WWE’s weekly 205 Live cruiserweights show on the WWE Network has been struggling with viewership, according to Dave Meltzer. 205 Live draws significantly fewer viewers than NXT on a week to week basis.
There are many factors that play in to the issues for the Cruiserweight brand, one of the biggest being over saturation of the WWE product overall.
The in ring content that WWE produces currently sits at nearly 10 hours per week, not to mention the creation of a UK based show that will be airing on the Network in the coming months.
Are you a fan of 205 Live? Then check out the latest show from R&J Podcasts discussing the Cruiserweight division:
– Sheamus noted on Twitter that today marks 10 years since his WWE tryout.
– On last week’s episode of Total Divas, Nikki Bella said she thinks Brie “feels lost” since leaving WWE and had a rough time after leaving the company last year. Nikki said,
“Brie retired from WWE because she can’t be a mom and wrestle at the same time. Giving that up and not automatically getting pregnant, I feel like she’s just in this in-between stage. And I think she feels lost and it kind of makes me feel bad for her.”
Brie and husband Daniel Bryan are expecting a baby girl in about a month. Previously on the show, Brie revealed the child will be named Birdy Joe Danielson.
“Joe, her middle name, is after my grandfather – his name was Joseph, and he meant the world to me,” Brie said. “Birdy is because my husband and his whole family are B’s. And he married me, a B too, so his one request was that our kids have B names. I didn’t realise how hard it was to find girl B names, but we both came across Birdy and knew that was it!”
– Big E recently announced on Twitter that he is available to officiate weddings in the Los Angeles are later this month. He made sure to clarify he is not joking around.
I may be officiating weddings in LA April 20-22. Hit me if you're weird. MarriedbyBigE@gmail.com. I'm actually not joking. For once.
Big E spoke to WWE.com about the decision to start officiating weddings and revealed it came about because he had some free time on his hands and he ‘really doesn’t do well’ with idle time. “I think I was talking about it in the locker room,” Big E said. “I actually have to give all credit to Enzo Amore. He came up with this idea. As soon as I heard it, I thought ‘This is kind of ridiculous, but kind of phenomenal, as well.’ So, I gave it some thought, ran it by a couple of my friends, got their feedback. I couldn’t really think of a reason not to do it and got even more excited about the prospect.”
As for what couples can expected from a Big E wedding, Big E knows people will probably expect to see him ‘in character’ like they see on WWE television. “I’m not going to approach it as a normal minister would,” he said. “My job is an entertainer, so my thought is people want to see me entertain. That’s something we can talk about, of course. If you have a grandmother at your wedding who is uncomfortable with me shaking my hips, that’s something that I can tone down. It’s a case-by-case basis. I’m sure people who would try to employ my services would want something fun, but we’ll talk about it.”
Matt and Jeff Hardy picked up a victory during a WWE live event last night in Cincinnati. During the celebration, Jeff Hardy slipped and fell face-first to the mat.
Bret Hart was recently interviewed by Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard. Hart discussed The Undertaker’s match at Wrestlemania 33 and stated that he enjoyed it. The Undertaker lost to Roman Reigns and then left his gloves, coat and hat in the ring.
“I liked his final moment,” said Hart. “I enjoyed his last match, and I thought he gave his all. He’ll forever be one of the wrestling giants, and he is one of the guys I respected the most.”
You can check out he entire interview by clicking here.
– Alberto El Patron is now officially under contract with Impact Wrestling, according to a report at PWInsider.com. During a recent interview with FightfulWrestling, Alberto revealed that he’s been working for Impact Wrestling under a ‘handshake agreement’ with Jeff Jarrett.
“[Jarrett] was like, ‘Do you want to do a contract just for a week so you can see what we are going to be doing’? I said, ‘No, let’s do it the way gentleman do it. Let’s shake hands and I’ll go work for you. I will trust you. You know me and know I always deliver and what I bring to the table. I will do those four TV tapings and after those TV tapings we will sit down. If you don’t think my work is worth what I’m asking for then you say right there and I’ll give you a big discount’.”
It’s worth noting that Alberto El Patron told Fightful that he intends to retire from active competition when he’s done working for Impact Wrestling.
“At the moment, we are closing the final details of what is going to be my contract,” Alberto said last week. “Then, I will be joining TNA for good and retire in the company.”
– New Japan Pro Wrestling star Kenny Omega spoke with The Irish Mirror prior to competing at Over The Top Wrestling’s ScrapperMania III event in Dublin, Ireland at Dublin’s National Stadium this past Saturday night. When asked about the message the Bullet Club is looking to send, Omega said:
“We always had this message that we wanted to tell the people. To finally spread it to a larger fan-base… to spread our message of what pro wrestling should be, what we think it can be, to more people worldwide, that makes us happy. That makes us want to travel more and give these live performances in places that we’ve never been before.”
Mauro Ranallo made his return to commentary over this past weekend and called the Rizin FF 5: Sakura MMA event in Yokohama, Japan. WWE does not allow the term “professional wrestler” on television. WWE prefers that the term “Sports Entertainer” is used to describe it’s performers. Ranallo took a shot at WWE and said the following during the MMA event:
“Professional wrester, and boy does it feel good to be able to use that term again,turned mixed martial artist, the Alpha Female Jazzy Gabert!”
Ranallo is not expected to return to WWE television before his contract expires in August, but he did tweet yesterday that he plans on calling “pro wrestling” in the future.
– Finn Balor is in Columbus, Ohio and will be attending tonight’s WWE RAW. According to PWInsider, Balor will undergo another round of medical tests, including an Impact concussion test to see if he can get cleared to wrestle.
Balor suffered a concussion last week on RAW during his match with Jinder Mahal and was pulled from WWE live events over the weekend.
– Former SmackDown Live announcer Mauro Ranallo returned to the commentary booth over the weekend, calling the action for the RIZIN Fighting Federation’s event from Yokohama, Japan. Ranallo thanked fans on Twitter for their ongoing support and vowed to call pro wrestling again.
– WWE posted this video of former ECW Champion Jerry Lynn talking about his recent experience working as a guest trainer at the Performance Center in Orlando:
44-year old George Murdoch is an occasional political commentator for Fox News. Wrestling fans are more familiar with Murdoch by either the name Tyrus or Brodus Clay however.
Recently Murdoch was a guest on a right-leaning political discussion show, offering his opinion on the recent attacks on Syria. President Trump authorized the use of missiles in response to the Syrian government’s recent use of chemical weapons on civilians. Such attacks are in defiance of the Geneva Protocol (an international treaty that outlaws the use of gases and chemical weapons).
When Murdoch isn’t backing up outspoken and polarizing figures on Fox News, he is the bodyguard for Eli Drake on Impact. Most recently, Tyrus was on the losing end of Impact’s 8-man tag main event last week.
Previously, Drake and Tyrus were knocked down a peg in Impact’s tag division after losing to Laredo Kid and Garza 2 weeks ago.
Posted April 17th, 2017 in News, TNA. Tagged: Tyrus.
Peter Rosenberg addressed the JBL bullying scandal on the latest episode of his podcast “Cheap Heat“. Rosenberg also now works for WWE and hosts “Bring It To The Table” alongside JBL. This story started to get more attention after JBL criticized Mauro Ranallo for posting a list from Dave Meltzer and the Wrestling Observer. Mauro Ranallo was named announcer of the year by the Wrestling Observer and tweeted about it. JBL made fun of Ranallo for that on “Bring It To The Table”.
Here are some highlights of what Rosenberg said during the episode:
JBL Not Acknowledging The Wrestling Observer
“He takes a jab at Mauro, and if you go back and watch, it was utterly not that serious. As were many of the things we did on that episode. Guys, we have legitimate takes on that show but it is WWE programming, none of it is that serious. More importantly to me, it was not that he teased Mauro, it was that he didn’t even recognize The Observer at all. JBL utterly buried Meltzer and The Observer. That has to be noted because who has been the number one person pushing this story? Dave Meltzer and The Observer.
So are you going to tell me Dave, because you think people like me and everyone else that speaks on this is a cooperate shill… and Jonathan Coachman who you said falsely was the target of JBL’s bullying which just isn’t true. You (Meltzer) are going to call everyone else a shill and say that they have an agenda, but you don’t have an agenda? Even after JBL buried you? JBL called it a random internet list and gave no credit to it, I’m sure that bothered Meltzer.”
JBL Criticizing Mauro Ranallo For “Putting Himself Over”
“It was a little bit poor form to post the list. If someone posted a list and said who is the best radio personalities in the game? Number one was Peter Rosenberg, I probably wouldn’t post that or retweet that just because it made me look good and buries everyone else that I work with. Do I think he is a bad guy for posting that? No. Do I think it is worth a joke or two? Yes. I think a joke or two is totally in bounds.
Do I know everything that has ever transpired between JBL and Mauro Ranallo? Absolutely not. The idea that Mauro Ranallo is leaving WWE because of a joke on “Bring It To The Table” is crazy and there are a lot of people on Twitter that believe that is it. Are you a fan of professional wrestling and you think that would be a valid reason to leave? Being teased on a show? You know what it used to be like back in the day, in the Blackjack Mulligan era,and you think someone making a joke leads to someone missing Wrestlemania? Let’s just assume that can’t be a reasonable reason to leave WWE.
I am going to defend JBL because he is the first person that I’ve worked with since I got to WWE. JBL has also given me a hard time during “Bring It To The Table” and at no point did I take any of that seriously. And when he does it on-air and off-air, I laugh and I smile back and he starts laughing. That is the kind of guy he is. Do I know everything he has ever done? No I don’t. I’m just telling you that my experience has been nothing but positive. I came into it as an outsider expecting a bit of ball-busting. Bullying is a real issue especially when it comes to children. Children being bullied is a real issue and nothing to joke about. I am not going to live in a world where a grown man making jokes to another grown man at his workplace, if it was simply jokes, is enough reason for someone to leave his workplace. I can’t subscribe to that.”
Rosenberg On Justin Roberts
“Listen I don’t know Justin Roberts, I’m sure he is a nice enough guy. I’ll tell you one thing, he very clearly had an axe to grind with WWE since the second he was released. If you are now going to believe every word he says while he is promoting a book and he has hated the company since the second he left, and you are not going to take that with a grain of salt… that is just being silly.”
You can listen to the entire episode of “Cheap Heat” on iTunes.
Over The Top Wrestling (OTT) announced during their Scrappermania broadcast that ex-RAW General Manager Mick Foley will be ‘taking control’ of the promotion for one night only on August 5th. Foley’s last appearance on the UK/Irish scene was for ICW as part of their Fear & Loathing IX event.
Scrappermania was a big success for OTT with their first ever venture into iPPV on FloSlam. The WrestleRama event on August 5th has not yet been confirmed as being available to stream on FloSlam but with the inclusion of a star the caliber of Foley it surely will be.
IMPACT have announced that Bobby Lashley will be appearing for WOS (World of Sport) during their first run of TV Tapings on May 25th/26th.
The partnership between IMPACT/WOS was announced at the recent ITV press conference by Jeremy Borash and Jeff Jarrett.
Other confirmed acts for the tapings include:
WOS Champion Grado
Magnus/Nick Aldis
Davey Boy Smith Jr
El Ligero
Dave Mastiff
Zack Gibson
Have your tickets for @WOSWrestlingITV yet? Better hurry! @fightbobby is coming to Preston Guild Hall on May 25th and May 26th. pic.twitter.com/Fu2ghWFAsq
Tonight’s WWE RAW takes place from Columbus, Ohio at the Schottenstein Center. The show will feature fallout from last week’s Superstar Shake-Up, with RAW acquiring Bray Wyatt, Dean Ambrose, The Miz and Alexa Bliss but losing Charlotte, New Day, Sami Zayn and Rusev (Full Superstar Shake-Up Results).
Expect to get injury updates on Roman Reigns and Finn Balor. Reigns was brutalized by Braun Strowman last week, while Balor is believed to have suffered a concussion and the hands of Jinder Mahal. WWE Payback is less than two weeks away so we’ll see more hype for that show.
WWE.com is advertising the following items for tonight:
Is Braun Strowman unstoppable?
Has Elias Samson “drifted” to Raw?
Is Nia Jax in line for a Raw Women’s Title opportunity?
Which Raw newcomers will “shake up” Team Red the most?
Will Seth Rollins and Samoa Joe settle their unfinished business?
WWE Hall of Famer Booker T will also be joining the commentating booth tonight, filling in for David Otguna for the next 6 weeks.
Join us here tonight for our weekly WWE RAW Results & Live Discussion. Until then, you can catch up on these highlights from last week:
According to David Heath, aka Gangrel, the former leader of the Brood was at one point considered to join the Wyatt family. Heath would also say it was Bray Wyatt himself who pushed for Gangrel’s WWE return.
In a recent interview the 48-year old talked about the possibility of a WWE return, the Brood in the Hall of Fame, and more.
On Bray Wyatt asking him to join the Wyatt Family:
“When I was talking to Bray he was saying he very much wanted me to come in but I think because of the name issue, WWE doesn’t own the name Gangrel, so things got shot down and stuff. It would have been fun”
On working the Hardyz and Edge and Christian:
“Awesome guys. All of them are awesome. Proud of them all. Christian, Edge, Matt, Jeff, just great guys. You couldn’t ask for a better group of people to want to be around and work with.”
On the Brood Potentially Going in the Hall of Fame:
“You already have Edge in there. Christian’s not in yet I don’t think. Maybe the Brood might go in one day, it’s hard to say.”
“The Brood it was great and cool while it lasted but I don’t know if we had a long enough tenure.”
While at Florida Supercon Retro in Miami, FL this weekend, Jake “The Snake” Roberts was interviewed by The Roman Show on YouTube. Roberts performed as both both a face and a heel during his career, and he discussed Roman Reigns’ heat on RAW and thinks WWE should embrace it.
“Enjoy it — I mean, why in God’s name would you try to change what the masses want?” Roberts asked. “The masses want to the hate the guy, let them hate.”
Roberts is the second WWE Hall of Famer this week to suggest that WWE makes Reigns one of their top heels. In an interview with Washington’s Top News, recent H.O.F. inductee Kurt Angle stated that if the fans don’t embrace Reigns soon, WWE should look into turning him full heel.
Former WWE announcer Justin Roberts says that he was “completely blindsided” by the pitfalls of working for the biggest wrestling company in the world. In a recent interview with PressBox, Roberts recalled that he had heard about some performers’ reputations, but didn’t realize what the “culture” in WWE would be like. Roberts says that WWE management neglected to try resolving his issues with JBL, and even encouraged and stood behind the alleged bullying.
“[WWE management] enjoyed hearing the stories of what went on,” Roberts said of his backstage issues. “At that point, I knew that’s just how it is; there’s nothing I can do about it. So do I want to leave and be away from it, or since I worked so hard to get here, do I want to make the most of it and hope that eventually it.”
When asked about the media coverage of Mauro Ranallo’s alleged issues with JBL, Roberts indicated that his autobiography might be partly responsible. In his autobiography, Roberts recalled several unpleasant experiences with JBL.
“There’s speculation about what happened, and then at the same time, this book — which covers a lot of positive things, as well — has the story about JBL from 2003, which is a long time ago, but it had never been told,” Roberts said. “Everybody has heard JBL bullying stories, but now that this book has come out and people read about the type of stuff that went on, I think it gives them more of an idea that this could be a real thing.”
Booker T recently discussed the alleged situation between JBL and Mauro Ranallo on his Heated Conversations radio show and the “fire JBL” chants on SmackDown. Booker said that a lot of people love and respect Mauro, and the stories have triggered a “flash mob” of backlash against JBL. He added that he still likes Mauro even though Mauro “unfollowed” him on Twitter, but that he took issue with some of fellow ex-WWE announcer Justin Roberts’ stories about JBL. Booker also took issue with the term “bullying” being applied to the locker room in WWE.
“I think [bullying] pretty much goes away when you’re a grown man and you’re able to take up for yourself and throw hands, or go and talk to someone,” Booker said. “Say ‘hey, I don’t feel like I’m being treated right with this commentator, maybe you need to move me somewhere else otherwise there could be problems.’ […] But I don’t think the “bullying” rule should fall under grown men having an issue with each other.”
He mentions that he came up in the business around The Steiner Brothers, The Nasty Boys, and Brian Pillman, and if one of them had messed with him he would have settled it himself.
Former WWE announcer Justin Roberts recently released an autobiography detailing his experiences with JBL. It should be noted that Mauro himself hasn’t publicly made any allegations against JBL.
Mauro Ranallo returned to broadcasting this weekend when he called the action at the Rizin FF 5 MMA event. The show took place in Yokohama, Japan at the Yokohama Arena, and he was broadcasting with MMA pioneer Frank Shamrock. Ranallo and Shamrock are no strangers as they used to call Strikeforce events together on Showtime until the company was purchased by the UFC in 2013.
Ranallo has been relatively inactive on Twitter after leaving WWE television, but he took the opportunity to thank the MMA community for their support in a Tweet this morning.
Mauro is not expected to return to WWE television despite his contract not expiring until this summer, and WWE is reportedly working on a settlement and release offer with him.
RAW GM Kurt Angle recently did an interview with the Washington Top News where he commented on the mixed reactions from fans to RAW star Roman Reigns, and compared him to John Cena.
The WWE Hall of Famer said he loves Reigns, but feels WWE might have pushed him too fast for some fans’ liking. Angle believes when a star skips the mid-card and goes right to the top, it makes some fans resent him.
“Half the fans love him; half the fans hate him,” Angle said of Reigns. “Same with [John] Cena. When Cena came in, Vince pushed the hell out of him, and fans were like, ‘Gosh, dang. This guy’s invincible. I hate him!’ … If Vince waits it out a bit, fans will start to accept [Roman Reigns], and if they don’t, then turn him heel.”
Angle mentioned that some of his other favorite members of the current WWE roster are Cesaro, Kevin Owens, Dolph Ziggler, Seth Rollins, and Chad Gable.
The stories about JBL’s alleged behind-the-scenes bullying are getting mainstream attention, and in a recent interview with Sports Illustrated former WWE star Alberto Del Rio weighed in on the issue.
Del Rio has his fair share of issues with WWE employees, including going on online rants against Triple H. One person in WWE he doesn’t have an issue with is JBL.
“I know I had a lot of beef with some of the people in that company, and I can say that I hate some of the people in that place, but JBL was not one of them,” Del Rio told SI.com. “He was always fantastic to me and he always treated my family with respect, so I have nothing but respect for JBL.”
Del Rio was released from WWE last September. He was previously released in late 2014 for allegedly slapping a WWE employee who made a racist joke. The former World Heavyweight Champion recently said WWE reached out to him about a return, but he declined.
“I swear on my kids’ life, I don’t watch the product at all, I don’t follow, so I don’t know what the situation is with JBL,” he added.
WWE Hall Of Famer and WWE Monday Night RAW General Manager Kurt Angle recently appeared on Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast, where he discussed some of his greatest opponents and his “top three.” The Olympic gold medalist had high praises for some of his most famous rivals: Shawn Michaels, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit.
“I’m sorry, but he has got to be in the top three of all time,” Angle said of Benoit. “I mean, you can’t deny that. Even Bret Hart will tell you that.” Angle added that the things Benoit did in 2007 are inexcusable, but in the ring he was “possibly the greatest of all time.”
Angle says another one of the best in-ring performers ever was ‘Latino Heat,” and says Eddie Guerrero would have been the #1 performer in the business if not for his health issues. Angle discussed Guerrero’s car accident on New Year’s Day in 1999 and the effect that had on his career.
“I think Eddie was in his prime in WCW and the reason I say that is because he got in a car accident,” Angle said. “That car accident did two things for him. It really inhibited what he could do after that. In other words, he had limits. He could still do a lot, but not like he used to. I used to watch him in WCW and be like, ‘wow, this kid’s incredible.’ But he almost couldn’t walk again after that accident, so yeah, Eddie was banged up when I wrestled him.”
“As good as he was in 2004, 2005, he had to be 10-times better back then,” Angle recalled. “That’s mind-blowing. I mean, he could have been the absolute greatest of all time because when I wrestled him, he was still in that top three we were talking about, so Eddie had it all. He was so entertaining, but he also had all the technique. He was such a great wrestler and he got it. He got finishes. He knew how to structure them.”
Angle and Guerrero got into a real-life backstage fight after some professional differences boiled over. The story goes that Guerrero attempted a double-leg take down on the Olympic gold medalist, but Angle defended it with a front face lock and they were quickly pulled apart. Angle recalled that after Guerrero had confronted him several times, Angle shoved him away from him to see what Guerrero would do.
“He didn’t do anything, so I shoved him again and he double-legs me. I mean, you could’ve sucker punched me, but he double-legs me,” he recalled. “And I’m like, ‘he did not just try to double-leg an Olympic gold medalist, so I laid the hips into him and then I started choking him out nice and slow.”
Angle said he wanted to make amends with Guerrero right away, but Guerrero told him he “wasn’t ready to be sorry,” which made Angle want to “kick his butt.” They almost got into it again in the locker room, but Angle says JBL pulled them apart. He says the next week Guerrero apologized to him, and they were “like brothers.”
The other wrestler Kurt lists in his top three favorite in-ring performers is Shawn Michaels. “I’m not going to lie to you, I wish I would have wrestled Ric Flair in his prime and Bret Hart in his prime,” Angle said. “I did [wrestle Shawn Michaels], so I have to say Shawn Michaels is the best.” Kurt recalled that he and Michaels didn’t rehearse anything for their acclaimed WrestleMania 21 match, because “yeah, [Michaels] is that good.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhO8AKv8QU
You can listen to Chris Jericho’s entire podcast with Kurt Angle at PodcastOne.com.
As a result of Linda McMahon being appointed the head of the U.S. Small Business Administration, she and Vince had to make a public filing about their finances recently. In the joint filing, The McMahons reported a net worth between $938 million and $1.1 billion. Most of the net worth is composed of stock and real estate.
They listed several residences, one in Greenwich, CT worth $8 million, one in Stamford worth $3 million, and others in New York, Las Vegas, and Boca Raton. The McMahons have about $12 million is cash spread across ten different bank accounts in Vince’s name. They listed between $25 and $50 million in a Morgan Stanley money market account, and $782 million in WWE stock.
The filing states they are owed between $5 million and $25 million in loans by an unnamed family member.
Forbes first tabbed WWE chairman Vince McMahon as a billionaire in 2000, but WWE’s stock fell the following year and McMahon didn’t return to the billionaire ranks until early 2014. His net worth would fall below one billion again when he lost $350 million in one day in May of 2014, before rising back up in April of 2016 with the success of the WWE Network and company stock.
Mauro Ranallo is not expected to return to WWE television, and now more details about the terms of his departure are surfacing online. In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reports that WWE is currently working on coming to terms on a settlement with Ranallo.
The settlement would reportedly include an agreement for the now-former SmackDown announcer not to speak publicly about his issues with WWE, and presumably some severance pay. The news of the settlement agreement comes shortly after former announcer Justin Roberts’ autobiography made headlines with his allegations of bullying behind-the-scenes in WWE.
WWE is currently said to be in talks with Mauro’s representatives about the details of the settlement.
Ranallo first appeared on SmackDown for the show’s USA Network premiere at the beginning of 2016. His current contract expires on August 12th.
After his show stealing bout against Kazuchika Okada at New Japan’s Sakura Genesis event last weekend Katsuyori Shibata was rushed to hospital with what was reported as a subdural hematoma. This is an extremely serious injury where blood builds up between the skull and brain.
Several reports from Dave Meltzer at the Wrestling Observer seemed to indicate that this may have been part of an angle to ‘get over’ the severity/brutality of the match. It is now believed that the injury is in fact very real and there is a chance that Shibata will never wrestle another match. Whilst in hospital Shibata temporality lost mobility on the right side of his body, he apparently has now recovered fully from this paralysis however given the severity of this injury he may never again be cleared to wrestle.
Shinsuke Nakamura recently spoke to Yahoo Japan regarding the New Japan wrestling style and the risks that performers are taking:
“Lately exchanging dangerous moves has become a trend in Japanese wrestling. With serious injuries happening, it might have to change and wrestlers should look back and think about dangerous moves they do and the risks they take.”
The Young Bucks & Kenny Omega are currently touring the UK with a number of high profile appearances over the Easter weekend for Rev Pro, OTT and Fight Club: Pro.
The Bucks have always had their ear to the ground when it comes to social media and they have just released a short video mocking JBL (see below).
JBL has been the talk of the internet recently with his alleged involvement over Mauro Ranallo’s exit from WWE, mainstream news outlets such as ESPN and Yahoo! have picked up on the story and it appears as though it will not be going away anytime soon.
Daniel Bryan Tweets About Final Match & Tyson Kidd Responds
Yesterday was the two year anniversary of Daniel Bryan’s final WWE match. Bryan teamed up with John Cena to face Tyson Kidd & Cesaro. Bryan has made it known in several interviews that he may look to wrestle elsewhere once his WWE contract expires. For now, he serves as the GM of Smackdown and co-host of Talking Smack. Bryan sent out a tweet acknowledging the two year anniversary of his last match and Tyson Kidd responded to it.
Kurt Angle Is Excited Booker T Is Doing Commentary For RAW
As noted earlier, new RAW announcer David Otunga will miss the next six weeks of WWE RAW to film his new movie “Katrina”. Booker T was announced as his temporary replacement on the RAW commentary team. RAW GM Kurt Angle seems to be a fan of that decision and sent out the following tweet:
WWE Superstar Finn Balor suffered a concussion during his match with Jinder Mahal this week on WWE Raw. Balor took to Twitter and sent the following tweet to Mahal:
WWE Superstar Big E was interviewed on WWE.com about becoming an ordained minister. Here are a some highlights from the interview:
WWE.COM: So, what led to you offering yourself up as a wedding officiant?
“I recently learned that I would have a lot of time off. I really don’t do well with a lot of idle time. A couple of weeks ago, we just had WrestleMania, which kept me really busy. Then, we had about six days off, which was fitting, and then TV.
I’m ready to work. I don’t do well with idle time. My head was spinning, thinking “What am I going to do with all these days off?” I don’t really want to take a vacation. I’m bored just being in the house. I think I was talking about it in the locker room, [and] I actually have to give all credit to Enzo Amore. He came up with this idea. As soon as I heard it, I thought “This is kind of ridiculous, but kind of phenomenal, as well.” So, I gave it some thought, ran it by a couple of my friends, got their feedback. I couldn’t really think of a reason not to do it and got even more excited about the prospect.”
WWE.COM: What do you think makes you a good fit for this?
“I guess I’m hoping that people are excited to have me. I don’t want to walk into an awkward situation where just the husband or just the wife wants me there. I want it to be something where everyone involved is pleased with the outcome.
But anything specific? I could give you something sappy about people who are madly in love and want to be together forever, but it’s cool to be part of someone’s day. I had no idea how much interest there would actually be; I just threw it out there. I told Emilio that I wouldn’t be surprised if there were no serious requests, but there are a few. Now, we have to sit down and reply to people. I’ll probably find a way to call, Skype or FaceTime them so people know it’s real.”
If you wish to have Big E officiate your wedding, Big E sent out a tweet letting you know how to book him.
I may be officiating weddings in LA April 20-22. Hit me if you're weird. MarriedbyBigE@gmail.com. I'm actually not joking. For once.