Week in Wrestling - 2/10/17 - CausionCreations.com

Week in Wrestling - Friday, February 10, 2017

WWE Championship Elimination Chamber Match

SmackDown Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss vs. Naomi

SmackDown Tag Team Championship Turmoil Match

Luke Harper vs. Randy Orton

Nikki Bella vs. Natalya

Becky Lynch vs. Mickie James

Apollo Crews & Kalisto vs. Dolph Ziggler (2-on-1)

Seth Rollins suffered a torn right MCL in a 1/30 angle when his legs were dangling as Samoa Joe pulled him down for the choke. On the 2/6 Raw show, the injury was covered but with nothing definitive said past teasing the idea he would miss WrestleMania. Right now, the company is going with the idea that he will be able to wrestle and that the match with HHH is still on.

The Rollins injury is expected to keep him off the 3/5 Fast Lane show in Milwaukee, where he was to face Samoa Joe. At this point, nothing has been teased regarding whether Joe will wrestle on that PPV, or who he would face at WrestleMania. Joe was brought in at a top level and pinned Roman Reigns with interference from Braun Strowman in the main event of the 2/6 Raw.

Fast Lane PPV

Kevin Owens vs. Bill Goldberg for the Universal title was made the main event at Fast Lane, along with Reigns vs. Strowman. The rest of the show isn’t clear, past it appearing there will be a tag title match with Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, in either a three-way with Sheamus & Cesaro and Big Cass & Rusev, or a four-way involving The New Day. Chris Jericho vs. Sami Zayn is still possible with a stipulation for the U.S. title. Rich Swann, who is out with an ankle injury, is thus out of the cruiserweight title match which will be Neville vs. Jack Gallagher. Gallagher got the shot winning a five-way match over T.J. Perkins, Mustafa Ali, Cedric Alexander and Noam Dar on the 2/7 205 Live show. The women’s title situation is likely to be made clear next week after the Charlotte vs. Bayley title match on the Raw show in Las Vegas.

Nikki Bella May Need Time Off

The planned John Cena & Nikki Bella vs. The Miz & Maryse match, Pro Wresting Sheet reported that Nikki Bella, 33, won’t be retiring after WrestleMania, but will be taking time off. Bella’s neck problems coming off surgery have been acting up, and have led to numbness at times on one side of her body.

She is hoping that if she takes time off, and only wrestles at major events, she’ll be able to return. But her days of working full-time are likely coming to an end. Her contract does expire after WrestleMania but she’s expecting to stay with the company, like her sister, even after her career is over.

Aries is Finally Ready to Return

Austin Aries, 38, has been cleared to wrestle after his orbital bone break. While this is not a confirmed done idea, it has been talked about a Neville vs. Aries title match at WrestleMania. On Raw this week, you could see the beginnings of the tease for it.

If that’s the case, it makes sense for Aries not to wrestle until then, and nobody discussing the idea of him wrestling until the angle is shot. Aries doing those interviews in the ring with the different cruiserweights makes me feel that they are setting him up for that position so that when they do the angle off an interview it doesn’t look so contrived. The show build is similar to the great 1981 angle in Georgia with Roddy Piper vs. Bob Armstrong.

Rock & Roll Express to HOF

Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson (Ruben Kane), the Rock & Roll Express, one of the most enduring tag teams in pro wrestling history, were the second act announced by WWE as being inducted into its Hall of Fame on 3/31 at the Amway Arena in Orlando. The Rock & Roll Express had a type of appeal that few had before and really nobody has today.

The team had been rumored going in for the past two weeks. Morton & Gibson were two babyfaces who were part of strong tag teams that people nowadays had forgotten, Morton with underrated veteran Ken Lucas, and later Eddie Gilbert; Gibson with older brother Ricky Gibson. They join Kurt Angle, who will be the main eventer in the new class.

WWE Tryouts

There were 40 wrestlers or athletes from other sports brought to Orlando for tryouts this past week both for roster spots as well as potential spots in the upcoming women’s tournament. Names the WWE promoted included Isaiah Stanback, 32, the starting quarterback at the University of Washington in 2005 and 2006, who was a fourth round draft choice of the Dallas Cowboys in 2007.

Terron Beckham, the cousin of New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., is an incredible athlete that we wrote about when he made noises about wanting to be a pro wrestler, as his strength and speed were off the charts and he had a freaky physique to go with it. Another name listed is Seini Draughn, 34, who was Lei’d Tapa in TNA.

Highlights

Samoa Joe debuted on this show as the surprise signing of Stephanie.
He also defeated Roman Reigns in the main event of RAW with the help of Braun Strowman.
Goldberg will wrestle Kevin Owens for the Universal Championship at Fast Lane. Goldberg laid down the challenge to face Owens, who didn't want to face him. But Chris Jericho accepted the match for Owens.
Jericho announced he would be holding a Festival of Friendship next week with him and Owens in Las Vegas.
Bayley will wrestle Charlotte next week for the Raw Women's Championship. It looks like a Sasha Banks turn is coming soon.
Also official for Fast Lane: Braun Strowman vs. Roman Reigns.
The Rocking Roll Express were announced as the next inductees into the Hall of Fame, and the crowd reacting great to a very well done video package. They really deserve it.

Highlights

Baron Corbin pinned AJ Styles in a fatal four way match that also included Dean Ambrose and The Miz. I know they like Corbin, but this guy is not on the level of AJ Styles. Smh. Its a damn shame.
John Cena defeated Randy Orton in the non-title main event, with help from Luke Harper. Interesting that the Mania title contender was dispatched like that. Cena is losing Sunday, so he needed a win.
Orton will face Harper at Elimination Chamber.
Alexa Bliss vs. Naomi for the Women’s title was made official, as well as Becky Lynch vs. Mickie James.
That means three women’s matches at the PPV, as Natalya will also take on Nikki Bella.
Dolph Ziggler against Apollo Crews and Kalisto in a 2-on-1 handicap match was also added to the show.
Daniel Bryan got a huge reaction in his home town of Seattle.

NXT News -

For the 4/1 NXT Takeover show in Orlando, one match pretty clear is a three-way with the Authors of Pain vs. Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa vs. The Revival for the titles.
Bobby Roode is likely facing either Shinsuke Nakamura in a rematch, or doing something with Kassius Ohno. Either way, Ohno is being plugged into a top spot.
They are probably going to Asuka vs. Ember Moon unless that becomes a multiple person match as well.
On the Wednesday after WrestleMania, there will be an NXT taping at Full Sail University.
Sonjay Dutt was at the Performance Center and NXT this past week.

New Japan Pro Wrestling News -

The four-show Tokyo Dome series on Wrestle Kingdom 11 on AXS, which ended with a show headlined by Kushida vs. Hiromu Takahashi, that aired on 2/3, were considered successful by the station. It was enough that changing to airing more up-to-date matches is likely to be discussed.
They did a Survivor Series like show on 2/7 at Korakuen Hall before 1,592 fans. They actually didn’t sell out, which isn’t a good sign.

Ring of Honor News -

Kevin Kelly is no longer working full-time for ROH, however, he may still do the television. ROH officials have said they expect him to still work on camera for the company.
Young Bucks vs. Lio Rush & Jay White for the tag titles was added tot the 3/4 show in New York at the Hammerstein Ballroom.

TNA News -

Jeff Jarrett has replaced John Gaburick as the main guy in TNA. This happened about two weeks ago but has been largely kept quiet.
Gaburick is still with the company, but Dixie Carter and Serg Salinas are gone. Salinas is completely gone while Carter may still have a title but no longer is working out of the office and essentially is a non-entity.
Jarrett has spoken with people with the idea he’ll be able to make deals soon. Dutch Mantel is back on creative, and Scott D’Amore, who booked TNA when it was doing its best PPV business.
The general feeling is that the way things shake out is Jarrett will be in charge and Mantel and D’Amore and Jarrett will run creative.

An interesting thing would be announcing, since it was Gaburick who replaced Mike Tenay with Josh Matthews, who he knew from WWE.
Matthews didn’t exactly get stellar reviews, but Tenay had a high contract when he was in TNA and they are in a cost-cutting mode.
Jarrett has been trying to set up a meeting with the people doing ITV World of Sport. World of Sport wants someone to run their wrestling operations as they don’t want to be running a wrestling promotion, have no experience at it, but are interested in a promotion so they can run a weekly television show.
A lot of the top talent in TNA is apprehensive about the changes and there is the thought that if anyone but the top few guys leave, Jarrett has all the GFW guys he was using that can fill the holes, but right now nobody knows exactly how things are going to shake out.
We’re told that things have gotten a little uncomfortable in the TNA & ROH relationship, which at this point is really only the Hardys vs. Young Bucks match in Lakeland, since there are lingering past issues involving the Jarrett led version of the company and ROH from the past.
Matt & Jeff Hardy and Drew Galloway still haven’t signed. A thing to watch out for is that the Hardys, Matt in particular, had been given free reign for their gimmick, and with the Jarrett crew back in charge of creative, whether that will continue remains to be seen. The one thing TNA had as its advantage over everyone else as far as the Hardys being here is that they knew they could do their ideas whereas elsewhere they wouldn’t have nearly the control. One would think the thing that would threaten their deals more than anything, aside from a pay issue.

It does look like Jarrett may be trying pull of an international relationship with TNA, Crash, NOAH and ITV just judging from recent meetings. Jarrett and Crash makes sense given that Jarrett is working the main event himself at the next Crash show, and bringing Eli Drake from TNA in as well.
The problem is that the biggest stars Crash and Konnan have would be Rey Mysterio Jr., Penta 0M, Rey Fenix, Jeff Cobb, Ricochet, Brian Cage, etc. who are all under contract to Lucha Underground which means they can’t work for TNA.
Masayuki Uchida, the new President of NOAH, announced on 2/7, that they have a working agreement with TNA, for the first time since 2012 (when Samoa Joe and Magnus worked NOAH shows and even won the GHC tag team titles).
They announced that several TNA wrestlers would be appearing on the 3/12 show at the Yokohama Bunka Gym. Uchida was the point man for Wrestle-1 a few years ago when they worked with TNA and even had Bound for Glory at Korakuen Hall in 2015.
While nothing has been announced, Moose on Twitter teased the idea he was going to NOAH, and Eddie Edwards, who used to work for NOAH, is also going over soon. D’Amore was the conduit for the NOAH deal, which will also include NOAH wrestlers coming to TNA, and they’ve got some great ones like Katsuhiko Nakajima, Daisuke Harada , Naomichi Marufuji (who has some of the best timing of when to do what of perhaps anyone in the business right now), Takashi Sugiura and others. Masa Kitamiya is great given his level of experience.

Lucha Underground News -

The war between AAA and the wrestlers who left continued this past week as on 1/24, AAA filed for trademarks in Mexico and Lucha Libre FMV (the parent company of Lucha Underground) did the same for the U.S. on names Penta 0M and Fenix El Rey. So Pentagon changed his name again, now to Penta Zero M.
Then on 2/3, Lucha Libre FMV filed another U.S. trademark for Penta Zero M. Realistically, by this point all of these guys need to file for a trademark of their name first. There should be no way Lucha Libre FMV can file for trademarks for names they’ve never used where this is evidence the other guys used it first outside their auspices.

By: Larry Causion Jr. CausionCreations.com
Posted: Friday, February 10, 2017
Credit: Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter