Matt Hardy says his current ‘Broken’ character is an attempt to emphasize the entertainment element of sports entertainment, and WWE has been unable to successfully emulate his ‘Final Deletion.’
On episode 91 of the Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast, Hardy spoke at-length about his character, and says WWE’s Wyatt Compound segment was “blasphemy.”
Hardy says that he feels pro wrestling has been stale for the last few years, and referred to internet wrestling fans as “arrogant ants” who are very opinionated. Hardy feels that online fans want “some kind of athletic contest full of spot monkeys,” and he’s bringing wrestling back to a “different universe” where it is more entertainment.
On the subject of The New Day and the Wyatt Family facing off in an empty field on RAW, Hardy feels it’s a direct copy of TNA’s Final Deletion segment. He says that WWE’s vast resources were unable to produce a segment with “heart and soul.”
“I saw that blasphemy, that sacrilege,” Hardy said of the Wyatt Family Compound segment. “Nero, Wyatts, I know what they’re doing. Oh, they are copying. They are mimicking. They saw the greatness of The Final Deletion. I went out and I deleted Brother Nero, the man who was a thorn in my side. They tried to jump on it, thinking they could use WWE and McMahon and his money to produce some masterpiece that could blow away what we put together as Final Deletion. That is not what is going to happen because ours was truly heart and soul.”
Hardy noted that Bobby Lashley is next on his list of people to “delete.”
You can listen to the entire podcast with Hardy here.
Impact Wrestling on Pop TV had stiff competition this week going up against the Democratic National Convention, which aired on on numerous channels.
Viewership for this week’s Impact Wrestling was down to 350,000 from 362,000 the week before. This is still higher than what the company had been drawing in the first half of the year, and is down 60,000 viewers from their peak viewership this year of 410,000 on July 5th.
Impact charted on the Top 150 Cable shows for the day at #129. Show #128 was Morning Joe on MSNBC, and show #130 was Watch What Happens Live on Bravo. The top 10 shows for the day were all airings of the DNC on CNN and MSNBC, except for HGTV’s Flip or Flop at #10.
It sounds like Alberto Del Rio may be disgruntled with his current role in WWE and looking to exit the company.
Friends of Del Rio say he’s not happy with how his character has been handled on WWE programming despite reportedly being paid well by the company. In the latest issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reports that Del Rio’s contract has an out clause that would allow him to leave the company in September.
The former World Heavyweight Champion didn’t join TNA last time he was a free agent, instead working with AAA, Lucha Underground, and WWC in Puerto Rico.
Del Rio returned to WWE last October after being released in August of 2014 for “unprofessional conduct” after he struck an employee who made a racist joke.
Ric Flair thinks that Roman Reigns should have beat Finn Balor on RAW, instead of Balor getting the clean victory to advance to SummerSlam against Seth Rollins.
On his latest podcast The Nature Boy explained that while he thinks Balor is a great performer, he’s a bigger fan of Roman Reigns. Flair says that Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler for the World Title will be the bigger match at SummerSlam. He also put over Seth Rollins, saying that he’s like having a second Randy Orton around in terms of skill level.
“I see [Ambrose vs. Ziggler] as being a bigger match than to see Finn Bálor versus Seth Rollins,” Flair said. “I just think Seth has too much experience. And like I said before about Randy, Seth Rollins is the second Randy Orton. He’s that good.”
Flair continued on the subject of Balor, saying that he’s not a “legitimate heavyweight” like Rollins or Reigns.
“I just think you’ve got a legitimate heavyweight in Seth Rollins, a legitimate heavyweight in Roman Reigns, and I don’t think we’ll ever see the day, and I could be totally wrong, that a cruiserweight will ever main event a WrestleMania,” Flair said.
Flair says that in the “total picture” of the pro wrestling business, Balor is a cruiserweight in size. “I don’t think he weighs 200 pounds,” Flair estimated.
Sasha Banks won the WWE Women’s Championship from Charlotte on this week’s RAW, and one WWE Hall of Famer feels she is already being “shoved down the fans throats.”
Road Warrior Animal took to Facebook this week to question how much WWE paid Muscle and Fitness to get the Women’s Champion on the cover. Animal seems to feel WWE is pushing Bank and other talent before they “get over [by] themselves.”
Here’s what Animal had to say:
How much does WWE pay Muscle and Fitness to put there own on the cover. Common Sasha Banks another attempt to shove someone down people’s throats. Let them get over themselves how bout that.
Get real.
The Road Warriors member last appeared for WWE on the July 23, 2012 RAW to celebrate the 1000th episode of the show and help other Legends take out Heath Slater. He appeared earlier that week on SmackDown to squash Slater. Animal is currently involved in a lawsuit against WWE relating to concussions and CTE.
Posted July 29th, 2016 in News, WWE. Tagged: Animal.
As previously reported, Simon Gotch and Sin Cara got in a real fight backstage at last Tuesday’s SmackDown taping. The fight was said to be a “one-sided destruction” by Sin Cara.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter now reports that the fight may have started when Sin Cara flipped out at Gotch and threw a soda can at his face. Another version of the story says that Sin Cara dropped him with a punch instead. Gotch didn’t work last weekend’s live events.
Apparently Gotch has heat with several other members of the roster, and had issues with Cara specifically in the past. The report in the Wrestling Observer says that Gotch’s heat is a result of things he’s said.
Monday’s RAW saw Sasha Banks defeat Charlotte for the WWE Women’s championship – a match that was originally scheduled for next month’s SummerSlam PPV.
WWE accelerated the Women’s championship feud because Charlotte requested time off, according to Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Live. Alvarez followed up with a post on the Observer message board, adding that Charlotte has been burned out from life on the road and might have been granted a brief hiatus.
Ric Flair noted on his latest podcast that Charlotte is expected to have a rematch with Banks at SummerSlam, after having what he called “the greatest women’s match on television” at Monday’s RAW.
It’s still very possible that we’ll see a rematch between these two women at SummerSlam, a match that could very well steal the show.
Visit f4wonline.com for Wrestling Observer subscription information.
TNA’s longterm hopes for grown & sustainability rely on a competent buyer materializing – but that scenario is temporarily on hold.
Despite recent reports that a TNA sale was imminent, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that Dixie Carter is currently on a two-week vacation in Africa, putting ongoing negotiations on hold.
If you’ve been following this story, you know the ongoing theme with a potential TNA sale is the fact that Dixie Carter wants to retain majority ownership. Briefly recapping, country singer Toby Keith was ready to sign the papers to buy the company, but Dixie Carter’s father Bob insisted that she stay on TV playing the President of the company. Keith had wanted to bring back Jarrett to run the company.
“Lucha Underground,” El Rey Network’s exhilarating, lucha libre wrestling series from Emmy Award®-winning producer Mark Burnett, MGM, Robert Rodriguez and FactoryMade Ventures will return for an all-new 40 episode, third season on Wednesday, September 7 at 8PM ET, it was announced today.
Masked heroes and villains will continue to battle it out for wrestling supremacy in the hour-long weekly series, giving fans a ringside seat to the blood-pumping, chant-starting lucha libre drama and excitement. With Dario Cueto’s fate unclear, only one thing is for sure, this new season will bring even more death defying action with a new set of luchadores ready to leave their mark on the Temple.
Former WWE Tough Enough runner-up Zamariah “ZZ” Loupe was released from his WWE NXT deal this morning, according to Pro Wrestling Sheet. No word yet on what caused the release but ZZ never made it to TV after being signed last October with other participants from the show. After suffering an injury last fall, ZZ made his NXT live event debut this past Match – a win over Oney Lorcan.
Update: Josh Woods (former national wrestling champion & MMA fighter) and Tom Kingdon (former bodybuilder) were also released today, according to PWInsider.
WWE CEO Vince McMahon and Chief Strategy and Financial Office George Barrios spoke and took questions about the Q2 (April 1 to June 30) earnings release that took place today.
McMahon and Barrios started the call off by reading highlights from the investor presentation and earnings press release.
McMahon mentioned that the first live SmackDown (on July 19) was the highest-rated edition of the program since its move to cable, which happened in October 2010. The rating for July 19 was 2.20. According to records of Live+SD ratings kept at Gerweck.net, there have been a number of episodes of SmackDown since October 2010, both live and taped, that were rated higher. We have submitted a question to WWE about this and hope to follow-up in another article later today.
As usual, the most interesting part of the call was the Q&A, where market analysts who cover WWE asked questions.
An analyst asked whether WWE expected any impact on business, possibly through television viewership, from the upcoming Summer Olympics, which begin August 5. Barrios said the company doesn’t expect any impact.
Brandon Ross from investment firm BTIG asked WWE to provide some color on WWE’s rationale for the brand extension. McMahon responded, praising the “influx of talent” thanks to Paul Levesque’s work with NXT and the Performance Center. Because they have so much talent, it allows them to have more pay-per-view events, more live events and more licensing opportunities, McMahon said.
Eric Katz from Wells Fargo asked if WWE has seen any signs that storylines from the brand extension are driving WWE Network subscriptions. Barrios took the question, saying SmackDown just went live last week. He noted they’re three days into the brand extension itself. They have no trends in place yet, he said, but the company expects the brand extension to help drive engagement across all media platforms.
Laura Martin from Needham & Company asked whether the new deal in China with partner PPTV is exclusive. Barrios confirmed that it is. This is the first time RAW and SmackDown are being provided live in that market.
FBN Securities analyst Robert Routh asked how WWE views the sale of UFC, which recently sold for $4 billion. He inquired whether WWE itself would ever consider a similar transaction. Barrios emphasized that UFC is a private company, so all that’s known about its business is what’s reported in the media. Trying to portray the sale in a positive light for WWE, he said the sale of UFC shows how much value branded live content has today, which is obviously something WWE has a lot of. As to whether WWE would consider a sale of the company, Barrios said, “We’re always willing to listen… We care about doing what’s best for our audience, our shareholders and our employees.”
Thanks to Chris Harrington (@mookieghana) for helping collect notes on this conference call.
– NXT Superstar Oney Lorcan spoke with Charly Caruso earlier this week after winning his TV debut against Tye Dillinger. Lorcan says NXT competition is only getting better, which means he has to get better and to do that, he’s going back to his roots.
– Below is new video from “The Late Late Show” with James Corden’s parents, Malcolm and Margaret, at the recent RAW in London. They meet Big Show, Sheamus, Maryse, The Miz and more.
– Nikki Bella has been at the WWE Performance Center this week taking bumps as she prepares for her in-ring comeback. She posted this video of herself training with Bayley.
The official Booty-Os cereal can be purchased on FYE’s website at this link. They are taking pre-orders now but the cereal won’t be available until August 5th. FYE members get the box, which also features a cut-out unicorn mask, for $11.69 while the regular price is $12.99. They’re also selling a t-shirt for $21.99 or a combo pack for $25.99.
Below are photos of the items and the product descriptions from FYE:
“Get your recommended daily value of Positivity, Unicorn Magic, and Trombone music! All part of a balanced New Day Breakfast! This delicious and nutritious New Day cereal comes with marshmallow shaped booty crowns, unicorn horns and rainbow hearts. Just add milk and feel the power!”
“There’s no better way to start The New Day! We’ve teamed up with WWE to bring you an exclusive Booty O’s t-shirt & cereal so you can start your day with the recommended daily value of Positivity, Unicorn Magic and Trombone music! Get yours today and don’t be booty!”
The WWE Network averaged 1,517,000 paid subscribers for Q2 2016: the quarter in which WrestleMania 32 took place. This is in line with the company’s earlier projections that average paid subscriptions for the quarter would be between 1,480,000 and 1,550,000.
The quarter ended on June 30, with 1,511,000 paid subscribers. Ending-period paid subscribers are up 1,156,000 from Q2 2015, a year ago. Average paid subscribers are up from 1,216,000 during the same period last year.
Those figures were reported as WWE issued its Q2 (April 1 to June 30) earnings release this morning. Other interesting information revealed:
The paid attendance for WrestleMania 32 was between 73,711 and 85,888. This is based on average attendances calculated with and without WrestleMania for the quarter that WWE provided in its Key Performance Indicators.
OIBDA (WWE’s profit-like metric of choice) was just $7.5 million for the quarter, down from $27.6 million in the previous quarter, and down from $13.2 million in Q2 2015.
471,000 WWE Network subscriptions were cancelled in Q2. WWE’s most important event, WrestleMania took place on the third day of the quarter. That’s an improvement from last year. 508,000 subscriptions were cancelled in Q2 2015, following WrestleMania that year.
Source: WWE Q2 2016 Key Performance Indicators
Attendance has not suffered badly due to the absence of John Cena from live events from January to May. Average North American live event attendance for Q2 2016 was 6,600. Taking WrestleMania’s attendance out of that calculation, average attendance for the quarter was 5,400. That’s unchanged from the same quarter last year, even though Cena was on a full schedule last year. Cena was off all live events (except an unadvertised appearance at WrestleMania 32) from the very beginning of January this year, until his return on May 30. While regularly appearing on TV, he has worked limited house show dates since his return, whereas he worked a full schedule before going out with a shoulder injury in late 2015.
The conference call for this release can be listened to live at 11:00AM EST on WWE’s corporate website, at this link. WWE CEO Vince McMahon and Chief Strategy and Financial Office George Barrios are expected to speak and answer questions. We will have a report of any news coming out of the call, soon after it’s over.
Sasha Banks, Finn Balor, Apollo Crews and Dolph Ziggler all landed big wins on WWE television this week. Balor and Ziggler’s wins in particular lead to theories being floated online that someone other than Vince McMahon may have been behind the booking decisions. One name that came up in speculation was Triple H, who is in charge of the NXT brand. Banks, Balor and Crews all spent several years working in NXT.
Dave Meltzer shed some light on the situation on Wednesday, reporting that none other than WWE Chairman Vince McMahon was behind deciding the winners of the #1 contendership matches on RAW and SmackDown this week. Meltzer confirmed that Vince is still ultimately in control of what we see on WWE TV each week.
Balor defeated Roman Reigns cleanly on RAW to earn a spot in a match against Seth Rollins at SummerSlam for the new RAW-branded Universal Title, while Dolph Ziggler won a six-man match on SmackDown to get a shot at Dean Ambrose’s World Heavyweight Title. This week’s RAW also saw Sasha Banks defeat Charlotte to obtain the Women’s Title.
Former WWE World Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson continues to tease that he may enter the political arena some day.
Johnson previously talked about his political aspirations earlier this year in Time Magazine, saying that he hasn’t ruled out a career in politics. “The thought of being governor, the thought of being president, is alluring,” Johnson admitted.
The Rock uploaded several photos this week to his official account on Instagram, where he has almost 61 million followers, hinting that politics are still on his mind. Johnson shared the images after fans were seen on TV holding up signs at the Democratic National Convention this week reading “Dwanye Johnson for President.”
He also Tweeted on Wednesday that he would enter politics in coming years if he could be a “strong, authentic, and impactful leader for the people.”
Johnson wouldn’t be the first wrestler to enter the political world if he did decide to make the leap one day. Former WWE wrestler and announcer Jesse Ventura became the governor of Minnesota back in November 1998 when he ran as an independent to narrowly and unexpectedly defeat two major-party candidates.
As of 2014, Johnson was a registered Republican, and he spoke at the Republican National Convention back in 2000.
Would you vote for The Rock? Sound off with your thoughts in the comments below.
Longtime wrestling personality Joey Styles recently took part in a Facebook Q&A with Cathy Kelley. During the interview, Kelley brings up the topic of controversial WWE star Roman Reigns. WWE continues to push Reigns as a babyface despite audible boos on television most of the time he comes out, and Kelley asked Styles for his take on why the company still books him as a face.
Styles says it all comes down to WWE Chairman Vince McMahon’s vision.
“The bottom line is if our Chairman thinks he sees a future star as a babyface, that’s how things are going to play out,” Styles said.
The former ECW announcer credits McMahon with having a good track record, and he has faith in the second-generation wrestling promoter’s instincts.
“Vince thinks it can work,” Styles continued, “He’s been right much, much, much more than he’s been wrong over the last 40 years. I’m sorry, but I’m not gonna second-guess the chairman.”
Styles feels that part of the reason why Vince continues pushing Reigns as a face despite the audible boos, is that Reigns does in fact have a fan base.
“Moms are the ones who bring kids to shows. Kids like Roman Reigns. Moms like Roman Reigns. That’s the reason,” Styles theorized. “Just because some people boo him doesn’t mean everyone doesn’t like him.”
While Jeff Hardy is adamant that he wants to face The Undertaker before he retires, his brother has a different WWE star in mind as a future opponent. In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Matt Hardy revealed that he wants to step in the ring with none other than WWE’s Bray Wyatt. Hardy, somewhat in character as “Broken” Matt Hardy, said that he has “fondness and appreciation” for “the Bray Wyatt.”
“I see that he is driven by a higher power, much like I am driven and motivated and inspired and given strength by the Seven Deities,” Hardy said. “I respect how he doesn’t walk the normal path, he carves his own. I would love, one day down that road, to show up in WWE and have a match with the Bray Wyatt. I would love to bring him to my battlefield and delete him–that would be my honor.”
Hardy and Wyatt had a brief Twitter spat, following WWE airing a “Wyatt compound” segment that some felt was in reaction to TNA’s “Final Deletion” segment.
Jim Ross recently weighed in on this week’s RAW on his official blog, saying that he embraced all of the production changes to the show except for moving the announcers from ringside to the stage. Ross says the announce position is close to the pyro, and that the location is “no fun nor is it the optimum location for the announcers.”
The WWE Hall of Famer says he enjoyed Finn Balor’s RAW debut and his “remarkable impact.” He says he expects Rollins and Balor to put on a “helluva performance” at SummerSlam next month, even though Balor is still new to the WWE audience who doesn’t watch NXT.
Ross also talked about the news of Brock Lesnar’s failed drug tests, saying those who think WWE should suspend Lesnar need to review Lesnar’s contract and the Wellness Policy.
“Lesnar is a part-time talent and part-timers are not under the standard, WWE wellness policy according to the WWE itself,” Ross wrote. “If Shaq actually does get in the ring with Big Show at WM33 in Orlando, then Shaq would not be tested either because he would be considered a part-timer. I am not condoning PED use in any way but I do agree that WWE cannot require part time performers in a show business presentation, not a legit sport, to adhere to the same rules and regulations that they require of their full-time talents. Plus to compare pro wrestling to MMA is somewhat eye-rolling.”
Seth Rollins posted a series of tweets on Wednesday encouraging wrestling fans to take a step back and realize just how good things are at the moment. It’s easy to be critical of WWE (and other promotions) because it’s unbelievably frustrating when the product is not as good as it can be. For all of the areas that still need improvement, there’s a lot to enjoy and Rollins makes a good case for why we should appreciate the current state of the business. He’ll face Finn Balor at SummerSlam on August 21st to crown the first ever WWE Universal Champion.
If you don't love pro wrestling across the board right now and you're not telling all your friends about it then you're just missing out…
Tuesday’s SmackDown Live, the first episode featuring the new post-Draft SmackDown roster, did a 1.92 rating and averaged 2.743 million viewers. This is down from last week’s big WWE Draft, which did a 2.2 rating and 3.170 million viewers.
Overall, this is a pretty strong showing. SmackDown Live ranked #10 for the night in viewership, behind “Haves & Have Nots” plus various programs covering the Democratic National Convention. SmackDown was #2 in the 18-49 demographic, behind CNN’s DNC coverage.
Dolph Ziggler shocked the world on Tuesday night when he won a 6-pack challenge to become the #1 contender to WWE Champion Dean Ambrose. Ziggler was interviewed backstage after SmackDown Live and told Charly Caruso how excited he is for the opportunity.
“I’m so excited, I can’t believe it,” he said. “My parents don’t believe it. The fans, the WWE Universe, they didn’t see it coming. Do you know why they didn’t see it coming? For the last two years I haven’t been myself. I haven’t been my happy self looking to steal the show. I don’t even do that anymore. Tonight, I sent a message. SmackDown live, the very first one, we go to SummerSlam. Tonight, I walk out… OK, John Cena, AJ Styles, Bray Wyatt, the new kids who have been making a name for themselves… all of them in the same ring at the same time and somehow I won. A broken clock is right twice a day, right? Every once in a while I steal one and when I do, I make the most of it. And this time, it’s the biggest one I’ve ever had.”
The former World Heavyweight champion has a chance to capture the richest prize in the game at SummerSlam. There will be a lot of big marquee matches on the card, but he plans to steal the show. “Not because of talent, not because of high flying and not because of moves. Because there’s a real story of emotion here. This is going to be my moment and the entire world is going to be watching. Dean Ambrose, I wish you the best of luck because I’m not going to need it.”
Join us here next month for our in-person coverage of WWE SummerSlam weekend!
On Monday’s RAW, Finn Balor won the opportunity to face Seth Rollins at SummerSlam for the new WWE Universal Title. Balor made his pro-wrestling debut back in 2000 at the age of 18 in the UK, and has been with WWE’s NXT brand since mid-2014. On Wednesday, he took a moment to talk about his journey through the pro wrestling business on his official Twitter account.
Balor wrote that being part of NXT’s growth is his proudest accomplishment, and that Monday’s RAW was a result of 16 years of hard work and help from his peers. Here’s what he had to say:
To have been a part of the team that helped NXT become what it is now is without question my proudest accomplishment pic.twitter.com/lNlDW9t4Qi
Last week, Paige got the attention of some fans online when all photos of her boyfriend Alberto Del Rio were removed from her Instagram page. She addressed the situation on Twitter, letting fans know she didn’t know how it happened and assured everybody the photos of ADR would be added back soon (they were).
On Wednesday, Paige posted a heartfelt message on Twitter, professing her love for Del Rio, thanking him for being an inspiration and helping her get back on track after an apparent rough patch. Good for them!
“The last few days I’ve felt the happiest I’ve ever felt. I feel healthy. I feel content. I feel confident and that I can do so much in this world. I got motivated back into the gym again (because c’mon guys I looked like I was slacking haha!) I wanna work harder to achieve my future dreams and goals. And current dreams and goals. And it’s all thanks to this man. Without this man picking me up and telling me everything is ok I don’t know where I’d be. He deserves all the happiness in the world. My best friend. Mi amor. Always gonna need you in my life. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me.”
Source: WWE Q2 2016 Key Performance Indicators