Young breaks down WWE barrier
Yet another WWE barrier is about to be broken down.
It was announced late Thursday morning that Renee Young will fill in for Jonathan Coachman as a commentator on this coming Monday鈥檚 edition of Raw.
Young will become the first woman to commentate a full edition of a WWE show and the news was broken by ESPN.
鈥淚 am so excited for this opportunity,鈥� Young told ESPN. 鈥溾�t鈥檚 going to be really cool.鈥�
Young will commentate with Michael Cole and Pittsburgh native Corey Graves.
Several personalities, including Coachman, Graves, Paul Heyman and Stephanie McMahon among others, tweeted out their support Thursday after the news broke.
Kudos for WWE for going with Young as she is deserving of this opportunity and is extremely talented.
ROH and New Japan sell out MSG
For decades, or more so generations, WWE has been the only company to run Madison Square Garden (MSG) in New York City.
Sure, companies have run the Hulu Theatre inside the Garden venue, but no promotion besides has put on a show in the arena.
That will change come April 6.
Ring of Honor (ROH) and New Japan will run a show there on that day which happens to be the day before WrestleMania 35 across the river at MetLife Stadium.
WWE has a right of first refusal to keep promotions from running the Garden, but with the NXT show taking place the night before Mania in Brooklyn, there was no way WWE would run two shows mere miles apart just to keep someone else from running a show there.
Then again, WWE could technically pull out its contract with MSG to schedule a show and have the ROH/New Japan show canceled.
The last non-WWE show ran at MSG was almost 60 years ago on Nov. 14, 1960. when Jack Pfefer ran a show headlined by Bruno Sammartino against Antonio Rocca.
Presale tickets to the ROH/New Japan show, 12,000 of them, sold out Thursday and the rest of them sold out Friday morning in 19 minutes.
Don鈥檛 be surprised to see WWE try to sign several ROH stars whose contracts are up before Mania so the MSG show lacks the top ROH stars.
Next week
In next week鈥檚 column, we will have a SummerSlam preview as well as look at an interesting stat about this past Mania among other topics.
On this date:
In 1989, WWE ran its first-ever show in Alaska when it performed at The Sullivan Arena in Anchorage.
While the match of the night was a time-limit draw between Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig and Bret Hart, the result that caught my eye was The Ultimate Warrior defeating Andre the Giant in 10 seconds.
It is well-known that Andre loathed Warrior, so the fast match had to be Andre鈥檚 way of protesting a match against Warrior.
Instead of having to trudge through a match with him, Andre took the pin and left.
This week鈥檚 question:
Is The Rock going to wrestle at WrestleMania 35? Tina, Roscoe.
While there is always a possibility of it, and while WWE and The Rock may want it, it is impossible to answer because of The Rock鈥檚 insanely busy Hollywood schedule.
There are discussions each year about The Rock wrestling, or at least appearing, at Mania, and there is a chance of it as WWE has been teasing subtle hints with Elias.
Even if The Rock doesn鈥檛 face Elias at Mania, how fun would it be to see them have a segment in the ring where they sing against each other, or maybe even with each other?
Elias is growing into one of WWE鈥檚 more entertaining acts, and a segment with The Rock at Mania will only help his popularity grow.
Elias is at the point now, much like The Rock in 1998, where fans do his catch phrases with him but then he insults them.
There are parallels between the two and getting the proverbial wrestling rub from The Rock could give Elias the boost he needs.
Email questions/comments to Bill at powerhousehughes@gmail.com or tweet them to me @BillHughes_III.