Teddy Hart could be looking at significant jail time as a result of new charges he’s facing. Hart was arraigned in Richmond, Virginia on Thursday and is facing charges of strangulation resulting in wounding/bodily harm. The charges are related to an incident involving Hart’s girlfriend Maria Manic.
Hart is facing up to 5 years in prison for the Class 6 felony offense and up to a $2500 fine. His court date is set for April 22nd and he is currently being housed in Richmond City jail without bail.
Independent wrestler Ace Montana took to his Facebook account to say he had to pull a gun on Hart. He went on to detail the assault against Manic. Hart was arrested shortly after the incident took place.
This is the 3rd time in the last 2 months that Hart has been arrested. He was arrested and charged with possession of a schedule III substance with intent to sell or distribute. On March 4th, he was charged for violating the terms of his bail by not staying under house arrest.
The 40-year-old Hart is a former MLW World Middleweight Champion and held the tag titles along with Davey Boy Smith Jr. He’s also a former JCW World Champion with the Insane Clown Posse’s Juggalo Championship Wrestling.
Ace Montana spoke to Hannibal TV in detail about the incident:
Booker T was recently a guest on Konnan’s “Keepin it 100” podcast. During the conversation, Booker was asked what he feels is missing wrestling today. During the conversation, Konnan asked Booker what he feels is lacking in modern wrestling.
“I think the psychology I think is missing, the stories, not the stories but the storytelling,” Booker said on the show. “Being able to go out there and make the fans say your name and chant your name because they were invested in you, they had an emotional connection. You know, when you are getting beat up real good you might see a kid crying because they want to see you get back in there. I think that part of it has been removed from the business due to it’s a different time there, a different game.”
Booker would continue to say that this type of storytelling still works and you do still see some of it today. He gave Roman Reigns as an example of someone who tells good stories in his matches.
“I like Roman Reigns because he goes out and tells me a story pretty much every time he’s in the ring,” he continued.
“Some guys go out there and they forget about the emotional connection that you’re supposed to make with the fans. I think that is the biggest part that’s missing more than anything.”
Booker’s full comments can be heard in the player below:
Ric Flair has shared his thoughts on the current coronavirus pandemic affecting the world. The WWE Hall of Famer addressed the situation in a video entitled “Keeping It Real!” which he uploaded to his YouTube channel.
With his wife Wendy next to him, Flair stressed how important it is to maintain social distancing and to self-isolate during this turbulent time. He noted how people worldwide should be doing their part so we can get back to living life sooner rather than later.
“I am the king of doing what’s wrong in life, self admittedly,” Flair confessed. “I’ve never done anything right, and here I am selfishly thinking that I’m missing WrestleMania—the greatest athletes in the world performing with nobody there, and I’m thinking that that’s making a statement by not going, and to me that’s the last thing.
He continued, “It’s learning right now that we have to social distance, we have to practice hygiene at its highest, we have to learn how to be self-contained. We have to beat this virus, we have to entertain ourselves, be it First Take, be it Get Up, be it Amazon, Netflix, just do it. Please, so that we can get out and enjoy the world. As we have for years.”
Ric Flair Urges Coronavirus Precautions
Ric Flair then emphasized how, if you’re not choosing to take precautions for yourself, then you should be undertaking the necessary social responsibility for your family and other people.
“If you’re not doing it for yourself, do it for your family. Do it for other people that are lucky enough to be alive. Thanking the doctors, the nurses, and everybody for all you do—the first responders.”
Flair then joked about how in the old days, “they had an electric fence for me to keep me from wandering!” He noted, however, that he is presently happy staying at home as he has found happiness there, urging how “that’s what everybody needs to do.”
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Rey Horus has officially signed a new agreement with Ring of Honor (ROH) wrestling. The promotion revealed the news via their Twitter account. At the time of writing, no specifics behind the new contract are known.
ROH shared how “It didn’t take long for Rey Horus to make an impact in Ring of Honor, and the company is pleased to announce that the exciting Mexican star will make ROH his home after signing a new contract!”
REY HORUS SIGNS NEW CONTRACT WITH ROH!
It didn’t take long for Rey Horus to make an impact in Ring of Honor, and the company is pleased to announce that the exciting Mexican star will make ROH his home after signing a new contract!#ROH? pic.twitter.com/N7RqF4PwrQ
— ROH – Ring of Honor Wrestling (@ringofhonor) March 27, 2020
Rey Horus In ROH
Rey Horus debuted for ROH in December 2019. He faced Flip Gordan at ROH’s Final Battle Fallout event. Gordon would ultimately walk away with the win that night.
Horus is currently one-third of the ROH Six-Man Tag Team Champions with his partners Bandido and Flamita. They defeated the Villain Enterprises team of Marty Scurll, Brody King and Flip Gordon for the titles during ROH’s Saturday Night at Center Stage event in January.
Before ROH canceled their 18th Anniversary pay-per-view, Rey Horus was scheduled to team up with Alex Zayn to face off against PCO and Brody King.
Their 18th Anniversary show isn’t the only show the promotion has canceled. The coronavirus pandemic has forced several wrestling promotions to cease operations, with ROH shutting down all shows through to May 31.
Eric Bischoff has broached the idea of David Benoit potentially signing with WWE or All Elite Wrestling. The former WCW President discussed the topic during a Q&A session on the After83 Weeks w/Christy Olsonpodcast. He was asked by a fan about the politics involved in Benoit signing with a major pro wrestling promotion given his family’s tragic story.
“At this time? I don’t know for sure,” Eric Bischoff began. “Because I don’t know what the politics that are you specifically asked, WWE? I think first of all I think we’d be far better served to go to AEW than WWE. But in either case, if either of those opportunities became available? If I were managing David? I would really think hard about getting into the ring and making that choice.”
Bischoff continued, “Because it’s being the son of a wrestler, being the son of a star in this business put so much pressure on you. Way more than the pressure is on the average person.”
“You take two people with equal, equal potential, everything is genetically equal. Almost identical except for birth parents, right, you put them through the same life experiences? You give them the same opportunities? You put them both into a wrestling environment to give them a chance to be a star? They’ll both accelerate in this example at the exact same pace; same levels, and the son of a star or daughter, as the case may be. An stablished star big name, versus the son of someone who’s coming in with no baggage, or help? I would bet against the son or daughter of a star every single time.”
Eric Bischoff On Nepotism, Wrestlers Proving Themselves
Eric Bischoff then acknowledged how there are hardcore fans that would take issue with the idea of nepotism potentially playing a factor. Bischoff suggested how Benoit would probably be under increased personal pressure if he decided to pursue a wrestling career.
He argued that if fans felt that a wrestler was getting opportunities and chances because of name association, that wrestler would have to work “two or three times harder than anybody else” to prove themselves.
This week, VICE TV aired the premiere of Dark Side of the Ring Season 2. The two-hour special focused on the tragic Benoit family story.
NXT North American Champion Keith Lee has reflected on sharing the ring with current WWE Champion Brock Lesnar.
The two monsters had a confrontation during January’s Royal Rumble matchup. Upon his entrance, Lesnar audibly remarked to his advocate Paul Heyman, “Who is this motherf—er?”
According to Lee, he felt that he was right where he was supposed to be.
“In that moment it felt like that was where I was supposed to be,” Keith told SuperSport. “Even though I feel like it was slightly unexpected the reaction that I got from 42,000 people. They really wanted Keith Lee to show out. They got something special in my opinion… Maybe in the future, there is a chance that there is Keith Lee versus Brock Lesnar in a one on one match. I feel like I’m one of the few that can go toe to toe with him… Hopefully, that can come to fruition.”
Lesnar isn’t the only top-tier Superstar Keith Lee has shared the ring with. Back at last year’s Survivor Series event, he had a moment with “The Big Dog” Roman Reigns. Lee was a member of Team NXT; Reigns was a member of Team SmackDown. Reigns would eventually defeat Lee, securing the Survivor Series victory for SmackDown.
Brock Lesnar defends the WWE Championship against Drew McIntyre next weekend at WrestleMania 36.
Drew McIntyre has credited his WrestleMania 36 opponent Brock Lesnar with helping to establish him at January’s Royal Rumble. According to McIntyre, Lesnar was instrumental in ensuring that McIntyre came off as a star.
Lesnar would be the first Superstar to enter the Rumble matchup. He then decimated pretty much every Superstar that tried to eliminate him. Superstars were doing all they could to conquer “The Beast Incarnate” but all failed. Except for McIntyre.
“If it wasn’t for that story that went in there to build Brock up as the monster he truly is, which in turn made Drew McIntyre when I put him out, that’s the reason the reaction was so big,” McIntyre explained to talkSPORT.
The 34-year-old Scotsman continued praising his WrestleMania opponent. “He made sure that story was told correctly. Watching him put that together, watching him at work, that was the first time I went, ‘Wow, this guy is really a genius.'”
Drew McIntyre previously shared how he didn’t know he would be winning the Rumble matchup until the day of the event. With his victory, McIntyre earned himself an opportunity at Lesnar and the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 36.
WrestleMania 36 will air on April 4 and April 5. The “Show of Shows” was originally meant to take place at Raymond James Stadium. The coronavirus pandemic forced WWE to instead pre-record the show from multiple locations.
WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair has expressed his wish to see Sting wrestle one more match. Flair shared the information after recently joining SiriusXM’s Busted Open Radio. According to “The Nature Boy,” nobody thinks more of Sting than he does.
“Well, no one thinks more of Sting than I do,” Flair said. “[…] I probably haven’t talked to him in three or four months now, but if he’s medically…if he’s okay with his neck and all of that, yeah, I most definitely would love to see him back in the ring one [more] time.”
He then discussed Sting’s matchup against Triple H from WrestleMania 31. Flair broached the idea of ring rust, especially given how long Sting had been an inactive competitor. Triple H would defeat the former WCW World Champion in a No Disqualification match that featured appearances from members of D-Generation X and nWo.
— SiriusXM Busted Open (@BustedOpenRadio) March 27, 2020
Ric Flair continued, “I do think with a guy like Seth Rollins or Randy Orton or somebody, that…yeah, he could have one more match. He stays in great shape, and he’s just really one of the really good guys in our business, and I think that I’m always in favor of guys like him, y’know, leaving at the highest possible level that we can afford people in our business.”
Sting wrestled his last matchup against Seth Rollins at Night of Champions 2015. He suffered a serious neck injury during their bout, which he was still able to finish. Rollins would ultimately walk away with the victory, retaining the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
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Roman Reigns’ sudden decision to pull out of WrestleMania surprised fans and it left people wondering about the reason behind this move.
The thing that especially puzzled the fans was that the Big Dog was still present for the tapings of the show and he chose his replacement for the match against Goldberg himself.
Dave Meltzer provided some updates on the situation during the latest Wrestling Observer Radio and revealed that an incident with The Miz led to this decision from Reigns.
Per Meltzer, The A-Lister was sick but he was still present for the tapings despite clear guidelines from WWE that every ill person needed to stay at home.
This upset The Usos and his cousin’s unhappiness helped in Roman Reigns’ decision to pull out of his WrestleMania match against the former WCW star.
WWE announced on SmackDown this week that the SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Miz and John Morrison will defend their titles against The Usos and The New Day in a ladder match at WrestleMania 36.
However, reports suggest that the Miz did not work the Mania tapings after the incident with Reigns so it’s likely that the company will change this bout on next week’s episode of SmackDown or before that.
It appears that after the Undertaker vs. AJ Styles match was changed into a Boneyard match, another top WrestleMania fight will be converted into a stipulation bout.
WWE had announced that this week’s episode of SmackDown will feature a Firefly Fun House segment where Bray Wyatt will address John Cena.
The former Universal Champion then hosted the segment in the
second hour of the show where he created ‘the perfect smoothie’ to defeat the
Cenation Leader at Mania.
Wyatt said that Cena deserves a match which is not ordinary and proceeded to challenge his opponent to a Firefly Fun House match at the upcoming PPV event.
There is no word yet on the characteristics of the bout but you can check out a video of the SmackDown segment where Bray mentions the WrestleMania match below:
WWE has since announced that John Cena will be returning to SmackDown for next week’s go-home episode of the show where he will respond to this challenge from the Fiend.
If Cena does accept this challenge then it will be the third stipulation match for Wrestlemania after WWE announced AJ Styles vs. Undertaker bout as a boneyard match and Edge vs. Randy Orton as a Last Match Standing match for the show.
If Drew McIntyre does win the WWE Championship from Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania this year, it will have to be in front of no live audience, however, the Scottish Star is trying to look at the bright side of the things.
The former NXT Champion recently had an interview with
SuperSport.com where he talked about things like the coronavirus epidemic
affecting the world and more.
Discussing his upcoming match with Brock Lesnar, McIntyre said that he had a vision for how it would go down in the stadium but he is trying to look at the bigger picture:
“I don’t think there are quite the words for it, I had visions for how it would go in that stadium…but right now, looking at the bigger picture, the fact that I’ve got the opportunity to fight for the WWE Title, after an 18-year journey, against Brock Lesnar, in the main event at WrestleMania.
This can be a moment of escape for everybody. Becoming the WWE Champion finally after 19 years, becoming the first British Champion, hopefully, will make people feel something on a deeper level” said McIntyre. “And that is very important to me too.”
The Raw star also explained how WWE’s services are important in the current situation, saying that whatever entertainment gets your mind off of things is very essential right now.
Drew McIntyre said that people should stick to whatever form of entertainment they like because it’s good for everybody. You can check out his full interview at this link.
The news of Roman Reigns pulling out of WrestleMania 36 made a lot of headlines yesterday and latest reports have now revealed two more names which have been removed from the show.
PWinsider is reporting that the current United States Champion Andrade suffered a rib injury on this week’s episode of Raw and he was not cleared to compete at the WrestleMania tapings which took place later in the week.
Andrade was expected to team up with Angel Garza on WrestleMania and the duo was scheduled to challenge the Raw Tag Team Champions, The Street Profits at the event.
However, he was replaced by an NXT star in the match and Post Wrestling is reporting that former Evolve Champion Austin Theory worked as the substitute for the Mexican star.
Another star that was removed from the show is the former champion Murphy and reports state that he was “not cleared to appear,” though it doesn’t provide any further details.
Murphy was not scheduled for a match at WrestleMania but he was expected to be at ringside for the announced Seth Rollins vs. Kevin Owens match at the show.
It’s likely that the company had to make changes to their plans for the bout because of Murphy’s removal and it would be interesting to see if they brought in Samoa Joe to play a part in the story.
WWE has been forced to reduce their operations greatly and the company has moved its shows to the Performance Center where they have been taping shows with no audience in the presence of only the essential personnel.
The company recently completed a major taping schedule which
included the shooting for both nights of WrestleMania 36 and now latest reports
have revealed when the company will resume their operations.
According to reports from PWinsider, the next set of WWE tapings are scheduled to be held at Performance Center on Friday, April 10, which is expected to include the post WrestleMania episode of SmackDown as well.
It was noted previously that the company taped episodes of their weekly TV shows leading up to WrestleMania this week, including Raw, SmackDown and NXT.
The report now reveals that WWE has taped the post WrestleMania episode of Monday Night Raw and the NXT episode for the same week as well.
The post-WrestleMania Raw is usually the biggest episode of the show of the year and the NXT episode is expected to feature some big matches such as the #1 contender ladder match for the NXT Women’s Championship.
The company included these shows in the latest tapings
because of the ‘stay at home’ mandate issued by the Orange County officials. It
went into effect on Thursday night and the order will stay effective until
April 9.
WWE SmackDown aired from the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. New Day squared off against The Usos to determine who will face Miz and Morrison for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships at WrestleMania tonight.
WWE SmackDown Results (3/27)
Drew Gulak def. Shinsuke Nakamura
Dolph Ziggler challenged Otis to a match at WrestleMania
Alexa Bliss def. Asuka
Bray Wyatt challenged John Cena to a Firefly Fun House match at WrestleMania
New Day vs. The Usos ended in a DQ
Here are 5 takeaways from the show:
Bayley & Sasha Banks Ran Away From Tamina
Sasha Banks and SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley came down to the ring to start off the show. Bayley claimed that Paige is jealous of her and that is why she is making her defend the title in a Fatal 5-Way at WrestleMania.
Banks stated that their plan is going to backfire on them because they are best friends and they are better than everyone. Lacey Evans interrupted and Banks claimed that Evans’ daughter is ashamed of her because she always loses.
Lacey vowed to break Sasha’s jaw win the Woman’s Right and will also teach Bayley some manners and take her title. Naomi interrupted and said that the glow will shine the brightest on the grandest stage of them all.
Tamina joined the party and headbutted Naomi. Tamina took out Lacey Evans with a Superkick as Bayley & Banks teamed up on Naomi. Bayley and Banks avoided Tamina and left the ring to end the segment.
Opinion: All Tamina has done is lose whenever she is featured on television. It makes no sense for anyone to be afraid of her. The only intriguing part of this match is when Banks and Bayley eventually battle.
Sami Zayn Will Defend The IC Title Against Daniel Bryan At WrestleMania
Drew Gulak battled Shinsuke Nakamura tonight on SmackDown. Sami Zayn will have to defend his IC Title against Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania if Drew won the match. Cesaro and Daniel Bryan were ringside for the match. Sami Zayn joined commentary.
Match Recap: Nakamura dominated the match early and sent Drew out of the ring. Shinsuke booted Gulak against the announce table as Sami taunted him. Back in the ring, Gulak turned things around and beat Shinsuke down in the corner. Nakamura connected with a knee strike and went for the cover but Gulak kicked out at two. Shinsuke Nakamura went for the Kinshasa but Bryan pulled him out of the way. Gulak then rolled up Shinsuke for the pinfall victory.
Asuka faced Alexa Bliss tonight on SmackDown. Nikki Cross joined commentary for the match.
Match Recap: Bliss hit Asuka with a forearm to the face and followed it up with a Dropkick for a near fall. Asuka leveled Bliss with a shoulder tackle and started dancing around the ring. Bliss knocked Asuka out of the ring and then mocked her dance. Cross then started dancing on the announce table and it caused Bliss to get distracted. Asuka launched Bliss into the steel steps as SmackDown went to a break.
When SmackDown returned, Bliss was in control and went for the cover but Asuka kicked out at two. Bliss bounced Asuka’s face on the apron as Nikki continued to annoy Cole on commentary. Bliss battled back and connected with a DDT for the pinfall victory.
Bray Wyatt Challenged John Cena To A Firefly Fun House Match At WrestleMania
A new episode of Firefly Fun House aired tonight. Bray Wyatt stared at a picture of him losing to Cena at WrestleMania 30 before turning to the camera.
Bray shouted at the Wyatt head lantern that he failed against Cena at WrestleMania but The Fiend wont. Wyatt said that the secret formula was self-loathing, hot sauce, and rage & resentment.
Wyatt threw Ramblin Rabbit into the blender as well and turned it on while cackling. Bray took a sip and stated that Cena deserves a much more than an ordinary match at WrestleMania. Bray challenged Cena to a “Firefly Fun House” match at WrestleMania.
There Will Be A Triple Threat Ladder Match For The SD Tag Titles At WrestleMania
New Day squared off against The Usos tonight on SmackDown. The winners of the match will face The Miz and John Morrison for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships at WrestleMania.
Match Recap: Kingston connected with a Dropkick that sent Jimmy out of the ring. The Usos regrouped as Miz and Morrison taunted them on commentary. The Usos battled back and slammed Kingston to the canvas for a near fall. Jimmy and Jey isolated Kingston in the corner and took turns beating him down.
Kingston escaped to the corner and tagged Big E. Big E connected with a Belly to Belly Suplex and dragged Uso to the apron. Big E hit several punches to the chest and followed it up with a Splash on the apron as SmackDown went to a commercial break.
When SmackDown returned, The Usos were back in control and had Big E trapped in the corner. Big E battled back with a Uranage and tagged in Kingston. Kofi hit a Clothesline and followed it up with the Boom Drop. Kingston hit the SOS for a near fall.
Big E tagged in as Uso launched Kingston into the ring post. Jimmy and Jey perched Big E up on the top turnbuckle and then sent him to the floor with an Enziguri. Kingston sent The Usos out of the ring and hit the Trust Fall onto both of them. Kingston tripped up John Morrison and Jey leaped onto Miz and Kofi. Big E then leveled Jimmy with a Spear off the apron and to the floor.
The Miz and Morrison then attacked Big E from behind and the match ended in a DQ. Miz and Morrison beat The Usos and New Day down before Michael Cole interrupted. Cole told The Miz & Morrison that they will have to defend the titles against New Day and The Usos in a Triple Threat Ladder match at WrestleMania. New Day and The Usos then attacked Miz and Morrison to close the show.
Opinion: This entire show was bizarre to watch because it has been reported that The Miz and Roman Reigns did not perform at WrestleMania when it was taped. WWE re-aired the Triple H vs. Reigns match at WrestleMania 32 tonight to hype Roman’s Universal Championship match against Goldberg. If the reports are accurate, it will be interesting to see how WWE wrote them out of their matches next week.
A new match has been announced for the upcoming WWE WrestleMania 36 PPV.
WWE booked an interesting match on Friday Night SmackDown on FOX between Drew Gulak and Shinsuke Nakamura. The stipulation of the contest was that if Gulak beat Nakamura then Daniel Bryan would get an Intercontinental Title match.
On the show, Gulak ended up beating Nakamura. As a result, Bryan will challenge Sami Zayn for the strap at WrestleMania 36.
WWE presents the WrestleMania 36 pay-per-view event as a two-night event on Saturday, April 4 and Sunday, April 5 in Orlando, Florida at the WWE Performance Center.
Updated WWE WrestleMania 36 Card
WWE Champion Brock Lesnar vs. Drew McIntyre
WWE NXT Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley vs. Charlotte Flair
AJ Styles vs. The Undertaker – Boneyard Match
Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins – Singles Match
WWE Universal Champion Goldberg vs. TBA
John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt – Singles Match
Edge vs. Randy Orton – Last Man Standing Match
WWE RAW Women’s Champion Becky Lynch vs. Shayna Baszler
WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley vs. Lacey Evans vs. Tamina vs. Naomi vs. Sasha Banks – Five Pack Challenge
Baron Corbin vs. Elias
Bobby Lashley vs. Aleister Black
WWE Raw Tag Team Champions The Street Profits vs. Angel Garza & TBA
WWE Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn vs. Daniel Bryan
What are your thoughts on this match being added to the card? Sound off in the comment section.
Matt Riddle On Goldberg Needing New WrestleMania Opponent
Matt Riddle gave his take on WWE Universal Champion Goldberg needing a new opponent at WrestleMania 36.
It’s been reported that Roman Reigns had decided not to work the match against the legendary pro wrestler at the show, which was taped on Wednesday and Thursday.
The reason for his decision was due to the concern over the coronavirus considering his battle with leukemia. WWE has yet to announce Reigns’ replacement.
Riddle took to Twitter where he wrote the following:
For those who are wondering, WWE has taped upcoming episodes of RAW, NXT, and SmackDown through April 6th, which would be the post-WrestleMania episode for RAW.
WWE plans to return for another set of tapings on Friday, April 10 at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando for the episode of SmackDown that night, which will be the post-WrestleMania 36 edition of the show.
The WWE 205 Live episode for that night will likely be taped as well. The belief is that WWE tape post-WrestleMania shows from this same venue.
It should be noted that for now, WWE will be allowed to tape episodes on that date despite Orange County, Florida making the “stay at home” order that went into effect on Thursday night to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.
In the past 24 hours, news of several changes made to the WrestleMania 36 card has surfaced online.
The coronavirus epidemic has forced the company to change things up with their biggest event of the year despite their efforts to do the show they initially wanted this week.
On Friday, it was reported that The Miz had been pulled from the show due to illness which impacted what WWE had planned for Miz and John Morrison at WrestleMania 36 in their latest title defense of the SmackDown Tag Team Championships.
Miz and Morrison were supposed to defend the titles against the winners of New Day vs. The Usos on Friday Night SmackDown. Dave Meltzer is reporting that Morrison will face one of the Usos in a ladder match instead at WrestleMania 36.
Also, despite it being reported elsewhere, Asuka and Cesaro both worked WrestleMania with no health issues. For those who are wondering, Edge vs. Randy Orton in a Last Man Standing match was successfully taped this week.
Finally, PWInsider reported that Buddy Murphy was indeed sick and didn’t come to any TV tapings this week including WrestleMania 36. It was noted by Meltzer that no one sick was allowed around even if they had a cough or a stuffy nose at the tapings.
The changes started earlier this week when news broke earlier this week that Rey Mysterio and Dana Brooke were off the plans for the show due to self quarantining.
Then, it was reported that Roman Reigns had decided to not work his scheduled match against WWE Universal Champion Bill Goldberg despite being in the building when the show was taped.
Mojo Rawley has been officially moved to the SmackDown roster.
Rawley was previously signed to the Raw brand, and he recently appeared on SmackDown with his friend Rob Gronkowski, who is going to be the host of WrestleMania 36 on April 4.
Mojo Rawley was moved to the SmackDown section of the roster on WWE’s website. He was drafted by Raw back in October 2019 on the second night of the supplemental draft.
He then appeared on two episodes of SmackDown and even served as a special guest commentator. He also was in a segment where he abused Michael Cole, this was the same night when it was confirmed that Gronkowski is headed to WWE. On the March 20 episode of SmackDown, Rawley welcomed Gronkowski to the WWE.
Gronkowski and Mojo teamed up with Elias and took out King Baron Corbin on the episode. Gronkowski then went on to announce a match between Elias and Corbin for WrestleMania 36.
Mojo might be involved with Gronk’s storylines from here on out. It was reported that Gronk signed a deal with WWE where we could see him compete in matches in the future. We could see Mojo be involved in these matches.
Mojo has said that he would like to have a match with Gronkowski at SummerSlam in August. It would be interesting to see if it actually comes to fruition.
Sonya Deville recently did an interview with Digital Spy, where she discussed a number of topics from LGBTQ+ representation in WWE to the storyline involving Mandy Rose and Otis from Heavy Machinery.
She shared her thoughts on the storyline saying that she had a lot of fun with it. She also highlighted that it was fun to see Otis play his part as he really is as much cheerful in real life as he is on TV.
“It’s been incredible. It’s been so much fun to be a part of,” Sonya said. “People just love Otis and I think it’s just because he’s just so unapologetically himself and he’s always so happy. I think he’s very relatable in a sense and Mandy and I have just had such a good time being part of the storyline for sure. It’s been probably the most fun storyline I’ve ever been a part of in WWE.”
Sonya also talked about whether WWE could pull off LGBTQ storylines. She said that she definitely knows that the company has the right access to people that could help them write a storyline like that and that she would love to be included in writing or planning something like that in the future.
The storyline between Mandy Rose and Otis has been regarded as one of the most entertaining ones on recent WWE television. Mandy Rose has said in an interview that she never thought her angle with Otis would be as popular as it has gotten. She has said that Otis has always been joking around with her since their NXT days and she never expected that it would become such a well-received storyline from fans.
Lance Archer was announced to be signed with All Elite Wrestling on February 26. The former New Japan pro-Wrestling star was supposed to make his in-ring debut for the company on the March 4 episode of AEW: Dynamite, but the plans were nixed and WWE Hall of Famer Jake “The Snake” Roberts was debuted on the show instead.
Lance Archer was revealed as the client of Jake Roberts on the March 11 episode of the show, a week later after Jake Robert’s debut.
On this week’s episode of Dynamite, Cody defeated Jimmy Havoc in the opening match of the night. After the match, Jake Roberts appeared on the titantron and told him that The Murderhawk was chomping at the bit to get in the ring and asked Cody to give Archer a chance.
Later on the night, Cody was on commentary where he made the announcement that Archer will make his in-ring debut on next week’s episode of the show. There is no word as of this writing on who will be facing. However, Dustin Rhodes seems to be eager to be in the ring with him as seen by his comments on Twitter.
On the news of Archer’s upcoming in-ring debut, Dustin tweeted, “Jake, you don’t want none of the #Rhodes fam!! You and your #ChickenHawk @LanceHoyt!!” To which Archer replied, “You’ll learn!”
Archer will finally make his in-ring debut for the company on the next week’s episode of Dynamite.
In 2019, Archer had a great run in NJPW with his impressive performances he showcased in the G1 Climax tournament. He also went on to win the IWGP United States Championship. Archer also worked in the WWE from 2009 to 2010 where he appeared on the ECW and SmackDown brands under the ring name of Vance Archer.
This Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite episode highlighted a segment featuring “The Exalted One” Brodie Lee with his fellow members of The Dark Order – Alex Reynolds and John Silver.
The much-discussed-vignette saw Brodie Lee have a steak dinner with Alex Reynolds and John Silver where he chided them for depending on their strength in numbers. He told them to get with the program in regards to what direction The Dark Order is heading in. While Lee was busy chastising, Silver tried to eat his steak before Lee finished his meal which angered him. He threw him out of the room.
After this happened, Alex Reynolds sneezed, which disturbed Lee very much, to the point where he kicked him out as well.
On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that the entire segment was made to rib on Vince McMahon, and it didn’t sit too well with the company.
The part where Lee gets angry at Silver for eating his food before he finished his own meal is a reference to Vince getting upset whilst having a meal at Morton’s Steakhouse because he wanted to be the first to eat. Vince is also known to dislike sneezing a lot, and he gets very mad when someone around him sneezes.
Meltzer noted that people in the company were very upset with this segment by AEW.
This is just another segment by Lee needling Vince McMahon – as during last week Lee had said the following about his former boss: “You’re not the first out-of-touch old man to not believe in me. But I will make damn sure you are the last.”
You can watch the segment below:
What would you give to have dinner with The Exalted One @ThisBrodieLee..?
Former WCW President and co-host of the 83 Weeks podcast Eric Bischoff recently commented on the AEW and WWE ’empty arena’ shows that have been taking place over the past couple of weeks. With the COVID-19 coronavirus causing major sports and entertainment to either be cancelled or re-scheduled, the two biggest pro wrestling promotions in the United States have opted to continue with their live broadcasts.
Eric Bischoff on AEW and WWE
WWE were first to broadcast from the Performance Center for Friday Night SmackDown. With the situation being fluid and no one truly knowing what will happen week to week, the company would attempt to try and still entertain fans with a skeleton crew and no actual audience in attendance. When AEW aired on TNT, they had a different, more ‘Ring of Honor hard camera’ approach to their production, which garnered praise seemingly across the board. Eric Bischoff was also someone who appreciated the quality of AEW’s production and style over the past couple of weeks.
“WWE missed the mark on the first couple of shows”
Eric Bischoff
“I think AEW is doing a great job” Bischoff began on this week’s episode of After 83 Weeks w/ Christy Olson. “WWE missed the mark on the first couple of shows. I almost, almost picked up the phone to call someone and say ‘hey maybe you just want to think about this?'”
WWE Is Too Glitzy?
Bischoff would then give his insight and ideas. “Here’s my take, right. When you look at the WWE product its very glitzy. You know, the high production values are second to none. When it comes to live event production? There is no one on the face of the earth that does live event production the way WWE does. It’s an art. That’s the good news…bad news is, when there’s no audience and you still dress everything up? It’s still bright. There’s colours, there’s lights, you can see that there’s nobody there. But the venue has no personality, the venue has no character. It’s a bright, multicoloured, very sterile environment. And for me it was kind of like, I just can’t watch it.”
AEW Giving The Arena ‘Character’
Eric Bischoff finished by comparing how the AEW product seemingly made the venue a ‘character.’ Something that added to the show instead of being a deterrent. “AEW kind of made the venue a little bit more of a character. And one of the ways they did it is the way they shot a lot of their angles. They were tighter, there was a lot more close ups, a lot less wide shots. To me they shot it better.”
WWE have reported already pre-taped a large number of segments/matches for WrestleMania 36 next weekend. It will be interesting to see if the company will be making any changes to the production style for the shows, considering how the ’empty arena’ presentation will play a huge part at the biggest show of the year.
Bobby Lashley was not present on the March 16 episode of WWE Raw – which led him to miss out on building up his WrestleMania 36 match against Aleister Black – due to the coronavirus pandemic.
According to a report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Bobby Lashley was supposed to appear on the episode of Raw to take part in some form to start the build for his match against Aleister Black.
The reason why Lashley was in South Africa is that he had to be there to do promotional work for a tour that WWE was planning to do in the country beginning from April 29 to May 2. The tour has now moved to September because of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Since Lashley traveled outside of the country, he had to be quarantined when he returned to the United States.
Aleister Black vs. Bobby Lashley is still set for WrestleMania 36 as the match was announced on Monday night, to no build whatsoever. Lashley didn’t appear on this week’s Raw too seemingly due to being in quarantine.
The Observer also noted that Lana was available earlier than expected since she was supposed to be filming for the action and science fiction movie starring Bruce Willis, Cosmic Sin – but all work has halted in Hollywood due to the coronavirus pandemic meaning she was available to work with WWE. It is believed that the company decided to move forward with Lashley vs. Black due to her availability.
Besides Lashley, other WWE stars that are put into quarantine and are not permitted to perform at the Performance Center are Rey Mysterio and Dana Brooke. Daniel Bryan is also self-quarantining after returning home from taping WrestleMania.
Rezar from the Authors of Pain is looking at spending a significant amount of time on the injured list. According to a report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, he recently had surgery to repair a torn biceps.The 25-year-old is expected to be out of action for 7-8 months.
Additionally, the decision is being made for his tag-team partner, Akam, to simply sit-out during the time his partner is on the shelf.
“Right now the decision is not to use Akam without him so as of right now there are no plans for either of them for appearing on television,” wrote Dave Meltzer.
Akam and Rezar had both been members of Seth Rollins’ stable along with Buddy Murphy on RAW as of late.
The Authors of Pain are former 1x RAW tag team champions. They won the titles by defeating Seth Rollins in a 2-on-1 handicap match on the November 5th episode of RAW. They then dropped the titles to Bobby Roode and Chad Gable in a 3-on-2 handicap match when their manager at the time, Drake Maverick, was pinned.
Footage of the AOP winning the RAW tag titles can be seen in the player below:
CM Punk’s agent reportedly reached out to WWE recently. According to a report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, however, WWE sent word they are not interested in opening up conversations regarding Punk.
“Vince McMahon labeled him the one man I just can’t do business with and nobody at the top level, including Paul Heyman has argued the point or pushed for him,” wrote Dave Meltzer.
It was also included in the report that Punk’s agent attempted to open a dialogue with WWE but was turned down by the company. It is being said that Punk’s role on WWE Backstage was something FOX pushed for and WWE allowed it only to appease FOX.
It is also being reported backstage that Punk’s role on WWE Backstage has devalued him some, as the show’s ratings have not been strong. Punk’s inclusion on the show did cause an initial spike in ratings his first week but the ratings have since been in something of a holding pattern.
“I was told that while you never say never in wrestling, there is no interest right now in him for anything in WWE,” Meltzer continued.
