And your headlines for Afternoon include
Damian Priest Wins The Andre The Giant Battle Royal!
John Cena Misses Being A Full-Time WWE Superstar Every Single Day!
WWE Has Not Removed Marijuana From Wellness Policy!
“No One Should Be Abandoned" - WWE's Nash Carter Accused Of Abuse In Now-Deleted Tweets By Kimber Lee!
John Cena Doesn’t Think He Could Beat Max Caster In A Rap Battle!
Strange Confusion For Becky Lynch Within WWE!
Current WWE Wrestler Spoke To Cody Rhodes About Working In AEW Prior To WWE Return!
MJF Thinks He Rubbed WWE The Wrong Way With His Tough Enough Audition Tape!
Scott Steiner Appears As A Witness On Judge Steve Harvey
Husband Vs. Wife In A “Dirty Dishes Match” Announced For WrestleCon SuperShow!
The Hardy Boyz Announced For AAA’s TripleMania XXX! And More!
We’re kicking off with SmackDown as tonight’s show will be the go-home show before WrestleMania, and see the eighth annual Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.
Tonight’s match will see some big names involved, including U.S. Champion Finn Balor, but there is one star that stands out as a favourite to win the entire match.
From recent booking, Damian Priest has seemed ahead of the competition, and has continued to excel since turning heel a few weeks back.
It has been speculated that Priest would face Balor at WrestleMania, but WWE are yet to confirm this match will take place.
Perhaps the Andre the Giant Battle Royal will prove to be the catalyst, and the title match at WrestleMania is booked afterwards, but as for tonight, expect the Archer of Infamy
to be standing tall.
For a decade or so, John Cena was the unquestionable top star of WWE, capturing 16 World Championships across his incredible run with the company.
In more recent years though, Cena has shifted into a part-time role with the company, and it’s now been months since fans last saw John in the ring, either on-screen or at live events.
With Cena’s movie career continuing to grow, it’s hardly surprising that Cena has become less and less available to WWE, but as he told GQ, his career on the silver screen
has taken a toll on Big Match John: “I miss it every day. Every single day. But I’ll be 45 on April 23rd, and I was very fortunate to make it
as long as I did with only a minor list of injuries. Nothing that has changed the trajectory of my long term health. I’m strong, flexible, and in really good shape externally, internally. I think now
being a full-time touring performer might start to hit that point of diminishing returns.”
After years of main-eventing WrestleManias, John Cena isn’t expected to compete or even appear this weekend, as the era of Cena as the face of WWE has truly come and gone.
Now, WWE like any other sport have their own strict policy on substances, with many Superstars falling foul of the company’s wellness policy.
There are certain substances, such as alcohol, that WWE Superstars are allowed to use, and this week, a false report spread about a very particular substance.
In a report online, it was stated that Marijuana had been removed from the company’s list of banned substances, and many fans immediately thought of prolific users such as Riddle and
Riddle and Rob Van Dam. This report seemed believable, as the perpetrator forged a statement from WWE’s corporate
perpetrator forged a statement from WWE’s corporate website, but according to the actual site, Marijuana is still listed as a banned substance.
Any Superstar found to have used the drug is subject to a $2,500 fine, which some Superstars have referred to as the weed tax.
This week, the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to pass a bill that would decriminalise marijuana use on a federal level, so Riddle may be celebrating WrestleMania 38 in his own way after all.
We’ve got some concerning news regarding NXT 2.0’s Nash Carter now, as he has been accused of serious misconduct by his wife.
Carter’s wife, Kimber Lee, works for Impact Wrestling, and on Twitter, said that she wishes she could be happy for her husband’s success on the paint-splattered brand, but can’t.
Lee claimed that she has been abandoned by her husband, who she says has silenced her in the hopes of keeping his career, in a series of tweets which have since been deleted.
In tweets that are still on her account, Lee followed up by saying that she’s been harassed over the phone for hours following her accusations against Carter, adding that this alleged
behaviour has been happening since last October.
She went on to say that things allegedly have gotten so bad for her, that she almost took her own life, and called out those who are attacking her for what she’s said.
Neither Carter nor WWE have commented publicly on the matter at this time, but Carter will compete for the NXT Tag Team Championships alongside Wes Lee this
Saturday at Stand and Deliver.
It’s worth stating that we’ve only heard one side of things so far, but we’ll keep viewers updated on this concerning story.
Over to AEW, as Max Caster has proven himself to be quite the performer in the company, delivering scathing barbs ahead of each of his matches.
With his freestyle raps each week, many have compared Caster to a young John Cena, who would often humiliate his opponents during his time as the Doctor of Thuganomics.
It turns out that Cena has seen plenty of Caster’s work, and when asked by Forbes’ Alfred Konuwa if he could take the AEW star in a rap battle, John said no, adding:
““He’s extremely gifted. I remember hearing him for the first time, and asking a good friend of mine to please pass his information on to me. I immediately checked out his raps,
out of the blue, and I saw what he was doing was spectacular.” “I wish him all the best of luck, but I can’t give him any advice because he’s punching far above my
weight class. He is very gifted. He’s gifted enough to rhyme to the beat live, where I kind of did my stuff a cappella to let the punchlines sink in.
“Hip-hop constantly evolves, and it constantly moves forward, and he is the better version of what I did. He’s really, really spectacular. As long as he keeps everything in realistic
perspective, he shows great potential.”
Cena’s time as a freestyle rapper ended as he elevated into the World title picture, and despite the accolades of the 16-time WWE World Champion, he couldn’t hang in a rap
battle with the Acclaimed.
Back to the Ring, as Becky Lynch returned to WWE at Summerslam 2021 to regain the SmackDown Women’s Championship, but also returned with a new attitude.
While Lynch has always been confident, the Champ, now calling herself ‘Big Time Becks’ has leaned into much more of a heel role, despite many fans still cheering The Man.
In an interview with Midnight Meets, Lynch spoke about her current character motivation with Colin Murray, and said that she’s not sure whether her on-screen persona should be
cheered or booed: “I don’t know where I lay [babyface or heel], it’s certainly wouldn’t say an antihero, especially with the ridiculousness of this
of this character sometimes. But I do love it. I’m probably having more fun and, I think, doing the best work of my career. Even if
it’s just from a personal standpoint, if nobody else feels like that, so at the end of the day, that’s all that matters. It’s not all that matters, but I am enjoying it and I feel like I’m
doing good work and helping create a division. That is spectacular. I’m so proud of what we’re doing. Well, I think we have fantastic women and I think we’ve elevated them and are
going to continue to do so and I think the possibilities are endless when you have a group like that.” At WrestleMania, Lynch will put her Raw Women’s
Title on the line, against Bianca Belair, in Lynch’s first Mania match with a crowd since 2019, and whether the fans cheer or boo, expect Big Time Becks to get a thunderous ovation.
Earlier this year, Lita made a return to WWE, which culminated in a RAW Women’s Championship match at Elimination Chamber 2022.
Considered by many as one of the greatest women’s wrestlers of all time, getting Lita back was a huge win for WWE, especially as she’d considered taking her talents to other promotion.
As she told Chris Van Vliet on Insight this week, Lita had discussed a possible deal with AEW, and said that Cody Rhodes had reached out to her about a possible partnership.
Lita said that she did strongly consider joining AEW, saying that she had began brainstorming and thinking about possibilities but ultimately decided on her return to WWE.
The former Women’s Champion hasn’t ruled out a return to WWE somewhere down the line, and still has aspirations of having one last title run, but if that happens, it’ll more than
likely be as part of Vince McMahon’s promotion, and not working under Tony Khan.
One name fans can see in AEW is MJF, who has become a top star with his arrogant personality, but MJF was eager to make it to the big leagues long before AEW was around.
In 2015, a 19-year-old MJF auditioned for Tough Enough and his application video is still on YouTube, but it didn’t lead to a career working for Vince McMahon.
Speaking to Ariel Helwani, MJF praised his promo, saying how no other video application got more views, and that he was confident that no-one was cutting a better promo than him.
When asked what went wrong, MJF said that he feels some of her verbiage rubbed people the wrong way, as he referred to Triple H as ‘Trip’ in the promo, and used his infamous
catchphrase against the Game “I’m better than you, and you know it.” Things didn’t work out for the Salt of the Earth in 2015,
but MJF said things have worked out for a reason, as WWE “wouldn’t have understood what they had” if they had signed him, but are now
willing to pay an absurd amount of money for him to jump to WWE. WWE has reportedly been greatly interested in MJF,
who’s current contract with AEW expires in 2024, as after nearly a decade since that video application, he may one day be a fully-fledged WWE Superstar.
Tomorrow night, Scott Steiner will become a WWE Hall of Famer, with fans excited to hear what he’ll have to say when given a live mic.
Scott will be on WWE TV tomorrow night, but this week, he also appeared as a witness on Judge Steve Harvey for a wrestling related dispute.
In a matter between over some indie wrestling appearances by Johnny Fairplay, Steiner appeared in full-character and cut a promo as part of his testimony.
Even at 59 years old, Big Poppa Pump hasn’t lost a step on the mic, and we’ll have to see what he has to say when he becomes a Hall of Famer tomorrow night
Last year, both John Morrison and his wife Taya Valkyrie were released by WWE, but both are now returning to the ring, to face each other.
It’s been confirmed that at WrestleCon, Morrison, now dubbed Johnny WrestleCon, will face his wife in a ‘Dirty Dishes Match later today.
Other former Superstars confirmed for the show include Mia Yim, Athena, Biff Busick and Timothy Thatcher, and with a $5,000 prize for the best match, as voted by fans, expect
some hard-hitting action by the husband and wife duo later today.
And we’re ending today with the Hardy Boys, who have been announced for AAA’s upcoming TripleMania XXX event.
As confirmed at a Tijiuana press conference, the Hardys will face another brother tag team, Dragon Lee and Dralistico and with this being Jeff’s first time in AAA and Matt’s second, the
AEW stars will be looking to make an impression at the show.