Author: Amber Nico Photo
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AEW brings 14k fans to a NYC Stadium for Double or Nothing
One of AEW’s flagship PPVs, Double or Nothing, is today in Queens at Louis Armstrong stadium. It’s expected to be a complete sell out with over 14K fans in attendance. This is a huge jump from last year’s attendance of 8,200 fans in Arizona at Desert Diamond Arena.
The main event includes Darby Allin defending the AEW World Title against MJF in a Title vs. Hair street fight. The rest of the card is stacked including a tag title match where FTR takes on Adam Copeland and Christian Cage in a I Quit match with the stipulation of if Copeland and Cage loses, they must retire as a tag team, stadium stampede, a fatal continental championship against Kyle O’ Riley, and a clash between Konosuke Takeshita and Kazuchika Okada for the international championship. Doors are are 6pm with Zero Hour (available for all at no charge) at 7pm and the main card is at 8 pm. You can buy it on HBO Max for 49.99 if you are not a subscriber or 39.99 if you are a subscriber.
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Wrestling Open Worcester Results- May 21, 2026
Live tonight at the world famous White Eagle, Wrestling Open had the opening rounds for the women’s championship tournament, a battle for the tag team championships, and Lio Rush vs. DJ Powers.
The spotlight match saw Cash McGuiness vs Brett Mettro. Mettro won via pinfall and had the fans making train noises.
The first match of the main card saw Rain Conway taking on Eye Black Jack. Jack jumps rain before the start of the match. Rain gets the best of him in a surprise pinfall that seemed to surprise even him.
Next up was Brett Ryan Gossling, who cut a promo about ending Pedro Dones’ Wrestling Open career a few weeks ago via a match stipulation.. Handyman Jake Gray comes out to interrupt him and Gossling has Nick Robles come out to take out Handyman. Handyman wins via submission.
The first women’s match of the night is up next. It’s Lauren St James vs. Nessa Ferrari.If lauren wins, she gets an immediate match with Amity LeVay. St James wins by pinfall and immediately gets her match with Lavey. Lavey attacks before the bell, however, St James overcomes this attack and wins by pinfall.
Next up is TJ Crawford vs. Danny Cabral. TJ Crawford wins in just over a minute via referee stoppage. TJ grabs the mic like he was gonna cut a promo and the lays the mic down and leaves the ring. He took more time to take his pants off then the match lasted.
The next two matches are opening round matches in the Women’s Championship Tournament.
- Sloane Jacobs vs. Jordan Blade with Jordan Blade winning via pinfall
- Tiara James vs. Gabby Forza with Gabby Forza winning via pinfall
Next up is DJ Powers vs. Lio Rush. Powers cuts a promo about hearing about how scary Lio is, but states that he is undeniable. Rush comes to the ring and asks DJ to shake his hand. Once Rush touches Powers, he realizes how moist he is and this gets the crowd chanting. After around a 18 minute match, Rush wins via referee stoppage as Powers passes out in a hold.
Next up is a recap of the Wresting Open Men’s Championship tournament which comes to a close this Monday at Wrestling Open RI with the finals between Dustin Waller and Bear Bronson. Dustin comes out in a black suit. He whines about how the eagle has changed and how he will never let the championship come to the eagle again. Sammy diaz’s music hits he asks why he is so bitter and says he is worried about him. It isn’t the flash that he knows. He says he appreciates how he checked him in his face. Then throws Sammy’s family business at him. They started to fight and have to be held apart by Wrestling Open officials and members of the locker room. Ichibon enters as sammy’s partner for the main event. Then we’re subjected to the music and presence of the stetson ranch for the tag title match. After a battle that even left the White Eagle, the Stetson Ranch retrained the tag titles with a pin over Sammy Diaz.
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Wrestling Open’s Women’s Championship Tournament Begins Thursday
The tournament to crown the first ever Wrestling Open Women’s Champion starts off this Thursday in Worcester at the White Eagle. The tournament is exclusively being held at the historic venue.
The brackets were released today and includes some favorites from Wrestling Open’s Women’s division. The first round includes the following matches:
- Gabby Forza vs. Tiara James
- Liviyah vs. Sammi Chaos
- The Notorious Mimi vs. Jada Blade
- Allie Katch vs. Kylie Alexa
Who is your favorite to win? Get tickets on the IWTV site or watch live at indepentdentwrestling.tv.
Another match that has been announced so far features Lio Rush Vs. DJ Powers.
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NWA Officially Adds a New Talent to Their Roster
According to Fightful Select, the National Wrestling Alliance has added a new talent to their roster.
Indie wrestler, Hayden Backlund, has signed with NWA. Backlund has wrestled for the company for the past couple of months, participated in the Crocket Cup, and has challenged for the National Title. He has worked the NWA Exodus shows for some time as well.
Backlund is from the Buffalo, NY area and wrestled a number of matches for AEW very early in his career, facing Best Friends, Miro, and many others. He was trained by Grapplers Anonymous & The Nightmare Factory (QT Marshall and Cody Rhodes). Hayden is a relative of WWE Hall of Fame inductee, Bob Backlund.
Backlund has held the following titles:
- CPW Next Generation title defeating Macrae Martin (September 17, 2023);
- NCCW heavyweight title winning a 4-way match (April 28, 2024);
- BLP tag team titles w Trevor Outlaw defeating Latinos Most Wanted (April 25, 2025)
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A MLW Talent has left the Company After Five Years
An MLW Talent has left the company. Sean Ross Sapp via Fightful Select has confirmed that wrestler Mr.z thomas has left Major League Wrestling. The split was said to be mutual and in an amicable fashion. The release was agreed upon.
Mr. Thomas is able to work or sign anywhere after his MLW release and has worked for five years with the promotion.
He is known for his MMA-inspired fighting style and no-nonsense attitude. He became an enforcer figure in the Bomaya Fight club, where he would often bring brass knuckles and a street-fight mentality to his matches. He also worked with CHIKARA for a number of years.
Additional MLW departures may also be announced soon as well.
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Is Baron Corbin WWE bound?
Is Baron Corbin WWE bound again? There has been some speculation within the company that this could be true.
Dave Meltzer over the weekend has noted that he’d heard rumors that Baron Corbin could be headed back to WWE. One WWE source indicating it to Fightful as an out of left field thing they have recently heard. It is far from confirmed, but there are rumors swirling around his name internally.
Corbin has worked for other companies like MLW, however, he is not under contract with MLW. This has allowed him to appear for other promotions like AEW earlier this year. Corbin works as Bishop Dyer in MLW, CMLL, Maple Leaf Pro and other companies. He’s built a successful tag team alongside Donovan Dijak as the SkyScrapers.
Those who have been spoken to in WWE say that Corbin/Dyer has maintained a positive relationship with WWE. Many of them said they wouldn’t be surprised to see him return at the time he was released.
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Wrestling Open Worcester Results- May 14th, 2026
Tonight marks history for Wrestling Ope as it marks the beginning of the Tournament for the Wrestling Open Women’s Championship. It also featured a chain on a pole match featuring DJ Powers and Eye Black Jack, the Stetson Ranch vs. Brad Hollister and a mystery partner for the tag team championships, and WWE ID prospect Marcus Mather’s taking on Dustin Waller.
The show starts off the the Rain Check open challenge and the returning WWE ID prospect Gal. It has been months since the White Eagle has seen Gal and the crowd seems to love this return.
Next, we are introduced to a debuting Superfan John Austin who takes on the Stetson Ranch prospect, Bobby Casale. The fans chant “leave the ranch” to Bobby Casale. He was then asked by Ritch Palladino where he stood with the ranch after his chance at the tag team championship was taken from him by Steven Stetson. He gives no comment to the question. He says that he is trying to stop someone from being Brad Hollister’s partner as there was “already too much drama” in the situation.
Next up is a wildcard match that sees Liviyah going to battle with Valentina Rossi. The winner will go on to the tournament that will be exclusively held at the White Eagle in Worcester.
A montage is shown of the lead up to the chain on a pole match. It shows how a chain has been involved in the matches involving DJ Powers and/or Eye Black Jack. DJ Powers has had the chain since taking it from Eye Black Jack but he plans to use it to knock out Powers if he can get ahold of it in this match. It appears that Eye Black Jack is ready for an absolute fight. After the match, we hear the whining of Rain Conway about not missing class or a show but when greatness is spoken about he only hears about Eye Black Jack. He announces that he wants to take Eye Black Jack’s spot.
Next up, The Breadwinners (Patrick Wheatman and Cash McGuiness) come out with a million sunglasses, which I guess they can do because Patrick Wheatman (of this tag team) has money literally strapped to his head while he is making his entrance. They’re set to take on a Wrestling Open Favorite team of Waves and Curls (Traevon Jordan and Jaylen Brandyn).
After a montage to Gabby Forza, we see Lauren St James being attacked backstage by Amity LeVay before the show. Amity yelling at Lauren that she aimed to take her place. This leads up to the next women’s wildcard match of Tiara James vs. Lauren St James…….that’s too many Jameses for one sentence. Lauren makes her entrance with an obviously hurt arm. Lauren got hurt in December of 2024 when she broke her arm during her debut match. She has worked incredibly hard to get back into the ring. Can titanium Lauren St. James beat Tiara James with one arm? Apparently, not if Amity has anything to say about it. After the match and her inference, Amity says that the officials were so moved by Lauren’s speech about her coming back that they gave her Amity’s spot in the tournament. She attacks Lauren’s arm again.
The next montage shows the viewers and the crowd just how Dustin Waller got into the finals for the Wrestling Open Championship tournament. Dustin enters first with Marcus Mathers entering second. Mathers hasn’t been in Worcester for months but you can’t tell from the crowd’s reaction. This is definitely a match that has main event feelings as to quote the commentary desk “the building as come alive with Marcus Mathers.”
It’s main event time and we’re immediately subjected to the high pitched, unintelligible yelling of Steven Stetson as he and Brian Morris make their entrance. Brad Hollister makes his entrance with both tag belts. Who will be his partner? Hollister gets jumped after his introduction but before his tag team partner is introduced. When the match is seemingly close to the end, Danny Miles comes out arguing with Bobby Casale. Big Business’ music hits and TJ Crawford is revealed to be Hollister’s tag team partner. Don’t get too excited, he double crossed Hollister to hand the tag team championship to the Stetson Ranch.
Match results:
- Spotlight Match: Amity LeVay def Vile via pinfall
- Rain Check Open Challenge: Gal def Rain Conway via pinfall from an O’Conner Roll.
- Bobby Casale def Superfan John Austin via pinfall
- Liviyah def Valentina Rossi via pinfall and she qualifies for the women’s championship tournament
- DJ Powers def Eye Black Jack via pinfall with interference from Rain Conway
- Waves and Curls def The Breadwinners via pinfall
- Tiara James def Lauren St James via pinfall with interference by Amity LeVay
- Dustin Waller def Marcus Mathers via pinfall after a 1916
- The Stetson Ranch def Big Business (Brad Hollister and TJ Crawford) via pinfall after Crawford betrays Hollister
What did you think of this week’s Wrestling Open? What do you think of TJ Crawford leaving Big Business?
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Fans Will Get the Chance to Vote for Special Awards during BOTSJ
As Best of the Super Juniors 33 is about to start, a press conference was held in Tokyo with the participants and President Hiroshi Tanahashi. President Tanahashi made an announcement that will allow fans to be more involved during the tournament. This involvement includes voting for three special awards based on tournament performance.
These awards are:
The Outstanding Performance Award will go to the wrestler who fans felt best exhibited their full potential and ability in the ring throughout the league.
The Fighting Spirit Award will go to the wrestler who fans feel exhibits a never say die attitude in the face of overwhelming odds.
The Technique Award will go to the wrestler who best shows creative offensive flair within their matches.
Voting will take place after the tournament and before the semifinal and final matches. Stay tuned to NJPW and NJPW’s socials to find out how to vote.
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Kevin Knight Responds to Criticism of His Open Challenge
AEW has announced that Kevin Knight will defend his TNT Championship in an open challenge on Dynamite, which will be live from Asheville, NC.
Of course, everyone’s least favorite IWC troll has to give his “hot take” in poorly veiled sarcasm.
JDfromNY wrote on twitter, “Hey guys. This is such an ingenious idea. I’ve never seen it before!! I’m so excited about this brand new concept that could shape the landscape of pro wrestling television for months and years to come!!”
It’s almost like he has never seen a TV based title defended before in a promotion in his life.
Luckily, the Jet had a classy response for him, which was simply, “I agree. We appreciate the love.”
In reality, it’s probably best not to respond to sarcastic comments like this but everyone knows that even though JD says he hates AEW (let’s be real he hates everything), he will still be watching.
Whoever steps up to this open challenge, it should be a banger. I’m all for more Kevin Knight on TV anyways.
