Author: Andrew Ravens

WWE is moving forward with the idea of using LA Knight as a manager on the main roster. At Friday’s SmackDown, LA Knight appeared in a dark segment while wearing a suit and cutting a promo for the fans in attendance. 

Knight talked about how he was creating Knight Model Management with his first client being Mace. This led to Mace, who has been given a different look by wearing a Blazer and Air Jordans, defeating Erik of the Viking Raiders with a leaping leg lariat after Knight caused a distraction.

It was reported last week that WWE discussed bringing up Knight on Raw or SmackDown with one pitch made for Knight to work as a manager because he’s known to be one of the best talkers in NXT.

Knight made a name for himself as Eli Drake in Impact Wrestling and the NWA. He later signed with WWE last year where he found success and become a one-time Million Dollar Champion.

WWE will likely use Knight in dark segments at main roster events before deciding whether to go with their plans of calling him up. 

The Rock has planted the seeds for a WrestleMania match with his cousin and Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns via Young Rock. 

During Tuesday’s episode of the NBC show about the early life of Dwayne Johnson, we see the actor playing Johnson watching wrestling with his family when a child actor playing Reigns jumped on him.

When little Reigns wanted to wrestle and told him to acknowledge him, Johnson’s actor stated that a match like that can only happen at WrestleMania. 

Here\’s a clip from the show, courtesy of our friends at WrestlingNewsCo:

Over the last few years, there has been talk about this bout that would likely be Rock’s final match. It all came down to The Rock’s schedule as it would have to be clear and in addition to his movie commitments, he is also deeply involved with the XFL when it re-launches next spring.

As recently as last month, Dave Meltzer talked about the working plan for next year’s WrestleMania and he said that The Rock wants to do the match but nothing is etched in stone.

The other big match expected for next year at WrestleMania 39 is Becky Lynch vs. Ronda Rousey.

The Undertaker is holding out hope that Bray Wyatt and WWE can come to an agreement for the former star to make a return to the company, which released him last year, one day. 

Taker and Wyatt have history as “The Deadman” beat Wyatt at WrestleMania 31, one year after his legendary undefeated streak ended thanks to Brock Lesnar. 

“I hope things get worked out with him somewhere,” Undertaker said at WrestleMania Axxess. “He is a phenomenal talent and I think he has a lot to offer this industry. So, I want to wish the best for him. Hopefully, at some point, he comes home.”

Prior to his release, Wyatt hadn’t been used by WWE in several months following his loss to Randy Orton at WrestleMania 37. WWE had been advertising him for future events just days before the decision was made to let him go. 

Since his departure, Wyatt has made some public appearances, but hasn’t wrestled. Although AEW and Impact Wrestling both reportedly had hopes of bringing Wyatt in, the former WWE star decided to pursue other projects outside of the wrestling world including a new horror film project.

• The Undertaker Podcast Headed to Peacock This Year (Report)

Quotes via WrestlingInc

Gunther, formerly known as Walter, is now part of the WWE SmackDown brand. On Friday’s SmackDown, Gunther beat a local wrestler, Joe Alonso, with Marcel Barthel by his side, renamed Ludwig Kaiser.

It was reported earlier this week that there had been internal discussions about moving Gunther to SmackDown alongside Barthel, but not Fabian Aichner.

Once Gunther moved to the United States, WWE had plans to bring him to the main roster.

This would explain why Gunther was booked to lose to NXT Champion Bron Breakker in the main event of Tuesday’s NXT. Aichner and Barthel dropped the NXT Tag Team Titles in a triple threat match to MSK this past Saturday at Stand & Deliver.

Watch Gunther\’s WWE SmackDown debut:

WWE Name Changes

The name change for Barthel is a Vince McMahon decision as he likes to change wrestlers\’ names and ignore their past accomplishments in NXT.

WWE has changed the name of many former NXT stars, including Pete Dunne, who was renamed to Butch. They’ve also done it with Mia Yim to Reckoning, Dijakovic to T-Bar, Piper Niven to Doudrop, and Chelsea Green was supposed to be named Victorious before she was injured.

• Gunther Addresses WWE Changing His Name

Logan Paul made his in-ring debut at WWE WrestleMania 38 by teaming with The Miz against Rey & Dominik Mysterio. The heels went over in the match, but after it, Miz turned on Paul by laying him out with the Skull Crushing Finale. 

Speaking on his Impaulsive podcast, Paul reflected on his in-ring debut. He noted that doing the frog splash and three amigos was just his way of getting heat. 

“When I did the shimmy on the top rope, everyone was booing. No disrespect to Eddie Guerrero. We love Eddie Guerrero.”

Paul said wrestling was more fun than his boxing matches because the energy is different. He noted that he doesn’t have a WWE fan base and thinks that’s why they like him. He thinks he brings value by bridging the gap between the mainstream and the WWE world. He thinks he can make a way to make it mainstream. 

\”I want to be humble, and I will, but I\’m good at this. I realized my whole life, I\’ve been throwing my body off of things, I\’m flexible, I do these stunts.\”

H/T to Fightful for the transcript

Bron Breakker defeated Dolph Ziggler to win back his NXT Championship on Monday’s WWE Raw. This came after Breakker lost to Ziggler in the main event of the Stand & Deliver event in Dallas, Texas.

Bryan Alvarez stated on today’s Wrestling Observer Live that people close to NXT told him that Ziggler would be WWE NXT Champion for “a while,” indicating a longer title run. This was on Saturday. 

Fast forward to Monday afternoon, he heard from several people that we’re gonna have an NXT Title change on the show

He pointed out how later in the show, WWE aired a commercial for Tuesday’s NXT 2.0 where it was all about how Ziggler beat Breakker at Stand & Deliever to retain the title and they would have the fallout from it on NXT. Thus, WWE made the late decision on Monday to have the title change as the original plans were for Ziggler to remain champion. 

Alvarez speculated Breakker didn’t win the title on Saturday because they had plans to move him up to the main roster. However, plans changed and they decided to put the belt back on him.

WALTER built up his name over several years prior to getting to WWE and while with the NXT UK brand, he became the longest-reigning NXT UK Champion in history. 

Earlier this year, WALTER went through a major name change and is now going by Gunther. WWE abandoned its trademark filing on the original name, Gunther Stark, once WWE received backlash over it. If you do a Google search, it reveals there was a person with the same name who severed as a Nazi Germany military commander during World War II.

Gunther admitted in a new interview that the name change did not bother him at all. 

“Not all to be honest,” Gunther told Wrestling Inc. “If it would be the other way around, and it would be Gunther before and WALTER now, it would have been the same uproar. A lot of people react negatively to change. Change is normal in life, and it’s part of it, and we have to go with it.”

The NXT 2.0 star confirmed he is now based in America. At Saturday’s NXT Stand & Deliver special, Gunther beat LA Knight in a quick singles match.

The majority of Charlotte Flair’s career has been spent as a heel character in WWE. She is a natural heel and is already criticized for whatever position she is booked in by fans. 

The SmackDown Women’s Champion recently spoke with Ariel Helwani from BT Sport about why she doesn’t come across well as a babyface. 

“Anytime I try being a face, I think that there’s really nothing in the character other than I have a great relationship with my dad like the father-daughter relationship that people necessarily can relate to. Like when I come across like understand me or this was hard for me, it just comes across as like whining or complaining, or I’m like, ‘No, I really feel this way.’ It doesn’t come across as endearing. So I’ve found like, even though I’m trying to open up and be relatable to the audience,” Charlotte explained, “I don’t think the audience sees it that way. It comes across as entitled. When that’s not really how it’s supposed to be portrayed. So anytime I’ve tried to do that as a face. I think it just comes across as like a cry baby…just whining.”

She cited her match with Rhea Ripley at Money In The Bank 2021 as a perfect example of not coming across well in this role. 

“No, with the crowd of Money in the Bank. I truly believe I elicit that response from them to do that with Becky [Lynch] because of our history. So I think the crowd was partially doing that because it was me. And then also, it didn’t help that she’d been gone for how long? A year, year and a half? And she posted a picture outside the venue. So the fans wanted her; they hadn’t seen her. So I was like, Eff you. You’re going to respect Rhea [Ripley], you’re going to respect me, and you’re going to watch this match. And it went from those chants to this is awesome.”

Flair retained her title over Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania 38 Saturday. The finish saw a referee bump then Rousey locked in the armbar and Flair tapped, but the referee didn’t see it. Flair with a big boot to Rousey as Rousey got the referee up for the win. 

H/T to WrestleZone for the transcript

Bron Breakker is officially a two-time WWE NXT Champion as he defeated Dolph Ziggler in the second hour of Monday’s episode of Raw. 

The match finish saw Bron hit his signature powerslam and moments later a spear for the win to become the champion. 

During a backstage interview that tool place after Monday\’s victory, Bron Breakker spoke about his win. Breakker said that it\’s been a dream week for him after inducting his father into the WWE Hall of Fame and then regaining his NXT Championship.

Dolph Ziggler pinned Tommaso Ciampa in a triple threat match also involving Breakker to win the NXT title on the March 8 edition of NXT 2.0. Breakker got his rematch for the WWE NXT Title against Ziggler in the main event of the Stand & Deliver event in Dallas, Texas, but Ziggler retained despite being a huge underdog. 

The reason Breakker was given the rematch for the title in storyline was due to his impressive effort this past Saturday. It was likely done to help further boost NXT ratings and with the main title being defeated on Raw which also airs on the USA Network, it should give a further bump for the post-NXT Stand & Deliver fallout edition of NXT 2.0 this Tuesday night. 

Breakker previously won the NXT Title from Ciampa at New Year’s Evil in January. 

Ronda Rousey is a pioneer of women’s MMA after leaving a legacy as a UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion and UFC Hall of Famer. However, current Women’s Bantamweight Champion Julianna Pena isn’t impressed by the legacy Rousey left behind in MMA.

Pena took aim at Rousey on The MMA Hour and issued an open challenge for Rousey to try to finish up her MMA career on a better note after dropping her last two fights and ending her UFC career in 2016.

“Ronda is so old news, right? I think that what’s incredible about her is that she opened up the door and was destroying people in 10 seconds, and became a star because she was demolishing people in the first round, and that’s great — but she got knocked out twice and never came back. So how legit is she?

“She had to go to pro wrestling. And I get that and I think that that’s great. But as a fighter and somebody who is competitive, I know that — deep down — it probably truly bothers her, the fact that she went away off of two knockout losses and never came back to make her name good. If it really truly does bother her and if it gets under her skin at the end of the day to know that, you know, her legacy is kind of ruined by the fact that she never came back and never got back on the horse, then I would like to invite her to please come back — and if she would like to come back, I would welcome her with open arms.”

Rousey left the MMA world following back-to-back knockout losses to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes. Pena believes Rousey is the joke of the MMA world. 

“That’s what I’m saying, she’s kind of a joke in the MMA world now, because she’s a — what is the word? — sellout,” Pena said of Rousey. “Like, a little bit of a sellout there. I mean, I guess I understand, right? It’s like, pro wrestling is fake, you get paid millions of dollars, I get it. But for me, for real s***, for like the ‘you’re the real, real deal,’ I would say that that’s in the UFC. And if she ever wants any of that real smoke, I’m ready.”

Pena still considers herself a fan of Rousey who helped put female athletes on the map in the UFC and was impressed with Rousey’s outing against SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair despite her coming up short to win the title. 

“I thought she had a great [WrestleMania] match,” Pena said. “I thought she was very good, yes. And this is just from girl to girl as a fan — I’m a fan and I think that she’s great and I’m happy for her, and I think that it’s awesome what she’s doing in the WWE — but as a fan, she either needs to be more comfortable in her own skin or needs to figure out a different attire, because every move that she does, there becomes a wardrobe fix. You know what I mean?

“Wear something that you’re comfortable with. Wear something that you love and that you’re not going to have to constantly be yanking at your clothes the entire match. You didn’t see Charlotte Flair one time touch anything that she was wearing, it was just all about the match. But Ronda’s constantly pulling. So wear something that you’re comfortable in so that you don’t have to do that, because it just takes away a little bit.”

Rousey did tap out Flair in the match, but the referee was knocked down and didn’t see it. Moments later, Flair connected with a big boot for the win. A rematch is expected to happen in the near future. 

WWE ended up going with Pat McAfee vs. Austin Theory at WrestleMania 38. However, that didn’t mean Vince McMahon escaped without getting physical.

The match saw McMahon at ringside for the bout and introduced Theory as a future champion. McAfee went over with a roll up. The fans were really behind McAfee.

Post-match, McAfee challenged McMahon to a fight. McMahon got into the ring and the bell rang. McMahon beat him down for a few minutes. McMahon punted a football at McAfee for the win. Steve Austin came out and stunned both McMahon and Theory. He later stunned McAfee.

Theory revealed that he would be McAfee’s opponent at WrestleMania 38 after McMahon offered the opportunity for the SmackDown color commentator to wrestle at the event during an appearance on McAfee’s radio show.

It had been previously reported that McMahon vs. McAfee was internally listed for WrestleMania with the idea that there would be smoke and mirrors. Also, the plan called for Theory to take the majority of the bumps for the WWE Chairman.

Austin worked his first match in 19 years at WrestleMania Saturday when he beat Kevin Owens in a no holds barred match.

WWE Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro (Randy Orton & Riddle) put the titles on the line against The Street Profits (Chad Gable & Otis) and Alpha Academy (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) in a triple threat match at WWE WrestleMania 38 event in Dallas, Texas at AT&T Stadium.

The match started off slow and picked up. Orton with back suplexes to Gable and Ford on the announce tables. Dawkins blocked an RKO with a spinebuster to Orton. Riddle hit a spring board RKO to Ford. The finish saw Gable go for a dive off the top rope and Orton hit the RKO for the win. 

Post-match, Street Profits and RK-Bro went to celebrate with Gable Steveson, but Gable smacked the cup out of Steveson\’s hand. Gable told him told Steveson to shut up and Steveson hit a belly-to-belly suplex. 

In early march, RK-Bro regained the Raw Tag Team Titles by defeating Alpha Academy and Seth Rollins & Kevin Owens in a triple threat match where Alpha Academy were the champions. They had won the titles from RK-Bro in January.

The Street Profits confronted RK-Bro on Raw and challenged them to a title match at WrestleMania as they brought up that they had defeated Orton & Riddle in a tag match before RK-Bro won the titles.

Alpha Academy then inserted themselves into the match by interrupting a singles match between Riddle and Ford. They also had a rematch clause.