WWE kicked off WrestleMania weekend last night with a show from the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.
The event featured the 1st round matches in the Axxess title tournaments. WWE is holding tournaments over WrestleMania weekend to crown new contenders in the NXT tag-team, North American, United Kingdom, and NXT Women’s divisions.
Additionally, NXT Superstar, Kassius Ohno, challenged Keith Lee for the WWN title.
Results from WrestleMania Axxess Night 1
WWN Title Match
Keith Lee (c) defeats Kassius Ohno
WWE NXT Tag Team Title Invitation First Round Match
Trent Seven & Tyler Bate defeat Riddick Moss & Tino Sabbatelli
WWE NXT North American Title Invitation First Round Match
Fabian Aichner defeats Jason Kincaid
WWE NXT Women’s Title Invitation First Round Match
Nikki Cross defeats Aliyah
WWE United Kingdom Title Invitation First Round Match
Lio Rush defeats Buddy Murphy
WWE NXT Tag Team Title Invitation First Round Match
Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) defeat Adrian Jaoude & Cezar Bononi
WWE United Kingdom Title Invitation First Round Match
Drew Gulak defeats Dan Matha
WWE NXT North American Title Invitation First Round Match
Akira Tozawa defeats Kona Reeves
WWE NXT Women’s Title Invitation First Round Match
Kairi Sane defeats Bianca Belair
– Tickets for WWE SummerSlam 2016 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY will go on sale this Saturday, April 2nd. SummerSlam takes place on August 21st. The Ticketmaster pre-sale code is WWESUMMERSLAM.
– WWE Network’s Hall of Fame red carpet special on Saturday night will be hosted by Byron Saxton and Maria Menounos. Menounos hosted last year’s special with Michael Cole.
– Mojo Rawley vs. Christopher Girard has been added to Thursday night’s WrestleMania 32 Axxess session. Several NXT matches will reportedly be filmed during WrestleMania week at Axxess events. Speaking of NXT, below is a new promo video for Friday’s NXT Takeover: Dallas, airing on the WWE Network at 10 PM ET.
WWE has announced the official schedule for their WrestleMania AXXESS weekend in Dallas, Texas this coming April.
WrestleMania AXXESS will take place this year from Thurs, March 31st – Sun, April 3rd at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, the same venue as their NXT TakeOver: Dallas special on Friday night.
There will be activities on Thursday, March 31, from 6-10 p.m.; Friday, April 1 from 5-9 p.m., and three Saturday sessions from 8 a.m. to Noon, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. The latter session goes head-to-head with the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony. There is also a Sunday event from 8 a.m. to Noon.
The WrestleMania AXXESS events will be in direct competition with a number of other independent wrestling shows scheduled for WrestleMania 32 weekend in the same area.
– SEScoops.com reader Jorge Romero sent along the following photo of the entrance way set up inside Levi’s Stadium for tonight’s WrestleMania 31 event.
– Sheamus took part in a Q&A inside the NXT ring at WrestleMania Axxess on Saturday. One fan in attendance noted that Sheamus came out to a huge pop from the fans, but teased a heel turn. Sheamus said that when he comes back, there will be no more jokes, unlike the way he conducted himself the last time we saw him on television. He also noted how much fun it was “knocking Daniel Bryan around” over the years, which was viewed as another hint at the fact that he could be returning as a heel.
Despite initial reports to the contrary, the latest word going around is that CM Punk is still receiving his merchandise checks from WWE. As noted on Thursday, WWE has been continuing to sell Punk merchandise, including the distribution of new Punk merchandise at WrestleMania Axxess in New Orleans this past weekend.
“Stone Cold” Steve Austin has mentioned several times when reflecting on his walkout of WWE that during his hiatus, he was not receiving money from WWE, including profits earned on his merchandise being sold. He noted when talking about Punk walking out on the company during recent podcasts and media interviews that Punk is leaving tons of money on the table, but apparently that is not the case.
At the time Punk walked out on the company, he was the number two merchandise-mover, trailing only John Cena. At this point in time, while the latest official figures have yet to come in, it is believed that he is still among the top five wrestlers in the company in terms of current merchandise sales, and possibly as high as number three.
– RF Video’s Rob Feinstein put up a video on his official Facebook page that features wrestling icon Sting across the street from WrestleMania Axxess in New Orleans this weekend. You can check out the clip at Facebook.com.
– Speaking of Sting, here is a photo of him at the airport in New Orleans.
– Reyan Ali recently spoke to Adam Pennucci, the guy behind a lot of WWE’s video packages, for a new interview on Wired.com. Pennucci, who rarely does public interviews, talked about the process of putting together a video package for WWE, as well as some of the changes that have taken place today as compared to the infamous Attitude Era. You can check out the interview at Wired.com.
– The following is a photo of Andre The Giant’s boots from WrestleMania Axxess in New Orleans.
– According to a recent draft, the matches that WWE is planning on giving ample time at WrestleMania XXX on Sunday are Triple H vs. Daniel Bryan, John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship main event. The Brock Lesnar vs. Undertaker match will also likely receive a decent amount of time. According to the draft, Bryan vs. HHH is scheduled to go longer than any match on the show.
– The following is a photo of WWE Hall Of Famer Mick Foley in the ring at the WWE NXT event at WrestleMania Axxess in New Orleans this weekend:
– According to one report, there’s a decent chance that the split between The Real Americans (Cesaro and Jack Swagger) will either take place at WrestleMania XXX on Sunday night, or on the post-WrestleMania edition of WWE RAW on Monday night.
– The following are photos of Undertaker out-of-character at WrestleMania Axxess in New Orleans on Saturday:
– WWE Hall Of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin posted the following message on his official Twitter account regarding his surprise appearance at Jim Ross’ “RINGSIDE” stage show on Thursday night in New Orleans:
– John Cena posted the following message on his official Twitter account talking about the energy in New Orleans this weekend and hyping the big WrestleMania XXX event on Sunday.
New Orleans is ALIVE! #Wrestlemania30 is here! The energy on the streets of this city is an inspiration! Do NOT miss this event tomorrow!
– At WrestleMania Axxess in New Orleans, there are a number of grave sites for the 21 victims of The Undertaker at WrestleMania. The following is a photo of the WrestleMania XXX grave site, where Brock Lesnar will lay if he loses to “The Phenom” this Sunday.
– Variety recently published an article that claims WWE Studios will be co-producing an upcoming Vince Vaughn film. The movie is called “Term Life,” and is a thriller that will be released in 2015. You can read more on this story at Variety.com.
– The following is a photo of some cool CM Punk art that is being featured at WrestleMania Axxess in New Orleans:
– Speaking of Mr.T, he has been tweeting a lot throughout the week about his upcoming WWE Hall Of Fame induction. He sent out the following tweets on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively:
My speech is ready! Hand written from my heart to capture the essence of my Mother. NO speech writer here FOOL!
– The following is the final Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar video package that aired during the WrestleMania Today special on the WWE Network on Thursday:
– WWE Hall Of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin noted on his official Twitter account on Thursday that he recorded a future “Steve Austin Show” podcast live in New Orleans with soon-to-be WWE Hall Of Famer Lita. Austin tweeted the following:
– As previously reported, Triple H presented WWE Hall Of Famer “The Living Legend” Bruno Sammartino with a huge statue at WrestleMania Axxess in New Orleans on Thursday. You can watch video highlights of the presentation below:
The following are photos of Triple H presenting WWE Hall Of Famer “The Living Legend” Bruno Sammartino with a statue at WrestleMania Axxess on Thursday in New Orleans.
– WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus has announced that she’ll be doing a VIP signing at this year’s WrestleMania Axxess event. This will be her first meet and greet in the United States in nearly 3 years.
– Mark Henry will be appearing at next week’s SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. He’ll be co-hosting a “Rap ‘n’ Wrestling” event on March 14th with NYC DJ Peter Rosenberg. Rappers appearing include Slaughterhouse, Tyler The Creator, Ab-Soul and many more.
– The Rock tweeted this photo hyping his new Muscle and Fitness Magazine cover:
