New WWE NXT Tag Team Champions have been crowned and it’s MSK.
On the first night of WWE NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver event from Orlando, Florida at the Capitol Wrestling Center, the company booked MSK vs. Grizzled Young Veterans vs. Legado del Fantasma in a three-way match.
The bout featured a wild start with MSK getting the early advantage and a few dives. The end came when MSK hit a double cutter to Drake and followed up with a tag team move out of the corner to Gibson.
The titles became vacant after Danny Burch suffered a separated shoulder while teaming with Oney Lorcan against Finn Balor & Karrion Kross in the main event of a recent episode of NXT. Unfortunately, Burch is expected to be out of action for six months.
Lorcan and Burch had been NXT Tag Team Champions since winning the titles from Breezango in October 2020. In the finals of the men\’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic at TakeOver: Vengeance Day, MSK defeated The Grizzled to win the tournament.
Just a month ago, MSK were supposed to challenge for the titles against Lorcan and Burch, but that match was nixed due to Lee being out with a broken hand.
As advertised, Mike Tyson made an appearance on Wednesday’s episode of AEW Dynamite on TNT, which marked his first appearance in AEW with a live crowd.
On the show, the boxing legend showed up in the second hour when The Pinnacle was attacking Chris Jericho in the ring. The rest of the Inner Circle was locked in a room backstage and was making their way out to the ring. After Tyson and Inner Circle stood tall in the ring, Jericho and Tyson hugged in peace, a reference to their past.
Tyson made an appearance at the Double or Nothing pay-per-view event last year where he presented the TNT Championship to the winner of Cody Rhodes vs. Lance Archer, which served as the tournament finals to crown the inaugural TNT Champion.
AEW followed up with another Tyson appearance on the May 27, 2020 edition of Dynamite where he was involved in a brawl alongside some of his friends with Jericho and the Inner Circle. This episode did 827,000 live viewers and a 0.32 in the important 18-49 demographic.
After this angle was shot, there had been some speculation about a match between the boxing great and Jericho happening. Jericho previously confirmed there were plans to do a match with Tyson at the AEW All Out PPV event on September 5th, but due to Tyson’s fight with Roy Jones jr. happening on September 12th, they had to postpone it.
WALTER worked his first match of the week with a top NXT star standing tall with the top prize in his hands.
WALTER defended the NXT UK Title against Tommaso Ciampa at Wednesday’s (April 7, 2021) WWE NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver event from Orlando, Florida.
Ciampa turned back into the 2018 version of his character with the return of his shaved head and trunks. The match saw Ciampa continuously try to get a string of offensive moves together only to be knocked down. In the end, WALTER hit a big chop for the finish.
This came before WALTER will defend the NXT UK Title against Rampage Brown at NXT UK: Prelude on Thursday.
This feud started a month ago when Ciampa mentioned WALTER on NXT. After Imperium invited Timothy Thatcher to join them, Ciampa told Thatcher that he\’s not interested in joining Imperium, but was interested in facing WALTER.
To get things moving along, Ciampa said WALTER was sitting safely across the pond holding onto the title while the rest of Imperium did his dirty work. This led to WALTER appearing to take out Ciampa.
What are your thoughts on WALTER retaining the NXT UK Title? Was this the right call by WWE officials? Sound off in the comment section.
All Elite Wrestling is finally booking the Blood and Guts match. The COVID-19 pandemic previously prevented fans from seeing it in AEW.
The original plan was for the match to take place in Newark, New Jersey in front of AEW’s largest paid crowd to date last year. The Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, Sammy Guevara, Santana, and Ortiz) were supposed to face The Elite (Kenny Omega, Cody, Hangman Page, and The Young Bucks) in the contest.
On Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite, Jericho came out with the rest of the Inner Circle members for a promo to address their feud with The Pinnacle (MJF, FTR, Wardlow, and Shawn Spears). This marked The Inner Circle’s first arena appearance since they were attacked by MJF and The Pinnacle a few weeks ago.
Jericho blamed his “jerk off” friend MJF for some of the recent bad decisions they’ve made and apologized. He noted that he’s smart about pro wrestling and that’s why he brought MJF into the Inner Circle, but MJF outsmarted them.
He mocked MJF for being a mark for himself because he would run around backstage to see what people were saying about him after his matches.
The former AEW World Heavyweight Champion then announced there will be a Blood and Guts match between The Inner Circle and The Pinnacle on the May 5th edition of Dynamite from Jacksonville, Florida at Daily’s Place on TNT.
WWE announced on Thursday that Keith Lee is slated to return to their programming this week.
He’ll do so when he participates in the Watch Along episode for the second night of NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver – Night 2 event on Thursday. He’ll join Ricochet, Samoa Joe, Dominik Mysterio, and others on the stream, which will be hosted by Matt Camp, Evan T. Mack, and Ryan Pappolla of The Bump.
His status with WWE has made headlines as of late because he has been out of action since early February. Last month, it was reported that Lee was actively trying to get cleared for a return and had been working out at the Performance Center.
He did break his silence in a statement posted on Twitter, but aside from that, has been quiet. This return comes at the same time as former WWE on-air personality Cathy Kelley coming back to the company for at least one night as she participated in the Watch Along episode for TakeOver Night 1.
For fans wanting to check it out, the Takeover Watch Along episodes will air live on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok.
AEW President and CEO Tony Khan commented on Chris Jericho appearing on Sunday’s episode of Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions show on Peacock.
Khan was on Busted Open with Dave LaGreca and Tommy Dreamer where he talked about why he approved of Jericho’s appearance on the show.
Khan started out by stating that he never even considered this was going to be a possibility and when he first heard about it, he had to think about it for a minute. He brought how Jericho and Austin had talked about it beforehand.
“When Chris brought it up to me, at first I was taken aback because Chris doing something on Peacock on WWE’s channel is obviously going to give me pause. But when he said it was Steve hosting the show, I didn’t have to think very hard about it.”
Khan continued by stating that he looked at this appearance as him or anyone else from AEW going on the Busted Open Radio show as he trusts Jericho to go on this show and feels the same way with him appearing on a WWE show. He also trusts Austin to do a great job with the interview.
“They’re both friends of mine, and I feel like it’s probably going to be a very good show,” Khan said. “I haven’t watched it yet, but Chris told me I’m really going to like it, and it’s a great chance for us to go out and promote AEW to a different set of fans. I was all for it, and definitely, Steve being the host had a lot to do with that.”
This will be the first time that an AEW star will appear on WWE programming.
We are just a few days away from WWE’s biggest show of the year, WrestleMania. Wrestling fans love to see what the WrestleMania stage looks like each year. We have an early look at the setup inside Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
As seen below, a pirate ship is a big part of the elaborate set design. The football stadium is home to the NFL\’s reigning SuperBowl champions, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
WrestleMania Stage Photos
Here are the latest WrestleMania stage photos, courtesy of Tampa Bay\’s News Channel 8\’s Eagle 8 HD helicopter cam:
WWE presents WrestleMania 37 on Saturday, April 10th, and Sunday, April 11, 2021. It will be broadcasted on Peacock.
WrestleMania 37 Card
The following are the official lineups for WrestleMania 37 nights 1 and 2:
Night 1
WWE Champion Bobby Lashley vs. Drew McIntyre
WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks vs. Bianca Belair
The Miz and John Morrison vs. Damian Priest and Bad Bunny
Cesaro vs. Seth Rollins
WWE Raw Tag Team Champions The New Day vs. AJ Styles and Omos
Carmella & Billie Kay vs. Lana & Naomi vs. Dana Brooke & Mandy Rose vs. Ruby Riott & Liv Morgan vs. Natalya & Tamina – Tag Team Turmoil Match (Winners Get Women’s Tag Match on Night 2)
Braun Strowman vs. Shane McMahon – Steel Cage Match
Night 2
WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns vs. Edge
WWE Raw Women’s Champion Asuka vs. Rhea Ripley
Randy Orton vs. The Fiend
Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn
WWE Intercontinental Champion Big E vs. Apollo Crews – Nigerian Drum Match
WWE United States Champion Matt Riddle vs. Sheamus
WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax vs. TBA
Fans could be seeing Becky Lynch and Ronda Rousey make their WWE returns in the near future.
On Wednesday’s Colin Cowherd\’s podcast, WWE President Nick Khan talked about a wide range of topics. He was discussed WrestleMania 35 from 2019 that was headlined by Rousey vs. Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair in a triple threat match for the Raw and SmackDown Women’s Titles.
He mentioned the popularity of female wrestlers in general and how big business this match did. He made a point to say Rousey would return \”at a certain point in time\” while Lynch would return \”at a certain point of time…in the not-too-distant future.\”
Rousey worked her most recent match in WWE at WrestleMania 35 as she dropped the Raw Women’s Title. At the time, she noted that she was taking time off from WWE to start a family. She later aired some grievances with \”f*king ingrateful fans\” in addition to the brutal travel schedule that she had to deal with during an appearance on the Steve O podcast.
On the flip side, Lynch had to vacate the strap last May and gave it to Asuka as she was pregnant. Last December, Lynch and Seth Rollins welcomed a daughter in December. On the night of this year’s Royal Rumble, she hinted she was returning.
The WWE NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver event will take place over the course of two nights – Wednesday, April 7th (airing on USA Network) and Thursday, April 8th (Peacock broadcast).
The company has already officially announced the main events of both nights that take place in Orlando, Florida at the Capitol Wrestling Center. WWE NXT Women’s Champion Io Shirai vs. Raquel Gonzalez will headline the first night while WWE NXT Champion Finn Balor vs. Karrion Kross will go down the following night.
This show marks the second special for the yellow brand in 2021, which features a stacked lineup. As a reminder, we will be providing coverage of this special on both nights.
Here are the final cards:
Stand & Deliver: Night 1
WWE NXT Women’s Champion Io Shirai vs. Raquel Gonzalez
MSK vs. Grizzled Young Veterans vs. Legado del Fantasma for the Vacant NXT Tag Team Titles
WWE NXT UK Champion WALTER vs. Tommaso Ciampa
Bronson Reed, Dexter Lumis, Cameron Grimes, Isaiah \”Swerve\” Scott, Leon Ruff, and LA Knight – Gauntlet Eliminator Match
Monday’s edition of WWE Raw averaged 1.701 million viewers with a 0.52 rating in the Adults 18-49 demographic. This is the same from last week’s 1.701 million viewers, but down in the 0.56 rating.
Last week set a new 2021 low in viewership. This week\’s episode was the go-home edition of Raw for WrestleMania 37. The go-home edition of Raw for WrestleMania 36 last year did 1.924 million viewers and a 0.58 rating.
The show had strong competition with Gonzaga vs. Baylor in the NCAA championship game that averaged around 16 million viewers. Here’s the hourly viewership breakdown for Monday night:
The first hour did 1.759 million viewers and a 0.54 rating (A18-49).
The second hour did 1.723 million viewers and a 0.51 rating.
The final hour of the show had just 1.622 million viewers and a 0.50 rating.
This episode featured Bobby Lashley vs. Cedric Alexander, Drew McIntyre vs. Baron Corbin, and Xavier Woods vs. AJ Styles.
SmackDown Viewership
Friday’s SmackDown averaged 2.137 million viewers. This is down from the 2.191million viewers on FOX that the show did for the previous week.
SmackDown pulled in a 0.57 rating in the 18-49 demos, the same as the 0.57 rating the previous week’s show. The episode drew an average of 2.036 million viewers in the overnight ratings, up from the previous week that did 2.030 million viewers.
The first hour saw it pull in 2.020 million viewers while hour two did 2.041 million viewers. The show did 1.868 million viewers in hour one while hour two did 2.023 million viewers a week ago.
New matches have been announced for WWE WrestleMania 37. During Monday’s episode of Raw, WWE confirmed the bouts which will take place over the course of both nights.
First up is a Tag Team Turmoil Match that will see Carmella & Billie Kay vs. Lana & Naomi vs. Dana Brooke & Mandy Rose vs. Ruby Riott & Liv Morgan vs. Natalya & Tamina battle it out to determine the new challengers for the Women’s Tag Team Titles. The winners of this match will then face Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax the following night at WrestleMania 37 for the straps.
Also, The Miz and John Morrison vs. Damian Priest and rapper Bad Bunny is now official as the original match was a singles bout between Miz and Bunny. This was reportedly the plan all along.
Finally, WWE confirmed Braun Strowman vs. Shane McMahon in Steel Cage Match will air on the first night.
WWE’s deleted the tweet now, but this graphic was tweeted out after the match announcement with only four teams but before the backstage segment whereby Billie Kay pitched herself for the match and said Carmella is still reviewing her resume.#WrestleManiapic.twitter.com/agPn1Sse6s
SmackDown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks vs. Bianca Belair
The Miz and John Morrison vs. Damian Priest and Bad Bunny
Cesaro vs. Seth Rollins
Raw Tag Team Champions The New Day vs. AJ Styles and Omos
Carmella & Billie Kay vs. Lana & Naomi vs. Dana Brooke & Mandy Rose vs. Ruby Riott & Liv Morgan vs. Natalya & Tamina – Tag Team Turmoil Match (Winners Get Women’s Tag Match on Night 2)
Braun Strowman vs. Shane McMahon – Steel Cage Match
Night 2
Universal Champion Roman Reigns vs. Edge
Raw Women’s Champion Asuka vs. Rhea Ripley
Randy Orton vs. The Fiend
Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn
Intercontinental Champion Big E vs. Apollo Crews – Nigerian Drum Match
United States Champion Matt Riddle vs. Sheamus
Women’s Tag Team Champions Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax vs. TBA
During it, he revealed that he spoke with CM Punk in the past two years, which is a surprise considering that Punk didn\’t highly of “The Game” in his famous interview on Colt Cabana\’s podcast.
“Last time I talked to [Punk]? A year and a half… a year and three quarters ago?,” Triple H answered. “A funny thing that people constantly will say, when his return is or… but in some way, I don’t know whether he does or not, but that has to be what he wants. When people talk about, they go, ‘Make the call!’ What says if we make the call he wants to answer? What says if we make the call he doesn’t go, like, ‘Yeah, I’m not interested in doing that anymore.’ Maybe he’s just done with it.”
The Desire Needs To Be There
Triple H thinks those are conversations that only those people can directly answer and if Punk wants to do it then WWE would get word of that and have conversations or he would make a call to let them know about it. He said there has to be a desire there to do something like that instead of just reluctantly agreeing to it.
Triple H continued by indicating Punk had the chance to return to WWE while working with FOX Sports on the Backstage show.
“CM Punk worked with us on the FOX show, what, a year ago? There was opportunities there,” Triple H said. “There were people around each other at all times. You know, again, I’ll never say never but the desire needs to be there on all sides to make that happen.”
Punk decided to walk out of WWE on the Monday following the Royal Rumble pay-per-view event in 2014 to go on hiatus. Months passed with him thinking he would return only to be fired on his wedding day.
Logan Paul made an appearance on this week’s episode of WWE Friday Night SmackDown.
WWE set up his appearance on last Friday’s show when Sami Zayn announced during a segment with Kevin Owens that his documentary will debut on the latest show and Paul would be there as part of the Red Carpet premiere. In the days leading up to this announcement, Paul and Zayn had been tweeting each other.
On Friday’s episode, Zayn debuted the trailer for his new documentary that was supposed to show how there has been a conspiracy against him. The trailer for the documentary, which is titled “Justice For Sami” did not show much evidence of his claims other than Zayn making claims against referees and WWE officials.
Paul stated that he spoke with Owens and he was informed Zayn can be neurotic and paranoid. Paul praised his rival for the effort put forward and then Owens showed up to hit a stunner to Zayn. It was also confirmed that Paul is also scheduled to appear at WrestleMania.
It was announced last December that Paul would fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. in an exhibition bout on February 20th, but the fight was postponed to an unspecified date.
WWE presents WrestleMania 37 on Saturday, April 10th, and Sunday, April 11, 2021 from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida that will air on Peacock.
WWE is gearing up for WrestleMania 37 as it takes place next weekend. Fightful obtained social media guidelines from the company distributed to some promotional partners for WrestleMania 36, which was last year.
These words aren’t likely different within the time of a year. The partners were instructed to not reply to fans in the comments, speculate on rumors or future storylines, and always present WWE and talent in a positive light.
The term \”dirt sheets\” was used, as \”be sensitive of the language used and how it may be interpreted by dirt sheets.\” WWE wanted them to use \”Sports Entertainment\” and \”Superstars\” instead of \”wrestling\” and \”wrestlers.”
They were also told to not use messages that would encourage fans to speak negatively about the product. A list of banned terms is below:
Blood
Choke
Belt
Strap
Diva
Head shot
Trauma
Kayfabe
Mofos
House show
DQ
The Anti-Diva
Spinal injuries
Victim
Violence/violent
Wrestling/wrestlers
WWF
Wifebeater
Curb Stomp
Needs a push
To be over
Babyface
Heel
To job/jobber
Card
Strangle
Kill
Murder
Last year’s WrestleMania was also supposed to take place in Tampa, Florida, but was moved to the Performance Center without a live audience due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The big news on Friday was Chris Jericho slated to make an appearance on the next episode of Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions series.
The episode will air on Peacock on April 11th, which is the day of the second night of WrestleMania 37. Austin has since gone into details about getting permission from Vince McMahon about having the AEW star on the show.
During today’s NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver conference call, Triple H was asked about the upcoming episode.
“We’re open for business. We’ve said it a million times on things. Vince has been very adamant in that. We’re open for business, whatever is best for business for WWE. Whoever that is.”
He noted that the funny thing is people sometimes create their own situations in their head but it’s not shocking to him. He pointed out how he hadn’t heard about the news until this call, but it’s not shocking to him in any way, shape, or form.
“People make comments about people that leave and that they received a nice call from Vince or whoever it is. That’s not shocking to me at all. The perception and the creation of what people believe in their heads when they have zero knowledge of it personally is amazing sometimes. The fantasy world that is created. It’s not shocking to me in any way.”
This will be the first time that an AEW star will appear on WWE programming.
The March 31, 2021 episode of WWE NXT aired live on the USA Network from Orlando, Florida at the Capitol Wrestling Center.
WWE NXT Results
Cameron Grimes def. Roderick Strong.
Santos Escobar def. Tyler Breeze
The Way def. two jobbers
Raquel Gonzalez def. Zoey Stark.
Tian Sha def. Kayden Carter & Kacy Catanzaro
LA Knight wins Battle Royal
Here are the takeaways from this week’s show:
New Title Match
The Way (Candice LeRae and indie Heartwell) beat two jobbers in a quick match. After the bout, LeRae cut a very good promo about how she deserves to be a champion and that they are coming after the NXT Women’s Tag Team Titles. Thus, they’ll do it their way and at TakeOver.
Thus, an official challenge to the current champions Ember moon and Shotzi Blackheart. Fast forward a few seconds, Moon and Blackheart came out on a tank. Shotzi questioned LeRae for thinking they should have the titles. They called them crazy and accepted the challenge. They promised to win the match. Blackheart shot something out of her tank and then rolled to the back.
With this being the go-home edition of NXT for next week’s TakeOver special, you know WWE would want to hit home the main event of the second night hard. Of course, the second night will be headlined by Finn Balor defending the NXT Title against Karrion Kross.
So what did WWE do on this show? In the first hour, we had a video that aired of Kross training and talking about what he was doing to prepare for the match. Scarlett changed up her look by having a different hair style. Kross said that Balor’s gameplan was to outlast him, but time isn’t on his side.
The second hour saw Balor cut a video package while a video of him working out. He said that his stamina has always been his strength and the longer it goes, he will drown Kross in the deep water.
Raquel Gonzalez vs. Zoey Stark in a singles match took place. The back and forth match ended with Raquel winning with her finisher. Raquel gets better and better while Stark, who the company is behind, continues to drop losses for whatever reason.
Post-match, Io came out and brawled with Raquel, but the heel managed to stand tall by sending Io into the barricade.
Just last week, Gonzalez & Dakota Kai defeated Shirai & Stark in a tag team match when Raquel got the pinfall victory by pinning Stark. Post-match, Gonzalez attacked Shirai and slammed her onto the announce table.
Shirai vs. Gonzalez for the NXT Women\’s Championship will be the main event of TakeOver: Stand & Deliver night one.
WWE has filmed various angles for the feud between Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly over the past few weeks. The two stars are slated to work an unsanctioned match at the upcoming TakeOver special.
Instead of doing another angle, the company decided to air a Prime Target segment, which is basically a long video package, to further promote the match.
It all started at the last TakeOver special when Cole turned on O’Reilly. Since then, the Undisputed Era has broken up.
Roderick Strong vs. Cameron Grimes took place in a singles match.
The match opened the show. It had a back and forth style with some near falls towards the end. In the end, it was Grimes winning after he distracted Strong by dropping an Undisputed Era armband and hitting a double foot stomp.
WWE set up this bout on last week’s show when there was a backstage segment where Strong punched Grimes. This came after Grimes had come up to Strong and wanted to buy Undisputed Era\’s intellectual property.
Dexter Lumis, Bronson Reed, Pete Dunne, Cameron Grimes, Isaiah \”Swerve\” Scott, Leon Ruff, Kushida, Austin Theory, LA Knight, Tyler Rust, and Jake Atlas in a battle royal took place. The way the match worked was the final six wrestlers in the battle royal advancing to a Gauntlet Eliminator match that\’s taking place at TakeOver: Stand & Deliver night one.
Reed did some damage with a few different eliminations. They did a spot where Theory saved himself from being eliminated, but did a kip-up and landed on his feet. Thus, an elimination. Kushida and Dunne were the final two eliminations.
As a result, the final six competitors are Bronson Reed, Dexter Lumis, Cameron Grimes, Isaiah \”Swerve\” Scott, Leon Ruff, and LA Knight. The winner of the match was Knight, who will enter Gauntlet Eliminator last.
The Gauntlet Eliminator match will start with two wrestlers in the ring and every three minutes, a new wrestler was added. Eliminations occurred via pinfall or submission.
Three new matches have been confirmed for the upcoming WWE NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver special on Wednesday, April 7th (airing on USA Network) and Thursday, April 8th.
WWE NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart vs. Candice LeRae and Indie Heartwell was booked. There’s no word yet on which nights the match will air.
Also, Bronson Reed, Dexter Lumis, Cameron Grimes, Isaiah \”Swerve\” Scott, Leon Ruff, and LA Knight will battle it out in the Gauntlet Eliminator on Night 1 with the winner then challenging Johnny Gargano for the NXT North American Title the following night. Finally, Pete Dunne vs. Kushida, who both worked battle royal to determine the six names above, will take place.
WWE has also confirmed the first night of the special will be simulcast live on Peacock in the United States and on the WWE Network everywhere else at the same time as it\’s airing on the USA Network.
Updated WWE NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver Card
WWE NXT Women’s Champion Io Shirai vs. Raquel Gonzalez (Night 1 headliner)
MSK vs. Grizzled Young Veterans vs. Legado del Fantasma – Vacant NXT Tag Team Titles (Night 1)
WWE NXT UK Champion WALTER vs. Tommaso Ciampa (Night 1)
Bronson Reed, Dexter Lumis, Cameron Grimes, Isaiah \”Swerve\” Scott, Leon Ruff, and LA Knight – Gauntlet Eliminator Match (Night 1)
Pete Dunne vs. Kushida (Night 1)
WWE NXT Champion Finn Balor vs. Karrion Kross (Night 2 headliner)
Santos Escobar vs. Jordan Devlin – WWE Cruiserweight Title Unification Ladder Match (Night 2)
Adam Cole vs. Kyle O’Reilly – Unsanctioned Match (Night 2)
WWE NXT North American Champion Johnny Gargano vs. Gauntlet Eliminator Winner (Night 2)
WWE NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart vs. Candice LeRae and Indie Heartwell (night TBA)
Christian Cage made his highly anticipated in-ring debut for All Elite Wrestling on Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite on TNT.
The former WWE star battled Frankie Kazarian in a singles match from Jacksonville, Florida at Daily’s Place during the opening segment. The bout had a slow-building start with Kaz working as the heel. In the end, Cage made a comeback and won the match with his killswitch finisher.
All Elite Wrestling set up this contest last week in a backstage segment where Cage was confronted by SCU member, who asked Cage when the “work” portion of his catchphrase was going to become a reality. This led to Cage telling him that while he planned to wrestle the following week, he didn’t have an opponent so Kaz offered to fill that spot and the contest was made official.
Christian had been retired due to a history of suffering concussions. The process of him returning began after last summer\’s unsanctioned \”match\” with Randy Orton on an episode of Raw.
At the time, Christian was on a list where he was banned from doing anything physical on television. Cage went to the University of South Florida Concussion Center to see where he was at and whether he could return to in-ring action.
He was eventually cleared and made his return to action this past January at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view where he worked the men’s rumble match. He didn’t come to terms on a deal with WWE so he talked with AEW President Tony Khan and the two agreed to a multi-year deal. He made his promotional debut at the Revolution pay-per-view event earlier this month.
The WWE Performance Center YouTube channel released a new video that looks at Brian Kendrick\’s work for the company outside the ring. During it, it was revealed that Kendrick has retired as an in-ring performer for WWE.
Kendrick has been working as a Producer for the 205 Live brand in recent months. He started out his pro wrestling career by being trained by Shawn Michaels and Rudy Boy Gonzalez and got his start by going by the name, Spanky. He signed a WWE developmental deal where he went to work for Memphis Championship Wrestling. It didn’t work out at the time so he was released and then became a top star in Ring of Honor in addition to his work in Japan\’s ZERO-ONE.
Kendrick had several stints with WWE over the years. He most notably had a run with Paul London as the WWE Tag Team Champions and Ezekiel Jackson as his partner. He also spent time in TNA Wrestling. When WWE did the Cruiserweight Classic in 2016, he returned to be part of the revived division.
He’s helped train various wrestlers including Eva Marie at his school in California. His last match came on the October 28th edition of 205 Live where he worked a tag team bout.
Monday’s edition of WWE Raw averaged 1.701 million viewers with a 0.56 rating in the Adults 18-49 demographic. This is down from last week’s 1.816 million viewers and 0.53 rating.
The previous 2021 low came on the February 8th edition with just 1.715 million viewers.Next week’s show should get a bump as it will serve as the go-home edition of Raw for WrestleMania 37. Here’s the hourly viewership breakdown for Monday night:
The first hour did 1.733 million viewers and a 0.53 rating (A18-49).
The second hour did 1.697 million viewers and a 0.56 rating.
The final hour of the show had just 1.673 million viewers and a 0.58 rating.
This episode featured Matt Riddle vs. Sheamus, a contract signing for Asuka and Rhea Ripley\’s Raw Women\’s Championship match, Dirt Sheet segment, and Drew McIntyre working two matches at the end of the show against Ali and Ricochet.
SmackDown Viewership
Friday’s SmackDown averaged 2.191 million viewers. This is up from the 2.093 million viewers on FOX that the show did for the previous week.
SmackDown pulled in a 0.57 rating in the 18-49 demos, the same as the 0.57 rating the previous week’s show. The episode drew an average of 2.030 million viewers in the overnight ratings, up from the previous week that did 1.945 million viewers.
The first hour saw it pull in 2.020 million viewers while hour two did 2.041 million viewers. The show did 1.868 million viewers in hour one while hour two did 2.023 million viewers a week ago.
WWE has announced a few new things for WrestleMania 37.
On Monday’s episode of Raw, WWE confirmed that United States Champion Matt Riddle vs. Sheamus will take place at this show. Also, Braun Strowman vs. Shane McMahon will now take place inside of a Steel Cage structure.
WWE has yet to announce which nights these bouts will take place on. Strowman defeated Jaxson Ryker with Elias and McMahon at ringside on Raw. After the match, Strowman announced the stipulation. On this same show, Sheamus beat Riddle in a non-title match. After the match, Riddle attacked Sheamus to get payback.
WWE presents WrestleMania 37 on Saturday, April 10th, and Sunday, April 11, 2021 from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida that will air on Peacock.
Updated WWE WrestleMania 37 Card
Night 1
WWE Champion Bobby Lashley vs. Drew McIntyre
WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks vs. Bianca Belair
Bad Bunny vs. The Miz
Cesaro vs. Seth Rollins
WWE Raw Tag Team Champions The New Day vs. AJ Styles and Omos
Night 2
WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns vs. Edge
WWE Raw Women’s Champion Asuka vs. Rhea Ripley
Randy Orton vs. The Fiend
Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn
WWE Intercontinental Champion Big E vs. Apollo Crews
Match Date TBA
Braun Strowman vs. Shane McMahon – Steel Cage Match
WWE United States Champion Matt Riddle vs. Sheamus
Charlotte Flair has had an interesting last month or so while WWE continues to build up to WrestleMania 37.
She was originally all over the advertisements for the show and rightfully so as she is one of the biggest stars the company has right now. Then she came out to announce she had tested positive for COVID-19. When this news was made, many people thought this was the reason she had been pulled from the advertisements.
It turns out that wasn’t necessarily the case. Instead, Andrade, her fiance, told a story about how Flair was originally pulled from WrestleMania 37 because WWE thought she was pregnant.
It started when a WWE doctor contacted Flair and said that she was pregnant. The couple decided to go get their own tests to prove she wasn’t pregnant.
“We went to the pharmacy [to take a test] and it was negative,” Andrade told Hugo Savinovich of Lucha Libre Online (H/T to WrestleZone). “They took her out of the story because they said she was pregnant. Four days later the tests were negative.”
Andrade requested his release from WWE earlier this month and during the Fastlane pay-per-view event, the company announced it.
Charlotte Flair’s camp have reached out to me with a statement to provide context for Andrade’s comments about her pregnancy tests. pic.twitter.com/ZRxBpAHqzd
The recipient of the Warrior Award for the 2021 WWE Hall of Fame class will be Titus O\’Neil. Fightful reported that was the plan as of February. With the Hall of Fame and WrestleMania being based around the city of Tampa this year in addition to O\’Neil being heavily involved with charity throughout his life, the powers at be thought this was the right choice.
Aside from his pro wrestling career, which saw him wrestle for FCW in the area for a couple of years, O\’Neil played professional football for the Tampa Bay Storm in 2006. He hasn’t wrestled since dropping a loss to Bobby Lashley this past November.
The ceremony is set to be filmed on Tuesday and Thursday of this week. The ceremony will air on April 6th on Peacock.
Batista, who is good friends with O\’Neil, was supposed to be part of the 2020 class where he would\’ve likely headlined. However, he has already confirmed that he won\’t be able to make it due to a schedule conflict but plans to be inducted in the coming years.
Several new matches have been announced for the upcoming WWE WrestleMania 37 event.
On Friday’s episode of SmackDown, Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn, WWE Intercontinental Champion Big E vs. Apollo Crews, and Cesaro vs. Seth Rollins were made official.
Crews vs. Big E is a rematch from the Fastlane pay-per-view event, which saw Big E go over to retain the title. Owens vs. Zayn, a long-standing rivalry, was made official during a Kevin Owens Show segment. Finally, Rollins defeated Nakamura again in a singles match, another rematch from Fastlane. After the match, Rollins attacked Nakamura until Cesaro made the save.
WWE presents WrestleMania 37 on Saturday, April 10th, and Sunday, April 11, 2021 from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida that will air on Peacock.
Night 1
WWE Champion Bobby Lashley vs. Drew McIntyre
WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks vs. Bianca Belair
Bad Bunny vs. The Miz
Night 2
WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns vs. Edge vs. Daniel Bryan
WWE Raw Women’s Champion Asuka vs. Rhea Ripley
Randy Orton vs. The Fiend
Match Date TBA
WWE Raw Tag Team Champions The New Day vs. AJ Styles and Omos
Braun Strowman vs. Shane McMahon
Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn
WWE Intercontinental Champion Big E vs. Apollo Crews
Bret Hart has given his take regarding leg slaps in WWE.
Vince McMahon issued a new edict earlier this month about wrestlers no longer being allowed to do leg slaps during their matches. The company has placed a sign at the Gorilla position regarding the leg slaps that reads, ‘do not slap leg when kicking.’
“I heard a few days ago that they outlawed or banned or nobody’s allowed to do the slap stuff anymore,” said Hart (H/T to POST Wrestling). “And I’m like ‘they should’ve stopped that ten years ago.’ It’s slap, slap, slap, slap.”
Hart recalled how his brother, Owen, was one of the guys that started a lot of that and one of the best to do it.
\”But come on, enough is enough, in every match. You see guys do stuff and you’re going, ‘That wouldn’t even make a slap sound.’ When you punch somebody in the jaw, it’s not a slap sound. You know, it’s a different kind of sound and you’re making a slap sound for everything. Every single move you do is a slap sound, slap, slap and I totally agree.”
Hart noted that he’s glad they put their foot down on that but thinks they’re ten years late in doing so. The legendary started added, “they’ve already kind of in a lot of ways, sadly, ruined wrestling by making it so fake.”
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