Major League Wrestling announced on Monday that Matt Sydal will be debuting for the promotion next month. Sydal will square off against Low Ki of Black Friday Management at MLW: The World Championship Finals on Thursday, April 12th from Orlando, FL.
The main event of that show will feature Matt Riddle vs. Shane “Swerve” Strickland in the tournament finals to crown a new MLW World Champion.
MATT SYDAL TO DEBUT IN MLW ON APRIL 12TH IN ORLANDO AGAINST LOW KI
ORLANDO – Two elite fighting athletes will clash as Matt Sydal vs. Low Ki (representing Black Friday Management) is set for the April 12thMLW: The World Championship Finals card in Orlando at Gilt Nightclub.
Will Sydal’s blistering aerial attacks and spin kicks triumph or will Low Ki add another victim to his impressive undefeated streak? Find out live in Orlando at Gilt Nightclub on Thursday night April 12th at MLW’s next TV taping!
You can purchase tickets now at MLWTickets.com starting at $15.
Olympic gold medalist Kyle Snyder wrestled his final collegiate wrestling match on Sunday night for Ohio State University. What was the first thing he did afterwards?
He called out WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar.
Kyle Snyder’s amateur credentials are staggering. He won the gold medal at the 2016 Olympic games from Rio – making him the youngest gold medalist in history – but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. He’s youngest wrestler ever to win the World, NCAA, and Olympic championships in a single year. Earlier this year, he won his third-straight individual national championship as a heavyweight.
The 22-year-old Snyder tweeted the following on Sunday night, indicating that he’s considering a future with WWE.
A WWE showdown between Snyder and Brock Lesnar is unlikely, but not impossible. If Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar’s success in WWE are any indication, Snyder would almost certainly be a quick study should he decide to begin training for a pro wrestling career.
Brock Lesnar’s future with WWE is also uncertain, with his contract rumored to be expiring some time after WrestleMania 34 next month.
Kyle Snyder Also Considering An MMA Career
There’s also the possibility that Snyder decides to pursue a career in mixed martial arts. Just last month, Kyle Snyder offered to train Conor McGregor for his next fight, so the UFC is also on his radar. Snyder attended two UFC shows last year (UFC 203 in Cleveland and UFC 207 in Las Vegas) and admitting that he’s considering a future in the Octagon.
“They put on a great show, it’s really exciting,” Snyder said about the UFC last year. “I think it’s something that I could excel in. I haven’t done much boxing or jiu-jitsu or striking or stuff like that but I think that I could pick it up pretty quickly. The crowd and the way they made the whole thing a big show was just exciting for me. It’s something that I want to do.”
Wherever Snyder winds up, UFC or WWE, it’s not a stretch to bestow upon him the label Brock Lesnar once enjoyed as “The Next Big Thing.”
On last week’s episode of Monday Night RAW John Cena addressed his Road To WrestleMania and once again called out The Undertaker. WWE Hall Of Famer Edge recently offered his thoughts on the promo in the latest episode of he and Christian’s podcast, E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness, calling it “hokey”:
“The John Cena promo, I thought it was pretty hokey,” Edge admitted. “I’m not going to lie. It was cool at some points, but then it was very… I don’t know, just a very hokey delivery. And I know that’s Cena’s schtick sometimes, but it just didn’t feel like this was the moment or the opponent for that, I think. That was my gut when I first watched it. Yeah, I don’t know.
“I think that’s a huge, massive match and I’m glad the crowd reacted the way they did and I didn’t even mind the going into the crowd thing, like, the way they’re setting this up like if he doesn’t have this match, or he doesn’t have this match, or he doesn’t have this match, he’ll go and pay to sit in the audience. I guess it was just when it got to talking about The Undertaker stuff, it just didn’t feel quite as… I don’t know.
“I don’t even know how to put my finger on it. I guess it’s just sometimes it’s kind of hokey delivery can kind of work, but in that instance, it just didn’t work for me. I mean, John never sounds like he’s at a loss for words.” Edge continued, “it’s a good promo. I don’t know. I guess it’s just the tone of it. I don’t know. I don’t know even how to put my finger on it.
“That just feels like one of those promos that should be nothing but serious, I guess. I don’t know. I don’t know. I’d have to watch it again, obviously. I could completely backtrack on everything I’m saying right now, but my gut was like, ‘huh, that was odd.’ Yeah, but they’ll have such an iconic match. But we called it, brother-brother! I don’t know if it’ll be career vs. career like I think it should be.”
You can listen to E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness by clicking this link here.
WWE Champion AJ Styles is dealing with an undisclosed injury and will be evaluated by WWE doctors backstage at tonight’s RAW, according to a report at PWInsider.
Styles was scheduled to work this past weekend’s WWE live events, but only appeared at Friday night’s show from Madison Square Garden. Styles was advertised to team with Shinsuke Nakamura against Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, but that match never took place due to Zayn and Owens attacking Styles before the match.
Fans on Twitter freaked out at the prospect that AJ Styles might be injured with less than three weeks until WrestleMania.
Shinsuke Nakamura wound up defeating Kevin Owens in singles action, with AJ Styles making the save afterwards when Owens and Zayn were attacking Nakamura.
At this weekend’s SmackDown live events, Randy Orton subbed in for AJ Styles, teaming with Nakamura against Zayn and Owens.
As of this writing, AJ Styles is still scheduled to defend the WWE Championship against SShinsuke Nakamura at Wrestlemania 34 on April 8th.
WWE Superstar Roman Reigns recently joined Cheap Heat with Peter Rosenberg to promote his upcoming WrestleMania 34 Universal Title match against Brock Lesnar next month. Reigns has been doing quite an excellent job of hyping his match with “The Beast” at WrestleMania with some shoot-style promos on his adversary for seemingly skipping out on his Monday Night RAW appearances.
This, of course, is all part of WWE’s storyline and Reigns commented on Lesnar’s current standing with the WWE Universe:
“It’s a little bit different for him, right now, especially where we are at and the stuff I am bringing to light about him and his character and work ethic, I think some of the fans are taking it negatively,” Reigns said. “For the most part, Brock Lesnar is a cool dude, you can’t deny the fact that he is a big, jacked up brother who comes in and throws people on their necks.”
Reigns said that he has worked with Lesnar plenty of times before, including their main event match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 31. “The Big Dog” said he and Lesnar have developed some good chemistry inside the ring, however, they don’t have much of a relationship outside of their professional one:
“I’ve had interactions with him, I’ve had history with him. We had our main event match at WrestleMania 31 and we had a few different Four-Ways and Triple-Threat matches like that where other characters are involved. It’s a different dynamic,” Reigns said. “Every time you are in a situation like that you do get to spend a little more time with somebody. Yeah, on his own time he seems like a cool dude, I don’t know him that well, but we’re not friends or anything.”
As fans saw during Braun Strowman’s interaction with Lesnar during their Royal Rumble match, where Lesnar legitimately punched Strowman in the jaw for delivering a stiff knee to him, the former UFC heavyweight champion puts on some extremely physical matches. Reigns said Lesnar’s aggressiveness inside the ring isn’t something he shies away from, and his past as a college football player allows him to match that physicality when need be:
“If he throws two at me I’m throwing three back. My dad was a big man. One of the easiest things about wrestling Brock Lesnar is that there isn’t much thinking about it. It’s just all physical stuff, and I’ve been doing physical stuff since I was seven years old. I played Division-One Football at Georgia Tech, so I’ve seen and been around some of the best athletes in the world,” he said.
“What we do is a different form of entertainment and athleticism, but you still have to be an athlete in order to do what we do all year round, you have to keep yourself in that shape so, I’m never scared to be able to push that button, let’s go, if I have to protect myself, I’m more than capable, no doubt.”
You can listen to Reigns’ interview on Cheap Heat with Peter Rosenberg by clicking this link here.
– Current rumored WrestleMania 34 plans for the United States Championship have Randy Orton defending his title against Bobby Roode and Jinder Mahal in a Triple Threat match. WWE posted the following backstage video of “The Modern Day Maharaja” claiming he is the uncrowned United States Champion:
– Tonight’s episode of Monday Night RAW will feature The Ultimate Deletion segment between Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt at The Hardy Family Compound. Hardy took to Twitter to hype tonight’s segment:
Roman Reigns has notably been accused of being involved with an illegal steroid ring over the past several weeks. Filmmaker Jon Bravo had been teasing the release of evidence against Reigns in his latest YouTube video on the case, however, the video presented no evidence suggesting Reigns was involved.
Initially when the story broke Reigns released a Twitter statement claiming no involvement in the matter in addition to saying he didn’t know the man, Richard Rodriguez, accusing him:
“I have never heard of Richard Rodriguez or Wellness Fitness Nutrition. I learned from the mistake I made nearly two years ago and paid the penalty for it. Since then, I’ve passed 11 tests as part of WWE’s independent drug testing program.”
Recently Reigns was interviewed on The Jim & Sam Show and was asked about the accusations against him. Here’s what he had to say on the matter:
“At one point it’s like, who is this [Rodriguez]? Where is this coming from? What did I do? Like, what the heck is going on? I’m just sitting at home playing with kids. I’m feeding babies and changing diapers, and doing dad stuff and then all of a sudden this happens. I think it’s just a good lesson of where we’re at. If you have any kind of social media presence; essentially, my Twitter is a billboard, unfortunately some people want to use whether it’s in a positive passion and a negative passion
“At the same time, it’s one of those deals where, I know me, I know what I have done, and I know what the truth is. You have to have one of those bulletproof mentalities where it’s like, these things are ricocheting off of me.”
2018 WWE Hall Of Fame inductee D-Von Dudley was recently a guest on former WWE ring announcer Lilian Garcia’s podcast, Chasing Glory, to talk about several professional wrestling topics. During the interview Dudley discussed the influence both Vince McMahon and Paul Heyman had on The Dudley Boyz’s, D-Von and Bubba Ray, characters:
“All the promos we were able to shoot and to be good at it is all because of ‘Dr. Frankenstein.’ The Dr. Frankenstein I am referring to is Paul Heyman. He was the creator. We would like to say, Paul Heyman was the one that found and created us, but Vince McMahon molded us into the Superstars that we are today. We are grateful for both men, number one, ECW and Paul Heyman changed the face of Professional Wrestling and helped start the Attitude Era, and of course Vince McMahon, who is the master.
“He is the ‘Yoda’ of Professional Wrestling and Sports Entertainment. I am not just saying that because I still work for the man as a backstage Agent, but when you look at what he has done and where he has brought Professional Wrestling. Whether you like him or not, you see that he has changed Professional Wrestling. Pro Wrestling was that thing that you never talked about, if you did it was only among the selected few. Now, it is one of the biggest things out there and now everybody loves Professional Wrestling.”
Dudley also revealed that he once advised current SmackDown Live star and New Day member Xavier Woods to leave TNA:
“Xavier Woods was in an organization [TNA Wrestling] that I am not too keen on. This organization treated him bad, and Xavier told me that he may have a chance to go to WWE, but he may not and he doesn’t know what to do. We sat and talked for about 40 minutes; till this day he thanked me for making that phone call, and I believe it was Terry Taylor who was helping doing the hiring at the time, not sure who was in charge, but he basically thanked me for helping him make that decision in going to the WWE.
“I am not saying that there wouldn’t have been a New Day without Xavier Woods, but each individual brings something to the table, and I believe the success of all three of them with the charisma and personality is what made New Day who they are today. So, I was very happy when I came back to WWE and Woods was there. I had forgotten all about it until he reminded me that I was one of the reasons that made him go back and have that conversation with WWE.”
You can listen to Dudley’s interview on Chasing Glory by clicking this link here.
WrestleMania 34 is right around the corner, and two of WWE’s biggest stars have the opportunity to make quite a bit of history at “The Show Of Shows” in New Orleans next month. Starting off with Roman Reigns, “The Big Dog” has main evented the past three WrestleManias with names like Brock Lesnar, Triple H, and The Undertaker. If his match (a Universal Title match against Lesnar) closes out WrestleMania 34 for the fourth-consecutive year he’ll tie Hulk Hogan for the most consecutive WrestleMania main events of all time.
RAW Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss can also make significant history with a win at WrestleMania. She’s expected to defend her strap against Nia Jax at the event, however, that has yet to be made official by WWE. Regardless, if Bliss retains her title next month she’ll join Victoria and Trish Stratus as the third and only women to defend their titles at consecutive WrestleManias.
Given Bliss doesn’t lose her RAW Women’s Title before WrestleMania, she’ll also become the first woman ever to defend both the SmackDown Live Women’s Title and RAW Women’s Title at WrestleMania as well. It should be interesting to see if Reigns and Bliss break their respective records.
– As we’ve noted, former WWE Tag Team Champions The Dudley Boyz will be inducted into the 2018 WWE Hall Of Fame class the day before WrestleMania 34 next month. One question WWE fans have been asking is who will induct the pair? Bubba Ray Dudley recently appeared on Sirius XM’s Busted Open Radio and revealed exactly that.
He claimed that fellow WWE Tag Team Legends Edge and Christian will be doing the honors, but hopes Matt and Jeff Hardy are on stage with them as well. Here’s the official audio of Dudley’s announcement from Busted Open’s Twitter:
— SiriusXM Busted Open (@BustedOpenRadio) March 19, 2018
– WWE Superstar Elias recently did an interview with Guitar World and commented on possibly releasing music with WWE. Elias said that there are definitely plans in the works for him to record music with the company:
“Absolutely, I believe WWE—which, if you are not aware, stands for “Walk with Elias”—the company is taking notice of what I’m doing every week and there’s absolutely plans in the works to record music, release music, put it out there and give them the sound of Elias that they can take with them. They can have it on their phone, they can have it wherever on whatever music format they have.”
You can read Elias’ full interview with Guitar World by clicking this link here.
WWE.com recently looked at the top ten greatest women’s matches in the history of the sports entertainment company.
If you recall, back in 2016 at WrestleMania 32, WWE unveiled a new Women’s Championship title belt and re-branded the Divas Division to become the Women’s Division. Since then, WWE has placed a greater emphasis on its female performers, including recruiting female talent from around the world, as well as the recent signings of the first female recruits from the Middle East and India.
Another milestone in WWE’s women’s evolution came as recently as January with the women’s Royal Rumble. This evolution has placed a spotlight on its female performers, involving them in more prominent storylines, with deeper character development and longer matches.
You can check out the complete list here: #10 – 2018 Women’s Royal Rumble #9 – Alundra Blayze vs. Bull Nakano — (Women’s Championship Match: SummerSlam, Aug. 29, 1994) #8 – Charlotte Flair vs. Bayley — (Raw Women’s Championship Match: Monday Night Raw, Feb. 13, 2017) #7 – Paige vs. Emma — (NXT Women’s Championship Match: NXT ArRIVAL) #6 – Trish Stratus vs. Lita — (Women’s Championship Match: Monday Night Raw, Dec. 6, 2004) #5 – Charlotte Flair vs. Bayley vs. Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch — (NXT Women’s Championship Fatal 4-Way Match: NXT TakeOver: RIVAL) #4 – Asuka vs. Ember Moon – (NXT Women’s Championship Match: NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn III) #3 – Charlotte Flair vs. Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch — (WWE Women’s Championship Triple Threat Match: WrestleMania 32) #2 – Charlotte Flair vs. Sasha Banks — (WWE Women’s Championship Match: Raw July 25, 2016) #1 – Sasha Banks vs. Bayley – (NXT Women’s Championship Match: NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn)
WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz recently appeared on Booker T’s Heated Conversations radio show to talk about various topics. Miz is slated to defend his title against Finn Balor and Seth Rollins in a Triple Threat Match at WrestleMania 34 next month.
During the interview, he was asked about wanting to make the title special once again.
“When my wife [Maryse] first came to WWE, it was like the day after WrestleMania and she had came back and actually helped me to defeat Zack Ryder for the Intercontinental title. At that moment, I was like, never again will I ever be looked as anything other than a main eventer. Everything I do will be at an elite level; the boss level. I will tell you what, I looked at that Intercontinental title – when I was a kid, my heroes had that title; Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Mr. Perfect. I was watching this title get dug and dug into the grave, because anytime you have the title it is more like, ‘oh, that guy is going to lose.’ Anytime there was a non-title match that person was going to lose who had the title. I didn’t want that anymore. I was sick of it, and I will never forget where I went off on Daniel Bryan. That day, I went through so much on my mind, I was so aggravated. Here I was trying to make the title as prestigious as I can in WWE but I wasn’t even on the show. They told me that I was involved in a dark match to open the show. It is not that I didn’t want to do it and perform for the audience, it was more like, this title deserves better than this.
We are bringing out new Tag Team titles, new Women’s title, so we don’t have time for your title. I told them to put me on Talking Smack. They were wondering why I wanted to be on Talking Smack, and I said, ‘What do you mean, why do I want to be on Talking Smack? It will be the ability to showcase what I can do so you can see exactly the abilities that I have and showcase my talent.’ I told them that it was going to break the internet if they put me on Talking Smack, and they agreed to put me on the show. Then, when I went on there, Daniel Bryan and I kind of went off. I literally thought he was going to punch me, but he just walked off. Honestly, it was the best thing that could have happened because it allowed me to be center stage and just let off all of my frustration and everything that I was feeling at that moment, and I remember feeling inside my head reminding myself to not lose it. I then said, you know what, lose it. People tell me it was the best promo I had ever done, but here I was flubbing words because I was so mad.”
Miz was also asked during this interview about his success in the sports entertainment company.
The Miz was drafted to the ECW brand in 2007 where he formed a partnership with John Morrison. Together, they won the WWE Tag Team Championship and World Tag Team Championship. After being drafted to Raw in 2009, he won the United States Championship twice, tag team titles with John Cena, Damien Mizdow, and twice with Big Show, as well as the 2010 Raw Money in the Bank ladder match. He cashed in his briefcase to win the WWE Championship in November 2010 and went on to hold for six months. He is also the one of longest-reigning Intercontinental Champion in WWE history. If you recall, the biggest match of The Miz’s career was when defeated Cena for the WWE Championship back at WrestleMania 27 in 2011 in the main event.
“I think it is the ability to evolve. I mean, when you look at your [Booker T] career. You went from the five-time, five-time, five-time World Champion to King Booker, which was arguably one of my favorite characters of all-time. It was so much fun to watch. I think the first time, William Regal had to say, “All Hail King Booker’ for like ten minutes, and you were eating it up. Watching it, I was like, oh my God, he is eating it up. I knew you were laughing the entire time. It was so much fun to watch.”
“My success, I think it is due to the Mizanan family. Everyone in my family is a hard worker. I was the guy that whenever someone would say, oh man, it’s media day, I don’t have time. I have X,Y, & Z, I would say, give it to me. I will do every media day because I looked at it as an opportunity. Not only was it an opportunity for me to go out there in front of the media all around the world, but also to practice promos. To captivate people and to have them understand exactly who I was. I think hard work, dedication and anytime someone didn’t want to do something, I would always raise my hand. I think that is where my success lies – for whatever I lack in talent, I make up for in hard work.”
WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle recently did a Q&A on Facebook and commented on a number of interesting topics. During the session, a fan asked about the Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka match at WrestleMania 34. Flair is slated to defend the SmackDown Women’s Title against this undefeated superstar of the sports entertainment company’s flagship show, Monday Night RAW.
Angle said, “They could steal the show. Don’t underestimate those 2 together.”
Angle himself has a match at the biggest event of the year for the WWE as he is slated to tag up with former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey to take on Triple H and his wife Stephanie McMahon in a Mixed Tag Team Match. Angle was asked if he would be wrestling after Mania and he stated, “I better be.”
WWE has announced last week that the first-ever Fabulous Moolah Battle Royal would take place at WrestleMania 34. The match is a female version of the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Since that announcement, there was a lot of fan backlash over the name of the match. Thus, some WWE fans are taking it a step further as a petition has surfaced online to try and get WWE to change the name of the match. The petition has been signed by over 4000 people. This led to the WWE changing the name of the match to the “Women’s Battle Royal.” Angle also gave his take on this situation.
“Moolah deserves my respect. From what I knew about her, she was sweet, kind and amazing as a female wrestler.”
Former WWE/TNA/ECW talent Tommy Dreamer recently spoke with TheWrestlingEstate.com, and during the interview, he shared his thoughts on the recent Sami Callihan – Eddie Edwards controversy during an episode of Impact Wrestling on Pop TV.
Dreamer, who runs his House of Hardcore promotion, has worked for Impact Wrestling as an agent as well in the past.
For those who may didn’t see or remember the incident, back on the March 1st episode of Impact Wrestling, Edwards was accidentally struck in the head by a baseball bat during a post-match brawl with the former NXT star.
There was chair was placed near his Edward’s heard and Callihan swung a baseball bat into the chair. The strike caught Edwards in the head, near his eye and nose. He was immediately taken to the hospital where had a CT scan done. This is where he found out that he had broken bones in his face and a broken nose.
Here is what Dreamer had to say:
“It’s a case of two things. One is social media. Everybody sees it and they want to comment and know about it. They want to base their own opinion on it without knowing the facts. It’s the society we live in. There are some people who will chime in that it was an accident or other people chime in it was reckless. Everyone has an opinion.
For me, I would be a hypocrite. At ECW One Night Stand, Bully Ray hit me so hard with a Singapore cane that I went deaf and the doctor said I may lose my ear. In the back, he asked if I was alright, and I said yeah, man, you messed up my ear, but I’ll get my hearing back. Back in the day, if somebody hurt somebody, we’d go to the hospital with them or make sure we’re contacting them.
I don’t think Sami meant to do it. It happened, but when everybody else jumps on it, I think Sami would be a fool not to jump on it. Here’s how the world is. Someone can say something on social media and then they can backtrack. In pro wrestling, guys would say stuff and then they’d be confronted in the locker room, and then, hey, you fight. I do it the same way. If people want to start talking smack about me, cool. You want to do it online? That’s one thing because you’re going to make it public. Then let’s settle it like men or just go fight.
That’s Sami Callihan’s battle to fight. I don’t want to say everybody should mind their own business because they can’t. That’s the world we live in. Everybody likes to quickly put out there about what’s the current topic and then when you find out the facts, you’re like, ooh. That’s why I always lean back when I see stuff like that on social media because everybody wants to hit their opinion without knowing all the facts, and that’s the worst you thing you can do.”
SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan was in Abu Dhabi over the weekend to attend the Special Olympics IX Mena Games at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.
While there, Bryan was interviewed by The National and spoke about a variety of topics, including his unforgettable night at WrestleMania XXX back in 2014, working with Shane McMahon, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn on SmackDown, next month’s WWE Greatest Royal Rumble event from Abu Dhabi and more.
Bryan was asked about his role at WrestleMania and gave a surprisingly encouraging update on the possibility of him competing on the show. Bryan’s quest to get medically cleared by WWE is well documented. He is determined to wrestle again, whether it’s in WWE or elsewhere. He has been cleared to compete by every single doctor that WWE has sent him to, yet the company has stopped short of giving him the green light to return.
Bryan says there are two paths for him at WrestleMania and it will be WWE’s call which scenario plays out. When asked about the rumor that he’ll be lacing up the boots at WrestleMania 34 next month, Bryan said:
“I don’t know, and I don’t think they know. I think it all depends on whether or not I get cleared. As of this moment, as of today, I am not cleared by WWE. I have done everything in my power – everything they have asked me to – and I have gone above and beyond as far as ‘OK, what doctors do you need me to see? Send me to any doctor you want, any doctor that you want and lets get their feedback on what is going on with me.’
So far, every doctor has cleared me that they have sent me to, and so there is a chance. I used to think that the percentage of the WWE ever clearing me was low. I think, with the stuff that I have done, it has gone a little higher, but I don’t know how much higher.”
Bryan added, “There is one way to go if I don’t get cleared and then there is another way to go if I am cleared. I am hoping to be cleared, but I don’t know which way it goes.”
WrestleMania 34 takes place in less than three weeks on Sunday, April 8th from New Orleans, Louisiana.
Tommy Dreamer’s House of Hardcore promotion is returning to this weekend with two new events.
House of Hardcore 38 is slated to go down on Friday, March 23rd St. James, Long Island at the Sports Arena while House of Hardcore 39 will take place the following night at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
You can check out the updated cards for these events here:
House of Hardcore 38
Tommy Dreamer vs. Joey Mercury with Shane Douglas in a Long Island Street Fight
Killer Kross vs. Guido Maritato in a Submission match
Brian Cage vs. Sami Callihan vs. Willie Mack
The Squad vs. Swoggle & Crazzy Steve
Dan Maff vs. The Luchasaurus
NWA Champion Nick Aldis defending the title against an unamed opponent
Alex Reynolds vs. Bull James
House of Hardcore 39
NWA Champion Nick Aldis defending against Tommy Dreamer
Tonight’s edition of WWE RAW takes place from Dallas, TX at the American Airlines Center.
The Ultimate Deletion is finally upon us. A great battle will transpire on the Hardy Compound between Woken Matt and Bray Wyatt. SEScoops correspondent Irvin Lassley wrote a great featured looking at the long road that led us to Ultimate Deletion:
WWE.com is also advertising the following items for the show:
Brock Lesnar finally emerges
After weeks of no-shows – because he’s a selfish part-timers who doesn’t love the fans as much as Roman Reigns does, WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar returns. How will Lesnar (or more specifically, Paul Heyman) respond to the recent charges levied against him?
Asuka puts her streak on the line against Alexa Bliss
At Fastlane, Royal Rumble winner Asuka made it clear that she will challenge SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte at WrestleMania. RAW Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss might have dodged a bullet for WrestleMania, but she’ll step in the ring with Asuka tonight.
Will Braun Strowman take on The Bar at WrestleMania?
Braun Strowman is the #1 contender to RAW tag team champions The Bar after winning last week’s tag team battle royal. Will Strowman face The Bar at WrestleMania by himself, will he get the chance to choose a partner, or will he be assigned one?
Join us here later tonight for our weekly WWE RAW Live Coverage.
– WWE Champion AJ Styles missed last night’s live event in San Angelo, Texas after it was once again announced he was injured. “The Phenomenal One” also missed Saturday’s live event from Odessa, Texas after suffering a storyline injury at Friday’s Madison Square Garden live event due to a beatdown from Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn.
It’s unknown if this angle is being used to rest Styles so he can heal a legitimate injury that has yet to be disclosed. He’s expected to defend his WWE Championship against 2018 Men’s Royal Rumble winner Shinsuke Nakamura in a WWE dream match of sorts. We’ll keep you updated…
– WWE has released the official poster for WrestleMania 34, which features all Superstars expected to compete at the event smiling (except of course Triple H and Brock Lesnar). One top WWE Superstar missing from the poster, however, is The Undertaker. He is rumored to be taking on John Cena at the event. If that match is made official WWE will likely release another poster featuring “The Deadman” as well. Check out the poster here:
Episodes of WCW Thunder have been added to the WWE Network today. Thunder was a secondary show the company introduced on January 8th, 1998. It ran until March 2001.
After two years on the air, attendance for WCW Thunder tapings fell so low the company began filming the show immediately after Nitro on Monday evenings. This system would continue for the next 15 months until the company was purchased by WWE.
According to a report from WWE Network News, 72 episodes of Thunder have been added to the library, which is a handful off from the total number of shows aired. As with other shows the Network has added, it may take several weeks for further episodes to be rolled out.
Ring of Honor has officially announced the date and location for this year’s Best in the World pay-per-view event.
The Baltimore-based promotion recently revealed in an article on their official website that the pay-per-view event will take place on Friday, June 29, 2018, in Baltimore, MD at the UMBC Event Center. This marks the first time in over a year since the promotion has held an event in the City.
Tickets go on sale Wednesday, March 21 at 10 a.m. Eastern for HonorClub members and Friday, March 23 at 10 a.m. Eastern for the general public.
ROH World Champion Dalton Castle, Bullet Club (Cody, The Young Bucks, “The Villain” Marty Scurll and Adam Page), Jay Lethal, and nine-time ROH World Tag Team Champions The Briscoes are advertised to appear at this big event.
Former student of the Fabulous Moolah, Joyce Grable, has come to the defence of her former teacher, stating she does not believe the allegations against Moolah are true.
Moolah helped train Joyce in the early 1970s, and helped her get booked all over the country. Gable would go on to win the NWA Women’s United States championship and was elected to the NWA Hall of Fame in 2012.
She retired in 1991 at the age of 39 after having back surgery.
“If (Moolah) was gonna pimp somebody out, I’d have been number one on the list.” – Judy Grable.
Grable filmed the following YouTube channel to address the Fabulous Moolah allegations:
Joyce Grable Disputes Fabulous Moolah Allegations
“I never experienced [pimping],” Grable said. “As far as I was concerned, she never sent me nobody. And hey, I had a good body back then, I was kinda pretty, long blonde hair, especially when I was in Puerto Rico, Mexico… if she was gonna pimp somebody out, I’d have been number one on the list.”
The current NXT champion, Andrade “Cien” Almas, revealed to a Spanish-language media outlet, Milenio.com, that not long ago, he wanted out of his WWE contract.
“When I came to WWE I thought about going back because of the lack of opportunities and criticism but I talked to Alberto Del Rio and he told me to stand up for my chance and I kept fighting for what I wanted.”
Almas’ comments are consistent with statements Del Rio made last September:
“I talked to my good friend Manny [Andrade Almas] and poor guy, he wants to come back. Unfortunately, when you go into that company you have to abide by their rules. That’s just how it is,” Del Rios said.
Alberto Del Rio and WWE
Alberto Del Rio currently spends his time wrestling in Mexico and for Impact Wrestling. There have been rumors of contract discussions between Del Rios and WWE, however.
Two weeks ago, it was reported Del Rios was at WWE headquarters to shoot footage for a Rey Mysterio project. It was also reported he met with Vince McMahon, who has always been a fan of his.
WWE has recently announced the upcoming mega-event from Saudi Arabia will now feature 7 championship matches in addition to the 50-person Royal Rumble match. Today’s press release from WWE states the following titles will all be defended at the event: “WWE Championship, Universal Championship, Intercontinental Championship, United States Championship, Raw Tag Team Championship, SmackDown Tag Team Championship and Cruiserweight Championship.”
The Greatest Royal Rumble takes place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on April 27th, 2018.
The event is part of a 10-year agreement WWE has signed with the Saudi General Sports Authority. The country’s new relationship with WWE is a part of their 10-year social and economic reform project, Saudi Vision 2030.
Greatest Royal Rumble to Air on WWE Network
Last week, Roman Reigns appeared on the Jim & Sam podcast and mentioned the Greatest Royal Rumble will air on the WWE Network.
WWE released the following statement earlier today:
“RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA and STAMFORD, Conn. — Following an agreement between His Excellency Turki Al Sheikh and WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia invites the world to the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Friday, April 27, at 7 p.m. AST to celebrate the Greatest Royal Rumble event in WWE history. Tickets will be available Saturday, March 31, and this historic event will feature seven championship matches, including the WWE Championship, Universal Championship, Intercontinental Championship, United States Championship, Raw Tag Team Championship, SmackDown Tag Team Championship and Cruiserweight Championship.”
Matt Hardy’s rivalry with Bray Wyatt will culminate tonight in the Ultimate Deletion. The content of this match has been the topic of legal conversations between Hardy and his ex-employer over the last year. With legal hurdles cleared, it’s time for Matt Hardy’s Woken Universe to truly debut in WWE.
While we’ve seen Matt Hardy perform as the character on WWE programming, we’ve yet to see an Ultimate Deletion style match. For all the talk there has been regarding how the gimmick has been presented in WWE so far, the real test will be how well regarded the segment tonight is.
It’s been less than 2 years since Matt was broken. He was starting to crumble before then, however. In light of tonight’s Ultimate Deletion, this article looks back on how Matt Hardy transformed his gimmick.
Matt Hardy at 40
When Matt Hardy arrived in TNA Wrestling in 2014, he was months away from turning 40 and had been wrestling professionally for 20 years. The company he’d signed with had fired him 3 years earlier following his arrest for driving under the influence.
TNA had fallen far since Hardy had been there previously. In 2011, Hardy joined names like Rob Van Dam and Sting as Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan gained some level of authority behind the scenes. While that period in TNA history didn’t exactly end well, at the time it seemed like the company was on the verge of becoming bigger than they were.
There was nothing in the atmosphere of 2014 which suggested Matt Hardy was on the verge of the most significant part of his career. In fact, just the opposite was the case.
In 2014, Matt and Jeff reunited the Hardys in TNA and won the tag-team championships. They were forced to give them up that summer after Jeff was involved in an ATV accident. This led Matt to go into single’s competition and eventually win the TNA World Championship. Some bizarre booking led to him losing the title without actually losing a match, however. He’d spend the rest of the year trying to win the championship back off Drew Galloway but failing.
As high up the card as Matt was at this time, TNA was struggling to find itself during this period. As it would turn out, what Matt Hardy would do the following year would begin to re-define the company, for a little while, at least.
Matt Hardy is Broken in 2016
In early 2016, Hardy turned heel after his wife, Reby Sky, helped him defeat EC3 to win the TNA World Championship. His brother Jeff didn’t approve of his heel-ish actions and the brothers turned into rivals for the first time since 2009.
On the March 15th edition of Impact Wrestling, Drew Galloway won a fatal 4-way match which also featured Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, and EC3 to win the TNA World Championship. From that moment on Matt set his sights on getting revenge on his brother. This led to an I-Quit match between the two on April 19th, 2016. The match would be ruled a no-contest after both men were too injured to continue.
The next time we saw Matt Hardy, he was speaking in a peculiar accent and was preoccupied with making his brother, whom he referred to as “Brother Nero”, obsolete.
Jeff defeated Matt in a Full Metal Mayhem match at Slammiversary that June. He defeated him again on Impact in a steel cage match. Finally, Matt challenged Jeff to a final match which would take place on the Hardy Family Compound. The match would be called “the Final Deletion” and would air on July 5th, 2016.
Reaction to the Final Deletion
The Final Deletion confirmed Matt Hardy was going all-in on this character. While the unique gimmick had its detractors, the reaction was generally positive.
The Final Deletion carried certain elements of Lucha Underground’s sci-fi universe but with a more comedic take. The viewer is asked to suspend disbelief to a larger degree, also similar to science fiction or fantasy movies. Characters are able to have supernatural abilities and are able to travel through time.
Matt’s never given a firm reason as to why, when, and where he decided to go in such a bizarre direction with his character. He’s never stated how confident he was either. This is mainly because he gives interviews in character for the most part. What we know is that Matt Hardy chose to re-invent himself after 40, when he’d been a pro over 20 years, and when many felt his best days were behind him. The result has been the most significant thing he’s ever done in his career.
The Road To Ultimate Deletion
Matt and Jeff Hardy made a triumphant returns to WWE less than a year ago at WrestleMania 33. The legendary team had reverted to the Hardy Boyz personas the WWE Universe was accustomed to from their previous run, but we’d soon get glimpses that Matt’s broken side was alive and well.
As the months passed and the Hardy’s legal battle with Impact Wrestling parents company Anthem Sports & Entertainment came to a close, it was only a matter of time before the dam broke and “Woken” Matt was unleashed. Jeff Hardy’s shoulder injury and subsequent surgery back in September paved the road for Matt to forge his own path.
As we embark on the road to the Hardy compound and the Ultimate Deletion, the true question is how much creative freedom Matt will have to execute his broken brilliance.
Update: WWE has confirmed that Mark Henry is bringing the Hall of Pain to the Hall of Fame. Mark Henry joins Bill Goldberg, The Dudley Boyz, Ivory, Jeff Jarrett, Hillbilly Jim, Kid Rock and Warrior Award recipient Jarrius “JJ” Robertson as part of the WWE Hall of Fame’s Class of 2018.
The 2018 WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Friday, April 6th, during WrestleMania 34 Week in New Orleans.
Original Story:
While WWE no longer publishes a monthly magazine in the United States, the company continues to release an issue hyping WrestleMania on an annual basis. Some fans managed to get ahold of this year’s issue for WrestleMania 34, which reveals a yet-to-be-announced 2018 WWE Hall of Fame inductee.
Henry joins Goldberg, The Dudley Boyz, Ivory, Jeff Jarrett, Hillbilly Jim, musician Kid Rock and Warrior Award recipient Jarrius “JJ” Robertson among those being honored that night.
The 2018 WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony takes place on Friday, April 6, in New Orleans at the Smoothie King Center during WrestleMania 34 Week.
