Here's your wrestling news for March 18th 2021
And your headlines for today include WWE Match Pulled From Fastlane! Backstage Heat On WWE Star! WWE Star Comes Out Of Retirement! News 3 00:00:18,535 --> 00:00:23,523 WWE Giving Away Free Masks & Checking Fans At WrestleMania 37!
Major Match Seemingly Pulled From WWE Fastlane 2021!
Charly Caruso Pulled From WWE Television Due To Backstage Heat!
AEW Wrestlers Get Standing Ovation!
AEW Fires Shot At New WWE Rule On Dynamite This Week!
WWE Wrestler Is Coming Out Of Retirement; Return Date Announced!
Yet Another Seasoned WWE Wrestler Is Wrestling Again!
WWE Issuing Refunds After WWE Network Closes!
Charlotte Flair Opens Up About Andrade Leaving WWE!
"Vince was right about him" - Seth Rollins Tears Into WWE Superstar On Social Media!
Shawn Michaels Biggest Regret And More!
We’re starting today with WrestleMania, as tickets for this year’s show will be going on sale later than the WWE had
initially planned, and there’ll also be much harder to come by. That’s according to Jon Alba, who is
reporting that despite WWE wanting 45,000 fans at each night of WrestleMania, that the show will
instead host 25,000 people per night.
Alba also said that there’ll be quote “seating pods,” social distancing, and that masks will be required at all times.
Those lucky enough to attend will be offered free masks upon entry, where their temperature will be checked as
health screenings. If a fan has a high temperature, they likely won’t be permitted to enter the
Raymond James Stadium, though WWE have been quiet on how they’d handle any refunds.
When WWE and stadium representatives spoke to local businesses, the 45,000 figure was used to drum up interest,
but with that figure being nearly halved, WWE isn’t taking any chances at their biggest show.
We’ve already covered how tickets for the show were meant to go on sale last Tuesday, but those plans were
postponed, and now we know when tickets will finally be available to buy. WWE have confirmed that fans
will be able to buy tickets from tomorrow, and that the WrestleMania 37 pre-sale will begin today.
Tickets for this year’s show will range from $35 to $2500, and with fewer tickets available, we expect these
will sell out immediately.
Before WrestleMania though, WWE will host Fastlane this Sunday, which’ll be the company’s first Pay Per View
of the Peacock era. This past week on RAW, it was announced that Braun Strowman will
face Shane McMahon this Sunday, but it appears that this match is off.
On WWE.com, the match has been removed from the official preview for Fastlane 2021, and this isn’t the first
time WWE has removed something abruptly after an official announcement. Fans will remember that Seth Rollins
return was promoted for the first Smackdown of the year, only to happen on February 12th instead.
Before the Strowman-McMahon match was announced for Fastlane, fans expected it to take place at WrestleMania,
and that certainly seems more likely with their Fastlane match cancelled.
One person fans shouldn’t expect at Fastlane or WrestleMania is Charly Caruso, who’s been pulled from WWE
TV for the considerable future.
This explains why Caruso was absent from this week’s RAW Talk, and according to Fightful Select, the WWE
interview recently garnered heat backstage when she was late to do interviews intended for RAW.
It was also noted that there were specific instances with Randy Orton which led to WWE pulling her from TV,
and this may be the beginning of the end for her time with the company.
Fightful’s report also added that there are a lot of people who don’t think Caruso will stick around when her
current contract expires, which is reportedly very soon. One source said that the new host
of RAW Talk, Kevin Patrick is being seen as a “direct replacement for her, ” so whilst fans can still find her on
ESPN under her real name Charly Arnolt, she won’t be on WWE TV right now.
One person fans can see on WWE TV is Drew McIntyre, who recently had a line on RAW which many fans thought
was a dig at AEW. Speaking about the promises MVP had made, McIntyre said that sparks
fly when promises aren’t kept in wrestling, which many fans believe was a reference to the sparklers
used for the disappointing end of the exploding carbed-wire wealth match at Revolution.
Speaking to Forbes after the show, McIntyre said he didn’t think twice about the sparks fly line, but
understands why fans thought that. He said: “I came backstage, and somebody
came up to me… they played it out to me and I went ‘Oh, yeah, that could be taken that way.’ Maybe
subconsciously I made a joke…I don’t like that shot back-and-forth stuff.”
In the heat of the moment, McIntyre didn’t mean to take a dig at AEW’s underwhelming ending to Revolution,
but given his lines were scripted, it’s always possible someone else had that intention.
This week’s Dynamite saw Thunder Rosa and Dr. Britt Baker collide in the main-event, in a match many are
already considering a match-of-the- year candidate. A brutal match from start to finish,
fans can now watch a behind the scenes video, where Tony Khan can be seen telling Baker that was one of the best
things he’s seen on TV, before telling Rosa:
“That was one of the best f***ing things we've ever seen, thank you so much. You're awesome.”
Thunder Rosa, who won the match, received a standing ovation from the AEW roster post-match, and a hug
from her old rival Hikaru Shida. Baker added that she felt like hell, but says she thinks Chris Jericho and
Jon Moxley will be proud of her, and we certainly agree with the battered dentist.
Ever since AEW was founded, the company has taken shots at WWE on a nearly-weekly basis and this week
was no different thanks to Don Callis’ appearance on Dynamite. During the show, Callis drew attention
to his new shirt, which pokes fun at WWE’s new rule against slapping your leg when kicking.
Callis even held the shirt up for the camera to see, and this shirt comes just days after AEW made fun of the
rule on being the Elite, with Matt Hardy apparently posing $500 fines to anyone caught slapping their leg for any reason.
This isn’t the first time AEW have felt the need to reference WWE and it certainly won’t be the last, and time will what the
All-Elite promotion has to say about their competition next week.
Over to NXT now, and our first match for TakeOver: Stand and Deliver was confirmed on last night’s show.
During the show, NXT Cruiserweight Champion Jordan Devlin returned, confronting NXT Cruiserweight Champion
Santos Escobar, who became the interim champion when Devlin was unable to travel from Europe due to
the ongoing situation. Calling Escobar’s championship a quote “little replica title,” Escobar said
he’s redefined being a cruiserweight and a championship unification match was set for the two-night TakeOver
next month. Devlin is already set to defend his title against Trent Severn on today’s edition
of NXT UK, and with it likely that he’ll retain the gold, fans will get to see the two Champions collide at TakeOver.
This week’s NXT also saw the continuation of the Kyle O’Reilly Vs. Adam Cole feud, which turned even
uglier than before. Appearing on the titantron, O’Reilly said he knows where Cole lives, much to the
anger of the former NXT Champion, who vented his frustrations to William Regal.
The NXT GM was alerted later in the show to something happening in the back, and saw both men being apested
by law enforcement, with Cole claiming O’Reilly had tried to run him off the road.
Regal said that he hopes the police drop the charges, as he has promised a solution for their situation next week,
though stopped short of saying what it is. It’s believed that Cole Vs. O’Reilly
will happen at TakeOver: Stand and Deliver, presumably with some stipulation, but we’ll have to wait until
next week to know for sure.
Fans should find out next week if that match will happen at next month’s TakeOver, but we do know that the
NXT Title will be on the line. Kicking off this week’s show, NXT Champion Finn Balor spoke about
being champion, before he was interrupted by Karrion Kross, and a title match set for the two for Stand
and Deliver. Kross had to vacate the title he won from Keith Lee due to an injury,
an injury that allowed Balor to become champion, and now he’ll get a chance to win that title back.
After no-showing Bound for Glory 2020 where she was meant to challenge for the Knockouts Title, Kylie Rae
announced her retirement from wrestling, but now that retirement is coming to an end.
Right after AEW’s main event between Britt Baker and Thunder Rose, Warrior Wrestling announced that Rae is
returning for their June 5 event at the Marian Catholic High School in Chicago, where she’ll defend her
Warrior Wretling Women’s title.
It’s unclear who she’ll face on the night, but it’s also been confirmed that Thunder Rosa will be at the event too.
Given that the promotion said the timing of the announcement, immediately after the Rosa-Baker might give fans a clue,
it seems Rae will face Rosa in her first match back, in what we’re sure will be an entertaining return.
As a star in WCW, WWE, and TNA, Sean Waltman accomplished plenty in wrestling, but he didn’t end things
how he’d hoped. Whilst speaking to Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, Waltman said he
didn’t leave the wrestling business on his terms, saying he wasted a lot of years of his life.
He added that he’d be psyched to have more matches in a WWE ring, but said he’d consider other companies if WWE
isn’t interested. Waltman also announced the launch of his new podcast ‘Pro Wrestling 4 Life’
which’ll be co-hosted by Nick Hausman, as the former X-Pac is certainly making up for what he believes is lost time.
Fans can watch Waltman’s years wrestling on the WWE Network, which’ll officially close today and be moved to
Peacock for U.S subscribers. This is the biggest change the Network has ever had, which is why WWE
published a little Q&A for fans who are having their accounts closed.
In that Q&A, WWE confirmed that fans will get a refund for the remaining days of March that fans have paid for
but won’t be able to use. For credit card, debit card or Paypal users, this will be a simple payment
into their preferred payment method, whilst Gift Card subscribers will receive their remaining amount in a choice of
over 300 gift cards. We’ll have to see how smoothly WWE transitions into its new home on Peacock,
but at least fans won’t be losing money thanks to this colossal change.
It’ll be on Peacock that fans can watch Shawn Michaels’ last match, but that’s a match HBK doesn’t want fans to see.
After eight years in retirement, Michaels came out for one last match when DX faced the Brothers of Destruction at
Crown Jewel 2018, a match that was panned by critics and fans alike. Speaking to the New York post,
Michaels said he didn’t know that the Undertaker was hoping that this’d be the match he could retire on, and said
that he can only apologise for the underwhelming match.
After 8 years away from the ring, Michaels impressed fans with how well he performed at Crown Jewel,
but his performance couldn’t save this incredibly disappointing match.
Back to RAW, as Andrade recently requested his release from WWE, after months of going unused, and though
that request was denied, we imagine it’s just a matter of time before he’s a former Superstar.
This week, AEW’s Jim Ross discussed the Andrade situation on his Grillin’ JR Podcast, and said that though he doesn’t
watch as much WWE content as fans believe, he’s aware that the former U.S. Champion wants out.
JR said that given the ongoing situation, he’s surprised that Andrade, or anyone, would request to leave a job, saying:
You damn sure don't want to ask for a release unless you've got somewhere to go and where you can establish
some stability, financial security. I don't know if he has that or he doesn't have that
JR added that if Andrade is angry or disappointed with how things are going, that those aren’t the right reasons to
ask for a release during this ongoing situation, especially if you don’t have somewhere to go.
With that said, AEW hasn’t shied away from signing former WWE Superstars over the past year, including Paul Wight,
Christian Cage and Sting, and we’ll have to see if Andrade is the next on the list to call the All-Elite promotion home.
For weeks, Sami Zayn has been flanked by his own camera crew as he’s promised a documentary that’ll expose
what he considers a conspiracy against him, and he may be getting some major help in doing just that.
During Talking Smack, Zayn namedropped Logan Paul whilst speaking to Kevin Owens, and the
successful, albeit controversial You Tuber responded with a tweet, teasing he’s interested in hearing Zayn out.
Now, the SmackDown Superstar has responded to Paul, saying that given that Paul knows all about everything
being against him, he should be on his side and help Zayn out. At this time, Paul hasn’t replied to
Zayn’s comment, but it’ll be interesting to see what the former Intercontinental Champion has to say when his
documentary eventually comes out.
And we’re ending today with Seth Rollins, who was recently complimented by his rival Cesaro during an interview with
TalkSport, but that feeling isn’t mutual. During the interview, Cesaro discussed a possible WrestleMania
match against Rollins, but the Messiah responded on Twitter with some harsh words.
Branding Cesaro a coward, Rollins said that the Swiss Cyborg is trying to ride his coattails into WrestleMania,
and said that Vince McMahon is right about him.
We imagine that last line stems from McMahon reportedly not seeing Cesaro as a top star, despite the massive
support from the fans, and we’ll have to see if these two collide at this Sunday’s Fastlane, or even at
WrestleMania, a match the Architect is vehemently against.