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Community schedule of events during WrestleMania 34 week

By
Colin Vassallo
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It’s safe to say that this week, WWE Superstars will have a jam-packed schedule as they visit different communities in New Orleans and participate in several activities in the area.

The visits start today, April 4. First up is a children’s hospital visit at the Ochsner Children’s Health Center with Finn Bálor, Bayley, Jason Jordan, Goldust and Alicia Fox and WWE Ambassador Dana Warrior. They will be there to take pictures, sign autographs and distribute WWE Championship replica toy titles to patients.

Also today, WWE and UNICEF USA will host a UNICEF Kid Power event at the New Orleans Recreation Development (NORD) Commission’s Milne Recreational Center. Sheamus, Cesaro, Sasha Banks and Mickie James and NXT Superstars Lacey Evans, Montez Ford and Steve Cutler will participate in activities that will help save the lives of children around the world.

On Thursday, April 5, WWE teams up with the Special Olympics for a unified basketball Game at the Westbank Boys and Girls Club Unit. Seth Rollins, Carmella, Alicia Fox, Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin, NXT Superstar Velveteen Dream and WWE Ambassador Dana Warrior will serve as honorary coaches, while WWE Superstar Big Show and WWE Announcer Mike Rome will serve as announcers.

Susan G. Komen New Orleans will host its Perfectly Pink Salute to Survivors Luncheon at the Audubon Zoo Tea Room on April 5 with Titus O’Neil, Natalya, Nia Jax and Dana Brooke and WWE Ambassador Dana Warrior appearing. WWE will present a grant award totaling $275,000 to local grantees to help women, men and families in the Greater New Orleans area receive access to life-saving breast cancer screening, treatment and education services.

On Friday, April 6 there will be a Be a STAR Bullying Prevention Rally at the NFL-YET Boys and Girls Club Recreation Center. Apollo, Dana Brooke and Carmella, NXT Superstar Kassius Ohno and actor Christian Navarro, along with representatives from the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, will speak about the importance of bullying prevention to Club members.

On Saturday, April 7, there’s the Make-A-Wish Circle of Champions reception at Mardi Gras World. Samoa Joe, Natalya and Sasha Banks, WWE Ambassador Dana Warrior, and WWE Announcer Jo Jo will meet with the Wish kids and participate in a float parade at Mardi Gras World. There will also be a surprise appearance by a WWE Superstar who will induct the wish kids into WWE’s Circle of Champions.

A Kid Superstar Reveal at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center will take place on April 7. WWE will host patients from the Ochsner Hospital for Children, Children’s Hospital of New Orleans and Tulane Lakeside Hospital for Women and Children, for a Kid Superstar reveal. It will be hosted by WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon, Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles and Asuka.

On Tuesday, April 10, a WrestleMania Reading Celebration will be held at the J.C. Ellis Elementary School. The New Day, Carmella and WWE Ambassador Dana Warrior will be on hand to donate 20,000 books to New Orleans area schools along with First Book.

A lot more non-advertised events will happen throughout the area, keeping everybody busy for the week.

Superstars and crew in New Orleans for hectic WrestleMania week

By
Colin Vassallo
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With Smackdown done and dusted, everyone from the Raw and Smackdown brands have now landed in New Orleans to begin the hectic week.

Most of the crew working on the WrestleMania stage at the Superdome arrived in the city before and the setup is expected to be complete by Friday late at night. A lot of local contractors are being used to help with the construction.

Everyone will be in town until after Smackdown next week and during the coming days, most of the WWE Superstars will have several appearances throughout the city promoting the show and participating in community-related events.

The Superstars typically bring over their family members with them for WrestleMania which makes the busy week a bit more easier as they can spend time with their loved ones as well.

The Miz and Asuka win the Mixed Match Challenge tournament

By
Colin Vassallo
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WWE Intercontinental champion The Miz and Asuka won the Facebook Mixed Match Challenge tournament by defeating Bobby Roode and Smackdown Women’s champion Charlotte in the final match immediately following Smackdown.

The win means that Asuka remains undefeated in all kinds of matches and some fans wondered why she was even in the tournament considering that her first loss would not come in a tag match, somewhat giving away the winners from the get-go.

The Miz won the match for his team with the Skull Crushing Finale on Bobby Roode as the ladies gave a small preview of what is to come on Sunday in their Smackdown Women’s title match.

The Miz and Asuka were wrestling for the Rescue Dogs Rock charity. The charity is based out of New York City and focuses on saving abused and at-risk dogs from kill shelters and provide vetting and loving homes. The charity will receive $100,000 as a donation from WWE.

“We are thrilled to have been part of the first-ever #WWEMixedMatchChallenge and cannot thank the @WWE for this amazing experience. We have no words other than THANK YOU…” the Twitter for Rescue Dogs Rock said after the conclusion of the event.

Jeff Jarrett meets AJ Styles and others backstage at Smackdown Live

By
Colin Vassallo
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With Smackdown in Nashville, it was only fitting that soon-to-be WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett came to visit.

The former WCW and TNA champion is backstage at Smackdown Live, his first time in a WWE locker room since he left on not-so-good terms back in 1999.

WWE cameras were present to film Jarrett meeting with various individuals, sharing big hugs with AJ Styles, Natalya, Zack Ryder, Arn Anderson, referee Charles Robinson, Michael PS Hayes, and others.

Jarrett was also filmed entering the arena and getting his first look at a WWE ring in 19 years. “Wow. This is pretty ironic. Cleveland, Ohio of 1999 was the last time I was at a WWE event and how crazy is this…the first event I’m back after all those years is in Nashville,” Jarrett said.

You can see the video below.

 

Raw rating for 04/02/2018

By
Colin Vassallo
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The final Raw before WrestleMania drew an average of 3,357,000 viewers, down 9,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast.

Raw had 3,430,000 viewers in the first hour, 3,329,000 in the second hour, and 3,314,000 in the third and final hour.

The NCAA basketball championship game was in direct competition with Raw in the second hour and that drew 13.2 million viewers for the night. Because of the basketball, Raw was #3, #4, and #5 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

Triple H unveils the brand new NXT North American title belt

By
Colin Vassallo
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Triple H today unveiled the brand new NXT North American title which will be up for grabs for the first time this coming Saturday at NXT Takeover: New Orleans.

The belt has a unique look for a WWE/NXT title and is a throwback to an old title. It has maroon-colored leather strap and a big gold center plate with the North America continent on it and two side plates. It looks more of a boxing belt rather than a wrestling one.

The first-ever North American NXT champion will be crowned in a ladder match featuring Killian Dain, EC3, Ricochet, Adam Cole, Lars Sullivan, and Velveteen Dream.

You can see the title below.

Smackdown Live tonight wraps up road to WrestleMania 34

By
Colin Vassallo
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It’s Smackdown’s turn tonight to wrap up their road to WrestleMania with a live show from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.

Three matches have been announced so far, featuring AJ Styles teaming up with his WrestleMania opponent Shinsuke Nakamura to take on Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable, Charlotte Flair versus Natalya, and Rusev versus Jinder Mahal.

Also tonight, Smackdown Commissioner Shane McMahon will be in the house to further promote his storyline with Zayn and Owens and his partner Daniel Bryan. McMahon has been absent from the past two weeks after he was beaten down by Owens and Zayn and was hospitalized as well in the meantime.

Tonight’s show is literally the final stop before WrestleMania as far as WWE television is concerned.

WWE Mixed Match Challenge final tonight on Facebook Watch

By
Colin Vassallo
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The finals of the WWE Mixed Match Challenge tournament takes place tonight immediately following Smackdown Live at 10PM.

The match will feature the Robe Warriors – Bobby Roode and Smackdown Women’s champion Charlotte Flair – taking on Intercontinental champion The Miz and Asuka. Raw’s tag team are wrestling for Rescue Dogs Rock while the Smackdown team are wrestling for the charity Girl Up. The winning team will receive $100,000 for their charity.

Miz and Asuka went through Big E and Carmella, Finn Balor and Sasha Banks, and Braun Strowman and Alexa Bliss to advance to the finals while Roode and Flair defeated Apollo and Nia Jax, Rusev and Lana, and Finn Balor and Sasha Banks to move to the finals. Flair was temporarily replaced by Becky Lynch in the semi final match due to dental surgery.

Ronda Rousey goes through her first WWE table on Raw

By
Colin Vassallo
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Former UFC Bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey ate her first table in WWE last night on Monday Night Raw courtesy of Stephanie McMahon.

During the opening segment of Raw, Rousey, Kurt Angle, Triple H, and Stephanie McMahon had a face-off in the ring hosted by Jonathan Coachman. After responding to a few questions, both teams went in for a photo-op. Triple H and Kurt Angle shook hands but Rousey and Stephanie did not. Rousey blocked off Steph from moving and when Angle decided to keep them away, Triple H hit Angle from behind with a mic, sending him out of the ring.

At that point, Rousey turned around and grabbed Triple H by the neck. This allowed Stephanie to come from behind, lift her up, and send her through a table.

The video clip made the news at major news outlets which eventually was the whole idea behind it for added free publicity. You can see the video below.

Three matches for WrestleMania Kickoff show announced

By
Colin Vassallo
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One title match and two battle royals will be part of the WrestleMania Kickoff show this coming Sunday.

The Cruiserweight title tournament final match between Mustafa Ali and Cedric Alexander has been relegated to the Kickoff show. Last year, the Cruiserweight title match was also on the Kickoff show when Neville kept the title against Austin Aries.

The Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal and the Women’s WrestleMania Battle Royal have also been moved to the Kickoff show. It was believed that at least one of them would be moved to the Kickoff show but now it seems that both of them will be on it.

USA Network will air one hour of the Kickoff show – the 6PM hour – leading to WrestleMania. The whole two-hour show will air on the WWE Network and WWE’s social media accounts.

WCW Saturday Night episodes added to the WWE Network

By
Colin Vassallo
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The WWE Network added more WCW programming to its vault after the addition of WCW Saturday Night.

Nearly 40 episodes have been uploaded so far which amounts to around 50 hours of new footage for the WWE Network library. Taped mostly from Center Stage Theater in Atlanta and Disney/MGM Studios in Orlando, WCW Saturday Night ran from April 1992 to June 2000.

So far, episodes available run from April 4, 1992 to January 2, 1993. Just recently, the WWE Network added a lot of episodes from the WCW Thunder library as well.

The Big Show inducting Mark Henry in the WWE Hall of Fame

By
Colin Vassallo
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The world’s largest athlete will induct the world’s strongest man this Friday at the Hall of Fame as The Big Show will be doing the honors for Mark Henry.

The two big man share a longtime friendship and both of them are two of the longest-serving employees in WWE, with Henry arriving in 1996 and Big Show arriving three years later. The two also shared a feud in 2011 which resulted in Big Show winning the World Heavyweight title from Henry…only for 45 seconds though as Daniel Bryan cashed in his MITB briefcase immediately. At Vengeance in 2011, Henry suplexed Show from the ropes which resulted in the ring collapsing, a stunt that has been repeated a few times.

With Big Show’s announcement, all the ones who will be inducting the class of 2018 have been finalized.

Mercedes-Benz Superdome close to being sold out for WrestleMania 34

By
Colin Vassallo
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The Mercedes-Benz Superdome is looking pretty full, with only seats in the floor section available according to the Ticketmaster seating map.

The majority of the remaining seats are in the corner sections of the ring – sections B, D, K, and F. The sections on each side of the aisle – sections J and H – also have a few empty seats on them.

The cheapest ticket on Ticketmaster is going for $337 when you buy it in a Me+3 4-pack offer. Floor seats will also have the commemorative chair.

Dave Meltzer of the Observer adds that ever since Daniel Bryan was announced as returning to his first wrestling match in three years at WrestleMania, a lot more tickets were moved.

WrestleMania block party at Champions Square this Sunday

By
Colin Vassallo
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On WrestleMania Sunday, WWE will throw a block party, sponsored by Snickers, outside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome named Champions Square.

The event will start at 1PM local time and will run until the Kickoff show starts at 5PM. Scheduled to make an appearance are Ric Flair, Alundra Blaze, Big Show, R-Truth and Tamina.

The event is free and open to the public. Clear bag policy will be in effect.

First 5 Superstars in the Greatest Royal Rumble match announced

By
Colin Vassallo
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With the show 25 days away, WWE started announcing the names who will be part of the Greatest Royal Rumble, a 50-man over-the-top rope match that will take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The recently-cleared Daniel Bryan, Kane, Big Show, Braun Strowman, and Bray Wyatt are the first five of 50 who will be part of the Rumble match. WWE will be adding more Superstars in the days to come.

Tickets for this event have been pushed back to April 13 and the event takes place on April 27. The King Abdullah Sports City Stadium sits 60,000 people so it will be interesting to see how many people WWE can fit in just two weeks.

The Greatest Royal Rumble will be airing on the WWE Network.

Raw with the final WrestleMania push tonight

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Raw will make its final push for WrestleMania tonight live from the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.

There will be a face-to-face segment featuring Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, Kurt Angle and Ronda Rousey, making this the first time in a few weeks that all four have been together in the ring since Rousey got slapped…and McMahon got Samoa dropped.

The WWE Universal champion Brock Lesnar is also in the house, most likely one of his final Raw appearances in a while if he decides to pack his bags and leave for the UFC. Lesnar has pretty much decimated Roman Reigns the past two weeks.

And the big question mark is, will The Undertaker accept John Cena’s challenge? With six days to go to WrestleMania, John Cena has not yet met his eventual challenger. Unless they’re really, really leaving it to the last minute on WrestleMania day, we should have an answer from the Dead Man tonight.

Charlotte Flair reveals plan for her WrestleMania ring gear and robe

By
Colin Vassallo
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In an interview with Robbie Fox of Barstool Sports, WWE Smackdown Women’s champion Charlotte Flair revealed that her WrestleMania 34 gear/robe is inspired from four years ago at New Orleans.

Four years ago at WrestleMania 30, Charlotte Flair was part of Triple H’s entrance along with Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss. The three – now all on the main roster and a big part of the women’s division – wore masks and gladiator-type outfits to go along with the King of Kings entrance.

Now, Charlotte will be returning to New Orleans in one of the marquee matches of the night as she battle Asuka in a bid to retain her Smackdown Women’s title.

Full schedule for Impact Wrestling in New Orleans at WrestleCon

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Impact Wrestling released the full schedule for their week at WrestleCon next week in New Orleans.

The company is pushing that they will have over 30 hours of Impact Wrestling content on Twitch, the streaming partner for Impact. Pretty much every event from Impact will be screened on Twitch as they try to make the most out of the thousands of fans who are in town for WrestleMania.

The headline event for Impact will be the Impact vs Lucha Underground show which will air on Friday, April 6 at The Sugar Mill Factory starting at 9PM EST.

A press conference for Impact’s next pay-per-view, Redemption, will also take place in New Orleans and streamed live on Twitch at 6:30PM EST.

The full Impact schedule in New Orleans can be found at https://t.co/acqn8JIULP.

WWE live event results from 03/31 in Huntington, West Virginia

By
Colin Vassallo
-

W-O reader Corey Hickman attended the live WWE event in Huntington, West Virginia yesterday and sent in the following results:

The New Day defeated Rusev and Aiden English; Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Dolph Ziggler; The Usos defeated Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable to retain the Smackdown Tag team titles; Randy Orton defeated Bobby Roode and Jinder Mahal in a triple threat match to retain the United States title; Ty Dillinger defeated Mojo Rawley; Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, and Naomi defeated The Riott Squad and the team of Natalya, Carmella, and Lana; AJ Styles defeated Baron Corbin to retain the WWE title.

Before the show, ring announcer Dasha Fuentes announced that Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens would not be there since they are fired. The two eventually appeared after the Dillinger/Rawley match and beat down Dillinger. Owens took the mic and told Dillinger not to take it personally, but to blame Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan. Zayn tried to talk about WrestleMania, but his mic was cut off and the two were escorted to the back.

You can see footage of this below.

Hulk Hogan reacts to Mark Henry’s comments about apologizing to wrestlers

By
Colin Vassallo
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Reacting to Mark Henry’s comments where he said Hulk Hogan should apologize to African American wrestlers for what he said before he should even be allowed to return to WWE, Hulk Hogan agreed.

Speaking to TMZ.COM before he jetted off back to Florida following the Andre The Giant HBO/WWE party, the Hulkster said, “I totally agree with him, not to the black wrestlers, to all the wrestlers. What I said was way out of line and I’m forever sorry for that.”

Hogan and WWE are trying to find a way for him to “redeem himself” and help the younger stars learn from his mistakes where he would help them by speaking out about what happened in order for it not to happen again to anyone.

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