The non-televised live events this weekend will feature the last matches for The Shield and The Riott Squad.
The Shield will be no longer after Dean Ambrose leaves WWE at the end of this month and their final match will be airing tomorrow live on the WWE Network as part of The Shield: The Final Chapter special. Their match against Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley and Baron Corbin will be from Moline, Illinois and the party will start at 9:30PM ET. Also airing on the same broadcast will be Finn Balor defending his Intercontinental title. The Shield defeated Mahal, Corbin, and Lashley last night at the house show in St. Louis, Missouri. Mahal replaced McIntyre after the Scot had trouble flying out from his location.
Meanwhile, The Riott Squad is also doing their final matches after Liv Morgan was drafted to Smackdown, effectively splitting the band. The trio have been a group ever since they moved to the main roster in 2017.
WWE has kept the pre-Shake-up roster for this weekend’s non-televised live events and the “new” rosters will be part of next week’s live events moving forward.
Two weeks ago, Brian Blair of The Killer Bees tag team, opened a GoFundMe campaign to help save the house of his former co-worker James “Kamala” Harris.
Harris, now a double amputee with other health issues, had to pay $12,750 in taxes by April 15 or else the Tate County in Mississippi would take his home. The tax collection office extended the deadline by a few weeks, giving Harris until the end of the month to settle his bill. “State of Mississippi are satisfied. We are only a few thousand dollars short at this time. The very kind folks at the Tax collection offices in MS, have been kind enough to extend Kamala’s if we can pay these bills before the end of the month,” Blair wrote on the GoFundMe page in an update.
And then, just like a superhero (without a cape), in came Chris Jericho who yesterday donated $5,000, the largest donation for Kamala. “God bless you James! Thx for the years of entertaining,” Jericho wrote on the page. Jericho’s donation led to another $300 or so in donations from fans, and now it stands at $14,790 from just over 300 fans raised in 16 days.
Sam Roberts, the co-host of Jim Norton & Sam Roberts on SiriusXM, had a chance to try commentary during WWE Main Event but during the Tamina vs Dana Brooke match, he once again decided to use his time to bury another WWE Superstar.
A few months ago, Roberts got on the wrong end of many people after he ran down Bianca Belair during the live NXT Takeover pre-show panel, saying he doesn’t think she deserves to be on the show, let alone getting a match for the NXT Women’s title.
This time around, Roberts picked on Dana Brooke, calling her a “futile performer” and constantly buried her on commentary during her match. At one point, Renee Young said that Tamina is always in a “salty, nasty mood” and Roberts said that he wouldn’t be in wonderful mood either if he had to wrestle Dana Brooke of all people.
Young fired back at Roberts, telling him that Dana shows up every week to do her job and it takes a lot of guts to do what she does. But that did not stop Roberts from continuing to attack Dana. “You can show up every single week, it takes a matter of skill to achieve the level Dana Brooke wants to achieve,” he added.
Roberts continued to attack Dana for the duration of the match, something that didn’t go down well with Brooke. Responding to Roberts on Twitter, Dana wrote, “Sam – always thought we were cool, but damn, wondering why WWE doesn’t have u on a lot, you bury people!” She continued, “What have u accomplished.. prob gave up at it, unlike me I push through never giving up! Maybe @ReneeYoungWWE Will be right when I block you & 1 day make U eat your words!”
Travel packages for the Survivor Series weekend will go on sale this coming Tuesday at Noon ET on WWE.COM. This year’s event will take place from the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois.
There will be four packages to choose from: Championship, Platinum, Gold, and Silver. Each package will contain tickets for Smackdown Live, NXT Takeover, Survivor Series, and Monday Night Raw, breakfast with WWE Superstars and Legends on Sunday, and a 3 or 4-night hotel accommodation in the Chicago area. The Championship package will also include a reception with WWE Superstars and Legends prior to NXT Takeover and a food tour on Monday with WWE stars.
Championship and Platinum packages will include the commemorative chair since seats are at ringside. Seating varies for different packages and the more expensive the package is, the better seats you will get.
The cheapest Silver package for one person for four nights will be $1,335 while the most expensive Championship package for one person will cost you $3,190.
The recent WWE Superstar Shakeup has not only seen current WWE superstars switching brands, several NXT superstars have also made their much awaited main roster debut last week.
Ricochet, Aleister Black, EC3, Lacy Evans, and of course who would forget the Vikings Experience (formerly known as the War Raiders) are all now on Monday Night RAW. Lars Sullivan, Kairi Sane and the Heavy Machinery have also officially landed on SmackDown Live, giving the Blue Brand a boost in talent.
While it’s true that these people all came from WWE’s developmental brand, many of them were already big names in the independent scene before they jumped ship to WWE.
Ricochet was a three-time IWGP junior heavyweight tag-team champion, two-time Lucha Underground champion and the 2014 winner of the Best of the Super Junior. Black held numerous championships in Pro-Wrestling Guerilla and Progress Wrestling, while Kairi Sane was universally recognized one of the best female wrestlers in the world before she won the first ever Mae Young Classic.
The bottom-line is this incoming group of guys measure up really well talent for talent with top WWE veterans. The stakes are now higher for them to perform better, and we have no inkling of a doubt that they can surpass expectations unless WWE creative keeps screwing their careers over and over again.
Missing Talents
With all the oohs and aahs that happened in this year’s Superstar Shakeup, there’s something in this latest batch of call-ups that doesn’t feel right. The uncomfortable reality is that it’s missing few superstars who would have bigger impact on the main roster. We are talking about potential game-changers on the RAW and SmackDown brand. Who are they? Let’s know them one by one.
The Undisputed Era
The Superstar Shakeup doesn’t only make someone’s career. Unfortunately, it breaks up tag-team partnerships and stables as well. Now that Sanity, Riot Squad and the Shield are no longer a thing, it’s evident that WWE is left without a power-tripping stable on the main roster.
The Undisputed Era, a WWE NXT stable that consists of Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, Rodrick Strong and Kyle O’Reilly, would have been the perfect group to fill that void. Their edgy, unapologetic characters have some striking resemblance to the Attitude Era’s D-Generation X, not to mention their leader, Adam Cole, is as charismatic as the prime Shawn Michaels.
Johnny Gargano
Gargano has been with WWE’s developmental brand since 2016. In four years on NXT, he captured the NXT Tag-Team championship, NXT North American Championship and the prestigious NXT World Championship, making him the first and only NXT Triple Crown champion. That’s how accomplished Gargano is.
His ability to produce five star matches with basically anyone would have been a huge addition for either RAW or SmackDown. Just imagine what kind of matches Gargano would produce if he goes one-on-one with the likes of Seth Rollins, AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan and Finn Balor. There’s a reason why he’s called Johnny Wrestling. That reason is that he’s just too damn good with his craft.
Velveteen Dream
Velveteen Dream reminds us of the 1990s version of the Goldust, only that he’s a lot more athletic and entertaining.
Ever since his NXT debut in 2017, Velveteen Dream was involved in one of the most acclaimed matches in WWE’s history. At 23-years-old, the Dream already has plenty of four to five-star matches around his belt, including the six-man ladder match for the North American Championship at NXT Takeover: New Orleans in 2018 and his singles match with Aleister Black at NXT Takeover: WarGames that won NXT feud of the year in 2017.
Everybody knows that Velveteen Dream is blessed with unworldly wrestling skills, but what makes this character clicks is his overflowing charisma. He has an uncanny way of bedazzling fans, whether it on the mic or in the ring. That would bode well for him whenever he makes his main roster debut.
Shayna Baszler
For someone who decided to transition from MMA to pro-wrestling four years ago, Shayna Baszler has done very well in just a short span of time. After a runner-up finish in the first Mae Young Classic, Baszler has become a dominating force in the NXT women’s division right from the get-go. She won the NXT Women’s Championship five months after her TV debut. She then defended the belt for the next 133 days before losing it to rival Kairi Sane at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn. At WWE Evolution, Baszler defeated Sane to become the first ever two-time NXT women’s champion.
With Ronda Rousey taking a hiatus from wrestling, Baszler would be a fitting replacement to antagonize Becky Lynch and other babyfaces in the women’s division. As a matter of fact, we feel Baszler would be a better match-up for Lynch than Rousey, because she would be already more seasoned coming in. Then again, WWE’s plan might be to hold off Baszler’s main roster debut until around October, where they can set up a four horsewomen vs. four horsewomen matches at Survivor Series.
Former WWE Universal champion Roman Reigns is featured in the latest trailer of Hobbs & Shaw, the upcoming movie that will reunite Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham in the newest Fast & Furious spinoff.
Reigns and Johnson, real-life cousins, will play on-screen cousins when Hobbs and Shaw decide to go “home” for their final battle with the big arch enemy in the movie played by Idris Elba. Reigns is shown in multiple scenes fighting alongside Johnson, scenes that were filmed while he was out of WWE taking care of leukemia.
The new over-the-top trailer was met with some criticism by fans because it’s three-and-a-half minutes long and gives out a lot of the plot of the movie. It features crazy stunts and some great movie-making magic.
In the latest episode of Busted Open on SiriusXM, veteran referee Earl Hebner was the guest to talk about the Montreal Screwjob which was revisited by VICELAND in their new documentary which aired this week.
When Bully Ray, host of the show, asked Hebner if he thinks Bret was in on the work, Hebner replied, “Yes, I really do. I’m not going to lie about it anymore. I’ve been trying to protect Bret.” This was the first time that the referee shared his thoughts openly about what went down on that night in Montreal that altered the course of WWE forever. “Why would you let a man put you in your own finish,” Earl asked.
Earl said that he talked to his twin brother Dave “15 seconds before going to the ring” and told him that they want him to ring the bell when Shawn puts Bret in the Sharpshooter, and said that he doesn’t know if he’ll do it, but if he does, he wanted Dave to be ready for him with a car in the basement.
Asked if anyone contacted him or tried to call him when he got back to the hotel, Hebner responded in the negative and said that when he got to the hotel, he put all the furniture against the door just in case someone tried to come in and kill him for what he did.
The Montreal Screwjob took place on November 9, 1997 at the WWE Survivor Series and remains one of the most talked-about stories in the history of professional wrestling.
The full episode of can be viewed online at VICELAND.com although you will need a North American IP address as the video is geo-blocked.
In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reports that The Undertaker recently signed a new WWE deal that will stop him from taking outside bookings to appear at conventions and other shows without the blessing of WWE.
Taker agreeing to appear at the Double or Nothing weekend for the Starrcast fan interaction event led to a new deal with a significant dollar sum that according to Meltzer, it was impossible to refuse. The company was not happy at all that Taker would be appearing in May at Starrcast but his contract is strong enough that he cannot get out of it.
Meanwhile, his appearance with Inside The Ropes for a tour in the United Kingdom underwent a change where he won’t be doing a Q&A show anymore but will honor all meet and greet tickets. Mick Foley has been contacted to take over the Q&A part of the show and Foley accepted to bail the promoters out by replacing The Undertaker as requested. The Undertaker was charging up to $25,000 an hour in the United States for appearances.
WWE held a WrestleMania this month without The Undertaker being a part of it for the first time in 19 years. He was backstage all day and watching parts of the show from Gorilla position alongside Vince McMahon. Taker appeared on the Raw after Mania where he attacked Elias and later posted a photo of Instagram with the hash tag #IWillDecideWhenItsTime.
WWE announced that Hector Garza Jr and Shane Strickland have signed with WWE and are already reporting to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. The two are joined by Kushida, who was signed earlier this month and already made his NXT debut.
Garza Jr is 26 years old and is the nephew of former WWE/WCW/TNA star Hector Garza and cousin of WWE’s Humberto Carrillo. He made his pro wrestling debut in 2008 and wrestled for Lucha Libre AAA, Impact Wrestling, and in the independent scene.
Shane Strickland, the Washington native, made his wrestling debut in 2011 and has a lot of experience, wrestling for Combat Zone Wrestling, Lucha Underground, EVOLVE, Major League Wrestling, and other indie promotions. He is a former Lucha Underground Trios title holder and MLW heavyweight champion.
The ninth episode of season one of Miz & Mrs did a total of 1,102,000 viewers this week, up 105,000 viewers from last week’s show. The reality show was #7 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Wrestling is a sport that has been around since the 1920s and many people have gone on to become professional wrestlers since then. As the sport became more popular, people started placing bets on their favorite wrestler in order to win some extra cash.
Here, we are going to look at wrestling betting over the years and discuss whether it is on the rise or not. Keep reading if you’d like to find out more about this.
What Is Wrestling Betting?
When it comes to online betting and placing a bet on a wrestler, there are various things that you can bet on. Most sites will offer odds on the wrestler that will win the match based on their previous performance. People will then make a decision on who they think will win, stake some cash and watch the match to see the outcome.
In wrestling, you might also want to bet on some of the punches that will be thrown and the moves that you will see in the various rounds. All of these will come with odds and they have been very popular in the betting community for many years.
WWE
When you talk about professional wrestling, it is important to explore WWE and how it affects the overall view of this sport. WWE stars put on a show when they are in the ring, however, many people also bet on this sport. World Wrestling Entertainment has been around since 1952 and some of the most popular stars from this sport include John Cena, Triple H and Roman Reigns.
These wrestling matches are watched by people all around the world who place their bets on which wrestler will win.
Is Betting On Wrestling On the Rise?
In 2019, it seems as though many more people are tuning in to watch wrestling matches on their TVs or on their smartphone. For this reason, it is clear that more people are placing bets on this sport as it gains in popularity.
In relation to WWE, it is important to note that it is the largest wrestling promotion in the world and while it is scripted, it is very popular. This sport is available to over 150 countries with more than 36 million viewers. While it is impossible to say how much is spent on betting on WWE every year, it is clear that the increase in viewers correlates with an increased amount of betting. Interestingly, in the past, storylines from WWE matches have been leaked and so many gamblers have used this information to place their bets.
Wrestling betting is not just done on professional scripted matches either. Many people are still going to their local club and seeing people come up against each other. During these matches, they are placing bets and hoping that their winner will come through for them. Wrestling can be an unpredictable sport and so it can come with some pretty big payouts if you manage to place your bet on the winner.
Final Verdict
It is clear that as more people enjoy wrestling in their local club and on WWE, the number of bets has increased. We hope that this sport remains popular for a long time and that betting on it is on the rise. There is a lot of cash to be made on wrestling so make sure to try out betting on this sport if you want to win some while you are watching a match.
The Fighting With My Family movie featuring the story of Paige and her family, will arrive on Digital HD on April 30 and on Blu-Ray, DVD and on-demand on May 14.
The movie features Florence Pugh, Lena Headey, Jack Lowden, Nick Frost, Vince Vaughn, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the leading roles and it’s written and directed by Stephen Merchant. Seven Bucks Productions’ Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia served as producers on the film with Hiram Garcia serving as executive producer. Kevin Misher of Misher Films produced alongside WWE Studios and Michael Luisi in association with The Ink Factory.
The Blu-ray combo pack also includes a Director’s Cut filled with new and extended scenes not seen in theaters. Other extras include deleted scenes, gag reel, a behind-the-scenes feature on how the movie was made, a feature on how the cast learned the wrestling moves, and commentary by Stephen Merchant.
Fighting With My Family revolves around WWE Superstar Paige and her brother Zak who are ecstatic when they get the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to try out for WWE. But when only Paige earns a spot in the competitive training program, she must leave her family and face this new, cut-throat world alone. Paige’s journey pushes her to dig deep, fight for her family, and ultimately prove to the world that what makes her different is the very thing that can make her a star.
It did $22,805,196 in box office revenue in the United States after 62 days in theaters.
Night two of the Superstar Shake-up on Smackdown did 2,219,000 viewers on Tuesday, up slightly by 20,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. The show was #3 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and #9 in overall viewership for the night on cable. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has made it to the cover of the popular TIME Magazine for the TIME 100 Most Influential People edition.
Johnson is listed at the top of the artists category, besting other peers such as Regina King, Khalid, Emilia Clarke, Ariana Grande, Rami Malek, and others.
“I’m boundlessly humbled and honored to grace the cover of TIME. I’ve been quite the lucky man over the decades to have such a successful career, but it’s only due to the deep connection I have with the fans, the audience – the people,” Johnson wrote in a post on social media.
“To have success at something is one thing, but to have global positive influence on people’s lives is the greatest (and most powerful) strength one could ever have. Thank you TIME Magazine for this exceptional honor. And most importantly, thank you to my one and only boss – the people – our connection will always remind me that it’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice,” he added.
Variety.com is reporting that John Cena is in talks to join the sequel of the popular Suicide Squad franchise.
But Cena is not the only new member in talks to join the movie as Idris Elba is also in negotiations to play a new character. Margot Robbie will return to play Harley Quinn and Jai Courtney returns as Captain Boomerang.
There’s no word which character Cena will play if everything lines up and this would be Cena’s first role in the comic book universe. His latest movie was the Transformers spinoff Bumblebee, which did $467.7 million in worldwide box office.
James Gunn, the director of Guardians of the Galaxy, will be writing and directing the movie which is expected to go into production this fall and hitting theaters on August 6, 2021. The original Suicide Squad grossed $746.8 million worldwide.
The teenager from Florida who two weeks ago got arrested for trying to RKO his high school principal, was arrested again after performing wrestling moves on a fake alligator, jumping into a water display at a shopping mall according to CBS Miami.
18-year-old Gianny Sosa channeled his inner wrestling persona by damaging the $3,690-worth display alligator on Monday and then posting the video on his social media. Sosa jumped off a rock, landed an elbow on the fake alligator and then doing the RKO on the pricey display before pinning the object.
Just like things ended badly for him in high school, he had the same outcome and landed himself back in jail and faced the same judge. “You got to find something else to do. I mean, really,” Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Renatha Francis said. “You’re just going to keep coming back here and keep being a media sensation for all the wrong reasons.”
Dasha Fuentes confirmed her departure from WWE in an Instagram post this week, days after news broke out that the backstage interviewer was let go from her WWE duties.
“I can’t thank you all of enough for the past 5 years it has truly been an honor and privilege to have been able to work for @wwe,” Dasha wrote. “To all of my fans throughout the years and coworkers who have reached out to me it truly means a lot! Although my journey with WWE has come to an end it’s just the beginning! I most definitely am not saying goodbye, but rather I’ll see y’all around!”
Fuentes, the 31-year-old Orlando native, was at WrestleMania week but was never used on-screen by WWE which was probably a good indication of what’s to come. Her last appearance was on the April 1 episode of Monday Night Raw.
30 WWE Superstars in total swapped brands over the past two nights during the 2019 Superstar Shake-up. 16 went to the red brand while the rest, two less than Raw, went blue.
Those who moved to Raw are AJ Styles, The Miz, Ricochet, Aleister Black, Erik and Ivar of the Viking Experience, Andrade, Zelina Vega, Rey Mysterio, Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso of The Usos, Naomi, EC3, Lacey Evans, Eric Young, and Cedric Alexander. Six of those Superstars are from NXT while one is from 205 Live.
Meanwhile, those who moved to Smackdown are Roman Reigns, Intercontinental champion Finn Balor, Elias, Bayley, Ember Moon, Kairi Sane, Lars Sullivan, Buddy Murphy, Liv Morgan, Chad Gable, Apollo Crews, Mickie James, Otis and Tucker of Heavy Machinery. Four of these are from NXT and one is from 205 Live. With Liv Morgan and Chad Gable moving to Smackdown it means that the Riott Squad and the team of Gable and Roode are no longer.
The War Raiders, now known by the name of The Viking Experience, were the talk on social media this week following their Raw debut during the Superstar Shake-up episode.
There happens to be a real Viking Experience in York in the United Kingdom as part of the JORVIK Viking Centre. On Tuesday, the Twitter account of the museum, also addressed WWE’s recent name change thanks to their “full social media inbox!”
In a tweet, the JORVIK Viking Centre wrote, “We arrived to a full social media inbox this morning… Seems like there are some mixed opinions out there but we can promise @WWENXT fans that you will always get an authentic #VikingExperience here!”
They also joked that next time, WWE should give them a heads up before they change another name so they can be ready!
Meanwhile, one half of the tag team, Erik, replied to the tweet saying, “We will be happy to share the #vikingexperience next time we visit Jorvik! We loved our last tour of your incredible museum!”
Monday Night Raw drew a total of 2,665,000 viewers for the Superstar Shake-up episode, down 258,000 viewers from last week’s post-WrestleMania show.
Hour one started with 2,760,000, then went slightly down to 2,690,000 viewers, before ending the night with 2,546,000 viewers. The NBA playoffs on TNT did nearly 3 million viewers so that took a bit of the WWE viewership.
Raw was #3, #4, and #5 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and #6 in overall viewership for the night on cable. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
