Things in wrestling keep happening, especially during Wrestlemania week! Here’s a butcher’s fresh cut choice of these things:
– On the Jim Norton and Sam Roberts Sirius Radio Show, The Big Show confirmed that Wrestlemania 33 would be his last.
It had been planned for him to take on Basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal, but those plans fell through in the contract negotiation stages.
– WWE NXT signee Tian Bing (the first Chinese signing the WWE has ever made) has been announced as a participant in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. This will no doubt be huge for their exposure over in China.
– It seems that the Smackdown Women’s Championship match scheduled for the Wrestlemania 33 pre-show is now no longer on the pre-show.
As it stands, the only matches being advertised for the WM33 pre-show are the Andre the Giant Battle Royal, and the Cruiserweight Championship match between Neville and Austin Aries.
This is great news for the Smackdown Women’s division to have the match boosting to the Wrestlemania PPV.
Becky Lynch earlier tweeted: “You spoke up. You’re awesome. Thank you #Wrestlemania”
– Last night at Wrestlemania Axxess (a huge fan-interaction event that runs prior to Wrestlemania), WWE held an emotional ceremony in honour of ‘The Nature Boy’ Ric Flair, resulting in the unveiling of a statue of the 16-time World Champion.
Eight years ago, Flair wrestled his last WWE match against Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 27 – the last time a Wrestlemania was held in Orlando.
The ceremony was hosted by Paul Levesque, and attended by Flair’s family, along with fellow and soon-to-be Hall of Famers, including Shawn Michaels, Sting, Ricky Steamboat and The Rock n’ Roll Express.
– In an interview with Chuck Carroll, one half of the Ring of Honor Tag Team Champions Jeff Hardy squashed the rumours of himself and Matt Hardy returning to WWE anytime soon:
“No, because you have to go through so much testing and all of that. It’s a long process. But, no. We know some people there and naturally after WrestleMania dies down, maybe a couple of months from now, we’ll see what’s possible. But there is no truth to that whatsoever.”
They also discussed Jeff’s take on the ongoing legal situation with TNA/Anthem, his band and The Hardy’s contract status with Ring of Honor.
– Tyler Bate made his first defence of the WWE UK Championship during a Progress show, as part of the WWN Live events running parallel to Wrestlemania this week.
Bate defeated Mark Andrews with the Tyler Driver ’97, retaining the UK Championship in a match that saw a WWE title defended outside of the promotion for the first time since 1994, when Bull Nakano defeated Alundra Blayze for the WWF Women’s Championship in Japan.
– According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, the current plan going into Wrestlemania 33 is for the match between The Undertaker and Roman Reigns to headline the event.
Of course plans can still change between now and Sunday, but this would mark Reigns’ third straight year in a row of headlining Wrestlemania,
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