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“The Devil” is finally off of his back.
His journey to the NXT Championship has been one that has had many of pit tops. But tonight at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans Aleister Black has removed the devil off of his back that he says has been there for quite some time now. His quest for success would not come easy as he had to not only get through the battle-tested and hungry NXT Champion Andrade “Cien” Almas, but also deal with Andrade's manger Zelina Vega.
She did it again…
…but it's NOT ENOUGH to help @AndradeCienWWE put away @WWEAleister! #NXTTakeOver #NXTChampionship @Zelina_VegaWWE pic.twitter.com/RW2b4oAeyi
— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) April 8, 2018
Zelina Vega attempted to put the finishing touches on the match so that her client could overcome “The Dutch Destroyer”; as she went in for a cross-body onto Aleister Black but Black ducked under. Vega landed in the arms of her client which may not have been a bad thing at that moment in time, but as soon as Almas turned..

Johnny showed why you always (D)o (It) (Y)ourself.
One of the more storied rivalries in all of WWE climaxed tonight. Last year at NXT TakeOver: Chicago Tommaso Ciampa turned his back on his long time best friend Johnny Gargano. After being stabbed in the back by his former best-friend Gargano went on a bit of a slump in NXT. Months later Gargano got himself back together and engaged in a feud with the-then NXT Champion Andrade “Cien” Almas. “Johnny Wrestling” not being able to defeat Almas on numerous occasions drove him to put his career on the line to get his hands on the NXT Championship.
In the match in which he put his career on the line Gargano was attacked from behind by Tommaso Ciampa who had been out for a number of months rehabbing a knee injury. Ciampa thought he delivered the final blow to Gargano, but a fed up individual will not step away until they finish what they started and Gargano did just that. He showed up on NXT TV in the crowd and took the fight to his former t..

UFC fighters predict the lightweight title fight – Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Max Holloway . See who picked who below….
Rob Font – UFC bantamweight
Rose Namajunas – UFC strawweight champion
Ray Borg – UFC flyweight
Kyle Bochniak – UFC featherweight
Paul Felder- UFC lightweight

Nia Jax feels that the story is what will attract people to her and Alexa Bliss's match.
After two years on WWE's main roster Nia Jax will be getting her first-shot at championship gold as she will challenge her former “best-friend” Alexa Bliss for the RAW Women's Championship this Sunday at WrestleMania 34. Over the past few weeks on RAW, Bliss has been slandering Nia Jax about her weight, looks, and other characteristics about “The Irresistible Force”. Nia Jax was interviewed by IGN ahead of her championship bout and shared that the story that has been told between her and Alexa Bliss is what will attract fans to their match.
“This is years of hard work finally paying off,” Jax continued. “The fact that she's been my best friend for the last four years on the roster adds to it because there's a lot of stuff going on right now on an emotional level in the storyline. It's taking a toll on me because I loved her, and I love her as a best friend, but now s..

One last time for the road.
To open the 2018 WWE Hall Of Fame ceremony, the first inductees to accept their place amongst the greats in WWE's history were D-Von and Bubba Ray Dudley. In what was an entertaining induction which kick-started with Edge & Christian doing the honors; transitioned to The Dudleyz bringing The Hardy Boyz on stage to take a bow along with Edge & Christian and themselves. Also, both Bubba Ray and D-Von payed homage to their ECW brethren for going to war with them as they made their names in the pro wrestling industry.
As they were wrapping up their speech, The Dudley Boyz theme music hit a little earlier than expected. A WWE producer then came out and told the 9-time WWE Tag Team Champions that they had to wrap it up. That would turn out to be a bad decision for the producer as he soon ended up going through a table by way of The Dudley Boyz.
This producer obviously never heard the third commandment…
THOU SHALT NOT MESS WITH THE DUDLEYS! #WWEHOF @bull..

There’s a plethora of big events this weekend in the form of Bellator 196, ROH Supercard Of Honor XII, UFC 223, WWE NXT Takeover: New Orleans & WWE Wrestlemania 34. The staff here at Fightful has made their predictions for the shows.
Bellator 196
Ben Henderson vs. Roger Huerta
Picking Henderson: David Tees, Kyler James, Jeremy Lambert, Sean Ross Sapp & Ryan Cook
Picking Huerta:
Final Tally: Henderson (5) – Huerta (0)
Petra Castkova vs. Denise Kielholtz
Picking Castkova: Kyler James, Jeremy Lambert, Sean Ross Sapp & Ryan Cook
Picking Kielholtz: David Tees
Final Tally: Castkova (4) – Kielholtz (1)
Brian Moore vs. Giorgio Belsanti
Picking Moore: David Tees, Jeremy Lambert, Sean Ross Sapp & Ryan Cook
Picking Belsanti: Kyler James
Final Tally: Moore (4) – Belsanti (1)
Adam Borics vs. Teodor Nikolov
Picking Borics: David Tees, Kyler James, Sean Ross Sapp & Jeremy Lambert
Picking Nikolov: Ryan Cook
Final Tally: Borics (4) – Nikolov (1)
Ed Ruth vs. Ion Pascu
Picking Ruth: Da..

During WWE's Hall of Fame ceremony, WWE announced tons of new content for their Network.
WWE 24 – Three new editions of WWE's documentary series have been confirmed. Ronda Rousey, Matt and Jeff Hardy, and Raw 25 will all be profiled.
King of The Ring UK- WWE's classic tournament, which started in the 1980s, will return for the first time since 2015. This tourney will consist of WWE UK talent.
Elias Unplugged- Fresh off of his Bourbon street performances, WWE Superstar Elias gets his own show of unplugged tunes,
Something to Wrestle With Bruce Prichard – The most listened to sports entertainment podcast is coming to the WWE Network. You can check out our exclusive interview with Bruce at the top of the page. Previous podcasts have been hosted by Stone Cold Steve Austin, Chris Jericho and Mick Foley and featured talent interviews. Prichard's showcases his memories of working in WWE for over two decades.
Mae Young Classic – The second edition of WWE's all-fem..

On Episode 4 of UFC 223 Embedded, lightweight title contender Khabib Nurmagomedov and his opponent, featherweight champion Max Holloway, stay on track with their training during fight week. Former strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk starts her day with breakfast and Spongebob, and strawweight champion Rose Namajunas brings her dog to a photo shoot. Lightweight Michael Chiesa keeps his competitive juices flowing playing video games in his room. Then the stars of the event's two championship bouts attend the official press conference and open workouts, where Nurmagomedov and Holloway entertain with spirited trash talk. UFC 223 Embedded is an all-access, behind-the-scenes video blog leading up to the two championship bouts at UFC 223: Khabib vs. Holloway on Saturday, April 7 on Pay-Per-View.

The Rock will be on the other side of the world heading into WrestleMania weekend.
Some fans have been hoping to see The Rock at WrestleMania 34, but according to his interview with Jimmy Kimmel he will be in China and England during WrestleMania 34 weekend. He said he has been nervous about the trip because his girlfriend is in the last stages of pregnancy.
“Truth is we're expecting in the next two weeks, so I am on code red high alert…Now, this Friday I have to go to Shanghai (China). I've got to go,” said The Rock. “As of now the doctor says it looks like we're going to be ok. The baby will be born when it's due which is April 25th…I have to go to Shanghai and then I have to go to London for Rampage,” he continued.
The Rock's last appearance on WWE television was at WrestleMania 32 but he did appear before a broadcast of Raw last year when he attempted to call CM Punk while in the ring.
Elias has said he wants to do a sing-off with The Rock at Wre..

This is our launch week of Fightful Select, which features some great premium content as we kick off the service. Below is a list of content that we've put up in our first couple of days!
RETRO SHOW!- I reviewed WWF Backlash 1999 and was pleasantly surprised. It was a really fun watch, and it got me in the mood to watch a lot more stuff from the era, but WrestleMania week has delayed it. I can confirm next month's will be WWF Summerslam 2000, at the request of $50 subscriber Alex Andrason.
EARLY ACCESS- Right now at Fightful Select you can see the intro for this week's List & Ya Boy a day ahead, as well as the early draft of the Fightful Wrestling Weekly three full days ahead of time! In addition, I have several early access clips up, including a look at the Making a Finisher series coming later this year. Jimmy Van has also posted some teaser images for this week's List & Ya Boy Podcast.
RAW SCRIPT- I've posted this week's WWE Raw script as well. Ever ..

Shane McMahon will return to Smackdown for the first time since he was attacked and hospitalized.
It has been barley over a week since Shane McMahon was hospitalized with a hernia and diverticulitis and McMahon will be appearing on Smackdown five days before his scheduled tag team match at Wrestlemania 34. WWE made the announcement during Raw and also tweeted the following.
#SDLive Commissioner @shanemcmahon RETURNS TOMORROW NIGHT at 8/7c on @USA_Network just FIVE nights before teaming with @WWEDanielBryan against #KevinOwens & @SamiZayn at #WrestleMania! pic.twitter.com/0VDFuVqafT
— WWE (@WWE) April 3, 2018
A few weeks ago, McMahon put Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens in a match against each other at Wrestlemania. This led to the two wrestlers attacking McMahon which WWE blames for his hospitalization. Two weeks ago, Zayn and Owens were fired by Daniel Bryan and attacked him as well. Bryan would come out last week to create the tag team match of him and McMahon versus Zayn and Owens. I..