Here is your news for May 20th 2020
And your headlines for today include
Vince McMahon and Stephanie McMahon comment on Shad Gaspard
Major Updates on Shad Gaspard Disappearance
WW’s Current Plan For Return Of Live Fans
3 WWE Superstars likely to be out for months
Vince McMahon Possibly bringing back XFL and MORE!
We’re starting today’s news by looking at the unfortunate situation regarding
We’re starting today’s news with some truly terrible news
, as former WWE Superstar Shad Gaspard has been confirmed to have died.
After a body was discovered early Wednesday morning, it wasn’t confirmed at the time
that it was the Cryme Tyme star, but now
CBS LA’s Tina Patel has reported that lifeguards confirmed the body as that of Shad.
The coroner, and a woman resembling Gaspard’s wife Siliana were seen leaving the location
and we can’t begin to imagine just how awful she, her son, and the Gaspard family are feeling.
On behalf of everyone here at Slat Rock, we would live to express our deepest condolences
to Shad’s family, friends and fans, as we mourn a hero who used his final moments, saving his son.
Even before Shad’s death was confirmed, several stars from wrestling
spoke highly of the former Superstar, including current Monday Night RAW personality MVP.
After posting a statement from Shad’s family that they will not be speaking
publicly on his disappearance, the WWE manager took to Instagram to share his
own views on the former Cryme Tyme star.
Sharing a video of the pair watching Kofi Kingston become the first African-born
WWE Champion at Wrestle Mania 35, MVP spoke highly of Shad, saying:
“Shad Gaspard had a HUGE heart. He was like an annoying little brother at
times. We often gave eachother a hard time, but always with love! He always
had a big smile on his face and was ready to share a laugh! I have had a LOT
of friends and colleagues die. This one hurts different.”
The former US Champion also said he was angry at first for Shad sharing the video
of the pair watching Kofi historic win, until he saw how much it meant to people,
and also spoke about plans that Gaspard had before his disappearance, and also
commented on the heroic sacrifice Shad made, as he
urged rescuers to save his son first.
When MVP wrote this message, it hadn’t been confirmed that Shad had died
as he was still missing at the time, and we can’t imagine what the former United States Champion must be feeling at this time.
miracle and for Shad to turn up safe.
MVP isn’t the only one to comment about Shad publicly as Vince McMahon has
commented publicly on the situation.
On Twitter, the chairman said that thoughts of everyone from WWE are with
Gaspard’s family at this difficult time, and this comes shortly after the former
Cryme Tyme star wasn’t mentioned on RAW, due to the uncertainty of the
situation and the fact that the show was taped.
WWE itself has commented on the unfortunate situation, as they asked fans to
keep Shad’s family in their thoughts at this difficult time.
Stephanie McMahon also sent out a tweet of support, saying that the prayers of
both herself and her husband Triple H, are with Gaspard’s family, especially his wife & son.
One man who knew Shad extremely well is JTG, who has revealed the final
correspondence between the two via text message.
On Twitter, JTG posted the emotional text message from Shad, which was sent in
January this year, that reads:
“If ever I die tomorrow just know I Love you as a brother and friend for ever, even
past this life.”
JTG wrote back with a “love you too brotha”
Back to WWE now, and whilst the company has a strict set of rules of what can
and can’t be said on TV, one of these policies have recently changed.
Up until recently, the word wrestling was ********* from WWE shows, though the
company has seemingly got rid of this rule, with Dave Meltzer speculating on
Wrestling Observer Radio that Paul Heyman is likely to be behind this change.
Recently, Charley Caruso argued that the Edge Vs. Randy Orton match at Backlash
could be the greatest wrestling match ever, something that she’d never say if it
wasn’t part of the script, after the two former World Champions agreed to a no-
stipulation singles match for Backlash during this week’s RAW.
With that being said, WWE is still referring to its talent as Superstars instead of
Wrestlers, but at least Vince McMahon is allowing them to talk about wrestling
itself, at least for the time being.
Though the word wrestling may be back in WWE’s vocabularly, there’s still plenty
of words that are still *********, and this week we found out about another term
that isn’t allowed.
During a recent episode of Ring the Belle, recently released NXT Superstar Taynara
Conti revealed that she was informed not to use ‘Crazy’, as though the company
will have a lot of words to get around this term, it could be seen as offensive to
the mentally ill. She said:
“One day, I had a match on TV. Someone from WWE told me, ‘Hey, Tay, we cannot
say ‘crazy’ on TV anymore.’ I was like, ‘Oh no, that’s kind of my thing now.’ They
were like, ‘Yeah, sorry, don’t say it.’”
Whilst Crazy might not be a hugely offensive word, some words are offensive
when translated into other languages, and Crazy is the latest addition to the
growing list of ********* terms.
Though wrestling is allowed again, Pro Wrestler isn’t, and words like Belt, Strap,
title shot or match, and the phrases ‘the title is on the line’ and ‘title changing
hands’ are also *********, as they undermine the championships defended.
Terms like ‘Our industry’, ‘The Business’ and ‘Sports Entertainment’ are also
*********, as are words like House Show and Hospital, which are instead called a
Live event and Medical facility respectively.
Other words ********* by WWE include Performance and Performer, Faction,
Talent, War, Feud, Fans and interesting.
With the recent bad press the company has had, including their wave of releases
last month, and the controversial decision to keep producing content at this time,
it’s easy to see why the company wanted to play it safe, and why Crazy added the
list of ********* terms.
Of course, fans haven’t been able to hear any words, ********* or not, at a live WWE
event in quite some time, as the company has been running crowdless shows, and
although it’d be best for business to have live crowds back, it’s just not safe yet.
According to a report from Wrestle Votes, the company’s plan remains to return
to live audiences when they’re allowed, though this will depend on each state.
Wrestle Votes added that fans shouldn’t hold their breath for anything to change
prior to July, though given that Florida’s goal is to have 25% capacity, this is a good
sign that the Performance Center could see fans again soon.
It’s no secret that some parts of the U.S. are opening quicker than others, and
whilst Florida, Arizona and Oklahoma seem the most eager to host live sporting
events again, other states are sure to follow as soon as its safe.
Speaking of states, we’ve got another place that is looking to get on board with
hosting wrestling again, as California has shown great interest in having empty-
arena shows, starting in June.
During a Monday press conference, California Governor Gavin Newsom revealed
his plans for sports to return to the state, as he said:
“Pro sports in that first week or so of June without spectators and modifications
and very prescriptive conditions also can begin to move forward …if we hold these
trend lines in the next number of weeks,”
Following this, SoCal Uncensored reported that New Japan has plans to use their
California dojo in the Summer, and this is certainly a possibility, even without a
crowd, if the Sunshine states opens pro sports back up once again.
Back to the ring now, and we’re looking ahead to Backlash, as the company has
confirmed another huge championship match for the Pay Per View.
On June 14th, WWE Champion Drew McIntyre will defend the gold against Bobby
Lashley, marking the Destroyer’s first WWE Title match since 2007, and his first
since aligning himself with MVP.
In addition to this match which was confirmed on Tuesday, Edge Vs Randy Orton
has also been confirmed for the show, and whilst the company hasn’t confirmed
where the show will take place, it’s likely to be at the WWE’s Performance Center
without a live crowd.
Though Backlash is just a few weeks away, certain stars won’t be appearing, as
some Canadian competitors haven’t been able to make the journey to the United
States in the current situation.
A travel-ban for non-essential workers is in place between the U.S. and Canada,
and this has been extended for another month.
In addition to this, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau added that it could be
months before non-essential travel is allowed, and described this difficult decision
as the right thing to do.
While Robert Roode and the Singh brothers are just some of the stars affected by
this, Brock Lesnar, who resides in the Great White North, was able to pull some
strings so that he could make it to WrestleMania, and time will tell whether the
Beast will appear again, during this travel ban.
We’re heading back to the XFL now, as whilst Vince McMahon’s 2020 relaunch
didn’t go as planned, thanks partly to the global situation stopping games and fans
attending, it seems the Boss isn’t ready to quit just yet.
According to a source for the Atlantic, McMahon is reporting trying to buy his own
XFL our of Delaware bankruptcy court, and that certainly is believed to be the case
by some XFL creditors.
In addition to this, Jeffrey Pollack, the XFL’s President has been calling venues in St
Louis and Seattle about reinstating lease agreements, as it seems he doesn’t see
the company as finished just yet given that the company is still largely owned by
Vince McMahon through his Alpha Entertainment entity, with a fifth of the XFL
owned by WWE. .
Though Pollack and McMahon have high hopes, it should be noted that the XFL
filed for bankruptcy on April 13th, three days after shutting down the league and
releasing all employees, as they said they didn’t have the financial insulation to
protect them from what’s happened around the world.
The Atlantic’s source is reportedly a former team official who passed on the tip
about St Louis and Seattle, and it’s believed that McMahon could have pulled off a
quote “cutthroat finance ploy” during this global situation.
This is certainly an interesting situation given that the XFL has gone out of
business not once but twice now, and it looks like the Boss is hoping it’ll be third
times the charm.
Back to the ring now and we’ve got an update from NXT UK, as it looks like the
brand may soon be returning to normalcy.
According to Sportskeeda’s Gary Cassidy, there’s currently a plan in place for the
overseas brand to resume programming as soon as it’s safe to do so, even if there
won’t be a crowd present.
He added that there are a lot of superstars who are chomping at the bit to return
to the ring, though the NXT UK are being kept busy thanks to their online acting
seminars, as well as online match analysis sessions, hosted by the likes of William
Regal, Robbie Brookside and Johnny Moss.
Of course, the safety of the NXT UK roster and staff remains the upmost
importance at this time, but it’s certainly good to see that the show has plans in
place to produce content again, whilst following health and safety guidelines.