– The following is a new video from the official YouTube channel of WWE, which features Paul Heyman comparing himself to other great wrestling managers of the past.
– The latest edition of Chris Jericho’s “Talk Is Jericho” podcast, which features interviews with Christian and Matthias Jabs from The Scorpions, is now available. The official description for the show reads as follows:
TIJ – EP60 – WWE’s Christian & Snooks + Matthias Jabs from The Scorpions
“WWE’s Christian and Snooks – together in one room with Y2J moderating! Oh man… first-time together in 20 years! Will it be friends or fistacuffs? Plus, Chris talks to Scorpions guitarist Matthias Jabs about the talkbox solo in “The Zoo,” his favorite guitar solo, the Berlin Wall & “Winds Of Change,” learning to speak English, and the fighter jets that buzzed the US Festival crowd in 1983″
– The first edition of WWE RAW in 2015 will take place on January 5th at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas. The pre-sale password for tickets to the show is RAWTV.
– The latest edition of Jim Ross’ “Ross Report” podcast, which features part one of an exclusive interview with Sting, is now available. The official description for the show reads as follows:
TRR – Ep24 – Sting Pt 1
“This interview was just too big to fit in one podcast…so here’s part 1 of JR’s conversation with Sting! Hear about his wrestling start in California, his first meeting with Hulk Hogan, training with Jerry Jarrett, working with Cactus Jack and Big Van Vader, and the most embarrassing match of Sting’s career!”
The Irish Mirror newspaper ran an article today speculating that WWE Superstar Sheamus will be playing Darth Vader in the new “Star Wars: Episode VII” movie that is currently in production.
Sheamus, who is currently in Ireland, where scenes for the movie are being shot, has appeared as Darth Vader for various Star Wars promotional tours in the past.
Sheamus is not currently listed as a cast member at IMDB.com, however, there’s also nobody listed as playing the Darth Vader character.
In response to the Irish Mirror report, Sheamus tweeted:
Yesterday, WWE.com published an interview with Curtis Axel, who spoke about helping The Rock and Brock Lesnar get back into ring shape prior to their WWE returns in recent years.
The article failed to mention that former WWE Superstar Curt Hawkins was the one who primarily helped The Rock prepare for his WWE return match against John Cena at WrestleMania 28.
Curt Hawkins caught wind of the article and responded on Twitter:
He also re-tweeted a photo of The Rock giving him a Rock Bottom, joking that “Curtis Axel’s hair looks fantastic” – since it was actually him in the picture:
At Tuesday night’s SmackDown tapings, two more matches were announced for WWE SummerSlam. Rusev will face Jack Swagger and Randy Orton will fight Roman Reigns. With those matches set, here is the updated card:
WWE World Heavyweight Championship:
– John Cena (c) vs. Brock Lesnar
– Chris Jericho vs. Bray Wyatt
– Stephanie McMahon vs. Brie Bella
– Roman Reigns vs. Randy Orton
– Rusev vs. Jack Swagger
The following matches are also expected for the show:
– Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins
– Divas Champion AJ Lee vs. Paige
WWE SummerSlam takes place on Sunday, August 17th from Los Angeles, California.
UFC Fan? Visit MMANews.com For Daily News Updates, Results & Forum
WWE taped this week’s episode of SmackDown on Tuesday night from Corpus Christi, Texas.
– Jack Swagger defeated Cesaro with the Patriot Lock. Rusev and Lana come out after the match and challenged Jack Swagger to a match at SummerSlam. Zeb accepts on Swagger’s behalf.
– Randy Orton comes out, cuts a promo on Roman Reigns and challenges him to a match at SummerSlam.
– Kane and Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose in a handicap match is announced for later.
– R-Truth defeated Bo Dallas by disqualification when Bo wouldn’t break a referee’s 5-count. After the match, Dallas beat Truth down and cut a promo.
– AJ Lee defeated Rosa Mendes by submission in a short match. Afterwards, Paige attacked AJ at the top of the ramp and laid her out. Officials check on AJ while Paige skips away.
– Kane and Seth Rollins defeated Dean Ambrose by disqualification when Ambrose hit Kane with a steel chair. Rollins ran away and Ambrose continued to attack Kane with the chair.
– Footage is shown of AJ Lee being taken away on a stretcher with a neck brace on.
– Diego (with Summer Rae and Layla) defeats Fandango after the Divas distracted Fandango.
– Alberto Del Rio defeated Dolph Ziggler by submission with his cross armbreaker. The Miz was on commentary and interrupted the match by standing on the commentary by mocking/distracting Ziggler, allowing Del Rio to get the win.
– Chris Jericho defeated Erick Rowan with the Codebreaker. The stipulation was that if Jericho won, Rowan was banned from ringside for Jericho’s match against Bray Wyatt at SummerSlam. After the match, Bray Wyatt attacked Chris Jericho.
Main Event opens up with Dean Ambrose in the ring. He says the Authority booked him to do promotional work so he couldn’t appear on RAW to confront Seth Rollins. He orders Rollins to come out and face him man to man. Rollins doesn’t come up, but Alberto Del Rio does. He talks some trash to Ambrose, attacks him and runs away.
– WWE Tag Team Champions The Usos defeated RybAxel in a very good tag team match. Both teams got in a lot of offence until RybAxel took control and dominated for a few minutes. The finish came when Jimmy Uso got a hot tag, gave Curtis Axel a supper kick and tagged in Jey, who hit a top rope splash on Axel and got hte pin.
– A replay was shown recapping Stephanie McMahon and Brie Bella’s segment from RAW, with Brie getting her job back and a match against Stephanie at SummerSlam in exchange for dropping her charges against Stephanie.
– Slater Gator (Heath Slater and Titus O’Neil) defeated the team of Tyson Kidd and Zack Ryder . The finish came when Tyson Kidd went to the top rope, but Slater also went up and gave him a powerslam off the top and got the 3-count.
– A recap is shown of Randy Orton’s beat-down of Roman Reigns from RAW.
– Randy Orton will be appearing on Friday’s SmackDown to deliver the “Viper’s Message.”
– A video package airs hyping John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar at Summerslam, “The Biggest Fight Of The Summer.”
– Dean Ambrose defeated Alberto Del Rio by disqualification after Seth Rollins ran down and attacked Ambrose. Del Rio is stitched up from Monday’s RAW and Ambrose’s shoulder was taped up, which Del Rio took advantage of throughout the match. After the finish, Ambrose hit Dirty Deets on Del Rio and had a staredown with Rollins, who was by the stage.
Part-time WWE Superstar Batista spoke to the The Huffington Post ‘s UK site this week to promote his new movie, Guardians of the Galaxy. He spoke about a number of topics, including the funniest rib ever played on him, Jeff Jarrett’s Global Force Wrestling promotion, NXT and much more. Here are some highlights of what he said about:
If The Anti-Batista Chants Were Really Just Disgruntled Daniel Bryan Fans:
“You could have fooled the hell out of me! They channelled their rage right in my direction. I can’t put my finger on it, it was crazy. I don’t get wrestling now. I’ve kind of completely taken my finger off the pulse. It’s a different audience which I don’t understand. It’s strange though, it’s really just the TV audience because when we get into the live events it’s a completely different audience and they come just to watch the show. It’s weird, the TV crowd seems like they come to be the show rather than to watch and interact with the show. It’s like they want to steal the show, so I’m just totally confused.”
The Undertaker’s Streak Ending at WrestleMania:
“It sucked! Honestly, I thought it sucked. I haven’t really talked much about it but I think it was a bad decision, a horrible decision. I don’t have any say in the matter but to me, watching as a fan, it made me sick. Brock Lesnar beating him didn’t seem to work and it really wasn’t good that Brock left the day after. I just don’t see how that made sense at all. I don’t think anyone wanted to see the streak broken and it just didn’t make sense to me.”
The Shield Breaking Up & Which Member Has The Most Potential:
“It’s similar to my take on the Undertaker. I guess there comes a point where you have to send them their separate ways but – and it’s just my opinion – I don’t think they were ready. I don’t think they’re ready to fly solo. I realise where they’re going and that WWE will push Roman Reigns straight to the top. However for me, Dean Ambrose is by far the most talented in that group and I think eventually if they just give him the spotlight then he’s going to shine. As soon as he touches a mic everyone else can just sit down as he’s magic on it. So It remains to be seen, I think they’re all talented but to me Dean was the star of that group. I think Roman looks like the star of that group but I don’t think he’s nearly as talented as Dean.”
Curtis Axel spoke to WWE.com this week about his experience training with The Rock and Brock Lesnar prior to their respective WWE returns. Here are some highlights of what he said about:
Why WWE Picked Him To Work With The Rock:
“I think that I gained some trust within the WWE organization, and they picked me because they had faith in me being safe, not injuring him and really making him step up his game to get his wind ready, and his body back in shape for all the strenuous activity he was about to endure at WrestleMania. So I think they just had trust in me, and I think that’s what it boiled down to. Plus, we both come from a pedigree. Me and Rock have always had that bond, just because of the generational thing. So I think that had something to do with it. He trusted me, and WWE trusted me, so that’s how all that came about.”
What He Learned From The Rock:
“Just how to gauge crowd reactions, after you do something just to live in that moment and have the people eat it up. It’s just timing, stuff that a lot of people watching at home don’t realize. The facial expressions, when to take your time with things. Don’t rush things. Just little, tiny things that you don’t think about when you’re starting out. I’m still improving in that aspect, so I watched The Rock and I listened to The Rock when I was there. Just those little details, the timing and getting the crowd’s reaction and stuff like that. It really helped.”
What It Was Like Training With Brock Lesnar:
“Nonstop. I mean, we would wrestle a half-hour without a break, just going back and forth and basically doing a whole match. There was a moment, and he might get mad at me for saying this, but there was a moment where we stopped for a second and he said to me, “I’m going to beat your ass all the way to the corner, and then I’m going to take a step back. And when I come back to you, I want you to beat my ass all the way back to the other corner. And if it’s not up to my standards, if it’s not sufficient enough and I don’t think you’re aggressive, you know what’s going to happen to you.”
A jury awarded WWE Hall of Famer and former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura $1.8 million on Tuesday in his lawsuit against the estate of “American Sniper” author Chris Kyle.
Ventura sued Kyle, who was tragically killed last year, for a story he wrote in his best-selling book, claiming he punched out Ventura in a California bar back in 2006. Ventura had allegedly made and speaking out against the United States military and saying the Navy SEALs “deserve to lose a few.”
Ventura testified that Kyle fabricated the story about punching him out. In testimony taped before his death, Kyle once again claimed the story was factual.
After several days of deliberations, attorneys for both sides agreed that the verdict did not need to be unanimous and would allow a verdict if only eight of 10 jurors agreed. After siding with Ventura, the jury was told to award damages to Ventura for any harm to his reputation, humiliation and embarrassment.
Jurors found that Ventura suffered an economic loss as a direct result of Kyle’s statements.
A feature film based on “American Sniper” is currently being developed, with actor Bradley Cooper playing the starring role.
Last night’s Raw was held in Houston, TX, and a few superstars on the roster certainly had problems. In total, eight matches were held and a few matches were confirmed for SummerSlam.
With Stephanie McMahon and Brie Bella set for SummerSlam, a few questions were answered last night, but many still remain. Here are five questions that need to be answered following Monday’s Raw.
5. Will Orton And Reigns Disappoint?
The Viper unleashed a devastating attack on Roman Reigns last night, delivering two RKO’s and driving Reigns through the announce table. This match is all but set in stone for SummerSlam and should be one of the most anticipated contests on the card.
However, recent reports indicate that the match could be a bust. The WWE has been running this match at live shows in recent weeks and fan reviews seem to indicate that Orton and Reigns have not been working well together. Although many think this will disappoint, I think they will work things out and put on a great contest, and the build so far has actually been pretty solid.
4. Was It Time To End Bo’s Streak?
The most shocking moment of last night’s Raw was probably Bo Dallas being pinned clean by R-Truth. It seems odd that the WWE would end Bo’s undefeated streak after talking it up over the past few weeks.
I think it will be a good move in the long run though. Undefeated streaks have pretty much always been a no-win situation for bookers. They can now have Dallas lose clean on occasion without having to discuss an undefeated streak, and the loss brought out a vicious side in Bo, which could add another dimension to his character. The only problem was that it looked like Dallas could sneak his way into an Intercontinental Title match SummerSlam, but that seems to be off the table now.
TNA star James Storm was recently interviewed by Sportsvibe.co.uk.
He spoke about a number of topics, including why he prefers playing a heel, what he thinks of the return of the six-sided ring and why Kurt Angle is one of the toughest opponents he has ever faced.
As for why he prefers being a heel, he said, “It’s always easier to piss somebody off than to make them happy.”
He said the 6-sided ring is a lot harder than the 4-sided ring and wrestlers need to be conscious of how many bumps they are taking and the effect it has on their bodies.
– As far as the SummerSlam panels are concerned, the VIP tickets for Steve Austin are the only ones that have sold out thus far, however, it is expected that the regular sale will end up selling out as well.
– The following is a new interview with Jerry Lawler setting up his match with Kevin Steen on August 2nd. “The King” still has it.
The script for last night’s edition of WWE RAW was said to be heavily changed late in the process leading up to the show. A number of planned matches and angles were either modified or scrapped altogether.
One of the original plans was for a Miz TV segment with Bo Dallas as the guest. Initially, one of the plans for SummerSlam was a triple-threat match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship, with The Miz defending against both Dolph Ziggler and Bo Dallas. Based on the direction of last night’s show, however, it appears that WWE will be going with a straight one-on-one match between Miz and Ziggler at SummerSlam.
– Following Monday’s RAW, the next time WWE will be in Houston, Texas is on October 28th for a SmackDown television taping. Tickets for that show are available right now with the code: HOUSTON.
– CM Punk appeared as a guest on Ariel Helwani’s “The MMA Hour” at MMAFighting.com on Monday. Punk made it clear he was not going to be speaking about anything pro wrestling-related, however he did talk a lot about UFC and noted that he was recently at the San Diego Comic Con. You can check out Punk’s appearance on the show at MMAFighting.com.
The following are highlights of a recent Q&A update by WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross:
On whether or not TNA can survive without a new TV deal: “I’d like to think that TNA can find a cable TV home by October if they catch a break. I won’t speculate on what I know nothing about specifically their finances.”
On how WWE would book Sting vs. Undertaker at WrestleMania: “There are many right ways to do an angles. I wouldn’t beat Taker twice. No non finishes for sure.”
On whether or not he would accept the announcing position for Jeff Jarrett’s Global Force Wrestling: “I have no issues with Jeff Jarrett. What happened in 1999 seems like a lifetime ago. Nonetheless, I’m not looking to get back into the wrestling biz on a full time basis. As always, never say never.”
On whether or not TNA could survive overseas and what the hold up is between Sting and WWE: “TNA needs a prime time USA Cable TV clearance to survive IMO. The monies earned outside the North America likely isn’t enough to sustain them. I do not know how motivated WWE is to sign Sting to a short term wrestling deal. That’s merely my speculation as I don’t know.”
Check out more Jim Ross Q&A at JRsBarBQ.com. You can also order JR’s Bar-B-Q products online at WWEShop.com.
The major story this week (until WWE releases the latest WWE Network subscriber count on Thursday) is TMZ.com’s report that Spike TV is currently not planning to renew TNA Impact Wrestling.
With TNA’s future in jeopardy if they are unable to reach an agreement with Spike and Viacom, speculation has begun as to whether WWE would be interested in acquiring TNA’s tape library.
On the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, it was said that WWE would likely make an offer to TNA, if the company were to shut down. The going rate for tape libraries is approximately $500 per hour of footage. TNA has approximately 1,000 hours of Impact Wrestling footage, so an offer of $500,000 is what they would likely receive.
In response to the TMZ report, TNA President Dixie Carter tweeted that she is currently still in negotiations with Spike TV and the new of Impact’s cancellation was premature. When contacted for a statement, Spike TV said they do not comment on matters related to “ongoing negotiations.”
As for why TMZ.com ran the story, it’s possible that TNA tried playing hardball in hopes of landing a good TV deal and somebody at Viacom leaked the news to “call their bluff” and essentially put TNA in checkmate. Without a national television clearance, TNA would likely go out of business. The company would then attempt to shop Impact Wrestling around to other cable networks, but they are not in a powerful negotiating position.
Especially without major names like Hulk Hogan and Sting, TNA has very little leverage to land another lucrative TV deal, despite their consistent viewership above 1 million viewers per week.
After Monday’s WWE RAW from Houston, Texas went off the air, WWE officials escorted Stephanie McMahon and Brie Bella to the back, separately. Brie got a big pop from the crowd on her way out.
The dark match main event saw Big Show return to action, teaming with Dean Ambrose to defeat the team of Seth Rollins and Bray Wyatt. Erick Rowan and Luke Harper were at ringside. The finish came when Big Show chokeslammed Wyatt.
– It was announced during Monday’s RAW that on this week’s edition of WWE Main Event, the featured match will be Dean Ambrose vs. Alberto Del Rio. WWE Main Event airs live on the WWE Network on Tuesday night at 8pm EST.
– Also announced during RAW this week was the confirmation that Chris Jericho and Bray Wyatt will meet again at the upcoming SummerSlam pay-per-view in August. The match was confirmed during a RAW segment that featured Chris Jericho making fun of Stephanie McMahon, all-the-while angering Triple H. As noted previously, Jericho and Wyatt are expected to work matches against each other in three consecutive pay-per-views — Battleground, SummerSlam and Night Of Champions.
The following matches were taped prior to Monday’s RAW for this week’s edition of WWE Superstars.
– Alberto Del Rio def. Justin Gabriel via Submission after applying his Cross Armbreaker, forcing the tap out from Gabriel.
– Heath Slater & Titus O’Neil def. Sin Cara & Zack Ryder in tag-team action via pinfall. Ryder ended up being the man on his team who had to look up at the lights, as you would expect.
Former WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre resurfaced over the weekend at a live event for Glasgow, Scotland-based Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW). McIntyre is a former (and the inaugural) ICW Champion and competed for the promotion back in 2006 prior to signing with WWE.
“After our main event between Martin Stone and Jack Jester the N.A.K thought that it would be a perfect time for Renfrew to cash in his title shot. However, things didnt quite go according to plan”
