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Welcome to KB’s Old School (and New School) Reviews. I’ve been reviewing wrestling shows for over ten years now and have reviewed over 5,000 shows. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I’ll be posting a new review here on Wrestlingrumors.net. It could be anything from modern WWE to old school to indies to anything in between. Note that I rate using letters instead of stars and I don’t rate matches under three minutes as really, how good or bad can something that short be?
Backlash 2003
Date: April 27, 2003
Location: Worcester Centrum, Worcester, Massachusetts
Attendance: 10,000
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz, Jonathan Coachman, Jerry Lawler
If WWE held the least important pay per view in recent memory, does it matter in the slightest? This is a glorified Raw pay per view with a handful of Smackdown matches thrown in to fill out the card. It’s a really bad time for WWE at the moment and I don’t remember looking forward to a pay per view less than this one in a long time. Let’s get to..

At the last second. WWE has a lot of things going on at any given time and they are rarely going to get everything right. That may not be the most popular reality but unfortunately it is the way things work for the company. Sometimes you see something that makes very little sense no matter how WWE presents it, which is what seemed to happen this weekend at WrestleMania.
This weekend, WWE presented its annual biggest show of the year with WrestleMania 37. As usual, the show features the most stacked card of the year with one major match after another. You will often see stories and rivalries come to an end at the show, which can lead to some interesting moments. That was the case this year as well, but one of the stories was changed at the last second.
According to Fightful Select, the original plan for the Fiend vs. Randy Orton match called for the Fiend to win, though Orton wound up winning the match. The match was always planned to be a singles match rather than having any form of ..

What a way to wrap it up. WWE Monday Night Raw runs every single Monday of the year and a lot of the episodes are going to run together. There are very few shows which stand out over the others and that is not the biggest surprise. With so much stuff going on, how many of them are going to feel special? One certain show does each year, and this time around it ended with quite the surprise.
The Monday Night Raw after WrestleMania is often the biggest and most eventful show of the year. It is the kind of show where all kinds of things happen and that makes for some rather interesting moments. Oftentimes the show will feature debuts, returns, storyline twists and other major moments. This year’s show was a bit more subdued, but something different did happen at the end.
This week’s Monday Night Raw after WrestleMania ended with T-Bar and Mace attacking Drew McIntyre as MVP watched on. While nothing was confirmed or announced, this could suggest that the two of them have joined MVP and W..

It was worth it. There are certain wrestlers who are going to going to be around at almost every major WWE event. Some of them are near lifers in the company and it makes sense that WWE would want them around. Every now and then they find someone who can do something for them for a very long time. This time around though, they found someone who was willing to do something else for a lot of people.
Randy Orton made his WWE debut back in 2002 and has gone on to become one of the biggest and most successful stars that the company has ever seen. Orton has won almost everything there is to win in WWE and is still wrestling at a high level today despite being in his 40s. He was in another high profile match at this year’s WrestleMania 37 and he brought his family with him at quite the cost.
The day after his victory on the second day of WrestleMania 37, Orton sent out a tweet saying that he brought his family to WrestleMania at a cost of $20,000. Orton brought his wife along with five chil..

The road to normalcy returns. The Coronavirus has changed everything about the wrestling world and that has caused all kinds of issues for every promotion. That is quite the problem to get around but WWE has been doing everything that they can to keep things going as usual. Above all else, WWE has only been able to have fans in attendance during this year’s WrestleMania. That was a great moment, but when will we be seeing it again?
This weekend, WWE had about 25,000 fans inside of Raymond James Stadium for both nights of WrestleMania 37. It was the first time the promotion had seen a significant amount of fans in attendance in over thirteen months and you could feel the energy that the fans brought to the show. That is not going to be the case every week, but when could they be back?
According to Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE’s next show with live fans in attendance will be Summerslam, which will take place in August. There is no word on where the show will take place or how many fan..

Always bring your gear. There are all kinds of people on the WWE roster and that means some of them are going to need to have some trouble getting on television every now and then. That makes things a little bit frustrating for a lot of the roster, which would likely be the case for someone who does not make WrestleMania. That was the case this year, but it was made even worse for some wrestlers.
WrestleMania 37 was one of the biggest events that the company has ever held as the show took place in Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. Just like last year, the show was split over two nights, allowing things to breathe a bit more than usual. There were fourteen matches held over the two nights, some of which included more than the usual two wrestlers. It turns out there were even more available.
According to Fightful Select, several wrestlers were backstage in their gear but were not used in any matches. These wrestlers included Peyton Royce, Jinder Mahal, Ivar and Alicia Fox, the l..

It did seem sudden. Like any form of entertainment, there are going to be some times in wrestling where what you see does not make a ton of sense. That being said, sometimes you will get to see how things get a little bit more logical when you see the bigger picture. That was the case over the weekend as a certain move was a bit odd, though there is a little more to know about the situation.
This weekend saw WWE’s WrestleMania 37, which featured multiple title changes, as tends to be the case at almost every WrestleMania. Some of them were expected, but at the same time there were a few that did not make the most sense and came by surprise. That was the case with a certain title change, but now we know a bit more about the plan going into things.
During night two of WrestleMania 37, Sheamus defeated Riddle to become the United States Champion for the third time in his career. The win ended Riddle’s reign, which began at Elimination Chamber in February, at 49 days. According to Dave M..

We’re going there again. We are fresh off the heels of WrestleMania 37 and that means it is time to start things all over again in what is basically the new WWE season. This includes setting up new stories and feuds as things get started up again. We are also on the way to the followup pay per view, which has a lot of work to do. However, we now seem to have one of the main events.
One of the biggest matches at WrestleMania 37 was the opening match for the first night, as WWE Champion Bobby Lashley defended his title against Drew McIntyre. This was McIntyre’s return match after having the title taken from him at Elimination Chamber thanks to an attack by Lashley. McIntyre wanted another title shot, which already seems to be covered.
With Lashley now a bit more established as champion, it means that he is going to be needing some new challengers. Now that WrestleMania is out of the way, WWE can start moving him towards one of those new challengers, which is what they tried to do this ..

We have some sad news to report, as Claude Gilbert Hardy, father of Matt and Jeff Hardy, passed away last week at the age of 87.
Matt took to Instagram to write a tribute in honor of his late father. An excerpt of that is below:
Our Dad started out as our biggest critic when we first wanted to chase the dream of being pro wrestlers. After a few years of struggling & then finding success in the WWE, our Dad became our biggest fan. He was so proud to be “The Hardy Boyz Daddy” & recorded every match of ours on his VCR. Our Dad was a favorite of Hardy fans, even earning the nickname of “The Legend.”
Jeff & I feel so blessed to have had our Dad live to be 87 years old. He got to see his children live out their dreams & give him many grandchildren to continue the Hardy name & bloodline.
Early Tuesday morning, April 6th, our Dad passed away. Jeff & I were with him at home & by his bedside when he took his final breath. My brother Jeff was our Dad’s guardian angel the last couple of years…

Welcome back. Injuries can be one of the worst things possible in wrestling as anyone can be taken out of the ring at any given time. Some injuries are worse than others but anything that puts someone on the shelf for any amount of time is a bad thing. Sometimes you see someone go on the shelf for a long time but most of the time, someone gets to come back. That was the case this week on Monday Night Raw.
The Monday Night Raw after WrestleMania is quite possibly the biggest show of the year. The event is knock for having all kinds of surprises, returns, debuts and major angles taking place all throughout the night. It makes for some very cool moments as you never know what is going to happen or what you might be seeing. That was the case again with a rather nice return.
Ivar of the Viking Raiders made his return during this week’s Monday Night Raw, teaming with Erik to defeat Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin in a tag match. This was Ivar’s first match since the September 7, 2020..

Monday Night Raw
Date: April 12, 2021
Location: Yuengling Center, Tampa, Florida
Commentators: Adnan Virk, Corey Graves, Byron Saxton
It’s the unofficial season premiere of Raw after the fairly awesome two night Wrestlemania. We’re in the new Thunderdome this week and that shouldn’t make much of a difference compared to the other ones. In theory this should be the big show with all kinds of things going on, but you never can tell these days. Let’s get to it.
Bobby Lashley arrived earlier and Riddle immediately challenged him. Lashley doesn’t think so because Riddle lost to Sheamus last night. Riddle talks about wearing a tin foil hats because of aliens but Lashley turns him down again. That earns Lashley some quotes about how anyone can have a shot, so Lashley shoves him down and calls him a loser. The match seems to be on.
Bobby Lashley vs. Riddle Non-title and MVP is here with Lashley. Riddle scooters to the ring so Lashley jumps him before the bell and the beatdown is on outside…

The only thing constant in life is change. Today, WWE officially announced that Adnan Virk will make his debut as the new play-by-play voice of Monday Night Raw, beginning with tonight’s broadcast on the USA Network. This is after previous rumors that this would be taking place.
As far as the remainder of the team, Virk will be joined by Corey Graves and Byron Saxton. Tom Phillips will become the new host of 205 Live and oversee special projects for WWE’s programming on Peacock and at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando. Phillips also remains in his role of Senior Manager, On-Air Talent.
It is unknown what the future of Samoa Joe is, however WWE reports that he is still a member of the active talent roster.
I hope this means that we will be getting more of this soon:
[This post contains video, click to play]

From the report:
“I’m elated to be joining the premier sports entertainment company in my new role with WWE,” said Adnan Virk. “As a kid who grew up idolizing WWE Hall of ..