WWE has severed all ties with Hulk Hogan reportedly as a result of Hogan using racist language.
WWE’s website has removed all traces of Hogan, including his Superstar bio, merchandise, photo galleries and more. Hogan is no longer listed as a judge on Tough Enough and even Curtis Axel’s “Axelmania” gimmick has been removed from the site.
There is a clip of Hulk Hogan talking to DJ Whoo Kid from 3 years ago that’s been circulating, with Hogan using the N-word multiple times, but that is not the racist language that is at the center of this latest controversy.
The National Enquirer is claiming that they have tapes of Hulk Hogan repeatedly making racist statements, which they shared with WWE yesterday, leading the company to completely distance itself from the wrestling legend. The new tapes will be released today and surfaced during the discovery period in Hogan’s ongoing lawsuit with Gawker. MediaTakeout.com writes:
“After listening to the tape, which is DISGUSTING, there can be NO DOUBT that Hulk Hogan is a racist . . . at the level of the KU KLUX KLAN. “
Since the news broke, Hogan tweeted:
In the storm I release control,God and his Universe will sail me where he wants me to be,one love. HH
Eva Marie, who made her televised return to the ring on this week’s episode of WWE NXT, appeared on AfterBuzz TV to discuss fan scrutiny, heat from fellow WWE Divas, when she may have children and more. Highlights from the interview are as follows:
TOTAL DIVAS STAR EVA MARIE TALKS RECENT NXT MATCHES & DUELING DIVAS, RECALLS WORKING BEHIND A DESK
July 22, 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LOS ANGELES, CA – Total Divas star Eva Marie visits Maria Menounos‘ AfterBuzz TV, responding to the WWE Universe scrutiny and disclosing which Divas have her back and when she may have children. Joining hosts Kaori Takee and Christy Olson, of the Total Divas After Show, Eva reveals she once worked a desk job and talks about her famous red hair.
Both fans and Eva’s Total Divas‘ co-stars have questioned her devotion to the WWE and wrestling skills. Speaking out in this exclusive interview, the reality star says, “I’m still trying to wrap my head around why there was so much heat, for me training when I’m just trying to get better at my job. So I’m still, you know, trying to figure that one out.”
Talking about the future, Eva dishes details on her recent return to the ring and her plans for having kids with husband of nearly one year, Jonathan Coyle. “I don’t think anytime soon because I feel, like I said, I just arrived within the WWE,” adding that her hubby joking says, “‘I don’t know if I can handle another one of you.’”
While the reality star describes laying it all on the line on Total Divas, one thing we may not have known about Eva is that she counted cookies to pay her way through college. “And so I remember working at the office for like a little, little bit,” she recalls about a job at Mother’s Cookies. “Basically I was in charge of the orders of how many iced oatmeal cookies or whatever this store gets and…Can you imagine? I used to go to all these different grocery stores and have to count the shelves and figure it out.”
As fans continue to watch her relationship with Nikki Bella and the rest of the Divas play out, Eva makes a definitive promise, in this exclusive interview. “All red everything is here to stay.”
TNA star Kurt Angle has posted a new article at his official website talking about who he would like to wrestle his final match against.
Angle said if he could go back to the 1980’s, he’d love to wrestle Ric Flair in his prime. He also says he wished he could have wrestled Bret Hart and talked about his classic battles with the likes of Steve Austin, The Rock, Shawn Michaels, Eddie Guerrero, Brock Lesnar and others.
Angle said he’d love to get in the ring with guys like Roman Reigns, Cesaro, Rusev, Dolph Ziggler and Bad News Barrett, but the man he’d like to retire against is Daniel Bryan. Angle said:
“Epic matches in the future? The first that comes to mind is Daniel Bryan. He is Shawn Michaels reborn. I would love to retire against a wrestler I believe has won over the hearts of millions of fans. How did he win their hearts? He’s that good. Give me 30 minutes with Daniel Bryan and I will give you the match of the century.”
WWE’s announcement that Japanese wrestling legend Jushin “Thunder” Liger will be appearing at the NXT Takeover: Brooklyn event on August 22nd has opened up a “political hornet’s nest” according to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Liger is a New Japan Pro Wrestling talent and with NJPW having a long running affiliation with Ring of Honor (which runs head-to-head with NXT in Brooklyn on 8/22), the relationship between WWE and ROH is now considered to be more strained than ever. ROH was not aware of Liger being booked for Takeover until the news broke online and Meltzer notes that even by pro wrestling standards, the move is considered to be a major ‘double-cross.’
ROH has sold approximately 1,100 for their Field of Honor show that night, which they were said to be happy with. They were expecting the show to eventually sell out with around 2,000 fans in attendance, but ticket sales have stalled out since WWE announced Takeover: Brooklyn. Ticket sales for the “Ringside with Jim Ross” show in Manhattan on the same night have also taken a hit due to NXT Takeover.
It remains to be seen whether WWE using Jushin Liger is the start of a working relationship with NJPW, but it’s not good news for ROH, which does not have much recourse against WWE.
WWE’s relationship with ROH taking a step (or two) backwards is surprising. Triple H has publicly stated that a strong Ring of Honor is good for WWE, since ROH is another place for wrestlers to learn their craft and the company has produced countless talents who have gone on to great success in WWE. That said, the strong push to make NXT a bonafide means that ROH is now a direct competitor in a market they are looking to corner.
Jim Ross recently appeared on The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast to promote his “Ringside: An Evening With Jim Ross” shows. Here are some highlights:
Seth Rollins Being The New Face Of WWE:
“I don’t know that the WWE Champion has to be the future of the company. I don’t know that any one person should be the future of the company. If it is, it’s poor management, because you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket. I don’t believe in that at all. But I am very proud of the worker that he has become. He has a great mind for the business, extremely strong work ethic, he’s a booker’s dream. He’s a beatable champion. In the territory days, theoretically, on any given night that he’s defending the title, he can be beaten. He’s not so physically imposing that he looks unbeatable. So I like that. If you’re going to have a heel champion, then I like one that has vulnerability. This kid has built his body up well, he trains religiously, he eats amazingly well and he’s very serious about all that. That means to me that he has made a commitment, so I am a big big Seth Rollins fan.
I would not take the championship of Seth Rollins until WrestleMania. At WrestleMania if I have something that I believes work then that is where he would drop the title. By then he would have had a full year and if he is not over and he is not a “made man” after being champion then you can’t blame the promotion.”
The Role of Villains In Pro Wrestling:
“[Rollins is] like any of the villains on TV whether it is WWE, Ring of Honor, TNA or Lucha Underground there is not enough of guys that cheat to gain an unfair advantage. Villains must stop working for the “pop” or the “this is awesome”. If I were a villain in a true sense of the word that would piss me off to no end. My work should be menacing, dangerous and dirty. It is supposed to enhance your dance partner and make the baby-face more of a bigger, stronger and powerful ticket selling, merchandise selling entity. Too many heels would rather work for a “pop”, then work for “heat”. When you take that angst away there is a fine line between good and evil and if it disappears I say good luck to the business. When you take away the “heel”/”villain dynamic I don’t know what you have got?”
The general perception within the industry right now is that SmackDown is seen as a lame-duck show until it switches over to the USA Network in January of 2016.
WWE Hall Of Famer Jerry Lawler previously hinted that the show may move back to Friday nights and become a live show, however we have yet to hear an update on that being the case. There has been talk of debuting SmackDown on the USA Network with a live Tuesday night special.
After SmackDown is moved to the USA Network next year, the show will likely be booked as an “all hands on-deck” show, similar to RAW.
WWE United States Champion John Cena recently spoke with FOX 411 to promote his role in the new Judd Apatow film, “Trainwreck.” Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On if he is the next Dwayne Johnson: “There is only one Dwayne Johnson. What Dwayne has done is absolutely fantastic. He had a vision when he was here at WWE. He promotes like a mad man. We’ll see how I do with John Cena before I can be mentioned in the company of Dwyane Johnson.”
On if it is odd to have his personal life open for public consumption on Total Divas: “It is weird. When they came to us with the concept of “Total Divas” it wasn’t so accepted around [the WWE]. Those girls who chose to put their lives are some of the bravest. I wanted nothing but success for her.”
On why he is so loyal to WWE: “There will be a time when I won’t be able to perform in the ring. I’m 38-years-old. So, if I’m not in the ring I want to be involved in some way. I love it! I watch every single match because I enjoy it. It’s been 12 or 13 years now, the audience is so exciting and electric. It keeps me coming back.”
On if he could face off against any wrestler, who would it be: “Past: Stone Cold Steve Austin because he was truly inspiration to me. Our audience wouldn’t mind seeing that. In the same breath there are some present stars that I haven’t faced off with. Hopefully, down the line I look forward to facing those new faces.”
Daniel Bryan appeared on the Cheap Heat Podcast this week to discuss his in-ring future. Bryan said he’s been medically cleared to wrestle again by his doctor based out of Phoenix, but WWE’s doctor is still hesitant to clear him. Bryan said he understands WWE’s position, but he feels great and has no doubt he’ll wrestle again.
“I feel great. And it’s just a matter of getting cleared by doctors. Their whole clearance process is more difficult than people would think. … That’s the biggest issue. I will wrestle again. But it’ll be interesting to see when.”
When He Expects To Be Back In Action:
“I don’t know. It’s kind of in the hands of certain doctors, as far as them clearing me and what not. My goal was to be back by SummerSlam, and that’s looking less and less likely, and so then you’re hoping to be back by Royal Rumble.”
Steve Austin Reaching Out To Him Regarding The Neck Injury:
“Steve Austin is actually an amazing human being and he reached out to me. Imagine how weird that is for somebody like me who grew up in that era where it’s like he’s the biggest superstar on the planet Earth. Yeah, he reached out to me and talked to me about it. He was actually giving me some very good advice as far as like, ‘Hey, when you come back, if you come back, you need to do more of this and you need to be doing this.'”
Global Force Wrestling owner Jeff Jarrett was recently interviewed by Marc Madison of The News Hub to promote this week’s GFW television tapings in Las Vegas, Nevada. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On growing up in the wrestling industry: “I have often thought and I’ve been told this by numerous people that I respect in the business that have been around a long time. When you’re the son of a promoter and the son of a wrestler, it’s the best thing that could ever happen to them and it’s also the worst thing that could ever happen to them all at the same time. You have to take the good with the bad because being the son of a wrestler and a promoter and being the grandson of a promoter on his stepmother’s side, it’s a wrestling family.”
On the differences between the nWo in comparison to the Bullet Club: “Those guys, the Young Bucks, Doc and Karl have already been part of our Grand Slam Tour shows the first seven that we’ve had. The in ring ability of the Bullet Club versus the in ring ability of the nWo and I think those guys (nWo) would be the first to tell you is that without question would say the Bullet Club is off the charts bell to bell more talented. They organically came out from Fergal DeVitt and Karl Anderson and those guys came up through the hard way in the New Japan dojo. They worked their butts off, match after match, tour after tour. The timing was right also as it all exploded all at once. It is a completely different set of circumstances then the nWo when it was real life set of circumstances when Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, arguably two of the biggest four or five guys in the WWF at the time defected and went south and were taking over. That was as real as it gets. But when you talk about competitive and Global Force Wrestling, we are going to bring that type of competition to the forefront.”
On discussing his vision and future with GFW: “The vision is fundamentally, very different. It’s also because of the timing of things. I named the company April 7th, 2014 and went directly and worked to form alliances with major promotions in Japan, Mexico and independent promotions in South Africa, Europe and Australia and really dialed in and the NEX GEN title was about giving guys opportunity which quite frankly are too many to name. Just in Lake County (Ohio) last weekend at the Grand Slam event, the main event of that show was Showtime Eric Young, a guy who is under contract with TNA wrestling has a serious issue in his head that I, a non-contracted TNA talent left his promotion with a belt and we invited him on the tour and out of that he faced Johnny Gargano, a local guy who is a phenomenal talent just a tremendous talent wrestling in his home promotion right there in Cleveland, AIW and that was the main event. That is a part of what we are doing when we are heading to Vegas.”
2K Sports has been touting that WWE 2K16 will feature the largest roster in WWE video game history, boasting over 120 unique playable characters.
Already confirmed for the game are “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Daniel Bryan, Dean Ambrose, Finn Balor, Paige, Bad News Barrett and Eva Marie.
Gamestop Italy has leaked 5 new characters for the game that have not been previously announced:
Hulk Hogan
Andre The Giant
Triple H
The Rock
Alexa Bliss
Those legends are no surprise, but the fact that Alexa Bliss will be part of the game is a sign that NXT will be well-represented, since she’s not even one of the most prominent members of that brand.
WWE 2K16 will be released in the United States in late October.
Deadline.com reports that the crew of Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Challenge show walked off the job on Wednesday morning. Production was underway on season 3 of the popular competition reality show on CMT.
The crew is demanding an IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) status, which would afford them health benefits, pension and other benefits of a union contract.
The Motion Picture Editor’s Guild and IATSE are representing both production and post-production workers on the show and are putting up a picket line outside the offices of show producers 51 Minds Entertainment.
No word yet on how close the matter is to being resolved, but we’ll post an update when it becomes available.
New Japan Pro Wrestling’s highlights show on AXS-TV has been renewed with a multi-year after surprisingly strong viewership.
Season 3 will run from August 4th – December 11th on Friday nights (taking a week off for Thanksgiving). AXS-TV is looking for NJPW’s show to air weekly in 2016, regularly featuring matches taped only 3-4 months prior.
New Japan’s weekly show has been a surprise hit, averaging around 200,000 viewers – making it the #4 most watched national wrestling show in the United States. The fact that many of the top cable providers in the United States don’t carry AXS-TV makes the number even more impressive. RAW, Smackdown and Impact do better numbers – but [great] NJPW matches from last year are drawing more viewers than Ring of Honor on Destination America and Lucha Underground. Throw NXT into the mix and there really is a lot of good wrestling out from a diverse group of promotions.
Mauro Ranallo and Josh Barnett will be back for Season 3. For 5 weeks starting in October, they’ll call the action on matches from Wrestle Kingdom 9 only previously broadcast with Jim Ross and Matt Stryker on commentary.
Hit up Page 2 below for the official press release from AXS-TV regarding NJPW’s new multi-year deal.
WWE announced that NXT Diva Dasha Fuentes is the newest member to join the NXT announce team. For the time being, Fuentes will be conducting backstage interviews with the NXT talent each Wednesday night.
Dasha was signed by WWE in the spring of 2014, however she was sidelined with a knee injury later that summer. Fuentes was presented with the announcing opportunity when she was finally able to return.
Dasha has also handled some NXT ring announcing at live events.
“WWE is such a large and amazing company,” said Fuentes. “I’m looking forward to the endless amount of possibilities it presents.”
– The WWE Network launch that took place in Malaysia this past week was as a regular television station, not a streaming service.
– Part-time WWE performer Chris Jericho is scheduled to work WWE live events on September 11th in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, September 12th in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, September 25th in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and September 26th in Rochester, New York.
– The movie “Trainwreck,” which features WWE United States Champion John Cena, finished at number three at the box office for its’ opening weekend, drawing $30,097,040. Industry projections had the film estimated at doing a $25 million opening weekend, so by all accounts, the project is already a success.
Larry Lawler, who is the older brother of WWE Hall Of Famer Jerry Lawler by four years, passed away on July 21st at the age of 69.
Larry had worked in management for Kimberly-Clark in Memphis, Tennessee for most of his life before opening up Lawler’s Grocery in Water Valley, Mississippi.
SEScoops.com would like to offer its’ condolences to the family and friends of the late Larry Lawler.
An interesting thing to keep an eye on over the next month is how much ESPN covers this year’s WWE SummerSlam pay-per-view, as well as the SummerSlam weekend festivities.
Behind-the-scenes at ESPN right now, there are two different viewpoints. Jonathan Coachman, the former WWE broadcaster turned ESPN analyst has pushed fans to contact ESPN with the idea of covering SummerSlam like it’s a major sporting event.
There are those in ESPN who have fallen for the idea that WWE is “hot” right now, despite the fact that ratings are at record low levels and live attendance is around its’ usual levels.
ESPN is said to be feeling pressure because the company’s revenues are dropping significantly. There are those who work for ESPN, however, that are dead set against the network covering pro wrestling because of the fact that it’s not a legitimate sporting event.
– The following matches are confirmed for the Ring Of Honor television taping scheduled for Saturday, July 25th in Baltimore, Maryland.
* Bloodbound (Grey Wolf and Scorpion) vs. The Briscoes
* ACH vs. Watanabe
* Caprice Coleman vs. Cedric Alexander
* Hanson vs. Jay Lethal for the Television Title
* Brutal Bob Evans vs. Cheeseburger
* Young Bucks vs. RPG Vice
– Ring of Honor’s Raymond Rowe (Ray Rowe) is producing a documentary on his journey back to the ring following a life threatening motorcycle accident. Rowe wrote the following pitch on his Go Fund Me page:
“On August 12, 2014 my life changed forever in a motorcycle crash that should have killed me. “The Path” is an upcoming documentary that will tell the story of my career, my accident, and my recovery and return to the ring. Hear it first hand from those closest to me and those who were with me day by day on the comeback trail.
“Please donate, share and spread the word to help finish production and distribution of this project. A portion of the proceeds from this film will go to repay medical bills that were not covered by insurance and are still outstanding.”
– WWE is scheduled to release their “Beast In The East” WWE Network special from Japan on DVD and Blu-ray in the United Kingdom and Australia on October 5th. In addition to the matches that aired on the WWE Network live special, the DVD will also feature the dark matches, which included Cesaro vs. Diego and The New Day vs. The Lucha Dragons.
– WWE Hall Of Famer Ric Flair is scheduled to make an appearance for Top Rope Promotions at their Summer Showdown 2015 event on July 31st. For more information, visit Facebook.com/TopRopePromotions.
– John Laurinaitis posted the following photo on social media that features Irish WWE performers Becky Lynch, Sheamus and Fit Finlay.
– TNA World Champion Ethan Carter III commented on Bully Ray being brought back to become the new TNA authority figure in a new video released on the company’s official YouTube page.
“Maybe my aunt going through that table jarred something loose and made her insane,” said EC3 of Dixie Carter’s decision to bring Bully Ray back to TNA.
You can check out the complete video below.
https://youtu.be/jO4Oy6Kwu1M
– Josh Mathews and The Pope discuss who could be the next TNA Hall Of Fame inductee announced for this year on the latest edition of TNA Breakdown, which you can watch below. The two speculated that the latest TNA Hall Of Fame inductee could be TNA founder Jeff Jarrett.
As seen on Monday’s post-Battleground edition of WWE RAW, former NXT Champion Kevin Owens was one of the wrestlers involved in breaking up the brawl between The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar, a spot usually designed for lower to mid-card talent.
Since beating John Cena at the WWE Elimination Chamber pay-per-view in May, Owens has not had a televised victory over a main event talent. In fact, Owens’ last win on television — excluding NXT — was at the June 16th SmackDown television taping, where he pinned Cesaro.
Wrestling Observer Live’s Bryan Alvarez reported on Tuesday that Owens has been dropped to an “upper mid-card position” due to the fact that WWE officials do not see him being on the level of Cena, Randy Orton or Seth Rollins.
Based on recent storylines, it appears that Owens will be feuding with Cesaro and Rusev for the foreseeable future.
The following matches will air on tonight’s edition of Lucha Underground TV, which airs on the El Rey Network at 8pm EST/PST.
– Texano vs. Johnny Mundo
– The Mack vs. Cage
– Battle Royal for the Final Aztec Medallion – Fenix vs. Killshot vs. Argenis vs. Famous B vs. Mascara Sagrada cs. Vinny Massaro vs. Ricky Mandel vs. SuperFly vs. DelAvar Daivari vs. Marty the Moth Martinez
– Prince Puma Speaks
For a video preview of this week’s show, click “play” on the YouTube player embedded above.
WWE taped the following matches prior to last night’s SmackDown television taping in Lincoln, Nebraska for this week’s edition of WWE Main Event.
– R-Truth defeated Bo Dallas in the first match taped for this week’s WWE Main Event. The finish saw Truth roll-up Dallas while Dallas was playing to the crowd. Apparently the fans were into hating Dallas in Lincoln.
– Some video replays are shown highlighting some of the action on this week’s post-Battleground edition of WWE RAW.
– JoJo interviews The Lucha Dragons backstage. The Lucha Dragons, who are scheduled to face Big E. and Kofi Kingston during tonight’s Main Event, focus their promo on The New Day.
– Big E. & Kofi Kingston defeated The Lucha Dragons in tag-team action. Again, the crowd was into hating on The New Day members, and were strongly into the high-spots that Sin Cara and Kalisto did in the match.
– The Prime Time Players defeated The Ascension in tag-team action. This served as the headline bout of this week’s edition of WWE Main Event, which the WWE Tag-Team Champions won via clean pinfall to end the taping.
WWE Hall Of Famer Harley Race recently spoke with the folks at The Two Man Power Trip Of Wrestling podcast about a number of topics related to his legendary career. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On what students take away from a Harley Race Wrestling Camp: “They are going to learn how to take care of themselves and then how to perform inside that squared circle. After that we start sticking them into the ring and see how they would look for the public. When you’ve got the physical side and that’s pretty much all the way down then the other parts will come along to you fairly easy.”
On heat with Ric Flair during his career and not wanting to drop the NWA Title: “Overall, Flair and I have had a hellishly active part of wrestling. He knows and I know that we are too old to want to get involved with this stuff now. In 1983, Flair was just starting to really get involved and I was at that point in time thinking that that he wasn’t ready but once he got really involved in the championship part of it (the business) he came along to be one of the best ever. Flair proved to me that he was a good hand in the ring and he was in there with the absolute very best so it was all pretty easy from there.”
On memories of Dusty Rhodes: “Dusty was probably one of the best interview people ever in wrestling. He could talk about anything on the face of God’s green earth and make it sound like it was extremely important. Overall, Dusty could perform in that ring as well as just about anybody. I never really had a bad performance with Dusty in any of the matches that we ever had. There are very few people that I can say that about.”
On working against Terry Funk and Dory Funk Jr. and if he has a preference between the two: “Dory was very, very good in the ring. He and Terry both were great in there but I can’t mention one without mentioning the other. Between the two of them it was just the flip of a coin, with Dory you could have a little bit better of a wrestling match. Terry was good for wrestling but he was very very good at scrambling.”
On bodyslamming Andre The Giant: “The only reservation I ever had was to have everything in the right spot at the right time and to be able to come up with him. Because you were lifting the world’s biggest athlete. It was a hell of a lot better to be on the same side as him.”
On the WWF’s national expansion and invading “his territory” during the 1980s: “By the time they had done the expansion you knew that they were going around the whole entire country. I didn’t want to get involved in fights with them or against them. I just wanted to stay Harley Race in the wrestling world, worldwide and that is what I did for a long time.”