The Corey & Carmella reality show made its debut today on WWE’s YouTube channel.
Episode one, titled House-hunting Hell, is 11 minutes long and deals with the couple going around the city of Pittsburgh to find a new house, a house which must have a nice kitchen, a nice bathroom, a nice backyard, and lots and lots and lots of closet space for Carmella’s clothes.
There will be five episodes in total. Episodes one and two are both available today with episode three coming tomorrow, episode four on March 2, and episode five on March 3. Initially, the episodes were supposed to be four minutes each and split into 10 parts.
The whole season is the pilot episode that was filmed by Glass Entertainment Group, the producers of tons of reality TV shows.
Shane McMahon asked Hulk Hogan if he has “one more in him” in a tweet, sparking a huge wildfire of Internet rumors considering WWE is on the road to WrestleMania.
McMahon wrote that he was walking in the hallway of Madison Square Garden with his three sons for the New York Rangers NHL game and passed the frames of Hulk Hogan and WrestleMania hanging. McMahon also posted a photo posing in front of the Hogan memorabilia.
“Made me thing…@HulkHogan, got one more in ya?” Shane continued.
McMahon was sent home by his father following the Royal Rumble after a barrage of complaints from wrestlers, producers, and creative writers for his involvement in the production of the men’s Royal Rumble match. He was supposed to be part of the Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania shows but creative was told to move on without him in the picture.
The Hulkster has yet to publicly reply to the tweet. Brother!
Walking in the hallway @TheGarden with my 3 sons for the @NYRangers game and passed this.
All Elite Wrestling will be making their Detroit debut in late June for a live Dynamite and Rampage tapings.
The show will take place at the Little Caesars Arena on June 29 with tickets going on sale on Friday, March 11 at 10AM ET on Ticketmaster.com.
This is the same arena that WWE runs when in Detroit and can have around 14,000 fans in a wrestling setting. WWE returns to the same place for a live Raw on April 11.
There are rumors that AEW today will also announce that they will be finally hitting the West Coast for some shows in California.
The Raw Women’s title match between champion Becky Lynch and challenger Bianca Belair will be taking place on WrestleMania Saturday. The news was officially announced by WWE today.
That means that both the Raw and Smackdown Women’s title matches will be happening on the first night of WrestleMania. WWE had kept them separate at WrestleMania 36 and 37, putting one match on one night and the other match on the following night.
Who headlines WrestleMania Saturday remains to be seen as WWE did not announce which match is going on last although Flair vs Rousey is the heavy favorite to get the top billing.
At least one more women’s match, for the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles, is expected on the card.
With Revolution taking place in Orlando, AEW is also squeezing in a taping of Dark at Universal Studios to the already-busy schedule.
The tapings will be held on Thursday, March 3 with showtime at 7PM at Soundstage 18. Jade Cargill, Orange Cassidy, Powerhouse Hobbs, The Young Bucks, Wardlow, and others are featured on the marketing material. Tapings are free to attend although it requires a ticket to the theme park.
AEW will have Dynamite in Jacksonville on Wednesday, Dark on Thursday, live Rampage from Orlando on Friday, a fan fest and concert on Saturday, and the pay-per-view on Sunday.
Stone Cold Steve Austin will be at Billy Bob’s Texas in Fort Worth on Thursday, March 31 for the release of his brand new American Lager.
The Hall of Famer said that he and El Segundo Brewing have crafted and fine tuned this beer to be the most crushable and easy drinking beer in America.
“I will be there to drink beer and enjoy celebrating the release of this bad ass beer in my home state of Texas. @recklesskelly96 will be there to supply some awesome live music. I look forward to seeing everyone at the one and only @billybobstexas. Whether you’re coming down for #wrestlemania weekend, or from the area, come join the Broken Skull Beer Bash,” Austin wrote in a post on social media.
General admission and VIP tickets are available at AXS.COM.
Tammy “Sunny” Sytch was arrested again three days ago in Keansburg, New Jersey, according to a report by WrestlingNews.co, her second arrest of 2022 after she got booked for threatening to kill her partner with scissors in January.
The police report states that Sytch was hit with 11 different charges including: Operating under the influence of liquor or drugs; Driving after driver’s license/registration suspended/revoked; Careless driving; Reckless driving; Failure to wear seat equipment; Driving without a license; Failure to possess a driver’s license; Failure to possess driving registration; Failure to possess an insurance card; Failure to install interlock or drive a car without an interlock; and Operating a motor vehicle during a license suspension.
A quick inmate public search shows that Sytch is no longer behind bars today. Her last tweet was on February 20, promoting her OnlyFans account on Twitter.
Last month, after she was released from jail, Sytch told her followers not to believe the media and that she was doing okay. She is scheduled to be at WrestleCon during WrestleMania weekend.
The post-No Surrender episode of Impact Wrestling on AXS TV drew 111,000 viewers on Thursday, up 3,000 viewers from last week’s show. The episode had a 0.03 rating in the 18-49 demo, the same of the last two weeks, and was #141 on the top 150 chart for the night. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Independent wrestler Kayla Sparks appeared on both Smackdown and Rampage on the same night yesterday, joining only a handful of individuals who managed to pull a similar feat over the years.
Sparks was on Smackdown on FOX as part of the Kiss Cam segment with Los Lotharios and then an hour later she was on Rampage on TNT doing the five-minute rookie challenge with Serena Deeb. The Rampage show was taped this past Wednesday following the conclusion of Dynamite.
The 33-year-old, who made her pro wrestling debut in 2004, has appeared on AEW television before, losing to Riho and Thunder Rosa on Dark last year.
Perhaps the most famous star who appeared on two shows at the same time was Rick Rude, who during the Monday night war era, appeared on a taped episode of WWE Raw and then showed up live on WCW Nitro.
The Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns match at WrestleMania 38 will now be a title unification match, meaning that both the WWE and Universal titles will be merged into one moving forward following the show.
Lesnar will be putting up his WWE title on the line while Reigns puts his Universal title on the line, with one man walking out of the AT&T Center with all the gold.
While previously it was title for title, WWE has now clarified in their WrestleMania marketing that only one title will survive eventually and it looks like whomever is the champion will be appearing on both brands. It’s unclear if the brand split will be stopped as well.
The Universal title was established in July 2016 after the company re-introduced the brand extension.
Date: February 25, 2022
Arena: Webster Bank Arena
City: Bridgeport, Connecticut
It’s Saturday morning, and you know what that means… it’s time for our Rampage review!
A fun show coming off a fantastic Dynamite just over a week from the Revolution PPV.
ANDRADE VS SAMMY GUEVARA, TNT TITLE
Story going in: After Andrade failed to recruit Darby, both declared they wanted the TNT belt. Andrade cost Darby his shot last week, leading to a six-man at the PPV. Dissension between Andrade & Matt Hardy.
So, we jumped straight into it, no music, no entrances but plenty of intensity. Sammy hit a double-leg and punches to the face before both exchanged shots and each looked to end it early with their finish. Double ‘lazy-boy’s followed as they grabbed their breath. Andrade offered a handshake only to be flipped-off.
The TNT champ was spectacular as the pace quickened again, following up a series of flips with a Spanish fly before the challenger shoved him outside as we went to break.
Andrade was in control as we returned until he went to the top, from where Sammy hit another Spanish fly. They exchanged slaps – not the best idea given Sammy scratched his cornea doing this last week – which degenerated into punches before both collapsed, exhausted and the ref began a double count.
Frustrated, El Idolo went to remove the turnbuckle pad. As he was stopped by the referee, Matt Hardy jumped up and undid the adjacent one. Which is where the action moved next as Sammy went for the GTH but Andrade rolled through into a pin with his foot on the ropes. Only for the dastardly Hardy to push them off. The commentators debated whether he was trying to help.
Perched on the top rope, the challenger tried for the ‘El Idolo’ DDT before Sammy countered, kicking his standing leg out and sending Andrade face-first into the exposed buckle. The Spanish God then hit an ugly-looking top-rope cutter for the win.
This was great, a longer match and feud between these two could be classic. Sammy is spectacular.
Afterwards, Matt Hardy attacked Sammy, but was obliterated by a Darby Allin suicide dive. Sting, Allin and Guevara celebrated in the ring but the latter two stared holes through each other as they did so. It seems both teams have a little mistrust heading into Revolution.
WINNER: SAMMY GUEVARA, RETAINS TITLE
QT Marshall came out. Now, getting the audience to care about QT has been… problematic. The solution? ‘Send Hook!’ Marshall claimed he’d ‘made’ the youngster, who promptly massacred members of the Nightmare Factory. Looks like we’re heading for a match between the two, possibly at Revolution?
Loud ‘We want Hook’ chants here.
WARDLOW VS NICK COMOROTO
Story going in: Wardlow’s on a roll, when will he snap on Spears/MJF/The Pinnacle?
The crowd was pretty dead for this until the first of the Powerbomb Symphony. Which seems to be the case for most of the big guy’s outings lately. For Wardlow’s sake, let’s hope it reflects the caliber of opponent rather than overall fan interest.
Afterward, Aaron Solo was about to be the victim of some extra powerbombs, before Shawn Spears hit his usual post-match chair shot, irritating the ‘Wardog’ and the crowd.
Grabbing the mic, Spears talked down to Wardlow, claiming he ‘loved him like a little brother’ and so he had to be honest, the powerbomb symphony wasn’t ‘getting over’ (could’ve done without the insider lingo) and hugged Wardlow while telling him to ‘stick to the basics.’ Wardlow looked disgusted.
WINNER: WARDLOW
SERENA DEEB VS KAYLA SPARKS, ‘PROFESSOR’S 5 MIN. ROOKIE CHALLENGE’
Story going in: Serena feels disrespected, wants to show how far beneath her everyone is by winning in under five minutes.
Unlike Jade Cargill, Serena is capable of having at least a solid match with almost anyone. So, this ‘open challenge’ isn’t the worst idea. Although between these two and Sammy, AEW might be overdoing it.
‘The Professor’ walloped Sparks with a blindside clothesline to start, used her robe to choke her, hit some strikes, mangled some joints in the ropes before looking at the clock and slapping on the Serenity Lock for the victory.
WINNER: SERENA DEEB IN 2.30
Next came a WWE staple in the contract signing between Britt Baker and Thunder Rosa. Heading in, this match felt lackluster considering the lengthy backstory.
Rosa oozed hatred, telling Britt that the people deserved a better champ amidst some unkind words in Spanish. ‘DMD’ responded that she was the only thing that made Rosa relevant. Even after their match last year, Rosa might have won but all people talked about was Britt – she got the t-shirt and the action figure. Claimed that even if Rosa won at Revolution, she’d never be a star on the same level.
Rosa attacked but was outnumbered until Mercedes Martinez made the save, sending Jamie Hayter crashing through a table.
The number one contender celebrated with Mercedes and held the Women’s title high to end the segment. Presumably, Rosa will end Britt’s lengthy reign because, if she doesn’t, it’s hard to see who will.
ORANGE CASSIDY VS ANTHONY BOWENS, FACE OF THE REVOLUTION QUALIFIER
Story going in: Winner enters Face of the Revolution match at the PPV for a chance at the TNT title.
In the pre-match interview, Cassidy seemed to have no idea what was going on. Hearing the word ‘ladder’, he was concerned he’d have to climb something until Wheeler Yuta explained that this was simply a qualifier.
Max Caster covered ground from Putin to racial inequality in his pre-match rap. Not sure the current invasion of Ukraine is great ‘heel material’ and apparently the censors feel the same way since this part didn’t make air.
An early front-runner for cringe of the year, Orange followed this up by grabbing the mic and stating ‘Word to ya motha’. Vanilla Ice references in 2022…
After distracting Cassidy early, Bowens took over and basically controlled the whole match. Looking very good in doing so. ‘Freshly Squeezed’ had a few flurries – including a boot to the face which Jericho compared to Masahiro Chono – but would be cut-off by his opponent or interference from Caster.
This all culminated in Danhausen distracting Caster, leading to an Orange Punch on the outside before flipping back into the ring, ducking the clothesline and hitting another Orange Punch to join Keith Lee, Starks, Wardlow and Hobbs in the ladder match at the PPV.
This was fine but the outcome was never in doubt. Bowens continues to impress.
WINNER: ORANGE CASSIDY
GO OUT OF YOUR WAY TO WATCH…
Sammy, Sammy, Sammy. Honestly, you probably could’ve turned off after the TNT title match, which should’ve closed the show. Nothing afterwards was bad; nor was it ‘can’t miss.’
Johnny Knoxville returned on Smackdown last night to challenge Sami Zayn for the Intercontinental title but the night did not end well for the Jackass star.
Knoxville and Zayn have been embroiled in a feud since before the Royal Rumble and it was Zayn who eliminated Knoxville from the Rumble match. A few days later, Zayn crashed the Jackass Forever red carpet party and now it was Johnny’s time to crash Sami’s championship celebration.
After Zayn refused Knoxville’s challenge, he started to leave the ring but only to turn around and attack him. By the time the segment was over, Knoxville was on the receiving end of two Helluva kicks by Zayn.
The current working plan is to have Sami Zayn defend the Intercontinental title against Knoxville at WrestleMania 38.
Date: February 25, 2022
Arena: Giant Center
City: Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Smackdown opens with a review of the Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar feud and Pat McAfee announces the contract signing for their WrestleMania Match.
In the ring, Michael Cole announces Ronda Rousey and during the interview Rousey stated she wanted to “tap out Charlotte Flair”.
That leads to the arrival of the Smackdown Women’s champion, who threatens to put Rousey in the Figure 8 and tap her out at WrestleMania. After that, Sonya Deville attacks Rousey and Michael Cole bails out of the ring as Sonya and Charlotte slam Ronda’s right leg into the ring pole. Charlotte never enters the ring and Ronda flips Sonya who then bails out of the ring and yells back to Rousey as she walks to the back.
In the back shows Big E and Kofi Kingston riding an ATV as they announce they will be going against the Lotharios after the break.
Advertisement for Corey and Camella’s new show.
Adam Pierce is shown asking Sonya what she was doing and announced a match between Sonya and Ronda Rousey next week.
Los Lotharios VS. Big E & Kofi Kingston
After some out of the ring action in front of the ATV, Kofi jumps off the top rope only to receive a superkick from Garza who then goes up to the top rope but is stopped by Big E who is on the ATV threatening to run of Humberto who was on the floor from the earlier altercation outside. Garza got down after a roll up by Kofi. Kofi gets up, tags in Big E who picks Garza up and they hit the Midnight Hour for the 3 count.
Winners: The New Day Big E. & Kofi Kingston
The Usos are shown in the back talking to Sam Roberts. Shinsuke Nakamura and Rick Boogs Toyota Tundra commercial is shown. As we come back from break, the WrestleMania advertisement is shown.
In the back, Sheamus and Ridge Holland are talking to Big E and Kofi Kingston who are still on the ATV. Sheamus challenges them and Big E pulls away.
Sam Roberts interviews The Usos who are talking about the contract signing of Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar, then announce they are going against the Viking Raiders and said they can smell them a mile away which led to the Viking Raiders arriving and The Usos running off as the Raiders screamed they wanted their title match.
A recap of the Natalya and Aliyah feud is shown, and they announced Xia Li facing Natalya next.
Natalya VS. Xia Li
After a failed attempt with the sharpshooter, Xia Li steps back and hits a spinning heel kick on Natalya to get the victory.
Winner: Xia Li
A recap of Sami Zayn beating Shinsuke Nakamura for the Intercontinental Title from last week’s Smackdown is shown.
Out next is the new Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn for his Championship Celebration.
Advertisement for Tuesday’s NXT Tommaso Ciampa & Bron Breakker VS. Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode.
After the break, Sami Zayn is in the ring for his celebration and after stating he is willing to defend the title against anyone, out comes Johnny Knoxville.
Sami asked what he was doing here and Johnny says “you crashed my premier and celebration so I figured I would come and crash yours”. Knoxville then challenges Zayn for the title. After more words were exchanged they both dropped their mics and Sami acted like he was leaving the ring then attacks Knoxville.
Zayn delivers a Helluva Kick to Knoxville as referees come to try and get things calmed down. Zayn delivers a second kick to Knoxville before grabbing the title and leaving the ring as we go to break.
As we come back from break, Zayn is shown with Adam Pearce defending his actions. Ricochet arrives and challenges Zayn. Pearce makes the match for next week for the title.
Sasha Banks VS. Shotzi
Before the bell, Naomi’s music hits and Naomi makes her way to the announce table with Cole and McAfee. During the match, Sasha hits the back stabber into the Banks’ Statement as Shotzi immediately taps out.
Winner: Sasha Banks
Naomi enters the ring as Sasha celebrates and says you’re looking at the next WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions.
In the back, Madcap Moss and Happy Corbin interview with Megan Morant who announces Corbin is going against Drew McIntyre and they show McIntyre’s match with Madcap Moss from the Elimination Chamber where Moss landed awkwardly on his head during the match. Corbin told Moss that is the way to use his head before laughing hysterically and stated Corbin vs. McIntyre is a WrestleMania caliber match and is going to show McIntyre who the real Warrior is.
Drew McIntyre VS. Happy Corbin
Corbin with a mic stated this is a WrestleMania caliber match and after hyping Madcap Moss, he says why don’t you take this match? Before the match, both Corbin and Moss attack McIntyre.
Drew McIntyre VS. Madcap Moss
Before McIntyre could hit the Claymore, Corbin gets up on the apron and Moss hits a thumb to the eye, throws McIntyre into the ring post shoulder first and hits a DDT. McIntyre kicks out after a 2 count. Moss runs back and forth in the ropes until McIntyre hits a Claymore out of nowhere and gets the 3 count.
Winner: Drew McIntyre
Recap of Sonya Deville attacking Ronda Rousey early tonight is shown.
In the back Megan Morant interviews Ronda Rousey and asks her thoughts on her match with Sonya Deville and Rousey stated “she is going to show everybody what’s it like when an authority figure step out of line.”
Coming out for the contract signing are Paul Heyman, carrying the Universal Championship, Roman Reigns and The Usos.
After the break, Adams Pearce is in the ring with the Bloodline and eight security team members. Paul Heyman begins talking and hypes the contract signing and says “that, my friends, is what we call a cliffhanger,” as we cut to another commercial break.
As we come back from break they announce that Mr. McMahon will be the special guest on the Pat McAfee Show Podcast next Thursday.
Brock Lesnar’s music hits and he comes to the ring. As Lesnar enters the ring he hangs his Cowboy Hat on the ring post sits the WWE Title on the table and he stares and smiles at Roman Reigns and Reigns grins back at him.
After a bit of trash talking, Brock signs the contract and then throws the folder to Roman Reigns. Paul Heyman grabs the mic and says Brock isn’t going to make it to WrestleMania as champion because he is going to lose the title next Saturday at Madison Square Garden. Roman then signs the contract as well.
Adam Pearce leaves the ring as Reigns begins to talk trash toward Lesnar. As Roman and the rest of the Bloodline begin to exit the ring, Reigns brags that everything is his including the security team in the ring who then surround Lesnar. Lesnar takes out all eight security team members as the Bloodline look on from the ramp and Heyman with his hand over his mouth with Lesnar staring at them with a smile on his face.
WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon will be appearing live and in-studio on The Pat McAfee Show next Thursday, March 3, starting at Noon ET on YouTube.
This will mark the first time that McMahon, who rarely does interviews and rarely does them live, will sit down for a one-on-one since Stone Cold Steve Austin interviewed him eight years ago on the WWE Network.
The interview was announced on Friday Night Smackdown last night where McAfee is the much-beloved color commentator.
“How did you pull that off?” Michael Cole asked. “I honestly have no idea,” Mcafee responded. “I think it’s because of the Brock one!”
Brock had a memorable one-hour interview a few weeks ago on McAfee’s show.
There are rumors that McMahon will launch something between him and McAfee for WrestleMania 38 starting on that show.
Appearing on the Busted Open Radio show, Tony Khan has promised that he will make a huge announcement on the March 2 episode of Dynamite, an announcement that no one knows about.
“I promise you guys right now, I have a huge announcement coming and nobody knows what it is,” Khan said.
The AEW President said last week that he was working on something massive and was rushing to close the deal but didn’t manage to get it in time for this week. He compared the importance of the deal to The First Dance Rampage show when CM Punk returned in Chicago last August.
“It’s going to be something important in the wrestling business, hm, it’s not just one particular piece of talent. It’s something very special and I’m really excited about it and I believe it’s going to be something we’ll be in a position to announce on Wednesday,” Khan continued.
What the huge announcement is remains to be seen but three popular rumors among fans online seem to be the buyout of Ring of Honor and its video library, a super show with another promotion like New Japan, or a streaming deal.
WWE is now marketing the two-day WrestleMania as WrestleMania Saturday and WrestleMania Sunday rather than night one and night two.
In previews on WWE.COM, they have amended the stories and graphics to reflect the change, with Flair vs Rousey now on WrestleMania Saturday and Lesnar vs Reigns on WrestleMania Sunday.
The third match announced, Becky Lynch vs Bianca Belair for the Raw Women’s title, has no day assigned but that is most likely taking place on Sunday night.
As reported earlier, WWE has not outright announced that Flair vs Rousey will be the main event of the Saturday show but that will most likely be the case. The Smackdown Women’s title match last year also headlined the first night of WrestleMania 37.
In related WrestleMania news, Dave Meltzer of the Observer is reporting that WWE sold over 50,000 tickets so far for each night. A true sellout for WrestleMania at the AT&T Stadium is around 80,000, which is what they sold for WrestleMania 32. In theory, WWE has sold more tickets in total than WrestleMania 32 but obviously it will be less attendance each day as things stand right now.
There are 36 more days left for WWE to move thousands of more tickets.
WWE has removed Bobby Lashley from the Madison Square Garden advertising so WWE champion Brock Lesnar will have to face a new opponent on the card.
Lashley, who is suffering from a shoulder injury, visited Birmingham, Alabama this week to meet Dr. James Andrews of Andrews Institute for Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine and with WWE removing him from advertising, things don’t look good for Lashley.
The former two-time WWE champion is expected to be out for months if surgery is required on his shoulder, certainly missing WrestleMania and probably even SummerSlam.
Earlier this week on Raw, Paul Heyman informed Lesnar that he would be defending the title on the March 5 non-televised live event in New York and if Lashley was not ready, he would find him an opponent worthy of the world’s most famous arena.
Tickets for the MSG show had a dismal start and continue to struggle, just 8 days before the show, with the majority of seats remaining unsold.
Charlotte Flair vs Ronda Rousey for the Smackdown Women’s title will be part of night one of WrestleMania 38, taking place on Saturday, April 2.
WWE did not announce if it will be the main event of that particular night, and while Reigns vs Lesnar will without a doubt headline night two, the decision of what match will headline night one will probably be taken just days before the actual show.
Rousey and Flair have already headlined WrestleMania 35 with Becky Lynch and if they are indeed chosen to close the show, they will become the first females to headline a WrestleMania twice.
There have been only two women’s main events in the history of WrestleMania, with Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair headlining night one of WrestleMania 37.
Dynamite this week drew 1,010,000 viewers, up 132,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. The show did a 0.40 in the 18-49 demo, up a healthy 0.09 from the last show and it placed #3 in the top 50 cable chart for the night. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
PWInsider.com broke the news that Cesaro has officially left WWE after his contract expired and he opted not to renew it after weeks of negotiations.
It looks like WWE offered the Swiss Superman an extension to his contract but that was turned down. He last appeared on WWE television on the February 11 episode of Smackdown.
Cesaro was surprisingly left out of the Royal Rumble match last month and probably him not signing a deal played a part in that decision.
The 41-year-old, considered by many as one of the best wrestlers around, had been working for WWE since 2011, starting with FCW, NXT, and main roster. He is a former five-time Raw Tag Team champion, two-time Smackdown Tag Team champion, and United States champion.
Despite his tremendous talent, the company never saw him as one of the top tier guys and never held a world title during his reign there. He rarely had opportunities to wrestle for a major title although he did have a short program with Roman Reigns for the Universal title.
With his deal expiring, he can show up on any show at any time as he is not subject to a 90-day no-compete clause.
