WrestleMania Backlash Sunday
WWE presents WrestleMania Backlash Sunday on Peacock, and it is using an old school approach with its main event.
In the match, Undisputed WWE and Universal champion Roman Reigns teams with Smackdown tag champions The Usos to take on Drew McIntyre and Raw tag champions RK-Bro in a six-man tag match.
Having a tag match with built-in rivalries is an approach WWE used for many years to extend feuds. Here is to hoping it continues this approach.
Other matches on the card include Ronda Rousey taking on Smackdown champion Charlotte Flair in an I Quit match, Seth Rollins faces Cody Rhodes in a rematch of their stellar WrestleMania bout, AJ Styles takes on Edge with Damian Priest barred from ringside, Madcap Moss faces Happy Corbin and Bobby Lashley takes on Omos.
More matches could be added.
WWE releases numbers
Thursday afternoon, WWE released its numbers for the first quarter of 2022, and let鈥檚 say the company is very happy.
Revenue in the quarter was $333.4 million, an increase of 27 percent from the first quarter of 2021. It is also a quarterly record.
Operating income was $92.4 million, a 42 percent from the same quarter last year.
The adjusted OIBDA1 was $111.7 million, an increase of 33 percent and it also was a quarterly record.
The company also went into detail about several aspects of business and potential avenues it is exploring.
One note that stood out to me pertains to the Clash at the Castle PPV in Cardiff in September. 85,000 people signed up for the presale and 90 percent of hotels in the area are already booked up.
That is really impressive.
AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door sold out
On Thursday, AEW released 11,000 tickets for a presale for its Forbidden Door PPV it is doing with New Japan Pro Wrestling at the United Center in Chicago on June 26.
Not only did all 11,000 presale tickets sell out, but public tickets were put on sale Friday and it sold out quickly.
Khan officially owns Ring of Honor
While Wednesday was May the Fourth Be With You day for Star Wars fans, Tony Khan celebrated for a different reason as he announced his purchase of Ring of Honor officially went through.
New AEW show
Word broke Tuesday that a new AEW show is in development for AEW. The show will feature a look behind the scenes in AEW.
Health update on Big E
Friday morning, Big E tweeted out that his recovery from neck surgery is not going as well as planned and he will be in a neck brace for up to six more weeks.
His C1 isn鈥檛 healing as well as doctors had hoped, and the hope is still that neck fusion surgery can be avoided.
This Week in History鈥�
In 1974, Jimmy and Johnny Valiant defeated Tony Garea and Dean Ho for the WWWF tag team titles.
Also in 1974, Antonio Inoki defeated Karl Krupp and Seiji Sakaguchi to win the first annual New Japan Pro Wrestling World League.
In 1978, the WWWF ran a show at Washington (Pa.) High School. Dino Bravo defeated Johnny DeFazio, Dominic DeNucci defeated Strong Kobayashi, Ivan Putski defeated Stan Stasiak by countout and the team of Haystack Calhoun and Larry Zbysko defeated Butcher Vachon and Johnny Rodz.
In 1981, WWF ran the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh and in the main event, Bob Backlund retained the WWF heavyweight championship against Killer Khan.
In 2002, Total Nonstop Action (now Impact Wrestling) was introduced as a new promotion and its first event ran June 19, 2002.
In 2007, Edge defeated The Undertaker to win the WWE World championship at a Smackdown taping in Pittsburgh. After Taker wrestled Batista to a draw in a steel cage match, Mark Henry attacked Taker and left him lying. This led to Edge coming out to cash in
This week鈥檚 question
Recently, you mentioned when Christian defeated Alberto Del Rio to win the WWE World championship. Do you think it would have happened had Edge not had to retire? Craig, Charleroi.
Let鈥檚 preface my answer by telling the backstory. Coming out of WrestleMania XXVII, Edge was the world champion and had to retire due to a neck injury and the subsequent surgery.
He defeated Del Rio at Mania in a title match, and Christian was in Edge鈥檚 corner. It appeared WWE was leading towards Christian turning on Edge (again), but the storyline had to be scrapped.
To answer your question, I think Christian may have won the title one time to add the shock value of him winning the title from his former best friend before losing it back to him.
However, I am not sure that is what WWE would have done, but my hunch is yes.
Email questions/comments to powerhousehughes@gmail.com or tweet them to @BillHughes_III.