In just over a fortnight, we’ve gone from wrestling promotions with actual live audiences
- remember crowds - to Raw, SmackDown, NXT and AEW Dynamite putting on empty arena shows,
to now, where even wrestlers themselves are pulling out - either through choice or not
being medically cleared - with Roman Reigns, The Miz, Paige, and more not attending WWE
tapings.
As usual, the wrestling world appears to be slightly behind the real-world.
WWE still hasn’t once acknowledged that Steve Corino is a thing - maybe they don’t
want to be demonetized by YouTube either! - and are saying WrestleMania is the way it
is (in front of no fans at the Performance Center, spread over two shows and entirely
pre-recorded) is because it’s ‘too big for one night.’
Not, you know, because the world is ending.
Indie promotions and wrestlers have already experienced the financial effects, though,
with the huge number of indie shows over WrestleMania weekend getting cancelled - typically the
biggest earning days of the year for many of those smaller companies.
And the true independent contractors, indie wrestlers, have now found themselves at home
without any shows to work on, lazily asking to Get These Hand-outs, eh Braun?
And now it seems the big promotions are starting to plan for the upcoming months of financial
strain and hardship, too, by potentially preparing to release talent.
With Steve Corino freezing the global economy, it’s expected 47 million people could lose
their jobs in the United States alone, sending the unemployment rate past 32%.
Despite WWE being very cash rich at the moment, reportedly holding half a billion dollars
in reserves, and Vince McMahon selling a large amount of WWE stock last week for even more
liquidity, those funds are going to run out fast if they can’t put on any more shows
or make any new content.
Even the biggest wrestling promotion in the world is going to need to cut costs to survive
this crisis.
Likely because of this, WrestlingNews.co is reporting there is “concern” in the WWE
locker room, which has found itself become bloated and overstocked in the last few years,
as Vince McMahon wanted to sign and retain as much wrestling talent as possible - some
to huge money deals beyond their actual drawing worth - just to keep them away from competitors
like AEW.
The report explains that WWE is unlikely to hit their revenue projections this year, which
were already low because of declining interest in the product and falling Network subscriptions,
so “there will be pressure to cut back on costs.”
Apparently lower card wrestlers “have privately acknowledged that there may be some tough
decisions made this year and there is a fear of talent cuts coming at some point.”
The backstage feeling is that the top stars and mid-card wrestlers will be fine, but those
not often used on shows “are worried” about not just their WWE futures, but their
wrestling careers outside the promotion too, as “they can’t depend on AEW as they safety
net” as they’re in the exact same position as WWE.
“This will be tough for a lot of guys and for a lot of people in [the wrestling business]
overall.”
Which WWE wrestlers do you think might be released?
Let me know in the comments because I’ll be replying to people FROM OUTTA NOWHERE reminding
people that yes, the Colons actually still are under contract with the company.
You’d assume that when it comes to it, WWE would prioritise letting go talent whose contracts
are up anyway.
And that plays into one current WWE champion’s status…
Kairi Sane hasn’t been seen on WWE TV since the 9th March, despite being scheduled in
a women’s tag team title defence with Asuka against Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross at WrestleMania.
Wrestling Observer Radio has revealed this is actually because Sane has been in Japan
to get married, congratulations, but, for whatever reason - likely because of worldwide
travel restrictions - “she wasn’t available until like the very end [of WrestleMania tapings]
so that’s why this whole promotion the last couple of weeks has been all Asuka, no Kairi
Sane.”
And if the Kabuki Warriors drop the belts, that could be a sign that WWE might part ways
with Sane.
It’s been reported for months that Kairi’s contract is up soon, with Dave Meltzer even
revealing he “could definitely see her leaving...she’s definitely expressed interest in exploring
other options.”
And Takaaki Kidani, the president of Bushiroad - which owns both New Japan Pro Wrestling
and all-women’s promotion Stardom - has publicly told Tokyo Sports he wants her back.
The six man tag between Kevin Owens and the Street Profits against Seth Rollins, Angel
Garza and Austin Theory was the only real new wrestling match on Monday’s Raw.
But despite being pre-recorded, Montez Ford treated it as live, and he made a dangerous,
perfectly avoidable botch.
Bryan Alvarez has revealed that Ford’s huge flip dive to the outside, where there was
no-one there to catch him, meaning he crashed and burned hard on the steel ramp, didn’t
only go wrong - with initial speculation being that Theory was out-of-position to catch him
- but that the spot wasn’t planned at all.
Apparently Rollins was meant to trip Ford when he bounced off the ropes - which Seth
just about did - but Montez did the flip dive anyway because he seemingly thought Rollins
wouldn’t get to him in time.
Theory didn’t know this was coming, so he panicked and took a bump anyway despite not
being touched.
Ford tweeted following the match: “How the phone conversation went between my mom and
I tonight…” with a clip of Tyson saying “I broke my back, my back is broken.”
Hopefully that’s just a joke, as the Street Profits Raw tag team title defence at WrestleMania
has already been rebooked once, with Theory replacing the injured Andrade.
What’s more peculiar, is that as this match was pre-recorded, Ford could’ve easily stopped
the in-ring action, and reset the finish, rather than taking the very dangerous bump
to the outside.
And that isn’t the only time WWE have kept in a botch this week, as they’ve also debuted
the Monday Night Raw commercial filmed in February, keeping in the shot where Samoa
Joe controversially suffered a concussion when being put through a table.
But when injury strikes, just fire up 2K20.
Because that game is totally botch-free.
WWE have announced “Dream Match Mania” for the Network, where WWE Superstars will
play fantasy matches in WWE 2K20 - please glitch out, please glitch out - like The Rock
vs Roman Reigns, Sasha Banks vs Trish Stratus, John Cena vs Hulk Hogan, Seth Rollins vs Ric
Flair, Charlotte Flair vs Beth Phoenix and Goldberg vs Big E, of which the announcement
asks “What will happen when these two big men “bump meat” in the ring?”
Bump meat.
Bump me- Dream Match Mania is likely a way to compensate
for the many changes to the WrestleMania card.
And now WWE have finally publicly addressed what’s going on for one of those top bouts...
Elias vs King Corbin is still going ahead, don’t worry everybody.
Elias isn’t dead.
WWE has revealed Elias’ condition with the following statement:
“Elias has been recovering at a rehab facility and swears that, somehow, some way, he will
compete against Corbin at WrestleMania.”
WrestleMania will likely be the last time we’ll see wrestlers compete for a while,
with society preparing itself for Total Lockdown through April.
As expected, WWE have cancelled all their live shows in April, meaning they’ll continue
with no fans Raw, SmackDown and NXTs from the Performance Center - providing Orlando
authorities allow those to go ahead.
The Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut confirmed the 27th April Raw has been cancelled, but
it’s speculated WWE want to start their touring shows back up against with the 1st
May SmackDown in New York - which they’re still selling tickets for.
The situation is the same for wrestling promotions across the globe, as New Japan have now officially
extended their run of cancelled shows through to April 18.
AEW appear to have done the same, but they are pushing ahead as though their next big
pay-per-view Double Or Nothing will still take place in Las Vegas on Saturday 23rd May
- only revealing on Monday that the finals to crown their inaugural AEW TNT Champion
will take place there.
That is only under two month away though, and many are preparing for Total Lockdown
to be at least three months long.
In the meantime, AEW has started taping Dynamite and Dark in advance from a secret location.
They’ve previously been recording from the KHHHHHAN family-owned Daily’s Place in Florida
- but Jacksonville authorities are now using the parking lot as a major testing centre
for Steve Corino.
Dave Meltzer is reporting AEW have instead moved to an undisclosed location, to prevent
fans from showing up asking for autographs and pictures during the pandemic.
Because marks don’t observe social distancing.
Some episodes have already been taped from Daily’s Place, but future episodes will
be from this secret location.
A secret location like Parts Unknown, which is where the Undertaker lives with Michelle
McCool and their heard of cuddly tigers?
Gasp!
Undertaker to AEW confirmed.
A move that’s 110% definitely going to happen, because the Deadman just tweeted Chris Jericho.
God dammit, Undertaker, stop being lame on Twitter.
During the Deadman’s promo segment on Raw this week, he called Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson
AJ Styles’ “two assclowns”, which is actually one of top AEW star Chris Jericho’s
many, many, many catchphrases.
Pointing this out on Twitter, a fan tweeted Jericho saying he should file a lawsuit against
The Deadman, to which Jericho replied by saying: “Hardly!
He’s the @undertaker...he can used as many of my catch phrases as he wants!!!
COWBOY HAT EMOJI” To which ‘Taker himself replied:
“My bad @IAmJericho ....I knew I had heard that somewhere before....”
Undertaker to AEW confirmed.
Double gasp!
Undertaker be the inaugural AEW TNT Champion confirmed!
On last night’s episode of Dark, AEW have officially revealed the first half of the
8 man tournament to crown the new AEW TNT Champion: which will see Cody Rhodes reprise
last Summer’s feud with Shawn Spears, and Sammy Guevara will fight his Revolution opponent
Darby Allin.
The two other matches will be announced on Dynamite tonight, with the tournament starting
next Wednesday, and the finals happening at Double or Nothing in May, if that show actually
happens.
We’re all likely stuck at home for the long run, folks.
We’re all going slightly out of our minds.
And we’re all wrestling fans.
So we’re putting on the first ever QUIZZLEMANIA live today at 4pm EST, 1pm PST and 9pm GMT!
Click on the i above my head or the link in the video description below to set a reminder
for the Adam Blampied-hosted wrestling gameshow.
It’ll be me vs Luke vs Laurie vs Pete on the feed, all fighting over a copy of Doom
Eternal, and you can all play along at home!
You can set your reminder by clicking the Quizzlemania event on the right now!
And make sure to subscribe to partsFUNknown, because Adam’s latest fantasy booking video:
How WWE Should Book WrestleMania Night One is up to watch!
I’ve been Oli Davis, and that was wrestling.