Due to an unfortunate knee injury, Naomi was forced to relinquish the SmackDown Women’s Championship last month to SmackDown LIVE General Manager Daniel Bryan because it was established that she would be unable to defend her title in the allotted 30-day period. Alexa Bliss then won the title back after losing it at Elimination Chamber by beating Becky Lynch in an impromptu match.
On March 7, Bryan announced that “every available woman on the SmackDown LIVE roster” will have an opportunity to compete for the SmackDown Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 33. His ruling opens up the possibility of Naomi competing at the April 2 event taking place in her hometown of Orlando, Florida, and according to her father, she will.
On Twitter, a Naomi fan asked the WWE’s star father, who is a musician in South Florida, if he had any news on when she’ll be back.
Naomi last provided an injury update to fans on March 7, where she said that she could still appear at WrestleMania 33.
Yes doing a lot better but I'm still going to rehab weekly knee still isn't at ? but I still have time to try & make mania I'm not giving up https://t.co/uCqd7Yxu8K
Here are the results from PWG’s latest event Nice Boys (Don’t Play Rock N’ Roll) from the world famous American Legion Post 335 in Reseda, California:
Brian Cage b. Keith Lee & Sami Callihan – Cage won the bout after hitting a Falcon Arrow on Keith Lee
Chosen Bros (Jeff Cobb and Matt Riddle) b. Jake and Dave Crist – Riddle took the win for his team after making Crist tap out to the Bromission
Lio Rush b. Trevor Lee – Rush won the match with a small package counter
Shane Strickland b. Dezmond Xavier – Strickland won the match after hitting a Cuerno Killer
Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent?) b. PWG World Champion Zack Sabre Jr. and Marty Scurll – Trent? Won the match for his team after hitting Sabre Jr with a Cradle Piledriver. After the match Sabre and Scurll powerbombed Chuck into chairs
PWG Tag Team Title Match – Rey Fenix and Penta El Zero M b. The Young Bucks and Ricochet & Matt Sydal – Fenix and Penta are the new PWG Tag Team Champions after hitting a Cradle Piledriver in to a Destroyer on Ricochet.
Welsh based promotion ATTACK! Pro have announced the first two matches for their ‘My Sacrifice’ show that takes place April 2nd at the Walkabout in Cardiff.
The ATTACK! Tag Team titles will be on the line when champions Bowl-a-Rama take on CCK in a 2 out of 3 Falls match.
Plus….
‘Flash’ Morgan Webster makes his return to the Walkabout when he takes on Charlie Sterling.
Other announced competitors for the Wrestlemania weekend event include:
Ryan Smile
Nixon Newell
Eddie Dennis
ECDrew
Officer Dunne
If you’re in the UK and aren’t going to Wrestlemania this year then making the trip to Cardiff for an ATTACK! Pro event is definitely worth considering. Tickets are still available for the event here: attackprowrestling.bigcartel.com but are extremely limited.
WCPW will be hosting their latest live event on Monday 20th from the Bowlers Exhibition Centre in Manchester, England.
Dubbed ‘Bulletproof,’ the show is a Bullet Club themed event and several bouts have already been announced including:
WCPW Title Match: DREW GALLOWAY vs JOE COFFEY
ADAM COLE vs ZACK SABRE JR
Magnificent Seven Match: RICOCHET vs DOUG WILLIAMS vs MARTY SCURLL vs BT GUNN vs MARTIN KIRBY vs TRAVIS BANKS vs EL LIGERO
VIPER vs LANA AUSTIN
RAMPAGE vs DRAKE
GRADO vs PRINCE AMEEN
What Culture have now announced that the WCPW Tag Team Titles will be on the line in a very special 4-way bout. The Young Bucks, Swords of Essex, Prospect and the team of Matt Riddle & Liam Slater will be looking to prove they are the best team in What Culture Pro Wrestling.
The event will be available to view live via the What Culture Extra service at 7pm GMT (that’s 3pm Eastern and 12pm Pacific): whatculture.com/extra.
Fight Club: Pro just held arguably the biggest weekend of the company’s existence with two nights in the illustrious Fixxion Warehouse in Wolverhampton, England. Dubbed ‘Rise Against’ and ‘The First Female of Fight Club’ the two nights showcased the best that Fight Club has to offer and made for a fitting farewell for one of the most beloved competitors ever to step foot in the Fixxion.
Here are the results from Friday Night’s Rise Against show:
‘Session Moth’ Martina b. Chief Deputy Dunne by Homicide.
Fatal Four Way Match: The Dunnedertaker (Damian Dunne) (w/Martina) b. Clint Margera, Dan Moloney and David Starr via Pinfall.
Candice LeRae b. Kay Lee Ray via Pinfall.
The Hunter Brothers (Jim Hunter & Lee Hunter) b. Joe Coffey & Omari via Pinfall
British Rounds Match: Jimmy Havoc b. Mikey Whiplash in Round 5.
Chris Brookes b. Nixon Newell via Pinfall.
British Strong Style (Pete Dunne, Trent Seven & Tyler Bate) b. Travis Banks, Will Ospreay & Wolfgang via Pinfall.
Before the British Strong Style match the three men (who have recently signed contracts with the WWE) re-enacted Triple H’s entrance in tribute:
— ‘The Bruiserweight’ Pete Dunne (@PeteDunneYxB) March 18, 2017
Here are the results from Saturday Night’s First Female of Fight Club show:
Fatal Four Way Match: David Starr b. Dan Maloney, Killian Jacobs and Omari
Triple Threat Match: ‘Session Moth’ Martina b. Kay Lee Ray and a Stuffed Giraffe (this is not a typo)
#CCK (Chris Brookes & Kid Lykos) b. Clint Margera & Jimmy Havoc
Mark Haskins & Will Ospreay b. Moustache Mountain (Trent Seven & Tyler Bate
Nixon Newell b. Candice LeRae
Fight Club: Pro Title Match: Travis Banks b. Pete Dunne (c)
This show was hugely notable for two reasons. 1) This was Nixon Newell’s final FCP appearance before she departs for the WWE Performance Center in April and 2) after an arduous journey to reclaim his title Travis Banks has regained the Fight Club: Pro gold.
The two shows will be available to view via the FCP Vimeo on demand service within the week and as soon as they are it is definitely worth taking a look: vimeo.com/fightclubpro.
UK independent promotion What Culture Pro Wrestling (WCPW) announced back in January that they would be hosting the first ever ‘Pro Wrestling World Cup,’ an event that would take place over several qualifying stages over the coming months that would build up to the finals in August.
The first of the qualifying nights takes place on March 21st at the Harvey Hadden Sports Village in Nottingham, England and tickets are still available to purchase at Eventbrite.uk.
The brackets for the English Qualifying Round can be found below. The two eventual winners will then go on to compete at the finals in Newcastle, England this August.
Confirmed bracket for England qualifier in Pro Wrestling World Cup. Which two competitors will progress to the finals in August? pic.twitter.com/NxzTRV1dan
Maryse recently spoke with the Orlando Sentinel to promote her upcoming mixed tag team match at WrestleMania. The two-time former WWE Divas Champion will team with her husband The Miz against John Cena and Nikki Bella. The match is taking place two weeks from today and Maryse still can’t believe she’ll be wrestling a match with her husband on WWE’s biggest show of the year.
“At WrestleMania, with my husband, in the same ring, the same match? If you had asked me if that was possible five years ago, I would have laughed in your face. Now it’s really happening.”
Since returning to WWE last year, Maryse has been doing some of the best work of her career and has elevated The Miz’s act. She’s been part of the WWE family for many years, but this upcoming match has a special significance to her.
“I have so many emotions,” Maryse said. “I’m excited, I can’t wait, but I do have some butterflies. … I’ve proved in the past that I can accomplish big things, but I’m coming back so people can see what I can do.”
Maryse has been training hard for WrestleMania and has a warning for Nikki Bella.
“Let’s just say, I’m good,” Maryse said. “Nikki should be scared.”
Shinsuke Nakamura continues to campaign for a match at WrestleMania 33. During a recent interview with the Orlando Sentinel to promote NXT Takeover: Orlando, Nakamura expressed his desire to compete on pro wrestling’s grandest stage.
“I hope. I hope. I want to go to the next [level]. If I can wrestle at WrestleMania, that’s going to be awesome. I… really… want… WrestleMania.”
When asked if competing at WrestleMania was one of the reasons he came to WWE, Nakamura said:
“Yeah. Yeah. I want to wrestle at the biggest wrestling show on the Earth.”
Shinsuke Nakamura will challenge NXT Champion Bobby Roode at Takeover and will be getting called up to the main roster very soon. It’s rumored that he’ll be joining the RAW brand, which sets up potential matches with the likes of Brock Lesnar, Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman.
New Japan Cup 2017 Quarter-Final Tomohiro Ishii (CHAOS) defeated Sanada (Los Ingobernables)
There was scheduled to be a CHAOS vs. Bullet Club main event, however NJPW hasn’t released any details regarding this match, and the event was not broadcast on New Japan World…
The Semi-Finals for this year’s tournament will air on New Japan World on March 19th. The finals will air on March 20th and will include english commentary.
Evil vs. Bad Luck Fale Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tomohiro Ishii
Triple H is well-rewarded for his duties in WWE according to the company’s recent proxy filing with the SEC. WWE released their Proxy statement this month, which revealed the base pays for several WWE executives.
Triple H earned $3.993 million in 2016, up from his $3.112 million in earnings the year prior. The Game’s earnings break down to $601,933 in base salary, $499,992 in stock awards, $419,531 in non-equity incentives and $2,471,961 for “all other compensation,” which would include his pay as a performer.
WWE Chairman Vince McMahon earned a $3.071 million salary in 2016, down from $3.3 million in 2015. WWE Executive Producer Kevin Dunn earned $4.637 million last year, down from $4.758 million in 2015. Shane McMahon earned $2.15 million last year for “performance fees” and royalties, and Stephanie earned $2 million.
Elsewhere on the proxy statement WWE lists Chief Revenue & Marketing Office Michelle D. Wilson as earning $4.317 million, and Chief Strategy & Financial Officer George A. Barrios as earning $4.3 million.
According to Forbes, these numbers don’t include dividends and bonuses.
– Today marks the 15th anniversary of Brock Lesnar’s WWE television debut. The Beast Incarnate burst onto the scene back on March 18, 2002 with a surprise appearance on Monday Night RAW. By August of that year, he became the youngest WWE Champion in history (25) when he defeated The Rock at SummerSlam ’02.
To commemorate the anniversary, WWE.com has a new feature up looking at how they signed Lesnar.
– In response to a tweet by John Cena about Southpaw Regional Wrestling, Broken Matt Hardy responded to a tweet from John Cena about Southpaw Regional Wrestling, writing:
– RAW Women’s champion Bayley is gearing up for her first WrestleMania and told Ontario’s Kingston Whig-Standard that she’s very nervous about the show. “I’m nervous to impress people. I’m nervous to make sure that I can hold onto my title, I’m nervous to impress everyone in the back to make sure that this isn’t my last WrestleMania.”
She went on to explain how she deals with this nervous energy. “I’ve always taught myself whenever I have big matches, I’ll just use Takeovers for example, whenever I had a Takeover match, right before I went out, I was just a mess … so nervous. I’d tell myself, if you can’t do this, how are you going to do WrestleMania? That’s kind of how I got through every match. And every match was OK and I was fine. I’ve been waiting my whole career for this match and now is the time to prove to myself I was meant to be here.”
After an “absolutely laughable” legal proposal from Impact Wrestling regarding ownership of the “Broken Universe,” Reby Hardy is back with another Twitter rant.
The self proclaimed Internet Champion Zack Ryder is back with an all new web series, Z! True Comeback Story.
Ryder launched his Z! True Long Island Story web series back in 2011 and effectively got himself over completely independent from WWE’s television storylines.
Ryder is currently rehabbing his knee after undergoing surgery back in December. Z! True Comeback Story will chronicle his path back to the squared circle.
– With WrestleMania weekend and NXT Takeover: Orlando fast approaching, the Wrestling Observer reported this week that Shinsuke Nakamura is getting called up to the main roster “very shortly” and will most likely be joining the RAW brand. Nakamura is scheduled to face Bobby Roode for the NXT Championship at Takeover, so Roode’s title reign is most likely safe for the foreseeable. Earlier this week WWE announced that NXT is returning to the UK in June and Nakamura was conspicuously absent from the tour’s promotional artwork.
– During last month’s WWE investor conference call, WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon acknowledged that the reported attendance for WrestleMania 32 (101,763) was not all paid fans, but the total number of people in the building. While that number is still overinflated, Brandon Howard of Fightful.com reached out to the Arlington police department and uncovered that there were actually 80,709 fans who went through the turnstiles at AT&T Stadium that day.
– WWE producer Brian “Road Dogg” James has addressed the rumor going around that WWE officials are not entirely happy with Alexa Bliss’ ring work as of late. James shot down the notion and stated that Bliss is adored by everyone in WWE.
hell no! She is adored by EVERYONE. She's a star dude and everyone knows it. This is what's wrong w/the internet lol #bull?
Johnny Mundo recently spoke with TVInsider.com to promote Lucha Underground seasons 1 and 2 arriving on Netflix. Here are some highlights of what he said about:
Lucha Underground on Netflix: “It’s finally happening. Netflix never had anything like this because I always looked at Lucha Underground as a hybrid between an episodic TV show and a pro wrestling show. We’ve got a one-hour show, which is different than the traditional two- or three-hour wrestling show. And it moves like a TV show. I felt from day one it would be a perfect fit for Netflix.”
Lucha Underground Season 4: “There are so many things I want to see happen. I hope in the future we do some touring, upgrades to the Temple where instead of 500 people there is room for a thousand or 1,500. We could change venues. Touring is exciting. Working with bigger sponsors is exciting. For me, if they change the Temple, they can bring a whole new set of challenges or things for me to jump off of and do parkour and integrate it into matches. The opportunity to do more with vignettes. There is the potential of doing movies about the origins of the stars of Lucha Underground, which has been discussed before by creative. The deal with Netflix can open up so many doors. I’m just really happy to be a part of it.”
This week’s Impact on POP episode drew 344,000 viewers, up from last week’s 292,000 viewers. This is a new record for this year, topping the 2/16 episode that drew 325,000 viewers.
The show featured Alberto El Patron’s second appearance for the company, The LAX returning in the main event segment and more.
Impact ranked #119 on the cable top 150 after not making the list last week.
The latest Impact In 60 recap video can be seen above.
This week’s WWE SmackDown drew 2.628 million viewers, down from last week’s 2.738 million viewers.
The show featured The Usos vs. American Alpha in the main event plus a show-closing appearance by Shane McMahon to announce his WrestleMania 33 match against AJ Styles.
SmackDown was #7 in viewership and #2 in the 18-49 demographic for the night on cable.
By comparison, this week’s RAW drew 3.232 million viewers.
After months of development, the latest version of the SEScoops Mobile App (v 1.31) is now available for iOS. The app has been rebuilt from the ground up with our top objectives being speed and usability. Now that this version is live, we’ll be updating the Android version next, which we hope to release before WrestleMania.
Speed: The latest version of the SEScoops Mobile App is significantly faster. Aside from streamlining the coding, the app now resides on a dedicated server that is specifically built for mobile apps.
Improved Navigation: Swipe left and right inside articles to see previous/next.
More News: At the bottom of every article is a list of the 10 most recent articles.
Twitter Feed: From the home page, swipe left to reveal a Twitter feed covering the latest tweets from the pro wrestling world.
Comments: Join the discussion with our new comments window, powered by Disqus.
Push Notifications: We will begin sending out push notifications next week once we finish testing this function. No spoilers will be sent out via push notifications and we will not be spammy about it.
Thank you to everybody who supports SEScoops and has downloaded the mobile app. Feel free to use the comments thread in his post to share your feedback, report bugs, etc.
WWE announced today that both JBL and Ron Simmons will be inducting Teddy Long into the WWE Hall of Fame. Simmons, a fellow Hall of Famer, was managed by Teddy Long in WCW during the early 1990’s.
The 2017 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony takes place on Friday night, March 31st from Orlando, FL.
Bruce Pritchard and Dutch Mantell convince El Patron to vacate the Impact Wrestling world championship he won last week due to all the chicanery involved in his match with Bobby Lashley. They also inform him he can’t have a title rematch unless Lashley agrees to it.
El Patron Calls Out Lashley, Gets EC3
El Patron calls out Bobby Lashley for a title match, but EC3 comes out to challenge him instead. El Patron refers to EC3 as “the b**ch*. It is later announced that EC3 and El Patron will wrestle tonight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbU8s5kPyxk
After viewing a highlight package of Decay stealing the tag titles from the Hardys via teleporting through time and deleting them, we go back to the Impact Wrestling boardroom where management discusses the need to make some decisions over who the tag belts belong to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c4TiXfX21A
Eli Drake and Tyrus vs. Laredo Kid and Garza Jr.
Before the match we are shown a video package detailing Drake and Tyrus’ history together. Laredo Kid and Garza Jr. are both from the Crash promotion, and had recently defected there from AAA. Garza Jr. rolled up Eli Drake for the pin.
Winners: Laredo Kid and Garza Jr.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAQqIR3huRg
Video highlights of Moose, Eddie Edwards and James Storm in Japan wrestling with NOAH.
Kacey Quinn vs. Brandi Rhodes
Just before the match starts Cody comes to the ring with his Global Force Wrestling title belt. Cody says the match isn’t going to happen, and then offers Quinn $45 to leave the ring. He runs down Moose a bunch, and then says he wants to take on Moose for the Impact Grand Championship.
Then everyone left the ring and there was no match for some reason. Winner: No Contest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lddCWETNeFg
We come back from commercial and Rosemary is beating up Kacey Quinn. She gives her “Red Wedding”, her music played and the segment ended.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDztYZw_e8k
3. Alberto El Patron vs. EC3
For the second week in a row El Patron faces a top talent on Impact. After a back and forth match with Patron concentrating on EC3’s arm, it looked as though EC3 was going to use a chair and get himself DQ’ed. He had second thoughts however, and his hesitation was just the opening Patron needed to hit a kick to the face and lock him in the arm bar. EC3 tapped and commentary played up that he has never done that before.
After the match El Patron clapped for Ec3 and the fans chanted for him. El Patron says that EC3 gave him one of the best matches of his career. Winner: El Patron via submission
Backstage: Reno Scum cut a promo backstage, say they are in Impact to win the tag team championships. They then said “Oi!” into the camera several times.
EC3 is upset backstage after his loss, Bruce Pritchard attempts to calm him down but we don’t get any audio.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIRJ9CYACZs
4. X-Division Championship Match
4-Way
Suicide vs. Andrew Everett vs. Braxton Sutter vs. Trevor Lee (c) w/ Shane Helms
Several back and forth X-division spots were followed by Laurel Van Ness coming to ringside, still in her wedding dress. She waved and blew kisses at Allie until Sienna came to the ring. Sienna told the Allie and Braxton Sutter they would meet their “tragic demise”.
Tag Team Division Turmoil
Bruce Pritchard came out to address the tag team title situation, which brought out several teams from the division. Pritchard announced that in 2 weeks there would be 4 teams competing for the championships. Reno Scum, Laredo Kid & Garza Jr, and Decay were already out there so there was only one spot left.
The returning LAX crashed the party and took out everyone in the ring. This new version of LAX includes old members Konnan and Homicide along with new members Mike Draztik, Angel Ortiz and Angel Rose.
Southpaw Regional Wrestling has arrived. Episodes 1-4 of WWE’s new series fare now live and you can check them out below.
The discovery of a VHS cassette reveals the bizarre and hilarious history of a wrestling promotion once thought lost to time: Southpaw Regional Wrestling.
The villainous banker ruins Big Bartholomew’s life, Chett Chetterfield makes an impassioned plea to his wife, and a hot new tag team soaks up the scene.
Big Bart and Christian Joy freak out about the banker’s challenge, Lance Catamaran pines for Utica, N.Y., and a very hairy wrestler makes his presence felt.
The banker reveals his final deception, Tex Ferguson hits the end of his rope, and Lance Catamaran gets bad news about Lethal Leap Year.
Mauro Ranallo missed this week’s Smackdown Live, allegedly due to a snowstorm affecting his travel plans. On a recent episode of Wrestling Observer radio however, Dave Meltzer said there’s more to Mauro’s absence than inclement weather, but wouldn’t provide additional details.
Adding to the speculation is that Ranallo, an active social media user, has gone radio silent across his networks for three days. The last tweet he sent out suggested he may miss Smackdown this week.
Mauro missing SmackDown due to ‘weather conditions’ caught the attention of two former SmackDown announcers, Taz and Josh Mathews. Both of them expressed disbelief with Mauro’s absence, since they did whatever was necessary to make all shows.
With @OfficialTAZ in the car, I once drove us 2 days to Indianapolis to make a TAPED Smackdown show from NYC. #JustSayin'
Taz: “You can not miss a show. You can’t. You can’t miss a show. When you miss a show – in no order of preference – you get heat with the locker room, you get heat with your boss, you get heat with your broadcast colleagues. It’s just not a regular job. You are there once a week, and you are making a lot of money with a massive, massive platform. You’ve got to be there. You’ve got to make the shot. No matter what happens. Mauro is from Canada, okay, so he’s well-versed when it comes to weather and snow. People knew the storm was coming for days. You have to prepare yourself to get to that town early.”
JBL responded to Taz’s rant, “Great video” and told Mauro, “I made the show, everyone made the show, everyone. Maybe he shouldn’t have bashed me if he wasn’t going to show up.” That message was later deleted.
JBL also referenced Mauro Ranallo on this week’s Bring It To The Table show, getting ‘hot’ over the fact that Mauro was named Announcer of the Year by the Wrestling Observer.
The 47-year old Ranallo has a long history of commentating for combat sports. He has called MMA bouts for Pride FC, Strikeforce and EliteXC. Ranallo has called many great boxing matches for Showtime boxing, as well as kickboxing events for Glory. Some believe he is on Dana White’s radar as a potential addition to the UFC commentary team to replace Mike Goldberg.
Mauro Ranallo is one of the best announcers in WWE, so hopefully this blows over and he’s back calling the action from ringside next week.
Rob Van Dam seems to be hinting he could be returning to the WWE this summer, possibly in order to join the company in time for a tour of Australia.
A fan from Australia asked Rob if he would be touring the country with Tommy Dreamer’s House of Hardcore promotion in June, but RVD’s response left more questions than answers. RVD stated he would be in Australia in August, which happens to be when WWE will be touring the country.
The 46-year old Rob Van Dam has had a rocky on-again off-again relationship with WWE over the years. He wrestled with the company from 2001 to 2007, where he became one of the most popular stars on the roster. Shortly after the failed ECW relaunch, his suspension for marijuana possession, and general downturn in the company, RVD left in 2007.
He wrestled for a few years in TNA before briefly returning to WWE in 2013-14.
RVD has always had a cult like following and strong merchandise sales, making him an appealing talent for WWE.
Don’t expect to see WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania. The 12-time world champion will be in Orlando during Mania weekend, but confirmed on Thursday night that he has no plans to attend WWE’s biggest show of the year.
Maniacs I have no plans to be at WM33,I will be at Hogans Beach Shop Orlando on International Dr,March 29/April 3D-? See u at HBS! BrotherHH
Hulk Hogan and the WWE cut ties when recordings of Hogan using racially charged language were made public last year. The recordings led to Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker Media which ended up bankrupting the company. Throughout the trial, Hogan had to demonstrate how badly his leaked sex tape (featuring the racist comments) hurt his ability to earn revenue. WWE severing ties with him was a clearcut way to show that the recordings harmed him financially. Whether WWE cut ties with him because they didn’t want to be associated with him because of the recordings, or to help Hogan show damages in his lawsuit is something probably only Vince McMahon knows.
With the lawsuit over, it’s been widely speculated that an Hogan will wind up back in WWE sooner than later. Apparently WWE didn’t think the time was right for the Hulkster to walk that aisle one more time just yet.
