EVIL is off New Japan’s anniversary show next month due to injury. New Japan announced this evening that EVIL is out of action due to a left broken orbital bone, which likely happened during the New Japan tour that took place in Australia. As a result, he will miss the upcoming anniversary show on March 6th. Originally scheduled to be IWGP Tag Team Champions EVIL & SANADA vs. Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI in a non-title match, SANADA will instead take on YOSHI-HASHI in a singles bout. Hirooki Goto has been moved down the card, now teaming with fellow CHAOS members Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano to take on Juice Robinson, David Finlay &…

Saudi Arabia has tortured and sexually harassed women’s rights activists detained in prison, a new report alleges. The activists, who have not been named for fear of reprisal, were arrested by Saudi authorities in May in a crackdown ahead of the kingdom’s lifting of the decades-long women’s driving ban. Prisoners in the kingdom’s Dhahban Prison have allegedly been interrogated by masked jailers, with one made to hang for long periods of time from the ceiling, sources told Human Rights Watch. Several showed physical signs of torture, including difficulty walking, uncontrolled shaking of the hands, and red marks and scratches on their faces and necks. At least one of the women attempted…

Image: JJ Williams NXT introduced a new secondary singles title at tonight’s television tapings, with the inaugural champion set to be crowned during WrestleMania weekend. William Regal announced that the first NXT North American Champion will be decided at TakeOver: New Orleans on April 7th. It was at that moment that EC3 came out, making his official NXT return. He said that it was nice that Regal was going to create a title just for him. Regal said that no one is handed anything in NXT, and he will instead square off against five other competitors in a ladder match to crown the first champion. Those five other competitors were later revealed to be Lars…

> SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)… WWE SMACKDOWN PRIMER MAY 29, 2020 ORLANDO, FLA. AT THE WWE PERFORMANCE CENTER AIRS ON FOX NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EDT BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH SPECIALIST Announcers: Michael Cole, Corey Graves Top 10 Moments from Last Week Items Advertised by WWE We continue towards Backlash, coming to us on June 14. Tonight’s show is light on advertised items, as the focus is the ongoing Intercontinental Championship tournament which is now into the semi-final round: Jeff Hardy looks to keep comeback rolling against Daniel Bryan Elias and A.J. Styles set to battle for tournament finals appearance Intercontinental Championship Tournament Semi-Final…

The breakdown of a plea deal with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and reports about alleged contacts he may have had with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange threw a new element of uncertainty into the Trump-Russia investigation on Tuesday Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman has been accused of repeatedly lying to prosecutors, undermining his plea deal and potentially depriving the Russia investigation of a star witness.  Paul Manafort, Mr Trump’s one-time campaign chief, agreed to co-operate with investigators looking at potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in September after being convicted of bank and tax  fraud charges.  Manafort, the most senior campaign aide to be charged in the investigation to date, has repeatedly met…

1923 St. Louis, Missouri: – Stanislaus Zbyszko beat Cliff Binckley  – Jim Londos beat Ivan Linow  – Renato Gardini beat Jatrinda Gobar  – Al Wasem beat George Webster  1945 Des Moines, Iowa: – World Heavyweight Champion Orville Brown beat Kola Kwariani in 2 out of 3 falls – Chief Little Wolf beat Jack Kennedy  – Al Caddell beat Count Von Zuppi by DQ 1957 Toronto, Ontario, Canada: – Whipper” Billy Watson beat Gene Kiniski on a disqualification – Pat O’Connor beat Dick Hutton on a disqualification – The Miller Brothers, Bill and Ed beat Tex McKenzie and the Mighty Ursus – The Tolos Brothers, Chris and John beat The Gallagher…

> PWTorch editor Wade Keller presents a special Thursday Flagship edition of the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast featuring a WrestleMania 36 Preview with ex-WWE Creative Team member and professional stand-up comedian Matt McCarthy. (Search “wade keller” to subscribe in podcast app or CLICK HERE to subscribe in Apple Podcasts.) WWE has officially commented on the Reid Flair angle during the main event segment of Monday’s Raw. WWE’s statement issued to the Wrestling Observer reads: “Subject matter this personal is only approved as a result of the strong advocacy of the talent themselves. Notwithstanding that, WWE is ultimately responsible for what airs in its programming.” Reid, the deceased son of Ric Flair…

The head of the Taliban has summoned his political envoys to Pakistan for consultations with the movement’s leadership, ahead of a new round of tentative talks with America to kick start a peace process. Seven members of the Taliban’s Doha political office are understood to have arrived in Pakistan earlier this week at the request of Haibatullah Akhunzada. Their discussions with the leadership will be key in deciding the negotiating stance of the insurgents, ahead of a meeting with American envoy Zalmay Khalilzad. The internal summit also follows the death in a US drone strike at the weekend of a senior Taliban commander who had been opposed to negotiations. “This…

The card for Impact Wrestling’s Redemption pay-per-view now has six confirmed matches. A six-way match was added to the lineup for the PPV today, with it featuring Brian Cage, Taiji Ishimori, DJ Z, El Hijo Del Fantasma, Trevor Lee, and Dezmond Xavier. Ishimori is working the show despite departing Pro Wrestling NOAH last month, and DJ Z is making another appearance for Impact after returning for the first time in over a year at their WrestleMania week event with Lucha Underground. Redemption is the company’s first PPV since last November and will take place at the Impact Zone in Orlando, Florida on April 22nd. The main event was originally supposed to be…

The French finance minister warned that France’s worst street protests in decades were “an economic disaster” as burned out cars and debris were cleared from the streets of Paris and other cities on Sunday. “It’s a catastrophe for trade. It’s a catastrophe for our economy,” said Bruno Le Maire, a conservative serving under Emmanuel Macron, the embattled centrist president who came to power last year promising to modernise France with sweeping pro-business reforms. Mr Le Maire promised that the state and insurance companies would foot the repair bill. Tax payments due at the end of the year will be postponed for retailers whose shops were ransacked only two weeks before…