Here is your news for April 18 2020
We’re kicking off today with news from Money in the Bank as it was
announced on Friday Night SmackDown this week that the two Money in
the Bank ladder matches scheduled for this year’s Money in the Bank pay-
per-view (PPV) on May 10 will take place at WWE headquarters in
Stamford, Connecticut.
The matches will begin on the ground floor with the briefcases on the roof
of the corporate tower. The winner will be the wrestler who fights their
way to the top of the building and grabs the briefcase first.
It’s given the event its new tagline: “CLIMB THE CORPORATE LADDER.”
The Pay Per View has a loaded line-up.
After Drew McIntyre conquered Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania, it didn’t
take Seth Rollins long to curve- stomp his way into the title picture, whilst
new Universal Champion Braun Strowman will defend his gold against the Fiend.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the show will include a
Women’s tag title match which’ll see Nikki Cross and Alexa Bliss defend
against Carmella and Dana Brooke.
Speaking of tag gold, RAW Tag Champions the Street Profits are rumoured
to defend against the Viking Raiders, whilst Miz and Morrison will defend
their SmackDown Titles against the Usos and the New Day.
In addition to two Money in the Bank ladder matches, with Asuka, Shayna
Baszler and Nia Jax confirmed for the women’s, the show will also see
Bayley defend her gold against Tamina Snuka, as fans will have plenty to
tune in for on May 10th.
Bray Wyatt will officially be the first challenger for Braun Strowman's
Universal Championship.
It was announced during tonight's SmackDown that Strowman will defend
his Universal title against Wyatt at Money in the Bank. The match was
advertised as Strowman vs. Wyatt and not Strowman vs. The Fiend.
Strowman appeared on a Moment of Bliss segment with Alexa Bliss and
Nikki Cross at the start of SmackDown tonight. Strowman said the Wyatt
Family is part of his past that he's trying to forget. He said he wasn't going
to play Wyatt's games. But Strowman then saw a gift in the ring that he
thought was from Bliss. Instead, he opened it up and it was his Wyatt
Family sheep mask.
The Moment of Bliss segment ended with Wyatt's laugh playing and an old
picture of Strowman wearing the mask appearing on the screen.
We previously informed that WWE officials were told not to mention
Roman Reigns during the WrestleMania tapings.
Dave Meltzer confirmed in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that
the instructions extended to the weekly television shows to not ever
mention Reigns. There was no mention of Reigns on SmackDown and no
mention of why he was replaced by Braun Strowman at WrestleMania.
It’s unclear exactly why the decision was made but it is interesting that just
days before the go-home episode of Friday Night SmackDown, Triple H
told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani that things would play out in a unique way on
SmackDown to explain why Reigns would not be wrestling at
WrestleMania. Whatever the plan was must have changed and/or edited
off the show because there was no storyline to explain Reigns’ absence
and it was quietly announced that it would be Strowman challenging
Goldberg for the Universal Championship.
Reigns’ return status is unknown and people close to him don’t think he
will be back anytime soon
We’re looking once again at the huge layoffs as Taynara Conti, Cezar
Bononi, Mars Wang, Tino Sabbatelli, Dan Matha, Nick Ogarelli and on-air
digital talent Josiah Williams are the latest names to be released by WWE.
As several people lost their jobs, surprisingly the company is already
helping shareholders on Wall Street.
The Street reports that WWE has 46million shares total, and are paying a
12-cents dividend per share, which comes to $5.25million, which will be
paid out in July and the decision to give shareholders this extra- cash was
made in the last week.
Ringside News’ source on Wall Street said:
“the reason they’re doing the dividend is because Vince, Steph, and HHH
own a lot of shares and they get more income out of it”
With these recent layoffs, WWE saved an estimated $8million a year, and
it’s been reported that these layoffs haven’t hurt company stock, which
has a price target of $46 per share.
Vince McMahon’s reputation was greatly hurt this week, due to these
layoffs and the XFL’s closure, and time will tell how WWE operates
following these two huge changes.
Whilst shareholders will be making a few extra pennies per share, one man
who is making serious dollar from these layoffs is Vince McMahon.
After approximately 40% of WWE staff were laid off, Ringside News’ Wall-
Street source reported that Vince, who owns a lot of WWE stock, will
receive a huge dividend, saying:
“Vince is getting a 7 figure dividend check out of this he’s getting at least
$1 million of the $5 mill”
Though WWE cut a lot from their budget, the majority of that was holding
off on plans to move their Stamford HQ, and whilst Vince may be winning
big, we’re still concerned for those out of a job.
During the ‘Oh You Didn’t Know’ podcast, Brad Shepard said some in the
company are referring to last Wednesday as Black Wednesday, and given
the amount of people who list their jobs, the name is appropriate.
One huge name the company let go was Rusev, but it seems that this
depature was practically inevitable.
On the latest Dropkick DiSKussions podcast with Korey Gunz, Tom Colehue
said that the Bulgarian had no intention of staying, and was lock in a
contract dispute with the company.
It was also claimed that Superstars felt more- willing to ask for their
releases following the Luke Harper situation, and WWE realised it was the
right time to release talent who didn’t even want to be there.
Whilst some who were released will be pleased to be gone, that won’t be
the case for everyone, and we hope that everyone who was let go is able
to land on their feet in this unpredictable time.
We all know that a lot of people got laid off, but what was shocking to
some is that WWE veterans, such as Kurt Angle and Fit Finlay, were
amongst those let go.
In the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, it was reported that age was a
factor behind some of the layoffs, as they reported:
Writers and office workers were cutback heavily, and in many cases age was a factor.
One example is age being a factor is the situation with referee Mike
Chioda, the longest-tenuring official ever, as the Observer reported:
Notably the surprise cutting of referee Mike Chioda, who had been in that
role for 31 years, the longest lasting referee in the company since its
national expansion, who is 53 in a company that wants younger faces on the screen
If age played a factor in who kept their job in the offices, then that could
be viewed much differently.
After over-three-decades with WWE, Chioda must’ve been getting a
substantial paycheck, which may have played a factor into the cut.
Hopefully Chioda has enough saved after 30 years that he’ll be okay, and
time will tell if we see him in another company.
The Observer also noted that the live-event division was hit especially
hard, due to no live-events happening now, and seemingly not for a long time either.
Though this was a bad week for WWE, the company isn’t going to hit
pause, and fans can expect plenty more WWE content, even with a
slimmed-down crew.
We’ve got news from AEW now, as Vince McMahon has reportedly
changed his view on the company.
After the releases, a source reached out to Brad Shepard to give some
insight into the Boss’ mindset, saying that Vince and company are learning
to not be so worried that Superstars will go to AEW if WWE releases them.
The WWE source said:
“A lot of the talent cuts are not shocking. The bubble was due to burst
soon on some of this. We’ve been retaining a lot of performers strictly
because of the PERCEIVED threat of them going to AEW.”
The source went on to say that the company had made their mind up
about some stars, such as EC3, months ago, and the former 24/7
Champion has already released a video, showing that he, and fellow other
released stars have no plans of slowing down, even if they don’t end up in AEW.
Now, it was just over a week ago when WWE announced they’d return to
live tapings after they were deemed an essential business in Florida, but it
looks like plans have changed once again.
According to Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet, episodes will be now taped
in advance over the next few months, to limit travel for wrestlers, as the
schedule goes as follows.
Please pause the video and check the schedule
It should be noted that the company received backlash over holding live
broadcasts, forcing Superstars to travel in the current situation, though a
source noted that WWE is putting a lot of effort into making their
employees as safe as possible.
We’ve got some news regarding Howard Finkel, who sadly passed this
week, as members of the pro- wrestling community have shared their
stories on the Fink.
Regarded as the greatest announcer of all time, Finkel was a particularly
kind man, as Roman Reigns revealed in a tweet that even as Howard’s
****** declined, he was always more concerned on Roman’s *******, and
his battle with **********.
It’s clear that Fink was a truly kind soul in WWE, and the world continues
to mourn losing one of the all-time greats.
Back to the ring now, and one person fans haven’t seen in a while is Samoa
Joe, who suffered an injury whilst filming a RAW commercial in February.
At the time it was reported that Joe hit his head on a table break stunt,
and it is now being reported that the former NXT Champion is still not
clear to return from his latest concussion, according to Dave Meltzer.
It should also be noted that there’s no word on whether Joe’s been
backstage since getting injured, and this could be alarming considering it’s
a head injury.
This is sadly just one of several injuries Joe has suffered, which include a
different concussion in January, as well as a broken thumb that kept him
out of action until late last year.
Hopefully the Samoan Submission Machine will be able to return soon, but
given the current ******* situation, a few extra weeks at home isn’t exactly
the worst idea.
We’re looking ahead to WrestleMania 37 now, and its more bad news for
WWE, as the SoFi Stadium will have to wait a bit longer to have its grand opening.
This week, it was announced that the future-Mania-venue won’t be
opening in July as previously scheduled, and its worrying that no new
opening date was announced.
At this time, the venue operators are working with local officials to
determine when it will be safe to hold events there, and given that LA’s
Mayor announced that the city won’t be holding large events until some
point next year, the WWE may be looking at hosting their second
WrestleMania, without a crowd.
Back to the releases now, as one person who stayed in WWE was AJ Styles,
and whilst on his Mixer, the RAW Superstar tried his best to defend the company.
Speaking to his viewers, Styles spoke about WWE being deemed an
essential business in Florida, and said he was glad he could still do his job,
adding that he’s aware of the risks that this means.
The former World Champion even question fans, who have complained
about the company, and then buried the WWE for releasing people, saying
“You can’t have both.”
Though Styles stayed employed, his OC pals Luke Gallows and Karl
Anderson weren’t so lucky as there were released mere months after
signing new deals, and these deals took a lot of convincing for the pair to agree to.
Speaking about his friends, the Phenomenal One said he felt guilty,
describing the pair as family, and saying “I couldn’t take care of my little brothers.”
This is certainly a sad time for WWE, and whilst Gallows and Anderson at
least got a cool send-off, being demolished by The Undertaker at
WrestleMania, we’re sure the pair would still prefer to have jobs.
We have some news on the Universal Champion Braun Strowman, who
discussed his plans after wrestling in an interview.
Following his cameo in 2018 flop Holmes and Watson, the Universal
Champion was asked about whether Hollywood Is still in his plans. He said:
It is but I’m not jumping ship anytime soon. I’m very focused on my career
as a WWE Superstar. I just recently last year re-signed 4 more years with
the company and 99.9% of my eggs are going in that basket for right now."
A grateful Strowman went on to praise Vince McMahon, saying that WWE
gave him the life he’s living, though there’s no time to rest for the
Champion among men, as he prepares to defend his gold against The Fiend.
We’ve got even more news regarding WWE’s releases, as MMA and Pro-
Wrestling star Josh Barnett is offering a big opportunity to those cut.
Following Black Wednesday, Barnett tweeted about stars like Rusev and
Kurt Angle, saying “I’ve got a place for you to truly show what you’re made
of,” which fans saw as referring to his annual Bloodsports events in
conjunction with Game Changer Wrestling.
Time will tell whether anyone released ends up doing business with
Barnett, but it’s clear that leaving WWE doesn’t have to be the end of
anyone’s career.