Author: John Bass

MLW CEO Court Bauer Discusses AEW & States That MLW Talent Can Work Anywhere But WWE

MLW CEO Court Bauer was a guest on Wrestling Inc’s WINCLY podcast. During the interview, he addressed a number of topics, including MLW’s relationship with other companies.

On Wrestlers Working Elsewhere: “We signed MJF and Lucha Bros… we’ve had these guys for a while so there’s a mutual coolness there,” Bauer said. “There’s not a problem. We don’t block anyone from working anywhere. We only have one company where they’re prohibited working for which is WWE.”By doing that, if they end up on national TV somewhere – that’s great exposure. Now people are familiar with you elsewhere and also here.”

On AEW Entering The Mix: “I am very interested in the seeing the direction AEW goes. My philosophy is tide rises all ships. As long as your business is running at a high level and clicking with your fan base, you’re gonna do fine and the fans will support it. The fans will go beyond just one product. If AEW does well…if MLW does well, then that’s great for fans and the talent. It’s great for anyone. For every success story in wrestling, that helps validate it to a larger audience. To licensing people. To TV people. To potential investors….You don’t want a landscape where just one or two companies are successful – that doesn’t indicate a healthy industry.”

On AEW/MLW Wrestlers Leaving To Join AEW Full-Time: “We have very healthy and open lines of communication with [AEW] and I don’t anticipate it being an issue…. Whenever you can find a way to work together and take the ego out of the equation, you find that life is easier and business is better. The business problem people have in wrestling is ego…. Just get over it. It’s important to stay humble but also to be strategic and see the bigger picture.”

WWE SmackDown Live Preview 3/19/19

Tonight’s WWE SmackDown Live will take place from the Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana as the road to WrestleMania continues.

* Kofi Kingston must win a Gauntlet Match to earn WWE Title Match at WrestleMania

* The Miz to respond to Shane McMahon

* Sasha Banks & Bayley pay a visit to Team Blue

* What’s next for Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair?

WWE 205 Live Preview 3/19/19

Tonight’s WWE 205 Live will take place from the Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana.

* WWE Cruiserweight Championship Tournament Final: Tony Nese vs. Cedric Alexander

Backstage Notes On WrestleMania Matches, Rumors About The Updated Card, AEW’s Influence

WrestleMania season is upon us, and this year’s card is turning out to be a packed show with rumor circulating that 17 or more matches may be featured at the event.

As of WWE’s Fastlane PPV, the main event matches for WrestleMania 35 were determined as Seth Rollins vs. Brock Lesnar for Lesnar’s WWE Universal Heavyweight Championship and Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Ronda Rousey for Rousey’s WWE RAW Women’s Championship.

Apart from those high-caliber matches, we also found out last night that Kurt Angle’s opponent for his retirement match has been set as Baron Corbin. It was announced that Braun Strowman will be a part of the annual Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal as well.

On this morning’s edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer mentioned that the women’s battle royal that was recently added to the WrestleMania card each year will indeed still be taking place at WrestleMania 35. Not only that, but apparently 3 or 4 other matches that haven’t been talked about on WWE TV are still in the works to be featured on the card.

This increase in length for WrestleMania is a trend that has been proven true every year, and it’s an idea that has carried over in to the other annual PPV events. WrestleMania 32‘s main card ended around the 286 minute mark, WrestleMania 33 reached 305 minutes, and last year’s WrestleMania 34 had a runtime of 314 minutes. If those are any sign of what is to come, Forbes.com may be correct when they say that this “will likely become the longest WWE pay-per-view of all time.”

Forbes.com also noted that superstar morale in WWE is what has inspired this “all hands on deck” mindset with the WrestleMania 35 card, and with the forthcoming launch of All Elite Wrestling, employee morale is important as ever.

WrestleMania 35 takes place on April 7 from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Below is the updated card:

WrestleMania 35 Host: Alexa Bliss

WrestleMania 35 Special Correspondents: SNL’s Michael Che and Colin Jost

WrestleMania 35 Featured Musical Act: Elias

WWE Universal Title Match
Seth Rollins vs. Brock Lesnar (c)

Triple Threat for the RAW Women’s Title
Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch vs. Ronda Rousey (c)

WWE Cruiserweight Title Match
Tony Nese vs. Buddy Murphy (c)

No Holds Barred Match
Triple H vs. Batista

Farewell Match for WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle
Kurt Angle vs. Baron Corbin

6th Annual Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
Braun Strowman, TBA

The Miz vs. Shane McMahon

AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton

WWE United States Title Match
Rey Mysterio vs. Samoa Joe (c)

Below are rumored matches for WrestleMania 35:

WWE Title Match
Kofi Kingston vs. Daniel Bryan (c)

Multi-Woman Match for the SmackDown Women’s Title
TBA vs. Asuka

Multi-Team Match for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles
TBA vs. WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix and Natalya vs. Tamina Snuka and Nia Jax vs. Sasha Banks and Bayley (c)

Multi-Team Match for the RAW Tag Team Titles
TBA vs. Ricochet and Aleister Black vs. The Revival (c)

Multi-Team Match for the SmackDown Tag Team Titles
TBA vs. The Hardys vs. The Bar vs. Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev vs. The Usos (c)

Multi-Man Match for the WWE Intercontinental
TBA vs. Bobby Lashley (c)

Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre

2nd Annual WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Sin Cara Denies Signing New WWE Deal

It was previously reported that Sin Cara signed a new deal with WWE. The man himself has taken to Twitter to address these rumors, using AJ Styles’ method from when he made his announcement of a contract extension.

“This is the most recent member of my family,” Sin Cara stated. “Also, I have NOT signed a new contract with the WWE??What a cute little guy.”

https://twitter.com/SinCaraWWE/status/1107847362670546944

Legendary Pro Wrestler Willis “Roger” Kirby Passes Away At 79

Cauliflower Alley Club took to Facebook to announce that Willis Kirby, better known as “Roger Kirby” in the ring, passed away at the age of 79. Kirby recently suffered a bad fall that left him with a broken hip and lead doctors to discover that he had stage four pancreatic cancer. He then developed a case of pneumonia that ultimately brought on his passing.

Kirby leaves behind a wife, Lila, their seven children, and several grandchildren. At 79, Willis spent nearly thirty of those years performing in professional wresting after his debut in 1960.

Although he had stints in the United States, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, Kirby spent most of his career wrestling throughout the various territories of the National Wrestling Alliance. In the entirety of his career, Kirby held championship gold over 35 times in NWA, including the coveted NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship.

Kirby wrestled in the Memphis Wrestling territory – CWA Memphis Wrestling

Kirby did have a brief experience working with WWE in 1986 but decided to give it up and retire from pro wrestling with the legacy he had created prior to that. He once told SLAM! Sports, “[I] want to be remembered as a top wrestler. I’d done everything that I wanted to do…I didn’t want to go back down the ladder.”

You can read the full Facebook post about Kirby’s passing below:

wRESTle in Peace, Roger (Willis) KirbyI don’t have the words to say just how broken-hearted I am at this moment. I just got a call from Roger Kirby’s wife, Lila. Roger passed away this afternoon at age 79. He fell three weeks ago and broke his hip. In the hospital, they discovered that he had stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He contracted pneumonia and died today.

Roger and I traveled together whenever he came to Tennessee. At our reunion here in 2009, he stood up in front of everyone and told them that I had always been his best friend; and that I was the only person who stayed in touch regularly in the years after we got out of the business. We talked regularly, and every time, before he hung up, he always thanked me for being his friend.

Many people come in and out of out lives during our lifetimes, but there are only a select few we can truly say we loved. For me, Roger is one those special few.

I will never forget Roger or the great times we had together on the road. God bless you, Roger. I will never forget you. Thank you for your friendship. wRESTle in Peace.

Photo taken by Scott Teal at the Trevecca Nazarene College yearbook office/studio in 1977.

The full Facebook post and some matches from Kirby’s legendary career are featured below:

Sin Cara Signs New Three-Year WWE Contract

Sin Cara has reportedly signed a new deal with WWE, according to PWInsider. The new deal is for three years.

Sin Cara inked the new deal several weeks back as he had been working under the terms of an extension from his previous contract.

The masked Superstar is expected to return to the SmackDown brand soon. He has been off TV since undergoing knee surgery in August 2018. He was backstage at last week’s SmackDown and he’s been training in the ring at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando as of late. He told fans on Twitter in mid-February that he was ready to make his comeback.

The former Hunico signed a WWE developmental deal shortly after his tryout match in December 2009. He first took over the role of Sin Cara in August 2011.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Ohio Valley Wrestling Will Once Again Serve As Impact’s Developmental Territory

Impact Wrestling has re-established its partnership with Ohio Valley Wrestling and will look to the company for their stars of the future.

The press release states:

IMPACT Wrestling announced today that it has re-entered into an agreement with Louisville-based Ohio Valley Wrestling to serve as an official development and training territory for IMPACT Wrestling.

The announcement of the renewed partnership follows the success of the co-promoted One Night Only: Clash in the Bluegrass event, a sold-out show from Davis Arena in Louisville, Kentucky, which featured stars from both organizations.

Executive VP Scott D’Amore was quoted in the release saying, “It is great to work with Al Snow and the team at OVW, which has a long history of developing great talent.”

OVW is the former developmental territory for WWE. Alumni include John Cena, Brock Lesnar and reigning IMPACT World Champion Johnny Impact. The company previously was the home for Impact’s developmental talent from 2012-2014.

Snow acquired Ohio Valley Wrestling in June 2018.

According to the announcement, IMPACT Wrestling management will look to OVW when scouting new talent and “those on the development roster will see future opportunities to appear on the flagship weekly show IMPACT!”

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

AEW Asking Fans To Submit Audition Videos For New Character “The Librarian”

Do you want to be part of AEW? Are you librarian-esque? If so, an opportunity awaits.

On the latest episode of Being the Elite … Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson and Cody Rhodes announced an open casting call for a gimmick called “The Librarian.”

Not a lot of details were given on the new character, but the AEW Executive Vice Presidents called for fans who are interested in playing the role to tweet audition videos to AEW that are up-to-sixty seconds in length using the hashtag #TheLibrarian.

Watch the announcement below.

AJ Styles Signs New WWE Contract

Former WWE Champion AJ Styles has announced he signed a new contract.

Styles shared a photo on social media of his family’s new dog and wrote: “This is the newest member of my family. Also, I’ve signed a new contract with the WWE. What a cute little guy.”

AJ’s contractual status has been up in the air for weeks, with AEW reportedly expressing interest at one point. No official details on the length of his contract.

The 41-year-old wrestler signed with WWE in 2016 and won his first world title in the company SummerSlam that same year.

AJ Styles is set to face Randy Orton at WrestleMania 35.

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet