Muhammad Hassan Returns To Wrestling

The performer behind the controversial Muhammad Hassan character from 2004-05 is returning to professional wrestling. 36-year-old, Marc Copani, made his return to the ring over the weekend, once again wrestling as the Hassan character. It was his first match in nearly 13 years.

Hassan defeated Papadon at the Dynasty King of Thrones event this Saturday.

In 2004, Hassan along with his ally, Khosrow (Shawn) Daivari, debuted on WWE programming in late 2004. Several vignettes were shown featuring Hassan and Daivari talking about the discrimination they receive as a result of stereotypes and prejudices.

At WrestleMania 21, Hassan and Daivari were involved in a segment with Hulk Hogan which led to the pair feuding with Hogan and Shawn Michaels.

The peak and beginning of the end to the storyline occurred on a taped episode of Smackdown from July 4th, 2005. Hassan was building towards a match at the Great American Bash with the Undertaker at the time. Undertaker defeated Daivari on this episode of Smackdown. During the match, however, Hassan appeared on the entrance ramp and gestured as if he was praying. Several men dressed in ski-masks then came out and attacked Undertaker. The men then lifted Daivari up over their heads and led him out of the arena while Hassan gave Taker the Camel Clutch in the ring.

The London Bombings took place 3 days after the tapings but before the Smackdown episode aired. Afterward, UPN put pressure on WWE to remove the Hassan character from their programming. Copani was released in 2005 and subsequently retired. This weekend was the first time Hassan wrestled a pro-match since losing to the Undertaker at the Great American Bash in 2005. It has since been revealed that WWE wanted to push the character to the moon. Had UPN not put pressure on WWE to drop the character, Hassan was planned to win the WWE Championship.

Danny Burch Signs Full-Time WWE Contract

Martin Stone, better known to NXT fans as Danny Burch, has signed a full-time contract with WWE. He lost his last match for Beyond Wrestling over the weekend to Josh Briggs.

Burch had previously been signed to WWE from 2011 to 2014. He was used primarily as enhancement talent on NXT. Burch was released from his WWE contract in 2014 but would be back with the company the following year. He would wrestle as enhancement talent for another 3 years in NXT before reportedly signing a full-time WWE contract yesterday.

One possible reason WWE has re-signed Burch to an exclusive deal is the upcoming World of Sport television tapings planned for mid-May. If Burch was a free agent, he would be free to wrestle on the World of Sport television tapings. While Burch is likely available for non-WWE shows in Europe provided they are not televised, his new deal likely prevents him from appearing for World of Sport.

Burch has wrestled 25 WWE televised matches in his career. Aside from his loss in the opening round of the United Kingdom Championship tournament, all of Burch’s televised matches have taken place on NXT. He currently has a 1-24 record. His one win came against his frequent tag-team partner, Oney Lorcan. Most recently, Burch and Oney were eliminated by Pete Dunne and Roderick Strong in the 1st round of the 2018 Dusty Rhodes Classic.

In 2014, Burch competed on the TNA British Bootcamp show. While he was successful on the show, he would not earn a spot on the Impact Wrestling roster through the show. The wrestler now known as Tanga Loa was victorious on the One Night Only: Gut Check PPV and earned a spot on an episode of Impact as a result.

Burch made his pro-wrestling debut in 2003 after having been trained by the Dropkixx Academy as well as the Frontier Wrestling Alliance.

Bone Soldier To Be Performed By Taiji Ishimori?

Last week, New Japan Pro Wrestling announced the return of Bone Soldier, a former member of Bullet Club. The role had previously been performed by Mitsuhide Hirasawa, who had been performing as Captain New Japan.

According to a recent report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Bone Soldier will not be played by Hirasawa when the character returns. It also noted that Hirasawa was released over a year ago due to gambling issues. The report continued to say there have been rumors that Taiji Ishimori might be the new Bone Soldier and also enter the Best of the Super Juniors tournament in May.

Ishimori, who has been a regular for Impact Wrestling as of late, recently left Pro Wrestling NOAH. If Ishimori has signed with NJPW, it would seemingly contradict statements he made in March. Ishimori told Tokyo Sports he was leaving NOAH to wrestle more internationally.

“Lots of Japanese wrestlers are active internationally right now,” Ishimori said in an interview to Toky Sports (translated by author Chris Charlton). “I want to be among them, for Taiji Ishimori to appeal on a global scale. I’m open to offers at home and abroad.”

It would seem odd for Ishimori to leave on Japanese-based promotion in March in order to pursue international opportunities only to sign with another Japanese based promotion the next month. Still, Ishimori might feel NJPW will offer him more freedom outside of the promotion than Pro Wrestling NOAH would.

Ishimori wrestled for 12 years in NOAH, winning the promotion’s junior heavyweight championship on 3 occasions. He’s also won the Impact Wrestling X-Division championship as well. After defeating Tyson Dux to earn a title shot, Ishimori defeated Trevor Lee for the X-Division title last November.

Ishimori was a young lion in NJPW’s dojo but left the company to join NOAH in 2006.

Enzo Amore On Social Media: “It’s Been Real”

31-year-old Eric Arndt, better known to wrestling fans as Enzo Amore, posted to his Instagram account yesterday. The former WWE Cruiserweight Champion has been silent on social media since his release from the company in January.

All of Enzo’s previous Instagram posts, including his videos from the Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor fight, have been taken down. The only post that remains is one of boots being hung up.

The image of boots being hung up could be Enzo expressing that he is “hanging up the boots”. The last time Enzo posted to Twitter was January 23rd, 2018. The post only includes a statement from his lawyer:

Enzo has also changed his bio on Instagram to read: “Believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear.”

After news broke of the pending investigation into an alleged sexual assault committed by Enzo, WWE suspended and then fired him. It is speculated that the company released him for failing to notify them of the pending investigation.

Enzo’s WWE career lasted a little under 5 years. He debuted in NXT on May 22nd, 2013. He was quickly paired with Colin Cassady and the Enzo and Big Cass tag-team was born. Although the team would never win the NXT tag-team championships, they were quite popular. Enzo and Cass were called up to the main roster in 2016.

The following year, Enzo and Cass were split up with Enzo remaining babyface and Cass turning heel. An injury to Big Cass led to Enzo turning heel as well and joining the cruiserweight division on 205 Live. An attempt was made to build the show around Enzo but was later abandoned after his release in January of 2018.

3 More Names Confirmed For “All-In”

The Bullet Club/The Elite organized “All-In” show for September 1st in Chicago gained 3 more names yesterday. The show is scheduled for the Sears Center in Chicago and will be accompanied by a fan and podcast convention (Starrcast) in the days leading up to the event.

Yesterday the organizers of the event announced Penelope Ford, “Bad Boy” Joey Janela, and Chelsea Green have declared they are “All In”.

As the list of All In performers continues to grow, we’ve got an updated roster below:

Confirmed for All In:

Penelope Ford (new)

“Bad Boy” Joey Janela (new)

Chelsea Green (new)

Kazuchika Okada

Deonna Purrazzo

Pentagon Jr.

Ray Fenix

Cracker Barrel

Tessa Blanchard

Kenny Omega

Matt & Nick Jackson

Hangman Page

Cody

Specifically not Flip Gordon

Stephen Amell

Marty Scurll

The Elite’s planned “All In” show is getting eclipsed somewhat by the scheduled NJPW show at California’s Cow Palace. New Japan Pro Wrestling announced the show at Strong Style Evolved this year.

While reports vary, it is believed the Cow Palace can currently hold 13,000 – 15,000 for wrestling. This makes it a bigger venue than the Sears Center in Chicago.

All In on September 1st, 2018, is not associated with any promotion. There are also no plans to air the show on a paid-streaming service such as Honor Club or New Japan World. For that reason, it is open to wrestlers contracted to other promotions. As it stands now, the World Champions in NJPW and Impact Wrestling are scheduled for the show. NWA World Heavyweight Champion, Nick Aldis, has also expressed interest in competing on the show. On a recent edition of the “10lbs of Gold” YouTube series, Aldis appeared on the Busted Open radio show and spoke on how the NWA title should be at All In.

Davey Boy Smith Jr Wanted By Police For Assaulting Jake Roberts

There was an incident over WrestleMania weekend where Harry Smith (Davey Boy Smith Jr) is alleged to have thrown a cup of coffee in the face of Jake “the Snake” Roberts. The incident is said to have happened during WrestleCon.

New Orleans Police are now looking for Smith according to Pro Wrestling Sheet. A representative for the New Orleans Police Department issued the following statement:

“The NOPD is investigating a simple battery incident that occurred on April 7, 2018 in the 500 block of Canal Street. The victim told police that at about 11 a.m., he was signing autographs at the location when he was approached by a known subject, later identified as Harry Smith (DOB: 08-02-1985). The victim told police he attempted to shake hands with Smith, at which time a verbal argument ensued. Smith then allegedly threw a cup of coffee at the victim’s face and fled the scene. No major injuries were reported by the victim.”

This is technically the remnants of a feud which began with Jake and Harry’s father in the 1980s. Roberts has made public disparaging comments about Smith’s father. Davey Boy Smith Sr. and his partner, the Dynamite Kid, had a reputation for being bullies. Several wrestlers from the era have spoken out against their actions during this period.

Roberts has told a story of how the Bulldogs used to throw lit cigarettes at his snake to upset him. In retaliation to this, Jake fed Matilda (the Bulldogs pet bulldog) food laced with laxatives. When prompted, Jake is not shy about sharing his hatred for the now-deceased Davey Boy Smith Sr.

Shortly after the incident, Davey Boy Smith Jr. admitted to WrestleZone that he confronted Jake at WrestleCon. Smith says he asked Jake to apologize for the negative comments he made about his father. According to Smith, Jake offered to shake his hand but refused to apologize for his comments or step outside to fight the much younger Smith. After Jake told the member of the Killer Elite Squad to “F Off”, Smith says he threw the coffee in his face.

The New Orleans Police Department is asking anyone with knowledge of the incident to contact them.

Tyrus Gone From Impact Wrestling (Again)

George Murdoch, FKA Tyrus, is gone from Impact Wrestling… again.

The 45-year-old heavyweight had originally left the company in the summer of 2017 but resurfaced at the last set of TV tapings from Orlando. The episodes of Impact filmed during these tapings have been airing since February 1st, 2018.

According to a recent report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Tyrus has once again given Impact Wrestling his notice. Tyrus stated that he and the company didn’t see eye-to-eye creatively.

Tyrus gave similar reasons for ending his relationship with Impact Wrestling the last time around in 2017 as well. He has plenty going on for himself outside of wrestling, so it is not too big a surprise that he is willing to leave a company if he doesn’t enjoy what he is working on.

Tyrus is a regular on several Fox News programs and has had a successful 2017 as an actor. He appeared in 2 episodes of the hit show GLOW on Netflix last year. Tyrus also appears in an episode of the Netflix original series, Love, which was released earlier this year. Several other IMDB credits have been added to his profile the last two years as well.

The Young Bucks Ending “Being the Elite”?

Last week, Bullet Club’s “the Elite” released the 100th episode of their YouTube series, “Being the Elite”. Although they had previously been releasing episodes on Monday nights, no episode was released this week. As the last episode was named “Finale”, there is speculation the popular series is done.

Matt and Nick Jackson recently spoke with the Sporting News about the future of the series. They recorded the interview backstage at ROH’s TV tapings in Pittsburgh on Saturday.

“I think it’s poetic if we did end it at 100 episodes,” Nick Jackson told the Sporting News, “but everyone else says we shouldn’t.”

“We’re like, man, 100 episodes, we can end it when it’s the hottest,” Matt Jackson added. “It almost feels like we should end it.”

“On the other hand, it’s kind of undecided, but I feel like we’d be crazy not to bring it back at some point. It’s become such a popular tool for us now.”

The series has been widely successful and provides a platform for members of the faction to tell stories. Much of what has been built up in terms of the Bullet Club 2018 Civil War has taken place on “Being the Elite”.

“We had a guy at the airport on our way here stop me, and he puts his hand out and says, ‘I love your YouTube videos,’” Matt Jackson added. “He didn’t mention anything about pro wrestling.”

Originally, the series was just meant to follow the Young Bucks around as they travelled to shows.

“We did that for like six months,” Nick Jackson said. “Then Matt had the idea of adding stories to the mix. … People started to love it and it grew a lot faster. I think we found our calling.

“It started with me getting sick in real life. We knew Adam [Cole] was leaving the Bullet Club, so Matt said, ‘Why don’t we say Adam poisoned you?’ I said, ‘That’s a brilliant idea. Let’s try it.’ The fans loved it. From there we just went nuts.”

The last episode of Being the Elite ended with Cody finding himself alone in the Elite locker room. While he had defeated Kenny Omega, Cody was left to ponder all that he had lost along the way.

Jack Swagger (Jake Hager) Signs With MLW

Major League Wrestling is positioned to have a big year in 2018. The promotion recently signed a television deal with BeIN Sports to air episodes of MLW: Fusion on Friday nights beginning April 20th.

Today, the company announced the signing of Jake Hager (FKA Jack Swagger) to a “multi-fight” deal. MLW is presenting their product more as a fictional combat sport than sports entertainment, hence the “multi-fight” wording regarding Hager’s signing. Hager’s first event with MLW will be at the promotion’s TV tapings on May 3rd. Pentagon is scheduled to face Shane Strickland for the MLW World Championship on the show.

It also appears Hager has aligned with the returning manager, Colonel Robert Parker and his re-formed “Stud Stable”. The 67-year old grandfather recently made his return to pro-wrestling at an MLW show in February.

"A reckoning is coming to the heavyweight division of Major League Wrestling" Colonel Parker said.

Earlier this year, Hager signed a deal to fight in MMA with Bellator as well. The former collegiate wrestling standout would later say he hopes to fight once and possibly even twice in 2018.

"I want to fight in 2018 for sure,” Hager said to MMA Junkie back in January. “I almost want to fight twice. That’s a bold statement, but I don’t want to waste any time. I want to jump in there. I feel like I’m in good shape now. I feel like in six months, in the summertime, I’ll be ready to make a statement.”

While training for his MMA debut, Hager has continued to stay active on the independent wrestling scene. Earlier this year, he completed a tour for the now-defunct 5-Star Wrestling in England.

Major League Wrestling just finished an 8-person single-elimination tournament to crown a new World’s Champion. Shane Strickland defeated Matt Riddle in a tournament which also featured Tom Lawlor, MVP, Jimmy Havoc, Jeff Cobb, Brody King, and Maxwell Jacob Friedman.

Jerry Lawler Suffered Serious Stroke Weeks Before WrestleMania

Just 3 weeks out from WrestleMania 34, Jerry Lawler apparently suffered a stroke. Lawler was in ICU for 3 days and was unable to speak before making a full recovery in time to appear at WrestleMania this weekend.

Lawler was engaging in sexual intercourse at the time of his stroke. He detailed the incident on an episode of his “Dinner with the King” podcast.

Lawler, who also suffered an on-air heart attack in 2012, made a full recovery following the stroke. Not only did Lawler appear at WrestleMania 34 but he participated in some pre-Mania festivities as well. During an independent show over the weekend, Lawler even shot a fireball at Joey Ryan’s genitals. At the time, Ryan was dressed up as Andy Kauffman, Lawler’s historic rival.

At WrestleMania 34, Lawler called the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal along with his broadcast partner, Jim Ross.

According to the King, only Kevin Dunn and Triple H knew about his medical scare before Mania.

“All In” Adds Two More Names, Including a Major International Star

Bullet Club’s planned “All-In” event in Chicago on September 1st, 2018 added two big names yesterday.

The first to declare yesterday was Deonna Purrazzo:

The 23-year old Purrazzo is part of ROH’s Women of Honor division. She lost in the quarter-finals of the WOH Championship Tournament recently.

IWGP Heavyweight Champion, Kazuchika Okada, has also declared he will be at the event on September 1st, 2018.

Okada’s inclusion in the event is significant for a few reasons. He is NJPW’s top star and the event will be taking place not long after the annual G1 tournament. When it comes time for All-In, Okada might already be involved in his next big storyline rivalry.

Dolph Ziggler Denies He’s Signed a New WWE Contract

Dolph Ziggler was reported to have signed a new WWE contract in mid-February but according to Ziggler himself, that’s not the case.

Reports were Ziggler had signed a 2-year deal with WWE worth $1.5 million. In a recent interview with Fox Sports, however, Ziggler says these reports simply aren’t true.

“I would love to get into that more but based on the internet, they told you I’d re-signed and I have not,” Ziggler said to Fox Sports.

Ziggler continued to say he is still negotiating with WWE on a new deal.

“I have a bunch of things going on and I don’t like taking days off and I don’t want to leave WWE but it’s great to have some options,” Ziggler said regarding what he wants to do.

“I’ve asked before to go away for a little while just so everyone can forget I lose 99 times out of 100 and it’s never really come through, so I might have to do it on my own and see what happens.”

It sounds as though Ziggler is leaning towards staying with WWE but would like to take some time away.

I’ve been able to track down the two sources which each claimed they had insider knowledge of Ziggler’s WWE deal. The first news of the contract was leaked by podcaster  Bill “the Hacker” Hamin. The podcaster mentioned he had insider information that Ziggler had agreed to a deal after almost leaving the company. Hamin did not report the signing as fact, however, more just as something he had heard.  Hacker Hamin Media has a series of podcasts and is also associated with Vince Russo’s the Brand.

Sports Illustrated’s weekly Extra Mustard column on wrestling by Justin Barrasso on February 14th, 2018 published news that Ziggler and WWE had reached an agreement.

“Ziggler, who opened and closed this week’s SmackDown, just signed a new two-year contract for a reported $1.5 million per year.” – Sports Illustrated Extra Mustard, February 14th, 2018.

Ziggler never mentioned during the interview why he never bothered to correct the rumors until now.