WWE Superstar and New Day member Xavier Woods recently spoke with DetroitNews.com to promote the post-Christmas WWE live event in Detroit, Michigan. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On his trombone routine getting over with fans:
“It became its own beast. That’s the beauty of it. People don’t realize it, but some of the best stuff comes from not having a plan.”
On rubbing The New Day’s success in the face of his doubters:
“I like proving people wrong. The best revenge is success, and I’m a very vengeful, grudge-keeping person. So when someone says I can’t do something and I prove them wrong, I don’t have to say I told you so, because they see me on TV doing it.
“Those people that disregarded me and made fun of me? I fulfilled my lifelong dream becoming a WWE champion. The fact that I navigated life in a way to reach those goals makes me feel good.”
Former WWE announcer and current Lucha underround announcer Matt Striker recently appeared as a guest on The PodNasty Wrestling Podcast and spoke about a few topics related to Lucha Underground. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On the state of announcing today:
“The way we tell stories and narrate things today, is not the same as it was 20 years ago. People are smarter, we’ve evolved as human beings and to leave things to people’s imaginations is a nice thing because everyone wants to put their own little spin and make things relevant to themselves.
“So as far as where we are [as a society today], I think we have a smarter wrestling fan, I think that the level of talent and the athletic caliber of the fighters also forces us to raise our game as commentators, narrators, but in the end some of the best stuff I could do is not say anything at all.”
On what separates Lucha Underground from other promotions:
“In this sport, it’s so hard to do something new. Look at all the sports today, a guy hits a 440 home run and we go…’oh,’ because we’ve seen it. So it’s really hard to make people go ‘holy…’ and that’s what they’re doing here.”
On Lucha Underground fans being a part of the show as opposed to taking it over:
“The Lucha Underground fan understands their role. The fan understands that they are that addendum or that supplement to what’s going on and I really think that the tip of the cap needs to go to the old ECW crowd because they really kind of ushered in that ‘we are the part of the show’ as well. And also when you go to places like England and Germany, the fans are that way too.”
WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross updated his official blog at JRsBarBQ.com with his thoughts on a number of topics. Below are some of the highlights.
On Kurt Angle in the WWE Hall Of Fame:
I’d think that Kurt Angle going into the WWE Hall of Fame is a lead pipe cinch but when its the only question that I have. I’d love to see Kurt in a WWE retirement match and then be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame if and when WWE has the time and desire to make this matter a priority. I’d assume WWE inducts Kurt into the Hall likely before he wrestles for them in a high profile match at Wrestlemania. Simply speculating that WWE is leery of Kurt’s lingering neck issues but that’s merely my speculation.
“I have no speculation that Kurt Angle isn’t a deserving WWE Hall of Famer in the future. How can that be debatable?”
On talking to The Rock through email recently:
“Exchanged emails with The Rock while in Miami as he’s busy with a new baby girl and HBO’s ‘Ballers.’ I know of no one who seeming stays as busy as the Rock in the world of show biz. He’s a one man conglomerate who will be appearing at Wrestlemania Texas in April but I’m doubtful that he will be in a match but I hope that I’m wrong.”
On the early WWE Royal Rumble betting odds:
“There is an early betting line on the ’16 Royal Rumble. I’m being serious. Where were all these betting lines on WWE events when I was in administration there? Probably a good thing it wasn’t around at least that I’m aware or I might have been guilty of ‘insider betting.’ BTW the favorites to win are entrant #1, go figure, and entrant #30. I’d lean toward Brock Lesnar as my favorite to win it all if he’s in it.”
Former WWE Superstar and Spirit Squad member Kenn Doane, aka Kenny Dykstra, recently appeared as a guest on The Two Man Power Trip Of Wrestling podcast and spoke about the possibility of a WWE return. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On the recent article published by WWE on what Kenn has done since leaving the company:
“When I saw it, I was nervous leading up to it because you never know. What if they spin it in a bad direction or who knows. When it came out I was so nervous and I didn’t tell anybody about it because in case it has a bad spin than I am not telling anybody. But when I read it I said WOW this is really good and exactly what we talked about. Not like I am going to get a Bret Hart “screw-job” here but you just never know and you can never be too sure.”
On if he thinks the interview could lead to a return to the company:
“When I left I kind of knew it was coming. I had just come off tearing my knee and they had moved me from one to show to the next show and those are tell-tale signs and when you end up working dark matches against new guys from developmental it’s just kind of like a process that happens. With the interview, there is more to this life than just wrestling. If you don’t watch wrestling for one month your life is not going to change. The interview had come up because I had been chosen to receive a scholarship award and before I had left WWE I had made it a point to go to John Laurinaitis and Hunter and Stephanie and I said I appreciate what you do to help people who need it like with rehab stuff but what about people that are doing the right thing and want to go to college. When it finally came up last year I thought I was totally going to get it since I kind of sparked the idea and they didn’t choose me. So this year I had to write an essay and fill out an application and I thought they aren’t going to choose me and I got an email saying that I had got it. So they like me now (laughs) who knows. You never know. I never disliked them, we always love each other. It’s a love/hate relationship. We are like brothers and sisters.”
On still being so young and being a “veteran”:
“I have fans that come up to me and ask me why did I leave? I say it wasn’t my choice and that I said hey, I think I’m leaving today. I have sixteen years’ experience, I’m only 29 years old and even if I was on the roster now I’d be one of the younger guys there and at the same time I’d be one of the most experienced guys there. It’s a weird combination. It’s not like I am fat now and I’m out of shape.”
On changes in power leading to changes at WWE:
“I think it does have to do with the leadership thing. I know Hunter is very big on protecting the ‘boys’ and not to say Vince was a bad leader. Vince was great and built it to what it is. I guess he was always on the business side of things and was never one of the workers so I guess Hunter knows what it is like to be a worker and build yourself up to that level. But he probably doesn’t know what it is like to be released from WWE and go and do your own thing. But I am sure he can still relate to it in some aspect. Looking out for everyone I would say is more on him but I also think it has a lot to do with developmental and the leadership there. In Louisville, Danny Davis, Jim Cornette and Paul Heyman, Al Snow and Tommy Dreamer and Bill Demott would stress this is not a long term gig. Enjoy it now, save your money and what you can because eventually it’s going to end and they would say everyone is going to get fired at some point in their life or career. Granted, you might think looking at it now and some people do think but nobody lasts forever and everybody will get fired.”
On the aggressiveness of the Spirit Squad making ot onto WWE TV:
“Eventually The Spirit Squad started coming about and they started liking it. They flew us into one of the Carolinas and they weren’t sure about it then. So we all came up with this idea that we are going to wait in Vince’s office and when he comes in we are going to blow the air horn in his face and do a cheer. We thought you either going to get fired or it will work. We don’t want to be in developmental so he was stuck in the production meeting for quite a while so we said let’s find him and break in. So we bust into the production meeting and blow the air horn, we did a big cheer and we just kind of stopped in our position and Vince looked up and he said ‘great, you will be on RAW next week.'”
– Regarding The Rock’s confirmed WrestleMania 32 appearance in April, which he continues to claim will “make history,” his availability to appear on RAW to help promote and build-up his appearance could be limited due to his Baywatch filming schedule.
– WWE is planning to use a smaller stage for their upcoming NXT TakeOver: Dallas live special during WrestleMania 32 weekend in April. The new stage setup will block fewer seats than usual and will allow an estimated 9,156 fans inside the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, as opposed to the 7,000 seats normally available with their standard setup. NXT TakeOver: Dallas is projected to be the third most-attended NXT event in history, trailing only NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn at the Barclays Center and NXT TakeOver: London at Wembley Arena.
Both NXT Champion Finn Balor and NXT Women’s Champion Bayley have made no secret about the fact that they are happy to remain in NXT, as opposed to moving up to the main WWE roster. Apparently, this has become a major discussion point within NXT.
There is starting to be a concern now that there will be an expanded NXT touring schedule in 2016 that Balor will start breaking down his body carrying NXT main events before getting to the real money on the main roster.
Additionally, there has been talk about how Bayley will work out on the main roster. Some feel she could become a female John Cena, bringing in younger female fans and doing a lot of charity and media work, while others think she could be a flop on the main roster. Apparently the feeling is there is no in between for Bayley, as she will either have great success or she will have trouble making it at all.
WWE has announced the details of their next live special on the WWE Network.
The next WWE Network special is scheduled to take place on Saturday, March 12th from the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
While we don’t have any matches announced for the card as of yet, we can confirm the 3/12 date and Toronto as the location. Additionally, it has been announced that the name of the show will be “March to WrestleMania 32.”
Monday’s 12/28 edition of WWE RAW averaged 3.54 million viewers, up nearly 200,000 from the previous week. The show featured the return of John Cena as well as Mr. McMahon’s arrest. Here’s the hourly breakdown:
Hour 1: 3.70 million viewers
Hour 2: 3.49 million viewers
Hour 3: 3.43 million viewers
The NFL’s Monday Night Football game between the Broncos and Bengals drew 15.81 million viewers, the most-watched MNF game of the season. Luckily for WWE, it was also the final MNF game of the season.
– The Rock continues to hype the fact that he plans to make history during his appearance at WrestleMania 32 in April. His latest tweet about his WrestleMania 32 announcement from earlier this week reads as follows:
– New England Patriots player Rob Gronkowski was in attendance at the WWE live event in Providence, Rhode Island on Tuesday night. Below are some photos WWE posted of the NFL star with Mojo Rawley at the show, as well as a tweet Lana sent to “Gronk” about “disrespecting” Rusev at the show.
Former WWE Superstar MVP recently appeared as a guest on the Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast spoke about his friendship with Batista and how it has helped him throughout his career, Vince McMahon never believing Batista would leave WWE for acting and more. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On his friendship with Batista and Batista helping him get a match-finish changed:
“We had been doing a television feud. It wasn’t a pay-per-view feud, but, every week, he and I were going through something, wrestling, and he had beaten me, like, two weeks in a row on TV. And the finish that day was he was going to beat me again. And I know my role. I’m a heel! He’s the money guy. He’s a star. That’s what I’m there for. I have no problem with that. Dave had a problem with it because he said, ‘why am I beating you again? This does nothing for you. This does nothing for me. This is pointless.’ His exact words [were], ‘you’re a f–king guy we can do something with. Why am I beating you again?’. This is what Dave said. I said, ‘f–k it, Dave. I’m working in the main event against you. I’m cool. That’s fine. I’m making that main event money. I’m getting the rub.’ He goes, ‘no, f–k that. It’s bulls–t. Lets go talk to Vince [McMahon].'” MVP continued, “Dave literally took me in to Vince and said, ‘Vince, it doesn’t make sense.’ That doesn’t happen very often in the world of professional wrestling. There aren’t that many guys that think that selflessly and see the picture in that way, so that’s the kind of guy he is.”
On he, Batista and Vince McMahon coming up with a different finish to the match:
“We came up with a finish where we’d fight outside the ring, he’d be kicking my ass outside the ring, and I’d be running away from him during the count, so as I dive into the ring, I win by count out. And I kind of slid out [of] the backside of the ring and I was still scared and I’m showing, ‘oh s–t’ and [the announcer says], ‘and the winner, by count out, MVP!’ and I get my swagger back and I was like, ‘yeah, that’s right! That’s right! I won!’ And that was the finish that we came up with. Dave did that.”
On Vince never really believing that Batista would leave WWE for acting:
“With [Batista’s] movie career, I remember the day he left and it was crazy because Muriel, the security guard, she walked him out and he was telling me, he goes, ‘Vince doesn’t think I’m leaving. He thinks I’m bulls–tting him. He doesn’t think I’m serious.'” MVP added, “[Batista] literally walked away from millions of dollars a year on the chance that he’d make it in Hollywood [and McMahon was saying,] ‘he’s not going to walk away from all this money.'”
The Rock, Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan will be appearing in the upcoming Expendables 4 movie, according to a report at ChristianToday.com. The news has yet to be confirmed by any reputable movie news publications, so take this as a rumor for now.
The WWE legends will be joining Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham and franchise newcomer Pierce Brosnan.
Production begins next year the film is slated for a 2017 release.
Hogan is expected to be playing the main villain in the movie. In a previous interview, Hogan said,
“We’re trying to figure out a way to maybe turn me into the most evil man in the world. You know, Stallone gave me my first break. He’s been a great friend for all these years. We had a great conversation, talking about the possibilities. Can I still run, can I still jump? Well, not as fast or not as high, but I think Hollywood could find a good stunt man to help me out.”
NXT star Apollo Crews recently spoke with the TheMirror.co.uk about NXT’s success and the brand’s evolving reputation as it relates to WWE.
As NXT continues to grow, talents like NXT Champion Finn Balor have stated publicly that they’re in no rush to join the main roster because NXT is the place to be. Crews echoes that sentiment:
“I wouldn’t say NXT is a stepping stone, by no means. I think everybody has certain things they want to accomplish here and of course the goal is main roster, but when you come here, you come here with things you want to accomplish here in NXT. You get here and things start happening. It’s definitely not a stepping stone by no means.
I think for me personally if you’re a wrestler, NXT is where you want to be. From being down at the Performance Center, starting getting on the road more often, traveling to Texas, Brooklyn, Louisville, Sacramento and now the UK, it’s just growing and expanding, and more and more people want to be a part of this and more people are getting onboard. The WWE Network is a major outlet for NXT and when you come to a place like this and see the support we’re getting, it just shows how big NXT really is.”
In the first new episode of 7 Minutes In Heaven dating back to May of 2013, Mike O’Brien interviewed WWE Superstar John Cena.
During the four minute comedy interview, which you can watch above, Cena spoke about WWE SmackDown moving to the USA Network, Big Show smelling like a “chicken processing plant,” his early days as a limo driver and more.
Cena was also asked about the most serious injury he has ever suffered, and in keeping with the sarcastic tone of the interview, he claimed his feelings was the worst thing to get hurt while in WWE.
“Every single time I go out there, my feelings hurt,” Cena said. “They sing along to my music, like ‘John Cena sucks.’ They’re like, ‘hey man, you need to quit’ and ‘hey man, you suck bro, we hate you bro.'”
The interview closes out with O’Brien giving Cena an awkward kiss on the lips, which Cena claimed would “probably get him in so much trouble with his gal.”
The 2016 Royal Rumble is still over three weeks away, but online sports betting sites SkyBet and 5Dimes have already published betting odds for the event.
The early favorites to win the Rumble are Entrant #1 (+600) and Entrant #30 (+450).
Brock Lesnar is an 11/10 favorite to win the Royal Rumble, while John Cena is listed at 4/1.
As of this writing, Big Show is the only confirmed participant.
The 2016 WWE Royal Rumble takes place on Sunday, January 24th from Orlando, FL.
– JBL recently spent some time on Twitter fielding questions from wrestling fans. During his Q&A wih fans, JBL noted that he believes the best announcers of all-time are Jerry Lawler, Bobby Heenan, Gorilla Monsoon, Michael Cole and Jim Ross. He said either Lawler or Heenan would have to be considered the best color commentator of all-time, and that Cole is the best he’s ever worked with. You can follow JBL on Twitter @JCLayfield.
– Following Monday’s RAW, WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns has vowed he will emerge successful in his title defense next week, where Vince McMahon will serve as the special guest referee. Reigns tweeted the following about the first RAW main event of 2016:
– In addition to the new tights he wore in his match with John Cena at the WWE MSG live event on Sunday, Del Rio came out to new theme music. As seen on Monday’s RAW, Del Rio was back to wearing his usual trunks and coming out to his regular theme music. Whether or not he will eventually change to the new look and come out to the new music on television remains to be seen.
– There has been some confusion regarding Big Show announcing himself for the 30-man Royal Rumble match in January. While the belief was he was announcing himself as the man with the number one spot in the match, WWE has since confirmed that is not the case. Big Show was simply making it clear that he is the first man to throw his name in the hat for the match. Big Show is expected to shoot another segment to clear up the confusion among fans.
– TNA’s Jeremy Borash is the guest on the latest edition of the Jim Ross “Ross Report” podcast, which is available now at PodcastOne.com. The official description for the show reads:
“Jeremy Borash is talking all about TNA Impact Wrestling’s move to Pop TV next Tuesday, January 5th! He’s also sharing stories about the last day of Nitro & turning off the lights in the building, how he met Vince Russo & what it was like working with him, his take on Russo’s feud with Bill Goldberg, how Jeremy ended up at TNA, and why he loves producing programming with Food Network star chef Robert Irvine.”
– Rapper and noted WWE fan Wale was in attendance at the WWE SmackDown television tapings on Tuesday night in his hometown of Washington, D.C. Below is a photo of the hip-hop star with The New Day.
Kurt Angle continues to do the media rounds to promote TNA’s Maximum Impact UK tour next month. During an interview with Digital Spy, the Olympic gold medalist commented on the possibility of returning to WWE one day.
“We’ll see. Would it be a possibility? Yeah. I’m not ruling out anything. I know that next year I will take off and then we’ll see where it goes. I have spoken to TNA about possibly coming back someday. That’s still on the table. The way TNA has treated me the last 9 years, I can’t throw them away.”
Angle noted that he doesn’t need WWE or TNA to continue wrestling. He said that he has a match scheduled against Rey Mysterio in March. He didn’t elaborate which company they’d be wrestling for, but said, “It’ll be kind of nice just to promote myself and wrestle guys like Rey.”
He also spoke about a potential WWE Hall of Fame induction. Angle confidently stated that it will happen, he just doesn’t know when.
“I’ll believe the hype when I decide to talk to WWE. I haven’t. We were going to have some type of meeting last year. Unfortunately, it got cancelled. We really haven’t spoken. I don’t expect them to speak to me until my contract’s up and I haven’t really gone after them to talk to them.”
“Somewhere along the line it’ll happen, I just don’t know when. Would it be an honour to be in the WWE Hall of Fame? Yeah, it’s an incredible honour. Would it kill me if I wasn’t? No, it wouldn’t. The most important thing to me is being in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, which is Olympic wrestling. That’s where my legacy truly is.”
Comment on this article and tell us if you want to see Kurt Angle wrestle at least one more time in WWE before he retires for good.
On Monday’s RAW, Sin Cara suffered a shoulder injury during his match against Big E. He Sin Cara Injured that the shoulder was dislocated. WWE.com noted that the shoulder was popped back into place, allowing him to finish the match.
Sin Cara took a dig at the man who originally portrayed the character in WWE (Luis Ignacio Urive Alvirde), who has a history of stopping his matches due to injury. He retweeted this tweet from a fan, who praised him for working through the injury:
WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross recently updated his official blog at JRsBarBQ.com with his thoughts on Vince McMahon’s WWE television return, more potential changes coming with SmackDown moving to USA Network, The Rock’s WrestleMania 32 announcement and more. Below are some highlights.
On Vince McMahon’s TV return and being the company’s best heel:
“Vince McMahon was the star of the broadcast . He’s the WWE’s best heel by far. He loves his role, makes it is own and isn’t playing the role of a villain. I thought it was smart booking that WWE promoted the next RAW main event of which is a WWE title match with McMahon as the special referee. How many times will the Montreal Screw Job be referenced between now and January 4th?
“McMahon’s return has been a spark for RAW whose TV ratings have been in the tank.”
On more changes coming to WWE SmackDown:
“Tonight is the final Smackdown TV taping for WWE this year and before Mauro Ranallo takes over as the lead Smackdown broadcaster when the show moves to the USA Network the first Thursday in January. I expect there to be more announcer tweaks as the new year progresses as well.”
On The Rock’s WrestleMania 32 announcement:
“Rock will be a part of WM32 in Texas but will he wrestle? In any event for the Rock to simply be committed to the April 3 event in Texas is HUGE.”
WWE taped this week’s edition of SmackDown in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday evening. Below are spoiler results for the show, which will air on Thursday night.
– Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose vs. Sheamus and Kevin Owens is announced as the main event for tonight’s show.
– The New Day comes out. They do a promo about New Year’s Eve until they are eventually interrupted by The Dudey Boyz. After that, Kalisto came out and an impromptu six-man tag-team match is formed.
– The Dudley Boyz & Kalisto def. The New Day via pinfall in the first match taped for this week’s show.
– Tyler Breeze def. Goldust via pinfall in the second match of the evening. It’s revealed during this segment that Tyler Breeze and Summer Rae are apparently done as a couple as they decide to split up for the New Year.
– Luke Harper & Braun Strowman def. The Usos when Strowman forced one of the brothers to submit.
– Brie Bella & Alicia Fox def. Naomi & Tamina Snuka in Divas tag-team action.
– Dolph Ziggler def. Bo Dallas in singles competition.
– The main event between Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose and Sheamus and Kevin Owens ends via disqualification. After the match, Reigns stopped Owens from powerbombing him through a table and nailed him with a Superman Punch to close out the show.
As announced by the man himself on Monday, The Rock will be appearing at WrestleMania 32 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on April 3rd.
Since making the initial announcement and spending some time responding to fans on social media, The Rock and others have been hinting at something big being planned for his involvement at next year’s “Show of Shows.”
After noting that he intends to “make all-time WrestleMania history” as part of his original announcement, The Rock followed up later Monday evening and mentioned that he and WWE “have a big and history making night planned.”
Whether or not The Rock will be wrestling or just appearing on the show remains to be seen. Below are some more comments from The Rock about his WrestleMania 32 appearance, including a tweet from his originally rumored opponent for the show, Triple H.
Whether or not The Rock will be wrestling or just appearing on the show remains to be seen. Below are some more comments from The Rock about his WrestleMania 32 appearance, including a tweets from his originally rumored opponent for the show, Triple H and WWE Superstar Rusev.
During his time away from the spotlight, Hulk Hogan is still keeping tabs on the WWE product and gave a strong endorsement to Alberto Del Rio after seeing him face John Cena last night on RAW. Early Tuesday morning, Hogan took to Twitter to praise Del Rio as a deserving main event player, stating that the wrestling industry needs more guys like the United States champion.
@VivaDelRio hard work really pays off,his incredible shape that he is in is very impressive,his work rate,timing,instinct,is main event
Rock legend Lemmy Kilmister of the band Motorhead passed away on Monday at age 70. Kilmister was best known to WWE fans as the lead singer of the band responsible for two of Triple H’s theme songs in WWE, as well as the official theme song for the Evolution faction.
Triple H, who was also a friend of Kilmister’s, who performed his entrance song live at WrestleMania 17 and 21, wrote the following about his passing just minutes before RAW was to go on the air live.
#RIPLemmy One life, lived your way, from the beginning, till the end See you down the road my friend… Thank you for the gift of your sound
Sin Cara was injured on Monday night during his match with Big E on RAW. After taking a nasty bump to the outside, Sin Cara was checked on by trainers. He was able to finish the match, but got further medical treatment once he returned backstage. He later confirmed on Twitter that he suffered a dislocated shoulder.