Which match main events night 1 of WrestleMania? A great interview with Steve Austin, Bad Bunny shows love for wrestling and much more in today’s column.
With WrestleMania just about two weeks away, the lineup is almost fully shaped and while there are a few matches that still need to be officially announced for the two-night event, the final match for both nights has reportedly been decided.
Dave Meltzer reports that night one is scheduled to be headlined by the SmackDown women’s championship match which will see Charlotte square off with Rhea Ripley. Meltzer speculated that the as-yet-announced Sami Zayn/Kevin Owens vs. Usos match should’ve been the main event based on being the most popular story in the company, but Meltzer claims he was told the Smackdown Women’s Title match is main eventing for “political” reasons.
Here is the line-up as it stands currently:
WrestleMania takes place April 1st and 2nd at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, California, and will be streaming on Peacock.
Tonight, WWE Smackdown at 8pm on Fox has a few things announced:
AEW Rampage is at a special start time of 11:30pm eastern on TNT. Here’s the lineup:
GCW has two events streaming this weekend, including a big NYC show on Friday, with Bandido , Kushida, Alex Shelly, Matt Cardona, and Homicide among those scheduled. Info on the Saturday show in Toronto can be found here.
AEW just announced that on Dynamite next Wednesday, Kenny Omega will face El Hijo del Vikingo, the most exciting wrestler to come out of Mexico. That one will be can’t miss!
WWE 2k23 held a launch party for their new video game with UpUpDownDown and Stone Cold Steve Austin made a surprise appearance. Austin was very candid during his interview and if you’re a fan, it’s definitely worth going out of your way to see because the crew he’s with are all wrestlers, and they ask really fun questions that cause Austin to open up. Everything from how he wore his gear, to how he formed his characters to when he felt things were clicking. WWE 2k23 is out now on for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Rey Mysterio recently appeared in a bit with Bad Bunny and James Corden on The Late Late Show. Rey wrestled with Corden in the bit, which you can see at the end of the above video. Bunny was also interviewed by Corden and was asked about his love of pro wrestling. Bad Bunny said “I love wrestling ever since I was a kid. In my songs, I have a lot of wrestling references. WWE said, ‘Woah, this guy is a fan of us so we should [do] something with him.’ So, they ask, ‘You want to be a referee, you want to be at the side?’ And I said, ‘I want to fight.'” Asked if he was nervous, Bad Bunny said “I was, I really was. That day, I’m not 100% sure but I think it was the best day of my life.”
Remember the weird egg angle at the 2021 Survivor Series? Former WWE writer Brian Gewirtz discussed it on a recent appearance on Bill Simmons’ podcast and how the storyline was what first put Sami Zayn on Vince McMahon’s radar saying “We were doing Red Notice product integration in the pay-per-view. There was this magical golden angle that If you recall, it was a heavily reviled night of creative, everybody hated the angle as far as this golden egg that Austin Theory found and Sami Zayn ratted him out and everything else like that. The original creative for that, I won’t go into, but just trust me, it was much, much, much worse. When I discussed it with Dwayne [Johnson], it was like, ‘Yeah, that’s gotta change.’ And then Vince and the team came up with this egg thing which most people watching it didn’t like it for whatever reason, that’s fine, but I was told that during those vignettes where Sami kind of stooged off Austin Theory and wanted him to be punished and then was put in a situation where – whatever the creative was – that was the turning point as far as Vince going, ‘Hey, this Sami is… I mean, I always liked him but…” I think we should look at that egg angle now a little bit differently and perhaps give props to the golden, magical, $100 million egg because – listen, talent always rises to the top and Sami is amazing and would have risen to the top anyway – I just thought it was funny that it was those vignettes where Vince really took notice as far as Sami as a performer.”
Eddie Kingston had to cancel his appearance at OTT’s ScrapperMania 7 this weekend as he tested positive for COVID-19.
On ROH TV this week, Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta challenged NJPW legend Katsuyori Shibata to a match at ROH Supercard of Honor.
Kofi Kingston is undergoing ankle surgery in Birmingham, Alabama this weekend.
Stu Grayson re-signed with AEW this week after his outstanding performance this week on Dynamite.
NJPW star Will Ospreay suffered a bad shoulder injury that has taken him out of action and forced him to forfeit his position in the New Japan Cup.
Pat McAffee, who was last seen on WWE TV commentating at the Royal Rumble recently tweeted “A lot of wrestling chatter about me right now.. I think about wrestling everyday..that dream isn’t done,” McAfee tweeted. “My business is currently rather active and exigent…+ baby on the way…timing is everything I still have MASSIVE plans for my journey to the WWE HOF someday. Believe that.”
WWE Hall of Fame officially announced The Great Muta will be inducted this year by “Nature Boy” Ric Flair. Stacy Kiebler is also expected to be inducted. Dave Meltzer reports two more inductees are expected to be announced.
Danhausen is out injured with a torn pec. He suffered the injury during the tag team title match at AEW Revolution.
Dave Meltzer reported this week that there are rumblings of a possible John Cena vs. Logan Paul match at SummerSlam.
Meltzer also reported in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Jay White has not signed a contract yet and is still in negotiations with both WWE and AEW, and he can go either way.
On a recent episode of his podcast, Jake “The Snake” Roberts shared a crazy story about the legendary Haku, aka Meng “Meng is the baddest son of a bitch on the planet,” Jake said. “I’ve seen him do some horrible things to people. I watched him bite a guy’s nose off.” Jake later added “He bit the guy’s nose off and then spit it in his face.” This story made the rounds many times.
Don’t forget to check out my interview with Alex Hammerstone on Squared Circle Pit:
Do you enjoy pro wrestling? Knotfest Wrestling has a bi-weekly column filled with wrestling news. Read previous editions of this column here. You can always follow me @robinjection on Instagram and Twitter and @Squaredcirclpit.
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