Here is your news for April 9, 2020
We’re starting off today with news from our new Universal Champion, as Braun
Strowman has spoken about his past issues with WWE.
Speaking to Talk Sport, the Monster Among Men described himself as just a big
kid, and revealed some of his actions out of the ring. He said:
I’m a giant kid. I don’t even remotely act my age and it gets me in
trouble and the boss probably hates it at times but I like living. You
get one opportunity at life and I’m damn sure going to make the most of it.
with the guys that I ride with, every weekend we find some kind of
shenanigans to get into, whether it’s go-kart racing, bumper cars,
laser tag, some kind of food eating contest or we’ll go into one of
those trampoline parks or paintball, you name it. We act like 15-year-old boys.
Braun Strowman’s Instagram feed is updated on a regular basis with
documentation of him doing outdoors activities that Vince McMahon hated and
hence his push was stopped! According to sources, Vince didn’t wanted his
company biggest heel to behave like a kid
Despite this Strowman is still the new Universal Champion, and is
seemingly hell-bent on living life his way, despite what anyone else says.
Speaking of Strowman, the Monster Among Men had a huge night at
WrestleMania, and according to a tweet from WWE’s official account, will
be appearing this Friday on SmackDown, and pondered who will step up
to challenge the Universal Champion.
That wasn’t the only huge annoncement made for this Friday’s show
though, as in a follow-up tweet, it was announced that new Women’s Tag
Team Champions Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross will defend their gold against
the Kabuki Warriors.
This WrestleMania rematch will be part of the latest set of WWE content
tapings, as the company’s remains constant in trying to record content,
whilst they’re still able.
Now, PWInsider’s Mike Johnson claimed that Ripley’s visa has expired and she
needed to fly back to Australia to get it renewed and due to the ongoing
situation, travelling back to the States will be difficult.
However, it seems that isn’t the case, as the former NXT Women’s
Champion posted on social media that she is still in the United States,
Ripley also gave a little video tour of her American surroundings but did not
mention whether she needed to travel back to her home land for Visa issues.
On the Wrestling Observer Forum, Dave Meltzer commented on the
reports of Ripley being down under, saying
I’m double checking on this but one person high up just denied that to me. Again,
I’m not saying Mike (Johnson) is wrong, in this company the left and right hand
rarely know what the other is doing. But the person I checked with would know the
creative reason given which was Charlotte to NXT for ratings help.”
Speaking about her Mania loss, Ripley took to Twitter, where she said:
I don’t need your pity party. I need to do the one thing that I know best
All that we know for sure is that Ripley could be involved in WWE’s busy
taping schedule, but if she does have to travel back to Australia, it may be
quite some time before fans see her back in a WWE ring.
From someone who came up short at WrestleMania, to someone who won
big, as PW Insider have explained why Drew McIntyre defended his title
against the Big Show on RAW. They said:
The idea to show McIntyre beating both Lesnar and Show in
succession, taking out two of the biggest beasts in the company in one fell swoop.
If this booking continues for McIntyre, then he could be in line for a
lengthy, successful title reign.
Speaking of RAW, one name who returned on this week’s show was Nia
Jax, who has spoken with her friendship with Alexa Bliss.
Speaking on a live stream hosted by Paige this week, The conversation
featured Paige, The IIconics, Nia Jax, Renee Young, and Natalya, the former RAW
Women’s Champion Nia spoke about protecting her friend, saying:
I am not gonna mention any names but Lexi was working an angle, she
was continuously getting hurt, in a certain angle with somebody. And I
don't remember her not saying anything, specifically because she wanted
to be a team player.
I personally would not allow her to get back in the ring to get hurt again',
and I had to go to the people, to the higher-ups, and tell them, 'listen, Lexi
is five foot nothing, a 100 pounds, getting thrown around like a little
ragdoll and injured every night.' I was like, 'Put me in, I'm a 6 foot, 300-
pound ****** and I can handle it'.
Though Nia didn’t name names, the majority of fans watching speculated that the
person in question was Ronda Rousey, though it should be noted that Nia Jax is
also known for injuring more than her fair share of Super stars along the way.
We’re taking a break from WWE to focus on AEW now, as Jake Roberts has said
he’s suffering due to his recent appearances for the company.
Speaking to Wrestling Inc, the WWE Hall of Famer spoke about being requested by
AEW to be part of a taping during the ongoing situation, and this led to something
of a confrontation with Diamond Dallas Page, who was self- **********at the time. He said:
"I was living with Dallas [DDP] and he was one of the first people to say if
you leave, you can't come back. Well, AEW wanted me to come out so I
went and did it but I couldn't go back to Dallas' house. He had a baby in
the house and nobody needs to be s*** around a baby. He took the hard
line and said, 'Dude, if you leave, you can't come back.'"
Though DDP was the one who helped Roberts over come his demons thanks to
DDP Yoga, it’s completely understandable why the former World Champion
wouldn’t want him in the house, during the current climate.
In a series of tweets, Roberts has hinted at his mental health not doing so well,
though Lance Archer, who he manages on Dynamite, tweeted that the pair have
had a talk and things are fine.
We can only hope things improve for the Snake soon, as he continues to manages
Archer on AEW Dynamite each week.
Back to WWE now, and one of the major highlights of WrestleMania was the
Boneyard match, but one person who wasn’t a fan was Jim Cornette.
Speaking about the match, the controversial announcer/ manager said:
“This is I’m afraid to say Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn’s ultimate dream of
what wrestling can be. And you know Mark [Calloway – The Undertaker] should be
a movie star. I don’t know that’s maybe why he did this. Because he’s not going to
wrestle anymore? But he can do this for a while yet and look good doing it. He got
paid a large sum of money to have a Hollywood ******* audition.”
Speaking about AJ Styles, who would lose the match to the Deadman, Cornette
commented on AJ’s pleas not to be buried. He said:
“AJ [saying] ‘don’t bury me bro, don’t bury me.’ They already have AJ.”
Though Cornette clearly wasn’t a fan, it’s safe to say that the vast majority of
people enjoyed the Boneyard match, and from what reports have stated, fans can
expect to see more of the American Bad*** in the coming years.
Speaking of the Boneyard match, AJ Styles has literally, resurfaced, and has made
his first comments since being buried alive by the Phenom.
On Instagram, the Phenomenal One posted a shot of his hand sticking out of the
grave, and promoted his live streams, saying “I’m alive on
mixer.com/STYLESCLASH”
It’ll be interesting to see what kind of Styles fans see when he returns to WWE, as
being Buried Alive would change anyone, even if they’re Phenomenal.
From one Mania match to another now, as on Night 2, John Cena lost his mind
inside the Firefly Fun House, and now WWE are cashing in in a major way.
During the encounter, fans saw the Mr McBossMan puppet describe the
encounter as “such good ****”, a line that Vince McMahon himself has reportedly
used backstage, according to Jon Moxley.
Now, the WWE Shop is selling a shirt with the Puppet and the infamous line on it,
as WWE are showing that they’re not afraid of being the butt of the joke, and
make some serious money along the way.
We’ve got some huge championship news now, as on the latest edition of
The Bump, NXT GM William Regal revealed that Cruiserweight Champion
Jordan Devlin is unable to defend his title.
Due to the ongoing situation affecting global travel, Devlin is unable to
travel to the States to defend the gold, and Regal announced that an
interim champion will be crowned, with a tournament scheduled to take
place over the next set of Performance Center tapings.
On Twitter, Devlin delivered an in-character promo, describing the new
champion as a fraud, and it looks like fans can look forward to a battle of
two Cruiserweight champions, once life goes back to normal.
With WrestleMania now in the rear-view mirror, the WWE’s attention
turns to Money in the Bank, and whilst the show is still slated for May
10th, there are some serious questions about where it’ll take place.
Right now, all we know about the show is that it will feature at least one
Money in the Bank ladder match, but during Mandy Rose’s Instagram live
feed, Otis appeared and teased another match for the May Pay Per View.
On the feed, the Heavy Machinery star teased a mixed tag, pitting himself
and the Golden Goddess against Dolph Ziggler and Sonya Deville, and this
isn’t too different from the originally planned 6-man tag for
WrestleMania, which would’ve seen Heavy Machinery and Rose, face
Deville, Ziggler and Robert Roode.
Hopefully fans will get some answers as we approach the Pay Per View,
which looks like it could be the second straight event in a row, without a
live crowd.
One woman who knows all about winning big at Money in the Bank is
Bayley, who capitalised on last year’s briefcase win to become the
longest-reigning SmackDown Women’s Champion.
Turning heel during her reign, Bayley spoke to Sporting News this week
about ditching her hugger persona, saying:
““I went out of my way to also ask Daniel Bryan when we were on tour one time
because he also had gone from being the lovable guy and the guy that everybody
was cheering for to the guy that turned his back on everybody. I wanted to get his
take on what was difficult for him, and he helps me out a lot just as far as where to
step up my aggressiveness and everything.”
This change of attitude has clearly worked for Bayley, who retained her
SmackDown Women’s Title at WrestleMania, and has shown no signs of dropping
the blue and white title anytime soon.
We’ve got news from out of the ring now, as VICE has given their first look at their
Dark Side of the ring episode, that will focus on Jimmy Snuka.
The latest episode in season 2 will focus on the ***** of Snuka’s girlfriend Nancy
Argentino in 1983, allegededly at the hands of the Superfly.
With this season of Dark Side of the Ring being the most watched show in VICE TV
history, fans should expect a third season to be commissioned, as there and this
series will also cover the Assisnation of Dino Bravo, the death of Owen Hart, and
the Road Warriors this season.
One man who has been present at some of wrestling’s most historic events is Arn
Anderson, and whilst he’s with AEW now, he worked with WWE for years.
The show this week focused on Extreme Rules in 2010, and co-host Conrad
Thompson asked Arn if it was around this time that he and Vince McMahon’s
relationship began to sour.
“When I really started to notice it was about five years out from you know around
2015. I was getting blamed for things that that were out of my control. I was
getting blamed for stuff that myself and four top talent, or five top talent like in a
tag match.”
It’s probably for the best that Anderson left when he did, as he seems to be doing
much better in AEW, where he is bringing his decades of experience to the upstart company.
And finally today we’re ending with news from NXT, as this week’s show ended
with a huge debut.
After Candice LeRae assisted her husband Johnny Gargano in his war with
Tomasso Ciampa, the couple quickly made their escape into the parking lot, where
fans spotted Killer Kross and Scarlet Bordeaux sitting in a car.
In addition to being a real-life couple, Cross and Bordeaux have worked together
in various companies, including Triple-A, and time will tell what the ******
Smokeshow has in store for the Superstars of NXT.