Despite rumors that the city of Detroit is in the running to host WrestleMania 35 in 2019, the Detroit Sports Commission has refuted these reports on the simple basis that they did not submit any bid for 35.
The sports commission told ABC affiliate WXYZ TV that they submitted bids to host WrestleMania 33 and 34 but WWE instead chose Orlando and New Orleans. Despite getting a “no” in the past two years, the city is still planning future bids to host WrestleMania at Ford Field.
Detroit lasted hosted WrestleMania 23 on April 1, 2007 at the Ford Field which saw an attendance of 80,103. It was the second time that WrestleMania came to Detroit and it was done 20 years after WrestleMania III in 1987 which featured Hulk Hogan vs Andre The Giant.
Impact Hall of Famer and referee Earl Hebner has departed Impact Wrestling, the third referee to quit this week following his son Brian Hebner and long-time referee Brian Stiffler. The news of Hebner’s departure was reported by Ryan Satin of ProWrestlingSheet.com.
Hebner joined TNA in 2006 after a very long career with WWE which ended in 2005 when WWE found out that he had been selling unauthorized WWE merchandise. His twin brother Dave was also released. Hebner was inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame in 2015.
Meanwhile, referee Brian Stiffler left the company after 13 years with TNA/Impact.
Satin adds that the referees left after Anthem informed them that they would be using local referees while doing television tapings in Canada next week, effectively putting them off television and out of a job till the end of the year.
Monday Night Raw from Manchester will feature the first-ever guitar-on-a-pole match in a WWE ring, as Elias and Jason Jordan continue their feud. The match between the two can only be won when either one of the two Superstars retrieves the guitar and uses it as a weapon on his opponent.
Another match announced for the show is Kane versus Braun Strowman while the broadcast will kick off with a segment of MizTV with Raw General Manager Kurt Angle as the guest.
Raw will be airing on a tape delay on Monday night and will not be live.
In comments given to TMZ, Alberto El Patron revealed that his girlfriend and WWE Superstar Paige is just “days away” from making her return to the WWE.
“She’s getting ready, she’s in Orlando at the moment. She’s been there for the last six weeks and it’s gonna happen pretty soon,” El Patron said when he was asked if Paige is going to finally return to WWE.
The former Impact champion said he cannot give more details as he would get her in trouble and the company told her to lay low and don’t talk about it. “She’s days…weeks…probably days away from going back to WWE and doing something in the ring,” El Patron continued.
Paige has been out of action since August of last year, first for failing two consecutive Wellness Program tests and then undergoing neck surgery. She’s back in Orlando and training at the WWE Performance Center to get that ring rust off.
Unlike previous years when WrestleMania travel packages sold out quickly, this time around it’s a bit different as sales are slower than usual.
Tickets for pretty much all six packages – Once-In-A-Lifetime, Mardi Gras, VIP, Platinum, Gold, and Silver – are still available two weeks after they originally went on sale.
All six packages offer something different, mainly seating arrangements and nicer perks for the more expensive ones, but the prices this year have increased significantly, with the highest-priced package starting from just over $9,000 for a single person, and the cheapest package at just over $2,000 for a single person.
As an alternative option, Wrestling-Online.com is offering accommodation at the luxurious Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans with rates at nearly 50% discount from the going rate at the hotel during the same weekend. For more information go to http://w-o.it/wm34hotel.
This season of Total Divas begins exactly where season two of Total Bellas left off. Brie Bella has just given birth to her new daughter, Birdie Jo, and the other Bella sister, Nicole, has just become engaged to her longtime boyfriend, John Cena.
Meanwhile, the rest of the locker room of the WWE women’s division has been busy growing and continuing the Women’s revolution. The revolution has gained a new victory as WWE announces the first ever women’s Money in the Bank ladder match. Historically, the Money in the Bank ladder match has been deemed too dangerous for women wrestlers to participate in.
However, due to the incredible recent performances by various members of the women’s roster, the powers that be at WWE have been forced to reconsider their long-held position. Since the Money in the Bank pay-per-view was a pay-per-view that was put on by the Smackdown brand, participation was limited to only the women on that roster.
This caused some of the women on the Raw roster to become slightly jealous of their counterparts on the popular Smackdown. When WWE Superstars Nia Jax and Maryse discussed their jealousy, Maryse felt disrespected because Nia happened to mention that Maryse must be very jealous since she had been part of the women’s roster for so long, and hadn’t gotten a chance to participate in the Women’s Revolution. While I understand what Nia meant by her comment, I can also understand why Maryse was offended. While it is true that Maryse has not gotten a chance to benefit from the many new opportunities being offered to today’s women’s Superstars; by simply being a women Superstar Maryse has been a part of the Women’s Revolution.
Nia hurt Maryse’s feelings even more when she asked Maryse if she had ever been in a gauntlet match, while Nia may have thought that she was only asking a simple question, Maryse seemed to feel that Nia was trying to brag about the fact that she had been asked to perform in a gauntlet match, and Maryse had not. I think that Maryse was being a little bit sensitive, but that’s just me.
Meanwhile, Brie and her husband, Daniel Bryan were getting used to life with a newborn. The WWE even gave Daniel paternity leave so that could be there for the first few weeks of his daughter’s life. Daniel seemed to be enjoying fatherhood so much that he was dreading returning to work as a general manager of Smackdown.
Brie’s sister, Nikki, seemed to have the solution to Daniel’s problem. She suggested that maybe could take over Daniel’s duties as general manager to allow Daniel to spend more time with his family. The WWE didn’t appear to like the idea, however, because Daniel was summoned back to work only a few days later.
WWE Superstar, Naomi, and her husband, Jimmy Uso, had their own problems in the episode. It seems that after four years of marriage Jimmy has stopped being as romantic as he used to be. Naomi complained about this, and Jimmy spent a good portion of his time trying to make amends.
In their new home in Pensacola, Florida, Jimmy tried to impress his wife by planning a date to a historic lighthouse. However, Naomi didn’t think the location was as romantic as he did. She seemed more concerned about the state of her hair and clothing than appreciating the view of the Gulf of Mexico from the lighthouse.
She was even less impressed by the drive through Italian dinner that Jimmy tried to purchase. While I agree that drive-through dinners aren’t exactly the most romantic dates in the world, I believe that I would have found the ocean view more romantic than Naomi seemed to.
However, Jimmy did try to redeem himself by serving his wife a fancy dinner on a rose petal covered table. This appeared to appease Naomi until she discovered that Jimmy hadn’t actually prepared dinner himself but had ordered it from a restaurant. I personally don’t think I would’ve cared, and I think I would have given the guy credit for trying.
Can’t wait to see, what drama transpires next week on a new episode Of Total Divas.
The Manhattan Center portion of the Raw 25th anniversary special has sold out, including the very expensive VIP tickets.
Raw will simulcast from both the Barclays Center and the Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom on January 22, 2018 to celebrate 25 years of Raw. The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, and Kevin Nash are currently scheduled to appear at the Manhattan Center. Regular matches will also be held inside the Grand Ballroom, which was home to the first episode of Raw and many others that followed in the early years.
Meanwhile, tickets for the other part of Raw at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn are nearly sold out, with only a handful of tickets remaining in the upper section.
Raw 25 is expected to be a loaded show with stars from the past mingling with the current stars. Raw started airing for the first time on January 11, 1993.
The season seven premiere of Total Divas drew a disappointing 556,000 viewers for the episode titled This Is Make Or Break. That is down from the season six opener of 724,000 viewers. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Former Raw ring announcer Brandi Rhodes, formerly known as Eden Styles, just landed a role in the reality TV series WAGS Atlanta which premieres Wednesday, January 3 at 10PM ET.
The series will follow the relationships and glamorous lifestyles of nine tight-knit Atlanta-based wives and girlfriends of today’s hottest professional athletes who live life unapologetically, with no boundaries and no filters within the infamous social life of Atlanta.
In the press release announcing the show, Brandi’s description reads, “Brandi Rhodes is married to current wrestling star and actor Cody Rhodes, and is the daughter-in-law of the late wrestling legend Dusty Rhodes. Brandi is a pro wrestler herself and former wrestling announcer, but struggles with being married to a famous wrestler and the challenges that entails.”
Rhodes will join Ariel Anderson, Niche Caldwell, Kierra Douglas, Kaylin Jurrjens, Kesha Norman, Shuntel “Telli” Swift, Sincerely Ward, and Hope Wiseman in the series.
Smackdown from Manchester, England, will get a rare WWE title match next week as Jinder Mahal will defend the WWE title against AJ Styles.
The announcement of the match came today via a tweet from Smackdown Commissioner Shane McMahon. Styles wrote that he’s sure Mahal will bring his two cronies while he will bring his Phenomenal Forearm and Styles Clash.
Major title matches and title switches rarely happen on free television, especially during tapings from across the pond since they are not live. Raw and Smackdown will air on a couple of hours of delay next week.
The Halloween edition of Smackdown pulled in 2,119,000 viewers, down 580,000 viewers from last week’s show. The combination of Halloween plus the World Series MLB game which pulled in almost 20 million viewers, were the contributing factor to this big decline.
This was the least-viewed Smackdown since June 13. Smackdown was #2 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and #9 in overall viewership for the night. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Impact referee Brian Hebner announced on Twitter that he has departed Impact Wrestling after he requested for his release.
“Wanted to let everyone know that I have asked & been granted my release from @IMPACTWRESTLING! Thanks to my locker room, Ur the best,” Hebner wrote.
Hebner was a popular figure with his peers as evident by the many messages that were left for him after he announced his departure.
Brian is the son of Earl Hebner, one of the legendary wrestling referees along with his twin brother Dave. He refereed in WWE before joining Impact several years ago.
The rules for the upcoming WarGames match for NXT Takeover were announced by WWE.
One member from each team will start the match and the remaining members will be held in three different shark cages. After five minutes from the opening ring bell, the remaining two members from one team will be able to get out of their cage and join the match.
Three minutes after that, the remaining two members from another team can join the match, and another three minutes later, the last two of the remaining team enter the match.
Once all nine Superstars are in the the WarGames steel structure, the match can be won by pinfall or submission. The match cannot be won before everyone is in.
As per the original NWA/WCW WarGames match, there will be two rings side by side covered by one single steel cage.
The teams participating in this match are The Authors of Pain and Roderick Strong, SAnitY, and The Undisputed Era.
WWE fans in Glasgow, Scotland got a pretty rare sight last night during the first stop of the European tour as Triple H joined The Shield to take on Sheamus, Cesaro, and the returning Bray Wyatt.
Triple H, complete with Shield vest and gear, got the win for the group after a triple powerbomb on Cesaro and after the match, all three did The Shield fist bump much to the enjoyment of the crowd.
Before the match started, Rollins said that with Reigns out, desperate times needed desperate measures and they needed a tag team partner. Triple H came out and then was given a matching vest for the match.
For those who follow WWE storylines, Triple H joining The Shield for the night went against all logic as Triple H was the one who had big feuds with the faction, including being the man behind the break-up, and just a few months ago, wrestled Seth Rollins at WrestleMania.
As you can imagine, WWE fans in Glasgow did not care one bit about the history and popped big time for The Game and the fist bump. You can see the video below.
Tyrese Gibson, one of the stars of the Fast and the Furious franchise, is stepping up his feud with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and has threatened to quit the franchise if Johnson is part of Fast 9.
Calling The Rock a “clown,” he said that there will be no more Roman Pearce – his character in the movie – if “Dewayne” is there. “You mess with family and my daughters survival I mess with yours…” he wrote in an Instagram post.
He also accused Johnson of using steroids to bulk up in the same post filled with mistakes and sentences that didn’t make much sense. “#CandyAssBitch Made All my real one…. Men on integrity… my real ones out here stand UP…… folks that GP to the gym and get big naturally #NoJuice #NoOJ spin off huh? Spin off these nuts selfish champ.”
The pre-sale for the Raw 25th Anniversary show from the Barclays Center started today while the one for the Manhattan Center will start tomorrow morning on Ticketmaster.com.
The code for the Barclays Center part of the show is ISLES and it will unlock seats ranging from $51 to $456.
The Manhattan Center portion of Raw 25 which will have WWE Hall of Famers The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, and Kevin Nash appearing so far has tickets ranging from $78 to $803. Pre-sale kicks off at 10AM ET on November 2. No code is available yet.
The pre-sale for both shows ends Friday at 9:59AM ET and tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday at 10AM ET.
Monday Night Raw’s 25th anniversary special will simulcast from both locations on January 22, 2018.
Cord cutters who are Impact fans now have another way to watch Impact Wrestling live every week without a cable subscription.
DirecTV Now, the over-the-top streaming service from DirecTV, has added Pop TV to its lineup of channels. The channel is part of the Just Right, Go Big, and Gotta Have It packages which are priced $50, $60, and $70 a month respectively.
The channel is also available on the PS VUE over-the-top service as part of all four packages, which start from $39.99 a month.
All services do not require a contract and you can sign up with no commitment and cancel any time.
The Bound For Glory pay-per-view set for this Sunday is sold out according to the Aberdeen Pavilion, making this event the first one in many, many years that has sold out when it comes to paid tickets.
Impact will be running six consecutive nights of live events in the same venue in Ottawa, starting with BFG on Sunday and then Impact television tapings for the next five nights. These tapings will take Impact to the end of 2017.
Tickets are still available for the five Impact tapings and other tickets for Bound For Glory might be released depending on production space.
Impact has set-up the venue to take around 500 seats for each taping, including their Bound For Glory show. There will be six floor sections around the ring and two raised floors occupying only two sides of the six-sided ring.
Total Divas returns on E! tonight at 9PM EST with a brand new season and an episode titled This Is Make or Break.
The synopsis for episode one of season seven reads, “As the season premiere kicks off, the WWE announces its first ever “Money in the Bank” ladder match for the women’s superstar division. With Brie on maternity leave, Nikki mentors Nattie and Lana in hopes of becoming Smackdown GM. Meanwhile, newcomer Nia Jax makes a bad impression when she questions Maryse’s history in the WWE, and Trin challenges John to spice up their love life.”
Total Divas will feature three new faces this season: Nia Jax, Alexa Bliss, and Carmella. The Bella Twins, Nattie, Lana, Naomi, and Maryse all return for the new season as well.
Shane McMahon will be leading Team Smackdown into battle against Team Raw at the Survivor Series and during the show last night, two of the remaining three Superstars who will be joining Shane were revealed.
Randy Orton was already announced for the team last week after he defeated Sami Zayn, and joining them will be former NXT champions Bobby Roode and Shinsuke Nakamura.
Roode and Nakamura won their respective matches against Dolph Ziggler and Kevin Owens to advance to the Survivor Series.
Team Raw officially so far has Kurt Angle and Braun Strowman.
