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Bobby Roode Wants John Cena at WrestleMania

While speaking to Card Subject to Change, Bobby Roode revealed that he would like to face John Cena at WrestleMania. Roode made the following remarks when asked ho he would love to face in the ring, dead or alive:

“One of the main reasons that I got into the business was I’m a huge fan of Curt Hennig, Mr. Perfect. I have like 12 hours of Curt Hennig footage that I watch all the time. So if there’s probably one guy that I would have loved to have just met it would have been Curt Hennig. And if you’re talking about potential matches that I would love to have, that’d probably be John Cena at Wrestlemania.”

You can listen to the podcast here.

Two Possible Matches for WWE Battleground

Dave Meltzer discussed the upcoming WWE Backlash event on today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Radio. As of this writing there are only two matches confirmed for the show. Those matches are Jinder Mahal defending his WWE World Title against Randy Orton in a Punjabi Prison match and The Usos defending their tag team championships against The New Day.

Meltzer revealed that two other matches that will take place on the card. Those matches are:

Sami Zayn vs. Mike Kanellis
Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin

WWE Battleground takes place on July 23rd from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. As always, we will be providing live play-by-play coverage of the event.

Bischoff on Wrestling Recap – Russo’s Restraining Order, RAW & Smackdown on WWE Network, Should Joe Defeat Lesnar? More!

Bischoff is joined on today’s show by his co-host Nick Hausman.

Bischoff comments on the news that Vince Russo filed a restraining order against Jim Cornette recently. He simply calls this action by Russo ‘bizarre’, and he’s getting sick and tired of talking about Russo. At first it was fun to poke fun at Russo because he’s so easy to get fired up, but at this point it’s just silly.

Hausman mentions that initially fans thought all these verbal jabs between Russo, Cornette, Bischoff and Prichard were a work, which would ultimately result in some live debate tour featuring all men. It’s obvious now that was never the case. Bischoff mentions that we was offered a pretty good pay day recently to do an in-ring segment with Russo for an indie promotion in P.E.I.,Canada. Even though the money was good, he turned it down because Russo is just too weird to be around.

Bischoff thought the Samoa Joe/Brock Lesnar segment from RAW this past week created some mystique, and that’s something that has been sorely missing from WWE’s product lately. Joe is a great character, and luckily WWE has made a commitment to Joe’s character because now Joe comes off as a believable threat to Lesnar. Bischoff thinks Joe will give Lesnar some of the best matches he has had in recent memory.

WWE Changes Plans for SummerSlam Main Event

As previously reported, SummerSlam was expected to be headlined by Braun Strowman vs. Brock Lesnar for the WWE Universal Title this year. Those plans have changed and WWE has decided to go a different direction, according to the Wrestling Observer.

Dave Meltzer reported on Wrestling Observer Radio that Lesnar vs. Strowman is not the plan anymore. Meltzer mentioned that Lesnar will defend his WWE Universal Championship against Roman Reigns or Samoa Joe at SummerSlam instead of Strowman.

If WWE decides to book Reigns against Lesnar at SummerSlam, it’s expected that Roman will carry the championship all the way until WrestleMania 34, where he would then defend it against the “free agent” John Cena. This could be one of the reasons as to why Cena is now working both RAW and SmackDown Live shows.

Scott Steiner Says Triple H & Stephanie Need to Leave Wrestling

The following are highlights from Scott Steiner’s media call promoting Sunday’s Slammiversary event:

Legal issues with Dixie Carter: “I mean, [Dixie Carter] is a joke. She was basically a pain [in the butt]. Talked the truth about Hogan. She dropped the case and we’ll see what happens. It’s not over.”

Favorite TNA moment: “My favorite moment was the Main Event Mafia. The champions were all together, and that was a lot of fun because you had a lot of history in the ring every time we stepped in the ring. A lot of us had been around for a long time, so the stuff that we did backstage, the stuff that didn’t make it on TV was also entertaining and funny. To date, that’s been the highest rated portion of TNA’s existence. A lot of people bought into it because of the reality of everything. It was a lot of fun.”

The differences between Dixie Carter’s management and Jeff Jarrett’s management: “If you talk to anybody, there’s a huge difference. When people see Jeff, they know that he knows what he’s doing. Clearly, everyone knew that Dixie didn’t know what she was doing. She was a mark wanting to be on TV. It’s night and day. People wanna come to work, they’re excited about what everyone is doing, and it is a totally different atmosphere.”

What changes should occur in pro wrestling: “The first change they should make is getting rid of Stephanie McMahon and Hunter McMahon, because they’re two idiots who are running the whole place up there. It’s like, I feel sorry for the wrestlers nowadays. They’ve got to follow the instructions of these two idiots that clearly don’t know what they’re doing. They’re not watching because the ratings are down, and the reason why I call him Hunter McMahon is because she obviously wears the pants.”

Why he’s not going in the WWE Hall of Fame: “I’m not going into the WWE Hall of Fame, because I’m not going somewhere where there’s nowhere to go. GPS the WWE Hall of Fame. Where’s it at? See, I’m not going somewhere where if I get in trouble or something, I can’t call 911. I can’t have a beacon call, or call the coast guard. Cuz, who knows? It could be in Atlantis for all I know. Or it could be in parts unknown. It’s a joke. How can you go somewhere that is non-existent? I’d be better off if the WWE Hall of Fame was on the moon… cancel your reservations if you want to see me, because it’s not happening.”

Footage of Chris Jericho’s Return In Singapore

Steve is the Founder of RingsideNews, AllWrestlingNews, and Wrestling dot News. He has been writing about professional wrestling since 1996. He first got into website development at the time and has been focusing on bringing his readers the best professional wrestling news at it’s highest quality.

Impact Wrestling Acquires GFW

Impact Wrestling sent out the following press release today announcing their acquisition of Global Force Wrestling :

NASHVILLE | TORONTO – Anthem Wrestling Exhibitions LLC, a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp. and parent company of IMPACT Wrestling, announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Global Force Entertainment, LLC d/b/a Global Force Wrestling.

Jeff Jarrett, the founder of both IMPACT Wrestling and Global Force Entertainment, will join Anthem Wrestling Exhibitions as a member of its board of managers, equity owner and Chief Creative Officer.

“We are thrilled to be joining forces with Anthem as a partner to build the business,” said Karen Jarrett. “This partnership will be complementary of our strengths and bolster our capabilities to grow the IMPACT Wrestling brand. Ed Nordholm as President and Jeff Jarrett as Chief Creative Officer make a great tag team”

“We are excited by the progress we have made with IMPACT Wrestling since acquiring the business in January,” said Ed Nordholm, president of Anthem Wrestling Exhibitions. “Jeff and his team have been instrumental in this success and we are pleased that we have reached an agreement on the basis of which we can combine our businesses to continue to grow. Slammiversary XV will be a fitting occasion to bring the promotions together and merge the titles under the new IMPACT combined belts. By combining our resources and talent, we can produce the best product for our global audience.”

The Ross Report Recap w/ Jim Cornette – Cody Rhodes’ Success, Samoa Joe vs. Lesnar Hype, Cena A Star From Day One, More!

Ross congratulates new ROH Champion Cody Rhodes on capturing the Title by defeating Christopher Daniels last weekend. He says that he’s sure his old friend Dusty Rhodes would be so proud of Cody if he was still alive, and Ross couldn’t be prouder of Cody as well for everything that he has accomplished since leaving WWE.

Ross welcomes Jim Cornette to the show.

Ross asks Cornette if he still enjoys doing his podcast and Cornette says that for the most part he does. Some days he has to really grind in order to get through a two hour show if there isn’t a lot to talk about or if he’s just sick of his own voice, but for the most part it’s still very fun for him.

Cornette and Ross talk about the changing landscape of the professional wrestling business. Ross thinks that modern fans simply know too much about the business, and Cornette agrees. Cornette says that fans can’t just sit back and enjoy the product anymore, they need to overanalyze and criticize everything. He says that just because he watches Family Guy doesn’t mean he thinks he can write that show.