Seth Rollins beat AJ Styles in an excellent 20-minute opener at WWE Night of Champions 2023 in Saudi Arabia. Rollins’ win makes him the new WWE world heavyweight champion after Triple H revived the belt last month.
The WWE World Heavyweight Championship was a tough sell since it was unveiled. Starting its lineage in the opening match didn’t help, either. Outside of being a beautiful championship belt, the WWE World Heavyweight Title offered diminished marginal returns as Roman Reigns already carries two world titles.
Suddenly, pro wrestling is beginning to emulate boxing in the worst way. WWE feels one world title away from having a Ring Magazine World Championship. It didn’t help that Triple H’s introductory promo felt like WWE had panicked and broken the glass case on an emergency belt. On The April 24 broadcast of Raw, Triple H claimed the belt was being commissioned since Roman Reigns negotiated a lighter schedule.
A New Era in World Wrestling Begins
Following Cody Rhodes’ elimination in the opening match of the WWE World Heavyweight Title Tournament, the focus immediately shifted to Rhodes’ budding feud with Lesnar. This was a microcosm of the pecking order of Night of Champions Because Rhodes vs. Lesnar feels more significant than the crowning of WWE’s bronze medal disguised as a world title.
The Rhodes-Rollins feud suffered from barriers that kept them apart throughout its entirety. Some walls were out of WWE’s control, like Seth Rollins shooting Captain America: New World Order. Others, like WWE’s insistence on having a draft, were self-inflicted. Seth Rollins is on Raw—where the new world title will reside—is all but a dead giveaway that Rollins will prevail.
Two new champions were crowned on the memorable card that saw eight of the eleven bouts finished before the final horn. Close to 11,000 fans watched on to witness highlight-reel finish after highlight-reel finish as new stars emerged for the organisation.
Kaik Brito (16-4) was billed as the most dangerous title challenger David Kozma (30-12) had ever faced, and the Brazilian proved precisely that in the evening’s unbelievable main event as he ushered in a new era of the division. Brito’s thunderous strikes hurt ‘Pink Panther’ several times during the contest, but Kozma showed incredible toughness and summoned enough strength to rally in bursts. However, the TKO finish came in the third round when Brito’s power was too much to handle, and he became the first man to defeat Kozma in the organisation, claiming welterweight gold in the process.
Fans Celebrate Brito’s Victory in World Wrestling
The 170lbs weight class will take centre stage throughout 2023 with the launch of the €1 million Tipsport Gamechanger welterweight tournament – the biggest project in OKTAGON MMA history. Sixteen of the best athletes, both inside and outside of the promotion, will compete in a unique bracket that has never been seen internationally. More participants will be revealed in the coming weeks, all intent on showing they are one of the best in Europe. The tournament will kick off on March 4 at OKTAGON 40, in Ostrava, where all eight first-round matches will occur, and a tournament reserve bout.
The New York Yankees were humiliated Thursday night as Jhony Brito suffered a nightmare first inning, allowing nine runs.
The rookie pitcher’s dream start to life as a Yankee came to a crashing end as he was chased out of the game extremely early by the quick-hitting Minnesota Twins.
Brito was knocked out after allowing seven runs on 34 pitches during a first frame that took 28 minutes and ended in the Yankees being down 9-0.
Michael A. Taylor, rookie Eduoard Julien, with his first MLB hit, and Carlos Correa hit consecutive first-inning homers as the Minnesota Twins rolled to an 11-2 rout of the host New York on Thursday night.
Brito’s Journey to WW Glory
The three blasts capped a nine-run first-inning explosion that sent Minnesota to its third consecutive win. The game was the opener of a four-game series.
The Twins already held a 5-0 lead when Taylor lifted an 0-2 fastball onto the netting above Monument Park in centre field to make it 7-0 and chase New York rookie Brito (2-1).
Julien, who had started the inning with his first career hit, greeted reliever Colten Brewer with a blast into the first row of the left field seats. Correa made it 9-0 with a drive to the right-centre field seats, his first homer of the season.
Taylor homered again in the third, a two-run drive off Brewer, his third long ball of the season. It was Taylor’s third career multi-homer game and first since June 24, 2017, with the Washington Nationals against the Cincinnati Reds.
Before the power display, the Twins took a 3-0 lead on Trevor Larnach’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly and a two-run double by Jose Miranda. Donovan Solano and Christian Vazquez hit RBI doubles for a 5-0 information before Taylor went deep.
Brito allowed seven runs on six hits and a walk in two-thirds of an inning. Brito, who beat the San Francisco Giants and Baltimore Orioles in his first two starts, saw his ERA climb from 0.90 to 6.75. Following the game, the rookie said, ‘Nights like this will happen in baseball. It’s how you come back. I can tell you that tomorrow, I’m going to sit down with the pitching coach, and we’re going to go over the video, and we’re going to make the adjustments – whatever may be necessary.’
Minnesota’s Joe Ryan (3-0) allowed one run and three hits in seven innings for his third linear win. He struck out 10, walked none and retired the first 11 hitters before Anthony Rizzo homered.
