Home Blog Page 964

Moose Comments On Loss To Rich Swann At Sacrifice

Chris Stephens
-
0

Rich Swann rolled Moose up into a pinning combination and got the 1-2-3 to close out Sacrifice on Saturday night. With the win, Swann moves on to next month’s Rebellion PPV to challenge Kenny Omega for the AEW World Championship.

Former TNA Heavyweight Champion, Moose, took to Twitter to comment on the match and loss.

“Tonight I proved that I’m undoubtedly the Best Big Man in professional wrestling and one of the best wrestlers In the world. I came short of becoming the undisputed champion. Will take time off to reevaluate the past Rebuild Refocus Rebrand and think about the Future,” Moose Tweeted.

The finish of the match came after Moose had missed 4 straight spear attempts, crashing into the corner turnbuckle each time. The loss is seemingly the end of an era for Moose, who had been claiming to be the TNA Champion since the spring of 2020. With Swann moving on to a program with Omega, Moose will look to rebuild as he mentioned in his Tweet.

The show also featured Juice Robinson and David Finlay defeating the Good Brothers for the Impact tag-team championships. Rhino also turned heel and aligned with Eric Young’s Violent by Design faction. Ace Austin beat TJP to win the X-Division title.

Chris Jericho Calls Out Grammys Over Minimal Eddie Van Halen Tribute

Chris Stephens
-
0

Chris Jericho and other Van Halen fans are upset with the Grammys over what many are calling an inadequate tribute to Eddie Van Halen at this year’s awards ceremony. The legendary guitarist passed away in October from a stroke. He was 65-years-old.

A 15-second tribute to Eddie Van Halen aired on the Grammys last night. Many fans feel this was not a fitting tribute considering the contributions he made to the music industry. One of those upset with the lack of tribute was Chris Jericho, who evidently missed what little tribute did take place.

Other Van Halen fans also commented on the minimal tribute given to Van Halen.

Florida-based journalist Jon Alba was also not impressed:

https://twitter.com/FrankieKazarian/status/1371485391069515785

“I was the perfect age to love Van Halen. Because when the 1984 album came out, I was 13 or 14 years old. I was their demographic,” Jericho said during an interview last year. “I remember seeing Van Halen in 2007 and Eddie was having an exceptionally good night. And I was like, ‘Yeah. That’s the reason why they call him the greatest of all time. He’s absolutely the greatest.’ His legacy is being the greatest guitar player of all time in my opinion. And it’s not even close.”

Big E Want To Face Roman Reigns At WrestleMania 38

Rayan Sayyed
-
0

Big E was who his ideal opponent for WrestleMania 38 would be, and he named one of the top guys in the company. He suggested that he would like to face Roman Reigns at the “Grandest Stage Of Them All” next year at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The Intercontinental Champion said that it is his objective to be on Reigns’ level, adding that he has done an outstanding job as the top performer.

“That’s the goal, you know? To be in that tier, to be at the very top, Big E told Adam Wilbourn of WhatCulture. I think Roman’s done a stellar job. ‘Stellar’ isn’t even a good enough superlative to describe how much he’s elevated himself, even though he was already at the top. And I think his presentation, the promos, the character stuff, all that stuff has been really cool to see, and he’s been killing it. Much respect to him.”

Roman Reigns has become the face of SmackDown after his return at SummerSlam as a heel, and captured the Universal Championship from Bray Wyatt at Payback last year. Reigns has held the title since, and has consistently delivered good in-ring work and promos. While the Head of the Table is on the top of his game right now, Big E hopes that he can be a touch challenger for him.

While it’s completely possible that Roman Reigns could lose the title by next year over the 400 days, Big E hopes he’s still got the title and that would be his dream match at WrestleMania. “I think that would be as far as if I could pick any opponent, that would be the one. So hopefully by next year he’s still got the title – and that’d be over 400 days. We’ll see, there’s a lot that can happen from now until then, but that would be it.”

For now, Roman Reigns is set to defend his title against Daniel Bryan at Fastlane, and if he successfully defends, he will go against Edge at WrestleMania 37. Big E, on the other hand, will defend his Intercontinental title against Apollo Crews this Sunday.

WWE Signs 2 Australian Independent Wrestlers

Chris Stephens
-
0

WWE has locked up two talented wrestlers from the Australian independent scene. According to a report from PW Insider, Matty Wahlberg and Steph De Lander have signed with the company and are expected to start their WWE careers in NXT.

30-year-old Matty Wahlberg is from the Sydney area and was trained by Robbie Eagles and Madison Eagles. He has wrestled primarily for the PWA promotion in Australia over the last year.

Steph De Lander is also from Sydney. She too trained with Madison Eagles. She made her professional debut in 2017. Similar to Wahlberg, De Lander has been wrestling primarily on the independents in Australia, including PWA.

Indi Hartwell On Getting Signed to WWE

One current wrestler in WWE who can relate with signing with WWE off the independents is Indi Hartwell. She spoke to Wide World of Sports about the experience.

“I was only a few months into wrestling and WWE was coming to Australia for an NXT tour. My trainer at the time let me know there was a tryout and coming up and let me know to send in a resume,” Hartwell said.

“I got invited to the try out which was in December of 2016, so I was only a few months into wrestling,” she continued. “At the time it was a no but that got my foot in the door and since then I was in conversation with them.”

Mustafa Ali On What Vince McMahon Originally Thought About His Talking Skills

Anutosh Bajpai
-
0

Mustafa Ali has been part of the WWE roster since 2016 and while he started out as a babyface, the former 205 live star is currently in middle of a run as a heel as the leader of Retribution.

The high flying star recently had an interview with TV insider where he talked about things such as his evolution in the company, the reaction Retribution has gotten from the fans and more.

When asked if it took a lot for the WWE creative to give him the freedom to say what he wanted, Ali shared his experience with the WWE chairman Vince McMahon and explained how he won his confidence:

“I can only speak of my experience with [Chairman] Vince McMahon and the creative team, but not really. You can always tell them what you’re capable of doing, or you can show them. The first time I told Vince McMahon I’m a talker, he didn’t believe I was.

So I recorded my own promos. I record my own videos.” said Mustafa Ali, “It’s a lot easier to show them what you’re capable of doing than telling them. I’ve got a pretty good range in terms of saying the things I do.”

The 34 year old star also discussed Retribution’s mix reaction from fans and explained that they haven’t gotten the chance to explain their motives.

While Mustafa Ali acknowledged that being part of the group provides them the opportunity to be on TV every week, he said that he hasn’t been able to explain who they really are. You can check out his full interview here.

Paul Heyman: Christian Ran Away To AEW To Escape Roman Reigns

Rayan Sayyed
-
0

Paul Heyman, the Special Counsel to Roman Reigns, had a lot to say this past week on Talking Smack about the Edge vs. Jey Uso matchup that’s scheduled for this week’s SmackDown. The winner of this match will determine who will be the special enforcer at the Universal Championship match between Daniel Bryan and Reigns at Fastlane next Sunday. While he was ranting about the match, he also worked in AEW’s Christian Cage leaving WWE for the rival promotion into the storyline. Christian had made a surprise comeback after seven years at the 2021 Royal Rumble match, and even had a reunion with Edge in the ring. it was then revealed a month later at Revolution that he was the surprise signee for a multi-year contract with AEW.

Paul Heyman blasted Edge for challenging Roman Reigns for his title at WrestleMania. He said that he expected a person like him with a surgically repaired neck to not piss off the “Tribal Chief.” Then he brought up Edge’s friend and former tag partner Christian. Heyman said that Christian went to AEW so that he wouldn’t have to face Reigns someday.

“Edge, your best friend in this world knew he was going to become Roman Reigns’ target just to get into your head and what did he do?” Paul Heyman said regarding Christian. “He ran away, before Roman Reigns could target him. How many, of your ‘Christians’ need to convert before you realize it’s not smart to piss off Roman Reigns? You, Edge, have pissed off Roman Reigns. You wanna be the special enforcer? You wanna involve yourself in Roman Reigns’ match against Daniel Bryan? Why? Because you know, it’s an easier fight against Daniel Bryan than it is against Roman Reigns who is untouchable, who is unbeatable…”

Roman Reigns (with Paul Heyman) will defend his Universal title against Daniel Bryan at Fastlane on Sunday, March 21. This week’s SmackDown will determine who will be the special enforcer via a match between Edge and Jey Uso.

NWA Announces Nick Aldis vs Aron Stevens To Main Event “Back For The Attack”

Chris Stephens
-
0

The National Wrestling Alliance has announced that Aron Stevens will challenge NWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis for the belt this weekend at Back for the Attack. It will be an emotional contest as Stevens is the most recent tag-team partner of “The Question Mark” Joseph Hudson who passed away last month.

Stevens released a statement on Twitter that he would not be portraying a character in the match. Rather, he would be wrestling as his true self.

Thunder Rosa, Trevor Murdoch, Elijah Burke, Tim Storm, and Kamille were announced for the show previously. Tyrus, Crimson, Chris Adonis, Jordan Clearwater, and Slice Boogie were announced recently. The event will stream on FITE on Saturday, March 21st, 2021.

Nick Aldis On New PPV Deal Between FITE and NWA

Nick Aldis was interviewed by Metro recently about FITE carrying NWA PPVs in the UK.

“We just hope that it means we can encourage a few more UK fans to give her a go and check out what we have to offer,” Aldis said during the interview. “The main thing that I really wanna convey to anyone who’s gonna read this – if you are one of the millions of fans around the world who have fallen out of love with wrestling because the industry just doesn’t quite hit the notes that you remember it hitting, you might find that the NWA hits those notes.”

“Stone Cold” Steve Austin Week Lineup Announced By WWE

Rayan Sayyed
-
0

“Stone Cold” Steve Austin will be celebrated on “Austin 3:16 Day” this coming Tuesday, as WWE has announced that a special lineup of specials on WWE Network will air as part of the “Stone Cold Steve Austin Week.” The week-long celebration will commemorate the 25-year anniversary of Austin’s debut in WWE as well. WWE Network and Peacock will see “Stone Cold”-themed programming which includes new documentaries, Austin’s interview with Randy Orton on The Broken Skull Sessions, and more.

Here are the details of the programs that will be released this week:

Meeting Stone Cold on Tuesday, March 16 on WWE Network: “WWE Superstars and Legends recall their first impressions of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. The Undertaker, Ric Flair, Booker T and others recount a slew of unforgettable moments and memories they shared with Austin throughout the last 30 years.”

Birth of the Stunner on Friday, March 19 on Peacock and WWE Network:
“Learn about the origin of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s famous finisher, its history with Austin and how the legacy of the Stunner lives on today through WWE Superstar Kevin Owens.”

The Best of WWE: Best of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin on Saturday, March 20 on Peacock and the Free Version of WWE Network: “The Texas Rattlesnake battles iconic opponents like The Rock, Bret “Hit Man” Hart and The Undertaker in this collection of his greatest matches.”

Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions: Randy Orton on Sunday, March 21 on Peacock and WWE Network: “‘Stone Cold’ welcomes first-time guest Randy Orton to his acclaimed interview show. Nothing will be off-limits when The Viper and The Texas Rattlesnake sit down to talk about Orton’s legendary career.”

A new book surrounding “Stone Cold” is also on its way on March 16 titled Austin 3:16. It will feature 316 facts and stories about the Hall of Famer, and is written by DC Comics and WWE author Michael McAvennie. It is released by ECW Press.

When the March 16 was branded as 3:16 day, Steve Austin said he didn’t know what WWE was planning. “Now, I didn’t declare this holiday,” Austin said on his show, The Steve Austin Show last year. “I didn’t declare it a national holiday on my own behalf. It seems like the WWE Universe has declared 3/16 to be Steve Austin Day because of the famous promo I cut way back at King Of The Ring in 1996 when I got kicked in the mouth by Marc Mero.”

Bobby Lashley On Who Came Up With The Name For The Hurt Business

Anutosh Bajpai
-
0

While Bobby Lashley made his return to WWE in 2018, his career really turned around after the formation of the Hurt Business which has since led to the All Mighty winning the WWE championship for the first time in his career.

The current champion recently had an interview with The Wrap where he talked about his time in the company since his return in detail including his storyline with Lana and more.

During the interview, Lashley discussed the origin of the Hurt Business. The Raw star revealed that he was the one who came up with the name for their group and explained where he got the idea from:

“It was me. I was thinking about this before, I was thinking about the whole thing before, Originally, a boxing coach that I had down in Coconut Creek at American Top Team. He used to always wear this T-shirt and I was like, man, that is incredible man, that needs to be in WWE because that’s my character.”

The former TNA star then talked about the formation of the group. He remembered how MVP’s return was originally going to be a one night thing and he explained how they chose the other members of their group:

“And then when MVP had that Royal Rumble, he was only going to do that, but when he was there, we had worked before and I told him, ‘you are kind of a mix between Suge Knight, and Don King.’ I said, ‘If you mix all those up that is you.’ And I told him about this and then me and him got together and he was like, ‘We can make a real little faction out of this.’

And of course we thought about Shelton (Benjamin), because Shelton wasn’t really doing anything, everybody knows how good Shelton is. I was like, man we got to bring Shelton, because Shelton gets it. And then we needed a young boy to come up, and Cedric (Alexander) is phenomenal.”

Lashley aligned himself with MVP in May last year. They were joined by Shelton Benjamin a month later in June to create the Hurt Business. The three fueded with Apollo Crews, Cedric Alexander and Ricochet for a while before Alexander joined the trio as well.

Apart from this, Bobby Lashley discussed how his current WWE run is different than his previous runs with the company and more. You can check out his full interview at this link.

WWE Reportedly Wants 45,000 Attendance At WrestleMania 37

Rayan Sayyed
-
0

WWE is looking to have 45,000 live fans in attendance each night at the Raymond James Stadium for WrestleMania 37. Tickets for the event go for sale at on March 16 at Ticketmaster, but it wasn’t mentioned what capacity the stadium will be limited to. The company only said that they are “coordinating with local partners and government officials regarding safety protocols.” It was initially reported that WrestleMania is expected to have 25,000 fans in attendance each night, giving WWE 50,000 attendance in total. Then, another report said that officials are planning to have an audience of 30,000. However, new reports suggest that WWE wants the attendance to be even larger than that, with 45,000 fans each night.

Spectrum Sports 360 reporter Jon Alba said on Sunday that WWE wants a crowd of 45,000 per night for WrestleMania 37. This would make WrestleMania the largest pandemic-era crowd in the US.

“I can independently confirm reports #WWE is aiming for about 45,000 people per night at Raymond James Stadium for #WrestleMania, which would be by far the largest crowd at a sports or entertainment event in America since the pandemic began,” Alba wrote on Twitter. “I have reached out to the Tampa Bay Sports Authority, which manages Raymond James Stadium, but have yet to hear back. Tickets are on-sale 3/16, though it hasn’t publicly been said how many will be available. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order last fall that allows for stadiums to run full capacity should they choose to, but no one has run a show to that magnitude so far. The Texas Rangers have clearance to fill their stadium with about 40k to start the season (right around the same time as WrestleMania). Daytona International Speedway officials estimated to me Daytona 500 attendance was in the 25k-30k range. So this would be biggest.”

Alba also added that WWE only wants an attendance of 45,000 each night. This does not mean that they will be able to pull it off. First of all, the Tampa Bay Sports Authority could reject this request, and second, international travel restrictions are also in place so that could hinder fans who want to travel to Tampa for WrestleMania.

It would be interesting to see if WWE would be able to pull this off. So far, only two matches have been set for WrestleMania. WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns would defend his title against Edge, and WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks will defend hers against Bianca Belair.

AEW Revolution Breaks PPV Buys Record, Generates $5M

Rayan Sayyed
-
0

AEW Revolution has smashed the company’s buyrate records of previous PPVs, and has generated a revenue of at least $5 million. The show brought in 125,000 buys worldwide, including both traditional and digital platforms namely B/R Live, FITE, and traditional pay-per-view outlets. The previous buyrate record was set by AEW’s Double or Nothing 2020 pay-per-view event with an estimated 105,000 buys. According to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics, the show generated just over $5 million in revenue, with $2.4 million of it going to AEW. The rest will go to its domestic and international broadcast partners.

It was initially reported by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Revolution grossed over $6 million and it’s well on its way to make $7 million once the total is calculated. The Wrestlenomics report features a breakdown of various revenue streams for the PPV such as PPV buys, ticket and merchandise sales, accounting for $5 million for AEW. It took estimatedly $1 million to produce Revolution for the company.

The Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch between AEW World Champion Kenny Omega and Jon Omega was the headlining match of Revolution. The match itself was good, but fans were left disappointed with weak explosions as the finish due to a technical glitch. Deciding against ignoring the dud, the company ran with it as part of the storyline, with Omega eventually breaking the silence and acknowledging the disappointing finish out of character.

“Yeah, it was really deflating to do so much preparation, test the explosions, have them be impressive in the rehearsal, and then have it be something so much different than what was promised,” Kenny Omega said about the Revolution finish. “It made me appreciate everyone who worked hard and did their part even more, though. But like you said, we really wanted to have a good one, and we added real barbed wire to help with the feeling of danger so we really risked a lot. Again, I loved the match; glad we did it, sucks about the finale.”

Kurt Angle On Possibly Wrestling For AEW

Anutosh Bajpai
-
0

Kurt Angle had fun with the rumors of him joining AEW and competing for the promotion when the Big Show teased the signing of a Hall Of Famer worthy talent for Revolution. While Christian ended up being the big reveal, it doesn’t end the possibility of the Olympic Gold Medallist joining the AEW roster somewhere down the line.

On the latest episode of his The Kurt Angle Show podcast, the former WWE star talked about the rumors of Big Show potentially wrestling for the company. When asked if we could ever see him coming to AEW to wrestle, he replied negatively:

“I don’t think so, I texted Big Show and said congratulations on signing with AEW and he said ‘Oh man, I feel like I’m 25.’ I was like holy s–t, you’re going to wrestle? He didn’t answer me, but he said he felt like he was 25 again, I guess that means he’s going to wrestle, I don’t know.”

Kurt Angle also talked about how surprised he was with Big Show’s AEW signing and he said that he thought Paul Wight would remain with WWE for the rest of his life. While the former Raw General Manager declined the possibility of wrestling for AEW, he did not completely rule out the possibility of making an appearance for the company.

Do you see Kurt Angle making an appearance for AEW somewhere down the line? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.

Asuka Missing From Newly-Released WrestleMania 37 Poster

Rayan Sayyed
-
0

Asuka, who is the current WWE Raw Women’s Champion, is nowhere to be seen in the newly-released official poster of WrestleMania 37. The poster was released on Sunday, which features the “Back in Business” tagline along with the company’s biggest stars. The poster includes the company’s top stars namely WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns and Drew McIntyre in the center, along with WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks, Charlotte Flair, Bianca Belair, WWE Champion Bobby Lashley, and 2021 Royal Rumble winner Edge. The poster even features WWE 24/7 Champion Bad Bunny, but not “The Empress of Tomorrow.”

Asuka lost a tooth during a tag team match teaming up with Charlotte Flair against Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax on Raw’s February 22 episode. In the match, Baszler accidentally delivered a swift kick on Asuka’s face. It was later reported that the Japanese star not only suffered physical damage to her teeth, but she also suffered a concussion due to the kick. The Raw Women’s Champion has not been seen taking part in active competition since then and there has been no word on how long she will be on the shelf.

The absence of Asuka from the WrestleMania 37 poster puts her WM status as well as the defence of the title at the show up in the air. Concussions are very tricky, there’s no set time for recovery, depending on the damage.

As for the card for WrestleMania 37 so far, only two matches have been confirmed. Roman Reigns would defend his Universal Championship against Edge and Sasha Banks would defend her SmackDown Women’s Championship against Bianca Belair. Although it’s not confirmed yet, it’s very likely that Drew McIntyre would challenge Bobby Lashley for the WWE Championship — after defeating Sheamus in a reportedly planned Last Man Standing Match at Fastlane.

Bad Bunny Wins Grammy For Best Latin Pop Album

Anutosh Bajpai
-
0

Bad Bunny is now a Grammy award winning artist.

The WWE 24/7 Champion won the award during the event this Sunday night for Best Latin Pop or Urban Album for his second studio album YHLQMDLG which was released last year.

The pop artist not only received the award during the show but he joined in Jhay Cortez on stage to perform the song Dákiti during the 63rd Grammy Awards.

Bad Bunny has recently been making WWE appearances. His first such appearance took place during the Royal Rumble event earlier this year.

The singer was there to perform his song Booker T but he also got involved with The Miz in a segment later on in the show where he delivered a top rope dive on the former WWE champion.

Bad Bunny started making regular Raw appearances after that and he has aligned himself with Damian Priest who helped Bunny in winning the 24/7 championship from Akira Tozawa during the February 15th episode of the show.

The 24/7 champion has continued his feud with The Miz and his partner John Morrison as well and it’s rumored that Bad Bunny and Damien Priest will face these two stars in a tag team match at the upcoming WrestleMania 37 event.

Damian Priest On His Mt. Rushmore Of Wrestling

Anutosh Bajpai
-
0

The newest Raw star Damian Priest recently had an interview with The Irish Sun where he talked about a number of things and also revealed which stars he would include in his Mt. Rushmore of wrestling.

The 38-year-old Puerto Rican star made his wrestling debut in 2004 and after competing for promotions such as ROH, he finally signed a WWE contract in 2018.

When asked about the 4 stars he would put in his Mt. Rushmore of wrestling, Damian Priest picked up the likes of the Undertaker and The Rock:

“Four sucks. I have so many. Undertaker’s definitely on there, The Rock is there, and I think it has to be Triple H and Shawn Michaels, Undertaker’s always going to be there. He’s the one that made me fall in love with the business when I was a kid.

And The Rock – just the way he is, not just the wrestling.” said Priest “I came from a similar background. I came from nothing.”

The former NXT star has reportedly made a positive impression on people backstage at Raw since his main roster call up earlier this year.

Damian Priest has recently aligned himself with Bad Bunny and reports suggest that these two will be teaming up to face The Miz and John Morrison at the upcoming WrestleMania 37 event.

Andrade WWE Release Reportedly Denied By Company

Rayan Sayyed
-
0

Andrade has generated interest in his status with WWE after some questionable actions on his social media. He removed all mentions of WWE from his Twitter and Instagram bio. SEScoops had learned that Andrade has asked for his release from WWE this past Monday at Raw. Andrade has not been featured on WWE programming since October 2020, so it’s understandable why he wants out. However, according to a new report, it looks like the company is not too keen on letting him go yet.

Wrestling Observer is reporting that WWE has denied Andrade’s request of release from the company. Keep in mind that there neither WWE nor Andrade himself have commented on the situation yet, so we can’t be too sure of what’s cooking behind the scenes. Hopefully, WWE wants to keep him because they actually have some plans for him, and we wish to see him in the ring soon.

Andrade is engaged to fellow WWE talent Charlotte Flair. During a recent interview, Charlotte revealed that she pitched to be paired with her fiance in the company. “I’ve actually pitched that,” Flair said when asked about working with Andrade. “I would be very much open to that. I’ve done a lot in my career, but nobody has seen me in an on-cam relationship, or in that light. I can come across cold on TV.”

An on-screen pairing with Charlotte could work for “El Idolo,” but it doesn’t seem likely as of now she’s currently involved in a program with Asuka for the WWE Raw Women’s Championship.

The Mexican star was last involved in a tag team with Angel Garza, which was created in June when they first started teaming up. They would try for the Raw Tag Team Championships in multiple losing attempts. The team would break up in October when Garza would turn on him and let The Fiend and Alexa Bliss attack him, officially splitting the team.

Fastlane: Last Man Standing Match Reportedly Planned

Rayan Sayyed
-
0

Fastlane will reportedly see a huge Last Man Standing match on its card that will determine the WrestleMania card and lineup. While there are only three matches confirmed on the card so far, a report suggests that one more match that will have a significant effect on the WrestleMania card and the WWE Championship picture is in the works. According to a report by Wrestling Observer, a Last Man Standing match between Drew McIntyre and Sheamus is in the works for Fastlane, and the winner will become the challenger for Bobby Lashley’s WWE Championship at WrestleMania 37.

On the last episode of Monday Night Raw, we saw former WWE Champion Drew McIntyre face Sheamus in a match. The match was set when Sheamus attacked McIntyre from behind during an interview earlier in the show. This resulted in a No Disqualification match set up between the two. Drew McIntyre got payback for the attack from before by attacking Sheamus during his entrance, and then he went on to dominate the beginning of the match. The No DQ match went on with the introductions of kendo sticks and steel chairs eventually. Later, both McIntyre and Sheamus got hold of steel steps each and charged at each other. They both collided and fell to the floor, with the match ending in a no contest.

As there was really no solid outcome from the match, it looks like WWE would give both Drew McIntyre and Sheamus an opportunity to go against each other again at Fastlane. This could very well culminate in a Last Man Standing match on Fastlane, to determine who would challenge Bobby Lashley for the WWE Championship at the “Grandest Stage Of ‘Em All.”

WWE Fastlane Card

Here is what the card for Fastlane looks like so far:

  • WWE Tag Team Champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler vs. Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair
  • WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan
  • WWE Intercontinental Championship Big E vs. Apollo Crews

Kenny Omega vs. Rich Swann Title Vs. Title Match Set For Rebellion

Rayan Sayyed
-
0

Kenny Omega will take on Rich Swann in a Title vs. Title Match at Impact Wrestling’s Rebellion pay-per-view event on April 24. Swann defeated Moose on Saturday night’s Sacrifice event to become the Unified Impact World Heavyweight Champion. Impact Wrestling officially sanctioned the TNA World Heavyweight title on February 23 after Moose began calling himself “Mr. TNA,” claiming to represent the company’s history. Now that Swann has defeated Moose, he has become the undisputed world champion of Impact, with the Impact World title being referred to as the Unified World Championship.

Executive Vice President Scott D’Amore announced during last week’s Impact that the champion of the company would go on to face AEW World Champion Kenny Omega at Rebellion in a Title vs. Title Match on April 24.

Following his loss to Rich Swann, Moose said that he would take some time off to revaluate and think about what he plans to do in the future. “Tonight I proved that I’m undoubtedly the Best Big Man in professional wrestling and one of the best wrestlers In the world. I came short of becoming the undisputed champion. Will take time off to reevaluate the past Rebuild Refocus Rebrand and think about the Future.” Kenny Omega also reacted to the result of the match, posting the following:

Rich Swann and Kenny Omega have faced each other in the ring before, most recently at Impact’s Hard to Kill pay-per-view event in January where Omega teamed up with then-Impact Tag Team Champions The Good Brothers to defeat Swann, Chris Sabin and Moose.

Kenny Omega has made it known that he wants to collect more titles, and if he defeats Rich Swann at Rebellion then he would become the Impact Champion too. Speaking on his future defense against Omega, Swann said, “I’m from Baltimore, Maryland. I’m not afraid to step into the ring with no man. I fear no man and I only fear one thing. The thing is, that is not one thing that I would ever fear. If he (Kenny Omega) wanted to step into the ring and do a Unification… We’ve it. We’ve seen seen him go into Mexico and he beat Loredo Kid in AAA. Do I think he could come into my house and do what he did there? I don’t know. Time will tell.”

Natalya Talks Vince McMahon ‘Pushing Hard’ for Saudi Arabia Match

Jake Skudder
-
0

WWE Superstar Natalya recently appeared on the Inside The Ropes podcast. The Hart family member discussed a number of topics during her time on the show; including her history making match with Lacey Evans at WWE Crown Jewel 2019 event in Saudi Arabia.

“I was on cloud nine. I knew when WWE started doing shows in Saudi Arabia, I had a vision and I told everyone in upper management early on ‘if women are going to wrestle in Saudi Arabia, I want to be the first woman to wrestle in Saudi Arabia.’” Natalya began on the podcast.

“I felt very strongly about that” Natalya continued. “Because I knew the magnitude, being a woman wrestling in Saudi Arabia, I knew how big it could be for women in the world and women in sports. I knew it was our chance to open a door that had never been open before. It was a dream of mine.”

Natalya on Crown Jewel 2019

Natalya then revealed that Vince McMahon himself had been pushing for a women’s match in the region ‘for years.’ Natalya and Lacey Evans did appear on the show in a bout, however Evans had visibly toned down her Southern Belle character and both acted like babyfaces during the match itself.

“When I was finally told about the match, I was brought into Vince McMahon’s office and he let me know I was going to be a part of it” Nattie revealed. “I was like, I can’t believe this is finally happening, but I also know, in WWE and in the world, things can change daily. I didn’t want to get my hopes too high. Vince said it was something he was trying to do for years. It was really a labor of love from him. He personally fought very hard for us to have that match.”

credit to eWrestlingNews for the transcription

Anthony Bowens Comments On Knee Injury

Chris Stephens
-
0

The Acclaimed’s Anthony Bowens is expected to miss up to 2-months due to recent knee surgery. This was first revealed by Tony Khan in a media scrum to promote AEW Revolution. Bowens himself commented on the injury recently.

“What you’ve seen the last 4 months was me basically wrestling on 1 leg. I can’t wait to get back full throttle. Don’t worry though, there’s still plenty of Acclaimed content coming your way each week. I’m excited for everyone to get to know us/me a little better outside the ring,” Bowens Tweeted.

The other member of the Acclaimed, Max Castor, competed in the Face of the Revolution ladder match on Sunday’s PPV.

Bowens hasn’t wrestled since early February. The Acclaimed dropped a match to Maxwell Jacob Friedman and Chris Jericho on an episode of Dynamite taped on February 4th, 2021.

Bowens is an 8-year pro having been trained by Pat Buck in New Jersey. He and Castor were signed to multi-year deals with AEW in November.

“I started 2020 trying to do anything I could to get to noticed by AEW and I ended it by main eventing Dynamite. Unreal. Like us or not The Acclaimed have arrived and we are here to stay,” he Tweeted in December.

Stephanie McMahon Talks Move To Hire More Female WWE Writers

Jake Skudder
-
0

Stephanie McMahon recently spoke to Digital Spy. As part of the interview, McMahon stated how the company is looking to hire more female writers to give WWE programming a different feel and perspective.

“Hiring in the writing room is really important” Stephanie McMahon began. “Because it has previously been a fairly male-dominated writing room and there are big efforts right now to change that.”

Stephanie McMahon on Writer’s Room Representation

“I don’t have the stats off the top of my head” McMahon continued. “So I’m not sure how many women we’ve hired since we started but I know it’s several, including a senior ranking VP (Christine Lubrano) who’s in charge of many different aspects of making sure that the creative and partnerships and all lines of business are all working together.”

Stephanie McMahon finished by saying that the company are looking to ‘improve’ their storylines. “So there’s a been a huge movement. And for both men and women we are always looking to improve our storylines no matter what and improve our character development.”

NWA Announces Several Names To Debut At “Back For The Attack”

Chris Stephens
-
0

The National Wrestling Alliance returns to PPV on March 21st, 2021 with “Back For The Attack.” The show will air on the same day as WWE’s Fastlane PPV. Nick Aldis, Thunder Rosa, Aron Stevens, Trevor Murdoch, Elijah Burke, Tim Storm, and Kamille have all been previously advertised to take part in the show

The NWA announced several more names for the PPV recently, with some making their debut for the promotion.

The NWA announced that Tyrus (aka Brodus Clay) will make his debut for the promotion at Back For The Attack.

EwFj5pGWEAQ5iLj 2

Chris Adonis, formerly known as Chris Masters, will also be on the PPV.

Ev UU40XAAIcopi

Formerly of TNA Wrestling, Crimson will be on the PPV.

Jordan Clearwater will be returning to the promotion.

Slice Boogie will make his NWA debut on the show.

Billy Corgan recently spoke to the associated press about the NWA’s return.

“I feel like we’re finally taking the steps we were hoping to take a year ago. We were never in any financial peril,” Corgan added. “We were totally on a growth pattern. The plan for last year before things kind of hit the skids was to start pivoting. We were in discussions with Live Nation about running live events to help bring in revenue and expand who was watching the product. It was more about growing pains stuff, but we didn’t have any problems internally with the product.”

Nigerian Presidential Aide Sends Message To Apollo Crews

Chris Stephens
-
0

Apollo Crews has been paying homage to his Nigerian heritage as of late on Smackdown. This drew the attention of Bashir Ahmad, the personal assistant to Muhammadu Buhari, President of Nigeria.

Ahmad sent the following Tweet to Apollo recently online:

Naija is another way to say Nigeria or refer to a person from Nigeria.

Other popular wrestlers with Nigerian heritage include Impact’s Moose. His father was from Nigeria and unfortunately passed away on the day Moose committed to the University of Syracuse football program.

Jordan Omogbehin, Style’s bodyguard known as Omos, is from Nigeria.

Babatunde Lukasz Aiyegbusi, also known as Dabba-Kato is from Poland but has Nigerian heritage.

Ezekwesili Nduka is currently training at the Performance Center. He is a former football player and bodybuilder with Nigerian parents.

Apollo Crews on His Nigerian Heritage

Crews spoke with SI.com recently about his new persona on Smackdown.

“This isn’t arrogance or cockiness; it’s just me knowing what I am capable of doing,” Crews said. “My talent has been hidden for too long, and people are finally going to see how great I really am.”

He also spoke about how Roman Reigns has influenced him.

“Roman does everything so well. I’ve watched and learned from him. He’s the best. Everyone wants to be in the spot he’s in, so watching him has taught me so much. I want to be that person who can captivate an audience, with an undeniable greatness. That’s Roman’s level, and that is what I am working toward,” Apollo Crews said.

When The AEW Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch Idea Was Conceived

Jake Skudder
-
0

This past Sunday saw Kenny Omega defend his AEW Championship against Jon Moxley. The bout was an Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch; with ‘homemade’ explosives created by Omega himself (in storyline) which went off at intervals during the match.

The explosions inside the ring were solid. These would pop every time either Moxley or Omega hit the barbed wire that replaced the ring ropes. Unfortunately the ending of the PPV saw the ‘explosions’ turn out to be more of a dud than anything.

Omega recently addressed this on Wrestling Observer Radio. “It was really deflating to do so much preparation, test the explosions; have them be impressive in the rehearsal, and then have it be something so much different than what was promised.”

It was also revealed in this week’s edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the concept for the match has been in the works for a long time. Dave Meltzer wrote that “Kenny Omega came up with the idea more than a year ago, and Jon Moxley was picked as the opponent.”

Meltzer also confirmed that “the idea going in was to have the greatest and most spectacular match of its kind, with both believing the other was the perfect opponent for that job.”

Did you enjoy the match besides the dud of an ending? Let us know in the comments

Scoops On Screen – AEW ‘Fixes’ Dud Explosion from Revolution

Jake Skudder
-
0

All Elite Wrestling was in a tough spot when the mega-hyped Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match ended with technical difficulties. SEScoops correspondent Jake Jeremy argues on YouTube that #AEW? made the best of a bad situation on this week’s #AEWDynamite? with their followup angle.

Check out our opinion editorial video below and let us know how you felt about the way that AEW reacted to the AEW Revolution ending botch on this week’s episode of Dynamite.

AEW President Tony Khan addressed the botched explosion during the media scrum post-AEW Revolution.

“Honestly, I’m glad neither guy came out with a serious injury because it was a really scary match and they both really put their health at risk for a huge PPV main event,” Khan said. “I think it was awesome, it was a great spectacle and I think we’re all lucky that the bomb going off in the end didn’t really hurt anybody, that Kenny’s big masterplan, that he built a dud [explosion].”

“The basic explanation is that Kenny’s ring set to explode, his plan as a heel who built this thing with a hammer and nails as we saw, that the final bomb just didn’t go off,” Khan concluded.

What would you like to see us produce for video content on YouTube going forward? Let us know in the comments

1...963964965...3,410Page 964 of 3,410