Hulk Hogan’s return to WWE is close to being a “done deal” – according to a report at TMZ.
Hogan has been persona non grata since his release from the company nearly three years ago due to the fallout from his sex tape & racism scandal. Rumors of his return have been picking up steam in recent months. Hogan has made it clear that he wants to return, telling the Associated Press back in January that he knows Triple H wants him back in the fold.
In recent weeks, Jonathan Coachman, Goldberg, Paul Heyman, Mark Henry and more have commented on the prospect of Hulk Hogan’s inevitable return.
Hogan and “high-ranking WWE officials” have been making progress in their talks. TMZ notes that members of Saudi Arabia’s royal family specifically asked for Hulk Hogan to participate in last week’s Greatest Royal Rumble event. That didn’t pan out, but WWE wants him back – as long as it’s done in a tasteful way that’s sensitive to the circumstances that led to his departure in the first place.
Earlier this week, Hulk Hogan was inducted into the Boys & Girls Clubs of America Alumni Hall of Fame (Video). During his speech, Hogan acknowledged his hurtful racial remarks and told the audience he wants to educate kids not to use the same language that he did.
WWE officials were closely watching how Hogan was received at the Boys & Girls Clubs event and issued this statement to TMZ:
“WWE applauds the work Hulk Hogan is doing with Boys & Girls Clubs of America to turn what was a negative into a positive by helping young people learn from his mistake. While he has taken many steps in the right direction since we parted ways, Hogan is not currently under contract to WWE.”
Do you think we will see Hulk Hogan back on WWE television this year?
Ring of Honor wrestling has announced on their website that the main event in War of the Worlds: Chicago will feature a match between the teams of Los Ingobernables de Japon’s Tetsuya Naito, Seiya SANADA, EVIL, BUSHI, and Hiromu Takahashi going against Bullet Club’s Cody Rhodes, Marty Scurll, Adam Page and The Young Bucks.
The announcement issued states:
RING OF HONOR WAR OF THE WORLDS TOUR – CHICAGO
INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION TAPING
SUNDAY, MAY 13THBELL TIME @ 07:00 PM CDT
THE ODEUM EXPO CENTER
1033 NORTH VILLA AVENUE
60181 VILLA PARK
ALREADY SIGNED
MAIN EVENT
LOS INGOBERNABLES DE JAPON (NAITO, HIROMU TAKAHASHI, BUSHI, AND IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS EVIL & SANADA) vs. BULLET CLUB (CODY, MARTY SCURLL, ADAM PAGE, & THE YOUNG BUCKS)
SIGNED TO COMPETE
WOMEN OF HONOR CHAMPION SUMIE SAKAI
JUSHIN THUNDER LIGER
ROPPONGI 3K
Other matches on the card include:
Silas Young (c) and Austin Aries for ROH World Television Championship
Sumie Sakai (c) vs Jenny Rose for Women of Honor Championship
Jay Lethal vs Chuckie T.
Kelly Klein vs Deonna Purrazzo
The event is set to take place at the Odeum Expo Center on Sunday, May 13. You can check out the announcement here.
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla has announced the dates for the 2018 Battle of Los Angeles event. The event will be held from September 14 to 16 at the Globe Theater in Los Angeles, California. You can check out the announcement on their Twitter below:
The 2018 Battle of Los Angeles takes place on September 14th/15th/16th at Globe Theatre!
Seth Rollins Poll: Who Should Seth Rollins Face Next For The Intercontinental Championship?
WWE has a poll up on their website asking the WWE Universe who they think should challenge Intercontinental Champion Seth Rolllins.
Bobby Lashley is leading the poll with 20% votes, followed closely by “The Monster Among Men” at 20%, with Elias and Bobby Roode at 17 and 13 respectively. Other names in the list that are below 10% are: Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn both with 9%, Kevin Owens coming in at 7%, and Jinder Mahal getting 3% as the lowest votes out of the bunch.
Baron Corbin On Trolls
Baron Corbin has posted a photo of his Ferrari with the caption “How much do you make for your twitter opinions again? #eod”, taking a shot at internet trolls who Baron engages in contact with regularly:
WWE Hall of Famer Ricky Steamboat recently spoke with our friend Raj Giri of WrestlingInc to promote his appearance at PCW ULTRA’s May The 4th Be With You event from Wilmington, California.
Steamboat discusses his legendary WrestleMania 3 match with Randy Savage, how influential it was, how the match was put together as well as the one thing he would change in the match. He also discussed what today’s wrestlers seem to be missing in the ring. Here are the highlights:
Not expecting how influential match with Randy Savage would become:
“I did know [about winning the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 3], yes. I was told by Vince [McMahon]. Of course, it’s very rewarding, but truth be told, Randy and I never knew that it was going to escalate the way it has over the years and still be talked about 31 years later. We wanted to actually just steal the show that night.”
Working with Randy Savage for the first time:
“Randy and I never really got to work [prior to WrestleMania 3]. The first time was when we hooked up at WrestleMania, so we didn’t have a chance to have a bunch of matches under our belt to get ready for the big show and try some stuff. Everything that was put together for the match was strictly based on our gut feeling on the story we were trying to tell. We tried to make it a championship match and that’s the bottom line.”
How they got around to putting the match together:
“I didn’t realize it then, it was only later, that with the number of guys coming up and talking about the match, and I’m going back years later, and how we kind of changed the blueprint of how you put together a match because of all the false finishes in that match. And the false finishes to me is what made it a championship match. He’s trying to hold onto the belt and I’m trying to win it from him. I think if my memory serves me, we had 21 false finishes in a match that went about 17 minutes.
The hard part is when you’re caught up in all the action, all the drama, and the story that you’re trying to tell, is trying to remember 21 false finishes in the sequence that it was laid out. I was really stressed out before that match. I kept going through the match and all of the false finishes over and over and over in my mind, but, God, that was hard to do because customarily you would understand back then, a lot of the matches, we called it in the ring.
Nothing was really set up from A to Z like this one. We took notes on a legal pad, a yellow legal pad, and, God, I can’t remember how many steps we had, but once we got the match down, I’ll give you an example, at night, I would get with Randy and say, ‘okay, number 32 is this, this, and this. Tell me the rest of the match.’ And he would go, ‘number 33 is this, this, and this. 34 is…’ and we would quiz each other back and forth, back and forth, just so we would have it.”
What he would add to the match:
“If I was to add something to that match, it would have been this one moment to which I would have come off the top rope with my dive, which was my finish and I would have had a 1-2 count and Randy kick out just so the fans could have a little curve ball thrown in there. Back then, you never really prostituted your finish, but I think it would have fit. It would’ve worked. You see it sometimes in the main events today, a guy’s finish, especially with two top guys, and the other guy kick out only later on in the match to be caught in the finish again and for it to work.”
What today’s performers are missing:
“What I see lacking is two guys hooking up in the locker room and going over their match and lining things up, but what’s missing is being able to tell a story. Every match should have a story in it and I see a lot of that lacking. I see a lot of guys doing a lot of good stuff, and I call it stuff, filling in the blanks in their match, but the stuff doesn’t tie in. It’s not related. The phrase that I use a lot is you’ve got to connect the dots and keep connecting them up to the finish. And a lot of guys out there are doing stuff just for the sake of doing stuff.
And I say, ‘a lot of you guys are throwing away moments.’ I see a guy crashing through two tables and 15 seconds later they’re running around chasing each other and I said, ‘oh my God, you just crashed through two tables! What are the fans thinking when 15 seconds later, you’re in the ring chasing each other?’”
You can check out the interview on WrestlingInc by clicking here.
Busted Open Radio posted a video on their Twitter account showing WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry impersonating late WWE Hall of Famer Paul Bearer. You can check out the video below:
The cameraman that suffered an injury during the filming of WWE Swerved has filed an amended suit against WWE and Titus O’Neil, according to reports from PWInsider. Donald Anderson has filed suit with arguments to counter WWE’s claim that they are not under Florida court’s jurisdiction.
The amended filing has several quotes by Triple H and WWE executive John Saboor about the importance of WWE Performance Center in Florida. These saihe quotes are being used by Anderson to argue that the company is being contradictory to its claim that they are not under jurisdiction in Florida as they don’t conduct business over there.
The lawsuit states that Anderson was placed in a dangerous working environment by the WWE. During the filming of a segment of WWE Swerved where Paige gives Titus an electric shock as a prank, Titus got enraged and kicked a video camera out of Anderson’s hand. Anderson claims that this incident resulted in injuries in his hands, fingers and wrists that put him out of work for six months.
Anderson is now seeking $15,000 in damages and other unspecified punitive damages.
WWE’s United Kingdom Champion Pete Dunne revealed on his Instagram account that he is expecting his first child in November. You can check out the post below:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BiVL1OlhNMZ
New Camp WWE Season 2 Premiere
WWE released a new video of the second season premiere of Camp WWE. The second season will premiere Sunday. You can check out the sneak peek video from WWE Network’s Twitter below:
The 2nd show from Impact Wrestling’s April TV tapings in Orlando aired last night. The main event saw Su Yung take on Rosemary in a match which would be invaded by an army of undead brides.
Also on the show, Matt Sydal defended his X-Division title against former champion, Taiji Ishimori, Brian Cage started his world tour and more.
Impact Wrestling Results (3/5/18)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjjrDwEBkNM
Eli Drake to Challenge Pentagon Next Week
Drake cut an in-ring promo to start the show, stating he plans to challenge Pentagon Jr for the Impact World Championship next week.
This brought out Pentagon, who informed Drake he has no fear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00-R6CSFvJg
1. OVE defeated KM and Fallah Bahh
KM previously told Bahh he was sorry he fat-shamed him and now they are a tag team.
oVe picked up the win despite a hot tag into Bahh which saw both KM and Bahh give steamrollers to their opponents.
KM seemed to get mad at Bahh after the match but quickly apologized.
2. Taya Valkyrie vs Kiera Hogan went to a no-contest
Kiera Hogan had a few choice words for Tessa Blanchard on a recent Impact Media conference call. Hogan is upset Blanchard chose her match at Redemption to come in and do commentary. Hogan and Blanchard then got into an argument backstage earlier in the evening.
Taya lost a Knockouts Championship match last week to Allie. Previously, she had defeated Hogan at Redemption.
Taya seemed to dominate early but just when Hogan was getting going, Blanchard hit the ring area and attacked her causing the ref to wave off the match.
Blanchard laid out Hogan with a DDT to end the segment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeOBvMdS5VM
Brian Cage World Tour
Impact Wrestling recently announced Brian Cage will be touring the world. Cage is scheduled for matches in Japan, Canada, and Australia which will air on Impact Wrestling.
This week he was in Australia and defeated Mick Moretti, Brodie Marshall, and Slex in a fatal 4-way match.
The match was hosted by World Series of Wrestling, an Australian based promotion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UarD0CpUKrE
3. DJZ, Dezmond Xavier, and Andrew Everett defeated Drago, El Hijo Del Fantasma, and Aerostar.
In a fast-paced match featuring luchadors and the stars of the X-Division, Impact got the win over Lucha Underground here.
DJZ picked up the win for his team after hitting the ZDT on Aerostar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymnck_Wvci8
4. X-Division Championship Matt Sydal (c) defeated Taiji Ishimori
The former champion, Ishimori, had a chance to regain the title in this rematch from Crossroads earlier this year.
Sydal missed the shooting star press but followed it up with a variation on a pump-handle driver and got the pin.
5. Su Yung vs Rosemary – No Contest Due to Undead Bride Army
Earlier in the show, Rosemary was shown telling Allie not to come to ringside for the match.
Not long after the match started, the undead bridesmaids meandered down to ringside carrying a coffin.
This brought out Allie to attempt the save. As the brides were attacking Allie, Rosemary grabbed a kendo stick and went after Yung.
Yung sprayed mist in Rosemary’s eyes and gave her a driver through a table. She then made Allie watch as they put Rosemary in a coffin to close the show.
According to a new SEC filing, WWE owns a minority stake in Vince McMahon’s XFL football league. The 10-Q filing shows that WWE is a minority owner in Alpha Entertainment, parent company of the XFL. According to PWInsider, the filing reads:
“On April 3, 2018, the Company entered into a transaction with Alpha Entertainment LLC (‘Alpha’), an entity controlled by Vincent K. McMahon, granting Alpha rights to launch a professional football league under the name ‘XFL’.
Alpha has announced that it expects that this launch will occur in early 2020. Under these agreements, WWE received, among other things, a minority equity interest in Alpha without payment by, or other financial obligation on the part of, WWE.”
The XFL is set to launch in 2020. Vince McMahon officially made the official announcement in late January. Although McMahon had stated that WWE and XFL would be separate entities, XFL commercials have been airing at WWE live events.
WWE Chairman Vince McMahon hosted a call from WWE HQ for WWE’s 2018 First Quarter earnings along with Co-President George Barrios and Co-President Michelle Wilson. Below are some highlights from the call, (via Wrestling Inc.) where the company doing business with a country where women’s rights aren’t much of a priority is discussed.
When asked about WWE leading the women’s revolution but still conducting business in a country like Saudi Arabia, Wilson said:
“I think everyone is familiar with the fact that we have obviously been very vocal about our female performers and re-branding them as Superstars. We feel really good about our continued commitment on that front. There are many countries around the world where we perform and we’re respectful to the cultures there but we certainly hope to be a part of the change moving forward.”
Wilson added that WWE must respect cultures when they do business in new markets and believes that WWE will be a part of a long-term change in these countries. She gave the example of the match between Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss that took place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. WWE made history with the first ever WWE Women’s match to ever take place in the UAE.
Next week’s Impact Wrestling will see two matches on the card – one of them for the Impact World Championship. It was announced announced by Eli Drake last Impact that he will cash in in his Feast or Fire World title and shot on Pentagon Jr.
NEXT WEEK – it is official. @TheEliDrake will cash in his Feast or Fired World title shot and face @PENTAELZEROM for the IMPACT World Championship!
To determine the #1 contender for the X-Division Championship, another match has been announced between Aerostar, El Hijo del Fantasma, Drogo and Ishimori.
New WWE UK Tournament Promo
Live Nation UK uploaded a promo video on YouTube for the WWE United Kingdom Title tournament that will be taking place on June 18 and 19. WWE United Kingdom Champion Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate, and Trent Seven are featured in the promo where they will team up to go against the team of WWE NXT North American Champion Adam Cole and NXT Tag Team Champions Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong. You can check out the video below:
You may recall back in in October 2017, Nia took a hiatus from WWE. Aa report by Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated fueled rumors that she was unhappy with her role in the company, was considering leaving even said that her cousin Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson advised her to walk out. Jax was back again on RAW after some time and is now setting the record straight about what actually happened.
The RAW Women’s Champion spoke with PopCulture.com this week and called BS on the whole narrative. Jax adamantly denies she took time off due to creative and says it’s crazy to think The Rock got involved in her fictional spat with the company.
“That was the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” she said. “The fact that people would think that Dwayne would ever tell me to not do something for the WWE, a place that’s actually given him his start and the reason he is on top of the world, it’s completely false and hilarious,” she laughed.
The actual reason why Jax took a leave of absence was because of an injury she sustained on a flight when a bag fell on her head. “I had actually had an injury that happened to me personally on a flight—an overhead bag fell directly on top of my head while I was on a plane. I was out of it, I was completely out of it. I’m not kidding you,” she explained.
“It was just something where I had to go and make sure I was okay and rest up. It was right before a tour. All it was, was just like, ‘Hey, you’re not the storyline right now. Go take a break. Make sure you’re okay, and then come back for tour.’ That was it. That was the bottom line. That was the story,” she emphasized.
Nia Jax defends the RAW Women’s Championship this Sunday against Alexa Bliss at Backlash.
Samoa Joe was probably the biggest acquisition of SmackDown Live during Superstar Shakeup, though it appears that the former NXT Champion himself was not aware of this change up until last minute.
Joe recently appeared on From The Top Rope podcast where he talked about NXT being a proving period for him, looking forward to working with Daniel Bryan and more.
When asked about the time he found out that he was being moved to SmackDown Live, the former TNA Star said that he got to know about it on the day of Superstar Shakeup:
“I found out when they told when I got to the Superstar Shakeup. They gave us no head’s up. It’s chaotic that week; it’s weird because you’re like ‘What?’–you sit there and I thought about the matchups now that I’m over on Smackdown, and I was like ‘ehh… I can deal with this.’ After much reflection, I’m looking forward to it.”
Samoa Joe was one of the biggest stars to switch brands during superstar shakeup along with the likes of the Miz, Jinder Mahal, Jeff Hardy and more.
If some recent reports are to be believed then Joe might be taking a big role in SmackDown Live in upcoming times and he may be in line for a big Championship feud.
He is currently scheduled to face Roman Reigns in a one on one match at the Backlash PPV this Sunday.
A lot has changed in NXT in the past few years and anybody who was there before and returns now has to feel different not only in the environment surrounding him, but in himself as well.
During a recent interview with Byron Saxton for WWE’s website, EC3 talked about his one percent mantra, how he is the best and deserves the best and more.
Talking about the changes in him since his first WWE run, the former Impact World Champion said that previously he was satisfied with just working hard but now he takes everything personally and tries to be ruthless to cope up with the world:
“I was satisfied with just working really hard, and if it’s not my time, well, we’ll get them next time! Now I take everything personally. This is a ruthless world, and one must be ruthless to cope with it. I do not have a dream; I have a vision. I do not seek happiness. I seek success. The only comfort I get in life is victory, after victory, after victory.”
EC3 first joined WWE back in February 2009 and had a 4-year long stint under the ring name Derrick Bateman. He wrestled for FCW and NXT during his time with the company before being released in May 2013.
After his departure, he went on to become a big name for TNA/Impact Wrestling and returned to NXT earlier this year after being released from Impact in January.
Brock Lesnar’s victory at WrestleMania was the catalyst of a hot discussion about the fate of the Universal title and his win at Greatest Royal Rumble only proved to be a fuel for these talks to be carried further.
However, unlike Mania, his win at the Greatest Rumble wasn’t clean which made many wonder if Officials’ feelings about the Beast have changed since then.
Though Wrestling Observer has now revealed the original plans for the ending of this Championship bout, killing the rumors that company may portray Brock as a weaker character going forward. The original plans for the steel cage match were for Brock’s feet to hit the floor first, which would have made him the decisive winner.
Although things didn’t go as planned and after Roman’s feet ended up touching the ground before Lesnar, they had to make the call of declaring The Beast as the winner and then move with the storyline by having the referee apologize for it later on.
This likely means that the company intended for Brock to win the bout all along and the plans were for him to retain the Championship when they first announced this rematch last month despite the rumors of Officials considering a title switch.
As far as Lesnar’s next title defense goes, the educated guess is that he will be wrestling at Money In The Bank next month as WWE intends to present it as one of their top PPVs, in line with the Big Four events.
The Greatest Royal Rumble was understandably one of the biggest Live Events WWE has put on in the past year or so, but it was not free from controversies.
One of the most debated topics about the event was the absence of female talent from the show and it appears that comments on this matter may have landed Corey Graves in hot water.
According to the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Graves has some heat on him for the negative comments he made during the Greatest Rumble and afterward.
A lot of people pointed out how Corey seemed to have remorse or second thoughts about WWE running a show without female talents which were illustrated by a few cryptic comments he made during the event.
Not only that but the former NXT Star also made an obscure Instagram post after the show, with the caption indicating that women in America at least have the freedom of expression compared to Saudi Arabia:
According to Observer, all this is not sitting well with Officials and while there are people who think that his statements are understandable, the feeling is that he shouldn’t have made such comments publicly.
Furthermore, there are people backstage who were heard saying that the Raw and SmackDown commentator is “more replaceable than he thinks he is.”
No word yet on if Corey Graves will be punished in any way for this but we’ll keep you posted if any such details regarding the matter come to light.
For now, it’s only safe to say that the company is not in the mood of jeopardizing their relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for any reason and if anyone else shows his unhappiness with the event then he will only be calling trouble for himself.
Former WWE Intercontinental Champion Anthony Carelli (a.k.a. Santino Marella) was recently hosting his Twitch show, Behind The Lights, and offered his thoughts on various professional wrestling and mixed martial arts (MMA) topics. Marella first discussed the personnel changes to IMPACT Wrestling:
“I tell you what, IMPACT Wrestling, this is such an interesting phenomenon, because they’ve had different incarnations — TNA, IMPACT Wrestling. Sometimes there’s somebody new at the helm and then people wonder, ‘How is this going to turn out?’. And sometimes, ‘ah it’s kinda the same thing, they’re shuffling old guys, whatever, whatever’, and it hasn’t really connected in the past in terms of that renaissance.
“But this one here there’s a different feeling — again, Scott at the helm and Don — there’s real change. It was getting a reputation in the past of being, ‘Oh they’re just recycling old WWE guys’, you know, hand-me-downs, and that was the reputation they had for a while. Now that’s not the case. Now they’re developing fresh, new talent that’s not… I mean if there’s someone there from WWE that’s fine, but the roster’s not comprised of leftovers anymore.
“The mentality, the direction they’re going in, it’s very good for the business because you need competition. There was a long time when there was no competition to WWE. Now there’s places to go.”
As for IMPACT Wrestling’s recent Redemption pay-per-view (PPV), Marella explained why he loved the event:
“I thought it was awesome. It solidified the notion of the change of direction for me. It’s funny because to be competition with WWE already means that you’re on the map, you’re on the radar. But you can’t compete with the budget. You can’t compete with the juggernaut marketing machine that they have.
“But you don’t have to have a massive budget to have that one creative genius especially with the different platforms we have today to be able to get out there. So before it was only TV, and now because of all these different mediums you can compete with TV.”
Marella also told fans to enjoy this evolution that IMPACT Wrestling is currently going through, and predicts a legendary moment in wrestling is coming:
Luke Harper On Not Being A Part Of The Wyatt Family
One half of SmackDown Live Tag Team Champions The Bludgeon Brothers, Luke Harper, recently took to Twitter to comment on no longer being a part of The Wyatt Family. Harper got his start in WWE alongside Bray Wyatt and Erick Rowan in the faction.
His Tweet got responses from former Wyatt Family members Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton, as well as Tyler Breeze:
I'm not in the "Wyatt" family. I'm a Bludgeon Brother. Don't @ me.
The Big Show is back in the gym after recovering from recent complications from a surgery. Show posted a photo on social media showing that he’s back to work in the weight room, and is even breaking equipment:
As we’ve previously reported, former WWE Champion Kane has won his Republican Primary for the race for Mayor in Knox County, Tennessee. He will move on to the General Election in November to take on the Democratic Primary winner to decide who Knox County’s next mayor will be.
TMZ Sports posted a video in which they catch up with WWE Hall Of Famer Hulk Hogan and discussed Kane’s campaign. Hogan noted that Kane handles everything backstage and is very involved with the business aspect of things. Check it out:
Austin Aries To Challenge For The ROH World TV Title
Ring Of Honor (ROH) has announced that Austin Aries will challenge Silas Young for the ROH World TV Title at ROH War Of The Worlds next weekend on Sunday, May 13th from Chicago, Illinois. They also announced Cody vs. Jushin Thunder Liger for the Friday night before on May 11th in Toronto, Canada. You can get more information at this link.
Scott Hall posted a photo on Twitter this morning in which he is reunited with fellow Kliq members Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash and Sean Waltman. The four were reunited at the 53rd Cauliflower Alley Club Reunion yesterday and this past weekend in Las Vegas. Hall noted that Triple H was missing from the photo, captioning it “Miss you @TripleH”:
Summer Rae Returning To Wrestling After Nearly Two Years
Former WWE Superstar Danielle Moinet (a.k.a. Summer Rae) will return to the wrestling ring at Battle Championship Wrestling in Melbourne, Australia on Friday, May 25th from the Whitehorse Function & Convention Centre. Moinet is set to face Ivelisse in the second half of the first round of the BCW Women’s Championship Tournament.
Moinet was released by WWE last October and hasn’t wrestled a match since August in 2016. Her career has been plagued by neck and back injuries and had been cleared to compete by WWE since May of 2017 but was never used, thus leading to her subsequent release.
WWE United States Champion Jeff Hardy posted a video on Instagram that referenced his old fan favorite “No More Words” theme song that he used from 2008 to 2009. Fans have been calling for Hardy to revert back to this theme song on social media lately since he’s receiving a singles push on SmackDown Live:
Liv Morgan & Sonya Deville Exchange Words On Twitter
Liv Morgan recently took to Twitter to poke fun at SmackDown Live General Manager Paige telling Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose that Absolution is dead. Morgan is currently a member of Monday Night RAW’s six-woman stable The Riott Squad.
This led to a brief exchange of insults between Morgan and Deville. At one point Morgan even called Deville “lousy Ronda Rousey.” Check it out here below:
WWE COO Triple H recently did an interview with Sky Sports to talk about several professional wrestling topics. One such topic was future WWE Hall Of Famer The Undertaker and where he’s at at this point in his professional wrestling career.
The Undertaker comes off a squash win over John Cena at WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans, followed by a Casked match win over Rusev in Saudi Arabia at the Greatest Royal Rumble last weekend.
Triple H explained why he believes, at this point in his career, Undertaker has earned the right to call his own shots:
“I think there’s one person who has the rights to call the shots and that’s the Undertaker. I think it will all depend on him and I think it should all depend on him. At this point, it should be what he wants to and feels comfortable doing. I know that he, as a performer, always wants to be able to give his best and, if he can’t then he doesn’t want to do it.
“When he’s in a position where he is right now, I think he feels great and wants to be able to be out there and show the Undertaker to the world, but it really comes down to himself, as it should.”
You can read Triple H’s full interview with Sky Sports by clicking this link here.
A new report has shed some light on what the WWE has planned for Samoa Joe on SmackDown Live.
Although the sports entertainment company has moved him from their flagship show, Monday Night RAW, to SmackDown Live, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon is still going forward with plans in place.
Those plans call for Joe to face Roman Reigns in a singles match at the upcoming Backlash pay-per-view event that takes place on May 6, 2018, in Newark, New Jersey at the Prudential Center.
Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated is reporting that although the chances of Joe losing to Reigns at Backlash are pretty good, that doesn’t mean that the WWE doesn’t have big plans for the “Samoan Submission Machine.” It was noted that WWE is planning for Joe to feud with Styles for the WWE Title on SmackDown Live in the near future.
Thus, it will be interesting to see what direction the company goes in for the WWE Title Match between Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura at Backlash.
Keep in mind that plans change all the time in the WWE and this doesn’t rule out Nakamura winning the title at Backlash.
What are your thoughts on Joe feuding with Styles going forward? Sound off in the comment section below.
The early betting odds for the WWE Backlash pay-per-view event have been released.
It should be noted that these odds call for no title changes. Also, the odds for the United States Title Match between Randy Orton and Jeff Hardy have not been released.
The Backlash pay-per-view event takes place on May 6, 2018, in Newark, New Jersey at the Prudential Center and will air on the WWE Network and some traditional pay-per-view outlets. Both Raw and SmackDown brands will be featured.
Here are the betting odds:
WWE Title No DQ Match: Shinsuke Nakamura +150 vs. AJ Styles -180 Singles Match: Daniel Bryan -250 vs. Big Cass +210 WWE SmackDown Women’s Title Match: Charlotte Flair -150 vs. Carmella +130 WWE RAW Women’s Title Match: Alexa Bliss +300 vs. Nia Jax -350 Singles Match: Roman Reigns -250 vs. Samoa Joe +210 WWE Intercontinental Title Match: Seth Rollins -210 vs. The Miz +180 Tag Team Match: Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley -350 vs. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn +300
Do you plan on watching this event? Sound off in the comment section below.
Samoa Joe’s replacement for a top match at an upcoming WWE live event has been revealed.
Originally, Joe vs. Roman Reigns in a singles match was promoted for the upcoming live event at Madison Square Garden in New York City on July 7th.
However, earlier this week, the sports entertainment company pulled the SmackDown star from advertisements for the show.
The reason for this is due to the event being a RAW branded show, and they need a RAW star to take on Reigns.
Mike Johnson reported on a recent installment of PWInsider Elite Audio that the star would replace Joe at this event to face Reigns is former WWE Champion Jinder Mahal, who is also slated to wrestle Reigns at other live events.
Here is what the longtime pro wrestling journalist had to say (transcript courtesy of RingsideNews): “He’s being pulled off a lot of those house shows. They’re going to be doing, including at Madison Square Garden I was told, Roman vs. Jinder.”
Braun Strowman, Seth Rollins, Alexa Bliss, Sasha Banks, Elias, Matt Hardy, and Bray Wyatt are also being advertised for this live event.
What are your thoughts on Mahal replacing Joe? Sound off in the comment section below.
