Charlotte Flair is undoubtedly one of the marquee superstars that WWE has to offer on their roster without whom a bigger PPV event remains incomplete. The highly decorated superstar was one of three first women alongside Ronda Rousey and Becky Lynch to
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Charlotte Flair is undoubtedly one of the marquee superstars that WWE has to offer on their roster without whom a bigger PPV event remains incomplete. The highly decorated superstar was one of three first women alongside Ronda Rousey and Becky Lynch to main-event WrestleMania in 2019, but she, unfortunately, had to sit out WrestleMania 37.
Leading to the show, Charlotte Flair challenged Asuka for the Raw Women’s Championship to set up a Wrestlemania 34 rematch. But then her fiancée Andrade was released from the WWE contract and went on to reveal that she was pulled from the show because WWE doctors mistakenly thought that she was pregnant.
Charlotte Flair Reaches Another Milestone In Her WWE Career
At the same time, it was also announced that she tested positive for COVID-19. During a prior interaction with New York Post, Charlotte Flair already mentioned that WWE creative didn’t want to wait for her so that she can be okay after recovering from the virus, and hence they decided to go with Rhea Ripley and Asuka.
Now, The Queen spoke to Sports Illustrated’s Justin Barrasso about her being left out of WrestleMania 37. She admitted that she was devastated and it was really tough for her to miss The Show of Shows. At the same time, Charlotte Flair was happy for Sasha Banks, Rhea Ripley, and Bianca Belair for their opportunities.
“I was devastated. I did not take that easy. Missing WrestleMania was hard… As much as it hurt to miss WrestleMania, it was amazing to watch Sasha and see her succeed. Seeing her come off Mandalorian and be in the main event, that was amazing. And Bianca has that special ‘It’ factor. She needs to keep taking that and run with it. Her story, and what she embodies, it’s incredible. So I was happy for both Sasha and Bianca.”
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The absence from Charlotte Flair from Wrestlemania 37 didn’t hamper her career, much as she would be back on Raw, the night after that grand event. She would then go on to win the Raw Women’s Championship from Rhea Ripley at Money in the Bank and then again at Summerslam taking her title win count to 12.
Mike and Maria Kanellis were released from the WWE roster back on April 15th, 2020. They have since joined the ROH promotion and they also seem to be very happy in this new league. While Mike could be performing as a full-time talent, his wife would get the privilege of becoming a head-honcho figure for the Women’s division.
Maria Kanellis holds a powerful position in the ROH but that isn’t enough to change the fact that she had some bad memories during their WWE days. Previously, on a number of occasions, she had opened up about being neglected during interviews. There was a trash bag incident as well alongside another veteran star in Mickie James.
Ex WWE Star Maria Kanellis Admits, “I Flashed To The Hardy Boyz”
Maria Kanellis is now a proud mother of two, who definitely wanted her family to enjoy themselves in WWE events and especially the Grandest Stage of Them All. Sadly, that wasn’t the case as she feels the company did ignore the wrestlers at the biggest PPV event of the year.
Maria Kanellis recently spoke to SHAK Wrestling about her time in WWE and she shared some more bitter experiences about how her family was treated during a WrestleMania weekend.
“It was the whole day. It used to be that when you got to the building at WrestleMania, you knew exactly where your family was going to go. You were able to show them why you’ve been away all year. Why you haven’t been coming home. Why you missed Christmas or Thanksgiving or birthdays, whatever. You were able to really just give your family a VIP treatment. And they didn’t have that. It was all about the sponsors. They had their area and then whatever else,” Maria Kanellis continued.
“For the wrestlers themselves, there was no place for our families to go. I was like, I don’t like this. I don’t like this attitude towards my family. My daughter was actually stuck outside with my mother-in-law and my nanny for 45 minutes before I was able to even get them into the building because it was so far away to get security down there. What ended up happening is my the person doing my makeup had to go and get my family.”
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The First Lady of the WWE vented out frustrations saying that she wanted to receive VIP treatment to her family given that it was WrestleMania weekend. But she wasn’t able to do so due to WWE’s arrangements. Moreover, Maria Kanellis was surprised to learn that those kinds of VIP treatments were reserved for the sponsors and officials while the wrestlers were neglected. She didn’t specify which WrestleMania weekend she was talking about.
Mike Kanellis requested his release from the WWE in late 2019 just after signing a new five-year deal. The company did not grant it at first, but then on April 15 of 2020, they did grant the request when they also released his wife Maria Kanellis alongside him. The two remained free agents for some time before returning to ROH and they’re likely to continue there for a long time.
Bobby Lashley has always been very much vocal about his wish to square off in a match against Brock Lesnar. In fact, he was pretty clear while signing the contract with the WWE in 2018 as he’s determined to face the Beast Incarnate. These two have been MMA performers which is the reason why the match needed to happen.
Earlier this year, rumors were pretty much rife about Brock Lesnar coming back to the WWE after a long hiatus on the occasion of Summerslam. He was expected to go after Bobby Lashley and his WWE Championship as could expect to witness a dream matchup. The Beast did return by the end of the PPV but he opted to go after Roman Reigns and his Universal Championship, instead.
Update On WWE Wrestlemania 38 Becoming A Two-Night Event
The positive thing is that Brock Lesnar is back with the WWE which keeps the hope alive to witness a matchup against Bobby Lashley. Sooner or later, this match should happen given the reigning WWE Champion has become a top superstar on Monday Night Raw, as of late. That being said, he can expect to be a headliner for the next edition of Wrestlemania.
During a recent appearance on the Battleground podcast, WWE Champion Bobby Lashley was asked about a possible match against Brock Lesnar. He wanted that match to happen at the Biggest Event of Them All. Furthermore, he also teased another headliner match for Wrestlemania 38 set from the AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas, next year.
Here’s what The All-Mighty had to say:
“Brock is not going to come back for me just because he wants to have a match with me. Brock is like a Goldberg. Brock comes back for a Title. So, it’s either me or Roman [Reigns]. I think WrestleMania [38] would be really interesting if we saw a Rock vs. Roman match, and a Bobby vs. Brock match as two of the headliners.”
Brock Lesnar vs. Bobby Lashley is a dream match that most fans would want to see and hence it should only be a matter of time when it will happen. Vince McMahon is the ultimate decision-maker on this matchup and we can only hope he’s willing to host the match, sooner than later.
WWE WrestleMania 38 might retain the two-night format for the grandest PPV of the year. Starting with 2020, WWE has been presenting the Biggest Event of the Year across two days, moving on from the original single day format and the move was a welcoming experience from the fans’ perspective. So the same format is likely to continue although no such confirmation is available.
Earlier this year, WWE announced WrestleMania 38 for Sunday, April 3, 2022, from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. This is the same venue that was used for WrestleMania 32 in 2016. WWE has also announced that WrestleMania 39 will take place on Sunday, April 2, 2023, from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, removing all the speculations around the upcoming ‘Mania venues.
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Now, the working plan internally as of last week was that WrestleMania 38 will be a two-night event, similar to WrestleMania 36 and WrestleMania 37, according to the reports of Fightful Select. The event may get rescheduled across Saturday, April 2, and Sunday, April 3. In this case, this would be the first two-night ‘Mania to be held in front of a full crowd capacity.
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It was noted in the report that reception from the WWE roster to a two-night WrestleMania 38 event has been unanimously positive. Nothing official from WWE’s part has been noted, but many people within WWE have been notified about the change of plans.
In more update, WrestleMania 38 being a two-night event is something being discussed while any official decision is yet to be made, according to Wrestling Observer Radio. The company officials are going through the economics and business projections. They are likely to come up with a plan to see if hosting a two-night event like WrestleMania 36 and 37 will make sense, the next time around.
These new reports indicate a big change in plans from WWE as the Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon noted in a January 2021 interview with TV Insider that they intend to return to one-night format with WrestleMania 38,
“We want to maximize the value. The two nights are unique to the times [pandemic]. We have plans to go back to one night for future WrestleMania events, but of course we will see what happens this year. We want to deliver the best possible value we can for our fans who are hopefully able to attend and for those watching all around the world.”
WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns is on top of the WWE, at this point who often claims to be in charge of the company. He was present on a recent episode of the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast with Jimmy Traina where he discussed having more creative freedom in his promos. This was the reason he was allowed to talk missionary position during a SmackDown promo.
Roman Reigns’ current heel character has many fans wondering whether this will eventually lead into a match with his cousin Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson at an upcoming edition of WrestleMania. While it’s not impossible to see Reigns mentioned that there’s a lot of factors attached to the planning so that the match could actually become a reality.
The ‘Stephanie McMahon Slap, She Means It,’ Says Former WWE Commentator
Moving further in an interview, the Tribal Chief was reminded of an off-topic. In the main event of WrestleMania 32 in 2016, Roman Reigns defeated Triple H to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. On his way to the win, Reigns hit Stephanie McMahon with a Spear inside the ring.
Traina and his niece wondered whether the Billion Dollar Princess was happy about digesting that spear and what the backstage dynamic could have looked like. Roman Reigns was all praise about one of his bosses in the WWE offering a sporting attitude on that Grandest Stage of Them All to make his crowning moment look even sweeter.
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“She took it like a champ. She did a great job, and I didn’t really pull any of the physicality out. She took a full-on spear, and that’s how you should do it in the main event of WrestleMania.
She was obviously a little bit sore and not very happy about that, but I think everybody after a main event of a WrestleMania is ecstatic of going through that process, and the adrenaline rush of the performance and then also celebrating a phenomenal moment with the live audience, everybody watching at home,” Roman Reigns added.
I’ll say she wasn’t ecstatic, but I think she was happy with the moment, to be a part of that.”
Stephanie McMahon was a big part of the storyline process between Triple H and Roman Reigns, heading into that WrestleMania match. Hence, her digesting that spear has a great pay-off to the angle.
Apart from that Roman Reigns’ spear, Stephanie McMahon took another bump at WrestleMania 2017, the very next year when her husband Triple H competed in a match against Seth Rollins. The former Shield member shoved The Game into Stephanie, forcing her to go through a table. All in all, someway Steph got to be key parts of those mega Mania matches, creating some memorable moments.
Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair made history at WrestleMania 37 by competing at the first singles main event match from the female roster at the biggest stage. The story-telling, match execution was so good that it was able to earn praise from both the fans and critics. So the demand for a rematch was obviously there and that will be met at the upcoming pay-per-view event of WWE.
The challenger for the SmackDown Women’s Championship in this upcoming match, Sasha Banks joined Rasslin’ with Brandon F. Walker to promote it. The rematch against Bianca Belair from WrestleMania 37 Night One is highly anticipated and hence the expectation is seemingly high from the WWE Universe.
So, Sasha Banks believes that this upcoming SummerSlam bout is actually bigger than the previous one. Plus, the pay-per-view itself is bigger in scale in comparison to this year’s WrestleMania.
“I actually think that this SummerSlam might be bigger than WrestleMania,” Sasha Banks said. “It feels like it’s going to be bigger than WrestleMania. I’m counting down the days and it’s really creeping up on me. But I am so ecstatic to be back with fans. There’s nothing like their energy. So I think this crowd is going to be bigger attendance than WrestleMania, which already makes me, it’s lights a fire in my heart. But yeah, I’m really looking forward to SummerSlam on August 21. And I cannot wait to be Smackdown Women’s Champion again.”
Photos: Sasha Banks Dazzled On Latest WWE Smackdown Appearance
Sasha Banks returned on SmackDown a few weeks ago to turn on the reigning champion and thus she started to unfold a new chapter in the storyline. Now she will be heading into the title match as a heel figure while in the previous bout, both the superstars entered the stage as babyfaces.
That match was highly applauded by fans and critics which hasn’t gone unnoticed by The Legit Boss. She also mentioned fulfilling her goal of headlining a WrestleMania and that it meant everything to her.
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During the conversation, Sasha Banks was also asked if her match with Bayley from NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn remains her favorite match of her career. In reply, she stated that it was definitely in her top five, along with another match her and Bayley that took place, last year inside Hell In A Cell structure.
“It’s so cool. It’s definitely one of my top five. But in terms of recent memory, I think Hell In A Cell with Bayley was definitely one of my favorite matches. Just because what a brutal match (it was). I was so nervous going in just because the year before, that match destroyed me. And just like, me and Bayley’s chemistry is like no other. She is someone that I trust so much in that ring that we don’t even need to talk. Definitely don’t need to talk in something so dangerous like that type of match. I know that she has me no matter what, whatever type of match we have together.” (Quotes courtesy Wrestling Inc)
Sasha Banks also revealed her philosophy of giving her best in the ring no matter who she’s in the ring with as the goal remains the same and that’s to produce the best match of the night with any given opponent.
As reported earlier, WWE officials are discussing Roman Reigns vs. John Cena for the Universal Championship in the main event of SummerSlam 2021. This comes as a big step to hype up the biggest event of the summer as the fans will finally be returning to WWE shows, starting from July. The comeback of fans may also lead The Rock to perform in one last match in the WWE against The Tribal Chief at Wrestlemania.
That being said, it’s very likely that these two mega showdowns could soon be happening in the WWE. But before that happens, Roman Reigns has a simple message to his potential future opponents. Since both Cena and Rock have been busy with their Hollywood career, the Head of the Table advised them to stay there and not make a comeback to the WWE.
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During a recent interview on ESPN SportsNation, Roman Reigns was asked about these two rumored matches. Responding to the question, the Universal Champion made it clear that he’s a huge problem for his rivals in the WWE. So, it will be better for the former two franchise players to stay away from the scene rather than picking a bone with him.
“Yeah, that [a match with The Rock] is a dream for a lot of our fans, but it ain’t a dream of his, you know what I mean? I get a lot of this with both Dwayne and John. These guys are doing very well for themselves, there’s no question about it,” Roman Reigns stated.
“If I were these guys, I don’t know if I’d wanna come back and deal with me. I am a problem right now for everybody. If I were them, I’d stay on set and keep pumping out these streaming service movies.
Don’t come to my ring…is what I would do.”
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According to the Dirty Sheets Patreon page, John Cena is currently scheduled to return on the July 16th episode of SmackDown and enter himself to be a part of the Men’s Money In The Bank 2021 Ladder Match. He may eventually win it to earn his rights to face Roman Reigns in a Universal Title match.
Speaking of this, The Head of the Table was originally slated to have a title defense at Hell in a Cell PPV, this Sunday. But that match was seemingly preponed as per a piece of breaking news on Twitter. Rey Mysterio took to Twitter and said that he doesn’t want to wait till the Hell In A Cell 2021 PPV and wants this match to happen on Friday Night SmackDown.
Since Roman Reigns doesn’t have a problem with this match, the match has now been scheduled for tonight. For the first time ever, a Hell in a Cell match will thus go down on a weekly episode of Smackdown instead of a PPV event.
BREAKING: @reymysterio will now challenge @WWERomanReigns for the #UniversalTitle inside #HellInACell TOMORROW on #SmackDown! @HeymanHustle https://t.co/YQF30WNyxM
📺: 8/7c on @FOXTV pic.twitter.com/PszjFi0HoC
— WWE (@WWE) June 18, 2021
Over the past several years, The Rock has proven himself to be the biggest box office attraction in Hollywood. At the level he’s reached, he doesn’t have to come back to the WWE, anymore but by the looks of it, he isn’t done, yet. We can certainly expect one more match to happen that he is really interested in doing.
Before hanging up those boots, The Rock does want to compete in a match against his cousin Roman Reigns. While the WWE Universe will be down with the match without a doubt, it will make sense, storyline-wise, too. WWE has set up Reigns to be the biggest heel of the roster and the Head of the Table for the Samoan Dynasty.
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This perfectly makes sense where The Rock would make a comeback and confront him for that self-proclaimed position. During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer also discussed how much The Brahma Bull also desires to face Roman Reigns and WWE is also likely to be able to push that angle as soon as possible.
“Obviously The Rock & Roman Reigns is something that they’re building towards and it would be — every year gets tougher and tougher because Dwayne gets a year older and, you know, but I think he really wants to do a match against Roman Reigns. I think for sure it’ll be in next two WrestleManias, and if he can pull it off, the next WrestleMania.”
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It has recently been reported that WWE is trying to get The Rock for the annual Survivor Series PPV, later this year. The event will reportedly be going down in Brooklyn, New York and there could be a possibility for the mega-star to show up. However, nothing in that regard has been confirmed.
It was noted that WrestleMania 38, next year in Dallas could bring back The Rock on board, but he’ll have to free up some time from his busy schedule. It’s the match against Roman Reigns that WWE must be pushing for and to have a build-up around it, they obviously want him to appear at Survivor Series in some respect.
The Rock vs Roman Reigns was teased for this year’s WrestleMania, but the plans didn’t work out. The event was previously set to go down from the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles where the former WWE franchise player could be huge attention. Later the show was relocated to Tampa, Florida.
WWE has recently announced that SummerSlam 2021 will go down in Las Vegas on August 21st from the Allegiant Stadium. That event is projected to be a shorter one than usual as the Manny Pacquiao fight would be the biggest draw of that night. But nevertheless, there will be efforts on WWE’s part to make things huge for the August PPV, as claimed in the latest reports.
WrestleMania 37 was a two-night event inside Raymond James Stadium which welcomed fans back after a gap of more than a year. Mainstream celebrities like Logan Paul and Bad Bunny were on board to make it even special but WWE is apparently making even larger plans for SummerSlam 2021. The plan is to make this show no less than the Show of Shows.
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According to a new report from WrestleVotes, WWE will be pulling out all the stops for SummerSlam 2021. They have intentions of turning the biggest party of the summer into this year’s WrestleMania which according to many has failed to touch the usual magnitude. The absence of the bigger star powers is one of the reasons behind that.
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“After speaking to a few sources on the topic, I’ve learned that WWE is 100% attempting to make SummerSlam this year’s WrestleMania. “All resources will be tapped into” is how it was explained to me. I do believe they want Reigns v Cena to headline. Not sure if they’ve decided,” mentioned the source.
As you can see, WWE will be trying all of its resources to make SummerSlam 2021 a huge success. A main-event match between John Cena vs Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship has already been previously reported. Even Brock Lesnar was in the company’s early plans for the event which sparks rumors of the dream match for him with Bobby Lashley. Although there’s no confirmation whether it’d be happening or not.
Also, Rapper Cardi B will reportedly be roped in as the host of SummerSlam 2021 that can gather huge attention for the show. Jon Alba has recently noted that John Cena will definitely be available for the event as he will be wrapping up the Peacemaker schedule. A lot of things could change between now and August 21st and we’ll have to see how the plans will be stacked up in due course. But no matter what, it’s going to be a spectacular night.
WWE has confirmed that Wrestlemania 38 will take place in Texas. Next year, the grandest event goes even bigger when it returns to the AT&T Stadium after six years. The company has remained tight-lipped about the format of the show that is whether it will be a two-night event or not. This tradition was introduced after WWE was forced to do WrestleMania 36 at the Performance Center in front of 0 fans due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This format was retained for the 37th edition, earlier this year as speculations continue around Wrestlemania 38. The two-night format brings some sort of specialty to the show that is acceptable to the fans. In 2021, the fans were in attendance at the Raymond James Stadium in Orlando, Florida to make it a grand success. It seems like the same thing will go down, next year, too.
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According to a report from Fightful Select, two-night ‘Mania has been a super-hit among the backstage staff and wrestlers alongside the fans. The fans don’t get tired by the time the main event arrives which is a good thing.
Also, many believe that the reason WWE didn’t announce a date for WrestleMania 38 is that they are still nurturing the idea of doing a two-night event, again,
“It was also speculated among talent that WWE avoiding the announcement of a certain date for 2022 WrestleMania has the company considering continuing the two night method.”
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WWE intends to pull a huge number of fans for both the nights of WrestleMania (which would be more than 70-80,000 at the AT&T Stadium). So they don’t really have any reason to go back to doing one-night WrestleManias again since they can simply double the ticket sales with the two-night event option.
In contrary to these reports, WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon recently told Scott Fishman of TV Insider that Wrestlemania 38 will be going back to the original format,
“We want to maximize the value. The two nights are unique to the times [pandemic]. We have plans to go back to one night for future WrestleMania events, but of course we will see what happens this year,” said Stephanie.
“We want to deliver the best possible value we can for our fans who are hopefully able to attend and for those watching all around the world.”
