The Wrestling Roundup is here to bring you all the news and rumors you need to know in one place.
NXT Taping Spoilers: Tournament Bracket Announced
The next set of NXT tapings happened on Wednesday night, and a tournament is the biggest development of all. A first-ever NXT Breakout Tournament was announced for wrestlers who haven’t appeared on NXT television yet. This included many wrestlers who were given new ring names in the past week. The bracket for the tournament is below:
Scoop #17: The NXT Breakout Tournament Bracket pic.twitter.com/2t3qTIO9IL
— Jacob Cohen (@MrJacobCohen) June 12, 2019
For the list of who won the first round matchups, you can click for spoilers here courtesy of CagesideSeats. This tournament represents a way to inject a ton of new talent into the NXT pool in one fell swoop.
Shawn Spears Joins AEW, Talks WWE Tenure
The former Tye Dillinger is All Elite. AEW announced the signing of Shawn Spears, formerly of WWE, on their twitter feed Wednesday.
Welcome to the team @Perfec10n #ShawnSpears is #AllElite pic.twitter.com/JRw7CPKVVO
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) June 12, 2019
- Ep. 197: Fields to Pittsburgh, Still Available Free Agentsby Full Press Coverage on March 18, 2024 at 8:00 pm
Spears already appeared for AEW at Double or Nothing, participating in the Casino Battle Royale. He also did an interview with Chris Van Vliet where he spoke about the WWE product and leaving for AEW. Spears says his 90 day no-compete clause expired the day before Double or Nothing, and he isn’t sure if it was a coincidence or not (h/t WrestlingNews for the transcription):
“Had they waited an extra 24 hours I would not have been able to do Double or Nothing so I think WWE was being gracious. They knew what was going on. I think they allowed me to be out at that time to do whatever I wanted to do including Double or Nothing. I could be completely wrong and it might have slipped their minds, I don’t know but I like to think that I had earned that mutual respect.”
The complete interview is below.
SmackDown Rebrand in the Fall?
A tweet is generating speculation that SmackDown Live could be in for a rebranding upon moving to Fox. The blue brand is scheduled to switch to Friday nights when moving networks, but they may also get a new logo.
https://twitter.com/Y2Legend/status/1138670545476771840
If the logo is legitimate, it is a throwback to the original SmackDown logo that included an exclamation mark. The “Live” part of the name also appears to have been dropped. No word yet on if the “floating fist” set would also make a comeback.
– Evan Gomes is the Managing Editor of Pro Wrestling for Full Press Coverage. Like and follow on Follow @EvanGomes_ Follow @FPC_Wrestling and Facebook.