SUN. UPDATE: Mania notes, who is backstage, Lesnar, Finlay update, Tickets, Best Mania match in history

Sunday's News, Notes & Links

 

--For what it's worth, Brock Lesnar and his "large entourage" left the hotel a couple of hours ago for the arena. He's been in the building for a while, although we just got texted from backstage that his security is there but nobody has seen him, so perhaps he's in private meetings.

 

--The set is a combination of sets from two prior Manias, with the palm tree look from Orlando a few years back, but a surprise set, whatever that means.

 

--Although Fit Finlay has been in Florida all week for Mania activities, he has denied in an interview with Live Audio Wrestling that he has been hired back.

 

--There were still some tickets left at the box office, although not a ton.  Stubhub had 967 tickets left as of a few hours ago so most of the cut priced tickets moved.  As of the early afternoon, there were still plenty of tickets $12-$15 in the upper deck and $199 to $500 on the field. The building will be full no matter what. The general "mark up" of WrestleMania announced attendance in recent years has been 7,000 to 15,000, so expect a number close to 80,000 to be announced. 

 

--Another name backstage is Mike McGuirk, a former WWE ring announcer in the early 90s who is the daughter of Leroy McGuirk, a legendary wrestler and promoter in the Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas circuit. Carlos Colon is also backstage.  I'm sure there are tons of others, but those are names that people haven't mentioned up to this point.

 

--UFC has not updated its schedule on Fuel for this month.  So there is likely hours of programming every day, but as far as what, we don't know yet.

 

--Diamond Dallas Page, looking so different than in a photo I thought Rick Rude was still alive and hanging with Kevin Nash and Sean Waltman, had an article in Newsday. He noted that Chris Jericho started doing his Yoga for Guys stuff after herniating a disc training for Dancing with the Stars.  C.M. Punk has been making fun of Jericho for doing yoga and saying Jericho isn't even doing real yoga, but Page forgives him.  You know, they are building a match. Page explained that actually Punk was just trying to tick off Jericho before their match.  I'm glad he cleared that up.

 

--Newday also has a story on Al Iaquanta winning on Friday night's TUF show over Myles Jury. Iaquinta noted that while in the house, they are allowed to tweet out, but can't get any tweets in. He noted that he cut his hand about 12 days ago in the house and ended up in the hospital with stitches, which wasn't shown on TV.  Apparently a lot of guys left their dirty dishes out, so when putting them in the dishwasher, somebody put a knife in the wrong place in the dishwasher and he got stabbed in the hand. (thanks to Jeff Sheridan)

 

--John Pollock has more interviews with Hornswoggle, Ted DiBiase, Drew McIntyre and Layla at Live Audio Wrestling's site.

 

--Rima Fakih was among those signing autographs at Fan Axxess.  That's the Miss USA who was on Tough Enough and then did a Kurt Angle while driving. 

 

--USWO from Friday night in Nashville before 88 fans:  Lighting Bolt Kid b Big Time Sexy, Nick Iggy b Hot Rod Biggs, Shawn Hoodrich b Steven Green, Mike Jablonski b Josh Crow, Gary Valiant & L.T. Falk & Miss Rachel b The Saint & Tim Renesto & Damien Payne, Drew Haskins b Jocephus (thanks to Jimmie Daniel)

 

--Canadian Wrestling Elite in Manitoba announced a partnership with the Canadian National Wrestling Alliance promotion in Alberta.

 

--John Lister has a collection of articles on the past and present of British wrestling titled "Greetings Grapple Fans" (I think that was Kent Walton's sign on, kind of like Gordon Solie, "Welcome to Georgia Championship Wrestling") on kindle for $2.99.  He also has two books, Slamthology and Turning the Tables:  The Story of ECW also on kindle for the first time.

 

--CMLL on Monday night in Puebla:  Dinamico & Lestat b Akron & Ares, Astral & Mini Fantasy & Ultimo Dragoncito b Demus 3:16 & Nitrito & Pequeno Olimpico, Diamante & Sagrado & Sangre Azteca b El Hijo del Signo & Okumura & Vangelis, Averno & Mephisto & Ephesto b Angel de Oro & Black Warrior & El Hijo del Fantasma, Prince Devitt & Rush & La Sombra b Felino & Negro Casas & Mr. Niebla (thanks to Kris Zellner)

 

--I swear this is not an April Fool's Joke even though the author of the story is named McMahon, the wrestler involved was named Meltzer and the psychologist in the case was Dr. Michael Brannon (formerly Red Roberts, a Florida pro wrestler from the 80s). The story is about a multi million dollar Oxycodone business in, where else, but Florida.

 

--John Cena in the Toronto Sun about how he's passed on a lot of movie roles because he wants to stay a full-time pro wrestler.  I'm sure he has, given he makes far more as a pro wrestler than probably those movie roles.  Hey, at least he's not as full of shit as Hogan where he'd try and tell us he passed up the Brad Pitt role in Moneyball.  Although if he ends up programmed with Lesnar, please don't cry for another six years about him leaving us. (thanks to Cohen Morrison)      

 

Did you like Bellator?

Excellent 25.6%

Good 41.0%

Average 12.8%

Fair 5.1%

Poor 15.4%

        74.8% of those responding didn't see the show

Did you like TUF?

Excellent 19.5%

Good 36.4%

Average 22.1%

Fair 13.0%

Poor 9.1%

        53.6% of those responding didn't see the show

Did you like Smackdown?

Excellent 6.2%

Good 18.5%

Average 22.6%

Fair 24.7%

Poor 28.1%

        41.6% of those responding didn't see the show

 

What was the best match in WrestleMania history?

Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin 27.0%

Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels I 19.7%

Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat 15.6%

Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels 5.9%

Steve Austin vs. The Rock II 5.7%

Chris Benoit vs. Shawn Michaels vs. HHH 5.0%

Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels II 4.7%

Hulk Hogan vs. The Rock 3.9%

Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart 3.7%

Ultimate Warrior vs. Randy Savage 3.4%

Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels 2.8%

Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon 2.5%

 

What was the best WrestleMania ever?

17 56.5%

3 14.1%

20 8.4%

10 5.2%

18 4.2%

6 4.0%

8 3.2%

25 2.2%

26 2.2%

 

--The Hall of Fame TV show airs first in the U.K. at 10 p.m. on Sky 3, so if anyone sees it, let us know how they edited things. 

 

--Last night in Ottawa, there was a charity boxing match that got a lot of pub in that country with Justin Trudeau, the son of Pierre Trudeau, against Patrick Brazeau, a conservative Senator.  Trudeau won via third round stoppage.  (thanks to Chris Cooper)

 

--This has nothing to do with wrestling or MMA, but a few people have noted to me today about the passing of Giorgio Chinaglia, who was a soccer legend that late in his career became one of the big stars of the New York Cosmos with Pele and later Beckenbauer.  Pele is the guy Don West named A.J. Styles kick after.    

 

--There was an MMA PPV last night put on by Worldwide Mixed Martial Arts Sports out of El Paso:

Dark matches:

Lionel Lanham b Brad Peterson :56 knockout

Deutsch Pu'u b Esteves Jones :54 knockout

Lyle Beerbohm ("Fancy Pants" in Strikeforce) b Cleburn Walker via guillotine 2:34

Chris Gruetzemacher b Frank Gomez ref stoppage 3:25

 

PPV matches

Darrill "Titties" Schoonover b Paul Buentello 3 round decision

Willie Parks b Jamaine Facey three round decision

Drew Fickett b Kevin Knabjian guillotine 3:38

Rodney Wallace b Derek Mehmen three round decision

Karo Parisyan b Thomas Denny three round decision

Brian Heden b Sean McCorkle TKO 2:44 round two

 

--El Generico will be on the Evolve show in Toronto on 4/13  

 

--BritWres-Fest had a show today in London, which included TNA's Doug Williams, to benefit the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.  A collection of promotions each provided a match:  Rampage Brown b El Ligero and Nathan Cruz for New Generation Wrestling, Marty Scurll & Zack Sabre Jr. b Dean Allmark & Jonny Storm to keep the British tag team titles, Alpha Female b Jenny Sjodin (Pro Wrestling Eve), Rockstar Spud b R.J. Singh, Mark Andrews won a ladder match over Xander Cooper, Sam Bailey and Mike Hitchman (BWC), Leon Britannico over Santeria, Dark Britannico and Metallico (Lucha Britannia), Jack Gallagher b Zack Gibson (Future Shock), Doug Williams & Sha Samuels & Nick Riley b David Deville & Colossus Kennedy & Joel Redman (thanks to Martin Bentley)  

 

--Jonathan Coachman has an ESPN Radio show called "Coach & Coleman," with Freddie Coleman.  Yesterday, one of their guests, talking about college basketball, said, "If you smell...." which led to the co-host asking Coachman if he misses wrestling.  He said he misses this weekend because this was like the Final Four, Super Bowl and national championship, and said they would get in town and have some fun, get in some trouble, and then put on a hell of a show.  Coach was asked who would win the main event but he declined to give an answer, saying he first wanted to call or text Rock to ask, saying he still had his number (thanks to Charles Parker)

 

--HPW from last night in Columbus, IN before 360 fans for Ugene Mania:  Nick Cutler b Greg Glover, Camron Star b Brian Kloss, Sabotage Styles b Stompin Steve-DQ, Damian Cole b Ricky Ruckus, Donny Idol over Aaron Anarchy and Fast Eddie, Flash Flanagan b Bobby Black, Ugene & T.J. Kemp b Zombie Rob Ramer & Shawn Cook, JKO & Cooter Clampett b High Rollers-DQ.  Next show is 5/5 (thanks to Jerry Wilson)

 

--NWA Anarchy Hardcore Hell from last night in Cornelia, GA:  Dany Only & Stryknyn & Todd Sexton b Andrew Pendleton III & Kilgore & Ramirez, John Skyler won three-way over Anthony Henry and Steven Walters, Seth Delay b Bo Newsome, Shadow Jackson & Nemesis b Jacoby Boykins & Chris Mayne in a loser leaves town (Mayne lost), Jacob Ashworth b Tommy Daniels, Shaun Tempers b Areal to keep the North American title and win NWA Anarchy title, Bryan Casanova & Seven & Lane Vasser & Jeff G. Bailey b Mikael Judas & Brody Chase & Slim J & Johnny Dangerous.  Next show is 4/14 in Cornelia at the NWA Arena.