NEWS

It’s that time of year again. The latest issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter contains their annual awards for the year 2018. They are based on the time frame from January 1, 2018 through December 31, 2018 and are voted upon by the readers.
Here are the various categories, along with the winners:
LOU THESZ/RIC FLAIR AWARD (WRESTLER OF THE YEAR) : Kenny Omega
MIXED MARTIAL ARTS MOST VALUABLE: Conor McGregor
MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER: Kenny Omega
MOST OUTSTANDING FIGHTER OF THE YEAR: Daniel Cormier
TAG TEAM OF THE YEAR: Young Bucks
BEST ON INTERVIEWS: Daniel Bryan
PROMOTION OF THE YEAR: New Japan Pro Wrestling
BEST WEEKLY TV SHOW: NXT
PRO WRESTLING MATCH OF THE YEAR: Kenny Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada, Dominion 6.9, June 9, Osaka
MMA MATCH OF THE YEAR: Justin Gaethje vs. Dustin Poirier, April 14
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UNITED STATES/CANADA MVP: AJ Styles
JAPANESE MVP: Kenny Omega
MEXICO MVP: L.A. Park
EUROPE MVP: Walter
NON-HEAVYWEIGHT MVP: Will Osp..

The injury bug strikes again. According to her Instagram account, NXT superstar Chelsea Green is set to undergo surgery. This occurred after she broke her wrist during a match at this week’s television tapings.
She posted the following message:
“Today I had the opportunity to wrestle for the first time at Full Sail for @wwenxt after years of dreaming of it! Wow, it was everything I had imagined it would be!!!?
“Of course, with this job comes occupational hazards. Unfortunately, I broke my wrist mid-match & will require surgery first thing tomorrow morning.
“It sucks. I’m upset, I’m angry, I’m sore… but I’ll be back soon. This is just a tiny bump in the road to many goals I have set for 2019!”
View this post on Instagram ?Today I had the opportunity to wrestle for the first time at Full Sail for @wwenxt after years of dreaming of it! Wow, it was everything I had imagined it would be!!!? Of course, with this job comes occupational hazards. ?Unfortunately, I broke my wrist mid-match ..

205 Live
Date: March 12, 2019
Location: Nutter Center, Dayton, Ohio
Commentators: Vic Joseph, Nigel McGuinness, Aiden English
The tournament season continues around here with the final four of the Cruiserweight Title #1 Contender tournament. In this case, there aren’t exactly a ton of great options but that’s the case with a lot of the title scene at the moment. Cedric Alexander is probably the favorite to win the whole thing, as tends to be the case, but bigger surprises have happened before. Let’s get to it.
We open with Drew Gulak for a change. He loves tournament semifinals because it’s where you separate the men from the boys. In other words, it’s the round where Tony Nese collapses under the pressure. Drew owns him and tonight will be no different.
Nese knows that Gulak is different than anyone else on the roster because Gulak will dissect every mistake that Nese makes. His focus is his best asset and Gulak knows nothing about him.
Oney Lorcan says this is all business and he..

With Fastlane out of the way (thank goodness, though the show was solid), it’s time to finally focus on WrestleMania 35, which means we need a card. The matches are either put together or starting to become obvious and one thing is very clear: we are, yet again, in for a freaking ton of matches involving several people, many of whom don’t deserve to be on the show but will be anyway because of this everyone belongs policy from WWE.
That’s what we’re going to look at today: this ridiculous idea that everyone in the company needs to be on WrestleMania for one reason or another. Now before we start, I know that the show has to fill in seven hours somehow and that a lot of it comes down to the bonuses that WWE gives out for appearing on the show (as they should). We’re looking at this from more of a kayfabe perspective this time around, as there is very little reason to have so many people on the show.
Let’s start with some history. WrestleMania hasn’t always been such a crazy long show…

So that’s how they’re keeping it going. This past Sunday at Fastlane, the main event was centered around the Shield having one last ride together. With Dean Ambrose not re-signing with WWE after next month, it was time to wrap things up for the team once and for all. However, with Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins sticking around, something could still be done.
According to Ringsidenews.com, local advertisements for the upcoming European tour, which is scheduled to take place after Ambrose is set to leave the company, feature Rollins and Reigns teaming up with Braun Strowman as an honorary member of the Shield. The team will face off with Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley and Baron Corbin in six man tags. This isn’t the first time such a thing has happened, as Triple H served as an honorary member in 2017.
He really did it. Check out Triple H as part of the team:
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Opinion: This makes as much sense as anything else as you can’t blame WWE for trying t..

So that’s how they’re keeping it going. This past Sunday at Fastlane, the main event was centered around the Shield having one last ride together. With Dean Ambrose not re-signing with WWE after next month, it was time to wrap things up for the team once and for all. However, with Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins sticking around, something could still be done.
According to Ringsidenews.com, local advertisements for the upcoming European tour, which is scheduled to take place after Ambrose is set to leave the company, feature Rollins and Reigns teaming up with Braun Strowman as an honorary member of the Shield. The team will face off with Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley and Baron Corbin in six man tags. This isn’t the first time such a thing has happened, as Triple H served as an honorary member in 2017.
He really did it. Check out Triple H as part of the team:
[This post contains video, click to play]

Opinion: This makes as much sense as anything else as you can’t blame WWE for trying t..

It’s never too early to start making assumptions. The contract situations in WWE are always an interesting discussion with WrestleMania season being a more energetic time than most. That’s the case again at the moment with the status of several names being discussed. While it’s a long way off, this year’s Summerslam is a big show and something has been released that suggests who might still be around.
New Summerslam promotional material released locally in Toronto, Canada by way of Ringsidenews.com shows several names from both brands, but a few big names are missing. Ronda Rousey, Dean Ambrose and Brock Lesnar are all absent from the images, which feature thirty six names. These three are all rumored to be leaving WWE soon, though these images are preliminary, meaning changes could be made before the show.

Lesnar certainly has a history at Summerslam. Check out what he did last year:
[This post contains video, click to play]

Opinion: I’m not sure how much stock I put into this, ..

It’s never too early to start making assumptions. The contract situations in WWE are always an interesting discussion with WrestleMania season being a more energetic time than most. That’s the case again at the moment with the status of several names being discussed. While it’s a long way off, this year’s Summerslam is a big show and something has been released that suggests who might still be around.
New Summerslam promotional material released locally in Toronto, Canada by way of Ringsidenews.com shows several names from both brands, but a few big names are missing. Ronda Rousey, Dean Ambrose and Brock Lesnar are all absent from the images, which feature thirty six names. These three are all rumored to be leaving WWE soon, though these images are preliminary, meaning changes could be made before the show.

Lesnar certainly has a history at Summerslam. Check out what he did last year:
[This post contains video, click to play]

Opinion: I’m not sure how much stock I put into this, ..

And off to New York we go. We’re coming up on NXT Takeover: New York but there’s still a little bit of work left to do. You can probably guess what most of the card is going to look like, but with NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa injured, we need a new NXT Champion. That would be taken care of on Wednesday night as things had to be wrapped up for next month’s big show.
NXT was back at Full Sail University on Wednesday night to tape the final episodes of television before Takeover: New York. These three shows will air over the next three weeks, though there is a chance that these shows will air out of order. The tapings include the announcement of what will be happening with the NXT Title, which had to be vacated due to Ciampa’s injury. Here are the results, courtesy of Wrestlinginc.com:
Episode 1: * Triple H opened tonight’s WWE NXT TV tapings from Full Sail University and came out to a huge pop. He announced that he was originally going to announce Johnny Gargano vs. NXT Champion Tommaso..

So maybe? Right now, it’s not entirely clear what is going on with WWE contracts. Several wrestlers seem to be trying to get in or out of the company with AEW or elsewhere seeming to be a possibility. It’s hard to tell who might be sticking around and you never can quite tell who might be leaving as the contract statues seem to be up in the air. One of these situations is now even more confusing.
Dolph Ziggler was interviewed on 98.5 Wrestling Inside The Ropes radio show and discussed his current contract status with WWE. Ziggler said that he was technically still under contract with the company but it was more of a handshake agreement that allows him to do other things outside of the company. This has been the case for about two years now. Ziggler’s last appearance with the company was the Royal Rumble back in January.
Some things have gone better for Ziggler than others. Check out this rather painful moment from last year:
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Opinion: The n..