Tonight’s Monday Night Raw is shaping up to be a big show with two big segments already announced.
Just announced is a farewell address segment by The Shield which will kick off the show. The Shield last night defeated Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley, and Drew McIntyre in the main event of Fastlane in a match billed as their last one ever together. Speculation is already ramping up about what the farewell address will lead to as in the world of WWE, such announcements rarely go according to plan.
Former World Heavyweight champion Batista will also be on the show for a face-to-face encounter with Triple H. A couple of weeks ago, Batista beat up Ric Flair, spoiling the Flair 70th birthday bash on Raw in hopes of getting Triple H’s attention. Their encounter tonight will serve as the kickoff for their eventual match at WrestleMania.
Also, the Intercontinental title will be on the line as Finn Balor will defend against former champion Bobby Lashley.
WWE announcers made sure to drive the point home that at Fastlane, it was the last time that The Shield were going to be wrestling on television together.
WWE tried a reunion of The Shield a couple of times in the past but injuries and illness came in the way. In 2017, an illness concern about Roman Reigns resulted in Kurt Angle replacing him at most events and even Triple H donned The Shield gear during the UK tour in November of that year. After Reigns returned, Ambrose suffered a triceps injury and had to be written off TV.
Last year, the group wrestled Strowman, Ziggler, and McIntyre at the WWE pay-per-view in Australia but just two weeks later, Reigns surrendered the Universal title after revealing his leukemia was back. On the same night, Ambrose turned on Rollins effectively ending their reign as Raw Tag Team champions.
With Ambrose leaving WWE in April, Rollins occupied with Lesnar for WrestleMania, and Reigns having just returned, Fastlane provided the stage for The Shield to ride together one last time…at least for now!
The Shield made their debut at the 2012 Survivor Series, interfering in the WWE title match between CM Punk, John Cena and Ryback. And the rest, as they say, is history.
A farewell address segment by the three will kick off Monday Night Raw tonight.
The Harlem Heat – Booker T and Stevie Ray – will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2019 as a tag team, making Booker T a two-time WWE Hall of Famer as well.
The news was announced today by USA Today and later confirmed by WWE through its social media channels.
The duo are largely known for their impressive run in WCW, making their debut for the Turner-owned company in 1993. A few months after they joined the company, they enlisted the services of Sherri Martel to be their manager and by the end of that year, they won the WCW Tag Team titles.
The Harlem Heat had several memorable feuds while in WCW, including the Steiner Brothers, the nWo, Lex Luger and Sting, Faces of Fear, and others. Throughout their time in WCW, the Harlem Heat won the WCW Tag Team titles for an impressive 10 times.
The Harlem Heat broke up as a tag team in late 1999 and Booker T went on to have another good run as a solo wrestler in both WCW and WWE. Booker was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013 by his brother.
Booker t will now join Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels as two-time Hall of Famer with HBK also being inducted this year as part of D-Generation X.
As some of the UK gambling sites anticipated, WWE and Mars, Inc today announced an expanded partnership where Snickers and Skittles will receive significant visibility and consumer engagement across WWE’s global platforms beginning at WrestleMania.
For the fourth consecutive year, Snickers will serve as the exclusive presenting partner of WrestleMania. Snickers’ presenting partnership of WrestleMania will once again feature WWE Superstars promoting the brand’s popular “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” campaign in custom content produced by WWE. The creative will air on Raw and Smackdown as well as across WWE’s global digital and social platforms.
“WWE Superstars can’t perform in the ring and live up to their larger-than-life personalities if they’re hungry,” said Josh Olken, Brand Director, SNICKERS. “We’re thrilled to be back for the fourth consecutive year as the presenting sponsor of WrestleMania, making sure that no one across WWE’s passionate fan base is hungry when getting their WrestleMania fix.”
“WWE is thrilled to expand our partnership with Mars and provide two marquee brands, Snickers and Skittles, with valuable exposure across our global platforms,” said John Brody, WWE Executive Vice President, Global Sales & Head of International. “Snickers will once again leverage the massive platform and global fan base that WrestleMania provides as we bring their ‘You’re Not You When You’re Hungry’ campaign to life in new and creative ways.”
As part of the broadened relationship, Snickers has released five limited edition Hunger Bars with WWE that include the catchphrases of five Superstars on the packaging: The Miz = Awesome, Lana = Ravishing, Bobby Roode = Glorious, AJ Styles = Phenomenal, and Rusev = Brute.
The bars will be available beginning next Monday, March 18, through mid-April, exclusively at Dollar General stores across the country. Fans can also look out for a special digital coupon on Snickers singles items, as well as a digital “Superstar-Yourself” experience on DollarGeneral.com.
The partnership will also include a Snickers brand presence at WrestleMania Axxess plus custom digital and social content sponsorships on WWE.com and YouTube as part of a multi-platform media campaign.
Continuing the relationship, Snickers will serve as the presenting partner of WWE’s Hell in a Cell event this September. This will include cross-platform promotion via WWE’s global media channels, a co-branded custom integration that will air in the telecast, and additional partnership activations that will be unveiled in the coming months.
Here are the results from the Fastlane 2019 pay-per-view which took place last night from the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.
The New Day defeated Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev in the Kickoff match; The Usos defeated Shane McMahon and The Miz to retain the Smackdown Tag Team titles; Asuka defeated Mandy Rose to retain the Smackdown Women’s title; The Bar defeated Kofi Kingston in a handicap match; The Revival defeated Chad Gable and Bobby Roode and Aleister Black and Ricochet in a triple threat match to retain the Raw Tag Team titles; Samoa Joe defeated Rey Mysterio, Andrade, and R-Truth in a fatal four-way match to retain the U.S. title; Sasha Banks and Bayley defeated Nia Jax and Tamina to retain the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles; Daniel Bryan defeated Kevin Owens and Mustafa Ali in a triple threat match to retain the WWE title; Becky Lynch defeated Charlotte Flair via disqualification to earn her place back in the Raw Women’s title match at WrestleMania; The Shield defeated Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre, and Bobby Lashley.
The card had some changes to it, with Mustafa Ali added to the WWE title match, Andrade vs Mysterio removed from the Kickoff match, the U.S. title match addition, and The Bar vs Kofi.
With nine matches on the card, seven of which on the main pay-per-view, the Fastlane show offers a lot of betting possibilities. Today we take a look at all the matches and the favorites to win according to online gambling sites.
WWE champion Daniel Bryan remains the favorite to walk out of Cleveland with the WWE title with his odds at 2/7 while his opponent Kevin Owens is at 5/2.
The Smackdown Women’s champion Asuka is at 1/7 favorite to retain her title with Mandy Rose at 4/1 for the major upset. The other title match involving the women sees Bayley and Sasha Banks 1/5 favorites to keep the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles against Nia Jax and Tamina whose odds are 10/3.
While you’re thinking what odds to play, you can also check out BeastsOfPoker for some poker play.
Both the Raw and Smackdown Tag Team titles are on the line at Fastlane. The Usos are 1/8 favorites to keep the Smackdown Tag Team titles over The Miz and Shane McMahon who are at 9/2 and over at the red brand, The Revival will defend against Black and Ricochet and Roode and Gable in a triple threat match. The champs have 4/9 odds and are the favorites while the NXT stars are 2/1 and Roode and Gable are far behind at 8/1.
The Shield reunites possibly for the last time on pay-per-view and are 1/10 favorites to win against Corbin, Lashley, and McIntyre who are at 11/2. The other non-title match on the PPV is Becky vs Charlotte, with Becky 1/5 favorite to win and reclaiming her WrestleMania spot while Flair is at 10/3.
The two Kickoff matches have Andrade and The New Day both at 8/11 favorites to beat Rey Mysterio and Rusev and Nakamura who are 1/1 respectively.
FITE.TV, which airs most of the independent wrestling live broadcasts, has a special offer for 20 live events that will take place during WrestleMania weekend.
Instead of a price of $280 for all the live shows, FITE.TV is offering these shows for $119.99. These shows include the highly anticipated ROH/NJPW G1 Supercard from Madison Square Garden and shows from Impact Wrestling, House of Glory, WrestleCon, and others.
The schedule includes: April 3 – WrestlePro Does Funny Money; April 4 – Westside Extreme Wrestling, Destiny Wrestling, WrestleCon Supershow, DDT Pro Wrestling,
IMPACT Wrestling: United We Stand, Kaiju Big Battel; April 5 – WrestleCon US vs. The World, SHIMMER, Rev Pro Wrestling, WWN Super Show: Mercury Rising, Stardom Japanese Women’s Wrestling, Joey Ryan’s Penis Party; April 6 – Pro Wrestling Revolver: Pancakes and Pile Drivers, MoreThanMania.com 2019 Wrap up Party, House of Glory: Culture Clash 19, Drags and Dropkicks, ROH G1 Supercard: New York City, and WrestlePro vs. CZW.
The eighth episode of the fourth season of Total Bellas airs tonight on E! head-to-head with the Fastlane pay-per-view. The episode title is Road to Evolution.
The synopsis for tonight’s episode reads, “With the first ever women’s pay-per-view just weeks away, Nicole and Ronda Rousey’s publicized in-ring feud sparks a fire in Nicole that she’s never felt before. Meanwhile, Brie drops a bombshell on her sister and her family with some news nobody saw coming.”
Live tonight from the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, WWE presents Fastlane 2019 on pay-per-view and WWE Network. The full card is as follows:
Daniel Bryan vs Kevin Owens for the WWE title; Asuka vs Mandy Rose for the Smackdown Women’s title; The Usos vs The Miz and Shane McMahon for the Smackdown Tag Team titles; The Revival vs Chad Gable and Bobby Roode vs Aleister Black and Ricochet in a triple threat tag match for the Raw Tag Team titles; Sasha Banks and Bayley vs Nia Jax and Tamina for the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles; Charlotte Flair vs Becky Lynch with the stipulation being that if Lynch wins she is added to the Raw Women’s title match at WrestleMania; The Shield vs Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre, and Bobby Lashley; Rey Mysterio vs Andrade in the Kickoff match; and The New Day vs Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev in the Kickoff match.
Fastlane is also free for first-time subscribers to the WWE Network. To start your 30-day trial go to http://w-o.it/wwentwrk.
For international viewers, Fastlane will start an hour earlier due to the United States already moving their clocks forward by an hour.
Hulk Hogan is back in the good graces of WWE and the WWE Hall of Famer is now eyeing a more active role within the company for WrestleMania 36. The Hulkster, who is from Tampa, kicked off the festivities earlier this week to announce that WrestleMania is coming to Tampa next year.
The Tampa Bay Times caught up with Hogan after the event to ask him what his future role with the company will be. Hogan admitted that he’s not really sure what he’ll be doing because he certainly can’t wrestle anymore but Vince “has this master plan.”
“And I don’t mind being the hood ornament, and I don’t mind being the Babe Ruth of the promotion, but Vince is putting together a whole new thing. I still feel like I’m 20 in my head, but my body’s telling me, ‘Easy, brother.’ I’m not sure what the title is, but hopefully really soon I’ll be back and really, really active,” Hogan said.
In the same interview, Hogan also discusses the deaths of King Kong Bundy and his long-time friend Mean Gene Okerlund.
Former WWE manager Yusuke “Wally” Yamaguchi passed away at age 60.
He is best known in America for managing the Kai En Tai group in 1998 and for that unforgettable cliffhanger segment on Raw when he uttered the words “I choppy choppy your pee pee” to Val Venis in an attempt to take out Venis’ genitals following a storyline which involved Yamaguchi’s on-screen wife.
Apart from his few years work with WWE in the late 90s, Yamaguchi was very active in the Japanese wrestling scene.
In December 2017, he suffered a major stroke and was a touch-and-go at one point however recovery took a while because the stroke effected the right side of his body.
His brother Shunsuke Yamaguchi currently does commentary for the Japanese feeds of WWE pay-per-views for the WWE Network along with Funaki.
Episode seven of the fourth season of Total Bellas began right where the previous episode left off. Nikki Bella was on a date set up by her sister Brie with Bachelorette alumni, Peter. The couple seemed to be having a great time having ridden a gondola as well as sampled wine from Nicole’s wine label, and had a fireside dinner.
Peter must’ve thought that the date was going pretty well, because he leaned in to give Nicole a kiss, even after Nicole had expressed that she hadn’t kissed a man other than her ex-fiancé, WWE Superstar, John Cena in six years. Any romantic notions that Peter may have had were quickly put to rest as Nicole shrieked “No!”.
Peter quickly found that it would be the better part of valor to apologize and move on. However, he still seemed to hold out hope that Nicole would choose to go out on a date with him again, because he sent her black licorice, her favorite candy, soon afterward. So, perhaps there will be love in Nicole’s future after all.
Meanwhile, Nicole’s sister, Brie, was dealing with some drama of her own, as usual.
Anyone who has paid attention to episodes of Total Bellas and its sister show, Total Divas, in recent years knows that Brie’s husband is extremely environmentally conscious. He even went so far as to suggest that their daughter, Birdie, wear cloth diapers thereby cutting down on the family’s use of non-biodegradable products.
However, it seems that lately since becoming parents the couple’s consumption of plastics and cardboard has increased dramatically causing the environmentally-concerned Bryan to almost double his amount of anxiety. He was upset by the fact that, while grocery shopping, Brie chose to grab a package of pre-sliced watermelon rather than buying a large melon and cutting it into slices herself. He also seemed disproportionately upset at Brie’s efforts to purchase frozen dinners in cardboard boxes. While I understand that Daniel is extremely concerned with how his actions will effect the future of this planet, I also feel that he was being a little too harsh on Brie especially considering their hectic schedules, and parenting responsibilities.
Brie allayed Bryan’s fears by having the whole family participate in a beach cleanup of their community of San Diego. Hopefully, this will allay the champion’s fears about about not setting a good example for his daughter. However, Bryan wasn’t the only one dealing with major stress in this episode, Brie had her own issues to stress over as well.
Both of the Bella Twins were asked to participate in the first ever women only pay-per-view, Evolution. After Brie accidentally injured fellow Superstar Liv Morgan, it seems that the powers that be at WWE had second thoughts about placing her in such a prominent position. Instead, they gave the main event spot to her sister, Nicole, and demoted Brie to a spot as Nicole’s valet. This understandably upset Brie because a valet’s position is something usually reserved for less experienced wrestlers.
Furthermore, it must have been incredibly embarrassing for Brie to be forced to essentially be her sister’s cheerleader instead of wrestling with her. However, Nicole didn’t seem to understand Brie’s distress. So, Brie decided to teach Nicole a lesson. She enlisted the help of her stepfather, John Laurinaitis to play a prank on Nicole by announcing to her that the main event plans had been changed and Brie would now have the spotlight. Nicole became incensed, that is until Brie let her in on the joke. Nicole eventually understood but wasn’t too pleased with her sister’s deception. Even though the sisterly pranks are sometimes mean, they sure make for excellent drama on Total Bellas.
The Fastlane card features nine matches in total tomorrow but today we will take a look at the betting odds for the top three matches on the card with the full card featured tomorrow.
The WWE title will be on the line with Daniel Bryan taking on the returning Kevin Owens, who replaces Kofi Kingston just because Vince McMahon said so. Bryan is the favorite to retain the title at 1/4 while Owens is at 11/4.
The Shield reunites possibly for the last time on pay-per-view tomorrow due to the soon-to-be departing Dean Ambrose. In his first match in nearly five months, Roman Reigns and his partners Ambrose and Rollins are the favorites with 1/8 odds while their opponents, the trio of Corbin, Lashley, and McIntyre are at 9/2.
Meanwhile, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair will go one-on-one with some serious stipulations: Becky wins, she goes to WrestleMania and gets in on a triple threat match for the Raw Women’s title. Charlotte wins, Becky gets nothing at WrestleMania. Becky is currently at 1/6 favorite in the odds while Flair is at a distant 7/2.
Raw Women’s champion Ronda Rousey seems to be having a ball being a heel and had fun taking jabs at Canada after the non-televised live event in Toronto yesterday.
Rousey main evented the show against Ruby Riott in a match that obviously Ronda won. During the match, Rousey kept taking digs at fans and insulting them while at one point she even crotch chopped the crowd to massive boos.
After the show was over, Rousey was in a car and was mobbed by fans. She was laughing and asking the fans what more bad things she can say about their country. At one point someone reached in the car and tried to touch Rousey and she promptly replied with, “Don’t you f***ing touch me!”
Rousey’s car was stuck in traffic getting out of the arena which allowed fans to surround her car and interact with the Raw Women’s champion.
Ronda turned heel on Raw this past Monday and then recorded an f-bomb-filled video taking shots at WWE and its fans.
PWInsider.com is reporting that Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson turned down multi-million dollar deals that would see them stay with WWE after their current deal expires in September.
The former Bullet Club members came in with a lot of hype in 2016 but with typical WWE booking, they failed to keep the momentum going for the duo and after an initial run with AJ Styles as The Club, they faded into mid-card territory and sometimes not even appearing at all on WWE television.
PWInsider also adds that with discussions breaking down between all parties involved, both Gallows and Anderson have been taken off the live events schedule until further notice.
With the resurgence of the independent scene, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and the arrival of All Elite Wrestling, wrestlers who are unhappy in WWE are now more comfortable not signing new deals or asking for their release, something which was unheard of a couple of years ago.
WWE missed the boat big time with Gallows and Anderson and their departure from WWE would mean a great opportunity for the next company that lands their talent.
Impact Wrestling announced today that it has partnered with Tried-N-True Pro (TNT Pro) for Salute to the Troops, a live event on April 12 at Fort Campbell Army Post in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, free for all military personnel and their families.
Salute to the Troops will premiere exclusively on Impact Wrestling’s Twitch channel at Twitch.tv/impactwrestling on May 11 at 8PM EST. The event, which will be held in collaboration with MWR (Morale, Welfare and Recreation) of Fort Campbell Army Installation, will be free to over 1,000 active military and their families. The show will begin on April 12 at 6PM EST.
“We are proud to partner with TNT Pro and Fort Campbell Army Installation for this special event, as we honor our servicemen and women and their families,” said Ed Nordholm, president of Impact Wrestling. “We intend to provide a memorable evening of entertainment, serving as a well-deserved morale booster for these brave men and women.”
“As a United States Army Veteran, it has been my goal since Tried-N-True Pro’s inception in 2015 to bring live professional wrestling to the soldiers and families of Fort Campbell Army Installation,” said TNT Pro promoter and producer Anthony “Crimson” Mayweather. “Speaking from experience, I know that live entertainment is very important and can be a key factor in elevating morale within the soldier and their family members. It’s an honor to be able to provide that entertainment for these brave men and women. We are very proud and excited to forge a partnership with Fort Campbell MWR and IMPACT Wrestling to produce this special event.”
Salute to the Troops will be free to DoD ID card holders. ID is required to claim tickets to the event. Soldiers and their family members, military retirees and their family members and DOD civilians who work on post and their families will all be admitted. More ticket information is available at TriedNTruePro.com, including tickets for the general public.
In honor of Women’s Day, Twitter released a list of the ten most mentioned sportswomen on Twitter and six of them are all WWE Superstars.
Taking the number one spot was Serena Williams, followed by the Irish Lass Kicker Becky Lynch in second and another tennis player, Naomi Osaka rounded up the top three. Ronda Rousey, Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, and Alexa Bliss were in fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh place respectively. Gymnast Simone Biles is in eighth place, South Korean figure skater Yuna Kim is in ninth, and Nia Jax wraps up the list in tenth place.
It’s no surprise that the list is dominated by WWE Superstars considering how active they are on the social media network and the amount of followers they accumulate being on television every single week.
WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett has already gotten somewhat of a promotion within WWE as PWInsider.com is now reporting that he has been added to the WWE creative team.
Jarrett started working for the WWE again during the Royal Rumble weekend and after a few on-screen appearances, he started his job as a backstage producer.
His hiring was one of the several that WWE did over the past few months, bringing back former Superstars to assume the roles of backstage producers.
For Jarrett, his addition to the creative team is a major turnaround in the relationship between him and WWE. PWInsider adds that Jarrett spent several days at WWE Headquarters in Stamford pending his addition to the creative team.
The report, written by Mike Johnson, states that Paul Heyman is also helping in creative specifically with storylines related to Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey. Bruce Prichard, who got a Senior Vice President role, had been working with the creative team as well.
As some gambling sites anticipated, in an explosive rant on her latest YouTube series, Raw Women’s champion Ronda Rousey unleashed an f-bomb-filled attack on WWE fans as her heel turn looks to be 100% complete.
Rousey had a lot to say about the Los Angeles crowd at the Survivor Series and the next night on Raw which pretty much turned on her from the get go. Calling the LA crowd “a bunch of people who are f***ing transplants,” Rousey said that those people are not really from Los Angeles and they have no pride in the city where she had lived for the past 10 years.
She also addressed her actions from Raw this past week saying she warned Lynch that she was going to “beat the f*** out of her” for what she said about her husband and that’s what she did. She claimed that her segment was supposed to be different with WWE giving her a different script but she did otherwise. “They gave me other things to say and I didn’t f***ing say it,” Rousey continued.
She then said that she is not going to be acting anymore and from now on, she will be doing whatever the hell she wants and they can explain her actions however they want because “f*** them…everybody, including the WWE Universe.”
Reminding everyone that wrestling is scripted and not real, she then had one final parting shot. “None of these bitches can f***ing touch me. The end.”
One thing is for sure…there will be no more smiling Ronda Rousey on WWE screens.
WWE will be throwing a watch party for Fastlane this Sunday titled WWE Watch Along, which will live stream on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
Hosted by Pat McAfee and joined by Alexa Bliss, The New Day, Mustafa Ali, The IIconics, Natalya, Beth Phoenix, Christian and Cathy Kelley, Watch Along will feature candid commentary from the guests and live reactions from the Superstars.
McAfee recently signed a two-year deal with WWE which will allow him to continue doing NXT Takeover panels as well as doing original content for WWE’s digital platforms.
