AJ Styles Comments on His Interest in Potential TNA Return for WWE & TNA Talent Crossover
Cultaholic held a recent interview with AJ Styles. One of the topics discussed included Styles’ thoughts about his interesting in making a potential return appearance in TNA Wrestling as part of WWE and TNA’s current talent crossover deal.
“I would say that hopefully something like that happens. It’s good for not only talent in WWE to go to TNA, TNA to come to WWE, it’s better for the younger talent to get into the ring with some people who have different styles. It’s very important that we are well rounded and you can’t do that all in NXT. So the fact that we’re going to be able to do that somewhere else is great.”
Transcript h/t: Fightful.com
WWE Announces New Tour of the United Kingdom & Ireland for This October & November
WWE announced that they will be holding a new tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland this October and November.
It was announced that this upcoming eight-show tour will be taking place from October 13th to November 6th and tickets will officially go on sale starting on June 21st.
WWE announces return to the U.K. & Ireland
STAMFORD, Conn., June 14, 2024 – WWE, part of TKO Group Holdings, today announced that WWE Live will return to the U.K. & Ireland later this year. This October, WWE Superstars will visit the Utilita Arena in Cardiff, the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, the Utilita Arena in Newcastle and, for the first time ever, the brand-new Co-op Live in Manchester. WWE Live then returns in November with shows at the 3Arena in Dublin, The O2 Arena in London, the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham and the Utilita Arena in Sheffield.
Fans attending WWE Live will see their favorite WWE Superstars in action including Undisputed WWE Champion “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes, WWE Women’s Champion Bayley, WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Bianca Belair & Jade Cargill, Randy Orton, LA Knight, AJ Styles, Queen of the Ring Nia Jax, Kevin Owens, The Bloodline, Bobby Lashley, The Street Profits, and many more*.
Tickets will be available at 10:00 AM BST on Friday, June 21, 2024. Additional information can be found at www.wwe.com/events.
Sunday, October 13, 2024 – Utilita Arena in Cardiff, U.K.
Monday, October 14, 2024 – M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, U.K.
Tuesday, October 15, 2024 – Utilita Arena in Newcastle, U.K.
Wednesday, October 16, 2024 – Co-op Live in Manchester, U.K.**
Sunday, November 3, 2024 – 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland
Monday, November 4, 2024 – The O2 Arena in London, U.K.
Tuesday, November 5, 2024 – Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham, U.K.
Wednesday, November 6, 2024 – Utilita Arena in Sheffield, U.K.
*Talent subject to change.
**Ticket information for WWE’s debut live event in Manchester’s new Co-op Live to be announced at a later date.
The Rock Elbow Injury Update
As noted before, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson revealed earlier this week that he recently suffered an elbow injury during the filming for the upcoming Smashing Machine biopic film.
Johnson provided an update on Instagram on Thursday stating that he suffered a ruptured bursa sac in his elbow but there was no extensive tissue damage.
“Elbow got kissed by the boo boo monster 👹 💪🏾
No extensive tissue damage. Ruptured bursa sac that will eventually heal.
I’ve had much worse, and as always let pain – and tequila – be the guide 😈 Back to work. #thesmashingmachine #bennysafdie
(thank you all for the love and healing/medicine recommendations ❤️🩹 Im good 👍🏾)”
WWE News & Notes
WWE reportedly has sold around 10,512 tickets for their Clash at the Castle 2024 event this Saturday at the OVO Hyrdo in Glasgow, Scotland as of Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
A billboard featuring TNA talent Joe Hendry was spotted by fans nearby the OVO Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland ahead of today’s WWE SmackDown show and this Saturday’s Clash at the Castle 2024 event in the city.
Friday’s WWE Speed show on Twitter featured Andrade defeating Ricochet to become the new WWE Speed Champion. This episode was originally taped last Friday and is currently set to have been Ricochet’s last televised appearance in WWE.
The Hollywood Reporter reported that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Seven Bucks Productions recently signed a new multi-year deal with Disney to continue their working partnership. It was reported that this new deal will see The Rock’s studio “develop films for theatrical and streaming platforms, with Johnson to potentially star in the projects. The multi-year deal will also allow Seven Bucks to collaborate across Disney divisions.”
Post Wrestling’s John Pollock reported that WWE had sold 11,614 tickets for a live gate of $766,949 for their April 15th WWE RAW show at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada based on recent audit data from Pollstar.
As noted before, NXT talent Karmen Petrovic has been out of action for WWE since suffering an ankle injury earlier this month. Petrovic recently provided an update on Twitter stating that she had been medically cleared for an in-ring return this past Monday.
As noted before, a lawsuit against WWE was filed this past March by a person named Richard Bryant claiming that he had suffered hearing injuries over “negligence and carelessness” caused by WWE’s handling of pyrotechnics at a SmackDown show he attended in Orlando, Florida in July of 2022. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that WWE recently requested and was granted an extension of time from the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut to officially respond to the lawsuit based on recent court records. Johnson reported that WWE will not have until July 3rd to officially file their response.
Drew McIntyre revealed at WWE’s Clash at the Castle 2024 Kickoff press event earlier today that his wife Kaitlyn Galloway is undergoing emergency surgery and won’t be able to be in attendance to support him at this Saturday’s event. McIntyre stated “I’ve never, ever been this focused in my life. I didn’t think this was possible. The last Clash was a stab through my heart, my family’s heart, the whole of the UK. I can not let it happen again in Scotland. I’m back home. I couldn’t have dreamt of this moment. I’m going to have my people there, my family there, a redo, a chance to make this right. I wasn’t going to talk about it, but I can’t stop thinking about it. The one person who’s not going to be there is my wife because she’s in surgery right now, emergency surgery. And she told me, ‘I want you to go there and bring that title home.’ And I’m going to bring that title home.” (Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com)
In a recent interview with Instinct Culture’s Denise Salcedo, Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn gave their thoughts about getting to compete for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship in front of their hometown crowd at WWE’s Clash at the Castle 2024 event. Dawn stated “It’s just unmeasurable [laughs]. It’s just being home in general is always exciting, being home, Scotland’s first PLE, it’s a really exciting time in Scotland because the Euro’s going on. Scotland’s kind of the center of the world at the minute. Being able to do that, and then actually be on the show, competing for a title, that is just…I was hoping to be here just to do maybe a bit of media, but to be actually on the show is just a dream.” Fyre responded stating “Not just to have us on the show going for the tag titles, we’ve also got Piper [Niven] going for Bayley’s title, Drew [McIntyre] going for Damian [Priest], and that’s incredible that there’s so many matches. The crowd deserves this, and we’re gonna give them everything we’ve got.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
In a recent interview with Instinct Culture’s Denise Salcedo, Piper Niven gave her thoughts about her upcoming match against Bayley for the WWE Women’s Championship in front of her hometown crowd at this Saturday’s Clash at the Castle 2024 event. Niven stated “So would you like to hear about how it went? I knew Clash at the Castle was happening, but I didn’t hear anything, no whispers of any matches or anything like that. I was like, ‘I need to be on that card.’ Honestly, I jazzed myself up for weeks. You can ask Chelsea [Green], Chelsea’s my hype woman on-screen and off-screen. She helps build my confidence because sometimes I’m not the most confident. She was backstage with me and I was like, ‘Okay, I think today’s the day. I think I’m gonna ask. I think I’m gonna go ask.’ She’s like, ‘Yeah, you’ve got this. Go and ask him. You should be on that show.’ I was like, ‘Okay, cool, cool, cool.’ I walked up to Triple H and I went, ‘I’m here to shoot my shot,’ and he just went, ‘Let me guess, it’s about Clash.’ I went, ‘Yeah.’ ‘Anyway, we’re working on it. I was like, ‘Oh, this went well. Okay great, thanks.’ [Laughs].” Niven also gave her thoughts about her reaction when she found out her quick backstage chat with Triple H worked that easy for a title shot. Niven stated “Yeah, I was like, ‘I didn’t even really need….’ I had a monologue prepared, I was like, ‘I deserve this because X, Y, and Z, blah, blah, blah.’ It was just, ‘Yeah, we’re working on it.’ Good, yes.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)