Bianca Belair and Montez Ford threw a baby shower with the theme “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star & Over the Moon,” inviting several WWE Superstars to the party.
“We wanted it to be more of a party/celebration than a traditional baby shower because traditional baby showers can be a little low-key and monotonous,” Belair told People.com, who got the exclusive on the story and the photos. “We wanted all of our friends to just have fun, let loose and celebrate with us!”
Among those in attendance were Mia Yim, Shayna Baszler, Raquel Rodriguez, Nia Jax, Alexa Bliss, Maxxine Dupri, Liv Morgan, and Ivy Nile.
It was a blue and gold theme for the couple and their family, with Belair wearing a beautiful gold dress and Ford looking sharp in a blue suit.
Belair announced her pregnancy in the middle of the ring at WrestleMania 42.
Rico Constantino sat down with Chris Van Vliet in Arizona to discuss the many jobs he’s had on top of being a pro wrestler, winning American Gladiators, starting wrestling in his late 30s, wrestling John Cena and Brock Lesnar in OVW, how he became Billy and Chuck’s manager and The Stylist, why he was released from WWE, his appearance in AEW, if he is open to one more match, and more!
We recently saw you in the ring with AEW. You look like you could go again.
“I could, and I wanted to. But I was a manager, and things didn’t happen. I told you off-camera what I thought of, and it was shot down.”
Because what a wonderful surprise. When people think of you, they think of Billy and Chuck. For you to be in a segment in a match with Billy Gunn in there, it just seemed perfect.
“Oh yeah. I just wish we could have told a story in the in a pre-tape, because people weren’t really getting it, because the crowd had changed over 20 years, and Billy just off the cuff, went down, and he cut a promo off top of his head, saying, ‘You’re the guy that almost made me marry Chuck.’ So then maybe brought some stuff back, and we did the match, and Billy got his revenge at the end. I interfered with the match and stuff like that. Then Billy snuck up behind me, and all of a sudden, you saw the match, and oh, I know this face. I know that ass. Turn around, ‘No Billy, No!’”
Do you consider yourself retired? I don’t just mean from the ring. Are you retired now?
“Well, right now, as I’m going through the blood clots and the blockage right now, I am retired. But if they can clear the blockage, either with a stent or remove it, and these go away, I’ll return to part-time work. I’ll go and work again. Maybe, you know, if somebody wants me to make a special appearance, I’ll get right back into ring shape.”
Would you wrestle another match?
“I would. As soon as I get into ring shape, I would, and it won’t take me long. I’d love to in one of the bigger promotions and stuff like that. I’d love to do a tag match. Not ready to do singles yet. I would love a tag match.”
So when you’re in OVW, did you ever think you’d get a call to go on the main roster?
“I was hoping for the call, but my age played something on it. I was too old. I’d get the reports, you know, they’re saying you’re too old. So here I am trying to do everything and just get a shot. It finally came down to you’re going to be cut in 90 days. [Well] there it goes. Well, Cornette was upset at it. So Cornette, Danny Davis, JR, because I was always in the JR report, and I got to do a spot with Stone Cold at Christmas Chaos in Louisville, they stood up for me. So when SmackDown and Raw came to Louisville, Cornette had a meeting with Stephanie and said, ‘You’re going to cut him anyway. Just call him up to be on the road, do dark matches, maybe you’ll think of something.’”
You had dark matches with some legends. There’s one where it’s you and John Cena versus Shelton Benjamin and Brock Lesnar.
“Benjamin and Brock were the Minnesota Stretching Crew. Cena and I were the Southern Tag Team Champions. I was the role model. He was my prototype. So we’re going to go out there and titles are going to switch. So we go out there and do this big bang match, really good match, and they win, and we go to the back and they say, Good job, good job. And then Kenny [Bolin] comes up. He goes, ‘We’re going to have to gonna have to go back out.’ I said, What? ‘We’re gonna have to go back out, do another match and switch titles again.’ And I go, why? He goes, because the first match isn’t ready. And I went, oh no. So we got together and start talking, and we were in gorilla 30 seconds ready to go out of the curtain and do a rematch, and then the first match pops up. This is in a WWE ring.”
So you debuted in WWE in March 2001, got released in November 2004.
“Well, I wasn’t going on any shows. My final release was 90 days later. So I was under contract until February 2005.”
Were you surprised when you got released?
“Yeah, and I went and asked Vince for a raise because I had already gulfilled my three-year rookie contract. I’ve held the tag titles twice, once with Rikishi, once with Haas. I was going to almost every show and on TV. I said I want $1,000 a week.”
What were you making before?
“Minimum, which was $75,000 a year.”
But $1,000 a week is less than that?
“No, I wanted a $52,000 raise on top of the $75k. A thousand a week [extra]. I thought I was worth it, and Charlie and I and Jackie were about to come out on the SmackDown magazine front cover, and he told me I wasn’t popular.”
So that’s what led to you being released?
“Yeah. Vince didn’t like me because of my age in the beginning, he was forced to put me there. And if anybody out there looks at my background, I’m an Action Man. I’m a straight to law enforcement. I’ve been to two police academies, graduated number one in both of them, I’ve got life-saving awards. I was voted one of the officers of the year by Crime Stoppers for catching a person who was escaping her parole, who led me to a person who was wanted for murder, and I caught a homicide suspect and shipped them back to LA. So I’m that type of guy. EMT, paramedic, people running this way, I’m running to trouble. I want to help people. So here Vince gives me this style in some feminine character, maybe hoping I fail. Well, I turned it around.”
Two more matches were announced last night on Raw for this weekend’s Saturday Night’s Main Event.
Former NXT Women’s North American champion Sol Ruca will be taking on Becky Lynch in a non-title match. Lynch interrupted Ruca’s backstage interview on Raw, reminding her that she had not won a match since she moved up from NXT. Ruca marched down to the ring and called out Lynch, challenging her for the Intercontinental title. Lynch agreed to the match, but not to put the IC title on the line.
Also, WWE Women’s Tag Team champions Paige and Brie Bella will be defending their gold against former champions Nia Jax and Lash Legend of The Irresistible Forces. The champs defeated The Judgment Day’s Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez last night on Raw.
The show now has five matches, with Penta vs Ethan Page for the WWE Intercontinental title as the main event.
It takes place live from the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana and streams exclusively on Peacock in the United States and on YouTube for international viewers.
Eight WWE Superstars are scheduled to be part of the UFC Freedom 250 Fan Fest next month when the UFC takes over The White House for one of their biggest events of all time.
The Fan Fest will take place on Saturday, June 13 and Sunday, June 14 at The Ellipse just in front of The White House.
Bron Breakker, Charlotte Flair, Chelsea Green, Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso, The Miz, Tiffany Stratton, and Trick Williams are all scheduled to be there meeting fans.
UFC Freedom 250 will be headlined by Ilia Topuria vs Justin Gaethje for the UFC Lightweight championship and the Octagon will be set up on the south lawn of The White House with President Donald Trump in attendance.
Impact on AMC last week drew 196,000 viewers, up 32,000 viewers from the prior week but way down from previous weeks. The show had a 0.03 rating in 18-49, up 0.01 from the last show. (Ratings credit: Programming Insider)
Appearing on the Power Players With Brian Sozzi podcast on Yahoo! Finance, TKO President and Chief Operating Officer Mark Shapiro admitted that WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas was a “mistake” which is his fault.
Shapiro said that due to the huge success of the previous year in Vegas, he went to WWE President Nick Khan and told him to make the 2026 WrestleMania in Las Vegas again.
“I said to Nick Khan, ‘We’ve gotta go back to Vegas next year. We have to move New Orleans down the road and we got to come back to Vegas,'” Shapiro said.
But Shapiro said he has no regrets on the gamble of going back-to-back in Las Vegas and said the only reason everyone kept hearing that it wasn’t like the prior year is because there was no “first mover experience.”
The interview was actually recorded around the time of WrestleMania 42 but released a month later.
WrestleMania 42 was originally announced to be taking place in New Orleans by The Rock himself during an appearance on Smackdown. Money In The Bank this year is taking place in New Orleans instead, with a future WrestleMania returning to the city somewhere down the line.
Roman Reigns and Jacob Fatu are set to clash in Italy in a Tribal Combat match for the WWE World Heavyweight title.
The two opened Raw last night but Reigns got the upper hand this time around thanks to the help of his cousins Jimmy and Jey. In the ring, Fatu made the challenge to Reigns for the Italian premium live event, which was accepted.
There have been a couple of Tribal Combat matches in WWE, with Reigns vs Jey Uso at SummerSlam 2023 and Reigns vs Solo Sikoa on the Raw Netflix debut.
On both occasions, Reigns came out victorious.
Clash in Italy will take place on Sunday, May 31 live from the Inalpi Arena in Turin, Italy. A sold-out crowd is expected for the event.
It seems that Brock Lesnar’s retirement plan has been thrown out of the window as the Beast Incarnate made a surprise appearance on Raw last night and took out Oba Femi.
Femi was out for the weekly open challenge but this time around, while he was doing his in-ring pose with the lights dimmed, The Ruler was attacked from behind.
It was only when the lights came back on that fans saw it was Lesnar, who hit not one, not two, not three, but four consecutive F5’s on Femi.
Fans inside the arena completely lost their marbles and chanted “holy shit” with Lesnar looking rather proud of his attack.
After a commercial break, Paul Heyman handed Raw GM Adam Pearce a signed contract, saying Lesnar was ready to face Femi in a WrestleMania rematch at Clash in Italy.
Femi destroyed Lesnar at WrestleMania 42 and following the match, an emotial Lesnar removed his gloves and boots, leaving them in the ring as he said goodbye to the fans.
WWE Superstars will be joining UFC athletes at the Freedom 250 Fan Fest on Saturday, June 13 and Sunday, June 14 for meet and greets.
The announcement, made on social media by the UFC, does not show who will be in town from WWE’s side so far.
The Fan Fest will be held at The Ellipse in front of The White House and will feature meet and greets, immersive experiences, live panels and Q&As, the ceremonial weigh-ons, a Zac Brown concert, he UFC Freedom 250 watch party, and more.
The event is sponsored by crypto.com and Ram, with Ram being a frequent sponsor on WWE programming.
TKO, the parent company of WWE and UFC, will be eating a huge hit in terms of money to produce the event, with estimates hovering around $60 million. TKO will foot the bill for the cost of construction of the arena, fighter pay, and site restoration, which includes $700,000 to replace the grass on the South Lawn.
When all said and done, TKO expects to recover around $30 million through exclusive corporate sponsorships and other packages.
AEW has announced that the Dynamite themed episode of Beach Break will be held on Wednesday, July 8 in Clearwater Beach, Florida.
The show is set to take place from The BayCare Sound at Coachman Park, a 4,000-seater waterfront boutique concert venue.
AEW is using Jon Moxley, Thekla, Darby Allin, and Willow Nightingale to advertise the broadcast.
Last year’s Beach Break was held over two nights including Collision tapings and had Jon Moxley defend the AEW World title against Samoa Joe in a steel cage match. The show was held at the NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois in May.
Kim Turman-Laurinaitis, the widow of Road Warrior Animal, ripped WWE and A&E a new one over the Road Warriors Biography episode which aired yesterday.
She said that she was never contacted to be part of the show despite being there the night he died. She said that the real story will eventually come out.
“This is disgusting, literally disgusting, at his expense, and I will not be quiet anymore. Shame on all involved. The TRUTH will always come out,” she wrote in a post on Facebook.
She also challenged the producers’ version of how her husband died, saying that he passed away on September 22 in a hotel and not at a hospital as it was alleged in the documentary.
“They never took him to a fcking hospital. They tried to save him in our hotel room,” she continued. “I was the ONLY one there with the paramedics… are you serious right now?!
She bashed the “fake-ass phony people” who pretended to be friends and pretended to tell the truth at her husband’s expense and wondered if they will be handing out Oscars for the acting.
“Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. No words. All of you know y’all just put on a fantastic performance. Standing ovation for that bullshit show,” she added.
During a livestream on Twitch, current WWE United States Women’s champion Tiffany Stratton was answering questions from fans and addressed a rumor that Giovanni Vinci was fired from WWE because he flirted with her.
“You guys! That may be the craziest one I’ve ever heard,” Stratton said. “That did not happen, that is not true. There is no truth to that.”
Stratton said that she heard he had just signed with TNA Wrestling and thinks he’s “gonna kill it” there and hopes he’s do amazing.
“So absolutely no truth to that. That’s a false accusation,” she continued.
Stratton also addressed her looks, where some fans accused her of being all plastic.
“I just got my boobs done,” Stratton said. “Got some lip filler. Got some botox. And that’s it. I’m not plastic from head to toe. It’s just the chest, the lips, and some botox, that’s it. Let’s move on!”
Professional wrestling and horse racing don’t belong in the same sentence. One is mostly scripted; one is totally unpredictable. One has dramatic entrances, and the other has dramatic finishes.
Very different worlds. But the emotional structure? Surprisingly close. Both wrestling and horse racing are built around the same logic: tension before the outcome. The buildup is also important in both sports; the crowd brings in the hype, and the favorite matters. And when something unexpected happens, people remember it for years.
Whether it’s a shocking title win or an 80-1 underdog horse winning the Kentucky Derby, the feeling is the same. This got us thinking: how does storyline drama in wrestling compare to the chaos of the horse racing industry?
Both Sports Need a Favorite
Every sport, not just wrestling or horse racing, needs someone the audience understands immediately and someone that the audience thinks is going to win. This is where the big stories are born.
We’re talking about the favorite. The champion, the unbeatable force. When you look at it, both wrestling and horse racing have that. In every wrestling match, there is one favorite, and although the crowd knows that they’re all secretly rooting for the underdog just because they placed a bet.
Horse racing works the same way. Before a big race, the public usually creates the favorite.
Every good wrestling story needs someone the audience understands immediately. If we look at the 2026 Belmont Stakes entries, there is already a clear favorite to win this year’s big race.
This favorite becomes the emotional anchor of every event. Without a favorite, sporting events would feel boring, and an upset wouldn’t feel like an upset. Basically, the favorite gives the audience something to measure against.
The Underdog Is Where the Story Lives
Now let’s talk about the underdog. Favorites are there to create a structure, but underdogs carry all the emotions.
That’s true in both wrestling and horse racing.
In wrestling, for example, the underdog is often a smaller wrestler, the overlooked challenger, and the person who keeps getting knocked down but somehow refuses to stay down. The whole audience starts leaning forward when the narrative flips, and the underdog makes a good move. They are all in shock, saying, “Wait, can they win?”
On top of that, underdogs make betting more exciting.
Rick Strike won the 2022 Kentucky Derby at 80-1 odds, and it created an incredible story. We had a similar thing this year when Golden Tempo won the 2026 Kentucky Derby, although it wasn’t really an underdog with 23-1 odds.
The Build-Up Does Half the Work
This is where both worlds really connect. The actual match or race is fun, but that’s only a piece of the action. The build-up is usually more important and does the heavy lifting.
In wrestling, the audience watches weeks or months of promos, sneak attacks, stare-downs, and stats comparisons, and by the time the match happens, people are already sold on the story.
Horse racing works the same way, but much more naturally and with less hype. The build-up here happens through prep races, odds movement, and workouts.
The point is that once the build-up has hyped the audience, the event is ready to go live. This makes everyone experience the event in a much more tense way.
Wrestling Scripts the Drama; Racing Discovers It
This is the obvious difference, but it’s also what makes the comparison interesting.
A wrestling promotion can decide that an underdog wins, a champion cheats, or a betrayal happens at the perfect moment. The structure is designed.
At the racetrack, nobody can script the final turn. A favorite can stumble. A closer can find a gap. A pace meltdown can ruin the field. A horse nobody believed in can suddenly look like it has been saving all its life force for this exact stretch.
Shock Only Works If People Care First
This is where bad storytelling fails.
You can surprise people, but surprise alone is not enough.
If a random wrestler wins a random match with no build-up, nobody cares. If a random horse wins a race nobody was emotionally invested in, it’s interesting for about five seconds.
But when the stakes are clear, shock becomes powerful.
In wrestling, that means championship matches, streaks, grudge feuds, retirement threats, or characters people care about.
In racing, that means the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont Stakes, the Preakness, Breeders’ Cup races, famous rivalries, Triple Crown pressure, or a heavily backed favorite everyone expects to win.
Villains Exist in Both Worlds Too
Wrestling has heels.
Horse racing has villains, but they’re less theatrical.
Sometimes the “villain” is the heavy favorite everyone wants to see lose. Sometimes it’s a trainer people don’t trust. Sometimes it’s a rival horse blocking the fan favorite. Sometimes it’s just the odds board mocking your confidence.
And sometimes the villain is bad luck. Which is the worst villain because you can’t boo it properly?
Still, both sports need resistance. The hero’s win only matters if something is standing in the way.
So, even though horse racing and wrestling look completely different, they still create drama in many similar ways. This drives the story, making these events more desirable and enjoyable.
In a post on X, Randy Orton shot down recent reports that he has been off WWE television due to a back injury.
“Lmao just milking it guys,” Orton wrote. “Leave me alone I’m trying to enjoy my summer before I come back and take that #15.”
Orton was reacting to the news, specifically by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, who said during the weekend that Orton was still suffering from a back injury that kept him out of action for over a year a few years ago.
The Viper has not been seen on WWE television since his WrestleMania 42 Saturday main event loss against Cody Rhodes.
During the post-fight press conference on Saturday night, Ronda Rousey said that Dana White reached out to her during the morning of the fight wishing her luck.
“He texted me this morning wishing me luck and saying he hopes Gina and I kill it. I told him how much it meant to hear that from him,” Rousey said.
While Rousey took shots at UFC and TKO, she never said anything bad about Dana White and described him as an incredible friend and admitted she is where she is because of him.
“I’m eternally grateful, and I really appreciate him giving me his blessing to go out and do this on my own,” she said.
Earlier, Rousey said that her loyalty is with White himself, and not the company that he runs or the parent company.
Rousey also added that she was compensated fairly not just for fighting but also for promoting the fight. Fighter pay is a hot topic for her and was ultimately the decision maker in not doing this with the UFC.
“I also was promoting this event as well, so I think it’s literally on the contract that, I’m not supposed to tell people, I’m very happy and very grateful and me and my husband are gonna go house shopping in Hawaii after this,” she said.
Tickets for the TNA Lockdown 2026 pay-per-view went on sale this weekend on Ticketmaster.com.
The show will be held on Sunday, August 23 live from the Credit Union 1 Arena at UIC in Chicago, Illinois.
Tickets start from just $52.10 and only a small portion of the arena is currently open for sales. TNA is also having a huge issue selling tickets for Slammiversary in June, moving just over 1,000 tickets for the show.
This is the first Lockdown event, where all matches are contested inside a steel cage, since 2016.
WWE Superstars Iyo Sky and Naraku, the man formerly known as EVIL in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, announced their wedding today in a post on social media.
Posting two images, one in their wedding outfits and one in their wrestling outfits, the duo also released an accompanying statement together.
“We began our professional wrestling journeys in Japan, each seeing different sights and ‘skies.’ From early this Summer, we felt a deep connection and joy in becoming colleagues and comrades who will challenge the same stage across the ocean in WWE,” the statement reads.
“From now on, as a married couple, we will support each other in our daily lives, and as WWE Superstars, we will share both the loneliness and the glory, striving to elevate each other and shine even brighter individually,” it continues.
“We will never forget our gratitude to all the fans and everyone who have supported and guided us until now, and we are determined to push forward together towards even greater heights,” the Japanese husband and wife wrote. “Though we are still a developing pair, we humbly ask for your continued guidance and support.”
AEW President Tony Khan addressed the rumors put out by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer that WWE insiders “think” that AEW is not going to get picked for a new deal under Paramount.
Talking to the press after the ROH Supercard of Honor, Khan said that he read the report of WWE “talking” about AEW’s next TV deal.
“I was surprised by that and I’ll say what they said could not be further from the truth and they’re entitled to their opinions,” Khan said.
“I’ve been trying to be respectful to them and try to conduct myself as a gentleman and then for them to go on background and spread these things…I’ll just turn the other cheek, and maybe a couple of years ago I wouldn’t have done it like that,” he continued.
The report was in this week’s Wrestling Observer where Meltzer said that his WWE sources are spreading the word that AEW will have a hard time securing another television deal once this one is up.
Double or Nothing 2026 is officially sold out, with the remaining tickets all being resold by the original ticket holders.
The show will have in excess of 14,000 fans at the Louis Armstrong Stadium in Flushing, New York, making it the second most-attended Double or Nothing so far behind the 2022 edition which had just over 14,500.
Double or Nothing is currently the second largest gate for an AEW show in the United States, behind All In: Texas which obviously had a larger crowd due to the larger stadium. It sits fourth overall in AEW gate revenue behind the two All In shows in Wembley from 2023 and 2024.
Darby Allin vs MJF in a title vs hair match will headline the show.
The upcoming AAA Noche de Los Grandes event will have the participation of multiple WWE Superstars.
Apart from the already announced El Grande Americano vs Original El Grande Americano in a mask vs mask match, two more matches featuring WWE’s own were revealed on last night’s AAA on FOX show.
The War Raiders will get a crack at the AAA Tag Team titles in a match against champions Pagano and Psycho Clown while Bayley and Lola Vice will team up with La Catalina to battle Flammer, Maravilla, and La Hiedra.
The show takes place on Sunday, May 30 from Monterrey, Mexico and will stream on the WWE and AAA YouTube channels.
