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A look at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, the home of WrestleMania 34

By
Colin Vassallo
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Built in 1975, the Mercedes-Benz Superdome will be hosting its second WrestleMania, following their very successful first one in 2014 which was headlined by Daniel Bryan vs Batista vs Randy Orton for the WWE title.

The facility is not a newbie when it comes to hosting major sporting events and have previously played host to the Super Bowl, the College Football Championship Game, and the Final Four in college basketball. The Rolling Stones, Prince, George Michael, Pink Floyd, Guns N’ Roses, Celine Dion, U2, Rihanna, and many other entertainers also hosted concerts inside the facility.

With a cost of $134 million to construct back in the 70s (or $609 million in today’s money!), the Super Dome also underwent renovations especially in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina swept through the state. The Superdome was used as a shelter for those who were unable to evacuate New Orleans and a large section of the outer covering was peeled off by high winds. The Superdome was closed until September 25, 2006, where it underwent a $185 million renovation to repair the damage.

The New Orleans Saints NFL team are the permanent residents of the stadium and have been since it opened in 1975.

For WrestleMania XXX, WWE packed in 75,167 fans. The Superdome can hold up to 76,468 fans in a football setting.

NXT Takeover: New Orleans report

By
W-O Staff
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A hot ladder match saw NXT crown their first ever North American champion, but the rest of the card largely struggled to follow it as Takeover raised the curtain on WrestleMania weekend.

Continue

Alberto El Patron fired from Impact Wrestling

By
Colin Vassallo
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Impact Wrestling today announced that Alberto El Patron has been fired from the company after he failed to show up for last nights Impact vs Lucha Underground event.

“IMPACT Wrestling announced today that it has terminated its agreement with Alberto El Patron, effective immediately,” a statement from the company read.

El Patron attended the Redemption press conference earlier in the day to promote his main event match against Austin Aries on April 22.

That match is obviously not going to happen now and it will be interesting to see who steps in El Patron’s place.

List of traditional pay-per-view providers carrying WrestleMania 34

By
Colin Vassallo
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While not everyone has access to the WWE Network due to different issues, WrestleMania 34 will still be airing on traditional pay-per-view and is being carried by many broadcasters around the world.

Cable One, Cox Communications, DISH Network, InDemand, Knology, Mediacom, Optimum, RCN, Spectrum, Suddenlink, Verizon FIOS TV, and Comcast’s XFINITY will be carrying the show in the United States.

Sky Box Office in the United Kingdom, Foxtel in Australia, Sky Primafila in Italy, Sky Select in Germany, Bell TV, Sasktel, Shaw, and Viewers Choice in Canada, and many other countries will also carry the show.

For more information about your specific country go to wwe.com/shows/howtowatch.

You can get WrestleMania for free if you are a new subscriber to the WWE Network. Simply go to http://w-o.it/wwentwrk to activate your subscription and 30-day free trial.

WWE UK Championship tournament returning in June at the Royal Albert Hall

By
Colin Vassallo
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During this morning’s Business Partner Summit event held in New Orleans, Triple H announced that the United Kingdom Championship Tournament will return for two nights this summer on June 18 and 19. The tournament will take place from the beautiful Royal Albert Hall in South Kensington, London.

This is the second UK tournament following the highly successful first which was held in January 2017, a tournament which crowned Tyler Bate as the new WWE United Kingdom champion.

The Royal Albert Hall is one of the UK’s most famous arenas where major stars held concerts. It has been open since 1871 and WWE visited the arena once in October 1991, hosting the Battle Royal at the Royal Albert Hall, a live event broadcast on Sky and which was later released on VHS, DVD, and is now on the WWE Network.

WWE Network schedule for WrestleMania Sunday

By
Colin Vassallo
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If sitting for seven long hours watching WrestleMania is not enough for you, there’s always the 24/7 WWE Network feed tomorrow to get you in the mood for the big show. Here’s the full schedule for Sunday with all times in EST.

2AM – NXT Takeover: New Orleans preshow; 3AM – NXT Takeover: New Orleans; 5:30AM – Mixed Match Challenge final; 6AM – NXT Takeover: New Orleans; 8:30AM – 2018 Hall of Fame ceremony; 11:30AM – Photo Shoot with Kofi Kingston; 12PM – This week in WWE; 12:30PM – NXT Takeover: New Orleans; 3PM – WWE 24: Empowered; 4PM – WrestleMania’s Greatest Moments; 5PM – WrestleMania 34 Kickoff show; 7PM – WrestleMania 34.

To start your WWE Network subscription, go to http://w-o.it/wwentwrk.

First teaser trailer of Fighting With My Family movie about Paige and her family

By
Colin Vassallo
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A 75-second teaser of the upcoming movie Fighting With My Family which focuses on the life of Paige and her family was showcased yesterday during the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony.

The teaser sees Paige and her brother running into The Rock backstage at a WWE event and ask him what advice would he give them if they want to win over the crowd. The Rock then goes into his usual high-energy promo telling Paige that she looked like she hasn’t seen the sun in 20 years and his brother looking like he stepped out of Oliver Twist. When the end of the promo comes, The Rock tells them that that is how you win over a crowd.

The film features Florence Pugh as Paige, Jack Lowden as her brother Zac and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson playing himself. Lena Headey and Nick Frost play the role of Paige’s parents.

The MGM/WWE Studios movie is scheduled to be released later in 2018.

https://twitter.com/JackLowdenNews/status/982640870477500417

Mark Henry pleads with Martha Hart to let Owen in the Hall of Fame

By
Colin Vassallo
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A very emotional Mark Henry pleaded with Owen Hart’s widow Martha to clear the path for Owen to be in the WWE Hall of Fame.

Telling the cameraman to simply zoom on him for the message, Henry said, “Martha, please, this is not from the company, this is not from other wrestlers, this is from his other brother. He needs to be here.”

Fighting back tears, the former World Heavyweight champion continued, “And I hate that I haven’t kept up like I should have. I’d love to be able to look down one day and see Owen able to be among us, it’s his birth right.”

Mark Henry was not the only one who mentioned Owen Hart in his speech. Earlier in the broadcast, fellow Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett also recounted some Owen Hart stories.

Martha Hart has made it very clear that as long as she is alive, she would not let WWE honor her late husband in any way, shape, or form.

NXT Takeover: New Orleans live on WWE Network tonight

By
Colin Vassallo
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Live tonight from the Smoothie King Center, WWE presents NXT Takeover: New Orleans exclusively on the WWE Network. The full card is as follows:

Andrade “Cien” Almas vs Aleister Black for the NXT title; Ember Moon vs Shayna Baszler for the NXT Women’s title; The Undisputed Era vs The Authors of Pain vs Roderick Strong and Pete Dunne in a triple threat tag team match for the NXT Tag Team titles and Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic trophy; Tommaso Ciampa vs Johnny Gargano in an unsanctioned match; and Adam Cole vs EC3 vs Killian Dain vs Lars Sullivan vs Ricochet vs Velveteen Dream in a ladder match for the new NXT North American title.

NXT Takeover: New Orleans is available for free for first-time subscribers to the WWE Network. Simply go to http://w-o.it/wwentwrk to start your subscription now.

Alberto El Patron no-shows Impact vs Lucha Underground live show

By
Colin Vassallo
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Alberto El Patron no showed the Impact vs Lucha Underground show last night in New Orleans and was replaced in the main event. The main event was eventually changed to a triple threat match between Austin Aries, Fenix, and Pentagon Jr.

The original main event featured El Patron and Pentagon Jr. taking on Austin Aries and Rey Fenix but for some reason El Patron was nowhere to be seen and no explanation was given as to why he missed the show, which aired live on Twitch.

Earlier in the day, El Patron participated in a press conference with Austin Aries to promote the Impact Redemption pay-per-view.

The complete Impact vs Lucha Underground show from yesterday can be seen on Twitch for free.

Updated list of entrants for the two WrestleMania battle royals

By
Colin Vassallo
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WWE added more names to the two WrestleMania battle royals that will take place during the Kickoff show tomorrow night.

So far there are 19 men announced for the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal. They are Dash Wilder, Scott Dawson, Baron Corbin, Mojo Rawley, Tye Dillinger, Matt Hardy, Dolph Ziggler, Fandango, Tyler Breeze, Goldust, Heath Slater, Rhyno, Zack Ryder, Primo Colón, Kane, Curt Hawkins, Shelton Benjamin, Chad Gable, and Aiden English.

Only 14 women have since been announced, with Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, Liv Morgan, Naomi, Natalya, Ruby Riott, Sarah Logan, Bayley, Lana, Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, Mickie James, Carmella, and Dana Brooke all in the match.

WWE never gave out an actual number of how many people will be in the battle royal so it remains to be seen how many more individuals are added between today and tomorrow.

WWE women unveil the WrestleMania 34 stage

By
Colin Vassallo
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The unveiling of the WrestleMania stage was done today by six WWE women – Charlotte Flair, Carmella, Naomi, Alexa Bliss, Sasha Banks, and Asuka.

The women stood in the ring and after all six did their line, they pointed towards the stage where the Mercedes-Benz Superdome lit up in different colors, complete with indoor and outdoor fireworks.

The stage has a big circular WrestleMania logo in a different font and a massive masquerade mask that serves as the entrance. The theme of the colors is purple, green, yellow, and turquoise.

Once again, WWE has put up an impressive stage and it seems that fireworks will be back for this event.

You can see the stage unveiling below.

New tournaments and specials announced for the WWE Network

By
Colin Vassallo
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A new WWE Network commercial aired during the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony which gave a preview of what upcoming new shows will be airing over the next few months.

A second Mae Young Classic tournament for the women and a King of the Ring tournament in the United Kingdom were shown. The original Mae Young Classic and the WWE UK Championship tournament were big hits on the Network so it’s no surprise they’re adding them again.

The WWE 365 series will return focusing on the current WWE champion AJ Styles. This will be the second one in the series following the one on Kevin Owens. WWE 365 focuses on a year-long journey in the life of a WWE Superstar.

WWE 24 also has three new episodes lined up, one on the Hardy Boyz, one on the Raw 25th Anniversary special, and one on Ronda Rousey’s arrival in WWE.

Elias: Unplugged and Bruce Prichard’s popular podcast Something To Wrestle With were also announced coming to the WWE Network.

No specific dates were given on when these shows will eventually air.

Dave Bautista was considered for Ronda Rousey’s tag team partner

By
Colin Vassallo
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An unlikely name came up as a potential tag team partner for Ronda Rousey before Raw General Manager Kurt Angle got the gig: Dave Bautista.

Both the Wrestling Observer and Pro Wrestling Sheet are reporting that WWE held several discussions with Bautista over the match but things took a wild turn in January and Bautista heard nothing more from WWE after that.

The former champion last appeared in WWE in 2014 and has since gone on to have a successful movie career and will be appearing in the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War.

Bautista has made it no secret that he wants another run in WWE including participating in non-televised live events.

The original role was meant for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson since he was part of the angle with Rousey, Triple H, and Stephanie at WrestleMania 31. The Rock’s movie career however made it impossible for him to be part of the match.

Secondary market ticket prices for WWE shows this weekend

By
Colin Vassallo
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As it happens with every major event, there are thousands of tickets for all WWE shows this weekend on the secondary market as ticket scalpers try to make extra cash from reselling their purchased tickets. We scoured one particular ticket reseller website to see what’s available for this weekend.

Hall of Fame tickets for tonight start at $11, which is less than the cheapest priced tickets that were originally on sale. The most expensive one listed is $138 but there are floor seats from $46.

NXT Takeover: New Orleans tickets start from $47 and go all the way up to $374 for ringside seats. WrestleMania 34 tickets start from $53 for the “nosebleed” tickets and the highest-priced resale ticket is listed at $4,140 for ringside row 7.

Raw on Monday night start from $64 and go up to $487 although there are floor seats available starting from $259. Smackdown has tickets ranging from $15 to $329 for floor seats.

Impact rating for 04/05/2018

By
Colin Vassallo
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Impact last night on POP did a total of 294,000 viewers, down 105,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. The drop could be attributed to the fact that Impact’s first hour ran against the WrestleMania’s Greatest Moments show on USA Network which in itself did 746,000 viewers. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

WWE Mixed Match Challenge statistics for all 12 weeks

By
Colin Vassallo
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The Mixed Match Challenge on Facebook Watch was a mixed success both for WWE and the social media giant.

The live stream of the show wasn’t watched by hundreds of thousands of people as expected but the replays proved to be a popular thing on the MMC Facebook page.

Week 1 with Balor/Banks vs Nakamura/Natalya did a total of 2 million viewers, followed by 1.8 million viewers for week 2 with Miz/Asuka vs Big E/Carmella. Week 3 had similar views of approximately 1.8 million viewers between Strowman/Bliss vs Zayn/Lynch, while week 4 feature Goldust/Rose vs Uso/Naomi pulled in 2 million viewers. Week 5 saw a spike in viewership as Elias/Bayley vs Rusev/Lana pulled in 4.6 million viewers and week 6 with Apollo/Jax vs Roode/Flair they had 3.5 million viewers.

With the next round starting in week 7, Balor/Banks vs Miz/Asuka had 3.1 million viewers and Strowman/Bliss vs Uso/Naomi followed with 3.6 million. Week 9 with Roode/Flair vs Rusev/Lana did 3.5 million viewers.

The first semi final in week 10 with Strowman/Bliss vs Miz/Asuka did 2.9 million and week 11 with Roode/Lynch, replacing Flair vs Balor/Banks did 2.7 million.

The final match on week 12 with The Miz/Asuka vs Roode/Flair did a total of 3 million viewers.

The WWE Mixed Match Challenge on Facebook aired only in the United States but each episode was uploaded on the WWE Network for the rest of the world to see.

WWE and Facebook did not announce if the show is coming for another season.

2018 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony live tonight on WWE Network

By
Colin Vassallo
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WWE will be presenting the 2018 Hall of Fame ceremony tonight live from the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. The broadcast will air live on the WWE Network starting at 8PM EST with a scheduled end time of 11PM EST.

The class of 2018 includes Mark Henry, Ivory, The Dudley Boyz, Jeff Jarrett, Hillbilly Jim, Warrior Award recipient Jarrius “JJ” Robinson, Kid Rock, and headliner Goldberg.

A one-hour red carpet event will air on the WWE Network starting at 7PM EST. The WWE Hall of Fame ceremony is free if you are a first-time subscriber to the WWE Network. Go to http://w-o.it/wwentwrk to activate your 30-day free trial.

Who’s inducting who at the 2018 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony

By
Colin Vassallo
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The Hall of Fame is a very important night for those getting inducted, but it’s equally important for those doing the honors.

Delivering that perfect speech prior to the induction help sets the mood for what’s to come and you can safely say that anyone tasked with this job comes fully prepared.

Inducting Goldberg will be none other than Paul Heyman. The two have never worked together until the program with Brock Lesnar but Heyman coached Goldberg’s promo issues during the feud and often had great things to say about the former World and Universal champion.

Edge and Christian are tasked to induct The Dudley Boyz, former adversaries along with the Hardy Boyz who made several WrestleMania moments throughout the years. It was Bubba who asked Edge if they’re up for it, an invitation which was immediately accepted. All four, along with the Hardy Boyz, want to get on the stage together one more time for this special occasion.

The Road Dogg Jesse James will be inducting his friend Jeff Jarrett. The two started together in WWE and have remained friends ever since through the good and the bad times. Hall of Famer Jimmy Hart will kick things off for Hillbilly Jim and you can bet the Mouth of the South will have plenty to say considering their 34-year friendship in the business. The Big Show will induct fellow big man Mark Henry while Molly Holly gets to prepare the stage for her friend Ivory.

Dana Warrior will be representing her late husband and present the Warrior Award to Jarrius “JJ” Robinson, while there’s no information yet on who will be inducting Kid Rock.

UFC President Dana White to attend WrestleMania 34

By
Colin Vassallo
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UFC President Dana White announced that he will be in New Orleans on Sunday to watch Ronda Rousey’s debut in the ring.

The two are close friends and Rousey said in earlier media interviews that she was going to try and get Dana to go see one of her matches. It turns out she did not have to wait long for it to happen as her former boss accepted the invitation. This will be his first attendance at a WrestleMania.

The UFC President was crucial in the negotiations a few years ago when Ronda Rousey made a surprise appearance with The Rock at WrestleMania 31. He posted a photo of him watching Rousey in the ring on his Twitter when it happened along with a smiley emoticon. He is said to share a good relationship with both Triple H and Vince McMahon.

White has had a nightmare of a week so far with his top star Conor McGregor wrecking havoc in New York, getting arrested, and his actions resulting in three UFC fights getting canceled for tomorrow.

And perhaps, more than watching Ronda Rousey’s debut match, White will be there to take Brock Lesnar back to the UFC!

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