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.
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
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.
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.
Tonight’s WWE RAW will take place from the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, IL as the Road to WrestleMania 35 continues.
* The Beast returns before WrestleMania
* Kurt Angle to announce his WrestleMania opponent
* Seth Rollins seeks retribution against Drew McIntyre
* Dana Brooke gets her title opportunity against Ronda Rousey
* Who will partner with Finn Bálor against Bobby Lashley & Lio Rush?
* Is Beth Phoenix pondering an in-ring return?
* No. Holds. Barred. – Batista and Triple H at WrestleMania 35 – Has Batista sealed his own fate?
