NEWS

Call it a crossover. Professional wrestlers are certainly athletes, but there is a certain stigma about them. While what they do is some of the hardest work in all of sports, critics will waste no time in reminding you that what you are seeing is fake, or at least scripted and predetermined. That can make it a bit difficult for wrestling to be seen as athletics, but now some wrestlers will be appearing at a major athletic event.
WWE has announced that The Miz and Titus O’Neil will be representing the company at the upcoming NFL Draft in Las Vegas. The two will get to announce selections for their respective hometown teams, the Cleveland Browns (Miz) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (O’Neil), the latter of which will be celebrating his birthday. O’Neil had a career in professional football, playing in the Arena Football League from 2003-2007.
Opinion: This is one of those cool things that WWE gets to do every now and then. While WWE stars might not be the biggest celebrities in the world, the..

At least there’s a reason. WWE has come a long way with its women’s division and things have gotten back to a pretty high level again. Bianca Belair took the Raw Women’s Title from Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 38 and seems primed to be the next big thing in the division. She is going to need some challengers, and WWE has gone with a somewhat surprising choice for her first one. Now we might know more about why.
Earlier this month on Monday Night Raw, WWE official Sonya Deville attacked Belair and announced that she would be the next challenger to the title at WrestleMania Backlash. According to Wrestling Observer Radio, Deville was chosen as the next challenger as WWE did not want to present Belair vs. Lynch again so soon after WrestleMania. Deville has wrestled only a handful of matches since the fall of 2020 as she had to deal with the fallout of a home invasion before moving into a non-wrestling on screen role. There is no word on if she will be returning to the ring full time at th..

It might be more noteworthy. There have been all kinds of wrestlers throughout WWE’s history, some of whom have made a bigger impact than others. Some wrestlers have been major stars and others have been smaller players, while most are in the middle, as WWE has tried to do something with them and never gotten very far. One of those cases made a TV appearance this week, albeit in a way that had nothing to do with wrestling.
Former WWE star Ezekiel Jackson made an appearance on the Price Is Right this week. Jackson, appearing under his real name of Rycklon Stephens, was on the show with his family and made it to the Showcase Showdown. A former Intercontinental and ECW Champion, Stephens has not wrestled since 2015 at a show in German and now works as a fitness instructor.
Hey look who it is!
Ezekiel Jackson on 'The Price is Right' this week.
He looks great! pic.twitter.com/dA4KNphPwG
— Humble Wrestling (@WrestlingHumble) April 20, 2022
Opinion: This is the kind of thing t..

NXT UK
Date: April 21, 2022
Location: BT Sports Studios, London, England
Commentators: Nigel McGuinness, Andy Shepherd
It’s another title week this time around as Ashton Smith and Oliver Carter are getting a rematch against Moustache Mountain. This is a 2/3 falls match though and that should make for a pretty awesome showdown between two great teams, even though Moustache Mountain is teasing a move to the dark side. Let’s get to it.
The opening video looks at the Tag Team Title match.
Opening sequence.
Sam Gradwell vs. Kenny Williams Back Alley Brawl, meaning street fight and Gradwell starts the fight in the aisle before the bell. The beating is on with Gradwell grabbing a trashcan but getting it knocked away. Williams manages to knock him down but we have a masked man looking at Williams from somewhere near the entrance. They go inside with Williams pounding away but Gradwell grabs some backbreakers.
The fight heads back outside where Gradwell gets in some more trashcan shots, on..

It can happen to anyone. There are all kinds of injuries in wrestling and some of them are more srious than others. You never know when you are going to see someone go on the shelf for a long or short amount of time, but it is the danger that any wrestler might face. It seems to be the case again with a wrestler who has not even been in her current promotion for that long.
Impact Wrestling’s Lady Frost has announced that she is scheduled to undergo minor surgery in May to deal with an undisclosed injury. There is no word on how long she is expected to be out of action. Frost officially signed with Impact Wrestling in December 2021 and entered into a feud with Gisele Shaw, though the two of them have since formed a tag team.
Yes, I deactivated Twitter for a bit.
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— ICE..

Like it could be anyone else. There are certain WWE wrestlers who are able to reach heights that few others can achieve. These wrestlers become the faces of the company and that makes them some of the true legends of WWE. You don’t see very many of them, but we are seeing one of them today. Therefore, it should be no surprise when he gets to headline a show and that is likely to be the event again soon.
According to Wrestling Observer Radio, Roman Reigns is still expected to headline WrestleMania Backlash, despite not yet having a program for the May 8 event. Reigns, the reigning Undisputed WWE Universal Champion, will likely get a new opponent this week on SmackDown. Shinsuke Nakamura confronted him two weeks ago on the show but there was no follow up last week.
Opinion: This isn’t the biggest surprise but it would be nice to think that WWE would pick up the pace a bit with setting up the story. It is going to take someone special to present a real challenge to Reigns and that is go..

That’s a special one. There are a lot of complications that come with being in the wrestling business, with relationships being up near the top of the list. Being in a relationship is hard enough for regular people but being on the road all the time makes it even more complicated. It can be difficult to find time together, but now two wrestlers have found a way to make it work in a unique way.
Former WWE stars Killer Kross and Scarlett Bordeaux have announced that they have eloped to Alaska and are now married, having held the ceremony in a glacier. Kross also revealed that the two wrestled at a show the following night. The two have been dating for several years and were paired together in NXT, though not when Kross was called up to the main roster in 2021. Since their releases, the two have appeared for a variety of independent promotions but have not signed anywhere full time.
This is rather sweet. Check out a video of the ceremony:
[This post contains video, click to play]

Opi..

NXT LVL Up
Date: April 15, 2022
Location: Capitol Wrestling Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Sudu Shah, Nigel McGuinness
We’re back to normal around here and that might not be the worst thing. LVL Up has figured out something of a formula and it makes for a nicer show. I’m not sure what to expect from here but it has turned into something a lot more enjoyable than 205 Live was at times. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Roxanne Perez vs. Sloane Jacobs Perez is better known as Rok-C in her debut. The bigger Jacobs backs her up against the ropes to start but Perez slips out and offers a curtsy, setting up an armdrag. Jacobs drops her throat first across the top though and a neckbreaker gets two. The crossarm choke has Perez in more trouble but she’s back up with a small package for two of her own. Perez knocks her down though and it’s a twisting handspring moonsault for two. A Code Red gives Perez the pin at 4:19.
Result: Roxanne Perez b. Sloane Jacobs – Code Red (4:19)
Damon..

A wrestling promotion can present an angle in all kinds of ways. It could be serious, funny, silly, dramatic or several other points in between. Oftentimes you will see some combination of two (or sometimes more) styles mixed together and it can make for some great moments. However, that is not the easiest thing to make work and it can be very easy to get it wrong. That seems to be the case again now, as WWE has gotten even further into the habits of getting stories more than a bit wrong.
One of the most important things about presenting a story is to know your characters. While you can get a character to do just about anything, there has to be a path to make it work. This might be something from their past or present or even future, but you can’t just throw something out there and hope that it makes sense. You need a path to make something logical and that is where WWE has been slipping as of late.
NXT has something special on its hands, as two time NXT Champion Bron Breakker is as ..

Welcome to KB’s Old School (and New School) Reviews. I’ve been reviewing wrestling shows for over twelve years now and have reviewed over 6,000 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?
Cyber Sunday 2007
Date: October 28, 2007
Location: Verizon Center, Washington DC
Attendance: 10,094
Commentators: Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield, Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Tazz, Joey Styles
This show can’t come fast enough, as the build hasn’t exactly been great. The good thing is there are enough interesting matches on the show and some of the stipulations could work out. The voting is enough of a hook to make the show, which includes Randy Orton defending the Raw World Title against someone and Batista vs. U..

That might be it? Wrestlers move up and down the WWE roster on a constant basis and it can be a bit tricky to keep track of everyone. So much moving around can make for some interesting changes when someone arrives elsewhere, and now we might be seeing it again. Some name changes this week might lead to a move down the line, or at least that is what is being hinted at.
This week on NXT, the Grizzled Young Veterans, comprised of James Drake and Zack Gibson, had their names changed to just Drake and Gibson, with the team name being dropped entirely. Following the show, the team released a video talking about their frustrations, followed by a tweet from Drake showing his empty locker. This could suggest that the team will be moving up to the main roster, though this has not been confirmed.
They’re dropping hints. Check out how the Veterans teased leaving:
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Thank you @WWE https://t.co/mweqOLEYfi pic.twitter.com/T2b8CgLCdo
— James Drake (@James..

Can you blame him? There are a lot of wrestlers on the WWE roster but not all of them are happy. Sometimes you see a wrestler leave after not being happy with their time in the company. For one reason or another, the two sides fall apart and something goes wrong, leading to the two of them splitting. That seems to have been the case again and now we know a bit more about what happened.
Earlier this week, Kushida reportedly left WWE after three years with the company. According to the Voices of Wrestling Patreon by way of Wrestlinginc.com, NXT becoming NXT 2.0 was a major change for Kushida, who did not like how he was being presented on the show. Kushida is currently hoping to return to New Japan and has already begun pitching ideas for how he would be presented upon returning.
Opinion: Can you blame Kushida being frustrated with what he was doing in NXT? He hadn’t wrestled a meaningful match in a long time and seemed to be there to get over Ikemen Jiro in a tag team built around eit..