Here Is your news for April 4, 2020
We're starting today with news from SmackDown, as even a week after it was
announced that Roman Reigns won't be competing at Wrestle Mania 36 and four
days since the Big Dog himself confirmed this, the WWE still didn't address the
situation on the final show before the Pay Per View.
On SmackDown, WWE announced that Braun Strow man will now be challenging
Universal Champion Goldberg, but didn't give any reason why Strowman was
inserted, or why Reigns was taken out.
Though we all know why these changes have happened, it's interesting that WWE
refuses to address the situation on TV, as Michael Cole just announced the new
match, but despite the total lack of build, the former Intercontinental Champion
took to Twitter, saying he was honoured to face Goldberg at WrestleMania.
In an interview earlier this week, Triple H did say that Roman would be removed
from the show in a very unique way, and I guess having no explanation given and
the situation not even be addressed by the company IS pretty unique.
Nobody can really blame Roman for withdrawing from the show, as his battles
with ************ have made him a health risk in these current times, and we can
only wonder what kind of match he and Goldberg would have had if their original
plans had gone ahead.
From one huge WrestleMania match to another now, as John Cena has accepted
Bray Wyatt's Firefly Funhouse stipulation.
On SmackDown, Wyatt said he knew the secret recipe to beat Cena, and on behalf
of the Fiend, challenged Cena to the Firefly Fun House match at WrestleMania,
which Cena quickly accepted.
As his ever-confident self, Cena described the Fiend as the love-child of Wiz Khalifa
and the WB Frog, but didn't have as many jokes when the Fiend appeared on a
platform, and Wyatt showed up behind Cena.
Though Cena's promo, where he even described Wyatt as not on the level below
him, was certainly impressive, it wasn't the only promo the C-Nation leader did, as
before SmackDown, John put a promo on WWE's social media channels, but the
ones fans saw, wasn't the original.
On social media, Cena cut a worked-shoot where he referenced certain Superstars
wanting things handed to them, and even brought up Husky Harris, Wyatt's
original character from when he debuted on the original NXT a decade ago.
Claiming that Bray is just a Harris in a mask, and that Wyatt is trying to make
people *******, because ******* leads to fear and fear leads to the collapse of his
opponents, Cena ended this impressive promo talking about a certain group of
Superstars, who say they deserve things.
Though we can't say for certain who Cena was addressing, someone backstage
didn't like the promo, as it was quickly deleted from all of WWE's social media
channels, and replaced by an alternate.
Both Cena and Kayla Braxton re-recorded their interview, but fans were quick to
record the original worked shoot, which can still be viewed online.
Cena himself said that much like WrestleMania, the Firefly Fun House is a match
that nobody can predict, and time will tell whether Big Match John rises to the
occasion once again, at WrestleMania.
More news from the Showcase of the Immortals now, as after filming
WrestleMania last week, the WWE have had a long time to edit the event, but
there's also been plenty of time for spoilers to come out.
WWE have made sure to put a stop to that, as Sports Illustrated is reporting that
leaking spoilers from within the company is a fireable offence.
It's clear that WWE wanted to make sure that results didn't get out before the
show is aired, and whilst WWE always has to deal with leaks, they're taking extra
measures now with their biggest show of the year, and with so much content
record in advance.
According to reports, the company was taping Wrestle Mania all night, from 11AM
Eastern to 5am, and whilst the entire show was able to be recorded, odds are we
won't be hearing much about what exactly happened until the show airs.
One person who will have a big presence at WrestleMania is Becky Lynch, who is
prepping for her RAW Women's title match against Shayna Baszler, though there's
an argument to be made that a shadow in the form of Ronda Rousey is hanging
over this match.
After all, fans never saw a definitive one-on-one match between The Man and The
Hot Rod, and though some speculated that the pair would face off at this year's
WrestleMania, that clearly isn't the case.
This week, Becky looked to start their feud up again, as she said:
“You better hurry up and beat me, Shayna. Auntie Ronda is casting her shadow
again now you’ve got yourself a little bit of the spotlight.”
This year's RAW Women's Championship match is certainly one of the most highly
anticipated showdowns of WrestleMania, and the big question is whether The
Man can hold on to her title against one of the scariest opponents she's ever faced.
We've got some WWE Network news now, as Ric Flair has been announced as the
latest guest on Steve Austin's Broken Skull Sessions.
The conversation between the two will premiere on Sunday, April 12th, according
to WWE Network News, and this will be the sixth episode of the Rattlesnake's
interview show.
Earlier this week, uncensored versions of Austin's interviews with the Undertaker,
Goldberg, Bret Hart and the Big Show were added to the Network, and that isn't
the only new content on the company's Streaming service.
A new episode of WWE Untold was uploaded yesterday, documenting on the
classic between Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle from WrestleMania 21.
Meanwhile, a new Chronicle episode focussed on Drew McIntyre Is set to be
uploaded today, and with WrestleMania 36, as well as a new WWE 24 on Edge's
return premiering Sunday, there's plenty for fans to watch on the WWE Network.
Now, we all know that Vince McMahon is a very unique boss, and one person who
knows the Chairman personally is Kofi Kingston.
Not only did the pair share screentime last year as part of KofiMania, but this
week Kingston recalled the story of when he fought the boss to Fightful's Sean
Ross Sapp, which was actually alluded to in Chris Jericho's book The Best in the
World: At What I Have No Idea.
Whilst Jericho's story had Vince taunting Kofi about not being over in 2010, the
former WWE Champion added more details this week, talking about the plane ride
that nearly changed his career. He said:
"As we were getting off, Vince started trying me a little bit. He’s like, ‘You wanna
fight an old man?’
I’m like, ‘Whoa, what is going on? What’s happening?’ I got kicked off the plane
because I wouldn’t fight him. ‘Uhhhh, okay.’ Jericho did come down and he said I
had to go back up there, because in this weird world of wrestling, this is how you
had to get respect.
I’m like, ‘Uhhh, okay, I guess I’ll go up there and try to fight my boss.’ We get up
there and we start going back and forth. All of a sudden, I got double legged on
the plane. I’m like, ‘Oh my God, we’re really fighting.’ This is crazy.”
Later in the interview, Kofi would thank the former AEW World Champion for
telling him to go back and fight Vince, saying that If he hadn't fought Vince, he's
sure McMahon would have seen Kofi as lacking what it takes to make it in WWE.
Anyone who's seen Kofi trash talk whilst playing Madden knows just how
aggressive the New Day star can be, so we're confident that if this crazy fight had
gone any longer, it would have been Kingston who got the win.
Back to WrestleMania now, and there's been plenty of changes made to this
year's show, which has led to WWE being able to have some matches receive a lot
of special attention in post-production.
Two huge stipulations for this year's show are the Firefly Fun House match, and
the Boneyard match between The Undertaker and AJ Styles, and according to
WrestleVotes, these off-site matches will take place on different nights.
The report from WrestleVotes also said it was logical to assume the WWE and
Universal title matches will take place on different nights, and with Triple H saying
that WWE could like splitting WrestleMania up into two nights, time will tell what
WrestleMania looks like in the years after this unpredictable and worrying time.
One person fans shouldn't expect to see this weekend is CM Punk, as not only is
the former WWE Champion retired, but he is also staying at home due to the
ongoing situation.
That doesn't mean that Punk isn't having fun at home though, as he recently
tweeted out a photo of himself rocking his hold Straight Edge Society mask, with
the caption 'Day 21', referencing the amount of time he's stayed indoors.
Fans may remember Punk's time with the Straight Edge Society, and the mask he
wore after having his head shaved, and whilst health officials have advised people
to wear masks if they do venture out, this probably isn't the face- cover they had in mind.
Back to WrestleMania now, and despite no crowd being in attendance for this
year's show, the WWE is trying to market this unique situation however they can,
with their latest shirt having quite an interesting backstory.
Recently, WWE sent a cease and desist to Freelance Wrestling and Pro Wrestling
Tees, after the pair used a parody of the WWF In Your House logo, last used by the
WWE in 1999, to promote their In Our Warehouse event.
Now, the WWE has made their own In Your House shirt, with the WrestleMania 36
logo included, poking fun at the fact that there will be no fans in attendance, but
we can't help but wonder whether this design was planned all along, or whether
it’s a warning to any other companies who want to risk using WWE’s intellectual property.
We've got some news from AEW Star Adam Page now, as the Hangman wasn't
able to make it to the recent tapings at the Nightmare Factory in Norcross, Georgia.
Unsurprisingly, the Hangman was pretty bummed out about missing the show,
and according to his Twitter, spent his night eating ***** rinds and having an
existential crisis about his work.
This tweet, where Page said his work was apparently "not essential’ and will fade
into nothingness," caught the attention of WWE Inter continental Champion Sami
Zayn, who said that Page's mistake was thinking being a wrestler meant he had
some special worth, but admitted to thinking this at time himself.
Whilst Page won't be on some episodes of AEW Dynamite, Zayn will be appearing
this weekend at WrestleMania, where he'll have to have his head in the game if he
hopes to retain his title against Daniel Bryan.
We've got some news from the WWE Hall of Fame now, as though many stars
over the years have been inducted, the company has opted not to include referees.
The only prominent referee who has been inducted is Teddy Long, who spent the
majority of his career as a manager or authority figure, and this week spoke to
Wrestling Inc about WWE not inducting officials. He said:
"Maybe they just don’t think referees meet that recognition or they don’t think
there’s any money there. When I was there, there were guys trying to get action
figures made of them. They told me, ‘Well we can put anybody in there as a
referee. They don’t play the referee; they play the Superstars."
Perhaps one day, the WWE will change its mind and induct referees, but for now,
the company is just trying to get their 2020 class inducted.
Speaking of Hall of Famers, Beth Phoenix earned her spot in the elite group, but it
seems the former Women's and Divas Champion may not be finished in the ring yet.
This week, the Glamazon and Charlotte Flair discussed a hypothetical contest
between the two for the new Dream Match Mania show, but on Twitter, the
Queen issued a very real challenge to Beth.
As two of the most gifted stars of their respective eras, a singles-contest between
the two would be epic, and Flair would no doubt be hoping to defeat the Hall of
Famer, just as she did to Trish Stratus at Summerslam 2019, in Trish's home town.
We've looking outside of WWE next, as although the company has always said
don't try this at home, they never specifically mentioned Subway cars.
As part of what is being described as Subway Mania, actor and filmmaker Tim
Rivera hosted a Subway Rumble, which as the name suggests, consisted of plenty
of people battling it out on a loaded Subway.
With representatives dressed as Mankind and Goldust starting the match, the pair
were quickly joined by the likes of The Undertaker, Rey Mysterio and the Dudley
Boyz, who even put an opponent through a table.
We won't spoil who wins this hilarious and entertaining match, but we're sure that
those who were just trying to get home from work must have been surprised to
have this match happen right in front of them.
And finally we're ending with news from Forbes, as according to a report by David
Bixenspan, Brock Lesnar is the WWE's highest-paid Superstar.
The report, based on gross pay before taxes using WWE filings, revealed that the
Beast takes home a cool $10million, double Roman Reigns, who is the second-
highest earner with $5million.
Randy Orton's 4.1million helps him inch third place ahead of Seth Rollins'
$4million, whilst Triple H takes 5th place, earning $3.3 million, including executive pay.
Becky Lynch proves she's the Man by earning a hefty $3.1million, more than
Universal Champion Goldberg at 3 million, Shane McMahon at 2.1million or
Stephanie, who takes home 2 million, including executive pay.
Despite claiming not to be currently paid by WWE, Braun Strowman rounds off the
top 10 by earning $1.9million, though it should be noted that this list only
focussed on active Superstars which explains why John Cena, and Tyson Fury, who
claimed to make $15 million from his match against Strowman at Crown Jewel, are absent.
In these uncertain times, it’s important to have some money saved up, and these
stars certainly have enough to last them for quite some time as the future
continues to be unclear.