SEScoops

Author: David Bixenspan

  • Jacques Rougeau On Mountie Gimmick, Jailhouse Match, & More

    Former WWE, WCW, and territorial star Jacques Rougeau joined the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast this week and covered a number of topics. Some of the more interesting quotes are below:

    On the Mountie gimmick:

    To be honest with you I had the greatest moments as The Mountie in my career. I was working guys like Macho Man, I remember a match with him in England against him with Elizabeth, I had matches with Undertaker, matches with Sid Vicious of course matches with Big Boss Man just so many fantastic memories. There is nothing I didn’t do as The Mountie. I remember simple matches with Tito Santana as The Mountie or Koko B. Ware. I had so much fun with that character and I honestly made people believe that I thought I was The Mountie. That I was so convinced that they started believing. It is amazing because when you build a character and I always tell this at my school that how are you going to get people to believe in your character if you don’t believe it. I had a brother-in-law who was a real Royal Canadian Mounted Police who gave me some tricks and some moves that they used when they arrest a guy so all those moves that I used in the ring were actually legit.

    Not being able to use the Mountie gimmick in Canada due to restrictions from the RCMP:

    I was doing such a great job of making The Mounties look bad in Canada that they suspended me on TV and I wasn’t allowed to be used on TV anymore. So the only way I was allowed to wrestle was if I took off the sleeves, the shirt and kept the black pants and they would announce me as Jacques Rougeau. Everyone knew me as Jacques Rougeau anyway so that was fun. I think they (The Mounties) took it all a little too serious. Like in movies and everywhere else there is always dirty Cops or bad Cops but they don’t ban the movie because the Cop is crooked. But I think that my character was becoming so strong that eventually they decided and voted on it and sent a letter to Vince saying that I wasn’t allowed to wrestle on TV in Canada anymore. Eventually and after that they let that character go because it wasn’t helping me at all so I took a year off and came back a year and a half later with Carl Ouellet as The Quebecers with the same suit and our music was “We’re not the Mounties.” So I think Vince wanted to get back at them in a way.

    His famous “jailhouse match” with The Mountie at SummerSlam ’91:

    It is one of the greatest matches that I’ve ever had in my career. Ray Traylor who was the Big Boss Man who unfortunately left us was the kindest person. I had never seen Big Boss Man talk bad to anyone in the dressing room or show lack of respect. He was another Owen Hart. So working with a guy like that for a year to a year and a half around the world was a night off every night and it was such a pleasure because he would take care of my body, take care of me and I would take care of him. It was a great time in my career.

    What type of impact did the Mountie gimmick have?

    The Mountie was great. I’ll never forget winning the Intercontinental Title against Bret Hart and losing it to Rowdy Roddy Piper. I had three different dolls made and sold in Toys R Us’s around the world as The Mountie and when I give conferences in schools now against intimidation. The first thing I do is because they don’t know me because they are too young and they have only heard of me but I do so many personal appearances and am on TV that when I come in and start talking to kids and I take my belt out and my dolls out they start to say “hey this guy was important”. All of that was done because of the Mountie character.

    In the full interview, he also talks about his backstage issues with Dynamite Kid, leaving the Montreal territory for the WWF, his family’s legacy, the Hart family, and more.

  • WWE Supercard Season 2 Gets Update w/ “Throwback” Cards

    WWE Supercard, WWE’s digital collectible card game made by 2K Sports for Android and iOS, gets a brand new update today. It focuses on the addition of a number of “Throwback” cards featuring WWE legends. Here’s 2K’s full press release:

    2K today announced availability of the latest update for WWE® SuperCard – Season 2, the popular collectible card-battling game.

    In today’s update, WWE SuperCard – Season 2 goes old school with new Throwback Cards of WWE Hall of Famers and Alumni:

    • From the Survivor tier: Razor Ramon, Mr. Perfect, Road Dogg, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, Diamond Dallas Page and Kevin Nash;
    • From the Legendary tier: Undertaker (American Badass), Dusty Rhodes, Jake “The Snake’ Roberts, Rikishi, IRS and Sgt. Slaughter;
    • From the Epic tier: Lex Luger, Farooq, Bradshaw, The Giant, Stunning Steve Austin and Bam Bam Bigelow;
    • From the Ultra Rare tier: X-Pac, Brian Pillman, Fit Finlay, Vader, Bob Backlund and Honky Tonk Man.

    Additional and upcoming WWE SuperCard – Season 2 updates include the following:

    • Bulletin Board System
      • Users can now vote and provide feedback on developer questions posed through the bulletin board system;
    • Team-Event: Road to Glory
      • Starting in January 2016, players can participate in a new team-oriented version of this challenging, action-packed event.

    Developed by Cat Daddy Games in conjunction with Visual Concepts, both 2K studios, WWE SuperCard – Season 2 is available now for download free of charge on the App Store for iOS devices, including the iPhone, iPad and Pod touch, as well as the Google Play Store and Amazon Appstore for Android devices.

    For more information on WWE SuperCard – Season 2 and 2K, visit wwe.2k.com, become a fan on Facebook, follow the game on Twitter and Instagram or subscribe on YouTube.

  • WWE 2K16 Gets Legends Pack, Terminator Standalone DLC Today

    Today, WWE 2K16 got some new downloadable content (or DLC), the Legends pack, which adds six of WWE’s greatest legends (almost all of whom are Hall of Famers) to the game: The Big Boss Man, Trish Stratus, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes, Lita, and Mr. Perfect (Curt Hennig). The DLC pack is $8.99 on its own but is also available as part of the $24.99 Season Pass that covers all of the game’s DLC.

    Also, the Terminator DLC, featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger as his most iconic character, is now available as a standalone item for $4.99. Previously available only as a pre-order code with early copies of the game, it features Arnold as the T-800 character with looks inspired by tge first two Terminator films.

    Here’s 2K’s whole press release:

    2K today announced WWE 2K16’s next downloadable content offering, the Legends Pack, is available now for the PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment systems, as well as Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system, and Xbox 360 games and entertainment system from Microsoft for a suggested price of $8.99. TheLegends Pack features a diverse roster of playable talent, including WWE Hall of Famers Dusty Rhodes, Lita, Mr. Perfect, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and Trish Stratus, as well as WWE Legend Big Boss Man.

    Also available for standalone purchase today is blockbuster action film star and WWE Hall of Famer Arnold Schwarzenegger, playable as two characters – T-800 from The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day films – for a suggested price of $4.99.

    The Legends Pack is also included in the WWE 2K16 Season Pass. For a suggested price of $24.99, a savings of more than 20 percent versus individual content purchases, players will receive the following items as they become available:

    • Accelerator
      • Players will gain instant access to all unlockable content available in the game (excluding downloadable content);
    • New Moves Pack
      • Featuring more than 30 new moves, including the Corner Enzuigiri (made popular by WWE Diva Nikki Bella), Avalanche Ram (made popular by WWE Diva Paige), Sidewinder Suplex (made popular by WWE Superstar Kevin Owens), Standing Crossface Chickenwing (made popular by WWE Superstar Stardust) and Dragon Sleeper (made popular by NXT Superstar Finn Bálor);
    • 2015 Hall of Fame Showcase
      • Playable matches include:
        • “Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. Jake “The Snake” Roberts;
        • Rikishi vs. The Rock;
        • Alundra Blayze vs. Paige;
        • Larry Zbyszko and Arn Anderson vs. Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat and Dustin Rhodes
        • Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Ric Flair;
        • The Bushwhackers (Butch Miller and Luke  Williams) vs. The Natural Disasters (Typhoon and Earthquake);
        • The Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) vs. Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray);
    • Future Stars Pack                                                                                             
      • Playable NXT Superstars: Samoa Joe, Diego, Fernando, Blake and Murphy

    Additional downloadable content available now for WWE 2K16 includes the following:

    • MyPlayer KickStart (PS4™ system and Xbox One Exclusive)
      • Players will gain instant access to boost created Superstar ratings and attributes in the game’s MyCareer mode

    Developed collaboratively by Yuke’s and Visual Concepts, a 2K studio, WWE 2K16 is rated T for Teen by the ESRB and is available now for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 computer entertainment systems, Xbox One and Xbox 360.

  • YouPorn To Sponsor Joey Ryan Thanks To Viral Video

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSUDY_xbdlY

    Long-time indie wrestler Joey Ryan recently became an internet sensation when a clip of a match between him and Danshoku Dino in Japan went viral. See, Dino does something of a gay sexual predator gimmick (if you’ve ever seen the guy who did the piledriver with his opponent’s head down his trunks, that’s him) and grabbed Ryan’s crotch. Ryan started flexing, acting like his penis had super powers, and eventually suplexed Dino with his groin. Ryan got a ton of attention when the video got popular, being interviewed by Vice Sports with outlets like the New York Daily News picking up the story.

    Today, Ryan announced (in the above video) a new development stemming from the popularity of the video: He’s gained a sponsor in YouPorn, and will now be serving as a brand ambassador for the pornography video streaming website. Technically, he’s part of YouPorn Sports, which exists solely to sponsor athletes. Ryan talked to Rolling , saying that “They’ve already given me a bunch of hats and T-shirts – I’m wearing one of the hats right now.”

    https://twitter.com/JoeyRyanOnline/status/672099724971806720

    As for any potentially negative repercussions? “I’m not too worried about it. When I was in TNA, I was doing a ‘Size Matters’ gimmick, and we had pretaped a Thanksgiving episode of Impact, so when it aired, I was sitting around the table with my family, and there I was on TV, just talking about how big my cock is.”

  • Lizmark Sr., Hall of Fame Luchador, Passes Away At 66

    Late last night, CMLL’s official Twitter account reported that legendary luchador Lizmark (Sr.), real name Juan Banos, passed away yesterday from a heart attack. He was 66. He was, of course, the father of WCW star Lizmark Jr.

    In terms of influence, Lizmark is probably best known as the man who helped usher in a new generation of high flyers in Mexico in the late ’70s and early ’80s, While lucha libre always had more of an inherent acrobatic flair than other styles of wrestling, it really ramped up during his era. He wasn’t as flashy  as the next generation was, but he was an excellent all-around worker who helped popularize the top rope plancha and flying dropkick in Mexico. He was a major influence on Satoru Sayama, the original Tiger Mask, who borrowed heavily from him while also integrating British style matwork and kickboxing moves to create the signature style that made him a legend around the world.

    While titles in Mexico sometimes have the reputation of not meaning quite as much as they did elsewhere, that’s more because mask and hair matches were the biggest stakes than titles not meaning anything. Lizmark has one of the most impressive title records in the history of Mexican wrestling, being tied with Gori Guerrero as one of only two wrestlers to hold NWA World Championships (EMLL controlled everything south of junior heavyweight) in three different weight classes: Light heavyweight, middleweight, and welterweight.

    In terms of major feuds, Lizmark’s biggest rival was probably El Satanico, the legendary rudo best known as the leader of the various versions of the Los Infernales trio. They feuded on and off for years over various light heavyweight titles depending on the promotion. Their 1993 AAA match (for the Mexican National Light Heavyweight Title), embedded above, was Satanico’s finest hour in AAA, as he was not the best fit for the promotion back then and returned to EMLL before long. They had brilliant chemistry, especially in title matches, and the 1993 match is one of the best examples of the “title match style” in lucha libre, where everyone, regardless of their usual style, worked technically out of deference to the championship.

    Lizmark’s son, Juan Jr., broke into wrestling in 1991 as Lizmark Jr./El Hijo del Lizmark. While he was physically talented, he didn’t have his father’s charisma and overall working ability. They of course teamed together often, but Sr. eventually slowed down his scheduled when he developed heart problems in 1999.

    For more on Lizmark, make sure to check out Jose Fernandez’s excellent article about him at LuchaWiki.

  • Hulk Hogan Barred From Searching Gawker’s Computers For Now

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bGkS3KnUWE

    On Thursday (but not uploaded to the court website until yesterday), in the Second District Court of Appeal of the State of Florida, Gawker won the latest battle in their long-standing legal entanglement with Hulk Hogan. This time, the appellate court granted Gawker’s request to issue a stay blocking the Pinellas County trial judge’s order that a forensic examiner hired by Hogan could search their computer network. As reported here in October, Hogan’s side was granted the ability to hire a forensic computer examiner (on his own dime) to look for specific key words and phrases allowed by the judge, and Gawker quickly moved to block the ruling.

    This all stems from the leak this past summer of Hogan’s racist comments on one of the sex videos shot without his consent in 2007. Hogan’s side was arguing that Gawker must have leaked the story to the National Enquirer, violating a court order about certain documents Gawker got in the discovery phase of the litigation. Gawker argues that they never even had the transcripts of those comments, including the most inflammatory ones.

    You can read the latest order below:

  • Crowd Chants “You Deserve It” At Roman Reigns After Raw (VIDEO)

    https://twitter.com/WWELyss/status/676628889150627840

    What a turnaround.

    For a few months, one of the lines you’d often hear about Roman Reigns was that fans didn’t dislike him per se, they just hated how he was being booked. He first built his momentum in The Shield, but it slowed down when he started cutting lengthy, John Cena-style promos. Crowds at pay-per-view events and TV tapings either booed him or went silent. Last week’s show-ending promo on Monday Night Raw was just the latest step in that direction with the infamous “tater tots” lines.

    Starting at TLC on Sunday night, it all changed, and the above video is the result. While WWE did post a Reigns celebration video, it doesn’t include this part. Here, the fans in Philadelphia (the same city as the Royal Rumble in January where he got booed) not only go nuts as we saw on Raw, but break out the “You deserve it!” chant originally made famous by Daniel Bryan. Even in light of the reaction he got last night, that’s kind of a surprise.

  • WWE SmackDown To Become Hybrid Of Raw & NXT On USA Network?

    To help promote his hiring as the new voice of WWE SmackDown, Mauro Ranallo did an interview with Jonathan Snowden of Bleacher Report that went up today. He goes into greater detail about his hiring than he did with Sports Illustrated, and in the process, appears to give away that, as suspected, there are more changes to come at SmackDown:

    “I get the sense they want to make it kind of a hybrid between Raw, the flagship show with all the storylines and great performances from our Superstars in the ring, and what’s happening in NXT. That’s really been a phenomenon, and I’m a huge proponent of that style of storytelling.

    I think if SmackDown can become a hybrid of the two, we’ll have a winning formula regardless of who’s on the microphone. But since it’s going to be me, I love that it’s playing to my strengths. I think they want to set us all up to succeed.”

    The whole interview is well worth reading, so check it out. It’s also worth noting that NXT head writer Ryan Ward became SmackDown’s head writer last year.

  • WWE Hires Mauro Ranallo As Lead SmackDown Announcer

    This was unexpected.

    Sports Illustrated’s “The Noise Report” broke tonight that Mauro Ranallo, the voice of Showtime boxing, Glory Kickboxing, and formerly NJPW on AXS TV, has been hired to be the lead SmackDown announcer when the show moves to USA Network on January 7th. He will continue to do his existing non-wrestling gigs, but he’ll be on the road for Raw, SmackDown, and pay-per-views. Ranallo sold SI that Michael Cole emailed him last month, he sent Cole his reel, Vince McMahon liked it, and they were off to the races.

    “This was an opportunity I did not think I would get at this point of my career and I jumped on it,” Ranallo told SI. “I have been a lifelong fan of the product. Michael said that when Vince saw the Warren Buffet video [a John Landis-directed spoof of Buffet fighting Floyd Mayweather for a business conference], it seemed to cinch it. They believed I could sell the entertainment part.”

  • Joey Styles Comments On Why WWE Network Is Slow to Add ECW

    One of the biggest complaints about WWE Network has always been the speed at which they release older content as well as the inconsistency in how they do it. The service added shows at a pretty consistent clip for its first couple months, but since then, it’s been all over the place. The last month or so has been encouraging, with a wide range of old shows added from all sorts of promotions and eras, but we still don’t really know when to expect anything.

    In light of this, a fan asked Joey Styles on Twitter when we can expect more ECW shows, and Styles replied:

    https://twitter.com/JoeyStyles/status/675309104131416064

    This was common in pro wrestling for many years, but ECW did it later than any other major promotion. Music was also a much bigger part of the aesthetic of ECW than it was of other promotions, though, so he’s right that it will take much longer to edit those shows than it would with other promotions.

  • WrestleMania 32 Subsidized By $2.7 Million In Taxpayer Money

    The Texas Tribune posted an article by Aman Batheja yesterday detailing how Texas taxpayer money is being used to bring WrestleMania 32 to Dallas on April 3rd.  The state has an “Events Trust Fund” designed to “help its communities offset the costs of hosting sporting and non-athletic events. To qualify for these funds, an event must be competitively bid, and the community must be competing with cities outside Texas for the right to host it.” The idea is that the economic impact of the events would offset what the state spends.

    In the article, Governor Greg Abbott is called out for signing off on $2.7 million for WrestleMania last week. Why exactly It was the 20th event he’s approved since September, and he had said during his campaign last year that he wanted the state government “out of the business of picking winners and losers.” The 20 events approved so far total $26 million in money awarded from the Events Trust Fund, with $19.5 million of that being for the Formula One race in Austin that took place on October 25th.

    Marty MacInnis, the chief financial officer for the local Stadium Events Organizing Committee, told the Tribune that “It’s a massive event. They’ve got fan festivals. They’ve got golf tournaments. They’ve got rallies. It’s one of those things where people from all over the world will come to this. […] The trust fund played a part in the decision to try and bid for the event.” He added that the total amount of funding that WWE will get has not been worked out as of yet.

  • WWE 2K16 Creation Studio App Released For Android & iOS

    The best WWE game in years just got better, as 2K Sports officially released the WWE 2K16 Creation Studio app for mobile devices running both Android and iOS. 2K has all of the details in a post on their blog, but here are some of the key features they listed:

    • Works with photos taken with your device’s camera or from your photo library
    • Can upload images to use as either face photos or logos for general use in WWE Creations modes
    • Built-in tools allow for photo cropping, size adjustment, and edge smoothing
    • Adjust your images by altering values for contrast, brightness, color hue/saturation, and more
    • The erase tool allows you to easily remove the background or other unwanted details from an image
    • Color mask tool allows you to filter out parts of an image by color
    • Upload your images to WWE Community Creations to access them in the console version of WWE 2K16 within seconds!

    The blog post also includes a guide showing how to use the app.

  • John Cena Speaks Out About Donald Trump During Today Show Appearance

    In an interesting move since he tends to try to go out of his way to keep from offending anyone, John Cena got political on NBC’s The Today Show this morning. He was asked for his thoughts on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s various comments on American Muslims, which included positive references to Japanese internment camps during World War II. During a roundtable discussion, Cena said this:

    This is brash, this is bold, and this is brash. I’m with you, I don’t know how it works out. The last time we did anything like this was in World War II, and that was one of the more reprehensible acts by the United States of America. “We are the melting pot, except for you.” That does not go along with our DNA. Trump is being trumped, there’s no other way to say it.

    (Hat tip to Danielle Matheson at Uproxx/With Spandex for spotting and transcribing this.)

  • WWE Network Adds Stampede Wrestling & USWA Texas Shows

    The parade of territory footage on WWE Network keeps rolling on this week with more additions tonight: Stampede Wrestling and the Global Wrestling Federation. Well, sort of.

    Stampede Wrestling started in the ’50s in Calgary, Alberta, and was Stu Hart’s promotion that started all sorts of future stars: His sons, Junkyard Dog (as Big Daddy Ritter), Jake Roberts, the British Bulldogs (in North America at least), Brian Pillman, even Hiroshi Hase. A small territory with a lot of financial restrictions, they started shooting a lot of matches in progress, essentially editing the shows live.. As low-budget as it was, the wrestling was great, with a lot of “before they were stars” moments and all sorts of interesting matchups you couldn’t see elsewhere.

    Also tonight, WWE Network has added a new category for the Global Wrestling Federation, which only contains USWA shows so far. The whole thing is a bit confusing. WCCW in Dallas was renamed the USWA in 1989, though their video libraries split in two in 1988, when Jerry Jarrett came into the promotion. In 1991, the GWF started and took over the USWA’s TV deals, seemingly also getting the USWA library in the process, but the USWA name was used for Jarrett’s Memphis-based territory until it folder in 1997.

    Anyway, so far they’ve been adding shows from 1990 to 1991, as well as three “GWF Presents the Best of the USWA” home videos that I believe were released in the United Kingdom. The key to these shows is probably the footage of Steve Austin as a rookie, especially his great feud with trainer Chris Adams. There’s plenty more, though, including some great Jeff Jarrett vs. Eddie Gilbert and Jerry Lawler vs. Terry Funk matches on Best of the USWA Vol. 1.

    Visit WWE.com to subscribe to the WWE Network.

  • WWE Network Adds AWA & World Class Championship Wrestling TV Shows

    Right on the heels of adding new programming buckets to “The Vault” for Mid-South Wrestling and Smoky Mountain Wrestling, more old-school weekly TV shows continue to go up on WWE Network. They are the AWA (both their syndicated “All-Star Wrestling” show and the “Championship Wrestling” show that aired on ESPN) and World Class Championship Wrestling.

    The AWA was long one of the best drawing and best paying promotions in the United States, with the luxury of a light schedule as well. The only caveat was that they were based out of Minnesota’s Twin Cities and a lot of wrestlers were not fans of the weather. However, the TV shows added to WWE Network so far are all from 1988 so far, which is near the end of the promotion and after they stopped running a full-time schedule, existing primarily to tape TV. The shows added so far feature Shawn Michaels as part of The Midnight Rockers.

    WWE Network already had a World Class Championship Wrestling (or WCCW) section going back to its launch with mostly chronological shows starting in 1982. Aside from a one-off 1985 show added for Black History Month, the section of Dallas-based shows hadn’t been updated since April 2014, the point where WWE gave up on retro content for an extended period of time. While it initially looked like WWE was adding 1986-1987 shows (a low point for the promotion)  because of the presence of The Ultimate Warrior as The Dingo Warrior, they added a 1985 show this morning. That show has Shawn Michaels as a job guy against One Man Gang.

    So far, it seems like they’re mostly adding shows with big name WWE legends: Jim Duggan in Mid-South Wrestling, Chris Jericho in Smoky Mountain Wrestling, Shawn Michaels in the AWA and WCCW, Ultimate Warrior in WCCW, and guys like Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, and so on in the Jim Crockett Promotions World Championship Wrestling shows.

  • WWE Network Adds Mid-South & Smoky Mountain Wrestling

    On the heels of Jim Crockett Promotions era (1985-1988) NWA World Championship Wrestling episodes being uploaded to WWE Network last week, it looks like there’s a lot more to come. About 40 minutes after tonight’s episode of Monday Night Raw went off the air, the WWE Network Updates Twitter account started to catch uploads of episodes of Smoky Mountain Wrestling from 1994 and Mid-South Wrestling from 1984. Only a few episodes of each are up so far, but if other recent TV show uploads in “The Vault” are any indication, there’s more to come, with gaps being filled along the way.

    Mid-South Wrestling was “Cowboy” Bill Watts’ promotion in Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas, which ran from 1979 to 1987. Having bought out former boss/business partner Leroy McGuirk, he soon brought in the Junkyard Dog and the territory caught fire. Their TV was considered by many to be the best of the era, with great wrestling, episodic storytelling, and an emphasis on credible booking.

    Smoky Mountain Wrestling launched as a promotion in late 1991, with TV starting in 1992, before closing in November 1995. Jim Cornette ran the promotion with financing from record producer Rick Rubin (who was a huge fan of southern style wrestling), running shows primarily in east Tennessee and other parts of the old Southeastern Championship Wrestling/Continental territory. Like Mid-South, it was considered to have some of the best TV of the era, with Cornette booking the shows as something like a cross between Mid-South and the Memphis wrestling that he grew up on.

  • WWE Medical Director Villainized In “Concussion” Movie, What Will The Impact Be?

    WWE Medical Director Villainized In “Concussion” Movie, What Will The Impact Be?

    Sony Pictures seemingly has big plans for the Will Smith movie “Concussion,” as they have it opening on Christmas Day. Smith stars as Dr. Bennet Omalu, the real-life forensic pathologist who made it his mission to publicize his findings about Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, especially in the brains of American football players. Besides the overall issue having importance to the pro wrestling world, another connection is that WWE Medical Director and Pittsburgh Steelers Team Physician Dr. Joseph Maroon is a character in the film. The script of a seemingly pivotal (but now deleted) scene with the fictionalized version of Maroon (played by Arliss Howard)  leaked via The Hollywood Reporter in September, and it started to get some play on wrestling sites (like the Squared Circle community on Reddit) yesterday.

    The short scene, which was reportedly cut due to concerns that it was defamatory (it was sourced from a secondhand account) went like this:

    MAROON: We have a serious problem.
    DR. ELLIOTT PELLMAN: Dave Duerson killed himself today,
    MAROON: He didn’t just kill himself. He shot himself in the chest, Roger. In the heart. He left a note. He wanted his brain donated. To be looked at. For CTE.
    NFL COMMISSIONER ROGER GOODELL: Good God. Was he symptomatic?
    MAROON: I thought he was just an asshole. For the brain’s last act to not just die, but preserve itself in the act of killing, humans don’t do that. We can’t explain it. This is going to unravel.

    You can see why, if there were questions about the accuracy of the dialogue, why it would have been cut, even if the movie has the usual disclaimers about the characters being fictionalized versions of real people.  That said, if Maroon is still a prominent character in the movie, and it looks like he is, then it’s likely he still comes off badly, if just going by the official record. As my friend Keith Harris noted at Cageside Seats in September, this is, after all, the man who, among other things:

    • Attacked the Omalu’s findings of CTE in former Steeler Terry Long by falsely claiming that there were no records of him suffering a concussion during his time on the team.
    • Argued that youth tackle football is safer than skateboarding.
    • Authored a journal article on CTE that didn’t disclose his connections to the NFL, the Steelers, and WWE.

    It’s not like this one scene being cut means Maroon is in the clear, public perception-wise, though there are indications that the movie became much less anti-NFL over time and apparently, he’s only in one scene in the final cut. The impact to Maroon himself (and WWE) may not be as significant as originally theorized. The movie will get more of a dialogue going for a while, that’s for sure. Still, will anyone actually se it? Will Smith is a big star, but it’s not the most uplifting and commercial subject matter for Christmas, though a romantic subplot was included seemingly for that very reason. Advance reviews have been mixed so far, with some critics feeling that the movie focuses too much on the personal journey of Smith as Omalu. But Will Smith doing an award bait movie also has its own magnetism. So we may not know until we know.

    This all looms as WWE is in the midst of multiple lawsuits modeled after the successful NFL litigation over the concussion issue. That’s something that I’m guessing they don’t want a spotlight on. Especially now that lawyer Konstantine Kyros is pointing out that they simultaneously give money to Chris Nowinski’s Concussion Legacy Foundation (where Paul Levesque serves on the board) while seemingly not directing wrestlers to pledge their brains to the foundation for research.

  • Vince McMahon On Women’s Wrestling In 1985: “I See It As A Growth Area”

    This past week, I was looking at some clippings in old newsletters and found one of a Vince McMahon interview from some point in 1985 (it wasn’t dated) in the Boston Globe’s weekend magazine. Most of it was pretty run of the mill (his background in promoting, the appeal of pro wrestling, and so on), but there was one question and answer that stood out as especially interesting as well as relevant in 2015….

    https://twitter.com/davidbix/status/669722025771065344

    For those of you who need a text version for screen readers and the like:

    Are you putting more effort into women’s wrestling these days?

    “Yes. I see it as a growth area. I think that women’s wrestling was an area that was overlooked for many years, and it wasn’t until recently that a very attractive element, physically, began to enter ladies’ wrestling. And with the advent of Cyndi Lauper and Wendi Richter who now, there will be a deluge of female athletes who are nice looking as well. Not that all women wrestlers have to be nice-looking, because they won’t be. Just as all male wrestlers aren’t handsome devils.”

    Richter’s last ever WWF match was not long after this, which was 30 years ago this past week. Having said she wanted time to read a new contract before signing it, a screwjob was pulled on her to take the Women’s Championship without her cooperation:

  • NXT’s Greatest Matches DVD Set To Include More Non Televised Matches

    Today, WrestlingDVDNetwork.com posted their latest update on the upcoming NXT’s Greatest Matches set that WWE Home Video is releasing on Blu-Ray and DVD on March, 2016. Joining the CM Punk & Seth Rollins vs. Kassius Ohno (Chris Hero) & Cesaro dark match announced earlier in the week as well as various TV matches will be more non televised matches in various forms:

    • Paige vs. Becky Lynch (NXT Takeover: Fatal Four Way dark match September 11, 2014)
    • Adrian Neville vs. Cesaro (Columbus, OH house show March 5, 2015)
    • Hideo Itami vs. Tyler Breeze (“Arena Cam” from the San Jose, CA house show on March 27, 2015 – Itami uses the Go 2 Sleep)

    They join these matches which were already announced:

    • NXT Championship Finals: Seth Rollins vs. Jinder Mahal (NXT August 29, 2012)
    • Ladder Match for the NXT Championship: Bo Dallas vs. Adrian Neville (NXT ArRival February 27, 2014)
    • NXT Championship Match: Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens (NXT Takeover: Rival February 11, 2015)
    • NXT Women’s Championship Finals: Paige vs. Emma (NXT July 24, 2013)
    • NXT Women’s Championship Finals: Charlotte vs. Natalya (NXT Takeover May 29, 2014)
    • Fatal Four-Way Match for the NXT Women’s Championship: Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch vs. Bayley (NXT Takeover: Rival February 11, 2015)
    • CM Punk & Seth Rollins vs. Antonio Cesaro & Kassius Ohno (NXT October 17, 2012)
    • Chris Jericho vs. Bray Wyatt (NXT May 1, 2013)
    • William Regal vs. Antonio Cesaro (NXT December 25, 2013)

    Also, as noted earlier, the initial cover art for the set was released today.

  • NXT’s Greatest Matches DVD Set Update: Day 3 Of Bout Announcements

    The crew at WrestlingDVDNetwork.com continued their week of match reveals for the upcoming NXT’s Greatest Matches Vol. 1 DVD and Blu-Ray set today by announcing that these three will be included:

    • NXT Championship Finals: Seth Rollins vs. Jinder Mahal (NXT August 29, 2012)
    • Ladder Match for the NXT Championship: Bo Dallas vs. Adrian Neville (NXT ArRival February 27, 2014)
    • NXT Championship Match: Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens (NXT Takeover: Rival February 11, 2015)

    They join these matches, which we told you about yesterday:

    • NXT Women’s Championship Finals: Paige vs. Emma (NXT July 24, 2013)
    • NXT Women’s Championship Finals: Charlotte vs. Natalya (NXT Takeover May 29, 2014)
    • Fatal Four-Way Match for the NXT Women’s Championship: Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch vs. Bayley (NXT Takeover: Rival February 11, 2015)
    • CM Punk & Seth Rollins vs. Antonio Cesaro & Kassius Ohno (NXT October 17, 2012)
    • Chris Jericho vs. Bray Wyatt (NXT May 1, 2013)
    • William Regal vs. Antonio Cesaro (NXT December 25, 2013)

    The set will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray on March 8, 2016 and can be pre-ordered now.

     

  • AAA Cancels Guerra De Titanes; Has No TV Tapings Scheduled

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNw08eDy0w0

    AAA just announced on their official Facebook page that the December 4th Guerra de Titanes supercard has been cancelled:

    This comes just two days after AAA announced Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Johnny Mundo as the main event for the recently vacated (by Alberto “El Patron” Del Rio) AAA Super Mega Heavyweight Championship. It’s not clear why this happened, with the press release being vague at best. It promises some kind of make-up card for the Tampico/Madero region down the line, but that’s about it. The issue is more complicated than “just” cancelling a major show, though, as pointed out by LuchaBlog’s Twitter account:

    AAA now has no TV tapings on their schedule only has enough TV in the can to cover this coming weekend and the following weekend. They have cards that they could convert to TV tapings, and they’ve done things like that in the past. LuchaBlog also points out that we should learn more soon:

  • NXT DVD Set To Include CM Punk Dark Match From 2012

    The folks at WrestlingDVDNetwork.com are announcing new matches for the upcoming NXT’s Greatest Matches Vol. 1 DVD and Blu-Ray set this week. Today’s matches include quite the notable one: A 2012 dark match featuring CM Punk & Seth Rollins vs. Antonio Cesaro & Kassius Ohno (Chris Hero). This match is probably the last time Punk and Hero, who had a famous feud in IWA Mid-South, will ever wrestle each other.

    Including yesterday’s update, here’s what’s announced so far:

    • NXT Women’s Championship Finals: Paige vs. Emma (NXT July 24, 2013)
    • NXT Women’s Championship Finals: Charlotte vs. Natalya (NXT Takeover May 29, 2014)
    • Fatal Four-Way Match for the NXT Women’s Championship: Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch vs. Bayley (NXT Takeover: Rival February 11, 2015)
    • CM Punk & Seth Rollins vs. Antonio Cesaro & Kassius Ohno (NXT October 17, 2012)
    • Chris Jericho vs. Bray Wyatt (NXT May 1, 2013)
    • William Regal vs. Antonio Cesaro (NXT December 25, 2013)

    The set will be released March 8, 2016 and can be pre-ordered now on both DVD and Blu-Ray.

  • Fact Checking Road Dogg’s Tweets On WWE Profits, Ratings

    As noted earlier, WWE producer Brian James, best known as Road Dogg Jesse James, took to Twitter last night to defend the company’s creative direction stemming from Raw and Survivor Series. In addition to the tweets he mentioned earlier, he also made some comments about WWE business that deserve further scrutiny.

    Unless some of WWE’s ancillary revenue streams completely exploded, this is not true.

    2012, the last year not affected by WWE Network or its start-up costs, saw the company take in $31.4 million in profits. The company record is $68.9 million for fiscal year 1999-2000 (they switched to the calendar year in 2006). As “wrestling profits” go, the record is just under $85 million in fiscal year 2000-2001. However, the company as a whole also lost just under $70 million on the XFL and the official company profit that year was a little under $16 million.

    According to Dave Meltzer in the February 2, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter  (subscriber only link), WWE needs to average at least 1.35 million WWE Network subscribers over the course of the year to reach pre-network levels of profitability. They probably won’t even reach 1.15 million average.

    However, WWE’s revenue is reaching record highs, with the second quarter of 2015 (this year’s WrestleMania quarter) setting the company record for quarterly revenue. Of course, that’s not profit, though.

    James also chimed in with his thoughts on Nielsen ratings when fans cited Raw’s declining viewership as of late:

    This one is a bit more complicated.

    He’s not entirely wrong: We’re in a changing content consumption landscape where it’s not always easy to get a complete picture. WWE’s YouTube channel is, in terms of viewership (not subscriptions) one of the biggest on the platform. Edited Raw segments go up within half an hour or so of airing and can pull in well over a million views within a week. The 90 minute (without commercials; it would fit into a two hour commercial TV slot) version of Raw goes up on Hulu Plus the next day and we have no clue how many people watch that.

    He’s also right that Raw is the highest rated show on USA Network and that Fox is, to a point, eschewing Nielsen ratings (they will still subscribe and Nielsen will still have the numbers, but Fox won’t release the overnight/live plus save day viewing ratings themselves). But it doesn’t tell the whole story at all.

    For better or worse, Nielsen ratings are still the measurement advertisers use. Being that the ads aren’t seen by viewers watching on DVRs or online services, they effectively don’t count anyway. In addition, pro wrestling shows historically yield much lower (the number I’ve heard is 50%) ad rates than non-wrestling programming with comparable viewership. So you throw in that WWE’s TV viewership has bottomed out to 1997 levels, it’s still  a problem. It may not be reflective of WWE’s total audience, but it’s a problem.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3Z53V6x0KU

    Of course, there’s also the issue that going into last year’s negotiations for WWE’s domestic television rights, they were pushing their shows as “DVR-proof” programming akin to live sports. This kind of mindset is why NBC has started to run live musicals (“The Sound of Music,” “Peter Pan,” and now “The Wiz”) as event programming. So now you have a WWE producer who’s seemingly giving the company line…and it’s a 180 from what they were pushing last year.

    In 2013-2014, Monday Night Raw was a bargain in DVR-proof programming that everyone watches live. In 2015, its viewership is down significantly because Nielsen ratings are antiquated since to WWE fans watching Raw delayed on their DVRs and via online services.

    Sure, whatever you say.

  • WWE 2K16 New Moves Pack Released Today As DLC

    2K Sports issued the following press release today about the “New Moves Pack” released today as downloadable content for owners of the WWE 2K16 video game. It’s included as part of the DLC season pass, and here’s all of the info:

    WWE 2K16 New Moves Pack Downloadable Content Now Available

    2K today announced WWE 2K16’s first downloadable content offering, the New Moves Pack, is available now for the PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment systems, as well as Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system, and Xbox 360 games and entertainment system from Microsoft for a suggested price of $3.99. Featuring more than 30 new moves, including the Corner Enzuigiri (made popular by WWE Diva Nikki Bella), Avalanche Ram (made popular by WWE Diva Paige), Sidewinder Suplex (made popular by WWE Superstar Kevin Owens), Standing Crossface Chickenwing (made popular by WWE Superstar Stardust) and Dragon Sleeper (made popular by NXT Superstar Finn Bálor), the New Moves Pack will help fans further customize their favorite Superstars and Divas to dominate their rivals.

    The New Moves Pack is also included in the WWE 2K16 Season Pass. For a suggested price of $24.99, a savings of more than 20 percent versus individual content purchases, players will receive the following items as they become available:

    Accelerator

    Players will gain instant access to all unlockable content available in the game (excluding downloadable content)

    Legends Pack

    Playable WWE Legends: Big Boss Man, Dusty Rhodes, Lita, Mr. Perfect, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and Trish Stratus

    2015 Hall of Fame Showcase

    Playable matches include:
    “Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. Jake “The Snake” Roberts
    Rikishi vs. The Rock
    Alundra Blayze vs. Paige
    Larry Zbyszko and Arn Anderson vs. Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat and Dustin Rhodes
    Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Ric Flair
    The Bushwhackers (Butch Miller and Luke Williams) vs. The Natural Disasters (Typhoon and Earthquake)
    The Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) vs. Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray)

    Future Stars Pack

    Playable NXT Superstars: Samoa Joe, Diego, Fernando, Blake and Murphy

  • Bubba The Love Sponge Opens Up About Hulk Hogan Sex Tape Case

    Over the weekend, WFTS-TV in Tampa Bay, Florida did a story about radio personality, former TNA interviewer, and former best friend of Hulk Hogan, Bubba the Love Sponge Clem. Primarily, the story dealt with the release of the police report about the theft of various homemade sex videos from his office, including those of his ex-wife and Hulk Hogan. They’ve also posted the entire interview, which is embedded at the top of this article.

    The key points from the short form news story are that Bubba:

    * Asserts that the act at the center of the controversy were between three consenting adults, although that doesn’t apply to Hogan’s role in the video and audio recording.

    * Believes that nobody is being charged because Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober has it in for him. In the past, Ober unsuccessfully prosecuted him for animal cruelty stemming from a radio stunt where Bubba had a hog humanely killed while playing animal sound effects. Ober also testified against him in a defamation trial brought against him by rival radio personality Todd “M.J.” Schnitt. Ober’s office denied all of this.

    * Is contemplating retirement and stepping out of the public eye as a result of all of this.

    In the unedited interview, Bubba elaborates on various points, including that he:

    * Admits that he did do something illegal (presumably recording Hogan without his consent) and that he’d be in jail if the statute of limitations on the crime hadn’t expired.

    * First became aware of the theft when screenshots of his ex-wife with Hogan showed up on TheDirty. He first suspected Matt Loyd of stealing the DVDs when the clip showed up on Gawker because Loyd is “vindictive.” For what it’s worth, the police report, depending on your point of view, either strongly implies or outright says that Loyd wasn’t the Gawker leak.

    * Thinks fellow radio personality Mike “Cowhead” Calta, who had some role in the DVD being sent to Gawker (he claims that, via his agent, he got Gawker’s information for an anonymous listener who called in), was actively involved. Why? Bubba thinks Calta did it to get him fired and take his morning drive time slot.

    * Had never had anything stolen from his office before. He thinks someone either found them and figured out what they were

    * Has nothing against the police who ran the investigation, as they pursued the truth and it’s only the prosecutors who have decided not to act. Being that it’s the first high-profile “celebrity sex tape” in Florida, he thinks a successful prosecution could become precedent-setting caselaw if it went to court.

    * Will sue Loyd and his wife if he has to, since he thinks a civil lawsuit will be a slam dunk.

    * Has not seen Hogan outside of depositions since this all went down three years ago. “If that’s what I deserved, then I understand.[..] Maybe I’m not worthy of him forgiving me, and I certainly wouldn’t blame him for that.”