Major League Wrestling (MLW) announcer Tony Schiavone was Jim Ross’ guest on the latest edition of The Jim Ross Report podcast.
During the discussion, JR asked Tony what he thinks about All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Tony mentioned how they’ve both known Cody since he was a young kid and said Cody has a great business sense. He talks to Cody a great deal and took a moment to address speculation that he will be involved in AEW.
Tony said, “I’m not going to AEW. I’ve got too much going on and I don’t want to. Cody and I were doing some work for Starrcast, because I’m doing some work behind the scenes with Conrad. That was a misnomer out there … I ain’t doing that. I’ve got too much going on in my life, I really do.”
He added that he is still under contract with MLW, although Jim Cornette has filled in for him during MLW’s recent TV tapings due to scheduling issues.
After setting the record straight that he has no current plans to work with AEW, Schiavone gave his thoughts on the upstart promotion. He also dropped an interesting piece of information about AEW bringing in a major name we have not yet heard about.
“I think Cody is a smart kid and the Bucks obviously have made quite a name for themselves,” Schiavone said. “Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho, I just think this is a great time for pro wrestling. They’re going to do some great things in wrestling, including bringing in somebody who has a great, great national name for himself, and I’ll just let it go with that. They’re doing things the right way and I’m pretty excited for them.”
JR and Tony both said they’re excited for any company that can provide more of their friends a payday.
We lost Dusty just 4 days later. At the time, the 4 Horsewomen of NXT were starting to come into their own. Sasha Banks was NXT Women’s champion and had just defeated Lynch in a title match at Takeover: Unstoppable the month prior to Dusty’s passing.
Earlier today, Becky Lynch responded to the Tweet, noting that at WrestleMania she has the opportunity to prove just how right about her Dusty was.
While Lynch had Dusty Rhodes pulling for her while in WWE developmental, it appears she had her fair share of detractors as well. Not long after learning her match would headline WrestleMania this year, Lynch noted that some were pushing for her to be released when she was still in developmental.
“I got a couple of text messages this week from people here at work and NXT or worked in the office side of things. (They said) I don’t know if you knew this, but there are some people that wanted to fire you when you were in NXT. Congratulations on the main event.”
Tenille Dashwood is a free agent. After competing for Ring of Honor’s Women of Honor division for the last year, Dashwood announced her free agency earlier today on social media.
There will likely be no shortage of suitors for Dashwood, including her previous longtime employer, WWE, where she wrestled as Emma. She was let go from the company in October of 2017.
Most recently, Dashwood had been a member of the Lifeblood stable in ROH along with the likes of Juice Robinson, Bandido, and Tracy Williams.
She underwent shoulder surgery last fall and hasn’t wrestled since.
A report last month from Pro Wrestling Sheet indicated that Dashwood and ROH were in talks on a new contract. Evidently, the two sides were unable to make a deal, however.
Dashwood’s WWE release in 2017 came as somewhat of a surprise. Speculated reasons as to why she was released could involve frequent injuries and the failure of the “Emmalina” character but those are only guesses.
Dashwood signed with Ring of Honor in early 2018. Along with Kelly Klein, Sumie Sakai, and Madison Rayne, Dashwood helped establish the WOH division as a regular part of ROH shows during her time with the company. Her last match was in September at Death Before Dishonor when she dropped a WOH title match to Sumie Sakai.
WWE has announced that there will be a contract signing this Tuesday. The Daniel Bryan vs Kofi Kingston match for WrestleMania will be made ‘official’ on Smackdown Live. The WWE Championship match for WrestleMania has been locked in for quite some time backstage, but on television Kingston has been made to work for it.
Kofi was added to the Elimination Chamber match earlier this year when Mustafa Ali was unable to compete in the structure. Fans rallied behind Kofi who appeared to once again be in his “good hand” role for the evening. Kingston had stolen the show in a gauntlet match on the Tuesday night prior. The winner of that bout would be entered into the Chamber last, Kofi was eliminated by AJ Styles after an incredible showing. Randy Orton went on to win the bout and enter the Chamber last, but fans were right behind Kingston.
This spot had originally been slated for the aforementioned Ali, who if reports are to be believed would’ve faced Daniel Bryan at Fastlane. Kevin Owens would then have gotten the Championship bout at WrestleMania. Owens ended up facing Bryan at Fastlane, giving Kofi the opportunity to challenge for the belt at WrestleMania.
What is intriguing is that Kofi is one of the only performers who could’ve had this run. Ali, whilst an impressive performer does not have the tenure that Kingston has, not even close. Kingston is also in that class of ‘never used to their potential’ in WWE and he has seen many Superstars come and go. Kofi is the ‘Royal Rumble spot guy’ and nothing more…until the fans got right behind him.
Kenny Omega returned to the ring Saturday night from Winnipeg, Canada for Premier Championship Wrestling.
This was Kenny’s first in-ring contest since January 4th, when he lost the IWGP Heavyweight Championship to Hiroshi Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom 13. He left New Japan to accept a contract with the new All Elite Wrestling (AEW) promotion, headed by Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks.
Omega appeared in a 6-man tag match against a team headed by longtime friend Don Callis. The two have been building a rivalry in PCW, with Callis turning on Omega back in October of 2018.
This was Don Callis’ first match in 15 years. The former ECW personality shockingly defeated Omega with a Codebreaker. The fact that he won the bout with Chris Jericho’s finishing manoeuvre was of course quite apt.
Kenny Omega faces Chris Jericho at All Elite Wrestling’s Double or Nothing PPV event on May 25 in Las Vegas.
During his time in the UK independent wrestling scene Kris Travis was extremely well liked and respected by both fans and peers alike. He unfortunately passed away from stomach cancer on March 31st 2016, he was 32 years old.
UK Wrestling has mourned the loss of one of its brightest stars over the past three years. Preston City Wrestling (PCW) was one of Kris’ favourite promotions to work for and since his passing a number of tributes and events have been organised by the company to honour his memory, both in and out of the ring, including the Kris Travis Memorial Tournament. The inaugural tournament took place back in 2017.
ATTACK! Pro Wrestling have also held events in Travis’ name. The initial ‘Kris Travis Tag Team Invitational’ tournament featured some of the best tag competitors in the UK such as #CCK (Chris Brookes & Mondai Lykos), F.S.U (Mark Andrews & Eddie Dennis) & eventual winners Project Lucha (El Ligero & Martin Kirby). This also took place back in 2017.
Several UK stars have been remembering Travis today. You can check out some of the outpouring of respect and love for the star below:
Before the @ThisIs_Progress show starts today, instead of playing IDLES like we usually do, we’ll be playing CKY in honour of our late friend Kris Travis.
And once I’m in the ring we’ll have a minutes applause for someone we miss very much indeed too ??
— Jim Smallman – ????????? (@jimsmallman) March 31, 2019
my favourite Kris Travis memory was eating at Subway next to PCW and he came in with his hood up so I didn't know it was him (he was making a surprise appearance later on the show) ordered his food & left
he messaged me 2 mins later: "why didn't you say hello"#ThankYouTrav
3 years today since we lost our fellow dude Kris Travis. I'm gutted he's gone, his face would light up when he saw Jack and he'd take him round venues showing him off, it helped they had the same mental age lol. Trav inspired me to get out and live more, live better. RIP dude
Over the years we have seen numerous superstars getting banned from WWE with the company prohibiting any mention of them on their programming and removing things related to them from their various content platforms.
And if we believe the former World Champion and AEW Star
Chris Jericho then he is the latest star to join this list, because of his
signing with the new promotion.
Jericho recently had an interview with Jim Norton and Sam Roberts on Sirius XM where he discussed things like the problem with WWE Hall Of Fame speeches and more.
When asked if he has talked to Vince McMahon since his deal with AEW, Y2J revealed that he has talked to the Boss a couple of times but claimed that he is the public enemy number one in WWE now.
Expanding on his comments Jericho said that he has kind of been removed from the annals history and revealed that he recently offered for a couple of WWE Superstars to appear on his podcast to promote WrestleMania but was turned down.
The given reason for it was the fact that he is a contracted AEW talent now and he was told that it would not be appropriate for WWE Stars to appear on his show.
Though later Chris acknowledged that he has not been disgraced by the company since all his stuff is still on the WWE Network, although he did mention that a couple of UpUpDownDown videos featuring him have been removed.
Since Chris Jericho is one of AEW’s top selling points at the moment, it’s understandable that the Officials see him as a competition.
However, whether or not these moves from the company are ethically rigorous is still a topic of discussion. Let us know your thoughts on it in the comment section below.
AEW Star Chris Jericho recently sat down with Inside The Ropes. He had an in-depth interview with them, and during the talk, Jericho revealed the original WrestleMania 25 plans for him.
Jericho revealed that one day before the show; Vince McMahon
called him to his office and revealed that he will be facing Mickey Rourke in
an attraction match at WrestleMania.
Chris explained this setting saying that certain WrestleMania matches are earmarked to be the classics, while others are on the show to get everyone on the card. Then there are bouts which are the attraction and his match was the attraction.
However, this plan failed when Rourke let the announcement
slip before Vince McMahon had planned. He decided to call Jericho out at the
SAG awards and as a result, his agents flipped out.
According to Y2J, Mickey’s agents told him that he won’t win
an Oscar if he’s involved with WWE and they advised him to pull out of the bout
which he apparently did.
The whole thing made Vince mad because he had planned to announce the match after the Oscars and it resulted in Rourke’s role at the show being cut short.
In the end, Jericho ended up being involved in a storyline with several WWE Legends. He faced Ricky Steamboat, Jimmy Snuka, and Roddy Piper in a three on one handicap match at the show.
Jericho won this bout defeating all three of the legends easily and the whole thing ended with Mickey Rourke getting a celebrity spot and punching Jericho in the face. You can check out Jericho’s comments in the video below:
While it was widely believed that Kenny Omega will sign with
AEW after his NJPW contract expired, the former World Champion took his time
making this news official.
As he revealed in a recent interview with Alicia Atout from AMBY Interviews, pro wrestling’s Best Bout Machine does not like keeping the fans in dark about what he’s up to.
Omega explained that he loves being transparent and it pains him when he is under a contractual thing like an NDA Clause that disallows him to speak openly. The former IWGP Heavyweight Champion said that it’s hard for him to be less-than-truthful with fans if there is something in place that stops him from revealing everything.
“I just like being honest and it’s hard for me to lie If there’s something in place which stops me from saying what I’m doing. It’s so hard to tell people, ‘I can’t tell you.’ I want to because I’m excited about it.”
Though later in the interview, Kenny claimed that he is an adult who made his own decision and it probably was proper to make the announcement during Double Or Nothing press conference since he only signed the contract moments before walking out.
The AEW Vice President also teased some upcoming Double Or Nothing announcements, saying that there are going to be announcements featuring talents which they haven’t revealed to the public yet.
Apart from this, Kenny Omega also talked about being an eSports ambassador, gaming with Xavier Woods and more. You can check out his full interview in the video below:
Turns out that the WWE Universe may have to wait even longer for the rumored faction feud between WWE’s Four Horsewomen and Ronda Rousey’s MMA Horsewomen.
Despite recent reports speculating that WWE is aiming to close WrestleMania 35 with a feel-good moment for the WWE Four Horsewomen, this may no longer be the case.
Writing in a post on the Wrestling Observer Forum, Dave Meltzer divulged that this is apparently no longer the current plan for the end of ‘Mania.
“This is not happening,” he said, “well at least as not happening can be with Vince changing his mind every hour. It makes no sense with the direction they are going.”
Close The Show
With Charlotte Flair now holding the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship, the rumor speculated that Becky Lynch would defeat her rival, Ronda Rousey, for the RAW Women’s Championship.
Lynch and Flair, now each holding gold, would then be joined by their former Horsewomen stablemates and WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions, Bayley and Sasha Banks. That is, of course, if they successfully defend them in their matchup.
In case you didn’t know, the women were colloquially known as the Four Horsewomen during their time in NXT. Since that time, Ronda Rousey and a number of her MMA friends have joined WWE’s roster. Prior to that, however, they had also adopted the Four Horsewomen name.
Both took the name in honor of legendary wrestling stable, the Four Horsemen.
What do you think? Are we on the way to a feel-good moment? With Ronda’s Horsewomen stablemates still in NXT, Is a clash between the two still a long way off?
Fight Forever Wrestling (UK) recently held their ‘Dance of The Dragon’ event from the PRYZM Nightclub in Birmingham. The show will be available to view via FITE TV on April 8th for free.
If you can’t wait then here are the full results from the show:
Jody Fleisch & Jonny Storm b. The Dynamite Duo (Mark Billington & Thomas Billington)
Bobbi Tyler vs. Candy Floss – This match ended in a No Contest
Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) b. The South Coast Connection (Ashley Dunn & Kelly Sixx)
Carlos Romo b. Fraser Thomas
Fight Forever Men’s World Title Hardcore Match – Joe Hendry (c) b. Sha Samuels
Fight Forever had recently announced a PPV deal with FITE TV. The company revealed on Twitter back in February that two PPV events would be streamed live on the platform. The two shows being Dance of The Dragon and Fight Syndrome. These two shows will be recorded on March 29th and shown on FITE on April 8th and 15th respectively. Dance of The Dragon will be a free event on the platform. Fight Syndrome will be an official PPV stream.
Fight Forever made the following comments on the new PPV deal: “With a double-taping already announced for March 29th at PRYZM Birmingham. Fans in attendance can expect to see a world-class roster of talent including PAC, Fight Forever Men’s Champion Joe Hendry, David Starr, Candy Floss, El Phantasmo and many more.”
Current Impact Wrestling’s Knockouts champion, Taya Valkyrie, unfortunately suffered a recent injury, causing her to cancel a few upcoming appearances.
Taking to her Twitter account, Valkyrie, shared the initial damage in a video, showcasing heavy bruising and a swollen eye. She later clarified that this came about after an accident delivering a moonsault. When asked by a fan if there was anybody to blame for the incident, Taya replied:
“Nobody, it was an accident. This is pro wrestling and accidents happen. I’ve executed 1000s of perfect moonsaults. Tonight something just went wrong. That’s all.”
“It’s Just Putting Pressure On My Eyeball”
She has since provided a further injury update. Once again uploading a video to her Twitter, she would display the bruising and explain that “As you can see, my face is still super swollen. We got some x-rays and stuff done last night because the pressure on my eye was actually really bad, but I don’t have any fractures, thank God.”
Taya explained that “It’s just severe swelling on the whole right side of my face, so, it’s just putting pressure on my eyeball. And some contusions. I just have some eye drops and lots of icing and I just have to try to stay positive even though I look like this.”
WWE has no intentions on slowing down with their recent clothing collaborations. The company recently partnered with New Era Cap to release a range of Superstar specific caps. Now, WWE Superstars announced their partnership products with Foot Locker and FILA.
This deal sees a limited number of sneakers available for purchase at footlocker.com and the Foot Locker store in New York’s Time Square. The shoes will launch on April 4th—so just in time for wrestling fans descending upon New York for WrestleMania 35.
WWE x FILA
Two Superstars, in particular, have shared their collaboration shoes, inspired by their character and gimmicks.
“The Boss” Sasha Banks shared an image of her golden sneakers inside a locker, writing that:
“Sasha Banks Edition part of the Fila x @WWE collab, launching on 4/4, exclusively on , and available at the Footlocker times square location. Just in time for you to rock them at the grandest stage of them all, WRESTLEMANIA!!!
Sasha Banks Edition part of the Fila x @WWE collab, launching on 4/4, exclusively on https://t.co/oGotyhTQPA, and available at the Footlocker times square location. Just in time for you to rock them at the grandest stage of them all, WRESTLEMANIA!!! pic.twitter.com/qDEs7WKTvg
— Mercedes Moné Varnado (@MercedesVarnado) March 31, 2019
It’s Limited Edition, Yes It Is
New Day’s Kofi Kingston, on the cusp of Kofi-Mania, also hyped his FILA x WWE collaboration, sharing that the Kofi/New Day shoe is limited to only 483 pairs. The number is representative of the New Day’s 483-day tag team title reign.
He wrote:
“Ya boys done came up…We got our own sneaker! ? Only 483 pairs made in honor of our record tag title run.”
So if you’re a wrestling fan, a sneakerhead, enjoy collecting, or just like the look of these shoes, be sure to grab them as soon as they become available. The New Day ones, in particular, may not be around for long.
Last Tuesday’s episode of SmackDown Live, saw Charlotte Flair claim the SmackDown Women’s Championship for an eight time. This impromptu matchup against Asuka would see a previously planned Fatal Four Way scrapped. Naomi, Carmella, Sonya Devilla, and Mandy Rose all lost an opportunity to become number one contender. The winner would have gone on to face Asuka on “The Grandest Stage Of Them All” at WrestleMania 35.
Understandably, the women involved in that decision weren’t particularly happy about this direction. Naomi, in particular, has been pretty vocal about her feelings.
Feel The Glow
Naomi has previously provided a sarcastic response to WWE’s announcement regarding the second annual Women’s Battle Royal at ‘Mania, writing:
“Y’all sure this ain’t going to get cancelled too? Btw thank you so much for the opportunity”
A recent exchange with a fan only highlights her frustrations. The fan, calling the Superstar “entitled” would be told that Naomi’s feelings refer to “the [SmackDown Women’s] division as a whole” and not just her.
“This isn’t about me this is about our division as a whole we all work to hard & have come to far to come THIS FAR! So go back to your cave bish this don’t concern you”
Given that the WrestleMania 35 event is scheduled for a staggering seven and a half hours, a Battle Royal at least gives the women from all brands an opportunity to feature on the show. So is her frustration justified?
Buff Bagwell was one of the top stars of the WCW roster when WWE bought the company after a long war between these two promotions.
During a recent interview with WrestleZone Bagwell recalled the time and shared his experience of being in the WCW locker room the day the company was sold, among other things.
He also discussed the invasion angle which many believe was handled very poorly and talking about it; Buff mentioned how everyone in the world knew that if Shane McMahon was the owner then in the real world Vince McMahon must have bought it.
Continuing on the topic, the former WCW Star claimed that making Shane McMahon the storyline owner of the company was the reason why the angle wasn’t believable from the start:
“Right off the bat, it wasn’t believable because they
know Shane didn’t go out and buy WCW, they knew his father bought it and gave
it to him for an angle so it became, wrestling became fake again”
Apart from this Buff Bagwell recalled seeing WWE trucks at the time and not knowing what was going on. He revealed that Shane McMahon took a meeting after this and made things clear. You can check out his full interview at this link.
New Japan Pro Wrestling has announced the dates for their upcoming camp at the LA Dojo. The company has also confirmed that “NJPW LA Dojo head coach Katsuyori Shibata is opening up the LA Dojo to aspiring wrestlers who want to learn wrestling basics and techniques from The Wrestler himself.”
The dates for the camp are as follows:
27th May (Monday)
28th May (Tuesday)
29th May (Wednesday)
30th May (Thursday)
Cost: $400
If you are interested in attending then you can find more information via the official NJPW LA Dojo site.
NJPW conducted their first training dojo camp in March 2018 in Los Angeles. Applicants can learn ‘Japanese wrestling techniques’ from pro-wrestlers in the camp.
NJPW President Taakaki Kidani told Tokyo Sports back in 2017 that opening a training center in Los Angeles was part of the promotion’s strategy to expand into the country further.
Seth Rollins Recalls Previous Match With Brock Lesnar
Seth Rollins is all set to face the Beast Brock Lesnar for his Universal Championship at the upcoming WrestleMania PPV, and he hopes to dethrone Lesnar to inspire people backstage.
However, this won’t be their first one on one encounter as Rollins previously faced Lesnar at the Battleground PPV on July 19, 2015. There he was able to retain his WWE Championship thanks The Undertaker’s attack on The Beast.
Seth recently made a Tweet where he recalled his last match with Brock. The Artitecht revealed that he has had a poster of their Battleground match in his office for the past 4 years due to a very specific reason:
I’ve had this in my office for nearly 4 years for a very specific reason. It’s a reminder of where I’ve been, but more importantly of where I want to be. In 8 days the world finally gets the right version of this fight. Redemption is upon us. Let’s take it back. #Wrestlemaniapic.twitter.com/6zFr14ljgX
Finn Balor recently posted a photo of himself and former WWE Champion AJ Styles talking somewhere backstage during a WWE Show with a thinking emoji. Styles also responded to it, claiming Balor is his brother:
These two had a match at TLC 2017 where AJ had replaced Bray Wyatt after Wyatt was ruled out of the event due to an illness. This bout was won by the former NXT Champion.
AJ Styles is currently scheduled to face Randy Orton in a one on one match at the upcoming WrestleMania PPV. On the other hand, Finn Balor will be facing Bobby Lashley and he is rumored to bring out his Demon Persona for this bout.
While we still don’t know about WWE’s plans for the Brand’s Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania, we now know that the titles will be defended on Raw this week.
The company has announced that the current Champions The
Revival will be defending the belts against NXT call ups Ricochet and Aleister
Black at the WrestleMania go home episode of Monday Night Raw.
This announcement only stacks the episode further, and as we noted before, WWE has already confirmed a number of matches and segments including appearances from Brock Lesnar and Batista for the episode.
Top Ten Women’s WrestleMania Milestones
Ahead of the history-making WrestleMania main event next Sunday, WWE has posted a top ten video featuring the top WrestleMania milestones for the female competitors of the company.
This list features moments like the company’s reintroduction of the Women’s Championship, Victoria shaving Molly Holly’s head and Nia Jax winning the Raw Women’s Championship.
And possibly in light of the upcoming match between Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Ronda Rousey the top two moments in the list are Ronda’s WWE debut and Flair beating Lynch and Sasha Banks to become the first holder of the reinstated Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 32:
With the next special under the WWE NXT banner quickly approaching, many fans are excited for the show as it’s a stacked lineup.
Part of this is due to the vision that Triple H has for the product that he is giving to the fans who watch these shows. Since the introduction of them several years ago, the bar gets higher with each event and NXT TakeOver: New York will be just the same especially since it’s being held during WrestleMania weekend.
“The Game” recently spoke with ESPN where he noted that he thinks Johnny Gargano vs. Adam Cole for the vacant WWE NXT Title in 2 of 3 Falls Match will steal the show and be a contest that will be hard to follow.
“I expect it to be hard to follow for the weekend. I don’t mean that as a knock on anybody, it’s just the level of talent there and the emotional storytelling component. It’s probably two of the guys, if you said to me, ‘Name two of the most consistent performers at all levels on any on the rosters that, no matter what, they’re going to knock it out of the park,’ it would be tough for me to come up with bigger names than Gargano and Adam Cole.”
Triple H added that it’s going to be epic and he’s thrilled for both stars as well as proud because this is the first of many moments like that for them across WrestleMania weekends.
WWE is stacking the lineup for Monday’s episode of their flagship show, RAW, and rightfully show. This episode will serve as the go-home edition of the red brand for WrestleMania 35 that is just around the corner.
As usual, it will be all hands on deck this week on both shows – RAW and SmackDown – Live due to it being the go-home episodes for WrestleMania 35.
Earlier this week, WWE already confirmed WWE RAW Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey, Charlotte Flair, and Becky Lynch vs. The Riott Squad in a six-woman tag team match, and Kurt Angle vs. Rey Mysterio in Angle’s last match ever on the show.
On Saturday, WWE confirmed that WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar alongside Paul Heyman would make an appearance in order to further build his upcoming title defense against Seth Rollins.
Also on tap is Bayley, Sasha Banks, Natalya, and Beth Phoenix vs. The IIconics, Tamina and Nia Jax and Batista appearing to respond to Triple H’s statements last week while promoting their No Holds Barred Match.
Last Monday’s edition of WWE RAW from in Boston, MA at the TD Garden averaged 2.589 million viewers, down from 2.695 million the week before. It will be interesting to see what this show does in viewership as it should get a boost.
A graphic to promote the upcoming WWE NXT TakeOver: New York event has people talking.
WWE has already confirmed that Bianca Belair, Kairi Sane, Io Shirai and NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler will battle it out in a Fatal 4 Way match at this show.
As a result of this promotional material, there are some people speculating that the Ladder Match stipulation could be added to the match. Will Henderson (@willh94) was the first person to point out how there are ladders featured on the side of this match. WWE has not announced the stipulation as of this writing.
In the graphic, there are 4 ladders placed around stars competing in the match.
So did anybody notice the random ladders placed on the women’s side of the NXT Takeover: New York graphic? pic.twitter.com/GC8bQ1HVOj
WWE presents the NXT TakeOver: New York event on Friday, April 5, 2019 in Brooklyn, New York at the Barclays Center that will air on the WWE Network. Johnny Gargano vs. Adam Cole in a 2 of 3 Falls Match for the vacant WWE NXT Title will headline this show. Here is the updated card:
Updated WWE NXT TakeOver: New York Card
Johnny Gargano vs. Adam Cole – Vacant WWE NXT Title 2 of 3 Falls Match
WWE NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler vs. Kairi Sane vs. Io Shirai vs. Bianca Belair – Fatal 4 Way Match
WWE NXT North American Champion The Velveteen Dream vs. Matt Riddle
WWE NXT Tag Team Champions The War Raiders vs. TBA
We’re just over a week away from the biggest show in WWE’s year. WrestleMania 35 will be taking place on Sunday April 7th from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
The WWE Network schedule has now been updated and we have a clearer view of the night’s timings. The schedule confirms that the WrestleMania 35 Kickoff pre-show will begin at 5pm ET. The second hour of the Kickoff Show will also air on the USA Network.
The main WrestleMania card is expected to begin on the WWE Network at 7pm ET. WWE’s biggest event of the year is currently expected to last around 5 and a half hours. This would mean the show ending around 12:30am ET. According to WWE’s current schedule WrestleMania will overall last around 7.5 hours. You read that right, 7 and a half hours of Sports Entertainment.
There is currently no confirmation on what matches will be taking place on the Kickoff Show. Last year’s event featured 3 bouts on the pre-show. These were the Cruiserweight Title bout and both the Men’s and Women’s Battle Royals. There is a good chance that the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal is featured on the pre-show once again.
WWE has announced several stars that will be competing in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 35.
Those stars include Colin Jost and Michael Che, Braun Strowman, Andrade, Apollo Crews, Titus O’Neil, Tyler Breeze, Jinder Mahal, No Way Jose, Bobby Roode, Chad Gable, Kalisto, Gran Metalik, Lince Dorado, Bo Dallas, Curtis Axel, Heath Slater, Rhyno, Viktor, Konnor, Ali, Shelton Benjamin, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, Otis, Tucker, EC3. There are now 28 Superstars confirmed for the match.
When Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, and Ronda Rousey main event WrestleMania 35 next weekend, Michelle McCool hopes they get paid as much as men who have main event’ed the same show. TMZ caught up with the former Divas and WWE women’s champion recently and she talked about WrestleMania.
“I do think the women should get paid, a main event is a main event,” McCool said when asked if the women should get paid as much as the men.
McCool didn’t hesitate with her reply. “I hope they do and think they should.”
Due to the secretive nature of WWE’s bonus system, it will be difficult to know if the women are compensated in a similar manner to main event wrestlers of WrestleManias past.
McCool also spoke about how much she’s enjoyed the WrestleMania storyline. The TMZ interview can be seen in the player below:
Equal Pay In Pro Wrestling
With women’s wrestling growing in popularity inside and outside WWE, the topic of equal pay has come up with regularity as of late. Chief “Brandi” Officer for AEW, Brandi Rhodes, has said that wrestlers across genders in the promotion will be paid equally in regards to their position in the company.
“Equal pay means equal opportunity regardless of sex. It does not mean that everyone will be paid the exact same salary regardless of their position. It means the gender pay gap does not apply. An entry level woman won’t make less than an entry level man because of her gender.”
Sasha Banks revealed a few details on how she and Bayley pursued Vince McMahon to bring the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles in the company.
Banks says that they would visit Vince McMahon’s office every week asking for the introduction of tag titles and would be met with mixed reponses.
“It felt like the whole of last year we were asking, like we would be knocking on the door of Vince’s office every week,” Banks told Sky Sports.
“Me and Bayley would go up to him and some weeks he’d say no and some weeks he’d say yes and then bam, it’s here. So that just proves that you should never give up on your dreams. If you’re annoying enough you can make things happen and that’s probably what happened, he just got annoyed with us.”
Despite constantly “annoying” McMahon for the titles, Banks hopes that the CEO understands how much it means to them.
“I hope he understands how important this is to us and we’re going to make it really special. That’s just Vince every week – you never know how he’s going to be. You just have to keep on trying.”
The titles were established in December of 2018 and were unveiled on the January 14, 2019 episode of Raw. The inaugral champions were decided in a tag team Elimination Chamber match on the Elimination Chamber event, which took place on February 17. Sasha Banks and Bayley as The Boss ‘n’ Hug Connection won the match, making them the inaugral champions.
The duo will be seen defending their titles against The Divas of Doom (Beth Phoenix and Natalya), The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce), and Nia Jax & Tamina at WrestleMania 35.
WWE Superstar Bray Wyatt and ring announcer JoJo Offerman spoke with TMZ Sports this week about the news of their son together, who is due in June.
JoJo thanked the reporter for congratulating them and allowed Bray to explain the meaning behind the baby’s name, Knash.
“It’s just a cool name, man. The ‘K’ is silent,” he said. “My other kids have a ‘C’ and a ‘K’ before their names, so it’s kind of a continuation.”
When asked if baby Knash will follow in the family footsteps and become a pro wrestler one day, Wyatt said that he’d rather see his son become a professional baseball player. He also joked that Knash could become a “broad-shouldered librarian.”
The reporter asked Bray Wyatt about the possibility of 3-time Superbowl champion Rob Gronkowski becoming a WWE Superstar. Wyatt said he’d love to see Gronk in WWE and revealed his father (Mike “IRS” Rotunda) played football with Gronk’s dad at Syracuse University.
“Mojo [Rawley] is like my son, I’d love to have Rob here. I love Rob,” he said. “My father was roommates with his father at Syracuse. I know him a lot more through Mojo but yeah, he’s a cool cat, man. I’d love to have Rob here.”
Watch: Bray Wyatt talks about Rob Gronkowski joining WWE
Bray Wyatt’s New Tattoo
Speaking of Bray Wyatt, he is sporting some serious new ink.
Artist Miguel Lepage of Studio Tattoo Mania in Montreal, Canada posted the following photo of work he just did on Bray Wyatt’s left leg.