Here is your news for March 26, 2020
We're starting today's video with some political news, as President *******'s recent
comments about the U.S. economy could have a huge impact on the wrestling world.
In a press conference from the White House, the Apprentice star-turned Politician
announced that people who have lost their job recently due to the global situation
can receive their full salary up to four months, and that includes independent
contractors.
Given that professional wrestlers are classed as independent contractors,
this will be a huge boost for wrestlers who are unable to compete right now
due to guidelines that ******** ********************, such as wrestling shows.
Whilst the President has said he aims for the U.S. economy to be open in a few
weeks in time for Easter, this doesn't seem likely according to the advice of ********
experts, but at least things will be a little less stressful for wrestlers now, who are
struggling to make end's meat.
We're looking ahead to WrestleMania now, as whilst the biggest show of the year
will take place next weekend, the company are taking precautions in case their
Performance Center gets shut down.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alverez said how WWE has filmed
some of the show's matches, but didn't specify which ones. He said:
"WrestleMania is taping right now and the impression I have been given is that a
lot of the big matches have already been taped. I’m pretty sure that they’re gonna
be all done before this stay at home order begins. They’re going to have
everything done until the RAW after WrestleMania.”
Given the unpredictable situation we are living in, it certainly makes sense for
WWE to film WrestleMania whilst they can, and fans will have to wait until April
4th and 5th to see who reigns supreme at this very unique showcase of the immortals.
Speaking of the Performance Center, the WWE has been using their personal
facility a lot lately, but it seems this will be coming to an end today.
Per an edict by Orange County, Florida, a "stay at home" rule is in effect, meaning
that the company won't be able to film any more content at the Performance Center.
Fortunately for WWE, the rule goes into effect at mid night tonight, meaning that
they have the rest of today to film any content, including WrestleMania, though
we can't help but wonder what will happen for WWE's schedule after the show of
shows has aired.
Now, it's obvious that this year's WrestleMania isn't the one WWE had planned
just a month or so ago, but that doesn't mean the company isn't trying to make
some money out of this unpredictable situation.
After it was announced that the show would be split into a two-night event
without a crowd, the company quickly started selling "I Wasn't There" shirts, and
included the phrase "Too big for one night."
Recent copyright filings from the US patent office reveal that WWE has filed a
trademark for the 'too big for one night' phrase,' leading to speculation that the
show could be split into a two-night event in the coming years.
If WWE does split Wrestle Mania again, hopefully it will be under better
circumstances, but at least the company has a trade marked phrase in place if they
do go down that route.
We're taking a look at WWE's financial side now, as the company has had a
difficult time in 2020, especially with the current situation.
Recently, Vince McMahon filed an 8-K form, meaning that WWE received quite a
bit of money, but McMahon retained his voting power.
In a statement to Yahoo Finance, WWE confirmed that the Chairman wasn't going
anywhere, despite both his age and the current situation, saying:
"Mr. McMahon has informed us that he intends to continue in his capacity as the
Company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for the foreseeable future.”
Though fans may question his booking decisions, the fact remains that
Professional wrestling wouldn't be as prominent today without McMahon, and
fans can get used to the 74- year-old being in power for a long time to come.
From the most established name in WWE, to a fresh face in the company, as this
week's NXT ended with a very intense promo, with saw the debut of Killer Kross.
During an intense confrontation between Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa,
the segment ended with a promo on the big screen, which clearly showed the
words "Tick Tock" and Kross on the screen.
After strange glitches appeared on SmackDown, it was rumored that Kross may
debut on the main-roster, though it appears these glitches mean something else.
Given that Kross' name didn't appear on the broadcast, it's possible that WWE
could change it, but one thing we know is that the former Impact star has made a
huge impression on his first night in NXT.
We're looking at AEW now, as Cody Rhodes has helped make the new promotion
one of the biggest wrestling company's in the world, but it wasn't too long ago
that he was adorned in facepaint and gold.
In 2014, Rhodes became the Stardust character, and whilst the gimmicks was
interesting at first, fans quickly soured on the character.
Speaking about the character on Twitter, Rhodes said that WWE wasn't to blame
for the character not getting over. He said:
"Not pushing Stardust wasn’t the crime, the character had broke me and I was a
subpar performer under the paint during that period. The crime was not
capitalizing on 2010-12 where I was cooking with gas and my live event work was
top level consistent. In the end, blame is on me."
Cody certainly doesn't have to worry about donning the bodysuit anymore, as
WWE owns the Stardust character, and Rhodes is doing much bigger and better
things as the Executive Vice- President of AEW.
Now, Chris Benoit may have been considered one of the greater wrestlers of his
generation, but the former World Champion's final actions have arguably
overshadowed his entire career.
Recently, Vice put out their season 2 premiere for their 'Dark Side of the Ring'
show, and plenty of people tuned in to find out more about the Canadian's actions.
The season premiere drew an impressive 320,000 viewers, which is an all-time
series high, beating the previous record of 240,000.
If Vice can continue with numbers like this with their upcoming episodes about
New Jack, the Brawl for All, and the death of Owen Hart, then it's almost
guaranteed that there will be a third season, as there's plenty of controversy left
in wrestling's history.
Speaking of Benoit, Jim Ross was someone who knew the Candian personally, as
the pair worked for years on Monday Night RAW at the same time.
During Dark Side of the Ring, it was mentioned that in WCW, Benoit was involved
in an angle regarding his wife Nancy and Kevin Sullivan, which blurred the lines
between a work and a shoot.
Drung his latest Grillin JR episode, the Hall of Famer disagreed with WCW's
creative decision, saying:
"I thought their private life got way too public. It became an angle, it became a
storyline. As if we’re obligated to share our personal life and that should be
voluntary, it should not be made a storyline out of.”
“I felt like making that, the marriage, the adultery, all this other stuff was simply
unnecessary, we have to be more creative. Did we have to go there? I wasn’t
really sure what was true in that whole deal and what wasn’t. In any event it made
me uncomfortable."
Ultimately, we'll never know what could have been if Nancy and Chris' relationship
wasn't so prominently featured, and even now, nearly 13 years after his death,
Benoit final actions remains one of the darkest stains in wrestling's history.
Back to the present now, and one person fans haven't seen in awhile is Samoa Joe,
as the former US Champion recently served a 30-day Wellness Policy suspension.
That 30-day period ended yesterday, and with WWE filming content today, there
is a chance that Joe could return for the RAW after WrestleMania.
With that said, Joe currently has no angles going on, and with the stay at home
rule coming into effect tomorrow, it's more likely that the Samoan Submission
Machine will have to wait until WWE goes back to running live shows, before he
can finally make his return to the ring.
One person who knows all about WrestleMania is Triple H, ad whilst the Game
won't compete this year, he did compete at WrestleMania 31, where he defeated
Sting in the Icon's WWE match debut.
One person who wasn't a fan of this booking was Arn Anderson, as the veteran
WCW and WWE star took to his podcast this week and claimed that the
commentators were instructed to bury the Stinger. He said:
"If you go back and watch it and listen to it, they just buried him. As it turned out,
they prostituted each other’s finishes which I’m not a fan of because guys don’t
have finishes anymore…”
Double-A carried on by claiming that Vince McMahon booked the match to
downplay WCW, 14 years after the company went out of business. He said:
"It was the last nail that Vince could nail into the coffin and say ‘okay, it’s done,
we’re the superior company, they said they were gonna put us out of business,
they led for all those weeks but in the end, here’s your last remaining guy and he
was your biggest star and we just crushed him before your very eyes at the biggest
event of the year."
Whilst it was strange of WWE to book a storyline about the Monday Night Wars,
14 years after it ended, the match is still enjoyed by many, though clearly Arn, isn't a fan.
From WrestleMania to Smack Down now, as for the past few months, one of the
most engaging storylines has been between Mandy Rose, Otis and Dolph Zigggler,
as the Golden Goddess chose the Show-Off over the lovable Heavy Machinery star.
Speaking to Digital Spy, Rose revealed that this angle has been a long time coming,
as she said:
“He’d (Otis) walk around the Performance Center and he’d call me ‘peach’ and
‘Mandy candy’. The whole ‘Mandy candy’ and ‘peach’ thing started in NXT a
couple of years ago, it was always really funny, he’d even cut promos on me.
It’s like a Beauty and the Beast storyline and it’s awesome, But I don’t think I
thought they’d be this much into it and this much behind it and care about it that
much. It’s really cool."
There have been rumors of a match between Otis and Ziggler being booked for
WrestleMania, but with the show just days away, the company will have to
announce the match fast, if they want it to take place in Orlando.
Speaking of WrestleMania, this year's show will be the first to take place without a
crowd, but that hasn't phased Seth Rollins.
Ahead of his Mania match with Kevin Owens, Rollins appeared on WWE's The
Bump, and pointed out that he and KO have plenty of history at the Performance
Center. He said:
"There’s so much history that Kevin and I both had in NXT and in this building. I
sort of detailed it a few nights ago on Raw. But, it really adds a different element
to our match. Though we won’t have a live crowd there, we’ll have millions of
people watching around the world."
Rollins went on to say that he was in attendance for Owens' tryout at the PC, so
it'll be interesting to see their careers go full circle, when they meet, one last time,
at the Performance Center.
Back to AEW now, and this week saw the in-ring debut of Brodie Lee, who didn't
take long to defeat QT Marshall
Before the match took place, a backstage segment saw Lee get mad when
someone sneezed near him, apparently a dig at Vince McMahon, who is known to
see sneezing as a lack of control.
There have been plenty of times when AEW has taken shots at WWE, and it'll be
interesting to see where Lee, and his Dark Order go from here, after this week's
impressive victory.
From one AEw star to another, as Chris Jericho's band Fozzy had to reschedule
their Save the World tour, but that won't stop fans hearing one of their most
iconic tracks.
With no live crowd to sing Jericho's entrance theme Judas as he makes his way to
the ring, fans have started the Judas Challenge online, where they post videos of
themselves singing the theme.
And finally today we're ending with the results of the Wednesday night War, as
this week's show saw opened with Tyler Breeze defeating Austin Theory.
After Killian Dain bested Tebuti Miles and Cameron Grimes defeated Tony Nese, Io
Shirai made a statement by defeating Aliyah, earning herself a spot in the
upcoming number one contender's ladder match.
Up next, fans saw North American Champion Keith Lee brawl with Damian Priest
and Dominik Dijakovic, and
after Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch defeated Shane Thorne and Brendan Vink,
Candice LeRae became the next woman to join the women's ladder match,
defeating Kayden Carter.
Up next, Matt Riddle defeated Roderick Strong, before being attacked by two
mysterious new stars, and the show ended with an appearance by Triple H, who
confirmed that Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano will compete, in two weeks time.
On AEW Dynamite at the same time, the show opened with guest commentator
Kenny Omega putting over Jimmy Havoc, who ultimately lost to Cody Rhodes.
After Darby Allin defeated Kip Sabian, Jake Hager made an impact by demolishing
Chico Adams, and only ceased his beatdown when AEW World Champion Jon
Moxley hit him with the Paradigm shift.
Up next, fans saw Brodie Lee defeat QT Marshall, whilst Kenny Omega defeated
Sammy Guevara to retain the Triple-A Mega Championship title.
And in our main event spot, Chris Jericho called out Matt Hardy, and after failing
to get the Woken 1 to join the Inner Circle, delivered a beatdown assisted by Guevara.
Fortunately, Hardy was saved by Cody and Omega, and the three faces stood tall
to close out the show, on another unique but impressive week, on Wednesday
night wrestling.