The Wrestling Thread

Mauro is doing commentary next week for Joshua v Klitchsko so he will be fine without them

 

At least he's getting work.

 

Tonight's WWE RAW takes place from the Sprint Center Arena with the final build for Sunday's WWE Payback pay-per-view.

It's worth noting that WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar is not advertised for tonight. Tonight's show will feature Kalisto vs. Braun Strowman in a Dumpster Match.

WWE is focusing on the following points for tonight:

* Braun Strowman to battle Kalisto in a Dumpster Match on Raw

* Alexa Bliss closes in on the Raw Women’s Title

* Will The Miz retaliate against Dean Ambrose?

* Bray Wyatt brings true “Horror” to Raw

* Business gets “personal” between Seth Rollins and Samoa Joe





As noted, Crazzy Steve recently announced his departure from Impact Wrestling via Twitter.

It was noted on Sunday’s Wrestling Observer Radio that the former Impact Wrestling Tag Team Champion received an offer from WWE and that’s when he gave his notice to Impact.

He will likely be headed to WWE NXT but that has not been confirmed.

 

Good start to the show.

Always good to see the Hardy's.

 

Cass, Seth and Finn V Bullet Club and Joe.

good match.

 

Looks as though Matt Sydal is still with Ring of Honor as well as working with Impact, he takes on Marty Scurll for the TV Title at War of the Worlds

 

Raw looked decent from the highlights i watched. Shame all this making Braun look strong will be wasted when Reigns comes back and beats him. Again.

 

TriStar Pictures is getting into the ring for a biopic about WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon.

The studio is in negotiations for the highly-sought-afterPandemonium, which has Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, who direct and executive produce the hit television drama This Is Us, in talks to direct. Craig A. Williams wrote the script, and Andrew Lazar, who produced American Sniper, is producing the project along with Michael Luisi, president of WWE Studios, and Adam Goldworm of Aperture Entertainment. Charlie Gogolak of Zaftig Films will executive produce.

Pandemonium first hit the Hollywood mat last summer but studios hesitated. While the script scored high points, WWE and McMahon had not blessed it and companies didn't want to antagonize a powerful entity. When Lazar secured McMahon's life rights, the package in recent weeks made the rounds again and studios were ready to rumble. Multiple parties were interested but sources say that TriStar went all out in their pitch (even decorating their offices with WWE regalia). Hannah Minghella and Nicole Brown will oversee for TriStar.

McMahon, known for his iconic showmanship, created the national sensation and obsession that is known as the World Wrestling Entertainment, aka WWE.

After being raised by his mother and a series of stepfathers in North Carolina, McMahon first got into wresting through his father Vincent J. McMahon, who was a promoter for Capitol Wrestling Corporation. He shadowed his father (whom he didn't meet until he was 12 years old) when he was a teen and, after college, he made his debut as an in-ring announcer in 1969 working for his father’s World Wide Wrestling Federation (later called World Wrestling Federation) promotion. He spent years as a very successful promoter and commentator for TV matches.

He founded his own company, Titan Sports, in 1979, and soon after acquired his father's company (which was later renamed WWE due to a trademark dispute). He ruffled feathers in the industry by starting to promote his company nationally at a time when wrestling organizations were regional and worked under an understanding that they would not invade each other’s territories.


He focused on making the company's wrestlers big stars and celebrities in their own right – from Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant to "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and making wrestling a family audience event. By adding such pop music stars as Cyndi Lauper into wrestling storylines, McMahon further expanded the company from a regional entity to a national sensation.

In 1985, he ran the first annual WrestleMania, the WWE's equivalent of the Super Bowl, at Madison Square Garden. He has also appeared on WWE TV, and occasionally competed as a wrestler, under the ring name Mr. McMahon, who had a legendary feud with Austin and faced off against many of the great names of wrestling. At WrestleMania 23 in 2007, an on-screen feud between McMahon and now-President Donald Trump culminated in a Hair versus Hair "Battle of the Billionaires," a match between two wrestlers who each represented one of the men. Trump's popular wrestler won, leading Trump, his wrestler and special guest referee Austin to shave McMahon bald.

Ficarra and Requa also previously directed and wrote 2011’s Crazy, Stupid, Love and 2009’s I Love You Phillip Morris. They also executive produce and direct NBC’* show This Is Us. They are repped by CAA and McKuin Frankel.

Williams previously wrote the script for 2007’s Underdog. He is repped by UTA and Aperture Entertainment. UTA also repped the project.

 

Monday's WWE RAW, featuring Braun Strowman vs. Kalisto in a Dumpster Match plus Chris Jericho and WWE Intercontinental Champion Dean Ambrose vs. The Miz and his mystery partner Bray Wyatt in the main event, drew 3.007 million viewers. This is down from last week's 3.346 million viewers.

For this week's show, the first hour drew 2.999 million viewers, the second hour drew 3.141 million viewers and the final hour drew 2.881 million viewers.




Tonight's WWE SmackDown and 205 Live will take place from the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa as the road to WWE Backlash continues.

Several matches have been announced for SmackDown - WWE Champion Randy Orton vs. Erick Rowan in a No DQ match, Baron Corbin vs. AJ Styles, Charlotte Flair vs. SmackDown Women's Champion Naomi with the title on the line and a Beat The Clock Challenge with American Alpha, Breezango, The Colons and The Ascension competing to crown new #1 contenders. SmackDown's opener will see Shinsuke Nakamura cut a promo. For 205 Live, Jack Gallagher vs. WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville in a non-title match has been announced.

WWE is focusing on the following points in tonight's SmackDown preview:

* Exclusive interview with Shinsuke Nakamura to kick off SmackDown LIVE

* Is Orton in for early House of Horrors preview with Rowan?

* Charlotte Flair will challenge Naomi for the SmackDown Women’s Championship Tuesday on SmackDown LIVE

* Styles and Corbin square off in rematch

* First-ever Tag Team Beat The Clock Challenge to determine The Usos’ next challengers

 

Good way to start SD.

 

AJ Styles V Shinsuke Nakamura bound to happen soon enough.

 

The talk of the Impact locker room over the last 48 hours has been what was described to PWInsider as a "loud and ugly argument" between TNA executive Bob Ryder and Karen and Jeff Jarrett at the final Impact Wrestling taping this past Sunday 4/23 that at one point, appeared to have been Ryder's exit from the company.

Multiple sources stated that Karen Jarrett confronted Ryder (who was timing out the show) and began arguing with him over what we are told was, of all things, the booking of a hotel room. Shortly after Karen "dressed down Ryder", she left the scene.

Several minutes later, Jeff Jarrett loudly confronted Ryder and told him to "not wait" and to leave the taping. After his argument with Jeff Jarrett, Ryder packed up and left before completing his duties. We are told that Ryder then had another argument with the Jarretts before getting in his car and leaving. There was a lot of sympathy for Ryder after the incident because his health has not been the best in recent months

A number of those we spoke to believed yesterday that Ryder was fired by the Jarretts or that Ryder quit after his argument with Karen. However, PWInsider.com has confirmed that Ryder was in the Impact offices in Nashville today working per usual. It is believed that whatever sparked the issue was settled once everyone returned to Nashville.

Whether there will be any fallout to the scene in Orlando remains to be seen. Impact officials had been trying hard to keep the incident quiet the last 48 hours, to the point that sources who are usually very open with me denied the incident ever happened. Another dismissed it as the pressures of producing TV, although many, many others confirmed the scene indeed happened and that in the moment, it was "as bad you can imagine."

As has been reported over the years, Impact Wrestling (formerly TNA) was founded in 2002 after a fishing trip on Ryder's boat with Jeff and Jerry Jarrett, which led to the company's initial concept of weekly Wednesday night PPV events priced at $9.99. Ryder has been a major cog in the TNA machine from day one, handling travel and logistics before moving upward to handle talent relations and contract issues. He would be the longest running regular employee there (alongside Jeremy Borash) and as one person told me yesterday, "if Ryder left, he would be the guy that knew where every single body was buried."

Ryder previously worked for World Championship Wrestling after parlaying his Internet reporting into a position with that company.

 

Good Show.

 

Please Pray for my Fiancé who was just in a serious car wreck. She is at the Hospital
https://mobile.twitter.com/RicFlairNatrBoy/status/857035662846984192

 

Smackdown was awful this week

 

This week's WWE SmackDown, featuring WWE Champion Randy Orton vs. Erick Rowan in a No DQ match plus Charlotte Flair vs. SmackDown Women's Champion Naomi in the main event, drew 2.493 million viewers. This is down from last week's 2.544 million viewers.