WWE made a mega announcement earlier this year when the company confirmed that Smackdown will be moving to Fox in the year 2019 while Raw remains on USA Network for the foreseeable future. Sports Business Daily now reports that WWE originally had talks to move Raw and Smackdown to ESPN, but those talks broke down after ESPN was not able to guarantee that WWE’s live shows would not be preempted during the year. After negotiating with Fox, it was reportedly WWE that made the call to split up Raw and Smackdown and present them as separate entities. NBCUniversal agreed to let go of the rights to Smackdown in order to then retain Monday Night Raw.
AJ Styles has been the WWE Champion for several months now, and he has proved that he is a worthy champion by defeating the likes of Jinder Mahal, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, and Shinsuke Nakamura to retain his title. Fans online have noted that Styles’ second reign as champion has lasted 243 days so far, and he has a combined reign of 383 days as world champion. This means that Styles will be surpassing WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels’ career-long record of 396 days as champion. Styles could very well go on to become one of the longest reigning WWE Champions in recent history, but there is still a chance that he could be losing the title when he faces Rusev at Extreme Rules this Sunday.
It was reported earlier that WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross was accidentally knocked down during a match between Juice Robinson and Jay White during the NJPW G1 Special. Ross later took to Twitter to admit that his fall was not planned, and that he may have gotten injured in the process as well. John Pollock has provided an update stating that Ross is awaiting the medical results of his rib injury and is in pain at the moment. Dave Meltzer later said on F4WOnline that Ross is now dealing with rib and lung problems that have caused him to drop several commitments that he had previously made. Hopefully, it won’t be long until JR is back doing commentary for future WWE and NJPW shows.
An update on Jim Ross – he is currently in the ER and awaiting results due to a rib injury sustained at the Cow Palace card on Saturday, said to be in a lot of pain.
— John Pollock (@iamjohnpollock) July 9, 2018
Jim Ross may be injured after an unplanned spot at NJPW’s G1 Special https://t.co/L7DlJ8RnwN pic.twitter.com/MQTexNaodf
— Brandon Stroud (@MrBrandonStroud) July 9, 2018