WrestleMania weekend is almost here… and the overload of shows that’ll be running over the days before the WWE’s behemoth. Here’s what we’re doing…
In our news pieces, we’ve covered how Fite have had packages up that’ll cover a tonne of shows – albeit at a cost (with the introductory package for the “Fite Fest” gone, you’re looking at $100 for the Collective; while everything else is going to be on an iPPV basis if you want to watch it live).
This year, WrestleMania’s in New Jersey… which means there’s a rather more palatable five hour timezone difference for us in the UK, so it’ll not be as painful to watch these shows. For those counting, we’re not counting in our “WrestleMania Weekend Shows” lists Beyond’s new Unchartered Territory series, which starts at 8pm ET on Wednesday April 3…
Wednesday, April 3
8.30pm ET – WrestlePro Does Funny Money
Thursday, April 4
12 noon ET – IndependentWrestling.TV: Family Reunion
12 noon ET – EVOLVE 125
3:00pm ET – Destiny Wrestling
4:00pm ET – wXw Amerika ist Wunderbar
4:00pm ET – GCW Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport
7:00pm ET – WrestleCon Mark Hitchcock Memorial Supershow
7:30pm ET – ISW Boner Jam IV: Balls Out
8:00pm ET – DDT
11:00pm ET – IMPACT Wrestling United We Stand
11:00pm ET – AIW – The Slumber Party Massacre
11:55pm ET – Kaiju Big Battel
Friday, April 5
11:00am ET – WrestleCon: US vs. The World
11:00am ET – SHIMMER
12 noon ET – Chikara – Once Upon A Beginning
3:00pm ET – Rev Pro Live in New York
3:00pm ET – WWN Supershow: Mercury Rising
3:30pm ET – Black Label Pro – Adventures in Wrestling
4:00pm ET – STARDOM
7:00pm ET – NXT Takeover: New York
8:00pm ET – Joey Ryan’s Penis Party
8:05pm ET – GCW Joey Janela’s Spring Break – Part 1
11:59pm ET – Blackcraft Wrestling – No Apologies
Saturday, April 6
11:00am ET – Wrestling Revolver: Pancakes and Piledrivers
12 noon ET – GCW Orange Cassidy is doing something, or whatever… who knows?
2:00pm ET – House of Glory: Culture Clash
2:00pm ET – More Than Mania Wrap-Up Party
4:00pm ET – IWS Unstoppable
6:30pm ET – Drags and Dropkicks
7:00pm ET – WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony
7:30pm ET – ROH/New Japan G1 Supercard
8:00pm ET – WrestlePro vs. CZW
11:59pm ET – GCW Joey Janela’s Spring Break – Part 2
Sunday, April 7
5:00pm ET – WrestleMania (preshow starts at 5pm ET, main show at 7pm ET)
Remember: ET is 5 hours behind British Summer Time – so noon ET = 9am PST/5pm BST/6pm CET
That’s 33 shows, with an awful lot of cross-over when it comes to live streams… for us, it means we’ve got to pick and choose: wXw or Bloodsport? Rev Pro or WWN? Takeover or Joey Ryan? Okay, that last one wasn’t such a toughie…
There’s been a lot of debate over whether WrestleMania week this year has jumped the shark, at least in terms of “hangers on” joining the party. Almost fifty shows (including the stuff that isn’t making tape) in the space of seven days is far too much, especially with the degraded talent pool that WWE’s fishing sprees have left the indies with. Maybe this’ll be the year where quality trumps quantity… but it won’t be until 2020 before we see the results with out own eyes, even if WWE doesn’t succeed in shutting down indie shows in Tampa. So… what’s our plan going to be?
We’re probably going to cover a fair amount of stuff on replays, with our selection likely to be a little out of left field. Surprisingly, the news that PAC and the Dragon Gate rosters are unable to attend due to visa issues hasn’t made too much of a dent on our plans. On Thursday, we’re hoping to catch Family Reunion, wXw, WrestleCon SuperShow; Friday will be SHIMMER, Rev Pro, and TakeOver… and possibly the first Janela show… Saturday will be the Orange Cassidy show, ROH/New Japan and maybe the second Janela show… and Sunday will be dedicated to more catch-ups and Mania. As far as “what” we’ll be seeing, well, the features matches from the currently advertised lineups are:
IndependentWrestling.tv Family Reunion
Last Man Standing Match: Jake Parnell vs. Gary Jay
Kris Statlander & Kimber Lee vs. Shazza McKenzie & Jessica Troy
wXw
Bobby Gunns defending wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship vs. Shigehiro Irie
Lucky Kid vs. David Starr
Yuu vs. LuFisto
Avalanche vs. Darby Allin
WrestleCon SuperShow
Will Ospreay vs. Bandido
Dragon Lee vs. El Barbaro Cavernario
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Shane Strickland
Rev Pro
Will Ospreay & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Minoru Suzuki
David Starr vs. Tomohiro Ishii
NXT Takeover: New York
NXT UK Championship: WALTER vs. Pete Dunne
For the vacant NXT Championship: Adam Cole vs. Johnny Gargano
Joey Janela’s Spring Break III, Part 1
Shinjiro Otani vs. Nick Gage
‘Orange Cassidy is doing something or whatever…’
Jonathan Gresham vs. Shinjiro Otani
Best 7 of 13 falls: Chris Brookes vs. Logan Easton Laroux
60-second time limit: Trent Baretta vs. Chuckie T
ROH/New Japan G1 Supercard
IWGP Junior Championship: Taiji Ishimori (c) vs. Dragon Lee vs. Bandido
IWGP Championship: Jay White (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada
Joey Janela’s Spring Break III, Part 2
“The Greatest Clusterfuck”
WrestleMania 35
Your confirmed main event… WWE Raw Womens Championship – Ronda Rousey (c) vs. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte
Some “oh, I wish they didn’t clash” highlights from what we’re expecting to catch-up on:
WWN Supershow: Mercury Rising
The Unwanted (Shane Strickland, Joe Gacy & Eddie Kingstom) vs. Bobby Gunns, Lucky Kid & Marius al-Ani
Anthony Henry vs. Absolute Andy
DDT: Coming to America
Weapon Rumble – MAO vs Sanshiro Takagi
Konosuke Takeshita vs Daisuke Sasaki
Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport
Hideki Suzuki vs. Timothy Thatcher
Frank Mir vs. Dan Severn
(why did this have to clash with wXw…)
EVOLVE 125
Austin Theory defending the EVOLVE title vs. Kyle O’Reilly
Joe Gacy & Eddie Kingston of the “Unwanted” defending the EVOLVE tag titles vs. DDT’s Konosuke Takeshita & MAO
Interspecies Wrestling Boner Jam IV: Balls Out
King of Crazy Championship – Fans Bring the LEGO Deathmatch – Addy Starr vs Nick Gage vs Jeff Cannonball vs Matt Tremont
Chris Dickinson vs Chris Brookes
Impact Wrestling: United We Stand
Lucha Underground vs. Impact: Aerostar, Drago, Daga & King Cuerno vs Brian Cage, Johnny Impact, Moose & Eddie Edwards
Pentagon Jr. & Fenix vs Rob Van Dam & Sabu
Absolute Intense Wrestling Slumber Party Massacre
Mexican Death Match: La Familia de Tijuana (Bestia 666 & Damien 666) vs. The Young Studs (Bobby Beverly & Eric Ryan)
Mance Warner vs. Nick Gage
Wrestlecon: vs. The World
David Starr vs. Daga
Brian Pillman Jr. vs. Emil Sitoci
CHIKARA: Once Upon a Beginning
Ladder Match for CHIKARA Grand Championship: Mr. Touchdown vs. Dasher Hatfield
A-Kid vs Air Wolf
Black Label Pro “Adventures in Wrestling”
Independent Wrestling Championship – Orange Cassidy (c) vs. Bryan Alvarez
Jonathan Gresham vs. Shigehiro Irie (subbing for Masato Yoshino due to visa issues)
Joey Ryan’s Penis Party
David Arquette vs. Timothy Thatcher
Dan Barry vs. Bill Carr
Blackcraft Wrestling No Apologies
Devil’s Den Match – Jimmy Havoc vs G-Raver
Wrestling Revolver “Pancakes & Piledrivers III”
Wrestling Revolver Tag Team Championship: The Rascalz (Xavier & Wentz) vs. Lucha Brothers (Penta & Fénix) vs. LAX (Santana & Ortiz) vs. Aussie Open (Fletcher & Davis) vs. Besties in the World (Vega & Fitchett) vs. Team Tremendous (Carr & Barry)
Chuck Mambo vs. Rich Swann
House of Glory “Culture Clash”
Low-Ki & LAX vs The Great Muta, Pentagon Jr. & Tajiri
Destiny x Fight Club Pro: Fight For Destiny is no longer streaming live, and I’d assume will only be on Fight Club Pro’s VOD service after the fact.
I think that just shows – there’s plenty of good matches dotted around on Mania weekend, just they’re spread way, way too thinly across the weekend!
All of our reviews of this madness, whether they’re on the weekend or afterwards, will be tagged #Watchamania2019 on the website and on Twitter if you want to hunt them down afterwards!