WrestleMania on ESPN tonight
With apologies about the mislead, no, WrestleMania 36 has not been moved up to tonight.
Friday afternoon, ESPN and WWE announced an agreement to air classic WrestleMania鈥檚 tonight, next Sunday and on April 5.
Could this be a test run for the future of WWE PPVs?
Tonight, WrestleMania 30 will air at 7 p.m. Next week, Mania 32 will air at 7 p.m. and then Mania 5 will air on April 5 at 3 p.m.
Mania 30 is one of the best Mania鈥檚 in history, and it featured Daniel Bryan at his peak, Brock Lesnar ending The Undertaker鈥檚 WrestleMania streak and an epic promo featuring three legends to start the show. Tune in to see who they were!
During the Taker and Lesnar match, Taker became concussed and staggered through the match.
I was there, and to this day, the collective gasp and shock of the crowd when Lesnar pinned Taker was something to see!
Mania 36 will run over two days
It was announced earlier this week that this year鈥檚 WrestleMania will air over the course of two days and take place in more than one venue.
The first part of the show will air on April 4, and the second part will air the next night.
A leaked lineup showed that Saturday matches being Lesnar defending the WWE championship against Drew McIntyre, Taker taking on AJ Styles, Kevin Owens facing Seth Rollins and Rhea Ripley defending her NXT title against Charlotte Flair.
If the line-up stands, the Sunday matches will feature Goldberg defending the Universal title against Roman Reigns, Becky Lynch defending her Raw title against Shayna Baszler and John Cena facing Bray Wyatt.
Look for a six-pack challenge to be added for Bayley鈥檚 Smackdown title as well as a few more matches.
Rob Gronkowski will be the host for Mania.
There is one caveat about Mania though 鈥�
Mania 36 to be pre-taped?
In what could be an unprecedented move during this unprecedented time, it appears that Mania could be pre-taped.
Part of the show will be pre-taped at WWE鈥檚 Performance Center, but where would a second, and possibly more, venues be?
WWE could use their headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, as it is fully functional to put on matches.
But Mania may also have to air from somewhere in Canada.
Lesnar not allowed into U.S.?
Lesnar, the WWE champion, lives in Canada and there is a travel ban with the border being shut down.
The only people who are allowed to travel over the border may only do so for essential business.
Will WrestleMania be considered essential enough business for customs agents?
WWE set for ambitious schedule?
WrestleMania will not be the only show pre-taped over the next week.
WWE taped Smackdown Saturday for this coming Friday and there will be a taping today as well.
The same goes for Raw.
All four remaining TV shows leading into Mania in two weeks will be completed this week, apparently along with the Mania matches.
Will WWE be able to keep the Mania results quiet until the split card?
Lee, Hardy debut for AEW
Wednesday night on Dynamite, Brodie Lee and Matt Hardy both debuted for AEW.
For weeks, it was stated in this column Lee would debut Wednesday as the show was originally scheduled to take place in his hometown of Rochester, New York.
He was introduced as the Exalted One of the Dark Order and took a shot at Vince McMahon without mentioning him by name.
鈥淵ou are not the first out of touch old man to not believe in me,鈥� Lee said to Christopher Daniels.
Lee鈥檚 comments were because of how McMahon misused Lee, as Luke Harper, in WWE.
Hardy debuted at the end of the show by standing in a balcony.
Two-part Benoit piece starts Tuesday
The new season of Dark Side of the Ring on Viceland begins Tuesday night with a two-night piece on Chris Benoit.
In 2007, Benoit murdered his wife and son before committing suicide.
ROH cancels events through 3/31
On Tuesday, Ring of Honor emailed out a press release saying that it has canceled all events through May 31.
The release can also be found on ROH鈥檚 website at www.rohwrestling.com.
NXT/Dynamite fun fact
During the Monday night wrestling battle between WWE and WCW, Rick Rude made history by appearing on a taped Raw and a live Nitro on the same night.
Wednesday night, history sort of repeated itself.
AEW wrestler Chuck Taylor wrestled on Dynamite but also appeared in a video package on NXT.
The video package was about the Johnny Gargano and Tommasco Ciampa feud and it showed when they had a tryout at the WWE Performance Center in 2015.
Taylor was shown in the background as he also took part in the tryout.
Email questions/comments to Bill at powerhousehughes@gmail.com or tweet them to me @BillHughes_III.