Tag: WrestleMania 39

Details On Vince McMahon’s Lack Of Influence On WWE SmackDown And WrestleMania 39

WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque was reportedly the go-to person with regard to creative operations on this week’s “WWE SmackDown.”

As reported earlier, Vince McMahon was not present at the tapings in Portland, Oregon, and “reviewed creative plans remotely.” While there were minor changes made to the script, there was nothing major, which represents a drastic shift from the backstage environment during Monday’s post-WrestleMania 39 “WWE Raw” in Los Angeles.

In an update from PWInsiderElite, a source at the tapings described whatever changes made to the script as “nothing out of the ordinary” in comparison to changes made since Levesque took over creative last year. Typically, rewrites ordered by McMahon are known to wipe out multiple segments and/or matches, but there was “no sign of that today,” the source added. 

Furthermore, Mike Johnson of PWInsider confirmed that the main event plan for WrestleMania 39 was “always locked in” for Roman Reigns to defeat Cody Rhodes. Contrary to fan speculation, there were “no last-minute changes due to Vince McMahon” or anyone else. Johnson added that “Cody will be pushed going forward as a top-tier talent,” and the finish to his match with Reigns was kept a secret to the “absolute bare minimum of those who needed to know.” 

For fans who missed “SmackDown,” Triple H cut a very uplifting promo on the show, addressing “the future” in his address to the WWE Universe in Portland. While the primary focus of his speech was to announce the upcoming WWE Draft, Triple H seemed to firmly suggest that he was back calling the shots as it pertains to WWE creative operations, asking fans if they were “ready to play the game.”

It now remains to be seen if the script for Monday’s “Raw” is again altered by McMahon, as was reportedly the case earlier this week.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Triple H Confirms Shane McMahon Tore His Quad At WrestleMania 39

Triple H has disclosed the nature of Shane McMahon’s injury, which he suffered in his match against The Miz at WrestleMania 39. 

Triple H revealed on the post-WrestleMania 39 press conference that Shane tore his quad in the match. “Unfortunately, Shane, tearing his quad early in the match — not that it was going to be a long match, probably — but going down with a torn quad,” said Triple H.

Shane returned to WWE for the first time since the men’s Royal Rumble match in 2022, where he reportedly put himself ahead of the rest of the wrestlers, and was sent home by his father, Vince McMahon. Shane’s return was a surprise to most at the SoFi Stadium and he received a rapturous ovation from the fans when his music hit. Snoop Dogg — the co-host of WrestleMania 39 — brought him out to face his fellow co-host The Miz, just like he had done on night 1 of WrestleMania 39 when The Miz faced Pat McAfee.

But, McMahon’s return ended as quickly as it started as he tore his quad when he leapfrogged The Miz and had to be escorted away by WWE’s medical team. Snoop Dogg, who was ringside, returned to the ring and became McMahon’s replacement to face The Miz and landed his version of The Rock’s People’s Elbow to get a win over the former WWE Champion. 

Snoop’s quick thinking to save the day earned special praise from Triple H.

“My hats off to Snoop. You know, just picking it up and just like, ‘Oh, man, he’s hurt? Alright, I’ll fix that.’ He’s a natural-born entertainer. I’ve known Snoop for years in this environment and what kind of a fan he is, but, man, tonight he put himself, from a respect factor for me, he put himself in a different playing field for me.”

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE WrestleMania 39 Night Two 5/2/2023 (Results)

Brock Lesnar vs. Omos

Women’s Tag Team Fatal 4 Way
Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler def. Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez, Natalya & Shotzi and Chelsea Green & Sonya Deville

Triple Threat for the WWE Intercontinental Title
GUNTHER (c) def. Sheamus and Drew McIntyre

RAW Women’s Title Match
Bianca Belair (c) def. Asuka

Now the co-hosts of WrestleMania appear in the ring. The Miz dances as Snoop Dogg music plays. He announces 81,395 fans in attendance tonight for a two-night total of 161,892.

The two banter back and forth about Pat McAfee and George Kittle and the impromptu match last night. Miz complains that they ruined his expensive suit. Snoop Dogg ends up making another match for him tonight.

“HERE COMES THE MONEY!”

Shane McMahon’s theme hits and out he comes for an unscheduled bout against The Miz.

The Miz vs. Shane McMahon/Snoop Dogg

The bell sounds and we’re off-and-running. Miz complains that tonight’s suit is more expensive than last night’s. Shane gets emotional and says how much it means to be here tonight.

The bell sounds and within seconds we see Shane down clutching his knee after a leap frog gone wrong. A couple people come in to check on him as he stays down. Snoop Dogg ends up filling in, entering the ring and blasting Miz with two punches an hitting a People’s Elbow for a pin fall victory.

Winner: Snoop Dogg

Hell In a Cell
Edge def. “The Demon” Finn Balor

Undisputed WWE Universal Title Match
Roman Reigns (c) def. Cody Rhodes

The Ref ejected Solo Sikoa after hearing him hit Cody with Cody’s weight belt.

After the ref got knocked out The Uso came down and attacked Cody. Kevin owens and Sami Zayn then came down and clrar Usos out of the ring. Kevin hits Roman with a Stunner after The Usos are cleared from the ring. Sami hits his Helluva Kick in the corner as well. Kevin and Sami head out to the floor to continue beating down Jimmy and Jey Uso. They fight over the barricade and through the crowd.

Cody was set to finish Roman, Paul Heyman distracts the ref, Solo comes back in and hits Cody with a Samoan Spike. Reigns hit Cody with a Spear and covers him for a 3 count. Reigns retains the titles.

WWE WrestleMania 39 Night 1 5/1/2023 (Results)

Hosted by The Miz with Snoop Dogg

Men’s Tag Team Fatal 4 Way
Street Profits def. The Viking Raiders, Braun Strowman & Ricochet and Alpha Academy

Seth Rollins def. Logan Paul

WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus and WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Becky Lynch & WWE Hall of Famer Lita def. Damage CTRL (Bayley, Dakota Kai, IYO SKY)

Rey Mysterio def. Dominik Mysterio

SmackDown Women’s Title Match
Rhea Ripley def. Charlotte Flair (c) to become New SmackDown Women’s Champion

Pat McAfee answered The Miz’s open challenge. Snoop Dogg made the match official

Pat McAfee def. The Miz

San Francisco 49’s TE George Kittle closelined Miz on the outside to help McAfee win.

Undisputed WWE Tag Team Titles Match
Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens def. The Usos (c) to become New Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions

WWE WrestleMania 39 Night One 5/1/2023 – Night Two 5/2/2023 (Card)

WWE WrestleMania 39 will take place Saturday, April 1 and Sunday, April 2 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. On Peacock and PPV at 8 pm E.

CARDS

Host: The Miz

Live DJ: DJ Valentino Khan (Night 1 and Night 2)

America The Beautiful singer for Night 1: Becky G

America The Beautiful singer for Night 2: Jimmie Allen

CONFIRMED MATCHES FOR NIGHT 1:

WWE United States Title Match
John Cena vs. Austin Theory (c)

SmackDown Women’s Title Match
Rhea Ripley vs. Charlotte Flair (c)

Undisputed WWE Tag Team Titles Match
Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens vs. The Usos (c)

Damage CTRL (Bayley, Dakota Kai, IYO SKY) vs. WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus and WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Becky Lynch & WWE Hall of Famer Lita

Logan Paul vs. Seth Rollins

Rey Mysterio vs. Dominik Mysterio

Men’s Tag Team Fatal 4 Way
The Viking Raiders vs. Braun Strowman and Ricochet vs. Alpha Academy vs. The Street Profits

CONFIRMED MATCHES FOR NIGHT 2:

Undisputed WWE Universal Title Match
Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns (c)
Night 2 Main Event.

RAW Women’s Title Match
Asuka vs. Bianca Belair (c)

Triple Threat for the WWE Intercontinental Title
Sheamus vs. Drew McIntyre vs. GUNTHER (c)

Hell In a Cell
“The Demon” Finn Balor vs. WWE Hall of Famer Edge
Rumored to be Brood Edge.

Brock Lesnar vs. Omos

Women’s Tag Team Fatal 4 Way
Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez vs. Natalya and Shotzi vs. Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler vs. Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville

Randy Orton Has Arrived In Los Angeles For WWE WrestleMania 39 Weekend

As expected, Randy Orton has traveled to Los Angeles, California for WWE WrestleMania 39 weekend.

Due to a back injury, The Viper has not been on WWE television since The Usos defeated RK-Bro in a unification title match on the May 20th episode of Friday Night SmackDown. Orton was attacked by The Bloodline to be written off television following the match.

Orton later had a fusion surgery done on his lower back that would keep him out of action for an extended period of time.

Pwinsider is reporting that Orton has arrived in Los Angeles for WrestleMania 39 weekend. It’s still unclear whether he will appear at WrestleMania or on the post-WrestleMania editions of RAW and SmackDown.

Source: eWrestlingNews

WWE Will Make Cutbacks To WrestleMania 39

WWE WrestleMania 39 from Hollywood will have some cutbacks regarding staff.

This comes after Vince McMahon returned as the Chairman of the Board position in January to oversee a potential sale. 

Dave Meltzer reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the company is looking to maximize the profit margin of the show as McMahon explores a potential company sale. 

“There are going to be cutbacks to the show, but not in ways that any fan would notice. Less personnel will be brought in and some of the foreign language announcers that had been brought in previously will be announcing via remote, which is also something that a lot of sports teams and networks are doing more of. The idea is to increase the profit margin of the show in getting the company ready for a sale,” Meltzer wrote.

WWE WrestleMania 39 takes place on April 1 and 2, 2023, at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, CA on Peacock.

Source: eWrestlingNews

Mickie James Plans To Be In Attendance At WrestleMania 39 Night 2 As A Fan

In a recent interview with Denise Salcedo on the “Instinct Culture” podcast, Impact Wrestling Knockouts Champion Mickie James touched on the current state of women’s wrestling, as well as her plans to attend WrestleMania 39 as a fan for the very first-time next month.

Citing Lita and Trish Stratus competing at WrestleMania 39, Saraya’s (Paige) recent in-ring return in AEW, and Impact Wrestling’s thriving women’s division, James said,

“How amazing, how exciting of a time is it in 2023 when we are looking at Lita as a Tag Team Champion with Becky? Now looking at Team Bestie going to be at WrestleMania, two women who I’ve shared a lot of history with, and who I admire, look up to, find hella inspiring, and I just adore. You see that happening there. You see, in IMPACT, I’m the Champion in 2023, and our tag team division is shining so bright, and the women in that locker room. Then you see over at AEW, Saraya comes back from a career-ending injury. Someone who they said, ‘Oh, she’s never going to wrestle again.’ What a freakin magical time in professional wrestling and not just in women’s professional wrestling, just in professional wrestling across the board,” James continued. “For a long time, it used to be like, ‘Oh, well, they’re retired,’ or ‘they’re this,’ and it would all be about this whole new — and it was never that way about the men as much as it was for the women.”

James also discussed her plans for WrestleMania 39 weekend, revealing that she plans to attend Night Two of WrestleMania as a spectator.

“I’m going to be there for WrestleCon. I’m going to be out there in LA. I’m really hoping — because we’re doing DressleMania this year and one of the things that we’re auctioning off is — I’ve already texted both of them, ‘I really hope you guys are wrestling on night two,’ because I’m actually going to be in a suite that we’re auctioning off for one of the winners for DressleMania and they’re watching. It is my first time ever watching WrestleMania as a spectator. I’ve never been. I could never go when we were kids. We didn’t have the money. Never went as a child have only been as a talent. For my first time ever, in the history of the world, in the history of Mickie James, I’m going to be going to WrestleMania as a spectator. I’m just praying that my friends are wrestling night two, so I can watch it there live, in-person, because I really would love to see it live in person.”

Mickie James is also slated to be a part of WrestleCon as she defends her Impact Knockouts World Championship in a four-way match at IMPACT x NJPW Multiverse United: Only The STRONG Survive, against Deonna Purrazzo, Gisele Shaw, and Miyu Yamashita.

Source: eWrestlingNews

Trish Stratus Coming Out Of Retirement For Match At WWE WrestleMania 39

Trish Stratus will officially come out of retirement at WrestleMania 39, joining forces with WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Becky Lynch and Lita in a six-woman match against Damage CTRL. The match was made official on this week’s “WWE Raw” where Lita and Lynch thanked Stratus for helping them even the odds in their rivalry against Bayley & Co. 

Stratus stepped out and told Lita “I’ll always have your back” and that it was a pleasure to watch her win gold with “The Man.” At this point, Damage CTRL confronted the three women in the ring.

“You two [Lita and Stratus] are legitimately the reasons why we are in this ring right now,” Bayley said, thanking the Hall of Famers for their contributions to the business. “That said, the three of us [Damage CTRL] are going to be the reasons you never come back!”

At this point, Stratus referenced her promo from “Raw” last August, where she teased stepping out of retirement. 

“I warned I could go real quick from ‘I am retired’ to ‘I was retired,'” Stratus reiterated. “I couldn’t think of a better place to shut your mouth up than at the Grandest Stage of Them All!”

Stratus then looked at the WrestleMania sign and issued the challenge to Damage CTRL.

Bayley immediately accepted the challenge, something that seemed to upset IYO SKY and Dakota Kai. Thereafter, Stratus and Lita delivered tandem offense to throw SKY and Kai out of the ring, leaving Lynch and Bayley to come face-to-face in the ring. The segment ended with an upset Damage CTRL retreating from the ring.

It remains to be seen if Damage CTRL implodes at WrestleMania 39, seeing as WWE teased some tension between the trio on Monday’s show.

Stratus had previously retired following her loss to Charlotte Flair at SummerSlam 2019 in her hometown of Toronto. Subsequently, Stratus teased the possibility of unretiring for a match against Lynch, especially when Lynch was portraying her “Big Time Becks” heel persona. Stratus would also get physical at a pair of WWE live events last August, coming to the aid of Alexa Bliss and Asuka during their rivalry with Damage CTRL. As such, the news of Stratus coming out of retirement has been widely expected and is not surprising in the least.

Besides the aforementioned six-woman match, the confirmed lineup for WrestleMania 39 includes Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes, John Cena vs. Austin Theory, Rhea Ripley vs. Charlotte Flair, Asuka vs. Bianca Belair, Brock Lesnar vs. Omos, and Logan Paul vs. Seth Rollins. Other rumored matches include Bobby Lashley vs. Bray Wyatt, Edge vs. Finn Balor, Rey Mysterio vs. Dominik Mysterio, and Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens vs. The Usos. 

Source: Wrestling Inc.

John Cena Accepts Austin Theory’s Title Challenge For WrestleMania 39

John Cena made his much anticipated WWE return last night on RAW and accepted a major challenge from reigning United States Champion Austin Theory for a title match at WrestleMania 39.

Cena hit the ring and as he was about to speak, Theory popped up, interrupted The Champ, and issued a challenge to face him for the WWE United States Title at WrestleMania 39.

Cena initially rejected the challenge and roasted Theory on the mic, noting that the latter didn’t believe in himself and lacked any heart or soul. This led to Theory asking Cena where his “Hustle, Loyalty, and Respect” have been.

Theory added that Cena would disappoint the WWE Universe if he refused to compete at WrestleMania, to which the 16-time World Champion declared that he was trying to protect Theory.

According to Cena, Theory wasn’t ready to face him at WrestleMania and would lose everything in such a high-stakes bout. Cena then asked the WWE Universe about their opinion, and the live audience cheered for him to wrestle Theory.

Ultimately, Cena accepted Theory’s challenge, and the match was made official.

Source: eWrestlingNews