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SPOILER: show

Originally Posted by Observer Kid Rock was announced as the celebrity wing member for this year’s class of the WWE Hall of Fame on 3/12. The news was actually broken by Brad Shepherd back in December. This leaves Bam Bam Bigelow as the only name on the original list to have not yet been announced

Spoiler tag used since its related to the rumored rest of this year's WWE Hall of Fame class.

Originally Posted by Observer Regarding WWE dropping the Fabulous Moolah name from the Battle Royal, a key to this happening was Snickers getting complaints from wrestling fans. Before WWE made the decision, Snickers, a sponsor of WrestleMania, wrote, "We were recently made aware of the World Wrestling Federation Inc's decision to honor a former wrestler during the upcoming WrestleMania 34 event. As a principle-based business that has long championed creating inclusive environments that encourage and empower everyone to reach their full potential, this is unacceptable. We are engaging with WWE to express our disappointment."

Originally Posted by Observer According to one person in the company, this reaction is being thought about a lot when it comes to others, including Hulk Hogan. Talent has been very quiet on the Moolah subject and Stephanie McMahon spoke for the company on Twitter saying that they are listening to their fans and there will still be a historical women's Battle Royal at WrestleMania.

Originally Posted by Observer The semifinals for the New Japan Cup have been set. Juice Robinson and Hiroshi Tanahashi fill the first two slots. Robinson defeated Michael Elgin to advance on March 14, while Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Bad Luck Fale by countout to advance. Hiroshi Tanahashi and Juice Robinson will now headline tomorrow morning’s New Japan Cup show, with the winner advancing to the finals. SANADA and Zack Sabre Jr have advanced to the semifinals as well. SANADA outwitted Toru Yano on this morning’s show to advance. Meanwhile, Zack Sabre Jr. pummeled Kota Ibushi bad enough that the referee stopped the bout and ruled Sabre the winner. These two will square off on March 18. Once the two semifinalists make it to the final round, they will face off on March 21. The winner will have the right to challenge for the IWGP title, the NEVER title, or the Intercontinental title. The show on March 16 will start at 5:30 a.m. EDT. The last two shows will start at 2:30 a.m. EDT. All three shows will have English commentary.

Originally Posted by Observer Kota Ibushi vs. Adam Page has been added to the 4/7 Supercard of Honor show. AAW tomorrow night in Merrionette Park, IL at 115 Bourbon Street has Jushin Liger & ACH vs. David Starr & Trevor Lee, Jessicka Havok vs. Hudson Envy, Sami Callihan vs. Eddie Kingston, Moose vs. Keith Lee, Davey Vega & Mat Fitchett & Colt Cabana vs. Curt Stallion & Jake Something & Connor Braxton, MJF vs. Paco, Zema Ion vs. Myron Reed, Dave & Jake Crist vs. Teddy Hart & Joey Janela and Trey Miguel & Stephen Wolf vs. Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz. Santana Garrett vs. Priscilla Kelly was added to the 4/12 MLW show in Orlando at Gilt Nightclub. Smash Wrestling on 3/25 at The Phoenix in Toronto with Jeff Cobb and Matt Riddle. Pro Wrestling Mid South on Saturday in Dyresburg, TN at the Herb Welch Wrestle Plex with Jerry Lawler vs. Matt Riviera plus Doug Gilbert and Tim Storm appear.

Originally Posted by PWI NJ.com is reporting that WWE will hold a press conference tomorrow at 11 AM As to announce that Wrestlemania 35 will be coming to Metlife Stadium in April 2019. Both WWE and Metlife have declined comment. As we have mentioned over the last year here on PWInsider.com, Wrestlemania 34 was initially earmarked for Metlife, but New Orleans made WWE such an great offer to have the show held as part of their Tricentennial celebration, WWE decided to move the show to the Big Easy. We had heard all along the Northeast was the planned region for 35 and the proximity to NYC, where the first Wrestlemania was held, makes sense for the 35th edition of the event. It should be interesting to see where WWE will hold AXXESS. Last time they ran Metlife, AXXESS was held in the now-defunct IZOD Center and was easily the worst received and reviewed version of that event.

Originally Posted by Observer The other wildcard and name that got speculation is Bryan. What I can say factually is that as of a couple of weeks ago, he was not cleared. He has been constantly working to get cleared for some time. He has claimed that his hyperbaric chamber therapy has improved his brain and had very positive tests results. There are a number of doctors who have cleared him. But it’s a very touchy issue because WWE made the decision in 2015 that he wasn’t going to be cleared again and had turned him down many times when he’s pushed to be able to come back. I’ve heard nothing new since a few weeks back. However, if he was cleared, at ths point in time I’m certain it would be kept top secret for a big announcement. But there is nothing past speculation on this subject at this point.

Meltzer on Bryan's current medical status. From a longer article discussing the Sami-Owens Mania match and possible plans involving Shane.

Originally Posted by Observer A second match announcement was a Fabulous Moolah Battle Royal. The idea of a women’s Battle Royal to get everyone on the show had been planned all along. The issue was the Moolah name. In recent years, due to a number of interviews with women who worked for her and were part of her stable, as well as those who have gone through history, Moolah’s reputation took a major hit. Women wrestlers being sent places to earn money bot by working but also by sleeping with promoters and talent most definitely did not start with Moolah, but there are too many people who publicly will talk that it didn’t end with her either. There are numerous accounts and stories out there. WWE last year chose to go overboard in celebration the life and promoting the death of Jimmy Snuka, literally as the ink was drying on a judge throwing out his potentially going to trial for the death of ex-girlfriend Nancy Argentino due to his health deteriorating and the feeling he was no longer mentally competent. How WWE handled the death was going to be touchy and criticized no matter what, and I felt leeway in a unique situation would probably be the best reaction. But I ended up being shocked with just how hard they lionized him, and granted, he had family with the company, but it was just way overboard, including sending out a mailer to network subscribers about celebrating the life of Snuka with selected matches. They also used the name of the Ultimate Warrior for their co-promotion with the Susan G. Komen breast cancer charity, even though Warrior both celebrated it happening and mocked Bobby Heenan as he was battling cancer. They did name an award after him which didn’t get nearly he negative reaction, but the cancer thing had a raw nerve with a lot of people, particularly since it was in the same year that Heenan had passed away. Had the NFL or NBA or MLB, or a major entertainment network, done something like that, they’d be excoriated in the media. But WWE’s media is still mostly underground, although there is some mainstream, such as Forbes and Deadspin that was critical of the decision, and there will likely be follow-up. There was a lot of Twitter outrage on WWE’s account, but everyone running companies has pretty much gotten immune to Twitter outrage. The reality is the next night on Smackdown, WWE doubled down, repeating the glowing video of Moolah as a trailblazer for women athletes, comparing her with the likes of Babe Didrikson Zaharias and Althea Gibson ... But WWE has always reinvented history. In its history, the Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio of women’s wrestling were Moolah and Mae Young, who were seen as lovable grandmothers in the late 90s attitude era. In her defense, wrestling itself was a very sleazy cutthroat industry and women’s wrestling was, if anything, often a sleazier subset of it. In such an industry, Moolah was able to survive and keep control for decades. Mildred Burke, the top woman’s star before Moolah, had her detractors as well. Still, when top class reporters like Frank Deford and Jeff Leen heavily investigated her life, after her death, they both came to the conclusion she was an overall sympathetic character. Burke was a pioneer, far bigger star in her day, and responsible for the early boom period of women’s wrestling, which turned into a bust during the Moolah years and it really wasn’t until the last 15 or so years, and mostly the past few, where it has turned around. But Ellison was always close with Vince McMahon’s father, and she sold her world title belt to the current Vince McMahon when he expanded in 1984 and became part of the family.

Originally Posted by Observer The other match involves Braun Strowman, and also ties into the planned main event dating back more than one year. ... Strowman was originally booked to face Miz for the IC title, but there were issues with Reigns due to his being named in a video as a potential steroid user. Strowman was kept out of a Mania program to be the replacement ... The company clearly became confident enough that Reigns vs. Lesnar will take place with no issues, and turned it into a tag team title match after Strowman, as an individual, almost single-handedly beat every other tag team on the Raw roster in a Battle Royal for the title shot. According to those in the company, it was to be determined by Vince McMahon whether this would be a handicap match for the tag titles, or whether there would be a partner.

Originally Posted by Observer When it comes to Reigns, it seemed that the Jon Bravo/Richard Rodriguez story had gone cold. After talking about the investigation being done and a video coming out, suddenly there was no word. The word we got was those in the company thought it was a dead story ... From a WWE standpoint, if there was a connection, and no purchases of banned substances were made after June, 2016, when he was suspended, one could argue he would be free and clear. It wouldn’t make for the best timing of anointing him as the top star of the company at WrestleMania, but Vince McMahon has put this off for three years now and spent the last year building it. The last thing he’ll want to do is change it. Like everything with a public company, the media reaction will probably be more of an issue than whatever the facts of the case are, if there is any issue, because obviously the Bravo/Rodriguez thing has been quite sleazy on its own. If there are purchases after that are documented, that would be a violation of the Wellness policy and constitute a 60-day suspension for his second strike.

Originally Posted by Observer New Japan may be doing its most ambitious test of the U.S. market to date as they have a preliminary hold on a date for a show on 7/7 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. There is also talk of the July return being in a major arena in either Long Beach or Las Vegas. The show as planned right now would be on the same night as UFC’s show in Las Vegas for International Fight Week, which is traditionally one of its biggest events of the year, which would be significant head-to-head competition ... The Cow Palace lists a capacity of more than 14,000 for wrestling. Chris Jericho is not touring with Fozzy that week. Jericho vs. Naito would at least be the kind of a main event worth coming back that quickly and running such a large arena, which would be New Japan’s first true major test to date.

Originally Posted by Observer Jeff Hardy was scheduled to return to WWE television in the Ultimate Deletion segment that was filed for Raw on 3/8 at the Hardys home in Cameron, NC, built around a fight on the grounds between Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt. The segment will be airing on the 3/19 Raw. It is not known, even by those close to the situation at press time, if they will edit Jeff out of the finished product, but if he is not on the air, then the company made a directive to edit him out.

Originally Posted by Observer Trent Baretta is recovering from surgery this past week top repair his torn pec and triceps. We don’t have any word on the recovery period but that’s usually six to eight months Togi Makabe was also out this past week with a right knee injury. It was also thought to not be too serious and he’s be back quickly, but if you know anything about New Japan wrestlers, any injury that causes one to miss bookings is a serious one Tanga Loa was brought in to replace the injured Hikuleo in undercard tag team matches on the current tour. Hikuleo is out due to ACL damage in his right knee

Originally Posted by Observer An angle for Being the Elite to build up Hangman Page vs. Joey Ryan, which they’ve been pushing on the show for months, the first penis envy angle I can think of in pro wrestling, was shot on 3/8 at Ryan’s Bar Wrestling show in Baldwin Park, CA. The show saw Ryan beat Hot Young Briley (Ryan Nemeth, the younger brother of Dolph Ziggler). After the match, Cody, The Young Bucks and Page came out. Page came out first and the crowd was on fire. On the flip side, if you want wrestling to be something you can watch with other people in the room who aren’t fans and not leave you embarrassed, this segment is very much for insiders only. Page got in Ryan’s face and then bent over and looked like he was insulting Ryan’s dick. The conversation with the dick is so completely preposterous and then he grabbed it and said it had nothing. So you’ve got this guy holding Ryan’s dick for far too long a period of time in public to be comfortable. Then when he wants to let go, evidently the dick, besides having super physical powers, also has a super magnetic force. Hard as he tried, he could not pull his hand off it. Ryan then flipped him with it. Because everyone is in on the gag and it’s been promoted for months, the place exploded for it. Ryan then poured a bottle of what was supposed to be urine into Page’s mouth and superkicked him. The other guys were in the ring filming all this

Originally Posted by Observer The mysterious promotion that is doing television tapings in the Nashville area will be doing the shows in Brentwood, TN for three days starting I believe on 3/27. They are sending invitations to attend as there are no tickets being sold, and they have noted there will be no chairs and told people to be prepared to stand for the entire tapings. They also told fans not to wear any pro wrestling T-shirts or T-shirts with logos of any brands, nor sleeveless shirts. They also noted they are overbooking so if people get there late they may not get in. They are trying to keep all information regarding the promotion and what they are doing secret.

Originally Posted by Observer The cease and desist letters sent to Ryan Satin and Steve Bryant from Lucha Underground appeared to backfire in the sense that it made the company look real bad, and didn’t stop anyone from printing any information on the tapings. It’s almost laughable what a bad idea that was. However, the audience was a cult as some fans started to think it was their job to make sure no info got out and started harassing people who they thought may have been paying too close attention. A lot of the wrestlers were really embarrassed for the company with the feeling that all the money sent on legal fees for a non-case could be spent trying to market the product or bring in talent with the budget cut way back Even though tickets are free and they are taping in a building that only holds a few hundred, there were tickets still left unbooked this past week at Lucha Underground

Originally Posted by Observer Tyler Bate is out of action with a minor knee injury. Trent Seven & Bate were originally in the Dusty Rhodes tag team tournament. Still, they had taped an angle at the previous tapings to set up Pete Dunne & Roderick Strong as a tag team and they replaced Seven & Bate and went to the finals. They also changed up the bracketing after it was first announced, which would indicate another likely change of plans

Originally Posted by Observer As it turned out, the stories of Cena being in the “Blue’s Clues” remake were not true even though reported everywhere. It was actually a deal where Cena did a mock audition that was shown at the Nickelodeon upfronts on 3/6. But it was just meant as a comedy sketch, and that all the buyers, advertisers and execs there were all aware it was a mock audition and not a legitimate story. But it still went everywhere but it’s been confirmed there is actually nothing to it

Some other sheet news includes:

• Besides Becky and Dakota Kai, Carmella also deleted her social media posts honoring Moolah prior to WWE officially dropping the name from Mania's Women's Battle Royale match.
• For those interested, Pro Wrestling Tees will be holding a Steve Austin 3:16 sale tomorrow on their online store. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...scom-.html?p=1
• Recent episode of the Main Event Radio podcast show had Jeff Jarrett as the guest talking about WWE's Hall of Fame, if he has spoken to Vince, success of former TNA wrestlers in WWE, and more. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...-more.html?p=1
• Kane's first primary for his Knox County mayoral campaign will occur on May 1st. He is running for the Libertarian Party in terms of political association.
• According to the Observer, WWE recently pushed the dates back for a couple of house shows in Canada due to scheduling issues related to the upcoming Saudi Arabia Rumble event.

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE Drops “Fabulous Moolah” Name From Battle Royal
• WWE: Cruiserweight Finals Plan, Andre Battle Royal, Samoa Joe, Asuka/SD