Wrestling Community Divided On Barbed Wire Crown Spot From AEW Rampage

A spot during the Texas Deathmatch for the AEW World Heavyweight Championship between ‘Hangman’ Page and Adam Cole has stirred up some controversy on social media.

Some legends of the pro wrestling business reacted to a tweet sent out by Fightful‘s Sean Ross Sapp where he posted a video of the spot in question. With the show airing live on the Christian holiday, Good Friday, some eyebrows were raised when ‘Hangman’ Page placed a crown of barbed wire on the head of Adam Cole at the conclusion of the bout.

For those unfamiliar, Good Friday is the Friday before Easter Sunday, on which Jesus Christ was tortured, had a crown of thorns placed upon his head, and was then Crucified to a cross. There were obviously parallels between the crown of thorns and the barbed wire crown, and viewers noticed.

Sapp’s tweet accompanied the clip with the caption, “Lmaoooooo Hangman Page put a crown of barbed wire on Adam Cole’s head on Good Friday.” Finding humor in the situation was something Eric Bischoff seemingly did not, as he wrote back, “You find this funny?”

Another veteran, Brian “Road Dogg” James also chimed into a debate on the topic, asking, “Would it be ok if they mocked ANY other religion?”

The fan perception was varied in their response, with one fan going as far as to vow they will quit watching AEW altogether because of the “unacceptable” part of the match. Others pointed to the various times religion was poked fun at in WWE — the Austin 3:16 idea being a spin-off of John 3:16, Vince McMahon’s infamous angle with Shawn Michaels and God, etc.

Page ultimately emerged victoriously and retained the AEW World Championship yesterday, following up the barbed wire crown of thorns with a Deadeye through a table for the 1-2-3. You can see full results from last night’s show at this link.

You can see the spot from AEW Rampage below, as well as various tweets:

https://twitter.com/MiskatonicLab/status/1515118334907334657
https://twitter.com/chrisjudy123456/status/1515218506488463360
https://twitter.com/LazRuiz2/status/1515128431549288453

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Jonathan Gresham Reportedly Signs With AEW

ROH World Champion & PROGRESS Unified World Champion Jonathan Gresham has reportedly signed with AEW.

After weeks of speculation, a new report from Fightful Select confirms that Gresham has signed an AEW contract that will also see him perform for ROH.

Gresham will make his AEW TV debut at Battle of The Belts II this Saturday night on TNT as he defends the Ring of Honor strap against ROH veteran Dalton Castle.

AEW has also signed “Gates of Agony” Kaun and Toa Liona to similar contracts, as reported earlier this week. Word is that there are other talents who are signed to these AEW/ROH contracts, and names should be confirmed soon.

Gresham became the Undisputed ROH World Champion by defeating Bandido in the main event of ROH Supercard of Honor on April 1, which was the first show booked by new ROH owner Tony Khan.

Gresham has worked for Impact Wrestling in recent months, and will face Eddie Edwards in a non-title match at the Rebellion pay-per-view on April 23. There’s no word yet on if this will be his final date for Impact.

Gresham has also worked several indie dates in recent months, but there’s no word on if this new AEW/ROH contract will allow him to continue taking those bookings. Gresham captured the PROGRESS Wrestling Unified World Title on March 20 at Chapter 130 by defeating Cara Noir. Since then he has retained over Malik and Warren Banks, but there’s no word on how the AEW/ROH contract will impact his PROGRESS run.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

AEW Battle Of The Belts II 4/16/2022

AEW Battle of the Belts II will air Saturday 4/16/2022 on TNT at 8 pm ET.

*AEW Women’s Championship
Nyla Rose vs. Thunder Rosa (c)

* AEW TNT Championship
Sammy Guevara vs. Scorpio Sky (c)

* ROH World Championship
Dalton Castle vs. Jonathan Gresham (c)

NJPW Windy City Riot 4/16/22

DATE: April 16, 2022 8:00 pm
LOCATION: Odeum Expo Center, Chicago, IL, United States
AVAILABLE ON: FITE

CARD

Jon Moxley vs. Will Ospreay

NJPW STRONG OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP:
Tom Lawlor (c) vs. Yuji Nagata

Bullet Club (Chris Bey, Good Brothers, Hikuleo, Chris Bey El Phantasmo, and Scott Norton) vs. United Empire (Aaron Henare, Great-O-Khan, Jeff Cobb, TJP, Mark Davis, and Kyle Fletcher)

Jay White Open Challenge

Team Rosser (Fred Rosser, Chris Dickinson, Ren Narita, Alex Coughlin & Josh Alexander) vs. Team Filthy (Danny Limelight, Jorel Nelson, Royce Isaacs, JR Kratos & Black Tiger)

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Minoru Suzuki

CHICAGO STREET FIGHT
Brody King and FinJuice (David Finlay and Juice Robinson) vs. TMDK (Shane Haste, JONAH, and Bad Dude Tito)

WWE SmackDown Preview 4/15/22

Tonight’s WWE SmackDown on FOX will take place from the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts.

* Ricochet will defend the WWE Intercontinental Title against Jinder Mahal

* Drew McIntyre will face Sami Zayn in a rematch from last week’s bout that ended in a count out win for McIntyre

The WWE Events website has RAW Tag Team Champions RK-Bro advertised for tonight’s SmackDown. There’s no word on if they will be there to continue the feud with SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos, or if they’re just working a dark main event.

RAW Superstars Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins are also advertised by the WWE Events website. The arena website has Rhodes vs. Rollins advertised, which is likely a dark main event.

It’s interesting to note that The Usos and Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns are not being advertised to appear, by the WWE Events website or the arena. Ronda Rousey is also not listed by either website, but SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair is.

The Bloodline ended last week’s show by taking out Shinsuke Nakamura, so it will be interesting to see if they miss this week’s SmackDown for whatever reason.

AEW Rampage Preview 4/15/22

Tonight’s AEW Rampage on TNT will be a live episode that takes place at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas.

Rampage is airing live at a special start time of 7pm ET instead of 10pm, due to NBA coverage on TNT.

* Gunn Club (Billy, Austin, and Colten Gunn) vs. Blackpool Combat Club (ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta, Jon Moxley, and Bryan Danielson with William Regal)

* Owen Hart Foundation Tournament Qualifier
Ruby Soho vs. Robyn Renegade

* Texas Deathmatch for the AEW World Heavyweight Championship
Adam Cole vs. ‘Hangman’ Adam Page (c)

Backstage News On Recent WWE Superstar Name Changes

WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon reportedly issued a recent decree on Superstar ring names.

There have been recent changes to WWE Superstar ring names, and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that the roster recently received a memo that included a decree from Vince, who doesn’t want anyone new using their real names anymore, or names they’ve used before on the indies.

The former WALTER became Gunther because WALTER was his real name and a name he used on the indies. Marcel Barthel’s name change to Ludwig Kaiser is interesting as this was a WWE-owned name that he never used before WWE.

Raul Mendoza was changed to Cruz Del Toro this past week, but there’s no word on if he is being called up from WWE NXT. Pete Dunne was re-named to Butch. Raquel Gonzalez was re-named to Raquel Rodriguez this past week when she was brought to SmackDown, but she kept her real first name.

There are obvious exceptions to this rule, like every rule. It was noted that the decree applies mostly to people just coming to the main roster, but obviously does not apply to Cody Rhodes, or Gable Steveson.

It was announced this past week that Austin Theory is now going by just Theory. There was speculation on this name change being related to WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin, but that’s not the case. The Observer notes that Theory’s name was changed because his real name is Austin White.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Karl Anderson Describes AJ Styles Reaction To Drinking Beer

The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) joined SiriusXM’s Busted Open Radio for an hour-long discussion.

Karl Anderson reflected on the night they were the headline dark match at Madison Square Garden with WWE in September 2019. After the bout, there was an in-ring segment involving “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and AJ Styles, which resulted in Styles asking Anderson if he should drink the beer handed to him.

“When we got to do The Garden and the dark main event — this is a good story,” Anderson said. “We’re in there with ‘Stone Cold; Steve Austin, me, Gallows, and AJ [Styles]. ‘Stone Cold’ hands AJ a beer. AJ doesn’t drink, and AJ looks at us and AJ goes, ‘shall I drink this?’ and I go, ‘yeah, just have a sip.’ He takes the sip, he takes the Stunner, and people react. We get to the back and he looks at us and he goes, ‘you guys lied to me. That is the worst thing I’ve ever tasted in my life! How do y’all drink those things?’”

Luke Gallows discussed the Boneyard Match between AJ Styles and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 36. Gallows noted The Deadman cut open his arm when smashing the window of the hearse. It resulted in filming being stopped every few minutes to attend to the wound.

“I remember at the time, I remember us saying – because AJ was our best buddy, like, it’s hard not to be in a stadium with a match like that,” Gallows said. “They wanted that. They deserved 80,000 people and they didn’t have it. So everyone made the best of a rotten situation and the match was cool as sh*t, I thought.

“You talk about an old-school badass dude too at the very beginning of that, because it took all night to shoot it. He punches the window out of the hearse, right? And his arm is bleeding profusely. You can see tendons. A lot of people – Karl would have quit. I mean every fifteen minutes we would stop, ice, towel, hold it on to get the bleeding to stop. Alright, let’s start going. For 8-9 hours just bleeding.”

Source: Wrestling Inc – credit SiriusXM’s Busted Open Radio 

Tony Khan To Make “Major Announcement” On Next Week’s AEW Dynamite

The card for next week’s AEW Dynamite was revealed last night and it is filled to the brim with action and announcements. It was promised that Tony Khan, the Founder and President of AEW, will be appearing to reveal a major announcement for All Elite Wrestling.

When it comes to the matches, the ongoing feud between Andrade El Idolo and Darby Allin looks to be coming to a head when they face each other in a coffin match. This will only be the second coffin match ever in AEW and Darby’s second time competing with such a stipulation.

Rising AEW star Hook will also be making his way to Dynamite to compete for the first time. On the show Rampage and on pay-per-view buy-in shows, Hook remains undefeated, so it will be interesting to see if he can keep up the winning streak with a new wave of challengers.

You can see the full card for next week’s AEW Dynamite below:

Wardlow vs. The Butcher

Hook makes AEW Dynamite in-ring debut

* Owen Hart Foundation Tournament Qualifier
Britt Baker vs. Danielle Camella

* Owen Hart Foundation Tournament Qualifier
Jungle Boy vs. Kyle O’Reilly

* Coffin Match
Darby Allin vs. Andrade El Idolo

Tony Khan to make a major announcement

MLW Fusion Preview 4/14/22

Major League Wrestling FUSION tonight at 8pm ET features a 4-way for the National Openweight Championship, streaming worldwide for free on MLW’s YouTube channel and Saturday nationwide on cable and dish on beIN SPORTS. 

  • National Openweight Championship: Alex Kane (champion) vs. ACH vs. Myron Reed vs. Puma King
  • Shazza McKenzie vs. Holidead
  • TJP vs. Matt Cross

Approaching the half year milestone for his reign as the National Openweight Champion, Alex Kane has demanded challengers with a variety of fighting styles step up and challenge him for the championship. Tonight Kane gets exactly that as grapplers with diverse fighting styles step up to knock off the champ and take his belt.

The high risk, high reward high-flying Myron Reed looks to become a double champion and add gold to his World Middleweight Championship reign. 

But what about the unpredictable and unorthodox lucha libre fighting style? Puma King looks to pounce the champ and bring gold back to Mexico as the first Mexican to hold the National Openweight Championship.

Last but not least, the technical finesse of ACH could overwhelm Kane’s explosive suplexes if ACH dictate the speed of the title fight.

Shockingly, “The Suplex Assassin” is not happy. He has demanded even MORE competitors step up for tonight’s title bout. Not only does he want to prove his hybrid wrestling technique is beyond all on the roster, but he wants fighters from different weight classes to make their move… but will a fourth challenger enter the fray? Tune in to find out.

After the shocking news that Cesar Duran was under investigation, what is the latest on the fate of the ruthless proprietor of Azteca Underground?

The road to crowning the inaugural women’s world featherweight champion heats up as Australia’s top ranked Shazza McKenzie makes her MLW debut against Strange Sangre’s Holidead.

Fatu rages against his former CONTRA co-conspirator Mads Krugger and sets the stage for a monumental showdown at Intimidation Games.

Plus: two of the league’s top Middleweights go toe to toe as TJP goes one on one with Matt Cross!

Richard Holliday and Alicia Atout dish on The Dynasty, Hammerstone and more. Could The Clout Couple be laying the groundwork for their next move against the World Heavyweight Champion?

Join Rich Bocchini and Joe Dombrowski as MLW presents Fusion!