Here are the results from last night’s Fastlane pay-per-view which took place from the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Rich Swann and Akira Tozawa defeated The Brian Kendrick and Noam Dar in the Kickoff match; Samoa Joe defeated Sami Zayn; Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson defeated Enzo Amore and Big Cass to retain the Raw Tag team titles; Sasha Banks defeated Nia Jax; Cesaro defeated Jinder Mahal; Big Show defeated Rusev; Neville defeated Jack Gallagher to retain the WWE Cruiserweight title; Roman Reigns defeated Braun Strowman; Bayley defeated Charlotte Flair to retain the Raw Women’s title; Goldberg defeated Kevin Owens to become the new WWE Universal champion.
During his latest podcast, Vince Russo revealed that Jeff Jarrett contacted him last week via e-mail and inquired to see how many people listen to his podcast.
Russo, who worked for WWE, WCW, and even TNA in creative, had no idea why Jarrett was asking for such numbers and then gave him his audience reach.
Russo then said he was surprised to see later that Bruce Prichard was hired by TNA again based on the popularity of his podcast. Jarrett and Russo are big friends and he sounded disappointed that Jarrett did not reveal his true intentions of his original question.
The man formerly known as Brother Love runs his very popular Something To Wrestle with Bruce Prichard podcast along with co-host Conrad Thompson.
Much to the surprise of absolutely nobody, Goldberg is the overwhelming favorite to win the WWE Universal title tonight at Fastlane, with odds at 1/12 in his favor while Kevin Owens is 6/1 to retain.
The Raw Women’s title picture is undecided though with both Bayley and Charlotte at 5/6 odds, however some bookies have Charlotte the favorite. Charlotte has not lost a PPV match so far and has regained the title at every pay-per-view she was the challenger so far.
Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson are the favorites to retain the Raw Tag Team titles with odds at 1/4 while Enzo Amore and Big Cass are at 11/4 for the win. The current Cruiserweight champion Neville is also the favorite at 1/6 while Jack Gallagher is at 7/2.
In other matches, Braun Strowman is 1/4 to defeat Roman Reigns who is at 11/4, Samoa Joe is the super favorite at 1/12 to defeat Sami Zayn who is at 6/1, Nia Jax is also the clear favorite at 1/10 against Sasha Banks at 5/1, and the team of Swann and Tozawa are at 4/9 to win against Kendrick and Dar at 13/8.
These odds are valid at least until Noon EST and they will most likely change once the smart money comes in later in the day, possibly tilting the results the other way round.
Live tonight from the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, WWE presents Fastlane on the WWE Network and pay-per-view. The full card is as follows:
Kevin Owens vs Goldberg for the WWE Universal title; Bayley vs Charlotte Flair for the Raw Women’s title; Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson vs Enzo Amore and Big Cass for the Raw Tag Team titles; Neville vs Jack Gallagher for the WWE Cruiserweight title; Roman Reigns vs Braun Strowman; Sasha Banks vs Nia Jax; Sami Zayn vs Samoa Joe; and Rich Swann and Akira Tozawa vs The Brian Kendrick and Noam Dar in the Kickoff match.
Fastlane is free for first-time subscribers to the WWE Network and you can subscribe today at http://w-o.it/wwentwrk.
It was not just the Hardys who showed up at the eventful Ring of Honor event last night in Manhattan as former TNA champion Bully Ray also showed up after the main event.
After saving Bobby Fish from a Bullet Club attack, Bully Ray took the mic to address the lively crowd in New York. “Not only is this building is very special to me, but this city is very special to me. This is where I’m from,” Ray told the fans.
He said that for the past few weeks he has been sitting at home with a couple of different offers that came his way. The fans once again started a “f*ck TNA” chant and Ray responded saying that that’s the reason why he didn’t take their offer!
“There was another offer on the table…and then there was a Ring of Honor offer on the table,” he added. Ray compared ROH with another company that is very special to him and said that he’s never been to an ROH show before and decided to come over and check it out.
Ray said that he doesn’t want to come to ROH to be a tag team champion, or a world heavyweight champion, or steal money from the company, or even take a spot from someone else like many other wrestling veterans. “If I came to ROH it’s because I genuinely want to,” Ray said, also adding that when he retires he wants to be able to say he wrestled in Ring of Honor.
He then called out ROH COO Joe Koff, but Koff did not show up in the ring. “Do you know who I am? I’m Bully Ray and as of right now, I’m in Ring of Honor!”
Matt and Jeff Hardy, along with their Broken gimmicks, showed up at Ring of Honor last night during the Manhattan Mayhem VI event, held at the Manhattan Center’s Hammerstein Ballroom.
The Hardys showed up after the ROH Tag Team title match between The Young Bucks and Lio Rush and Jay White, a match which The Young Bucks won to retain the titles. ROH did the lights out trick and Matt and Jeff appeared in the ring when the lights came back on, and challenged the tag champs for a match.
The crowd went absolutely nuts, chanting “delete” as Matt Hardy said they have arrived to the “Honorable Ring” and then Jeff made the challenge. The Young Bucks gave the ref the belts back and gave them the DX crotch chop with more “holy shit” chants from the crowd which then alternated between “delete” and “suck it” chants. The former TNA Tag Team title holders then defeated The Young Bucks and won the ROH Tag Team titles.
Following the match, Matt got on the mic to cut a promo, which led to “f*ck TNA” chants. He announced that they’re not going to WWE and said they signed a contract with ROH, giving out three dates when they will be appearing, all leading up to WrestleMania.
According to multiple sources, Alberto El Patron was not the first choice to challenge Lashley on Thursday’s tapings of Impact. In fact, he wasn’t even the second choice.
Drew Galloway was supposed to be the star of the refreshed Impact Wrestling brand and the spot was his. However, the former TNA champion refused the new deal after it was offered to him very late before his current deal expired.
PWInsider.com adds that the second choice was Bubba Ray Dudley, who was set to reprise his role of Bully Ray. Apparently, Dudley pretty much agreed to sign a new deal but then negotiations fell through very late in the stage. Bubba’s former tag team partner Devon is currently working as a producer/agent with WWE.
Alberto El Patron was brought in to fill the spot and the former WWE champion signed a new TNA deal just 24 hours before he appeared in front of the crowd at Universal Studios.
Reby Hardy, the wife of Matt Hardy, told FOX Sports that TNA changed the terms of their contract after a deal was agreed back in December.
“We even had some of the Anthem guys come to our house. Matt came with a number, they countered and Matt was fine with it. All the financial details were good…for sure we had a deal,” she said.
However, Reby said TNA didn’t get back to them for weeks and they noticed something was up. Her husband told her that it looks like that they don’t matter for TNA so why go work with them again?
When the official paperwork came through, Reby said that the one-year deal was changed to two and there was a 10% management fee that TNA would get for anything that Hardy would do outside the company. “When we showed the finalized contract to our lawyer…our lawyer was kind of dumbfounded,” she added.
Despite not agreeing to sign a new deal, both Matt and Jeff told the company that they would be willing to come in and drop the titles to anyone. “And the response he got was, ‘You’ve got to be delusional if you are coming without a contract.’” Reby recounted. Instead, TNA offered to send someone to their house to pick up the TNA Tag Team titles, an offer which was refused. “I would melt them down and turn them into hoop earrings,” she said, “and show up wearing them at another show!”
Now the hottest free agents on the market, Reby still pushes away from a full-time deal with anyone. “As the head of the house, I would not want that. I want this kid to know who their dad is. That is not what either of us want for the family.”
Longtime TNA employee Jeremy Borash will be joining Josh Mathews on commentary for Impact Wrestling shows starting next week, with the two feuding like Cole and Lawler did over at WWE several years ago.
Borash has been working for TNA since the very beginning and had several roles throughout the years and is well-liked by his peers. Mathews started as lead commentator on Impact in January 2015 when Impact moved to Destination America, first teaming with Taz and later with D’Angelo Dinero. Mathews, the former WWE commentator and backstage interviewer, is assuming the role of the heel in this feud.
The blame game between The Big Show and Shaquille O’Neal continues as their match at WrestleMania gets more impossible by the day.
With no official announcement on the match yet, Big Show blamed O’Neal last week for not taking this seriously and then Shaq, on his podcast, said that it’s not his fault if this match does not end up happening.
“It’s not my fault, that’s all you need to know. It ain’t my fault. Oh, it ain’t my fault,” Shaq said.
But speaking to ESPN.COM, The Big Show once again put the blame on the former NBA player and his lack of fitness.
“It’s on Shaq. He has to figure things out in his own camp. Maybe he is just too scared to show up because he’s too busy riding around singing karaoke with John Cena and going to Krispy Kreme and getting fatter every week,” Show said.
The former WWE champ said that Shaq is at around 440-450 pounds at the moment and “gotten pretty fat” while he weighed in at 379 pounds.
“Maybe he doesn’t want to put on spandex and show the entire world that Shaquille O’Neal, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, looks like Jabba the Hutt,” Big Show said. “It’s on him. He has to weigh these consequences in his own mind. Does he want the world to know how fat and out of shape he is? Or does he want to sit back and talk shit into a podcast?”
In a statement issued to PWInsider.com, WWE said that Jack Swagger has not been released from his WWE deal yet despite his announcement that he is out.
“Jack Swagger has not been granted a release from his WWE contract. When he is granted his release, Jack Swagger will remain under exclusive contract to WWE for 90 days and will be compensated accordingly during that period,” the statement read.
Swagger already booked himself for a show in the United Kingdom on March 10, so even if he is released from his deal by that date, he cannot wrestle anywhere for 90 days following his official termination date.
The former World Heavyweight champion was supposed to wrestle TNA’s Alberto El Patron in Norwich, England.
The Oklahoma native announced that he is departing WWE earlier this week on Chael Sonnen’s Beyond the Fight podcast.
DISH Network will be carrying WrestleMania 33 on traditional pay-per-view this year, the first WrestleMania they are showing since WrestleMania XXX.
The company passed on the opportunity to show WrestleMania 31 and 32 on pay-per-view but WrestleMania 33 will be available to DISH subscribers in HD for $59.99. DISH was the first company to dump WWE pay-per-views after WWE launched its WWE Network citing unfair competition.
However, DISH has been showing WWE shows lately and its corporate communications office told us that they consider the value of WWE pay-per-views on an event by event basis.
WWE threw in yet another curve ball in the quest to name the number one contender for the WWE title.
First Randy Orton gave up his right to wrestle Wyatt after winning the Royal Rumble, then came in a number one contender’s battle royal, which ended in a draw, then came a Luke Harper vs AJ Styles match to figure out who is going to WrestleMania, and then Randy Orton decided to burn Bray Wyatt’s place with Sister Abigail’s remains inside.
AJ Styles defeated Harper earlier this week to advance to WrestleMania but now WWE.COM is reporting that a match between Styles and Randy Orton has been set up for next week’s Smackdown with the winner – hopefully – being the true number one contender for Bray Wyatt’s WWE title.
With a new regime comes a new name…well, sort of! Starting from next week’s Impact, TNA will no longer be TNA as the initials and the Total Nonstop Action name will be dead and buried.
Going forward, the company will solely go by the name of Impact Wrestling and the new folks running the show made sure everybody knows that during the tapings yesterday, blasting the previous management for their screw-ups and letting big names like AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Bobby Roode, and others leave.
Dropping the TNA name has been in the pipeline for quite a while with parent company Anthem thinking that the name is “damaged goods” to wrestling fans. The TNA name has been around since the first show which aired on June 19, 2002.
TNA Knockout Jade, real name Stephanie Bell, has also left TNA, becoming the sixth star to depart the company in a span of a few days.
The 27-year-old joined TNA in 2013 but joined full time two years later as part of The Dollhouse. She transitioned to singles competition last year, winning the TNA Knockouts title in a three-way match defeating Gail Kim and Madison Rayne.
Alberto El Patron, the former WWE champion known as Alberto Del Rio, made his Impact Wrestling debut last night during the television tapings.
Ed Nordholm of Anthem Sports & Entertainment, and the man who is overseeing the new era of the company, tweeted a photo of El Patron and Jeff Jarrett in the middle of the ring during the day, so his appearance was not a complete surprise to those in attendance.
El Patron has been wrestling on the independent scene ever since leaving the WWE back in September of last year and made numerous appearances in the United Kingdom. He has also opened a restaurant in San Antonio, Texas.
This is his first stint with Impact Wrestling. His girlfriend, former WWE Divas champion Paige, was with him backstage at Universal Studios in Orlando. She is still under a WWE deal but has been out of action for several months, first due to two consecutive Wellness Program failures and then a neck injury which required surgery. She is expected back soon.
Former WWE Raw ring announcer Justin Roberts will have his biography book published on April 1, in time for WrestleMania, by Meyer & Meyer Sport.
Titled Best Seat In The House: Your Backstage Pass Through My WWE Journey, the book tells the story of a passionate professional wrestling fan who wanted nothing more than to be a ring announcer for World Wrestling Entertainment, and amazingly achieved his goal. It chronicles Roberts’ ambitious journey to becoming the full-time ring announcer at WWE, traveling the globe with the wrestlers and announcing weekly live events, TV shows, and the enormously popular pay-per-view spectaculars, for more than a decade.
His story also gives fans a unique backstage pass to what it’s like working for Vince McMahon and WWE, complete with the stories only he can tell – ranging from his WWE tryout to his final night on the big stage. In the book, he reveals why Vince McMahon and WWE don’t value the fans the way they should, which wrestlers were easy to work with and those who gave him a hard time, the charitable side of legends such as John Cena and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and what the public doesn’t know about the good they’ve done, the fun times had with the wrestlers, both behind the scenes and even in front of fans, and the roles various wrestlers played behind the scenes.
The hardcover book carries a retail regular price of $24.95 but it’s available to pre-order on Amazon for $13.89.
Ryan Satin of ProWrestlingSheet.com is reporting that Bruce Prichard has returned to TNA three and a half years after he was released.
Prichard will be assuming a backstage role as well as an on-camera role and will start officially with TNA with today’s Impact television tapings in Orlando. He worked for TNA between 2010 and 2013, doing the work of producer. In May 2012, he promoted to Vice President of Talent Relations, taking Terry Taylor’s job. Just a few months later he was given another promotion, this time to Senior Vice President of Programming and Talent Relations.
Before joining TNA, Prichard had a long career in the WWE, first as Brother Love between 1988 and 1991 and then transitioning to a backstage role in 1993 where he lasted until 2008.
A new logo for Impact Wrestling will debut with tonight’s Impact tapings in Orlando, Florida, and Anthem’s owl from the current logo will be completely gone.
The new logo has a redesigned font for the word IMPACT, which is in white, and WRESTLING is in a green font…think Global Force Wrestling logo green! In the background there’s a six-sided ring outline in the usual blue color and the word ANTHEM is at the bottom of the ring.
TNA used this logo to announce their UK television deal and it’s also already in place on the set at Universal Studios.
