Covid鈥檚 affect on wrestling scene
When the country all but stopped when the coronavirus took off in March, it affected every single one of us in one way, shape or form.
In the world of professional wrestling, it shut down every promotion in the country except WWE and AEW, with both promotions running out of Florida when its governor ruled that sports entertainment was 鈥渆ssential.鈥�
Since then, WWE has run its three weekly shows as well as WrestleMania, Money in the Bank, NXT TakeOver: In Your House and Backlash from the Performance Center in Orlando.
AEW has been running its shows from Daily鈥檚 Place in Jacksonville.
Moving forward, pro wrestling in Pennsylvania took a hit this past week.
On Tuesday, the city of Philadelphia announced that large gatherings over 50 people and public events that would feature possible crowds have been banned through February 2021.
While this includes the Eagles, Phillies, 76ers and Flyers, it also pertains to pro wrestling.
Philly has always been a hot bed for pro wrestling and its fans are some of the toughest to please.
Now that the largest city in PA has announced no large gatherings can take place, how long until lawmakers in the western part of the state make an announcement?
One person paying close attention is Connellsville native Mike McBeth.
Known in the Pittsburgh wrestling scene as Quinn Magnum since debuting in the mid-90s, McBeth has worked behind the scenes and is a well-respected veteran inside the locker room.
He began laying the groundwork for a new promotion, Fight Underground, but the promotion is still waiting to be able to do a full launch.
鈥淲e had venues in Carnegie, downtown Pittsburgh and Monroeville all lined up,鈥� he said before the shutdown happened. 鈥淲e had advertised and sanctioned matches鈥�(down into) North and South Carolina.
鈥淲e will be able to do them once things open back up.鈥�
How does McBeth feel that Covid has affected wrestling?
鈥淚t has completely changed the complexion of indy wrestling, more specifically local wrestling, in a huge way,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t brought a complete halt to live wrestling events and even potentially shut down a few rogue promotions completely.鈥�
McBeth shared his thoughts on what the decision in Philly will mean locally.
鈥淚 feel that it is only a matter of days before the rest of the state follows suit with Philadelphia putting everyone back at ground zero once again,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 feel for the legitimate indy promotions that are respected entities as each has been hit hard and the hits just keep on coming.鈥�
We will look more at Fight Underground in the future.
WWE presents Extreme Rules
Six matches were announced as of Friday afternoon for tonight鈥檚 Extreme Rules PPV on the WWE Network.
Drew McIntyre defends the WWE championship against Dolph Ziggler in a match where the stipulation has not been announced and in the other huge match, Universal champion Braun Strowman faces Bray Wyatt in a non-title Swamp Fight.
Asuka defends her Raw title against Sasha Banks while Bayley defends her Smackdown title against Nikki Cross.
In the other announced matches, Apollo Crews defends his U.S. title against MVP and Rey Mysterio faces Seth Rollins in the first-ever 鈥淎n Eye For An Eye鈥� match.
Two other potential matches include a Bar Fight between Sheamus and Jeff Hardy and a Smackdown tag title match between The New Day and the team of Shinsuke Nakamura and Cesaro.
The show will air live beginning at 7 p.m. although the Swamp Match was already recorded and the Rollins v. Mysterio bout may have also been pretaped.
Speaking of, no one in their right mind can believe that Mysterio or Rollins will lose an eye.
While the exact stipulation for the match has not been announced, several readers have emailed this week saying that the teased stipulation is not believable and they are right.
Another Taker doc episode tonight
After Extreme Rules, WWE will air another episode of The Last Ride about The Undertaker.
It has the tag line Tales Form the Deadman.
AEW picking up steam
Wednesday night鈥檚 episode of AEW Dynamite was titled 鈥淔ight for the Fallen鈥� and the show blew away NXT in the ratings.
Slowly but surely, AEW has been establishing its mid card and low card talent.
This, along with the constant possibility that WWE could move talent up from NXT to either Raw or Smackdown, gives AEW an advantage against NXT as fans will always know who will be around.
WWE on Peacock
NBCUniversal officially launched its Peacock streaming service Wednesday, and it will feature some WWE programming come August.
Some of the shows will include Steve Austin鈥檚 Broken Skull Sessions, Best of WWE shows and WWE Untold.
It is believed that all of the programming is already on the WWE Network.
On This Day鈥�
In 1989, The Brain Busters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard) won the WWF tag titles when they defeated Demolition in a three-falls match. The loss ended Demolition鈥檚 478-day reign, which still stands as the longest tag title reign in WWE history.
This week鈥檚 question:
Is Jeff Hardy鈥檚 contract up soon? Timmy, Uniontown.
Hardy鈥檚 contract is up later this year.
Word is that he will not sign a new deal, and the assumption is that he will head to AEW to join his brother.
I think it is pretty obvious that Jeff is leaving considering the way WWE has been using him in storylines.
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