The annual WWE Draft is returning to WWE television for a two-night affair later this month.
WWE announced that this year’s Draft will take place on the April 26 episode of Smackdown live from Cincinnati, Ohio, and then continues on Raw on April 29 live from Kansas City.
The WWE Draft last year took place during the same timeframe with some major stars such as Drew McIntyre, Bianca Belair, Edge, Bobby Lashley, Asuka switching brands.
NXT champion Ilja Dragunov will be one from NXT who is eligible in the draft following his outing on Raw against Shinsuke Nakamura last night.
WWE has started teasing something using the same formula that they had teased the return of the late Bray Wyatt.
Before Raw went on the air, the lights went out and the song Nightbird by Marti Amado started playing and then abruptly ended a few seconds later.
Then during the Bronson Reed promo backstage during the show, the screen went glitchy for a second and those who could quickly freeze frame it, there was the word “hello” written on the bottom right of the screen.
These exact tactics were used for the White Rabbit reveal which ended up being the return of Bray Wyatt.
WWE has been teasing the return of Uncle Howdy, played by Bo Dallas, to continue the legacy of his brother.
Cody Rhodes’ popular theme song Kingdom by the band Downstait climbed to the top rock chart on iTunes in the United States, hitting the #1 spot after Sunday’s WrestleMania.
“We will never be able to thank @CodyRhodes and all of you enough for making this happen, but THANK YOU, and we love you,” the band said in a message on X.
Kingdom played pretty much on repeat at WWE World as well with fans doing their own custom Cody entrance. At WrestleMania and especially on Raw last night, fans played singalong in full force.
The song was released in 2016 and was specifically recorded for Cody Rhodes, with the theme accompanying him at every wrestling show he went to following his departure from WWE.
John Cena made a surprise appearance on Monday Night Raw, coming to help The Miz and R-Truth in their 2-on-3 handicap match against Judgment Day.
Truth agreed to take on Balor, Mysterio, and McDonagh as he teamed with Miz and the man we cannot see. Fans immediately started chanting for Cena but the 16-time champ was nowhere to be found.
Towards the end of the match as Judgment Day beat up on the new Raw Tag Team champions, Cena’s iconic theme song hit to a big pop from the crowd and he came sprinting down and immediately got the hot tag from The Miz.
The crowd exploded as Cena hit his usual set of moves and followed with a triple Attitude Adjustment and triple five knuckle shuffle with Miz and Truth and a triple pin.
Cena then celebrated in the ring with Miz and Truth as R-Truth finally got to experience teaming with his hero!
The Final Boss made his presence felt on Raw After Mania and was part of a 45-minute opening segment which was extended mainly due to the fans’ refusal to allow Rock speak.
The Rock interrupted Cody Rhodes’ celebration first to thunderous cheers and then to even more thunderous boos and chants. Fans did not allow him to speak as they booed heavily every time he raised the microphone to talk, interrupting him with chants such as “Rocky sucks” and “Shut the f*ck up.”
The People’s Champion couldn’t help but crack a smile at times as the back and forth with Cody – and the fans – continued.
But after saying that he will be leaving for a while, The Rock made it perfectly clear that when he returns, he’s coming for Cody no matter if he is the champion or not. He said that Cody’s story with Roman is finished, but their story is just getting started.
Before he left, The Rock gave something to Cody when he shook his hand, something that made Cody very emotional, and Rock told him to never break his heart again. What Rock gave Cody was never revealed.
The long segment also featured a bit where Rock wanted to hold Cody’s title, with Cody agreeing on the condition that he lets him hold his People’s Championship that was given to him at the Hall of Fame. The exchange resulted in the rowdy crowd to chant “This is awkward.”
Paul “Triple H” Leveque is out first to open Raw after WrestleMania. He thanked the crowd for making this the greatest WrestleMania ever and then introduced the new WWE champion, the American Nightmare Cody Rhodes.
Triple H told him congratulations and he received a call from a couple guys that made a special video package for Cody last night. He wanted to share it with everyone so they brought out a couple of TVs since there was no large video screen set up.
Cody acknowledged Roman Reigns for his title run and said he may be the most important Superstar of our generation. After Cody finished, The Rock came out. Every time the Rock would put the microphone by his mouth, the crowd booed loudly.
The Rock says he came out to deliver flowers and congratulate Philadelphia for the largest gathering of trailer park trash. Rock said no disrespect, his mom had a big smile on her face, and she should have. And so did his daddy in heaven. Rock then said Dusty was his hero.
The Rock asked Cody if there was any way the Rock could hold his title. Cody said you could hold it for a moment if I could hold yours. Rock agreed. Rock said it feels right. Then they handed each other’s titles back. The Rock then thanked Cody and said it meant a lot, then said he must go away for a little while now.
The Rock said when he comes back, whether Cody is champion or not, he is coming back for Cody and Cody said he is looking forward to it. Rock reminded Cody then he beat Roman and ended that story but 24 hours earlier, The Rock pinned Cody, so their story is just beginning. Cody said he believes that and Cody said I am their champion (the fans) which means I am your champion too as his boss.
The Rock said you are my champion and I have something to give to you. The Rock took something out of his pocket and handed it to Cody and said you don’t even need to open your hand to know what this is…so never break my heart again.
Shinsuke Nakamura VS. Ilja Dragunov
The NXT champion hit a flying headbutt and got the win.
Winner: NXT champion Ilja Dragunov
Finn Balor, Dominik Mysterio and JD McDonagh are in the ring, Dominik announced Rhea Ripley as still being the Women’s World champion, but the fans were booing so loud you could barely hear him. Rhea said WrestleMania was almost perfect, and they have a few things to deal with, but this is a new era for the Judgement Day. Finn then announces the new World Heavyweight champion Damian Priest.
Damian said all rise for the Judgment Day and R- Truth snuck in and held his tag title up with Damian and Rhea. As Truth started to pitch The Miz being a member of the Judgement Day, The Miz comes out and says he doesn’t want to be in the Judgement Day.
The Miz said since you are introducing new champions, we are the new Raw Tag Team champions. Finn then challenged them for the titles and Truth says no we can have a six-man tag against us and the guy you can’t see. As Truth went to introduce the guy you can’t see, the Judgment Day attacked them.
JD McDonagh, Finn Balor & Dominik Mysterio VS. Awesome Truth & John Cena
As the Judgment Day was beating down The Miz, John Cena comes out and Miz tags him in.
Cena, Truth and Miz give Judgment Day a triple Attitude Adjustment and all there pin the Judgment Day.
Winners: Awesome Truth & John Cena
Rhea told Dom he needed to deal with Andrade, and he said he would talk to Pearce. Liv Morgan then attacked Rhea backstage.
Indi Hartwell VS. Roxanne Perez
Perez hit Pop Rocks roll up and pinned Indi.
Winner: NXT Women’s champion Roxanne Perez
Sami Zayn runs into Main Event Jey Uso and both congratulate each other on their wins at WrestleMania.
Sami Zayn is next to the ring. Sami begins by saying Gunter goes down as the greatest Intercontinental champion of all time. Sami then thanked his family and Kevin Owens for supporting him and before he could get to the other person that helped him, Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci interrupted him.
As Vinci and Kaiser start to get in the ring after Sami, Chad Gable came out to back Sami up.
Sami Zayn & Chad Gable VS. Imperium
Sami hit the Helluva Kick on Vinci and Gable hit him with the Chaos Theory.
Winners: Sami Zayn & Chad Gable
Adam Pearce, Ava and Nick Aldis are talking to Andrade and Nick Congratulated Adam with signing Andrade and Chelsea Green comes in and told them about leaving her off WrestleMania and Pearce told her to go to the ring as her moment awaits.
Chelsea Green VS. Jade Cargill
Jade quickly slams Chelsea with the Jaded for the win.
Winner: Jade Cargill
Alpha Academy are talking, and Sami comes up and asked the rest of Alpha Academy to give them a minute and Sami agrees to defend the Intercontinental championship against Chad next week in his hometown of Montreal.
Drew McIntyre VS. Ricochet VS. Big Bronson Reed VS. Main Event Jey Uso for the number one contender for the world championship.
Prior to the match Drew McIntrye complained about what happened last night.
Ricochet took out Big Bronson Reed by splashing him through the announce table.
As Drew set up for the Claymore on Jey, CM Punk came out and held his leg and gave Jey time to recover and hit Drew with a spear then splash off the top rope.
Winner and number one contender to the World Championship: Main Event Jey Uso
The cool-looking mask that Cody Rhodes used last night in his entrance at WrestleMania was created by Jason Baker, the same man who is behind The Fiend’s mask and costume.
Writing on X, Baker said that the American Nightmare crown and shoulder eagle armor was created by the phenomenal crew at Callosum Studios, a special makeup effects company specializing in masks, props, prosthetics, animatronics, and blood FX for the film and television industry.
“Thank you again @CodyRhodes for trusting us and allowing us such an amazing opportunity,” Baker wrote.
It was a busy weekend for Baker and his team as they also unveiled two life-size statues of Bray Wyatt and The Fiend during the Bray Wyatt panel at WWE World on Saturday.
Baker also noted later that they created Damian Priest’s and Finn Balor’s masks as well which were used for their WrestleMania match.
Multiple sources have reported that Jacob Fatu, the former MLW champion, has signed with WWE. The news was originally broken by Fightful Wrestling via their Select service.
Fatu, 31 years old, is the cousin of The Usos, Solo Sikoa, and Roman Reigns and could very well be the next member of the Bloodline faction.
He became a free agent in February after spending five successful years with Major League Wrestling. He holds the record of the longest reign as MLW champion with a total of 819 days with the title.
Jacob is the son of Sam Fatu, who wrestled as The Tonga Kid and Tama, and is the brother of Umaga and Rikishi.
Vince McMahon’s stake in TKO continued to diminish after the former WWE Chairman and CEO has agreed to sell 1,642,970 TKO shares to Endeavor and 1,853,724 TKO shares to TKO Group Holdings for a price of $89.01 per share.
The transactions are expected to close on April 9 and April 10 respectively according to documents filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and will give Vince McMahon a total of $311,240,732.
With these sales, McMahon’s ownership of TKO shares will go below 5% and according to regulations, McMahon no longer has to record future sales with the SEC.
McMahon, who served as the TKO Executive Chairman of the Board, resigned in January of this year and made more than $1.5 billion in stock transactions.
WWE Hall of Famer Bubba Ray Dudley made a surprise appearance at WrestleMania last night as the special guest referee for the Philadelphia Street Fight between The Final Testament and The Pride.
Bubba Ray even got himself on the action at the expense of Karrion Kross, leading The Pride to do the “Wazzzuuuup” spot and then enticing the trio to “get the table!”
Several ECW chants rang throughout the stadium as Dudley showed up, confirming Paul Heyman’s assessment that ECW is far from dead.
Dudley, one of the hosts of the SiriusXM Busted Open show, was also at the Hall of Fame ceremony sitting alongside with his former tag team partner D-Von Dudley.
Tonight’s Monday Night Raw will smash the record set last week by Brooklyn as the highest-grossing Raw ever where over 18,000 fans will witness what it is now called the Raw After Mania.
The company sold nearly 1,000 extra tickets to Raw over the weekend according to @WrestleTix with 18,159 tickets out as of this morning and just under 400 remaining for a total capacity.
Raw After Mania will wrap up festivities here in Philadelphia as a “new season” kicks off with new champions, most notably the new WWE champion Cody Rhodes and new World Heavyweight champion Damian Priest.
Rhodes is expected to move to the Smackdown brand with this title win but will be on Monday Night Raw tonight as he celebrates finishing his story.
Some epic title reigns came to an end at this year’s WrestleMania as the counter goes back to the start for six titles, or make it seven if you count the World Heavyweight title twice in that equation.
The longest reign in modern-day history with 1,316 days came to a Nightmare-ish end for Roman Reigns last night with Cody Rhodes finally finishing his story. Reigns had not been pinned in a singles match for a whopping 1,575 days, also another record unlikely to be replicated.
Gunther’s record-breaking run as Intercontinental champion ended on the 666th day on Saturday thanks to Sami Zayn, giving Gunther his first loss on the main roster. The last time Gunther was pinned before this match was by Ilja Dragunov when he won the NXT UK title from him and that was 958 days ago.
Seth Rollins’ reign as World Heavyweight champion ended after 316 days. He became the inaugural champion and Triple H said in the post-show conference that if you want to make a new title mean something, you give it to Seth “Freakin” Rollins and let him run with it. That run was ended by Drew McIntyre who himself won his first title in front of fans. Unfortunately for McIntyre, his run as champion was not legendary at all and lasted just around 5 minutes thanks to Damian Priest and CM Punk.
Iyo Sky’s reign as WWE Women’s champion was halted by her former Damage CTRL leader Bayley at 171 days. Sky won the title at SummerSlam last year. This was Bayley’s first run with a major singles title since the pandemic era where she and Sasha Banks ran the asylum and carried the company during dark times.
And The Judgment Day are no longer the Undisputed WWE Tag Team champions after losing them in the six-pack ladder match after a run of 171 days. A-Town Down Under are now the Smackdown Tag Team champions while Awesome Truth are the Raw Tag Team champions. Those titles are expected to be renamed in line with the rest of the titles currently in play.
WWE announced that it will bring Friday Night Smackdown and King and Queen of the Ring premium live event to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia next month.
This is the first time that Smackdown will be held in Jeddah on May 24 and the PLE will follow the next day on May 25. The King and Queen of the Ring event was supposed to happen last year, also in Saudi, but that was changed to Night of Champions to coincide with Roman Reigns’ 1,000th day as Undisputed WWE Universal champion.
The last time WWE held King and Queen of the Ring was in 2021 in Riyadh, with Xavier Woods winning the men’s tournament and Zelina Vega winning the women’s tournament.
The announcement was met with thunderous boos from the crowd at Lincoln Financial Field, though those boos were not heard on the live broadcast.
Brandi Rhodes made her first official appearance on WWE television last night since her husband returned to WWE, accompanying him to the first portion of his entrance.
The crowd popped big time when she showed up by her husband’s side as she cracked a smile acknowledging the reaction, then took Cody’s mask and told him to go finish the story. Brandi showed up again to celebrate with Cody at the end of the night along with the rest of the family.
The former AEW Chief Brand Officer had a rough time in AEW and Rhodes previously mentioned that he hated how his wife was often the scapegoat for things that happened. Her appearances on TV were also met with dislike by fans and problems were big enough that led the departure to both of them from the company in February 2022.
During the post-show press conference, WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque put over Head of Media & Production Lee Fitting and WWE President Nick Khan as the two individuals whose ideas, work ethic, and dedication to WWE has resulted in an uptick in production and said that this was not his era, but “our era.”
Fitting, a former ESPN executive for over 20 years, came to WWE in January of this year and pretty much took over the job of Kevin Dunn, a very hated figure among wrestling fans. Fitting’s arrival brought several changes to production, including new camera angles, new ideas to television imported from his ESPN days, and Triple H added that WWE will be rolling out tons of new production tricks over the next several months, all thanks to Fitting’s vision.
Nick Khan, Triple H’s right hand man, is a monumental figure for the company and is often credited with bringing in the major media rights deals and negotiations to bring in the stars such as CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, and The Rock back. Khan is mostly doing the job that Vince McMahon did back in the day, leading the company from a corporate perspective.
Levesque said that those are two men that he would gladly go to work for and pretty much put all the recent success to their name.
WrestleMania had a combined audience of over 145,000 according to WWE, although the combined number they are using – 145,420 – is slightly higher than the total of what they announced each night.
On night one, Raw and Smackdown General Managers Adam Pearce and Nick Aldis announced an audience of 72,453 while WWE Hall of Famer Snoop Dog announced yesterday 72,755.
Triple H in the press conference said “regardless of what Snoop Dogg” said, the combined attendance was 145,420, making it sound like Snoop messed up the number with a discrepancy of 212.
Regardless of the total number, Triple H said that this year’s show destroyed the gate money of any other WrestleMania in history, with official figures still yet to be published.
After a long 281 days, Damian Priest finally cashed in his Money in The Bank briefcase at WrestleMania last night, becoming only the second person in history to do it at the show of shows.
Winning it in London last year, Priest was often labeled as the dumbest MITB holder for failing to cash in on multiple occasions when Seth Rollins was in a very compromising position. That label was even addressed by Triple H last night on the post-Mania media scrum, who said that after being called the dumbest one, Priest cashed in at the biggest WrestleMania of all time.
Priest is also the one who held the briefcase for the longest when it comes to the men. Carmella actually beats him for the longest delay between the briefcase win and cashing in at 287 days.
With his win, Priest became the first Puerto Rican WWE Superstar in over 50 years to hold a major singles title in the company after Pedro Morales.
WrestleMania XL night two kicked off with a major surprise in the form of Stephanie McMahon.
Coming out with a remixed theme, McMahon said that since 1985, she’s been at every single WrestleMania show, a subtle dig at her father Vince who was “not allowed” to be there yesterday.
The shots at her father continued, saying, “I think WrestleMania 40 might be the one that I am the most proud of because this is the first WrestleMania of the Paul Levesque era,” to a big pop from the crowd.
Stephanie mentioned that there are fans from 64 different countries and all 50 states coming together from different backgrounds and different beliefs to share their love for professional wrestling.
“And nobody understands that better than Triple H,” she continued.
She then asked the fans if they’re ready and welcomed everyone to WrestleMania.
In the post-show press conference, Triple H remarked that his wife looked amazing and he’s happy that she’s finally “back home.” He said it was great to see her gain her confidence back and get out there in front of fans.
It remains unclear if Stephanie is back in an official capacity in WWE but Levesque made it sound like it. At this point, there’s no press releases announcing her return.
Drew McIntyre’s obsession with CM Punk ended up costing him the WWE World Heavyweight championship which he won minutes before from Seth Rollins.
McIntyre won the title in front of fans for the first time after he won his two previous WWE titles during the pandemic era with zero fans in the stands. But that celebration soon turned sour thanks to CM Punk.
Instead of just taking the high road and go celebrate in the back, McIntyre decided to taunt Punk on the announce desk and after crotch chopping him, Punk had enough, tripped McIntyre on the desk and whipped him with the arm brace until Damian Priest’s song hit the speakers.
The crowd exploded as Priest ran to the ring and smashed McIntyre with the briefcase, then handed it over and cashed in.
In the ring, Priest wasted no time and immediately hit the South of Heaven chokeslam for the pinfall victory and then celebrated at the top of the stage with the rest of Judgment Day.
Punk was impressed and said it was beautiful while blowing kisses at McIntyre.
The main event of WrestleMania XL featured way more individuals than Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns, with several WWE Superstars – past and present – interfering.
It started with Jimmy Uso who was the first one to poke his nose in the match and that was met with his brother Jey, who came out and brawled with Jimmy on the entrance ramp before the two flew off the ramp and onto tables set up below following a spear from Jey.
Solo Sikoa was next to storm the ring, hitting Cody with the Samoan Spike in shades of last year. Cody fought back and kicked out of everything…until 16-time world champion John Cena ran down to take on Solo.
Cena delivered the FU to Roman Reigns and then did the same to Solo on the Spanish announce desk. The crowd was going apeshit at this point and went even wilder when The Rock’s music hit the speakers.
Rock and Cena went face to face in the ring again and Cena removed his t-shirt and was looking for a fight. Cena did the “You can’t see me” hand sign and was met with a Rock Bottom.
With Cena down and out, The Rock took out his weight belt and was ready to whip Cody into next week when The Shield’s music kicked in. Seth Rollins, in his Shield gear, got in the ring with a chair but was taken out by Roman instead.
And then…gong! Lights go out and The Undertaker shows up behind The Rock, sending the crowd into frenzy again. Taker chokeslammed The Rock and then disappeared as the lights went off again.
Reigns recovered and was ready to whack Cody with a chair but Seth got up and Roman returned the favor from when Seth took out Roman and Ambrose with a chair several years ago to turn on them.
