Tag: WWE WrestleMania 39

Former college football QB among WWE tryout attendees

Posted on by Bryan Rose

WWE is holding tryouts this week in Los Angeles.

ESPN reported on Monday that 26 women and 24 men will be included in this week’s tryout. Notable names include former Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant and former Baylor basketball player Mark Vital, who later transitioned to football and played for the Seattle Seahawks and Kansas City Chiefs practice squads.

Other college football names listed in the article include Caleb Kelly, an ex-Oklahoma linebacker, Oregon State linebacker Kyrei Fisher-Morris, Utah offensive lineman Bamidele Olaseni, and former Kansas and Ohio State offensive lineman Kevin Feder. Reggie Jagers, a 2020 Olympian in discus, and Darrell Mason, a Division II national champion wrestler at Minnesota State, are also trying out.

Additionally, former Baylor track star Morgan Stewart and All-Mountain West track honorees Breanna Covington (Fresno State) and Kasey Ebb (San Diego State) are listed among the women trying out.

According to ESPN’s report, this week’s tryouts will have representatives across 37 schools and 13 different sports, including amateur wrestling, basketball, powerlifting, track & field, and cheer.

VIDEO: Dave Meltzer & Bryan Alvarez discuss Rey Mysterio/Dominik angle on WWE SmackDown

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer discussed the angle that finally set up Rey Mysterio vs. Dominik Mysterio at WrestleMania 39.

On Friday’s SmackDown, Dominik Mysterio berated his mother at ringside after Rey walked away from another confrontation. After Dominik told his mother to shut up, Rey returned to ringside and slapped Dominik, finally accepting Dominik’s challenge for WrestleMania. Both Alvarez and Meltzer thought it was a well done angle.

“It worked out great,” Alvarez said. “I liked the idea of the Hall of Fame angle with Konnan because they’ve never done that at a Hall of Fame before. It would be a first time thing and a perfect scenario to do it.”

Meltzer said this was better because it is likely WWE doesn’t want Konnan to be in a high profile situation, given the complicated political situation between AAA and AEW, with Konnan recently being in a hype video for Vikingo ahead of his match against Kenny Omega on last week’s Dynamite.

“As far as Rey’s motivation for finally giving in, you know, when he’s really mouthing off to mom, that’s the one,” Meltzer said.

Rey Mysterio finally beat up Dominik: Wrestling Observer Radio

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer discussed the angle that finally set up Rey Mysterio vs. Dominik Mysterio at WrestleMania 39.

On Friday’s SmackDown, Dominik Mysterio berated his mother at ringside after Rey walked away from another confrontation. After Dominik told his mother to shut up, Rey returned to ringside and slapped Dominik, finally accepting Dominik’s challenge for WrestleMania. Both Alvarez and Meltzer thought it was a well done angle.

“It worked out great,” Alvarez said. “I liked the idea of the Hall of Fame angle with Konnan because they’ve never done that at a Hall of Fame before. It would be a first time thing and a perfect scenario to do it.”

Meltzer said this was better because it is likely WWE doesn’t want Konnan to be in a high profile situation, given the complicated political situation between AAA and AEW, with Konnan recently being in a hype video for Vikingo ahead of his match against Kenny Omega on last week’s Dynamite.

“As far as Rey’s motivation for finally giving in, you know, when he’s really mouthing off to mom, that’s the one,” Meltzer said.

Wrestling Observer Live: Will Cody Rhodes win at WWE WrestleMania 39?

Posted on by Andrew Zarian

I am back for another Sunday edition of Wrestling Observer Live, joined by my podcast partner Rich Stambolian of Mat Men.

We run down the current WWE WrestleMania 39 card discussing our favorite matches including the likelihood of Cody Rhodes winning the undisputed WWE Universal title from Roman Reigns.

CM Punk made news this week with some cryptic Instagram posts calling out certain people with AEW and making some interesting claims. We discuss what this all means and if it could possibly lead to some sort of comeback in AEW.

Plus, Mercedes Mone’s first IWGP Women’s title defense is coming up, the AEW All Out location could be changing, Goldberg is a free agent, and more.

Click Here To Listen for free

Updates on Bray Wyatt, Josh Alexander: Wrestling Observer Radio

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Dave Meltzer and Garrett Gonzales discussed the latest on Bray Wyatt and Josh Alexander on Wrestling Observer Radio.

Gonzales noted that there is no update on Wyatt, who is out of action due to a medical issue. Bobby Lashley stated on social media despite Wyatt’s absence, he will still compete at WrestleMania.

“If they knew he was on the show, they could at least promote it, even if he’s not there,” Meltzer said. “From what I understand he’s not in Vegas (home to Friday’s SmackDown taping) and the next to last SmackDown is tonight.”

Meltzer also brought up Josh Alexander, who announced on social media Friday he would have to pull out of future dates and vacate the Impact World Championship as he underwent surgery to repair a torn triceps on Friday. Meltzer put over the run he had while champion.

“Because of the nature of Impact, because of so much content with WWE and so much product with AEW, Impact falls by the wayside,” Meltzer said. “But Josh Alexander has done a tremendous job in the ring as Impact Champion.”

John Cena vs. Austin Theory to open WWE WrestleMania 39 Saturday

Posted on by Bryan Rose

John Cena will kick off the first night of WrestleMania.

During SmackDown on Friday, it was announced that Cena’s match will kick off the first night of WrestleMania on Saturday, April 1. Cena will face Austin Theory in a match that will be for the United States title.

Earlier this month, Theory challenged Cena to a match at WrestleMania. Cena initially rejected the challenge, saying that Theory wasn’t ready. Theory accused Cena of giving up on his fans, a play off of his catchphrase “never give up”. Cena says he was doing Theory a favor as Theory would lose everything if he lost, but after a poll with the fans, agreed to do the match.

Logan Paul has previously said that his match against Seth Rollins will also take place on the first night of WrestleMania. However, WWE has yet to confirm this.

Here is the updated card for WrestleMania 39:

WWE WrestleMania 39, Saturday, April 1 & Sunday, April 2, 8 p.m. Eastern time on Peacock & WWE Network —

  • Undisputed WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns defends against Cody Rhodes
  • SmackDown Women’s Championship: Charlotte Flair defends against Rhea Ripley
  • Raw Women’s Championship: Bianca Belair defends against Asuka
  • United States Championship: Austin Theory defends against John Cena (opens night one)
  • Intercontinental Championship triple threat match: Gunther defends against Drew McIntyre & Sheamus
  • Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship: The Usos defend against Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens
  • Hell in a Cell match: Edge vs. Finn Balor
  • Brock Lesnar vs. Omos
  • Seth Rollins vs. Logan Paul
  • Rey Mysterio vs. Dominik Mysterio
  • Trish Stratus, Becky Lynch & Lita vs. Damage CTRL (Bayley, Dakota Kai & IYO SKY)
  • Women’s four-way tag team showcase match: Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez vs. Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler vs. Natalya & Shotzi vs. TBD
  • Men’s four-way tag team showcase match: Braun Strowman & Ricochet vs. The Viking Raiders vs. The Street Profits vs. Alpha Academy

Ronda Rousey to compete in Showcase match at WWE WrestleMania 39

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Ronda Rousey is returning to action at WrestleMania 39.

Rousey and Shayna Baszler appeared following a match between Shotzi & Natalya and Xia Li & Lacey Evans on Friday’s SmackDown and announced that they have been added to the Showcase tag team match at WrestleMania 39. They join Shotzi & Natalya, who won their qualifying match, and the team of Raquel Gonzalez & Liv Morgan, who qualified on last week’s SmackDown.

Rousey confirmed on Instagram Friday that she has fractured her radius at a WWE house show in Rockford, Illinois on February 26.

Reportedly, the original idea for Rousey and Baszler were for them to challenge for the Women’s Tag Team titles. However, Dave Meltzer reported last Friday that the Tag Team title match was off, and instead Rousey would be in a different match at WrestleMania. That same day, WWE announced two four-way tag team showcase matches for WrestleMania, one for men and the other for women.

Here is the latest WrestleMania card:

WWE WrestleMania 39, Saturday, April 1 & Sunday, April 2, 8 p.m. Eastern time on Peacock & WWE Network —

  • Undisputed WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns defends against Cody Rhodes
  • SmackDown Women’s Championship: Charlotte Flair defends against Rhea Ripley
  • Raw Women’s Championship: Bianca Belair defends against Asuka
  • United States Championship: Austin Theory defends against John Cena (opens night one)
  • Intercontinental Championship triple threat match: Gunther defends against Drew McIntyre & Sheamus
  • Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship: The Usos defend against Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens
  • Hell in a Cell match: Edge vs. Finn Balor
  • Brock Lesnar vs. Omos
  • Seth Rollins vs. Logan Paul
  • Rey Mysterio vs. Dominik Mysterio
  • Trish Stratus, Becky Lynch & Lita vs. Damage CTRL (Bayley, Dakota Kai & IYO SKY)
  • Women’s four-way tag team showcase match: Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez vs. Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler vs. Natalya & Shotzi vs. TBD
  • Men’s four-way tag team showcase match: Braun Strowman & Ricochet vs. The Viking Raiders vs. The Street Profits vs. Alpha Academy

Rey Mysterio vs. Dominik Mysterio official for WWE WrestleMania 39

Posted on by Ethan Renner

A Father vs. Son match is on for WWE WrestleMania 39. 

After months of refusing to fight his son, Rey Mysterio finally agreed to face Dominik in a match at WrestleMania following an angle on Friday’s WWE SmackDown.

Dominik was ringside for a Rey vs. LA Knight match on SmackDown, tripping Rey and allowing Knight to score an upset victory. After the match, Dominik berated his mother Angie, who was sitting ringside along with Aalyah Mysterio. 

The tipping point for Rey came when Dominik called his mother “a deadbeat” and told her to “shut up.” Rey then struck Dominik and agreed to face him at WrestleMania. 

Rey will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on Friday, March 31, the day before night one of WrestleMania.

Here is the announced WrestleMania card to this point:

WWE WrestleMania 39, Saturday, April 1 & Sunday, April 2, 8 p.m. Eastern time on Peacock & WWE Network —

  • Undisputed WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns defends against Cody Rhodes 
  • SmackDown Women’s Championship: Charlotte Flair defends against Rhea Ripley
  • Raw Women’s Championship: Bianca Belair defends against Asuka
  • United States Championship: Austin Theory defends against John Cena
  • Intercontinental Championship triple threat match: Gunther defends against Drew McIntyre & Sheamus
  • Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship: The Usos defend against Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens
  • Hell in a Cell match: Edge vs. Finn Balor
  • Brock Lesnar vs. Omos
  • Seth Rollins vs. Logan Paul
  • Rey Mysterio vs. Dominik Mysterio
  • Trish Stratus, Becky Lynch & Lita vs. Damage CTRL (Bayley, Dakota Kai & IYO SKY)
  • Women’s four-way tag team showcase match: Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez vs. Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler vs. Natalya & Shotzi vs. TBD
  • Men’s four-way tag team showcase match: Braun Strowman & Ricochet vs. The Viking Raiders vs. The Street Profits vs. Alpha Academy

March 27, 2023 Observer Newsletter: The latest on WWE WrestleMania 39, AEW ticket sales update

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

With WrestleMania coming up in Southern California, it will be the biggest money week in company history from a live show perspective, and likely with whatever Peacock pays for WrestleMania rights, plus the huge increase in sponsorships that WWE has been getting for big shows, it will be record-setting in that realm as well.

For the WWE events the 3/31 Smackdown and Hall of Fame event at the Crypto.com Arena, they had 14,393 tickets out and are 838 tickets shy of sellout, so they will sell out.

Stand & Deliver with a 9 a.m. start time on 4/1 has 6,678 tickets out in the same building, which is far above last year in Dallas, although there have been WrestleMania week NXT shows that have done much better. From 2015 to 2019, the WrestleMania NXT big event over the weekend sold out but it has not done so since 2019 and this year will be well above last year but far from a sellout.

Subscribers can read this week’s issue here.

WWE’s Stone Cold Steve Austin: ‘My days in the ring are done’

Posted on by Josh Nason

It appears “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s in-ring days have officially come to an end in WWE or anywhere for that matter.

Austin told NBC Los Angeles that while he loves his relationship with WWE, he doesn’t miss being in the mix on a regular basis — although he sounded open to return for appearances.

“Coming back to do something from time to time is fine, because I love my relationship with WWE, but my days in the ring are done. Although, I did do the main event at WrestleMania last year in Dallas but that was kind of a fluke and we pulled it off,” he said. “It’s good to be back and see some of the faces, but I’ve been gone for a long time and I do not miss it.”

Austin returned at the first night of last year’s WrestleMania 38 in Dallas, Texas, confronting Kevin Owens during an interview segment that turned into a no holds barred match. It was Austin’s first in-ring action since 2003’s WrestleMania.

Austin said he has been focused on other business opportunities like with his Broken Skull beer line and Kawasaki.

He said he hasn’t got a call to be at next weekend’s WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles as he’s been working on his new TV show with A&E, but that “anything can happen.”

We’re Live, Pal: Is the build to WWE WrestleMania 39 hot or not?

Posted on by Garrett Gonzales

It’s a brand new We’re Live, Pal! as Andrew Zarian and I talk the latest wrestling news.

We looked at all of the big matches for this year’s WWE WrestleMania and whether we think the builds are hot or not.

Then, we looked at this week’s AEW Dynamite lineup and the discourse surrounding whether Kenny Omega vs. El Hijo Del Vikingo is a dream match as it’s being promoted.

Lastly, we talked about free agent Bill Goldberg and if he would fit in AEW.

You can watch the show above or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts in addition to the link below. 

Click Here To Listen for free 

WWE seems to have plans for after WrestleMania: Wrestling Observer Radio

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer discussed the Cody Rhodes/Roman Reigns segment from Monday’s Raw.

On Tuesday’s Wrestling Observer Radio, Alvarez went over the back and forth between Reigns and Rhodes. At the end of his promo, Rhodes suggested that after WrestleMania is over and he walks away champion, members of The Bloodline will turn against Reigns. Alvarez thought based on what he saw on Friday’s SmackDown and Monday’s Raw, it seems that WWE has plans beyond WrestleMania next month.

“They have a plan,” Alvarez said. “And they are planting a lot of seeds into this plan over the last couple of days.” Alvarez brought up that there is usually a post-WrestleMania lull, but that may not be the case here. Meltzer recalled times where after WrestleMania, Vince McMahon would push people he didn’t believe in, only to focus on things that mattered to him later in the year.

“Vince, when he had it, would do things he thought the fans wanted but he didn’t really want, and then the period until building up SummerSlam was kinda like ‘okay, I did what the fans wanted, they were wrong, I gotta go with this until I squash the guy fans like, then we can do business,” Meltzer said.

Edge tells Finn Balor to bring his demon for WWE WrestleMania 39 match

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Edge told Finn Balor to bring “his demon” for their upcoming Hell in a Cell match at WrestleMania 39.

On Monday’s Raw, Edge was seen emerged in darkness talking about Finn Balor. Edge mentioned Balor said in his promo last week that the Hell in a Cell couldn’t contain his demons. He told Finn to leave Finn at home and bring the demon so he could meet the devil.

Balor on occasion wrestles under his demon persona, usually during a major feud. The last time he used the gimmick was back in September of 2021 when Balor, under the Demon persona, lost to Roman Reigns at that year’s Extreme Rules event.

It has been reported in recent weeks that at one point, the plan for WrestleMania was to have Balor under his demon persona wrestle Edge, who would be appearing under his Brood persona. The Brood persona was first introduced back at SummerSlam 2022, when Edge made his return by attacking members of the Judgment Day.

Edge and Balor have been feuding for the last year, dating back to when The Judgment Day turned on their former leader. Most recently, Edge and Beth Phoenix emerged victorious at Elimination Chamber by defeating Finn Balor and Rhea Ripley. However, after Balor cost Edge a match against Austin Theory, Edge issued the challenge for WrestleMania, with Balor accepting.

Update on Bray Wyatt & WWE WrestleMania 39 match

Posted on by Josh Nason

As mentioned by Dave Meltzer in both his Sunday daily update and appearance on Sunday Night’s Main Event, Bray Wyatt is dealing with an illness that has kept on the sidelines in WWE.

He was supposed to be on Friday’s SmackDown, but missed the show due to the unspecified illness.

On SNME, Meltzer said that when he asked WWE about whether the planned match between Wyatt and Bobby Lashley was still on for WrestleMania 39, he didn’t get a definitive answer either way.

Meltzer said Wyatt is still with the company and that his gut instinct is the match is “up in the air” for whether it actually happens with less than two weeks to go before WrestleMania weekend.

The match hasn’t been mentioned on WWE TV since the Monday, March 6th Raw.

Wyatt was pulled from a Madison Square Garden house show earlier this months with no reason given. Since returning last year, Wyatt has wrestled on TV just once, that being at January’s Royal Rumble against LA Knight in a Pitch Black match. He has been working with Knight in SmackDown dark matches and house shows, but hasn’t been in action since February 26th.

VIDEO: Dave Meltzer & Garrett Gonzales discuss WWE WrestleMania Saturday headliner

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Rhea Ripley vs. Charlotte is scheduled to headline night one of WrestleMania. But is is the right choice?

Dave Meltzer and Garrett Gonzales discussed the lead story in week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter on the Friday edition of Wrestling Observer Radio. When Gonzales asked Meltzer if the ‘political’ move to have Ripley and Charlotte headline the first night was so that a women’s match headlines one of the cards, Meltzer confirmed.

“You don’t have to have a women’s main event,” Meltzer said. “If it wasn’t for Steve Austin, Ronda Rousey was going to headline last year’s show.

It was pointed out that the hot acts in the company right now are Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, The Usos, Roman Reigns, and Cody Rhodes, so naturally both main events should feature those talents. Meltzer pointed out that they still could, as everything is decided upon at the last minute.

Gonzales thought that the Charlotte/Ripley match, as it stands now, is cold, particularly from the Charlotte side.

“I’m not feeling any fire from her,” Gonzales said.

Meltzer pointed out that one of the problems is that Ripley and Charlotte are on different brands, and Ripley currently is more involved in Dominik’s feud with his father, Rey Mysterio.