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Kiera Hogan On Possibly Doing A Daughter Angle With Hulk Hogan

Jon Fuentes
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5

IMPACT Wrestling Knockout Kiera Hogan recently did an interview on Interactive Wrestling Radio to talk about several professional wrestling topics. Hogan was asked if she’d be opposed to doing a “daughter” angle with WWE Hall Of Famer Hulk Hogan, and also noted she has talked to Brooke Hogan about it:

“(laughs) I wouldn’t be opposed to it. I’ve actually had a conversation with Brooke Hogan about it. She got a hold of me and was like, ‘We should be sisters or something!’ I was like, ‘That would be so cool!’

“My real name is Kiera Hogan. That is my real real name. When I got into wrestling, I was like, ‘That works. I already am a Hogan!’

“But, I didn’t want to steal off what he (Hulk) was doing. I wanted to be my own Hogan. I want to be my own person. I want to be the ‘Girl on Fire’ and set myself apart from Hulkamania and all that other jazz.

“But, I definitely am not opposed to it. Of course, I was a fan. But, I definitely want to be able to do my own thing at the same time.”

Hogan then described how current WWE Superstar Mickie James has been a big influence in her career:

“Mickie James was my idol. She is my everything. But, definitely her story line with Trish Stratus was my absolute favorite. It drew me into wrestling. It was one of the best story lines, I think, ever. It was something so different for the women. I’m so in love with the theatrics of wrestling.

“Mickie James influenced my everything from everyday life to when I was in high school. I’ve been able to tell her this which is a plus for me and being able to be on the same card as her. She’s just amazing. I love her so much! (laughs).

“I met her when I was 16. I met her every year after that so she saw me grow in wrestling as I got further and further into my career. That weekend, I was able to be on that first SHIMMER with her and was able to really talk to her.

“She was just so proud of me. She’s almost like my second mother because I’m able to tell her, ‘Look, Mom! I’ve accomplished more!’ (laughs) She’s literally the most down to earth person ever. She’s such a sweetheart!”

Hogan is one of the shortest female wrestlers out there right now, standing at just 4’11. She feels her height is neither an advantage or disadvantage for her, but rather it’s neutral:

“I feel like it is neutral. It is not a benefit and it is not a defense. I feel like me being smaller, people think I’m not going to do as well as I usually do. I think I’m actually able to prove myself. Some people think I’m taller from my pictures. But, I’m only 4’11 and a half! (laughs) I don’t feel like it is a total disadvantage.”

Given today’s climate there’s never been a better time to be a female professional wrestler. Especially with the Women’s Revolution going on in the WWE. Hogan offered her thoughts on the evolution of women’s professional wrestling:

“I have a different view on it. I feel like people are just now starting to see the women on the main stage but on the independents, they’ve been doing it forever. I feel like at this time, maybe because they’re signing so many independent performers, now they’re starting to get noticed.

“But, it has been such a topic on the independents for such a long time and now it is starting to get so much attention because it is on the main stage. The independents don’t get enough credit.”

You can listen to Hogan’s interview on Interactive Wrestling Radio by clicking this link here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-85RlBhltk

Adam Cole Talks Deciding To Sign With WWE, Competing At NXT TakeOver: New Orleans

Andrew Ravens
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3

Adam Cole was with Ring of Honor from 2009 – 2017. During his run with the company, he held the World Championship three times and World Television Championship one time. Over the last year, it was expected that Cole would sign with the sports entertainment company and it would have happened sooner had the WWE and Ring of Honor legal issues not taken place.

It was later announced that the former ROH World Heavyweight Champion had signed with WWE and would be featured on the NXT brand.

As a result of that signing, he made his debut at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn III last August in Brooklyn, New York at the Barclays Center. Instead of him just sitting in the crowd at the NXT special, WWE had much bigger plans for him.

As seen at the event, Cole beat down then-NXT Champion Drew McIntyre along with Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly after McIntyre’s big win over Bobby Roode. Ever since he has taken the WWE by storm.

Cole recently spoke with Brian Fritz of Sporting News to talk about various topics. During the interview, he was asked about joining the sports entertainment company.

“It’s been great. Just seeing on every level how precise and how much WWE is trying to accomplish. It’s constantly in full effect. Even the Performance Center, the way that whole thing operates. The way the NXT TV show operates. Then being at the Royal Rumble and seeing how that operated. There’s so many moving parts but they’re in complete control at all times and everyone is trying to make everything as good as possible. It’s amazing to see the level at which everybody is on and the actual size and scope of everything. At first, it was overwhelming and now, getting the chance to see how everything works, it’s cool to be a part of it.”

As of this writing, WWE is promoting Cole for two matches at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans this Saturday night at the Smoothie King Center on the WWE Network.

He’s slated to take part in the NXT North American Championship Ladder Match alongside EC3, Killian Dain, Ricochet, Velveteen Dream, and Lars Sullivan as well as NXT Tag Team Championship Match against Pete Dunne & Roderick Strong and The Authors of Pain.

“It will be interesting. First and foremost, I think the focus has been the Undisputed Era has the NXT Tag Team Championship so, of course, we have to focus on making sure we hang on to those but at the same token, the six-man ladder match for this new NXT North American Championship, that sounds pretty darn cool too. This new championship being introducer at TakeOver, you want to talk about having a history-making night, that would be amazing to be able to walk out as North American Champion, to be able to retain the NXT Tag Team Championships.

We say all the time we want to shock the system. I have no idea how we’re going to do this but we’re going to try our best to pull it off as best we can and just have the absolute best matches that we can. You want to talk about a high-pressure night — NXT TakeOver: New Orleans is going to be high pressure.”

You can read the entire interview here.

 

Ex-Lucha Underground Star On What WWE Looks For In Talent

Jon Fuentes
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2

Ex-Lucha Underground and current CRASH talent Bestia 666 recently did an interview with The Roman Show to talk about several professional wrestling topics. Bestia first discussed former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Rey Mysterio becoming a partial owner of Aro Lucha:

“It really surprised me. He is a humbled person and this will help the lucha libre industry especially for us luchadors like Mexicans and Hispanics to have a person like Rey Mysterio to focus on lucha libre.

“To have a person like him have control of a promotion like that is great knowing that he knows the business. It will help him economically, but others too. He always tries to help people. I think that is what he will do. He has said that he will help the talent. He’ll help us, the Latinos.”

Back in 2013 Bestia actually worked as an extra for WWE and visited the Performance Center. While he admits working in WWE is the dream, he’s not going to sit around waiting for them:

“I was there, but [the WWE Superstars] were in their zone. I just did what I had to do, but I did go to the Performance Center in 2013 and I continue to work hard. I am not waiting for the WWE, but of course that is the dream. I would lie to you if I said I didn’t want to be there.”

Bestia also offered some insight into what he thinks WWE is looking for in talent they want to sign:

“WWE looks for people from other countries that can communicate. I speak English too, even though I am talking to you in Spanish. I am used to the American style. In the meantime, I will prepare, train, and be ready.”

You can read Bestia 666’s interview with The Roman Show by clicking this link here.

Edge & Christian Discuss Being Asked To Induct The Dudley Boyz Into WWE HOF

Jon Fuentes
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2

On a recent edition of the E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness, former WWE Tag Team Champs Edge and Christian discussed being asked to induct The Dudley Boyz into the 2018 WWE Hall Of Fame class.

Edge discussed the news breaking that he and Christian would be inducting Bubba Ray and D-Von, which was Bubba announcing it on Busted Open Radio. The pair also discussed getting the calls to be asked to induct The Dudley Boyz:

“Actually, the news broke by Bubba Ray Dudley on Busted Open Radio with me as the guest. I didn’t know he was going to do it.

“He got the pop himself and it has now been officially confirmed by WWE today as we’re recording this that we will be inducting The Dudley Boyz. Yeah!”

“We were very honored that they asked us to do it, and, obviously, we’ve talked about it many times in the past,” Christian added.

“All three teams will always be linked. If you think of the Dudleys, you think of Edge and Christian and The Hardy Boyz, and vice versa with all those other teams.

“We helped to put each other on the map and the feud with us and the Hardys really took off when those guys showed up.

“My phone rings immediately after [Edge’s phone rang] and it says, ‘Melbourne, Florida’,” Christian recalled. “And I’m like, ‘do we know anybody in Melbourne?’ I’m like, ‘your phone rang and then mine did.

“Should I answer it?’ and [Edge] is like, ‘yeah, yeah, you should answer it!’ So I answered it. It was D-Von. We had a nice conversation and he said he tried to call [Edge], so I said, ‘oh, I’ll pass him to you. He didn’t want to talk to you earlier.'”

You can listen to E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness by clicking this link here.

H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions

Alexa Bliss vs. Seth Rollins 2K18 (Video), Natalya Poses With Ex-UFC Star (Photo), Rock vs. Cena WM 28 (Video)

Jon Fuentes
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5

– In the first round of the WWE 2K18 Superstar Invitational Tournament on Xavier Woods’ UpUpDownDown YouTube gaming channel, RAW Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss takes on WWE Intercontinental Title challenger Seth Rollins. You can check out the video here below:

Bliss took to Twitter to comment on her game with Rollins:

– Natalya recently posted a photo backstage at a WWE event with Shelton Benjamin and ex-UFC fighter Jessamyn Duke:

– WWE uploaded John Cena and The Rock’s full WrestleMania 28 match on their YouTube channel. You can watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byni1lQYVFc&feature=youtu.be

John Cena Hypes Tonight’s RAW, Teases Return Of “The American Badass”

Jon Fuentes
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7

If The Undertaker is ever going to respond to John Cena’s WrestleMania 34 challenge, tonight’s the night to do it.

For the past several weeks The Leader Of The Cenation has attempted to lure The Deadman out and accept his challenge, however, Undertaker has remained radio silent on the matter.

Cena has verbally attacked Undertaker on the microphone week after week on RAW, and has even fired off a few shots at him on social media as well. He recently took to Twitter to promote tonight’s episode of RAW, continuing to use the hashtag #DoSomething:

Cena also referenced the rumors going around that Taker could return under his American Badass gimmick. With the fact that Kid Rock, who sang Undertaker’s American Badass theme back in the early 2000s, is going into the celebrity wing of the 2018 WWE Hall Of Fame this weekend – speculation has continued to run rampant.

With that being said, Cena decided to post an Instagram photo of some American Badass gear:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BhEK9kQgfuZ/?utm_source=ig_embed

Charlotte Flair’s Message To Asuka Ahead Of WM 34, Bray Wyatt Issues Cryptic Tweet

Jon Fuentes
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1

– SmackDown Live Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair is set to defend her throne against 2018 Women’s Royal Rumble winner Asuka at WrestleMania 34 this weekend. The Queen has the opportunity to become the first woman to ever defeat The Empress Of Tomorrow in WWE, as she hasn’t lost in two years of competition. Yesterday Flair took to Twitter to send the following message to her SDL Women’s Title Challenger:

– Several weeks ago to close out Monday Night RAW, The Final Deletion resulted in Bray Wyatt being DELETED by “Woken” Matt Hardy. Wyatt was tossed into the Lake Of Reincarnation and hasn’t been seen on WWE TV since. Wyatt recently took to Twitter and issued out the following cryptic Tweet in the midst of rumors that a character change could be coming for The Eater Of Worlds:

https://twitter.com/WWEBrayWyatt/status/980510891354488832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mandatory.com%2Fwrestlezone%2Fnews%2F938171-charlotte-flair-is-ready-for-asuka-bray-wyatt-issues-another-cryptic-message

Paul Heyman Explains Why He’s Inducting Goldberg Into The WWE HOF

Jon Fuentes
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3

Former Universal Champion Goldberg will be inducted into the 2018 WWE Hall Of Fame class this weekend, the night before WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans. Inducting Goldberg would be none other than Paul Heyman, the advocate of the man Goldberg defeated at Survivor Series in 2016 and lost to at WrestleMania 33 – Brock Lesnar.

Some fans were scratching their heads wondering why Heyman was selected for the honors of inducting Goldberg into the Hall. The Advocate recently did an interview with Digital Spy to explain that Goldberg actually requested WWE for Heyman to induct him:

“I am inducting Goldberg because that was Bill Goldberg’s specific request to WWE. Bill Goldberg personally requested that I induct him into the Hall of Fame. I have such respect for Goldberg as so far the one person who has truly taken the fight to Brock Lesnar in WWE.

“I also got a chance to witness him behind the scenes as a man, a husband, a father and I have the utmost respect for him as a human being and am honored to be the one to encapsulate this moment for him and be the one to formally induct him into the Hall of Fame.”

You can read Heyman’s interview with Digital Spy by clicking this link here.

Roman Reigns Reflects On His WrestleMania Match With The Undertaker

Jon Fuentes
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2

Roman Reigns was recently interviewed by CBS Sports to promote WrestleMania 34 this weekend, where he’ll challenge Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship in what’s expected to be the night’s main event. Reigns was asked about his main event WrestleMania match last year, in which he became the second-ever man to defeat The Undertaker at The Showcase Of The Immortals.

Reigns said that he feels the match could’ve been better, and he mostly puts the blame on himself for it not living up to expectations:

“For me, what made it so hard was how heavy it was. You know, if I wrestled The Undertaker 20 years ago at the beginning or the middle of his career, probably not. But the positioning I found myself in, it just felt really heavy and so much more emotional than I was ready for it to be, so I think that was the hardest thing … but, you know, the coolest thing because I think that just shows the gravity of the situation, the responsibility of the placement [on the card] and just who I was sharing the ring with.

“And that’s just how special he is. I just feel like maybe I wasn’t good enough or maybe it could have been better on my behalf, but I always hold The Undertaker in so high in that regard that I just feel like maybe I could have done better. But I enjoyed it.

“I really learned a huge amount in the ring with him; you know, to being in the ring with him for one singles match and to have it be at that level, to be able to pick something up in just 30-40 minutes from another performer — it just goes to show how good he is.”

You can listen to Reigns’ interview with CBS Sports by clicking this link here.

H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions

Kurt Angle Reflects On His 12-Year Absence From WrestleMania

Andrew Ravens
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1

WWE Hall of Famer and current General Manager of the flagship show of the sports entertainment company, Monday Night RAW, Kurt Angle decided to take some time to reflect on his career.

He left the WWE in 2006 but returned last year to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Ever since it was announced that Angle would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, fans started speculating that he would wrestle again in the biggest sports entertainment company in the world.

Angle returned to in-ring competition under the WWE banner at last year’s Survivor Series pay-per-view event in November.

Now, he’s slated to team up with former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey to take on Triple H and Stephanie McMahon at WrestleMania 34 in a Mixed Tag Team Match.

Angle posted the following on Instagram to reflect on his 12-year absence from WrestleMania. He wrote the following:

“12 years have gone by since my last Wrestlemania. Can’t wait to perform on the biggest stage of all stages. It’s in my blood. Hey New Orleans…. I’m comin’ !!! #itstrue #wrestlemania34 #TeamAngle/Rousey.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BhExTntB_NT/?utm_source=ig_embed

Jimmy Hart Names Which Current WWE Star He’d Like To Manage

Jon Fuentes
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5

WWE Hall Of Famer Jimmy Hart is one of the most legendary managers in the history of professional wrestling. Hart has managed the likes of Hulk Hogan, The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase, Jerry The King Lawler, Bret Hart, and many more. In a recent interview with WWE, Hart discussed which current Superstar he’d be interesting in managing.

Hart divulged that he’d love to work with Elias if given the opportunity. Here’s what he had to say:

“You know what? All of them are great but I like Elias. He plays guitar and me being from Memphis or course and look what I did for the Honky Tonk Man so Elias this is for you. Dick Clark told me something … he said if you dress like the audience then you’re gonna wind up sitting in the audience.

“We gotta get you out of those blue jeans and out of those patent leather brown or black boots that you wear and that t-shirt. We gotta get you down to Memphis. Let me take you to Graceland, baby.”

WWE Announces Mark Henry’s Hall Of Fame Inductor

Andrew Ravens
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12

WWE has officially announced who will be inducting Mark Henry into the WWE Hall of Fame this year.

On Tuesday morning, the sports entertainment company announced that former WWE Champion The Big Show would do the honors.

“I’ve spent a lot of time going up and down the road with Mark Henry,” Big Show told WWE.com. “I’ve had battles with him, and I know what kind of a human being and community leader he is. I can’t think of anyone more deserving of the WWE Hall of Fame. It is my honor to induct my friend.”

WWE holds their 2018 Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday, April 6th in New Orleans, Louisiana at the Smoothie King Center and will air on WWE’s streaming service, WWE Network. Bill Goldberg will headline the class.

Here is the list of inductees and those who will do the induction speeches:

Goldberg – inducted by Paul Heyman

Ivory – inducted by Molly Holly

Dudley Boyz – inducted by Edge and Christian

Mark Henry – inducted by Big Show

Hillbilly Jim – inducted by Jimmy Hart

Jeff Jarrett – inducted by Road Dogg

Kid Rock (Celebrity Wing) – inducted by TBA

Jarrius “JJ” Robertson (Warrior Award) – inducted by Dana Warrior

Paul Heyman On Cody Rhodes’ Success Outside WWE, Parallels To Steve Austin

Staff
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Paul Heyman will be ringside Sunday night for the main event of WrestleMania 34 when his client, Brock Lesnar, defends the WWE Universal Championship against Roman Reigns.

Later this week (Thursday, April 5th), Heyman’s one-man stage show, An Evening With Paul Heyman descends upon New Orleans as one of the weekend’s must-see events.

Heyman has been doing the media rounds to promote both shows and made some very interesting remarks to NBC Sports about Cody Rhodes’ meteoric rise. As a former manager and promoter of wrestling icon Steve Austin, Heyman explained that he sees a parallels between Austin’s success after leaving WCW in 1995 and the success of Cody Rhodes since leaving WWE in 2016.

When asked which WWE Superstars he think could thrive outside of the company like Cody has, Heyman said, “Cody reminds me a lot of when Steve Austin got out of WCW. In that Steve needed to find himself and when I put him on camera in Philadelphia at 5 o’clock in the morning, after a show, is when a truly pissed off, tired, aggravated Steve Austin found his inner persona that morphed into Stone Cold Steve Austin”

Heyman continued, “Cody has found himself in that very same way in that his angst over not being able to bring forward what he envisioned for himself in WWE has propelled him to new heights outside of WWE. He would have never found that within the company. Kudos to Cody for leaving and for sticking to his vision and to finding that box office appeal that has always lived inside of him.”

Heyman said there are certainly WWE performers who could do better working for other promotions, but a big part of peoples’ success is timing and how well they pitch themselves to management. As someone who is well known for recognizing talent and maximizing the value of talent, Heyman says sometimes it’s simply a matter of making the right pitch at the right time to the right person. It’s advice that translates to all aspects of professional life – people should be pitching,

“This is how the company can make more money with me.”

There’s much more wisdom to be found in this interview, which we strongly encourage you check out over at NBCSports.com.

Will Ospreay Sustains Injury During Sakura Genesis Bout, May Not Compete in New Orleans

Jake Skudder
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3

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay successfully defended his title against longtime rival Marty Scurll at this past Sunday’s Sakura Genesis event for New Japan Pro Wrestling. Ospreay took a relentless beating during the match, including injuring his neck during a Spanish Fly off of the ring apron and sustaining a deep cut that bled throughout the final stages of the bout.

Ospreay has taken to Twitter to update fans on his condition, he is expected to be joining some of the bigger independent shows surrounding next weekend’s WrestleMania show in New Orleans, including events for PROGRESS, Rev Pro and EVOLVE. Check out his full comments below:

First Five Participants in 50-Man Royal Rumble Announced

Chris Stephens
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9

WWE has announced the first five superstars for this month’s Greatest Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia.

Suspiciously, the five wrestlers announced today include one who has spent the last two years retired, another who was reported as retired earlier this year, another who is running for mayor of a town in Tennessee, and yet another who was recently “DELETED”.

Daniel Bryan, Big Show, Kane, Bray Wyatt, and Braun Strowman were all announced today as taking part in the 50-person match.

Greatest Royal Rumble Lineup

Confirmed Matches for the event so far include:

  1. Greatest Royal Rumble Match (50-Person Rumble Match)
  2. the Miz vs Seth Rollins vs Finn Balor vs Samoa Joe (Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match)
  3. John Cena vs Triple H

WWE has announced that all 7 male championship main roster titles will be defended on the show.

Pro Wrestling: EVE Announce New Brand SHEVOLUTION

Jake Skudder
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1

Pro Wrestling: EVE has announced a brand new promotion that will be focused on establishing newer female stars in the United Kingdom. Dubbed ‘SHEVOLUTION’ the first event will be taking place on Sunday June 10th from EVE’s spiritual home, the Resistance Gallery in Bethnal Green, London.

Tickets for the event (known as Stage One) are available to purchase via the company’s official site and are priced at just £10.

EVE has issued the following release on the brand new venture:

Pro-Wrestling:EVE launches exciting new women’s wrestling brand SHEVOLUTION! So… What is SHEVOLUTION?

SHEVOLUTION is a new brand of women’s wrestling shows, powered by EVE launching on Sunday June 10. It will have a seperate roster and Championship to EVE, with SHEVOLUTION more focussed on exciting, unseen in EVE, new, young and emerging talent on the wrestling scene around the country. 

SHEVOLUTION will also be the platform where performers from EVE Academy will begin their careers when ready to debut. There will at times be guest appearances from EVE roster regulars in matches against the members of the SHEVOLUTION roster, however, they are guest appearances only and nobody classed as being on the EVE roster will be eligible to contend for the SHEVOLUTION Championship. There will be a mini draft with a few performers from EVE moving over to SHEVOLUTION. Where as EVE is an 18+ promotion, SHEVOLUTION will not have an age restriction.

We are incredibly excited about SHEVOLUTION, working with the future worldwide stars of professional wrestling!

 

https://twitter.com/ProWrestlingEVE/status/980470883348369410

Cody Buries Disco Inferno on Social Media

Chris Stephens
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45

Cody and Disco Inferno were involved in an altercation on Twitter recently.

Disco sent out the following Tweet:

The tweet contains an image of Cody’s busted open left eye from yesterday’s Sakura Genesis show.

Kenny Omega issued a response:

Cody then issued the following response:

https://twitter.com/MattJackson13/status/980690168465178624

Cody Rhodes on Twitter

Cody has shown in the past he’s not afraid to go after people on Twitter if he feels they deserve it. After Jay White made reference to Brandi in a promo before Strong Style Evolved, Cody sent this Tweet out in response:

Cody and Hangman Page recently defeated the Golden Lovers (Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi) at Sakura Genesis.

WWE Reporting Bobby Fish Injured at NXT Live Event

Chris Stephens
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7

WWE is reporting Bobby Fish may have torn his left ACL at an NXT live event this weekend. They sent out the following release this morning:

“NXT Tag Team Champion Bobby Fish suffered an injury to his left knee at an NXT Live Event over the weekend.”

Bobby Fish Torn ACL

While WWE is reporting the injury took place over the weekend, it’s likely they are referring to an injury which took place nearly a month ago. The last time Fish wrestled was on a March 4th NXT house show in Indianapolis. It is believed he suffered a knee injury and needed to be helped to the back on that show.

WWE choosing to say the injury occured this weekend as opposed to 4 weeks ago is a bit of a mystery. This could be something done for storyline purposes on NXT, however.

While there is no timetable for his return, a torn ACL is an injury he would need months to recover from.

NJPW Posts Styles vs Nakamura Full Match From WK10 Ahead Of WrestleMania

Jake Skudder
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0

New Japan Pro Wrestling has released the classic bout between AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura from 2016’s Wrestle Kingdom 10 show for free on YouTube/NJPW World.

This was the first ever singles encounter between AJ and Shinsuke, and it would end up being their only match together for New Japan. Both men reportedly handed in their notice to New Japan prior to this event, AJ appeared for WWE at the Royal Rumble later that month and Shinsuke debuted in NXT against Sami Zayn over Wrestlemania weekend.

The IWGP Intercontinental Championship was on the line in this match and it was generally regarded as the best match on the card. Many heralded this contest as the Match of the Year in 2016 so if you have not yet had the chance to view it or you have never seen Shinsuke Nakamura outside of his WWE run then now is your chance. This is an extremely interesting watch ahead of their upcoming bout for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 34 next weekend.
Check out the match below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HajGBj3uQiE

Charlotte Flair Addresses Missing Last Week’s WWE SmackDown Live

Andrew Ravens
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0

WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair has addressed missing a recent WWE TV event.

If you recall, the sports entertainment company had announced that Flair suffered an undisclosed injury and was pulled from her non-title match against Natalya on last week’s episode of SmackDown Live. This would’ve been a rematch.

She was also scheduled to team with Bobby Roode against Finn Balor and Sasha Banks on Mixed Match Challenge but wasn’t be able to compete on the show and thus, Becky Lynch replaced her.

It was later revealed that Flair underwent minor dental surgery due to a mouth infection. 

Flair is slated to return to show of the blue brand this week as well as the Mixed Match Challenge for the finals as she and Bobby Roode face Asuka and WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz.

Flair, who is slated to defend her Smackdown Women’s Championship against Asuka at WrestleMania 34, recently did an interview with Barstool Sports. During the interview, she addressed her recent injury. Here is what she had to say:

“I’m good. They just kept me off TV because it was so swollen and I was talking funny from the stitches. They cleared me to wrestle, but I just looked a mess. So, I’ll be back next week.”

H/T to Joshua Gagnon of WrestlingInc.com for the quotes.

Triple H Opens Up On Fear Of Daniel Bryan Wrestling Outside Of WWE

Andrew Ravens
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7

With WrestleMania 34 quickly approaching, it comes with media for all WWE Superstars, and that includes Triple H.

It’s been well documented that WWE SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan has been officially cleared to return to in-ring competition by WWE doctors.

The former WWE Champion has been an underdog for his entire career. From his days on the independent scene to when he arrived in WWE. Although the company wasn’t fully behind him at first, he has overcome the challenges that were put in front of him and became a fan favorite.

Bryan, who was forced to retire in 2016 due to his history with concussions, is now back.

Triple H made the rounds at ESPN last week. During his appearances through the “ESPN car wash,” he spoke about Bryan’s WWE in-ring clearance.

Here is what the former WWE Champion had to say about the fan favorite being cleared (transcript courtesy of Wrestling Inc):

“There’s a certain point in time when Daniel is not still cleared by us, but he’s gotten clearance from his team and his people and all his things, and I’m sure he was already training and doing things,” Triple H said. “Maybe not taking bumps, but training and doing the things he wanted to do to get himself back in shape just in case this did happen. So while we were making him go to additional doctors … and running more tests and doing all these things to ensure that everything was all right, he was preparing.”

“Part of me was so afraid in the period of time when it [was] all going down that he was going to walk and say ‘forget it’ and go wrestle for someone else that doesn’t care, that doesn’t take their health into consideration — because that’s pretty much everywhere else — and risk his life and his health and his family and his baby and risk all of it,” Triple H responded. “And it’s not worth that. We take enough risk every day in what we do. Every day. Luckily we never got there, and luckily things worked out. It’s funny, because as Bryan was putting out things like, ‘I’m going to do this if they won’t let me do that,’ he was already working the information. He was already getting those tests done. He was already getting that stuff done. … Looking back on it, he was already prepping. He was prepping everything about it.”

“I put so much more pressure on myself to [lose] to somebody than I ever did to win a title because … I just want it to be [such a big moment] for this guy,” said Triple H. “Watching that story evolve over that long period of time — from a behind-the-scenes standpoint — being behind it with him and being like, ‘Man, I know this is not the plan right this moment, but this is where we need to go.’ Just seeing that feeling and getting to that moment, having that match with him and having that moment, and knowing what’s coming later and being out there in that moment for him … when you have the circumstances that all work out to make this fairy-tale moment — it’s just awesome.”

Bryan is slated to team up with Shane McMahon to take on Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn at WrestleMania 34. On the flip side, Triple H will team up with his wife, Stephanie McMahon, to take on Ronda Rousey and Kurt Angle.

Trent Seven & Tyler Bate Take Part in a 71 Minute Match and Break Record

Jake Skudder
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This past weekend saw UK promotion Fight Club: Pro hold their biggest ever events. The 3 day Dream Tag Team Invitational (DTTI) took place in Manchester, Wolverhampton and Birmingham’s NEC arena to a huge attendance on each night.

The second night of the weekender took place at Manchester’s Academy One venue and featured a DTTI bout between Moustache Mountain (Trent Seven & Tyler Bate) and Gentleman’s Club (Chuck Taylor & Orange Cassidy) which clocked in at 71 minutes and 25 seconds making it the longest ‘traditional’ tag team match in recorded history. There are several tag matches that exceed this time however they are all 8 or 16 man bouts.

The two teams agreed to make the match a ‘Falls Count Anywhere’ contest and began to fight outside of the arena and into Manchester itself…they returned around intermission and sold merchandise briefly before again continuing the match. One of the Gentleman’s Club members ‘Swamp Monster’ appeared to help the team but this turned out to be WWE United Kingdom Champion Pete Dunne who proceeded to beat down the GC and help his British Strong Style stablemates get the win and advance in the tournament.

You can see just a small portion of the chaos that Moustache Mountain and GC caused below:

https://twitter.com/YaBoy__KJ/status/980168386373193728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Flastwordonprowrestling.com%2F2018%2F03%2F31%2F71-minute-tag-match-breaks-record-at-fight-club-pro%2F&tfw_creator=Sharpshooter519

Matches for NJPW Wrestling Dontaku Tour Announced

Jake Skudder
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New Japan has announced the top matches for their upcoming ‘Wrestling Dontaku’ tour which begins on 4/23. This yearly tour usually determines the top bouts for the major Dominion show that will be taking place June 9th and will once again emanate from the historic Osaka Jo Hall.

Arguably the biggest match that will be taking place is the Day 2 main event between two of New Japan’s biggest stars: Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi. These two men have one of the most high profile rivalries in NJPW history and have faced each other on the biggest stages that Japanese wrestling has to offer, a collision between Tanahashi and arguably the man whose career he helped make in Okada could be considered a MOTYC if the stars align.

Here is the full schedule for the tour:

Road to Wrestling Dontaku (April 23)

  • Six Man Tag Team Match: Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & EVIL vs. Minoru Suzuki & Killer Elite Squad
  • IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru (c) vs. Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI

Road to Wrestling Dontaku (April 24)

  • Six Man Tag Team Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto & Gedo
  • IWGP US Heavyweight Championship Match: Jay White (c) vs. David Finlay

Road to Wrestling Dontaku (April 27)

  • Special Tag Team Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi & KUSHIDA vs. Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay
  • NEVER Openweight Championship: Hirooki Goto (c) vs. Juice Robinson

Wrestling Hinokuni 2018 (April 29)

  • Singles Match: BUSHI vs. El Desperado
  • Singles Match: Hiromu Takahashi vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru
  • IWGP Tag Team Championship: SANADA & EVIL (c) vs. Killer Elite Squad
  • IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Minoru Suzuki (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito

Wrestling Dontaku 2018 Day 1 (May 3)

  • NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship: Bad Luck Fale & Guerrillas of Destiny (c) vs. The Young Bucks & Marty Scurll
  • Singles Match: Kota Ibushi vs. Cody
  • Singles Match: Kenny Omega vs. Hangman Page

Wrestling Dontaku 2018 Day 2 (May 4)

  • Bullet Club vs. Bullet Club 10-Man: Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi, Bad Luck Fale & Guerrillas of Destiny vs. Cody, Hangman Page, Marty Scurll & The Young Bucks
  • IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Will Ospreay (c) vs. KUSHIDA
  • IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

credit to r/njpw for the lineup

Competitors for PROGRESS Thunderb*stard in New Orleans Announced

Jake Skudder
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PROGRESS Wrestling has announced the 8 men that will be taking part in their first ever ‘Thunderb*stard’ match to take place outside of the United Kingdom on April 6th.

The WrestleMania weekend show is already shaping up to be one of the can not miss events of the whole weekend and now 8 of the finest performers on the independent scene will be facing to determine the next Number 1 contender for either PROGRESS’ World, Tag or ATLAS title.

The Thunderb*stard match is one of PROGRESS’ biggest bouts of the year and this will be the first time that the contest has ever taken place outside of UK soil, the rules are fairly simple and PROGRESS has them outlined in the tweet below:

The 8 men confirmed for the match are:

  • Austin Theory
  • Joey Janela
  • Jeff Cobb
  • Rickey Shane Page
  • Chris Brookes
  • Darby Allin
  • MJF
  • Parrow

ICW Announce Deathmatch for World Title at Barramania IV

Jake Skudder
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Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW) has announced that Undisputed Champion BT Gunn will be putting his ICW World Championship on the line against Mikey Whiplash in a DeathMatch for the main event of Barramania IV.

BT Gunn holds both the ICW World and Zero-G Championships, he gained the World Title in the main event of ICW’s biggest ever event Fear & Loathing X when he defeated then Champion Joe Coffey, successfully defending his Zero-G title in the process.

The annual Barramania event will be taking place once again at the Barrowlands in Glasgow, Scotland. As well as this massive main event ICW has announced that the following matches will be rounding out the card on April 29th:

  • Bram & Iestyn Rees (w/Red Lightning) vs. TBA & Ravie Davie
  • ICW Women’s Title Match – Viper (c) vs. Kasey
  • Briefcase Vs. Career Ladder Match – Kenny Williams vs. Stevie Boy
  • Jackie Polo Vs Lionheart
  • “The Regulator” Wolfgang vs Tor “Butcher” Atterhagen

https://twitter.com/InsaneChampWres/status/980567005299429376

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