SEScoops

Author: Jon Fuentes

  • Matt Hardy’s Cryptic Tweet, Elias’ Album Makes Top 10 On iTunes

    Matt Hardy’s Cryptic Tweet, Elias’ Album Makes Top 10 On iTunes

    Matt Hardy Issues Cryptic Tweet

    There has been some speculation going around regarding Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt’s current tag team, and that it could be coming to an end soon.

    The Deleters Of Worlds recently came up short against The B Team (Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel) on RAW to recapture the Tag Team Titles. Hardy recently took to Twitter and issued out a cryptic message, saying the single word “DONE.”:

    Elias’ New Album Hits iTunes’ Top Ten

    As we’ve noted, WWE Superstar Elias has released his new album “Walk With Elias.” The new album has actually been doing very well on iTunes. Prior to Monday’s episode of RAW it had reached number 16 on the iTunes charts.

    When the show finished, it was already in the top ten and jumped up to number six. If you’d like to check Elias’ album out, you can do so on iTunes or Spotify.

  • Cody Rhodes Refuses To “Go Off” On Randy Orton

    Cody Rhodes Refuses To “Go Off” On Randy Orton

    Cody Rhodes doesn’t have a bad thing to say about Randy Orton.

    Rhodes worked with Orton as a member of the Legacy stable in WWE from 2008 to 2010. Soon after he went on a nice singles run that included a pair of Intercontinental Title wins. In 2016, however, the son of WWE Hall Of Famer Dusty Rhodes decided to venture out into the independent circuit and left the company.

    Orton remains in WWE today, and cut an interesting promo on SmackDown Live last night (Tues. July 24, 2108) about “indy darlings.” He poked fun at The Bullet Club stealing the old Kliq “Too Sweet” hand gesture as well. One fan on Twitter seemed to take issue with this and asked Rhodes to “go off” on Orton.

    Rhodes responded by saying “The Viper” could call him “a rat piece of sh!&” and he wouldn’t care. He credits Orton for his early success in the business and says he learned a lot from the former multiple time World Champ:

    https://twitter.com/moaningreigns_/status/1021912319876624385?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1021912319876624385&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mandatory.com%2Fwrestlezone%2Fnews%2F979541-cody-rhodes-asked-to-go-off-on-orton-defends-the-viper

    https://twitter.com/CodyRhodes/status/1021918150424711168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1021918150424711168&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mandatory.com%2Fwrestlezone%2Fnews%2F979541-cody-rhodes-asked-to-go-off-on-orton-defends-the-viper

  • Video: Funny Moment Between Vince McMahon & Triple H On RAW

    Video: Funny Moment Between Vince McMahon & Triple H On RAW

    Earlier this week (Mon. July 23, 2018) on Monday Night RAW, the trio of Stephanie McMahon, Vince McMahon and Triple H opened up the show.

    After some comments from Vince and “The Game,” Stephanie McMahon announced the first ever all female WWE pay-per-view (PPV) entitled “Evolution” which will take place in October. The entire RAW roster and the women from SmackDown Live were on the stage for the announcement.

    When the segment wrapped up, the cameras cut back to the RAW commentary team of Jonathan Coachman, Michael Cole and Corey Graves. In the background, however, Stephanie McMahon, Triple H and Vince McMahon could all be seen making their way out of the ring.

    Stephanie McMahon exited the ring first as Triple H held the bottom rope open for her. “The Game” continued to hold the rope open and jokingly signaled for Vince McMahon to go next. Vince McMahon grinned and pretended to kick Triple H. He then exited the ring soon after Triple H did. Check out the video here:

    https://twitter.com/A_mac_25/status/1021549551851917312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1021549551851917312&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.iwnerd.com%2Fwatch-funny-moment-between-triple-h-and-vince-mcmahon-caught-during-raw%2F

  • Vince McMahon Makes Adweek’s List Of 100 Most Cutting-Edge CEOs

    Vince McMahon Makes Adweek’s List Of 100 Most Cutting-Edge CEOs

    Vince McMahon has created an empire of professional wrestling that will likely never be rivaled in years to come.

    From purchasing the WWE from his late father back in 1982, to helping create household names such as The Rock, Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin and John Cena. He was also the mastermind behind professional wrestling’s biggest show of the year, WrestleMania.

    Vince McMahon works tirelessly to ensure that the WWE remains at the forefront of the professional wrestling world, and it looks like his efforts have recently been recognized by Adweek.

    “The Chairman Of The Board” was named 70th on Adweek’s List Of 100 Most Cutting-Edge CEOs. His daughter, Stephanie McMahon, recently took to Twitter to congratulate her father on the honor and credited him for making WWE’s WrestleMania the #6 most valuable sports event brands in the world:

    “From creating @WrestleMania, @Forbes‘ #6 most valuable sports event brands in the world, to driving record revenues year-over-year, @VinceMcMahon has made @WWE a global media powerhouse.”

  • What Happened After SDL & 205 Live Tapings?

    What Happened After SDL & 205 Live Tapings?

    Last night’s (Tues. July 24, 2018) episode of SmackDown Live featured some great moments. Andrade “Cien” Almas was in action against Rusev, The New Day collided with Sanity once again and Samoa Joe emerged as the next opponent for AJ Styles’ WWE Title.

    After SmackDown Live went off-air WWE held its tapings of 205 Live as well. When the Cruiserweights wrapped up their show, WWE put on a big Six-Man Tag Team dark match featuring some of SmackDown Live’s biggest stars.

    WWE Champion AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan and Jeff Hardy took on the team of United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura and The Bar (Sheamus and Cesaro). “The Phenomenal One,” Bryan and Hardy picked up the victory and sent the crowd come happy:

    https://twitter.com/AStayAtHomeRad/status/1021952488306561024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1021952488306561024&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.iwnerd.com%2Fstar-studded-dark-match-happens-after-smackdown-goes-off-the-air-photo%2F

  • SmackDown Stars Snubbed On Latest SummerSlam Poster

    SmackDown Stars Snubbed On Latest SummerSlam Poster

    The SmackDown Live roster has been snubbed from the latest poster for next month’s SummerSlam pay-per-view (PPV) – including WWE Champion AJ Styles.

    Instead, the poster only features four Superstars, all from Monday Night RAW, those being: Ronda Rousey, WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns and RAW Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss.

    Some notable snubs from the blue brand include the aforementioned WWE Champion AJ Styles and SmackDown Live Women’s title holder Carmella.

    Updated SummerSlam Card

    WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns

    WWE RAW Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss vs. Ronda Rousey

    WWE Champion AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe

    WWE Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler vs. Seth Rollins

    Kevin Owens vs. Braun Strowman – if Owens wins then he gets the MITB contract

    SummerSlam goes down live on PPV from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on August 19, 2018.

  • Bruce Prichard Reveals Two Huge WWE-WCW Matches That Nearly Happened

    Bruce Prichard Reveals Two Huge WWE-WCW Matches That Nearly Happened

    On the latest episode of Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson’s Something To Wrestle podcast, the guys dug deep into WWE’s 2001 Invasion pay-per-view. It was the culmination of WWE purchasing WCW & ECW and injecting what was left of both brands into television storylines.

    WWE had a ton of dream matches that they wanted to make, but a certain contractual issue prevented that form happening. After the WCW sale stars were still being paid by Turner Broadcasting from guaranteed contracts. Some of them decided to continue collecting guaranteed money instead of signing a deal with WWE.

    Two big matches that were impacted by this were Goldberg vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin and Sting vs. The Undertaker:

    “I think again without all the particulars, the first match that comes to mind was Austin vs. Goldberg. To have that matchup at some point. To be able to build to it. Same thing with Undertaker and Sting. There was thinking, ‘okay do you bring back Hall and Nash and put them back into the fold?’ There were a lot of what if’s.

    “It all becomes mental masturbation at that point. Because with the exception of JR, I don’t think there was anyone who had really dealt with Goldberg and Goldberg showed zero desire, nil, zilch to come in. He had his deal [with Turner] and was going to be paid out. He didn’t want to come in so the fact that he didn’t want to come in — we sure as hell wasn’t gonna go after him. We didn’t want anybody that didn’t want to be here.”

    Listen to the Invasion episode of Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard & Conrad Thompson:

    H/T to WrestlingINC for the transcribed quotes

  • Maria Kanellis Is Ready For WWE Return

    Maria Kanellis Is Ready For WWE Return

    Its been quite some time since Mike and Maria Kanellis have been on WWE TV together as a duo.

    Last September Kanellis was taken off the road when she became pregnant with she and Mike’s first child. Their daughter, Fredrica “Freddie” Moon Bennett, was born on April 3rd, 2018. Maria will report to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando next week.

    Mike Kanellis has still been working sporadically since Maria was sent home, but mostly on Main Event tapings and hasn’t been prominently featured on WWE TV. Maria recently took to Twitter to update fans on her status, and said right now she’s focused on getting back into shape after her pregnancy.

    She also offered her thoughts on the WWE’s recent announcement of their first ever all-female PPV event, Evolution. Maria noted it’s what her generation of female talent was fighting for from 2004 – 2010.

    A fan asked Maria if she’d be able to return in time for the Evolution PPV, and she said she’s ready to return right now:

    https://twitter.com/FutureInTheWWE/status/1021562747073585152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

  • David Arquette Wrestled Return Match With Two Fractured Ribs

    David Arquette Wrestled Return Match With Two Fractured Ribs

    As we’ve previously noted, former WCW World Heavyweight Champion David Arquette made his return to professional wrestling earlier this month.

    Arquette wrestled as “King” David Arquette for Championship Wrestling from Hollywood in California. He took on RJ City in a losing effort but was able to get in some decent offense which included a Diamond Cutter. It turns out Arquette wasn’t fully healthy for the match either.

    He recently took to Twitter and revealed he was wrestling with two fractured ribs, taking a selfie in a hospital bed:

    https://twitter.com/DavidArquette/status/1021474109316841474?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1021474109316841474&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mandatory.com%2Fwrestlezone%2Fnews%2F979009-david-arquette-suffered-two-fractured-ribs-in-return-match

    Arquette started his wrestling career back in 2000 after he co-starred in the film “Ready To Rumble.” The film was based on a fictional wrestler, Jimmy King, who feuded with Diamond Dallas Page over the WCW World Title. Shortly after the film’s release, Arquette was brought on to WCW TV and eventually won the World Title.

    His run only lasted a few months as WCW went out of business in 2001 and was bought out by WWE. Arquette has been announced as an official Guest Superstar for the upcoming Starrcast convention outside Chicago during All In weekend:

  • The Reason Nikki Cross Was On RAW

    The Reason Nikki Cross Was On RAW

    Last night (Mon. July 23, 2018) on Monday Night RAW the show opened up with a historic announcement by Stephanie McMahon as both the RAW and SmackDown Live women’s rosters were on stage. The WWE will hold its first all female pay-per-view (PPV) on October 28th in Long Island, New York entitled “Evolution”.

    Many professional wrestling fans noticed on social media that Nikki Cross was one of the women on stage for last night’s announcement. This has raised a lot of speculation as to if Cross will make her main roster TV debut soon.

    Part of the reason that Cross was on stage is because she was working with Asuka and Naomi this past weekend as WWE held live events in Springfield, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri.

    There’s currently no word yet on if Cross is officially a member of the SmackDown Live roster yet, but we’ll keep you updated.

    You can check out some footage of Cross from over the weekend in the WWE’s Tweet below:

  • Rousey & Lashley Scanned For Mattel (Video), Mojo Rawley Shows Off Nasty Bruise

    Rousey & Lashley Scanned For Mattel (Video), Mojo Rawley Shows Off Nasty Bruise

    Ronda Rousey & Bobby Lashley Get Scanned For Mattel

    WWE posted the following video on their YouTube channel showcasing a few WWE Superstars, including Ronda Rousey and Bobby Lashley, getting 3D scans done for their Mattel action figures. Check out the video here:

    Mojo Rawley Shows Off Nasty Bruise

    Last night (Mon. July 23, 2018) on Monday Night RAW, Mojo Rawley defeated Tyler Breeze in singles competition. Rawley shared a nasty bruise on his leg after the match on Twitter, but said he isn’t worried about it because he’s “undeterred”:

    “Undeterred. Gonna take more than just a little bruise to hold me down. I’m undefeated with this little bruise. 4 wins in a row with this little bruise. On to bigger & better things with this little bruise. I’m too focused to take a knee.”

  • Triple H On If Greatest Royal Rumble Influenced WWE Evolution

    Triple H On If Greatest Royal Rumble Influenced WWE Evolution

    WWE’s Triple H recently did an interview with ESPN to talk about the company’s announcement of their first ever all-female pay-per-view (PPV), Evolution. The PPV will go down on October 28th in Long Island, New York.

    Some have speculated that the decision to do the Evolution PPV was in response to what happened at the Greatest Royal Rumble this past April. No women were on the card due to the culture difference in Saudi Arabia.

    WWE got some heat for this after all of their effort that has been put into the Women’s Revolution over the years. Triple H was asked if the events in Saudi Arabia had anything to do with the decision to put on the Evolution PPV. Here’s what he had to say:

    “Let’s take the Saudi Arabia show off the table, and let’s just say it never happened — would anybody question that they deserve this opportunity? To me, it’s a ridiculous statement, the timing of it… You cannot affect change in a region that, culturally, is trying to change, you cannot help them affect that change without being there.”

    You can check out Triple H’s interview with ESPN by clicking this link here.

  • WWE Execs Netted Millions Selling Stock This Week

    WWE Execs Netted Millions Selling Stock This Week

    WWE stock is currently trading above $80, close to its all-time high of $83 per share. With the market cap over $6.2 billion, it’s a great time to cash in and unload some of those shares.

    Several top WWE executives did just that this week.Those executives included Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, Kevin Dunn and more.

    Per WWE’s latest SEC filings, you can check out how many shares each sold below:

    • Kevin Dunn – 122,926 shares
    • Michelle Wilson – 121,181 shares
    • George Barrios – 120,546 shares
    • Stephanie McMahon-Levesque – 17,373 shares
    • Paul Levesque – 17,272 shares
    • Michael Luisi- 16,579 shares
    • Mark Kowal – 4,913 shares

    At a sale price of just under $83, these executives are walking away with a very sweet payday. Both Kevin Dunn and Michelle Wilson netted over $10 million each for their shares. George Barrios wasn’t far behind at $9.996 million.

    Stephanie McMahon pulled in $1,440,569.16 while Paul “Triple H” Levesque  made $1,432194.24 respectively.

    Anybody else regret not buying WWE stock when it was under $20 per share just last year?

  • Brian Christopher “Grandmaster Sexay” Arrested Again

    Brian Christopher “Grandmaster Sexay” Arrested Again

    Former WWE Superstar Brian Christopher Lawler (“Grandmaster Sexay”) has run into some legal trouble again.

    According to TMZ, the Attitude Era Superstar was taken into custody by Tennessee police earlier this month on suspicion of DUI and attempting to evade authorities. The 46-year-old was reportedly speeding and swerving around at 1 A.M. on July 7th.

    Cops attempted to pull Lawler over, but he wouldn’t comply. Police say Lawler told them he initially refused to pull over was because he was trying to get home. Once they finally got him to pull over, they say his car smelled of alcohol and he had an open beer in his center console. He was immediately arrested.

    Christopher was taken to a nearby station and booked on DUI and evading police charges. His bail was set at $40,000.

    Last month, Christopher was arrested for [allegedly] attempting to run out on a hotel bill in Memphis.

    Brian Christopher is the son of WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler and is a former WWE Tag Team Champion along with Scotty 2 Hotty.

  • Taz Reveals Which Suplex He Came Up With The Name For

    Taz Reveals Which Suplex He Came Up With The Name For

    Former WWE Hardcore Champion and commentator Taz recently took to his radio show, The Taz Show, and discussed several professional wrestling topics. Taz was famous for his suplexes inside the ring. He noted how he never used the German Suplex in ECW because everyone else was.

    Taz said he could hit a variety of Suplexes on opponents such as Christian and Sabu. He also credited himself with naming the “T-Bone Suplex”:

    “That’s what I named it,” said Taz. “Whatever people called it, but that’s what I called it. I kinda named it. And [for] simple reasons; it looked like a T, right? I was grabbing you like a T, I was grabbing between your legs and around your waist, it was like a T motion from the side.

    “And I would turn you in the air where I was the base of the T and you were the top part, the horizontal part of the T. And that’s why I called it a T-bone, and everybody loves a T-bone steak. Of course you gotta put over T-bone steak, right? So, that’s where that came from.”

    You can listen to The Taz Show by clicking this link here.

    H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions

  • The Big Plans WWE Had For Dolph Ziggler Before He Joined The Spirit Squad

    The Big Plans WWE Had For Dolph Ziggler Before He Joined The Spirit Squad

    As we’ve previously noted, WWE Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler was recently interviewed on former WWE ring announcer Lilian Garcia’s podcast, Chasing Glory. During their conversation, Ziggler’s run as a member of The Spirit Squad came up.

    Ziggler noted that just before getting the call up to the main roster, and eventually being made part of the plans for The Spirit Squad, he was pitched an idea of being the protegee of Kurt Angle thanks to his amateur wrestling background:

    “A little before I got called up to do the Spirit Squad I was told by the in-between when you’re hearing you’re gonna get called up to WWE, the main roster. They were like, ‘hey they really like that you have an amateur wrestling background’ and I had my crew cut, my military haircut.

    “They go, ‘it’s great that you have no tattoos, we’re kinda looking at you as Kurt Angle’s protegee or something.’ If Kurt Angle hadn’t won that gold medal and came to WWE I might not have even got a chance. But because he was so good and he did so well when he got here they’re like, ‘maybe we can give some smaller guys a try and because of him I got a chance to work here.

    “And they go, hey maybe we consider you as his protegee and I go, ‘what? This is the craziest thing ever!’ Cut to four weeks later and I’m a cheerleader with four other guys, but still the thought was there that maybe that was gonna happen.”

    You can listen to Ziggler on Chasing Glory by clicking this link here.

    H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions

  • Kurt Angle On If He Prefers Brock Lesnar In WWE Or UFC

    Kurt Angle On If He Prefers Brock Lesnar In WWE Or UFC

    WWE Hall Of Famer and Monday Night RAW General Manager Kurt Angle recently did another Q&A on his Facebook page. He took various questions from the WWE Universe, one of them asking for his thoughts on Brock Lesnar’s upcoming UFC fight.

    “The Beast” returned to the mixed martial arts (MMA) world at UFC 226 when he got into the Octagon and confronted newly-crowned UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier. The pair got into a shoving match and UFC President Dana White later announced Cormier vs. Lesnar would be the next fight for the heavyweight strap.

    Angle said that he expects a great fight between the pair “if it happens,” but admitted he prefers seeing Lesnar full-time in WWE:

    “Could be a great fight if it happens. I’d prefer Brock full time in WWE though.”

    You can check out Angle’s full Q&A on Facebook by clicking this link here.

  • Steve Austin Believes Managers Should Still Have A Presence In Pro Wrestling

    Steve Austin Believes Managers Should Still Have A Presence In Pro Wrestling

    They don’t make managers in professional wrestling anymore like they used to. Back in the day the pro wrestling world featured managers such as Bobby Heenan, Jimmy Hart, Paul Heyman, Jim Cornette and Paul Bearer.

    Of course only one of those men, Paul Heyman, is still an active manager today. This was something WWE Hall Of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin discussed on the latest episode of his podcast, The Steve Austin Show, with MLW’s Court Bauer.

    “The Texas Rattlesnake” noted that you don’t really see managers anymore in professional wrestling. Austin argued that they are the “salt and pepper” to a great Superstar:

    “You just don’t see [managers] anymore,” said Austin. “To me, they were the salt and pepper on a great steak. Such colorful, flamboyant personalities, either that mouthpiece, or that dressing, or whatever it needs to be to enhance that talent further, or be the crutch, or be an addition to, and just make that person a superstar.

    “The way I grew up watching wrestling when I was seven or eight years old, and going through the territories, and having my share of managers. Whether I liked them or not, or wanted them to be with me, I learned a lot from them. To me, they’re part of the landscape that is pro wrestling.”

    You can listen to Austin on The Steve Austin Show by clicking this link here.

    H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions

  • Reigns Makes Bold SummerSlam Claim, Usos’ Message For Bludgeon Brothers (Video)

    Reigns Makes Bold SummerSlam Claim, Usos’ Message For Bludgeon Brothers (Video)

    Roman Reigns’ Bold Prediction For SummerSlam

    Tonight (Mon. July 23, 2018) we find out who will go on to SummerSlam to take on Brock Lesnar for the WWE Universal Title – Roman Reigns or Bobby Lashley. Last week on Monday Night RAW both Reigns and Lashley won their respective Triple Threat matches.

    Now they will face off on tonight’s edition of RAW, with the winner going to SummerSlam in attempt to dethrone “The Beast.” Reigns recently took to Twitter and talked about getting to spend some quality time with his daughter in Los Angeles this week.

    With all that behind him now, he says he’s ready for Lashley tonight and declared he’ll be the one going to SummerSlam – and he’s going to beat Brock Lesnar:

    The Usos’ Message For The Bludgeon Brothers

    Four teams will compete in a tournament on SmackDown Live to determine SmackDown Live Tag Team Champions The Bludgeon Brothers’ next opponents for the straps. One of those teams is none other than former SDL Tag Team Champs The Usos.

    Jimmy and Jey posted the following video message to The Bludgeon Brothers from WWE’s official Twitter account backstage from a Springfield live event:

  • Bruce Prichard On Vince McMahon’s Sleeping Habits

    Bruce Prichard On Vince McMahon’s Sleeping Habits

    Former WWE official Bruce Prichard was recently interviewed on the Sam Roberts’ Wrestling Podcast and talked about what it was really like working for Vince McMahon.

    One topic of discussion brought up was whether or not “The Chairman Of The Board” ever takes some time to get some rest. Prichard said that McMahon likely gets a few hours of sleep each night before an early wake-up call to get in a cardio workout.

    He also detailed how McMahon sometimes takes 30-minute naps during the day from time-to-time. Prichard shared an experience of his own with McMahon, who used a tour bus to take a nape in once:

    “He’d probably get a couple of hours of sleep before he’d wake up to do cardio. He takes like 30 minute power naps every once in awhile. I’ve gotten alcohol poisoning two times in my life, both times with Vince McMahon.

    “The first time drinking moon shine and the second time was just a crazy night and I remember Vince coming to me and going, ‘Brucie, what are those buses like?’ Those were the early days of the rock n’ roll buses we had for the cameramen and the ring crew guys. Actually they’re pretty nice. McMahon said, ‘Get everybody off. We’ll take a nap in there.’

    “We would go and just 30 minutes. He would go nap. He goes out and when he wakes up he’s like, ‘Goddamn let’s go. Holy cow that was good! Good times, huh? You know what? I think I got an extra minute there. I think that made a difference”

    You can listen to Prichard’s interview on the Sam Roberts’ Wrestling Podcast by clicking this link here.

    H/T WrestleZone for the transcriptions

  • Brian Cage Reveals WWE’s Plans For Him Before Release

    Brian Cage Reveals WWE’s Plans For Him Before Release

    WWE almost pulled the trigger on a pretty neat idea for Brian Cage during his time with the company back in 2008.

    Cage, currently signed to IMPACT Wrestling, was in WWE’s then-developmental territory of Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW). In a recent interview with The Miami Herald, Cage said that he was praised for his working ability by late Hall Of Famer Dusty Rhodes and was being considered for a main roster call-up.

    A super-hero/villain gimmick was pitched that would have Cage go by the name of “Dark Claw.” He was being considered to either feud or tag team with Hurricane Helms, who had just brought back his Hurricane gimmick at the time:

    “I am out there having awesome matches with Justin Gabriel, Tyson Kidd, Trent Barrreta, and Dusty Rhodes pulls me to the office and goes, ‘Let me tell you something baby. You are a phenomenal worker. You got to have something else.

    “You can’t be that. Hey Matt, what’s that guy called the Honey Badger? The Wolverine yeah. But you can’t be the Wolverine because that’s a trademark, so give me something else. I went back, and I was looking through my trading cards and comics, and I said, ‘I’ll be like the Dark Claw which is Batman and Wolverine.’

    “I made my attire off that, and they were going to bring me up, and then Hurricane came up and Dusty said, ‘OK, we are thinking of feuding or teaming you with Hurricane.’ So I started doing a bunch of heel promos but I got released.”

    You can check out Cage’s full interview with The Miami Herald by clicking this link here.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wGXSl290p8

  • Seth Rollins On Extreme Rules Crowd Counting Down During Ironman Match

    Seth Rollins On Extreme Rules Crowd Counting Down During Ironman Match

    While Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler were putting on a pretty solid 30-minute Ironman match at WWE’s Extreme Rules pay-per-view (PPV) earlier this month, the talk on social media was all about the crowd in attendance’s actions.

    Throughout the match the crowd kept counting down as the clock on the big screen continued to tick down from 30 minutes. The incident threw both Rollins and Ziggler off a bit. Eventually someone in the production truck took the clock off the screen, but that just drove the crowd even more nuts, and the counting became more frequent.

    Seth Rollins was the latest guest on former WWE ring announcer Lilian Garcia’s podcast, Chasing Glory, and discussed the topic. “The Architect” seemed a bit irked by the crowd’s game, and admitted it really messed with Dolph Ziggler during the bout:

    “Sometimes I don’t understand the concept of coming to a show and doing anything other than watch the show. I can’t imagine it,” Rollins said. “It is what it is. They know it’s a thirty minute match; they’re just going to get it out of their system.

    “And then, somebody actually took the clock off the tron. And that was bad. It was like you were taking a toy away from a petulant child, and they’re just going to be a jerk to you about it. I know it really messed with Dolph [Ziggler].

    “Like, he was super out of sync from how he normally is. I just let them do their thing. I knew we had thirty minutes, and by the end of it they’d be invested in what we were doing — and I think they were.”

    Rollins also stated his interest in challenging Dolph Ziggler for the Intercontinental Championship at SummerSlam next month.

    Listen to Seth Rollins on Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia:

  • Deonna Purrazzo Talks Leaving Indies For WWE

    Deonna Purrazzo Talks Leaving Indies For WWE

    Newly signed WWE NXT talent Deonna Purrazzo was recently interviewed by Brian Fritz of Sporting News to talk about journeying to WWE after her success on the indy circuit. She first talked about working a segment with current RAW Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss back in December of 2016 on SmackDown Live:

    “You get to interact with everyone and you get to take a little piece of each person with you, each bit of their knowledge that they’ve accumulated over their years wrestling. To be able to come in just for a week or a day at ‘SmackDown’ and really just gain all that knowledge, it helped me be a more well-rounded wrestler outside and in my own endeavors.”

    Purrazzo, like Bliss, is extremely short standing only at five-foot-two, and discussed how that impacts her style inside the ring:

    “I’m very, very meticulous when I get in the ring. I very much believe that no matter my size or my opponent’s size, everyone’s joints work the same. So if I can pinpoint whether it’s the Fujiwara armbar or even if it’s someone’s leg, we all break down the same at the end of the day. I very meticulous and very methodical when I get in the ring.”

    Finally, Purrazzo revealed it wasn’t really difficult to let go of all the opportunities on the indies in order to land her “dream job” with WWE:

    “Your dream job comes along once in a lifetime. So, to give up other opportunities wasn’t a big deal to me because this is where I wanted to be. I wanted to be a part of NXT. I wanted to come to the Performance Center every day and work towards being a WWE superstar one day.”

    You can read Purrazzo’s full interview with Sporting News by clicking this link here.

  • Kenny Omega On Which NJPW Stars He Wants To Face

    Kenny Omega On Which NJPW Stars He Wants To Face

    New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) star and IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega was recently a guest on WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross’ podcast, The Ross Report, to talk about several professional wrestling topics. “The Cleaner” was first asked about feuds he’s excited to be a part of in NJPW.

    Immediately Omega mentioned that he’s “chomping at the bit” to show everyone what he can do with Kota Ibushi inside the ring:

    “Sort of the match that everyone is looking forward to, and it’s going to happen because they’ve announced it for the G1 is the match with Ibushi.” Omega explained, “and I’m sort of really chomping at the bit to show everyone what Ibushi is really capable of.

    “A lot of people do know what he can do, but I don’t think he has shown it in the newest form of his. I think he’s really ready to take the ball and kind of step into the league of four or five top guys that could headline any show for New Japan.

    “And I think this G1 performance is kind of the perfect way to display that he’s one of those individuals. So Ibushi is one of them for sure.”

    He also named several other stars that he’d like to work with; such as Naito, ZSJ, Hiromu Takahashi, Will Ospreay, and Rey Mysterio:

    “I only ever get to work with Naito once a year,” Omega considered. “I’d love to wrestle him again. Yeah, he’s good for sure. The person I’ve never worked before in a New Japan ring and I’d be happy to get the chance and show the difference of styles is Zack Sabre, Jr., so that’d be another one. Yeah, he’s one of my favorites. Yeah, for sure [ZSJ has it factor].

    “And I may be speaking a little premature, but I think of Hiromu as a guy that could possibly graduate from being a junior heavyweight and move onto other things just due to the fact that his charisma is too huge to be contained in just one division. I think he could do more than what he’s doing right now and I think they really need to capture that lightning in the bottle with that rather than keep him chained down so to speak.

    “And yeah, for me, original, ‘you can’t see them everyday’ moments are important to me, so I’d say, I’d even like to show what I can do with a guy like Will Ospreay or working with Rey Mysterio, Jr. That’s another guy I’d love to show sort of that style of match. I really think our styles could work well together.”

    You can listen to Omega’s interview on The Ross Report by clicking this link here.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulgQmGeHeX4

    H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions

  • Charlotte Flair Reveals How Many Nude Moonsaults She Had To Do For ESPN

    Charlotte Flair Reveals How Many Nude Moonsaults She Had To Do For ESPN

    Former SmackDown Live Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair was recently interviewed by Instinct Culture at the Sports Humanitarian Awards, and discussed her involvement in ESPN Magazine’s Body Issue.

    “The Queen” first discussed getting a black eye during her match with Asuka at WrestleMania 34 just before the shoot, but she turned out to like it because it shows the raw physicality of what WWE Superstars do inside the ring:

    “Okay so I got a black eye at WrestleMania,” Flair said. “I was like, ‘of course I would get a black eye before the Body shoot. But I actually think it made it that much more raw and real and natural and it really goes to show that what we do as Superstars isn’t fake.

    “Like I walk around with my battle scars all the time. I was really nervous at first but after an hour I was like, ‘I’m in the ESPN Body Issue as the first WWE Superstar. I’m gonna rock it.’”

    One of the most famous photos of Flair’s shoot is her nude moonsault inside the ring. She revealed that she had to do 45 nude moonsaults to get the shot right, and discussed how awkward it was:

    “Doing forty-five naked moonsaults was awkward. Which it’s like a backflip in the air. I’m like, ‘ah this is my worse nightmare.’ You know when you wake up and you have forgotten you like shoes or something for work, I forgot my ring gear.”

    H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions