Becky Lynch On Wanting To Make Women’s Wrestling Cool Again, Calling Herself “The Man”, More

Becky Lynch recently spoke with Fanbyte to promote Sunday’s “Winner Takes All” WrestleMania35 main event against RAW Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey and SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair.

The interviewer pointed to how Lynch has made wrestling, and women’s wrestling, cool again. She thanked them and said when she came to WWE NXT from Ireland, her goal was to make women’s wrestling cool again.

“When I came over [to NXT from Ireland], that’s what I said, I said I wanted to make women’s wrestling cool,” Lynch said. “I love this business, I love it so freaking much, I just want people to love it the way I love it, and if I can be entertaining to people, if I can get people to feel something about it—that means everything to me. This is the industry I love more than anything. This is the reason why I left [home] when I was freaking 15 and slept on couches and lived on $30 a show, you know?”

Regarding her nickname of The Man, Lynch said it’s not about gender and it’s not about belittling women.

“[It] makes people’s minds explode. Which is hilarious…” Lynch said. “It does get a few people backed up, which is good in itself. [But] it’s not about gender and it’s not about belittling women. I’ve been an advocate for women’s wrestling since I started. I’ve always wanted to change the game, that’s what I’ve been trying to do, and that’s what I’ve been doing.”

Lynch also talked about being a Horsewomen with Flair and WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Sasha Banks and Bayley. She said she stopped dumbing herself down and that’s when she sparked a bit of fire in everyone else.

“With the Four Horsewomen when we started to break out, everybody wanted to see better from the other, instead of being competitive, you know, everyone wanted to step up their game,” Lynch said. “Everybody wanted to have the best match, everybody wanted to have the best reactions, and that helps everybody step up because nobody wants to be left behind. I think for a long time I used to dumb myself down because I didn’t want to outshine anyone or make anybody feel uncomfortable. And then once I stopped doing that and was like, no, you wanna get on my level, come meet me up here, I think it sparked a bit of a fire in everyone.”

Lynch continued and said her success is more about being yourself and being relentless in chasing your dreams. It was noted that her success is so special because it aligns with so many other people’s journeys.

“I guess it’s more about being yourself and being relentless in chasing your dreams,” Lynch said. “Don’t let anybody be the reason you’re dumbing yourself down and making yourself small, and go after what you want with no apologies.”

Source: Wrestling Inc.

DDP Praises Ronda Rousey, Calls Becky Lynch A Female Version Of Jake Roberts, Lacey Evans, WrestleMania, Thoughts On AEW

WWE Hall of Famer Diamond Dallas Page Vulture Hound to promote his new “Positively Unstoppable” book. The interview was done before WWE announced the “Winner Takes All” Triple Threat with Becky Lynch, RAW Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey and SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair for the WrestleMania 35 main event, but Page said the female Superstars could absolutely be a WrestleMania main event.

Regarding the WrestleMania 35 main event, Page praised Rousey as a top draw, and called Lynch the female version of WWE Hall of Famer Jake “The Snake” Roberts.

“Well, I think there’s no bigger draw than Ronda (laughs). I heard her say in an interview one time that everything in her life prepared her for this (wrestling), and Becky can go out there and have a hell of a match with her,” DDP said. “She (Becky) is like a female Jake Roberts. She has all the tools. She’s got an amazing look. Has all the tools in the ring, and she is believable as a son of a b—h, but she can also make her opponent look unbelievable. Ronda’s still finding her way, she’s doing very well, and she’s going to be amazing.

“So I think they can carry it, but they never do one main event at WrestleMania anyway, there is always a couple of them. It’s not all on one match. But when it was Rock vs. Hogan – that was the main event (laughs). When it was Austin and Rock – that was the match. But since then, they’ve spent a lot of time having a couple of featured matches because they have such a big talent pool. But they could absolutely be one of the main events at Mania.”

DDP continued his praise for Rousey. He was one of the few people that went out of their way to tell everyone how Rousey was going to deliver with her in-ring debut at WrestleMania 34 last year. Page was asked how satisfying it is to see where she is now, and he also revealed that he has been mentoring Lacey Evans.

“She’s a world class athlete. And she didn’t just come in and think, ‘Oh, I think I’ll wrestle now.’ She’s a fan,” DDP said. “So when you grow up a fan and you use the moniker of ‘Rowdy’ that was made famous by Roddy Piper, and Roddy gives you his blessing to use the name, that’s something. So I knew she had all that in her. And again, work ethic at a different level. And I’m really surprised her husband, Travis Browne is not down at the WWE Performance Center, because he loves wrestling too. He’s money. He actually sent me a picture a few months ago of him and Ronda doing DDPY in the ring.

“Her whole Four Horsewomen do the program. They’ll put up videos of them doing DDPY. Those girls at the PC work so hard and I was really excited to see Lacey Evans get the call up to the main roster. We became good friends, and I mentor her, she does the program all the time. I have so much respect for what these girls are doing. The bottom line is after all this time, everything we’ve been doing, it’s finally taking off. There is a quote that I use which says: ‘It’s okay to want to be rich and famous. You just can’t want it first.’ There is a lot of work that goes into being rich and famous. It’s the message that I try to put out there, just put the work in, keep moving forward, and anything is possible.”

DDP is close to All Elite Wrestling Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes and recently appeared in an AEW “Road to Double Or Nothing” episode to talk about the future of the company with other WWE Hall of Famers. Page was also a part of Cody’s entourage for his NWA World Heavyweight Title match against Nick Aldis at All In last year, along with Tommy Dreamer and Glacier. DDP later confirmed in a media interview that he refused to take any money from Cody or The Young Bucks for the All In booking. Speaking in this new interview, Page talked some about AEW and Cody, calling him one of his most favorite people on the planet, when asked what he thinks we can expect from AEW in a year or a few years.

“You know it’s interesting because I did an interview with Cody a little over a year ago, and I just wanted to bring people up to speed with where he was at and what he was doing. Also, I wanted to give him Dusty’s coat, which Dusty gave to me. And it’s really amazing how much his life changed over that one year,” DDP said. “This year, we did it again. I did a motivational Monday on my DDPY app with Cody, and it was pieces of our interview, and it was looking at how much your life can change in one year when you’re owning it. Cody has been around me since he was eight years old, and I don’t mean around like we just say ‘hey, how are you doing?’ I’ve been mentoring him for f–king twenty years. He’s one of my favourite people on the planet. So seeing what they have done, and how it’s all come together over this last year has been amazing. It was so cool to be backstage at ALL IN and watching him talk to the boys before the show and telling them to have fun. He’d hear people out if they had an idea, but he told them how to do it because he had a vision.

“He and I spoke before ALL IN; we talked about how it might be his one chance to do a show like that. Obviously, that’s not the case now. It’s turned into this thing with Tony Khan, and they are doing something that is ridiculously extraordinary. They’ve got their Double or Nothing show, and I think they have another show planned, and they are working on their TV show. I don’t know exactly where that is right now; we help him shoot videos that he needs because our quality is so high. We help him do that, just because he’s my boy. I don’t get involved any more than just being a sounding board for him. I think there is a lot of potential there, but it will all come down to what the TV looks like. The biggest thing for him is the fans, and keeping that one on one relationship, and having that interaction with them. That’s going to be interesting to watch as they move forward because as they get bigger and bigger, then it’s tough to be so relatable. So far, he’s a hundred percent relatable.”

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE Stars Pay Tribute To Former TNA Star Amazing Red After His Retirement

WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion Sasha Banks took to Twitter to praise former TNA X Division Champion The Amazing Red, who runs the House of Glory wrestling promotion and school in New York City. Banks posted the tribute because Red has announced his retirement from the ring.

As seen below, Ali also took to Twitter to post a tribute to Red. Ali’s video features tributes to Red from Seth Rollins, Banks, Bayley, AJ Styles, Lince Dorado, Kevin Owens, Ricochet, Brian Kendrick, Rey Mysterio and WWE producer Sonjay Dutt.

Ali wrote, “@AmazingRed1 was such a huge influence on me. But I’m definitely not the only one who was influenced by him. He should know that.”

You can see the tribute video below, along with Red’s announcement video.

Red noted that he originally planned to “leave wrestling” after the WWE Cruiserweight Classic in 2016. In what could have led to his big break, Red was originally scheduled to work the tournament but an ankle injury kept him out of it. He said he felt like he has done everything he was supposed to do through HOG, and he’s cancelling all the shows he had planned for WrestleMania 35 Week in New York City. Red said he will continue to teach at HOG, and he will continue to support the business. “Throughout all my life, I have done things for everybody else, I’ve never done things for myself,” Red said.

He later added, “Be happy for me, don’t be upset. The reason why I made this video was for myself, because once I know I put this out there, there’s no turning back. This is me looking out for me. So, be happy about that.”

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE To Reveal Special Statue At WrestleMania 35 Axxess

WWE has announced that a special WWE Hall of Fame statue will be revealed at WrestleMania 35 Axxess in Brooklyn this week.

The statue reveal ceremony will take place at Thursday’s session. 2019 WWE Hall of Famer Brutus Beefcake will be joined by three other Hall of Famers – Sting, Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat, among others.

WWE usually reveals bronze statues of Hall of Famers during Axxess each year. They have done statues on Ric Flair, The Ultimate Warrior, Dusty Rhodes and Bruno Sammartino in the past.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

News On SmackDown’s Touring Schedule Following Move To FOX

There will be various changes to WWE when the FOX deal goes through in this fall. This is especially true when it comes to touring.

According to the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, SmackDown talent will be doing a Thursday through Sunday road schedule once it starts on FOX. The second night of the road schedule will be live TV. The four-show per week road schedule has been a WWE tradition for years.

SmackDown currently tours from Saturday through Tuesday, while RAW tours from Friday to Monday with both tours ending with their respective television tapings.

The first Friday night episode of SmackDown Live on FOX will take place on October 4th from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The next shows will be October 11th in Denver, CO, October 18th in Columbus, OH and October 25th in Kansas City, MO.

There are already reports that SmackDown could move to three hours when it moves to FOX, with the third hour airing on FS1 following the two-hour show on Fox. MKM Partners analyst Eric Handler recently raised his target price on WWE stock to $110 from $95 a share based on “the relaunch of the WWE Network, monetization from a third hour of media time for Smackdown, and added revenue from three more television networks.”

Raw’s schedule will not change, as they will continue to do Friday through Monday. SmackDown has been a part of WWE programming since 1999, starting on UPN. It has since been shown on the CW, MyNetworkTV, SyFy and most recently, the USA Network.

SmackDown Live will debut on FOX on Friday, October 4th, 2019.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Rey Mysterio Reveals When Ankle Injury Occurred? (Video)

Rey Mysterio took to Instagram and posted his first public comments on the legitimate ankle injury suffered during Monday’s RAW main event with Baron Corbin.

Rey, who is still scheduled to challenge WWE United States Champion Samoa Joe at WrestleMania 35 on Sunday, wrote, “Suffered an injury on my right ankle this past Monday night on Raw against @baroncorbinwwe Praying to be ready for Mania this Sunday!”

Rey also included this video that apparently shows when he suffered the injury:

Source: Wrestling Inc.

ROH Opens New Developmental System

ROH announced the launch of its new developmental system, signing Moses Maddox and Jasper Kaun to three-year deals, becoming the first two ROH developmental talents. The two had previously trained with MCW Pro Wrestling in Maryland, an affiliate of ROH. The next combine will be at the ROH Dojo in Batlimore on May 4 and 5.

Possible Spoilers On The WWE Hall Of Fame 2019 Legacy Wing

WWE will be inducting more names into the Legacy Wing of the WWE Hall of Fame during WrestleMania 35 weekend.

Some of the names going into the Legacy Wing this year include Wahoo MacDaniel, Luna Vachon, “Playboy” Buddy Rose and Jim Barnett, according to @Wrestlevotes.

The Legacy Wing was launched in 2016 to honor wrestlers from the early years of professional wrestling. The inductees are usually honored posthumously with a video package at the annual induction ceremony.

The Legacy Wing currently includes Mildred Burke, Frank Gotch, George Hackenschmidt, Ed “Strangler” Lewis, Pat O’Connor, Lou Thesz, “Sailor” Art Thomas, Martin “Farmer” Burns, June Byers, Haystacks Calhoun, Judy Grable, Dr. Jerry Graham, Luther Lindsay, Toots Mondt, Rikid?zan, Bearcat Wright, Stan Stasiak, Lord Alfred Hayes, Dara Singh, Cora Combs, El Santo, Jim Londos, Rufus R. Jones, Sputnik Monroe, Boris Malenko and Hiro Matsuda.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Rob Van Dam Signs New Deal With Impact Wrestling

Rob Van Dam has signed a new deal with Impact Wrestling, according to a new interview he did with Sporting News.

RVD will team with Sabu to face Pentagon Jr. and Rey Fenix at Thursday’s Impact United We Stand event, but RVD will also be in action at the TV tapings on Monday, April 29 in Toronto. RVD talked about signing the extended agreement to work with the company.

“It looks like you are going to be seeing my face around for the foreseeable future,” RVD said. “We have an agreement to where I will be sticking after the show on Thursday. It does have a beginning and an end, but they can extend, so this is something to start us off. I had agreed to one match, and then we talked about and discussed doing their upcoming tapings after the show on Thursday and a couple of television tapings over the next few months. We looked at the schedule moving forward, and they asked if I was available. I told them I was.

“We will see how it goes. It’s a pretty friendly schedule, which has always been important to me. I want to be home more and on the road less. That’s still something I’ve done since I left WWE in 2007. Impact with their schedule and the position they want me to fill for my career seems like a perfect situation. Hopefully it will be mutually beneficial, and we will see “The Whole F’N Show” back on television. Let’s see how all these new guys matchup to me. I’m not there to compete with the guys who have stolen all my moves (laughs). I’m pretty much there to be myself.”

RVD said the motivation to sign the deal was business. He said, “The motivation for me is business. I’m always willing to listen to good business. That’s still an interest of mine. The last three years I’ve averaged 10-12 matches. This year it will be a little more, but not much more than that. Even if it was double, that’s still a relatively light schedule compared to when I was with WWE and doing over 200 matches a year. I had enough of that schedule. I was on the road full-time. I also get treated better outside of WWE than I do there.

That’s how I’ve always felt. Whenever fans spot me, they say, “RVD, you are a legend.” People treat me like I’m a legend. And I am a legend. I feel like I’ve been walking the globe for over a hundred years (laughs). When I’m in WWE, it’s hard to feel as appreciated because there are so many other stars and agendas. That’s part of their business. They will take advantage of you if you let them. I’m in such a better mental position after being gone for so long. I feel like this part of my life is rewarding for all the years of hard work and everything that I’ve been through up to this point. I’m happy with life now, and I find the universe takes care of me in a good way with Impact Wrestling. It’s more about opportunity and the one that has presented itself. Hopefully, it will be good for everybody.”

Regarding Impact, RVD was asked what changes he’s noticed from afar now to what Impact was when he first worked for the company years ago. He said the company is no longer focused on trying to be #1.

“When I joined Impact in 2010, at the time they had started doing live television on Monday nights opposite Raw,” RVD said. “They brought in some former WWE guys. They changed their mindset right away and pulled away from live TV and started focusing more on trying to get their brand established and less time on trying to compete and knocking the top guys off of their spot. I don’t see WWE changing for a while of being on top. Now, they aren’t focusing on trying to be No.1. They are focusing on being the best they can be and not worrying about everybody else. I think Impact has grown tremendously and will continue to do so.”

Jim Ross Officially Signs “Most Lucrative Commentary Deal” With AEW, Announce Team Revealed

WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross has officially joined All Elite Wrestling.

JR’s AEW signing was revealed in the latest episode of “Road to Double Or Nothing,” seen below. The episode features AEW Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes praising Ross, and Ross talking about signing with the company.

It was also revealed that Excalibur and Alex Marvez will be on the AEW announce team. Alicia A will serve as the backstage correspondent and former WWE ring announcer Justin Roberts will be the AEW ring announcer. Brandi Rhodes said she made the decision to sign Roberts.

JR’s WWE contract just expired at the end of March.

AEW issued the following press release on JR’s signing. It was noted that JR has signed the most lucrative deal in commentary history, which is for three years.

Legendary Commentator Jim Ross Joins All Elite Wrestling in Most Lucrative Deal in Commentary History— AEW Signs Jim Ross to 3-Year Deal as Senior Advisor —

Las Vegas, NV (April 3, 2019) – All Elite Wrestling announced a groundbreaking three-year deal with legendary commentator Jim Ross, generally considered to be the greatest pro wrestling announcer of all time. Effective immediately, Ross will take on the role as Senior Advisor in what is the most lucrative deal in pro wrestling commentary history.

Ross’ first in ring appearance for AEW will be at DOUBLE OR NOTHING, the highly-anticipated event on Saturday, May 25, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. He will also work closely with the senior leaders at AEW on their roadmap to shift and reinvent the wrestling landscape.

“I’ve been part of the wrestling community since I was 7 years old, and there’s no greater thrill than welcoming the voice that I grew up with, Jim Ross, to our AEW family,” said Tony Khan, President of AEW. “We all share a common goal to make this the true golden age, to make this the greatest time ever to be a professional wrestling fan. And, as a business, we also seek to make this a new golden age for the performers and our staff members. Our entire team is thrilled to have Jim onboard and we can’t wait to shake things up together.”

“We’re all excited about having the legendary voice of our childhood come here and help the new generation of talent with his expertise,” said Nick Jackson, EVP at AEW.

“I’m moving on in a very positive way to this timely opportunity to be on the ground floor of one of the most exciting moments in the history of pro wrestling,” said Jim Ross. “I’ve known Tony, Cody, The Young Bucks and Kenny for a long time, and I know they’re going to change the world of pro wrestling. Their roster is already packed with top-level talent and up-and-comers. They’ve got a huge show coming up in May. They’ve brought in game-changing partners like KultureCity. And they’ve got an all-inclusive, welcoming culture like I’ve never seen before. I’m ready to change the world with them.”

Source: Wrestling Inc.