Rhodes was asked to name his five greatest WrestleMania wrestlers in WWE history, with the criteria only considering how they performed at WrestleMania. He put two of his current-day WWE peers on the list while giving the three other spots to legends:
Hulk Hogan
Roman Reigns
Shawn Michaels
Randy Savage
Charlotte Flair
While addressing the toughest omissions from the list, Rhodes said he knows the internet will eat him alive over not including Steve Austin. He noted that it was tougher to leave Austin out than The Undertaker.
Rhodes did not put himself on the list but said he hopes his stats will make him worthy of inclusion when someone else makes a ranking like this in the future. Rhodes believes headlining WrestleMania is the most difficult thing to do in WWE, and he’s now heading into his fifth main event if you count both matches from WrestleMania 40. Reigns was involved in three of those bouts.
The WrestleMania 42 main events are Rhodes vs. Randy Orton this Saturday and CM Punk vs. Reigns on Sunday. Ahead of the event, First Take will be broadcasting live from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Friday.
Outside of his own match, Cody Rhodes is most looking forward to seeing Gunther and Seth Rollins clash at WrestleMania 42.
Rhodes stopped by ESPN’s Get Up on Tuesday morning to help promote WrestleMania. During the interview, he was asked to name which match he’s most excited to experience as a viewer.
“There’s always a little bit of that split between the sports entertainment and the wrestling. The sports and the entertainment,” Rhodes said. “And the one that’s old-school sports style that I really like, just good, old-fashioned wrestling: Gunther vs. Seth Rollins. I’m all about that. That’s a wrestlers’ wrestling match.”
The Gunther vs. Rollins bout is happening at night one of WrestleMania 42 this Saturday, which will be headlined by Rhodes defending his Undisputed WWE Championship against Randy Orton. ESPN personality Pat McAfee has become a big part of that build and will be in Orton’s corner for the match. On Get Up, Rhodes described McAfee as a “rat” who is surrounded by people who don’t tell him “no” enough.
Ric Flair is looking forward to watching WWE WrestleMania 42, but he wishes his daughter Charlotte was involved in a singles match at the show.
Speaking with Yahoo Sports Daily, Flair praised WrestleMania as the “greatest sports spectacular” in the world. He spoke highly of the job Paul “Triple H” Levesque is doing as head of creative, even if Flair would like Charlotte to have more of a featured spot this year. Flair knows it won’t be long until Charlotte is in a singles match at WrestleMania again.
“I think he’s done a great job,” Flair responded when asked to assess Levesque’s job performance. “I don’t think anybody truly understands how difficult it is to manage egos and talent. You can’t make everybody happy, does that make sense? You just can’t. Everybody thinks they’re the best. Everybody thinks they deserve more. I could tell you who does and who doesn’t, but I’m not going to get into that [laughs]. I’m staying neutral.
“But they have some great talent, great storylines. I’m really looking forward to watching it. I wish my daughter was in a singles match, but that’ll happen again. She’s the greatest, I’ll say it right now.”
Charlotte has been in the WWE Women’s Tag Team title picture for nearly a year now. At night one of WrestleMania 42 this Saturday, she and her tag partner Alexa Bliss will be involved in a fatal four-way match for the belts. It has Nia Jax & Lash Legend defending against Charlotte & Bliss, Bayley & Lyra Valkyria, and The Bella Twins.
Yahoo Sports asked Flair how much it’s meant to him to watch Charlotte become an icon in pro wrestling.
“I’ll put it to you like this, if she had a Roman Reigns push, no one could ever talk to her again [laughs],” Flair said. “She is an icon. I mean, she’s just raised the bar so high. And I know she gets upset when I say this, but it’s the God’s honest truth, she’s just that damn good.”
Flair also had praise for Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, and John Cena during the Yahoo Sports Daily interview. He did address his removal from the Roots of Fight clothing brand, saying he wishes he would have received a phone call about the situation instead of first being informed via letter.
“Those are the kind of things that throw me off a little bit,” Flair said. “You would think they’d have enough respect to call me, but they didn’t. So it is what it is. It isn’t the financial part of it. I can remember Randy Orton telling me a couple of years ago, ‘Man, I hope that someday I can be part of that Roots of Fight.’ It’s just the prestige of being part of that, you know, Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, just a lot of very famous people. To be awarded that, and the merchandise is really rare and hard to find. So I don’t know what happened. I wish they would have called me, but they didn’t.”
Roots of Fight now has a deal with WWE, which explains Flair’s removal given that he is under contract with AEW.
Roman Reigns, CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, and Randy Orton are all about to main event WrestleMania in their 40s. Charlotte Flair is out to prove women can do the same thing.
Flair, who celebrated her 40th birthday earlier this month, discussed age and the wrestling business in an interview with Sports Illustrated.
âUnfortunately,â she said, âmen seem to get better and women seem to get older.â
âThese years have gone by so fast,â she continued. âAnd then when I was younger, when I thought of 40, I thought of the Golden Girls. That’s really what I thought of. But now it’s like, not only did I have an opportunity in 2015 to be a part of the women’s evolution and redefine what it meant to be a female superstarâlonger matches, no longer eye candyânow I’m here.â
Flair says she hopes women in wrestling get a chance to last as long as their male colleagues.
âI have another opportunity to help bridge the gap and redefine what success means for long-term female careers in professional wrestling,â she says. âI hope that I bridge that gap in a male-dominated world where before it was like everyone’s got to be 25, women are disposable. No, we’re not.â
As far as Flair is concerned, sheâs only getting better with experience.
âThe one thing about building my character Charlotte is I have fallen in love with the process,â she says. âSo I feel like I’m at the best I’ve ever been. Like, oh, now I’m just getting good. Now I’m just understanding the audience. Now I’m just understanding the actual psychology of being in the moment and not letting nerves take over.â
Flair and her tag team partner Alexa Bliss will be taking part in a four-way tag team match at WrestleMania 42. Along with Bayley & Lyra Valkyria and the Bella Twins, theyâll be challenging the Irresistible Forces for the WWE Womenâs Tag Team Championships.
Roman Reigns and CM Punk faced off on the final Raw before WrestleMania 42.
The open to Mondayâs show had Reigns accuse Punk of lying and trying to rewrite his legacy. The video showed a montage of Punkâs contradictions over the years involving bringing in the Shield, saying he was here to make money instead of friends while showing pictures of himself smiling with talent, and capped off with Pat McAfeeâs promo where he asked if Punkâs merchandise sales went to needy families who wanted to go WrestleMania or to his account titled âIâm sorry Saudi Arabia.â Reigns said he would give Punk an opportunity to tell the truth to him in the main event segment of the show, or he would.
After Reigns entered the ring for the show-closing promo, Punk came out and proceeded to tell his truth: he hated Roman Reigns because he envied him. Everything was handed to him, and hated he was champion for so long. He apologized for bringing up Sikaâs name, saying he envied not being born âinto a dynasty,â and instead had to find his family in the streets and through the independents.
Reigns said that he hated Punk too, and hated him for a long time. He said it was because of his relationship with the crowd.
âI hope one day I can get to the point that when I leave, they miss me as much as they missed you,â he revealed. âI hope that one day when I leave, they chant for me for ten years straight.â
Reigns said the truest thing Punk has is his connection with his fans, but on Sunday it wouldn’t be âand still,â but âand new.â Reigns closed off their war with words by saying that on Sunday, the nostalgia act would end.
The two will meet in the main event of the second night of WrestleMania this Sunday, while Cody Rhodes will battle Randy Orton for the WWE title on Saturday.
WWE has confirmed which matches will open this yearâs WrestleMania.
During Raw, it was confirmed that the six-man tag pitting iShowSpeed, Logan Paul, and Austin Theory against LA Knight and The Usos will open night one of WrestleMania, which will also air on ESPN2. On Raw, iShowSpeed was shown to be nervous about his debut match but gained more confidence after a training session with The Vision.
Meanwhile, Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi will kick off the second night of WrestleMania on Sunday, which will also air on ESPN. A storyline on Raw had the two sign their contract for the match individually, with Brock Lesnar coming out to sign his part first. Paul Heyman gave a spoiler for what would happen on Sunday: Lesnar would win, while Femi would lose.
WrestleVotes Radio on Fightful Select was the first to report which matches would open WrestleMania.
Here is the current lineup for WrestleMania 42, which airs this weekend:
WWE WrestleMania 42 night one lineup | This Saturday
Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes defends against Randy Orton (w/ Pat McAfee)
Womenâs World Champion Stephanie Vaquer defends against Liv Morgan
Seth Rollins vs. Gunther
Womenâs Intercontinental Champion AJ Lee defends against Becky Lynch
Womenâs Tag Team Champions Nia Jax & Lash Legend defend against Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss, The Bella Twins, and Bayley & Lyra Valkyria
Unsanctioned match: Drew McIntyre vs. Jacob Fatu (ESPN2)
Logan Paul, Austin Theory & IShowSpeed vs. The Usos & LA Knight (ESPN2)
WWE WrestleMania 42 night two lineup | Next Sunday
World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk defends against Roman Reigns
WWE Womenâs Champion Jade Cargill defends against Rhea Ripley
Finn Balor vs. Dominik Mysterio
United States Champion Sami Zayn defends against Trick Williams
Brock Lesnar vs. Oba Femi (ESPN)
Ladder match: Intercontinental Champion Penta defends against JeâVon Evans, Dragon Lee, Rusev, JD McDonagh, and Rey Mysterio (ESPN)
Cody Rhodes sees a common theme among the two WWE WrestleMania main events this year.
Taking place this weekend, WrestleMania 42 will be headlined by Rhodes vs. Randy Orton and CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns. Both bouts have been built around long-standing personal issues. With that — and the recent addition of Pat McAfee to the Rhodes vs. Orton rivalry — Rhodes believes that it’s easy for viewers to suspend their disbelief and buy into what they’re seeing on screen.
“When wrestling is done right, the best thing ever is when you can just have a little bit of doubt on, ‘Oh, seems like those guys do hate each other.’ And we have a lot of that in both main events this year,” Rhodes said on Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast. “There’s a lot of sincerity to the suspension of disbelief.â
The history between Rhodes and Orton dates back nearly 20 years to when they were members of The Legacy together. Given that, a lot of fans have been disappointed about McAfee’s involvement, feeling that it’s unnecessary to the story. Rhodes leaned into that sentiment on Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast, comparing McAfee’s inclusion to the popular meme where a clown is trying to blend in among a group of soldiers.
âRandy Orton, who I’m wrestling at WrestleMania, we have almost two decades of history. He was my mentor,” Rhodes said. “We were on screen together as part of his group Legacy. He had my dad’s last match. My first match in the company was against Randy. There is a lot of rich story material.
“And then we inserted Pat McAfee. We are literally in that part right there. So your question is everybody elseâs question. You know the troops all outside and there is that clown? Iâm not saying heâs the clown. Itâs just an interesting fit. And we’re going to see where it goes.”
Rhodes did say that he believes McAfee is a serious person and not a clown. He just wishes the people around McAfee would say “no” to him more often — including telling him that it’s a bad idea to get involved in the main event of WrestleMania.
McAfee will be in Orton’s corner when Orton challenges Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship this Saturday. If Orton loses, McAfee has promised to leave the wrestling industry forever.
The status for Nikki Bella for next weekend’s WWE WrestleMania 42 is still up in the air, according to our Dave Meltzer.
Regarding whether Bella can compete in the four-way WWE Women’s Tag Team match, Meltzer stated that he was told earlier today that “it’s too close to call.”
The 42-year-old Bella was seen in a walking boot following a late-March SmackDown match, later saying she would be back in a weekâs time. Several weeks later, that hasn’t been the case.
She and sister Brie are set to be in the four-way that also features Womenâs Tag Team Champions Nia Jax & Lash Legend, Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss, and Bayley & Lyra Valkyria.
The delay is also the reason the IYO SKY vs. Asuka match has yet to be announced as our Bryan Alvarez reported that if Bella can’t go, Asuka and Kairi Sane will take their place, leaving SKY without an obvious match at the moment.
WWE WrestleMania 42 night one lineup | This Saturday
Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes defends against Randy Orton (w/ Pat McAfee)
Womenâs World Champion Stephanie Vaquer defends against Liv Morgan
Seth Rollins vs. Gunther
Womenâs Intercontinental Champion AJ Lee defends against Becky Lynch
Womenâs Tag Team Champions Nia Jax & Lash Legend defend against Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss, The Bella Twins, and Bayley & Lyra Valkyria
Unsanctioned match: Drew McIntyre vs. Jacob Fatu (ESPN2)
Logan Paul, Austin Theory & IShowSpeed vs. The Usos & LA Knight (ESPN2)
WWE WrestleMania 42 night two lineup | Next Sunday
World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk defends against Roman Reigns
WWE Womenâs Champion Jade Cargill defends against Rhea Ripley
Finn Balor vs. Dominik Mysterio
United States Champion Sami Zayn defends against Trick Williams
Brock Lesnar vs. Oba Femi (ESPN)
Ladder match: Intercontinental Champion Penta defends against JeâVon Evans, Dragon Lee, Rusev, JD McDonagh, and Rey Mysterio (ESPN)
The most detailed look at how the Pat McAfee angle developed, its goal, why so many in the company are unhappy with it, where it is leading, addressing the biggest WrestleMania questions, what CM Punk aid, where Paul Levesque and Ari Emanuel fit in, as well as an update on WrestleMania tickets compared to last year, discount offers cutting price back and more
Preview to AEW Dynasty, matches and business notes as well as updates on Double or Nothing direction and business, as well as All In at Wembley Stadium.
Favorites for WrestleMania and Dynasty
Lots of business notes on WrestleMania
Callum Newman wins IWGP title and review of Sakura Genesis, what we learned, business, Best of the Super Juniors and Dontaku notes
NXT Stand & Deliver. Match rundowns and stories as well as business notes on the show
Texts from Paul Levesque to Nick Khan released in discovery regarding Vince McMahon’s involvement in booking when talent was told McMahon was out and Levesques frustration at the time
A detailed look at TNA pulling talent from advertised indie events that they had previously approved and a better way of handling it
A look at the career of 60s and 70s star Flying Fred Curry, one of the major stars of The Sheik’s heyday running Michigan and Ohio, son of Bull Curry and nine-time world tag team champion.
The arrest of Alberto el Patron, lots more details and his history, shows he’s been pulled from, an ironic aspect of this story n a reality show in Mexico late last year
The most detailed look at the ratings for all the television shows of the past week, with comparisons with last week, last year, demos and other stats, male vs. female percentage
More stats regarding the audience at Arena Mexico shows as well as a look back on a major week last week.
Saya Kamtani has major goal for Stardom’s big show later this month
Japanese television in 1985 and who were the draws
Ric Flair upset over WWE costing him a major merchandise deal
— Garrett Gonzales and I will be doing the show tonight since Bryan Alvarez will be at AEW Dynasty in Vancouver. We’ll also talk about Smackdown which we both attended but haven’t talked about to each other yet, Collision, the WWE angles, and the rest of today’s news. Bryan and I did a show last night covering UFC, Smackdown, the TNA PPV show and other pro wrestling and MMA news.
— AEW Dynasty tonight in Vancouver, BC:
4 p.m. Zero Hour
Marina Shafir vs. Alex Windsor
Megan Bayne & Lena Kross defend the women’s tag titles against Maya World & Hyan
Jack Perry defends the National title against Mark Davis
5 p.m.
David Finlay & Clark Connors & Gabe Kidd defend the trios titles against Orange Cassidy & Roderick Strong & ? (rumors to be Kyle O’Reilly who is from Vancouver)
Young Bucks vs. Konosuke Takeshita & Kazuchika Okada
Casino Gauntlet for the vacant TNT title. The first two entrants are Tommaso Ciampa and Rush. Nobody else is announced
Darby Allin vs. Andrade El Idolo for the title shot on Double or Nothing
Thekla defends the AEW women’s title against Jamie Hayter
Jon Moxley defends the Continental title against Will Ospreay
FTR defends the tag team titles against Adam Copeland & Christian Cage
MJF defends the AEW title against Kenny Omega
On paper, it looks strong. Maybe not Revolution level strong, but the key matches have had strong builds and most matches on paper look great. They had 8,699 tickets out as of last word. So it probably won’t hit 9,500 but it is the largest for a Dynasty show to date.
— We’re looking for your thoughts on both the AEW Dynasty show tonight as well as the TNA Rebellion show last night for our weekend polls. You can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match for each show to [email protected]
— Regarding WrestleMania ticket sales since Pat McAfee announced the ticket discount for Saturday and not Sunday, since Friday morning, the Saturday show has moved 1,265 tickets to 40,610 and the Sunday show, with no discount, has moved 1,452, to 42,769.
— Regarding Nikki Bella and participating in the match at WrestleMania, I was just told a few minutes ago, “it’s too close to call.”
— The WWE Hall of Fame ceremony will air on ESPN Unlimited at midnight this coming Friday night.
— The new main event for the Mark Hitchcock Memorial show is Ricochet & Gates of Agony vs. Michael Oku, Kevin Knight and Mike Bailey on 4/16. Tony Khan had a strong P.R. week essentially adding the Gates of Agony, Bailey and Knight after TNA pulled Leon Slater out of the prior main event with Ricochet. The general rule in booking AEW talent is that they don’t like doing major AEW vs. AEW matches with the idea they want those exclusively for AEW television, but Khan allowed them to do that because of how the situation went. Other AEW talent on that show are Bandido, Lee Johnson, Blake Christian and Mark Davis.
— CMLL has added Persephone vs. Tessa Blanchard for the CMLL women’s title to its Thursday 3 p.m. show at the Palms in Las Vegas.
— For Google searches, there was actually a decent amount of traction over the weekend. UFC was the biggest. In fact last night’s UFC show was No. 3 among everything for the weekend with 1,115,000 searches. There were six UFC topics in the top 55 for the weekend, including Jiri Prochazka, Cub Swanson, Aaron Pico, Paulo Costa, Curtis Blaydes, Josh Hokit and several others. The Tyson Fury fight did 100,000. Conor Benn’s fight did 20,000. Gable Steveson did 10,000. Anthony Joshua did 20,000. WrestleMania did 10,000. The highest pro wrestling number was for La Catalina believe it or not. Others that trended with 2,000 were Rhea Ripley, Royce Keys and Danhausen. Pat McAfee did not.
— A couple of items at last night’s AAA show. Catalina did arrive and was presented as a big star, unlike in CMLL where none of the women really are and Persephone is the biggest star. She immediately was put in a feud with Flammer for the Reina de Reinas title. Penta retained the IC title over El Hijo del Vikingo. They were pushing hard the Grande Americano vs. Grande Americano feud with the last word we heard the mask vs. mask match will headline the 5/30 show at Arena Monterrey.
— There was controversy regarding the show last night. In the match with Grande Americano Chad Gable against Octagon Jr., Gable unmasked Octagon Jr. right in front of the referee. Octagon Jr. hid his face and Gable pinned him. Mexican wrestling rules dating back at least 60 years call for unmasking in front of the ref to be a DQ. This is actually one of the most foundational rules there are. WWE has decided to change that rule. The reality is that AAA fans today are mostly WWE fans and not as much AAA fans, as seen by the biggest reaction coming for WWE wrestlers. It’s not going to hurt business or anything, and we knew going in that WWE was going to change matches to American style, but this was a change a lot of people were very surprised and unhappy about. I mean, I’m sad to see the change but I also expect every Lucha Libre rule that isn’t the same as WWE to eventually change.
— Both AAA and CMLL sold out last night with 5,500 and 6,000 in Mexico City, respectively last night. This was the 15th sellout in the last 16 weeks for CMLL at Arena Coliseo (the only miss was a Saturday night where the Mexican national soccer team played in Mexico City before 83,000 fans, and even that show was almost sold out). I believe that is the best run in history for the 83-year-old arena.
— Friday night sold out Arena Mexico with 16,000 fans, as Hechicero beat Angel de Oro as the last two. Angel de Oro had pinned Mistico when they were the last three, clean, to knock him out of the tournament and the crowd was very surprised and unhappy about that. The main event was an elimination match with all the CMLL title holders except Mascara Dorada, who had already qualified last week. Besides Mistico, Hechicero and Angel de Oro, it had Templario, Neon, Niebla Roja and Stigma. On 4/24, Mascara Dorada and Hechicero will be joined by the winner of the match on 4/17 with all the Mexican national champions for a three-way Universal title tournament final.
— Last night’s UFC match with Josh Hokit vs. Curtis Blaydes is the leading candidate so far for fight of the year. It was an amazing slugfest, super exciting and the advantage went back-and-forth for three rounds with the most punches thrown in a heavyweight three-rounder in UFC history. Both were hospitalized, but Hokit was booked for a fight in nine weeks against Derrick Lewis. President Trump was at the show. According to Dana White, Trump specifically asked for Lewis to be on the White House show. So they immediately called Lewis, who agreed to it. They booked Hokit based on beating Blaydes, but with the beating he took, nine weeks is a tough turnaround. Of course getting on the White House show for many, if not most (and absolutely not all) fighters, is a big deal.
— Other bouts that have been highly recommended this weekend were the Arena Mexico main event and the Champion Carnival main event from today with Go Shiozaki vs. Yuma Anzai from All Japan. Young Bucks vs. Hechicero & El Clon from Collision was also great.
— Regarding Gable Steveson, while he clearly has the athletic talent, this is very quick to be signed by UFC. They probably had to because I think there was a really good chance he got an offer from MVP for the Rousey vs. Carano fight, and UFC, which has been interested in him, sped up the process. Rushing guys into UFC is a major risk.
— Dirty White Boy Tony Anthony turned 65 today. Cibernetico turned 51. El Terrible turned 50. Jackie Redmond, the WWE TV announcer, turned 39. Mighty Inoue was born on this day in 1949. Promoter George Culkin was born on this day in 1926. Joe Louis, the legendary boxer, who was involved in pro wrestling, died 45 years ago today at 66. Mike Von Erich died 39 years ago today at 23. Mary Jane Mull died 27 years ago today at 70. Great Goliath of Gordman & Goliath fame died 22 years today at 69. Balls Mahoney died ten years ago today at 44. Joe Pedicino died six years ago today at 70 (thanks to Tony Richards).
— Santino Marella was suspended by TNA as a cover due to undergoing sleep apnea related surgery.
— For Create-a-Pro on 5/11 in Melville, NY, the MJF vs. Nic Nemeth match that TNA cancelled is now Nemeth vs. Bear Bronson and Kris Statlander, Max Caster and Smart Mark Sterling will be on the show. MJF will headline in an open challenge for the AEW title if he’s champion.
— KC Navarro and EC3 will return to TNA for Thursday’s Impact. Impact and Collision will be going head-to-head because TNT is airing NHL playoffs on Saturday night.
— Neon & Xelhua headlined Arena Mexico tonight against Hechicero & Volador Jr. plus Star Jr. vs. Soberano Jr. Mistico & Neon vs. Hechicero & Volador Jr. headlines Puebla on Monday.
Andrew Zarian is back with another episode of Wrestling Observer Live’s Sunday edition, featuring the latest news in professional wrestling.
He kicks off talking about Pat McAfee’s interjection into the main event of WrestleMania 42 and speculating why WWE is going in this direction.
He then breaks down this week’s SmackDown where McAfee doubled down on his promo from last week and tries to make sense of this direction heading into the biggest shows of the year.
AEW Dynasty is today. He does a final preview of the card and discusses the direction they are heading towards All In this summer. Will MJF still be the World champion, and which match will be pivotal in setting their plans in motion going into Double or Nothing?
Plus, mask vs. mask in AAA, Gable Steveson in UFC, and more!
McAfee took time on Fridayâs SmackDown to address the response from his reveal last week, first taking aim at CM Punk, who called out the famed ESPN host on Monday. McAfee, upset about being called ‘Pat MAGAfee,’ highlighted Punk’s comments from Monday asking WWE to lower ticket prices so families could watch him defeat Roman Reigns at WrestleMania.
âWhen that TKO merch check comes through, which account does it go through? Does it go to the needy wrestling families that canât afford WrestleMania tickets? Or….I have a sneaking suspicion that money from the TKO merch account goes right into the bank account titled âIâm sorry Saudi Arabia,â McAfee said. Punk, who had a history of critical comments regarding WWEâs relationship with Saudi Arabia before his return to the promotion, took time to apologize to the country prior to his match against John Cena last year.
McAfee then addressed WrestleManiaâs high ticket prices. He announced he had talked to Ram, a sponsor for WrestleMania, and announced that a 25% off sale for WrestleMania Saturday would start on Friday and run through the end of Mondayâs Raw.
“WrestleMania Sunday night? A**. I wouldn’t recommend anybody spend money on that,” he said.
Cody Rhodes came out and told McAfee that these people were not marks but customers, borrowing a line from famed promoter Paul Boesch. He told McAfee to go home. McAfee responded by calling him a fake and a cosplay champion. As Rhodes tried to leave, Randy Orton appeared on the screen, showing he had taken out Jelly Roll backstage. He dragged Jelly to the stage. This was a ploy for McAfee to cause a distraction, leading to a two-on-one beatdown. The segment ended with McAfee stealing Rhodesâ WWE Championship.
The next segment saw McAfee with the WWE Championship leaving the arena with Orton. But he had one last message for fans upset by his actions.
âHey IWC and wrestling fans, marks if you will…youâre welcome,â he said before driving away.
It was another huge news week and Dave Meltzer’s new Wrestling Observer Newsletter recounts it all and then some.
He previews this Sunday’s AEW Dynasty card, headlined by AEW World Champion MJF vs. former champion Kenny Omega.
Dave looks back at last Friday’s much discussed angle that introduced Pat McAfee into the Randy Orton vs. Cody Rhodes mix, whose idea is what, and what could mean creatively for the future. He also gives a look at the final week before WrestleMania 42 next weekend.
Dave also delves into the controversial moves by TNA pulling talent from indie shows where they were set to face AEW talent.
He also recaps NJPW Sakura Genesis and the new IWGP Heavyweight Champion being crowned, NXT Stand & Deliver, CMLL, and the rest of the news in another wild pro wrestling and MMA week.
The presence of WWE WrestleMania 42 will be seen on the track at this weekend’s NASCAR event.
Revealed by the 23XI Racing team on Thursday, Bubba Wallace will drive the themed car at Sunday’s Food City 500 in Bristol, Tennessee. The team is co-owned by retired NBA megastar Michael Jordan.
The opening matches for both nights of WWE WrestleMania 42 have reportedly been revealed.
According to a report from WrestleVotes Radio on Fightful Select on Thursday, the night one opening match is scheduled to be Austin Theory, Logan Paul, and iShowSpeed against The Usos and LA Knight.
The opening match of night two is planned to be Oba Femi versus Brock Lesnar.
With the first hour of each night of WWE WrestleMania 42 set to air on ESPNâs traditional platforms, Fightful reports that ESPN pushed for Lesnarâs match to take place during the portion of the card airing on those platforms, and WWE was happy to oblige.
WWE WrestleMania 42 lineups:
Night one:
Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes defends against Randy Orton (w/ Pat McAfee)
Womenâs World Champion Stephanie Vaquer defends against Liv Morgan
Seth Rollins vs. Gunther
Womenâs Intercontinental Champion AJ Lee defends against Becky Lynch
Womenâs Tag Team Champions Nia Jax & Lash Legend defend against Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss, The Bella Twins, and Bayley & Lyra Valkyria
Unsanctioned match: Drew McIntyre vs. Jacob Fatu (ESPN2)
Logan Paul, Austin Theory & IShowSpeed vs. The Usos & LA Knight (ESPN2)
Night two:
World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk defends against Roman Reigns
WWE Womenâs Champion Jade Cargill defends against Rhea Ripley
Finn Balor vs. Dominik Mysterio
United States Champion Sami Zayn defends against Trick Williams
Brock Lesnar vs. Oba Femi (ESPN)
Ladder match: Intercontinental Champion Penta defends against JeâVon Evans, Dragon Lee, Rusev, JD McDonagh, and Rey Mysterio (ESPN)
WWE will once again get a sizable tax credit for holding WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas to help offset sizable production costs.
Revealed in new public records obtained by Post Wrestling’s Brandon Thurston, WWE has received approval for as much as $4,314,821 for putting on two nights of WrestleMania from Allegiant Stadium in addition to other related events like Raw and SmackDown from the T-Mobile Arena.
The money comes from the Nevada Governorâs Office of Economic Development who focus on bringing in film and entertainment business to the state, and is figured out based on total production costs which WWE put at $35 million.
The credit is slightly less than WWE got for WrestleMania 41 ($4,240,456) even though last year’s budget was lower ($33,693,464). The actual amount WWE will get will be determined by an independent audit after the weekend.
This is all on top of any site fees WWE gets. Last year’s WrestleMania 41 brought them $5 million for that alone while this year’s is unknown of which Thurston is in a lawsuit attempting to get.
Both the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony and Tony Hinchcliffe’s WWE roast were not mentioned in the application — the same application where they claim WrestleMania host cities get more than $200 million in annual economic impact.
