The WWE Shop has got some more exclusive WrestleMania merchandise and a few special offers available to celebrate WrestleMania weekend.
The offers available this weekend include a buy one t-shirt and get another one for $1 and up to 50% off on replica title belts. No codes are needed to take advantage of these offers and these prices will expire on April 7 at 2:59AM ET.
Replica titles on offer include the Winged Eagle WWE title, 24/7 title, Daniel Bryan’s Eco-Friendly wood WWE title, Women’s Tag Team title, NXT Women’s and North American titles, classic Intercontinental title, NXT UK title, and much more including the replica side plates.
New WrestleMania merchandise include the commemorative chair, a new WrestleMania “In Your House” shirt, and many match t-shirts.
In an interview published by the Tampa Bay Times, former AEW champion Chris Jericho discussed his relationship with former boss Vince McMahon, if he thinks a Hall of Fame induction would be on the way in the near future, joining All Elite Wrestling, the creative freedom he enjoys, Fozzy, and much more.
It’s an in-depth look at Jericho’s current life in AEW and how the multiple-time wrestling champ has managed to reinvent himself over the past several years to stay current in an industry where sometimes even top stars find it hard to stay at the top of the mountain.
Jericho said that he’s had good talks with Vince McMahon ever since he left and the Chairman and CEO even offered to counter his deal with AEW but Jericho said that he’s keeping some doors “shut” as long as he works for the Khan family and All Elite Wrestling. Asked if he sees himself being asked to enter the WWE Hall of Fame, he said he thinks he’s already Hall of Fame material and if he doesn’t get inducted, he’s okay with that.
“If I continue to work for the Khan family for the rest of my life, I’ll never go into the WWE Hall of Fame,” he said. “Does that bother me? No. I mean, the Sex Pistols didn’t show up for theirs. I always kind of liked that. I’m a hall of famer in the minds of the people who want me to be in the Hall of Fame,” he adds. “I’m a hall of famer in my mind. That’s all that matters.”
All Elite Wrestling held this week’s Dynamite and recorded future shows from a location in the state of Georgia after they were forced to move out of Daily’s Place in Jacksonville. The company did several recordings during the course of the week.
While the state of Florida already ordered a lockdown just a few days ago, AEW are now in WWE’s same boat as the Governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, announced yesterday that all people living in the state should stay at home with the exception of essential personnel. The lockdown will last at least through April 13, forcing 10.6 million residents inside due to the wide and fast spread of the coronavirus.
WrestlingInc.com later reported that the location where Dynamite took place was QT Marshall’s gym in Norcross and yesterday, state officials tried to shut down the operation but proper paperwork prevailed and the company was allowed to finish tapings while officials stuck around to make sure all proper precautions are being followed.
Over the past few weeks, there has been several WWE programming on ESPN as the leader in sports tries to fill the void on their network due to the unprecedented situation caused by the coronavirus where all sports have been shut down.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated, ESPN’s Director of Programming and Acquisitions Brent Colborne said WWE’s addition to the network has “added excitement” and the company knew they had to act fast to put some content on their network.
“The collaboration between both entities came together in a quick and timely fashion,” Colborne told Sports Illustrated. “March 12 was the first day of all the events falling off the calendar, and it was pretty quickly thereafter, in discussion and communication with WWE, that the idea came up for ESPN to acquire some really incredible content in three WrestleManias for three consecutive Sundays.”
ESPN has aired two previous WrestleManias already, will air another one on Sunday, along with a Brock Lesnar marathon, and other WWE programming in between. Asked if there will ever be a time when WrestleMania airs live on ESPN instead of pay-per-view, Colborne admitted that it’s a great question and they’re open to discussing ideas but the focus right now is short-term.
“We felt like this was a really good content opportunity for us to show these three encores, and a really good promotional opportunity for WWE to help utilize our reach and our brand to create more excitement for WrestleMania this upcoming weekend,” Colbrone added.
NXT failed to crack the 600,000 viewer mark this week as the show dipped to 590,000, losing 79,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. The show did just a 0.15 in the 18-49 demo, putting NXT in #74 on the chart and way out of the top 50 list. The difference between the two shows was of 95,000 viewers, down from the 150,000 from last week. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
AEW Dynamite took a substantial hit in viewership this week but still managed to win another round of ratings battle against NXT. Dynamite pulled in 685,000 viewers this week which is down 134,000 viewers from the previous week. With a 0.25 rating in the 18-49 demo, Dynamite placed #37 on the top 50 cable chart. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Good Humor has teamed up with WWE to finally release the WWE Superstar sandwich ice cream bars, officially titled WWE Superstars Cookie Sandwich.
The ice cream sandwiches feature the prints of Roman Reigns, John Cena, Becky Lynch, and WWE Hall of Famer Macho Man Randy Savage. “Rich, creamy and just 150 calories each, these frozen snacks are a delicious way to indulge and the perfect pick-me-up to keep in the freezer,” Good Humor says of the product.
Good Humor WWE Superstars Cookie Sandwiches are currently available for a suggested retail price of $3.00 to $5.29 in major retailers nationwide.
The WWE ice cream bars returned to the spotlight when CM Punk referenced to them during a promo on Raw years ago, demanding that they should resume production. “I want everything with my face on it…the number one thing being, I want you to bring back the WWE ice cream bars,” Punk said in 2011. Unfortunately for Punk, there’s no WWE ice cream bars with his face on it…yet.
In the late 80s and early 90s, WWE had the ice cream bars on a stick with the likes of Hulk Hogan, Macho Man, Jim Duggan, Big Boss Man and others. A variation of those bars were sold in late 2000 as well but they were stopped in 2009.
ESPN will be airing a five-hour Brock Lesnar marathon on WrestleMania Sunday, starting at 6AM and going up until 11AM. The marathon, which is mostly UFC-related, will air on ESPN2.
The schedule will start with Lesnar vs Alistair Overeem at 6AM, then Lesnar vs Shane Carwin at 7AM, Lesnar vs Cain Velasquez at 7:30AM, and Lesnar vs Randy Couture at 8AM. At 9AM, ESPN2 will air the 2000 NCAA Wrestling Championship which Lesnar won.
ESPN’s E:60 feature on Brock Lesnar from 2009 will also re-air as part of Sunday morning’s SportsCenter.
Then at 3PM, ESPN will air an encore presentation of WrestleMania 35 which featured the first-ever women’s main event at a WrestleMania. This is the third and final WrestleMania that ESPN will air having previously aired WrestleMania XXX and 32.
All telecasts will stream via the ESPN App as well.
WWE has been getting a lot of flak for still advertising Roman Reigns taking part in WrestleMania when in fact he did not and actually addressed the issue publicly already.
But the company is still promoting Reigns vs Goldberg for the Universal title with Reigns appearing on many of the promotional material for WrestleMania. That match never happened and it looks like finally WWE will address this tomorrow on Smackdown.
Speaking with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, Triple H said that Reigns’ removal from the show will play out in a “unique matter” from a storyline standpoint. “I don’t want to give away the ending of the movie before the movie takes place,” HHH told Helwani during the video interview. “Everybody just has to watch and see how this unfolds. It will unfold in a unique way and I think it will be meaningful for everybody.”
Reigns pulled out of WrestleMania due to being a high risk health-wise since he just recovered from a second bout with leukemia and the coronavirus attacks more those who have a weaker immune system.
Meanwhile, in the same interview, Triple H also said that all options were considered for WrestleMania including cancelling the event altogether. At one point the plan was to have fans inside the Performance Center but then that quickly changed. Triple H said that now they filmed WrestleMania from a “Hollywood standpoint” and controlled it in a way that “really nobody else can.”
HHH added that while not holding the event was considered, they all felt an obligation to the fans to do it regardless of the situation. “Our fans have been there for us for years and years and years and we want to be there for them in this time where everybody is just doing the best to get through this…stuck home and the world needs entertainment right now. We feel an obligation to give them that,” he said.
Triple H admitted that WrestleMania might not be the version that the fans or the company wanted it to be, but they still made it a spectacle that it needs to be.
Total Bellas returns on E! tonight with the season five premiere titled Brave New Bellas. The show was originally set to premiere next week but E! brought it forward.
Season five will pick up where season four left off with this season covering the pregnancy of the twins, Artem’s romantic proposal to Nikki in Paris, Nikki and Brie reconnecting with their estranged father while writing their memoirs, and more.
Nikki and Brie serve as Executive Producers of the series with Gil Goldschein, Russell Jay and Farnaz Farjam Chazan serving as Executive Producers for Bunim/Murray Productions and Kevin Dunn and Chris Kaiser serving as Executive Producers for WWE.
After a string of bad numbers, WWE Backstage rebounded with 134,000 viewers for this week’s remote-edition of the show. The last time Backstage aired on March 10 it drew just 35,000 viewers. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Dakota Kai won the second chance gauntlet match last night on NXT on USA Network and has now earned the last spot in the Women’s title number one contender’s ladder match which will take place next week.
Shotzi Blackheart was the star of the gauntlet match and ran through Deonna Purrazzo, Xia Li, Aliyah, and Kayden Carter before Kai came in last. Raquel Gonzalez also played her part in helping Kai defeating Blackheart.
The winner of this ladder match will then meet whoever is the NXT Women’s champion post-WrestleMania. The current champion, Rhea Ripley, will be defending her gold against former NXT Women’s champion Charlotte Flair this weekend. No specific date was given as to when the new number one contender will get her shot.
The remaining four wrestlers who will be part of the TNT Championship tournament were revealed on Dynamite last night.
The right side of the bracket will now have Kip Sabian taking on Dustin Rhodes and Lance Archer versus Colt Cabana. The winners of those two matches meet in the semi final match.
The tournament will start next week with Shawn Spears vs Cody on Dynamite and is slated to end at Double or Nothing on pay-per-view with the winner crowned the inaugural TNT champion.
There’s only one match which has been advertised so far for tonight’s Dynamite which is Cody teaming up with Darby Allin to take on Sammy Guevara and Shawn Spears. These four individuals will all take part in the TNT Championship tournament as well.
Lance Archer is also making his Dynamite debut tonight but no opponent has been named so far and the new tag team of Dustin Rhodes and QT Marshall, now known as The Natural Nightmares, will be in action as well against opponents still to be announced.
Dynamite was taped from an unknown location after being forced out of the Daily’s Place in Jacksonville.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has issued a statewide stay-at-home order that will take effect at midnight tonight, effectively putting all those living in the state of Florida under lockdown unless they are providing essential services or performing essential activities.
The order will affect both WWE and AEW who film Raw, NXT, Smackdown, and Dynamite in the state of Florida. Up until last week, AEW was filming in Jacksonville but now they have moved to a different location within the state while WWE films in Orlando at the Performance Center.
The stay-at-home order means that 99% both promotions will have to shut down operations at least for the next 30 days. WWE has enough filming to last them till next week’s shows but AEW’s status is unclear. WWE decided to go ahead and pre-record WrestleMania last week fearing that such order was forthcoming which would have essentially killed the pay-per-view if the company went ahead and held it live this weekend instead.
Florida has a total of 6,741 cases reported and 85 deaths so far from the coronavirus, most of which are in the Miami-Dade County. Orange County, which Orlando falls under, has nearly 400 cases and four deaths.
Three matches have been announced for tonight’s NXT including a match which was supposed to be part of Takeover: Tampa Bay.
Keith Lee will be defending the NXT North American title against Dominik Dijakovic and Damien Priest as the main event on the show tonight. This was originally slated to be part of Takeover, an event which has been cancelled.
The last member of the number one contender’s ladder match for the NXT Women’s title will be decided tonight in a second chance gauntlet match. Xia Li, Shotzi Blackheart, Kayden Carter, Aliyah, and Deonna Purrazzo will be part of this match and the winner will join Io Shirai, Candice LaRae, Tegan Nox, Mia Yim, and Chelsea Green in the ladder match which will take place next week.
And the other match announced is The Velveteen Dream taking on Bobby Fish as Dream continues to go through The Undisputed Era to get to the NXT title.
Impact Wrestling announced that Kylie Rae has signed a long-term deal with the company and revealed the news after Rae made an appearance on Impact last night, defeating Cassandra Golden.
Rae signed with All Elite Wrestling last year but was gone a few months later for reasons still unknown. AEW President Tony Khan had announced during the post All Out pay-per-view media scrum that Rae requested her release and it was granted to her.
“I don’t know many rumors and honestly try to stay away from everything, obviously. But here: nobody made me leave. AEW took my career to new levels and I’m beyond grateful for every opportunity and experience that has come along the way and wish nothing but the best,” Rae wrote in a social media post in November of last year.
The 27-year-old wrestled at an Impact Wrestling event which aired on Twitch in October and was rumored to be heading to Impact.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer is reporting that AEW has been forced out of the Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida as the city is taking over the location as a COVID-19 testing center.
The arena is owned by the city of Jacksonville and the move was bound to happen sooner or later after the city closed all locations they own.
AEW is now taping at an undisclosed location and are actually recording a lot of footage for both Dark and Dynamite for this week and weeks to come so Dynamite will not be live for the time being.
AEW had the edge over NXT over the past couple of weeks as they continued “business as usual” with new matches and angles progressing while NXT resorted to video package shows and a lot of fillers in between new content which only returned last week.
The WWE Performance Center came in handy for WWE this past month as they own the location themselves and cannot be evicted from it although the city can still shut down operations if needed.
Monday Night Raw had the lowest number in modern-day history for its WrestleMania go-home show with an average of 1,923,000 viewers.
Hour one started with 2,139,000 viewers, then dropped to 1,986,000 in the second hour before crashing to 1,646,000 viewers in the third and final hour. It is pretty clear that putting a lot of video packages and re-airing old matches is not working when it comes to retaining viewers during these difficult times.
Raw was #3, #4, and #7 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and all the way down to #31 in overall viewership for the night on cable. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
The first four participants of the eight-man tournament to determine the new TNT champion were revealed by All Elite Wrestling yesterday during their Dark YouTube series.
The left side of the bracket includes Shawn Spears vs Cody and Sammy Guevara vs Darby Allin. The winners of those two matches will then meet each other in the semi final.
The other four participants will be revealed tonight during Dynamite on TNT.
The tournament will kick off on April 8 on Dynamite and will conclude with the final match at the Double or Nothing pay-per-view, currently scheduled to take place in Las Vegas on May 23.
This is the fourth title in All Elite Wrestling and the TNT Championship will join the AEW World, Tag Team, and Women’s titles.
