Undertaker and Cena Still Happening? – Despite doctors having a historical precedence to deny those with joint replacement a return to contact sports, Dave Meltzer is insisting that John Cena vs. The Undertaker will happen at WrestleMania. I’ve stated before that I talked to several area doctors who specialize in this field and all three stated that they personally would not clear a person with an artificial hip to return to such a rigorous activity, even for one night. So either the WWE is planning on him not being medically cleared but still competing, or their doctor isn’t nearly as worried about a shattered fake hip. But I digress. Meltzer stated that the current plan is still to do ‘Taker vs. Cena at WrestleMania, despite Justin Barrasso’s claims that the WWE is bringing back Rey Mysterio to feud with Cena at this year’s annual event. This would make sense, as The Undertaker risks dislocating his new hip and possible blood clots should he suffer an injury to it during his match.
What’ll happen? Who knows. I would not be surprised, at all, to see The Undertaker wrestle because he and Vince McMahon are known to put things like ‘safety and wellness’ on the back burner.
IMPACT Wrestling vs. Lucha Underground? – Do you want to see a broken down 50-something year old play fight?! NO!? WELL DO I HAVE THE ALTERNATIVE FOR YOU! IMPACT Wrestling has announced that during WrestleMania weekend, IMPACT and Lucha Underground will host a joint show featuring matches between the companies. The event will happen on Friday April 6th, at 9 p.m. EST Central (10 Eastern, 7 Pacific) and will air on IMPACT’s Twitch channel for free.
IMPACT is also boasting over ten hours of original content over that three day weekend, including exclusive podcast and behind-the-scenes footage. Ed Nordholm commented on this partnership by saying;
We are excited and honored to expand our partnership with AAA and Twitch for this groundbreaking co-promotion with Lucha Underground. Extensive coverage from WrestleCon will stream live all weekend on IMPACT Wrestling’s official Twitch channel as fans will have the opportunity to interact with their favorite stars.
Dorian Roldan of AAA and apparent ‘general manager’ of Lucha Underground echoed Nordholm’s own sentiments, saying;
We are very excited to partner with IMPACT Wrestling for this very special and unique event. We are also very excited to bring Lucha Underground to fans at WrestleCon for the first time. We think this is a great opportunity for both IMPACT Wrestling and Lucha Underground to put on a great show for all the wrestling fans who will be in New Orleans.
IMPACT will feature Austin Aries, Alberto El Patron, Eli Drake, Eddie Edwards, Moose, LAX, oVe, Sami Callihan, Brian Cage, Trevor Lee, Allie, Rosemary, and Taya Valkyrie. Scott Steiner will be there with a live mic; so that’ll be horrifying.
Lucha Underground is bringing their top star Pentagon, Fenix, King Cuerno, Drago, Areostar, Killshot, Matazna Cueto, The Mack, Jack Evans and other unnamed talent.
The two companies currently share Callihan, Cage, Johnny Impact, Taya, King Cuerno(Fantasma) and in the past Drago.
Concern For Romans? – The WWE is developing a contingency plan for the possible ‘worst case scenario’ involving Roman Reigns. Reigns is being accused of being involved in a massive steroid ring as a buyer, and a man by the name of Johnny Bravo is claiming that Reigns purchased a lot of steroids from a jailed drug dealer; Richard Rodriguez. While other noteworthy stars of film and television are set to be implicated as well, the focus in most press in our region has to do with Reigns, a noted WWE Legend and several others who are currently with the WWE or used to be. Bravo claims to have been working on this for over a year, with more than enough evidence to go public. Bravo states that he’s taken so long to release this stuff because he had to be sure. When someone asked him about this being fake, Bravo stated on his Instagram account that if this was fake news or he was doctoring evidence, that there’d be lawsuits; which there aren’t any.
According to Meltzer, the WWE is keeping Braun Strowman on stand by just in case things get real bad for the WWE and Reigns. If Reigns is found to be in violation, than the entirety of the WWE may be rocked as they constantly put over their drug testing policies. This could spell bad news for their stock and possibly Vince McMahon as well. If the public and the board start asking questions about guys like John Cena, and Triple H’s past tests, then we could be on the verge of a whole new world.
Reigns has publicly denied being connected to this, but he does have a failed drug test to his name already. It should be noted that after the Chris Benoit murder and implication of doping tests, the WWE found out that top stars Edge, Booker T, Johnny Nitro, Mr. Kennedy and others were found to be involved in a steroid ring. At the time the press and media were never more anti-WWE, and none of them were fired.
The WWE is a sweetheart organization now, and has goodwill, so don’t get excited about Reigns being released.
Quick Hits – Dave Meltzer is reporting that the WWE and Neville are again talking about him returning to work. Big Show claims he’ll ‘definitely’ be back by WrestleMania. Triple H and Vince McMahon have finalized a deal that would see the WWE go to Saudi Arabia for the next ten years. It’s good the WWE is fine going to a country that openly punishes homosexuality. (*That was sarcasm*). As mentioned yesterday, the WWE and Fox are in talks to sign a new deal; as of right now I’m told FS1 is the most likely to land RAW and SmackDown.