News! News! Get your news! Read all about it right here! Welcome one and all to your weekly irrelevant round-up of the week’s hottest stories in pro wrestling. Pro Wrestling Post Week In Review 7/21/19. As always, I, “Smart” Mark Blake, have scoured the internet to find the biggest and most interesting stories. Enough of me lets get into this week’s Week In Review! –
WWE/FOX Network ~UPDATE~
Earlier this week FOX TV execs spoke to their affiliates to discuss their upcoming Fall schedule. A major topic of conversation was the impending WWE SmackDown debut. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter broke down the key points from that meeting –
Launch Show In September – In readiness for the debut of SmackDown, there will be a one-hour “launch show” on FOX to get their viewers accustomed to the wrestlers and the show.
20th Anniversary Show – With this year being SmackDown’s 20 year anniversary, there is talk that the debut show on October 4 will also serve as the 20-year anniversary show too. Execs hinted that there would be a lot of surprises for that show too.
Promotion – In a joint venture, WWE and FOX are planning on having WWE talent traveling across the US on a moving truck to promote SmackDown’s move to FOX.
Preempted For World Series – SmackDown will air on Friday nights on FOX for 51 weeks of the year. It will be preempted for one week during the World Series. There’s no indication what will happen that week. It’s possible it will air on FS1 that week.
Legitimate Sport – SmackDown will be a part of the Thursday-Sunday block of sports programming on FOX. The network wants WWE to “promote WWE as a legitimate sport, not that the outcomes are real, but that it is a choreographed sports presentation”.
NXT To FOX? – There are high-level talks to bring NXT to FOX, possibly on FS1. It may even air at its current Wednesday time slot, which could possibly put it head to head with All Elite Wrestling’s TV show. Their TV show begins this October.
WWE Smackville To Air On The Network
On Thursday WWE announced that a house show in Nashville, TN will be broadcast live on the WWE Network on Saturday, July 27, at 9PM ET.
The matches announced so far is as follows (card is subject to change)
WWE Championship Triple Threat
Kofi Kingston (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Samoa Joe
WWE Intercontinental Championship
Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. Finn Bálor
WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship Triple Threat
Bayley (c) vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Alexa Bliss (with Nikki Cross)
A musical performance by Elias
The venue for the show also has The New Day defending the SmackDown Tag Team Championships too but no opponent was named.
It’s also worth noting that the show on the Network has a running time of 1 hour. I’m not sure what matches will be aired but only giving the show 60 minutes seems to be a detriment. Saying that it’s good to see that Uncle Vince and co are putting more house shows on the Network. Showing the public just how different and involved house shows are to get dwindling numbers up possibly?
MJF Signs Multi-Year Contract Extension With AEW
🚨 Breaking News – @the_MJF signs extension, converting to a new multiple year agreement with @AEWrestling pic.twitter.com/LoInxfDy60
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) July 19, 2019
As you can see from the tweet above, Maxwell Jacob Friedman aka MJF has signed a multi-year extension with All Elite Wrestling. What you see in the video is the actual legitimate contract.
Although he is in the midst of a two-year contract with MLW, Major League Wrestling allows him to wrestle for any other company bar WWE. In regards to his MLW deal, although he debuted with the company in October 2017, no-one knows when he actually signed the deal.
Tying down MJF to a long term deal is a great bit of business for AEW. The untapped potential of the guy is plain to see. This will stop WWE from sniffing around one All Elite Wrestling talent.
Bret Hart Declines Raw Reunion Invitation
According to Dave Meltzer, WWE Hall Of Famer Bret Hart turned down an invitation to appear at tomorrow night’s Raw Reunion show. I wrote about the Reunion show last week, which you can read right here.
A major factor for his decline is that Bret is very limited physically these days. Traveling from Canada to Florida could take too much out of him. There are also rumors that he would be worried that WWE would be less than happy with him, after Bret’s appearance at AEW’s Double Or Nothing.
Others to have declined an invitation are Jim Ross and Bully Ray.
Here are the advertised Hall Of Famer’s and Legends that will appear on tomorrow night’s show –
Alicia Fox
Alundra Blayze
Booker T
Candice Michelle
Christian
D-Von Dudley
DX (Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Sean “X-Pac” Waltman, “Road Dogg” BG James)
Eric Bischoff
Eve Torres
Gerald Brisco
Hulk Hogan
Hurricane Helms
Jillian Hall
Jonathan Coachman
Jerry Lawler
Jimmy Hart
Kaitlyn
Kelly Kelly
Kevin Nash
Kurt Angle
Lilian Garcia
Mark Henry
Melina
Mick Foley
Pat Patterson
Ric Flair
Rikishi
Ron Simmons
Santino Marella
Scott Hall
Sgt. Slaughter
Shawn Michaels
Sid Vicious
Steve Austin
Ted DiBiase Sr.
The Boogeyman
The Godfather
That’s it for today’s Pro Wrestling Post Week In Review for 7/21/19. Some great little nuggets of news if I do say so myself. As always I thank you all for reading not only my work but all the work here at PWP each and every week. It doesn’t go unnoticed. We’ll see you back next week for another edition of Week in Review!
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