Having signed with WWE in February, Taya Valkyrie didn’t have long to wait until making her WWE television debut on Tuesday night’s NXT episode. Now going by the name Franky Monet, which was revealed during an NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver vignette, she, along with her pet dog Prince Presley, would confront NXT Women’s Champion Raquel Gonzalez. Clearly, WWE has big plans for the former Impact Knockouts Champion. However, some fans were unhappy with WWE changing her established name. Valkyrie would therefore take to Twitter to reveal that she picked the new name, which she took from the famous French artist. She’d also say the name does not make the wrestler. Valkyrie departed Impact Wrestling after failing yo to recapture the Impact Knockouts Championship at their January pay-per-view. Impact wrote her off television by revealing she was behind the long-running angle on who shot John E. Bravo in a segment played for comedy. Tommy Dreamer would say in the skit when discussing Valkyrie’s arrest that if she’s lucky, she’ll go to Jacksonville State Prison in reference to AEW. If she is unlucky, she will go to Stamford Maximum Penitentiary, alluding to WWE. Valkyrie has a wealth of experience, having graduated from Lance Storm’s Wrestling Academy in September 2010. Just two years into her career, she moved from Canada to Mexico to wrestle for AAA. This led to her appearing in Lucha Underground and Impact Wrestling and holding the Impact Knockouts Championship for a record 377 days.

In June 2019, Vince McMahon made Paul Heyman an instrumental part of WWE by giving him the role of executive director of Raw. During that time, he gave several talent opportunities such as Andrade, Zelina Vega, Aleister Black, Murphy, Humberto Carrillo, Akam, and Rezar. Vince wasn’t overly impressed with this and replaced him with Bruce Prichard one year later.

Despite this, Heyman remained on as a talent and is now associated with Roman Reigns in a key role on SmackDown. However, his talent contact is set to expire in May, and the former ECW boss was asked if he intends to stay with WWE during a recent interview with Sports Media with Richard Deitsch.

It’s hard to imagine WWE letting Heyman leave as he is too valuable in his role with Reigns. Plus, when Brock Lesnar inevitably returns to WWE, a match will be booked between him and Reigns, with Heyman being instrumental in the angle. While some fans may think AEW signing Heyman in a creative role would be a masterstroke, the belief is Tony Khan is happy with his current creative process. Hence, if Heyman wants to remain in the wrestling industry on big money, it appears WWE is his best option.

Being on the stock exchange means WWE has to be transparent with their financial dealings and have just filed their Definitive Proxy Statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This document is important for shareholders ahead of their 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, scheduled for May 27, 2021.

Included is lots of fascinating information, such as how much the companies share ownership is split (Vice McMahon has 92.3% of Class B shares). The fact Triple H’s talent contract expires March 30, 2022, and Stephanie McMahon’s expires October 6, 2021, but will be extended by a year unless either party gives 90 days notice. Additionally, if Vince McMahon resigns or is fired, he cannot compete against WWE for one year.

Perhaps most interestingly for fans is seeing what the McMahon family and WWE’s top executives made throughout 2020. You can read these amounts below, which include salary, stock awards, and bonuses.

Vince McMahon – Chairman & Chief Executive Officer – $3,905,792

Nick Khan – President & Chief Revenue Officer – $12,964,565 (Includes a $5 million sign-on bonus)

George Barrios – Former Co-President and Chief Financial Officer – $1,000,716 (Was severance pay after being fired in January 2020)

Stephanie McMahon – Chief Brand Officer – $2,187,266 (Includes her talent pay)

Triple H – EVP, Global Talent Strategy & Development – $2,318,280 (Includes his talent pay)

Shane McMahon – Performer Only – $820,369

Surprisingly, Khan made more than the McMahon family combined and likely more than any talent. This is especially impressive when you consider he only joined the company in August 2020. However, he has years of experience negotiating big-money television distribution deals and is regarded as a vital hire by the company.

Khan is believed to have been behind WWE getting $1 billion from Peacock over five years for their United States streaming rights, so he has already earned his pay. With him being compensated almost $13 million, he was likely paid more than anyone else in the company’s inclusion talents.

Apart from being a pro wrestler and now a commentator for AEW, Paul Wight is also an actor. He recently had his own Netflix show, The Big Show Show, and has appeared in multiple movies. One of his earliest movie roles came in The Waterboy, which starred Adam Sandler and Henry Winkler. He played professional wrestler Captain Insano, who appeared in a memorable scene in the movie, taking a call from Sadler’s character. He and a generic wrestling announcer would laugh at Sandler’s character once they found out he was 31 after initially thinking he was a child.

Shortly after Wight signed with the AEW, they would apply for the “Captain Insano” trademark for use in video games, seemingly indicating plans to include the character in the upcoming AEW video game. However, Wight has now confirmed while speaking to his AEW co-worker Miro that he would portray the character in AEW if Tony Khan can get a deal done for the rights.

The Frank that Wight talks about is seemingly Frank Coraci, who directed the movie and The Wedding Singer, Click, Blended, and The Ridiculous 6. He clearly enjoys working with Sandler, so perhaps a Captain Insano appearance could even coincide with Sandler making an appearance on Dynamite to promote a forthcoming movie.

Roman Reigns retained the Universal Championship by pinning both Daniel Bryan and Edge at the same time in WrestleMania’s night 2’s main event. Edge had given Bryan a con-chair-to, and when he went to do the same to Reigns, he was attacked by Jey Uso. This gave Reigns time to recover, and he’d hit the Royal Rumble winner with a spear followed by a con-chair-to of his own.

The finish made Reigns look dominant and was a unique way to end the match. However, following the show, a fan pointed out on Twitter that Edge was also pinning Bryan, technically giving him a claim on being Universal Champion. The tweet would draw the attention of both on-screen official Adam Pearce and referee Charles Robinson, as you can see below.

This could simply be Pearce having some fun on Twitter, although it could also indicate WWE is planning on turning the pinfall situation into an angle. The fact this year’s Backlash pay-per-view, scheduled for Sunday, May 16, has been titled WrestleMania Backlash seemingly indicates the show will feature rematches. Additionally, Reigns currently has no top contenders built up strongly enough to challenge him, so Reigns vs. Edge could be set to headline WrestleMania Backlash.

Yesterday we reported that WWE was switching around their Raw and SmackDown announce teams following the signing of Canadian sportscaster Adnan Virk. The former ESPN host is set to join Raw from tonight and will be working with Byron Saxton and Corey Graves. This left both Tom Phillips and Samoa Joe’s futures unknown, however, WWE has now issued a press release officially announcing Virk’s signing and providing an update on the former Raw commentators.

Phillips is set to announce 205 Live, the show written by Mick Foley’s son Dewey that airs on Friday’s following SmackDown on Peacock in the US and the WWE NEtwork worldwide. He will also oversee special projects for other WWE programming. With regards to Joe, it only states he remains part of the talent roster. This could possibly indicate he could be set to return to the ring, having not competed in over a year due to concussion issues.

It remains to be seen what SmackDown’s announce team will look like come Friday. At present, it is only known, Michael Cole will stay on as the lead announcer, with the color commentator role yet to be revealed.

Brodie Lee sadly passed away last December, and on subsequent shows, several wrestlers would pay tribute to him in their own way. Lance Archer would dress like Luke Harper on Dynamite, Drew McIntyre referenced Huber’s Twitter catchphrase saying, “It’s Monday, you know what that means,” during a Raw promo, and The New Day wore matching Brodie Lee outfits at the Royal Rumble.

Now, Bray Wyatt can be added to that list, having wrestled his first match since his friend and former Wyatt member’s tragic passing. He did this by putting his hands to his mouth and shouting “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah,” directly at the camera during his WrestleMania match against Randy Orton. You can watch this for yourself below.

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Somewhat surprisingly, The Fiend would go on to lose his return match after being distracted by Alexa Bliss, who had black liquid running down her face. This would allow Orton to hit an RKO, get the victory, and potentially end the long-running feud. Following the match, both The Fiend and Bliss would disappear with the lights off, leaving fans at home and in attendance bewildered by what they’d just witnessed.

One of WrestleMania’s traditions is having the famously patriotic song “America the Beautiful” sang during the show’s opening. For night 1 of this year’s event, WWE brought in singer and songwriter Bebe Rexha. Most fans were delighted with her rendition, which also featured guitarist JinJoo Lee and it appears she had a great time performing.

Following the show, she took to social media and shared several photos and a video with her interacting with WWE stars. However, the video has broken kayfabe and shown WWE’s “DO NOT SLAP LEG WHEN KICKING” sign. She has since deleted the video from Twitter. Still, as of writing, it remains available on Instagram, and you can watch it below.

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For those unaware, WWE previously sent a memo to talents banning the use of leg/thigh slaps due to an unnamed wrestler doing it openly on SmackDown and angering Vince McMahon. Signs would also be placed around the ThunderDome and in the Gorilla position, although some fans questioned this due to certain wrestlers continuing to use the technique. This video should now silence the doubters.

Thigh slaps in wrestling have been a controversial subject over the last few years due to excessive use. Current AEW announcer Jim Ross previously stated that he finds them passe and embarrassing on his Grilling JR podcast. Similarly, Randy Orton has mocked NXT wrestlers for overusing the technique on Twitter, despite doing it himself when punting someone.

After years of having permanent announce partnerships, WWE now regularly makes modifications, and following WrestleMania 37, both Raw and SmackDown’s teams are being changed. Raw will be made up of former ESPN announcer Adnan Virk, Corey Graves, and Byron Saxton. SmackDown’s team is yet to be confirmed, although Michael Cole is expected to remain. While there is the possibility Samoa Joe will move to SmackDown, the belief is Tom Phillips will no longer have a role.

Canadian sportscaster Virk is seen as a direct replacement for Phillips, who has been with WWE since 2012 and been the lead announcer on Raw, SmackDown, NXT, NXT UK, Main Event, 205 Live, and Superstars. As of writing, it isn’t known what WWE’s plans are for Phillips, and neither party has publicly commented on the situation.

Virk is likely coming in due to WWE President & Chief Revenue Officer Nick Khan’s recommendation, who was previously his agent. Virk was with ESPN for nine years and worked on Baseball Tonight, SportsCenter, Outside the Lines, and ESPN College Football. However, back in 2019, he was fired and escorted from the building because he had shared confidential information about the network’s baseball coverage with a journalist. Since then, he has worked for the MLB Network, NHL Network, DAZN and has his own podcast.

WWE welcomes fans back for the first night of WrestleMania 37, with the company hoping to have 25,000 fans attending the Raymond James Stadium. It looks sure to be less than that as currently, vast amounts of single tickets remain available. However, WWE has a much bigger problem to deal with, as there is a storm heading towards the stadium resulting in fans being requested to leave their seats and move indoors due. Twitter user @stellar_jl319 is in attendance and shared the below video on the social network platform, which shows the situation, and you can hear the announcement over the PA system.

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WWE has not yet made any announcements, and it’s unknown if the show will still commence with the 7 pm ET kickoff show. As of writing, rain continues to pour, and the stadium’s car parks remain closed, with fans who have not yet entered the stadium being told to stay in their vehicles.

To coincide with WrestleMania, WWE has teamed with Bitski.com to sell The Undertaker NFT content. Auctions are running between today and the end of the second night of WrestleMania, and as of writing, both currently available pieces are going for large amounts of money.

One of the pieces is The Undertaker’s WrestleMania 29 entrance, which is currently selling for $10,000. The second is the infamous clip of him throwing Mick Foley off Hell In A Cell which someone has bid a staggering $100,000. WWE also includes some other perks for the winners with front row tickets to a future WrestleMania, a personalized video message from The Undertaker, and an original urn available.

For those unaware, NFT’s are Non-fungible token pieces of digital art that are one-of-a-kind on the blockchain. They’ve become a big deal in the NBA with someone paying $200,000 for effectively digital ownership of a LeBron James highlight trading card. While others can copy the NFT, there will only ever be one genuine version, and the feeling is this could be the future of collecting.

With NFT’s becoming more popular all the time, this could be another huge revenue stream for WWE who have thousands of moments that fans would be interested in owning. However, the big question for collectors is whether these prices are sustainable or will the bubble eventually burst when the hype cools.

Jon Moxley competed as Dean Ambrose for WWE between 2011 to 2019 and became one of their biggest stars. Despite an upper mid-card position on the card, he opted to let his contract expire due to his unhappiness with WWE’s creative. He’d specifically call out Vince McMahon for giving him what he considered low-quality promo material. He is currently thriving in All Elite Wrestling and gets to work New Japan and large independent shows as long as they don’t clash with his AEW commitments.

Now, in an interview with The Bill Simmons Podcast to promote WrestleMania 37, Stephanie McMahon has discussed several topics, including whether she sees AEW as a competitor for WWE. Moxley’s name would also come up WWE’s Chief Brand Officer claiming his departure was a mutual decision.

It’s interesting to hear Stephanie say Moxley leaving WWE was a mutual decision, as at the time it was reported WWE offered him a five-year contract extension worth over $1 million a year. Likely, Stephanie claimed to Simmons it was mutual rather than publicly acknowledge a wrestler wasn’t happy working for WWE and opted to leave on their own terms.

Somewhat surprisingly, though, Moxley hasn’t ruled out ever working for WWE again. Despite previously calling Vince McMahon a 74-year-old mad man, he has said he would take a phone call from them in the future, noting he has a kid to put through college eventually.