Here's your wrestling news for May 17th 2021
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Identities Of Zombies At WWE WrestleMania Backlash!
Former WWE Champion Tells Angry Fan To Send A Tweet To Vince McMahon!
Charlotte Flair’s Cruella de Vil Inspired WrestleMania Backlash Gear Causes Big Reaction!
WWE Announces Hell In A Cell For June, Breaking Yearly October Tradition!
WWE Money In The Bank Reportedly Set For July With Live Fans!
Video Of Wrestler Setting Opponent’s Crotch On Fire Goes Viral!
A Huge Name Spotted Backstage At WWE WrestleMania Backlash!
Former World Heavy Weight Champion Puts Matt Serra In A Headlock At UFC 262!
Vince McMahon’s Priceless Reaction To RVD Gift!
Braun Strowman Opens Up About Struggles With Body Dysmorphia! And More!
We’re kicking off today with WrestleMania- Backlash, as the show saw an invasion of the Undead during the show.
For the Lumberjack match between Damian Priest and the Miz, Zombies were at ringside to promote Batista’s new Army of the Dead film,
and we now know who these reincarnated creatures of the undead actually were.
Fightful select reports that these zombies were Performance Center wrestlers, including Joe Gacy, Daniel Vidot and
Cal Bloom, though it was hard to tell under all that makeup and prosthetics. It was also reported that Jiro Kuroshio and
Asher Hale may have been there too, in what was an interesting experience that nobody was expecting when they tuned in to
WrestleMania-Backlash.
Unsurprisingly, these zombies haven’t gone down well with fans, many of whom saw the match as too goofy to be taken seriously on
WWE Pay Per View. Given that the entire zombie premise was designed to promote Batista’s Army of the
Dead movie, many fans are pointing their fingers at the Animal, but he isn’t taking blame for the company’s booking.
When one fan tweeted Batista that they love him, but considered the zombies at Backlash as an insult, the Animal fired back in an
expletive-laden tweet, asking why the fan is telling him, and that he should be tweeting Vince McMahon instead.
Ultimately, every decision in WWE goes by McMahon, so he must have green-lit the use of Zombies as Lumberjacks, but this
promotion for Batista’s new film seems to have backfired for the former WWE World Champion.
If WrestleMania is a night where WWE Superstars go all out on their costumes, it makes sense that there were some unique
looks at WrestleMania-Backlash. For the RAW Women’s title match, Charlotte Flair wore a Cruella De-Ville
inspired attire, that didn’t go unnoticed by fans, though there’s no word on if this was part of some deal to promote the
upcoming new movie starring Emma Stone. For his SmackDown Tag title victory, Rey Mysterio wore a Batman themed attire,
specifically the bright grey, blue and yellow of the 60s Adam West series. The logo on the chest wasn’t actually batman,
because WWE didn’t want to pay those license fees, but it was pretty easy to tell what WWE’s Ultimate Underdog was going for.
It’s expected that Rey and Dominik will be competing at next month’s Pay Per View, which will be a show fans weren’t expecting.
Whilst it was expected that the June 20th Pay Per View would be Money in the Bank, It was confirmed during last night’s
WrestleMania-Backlash that next month’s show will be Hell in a Cell.
Since the show’s inception in 2009, Hell in a Cell has been held in October, with the exception being the 2018 show, which was
mid-September, and this is the earliest in the calendar the show will happen.
PW Insider reports that WWE made the decision to change the Pay Per View calendar last week, and there’s no word on
what event will replace Hell in a Cell in it’s usual October spot.
When Hell in a Cell concludes next month, then there’ll be only one Pay Per View before Summerslam, which’ll be the
-to-be-named event on July 18th. We may now know what show will be in July, as Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men Wrestling
Podcast tweeted that July’s show will be Money in the Bank. The reasoning is that Money in the Bank is
one of WWE’s most popular shows of the year, and that WWE plans on having it take place with live fans.
According to reports, July 16th, 18th and 19th will all see WWE events with live fans, as a trial to see whether it’s time to bring back
crowds full-time, and though no location has been confirmed for Money in the Bank, which is still a rumour at this time, fans could
soon once more see the titular ladder match in person.
Now, Deathmatch Wrestling has received a spotlight thanks to Vice’s Dark Side of the Ring focussing on names like Nick Gage and
the late New Jack, but this week, deathmatch wrestling went viral for a very strange reason. During a show hosted by Pro-Wrestling
Trainwreck, one wrestler was able to set another wrestler’s crotch on fire, and then used a weed whacker to nail him in the
baby-maker one more time. This was a hard spot for many people to watch, as the tweeted clip had a lot of
criticism from fans who didn’t appreciate this kind of wrestling, but it also got over 1 million views and a ton of positive responses.
Whatever you think, this spot was certainly something you wouldn’t see in more mainstream promotions, and we can only
imagine that somewhere, Jim Cornette is seething in anger.
Back to WWE, and Tyson Fury’s one and only match with the company came at Crown Jewel 2019, but the Gypsy King still
remains close to WWE. Despite taking place on the closed-set Thunderdome, Fury and his son were
backstage at WrestleMania-Backlash, and WWE shared some photos of the pair meeting Rey Mysterio and Vince McMahon.
Going backstage was a dream come true for Fury’s son, and with the boxing star continuing to tease a match with Drew McIntyre,
this probably won’t be the last time that Fury and his kid are spotted behind the curtain.
Now, recently, WWE were offering try outs to AEW stars, with the hope of bringing them away from the All-Elite promotion, but this
week, the tables have turned. One name who recently had a try out for WWE is Natalia Markova, but she’ll be
competing on AEW Dark: Elevation, where she’ll face Lelya Hirsch in Markova’s debut for the company.
We’ll have to see if this booking encourages WWE to give her a call, as this recent try out with WWE was her second try out for
Vince McMahon, and she’s looking to work more as things seem to be getting back to normal.
One name WWE is always ready to bring back is Bill Goldberg, who hasn’t been seen since his loss to Drew McIntyre at the
Royal Rumble, but the Hall of Famer is always ready to throw down. When Goldberg attended UFC 262, the former
Universal Champion was seen greeting UFC Hall of Famer Matt Serra with a headlock and then a friendly kiss on the head.
Fans in attendance enjoyed this moment, which was caught on camera, and with Goldberg promising that he has more dates
on his WWE contract, we’ll have to see who’s next for the WCW legend when he returns to TV.
Earlier this year, RVD was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, after a high-flying career that saw him achieve titles wherever he went.
During the new Icons special dedicated to Van Dam, Vince McMahon and Triple H are shown at the Hall of Fame ceremony,
telling the former World Champion just how much he changed the business for the better. McMahon especially said how so many
Superstars tried to emulate RVD, in what was a humbling moment for the usually confident high-flyer.
Van Dam had more than kind words for McMahon in response, as he produced a set of rolling papers from his custom line of
paraphernalia, a gift the Chairman was delighted to receive. With success in ECW, WWE and TNA,
Van Dam’s induction was a long time coming, and was one that was well-deserved if you ask the two top men in WWE.
Speaking of TNA, Impact has reached new levels of popularity recently, thanks in-part to their partnership with AEW, but Impact
could soon be losing a major name to the All-Elite promotion. Yesterday, Impact removed Don Callis from
their website’s listing of company executives, in an interesting move given how much effort Callis has put into the promotion in recent
years. During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer explained that he’s been told by
sources in Impact that it’s expected for Callis to leave the company, with the belief being he’ll be joining AEW full-time as Kenny Omega’s manager.
On a recent episode of Impact, Scott D’Amore approached Callis, asking if his allegiances lie with Impact management or the AEW World
Champion, and it turns out that question wasn’t just for TV.
It’s worth pointing out that Callis’ removal from the Impact Wrestling executive listing could be part of a storyline, as nothing is confirmed yet
but fans can probably expect to see more of him on AEW Dynamite alongside Omega and less on Impact Wrestling.
Speaking of the Cleaner, Omega remains an AEW contracted performer, but will soon be defending his Impact World Championship.
During last week’s Under Siege special, Moose defeated 5 other wrestlers to become the Number one contender for the Impact World
Championship, and will challenge Omega at Against All Odds on June 12th. Interestingly, Under Siege also saw Omega
come up short, as he and the Good Brothers lost to Eddie Edwards and FinJuice, and we’ll have to see if Moose can take back Impact’s
top prize next month.
For the past few weeks, former WWE star Ryback has been trying to find out what fans want him to do next, and now the Big Guy
has the answer he wants. After all previous polls told him to retire, a result Ryback blamed on widespread voter
fraud, the latest poll shows that 46.4% of fans who answered want to see him return to WWE.
In a subsequent tweet, Ryback thanked fans from India for not voting for him to retire, though it’s unclear how he could tell where this mass
dump of votes came from. In that same tweet, Ryback said that if the poll didn’t get 50,000 votes, then it doesn’t count,
and this may be a problem for him, since the poll only got 19,159 responses.
Though Ryback has said any poll under 50,000 responses doesn’t count, he may never get a result not telling him to retire again, and whilst
some fans have said he should return to WWE, that’ll be easier said than done for the man who once branded Vince McMahon a pimp.
And we’re ending with Braun Strowman, who is a true specimen in WWE, but the Monster Among Men doesn’t always feel that way about himself.
Speaking to TMZ Sports recently, Strowman discussed his recent announcement that he’s training for a bodybuilding competition,
and explained how he continues to worry about how he sees himself He said:
“I used to struggle, and I still do struggle with body dysmorphia… “I struggled with bullying growing up because I was a chubby little kid
and then I grew to this gigantic mongoloid of a human being that I am and I’m still judged for it because people look at me and go, ‘Oh,
this big meathead.'” In WWE, Strowman has had an incredible career, including being a triple-crown champion,
as well as the Greatest Royal Rumble, and the fact that the RAW Superstar still deals with confidence issues just goes to show that even
monsters have insecurities.