WWE has announced The Undertaker vs. WWE Hall of Famer Bill Goldberg for the first-time ever at the upcoming WWE Super ShowDown event.
Super ShowDown, which is the same name that WWE used for the big event from Australia last year, will take place on Friday, June 7 from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
WWE has also announced a 50-man Battle Royal and Triple H vs. Randy Orton for their return to the Kingdom.
Below is the full announcement on the event:
Undertaker, Goldberg to clash for first time ever at WWE Super ShowDown
JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA — The Saudi General Sports Authority will host WWE Super ShowDown at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Friday, June 7, at 9 p.m. AST, and feature the first-ever match between WWE Hall of Famer Goldberg and Undertaker. In addition, the event will include Triple H vs. Randy Orton, as they create another chapter of their storied rivalry, and a 50-Man Battle Royal — the largest in WWE history.
WWE Champion Kofi Kingston, WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman, AJ Styles and Brock Lesnar are also scheduled to compete at WWE Super ShowDown, which will stream live on WWE Network and be available on pay-per-view outside of the Middle East.
Additional details on the event’s matches and regional broadcast information will be announced in the coming weeks.
Tonight’s WWE RAW will take place from the 02 Arena in London, England with the final hype for WWE Money In the Bank. Since the show is in London it will be taped today to air tonight.
* Double contract signing for Becky Two Belts
Roman Reigns returns for “Miz TV”
* Women’s Fatal 4-Way Match for “Money” momentum
* Ricochet takes flight against Baron Corbin
* Braun Strowman locks up with Drew McIntyre
* Seth Rollins and AJ Styles brace for monumental title collision
WWE RAW and SmackDown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch confirmed this weekend that she is dating Seth Rollins during a Twitter exchange with Beth Phoenix. Lynch had involved Edge in the Twitter spat, which prompted Phoenix to ask, “Wait wait…are we involving our men now…”
Lynch replied, “I’ll ask him…@WWERollins?”
In a tweet that has since been deleted, Phoenix responded to Lynch confirming her relationship with Rollins, writing, “Aw! Relationship confirmed! Congrats @BeckyLynchWWE @WWERollins ! Maybe one day we can double date and reminisce on old times…”
On Monday morning, Rollins also confirmed their relationship. Rollins posted the photo below of the two kissing and wrote, “I guess I’m allowed to post this now…. @beckylynchwwe ?”
Ever since The Rockers split up over 25 years ago, Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty have been on divergent paths. HBK became one of the most celebrated wrestlers in history while Jannetty has struggled to stay clean.
Jannetty recently spoke to Wrestling Inc. on their WINCLY podcast to discuss his physical ailments and how he’s holding up.
“I’m having a problem with my ankle and it’s a hard adjustment from being a world-class athlete to having to gimp and use a crutch,” said Jannetty.
“When I look at guys that are my age like Iron Sheik – man he’s in a wheelchair. Duke ‘The Dumpster’ Droese – from his knee down he’s got a titanium leg. I see that and it hurts my feelings because I don’t wanna see them like that. I can only think what fans must think when they see us like that.”
“Mine’s only a gimp, I can get it fixed. I don’t have health insurance so it’s gonna cost me a little bit. I could do it now, but then I’ll be broke. If I don’t make money after that, then where am I gonna eat?”
Jannetty realizes that the first step in turning his life around is having the right attitude. But that’s where his self-doubt creeps in which keeps him from getting things back on track.
“I’m trying but it’s so hard when you have self-doubt. My dad once told me that if you don’t have self-respect, it don’t matter what you got because you ain’t got nothing,” stated Jannetty. “It’s hard to respect yourself when you can’t walk right…Now I can’t even walk out to the trash can to put the trash out. I gotta let it smell up the house before I finally do. It’s a hard adjustment.”
Diamond Dallas Page has helped numerous wrestlers in similar positions to Jannetty, but the conversation between DDP and Jannetty apparently didn’t go smoothly.
“I love him to death,” Jannetty said of DDP. “I don’t wanna say nothing negative, but there was a couple of negative things… His response was not one I liked and I’ll just leave it at that.
“I wanna leave it alone because I don’t wanna say nothing negative.”
Two years ago Jannetty faced Joey Janela in his first ever Spring Break main event. Afterwards Janela and Chris Jericho then tried to help Jannetty by creating a GoFundMe page to help raise money for medical costs.
“I love Joey but he finished me off [laughs]. I love Joey. He offered to help me, him and Chris Jericho to do a GoFundMe…,” Jannetty said before mentioning that others like Scott Hall had previously received money from GoFundMe accounts to help them after drug issues.
“Scott Hall had just gotten a sh**load of money from the GoFundMe…. Here I come behind him and the first three or four comments were ‘Oh, all these drughead partiers blew their money and now they want us to pay.’ I was like ‘No. Take it down. I don’t want that up there.’ Because it does appear that way.”
“And when you’ve been worldwide – it’s even harder…. I’m asking people for money that already paid me. When they showed up to the arena that night, they paid me. And now I’m asking for more? It’s just hard,” stated Jannetty.
“But it’s all on WWE. Because if you’re making a million off me last quarter, you can’t pay $40,000 to get my ankles fixed so I don’t need to OD on pain pills? That’s why I got in a lawsuit. The Rockers [going into the WWE] Hall of Fame will never happen because there’s a lawsuit in place. It can’t happen.
“I love all of them. I love Vince. I love Shane. I love Stephanie. I love them all…Linda, she was hardcore. But I love them all. Vince once told me, I think it was about Jesse Ventura when he was suing, ‘You have to separate business from personal life. What’s going on right now is business.’ That’s where I’m at and you’re the one who taught me it’s business.
“I don’t like it. But I don’t like walking in front of people with a gimp either.”
Wrestling Inc’s full, exclusive interview with Jannetty was included in a recent episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post. In it Jannetty discusses his infamous match with Kurt Angle on Smackdown, his current relationship with Shawn Michaels and more.
WWE Champion Kofi Kingston will be returning to Ghana, West Africa for the first time in 26 years for a four-day visit that runs from Thursday, May 30 through Sunday, June 2.
Kofi announced the tour with a press release on social media today. WWE confirmed the news on their website. The trip home, his first since 1993, will coincide with a celebratory “Year of Return” in the country this year. A WWE film crew will be filming the trip for a future documentary special. Kofi will visit his maternal and paternal hometowns, host a children’s rally, and a visit to the Ghanaian President, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and a visit to Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Asante Monarch.
Kofi is scheduled to defend his title against Kevin Owens at WWE Money In the Bank on May 19. He commented in the post that included the press release, “Well it’s officially official. For the first time since 1993, I’m going back to my home country! Though it was 26 years ago, I still have so many vivid memories of my last visit to Ghana. I’m beyond excited to make many more in a few short weeks!”
Below is the full press release that was released:
Thursday, May 9, 2019 PRESS RELEASE TO ALL MEDIA HOUSESKOFI KINGSTON’S HISTORIC VISIT TO GHANA
The World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Champion, Kofi “Kingston” Sarkodie-Mensah, is visiting his homeland.
The World Champion considers this “Year of Return” as a unique opportunity for him to make a historic visit to Ghana at the height of his wrestling career.
The four-day visit which starts from Thursday, 30th May, 2019 to Sunday, 2nd June, 2019, includes a courtesy call on the President of Ghana, H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at the Presidency. He will then be at the Manhyia Palace to pay homage to the Asante Monarch, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.
Other activities include a Children’s Rally, visits to Tourist Sites and places like the Lake Bosomtwe, the Christianborg (Osu) Castle, Bonwire and Ntonso, a visit to the Mother and Baby Unit at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, and visits to Ejisu and Atwima Techiman which are his paternal and maternal hometowns respectively. There will also be Media Engagements and In-Studio Interviews.
Accompanying Kofi are the WWE crew who are currently shooting a documentary on the World Champion.
They look forward to a warm reception, as well as the experience of the proverbial Ghanaian hospitality.
Media houses and other organisations can get in touch for further and more specific details.
When it comes to WWE vs. AEW, the former appears to be changing a lot of programs around the world.
Toni Storm made an appearance for Stardom this past weekend. She was supposed to continue the momentum from that show and face Bea Priestley on 5/16 at Korakuen Hall. Priestley just recently won the World of Stardom Title. Stardom then announced that the match wouldn’t be taking place.
For the upcoming Korakuen Hall show on May 16, the previously announced match between Toni Storm and Bea Priestley will not take place due to circumstances beyond our control. Thank you for undestanding.
There have been issues before with WWE U.K. talent appearing in certain promotions. According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, however, WWE were the ones who ended the idea of the match taking place, due to it being their top U.K. Women’s Champion potentially losing against someone from AEW. Priestley was expected to retain the title, making WWE worried about backlash.
Priestley will now defend her title against Hazuki while Toni battles Kagetsu.
Luke Harper reportedly asked Vince McMahon if he could be released from his contract in November, if WWE wasn’t going to use him, but Vince told him to take it up with Triple H. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter adds that Triple H then didn’t respond to Harper, at least as of press time.
We’ve noted how WWE officials chose to add 6 months to Harper’s contract to make up for the time he spent on the shelf after wrist surgery. The contract was to expire in November.
It looks like Harper will be paid to sit at home as The Observer notes that he has been given no future bookings, but they also will not let him out of his contract. It was reported before that Harper won’t be able to leave the company until around WrestleMania 36 time in 2020.
It was reported in early May that Vince informed Harper, in writing, that the company would not be releasing him from his contract. This was apparently a response to Harper requesting his release back on April 16. You can read our report on what went wrong with Vince and Harper by clicking here.
There had been some speculation on Bray Wyatt trying to get Harper back on TV for his “Firefly Fun House” storyline, but it looks like WWE will not be using Harper while he waits on his contract to expire, unless plans change.
Mauro Ranallo recently signed a new deal with WWE.
The contract will keep Mauro as the lead announcer on the WWE NXT brand, according to PWInsider. The terms of the deal were agreed on about a month ago.
The deal will also allow Ranallo to continue working non-WWE gigs in the world of MMA.
Mauro first signed with WWE to work SmackDown in December 2015. He briefly left in April 2017, but returned in June to become the voice of NXT. It was reported then that Ranallo had signed a multi-year deal with the company.
Ranallo has also called the Cruiserweight Classic, and 205 Live for WWE. He does commentary work for Bellator MMA and the Showtime Networks.
Vince McMahon’s new WWE Wild Card Rule could end up leading to issues for the company, as described on Wrestling Observer Radio today.
As noted, the rule will see four RAW Superstars appear on SmackDown each week while four SmackDown Superstars appear on RAW each week. The gimmick was created as a response to ratings pressure from NBCUniversal (USA Network) and Fox. Vince did not want to give up the idea of separate brands, but the networks want star power on both shows and there has been a feeling that the brands don’t have enough star power individually. Furthermore, it was also reported that Fox wants RAW and SmackDown storylines on the blue brand show when it goes to their network on Friday nights in October. There has been pressure from both networks to have the top WWE Superstars work both shows.
The Wild Card Rule will potentially cause issues for WWE live events, such as false advertising. Due to the way WWE creative operates these days, WWE likely won’t plan out these weekly Wild Card Rule appearances in advance, which could lead to incidents where Superstars have been advertised for live events, for weeks or even months, but they’re pulled from those live events to appear on TV at the last minute.
While WWE likely won’t plan out the Wild Card Rule appearances in advance, it was noted that Roman Reigns is expected to appear on both RAW and SmackDown often. We noted before how NBCU recently asked questions about why WWE gave up a star like Reigns to SmackDown in the 2019 Superstar Shake-Up.
We’ve reported on how WWE has made recent hires to help bring live event business back up, and they noted during the Q1 2019 earnings call that they are focused on bringing that part of the business back to where it should be. The WWE Wild Card Rule could create more of a decline in live event business, at a time where they’re focused on getting it back up. There’s no word yet on if the Wild Card Rule really will help with the TV ratings, but we should know within the next few weeks. It’s believed that the gimmick could bring a small increase in the numbers, but likely not a huge turn around.
Last night on WWE SmackDown Live, Daniel Bryan and Rowan defeat The Usos to capture the vacant SmackDown Tag Team Titles.
As noted, the SmackDown Tag Team Titles have been vacant since The Hardy Boys relinquished them last week due to Jeff Hardy’s right leg injury. Hardy will be out of action for 6-9 months.
Shane McMahon originally announce Bryan and Rowan as the new champions. The Usos took of advantage of the new Wild Card Rule coming to SmackDown from RAW and took issue with Bryan and Rowan being crowned champions without earning the titles. This led to Shane making The Usos vs. Bryan and Rowan for the titles. Bryan and Rowan won that match to begin their first title run together.
Bryan noted that they will be switching out the leather straps on the title belts because they disgust him. It looks like Bryan and Rowan will be using eco-friendly straps like he used on the WWE Title before losing it to Kofi Kingston at WrestleMania 35.
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