And your headlines for today include
Huge Possible Spoilers For Future Of Raw & Smackdown Title Picture!
WWE Teases Roman Reigns’ Next Title Challenger; Plans & More Leaked!
Possible Spoiler On Tony Khan’s Major Announcement Next Week!
Paul Heyman Has Meltdown During Dark Match After WWE Raw!
Cody Rhodes Listed For Upcoming WWE Smackdown Episode
Booker T Would Like To See Cody Rhodes Defeat Top WWE Star
WWE Locks Down Two Recently-Changed Superstar Names
AEW Wrestler Refusing To Work Show With Marty Scurll & Travis Banks
Braun Strowman Gushes Over Raquel Rodriguez After Smackdown Debut; Unleashes On The Internet Wrestling Community
AEW Focusing On Indian Market Due To Warnermedia – Discovery Merger
Satnam Singh AEW Debut Reportedly Receives Mixed Internal Reactions, Backstage Talk On His Training! And More!
We’re kicking off today with WWE, who will return to the Europe for a series of live events overseas.
As one of the very few international tours WWE have been able to do over the past year, the company is holding nothing back with the match card, which will several championship matches.
It’s been confirmed that Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns will defend against Drew McIntyre, though these matches will only happen in London, England and Paris, France.
Its been a very long time since Drew McIntyre had an opportunity at a World title, as WWE wisely made the call to take him out of the title picture in mid 2021 after fans began to turn on Drew for always
having championship matches. These shows certainly imply that McIntyre will be next in line to challenge Reigns after his current
program with Shinsuke Nakamura, as WWE often uses live events to test the crowd’s reaction to a potential feud.
SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair will put her title on the line in a WrestleMania 38 rematch against Ronda Rousey, while the RAW Tag Team Champions RK-Bro will take on the
SmackDown Tag Team Champions the Usos in an interpromotional match. Bobby Lashley, Intercontinental Champion Ricochet,
Gunther and WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Sasha Banks and Naomi have also been confirmed for the show, in what’ll be a massive tour of Europe for WWE.
This tour of the UK will be for non-televised events, despite the April 29th event in London falling on a Friday night.
WWE has not confirmed that this won’t be a taped event, but it has been confirmed that the April 22nd SmackDown in Albany New York will have a special start time on 6:30pm Eastern.
This implies that this will be a double TV taping, and the April 29th SmackDown on FOX will have been aired a week in advance.
As for this double taping, no matches have been announced so far, but expect more details to come out in the near future.
Roman Reigns has future title matches with Drew McIntyre booked, and is expected to face Shinsuke Nakamura at WrestleMania Backlash, but don’t expect a title change against either opponent.
According to a new report, WWE doesn’t have any plans to have Reigns drop the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship anytime soon:
"We are told that, as of today, there are still no plans for him to lose the title anytime soon. Some in the company have speculated that he will hold the title through next year’s WrestleMania [the hope
is that The Rock will come back for one final match] and by that point, the company would start pushing Reigns as the greatest of all-time."
If Reigns does indeed hold the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship until WrestleMania 39, then he will have been champion for 945 consecutive days, and given his current
display of dominance, this is a very likely possibility.
On next week’s AEW Dynamite, Tony Khan will make a rare appearance during the show, and has promised to make a major announcement.
The last time Khan made an announcement, it was the blockbuster news that he had purchased Ring of Honor, so it’s safe to say that expectations are high.
Khan hasn’t given any information about what his announcement will be, and on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer speculated on what it could be.
Meltzer pointed out that Khan never said it was a new signing, which is typically teased on social media, and said that this could be an update on the long-awaited AEW Streaming service deal.
He also pondered that maybe this announcement will have to do with ROH, and some sort of broadcasting deal for the promotion.
We won’t know for sure until Khan makes his announcement next week, but we’re confident it’ll be something big from the AEW President.
Back to WWE as Cody Rhodes has been a regular on Raw since returning at WrestleMania 38, but the American Nightmare is scheduled for an upcoming episode of SmackDown.
For the go-home SmackDown for WrestleMania-Backlash, Rhodes is listed among the “featured Superstars” for the show on May 6th.
Given that Rhodes will face Seth Rollins, also a Raw Superstar, at Backlash, its odd that he’ll be appearing on SmackDown so soon to the Premium Live Event,
Cody Rhodes has a legion of loyal fans who are thrilled to see him back in WWE, but one fan is making their support for the American Nightmare a permanent fixture on his body.
On Twitter, a fan declared that if his tweet got liked by Rhodes, that they would get the logo of the Nightmare Factory tattooed on their finger.
Sure enough, the tweet was liked by Rhodes, and true to their word, the fan said that they will be getting the tattoo next Thursday when they get off work.
This wasn’t the end of Cody’s tattoo antics on social media, as later on he saw a fan who had the logo tattooed on their back, and complimented the artwork, comparing it to the Superman is
is dead logo design. Wrestling fans are known to be a loyal bunch and these two are no exception, as while Cody has said
there’s more than one wrestling family, and they’ll soon be many people with his design on their bodies.
For the past 593 days, Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns has dominated the company, dispatching of all possible contenders.
Bray Wyatt, John Cena, Edge and Brock Lesnar are just a select few names who have fallen to the Tribal Chief, who has shown no signs of relinquishing the gold.
Of course, there will come a time when Reigns loses the title, and during his Hall of Fame podcast this week, Booker T weighed in on who should be the one to topple the Head of the Table:
“I don’t see why Cody can’t take the title off Roman… I would put the rocket on him, put the title on him, and boom, create some magic. Totally the unexpected. The expected, but totally the unexpected
because just people do not think WWE is going to go that route.” Booker also spoke about the long-rumoured WrestleMania match between Roman Reigns and The
Rock, and said that if WWE wanted that match for the Undisputed WWE Universal title, then Reigns could win the gold back before next April.
He went on to say that with so many people wanting to see Cody win the big one, WWE is in a prime position to give the fans exactly what they wanted, and compared the situation to
his own World Heavyweight Championship chase in 2003. At WrestleMania 19, fans were ready to see Booker T dethrone Triple H, only for the Game to
emerge the victor, and Booker said that WWE should learn from this mistake, as fans still criticise this booking decision 19 years later.
It does appear that WWE is setting up Rhodes to eventually challenge for the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion, and with practically every other viable candidate having been beaten
by Reigns, the company may have no choice but to go with the American Nightmare.
In recent weeks, WWE has changed the names of several Superstars, with Walter, Pete Dunne, Austin Theory, Raquel Gonzalez and Marcel Barthel all getting new names.
These names haven’t exactly been met with support from fans, but WWE are sticking with at least two of their new names.
In a filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office the WWE locked down the names Ludwig Kaiser, which is Barthel’s new name, and Raquel Rodriguez, which has replaced Gonzalez.
Each name was applied for on April 9th, and while fans may not be on board with the new names after years of these Superstars establishing themselves with their old names, Ludwig
Kaiser and Raquel Rodriguez are here to stay.
Now, next month, the Crash Lucha Libre will have their Lucha Super Estrella event in Tijiuana, Mexico, but one name who had been advertised for the show isn’t planning on being there.
Former WWE Superstar Lince Dorado is refusing to appear at the event, but this isn’t your typical story of a wrestler’s ego going too far.
Dorado was booked for a tag team bout where he’d team with Destiny to face Marty Scrull and Travis Banks, both of whom have a history of sexual misconduct with minors.
Scrull was effectively blackballed by the U.S. wrestling scene after he admitted to having a sexual encounter with a 16-year old, while Banks was involved in an abusive relationship with Millie
McKenzie, who was 17 at the time
Scrull was fired from Ring of Honor after this came out, and several members of the roster pushed for him to leave, which he did after some time waiting.
As for Banks, he was released from WWE in 2020 after accusations of misconduct came to light, and has had to find work in smaller promotions.
On Twitter, Dorado confirmed that he has requested to either be removed from the event or have his match changed, adding that he has not been influenced by anyone else.
We’re yet to hear if The Crash Luchas has accepted his request, but if they don’t, Lince may boycott the show, rather than work with two very problematic wrestlers.
On last week’s SmackDown, Raquel Rodriguez made her debut on the blue brand in a backstage interview segment.
One person who was watching very closely is Adam Scherr, who is in a relationship with Rodriguez, and on social media, gushed over his girlfriend’s call-up to the main roster.
A former NXT Women’s and NXT Women’s Tag Team Champion, there are high expectations for Rodriguez on the main roster, but only time will tell what she does now that she’s part
of Friday Night SmackDown.
Scherr may have nothing but love for his girlfriend on her recent call-up to WWE’s main roster, but that doesn’t extend to the online wrestling fanbase.
Recently, a story came out about Scherr, EC3 and others from Control Your Narrative, giving a young fan a WrestleMania weekend experience, in what was objectively a feel good story
involving CYN talent. Unfortunately, some fans didn’t see it this way and after E C3 tweeted that doing the right thing is
about intention, not for attention, some poked fun at him, saying that he and Scherr are “uniting the Internet Wrestling Community” with meme worthy posts.
Scherr fired back by saying this shows how sick the IWC is, and blasted the online community a parasite in a hashtag.
When a different fan said that the former Braun Strowman has an odd relationship with fans online, Scherr replied saying that the IWC can kiss his ass.
We doubt Scherr’s beef with fans online is going to stop anytime soon, and with more events booked for Control Your Narrative, there may be much more criticisim heading his way.
On this week’s episode of Dynamite, Samoa Joe captured the ROH World Television Title, but had little time to celebrate.
In a post-match assault, Joe was attacked by Sonjay Dutt, Jay Lethal and the debuting Santam Singh, who made an impressive debut by laying out the veteran wrestler.
We now know why the former NBA signee debuted in such an impressive manner, as the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that it is part of Tony Khan’s plan to branch out in India.
The report states that since AEW has a TV deal with Eurosport India, which is owned by Discovery, Khan is wanting to build up an Indian market ahead of Discovery’s merger with WarnerMedia.
It’s also noted that AEW put Singh with Sonjay Dutt due to the latter having a huge fanbase in India thanks to his time in TNA, and that the pair will be promoted as the main talents for fans in the Asian
sub-continent.
The Observer compared this situation to Jinder Mahal, who in 2017 had a lengthy WWE Championship run to appeal to Indian fans.
With an estimated population of 1.38 billion people, India is home to countless wrestling fans, and Tony Khan is ready to get on board with that massive market.
Satnam Singh certainly made an impression during this week’s Dynamite, though many people aren’t on board with the colossal wrestler.
Standing seven foot tall and coming from a career as a basketball star, many have said that Singh would be better suited in WWE than AEW, a company that has traditionally shown more interest in smaller,
established wrestlers. It’s not just the fans who aren’t sold on Singh, as Fightful Select reports that the Indian star has
received a mixed response within the company, with multiple AEW talents believing his debut was not executed well
Some of these wrestlers believed that several circumstances made Singh’s debut fall flat, including his position in the main event spot, and the lights off lights on reveal.
One source with AEW said that when it comes to debuting a brand new wrestler, a debut like this simply doesn’t work, and that AEW should have found a new way to debut Singh.
With that said, there is still optimism that Singh will play a key role in a huge deal in India, and that if his debut means their checks get bigger, then many AEW wrestlers are happy for a dud debut.
Singh has reportedly been training every day for the past eight months for his debut, but so far, Satnam Singh’s career in AEW is off to a mixed start.