In this interview Cody Rhodes talks about wanting his win back against The Rock: “I’m a bit of an egocentric individual that wants his win back. I think he’s due for more than one match and I would love to be penciled in on one of those. Obviously that schedule is as intense as it gets, but he’s still so involved with WWE, he could have easily been the final boss and just kind of taken that as a customary title, but he has really gotten his hands involved in what we’re doing. Even though we may not like one another, the thing I do like about him is instantly, no matter what he’s done, record-breaking Disney movie, whatever he did that weekend and showed up, when you look at him you can tell – oh, brother is a wrestler. It’s in there. It’s hitting the ropes and what the reaction you can get from doing wrestling moves in the ring and the promo and the interview. I really have enjoyed that connection with him, I’d like to be one of those. I think he has two matches he has to do. I’m not putting any pressure on anyone, but I think he does – I’d love to see him and his cousin, Roman Reigns ever have this encounter. Maybe it’s the greatest match we never get because timing or whatever it may be and I think we need to finish our own story with him and myself. We’ll see.”
Speaking to Ariel Helwani, Bill Goldberg talks about taking criticism and using it constructively: “Everybody who is human, cares about what people think. But you have to care to a certain level, number one, and you have to care about what they think and how they express their thoughts toward you, and if it’s negative, you have to learn to turn it into a positive. All it is, is fuel for me. I’m not afraid of hard work, I’m not afraid of going out there and being better than I was yesterday. Like I said, if these people don’t deem me worthy of being in the position that I am, and being Goldberg, and attaining some of the goals that I’ve attained, then I’m going to show them by the next thing that I do. It’s a blessing and a curse, and I’ve said this many times. I try to teach a lot of athletes coming up, but most importantly, I try to teach my son that it’s a very good thing to be extremely hard on yourself. But it’s also a very bad thing because you have to step back every once in a while and really look at your accomplishments, and understand that all the hard work has paid off.”
Here are the air dates and names for the rest of Dark Side of the Ring season 6. (PWI)
- April 8: Big Van Vader
- April 15: Tony Atlas: Too Much, Too Soon
- April 22: Superstar Billy Graham
- April 29: Eddie Gilbert
- May 6: Billy Jack Haynes
- May 13: Original Sheik
- May 20: Daffney
- May 27: Muhammad Hassan
In this interview Kelly Kelly talks about being WWE Divas Champion for 104 days: “The really cool part about that was it was night for fans voting. Fans got to vote on who they wanted to see in the matches. We found out that day we were having the match. There was three of us; me, Eve Torres, or Beth Phoenix. Whoever the audience chose would end up winning the championship. We didn’t know who they were choosing. It was like, ‘Brie, you have to learn three matches and have an hour to memorize them.’ As soon as they announce who they want to see go against Brie, that’s who is winning. We’re all standing there. When it showed the results, the numbers I had were crazy. Apparently, they went over into the next match. I think I was at 90% of the votes. As soon as I saw my name, I’m like, ‘Oh my God. I’m winning.’ You get shown on camera and walk out to the ring. It was that immediate. I remember feeling so much emotion. I had been there for five years. This was my moment. It was my time. I had gone to Vince a few weeks before that. I went to his office, and I never go because he’s a scary boss. He’s great. He was such the boss. He was at every rehearsal, ‘This is how I want everything.’ It’s like going to the principal’s office. I just knew, after five years, I was talking to my family and friends and they’re like, ‘Go talk to him. Tell him you want a championship.’ ‘Alright, fine.’ One day, I got the guts, I went into his office, and I said, ‘Vince, l think I’d really make a good champion. I really want the opportunity.’ He’s like, ‘Okay, Kelly.’ This match came along, and obviously it’s scripted, but that part was not. It was up to the fans. They probably had a feeling Kelly was going to win because I was the big babyface at the time. I won the match; I was bawling, holding the championship. It was amazing.”
Here’s the latest CMLL Martes de Glamour.
And here are the results for said same. (FF)
- Los Compadres del Infierno def. Black Boy & Infierno
- Los Colosos del Ring and Persa & Draego fought to a double disqualification
- Arlequín & Los Hermanos Calavera def. Astro Oriental & Los Magníficos
- La Catalina, Kira & Nexy def. Valkyria, Dark Silueta & Persephone
- Panterita del Ring, Atlantis & Blue Panther def. Satánico, Rey Bucanero & Felino by DQ
- Los Guerreros Laguneros def. Los Depredadores
The TBS broadcast of AEW Dynamite did 594,000 viewers and a 0.16 18-49 demo, down from 663K and 0.17 last week. This of course doesn’t include MAX viewership. (Wrestlenomics)
Speedball Mike Bailey wants to defend the AEW International Title around the world — if he wins on Sunday at Dynasty that is: “I love traveling for pro wrestling. It is my favorite thing. I think a big part of what makes me who I am today is the fact that, again, I got to wrestle in so many different places and got to learn so many styles and needed to adapt to so many different audiences abd hat is absolutely something that I would love to do now, especially as with an even bigger platform, right? Representing AEW and going around the world. I got to talk yesterday on Unrestricted when we talked about Dynasty a little bit about what I would do if I were International Champion and I think that having that championship, Takeshita got to defend it many different countries and I would do the same. As a Canadian, I know what that’s like and I know what it would mean to be able to take that belt and give someone from a country that does not have anywhere near the same kind of opportunities as people do in America a chance to wrestle the AEW international champion, right? I think that would make a huge difference. So yeah, absolutely traveling, going back to New Japan, going to CMLL who AEW works closely with is absolutely something I would love to do.”
Jay White’s injury has been confirmed to be broken bones in his hand and Orange Cassidy’s has been confirmed to be a torn pec. (PWI)
Royce Isaacs is challenging Tavion Heights to a match at Bloodsport XIII. He got his wish.
CM Punk’s “favor” is that Paul Heyman has to corner him at night one of WrestleMania 41 over the objections of Roman Reigns. Here’s the updated card. (WWE)
- Roman Reigns vs. CM Punk (w/ Paul Heyman) vs. Seth Rollins (main event of night one)
- Undisputed WWE Championship: Cody Rhodes vs. John Cena
- World Heavyweight Championship: Gunther vs. Jey Uso
- WWE Women’s World Championship: IYO SKY vs. Bianca Belair
- WWE Women’s Championship: Tiffany Stratton vs. Charlotte Flair
- WWE United States Championship Match: LA Knight vs. Jacob Fatu
- WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship Match: Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez vs. TBA
- Logan Paul vs. AJ Styles
- Jade Cargill vs. Naomi
Kevin Owens is out of WrestleMania 41 due to a neck injury requiring surgery. A pissed off Randy Orton gave Nick Aldis a RKO on SmackDown. (WWE)
Both Tiffany and Charlotte went off script “quite a bit” on SmackDown. (PWI) When the highlights were uploaded to YouTube, all references to Charlotte Flair’s divorce and Ludwig Kaiser’s DMs were removed.
Here are NXT house show results from Crystal River, Florida. (CMN)
- Karmen Petrovic defeated Lainey Reid.
- Uriah Connors (w/ Kale Dixon) defeated Jasper Troy.
- Leigh Laurel, P-Nasty & Tyra Mae Steele defeated Dani Sekelsky, Sirena Linton & Zena Sterling.
- Izzi Dame defeated Adriana Rizzo.
- Luca Crusifino defeated Niko Vance.
- Fatal Four Way Match: Lola Vice defeated Cora Jade and Jazmyn Nyx and Zaria.
- Je’Von Evans defeated Eddy Thorpe.
- Giulia defeated Arianna Grace.
- WWE NXT Women’s Title Match: Stephanie Vaquer (c) defeated Jacy Jayne (w/ Jazmyn Nyx) to retain her title.
- WWE NXT Title Match: Oba Femi (c) defeated Channing Lorenzo (w/ Adriana Rizzo & Luca Crusifino) by disqualification to retain the title.
Penta has an idea for a dream match in 10-15 years: “In my present? No. In ten years… I would like maybe a mask vs mask or mask vs. hair or mask vs. something. Something special. My dream match, mask vs. mask, Penta vs. Fenix. I don’t know when. Maybe only in my mind it happens, but maybe in 10 or 15 years it’s possible.”
Here’s the card for Collision tonight. (AEW)
- Mercedes Mone & Harley Cameron vs. Athena & Julia Hart
- Cash Wheeler vs. PAC
- Konosuke Takeshita & Kyle Fletcher vs. Powerhouse Hobbs & Tomohiro Ishii
- Top Flight vs. Lio Rush & Action Andretti
- Mike Bailey vs. Dralistico w/ Ricochet on commentary
- Open Challenge: Max Caster vs. TBA
- Daniel Garcia and Adam Cole sit-down interview
And here’s an early card for SmackDown next week. (WWE)
- WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship #1 Contenders Gauntlet Match: B-Fab & Michin vs. Alba Fyre & Piper Niven vs. Maxxine Dupri & Natalya vs. Bayley & Lyra Valkyria vs. Kayden Carter & Katana Chance vs. Zoey Stark & Shayna Baszler
- Rey Fenix vs. Berto
- Drew McIntyre & Damian Priest face-to-face
- Cody Rhodes returns
