WWE has apparently lifted the rule of not allowing any bar or facility in Las Vegas to air WrestleMania 42 live.
The blackout was intended to try and boost ticket sales to the event, which is way behind of what the show was at this point last year. But both WWE and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority received a lot of backlash from hotels and restaurants over the ban and the decision to reverse it was then made.
Circa, the hotel in downtown Las Vegas, confirmed that it will go ahead with their watch party at the famous Stadium Swim in a post on their social media.
Watch parties are very popular in Las Vegas, with fans who for some reason prefer not to go to to event, gather around in a restaurant or pub or even the casino floor to watch sports together.
A contract signing between Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania turned into a bloody encounter as Orton had enough of his babyface run and viciously attacked his former partner to turn heel, again.
Orton mentioned to Rhodes that he does not have an idea how much he needs the WWE title again and Rhodes told Orton that he is aware that the best version of The Viper will show up at WrestleMania and no matter what happens, he will always love him.
After sharing a hug, Orton switched and smashed Cody’s head on the table and hit a low blow for good measure to a big pop from the crowd. He continued the attack by hitting him with the steel steps and the WWE title, opening up Rhodes.
Both Smackdown GM Nick Aldis and Jelly Roll tried to knock some sense into Orton but without any success. After Orton left and Rhodes was being checked on, Orton returned and smacked Rhodes with another chair shot.
Orton then entered the ring with the same chair, opened it up in the middle of the ring and sat down on it, holding the WWE title as Smackdown faded to black.
The Road to WrestleMania continues tonight live on Smackdown as the Cody Rhodes vs Randy Orton match becomes official following a contract signing set between the two.
Also, Grammy Award winning artist Jelly Roll will be in the house and will be the special guest of The Miz on Miz TV. In addition, three matches have been made official so far, featuring:
The Irresistible Forces vs Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair for the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles
Michin battles Jade Cargill in a non-title match
Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga vs Uncle Howdy and Erick Rowan
Smackdown airs at 8PM ET live on USA Network and on Netflix everywhere else.
Road Dogg Brian James has been pulled from his WWE World appearance next month, with fans who had already purchased a ticket to meet him scheduled to receive a refund.
The WWE Hall of Famer departed WWE earlier this month, leaving his position of head writer for Smackdown. James was not fired from the company but sources said that he saw the writing on the wall after his work was not getting high praises.
James will now team up with his former tag team partner and AEW’s Billy Gunn to appear at WrestleCon during WrestleMania weekend as The New Age Outlaws. Both will be there all four days during the fan convention.
WrestleCon takes place between April 16 and 19 at the Horseshoe Hotel Las Vegas
WrestleMania 42 tickets start to pick up slightly, with WWE moving around 2,000 tickets for the two days in a week according to @WrestleTix.
The Saturday show stands at 37,520 tickets distributed while the Sunday show is at 38,470 tickets, with both nights having a set up of 44,210 seats at the Allegiant Stadium.
WWE announced 58,538 and 60,103 for WrestleMania 41 last year and with the show just five weeks away, ticket sales have to really step up if they want to get anywhere close to those numbers.
Some seats were reduced in price to $177 plus fees although those seats are at the very top of the stadium, almost to the side behind the stage.
Many seating sections at Allegiant Stadium also remain closed as of this writing and will not open up unless sales start seeing a vast improvement.
Cody Rhodes sat down with Chris Van Vliet in Atlanta, Georgia to discuss winning the WWE Championship for a third time, welcoming his new daughter Leilani Ella, reacting to hearing boos from fans, his WrestleMania 42 match against Randy Orton, not being the fan favorite at WrestleMania 41 in his match with John Cena, the Codyvator spot in their SummerSlam rematch, being slapped by Travis Scott, how the infamous Cody Splash came to be, that tables match with The Big Show, and more!
So if the story leading into WrestleMania 40 is doing what your dad never did, finishing the story. What was the story the year after and the story now?
“Well, the biggest thing the year after that I wanted to do was it was more of I had talked a lot about what a WWE Championship reign with me looks like. Hey, we’re gonna bring back the Winged Eagle. That took a lot, and thanks to Triple H for saying sure.”
That came back for a night. Was there talk of making that the belt?
“I don’t think there was ever talk of making it the belt, but it was definitely only supposed to be there for one single night. Then the next thing you know, it’s hanging above the ring at the Royal Rumble, and there’s figures with it, which you know you’ve done something good there. Kevin Owens was carrying it into HQ, so I was really glad we got that. Also, you know, this wasn’t a knock on the previous run, but it was hey, there’s going to be a lot of bell-to-bell wrestling here. I want to be defending this more frequently, and I want the matches to be a little bit less entertainment, a little bit more sports. Definitely both sports entertainment, but skew to the left. So here we go to France. We’ve got AJ Styles out of the gate. That’s a prime example of what I wanted it to look like, in terms of what that first reign would be. Somebody has asked me a question recently, ‘What is this one? What is number three for you?’ I wish I had an answer, but I think every wrestler, and it’s fun if you watch people who come on your podcast, who talk to you so frequently, do they find their identity? Do they change? Are you talking to different characters? I think for me, at this point, the prime of my career, I’d like it to really define who I am. I’m not so much worried about defining what the belt is to me. I’d like myself to be fully formed and fully defined. I think I’m there as far as the American Nightmare, what that is, and how I feel, but I’ll tell you an area that’s changing is I was never a polarizing wrestler. Now I’m a polarizing wrestler.”
How does that make you feel?
“That’s the thing. I’m honored by it. I’m honored by the passion of both sides of the coin. What I would like to do and to honor those who are so excited and those who are so not, however you’d put it, is I want to make sure that I’m not gotten to by it. I think with everything I’ve been through and everything in the business, you hear people say you got thick skin. I can definitely say I have thick skin now, because I used to not have thick skin.”
How did you guys come up with the Codyvator with John Cena coming up at SummerSlam?
“I don’t want to tell you whose idea it was, but I can say this, there’s a guy backstage who runs Gorilla. Shout out to him, Temarrio. He does not like the Codyvator. I like that he calls it the Codyvator, because we could easily just call it a lift like it’s denoted in a production budget. But he doesn’t like the Codyvator, because the Codyvator is pretty expensive, and if we’re only going to use it for me to come up, and I prefer it’s only me. But I joke with him a lot that, hey, look, dude, we’re getting bang for your buck here, two uses of the Codyvator, and it made him feel better about the use of it that night. So yeah, I’ll go ahead and credit Triple H for that one, easiest one to credit for it, but that was fun. Also, you can tell how strong a man really is when you’re going at a tiny, incremental pace and the floor is lifting you, and still had me, and I think wanted to carry me 70 yards, but didn’t need to. I can fall off your shoulders at a certain point. He’s still got it. John, certainly, all the functional strength, and you’ve seen all the hard knocks videos and all that, that’s never gonna go away.”
So, what’s the story behind the Cody splash?
“Well, a couple of things. People love to watch the table get broken. There’s only so many ways you can break a table. I don’t like setting the table up in the corner. I think that’s lame. You got to break the table. You got to break the actual table. Legs need to be down. We were scrambling for something to do in a contract signing at some point in my career, and I thought, hey, why don’t I just splash you off the top rope and keep the pen and the contract in my hand? There’s something fun about that. Plus, people love a table breaking. They’re chanting, ‘We want tables.’ By God, give them the tables. Then what would come of it is on the live events, which are no longer intimate and just for that crowd, because people will film something they saw that night and it’s out there. My splash from the live event started to make it out, and that is just a prime example of you don’t always see your age, and then maybe you see your age. So I think I’m at the prime of my career. I think I’m psychologically the best I’ve ever been. As an athlete, believe it or not, even with that splash, I feel like I’m the best I’ve ever been. However, I have committed to the idea of the Splash is a non-jump splash, it’s a fall splash. I like to get straight as a board. I like to really get out like a tree frog being flung from a tree. The one overseas, in Germany, was so high up. The idea that I would jump is insane. So now we just call it at TV lovingly, the New Jack splash, where I just fall. So there’s no splash involved. It’s just going to be a fall. But yeah, it started as the idea people love a table, let’s do this at this contract signing. What could we do? Oh, we could do this, and then we could grab your hand, and it would be a thing, but it’s developed into the New Jack splash, and I have no shame with it at all, because people do seem to enjoy it. They do. That is not a showcase of my athleticism. That’s not the one I would put my hat on athleticism over, this is just my splash and how I do it, and it’s become part of my repertoire now. So you know if I go up there, don’t expect me to jump. I’ll be falling.”
How badly were you hurt after Elimination Chamber last year in Toronto? How badly did Travis Scott hurt you?
“Travis Scott did not hurt me. It looks like he hurt me. I took a photo with Travis Scott at the OBB studio event, and I never saw that photo. I like Travis Scott. I think it’s safe to say at this point, I like Travis Scott. I like that he lended us his time and that we had moments with him. I mean, he took a Cross Rhodes. Most people just remember the slap, and I’m going to be on this side of history with it. I know it wasn’t everyone’s favorite thing. That is not the hardest I’ve ever been slapped. That’s number three. That’s number three. I’ll give you the list of slaps. Number two, Bob Holly in London. He says, ‘Fire up out there, kid.’ I don’t want to say something nefarious that gets anyone in trouble. I think someone told him to try and knock me out, because the way he slapped me was trying to knock a man out, it didn’t. I have a decent little jaw. So I took said slap. The number one might shock you, but I felt it in both of my heels. I felt it in my feet. I had to plant my feet. It was so hard. Nattie Neidhart hit me. It felt like an MLB batter swinging the bat, and I walked into it. She leveled me. So Nattie is one, Hardcore Holly two, Travis Scott, I’d say maybe three.”
But was that a legit black eye from Travis Scott?
“I’m gonna say that John Cena and The Rock gave me the black eye, and Travis Scott was there as well. So the three of them gave me the black eye and the perforated eardrum. Also, it runs, if you get anything up here, right? So if I like, dot you up here, it’s gonna run. Some people are quick healers too. I’m like, a real yellowy, gross healer, where it just takes forever. So, yeah, it was not the worst slap I ever got, and he took a great Cross Rhodes.”
On her LinkedIn, WWE’s Kirsten Koedding announced that she has been promoted to Writer/Producer for Monday Night Raw.
Koedding began as a Writer’s Assistant with WWE in August 2023 and got the new this month.
“I am humbled and proud to announce that after working for WWE for 2.5 years, I have been promoted to Writer/Producer for Monday Night RAW,” she wrote. “I am so thankful for the support from my team, my family, and my friends, and I can’t wait to continue to tell stories and entertain families around the world!”
Prior to joining WWE, she was a production assistant for Wayfarer Studios, and held several production positions for other companies before that.
This is the second promotion to the Raw writing team after Alexandra Williams was promoted to Vice President and Lead Writer last week.
Speaking to members of the media yesterday ahead of this weekend’s Revolution pay-per-view, AEW President Tony Khan said that the launch of MyAEW had nothing to do with the current WBD sale to Paramount Skydance.
Khan said that the MyAEW service is strictly for international fans and their aim is to reach as many of those fans as possible, noting that in the United States, they’re happy with HBO Max being their lead pay-per-view provider.
Khan was optimistic about AEW’s future with Paramount and thinks that the company will be on TNT and TBS for a long time.
He said that he’s friends with UFC President Dana White and he would love to be on the same channel as the UFC eventually, even though UFC’s sister promotion is their competitor.
MyAEW is the company’s version of the old WWE Network, although it adds the live Dynamite and Collision apart from the monthly pay-per-views if available. The price, including PPVs, is $19.99 a month or $119.99 per year.
NXT had its lowest viewership of the year so far, with only 541,000 viewers tuning in for this week’s episode on The CW, down 62,000 viewers from the previous show. In 18-49, NXT had a 0.08 rating, down 0.01 from last week. (Ratings credit: Programming Insider)
Eight more WWE Superstars, including a few Hall of Famers, have been announced for WWE World at WrestleMania 42.
The new additions will have Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair appearing on Thursday, Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez on Friday, Torrie Wilson, Rick Steiner, and Scott Steiner on Saturday, and Finn Balor on Sunday morning.
Tickets for these photo and autograph ops will go on sale soon. A WWE World ticket is required to enter the premises for either the photo or autograph.
Most of the WWE Superstars appearing have all sold out of their allocated time.
Unlike WrestleMania or the in-ring events surrounding the show, these meet and greets have proven to be very popular with fans, selling out very quick after going on sale.
Nestle announced that it will launch a limited edition Drumstick ice cream featuring WWE champion Cody Rhodes.
The new cone flavor—Drumstick Red, White & Blueberry features a blueberry sauce-filled cone, strawberry-flavored frozen dairy dessert wrapped in a white confectionery coating, and crunchy rice pieces for extra texture.
The Rhodes-themed ice cream cones will be available at Walmart stores nationwide beginning on Monday, March 16. Each box, priced at $4.97, includes four cones.
This is the second time that Drumstick has worked with WWE over ice cream but it’s the first time they have released a specific ice cream for just one WWE Superstar.
The WWE EVOLVE Women’s champion, Kendal Grey, surrendered her title on last night’s episode.
Grey, who is moving full time to NXT, successfully defended her title in her final match on the developmental brand, defeating Tyra Mae Steele.
This was her eighth successful title defense, with a reign stretching 150 days. She won it from Kali Armstrong at the EVOLVE: Succession special in September of last year.
Grey signed a WWE NIL deal in January 2023 and has been part of the promotion ever since.
The MyAEW streaming service passed its first successful test last night with its first live transmission of Dynamite.
The AEW version of the WWE Network is available to all countries except United States, Canada, Mexico, and India.
The big test will be this weekend as AEW presents Revolution on pay-per-view, a show which will be available on the service as part of the higher-tier subscriptions.
PPVs are part of the $19.99 a month or $119.99 per year bundles.
While the service is not available to the largest fan base, those who live in the U.S. or Canada, users have reported successfully accessing it using a VPN.
The MyAEW app is also available to download for Apple or Android devices, including Apple TV.
The service will eventually replace AEW Plus offered by TrillerTV, which is in deep financial trouble.
Netflix has confirmed that all WWE premium live events in Germany and Austria will be moving to their streaming service starting April 1.
All PLEs will also include the option to hear the live audio version with German commentary from Calvin Knie and Tim Haber.
What’s interesting is that the announcement was solely for premium live events and not for the other programming, so it seems that Raw, Smackdown, and NXT will remain airing on local broadcasters. There is also no indication that the WWE library will be made available for German and Austrian subscribers.
WrestleMania 42 will be the first WWE PLE to stream on Netflix in these two countries following the impending shutdown of the WWE Network in the area later this month.
Last week, the current German commentators for WWE Sebastian Hackl and Manu Thiele refuted reports that the shows will be moving to Netflix, saying PLEs will continue on ProSieben MAXX.
The Hollywood Reporter has an exclusive story about former WWE Superstar Braun Strowman launching his own production company with Magilla Entertainment titled Meat Castle Media.
The company will run by Adam Scherr (Strowman) and producing partner Nick Antonicelli.
This new company marks Magilla’s first talent-led production venture and the two will work together with Magilla chief development officer Kevin Duncan to create new unscripted series and formats, as well as podcasts spanning craft, competition, celebrity interviews and more.
The first Meat Castle series is Hands On, which Scherr tries his hand at a new unique craft in each episode, diving headfirst into the skilled professions that power the American dream. A competition-format show set in the world of miniature model making is also in the works.
“Nick and I couldn’t be more excited to re-team with Kevin, and work with the amazing folks at Magilla, to build a real force in the TV industry that puts talent, groundbreaking ideas and meaningful partnerships at the forefront,” Scherr said in a statement. “Magilla’s track record is second to none and we look forward to working with them to build a great slate of programming.”
“Adam’s talent, charisma and creativity have led to great success across multiple areas of entertainment,” Matthew Ostrom and Laura Palumbo Johnson, co-founders of Magilla Entertainment, said in a joint statement. “With Meat Castle Media, we’re working with him and Nick to develop a slate of projects that reflect Adam’s interests and values, and also match his larger-than-life presence and personality. It’s been an exciting start, and we’re eager to bring these first projects to market.”
Strowman’s series Everything On The Menu with Braun Strowman returns for a second season on USA Network later this Summer.
Cody Rhodes will be appearing at WWE World at WrestleMania 42 on Sunday, April 19.
The American Nightmare is the latest Superstar announced for the fan convention. Tickets for his photo ops and autographs will be announced soon.
Asuka, Kit Wilson, Randy Orton, Rusev, Ivy Nile, Otis, Rey Mysterio, Tozawa, The Undertaker, Dragon Lee, Kairi Sane, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods have also been announced for WWE World this week.
A ticket to WWE World is required for any photos or autographs.
WWE announced that the next Saturday Night’s Main Event will take place on May 23, live from the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Tickets for the show go on general sale on Friday, March 20 at Ticketmaster.com and a pre-sale will kick off 24 hours earlier.
The show is being held in conjunction with Visit Fort Wayne, meaning that WWE likely got a site fee to hold the show there.
It will be a busy month in May, with Backlash first on May 9, followed by this on May 23, and then Clash In Italy on May 31.
The date is also on the same weekend as AEW’s Double or Nothing pay-per-view which is in New York on May 24.
Willow Nightingale and Lena Kross will pull double duty this Saturday at Revolution and will be wrestling twice on the night.
Nightingale will defend her TBS title against Kross during the Zero Hour show, which airs an hour prior to the start of Revolution.
Later in the night, Nightingale and her tag team partner Harley Cameron will defend the AEW Women’s Tag Team titles against Kross and Megan Bayne.
Also, a trios match was announced for the pay-per-view, with Gabe Kidd, David Finlay, and Clark Connors taking on Orange Cassidy, Darby Allin, and Roderick Strong.
John Morrison sat down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood, California to discuss losing a hair vs. hair match at CMLL and now being bald, his wife Taya’s reaction to the new look, replacing Chris Benoit at Vengeance and winning the ECW World Championship in 2007, his dive from the top of the Elimination Chamber, his parkour Royal Rumble save, having more than 34 names throughout his pro wrestling career, and more!
Are you getting used to seeing yourself with no hair?
“No. Imagine your whole life, every time you see your reflection there’s a guy there with hair. I never shaved my head. But more than that, for the last 24 years, 25 years, I’ve had long hair. When I got my WWE contract in 2003 that was the day I stopped getting haircuts. Basically, I just grew it out from then till now.”
“I gotta admit, the match did feel fantastic. That hair match, I feel like, was one of the best matches I’ve had in years. Was the first time in a while that I felt like me again. Kind of feeling unfulfilled, basically. Not just me, a lot of people in wrestling. But for me right now, in AEW, I feel underutilized. Can’t blame anyone, that’s just how wrestling promotions work. There’s only enough TV time for a certain amount of people. Those people at AEW, we’ve coined the term the island. Those people are on the island, so to speak. I don’t feel like I’m on the island with Tony or AEW right now. So because of that, I feel like I’m doing like 10-20% of what I’m capable of, storytelling-wise, wrestling-wise, in the ring. With CMLL, I’m on their island, and so I got to do everything that I could, and it was cool.”
You were the first one to have a real crazy Elimination Chamber spot. How did you dream this up?
“I wouldn’t say growing up, but high school, college, I was watching the Chambers, always thought they were cool. When I got signed, and I was in OVW, Louisville, I started watching more closely. Then I saw that parkour movie, District 13, and started doing parkour a bunch, and I hadn’t been in a Chamber match. Then I started watching parkour and Chamber matches, and in my head, booking all these crazy things that I could potentially do in the Chamber and this is like two years before I had my first Chamber match. So when I knew that I was going to be in the Chamber match, I had like 10 ideas of different kinds of crazy things that I wanted to do, ready to go.”
That’s high when you’re up there!
“It’s so high! The one where I crawled up to the top and then dropped down on Sheamus. It’s funny. When you’re up there and you’re dropping, it feels like you’re three stories up. It doesn’t look like that on TV. It’s not that high, but it feels that high. It’s also when you’re falling backward, you just have to have a lot of trust in what’s behind you. I know Sheamus. I trust the hell out of that guy. He would always be there to catch you, pick you up, and then just hit you in the face with his fist.”
I read that you are on your 34th name right now. Does that sound accurate?
“It sounds accurate, if not underrated. I feel like there’s a handful of names that I’ve had. Johnny Zero, when I wrestled for Below Zero Wrestling in North Dakota for one show. There’s a ton of those one-show names that I’ve had. It’s hard to keep track of”
