Former WWE commentator Taz recently took to his show, The Taz Show, to offer his thoughts on the current goings on in NXT. One such topic was the success of current NXT Champion Aleister Black.
Taz believes Black has all the tools to be a major star for the company, but admitted that the NXT Champ’s promo skills lose him a bit:
“His promo work needs some work, in my opinion,” said Taz. “The only reason why I say it needs some work is because he’s got a very awesome look. His physique, all the ink he has, his facial hair, his hair on his head, the way his face looks, the way he moves in the ring.
“His athleticism in the ring, his body of work as a pro wrestler, all the years he’s got in the business. The martial arts feel he has to his work and his kicks and his strikes, and all this jazz. It’s all an awesome potpourri of a very unique talent, hence his success in NXT.
“And I do think once he’s on the main roster, he will be a big, big star, and I really believe that. He should be. The thing is, just me being blunt, his promo work loses me a little bit. It loses the darkness. He’s gotta certain darkness about him, right?
“You get that when you see him, a certain darkness. I’m not saying he shouldn’t talk, but I think he needs a little guidance on his talking. His vocabulary is great, very intelligent, he doesn’t have like a heavy duty accent or anything like that. But to me, it loses the darkness.”
Taz also believes that there’s only one man who should be NXT Champion right now, and that’s EC3:
“It’s almost like a Bobby Roode feel, but different,” said Taz. “Like that type of feel, but as a heel. He’s veteran enough, he knows what he’s doing enough that he feels like a champ. He can cut a helluva promo. I think that’s who eventually has got to be the NXT Champion, in my opinion.”
You can listen to The Taz Show by clicking this link here.
For the past few days, Velveteen Dream has been firing shots at his NXT TakeOver: Chicago opponent, Ricochet, on Twitter. Ricochet has finally responded, reminding Dream of his past appearance on Tough Enough when he was eliminated halfway through the show.
He then wrote “the result will be the same at Takeover: Chicago.”:
September 1st’s “All In” event, self-funded by Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks, just continues to get bigger as it adds the biggest names in professional wrestling today. All In’s Twitter page has confirmed that former WWE and TNA referee Earl Hebner will be working the show.
He joins a cast of referees that includes the likes of Paul Turner, Rick Knox, Todd Sinclair, and Jerry Lynn:
Back in March of 2017 former IWGP Tag Team Champion Tomoaki Honma suffered a career-threatening injury after taking a draping DDT by Jado in the middle of a Six-Man Tag Team match.
After the move, Honma was unable to move anything from the neck down. As a result, the match was stopped. Later reports revealed that Honma had suffered a cervical vertebrae injury and was hospitalized for nearly four months.
New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) later announced that his in-ring return was “tentative” and he forfeited his shot at the IWGP Tag Team Championships. Nikkan Sports would later report that Honma was able to regain function enough to “grasp objects on the upper extremities.”
Despite this, he was still deep in the recovery process and any return to wrestling was described as “undetermined.” The following November, Honma was able to return to training and began taking bumps in hopes of getting back in the ring soon.
15 months later, Honma has fully recovered and is scheduled to appear at the the NJPW Best Of The Super Juniors block final. He and tag team partner Togi Makabe have issued an open challenge to anyone willing to face them at the Kizuna Road show on June 23rd in Yamagata.
SmackDown Live Women’s Champion Carmella is expected to defend her title against Asuka at the Money In The Bank pay-per-view (PPV) on June 17th from the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois.
The pair recently exchanged some words with one another on Twitter ahead of their match-up. Here’s what they had to say:
Who is Asuka? Empress of Yesterday. Stoppable. Beatable. She used to be what I am today. Nobody is ready for Mella. #MITB
WWE Superstar R-Truth has released a new hip-hop single, “That’z Endurance,” which is streaming on WeOnRadio.com. A preview for the song can be found below, which features Mannish Mania and is produced by J-Trx:
Despite being drafted to SmackDown Live in the Superstar Shake-Up, Truth has been out-of-action for the past several months due to a shoulder injury. There is currently no news on when he might be ready go get back into the ring.
There’s no doubt that current WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar is one of the more favored performers in the company at the moment, but one fan on Twitter threw a very interesting question Dave Meltzer’s way recently.
The fan asked how much creative control The Beast is given as opposed to the average talent. Meltzer responded by saying that if Lesnar and/or Paul Heyman have any suggestions Vince McMahon will listen and take them under advisement.
Make no mistake about it though, McMahon is always calling the final shots:
Don't think anything is in his contract, but Vince listens to him and Paul and takes their ideas under advisement, but make no mistake, it is Vince's call whatever happens. https://t.co/kxzzS9KAQt
It has been announced that on tomorrow’s episode of SmackDown Live, Aiden English will team up with Lana to take on the team of Jimmy Uso and Naomi in a Mixed Tag Team match.
In honor of this news, English has taken to Twitter and uploaded a video in which he remixes The Usos’ WWE theme. Check it out here:
Former WWE creative team member Jason Allen, who served as a writing assistant on Monday Night RAW, was recently a guest on The Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast to talk about his time with the company.
During the interview, Allen discussed his first ever interaction with The Boss’ Daughter, Stephanie McMahon. Here’s what he had to say:
“I went in to meet Stephanie because she wasn’t there when I first started, or when I came up with the interview. Stephanie is 7-8 months pregnant at this point with her first child and she comes up to me and she’s just so sweet and so nice and she’s like, ‘Oh hi, it’s so nice to meet you.
“Look, I swear I’m not a diva and I’m not like this; but, I need a blueberry muffin right now.’ So that was my first official task, was to run myself to the donut shop and get Stephanie a blueberry muffin.”
Allen also talked about his first time meeting former WWE Champion JBL, and the hilarious thing the future Hall Of Famer did when he first saw Allen:
“My first day at TV, JBL takes out his cell phone and takes a picture of me. He’s like, ‘You know why I’m doing that?’ I said, ‘No I don’t.’ He said, ‘It’s so I could remember your face when you’re gone next month.’ You could tell it was quite the revolving door.”
You can listen to The Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast by clicking this link here.
Stone Cold Steve Austin may have played the biggest badass in WWE TV history, but behind-the-scenes, he’s regarded as one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet.
So imagine the shock backstage several years ago when Austin lost his cool and yelled at the Big Boss Man backstage for missing his spot in an angle they were supposed to run. Boss Man was supposed to hit the ring and assault Austin with a steel chair.
Instead, Boss Man was nowhere to be found and old-timer Jerry Brisco made his way to the ring to do the job. Brisco comes from a generation that doesn’t hit hard with objects such as steel chairs, and Austin was disappointed with the presentation of the segment.
On the latest episode of his podcast, The Steve Austin Show, the WWE Hall Of Famer described what exactly happened when he lost his cool backstage for one of a very few times:
“The hottest I ever got in professional wrestling was when we was working the Keel Center in St. Louis, Missouri, and we was working an angle and I don’t remember who I was working with; but, Big Boss Man was supposed to run out there and hit me with a chair to cause me to lose the match. We get in the spot. It’s at the end of the match.
“There’s no Big Boss Man. He’s nowhere to be found. That big bastard’s supposed to run out there and cause me to lose the match so we can get off and start working an angle together, so here comes Jerry Brisco. Jerry Brisco was one of the great shooters out of Oklahoma State.
“Those old school guys weren’t really good with chairs because they didn’t really use chairs in their generation and they didn’t sling ’em like we would sling ’em in the Attitude Era…so he comes out there and hits me with this weak ass chair shot. I got to go down. I get beat. I really wanted him to kill me with that chair so I look better; but, anyway as I’m getting to the back, I’m like, ‘Where is he?’ Here comes Ray [Big Boss Man].
“He had been in the back talking to Undertaker while the match was going on. I guess Undertaker was in the main event or had already wrestled and man, I lit into Big Boss Man. It was the loudest cuss job I’d probably ever done in the history of the business and I never ever lose my cool like that, never in a million years….
“I really uncorked on Ray [Big Boss Man] because I was really upset he wasn’t there. Not only did he mess up the match…but that nullified our angle that we were supposed to work and I was looking forward to working with Ray [Big Boss Man]. He was such a great guy and a great big man.”
You can listen to The Steve Austin Show by clicking this link here.
Former WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz recently did an interview with SPORTbible to talk about several professional wrestling topics. Miz first talked about how fans make too big a deal out of WWE records:
“I feel like I have done so much in WWE that we just make up stuff now! It’s like, ‘I’ve had more combined days than every superstar besides one to be the Intercontinental champion!’ Is it cool? Sure. Do we make a bigger deal of it now, with social media? Absolutely.
“I wouldn’t even be able to tell you unless people tell me on the internet, ‘Hey, guess what – you have x amount of combined days until you are beating Pedro Morales for the longest-reigning Intercontinental champion, or, ‘You need one more reign to tie Chris Jericho!’ I think you guys care about it a little bit more than I do.”
Miz then offered his thoughts on how current Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins is doing as the strap’s holder:
“I think Seth is doing a fantastic job with the Intercontinental championship. He’s had it for maybe a month and has probably defended it more times than I have in the past year! He’s on a hot-streak right now.
“His song says ‘Burn it down!’ and every time he goes out there that’s exactly what he tries to do. He elevates superstars every time they are in the ring; I saw a match with Mojo Rawley and it was the best match I have ever seen Mojo in, in his entire career.
“That just shows you not only how good Mojo is, he was able to showcase, but how good Seth Rollins really is. I don’t think he can elevate it any more than I already have but I think he’ll keep it at that same level.”
You can read The Miz’s full interview with SPORTbible by clicking this link here.
WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar is currently not scheduled to defend his title at the Money In The Bank (MITB) or Extreme Rules pay-per-view (PPV). The Beast hasn’t been seen since retaining his title against Roman Reigns inside a Steel Cage in Saudi Arabia at the Greatest Royal Rumble.
Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that the current plans is to have Lesnar defend his title at SummerSlam next on August 19th in Brooklyn. He is currently scheduled to headline the event, but that’s not set in stone. It’ also unknown who his opponent will be.
As for his pending return to the UFC, there’s an interesting way of finding out what the status of his future in mixed martial arts (MMA) will be. If Lesnar were to return to the UFC, a fight at the promotion’s New Year’s Eve event would be the target date.
Lesnar would have to re-enter the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) drug testing pool by June 30th for this to be possible. If he hasn’t re-entered the drug testing pool by then, a return to the UFC anytime soon is unlikely.
The Beast must provide six months worth of clean testing before being allowed to return to the Octagon. We’ll keep you updated as we learn more…
For the best MMA coverage available please visit our sister site at MMANews.com!
WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross recently took to his podcast, The Ross Report, to offer his thoughts on what’s going on in the word of professional wrestling today. On the subject of this past Monday’s episode of RAW, Ross discussed two stars who he thinks have potential to be main event heels in the company.
Good Ole’ JR named former ECW Champion Bobby Lashley and former NXT Champion Bobby Roode as the two stars with the biggest heel potentials:
“Their persona makes me think heel first. And so sometimes when the average Joe, like me or you, look at somebody and we think “villain” it’s hard to get us to change our opinion of that personality, but I think in the long run, there’s money in Bobby Lashley and Bobby Roode both as main event-level heels in WWE.”
You can listen to Ross on The Ross Report by clicking this link here.
The WWE continues to search far and wide to add to their already stacked roster, and it looks like the professional wrestling juggernaut has signed yet another star.
Squared Circle Sirens is reporting that that WWE has signed Deonna Purrazzo to a developmental deal. Purrazzo had previously signed a six month deal with Ring Of Honor (ROH) but decided to opt out to make her way to WWE.
She’s set to head to the WWE Performance Center in the next few weeks. Purrazzo has been competing since 2013 and has done work for promotions such as ROH, Stardom and TNA.
Not to mention she has been used a few times on WWE NXT, was an alternate for the Mae Young Classic Tournament, and was used in a segment with Alexa Bliss back in 2016. Bliss was the SmackDown Live Women’s Champion at the time, and attacked Purrazzo – who was being used as an enhancement talent for Bliss to beat down.
Earlier this week on SmackDown Live, a Triple Threat match took place to determine the final participant in the men’s Money In The Bank (MITB) Ladder match next month in Chicago.
Samoa Joe, Daniel Bryan and Big Cass battled it out for the opportunity. In the end, it was Joe who emerged victorious and earned his spot at MITB. Many fans were disappointed that it wasn’t Bryan who earned his way into the match.
It turns out there’s a good reason WWE decided to hold Bryan out of the match. Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that the reason the former WWE World Heavyweight Champion is being held out of the MITB match is because Ladder matches increase the probability of neck injuries and concussions.
WWE’s primary focus seems to be keeping Bryan healthy. In addition to this, it looks like the feud between Bryan and Cass will continue on as a match between them has already been advertised for the Extreme Rules pay-per-view (PPV).
Discussion: What are your thoughts on Bryan being left out of the MITB Ladder match?
WWE Hall Of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin recently talked to The Big Show on an episode of his podcast, The Steve Austin Show, to talk about several professional wrestling topics. During their conversation, Show revealed that he actually advised former WWE Intercontinental Champion Kofi Kingston not to do the New Day gimmick with Big E and Xavier Woods.
He said he told Kingston he didn’t need to drag himself down with “a couple of NXT idiots right now.”:
“When Kofi told me he was doing that New Day gimmick, I pulled Kofi to the side about four feet from Xavier Woods and Big E and asked him, ‘what the hell are you doing?’” Big Show recalled, “because [Austin] know[s] how [he] would talk to me about business and Taker would talk to me about business.
“I’ve learned and I’ve passed that along to guys that I help. And I’m not polite about it. I’m blunt, direct, and to-the-point. When it comes to business, it’s serious. Do you know what I mean? So I pull Kofi about four feet to the side and [ask], ‘so what are you doing with these two numb nuts’ and he goes, ‘yeah, it’s a thing’ and I said, ‘damn, Kofi, you were Intercontinental Champion [and] you’re on your way to having a run with the big strap.
“You don’t need to drag yourself down with a couple of NXT idiots right now. You’re really probably going to hurt yourself. You’re pulling yourself out of that world title run. The Intercontinental Championship is a pretty big deal. You keep yourself in that loop and you’ll get a shot at the big one.’ He goes, ‘naw, I appreciate it, Show, but we’ve got a good thing going here.’ I said, ‘alright, man. I’m just telling you that running around with these two idiots isn’t going to help you get over.’”
A few weeks later, after seeing the three in action, Show admitted that his initial perceptions were wrong:
“I said, ‘forget every damn thing I said. What you guy’s’ve got is absolute friggin magic. I love it. Forget every damn thing I said.’” Big Show shared, “Woods loves that story. I call Woods my son now. I’ve adopted him as one of my wrestling sons, so he’s one of my sons now.”
You can listen to The Big Show on The Steve Austin Show by clicking this link here.
On a recent edition of WWE Hall Of Famer Booker T’s Houston Sports Radio 610 show, Heated Conversations, he discussed former WWE Champion CM Punk’s upcoming UFC fight against Mike Jackson.
Punk left WWE back in early 2014 and soon announced he would begin training for a career in mixed martial arts (MMA) after signing a multi-fight deal with the UFC. He lost his debut fight via first round submission back in 2016 to Mickey Gall.
Now he will make his second go of it on the main card of the UFC 225 pay-per-view (PPV) on June 9th. Booker T said that if he loses his second fight in the UFC, he believes Punk will be at the upcoming “All In” event with Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks, beginning his return to pro wrestling:
“I think he’ll be at All In,” said Booker. “I think if he lose this fight, he’ll be at All In, with the Young Bucks [and] Cody Rhodes, making his way back to the pro wrestling world. I really think CM Punk [misses] the wrestling world. I just think he had a bad taste in his mouth, but he can get it back.”
You can listen to Booker T on Heated Conversations by clicking this link here.
Former WCW President Eric Bischoff recently covered WWE Hall Of Famer Bret Hart’s run in WCW on his podcast, 83 Weeks, with Conrad Thompson. Bischoff first discussed whether or not he wanted Hart to come into WCW with the WWE Championship:
“There were probably two or three different conversations about that. The one conversation that I distinctly remember. I remember that I was in Wyoming. I remember it because my cell phone went off and I was in a cell area that was really sketchy, where I was around a post office in the middle of nowhere.
“I remember going inside the post office to use a pay phone, and I remember standing there thinking, why am I having this conversation again? It is not that important of a deal. I convinced Bret Hart one last time do not worry about the Championship belt. In my mind, I remember thinking this at the time, what I thought Bret Hart should do is given the fact that he is Bret Hart, and you know, Stu Hart and the Hart family legacy, the tradition of the business, what I wanted Bret to do is just pass the belt on.
“Do the right thing. Shake Vince McMahon’s hand. Leave on good terms. The business; the audience would have had more respect for him than to hold on to the belt because he didn’t want to lose in Montreal, Quebec Canada [Survivor Series 1997] because he is a Canadian. That, to me didn’t make any sense.
“Worrying about it didn’t make any sense to me because Bret Hart was coming to WCW. The fans were sophisticated enough to know that if he lost a match it wasn’t going to diminish who Bret Hart was. That logic from talent never made any sense to me. That is when you get sucked in to the work where you work yourself. I tried to explain that to Bret Hart. It just didn’t matter to me”.
He also said that he had a conversation with Hulk Hogan about Hart coming into WCW beforehand:
“I talked to Hulk Hogan. I talked to Kevin Nash, Scott Hall. I talked with Ric Flair It would have been kind of standard operating procedure to have conversations to pick the brains of the top guys that he would have been working with. To make sure there was no chemistry issues, or landmines that I needed to be aware of.
“If there were I would have to deal with them prior to him coming on board not afterwards. I would have probably listened to a number of people suggest best possible ways to take advantage of Bret Hart, including Hulk Hogan. Hulk had a long history with Bret Hart, as did Ric Flair. They had a long history with Bret. They knew Bret Hart better than I did. I had never worked with Bret.
“Quite frankly, I never followed him much in WWF. He was never really my cup of tea. I appreciated and understood why fans loved him. I understood the qualities that he brought, but he wasn’t one of the guys where I watched him and thought to myself that I couldn’t wait to have that guy on the roster.
“I was interested in the perspectives of guys like Ric Flair, Roddy Piper, Hulk Hogan, who did know Bret at a much different level than I could possibly know him.”
Bischoff also revealed why it took so long for Hart to finally make his WCW debut:
“Why wouldn’t I just drop everything and take in a guy who had a certain amount of time of a no-compete clause; had a broken hand, and just kind of drop everything and throw him in the middle of something without any real planning, backstory and throw it against the wall in hopes that it would stick? Is that the question? That is the kind of prevailing critique that I hear often; how can you take a guy like Bret Hart, which by the way, he wasn’t drawing, there is a reason why Vince McMahon let him go.
“It wasn’t because he was making Vince McMahon money hand over fist. One of the things that I liked—look at what we did with Sting and Hulk Hogan. I wanted long term plans. One of the reasons I thrust myself in creative, and I may have said this to you before, if I didn’t I apologize, but I was never comfortable with creative. I was comfortable with the business side of it.
“I understood the business side of the business pretty well. What I didn’t know I could pretty easily understand and figure out, but that creative side was the voodoo side that I never got close to. I never got close to the creative in AWA; not only was I not close to it, I wasn’t allowed to be in a room close to it when they were talking about creative. That is how tightly held Verne Gagne believed in kayfabing people who he didn’t believe needed to be in the process.
“I had zero exposure to creative in WCW up until 1993, 1994. Even then I was at a distance. I would talk to Dusty Rhodes because he and I were tight and we would talk a little bit, and would explain to me the ideas that he had and sucked up as much as I could. I was fascinated by it quite honestly, but I was still never comfortable being the guy in the room that said yay or nay on something.
“Ric Flair, when I brought him in as a booker, I was never in that room. I would come in and out. There were certain things that I had to be aware of as Executive Vice President, depending on the timeline was of the company and being responsible financially for things.
“I had to have an idea of where we were going, what the pay per views were going to look like, how the cards are being advertised six months before pay per views and all that kind of crap, but I didn’t sit in a room with a team filled with guys who had hundreds of years of more experience than I did and try to influence their creative decisions. I tried to stay out of that. It wasn’t until later on that I inserted myself in that process.”
Ultimately, Bischoff acknowledged the wide belief that Hart’s run with WCW was a failure:
“I think it all goes back to the very beginning. I think it is fair for Bret Hart and fans of Bret Hart to suggest that there was never really a long term plan with Bret. That is fair. Bret came in rather abruptly. We didn’t have a long time to really lay out in a thoughtful way where we can balance different options and really creatively do the best job that we can do. Even with the time that we had, we didn’t do a great job.
“I didn’t do a great job, so I think if you go back to the very beginning with all the things that were going on; with the pressures of WCW Thunder and some of the choices I was trying to make, and the pressures were we getting from WWE, and the pressure we were getting from our own company, and the fact that they were gutting our budget, all of those things were throwing us off of our game, and a lot of that had to do with the reason why, so we didn’t have a good plan, we just didn’t, and that is fair for Bret, and for fans of Bret, but I will also say that Bret Hart didn’t contribute.
“He didn’t try. Despite the ‘hero’s journey’ and the amazingly, Steven Spielberg-ish where he single handedly, against all odds created in Toronto, Canada so that his fans, the multitude of fans, who stood outside in the freezing cold as Bret Hart had to walk over the almost comatose body of the head booker only to prevail in the ring and to prove to all of the bookers and to everybody else that Bret Hart had the keys to the kingdom that night, but despite all of that, Bret Hart didn’t really contribute as much as Bret Hart could have contributed to Bret Hart’s own success.
“In his own legacy. Right now, Bret Hart’s legacy is a bitter, broken guy who wants to blame everybody from Vince McMahon to Eric Bischoff, to Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, to Dean Malenko for God’s sake for all of the things that went wrong in his career. Regardless of all the things I did wrong, that is on Bret Hart.”
You can listen to Bischoff on 83 Weeks by clicking this link here.
SmackDown Live star Daniel Bryan recently did an interview with Inside The Ropes to talk about several professional wrestling topics. In the interview, Bryan discusses his experience working in Saudi Arabia at the Greatest Royal Rumble.
Bryan shared a story he had with Titus O’Neil shortly after O’Neil’s embarrassing fall on his way to the ring during the Rumble. Bryan said Titus sort of took out his embarrassment on his face when he got into the ring:
“Titus slides into the ring and punches me in the face like really hard. He’s got these big, huge hands and it’s like ‘boom.’ I’m like ‘woah, what happened?’ I was like enraged and I was was going to kick him in the face.
“I glance up and you see the tron and they played it like twelve times in a row of him tripping, falling and sliding under the ring. I’m like ‘you know what? I understand. I’m going to go over here,’”
There has been a longstanding rumor going around surrounding former Cruiserweight Champion Enzo Amore’s release from WWE earlier this year.
It was speculated that Amore was released from his contract, not because of the sexual assault accusations against him, but because he didn’t notify WWE when he was alerted of the investigation by police.
Earlier this week Amore came back into the public eye when he dropped a diss rap against his accuser, and people who had been doubting him. He now seems to have responded to the rumors going around regarding his release from WWE.
Amore claimed that he wasn’t contacted by the police prior to January 22nd, which was the day he was suspended by WWE, putting a dagger in the theory that he was released because he failed to alert WWE of the investigation:
I hate to be the 1 to pull the nipple out of the baby’s mouth.. but NO. I WAS NOT CONTACTED ONCE BY THE POLICE BEFORE JAN. 22nd. #bigFACTS
There has also been some speculation from fans online that Amore could file a wrongful termination lawsuit against WWE as a result. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.
WWE fans were completely baffled when the main event of WrestleMania 34, between Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns for the Universal Title, didn’t go as they had been expecting for the past year.
The stage seemed to be set for Reigns to be the one to dethrone Brock Lesnar after both men had become the only people in history to defeat The Undertaker at WrestleMania. The Beast had been successfully defending his Universal Title all year, getting the pinfall victory after hitting one F5 every time.
Reigns, however, was able to kick out of several, but after Lesnar hit a sixth F5 he got the three count on Reigns and left New Orleans still the Universal Champion.
Bryan Alvarez of Wrestling Observer Live recently explained why the plans were changed at WrestleMania. It was said McMahon had a one-year plan that included Lesnar beating all his adversaries all year by hitting just one F5. At WrestleMania, Lesnar would hit an F5 on Reigns and The Big Dog would kick out before hitting a Spear on The Beast for the win. This remained the plan until the week before WrestleMania, when Vince changed his mind. Instead, Vince came up with the storyline that Lesnar retains his title and Reigns blames The Authority for keeping him back.
As of this writing, Brock Lesnar has been WWE Universal Champion for 423 days.
Discussion: How do you feel about the current Universal Title picture and the last-second change to the WrestleMania 34 main event?
A fan recently Tweeted at RAW commentator Corey Graves, suggesting he and his fellow commentators shut up when Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins is making his way to the ring.
Graves quickly responded to the fan, destroying him by saying “I don’t come to your job and tell you when and how to apply the mustard.”:
Dear Stephen,
We are LITERALLY paid to talk. I don’t come to your job and tell you when and how to apply the mustard.
The fan has since deleted his Tweet, and has either deleted his account or changed his handle.
No Way Jose Teases Change To His Look
Recent NXT call-up No Way Jose has a signature look that’s part of his appeal on Monday Night RAW. The leader of the conga line comes out ready to dance while sporting his signature afro hairdo. Jose recently teased on his Instagram story that he could be getting rid of the afro.
A fan on Twitter took a screenshot of the image, which shows a lot of Jose’s hair cut off:
As we’ve previously noted, WWE Superstar John Cena recently made an appearance at the MegaCon in Orlando where he answered questions from fans. One such question was about the 16-time WWE World Champion becoming a Paul Heyman Guy.
Cena noted that while he goes to Heyman for various opinions and insight behind-the-scenes, he believes The Advocate is best utilized for those who have trouble on the microphone. He also said he thinks Heyman would be ‘wasted’ on him:
“Paul is an extremely valuable asset because of his accomplishments. I have relied on Paul a lot for opinions and insight behind the curtain. I think Paul is best for those who have trouble articulating opinions when they have [a microphone] in their hand.
“I enjoy being able to relate to all of you and I enjoy the negative response and the positive response that comes from being so honest after 15 years of us being together as friends, partners, family whatever you want to call it.
“Paul would be wasted with me and me likewise with Paul. Paul is a great vehicle for someone who can’t describe themselves but he is a wealth of knowledge and insight behind the curtain that I regularly lean on.”
Ex-WWE Superstar Kristal Marshall recently did an interview on former WWE security head Jimmy Noonan’s podcast, the Noonan Speaks podcast. During the show, Marshall discussed her past relationship with current WWE Superstar Bobby Lashley.
Marshall revealed the relationship started back in 2007 and confirmed that they never married:
“That [relationship] came about… let’s see… at the beginning of 2007.” Marshall considered, “I’d say about, no, no, that happened WrestleMania 2007. That’s when we started dating and that happened quick! Lots of things happened quickly at that time.
“I have never been married in all of my adult life.” Marshall elaborated, “my name is Kristal Marshall. It has always been Kristal Marshall. I’ve never been married. We were engaged. We had a very long engagement. We’ve had two kids together, but there was no wedding. That didn’t happen and I don’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. It just didn’t happen.”
She also revealed that she dated Matt Striker for a period of time during her run, and said it’s almost impossible to not date someone you’re working with in WWE:
“I did date Matt Striker for a brief period of time when I was wrestling.” Marshall continued, “it’s kind of impossible to not date someone you work with unless you’re married outside of the business and all of that. That’s impossible.
“That’s kind of how you figure out things and then you leave the wrestling business and you look back at the wrestling business and say, ‘what the f–k was that? That was f–king weird s–t. What was I doing?’ Yeah, that did happen.”
Marshall then discussed being bitter about her departure from WWE:
“There was a time when, like I said, I was super bitter, very upset.” Marshall professed, “I felt like when I left, there [were] a lot of things that I set out to accomplish that I didn’t. There was a point where I felt like certain girls got more opportunities and boo hoo hoo this and that. But do you know what?
“Like I said, I’ve done a lot of work on myself and there are a lot of f–king things that Can be really happy for. And there [are] a lot of s–tty things that happen in the business, but nothing’s f–king perfect. The wrestling business is one giant dysfunctional family and there’s like one cousin you can’t take anywhere, like a drunk uncle, there’s your slutty cousin.
“There’s somebody that fits every dynamic of a family, but the one thing that’s very interesting about wrestling as much as everybody hates it, everybody did hate it or had mixed feelings about it, if you ask anybody if they had any good moments in wrestling, they will always say, ‘yes’ and they will always smile if you ask them, ‘what was the best part of your [pro wrestling] career?’ There will always be something positive.”
As for her separation from Lashley, Marshall admitted she went through a tough time but was able to work on herself through meditation and gratitude:
“Yeah, I went through some difficult times, for sure. The hard thing about [pro] wrestling is that you think it’s going to last forever and you feel like the high that you get when you’re interacting with the fans, being the celebrity, all of that, there’s a certain level of arrogance that I feel like I carried outside of the business into real life and it doesn’t translate well!”
Marshall continued, “life happens. Bobby and I were together. We had kids, and, after we split, I found myself trying to figure out, ‘what am I going to do? What’s next for me?’ So I started working some corporate jobs and things never really stuck.
“Eventually, I went to cosmetology school and got my license to do hair and makeup. Thank God for that! It allowed me to be creative and do a version of what I love doing, which is art and painting, which has kind of been able to carry me over to this place where I’m at now.
“I know there are probably a lot of wrestling fans out there that assume once you stop wrestling you’re loaded and that you’re going to live comfortable. There are a lot of wrestlers that probably feel that way as well, but that’s just not life. And it was such a beautifully humbling experience as well.
“It was really f–ked up. I got super depressed. I’ve been battling depression and anxiety truly ever since I left the wrestling business and I can tell you that there is no medication that can fix depression, anxiety, that’s an internal job. Meditation, which is still very new for me, it’s an ongoing practice. It [has] helped tremendously. And gratitude! That’s what I’ve been talking about tonight. Like, nothing’s perfect, yes, but look at the positive. Gratitude [has] helped me immensely.”
WWE Hall Of Famer Hulk Hogan recently took to Twitter to pay tribute to a ‘late’ celebrity, but it turns out that celebrity is still alive. Hogan posted a photo of Jackass star, professional skateboarder, and Viva La Bam star Bam Margera.
He captioned the photo saying “Damn Bam I wish you were still with us, I sure would love to hang out again my brother love u miss u HH”
Hogan mistakingly confused Margera with Ryan Dunn, Margera’s best-friend and Jackass co-star who in fact did pass away tragically back in 2011 in a car accident:
Hogan has since deleted the Tweet and his follow-up Tweet apologizing for the mistake.
Identity Of Nia Jax’s RAW Opponent:
The jobber working against RAW Women’s Champion Nia Jax on last night’s episode of RAW was Madi Maxx. She also bills herself as “The Paris Hilton of Pro Wrestling.” She went under the name Michelle Webb on RAW and claimed to be a Judo champion.
WWE Superstar John Cena recently made an appearance at the Orlando convention MegaCon this past weekend and took questions from fans. One such question was who The Leader Of The Cenation would rather face – Velveteen Dream, Adam Cole or Ricochet.
Cena picked Dream before using a Star Wars reference, suggesting Velveteen Dream could be “the one.” Check out the video here:
Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet recently posted a photo on Twitter comparing Dolph Ziggler to Owen Wilson in Zoolander. Former WWE Champion Batista took some time to respond to the Tweet.
In his response, he noted that he always believed that Ziggler was a ‘totally misused talent’ in his opinion and always enjoyed working with him:
That Hansel’s so hot right now! … sorry I could resist! PS.. Dolph was always one of my favorite guys to work with and IMO a totally misused talent. Just my 2 cents https://t.co/BtgiIA3tf9
Vince McMahon Wishes Seth Rollins A Happy Birthday
The Chairman Of The Board took to Twitter to wish WWE Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins a Happy Birthday yesterday. The Architect turned 32-years-old:
This past April, The IIconics – Billie Kay and Peyton Royce – made their main roster debuts on SmackDown Live. They had quite an impact right off the bat, assisting Carmella in successfully cashing in her Money In The Bank (MITB) contract to win the SmackDown Live Women’s Championship from Charlotte Flair.
The pair have been featured as a prominent part of SmackDown Live’s women’s division since. WrestlingNews.co is reporting that WWE have been pleasantly surprised with The IIconics’ merchandise sales.
Their new shirt on WWE Shop is selling much better than expected. As a result, WWE has some big plans for the team moving forward. The idea is to utilize them as an updated version of Laycool.
This is in reference to the team formed by Michelle McCool and Layla back in 2009. They remained partners for around two years before disbanding their partnership following a self-implosion of the team when McCool attacked Layla during a segment on SmackDown.
Discussion: What do you think about WWE’s upcoming plans for the IIconics?
Former WWE Intercontinental Champion and current Ring Of Honor (ROH) star Cody Rhodes recently did an interview with Edge and Christian on their podcast, E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness. During their chat, Rhodes explained why he feels he owes a tremendous debt to Rey Mysterio:
“I have a Wookiee life debt to Rey Mysterio and he doesn’t even know it.” Cody continued, “Rey was kind of the one who ribbed me and brought me into the office that day with Vince [McMahon] and said, ‘I want to work Cody at WrestleMania – he [has] got some good ideas.’
“And I did, thank God. And that’s where I think Vince kind of even played me. He said, like, ‘oh, do you have it on paper?’ and I actually had it on paper in my bag and I handed it to him. And after that, he kind of just grumbled and I got a ‘yes’ out of that grumble.
“I owe Rey everything I have, man. He [doesn’t] even know. He [doesn’t] even spell my name right, C-O-D-E-Y. That’s got to be a rib.”
Rhodes also opened up about how he learned that you can always work harder in WWE, no matter how hard you think you’re already working:
“One thing I consistently learned with WWE, I’m sure [Edge and Christian] both, I know [Edge and Christian] both figured this out over and over again, you think you’re working hard, and then you enter something new, you fill that block.
“And then, you’re like, ‘gosh, I’m covering this every second of every day.’ Like, in that company, you always find out that you could be working harder, I guess, if that makes any sense. There’s always this graduated level you’re working at.”
Cody then opened up about being a “fall guy” during his time in The Legacy, as Randy Orton was already a top guy while DiBiase Jr. was being groomed to be a top guy:
“With The Legacy particularly, I was the ugly duckling. I had a great spot, but I was the fall guy. Teddy was positioned to be the next Randy. Randy was the man.” Cody explained, “I knew I had to supersede Teddy in terms of they put me on SmackDown, they we’re expecting much, but they definitely didn’t set me up to fail. I started the ‘Dashing’ Cody Rhodes stuff and during that period, I learned that I had to work a-whole-nother degree harder to compete.”
Rhodes then went on to explain why he was “incredibly jealous” of DiBiase Jr. and when he realized he needed to stop trying to compete with him and other young WWE talents:
“There was this pivotal moment where I had to stop competing with my peers like Dolph Ziggler, and [The] Miz, and DiBiase, and [Jack] Swagger, all those guys.” Cody recalled, “there came a moment when I stopped competing with them. We did a South America tour and after a show, Teddy got real drunk on the bus.
“Many guys get real drunk on the bus. I loved Teddy, but I was really jealous of him, just incredibly jealous of him. And he came into catering and he was so drunk only one eye was open, and he’s kind of just like slurring his words, and he approached the piano. It was a really nice piano in the middle of South America, like this balcony overlooking the water, and all this.
“And he flipped the piano lid up real hard and I was like, ‘oh no, this is going to be a mess.’ And he sat down and with one eye, he starts playing, and he starts playing some of the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard from a piano and he’s just smashed, just destroyed. And I actually remember I told someone at the table, ‘do you know what? I’m done. I’m done competing with him.
“He’s just… I’m just going to compete with myself because when you’re a [WWE] Hall Of Famer’s son and you don’t have to work very hard to get the gig, it becomes a matter of once you get the gig, you have to work incredibly hard to even get in your own discussion.”
You can listen to Rhodes’ interview on the E&C Pod Of Awesomeness by clicking this link here.
