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?
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
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.
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.”
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 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 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.
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
Beth Phoenix is coming out of retirement at WrestleMania 35 to challenge for gold.
Phoenix announced she’s coming out retirement on RAW last night and challenged to Sasha Banks & Bayley for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania with Natalya as her partner.
While the actual match and all of the opponents involved were not confirmed as of yet, the WWE Hall of Famer’s partner Natalya had a one-one-on match with Sasha which was interrupted by Nia Jax on the microphone.
Nia claimed she was prettier, stronger version of “The Glamazon,” then her partner Tamina interfered in the match causing it to end in a no contest.
There is talk that the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship match will be a multi-team match. Sasha & Bayley announced that will be on SmackDown live tonight and they are not ducking a challenge from The IIconics.
WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle announced on tonight’s RAW from Chicago that Baron Corbin will be his final opponent. Angle vs. Corbin will take places as the Farewell Match at WrestleMania 35.
At one point it was thought Angle would face John Cena in his farewell match at WrestleMania 35 and over the weekend it was thought his opponent would be Shelton Benjamin after Benjamin issued the challenge to Angle on social media and Angle replied back that he accepts.
https://twitter.com/RealKurtAngle/status/1107328258926960647
It was also announced on RAW that Elias will be the “featured musical act” at WrestleMania 35.
WrestleMania 35 takes place on April 7 from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson are currently at a standstill in their contract negotiations with WWE, according to PWInsider.
The issue has led to The Good Brothers being pulled from all upcoming scheduled WWE live events. Gallows and Anderson are still scheduled to be at TV tapings and pay-per-view events, but they have been pulled from live events indefinitely.
As we’ve noted, there’s talk that Gallows and Anderson will leave WWE when their current contracts expire this September. They reportedly turned down multi-million dollar deals as they are not happy with how they’ve been used in recent years. WWE officials had been meeting with Gallows and Anderson to discuss a new deal, as they have with many talents as of late. It was noted earlier this month that they already missed out on some live event dates because of how the initial contract meetings didn’t lead to a new agreement between the two sides.
Gallows and Anderson won the March 12 pre-SmackDown dark match over SAnitY but their last TV appearance came on the February 5 SmackDown episode, a loss to Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura. It looks like their last non-televised live event bookings came in late February as they were defeating SAnitY at weekend shows.
Gallows and Anderson remain in talks with WWE about a new deal. It was noted earlier this month that The Good Brothers are determined to continue their pro wrestling careers outside of WWE. A lot can happen between now and September, but there continues to be a feeling that they will be leaving.
As noted last week, Anderson took to social media and apparently denied the reports by posting a video of his 7 year old son Cylus.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
