AEW back to Pittsburgh
WWE won鈥檛 be the only promotion running a show in Pittsburgh this summer as AEW is headed to town in August.
In fact, it will run two shows over three days at the Petersen Event Center on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh.
Dynamite will air live on Wednesday, Aug. 11 and then two days later, the premiere episode of Rampage will air.
While Dynamite will air at 8 p.m., the matches will kick off at 7 p.m. with the doors opening at 6 p.m.
For Rampage that Friday night, doors open at 7 p.m. for the 8 p.m. start.
Tickets went on sale Friday at www.ticketmaster.com. Fans can buy tickets to either show and there is also a special price two-event combo package.
For fans interested in going to one show instead of both, tickets are more expensive for Dynamite than Rampage.
Plenty of seats have already been sold for each show as well as the combo package, so if you plan on attending, you may want to jump on tickets if you want to grab good seats.
The shows will be a homecoming for Britt Baker. The AEW women蘑菇视频 champion, Baker is a native of Punxsutawney and it will be interesting to see what AEW has her do at the shows.
One of the better promos in the business, she could easily soak up the adulation of what will be a pro-Baker crowd only to see her belittle the fans.
Regardless of what she does, AEW will be building towards its All Out PPV on Sept. 5, so look for all the top AEW talent to be in attendance for the show.
NXT getting third hour?
This week on WWE蘑菇视频 online show, Main Event, NXT North American champion Bronson Reed defeated Drew Gulak and NXT world champion Karrion Kross defeated Shelton Benjamin.
Could this be the start of both men heading to Raw or Smackdown, or could this be the start of NXT gaining another show each week?
It won鈥檛 take long to find out as the show airs every week, so we will know shortly.
NXT releases
Friday afternoon, it was announced that NXT wrestlers Fandango and the team Ever Rise, Chase Parker and Matt Martel, were released.
Fandango had a hot start in WWE as he made his debut at WrestleMania 29 where he defeated Chris Jericho in one of the bigger upsets in Mania history.
Ironically, he is cohosting WWE蘑菇视频 Top 50 countdown on tag teams with the last episode, featuring the top five teams of all-time, scheduled to debut this coming Wednesday.
Speaking of the list, several readers have emailed and asked me to comment on it. I will save it for next week as I want to see how the top five plays out.
The five teams not yet announced, meaning they will make up the top five, are The New Day, The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart), The Dudley Boyz, The Hardy Boyz and the team of Edge and Christian.
My guess is either New Day or the Hart Foundation top the list with the other second, Edge and Christian third, the Hardy蘑菇视频 fourth and the Dudley蘑菇视频 fifth.
For what it is worth, I would put Edge and Christian at the top of the list.
Back to the releases. Prior to their NXT run as Ever Rise, Parker and Martel were known as 3.0 on the Canadian independent scene and in CHIKARA.
205 releases
Shortly after the NXT releases were announced Friday, three 205 Live performers were told they were also released.
August Grey, Tony Nese and Ariya Daivari were given their 鈥渇uture endeavors鈥� notification.
205 Live is another online show WWE produces.
This Day in History
In 1972, Mr. Fuji and Professor Tanaka defeated Chief Jay Strongbow and Sonny King for the WWWF tag titles.
In 1998, Rob Van Dam and Sabu defeated Lance Storm and Chris Canddio for the ECW tag titles.
In 1999, WWF held the King of the Ring PPV with Billy Gunn winning the tournament. Also on the card, Undertaker retained the WWF championship when he defeated The Rock.
In 2011, CM Punk delivers one of the greatest promos in pro wrestling history. He sat at the edge of the ramp under the Titantron and gave the memorable promo. Unscripted, it shows what some performers can do without having every word scripted for them like it is done today.
This week蘑菇视频 question
Would Dr. Britt Baker be a top star in WWE if she was there instead of AEW? Shellie from Connellsville.
While Baker may be the top all-around female performer in the world, I am not sure she would have buzzed to the top of WWE as she has in AEW, but not because of her actions.
WWE puts talents into set molds and has them act in roles given to them by WWE Creative. Or should I say, given to them by Vince McMahon.
Britt has been able to develop her character in AEW as it lets most of its performers get a feel for who they are and runs with it.
WWE, on the other hand, tells you what they want you to do.
I have said for years, WWE would be so much better if McMahon would let performers be extensions of who they are in real life. Remember THe Attitude Era? For those old enough, that era was a lot of wrestlers being themselves amped up.
But back to Baker and if she was in WWE.
I think WWE would handcuff her character-wise where she has much more freedom in AEW, and she is doing a great job in her current position.
Email questions/comments to powerhousehughes@gmail.com or tweet them to @BillHughes_III.