Nick Piccone

Nick Piccone is a Pro Wrestling Contributor for PhillyVoice.com. Nick was the founder of the popular sports and pro wrestling blog Bleed Philly before joining Philly Influencer as Editor and Writer in 2015. He's hosted a weekly pro wrestling podcast with Vaughn Johnson, The Straight Shooters, since 2015. Nick also does editing, writing, and audio engineering for the only sports betting radio station in Philadelphia, Fox Sports Radio The Gambler. Nick graduated from nearby Neumann University after growing up in south Philadelphia and southern New Jersey. His family history is entrenched in Philadelphia culture, as Nick's great aunt Dolly's house was used as Rocky's and Adrian's new home in Rocky II. Nick is a huge Philly sports fan, and he has watched professional wrestling since he was five years old; he has not only a strong passion, but also an abundance of knowledge about the industry. Follow Nick on Twitter: @_piccone.

January 22, 2016

Wrestling

2016 WWE Royal Rumble preview: Who will walk out with the WWE Heavyweight Championship?

by Nick Piccone

The 29th edition of the WWE Royal Rumble will take place this Sunday in the Amway Center in Orlando, FL. What will be the fifth Royal Rumble event in the state of Florida will also be the second ever Rumble match to feature the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on the line.

January 22, 2016

Wrestling

WWE SmackDown rundown: Does Reigns have a shot in the Rumble?

by Nick Piccone

The final stop before the Royal Rumble this Sunday night was in Dayton, OH’s Nutter Center on Thursday night for SmackDown. The go-home show to the Royal Rumble was less than spectacular, but it’s pretty obvious WWE has placed little to no importance on SmackDown even though the program has moved to the USA Network. Many people aren’t surprised. I am simply because a move to a better network with a better lead announcer would lead to better shows. Mauro Ranallo has certainly made the announce team better, but nothing that happens on SmackDown feels important.

January 19, 2016

Wrestling

WWE Raw roundup: Wyatt Family destroys Reigns & Lesnar heading into Rumble

by Nick Piccone

The final Monday Night Raw before the 2016 Royal Rumble took place at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, OH. It felt like the show, being a go-home Raw to a pay-per-view fell flat, and the audience didn’t really help matters any. They were quiet for most of the night, which translated into many flat segments when they really needed the fire of the crowd to come through on television.

January 15, 2016

Wrestling

WWE SmackDown rundown: Alberto Del Rio regains the United States title

by Nick Piccone

Three days after the WWE crew visited New Orleans for Raw, the roster stayed in Louisiana for SmackDown on Thursday night at the Cajundome in Lafayette. The second edition of SmackDown on the USA Network featured a Tables Match, a United States Championship match and a very good women’s match which we’ve come to expect from WWE television lately.

January 12, 2016

Wrestling

WWE Raw roundup: Reigns fights off the odds, Sting goes into HOF

by Nick Piccone

The Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, LA hosted Raw on Monday night which featured a title change, a complex main event, and the return of one of the most popular superstars right now in WWE.

January 9, 2016

Wrestling

Straight Shooters Podcast 22: John Cena’s injury and NJPW stars heading to WWE

by Nick Piccone

The holidays are over and the Straight Shooters are back! On this week’s edition of The Straight Shooters, Nick and Vaughn talk about the shoulder injury to John Cena and its ramifications heading into the biggest show of the year, WrestleMania. They also talk about the reported WWE acquisitions of AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson from New Japan Pro Wrestling and what it means for not only the future of WWE, but also the future of NJPW. And we’ll explain why WWE isn’t exactly “raiding” NJPW’s talent, which is the popular narrative right now.

January 8, 2016

WWE

WWE SmackDown rundown: Ambrose vs. Owens for the IC Title in the USA Network debut

by Nick Piccone

The first edition of SmackDown on its permanent new network featured two heavyweight championship matches Thursday night. 8:00 p.m. was the time and Laredo Energy Arena in Laredo, T.X. was the place for the hopeful beginning of the turnaround for a toiling brand for WWE, as SmackDown ratings have suffered since being broadcast on the SyFy channel the last few years.

January 7, 2016

Wrestling

John Cena to reportedly miss WrestleMania 32, 6-9 months with shoulder injury

by Nick Piccone

On Wednesday night, the scope for what’s expected to be one of the biggest WrestleManias ever, if not the biggest, changed exponentially as one of the biggest names in the industry announced on Twitter that he would be undergoing shoulder surgery.

January 5, 2016

Wrestling

WWE Raw roundup: Roman Reigns set to defend title in Royal Rumble match

by Nick Piccone

Monday Night Raw’s first episode of 2016 got off to a hot start, as WWE tried to begin the new year by advertising a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match a week in advance. Oh, and Vince McMahon would also be the special guest referee.

January 2, 2016

Wrestling

Straight Shooters Podcast: Ranking the 10 best WWE matches of 2015

by Nick Piccone

With 2015 coming to an end, Vaughn and I list our top 10 matches in WWE for the year for our Christmas present to you. Do we have the same matches ranked? Do we differ on a few? Do we differ on all of them? To get those answers, you’ll have to listen to our “Best of WWE 2015” edition of The Straight Shooters.