In what some might consider to be an odd pairing, jewelry store chain Kay Jewelers is now an official sponsor of WWE.
This is out of the ordinary for WWE, as high dollar sponsors traditionally don’t go for pro wrestling. This is why you typically don’t see many car commercials on WWE. Dodge recently bought ads on WWE shows that performed so poorly they were owed “make good spots” to make up for it. As previously reported, an advertising representative who worked with Dodge was quoted as saying “I do understand [that WWE has changed to a PG-rated image], but WWE doesn’t make sense for Dodge Dart. WWE is very trashy and not appropriate for our target.”
WWE switched to a PG-rated format in 2008 in hopes of winning better advertisers after earning only $7.4 million in ad revenue that year. By 2013, WWE’s sponsorship income had rose to $20 million.
The upcoming WWE TLC pay-per-view is being sponsored by Kay Jewelers as well as Toys R Us. In addition to TV ads, the companies are also being promoted across WWE’s social media pages.
In regards to the “nuclear heat” that we reported Lana has backstage in WWE right now, it was noted to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the reports that WWE isn’t happy with her right now is a “major understatement.”
Despite the fact that WWE’s official website was told — and attempted to — turn the Lana situation into a storyline, when she began publicly tearing into Paige on social media for “bullying her” during her time in NXT, it was at that point that Lana went from having heat to “nuclear heat.”
In regards to the claim that she was bullied by Paige in NXT, it was noted to the Observer that it’s a “preposterous charge,” and that Paige and Charlotte were the two who were messed with the most when they first arrived to WWE’s developmental system.
Another WWE talent ended up writing something negative about Lana after seeing what was said about Paige, but was immediately called by the WWE office and was told to take it down.
Lana is currently in the gym training for her eventual WWE return.
As noted, Cesaro suffered a shoulder injury that resulted in him undergoing surgery this past Monday to repair the fully torn left rotator cuff. He is expected to be out of action for four to six months.
Cesaro said he hurt the shoulder two months ago but ignored it, claiming he could still wrestle and lift weights with it, with only a little bit of loss of strength. The belief is that he made the injury worse by continuing to wrestle and lift weights, as that type of injury is one that you shouldn’t be doing heavy movements that involve the shoulder.
According to the latest issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, prior to the Survivor Series pay-per-view this past Sunday night, Cesaro was aware of the fact that he fully tore his left rotator cuff and that he would need surgery to repair the injury.
As a result, WWE pulled him from the show, as he was originally scheduled to be in the traditional Survivor Series elimination match on the Kickoff Show. After Cesaro was pulled out, WWE filled his spot with Titus O’Neil.
The situation with Randy Orton’s injuries are said to be much worse than originally expected, and depending on the condition of his neck, could be a disaster in terms of how long he will be on the sidelines.
According to the latest issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Orton’s shoulder injury is serious enough that it will most likely keep him out of action until after WrestleMania 32 in April. As soon as he recovers from the shoulder operation, he is going to have surgery on his neck.
WWE expects Orton’s neck surgery won’t be as serious as the shoulder operation. The second surgery he will be getting after his shoulder operation will be to clean out bone chips in his neck.
It’s worth pointing out that it’s possible, but unlikely, that the neck damage Orton is dealing with is worse than WWE thinks right now and if that’s the case, he’ll have to get fusion surgery. If he were forced to get the fusion surgery, he would be out of action for well over a year. Right now, however, WWE is under the impression that Orton will not have to take that route.
Orton’s WWE return looks to be, at best, three-to-six months after his neck operation. The neck surgery will take place once doctors feel he has sufficiently recovered from the shoulder surgery.
Contract negotiations for a new deal between Ring Of Honor and the tag-team of Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly have reportedly stalled as the two sides are still far apart.
According to the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, there have been a few WWE wrestlers who have tried to recruit Fish and O’Reilly, particularly because WWE is looking to load up the NXT roster with talented in-ring performers for a more extensive schedule of big shows around the country.
As noted, WWE is looking to take NXT on the road more in 2016, with their aim to be to draw a similar type of audience that Ring Of Honor draws when they take shows on the road.
As reported earlier, WWE announced the release of Brad Maddox from his contract on their official website today. It now appears there was something specific Maddox did this week that got him in hot water with WWE management.
PWInsider reports that Maddox was released due to language he used on the microphone before a dark match at this week’s SmackDown tapings. Prior to his dark match against R-Truth, he used the phrase “cocky pr*cks” in a promo.
WWE officials were so upset with the language, they issued Maddox his release from the company the day before Thanksgiving.
Maddox hadn’t been regularly used on WWE TV since he was fired as the on-air GM in 2014. He had been working house shows and dark matches prior to his release, and recently took part in The Undertaker’s skit on The Tonight Show.
– WWE posted the above video preview of tonight’s new episode of the WWE Network original program, “Unfiltered with Renee Young,” where her special guest will be The Miz. In the above preview, The Miz talks about his hijinx while ordering food on the road.
– One-half of the legendary Rock ‘N’ Roll Express tag-team and arguably one of the best natural babyface performers of his era, Ricky Morton, is the guest on the latest edition of WWE Hall Of Famer Ric Flair’s WOOOOO! Nation podcast. The official description for the episode reads as follows:
“Ric welcomes his friend of over 30 years, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express’ Ricky Morton! Ric and Ricky share great stories from both inside and outside of the ring! Hear about the nine one hour draws they wrestled two weeks in a row, the drinking, the women and the infamous boat story! Ricky talks about the hard lessons learned on the business end of wrestling while riding high in the 80s. Another great episode from Ric and Conrad on WOOOOO! Nation! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!”
– The latest edition of Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast, which is available now, features an interview with ECW Original Raven. The description for the episode reads:
“Raven returns to TIJ, and this time he’s talking straight on wrestling! ECW, WCW, WWE, the creation of the Raven gimmick, in-ring psychology, booking, the indie scene, Roddy Piper, Paul E. Heyman, Vince Russo, and drinking with Shane McMahon.”
Former WWE and original ECW star Justin Credible announced that he has retired from pro wrestling. His last match took place ove the weekend at an event promoted by Pro Wrestling Syndicate in Sayreville, NJ.
Credible wrote a note on his Twitter page thanking his fans for their support over his 23-year career:
I want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for all your support over 23 years. U made my dreams come true pic.twitter.com/XlTlMpW6M4
Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer reported on Wednesday that all plans for WrestleMania 32 were scrapped by the WWE creative team on Sunday. He says the company had a list of tentative matches for the big event, and they all fell apart for one reason or another. In other words, Meltzer says reports circulating the web on potential matches are just guesses at this point.
“Anyone reporting on a ‘Mania card now is guessing,” Meltzer said on F4WOnline.com. “They had a complete top six matches and everything fell apart. Everything changed again on Sunday.”
We previously reported that John Cena and The Undertaker were being booked in a match for ‘Mania. As far as The Rock goes, right now it’s considered highly unlikely that he will even appear at the show, let alone wrestle at it. WWE is trying to stack WrestleMania 32 with star power to sell out the 100,000+ seat AT&A Stadium.
WrestleMania 32 takes place on April 3, 2016, at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Former WWE Superstar Sean Waltman recently spoke to WrestleTalk TV about a dangerous spot he tried a few times during his days as the 1-2-3 Kid character earlier in his WWE run.
Waltman spoke about diving head-first from the top rope to the floor during a match with Razor Ramon, noting that he fell and ended up landing on his head. Later, however, he would recreate the move successfully during a match with Bret Hart.
“The first time I tried that in WWE was in my rematch with Scott [Hall] where I slipped off the top turnbuckle and ate the concrete. Another time if I didn’t get up and pull something out of my ass, I’d have been screwed. Scott would have had to beat me and I would have been done.”
Waltman said that the spot worried him, primarily because he had been given a rematch with Razor Ramon following the initial upset. For the second time around, he had been booked in a $10,000 challenge rematch and had to meet time cues in the main event slot of RAW.
“It was the last thing and we were going off the air. I had to get that money and get out of there before we went off the air, or we would have been screwed. You can go back and watch my head that hits the concrete if that’s the kind of thing that gives you giggles.”
WWE announced today on their official website that Brad Maddox has been released from his contract. Maddox was last seen in a turkey costume on The Tonight Show in the sketch with The Undertaker. WWE wrote:
WWE has come to terms on the release of WWE Superstar Brad Maddox as of Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2015. WWE wishes Maddox the best in all of his future endeavors.
WWE hasn’t been regularly using Maddox on TV since he was fired as the on-air GM in 2014. He had been appearing at house shows prior to his release from the company.
The crew at WrestlingDVDNetwork.com continued their week of match reveals for the upcoming NXT’s Greatest Matches Vol. 1 DVD and Blu-Ray set today by announcing that these three will be included:
NXT Championship Finals: Seth Rollins vs. Jinder Mahal (NXT August 29, 2012)
Ladder Match for the NXT Championship: Bo Dallas vs. Adrian Neville (NXT ArRival February 27, 2014)
NXT Championship Match: Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens (NXT Takeover: Rival February 11, 2015)
As of a week or two ago, there had been no real internal talk within WWE about booking Sting vs. The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32 in Texas next year. In fact, there hasn’t been any real talk of Sting appearing on the show at all, even though that doesn’t necessarily mean he won’t end up appearing at the show.
As far as The Undertaker is concerned, it appears that WWE is going forward with the plans for an Undertaker vs. John Cena match at WrestleMania 32. The idea of Undertaker vs. Cena came up a few months ago and was seriously discussed in August, and then again in October.
As far as rumors of Seth Rollins vs. Triple H taking place at the big event, it’s said that a match between those two has never actually been considered for WrestleMania, although it’s possible that a HHH vs. Rollins match eventually happens when Rollins returns at some point down the line.
Currently, there is no word yet as to who Triple H will be facing at WrestleMania 32 now that it appears that The Rock will not be able to wrestle on the show as WWE had originally hoped.
– In the video featured above, TNA announcers Josh Mathews and The Pope preview tonight’s edition of TNA Impact Wrestling, as the TNA World Title Series continues.
– The following matches are set for tonight’s Impact Wrestling:
* Bobby Lashley vs. Austin Aries
* Robbie E. vs. Davey Richards
* Bram vs. Grado
* Drew Galloway vs. Rockstar Spud
* Jessie Godderz vs. Micah
* Manik vs. Tigre Uno vs. DJ Zema Ion
* Kenny King vs. Crazzy Steve
– The pre-sale for TNA’s five nights of television tapings in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in January has officially begun. You can access the pre-sale with the code: SANDS2016. Tickets start at just $10. Below is the official poster for the tapings.
Presale for Bethlehem is on now through tomorrow night!
WWE posted the above video of former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins beginning rehab for his surgically repaired knee.
Rollins says the progress he has made so far is good, and he’s only getting better every day. Dr. Kevin Wilk is also featured in the video, pointing out that the injury Rollins has brings a more complex surgery and rehab.
Seth Rollins is currently rehabbing for five hours a day, which he points out are “brutal sessions.”
The doctor also spoke about Rollins being very motivated and that he expects a full recovery from the former WWE champion. Rollins points out that he is looking to get back in the ring as soon as possible and plans on taking back his WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
TNA star Ethan Carter III recently spoke with Busted Open Radio about what makes him such a good heel in the business right now.
During the interview, EC3 revealed his take on the reason he’s an exceptional heel compared to other “bad guys” in the business.
“I just don’t do cool moves. I know what you guys are saying and it’s very difficult, in this day and age especially, because some of the audience is – they like their villains, they like their antagonists. Probably because when you play that role, you can come out of your shell a lot more and maybe – I don’t want to say be more entertaining – be outside yourself more, be out there more. Some fans attract to that, but when people boo me, that was a compliment because I work to get those….Most of the time the fans enjoy booing me and it’s not negative ‘They don’t want to see me’. It’s they want to see me get what’s coming to me and I think that’s really important.”
He also shared his thoughts on why heels in wrestling aren’t getting as much heat as they probably should.
“I think a lot of times a lot of guys coming up – the guys that you’re supposed to cheer, the guys that you’re supposed to boo – the guys that you’re supposed to boo are doing heroic things and very impressive things and it’s hard to dislike a guy who’s beating everybody cleanly with his finish. It’s hard to dislike a guy who’s spouting off funny comments when he grabs a guy in a hold, you know? It’s hard to dislike that because it’s entertaining. It’s very hard to dislike cool-ass moves because they’re cool-ass moves and cool-ass moves are cool. If you’re an antagonist that’s cool, it kind of defeats the purpose a little bit so for me, personally, I try to stay away from that. I try to see where other heels, bad guys, villains are going and what they’re doing and I just try to be the opposite of it as much as possible. But even for me, when I’m doing promos, wrestling matches, it comes to a time where I have to do things to at least have some credibility attached to what I’m doing. It’s a very slippery slope as well, but I just got to find the right balance, I think.”
The Dudley Boyz were recently interviewed by Talk Sport’s Gorilla Nation podcast and explained why they feel WWE must have The Rock at WrestleMania 32.
Bubba says in order to get the 100,000+ tickets sold that Jim Ross and others have predicted, they need some serious star power.
Here’s what he had to say:
“If you’re going to try and put 100,000 people into the AT&T Stadium and have the biggest Wrestlemania of all time, to me that’s an all hands on deck show,” Bubba said. “Rocky, [Steve] Austin — whoever you can possibly get to be there to out 100,000 people in there.”
“You have Rocky on the show, and that means more people want to buy the show, more people want to come and see the show — bigger payoffs for everybody.”
Devon predicted that no matter who gets in the ring to face The Rock, the match will get the job done. He mentioned Triple H as one possible opponent for The Great One:
“At the end of the day, it is business. Having guys like that with their superstar name power works for the show and is best for business, I say great,” Devon said.
“Rocky versus anybody is going to be entertaining. Rocky and Hunter — yes, we’ve seen it before, but those guys will definitely put on a match that’ll tear the house down.”
– Featured above is the latest edition of WWE’s “Five Things” YouTube show, which takes a look at five love affairs fans may have forgotten about.
– The following is scheduled for tonight’s edition of NXT on the WWE Network:
* Guest general manager due to William Regal recovering from surgery
* Finn Bálor and Samoa Joe contract signing
* Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder vs. The Vaudevillains for the NXT Tag Titles
* Asuka vs. Dana Brooke
* Apollo Crews vs. Jesse Sorensen
* Bayley vs. Eva Marie for the NXT Women’s Championship
– WWE taped the following matches for this week’s edition of WWE Main Event prior to the SmackDown television taping in Indianapolis, Indiana on Tuesday evening:
* Titus O’Neil def. Stardust via count out in the first of four matches taped for this week’s show.
* Ryback def. Heath Slater in a quick match. This basically amounted to a squash match, with Ryback dominating throughout.
* Rusev def. Zack Ryder in another quick match. The fans in Indianapolis were into Ryder here, and also gave Rusev good heat.
* Brie Bella def. Charlotte in a non-title match after Paige caused a distraction that allowed Brie to get the win.
This comes just two days after AAA announced Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Johnny Mundo as the main event for the recently vacated (by Alberto “El Patron” Del Rio) AAA Super Mega Heavyweight Championship. It’s not clear why this happened, with the press release being vague at best. It promises some kind of make-up card for the Tampico/Madero region down the line, but that’s about it. The issue is more complicated than “just” cancelling a major show, though, as pointed out by LuchaBlog’s Twitter account:
As of this moment, there are no known future AAA TV dates.
AAA now has no TV tapings on their schedule only has enough TV in the can to cover this coming weekend and the following weekend. They have cards that they could convert to TV tapings, and they’ve done things like that in the past. LuchaBlog also points out that we should learn more soon:
Wednesday/today is the day AAA generally tapes the inbetween segments for TV, so maybe more info will be coming on those.
WWE Hall Of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin interviewed Jim Ross for a recent Steve Austin Show podcast. During the interview, JR acknowledged that his announcing style would not fit well with the way today’s WWE broadcasts are run.
Regarding today’s WWE shows, JR admitted that the current WWE announcers have a difficult, unenviable position.
“I think those guys have a tough job. It’s just a different style. I’m kind of glad that I’m not [in that position],” Ross admitted. “[WWE] have more to sell. They have a mall where these other wrestling companies have a storefront. They have a smaller inventory to sell, whereas the WWE has a ton of things to promote and sell and their own network, et cetera, et cetera. So the announcers are obligated to get so much of that content in and that’s built into the show.”
According to Ross, his commentary style wouldn’t work well in today’s WWE, as he feels he is more of a play-by-play commentator, while today’s commentators are asked to plug a lot of different products and are very over-produced.
“I do miss walking out there and sitting down and going to work, but I don’t know that my style in what I’m most comfortable in doing would be applicable in WWE these days based on how the guys are produced and the obligations they have to get the product over and all the stuff they [have] got to sell.”
JR also spoke about flying to Memphis every Wednesday to record with Jerry Lawler for the WWE 2K16 video game, noting that they picked right where they left off in terms of on-air chemistry.
“This sounds egocentric, I’m sure, [but] we hadn’t missed a beat. It was so natural. It would be like, I would suggest this. I always thought that [Austin] versus the Rock had great chemistry and I believe that [those] guys, in a different time, not 2015 [going] into 2016, but in a different time, [Austin and the Rock] could have been away from each other and [they] could be booked back into a match and I’d be very disappointed if [Austin and the Rock] missed too many beats. There was just a genuineness, an authenticity, and a feel, and that’s kind of what Jerry and I had.”
WWE has released some pay-per-view sales numbers for their Hell In A Cell PPV in October.
According to WWE, the event headlined by The Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar did 87,000 PPV buys. 74% of the sales were international, and 26% were domestic. This number of course does not include viewers who watched the event on the WWE Network.
This is up from the 77,000 buys their Night Of Champions PPV did in September. For comparison, the lowest-selling PPV of the year was Fast Lane with 46,000 buys, and the highest-selling was WrestleMania 31 with 259,000.
WWE World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus appeared on ESPN SportsCenter with Jonathan Coachman on Tuesday evening.
Coach asked Sheamus about the rumors of an ISIS attack at the Survivor Series pay-per-view on Sunday. Sheamus claimed WWE took the threat very seriously and worked with all of the agencies throughout the weekend to ensure everyone’s safety at the event. He said the company has also increased security at live events, noting “there’s no safer place than a WWE event.”
“The Celtic Warrior” also spoke about winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on Sunday. The Coach asked what it means to be the only Irish-born WWE Superstar to win the title. Sheamus said he’s always been proud to be Irish and that the Irish are the hardest-hitting athletes in the world right now. He references UFC’s Conor McGregor and NXT’s Finn Balor as proof.
The interview closed out with Sheamus talking about being on the sidelines with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish recently. He said he would also be with them when they win the National Championship later this year. He hyped his TLC title defense against Roman Reigns and that was about it.
Former NXT Champion Sami Zayn is being advertised for the NXT tour of the U.K. coming up in December, including all of the regular live events and the NXT TakeOver: London special on December 16th.
It’s possible that Zayn is just appearing at the shows in a non-physical capacity, as we haven’t heard that he is ready to make his in-ring return just yet.
Other talents advertised for the NXT tour that is scheduled to kick off on December 10th in Newcastle, England include NXT Champion Finn Balor, NXT Women’s Champion Bayley, NXT Tag-Team Champions Dash and Dawson, Neville, Baron Corbin, Apollo Crews, Samoa Joe, Dana Brooke and Emma.
At the WWE SmackDown television taping in Indianapolis on Tuesday night, a new title match was made official for the WWE TLC pay-per-view in Boston.
Recent WWE World Title Tournament finalist Dean Ambrose managed to defeated Tyler Breeze and Dolph Ziggler in a triple-threat match to become the new number one contender to the WWE Intercontinental Championship, earning himself a shot at Kevin Owens at the upcoming TLC event.
With that now known, below is a look at the updated WWE TLC lineup, including some rumored matches that are expected for the show.
TLC Match For WWE World Heavyweight Title
– Sheamus (c) vs. Roman Reigns
WWE Intercontinental Title
– Kevin Owens (c) vs. Dean Ambrose
Other matches that appear likely include Alberto Del Rio vs. Jack Swagger in a chairs match, The New Day vs. The Usos vs. The Lucha Dragons and The Wyatt Family vs. The Dudley Boyz in a tables match.
Former NXT creative team member Rob Naylor recently vented on Twitter about his frustrations with WWE’s direction. One of Naylor’s main complaints was that WWE shows use the “same template” every week, and that the company needs to change their method of pushing new blood on TV.
Naylor, who was hired by WWE in 2011 after working as an announcer for Dragon Gate USA, also complained that when employees speak up against the WWE product, they get punished. Naylor says he would be told he’s not a “good soldier” when he would complain about the material on RAW. He says it will take a “highly influential writer” to put their career on the line and tell Vince McMahon “how bad things are.”
He went on to say he has no doubt WWE will get better if they take a fresh approach. Here’s what Naylor had to say, in screenshot form in case the Tweets get deleted:
It’s believed Rob Naylor left the NXT creative team around mid-2013. He worked closely with Dusty Rhodes. He’s on Twitter at @NINaylor.