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Originally Posted by Observer Ahead of NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool II, Triple H was asked about potential future locations for UK TakeOvers: “In terms of future NXT UK TakeOver locations, @TripleH pinpoints London as a place on a priority list, as well as Dublin, to @AlexM_talkSPORT, before saying he'd love to go to Germany, France and Italy, too.”

Originally Posted by Fightful Fans may have noticed that the reported match between Austin & Billy Gunn against Shawn Spears & Preston Vance did not air on Tuesday's AEW Dark. The match was taped on Jan. 1 as part of the AEW Dark tapings before AEW Dynamite in Jacksonville. The Gunn Club picked up the victory in the tag team bout. According to Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet, the match was never intended to air on AEW Dark. Satin reports that the match was more of a tryout, which was said to have gone well. Austin & Billy will reportedly team again on Wednesday for a match that will likely air on next Tuesday's Dark.

Originally Posted by PWI Variety ran an article this afternoon, looking at the Wednesday night war between WWE NXT and All Elite Wrestling. Interesting to note that the article cites that when DVR +7 viewership (meaning the show has been watched within seven days of its live airing) is factored in with the live viewership, each promotion's weekly average is far stronger. With the Live +7, AEW is averaging 1.2 million viewers a week, according to Variety. 654,000 of those viewers are in the coveted 18-49 demo. That raises AEW 32%. Meanwhile, NXT is averaging 972,000 viewers in Live+7 with 428,000 in the 18-49 demo. NXT is raised 20%.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling All Elite Wrestling is gearing up to present the January 8th episode of AEW Dynamite from the Landers Center in Southaven, Mississippi. One of several segments scheduled for the show is a tribute to the legends of Memphis Wrestling. Brian Christopher Lawler, Angelo Poffo, Randy Savage, Lance Russell, “Hot Stuff” Eddie & Tommy Gilbert, Austin Idol, Dave Brown, The Rock & Roll Express and “Handsome” Jimmy Valiant are going to be honored during the show. Also, Dave Brown will be doing commentary on AEW Dark alongside Excalibur. Memphis’ own Jerry Lawler shared his thoughts about the segment during an interview with Cerrito Live. The WWE Hall Of Famer feels that a tribute to Memphis wrestling is the last thing on AEW officials’ minds and they just want to sell tickets and pop the crowd in attendance. “Now you finally hit on it. They’re looking to sell some tickets and pop the crowd. I think a Tribute to Memphis wrestling is actually the last thing on their mind. They’re looking to sell some tickets and pop the crowd.” While speaking with Commercial Appeal to promote the show, Matt Jackson said the idea to have a Tribute to Memphis Wrestling segment was Tony Khan’s and added that AEW would’ve loved to have Jerry Lawler come in but Lawler is a commentator on Monday Night RAW. Lawler’s son, the late Brian Christopher Lawler will be honored by his brother, Kevin Lawler who’ll be in attendance at the event.

Originally Posted by Fightful “I think the idea is Tony (Khan) wanted to do a 10-bell salute for all of the fallen brothers,” said Matt. "It would have been great to have 'The King' [Jerry Lawler], but obviously he's working elsewhere."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling New York Post conducted an interview with Cody Rhodes ... When asked about the rumored partnership between New Japan Pro-Wrestling and AEW, Cody thinks it’s strange that people were asking for it. He said there is a sense of partnership or collaboration because of Jon Moxley and Chris Jericho being in marquee matches at Wrestle Kingdom 14. As far as the ‘forbidden door’, Cody thinks it’s continuously opening and closing. “I think the thing that was strange to me was people were asking for this partnership. I don’t know what a partnership would look like other than what you saw. Chris Jericho was part of one of the main events of Wrestle Kingdom, Jon Moxley as well. They both were successful. What did he call it? The forbidden door? The forbidden door. It may be forbidden, but clearly the door is opening and closing and opening and closing. It’s public knowledge that some guys here, myself included, have exemptions to work New Japan Pro-Wrestling. But I know that New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s focus is New Japan, and AEW’s focus is AEW. So more likely what a partnership would look like is perhaps some sharing of talent, some shared creative, but we’re not going to do a Super Clash III where (Kerry) Von Erich and (Jerry) Lawler are fighting over the title. Sorry, that’s a real specific angle I brought up. I’m always hesitant to combine banners versus just respecting each other’s banners. But I like how it’s referred to as the forbidden door. I don’t really think it’s forbidden at all. Like I said, many people have the exemption to work there. They put on a great Wrestle Kingdom. They have some amazing talent, particularly Will Ospreay. He’s a top-five wrestler in the world right now. So, we’ll see where that goes. I know everyone pretty much feels the same about it.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Here are a few highlights from Paul “Triple H” Levesque’s media call with members of the U.K. wrestling media: – Triple H is for the idea of NXT U.K. possibly going live on BT Sport. He said that over time, if there can be an NXT U.K. roster assembled that can stand on its own then it could certainty be an option. – Triple H welcomes both CM Punk and AJ Lee back to WWE as wrestlers. – Thinks the sky is the limit for Drew McIntyre in 2020. Adds that Drew wants to be the best in the world. – When asked about the possibility of NXT talents showing up TakeOver: Blackpool II, Triple H said that anything is possible.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Inside The Ropes released their interview with WWE Hall Of Famer Mick Foley. During their conversation, Foley talked about some of his criticisms of All Elite Wrestling and narrowed his points down to some of the talents not being trained to wrestle on television and thinks that’s where NXT has the advantage over AEW. “Yeah, I mean they’ve got an amazing talent roster but I think with the exception of eight-to-ten guys, you have a lot of guys who haven’t worked full-time for a promotion and they haven’t had the chance to make mistakes in a smaller venue. One of the things I liked about the ‘For All Mankind’ DVD was that you literally got to see me grow and they’d show a promo from 1989 and it clearly wasn’t quite there. You could see the growth, and I’m sure you will see the growth of the AEW characters as they go but in the meantime, you get to see some mistakes being made on live television so, some of the guys have grown up yearning after the, ‘This is awesome’ chant, but haven’t had the experience of being in angles that need to draw money. I think for guys of my era, there was definitely a very real sense of if the angle wasn’t successful, you didn’t draw at the houses and there was no other ancillary means of income, and I’m not down on the guys but I think you’re seeing some inexperience when it comes to shooting angles and performing for the camera and so guys are out there and it’s an admirable trait that they wanna have they best match they possibly can but every guy wanting to have the best match at every venue doesn’t necessarily lead to [the] best promotion. That’s just my opinion. So I think someone needs to rein some of these guys in. Like Gerald Brisco told me when I got to WWE, he says, ‘We know you like to do a lot of these things. There may come a time when we ask you to do that but until then, we’re gonna ask you not to,’ and that really improved my longevity so I think NXT’s advantage is that their guys have been trained to work for the camera, and I think they have an advantage of having more seasoned stars, and now a dedicated team writing for them, but in the end, it comes down to who has the ability to tell better long-term stories and get the audience engaged.”

Originally Posted by Fightful Becky Lynch opens up on the pressures of being a woman competing in main event matches in WWE. During CES 2020, Lynch spoke about her journey to being a top star in WWE and the challenges that come with being a woman in the wrestling industry. One thing she spoke about was the amount of pressure women feel when they perform, especially at a marquee event or match. In Lynch's case, she headlined WrestleMania last year alongside Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey in a triple threat match. When talking about wrestling in the main event, Lynch says men face less criticism if they have a bad main event match than the women. Lynch added that if women don't perform well in the main event, then there will be doubts raised by skeptics over women being in the main event in general. "If there's a guy and he made an error, it's kind of passed over. Often times, I feel like I have the weight of a gender on my shoulders. A million guys have had terrible main event matches, but if I have a subpar main event match, the question comes up, 'Should women be main eventing?' And that's a load of crap. We all have off days, but we're all trying to be the absolute best. Unfortunately, we always have to be on our game until that's not a question anymore. So we are in a position where we have to be extra so that the future generations don't have to deal with that anymore. It's a little bit unfortunate but it's a little bit of the way it is. It's not good, it's not right, but it's what we have to do. I don't want this to be a question of the future... Those barriers should be gone by now," Lynch said.

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