Here's more wrestling news for March 26th 2022
And your headlines for Afternoon include
Absent Superstar and current Champion announced for next week’s Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
WWE books current champ to look very weak just so they can book him strong later
What are WWE planning for the SmackDown Tag Titles at WrestleMania 38?
Hulk Hogan claims SmackDown Superstar could be as big as him despite repeated losses
Former WWE Superstar announces he’s leaving wrestling, tells fans “goodbye forever”
R-Truth concert to take place in Texas next week
AEW to debut new wrestler as part of Owen Hart Tournament qualifier on next week’s Dynamite And more
We’re kicking off with SmackDown, which next week will see the return of the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.
Like last year, the annual event will happen on SmackDown instead of the showcase of the immortals, and WWE has already listed some of the names who’ll compete.
Interestingly, one name fans will be able to catch is Mansoor, who hasn’t been seen in over two months, with his most recent appearance being on SmackDown in mid-January.
U.S. Champion Finn Balor and Damian Priest are two interesting additions, as it’s believed they will face off at WrestleMania 38.
With one RAW and one SmackDown left, we’ll have to wait and see what happens, and who is crowned the next winner of the Andre the giant Memorial battle royal.
This week’s SmackDown also saw Intercontinental Champion Ricochet lose to Angel in a Championship Contender’s match, thanks to the help of Humberto.
Frustrated with the loss, Ricochet challenged Humberto to a match, and this time, it was Angel’s turn to help out, and Humberto got the win over the Champ.
A crazy couple of matches, it was assumed this would lead to a WrestleMania bout, but instead it will be culminating next week with a triple threat title match on SmackDown.
The idea of Ricochet losing, not once but twice, to Superstars more used to tag-team wrestling has only hurt the Intercontinental Champion’s credibility.
It was only a few weeks ago that reports said Vince McMahon wanted to give Ricochet a big push, but sources in the company questioned how long it would actually last.
The only saving grace here is that given these back to back losses, we expect Ricochet to retain his title next week, but the fact that WWE felt they had to book Ricochet
to look weak this week just to look strong next week is some bizarre storytelling.
Now, this week’s SmackDown opened up with Shinsuke Nakamura facing Jimmy Uso, who will face eachother in tag -team action at WrestleMania with the SmackDown Tag
Titles on the line. In the end, it was the King of Strong Style who stood tall, and with how popular he and Ric
Boogs have gotten, we wouldn’t be surprised if WWE books a title change next weekend. With that said, WWE needs to not push things
to far, as if Nakamura and Boogs are made to look even stronger on TV, then it's almost certain that The Usos will retain the titles at WrestleMania.
The Usos have held the SmackDown Tag Titles since last July, the longest reign with the gold of all time, but it could come to an end in just a few days time.
SmackDown also saw a fantastic women’s fatal four way match, pitting one half of each team that’ll compete for the Women’s Tag Team Championships at WrestleMania.
When the dust was settled, it was Sasha Banks who stood tall, defeating Shayna Baszler, Rhea Ripley and Queen Zelina to earn momentum heading into next week’s title match.
One-half of the original Women’s Tag Champions, Boss is one of WWE’s most accomplished women ever, and many fans considered her one of the best in-ring
talents from the women’s division. Now teaming with Naomi, another popular star among fans, the two could be considered
favourites to win the Women’s Tag Team titles at WrestleMania, despite two teams being added to what was originally a simple tag match pitting the Boss and
Glow against the Champs. However, we rarely see future champions win big ahead of huge title matches, and with her
victory last night, it could be a potential spoiler that Banks and Naomi won’t be leaving Texas with the gold.
In 2017, WWE truly shocked fans by making Jinder Mahal the WWE Champion, and while audiences weren’t on board with the idea, many have argued that it was the right call.
Given that John Cena, Randy Orton, Goldberg and Brock Lesnar had all won world titles in the months prior, Mahal’s shock title victory was WWE giving someone new
a shot on top, but the Modern Day Maharaja has since slid back down the card.
Now, Mahal is lucky to get TV time, and is almost always on the losing end of matches, but one legend still sees potential in the former WWE Champion.
On Friday night, Hulk Hogan revealed via social media that Mahal had visited his beach shop in Tampa, Florida, and claimed that given the right push, Jinder could
be this generation’s Hulk Hogan. Mahal has been announced as a participant in the 8th Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
and perhaps a win on next week’s SmackDown could turn things around for the Modern Day Maharaja.
In June last year, WWE released Fandango, a veteran of the promotion who had worked with the company for over a decade with just one NXT Tag Title reign to his name.
Fandango’s arguable career peak came at WrestleMania 29 where he defeated Chris Jericho but his career is now coming to an end.
Despite recently being announced for Control Your Narrative, the former WWE Superstar tweeted this week that his wrestling career will end in a couple of months
telling fans “goodbye forever.” Since his release, Fandango has worked with the NWA before joining CYN, and it now
appears his lengthy in-ring career will end as part of EC3 and Adam Scherr’s new promotion
In WWE, R-Truth can usually be found chasing over the 24/7 Championship, but the former Champion has plenty of skills out of the ring.
It’s been announced that R-Truth is set to host his own hip-hop concert during WrestleMania 38 at the Halton Theater, under an hour away from Dallas.
Tickets are already on sale, ranging from $20 to $150 as fans will be able to catch the veteran wrestler show off his talent outside the squared circle.
And we’re ending with news from AEW, a qualifier for the Own Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament will take place on next week’s Dynamite.
It was announced on last night’s Rampage that Tony Khan will be signing a new wrestler, who will make their in-ring debut against The Bunny as part of next
Wednesday’s qualifier. The Owen Hart Foundation Men’s & Women’s Tournaments qualifiers will likely run over the
next several weeks as AEW previously announced that the first round matches will begin during the May 11th, and it’ll be interesting to see who Khan has signed
to a deal with his company.