Zelina Vega headed back to WWE?
When WWE released Zelina Vega in the fall for not deactivating her third-party platforms, the belief was that she would end up in AEW. There is now word making the rounds that she has resigned with WWE and will be on TV soon.
An interesting rumor going around is that she may manage Simone Johnson, the daughter of The Rock.
Vega and Johnson have been seen shooting some backstage segments, so if they end up together, it won’t be a big surprise.
NXT’s TakeOver has a theme
NXT announced earlier last week that its June 13 TakeOver event will use the tag line “In Your House.”
This is the second consecutive year that NXT will use that name, which is an old WWE PPV name from the mid-1990s.
Double or Nothing tickets on sale
AEW announced that tickets for a special edition of Dynamite on May 28 and its Double or Nothing PPV two days later go went on sale Monday.
There was a presale last Thursday and Friday, so a lesser number remains for the shows which will take place in Jacksonville, Fla.
Slammiversary date announced
Impact announced last Thursday afternoon that Slammiversary will take place on July 17.
Samoa Joe was shown during the video release. For those curious, Joe has a 90-day no-compete clause after being released by WWE on April 15.
Slammiversary will take place 93 days after Joe was released, so he can indeed appear on the show.
Sure, Impact owns all footage from when Joe performed with them prior to his signing with WWE and maybe it is just using the footage to get fans talking.
But, if Joe is indeed headed back to Impact, it will be a solid signing for the company as he is easily one of the top two or three performers in the company’s history.
This Day in History, May 16
In 1984, Andy Kaufman dies of kidney failure.
Kaufman, an actor, faced Jerry Lawler in 1982 in one of the first mainstream pro wrestling matches featuring someone outside of the wrestling business.
Sure, several boxers had previously faced wrestlers, but Kaufman brought a lot of mainstream attention to his match against Lawler.
The duo also appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman.
In 1989, WWF ran a massive TV taping for Wrestling Challenge and Primetime Wrestling.
There were 26 matches taped with 21 of them last 3:09 or less. The longest match went 8:20, with the five longest matches being taped first.
In 1995, WWF ran a TV taping in Danbury, Conn., where it taped several weeks for Superstars.
There were only 25 matches on this taping, with three of the matches being King of the Ring qualifying matches and another featured Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker teaming up to defeat Sid and Kama (later known as The Godfather).
This week’s question
Where has Sasha Banks been? Keri from Connellsville.
Banks has been off shooting her parts for the third season of The Mandalorian on Disney+.
Email questions/comments to powerhousehughes@gmail.com or tweet them to @BillHughes_III.