15/4/2018

McGuinness reveals why he no-showed:

NXT's Nigel McGuinness became a father to Amelia this week, this is why he did not attend the NXT tapings.

Welsh woman returns:

Nixon Newell, who lost her place in the MYC due to a poorly timed serious knee injury last summer, is back. She worked the NXT live tour this weekend.

Taker vs Cena:

Undertaker was not physically able to do a long match at WrestleMania due to his hip replacement, hence the short squash victory he received over John Cena. He and WWE hope he can go longer in Saudi later in the month.

Backstage fight in ROH:

Cody Rhodes meal was killed and trampled during a locker room fight at last nights ROH show. He took the scrap more light heartedly than others, Kazarian said it was unacceptable and Nick Jackson said the behaviour had no place in his locker room. No word on who was involved.

Jinder talks main event push:

"WrestleMania week I saw Road Dogg at the hotel in the hallways. He said, 'Hey Jinder, after WrestleMania, good things are going to happen to you.' I think the plan was that they were going to elevate me a little bit. I thought, cool, I can actually be in a storyline, be in the U.S Championship, the I.C Championship. So, I got drafted to SmackDown, which was a good sign. All along, I wanted to be drafted to SmackDown. Right when I got signed I would see Road Dogg in the hallways and telling him to please draft me to SmackDown because I saw people on SmackDown getting opportunities. I love Raw. Raw has a stigma about it, but us on the blue team have a chip on their shoulder, but they say SmackDown is the land of opportunity, which it really is," Mahal said. "I was at a live event on a Monday Night, and they announced the Six-Pack Challenge match for the Number One Contender's Match. I also see Tweets wondering how Jinder Mahal is in the Number One Contender's Match, he hasn't won a match in a long time. I think Baron Corbin, or Luke Harper was going to go in with Randy Orton. I remember getting my wrists taped and I asked who was going to face Randy Orton. I think Luke Harper was in there. He said to me, 'it's you.' I was taken aback. What? I'm going to work with Randy Orton? Five minutes later I saw Randy, and told him that we were going to work together. So, I had to grow a lot very quickly because to be a main event WWE Superstar is an entirely different ballgame. I always see people wishing they can be in the main event. If you were given that opportunity, would you sink or swim? I had no choice but to swim. I was fortunate enough to have a great relationship with Randy Orton. I believe Randy Orton is one of the greatest of all time. He is so smooth, so flawless."

Alum returns:

Rich Swann made an unannounced return to wrestling for CZW last night. He had retired due to not being able to get booked after losing his WWE job for a DV incident.

WWE star wins award:

Scott Stanford has won an Emmy for his breakfast show in New York.

14/4/2018

Injury:

JR suffered a fractured vertebrae whilst attending an American football game last year. He only went to seek medical advice about the injury this week.

Reyturn:

Rey Mysterio has agreed to a one shot appearance in Saudi this month and is still talking about a full return to WWE, but will not join up until later in the summer due to other bookings in Mexico and Japan.

Rusev:

FW4 claim the Rusev situation is completely kayfabe, from the TMZ interview to the removal of WWE from his social media handles. They even suggest the plan all along was to take the Taker match away from him, but, as many are asking, why give it to him in the first place?

Rusev has not commented on his status today.

HOF snubbed:

WrestleMania 34's DVD will not include this years HOF ceremony because it ran for over 4 hours.

13/4/2018

Cena considering future:

John Cena told a movie show that he is considering his wrestling future...

''I'm giving some serious thought to what comes next in my career after wrestling."

Rusev:

Rusev may be considering his future after losing the Undertaker match. He tweeted...

''It will be RusevDay somewhere''

after the news of the bout change broke, shortly after a TMZ interview he did. Some have taken the comment to mean he will take his services elsewhere, which gained traction after he removed all mention of WWE from his Twitter profile. He has seemingly won a supporter in his defense. Undertaker's wife Michelle McCool urged fans (and maybe WWE officials?) not to believe the headline of the TMZ article that cost him the match, and actually watch the footage of what he said. He never said he would crush and retire Taker's ''Old ass'' as claimed by the website.

CM UFC:

CM Punk will fight in Chicago on June 9, for his second trip into the octagon.

Lesnar's deal:

Brock Lesnar has not signed a one match deal, but will be gone before SummerSlam. He can, during the deal, talk to UFC about his return to MMA, and sign for a fight, but cannot have the fight for them until he is gone from WWE. He is getting a ''Significant pay rise'' for the length of the deal and has the option to talk to WWE later in the year, if he chooses not to stay with UFC after his next fight. It is speculated that Paul Heyman's deal would end at the same time.

Worst moment in wrestling:

Shane Douglas told Two Man Power Trip that Nicholas is now the worst thing to happen in a wrestling ring, over taking the David Arquette title win...

"My understanding and from the guys in my entourage were saying that the audience kind of died after that match and you could kind of felt the energy leave the room. But we've heard for eighteen years that Vince Russo is the worst thing ever to wrestling because he put the belt on David Arquette. As much as I disagree with that decision that was better than putting a belt on a ten year old kid. My thought as soon as I heard this was what about Cesaro and Sheamus? They've got to go out and do a job to one guy that has a ten year old kid as his sidekick. The only way that could have worked and this may sound terrible but if you think it through it is the only way that could have worked and that is if they had a kid that was a Make-A-Wish kid or a kid that had been sick or something and you bring him in and do something to pop the crowd. It would have still been up-roared by wrestling purists but you would have seen some kind of some light at the end of the tunnel with it. Vince Russo has been vilified for eighteen years over the David Arquette thing and now we have this. But to be fair and let's throw some stuff in there from WrestleMania weekend. There was a show that shall go unnamed where they had The Invisible Man come out and win a battle royal. I go back to Bill Watts and I tell Bill Watts specifically about that and his mouth dropped open when I said it. To me, it reeks of and it seems that nobody has respect for the industry or their own work in the industry anymore. If everything is a spoof and everything is a Saturday Night Live skit where does it end? You mentioned in your lead in that Vince Russo has been vilified in this industry to this day and look at the feedback you guys got off of the interview you had with David Arquette. To me, that is so much more plausible as implausible and that was so much more plausible than having a ten year old kid come out of the audience and win the World Tag Team Titles. It speaks to all of what is wrong with our business today and this is what everybody hears me say in any interview and that this is the difference of sports entertainment to professional wrestling. There is a very stark difference. Nothing against the kid and I am happy that he lived a dream that he will have the rest of his life and remember forever but that is not what WrestleMania is supposed to be about and that is not what the product is supposed to be about. It just underscores to me just how far off the track our industry has gone. After eighteen years of vilification of Vince Russo of that decision we now get this. In light of and at the same time we get The Invisible Man winning battle royals, we get freeze-frames, we get pretend hand grenades and all of this crazy stuff that has nothing to do with wrestling."

Rousey on tour:

Ronda Rousey will work her first international tour for WWE in Europe next month.

Owens departs:

KO has again removed himself from social media after people started targeting his family...

"Social media is an absolute cesspool. The way some people try and ruin people's lives for no apparent reason is genuinely depressing. My Instagram is gone, again and now people are going after my wife too. It's disgusting. Needless to say, I would never do this to my family."

NXT promotion pay off for long feud (SPOILERS!!!):

A creative leak suggests Bray Wyatt will turn on Matt Hardy and bring NXT group Sanity up to the main show as his new followers as the payoff for their angles together, which will continue into the summer, now as partners.

ADR reveals why he no-showed:

...The main event of Impact vs LU...

"I had a family situation that I needed to attend. As you know, my family, my kids are my priority. The situation was involving them and that's why I decided to take care of business and take care of my family situation. And that's all that happened. And that comes to what I was just saying to you. I know people wanted to know absolutely everything. This only concerns my family: my parents, my sister, myself and my kids. And that's the way it's going to stay."

WWE landmark:

WWE have 25 million YouTube subscribers.

Name change?:

WWE have re-applied for the TM of the name of Colin Cassidy, the old NXT name of Big Cass, who is soon to return from injury.

Friends reconcile:

Jimmy Hart says Hulk Hogan and Brutus The Barber reconciled their friendship over Christmas.

Vince picks next top star:

Vince McMahon is pushing for creative to pull the trigger on Baron Corbin's step up to the World title stories. He rates Corbin as the best star on their books that has not yet held one of the top two titles. It should be said that WWE were planning a push at this time last year too, and that never materialised.

12/4/2018

New talent:

War Raiders, Hanson & Rowe have joined the NXT roster.

Heat on Liv:

Liv Morgan posted the NXT run sheet to her Instagram last night. She had posted a selfie backstage at the NXT tapings and the running order for the night was on the wall behind her, on it was match results, who booked each segment and other SPOILERS!!! for the shows which air on tape delay (Hence, I won't share it here).

Y2J reveals reason for Mania song choice:

"Vince does not like the American national anthem, nope. He feels that 'America The Beautiful' is the epitome of American songs. That's why for every WrestleMania, it's 'America The Beautiful'."

Racist abuse:

Naomi has been targeted with vile racial abuse on social media since winning the WrestleMania battle royal. She called one particular slimeball out today.

Mania main changed:

Roman Reigns was booked to win the Universal title at WrestleMania until Brock agreed to sign a new deal, at a higher rate of pay. He told WWE he would stay on the pre Mania Raw, but refused to sign it until Mania day, when he did the result change was relayed to Reigns.

NXT no show:

Nigel McGuinness missed last nights NXT tapings, no reason is known as yet.

LU lose 2:

Angelico and Jack Evans have parted ways with Lucha Underground. They have been involved in some of the tapings for the new series, so will still appear for a while.

Fan incident:

A video of Mojo Rawley delivering Flair chops to drunk fans in a NOLA bar has made it's way onto the internet. The video had the fan using very offensive and homophobic language to goad Mojo into hitting him. Mojo seemed to take the incident in fun, he was laughing throughout, but did give him what he asked for. WWE have not yet commented.

Rusev punished?:

Rusev has lost his match vs Undertaker, seemingly as a result of telling TMZ the dead man is past his prime. Chris Jericho will wrestle him in Saudi instead.

Rey Rumbling again:

Rey Mysterio agreed to work the Greatest Royal Rumble whilst at WrestleMania.

HOF health scare:

WWE are helping health officials get in touch with fans at the HOF ceremony after a British fan fell ill with measles the day after attending the event. The fan is very unwell, and is believed to still be in hospital as of this writing.

11/4/2018

FeMania:

WWE were so excited by the debut of Ronda Rousey that they are working on a potential first ever female main event of next years WrestleMania. She will continue her feud with Steph into the summer, with a rumoured one on one match at SummerSlam, before moving into the women's division properly. The plan would then go on into the new year where she will set her sights on gold, probably via the 2nd female Royal Rumble, and would finally have her shot in the last match of the big one. Her penciled in opponent is Asuka but Nia Jax and Charlotte are on the table too.

Move banned:

Asuka has been banned from using the armbar. That move is now Ronda's.

Heyman weds celeb:

Paul Heyman married Macaulay Culkin's younger brother, Rory, over WrestleMania weekend. Apparently the wrestling mad 'Home Alone' actor arranged it for his sibling to have the WWE star officiate his nuptials...

GM quits:

Daniel Bryan has resigned from his role as SD GM. He wants to focus on his wrestling career. He has been replaced by the now retired Paige.

NXT invasion continues:

After being one of the 6 NXT women representing the third brand at Mania, Peyton Royce, and her Iconic partner Billie Kay, who was not involved at Mania, stepped up to the full show with SmackDown last night.

New champion:

Carmella cashed in her MITB case to win the blue Women's gold last night. Ending Charlotte's reign.

TE vs CM:

A former Tough Enough hopeful blasted WWE fans that chant for CM Punk on social media...

''I wonder how much those fans spent to throw beach balls and chant CMPunk's name. I mean...tickets to the show, flights, hotels, food, and probably drinks and maybe merch. That's a lot of money to spend just to show everyone you're an asshole.''

This drew a rare comment on the sport from CM himself...

''Or you could just let everyone know you're an asshole for free by telling them what to do with their own money.''

Injury:

Brian Kendrick is back from his broken face.

Backlash:

Jinder Mahal vs Randy Orton (US) is booked for Backlash.

Superstar swap:

Asuka may be on  the move. She is advertised for the blue live tours shows into the summer.

Undertaker on tour:

Undertaker will wrestle Rusev in Saudi Arabia at the Network special later in the month.

Austin unhappy with Mania match:

"It was a little shocking to me with Cena calling Taker out for so long, basically, it was an unadvertised match. I mean, Cena's trying to call him out and I kept thinking, 'there's no way, no way that he's going to get an acceptance on the day-of,' so, yeah, it was teased and they paid off the tease, but it wasn't really advertised. So nonetheless, the crowd felt like they got a bonus, but in that bonus was a very short match and Cena got squashed. I've got nothing but respect for both guys. Undertaker has been around forever. He has had one of the best runs in the history of the business, so has John Cena. And, man, had it been a 15-minute bing, bang, boom kind of thing, I don't know that that's what they needed, but it just seems like maybe if Cena got in just a little bit more offense into that Tombstone, then, do the favors, maybe it would have been a little bit more effective."

Local TV spoil WWE main:

A local TV spot promoting Extreme Rules has AJ Styles vs Shinsuke Nakamura vs Baron Corbin as the headline bout.

Rousey on TV:

Ronda Rousey will be on 'Hollywood Medium' tonight.

King ill:

Jerry Lawler suffered a stroke two weeks ago and could not talk for three days.

Corey Graves talks tough week:

"That day was tough for me. I didn't know about it. Nobody gave me a heads up. For Bryan, I was stoked. He's a friend. He's incredible in the ring. That's where he belongs. It caught me off guard. I started asking questions to myself, Should I? What if? I had a few conversations with few people who put it out there. If you want to pursue this maybe we can look into it. So I spent about a week and a half weighing the options. It was, do I become a wrestler again and what happens?"

Why Andre did not Rumble:

Brother Love has revealed why Andre was pulled from winning the 1991 Royal Rumble match...

"It was health issues, it was the thought that we're not going to get Andre beyond this. We thought maybe we do one where he wins it, but health issues just weren't going to allow him to be able to compete in it. Even bringing him out at number 30 wouldn't have been pretty."

WWE / Impact project:

WWE and Impact are working together to produce a new Hardyz DVD.

10/4/2018

Debuts, returns and retirements:

Raw last night saw the start of new career's, the return of an old face and the end of another stars in ring days. Ember Moon, No Way Jose and Authors Of Pain were promoted out of NXT to join the Raw brand last night. More NXT talent are expected to join SmackDown tonight. Bobby Lashley returned after 10 years away and Paige confirmed the end of her wrestling career. It appears Paige is not going to be taking on an on screen role with WWE because they have moved her to their Alumni roster and wished her well for her future, but she will be a part of the next series of 'Total Diva's' and will continue to promote the WWE movie about her family. As well as this Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn competed for a red brand contract after losing their jobs with team blue at Mania. Sadly they failed to win one.

Titles vacated:

Braun Strowman & Nicholas vacated the red Tag titles on Raw due to Nicholas being too busy to go on the road. A tournament has started to crown new owners.

Injury:

Jeff Hardy and Samoa Joe came back following injury breaks last night.

Shake up:

WWE will hold their post Mania brand swaps next week.

Backlash:

Seth Rollins vs Miz (IC) is the first match booked for Backlash, which will be the first non big 4 PPV to be joint hosted since the brand split.

Heyman signs:

Paul Heyman has followed Brock Lesnar in re-signing for WWE, but they are said to be short term deals. It is speculated that that they have signed until the end of the month so Brock can drop his title to Roman Reigns at the Saudi special, then both will depart the company. No conformation on the exact length of the deals is available as yet.

SD tease:

• How will AJ Styles respond to Shinsuke Nakamura's savage attack?
• What does the future hold for the leadership of SmackDown LIVE and the Superstar Shake-up?
• Where does Charlotte go after beating Asuka?
• Who will be the light in The Bludgeon Brothers' new age of darkness?
• Who might debut on SmackDown LIVE after WrestleMania?

Backstage fight:

Shane McMahon was ready to fight Brock Lesnar after Brock threw his title at his dad at Mania. Brock didn't bite and left the arena quickly after the incident.

SnOwVW:

Al Snow has purchased OVW from Danny Davis, who is moving to Florida to retire.

Dolph departing:

Dolph Ziggler says news he had signed a $1.5 million a year deal at the start of the year was false. He is talking to WWE, but is running down his current deal before deciding on where his future lies.

Y2J on trip:

Chris Jericho is going to be in the Greatest Royal Rumble.

9/4/2018

WrestleMania 34:

Results...

1. (Pre) Matt Hardy won the Andre The Giant battle royal.
2. (Pre) Cedric Alexander bt Mustafa Ali to win the vacant Cruiserweight.
3. (Pre) Naomi won the ladies battle royal.
4. Seth Rollins br The Miz and Finn Balor to win the Intercontinental.
5. Charlotte Flair bt Asuka.
6. Jinder Mahal bt Randy Orton, Rusev and Bobby Rode to win the US.
7. Kurt Angle & Ronda Rousey bt Triple H & Stephanie McMahon.
8. Harper & Rowan bt Jey & Jimmy Uso and Kofi Kingston & Big E. to win the blue Tag.
9. The Undertaker bt John Cena.
10. Daniel Bryan & Shane McMahon bt Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn.
11. Nia Jax bt Alexa Bliss to win the red Women's.
12. AJ Styles bt Shinsuke Nakamura.
13. Braun Strowman & Nicholas bt Sheamus & Cesaro to win the red Tag.
14. Brock Lesnar bt Roman Reigns.

Notes...

• Elias did not take his spot in the Andre match, he was replaced by Ascension.
• Bray Wyatt returned to help Matt Hardy win the Andre match.
• 6 NXT women, Kairi Sane, Peyton Royce, Bianca Belair, Taynara Conti, Dakota Kai, and Kavita Devi filled out the female battle royal.
• Seth Rollins completed the championship grand slam last night.
• Riddick Moss, Tino Sabbatelli and Dan Matha of NXT and the PC were involved in Charlotte's entrance.
• Asuka's unbeaten streak ended last night.
• KO & Sami are fired from SmackDown after losing their match.
• Nakamura turned heel after his match.
• Nicholas is the 10 year old son of referee John Cone, who was pulled out of the crowd by Braun to be his partner. He is now officially recognised as one half of the Tag Team champions by WWE, making him the youngest title holder in WWE history.
• Kid Rock no showed the HOF celebration.
• Aiden English had a hair cut in between his two appearances.
• Elias sang a song and had a confrontation with John Cena.

Two day Mania:

The Meltzer claims WWE are toying with the idea of making future WrestleMania's two day events. He says they are finally listening to their talent's frustration at missing the big one each year and are also aware of fan fatigue with crowd reaction to even major matches getting weaker as the night drags on. Last nights event lasted 7 hours.

Alum talks why she is coming back:

Rosa Mendes says her dad's death made her itch for the ring again...

"I feel like when I retired, I had a little bit of regret that I wasn't in the ring enough. Actually, a lot of regret. My father was in the ICU recently, and on his deathbed and he was on life support. And, at the same time, Bobby [Schubenski] had a separation. So, it was one of those moments in my life where I looked at my father, and he was dying, and I thought to myself, I don't ever want to have any regrets. I don't ever want to be in a position where I'm laying here just like my dad, and that I never fulfilled my dream of having a five-star match in the ring. And I've never felt that. And I have a daughter now, and I never want her to have any regrets. So, I'm looking at her and raising her, and how could I tell her to do something that I didn't do? How could I tell her, 'Follow your dreams, do everything you've ever wanted and have no fear,' when I didn't do that in my life. So basically... that kind of snapped in my head, and I was like, I have to go back in the ring. I have to. What's the match that I could back, and even if I won or lost, I gave it everything I had and I'm proud of myself. And I can't say that right now. So, that's the reason why I'm going back, and I'm working harder than I ever have in my whole entire life."

Batista never quit:

Batista says he never quit WWE either time he left, it was mutual.

Rousey glad she lost:

Ronda Rousey says she is so happy she lost her UFC fights, because it led to her WWE debut last night.

She also offered this apology to fans...

"I owe the WWE universe an apology, because I thought they were going to boo me out of the building from day one. They really accepted me from day one. Hopefully, I satisfied a lot of skeptics tonight. I underestimated how kind the WWE universe would be. I thought any outsiders would be shunned. I was expecting to get shunned and to have to battle to be accepted. I worked my ass off to pay respect to what's so important to them, and hopefully they saw that tonight. I'm just so grateful, man. I'm trying my best to deserve it."

Raw tease:

• The Beast came marching in
• Blaze of glory: Seth Rollins returns as the Intercontinental Champion
• Not like most champions: new RAW Women's Champion Nia Jax
• Will Braun Strowman really defend the Raw Tag Team Titles with a kid named Nicholas?
• Raw gets rowdy: what's next for Ronda Rousey?

Richest wrestlers:

Forbes have listed the 10 richest WWE stars (Based on earnings from in ring competition in the past 12 months only)...

1. John Cena - $10 million
2. Brock Lesnar - $6.5 million
3. Roman Reigns - $4.3 million
4. AJ Styles - $3.5 million
5. Triple H - $ 3.2 million
6. Randy Orton - $2.9 million
7. Seth Rollins - $2.7 million
8. The Undertaker - $2.5 million
9. Dean Ambrose - $2.2 million
10. Kevin Owens - $2.0 million

Backstage incident:

Vince McMahon and Brock Lesnar got into a heated argument as he returned through the curtain following his match. No conformation as to what caused it, but Brock threw his title belt at either Vince or a wall depending on who you believe before storming off.

Lesnar had been caught on camera swearing at Roman during the match, so it may have been related to that, but he apparently went off script at the end by busting Roman open so that is a possibility too.

WWE Network:

Senior WWE execs have confirmed they are looking at a tiered pricing structure for subscribers and teased a women's only brand may be on the horizon.

Brock signs:

WWE says Brock Lesnar has re-signed with them and will be on the plane to Saudi Arabia for the special later in the month.