Strowman, McIntyre join select company
During the first 18 years of the Intercontinental title, only a handful of WWE stars won it before winning the WWE championship.
When the title debuted, WWE sometimes ran three shows a night with the heavyweight champion headlining a show, the IC champ main-eventing another and the tag champions leading the way for the third event.
For almost 20 years, the only wrestlers to win the IC title and then the WWE championship were Randy Savage, The Ultimate Warrior, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and Diesel.
Prior to WrestleMania last weekend, only 22 stars had done it since the IC title was debuted in 1979 with Kofi Kingston being the last to pull it off.
But when Braun Strowman defeated Goldberg for the Universal crown last Saturday and Drew McIntyre defeated Brock Lesnar for the WWE championship the next night, the list of former IC titlists to win WWE world titles grew to 24.
Strowman’s win came one PPV after losing the IC title to Sami Zayn in a handicapped match while McIntyre’s IC reign began when he won the title at TLC on Dec. 13, 2009.
WWE adjusts taping schedule
Vince McMahon has decided that WWE will film Raw, NXT and Smackdown live each week at their regular times from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, despite residents in the state being told to stay home.
This comes after WWE had originally decided to film up to five weeks of each show this past week and air them on delay.
Rousey riles up fans
Ronda Rousey was quoted in a piece on Thursday about wrestling fans, and she has a lot of people up in a tizzy.
She commented about WWE fans, insulting them, actually, and has caused quite the stir.
Rousey also spoke about pro wrestling being “fake fighting” and it led to many female stars taking to social media to comment.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but this smells like the beginning of a story line for when Rousey comes back.
Does anyone else sense a Becky Lynch vs. Rousey match for Mania 37 in L.A.?
Taker v. Sting to finally happen?
Speaking of Mania 37, anyone else think WWE could revisit the Boneyard match concept with The Undertaker facing Sting?
That is one of only a few dream matches left in the world of pro wrestling, although the match would be 20 years too late.
The Boneyard match between Taker and AJ Styles was a career highlight for both, and you better believe that it was used as a test run for the next Boneyard match.
WWE touts Mania records
Every year after Mania, WWE announces in a press release the different records WrestleMania breaks, and this year is no different.
Mania was the most social event in WWE history as a total of 13.8 social media interactions took place between Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, which was up 57 percent from Mania 35 a year ago.
Also, WWE set a Mania week record with more than 967 million video views across the company’s digital and social platforms.
It broke down to another record of 46 million hours of content being consumed during the week, which is 28 percent higher than last year.
Kickoff show numbers down
A year ago, the Mania Kickoff show drew 749,000 viewers to the USA Network.
This past weekend, Saturday’s version drew 106,000 views to FS1 while Sunday’s had 112,000.
WWE on Netflix
Within the last week, The Big Show Show as well as The Main Event have been released on Netflix.
The Big Show Show, features — you guessed it — The Big Show while The Main Event is geared towards kids.
Revival finally released by WWE
On Friday, former Raw and Smackdown tag team champions The Revival were released from their contracts.
The duo have been trying to get released for months and all signs point to them heading to AEW.
Dash Wilder will now be known as Cash Wheeler and Scott Dawson will be known as Dax Harwood.
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