Former American Ninja Warrior Kacy Catanzaro made her non-televised NXT debut two nights ago in Sanford, Florida in a losing effort against Reina González.
Catanzaro pulled off some impressive moves thanks to her athletic ability and it’s very obvious that if she continues her training she will be one of the leading women in NXT in the future.
The 28-year-old signed a WWE deal in August of 2017 and started her full-time training at the Performance Center four months ago. She was the first woman to qualify for the finals of American Ninja Warrior and the first and is the first and only woman to complete a City Finals course so far.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson made one of his big fans very happy this week and while he had to turn down her offer to go to prom with her, he sure made up for his schedule conflict.
Katie Kelzenberg tweeted a video to The Rock asking him to go to prom with her. She was dressed in the famous black polo neck, blue jeans, and fanny pack outfit that Johnson usually makes fun of from when he was just starting out.
Johnson said that he would be filming Jungle Cruise in Hawaii when the prom takes place and unfortunately couldn’t do it but he did something special for Kelzenberg anyway. Johnson rented a 232-seat theater in her home town and told Katie it’s all for her and her family and friends so they can enjoy a special screening of Rampage. “And all the free popcorn, candy and soda high school kids can consume! You’re money’s no good Katie… everything is on Uncle DJ,” he said.
Not only that, the Stillwater Area High School in Oak Park Heights where Kalzenberg goes to school played The Rock’s message to Katie on the PA system so the whole school heard the message!
One more reason why The Rock is the coolest dude in Hollywood and sports entertainment!
Impact Wrestling yesterday on POP did 373,000 viewers, down just 8,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. It’s the third most-watched episode of 2018 so far. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
A video from inside the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah has surfaced, showing the current stage of the construction of the set that will be part of the Greatest Royal Rumble event.
More layers have been added to the arched stage compared to the pictures released yesterday from the construction and now the platform is also up but the ramp has not been installed yet. Since this is an outdoor stadium, the ring will be covered by a canopy and four steel pillars on each corner to support it. A big logo of the event on white background is also seen which will probably serve as the top of the canopy.
Construction for the stage for this event started earlier than what is normally the timeframe for a WrestleMania stage setup.
Ricochet paid tribute to The Rock last night at the non-televised live event in Washington, DC., and the People’s Champion was quick to return the favor and put him over.
While wrestling the Velveteen Dream, Ricochet gave him a spine buster and then set him up for the people’s elbow exactly like The Rock used to do as the crowd went “Oooooh!”
As Ricochet ran the ropes and was ready to drop the elbow, he did a spin on his leg and instead hit a standing moonsault to a big ovation from the crowd.
When it was pointed out to The Rock what he did, Johnson was quick to reply and put over Ricochet as a future wrestling champion.
“He’s the man! Love the stuff King is doing and will no doubt be the leader in ushering in a new era of our wrestling business. Future champ,” The Rock wrote on his Twitter.
WWE Hall of Famer Booker T will be returning to his commentary position on Monday Night Raw next week, replacing Jonathan Coachman who in turn will be doing commentary for the Golf Channel and the 2018 World Long Drive “Clash in the Canyon” events.
Booker T uploaded a video saying he’ll be back on Raw and when Coachman was asked about it on Twitter, he first acted surprised as if he didn’t know but then spilled the beans on the agreement.
“When I left ESPN my vision was to try and bring different, diverse groups of people together with a common love of sports and sports entertainment. This is first step. It’s about fun and enjoyment. Very simple. Everybody wins,” Coach wrote on Twitter.
Coach said he loves having the chance to challenge himself and try something new and he has been talking about this event for months and Booker was aware of this when he returned to take his spot.
Booker will probably replace Coach when the tournament is broadcast on the Golf Channel and right now those dates include May 14 and 15, June 4 and 5, August 12 and 13 and August 30 through September 5.
The Coach will be back at the Raw broadcast booth for the show in Montreal on April 30.
Funeral services for WWE Hall of Famer Bruno Sammartino have been set for tomorrow and Sunday.
Visitors will be received this weekend at the John A. Freyvogel Sons Funeral Home which is located at 4900 Centre Avenue in Pittsburgh from 2PM to 4PM and from 6PM to 8PM.
The actual funeral and burial will be held on Monday morning at 10 at the St. Sebastian Roman Catholic Church located at 311 Siebert Road. While the funeral is public, the burial will be a private event.
“The Sammartino family would like to thank the physicians, nurses and staff of UPMC Passavant for the compassionate care that Bruno has always received,” a statement from the family on the funeral home website read. A guestbook has been opened here.
The wrestling legend died on Wednesday morning at the age of 82.
A man who was shot outside the WWE Performance Center three years ago by cops after constantly harassing a female wrestler at the time is back in the news after WWE got an emergency restraining order against him.
TMZ is reporting that last month, the man whose name is Armando Montalvo showed up at an NXT non-televised live event and harassed WWE staff screaming obscenities at them.
Then, on April 4, Montalvo posted an Instagram post threatening WWE Superstars and staff and that’s when WWE went to court to get the restraining order which was granted. Montalvo has also threatened to use his own semen in a biological attack on WWE properties in the area. The 32-year-old smeared his own feces all over the walls of the WWE Performance Center three years ago as well.
The deranged individual continues to post crazy Instagram videos on his account that will certainly not help his case if he gets in trouble with the law.
PWInsider.com is reporting that John Gaburick has returned to work for WWE after leaving Impact Wrestling at the end of last year.
Gaburick had a four-and-a-half-year stint with Impact Wrestling, having joined the company in June 2013 just a month after he left WWE. Prior to joining Impact, he worked for 13 years with WWE where he was in production and was also seen on-screen in the early Tough Enough seasons.
While at Impact, “Big” Gaburick oversaw management and production of television, marketing and advertising production, special projects and digital assets. He later also was in charge of creative and talent and just like Jeremy Borash, he was one of the main men backstage at Impact. His role greatly decreased once Anthem took over the company and was then relegated to just a consultant position.
Upon his return to WWE, Gaburick was sent to Saudi Arabia where he is working on pre-production for the Greatest Royal Rumble event.
Construction workers inside the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium have already started assembling the massive stage for the Greatest Royal Rumble event which will take place on Friday, April 27.
The leaked photos from the stadium shows two cranes putting up a huge metal arch that is so big that it will reach the second tier of the stadium in terms of height. This will serve as the entrance stage with a long ramp to the ring similar to that used for WrestleMania.
WWE will be traveling to Saudi Arabia only for the show and it will be a tiring two weeks for the Raw brand especially since they are currently in South Africa on tour and will head out to Saudi after the television tapings next week.
You can see the photos from inside the stadium below.
After recently returning to Impact Wrestling, Tyrus has once again quit the company citing creative differences for his latest departure.
“I have been a part Impact Wrestling worked with a lot good people and for the most part enjoyed my time. Having said that… as I’ve grown … they well…. ummm,” he wrote in a post on Instagram.
“Change is good and there definitely have been a lot of changes and today after much contemplation it time for me to move on from Impact. Creatively we just don’t see eye to eye on anything and I beat EC3, so I’m good… I wish them well in there future endeavors,” the post continued.
Tyrus quit Impact in August 2017 after a three-year stint with the company and blamed them for treating him like “a second class citizen.”
He returned to Impact during the January tapings of this year.
A graphic promoting the Greatest Royal Rumble on the WWE Network website features the likes of Rey Mysterio, The Great Khali, WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry, and Shane McMahon as appearing on the show.
The Undertaker is front and center on the graphic with John Cena, Braun Strowman, AJ Styles, Randy Orton, and Bobby Roode to his left and Triple H, Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns and The New Day to his right.
The row behind them features The Great Khali, Chris Jericho, Matt Hardy, Jef Hardy, Bray Wyatt, Daniel Bryan, Kurt Angle, Rey Mysterio, Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Lashley, Finn Balor, The Miz, Seth Rollins, Samoa Joe, and Kevin Owens.
The next row has The Usos, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, Shane McMahon, Dolph Ziggler, Mark Henry, Cesaro, Big Show, Sheamus, Baron Corbin, Luke Harper, Erick Rowan, Elias, Jinder Mahal, and Apollo Crews.
The final top row has Breezango, Cedric Alexander, Heath Slater, Rhyno, Rusev, Sin Cara, Titus O’Neil, Zack Ryder, Chad Gable, Shelton Benjamin, Goldust, The Revival, Mojo Rawley, Big Cass, Bo Dallas, Curtis Axel, and Kalisto.
Barring any surprises, this will be the full crew that will travel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to perform inside the 60,000-seater King Abdullah Sports City Stadium next Friday. The show will be airing live worldwide on the WWE Network starting at Noon EST.
Apart from the 50-man Royal Rumble match, seven WWE title matches will also take place. Unfortunately, due to the strict laws in the country, the WWE women will not be part of the show.
Spike TV in the United Kingdom and Impact Wrestling have renewed their television deal which will see Spike continue airing Impact every Friday at 11PM local time.
The show will now also be available on-demand for free every week on the Global Wrestling Network app at the same time it airs in the United States, which is 1AM Friday.
Their original deal was announced in March of last year and was effective starting April 21. The new agreement announcement does not specify if it is another one-year deal or a multi-year deal.
Impact also announced that the Redemption pay-per-view will not be airing on the channel but the show will be available to UK subscribers of the Global Wrestling Network next week.
The news of the death of Bruno Sammartino made headlines around the world with major news outlets covering the story including from his native country of Italy.
The Pittsburgh Steelers, the Penguins and the mayor of Pittsburgh also sent in their condolences via messages on Twitter and the Mayor website.
“The Pittsburgh Steelers organization is deeply saddened by the passing of the great Bruno Sammartino. Bruno was truly a world-renowned champion who never lost his identify of a true Pittsburgh, always placing his family and friends ahead of any personal accomplishments. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his wife, Carol, and sons David, Danny and Darryl,” a statement from Steelers General Manager Kevin Colbert read.
The Pittsburgh Penguins also issued a small statement through their social media, writing, “We are saddened to learn of the passing of Pittsburgh wrestling legend Bruno Sammartino. Our thoughts are with his family, friends, and the Pittsburgh sports community.”
The Mayor of Pittsburgh William Peduto released a statement on the pittsburghpa.gov official website which read, “Bruno Sammartino was one of the greatest ambassadors the city of Pittsburgh ever had. Like so many of us, his immigrant family moved here to build a new life, and through his uncommon strength and surprising grace he embodied the spirit of Pittsburgh on the world stage. Some of the fondest memories of my childhood are of sitting in the basement with my grandfather on Saturday afternoons and watching Bruno wrestle. They both came from the same part of Italy, and when my grandfather – who was five-foot-eight – would watch Bruno wrestle he became six-feet-ten. I consider it a great personal honor that Bruno and I later became friends. I join all other Pittsburgh residents in saying ‘Thank you, Bruno’ and we will miss you.”
Meanwhile, the Madison Square Garden Twitter account also paid tribute to the former WWWF champion and had an in-memoriam graphic yesterday on the big screen. “Today is a sad day for wrestling and sports fans. Simply put, Bruno Sammartino was one of the biggest stars in the long and storied history of Madison Square Garden, a legend in every way. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family today and always,” the tweet said.
Night two of the Superstar Shake-Up on Smackdown did a total of 2,796,000 viewers, down 156,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. It’s the third most-watched Smackdown of 2018 so far.
NBA playoffs once again probably left a small dent in viewership. Smackdown was #3 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and #5 in overall viewership. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
In what could be an encouraging sign when it comes to ticket sales for the Greatest Royal Rumble event in Jeddah, the WWE.SA website has stopped selling tickets and all five price points now have the “will be available later” note next to them.
The Gold section was the first one to go much to no surprise since tickets were 100 SAR – around $80 – for tickets which also include refreshments and food. Only families were allowed to purchase these tickets.
One of the two Singles section was then made unavailable and tickets for the upper and lower sections for single individuals went for dirt cheap, just 10 SAR and 20 SAR which are $2.67 and $5.33 respectively.
The outdoor King Abdullah Sports City stadium, also nicknamed The Shining Jewel, was opened in 2014 at a cost of $560 million and seats just over 62,000 people.
It’s not clear how many tickets WWE sold for this show yet and more could be released before the show next week.
Streaming giant Netflix today announced that the second season of GLOW will be uploaded in full on Friday, June 29.
Season 2 follows the women of GLOW as they become local celebrities, confronting the good, the bad, and the ugly realities of their newfound fame. As Ruth (Alison Brie) and Debbie (Betty Gilpin) settle into the day-to-day of making a season of TV together, they confront lingering issues at the heart of their friendship. Sam (Marc Maron) is still Sam, but now he has a teenage daughter living with him and twenty episodes to churn out. The wrestling is harder, the stakes are higher, and the hair is even bigger.
The whole cast returns for the show which received fantastic reviews from viewers and critics when it came out last year.
I have been writing for this sheet off-and-on (well, mostly off) since 2001. During that time, I was acquainted with Chris Bernes, who penned last week’s guest column. Chris had a lot of good things to say about the two main events on last Sunday’s WrestleMania. If I’m being honest, it was one of the best ‘Manias I’ve seen in quite some time. My ol’ pal Bernes pointed out lots of things WWE did well, both from a ringwork perspective and a company perspective. There were some things to be praised about both of those matches.
Then again, there were things about those matches that absolutely sucked.
WWE hyped Styles/Nakamura to be a dream match. Over and over again. Smart fans were looking for a match something akin to their classic encounters in Japan. Younger viewers didn’t know what to expect, but they likely were intelligent enough to spot two first-rate workers who were ready, willing, and able to tear the house down. Finally, we were going to see a Japanese-quality wrestling main event on American television!
…Or not.
Don’t get me wrong. The match was good, but it was only slightly higher quality than a standard Smackdown match. And, most certainly, it was nowhere close to the caliber “smart” fans were expecting based off of their previous match in Japan. Frankly, WWE missed a huge opportunity here. Perhaps they were pressed for time (after all, the show was longer than any in recent memory – it may go down as the longest). We certainly can’t say that they half-assed the match – Styles and Nakamura are two of the hardest-working, most consistent workers wrestling today.
Whatever the case, the match was a huge letdown. But Shinsuke/Styles’ disappointing outing pales in comparison to the mind-numbing stupidity we witnessed in the RAW main event.
Let’s start with the fact that we have BEYOND a part-time wrestler. Lesnar has defended the universal title a grand total of ten times since winning it. Before you say “Hey, that’s not so bad!”, that’s not accounting for the fact that four of those defenses were on live tours that weren’t televised. So, that means he’s defended it on 50% of the scheduled Pay Per Views. Beyond that, he has appeared (not necessarily wrestled on) 22 of the 52 RAW episodes since WrestleMania.
But that’s just the tip of the colossal dung heap of an iceberg that is Brock Lesnar.
The only thing worse than having a part-timer in your top spot is having your title on said title in the top spot. Today, fans want to see the champion on TV. As a brand, WWE isn’t doing itself any favors by not having its top guy on TV every week. Fans want to see the champion.
Back in 2004, Vince was trapped into a corner because his champion was about to leave to do something else. One of the reasons why he decided to trust John Cena so much is because he didn’t want to be put in a position where the top champion wasn’t on TV every week and was getting ready to go and try his hand at football.
Sound familiar? Yep. Vince has put himself in the exact same situation. Whatever. He has no one to blame for this mess than himself.
And then, there’s Roman Reigns.
For years, Vince McMahaon has tried to push Roman Reigns for years now. And, before Daniel Bryan caught fire, it seemed like it would have been possible. Ever since he was pushed instead of Bryan, the crowd has booed and hissed at Reigns without relent. Prior to WrestleMania, in an effort to build Roman as the sympathetic babyface with the fans, Vince subjected Roman to several beatdowns at the hands of Brock Lesnar. I’ll admit, the angles were so well done that I thought the tactic would work.
It didn’t.
Rather than course-correct the situation, Vince steamrolled ahead with the Roman-as-a-sympathetic-babyface masterplan. What followed was the most awkward WrestleMania main event since 2004 which, ironically enough, also featured Lesnar.
The environment of the match was awkward. It was terrible. Atrocious. Despite great performances by all parties involved, the match was over before it began because, at this point, fans had run out of give-a-damn. The match was a foregone conclusion – fans already knew that Lesnar was dropping the title before he began a bid to return to UFC.
But he won! It was the swerve to end all swerves. Except it wasn’t. Vince McMahon, to mitigate a negative fan reaction on the most important show of the year, caved to the wishes of a minority of fans and held the title off of Reigns. Months of angles, solid build, and a good effort to build Roman as the sympathetic babyface…for what?
Now, we’re in a situation where Brock has reportedly signed a short-term extension to his current deal so that he can drop the title to Reigns in Saudi Arabia (available to Network subscribers for just $9.99). But what then? Will Reigns return home to the United States as the conquering hero? Of course not. Fans will boo him out of the building like they have done countless times, and the work that Vince McMahon did to rebuild Roman’s character in the eyes of fans will be all for naught.
What a mess.
WrestleMania was a great show, with some great matches and great work ethics. But it was as great show with show-runners that made some really, really dumbass choices when it came to their main events. There were certainly others, like unnecessary swerve endings of the Women’s Battle Royal, or the masterful killing of suspense by putting the tag titles on a 12-year-old kid, only to drop them the next night.
I’m not sure what the writers were thinking when they booked these things. In the end, though, it’s all Vince’s fault. But that’s a story for another day.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: A longtime wrestling fan, Jon was a regular columnist for Wrestling-Online from 2001-2007. In addition to his love for professional wrestling and video games, he is a teacher who enjoys spending time with family and friends.
Superstar Billy Graham ripped Ronda Rousey a new one in a post on his Facebook page yesterday, labeling her as a “UFC failure” and a “jobber.”
The WWE Hall of Famer said that he finds it insulting that she’s using Piper’s gimmick and that shows that she does not have “an original thought in her head” and also shows “how shallow” she is.
Graham addressed the rumors that there were some thinking of having Triple H submit to the armbar at WrestleMania 34 during the mixed tag team match which, according to Graham, “would have been received as well as a cement truck full of pig sh*t” being dumped on fans inside the Superdome.
“RR is not a god of some kind but a mere female and UFC failure that got her flat ass kicked twice on the way out. Now this is nauseating. I demand that you fans respond to this crap the WWE is trying to lay on you by even thinking about her making HHH tap out, God this makes me sick,” he added.
Despite signing a WWE Legends deal in 2015, Graham has been a frequent critic of the company and holds nothing back when it comes to bashing them.
The wrestling world is in mourning after news broke that Hall of Famer Bruno Sammartino passed away earlier today at the age of 82.
Thousands of tweets with condolences and thoughts about Sammartino took over Twitter during the day, making his name the top trending worldwide with nearly 30,000 Twitter mentions as of this writing. Tons of former and current WWE Superstars also paid their respect to the wrestling legend.
Vince McMahon, who rarely uses the platform, tweeted, “One of the finest men I knew, in life and in business. Bruno Sammartino proved that hard work can overcome even the most difficult of circumstances. He will be missed.”
Triple H, who was the man behind bringing Sammartino back to WWE in 2013, wrote, “Devastated to hear the passing of a true icon, legend, great, honest and wonderful man… A true friend…and one of the toughest people I’ve ever met. My thoughts are with his entire family.”
Sammartino was a very vocal critic of the company and Vince McMahon throughout the years after he left in 1988 but a very determined Triple H made it his mission to ease the pain and anger that Sammartino had towards WWE and extended a hand of friendship to the former WWWF champion. After months and months of talks, Sammartino finally agreed to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013 and there was no better place to do it other than an arena he performed in and headlined numerous times: Madison Square Garden.
A year later, WWE unveiled a bronze statue of Sammartino during WrestleMania Axxess, one of the five that WWE has done over the years along with that of Andre The Giant, the Ultimate Warrior, Dusty Rhodes, and Ric Flair.
