close

More on Styles house show title win

By Bill Hughes for The 6 min read
article image -

In last week’s column, we looked at AJ Styles winning the WWE United States title from Kevin Owens at a house show the previous Friday night at Madison Square Garden in NYC.

Several fans reached out via email or direct messages via social media about it.

Instead of going through each question, which I replied to each individually, I will combine all of them into one bigger question.

Why did WWE have a title change on a show that was only seen live by those there?

House show title changes are very rare, and it can be looked at a few different ways.

The initial thought that crept into my mind, after a friend in the wrestling business who was at the show emailed me, was that WWE wanted to give fans a reason to think that they have to go to house shows.

After all, pro wrestling was built on house shows back in the day.

But then I realized that while WWE’s house show numbers have been down, one title change at the Garden is not going to change that.

With WWE using its network to air wrestling 24/7, fans don’t have much of a reason to go to house shows.

Look no further than the video footage that was aired on the WWE Network a short time after the title change happened.

I don’t see house show title changes becoming the norm, but it will definitely make fans consider going the next time shows are in their area.

Angle storyline picking up steam

For several weeks now, WWE has been teasing Kurt Angle and Corey Graves receiving text messages with Angle being worried about them “ruining” his career.

On this past Monday, it was announced that the person who could damage Angle’s career would be at Raw Monday.

The safe bet is that it will be Stephanie McMahon, who Angle was “romantically linked” to in storylines in 2000.

Another possibility could be Dixie Carter, the former head of TNA.

WWE win/loss records for 2017

The Wrestling Observer newsletter released updated win/loss records for WWE stars this year, and if you watch all of the WWE’s shows, then the two undefeated performers will not surprise you.

Asuka, the undefeated NXT women’s champion, is 52-0 with a pair of no contests and Universal champion Brock Lesnar is 5-0.

Surprisingly, R-Truth has the next best record at 49-1-1 and next up is Shinsuke Nakamura at 63-3.

Curt Hawkins has yet to win a match and is 0-63 while Aiden English is 1-66.

More on WWE releasing Aries

More news broke this week on the release of Austin Aries, and credit goes to pwtorch.com.

Apparently he was unhappy with basically being pigeon-holed into just a role on 205 Live and felt he wanted to do more than just appear on the cruiserweight show.

This is said to have led to him having a bad attitude backstage.

Some reports say he asked for a release while others say he did not.

Regardless, this is proof that WWE needs to take a long, hard look at how it is writing its cruiserweight division.

There is no reason that the cruiserweight title should be defended on PPV preshows and not on the main card.

Special John Cena figure

John Cena has granted more Make-A-Wish meet and greets than anyone in history, and he is now taking it one step further to help raise money.

There is a special edition Cena figure available for a limited time, and it is only for sale at Toys R Us.

The figure will sell for $12.99 with one dollar of each figure sold going to the Make-A-Wish foundation.

The figure was designed by Wish kid Alex (no last name given, for obvious reasons) with help from Cena.

Cena detractors can say what they want about him, but the man has gone above and beyond what he has to, and he does it for the kids.

The figure went on presale Tuesday and will hit the shelves on Aug. 15.

Another GLOW review

Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission employee Ron Russitano, a lifelong pro wrestling fan and a good friend of mine who I met through the wrestling business, emailed me his thoughts on GLOW earlier this week.

“I loved the way they conveyed the feeling of putting together a wrestling TV show together combined with showing how wrestling is taught,” he said. “I thought they captured the whole feel of the original TV show, but I was a little annoyed that they didn’t follow the exact names or looks of the original shows.

“But overall, it was a fun show to watch and I am excited for season two.”

Raw in Pittsburgh

WWE returns to PPG Paints Arena on Monday, July 31.

Plenty of seats remain and can be ordered at [http://www.ticketmaster.com<http://www.ticketmaster.com/]www.ticketmaster.com<http://www.ticketmaster.com/>.

Sting headed to Washington

Pro wrestling legend Sting will make an appearance at the Big Time Wrestling show at Wild Things Park in Washington on Friday, Aug. 11.

Scott Steiner and Billy Gunn will square off, and other wrestlers scheduled to appear include Sabu, Gangrel, Gillberg and more.

For more information, go to btwtickets.com<http://www.ticketmaster.com/>.

On this date…

In 1995, Hulk Hogan defeated Big Van Vader to retain the WCW championship in a cage match when he climbed out of the cage.

It was the first time in WCW history that a cage match ended without a pinfall or submission.

This happened because Vader refused to let Hogan pin him.

At the start of the feud, Hogan made it  clear, like he did in most feuds, that he would not let his opponent, in this case Vader, pin him.

There is a shock, Hogan refusing to build someone up by taking a pinfall loss.

Email questions/comments to Bill at powerhousehughes@gmail.com<mailto:powerhousehughes@gmail.com> or tweet them to me @BillHughes_III.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $4.79/week.

Subscribe Today