NEWS: NWA Smoky Mountain will have its final show on 8/19

In a shocking turn of events, NWA Smoky Mountain announced on their Facebook page on 7/30 that their event on 8/19 titled "ReGenesis" will be the promotion's final event.   No information other than that was revealed until an official statement on their website. Here is the statement that was given on their website:

"The event on Saturday, August 19 in Kingsport, TN will be the last NWA Smoky Mountain event. Current NWA Smoky Mountain promoter Tony Givens will address the crowd and explain the situation further.

Thanks to all of the people that have supported us over the last 6 years. We hope to see you all there on August 19 in Kingsport, TN"

On top of that announcement, there has been some matches announced for that event. Here is the official card so far for ReGenesis:

NWA United States Tag Team Title Match

The Ugly Ducklings (Rob Killjoy & Lance Lude)
w/ Coach Mikey (c)
vs.
The Brotherhood (Mickey Midas & Myron Reed)

6 Man Tag Team Match 

NWA World Tag Team Champions The Heatseekers (Sigmon & Elliott Russell)
& NWA Smoky Mountain TV Champion Axton Ray
vs.
Illuminati Members: Jordan Kage, ATM & Chris Richards

NWA Mountain Empire Title Match

“Mr. Fighting Spirit” Toby Farley (c)
w/ Rob Knight
vs.
“Mr. 500” Timmy Lou Retton
w/ Dylan Wayne Sizemore 

Main Event

“The Complete Athlete” Devin Driscoll
vs.
“Iron Man” Rob Conway

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That is all the information given by NWA Smoky Mountain at this time. Stay tuned to Rest Hold Party for more updates on the match card and the event. Those interested in attending the event should visit http://www.nwasmokymountain.com 

Also visit NWA Smoky Mountain's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/nwasmokymtn/

BREAKING NEWS: NBCUniversal/Charter Negotiations Could Affect WWE

According to Variety, NBC Universal are in a carriage-negotiation standoff with Charter that has a probability of seeing millions of customers lose access to channels owned by NBCU starting January 1st. The reason being is that Charter have rejected a package price for NBCU's channels that are similar to those paid by other cable and television distributors. It is due to that, that negotiations have come to a halt.

The results of this was a marketing campaign to pressure Charter's customers into calling them and ask to take a more flexible negotiation stance. If a deal does not come to fruition, there will be a total blackout of NBC Universal-related programming starting January 1st of 2017. The channels affected are as follows:Bravo, E!, Syfy, USA, MSNBC, CNBC, and Oxygen. 

When reached for comment by Variety, this is what NBC Universal had to say:

"NBCUniversal values its partnership with Charter Spectrum, our third largest distributor. Charter Spectrum has been unyielding in its demand for terms superior to those agreed to by the rest of the industry, including larger distributors. Given this position, we feel the responsibility to inform viewers that Charter Spectrum may drop NBCUniversal’s networks at the end of the year, including NBC, Telemundo, USA, Bravo and hit shows including the #1 show on TV—Sunday Night Football, WWE, the Golden Globes, This is Us and more." 

(SOURCE: http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/nbcuniversal-charter-1201949840/) 

Understandably, this is a huge story for pro wrestling as well, knowing that WWE is the leading promotion in all of the world and this blackout if it were to happen, could drastically cut down most of WWE's viewership for RAW and SmackDown Live, which both are on the USA Network. Seeing how ratings have been lately for World Wrestling Entertainment, they cannot afford a loss as big as 2 million viewers or even more, given that Charter is the third largest distributor and a large part of the United States has Time Warner Cable. 

We will keep you updated on this story as things continue to unfold....... 

Huge Undertaker Wrestlemania 33 News

It has been reported that Undertaker will reveal his Wrestlemania 33 plans on November 15th's Smackdown 900.

The news comes soon after it was believed that the WWE had been prepared with the deadman's opponent for a while before the event.

Many fans believed that Taker would probably appear on Smackdown to try and set up a late survivor series appearance, but now it appears not.

It is much more likely that the former will be what the Undertaker's services are required for as he has recently been seen on crutches, and a match this soon could cause some bad damage to his health.

Watch WWE Smackdown Live 900 tonight to see what happens.

BREAKING NEWS: Former ECW Head Commentator Joey Styles Fired From Evolve

According to Wrestling News Source, Wrestlezone,411Mania and many other wrestling news outlets, WWE Alumni and the former head commentator of Extreme Championship Wrestling Joey Styles was fired from Evolve Wrestling. The reason being for this firing is that Styles himself made political comments live on the Evolve 72 broadcast that infuriated a lot of fans watching and many employees in the backstage area, one being the owner of Evolve, Gabe Sapolsky.

The aforementioned comments made by the "Loose Cannon of Commentary" were directed at Evolve ring announcer Joanna Rose, making an ill-advised joke about President of the United States, Donald Trump in what was viewed as sexist and derogatory towards Rose. For those interested in what was being spoken in those comments, here is what he said:

 “Joanna, you look great tonight. And if our next President were here tonight, he’d want to grab you by the…”

These comments obviously struck a major cord with Sapolsky, who had a few choice words to say on Twitter: 

"I deeply apologize for Joey Styles' comments and am furious"

"We've parted ways with Joey Styles and that's my final comment on this. Thank you for your support"

"EVOLVE is meant to be a fun escape from the world, not a basis of political debate. There was a mandate not to get political last night"


"Jim, if you specifically instructed someone not to do something like that on a show & they did it, you would have gone after them with a bat"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As of this writing, Styles is still employed by Chikara, but this does mark the second time he has been fired this year. The first time was by World Wrestling Entertainment, but that was seen as a sudden release with no merit to it.

Stay tuned to Rest Hold Party for any further developments related to this story......

RUMOR: WWE Cutting Back on PPV Events in 2017

This year, WWE has had many Pay-Per-View events, to the point that many fans and critics alike believe it is an overabundance. However, that may be one thing that changes next year in 2017, according to All Wrestling News. (Credit to them, link right here:http://www.allwrestlingnews.com/wwe-news/wwe-cutting-back-on-pay-per-view-events-next-year/ )

While little to no details have been provided about this change yet, the feeling is that there will be less events than were originally plan, presumably because there has been a lack of subscribers to the WWE Network since the brand extension.

Sadly enough, those might be the only details available at this time, which is why this is labeled as a rumor rather than actual news. Stay tuned to Rest Hold Party as details become available.

Network Refuses to carry TNA?

As noted a few days ago, the news got worse for TNA as they lost their deal in the UK. Challenge announced that TNA would no longer be airing on their station beginning on 1/1/17. It’s a big blow for TNA because they rely on their UK and India TV deals as their only source of major revenue.

The Challenge deal was worth somewhere between $1 million and $1.5 million per year. So, they are down to the Sony Six deal in India that pays them $5 million per year. They also have a deal with Super Sport in Africa but that deal brings them less money than the Challenge deal. The declining ratings and the person that was the main backer of the Impact Wrestling show left the station so that is why they chose not to renew them. If their ratings did not drop so much in the last couple of years then it’s likely that they would have been renewed in 2017.

TNA apparently had known for months that the Challenge deal was in trouble because they were looking to talk with other networks. They had a meeting a couple of months ago with Premier Sports (a pay channel) but the station looked into their situation and declined their offer to put TNA on their channel. One of the things they saw was how TNA management handled the cancellations from Spike TV and Destination America. The declining UK ratings also played a factor in their decision but the people at Premier Sports were told a while ago by TNA that the show would be available in January and they’d be off Challenge. Things could always change but it doesn’t look like they’ll be on that channel and there’s no word on where they will land, if they get picked up at all.

Their deal on Sony Six in India can be canceled at any time since the terms of the deal call for TNA to tour India at least once a year. They canceled last year’s tour and they have not toured there this year. I’m interested in finding out Pop TV’s reaction to seeing the legal situation between Billy Corgan and TNA. The Pop TV deal is a barter deal so it’s low risk for Pop but the ratings are far below expectations

Broken Matt Hardy Movie Coming Soon?

Earlier today, it was reported by comicbook.com that a Broken Matt Hardy movie may be in the making already, if not very soon. 

Current TNA president Billy Corgan has said that he is a big fan of the two mini movie type TNA segments revolving by around Hardy's 'Broken' persona.

The first of those being 'the final deletion', which received a very mixed reception from the wrestling fanbase, and the most recent was "delete or decay" which again got the same kind of reception of that from it's predecessor.

It is highly possible that this potential movie could be the final chapter in the Broken Matt Hardy story, then again people had been thinking that the 'final deletion' was the end, but it turned out to be the start, so who knows? What I know is that I am excited for this potential project which should bring some more attention to the wrestling world.

Wrestling Couple Tie The Knot

Earlier this week, wrestling couple, Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae got married at a Disney resort hotel.

Other wrestlers were in attendance such as Joey Ryan and Gargano's tag team partner in NXT Tommaso Ciampa, who from the photos we can safely assume was Gargano's best man.

Gargano and LeRae had become something of a 'famous' wrestling couple before hand, and now they have tied the knot, it looks like that will be the same for many years to come.

As noted by other sources, Gargano will be working his last independent match on September 23rd, before he makes the switch to the corporate giants that are the WWE, and who is his opponent you ask? Well, her name is Candice LeRae.

Hulk Hogan WWE Return Coming Soon?

Rumours have recently surfaced that professional wrestling legend and icon Terry Bollea, better known under his ring name Hulk Hogan may be returning to our television screens as a WWE personality once again and not in the too distant future.

Bollea has been blacklisted from the wrestling promotion since audio of what were deemed to be racist remarks were released to the public after being leaked years after the audio was actually taken. This and the fact that a sexual intercourse tape with the latter mentioned being featured in it prevented any quick comeback to the WWE.

The name and character of Hulk Hogan have been pretty much completely ripped out of the history books since the two incidents, this has had a major effect on the content the company shows, as Hogan was a strong part of 80's/90's professional wrestling.

But as of late, the WWE have been dropping the ball ever so slightly with regards to a total lockdown on Hogan, with content featuring him being screened more and his name even getting the very occasional yet awkward mention.

It is reported that the WWE is almost ready to patch things up with Hogan, whom has actually been removed from its own hall of fame, but it isn't clear whether that's a permanent move or not. It seems likely and has been mentioned that the WWE want Hogan back for Wrestlemania 33, taking a similar role to that he played at Wrestlemania 30.

If Hogan does return to the WWE for Wrestlemania 33, let's just hope that he can actually remember what arena he is in this time, good luck Hulkster.

WWE To Buy TNA?

Rumours have started surfacing that the WWE have actually made a bid for rival professional wrestling promotion, TNA. 

TNA is currently undergoing a major makeover to try and save it from certain doom, the company has even required big financial support from its higher ups in order to keep it going. 

Billy Corgan has been the hot favourite to take complete ownership of TNA since he became the promotion's president only a month ago. But with Corgan even admitting it's quite likely that TNA's ownership is not going to end up in his hands despite the talks with the company, hense why WWE seemed to have swooped in. 

The company is stuck between a rock and a hard place right now, and as much as they won't want to feed Vince's empire, it looks increasingly likely that he will have the big offer up his sleeve that they just cannot refuse. TNA seems to be coming off the rails again, and it seems like the WWE could be building them a new track. 

News: ECW Killed Proffesional Wrestling?

Recently in an interview with a wrestling site ECW legend Tommy Dreamer was talking about UK wrestling and how when he signed with the WWE that he would scout this young British talent and he would hire them to the company so a lot of the British superstars you saw today has came from

Then, later in the interview the journalist asked Tommy Dreamer about wrestling today and how it's declined in quality so much after the last 20 years and he replied with this. "I think ECW spurred a lot of garbage wrestling. Guys would look at myself and Sandman and think that they could put on a T-Shirt and sweatpants and call themselves a wrestler. There’s a lot more to it. There are some seriously great workers out there in the UK."

================

When thinking about the situation he does, unfortunately, have a great point. Anyway my question is what do you guys think the cause in the decline of wrestling was? I say that people aren't willing to venture to different companies like ROH and Lucha Underground. Talent over there are slowly earning more recognition but it's 10x less what they truly deserve.