DAILY UPDATE
Latest News:
Teddy Hart charged with stragulation resulting in bodily harm
Rey Horus signs new contract with Ring of Honor
New WrestleMania 36 match, updates on Cesaro, Asuka & Murphy
Andrade off WWE WrestleMania 36 due to injury, replacement set
SmackDown Tag Team Champion The Miz out of WWE WrestleMania 36
VIDEO: WWE and Netflix release trailer for ‘The Main Event’
WWE announces two matches for 205 Live
WWE Universal Champion Goldberg gets new WrestleMania opponent
Latest Audio:
WOL: Reigns off WrestleMania, more changes, plus Adrian Gomez on wrestling in China 3/27
Wrestling Weekly: Should live wrestling still be happening? 3/27
WOR: Roman out of Wrestlemania, Goldberg’s new opponent 3/27
B&V: Bryan and Vinny review AEW and NXT head-to-head! 3/26
Are you interested in attending our annual F4W/WON convention? We will hold it during AEW Double or Nothing weekend. For more information, check this post for activities and prices.
WON NEWSLETTER: March 30, 2020 Observer Newsletter: WrestleMania continues to change
WWE finished all its tapings through the 4/6 Raw after WrestleMania this past week, with empty arena shows taped at both the Performance Center in Orlando and Full Sail University in Winter Park.
Whether coincidence or not, the tapings were already underway when the county announced a stay-at-home order going into effect at 11 p.m. on 3/26, through 4/9. The first TV show that would not be covered at this point would be either NXT on 4/8 or Smackdown on 4/10.
Included in the taping was most if not all of WrestleMania, which was taped on 3/25 and 3/26 at the Performance Center.
There are a few WrestleMania bouts that will be done on location, notably Undertaker vs. A.J. Styles. That will be what is billed as a boneyard match, stips not to be announced ahead of time it appears. From promos, sounds like it will be taped in a mock cemetery setting.
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Note: The following update contains possible spoilers for this year’s WrestleMania.
FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
So a few WrestleMania catch-up notes when it comes to rumors. Asuka, Cesaro, Edge and Kevin Owens, all listed as not being part of the show, are all fine and were part of the show. Edge vs. Randy Orton and Seth Rollins vs. Kevin Owens happened as scheduled. The show was taped Wednesday and Thursday. WWE has taped all television through 4/8, so as far as finishes go, it’s not like there was any reason to do multiple finishes because finishes of most of the matches would be discussed on Raw the next day which is already taped, as is NXT. The plan right now is to do Smackdown live from the Performance Center on 4/10, but obviously everything is up on the air on that.
Roman Reigns was replaced by Braun Strowman against Bill Goldberg. The Miz, who was ill, was off the show so the tag title match with Miz & John Morrison vs. Usos became a ladder match with one of the Usos vs Morrison. The Usos beat The New Day apparently on the Smackdown show that will air tonight that was taped earlier in the week, which was to determine who was to get the tag title match. There may be angles tonight and Monday that were later shot to explain the lineup changes. Suffice to say that doing WrestleMania right now was a terrible idea.
Murphy was to be in Seth Rollins’ corner for the match with Owens but he was removed from the show due to being ill.
Andrade suffered a rib injury in the tag match Monday night on Raw which is why he was pulled from the tag title match, which was Street Profits vs. Austin Theory & Angel Garza. There will be an angle airing on Raw Monday night to explain this.
No matter what you think of pro wrestling’s decisions to continue taping television or doing Mania, this is not on par with UFC running shows. These aren’t guys compromising their immune systems by having to go to a gym and train with multiple partners and then cut 20 pounds to weaken themselves, nor fly to an undisclosed location from all over the world. It’s easy to make a comparison and in its simplest form you can compare, but these are two entirely different levels of risk involved. Also, no matter what you think of the decisions, when it comes to work I’m virtually certain as far as putting stuff together, for both AEW and WWE, this was the hardest week perhaps ever for WWE and absolutely ever for AEW.
Jim Valley and I did a special show last night talking about the Reigns pullout, details of it, and UFC’s decision and many other things including the greatest wrestler of all-time talk.
Roman Reigns was the tenth most searched for topic on Google today with 50,000. Yesterday, Jon Jones was No. 4 with 200,000. Not having anything to do with wrestling or MMA, but Globetrotters legend Curly Neal was No. 6 with 100,000.
WWE
The PPV price for WrestleMania continues to vary depending on where you live. Verizon Fios is charging $59.99 each for both shows. Comcast is offering day one for $39.95 and day two for $59.95. I can tell you that WWE was hoping for a regular WrestleMania price and that you would get both shows for that price as opposed to this, and the ability to watch either show for half of a normal Mania price, but it is up to the cable companies.
WWE and Sky Germany are parting ways at the end of the month. They were in talks to renew but WWE didn’t offer the right to air PPV’s live and Sky decided against renewing. Sky had already offered AEW on PPV on 2/29 and are going to offer all AEW PPVs going forward. (thanks to Markus Gronemann)
If you have access to inside info, here at the www.BetOnline.ag odds for Mania as of yesterday:
Shayna Baszler -170 vs. Becky Lynch +130
Drew McIntyre -350 vs. Brock Lesnar +225
Roman Reigns -1000 vs. Bill Goldberg +550. Well, that tells you something.
Rhea Ripley -180 vs. Charlotte Flair +140
Bayley +120 vs. Sasha Banks +150 vs. Lacey Evans +400 vs. Naomi +600 vs. Tamina +5000
Edge -350 vs. Randy Orton +225
Kevin Owens -180 vs. Seth Rollins +225
Bray Wyatt -500 vs. John Cena +300
Undertaker -400 vs. A.J. Styles +250
Aleister Black -475 vs. Bobby Lashley +300
Elias -120 vs. King Corbin -120
ESPN will re-air the Ric Flair 30 for 30 on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. right before airing WrestleMania 32, which is the AT&T Stadium show from Irving TX at 7 p.m.
UFC
The company will have classic fights this weekend on ESPN, including the Zhang Weili vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk fight which airs at 8 p.m. Eastern. At 9 p.m. will be Joseph Benavidez vs. Jussier Formiga and Tony Ferguson vs. Donald Cerrone. At 10 p.m. will be Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Dustin Poirier.
AEW
Chris Jericho talks about Chris Benoit and the Dark Side of the Ring episode in Paste Magazine.
MISCELLANEOUS
Also not having to do with wrestling, but this is why Vin Scully will be remembered for all-time.
An update on how Japan is doing with the pandemic.
ROH television going forward, at least until June, will feature shows built around specific wrestlers or tag teams. This weekend’s show will be about Mark & Jay Briscoe. Among the matches airing will be the Briscoes vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico from 2007 and Jay vs. Mark for the ROH title in 2013. They are also pushing new YouTube content featuring C.M. Punk, A.J. Styles, Bryan Danielson, Samoa Joe, Steen and Tyler Black. There is a one hour Samoa Joe show with matches against Kenta Kobashi (an all-time classic), Kyle O’Reilly and Jay Briscoe. They also put up the Jay Lethal vs. Matt Taven 60:00 match.
Ace Montana did an interview about the incident between himself and Teddy Hart.
Glory kickboxing will stream daily at 2 p.m. Eastern on its Facebook page, the biggest shows in its history, one on each day.
Club WWN is offering one month free of its streaming service for VOD which has every Evolve show, every Shine show, plus every WWN Supershow and all events under their banner historically.
CWE in Canada has a show tonight at 8 p.m. from Winnipeg streaming on the CWE Wrestling Facebook page for free. Donations via paypal are encouraged for those viewing. It will be from their gym with less than ten people in the building and be a three match card with Danny Duggan vs. AJ Sanchez, Johnny Malibu vs. Kevin Cannon and Adrie Burton vs. Dragneel.
CWE has announced 4/27 in Oak Lake, Manitoba at the Community Hall with Shane Douglas vs. Tommy Lee Curtis and Mentallo vs. Robin Lekime. 4/28 in Dauphin, Manitoba at The Watson Art Center has Douglas vs. Marcellus Prime as the main event. 4/29 in Yorkton, Saskatchewan at the Yorkdale Central School has Douglas & Bull Donar vs AJ Sanchez & Kevin O’Doyle plus Mentallo vs Danny Duggan.
The much talked about Great Sasuke documentary was released online.
A story on the career of Thomas Matera, who does shows on this site and is a former WWE wrestler as Antonio Thomas.
A story on how the virus is affecting Australian Wrestling. (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
Daily Pro Wrestling History: Randy Savage wins WWF title at WrestleMania IV
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