Roman Reigns Again
Roman Reigns’ leukemia is once again in remission. The “big dog” appeared at the top of Raw this week to make the announcement and declare himself back. He spent a lot of time thanking the fans for their support during his illness and interacting with those in the ringside area. His wife, mother and aunt were also ringside for his big announcement. On his way back up the ramp he was joined by Seth Rollins for a big embrace, and later in the night the two Shield brothers came to the aid of Dean Ambrose. The situation seemed to indicate that we’ll be getting one last Shield reunion before Ambrose leaves the company in April.
Wrestlemania 36
The big news of the week for those of us here in the Tampa Bay area is that Wrestlemania may be coming to Raymond James Stadium next year. Wrestling sites had been reporting Tampa as one of several cities in consideration, and local sources have seemingly confirmed it. An official announcement should be made as early as next week. For now though, it seems highly likely that we’ll be at the epicenter of Mania season in 2020.
NXT
The full bracket for this year’s Dusty Classic has been revealed including the 4 remaining teams. Round one will see the following matches: Moustache Mountain vs Street Profits, Lorcan & Burch vs Forgotten Sons, DIY vs Undisputed Era, and Aleister Black & Ricochet vs Aichner & Barthel. Much of the tournament was taped at Full Sail last week and spoilers are available, but as usual I will update the status of things as they air each week.
NXT UK
NXT’s UK branch has officially added 5 new talents to their roster. Scotland’s Kay Lee Ray and Germany’s Jazzy Gabert should already be familiar to some fans as they both participated in the first Mae Young Classic and were seen in the audience during January’s UK TakeOver event. England’s “Primate” Jay Melrose has already been seen as an enhancement talent on NXT UK and seemingly impressed the team enough to bring him on full-time. Russian born Ilja Rukober and Swiss soccer player Oliver Sauter both impressed WWE officials at a recent tryout camp in Cologne.
205 Live
They began a new tournament this week to name Buddy Murphy’s Wrestlemania opponent. The first to round one matches saw Tony Nese defeat Kalisto and Drew Gulack defeat Brian Kendrick. Next week Humberto Carillo will face Oney Lorcan and Akira Tozawa will face Cedric Alexander.
Meanwhile, Cruiserweight Champion Buddy Murphy has announced that he will be taking time off from 205 Live to go back home to Australia for a visit. The announcement was worded in a very “in character” way that I assume is just a means of explaining his absence while his next challenger is being chosen via the current tournament.
Departures
Just a few hours after the publishing of last Friday’s Scrumming report WWE confirmed the official releases of Tye Dillinger, Hideo Itami, TJ Perkins, and Arn Anderson. Dillinger and Itami had both requested to be released from their contracts. TJP is rumored to have been released for disciplinary reasons. There is no one specific issue being given but rather a series of things over time. Double A supposedly was involved in some sort of big argument with Mr. McMahon recently which led to his departure from the company.
Contracts
We touched last week on the fact that Matt Hardy only had about a week left on his WWE contract. This week on Smackdown Matt made a surprise return to television by reuniting with his brother Jeff for a tag match against The Bar. Was this a one off appearance in front of their hometown crowd, or have the Hardys signed new deals? According to early rumors there was some sort of clause in their contracts where WWE had an option of keeping the boys for a third year. The company decided to invoke this clause and keep Matt and Jeff into 2020.
Arrivals
Brother Love is back! Bruce Pritchard is returning to WWE’s creative team in what is said to be a “top position.” During previous tenures with the company Pritchard was one of Vince McMahon’s right hand men behind the scenes. He left the company about 11 years ago and spent some time working with other wrestling promotions. Most recently he was seen on WWE Network doing an edited version of his popular podcast Something to Wrestle with Bruce Pritchard. It should be interesting to see if there are any noticeable changes as he begins work at this week’s TV broadcasts.
PPV Plans
Fastlane, Mar. 10
Though nothing was made official, it seems we may get some combination of The Shield vs Corbin, McIntyre, Lashley, and/or Elias. Perhaps Strowman will get added to the Shield team for a 4 on 4 scenario. Another option would be a 3 on 3 between these 2 factions with Lashley getting his own match vs Balor.
In a surprise move, Mr. McMahon interrupted the contract signing between Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston. Much like he had done with Becky Lynch previously, he removed Kofi from the match and replaced him with the returning Kevin Owens. Clearly they recognize the lightning in a bottle moment Kofi is having currently and this move was intended to prolong that swell until Mania. It’s unfortunate that Owens will likely suffer from being the guy taking Kingston’s Fastlane spot, but ultimately it will be an amazing Wrestlemania moment when Kingston does finally get in the ring with Bryan and potentially wins his first World Title on the grandest stage of them all.
Although neither Asuka nor Mandy Rose actually appeared on SDL this week, their match for Fastlane was quietly made official.
WWE Championship- Daniel Bryan© vs Kevin Owens
Smackdown Tag Championship- Usos© vs Miz and Shane
Smackdown Women’s Championship- Asuka© vs Mandy Rose?
Women’s Tag Championship- Banks and Bayley© vs Jax and Tamina
NXT TakeOver: New York, Apr. 5
NXT Tag Titles- War Raiders© vs Winners of the Dusty Classic
In two weeks Shirai and Belair will compete in a #1 contenders match to decide who faces Baszler at TakeOver.
NXT Women’s Title-Shayna Baszler© vs either Io Shirai or Bianca Belair
WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony, Apr. 6
-Degeneration X: Shawn Michaels, HHH, Chyna, X-Pac, Road Dogg, and Billy Gunn
The next inductee announced for this year’s HOF Class is former Intercontinental Champion The Honky Tonk Man.
Wrestlemania, Apr. 7
Batista made a surprise appearance on Raw this week to ruin Ric Flair’s birthday celebration. It would seem this is the first step towards a Batista vs HHH match at Mania.
Universal Title: Brock Lesnar© vs Seth Rollins
Raw Women’s Title: Ronda Rousey© vs Charlotte Flair
