Good morning, and this is the Grapevine! This section of Smark Henry is where we round up all the founded and unfounded rumors abound the pro wrestling scene that you may have missed over the evening.
That's right, the Fabulous Moolah Memorial Battle Royal has been torpedoed way before it can even get far:
- WWE has officially changed the name of the Fabulous Moolah Memorial Battle Royal to simply the WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal. This comes after a barrage of complaints about the name, thanks to Moolah's not-so-secret legacy of abusing her female talents, to put it lightly. Snickers, currently WWE's biggest sponsor, had also been contacted by fans and let the company know of their dissatisfaction with the name, which ultimately caused the company to make the change. Before this, however, WWE had already disabled YouTube comments on the video upload of the RAW segment announcing the match. (Source: Wrestling Inc)
We say: If you ever needed proof that Vince McMahon doesn't respect his audience at all, this is it. It's easily the biggest PR gaffe by the WWE in recent memory, if not the decade, made worse by the fact that no one who had the power to make and change this decision ever thought that people would not look up what Moolah did, allegedly or otherwise. We're in 2018, and social movements are stronger than ever—the only good thing is that we hope they'll think twice about pissing off the fanbase for real this time, now that we all know they can convince a major sponsor.
Also, changing what could still be a historic match to just the "WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal" is ridiculous when there are still a lot of legendary women wrestlers out there you can honor. You still owe Chyna a favor, guys.
- Braun Strowman could be challenging for the RAW Tag Team Championships by himself, or he could partner with Elias. Things are still reportedly up in the air with Vince McMahon on which way he could go, but teaming with Elias would obviously line up with the rumor of the new challengers being two singles stars who haven't teamed together before. (Source: Wrestling Observer Radio)
We say: We're still not sure what to feel about this, but our gut says stick with the handicap match just to sell Braun even further. Whichever team beats him will get quite the rub (assuming it's not The Bar getting their titles back).
- Jeff Hardy may be edited out of the Ultimate Deletion match airing on next Monday's RAW. This is following his arrest for driving under the influence last Sunday, March 10. Reby Hardy has stated on social media that they were willing to cut Jeff out of the match. (Source: WON)
We say: Welp. Jeff dug his own grave once again.
Let us know what you think of today's news in the comments!
Photo from WWE
