On the latest episode of his Dinner with the King podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler revealed that he and Jim Ross are headed to Saudi Arabia next month and will be doing commentary for the upcoming Greatest Royal Rumble WWE Network special.
Lawler teased that he might even get involved as a participant in the match, although that’s highly unlikely due to his past health issues.
He joked, “Well, that would be a surprise, but one of the things that makes it appear more possible than before is, hey, we just saw Daniel Bryan get medically cleared.”
The Greatest Royal Rumble
The Greatest Royal Rumble takes place on April 27th from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The show will feature the first-ever 50-Man Royal Rumble and 7 title matches.
In addition to airing on the WWE Network, the event will broadcast live nationwide throughout Saudi Arabia.
It is notable that neither of the women’s championships will be defended and it is likely no matches featuring female performers takes place.
Rey Mysterio will not be wrestling at the NJPW Strong Style Evolved event.
Mysterio was scheduled to take on Jushin Thunder Liger inside Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California on March 25. That is no longer the case as Mysterio’s bicep injury has forced him off the card. The announcement was made during a New Japan Cup post-tournament press conference.
IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion Will Ospreay will take Mysterio’s place. It’ll be Ospreay vs. Liger in a non-title special singles match. The match will be contested under a 30-minute time limit.
In addition to that bit of news, the full card for Strong Style Evolved has been revealed. Check it out below:
Six-Man Tag Team Match: Sho, Yoh, & Rocky Romero vs. Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, & Scorpio Sky
Tag Team Match: Hiroki Goto & Gedo vs. Juice Robinson & David Finlay
Tag Team Match: Killer Elite Squad vs. Chuckie T. & Toru Yano
Tag Team Match: Guerrillas of Destiny vs. Cody & Marty Scurll
Eight-Man Tag Team Match: Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, Hiromu Takahashi, & Bushi vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, KUSHIDA, Ryusuke Taguchi, & Dragon Lee
Special Singles Match: Will Ospreay vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
Tag Team Match: Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Minoru Suzuki
IWGP United States Title Match: Jay White (C) vs. Hangman Page
Special Tag Team Match: Golden Lovers vs. The Young Bucks
Tommaso Ciampa slowly made his way down to the ring to start off this week’s episode of NXT. The crowd greeted him with “you suck!” chants as they held up their Johnny Gargano emoji signs. Ciampa paused on the steel steps and looked at the crowd with disgust. Ciampa marched into the ring and demanded a microphone.
The crowd chanted “we want Johnny!” as Ciampa stood silent in the ring. Ciampa brought the microphone to his mouth and the crowd booed. Ciampa dropped the microphone down as a few stray “Ciampa” chants broke out. They were quickly drowned out by “Johnny Wrestling!” chants as Ciampa paced around the ring.
Ciampa finally shouted “He’s gone! Newsflash, he is not walking down that damn isle! He’s gone!”. This only angered the crowd some more and they reigned down “you suck!” chants upon Ciampa. The chant transitioned to “Ciampa sucks!” and Tommaso posed in the ring and soked it all in. Ciampa dropped the microphone and exited the ring. Tommaso slapped the ring apron and took a seat for a moment. Ciampa walked around the outside of the ring and stared at the fans as they mocked him. Ciampa grabbed one of the signs and wiped his arse with it before launching it back at the fan.
Ciampa grabbed a big Gargano sign and ripped it up in front of a young girl. Ciampa started barking at an older woman and she gave him a thumbs down right in his face.
Ciampa grabbed another sign, but he didn’t realize that it was Gargano holding the sign. Johnny jumped the barricade and beat the hell out of Ciampa for a moment. Security rushed the ring and dragged Gargano backstage as Ciampa was shocked in the ring.
An irate @JohnnyGargano has a surprise for @ProjectCiampa…
Mustache Mountain Withdrew From The Dusty Rhodes Classic
Tyler Bate was interviewed backstage earlier in the day. Bate noted that he recently tweaked his knee and that WWE’s medical team advised him to sit out the next couple of weeks. Bate announced that Mustache Mountain unfortunately had to withdraw from the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. Roderick Strong pleaded for NXT GM William Regal to allow him into the tournament to replace Mustache Mountain. Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan will face Roderick Strong and a mystery partner tonight on NXT.
Roderick Strong & Pete Dunne Advanced To The Semifinals Of The Dusty Rhodes Classic
United Kingdom Champion Pete Dunne was revealed to be Roderick Strong’s tag partner. Strong and Dunne have had issues with NXT Tag Team Champions Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly lately.
Strong and Oney Lorcan started off the match. Lorcan brought Strong to the mat and applied a Chin Lock. Strong battled to his feet and Lorcan tagged Burch in. Burch applied a Wrist Lock but Strong quickly reversed it and tagged in Pete Dunne. Dunne applied a Wrist Lock of his own and dragged Burch to the mat. Dunne bent back Danny’s fingers for a moment but Burch quickly escaped. Strong and Lorcan got into the ring and the two teams had a stare down as NXT went to a break.
When NXT returned, Pete Dunne was back in control and once again bent back the fingers of Danny Burch. Dunne slapped Burch in the face and tagged Roderick back in. Strong connected with a couple of kicks and followed it up with a Backbreaker for two. Strong brought Burch back to the corner and tagged in Dunne. They then connected with dueling chops to Burch and Dunne went for the cover but Burch kicked out at two. Dunne connected with another chop, but Burch responded with a Dropkick off the second turnbuckle.
Lorcan and Strong tagged in and Oney blasted Strong with a running kick and followed it up with an uppercut. Lorcan hit a ridiculous Clothesline and then a Blockbuster for two. Burch tagged in and Strong drove Burch into Lorcan and Danny fell out of the ring. Dunne tagged back in and stomped on Burch’s arm off the second rope. Dunne hit a Suplex and went for the cover but Lorcan broke it up. Lorgan connected with an uppercut to Strong outside the ring.
Back in the ring, Burch and Dunne traded slaps to the face and Dunne fell to the mat. Burch hit a German Suplex and then launched Strong on top of Dunne. Burch went for the cover but Dunne kicked out. Burch locked in the Crossface on Dunne and Lorcan applied a Single Legged Crap to Strong. Roderick kicked Lorcan off of him and Oney fell on top of Burch to break up his Crossface on Dunne. Strong and Lorcan then rolled back to the ring apron.
Burch punched Dunne in the face and followed it up with an Exploder Suplex. Strong tagged in and connected with a Backbreaker to Burch. Strong then hit the End of Heartache on Burch for the pinfall victory. Strong and Dunne will battle SAnitY next week in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Tournament.
Ember Moon Defeated Aliyah As Shayna Baszler Looked On
Aliyah battled NXT Women’s Champion Ember Moon tonight. Aliyah dropped Ember Moon to the mat, but Moon locked in the Head Scissors. Aliyah escaped and kipped back up to her feet. Aliyah trapped Moon in the corner and dragged her to the mat by her hair. Aliyah went for the cover as Shayna Baszler made her way to the commentary table. Baszler put her feet on the desk and casually announced that she was running the NXT women’s division.
Ember went for a roll-up but Aliyah kicked out. Moon slammed Aliyah face-first to the mat as Baszler continued to say that nobody can stop her. Ember planted Aliyah with a Samoan Drop and said “this is for you Shayna” before delivering the move. Moon followed it up with an Eclipse for the pinfall victory. Baszler shouted that Ember and everyone else in this division is completely helpless and they all know it. Basler hopped on top of the announce table and got in a shouting match with Ember Moon as she posed with the title on the turnbuckle.
Baszler laughed as Moon demanded that Baszler recognize her as the NXT Women’s Champion. Ember Moon will defend her NXT Women’s Championship against Shayna Baszler at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans during WrestleMania 34 weekend.
Zelina Vega joined Almas as he angrily stomped his way down to the ring. Almas cut a promo that Aleister Black didn’t respect him. Almas called Black a piece of crap and demanded that Black face him next week and pay for his disrespect. Almas dropped the microphone and raised the NXT title in the middle of the ring.
William Regal Promised A Big Announcement Next Week
NXT GM William Regal was shown in his office. Regal addressed the camera and stated that tonight’s main event is up next. Regal added that next week he will be making an announcement that will change the landscape of NXT forever.
Adam Cole Defeated Kassius Ohno
Kassius Ohno faced Adam Cole in the main event of this week’s episode of NXT. Cole and Ohno locked up to start off the match. Ohno lifted Cole in the air and then dropped him to the mat. Cole got back up and connected with a knee to the midsection. Cole hit a forearm to the face and knocked Ohno to the canvas with a shoulder tackle. Cole tried to leapfrog Ohno but got a big boot to his chest for his troubles. Ohno followed it up with a Senton.
Cole charged at Ohno in the corner but Kassius was ready and flipped him to the ring apron. Cole tweaked his knee on the apron and fell to the floor outside the ring. Cole banged on the ring apron out of frustration and the referee checked on him. Cole lumbed back to the ring apron to lure Ohno in. Adam hit an Enziguri and then got back in the ring and stomped on Ohno. Cole smirked and posed in the ring as NXT went to a break.
When NXT returned, Cole was still in control of the match. Cole connected with a big boot and went for the cover but Ohno kicked out at two. Cole said that this was too easy and hit a Neckbreaker for another two count. Cole stomped on Ohno’s back a few times and then applied a Chin Lock. Cole dragged Ohno down and drove his knee into Kassius’ back while maintaining the hold. Ohno got back up to his feet and Cole planted him with a Backstabber for a two count. Cole shouted that Ohno is a loser and Kassius responded with a ridiculous right hand that dropped Cole to the mat.
Ohno leveled Cole with a Clothesline and followed it up with a kick to the face. Ohno Body Slammed Cole to the man and hit a running Leg Drop for a two count. Ohno punched Cole in the face again and then booted Cole in the face from the apron. Ohno followed it up with the Cyclone Kick and went for the cover but Cole kicked out at the last moment. Ohno connected with a forearm and Cole sprung back to his feet and shouted “is that all you’ve got?”. Cole lifted Ohno up for a Suplex and transitioned into a Neckbreaker into the back of his knee for another two count.
Cole went for the Shining Wizard but Ohno caught him and dropped him across the top rope. Ohno hit a running elbow that knocked Cole out of the ring. Ohno brought Cole back into the ring and went for the cover but Cole reversed it into a roll-up for two. Cole hit three Superkicks in a row and hit another Suplex/Neckbreaker. Cole followed it up with the Last Shot for the pinfall victory in an awesome match.
During a recent appearance on SiriusXM’s Busted Open radio show, Edge was asked by Bubba Ray to be joined by Christian to induct The Dudley Boyz into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2018. Edge said he was all in and that Christian would have no problem making the trip to New Orleans.
Today (March 21), WWE made it official. Edge and Christian will induct Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley ahead of WrestleMania 34. Peep the conversation that sparked today’s announcement below:
— SiriusXM Busted Open (@BustedOpenRadio) March 19, 2018
Edge and Christian, The Dudley Boyz, and The Hardy Boyz ruled tag team wrestling in the attitude era. All three teams participated in numerous Tables, Ladders, & Chairs matches. The most memorable one took place at WrestleMania 17. Edge and Christian ended up winning that battle.
The WWE Hall of Fame 2018 will stream live on the WWE Network on April 6. The ceremony is set to begin at 8 p.m. ET. Goldberg will be the main Hall of Fame inductee this year. He will be joined by Jeff Jarrett, Mark Henry, Ivory, Hillbilly Jim, and Kid Rock. Jarrius “JJ” Robertson will receive this year’s Warrior Award.
Frontline Wrestling owner and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay has announced the next 5 names for his company’s debut show on June 28th. ‘Build Me An Empire’ will be taking place at Stratford Circus and tickets for the show can be bought directly from the official Frontline site for as little as £15.
Already named for the debut show are Travis Banks, Chris Ridgeway, ‘Flash’ Morgan Webster and tag team Aussie Open.
Joining those already stellar names will be:
PROGRESS Women’s Champion Toni Storm
Wild Boar
Australian Star Adam Brooks
Maverick Mayhew
Conor Mills
Frontline Wrestling are looking to bring the Japanese ‘Puro’ style to British shores in a way that has never been seen before. This announcement with these incredible athletes shows that the company is going full bore on ushering in a new era of Strong Style in Great Britain.
The huge news of the week is WWE giving Daniel Bryan medical clearance to return to action after nearly three years on the sidelines. On Wednesday’s edition of Wrestling Observer Live, Dave Meltzer dropped some new information regarding Bryan’s situation:
– Daniel Bryan is not looking to work a full-time schedule. He will most likely work a schedule similar to Randy Orton – more dates than Brock Lesnar, but not 200+ dates per year like the majority of WWE’s roster.
– Many fans are assuming we’ll see Daniel Bryan team with Shane McMahon against Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn at WrestleMania, but WWE has not finalized plans for Bryan just yet.
– Meltzer noted that Daniel Bryan has been studying footage of Zack Sabre Jr. matches over the past year in an effort to learn a similar, safer ring style. ZSJ is a master technician and hopefully Bryan can avoid his signature [high risk] suicide dives or top rope head butts.
– Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn’s beatdown of Daniel Bryan was a last-minute booking decision. Bryan took some stiff bumps on SmackDown, including a powerbomb on the apron, which undoubtedly had people on edge at home and backstage.
– As noted earlier, Daniel Bryan was not medically cleared by WWE doctors until about one hour before the company made the announcement on social media.
Listen to the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Live over at f4wonline.com.
In related Daniel Bryan news, its worth noting that this week’s SmackDown Live averaged 2.888 million viewers, a slight increase over 2.771 million viewers the previous week.
British born New Japan star Zack Sabre Jr today beat Hiroshi Tanahashi to become the first ever UK born winner of the New Japan Cup and the first Gaijin to win the illustrious trophy in 12 years.
ZSJ will now go on to challenge IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada in the main event of the upcoming Sakura Genesis event, he becomes the first British born challenger to the title since William/Steven Regal back in April 1995.
Several stars and colleagues of Sabre’s from the UK wrestling scene were quick to offer their congratulations to the man being touted as the ‘best technical wrestler in the world.’ Check out some of the tweets below which feature comments from PROGRESS, Rev Pro, ICW, IPW:UK and OTT stars:
UK based promotion 5 Star Wrestling has confirmed that they will no longer be hosting events in the United Kingdom, they have subsequently lost their weekly Thursday night slot on Freesports, a channel which was available on Freeview, FreeSat, Sky and virtually available on every television set in England.
Opinion: There were a myriad of problems surrounding the 5 Star project since the outset, the company had booked a slew of shows in arenas across England that they found it difficult to fill and sadly poor promotion and management appears to have sent the company to an early grave. There were a number of extremely talented UK stars such as Joey Axl, Nathan Cruz and Zack Gibson who have now lost a weekly slot on UK television through no fault of their own and that is a great shame. Hopefully a company can rise from the ashes and start to build a true following for a mainstream wrestling promotion as there certainly is scope to do so.
Daniel Bryan is over the moon after being cleared to return to active competition inside the WWE ring.
Yesterday (March 20), it was announced that Bryan is cleared to return to the ring. Bryan is the current SmackDown Live general manager and was given the spot due to being on the shelf following a history of concussions. Bryan was thrown right into the fire, being on the receiving end of a beatdown from Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn.
Before last night’s episode of SmackDown Live aired, WWE filmed a video where Bryan talks about embracing the journey to making his in-ring return. Just when things seemed impossible, Bryan was willed to keep fighting in large part to his wife Brie Bella.
Bryan gave some words of encouragement to those looking to fulfill their dreams:
“If you have this dream, you fight for it. And you keep fighting for it and you keep fighting for it and then it may never come true. It might not, but it’s never the end-game. It’s not the destination, it’s the journey … It’s interesting because I’ve thought about this moment so much like in the last six months. ‘What would actually happen if you did get cleared?’ And it still seemed like an impossibility.”
Ronda Rousey is in the unfortunate situation where she doesn’t have much room for error.
The former UFC women’s champion inked a deal to join WWE back in January and made her debut at the Royal Rumble before disappearing off television for several weeks to finish filming a movie in Colombia.
When she returned, Rousey was immediately paired with Kurt Angle over the course of three weeks where she “signed” her contract at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view and then in the two subsequent weeks on Raw, she appeared to set up her WrestleMania 34 match.
Now Rousey will make her in ring debut at the biggest event of the year when she teams with Angle against Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in a mixed tag team match. With Rousey’s return to television, WWE also promoted that she would be appearing at every Monday Night Raw between Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania 34.
There’s only one problem — Rousey has been completely absent from live television the past two weeks outside of a vignette that was shown this past Monday night that talked about her journey from the UFC to joining WWE.
As it turns out, Rousey actually was in Dallas for Raw but she didn’t make any appearance during the live broadcast, but instead came out for a non-televised “dark” segment where she addressed the crowd and then had an incredibly awkward spot with Dana Brooke.
Now no one is going to accuse Dana Brooke of being the best worker in the company but the sequence of moves with Rousey — from the poorly blocked punch to Brooke literally jumping into Rousey’s arms to help her with a suplex — was just terrible execution. She’s only been training for her in-ring debut for a handful of months, so it’s going to take a long time before she’s pulling off moves with fluidity like watching Charlotte Flair take on Sasha Banks.
It seems rather obvious that WWE is giving Rousey a chance to learn on the job with a segment like she had with Dana Brooke this past week, but then that also begs the question — will she truly be ready for WrestleMania in three weeks time?
It’s easy to point at past celebrity appearances for WrestleMania matches — from Mike Tyson to Floyd Mayweather and even President Donald Trump — to know that WWE isn’t exactly banking on them suddenly transforming into A.J. Styles overnight. By that same account, no one expected Kurt Angle or Brock Lesnar to suddenly pick up the business in a matter of days when they first joined the WWE universe.
The difference with both Angle and Lesnar as high level athletes who transitioned into WWE is that they had time to develop in promotions away from the bright lights. Angle worked matches in several developmental promotions before finally being eased into a role on television. Lesnar famously teamed up with Shelton Benjamin as a tag team in Ohio Valley Wrestling and spent two years working in a developmental league before finally being called up to the main WWE roster.
Even fellow UFC veteran Shayna Baszler, who counts Rousey as one of her best friends, spent several years working her way up through the independent circuit before she was given a shot in WWE as part of the “Mae Young Classic” and now she’s still developing as part of the NXT roster.
Meanwhile, Rousey will have none of those luxuries as she prepares for her first match on the biggest stage possible at WrestleMania 34. Chances are Rousey won’t be expected to carry much of the match — what’s more likely is Stephanie McMahon will shy away from Rousey the entire match leaving the bulk of the work to Triple H and Angle. By the end, Rousey will likely find her way into get the tap out and the victory as she officially kicks off her WWE career.
That being said, Rousey’s spots thus far in WWE have been tough to watch.
Her mic work has a lot of room for improvement, but that will come over time. She has an undeniable presence about her, despite the limited emotive range we’ve seen thus far (either a huge grin or her ominous ‘murder face’). Add to that, she’s been awkward with the pair of slams that she’s landed on Stephanie and Dana Brooke in her two more physical altercations in the ring.
The toughest part about those sequences is that no first time wrestler would be expected to pull off those moves flawlessly — but 99.9-percent of first time wrestlers aren’t doing that in front of thousands of people with millions more watching at home on television.
Ronda Rousey making her WWE debut in front of a jam-packed stadium will do big business and draw mainstream headlines. At the end of the day, that’s what this is all about.
However, her room for error as a worker under this bright spotlight is virtually non-existent and the reality is that’s not fair, because it takes years to develop into a good worker. Unfortunately because Rousey undoubtedly signed a lucrative contract to work for WWE, she won’t have the luxury of spending two years working the independent circuit before finally joining the main roster.
It’s a catch 22 situation, but is Rousey being set up for success or failure?
Only time will tell but with three weeks remaining until WrestleMania 34, Rousey will be jumping from the frying pan in the fire in quick fashion and at that point it’s sink or swim.
When it comes to the reaction from savvy professional wrestling fans, there is no third direction.
Are you excited to see Ronda Rousey make her professional wrestling debut at WrestleMania 34 and what do you expect? Sound off in the comments and let us know
As we’ve noted, WWE Champion AJ Styles was a part of an international media call to promote WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans next month. “The Phenomenal One” is scheduled to defend his WWE Title against 2018 Royal Rumble winner Shinsuke Nakamura, which is considered by many to be a “dream match.” Styles was asked if he thinks he and Nakamura’s match could go on last and main event the show:
“As far as the main event goes, I can tell you which match is gonna steal the show,” Styles said. “You could either put Shinsuke Nakamura on last, and AJ Styles last, or you could have that [be] the only match people remember, because we’re gonna tear the house down.
“That’s what we do. We have the talent to be able to do that, and that’s what people are expecting. So, whether or not it is the main event, it will be a main event match.”
SmackDown Live General Manager Daniel Bryan was recently cleared to return to in-ring competition by the WWE. Styles was asked about a potential match against Bryan, which fans have been itching for ever since news broke that Bryan had been cleared. Styles said he’d love to step into the ring with Bryan and believes they can put on an ‘unbelievable’ match:
“If ever the opportunity for him and I to get in the ring together, I think it would be an unbelievable match,” said Styles. “It’d be fun.”
Styles was then asked about the rumors that he could be moved to Monday Night RAW by way of the WWE Draft. While he admitted it would be fun to be in The Club with Finn Balor, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson; Styles said he has no intentions of losing the WWE Title and can’t imagine WWE sending the WWE Champ to RAW:
“I think it would be cool if we all were in The Club together,” said Styles. “Who knows if that will ever happen, but it would definitely be fun. But, as far as moving to Raw, I don’t plan on losing to Shinsuke Nakamura, and I can’t imagine [WWE] would make the champ go to Raw.”
Mojo Rawley Wants Another Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal Trophy
Mojo Rawley is gunning for another WrestleMania moment. At last year’s mega event, Rawley scored an upset win to capture the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal trophy. Rawley eliminated Jinder Mahal with some help from New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski.
Back in those days, Rawley lived by the “Hype or Die” motto. These days, he takes a more serious approach. Of course, that is when he’s actually featured on an episode of SmackDown Live. Rawley took to Twitter to make it clear that he’s going for another trophy:
Last night’s episode of SmackDown Live was supposed to be a celebration. The brand’s general manager Daniel Bryan had finally been cleared to wrestle earlier that day. After years of sitting on the sidelines, Bryan said he didn’t know when he’d wrestle again but that he is officially active once again.
Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn crashed the party in the most sadistic way. Bryan fired Owens and Zayn for their attack on commissioner Shane McMahon last week. Owens and Zayn responded by ambushing Bryan. The assault was capped off when Owens powerbombed Bryan on the ring apron.
You can see that segment and more in this week’s top 10 SmackDown Live moments below:
– On last night’s episode of SmackDown Live, General Manager Daniel Bryan fired both Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn for their assault on Commissioner Shane McMahon last week. After Bryan fired them Owens and Zayn brutally beat down Bryan as well, causing the former WWE World Heavyweight Champ to be carted out on a stretcher. To sell Bryan firing Owens and Zayn, WWE has removed their profiles from WWE.com
– Speaking of Owens and Zayn, Sami recently took to Twitter to comment on he and Owens beating down Bryan on SmackDown. Zayn sarcastically welcomed Bryan back (referring to Bryan recently being cleared to compete inside the ring again) and said he hopes he can live with his decision to fire the two best wrestlers alive:
Welcome back @WWEDanielBryan. Hope you can live with yourself after firing two of the best wrestlers alive (and two guys you've known for 14 years).
That is, once you're discharged from the hospital.
– NXT Champion Andrade “Cien” Almas recently made an appearance on the Mexican morning show Sale El Sol. The interview is in Spanish but if you’d like to give it a view you can check it out here:
WWE Champion AJ Styles recently participated in an international media call to promote WrestleMania 34 and his dream match against Shinsuke Nakamura at the event. Styles discussed whether or not he believes this match is the biggest of his career, and also talked what it was like working with Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series. You can check out the highlights here:
You’ve been in 2 WrestleManias so far, but this looks to be the biggest one yet. Do you consider this to be the biggest match of your career, and what have you learnt the most from the past two WrestleMania experiences?
“I do think this is the biggest match of my career. I think this is the match that most people want to see. We’re doing it at WrestleMania, so it doesn’t get much bigger than that. I’ve learned that it’s huge, for one. Thousands of thousands of people are at a show. Just take it all in. Don’t rush to the ring. I don’t do a lot of things right, but my first WrestleMania, I took it all in and I think that’s the one thing, I’m, going to do every time I get the opportunity. It’s just not to rush to the ring, but just to take it all in and enjoy the ride.”
What was it like working a physical style match-up with Brock Lesnar? How do you feel you were able to bring out the best performance of his career in many years?
“I think that it’s something he’s always capable of. It’s all up to him if he wants to do it. I think he and I put on a spectacular match and it was a good opportunity for me to be in the ring with Brock Lesnar. It was an exciting match, one that one kind of expected but at the same time didn’t know what to expect. I think it was a great match and I’m very proud of that match.”
You can read some more form Styles’ participation in the media call by clicking this link here.
Earlier this week RAW commentator Corey Graves took a shot at Taz with a Tweet that he has since deleted, saying:
“Insecurity is a bad color on you @OfficialTAZ, shoulda stuck to orange and black.”
Taz issued out his own response to Graves and claimed to have absolutely no idea what Graves was talking about:
“I have no clue what you are talking about. PS: Tough to be insecure when I’m the happiest I’ve been ever professional for past 3 + years & I always stick to ORANGE & BLACK.”
It remains unclear what Graves’ issue is with Taz, however, it has been speculated that it could be due to Taz’s recent comments on Chris Jericho’s podcast, Talk Is Jericho. Taz said the biggest problem with WWE commentary right now is that there is nobody in the booth with high-level in-ring experience:
“The first thing, if you are a color commentator, not play-by-play, so if you are a former pro wrestler, and I learned this from Vince McMahon; you have to take your ego and what you did because it is not about you, it is a humbling job. I put over more guys as a commentator than as a worker, but you have to take your ego, and put it behind the curtain as Vince McMahon told me. You have to be able to, the key is you have to put your agenda and ego aside and keep it in the Gorilla position,” Taz said in the interview with Jericho. “You can’t bring it to the announce desk.
“I am someone that believes that as a former world champion and as a color commentator. That is not a knock on any current color commentator, but I believe in the guys that have been to the dance, drawn some money and know what it takes to have a title. It is a big deal to have that responsibility, as you know, and it is a big deal. I believe, and I know that it is going to sound negative on those that weren’t world champions; Corey Graves was a former tag team champion in NXT.
“Byron Saxton barely worked, so that to me jumps out. I believe in that. You can’t tell me as a fan, if I have never been a wrestler, you can’t tell me what it is like to be a world champion if you have never done it; I’m sorry,” Taz continued. “I hope for the best of those guys, and no disrespect to those guys. I met Corey Graves, and he seems like a great guy, but that is my opinion. You need some legitimate sea legs under you as a professional wrestler, I really believe that. I think putting your ego and checking it, and having the chops to talk obviously.”
You can listen to Taz’s full interview on Talk Is Jericho by clicking this link here.
Impact Wrestling play-by-play announcer Josh Mathews recently spoke with Sportskeeda.com to talk about various topics. During the interview, he was asked about Jeremy Borash’s departure from the promotion.
This is a significant loss for Impact Wrestling since Borash was a major part of the company behind the scenes since its founding in 2002.
At the time of his reported departure, there was speculation if Borash would work with Matt Hardy as he was also considered to be one of the creative forces behind the “Broken” segments in Impact Wrestling.
Borash has reportedly been placed in NXT, which is overseen by Triple H, and even worked as a producer for the recent Ultimate Deletion match between Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt that aired on this week’s episode of SmackDown Live in Dallas, Texas at the American Airlines Center on the USA Network.
“My immediate reaction was that I was happy for him. I don’t remember who called me in the morning to tell me that we had to do a change in our VO schedule and that Sonjay was coming in. I was happy for JB. I’ve talked to JB a few times since then. And I’m happy for him.
But I’m also happy for Impact because JB leaving opened up an opportunity for Sonjay Dutt to come along and show everyone his skills as a colour commentator. And I think he’s done an outstanding job thus far. And it’s only really been just the beginning. Wrestling commentary is hard because you have to be dialled into every storyline that’s happening on Impact.
Not only the storylines that are happening but all the shows in California, shows in Canada, WrestleCon, Twitch, GWN. Sonjay has a good idea of what’s happening. That translates each and every week on Impact.”
Reaction to this Monday’s “Ultimate Deletion” has had wide-ranging impacts. Clips of the match have been pulling in great numbers on social media and have even garnered some mainstream publicity.
TMZ reporters recently caught up with Hardy who appears to be riding high at the moment. He mentioned that his Woken Universe was never supposed to make it to WWE but now that it has, he will DELETE Vince McMahon if he did not enjoy the Ultimate Deletion.
Matt Hardy “I Will Delete Vince McMahon If He Didn’t Like My Ultimate Deletion”
Mick Foley also appeared via split-screen during the interview and gave his feedback on the Ultimate Deletion. Foley said he spent some time thinking about how Vince McMahon likely felt about the match.
Matt Hardy responded to “the Dude who Loves” and mentioned he hasn’t yet spoken to Vince McMahon about the segment but says his Woken Warriors loved it.
Lucha Underground and Impact Wrestling will be going head-to-head at WrestleCon over WrestleMania weekend in New Orleans. Earlier today, Impact Wrestling announced the main event for the show as Austin Aries & Fenix vs Alberto El Patron & Pentagon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ry8l_Xq6iQ
Lucha Underground vs Impact Wrestling Lineup (April 6th, 2018)
Impact World Tag Team Championships
LAX (c) vs. Killshot & the Mack
I Quit Match
Eddie Edwards vs. Jeremiah Crane (Sami Callihan’s LU character)
Andrew Everett, DJZ, & Dezmond Xavier vs. King Cuerno, Aerostar, & Drago
Austin Aries & Fenix vs. Alberto El Patron & Pentagon
Both Impact Wrestling and Lucha Underground announced changes to their wrestler contracts recently. Lucha Underground has relaxed the exclusivity clauses in their deals, allowing talent to work elsewhere from Lucha Underground. This had previously been an issue for the company when Ricochet voiced his frustration with his contract publicly.
Impact Wrestling has come under new management with NJPW color commentator, Don Callis, playing a key role. Callis announced the company would be allowing talent to keep ownership of all gimmicks created on their programming moving forward.
Former WWE/WCW World Heavyweight Champion Bill Goldberg recently spoke with The Washington Post to promote his appearance on “The Goldbergs” on ABC this Wednesday night.
Goldberg has had quite the career in professional wrestling. Make no mistake about it, he was the top star of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) at the peak of the Monday Night Wars. While under contract with WCW between 1997 and 2001, Goldberg rose to fame in WCW with a lengthy undefeated streak in singles competition from 1997 to 1998, which was considered the longest winning streak in professional wrestling.
After twelve years away from the WWE, he returned to WWE in 2016 and headlined Survivor Series against Brock Lesnar, and Fastlane against Kevin Owens where he won the WWE Universal Championship. He lost the title to Lesnar at WrestleMania 34 in Orlando, Florida. He was last seen on WWE television the night after Mania on Raw. In this interview, he was asked about his latest WWE run and potentially doing it one more time.
“The angle was real and it was touching and it was true. I kind of left it all out there. It was a cleansing experience,” Goldberg said. “I owe it all to Vince McMahon and Brock Lesnar. They gave me the opportunity to be one of the coolest dads in the world and they didn’t have to do that.”
“Do I want to roll the dice again? I don’t know,” Goldberg said. “I’ll quote one of the most famous movies that I was ever in, ‘Santa’s Slay’: It ain’t over ‘til I say it’s over.”
He was also asked being inducted into the 2018 WWE Hall of Fame class.“Thankfully for the people that didn’t forget about me, they welcomed me with open arms,” Goldberg said.
Following the New Japan Cup finals, we now know what the main event of Sakura Genesis will be.
Earlier today (March 21), the New Japan Cup finals took place. The two men fighting for the trophy and a title shot of their choosing were Hiroshi Tanahashi and Zack Sabre Jr. Going into the bout, they were 1-1 against each other. Sabre Jr. broke the tie by submitting NJPW’s “Ace” and becoming the second foreign New Japan Cup winner.
Sabre Jr. said he was going after Kazuchika Okada’s IWGP Heavyweight title. This is a fresh challenge for Okada as he hasn’t competed against Sabre Jr. yet. Sabre Jr. has beaten a bevy of top-level NJPW talent on his way to a title opportunity.
The first man Sabre Jr. got past in the New Japan Cup was Tetsuya Naito. Sabre Jr. submitted Naito, who appears to be on his way to an Intercontinental title clash with Suzuki-Gun leader Minoru Suzuki. The submission specialist then put away Kota Ibushi, followed by SANADA in the same fashion.
The fact that Sabre Jr. submitted Tanahashi means that he put away two former IWGP Heavyweight champions in just one tournament. We’ll find out if he can end Okada’s historic reign on April 1.
Hiroshi Tanahashi and Zack Sabre Jr. fought through some stiff competition to make it to the finals, which took place inside Ao-re Nagaoka in Niigata, Japan. Going into the finals, many fans were on the fence. Would Tanahashi renew his rivalry with Kazuchika Okada or potentially get revenge on Minoru Suzuki? Would Sabre Jr. pose a new threat to the IWGP Heavyweight champion?
In the end, it was Sabre Jr. who emerged as the New Japan Cup 2018 winner. He was able to submit Tanahashi just over the 34-minute mark. After the match, Sabre Jr. said he’s going after Okada’s gold at Sakura Genesis on April 1.
Check out the rest of the results below:
Singles Match: Shota Umino def. Tetsuhiro Yagi
Singles Match: Taichi def. Tomoyuki Oka
Six-Man Tag Team Match: Bad Luck Fale, Tanga Loa, & Yujiro Takahashi def. Togi Makabe, Michael Elgin, & Toa Henare
Tag Team Match: Killer Elite Squad def. Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano
Tag Team Match: Juice Robinson & David Finlay def. Hiroki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi
Eight-Man Tag Team Match: Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, Hiromu Takahashi, & Bushi def. Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, El Desperado, & Takashi Iizuka
Tag Team Match: Kazuchika Okada & Chuckie T. def. Kota Ibushi & Chase Owens
New Japan Cup Finals Match: Zack Sabre Jr. def. Hiroshi Tanahashi
– Last night in the semi-finals of the Mixed Match Challenge, Team Little Big (Braun Strowman and RAW Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss) were defeated by The Miz and Asuka. During the match there was a moment in which Strowman caught Bliss after she was bumped off the apron. For a second it looked like they were about to kiss before they realized they were still in a match and Bliss needed to get back in the ring before getting counted out.
In a post-match interview with Strowman and Bliss they were asked about the kiss that almost happened. Strowman said he hopes it can actually happen now, and just as they try one more time, a fan comes in and asks Bliss for her autograph. “The Monster Among Men” gets frustrated and bolts off:
– On last night’s episode of SmackDown Live, the first episode after General Manager Daniel Bryan was cleared for an in-ring return, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn attacked Bryan after firing them for attacking Shane McMahon on last week’s episode of SmackDown. McMahon broke his silence on the matter via Twitter:
On a night that should have been one of @WWEDanielBryan's finest…Sami & KO proved they are vile, spineless cowards. Neither of them belong in @WWE and #SDLive…I just hope this didn’t set back Daniel’s in-ring return even further.
– WWE.com has officially added Trent Seven to the NXT roster page after he has made several appearances on the program over the past year. Seven participated in the WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament.
After his first marriage dissolved back in 2012, longtime WWE Superstar John Cena didn’t know if he ever wanted to get married again. Cena then began dating fellow Superstar Nikki Bella for several years before changing his mind on the matter and proposing to her live in the middle of the ring at WrestleMania 33 last year. The pair are currently engaged and have yet to officially tie the knot due to both their hectic schedules.
Another big issue for Cena was his refusal to have kids, something Bella desperately wanted based on her comments on Total Divas on E! back in 2014. Cena recently made an appearance on Good Morning Britain to promote his upcoming film, Blockers, in which Cena plays a parent who teams up with another group of parents in attempt to stop their children form losing their virginity on prom night. It turns out the role has changed Cena’s mind a bit about having children:
“Especially in something like [Blockers], because the story is about these parents doing what they think is right to try to protect their children,” said Cena. “But the story is also about being confident as a parent, being confident in your children that you have done well, and they also are doing well.
“And the bond between parent and child can be a wonderful thing, even through some pretty tough situations. So, it absolutely has made me consider being a parent more.”
– The 50-man “Greatest Royal Rumble” event scheduled for April 27th from Saudi Arabia has been confirmed to be a WWE Network special. If you are a WWE Network subscriber and attempt to cancel your account, WWE lists the upcoming Network specials that you’ll be missing out on – and the Greatest Royal Rumble is listed.
The WWE Network will be showing the Greatest Royal Rumble. If you attempt to cancel your subscription, this message appears. pic.twitter.com/ZnJvM1I8bz
WWE announced earlier this week that the Greatest Royal Rumble event will feature 7 championship matches. Top stars advertised for the show include John Cena, Triple H, Roman Reigns, AJ Styles and Randy Orton. The Undertaker and Chris Jericho are also rumored for the show.
– On last night’s episode of SmackDown Live, WWE Champion AJ Styles was sitting ringside for Shinsuke Nakamura’s match against Rusev. After the match Aiden English and Rusev attacked Nakamura, and while Styles was taking his time getting ready to jump in and help out, the Japanese star rallied back and was able to fend the pair off himself.
Several fans pointed out that WWE botched the on-screen graphic that appeared when Styles was introduced. He was correctly listed as WWE Champion, however an image of the Untied States Championship was depicted.
Newsweek.com has published an interview with Bruce Prichard of the wildly popular Something To Wrestle podcast. Here are some highlights:
Prichard told Phillip Martinez from Newsweek that he’s really looking forward to WresetleMania, especially the top few matches. As a longtime member of Vince McMahon’s inner circle, Prichard has seen it all when it comes to booking WrestleMania main events. When asked about WWE’s portrayal of Brock Lesnar in the Universal Championship match at WM34, Prichard says WWE has done the right thing by limiting Lesnar’s exposure and keeping him as a special attraction.
“It depends on your perspective,” Prichard said. “In a situation where Brock is champion, he’s coming in for a certain number of days doing what he does, and when he comes in, he draws people. People are interested in what he does. So from my point of view, not having to overexpose the talent is a great thing. People become complacent and used to the talent. When you’re only getting them every once in a while, that adds to the talent’s mystique… Whether it’s Brock’s idea or WWE’s idea, I think it’s a good one for a big draw to only be seen in a limited way.”
Regarding the WWE Championship match between AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura, Prichard compared Styles success to that of a rookie Kurt Angle. He also praised Nakamura, who has gotten over with the WWE Universe on work rate and charisma without speaking much English.
John Cena’s role at WrestleMania has not been made official as of this writing, but it seems like the 16-time world champion is headed for showdown with The Undertaker. Prichard said fans love The Undertaker so much that he could wrestle several more years and people would eat it up. The Undertaker’s physical ailments are well-documented, but Prichard revealed that he saw the Dead Man several months ago and he looked to be in great physical shape.
“I saw him recently, around Thanksgiving, and I haven’t seen him look that good in 10-15 years … He was skipping up steps and looked great.”
There’s a lot more to the interview, which you can check out at Newsweek.com.
