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?
Smackdown
Date: September 9, 2005
Location: Gwinnett Center, Duluth, Georgia
Attendance: 4,000
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz
It’s a big night as Smackdown moves over to Fridays, where it would stay for a very long time to come. This is a stacked card with Batista defending the World Title against JBL in a bullrope match, Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio in a cage match and Heidenreich/Animal defending the Tag Team Titles against MNM. Let’s get to it.
A small note about this show: the first hour was aired on WWE..

That could be interesting. Professional wrestling is about telling stories and there have been some very interesting ones told over the years. This has made for some fascinating television as you can see how all of the characters come together to make something work. Now we might be seeing a twist on it though, as we could be seeing a show about the business itself.
According to Deadline, NBCUniversal is developing a series called Pinned, which will be set in a fictional wrestling promotion. The series will have FOX Sports’ Tom Rinaldi and Vince McMahon as executive producers and is described as:
“…an “adrenalized” upstairs-downstairs soap that gives a behind-the-scenes look at a fictional wrestling promotion and the “unforgettable” characters that populate it. Pinned offers a front-row seat into the eccentric wrestling culture and the mayhem that exists between the locker room and the boardroom.”
There is no word on when or where the series will air, as NBCUniversal has not tied it..

They’ll need a replacement. There are a lot of people who work together to make a WWE show work. While the wrestlers are the most obvious, they are also going to need some help getting things set up in the first place. That can be easier said than done but WWE has an experienced staff of people backstage helping. However, that staff is now going to be one person short.
According to PWInsider.com, WWE producer Pat Buck has finished up with the company after WrestleMania 38. Buck helped produce Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte and Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns at WrestleMania, which was enough for him to feel that he has accomplished his goals. He is also leaving to spend more time with his family and working at his Create-A-Pro wrestling school and WrestlePro promotion.
Opinion: This is something that happens a lot as you see the lineup of producers changing at a somewhat regular rate. At the end of the day, being a WWE producer is not the easiest job in the world as there are a lot of peop..

Ouch. There were a lot of matches over the two nights of WrestleMania 38, some of which were rather notable. Some of them are going to be talked about for a long time to come, though there were a few things that might have caught your attention between the matches. One of them was before the match actually started, and now we know a bit more about what happened.
One of the matches at WrestleMania 38 saw Edge defeat AJ Styles. However, Styles was already bleeding before he came to the ring, with a cut on the side of his face. The cut was not explained by commentary, but according to Wrestling Observer Radio, Styles cut himself on something unknown backstage. It was also clarified that it was not due to a pyro issue as had been speculated. Styles was also said to be angry on his way to the ring due to the cut.
Opinion: I’m not sure what happened to Styles but what matters is that it seems to be something on the surface instead of anything serious. The match wound up being pretty good t..

That’s not good. An injury can take down any wrestler at any time and that can make for some very scary moments. It doesn’t matter if someone is the lowest on the card or the biggest star in the company. No matter who you are, you could get hurt and put on the shelf. It seems that there might be another injury scare in WWE and it involves one of their biggest stars.
The main event of night two of WrestleMania 38 saw Roman Reigns defeat Brock Lesnar to unify the Universal and WWE Titles. Late in the match, Reigns could be heard saying “it’s out” after being caught in a Kimura arm hold. Photos from the match show a bulge on Reigns’ arm from around the same time. This should be seen as pure SPECULATION at this point as there is no word on what, if anything, is wrong with Reigns.
Like I said.
Roman Reigns got his shoulder split/separated/whatever in the Barricade spot.
LEsnar also did something to his ribs not long after that.
Both wrestled another 10+ minutes to that finish. Brock reali..

He deserves it. There are a lot of wrestlers in the WWE’s long history but some of them have reached levels that others cannot approach. It means a lot when you see one of those wrestlers hang up their boots for good, as it means there will not be any new memories of them in the future. It also gives you a chance to look back at the things they did, and that is what WWE is doing again.
Night Two of WrestleMania 38 opened with Triple H leaving his boots in the ring, signaling that he is retiring from wrestling. This comes after he suffered a heart issue in August of last year, leaving him unable to ever wrestle again. WWE has posted several videos on Triple H’s career over the years and it seemed to be a good time to look back at some of the better ones, including these two.
He’s that good. Check out some of WWE’s looks back at Triple H:
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Opinion: It really is kind of amazing to see just how much T..

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?
Wrestlemania XXXVIII Night Two
Date: April 3, 2022
Location: AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas
Attendance: 78,453
Commentators: Michael Cole, Pat McAfee, Byron Saxton, Corey Graves, Jimmy Smith
America The Beautiful: Jesse James Decker
We’re back for night two and that means the other half of the card gets their chance (plus one match from the original night because of timing issues). The main event is the latest biggest match ever as Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar have their unification match to make one World Title ..

That’s not good. On Saturday night, Rick Boogs suffered an injury during Night 1 of WrestleMania 38. He was teaming with Shinsuke Nakamura as they challenged Jimmy and Jey Uso for the SmackDown tag team championships.
WWE.com is reporting the following:
After being carried off following his SmackDown Tag Team Title Match Saturday night, it was determined that Rick Boogs suffered a torn quadriceps to the patella tendon. Boogs suffered the injury attempting to perform yet another stunning feat of strength with both Jimmy and Jey Uso on his shoulders when his leg gave out.
According to Dave Meltzer, this is a legitimate injury, and Boogs will be out of action for the foreseeable future.
Early diagnosis on Boogs is torn quad. Hopefully it's not that bad.
— Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) April 3, 2022
We will continue to monitor the situation and provide any updates as they become available to us. We wish him a speedy recovery and hope to see him back in action soon!
Editor’s Op..

Game Over. In the opening segment of Night 2 of WrestleMania 38, Triple H made his way to the ring for an unannounced segment. It was during that time that he officially retired from in-ring competition.
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The Game announced that he was done wrestling during an interview with Stephen A. Smith on Stephen A’s World on ESPN+.
From WWE.com:
In a poignant scene, WrestleMania Sunday opened with an unannounced retirement ceremony for Triple H, one of the most influential and iconic Superstars in WWE history.
The WWE Hall of Famer, who announced his in-ring retirement last month on the heels of suffering a cardiac event in September, received a thunderous ovation as he walked down the WrestleMania aisle. He hugged his daughters at ringside before climbing the turnbuckles and saluting WWE fans in trademark fashion.
Chants of “Triple H” and “Thank you, Hunter” rippled through AT&T Stadium as Triple H placed a pair of his boots on the canvas, a time-..

It’s always great to take a look. WWE has posted a new video to its media channels in which they show a behind-the-scenes look at Cody Rhodes’ return to WWE on Night 1 of WrestleMania 38.
You can see the video in its entirety below:
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The video shows Cody waiting on the bus for most of the afternoon and secretly making his way through the backstage area to the gorilla position before going out for his match with Seth Rollins. There is also footage of Brandi, his wife, who is there to support him and his return.
You can also here is their new baby in the background and see him getting dressed and ready to go. There is also a post-match interview, where are you can see the emotion as he is thrilled to be back in WWE.
Editor’s Opinion:
I love stuff like this, and I’m so glad that we got a behind-the-scenes look at Cody’s big return. The fact that he had to be hidden for so long, which I would imagine only adds to the nurse, makes this return ..

The boss leads by example. WrestleMania 38 has come and gone and as expected, it was the biggest event on WWE’s calendar. Anything that happens on the show is going to be worth a look in one way or another, though there are certain thing that will stand out above the others. The biggest story from the first night was an impromptu match and that was the case again on the second night as well.
One of the announced matches for the second night of WrestleMania 38 saw Pat McAfee defeat Austin Theory, who had Vince McMahon in his corner. After the match, McMahon and McAfee got into an argument, which resulted in McMahon, 76, getting in the ring for a match with McAfee. McMahon won via interference from Theory, but Steve Austin came out after the match and attempted to give McMahon a Stunner, which did not work as planned. Austin then gave McAfee a Stunner as well and drank beer before leaving.
Opinion: Aside from the fact that the Stunner could not have gone worse if they tried, it was ama..

Pair them up. Wrestlers can get a lot out of being in a stable. Rather than trying to find something to do, it can be easier to put a bunch of people together into one group and have one idea. While it is far from a perfect science, it is something that has a nice track record over the years. We might have seem the start of another one on the grandest WWE stage of them all.
Night Two of WrestleMania 38 featured a match between Edge and AJ Styles. Late in the match, former United States Champion Damian Priest appeared and distracted Styles, allowing Edge to hit a spear for the pin. Priest and Edge posed and left together after the match. This comes after reports of Edge possibly forming a stable, with Priest named as the first likely member.
Opinion: This is the kind of thing that could make for an interesting story and I’d like to see where it goes. Edge is someone who could put together a good idea like this rather quickly and that is what we might be seeing. The team is going to ne..