Here's more wrestling news for March 23rd 2022
And your headlines for Afternoon include
Former WWE Referee opens up about strange Performance Center tapings
Brandi Rhodes’ cooking show is still going despite AEW Departure. Big things in the works!
Paige VanZant explains why she signed with AEW over WWE
Musical act confirmed for WrestleMania 38
The Undertaker says he told Brock Lesnar to leave WWE in 2004
AEW announcer fires back in expletive-filled tweet at fan for mentioning Vince McMahon
Former WWE Superstar was banned from using finisher because of Shawn Michaels
Control Your Narrative announces next shows for the company And more
In March 2020, WWE had to ditch live crowds due to forces beyond their control, and spent the next several months in the Performance Centre.
With matches taking place in absolute silence, these shows were tough for fans, and they were also tough on everyone involved.
During the latest Monday Mailbag, former WWE referee Mike Chioda recalled filming in the performance centre and how some matches took hours to get right:
“Tapings at WWE for one match would take like three hours. Cut. Do this. Cut… Some of the guys were telling me it took 2, 3, 4 hours to do one match because they had to
to cut so many times, splice it, and do this. It was a mess.” Thankfully, those days are a thing of the past as fans have returned, and while the Superstars on TV
only have one chance to get things right now, it means they don’t have to record one match for hours at a time.
When Cody and Brandi Rhodes left AEW last month, there were questions about what would happen to their various project, including the latter’s YouTube series
Shot of Brandi.’ The former AEW Chief Brand Officer had hosted plenty of AEW wrestlers on her cooking show
which was moved to the official AEW channel, but Shot of Brandi could soon be heading to TV. Deadline reports that Brandi has teamed with DIGA Studios
best known for shows including Teen Wolf and Scream with plans to make Shot of Brandi a fully-fledged TV show.
The plan for the show will be roughly the same as what happened on YouTube, as Rhodes would cook and chat with celebrities and wrestlers, but this time in thirty-minute
episodes. Starting four years ago and filmed with two iPhones, Shot of Brandi has come a long way since then, and with WWE
reportedly not interested in signing her at this time, a new TV project could be what it’s her future.
Brandi left AEW just as her feud with Paige VanZant was kicking off, leaving the former UFC fighter without anyone to tussle with.
It was earlier this month that VanZant confirmed signing with AEW, but this deal only came around after she ruled out going to WWE.
In an interview with Throwing Down, VanZant told hosts Renee Paquette and Miesha Tate that she did have a meeting with WWE at their headquarters to negotiate a contract.
However, she explained that WWE had a “different plan” for what they wanted from her, and that this didn’t line up with what VanZant had in mind.
The AEW star didn’t explain what exactly WWE wanted to have her do, but hinted that the company would’ve wanted her to stop all legitimate fighting, while AEW is willing to let
her continue to fight MMA and bare-knuckle boxing. Ultimately, it’d be Tony Khan who’d be able to grant VanZant what she wanted, and while the feud
with Brandi Rhodes didn’t work out, things remain bright for the future of the UFC fighter turned AEW wrestler.
WrestleMania news next, as WWE’s biggest show of the year almost always sees some kind of musical performance and this year will be no different.
At Summerslam 2021, DJ Valentino Khan performed at the August spectacular and it’s now been confirmed that he’ll be back for WrestleMania.
A lifelong WWE fan, Khan has made a name for himself in recent years, and will be the first DJ to perform at WrestleMania.
Musical acts have been a staple ever since the first show in 1985, which featured the likes of Cyndi Lauper and Liberace, and now Valentino Khan will join the long list
of musical performances at WWE’s biggest show.
Two men who know all about performing at WrestleMania are the Undertaker and Brock Lesnar, as the pair have headlined plenty of events over the years.
In 2004 though, Lesnar’s WWE career came to an abrupt end when he announced that he’d be leaving the company, mere days before WrestleMania 20.
Speaking on the True Geordie podcast, The Undertaker recalled Brock’s first run in WWE, and said that he advised Lesnar to leave when Brock came to him for advice:
“I was like, ‘Brock, look, you have do what’s right for you.. ’ Everyone will be mad that you’ll be leaving and they have put all this money and this push behind you.
But if you don’t go do this, you’ll look back one day with the what ifs.” Brock would leave WWE to a chorus of boos inside Madison
Square Garden that March, and while his NFL career would not go as he planned, it was better for him to try then spend the rest of his life wondering if he should’ve gone or not.
On this week’s RAW, Kevin Owens impersonated ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, donning a baldcap and coming out to the Rattlesnake’s music.
This proved to be a highlight of RAW, with many fans praising the Prizefighter for carrying this feud on his own, but not everyone was impressed.
In a tweet, Taz insinuated that WWE had copied an idea from AEW, and shared a clip of Don Callis coming out to Kenny Omega’s theme.
When a fan pointed out that coming out to someone else’s theme has bee done before, and that he’s only mentioning it now because Vince McMahon lives ‘rent free’ in his
head, Taz wasn’t happy at all.
In an expletive filled response, Taz told the fan to “get t he f**k out of here” and said he’s just trying to have some fun.
It’s interesting that Taz only waited until WWE did the Austin-Owens parody before mentioning Callis’ Omega entrance, and while he has no problem poking fun
at WWE, the AEW announcer doesn’t appreciate a taste of his own medicine.
In 1998, Stevie Richards came to the World Wrestling Federation after a successful run in ECW.
While Stevie never reached the heights of The Rock or Stone Cold Steve Austin, he did have one mean superkick, which WWE didn’t want him to use.
That’s according to Vince Russo who in an interview with Sportskeeda this week, said that during his tenure there, Stevie was told flat-out “you’re never using the superkick again.”
WWE’s reasoning is that the Superkick was Shawn Michaels’ move, as he won countless matches with Sweet Chin Music, and only the Heart Break Kid should be able
to use the move. Russo said that WWE were very strict at the time about finishers getting used or misused, and said
how nobody was allowed to even attempt a Tombstone piledriver other than the Undertaker, though that changed when Kane came along
It’s interesting that WWE would ban Stevie from using the move, as by the time he came to the company, Michaels had retired due to back injuries, and wouldn’t throw
a superkick in a match until his in-ring return four years later. WWE has since relaxed this rule, and the superkick is
used by plenty names, both in and out of WWE, but for Stevie Richards, things were much stricter in the Attitude Era.
And we’re ending today with Control Your Narrative, which will have their first taped event later this month, and now more shows have been confirmed.
CYN have confirmed that on May 13th, the promotion will come to the Odeon in Cleveland Ohio, and the next night will have a show at Harpos in Detroit, Michigan.
No fights or matches have been confirmed for either show, but it’ll be interesting to see which stars try and control their own narrative next as part of the upstart promotion.