The end of October means the trees shed their leaves, stores start carrying holiday decorations way too early and, of course, Halloween comes around again...
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - OCTOBER 11: WWE wrestler Braun Strowman is introduced at a WWE news conference at T-Mobile Arena on October 11, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Strowman will face heavyweight boxer Tyson Fury and WWE champion Brock Lesnar will take on former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez at the WWE's Crown Jewel event at Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on October 31. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.
Braun Strowman Confirms AEW Talks
More than four months removed from his WWE release, Braun Strowman is now free to sign with another promotion if he wants to do so.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated's John Maakaron, Strowman seemed to confirm he's had discussions with AEW:
Yeah, we've sat down and discussed stuff like that with my agent and things like that. We're just trying to find a fit now where everything kind of will work together since now there's so many things that I'm working on in my personal life. I don't have as much time to devote to the full-time schedule to wrestle now.
Strowman has reportedly attracted the attention of Impact Wrestling. Fightful Select reported (via Kellie Haulotte of Wrestling Inc.) earlier this month that Impact was "heavily interested" in the former WWE Universal champion.
The Monster Among Men tweeted Oct. 3 that "the real game of chess begins." The date marked four months after his release from WWE and the end of his non-compete clause.
AEW would be an interesting fit for Strowman. He doesn't really have the working style of the top performers, but his presence would be a different look for a company that has been open to letting people try things out.
Alexa Bliss Teasing Gimmick Change?
Alexa Bliss has been off WWE television since losing to Charlotte Flair at Extreme Rules, but the former SmackDown women's champion could be returning soon.
Based on a recent tweet from Bliss, she might have a different look upon returning:
Bliss has gone through several different personas throughout her tenure in WWE. She has most recently been a supernatural being capable of controlling other Superstars with mind control and a doll.
Flair appeared to put an end to that particular gimmick when she destroyed Lilly after pinning Bliss at the Sept. 26 pay-per-view.
Per Mike Johnson of PW Insider, Bliss was written off television before undergoing sinus surgery.
WWE drafted Bliss from SmackDown to Raw earlier this month. She could potentially return as a babyface because after Bianca Belair, Rhea Ripley and Nikki A.S.H., there is a dearth of fan favorites for the women on the red brand.
Undertaker Reportedly Not Appearing at Crown Jewel
Thanks to an online video that has been going around recently, there's been speculation that The Undertaker would make an appearance at Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia.
The rumor began Oct. 10 when Hussam Al Mayman of Arab News wrote about a video showing the Dead Man being posted on social media accounts for Turki Al-Sheikh, chairman of the board of the General Entertainment Authority and chairman of Riyadh Season.
Per Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com, the video featuring The Undertaker "is from 2019 and there doesn't appear to be anything to the story."
Crown Jewel is already a loaded show with Roman Reigns defending the universal title against Brock Lesnar and Becky Lynch taking on Bianca Belair and Sasha Banks for the SmackDown women's championship.
Even though WWE does love a good surprise, it doesn't make sense to not promote what would be The Undertaker's first appearance at a major event since Survivor Series in November 2020.
The Undertaker confirmed his retirement in the final episode of The Last Ride documentary series that aired last year.
Of course, retirements in professional wrestling rarely stick. But given the way that WWE sent him out, complete with a retirement ceremony at the end of the Survivor Series, Undertaker certainly doesn't seem inclined to wrestle again.
Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).
Welcome to the Bleacher Report pro wrestling mailbag. The B/R community has always been outspoken, especially when it comes to opinions on pro wrestling and its biggest stars...
'Escape The Undertaker' Netflix Review: A Cheesy but Fun WWE Experiment
Oct 6, 2021
IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR WWE - Undertaker gazes at the crowd after what could be his final WrestleMania match on Sunday, April 2, 2017, in Orlando, Fla. (Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP Images for WWE)
WWE is known as the biggest pro wrestling promotion on the planet, but the company has also dabbled in other forms of media over the years.
Original films, music, video games and comic books are just some of the other ways management has featured its Superstars, but Tuesday saw WWE try something for the first time.
Netflix released a short interactive movie called Escape The Undertaker starring The Deadman, Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods. While this might be WWE's first foray into this kind of storytelling, the streaming giant does have experience with interactive media after producing the hit film Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.
This could be viewed as an experiment by WWE. If the film is well-received, we may see more projects like this for other Superstars in the future.
Let's take a look at the story, the interactive aspect of the movie, the production and whether this is worth taking the time to check out.
(Spoiler: From this point forward, all details about the movie will be revealed)
The Story
The film starts out with The New Day approaching a mansion in the middle of the woods. All three members of the group seemed cautious but still approached the house with the intent of borrowing Undertaker's urn to add its power to their own power of positivity.
This is where the movie begins to follow tropes from the horror genre. As soon as they walk through the door, they split up to check out different areas of interest. As an avid Dungeons & Dragons player, Woods should have known better than to split the party.
Once they are reunited, they discover a key is required to release the urn from its case. After searching the library and the morgue, because The Deadman, of course, has a morgue in his house, they find the two halves of the key needed.
However, they are warned that touching the urn will cause them to confront their darkest fears. The morgue contained the body of Isaac Yankem, but Glenn Jacobs did not appear to reprise his role as a corpse.
A fight ensued with The Deadman easily handling all three men with the help of his supernatural powers. If you made all of the right decisions throughout the movie, there is one true ending.
The Interactivity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyqcPr8ANKo
Some might call a movie like this a "choose your own adventure" story, but that isn't the most accurate way to describe this. While choices are certainly part of the story, the paths never diverge to create a vastly different experience.
One of the funniest parts of the whole movie is the first choice presented to the viewer. After the introduction, viewers are asked to select between "I'm ready" or "I'm too scared."
Choosing the latter will immediately bring you to a joke version of the credits where every job is credited to The Undertaker. Some are listed as "The Undertaker as himself" almost at random. After a few seconds of this, you are brought back to the opening scene as The New Day arrive.
The next couple of choices are inconsequential. The three men split up to take a different room. No matter who you follow, you all end up back at the same spot. In fact, most of the choices are set up this way. It's more about choosing who you watch than changing the story.
The only choice that really matters comes at the halfway point. Big E finds a vial of something labeled "Power" in the library. You must choose to take it if you want to achieve the true ending.
When each person is facing their fear, they are given a choice to join Undertaker to become one of his minions or stay loyal to their friends. The movie gives you the option to be a heel, but it also ends the story quicker and you are told that you are not worthy of the urn's power.
While Bandersnatch offered different experiences based on your choices, this film plays more like a video game. Each option you select will change some cutscenes but won't affect the end of the story drastically.
Games like Mass Effectand Fablehad choices that completely altered the narrative, but this movie is more along the lines of the Telltale games for Batman and The Guardians of the Galaxy. You're just along for the ride and occasionally have to press a button to proceed.
If you go into this expecting to be able to rewatch it several times to get completely different outcomes, you are going to be disappointed.
The Production
The movie clocks in at just over 30 minutes depending on the choices you make. If WWE Network had not moved to Peacock, it would be easy to imagine Escape The Undertaker would have ended up on WWE's streaming service instead of Netflix.
The overall production design is decent. The house looked like it could be haunted at night and seemed like it could be a regular mansion during the day. This was no Addams Family homestead.
Some of the interior decorations looked like props and set-dressing from a low-budget movie that Svengoolie would love. The overuse of the fog machine adds to the cheesiness of it all.
The music and sound editing are some of the strongest aspects of the film, but WWE has always had a top-notch production team, so that came as no surprise.
In fact, this was shot more like a WWE cinematic match than a regular movie. It wouldn't be shocking to find out the company used its own equipment and crew to make this. The way everything is shot and staged feels familiar.
If you said the same people who made this did the Boneyard match at WrestleMania 36, people would believe you.
The digital effects were used sparingly, which was probably for the best. Better lightning VFX can be seen in amateur films posted on YouTube than what we see here, but there is a certain schlocky charm to the cheapness. If you like so-bad-it's-good sci-fi and horror, this might be right up your alley for that reason alone.
While we are on the subject of enjoyable bad movies, WWE should hire the team from Mystery Science Theater 3000 to play and mock this film. It would be incredible.
All movies are subject to personal opinion, but if you are a member of the WWE Universe or just a fan of cheap movies that will make you laugh occasionally, Escape The Undertaker is worth taking half an hour to watch. It has enough fun to keep you entertained and is appropriate for all ages.
Mark Calaway has been playing this character for over three decades. He knows how to be The Undertaker as well as he knows how to be himself, so his performance is exactly what you would expect it to be. If you like what he has done in the past, you will like him in this.
While all three members of The New Day are inexperienced screen actors, they each played their part well. Woods was definitely the best with his delivery. He did little things to make certain lines seem completely natural. He may have even been allowed to improvise a bit.
The chemistry of the three heroes certainly helped their performances. To them, this was probably just like filming a long backstage segment because they are playing the same characters they play every week on television, which are just extensions of their real personalities.
Undertaker had his usual ill-defined powers, but WWE also threw in some characteristics of Jigsaw from the Saw franchise. He isn't quite as deranged, though. In fact, it's hard to fully classify him as the villain of the story because it felt like he was testing The New Day's worth to wield the urn like Odin testing Thor's worthiness to lift Mjolnir. He wasn't just torturing them needlessly.
Overall, this is an interesting experiment. With characters like Undertaker, Kane, Alexa Bliss, The Demon and Mei Ying of Tian Sha, WWE has plenty of options if it wants to tell more stories like this.
Whether this becomes a Halloween tradition or remains a one-off, Undertaker and The New Day will always be able to claim they starred in the first interactive film from WWE.
It's too bad Bray Wyatt is no longer with the company. A Firefly FunHouse movie would have been a natural next step.
Damian Priest Wants HHH Match; Moxley Talks AEW's Success; Undertaker-New Day Movie
Sep 8, 2021
Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.
Priest Teased HHH About WrestleMania Match
Damian Priest is the United States champion and among WWE's fastest-rising stars, and he has aspirations of mixing it up with some of the company's top legends.
In an interview with Alistair McGeorge of Metro, Priest mentioned teasing Triple H about facing him at WrestleMania 37 earlier this year:
"I make jokes from time to time. Like, hey, Mania–Hunter didn't have a match, and that was the first time all these legends, none of them [were on the show].
"I was like, 'I mean, did you bring your gear? Because you can have a match, I’m right here!' He started laughing and said, 'You're on a list of people that have asked me that.' I was like, I bet, I can imagine–he gets it all the time by guys being like, 'Hey you wanna work? You wanna wrestle?'"
Priest vs. Triple H didn't happen, but The Archer of Infamy did take part in a key match at WrestleMania, teaming with award-winning musician Bad Bunny against The Miz and John Morrison.
Bad Bunny was the talk of the wrestling and entertainment world thanks to his better-than-expected performance, but Priest helped get him prepared, and he has reaped the benefits with strong booking ever since.
Now that Priest is getting pushed to the top, he is hopeful that a match against a legend like Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Edge or Kane could happen in the future:
"I mean, I wish [I get to face them all]. I still hold out hope, you know? Especially in this business, never say never! I think the closest one that I know that there’s a chance–and we've already kind of had an interaction at the Rumble–is Edge.
"Obviously Kane, we had a little bit of an interaction. But I'm not satisfied, I need a lot more of that! Those feelings, just standing across from those guys–super cool, super, super cool."
Priest has been positioned as a big-time player on Raw recently, scoring wins over the likes of Drew McIntyre and Sheamus.
If there are plans in place for him to potentially vie for the WWE Championship in the near future, perhaps matches against all-time greats like Triple H, Edge and others aren't out of the question.
Moxley Thrilled with AEW's Success
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZd1EBmxNQE
More than two years after making his All Elite Wrestling debut at Double or Nothing 2019, Jon Moxley is enjoying the company's success.
Appearing Tuesday on Cincy 360 with Rick Ucchino and Tony Pike (h/t Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News), Mox explained his mindset when he signed with AEW compared to now:
"Yeah, it's crazy to see when all of this was all just like an idea. It's like, really? Like, wow, it seemed almost unrealistic, but to take the gamble to come here and be like, 'Well you know what if you guys are doing that I want to be a part of that like so maybe we'll fall flat on our face and all look stupid and this will be a big disaster. But if it was successful, that would be really cool because that's what wrestling needs,' and just looking at now two-and-a-half years later, I don't think it could have gone any better."
Moxley was immediately one of the faces of AEW when he signed, and it didn't take him long to beat Chris Jericho for the AEW World Championship.
The man formerly known as Dean Ambrose in WWE then went on to hold the title for 277 days before dropping it to Kenny Omega.
While he has faded out of the title scene, Mox has still been an important part of AEW programming, teaming with Eddie Kingston and more recently feuding with New Japan Pro-Wrestling stars like Satoshi Kojima and Minoru Suzuki.
Over the past two-plus years, AEW has carved out a big piece of the professional wrestling pie for itself.
In terms of interest, television ratings and essentially every other measure, AEW is the clear No. 2 wrestling company in existence behind only the deeply entrenched WWE.
AEW continues to make inroads as well by adding to a stacked talent roster. In the past few weeks alone, AEW has signed former WWE stars CM Punk, Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole.
Even if AEW doesn't chase down WWE any time soon or ever, it has achieved a major level of success and proved that there is plenty of room for more than one company to thrive in the pro wrestling space.
Undertaker and New Day to Star in Netflix Movie
WWE and Netflix announced Wednesday that a new movie starring WWE Superstars The Undertaker and New Day will debut on Netflix on Oct. 5.
According to Polygon's Petrana Radulovic, Netflix described the movie, entitled Escape The Undertaker, as an interactive film in which New Day must attempt to escape The Undertaker's mansion.
The Undertaker has set up "supernatural challenges" to trip them up, and it is up to the viewer to help guide Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods and Big E to freedom.
Given how entertaining the members of New Day are, they seem like the perfect fit for a movie that should be fun for the entire family.
It is also a unique way to utilize The Undertaker, who is one of the most recognizable legends in WWE history.
Taker officially retired from in-ring competition last year, but his role in the movie proves WWE still sees value in him through other endeavors.
Although it wasn't interactive, WWE tried something similar in 2018 with the House Hardy Halloween special on WWE Network, featuring The Hardy Boyz.
While it was a one-off and wasn't interactive, it was well-received and considered a fun departure from the usual content, which should be the same vein Escape The Undertaker occupies.
Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).
Bad Bunny teamed up with Damian Priest to take on The Miz and John Morrison on the first night of WrestleMania. The Puerto Rican star showed off an impressive display of athleticism and strength, including hitting Morrison with a Broken Arrow and Canadian Destroyer.
Bad Bunny got the win for his team by pinning Miz after a crossbody from an electric chair drop.
In the annals of celebrity appearances at WrestleMania, Bad Bunny's performance is certainly among the best. His match was one of the best at WrestleMania.
The Undertaker is one of the most accomplished performers in WWE history. He also isn't known for handing out praise lightly, so any compliment from him is going to carry a lot of weight.
The Undertaker Talks WWE WrestleMania 37: I Kept Thinking, 'You Should Be There'
Apr 24, 2021
IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR WWE - Undertaker gazes at the crowd after what could be his final WrestleMania match on Sunday, April 2, 2017, in Orlando, Fla. (Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP Images for WWE)
The Undertaker admitted during an interview this week that watching WrestleMania 37 from home wasn't an easy experience.
Speaking to Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, Taker discussed what was going through his mind as he watched the two-night event that emanated from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida:
"I was fine all the way until that first ballyhoo of fireworks. Fortunately, I was home, which made it a little easier, but going through the show and watching, I kept thinking to myself, 'You should be there.'
"I had to work through that. It's a little difficult once WrestleMania starts. I started second-guessing myself. So much of my history revolves around WrestleMania. There was a bit of an emotional tug of the heartstrings watching this year, but it's time for me to step aside and let this next generation have the reins and go where they're going to go."
The Undertaker is synonymous with WrestleMania, as he started his career 21-0 on The Grandest Stage of Them All before falling to Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 30.
Overall, The Deadman went 24-2 at The Showcase of the Immortals, which is one of the most remarkable stats in the history of pro wrestling.
Taker beat AJ Styles in a Boneyard Match at last year's WrestleMania 36, and he later announced during the Undertaker: The Last Ride docuseries on WWE Network that the win over Styles would be his final match.
As seen throughout the series, however, The Undertaker thought and said that before, only to return when called upon by WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.
Things are seemingly different this time, though, as Taker told Barrasso that he knew midway through the match with Styles that he was done since it "became really obvious throughout the course of that night that I could no longer physically do things the way I want to do them."
It is safe to assume that fans being in attendance for WrestleMania 37 made things a bit tougher for The Phenom, as his last match was wrestled without a crowd due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The desire to close out his career in front of the WWE Universe may be something that will eventually become too great for him to ignore, but for now, the 56-year-old veteran is staying true to his word by remaining retired.
Listen toRing Rust Radiofor all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below(warning: some languageNSFW).
HHH Talks Retirement; Vince McMahon Rumors; WWE Reveals Undertaker and More NFTs
Apr 9, 2021
Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.
Triple H Talks Potential Retirement Match
Despite having wrestled just one match in the past two years, Triple H would be OK if the in-ring part of his career was over.
Appearing on ESPN's SportsNation, Triple H said "it's not a big deal to me" when asked about the possibility of an official retirement match at a future WrestleMania.
“It's not a big deal to me. ... (Ric) Flair tells me, 'You’ll regret it, you'll regret it.' Man, I had such a great run, was so blessed to have it and had so many great people to work with.
“It’s so much work and so much pressure. And I guess if I hadn’t found the other side of that, the NXT side of it, the production side of it that I enjoy so much, maybe I would feel differently about that. But I’m at peace with all of it."
Triple H's most recent match was against Randy Orton on the Jan. 11 episode of Raw. It ended in a no-contest after Alexa Bliss attacked Orton with a fireball.
Prior to that bout, the King of Kings hadn't wrestled on WWE television since losing to Orton at Super Showdown in June 2019.
Given the Game's position in WWE's corporate office and running NXT, he will always be around the company and will step up to wrestle if the right storyline presents itself.
If that moment never arrives, Triple H's status as one of the most iconic and accomplished superstars in WWE history is already solidified.
Details on Hurt Business Breakup
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWmJ2D3uVc8
Despite being one of the strongest and most over factions in WWE, the Hurt Business broke up on the March 29 episode of Raw when Bobby Lashley attacked Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin amid a string of recent losses.
Per Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Felix Upton of Ringside News), Vince McMahon made the call to break up the group against the wishes of Lashley and others.
"Lashley and others tried to talk him out of it, but this was one he wasn’t budging on," wrote Meltzer. "Vince just gets the idea that he doesn’t want to push certain guys, and once he does, that’s it. It’s a regular thing, and that’s not likely to change."
One hallmark of McMahon's tenure running WWE is that when he wants to push someone in a faction as a singles star, they must leave their group. He did it with Triple H and D-Generation X, Seth Rollins and the Shield, and Batista and Evolution.
All of those moves have worked out well, for the most part. With the Hurt Business, though, it seems like this is going to end up being bad news for Alexander and Benjamin.
McMahon has never shown any indication that he sees Alexander and Benjamin as anything beyond mid-card jobbers, except when they were associated with Lashley and MVP.
Lashley is in the midst of the biggest push of his career. The Almighty won the WWE championship for the first time in his career at Elimination Chamber. He will be defending the title against Drew McIntyre in one of the biggest matches at WrestleMania 37.
WWE to Begin Selling NFTs
In addition to WrestleMania, WWE is also getting into the burgeoning NFT market starting this weekend.
The company has announced it will start selling NFTs featuring moments from The Undertaker's career starting on Saturday.
WWE will be conducting a four-tier drop beginning Saturday at 10:30 a.m. ET and running through 11:30 p.m. ET on Sunday.
The platinum auction includes a "one-of-a-kind NFT (that) not only delivers a permanent piece of The Deadman’s career but a chance to experience the event that defined his legacy."
The winner of that auction will also receive two front-row tickets to WrestleMania in either 2022 or 2023, a personalized video message from the Dead Man and an original Paul Bearer urn.
Other auctions will include the chance to win exclusive Undertaker NFTs, a signed Undertaker championship belt and various assorted NFTs featuring the Phenom.
WWE Releasing The Undertaker NFTs Ahead of WrestleMania 37
Apr 9, 2021
TOPSHOT - World Wrestling Entertainment star The Undertaker makes his way to the ring during a match at the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Super Showdown event in the Saudi Red Sea port city of Jeddah late on January 7, 2019. (Photo by Amer HILABI / AFP) (Photo credit should read AMER HILABI/AFP via Getty Images)
WWE announced it will release non-fungible tokens (NFT) featuring The Undertaker, the legendary ex-Superstar who retired from professional wrestling last year:
Former WWE Superstar and current WWE Executive Vice President Triple H spoke on Barstool Sports' Pardon My Take podcast on Monday about whether the promotion would jump into the NFT space (h/t Jeremy Lambert of Fightful.com):
"Those are things, as technology changes and those opportunities become available, it's always things that we're looking at. [WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon] has a big philosophy of not wanting to be the first person to jump into the pool, but you also don't want to be the last. That's where we are and we look at all the options. In some ways, we're tailor-made for [NFT] rather than some random dunk in the NBA. Our moments are iconic. It's what we do, we create iconic moments that live forever. I don't necessarily fully understand [NFT] and it's something we look at and have a lot of people in our company that are a lot smarter than me that are looking at them constantly."
The WWE will jump into that pool after all.
It's not hard to come up with a NFT collection for The Undertaker, who won the WWF/E Championship and World Heavyweight Championship a combined seven times.
The Deadman is the author of some of WWE's most iconic moments, and he also made a name for himself with his undefeated streak at WrestleMania, which lasted for 21 matches.
One of the most memorable moments in WWE history had nothing to do with a championship or WrestleMania match, as he and Mankind (Mick Foley) brawled in an epic Hell in a Cell match at the 1998 King of the Ring that included Undertaker throwing his opponent off the cage into an announcer's table. He also chokeslammed Foley through the cage into the ring below.
The Undertaker NFT drop will happen on the same day as the beginning of WrestleMania 37, which will run Saturday and Sunday in Tampa, Florida, at Raymond James Stadium.
