The Wrestling Observer is reporting that The Undertaker has now been taken out completely from the WrestleMania Revenge Tour in Europe.
Originally Taker was supposed to wrestle at five different live events including the Smackdown tapings this Tuesday from London’s O2 Arena. Then his schedule was taken down to just two events, Smackdown in London and the next night a non-televised event in Newcastle.
Now it seems that just like Daniel Bryan, The Undertaker will not be taking part at all in this tour and WWE moved Shane McMahon and Triple H to take up some of the spots left open by Taker and Daniel Bryan.
Triple H will be wrestling on several non-televised shows against Dean Ambrose while Shane McMahon will also appear at the Smackdown tapings.
It’s not known why The Undertaker pulled out of the tour and WWE did not give an official statement.
WWE today announced that two of its Superstars have been suspended for 60 days following a second violation of the company’s Talent Wellness Program policy.
The Social Outcasts will have one less member running around as Adam Rose is one of the two suspended. It’s not known when he got the first hit.
The other suspended Superstar is Konnor, one half of The Ascension. His first suspension dates back to 2007. His match on Smackdown in the WWE Tag Team title tournament will be his last one for a while.
Two more qualifying matches for the WWE Global Cruiserweight series were announced for an EVOLVE show that will take place on May 7 in Queens, New York.
The two matches are Drew Gulak vs Tracy Williams and Fred Yehi vs TJ Perkins. It’s interesting to note that the first match involves the EVOLVE Tag Team champions so one of them will go ahead in the 32-man tournament and the other one won’t.
These matches will be a part of an iPPV airing on WWNLive.com.
Reddit user VendoThefastlane wrote on the r/SquaredCircle forum that the upcoming WWE live event tour in Japan sold out within five minutes.
“By 10:05 Japanese social media was full of people sad that they could not get a ticket,” he wrote, adding that the website was super slow processing orders as well due to the heavy demand. The prices also reflect a hefty increase from last year’s tour which saw the return of Brock Lesnar. That show, on July 4, was broadcast on the WWE Network.
Tickets went on sale this morning at 10AM local time for two events that will see the return of Shinsuke Nakamura, Asuka, and AJ Styles to the Land of the Rising Sun. WWE will perform on July 1 and 2 at the Tokyo Ryogkoku Kokugikan.
The ongoing WWE European tour got some extra “muscle” added to it as Triple H revealed on Twitter that he will be wrestling in three locations.
Triple H will be wrestling Dean Ambrose in Newcastle, England on April 20, in Brussels, Belgium on April 21, Paris, France on April 22, and Malaga, Spain on April 23. Three of those dates were supposed to be headlined by the Undertaker so it’s obvious that he was thrown in there to make up for the absence of the Undertaker.
Triple H has not appeared on WWE television ever since he lost his WWE World Heavyweight title to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 32.
Meanwhile, in a similar move, Shane McMahon will also appear on the April 19 Smackdown tapings in London at the O2 Arena. Daniel Bryan was supposed to be there for another farewell but was pulled from the event. Shane will be replacing him on this leg of the tour.
John Cena’s American Grit reality show on FOX did not start well in terms of viewership getting only 2,347,000 viewers for the premiere episode.
The show came in last among the big 4 networks with FOX only beating The CW in the 9PM timeslot. The closest show to American Grit was The Blacklist on NBC which did 6.7 million viewers and the lead-in to Cena’s show on FOX, Bones, did 4.4 million viewers. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
This week’s Smackdown drew a total of 2,355,000 viewers, down 89,000 viewers from the previous week. In terms of viewership, Smackdown was fourth on the night with the CNN New York Dem Debate winning the prime time battle followed by The Kelly File on FOX News and The O’Reilly Factor on FOX News as well. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Thursday Night Smackdown! TV Report for April 14th, 2016 – “
Introduction Segment: Video Promo, Welcoming, and Arena Promo
The regular Smackdown! opener starts, and we are acknowledged by Mauro Ranallo, Byron Saxton, and Jerry “The King” Lawler. They go over the line-up, which includes A.J. Styles facing Alberto Del Rio and Sami Zayn taking on Chris Jericho!
Maryse is in the ring and welcomes her husband, Intercontinental Champion The Miz. They put over each other over until Zack Ryder interrupts. He vows to regain the I.C. Championship, challenging him to wrestle tonight! Maryse plays it up with the fans, and Miz agrees, for a short moment. He remembers that Zack is actually in another match, against Baron Corbin!
Commercials.
Match #1: Single – Zack Ryder VS. Baron Corbin
They lockup and Corbin shoves Ryder to the mat, then shoulder-blocks him. Baron throws him into the corner, but Zack hits out of it. The comeback is not long, as Corbin takes over, punishing Ryder with kicks and punches, then an arm and chinlock.
Baron hits a few clotheslines, but Zack battles back with knees and a dropkick from the second turnbuckle! he goes for the Broski Boot, but Baron rolls to the outside. They go back into the ring, where Corbin catches Ryder off the ropes with the End of Days Swinging Flatliner; he covers for the victory!
Winner via Pinfall: Baron Corbin
Post-match, Corbin attack Ryder but Dolph Ziggler’s music plays and he runs out to make the save! He tries a superkick, but Baron catches the foot. Corbin goes for a clothesline, but Ziggler ducks and attempts another superkick. Baron backs away up the ramp.
Segment #2: Backstage Promo
Rene Young asks Kevin Owens about Sami Zayn’s match against Chris Jericho tonight. Owens gives props to Young for introducing him better, then inquires Rene if Sami knows what is going to happen to him, and walks away.
Emma and Paige are shown walking backstage, and will be wrestling next!
Ads.
Match #2: Single – Paige VS. Emma
An elbow/collar tie-up starts, then Emma pushes Paige’s face. Paige retaliates with hard mudhole stomps in the corner, but Emma rams her into the bottom turnbuckle, then runs with a crossbody-splash. She continues to slam Paige’s head against the bottom turnbuckle, then gets a two-count.
She rips at Paige’s hair against the ropes, and gives her an overhead butterfly-suplex. 1 – 2 – Paige gets her shoulder up! Paige breaks out of a submission with kicks, then runs at Emma in the corner with a knee, then another one on the canvas!
Paige props Emma on the top turnbuckle and headbutts, but Emma slides out and trips her up, sending Paige face-first into the top turnbuckle. Emma presses against Paige with a jackknife for the 1 – 2 – 3!
Winner via Pinfall: Emma
A recap from Raw of the beginning of the Tag-Team Title Tournament is shown.
Commercials.
Enzo and Cass make their entertaining entrance, tell about their life, and rip on The Ascension.
Ads.
Match #3: Tag-Team (#1 Contender’s Tournament to the Tag-Team Championship) – Enzo and Big Cass VS. The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor)
Enzo and Konnor start out, with Konnor overpowering. He quickly switches with Viktor, who whips Enzo into the corner, but Enzo counters with a headscissors! He tags in Cass, who scoop-slams his partner onto Viktor! Cass and Enzo double-team Viktor in the corner, then Enzo goes to the top, however is pushed off by Viktor after a distraction from Konnor.
On the outside, Konnor clotheslines Enzo against the barricade, and receives a near-fall back in the ring. Viktor continues to control until Enzo dumps him to the outside and lets Konnor run into the ring post. He gets the hot-tag to Cass, who dominates over The Ascension!
Cass almost gets this after a big-boot on Viktor, but Konnor breaks it up! Cass boots Konnor off the apron, then rockets Enzo off the top turnbuckle with a splash onto Viktor to finish this!
Winners and Advancing via Pinfall: Enzo and Big Cass
Segment #3: Backstage Promo
JoJo greets A.J. Styles. He talks about always having to climb to the top, and how both he and Roman have not wrestled someone like each other, ability-wise. Alberto Del Rio interjects and berates A.J. “The Phenomenal One” promises to make Del Rio think again in the ring.
Commercials.
Match #4: Single – A.J. Styles VS. League of Nations member Alberto Del Rio
They begin with a lockup, then Alberto tries to control first. A.J. chops back and leapfrogs over Alberto, and then hits him with a dropkick! He hops over the top rope and runs with a knee from the apron! A.J. rolls Alberto back in the ring for one and corners him. Styles shoulder-rams Alberto, but is reversed and kicked on an Irish Whip.
Del Rio throws A.J. into the corner of the barrier, then he soars off the top turnbuckle with a double axe-handle smash! He runs at Styles in another corner, but misses and eats the post! A.J. snap-suplexes Alberto, but his momentum doesn’t last long. Del Rio runs to the outside on Styles with a front-dropkick.
Ads.
Alberto’s still in control but misses a running-enziguri when A.J. ducks. “The Phenomenal One” capitalizes with a fireman’s-carry kneebuster, but Del Rio slides off a pump-handle attempt and brings A.J. down with a backstabber! He lines up for a kick, but A.J. rolls out of the way and flips over with the Pele Kick! 1 – 2 – Alberto get his shoulder up!
Del Rio places A.J. upside down and climbs the turnbuckle, but Styles kicks at Alberto. He follows with a Phenomenal Forearm attempt, but Del Rio ducks. Alberto signals for the Cross Armbreaker, but A.J. reverses into a roll-up to take this!
Winner via Pinfall; A.J. Styles
Segment #4: Locker Room Promo
R-Truth is wondering why Goldust hasn’t answered his messages; “The Bizarre One” replies that “Golden Truth” will be tonight, as he found a new partner for the Tag-Team Title Tournament match – Fandango. They are labelled as “Golden-Dango.” Fan and Goldust dance awkwardly, as Truth looks on shocked.
Ads.
Match #5: Tag Team (#1 Contender’s Tournament to the Tag-Team Championship) – The Vaudevillians (Simon Gotch and Aiden English) VS. Golden-Dango (Goldust and Fandango)
English and Gotch control early, but Fandango gets the hot-tag and takes over. Goldsut tumbles to the floor with Aiden, but Gotch gets the better of Fandango, and he and English complete this with the Whirling-Dervish.
Winners and Advancing via Pinfall: The Vaudevillians
Commercials.
Segment #5: Backstage Promo
Chris Jericho rips on Dean Ambrose with Jojo for rearranging the “Highlight Reel” and puts himself over.
Sami Zayn enters and the main-event is up next!
Ads.
Match #6: Single- Sami Zayn VS. Chris Jericho
They tie-up to begin, then Sami chops Jericho. He gives him a three-consecutive armdrags, sending Chris to the outside. Kevin Owens walks out, but Dean Ambrose follows, placing “Ambrose Asylum” signs on Owens and giving them to the crowd! He sits at the announcer’s table for commentary. Sami rolls-up Jericho, but “Y2J” kicks out. Dean gives Chris a sign too, which Jericho tosses away.
Commercials.
Zayn is all over Jericho, and Owens is now on commentary. Jericho controls now and suplexes Sami from the apron to the ring. He clotheslines Zayn in the corner and wears him down with a grounding rear chinlock. Sami gets some momentum, ducking a running Chris in the corner. Jericho slaps back and climbs the turnbuckle, but meets Sami’s fist as he dove off! Sami capitalizes with a Tornado-DDT for a near-fall!
Jericho works his way out and tries the Walls of Jericho, but Zayn flips him over. Sami also counters a Lionsault with his knees, but misses the Helluva kick! Jericho drags Sami to the center of the ring and turns him around into the Walls of Jericho. Zayn manages to break it, but gets put to the outside. Jericho jaws and brawls with Ambrose, but is dumped onto Owens. In the ring, Kevin attacks Sami, causing a dq!
Winner via Disqualification: Sami Zayn
Post-match, Ambrose helps Sami and the two fend off Jericho and Owens, yelling at them to close the show.
End of Smackdown!
Reporter’s Rumblings
This was a great week; both Raw and Smackdown! were very-good shows. Lots of great wrestling, some great promos, and new/better stories told.
Excellence: matches from Cesaro/Owens (Raw), Natalya/Charlotte (Raw), Styles/Zayn (Raw), Ryder/Corbin (Smackdown!), Emma/Paige (Smackdown!), Enzo/Cass/Ascension (Smackdown!), and Styles/Del Rio (Smackdown!).
Promos by Shane (Raw), Roman Reigns (Raw), Charlotte (Raw), Kevin Owens (Raw and Smackdown!), Baron Corbin (video, Raw), Enzo and Cass (Raw and Smackdown!), Dean Ambrose (Raw and Smackdown!), The New Day (Raw), Dr. Phil (Raw), and Bray Wyatt (Raw).
Love the Tag-Team Tournament; this is a great idea for new opponents for The New Day, and showcase the Tag-Teams. Reigns’ attitude is great and his pending match with A.J. Styles is intriguing, as is his partnership on Raw with The Wyatt Family. Maryse’s return has also been great and she is a good talker; she’s getting The Miz back over, and I think outtalks him. Liking Baron Corbin’s position and feud with Dolph. Glad that Cesaro is just as over, if not even more, since returning and he also has stepped up with charisma in this feud with Miz!
Bogus: as much as I loved Jericho, I feel his “best in the world” shtick is getting old; on the flip-side, Ambrose is the perfect person now to feud with Jericho and actually point that out (particularly with taking over the “Highlight Reel”).
While I think I’m going to like the team of Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows, I feel they should’ve held off their debut until after the Tag-Team Title Tournament, especially since The Usos won. If they caused Jimmy and Jey to lose, then I could see it; but for now, they should’ve remained off until Payback or the night after.
End “The Golden Truth” segments now!
Overall, a great week for Raw and Smackdown; let’s hope they continue! Until next Monday’s Raw, Be Excellent Wrestling-Online Fans!
The next time WWE visits Japan, three of its most popular Superstars will be making the trip back to the Land of the Rising Sun.
The WWE Japan website confirmed that Shinsuke Nakamura, NXT Women’s champion Asuka, and the number one contender for the WWE World Heavyweight title AJ Styles will all be going to the tour. Other Superstars announced so far include champion Roman Reigns, Chris Jericho, Sheamus, Rusev, tag team champions The New Day, and Paige.
There will be two back-to-back live events held at the Tokyo Ryogkoku Kokugikan on July 1 and July 2. Tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10AM local time at http://eplus.jp/wwe. Ringside seats for these non-televised shows are selling for around $360.
WWE Shop is running a “$15 Friday” promotion only for today with tons of merchandise including t-shirts and WrestleMania 32 apparel on sale for just $15.
Shirts making part of the sale include NXT Takeover: Dallas, League of Nations, Hall of Fame 2016 inductees, Kevin Owens, Paige, John Cena, Roman Reigns, and the majority of the WrestleMania 32 merchandise.
The first two matches with the winners earning a spot in the WWE Global Cruiserweight Series will take place on Sunday, April 24 in Camden Town, London, under the banner of PROGRESS Wrestling at the event titled PROGRESS Chapter 29: Practically PROGRESS In Every Way to be held at the sold out Electric Ballroom.
The first match will be Zack Sabre Jr. taking on Flash Morgan Webster and the second match will see Jack Gallagher take on Pete Dunne.
Seven competitors have already been confirmed with 25 open spots remaining. Those who have secured a spot in the tournament are Rich Swann, Johnny Gargano, Tommaso Ciampa, Noam Dar, Akira Tozawa, Ho Ho Lun, and Lince Dorado.
The tournament will be filmed in July at Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida. It will air on the WWE Network.
NXT will have another live special, presumably a Takeover event, on June 8 according to the NXT Twitter account.
Tickets for this show, to be held on June 8, along with other television tapings set for May 19 and June 9 will go on sale this Monday at 10AM ET.
It’s going to be quite a busy week for NXT stars as after the live special on June 8 and tapings on June 9, they head to the United Kingdom to be part of the Download Festival which kicks off on June 10. This means right after the tapings are over they head straight to the airport to make it to the UK.
But the hellacious week does not end there. NXT will then have live events in Belfast, Dublin, Liverpool, Bournemouth, and Plymouth, with shows running from June 13 to June 17.
The class action lawsuit brought forward by the man formerly known as Rene Dupree against WWE over the unpaid WWE Network royalties has been dropped already. The lawsuit was filed in the state of Connecticut, home of the WWE.
Earlier this week, WWE attorney Jerry McDevitt notified the legal team of the plaintiff that a 2011 contract he signed prevents him from bringing these kind of claims against the company, something that apparently Dupree – real name Rene Goguen – forgot to mention.
While pre-2006 contracts didn’t have such a clause and entitled talents to receive royalties on a variety of services they would be a part of, newer contracts were more favorable to the company and did not include royalties on streaming services.
WWE has uploaded 104 episodes of Monday Night Raw on the WWE Network spanning from 2002 and 2003, covering the nWo’s arrival in February 2002, to Goldberg’s debut the night after WrestleMania 19 and everything else in between. The post-Attitude Era was labeled by the WWE as the Ruthless Aggression Era, a phrase coined by John Cena when he made his debut against Kurt Angle.
Last month WWE added 155 new hours of ECW episodes and in February over 180 hours of WCW Monday Nitro joined the WWE Network archive footage. The new Raw addition spans to around 170 hours of action.
The WWE Network is free for first-time subscribers and you can subscribe by going to http://w-o.it/wwentwrk.
John Cena returns to television tonight with his new reality show American Grit on FOX starting at 9PM ET.
16 men and women will be split into four teams with Rorke Denver, Noah Galloway, Tawanda Hanible, and Nicholas Irving serving as their military leads. Denver is a former U.S. Navy Seal, Galloway is a former U.S. Army soldier, Hanible is a former Gunnery Sgt. in the U.S. Marines, and Irving is a former U.S. Army Ranger. Each team will go through grueling challenges and a $1 million prize will be given to the winning team.
FOX has ordered 10 episodes for this season. It was filmed late last year when Cena left following the Hell In A Cell pay-per-view. The show was plugged a lot during last week’s season finale of American Idol and Cena was also there to hype the show in a short interview with Ryan Seacrest.
An audio clip from the Hulk Hogan racist-filled sex tape has just been published on the Internet thanks to deathandtaxesmag.com. The tape was obtained from the unsealed audio recording of the sting operation from the FBI investigation.
The audio is not a direct extract from the tape but it’s a recording from someone that captured it while Hulk, his attorney, and a broker for the tape, Keith Davidson, were watching it together. There are some inaudible parts and some portions are redacted but the audio clearly puts Hogan using several racist remarks.
Hogan is heard talking to Heather Clem about his daughter sleeping with the son of a “black billionaire” and complains that she “jumped sides” on him.
Hogan just won a $140 million lawsuit against Gawker who released excerpts of his sex tape. Gawker appealed the jury outcome and the next hearing is in May.
Bray Wyatt injured his right leg during the main event of last night’s WWE live non-televised show in Milan, Italy, while wrestling Roman Reigns.
The incident happened during a simple collar and elbow tie-up and as Wyatt pushed Reigns to the corner, he immediately grabbed his leg and backed off. He moved to the middle of the ring and went down as Reigns stood in the corner. The referee then threw the X hand sign signifying a real injury and the match was stopped.
Braun Strowman and Erick Rowan eventually stormed the ring and attacked the WWE World Heavyweight champion. The Usos came to the rescue however the Dudley Boyz came out to fight them as well.
“I’m not sure what happened to Bray Wyatt,” Reigns told the crowd afterward. “We bust our asses to entertain you but sometimes things happen,” he added as the crowd clapped. Sheamus then came in to interrupt and got speared for his trouble.
You can see two videos – one of the injury and one of the aftermath – below.
Impact on POP did 286,000 viewers this week, up from last week’s 272,000 number. Impact lost its Tuesday night replay this week, a replay which led to an additional good number of extra viewers. It will be replayed every week on Saturday morning.
Last night’s Total Divas – which was episode 13 of season 5 titled C’est La Diva – did a total of 632,000 viewers, 17,000 viewers less than last week’s episode. This was part one of the two-part season finale. This has been the lowest rated season of the whole series so far. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
The Wrestling Observer is reporting that The Undertaker will be doing a couple of shows as part of the European WrestleMania Revenge tour, three less than he was originally scheduled.
Apparently there was some confusion over his presence during this tour as local advertising has changed and his name was removed from the shows he was set to appear in. As of today, Taker will be working the Smackdown tapings in London, England on April 19 and a non-televised live event in Newcastle, England, the next day on April 20.
On March 3 it was announced that the Undertaker would be joining the tour and apart from the two above mentioned dates he was also supposed to join the WWE crew in Brussels on April 21, Paris on April 22, and Malaga on April 23. Those three dates have been scratched off from his schedule.
This tour has been somewhat of a nightmare for the company as Daniel Bryan was also scheduled to join them to appear at 5 live events including the Smackdown in London. He was removed from the tour and all his appearances canceled due to unknown reasons.
The Undertaker was supposed to join The Big Show in tag team matches during this tour.
