– Dixie Carter tweeted a nasty photo of Austin Arie back after Sacrifice, which you can view here.
– Kurt Angle tweeted after Sacrifice that his knee was banged up and he was going to ice it.
– TNA is teasing that Rob Van Dam was injured at Sacrifice, which may be used as a storyline at tonight’s Impact tapings. The belief is that RVD wasn’t seriously injured in the Ladder Match against Bobby Roode, but both men were hurting afterwards.
– TNA has announced details of the company’s January 2013 UK Tour:
* 1/21 – Dublin, Ireland
* 1/23 – Glasgow, Scottland
* 1/24 – Nottingham, England
* 1/25 – Manchester, England
* 1/26 – London, England
The 1/26 show from London, England will be an Impact double television taping from the Wembly Arena.
– Neither Dixie Carter or Eric Bischoff were backstage at Sacrifice.
– Kazarian and Daniels defeated and Magnus and Samoa Joe at Sacrifice to capture the TNA Tag Team Titles.
– While he didn’t win the Television Title at last night’s Sacrifice pay-per-view, Rob Terry won the OVW Heavyweight Title at OVW’s Saturday Night Special event this weekend.
– Bobby Roode is on the verge of becoming long longest running TNA World champion, if he can make it through this week’s Impact Wrestling tapings without dropping the title. The current record is held by AJ Styles, who was champion for 211 consecutive days.
TNA sources indicate that Roode is scheduled to hold the title until James Storm returns.
Following Sunday night’s Sacrifice pay-per-view, TNA will tape this Thursday’s Impact Wrestling tonight from the Impact Wrestling Zone in Orlando. The following has been announced for this week’s show, which begins an hour earlier at 8pm EST:
* The fallout from Sacrifice and the hype for Slammiverary begins.
* AJ Styles will address the controversy involving Dixie Carter and the photos that Kazarian and Daniels revealed last week.
* Velvet Sky vs. Brooke Tessmacher vs. Gail Kim for the TNA Knockouts Title.
The 2012 TNA Sacrifice pay-per-view opens up with Earl Hebner trying to get Bobby Roode’s World Heavyweight Title belt so he can hang it high for the Ladder Match tonight. Roode rants on Hulk Hogan and says to tell Hogan he will be getting that belt back tonight. Roode tells Hebner to get out and we go to the Sacrifice opening video.
TNA Knockouts Champion Gail Kim and celebrity chef Robert Irvine were married on Thursday in Napa Valley, California. The couple met on the set of Irvine’s former show, Dinner: Impossible.
Irvine planned the entire wedding and left his bride-to-be with only one job: to show up looking “as beautiful as she always does.” He tweeted on Wednesday:
“My total surprise wedding for [Gail] is almost done, she has no knowledge of what’s going on and I am surprising her.”
Gail Kim tweeted the following about her big day:
“I’m the luckiest girl in the world. Now I know what little girls dream of.”
Several other celebrity chefs attended the wedding, including Masaharu Morimoto, Guy Fieri, Michael Chiarello and Melissa d’Arabian. Both Mirimoto and Guy Fieri cooked multiple dishes for the wedding reception.
Check out these pictures of the happy couple together:
As part of the buildup to the Rock vs. John Cena match at WrestleMania 28, The Rock held a “Rock Concert” on the March 12, 2012 edition of WWE RAW.
With the news of John Cena filing to divorce his wife this week – the lyrics of The Rock’s takes on a different meaning:
“Rock saw Cena makin’ out with Eve, Grabbin’ on her thigh, tuggin’ on her weave. Cena was havin’ the time of his life, I guess he didn’t tell her that he’s got a wife. Let’s rock. Everybody let’s rock. Divorce lawyer’s right up the block, but we’re dancing because Cleveland Rocks.”
While there’s no indication that John Cena and Eve were romantically linked off-camera, it is known that The Rock and John Cena were legitimately taking personal shots at each other during their promos hyping WM28. With TMZ.com reporting that John Cena did not hide his marital problems with his co-workers in the WWE locker room, it appears The Rock’s remarks about Cena’s wife and a “divorce lawyer right up the block” hit closer to home than we realized at the time.
Here’s the video of The Rock’s “Rock Concert” from RAW (3/12/12):
TMZ has posted an update on John Cena’s filing for divorce from his high school sweetheart wife of 3 years, Liz Huberdeau.
John Cena’s relationship with Liz began to sour shortly after they got married in 2009, with their arguing escalating in recent months. One of the big issues they would reportedly fight about was the remolding of their Florida home. [Picture of Cena’s Mansion]
Cena has been a “wreck” in recent months over the state of his crumbling marriage – and was outspoken about his personal troubles backstage with his co-workers.
Even with their romantic relationship fizzling out, John Cena’s wife was ringside at a recent WWE RAW Supershow event from Bostin right before WrestleMania 28. Cena gave his wife a big kiss on RAW. Unfortunately, we now know that things were falling apart at home for the longtime couple.
– According to ABC News, WWE CEO Vince McMahon has donated $2,500 to U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
– THQ announced yesterday that Daniel Bryan, Mark Henry, Edge, Eddie Guerrero and Curt Hennig have been added to the WrestleFest mobile game. A new RAW is WAR arena has also been added.
– WWE’s website has a new article up with SmackDown’s Damien Sandow, looking at the top 10 ignoramuses in WWE history. He listed Steve Austin, Mankind, Santino Marella, Ultimate Warrior, Zack Ryder, Dusty Rhodes, Brodus Clay, Brooklyn Brawler, Booker T and CM Punk.
– The latest episode of WWE’s Outside of the Ring features Mark Henry visiting the Arnold Schwarzenegger museum in Austria. Henry was not at last weekend’s RAW live events or this week’s RAW & SmackDown TV tapings, so he was apparently overseas:
– WWE is billing the World Heavyweight Title Match at Over the Limit as an “international incident of epic proportions,” with each of the participants being from different countries – Sheamus (Ireland), Alberto Del Rio (Mexico), Chris Jericho (Canada) and Randy Orton (USA).
– During CNBC’s “Mad Money,” host Jim Cramer was asked yesterday about WWE stock. Cramer’s response, “SELL, SELL, SELL, no growth!”
– Conservative website BreitBart.com has published an article about CM Punk’s Twitter comments from Monday – when Punk told a fan on Twitter “kill yourself” and another to “drink bleach” because they do not support gay marriage. The site called Punk “another Dan Savage-style eloquent spokesperson for the same-sex marriage cause.”
The site conveniently did not mention Punk’s apology just hours after he made the tweets.
– During Thursday’s press conference & media conference call regarding MMA fighter Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal signing with TNA, TNA President Dixie Carter was asked about whether Batista could join TNA as part of the new agreement with Bellator to feature wrestlers and MMA fighters under the Spike TV.
Carter said Batista was a “great talent and great wrestling talent,” but said she was only willing to discuss Lawal joining TNA and Bellator.
As previously reported, Batista has been rumored to be signing with Bellator MMA, which would create an interesting scenario for Batista possibly being affiliated with TNA.
– Also at the press conference announcing King Mo’s signing with TNA & Bellator MMA, SpikeTV President Kevin Kay spoe about the decision to move iMPACT! Wrestling’s start time an hour earlier to to 8PM ET. He said the reason was because there is a bigger available audience at 8PM ET vs. 9PM ET. He also added that TNA wants to avoid competing with the NFL once the season starts.
He did not say if Bellator will begin airing after iMPACT! on Thursdays next year once Bellator moves to SpikeTV.
Hulk Hogan recently reacted to Scott Steiner’s Twitter rants about Eric Bischoff, saying he has no idea why Steiner is so upset with him – but it might be because Steiner is unhappy with his life and now relegated to wrestling independent shows. [Listen Here].
Big Poppa Pump has responded to Hogan – and he sounds pissed:
“Hogan did interview saying i must be unhappy in my life,F-CK U hogan Im very happy in my life,Im Not the one who went on Larry King crying like a b-tch and saying that you put a gun in your mouth and Was going to pull the trigger.”
“Quit lying bcuz nobody believes yur bullsh-t,you 3 a–holes write the show and you decide whos on the show”
“The stuff with storm is bulls–t too,storm and I talkd over match and the finish which i didnt change we both Went to get in gear,and as i was changing I was told I wasnt in match anymore,i went back to storm And ask him what happened and he didnt know,,,But dont take my word on it ASK storm he will say the Same thing,yur a lying piece of sh-t!!!!”
“You disrespect the business and my eberybody in Tna and you think its weird that I want to knock You unconscious,F-CK U.. your day is coming motherf-cker”
– WWE United States Champion Santino Marella wrote on Twitter that he’s been working with a sore back.
– Alberto Del Rio, replacing the the suspended Rey Mysterio, is currently in Tokyo, Japan doing promotional work for WWE. Del Rio will be attending a baseball Hanshin Tigers baseball game on Saturday in Shibuya, Japan and will be shooting t-shirts into the crowd. Later in the day, he’ll have an autograph signing at the Tower Records in Shibuya.
– The WWE Youtube channel has posted the following video looking at the most devastating slaps in WWE history:
– WWE’s Senior Vice President of Digital Jason Koch attended Ad Age’s Engagement/Social TV conference on Wednesday. He talked about a recent social engagement test that performed at a recent live event in Huntsville Alabama.
WWE encouraged the fans in attendance to post pictures from the show to Twitter and also had fans vote on a stipulation for the show’s main event. Koch stated that that 25% of the fans in attendance voted, which is considered to be a very strong sign of customer engagement.
It’s expected that WWE will continue to encourage fans at live events to promote WWE on social media. For more on the story, visit AdAge.com.
– As seen on this week’s NXT [watch here], Tyler Reks and Curt Hawkins returned and are now the official “NXT security,” as appointed by John Laurinaitis.
– WWE has added Antonio Cesaro to the SmackDown roster page. Jim Ross called Cesaro a “potential impact player” in his latest blog.
– Earlier this week, the WWE website kicked off a new viral video campaign that states a “Revolution” is coming. There is already buzz behind the scenes that the Revolution is leading up to the inroduction of Dean Ambrose o the main roster.
– Speaking of Dean Ambrose, he took another shot at Mick Foley on Wednesday. Foley announced on Twitter that doctors told him that due to all the concussions he experienced during his in-ring career, he has to drastically limit his time in front of a computer screen. Ambrose wasted no time throwing this in Foley’s face, writing:
“You reap what you sow :) @realMickFoley #thanksmick”
Ambrose and Foley have been feuding since WrestleMania 28 weekend, with Ambrose repeatedly criticizing Foley for ruining professional wrestling and “destroying a generation” of performers by glorifying the hardcore, physically damaging style of wrestling.
– The next 3-Hour WWE RAW Supershow will take place on June 11th from the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut. WWE has yet to announce a theme for the show. The advertised dark match main event is an eight-man tag match: John Cena, C.M. Punk, Sheamus & Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan, Alberto Del Rio, Kane & Lord Tensai.
JTG debuted his new look on this week’s NXT, thanks to Alicia Fox, who accompanied him to the ring for his win over Yoshi Tatsu. JTG also showed off some new moves:
– WWE is once again looking to sign Mexican wrestlers. With Sin Cara’s career getting off to a very rocky start, Rey Mysterio’s recent issues and even Alberto Del Rio stating that he does not plan to be wrestling in a few years, the company scouting a young, charismatic, English-speaking high-flying Mexican star.
– With John Cena recently turning 35 years old, there has been talk that Vince McMahon is already on the hunt for his next “John Cena.”
Over the past 30 years, Vince McMahon has hand-picked Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H and now John Cena as the top babyface in the company.
At 66 years old, Vince McMahon is still the king of WWE with a hand in virtually every aspect of the company, but he will be delegating more responsibilities to Triple H and Stephanie as time goes on. It’s been said that the next top baby face to carry the torch in WWE could be Vince’s final hand-picked face of WWE.
– FCW star Kassius Ohno, the former Chris Hero, is reportedly out of action due to a cervical sprain that happened at the April 26th FCW tapings in a match against his former partner Antonio Cesaro.
Ohno did a twisting dive to the outside of the ring onto a group of wrestlers but came up short and landed on the top of his head. He finished the match but was then taken to the hospital for x-rays.
WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross is back with another blog update, which you can read in its entirety at JRsBarBQ.com. In this entry, JR posted some random thoughts about a variety of topics. Here are some highlights of what JR wrote about:
– “Keep an eye on Antonio Cesaro who will compete Friday night on Smackdown. Potential impact player”
– “Education, intelligence and natural athleticism are three elements that are closely evaluated when looking at potential WWE performers. I still believe ‘IT’cannot be taught but can be cultivated/enhanced.”
– “Excited for what I perceive will be a big week in Florida next week. I’m loving working in WWE Development”
Paul Heyman returned to WWE on Monday’s RAW to announce that Brock Lesnar has quit WWE. The original plan was for Lesnar to appear on last week’s RAW and quit himself – but the decision was made to bring Paul Heyman in instead.
It was widely reported that Monday’s RAW was rewritten several time throughout the day in the hours leading up to the show – and Heyman’s segment was one of the parts that was constantly being edited.
As for how the Brock Lesnar vs. Triple H storyline will play out, we can confirm that match is currently scheduled to be the main event of SummerSlam. Beyond that, there’s a lot of secrecy surrounding the feud, with only a limited few Vince & Stephanie McMahon, John Laurinaitis, Triple H and Brock Lesnar among those in the know. Even the WWE writing team is in the dark about how everything will fall into place.
Earlier this year, WWE Champion CM Punk was forbidden from accompanying UFC fighter Chael Sonnen to the ring when he had a fight in Chicago, so it appears a double standard was in play. Part of the reason Punk wasn’t allowed to appear at the UFC show was because WWE management was concerned nobody would acknowledge Punk as a cornerman, which would hurt his perceived star power.
Despite WWE perceiving Triple H as a bigger name than CM Punk, Triple H did not get any mainstream media attention and was overshadowed by singer Justin Beiber, who was also part of Mayweather’s crew on Saturday night.
– Paul Heyman wrote the following on Twitter about WWE Superstars Jimmy and Jey Uso:
“Amazing seeing @WWEusos … remember, I haven’t been around for half a decade … The last time I saw these two, they were little kids doing splashes off the top rope in the Omni before the show when I managed their Dad. Yes, that makes me old, but I recognize TALENT. @WWEusos are talented. Time for these young Samoans to eat up the competition!”
– With WWE building towards a Brock Lesnar vs. Triple H match at SummerSlam, it’s been confirmed that plans for Lesnar to feud with Randy Orton have been scrapped.
– Another employee from WWE corporate has departed. International media distribution sales manager Marcos Milanez recently left WWE for a position in Turner Broadcasting.
– The feud over the Intercontinental championship between Cody Rhodes and the Big show is expected to culminate at next Month’s No Way Out pay-per-view.
WWE’s angle on RAW this week with Cody Rhodes running away from the Big Show and getting counted out is setting the stage for a cage match where Cody can’t escape and has to go toe-to-toe with the 7 foot giant.
(Sources: Figure Four Weekly, Pro Wrestling Insider)
Former WWE Divas Stacy Keibler (without George Clooney) and Torrie Wilson (with Alex Rodriguez) were spotted in New York City on Monday night at the A-list ‘Met Ball 2012’ event. Keibler tweeted before heading to the event:
“Ready for a glamorous out in #NYC with my girl @torrie11”
After the event, Keibler, Wilson and A-Rod headed to the after party at the Electric Room night club with comedian Aziz Ansari. After her fun night out, she tweeted:
“Cocktails anyone? Had a blast last night making drinks with one of my fave girls in the world @malinakerman at #metgala.”
Check out these pictures of Stacy Keibler at the Met Ball on Monday night, courtesy of JustJared.com:
As reported earlier this week, a new WWE viral marketing campaign is already underway. The campaign, which states, “A Revolution Is Coming,” has launched on the WWE website and will be pushed more heavily starting on Monday. No word yet on if the campaign will air on television – or whether it is promoting a superstar return/debut, the WWE Network launch or something else.
The video, which is hidden on the WWE.com and appears randomly before certain video content on the site, appears to show flashes of citizen uprisings. Check it out here:
– As reported earlier this week, Dustin “Goldust” Runnels has been from his job as a WWE producer/gent. After rumblings that his release was related to an “incident” at a recent SmackDown taping, the F4W Newsletter is reporting that Goldust booked a dangerous, high-impact spot at the SmackDown two weeks ago, where Yoshi Tatsu took a double-team powerbomb from Titus O’Neil and Darren Young.
– The official theme song for WWE’s Over the Limit pay-per-view is “War of Change” by the band Thousand Foot Krutch.
– To follow up on the news of Mason Ryan acting as Dolph Ziggler’s bodyguard at this past weekend’s live events, the current plan is for Mason Ryan to be aligned with Abraham Washington’s new All World talent agency and for Ziggler to remain with Vickie Guerrero and Jack Swagger.