Date: 05/19	11:00 PM
Views: 1,032

Thurs. #2 is HERE. To help out the site subscribe to Mistah MegaManFan or support us on Patreon. With the cheap plugs out of the way here's Friday's latest wrestling news.

Via social media Stephanie McMahon announced she's taking a leave of absence from WWE: "As of tomorrow, I am taking a leave of absence from the majority of my responsibilities at WWE. WWE is a lifelong legacy for me and I look forward to returning to the company that I love after taking this time to focus on my family." This is a huge shift for the company as McMahon is the Chief Brand Officer and one of the most visible representatives of WWE at business conferences, speaking engagements and interviews. No one but "her inner circle" had any advance notice she was planning this leave, and there's no timetable for her return. (PWI) Her husband Paul "Triple H" Levesque suffered a major cardiac event last September, and retired from in-ring competition as a result this March. They have three daughters together and this is no doubt a move that enables them to spend more time with each other and their family. WWE sources have confirmed she's still "part of the (corporate) family" and not in any respect leaving WWE. (FF)

On his latest podcast Ric Flair said he's not coming back to wrestle because he needs the money: "For the other people who don't follow social media, they don't see how much money I make from Cameo. That alone, I can live on for the rest of my life. I just did a commercial for an image rejuvenation clinic, another commercial for Car Shield. My life is good. I don't need the money, but I do like the glory. I'm never going to walk away from it if I have a chance to get myself over, I'm going to do it. It's what I've been doing my whole life. Do you know how many times I've been written off and shit on by promoters since Jim Crockett Promotions closed down? If I can crash an airplane where the pilot was killed and two guys are paralyzed and get back on another plane and fly six months later, you can do anything. I almost died four years ago, I have a pacemaker, I almost died of a blood clot. Four heart operations in seven weeks. I'm good to go. I'm going to decide how I want to go. This is not for the money. I'm happening to make a lot of money because everything Conrad touches makes money. This is about me doing what I've done my whole life. I watch wrestling every day because I love it and respect the guys in it."

Via social media Anthony Bowens hinted being on Dynamite this week was "taken away" from him. Austin Gunn promised to "address it" on Dynamite but that obviously never happened.

All Elite Wrestling related videos are below.

In addition new WWE related videos are available below.

In this interview Rikishi says Yokozuna was a locker room leader: "You know, he's nothing like you see on TV. Yoko was just a humble cat in the locker room, in and out of the ring. He was a joker, he loved hip-hop, he LOVED to freestyle - one of his favorite rappers back in the day was Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg. He loved to play dominoes in the locker room. He was a cat that, numerous times when we would go eat a restaurant and you see all the boys there, Yoko was so generous at all times and would pick up these bills: food bills, drink bills, whatever the case it may be. I'm talkin' about bills that were well over $2,000 - $3,000 dollars, no joke, and he was always a teacher of the game. Every time a new talent came through the locker room, if they wanted to learn, he was in their ear. He was a good leader in the locker room. He had a passion for the industry. If he didn't like you or you did something wrong, he'd tell you straight — he'd tell you straight, and then after that, it's done. And everybody respected Yoko, and it was just his way of being a caring big person. He comes from a family of the church. Our grandfather and grandmother are preachers of the Christian church and so, we were raised underneath there as a very close-knit family. He was a great, great father to his two kids who are now grown adults. He's an amazing brother to his two sisters and his one brother. And as far as a cousin, man, I mean, I don't even like to use that word with Brandon because he's more like a brother than he is a cousin."

John Morrison a/k/a Johnny Elite is not signed with AEW at this time. (PWI)

Bellator MMA fighter Valerie Loureda was spotted training at the WWE Performance Center.

Mick Foley is hosting a live podcast at Starrcast V. Johnny Gargano and Bret Hart will have events as well.

In this interview Thunder Rosa talks about how long she wants to wrestle: "I'm going to wrestle as long as possible, but I don't think I want to be wrestling after I'm 45. I know some of my peers at that age and they're still wrestling. I personally don't want to because it's very taxing on your body. I can wrestle to the caliber, to the level that I've been wrestling at, for another three to four years. But I also have to scale back and take care of my body."

Here's the card for Level Up tonight. (WWE)

* Josh Briggs vs. Quincy Elliott
* Ivy Nile vs. Yulisa Leon
* Javier Bernal vs. Bryson Montana

Jonathan Coachman has joined the Wrestling Entertainment Series commentary team as has the forner Aiden English.

This week's AEW Dynamite did 922,000 viewers, up from 840,000 viewers last week. The 18-49 demo stayed the same with a 0.33 rating. (Wrestlenomics)

Mickie James praises Sasha Banks and Naomi for standing up for themselves: "When you go, 'They made a stand for them, but the machine keeps going.' That's a reality of when things get to this point, not a lot of people stand up for themselves. I think there are a lot of times where people want to say something or feel a certain way or do something and feel justified in feeling that way, as they should, however, they don't say anything and they put a smile on and walk out there and do a job, whether they like it or not. We've all done that. That's another reason why I applaud them for standing up for themselves. It is a big statement and it's unfortunate that they felt the need to get to that level and it's unfortunate that you don't hear people standing up for themselves and it gets to that point that it gets to."

Some new Impact Wrestling related videos are below.

AEW wrestler Dustin Rhodes celebrated 14 years of sobriety yesterday. Congratulations!

The Nightmare Factory filed new trademarks for that name and their logo. (FF)

Here's the card for NXT UK next week. (WWE)

* Lash Legend vs. Amelia McKenzie
* Charlie Dempsey vs. A-Kid

The word is that Tessa Blanchard hasn't been fired but isn't factored into WOW's future plans.

Lahoud Ignace has been named to the WWE Board of Directors. (PWI)

Speedball Mike Bailey has been added to the Ultimate X.

Jonathan Gresham is done with Impact for now but is open to working with them again in the future. (FF)

Jon Moxley will be at GCW You Wouldn't Understand on June 18th.

Here are the first competitors for MLW's Battle Riot.

* Lince Dorado
* Marshall Von Erich
* Alex Kane
* Calvin Tankman
* Killer Kross

Here's the card for next week's Impact. (IW)

* Ultimate X Qualifying Match: Trey Miguel vs. Alex Shelley
* Chelsea Green vs. Jordynne Grace
* Masha Slamovich vs. Havok
* Chris Sabin vs. Frankie Kazarian

And here's the Slammiversary card for June 19th. (IW)

* Impact World Championship Match: Josh Alexander vs. Eric Young
* Impact Knockouts Championship Queen of the Mountain Match: Tasha Steelz vs. Mia Yim vs. Chelsea Green vs. Jordynne Grace vs. Deonna Purrazzo
* Impact X-Division Championship Ultimate X Match: Ace Austin vs. Kenny King vs. Mike Bailey vs. Three More TBD
* Impact Wrestling Tag Team Championship Match: The Briscoes vs. The Good Brothers