NEWS

Rampage
Date: March 25, 2022
Location: HEB Center, Cedar Park, Texas
Commentators: Taz, Chris Jericho, Excalibur
We are back on Friday and that means we should be in for the heavy wrestling show. There is also a title match this week as Shane Strickland gets to challenge Ricky Starks for the FTW Title. Other than that, hometown boy Dustin Rhodes is facing Lance Archer in a bid for revenge from months ago. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Lance Archer vs. Dustin Rhodes Archer drags one of Rhodes’ students to the ring but here is Dustin for the save. Hold on though as Dustin has to beat up Dan Lambert (who is still managing Archer) but Archer makes the save. They head inside with Archer knocking him around and hitting him in the head. Dustin fights back up and knocks him outside, only to miss the flip dive off the apron.
Back in and Dustin is bleeding from the ear, with the blood on Archer’s hands for a good visual. A twisting middle rope splash gives Archer two and we take a break..

Smackdown
Date: March 25, 2022
Location: Barclays Center, New York City, New York
Commentators: Michael Cole, Pat McAfee
We’re eight days away from Wrestlemania and believe it or not, the preview for the show has a picture of Roman Reigns/Brock Lesnar/Paul Heyman, because that is the only thing on this show that matters. It would be nice for the new Intercontinental Champion to get a Wrestlemania match set up, but I wouldn’t bet on it anytime soon. Let’s get to it.
We open with a recap of Brock Lesnar’s path of rage last week, including the fork lift attack on the Bloodline’s SUV.
Opening sequence.
Brock Lesnar is outside of Reigns’ dressing room and says that he has paid some fines and bought some vehicles, including a blood red SUV for Reigns himself. Now upper management has told him to not have any contact with Reigns, so he’ll be sitting in Reigns’ locker room and wait for a good provoking. Lesnar goes into the empty room, likes what he has found (“Not as good as mine but not ..

It’s a numbers thing. The WWE roster is not exactly in the same place that it was in just a few years ago. After the huge list of releases over the last two years, WWE’s roster is nowhere near as deep as it was before. The numbers just are not there at the moment, and that seems to have led to a change of plans for a pair of matches next week at WrestleMania 38.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE has had no discussions of holding either the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal or the WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal at this year’s WrestleMania. Initial reports had stated that the women’s battle royal would take place at WrestleMania while the men’s version might be on television the week before. At the moment however, there are not enough women available for such a match. The women’s version has not been held since 2019.
Opinion: This is something that makes sense when you think about it, as the women’s roster just does not have the amount of wrestlers to make some..

It was great while it lasted. There have been a lot of stars throughout the history of wrestling but very few make it all the way to legendary status. Those are the names who have been around for so long that it is hard to imagine wrestling without them, but at some point, everyone is going to have to hang up their boots. That is the case again with an all time legend.
Triple H was a guest on ESPN First Take and announced that his in-ring career was over due to health issues. This comes after Triple H suffered a cardiac event back in August and has not returned to full time work in WWE since. He also revealed that his heard injection fracture was at 12%, while 55-65% is considered good, meaning that he was in heart failure. As a result, Triple H has a defibrillator in his chest and he did not thing it was a good idea for him to be zapped on live television. There is no word on his return to working backstage for WWE. Triple’s last match came at a live event in Tokyo, Japan on June 29,..

It was nice while it lasted. There are a lot of wrestlers in WWE’s history and some of them have done some very memorable things. While they might not have all had the same amount of success, all of them have been around for at least a little while, meaning at some point their career has to end. It seems that we will be seeing that take place again sooner rather than later.
Dirty Dango, formerly known as Fandango in WWE, has announced that he will be stepping away from the ring in the next few months. He also says “Goodbye forever”, suggesting that he is retiring from wrestling. There was no explanation given for why he is stepping away from the ring. Dango, 38, has been wrestling since 1999 and wrestled for WWE from 2006-2021, when he was released. He has most recently wrestled on the independent circuit, including for the NWA.
I’ll be stepping away from the ring in couple months . Goodbye forever .
— Dango (@DirtyDangoCurty) March 25, 2022
Opinion: This is something that always f..

It’s quite the honor. The WWE Hall of Fame is one of the longstanding parts of WrestleMania weekend, with inductions taking place almost every year since 2004. You get to see all kinds of stars from years past being honored for what they have done over the years, but there is also a special award for people in another category. Now we know something else about this year’s recipient.
WWE has announced that Shad Gaspard will posthumously receive the Warrior Award at this year’s Hall of Fame induction. Gaspard passed away in 2020 as he drowned saving his son in the ocean. Since his death, several people in WWE have pushed for him to receive the award, which is designed to remember the spirit of the Ultimate Warrior. the ceremony Takes place on April 1 after SmackDown.
Opinion: This is something that is overdue and rather appropriate for both Gaspard and the award. Gaspard seemed to be one of the nicest guys in wrestling and died saving his son, which is about as heroic as you can get. T..

What could have been. Wrestling is often built on nostalgia as it can be rather enticing to see a former star make a return for one reason or another. Sometimes these appearances will involve having another match, but often it works out rather well to just have someone show up and make an appearance. That was going to be the case soon, but plans had to be changed for an awful reason.
According to Fightful Select, WWE had begun making plans to bring in the original members of the New World Order for appearances over WrestleMania weekend but the plans were changed due to Scott Hall’s passing earlier this month. The group would have been brought in to help promote the WWE2K22 video game, which features an NWO 4 Life Edition, as well as Hall, both as himself and under his Razor Ramon persona. There is no word on whether WWE is considering bringing in the rest of the group for such appearances.
Opinion: That’s a sad thing to hear as the NWO was such an influential group on modern wrestlin..

It’s a different motivation. Wrestlers are in a unique situation as they are definitely athletes who are trying to do the best that they can, but a good number of them are doing what they do for the financial impact wrestling can offer. While not everyone is going to reach that high paying level, it is a goal for many and now there is a special way to accomplish just that in a fairly uncommon way.
On March 31, WrestleCon will present the Mark Hitchcock Memorial WrestleCon Supershow. WrestleCon has tweeted out an announcement, saying that there will be a fan vote after the show to determine the best match on the show. The wrestlers involved in that match will then split $5,000. Five matches have been set for the card, with three more to take place on the show. Here is what is currently announced:
* Minoru Suzuki vs. Biff Busick
* The Briscoes (Jay & Mark Briscoe) vs. The Rottweilers (Low Ki & Homicide)
* Bandido vs. “Speedball” Mike Bailey
* Tomohiro Ishii vs. Timothy Thatcher
* Mia Y..

NXT UK
Date: March 24, 2022
Location: BT Sports Studios, London, England
Commentators: Andy Shepherd, Nigel McGuinness
It’s another title week here as Isla Dawn gets her shot at the NXT UK Women’s Title and Meiko Satomura. That could make for a good showdown, as Dawn has cranked up the evil in recent weeks. In other news, Wild Boar gets his shot at Symbiosis, starting with T-Bone. Let’s get to it.
Quick video on Meiko Satomura vs. Isla Dawn.
Opening sequence.
Die Familie vs. Saxon Huxley/A-Kid Teoman is here with Familie. A-Kid and Dempsey start things off with Dempsey working on an early armbar. Huxley comes in and slams his way out of another armbar before slamming Raja too. An elbow gets a rather delayed two and it’s back to A-Kid, who is quickly pulled into a Fujiwara armbar.
A-Kid breaks that up so Dempsey takes him down by the leg instead as this isn’t A-Kid’s night so far. Dempsey grabs a fisherman’s suplex for two and it’s off to a standing armbar. A jump over Raja finally..

It isn’t how he drew it up. Stables have been a constant factor in wrestling for a very long time, with some of the most famous names in wrestling history having been a part of one at some point. They are an easy to understand concept and allow multiple wrestlers to get television time at once. There have been some rather memorable ones over the years, but one of them was envisioned very different.
Heath Slater appeared on Stories With Brisco And Bradshaw and discussed the origins of 3MB. Slater came up with the idea of putting a stable together with him, originally wanting Johnny Curtis (better known as Fandango), Dean Ambrose and EC3 on the team. After pitching the three names, he was told that WWE already had plans for Ambrose and Curtis and that EC3 wasn’t happening. Three weeks later, Slater was told that Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal would be his band instead, as that is what Vince McMahon wanted. The team debuted on September 21, 2012 until June 12, 2014 when Mahal and McIntyr..

That’s a different take. Most of the last twenty years of professional wrestling have been dominated by WWE. The company has been so far and away ahead of any other promotion that it has lapped the field. Then in 2019, AEW made its debut and instantly became one of the biggest promotions in the world. The two companies have competed since then and taken some shots at each other, but now one prominent AEW wrestler has some nice things to say about WWE.
During an interview with Ariel Helwani, AEW’s Maxwell Jacob Friedman praised WWE programming and its wrestlers, talking about how he much he enjoyed seeing WWE’s stars develop. He praised Roman Reigns, Paul Heyman, Vince McMahon and Bruce Prichard for the work they have been doing, while saying that the only think the company was missing was himself.
Friedman had a lot to say. Check out the full interview:
[This post contains video, click to play]

Opinion: While you never can tell exactly how serious or sincere Friedman is, he does s..

He has their attention. There is a lot of wrestling talent in the world today and it has spread to a variety of promotions. Rather than having one promotion dominate everything these days, both WWE and AEW continue to battle for talent, as wrestlers will occasionally move from one company to another. It turns out that an AEW wrestler has caught WWE’s eye through his work in the ring.
According to the Mat Men Pro Wrestling podcast, WWE is very high on AEW’s Ethan Page. The company likes Page’s wrestling and microphone skills and are very impressed with him. However, Page signed a new multi-year deal with AEW last year, meaning that he will be unavailable for WWE for years to come. Page is one of several AEW names that have gotten WWE’s attention, including Maxwell Jacob Friedman, Wardlow and Jade Cargill, though all of them are signed to AEW long term.
Opinion: I can see why WWE would be impressed with Page, who has been a nice addition to the AEW roster. He can wrestle a quality enou..