⚛ The Atomic Drop - WWE Night of Champions edition 🌃
Plus the latest on Liv Morgan's injury and how it impacts WWE Evolution plans, and news on an iconic tag-team that could be set to reunite.
👋 Hello, and welcome to The Atomic Drop, your new home for everything in the world of professional wrestling. Formerly known as the Piledriver wrestling newsletter, this is a fresh take on everything in and out of the ring.
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Continue below for the top stories, British bits, results, opinion, and so much more.
📰 Top stories
👑 WWE Night of Champions is on Saturday evening, at a UK start time of 6pm. There are a total of six matches set to take place, including John Cena vs CM Punk and the King and Queen of the Ring finals, and Josh Coulson of The Sportster has more.
🤕 Further details have emerged on the severity of WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion Liv Morgan’s injury, as she is set for an extended period on the side-lines. For all the information you need to know, read this by Ahmed Hamdy of TJR Wrestling.
🆕 As a result of Liv Morgan’s injury, WWE has reportedly had to scrap plans for the all-women event Evolution and start again. Morgan was set for a match involving Nikki Bella, but this story by Blake Lovell of Sports Illustrated explains everything.
🤝 AEW stars Adam Copeland and Christian Cage, most notable for their WWE runs as Edge and Christian, are set to reunite on screen. It may not happen at AEW All In, but Steve Carrier of Ringside News has this to say about the potential team-up.
👋 After being name-dropped by John Cena on WWE SmackDown, Matt Cardona, formerly known as Zack Ryder, has responded. Read this story by Thomas Lowson of EWrestlingNews to find out exactly what he said in response to The Champ.
British bits you might have missed
🔙 Former TNA World Champion Joe Hendry will get his rematch for the title against Trick Williams at Slammiversary. To find out more about plans for TNA’s biggest show of the year, read this story by Bryan Rose of Wrestling Observer.
🖋 Blake Monroe, formerly known as Mariah May in AEW, signed her WWE NXT contract this past week. You can find details on what happened when she was confronted by a champion here, thanks to Shounak Chakrabarti of ITR Wrestling.
🗑 Scrapped plans for a storyline between Drew McIntyre and former WWE faction Gallus have been revealed. Joe Coffey revealed the idea in an interview, which you can find a summary of here, from James Holder of TJR Wrestling.
🔔 WWE Raw results
Seth Rollins, flanked by Bronson Reed, Bron Breakker and Paul Heyman, opens the show, declaring that he is coming for those that hold the gold in WWE, thanks to his Money in the Bank briefcase.
Bron Breakker defeats Penta with an incredible mid-air Spear as he makes a statement on behalf of his mentor Seth Rollins.
Ahead of their match at Saturday Night’s Main Event, Goldberg, during an interview with Michael Cole, promised to beat Gunther and leave as World Heavyweight Champion.
Jade Cargill defeats Roxanne Perez in the Queen of the Ring tournament semi-finals, and she will now face Asuka at Night of Champions in the final.
Gunther came to the ring to respond to Goldberg’s incendiary comments, promising to make ‘the legacy and the myth of Bill Goldberg die forever’.
Becky Lynch defeats Bayley by disqualification to retain the Women’s Intercontinental Championship, after Lyra Valkyria attacked The Man.
Raquel Rodriguez calls out Rhea Ripley after they interfered in each other’s matches in past weeks, and with the help of Roxanne Perez, the Judgement Day member put ‘Mami’ through a table.
Cody Rhodes defeats Jey Uso in the King of the Ring tournament semi-finals, and he will now face Randy Orton at Night of Champions in the final.
🌙 WWE Night of Champions 2025 preview
Randy Orton vs Cody Rhodes in the King of the Ring tournament final.
Sami Zayn vs Karrion Kross in a highly-personal contest.
Rhea Ripley vs Raquel Rodriguez in a Street Fight.
Jacob Fatu vs Solo Sikoa for the United States Championship.
Asuka vs Jade Cargill in the Queen of the Ring tournament final.
John Cena vs CM Punk for the Undisputed WWE Championship.
⭐ Superstar spotlight: Roxanne Perez
There are few more exciting up-and-coming talents in all of wrestling than Roxanne Perez, and it is no surprise when you look at her impressive credentials. Trained by WWE legend Booker T at his school in Texas, the 23-year-old is already a multi-time NXT Women’s Champion, incredible given how young she still is.
Standing out very quickly as one of the leading female stars on NXT, Perez had great rivalries with the likes of Mandy Rose, Lyra Valkyria and Meiko Satomura. This led to a main roster call-up, which she punctuated by surviving for an incredible one hour and seven minutes in this year’s Royal Rumble match.
The Prodigy has been a fantastic addition to the Raw brand, working with The Judgement Day, despite being at odds with Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez at various times. It doesn’t even need to be said how much potential Roxanne has, and her ability to work as both a babyface and a heel will be very valuable to WWE.
📅 Wrestling recap: WWE Night of Champions 2015
With the 2025 Night of Champions event just days away, I decided to look back on the 2015 version of the show, which was significant for a number of reasons. The main one is that wrestling icon Sting wrestled his final WWE match in the main event, but this wasn’t the only highlight.
There were some tremendous matches throughout the night, with Kevin Owens taking on Ryback for the IC title, Dolph Ziggler facing Rusev, and Charlotte Flair and Nikki Bella meeting for the Divas Championship. In a star-studded six-man tag, The Wyatt Family brawled with Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Chris Jericho.
In the penultimate match, Seth Rollins lost his United States Championship to John Cena, but he made up for this in the main event just minutes later, as he defeated Sting to keep the WWE World Heavyweight title around his waist. Kane and Sheamus also made their presence known after the match, adding to the explosive conclusion.
📺 You can watch Night of Champions 2015 on Netflix, the new home of WWE’s archives.
👀 Must-see matches of the week
Randy Orton vs Sami Zayn in the King of the Ring tournament semi-finals - WWE SmackDown June 20
Jade Cargill vs Roxanne Perez - in the Queen of the Ring tournament semi-finals - WWE Raw June 23
Hologram vs Lio Rush vs Mascara Dorada vs Ricochet - AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam Mexico June 18
Cody Rhodes vs Jey Uso in the King of the Ring tournament semi-finals - WWE Raw June 23
Asuka vs Alexa Bliss in the Queen of the Ring tournament semi-finals - WWE SmackDown June 20
🗓 What’s on this week?
Wednesday 25 June - AEW Dynamite and AEW Collision
Thursday 26 June - TNA Impact
Friday 27 June - WWE SmackDown
Saturday 28 June - WWE Night of Champions
Monday 30 June - WWE Raw
Tuesday 1 July - WWE NXT
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Owen Younger - Editor of The Atomic Drop.