NEWS

Mark your calendars. We are less than six weeks away from WrestleMania 38 as all eyes in the wrestling world will turn towards Texas. That weekend will include some of the biggest wrestling action of the year and there is a lot to cover. The interesting thing is that not all of it will be taking place at WrestleMania, as WWE has announced a brand new show taking place over the weekend.
This week on NXT, NXT Champion Bron Breakker announced that the next major NXT event will be Stand & Deliver, which will take place on Saturday April 2 in Dallas, Texas. The show will take place the same day as the first night of WrestleMania 38, though no specifics have been announced for the show as of yet. There have also been no matches announced for the show. NXT previously presented Stand & Deliver as a Takeover special last year in the days leading up to WrestleMania 37.
Opinion: I don’t think this is any kind of a surprise, though I’m curious to see what NXT is able to do on a much bigger stage..

NXT
Date: February 22, 2022
Location: Capitol Wrestling Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Wade Barrett, Vic Joseph
We are done with Vengeance Day and that means it is time to head on to whatever the next special show is going to be. The show is going to need a main event and odds are we will find out what that is tonight as Tommaso Ciampa and Raw’s Dolph Ziggler meet in a #1 contenders match. Let’s get to it.
We open with a long Vengeance Day recap.
Here is NXT Champion Bron Breakker for a chat. He talks about Santos Escobar being a tough opponent last week but now it is time for a new opponent. That could be as soon as Stand & Deliver, which will take place over Wrestlemania weekend. Cue Dolph Ziggler, who says he’ll be NXT Champion sooner than later, but the question is whether Breakker will make it to Stand & Deliver as champion.
Tonight, Ziggler is going to take out Tommaso Ciampa and get his title shot, but Breakker wants to fight over Ziggler superkicking him last week. ..

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 Nitro #180
Date: February 22, 1999
Location: Arco Arena, Sacramento, California
Attendance: 13,921
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, Larry Zbyszko
We’re FINALLY past SuperBrawl and things couldn’t be much lower for WCW if they handed all the wrestlers shovels and told them to dig their own graves. Hogan is still World Champion, Windham and Hennig are Tag Team Champions, Scott Hall is US Champion, Scott Steiner is TV Champion, and Rey Mysterio doesn’t have a mask. We’ve got three weeks ..

It kind of writes itself. There are certain groups of wrestlers who might not be officially recognized together on screen but have a real connection. That was the case with the Kliq and the Bone Street Krew, but it is also the case in modern wrestling. Sometimes this spills over onto television as well and it almost did again in a major way on the biggest show of the year.
According to Louis Dangoor of GiveMeSport, WWE considered a fatal four way match between Charlotte, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Bayley, collectively known as the Four Horsewomen, for WrestleMania 38. However, the plan was scrapped primarily because of Ronda Rousey, who decided she was ready to return to WWE and was put in a WrestleMania title match instead. In addition, the feud between Lynch and Bianca Belair is also scheduled to end in their title match at WrestleMania. WWE is still interested in running the match at some point in the future.
Opinion: This really is one of those matches that writes itself and I ..

They liked it. WWE produces a lot of television content every week and that means there are a lot of wrestling matches on almost any given night. For the most part, these matches tend to be pretty run of the mill with few standing out, but every now and then, something will catch your eye. That is also the case with people behind the scenes and now it has happened again.
This week’s Monday Night Raw featured a match between Bianca Belair and Doudrop, with Belair getting the win via the KOD. According to PWInsider.com, the match had several people raving backstage in a positive way. This was their fourth ever singles match against one another, with all four coming since December 2021 and Belair winning all of them. Belair is currently scheduled to challenge Becky Lynch for the Raw Women’s Title at WrestleMania 38.
There was a lot to like. Check out part of the match:
[This post contains video, click to play]

Opinion: I can absolutely see why people were raving about the match as Be..

He found something. Over the last year and a half, WWE has released more than 200 people from the company, with the majority of them being active wrestlers. This has shaken up the company in a huge way, but it has also been a huge hit to the wrestlers themselves. That is a lot of people who suddenly have no job and the question is where they are going to land. Another one is already back in the fold.
According to PWInsider.com, Drake Maverick, who was released from WWE in 2021, has returned to the company as part of the Monday Night Raw creative team. Maverick reportedly started in the role about three or four weeks ago. Following his release from the company, Maverick has not wrestled another match anywhere and it is not clear if he plans to do so again in the future.
Opinion: I love seeing something like this, as Maverick gets to continue doing what he loves, even if it is from a different side. The fact that WWE has hired him back again shows that they see something in him and if ..

That’s what’s in a name. WWE has been around for a long time now and has some very long running shows. Some of these are among the most famous in wrestling, with names such as WrestleMania and Royal Rumble being near or at the top of the list. The company continues to add some more though, and now they are doing just that with a show a lot of people will probably never see.
Ticketmaster.com is currently advertising the May 1 live event in Fairfax, Virginia as Sunday Stunner, which is a name the company trademarked earlier this month. This is likely to be the name of several Sunday night live events going forward. The change comes just after WWE began promoting some of its Saturday shows as Saturday Night’s Main Event, though neither change has been announced on WWE television.
Opinion: Sure why not. This is one of those changes that likely won’t mean anything significant and is little more than a branding, but it does at least sound like something interesting. I could go for having s..

Tis the season. WrestleMania 38 is less than six weeks away and you can see a lot of the card coming together from here. That is a good sign, as WWE should be able to get the show ready as far as possible. It is one of the better things that they can do and it helps to bring in some special names. WWE seems to be doing just that and now someone famous for something other than wrestling is ready to get in the ring.
This week on Monday Night Raw, the Miz introduced YouTube celebrity and boxer Logan Paul as his mystery partner for a match against the Mysterios at WrestleMania 38. Paul appeared on an edition of MizTV and helped Miz lay the Mysterios out. WrestleMania 38 will mark Paul’s first match in WWE after several appearances with the company, including WrestleMania 37 last year.
Opinion: I know Paul might not be the biggest name in the world but he has a bit of buzz due to his social media presence and boxing matches. He also feels like someone Miz would associate with outside of t..

Welcome back and hello. WWE has so many wrestlers under contract that it has managed to split its roster into several groups. The main three are Monday Night Raw, SmackDown and NXT, each with its own main group of wrestlers. You will see some crossover between Monday Night Raw and SmackDown, but a one off appearance is rare. This time though, we might have seen just that, plus a surprise return.
This week on Monday Night Raw, NXT’s Tommaso Ciampa wrestled in a tag match, teaming with the returning Finn Balor to defeat Robert Roode and Dolph Ziggler. Ciampa is currently scheduled to face Ziggler in an NXT Title #1 contenders match this week on NXT. The match was Balor’s first since the January 17 Monday Night Raw, when he was defeated and attacked by Austin Theory.
Opinion: This is the kind of thing that can make for a cool moment, as seeing an NXT star on one of the major TV shows is a rare sight. It helps that it wasn’t some major tweak to Ciampa, but rather just the NXT version of ..

Monday Night Raw
Date: February 21, 2022
Location: Colonial Life Arena, Columbia, South Carolina
Commentators: Jimmy Smith, Corey Graves, Byron Saxton
With Elimination Chamber out of the way, it is time to start making the final preparations for Wrestlemania. We now even know the main event (or one of them at least) as new WWE Champion Brock Lesnar will face Universal Champion Roman Reigns, winner take all. They might want to work on finding anything else that matters somewhere in there. Let’s get to it.
Long Elimination Chamber recap.
Here is the new WWE Champion Brock Lesnar to get things going and the fans seem rather happy to see him. After thanking the fans, Lesnar is cut off by Paul Heyman, whose signature line is cut off almost immediately. Heyman manages to say that he represents the one true champion around here and says Lesnar might not get to Wrestlemania as champion.
Lesnar still has to defend the title at Madison Square Garden on March 5 against Bobby Lashley, but if L..

I would say he has earned it. There are certain wrestlers who get your attention no matter what they do or where they do it through pure talent. A wrestler with a lot of charisma can make a very big impact and that is the case with a handful of stars today. Now one of them is being honored for something that they did a long time ago, which had a major role in what they are doing today.
Ring of Honor has announced that CM Punk will be the final inductee into the company’s inaugural Hall of Fame class. Punk joins the Briscoes, Bryan Danielson and Samoa Joe as the first class of inductees. Punk wrestled for Ring of Honor from 2002-2006, winning the World Title once and Tag Team Title twice. He made a cameo appearance in a pre-taped message at Final Battle in December 2021.
Opinion: This is a pretty easy layup for the Hall of Fame and Punk certainly deserves the honor. He is one of the names that put Ring of Honor on the map and certainly seems to appreciate his time there. It is nice to..

He has the experience. WWE is a huge wrestling company and as a result they have a lot of resources that other promotions simply do not have. One such resource is the Performance Center, which serves as the company’s training facility. The Performance Center features all kinds of equipment, but also some very talented coaches. Now another former WWE star is back there for a limited time.
According to PWInsider.com by way of Wrestlingnews.co, former WWE star and NWA World Champion Rob Conway is serving as a guest coach at the WWE Performance Center this week. Conway is a former multiple time WWE Tag Team and NWA World Heavyweight Champion and has coached at the Performance Center multiple times before. It is not clear if he will be coaching permanently.
Opinion: This is the kind of thing that WWE does from time to time and it makes things all the more interesting. Conway is someone who has been an experienced wrestler around the world and it is smart to bring in some extra people to s..