Author: John Bass

WWE On Vader Passing Away

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As noted, former World Heavyweight Champion Leon White, Vader aka Big Van Vader passed away at the age of 63 on Monday night. His son noted on Twitter that he passed away due to complications from pneumonia.

WWE remembered Vader with the following announcement on their website:

Vader passes awayWWE is saddened to learn that Leon White, better known to WWE audiences as Vader, passed away Monday night at the age of 63.

White began his sports-entertainment career in the mid-1980s after retiring from the NFL due to injury. He rose to national prominence in Verne Gagne’s American Wrestling Association before joining New Japan Pro Wrestling as the masked Big Van Vader. He went on to become one of the promotion’s biggest stars and most feared competitors.

Vader then transitioned to World Championship Wrestling, where he would make the biggest mark of his career. He engaged in memorable rivalries with the likes of Sting and Ron Simmons, becoming a dominant, three-time WCW World Champion in the process.

In 1996, Vader joined the WWE roster, where he squared off against Superstars such as Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker. He also found success on the small screen with a recurring guest role on the popular 1990s television program, “Boy Meets World.”

WWE extends its condolences to White’s family, friends and fans.

ROH Loses Madison Square Garden Debut Date After MSG Has Talks With WWE

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It looks like WWE may be trying to repair any damage done to their relationship with Madison Square Garden in New York City as Ring of Honor has lost the date for their MSG debut in 2019, according to PWInsider. It was believed that ROH may have debuted at MSG during WrestleMania 35 Week in April 2019 but that was never confirmed.

As we’ve noted, MSG officials recently reached out to wrestling promotions about working together after they were not happy over how WWE had been using the Barclays Center in nearby Brooklyn, and how none of the WrestleMania 35 Week events were booked at MSG. ROH COO Joe Koff spoke to PWInsider today and confirmed that they lost the date after MSG had talks with WWE.

“You know, I’m going to tell you Mike because you are asking. I’m not going to discuss beyond this statement because I am not going to litigate this in the press,” Koff told PWInsider’s Mike Johnson. “We had a deal with [Madison Square] Garden and they then told us they were backing out after communications from the WWE. We are not able to get any other dates in any kind of discussion. I’m expecting that our lawyers will be contacting all the parties involved and the best we can hope is that we can find a resolution, so we can bring the kind of energy and excitement that ROH and our partner New Japan to a bigger audience and to bigger arenas and to the fans of New York City. ”

When asked if there was the possibility of ROH having a date on the books at MSG, Koff responded, “There is no date and the discussion is going to end here on that.”

No word yet on if Mexico’s AAA promotion still has MSG dates booked for this fall. WWE will return to MSG on July 15th with a live event, featuring The Undertaker and Ronda Rousey.

Source: WrestlingINC

Reasoning Behind Big Cass’ WWE Release

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As reported, WWE announced that Big Cass has been released from the company. Apparently, per Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline, Vince McMahon held a meeting Tuesday prior to SmackDown Liveairing, and made the decision to let Cass go.

According to Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, a major issue was Big Cass excessively drinking during most of the European tour, and having attitudes with others while drunk. Moreover, being intoxicated while in public is something the WWE does not condone, which is why they were sour on Cass.

Regarding Cass’ backstage demeanor, former WWE wrestler Simon Dean (Mike Bucci) shared a story on Facebook where he recalled Cass acting in a rude manner. According to Bucci, Cass “big-dogged” a former co-worker who was backstage, and forced him out of the locker room.

“A former wrestling co-worker of mine from back in my WWE days was backstage at a show about a year ago and Big Cass big dogged him and asked him to leave the locker room,” Bucci wrote on Facebook. “If their paths cross again on the indys, I hope I’m there to see my old buddy return the favor.”

According to a source that WrestlingINC’s  Chris Featherstone had reached out to, Cass could have been getting too comfortable with his character and getting in conflict with people backstage, and these are situations that usually get wrestlers in hot water. The source added that Cass could have been trying to make up for offending others by “playing politics,” and it was probably a case of “keeping it real going wrong.”

Source: WrestlingINC

Wrestling Legend Big Van Vader Dead At 63

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Vader aka Big Van Vader — who wrestled in WWE, WCW, NJPW, AJPW and all over the world — has passed away at the age of 63-years-old … this according to his family.

One of Vader’s children tweeted from his account saying, “It is with a heavy heart to inform everyone that my father, Leon White, passed away on Monday night (6/18/18) at approximately 7:25pm.”

Adding, “Around a month ago my father was diagnosed with a severe case of Pneumonia. He fought extremely hard and clinically was making progress. Unfortunately, on Monday night his heart had enough and it was his time.”

As you may recall, Vader underwent open-heart surgery in March. Vader spoke in-depth with Bill Apter about the surgery before it happened and called himself a “walking time bomb” due to having ten clogged blood vessels.

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

All of us at Wrestling News Blog would like to give our condolences to the Family of Leon White and all of his fan s around the world for their loss

WWE Releases Big Cass

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WWE has announced the release of Big Cass, just two days after his loss to Daniel Bryan at WWE Money In the Bank.

We will have more on the release soon but below is WWE’s announcement:

Big Cass releasedWWE has come to terms on the release of William Morrissey (Big Cass).

It’s worth noting that WWE did not wish Cass the best in his future endeavors.

Source: WrestlingINC

SmackDown Live Preview 6/19/18, Debut Of SAnitY

Tonight’s WWE SmackDown Live will take place from the Huntington Center in Toledo, Ohio with the fallout from WWE Money In the Bank.

* Gauntlet Match to determine who will challenge WWE Champion AJ Styles at WWE Extreme Rules

* SAnitY debut against The Usos

* Becky Lynch takes on Billie Kay

* Is another Mellabration in the works?

 

Sami Zayn Currently Out Of Action With Injury

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Sami Zayn is currently dealing with an injury, according to PWInsider. Zayn has been working through the injury but is now headed to Birmingham, Alabama this week to have the injury examined.

Sami was booked to take the easy loss to Bobby Lashley at Money In the Bank because of the injury.

No word yet on specifics of the injury but Sami was not at last night’s RAW and Money In the Bank was his last date until he’s able to return. Stay tuned for updates on his status.

Source: WrestlingINC

NJPW G1 Climax 28 Cards Revealed

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The G1 Climax is a 20-man round robin styled tournament that is considered NJPW’s most prestigious tournament of the year. The winner will receive an opportunity to challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 13. Once the G1 ends on August 12, the winner does have to defend their title opportunity until next January, so winning the G1 doesn’t necessarily guarantee a future title shot.

Over the last couple days NJPW has announced the participants, blocks, and now the full cards for the tournament. You can see when every match takes place by clicking here.

Here are some of the key match-ups to look out for in the tournament:

* Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White (July 14)
* Kenny Omega vs. Tetsuya Naito (July 15)
* Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White (July 16)
* Hirooki Goto vs. Kenny Omega (July 19)
* Kazuchika Okada vs. Hangman Page (July 20)
* Hirooki Goto vs. Tomohiro Ishii (July 21)
* Togi Makabe vs. Kazuchika Okada (July 22)
* SANADA vs. Kota Ibushi (July 26)
* Kazuchika Okada vs. YOSHI-HASHI (July 27)
* Tomohiro Ishii vs. Kota Ibushi (July 28)
* Michael Elgin vs. Kazuchika Okada (July 30)
* Hirooki Goto vs. Kota Ibushi (August 1)
* Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki (August 2)
* Tomohiro Ishii vs. Kenny Omega (August 4)
* Kazuchika Okada vs. EVIL (August 5)
* Tetsuya Naito vs. SANADA (August 8)
* Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada (August 10)
* Kenny Omega vs. Kota Ibushi (August 11)
* A Block vs. B Block winners (August 12)

A Block

* Hiroshi Tanahashi (17 time entrant, 17th consecutive entry)
* Togi Makabe (15 time entrant, 15th consecutive entry)
* Michael Elgin (4 time entrant, 4th consecutive entry)
* Kazuchika Okada (7 time entrant, 7th consecutive entry)
* Jay White (G1 Debut)
* YOSHI-HASHI (3 time entrant, 3rd consecutive entry)
* Bad Luck Fale (5 time entrant, 5th consecutive entry)
* Hangman Page (G1 Debut)
* EVIL (3 time entrant, 3rd consecutive entry)
* Minoru Suzuki (8 time entrant, 2nd consecutive entry)

B Block

* Juice Robinson (2 time entrant, 2nd consecutive entry)
* Hirooki Goto (11 time entrant, 11th consecutive entry)
* Tomohiro Ishii (6 time entrant, 6th consecutive entry)
* Toru Yano (13 time entrant, 12th consecutive entry)
* Kenny Omega (3 time entrant, 3rd consecutive entry)
* Kota Ibushi (4 time entrant, 2nd consecutive entry)
* Tama Tonga (3 time entrant, 3rd consecutive entry)
* Tetsuya Naito (9 time entrant, 9th consecutive entry)
* SANADA (3 time entrant, 3rd consecutive entry)
* Zack Sabre Jr. (2 time entrant, 2nd consecutive entry)

Source: WrestlingINC

Several WWE Programs Included In Emmy Prelim Ballots

It is a rather long journey to actually get nominated for an Emmy Award. You must pass a couple different stages in the selection process first but it looks like a few WWE programs could be on their way to making the final nomination list.

The Emmy Prelim Ballot was recently released and it includes WWE programming in several categories. WWE attended the For Your Consideration event and brought a lot of star power to the show. Not only did they have skits designed to entertain but they also brought a couple heavy-hitting programs to put up for a nomination.

The WWE Network‘s 24 Special “Empowered” is listed on the Prelim Ballot for Best Documentary or Non-Fiction Special. HBO and WWE Studio’s joint project Andre The Giant is also in the same category.

WrestleMania 34 is getting some attention in the Outstanding Variety Special (Live) category. Both Raw and Mixed Match Challenge are also listed in the Emmy Prelim Ballot for Outstanding Structured Reality Program. The Unstructured Reality Program category includes some WWE representation in the form of both Total Divas and Total Bellas.

Only time will tell if those WWE programs actually make it into the small list of nominees for an Emmy Award, but it’s certainly a good start to see them on the list at this point.

Source: WrestlingINC