McMahon scandal to rock WWE?
Wednesday afternoon, word broke that WWE鈥檚 Board of Directors hired a firm to investigate Vince McMahon and a secret $3 million settlement he reached with a former paralegal with the company.
There have been numerous stories about the situation, and McMahon spoke live on Smackdown Friday after this column鈥檚 deadline.
While the investigation is going on, McMahon has stepped down as CEO and Chairman of the Board of WWE and Stephanie McMahon has returned from her leave of absence to fill the spot.
While there will be a lot of information coming out in the days and weeks to come, could the McMahon鈥檚 have known this situation was going public and that is why Stephanie took a leave, so that she would not be working for WWE when everything came out?
Time will tell where this situation goes, but the hunch here is that while the investigation could lead to no findings or they could be serious enough that McMahon would have to sell the company, this will all play out somewhere in between those two possibilities.
The fact that Vince is staying on as head of creative leads me to believe that he feels things will blow over.
Rhodes recovery timeline
Last Friday, WWE announced that Cody Rhodes鈥� pectoral surgery was successful and he will be out of action for nine months.
If he is indeed out for nine months, it would bring him back to in-ring action a few weeks before WrestleMania.
The hunch here, though, is he will be cleared for the Royal Rumble and will be a surprise entrant.
Paige leaving WWE
Last Friday, Saraya-Jade Bevis, known in WWE as Paige, tweeted out that she would be leaving WWE when her contract runs out July 7.
The night after WrestleMania XXX on Raw, Paige made WWE history when she won the Diva鈥檚 champion at 21, making her the youngest-ever woman to hold the title.
Paige suffered a bad neck injury in 2016 and had surgery as 2017 rolled in.
Finally being cleared to wrestle again by late 2017, she began her in-ring career again.
However, in a six-woman tag match on Dec. 28, 2017, Paige was injured at the hands of Sasha Banks.
Paige was medically disqualified by WWE and has not returned to the ring since.
Willing to wrestle, Paige has made it clear that she will indeed wrestle as soon as her WWE deal is up, and she is taking bookings via email to make appearances.
More on MJF and AEW
Over the last few weeks, we have looked at the situation between MJF and AEW.
While MJF has been removed from all promotional materials, merchandise vendors and AEW鈥檚 web site, many still feel this is all a storyline that will lead to MJF appearing at the AEW vs. NJPW PPV on Jun 26.
缅北禁地 and pro wrestling
This week鈥檚 crossover between pro wrestling and sports comes from online reader John McLaughlin from New York City.
He brought up my mention of Marcus Smart of the Celtics being helped off the court and then Smart running back out to the court.
McLaughlin compared that to Willis Reed of the New York Knicks in the 1970 NBA Finals.
According to www.nba.com, Reed scored 37, 28, 38 and 23 points, respectively, over the first four games of the series and averaged 15 rebounds.
Then in the fourth quarter of Game 5, he sustained a torn thigh muscle and missed Game 6.
Then during pregame for Game 7, the Knicks left the locker room for warmups and did not know if Reed would play.
Moments before the opening tip, Reed limped onto the court and proceeded to win the opening tip from Wilt Chamberlain.
He scored the first basket of the game on a jumper from the top of the key, and he scored New York鈥檚 next basket on a 20-foot jumper.
Reed did not score again, but his inspired play led the Knicks to a 29-point lead in the first half and a 113-99 win to earn the franchise the NBA championship.
This Week in History鈥�
In 1993, The Steiner Brothers defeated Money Inc. (Ted DiBiase and Irwin R. Schyster) to regain the WWF tag team titles. This was the third, and last, title change between the teams over five days.
In 2001, The Dudley Boyz defeated Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit to win the WWF tag team titles.
In 2002, NWA Total Nonstop Action (Now Impact) held its first show.
In 2005, TNA runs its first Slammiversary event. In the main event, Raven defeated NWA world champion AJ Styles, Monty Brown, Abyss and Sean Waltman (better known as X-Pac) in a King of the Mountain match to win the title.
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