Los Angeles to host 2027 Super Bowl

NFL owners voted Wednesday to award the 2027 Super Bowl to Los Angeles and SoFi Stadium, the home of the Rams and Chargers, commissioner Roger Goodell announced.

“We are very excited to bring the Super Bowl back to Los Angeles for the second time in five years,” Goodell said in a statement, per ESPN. “The city did an outstanding job hosting Super Bowl LVI in the incredible SoFi Stadium, and we believe that Super Bowl LXI will be even more memorable.”

It will be the second time SoFi Stadium has hosted the Super Bowl since opening in 2020. The $5-billion venue was home to the Rams’ triumph over the Cincinnati Bengals in February 2022.

The 2027 Super Bowl will coincide with the 60th anniversary of Super Bowl I at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 1967.

L.A. will host a remarkable three-year sporting stretch, with the city serving as one of the homes of the 2026 World Cup before hosting the Olympic Games in summer 2028.

Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium and Tennessee’s new stadium, which is set to open in 2027, were rumored to be other contenders for the 2027 Super Bowl.

Super Bowl LVIII will be held in Las Vegas on Feb. 11, while New Orleans will host the big game in 2025, followed by San Francisco in 2026.

Toni Storm Wins AEW World Women’s Title For Record-Tying Third Time At Full Gear

“Timeless” Toni Storm has become just the second wrestler to claim the AEW Women’s World Title on three occasions, defeating long-time rival Hikaru Shida in their championship bout at Full Gear on Saturday night at the famous Kia Forum.

Storm started the match by tearing up a script and dominated large portions of the bout, including scoring a near-fall after blasting Shida with one of her shoes. The champion would also come agonizingly close to victory with a question-mark kick and Falcon Arrow combination, before landing a stiff elbow shot and hitting Storm’s manager, Luther, multiple times with a kendo stick. Unfortunately for the Japanese standout, Storm used a metal tray to hit her running hip attack in the corner to pin Shida and capture the gold.

After the bout, AEW’s recent signee Mariah May made her way down to ringside to embrace her hero, with the broadcast flipping to black and white for Storm’s celebration. 

Julia Hart Pins Skye Blue, Wins TBS Championship In AEW Full Gear Triple Threat

Julia Hart has continued her meteoric rise within AEW, capturing the TBS Championship in an entertaining triple-threat match against Kris Statlander and Skye Blue at the Full Gear pay-per-view event in Los Angeles, California. 

Blue and Hart spent an extended period teaming up to take down their larger opponent, but the House Of Black member was the first to turn, leading to all three competitors landing some high-octane offense. Statlander landed some trademark power moves on both of her challengers, before Hart hit a top-rope moonsault onto Blue for a close near-fall as the champion barely made it into the ring in time to break the pin. Blue would get her own two-count off the back of a Code Blue on the champ, but it was Statlander who regained the momentum with a string of German suplexes on both women.

Down the home stretch, Statlander would nail her Saturday Night Fever piledriver finish, but Hart pushed her out of the way and capitalized on a fallen Blue for a three-count and pinfall, marking her first title victory since joining AEW.

Report: AEW Full Gear Set For Los Angeles’ Kia Forum In November 2023

It’s still August, which means AEW is largely preoccupied with All In at Wembley Stadium in two and a half weeks, All Out in Chicago in three and a half weeks, and even Grand Slam in Arthur Ashe Stadium, which takes place in mid-September. And yet, despite all that, the promotion is already thinking about November, when the next edition of Full Gear is set to be held, in a familiar west coast stomping ground for the promotion.

Fightful Select reports that the current location for Full Gear is none other than Los Angeles, California, with the Kia Forum slated to host the event. AEW has previously held two episodes of “AEW Dynamite” at the Forum, first in May 2022, and again in January of this year, which saw The Elite, including California natives the Young Bucks, defeat Death Triangle to win the AEW World Trios Titles in the finals of a Best-of-Seven series.

With the venue decided upon, the big question is when Full Gear will take place. Internally, the date for the show is listed as Saturday, November 18, which would continue the trend of Full Gear taking place on Saturday, in contrast to most AEW pay-per-views taking place on Sunday. However, discussions had taken place regarding the PPV taking place on Sunday instead, which would put Full Gear up against NFL games. It’s unclear what this means for that week’s episode of “AEW Collision,” as the show airs on Saturday nights. In addition to Full Gear, AEW is also planning on running TV tapings leading up to the show in Ontario, California, including “Dynamite.” Though this is the working plan for the event right now, it was stressed that things could still change and that nothing had been finalized.

New SmackDown Women’s Champion Crowned At WWE WrestleMania 39

Rhea Ripley is your new SmackDown Women’s Champion, successfully parlaying her Royal Rumble victory into a title by defeating Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 39 Saturday night.

The Judgment Day’s Eradicator had what could be termed an instant classic with Flair as the two slowly ramped up the intensity during their semi-main match. Both women swung for the fences, both with strikes and with high-impact moves. Ripley constantly avoided Charlotte’s Figure Four and kicked out of a spear and Natural Selection, while Flair kicked out of a Riptide.

It took an avalanche Riptide from Rhea to finally end Charlotte’s three-month title reign and capture her second singles title on the main roster.

For Ripley, the match was an absolute statement of how good she really is and that her work reinventing herself as a part of the Judgment Day has paid off. For Charlotte, a match of this quality was sorely needed after a string of subpar performances that had critics and fans alike wondering if something was off with the Queen.

The intensity with which both women approached the match made you wonder if we had a WrestleMania 23 situation, where Batista and Undertaker were upset their World Heavyweight Championship match wasn’t main-eventing the PPV, so they went out and killed it to make the WWE brass regret their decision.

Sami Zayn And Kevin Owens Win The Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship

Friendship has prevailed over a powerful bloodline in a historic main event.

WrestleMania 39 Night One was headlined by a WWE Tag Team Championship match for the first time ever when The Usos put their record-breaking reign on the line against the familiar duo of Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. After a lengthy battle that took fans on an emotional rollercoaster — much like the entire journey to this point — Owens hit Jimmy Uso with a stunner, while Zayn managed to hit one last Helluva Kick on Jey Uso to score the three-count.

Zayn and Owens are now WWE Tag Team Champions for the first time in their careers, individually and as a team. It also marks the end of a championship drought for Owens, who hasn’t held gold in six years, despite now being a back-to-back WrestleMania headliner. Zayn and Owens formerly held the PWG and Ring of Honor tag team titles in their past lives, but had not won WWE gold together despite their on and off friendship. Notably, they teamed up at WrestleMania 34 against Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon.

For The Usos, they became the first Undisputed “Raw” and “SmackDown” Tag Team Champions last May after initially winning the “SmackDown” title in July 2021. That specific reign led to them surpassing The New Day to become the longest-reigning tag team champions in WWE history at 622 days. The Usos are now championship-less for the first time in nearly two years after being eight-time champions since 2014.

Lucha Brothers Reach For The Sky And Seize ROH Tag Team Titles

New Ring of Honor Tag Team Champions were crowned Friday night at ROH’s Supercard of Honor pay-per-view. After an intense “Reach for the Sky” ladder match, the Lucha Brothers emerged victorious. With their victory, Penta el Zero Miedo and Rey Fenix captured the ROH Tag Titles for the first time. They succeed The Briscoes as tag champions.

After the match, the Lucha Brothers were greeted by Mark Briscoe and FTR’s Dax Wheeler and Cash Harwood, on the entrance stage. The ROH Tag Team Championship was last contested at ROH’s Final Battle pay-per-view, where The Briscoes beat FTR in a brutal dog collar match that capped off their trilogy of matches for the ROH Tag Titles over the course of 2022. Tragically, just a month after the match, Jay Briscoe passed away after a car accident. The match at Supercard of Honor was held in honor of Jay’s memory.

Mark announced the match on “AEW Rampage” a little under a month ago, while also announcing that he would be relinquishing the titles. Additionally, the design of the championships that was last carried by The Briscoes was retired. The new titles were the ones hung above the ring for tonight’s match.

The ladder match featured a number of high-octane spots, including Dante Martin of Top Flight taking a Canadian Destroyer through multiple tables. In the end, the Lucha Brothers overcame Top Flight, The Kingdom, Aussie Open, and La Faccion Ingobernable to reach for the sky and win the ROH World Tag Team Championship.

Katsuyori Shibata Wins ROH Pure Championship At Supercard Of Honor

Katsuyori Shibata shocked AEW fans when he first appeared in Tony Khan’s company on the November 2 episode of “Dynamite,” announcing his third official match since suffering a severe head injury that almost cost him his career in 2017. Fast forward five matches later and Shibata has captured Ring of Honor gold, in his first match with the company since said year.

During Friday night’s ROH Supercard of Honor pay-per-view, Shibata defeated ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta to capture the title in the show’s semi-main event, beginning his first title reign since 2017. Following the match, Shibata tried to shake Yuta’s hand, but the Blackpool Combat Club member declined the Code of Honor after their match.

Yuta first won the Pure Championship at ROH Final Battle 2022 in December, defeating former champion Daniel Garcia, who also lost his match on Friday night’s show to Hiroshi Tanahashi. Yuta defended the Pure Title just four times prior to the title change. The title victory likely signals that Shibata will be a regular in ROH going forward. During the post-show media scrum, ROH owner Tony Khan called Shibata a “perfect fit.” Shibata himself mentioned that his title victory brings him a step closer to a match against AEW star Bryan Danielson. Shibata last wrestled in AEW in November, when he lost to Orange Cassidy on an episode of “Rampage.”

ROH To Hold Major Event On WWE WrestleMania 39 Weekend

Every year, scores of promotions hold events at the host venue of WWE’s WrestleMania, where fans gather in masses to enjoy a weeklong spectacle of wrestling and wrestling-related events. This year will be no different, as Ring of Honor (ROH) continues its annual tradition of holding pay-per-view events in early Spring with the 16th installment of Supercard of Honor in Los Angeles, California, the home of WrestleMania 39.

Since 2006, every Supercard of Honor show has been held during WrestleMania Week, dating back to the first-ever Supercard of Honor headlined by Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong. In 2019, the 13th installment of Supercard of Honor turned into a supershow co-produced by ROH and NJPW and was held at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The show was witnessed by over 16,000 fans, becoming the most successful non-WWE show in the United States since WWE’s acquisition of WCW. AEW has since set a new record with over 20,000 fans for the first-ever “Dynamite: Grand Slam” at Arthur Ashe Stadium in September 2021.

This year’s Supercard of Honor will emanate from the Galen Center at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. As of this writing, no matches have been announced, but a promo video for the March 31 event all but confirms that ROH World Champion Claudio Castagnoli, ROH World Tag Team Champions The Briscoes, ROH World TV Champion Samoa Joe, ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta and ROH Women’s World Champion Athena will defend their respective titles. ROH World Six-Man Champions The Embassy has also been advertised for the event. 

ROH has announced that tickets for the event go on sale on January 27.

AEW To Make Los Angeles Debut

AEW has announced their Los Angeles debut.

The first-ever AEW event in Los Angeles will take place on Wednesday, June 1 from The Forum. This will be the post-Double Or Nothing edition of AEW Dynamite on TBS. Tickets go on sale Friday, March 11 and will start at $30.

Promotional material for AEW’s LA debut features The Young Bucks, MJF, Keith Lee, AEW World Champion “Hangman” Adam Page, AEW World Tag Team Champion Jungle Boy, Bryan Danielson, Darby Allin, CM Punk, Chris Jericho, Sting, AEW TBS Champion Jade Cargill, Thunder Rosa, Jon Moxley, and Adam Cole.

Below is a current look at the AEW tour of the West Coast:

* Wednesday, May 25: AEW Dynamite from the Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas

* Friday, May 27: AEW Rampage from the Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas

* Sunday, May 29: AEW Double Or Nothing from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas

* Wednesday, June 1: AEW Dynamite from The Forum in Los Angeles

* Friday, June 3: AEW Rampage from the Toyota Arena in Ontario, California