Here is your news for May 19th 2020
and headlines for today include
Former WWE Superstar Shad Gaspard Missing After Beach Swim
Major Revelation From Smackdown Hacker
United States Title Match Set Next Weeks WWE RAW
WWE Hits back hard on Late OWEN hart’s WIFE and MORE!
We’re starting today with some truly unfortunate news, as a large search party has been put out for
former WWE Superstar Shad Gaspard.
According to a TMZ report, the former Cryme Tyme star went swimming at Venice Bean in
California with his ten-year-old son on Sunday, and was reportedly with a group of swimmers that were
caught in a riptide around 4PM, with one source noting that Gaspard was a true hero in the
incident, as he told lifeguards to save his son first, before a huge
wave took the former Tag Team star under.
This isn’t even the only time Gaspard risked his life for others, as he also thwarted an armed
robber in December 2016, which we covered in our video “7 WWE Wrestlers who saved lives”
After Shad was pulled under, more aides were called to the scene, including lifeguards, divers and
rescue boats, and helicopters perused the scene for three hours,
whilst his son remained with Shad’s wife Siliana.
One witness at the scene spoke about the situation, saying:
"I saw the young boy who was inconsolable and his mother who had her arms wrapped around
him,' said one onlooker. 'The whole thing was just heartbreaking, absolutely heartbreaking to see
this mother and child in complete despair."
This is truly a terrible situation for everybody involved, and things have sadly gotten worse, as during
Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alverez spoke about a message from a friend at the scene,
who claims the search party is packing their equipment up.
Of course, this situation has affected a lot of people in WWE who know Shad, including MVP,
who put out a statement on Twitter at the request of Shad’s family, which says they appreciate the
love, support and concern, but won’t be making any public of official statements to the media at this time.
It’s also been reported that the search for Shad didn’t look good, and we at Slat Rock would like to
send our best wishes to Shad’s family, and anyone still aiding in
the finding and rescue of the former WWE Superstar.
We’re looking ahead to Backlash next, as the WWE now has a huge
match announced for their June 14th Pay Per View.
After last week’s edition of RAW ended with Randy Orton issuing a stipulation-free challenge to Edge
the duo kicked off this week’s show as Edge spoke about Orton never wanting to be a wrestler,
let alone a 13-time WWE World Champion.
The two went back and forth throughout the 15-minute segment,
culminating in Edge accepting the challenge for Backlash.
With Edge contracted to just a handful of matches a year, it’s interesting that the WWE is
using this second Edge match so quickly after the Pair’s WrestleMania encounter.
Whilst only one match has been confirmed, there have been a few matches predicted to be on the
card, including WWE Champion Drew McIntyre Vs. Bobby Lashley, The Street Profits defending their
Raw Tag Titles against the Viking Raiders, and
new RAW Women’s Champion Asuka defending her gold against Shayna Bazler.
Speaking of championships we’ve got news about next week’s RAW,
as Apollo Crews will challenge Andrade for the United States title.
This match came about when Crews returned to TV last night by attacking El Idolo during a
Kevin Owens Show segment, leading to a tag match pitting Crews and Owens
against Andrade and Angel Garza, which saw Apollo score the win.
Crews was written off TV for weeks with a storyline injury caused during his last US Title match
against Andrade, and given that it caused the match to be stopped and for him to forfeit his spot in
the Money in the Bank ladder fans can expect Crews to hope to get revenge next week,
by taking the United States Championship.
We’ve got more news regarding Edge next, and though the former World Champion has plenty of
supporters after his shocking return at the Royal Rumble and victory over Randy Orton at WrestleMania 36,
not everybody is a fan of the Rated-r Superstar.
When the WWE Hall of Famer took to Instagram to hype last night’s appearance on RAW,
one user questioned why the fued with Orton had started off with a Last Man Standing match,
only to be followed up with a regular singles match.
Branding Edge as bogus, and claiming that the eleven-time World Champion has no place
in current wrestling, these comments caught the attention of the Ultimate opportunist, who
questioned if the fan wanted every film and movie he saw to play out the same as well,
before adding that they should try and actually enjoy something, rather than being a jaded ‘smart’ fan.
Given his part-time contract and history of neck issues, we don’t know just how many matches Edge
will have in this second run of his career, but we do know that he’s got no problem handling
annoying fans online, without breaking a sweat.
Speaking of dealing with people on social media, we’ve got an update regarding the SmackDown
hacker, as though it’s been speculated that they’ll be a star from the Blue brand,
it’s now been hinted that they may be a RAW Superstar after all.
On Twitter, the hacker changed their co-ordinates to reveal they’re now based in New York City and
shared a new teaser video before RAW of a Queen chess piece, with
many believing the hacker in specifically in Queens.
On the account’s bio, the numbers 001200270090 were added, and all this seems to
indicate that the hacker may be Zelina Vega, who is from New York,
and whose birthday is 12-27-90.
Of course, this could be another red herring, as it seems the SmackDown hacker will reveal
their identity when they choose to, as Zelina Vega joins the list of
suspects that includes Chad Gable and Mustafa Ali.
We still don’t know when exactly the hacker will reveal themselves, but until that time comes, it looks
like the hacker is having a lot of fun in the process.
We’re going back in time to 1992 Royal Rubmle now, as whilst older fans will remember Ric Flair
winning the titular match, as well as the vacant WWE Championship,
this didn’t sit well with a certain red-and-yellow Superstar.
During a recent interview with Wrestling Inc, Psycho Sid Vicious spoke about how it was this
match that caused him to leave the WWF as he spoke about egos running wild backstage,
as well as a fit the Hulkster threw after being booed by the crowd,
where he pointed the finger at Vince McMahon. He said:
“Hogan came back into the locker room screaming and crying at Vince and saying he planned that
to happen to him. I actually went to Vince that night and offered my handshake and said,
‘Vince, I gotta go.’ Everything he promised
TypEverything he promised me to come there never worked out and I left a lot of guaranteed money
in WCW to come work for just a percentage of houses. I didn’t put an ultimatum on them but I took a
big chance going there.”
If you go back and watch the match, you’ll know that Hogan was eliminated by Sid, but still
aided with eliminating the big-man, grabbing his arm whilst Flair eliminated Vicious to win the match
Post-match, Sid and Hogan got into an argument in the ring that had to be broken up by security,
and it’s interesting that a lot of this argument was based on very real tensions.
By May that same year, Sid was gone from the company, and though he’s return to the WWF
later from 1995-1997, it’s note worthy that this return took place, only AFTER Hogan
was gone from the company.
Back to the present now and the new autobiography of Nikki and Brie Bella ‘Incomparable’, is very
candid, but it doesn’t mean fans can find out everything about the pair.
During an interview with Sunday Night’s Main Event, Nikki spoke about how there wasn’t much of
the book that needed to be removed, but that some parts were edited out at WWE’s
request. She said:
“I just wish I was able to talk more about why I ended up where I ended up. I still feel like people
always will wonder that, and I think it’s just because we put our relationship out there on
reality TV for 5 or 6 years. So, I wanted to tell that story.”
It’s likely that the parts taken out by WWE will be about Nikki’s time with John Cena, though the
former Divas Champion added that she didn’t have anything bad she wanted to say about her
ex-fiancee, and whilst she admitted the pair had their struggles, she described their
their time together as a beautiful relationship.
Both Nikki and Brie revealed a lot in their book, and given the fact that there’s more to tell, it
certainly seems like a sequel could be a possibility.
And finally today we’re looking once again at Owen Hart, as following Martha Hart’s interview
with CBS, the WWE have responded.
In the interview, Martha described herself as just one individual, compared to WWE being a quote
“PR Powerhouse,” and claimed that whilst WWE have been able to get their side of things across
regaring Owen’s tragedy, the latest episode of Dark Side of the ring has given her a fighting
chance in what she describes as a David and Goliath battle.
Martha also added that the stunt that cost her husband his life was done wrong, alledgedly because
of poor workers WWE hired, and claimed the harness used was meant for dragging people behind a
car, not for suspending someone 80 feet above the ground.
She added that Owen never questioned his safety, and is claiming that WWE didn’t care
about Owen’s life whatsoever.
These are some pretty huge claims by Martha, and now WWE’s attorney Jerry McDevitt has
responded with some allegations about Martha herself, as he said:
“What she did whenever this happened is, she hired a lawyer in Kansas City who we caught
essentially trying to fix the judicial selection process to get a judge that was more to their liking. We
caught them and went all the way to the Missouri Supreme Court. The Missouri Supreme Court said,
‘No, no, no. We’re not going to let that happen.’ They essentially appointed an independent judge to
come in from outside of Kansas City to oversee the proceedings. We were basically trying to find out
what happened that night. Martha was not even remotely interested in finding out what happened
that night; she just wanted to used it as a vehicle to beat up a business.”
In the interview, Martha also spoke about WWE’s decision to continue the Over the Edge
Pay Per View after Owen’s fall, saying that:
“They scooped him out like a piece of garbage and they paraded wrestlers out to wrestle in a ring
that had Owen’s blood, where the boards were broken from Owen’s fall and where the guys could
feel the dip in the ring from where he fell.”
She later went on to describe Vince McMahon as a “poor leader” for this decision, and also claimed
that the WWE convinced some Hart family members to work against her in the lawsuit,
alleging that documents of hers were stolen and sent to the defense.
McDevitt responded by claiming that Martha wanted Owen’s siblings to sign a document in
which they’d agree to support Martha and not speak to WWE, claiming
that they were all promised a share of any verdict or settlement if they did.
Describing this act as “highly illegal” and “completely improper,” McDevitt added that he
discovered this alleged wrongdoing as he was sent documents by the Hart family who knew
this was illegal, and sad he fell out of his chair when he read them.
Martha’s interview with CBS isn’t the only place she’s appeared recently, as she also
spoke on Chris Jericho’s podcast last week, saying that despite the $18 million settlement
she received, that there’d be no real justice for Owen as nobody was going to jail.
Responding, McDevitt said that despite Martha’s claims of no real justice, she and her lawyers
seeking $35 million, and that the $18 million she received was a court-ordered mediation.
McDevitt also added a story of Vince McMahon himself being at the courtroom, saying:
“Vince told her right there, ‘Look, Martha, I feel so bad for what happened. I feel responsible
this happened on my watch. I want to take care of you and your family, I loved Owen.’ He was almost
crying. We offered $17 million to take care of her. How many times does a CEO walk in a room and
say he feels responsible?”
McDevitt added that Martha denied the amount, and instead went to court for $35 million, but
a call from her lawyers who didn’t want to face the legal might of WWE eventually caused
the two parties to settle for $18 million.
Despite all this back and forth, Martha concluded that she doesn’t hold a grudge
againt anyone anymore, saying:
“The Hart family, Vince McMahon, I don’t hold any grudges. I hope life has been kind to all of them.
My life hasn’t been easy, and I certainly wouldn’t wish harm on anyone.”
Martha also added that she tells her children to be poilte to the Harts, but notes that the kids won’t
have a relationship with them due to the irreparable damage done, and fans can see more of
Martha’s views on her husband, and his untimely death, on tonight’s edition
of Vice’s Dark Side of the Ring.