Zack Ryder (real name Matt Cardona) was released from WWE last month. He first signed with the company in February of 2006. In his time with WWE, Ryder won the Intercontinental and United States titles once and the tag team titles twice. He spoke with Chris Van Vliet recently about his release from the company.
Ryder spoke about how the morning of his release, WWE talents were sent a video from Vince McMahon.
“It was a video from Vince McMahon talking about the state of the company and the state of the world and basically saying layoffs would be coming,” Ryder said.
He then continued to say after seeing the video, he felt it was likely that he would be one of the ones let go.
“I’m a smart guy, I’m like ok, prowrestlingtees.com/mattcardona let’s set it up right now,” he said. “I already had it set up, I had my logo guys making logos, ProWrestlingTees making logos for me, I knew it was coming. I mean, I didn’t know but I had a pretty good idea.”
Zack Ryder On Recent Contract Negotiations With WWE
He continued to talk about how for the last year he had been in negotiations with WWE over renewing his contract.
“My contract would have been up in August, I had never resigned,” he continued. “For about over a year we had been in contract negotiations and the anxiety that I was living with ‘do I stay, do I go?’ I grew up wanting to be a WWE Superstar, of course, but my career has been up and down, up and down, and with all the new opportunities out there, do I really want to stay here or go somewhere else?”
“When the decision was made for me? Oh my god, it was like ‘thank you!'” he continued. “Instantly relieved.”
Ryder’s comments can be heard in the player below:
Tony Khan was the guest this week on the AEW Unrestricted podcast. During the show, Khan spoke about the challenges involved in filming empty arena shows recently in Jacksonville, Florida, and Norcross, Georgia.
The last episode of Dynamite to air with a live audience was on March 11th from Salt Lake City in Utah. The company was forced to pivot and move future shows to Jacksonville and then Norcross from that point on.
“What was really hard for me was that I didn’t want to force anyone to come to work under these circumstances,” Khan said on the show.
He also mentioned that the company had to think quickly on what they were going to do.
“I had to figure out by the next morning where we’re going to be because the trucks needed to know where to take the rings and the set,” he continued.
Khan also said he spoke with TNT about AEW continuing to produce content.
“I talked to the network and they were excited for us to keep putting on shows,” Khan said about TNT’s reaction.
Tony Khan on the Quality of Dynamite Shows
Khan continued to talk about how much he enjoyed the first empty arena show they did and the most recent one.
“The two best shows that we’ve done since the shut down I think would be the first one we did and the most recent one,” Khan continued. “I loved them both.”
Khan also talked about sports/wrestling with national tv deals being deemed essential in some states.
“I never considered us or tried to force us to be an essential business. I never tried to stay open against restrictions and so when we heard that Florida and Georgia were going to shut down, we were shutting down too. We needed to tape as much content as we could before that shutdown.”
He continued to talk about how many wrestlers stayed in the area for the tapings and the different challenges they faced.
AEW airs live tonight from Daily’s Place in Jacksonville. AEW President Tony Khan confirmed that all wrestlers and employees tested negative for COVID-19 prior to the broadcast.
AEW has released its weekly rankings for May 6th, 2020.
AEW Men’s Single’s Rankings
Champion: Jon Moxley (9-0)
Cody (8-1)
Lance Archer (4-0) (+2)
Kenny Omega (4-0) (-1)
Brodie Lee (4-0) (previously unranked)
Darby Allin (5-3) (-1)
There was quite a bit of movement in the men’s single’s rankings this week. Lance Archer moves up 2 spots after defeating Dustin Rhodes and advancing to the finals of the TNT title tournament. Cody also maintained his #1 spot in the rankings by defeating Darby Allin in the tournament semi-finals. The two top-ranked competitors in the rankings will meet in the finals of the tournament at Double or Nothing.
With the loss in the semi-finals to Cody, Darby Allin drops 1 spot to the #5 position.
Jake Hager drops out of the rankings this week after losing his AEW World Championship match to Moxley on the April 15th episode of Dynamite.
Brodie Lee improved to 4-0 last week after defeating Marko Stunt. He now occupies the #4 spot in the rankings.
AEW Women’s Division
Champion: Nyla Rose (4-1)
Hikaru Shida (7-1)
Kris Statlander (2-3)
Yuka Sakazaki (1-1)
Britt Baker (3-3)
Riho (3-3)
There was no movement in the women’s divisional rankings this week. No women’s matches took place on Dynamite or Dark last week.
The division could be in for a big night tonight, however, as champion Nyla Rose Tweeted out that she will will “See y’all soon” earlier today.
AEW Tag Team Division
Champions: Kenny Omega & Hangman Page (6-0)
The Dark Order (5-0)
Best Friends (6-3)
The Young Bucks (2-2)
SCU (2-3)
Lucha Bros (1-2)
There was no movement this week in the tag-team rankings either. The Best Friends did pick up a key victory over Kip Sabian and Jimmy Havoc, however, allowing them to maintain the #2 spot in the rankings.
Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood, the Revolt, were guests this week on Talk is Jericho. The former members of the Revival spoke on a variety of subjects including Vince McMahon and WWE’s attitude toward southern accents. Harwood first spoke about how the team’s former trainer, Dusty Rhodes, liked that they were both southern wrestlers.
“I think that Dusty enjoyed the fact that we’re both southerners and we both sound like southerners,” Harwood said.
“Some people atop the WWE may not like that southern accent and I think Dusty enjoyed the southern accent because he had one himself but also because he knew that the upper chain in WWE didn’t, so he just liked to push back a little bit.”
The topic of conversation then moved to the belief that Vince McMahon doesn’t like southern accents. The Revolt then spoke about how they were told by some that they likely wouldn’t get much promo time because of Vince’s aversion to southern accents. Cash then mentioned they brought this up with Vince.
“He never said that directly to us, we actually brought it up to him,” Cash said. “He laughed about it. He said ‘well, I’m from North Carolina’ and I said ‘yeah man, I know.'”
“Then why are you ashamed of it?” Harwood chimed in.
“We didn’t understand it,” Cash continued. “I don’t think it’s just a Vince thing. I think its maybe a worldwide thing that just because you have this southern accent you are perceived as a dumbass.”
“That was one thing that when Daniel and I first started teaming, I told him ‘man, I really want to show these people that you can be a southern wrestler and you can be a southerner without being an idiot.”
The Revolt On Meetings With Vince McMahon
The team continued to speak about their interactions with Vince McMahon during the podcast.
“Anytime we had interactions with Vince, they always went really well. He was very open, he would listen, he was very responsive and complimentary,” Cash continued. “We were taken aback sometimes that he was aware of things that we didn’t think he would be.”
Cash continued to talk about how it wasn’t just Vince who didn’t like southern accents.
“It wasn’t just a Vince thing, I think a lot of the upper management there, for some reason, they just think with a southern accent, you’ll only go so far,” he continued.
On the RAW before WrestleMania 36, Montez Ford took a nasty bump to the outside. The Street Profits teamed with Kevin Owens and faced Seth Rollins, Angel Garza and Austin Theory that night. Ford jumped to the outside and was not caught by anyone. He posted the following to Twitter shortly after:
Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins were recently interviewed by the Mirror UK and Ford spoke about making it to WrestleMania after “breaking his back.”
“The bump to outside? That was nothing, just another day at the office,” he said. “I will say this though, I broke my back and still made it in time three days before WrestleMania!”
Ford was also asked if he’ll look back at WrestleMania 36 with fond memories.
“Absolutely, of course. Just the fact that not only did we walk in as champions and walked out as champions, I had my wife by my side, my brother by my side,” Ford said.
“We came out with a WrestleMania win, as of right now The Street Profits are 1-0 at WrestleMania. Just one of the things we will cherish, it’s WrestleMania and still no matter what, it’s the greatest stage of them all and something we will cherish till we can no longer move.”
The full interview with the Street Profits can be read here.
Impact Wrestling presented its first show since the conclusion of Rebellion last week. The show was headlined by a triple threat match for Willie Mack’s X-Division title.
Impact Wrestling 5/5/20 Quick Results:
XXXL (Larry D & Acey Romero) defeated oVe (Jake Crist & Madman Fulton) w/ Dave Crist
Suicide defeated Johnny Swinger
Joey Ryan defeated Cousin Jake
Impact Tag Team Championships The North (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) defeated the Creeps
X-Division Championship Willie Mack (c) defeated Ace Austin vs Chris Bey
Impact Wrestling announced a tournament to determine a new #1 contender to Tessa Blanchard’s Impact World Championship this week. The self-proclaimed TNA World Heavyweight Champion, Moose, withdrew from the tournament, however, stating that Blanchard’s title was secondary to his. Josh Matthews reminded Moose that he didn’t actually win the title but Moose feels he’s earned it nonetheless less. Moose was replaced by Rohit Raju in the tournament.
The lineup for the tournament looks like this:
Rohit Raju vs Trey
Sami Callihan vs Michael Elgin
Ken Shamrock vs Rhino
Madman Fulton vs Hernandez
Winner of Match 1 vs Winner of Match 2
Winner of Match 3 vs Winner of Match 4
Finals
Willie Mack Retains X-Division Title
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4bEz3TYVUg
Chris Bey won a fatal 4-way match at Rebellion to earn a title shot against new champion Willie Mack. Ace Austin, however, made it be known that he wanted his contractually stipulated rematch. As a result, a 3-way match for the X-Division title headlined this week’s show.
Mack would pick up his first title defence by pinning Austin after a 6-Star Frog Splash.
After losing the X-Division title and then his contractually-obligated rematch, Ace Austin has suggested it’s time for him to move on to other things.
Moose To Defend TNA World Heavyweight Championship Against Suicide
"You've seen the guys who I've beat, former TNA Heavyweight Champions – guys like Ken Shamrock, Rob Van Dam, Rhino." @TheMooseNation feels like he's EARNED the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. #IMPACTonAXSTVpic.twitter.com/9yrFs9QbnD
Moose was interviewed by Josh Matthews this week. In addition to announcing he would not participate in the tournament to determine a #1 Contender to the Impact Championship, Moose stated the reasons why he’s the TNA Champion. He mentioned beating stars like Rhino, Ken Shamrock and Rob Van Dam. Next week, however, it was announced that Moose will defend the TNA World Heavyweight Championship against Suicide.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WYUYQ1NEMA
Suicide defeated Johnny Swinger this week in single’s action.
The North Defend The Tag Titles In Canada
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7BZf7DVpII
We traveled to the Don Kolov Arena in Mississauga, ON, Canada for this one. “Fans” which seemed to resemble dummy punching bags were set up along ringside and crowd chants were piped in. The North brought out “the Creeps” – not exactly top-challengers for the belts. Page and Alexander had their way with them in a montage-style segment that can be viewed above.
Kimber Lee debuted this week in Impact Wrestling. The former Chikara Grand Champion confronted Havok during an episode of Madison Rayne’s “Locker Room Talk.” Rayne had asked Havok about Nevaeh, who was shown watching Havok and Rosemary’s match at Rebellion. Havok neglected to say much about who Nevaeh is and why she is in Impact, however.
Kimber Lee got right up in Havok’s face and declared that the Crown Jewel has arrived in Impact Wrestling. Lee and Havok have fought quite a bit over the years. They’ve had title matches in both SHIMMER and AAW as well. A match between the two has been scheduled for next week.
Joey Ryan Scores Second-Straight Underhanded Victory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJyV1IdeoS4
We got a rematch from Rebellion this week as Joseph P. Ryan (Joey Ryan) took on Cousin Jake from the Deaners. For the second straight week, Ryan used underhanded tactics to score the victory. This time, Ryan poked Jake in the eyes when the referee was out of position and then rolled him up with a handful of trunks to get the victory. Ryan may have lost his “penis power” but he’s making up for it with his new cheating ways.
The Cards Give Rosemary A Message
The Shadow has finally spoken to us.. the cards suggest the truest manipulation.. we did so enjoy our time seducing unsuspecting humans and leading them to their demise.. what a wonderful game to pass the time.. who to choose.. #DemonAssassin#BiteTheApple? #IMPACTonAXSTVhttps://t.co/fjJApRgoEb
Rosemary is a little lost these days. She’s been looking for guidance since killing her enemies has left her feeling unfulfilled. This week she turned to the cards to see what they had to say to her. She did this while wearing a t-shirt which read “I Put the Fun in Funeral.” The cards appeared to tell Rosemary to seduce unsuspecting humans and bring them to their demise. She’s just not sure who to start with.
Next week on Impact Wrestling, the #1 Contenders tournament begins with two opening round matches. Kimber Lee and Havok face-off in Lee’s Impact in-ring debut. Moose will also put his TNA World Heavyweight Championship on the line against Suicide.
#1 Contenders Tournament (1st Round) Hernandez vs Madman Fulton
#1 Contenders Tournament (1st Round) Rohit Raju vs Trey
Havok vs Kimber Lee
TNA World Heavyweight Championship Moose (c) vs Suicide
Bret Hart recently sat down with Sportsnet to discuss some favorite moments from his historic in-ring career.
The Best There Is, the Best There Was, and the Best There Ever Will Be started off by talking about the influence Stampede Wrestling stars had on the business.
“I believe that the Stampede wrestlers like Dynamite Kid and myself, kind of went down to New York and WWF when we first got there in 1984/85, and really started raising the bar for wrestling,” Hart said. “Working harder than a lot of the big giants they had there at the time. We slowly changed the pace of wrestling, I think.”
As Hart continued, he stated that he believes today’s wrestling is too faced-paced.
“I do think that wrestlers of today watched Bret Hart and that’s how come they wrestle so quick and action-packed today,” he said. “I think they go too fast too much today in wrestling. I like the old stories but wrestling’s never been more popular than it is right now so it’s hard to criticize it.”
Bret Hart On Winning The WWF Title For The First Time
Hart also spoke about the first time he won the WWF title. He noted that his match against Ric Flair was one of the hardest of his career.
“The match we had was in Saskatoon, I know for a fact it was one of the hardest matches I’ve ever had,” Hart said. He continued to say he broke his finger and hurt his ankle during the match.
“I never really got to celebrate winning the world title. The first time I celebrated it was in the emergency ward in the hospital in Saskatoon,” Hart said.
Bret Hart On Wrestling The British Bulldog In Wembley
Hart also spoke about wrestling the British Bulldog for the Intercontinental Championship in the main event of SummerSlam 92. He spoke about how he feels losing that match helped his popularity.
“I had such a groundswell of fan support all around the world when I lost,” Hart said.
He would continue to say he feels the loss helped show WWE that Hart was a top guy.
“It showed how popular I was around the world, finally. They recognized like ‘we really have something with this guy.'”
There’s much more to the interview, which runs about 32 minutes. You can listen to the full Bret Hart interview talking about his illustrious career at Sportsnet.ca.
Discussion: What are your favorite Bret Hart career moments? Let us know in the comments section.
Many fans feel the use of authority figures in wrestling has been overdone. Recently, a fan on Twitter asked Cody about the possibility of AEW utilizing someone in such a role. According to Cody, using an authority figure in today’s era of pro-wrestling would be insulting to the audience.
“Hopefully never,” Cody Tweeted when asked if there will be an authority figure in AEW. “The audience isn’t dumb, they know who management is. Authority elements seem insulting in this era. This is just my opinion, as there’s a lot of fun ways to do this and I respect those.”
Cody also responded to a fan who asked if he’ll ever challenge for the AEW World Championship again.
While Cody can never challenge for the AEW belt again, he is in the finals of the TNT title tournament. He will face Lance Archer at Double or Nothing for the belt.
Cody noted Kris Statlander and Wardlow both seem on the verge of something special as well:
Might be a lot of those, the talent pool in wrestling is so rich atm
Statlander & Wardlow seem to be on the verge of special stuff
Cody will take part in an interview with Tony Schiavone at 6 PM tonight. Schiavone and Cody’s discussion will be broadcast on AEW’s social media channels.
Ethan Page is 1/2 of the Impact tag team champions along with Josh Alexander. The team was unable to attend the recent tapings, however, due to travel restrictions. Page recently spoke to the WINCLY podcast about how Impact management has been treating talent during the ongoing pandemic.
“Personally, I have nothing but good things to say during this entire thing,” Page said on the show. “We had three events cancelled that we got paid for and we didn’t even have to leave the house. In my contract, it says if I don’t perform, I don’t get paid. But I didn’t perform and they still paid me. That just shows a different character than most companies in this situation and I’ll be happy to pay that forward, maybe even just telling you how good they’re treating us might be able to help them out.”
Last week on Impact Wrestling, Page and Alexander noted that they will defend their tag titles against a top Canadian team this week. Who this team is and where and when the match was filmed is not currently known, however.
The North recently became the first team in Impact/TNA history to hold the tag titles for longer than 300 days (303 days as of this writing). Earlier this year, Taya Valkyrie became the first Knockout to hold the title for longer than a calendar year as well. The North sits 4th all-time in total days spent with the tag titles behind the Wolves, Beer Money, and LAX.
Major League Wrestling announced a new project this week. MLW’s Court Bauer noted on Twitter that cameras are rolling on the league’s first virtual production. Details regarding the show aren’t currently known but MLW is touting it as a way to produce new content during the ongoing pandemic.
“While details remain under wraps, the project is the latest in recent initiatives by the league to produce unique content during a period of unexpected disruption due to the on-going pandemic,” reads an MLW update on the new initiative.
MLW has also announced a new “Anthology” series set to debut on Saturday, May 16th. The project will feature the history of the promotion from 2002-04 during its first initial run as well as the greatest rivalries and matches from its current incarnation.
The original run for MLW formed out of a wrestling business that had recently seen both WCW and ECW go out of business. It featured notable names such as Satoshi Kojima, Terry Funk, CM Punk, LA Park, Dusty Rhodes, Steve Corino, and “Dr. Death” Steve Williams. Joey Styles served as commentator for the promotion as well. MLW from 2002-04 also featured notable stables such as Steve Corino’s “Extreme Horseman” and a Hart Foundation stable consisting of Davey Boy Smith Jr, Jack Evans, and Teddy Hart.
Major League Wrestling presented another episode of Fusion this week on BeIN Sports and YouTube. The show featured members of Injustice challenging for the AAA Trios Championships.
The full episode can be viewed in the player below:
MLW Fusion 5/2/20 Quick Results:
Poder De Norte (Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana & Carta Brava Jr.) defeated Black Destiny, Rayo Starr & Fantastick
AAA Trios Championship El Hijo del Vikingo, Myzteziz & Octagon Jr. (c) defeated Injustice (Myron Reed, Kotta Brazil & Jordan Oliver)
Injustice Attacks Brian Pillman Jr./Attempt To Cut Off His Mullet
Injustice attacked Brian Pillman Jr. backstage in Tijuana this week. The trio have made multiple attempts to take the 2-time rookie of the year out of action but this time they attempted to cut off his mullet as well.
Cameras caught up with Pillman later in the show who challenged Jordan Oliver to a hair vs hair match. It wouldn’t be the last time Pillman would have a message for the members of Injustice this week, however.
Brian Pillman Prevents Injustice From Winning Trios Titles
Injustice was granted a shot for the AAA Trios title against Vikingo, Myzteziz & Octagon Jr. due to a backstage altercation with Konnan recently.
Brian Pillman Jr. came out during the match and prevented Kotto Brazil from using a chair and also spit beer in his face. Vikingo would then hit a 630 Denton on Kotto for the win. The rivalry between Injustice and Pillman just got taken up a notch as Pillman prevented the trio from winning gold here.
Richard Holiday Purchased Savio Vega’s Childhood Home
A short Lifestyles of the Rich and Dynastic took place this week. Richard Holliday and Alexander Hammerstone were shown outside a yellow house. Holliday informed Hammerstone that this is Savio Vega’s childhood home but that the bank foreclosed on Savio’s mother. This allowed Holliday to purchase it. Holliday said he plans to turn it into an Air BnB. Now that Holliday has stolen the Caribbean title and the title to his childhood home from Savio Vega, Holliday is referring to himself as “Richie Two Titles.”
The Dynasty will have to look over their shoulders, however. Both Mance Warner and Savio Vega are coming for them.
Last week, a planned press conference featuring Team Filthy and American Top Team was scheduled. It never took place, however, as Low-Ki interrupted and attacked ATT coach Dan Lambert. This week, it was revealed that American Top Team have filed legal action against Low-Ki for the attack.
Dinner With Los Parks
LA Park, LA Park Jr. and El Hijo de LA Park took part in a cooking show this week. The family cooked pulled pork in honor of Psycho Clown’s father Super Porky.
The Parks make it clear they are with MLW and will battle all of the little clowns AAA sends up north. This includes Pagano, who has been making himself known in MLW as of late as well. They will take on Psycho Clown’s team in trios action next week.
Next week on MLW, Los Parks will take on Psycho Clown, Psychosis, and Nino Hamberguesa in trios action. Los Parks will have to back up all the trash-talking they did from their kitchen when these two sides face off from Tijuana next week.
Founding member of Bullet Club, Tama Tonga, was recently interviewed by SI.com. During the discussion, Tonga noted the differences between Japanese and American wrestling companies during the pandemic. According to Tonga, there is more unity in Japan and concern for the safety of fans and wrestlers.
“There is a different sense of unity in Japan,” said Tonga. “Here in America, the show must go on. Money needs to come in, so the wrestlers are still wrestling. New Japan stopped holding shows. That’s not just for the safety of the fans, but it’s also for the health of the wrestlers.”
Tonga continued to talk about how New Japan Pro Wrestling has assured staff and wrestlers that nobody will be let go. He noted that the company is more of a family.
“It’s a different culture in Japan, a lot different from ‘the show must go on’ mindset,” said Tonga. “The majority of our income comes from live shows, which has been cut out, but the company has held onto the staff and reassured us that no one will be let go. The company is more of a family in Japan.”
Tama Tonga is one of the most decorated tag team wrestlers in NJPW history. The Guerrillas of Destiny rank 5th all-time in IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team title defenses with 9. Their 6 reigns with the titles is tied for 1st all-time with Tencozy. They rank 4th all-time with 607 combined days with the belts. The team also made it to the finals of World Tag League 3x in a row from 2016-2018. They’ve never won the tournament, however.
Kevin Owens defeated Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 36 but hasn’t been part of WWE programming since. As it turns out, Owens suffered an ankle injury during the match that has sidelined him ever since. Meanwhile, the wrestler Owens beat at WrestleMania now has a WWE Championship match against Drew McIntyre at Money in the Bank.
Owens confirmed his ankle injury during an interview with RDS.
“It’s special that we were considered essential in the state of Florida, but maybe it’s a mentality where they think people need such distraction,” a translated quote from Owens reads.
“The great thing about WWE is that it doesn’t require us to be there if we don’t want to. That’s why in the last two weeks I have not been there because I preferred to be at home with my family,” Owens continued.
Owens doesn’t seem to be doing too bad during this time, however.
WrestleMania 36 with Owens’ 4th time wrestling at the event. He was involved in a 7-way ladder match for the IC title at WM32 (won by Zack Ryder.) At WrestleMania 33, he defeated Chris Jericho for the United States title. At WM34, he teamed with Sami Zayn and lost to Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan.
Jimmy Uso has suffered a knee injury and will be out of action for 6-9 months. According to a report from Ringside News, Uso needs surgery after suffering an injury during the ladder match at WrestleMania 36. The exact nature of Uso’s knee injury or the type of surgery he’ll need is currently unknown.
John Morrison won a 3-way ladder match against Kofi Kingston and Jimmy Uso at WrestleMania. Big E would later win the titles for New Day in a triple threat match against Jey Uso and the Miz on Smackdown.
WWE recently announced that the New Day vs Forgotten Sons vs Lucha House Party vs Miz & Morrison will compete for the Smackdown tag team titles at Money in the Bank.
The Usos in WWE
Jimmy & Jay Uso are one of the most decorated tag-teams in WWE history. The 34-year-old brothers debuted on the WWE main roster in 2010. During that time, they’ve won tag-team gold in the promotion times.
The Usos have held the Smackdown tag titles 4x for 380 days spent with the belts. They rank 1st in total days spent with the Smackdown titles and second in reigns. The New Day have held the belts 6x for a combined 300 days spent as champions.
The main event of WrestleMania 9 was Yokozuna vs Bret Hart yet somehow, Hulk Hogan ended up the winner. Jim Ross recently addressed arguably the most confusing WrestleMania main of all time on an episode of his Grilling JR podcast.
“I knew that the plans were for Hogan to leave the show as the champion,” JR said on the podcast. “But he wasn’t even in a match. So, to tell you I knew what was going to happen would be a lie. I didn’t know what was going to happen.”
JR continued, I knew in general terms that by the end of the night when the sunset on WrestleMania 9 that Hogan would be leaving as the champion but I didn’t know the fortuitous route that we were going to take to get there.”
Hogan came out at the end of Hart vs Yokozuna and challenged the new champion. According to JR, Hart and Yokozuna’s match on the show was better than what was expected.
“Thanks to Bret and Yoko, they made chicken salad out of some chicksh*t,” JR said about their match. “It was a respite that we needed and I give credit to Bret Hart and Yokozuna for that. They always had amazing chemistry. I could watch them work all day long. Bret knew exactly how to work with Yoko to amplify and eventuate Yoko’s size and strength advantage.”
Before Cain Velasquez signed with WWE last year, he worked two matches in Mexico for AAA Lucha Libre. Konnan recently commented on WWE releasing Velasquez on an episode of his “Keepin it 100” podcast recently.
“How weird is that bro? They use the guy one time, that’s it,” Konnan said on the show regarding the former UFC Heavyweight Champion’s release.
Disco Inferno then chimed in and said that WWE didn’t need him.
“Well, you say they don’t need him but I think there was money in him and Lashley,” Konnan said. Konnan then listed some other names that Cain could likely draw money with but Disco was talking over him at the time.
Velasquez lost to Brock Lesnar in a WWE Championship match in Saudi Arabia last year. Velasquez would later team with Humberto Carrillo on a WWE live event from Mexico as well. They defeated the team of Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows.
Konnan’s comments about Cain’s release can be heard in the player below:
Velasquez has been doing some video game live-streaming recently. He also posted the following link about luchadors sewing masks to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Becky Lynch is said to be drawing interest in the entertainment world for her ability to connect with fans.
During a recent chat with TMZ, the WWE RAW Women’s Champion revealed The Rock and John Cena are mentoring her for a potential career in Hollywood.
Lynch appeared in the season 5 premiere of the hit show Billions on Sunday night. Series co-creator Brian Koppelman said last year that Lynch had a standing offer to appear on the show.
“You never know if people are gonna come through with these things, but he did and they did. I’m on the season premiere,” Lynch told TMZ Sports about Koppelman’s offer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q0JLH-OhsY
Becky Lynch Mentored by The Rock & John Cena
Lynch continued to talk about how both the Rock and John Cena have been offering her advice.
“[The Rock has] actually he’s been very helpful in guiding me,” Lynch said. “He’s just being very giving and I think they all are because they’ve all been there and they’re all ready to look after the next generation.”
“Cena’s also been so great to me and so generous with his time and his advice, checks up on me on what I’m doing now. I think everybody wants to see the next generation move to where they’ve been, ya know?!”
Lynch would later confirm during the interview that she has no plans to leave WWE for Hollywood, however.
“Look, I just love performing. I love being able to get it out there, but I also love a crowd. So, as long as I can wrestle, then I’m going to be doing that.”
Lynch has a degree in acting from the Dublin Institute of Technology.
Mick Foley has shared a touching tribute to the life of Nancy Benoit on social media. Foley recently connected with Nancy’s sister and this led to him feeling reconnected with Nancy as well. He took to Facebook and asked for wrestling fans to remember Nancy for her contributions to pro-wrestling rather than how she died.
“For the past thirteen years, Nancy Benoit’s life has been largely defined in the public eye by how she died. I think it’s about time we changed that way of thinking. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could pause for a moment to remember instead, how she lived, how she worked, and to reflect on what her legacy in pro wrestling should be?” Foley asks in a recent Facebook post.
Foley would continue to say he believes Nancy should be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
“I would love to see Nancy inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame,” Foley continued in his post.
Foley then mentioned several different periods of Nancy’s career that are Hall of Fame worthy. These included her time as Fallen Angel, as manager of the 4 Horsemen, and her run in ECW.
“Inducting Nancy Toffoloni into the WWE Hall of Fame is the right thing to do. Let us remember her, and define her for who she was and what she did in life,” Foley concluded in the post.
Darby Allin was eliminated in the semi-finals of the TNT title tournament recently on Dynamite. The 27-year-old went into the match ranked #3 in the official AEW top-5 rankings. He spoke to the Bleacher Report recently about a variety of subjects including the creative freedom he currently enjoys in AEW.
In lieu of long in-ring promos, Darby often creates videos addressed to his upcoming opponents that are aired on Dynamite. He spoke to the Bleacher Report about the process these videos go through before being broadcast.
“Me and my friend Max Yoder, we’re just a two-man group. All it is,” Darby said about who produces the videos.
He would continue to say he sends the videos to Cody, Tony Khan, and Chris Jericho.
“Yeah. I send it to Tony. First thing I send it to Tony and then I’ll send one to Cody. Jericho too, I’ll send him s–t. Just like, ‘Yo, look at this.’ It’s not, like, so much to be hoping that they’ll put the thumbs up. Because I know that they’ll like it. It’s just that I just want to share my art with certain people before it gets on air. Just being like, ‘Tell me your thoughts on this.'”
Britt Baker was recently interviewed by Chris Van Vliet. During the discussion, Baker talked about her heel turn in AEW, whose idea it was, and the creative process backstage in the company.
“I don’t want to say I felt lost but it just felt like I didn’t have a character,” Baker said about her pre-heel turn character. “It was something that obviously the fans can’t relate to because they’re not dentists and professional wrestlers. So, when you’re shoving it down their throats it’s almost like a slap in the face.”
She continued to say that it was Kenny Omega who had the idea of turning her heel.
“It was Kenny who had the idea of turning me heel,” she continued. “I was like ‘of course’ I’m down to try anything but I knew I was going to need a lot of help because I’ve never been a heel before ever.”
Baker also continued to talk about the backstage creative process for her in AEW.
“It’s a lot of coming together. So, Tony obviously writes the show and I’ll get bullet points. Tony, Cody and I will all kind of come together and come up with the content of what we want to say in the promos.”
Recently on Dynamite, Baker gave fans a tour of her dental office while she talked about some of the rules of being a role model.
Chris Jericho was recently interviewed by Newsweek and discussed his time at the commentary position as of late on Dynamite. Jericho noted that the temporary move to the commentary booth allowed him to be more of a focus of the show.
“I’m the leader of the Inner Circle, and I’m Le Champion,” he continued. “I think that was a great kind of stopgap measure to keep the star power on the show because we had a smaller crew for those four weeks that will plug up the gaps and I can kind of be one of the focuses of the show without being the focus of the show if that makes sense.”
Jericho continued to say that he has enjoyed his time working commentary but now he feels its time to go back to what he had been doing before.
“As fun as it is to commentate, that’s maybe something I’ll do more in the future,” Jericho said. “But I think it’s time to kind of take control again, outside of the commentary booth.”
While Dynamite will be live next week, they won’t be live every week moving forward. The May 13th edition will be pretaped before Dynamite runs live again on May 20th.
Chris Jericho, the Inner Circle & “The Bubbly Bunch”
In addition to working the commentary booth, Jericho and his stablemates have debuted “the Bubbly Bunch” segments. This past week, the Flim Flam Challenge took a turn. It became a “Manitoba Melee.” Highlights of the segment were posted to the AEW YouTube channel:
The full interview with Newsweek can be read here.
Deonna Purrazzo was released from WWE on April 15th, 2020. She signed with the company in the spring of 2018. Aside from making it to the quarter-finals of the 2018 Mae Young Classic, the 25-year-old never won a match on WWE programming. She rarely won on house shows or live events either.
During a recent interview with Fightful, Purrazzo spoke about the backstage culture in NXT. She said it was one where everyone is expected to just be happy to be there.
“I just feel like NXT is a culture of you’re grateful for what you get and you don’t ask for more, and I wasn’t grateful for what I got,” Deonna said during the interview. “Because I feel like I worked my ass off to get to NXT. I worked my ass off to prove I belonged there when I got there.”
Purrazzo would continue to mention that she pitched ideas for her, Chelsea Green, and Rachel Evers to form a stable.
“[I] thought out character ideas, vignettes for me as a tag team, for vignettes of me, Chelsea (Green), and Rachel (Evers) as a trio, for myself,” she continued. “I just invested a lot of me in different ways that they could use me and use my potential and it did fall on deaf ears. Because when I got opportunities they were given to other people because ‘I wasn’t ready,’ and I didn’t let it slide.”
Purrazzo’s last match for the company was on the April 6th, 2020 edition of RAW. She lost to a returning Nia Jax that night. Before signing with WWE in 2018, she had wrestled with Impact, ROH, and Stardom.
Darby Allin has faced Cody 3 times in AEW. The first time they wrestled was at Fyter Fest and the match went to a 20-minute time-limit draw. They met again on the New Year’s Day/AEW Homecoming episode of Dynamite. This time Cody would pull out the victory in just under 18-minutes. Last night on Dynamite, they met again, this time in the semi-finals of the TNT title tournament. Cody reversed Darby’s Coffin Drop into a pinning combination and scored the win, booking his trip to the tournament finals.
Darby reacted to the loss backstage in an AEW social media exclusive but refused to answer any questions. His reaction can be seen in the Tweet below:
SOCIAL EXCLUSIVE: Darby Allin doesn't advance to the finals
With last night’s loss, Darby Allin’s record in 2020 drops to 5-6. He is 5-3 in single’s matches this year, however. Darby has defeated Brandon Cutler, Sammy Guevara twice, Preston Vance, and Kip Sabian this year in single’s matches. He’s lost to Cody twice and PAC once.
He is 0-3 in tag matches this year. Darby lost to Jericho, Santana, and Ortiz along with Private Party on the January 29th show. He lost what was essentially a 2-on-1 handicap match against Jericho and Guevara on March 4th when Moxley was attacked pre-match. On the April 1st show, he teamed with Cody and lost to Shawn Spears and Sammy Guevara.
Shawn Spears defeated a wrestler named Baron Black last night on Dynamite. After delivering the C4 (a running Death Valley Driver) Spears locked in a Sharpshooter and got the submission victory.
After the show, Spears posted on Twitter that he texted Bret Hart and asked him if he could use the move. According to Spears, Hart gave him his blessing to use the move.
For those commenting:
A while back, I sent a text to @BretHart asking a question.
He told me: “Go for it, it works”
Tonight as @IAmJericho mentioned, I paid tribute to a Canadian ICON by winning via the #Sharpshooter
It just makes sense. Mine now.#LoveYouBret @AEWrestling
Before the global pandemic hit, Shawn Spears and Tully Blanchard were on the search for a tag-team partner for Spears. They hadn’t had much luck in finding one, however. Following the pandemic, Spears has wrestled several times on AEW programming.
Spears is 4-1 in single’s bouts dating back to the start of the empty arena shows. He’s defeated Shawn Dean, Billy Gunn, Justin Law, and Baron Black in that time. His loss was to Cody in the 1st round of the TNT title tournament. The week before, Spears teamed with the Inner Circle’s Sammy Guevara and earned a victory over Cody and Darby Allin.
In total, Spears is 5-7 in 2020 and has a 9-12 career record with AEW.
AEW has released its weekly rankings for April 29th, 2020.
AEW Men’s Single’s Rankings
Champion: Jon Moxley (9-0)
Cody (7-1)
Kenny Omega (4-0)
Darby Allin (5-2)
Lance Archer (3-0)
Jake Hager (4-1) (-1)
3 of the top-5 ranked contenders in this division will wrestle tonight in the TNT title tournament semi-finals.
There was no change in the rankings this week from those released on April 24th, 2020. Chris Jericho was dropped from the rankings on the 24th, most likely due to inactivity. Also from the rankings released on the 24th, Darby Allin moved all the way up to the #3 spot after being unranked. Allin defeated Sammy Guevara in the 1st round of the TNT title tournament last week. He’ll face Cody tonight on Dynamite in the semi-finals.
Kenny Omega defeated Alan Angels in single’s competition on Dynamite last week to improve his record to 4-0 in single’s matches this year.
Wardlow, Brody Lee, Orange Cassidy, and Dustin Rhodes all picked up wins on Dynamite last week. Jimmy Havoc went 1-1 this week, losing to Cassidy on Dynamite but picking up a win over Shawn Dean on Dark.
AEW Women’s Division
Champion: Nyla Rose (4-1)
Hikaru Shida (7-1)
Kris Statlander (2-3)
Yuka Sakazaki (1-1)
Britt Baker (3-3)
Riho (3-3) (+1)
There was no movement in the women’s division this week. There were no women’s matches on either Dynamite or Dark this week.
AEW Tag Team Division
Champions: Kenny Omega & Hangman Page (6-0)
The Dark Order (5-0)
Best Friends (5-3) (+1)
The Young Bucks (2-2) (-1)
SCU (2-3)
Lucha Bros (1-2)
The Best Friends move up to the #2 spot this week in the rankings. They were victorious over Lee Johnson and Musa this week on Dark. They will be in tough tonight on Dynamite, however. Jimmy Havoc and Kip Sabian seem to have formed an alliance in recent weeks in a rivalry against the Best Friends and Orange Cassidy. Tonight, It will be the Best Friends vs Havoc and Sabian in a no-disqualification no-count-out match.
