WWE Hall of Famer Edge made his triumphant return to singles action at Sunday\’s WrestleMania 36 pay-per-view. Edge was victorious in his return bout, defeating Randy Orton in a Last Man Standing match. It was Edge\’s first match in 9 years.
The Rated R Superstar posted a lengthy statement on Instagram talking about what the match means to him. Edge revealed the 40-minute brawl was actually filmed two weeks ago. He is now out of self quarantine and back to being a husband and father.
Edge praised Randy Orton for getting such a strong performance out of him. Edge called Orton \”the most naturally talented person in the industry\” and is proud of what they created together.
\”I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of each other, and for that I’m strangely thankful,\” Edge wrote. \”He pulled me to a 40 minute fight after being retired for 9 years. Wasn’t sure I had that in me. Now I know. He pushed me.\”
Edge acknowledged the strange circumstances surrounding this year\’s WrestleMania, which took place on a closed set due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.
For all of you, hopefully you watched WrestleMania and were able to get lost in it and try to forget about our current reality, even if only for a few hours.\”
Edge thanked the team behind the WWE 24 documentary on his return that aired on the WWE Network after WrestleMania. He also thanked everyone that helped him on his path to being an active pro wrestler once again. He said he\’s humbled by the position he is currently in and urged everyone to stay safe.
You can read Edge\’s full statement on his Instagram page.
AEW Dynamite returns tonight on TNT. AEW has been holding \’empty arena\’ editions of Dynamite the past few weeks at Daily\’s Place Amphitheater in Jacksonville, FL. This is due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
As the situation grows more dire, additional restrictions have been placed on public gatherings. It is believed AEW held tapings over the past several days from an undisclosed location somewhere in the southeast United States.
AEW Dynamite Preview (4/1)
AEW TNT Championship Tournament Announcement
AEW will soon introduce a new championship title, the AEW TNT Championship. An 8-man tournament has been announced to crown the first champion. As announced on AEW Dark, the \’left\’ side of the brackets will feature the following matches in the quarterfinals:
Cody vs. Shawn Spears
Sammy Guevara vs. Darby Allin
Tonight on Dynamite, AEW will reveal the 4 men who will populate the other two quarterfinal matches.
Cody and Darby Allin vs Sammy Guevara and Shawn Spears
Fourif of the TNT Championship tournament participants will be in tag team action. Fan favorites Cody and Darby Allin will square off against Sammy Guevara and Shawn Spears.
Kenny Omega vs. Trent
Kenny Omega, one half of the AEW World tag team champions, will face Trent of the Best Friends.
The Murderhawk Monster Debuts
Lance Archer, the Murderhawk, will make his AEW in-ring debut. He\’s managed by Jake \”The Snake\” Roberts. Archer has his sights set on an eventual showdown with Cody. You can be sure he\’s looking to send a message with his first outing in an AEW ring
AEW Dynamite Post Show
Immediately after Dynamite goes off the air, AEW will sent the Dynamite Post Show live on the company\’s YouTube channel. Jim Ross, Excalibur and Taz will host.
Join us here after the show for our weekly AEW Dynamite Results & Takeaways.
– AEW Senior Advisor Jim Ross\’ new book was released today. Under the Black Hat: My Life in the WWE and Beyond is already a Best Seller on Amazon.com.
– Chris Jericho held a #SaturdayNightSpecial live video stream on his Facebook page this past Saturday night. Le Champion says nearly 150,000 people watched the live broadcast, with over 360,000 total viewers and counting. It was such a hit that he\’s doing it again this Saturday night.
– The following matches are scheduled for tonight\’s episode of AEW Dark:
Jon Moxley vs. Faboo Andre
Darby Allin vs. Preston Vance
Sammy Guevara vs. Matt Sells
Shawn Spears vs. Matt Sells
These matches were taped from Jacksonville, FL at Daily\’s Place Amphitheater. This week\’s Dark features several wrestlers local to the Florida area. This is part of AEW\’s initiative to support independent wrestling amid the Coronavirus epidemic.
Also on Dark, AEW will announce one half of the brackets for the upcoming tournament for the new AEW TNT Championship.
Chris Jericho says if it wasn\’t for the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, he would have probably been working with AEW star Jungle Boy of the Jurassic Express.
Jericho and Jungle Boy had a 2-week back in December 2019. Jungle Boy and the former AEW World Champion wrestled a singles match on Dynamite. The match went to a 10-minute time limit draw, but it was seen as a victory for the 22-year-old babyface.
A fan on Twitter mentioned to Dave Meltzer that AEW did not get enough out of the Chris Jericho vs. Jungle Boy feud. Meltzer agreed, saying that , that Jericho and Jungle Boy needed a follow-up series of matches. At the time, Jericho busy with Jon Moxley, but things have moved on since then. Moxley is the AEW World Champion, having defeated Jericho at AEW\’s latest pay-per-view.
The Inner Circle is feuding with The Elite and the entire world is on hold because of this Coronavirus outbreak.
Chris Jericho saw Meltzer\’s comment about Jungle Boy and provided some insight. Referencing his angle with Jungle Boy, Le Champion wrote, \”Had the world not gone crazy, we would be revisiting that now.\”
Once things do get back to normal, there\’s no question that Jungle Boy would benefit from working with Jericho again.
Brodie Lee, the Exalted One of AEW’s Dark Order, was Chris Jericho’s guest on the latest installment of the Talk is Jericho podcast. It was a great discussion chock full of interesting anecdotes and details about Lee’s journey to All Elite Wrestling. We will be breaking up this recap into a few parts.
Here are some highlights of Brodie Lee’s talk with Chris Jericho, courtesy of SEScoops correspondent Eric Brown:
Brodie Lee on Struggling in WWE, Working with Vince McMahon
Jericho talks about how early on he felt like Brodie had all of the tools necessary to succeed in WWE. Brodie says the biggest hang up was: \”The way I do talk. Vince doesn\’t see a person who looks like me, talking like me. And I don\’t think he could get over that. He saw a backwoods hillbilly who talked in a Southern draw, and being from Rochester, New York, and being somewhat eloquent, he didn\’t understand and it just didn\’t compute with him.\”
\”I had my supporters, just not vocal ones.. not ones that were willing to go to bat for me. Once I fell into a role – no matter what I pitched, no matter what I showed anybody – I just wasn\’t digging my way out of it. To the audience of one.\” He talks about Arn Anderson speaking up for him in meetings, but eventually telling him, \”I\’m just going to stop speaking up for you, because I don\’t think it\’s doing you any favors.\”
Says his peak in WWE was probably when he was the Intercontinental Champion, and specifically cites his ladder match with Dolph Ziggler. \”But even then, I don\’t think I won a match on TV with the belt, did a bunch of DQs, lost a bunch of matches, and it almost was like I lost favor almost instantly, as soon as I won the belt.. Never even had a chance to do anything with it.\” Brodie talks about different ideas and angles he pitched for his character, but that Vince \”wasn\’t buying them.\”
One idea was that he would be a \’collector\’ of sorts – inspired by serial killers – where he would collect something from each person he beat. \”The problem just became that I wasn\’t beating anybody.. so it was hard to collect from people to do that (laughs).\” Another was that he would be a \’smart monster,\’ where he would speak the way he does, and also break down his opponents in an intelligent way. But again, the hang-up seemed to be his way of talking. He recalls going into Vince\’s office and Vince asking him to do a Southern drawl. Brodie said that he\’s from New York, and that he thinks it\’s going to sound really fake. He tried it, and Vince didn\’t like it, which Brodie thought would mean that was the end of that. Yet the very next week, in the script, it called for him to do a Southern accent.
Jericho brings up that it\’s strange, considering that Rowan actually did end up getting a \’smart monster\’ gimmick. Brodie jokes, \”Exactly, I don\’t know if he just didn\’t know the difference between us, or.. (laughs)\” He says that Vince saw him and Rowan as a team, and always ended up bringing them back together. Jericho draws the comparison to John Morrison, who \”goes away, does all these great things, he comes back, and a week-and-a-half later he\’s Miz\’s tag team partner.\”
During the storyline where Randy Orton had allied himself with Bray Wyatt, Brodie predicted to the writers that this would result in Brodie organically getting over with the crowd. The writers told him it wouldn\’t work that way, but he noticed every week his crowd reaction increased. By the time Randy turned on them, Brodie was over to the point where he was in a championship match battle royal, as one of the final two competitors along with AJ Styles. The match was supposed to end with both of their feet touching the floor at the same time, leading to a 1 on 1 match the following week. It worked fine in rehearsals, but when they did it live Brodie\’s butt slipped on the apron and their feet obviously didn\’t hit at the same time. WWE worked around this and said that they touched at the same time, which led to the 1 on 1 match. \”And then the next week, AJ – who was the heel – ended up making me tap and pinning me, in the same match.. I was like, \’Yup, this is the end!\” After that, he was off TV for 8 months, but continued to do dark matches, as he hoped his positive reaction from the crowds would encourage Vince to give him another chance.
Says he and Vince \”chatted many, many times. He was always very honest with me. he\’s like, \’I just don\’t have anything for you right now.\’\” Jericho interjects, \”That\’s the worst thing to hear.\” He said he would try to brainstorm and work with the writers to come up with something, but \”I knew there was nothing coming.. It was literally the most frustrating thing I could imagine, as a career.. You just go sit in catering and watch these shows and you\’re like, \’Man, I know where I could f***ing fit in on these.\’\”
On his souring relationship with WWE, Brodie mentions a time in Detroit where he sat outside Vince\’s office (while he waited for him to finish with a production meeting) for three hours only to be told by Vince that he didn\’t want to see anybody. Brodie had various pitches he had written down, but left so frustrated that he threw them in the trash. He recalls eventually getting to see Vince and give him a pitch, which he felt like Vince dismissed by saying that he\’d look at it later while on the plane. Eventually, Brodie got Vince\’s phone number, and feeling that he had nothing to lose, he texted him asking what was going on with his career. Vince asked him why he wasn\’t in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, which Brodie recalls responding with \”Sir, that\’s a question that you should probably be able to answer.\” Vince replied \”Well, you are now.\” When he had originally seen the plans for the battle royal, he was set to be one of the final 2 or 3 remaining, which he felt optimistic about, but later found out \”they had kayfabed us on the end of the battle royal, and there\’s like 10 other people after me.\”
One idea pitched to him was to be Sami Zayn\’s heater. He thought, \”F***, man, that\’s exactly what I don\’t want to do. That\’s exactly what I\’ve done my entire career. I don\’t want to do that anymore. I don\’t want to be behind anybody, I just want to go do my thing.\” He tried to be optimistic about it and wanted it to work out. They were set to debut on the Smackdown following Wrestlemania, but it was suddenly canceled.
His Relationship with Erick Rowan
On the Bludgeon Brothers: Says he was shown a picture of Demolition and told \”this is what [Vince] wants you guys to be.\” They felt like they needed up update the look, and he gives Rowan more credit them himself when it came to those ideas. When they first tried on the gear, he thought \”we look like a couple of f***ing idiots.\” They had to go into Vince\’s office to show him, and when they went in he was in the middle of getting a massage. \”Vince looks up, and he goes, \’Yup, love it!\’ And I go, \’Well, do you want to see the other..\’ \’No no, love it!\’\” They talk about how different talking to Vince can be based on what he\’s doing, specifically that it\’s always a bad idea to talk to him when he\’s eating.
Brodie says that the Bludgeon Brothers\’ mallets (which they could not call sledgehammers \”for obvious reasons\”) were made out of wood and \”heavy as hell.\” One time, Brodie swung a mallet at Kofi Kingston and hitting the ring mat, and was told afterwards that he \”dented the boards\” underneath. During a trip to Saudi Arabia, he knew they would not be able to check them onto the plane, so Vince brought them over on his personal plane.
On his relationship with Rowan, \”We do make a good tag team,\” but \”when we first got together in the Wyatt family I despised the man. I hated him.\” \”He snores more than any man I\’ve ever met in my life, so rooming with him was f***ing hell.. if I didn\’t fall asleep first, I didn\’t sleep. So I would wake up hating him, and then we\’d be calling a match, and I\’d just thinking about how much I hated him (laughs). So it was a bit of a to-do, but in the long run we became really great friends.\” Brodie compares his career trajectory in the WWE to Rowan\’s recent spider storyline. \”They built him up, he didn\’t lose a match, he was beating people weekly. And then Aleister Black beat him two weeks in a row for no reason. And then the spider was revealed and killed. And now who knows what\’s going to happen to him.\” Jericho says, \”And you know he didn\’t piss anybody off because he\’s not that type of guy.\” to which Brodie responds, \”No, I think he\’s too nice. And that\’s the same thing I thought about me in WWE – I might have been too nice, as well.\”
He talks about his Wrestlemania moment of The Bludgeon Brothers winning the tag team championships at Wrestlemania against The Usos and The New Day, but unfortunately they were only given 9 minutes for the match, including entrances. \”Still, there\’s a very cool moment of me holding the belt up and spotting my wife and son in the front row.\” Brodie recalls a conversation he had with CM Punk when they were feuding in 2014, \”Just so you know, man, everything in WWE could always be better.\” \”Back then, I\’m like, \’No, f*** this guy, there\’s no way that that\’s true.\’ And it\’s been true almost every… The Wyatt family could have been better, The Bludgeon Brothers could have been better, that match could have been [better]. And it\’s like, just give us another 10 minutes.\”
Brodie talks about how tough Rowan is, and that nobody had even noticed when he tore his bicep in a match. Despite the injury, Rowan was still happy to have a match the following week to drop the titles to The New Day before he had to take time off (Brodie later names this match as his favorite tag match with Rowan). Brodie mentions how both Rowan and himself suffered injuries at almost alternating points, and since they were so often paired together as a tag team, when one of them got hurt it typically put a hold on the other one, as well.
Brodie said he had continued to receive contract offers from WWE up until the day they released him, even though they weren\’t using him. \”That was their M.O. at that point, \’Let\’s just keep everybody.\’\” He says it was \”quite the conundrum\” deciding what the right thing to do was, since he had a wife and kids, and WWE was offering him \”ungodly money, honestly. I could never even imagine making that money in wrestling, and it was literally to stay home.\” Ultimately, they felt it was better for his sanity to leave.
Requesting his WWE Release
With support from his wife, Brodie asked for his release, and ended up having two 20-minute phone conversations with Vince about what it would take to keep him with WWE. It was at this point he found out that he wasn\’t the only one to ask for his release, as others had done so privately. \”Hunter even told me later, \’We can\’t release you or it\’s going to make [it look] like people are jumping off this sinking ship.\’\”
On making his release request public: \”I never said anything negative about them online. I just said, \’Look, I asked for my release, thank you everybody for everything.\’ I wanted to do it publicly because I knew the court of public opinion was very important to the next move I was going to make. To have the support was important, and I also didn\’t want them to be able to control my narrative anymore.\” He notes that \”Spears had done the same thing a few months earlier, and they had granted his release, so I thought, honestly, that they were going to do it. And then, after the second conversation with Vince, he called me and said \’Hey man, for business reasons I can\’t let you go.\’ And I said, \’Okay, that\’s totally fair. It\’s your decision, obviously, I signed the contract.\’\” He asked if he could get out in November, instead of having 6 months added to his contract for having been out for wrist surgery, but was told \”That\’s a question for somebody else.\” Jericho cites his signing with AEW as the window closing for WWE granting releases, which is why Spears was able to get out but Brodie was denied.
He said he had conversations with Triple H about wanting to wrestle. Hunter asked if he wanted to wrestle in NXT or even NJPW, and Brodie was interested in either option, but neither came to fruition. Eventually, Daniel Bryan called him and asked if he wanted to come back to work with him – and being someone that Brodie respects more than almost anybody – he agreed. He and Rowan were originally supposed to win the PPV match against Bryan and Roman Reigns, but the ending was switched at the last moment. He was then given the impression that he would stick around with Rowan for a bit, and hoped to help give him a bit of a boost before he left, but Rowan was then abruptly drafted to Raw and Brodie was simply sent back home.
\”I don\’t want to speak ill of them, because WWE gave me more in life than I could ever dream of, but man, I just wasn\’t picked.\”
You can listen to the Talk is Jericho podcast with Brodie Lee embedded below or at Onmy.fm.
Brodie Lee, the Exalted One of AEW\’s Dark Order, was Chris Jericho\’s guest on the latest installment of the Talk is Jericho podcast. It was a great discussion chock full of interesting anecdotes and details about Lee\’s journey to All Elite Wrestling. We will be breaking up this recap into a few parts.
Here are some highlights of Brodie Lee\’s talk with Chris Jericho, courtesy of SEScoops correspondent Eric Brown:
Brodie Lee on his AEW Debut
Regarding the Coronavirus impacting his AEW debut, Brodie saw the news a week before his debut about Trump\’s presidential address, Tom Hanks being diagnosed with coronavirus, and the NBA shutting down their season. \”I was pretty aware, at that point, that it was maybe over for the Rochester debut.\”
Jericho was hopeful that they could have at least made it to Blood & Guts in Newark, which could have acted as a season finale of sorts, but in the span of his match that Wednesday night, the news broke and he figured they were going to have to cancel their show in Rochester the following week. Brodie says he was \”heartbroken\” that it had to be canceled.
Brodie says he was released by WWE on December 8th, with a 90-day clause, which should have expired on March 8th. However, when he received the official letter in the mail, it strangely had his final date as March 11th. \”So they moved it three days, so that I couldn\’t do the Wednesday that week. Somehow, it was like a 94-day period. I think that was one little extra \’f*** you\’ to me.\” Although, if WWE hadn\’t released him, his contract wouldn\’t have been up until March 25th, so he wouldn\’t have been able to appear at Rochester, but ultimately it didn\’t work out that way.
On the day of his debut: \”It just didn\’t feel right, all day. I was very stressed out about it – more than I thought I would be – and not as pumped up or excited as I should have been.\” It wasn\’t until he was told that his debut was up next that he suddenly got pumped up for it. The promo video debut was his first time seeing it, so he was enjoying watching it in the ring. Afterwords, he said \”it felt right.\”
Tony Khan told him that if he didn\’t want to do this, then he didn\’t have to do it, but Brodie said that he had been \”cooped up for so long\” that he was eager to get out and do something. The uncertainty of when they could follow up on it (due to the coronavirus) also helped lead him to that decision, because he didn\’t want to potentially risk wasting additional months of his career.
Later in the discussion, Brodie Lee revealed that he actually had some reservations about portraying the Exalted One character. Specifically, as the leader of the Dark Order cult, he did not want to be compared to Bray Wyatt.
When he was first told he would be debuting as The Exalted One he was nervous. \”I didn\’t want to be compared to Bray, I didn\’t want to be compared to the Wyatt family. But then, in my head, I\’m like, \’Well no, I can make it better. I can be better than that. I can be what it should have been.\’\” He also has had some history working with both Evil Uno and Stu Grayson.
You can listen to the Talk is Jericho podcast with Brodie Lee embedded below or at Onmy.fm.
Rusev is stepping up in a big way to help WWE employees who are out of work and not being paid during the Coronavirus pandemic.
The grossly underutilized wrestler from Bulgaria has pledged $20,000 to any of his \’extended WWE family\’ that is out of work without compensation, including production staff, security, etc. He tweeted on Tuesday;
\”In Bulgaria we say \’It\’s not a lot but it\’s from the heart\’ I pledge 20,000$ to any of my WWE extended family that are sitting at home without income. WE can\’t do it without y\’all. Production, security, etc. LOVE YALL.\”
The ongoing Coronavirus outbreak forced WWE to cancel all live events for the foreseeable future. The company is taping Raw, SmackDown, NXT and even WrestleMania from the Performance Center in Orlando. However, a lot of people who work WWE shows are out of work.
Rusev has been used sparsely by WWE in recent years. After spending most of 2019 on the sidelines, he returned in September as part of the romance storyline involving his real-life wife Lana, Bobby Lashley and Liv Morgan.
With reports circulating that Rusev is in the midst of a contract dispute with WWE, he was written off television in mid-February.
The NXT Takeover: Tampa Bay event that was set for WrestleMania weekend is not taking place due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
According to Sports Illustrated, matches originally scheduled for Takeover: Tampa Bay will take place on NXT\’s weekly Wednesday night TV show on the USA Network:
\”Beginning Wednesday, April 1, NXT will add some additional excitement to its weekly TV programming by airing the matches planned for TakeOver on a weekly basis.\”
Only one match had been confirmed for NXT Takeover: Tampa Bay at the time of the show\’s cancelation: a ladder match to determine the #1 contender to the NXT Women\’s Championship.
In addition to the women\’s ladder match, other bouts that were all-but-confirmed include NXT Champion Adam Cole vs. Velveteen Dream and Johnny Gargano vs. Tomasso Ciampa.
All of these matches are expected to be taped this week, as part of WWE\’s marathon taping schedule from the Performance Center.
WWE.com has since confirmed that \’NXT founder\’ Triple H will take part in this week\’s NXT broadcast to address this news.
WWE sent in the following press release Monday afternoon, a nice move as much of their audience is on lockdown at home due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
WWE OFFERS FREE ACCESS TO WWE NETWORK
Beginning today, WWE is pleased to unlock a vast portion of the WWE Network library and extend free access to thousands of hours of extraordinary on-demand content, including every WrestleMania in history, countless pay-per-view spectaculars, original documentaries and more, for a limited time.
This unprecedented offering to WWE fans worldwide includes each epic installment to date of WrestleMania, plus, every Royal Rumble, SummerSlam and Survivor Series event; every NXT TakeOver and NXT UK TakeOver; and groundbreaking originals such as the entire WWE 24 docuseries, Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions interview show, the recent five-episode hit, WWE Ruthless Aggression, and its 20-episode predecessor, The Monday Night War series.
Also included:
Recent episodes of Monday Night Raw
Recent episodes of Friday Night SmackDown
Every episode of WWE Untold
A Future WWE: The FCW Story
Much, much more
We’ve already doubled down with an historic WrestleMania this year that’s Too Big for Just One Night, streaming on WWE Network next Saturday, April 4 and Sunday, April 5 at 7 ET/4 PT. The two-night WrestleMania event is only available to WWE Network subscribers.
Now, in the lead-up to The Show of Shows, you can relive classic matches, re-experience sports-entertainment’s defining moments and celebrate WWE’s greatest Superstars, past and present. Just create your account and stream on your favorite device.
All Elite Wrestling has announced another intriguing bout for Wednesday\’s edition of AEW Dynamite. Kenny Omega of The Elite will battle \”Spanish God\” Sammy Guevara. This will be a championship match, but not for AEW gold.
In addition to being one half of the AEW Tag Team Champions with \”Handwash\” Adam Page, Kenny Omega also holds the AAA Mega Championship. He won that title from fellow AEW star Rey Fenix at AAA Heroes Inmortales XIII back in October. You can watch that match in full below:
AEW Dynamite Preview
This week\’s AEW Dynamite was originally scheduled to be the Blood and Guts episode from Newark, NJ. As a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, AEW postponed Blood and Guts until further notice. A fan on Twitter complained about AEW\’s decision, but Le Champion Chris Jericho set him straight:
First off, pull your head out of your ass and realize these are crazy times. Secondly, we aren’t allowed to gather more than ten people together at a time. B&G has 11 inside the cage and that’s with no camera men or crew. https://t.co/GYfQeLC7Yb
— Chris Jericho (Social Media Team Managed) (@IAmJericho) March 22, 2020
AEW has yet to confirm the location of this week\’s Dynamite, but it\’s expected that Daily\’s Place Amphitheater in Jacksonville, FL will remain the home of Dynamite until things get back to normal.
The following is an updated preview for this week\’s AEW Dynamite on TNT:
AAA Mega Campeón Kenny Omega vs. Sammy Guevara
Cody vs. Jimmy Havoc
Confrontation between \”Broken\” Matt Hardy and Chris Jericho
Catch up on last week\’s Dynamite below with our popular Takeaways feature:
Matt Hardy thinks the prospect of competing at New Japan Pro Wrestling\’s Wrestle Kingdom event is WONDERFUL. Over the weekend, a fan asked Hardy on Twitter if there\’s a chance we could see him compete \’just once\’ in New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Broken Matt revealed that his AEW contract does in fact allow him to work for NJPW, similar to that of AEW World Champion Jon Moxley and Le Champion Chris Jericho.
My contract would allow that. Truth be told, I’d love the opportunity to perform on a NJPW WrestleKingdom show in some capacity.
AEW has announced a new match for this coming week\’s episode of Dynamite. The American Nightmare Cody will face Jimmy Havoc in singles action.
This show was originally supposed to feature the highly anticipated Blood and Guts double steel cage match between The Elite and the Inner Circle. However, AEW President Tony Khan announced that the match has been rescheduled. You can read Tony Khan\’s full statement on the matter here.
In addition to Cody vs. Jimmy Havoc, Wednesday\’s AEW Dynamite will feature a face-to-face confrontation between \”Broken\” Matt Hardy and Inner Circle leader Chris Jericho. These two have crossed paths before in WWE. They will soon clash at Blood and Guts, now that Hardy has been named as the final member of Team Elite.
Daniel Bryan wants to know what WWE fans think about the possibility of wrestling machine Chad Gable joining his alliance with Drew Gulak.
As seen below, popular Wrestling .GIF Twitter account @TDE_Wrestling posted a clip of Bryan and Gulak doing a common grappling training drill from Friday\’s SmackDown.
Chad Gable, who has been critiquing Otis\’ workouts on Twitter, chimed in. He gave some input on Bryan and Gulak\’s form and offered to give them more training, when they are \’truly ready\’ for his expertise.
I could fit a 747 through the gap in those elbows. And where’s the lat control?
Bryan pondered the idea of the Bryan & Gulak Connection becoming the Bryan, Gulak and Gable Connection. He asked his Twitter followers what they think about the prospect and received a strong showing of support.
Daniel Bryan, Chad Gable and Drew Gulak could make for one hell of a faction. The trio of technicians could put on wrestling clinics week in and week out. It\’s an exciting prospect, but even Corey Graves knows that it seems far fetched that WWE would embrace such a great idea.
A bunch of guys who are really good at wrestling, making each other even better at wrestling? ? pic.twitter.com/dtRnivVEqQ
The identity of the Exalted One, the mysterious leader of AEW\’s Dark Order faction, will be revealed on tonight\’s episode of Dynamite.
For months, the Dark Order and AEW\’s social media pages have been pushing propaganda signaling the Exalted One\’s arrival.
The most recent tease can be seen below. At a glance, it appears to be a jumbled set of numbers. Some bright minds on Twitter figured out numbers contain an encoded \”tap code\” message that reads, \”It\’s Too Late Now.\”
So, who is the Exalted One? There have been many theories going around. One plausible possibility is Brodie Lee (former WWE Superstar Luke Harper). The \’non-compete\’ clause on Brodie Lee\’s WWE contract has expired. He is officially a free agent and rumored to be AEW bound. Tonight\’s AEW Dynamite was originally scheduled to take place from Rochester, NY. This happens to be Brodie Lee\’s home town. He would make a good fit as the leader of the cult.
Matt Hardy also a prime candidate to be revealed as the Exalted One. Hardy is a free agent and is almost certainly AEW bound.
Matt Hardy has also been dropping plenty of hints about the Exalted One. It\’s getting so obvious that it might very well be a red herring. Perhaps he\’s headed to All Elite Wrestling to save AEW from the Exalted One.
The twelfth and final installment of Matt Hardy\’s Free The Delete YouTube series premieres tonight. Hardy is likely headed to AEW, but is he the Exalted One?
Dark Order member Evil Uno has been tweeting about who is NOT the Exalted one, including names like Ryback, Jim Ross, Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, Max Headroom and others. We\’ll find out who the Exalted One is in a matter of hours. Whoever it winds up being, kudos to AEW for crafting a pretty engaging mystery angle.
WWE programming, including WrestleMania 36 and NXT, has been relegated to the Performance Center for the foreseeable future as a result of the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak.
The most recent episodes of NXT, SmackDown and Raw have taken place at the training facility, with live matches and non-wrestling segments taking place in front of an empty venue with no fans in attendance. It has made for an interesting, at times eerie, setting for pro wrestling shows.
According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, WWE has already changed gears on this format and will be going in a new direction for Wednesday night\’s NXT broadcast.
Meltzer says it is confirmed that this week\’s NXT will feature no live matches. He wrote on Twitter, \”Studio setting, interviews, personality profiles, old footage.\”
NXT, AEW Affected by Coronavirus
WWE announced earlier this week that the upcoming NXT Takeover show from Tampa Bay, FL during WrestleMania weekend has been canceled. The 2020 WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony is rumored to be taking place during SummerSlam weekend. However, WWE has yet to announce the fate of Takeover: Tampa Bay.
NXT will not feature any matches, but rival show AEW Dynamite will. Until further notice, AEW Dynamite will take place in closed-set locations. Wednesday\’s show has been moved to the Daily\’s Place Amphitheater in Jacksonville, FL.
Top items hyped for AEW Dynamite include the Inner Circle vs. The Elite in a match to determine which team gets the upper hand in next week\’s Blood and Guts double steel cage match. We\’ll aslso see the Lucha Bros vs. Best Friends and the big reveal regarding the identity of the Dark Order\’s Exalted One.
NXT has had a tough year competing with AEW Dynamite. It will be interesting to see how the two shows fare this week in light of the unique formats.
Earlier this week, WWE announced some major changes to WrestleMania 36 weekend. As a result of the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak, WrestleMania will no longer take place ta the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, FL. Instead, the company\’s biggest show of the year will be held at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, FL.
Two other Mania weekend events, NXT Takeover: Tampa Bay and the 2020 WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony, are also affected.
Georgia Smith, daughter of WWE HOF Class of 2020 member \”British Bulldog\” Davey Boy Smith, reveals that WWE is now considering SummerSlam weekend for this year\’s Hall of Fame ceremony.
Smith noted that SummerSlam would be an appropriate setting for her father to be honored, a reference to his classic 1992 bout against Bret Hart from London\’s Wembley Stadium.
WWE has since put out a statement addressing this report, simply reiterating that details about NXT Takeover and the Hall of Fame will be shared when they are available:
“The WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony and NXT TakeOver will not take place as previously scheduled. We will share further details as they become available.”
Major League Wrestling (MLW) has announced a 45-day suspension of live event due to the ongoing Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. MLW’s April 18th event from Chicago, IL at Cicero Stadium has been rescheduled for Friday, June 12th.
MLW sent in the following press release regarding the hiatus:
Major League Wrestling temporarily suspends promoting live events for 45 days due to pandemic
MLW programming to continue Saturday nights on beIN SPORTS and YouTube
NEW YORK — Major League Wrestling has suspended promoting live events for 45 days, effective immediately, as the league continues to assess the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
At the appropriate time, the league will communicate plans for promoting live events outside of the 45-day temporary hiatus and update the status of league events.
MLW programming will continue to air Saturday nights on beIN SPORTS on cable and satelitte, MLW’s YouTube channel and with partners around the world during this period.
As a result of the temporary suspension of promoting live events, MLW’s April 18th event in Chicago has been rescheduled for Friday night June 12 at Cicero Stadium. All tickets purchased for the originally scheduled date will be honored at this time.
The MLW family would like to extend our appreciation and well wishes to all doctors, nurses, emergency services staff, first responders and medical professionals on the front line working to address the public health crisis in our nation and around the world.
In light of the ongoing Coronavirus disease outbreak, All Elite Wrestling is relocating the next two weeks of AEW Dynamite tapings.
Next week\’s show, originally scheduled for Rochester, NY, will now take place from the Daily\’s Place amphitheater in Jacksonville, FL. The first AEW Dynamite show from Rochester\’s Blue Cross Arena will take place Wednesday, July 8th.
The March 25th episode of Dynamite, originally scheduled for Newark, NJ, will be held at a venue to be determined. AEW Dynamite from Newark\’s Prudential Center will take place Wednesday, July 22nd.
As of this writing, AEW has yet to comment on the fate of the highly anticipated Blood & Guts double steel cage match (The Elite vs. The Inner Circle) that was booked for 3/25.
The following is an official statement from AEW sent in to SEScoops.com regarding the changes:
Rochester
As a precautionary measure against COVID-19, we are relocating next week’s AEW DYNAMITE show on March 18 from Rochester, NY, to Jacksonville, FL. This show will be televised live on TNT from Daily’s Place, and be managed under a restricted attendance policy. The DYNAMITE show in Rochester will be rescheduled for Wednesday, July 8, at Blue Cross Arena.
Fans who have already purchased tickets to the Rochester show will be offered a refund via the point of purchase, or have their original ticket valid for admission to the event on July 8. Additional details will be forthcoming.
Newark
In addition, the DYNAMITE show on March 25 at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, will be relocated to a new venue, which will be announced shortly. This show will be televised live on TNT on March 25, and be managed under a restricted attendance policy. The DYNAMITE show in Newark will be rescheduled for Wednesday, July 22, at the Prudential Center.
Fans who have already purchased tickets to the Newark show will be offered a refund via the point of purchase, or have their original ticket valid for admission to the event on July 22. Additional details will be forthcoming.
We appreciate your understanding as the safety and well-being of our fans and talent is always our top priority. We will continue to closely monitor this evolving situation related to COVID-19 and be guided by government officials, health organizations and venue management.
This coming Monday\’s WWE RAW taping from Pittsburgh, PA has been cancelled due to the ongoing Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.
According to PWInsider, the \”3/16\” edition o f RAW will be broadcast live from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, FL.
The venue hosted Wednesday\’s episode of NXT. Tonight\’s WWE SmackDown, originally scheduled for Detroit, MI, is also taking place at the training facility. Based on these latest changes, it appears the WWE Performance Center will be the home of WWE television tapings for the forseeable future.
SmackDown Live will feature appearances from John Cena, Paige and Jeff Hardy.
WWE Hall of Famer \”Stone Cold\” Steve Austin is advertised for RAW to celebrate 3:16 Day, March 16th.
Despite the very serious risk to public health, WWE still plans to hold this year\’s WrestleMania at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, FL on Sunday, April 5th.
All Elite Wrestling President Tony Khan was the special guest on this week\’s edition of the AEW Unrestricted podcast.
Here are some highlights of Khan\’s discussion with Tony Schiavone and Aubrey Edwards:
In the early stages of creating the wrestling promotion that would be come AEW, the first idea he had for the company\’s name was, Worlds Best Wrestling.
Tony met TNT President Kevin Reilly at a party back on April 6, 2018. He learned that TNT was considering bidding for the TV rights for WWE Raw and SmackDown. He remembers telling Reilly that the wrestling TV industry had changed a lot since TNT aired WCW programming. He told Reilly that acquiring WWE programming would be way too expensive, but there was still enough fan interest to warrant a second major league product. Reilly was intrigued, especially when Tony Khan told him that were a lot of talent free agents and WWE wrestlers with contracts expiring in the near future.
The first names Tony Khan had in mind for starting a new promotion were Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, Chris Jericho and CM Punk. Jon Moxley was not under consideration at the beginning, because he was a WWE guy and they were pleasantly surprised when he became a free agent.
He is very hands-on with the AEW product, as it relates to the creative direction and overall business operations. He\’s communicating with referees during the matches about time cues and with the announcers about what to put over. However, he is careful to not be in the announcers\’ ears too much.
AEW executives are happy with the Dynamite product and took a dig at \’other companies\’ taping 5 weeks of shows at theme parks.
MJF recently signed a new contract extension with AEW. He will be with the company through at least 2024.
It was Tony Khan\’s idea to have young stars like Jungle Boy and Scorpio Sky have TV matches with (former) AEW World Champion Chris Jericho. He thought both matches showcased the challengers in a big way.
His appearance on Steve Austin\’s podcast shortly after Double or Nothing, and Austin\’s praise for the show, was one of the proudest moments during his time in wrestling.
His first exposure to pro wrestling was seeing Hulk Hogan on the A-Team in the early 1980\’s.
AEW Of all the names that Tony had been thinking of to sign early on, Jon Moxley\’s name was never one of them, because him leaving was a big surprise.
The people in AEW do not feel like they are in a war with WWE. They are trying to present a strong alternative product and compete with themselves.
Tony spoke about wanting to avoid insulting fans\’ intelligence and the need to present things logically. He called out the \”invisible camera\” technique that other companies have used, where you see someone hatching a plan in secret and everyone else is supposed to act like it didn\’t just air on television for the world to see.
Overall, it was a fun chat that is definitely worth checking out.
All Elite Wrestling has issued a statement addressing the COVID-19 Coronavirus disease that has the entire world on high alert.
As of this writing (3/10/20), AEW live events are moving forward as scheduled. The company is closely monitoring the situation and will use the guidance of government officials and health organizations to determine if any changes are necessary.
?All AEW events are currently moving forward as scheduled. Of course, the safety and well-being of AEW fans, partners and talent is always our top priority, so we will continue to closely monitor the rapidly evolving situation related to COVID-19 and be guided by government officials, health organizations and venue management. AEW will update ticket purchasers if there are any changes to the event schedule, and we encourage everyone in the AEW family to be good to themselves – and each other – by taking preventative actions as recommended by the CDC and WHO.
All Elite Wrestling is set to debut in New Orleans and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
It was announced on Monday that AEW Dynamite is coming to New Orleans, LA on Wednesday, May 6th at the Lakefront Arena. Tickets for AEW NOLA go on sale this Friday, March 13th at AEWTix.com.
If you zoom in and increase the contrast of the image, you can see it\’s some sort of bird in the background. Is it a raven, a (murder)hawk or something else? Look below and decide for yourself.
One week out from AEW Revolution, All Elite Wrestling has announced that Kenny Omega is still not medically cleared to compete.
Omega, one half of the AEW tag team champions with \”Hangman\” Page, injured his hand last weekend at Revolution during their successful title defense against the Young Bucks.
AEW has announced that Omega will will be kept out of action for another 1-2 weeks. As a result, he will be unable to compete this coming week on Dynamite.
Hangman Page will now select a mystery partner for a non-title match against Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara Wednesday night from Salt Lake City, UT.
Ahead of next week, catch up on our 6 Takeaways from last week\’s broadcast:
NXT women\’s Champion Rhea Ripley is gearing up for the biggest match of her career. She will battle Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 36, which takes place Sunday, April 5th from Tampa Bay, FL.
Ahead of their clash, Ripley got a big new tattoo on her right leg at the Built 4 Speed Tattoo shop in Orlando, FL.
As seen below, the tattoo is of a Wendigo creature. According to Wikipedia, the Wendigo is a \”mythological man-eating creature or evil spirit\” from the folklore of the First Nations Algonquian tribes.
The wendigo is described as, \”a monster with some characteristics of a human or as a spirit who has possessed a human being and made them become monstrous. Its influence is said to invoke acts of murder, insatiable greed, cannibalism and the cultural taboos against such behaviors\”
Check out Rhea Ripley\’s new wendigo tattoo below (in progress):
All Elite Wrestling has released another cryptic message teasing the forthcoming arrival of the Dark Order\’s mystery leader, The Exalted One.
The message, seen below, depicts a disturbing image of what is to come once the Exalted One\’s identity is revealed.
MADE FROM THE VOID OF HOPELESSNESS AND FROM TIME SPENT AWAY WITH THE SHADOWS THIS IS WHAT IT TOOK FOR ME TO ARRIVE THE CALLING….
HELLO? ARE YOU THERE? READY & WAITING DARK ORDER WELCOMES ME YOU ARE HERE
As you may have noticed, the first letter of each sentence spells out, \”MATT HARDY.\” Matt Hardy is in fact a free agent and is expected to join AEW in the near future.
Hardy seems like an obvious contender to be the Exalted One. His out-there \’broken brilliance\’ character could add an exciting creative dimension to the Dark Order storyline. Alternatively, the Matt Hardy teases could be a red herring. The Dark Order is a cult that preys upon people with psychological manipulation. For all we know, the Exalted One could be Luke Harper, Lance Archer, Jake Roberts, Raven or someone else entirely – and it\’s Broken Matt Hardy coming in to declare war on the Dark Order.
Whoever the Exalted One is, hopefully we find out in the next couple weeks. The \’iron it hot\’ and it\’s time for AEW to strike and deliver the payoff.
Peter Rosenberg is back with WWE. The New York broadcasting icon returns to the WWE pay-per-view kickoff show panel this Sunday at Elimination Chamber. Rosenberg will also serve as a special correspondent for various WWE Network shows and upcoming specials.
Here is the official press release sent in by WWE, including a reaction from Rosenberg.
STAMFORD, Conn. – March 6, 2020 – WWE today announced that popular radio personality Peter Rosenberg will join the company as an analyst for its monthly pay-per-view kickoff shows beginning this Sunday, March 8 at WWE Elimination Chamber. In his new role, Rosenberg will also serve as a special correspondent for various WWE Network shows and upcoming specials.
\”To quote Vince McMahon at WrestleMania XII, working with WWE is the boyhood dream come true,” said Rosenberg. “I am beyond thrilled to rejoin the WWE Universe.”
Peter Rosenberg brings his expertise and insight to sports fans daily as a co-host of ESPN New York\’s The Michael Kay Show, which he has helped propel to the number one afternoon drive radio show in New York. In addition, he is frequently featured on ESPN’s national broadcasts, most recently providing color commentary at the NBA Celebrity All-Star Game. He also can be heard every weekday morning co-hosting Ebro In The Morning on Hot 97, anchoring one of New York’s most iconic and revered media brands.
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