WWE championship match to kick off WrestleMania 37

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04/10/2021

The last time that WrestleMania was held in front of fans, the Universal title match opened the show. Tonight, welcoming fans after a whole year, the WWE championship match will be kicking off WrestleMania.

With the announcement of Banks and Belair headlining night one, WWE also announced that Bobby Lashley vs Drew McIntyre will start things off and with no Kickoff matches planned, the first person out of that Gorilla Position is going to have a special entrance.

That person would be Drew McIntyre and as the challenger, he should be the first one out. Drew got his title win last year at WrestleMania by beating Brock Lesnar and as a WWE champion, he never got to wrestle in front of fans while carrying the Raw brand through most of the year.

McIntyre recently told an India-based podcast that he would be just as happy opening WrestleMania this year because the first reaction of fans is going to be very special.

Impact rating for 04/08/2021

By

Colin Vassallo

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04/10/2021

This week’s Impact Wrestling on AXS TV, which permanently moved to Thursday nights, drew 168,000 viewers, up 19,000 viewers from last week’s show. Impact did a 0.06 in the 18-49 demographic and placed #115 in the top 150 chart. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

Banks vs Belair to officially headline night one of WrestleMania 37

By

Colin Vassallo

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04/10/2021

WWE has officially announced that Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair will be headlining night one of WrestleMania 37 tonight.

It’s going to be a historic night for Banks and Belair as they become the first African-American women to headline a WrestleMania and it is only the second time that women have had this honor following WrestleMania 35 where Becky Lynch, Ronda Rousey, and Charlotte Flair had their moment.

In comments given to TheUndefeated.com, an emotional Banks thanked those who came before her for allowing her the opportunity to be able to do this. “I hope it just means to them that their hard work and efforts didn’t get unnoticed. It’s because of everything that they did that I’m here now, and I thank them so much.”

Belair also echoed her statements saying that both she and Sasha are a representation for all the Black women that came before them who laid a foundation and all the groundwork before them.

“It’s us physically in the ring, but they are in this match right along with us. So I just want them to know that we’re paying tribute to them, we’re honoring them, we’re representing for them. I want people to know that when they see us, I want them to see them as well. Because without them, this wouldn’t be happening,” she said.

Is The Man coming around…tonight? Becky drops big hint on return!

By

Colin Vassallo

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04/10/2021

Becky Lynch uploaded a photo on her Instagram showing her training, tagged with the location of Tampa, Florida.

The comment was quite interesting as she wrote “Nothing is guaranteed here tonight only now eternally.” Each word was in its own line and when you read the first letter of each word vertically, it says Night One.

Lynch’s return at WrestleMania has been rumored for a while and some even wondered if Bayley’s omission from the card has something to do with it.

Just yesterday, Elle Magazine put out a huge feature on Lynch, going over her entire career.

Becky has been off WWE television since the night after Money In The Bank last year where she announced that she was pregnant, handing over the Raw Women’s title to Asuka.

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Early betting odds for the WrestleMania 37 top four matches

By

Colin Vassallo

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04/09/2021

A total of 14 matches are part of the two-night WrestleMania pay-per-view this weekend and we will bring you all the latest betting odds for all the matches tomorrow and Sunday.

But today, we take a look at the top four matches of the card, concentrating on the WWE, Universal, Raw Women’s, and Smackdown Women’s title bouts. These are the early odds and they might change by the time the shows start.

Drew McIntyre won the WWE title at last year’s WrestleMania against Brock Lesnar and finds himself in the same position this year, the favorite to beat Bobby Lashley to claim his third WWE title. McIntyre is 2/5 the favorite and Lashley is at 7/4 to keep the gold in The Hurt Business.

Will the EST of WWE win her first title on WrESTleMania? If odds are proven to be correct, that seems to be the case. Royal Rumble winner Bianca Belair is on course to take the Smackdown Women’s title from Sasha Banks, with the challenger having odds of 2/13 while the champ is at 7/2 to retain.

Another title change is predicted when it comes to the Raw Women’s title match with Asuka listed at 3/1 underdog to win the match while her opponent and fellow former NXT Women’s champion Rhea Ripley the clear favorite with 1/5 odds.

In the triple threat main event of night two, it’s Edge vs Daniel Bryan vs Roman Reigns for the Universal title. Edge currently has, well, the edge, in the odds with 19/20 attached to his name. Roman Reigns is 5/4 to retain while Daniel Bryan is 7/2 for his second upset at a WrestleMania.

Andre memorial battle royal and SD Team Team titles match tonight on Smackdown on FOX

By

Colin Vassallo

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04/09/2021

Tonight on FOX, there will be a special WrestleMania edition of Smackdown as two matches which usually are on the Mania card find themselves unfortunately “relegated” to the broadcast, missing the pay-per-view altogether.

The Smackdown Tag Team titles and the Andre The Giant Memorial battle royal will both be held tonight in a broadcast which was taped already last week.

In the tag team titles match, Robert Roode and Dolph Ziggler will defend against The Street Profits, Rey and Dominik Mysterio, and Otis and Chad Gable in a fatal four-way match.

The Andre The Giant Memorial battle royal has 22 entrants including Akira Tozawa, Angel Garza, Cedric Alexander, Drew Gulak, Elias, Erik, Gran Metalik, Humberto Carrillo, Jaxson Ryker, Jey Uso, Kalisto, King Corbin, Lince Dorado, MACE, Murphy, Mustafa Ali, Ricochet, Shelton Benjamin, Shinsuke Nakamura, Slapjack, T-Bar, and Tucker.

In addition, Roman Reigns, Edge, and Daniel Bryan will be addressing the WWE Universe just two days before main eventing night two of WrestleMania.

More WrestleMania 37 tickets sold

By

Colin Vassallo

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04/09/2021

WWE managed to move a few more hundreds of tickets for this weekend’s WrestleMania with just under 1,300 remain for both nights in total. That number represents around 400 additional tickets sold from 10 days ago.

Night one tomorrow has 710 tickets left on sale on Ticketmaster. Out of those 710, 157 of them are floor seats and 31 are what you can classify as ringside seats. 10 days ago, there were just over 1,000 tickets in total available for night one.

Meanwhile, night two has 567 tickets left, down from 693 which were available 10 days ago. 111 tickets are floor tickets but no ringside seats remain for the second night.

WWE put approximately 25,000 tickets on sale for each night.

AEW House Always Wins non-televised live event tonight in Jacksonville

By

Colin Vassallo

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04/09/2021

All Elite Wrestling will present its first ever non-televised live event tonight from Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida. The event is held as thousands of wrestling fans are in the state of Florida for this weekend’s WrestleMania.

Jacksonville is around a three hour trip from Tampa by car but with limited number of indie events going on around the area due to the lack of international visitors, AEW gambled with their House Always Wins event. Only around 100 tickets remain for the show, making it a success.

The card includes The Young Bucks and Brandon Cutler vs Death Triangle; Kenny Omega and Michael Nakazawa vs The Sydal Brothers; Cody Rhodes vs. Aaron Solow in a street fight; Eddie Kingston vs. Cezar Bononi; Hikaru Shida, Tay Conti and Red Velvet vs. Nyla Rose, Britt Baker and The Bunny; The Pinnacle vs. Jurassic Express and Dante Martin; a 12-man battle royal with the winner facing Darby Allin for the TNT title; and Orange Cassidy and Jade Cargill also in action.

Young Rock S1 E7 rating

By

Colin Vassallo

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04/09/2021

Episode seven of season one of Young Rock, titled Johnson & Hopkins, drew 2,627,000 viewers, up 104,000 viewers from last week’s episode. Ut tied second in 18-34, fourth in 18-49, and fourth in 18-34 with 0.3, 0.5, and 0.7 ratings respectively. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

NCAA champ Gable Steveson attends Takeover, to be at WrestleMania as well

By

Colin Vassallo

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04/09/2021

A very special guest was at NXT Takeover: Stand & Deliver night two yesterday and that man is Gable Steveson.

The 20-year-old won the NCAA championship last month and also qualified for the Olympics. The big WWE fan “waved” at Vince McMahon on Twitter in one of his first tweets after his win.

Steveson was at the show with his father and he will also be WWE’s guest at WrestleMania. He was shown on camera sitting at ringside alongside Stephanie McMahon and Canyon Ceman, WWE’s Senior Director of Talent Development.

During the post-show conference call, Triple H said that discussions have been held between the two parties about a possible deal and Steveson wanted to come out and watch WrestleMania live. Triple H added that Steveson is currently training for the Olympics and don’t want to force the discussion now but they’re big fans of his and he’s a big fan of theirs so if he decides to join, they will accept him super quick.

Season three trailer of Dark Side of the Ring released

By

Colin Vassallo

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04/09/2021

Dark Side of the Ring from VICE TV will return with season three starting May 6 at 9PM ET.

The series, which became VICE TV’s most watched show of all time, exposes the hidden, heartbreaking, and untold stories of professional wrestling with intimate access to its subjects. The series chronicles the deeply personal and often controversial legacies surrounding the larger-than-life brawlers of the wrestling world, in a sport that draws tens of millions of fans around the globe to this day.

In a press release, VICE TV unveiled the season three trailer which will tackle subjects such as Brian Pillman, the Ultimate Warrior, Collision in Korea, Dynamite Kid, and others. In total, there will be 14 episodes and will have interviews with Chris Jericho, Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Jon Moxley, Eric Bischoff, Jim Cornette, David Arquette and the former wife of Ultimate Warrior, Shari Tyree, among others.

A formal series announcement revealing more of this season’s roster and storylines will be released later this month.

Sasha Banks repeats claim that she’s main evening night one of WrestleMania 37

By

Colin Vassallo

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04/09/2021

Appearing on the Token CEO podcast with Erika Nardini, Smackdown Women’s champion Sasha Banks repeated her claim that her match against Bianca Belair will be the main event of WrestleMania this Saturday.

“I can’t believe this 10-year-old girl is about to live her dream and main event WrestleMania, I truly believe that,” Banks said. Banks got pretty emotional talking about the match, calling Belair incredible and the future of WWE. But she noted that so is she as she’s two years younger than Belair.

“At WrestleMania, we will be main eventing. This is my first singles match at WrestleMania and it’s the first time it’s two African-American women will be headlining WrestleMania,” Banks continued. “This is crazy because it’s bigger than me. The beautiful thing is, everything I’ve done with WWE, not only has it been for me…but it’s been bigger than me because of the impact it’s made on so many amazing people all over the world of every color and race.”

The Legit Boss admitted that she’s freaking out about it and has been calling Bayley all morning about her match.

NXT Takeover: Stand & Deliver night two results

By

Colin Vassallo

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04/09/2021

Here are the results from last night’s NXT Takeover: Stand & Deliver night two which took place live from the Capitol Wrestling Center inside the WWE Performance Center.

Killian Dain and Drake Maverick defeated Breezango in the Kickoff match; Santos Escobar defeated Jordan Devlin in a ladder match to become the undisputed NXT Cruiserweight champion; Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart defeated Candice LaRae and Indi Hartwell to retain the NXT Women’s Tag Team titles; Johnny Gargano defeated Bronson Reed to retain the NXT North American title; Karrion Kross defeated Finn Balor to become the new NXT champion; Kyle O’Reilly defeated Adam Cole in an unsanctioned match.

Dynamite rating for 04/07/2021

By

Colin Vassallo

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04/09/2021

AEW Dynamite this week drew 688,000 viewers, down 69,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast going up against a Takeover episode. While Dynamite lost the viewership battle this week, they still won the 18-49 demo race with a 0.28 rating, good enough for fifth place on the top 50 cable chart. This was the least-watched episode of Dynamite since January 6 and the difference between the two shows was of 80,000 viewers. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

NXT rating for 04/07/2021

By

Colin Vassallo

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04/09/2021

NXT on USA drew 768,000 viewers this week for Takeover night one, a number which was certainly hurt by the commercial-free simulcast on the WWE Network. The episode had 90,000 viewers more than last week and drew a 0.22 rating in the 18-49 demographic, placing NXT #11 on the top 50 cable chart. The number was the best one since Halloween Havoc last October. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

Full betting odds for night two of NXT Takeover: Stand & Deliver

By

Colin Vassallo

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04/08/2021

It’s night two of NXT Takeover: Stand & Deliver and if it’s anything like yesterday, then we are in for another great show. Today we will go over the betting odds of the remaining five matches on the card. Remember, odds might change by the time the show starts so please be careful when placing bets with real money.

In the NXT championship match, Karrion Kross is on course to win his second title, one that hopefully lasts longer than the previous one. The challenger is the favorite with 1/4 odds while Finn Balor is 5/2 to retain.

Bronson Reed became the number one contender for the North American title last night after he won the six-man gauntlet eliminator match and is the favorite to win his match against Johnny Gargano today. Reed is 11/20 in the odds while the reigning champ is 5/4.

Two Cruiserweight champions will walk in with the titles but only one will walk out as the undisputed CW champ. With both titles hanging above in a ladder match, Santos Escobar is 11/20 favorite while the Irishman, Jordan Devlin, is 5/4 to become undisputed champ.

The Way might not have a great night at Takeover as Candice LaRae and Indi Hartwell are just like Gargano, the underdogs, in the NXT Women’s Tag Team titles match. The champions, Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart, are favorites with 2/5 odds while The Way are 7/4.

And last but certainly not least, it’s the unsanctioned match between Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly. In the battle between the former Undisputed Era team mates, O’Reilly is the favorite with 7/20 odds while the former NXT champion Adam Cole is 19/10 for the win.

Triple H and Shawn Michaels with extra praise to NXT UK champion Walter

By

Colin Vassallo

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04/08/2021

One of the men who really impressed last night at Takeover was the Austrian superstar Walter. The NXT UK champion literally chopped his way through a victory, retaining the title against Tommaso Ciampa.

In the post-show press conference, Triple H and Shawn Michaels both showered the champion with many compliments. When asked if we would see Walter more on NXT in the United States, Triple H said that if Walter wants, that’s certainly doable once travel restrictions are lifted.

Triple H noted that the travel between the UK and Florida is not much more than crossing from New York City to Los Angeles so they would find no problem if Walter decides to travel for every show while he remains based in the United Kingdom.

Walter made it clear in the past that he has no desire to move permanently to the United States which is why he remains a big part of NXT UK and only occasionally appears on NXT in the U.S.

HBK added that if travel gets easier, they would do everything in their power to get him everywhere he wants to be. Walter has been champion for 733 days, the longest reign with a WWE title for decades. Michaels predicted that Walter will be NXT UK champion for a very long time.

WrestleMania store opens in Tampa

By

Colin Vassallo

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04/08/2021

The WrestleMania store launched today in Tampa ahead of the big pay-per-view this weekend.

The store is located within the Bucs Team store on the west side of Raymond James Stadium and the WrestleMania Store entrance will be at the Hyundai Club Entrance. Guests can park in lot D on Thursday and Friday, and lot 6D before event doors on Saturday and Sunday.

The WrestleMania Store will be open from 10AM to 7PM today and tomorrow and on Saturday and Sunday, the store will be open from 9AM to 4PM and from gates to close.

WWE signs new television deal in the Netherlands

By

Colin Vassallo

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04/08/2021

WWE and Talpa Network today announced a new partnership to broadcast WWE’s weekly flagship programs Raw and SmackDown, and to offer WrestleMania as a live pay-per-view event for the first time in the Netherlands this weekend.

Beginning tomorrow, April 9, one-hour versions of Raw and SmackDown will be broadcast on the free-to-air channel Veronica on Friday evenings beginning at 11:45 PM. The full-length versions of Raw and SmackDown will be available to view on Talpa Network’s on-demand service KIJK, immediately following the U.S. broadcasts.

In addition to weekly programming, WWE’s two-night pop culture extravaganza, WrestleMania, will made available live on KIJK pay-per-view on April 11 and 12.

“We are excited to bring our weekly flagship programming to Talpa Network along with our global pop culture extravaganza, WrestleMania,” said Andy Warkman, WWE VP, General Manager, Europe and Sub Saharan Africa. “This new partnership allows us to expand our reach and deliver our unique blend of action-packed, family friendly entertainment to WWE fans throughout the Netherlands.”

“We are very happy that this unique partnership enables us to broadcast WWE’s weekly flagship programs Raw and SmackDown, and offer WrestleMania as a live Pay-Per-View event to the Dutch audience on April 11 and 12. It’s an exciting and spectacular novelty in the Netherlands that hopefully leads to many happy fans and viewers on Veronica and KIJK,” said Bastiaan van Dalen, Head of Veronica.

NXT Takeover: Stand & Deliver night two live on WWE Network tonight

By

Colin Vassallo

-

04/08/2021

Live from the Capitol Wrestling Center inside the WWE Performance Center, WWE presents NXT Takeover: Stand & Deliver night two tonight on WWE Network and pay-per-view. The full card is as follows:

Finn Balor vs Karrion Kross for the NXT title; Adam Cole vs Kyle O’Reilly in an unsanctioned match; Johnny Gargano vs Bronson Reed for the NXT North American title; Jordan Devlin vs Santos Escobar in a ladder match for the undisputed NXT Cruiserweight title; and Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart vs Candice LaRae and Indi Hartwell for the NXT Women’s Tag Team titles.

For those in the United States, the show will air on Peacock. If you’re new to Peacock, you can get four months of Peacock Premium for a single, one-time payment of $9.99. When the 4-month period expires, the service will auto-renew on a monthly basis at $4.99 until you cancel at any time. You can use the promo code PEACOCKMANIA to sign up and offer expires on April 9.