WWE night on FS1 continues tonight with four hours of WWE shows leading up to a new episode of Backstage.
Four Best WrestleMania Matches shows featuring John Cena, Triple H, The Undertaker, and Shawn Michaels will air at 7PM, 8PM, 9PM, and 10PM respectively before Renee Young and the usual gang anchor another new episode of virtual WWE Backstage.
The special guest on tonight’s Backstage is none other than two-time WWE Hall of Famer and Mr. WrestleMania himself Shawn Michaels.
Gerald Brisco, the 73-year-old WWE talent scout and occasional producer, has been furloughed by WWE.
Brisco has worked for WWE for the past 36 years and is regarded as one of the most loyal employees and one of McMahon’s most trusted lieutenants. However, his tenure and loyalty was not enough to keep him on the payroll during this difficult time.
“I have not been let go yet, I’ve been placed on furlough. Don’t know who leaked the wrong news. I hope get back to helping young folks find there dream. If not it been on heck of a run,” Brisco wrote in a tweet to clarify some rumors that he has been released too.
WWE still relies on Brisco’s eyes and brains when it comes to signing amateur wrestlers to developmental deals. He is regarded as the one who originally scouted Brock Lesnar way before he became a household name.
The WWE Hall of Famer was last seen on WWE television at the Raw Reunion show where he won the 24/7 title from Pat Patterson, only to lose it to Kelly Kelly in another backstage segment that same night.
The upcoming WWE tour in Australia and New Zealand set for August has been postponed according to TEG Dainty, the promoters who work with WWE to run shows in the two countries.
“We thank you for your continued patience and understanding as we work with WWE to secure our new return dates. The superstars of Monday Night RAW can’t wait to get back and put on one hell of a show for you in Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland,” a statement on their Twitter read.
WWE announced in February that they would be going to Melbourne on August 6, Sydney on August 7, and Auckland on August 8 for three live events celebrating 35 years of live event tours in Down Under.
The prospects of WWE running a show with fans inside a large arena this year seem to be fading away as the coronavirus continues to disrupt the everyday lives of people around the world.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer is reporting that Cain Velasquez has been released from his WWE contract before his wrestling career in the company even started.
Velasquez only made a handful of appearances, starting with the Smackdown debut on FOX and then facing Brock Lesnar in Saudi Arabia for the WWE title. That was the last time Cain was on WWE television and he lost that match fairly quickly tapping out to the then WWE champion.
He did wrestle in a non-televised live event teaming up with Humberto Carrillo but that was his second and last match in a WWE ring.
Days after his debut on Smackdown on FOX, Marc Raimondi from ESPN reported that Velasquez has signed a “lucrative, multi-year” contract with WWE.
Velasquez uploaded a photo at WWE headquarters last month with Ronda Rousey but nothing ever came out from that meeting.
The former UFC Heavyweight champion was supposed to be part of the Royal Rumble but plans changed and he was left out of the match as well.
Written by Chris Siggia.
CHASING GLORY WITH LILLIAN GARCIA 04/27/20: HEATH SLATER
Heath Slater talking about the end of his WWE run: “Yes, I lost my job, but I was burnt out, like burned the hell out, fact. I knew it, my family knew it, my coworkers knew it. Fourteen years, four years developmental, ten years on the road to where you can be promised, you can be told you didn’t even have it in your hand and ready and it changes on the drop of a dime. Putting everyone over for 10 years takes a toll on somebody, your confidence, your drive, your fire. I do everything you ask and I can’t get a bone. I went through those a lot. I wish I would have taken more control, walking in there and saying why is this happening? Why are we doing this? Why can’t we do it this way? I have 15 great reasons why we can do it this way, but why are we going that way?
Slater on why he didn’t take control: “I think what it was in my younger days was I did go in there and try and talk. I heard, no, no. I heard “no “too many times to where I said, you know what, shit, I’m not going to push no more shit because when I do, it goes nowhere. If I do pitch something good, it goes to someone else. When you get tired of hearing no, it’s not for you, you can’t do that, you kind of start believing it. Getting fired, I do believe I needed this to get the fire, get the hunger, and focus. Out of the last 4 or 5 years besides me and Terry winning the tag titles, which was an awesome little run, I’ve been so burned out and not even caring.”
SITTING RINGSIDE WITH DAVID PENZER 04/27/20: MIKE JACKSON
Mike Jackson on booking wrestlers: “I was one of the TV bookers in Atlanta from ’74-’84. Nobody knew that because I was never known as that or seen as that. J.J. would hand me a sheet, or Ronnie West would hand me a sheet…you put the guys with who you put them with…It made their job easier. They didn’t have to make 25 calls on a Monday or Tuesday. They would just call me. I did the same thing with WWF with Terry Garvin. He even came to me and said he loves the way I do this. It is so organized and I don’t have to worry about anybody. But, I was a very responsible person. If somebody didn’t show up, I took the heat for it. I was getting them a thing they couldn’t get themselves. I wasn’t charging them a fortune; probably $25 a show and they were making $100 or $150 a show. If I would rent the van, I would take care of all the hotel arrangements. I would make sure they got their pay. I took care of their food. They didn’t have to worry about anything. They didn’t have to pay a penny out. All they had to do was do a job and got paid and they came back home. They didn’t have anything to worry about.”
Are you craving to play some wrestling games on your Android Smartphone? Bring back memories just like the good old days Playing Smackdown in Play Station 2.
Games like WWE, UFC is one of the peak in charts in the Entertainment industry. Many people worried that these games are limited to console players and PC gamers out there. But ever since the Smartphone industry boomed, the specifications provided with budget smartphones are more than enough to run the games listed out in this list with no lag.
So, here are the top 5 wrestling games for Android :
1. Wrestling Revolution 3D
The Wrestling Revolution 3D is one of the best wrestling games for android and most downloaded in the PlayStore with over 60 million downloads. This game is somewhat similar to WWE where you fight in the ring, the ability to go backstage to fight with your opponent. With over 20 characters, you can have all the fun you can imagine. There are inbuilt graphic customization features that will help you to optimize the game in case of any sort lags in your smartphone.
2. Wrestling Revolution
Wrestling Revolution 3D and this game are from the same developers. The only difference is that this game is completely 2D. This game literally takes you back to the good old days playing cassette games on your TV. This game is completely made in 16 Bit graphics and sounds which is beautiful. This game provides an option to make your own character, compete against the different characters and rank up in the charts.
3. MMA Fighting Clash
Get your own dynamic figure in the game and compete against different players in different weight classes. You get to play from all modes right from Quick fights to a long mission. With over 60 characters to play with, exploring and completing this game would definitely take some time. Not just that, the characters in this game can be customized with over 100 moves to make your character what you feel like. Go ahead and read more information about the latest multiplayer video games.
4. EA Sports UFC
Unlike any other games in this list, EA’s UFC game has live events that shuffle around the week/month where you can compete with your customized character and win exclusive rewards easily. This app also has a multiplayer option which allows you to play against different players on the internet. This app is also one of the best Wrestling games for Android in terms of Graphic quality and visuals.
The unfortunate truth about the games in this segment is that there are not many games with good graphics except for the last two games in this list which is WWE Mayhem and EA Sports UFC which has considerably good graphics compared to the other games in this list
WWE Mayhem is a fast-paced game as we all know. This game allows you to play your favorite character from the real-life WWE right from John Cena to Randy Orton and many others. This game also brings in the different character modes such as Superstars, Brawler, Powerhouse ad more. Each character here carries different abilities, powers, and other elements to keep them different from others.
There are some unconfirmed rumors that this year’s Money In The Bank ladder matches will take place at the same time, with both the men and women wrestling throughout WWE headquarters together in another movie-style experience.
That part of the pay-per-view has already been filmed last week, in a very tedious, all-day affair that involved WWE Superstars wrestling in some cold weather on top of the roof as a tower crane held the the two briefcases.
A tweet by Lacey Evans dissing Bayley also hinted at this type of match, with Evans writing, “I guess she had to fight through men and women to get to the top…NOPE!” The “fighting through men and women” wouldn’t usually be there if the matches were filmed separately.
This year, WWE opted to have six men and six women in the match, rather than the usual eight and if the matches were combined, it might explain why there were less Superstars than usual for this kind of match.
All the leaked images also showed both briefcases hanging at the same time rather than one, another hint that this might actually be how the match was filmed.
WWE has given Captain Tom Moore a personalized replica WWE title to celebrate his 100th birthday. Moore, a British World War II vet, has made headlines over the past few weeks for his efforts in raising money to the NHS in the United Kingdom.
“As WWE Champion it is my honor, on behalf of @WWE, to celebrate the 100th birthday and extraordinary achievements of @CaptainTomMoore with a personalized WWE title. Happy birthday sir, and thank you,” WWE champion Drew McIntyre wrote on Twitter.
Moore, at the age of 99, began walking around his garden in aid of NHS Charities Together during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the goal of raising £1,000 by his 100th birthday. By April 26 he had raised over £29 million. He was also featured in a cover version of the song “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, with proceeds going to the same charity.
As WWE Champion it is my honor, on behalf of @WWE, to celebrate the 100th birthday and extraordinary achievements of @CaptainTomMoore with a personalized WWE title. Happy birthday sir, and thank you. #WalkWithTom #CaptainTomMoore pic.twitter.com/UIRkTBpTnd
— Drew (@DMcIntyreWWE) April 28, 2020
Former WWE champion Jinder Mahal made his return to WWE last night nearly a year after he was injured.
Mahal suffered a ruptured patellar tendon against Ali at a live event on June 15 of last year in Denver and had to undergo surgery to repair it. Typical recovery time for such an injury takes up to a year with Mahal returning in 10 months.
The Canadian WWE Superstar of Indian descent wrestled Akira Tozawa in his first match back and won with his Khallas finishing move.
Mahal was originally part of the Smackdown brand but then got drafted to Monday Night Raw.
Apollo Crews has been taken out of the Money In The Bank ladder match after an injury angle played out on Raw yesterday.
Crews was wrestling United States champion Andrade when the “injury” took place after jumping off from the top rope. Crews was shown holding his leg and the referee stopped the match. He was later filmed walking out with ice wrapped around his knee.
On WWE.COM, a statement was then posted announcing that Crews will not be participating in the MITB ladder match. “Apollo Crews suffered a knee injury that left him unable to continue in his United States Championship Match with Andrade on Raw. Due to that injury, Crews will no longer be able to compete in the Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match on Sunday, May 10.”
No replacement has been announced.
The first hint of the tag team formerly known as The Revival coming to All Elite Wrestling was dropped in the latest YouTube episode of Being The Elite.
The Revival, which now goes by the name of The Revolt, were released by WWE earlier this month after the duo have publicly requested for their freedom a couple of times in the past, including just this past February.
In the video Matt and Nick Jackson are shown staring at the sky and they couldn’t believe their eyes when “FTR” appeared in the clouds. FTR, an acronym used a lot by the former NXT and Raw Tag Team champions, now stands for Fear The Revolt. The two also changed their respective wrestling names to Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood.
All men from The Revolt and The Young Bucks have been teasing a match against each other for years and it’s one of those dream tag matches that never happened…yet.
2K today announced a new WWE game titled WWE 2K Battlegrounds, a completely new WWE gaming experience which will feature arcade-style action and over-the-top Superstar designs, environments and moves.
The game is being developed by Saber Interactive, the studio behind NBA 2K Playgrounds. WWE 2K Battlegrounds is scheduled to launch this fall. This is the surprise that the company mentioned last week after WWE confirmed that there would be no new WWE 2K21 video game this year.
The WWE 2K20 video game was massacred by fans for being too buggy and is considered 2K’s worst attempt at a WWE video game so far. 2K has said that they are extending the production timeline on their next WWE 2K simulation game to 2021 to ensure the development team at Visual Concepts can create a great game that will entertain gamers.
“We’ve recruited Patrick Gilmore to serve as our new Executive Producer and lead these efforts at Visual Concepts. Patrick has over 25 years of experience in video games, reaching all the way back to Disney’s Aladdin on Sega Genesis, and including franchises like Killer Instinct, Medal of Honor, and, most recently, Amazon’s New World. He will be overseeing WWE 2K development, and you’ll be hearing more from him and the team in the months to come,” a statement from 2K said.
https://twitter.com/2KBattlegrounds/status/1254773073603031042
WWE is back doing tapings for their shows and all shows moving forward until July 8 will be pre-recorded unless something drastic changes.
The company already filmed two episodes of Smackdown this past Saturday which will air on May 1 and May 8. Today, WWE will tape two episodes of Monday Night Raw, one which will air later tonight on USA Network and another one which will air on May 4.
WWE will also tape two episodes of NXT on Wednesday, one which airs later in the day and one which will air on May 6.
After Wednesday, the next time WWE resumes tapings will be on May 11 and will largely follow a Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday taping schedule every two weeks.
Bronson Rechsteiner, the son of former WWE and WCW Tag Team champion Rick Steiner, is going to the NFL after he signed a free agent deal with the Baltimore Ravens yesterday after the conclusion of the NFL Draft.
The news was picked up by major sports websites including ESPN who pointed out who his father is.
The Kennesaw State fullback Rechsteiner appeared in 48 games and helped the Owls capture two Big South Conference championships, make three straight appearances in the FCS Playoffs and capture four FCS Playoff victories.
“What an opportunity! Proud of you,” tweeted Jim Ross while Eric Bischoff congratulated Bronson on the outstanding news. “141 2/3% chance this was a great pick,” his uncle Scott Steiner joked in another message on Twitter.
His father Rick Steiner last wrestled in September of 2019 in Japan. He currently is a real estate agent in North Georgia where he runs Rick Steiner & Associates.
In the latest conference call with investors, WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon detailed the process that’s being done to ensure the safety of WWE Superstars as they tape television three times a week at the Performance Center.
McMahon said that anyone who goes in the facility must fill out a form every time and limiting the amount of people who are allowed all at once inside the PC. They’re also changing the mat, turnbuckles, and ropes in between matches during tapings and doing deep cleaning on very frequent basis.
Interim CFO Frank Riddick added that they’re using a company called Allied BioScience which provides them with an electrostatic spray technology which creates a protective barrier that eliminates places where microbes can hide and keeps surfaces continuously protected for up to 90 days.
“So we coated our facility – the Performance Centers – our warehouses, even our production trucks with all the that in addition to what Vince said. We’re taking every precaution that we have been advised and it’s the best practice to take and then some,” Riddick said.
Vince put over his talent, calling them amazing, for rising to the occasion and entertaining fans at home like no one else could entertain them. “And there are a few that are unable to come down due to a certain things that exist, but nonetheless by and large, I mean, kudos to them they are very special people. They’re extraordinary athletes,” Vince said. “They love to give. That’s what this business about. That’s why you’re into it, is to give and perform for the audience, because the live audience to do that – and that with another kudos to them, because you have to think about that.”
WWE Backstage this week with an all-women panel drew 116,000 viewers, down 45,000 viewers from the previous week.
Prior to Backstage, FS1 ran four hours of WWE action with Becky Lynch’s Most Memorable WrestleMania Matches doing 119,000 viewers at 7PM, the Ronda Rousey WWE 24 documentary at 8PM doing 214,000 viewers, and Charlotte Flair’s Most Memorable WrestleMania Matches episode that aired afterwards at 9PM doing 299,000 viewers. We do not have a number for the 10PM airing of the WWE 24 episode on Becky Lynch. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
The fourth episode of the fifth season of Total Bellas, titled Playing Favorites, did a total of 527,000 viewers on Thursday, up 66,000 episodes from episode three. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
WWE stocks rallied nearly 15% yesterday, ending the week 14.64% higher than the previous day coming off a strong first quarter earnings report that was largely unaffected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The 14.64% represented a jump of $5.72 to the price and when markets closed, WWE stocks had a value of $44.79. There was also some activity after hours, rising by an additional 21 cents to finish the week at $45.
This was the highest it has been since March 3 before everything tanked with the pandemic. They are still off from the $60 they were trading at the end of January before stocks took a nose dive in one day after WWE fired both its co-Presidents.
Smackdown on FOX drew only 2,014,000 viewers last night, registering the worst rating for the show ever since it moved on FOX. The first hour drew 2,050,000 viewers and the second hour had 1,978,000, the first time that an hour of Smackdown did below 2 million viewers. The show drew a 0.5 rating in the 18-49 demo and placed last in both demo and viewership for the first time as well. The NFL Draft did not help things but viewers are quickly tuning away from both Raw and Smackdown every week. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Two more Superstars have qualified for their Money In The Bank ladder matches which leaves two more – one man and one woman – to complete the two matches.
King Corbin advanced to the men’s MITB ladder match after he defeated Drew Gulak while Lacey Evans overcame Sasha Banks to earn a spot in the women’s ladder match. Both matches took place last night on Smackdown.
Two more matches will take place on next week’s show to determine the last two participants in the two ladder matches. In the men’s match, Otis will take on Dolph Ziggler while Carmella will take on Mandy Rose.
Whoever wins will join Rey Mysterio, Aleister Black, Apollo Crews, King Corbin, and Daniel Bryan in the men’s match and Shayna Baszler, Dana Brooke, Asuka, Nia Jax, and Lacey Evans in the women’s match.
