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WWE Considering Options For Fans At Television Shows

April 24, 2020 • Admin

It would be better than nothing. There are a lot of problems going on in WWE at the moment and a lot of them have to do with the lack of fans allowed in the arenas. That is something that is probably going to be a major issue for a long time to come as the Coronavirus continues to wreck havoc on the world. That has never stopped WWE before though and now they might have an idea of how to fix things. At the end of the day, wrestling shows just aren’t the same without fans in attendance. You can feel the energy go down and it hurts things every single week. At some point there needs to be something in there to make it a little bit better but that doesn’t seem to be the case at the moment. It’s going to take some different thinking and WWE has been known to do that before. Maybe they are doing it again. Vince McMahon commented on the potential of having fans at future television events during Thursday’s first quarter financial call. According to 411mania.com, McMahon said that the compa..

Why Cesaro Has Not Broken Into WWE’s Main Event

April 24, 2020 • Admin

It’s what they do. Wrestling is like every other sport in a lot of ways. No matter what a promotion does, the fans will always think that they know how to do it better. That may or may not be the case, but it is always something that you see and hear. In wrestling it might be saying who should or shouldn’t be pushed, and that has been the case for years with a certain popular wrestler. Over the years, Cesaro has always seemed to be one step away from becoming the biggest star in the company. He has the look, the charisma, the raw strength and the popularity to break through but it has never happened. It has not been clear why that has been the case after so many years, but someone with some behind the scenes insight seems to have a theory. During a recent episode of his Arn podcast, Arn Anderson said that WWE’s front office is not high on Cesaro, though Anderson is not sure why. Anderson says that the higher ups are the only ones who feel that way as almost everyone else sees Cesaro ..

NXT UK Results – April 23, 2020

April 23, 2020 • Admin

NXT UK Date: April 23, 2020 Host: Andy Shepard It’s another special show this week and that is going to likely be the case for a long time. As usual, there is a theme to this one and this time around it’s all about Walter vs. Tyler Bate. They had my Match of the Year in 2019 so watching the whole thing again sounds like quite a good idea. Let’s get to it. Opening sequence. Shepard welcomes us to the show and hypes up the match a bit. We get a long video on Tyler Bate. His mom talks about how he grew up as a huge fan and they had to go to every wrestling show. Trent Seven met him at a training seminar when Bate was very young but he knew what he had. Bate signed with WWE when he was 19 and he shocked the world by winning the United Kingdom Title. Bate has been here for three years and is still trying to figure out who he is as a wrestler and as a person. Bate and Seven don’t think much of Imperium and are ready for a fight. We see Walter training in Germany where he talks about how..

Ring Of Honor TV Results – April 22, 2020

April 23, 2020 • Admin

Ring of Honor Date: April 22, 2020 It’s Matt Taven’s week and that could mean a few things. Taven is someone who has done some good things in his time, but as long as we don’t hear him talk, everything should be fine. He has some solid matches on his resume and we might be seeing some of those here. Let’s get to it. Opening sequence. Taven talks about rehabbing from a knee injury in 2016 and knowing he had some goals. He knew he would have to beat Adam Cole because they started at the same time but Cole was already the World Champion. Then he beat Dalton Castle, allowing him to bring in the REAL World Title. The match that gives him the most pride is going an hour with Jay Lethal, even though he didn’t win the World Title. Then he won the World Title in Madison Square Garden, which was all he ever wanted. From War of the Worlds 2019: Grand Rapids. Ring of Honor World Title: Matt Taven vs. Mark Haskins Taven is defending and tries to hit him with the belt before the bell. That earn..

Impact Wrestling Results – April 21, 2020 (Rebellion Night One)

April 23, 2020 • Admin

Impact Wrestling Date: April 21, 2020 Location: Skyway Studios, Nashville, Tennessee Commentators: Madison Rayne, Josh Matthews It’s the first night of Rebellion and it’s taking place in an empty arena, just like all of the other big shows at this point. I’m not sure what we’re going to see due to how many people might not be available for the show and that could make for an interesting show. The company has done well in recent weeks so hopefully they can keep it up. Let’s get to it. The opening video talks about how everyone wants to be here and make their mark. OVE vs. Tommy Dreamer/Rhino/??? It’s mystery partner time and it’s….Crazzy Steve? Dreamer and Jake Crist trade standing switches to start before the former rolls out of a wristlock. Jake takes him down and does a nipup before challenging Dreamer to do the same. It doesn’t work so Rhino and Steve come in to help him with oneSteve and Madman Fulton come in but Steve isn’t THAT crazzy, meaning it’s off to Rhino instead. Some f..

KB’s Review: Business As Unusual

April 23, 2020 • Admin

Last week was one of the busiest times that WWE has seen in a good while and a lot of what went down wasn’t the best news. The big story (of many) was centered around nearly fifty names being released/furloughed from the company. That is a CRAZY amount of names to be gone in about three days, even if some of them were only taken away for a short amount of time. Some of the names are bigger than others, but there are a few that baffled me in one way or another, which is what we’re looking at today. Now first of all, a lot of these releases were probably overdue. Completely ignoring the timing, the Coronavirus aspect, WWE bragging about how much money they had to get through this situation, being named an essential business, the stock dividend being announced the next day, plus Vince McMahon being able to finance a football league, it was time to let some people go as WWE’s roster was out of control. Now if you ignore EVERYTHING about this that made WWE look like a bunch of cheap villai..

REVIEW: In Your House: Backlash: When Rock Got Ready

April 23, 2020 • Admin

Welcome to KB’s Old School (and New School) Reviews. I’ve been reviewing wrestling shows for over ten years now and have reviewed over 5,000 shows. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I’ll be posting a new review here on Wrestlingrumors.net, starting today. It could be anything from modern WWE to old school to indies to anything in between. Note that I rate using letters instead of stars and I don’t rate matches under three minutes as really, how good or bad can something that short be? Backlash: In Your House #28 Date: April 25, 1999 Location: Providence Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island Attendance: 10,939 Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler It’s the final show and not a lot has changed. We’re getting a few Wrestlemania rematches here as Austin is defending against the Rock again while Mankind is facing Big Show in a boiler room brawl. Other than that we have the fully heel HHH facing X-Pac in a match for revenge. For once, the name of the show fits the theme perfectly. Let’s ..

Vince McMahon’s Current Backstage Mood

April 23, 2020 • Admin

You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry. Whether you are a fan of his or not, there is no one more powerful in all of wrestling than Vince McMahon. He has been on top of the wrestling world for decades and will be until the day he is gone. As a result, anything that he does can change the industry as a whole, either in the long term or the short term. At the moment, part of the short term is not going well for him. You might have heard about some of the bad news that McMahon has had to deal with as of late. Between all of the stress of having to find ways to keep his television programs running during the Coronavirus epidemic and the XFL closing for the second time, it has not been the most stress free time for McMahon. As it turns out, a lot of people around him have noticed the issues as well. According to PW Insider Elite Audio by way of Ringsidenews.com, several in WWE have known that McMahon is currently in a horrible mood and it has become something of a running joke in the compa..

Funny Reason For Drew McIntyre’s Original WWE Push

April 23, 2020 • Admin

It’s certainly a foot in the door. Earlier this month at WrestleMania 36, Drew McIntyre changed the WWE main event scene by defeating Brock Lesnar to become the new WWE Champion. McIntyre’s coronation as the top name in the company had been a long time coming and nearly went down during his first run in WWE. McIntyre certainly came into the company with a bang, but what made him such a big deal so fast? McIntyre made his original debut in WWE back in 2007 and was soon dubbed Vince McMahon’s Chosen One. This was rumored to eventually see McIntyre become WWE Champion, but instead he wound up being part of a comedy rock band. It is clear that plans changed for a few reasons, but what was it that WWE saw in him in the first place? As it turns out, it was something rather simple. During an interview with MuscleManMalcolm, former WWE writer Dave Lagana talked about McIntyre’s early days on the main roster and what caused McMahon to push him. Lagana said that one day he, Dusty Rhodes, Vince..

Why WWE Gave Up On Dolph Ziggler

April 23, 2020 • Admin

That would explain a few things. Like almost any other business, WWE is not so much about what you know but rather who you know. At the end of the day, you can have all the skill in the world, but if the higher ups don’t care for you, it isn’t going to matter. There will always be wrestlers who can do whatever they want in the ring and never get a chance to shine on the main stage. Some get the chance at one point, though it doesn’t always last. Dolph Ziggler is one of the more controversial names in all of wrestling. He certainly has talent, but fans have been waiting to see him break into the main event for good for a long time now. Eventually fans realized that there was little reason to believe that the move was ever going to happen. It hasn’t made sense for a long time now, though we may finally understand why. On the latest episode of his Arn podcast, Arn Anderson explained why Ziggler never moved into the main event scene permanently. According to Anderson, the higher ups in W..

Two New NXT Stars Get Their New Names

April 23, 2020 • Admin

How nice to finally meet you. Wrestling is a different form of entertainment as you constantly need fresh names and faces coming in to keep things moving. This could be due to people leaving, people moving on to different stories or just for the sake of bringing in some fresh blood. That is especially the case in NXT, where talent moves in and out in a hurry. It was the case again recently, and now they have done something to make it better. Over the last few weeks, NXT has offered various glimpses of some recently arrived wrestlers but has yet to give them a formal introduction. While the fans are pretty clear about who they are and you can see a few peaks of them here and there, nothing had been officially announced. That problem has now been taken care of and things have been formally started. During this week’s NXT, another video aired from Killer Kross and Scarlett Bordeaux. However, this time the announcers officially acknowledged it and announced that Kross and Bordeaux, now k..

Wrestler Selling Lucha Libre Themed Coronavirus Masks

April 23, 2020 • Admin

Every little bit helps. The entire world has been turned upside down by the spread of the Coronavirus and there does not seem to be much hope as far as things getting better in the near future. While things will get better in the end, the situation is not exactly looking great at the moment. Little things can make the situation a bit easier, and now some wrestlers are doing their part. One of the major problems with the whole Coronavirus situations is the lack of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers. As a result, it can make checking those potentially infected with the virus that much more dangerous, meaning a diagnosis can be a little more difficult. That is where the wrestling industry can step in, using their own brand of skills. According to the BBC, Mexican wrestler El Hijo de Soberano is making and selling lucha libre themed face masks for use to help stop the spread of the Coronavirus. Sobreano has been using the same material that he uses to make wrestling att..

VIDEO: MJF Gives Update On His Injury Status

April 23, 2020 • Admin

He can make this work. The future of the wrestling world seems to be in good hands as there are more young, talented performers than the business has seen in a long time. That is a great thing to see and something that you can’t really plant to have happen. However, one of the brighter stars of the future might be slowed back a bit by an injury, and he would know more about it than anyone. There are very few wrestlers around these days who can match the speaking abilities of Maxwell Jacob Friedman. He has as quick of a wit as you can find today and that makes him one of the most valuable assets that AEW has. That makes him someone you would want to see on television fairly frequently, but that has not been the case as of late. Now, we have a better idea of why. He would know best. Check out Friedman’s update on his medical status: This week on Dynamite, Friedman gave an update on his health status, announcing that he was currently out of action due to a hangnail. The update comes a..

NXT Results – April 22, 2020

April 23, 2020 • Admin

NXT Date: April 22, 2020 Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida Commentators: Tom Phillips, Byron Saxton We’re at an interesting point here as they are having to come up with some more stories without a full crew. It certainly seems that Adam Cole is gone for the time being, meaning we need to find a way to fill time until Velveteen Dream can challenge him. Dream has something to do tonight though, as he faces Finn Balor. Let’s get to it. Opening recap. Something has happened to Finn Balor in the locker room and he’s out of the match against Dream. Here’s Dream to say new levels and new devils while doing Balor’s finger guns. In his experience, sometimes you are just dealing with the same new demons. Now he has been stood up by a demon….and here Adam Cole to interrupt. A lot of people have been assuming that the winner of Dream and Balor would be the new #1 contender and now Balor is nowhere to be found. Cole knows what Dream is trying to do but he’ll never be the NX..

REVIEW: WWF Los Angeles Live Event – August 13, 1988: Golden Era Goodness

April 18, 2020 • Admin

Welcome to KB’s Old School (and New School) Reviews. I’ve been reviewing wrestling shows for over ten years now and have reviewed over 5,000 shows. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I’ll be posting a new review here on Wrestlingrumors.net, starting today. It could be anything from modern WWE to old school to indies to anything in between. Note that I rate using letters instead of stars and I don’t rate matches under three minutes as really, how good or bad can something that short be? WWF House Show Date: August 13, 1988 Location: Los Angeles Sports Arena, Los Angeles, California Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon, Superstar Billy Graham It’s another show that was recently added to the Network and it’s from my favorite era so let’s take a look. Randy Savage is the World Champion here and defending against Andre the Giant while Hulk Hogan is taking a bit of a break. We’re also coming up on Summerslam so you can expect to hear quite a bit about the show. Let’s get to it. The announcers t..

Even More NXT Releases Take Place Friday

April 18, 2020 • Admin

Yeah it’s still going. Wednesday was a bad day for WWE, with over three dozen people either being released or furloughed from the company. That is not something you see from them very often, if ever, and the situation left several questions. One such question was whether or not WWE was done letting people go, and it turns out that they weren’t finished quite yet. While most of the people let go were main roster wrestlers, there were other people from other lines of work who lost their jobs as well. Some of these names were from down in NXT, which has a rather big lineup of its own. In addition to the people you see on television, there is also the Florida live event circuit. NXT took a beating of its on Friday, with several more releases taking place. Friday saw five more NXT releases on Friday, including the following names according to PWInsider.com: Taynara Conti Tino Sabbatelli Cezar Bononi Mars Wang Conti and Sabbatelli had appeared the most of the four, with both of them appe..

LISTEN: Jim Cornette Slams Ronda Rousey Over Comments About Wrestling And Fans

April 18, 2020 • Admin

That didn’t go well. To say Ronda Rousey was a big success in WWE is about as much of an understatements as you can get. While it’s true that she had a lot of attention, star power and celebrity status when she came into the company, she hit the ground running and was a huge star in the company the second she arrived. Since leaving though, things have not been as pleasant and one famous wrestling personality didn’t take kindly to it. Last week, Rousey gave an interview where she did not have the most positive things to say about her time in WWE. Rousey said that while she did love her time with the rest of the locker room and wanted to help them, she wanted nothing to do with the “ungrateful” fans, blaming them for ruining her time with the company. This rubbed some people the wrong way and someone had something to say about her comments. Jim Cornette responded to Rousey’s comments this week on his Jim Cornette’s Drive Thru podcast. Cornette did not care for Rousey’s statements, with..

Impact Wrestling Titles Shaken Up When Champions Miss Marathon Tapings

April 18, 2020 • Admin

That’s going to make for some interesting time. There are not many ways for wrestling companies to keep going at the moment, but one of the best ways seems to be running marathon taping sessions. The idea is rather simple: tape a bunch of stuff in advance so you have as much content as you need for the next several weeks if not months. Some companies are doing that, but one show is going to look a little weird for the time being. While WWE and AEW have gotten most of the attention in the wrestling world as of late, there are some other companies still running events, even if they might not be on the same stage. That is the case with Impact Wrestling, which is the latest company trying its hand at the marathon taping idea. However, things are not going to go as they have been in recent weeks. According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, neither Impact Wrestling World Champion Tessa Blanchard nor Tag Team Champions the North were present at the company’s recent tapings. Blanchard ch..

WWE Makes Another Change To Television Schedule, New Hybrid System

April 18, 2020 • Admin

The more things change. We are in a very different time in the wrestling world at the moment and it seems like something new is happening every single day. WWE is feeling a lot of those changes as it is next to impossible to keep track of what kind of changes they are undergoing on a daily basis. Believe it or not, it is already time for another change to take place. One of the bigger stories that WWE has dealt with over the last few weeks is their television setup. The company has gone from setting up a marathon taping schedule to running three weekly live events in the span of a few days and not many people seem to be happy with the whole situation. With so many travel restrictions in place at the moment, wrestlers may not be thrilled with the idea of making so many trips. Now though, that may not be such a problem. According to Pro Wrestling Sheet, WWE is changing its television schedule again, this time to a mixture of live and taped shows. The three shows for the week of April 2..

EXCLUSIVE: WWE Status of Jinder Mahal

April 18, 2020 • Admin

This week, WWE experienced a mass layoff of both wrestlers and employees, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of WWE losing an estimated $22 million due to canceling WrestleMania in Tampa, as well as losing additional millions due to the inability to have lice ticketed events, Vince McMahon made the tough decision to end the WWE careers of names including Drake Maverick, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, Zack Ryder, Curt Hawkins, No Way Jose, and others. WWE also released Kurt Angle from his position as a producer. I reached out to former WWE Champion Jinder Mahal to check on both his WWE status, as well as the status of his injury. Mahal stated that he is currently “cleared and waiting.” Mahal was last seen spending much of his television time chasing the WWE 24/7 Championship, which was a far cry from his ascension to the main event level just a couple of years prior. Mahal shocked the world by defeating Randy Orton at the 2017 Fastlane pay-per-view to win the WWE Championship, an..