was positioned to look incredibly dominant and impressive, ripping off five straight eliminations with his power based offence, including taking the scalps of Rey Mysterio and Solo Sikoa.

He wasn’t the only new blood to be featured prominently. Je’Von Evans was this year’s iron man and he achieved the feat with considerable aplomb. Taking a page out of Shawn Michaels’ playbook, Je’Von would recklessly fly all over the ring, teasing one wild near-elimination after another with his toes scraping the floor. Trick Williams wouldn’t last nearly as long, but he made a strong visual impression as he strutted to the ring with the entire crowd shouting “whoop that Trick” as he started clearing house while wearing a ridiculous white fur coat. It was a star making visual.

Unfortunately, not everyone had such inspired and well-received arrivals. Chad Gable would make his return as Original El Grande Americano to confront the current El Grande Americano, Ludwig Kaiser. Anywhere else in the world this return would have been greeted with a deafening ovation, but in Saudi, Chad was met with crickets. More damningly, even when Gable started delivering brilliant throws, the crowd still sat on their hands. Don’t worry, it gets worse. The AAA pair of Mr. Iguana and La Parka were met by general bafflement from the stadium crowd. WWE fans reacting at home were equally annoyed at the inclusion of La Parka over either Finn Bálor (who was a storyline focus of the Rumble build) or Chris Jericho (who many were perhaps naively expecting), but it was strange to see Mr. Iguana failing to garner even a wry chuckle from the live crowd.

The biggest non-reaction, if that’s not a contradiction in terms, was saved for the debuting Powerhouse Hobbs. He was met with a silence so uncomfortable that even Rusev and Zelina Vega felt second-hand embarrassment on his behalf. Now renamed Royce Keys, the former Hobbs stormed to the ring and, frankly, didn’t look remotely as impressive as any of the recent NXT call-ups, nor did he demonstrate charisma on the level of Ethan Page, who remains, for whatever reason, trapped in developmental. Hobbs’ work was certainly solid and he immediately interacted with Cody, a sequence that likely would have popped an American crowd, but only drew the lightest of reactions in Saudi. He would eliminate a former world champion in Damian Priest, but when Hobbs was tossed after just nine minutes by Bronson Reed, his debut felt unremarkable. It’s early days and the follow-up is crucial, but Hobbs feels less like Penta and, worryingly, more like Rusev Mk II on this evidence.

From here on out there was good action and a fair few big pops for LA Knight, Penta and Jacob Fatu, but little that left a lasting impression. The sole highlight of the Rumble was the showdown between Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar. Brock was in fine and aggressive form and their hoss showdown was a thing of bruising beauty, before it abruptly came to an end with Brock sneakily eliminating Oba when his back was turned. Based on the Rumble, it would seem that Oba Femi, not Gunther, has a date with Lesnar at Mania. Elsewhere, there was little in the way of satisfying storyline developments. Drew McIntyre would interfere to cause Cody Rhodes’ elimination, furthering his feud with both Cody and Fatu. Randy Orton would appear to tease potential matches with both Cody and Gunther, but there was no jaw-dropping moment or shocking visual that left fans salivating at the prospect of a future Mania match.

Instead, they were left with Roman Reigns. Make no mistake, he was beloved, and he may have delivered the most memorable spot of the match when he tricked his foolhardy cousin Jey into Yeeting, only to hilariously cut him off with an uppercut before tossing him like unwanted garbage. The final battle between Gunther and Roman was excellently worked, as you would expect, but despite featuring two big stars, the final moments lacked electricity. This wasn’t Undertaker and Shawn, or indeed Gunther and Cody – it was the man everyone knew was going to win against a great wrestler who had no hope.

There was very little wrong with this Rumble, save for the unshakeable feeling that something just wasn’t right. Perhaps it was just the uncanny valley nature of the Riyadh Season stadium, or the crowd that was both enthusiastic and oddly placid. Maybe it’s just that fans’ imaginations have outstripped the reality of what a Rumble can actually deliver – who knows. Following Raw, Roman’s victory is recast in a fresh light; it feels satisfying now, but in the moment the entire occasion felt hollow and, as always during Riyadh Season, more than a little icky.

AEW

News Round-up

By Trish Speirs

AEW will hold “Revolution” from the Crypto Arena in Los Angeles for the second straight year on Sunday, March 15th. The show will be headlined by a third singles match over the past year between AEW Men’s World Champion MJF and former champion “Hangman” Adam Page. Page has proposed a Texas Death Match with his ability to ever challenge again for the top men’s title in the company as the stakes for the feud ender. The card will also feature rematches between Jon Moxley and Konosuke Takeshita for the Continental Championship as well as the Young Bucks once again meeting FTR for the AEW Tag Team Championships. The show, as per the last Wrestletix update on February 13th, has 9,231 tickets distributed, meaning it is well on track to surpass last year’s attendance figure in the same building. The strategy for ticket sales for this PPV has been excellent since the onsale, with better pricing for fans from the outset coupled with well timed promotions as well as offers just for attendees of recent live events in California. It is one of a number of noticeable changes to the company’s live event strategy that has also seen an end to the high entry points for smaller venue shows from last year.

Kenny Omega, who lost to a turning Swerve Strickland in this week’s “Dynamite” main event, is currently not planned to wrestle on the show but may be able to make an appearance. Omega is set to appear at the Capcom Cup 12 event in Tokyo from the 11th to the 14th of March. The former Men’s World Champion signed a contract with the gaming giant prior to the date of the AEW PPV being known, and whilst there was a small possibility of working something out in order to wrestle on the show, it would be difficult to guarantee, and therefore, promote a match. Strickland and Omega had been set to enter a program since the autumn, with the pathway changing along the way, but the end result now much the same.

AEW have also begun running vignettes for the return of Will Ospreay in the run up to the PPV, with tickets for flagship event “All In” at London’s Wembley Stadium finally announced to go on sale on March 20th, with presales beginning from Monday, March 16th (the day after the PPV). The onsale is three months later than for corresponding events in 2024 and 2025.

There has been speculation, started by a report by Sports Illustrated, of WWE looking to damage Wembley sales and press coverage by running their own stadium show in the UK in the fortnight preceding “All In” at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium. The venue previously played host to “Clash at the Castle” on September 3rd, 2023, with the city paying WWE £2.2 million in order to bring the show to the Welsh capital. WWE had previously scheduled their “Money In The Bank” PLE in New Orleans, Louisiana, for the same weekend as “All In” but moved that particular show to September 6th in late September last year. They have already provided some ticket competition for the onsale, though, announcing a European tour for May and June which will go on sale a week before “All In”.

Ospreay will be the focal point of this year’s show and has programs set up within two promotions upon his return.

“Double or Nothing” will be held on Sunday, May 24th from the Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York. The tennis stadium, redeveloped in 2018, has a retractable roof and a tennis capacity of just over 14,000. Arthur Ashe Stadium, which hosted “Grand Slam” events in September 21-24 is currently undergoing major upgrades, and it is therefore unavailable to host events outside of the US Open at this time. This will be AEW’s first PPV in New York City.

AEW has received near enough continious mainstream news attention in recent weeks after “Fuck ICE!” chants broke out at the “Dynamite” event in Las Vegas, Nevada, on February 5th. The chants, in relation to the conduct of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement body, were at the start of the main event between Brody King and MJF. Match referee Bryce Remsburg implied that he delayed ringing the bell in a post on social media site X, writing, “It seems like the referee may have waited to ring the bell so these could resonate longer? Oh no. Whoops.”

The chants were picked up firstly by left wing commentators on social media, before making national news headlines in the US the next day. King, 38, had worn an “Abolish ICE” shirt on the June 19th, 2025 edition of “Dynamite: Grand Slam Mexico” in Mexico City. King put the shirts on sale himself two days later, as a personal venture, and donated the entire $27,758 profit from the sales to the Local Hearts Foundation in early July.

The former AEW Tag Champion won the aforementioned match to earn a title match with MJF at “Grand Slam: Australia” in Sydney on February 14th. Travel for the event, especially that of MJF to carry out media duties, has been given by Khan, according to the Observer, as the reason as to why King was not booked on the February 11th edition of “Dynamite” after a media storm had erupted following comments by Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, which appeared to suggest that the reason for his omission from the broadcast was down to media partner Warner Bros Discovery not wanting “Fuck ICE!” chants on AEW television whilst their impending buyout of the streaming and film studio part of their business is ongoing.

Warner Bros Discovery released a statement in response to the claim after the aggregation had begun to make its way to outlets outside of wrestling media. It read:

“Warner Bros. Discovery did not have any involvement in Brody King’s upcoming AEW schedule. Any speculation to the contrary is categorically false. Brody is scheduled to appear during the next AEW event, which will air this Saturday on TNT and HBO Max.”

The statement, which was sent to Social Suplex as well as practically every other outlet in wrestling media, attempted to dispel any notion of a story of network involvement in King’s usage. Dave Meltzer noted it as a correction to the statement he made, but also noted that he had been told of “leeriness” within WBD over the presence of the chants.

The chants did return at the beginning of King’s match in Australia, and again after a pre-recorded promo was shown on the February 18th edition of “Dynamite”. The media attention did not cause any changes in the booking, with the PPV title match between Adam Page and MJF locked in for some time before the eliminator match took place.

King will return to TV next week in Denver, Colorado. AEW, WBD and King have made no further comments or declined to comment on the situation outside of the above statement, with King involved in no media ahead of “Grand Slam”. We will have a more in-depth piece on this story on our website in the coming weeks.

Adam Page received a backlash on social media after Marty Scurll posted a picture of them together on January 15th. Scurll, who was accused of sexual misconduct with an intoxicated 16 year old during Speaking Out was released by Ring of Honor on January 5th, 2021. Scurll admitted that the encounter took place but believed it to be consensual, and was not aware of the age of the alleged victim at the time. The victim would counter these claims in reply by stating that Scurll had previously trained her at a Rev Pro school when she was 15, and that the pair were familiar with each other from that point.

Whilst Scurll maintains relationships with other wrestlers in AEW, WWE, New Japan and the independents to this day, the picture featuring Page drew criticism for the former AEW Men’s World Champion, who has previously championed a number of social causes. Page addressed the photo during an interview with Jon Alba of SI, where he condemned the actions of Scurll as “abhorrent”, whilst confirming he had remained in touch with the British wrestler since 2020. The 34 year old claims that he was unaware the photo would be posted and that he didn’t want “that photo to seem like some kind of endorsement”, or, “have any interest whatsoever in whitewashing what he did, or any interest or intention of rehabilitating his public image.”

This week’s “Trish and Sarah Wrestling Podcast” contains a lengthy discussion on this story, as well as the issues which pertain within wrestling culture in relation to it.

“Grand Slam” in Sydney also saw the debut of Lena Kross. The 30 year old from Perth, Australia, has joined heel tag team Megabad (Penelope Ford and Megan Bayne). The former independent talent is believed to have signed with the promotion before the turn of the year.

A host of other signings have also taken place over the past month, with Cassie Lee and Jess McKay, collectively known as the IInspiration, debuting the night after “Grand Slam” at a house show in Brisbane. Fightful reports that the duo have signed multiple year deals with the company. Independent wrestlers Alec Price, Tatevik, Maya World, Hyan and Jordan Oliver are all confirmed to have signed with the company as well.

Andrade, who had originally re-debuted with the company on October 1st before a non-compete dispute with WWE emerged, returned to AEW television on January 7th and took Samoa Joe’s spot in the world title picture after Joe was put into concussion protocol, from what was originally described as a non contact injury. El Idolo had been announced as an AEW wrestler during his appearances in New Japan on January 4th and 5th.

Another reappearing name is Private Party, who were the surprise entrants for the tag title number one contenders match in Ontario, California, on February 11th. The team had not been seen on AEW programming since being squashed by the Hurt Syndicate last spring. Also joining the tag team ranks are the Rascalz trio of Zachary Wentz, Dezmond Xavier and Myron Reed, who were part of TNA’s advertising for their TNA debut whilst not being under contract. AEW signed the fourth member of the group, Trey Miguel, to a contract as well but he never appeared on AEW television and was released just days later in relation to a social media post back in 2020 that was deemed to be homophobic in nature. This was said to be a WBD decision that had left the company “frustrated” according to Fightful. Miguel was picked back up by TNA in the aftermath, with the wrestler thanking TNA for saving his career.

The Rascalz arrival on January 14th came on the same night Powerhouse Hobbs exited the company following the expiry of his contract. Negotiations between Hobbs and AEW continued right up until the week he left the promotion, despite WWE officials believing he was heading to them months before the contract end date. This led to the Opps dropping the AEW World Trios Titles to Adam Page, Mike Bailey and Kevin Knight in a hastily arranged match on his final night. Hobbs is reported to have received a “substantial” offer from his former promotion to stay but decided he wished to move on. He leaves the company on good terms.

Chris Jericho, whose AEW deal was believed to be up at the start of 2026, is still under AEW contract at present, with Fightful reporting this week that his contract was frozen thanks to time off taken in 2025. This has not been an unusual occurrence with AEW deals, with Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley some of the most high profile previous cases.

Our very own Rich Latta, host of One Nation Radio, spent the day with Swerve Strickland ahead of Swerve’s historic singles bout with Kenny Omega in Sacramento on 18th February.

TNA

News Round-up

By Trish Speirs

TNA debuted “Thursday Night iMPACT!” on AMC on January 15th. Their weekly flagship show will hold the 9pm to 11pm timeslot on cable TV, as well as airing on TNA+ and AMC+. A number of network officials were present for the first live show, broadcast from the Curtis Caldwell Center in Garland, Texas, in front of 2,768 fans.

The show, which often felt like it was attempting to do its best impression of the “RAW” debut effort on Netflix, was widely panned by fans and critics, despite them ticking boxes when it came to debuts, title matches and big name returns, leading off with AJ Styles’ generic show opening promo. The show closed with Mike Santana recapturing the TNA World Championship from Frankie Kazarian in an OK main event which could have been stronger with longer time available. Nic Nemeth, whose signing to a permanent deal was the main TNA news released on the day of the show, had appeared after the broadcast for an angle to set up the “Genesis” main event that was instead screened on social media. TNA claimed that was a deliberate tactic rather than the result of time mismanagement.

The other title change on the show saw the Elegance Brand take the Knockouts Tag Team Championships from The IInspiration in what can only be described as a god awful match. The defeated champions had seen their deals expire in October but agreed to work the debut in order to drop the belts knowing that they would be heading to AEW thereafter. The match was partnered with a nonsense segment (that included Perez Hilton for no good reason) that introduced Mr. Elegance, played by Andreas Ziegler.

The other debuts were Daria Rae, who worked under the name Sonya Deville in WWE, as an authority figure to clash with Santino Marella, as well as Elayna Black, who was known as Cora Jade in NXT. Black has signed a one year deal, whilst Rae stated in the week after the show that her deal length is only six months. Bear Bronson has also been announced as an additional signee.

A host of re-signings were also reported/announced in recent weeks, including Jody Threat, Cedric Alexander, Mustafa Ali and Steve Maclin, whose loss of a “Feast or Fired” match on the January 29th episode is said to be kayfabe rather than indicating an imminent departure. However, Killer Kelly and The Rascalz (minus Trey Miguel) have left the promotion. Myron Reed, who was not under a full contract, was due to wrestle Leon Slater on the show, and has signed with AEW. Fightful reported that Reed was willing to work the match and that it was pulled due to Slater’s absence rather than his own.

Slater, who appeared on a WWE “Smackdown” taping in the same week in the UK, was first reported to have been pulled from the show at WWE’s request for their UK tour, before TV officials claimed that his absence was not influenced by their larger partner, and instead down to visa issues. Slater had worked an NXT show in Orlando nine days prior to the debut. Visas were also used to explain Dani Luna’s debut absence, with the company citing longer than usual processing thanks to government shutdowns in late 2025.

All in all, it was a chaotic start for TNA’s journey on AMC. The TV has since returned to looking much more like the “iMPACT!” that aired previously on AXS, in regards to form and content, without any signs of a significant injection of funds in production or talent. There is still no reported value for this three year deal, with the schedule also displaying less live tapings than previously expected. The expectation of a one in three live to taped episode ratio is not playing out on the initial, with only one live taping planned from January 22nd until the end of March (on the outskirts of Atlanta on March 5th). Tapings are instead being tied to TNA+ and PPV events in the same way we had seen prior to their network deal.

One major positive for TNA, though, has been the impact (no pun intended) of Nielsen’s update to their ratings system over the past month, which has seen their broadcasts defy logic by growing in viewership and rating compared to their debut episode numbers of 173,000 viewers and a 0.04 rating, with the February 12th episode being recorded at 254,000 viewers and a 0.05 rating in the 18-49 demo. The changes were first expected to affect viewership more than demo numbers, as Andy Nemmity’s excellent explainer illustrates, but sudden increases of between 25-40% for cable wrestling programming across three companies suggests that action has been taken to address the lack of trust around the 18-49, 25-54 and 18-34 numbers within the industry since ‘Big Data Plus Panel’ system was introduced in late September. Further changes are expected to be made to the calculations over US wrestling’s most important metric across the next half year.

TNA parent company Anthem filed a lawsuit on January 10th at the Chancery Court in Nashville against Gail Kim, who left the promotion in March 2025. The suit, first reported by PWInsider, claims that Kim contacted the company after her departure, stating that “she believes she holds legal claims against AWE for violations of the Florida Private Whistleblower Act.” It is aiming to gain a ruling that any legal proceedings can only take place in Tennessee, as well ruling Kim to have been an independent contractor whilst employed by the company, despite her holding non-talent roles as a producer and in talent relations during her period of employment by the company.

© MLW

MLW

News Round-up

MLW began taping for their returning weekly series “Fusion” on the January 29th event in Kissimmee, Florida, and on February 7th at Cicero Stadium on the outskirts of Chicago. The later event, which the promotion state is the fourth straight sell out in the arena, included two title changes where talent contracted to outside promotion dropped their championships, meaning that there are now no champions contracted elsewhere in the promotion at this point. Místico, Templario, Neón, Soberano Jr., Blue Panther, Último Guerrero and Shoko Nakajima all appeared on the tapings.

It is currently unknown as to when and where “Fusion” will be broadcast; however, MLW have already set up additional tapings for Atlanta on March 14th and for the Melrose Ballroom in New York on June 11th. The promotion also announced a return to Chicago on November 7th.

Also announced is a cross promotional show with CMLL and New Japan Pro Wrestling for April 12th. “Fantastica Mania USA” will be held in MLW’s new home base of Charleston, South Carolina. The last event using that name was promoted by NJPW in San Jose, California, in the summer of 2024 and drew an audience of 906 fans.

Mister Saint Laurent, whose onscreen MLW presence in recent months has been as the manager for Tag Team Champions Bishop Dyer and Donovan Dijak, has left MLW. The news was broken by Mike Johnson of PWInsider, who also noted that Josef Samuel (part of the original onscreen Contra unit) would be returning to the company to head up the company’s talent relations. Former WWE announcer Ric Bocchini will support him in the role, whilst former WWE NXT writer Nick Bonanno will also rejoin the promotion.

Laurent has worked as an on-screen commentator and manager since the MLW relaunch in 2017, but has also held multiple backstage roles, including Chief Operating Officer. The reason for his departure remains unknown.

“Battle Riot” VIII

29th January 2026
Wrestletix Attendance Estimate: 892
Osceola Heritage Park, Kissimmee, Florida, USA

By Trish Speirs (yes, really)

Killer Kross became the first man to win the MLW Heavyweight Championship in Orlando in eight years after winning the eighth edition of the promotion’s “Battle Riot” match. Kross entered at number one, with former friend (and recent foe) Matt Riddle as the second entrant. The pair remained tied together for most of the forty man match, with a Riddle knee busting Kross open half way through. The end of the match saw Riddle still present, but fighting with Alexander Hammerstone against the ropes before Kross toppled both over the top, literally seconds after he had eliminated both Skyscrapers (Dijak and Corbin) on the other side of the ring.

The finish was a clever one – defying the standard template of a mini match between the final two competitors, with the speed of the four eliminations leading to a large surprise pop. The show being on the outskirts of Orlando meant this was also the right place for Kross to win as he was over from the start. Scarlett brought the victor his new championship, before Kross cut a promo to a loud accompaniment of “We want Kross!” chants where he informed the crowd that his mum, who had recently overcome severe health issues, was watching him live for the first time. It was an unexpected but touching moment.

Former champion Mads Krule Krügger had agreed to defend his belt in the multiman match and was eliminated half way through when his issues with his former Contra group came to the forefront. Krügger had seemingly made the decision to defy Contra leadership in a computer led skit earlier in the night, which led to him having to face off with four members of Contra. He was able to survive this onslaught but a mystery fifth man under a mask saw to it that the champion didn’t make it to the business end of proceedings. The mystery man followed this up with a big splash on the outside before attacking Krügger with a spike. It almost felt like a write off by the newest Contra lineup.

What was also notable about the lineup for this match was the switch from the luchador heavy shows that we have seen in MLW over the past eighteen months, instead focusing on former WWE and NXT talent. It looked like the right call for this crowd, with the most over sequence outside the finish being Doc Gallows re-emerging after his earlier elimination under his former Festus moniker. The “Ring the Bell!” chants were some of the loudest of the entire show. Tag partner Karl Anderson duly obliged following his own elimination by the Tag Champion Skyscraper team, leading to them facing the Festus onslaught. The fun was short lived, as Alex Hammerstone disposed of him over the top, leaving Anderson to lead his tag partner’s alter ego away from the ring with a bemused look on his face.

The dispute between Paul London and Paul Walter Hauser also continued, with London pinning Hauser before being pulled out of the ring by his rival whilst celebrating. Hauser finished off their exchanges with a dive to the outside off of the second rope, driving London through a table. Commentary struggled to keep up with these happenings, with the whole match being pretty messy in places, outside of the well laid out finish.

The broadcast opened with the sole luchador on the show, Templario, dropping the MLW Middleweight Championship to KUSHIDA. KUSHIDA had taken control of the match early on, winning the battle for ground supremacy. He used numerous submissions to target the arms and legs of the champion, meaning that Templario spent most of the match either fighting for a reprieve or unable to follow up after he had successfully found some offense to counter with. As the match went on, the viewer would have found themselves waiting for his big comeback, only for it to never happen. One Back to the Future later and the Time Splitter was the new MLW Middleweight Champion.

The one sidedness of the bout felt rather surprising, especially considering so much had been made of Templario being one of the very few people to pin Místico in the promotion, but more sense could be made of it in the aftermath, when KUSHIDA joined in an Ikuro Kwon attack on recent rival Templario to become the latest member of CONTRA.

There is, perhaps, an irony in that Contra are once more being re-tooled just as the promotion are relaunching their “Fusion” weekly offering, having been such a large part of the relaunched episodic offering in the later part of the last decade. Maybe KUSHIDA’s presence in the group fits more than I thought?

US Independents

“WrestleMania” Week Announcement Round-up

“WrestleMania” Week in Las Vegas continues to take shape, with more shows announced since our last issue.

The key developments for indie shows continue to be coming from The New Initiative consortium and their affiliated companies Shooting Star Fest event. Since the coverage in our last issue, this group has announced the addition of a show from Marvelous Women’s Pro Wrestling on April 16th at 10.30pm, at their location at 1301 Main Street in the Las Vegas Arts District. They have also confirmed Mio Momono and Senka Akatsuki will be in attendance in Las Vegas on both that show and the West Coast Pro Wrestling show on the 16th. Senka will face Dani Luna in a singles match.

In a confusing turn of events, the 1301 Main Street location, long known as the Swan Dive Bar will henceforth be known as Bizarre Bar, with the Swan Dive name moving to a new location. To clarify, as the event posters may refer to both bars names, all of the Shooting Star Fest shows are taking place at the 1301 Main Street location. If you focus on that address and not either of the venue’s names, you cannot go wrong.

Additional shows that will be emanating from that location are two companies that both ran “Mania Week” in 2025 and are returning: Pandemonium Pro Wrestling will run on Wednesday April 15th at 3pm and Big Time Wrestling will run on Friday April 17th at 2:30pm.

All three of these additional shows – Marvelous, Pandemonium and Big Time – are ticketed separately from the combo tickets offered for the “core five” Shooting Star shows: New Texas, St Louis Anarchy, West Coast Pro, Action and PrideStyle. Tickets for all of these shows except for Marvelous are already available.

Also returning to Las Vegas from Japan are Dragongate and Stardom.

Dragongate are running as part of The Collective again, and are booked at the Horseshoe at 8pm on Wednesday April 15th. Multiple members of their roster have been announced, including YAMATO, Dragon Kid and Ishin. Dragongate has also announced a crossover show with DEFY on 10th April, held at Hawthorne Theatre in Portland the week before “WrestleMania”. YAMATO, Marina Shafir and Bryan Keith have been announced for the show.

In a related note, San Jose, CA-based Pro Wrestling Revolution, who co-promoted a show in Las Vegas with Dragongate in 2025, have announced that tryouts for Dragongate will take place on April 12th at the Pro Wrestling Revolution Training Academy. The successful candidate(s) from the tryout will earn an opportunity to wrestle for Dragongate in Japan for up to three months. Two graduates of the PWR Academy have previously worked for Dragongate in Japan: Viento and El Cucuy.

At press time, Stardom have not announced a date, time or venue, but they did announce their return to Las Vegas during their big “Dream Queendom” show at Sumo Hall on December 29th. The timing of the Las Vegas show will once again run up against the end of their build for “All Star Dream Queendom”, likely limiting their ability to run a truly big show. Top star Saya Kamitani has already been announced for the Kenta Kobashi “Fortune Dream” show on April 17th, so she will not be appearing in the US, for the second year in a row. Top freelancer Sareee is also booked on that show and will also not be in the US. No talent has been announced for this Stardom Las Vegas show, and with rumors swirling that they will be running a larger room than last year, this show may be a rare L in their attendance record. Perhaps the plan is to rely on new signing Maki Itoh’s relative popularity in the USA?

At the “WrestleKingdom 20” event, New Japan Pro Wrestling announced that the El Desperado produce show “Death Invitacional” will be coming to Las Vegas, branded this time as the “Death Vegas Invitacional.” This was later revealed to be another show that is part of The Collective and will emanate from the Horseshoe at 8pm on Thursday April 16th.

The Collective and WrestleCon also confirmed that the one time centerpiece of “WrestleMania Week(end)”, the “Mark Hitchcock Memorial Supershow”, will return and will be airing from The Horseshoe at 3pm on Thursday April 16th. May we all hope they right the ship and return to their former glory, after their disastrous show in 2025 did serious damage to the reputation that show has always had.

PROGRESS will also run a show as part of The Collective on Thursday April 16th at 11am.

For a full rundown of every show, every match, all the talent announcements, links to buy tickets and even a map of venues, we recommend checking out the dedicated page on the Voices of Wrestling website.

© Chris Whitehead

Epic Pro “Faded Not Jaded”

31st January 2026
Leo P. Turner Community Center, Cudahy, California

By Chris Whitehead

Epic Pro put on the type of solid indie wrestling show that at times it feels like doesn’t exist anymore. There was good wrestling up and down the card, primarily with local Southern California wrestlers, some guests from further up the Pacific coast and Zeuxis from CMLL appearing thanks to Epic’s cross promotional partner Pandemonium Wrestling.

The first of two standout matches on this show was the Suavecitos trios match, an action packed ‘party match’ in which the ‘Citos did excellent work building heat to allow the babyface team to make comebacks, with the hot shot babyface rookie from the West Coast Pro dojo, Andrew Cass, looking fantastic in his shine sections of the match. It appears the sky is the limit for Cass. El Primohenio, who I think is from LA and who I have seen around for years, working shows both on ring crew and security, as well as wrestling (he’s a good looking kid, so easy to spot: picture a younger, cuter Hijo del Fantasma) was also a standout in this match. Suavecitos remain one of the most reliable acts on the indie scene.

The other standout match was the main event, in which Isaacs and Zo had a super physical outing, blasting each other with chops and strikes and mixing in high impact moves, going 15-20 minutes and providing value for money on the $20 ticket by themselves. Isaacs has been around for a while, and seems to divide opinion but when seen in person always puts in a heavy effort. This was my first time seeing Zo in person and I left impressed and ready to see more.

Elsewhere on the show, Zeuxis and Amira had a match that would likely be better next time they wrestle; Shane Haste treated us to his comedy stylings turning his match with LA legend Ray Rosas into a royal rumble tribute (this was the day of the Rumble); Bad Dude Tito had a physical, if too long, match with Jordan Cruz; Krusty Krew and Doomfly had a comedy match. Sadly, due to coming from dinner with my dad and the horrific lack of parking anywhere near the venue, I missed the pre-show matches and the opener but I heard they were fun matches

Epic Pro’s next show is a co-promoted show with Pandemonium Pro at Don Quixote in Boyle Heights on February 22nd, and I hope to have a review in our next issue.

© Prestige Wrestling / Zach Doleac

Prestige Wrestling News

The last match of Kevin Blackwood’s career will take place on 20th February at “Roseland XIII”. It is also Prestige’s final event before closing doors. Blackwood does not completely close the book and states that he is not sure if it is “goodbye” or “see you later”, citing needing rest emotionally and mentally. Blackwood will defend his Prestige Title against Judas Icarus.

West Coast Pro Wrestling (WCP) News

On 4th January at “Operation Stockola”, held at Fluid510 in Oakland, California, Vinnie Massaro and Johnny Robbie retained their West Coast Pro Women’s and Heavyweight Title against Jordan Blade and Danny Orion respectively. They followed that up with further defences against Gabby Forza and Alpha Zo on 7th February at “Bay Area Brawl”, held at the same Fluid510 venue.

On 27th February, West Coast will hold “Evil Empire” in Commerce, CA (their quarterly-ish visit to Southern California) where Johnnie will defend her Women’s Title against Laynie Luck and Vinnie will defend his Heavyweight Title against LaBron Kozone. Billie Starkz and Lee Moriarty will also be on the card, along with other WCP regulars.

Game Changer Wrestling (GCW) News

On 1st February, GCW hosted a charity event in New York called “SuperPower Slam” at the Melrose Ballroom. The marquee match up was Janelasus (Joey Janela & Megan Bayne) against Jetspeed (Kevin Knight & Mike Bailey). Jonathan Gresham vs. Lee Moriarty also stole the undercard with a 20-minute time-limit draw. Paul Walter Hauser defended his PROGRESS Proteus Title against Mad Dog Connelly in the semi-main event. The show was for the benefit of the neurodivergent community.

Matt Tremont’s almost 1-year-reign with the Ultraviolent Championship ended at the hands of Otis Cogar on 17th January in a bloody fashion.

After defending against Allie Katch on 14th February and Sam Stackhouse on 15th February, Atticus Cogar will defend his GCW World Title against Megan Bayne on 28th February at The Webster Theatre in Hartford, Connecticut. Atticus Cogar will also be going for the GCW Tag Team Title with Otis Cogar as they challenge the newest members of the AEW roster, YDNP (Alex Price & Jordan Oliver) on 27th February in Rochester, New York at Water Street Music Hall.

Samuray Del Sol continues his GCW appearances with a Chicago show on 8th March.

Jersey Championship Wrestling (JCW) News

The Jersey J-Cup 2026 was won by the House of Glory Heavyweight Champion Charles Mason on 7th February, as Mason and Billie Starkz continued their feud in the final. Mason won both the Cup and the JCW Title as a result. Alec Price and Jordan Oliver knocked each other out with a 20-minute time-limit draw, giving Mason a bye.

Tommy Billington, who has inherited the Dynamite Kid moniker, was due to face Tiger Mask IV on 6th February, but due to a “personal emergency” for Tiger Mask, Black Tiger (Rocky Romero) wrestled Billington instead. The show was rounded off by a great steel cage match between 1 Called Manders and Mad Dog Connelly.

© DEFY Wrestling

DEFY Wrestling News

Guillermo Rosas won the DEFY Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title on 27th December in Seattle at the third episode of “AEON”, defeating Casey Ferreira and Cole Rivery. In Los Angeles on 28th December, Steven Borden continued making DEFY appearances, this time in a losing effort against Kiran Grey. Sinner and Saint (Judas Icarus & Travis Williams) retained their DEFY Tag Team Title against El Cartel De Los Villanos (Fatal & Sonico) and Bryan Keith held onto the DEFY World Title against Timothy Thatcher.

DEFY is airing the “AEON” series on Hooked On Wrestling TV, starting with episode 1 from 19th September 2025. This might be a tester ahead of TrillerTV’s impending doom.

House of Glory News

AEW Men’s World Champion MJF will appear at “No Turning Back” on 20th February, held at the NYC Arena in New York. He will defend the AEW Men’s World Title against Zilla Fatu. Private Party (Isaiah Kassidy & Marq Quen) Andrade El Idolo will try to turn his recent HOG run into champion gold as he faces Charles Mason for the HOG Heavyweight Title. The HOG Tag Team Champions The Hardys have not been on a HOG show since 19th December and are not booked for “No Turning Back”.

House of Glory took a trip across the country to Los Angeles for “City of Angels”. All champions retained as Heavyweight Champion Charles Mason, Crown Jewel Champion Zilla Fatu, Women’s Champion Shotzi Blackheart and Cruiserweight Champion Daron Richardson defended against Rey Horus, Willie Mack, Vipress and Starboy Charlie respectively.

Sammy Guevara will take on Amazing Red on 21st March at Suffolk Credit Union Arena in Brentwood, New York.

New Texas Pro Wrestling News

New Texas Pro held their biggest show of the year, “Lonestar 6” on 27th December. The show was capped off with 1 Called Manders defending his New Texas Pro Title against Carter Blaq, breaking the deadlock between the two and making the singles record 2-1 to Manders. All three matches have been for the New Texas Pro Title. The show is free on YouTube as New Texas Pro has started streaming shows there. The promotion announced that it will look to have some IWTV exclusive content moving forward.

Their next show is on 22nd February where Timur The Great will defend his LoneStar Title against Jesse Funaki, Toxic Tour (Pac Ortega & Prince Ly) defend their Tag Team Title against The Dream Team (Danny King & KC Kr’eme) and VertVixen will look to retain her Women’s Title against MJ Santana.

PrideStyle Pro Wrestling News

PrideStyle Pro held “PrideStyle 45: Cross My Heart” on 7th February at Vegas Theatre Company in Las Vegas, Nevada. There were marquee matchups such as Amira against Jordan Cruz, Bryn & Bateman (Bryn Thorne & Tyler Bateman) defending the PrideStyle Tag Team Title against Cartel de los Villanos (Fatal & Sonico), and Chris Nastyy continuing his PrideStyle World Title reign with a defence against Wind Dragon.

Their next show is “PrideStyle 46: WOR$T CASE SCENARIO” on 7th March at Fergusons Downtown in Las Vegas, Nevada, and then a joint show with West Coast Pro on 28th March in San Diego, California.

St. Louis Anarchy Wrestling News

St. Louis Anarchy has announced their full calendar for 2026, with dates on 27th March, 16th April, 24th April, 29th May, 24th July, 28th August and 25th September. All dates are at Spaulding Hall in Alton, Illinois except the 16th April which is “WrestleMania Weekend” in Las Vegas, Nevada. See our news update on that at the top of this section.

Beyond Wrestling News

At “Heavy Lies The Crown” on 31st December, Krule became the new Undisputed IWTV Independent Wrestling World Champion after a 30-minute-plus brawl against Bear Bronson. Krule has followed up with defences against Bronson’s tag partner, Gabby Forza, and Ben Bishop in ACTION Wrestling. After losing to Jonathan Greshman in his return match from a health scare on 23rd January, Ryan Clancy continues his chase for the IWTV Title that he was never pinned for, but first, he has to face Mike Santana at “Ballroom Blitz” on 27th February. Willow Nightingale faces Gabby Forza on the same show and WWE ID Champion Cappuccino Jones will make an appearance.

Wrestling Open and Wrestling Open RI hold weekly shows at White Eagle in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Rhodes On the Pawtuxet in Cranston, Rhode Island, respectively. Wrestling Open RI had a special show “Fury Road” on 16th February.

© Limitless Wresting / Floodshot

Limitless Wrestling News

On 16th January at The Colisee in Lewiston, Maine, MJF defended the AEW Men’s World Title against Alec Price. After the match, Price and Jordan Oliver were announced as new members of the AEW roster. On the same show, Donovan Dijak defeated Dezmond Cole to become the new Limitless World Champion. Gabby Forza won the Limitless Rumble to become the next #1 contender for the World Title. Dijak will defend against Forza on 21st February in Yarmouth, Maine. Jada Stone and Titus Alexander will also be on the card.

Wrestling REVOLVER News

On 5th February, Krule won the REVOLVER Title in a three-way with Myron Reed and Alan Angels, allowing Reed to drop the title due to him signing with AEW. Fellow Rascalz member Trey Miguel captured the 24/7 REVOLVER Scramble Title. Miguel was set to join AEW but returned to TNA on 13th February. Killer Kross successfully defended his MLW World Heavyweight Title on the same show against Bear Bronson. Famous wrestling YouTuber BDE won the REVOLVER Remix Title from another YouTuber Chris Danger in a Danger, Ladders & Chairs Match.

Brii Combination Wrestling (BCW) News

BCW had to cancel “Welcome to the New Year” which was scheduled for 18th January at The Mecca in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey. BCW announced that an “unforeseen medical emergency” was the cause and they would allow refunds. BCW Women’s Champion Notorious Mimi had a tryout with WWE. She was previously in WWE in 2022 under the name Sloane Jacobs. We wish promoter and owner Anthony Cole a healthy recovery.

Blitzkrieg! Pro News

B!P’s next show, “Bringin’ It Down”, is on 21st February in Westfield, Massachusetts. Isla Dawn will take on BCW Women’s Champion Notorious Mimi while Charles Mason teams with Andy Brown against Bobby Orlando and Sammy Diaz in a Tornado Tag match. Tommy Dreamer will make an appearance on the show.

Pro Wrestling Revolution (PWR) News

PWR will return to their base in San Jose on 14th March with a signature lucha-heavy show. Sanely challenges Karisma for the PWR World Women’s Title, while Captain Suicida, Festuz, Mascara Dorada and El Cucuy battle for the PWR Openweight Title. Cucuy defended the belt against ISHIN in Dragongate on 27th December. The PWR Trios Title will also be defended by Dinastia Karonte against Esfinge, Robin and Viento.

The next show will be on 26th April where they are bringing in the big guns as El Misterioso defends the PWR World Heavyweight Title against Mistico in the main event. Mascara Dorada, Magnus, La Catalina, Jack Cartwheel, MBM and Ultima Sombra will also be on the card. El Cucuy will wrestle TJP in a special singles match.

Absolute Intense Wrestling (AIW) News

Sam Holloway won the AIW Absolute Title from Chuck Stone at “Malice At The Palace” on 27th December and went on to defend against Philly Collins on 7th February. Danhausen made an appearance on 23rd January at “Alive Out Of Habit”. AIW’s next show is “Cultivate 2” on 20th February in Lakewood, Ohio where Heath (f.k.a. Heath Slater) takes on Tyler Jordan. After making his AIW debut on 27th December, Ohio native Nic Nemeth will return on 20th March.

ACTION Wrestling News

After winning the ACTION Title against Tim Bosby on 5th December, Darian Bangston followed up with a defence against Carlie Bravo on 24th January in Fayetteville, Georgia. It was a night of title defences on 30th January in Newman, Georgia, as Jamesen Shook retained his TWE Title, Darian held on to his ACTION Title amidst a challenge from Stunt Marshall, Krule defended his newly acquired Undisputed IWTV World Title against Ben Bishop and, finally, Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner Paul Walter Hauser was of course free enough to defend his PROGRESS Proteus Title against Slim J.

On 27th February in Tyrone, Georgia, Darian will defend against Channing Thomas. The day after on 28th February in Red Bank, Tennessee will see SLADE take on Mad Dog Connelly. I assume there will be a lot of blood. The show will be in the TWE Arena, owned by TWE Chattanooga.

TWE Chattanooga News

TWE’s all-women show “Femininomenon” is available on TWE’s IWTV. I’m hoping shows like this just become commonplace rather than special attractions in the US independent scene. The show was main-evented by Mackenzie Morgan and Kenzie Page battling for over 20 minutes. TWE also hosted the Cupid Cup on Valentine’s Day on 14th February where real couples faced off in tag teams against each other.

Black Label Pro News

Black Label Pro will return on 27th March in Indianapolis, Indiana. Billie Starkz faces Rachel Armstrong while Deonna Purrazzo takes on Shazza McKenzie. Gangrel, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Alice Crowley and BLP Heavyweight Champion Kevin Ku are also advertised.

AAW Pro News

AAW Pro has announced their full calendar for 2026. Their next show is on 21st February where Isaiah Moore defends his AAW Heritage Title against Ren Jones and Samuray del Sol (f.k.a. Kalisto) takes on Trey Miguel in a singles match. After defeating evil from hell on 26th December (The Good Brothers), the AAW Pro Tag Team Champions The Hellhounds (Russ Jones & Schaff) will also be on the show. Maggie Leef will defend her AAW Women’s Title against Heather Reckless in a 2 out of 3 falls match. The current AAW Pro Heavyweight Champion Trevor Lee teams with Stallion Rogers against Rafael Quintero and a partner of his choosing. Trevor Lee successfully defended against Rich Swann on 26th December.

Former AEW TNT Champion Tommaso Ciampa will make a special appearance on 20th March.

© CMLL

CMLL

Bitesize Round-up

1-11th January 2026: The New Year Begins

CMLL’s Record Breaking 2025 Ends With An Astonishing Sell Out Streak To Complete The Most Remarkable Comeback In Wrestling History

There is a false impression among wrestling fans who tuned into CMLL for the first time in 2025 thanks to the buzz, the sell-outs, AEW’s involvement and Místico’s incredible star power. Understandably, many newcomers and casual observers see the raucous crowds at Arena México, with tourists losing their minds alongside native fans, and they often assume that it has always been this way. Unfortunately, while CMLL is on an incredible three-year run since Místico regained his name, this is not the norm.

For years, a fantastic crowd at Arena México on a Friday night would be 6,000 fans and CMLL might be over the moon with two or three sell-outs a year. In darker times, fan attendance could be in the low thousands and even dip into the hundreds. They’ve always had the tourists, but in the bad times they couldn’t save the promotion and in the good times they never elevated CMLL to these heights. Once upon a time, CMLL would thank their lucky stars for three sell-outs in a year, but they closed 2025 with three full 16,000-capacity sell-outs in a week (at their highest prices to date), while selling out every spot show in between.

Don’t believe me, just wind the clock back to 2019. Legendary owner Paco Alonso had passed away and the promotion was in disarray. Talent was heading for the exit door and, as a mood of despair began to engulf the company, a global pandemic was unleashed. If CMLL was haemorrhaging blood when COVID-19 hit, then it was on life support with the faintest of pulses when the world emerged from lockdown. What is the purpose of this little history lesson? Simply to put today’s runaway success in its proper context. CMLL is a modern-day Lazarus, rising from the dead on the back of Místico’s incredible redemption arc, the sheer quality of its in-ring work and some genuinely ballsy booking. CMLL has captured magic in a bottle by strapping the rocket to young stars while getting the absolute maximum out of their incredible veterans.

An Oldie, But A Goodie: Bárbaro Cavernario Pushes Místico To The Limit

When Bárbaro Cavernario won the Leyenda de Azul at the close of 2025, it felt like a curiously nostalgic choice. No one doubts Bárbaro’s greatness: he is one of the finest rudos and bases in the business, probably competing in as many or more ****+ matches than any other worker last year. He is a workhorse and a legitimate attraction, but his moment — if there ever was one — to truly be the guy has come and gone. Like a younger version of Último Guerrero, he is a beloved part of the furniture at this point. So it was a genuine shock when he defeated both Místico and Soberano Jr at the absolute peak of their drawing power, just as their freshly minted feud to be the face of CMLL was approaching boiling point.

But that’s the beautiful thing about wrestling: not everything a promotion does has to be a life-or-death decision destined to shape the face of the industry for decades to come. Every now and again, a promoter simply wants to reward a great worker and put on a match that they know will be absolutely out of this world. Improbably, despite both Místico and Bárbaro having gimpy knees at this point, their work together somehow gets better with age.

Their Light Heavyweight title match was a joy from start to finish. Arena México, although not quite sold out, was electric, and Bárbaro (despite the occasional worm) was taking this match deadly seriously. From the word go, he kicked out Místico’s standing leg and within moments he was climbing to the top rope to hit his legendary splash to the hard floor below. I winced watching at home and, to be honest, despite his attempts to roll to one side, I couldn’t tell from Bárbaro’s face whether he was selling or legitimately regretting his life choices.

As the match progressed there were the occasional sloppy moments – Bárbaro and Místico did manage to forget their intended spot, resulting in a leaping teabag into an STF at one point — but they never let the intensity dip. Bárbaro zeroed in on Místico’s leg with his brilliant running kicks, which he delivered with a wonderful, almost childish glee. Místico’s gait might belie a man in pain, but as is so often the case, in the biggest moments Místico rises to the occasion, rediscovering the spring in his step for a gorgeous tope con giro and sky-high twisting arm drag.

Perhaps the highlight of this excellent main event was that, while Místico of course got in all the key spots from his signature comeback, the match diverged from the usual pattern. There was a greater focus on near-falls and especially submissions, as the crowd lived and died with each hold in between the stunning superplexes and Spanish flies. The result was a match with a more epic feel. Make no mistake, the match was not remotely wrestled in an American style, but it did feel more reminiscent of a “Mania” or “All In” main event with its focus on last-second kick-outs, desperate escapes and constant upping of the ante, rather than the rolling rhythm of silky lucha libre.

The finish itself was perfectly crafted. Bárbaro had La Mística scouted, first by positioning himself close enough to the ropes to escape and then, later, by outright blocking the move. Místico would try 619s and Canadian Destroyers without success, so ultimately, when the opportunity presented itself and Bárbaro’s back was turned, he trapped Bárbaro in his own hold and wrenched back on it furiously, forcing a desperate, pleading submission. Fittingly, this must-see match ended with a show of respect between two legends who will, one day — but not today — hand the spotlight over to Dorada and Soberano.

© CMLL

Titán And Máscara Dorada Do Everything They Possibly Can In 10 Minutes

The 9th January edition of “Viernes Espectacular” was one for the ages, in large part thanks to its classic main event, but if you only have limited viewing time it’s well worth going back to the lightning match between Titán and Dorada. CMLL, for some bizarre reason, seems insistent on putting Titán, one of the best long-term storytellers and technical wrestlers on the roster, into ten-minute time-limit sprints. It’s a testament to Titán’s remarkably well-balanced skill set and flair for match structure that he manages to inject so much tension into these arbitrarily short clashes with the likes of Dorada and Yutani (2/1/26).

Titán simply refuses to engage in either a spotfest or a traditional sprint. Instead, he masterfully condenses a main event–level match down into ten minutes, including some mind-blowing near-falls. Dorada was fantastic for his part and Yutani continues to show promise, but it is noticeable how much more engaging Titán’s lightning matches are than anyone else’s on the roster. Now how about we reward him for his hard work with a proper, no-time-limit main event match sometime soon?

Galeón Fantasma’s Newest Member Is…

Zandokan Jr is, rather depressingly, still on the shelf, but that’s not stopping CMLL from getting the faction in front of fans at every opportunity. On Informa, he promised a new member of Galeón Fantasma would be revealed at Arena México on 9th January. Fittingly, Zandokan came to the ring with a walking stick to cut a rabble-rousing promo before unveiling Furia Roja. Furia immediately went crazy, spitting water and making wild bug-eyes at the camera. He certainly made an impression, but there’s no denying that the muscle-laden wild man is easily the least cool member of the faction.

In the trios match that followed, Furia was an impressive and intense powerhouse at times, anchoring a series of daring triple-team moves with Difunto and Bárbaro Barboza as they took on the técnico team of Explosivo, Fugaz and Star Black. The match was a short-but-sweet showcase for Galeón Fantasma that ended in a DQ when Difunto unmasked Star Black to remind Arena México that they are, at least nominally, rudos. Furia did nothing wrong – in fact, the single best move in the match was his incredible snap sit-out powerbomb – but the gulf in charisma and star power between Difunto and Zandokan on one hand, and Furia and Barboza on the other, was monumental.

Robin Loses His Mask In Preposterously Over Stuffed Sin Salida Cage Match

Given the prestige and importance of masks in Mexican wrestling, it never ceases to amaze me the ridiculous ways in which luchadores will put them on the line. The Sin Salida cage match is particularly absurd, as 16 wrestlers are crammed into a single cage where they battle to escape to save their masks (or hair). Like many such matches, it’s not entirely clear whether you actually want to escape or whether you’d rather have the honour of winning and taking a rival’s mask. Whatever the case, there’s no denying that the cage largely gets in the way, preventing dives and making for an absurdly crowded spectacle.

CMLL’s solution to this obvious problem was to have the brawling start on the outside, so that Blue Shark and Rey Cometa could climb up onto the cage only to immediately land a spectacular dive from the summit. During the ponderous brawling that made up much of the first five minutes, the joy came in trying to figure out exactly who was too young, too old or too prestigious to lose their mask in such a silly match.

Mercifully, after a few minutes the countdown began and luchadores were free to attempt their escape. The match didn’t have the heat of Místico’s trios match that preceded it during the escape-the-cage portion, but it was clear that the crowd were genuinely into the action and intrigued to see who would survive. Unfortunately for those of us watching at home, the match was simply a mess of bodies that took far too long to get to the final four, let alone the final two.

When Robin and Calavera Jr I were left alone in the ring, the result was never in doubt. The veteran Robin had no hope of unmasking the young Calavera, but that didn’t stop the crowd living and dying with the young rudo. Like Los Villanos, Los Calaveras have grown incredibly popular and women were shrieking with fear every time the young star survived a near-fall – the best of which came on Robin’s sit-out powerbomb. The action wasn’t the smoothest, but in a way the roughness of the match added to the sense that each man was scrambling to save their mask. The arena was legitimately shaking when Robin just barely survived a moonsault press and flash rana combination. The match eventually ended when Calavera hit a springboard swanton and quickly trapped Robin in a gnarly Kimura.

The unmasking itself was touching. Robin was joined by his genuinely adorable family. His son (who was dressed as a mini-Robin) was clearly devastated, but in a beautiful moment the father knelt, allowing his son to unmask him and to present Calavera Jr I with his prize. Robin is unlikely to be hurt by losing his mask. The burly rudo base was never a heartthrob, and he has a solid look as a tough-but-likeable family man without his mask.

In a nice gesture, Robin would get his win back the very next weekend, teaming with Pólvora to defeat the Calaveras.

The Boo Birds Come Out For Místico

It’s not unusual for Místico to get booed, particularly by the more hardcore crowds who attend the Coliseo shows and see him every week. CMLL’s undisputed ace often sees fans choosing to cheer either underdog up-and-comers or dream-match guest stars (Komander and Bandido) over him. Nevertheless, there was something unique about the intensity of heat he drew at Arena Coliseo on 3rd January. The fans were not rejecting Místico as he and Templario faced off with Bárbaro Cavernario and Soberano Jr; instead, they were wholeheartedly embracing a new heartthrob.

Soberano Jr is absolutely the man. He is not the best wrestler in the promotion – not even close – but he has charisma to burn. He drives the women crazy and the guys want to see him put over Místico. This didn’t bother Místico or Templario; in fact, the técnicos clearly loved it and milked a riotous crowd for all they were worth in an indulgent but addictive 24-minute main event. Of course, Místico has already put Soberano over clean in tag matches, but there is now a vocal demand within the diehard fanbase for Místico to do the honours and cement Soberano’s status as the next guy.

In the meantime, the booing hardly matters. Kids, families, tourists and the vast majority of CMLL’s fanbase still adore Místico. The bigger question is whether Soberano really is the next Místico. He certainly carries himself like he is. His presentation is leagues above his peers. However, Máscara Dorada is a far better wrestler, Neón is more spectacular, and Zandokan Jr is arguably a better blend of badass aura and in-ring credibility. In other words, the race to succeed Místico is far from run — but Soberano’s effortless aura farming has him in pole position for the time being.

© CMLL

12-18th January 2026: AEW Arrives

Hotly Anticipated Sunday Stream Pulled Following Fan Incident

I would absolutely have loved to report on the Sunday night show at Arena México on the 18th headlined by the mouth-watering clash between Templario and Bandido, but tragically I cannot. Living in the UK, I rarely watch CMLL live, so I was bitterly disappointed to get home from work on Monday night to find that the stream was missing. At first I, like many confused fans, assumed CMLL were just slow in uploading the show (which, to be frank, made little sense as it was scheduled to stream live). Then the news broke that CMLL had pulled the show thanks to an idiotic fan who jumped the barricade to enter the ring, disrupting the main event. Templario and Bandido were forced to awkwardly hang around at ringside as security removed what appeared to be a drunken tourist.

CMLL takes its reputation as a traditional, family-friendly, tourist-welcoming cultural institution seriously, so understandably they do not want to air any footage that makes security look lax or the arena unwelcoming. There is, of course, the irony that they also have one of the most drunken and rowdy fanbases in wrestling on Friday nights, but before anyone cries hypocrisy, it is worth noting that the Sunday afternoon show is specifically targeted at kids and families. Hopefully, by the time you are reading this, an edited version of the show will have been uploaded.

Ricochet “Gets It” And Has A Whale Of A Time Headlining Arena México

For all their efforts on Friday night, it was painfully obvious that Roderick Strong and the Gates of Agony don’t really “get” CMLL or Arena México. Roddy would work hard to produce a compelling match, but he never really managed to embrace the flow or frivolity that makes Mexican wrestling special. Ricochet, on the other hand, was made for this stage. He still wrestled a primarily American style with PWG-style standoff sequences, but he knew exactly what the crowd craved. It was obvious from the very beginning: as he and Titán exchanged headstands and flips, Ricochet would effortlessly bound over his opponent and immediately sprint to the ropes to rile up the Arena México faithful. As the whistles and boos rang out, Ricochet back-flipped over Titán and continued to strut.

CMLL main events are built on great state-of-the-art action, but it is always married to pomp and pageantry; the crowd expect to be involved and they expect cocksure swagger. Titán was the perfect opponent – adept at every style of wrestling in existence, he could follow wherever Ricochet led. Ricochet would slow the match down to get the heat, blending flashes of spectacular offence with outrageous taunts, goading holds and attempts to unmask Titán. Then, of course, when it came time to deliver the action, Ricochet proved peerless, causing a stampede in the stands whether the pair were exchanging holds, cradles or flips.

Down the stretch they could simply do no wrong. There was a wonderfully intricate exchange of strikes, feints and weaves that culminated in Titán’s signature Matrix heel kick. Then it was Ricochet’s time to dazzle. After both men took gnarly apron bumps, it was Ricochet who gained the upper hand with a Sasuke Special and springboard 450 combination. Not to be outdone, Titán hit a punishing springboard double stomp to a kneeling Ricochet before locking the American in his signature straight-jacket bridging STF. Titán followed up with a flying double stomp and, when Ricochet kicked out at the very last moment, it felt like a riot was about to break out. It didn’t, of course; instead, the quality of the action ensured that the crowd were sent home happy even as the rudo Ricochet quickly turned the tables to pick up the win.

Double Duty Cuts Dream Match Short, But Místico Thrives As Swaggering Douche Bag Rudo

The most mouth watering match-up of the entire AEW invasion weekend was undoubtedly the Arena Coliseo main event between El Sky Team (Místico & Máscara Dorada) vs Bandido and Komander. Every combination of Komander and a teammate against Místico and a partner has been magical and, in theory at least, Máscara Dorada and Bandido should have been the best yet. Unfortunately, the heat was off the charts with the crowd booing the hometown team. Místico enjoyed winding up, even dancing to the jeers and whistles as he worked over Komander and telling the crowd to suck it after he hit a springboard high cross on Bandido. Dorada, on the other hand, hasn’t learnt to adapt and still played to the crowd like a white meat deer in headlights.

Frustratingly, having milked the crowd, pulled off some dazzling and ropey (respectively) stand off spots, the match was just kicking into second gear with a parade of amazing dives when it became apparent that time was running low. With Místico and Dorada scheduled to attend a sponsored show later the same night, we were treated to a speed run version of a potential classic. In truth Místico was the story of the match; at one stage as he and Bandido squared off the crowd were screaming “Místico” and “Bandido” at the same time while somehow maintaining droning boos.

So rather than the match of the year, we were treated to a house show match on steroids. Despite a raft of noticeable botches, it was impossible not to love a match this heated that blended astonishing dives with deft psychology. Místico and Bandido were so determined to go mano a mano that they routinely lost sight of Dorada and Komander and left themselves open to giant dives and sneak attacks. Eventually after making a comeback on both members of El Sky Team, Bandido would hit the 21 Plex on Dorada and claim victory.

The biggest single takeaway from this match up remains Místico’s potential as a heel. He’s far too over, effective and beloved at Arena México to consider turning any time soon. But he has shown that, when he finally slows down and a successor is found, he will make for an incredible rudo. He was better at trolling the crowd and generating the heat than Zandokan Jr, Bárbaro Cavernario and Volador Jr combined.

© CMLL

Blue Panther And Último Plays The Hits, Before Roderick Strong Bests Hechicero

CMLL seems acutely aware that international fans love seeing Blue Panther turn back the clock and run wild. At this point, we can probably all close our eyes and picture each and every spot in his minute clash with Último Guerrero. But that hardly matters, because it works every time. At 65-years of age, Blue Panther is a marvel hitting suicide dives with surprising intensity and impact given his hobbling gait. Último is a pro, always there to catch and shine up the técnico. Great feel good matches of this quality are based on trust and these two veterans clearly trust one another with their lives. Despite its familiarity, there is still a shock to seeing Blue Panther physically bounce as Último Guerrero superplexes him with a vengeance.

Roderick Strong was placed in a tricky position. He not only had to directly follow two of the most beloved and crowd pleasing legends in all of lucha libre, but he had to compete with the memory of the Zack Sabre Jr vs Hechicero series. Understandably, he couldn’t live up to a standard that high, but he did combine with Hechicero to put on a pleasing technical battle that provided an intriguing cool down match in advance of the main event. In a slow burn battle, the match peaked when Hechicero lowered his straps and demanded that Strong chop him harder. The pair never quite found the pleasing rhythm that typifies a Hechicero classic, but they nevertheless had the crowd biting hard on the final flurry of nearfalls. Roddy would pick up the win with a knee strike putting him on a collision course with Claudio Castagnoli for the Heavyweight title.

Strong would follow up with another decisive victory over Difunto at Arena Coliseo. It’s one thing besting Hechicero, but the AEW stars may risk overstaying their welcome if they continue to go over the most beloved acts in the company. The fans were feverishly behind Difunto from the opening bell and were polite to Roddy who played the nominal rudo role. Make no mistake, Roddy was far more respectful to Difunto than MJF was to Zandokan Jr, but he still kicked out of the protected rope walk dropkick winning with relative ease with a running knee. The mood noticeably dampened with this result.

Gates of Agony Miss An Opportunity To Impress With Uninspired Performance

The Gates of Agony often seem out of place outside of the USA. During their NJPW World Tag League run in 2023 they were remarkably dull – but that wasn’t entirely their fault, their appearance came at the nadir of the promotion’s interest in tag team wrestling. In Arena México on Friday night, they did nothing wrong per se, but they did little right. They were pedestrian getting the heat with chops and generic stomping for the most part without drawing the heat one would expect. Despite playing overbearing heels, they didn’t generate even a smidgeon of the heat that JetSpeed drew during their appearances in 2025.

Mercifully, after wasting the three quarters of the match, Toa Liona finally got the chance to impress with a mighty double Samoan drop and Bishop Kaun followed up with a neat running suplex on the ramp. From there on in, they had the crowd’s attention as Soberano Jr and Bárbaro Cavernario briefly ran through a few signature spots before Bárbaro picked up the victory with La Cavernaria. This was passable, at best. Thankfully, they’d fare far better on Saturday night teaming with Ricochet, largely thanks to Ricochet’s wild pratfall bumps and the knack of Los Hermanos Chávez for structuring compelling multi-man matches.

Pure Rules Are A Qualified Success South Of The Border

The notoriously contrived rules of the ROH Pure Title aren’t always the easiest to keep track of when you’re live in the building, but in Mexico they are completely alien. Nevertheless, that didn’t stop the Arena Coliseo faithful from fully investing in the technical battle between Lee Moriarty and Xelhua. In part, because Xelhua is finally gathering steam in Mexico City, but also because the action was compelling throughout. It wasn’t a blowaway or memorable defence for Moriarty, but it may be the most heated of his reign as the crowd were screaming for Xelhua to make the ropes every time he found himself trapped in a hold (clearly not understanding the consequences of wasting rope breaks). It’s fitting then, that the flattest moment of the match was the finish: an odd hush came over the crowd when Xelhua submitted while locked in a Tarantula-like hold tied up in ropes. It was less heat and more, “Huh?”

© CMLL

Tuning In For The First Time? Don’t Skip The Homegrown Stars

The arrival of AEW talent in CMLL naturally brings new eyes to product via Triller. Given CMLL’s absurdly high barrier to entry (i.e. the £30 a month video subscription), they are unlikely to truly convert all but the most diehard of wrestling fans. Therefore, if this is one of the three or four times a year that you check in with CMLL I strongly advise you not to skip the undercard as the 16 January 2026 edition of “Viernes Espectacular” provided a classic lucha libre opener.

El Hijo del Pantera and Magia Blanca will likely never be main event players, but at 32 and 34 years old respectively they have mastered their craft. In a compelling opener with the up and coming El Coyote and nearing 50 Pólvora, they crafted a feel good introduction to the world of lucha libre at large. After allowing the rudos team to get the heat, the stage was set for a brilliant técnico comeback and Pantera didn’t disappoint. Having dodged a shoulder charge by Pólvora, Pantera delicately tip-toed across the middle rope with feline flair to avoid a charging Coyote, only to race across the ring to hit a sick tope suicida past the turnbuckle. This brought Arena México to its feet, just in time for Magia Blanca to hit a sky high tijeras and for the técnicos to land a flipping senton and stardust press to secure the simultaneous pinfall.

The trios match that saw Los Herederos defeat Los Viajeros del Espacio 2–1 certainly had its issues but is almost instructive to see how sublime lucha libre can be when it’s executed slickly – and how easily the wheels can come off. Futuro and Max Star clearly have limitless potential, best showcased by the jaw dropping series of soaring dives that secured the second fall, but they are uneven performers, occasionally freezing when the more complex in-ring exchanges go left. Nevertheless, they barrelled on through with a barrage of the most insane triple team offence on the planet (which included Valiente putting Futuro in a package piledriver only to flip him to an inverted splash onto the helpless rudo below). That preposterous spot was merely the amuse-bouche for the “SUPER MEGA PLANCHA” that followed. Suffice it to say, this match was ridiculous in the best possible way, as the teams exchanged human pyramid spots until the rudos hit a spinning powerbomb, flipping senton and finally big splash, which allowed Stuka Jr to pick up the deciding captain’s fall.

Perhaps the most essential viewing came in the form of the really rather excellent all rudo clash between the rock solid Los Gemelos Diablo and the white hot Calaveras. Los Hermanos Calavera are clearly picking up steam and have totally won over the Coliseo faithful in recent months, so much so that Calavera Jr I was put in the position to take Robin’s mask on the first Friday night show of the year (see below). Their match on the 17th was a classic two-out-of-three falls tag and a perfect example of the traditional yet wholly dynamic action that CMLL offers each and every week. This match is worth seeking out, not only for its quality, but to witness how effectively the weekend crowds dictate who the next big thing will be — and in this case they’re fully behind this loveable undersized pair of sneaky rudos. Los Villanos vs Los Hermanos Calavera should be guaranteed money by the end of the year.

It’s Time To Elevate Capitán Suicida

Among major promotions with deep established rosters, CMLL are rivalled only by Stardom when it comes to creating and elevating new stars. Before the fans have even fully grasped the potential brilliance of a Neón or Zandokan Jr, the promoters will decisively move them up the card. After another sterling performance, this time alongside Fugaz and La Fuerza Poblana, it’s time they took a good hard look at Capitán Suicida. Despite his atrocious name, the 30-year-old star has routinely been positioned at the very bottom of CMLL’s biggest cards. This suggests that management do, in fact, have half an eye on his progress and, unlike some other young talents, he has shown a remarkable level of poise and consistency.

With a distinctive look, good ring speed and an impressive array of dives he is routinely the highlight of the undercard and, when things fall apart higher up the card (see the disastrous “Day of the Dead” show from 2025) he’s been the one to keep his cool. His one weakness may be that he lacks the out of this world spots or freakish athleticism of his peers, but when we discuss who should be the next one to take that big step up, his name should rank alongside Xelhua, Max Star, Futuro, Los Villanos and Los Hermanos Calavera.

© CMLL

19-26th January 2026: The Sell Outs Keep On Coming

An Implausible Arena Mexico Sell Out For A Generic Card

With the influx of AEW was in the rearview mirror, usual service was set to resume at Arena Mexico on the 23rd with, frankly, a nothing-happening Friday night card headlined by Místico & Máscara Dorada against Averno & Ángel de Oro. Don’t get me wrong, that is and was an excellent match on paper, but a completely bog-standard matchup from a drawing perspective. This is the kind of card that in years past would have been lucky to draw 5,000 fans, but now, with ticket prices jacked up, CMLL improbably drew a 16,000 sell-out — and they followed it up by selling out Arena Coliseo again!

The show itself was extremely watchable, with a focus on pageantry and angles. Místico and Persephone both showcased elaborate costuming for their entrances, befitting a sold-out Friday night. It is, of course, impossible to have a bad match with Averno and Ángel de Oro, and El Sky Team delivered a satisfying main event that focused on milking the crowd for all they were worth. With the stands shaking, Místico delivered a slick comeback against his favourite bases before picking up the win with the 450 splash and La Mística combination.

The semi-main was a somewhat surprising showcase for Flip Gordon. Teaming with Templario and Titán, Flip took on the hot rudo trio of Bárbaro Cavernario, Soberano Jr and Yutani. Despite delivering some great action, the match was highlighted by Soberano’s ridiculous heel antics and a DQ finish that saw Cavernario low-blow Flip to cut off his comeback. Flip would then cut a promo post-match, leading all the rudos to stampede back to the ring to beat him down.

The match of the night was the all-action clash that pitted Capitán Suicida & Valiente Jr against Raider & Vegas Depredador. The match was overflowing with wild dives and remarkably creative powerhouse counters to traditional flying offence. These teams are perfectly matched, with the rudos delivering fantastic power-based offence (including an absurdly cool powerbomb/powerslam hybrid), and Suicida and Valiente flying with the recklessness of men who had a point to prove. Best of all, unlike so many undercard matches, this clash had great psychology and heat. The heels took the first fall, but they dropped the second fall via an intentional unmasking. With the teams tied 1–1, the rudo team had generated incredible heat and the crowd were fully invested in the twists and turns of the final fall rather than simply watching the dazzling moves. The match had a roughness and intensity that is atypical for CMLL; it felt like two teams desperate to breakthrough to the next level and, perhaps, pushing themselves too hard in the process. The final sequence of dives, rannas and splashes that saw Suicida and Valiente Jr win is simply a must-see, so I won’t spoil it.

© AAA

AAA

Bitesize Round-up

Dominick Mysterio will defend the AAA Mega Championship at “Rey de Reyes” on March 14th in Puebla against El Hijo del Vikingo, with the stipulations appearing to be that Vikingo cannot challenge for the title if he loses or Mysterio having to leave AAA if he drops the belt. The show will also feature the traditional “Rey de Reyes” final four way, with La Parka and the original Grande Americano having already qualified for the bout. Original Grande, played by Chad Gable, took out the babyface Ludwig Kaiser version ahead of a four way qualification match against Octagón Jr, Dragon Lee and Rey Fénix, handcuffing him on the outside so that he could take Kaiser’s place.

There was a AAA Title change on the February 7th taping in Querétaro, as Lola Vice and Mr. Iguana captured the AAA Mixed Tag Team Titles, beating Ethan Page and La Hiedra, who stood in for an injured Chelsea Green in the matchup. Hiedra has been involved in a story battle for the affections of Iguana for some time, so it was a natural stand in.

AAA on Fox in Mexico is airing at 8pm, followed by a 9pm airing on catch up service Tubi. The episodes are also being released globally on the WWE Youtube channel. Lee Fitting, Paul Levesque and Mark Calloway have been added as Executive Producers to the show end credits, despite Levesque and Fitting having little to no weekly input on these shows.

Tapings for TV are currently running on a three week rotation, with the next set being in Monterrey on February 28th, followed by the “Rey de Reyes” taping in Puebla in March, April 11th in Mexico City and 2nd May back in Querétaro.

TJ Perkins, previously known as TJP in New Japan, appeared at the January 17th tapings, where he won a four way for a AAA Cruiserweight Title shot against Laredo Kid. Perkins was given his “205 Live!” presentation, with Luchablog reporting he is signed to WWE.

La Parka and Mr. Iguana represented AAA in the men’s “Royal Rumble” match in Saudi Arabia. It was an interesting turn of events as the AAA roster member directly contracted to WWE, El Hijo del Vikingo, was not part of the match. All other AAA talent outside of Vikingo are contracted to Fillip, meaning there have been no restrictions for this talent in regards to outside booking thus far. El Hijo de Wagner Jr. worked a weekend of NXT house shows opposite Santos Escobar at the end of January as well.

“AAA on Fox “

17th January 2026
Company Announced Attendance: 5,000
Gimnasio Olímpico Juan de la Barrera, Mexico City, Mexico

It maybe shouldn’t be a massive surprise just how similar the AAA on Fox debut was to TNA’s on AMC. Both began with an opening from a long term WWE figure previously in AAA/TNA, both had some god awful matches in the middle, before finishing off with a passable main event that was given stakes but left you with the feeling it could (and maybe should) have been better.

Rey Mysterio was the show opener here, replicating his “When Worlds Collide” opening in many ways into an arena which was surprisingly low key in terms of presentation for a WWE produced debut show. His speech received polite applause for the most part, finally getting some sort of stronger reaction as it headed towards its close. This went on far too long and missed the mark in regards to an exciting opening to AAA’s time on Fox.

Mysterio joined John Layfield and Corey Graves on English commentary. It is said that neither Graves or Layfield were live in Mexico City, which might explain some of the awkward exchanges between Graves and Mysterio in particular, where Graves tried to involve the wrestler in conversation, leading to Mysterio sounding like he had never seen the product in his life.

The opening match for the show followed post commercial, as La Parka, Mr. Iguana and Niño Hamburguesa faced the Los Vipers team of Abismo Negro, Histeria and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Taurus. Commentary opened the match by declaring AAA as “the hottest brand in lucha libre,” which ended up feeling pretty hilarious by match end after things quickly fell apart. La Parka looked as though he was wrestling in slow motion, with a hurricanrana attempt at the end of a supposedly flashy looking sequence ending up so bad that the English commentary team didn’t even bother to defend it and instead burst out laughing.

The match ended with a Niño Hamburguesa splash leading to Iguana pinning new Taurus. Iguana being presented as the star over La Parka feels so completely foreign after so many years of their former presentations, but this new AAA audience appears to have accepted it.

Next up was a rapid (not in action) non title match between Flammer and Lady Shani that even managed to fit in a Lola Vice-Flammer brawl within its three minutes of action. Flammer hit Shani with two dropkicks to get the quick win.

A “WrestleMania” commercial was followed by a full on WWE segment, as El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. had his standard promo interrupted by a man in an El Fantasma mask. This should have been a giveaway in terms of who was under the mask for the previous AAA audience, but this is not that crowd. The mask was removed to reveal Santos Escobar, and the crowd went…silent. No reaction whatsoever. I can’t help but think that was not exactly what they were looking for.

The show ended with a number one contender matchup between El Hijo del Vikingo and El Grande Americano. This match was a replacement for a Dominick Mysterio Mega Title defense, after the champion suffered a shoulder injury back in December. The crowd was invested in the replacement match up, though, and particularly in the Ludwig Kaiser variation of El Grande Americano, meaning good heat throughout.

The work moved between decent and slightly sloppy during the course of the matchup, with the story centering on El Grande’s attempts to load his face mask in order to put Vikingo away. Americano had to fend off Dorian as well as his opponent, but kept the crowd behind him in the struggle. It looked like he might have a chance after Vikingo manager Dorian Roldan was removed for further blatant interference, but his final mask loading attempt was stopped on the outside by Omos, revealing he was now aligned with Roldan’s group. Vikingo came over the top rope onto Americano, before dragging him back into the corner of the ring so that he could hit a 630 for the pin. Not really sure if they threaded the needle on giving Vikingo a strong win whilst protecting Americano.

The latter ends up meaning a lot less regardless, though, as the post match sees an Americano fight back after the bell abruptly stopped by an Omos high boot, before the heels are chased off by the sole presence of Rey Mysterio brandishing a single kendo stick.

AAA’s first show on Fox Mexico closes with WWE’s Rey Mysterio standing tall. Enough said really.

© The Crash

Mexican Independents

The Crash News

The Crash held a show on 16th January in their usual venue, the Auditorio Fausto Gutierrez in Tijuana. On the show, The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) lost to Noisy Boy and Rey Horus, KENTA beat DMT Azul and The Crash Tag Team Champions The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson) beat Alberto El Patron and his brother El Hijo de Dos Caras in the main event.

Their next show is on 20th February where Noisy Boy defends his The Crash Cruiserweight Title against Jack Cartwell, Anubis and Ninja Mack. In the main event, Nic Nemeth, Demonio Infernal and Matt Riddle compete in a three-way.

International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG) News

IWRG was accepting applications for tryouts where the winner would win $50,000 and a 3-year contract with the promotion. The requirements were a minimum weight of 70kg, a height of 1.65m and at least one year experience as a professional wrestler. Flamita was announced as one of the coaches.

Four title matches took place on 1st February at “Caravana de Campeones 2026”, with all champions retaining. DMT Azul defended his IWRG Intercontinental Heavyweight Title in the main event against Chessman.

IWRG runs shows every Thursday and Sunday. There are special named shows every so often which feature appearances from CMLL wrestlers. El Sky Team (Mascara Dorada, Mistico and Neon) appeared on “Supremacia” on 12th February against Galeon Fantasma (Barboza & Difunto) and Soberano Jr.

RIOT Lucha Libre News

RIOT Lucha Libre will host one of its most popular events “Tonto Evento Sorpresa 5” on 27th February 2026 which, if you can guess from the title, is a mystery vortex event. On “Super Sabado 46” on 7th February, Bandido defended the RIOT World Title against Flamita. The event was advertised with the line “pretend it’s like the Superbowl, but with wrestling and without Bad Bunny.”

Miscellaneous Mexican Independents News

Cuatrero, who last wrestled three years ago after being jailed and charged with femicide and domestic violence, is currently booked in Ecatepec on March 14th. The thirty year old was released from prison, on bail, last spring and is still awaiting his case proceeding to court for a number of alleged assaults on now WWE wrestler Stephanie Vaquer.

Cuatrero has previously claimed that he was restricted from wrestling prior to his release. At current, brothers Sansón and Forastero, who have wrestled in AAA over the past year under the NGD name, are not booked for the show.

© Winnipeg Pro Wrestling

Canada

Winnipeg Pro Wrestling (WPG) News

Winnipeg Pro Wrestling drew a full house of 2,300 at Centennial Concert Hall on 4th February in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The show featured a full symphony orchestra. At one point, Bryce Bentley stole the conductor’s baton and snapped it in half, generating nuclear heat. That’s real wrestling. This show will unfortunately not be available for viewing due to music rights and orchestra licensing. It’s just a good reminder that you should always be aware of what’s going on in your local independents because there could be some crazy once-in-a-lifetime shows. All titles were retained on the show except Mercedes Mone’s WPW Women’s Title as she went on a break after losing the AEW TBS Title to Willow Nightingale on New Year’s Eve. Chad Daniels, Nu Money and Sammy Peppers defended the WPW Title, the WPW Tag Team Title and the WPW 92.1 CITI Title against Bobby Schink, James Roth & Merv and Tommy Lee Curtis respectively.

WPW will next host the Voyageur Cup on 13th March and 14th March at the West End Cultural Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The winner receives a shot at Mercedes Mone at the Manitoba Museum.

Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling (MLP) News

Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling, run by former TNA booker Scott D’Amore, announced a new broadcasting partnership with Fight Nation TV, due to launch in February 2026. The next MLP shows are a joint show with ROH, “Global Wars Canada 2026” on 27th March and “Uprising 2026” on 28th March in Windsor, Ontario. Both are available on TrillerTV as PPVs. MLP Canadian Champion Josh Alexander, The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson), Bishop Dyer, Kaito Kiyomiya and Mascara Dorada have all been announced.

At the Tuesday Arena Mexico show on 17th February, CMLL and MLP announced an official partnership. Josh Alexander will be defending the MLP Canadian Title against Esfinge on 20th February at Arena Mexico.

C4 Wrestling News

Junior Benito retained the C4 Title against Joshua Bishop in the main event of “The Big Chill” on 31st January at the Preston Event Centre in Ottawa. Vaughn Vertigo was victorious in a seven way scramble and became the new C4 Underground Champion. Joe Lando successfully defended the RevPro Undisputed British Cruiserweight Title against Ryan Clancy. The match was initially for Ryan Clancy’s Undisputed IWTV Independent Wrestling World Title, but he lost it on 22nd December in a three-way to Bear Bronson in Wrestling Open RI (Beyond Wrestling).

C4’s next show is an all-women’s show on 19th February in Algonquin Commons Theatre, Ottawa. The first C4 Women’s Champion will be crowned, between Loue O’Farrell, Gabby Forza, Kristara and Seleziya Sparx in one Four Corner Elimination Match, and Vanessa Kraven, Leah Sparks, Alexia Nicole and Ava Lawless in the other before the winners meet later in the night. The Punk Rock Pussycats (Allie Katch & Jody Threat) return together as a team for the first time since 2021.

Mystery Wrestling News

Evil Uno’s Mystery Wrestling promotion took a trip to Cardiff, Wales for Mystery Wrestling #21 and #21.5. UK independent talent appeared on the show, such as Rhio defending her EVE Title against Kristara and Cara Noir unsuccessfully challenging Stu Grayson for his Mystery Wrestling Title. #21.5 was a Patreon-exclusive show. Stu Grayson defended once again, this time against Flash Morgan Webster.

Mystery Wrestling will be back in Gatineau, Quebec, for #22 on 14th March. AEW Men’s World Champion MJF has been announced for #23 in Edmonton, Alberta, on 26th March. Finally, #24 will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia on 11th April.

Alpha-1 Wrestling News

Mike Forte & Shane Sabre won the A1 Tag Team Title from WWE EVOLVE team Swipe Right (Brad Baylor & Ricky Smokes) on 18th January at “Laws of the Jungle” in Hamilton, Ontario. The show was in the usual Knights of Columbus venue. There was further Evolve representation on the show as Jackson Drake defended his WWE EVOLVE Title against Jessie V and TJ Crawford. Tyler Breeze and Isla Dawn were also on the show against Mark Wheeler and Laynie Luck respectively. Finally, Kody Lane held onto his A1 Alpha Male Title against Alex Reynolds, BMD and Rickey Shane Page.

Laynie Luck will be taking on Zoe Sager for the WWE ID Women’s Title on the next show, “Buck Wild 2026” on 1st March at the same venue. Moose, Alex Price and Trey Miguel have been advertised for the show.

A1 have launched an archive for their shows.

Smash Wrestling News

Smash Wrestling will return to action for the first time in over four months for “Any Given Saturday Twelve!” Mercedes Martinez will attempt to win the Smash Women’s Title from Jody Threat, while Psycho Mike defends his Smash Wrestling Title against Eric Young.

Rest of the Americas

Xplosion Lucha Libre News

Xplosion held their year-end show, “Desastre Total” on 28th December . The Desastre Total Tournament took place on the show to determine the Undisputed World Champion. Gaston Mateo defeated Victor Riquelme to become the new Xplosion Undisputed World Champion. Javistar and Gidget continued their long-winding rivalry as JaviStar successfully defended the Xplosion National Women’s Title. This show kicked off the road to their biggest ever show, “XPLOSIONMANIA 3”.

“XPLOFEST 2026” was held on 1st February in San Miguel, Chile at Teatro Municipal de San Miguel. After Casey was a special referee for JaviStar and Gidget’s previous bout, she then defeated Najash to become the #1 contender for JaviStar’s title. Joel retained his South American Title but then vacated it in order to exchange it for a shot at Gaston Mateo’s Undisputed World Title at “XPLOSIONMANIA 3”.

After failing to capture the Undisputed World Title in a three way at “XPLOFEST 3”, Pablo Rivas announced that he would be relocating to Mexico and had wrestled his final match at Xplosion. Bruno Lopez won the Battle Royal to win the vacant title later in the show.

Andres Rojas will take on Castigador in a deathmatch at “XPLOSIONMANIA 3”.

Legión Pro Wrestling News

Legión Pro Wrestling’s next show is on 15th March in Buenos Aires. La Joya will take on Gint Giovanna for the Legion Pro Maximum Title.

Legion Pro’s wrestling school based in Lanús has returned with around ten classes a month. Unless it is a major translation error, it appears they charge 10 USD for the month, or $15,000 (Argentinian pesos). Maybe I am just not clued in on how the Argentinian economy is doing.