Outside of China, Japan has the most case of the coronavirus with 518 virus cases, including a death. The government has warned the public to avoid non-urgent, non-essential gatherings.
Following on from this, Stardom, owned by New Japan’s parent company Bushiroad has canceled four upcoming shows, with a fifth now being held in an empty Korakuen Hall with no fans in attendance.
New Japan themselves are not canceling any shows, but will not be holding any meet and greets or autograph signings. They will also be offering alcohol disinfectant sprays at shows, and have requested that fans wear surgical masks. Refunds will be made available to fans who would prefer not to attend March’s shows.
Other promotions have not yet announced their plans, but further cancellations are expected with the public’s health being such a high priority.
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The Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati, the site of Cyber Sunday in 2006 and Starrcade in 2018 are refusing to host an upcoming AEW event due to their relationship with WWE, according to Fightful Select. It now appears that AEW will instead run the smaller Cintas Center at Xavier University.
The venue’s concern is that if they host a non-WWE wrestling show, WWE will react and won’t run shows at that location going forward, which would lose them more money long-term.
In the past, WWE tried to block Madison Square Garden from hosting the combined Ring Of Honor and New Japan-Pro Wrestling G1 Supercard at the venue. MSG didn’t end up caving to WWE and allowed the show, which was the first non-McMahon run wrestling show at the arena since 1960.
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The Mandalorian is a hugely successful show for Disney+, set in the Star Wars universe five years after Return of the Jedi it tells the story of a Mandalorian bounty hunter and The Child (best known online as baby Yoda). The first season recently concluded, and it was confirmed a second season would be coming late 2020.
Now it’s been revealed that Sasha Banks has been filming scenes for the second season of the show, possibly explaining her absence from WWE since the January 17th episode of SmackDown. It was believed she was injured, but it now appears that could have been a pretense to justify her being off television.
It isn’t yet known what part she will play in The Mandalorian, but regardless of how big or small it is, it is a very cool project for her to be involved with.
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Kurt Angle broke his neck five times throughout his career. Famously once during the Olympics, and a further four times in a WWE ring. He would also injure his knees doing a moonsault off the top of a cage in TNA, and sadly he is still suffering the effects.
When asked is he would repeat his career by the TKO YouTube show he told the host:
I don’t know. I mean, I’m hurting pretty badly. My knees, my back, my neck. Sometimes I think about, would I go back? My quality of life right now sucks. So I do have a lot of suffering.Kurt Angle
These injuries would force Angle to retire at Wrestlemania 35 in April last year after putting Baron Corbin over in his final match. Angle would go on to get stem cell treatment at BioXcellarator in Colombia, where treatment starts at $7,500. Unfortunately, it does not seem to have yet resulted in the improvements he had hoped for.
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It’s probably not a coincidence that The Fiend’s best match was when there was no red light when he wrestled Daniel Bryan at the Royal Rumble.
Many fans hate effect, and Bray Wyatt is said not to be a fan of it himself as it makes wrestling difficult. Seth Rollins would even publicly criticize it when asked about it on the December 3rd episode of WWE Backstage, saying:
Because first of all, you’re in this dark red. The cell is also red, and so you’re trying to navigate around the edges of the cell, and it’s very tight quarters to begin with. It was a mess. It was very difficult to deal with, especially not knowing what was going to happen. I for one am not a fan. I think it affects my performance personally.Seth Rollins
You would think all of this would convince WWE to drop the effect, but it seems the respite was only temporary. The Fiend wrestled The Miz under the lights in a recent dark match, and it’s expected to remain going forward as Vince McMahon is a fan.
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Matt Hardy’s WWE contract expires at the start of March, and WWE made another attempt to re-sign him this week with an improved offer. Hardy, though has declined, which furthers the belief he has plans to join another company when legal ability to do so, with AEW his most likely destination.
With WWE signing up talent recently to stop them from going to AEW, it makes sense for WWE to try and keep him because AEW, he would presumably be heavily featured.
Hardy will wrestle on next Monday’s Raw against Randy Orton in a No Holds Barred match, in what could be his final match for WWE.
Following #TheViper's vicious attacks, @MATTHARDYBRAND is coming for @RandyOrton in a #NoHoldsBarred Match THIS MONDAY on #Raw!https://t.co/TbciLHqDFP
— WWE (@WWE) February 14, 2020
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The self-destruction of Teddy Hart continues as the Hart family member was arrested Tuesday evening in Richmond, Virginia, for possession of a schedule III narcotic with intent to sell or distribute. The punishment in Virginia is up to 12 months in jail and /or a $2500 fine.
Schedule III narcotics include anabolic steroids and ketamine. You can read a full list here.
Hart has previously been arrested for sexual assault and driving while intoxicated and evading arrest. Each time charges were dropped. His court date has been set for April 23.
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This past weekend Vince McMahon’s XFL relaunched with four games spread between ABC, FOX, and ESPN, with the ratings just coming in this afternoon. Overall the average was 3,118,000 with the breakdown below.
Putting this into perspective, Bill Polian and Charlie Ebersol’s (son of original XFL co-founder Dick Ebersol) Alliance of American Football league averaged 2.9 million viewers for their debut on CBS. They would end up filing for bankruptcy before completing their inaugural season.
The original XFL in 2001 debuted with 9,709,000 viewers but would drop 52% the following week. If history is not to be repeated next week’s numbers will need to hold up. A lot of wrestling fans will have watched out of curiosity, so the key will be keeping them. If the XFL does, the league might be a success this time around.
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The Universal Championship Match at WrestleMania will be confirmed at the Elimination Chamber PPV on March 8th with either The Fiend or Goldberg defending against the winner of the Elimination Chamber match.
The event is being held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, and the venue has announced on its website the six-men who will be inside the chamber. Of course, card subject to change applies, but lately, these things have been accurate.
Click the spoiler tag below to reveal.
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WrestleMania is heading back to Los Angeles for the first time since WrestleMania 21. It will be taking place on March 28, 2021, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, approximately 3 miles from LAX.
The $5 billion stadium is currently being built and due to open July 25th with two Taylor Swift concerts and will have a 70,000 capacity for football games, but can be expanded to 100,000.
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It doesn’t seem to be a good time to be the son of a former WWE star, because after news of Ted DiBiase’s youngest son’s arrest, now Scott Hall’s son Cody has got himself in trouble on social media.
In a now-deleted tweet, Cody Hall would make a reply to a Chris Dickinson tweet, and make light of the coronavirus, and use a racially insensitive comment that is meant to describe men with a sexual preference for Asian women. You can see a screenshot of the tweet below.
Cody Hall was on his second tour with Japanese promotion DDT Pro Wrestling at the time of the tweet, and they have announced he is being withdrawn from the tour at his suggestion.
Thank you for your support for DDT Pro-Wrestling.
Cody Hall has recently made an inappropriate comment on Twitter, and we have contacted him regarding this situation. Cody Hall has apologized to us, and has also suggested withdrawing himself from the remaining dates of his tour as well as relinquishing his Anytime Anywhere contract. In light of the gravity of his comments, we have agreed to all of his suggestions above.
All announced cards including Cody Hall will be changed, and the scheduled KO-D Tag Championship Match in Nagoya on February 24 will be canceled. All updated cards will be announced once they are decided.
DDT Pro-Wrestling will keep working to provide pro-wrestling content that can be enjoyed by the fans. We sincerely apologize to everyone that has been affected by this situation, as well as all of our fans.
Sincerely,
DDT Pro-Wrestling
DDT Pro-Wrestling
Cody has gone on to apologize for the comment, as you can read below.
— Cody Hall (@Cody_Hall1) February 9, 2020
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Alexa Bliss is undoubtedly the girl all the bad guys want in Bowling For Soup’s latest release. The single aptly-titled “Alexa Bliss” is all about the SmackDown star, and if you’re a fan of pop-punk, you’re going to love it!
The collaboration came together after Bliss revealed she was a big Bowling For Soup fan, and ended up meeting vocalist Jaret Reddick. He quickly became a fan of Bliss, saying:
Meeting Alexa Bliss was insane! Here is the freakin’ WWE Women’s champ, and she likes our band! I’ll admit, I checked her socials after we met the first time and saw that she had worn our shirt in a photo and tweeted about listening to us in class while still in Ohio, haha… ‘We became fast friends. She has been such a pleasure to get to know and has been so awesome to me and my family…why WOULDN’T I write a song about her? Five feet of amazing! Jaret Reddick
Bliss would say:
This song is amazing 🙂 filming the video was such a great time I had a blast. It’s definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity when your favorite band in the world makes a song about you. Alexa Bliss
You can watch the official video below.
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