Impact Wrestling on 4/22 was the go-home show for Sunday’s Rebellion PPV. Eddie Edwards faced Eric Young in the main event.

Impact 4/22 Quick Results:

1. The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows) defeated Decay (Black Taurus & Crazzy Steve)
2. Tenille Dashwood defeated Susan
3. Shera defeated Jake Something
4. Jordynne Grace defeated Kiera Hogan via DQ
5. Eric Young defeated Eddie Edwards

Rich Swann and Kenny Omega’s Final Segment Before Rebellion

Rich Swann came out for a promo this week and called out Kenny Omega. Omega and Don Callis appeared on the big screen and said they couldn’t be in the Impact Zone for the show. Omega plans on being on Impact regularly, however, as the new Impact World Champion.

After Omega and Callis logged off, Moose made his return to Impact and confronted Swann in the ring. Moose gave Swann a warning that if he loses his two title belts, he’ll have to deal with him after.

Violent By Design Scores Victory Ahead Of Rebellion

With a huge 8-man tag taking place at Rebellion, the leaders of the two sides faced off in singles action in this week’s main event. With the two sides brawling on the outside, VOD’s Joe Doering tripped up Eddie Edwards and allowed Young to score a pinfall with a small package. After the match, the melee between the two sides would continue.

Rachael Ellering To Team With Jordynne Grace At Rebellion

Jordynne Grace faced Kiera Hogan in singles competition this week. With Jazz now having officially retired, Grace is in need of a partner for the Knockouts tag title match at Rebellion. Just when Grace looked as though she had this match won, Tasha Steelz interfered to cause the DQ. It was then a 2-on-1 attack until Rachael Ellering hit the ring and made the save. Ellering will now be Grace’s partner at Rebellion.

The Good Brothers and FinJuice Prepare For Rebellion

The Good Brothers defeated Decay in tag-team action this week as they head to Rebellion on a winning note. After their victory, Anderson and Gallows cut a promo directed at FinJuice. They said they are glad that Finlay and Robinson broke them out of their comfort zone.

Later in the show, FinJuice would cut a promo at Anderson and Gallows, telling them they are dreaming if they think they are going to take the belts from them on Sunday.

Tenille Dashwood Defeats Susan En Route To Rebellion

Tenille Dashwood put away Susan in singles competition this week. After the match, she cut a promo to her Rebellion opponent, Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo. Dashwood said that Purrazzo owes her for all that she has contributed to women’s wrestling.

Sami Callihan Sends Trey Miguel A Warning Ahead of Rebellion

Sami Callihan and Trey Miguel will face off at Rebellion. Just days before the event, Callihan sent Trey a message that at Rebellion he’s going to see to it that he never walks again.

Brian Myers Sends Matt Cardona A Message Ahead of Rebellion

Brian Myers cut a promo this week on his Rebellion opponent, Matt Cardona. Myers said that he’s not interested in living in the past and that at Rebellion, Cardona will be just another “roster cut.”

Final Lineup For Rebellion

Here is the final lineup for this weekend’s Rebellion PPV:

• AEW World Championship vs Impact World Championship
  Kenny Omega (c) vs Rich Swann
• Impact Tag Team Championships
  FinJuice (David Finlay & Juice Robinson) (c) vs. The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson)
• Knockouts Championship
  Deonna Purrazzo (c) vs Tenille Dashwood
• X-Division Championship
  Ace Austin (w/Madman Fulton) (c) vs. TJP vs. Josh Alexander
• Knockouts Tag Team Championships
  Fire N Flava (c) vs Jordynne Grace & Rachael Ellering
• Brian Myers vs Matt Cardona

Chelsea Green was recently released by WWE as part of the cuts made last week. She recently took part in an interview with Chris Van Vliet and spoke about her reaction to being let go.

“At first I was kind of emotionless and I guess confused. My way of handling that has always been to go into overdrive with what’s next?” Green said. “That’s always the way my brain has worked with everything. So even when I became the IMPACT Champion, literally that night, what’s next? What am I going to do next?”

Green continued to talk about how her fiancé, Impact’s Matt Cardona, helped her that day.

“First of all, he warned me that this was coming. Not necessarily to me, that I was going to get fired. But he did call me and give me a 10-minute gap between the time he told me people are letting go and me getting let go. He gave me that warning then I texted him and said ‘OK, I’ve been released.’ I’m not joking he was home within 30 minutes. My Pro-Wrestling Tees store was up, he’s all go go go! Even harder than I was. I think that’s kind of the same way I felt when he was released.”

Chelsea Green: Hot Mess

Green also talked about characters and stories she pitched while with WWE. It does seem as though Green is interested in returning to her “Hot Mess” persona.

“I can’t tell you how many ideas I came up with. If I think about it, they all led back to The Hot Mess. But with that being said, it wasn’t The Hot Mess like you saw at IMPACT. I tried to pitch a darker, creepier Hot Mess that you could relate to. Not just like the girl at the bar, more so any psychotic person you’ve had in your life.”

She continued, “It could be anyone. I was always working on ideas that led me turning into The Hot Mess. It’s what I love, I just want to do character work. I don’t need to wrestle. I’m totally cool with not wrestling, I want to tell a story.”

The full interview with Chelsea Green and Chris Van Vliet is in the player below:

MLW will return to Philadelphia’s famous 2300 Arena on July 10th, 2021. Fans will be welcomed back in the building for the show and tickets are on sale now.

On MLW Fusion this week, Court Bauer announced that the company will be taking 2-months off. The episode of Fusion on May 5th will be considered the end of the season. A new season will then kick off with the July 10th show in Philadelphia.

This news comes on the heels of MLW announcing a new partnership with VICE TV. MLW will debut on the network on May 1st with content from its archives to get viewers up to speed on the promotion. VICE TV’s 3rd season of Dark Side of the Ring is then set to premiere on May 6th.

In addition to the deal with VICE TV, MLW is also said to be in negotiations with other networks, including Discover Plus.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter is reporting that MLW will be looking to add new talent to its roster shortly.

“MLW is looking at adding a lot of new talent with the new deals, both to freshen up, and also because a lot of the Mexican talent they had been featuring won’t be available because of the difficulty right now in getting visas renewed,” wrote Dave Meltzer.

Alicia Atout interviewed MLW’s Court Bauer about all the latest developments:

WWE has a longstanding practice of sending wrestlers their personal belongings in trash bags after they’ve been fired.

WWE released several Superstars last week in the latest round of budget cuts. One of these Superstars is legendary performer, Mickie James.

James received a care package from WWE this week. Upon opening it up, she saw that her personal belongings were thrown in a garbage bag. She brought this to the attention of WWE boss Vince McMahon, unsure if he’s aware of this ugly policy.

WWE Executives React

WWE executives Stephanie McMahon and Triple H reacted to the situation. Stephanie says she embarrassed by WWE’s actions and apologized to Mickie James personally and on behalf of the organization. She noted that ‘the person responsible’ has been fired.

Triple H called the treatment disrespectful and reiterated that the person responsible is no longer with WWE.

According to multiple sources, longtime WWE employee Mark Carrano, Senior Director of Talent Relations, was fired on Thursday.

More Former Superstars Speak Out

Several former WWE Superstars, coincidentally all women, spoke up on social media and said they experienced the same treatment over a decade ago.

Gail Kim followed up by giving her personal opinion of Mark Carano. She tweeted, “I know the WWE trolls are going to come for me, but Mark was not a good human being. I don’t think he should necessarily get blamed for this incident but I hope this karma makes him realize and wake up. Be a nice human and maybe things will change for you.”

CM Punk offered up the following in response to Triple H:

ROH’s EC3 revealed on Instagram recently that he has been in the hospital for 5 days with an infection. It is not immediately clear what type of infection he is dealing with.

#ControlYourNarrative CAN KILL YOU

That’s not strictly just an attention grabbing headline. it’s more of an update.?

Short version; an infection I neglected proper care for, put others people’s needs before mind, went straight empath, caught up to me and broke me.?

Long version; it’s extensive, I’ve been hospitalized 5 days and we’ll need longer.

Anyways I will heal, if you want to help drop a comment or a thought or affirmation.?

Please do no not text. PLEASE.all I ask. If you want to help let me be alone,

ControlYourNarrative?

FreeEC3 #ec3

DONTTEXTIMEANINITANDDONTHUNYTMEDOWN #LETMESLEEP #THANKS

EC3 On Signing With Ring Of Honor

Earlier this year, EC3 spoke about his decision to sign with Ring of Honor.

“I very much look forward to etching my name amongst (and above) those who built the foundation Ring of Honor, competing with it’s exceptional roster, finishing what I have started with Jay Brisco, and carrying the #brand forward into the future it deserves.”

Bruno Sammartino lived in Ross Township, Pennsylvania for 58 years. The town has announced plans to rename a park in honor of him. Sangree Park will be officially named “Bruno Sammartino Park.” A new sign will be unveiled at a ceremony tomorrow.

A report on Bruno Sammartino Park from CBS Pittsburgh is below:

The unveiling of the sign commemorating Bruno and the renaming of the park comes just over 3 years after his death. Sammartino died on April 18, 2018 from multiple organ failure due to heart problems. He was 82 at the time of his death.

Sammartino was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013.

“Being inducted into the Hall of Fame at Madison Square Gardens is the biggest thing in my life,” Sammartino said in an interview with ESPN. “Anytime that people feel that you accomplished enough to enter into a Hall of Fame, of course this is a tremendous, tremendous thrill for me. I had a lot of my success due to appearing at the Garden.”

Following news of Sammartino’s death, Vince McMahon Tweeted that he was one of the finest men he ever knew.

“One of the finest men I knew, in life and in business. Bruno Sammartino proved that hard work can overcome even the most difficult of circumstances. He will be missed,” Vince McMahon Tweeted.

Major League Wrestling Fusion this week featured Court Bauer making a big announcement, a huge upset in the main event, and your boy Hammer challenging the MLW World Champion.

The full episode can be viewed in the player below:

MLW Fusion 4/21 Quick Results:

1. Rocky Romero defeated Gino Medina
2. King Mo defeated Robert Martyr 
3. Bu Ku Dao defeated TJP

Rocky Romero defeats Gino Medina

NJPW’s Rocky Romero faced off with former member of the Dynasty Gino Medina in the night’s opening contest. Commentary played up Romero’s NJPW affiliation and also mentioned Tom Lawlor competing on NJPW Strong, where he has made it to the finals the New Japan Cup USA.

Romero pulled of the victory with an arm-bar. That’s two straight losses for Medina, who recently lost to Richard Holliday as well.

PWI Top-10 Rankings

New top-10 rankings were released on this week’s episode as well.

MLW World Champion: Jacob Fatu (Contra Unit)

1. Alexander Hammerstone (Dynasty) (National Openweight Champion)
2. Tom Lawlor (Team Filthy)
3. Lio Rush
4. Mads Krugger (Contra unit)
5. Richard Holliday (Dynasty)
6. Low Ki
7. Mil Muertes (Azteca Underground)
8. Myron Reed (Inustice)
9. Calvin Tankman
10. ACH

King MO defeats Robert Martyr

King Mo dismantled his opponent in quick fashion this week. The referee eventually called for the bell as Mo had his opponent locked in a standing guillotine.

After the match, head coach at American Top Team Dan Lambert and King Mo cut a promo on the referee and Low Ki. King Mo said at ATT they don’t tap or submit and the next time him and Low Ki face each other, he’s going to break him in half.

Court Bauer Makes An Announcement

Alicia Atout interviewed Court Bauer this week to talk about the company’s future. Bauer spoke about the new deal with Vice TV and also hinted there are other opportunities in the works as well.

Bauer revealed that the company will close out “this season” on the May 5th show in two weeks and then kickstart a new season in July. When the company returns later this summer, they will welcome back fans into the arena. Their first taping for the new season will be held at the historic 2300 Arena in Philadelphia.

Bu Ku Dao Pulls Off Big Upset

TJP turned heel by turning on his protege Bu Ku Dao recently in MLW. TJP said that Dao just wasn’t pulling his weight when the two had teamed up together. Dao would get revenge on his former mentor in this week’s main event, however. After a back-and-forth match, Dao overcame a referee bump (when he’d had TJP down for a 3 count) to hit a spinning flatliner and get the pin. What a win for Bu Ku Dao!

Hammerstone Challenges Jacob Fatu

Before the show came to a close this week, we got a snippet from a press conference with Alexander Hammerstone. Your boy Hammer said he was tired of the debate regarding who is the best between MLW’s two champions. He called out MLW World Champion Jacob Fatu for what will be a giant main event match.

 “Jacob Fatu, the ball is in your court. The challenge is out there.”

Coming Up In MLW

Here is what is upcoming for Major League Wrestling:

Next week’s episode:

• Tom Lawlor vs Marshall Von Erich

May 5th, 2021:

• MLW World Middleweight Championship
  Lio Rush (c) vs Myron Reed

July 10th, 2021

• MLW Begins its new season with a show from the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia

Ronda Rousey’s “impregnation vacation” has proven successful. Rousey and Travis Browne announced on YouTube that the couple is expecting.

“How do I put this? Pow, 4 months pregnant!” Rousey revealed in the video. “What? You didn’t even know the last 4 months.”

“I’ve been pregnant since January, so 4 months. Woo baby bump! I can’t hide it anymore so time to show it off.”

“There’s definitely much more to the story that we’ll be telling later,” Rousey also revealed.

Shortly after WrestleMania 35, Rousey revealed she would be taking a hiatus from wrestling as she looked to start a family. She spoke to ESPN about her decision in 2019.

“I’ve not kept it a secret that I would definitely want to start a family,” Rousey said. “But how do you go about doing that? I love this way more than I thought that I would. So do you just keep going until you just happen to get pregnant? Or should you stop and go try and get pregnant? Or is going and trying to get pregnant putting yourself on the spot and then you’re less likely to get pregnant?”

You can watch Ronda and Browne make the big reveal in the video below:

The Plane Ride From Hell is one of the most infamous stories in wrestling history. The event took place as the WWE roster was returning from a European tour on May 5th, 2002. One of the many stories to come from this commute was Vince McMahon deciding he wanted to wrestle the Olympic Gold Medalist, Kurt Angle.

On the latest episode of his Kurt Angle Show podcast, Angle recalls the Plane Ride from Hell as being the ‘longest night of his life.’ There was a lot of rowdiness on board, but things got dangerous when Angle and McMahon were wrestling near the door of the airplane.

“The thing was, I was on the plane and Vince had a few glasses of wine in him,” Angle began. “He was feeling frisky and thought if I’m gonna wrestle someone that’s the best, might as well wrestle an Olympic Gold Medalist. You have to understand, Vince is the type of guy who would say to Mike Tyson, ‘Knock me out. Go ahead, hit me in the face. I want to feel what it’s like.’ He wants to feel what it’s like to be with the best person. I totally get it, but Vince is crazy.”

Angle further explained McMahon’s affinity for roughhousing. He’s an alpha male and wants to test himself by mixing it up with the best athletes in the world.

“He would have somebody come get me and he’d jump me from behind and we’d wrestle. We did this for five hours. We’d wrestle for a few minutes, and I’d hold him down and say, ‘Are you good?’ He’d say, ‘Yeah, yeah, we’re good.’ I’d go back and lay down and he’d jump on me again. It went for five hours, and it just became very irritating.”

“Tell the pilot to go…”

While some would expect the boss to assume control of the situation, it sounds like McMahon was as much to blame for things getting out of hand than anybody.

“The crazy thing, there were wine stains all over the floor – there’s white carpet and wine stains everywhere,” Angle said. “Vince and I were wrestling near the door, and there’s the latch. You open the latch and the door is open and you fly out of the plane. We kept hitting the latch while we were wrestling, so the flight attendant came and said, ‘The pilot said if you don’t sit down and stop, he’s gonna land this plane right now.’ Vince says, ‘Go tell the pilot to fuck himself. I’ll buy the fucking plane.’

“Here we are wrestling on the plane and we’re getting ready to land and they finally get Vince to calm down. Jericho is sitting in front of me and he says look who’s coming up the aisle. While we’re hitting the ground landing, Vince is army crawling up the aisle to jump on me again. I’m like, ‘Holy shit, this is the night that will never end.’ It was a frickin’ nightmare.”

This infamous trip will be covered in Season 3 of Dark Side of the Ring.

Triller put on one of the most unique boxing PPVs of all time recently. YouTube sensation Jake Paul knocked out former MMA fighter Ben Askren in just over 2 minutes this weekend. According to comments made on Wrestling Observer Live, the PPV eclipsed WrestleMania in terms of Google searches.

“It appears as though there were 7.2 million searches on Google which is gigantic basically beating everything in combat sports except for Ronda Rousey’s biggest fights or something like McGregor vs Mayweather,” said Bryan Alvarez.

He then compared the Google search numbers for the Triller PPV and compared them to WrestleMania. “Both days of WrestleMania combined did 750,000 (Google searches). So, this Triller show in one day did 10x the Google searches that WrestleMania did over 2 days.”

“The AEW Revolution PPV did 200,000,” he continued. “The UFC show on ESPN this weekend did 200,000. Triller – 7.2 million.”

Alvarez continued to say that WWE’s releases caused 20,000 Google searches on Friday. Bad Bunny’s concert’s selling out did 1 million searches.

Although numbers are not yet official, estimates currently are that 1.5 million people ordered the PPV.

• Jake Paul Challenges Daniel Cormier To Fight, Cormier Responds

AEW star Chris Jericho offered his thoughts on the fight. Needless to say, he was not impressed.

AEW’s Big Swole lives with Crohn’s disease, an illness characterized by inflammation of the digestive tract. In an Instagram post on 4/20, Swole mentioned how medical cannabis has helped her manager her condition.

“I’ve been getting a lot of questions about how I managed my Crohn’s Disease while wrestling,” Swole wrote. “My Crohn’s is very aggressive so I was referred by my physician to try medical cannabis.”

“For me, this decision was best for my recovery. I honestly believe I wouldn’t have been able to get through this past year w/o it. My pain has nearly subsided, my appetite is revived and my overall happiness has increased. It may not be for you but it’s worth a look!”

Big Swole On Crohn’s Disease and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Swole released a statement last month about how the pandemic has impacted her Crohn’s treatment.

“After my bout with pneumonia early last year, I was informed that resuming medicine for Crohn’s would result in death given the COVID-19 circumstances. Seeing as how the biologic I was on shuts down my immune system and acts as such, resuming my medicine was not an option.”

Last night on AEW Dark: Elevation, Paul Wight spoke with both members of the Acclaimed in a sit-down interview. During the interview, Bowens spoke about his fear that coming out would impact his professional wrestling dream.

“I represent the LGBQT community, I’m an openly gay professional wrestler so I had a lot of years living in fear of whether or not I’d be able to do this or not. So, to even be here is an incredible opportunity and I’m extremely grateful for it,” Bowens said during the interview.

Bowens is currently out of action with a knee injury but is expected to return shortly.

Anthony Bowens On Representation in Wrestling

During an interview with SI.com in 2019, Bowens spoke in-depth regarding representation of gay athletes in wrestling.

“It means something when a person can see someone that looks like them, gets them, and understands what they’re going through,” said Bowens. “I’m representing the LGBT community and athletes that are LGBT, but even more than that, too, I’m representing the small-town kid who was told he’d never make it, and I’m here for the shy kid that is ready to burst out of his shell and be that social butterfly.”

“I’m trying to represent all of these people in the most positive way I can. I get messages from people that make me cry. To know that I’m having a positive impact on people is a blessing, and makes me feel that I made the right decision to come out.”

Over the weekend, WWE announced that Braun Strowman would face Randy Orton in singles competition this week on RAW. A post was made for the match on WWE.com that has since been removed. Then on Monday, there was no mention of the match in WWE.com’s official RAW preview and the match did not take place on the show.

On Monday afternoon, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that Vince McMahon had made numerous changes to the show that afternoon.

“This all could change because Vince McMahon showed up and made a number of changes in the show,” wrote Dave Meltzer about that night’s show.

According to a report from PW Insider, by the time the production meeting for RAW began yesterday, the Orton vs Strowman match had already been removed by Vince himself. There was no reason given for the change.

Randy Orton would lose to Matt Riddle on last night’s show. Braun Strowman would team with Drew McIntyre against MACE and T-Bar in tag-team action.

Orton took to Twitter and commented on the scrapped match and the possibility of it taking place against somewhere down the line.

Orton also took to Twitter to comment on his loss to Riddle from RAW.

Although Orton and Strowman have met in tag matches and multi-person matches, they have never had a one-on-one match.

Vice TV, the channels that airs the Dark Side of the Ring series, is getting deeper into the pro-wrestling world. MLW has announced that they have reached a deal with the station to begin airing its content shortly.

The announcement was made last night on MLW’s YouTube channel. MLW programming should begin appearing on the channel next month. The new deal will not impact existing relationships the promotion has with BeIN Sports or DAZN, according to a report by PWInsider. MLW is also believed to be in negotiations with Discovery Plus as well.

Court Bauer on MLW’s TV Deal With Vice

“I think you have two decades of atrophy within an empire that had a grip on the market, and that atrophy has allowed all this other life to flourish,” Court Bauer told Forbes.

“[WWE] is still very successful in spite of their atrophy. But now they’ve locked in their deals, they’re not going to pivot in a creative direction to grow their audience. They’re not growing their audience, so for somebody like me there’s great opportunity. There are all kinds of interesting opportunities that I can look at and things that WWE may or may not do–I might be willing to do, or do differently.”

Dark Side of the Ring: Season 3 is scheduled to begin airing on VICE TV on May 6th. Season 1 of Dark Side of the Ring featured an episode titled “The Last of the Von Erichs” that focussed on Kevin Von Erich and his family. The Von Erichs are a big part of MLW currently, with Kevin managing his sons Ross and Marshall Von Erich.

Impact Wrestling champion Rich Swan will battle AEW World Champion Kenny Omega this weekend at Impact’s Rebellion PPV. Swann spoke to Sports Illustrated to hype the match and explained why this is the biggest match of his career.

“The focus is on Kenny Omega, and that’s understandable,” said Swann. “He’s the Best Bout Machine, he’s Dave Meltzer’s favorite wrestler, he’s this seven-star wrestler. Kenny has proven why he deserves this attention. But I’m here, too. I’m also a person that has battled adversity.”

Swann says he was told he would have to retire due to injuries, but he’s still here. He’s faced adversity and has earned the right to be part of this historic match.

“Two world champions from two different companies, repping two different television stations, and we’re about to blow this industry’s roof off,” he said. “I’m going to make this different than any match we’ve ever had in our careers. This is an opportunity I won’t let slip. It’s going to be the match of my life.”

Impact Rebellion PPV

In addition to Swann vs Omega, several other big matches have been booked for the show. The updated lineup is below.

• AEW World Championship vs Impact World Championship
  Kenny Omega (c) vs Rich Swann
• Impact Tag Team Championships
  FinJuice (David Finlay & Juice Robinson) (c) vs. The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson)
• Knockouts Championship
  Deonna Purrazzo (c) vs Tenille Dashwood
• X-Division Championship
  Ace Austin (w/Madman Fulton) (c) vs. TJP vs. Josh Alexander
• Knockouts Tag Team Championships
  Fire N Flava (c) vs Jordynne Grace & TBA
• Brian Myers vs Matt Cardona

Order Impact Wrestling: Rebellion now at FITE.TV.

On the heels of Samoa Joe being released by WWE on April 15th, former TNA Wrestling writer Vince Russo recently commented on why he wasn’t pushed harder while he was in TNA. Granted, Joe is a former Grand Slam champion in TNA but according to Russo, Joe’s weight was a factor backstage.

“The problem we always had with Samoa Joe, always revolved around weight. It was never that he was a pain in the ass or he wasn’t talented or he couldn’t do this… it was always (his) weight,” Russo said recently on his Writing with Russo podcast (transcriptions via Sportskeeda).

“So what would happen, and this always happened, it was like a yoyo… Samoa Joe would come to TV looking great so now we’re all excited because physically Samoa Joe could look really good or look really bad. He would come to work looking really great so now we’re booking for ‘Joe was off, Joe lost some weight, Joe is in shape…’, now we’re booking for that guy. So we’ll book six to eight weeks of TV, then we’ll go home, we’re all excited about Joe, we’re writing the next set of TVs and he comes back and he’s out of shape and you could tell in the ring. We had these talks with him all the time. We were all upfront with this. This is my POV. There’s a huge difference in Samoa Joe when he’s in shape and when he’s not in shape and you saw it. This happened so many times.”

Joe is a former TNA World Heavyweight Champion. He also held the X-Division title, the short-lived TNA TV title, and twice held the tag titles (once by himself and once with Nick Aldis).

While MACE and T-Bar are still on RAW, they are no longer being led by Mustafa Ali as members of Retribution. They are also no longer flanked by Reckoning, the Retribution character portrayed by Mia Yim. With Yim now no longer part of the group, some fans have been wondering what comes next for her.

According to a report from PW Insider, Mia Yim is expected to become part of the Smackdown roster. Details such as when she’ll debut and if she will be keeping the Reckoning persona are not immediately available, however.

Yim was originally called up to the main roster in the fall of 2020 with Retribution.

Mia Yim In WWE

32-year-old Mia Yim signed with WWE in late 2018 after performing in the Mae Young Classic. She would spend the next two years in NXT, which included a shot at Shayna Baszler and the NXT Women’s Championship at TakeOver: Toronto II in 2019.

Mia Yim Championship Statistics:

• 1x Knockouts Champion (Impact/TNA)
• Queen of the Knockouts Winner (Impact/TNA)
• 1x Shine Champion
• 1x Shine Tag Team Champions w/ Leva Bates
• Shine Tag Team Title Tournament Winner (2014)
• 1x DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion

Yim celebrated her 32nd birthday recently on April 16th. According to her post below, she couldn’t have asked for a better birthday celebration:

On night 1 of WrestleMania 37, Bianca Belair defeated Sasha Banks to win the Smackdown Women’s Championship in the main event. According to sources who spoke with SI.com, the match was universally praised backstage.

“Sources within WWE say there was universal praise for the work of Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair in their match at WrestleMania 37,” wrote Justin Barrasso. He would continue to say that at one point Reginald had been shoehorned into their program but in the end, the decision was made to let the two wrestlers perform on their own.

The report would even continue to say that internally Belair-Banks is considered the bigger program in comparison to Roman Reigns right now.

“Internally, Banks and Belair is the single biggest narrative in WWE, with the work of universal champion Roman Reigns a close second,” Barrasso continued.

Belair spoke to CBS Sports about her experience at WrestleMania.

“It’s still hitting me. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around it,” Belair said. “It’s been a whirlwind of emotions, even since we found out. It was announced I was going to be the main event on my birthday and it was like I was trying to wrap my mind around that. But before I could, we were standing out there. That’s why I was so emotional. That’s when it hit me that we were the main event, when I was standing out there across from Sasha Banks. Then, having my hand raised as SmackDown women’s champion, it hit me when I heard the fans and when I was celebrating with my family and my husband, but I’m still trying to wrap my mind around it. I keep saying it feels like a dream. It still feels so unreal, but I know it’s so real.”

Big Cass, now known as CazXL, recently sat down for an interview with Chris Van Vliet. During the discussion, Cass talked about his recovery from alcohol addiction, time spent with Diamond Dallas Page, and his future in wrestling.

Cass opened up about the seriousness of his addition.

“It became a matter of life and death,” he said. “I had a few more seizures after the one in Philadelphia. It got to the point where I knew I was going to die. If I keep going down this path I’m gonna die. There was a point where maybe I didn’t even care about that, but for some reason at that point in time I did care. I was like I can’t die, I’ve got to do something about this. I could have easily given up, but some instinctual thing told me to keep going. The hardest thing to do is to reach out for help.”

He also spent some time discussing how DDP helped him on his road to recovery. He also revealed that he’s currently in a relationship with Page’s daughter, Lexy Nair.

“He helped a lot. He was one of the first people to give me a platform and encourage me to share what I was going through. If I didn’t do that then people can’t relate to it. That was a big first step was me admitting it. I think I admitted it in a promo backstage after I wrestled Jon Moxley. But the video that DDPY put out really got the word out to what I was going through. And it was through Dallas that I met my girlfriend [Lexy Nair, daughter of Dallas Page and AEW Backstage reporter].”

Big Cass On His Future In Wrestling

Cass has wrestled on a couple of shows for Lariato Pro, Doc Gallows’ promotion. He’s hopeful to sign on with a notable promotion now that he’s returned to the ring. When asked about possibly wrestling for AEW, here is what he had to say:

“I would love to go to AEW. I’d love to go back to WWE, go to AEW, IMPACT, New Japan, Ring of Honor, wherever. Those conversations with Gallows and Anderson have happened and it’s something I would love to do. But one day at a time is the way I take it, I don’t want to look too far into the future. If a phone call comes tonight that’s great, if it doesn’t come for another 3 – 4 months or a year, that’s fine too. I’m open to go anywhere and to have fun, and to make a name for myself.”

Cass was also asked if he thinks a return to WWE is possible for him.

“I do. I think with time and earning people’s trust, just as I have earned my family and friend’s trust. People have to see you doing well over a certain period of time.”

The full interview can be viewed in the player below:

For the second year in a row, WWE made roster cuts on April 15th. 10 wrestlers from RAW and Smackdown were released. In 2020, other cuts were made from NXT and developmental that were not initially announced to media or the public as well.

According to a report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, all talent is being paid for the next 3 months up until July 14th.

“All talent released is being paid through 7/14 and will have a non-compete until that point,” wrote Dave Meltzer.

The report continued to say that there are some recently released wrestlers who will attempt to have the 90-day non-compete clause waived.

“There are people who have or are going to ask to see if that can be waived because they want to get on the market and back to work as soon as possible,” Meltzer continued.

It was also noted that Andrade managed to avoid sitting out for 90 days following his release recently.

After last year’s round of cuts, some wrestlers waiting out their 90 days actually came back to appear on WWE programming. Heath Slater worked a match and segment with Drew McIntyre after being released but before his 90 days were up and before debuting for Impact.

Pat McAfee is the newest member of the commentary team on WWE Friday Night Smackdown. WWE announced today that McAfee, who was defeated by Adam Cole at NXT TakeOver XXX, has been hired as a commentator.

“For as long as I can remember WWE has been a company that I have admired, both for its incredible staying power of creating riveting entertainment and for its ability to connect people all over the globe,” said McAfee. “I’ve been fortunate to try a lot of cool professions but working for WWE was the one I looked forward to most. I am incredibly honored and grateful for the chance to give back to the business that has given me and many others so much and having the opportunity to sit at the same table that legends have graced is truly a dream come true. Now let’s go get it.”

The Smackdown commentary team will be Michael Cole and Pat McAfee. The RAW team is now Adnan Virk, Corey Graves, and Byron Saxton.

“Good morning beautiful people… TONIGHT a dream comes true. Thank you all so so much for following along with this dumb ass life I’ve been incredibly fortunate to live.. I’m grateful for it all.”

Impact Wrestling has announced that Mauro Ranallo will return to pro-wrestling commentary at Rebellion on April 25th. The promotion sent out a press release that Ranallo will call the match between Kenny Omega and Rich Swann on the show.

“Swann vs Omega, champion vs champion, title vs title – this match represents everything I love about professional wrestling,” said Ranallo. “I have been fortunate to call these two superstars’ matches in the past and I’m very excited to be part of this historic encounter.”

 “This once in a generation title vs title showdown deserves to be called by the once in a generation play-by-play announcer. I’ve known Mauro for over two decades. There are very few people in the world who are as passionate about or know their wrestling history as well as Mauro. This is an historic main event, the world champions of two major organizations putting everything on the line. I’m thrilled that April 25^th, at Rebellion, fans will have Mauro’s legendary voice proving the soundtrack to history!”

Ranallo and Impact released the following two videos breaking down Swann vs Omega at Rebellion:

Here are the matches scheduled for Rebellion:

• AEW World Championship vs Impact World Championship
  Kenny Omega (c) vs Rich Swann
• Impact Tag Team Championships
  FinJuice (David Finlay & Juice Robinson) (c) vs. The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson)
• Knockouts Championship
  Deonna Purrazzo (c) vs Tenille Dashwood
• X-Division Championship
  Ace Austin (w/Madman Fulton) (c) vs. TJP vs. Josh Alexander
• Knockouts Tag Team Championships
  Fire N Flava (c) vs Jordynne Grace & TBA
• Brian Myers vs Matt Cardona

Impact Wrestling on 4/15 featured a contract-signing segment between Rich Swann and Kenny Omega for Rebellion. It also featured the retirement ceremony for Jazz and more storylines and angles leading to the PPV later this month.

Impact 4/15 Quick Results:

1. Josh Alexander defeated TJP
2. Karl Anderson defeated Crazzy Steve
3. Jazz & Jordynne Grace defeated Fire N Flava (Non-Title)
4. Brian Myers defeated Jake Something
5. Sami Callihan defeated Matt Cardona

Tensions Boil Over During Rich Swann & Kenny Omega Press Conference

The headlining segment on Impact 4/15 was a press conference featuring Kenny Omega and Rich Swann. Tony Khan and Jerry Lynn were on-hand from AEW and Khan spoke about how if Swann wins, he’ll be on both Dynamite and Impact moving forward and if Omega wins, he’ll continue to be on both shows as well. Khan also said that there would be for sure be a clear winner.

Kenny Omega concluded the press conference by running down Swann and then slapping him which started a brawl between the two.

Jazz Officially Retires

At Hardcore Justice, Deonna Purrazzo defeated Jazz in a match that carried a title vs career stipulation. This week on Impact, Jazz came out for her official retirement ceremony. She was interrupted by the members of Fire N Flava, the tag-team champions.

Word then came from the back that Fire N Flava and Jazz and Jordynne Grace were being booked in an impromptu match. Jazz and Grace quickly won the short match and Jazz continued with her retirement speech. The locker room spilled out to pay respect to her.

Later in the back, D’Amore would confront Fire N Flava and say that now they have to defend their tag belts against Grace and Jazz at Rebellion. Jazz said she needs to honor the stipulation, however, but does know someone Grace can team with on the PPV.

Josh Alexander Defeats TJP Ahead of Rebellion

At Rebellion, Ace Austin will defend his X-Division Championship against both Josh Alexander and TJP in a triple threat match. This week, Alexander and TJP went one-on-one to kick off the show.

After a back-and-forth match with lots of submissions, TJP looked to finish things off with his Mamba Splash. Alexander countered with an ankle lock, however. TJP then transitioned to a triangle submission but Alexander countered with a power-bomb onto his knee, and then the Divine Intervention piledriver for the win.

Big Petey Pump Details Josh Alexander’s Odds At Rebellion

Viewers on Twitch will note that every week Scott Steiner’s famous “Steiner Math” promo is replayed during commercial breaks at least once. This week, Petey Williams recreated the promo while explaining what Josh Alexander’s odds are in the triple threat X-Division title match at Rebellion. Evidently, the numbers don’t lie and they spell disaster for Ace Austin’s title reign at Rebellion.

Karl Anderson Picks Up Win Over Crazzy Steve

Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows are preparing to face FinJuice later this month at Rebellion. Anderson took on Crazzy Steve from Decay this week. He’d pick up the win thanks to some distraction on the outside. Gallows distracted Steve after the Decay member had his opponent locked in an Upside Down. The distraction then allowed Anderson to hit a spine buster for the win.

Brian Myers & Matt Cardona Pick Each Other’s Poison

Ahead of their singles match at Rebellion, Brian Myers and Matt Cardona each picked the opponent of the other on this week’s episode. Cardona picked Jake Something as Myers’ opponent but The Most Professional Wrestler picked up the win with his “Roster Cut” clothesline.

After Myers defeated Something, he revealed Sami Callihan as Cardona’s opponent. Callihan then attacked Cardona from behind to kick start their match. Callihan picked up the victory after giving Cardona a thumb to the eye followed by his patented piledriver for the win.

Sami Callihan vs Trey Miguel At Rebellion Booked

After his match, Callihan called out Trey Miguel. He offered Trey a chance to partner with him but Trey turned him down. Callihan also revealed it was him that attacked Tommy Dreamer and not Violent By Design. This set off Trey who attacked Callihan. Callihan hit him with a low blow, however. Callihan continued his attack using a chair, suplexing Trey into it to close the segment.

It was later revealed that the two will go one-on-one at Rebellion.

Next Week On Impact Wrestling

Here are the matches scheduled for next week’s episode of Impact:

• The Good Brothers vs Decay
• Tenille Dashwood vs Susan
• Eric Young vs Eddie Edwards

Updated Rebellion Lineup

Here are the matches scheduled for Rebellion:

• AEW World Championship vs Impact World Championship
  Kenny Omega (c) vs Rich Swann
• Impact Tag Team Championships
  FinJuice (David Finlay & Juice Robinson) (c) vs. The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson)
• Knockouts Championship
  Deonna Purrazzo (c) vs Tenille Dashwood
• X-Division Championship
  Ace Austin (w/Madman Fulton) (c) vs. TJP vs. Josh Alexander
• Knockouts Tag Team Championships
  Fire N Flava (c) vs Jordynne Grace & TBA
• Brian Myers vs Matt Cardona

On April 15th, 2020, WWE cut more than 20 wrestlers from its roster shortly after a worldwide pandemic had shut down multiple wrestling companies and the entire independent wrestling scene. The company decided to do something very similar today.

Some of the names released last year have posted online about what impact being released by WWE during a pandemic has had on them.

“April 15th, 2020, I finally got my release. I would say it was a really big, unexpected moment. I felt lost, I felt hurt, I felt it was the end of my world,” Conti said. “Silly me. And then I allowed myself to feel all the feelings. I was sad, I was mad, I was frustrated, I was scared and the list goes on.”

“April 15th, 2021, this morning I woke up, I looked at myself in the mirror and I said ‘hey girl, I’m proud of you.” And I really am because in less than a year, I proved myself, I finally found myself, I worked my way to the top.”

Conti is now the #1 contender for the AEW Women’s Championship and will challenge Hikaru Shida next week on Dynamite.

WWE Pandemic Cuts – Where Are They Now?

1. Drake Maverick (NXT)
2. Luke Gallows (Impact)
3. Karl Anderson (Impact)
4. EC3 (ROH)
5. Curt Hawkins (Impact)
6. Lio Rush (MLW & other places)
7. Heath Slater (Impact – currently injured)
8. Eric Young (Impact)
9. Kurt Angle (Conrad Thompson podcast)
10. Aiden English (Twitch and YouTube channels)
11. Erik Rowan (done some GCW shows)
12. Sarah Logan (gave birth to little Viking)
13. Mike Chioda (has appeared on AEW programming)
14. Primo Colon (likely waiting to return to WWC)
15. Epico Colon (likely waiting to return to WWC)
16. Mike Kanellis (Bennett) (ROH)
17. Maria Kanellis (ROH)
18. Zack Ryder (Impact)
19. No Way Jose (Wrestled once for Lariato Pro – Doc Gallows’ promotion)
20. Deonna Purrazzo (Knockouts Champion in Impact Wrestling)
21. Rusev (AEW)
22. Tay Conti (AEW)
23. Cezar Bononi (AEW)

One year to the day that WWE released more than 20 wrestlers during a pandemic, they’ve cut several more today. WWE announced today that they have released the following talent:

• Samoa Joe
• Billie Kay
• Chelsea Green
• Mickie James
• Tucker
• Kalisto
• Wesley Blake

**Updated Names:

The following names have been added to today’s roster cuts:

• Bo Dallas
• Peyton Royce

Reactions To WWE Releases

Samoa Joe and CM Punk seem to have put things in perspective:

Mickie James commented on her release on Twitter.

“Grateful for the memories. Grateful for the locker room. Grateful for the fans. Grateful for these little keys to my golden handcuffs. You can never expected others vision of you to be big as your own dreams. Thank you,” she Tweeted at Vince McMahon.

Matt Cardona also took to Twitter to comment on the releases.

“I was literally making a post about how this past year has been a blessing in disguise as the news of these releases broke. You will all be fine. Work your ass off. Create your own opportunities. I love you @ImChelseaGreen. You are a fucking star.” He Tweeted.

As was the case last year, there could be more names to be added to this list as the day goes on and people are contacted. Chelsea Green and Samoa Joe’s names were added recently to the report after not having been included in the original.

“WWE has come to terms on the release of Billie Kay, Mickie James, Chelsea Green, Tucker, Kalisto and Wesley Blake as of today April 15, 2021.”