WWE: Current Plans for NXT’s Debut Show on The CW, Charlotte Flair Knee Injury Update, More News

WWE’s Current Plans for NXT’s Debut on The CW

As noted before, The CW announced on Thursday that WWE’s NXT television series will officially premiere on their network on Tuesday, October 1st.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE officials currently have early plans for NXT’s debut on The CW to take place outside of their Performance Center in Orlando, Florida and in a large arena instead.

Johnson reported that WWE and The CW officials want to treat NXT’s debut show on the network as a major event. One source spoken to reportedly compared it to an early NXT Takeover event in terms of overall importance to the brand. Johnson also reported that while WWE officials have had talks regarding several potential locations, Chicago has become the frontrunner in recent days due to it being the home of Nexstar Media Group, who is the current owner of The CW.

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Charlotte Flair Knee Injury Status Update

As noted before, Charlotte Flair has been out of action for WWE since this past December due to a torn ACL, torn meniscus, and torn MCL injuries and underwent surgery this past January.

Flair provided an update on Thursday on Instagram about her current recovery from her knee injury.

“~Injury Update~

Today, was my first biodex (isokinetic training) test! I needed to be in the 40 percent or less deficit for strength compared to my non surgical leg…..

I had 20 percent or less quad strength and in some of the measurements I was stronger in my surgical leg… 🤯🙏🏻

I MISS YOU GUYS & can’t wait to lace my boots again!
💎🦚🦋🏔️

Love,
👸🏼

Thank you @ladytsportstherapy“

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Charlotte Flair (@charlottewwe)

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WWE News & Notes

Thursday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show featured the Wyatt Sicks making an implied surprise appearance. Near the end of the show, McAfee was interviewing US Navy Seal and author Jack Carr when something suddenly happened off-screen that got the attention of everyone on the stage. The lights in the studio then switched off in a similar manner at the end of this past Monday’s WWE RAW show and the episode abruptly ended. Following the show, no one who was shown on screen had posted anything on social media since then.

Titus O’Neil recently announced on Twitter that he will be releasing a new book, titled Wrestling with Fatherhood: My Championship Journey to My Greatest Title: Dad, on Amazon this September.

WWE recently announced one new segment for Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Rosemont, Illinois. This new segment announced is a face-to-face segment involving Logan Paul and LA Knight.

NXT talent Saquon Shugars, former Lucky Ali in the indies, announced on Twitter that he had suffered a broken knee injury in his first televised match for WWE’s NXT brand this past March. Shugars had also launched a GoFundMe fundraiser that was later disabled from accepting new donations.

WWE recently filed a new trademark for “Caesar Sikoa” for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that WWE is currently involved in another legal situation with Major League Wrestling involving a dispute over a trademark for “Hart Foundation.” Johnson reported that WWE had filed a request on June 13th to the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a 90 day extension to officially oppose MLW’s filing of the trademark, which was granted. Johnson reported that WWE will now have until September 11th to file their official response.

Insane Clown Posse’s Violent J recently called out CM Punk over a past incident between the two several years ago in TNA Wrestling and publicly gave his support to Colt Cabana over past derogatory comments Punk made against him. Violent J stated “F*ck @cmpunk for life. You wouldn’t shake our hands in TNA lil bitch and you clown on the only real friend you ever had in Colt Cabana you bitch. I Shared my bank account with my mom before she passed you little insensitive bitch. You little heartless alien. Suck my dick you little weak bitch couldn’t beat a jobber in UFC you f*ckin nearly pathetic little joke. Come beat me up bitch. You suffer inside everyone, and they momma knows that. Get your head right you little suffering ass bitch. .. VJ of Insane Clown Posse- just as legendary as you lil bitch. Face it”

In a recent interview with the Locked on NFL podcast, AEW CEO Tony Khan stated that prior to Warner Bros Discovery signing a television deal with AEW, they had been interested in potentially signing a TV deal with WWE for their SmackDown series and were willing to pay $150 million to $175 million per year for it. Khan stated “It’s something I started working on in 2018. The idea to launch AEW, a lot of things came together, and I believed there were enough great wrestlers that would be available in the beginning of 2019 to launch a wrestling league. In April 2018, I started working on this. I was at a party in Beverly Hills on a Friday night. I saw my friend, who at the time was the President of TBS and TNT [Kevin Reilly]. I walked up to him, I was visiting with him a little bit, and I said, ‘Kevin, are you looking at bidding on wrestling TV rights?’ He was, and he was looking to bid on SmackDown. He told me what he was willing to pay, he said, $150 to $175 million a year. I follow the industry closely, so I knew that it was going to go over $200 million, and it did. I pointed out, ‘I don’t know if that’s going to get it done. For a lot less than that, we could launch a new wrestling league on TNT and eventually TBS, too.’ That’s what happened.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

As noted before, TNA talent Joe Hendry made a surprise appearance at this past Tuesday’s WWE NXT show. In a recent interview with Inside The Ropes, Hendry stated that he only found out about the plans for his NXT debut appearance until the day before the show. Hendry stated “I had 2 flights booked, one if it was happening and one if it wasn’t happening, but I didn’t know for sure until the day before. I literally went straight from doing Chris Van Vliet’s podcast to the airport and straight to Orlando. I’m extremely grateful to all the staff in the Performance Center from the wrestlers themselves to the coaches, to production, to all the staff, the medical, everyone in there made me feel so at home and they were so open to collaborating. I feel like I really learned something, I feel like we were able to showcase TNA as well and I think what went down was a classic example of when everybody wins. TNA wins, NXT wins, the fans win, everybody got benefit out of this and everybody won and I think this is just the beginning of an amazing time in professional wrestling.“

In a separate interview with the Busted Open Radio podcast show, Joe Hendry gave his thoughts about the reaction from the crowd for his surprise appearance at this past Tuesday’s NXT show. Hendry stated “I think one of the advantages of it happening so quickly is I didn’t have the time to overthink that aspect of it. But to be honest, this has absolutely exceeded all expectations. Like, in all ways — for the camera to shake [when the crowd reacted]. I kind of had a feeling –I started to twig that like, ‘Ok, this could be a bit of a moment here’ when there were people who work at the PC, other actual wrestlers and stars at the PC, a lot of them were talking about my song. And that started to get me to think. You know, a couple of the producers were saying they were expecting a big reaction. And I kind of just started to get this rumbling that like, ‘Oh, more people know this song and my act and are familiar with me than perhaps I realized. I still didn’t think it would get that over. But, hey, it’s very hard to process. Because it’s so new, I haven’t had time to process, everything has been happening so fast. But — it doesn’t feel real, it’s awesome. I feel like — it’s total validation. Like I said, I did music for 10 years with no success and then recently I just had a song on the charts and I was like, ‘Damn, that was validation.’ And then to go out there and just have this feeling that I had something to offer the business and to go out and get that reaction. I managed to have like a 40-minute nap and I just woke to JBL saying that my stuff was the best stuff he’s seen in years. And I’m just like, ‘Woah.’ He was the champ when I was getting into wrestling, you know? It’s surreal, and it’s awesome, and it’s wonderful, and I hope everyone gets to experience their dream like this.” (Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com)