Wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer has confirmed on his latest audio show that he was told that Braun Strowman replaced Roman Reigns in the Universal Championship match vs. Goldberg taped yesterday for WrestleMania 36. It’s believed the match change will be acknowledged on tonight’s SmackDown.
Roman Reigns decided to withdraw from the match as he did not want to risk his health as he has twice battled leukemia, so has a weakened immune system, making catching Covid-19 much more dangerous.
The WrestleMania card has already seen changes with both Rey Mysterio and Dan Brooke being in self-quarantine, and it is believed more matches have since been changed.
XYZ
The world of pro wrestling can be a crazy one, but it’s got nothing on the world of exotic animals if Netflix’s new Documentary series “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness” is an accurate portrayal.
The new series has blown up this past week thanks to prominent cat breeder Joe Exotic (Joe Maldonado-Passage) being a larger than life character now serving time in federal prison for animal abuse and plotting to murder a rival. We won’t give spoilers from the documentary, in case you’re one of the few remaining people who haven’t watched it yet.
Interestingly though over the last few days, news began to spread on social media that when Joe Exotic wasn’t busy running his exotic animal zoo, marrying his multiple husbands, running for governor of Oklahoma, and writing and performing songs, he found time to get involved in professional wrestling.
Exotic would work with NWA Texoma, now known as Texoma Pro Wrestling, promoting events, commentating, and even hosting two shows at his exotic animal park, which featured well-known wrestlers Charlie Haas, Erik of The Viking Raiders, and Tim Storm.
You can watch a number of the shows Joe Exotic was involved in on his YouTube channel at this link.
XYZ
WrestleMania 31 is considered an excellent show, but Sting losing his official WWE debut to Triple H left a sour taste in many fan’s mouths. WWE decided to portray the contest as a WWE vs. WCW, and after the match, following Triple H winning by hitting Sting with a sledgehammer, JBL on commentary would say “the right side won again.”
Now on the latest edition of his podcast former WWE road agent, Arn Anderson revealed that Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, and JBL were told to bury Sting throughout the match.
All it did was give the announcers, and I know this was fed to them, they just buried Sting. ‘Minnow in a big pond.’ you know, just total condescending, ‘guy’s out of his element,’ ‘this is WrestleMania now,’ ‘you’re just a small minnow in a huge lake.’ Whatever all the commentary was exactly, it was meant to just basically beat you over the head with we won the war, we’re WWE. We won the war. Here’s your big star, well he ain’t a big star here tonight.Arn Anderson
WWE would bring Sting back in August later that year to challenge WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins’s at Night of Champions. During the match, he would be injured when he was powerbombed onto a turnbuckle and was required to have surgery to correct cervical spinal stenosis, which sadly ended his career.
XYZ
The plan was for Andrade to defend his United States Championship against Rey Mysterio at WrestleMania 36, but that was officially off after on Raw it was announced that The Street Profits will defend their Raw Tag Team Championships against Andrade and Angel Garza.
The reason for the change is that Rey Mysterio is currently in quarantine. It should be noted that as of writing Rey Mysterio has not been diagnosed with Covid-19, and this is strictly a precaution.
Also, Dana Brooke will no longer compete in the SmackDown Women’s Title Six-Pack Challenge match as she is also in quarantine. Instead, the SmackDown Women’s Championship match will now be a Fatal Five Way between Bayley, Sasha Banks, Lacey Evans, Naomi, and Tamina.
While WrestleMania is still two weeks away, the show is being taped Wednesday and Thursday this week, meaning neither wrestler can complete the 14 days self-quarantine in time.
Hopefully, both Mysterio and Brooke have not been infected and able to return to the ring once their time is quarantine is over.
XYZ
With “Blood & Guts” being postponed, AEW needed to rebook this Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite, and we could be in for a treat as they’ve announced on Twitter that Kenny Omega will now be defending his AAA Mega Championship against Sammy Guevara.
Wednesday on Dynamite – the @luchalibreaaa Mega Campeón Championship is on the line as challenger @sammyguevara takes on the champion @KennyOmegamanX.
Watch #AEWDynamite on @TNTDrama 8e/7c.#AEWonTNT @AEWonTNT pic.twitter.com/k6jUqezszk
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEWrestling) March 23, 2020
The AAA Mega Championship, known in Mexico as Mega Campeonato AAA is arguably the number one title in Lucha Libre, and Kenny Omega has been champion since winning the title last October, beating Fenix at Heroes Inmortales. This will be the second time Omega has defended the title in AEW, after retaining it against Jack Evans during an episode of AEW Dark last November.
In addition, Dynamite will feature Cody vs. Jimmy Havoc and a face-to-face between new signee Matt Hardy and Chris Jericho.
XYZ
Class of 2009 WWE Hall of Famer Koko B Ware has had a GoFundMe set up for him to pay for his necessary knee replacement surgery. He doesn’t have insurance, so he has to pay the bill himself, and his fans can chip in towards the $10,000 bill here.
Everyone at WIJ hopes Koko can meet his target and can resume making convention appearances in the future.
XYZ
All Elite Wrestling is endeavoring to continue with weekly Dynamite episodes at present, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, Tony Khan has decided the time is not appropriate for the highly anticipated “Blood & Guts” match to take place.
It isn’t known when the War Games inspired match between Cody, Matt Jackson, Page, Omega, and new signing Matt Hardy going against Chris Jericho’s Inner Circle will take place. But Dynamite this Wednesday will instead have Jericho confronting Hardy face-to-face continuing the angle.
The name Blood & Guts was a shot at Vince McMahon, who referred to All Elite Wrestling as “Blood and Guts,” a term the AEW would joyfully go on to trademark.
XYZ
Last night was a weird one for the Wednesday Night Wars because of the coronavirus. Everyone’s mind is elsewhere, and wrestling feels pretty insignificant right now.
WWE decided to have no new matches and was just video packages and previous match highlights. In contrast, Dynamite had a closed set show but went big with the debuts of both Matt Hardy and Brodie Lee.
This paid off for AEW, who won the night comfortably with 932,000 average viewers (up 21.6%), against NXT’s 542,000 viewers (down 22.2%) in an evening dominated by news programs.
It will be interesting to see if WWE changes their approach to video package shows when going up against business as usual AEW episodes over the coming weeks. It will potentially depend on how the USA Network feels about this number, given the circumstances.
XYZ
Last night’s Dynamite was an eventful episode coming live from a closed set in Jacksonville, Florida, and featuring two big debuts.
The first was Brodie Lee, previously known Luke Harper in WWE being unveiled as the Exalted One, the leader of the Dark Order.
Evil Uno and Stu Grayson were in the ring and confronted by Christopher Daniels, who claimed there was no Exalted One. Brodie Lee was then shown in a video as him, and along with the Dark Order, attacked Daniels and Kazarian. You can watch this segment below.
The other big news was the debut of Matt Hardy, who appeared in the empty stands at the end of the show when Chris Jericho and his Inner Circle were saying the Elite was a man down for the Blood & Guts double cage match as Nick Jackson is (storyline) injured.
The Vanguard 1 drone would land in the ring, and Matt Jackson said he had a friend that owed him a favor as “Broken” Matt Hardy was revealed. Again you can watch below.
This now sets up the upcoming War Games inspired match of Jericho, Guevara, Hager, Santana, and Ortiz vs. Cody, Omega, Page, Matt Jackson, and now Matt Hardy.
XYZ
As detailed a few days ago, WrestleMania is still on, but taking place at the WWE Performance Center. It’s now thought the event will take place across further locations due to only wanting to have a small number of people in one place at a time. It isn’t yet known where all these locations will be.
In addition, last night, former NFL athlete and new WWE signee Rob Gronkowski tweeted the below, stating the show will take place on both Saturday and Sunday and be hosted by himself.
It’s official! I’m hosting @WrestleMania this year…and it’s gonna be too big for just one night. For the 1st time, #WrestleMania will be a 🚨2-NIGHT🚨event: Saturday, April 4 AND Sunday, April 5 on @WWENetwork! Tell you more this Friday night on #SmackDown at 8 ET on @FOXTV.
— Rob Gronkowski (@RobGronkowski) March 18, 2020
A lot is still unknown about the event, and only the below matches have so far been confirmed.
Edge vs. Randy Orton isn’t yet official but should be once Orton accepts Edge’s challenge on next week’s Raw.
XYZ
As soon as it was announced that WrestleMania 36 was being moved to the Performance Center due to the coronavirus pandemic, people began asking what the plan was for the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony. It was scheduled to take place on April 2, 2020, from the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, but obviously wouldn’t be happening.
While WWE has not made an official statement as of writing, the British Bulldog’s daughter, Georgia Smith, would update fans on Twitter with the below tweet.
Just a heads up! I have spoken with @WWE and they are postponing the Hall of Fame for a later date, and are hoping to do it for Summerslam (which would be appropriate for my dad) thanks again for all your support! Let’s all stay safe out there🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/iuXwRWJ4iL
— Georgia Smith (@georgiasmith87) March 17, 2020
So while SummerSlam is not confirmed, it would seem the most appropriate and timely event for the ceremony. It would be the first time the event was not associated with WrestleMania since 1996, when it was held in conjunction with the Survivor Series. Currently, the 2020 inductees announced are the nWo I(Hogan, Nash, Hall, and Waltman), Batista, The British Bulldog, JBL, The Bella Twins, and Jushin “Thunder” Liger.
XYZ
It’s been inevitable for the last few days that WrestleMania would not take place in front of a full crowd at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa following the outbreak of the coronavirus. The only question was how WWE would handle the situation. Would they postpone? Would they cancel? Would they hold in an empty stadium? Well, the decision has finally been made, and WrestleMania is being relocated.
In a statement just issued by the WWE, they have announced that the event will be held at the Performance Center in Orlando, the same location as last week’s NXT and SmackDown.
In coordination with local partners and government officials, WrestleMania and all related events in Tampa Bay will not take place. However, WrestleMania will still stream live on Sunday, April 5, at 7 pm ET on WWE Network and be available on pay-per-view. Only essential personnel will be on the closed set at WWE’s training facility in Orlando, Florida to produce WrestleMania.WWE
Given this news, it seems that all shows will be held at the Performance Center for up until at least WrestleMania and potentially beyond.
XYZ