All throughout the day on social media this past Tuesday afternoon, Global Force Wrestling founder Jeff Jarrett has been tweeting about some potential major news for his upstart GFW promotion.

Below are a recap of the tweets dealing with the subject.

Well, we've had a pretty interesting morning around the @GFWWrestling office… #StayTuned

— Jeff Jarrett (@RealJeffJarrett) June 23, 2015

Things are really coming together for this "deal"… Almost in legal's hands… #StayTuned

— Jeff Jarrett (@RealJeffJarrett) June 23, 2015

The deal is in legal's hands… Pretty, no, very excited about this… Here we go… @GFWWrestling #StayTuned

— Jeff Jarrett (@RealJeffJarrett) June 24, 2015

Not the 1st time… Certainly will not be the last– Legalities can/will kill a deal quicker than anything… #NotForLackOfEffort

— Jeff Jarrett (@RealJeffJarrett) June 24, 2015

Well, stranger things have happened… Not a "done deal", but huge turnaround this morning… Definitely headed in the right direction…

— Jeff Jarrett (@RealJeffJarrett) June 24, 2015

• BOBBY LASHLEY On CM PUNK’s UFC Debut: “EVERYBODY’s Going To Be Mad!”

– Former WWE Diva Torrie Wilson is Jim Ross’ guest on this week’s edition of the “Ross Report” podcast, which is available now. You can download the show at PodcastOne.com.

– The following matches are confirmed for tonight’s edition of NXT on the WWE Network:

– Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady vs. Jason Jordan and Sylvester Lefort

– Dana Brooke vs. Cassie

– The Hype Bros (Zack Ryder and Mojo Rawley) vs. Sawyer Fulton and Angelo Dawkins

– Finn Balor vs. Rhyno

– Plus, Hideo Itami will address his injury

– WWE posted the following “unseen footage” of Triple H’s special “Terminator: Genisys” ring entrance at WrestleMania 31 earlier this year.

https://youtu.be/uxCykS6JHBk

• BOBBY LASHLEY On CM PUNK’s UFC Debut: “EVERYBODY’s Going To Be Mad!”

The following matches were taped for tonight’s edition of Lucha Underground on the El Rey Network.

– Sexy Star vs. Super Fly.

– Pentagon Jr. promo.

– AeroStar vs. The Mack vs. Marty the Moth vs. Cage in an Aztec Medallion match.

– Drago vs. Mil Muertes to become No. 1 contender to the Lucha Underground Championship.

For a video preview of tonight’s show, check out the above trailer.

• BOBBY LASHLEY On CM PUNK’s UFC Debut: “EVERYBODY’s Going To Be Mad!”

WWE taped the following matches prior to the SmackDown television taping on Tuesday night in Toledo, Ohio for this week’s edition of WWE Main Event.

Dark Match

– Fandando def. Brad Maddox in singles action to kick off the evening inside the building.

WWE Main Event

– Neville def. Heath Slater in the first match taped for this week’s edition of WWE Main Event. This was said to be a high-paced, crowd-pleasing match that saw the finish come when Neville hit his Red Arrow to finish off Slater in what was about a five minute match.

– The Ascension def. The Meta Powers in tag-team action. The match, which lasted about four minutes, saw The Ascension pick up the win after hitting Curtis Axel and Macho Mandow with The Fall Of Man finisher.

– R-Truth def. Adam Rose in a quick singles match. King Barrett was out for commentary during this match, which saw him leave the announce table to attack Truth, only for Truth to catch him coming and blast him with his finisher. In the end, Truth picked up the “W” in the official match with Rose as well.

– Luke Harper def. Cesaro in the headline match of the evening on this week’s edition of WWE Main Event. This was another crowd pleasing match, as Harper and Cesaro put on a hell of a show in a match that lasted about seven minutes. The finish saw Harper hit Cesaro with his clothesline from hell to score the 1-2-3 and end the Main Event taping.

• BOBBY LASHLEY On CM PUNK’s UFC Debut: “EVERYBODY’s Going To Be Mad!”

Ring Of Honor wrestler Roderick Strong recently spoke with Marc Madison of News Hub about a number of different ROH and TNA related topics. Below are some highlights from the interview.

On his training under Jim ‘The Anvil’ Niedhart: “It came about because my dad and dad’s buddy’s wife worked at a doctor’s office and she was actually the front desk receptionist. Jim Niedhart would come in there because it was his local physician and one day my dad’s buddy called him and said hey, do you want to be a pro wrestler and my dad was sure. My dad had an athletic background so even though he was a little bit of an older man about 38-39 years old, he was why not it would be a good hobby and was always about trying to stay in the best shape as he possibly can. I didn’t know who the trainer was at the time. Being a big wrestling fan and being so young 12 at the time, my parents were separated so my dad said I’m going to bring you to this practice but you have to be well behaved. I started freaking out when I realized exactly who it was and that I would be going there 3 times a week. Eventually from going and watching Jim just saw how excited I got about going. He eventually let me get in the ring and play around. It was just something from watching it visually and studying it so much that it I was able to do at the moment and something I saw that it was something I could do. He saw a little something in me.”

On working with Austin Aries and Alex Shelley: “It’s been noted that in Ring of Honor that it was Gabe Sapolsky’s idea of putting us together as a group and none of us really knowing each other, other than saying hello at different shows. We did that and it was as fantastic opportunity for me and the others. He thought we were ready for that but it says a lot about him (Gabe). We made history together as a team. The four of us together including Jack Evans helped to save Ring of Honor and it always holds such a special place in my heart.

In TNA, it was something where they saw how hot Generation Next was and they wanted to do something similar but I felt they wanted it as proactive and putting in themselves in people’s faces because we had some fantastic chemistry. I had fun doing it and the fact that every single one of them are great wrestlers. I can’t really complain being in the ring with those guys.”

Check out the complete interview at The-NewsHub.com.

• BOBBY LASHLEY On CM PUNK’s UFC Debut: “EVERYBODY’s Going To Be Mad!”

TNA wrestler Rockstar Spud recently spoke with Marc Madison of The News Hub about his feud with Ethan Carter III, working alongside TNA President Dixie Carter and the evolution of the Rockstar Spud character. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.

On winning British Boot Camp: You can see that when they announced that I was the winner and I collapsed to the ground on my knees crying my eyes out that you know what it meant to me. You know, you know what it meant to me. It meant everything to me. It meant all my years of telling my friends that I’m not going out on a Saturday because I have to roll around in a wrestling ring. In their eyes, so you’re missing out family and for rolling around in a ring with a dude? Or oil and micro? Dude, you fight and perform man and nothing is going to happen. That’s all, I used to hear every day. I have friends go, hey man, why don’t you get a jacket on and come traveling with us? And do this and do that? I’m like guys, I don’t know why I know I just know there is a purpose for me I just got to stay. I’m going to stay the course. I really believe in this. I believe in myself. Even when my mom and dad say, you know you should really pack it in. I believed in myself. I didn’t feel like I was stupid anymore. It meant so much to me. So much.”

On training in Ohio Valley Wrestling: “Danny and Rip, if I did something wrong, I’d be going to Danny’s office and the only time I did something wrong the next day I had to choke down a lot of red wine. I got my punishment, I got my licks and off we go. Rip, was an interesting cat himself but was a pro wrestling genius an absolute genius and you can see it in his tweets he cares still to this day so much about pro wrestling. Anyone that want’s to learn what this business is about go and train there because it’s worth every penny. It was worth all the 10 months of waiting and hearing people’s frustration all the 10 months of just learning was so worth it. It was an amazing time.”

Check out the complete interview at The-NewsHub.com.

• BOBBY LASHLEY On CM PUNK’s UFC Debut: “EVERYBODY’s Going To Be Mad!”

WWE Tough Enough Results
Episode One
Aired on Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Report by Kenneth Nida of F4WOnline.com

The sixth season of Tough Enough begins tonight. We last saw the show in 2011, when Andy Leavine won, but was released shortly thereafter. The show has also produced the careers of Ryback, The Miz, John Morrison, Maven and WWE Diva Cameron, who was the first person eliminated last season.

The show opened up with Chris Jericho and his co-host Renee Young, introducing the judges, Daniel Bryan, Paige, and Hulk Hogan. Hogan gets a full entrance with clips from his career playing. Jericho asks the judges what they are looking for – Daniel Bryan says he is looking for someone with heart, Paige is looking for someone who stands out, while Hogan is looking for “The It Factor”.

Andy from last season supposedly had “The It Factor”, but he didn’t make it too far in the WWE. Renee gives the rundown of the rules of elimination, and then cuts to clips of the contestants meeting the coaches and going through the first challenge. Each contestant gets a brief clip showing a bit of their personality.

The challenge is to run from one end of the field to the other three times, wearing a training parachute, then lift a bag filled with sand that weighs their own body weight and climb to the top of the stadium. The winner is Tanner, Amanda is the first girl to finish and ZZ comes in last. After the challenge, they introduce the contestants to their new home at the performance center; most are less than pleased with the “military style” accommodations. Everyone then immediately goes out drinking, leaving the underage ZZ and Patrick behind.

Back to the live show, they introduce each of the contestants, and then cut back to the group out at a club. Gabi shows off her skills on a stripper pole, while a brief clip of ZZ and Patrick in the hot top is shown. The group returns and a couple of the girls join them, but ZZ quickly drives them off after he takes off his swim shorts. The contestants are awoken bright and early at 6:00 a.m. for push-ups and running. Tanner talks trash to the other guys while getting his hair braided.

The coaches then go through some basics, including running the ropes, and picking people up using a bag. The next challenge will include both skills. More trash talk as the coaches ask each person how many times they think they can run the ropes and then lift a sandbag and slam it; Tanner says he can double each of the other contestant’s number. They show clips of each person going through the challenge, the men’s average score is 8, and Tanner finishes with 16 (Dianna finishes with 17).

Dianna’s fiancé picks her up and they go off together. The other women take the opportunity to talk trash about her, saying she doesn’t belong and that she won’t be able to last the entire competition. Gabi becomes the first competitor to pull the “I’m not here to make friends” line after Dianna declares her loathing for her. More trash talk between the guys, with Patrick and Tanner getting in each other’s face.

Back to the live studio, the contestants are grilled by the judges. Hulk Hogan asks Dianna if she’s the next Diva, or a trophy wife, pointing out that she got very emotional earlier when speaking about her fiancé. Paige calls out Hank for commenting that ZZ is the least fit there, including the women. Daniel Bryan asks Daria about taking risks in her life.

The judges choose the bottom three. Hulk Hogan chooses ZZ, Daniel Bryan chooses Hank, and Paige chooses Josh, and then Jericho opens up the live voting.

The bottom three are allowed thirty seconds to cut a promo on why they think they should stay – this is done after the voting is already finished. Each judge is given a chance to use their save for the season, and each judge declines. Hank is eliminated with 22% of the vote, while Josh got 26% of the vote and ZZ got 52% of the vote. The show ends with ZZ inviting Hank to visit him if he’s ever in Louisiana. Chris Jericho then invites everyone to go to the WWE Network for Tough Talk with The Miz.

• BOBBY LASHLEY On CM PUNK’s UFC Debut: “EVERYBODY’s Going To Be Mad!”

One-half of The Wolves tag-team — Davey Richards — recently spoke with Marc Madison of The News Hub for an in-depth discussion. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.

On how joining TNA came about: “We were talking to TNA pretty much the whole time and I really wanted to go to TNA from the start and Eddie really wanted to give NXT a chance and check it out and I can understand. So we went down and TNA was really cool about it. They totally understood. We go and do our thing with NXT and TNA came to us with the deals and said hey we’ve got something for you and can get you guys started right away on TV. As soon as we cleared up things with NXT we told them we weren’t going to go any further and they said they weren’t willing to go any further and we had a contract with TNA within 5 minutes.”

On his time with NJPW: “It was a great experience. It was absolutely phenomenal. I was pretty much there full time for over two years. That was always the one company in Japan that I wanted to work for. I always wanted to be in the Super Juniors and I did that and wrestle in the Tokyo Dome and I did that. It was great and it really helped me to understand how a big company like that works. I always did the independents so it was a phenomenal thing and I learned a lot from those guys and I still carried a lot of what I learned there and work ethic and the professionalism that they embedded in me there carried it on to now. It approaches my style a lot to where wrestling is first and foremost as a sport and a time that I hold very near and dear to me.”

On which matches stood out throughout his career: “I really liked my matches with (Tetsuya) Bushi from Super Juniors in New Japan and then Ring of Honor I would have to say that 45 minute match between me and Eddie (Edwards), Bryan Danielson, Tyler Black as well it was in Canada I remember that was a really big one and I don’t really remember my world title wins because I was knocked out for most of it. I’m sure that was swell too. That match and then my matches with Bushi were just two of my matches I just remember having a lot of really fond memories and having a lot of fun in those.”

Check out the complete interview at The-NewsHub.com.

• BOBBY LASHLEY On CM PUNK’s UFC Debut: “EVERYBODY’s Going To Be Mad!”

WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross updated his official blog on Wednesday with his latest thoughts and opinions. Below are some of the highlights:

On the Brock Lesnar angle from RAW: “Caught up wth RAW from Monday where Lesnar got beat down. Fundamentally it had to happen. Baby faces have to be put in jeopardy and that includes monster, fan favorites like Lesnar who is the biggest star in WWE today, in the view of many, because he’s a legit beast and the fact that he isn’t over exposed. Plus, it took multiple people to put Brock down into a selling situation. Let’s not forget that Brock is still a human and the human element can’t be factored out of how Brock Lesnar is booked. Any one who is vehemently opposed to this creative likely doesn’t understand the art of booking as much as they would like to believe.”

On Seth Rollins’ title run: “I’d still like to see Seth Rollins hold the WWE Title until Wrestlemania Texas. There is where Lesnar could win the title back IMO after winning the 2016 Royal Rumble. Now that’s the cue for someone to pipe up that idea is too predictable but I’ll go for doing the right thing over doing something unpredictable for the sake of surprise any day. It’s a great, long term storyline arc that makes sense on many fronts.”

On Paul Heyman leaving Lesnar: “Plus, anyone who is speculating that @HeymanHustle will be leaving Lesnar is ultra fantasy booking as well. No reason to have Paul leave Brock that is more viable than Heyman staying with Lesnar and I’d do NOTHING to disconnect the Heyman/Lesnar duo. NOTHING.”

On TNA problems: “Hearing all kinds of rumors, some good and some not so good, out of TNA so I will leave them as they are until confirmed but, again, this company is battling to stay in the game and I hope that they do. The thing that all of us can do as fans is to watch their TV show on Wednesday nights on Destination America. I still say if they wrestle more and talk less they will be better off. They are down to their hard core fans who want to see action and physicality and TNA has the roster to get that done.”

Check out the complete blog at JRsBarBQ.com. You can also order JR’s Bar-B-Q products online at WWEShop.com.

• BOBBY LASHLEY On CM PUNK’s UFC Debut: “EVERYBODY’s Going To Be Mad!”

“Tough Enough” returned last night (June 23rd) for its sixth season hosted by Chris Jericho and Renee Young where viewers had the ability to vote off the first contestant.

ShowBuzz Daily are reporting that 1,209,000 viewers tuned into the live broadcast on the USA Network.

Over on Twitter, which the WWE were making use of as part of their voting options, the show ranked #3 in Nielsen’s Twitter TV ratings.

The numbers show that the season premiere of “Tough Enough” had a unique audience of 480,000 (commenting on the show) while the show had 792,000 impressions (how many tweets were posted).

During last night’s premiere, there was some speculation that WWE Diva Paige may have had a boob job, Paige took to Twitter and revealed:

https://twitter.com/RealPaigeWWE/status/613740499170627584

WWE have released figures relating to PPV buys for their 2015 Payback PPV which took place on May 17th in in Baltimore, Maryland.

The data reveals that there were a total of 54,000 buys for the PPV which breaks down to 19,000 domestic buys and 35,000 international buys.

This is a drop from 67,000 buys from last year’s edition of Payback though since then the WWE Network has become available to more countries.

Triple H has taken to Twitter to tease that he’s potentially bringing his NXT brand to New York when Summerslam rolls into the Barclays Centre in August.

This is similar to what happened earlier in the year when NXT put on a show during WrestleMania week in San Jose. Triple H’s tweet is shown below:

#SummerSlam week is about to get bigger. #StayTuned #FutureIsNow #HelloBrooklyn pic.twitter.com/5GnNx41B0R

— Triple H (@TripleH) June 24, 2015

In the video above, Michael Cole has sat down this week with Big Show who spoke about a variety of topics including the fans asking for his retirement, which he said won’t be happening.

Show also spoke about Ryback and told Cole that he didn’t care about the story about Ryback’s parents and added that he doesn’t stand a chance at Battleground.

WrestlingInc have an article up where one of their correspondents attended “An Evening with Shawn Michaels” in Manchester in the UK this past Monday.

They note that the show was originally supposed to be hosted by WWE Hall of Famer, Jim Ross but instead he joined HBK on stage and they did the show together.

One talking point from the evening was The Undertaker’s streak at WrestleMania and how that all came to an end in New Orleans last year at the hands of Brock Lesnar.

Both JR and Shawn Michaels admitted that they weren’t big fans of the decision and JR revealed that even Brock Lesnar wasn’t thrilled at beating the streak and had asked to lose the match.

Matt Hardy and Reby Sky welcomed a baby boy into the world on Tuesday. Congrats to them!

"From Cameron, North Carolina…weighing in at 8 lbs 9 oz…" pic.twitter.com/T4a4ARdqAg

— KING MAXEL (@BABYHARDYBRAND) June 23, 2015

WWE taped this week’s episode of SmackDown from Toledo, Ohio. Here’s a preview, followed by spoiler results on Page 2 below.

– WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose.

-Intercontinental Champion Ryback vs. Kane.

-Dolph Ziggler vs. Sheamus.

-Naomi vs. Alicia Fox.

-The Prime Time Players and The Lucha Dragons vs. New Day and Bo Dallas.

Continue to Page 2 for complete results for Thursday’s WWE SmackDown…

There were live reports from Tuesday’s SmackDown tapings that Ryback may have been injured during his match with Kane. Big Show interfered and attacked Ryback. Referees threw up the “X” sign and Ryback was helped to the back.

Update (via ProWrestling.net): After the taping, Big Show came out and joined Seth Rollins in beating up Dean Ambrose. Ryback was out next to help, followed by Roman Reigns. All three babyfaces hit their finishers to end the show. Hopefully Ryback’s ‘injury’ was a work or a false alarm.

• Spoilers – WWE SmackDown Tapings Results For 6/25

The June 23rd edition of WWE RAW drew a 2.63 rating, down from last week’s 2.83.

RAW averaged 3.670 million viewers, down from last week’s 4.113 million.

Here’s the hourly breakdown:

• Hour 1: 3.594 million viewers
• Hour 2: 3.606 million viewers
• Hour 3: 3.812 million viewers

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will star in a live action adaptation of the classic Midway arcade game Rampage, according to Deadline.com.

The movie’s plot has not yet been revealed, but New Line will produce the movie based on the game about three humans who were genetically transformed into city-destroying giant monsters – George the gorilla, Lizzie the dinosaur/lizard monster, and Ralph the werewolf.

The script is being worked on by Ryan Eagle and Rampage is expected to begin shooting after The Rock finishes filming Furious 8.

On the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer spoke about the recent injury sustained by Erick Rowan at a live event over the weekend.

Meltzer notes that the injury is related to his arm and while it is believed to be quite a serious injury, Rowan did work a match them following night.

Ahead of the WWE Network Special in Japan on the 4th of July, WWE have released a new video hyping up Brock Lesnar being featured on the card which is being dubbed “The Beast in the East Live from Tokyo”.

At present, Brock Lesnar is expected to face New Day member, Kofi Kingston but all this could change in the run up to the show itself.

Lucha Underground star Johnny Mundo recently sat for for an interview to discuss a wide variety of topics. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.

On WWE Tough Enough: “The best way to describe Tough Enough is to just call it an opportunity. In my opinion its best opportunity any aspiring wrestler could possibly have. It’s a chance to learn from the best in the business and meet people who have achieved things in the business that usually take a long time and a lot of work to just be in the same room with. I think that it imitates what it’s like to be on the road and that you’re on Tough Enough and your walking on eggshells constantly everything you do in the ring, out of the ring affects who they select to win that show. I always thought it was a really cool show and I think it’s cool that they are bringing it back and its one of my favorite shows to watch. It’s always a little nostalgic watching that thing and me with Madcap Kelly up there with Al Snow and, Ivory and Bill (DeMott) was one of the most high pressured but also fun times of my life on Tough Enough.”

On life after WWE and working the indies: “That’s one of my favorite things about working the independent circuit. Wrestling for me is always an awesome challenge because you have the opportunity to constantly create something new your canvas is always the ring and there are similarities to every match that you have and what you do. But the canvas in independent wrestling is vastly different from show to show and what you are working is vastly different. On the weekend of June 6/7th, I was in Halifax (Nova Scotia, Canada) wrestling in the Maritimes two great matches Markus Burke and one against Titus. This weekend I’m going to Mexico to wrestle Rey Mysterio and Mistico and the styles couldn’t be more different. I’m imagining the crowds are going to be completely different and I like that. It’s cool, it’s never boring. Sometimes with the WWE you can get a little bit stale. Your travelling is usually with the same group and your generally working with the same person and the same type of match and it’s the same environment backstage. So professionally to go and get back out there I have control of my destiny and I have control of where I want to work, who I want to work with. There’s a lot more freedom for sure in my hands now on the independent scene and working with Lucha Underground.”

On the differences between the John Morrison character and Johnny Mundo: “Mundo can speak Spanish, that’s one. There’s a meme somewhere out there of Captain Picard hitting himself in the forehead saying ah, damn it. That time where a wrestler changes his name but not his gimmick. As Johnny Mundo I feel like I haven’t changed a ton from the babyface John Morrison gimmick that I started Lucha Underground with but I’ve just evolved to where we are now on TV, I am now a rudo which in English means bad guy and it’s been fun let’s put it this way Johnny Mundo now is darker and more sinister than John Morrison ever was.What is exciting to me is Lucha Underground feels like the opportunity to go even darker and have a deeper character than I had with WWE. It is there in front of me and I’m looking forward to doing it. To taking Johnny Mundo places athletically, emotionally, creatively that I never went with Johnny Nitro or John Morrison. I think people that have been watching it have been giving it good reviews and feedback on the character choices and as everything continues with Lucha Underground you are going to see Johnny Mundo slowly evolve into a very dark and villainous character.”

Check out the complete interview at clicking here.

• **BRAND NEW PHOTO GALLERY** — Ronda Rousey In SKIMPY Bikinis & SUPER-TIGHT Outfits!

WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan recently spoke with Rolling Stone to promote tonight’s WWE Tough Enough premiere on the USA Network.  When asked about Tough Enough being an opportunity for average people to become WWE Superstars, Hogan said it’s a sign of how much times have changed since his days breaking into the business.

“If you would have told me ten years ago that this was an avenue to make it into this business, I would have said you were nuts,” Hogan said. “When I came up, it was riding in the car 2,000 miles a week, wrestling for 15 bucks a night, paying your dues and learning your craft on the road. But the Performance Center has turned out some of our top stars; it’s proven that this formula works, so I’m excited that I’ve been reeducated to find the next WWE Superstar or Diva.””

He said the WWE Performance Center is, “pretty hardcore, brother” and put over the world class training facility, the promo classes and the “one-stop shop” nature of it.

Hogan also gave a very strong endorsement to NXT Champion Kevin Owens.

“Kevin actually reminds me of one of the older wrestlers of the late Seventies, some of those guys that didn’t have the build, but they would scare you if you met them at a bar. What hooked me about him was that I was watching a match of his on NXT and I found myself disassociated with being in the moment, all of a sudden I started watching him and he made me believe again. I watched real close, and there were no holes in his boat – his punches, his kicks, everything he did looked like it was killing the guy, which it probably was. He caught me with my guard down and he made me a believer again, he hooked me. He’s got that look, man; that demeanor and that swagger.”