Here is your fight-size update for Tuesday, March 9, 2021:
- During an interview with AP, Stephanie McMahon talked about the need for life and that WWE shows. In the article, it was stated that live events could resume in July and it was also reiterated that WWE must find a new home for its ThunderDome setup by April 9. April 9 is the final Friday before WrestleMania takes place that weekend.
“Bringing back fans was needed, and we’ve been able to try things out that we have thought about but not had the chance,” WWE chief brand officer Stephanie McMahon said. “I’ve been blown away by all capabilities we have had with it and bringing it to life. We can apply everything that we learned to the future when we do have a merging of the physical and virtual fans.”
- In an interview with Tony Maglio of The Wrap, Bobby Lashley explained how The Hurt Business got its name.
“It was me. I was thinking about this before, I was thinking about the whole thing before. Originally, a boxing coach that I had down in Coconut Creek at American Top Team. He used to always wear this T-shirt and I was like, man, that is incredible man, that needs to be in WWE because that’s my character. I just need a group. So I just loved it forever. And this was several years back, several, several years back, and I held onto it. And when we came, I was still holding onto it. And I was like man, I wanted to do something like that, but I need the right people involved.
"Then when MVP had that Royal Rumble, he was only going to do that, but when he was there, we had worked before and I told him, ‘Man, you know what character you are… you are kind of a mix between Suge Knight, and Don King.’ I said, ‘If you mix all those up that is you.’ And I told him about this and then me and him got together and he was like, ‘We can make a real little faction out of this.’ And of course, we thought about Shelton (Benjamin), because Shelton wasn’t really doing anything, everybody knows how good Shelton is but everything really depends on timing and finding the right role for you. I was like, man we got to bring Shelton, because Shelton gets it. And then we needed a young boy to come up, and Cedric (Alexander) is phenomenal. But when we went to go look for The Hurt Business at that time, I was like, man, let’s try The Hurt Business, and we sent it in, and then when it came back it shocked us. Like, what? Nobody has it? Nobody copyrighted it or nothing… And the merch guy came up to me and was like, ‘Bro, you’ll never believe it, it is open.’ I said let’s go, let’s start printing. And as soon as we put it out, the T-shirts went like crazy at the beginning. Black and gold, The Hurt Business, it was beautiful. And then our group just kind of formed from there.
“And then before I ran with it, I called my boxing coach down there at Coconut Creek and I asked for his blessing and he was like, ‘Use the name, just send me a few T-shirts.’ I said cool.”
- Check out the top 10 moments from this week's episode of Monday Night Raw.
- Below is the lineup for tonight's episode of AEW Dark.
- Cameron Stewart and Ryzin vs. Varsity Blonds
- Sonny Kiss and Joey Janela vs. Santana and Ortiz
- Kip Sabian vs. Carlie Bravo
- Fuego Del Sol vs. QT Marshall
- Diamante vs. Savannah Thorne
- Baron Black vs. Lee Johnson
- Angel Fashion vs. Powerhouse Hobbs
- SCU vs. Azriel and Danny Limelight
- Abadon vs. Katalina Perez
- Aaron Frye, D3, Jon Cruz, Vary Morales vs. Colt Cabana, Stu Grayson, Evil Uno and Alex Reynolds of The Dark Order
- The Pretty Picture (Cezar Bononi and Peter Avalon) and Ryan Nemeth vs. Aaron Solow, Brick Aldridge and Dean Alexander
- ICYMI: ROH has announced that at their next pay-per-view, RUSH will defend the Ring of Honor World Championship against Jay Lethal.
Two-time ROH World Champion RUSH has been dominant since making his ROH debut more than two years ago. Two-time former ROH World Champion Jay Lethal holds the record for most days as world champion and is regarded as “The Franchise” of ROH.
It was inevitable that these two highly decorated stars would collide. The dream match becomes a reality when they square off in the main event of the 19th Anniversary pay-per-view on March 26.
Lethal earned the title shot by winning a Four Corner Survival Match over Matt Taven, Jay Briscoe and EC3. He is looking to become just the second man to win the ROH World Title on three occasions.
Not only is this a showdown for the richest prize in the sport, but it’s also part of an ongoing battle for supremacy between two factions with polar opposite philosophies.
The Foundation (Lethal, Pure Champion Jonathan Gresham, Tracy Williams and Rhett Titus) are on a mission to restore honor in ROH, and they believe they must “purify” all the titles to achieve that goal.
Conversely, La Facción Ingobernable (RUSH, Dragon Lee, Kenny King, Bestia del Ring and Amy Rose) pride themselves on being ungovernable, winning at any cost and humiliating their opponents. In addition to the ROH World Title, LFI has the World Television Title (held by Lee) and World Tag Team Title (held by Lee and King) in its possession.
Will RUSH continue his reign of terror? Or will Lethal reach the pinnacle for the third time? Join us on pay-per-view or streaming for HonorClub to find out!
ROH PRESENTS 19th ANNIVERSARY
FRIDAY, MARCH 26, 8 P.M. EASTERN
ON PAY-PER-VIEW AND HONORCLUB
19th ANNIVERSARY HOUR ONE AIRS FREE ON MULTIPLE PLATFORMS
- Ahead of their comeback on March 21, the NWA is releasing the names of some of the competitors you can expect to be a part of the relaunch.
The King of the Concrete Jungle is making his way to the NWA. New York's own @SliceBoogie is making his debut at #BackForTheAttack!
— NWA (@nwa) March 8, 2021
Pre-order now: https://t.co/XJsyRNUIKo pic.twitter.com/YUjcG3WeTS
The National Wrestling Alliance is on Red Alert. @Crimson will show no mercy at #BackForTheAttack!
— NWA (@nwa) March 9, 2021
Pre-order now: https://t.co/XJsyROck8Y pic.twitter.com/DPPx3zsdPC
- In an interview with WrestlingInc, Ric Flair gave his opinion on The Miz, who was briefly his protege in 2013.
“I have nothing but respect for him. He is a guy that’s come up and been… he is incredibly passionate about this business, and he cares so much. And even watching him last night walking around talking to himself for a half-hour preparing for the interview. I know that he’s had obstacles here. He’s overcome them all. He’s happily married. He’s got two kids, and there’s always going to be a place for a guy like him because he’s just that good a guy. And the thing that I tell a lot of people is if you can take all the stuff they give you and somehow turn it into something that becomes entertaining, something that you can make entertaining, even if you don’t like it, you’ll be here forever."
Flair continued, "They’re not going to hand you the belt every day. There will be days when they’re going to say, ‘I need you to do this.’ You’re going to go, ‘I can’t do that.’ Find a way to do it. You’re not gone. It’s just, why not? They made all this money, and they ask you to do something. It took me forever to get used to it, but once I did… they put me in an insane asylum at WCW!”
- New Jack says he's been cleared and openly shifted his attention to AEW on Twitter.
The Doctor has given me the greenlight,all systems go..AEW can you hear me
— New Jack (@theOnlyNewJack) March 9, 2021
- WWE stock closed at $56.07 per share today. This was a decrease of 1.2% from yesterday.
- You can check out Fightful’s Robert DeFelice on the Wrestfriends podcast at this link.
- Make sure you are subscribed to Fightful Select. A subscription grants you early access to interviews, Q&A opportunities, early looks at breaking news, and more. Also, make sure to check us out on YouTube and Twitch.
