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Let him in so that he can get these hands. Tonight on Smackdown, the Universal Championship Match for Money in the Bank 2020 was made official. Braun Strowman will be defending his title against Bray Wyatt.
Wyatt introduced Strowman to the world nearly 5 years ago:

From WWE.com:
Just days into Strowman’s reign as Universal Champion, he was addressed from the Firefly Fun House by Wyatt — the man who brought Strowman to WWE years ago as part of The Wyatt Family. After accusing Strowman of turning his back on him, Wyatt asked for an apology.
The Monster Among Men was anything but contrite in return, but Strowman saying sorry was far from the only thing Wyatt was seeking, as he soon declared that he wanted the Universal Title back after losing it earlier this year.
Though Strowman insisted he wouldn’t fall for Wyatt’s psychological warfare, he soon found himself pulled into the mind games regardless. Lured in by what he thought was a gift from Alexa Bliss on “A Moment of Bliss,” Stro..

Smackdown
Date: April 17, 2020
Location: WWE Performance Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves
It’s time to move forwards towards Money in the Bank and this time around we are finding out who else is going to be involved in the women’s match, plus the first man involved. I’m not sure how much steam these empty arena shows have left but they’re all we’re getting at the moment. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Cole runs down the card.
It’s time for A Moment Of Bliss to start things off. After bragging about being two time Women’s Tag Team Champions, Nikki Cross brings out Braun Strowman. They congratulate Braun on being the new Universal Champion but bring up the fact that he is officially defending against Bray Wyatt (not the Fiend) at Money in the Bank.
Strowman knows Bray and the games he plays so Bray is going to get these hands. There’s a present on the mat though and it seems to be for Braun. Inside is….the old mask he wore as part of the Wyatt Fa..

He’s on the no list. WWE is in a weird place at the moment and that is going to be the case for a good while to come. There is very little good news going on at the moment and with WrestleMania already out of the way for the year, it might be a little while before they get to their next big show. During that time, there is someone who might be missing and WWE wants you to forget about him.
One of the biggest stories of the year has been Roman Reigns taking himself out of WrestleMania 36. As a leukemia survivor, Reigns’ immune system is not as strong as others’ meaning that he was at more of a risk to the Coronavirus. Therefore, Reigns has not been seen on WWE television in several weeks and that will be the case going forward. It turns out that WWE may be going a bit further than that.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE talent and announcers are not allowed to mention Reigns on television. There is no word on why Reigns is off limits or if he is in hot water with the..

Where did he get to? WWE is in a rapidly changing place at the moment and that is going to be the case for the time being. It seems that you can’t go more than a day or so without seeing some other change here and there. This is the case for everything from where the shows are taking place, how many are filmed at a time and even who is wrestling on them. The latter of those has produced some questions, and now we might have an idea of where one wrestler has been.
Every now and then, WWE finds a wrestler who just connects with the fans. This could be the case for a variety of reasons, but sometimes it is because the fans just buy into him. That was the case with Samoa Joe, who debuted on the main roster three years ago and has been one of the more popular names ever since. However, he hasn’t been around for a bit and now we know why.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Samoa Joe has not appeared on WWE TV as of late because he is still recovering from a concussion. He has ..

One of the biggest stories of the week was WWE’s massive layoffs and cuts to talent, coaches, producers, executives, etc. This was in response to the Coronavirus pandemic that is sweeping the world. However, an owner of a major league franchise has called this move ‘appalling’.
According to the latest issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, an anonymous owner of a sports team had the following to say to Dave Meltzer:
“I’ve had to do two layoffs in my life. They both sucked, but I always understood they sucked more for the people being laid off.
I know a few people in the wrestling business, one who lost their job in the furlough today. I understand layoffs. But given WWE’s cash position, the essential business status they negotiated, the unsafe conditions they are already asking workers to commit to and the fact that they are doing so much better than every other live / place-based business, for them to be THE FIRST company in the business to have such a significant layoff is u..

We have some sad news to report today. According to a report from Super Luchas, Mexican luchador Black Demon has passed away at the age of 39, due to complications from the Coronavirus.
The report states that Black Demon, whose real name is Roberto Munoz Carrillo, passed away on April 13, 2020. While authorities have not confirmed his passing, his family has.
Black Demon made his debut in 2009 and hailed from Mexicali. He worked the independent scene in Mexico, along the west coast of the country and won PPR’s Pendragón Rojo Cop in February.
We at Wrestling Rumors extend our deepest condolences to the entire Carrillo family during this difficult time.
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The post First Coronavirus-Related Wrestling Death Confirmed appeared first on WrestlingRumors.net.

You don’t find people like him very often. There are a lot of uncertainties in the world at the moment as there are all kinds of problems that grow every day. You never know how much worse it is going to get with each passing day and that is the kind of thing that makes the problems even worse. However, every now and then you hear something that makes it feel a little better.
On Wednesday, a lot of things changed in WWE with nearly forty releases or furloughs. That isn’t something you hear about every day and it shook up the company in a big way. This was a major hit for several people as several of them are going to be facing an uncertain future. With so many problems going on and a lot of coworkers losing their jobs, one wrestler is doing something incredible anyway.
Titus O’Neil has announced that he and NFL quarterback Jameis Winston have each donated $25,000 to the Metropolitan Ministries. The charity is helping deliver food boxes to poorer families in the Tampa, Florida area, a..

You have to keep things going. The wrestling world is in a very different place at the moment and it has changed the way wrestlers present themselves. Without being able to be in front of the fans in the arena, there is only so much that they can do to get attention on themselves. Thankfully there is the internet, and that has allowed wrestlers some extra avenues to showcase themselves.
The Miz and John Morrison have turned themselves into a top team all over again, which is quite the impressive trick. Despite not having teamed together in nearly ten years, the team has become the SmackDown Tag Team Champions and even defended them at WrestleMania (well kind of). They even have a signature chant, and have figured out a way to keep people chanting it even in these different times.
Miz and Morrison have released a new version of their Hey Hey music video, despite not being able to be in the same place. Instead, the two perform the song via split screen from their homes, with Miz outsid..

That would be the worst case scenario. We are in an unprecedented time in wrestling as the spread of the Coronavirus has change almost everything. Wrestling shows are now taking place in front of no fans and that seems to be the case for the foreseeable future. It creates such a different dynamic for the wrestling world, but things might be even worse for one major company.
Along with WWE, AEW has managed to keep going despite everything changing around them. Thanks to an intense marathon taping earlier this month, the company has several weeks of television in the can and ready to go. However, they also have a pay per view scheduled for next month. Since holding a traditional pay per view with a live audience is not much of an option at the moment, AEW needs to come up with something else, but they might not be able to do so.
According to Wrestling Observer Radio, there is no guarantee that AEW Double Or Nothing will take place at all if a safe way to present it cannot be found. The..

I think he’s happy? Wednesday was a big day for WWE as they released or furloughed nearly forty employees. The company needed to make a business decision due to the impact of the Coronavirus slowing down their revenue streams and this was the decision they made. Some of the names included were more surprising than others, but one had an interesting reaction.
EC3 debuted in NXT back in 2018 and had a mediocre time. While he was a former Impact Wrestling World Champion, he never jumped to the top of the promotion or even made it close. However, he was brought up to the main roster in January 2019, only to be sat on the bench for the most part. While he had a few matches here and there, he was never given a significant match or angle. After being one of the large group of released wrestlers, he had a pretty unique reaction.
EC3 has posted a tweet saying that he is not interested in any interviews, podcast appearances or convention appearances at the moment. He says that for the first ti..

Something nice for a change. Things are in a bad place at the moment around the world and it could be a long time before they get better. Every day you hear more and more bad news and less and less good news, but that doesn’t mean the good things aren’t out there. If you look around, you can find the positive news out there, and that was the case again this week.
It has been a rough few weeks for Roman Reigns. While he was originally scheduled to face Goldberg for the Universal Title at WrestleMania 36, he chose to pull out of the event due to concerns about his immune system. Reigns is a leukemia survivor and could be more susceptible to the Coronavirus. However, he now has some great news to be much happier about.
It’s an awesome moment. Check out the great announcement:
https://media.wrestlingrumors.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/17030540/Roman-Reigns.mp4 Reigns was recently interviewed by Muscle and Fitness where he announced that his wife is pregnant with twins. This will give ..

Even NXT took a beating. After Wednesday’s long list of releases, it was not clear what was going to happen on Thursday. There were several names who were let go or furloughed on Wednesday but there were some names we did not know about until Thursday. Some wrestlers let us know without some major WWE announcement and now the list has grown a bit.
There were a lot of different kinds of people who lost their jobs, whether permanently or temporarily, on Wednesday. The majority of the names were main roster wrestlers but there was also a referee and several producers. At the same time, we did much from the NXT names. Now though, we have a more complete list and there are several different names included.
Between late Wednesday and Thursday, several more names were confirmed to be gone from the company. Here is the rest of the names who are also gone from the company, according to 411mania.com:
Dan Matha
Alyssa Miles
Jon Quasto (205 Live announcer)
Kendo Kashin (coach)
Serena Deeb (Perf..