Declan, 18, played running back and quarterback at Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn, New York. His Hudl profile lists him at 6 feet tall, weighing 192 pounds. He is set to graduate from Poly Prep as part of the class of 2022. He is the oldest of Shane and Marissa.
While not a football powerhouse, Indiana plays in the tough Big Ten conference. They followed up consecutive bowl game appearances in 2019 and 2020 with a 2-10 record overall and an 0-9 conference record in the 2021 season.
Indiana had one player selected in the 2021 NFL Draft, safety Jamar Johnson. Johnson played in three games for the Denver Broncos during the 2021 season.
Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer is back with tons to talk about including WWE RAW ratings for the go-home show, AEW and NXT TV reviews, Shane McMahon to WrestleMania, TripleMania, MMA notes and tons more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Timestamps:
Start: Ratings
7:56: Shane McMahon heading to WrestleMania
9:18: Gable Steveson wins Hodge trophy
17:57: AEW heading to Missouri after California
21:26: Triplemania lineups
26:00: MMA notes on Figueiredo/Moreno, Singapore card
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and THE RETURNING JIM VALLEY is back with tons to talk about including Jim’s return to the weekend airwaves, NXT 2.0 last night and WWE’s public statement as to how they plan to recruit, RAW ratings, AEW Dynamite tonight, and tons more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Shane McMahon will be in Dallas for WrestleMania weekend, according to a report.
PWInsider reports that WWE is bringing McMahon in for the entire WrestleMania weekend, his first time back with the company since being phased out following this year’s Royal Rumble event.
The report does not state whether or not there are creative plans for McMahon or even if he will appear on either night of WrestleMania, just that he will be in town and is being brought in by WWE.
McMahon was originally penciled in for a WrestleMania bout against Seth Rollins and a spot in the Elimination Chamber match in Saudi Arabia in February, but was sent away after “unprofessional” conduct at Royal Rumble, including talking down to producer Jamie Noble, according to our reporting. In the February 7 Wrestling Observer Newsletter Dave Meltzer wrote:
“Every single story you’ve already heard, multiplied many times over,” was said by one person close to the situation. “He was unprofessional the likes of which left VKM (Vincent Kennedy McMahon) no options but to fire him.”
McMahon was a producer for the men’s Royal Rumble match, and was also an entrant in the bout. He entered 28th, and was the next-to-last elimination in the Rumble.
Meltzer also wrote:
“Others noted that he wanted to build the ending of the match around himself and be a featured player in the match, was visibly very unhappy when his match ideas were shot down by his father, and was not professional with [producer Jamie Noble] and talked down to people.”
McMahon also reportedly clashed with Brock Lesnar and Vince McMahon regarding the layout of the Rumble match. Dave wrote:
“There were also disagreements regarding he and Lesnar regarding the closing stages of the match, and Lesnar pretty much does exactly what he wants. But this led to people being told one thing and then another, between Shane’s ideas, what Lesnar wanted, and what Vince wanted. It was constantly changing all day and Vince was overruling Shane on his ideas and also agreeing with Lesnar. About the only thing left in regarding him looking good was a spot where he would outstrike babyface and former UFC fighter Riddle. It didn’t help matters that he botched his elimination spot with Lesnar as he was supposed to be clotheslined over the top rope, but didn’t get over on the first attempt, so they had to do it again.”
McMahon did not have an official backstage role with WWE, but did serve as a producer on the Royal Rumble match. He did have a talent contract with the company, and it was never explicitly announced by WWE that he had been released from his contract when he was sent away after the Rumble.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated, AEW president and CEO Tony Khan revealed that Keith Lee’s AEW debut is something that he had dreamed about since Lee was released by WWE.
Lee made his AEW debut by defeating Isiah Kassidy in a Face of the Revolution qualifying match on Dynamite this Wednesday. The match was Lee’s first in-ring action since being released by WWE last November.
“Keith’s debut was incredible,” Khan told Sports Illustrated. “Much to my amazement, Keith got released. As soon as I saw that he was released, this was the moment I dreamed about.”
Lee officially became a free agent last week after his 90-day non-compete clause expired. Lee also debuted in AEW just days after he and Mia Yim got married.
“It was crazy timing,” Khan said. “I’m so happy with how the debut has been received. It’s very well deserved, and I am very excited to have Keith in AEW.”
Lee is the first participant to be confirmed for the Face of the Revolution ladder match at next month’s Revolution pay-per-view. The winner of the ladder match receives a future shot at the TNT Championship.
Wednesday’s Dynamite also saw NJPW’s Jay White make his AEW debut, appearing in a segment with The Young Bucks, Adam Cole, and Roppongi Vice. Khan told Sports Illustrated that we’ll be seeing more of White in AEW.
“Expect to see more Jay White in AEW. He came through the ‘Forbidden Door,’ and there were many reasons his arrival transpired the way it did on Dynamite. That wasn’t finalized until Sunday, and I’m so happy that we could bring that excitement to the fans,” Khan said.
“I wanted to have that ‘Forbidden Door’ element to our show. It was intentional to have that moment backstage, reuniting members of the Bullet Club against their old rivals from Chaos in Rocky Romero and Trent Beretta.”
With Shane McMahon no longer with WWE, Sports Illustrated asked Khan if it’s possible that Shane could end up coming to AEW. Khan said he’d take a call from Shane, but he hasn’t heard from him and doesn’t know if he’d be a fit for AEW.
“I’d certainly take the call,” Khan said. “I’m sure he’d be an interesting person to talk to about wrestling. I’m not sure exactly if he would be a fit. I have not heard from him, and I don’t expect to hear from him, but in this business, you never know.”
Dave Meltzer and I are back on Wrestling Observer Radio to talk about the major stories in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
We talk about Dave’s story on Shane McMahon being let go, the idea for title versus title, WWE’s financials, AEW Dynamite’s ratings as well as Tony Khan’s tweet about the forbidden door, as well as updates on the health of some wrestlers.
We also go over some UFC news before talking about Dave’s recent magazine interview as well as being on the list of notable San Jose State alumni.
Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey won the 2022 Royal Rumble matches and will headline WrestleMania at AT&T Stadium in Dallas.
But perhaps the biggest news coming out of the Royal Rumble is that Shane McMahon is out of the company.
Shane McMahon never had an official title with the company as he didn’t work behind the scenes but does have a talent contract. While people fantasize about his being the guy to take over from Vince, something he probably figured was his birthright, nothing has changed since 2009 when he left the company because that was not going to happen. While he has appeared as talent on television and even as an authority figure on Smackdown, his only role in the company since leaving was as talent.
He was brought back as a secret entrant in the Royal Rumble, and also to produce the match, then go into the Elimination Chamber and finally wrestle Seth Rollins at WrestleMania. Shane McMahon had worked on previous Royal Rumble matches in the past, dating back to the Pat Patterson days. In 2020 and 2021, he was one of the producers for the Rumble even though he doesn’t work as a producer regularly, and has sometimes helped out backstage when he is at tapings. He was brought back this year as well, but there were many complaints about how he wanted to build the match around himself and issues involving co-producer James Gibson (Jamie Noble).
On this week’s Mat Men, Andrew Zarian and Rich Stambolian bring you all the latest pro wrestling news and rumors!
WWE Royal Rumble was this past Saturday and many are considering it one of the worst ones in recent years. We break down the event and what went wrong.
Shane McMahon is officially out of WWE. We have all the latest backstage drama surrounding his Rumble appearance and what this means for his future with the company.
We talk Ronda Rousey’s WWE return and how it looks like she will be facing Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 38.
We also get into what is wrong with WWE programming and why it’s been so lackluster compared to AEW Dynamite which is a must-watch every week.
Speaking of that, Dynamite saw a classic by CM Punk vs. MJF. We have all the results and our thoughts.
All this along with your viewer questions and a lot more on the new Mat Men, available by clicking below or watching on YouTube.
The SmackDown Tag Team titles will be on the line at this month’s Elimination Chamber pay-per-view.
WWE has announced that The Usos will defend their SmackDown Tag Team titles against The Viking Raiders at the Elimination Chamber on Saturday, February 19. The PPV is taking place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The Viking Raiders became the number one contenders to The Usos’ titles by winning a fatal four-way match on SmackDown last month. They defeated Los Lotharios, Cesaro & Mansoor, and Jinder Mahal & Shanky.
The Usos have been SmackDown Tag Team Champions since winning the titles from Rey & Dominik Mysterio on the Money in the Bank pre-show last July.
Elimination Chamber will begin at noon Eastern time on February 19. Here’s the updated card for the PPV:
Elimination Chamber match: WWE Champion Bobby Lashley defends against Brock Lesnar, Seth Rollins, Austin Theory, Riddle, and AJ Styles
Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch defends against Lita
SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso) defend against The Viking Raiders (Ivar & Erik)
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive is back with tons to talk about including the departure of Shane McMahon from WWE, the Royal Rumble men’s booking, AEW Dynamite tonight, the RAW ratings from Monday with Ronda Rousey, NXT 2.0 and tons more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
As quickly as he re-appeared in WWE, Shane McMahon is now out of WWE.
Dave Meltzer reported the news Wednesday, confirming an earlier report by Ringside News.
Meltzer said McMahon is “out of the company” but it’s unknown whether his talent deal was terminated or if the plans for him the next two months were simply dropped.
After nearly a year away from in-ring action, the 52-year-old made his return in Saturday’s men’s Royal Rumble match, entering at number 28 and later eliminated by eventual winner Brock Lesnar.
Following the Royal Rumble, Meltzer said on an episode of Wrestling Observer Radio that there was “a lot of heat” on McMahon due to his booking of the men’s Royal Rumble — a role which he has performed and helped with in the past.
While Meltzer didn’t have all the details at that time, he said McMahon “had an idea of what the Rumble was going to be and then a lot of that ended up being changed” which rubbed some people the wrong way.
Mat Men’s Andrew Zarian tweeted that specifically, there were “numerous changes” for what number Bad Bunny would be in the Rumble.
“This was a cause for concern and people within WWE were upset. WWE doesn’t want to come off negatively with such a major outside star,” he wrote.
Austin Theory effectively replaced McMahon in the Elimination Chamber match, earning his spot by winning a qualifier over Kevin Owens on Monday’s Raw.
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive is back with tons to talk about including fallout from the Royal Rumble and RAW, plans that changed, WrestleMania ideas, Shane McMahon, Nia Jax telling WWE to ram it up their HOLE, and tons more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Ordering Info: Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to [email protected] or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected].
Rates in the United States are $14.50 for 4 issues, $35.50 for 12, $70 for 24, $116 for 40 and $149.50 for 52.
In Canada and Mexico, the rates are $16 for 4, $27 for 8, $38.50 for 12, $76 for 24, $126 for 40 and $162.50 for 52.
For the rest of the world, rates are $18 for 4, $48.50 for 12, $93 for 24, $155 for 40 and $201.50 for 52.
If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.
MONDAY NEWS UPDATE
Bryan and I will be back tonight talking Royal Rumble fallout, Raw, Joe Rogan, PWG and a lot more with Wrestling Observer Radio. You can also send questions for the show to [email protected]
Just to clear up a few things. Shane McMahon was a producer of the men’s Royal Rumble. He is not a regular producer for WWE, but Vince gave him the assignment for the match. He helped produce the Royal Rumble in both 2020 and 2021 but was way more hands on and taking control this year than in the prior two years. Both matches were constantly changed. Those on the inside knew who the winners were all along even if there were apparently many in the company told differently, but as far as what would happen in both matches, they were constantly changing. The stories about negativity toward McMahon regarding the men’s match are pretty accurate. As noted here, he is booked for both the Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania shows.
Bobby Lashley vs. Seth Rollins won’t be at WrestleMania. The winner of the Elimination Chamber match on 2/19 will defend most likely in an angle set up on the show.
WWE has said that as of right now, the plan is for the 2/14 Raw and 2/15 NXT show to be on Syfy. We had reported that initially but there was some confusion regarding the second week of the Olympics and the idea the NXT big show set for 2/15 would be on USA. So either they change the date or they are going to peak for a show and not draw nearly as well as they otherwise would have.
Raw tonight is from Cincinnati. Both Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey are booked for tonight’s show and coming off the Rumble, the expectation is that tonight’s show will be among the highest rated of the year. There was more interest in Rumble, even if the feedback wasn’t the most positive, than any WWE show in a long time, even beating the last two WrestleManias in google searches. There will be matches for Elimination Chamber qualifications with Austin Theory vs. Kevin Owens and AJ Styles vs. Rey Mysterio. Raw moves to Syfy for two weeks starting next Monday. Last year’s show did 1.89 million viewers and 0.58 in 18-49.
We’re looking for reports from Raw in Cincinnati tonight with any Main Event or dark matches or any other live notes, plus reports from both nights of PWG BOLA and Saturday’s RevPro show at York Hall to [email protected]. We are also looking for your thoughts on the Royal Rumble and the Stardom PPV show from Saturday, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]
Kevin Mieche of TSN has a story on what made Bret Hart an all-time great.
The American Prospect has a story on the MLW lawsuit against WWE.
Balloting for the 2021 Wrestling Observer Awards closes on Thursday. There is a ballot in the January 24th issue of the Observer.
New Japan has said it will announce a major U.S. event at 10 p.m. Eastern time tonight.
Today is the 23rd anniversary of the death of Shohei “Giant”Baba, who was a giant in the industry. He is one of the three biggest Japanese stars in history along with Rikidozan and Antonio Inoki. He was also the most respected promoter and maybe the most respected booker in the history of the Japanese industry and very much a cultural icon. When we went to Japan a few years back there was a Baba exhibit with a lot of his artifacts that we did a show on. He also was the only Japanese pro wrestler to play major league baseball, although he was not noteworthy in baseball past the fact he was the tallest player ever in the Japanese major leagues. I’m not sure if he is the tallest to this day but he was still the tallest at the time of his death. He made both the International and PWF titles famous and had three brief reigns as NWA world champion when that was the No. 1 belt in the world.
Saturday’s Stardom PPV will go up on the Stardom World site Wednesday. Not sure when the RevPro show from Saturday goes up but people live were just raving about Will Ospreay vs. Michael Oku as a potential match of the year and Gabriel Kidd vs. Francesco Akira had a New Japan vs. All Japan are match that saw them just blister each other up.
As of this morning more than 5,300 tickets were out for Wednesday’s show in Chicago so they were 1,700 shy of capacity at the Wintrust Arena. With a bad snowstorm predicted to be coming this week to Chicago, it may hurt late sales and right now doesn’t look like it will sell out. The prediction is that it will be the biggest snowstorm of the season coming tomorrow night through Thursday morning. The C.M. Punk vs. MJF match did move 600 tickets from Thursday through Sunday which is good, but it’s nothing like the late movement for Ronda Rousey once the word got out she was in the Rumble, nor for Raw tonight (about 1,100 tickets moved with the Rousey announcement) (thanks to Eric Krol and William Zdon/Wrestle Tix)
Yesterday when we noted the parking prices for the NFC championship game at SoFi Stadium ($600 near the stadium), KCAL in Los Angeles reported that parking prices at the stadium will range from $700 to $1,000. When we talk about the secondary market get-in price at SoFi Stadium for the Super Bowl, it was $6,500 last night but has dropped to $5,450 for the fifth deck to $9,395 for the first deck. The average price sold is $8,498,the highest priced ticket sold so far is $24,363. Bayley and Sasha Banks were at the 49ers-Ramos game at SoFi Stadium yesterday. (thanks to Will Norris)
Kurt Angle said on his podcast that WWE called him to return to television for the next month to help build up WrestleMania. Angle was at the Royal Rumble on Saturday but did not appear in the match.
WWE
Brie Bella will be one of the contestants in “The Real Dirty Dancing” show on FOX which starts its season tomorrow night. It will be a four week competition.
AEW
The company announced the 4/6 Dynamite/Rampage taping will be in Boston at the Agganis Arena.
There will be a Dark taping at Universal in Orlando on Saturday with sessions from 2-5 p.m.and 7-10- p.m.
AEW will be making an announcement of a major health organization tie-in that would be starting for the month of February.
UFC
Jeremy Stephens, who let his UFC contract expire, has signed with the PFL. He noted he’s getting slightly more per fight than he did in the UFC, but he will fight more frequently, and has a shot at $1 million. He will compete at 155 rather than 145 like had been doing of late in UFC.
OTHER NOTES
Jeff Jarrett talks about getting back in the ring, Effy, and his minor league baseball team.
Warrior Wrestling said that they will announce Thunder Rosa’s opponent for her women’s title for the 2/12 show in Cicero, IL on Wednesday. They said it’s the earliest they can announce it. I don’t know if it will be the former Ember Moon, but Moon’s non-compete ends this week. The belief is she will go back to her prior ring name Athena.
AAW Legacy on Friday night on FITE at 8:30 p.m.Easrn with Mat Fitchett defending the AAW title against Laredo Kid, Ace Austin defending the Heritage title against Davey Vega, plus Lio Rush vs. Josh Alexa.
After his return to action in the men’s WWE Royal Rumble match Saturday, Shane McMahon is booked for both the Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania 38, according to our Dave Meltzer.
It’s unknown who those matches will be against. Meltzer said in Sunday’s daily update that McMahon “has a match on the books but it was said to have not been finalized a few days ago which is evidently why they did no angle with him (at the Rumble).”
The 52-year-old entered the Rumble at number 28 and was eliminated by eventual winner Brock Lesnar. McMahon was last seen in the ring at WrestleMania 37, losing in a steel cage match to Braun Strowman. That was his first match since October 2019 when he lost a career vs. career ladder match against Kevin Owens.
The Elimination Chamber is set for Saudi Arabia on Saturday, February 19th, and it will be McMahon’s fourth appearance in a match there dating back to 2018. He appeared in the Greatest Royal Rumble and won the World Cup final over Dolph Ziggler in two events that year and defeated Roman Reigns in 2019.
It will be his sixth WrestleMania match dating back to 2001.
