Why Paige’s Movie Was Delayed, Hiroki Sumi News, Backlash Length

WWE Studios and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson confirmed several months ago that they would be teaming up to adapt the “Fighting With my Family” documentary based on former wrestler and current Smackdown General Manager Paige and her family into a film. Fans got a sneak peak of the film during WrestleMania weekend, but it was later confirmed that the film was being pushed back from a September 2018 release date all the way to March 1st, 2019. Deadline has reported that the film was pushed back in order to avoid competition from the new “The Predator” film coming out that month. WWE’s movie will now be competing against DreamWorks Animation’s “How to Train Your Dragon” sequel.
As expected, there were a ton of cameos from NXT Superstars and former WWE Superstars during the 50-man Royal Rumble match at the Greatest Royal Rumble show last week. One guest appearance that surprised nearly everybody was the sudden debut of former sumo wrestler Hiroki Sumi. During the Wrestling Observer Radio show, it was revealed that Sumi was brought in by Vince McMahon after the Chairman had spoken with the prince of Saudi Arabia. It was reportedly mentioned that Yokozuna is among the prince’s favorite wrestlers. Given that Yokozuna passed away in 2000, the belief is that McMahon brought Sumi in due to his close resemblance to the former WWE Champion in order to please the Saudi prince.
Two major events, WrestleMania and The Greatest Royal Rumble, took place during the month of April. Despite this, WWE is already preparing for their next pay-per-view. Backlash will be taking place at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey this Sunday night. Unlike WrestleMania and The Greatest Royal Rumble, it looks like this show will go back to utilizing the standard amount of pay-per-view time. The WWE Network schedule for this week shows that Backlash will be a three-hour event with a 1-hour Kickoff show and 30-minute post-show scheduled to air as well. This weekend’s Backlash event will feature members from both the Raw and Smackdown rosters.