NEWS

The man, the myth, the fear of fruit? There may never be another star like the Undertaker. He is one of the biggest legends in the history of professional wrestling and he just gets bigger and bigger every single time he appears. It is clear that his career is starting to wind down though, and that means it is time to start clearing up some questions, including one of the more bizarre ones.
When you are around as long as the Undertaker, a lot of stories can come together over the years. Some of these stories are more insane than others, but the Undertaker’s nature makes it all the more difficult. Undertaker has been so protective of kayfabe over the years that the stories have built up, and now he is laying one of them to rest for good (or maybe not so good in this case).
Undertaker was a guest on a recent episode of Pardon My Take where he addressed a longstanding rumor that he is afraid of cucumbers. When asked, Undertaker explained that while he does not fear cucumbers, he does no..

All for naught? Back in April, WWE released a ton of wrestlers at the very same time in a rather controversial move. The company had regularly bragged about how much cash they had on hand to make it through the Coronavirus outbreak, but then they hacked their roster anyway, all in the name of cutting costs. Some of the names were more interesting than others, with one in particular being pretty eye catching.
On the day the releases were announced, Drake Maverick released an incredibly emotional video, talking about how wrestling meant the world to him. He was scheduled to take part in a tournament to crown an Interim Cruiserweight Champion and would get to take part in his previously announced matches. Now that those matches are through, we might know what is next for Maverick.
During this week’s NXT, Maverick defeated Kushida in a tournament match, leaving he, Kushida and Jake Atlas in a three way tie on top of Group A with no matches left. As a result, the three will meet in a trip..

Does this really surprise you? Vince McMahon is not exactly a normal person. While he is already filthy rich, like any businessman, he is always trying to make more money. This includes various business ventures outside of the wrestling world, most of which have not played out very well. One such venture is more infamous than others, and now we might be seeing it for a third time.
Back in 2001, McMahon started up a football league called the XFL. It was a legendary failure, only lasting one season and then collapsing due to a variety of reasons. Then, nearly twenty years later, McMahon tried it again and this time…it didn’t even make it through a full season, mainly due to the spread of the Coronavirus. That’s quite the mitigating circumstance, and McMahon is willing to try something else.
According to the Athletic, McMahon may be trying to buy back the XFL at a much cheaper price after declaring bankruptcy in April. This comes as XFL President Jeffrey Pollack is rumored to be trying..

You have to start somewhere. There are very few events with the history and reputation of NXT Takeover. The series of shows has gone from little more than a glorified NXT pay per view to some of the most revered events that take place on the wrestling calendar. It is rare to see a bad match on one of the shows, let alone a bad show overall. Now we know where things are starting next time around.
Last week, NXT announced their next Takeover event with Takeover: In Your House taking place on June 7 from the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. The name is a tribute to the In Your House series with the idea being that the fans are going to be watching the show from their house, making the name appropriate. What also would be appropriate is adding some matches to the card, which is now taking place.
This week on NXT, Tommaso Ciampa challenged Karrion Kross to a match at Takeover: In Your House, with the match being made official later in the night. Kross debuted last month and attacke..

That’s quite the reason. WWE has seen a lot of names come and go over the years and very rarely are they reaching the top level of the business. While most wrestlers come and go without leaving a huge impact, every now and then you find someone who is a true legend of the business and can get away with almost anything they want. That is the case with someone whose career is wrapping up, so a lot of questions are being answered.
There is no secret to the fact that the Undertaker’s career seems to be winding down. He is coming up on thirty years as part of the WWE, which doesn’t even count the years he wrestled before coming to the company. As someone who protects kayfabe like few others in his generation, there have been several questions fans have been wanting to know for a long time now, and one of them has been answered.
While a guest on a recent episode of Pardon My Take, Undertaker was asked why his entrances last so long. Undertaker revealed that the amount of time spent on the ..

That might not be good. You never know when you are going to see someone get injured in wrestling. It is one of the worst parts of wrestling but there is no way around the possibility. With wrestling being a physical sport, the threat of an injury is always there, no matter how safe a wrestler may be. Somewhere along the lines, almost everyone gets hurt and it might have been the case again this week.
In its still rather brief existence, AEW has had few greater success stories than Britt Baker. It is an idea that sounds perfectly simple: Baker is a young, talented wrestler who also happens to be a practicing dentist. That is the kind of story that writes itself, but Baker never really took off until she turned heel and then it was off to the races. However, that race might be delayed due to an injury.
During this week’s Dynamite, Baker seemed to be injured during a tag team match. While teaming with Nyla Rose against Hikaru Shida and Kris Stadtlander, Rose was slammed on Baker’s leg ..

There are a lot of elements that go into wrestling but there is one thing that a lot of fans can forget: the promotion putting on the show can tell (almost) whatever story they would like. That’s a detail that is so often overlooked and it hurts the product quite a bit. The reality though is a wrestling company can have its wrestlers go to any story they want at any given time.
In one of his many (many) rants available on YouTube, Jim Cornette tells a story of running Ohio Valley Wrestling and seeing his top heel come to a show suddenly bald. The wrestler, Doug Basham, explained that WWE had wanted to see what he looked like bald. This sent Cornette over the edge (again) because Basham was one of his top stars. Cornette’s (paraphrased) response was “Give me two weeks’ notice, I’ll book him in a hair vs. hair match, shave him myself and sell some tickets.”
Now notice what Cornette is saying in that short statement: it isn’t hard to book Basham in a hair vs. hair match even if the stor..

There’s always time for one more. We are less than three days away from AEW Double Or Nothing, which marks a unique situation for the promotion. AEW is a company that mainly relies on their weekly television shows. They only run pay per views every now and then so the card has to be especially big. Despite only having a few days left, they managed to add in another match to the card.
One of the biggest surprises in AEW’s one year history has been Dustin Rhodes’ career resurgence. Rhodes has always been a talented performer but he might be having the best matches of his last twenty years. He was recently defeated in the semifinals of the TNT Title tournament though and took a heck of a beating. His career seems close to wrapping up but he has at least one more match to go.
During this week’s edition of Dynamite, Shawn Spears challenged Rhodes to a match at Saturday’s Double Or Nothing. Later in the show, the match was confirmed to be taking place. Spears had insinuated that Rhodes had..

NXT
Date: May 20, 2020
Location: WWE Performance Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mauro Ranallo, Beth Phoenix, Tom Phillips
I’m not sure what to expect at the moment but it’s time to start getting ready for Takeover. The show is in two and a half weeks and that means we are going to need to get things going in a hurry. There isn’t much set for the show but NXT knows how to do this stuff like no one else. Let’s get to it.
In Memory of Shad Gaspard.
Opening sequence.
Karrion Kross vs. ??? Scarlett doesn’t do as much lip syncing this week but the entrance is still cool. Doomsday Saito and the Krossjacket choke finishes…someone (his tights say Liam) at 49 seconds.
Result: Karrion Kross b. ??? – Krossjacket choke (0:49)
Post match here’s Tommaso Ciampa to say Kross started by going after the top man in NXT. Ciampa knows Kross is special and Kross can prove that when they fight at Takeover.
We take a quick look at the Interim Cruiserweight Title Tournament.
Interim Cruiserweigh..

Welcome to KB’s Old School (and New School) Reviews. I’ve been reviewing wrestling shows for over ten years now and have reviewed over 5,000 shows. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I’ll be posting a new review here on Wrestlingrumors.net, starting today. 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?
Fall Brawl 1999
Date: September 12, 1998
Location: Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Attendance: 7,491
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay, Bobby Heenan
Well we had to get here eventually, even though I don’t think people wanted to. The main event here is Sting vs. Hogan for the title and Goldberg vs. Page because those are fresh matches. We also get to see the Revolution rising up the card in a big No DQ tag match and Benoit defending the US Title against on..

Dynamite
Date: May 20, 2020
Location: Daily’s Place, Jacksonville, Florida
Commentators: Excalibur, Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone
It’s the go home show for Double or Nothing and that means it is time to hammer home everything that has already been set up. Hopefully that makes for a good show as you never know what you might get out of something like this. Maybe Cody can ram something at six miles an hour this time. Let’s get to it.
We open with a look at Double or Nothing’s three big matches.
The Inner Circle arrives and has a surprise for Matt Hardy.
Here’s a preview of the show.
Jon Moxley vs. 10 Non-title and Brodie Lee, carrying the title, is here with 10. Before the match, Lee tells 10 to take a knee and talks about how he puts his pants on like anyone else and can’t walk on water. He is a man rather than a god, but he has taken possession of something important. This is the new Dark Order, and they operate at a different level. Lee sends 10 to hurt Moxley for him.
Moxley wastes ..

A sign of things to come? WWE has posted a new video to its YouTube channel, in which they show Drake Maverick’s story and the unbreakable dreams that he has. This is after he was released from his WWE contract on April 15 of this year.

As previously reported, Maverick was among several WWE superstars that were released in the middle of April. However, he has still been competing in the NXT Interim Cruiserweight Championship tournament and has a match with Kushida on tonight’s show. If he wins, he forces a tie in his group block, which means that he will have the opportunity to compete in the tournament.
Editor’s Opinion:
I have a feeling that WWE is trying to find a way to bring him back, or at least get him a new deal when the world starts to return after the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic. He is a very talented performer, both in and out of the ring, and is a very valuable commodity to the company. I really don’t think that WWE would put this piece out there if they didn’t have ..