WWE Draft With Mike

thank you. Hopefully wherever you are at sonny outside, and if it's not hopefully, it's sonny inside your if you're on the Del Marvel Peninsula, I really hope it's sunny inside your mind, because it's miserable outside, it's cold, it's wet, it's just sorry, empathetic. I don't know if that's what the weather is like where Brian Alvarez is right now. I kind of hope that he's suffering with it unless he's with the family. But we don't know where Brian is.

If you heard yesterday's show, all he said was I'm not going to be here. You have a solo show. Deal with that. So I assume he's not at the dentist. He went like three times in the past week or so. Who knows, you know, maybe he's out fighting Oreo right

now or something. But we have to get through a show without him, and we have to talk about the WWE Draft, which begins tonight on SmackDown, And there's a lot of news to get into, but that's one of the more overarching things that we're going to be getting into today. Chad Gable was on Monday Night Raw talking to Boogs, telling him, you know what, you better get draft with your partner because you never know what could happen.

Teams could split up, managers could be you know, disappear from the people that they're apparently none of that's happening. Units are going to be drafted together. Tag teams are going to be drafted together. That's how it works. Except for one group, the bloodline is being split up. So when it comes down to this draft, I wonder if it's just going to be a backdrop at the end of the day for more bloodline stuff. But we'll see, we'll see what happens and we'll get into all the

splits going on. There a bunch of injuries that have taken place, Rampage which is starting up in oh about two hours and twenty minutes or so here on the East Coast, So we're getting into all that stuff when we get back from break.

who got buried, and then get on to work. The Wrestling News is what you need to go to. Just go to the wrestling News dot Com or at Wrestling newsav on Twitter and Facebook. Every day news of the wrestling world, deliver to your ears via podcast wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and between seven and fifteen minutes long, and as I mentioned, perfect way to get you caught up and get you on your way. So do you want to be on your way to Minnesota? In April?

Patrick Kessler, who retired in twenty twenty after thirty six years as a political reporter in Minnesota and now serves as a special contributor for WCCOTV and KFAN Allsports Radio in Minneapolis, tweeted on Thursday that quote, sources tell me that Minneapolis is a finalist city for WrestleMania twenty twenty five. This would be a huge get end quote. Seems like twenty twenty five and twenty twenty six are up for grabs.

The new Titans Stadium that is being built in Nashville will be done in twenty twenty seven, and it has long been rumored that WrestleMania will run in that venue once it opens. It is also very likely that the Super Bowl after that first Titans season will also be held there. US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis seats about sixty five thousand people or so for football. It's the home of the Minnesota Vikings. It hosted Super Bowl fifty two

in two thousand and seventeen. And there's a reason for that, and I'll get back to that in a second, but there has not one thing Minneapolis has got going for it is they have been trying to get a WrestleMania for I don't want to say a long time, but at the very least since there was an idea that they the Vikings were going to get out of the Metrodome and end up in US Bank Stadium, like they have wanted to be a hub of events, and they did hold the super Bowl there, could they hold WrestleMania.

There one thing they have going for them. There has not been a non metro New York City Mania that far north since WrestleMania twenty two and twenty three were in Chicago in Detroit in two thousand and six, in two thousand and seven, so they do have that going for them.

the thirties usually at that time of year. But there's always the possibility that you could get a huge snowfall that could happen and Granted, that could happen in Philadelphia next year because of its location, but usually there's a reason that they don't like holding events in northern cities during that time of year, and that's one of the reasons why it's a big getaway for people. Obviously, the media people are going to complain and whine and bitch

and moan about it. No surprise there, but again I get it that you would rather have it in a Phoenix or an Atlanta, or a Miami or a Los Angeles. And that's what Minnesota has really working against it now they and another thing unfortunately from Minnesota too, what they have working against it in granted twenty five, twenty twenty six,

you know, they seem to be up for grabs. But New Orleans hasn't had a WrestleMania since twenty and eighteen, the Bay Area hasn't had one since twenty and fifteen, and the Super Bowl is apparently looking to go back to SOFI in a couple of years. Atlanta was two thousand and eleven, and goy, you go to twenty twenty six, it's like, okay, fifteen years since Atlanta, which was a great you know, a great hub for a lot of

different reasons. You know, holding the WrestleMania Phoenix twenty ten, Houston twenty oh nine, Miami was twenty and twelve, so

that was going back a little bit. But you did have Orlando and Tampa holding during the pandemic in twenty twenty and twenty twenty one there, So Allegiant Stadium from Las Vegas is obviously probably going to be in the mixes well too, They're holding the super Bowl this year, so you know, Minnesota really wants to get this and they may have to pony up possibly the biggest money offer to do so, because again it's just Minneapolis, great airport, again,

great city. It's just again in April. Is that where you want to hold your biggest event. I'lla the super Bowl or something like that. So best to look to them, and best to look for all the fans that are up there that are pining for this and have wanted this for quite some time. Got a couple of injuries we'll get into before we get into the draft and

every thing that's taking place this weekend. Raining MLW champion Alexander Hammerstone revealed on Twitter Friday that he's recovering from a torn aductor, and if you go to Wikipedia like we all do for our medical advice and a doctor, tear is caused by a groin strain resulting from a sudden muscle contraction such that which might accompany a quick change in direction like pivoting or a rapid acceleration like sprinting.

This overstretch. This can overstretch or tear the muscles. Look Lane Johnson of the Philadelphia Eagles had a torn aductor that he played the Super Bowl with this year and then had surgery for it afterwards. You know, not tears, but strains or something that will often pop up. When he comes to Major League Baseball pitchers, you hear a lot about it with them. It's assumed Hammerson stuff for the injury during April six's Word Chamber match, in which

he had to leave early. Hammerstone was able to work a match against Mister Thomas aka Thomas Sharp aka Blaster mcmassive for an MLW on Reels taping two days later, but he has not wrestled since. A thirty two year old. Hammerstone said he'll be cleared and should be able to start taking bookings beginning the weekend of May twelfth, so putting one more on the disabled list. You can also put now Commander apparently on the injured reserve as well, as he may have suffered an injury on a Demand

Luca show. And this is was posted up a little bit before the show by Ian Carey on the front page of the Wrestling Observer dot com website. Post Wrestling's John Pollock was in attendance for the show and said that Commander, who was facing Gringo Loco and Ares in a three way main event in Toronto's Parkdale Hall on Thursday evening. He said that Commander appeared to be favoring his knee after a moon salt, he was taken to

the back and did not return. It's also posted on here that a Reddit user who says they were also at the show posted that Commander attempted to return to the match but was limping badly and was not able to continue. Demand Luca had actually announced on April tenth that in quote unforeseen travel complication end quote would prevent Commander from traveling to Canada for the show. Does that

sound like a visa issue? I don't know, however, as the main event between Gringo Loco and Ares was about to start, or made a surprise appearance and the match was made a three way. As everybody probably knows by this point, Tony Kahan announced on April nineteenth that Commander had signed with AW. Took place after his match with Jay White on Dynamite. I wasn't sure if it was

that night or early the next morning. Commander was announced as official in a part of a e W and unfortunately right now, hopefully he is not banged up too bad. Hopefully the knee has got some structural integrity left there, and hopefully he's not going to be out for too long.

But you know, you chalk those names up to the battery of names out of NXT Soul, Ruka in, Indy Hartwell and Grayson Waller and again a bunch of names that are part of the PC and you know who haven't been on TV for a while, who were recovering from injuries.

be up for all listeners early early Saturday morning. If you're a listener to this show and this show only, well thank you for that. Jim Valley is going to reward you with a show tomorrow as always on Saturdays ten am Pacific one am Eastern Time, and then on Sunday, Wrestling Observer Live. We'll be back with andrews Arian at six pm Eastern Time.

worried about you know, Zach's face. Then you know Filthy. I know he had a toothbrush in his knee pad there. I believe it was in Philadelphia before their six man tag team match at the New Japan Strong Show. But Pizza Cutter, that's probably gonna be pretty new for Zach Saber Junior. So that's coming up on June seventeenth, certainly is going to be a match that is going to get people talking just because they're gonna want to see

the clashing of styles. So that's certainly something. Also, certainly something, of course, is WWE SmackDown tonight from the American Banks Center in Corpus Christy, Texas. We have a couple of things besides the draft announced for the show. Not much Zelina Vega will be taking on Sonya Deville, which of course is leading into Vegas match with SmackDown for now

women's champion Rio Ripley coming up at Backlash. Also tonight, Kevin Owens and Sammy's Ain against the USO's and a wrestle Mania rematch for the as of now undisputed world tag team titles. Could we see a splitting of those It's very very possible, and the draft in which something has changed in the last couple of days. Teams are drafted together, managers are going to be drafted with their clients.

Full units will be drafted together, with the one glowing exception of the Bloodline, and apparently Teddy Long has been

booked for both tonight and Monday. Fightful a little bit earlier on noted that WWE has reached out to legends and former I guess you know, former wrestlers and whatever, so they could give cameos and give their thoughts on some of the draft picks as well, and they have split the groups as they usually do this sort of thing, into people that could be drafted tonight and people that will have to be drafted on raw on Monday and the Bloodline is listed as being eligible for draft tonight,

but it only lists Roman Reigns and Solo Sokoa, not the USOS. The USOS will be available for draft come Monday. Now, does that mean that they are being broken up and they will not remain on the same brand. No, they can absolutely still remain on the same brand, but it is notable that that is the only faction that seems to be split. And I will go through the names

of who is going to be eligible tonight. Also on the men's side, Bobby Lashley, Cody Rhodes, Dexter Loomis, Golf Ziggler, Drew McIntyre, Edge, Matt Riddle, Mustafa Ali Omas with MVP, Shinsky Nakamura, The Miz, The Street Profits and the Viking writers Eric and Ivar with Valhalla women Raw for Now Women's Champion, Bianca Belaire, Becky Lynch, Candice Lay, Chelsea Green and Sonia Deville as a group, Damage Control, Bailey Eosky and Dakota Kai as a unit, Lacy Evans and Natalia

Stables available to be drafted tonight, hit Row which is top Dollar, Ashante Viadonnas and b Fab Imperium, Gunther Ludvig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci, maximum male models Mace Mansur and Maxine Duprie, and the OC still listed in this form as a group, aj Styles, Luke Gallows, Carl Anderson and Meechen, as well as select NXD superstars with of course no names given there. So that is who's eligible to be

drafted on Night one. How this has worked in the past, if you just climbed from under a rock and heard about the WWE having drafts every once in a while, they will go through a bunch of names tonight. They may go to Peacock afterwards and have a post match deal or a post show deal where people are continued, you know, the draft continues that way on social media. They have announced picks well into the night, and they've actually changed picks and flop them back and forth after a couple of days.

cute with it? And have you know a match take place and then oh yeah, hey, player Teddy Long comes out and then announces somebody gets drafted somewhere. Don't know how it's going to go down. We may hear some more as things get closed. Just keep your eye on wrestlingobserver dot com or at at wonfour w on Twitter and at Dave Meltzer and if if there's any tips or anything like that to come out, I'm sure they're

going to have them there. Also tonight, or should I say this Afternoon Rampage once again shifted out of its time slot today. It's going to be aired at six thirty pm Eastern Time three thirty pm Pacific. No stagger feed. So if you're listening to the West Coast replay of this show, I hope you sit your DVR. This is all leading into TNTs coverage tonight of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. Here is your no spoilers lineup for the show.

After Dynamite, Kenny Omega cut of promo in the ring to Tony Kahan as everybody was tending to a bloody Kenoskate Takeshta asking for a cage match against John Moxley. So on Twitter earlier on aw tweeted out a video that was posted of the Blackpool Combat Club talking smack on Takeshta talking smack on Kenny Omega and it's got the caption will Tony Kahan sanction an Omega versus Moxley cage match? And if so, where and when will it

take place? Find out soon tonight on Rampage. And I'm sure we're going to get some segments announced for this Wednesday's Dynamite as well. Sean Spears and Ricky Starks will face Bully Club, Goal Jay White and Juice Robinson, Jay Lethal against Cash Wheeler with Mark Briscoe as the special ringside enforcer. No spoilers here, but Dustin Rhodes and Keith Lee against Freddie Pierce and Cha Cha Charlie. I know who my money's on, Anna Jay against Ashley des Mois

and the Acclaimed and Billy Gun Wrestle three dudes. It was a guy and with two other guys, and again no spoilers here, but I'm assuming the Acclaimed and Billy Gunn come out on top of that one. So next week Rampage runs into the same thing, and this may be it for a while. When he comes to preempting Rampage, it's going to air at five thirty PM next week, again without a staggered feed, So those on the West Coast, you're going to be getting in at two thirty. And

once again that is because of hockey. Now, Rampage is going to continue to exist no matter what AW does on Saturday. At least that's a according to Dave Meltzer and this week's Wrestling Observer newsletter, who said the TNT will continue to air Rampage on Friday nights for one hour. He wrote that as a part of a story he did on cmpunk and another major name expected to be a part of the new show, rumor to be called

AW Collision. The first episode of the planned Saturday night show, while not officially announced, is believed to be taking place June seventeenth at Chicago's United Center, and in today's Wrestling Observer newsletter, Dave Meltzer wrote quote The show, believed to be called aw Collision is noted last week, is expected to debut on June seventeenth with a show from eight to ten pm Eastern from the United Center in Chicago, which would also be the return of cmpunk, along with

what is expected to be another major name debut or return. Hmm, well, I doubt it's going to be Kenny Omega, the Youumbucks or Hangman Page. And I'm not sure who's out there they could return. Could it be Miro, haven't seen him for a while. Could it be Eddie Kingston who's kind of disappeared. I know he's been doing his thing and Ring of Honor, but could he be one of those guys? Seems like cmpunk is going to be on that show. FTR is going to be on that show. Rumors about

Chris Jericho being on that show. Dave wrote about that, saying that Chris Jericho is probably a good choice because Punk is going to need a strong opponent and maybe that's was talked about during the meeting that they had on April twenty first, where they were mending fences with each other. So we'll have to see what happens there. But again, I'm not sure who could come in from the outside. You had Jay White already come in. I'm not sure who else is kind of lingering out there.

But as far as names we haven't seen in aw for a while, you know, there's plenty, including the two i'd mentioned with Miro and Eddie Kingston, who frankly would probably be a nice addition if you're gonna have CM Punk and FDR and Chris Jericho on there. It's a nice little nucleus to start off with, but we'll have to see how it goes. Got a commercial obviously coming up right now when we get back. Even more news from the Canvas, Matt, Mike sempervv Wrestling Observer Alive.

could be and who could come back. But we'll have to see how all that goes. Like I said, this is going to be a story that is going to be unavoidable for a long time.

be interesting. This This also much like Rampage. This feels to me like it's a DVR show unless it happens to be live and leading into something important that weekend, either that night or Sunday. I don't care who's on it. I don't care if it's punkin FDR, I don't care if it starts at a million people. I could see that number getting down at least at least to wear Rampages every week, or at least to where Dynamite is every week, and probably a lot lower because of the competition.

They are going to really need to hammer this thing home as a must see show week after week after week this summer, and we'll see if they're going to be able to do it. But again, you know, the the what will come from having the split rosters is going to be a lot of people comparing ratings. And again, if I'm on the Saturday show, I don't think I want anybody to hyper focus on anything that has to do with ratings because I think it's just going to be it's going to be really difficult. But back to

Dynamite on Wednesday. In the eighteen to forty nine year old demo Dynamite finish ninth on cable with a point two eight ratings, some same number as the last two weeks, tied for the show's lowest rating in the eighteen to forty nine demos. Since March fifteenth. Four NBA playoff games took place on Wednesday, Dynamite went head to head with NBA coverage and both the East and West Coast time zones.

There were also two NHL playoff games. Programming related to the NBA and NHL took seven of the top nine spots on the cable charts, with vander Pump Rules being the only nonsports show to finish ahead of Dynamite. Golden State against Sacramento, which started on TNT at ten, was the top rated show on all of cable TV. The second highest rated show the Lakers against Memphis, which came on TNT at seven point thirty. So they died by

the hands of their brother network there with TNT. But a lot of people will jump on that the ratings and go, oh, Dynamite didn't do this or didn't do that. TNT and TOURNA doesn't care about that. WWBD doesn't care about that. What they like to do when you're in a suit and in a corporate offices, go look what we did for tonight with these channels that we own, Look how we dominated, And they throw dynamite into that

mix when it comes to basketball. So you know, I'm sure everybody's gonna have say what they're going to say about ratings, So you can go ahead and have at it. I'm going to move on to New Japan Strong. Eh New Japan Strong, get used to it. It's a brand. The women's Championship is being created for. I guess New Japan shows outside of Japan kind of thought that that's what the IWGP Championship would be for. But New Japan Strong they added tag titles. They're now going to have

a women's championship as well. New Japan announced this on Thursday, said they'll be holding a one night four person tournament to crown the first champion, and Mercedes Monet Monday will face off against cml's Stephanie Vacuer, with the winner of that match facing the winner of Willow Nightingale and Stardom's Momo Cogo. That's going to be taking place in Long Beach at the Resurgence event. And if you watch the post match presser with Sades after the Stardom Show after

she lost the IWGP World Women's title to Mayuiwatani. You'll know, she already stated that she was going to be on her way to Long Beach and Nuja Band made that official on Monday and then went ahead and announced this deal for the Strong Championship, and Dave Meltzer noted this today in the newsletter. Ewatani this is quote quote. Ewatani was supposed to be the first champion, meaning the first IWGP World Women's Champion, but she lost to Kyrie because she wanted a raise to go to the US as

often as the champion was originally scheduled to. That's why she wasn't the first champion. But she ended up coming to a resolution of money when Kyrie was champion, and Iwatani did agree to do the US travel and got the title. But now they are creating a second title for the US market, presumably.

Forbidden Door two on June twenty fifth in Toronto. So there are still a ton of tickets apparently left for this long Beach show, which you know you're gonna have to get on the stick here soon. As far as announcing something or getting something going, yes, you're still a month away, and it's not like it's a massive building

to fill or anything like that. But I went to New Japan's you know website and Ringside A still available, two hundred and ninety nine dollars tickets still there, Ringside B one ninety nine, Arena A ninety nine, and then every thing from twenty five dollars at seventy nine dollars is still up for grabs there. So you have Mercedes money announced on this show, you have you have Kenny Omega, or I'm sorry, you have Will Osprey announced on this

show with Hiroshi Tanashi. So I don't know what's going to get things moving here as far as advanced tickets go, maybe it's all going to be a walk up sort of thing, but they seems like to me, they may need to kind of like, you know, jog people's attentions here. I thought kind of the same way about Washington where they ended up with. I think they announced twenty one to seventy nine, which was still like five hundred down from what they had there and what they had announced

in twenty twenty two. And you know, this year it was taking place, you know, the Cherry Blossom Festival was going on and everything, and you know, they still was sluggish getting you know, a crowd for that show. So Philadelphia, you didn't have that concern. They were at the twenty three hundred arena, so it was less than a thousand people, and they packed them all in there. And so we

again Long Beach. I'm not sure what's gonna get things shaken there, but something's going to have to A card may actually help with that as well too, at least announcing some other names that are going to be there. They have not done really any of that. So I know they have big shows coming up on May fourth, They have a lot of stuff going on, but they may need to start throwing some names up against the

wall here pretty soon if tickets don't start moving. New Japan also announced that this year's Best of the Super Junior Tournament, it's the thirtieth annual, is going to run from May twelfth to May twenty eighth, twenty men split

into two blocks. They've announced everybody that's going to be in Block A. Kashita, Rice, Kate Tagucci, Leo Rush, Doki, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, Horomu Takashi, Titan TJP, Taiji Shimori, show in Speedball, Mike Bailey representing Impact as that's going to be Block A, Block B L Desperado, Yo Master Watts, so Kevin Knight, Yoshinovu, Kanamaro Bushi, Robbie Eagles, Francesco Akira, Dan Maloney from Rev Pro is now a member of the United Empire, and of course New Bullet Club member

Clark Connors. So good lineup. You have those names going at each other, you know it's going to be good.

or Kashita. In over a decade, It's been a decade since we had one name that was not theirs, and it was Rikoshet in twenty fourteen, and he was probably the biggest surprise to win the tournament since you know, I don't know when and I can't I can't remember if the injury to Alex Shelley during that tournament had something to do with that, if it was going to be Ellie and Kashita teammates facing off in the finals, or maybe Ricochet was going to be the one to

win it, I don't know, but you know, that was the last time really something different happened. You know, Kochi Kanamoto won it in two thousand and nine when he beat Prince Devitt Finn Valor. But even Kanamoto at that time was kind of they were doing a resurgence thing with him in that moment. So again, they're just there are very as great as the wrestling is, there are just not big surprises, and I hope we get that.

We've gotten that from New Japan this year. You know, they they have not gone with a pat hand for the most part. They've made some moves whether you like all of them or not, but you know, putting guys like Clark Connors with groups, they've you know, ascended David Finley to a certain point. They again, there's a lot going on right now, which is, you know, defied the norms a little bit. But can they do anything with

this junior heavyweight tournament. I hope they can. You know, I would love to see Leo Rush whin the thing. I would love to see Leo Rush when the thing. I would love to see him face off up against you know, Desperado in the final.

that Robbie Eagles match Robbie Eagles had. He had a good run with the IWGP Junior Heavyweight championship when he had it. It was just again Timing, you know, was not his friend when he came to that.

this tournament, do something to spice things up. I would love that for the junior heavyweight division over there. And I do want to mention before we get out of here too, that Don Luis, who's been often referred to as the godfather of pro wrestling results, passed away on Monday, reportedly from a heart ailment in his hometown of Buffalo,

at the age eighty four years old. Luis was known among historians for compiling extensive, and more importantly than that, accurate, carefully researched match the results for decades and a lot of people go but what does it matter that the accuracy matters? And is you go back and you do your own research on things, you find out how many results that people have taken are wrong. And he was one of the guys that really did his work to

bring history to the forefront. Be accurate with the results, and be accurate with stories of the generations.

is was really interesting. And in addition to parceling, Don was in a published baseball historian and served in the National Guard and in the last you know a couple of years, Don Luis, Jimmelby, j Michael Kenyon, Claw Maaster, Jim Zardani and I know these are names that a lot of you don't know uh or are unfamiliar with, and you don't have to know them, but know that a lot of the research when you do read things online, when you read books, when you receive it's not it's

because of the work that these guys have done. And Greg Oliver, Tom Burke, George Shire, Brian Solomon, Mike Mooneyham, Mark Hewitt, Steve Yohey, co g Miamoto, al Getz, Tim Hornbaker, Dick Bourne, Matt Farmer, a Cubs fan, Scott Diel and I could go.