Daily Update: WrestleMania, Shelton Benjamin, Violence is Forever

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

The new issue of the Wrestling Observer:

  • The latest on WrestleMania and AEW Dynasty, card changes, injuries tickets sold, and ticket interest.
  • NCAA wrestling tournament rundown, the biggest upset in modern tournament history, Dan Gable talks Gable Steveson, Hodge Trophy, and records set
  • Firings at TNA and what is behind them
  • CMLL El Homenaje a Dos Leyendas
  • The life and times of George Foreman
  • The amazing life of Bill Mercer and the glory days of World Class Championship Wrestling
  • Cain Velasquez sentencing
  • The most detailed look at the TV ratings from the past week, including competition, demographics and quarters
  • Universal champion of champions tournament
  • CMLL vs. MLW at Arena Mexico
  • The new La Parka
  • AAA Rey de Reyes notes
  • Chris Bey benefit show
  • Another wrestling TV special
  • Death of historian Dave Cameron
  • Death of Julio Estrada
  • Hall of Fame in North Carolina?
  • El Hijo del Santo sad retirement notes
  • New book coming out on 90s wrestling
  • More on Saraya leaving AEW
  • Ticket sales for upcoming WWE & AEW shows
  • International TV ratings and streaming numbers
  • Conor McGregor wants to run for President of Ireland
  • TKO exects pocket $278 million in latest transaction
  • Former WWE name openly talks about a return
  • WWE value

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter Back Issue

Thursday Update

WWE

  • WrestleVotes reports that, while it’s possible that things can change, the matches that have been confirmed for WrestleMania so far are currently planned for the following nights:
  • Night one (Saturday, April 19) –
    • Roman Reigns vs. CM Punk vs. Seth Rollins
    • Gunther vs. Jey Uso for the World Heavyweight Championship
    • Randy Orton vs. Kevin Owens
    • Tiffany Stratton vs. Charlotte Flair for the WWE Women’s Championship
  • Night two (Sunday, April 20) –
    • Cody Rhodes vs. John Cena for the Undisputed WWE Championship
    • IYO SKY vs. Bianca Belair vs. Rhea Ripley for the Women’s World Championship
    • AJ Styles vs. Logan Paul
  • Cody Rhodes told Fox News Digital that he believes John Cena and Randy Orton should immediately go into the WWE Hall of Fame when their careers are over:
    • I feel like there are certain people who should immediately go into the Hall of Fame when they’re done wrestling, and love him, hate him or indifferent, John Cena would check a box as somebody who should immediately go into the Hall of Fame. Also, Randy Orton should check a box as somebody who should immediately go into the Hall of Fame.
  • Rhodes also reiterated that he believes his brother Dustin is deserving of a place in the Hall of Fame:
    • And I’ve oftentimes said my brother. I feel like he had more if an important role in the Attitude Era and moving forward. And I think he’s extremely talented. I think I’d like to see that not just because I believe he deserves it, which he does, but I’d love to see the family just more added. The Hall of Fame doesn’t mean the same to everybody if that makes any sense. To my family, the Hall of Fame is the thing – the title and then the Hall of Fame.
    • My dad going in was such a huge deal. So, I’d love to see him joined by my brother. But yeah, Randy is somebody I’ve been thinking about a lot too. We got a lot of hopefully future Hall of Famers with us.
  • Kiana James, who has been out of action since June 2024, shared a brief social media video documenting her recovery from a leg injury.
  • WWE Deutschland interviewed CM Punk.
  • B-Fab cut a promo on Naomi ahead of their match on SmackDown this Friday.
  • Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels’ Iron Man match from WrestleMania XII ranked 14th in WWE’s countdown of the 50th greatest matches in WrestleMania history.
  • Michaels and The Undertaker sat down together to rewatch their classic WrestleMania XXV match for a WWE Playback video.
  • WWE uploaded a Playlist video with footage of every Triple H WrestleMania entrance.

AEW/Other Wrestling

  • It was announced on Dynamite last night that Hurt Syndicate member Shelton Benjamin missed the show due to travel issues. He sent out a message on Instagram apologizing to all of the fans for not being there. Benjamin said his day started at 6 a.m. but he wasn’t able to make it to his hotel in Peoria, Illinois until around 11 p.m.
  • Benjamin wrote:
    • To the @aew fans of Peoria [Illinois] i offer my sincere apologies. As a professional I pride myself on always showing up and showing out where advertised by Aew. Unfortunately despite Aew staff and my best efforts I was unable to make it to Peoria in time for tonight’s @aew Dynamite due to Major weather related flight delays. Please know I am just as disappointed as some of you may be and will take steps to avoid a repeat of this unfortunate situation in the future. Again my apologies and together we will hurt people next time
  • GCW Tag Team Champions Violence is Forever (Dominic Garrini & Kevin Ku) appeared as extras on Dynamite, playing security guards in the backstage segment with Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page.
  • This week’s AEW Unrestricted podcast is a Dynasty preview episode featuring an appearance by “Speedball” Mike Bailey.
  • Noelle Foley made a post on her Instagram stories yesterday saying that she was flying home to see her father Mick, who was thankfully able to avoid catastrophic injury in a scary car accident. Mick Foley suffered a concussion, has soft tissue damage, and is sore but said he feels really fortunate that the situation isn’t worse. He still plans on making all of his scheduled appearances that are coming up.
  • Noelle wrote:
    • Flying home to see my dad right now. Thanks to those of you who reached out. I’ve honestly been an emotional wreck these past 24 hours, but I am just so thankful and grateful that he is ‘okay.’ I put okay in parentheses because he is very banged up and in a great deal of pain and had a concussion, which we all know can be very tricky and symptoms can be delayed after the injury. So I’ve been frantically worried about him, but just very happy I’ll be landing soon and seeing him shortly.

      For anybody wondering what happened, my dad was in a bad car accident. No it wasn’t an April fools joke. My dad would never joke about a car accident or a concussion. Every time I see this picture I get so emotional. It’s a miracle he was able to walk away from this.
  • On Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Samoa Joe listed AJ Styles, Kurt Angle, Abyss, and Jeff Jarrett as his Mount Rushmore of TNA wrestlers.
  • Babyface v. Heel first reported that indie wrestler/trainer Chasyn Rance, a designated sex offender under Florida law, was arrested this week for violating the terms of his offender registration: “Chasyn Rance was arrested [Wednesday] for violating terms of his sex offender registration. Specifically, the Orange County Jail says he failed to report changes in vehicle ownership, failed to report an ‘internet ID, web page, or app name’ 2x, & provided false registration info 3x”