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Who would you like to see face Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 36 next year? We’ve got
a packed show of news for you today, including an update on The Man’s Mania 36 plans, a
WWE sponsor unhappy about the Lars Sullivan situation, and who is the latest name to quit
the company? But first.
It was a big day here in England yesterday, as both Liverpool and Manchester City vyed
to win the English Premier League in a sporting game of football - that’s soccer for our
American friends. Sadly for Liverpool, they did not get enough men to do the goal points,
and CITEH won the league because they did do some goals and had more points… touchdown.
And with WWE overseas in the UK for their European Tour, Elias decided to take a shot
at Liverpool failing once again to win the football - by putting on a Man City shirt
for the Liverpool crowd. It went down as well as you would think.
We now move on to some very sad news - as veteran Mexican wrestler Silver King passed
away on Saturday night at the age of 51 while wrestling Juventud Guerrera at The Greatest
Show Of Lucha Libre event in North London.
In a video of the incident shared online, Silver King’s troubles appear to begin after
hitting Guerrera with a jumping clothesline - which he followed up with a near fall, but
then couldn’t get to his feet. Presumably stalling for time and unaware of the seriousness
of what was happening, Juvi worked the crowd, before cutting the match short by pinning
Silver King.
It’s since been reported that Silver King had suffered a heart attack - during the match.
Silver King wrestled for WCW from 1997 to 2000 as part of the promotion’s world renowned
cruiserweight division, won championships in CMLL, AAA and All Japan Pro Wrestling,
and starred alongside Jack Black in the comedy film Nacho Libre. Our thoughts are with his
family and friends.
WWE have had a terrible slew of injuries as of late, with Big E, Akam of AOP, Jeff Hardy,
Nia Jax and more currently on the injured shelf. But perhaps the most sad of all has
now been revealed, with MizDad telling The Jobbing Out Podcast that he suffered broken
ribs at WrestleMania at the hands of THE BEST IN THE WOOOOOOOORLD Shane McMahon.
MizDad told the podcast that he was told before the match not to get in the ring and just
follow Shane McMahon’s lead. He is the best in the world after all. However, like father
like son, Shane changed his mind during the match and told MizDad to get in the ring.
Shane then gave MizDad some of his patented Best in the World knees and broke one of MizDad’s
ribs. He truly is the Best in the World.
Someone else on that injured list is former Bar member Sheamus. Sheamus hasn’t been
on WWE TV since the Smackdown After Mania, where he teamed with Cesaro and Drew McIntyre
in a losing effort to New Day and reportedly suffered a concussion. These reports were
seemingly confirmed when his Bar tag team was split when Cesaro was drafted to Raw in
the somehow-still-ongoing Superstar Shake-Up WHEN WILL YOU END?
While there isn’t a tonne of news on when Sheamus will return to the ring, Rajah are
reporting that there is some concern backstage in WWE that Sheamus could be “winding down
his career in the near future”, with Sean Ross Sapp of Fighful saying that there are
people backstage who are amazed that Sheamus is even still wrestling at this point considering
his spinal stenosis injury.
So that could mean that both Sheamus and MizDad might not make it to WrestleMania 36, and
there is a chance Lars Sullivan won’t either.
Last week saw comments made by Lars Sullivan from a body building message board in 2008
again brought to light. The comments, which are incredibly hate-filled, racist, sexist
and homophobic, have been brought to public attention on several occasions before, however
this time we’ve heard from WWE stars themselves about the situation, with both Big E and Kalisto
commenting on Twitter, and Sullivan himself releasing a statement to Wrestling Inc saying,
“There is no excuse for the inappropriate remarks that I made years ago. They do not
reflect my personal beliefs nor who I am today, and I apologize to anyone I offended.” Which
while rather generic, is better than Hulk Hogan’s “sorry I got caught, brother”
apology.
Sullivan is currently on WWE’s European tour, with no signs of his mega push coming
to an end, and WrestleVotes reported last week that WWE were going the Shaun of the
Dead route: having a cup of tea while waiting for all of this to blow over. Bryan Alvarez
of Figure Four Online has also reported on Wrestling Observer Live that Lars spoke to
New Day in person and apologised for his comments.
But there is someone that WWE will listen to more than its wrestlers and fans when it
comes to issues like this, and that’s corporate sponsors.
Last year WWE tried to name their WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal after former Women’s
Champion The Fabulous Moolah, despite the well-publicised dark history of abuse by Moolah
and the negative connotations connected to her name. However it wasn’t fan backlash
that got the name changed to the WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal, but instead pressure
from the event’s sponsor Snickers.
And now one Reddit user has reached out to Mars - the makers of Snickers - to alert them
about Lars Sullivan’s comments, with the company replying: “We learned of Lars Sullivan’s
comments recently and share in your shock and disgust. As a values-based company, we
find his behavior abhorrent and unacceptable. We have engaged the WWE to discuss this situation
and seek to understand what actions they will take to swiftly address this matter.”
There has been no further comment from WWE on the situation, and Bryan Alvarez has backed
up WrestleVotes report, saying on an episode of Wrestling Observer Live that WWE felt this
was a “dead issue”.
Someone who’s WWE future seems certainly brighter is the current Raw and Smackdown
Women’s Champion Becky Lynch.
Despite many fans feeling that Charlotte Flair is WWE’s favourite wrestler and the company
favours blonde women over those who are not blonde, it has been heavily reported by various
outlets that Becky is Vince’s current golden girl, with plans to have her as the face of
the women’s division going forward - especially with Ronda Rousey taking time away from the
company to start a family. It’s also been reported that Lynch might once again find
herself in the main event of WrestleMania next year when WWE sails the seven seas of
WrestleMania 36.
And yar har fiddley dee, who will Becky Lynch’s opponent be? Well it had been reported that
the three names lined up for Lynch at Mania next year were Flair, a returning Ronda Rousey
and Stephanie McMahon - because she invented women’s wrestling, remember - however Dave
Meltzer has now reported that while Lynch is still set for a big match next year at
Mania, it won’t be against any of those names.
It should also be noted that prior to WrestleMania, Meltzer reported that WWE planned to have
Lynch, Flair and Lacey Evans as the top three stars in the women’s division in 2019 - which
looks to be correct given the two title matches at Money in the Bank this Sunday - so there
could be a chance that Evans is being lined up for Becky’s Mania match next year.
However this is WWE in 2019, and plans are changing on a weekly basis, so we can probably
expect this to be a very different story when WrestleMania 36 rolls around in 2020.
And once Money in the Bank is out of the way, there’s the small matter of WWE heading
back to Saudi Arabia next month.
Despite all the negative press the shows bring the company, WWE is heading back to Saudi
Arabia for their third show as part of the 10-year deal with the country.
The as-yet-be-be-named show was very quietly announced on Twitter and WWE’s website,
with no storyline pushes for it on Raw or Smackdown so far. Not only are WWE still unmoving
in their relationship with Saudi Arabia, but they’re also spending the big bucks to bring
back Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker and Goldberg for the show.
And now according to WrestleVotes, we have a name for the third Saudi show, which reportedly
will be Sands of Time. Prince of Persia to WWE confirmed!
WWE’s relationship with Saudi Arabia has come under a lot of scrutiny, from the country’s
archaic treatment of women, the public beheadings, and the murder of Washington Post journalist
Jamal Khasoggi last year. However it’s been reported that WWE make so much money from
these events - way more than they make for WrestleMania - it’s highly unlikely that
they will waver on their relationship. They’ll just keep coming up with awful show names.
Someone who could be at a future Saudi Arabia show is former Impact World Champion Eli Drake.
Drake was released from Impact Wrestling last month, after Drake refused to do an intergender
match with Tessa Blanchard at United We Stand over WrestleMania weekend, and found himself
in hot water following comments he made on the Wrestling Perspective Podcast where he
talked about his frustrations with the company and his push.
It’s now being reported by Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful that WWE have interest in signing
Eli Drake, noting that several people in the company like his promo skills. According to
Sapp, WWE were waiting for Drake to finish up with Impact before approaching him, which
means we could hear about him coming into the company sooner rather than later.
Drake had previously wrestled for NXT in 2013 as Slate Randall - and you thought Viking
Experience was bad - but left after just one year citing issues with then-head trainer
Bill DeMott. Drake went to Impact Wrestling where he became one of their biggest and most
pushed acts.
Someone who won’t be in NXT if Drake signs there is Percy Watson. It was reported from
the latest set of NXT TV tapings that Beth Phoenix had replaced Watson on the commentary
booth alongside Maruo Rannello and Nigel McGuiness, but there was no reason given for Watson’s
absence.
It’s now being reported by Casey Michael of Squared Circle Sirens that Percy Watson
has actually quit the company, tweeting that, “He wants to do acting and not be a commentator/personality/wrestler
apparently.”
Watson returned to NXT in 2016 as a commentator, and has also provided colour commentary for
205 Live, Main Event and most recently World Collide over WrestleMania weekend. He’s
since been replaced on 205 Live by Aiden English, and on Main Event by the likes of Sam Roberts
and David Otunga. So yeah, David Otunga is still employed with the company apparently.
This weekend might see Money in the Bank on Sunday - but the day before, on Saturday 18th
May, it’s all about Nottingham in the UK! One of the most exciting new independent British
promotions WrestleGate will be hosting their Lions Spirit show at Nottingham’s Rushcliffe
Arena with an incredible main event - young high-flyer Robbie X vs UK wrestling legend
Jody Fleish vs the former Neville from WWE PAC!
The card is stacked with Rampage Brown, Chris Ridgeway, Nathan Cruz and more. Get your tickets
using the link in the video description below now - with just £15 general admission and
£25 for the front row. And don’t worry if you can’t physically get to the show,
as you can catch-up on all WrestleGate’s events so far by joining their on-demand service
at WrestleGatePro.Pivotshare.com.
And stay tuned to WrestleTalk, as we’ve got a rather huge announcement on Thursday
that’ll show you as viewers don’t just Support WrestleTalk… you support indy wrestling.
Thank you for watching, and a special thank you for our Pledge Hammers on Patreon, some
of which you can see scrolling their way into my stomach. It’s Game of Thrones week over
on ScreenStalker, so head over there to check out Laurie Blake’s run down of the latest
episode! And watch WrestleTalk’s new series ScreenGrapple by clicking the video over there.
I’ve been Luke Owen and that was wrestling.