Two weeks ago, WWE President Nick Khan teased that WrestleMania 44 would be held in a major location, and though it’s been a rumored destination for years, it doesn’t seem like “The Show of Shows” will be coming London, England.

On Tuesday, the office of the Mayor of London informed “POST Wrestling” that negotiations about bringing WrestleMania to the city have been non-existent despite recent speculation of the 44th edition of the show taking place in a prominent location.

“There are general discussions with WWE, but at present no specific discussions around bringing the 2028 WrestleMania to London,” Tom Degun of the Economic Desk with the Mayor of London’s Press Office said, but claimed that Mayor Sadiq Khan is “determined to bring even more sports from around the world to London, including the biggest WWE events, and continues to discuss future opportunities.”

At this time, Nashville, Tennessee seems to be the front-runner to host WrestleMania 44 after it was reported that the city put in a 3.5 million dollar bid to hold the event at Nissan Stadium. In addition, another international location that has become a potential candidate is Ireland, but WWE currently views the country as a “long-term project” and will only be possible if the Irish Government considers the nation to be a global sports hub. At Money In The Bank 2023, John Cena lobbied for WrestleMania to take place in London, and the following year, Nick Khan and WWE CCO Triple H met with Sadiq Khan to discuss the idea.

WrestleMania 43 is currently scheduled to occur in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which would be the first time in history that the event has taken place outside of North America. That said, there is reportedly contingency plans in place to move next year’s show with the ongoing war in the Middle East.

Last Wednesday, media mogul and philanthropist, Ted Turner died at 87. In addition to founding CNN and the Cartoon Network and owning the Atlanta Braves, he was the owner of WCW for many years. During his time as owner, he put WCW on national television and they were a direct competitor of WWE.

On “The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy,” Hardy reflected on Turner and WCW. When asked by Jon Alba why he thinks WWE’s Vince McMahon hated Turner so much, Hardy paused before finally answering, “Ted Turner was just doing business.”

Hardy pointed to how McMahon would say he was ‘just doing business’ when he was buying up territories. He thinks Turner saw what he was doing as investing in pro wrestling and trying to help it grow and get better.

“Vince took that as ‘this motherf***er is trying to put me out of business,'” Hardy said. “I think Vince justified that in his mind.”

Hardy believes that the competition between WWE and WCW made both companies want to put on the best shows. He called it a “game changing time for pro wrestling” because it forced them to be creative and think outside the box. Hardy thanked Turner for investing in wrestling and for pushing McMahon.

“Thank you for making WWF become something different and cool,” he said. “Thank you Ted Turner for pushing that forward because pro wrestling is not the same right now if not for you, so thank you for your contributions, Ted.”

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The Road to WrestleMania 42 ended up being less about WrestleMania and more about celebrity involvement, with Pat McAfee’s inclusion into the buildup between Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton’s match leaving many with a sour taste in their mouth. It has since been confirmed that McAfee’s involvement was largely the product of TKO executives asking him to be included in WrestleMania, leaving many to accuse WWE’s parent company of getting way too involved with the creative aspect of WWE’s day to day.

But that may not actually be something that’s happening all too often. On Tuesday’s “Wrestling Observer Radio,” Dave Meltzer noted that while TKO did interfere in WWE’s booking during the WrestleMania build, it’s not something they do often.

“They really don’t do a lot [of interference],” Meltzer said. “But as I was told, they don’t do it much, but they seem to always do it at the most inopportune times.”

Meltzer noted that TKO could be gearing up again to make creative suggestions when it came to the involvement of ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith, who has been rumored to get involved with WWE over the last month. Unlike the McAfee situation, however, Meltzer believes WWE personnel will be far more positive about Smith’s coming in.

“We haven’t seen anything with Stephen A. Smith, yet, although boy, that name has been talked about, and I know it’s been serious talk,” Meltzer said. “Put it this way, a lot of people who were not happy about Pat McAfee, in fact, are favorable to Stephen A., as far as internally it goes. But you know, we’ll have to wait and see. It’s like, we haven’t had, other than Lil Yachty, he’s around a lot. But other than that, we haven’t had any celebrities since right after WrestleMania I guess.”

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WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan may be deceased, but he has been the topic of conversation recently thanks to Netflix’s documentary about the character and the man who portrayed him, Terry Bollea. He’s back in the headlines, but this time it’s not because of anything he did. His former accountant, Melissa Gauthereaux, has been charged with stealing $890,000 from a “public figure.”

According to TMZ, Bollea is not the public figure, although Gauthereaux was his accountant during the same time that she was allegedly embezzling funds. She has been charged with six counts of wire fraud. Between 2017 and 2021, Gauthereaux allegedly used her company, Account Resources and Management Services, to embezzle money. Bollea used her services as a bookkeeper. TMZ notes that the charges come after a lengthy investigation by the FBI. If convicted, she faces up to 20 years per charge.

Bollea died of cardiac arrest in July 2025 at 71. His last public appearance in WWE was at the Raw on Netflix premiere where he was booed out of the building, in part due to past racist remarks. His Real American Beer was sponsor of WWE and WWE has a minor stake in the company. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005. 

After a successful run in WWE, Ronda Rousey parted ways with the promotion in October 2023, leaving on bad terms after growing frustrated with her creative direction. Rousey would then go on to publicly criticize both WWE and pro wrestling, claiming she was done with the industry. She’s since gone on to debut in Ring of Honor as well as appear in AEW, and in an interview with Complex, she recalled what she loved about stepping into Tony Khan’s promotion. 

“One thing I really love about AEW is that it’s not PG, so I can walk in there and flip everybody off and walk out and laugh with my best friend and have a great time,” Rousey said. Additionally, Rousey felt like she wasn’t as edited as she had been in WWE. “I felt like I was doing somebody else’s impression of myself,” she stated about her time in WWE. “You can tell when I was allowed to write my own promos and when I wasn’t.”

Rousey acknowledged that her previous comments about WWE had been “catty,” but she didn’t feel bad about it. Despite that criticism, Rousey proclaimed that she enjoyed her time in the ring and clarified that her issues were primarily with Vince McMahon and his chosen creative direction.

In the past, Rousey has admitted that her appearance in AEW was also partly a middle-finger to the TKO Group, which she claims is all the more ironic because of her upcoming fight against Gina Carano that’ll be aired on Netflix, where “RAW” is also aired. She also reaffirmed that her AEW Revolution appearance came about due to the presence of her friend Marina Shafir on the card.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “Complex” and provide ah/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.