NEWS

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?
Monday Night Raw
Date: April 4, 2022
Location: American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas
Commentators: Jimmy Smith, Corey Graves, Byron Saxton
It is the night after Wrestlemania and I’m not even sure if that means anything these days. This show has a long history of being something special but since that isn’t WWE’s deal a lot of the time, we might be in for a show that is closer to normal. That isn’t exactly inspiring but let’s get to it.
Note that I was in the arena for this show, sitting in the upper deck and lo..

AEW President Tony Khan was recently interviewed on an episode of Barstool Rasslin’, where he discussed a number of topics. Among them was Cody Rhodes’ departure from the company, signing Samoa Joe, and more.
Below are some highlights from the interview:
On Cody Rhodes leaving AEW for WWE:
“Yeah, I think it’s just one of those things where, you know, we couldn’t reach an agreement on going forward. I think he has found a situation that’s good for him, and we’re in a great position right now. There’s no ill will either way,” Khan said.
“We’re still friends, and I wish him the best. I think he wished us the best publicly and privately. So it’s all good.”
“Any buzz for professional wrestling is great for professional wrestling as long as it’s positive stuff, positive stories. I hope [Rhodes] keeps doing positive stuff and wish him the best,” said Khan.
On signing Samoa Joe, others:
“Just in recent weeks, Samoa Joe, Toni Storm, Jeff Hardy, Swerve Strickland have all come in, Keith L..

That’s a theory. The rise of AEW has done a lot of great things for the wrestling industry, but it has also brought back some nostalgia. For the first time in a very good while, there is another major wrestling promotion to compete with WWE. This has caused many fans to take sides between the two, but now some of them are being accused of being a bit less than genuine in their fandom.
AEW President Tony Khan has sent out a series of tweets, stating that an independent study has found that “much” of the anti-AEW online community is made up of bots rather than actual people. Khan said that someone is running a fleet of accounts which do nothing but retweet negative statements about AEW. Khan did not cite any data or say who conducted the study.
An independent study has confirmed that much of the staunch anti-AEW online community aren’t real individuals, it’s a staff running thousands of accounts + an army of bots to signal boost them. Look closely, these aren’t real people. Who’d pay f..

We need someone new. Champions are some of the most important people in all of wrestling. Holding a title means something in the industry as it shows fans who the most important wrestlers are, as those shiny belts are easy to spot. Someone losing a title means a lot, and now that has taken place again, though this time it wasn’t inside of a wrestling ring.
Last weekend, MSK (Nash Carter and Wes Lee) won the NXT Tag Team Titles for the second time, defeating the Creed Brothers and reigning champions Imperium. Earlier this week, Carter was released from the company following domestic violence allegations and the release of a photo of him impersonating Hitler. WWE has announced that the titles have officially been vacated, with new champions being crowned next week on NXT. No teams have been announced for the title match and MSK is not listed in the article. There is no word on Lee’s future in NXT.
Opinion: You had to know this was coming and WWE didn’t have much of a choice. Either the..

That’s a twist. Wrestling is a weird industry, as it is known that the wrestlers are acting and playing characters, but at the same time, it is their job to make you believe that what they are doing is real. That can make it more interesting when someone does something outside of the ring, which seems to be the case again. This time though, it isn’t entirely clear what has WWE more upset.
Earlier this week, WWE released NXT Tag Team Champion Nash Carter after his wife Kimber Lee accused him of domestic violence as well as wearing a Hitler mustache and doing a Nazi salute. According to Wrestling Observer Live, WWE released Carter due to the photo and not the violence allegations, as Lee’s statement was seen as unreliable. There is no word on what this means for the NXT Tag Team Titles.
Opinion: I’m not sure what happened in this whole situation, but I’m curious to know why WWE does not think Lee is credible. While Carter is a star in NXT, he doesn’t seem like the kind of star that WWE..

She has something to do. Wrestlers come and go from WWE at a fairly brisk pace, as you don’t know who you might not see again for a long time. That can make for some surprising changes, including a wrestling making their return. This time, a wrestler was gone, then came back and is now gone again. We might know a bit more about what is going on.
Back in February, Alexa Bliss made her in-ring return at Elimination Chamber, marking her first match since September 2021. However, she has yet to return to the ring since, with reports saying that she would not be back on television until after WrestleMania. According to PWInsider.com, Bliss is scheduled to be married this weekend, meaning she will not be back on television anytime within the next week. It is not clear when she will be returning to the ring.
Opinion: That is a pretty unique and important reason to not be back on television after WrestleMania. At the same time though, I’m nos sure what exactly WWE has planned for Bliss, as t..

She’s good at this stuff. There are two major kinds of wrestlers in the world, as a wrestler can be either good or evil. Some wrestlers are flat out better in one role than another and that can make for rather strong results from either side. Every so often, a wrestler knows how to antagonize fans without being full on evil though and that was on display again this week.
SmackDown’s Bayley took part in a Twitter Q&A earlier this week, though she did not actually answer any of the fans’ questions. Instead, Bayley responded with various answers that had nothing to do with what was asked, including a question by SmackDown interviewer Kayla Braxton. Here are some highlights:
Ok I feel bad for yelling. Not ALL of you are mean. I’ll make it up to you, I got some free time so use #iMissMyBayley for some Q&A.
— Bayley (@itsBayleyWWE) April 6, 2022
Very good point. And funny enough, one time overseas on tour, Daniel Bryan told me he thinks I’m the fastest woman in the division. (I had been ..

At least it’s a start. Injuries are one of the few constants in all of wrestling as you never know when you might see someone get taken out of the ring. That is never something you want to see and it can be even worse when they hit out of nowhere. An injury can cut anyone’s progress short and unfortunately that had happened again. This time though, we have a bit of an update.
The opening match of Night One of WrestleMania 38 saw the Usos successfully defend the SmackDown Tag Team Titles against Shinsuke Nakamura and Rick Boogs. During the match, Boogs suffered an injury, later revealed to be a torn quadriceps patella. According to PWInsider.com, Boogs has undergone successful surgery and will be recovering at home. The expected recovery time for his injury is 4-6 months.
Opinion: That isn’t good to hear and hopefully Boogs is back in the ring much close to the four month end than the six month version. Nakamura and Boogs were starting to get something together as a team and it is a s..

They’re up next. With WrestleMania 38 out of the way, it is time to see what WWE has in store for the future. They are going to have to start getting things ready for their next major show, which is only about a month away. That is easier said than done, but WWE does at least seem to have an idea of what they are going to be doing. At least they have some of the cast list ready.
According to PWInsider.com, local advertisements for WrestleMania Backlash include Roman Reigns, Brock Lesnar, Ronda Rousey, Sasha Banks, Charlotte and Becky Lynch. The show takes place on May 8 at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island. No matches have been announced for the card and there is no guarantee that these wrestlers will be appearing.
Opinion: This is the kind of thing that might not mean anything in the long term but it is nice to see what WWE might have planned for the next month. If nothing else, seeing Lesnar and Rousey advertised at least suggests that the two of them will still ..

It was a unique one. WrestleMania 38 has come and gone and there were a lot of things going on over the span of two nights. Some of the matches were planned but there are a few surprise matches thrown in on the card. This included a match between Vince McMahon and Pat McAfee, which was followed by McMahon being attacked by Steve Austin. This didn’t go as well as planned and now we know a bit more about what McMahon thought of the whole thing.
According to Fightful Select, McMahon decided that he would be taking part in the match several months ago, but various people around him said that it would be a terrible idea. Following the match, McMahon was said to have known that the performance did not work but he was happy because the fans were entertained. McMahon came up with everything after the match was over, including being scared about thinking Austin Theory’s music was Austin’s instead.
Opinion: You kind of had to know that there were going to be some problems with the match as McM..

Welcome back? There are a lot of wrestlers on the WWE roster but not all of them are around every single week. It can be interesting to see what happens when one of them pops up after a lengthy absence as you don’t know what they are going to be doing. We might be seeing another of those returns sooner rather than later after a long time away from the ring.
According to PWInsider.com, Lacey Evans is rumored to return to WWE, possibly as soon as this week’s SmackDown. Evans has been away from WWE for over a year on maternity leave, with her last match taking place in February 2021. There is no word on what she will be doing when she returns or if she is ready for a return to the ring. Evans has been part of the main roster since 2019.
Opinion: This is the kind of thing that could be interesting, as both women’s divisions could use some fresh blood. Evans might not have been the top start, but she was doing enough to be a player in the title scene. Once she gets back, someone else can ..

He sounds on to something. WWE has been the biggest wrestling promotion in the world for a very long time now and some of that has been due to their television shows. Monday Night Raw debuted in 1993 and SmackDown debuted in 1999. The two shows have dominated the wrestling landscape for so long, though they are also on for a good amount of time every week. One prominent WWE star seems to think that it might be a bit too much.
Monday Night Raw’s Seth Rollins appeared on the Sports Illustrated media podcast and discussed the lengths of Monday Night Raw and WrestleMania. Rollins said that he feels a three hour edition of Monday Night Raw every week is “obnoxiously long” as WWE has to come up with ways to fill it each time. He called two hours the “beautiful kind of number for a wrestling show” as three hours is a lot to ask from the fans every week. Rollins also spoke about a seven hour WrestleMania being too long, citing WrestleMania 35 going until after midnight being too long. Instead..