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They may have started a tradition. Earlier this month, WWE presented WrestleMania 36, which is pretty easily the most unique version of the show that the company has ever offered. In addition to the complete lack of fans at the WWE Performance Center, the show took place over the course of two nights. That was a weird situation, but it might not be weird for too much longer.
One of the more common complaints with recent WrestleManias has been the length. The last two editions have featured sixteen matches each and counting the Kickoff Show, a few recent shows have broken seven hours. That is a very long time to watch wrestling, so some sort of change could probably be a good idea. A pretty high up name in WWE might have a solution.
Triple H was a guest on this week’s WWE After The Bell podcast where he spoke about wanting WrestleMania to be a two day event going forward. The idea of WrestleMania is that of a week long festival with events taking place every day, though WrestleMania a..

It would be better than nothing. There are a lot of problems going on in WWE at the moment and a lot of them have to do with the lack of fans allowed in the arenas. That is something that is probably going to be a major issue for a long time to come as the Coronavirus continues to wreck havoc on the world. That has never stopped WWE before though and now they might have an idea of how to fix things.
At the end of the day, wrestling shows just aren’t the same without fans in attendance. You can feel the energy go down and it hurts things every single week. At some point there needs to be something in there to make it a little bit better but that doesn’t seem to be the case at the moment. It’s going to take some different thinking and WWE has been known to do that before. Maybe they are doing it again.
Vince McMahon commented on the potential of having fans at future television events during Thursday’s first quarter financial call. According to 411mania.com, McMahon said that the compa..

It’s what they do. Wrestling is like every other sport in a lot of ways. No matter what a promotion does, the fans will always think that they know how to do it better. That may or may not be the case, but it is always something that you see and hear. In wrestling it might be saying who should or shouldn’t be pushed, and that has been the case for years with a certain popular wrestler.
Over the years, Cesaro has always seemed to be one step away from becoming the biggest star in the company. He has the look, the charisma, the raw strength and the popularity to break through but it has never happened. It has not been clear why that has been the case after so many years, but someone with some behind the scenes insight seems to have a theory.
During a recent episode of his Arn podcast, Arn Anderson said that WWE’s front office is not high on Cesaro, though Anderson is not sure why. Anderson says that the higher ups are the only ones who feel that way as almost everyone else sees Cesaro ..

NXT UK
Date: April 23, 2020
Host: Andy Shepard
It’s another special show this week and that is going to likely be the case for a long time. As usual, there is a theme to this one and this time around it’s all about Walter vs. Tyler Bate. They had my Match of the Year in 2019 so watching the whole thing again sounds like quite a good idea. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Shepard welcomes us to the show and hypes up the match a bit.
We get a long video on Tyler Bate. His mom talks about how he grew up as a huge fan and they had to go to every wrestling show. Trent Seven met him at a training seminar when Bate was very young but he knew what he had. Bate signed with WWE when he was 19 and he shocked the world by winning the United Kingdom Title. Bate has been here for three years and is still trying to figure out who he is as a wrestler and as a person. Bate and Seven don’t think much of Imperium and are ready for a fight.
We see Walter training in Germany where he talks about how..

Ring of Honor
Date: April 22, 2020
It’s Matt Taven’s week and that could mean a few things. Taven is someone who has done some good things in his time, but as long as we don’t hear him talk, everything should be fine. He has some solid matches on his resume and we might be seeing some of those here. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Taven talks about rehabbing from a knee injury in 2016 and knowing he had some goals. He knew he would have to beat Adam Cole because they started at the same time but Cole was already the World Champion. Then he beat Dalton Castle, allowing him to bring in the REAL World Title. The match that gives him the most pride is going an hour with Jay Lethal, even though he didn’t win the World Title. Then he won the World Title in Madison Square Garden, which was all he ever wanted.
From War of the Worlds 2019: Grand Rapids.
Ring of Honor World Title: Matt Taven vs. Mark Haskins Taven is defending and tries to hit him with the belt before the bell. That earn..

Impact Wrestling
Date: April 21, 2020
Location: Skyway Studios, Nashville, Tennessee
Commentators: Madison Rayne, Josh Matthews
It’s the first night of Rebellion and it’s taking place in an empty arena, just like all of the other big shows at this point. I’m not sure what we’re going to see due to how many people might not be available for the show and that could make for an interesting show. The company has done well in recent weeks so hopefully they can keep it up. Let’s get to it.
The opening video talks about how everyone wants to be here and make their mark.
OVE vs. Tommy Dreamer/Rhino/??? It’s mystery partner time and it’s….Crazzy Steve? Dreamer and Jake Crist trade standing switches to start before the former rolls out of a wristlock. Jake takes him down and does a nipup before challenging Dreamer to do the same. It doesn’t work so Rhino and Steve come in to help him with oneSteve and Madman Fulton come in but Steve isn’t THAT crazzy, meaning it’s off to Rhino instead. Some f..

Last week was one of the busiest times that WWE has seen in a good while and a lot of what went down wasn’t the best news. The big story (of many) was centered around nearly fifty names being released/furloughed from the company. That is a CRAZY amount of names to be gone in about three days, even if some of them were only taken away for a short amount of time. Some of the names are bigger than others, but there are a few that baffled me in one way or another, which is what we’re looking at today.
Now first of all, a lot of these releases were probably overdue. Completely ignoring the timing, the Coronavirus aspect, WWE bragging about how much money they had to get through this situation, being named an essential business, the stock dividend being announced the next day, plus Vince McMahon being able to finance a football league, it was time to let some people go as WWE’s roster was out of control. Now if you ignore EVERYTHING about this that made WWE look like a bunch of cheap villai..

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, starting today. 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: In Your House #28
Date: April 25, 1999
Location: Providence Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island
Attendance: 10,939
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler
It’s the final show and not a lot has changed. We’re getting a few Wrestlemania rematches here as Austin is defending against the Rock again while Mankind is facing Big Show in a boiler room brawl. Other than that we have the fully heel HHH facing X-Pac in a match for revenge. For once, the name of the show fits the theme perfectly. Let’s ..

You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry. Whether you are a fan of his or not, there is no one more powerful in all of wrestling than Vince McMahon. He has been on top of the wrestling world for decades and will be until the day he is gone. As a result, anything that he does can change the industry as a whole, either in the long term or the short term. At the moment, part of the short term is not going well for him.
You might have heard about some of the bad news that McMahon has had to deal with as of late. Between all of the stress of having to find ways to keep his television programs running during the Coronavirus epidemic and the XFL closing for the second time, it has not been the most stress free time for McMahon. As it turns out, a lot of people around him have noticed the issues as well.
According to PW Insider Elite Audio by way of Ringsidenews.com, several in WWE have known that McMahon is currently in a horrible mood and it has become something of a running joke in the compa..

It’s certainly a foot in the door. Earlier this month at WrestleMania 36, Drew McIntyre changed the WWE main event scene by defeating Brock Lesnar to become the new WWE Champion. McIntyre’s coronation as the top name in the company had been a long time coming and nearly went down during his first run in WWE. McIntyre certainly came into the company with a bang, but what made him such a big deal so fast?
McIntyre made his original debut in WWE back in 2007 and was soon dubbed Vince McMahon’s Chosen One. This was rumored to eventually see McIntyre become WWE Champion, but instead he wound up being part of a comedy rock band. It is clear that plans changed for a few reasons, but what was it that WWE saw in him in the first place? As it turns out, it was something rather simple.
During an interview with MuscleManMalcolm, former WWE writer Dave Lagana talked about McIntyre’s early days on the main roster and what caused McMahon to push him. Lagana said that one day he, Dusty Rhodes, Vince..

That would explain a few things. Like almost any other business, WWE is not so much about what you know but rather who you know. At the end of the day, you can have all the skill in the world, but if the higher ups don’t care for you, it isn’t going to matter. There will always be wrestlers who can do whatever they want in the ring and never get a chance to shine on the main stage. Some get the chance at one point, though it doesn’t always last.
Dolph Ziggler is one of the more controversial names in all of wrestling. He certainly has talent, but fans have been waiting to see him break into the main event for good for a long time now. Eventually fans realized that there was little reason to believe that the move was ever going to happen. It hasn’t made sense for a long time now, though we may finally understand why.
On the latest episode of his Arn podcast, Arn Anderson explained why Ziggler never moved into the main event scene permanently. According to Anderson, the higher ups in W..

How nice to finally meet you. Wrestling is a different form of entertainment as you constantly need fresh names and faces coming in to keep things moving. This could be due to people leaving, people moving on to different stories or just for the sake of bringing in some fresh blood. That is especially the case in NXT, where talent moves in and out in a hurry. It was the case again recently, and now they have done something to make it better.
Over the last few weeks, NXT has offered various glimpses of some recently arrived wrestlers but has yet to give them a formal introduction. While the fans are pretty clear about who they are and you can see a few peaks of them here and there, nothing had been officially announced. That problem has now been taken care of and things have been formally started.
During this week’s NXT, another video aired from Killer Kross and Scarlett Bordeaux. However, this time the announcers officially acknowledged it and announced that Kross and Bordeaux, now k..