Mickie James Releases New Song To Benefit National Child Abuse Awareness Month (Video)

WWE Superstar Mickie James is using her voice to help raise money and awareness during National Child Abuse Awareness Month.

Mickie’s new “With The Love of a Child” single features youth advocate & YouTube star Rosevelt Sings (Rosevelt Rawls), and benefits the “#5TooMany Campaign” for Childhelp. Childhelp is the world’s oldest and largest non-profit group dedicated to helping victims of child abuse and neglect.

Courtesy of Mickie’s YouTube channel, above is a behind-the-scenes look at the new single. The song features The Holy Saints Children’s Choir of Tuscaloosa. The lyrics can be found in the description of the YouTube video seen above. The song was written by Mickie and Sean Gasaway, and released by Firewater Records.

Mickie tweeted on the song and wrote, “So excited to share this special behind the scenes look at the making of “With the Love of a Child” with the lovely ?@RoseveltSings please continue to help us reach our goal https://5toomany.com & continue to spread the love! [red heart emoji] #5toomany”

The WWE announcement on the new campaign noted that fans can help the cause by doing the following:

* Download “With The Love of a Child” for free on music platforms
* Take a photo with a heart in hand and post to social media
* Tag five friends to do the same
* #5TooMany and #RoseveltsChallenge
* Donate $5 to help meet the challenge at 5TooMany.com

All money raised with the campaign will go toward Childhelp’s mission during National Child Abuse Awareness Month.

WWE RAW Preview 4/27/20

Tonight’s WWE RAW will take place from the closed-set WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.

It’s believed that RAW will air on a slight tape delay as WWE is also taping next week’s RAW some time today or tonight.

WWE has not announced any matches for tonight’s RAW but there will be a contract signing between WWE Champion Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins, to finalize their match at the Money In the Bank pay-per-view on May 10.

WWE is also teasing an appearance by RAW Women’s Champion Becky Lynch, and there will be more build for Money In the Bank.

Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins set for WWE Championship Match contract signing tonight on Raw

Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins are set for a collision course at WWE Money In The Bank, but they’ll have to get through the contract signing tonight without tearing each other to shreds.

The WWE Champion has been on fire since winning the title at WrestleMania, but The Monday Night Messiah cunningly saw the opportunity to end McIntyre’s recent run as a perfect way to captivate the Raw masses with his gospel. After the Scottish Superstar’s recent win over United States Champion Andrade, Rollins entered the ring to blindside the WWE Champion with a Superkick and two vicious Stomps to put the title match in motion.

What fireworks will be in store this time when the two rivals meet on Raw to make their title match official?

Tune in to Monday Night Raw tonight at 8/7 C on USA Network to see what goes down between McIntyre and Rollins!

WWE SmackDown Preview 4/24/20, 25 Years of Triple H

Tonight’s WWE Fiday Night SmackDown on FOX will air live from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, FL.

Triple H Says WrestleMania Should Move To Two Nights Permanently

Corey Graves interviewed Triple H on After The Bell to talk about WrestleMania and his experience watching it as it was the first time it was held in the Performance Center with no fans. Graves asked Triple H if he ever imagined that the Performance Center would one day be used to host a WrestleMania.

“After the first two shows and the live Smackdown, the first one, it seems like this barrage of just events happening,” Triple H said. “The moment in time when I walked in there and they had now transferred it from the kind of Raw and SmackDown set to repositioning everything, and I got in there in the giant WrestleMania sign that Kevin Owens would end up jumping off of was in the Performance Center. It was surreal and just, I don’t know, a crazy experience.

“I called Canyon, who runs development for me, and we were talking. I remember the moment walking into that building for the first time when we were scouting locations, and it was like a knickknack store from like a importer from Korea or something. It was all these like shelves to the ceiling of these knickknacks as far as you could see, and I remember walking in there and just rows and rows and rows and rows of all this stuff. If you would have said to me, in that moment in time, it’s a nice building right? We’ll have WrestleMania in here in a few years. You’re out of your mind, but here we are. I can’t recall anything crazier.”

Graves asked Triple H about things that he liked from WrestleMania this year. Triple H gave credit to Rhea Ripley for putting on a great match with no crowd at such a young age as she was getting more comfortable working in front of a crowd.

“It’s hard for me, at this point in my career, to imagine going out there in front of nobody and trying to pull that energy and that level of performance. Imagine if you’re Kevin Owens, just climb up that thing 30 feet, just fall off there and land on that table, just do it. That takes something special to go out there and have that performance. You here Rock talk about that and you know it. The the electricity and the connection between our fans and what we do, there’s nothing like it,” Triple H said. “I thought Charlotte and Rhea Ripley had an amazing match, and to me, I think Rhea Ripley, 22 years old, you’re just kind of getting to where you’re starting to feel comfortable with crowds. Then they take the crowd away and go like do it again.”

Along with the Boneyard Match, the Firefly Fun House Match created a lot of buzz at WrestleMania. Triple H called the match an acid trip and gave credit to John Cena and Bray Wyatt for taking it as far as they did.

“Man, my hats off to everybody that was a part of it from a cinematic scope as well. The Fun House, I just knew conceptually what the thought was. Everybody that I would ask like, ‘hey, how’d that go?’ I’d get the same response, ‘people are either gonna love it or hate it.’ I was like really? And most of the people that shot it were like, ‘I have no idea what we shot,’ because it’s it all goes together. Like if it all goes together well, it might be awesome, might be the worst thing anybody’s ever seen. I kept getting that. I was like, oh my God. I didn’t know what to expect. It’s like this crazy acid trip,” Triple H admitted. “You talk about reinventing and getting outside the box, my hats off to Cena on that. To get outside the box of your own character and everything that you’ve done and be that self aware and be okay with putting that out there for everybody and Bray as well, it was a crazy trip, and it just delivered something completely unique and business changing.”

Triple H has talked about the idea of a holding WrestleMania for more than one day before, and he elaborated more on the idea. He compared WrestleMania to a festival with all of the events that happen around WrestleMania.

“Well, I mean my opinion is my opinion, but I think it was much more enjoyable than the eight-hour extravaganza,” Triple H admitted. “I think at some point that is probably what it should be. It’s just become so big. When you think about it, in a way, it started out as a concert that ended up being a festival, and it’s this week-long thing. When you think about it in that manner now, you know, the Thursday would have been Hall of Fame, Friday was SmackDown, Saturday was going to be Takeover, Sunday would have been WrestleMania [and] Monday would have been RAW. It’s a week-long festival, and I think that big main-stage attraction needs to be those two nights and it’d be this weekend of events.

“I do think that’s probably a change that that out of chaos comes the genius and maybe that is the genius of it. And I know there’s been people saying that for a period of time, but that’s a major shift, and it doesn’t come easy. I think people in the world look at stuff like that. They go, ‘why don’t they just make it two nights?’ Yeah, because that’s really easy. There you go two nights.”

Source: After The Bell podcast via Wrestling Inc.

WWE NXT Preview 4/22/20

Tonight’s WWE NXT episode will air live from the NXT Arena at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida.

* Finn Bálor and The Velveteen Dream go one-on-one

* Tegan Nox & Shotzi Blackheart face off with Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez

* El Hijo del Fantasma debuts against Jack Gallagher

* Kushida and Tony Nese clash in Interim NXT Cruiserweight Title Tournament action

* Drake Maverick battles Jake Atlas in a Group A Interim NXT Cruiserweight Title Tournament Match

WWE 24/7 Champion Rob Gronkowski’s NFL Return Confirmed, WWE Comments

WWE 247 Champion Rob Gronkowski returning to play in the NFL as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers agged to a trade with the New England Patriots ahead of Thursday’s NFL Draft.

The NFL issued a mobile alert this afternoon that confirms the Patriots have agreed to send the retired tight-end and a seventh round Draft pick to the Bucs in exchange for a fourth round pick.

We should know more about Gronk’s NFL future later this week. As noted, he still has 1 year and $10 million left on his NFL contract with the Patriots.

Gronk recently inked a deal with WWE, reportedly to wrestle for the company. He had been rumored for a big match at SummerSlam in Boston this August, but there’s no word yet on how this will change things.

As seen below, WWE tweeted on Gronk’s NFL return and wrote, “#247Champion @RobGronkowski is on the move!!!”

Former XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck Files Lawsuit vs. Vince McMahon

Former XFL commissioner Oliver Luck filed a lawsuit against Vince McMahon.

Luck cites wrongful termination after the league ceased operations and filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy.  Luck seeks unspecified damages, judggment on fulfilling terms of his deal. Luck’s deal is reportedly worth around $20 million over its lifespan.

McMahon’s lawyer says luck’s “allegations will be disputed”.

WWE RAW Preview 4/20/20

Tonight’s WWE RAW will air on the USA Network from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.

WWE has not issued the official preview for tonight’s show but they are advertising that WWE Champion Drew McIntyre will respond to last week’s attack by Seth Rollins.

WWE has also announced the following Money In the Bank qualifying matches for tonight’s show:

* Aleister Black vs. Austin Theory
* MVP vs. Apollo Crews
* Rey Mysterio vs. Murphy

WWE Making Adjustments To Filming Schedule To Increase Performer Safety

Pro Wrestling Sheet reports that WWE is making a big adjustment to their filming schedule in an effort to increase the level of safety for performers amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

As you’ll recall, WWE returned to live television shows from the Performance Center this week after the Governor of Florida allowed sports and entertainment properties to resume producing events in the state as long as there are no fans in attendance.

Now, however, the company is making another change to how things will be filmed for the next few months at the WWE Performance Center.

We’ve learned that in an effort to have performers traveling as little as possible, the WWE filming schedule going forward will be as follows:

  • SmackDown will air this evening live as scheduled on FOX
  • Raw will air on Monday live as scheduled on USA Network
  • NXT will air on Wednesday live as scheduled
  • Next Friday, SmackDown will air live as scheduled
  • Saturday, April 25; two episodes of SmackDown will be taped (airing May 1 and May 8)
  • Monday, April 27; two episodes of Raw will be taped (one for that night and the other will air the following week on May 4)
  • Wednesday, April 29; two episodes of NXT will be taped (one is for that night, the other will air on May 6)
  • Monday, May 11; one episode of Raw will be taped for that night and one episode of SmackDown will be taped for May 15
  • Tuesday, May 12; one episode of Raw will be taped for May 18 and one episode of SmackDown will be taped for May 22
  • Wednesday, May 13; two episodes of NXT will be taped (one is for that night, the other will air on May 20)
  • Monday, May 25; two episodes of Raw will be taped (one for that night, the other will air on June 1)
  • Tuesday, May 26; two episodes of SmackDown will be taped (one will air on May 29, the other will air on June 5)
  • Wednesday, May 27; two episodes of NXT will be taped (one is for that night, the other will air on June 3)
  • Monday, June 8; one episode of Raw taped for that evening and another episode of SmackDown taped for June 12
  • Tuesday, June 9; one episode of NXT will be taped for June 10
  • Monday, June 15; one episode of Raw taped for that evening and another episode of SmackDown taped for June 19
  • Tuesday, June 16; one episode of Raw taped for June 22 and another episode of SmackDown taped for June 26
  • Wednesday, June 17; two episodes of NXT will be taped (one is that night, the other will air on June 24)
  • Monday, June 29; two episodes of Raw will be taped (one for that night and the other will air on July 6)
  • Tuesday, June 30; two episodes of SmackDown will be taped (one for July 3 and one for July 10)
  • Wednesday, July 1; two episodes of NXT will be taped (one is for that night, the other will air on July 8)

According to sources, the health and safety measures being utilized at the Performance Center for shows has continued to evolve as we learn more about the coronavirus as a society. This includes everyone wearing face masks, good hygiene/handwashing for appropriate amount of time, medical screenings prior to entering any closed set, matches done in waves, only essential personnel on-site, adhering to social distancing outside of performances, ‘pandemic-level cleaning’ and more.

Our sources say that despite some outside criticism, WWE is putting a lot of effort into mitigating risks and doing the best they can to protect people’s health and safety while still keeping the business afloat amidst the current pandemic.

A rep for WWE confirmed the scheduling information when reached for comment.

“We believe it is now more important than ever to provide people with a diversion from these hard times,” the company said in a previous statement. “We are producing content on a closed set with only essential personnel in attendance following appropriate guidelines while taking additional precautions to ensure the health and wellness of our performers and staff. As a brand that has been woven into the fabric of society, WWE and its Superstars bring families together and deliver a sense of hope, determination and perseverance.”

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

WWE SmackDown Preview 4/17/20

Tonight’s WWE SmackDown on FOX will air live from the closed-set WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.

* Another unique Triple Threat Match will see SmackDown Tag Team Titles on the line

* Sasha Banks and Tamina to clash in a match with championship implications

* Daniel Bryan to face Cesaro in Men’s Money in the Bank Qualifying Match

* Sonya Deville out to clear the air with Mandy Rose

* Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match spot on the line when Naomi meets Dana Brooke