It’s been widely reported that Ric Flair is on the outs with TNA, with most people in the company under the impression that he won’t be back. There are conflicting stories as to whether Flair quit or if TNA ended the relationship.
Flair could wind up back in WWE, since he is a close personal friend of Triple H, his daughter just got signed to WWE developmental and WWE could use Flair to help with the WWE Network launch later this year. Under no circumstances would Flair ever wrestle in a WWE ring again after his elaborate “retirement” sendoff at WrestleMania 24.
Flair currently has a lucrative sponsorship deal in place with Coca Cola as the spokesperson for a new energy shot drink, however his financial situation (and lifestyle) is such that he will probably still need to work for years to come.
Check out these videos of Ric Flair promoting the “Fuel In A Bottle” energy drink:
– Rey Mysterio’s WWE contract has been extended by approximately 10-11 months to make up for the time he has missed due to various injuries, including his knee injury last summer. Mysterio is still serving out the remainder of his 60-day suspension as a result of his second violation of the company Wellness Policy.
– WWE is advertising the following matches for the upcoming Supershow live event from Lowell, Massachusetts on 6/16: John Cena & Randy Orton vs. Big Show & Chris Jericho, CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan vs. Kane in a Street Fight and Sheamus vs. Alberto Del Rio.
– Mick Foley worked another SmackDown live this week from Poughkeepsie, New York and served as the special ringside enforcer for Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan vs. Alberto Del Rio World Heavyweight title match. Sheamus retained the title and Ricardo Rodriguez got a mouthful of Mr. Socko after the match.
As previously reported, there are a lot of mixed feelings in WWE about Monday Night RAW expanding to 3 hours on a permanent basis starting July 23rd. Many are comparing the move to WCW Nitro expanding to 3-hours years ago, a decision Eric Bischoff has publicly stated was the #1 factor behind WCW’s downfall.
The format of the show is still a work in progress, but the general idea is that WWE plans to treat every Monday night like a pay-per-view event with fan interaction.
Virtually all of the feedback from people in the company has been negative. WWE has had a difficult time booking two compelling hours of television every Monday night. If the additional hour is “more of the same” – there is a great risk of burnout for everyone involved – writers, wrestlers and viewers.
The USA Network has been pushing WWE to expand RAW to 3 hours for years, but WWE has always rejected the idea. USA currently pays WWE about $700,000 a week for RAW. Even an increase of $100,000 of weekly TV rights fees would mean $5.2 million in new revenue for WWE.
At this point, it’s difficult not to view the situation as a money grab by WWE, which will come at the expense of their eroding PPV business and the company’s overall longterm health.
– WWE issued a press release last month touting that WrestleMania 28 was the biggest WrestleMania of all time, with preliminary data showing the show did approximately 1.3 million buys.
With more data coming in, the buyrate is now looking to be closer to 1.21 million buys. The final number will be reported at WWE’s next quarterly investor meeting.
– Early pay-per-view buyrate numbers are in for WWE’s Extreme Rules pay-per-view featuring John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar. Lesnar’s first WWE match in over 8 years helped WWE more than double the buyrate from 2011.
This year’s Extreme Rules pay-per-view drew approximately 250,000 buys, based (147,000 domestic, 104,000 International) – way up from 108,000 buys in 2011.
Shane Douglas’ new Extreme Reunion promotion has been renamed and will now be known as Extreme Rising.
Extreme Rising’s New York City debut will take place on June 29th in Corona, Queens at the Elmcor Youth & Adult Activities Center. Tickets go on sale this Monday.
Matches announced for the NYC show include:
– Matt Hardy vs. Jerry Lynn
– Devon Storm vs. Homicide
– Luke Hawx vs. Stevie Richards
– Pesadilla vs. Bestia 666
– BLK OUT vs. The Dramatics
Plus, appearances by ECW originals The FBI, CW Anderson, The Blue Meanie, Balls Mahoney and Pitbull Gary Wolfe.
Extreme Rising will also run on the following day (6/30) from Philadelphia’s National Guard Armory with Jerry Lynn vs. Homicide among the confirmed matches for that show.
– Following his heel turn at Over The Limit, Big Show will be replacing Tensai and will team with John Laurinaitis against John Cena in handicap matches at several upcoming WWE live events.
– Jim Ross tweeted this week that he currently has no plans to appear at the 1,000th episode of WWE RAW on July 23rd.
– David Otunga has been telling his Twitter followers that he has his sights set on Santino’s United States championship. #OtungaForUSChampion was actually trending worldwide on Twitter on Wednesday.
– The Rock wrote on Twitter about GI Joe 2 being moved back to the week before WrestleMania 29, March 29th, 2013:
“Commitment to make GI JOE a massive world event just got bigger. New release 3/29/13. Rock + Ass kickins + 3D = #AwwwwShit”
As previously reported, GI Joe has been moved so the project can be converted to maximize box office revenue and due to the stiff competition around its original release date from the new Avengers, Spiderman and Batman movies.
– WWE officials have been impressed with the Rotunda brothers, Taylor and Windham, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Taylor Rotunda worked the recent NXT tapings from Full Sail University as Bo Dallas while he former Husky Harris worked the tapings using his new religious gimmick, Bray Wyatt.
– There’s no word yet on how Mark Henry’s recent surgery went, but he’s not expected to return to action until late June. Henry had been working through knee and groin problems over the past few months and tweeted on Wednesday night:
“What up twitter nation I’m healing well,no complaining from me I man up.”
– After recently being released by WWE, Goldust announced on Twitter that he’s getting married soon. He is taking independent bookings and might travel to Japan to wrestle, but made it clear that he’s not interested in doing radio appearances. He tweeted, “Im not bitter so go ask someone else.”
– The latest issue of WWE Magazine features a new “insider news” column by The Informer, who revealed that a certain (male) American Idol runner-up is in negotiations to perform at this year’s SummerSlam pay-per-view. The most logical guess would be James Durbin, who is a huge pro wrestling fan and actually worked with WWE over WrestleMania 28 weekend in Miami doing charity & promotional work.
– The latest WWE Magazine also hints that WrestleMania 30 will be held in “a city of Olympic proportions.”
– With John Cena vs. Big Show being promoted as the main event of WWE’s upcoming No Way Out pay-per-view, the streak continues of non-title matches headlining pay-per-views.
Believe it or not, the last time a WWE Championship or World Heavyweight Championship match headlined a pay-per-view was last December’s TLC pay-per-view, when CM Punk defended the WWE title in a triple threat match with The Miz and Alberto Del Rio.
– Cody Rhodes is the latest WWE superstar to get the attention of Paul Heyman on Twitter. After re-tweeting several messages from the former Intercontinental champion, Paul heyman wrote the following about the second generation superstar:
“#NowFollowing @CodyRhodesWWE Hey, don’t follow him. Be stuck in the past. ‘Cuz the future will be Living Out The Dream!”
– After even more flight delays, the WWE RAW crew finally arrived in Brazil around 3am Eastern time early Thursday morning. WWE will hold its first-ever show in Brazil tonight from Sao Paul before heading to Ecuador for a live event tomorrow night.
– Jim Ross mentioned on Twitter that he was interviewed this week for the upcoming CM Punk DVD project that’s in the works.
– In a ruling that will affect WWE, TNA, UFC and boxing, Oklahoma’s state Attorney General ruled this week that the state PPV tax is unconstitutional. Up until the ruling, a percentage of every pay-per-view buy was taxed by the state.
Last week’s WWE NXT tapings at Full Sail University were said to have ran very smoothly, much more so than most RAW and SmackDown television tapings. WWE COO Triple H is very hands on with WWE’s new talent development initiative and the new NXT, so the first set of tapings have made people optimistic.
With NXT being re-branded and moving to Full Sail University, it appears that WWE’s developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling may have held its last television tapings. FCW Champion Seth Rollins tweeted the following on Wednesday:
“With NXT moving in, tomorrow could very well be the last FCW TV Tapings ever. Rumor has it my greatest rivalry is getting renewed…
With FCW TV winding down, the territory will remain open and will continue to serve as a developmental system for the next generation of WWE talent. WWE has stated that one of the objectives of NXT moving to Florida near the home of the FCW is to streamline the process of calling up talent from developmental to NXT.
Pictures of the new NXT Arena at Full Sail University:
DeadlineHollywood.com is reporting exclusively that the release date G.I. Joe: Retaliation starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has been pushed back from a June 29th release date back to March 29, 2013.
The movie will be converted to 3D in post production to maximize the potential box office proceeds, with Russia and China big consumers of 3D movies. The original 6/29 release date would have put it up against the powerhouse Avengers movie and the upcoming Spiderman reboot.
The Deadline Hollywood article states:
“Hollywood is shocked that Paramount vacated the primo date, especially because Paramount blew a wad on a Super Bowl commercial and already was starting TV and outdoor ads for GI Joe 2.”
G.I. Joe: Retaliation will hit theaters the same week as WrestleMania 29, so you can imagine WWE will be on board marketing the hell out of the movie. The Rock has already announced he’ll be at WrestleMania 29.
– A fan suggested to Randy Orton on Twitter that he deliver his trademark punt kick to Chris Jericho’s skull after Jericho hit him with 3 codebreakers on Monday’s RAW. While Orton is sure to exact revenge on Jericho, he won’t be skull punting any time soon:
“The punt has been banned. ‘Concussional’ awareness.”
– Trish Stratus will gracing the cover of the new issue of Inside Fitness Magazine. This will be the 90th magazine cover for the former WWE diva.
Earlier this week, news broke that WWE had strongly considered having Daniel Bryan defeat CM Punk for the WWE Championship at Over The Limit. Punk walked out as champion, but the fact that he almost dropped the title could be a sign that Punk stock was on the decline. This is not the case, as we can confirm WWE is firmly behind keeping the Chicago native at the top of WWE for months to come.
Punk will be continuing his feud with Daniel Bryan at least through No Way Out next month. After Daniel Bryan, WWE has been discussing feuding Punk with former Intercontinental champion Cody Rhodes.
Rhodes indicated earlier this week on Twitter that he is taking “time off.” Despite Rhdoes’ tweet, he will appear on Friday’s SmackDown and will confront the man who defeated him for the gold at Over The Limit – Christian.
It’s possible that Cody Rhodes will take time off soon, but a WWE title feud with CM Punk could take place this summer.
– The WWE website has an article up with current Superstars giving their pick for the most underrated Superstars of all-time.
Dolph Ziggler chose Billy Gunn, Daniel Bryan chose Billy Robinson, Eve Torres chose John Laurinaitis, Alex Riley chose X-Pac, Ezekiel Jackson chose Tito Santana, Kofi Kingston chose Billy Kidman, Matt Striker chose Johnny Rodz, Howard Finkel chose Bam Bam Bigelow and ‘WCW Classics’ chose Dean Malenko.
– Jim Ross has a new in-depth article up on WWE.com, wondering if former WCW announcer Tony Schiavone was the most underrated play-by-play man of all-time. Here’s an excerpt of what JR wrote about his time working with him:
“In the early years of our relationship, I’d rank Tony right there with the best play-by-play talents in the business. However, as the years went on and the political scene in WCW became more tumultuous and stressful, the lifelong baseball fan seemingly hit the wall and the genre of pro wrestling did not appear to be as much fun for him as it was back in the day. Until one has been in those shoes, one can’t imagine the stress of doing live TV in that type of environment.
Tony will likely always be remembered as steering the unpredictable ship of Monday Nitro as it earned massive TV ratings during the “Monday Night Wars.” I will best remember him as my ‘roomy’ and fellow sports enthusiast who I truly enjoyed working with.
Tony is living his dream these days doing baseball play-by-play on radio and also working on the Georgia Bulldog Radio network. I’m sincerely happy for the devoted husband and father. Working alongside Tony Schiavone was pivotal in my growth as a broadcaster.”
– Morale in WWE has declined significantly since WrestleMania 28. After WWE delivered a blockbuster show and followed up with the return of Brock Lesnar, the general feeling is that things are already “back to normal” and the company has no direction with current and future storylines.
– At Tuesday’s WWE SmackDown tapings from Wilkes-Barre, PA, WWE taped its second week of NXT tapings since filming 4 episodes of NXT at Florida’s Full Sail University.
According to WWE sources, WWE is planning to finish out the current season of NXT: Redemption and air it on the WWE website as usual. Once that season wraps up, WWE will begin airing the episodes taped at Full Sail.
Check out these pictures of the new NXT Arena at Full Sail University:
– On Monday’s RAW, WWE Champion CM Punk had an awkward backstage exchange with WWE diva AJ. Punk told AJ that he “sort of digs” crazy chicks. AJ has since replied, tweeting:
“I sort of dig guys that sort of dig crazy chicks.”
– Chris Jericho and William Regal have resumed their ongoing exchange of insults on Twitter. When asked by a fan who would win in a technical match between him and Chris Jericho, Regal replied:
“Someone would have to teach him a proper hold before he could enter.”
Jericho followed up with:
“Is this the guy who used to be on Raw 5 years ago? Not sure I remember who you are…”
Regal got in the last word and ended with:
“You know,I’m the one who copied you and wore a 3 piece suit and talked intelligently and menacing.”
Regal also commented on WWE’s new “Top 50 WCW Superstars” list, where he ranked at #35 (behind Jericho, at #27):
“Whoever put together the top 50 WCW superstars on WWE.com needs a kick up the selection box.”
– Following up on the news that WWE has trademarked the phrase “RAW Active” for the interactive elements that will be added to RAW once the show goes 3-hours every week this summer, WWE has also registered the phrase “#RAWACTIVE” to be used on clothing and other apparel.
– John Laurinaitis has been walking on crutches in public this week to sell the injuries he sustained at the hands of John Cena at Sunday’s Over The Limit pay-per-view.
Several WWE fans noted on Twitter that Laurinaitis was using crutches at an airport in Virginia on Wednesday.
– Prior to Tuesday’s WWE SmackDown tapings from Wilkes-Barre, PA, WWE taped Antonio Cesaro vs. Tyson Kidd for this week’s WWE Superstars. According to several live reports we’ve read, the match was spectacular. We’ll have video up here on the site when it’s posted to Youtube.
– The dark match main event that took place after Tuesday’s WWE SmackDown tapings saw World Heavyweight champion Sheamus defeat Alberto Del Rio by disqualification after Ricardo Rodriguez interfered and attacked Sheamus.
– The WWE RAW crew are not the only people experiencing travel issues this week. Several SmackDown stars, including Tyler Reks, are also missing their flights. Tyler Reks tweeted:
“Man another bad travel week. Missed the connection cause the 1st flight was delayed. Flying standby & may not get home till 10pm ET.”
“From 1st class to economy – at least I’m not stuck in Philly till 4pm though. Now, who am I gonna fight for leg and elbow space…”
WWE’s RAW brand is scheduled to hold a live event tonight in Sao Paulo, Brazil – but the event might not take place as scheduled due to travel issues in the United States.
According Chris Jericho and CM Punk on Twitter, their Tuesday night flight to Brazil has been cancelled. Jericho tweeted:
“Flight to Sao Paulo cancelled. Mad scramble to find a place to sleep tonight. Status of show unknown. Sorry everybody we’ll keep u posted!”
WWE Champion CM Punk tweeted:
“Flight canceled. Everything just went sideways. Sorry, San(Sao) Paulo, we’re working on it. Keep ya posted.”
The top matches advertised for WWE’s first ever show in Brazil are WWE Champion CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho and John Cena vs. Dolph Ziggler.
Some superstars were able to fly to Brazil on separate flight, but WWE officials are trying to get the Sao Paulo show re-scheduled for Thursday, in the event that the entire crew can’t get to Brazil by this evening.
At Tuesday’s SmackDown tapings from Wilkes-Barre, PA, a Triple Threat match was held to determine the next challenger to Sheamus’ World Heavyweight championship. Alberto Del Rio defeated Kane and Randy Orton to earn the title shot. With that match set, the following matches are confirmed for WWE No Way Out on Sunday, June 17th:
Steel Cage Match: John Cena vs. Big Show
World Heavyweight Title Match: Sheamus vs. Alberto Del Rio
The following matches are also in the works:
WWE Championship Match:
CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan
WWE Intercontinental Championship Match:
Christian (c) vs. Cody Rhodes
WWE taped this week’s SmackDown from Wilkes-Barre, PA. Credit to Rick Gasper & PWInsider.com for the following results:
Smackdown starts with Eve Torres coming out followed by Alberto Del Rio. Del Rio requests a World Heavyweight title shot at No Way Out. Randy Orton, then Kane came out and also demanded a shot at the title. Eve announced that tonight, there will be a Triple Threat match to determine the #1 contender.
– WWE Intercontinental champion Christian defeated Hunico.
– Titus O’Neal and Darren Young defeated The Usos.
– Cody Rhodes promo on getting the IC title back.
– Ryback, sporting a black eye, defeats two wrestlers.
– A promo aired announcing Sin Cara will return next week.
– WWE United States champion Santino Marella defeated Ricardo Rodriguez.
– World champion Sheamus came out and acted as if he was going to apologize for running through John Laurinaitis on Raw but of course, in the end, he didn’t.
– World champ Sheamus defeated Jack Swagger in a good match with the Brogue Kick.
– Damien Sandow defeated Yoshi Tatsu with the neckbreaker.
The Big Show came out in a tie. He got YOU SOLD OUT chants. He explained that he backed Big Johnny for a big bonus and to get his job back. The crowd chanted for John Cena.
– The main event was a Triple Threat Match. Daniel Bryan ran in and distracted Kane. Alberto Del Rio got the win and will face Sheamus at the PPV.
WWE is taping this week’s NXT & SmackDown shows from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Dean Ambrose won another dark match against a local worker before the tapings.
Despite WWE taping 4 weeks of television from Full Sail University, it appears there will be a few more weeks of taping NXT on the road with SmackDown. Jim Ross did commentary at the Full Sail NXT tapings and said “Air dates/networks TBD.”
NXT Results:
– Jinder Mahal defeated Derrick Bateman
– Percy Watson defeated Heath Slater.
– Maxine defeated Alicia Fox.
– Great Khali & Ezekiel Jackson defeated Drew Mcintyre and Johny Curtis.
– This week’s WWE RAW Supershow drew a 3.04 cable rating, up from 2.94 the week before.
The post-Over The Limit show averaged 4.16 million viewers, which is actually down from last week. The first hour averaged 4.17 million viewers and the second hour averaged 4.14 million.
RAW faced stiff competition from the NBA playoffs on Monday night, with the Thunder-Lakers game averaging 8.1 million viewers.
Comparing Monday’s RAW to the previous post-PPV show, this week’s rating and viewership were down sharply from the RAW that aired the night after Elimination Chamber.
– WWE RAW’s Trendrr.tv Social Media Score was 144,452 this week, up nearly 40,000 from the previous week. but down 14% compared to the yearly average. Raw ranked #3 on cable on Monday behind the two NBA play off games. The Thunder-Lakers game had a social media score over 1 million.
– WWE Hall of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin announced on Monday night that he completed filming in Mexico for his new reality game show, “Redneck Island.” The show will premiere on CMT on Saturday, June 9 at 10pm (Eastern).
– In this week’s Raw “Backstage Fallout,” Beth Phoenix tells the WWE Universe she’s taking the Divas Championship back from Layla. Plus, why is David Otunga looking so smug after a crushing defeat?
– In case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the latest promo video for WWE No Way Out featuring Daniel Bryan and AJ:
It’s been reported here on the site that the latest cryptic video hyping a “Revolution” coming to WWE featured former TNA star Matt Morgan.
While some fans are debating whether it’s really Matt Morgan or WWE Champion CM Punk featured in the promo – PWInsider.com is now reporting that the “Revolution” has nothing to do with a wrestler debuting or returning.
The new “Revolution is Coming” promo that’s been airing on WWE.com is actually leading up to WWE announcing a new video game release.
The announcement is expected to be made next week, prior to the upcoming E3 video game convention in June.