NXT Women’s Champion Bayley recently spoke with the Journey Of A Frontman website about a number of topics. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On her post-match segment at “Takeover: Brooklyn” with Becky Lynch, Charlotte and Sasha Banks: “It was really cool and I feel like that was a defining moment in our careers, all four of us. I feel like it’s something a lot of the fans wanted to see because they’ve seen all four of us grow up together in the past couple years. They know how hard we all worked together and what we’ve done for the division. They’ve all seen us grow separately and go our own ways. They saw Sasha and Charlotte win championships and everything. Storylines aside and everything, I know it meant the world to us because we’ve all seen each other training every day and working for the same goal. We all know how important every championship match is, especially that one. We knew that all four of us together, including the other Divas, all of us worked to get to that match where it was Sasha versus myself. If it wasn’t for Becky and Charlotte and everybody else that works hard in the division, we wouldn’t have been able to be in that spot. To us, it was all four of us together until who knows how long. They’re all doing their thing, they’re all busy on RAW and Smackdown. I’m holding it down in NXT, so who knows the next time we’ll all get to be in a ring together. And it was just respect, regardless of how we feel about each other, problems in the past. I think I finally gained Sasha Banks’s respect and showed her that I’m not just giving out high-fives and stuff, I want to take the division as far as she does. It was a really cool moment, personally and professionally. I think that’s what the fans remember most.”
On who helped mold the Bayley character in 2013: “Dusty, The American Dream. Since we had promo classes every week, he was seeing the material I was coming up with and the ideas I had. Every week he was like “Oh you should do this. You should start out with the yearbook and have all these pictures of the Divas and the Superstars. Just have them come out and sign it!” So much material and so much knowledge. He just kept telling me “Just reach back to when you were actually eleven years old or twelve years old as a fan. Just bring that out of you.” Once he said that, it was so easy because this is literally how I was when I was ten or twelve years old. In my first match as Bayley against Alicia Fox, I put my hair in a side ponytail. But if you watch it back, once I got in the ring, I took it out. I was like “Well I need to have my hair down. This is a wrestling match.” I normally had my hair down for matches. When I got to the back, the first person waiting there was Dusty. And he said “Why did you take your hair out?” “Because I don’t want it to get messed up.” I didn’t want it to get all crazy. He was like “You wear a ponytail forever now. You go out there with the ponytail, you wrestle with the ponytail. I don’t care how it looks when you get back, that’s your thing.” And I was like “Okay, cool.” So then I always wore the ponytail and I was so happy he gave me that word of advice.”
On who she feels will be the next breakout star of NXT: “Jason Jordan and Chad Gable, who are just getting started in the tag team division. Jason Jordan’s been a hidden gem for a while, so I’m glad he’s finally got something going. And Chad Gable is just amazing, he has so much charisma and he can move like nobody else in the ring. Riddick Moss and Elias Samson have so much potential and I hope they get their opportunity soon because they’re working so hard. In my opinion, they’re so good. Some of the Divas too. I feel like Carmella is gonna be a huge star one day. We have girls such as Peyton Royce and Billie Kay. I think there’s going to be a lot of stars soon, even within the next six months.”
– WWE Hall Of Famer Amy “Lita” Dumas was backstage at the NXT television tapings this week. Below is a photo of Lita backstage at the show with John Laurinaitis, Terry Taylor and Scott Armstrong.
Lioness Asuka was considered the second most-popular woman pro wrestlers ever in Japan, as she was part of the 1980s tag-team known as “The Crush Gals” during the era when women’s pro wrestling in Japan did television ratings equivalent to what the NFL was doing at the same time in the United States.
– WWE’s official website is indicating that Lana will not be with Dolph Ziggler for his match against Rusev at this month’s WWE Night Of Champions pay-per-view. There was some talk that Lana could still accompany Ziggler while she recovers from her wrist injury that she suffered this past weekend, however it appears that she won’t be on television after all.
– Following tonight’s show with former WWE ring announcer Justin Roberts, Jim Ross’ next “Ross Report” podcast, which drops Tuesday, September 15th at PodcastOne.com, will feature legendary WWE tag-team Demolition, Ax and Smash.
– The following is the latest vignette for soon-to-debut NXT Diva Nia Jax.
Former NXT Diva and real-life girlfriend of WWE Superstar Seth Rollins, Zahra Schreiber, who was recently released from WWE after some old anti-semetic-themed posts from her past resurfaced and spread on social media, took to Instagram to comment on her release from the company.
The following is what Schreiber wrote on Instagram this week:
“Let me start this off by saying how grateful I am and how fortunate I feel to have had my time with WWE. It truly was my dream job. Last week WWE made a decision to release me from my contract due to posts I made on social media years ago, long before I was ever employed by them. I understand why that decision was made, but it broke my heart and my spirit. I don’t want my mistakes to reflect on WWE or how incredible they are as a company. The responsibility is my own…
Now, I want to take the time to apologize to everyone who was offended by my posts. I am so sorry. I would like to make it very clear I am in no way, shape or form an anti-Semite, nor do I condone anti-Semitism. If one were to have looked deeper into my post, one would have noticed that also in the photo was Marlene Dietrich. Marlene was a Polish actress who opposed Nazism and fought for the oppressed during WWII. To me the photos and relics were nothing more than a story. I now see it was insensitive of me and in poor taste, which is why I had attempted to delete them long ago.
On an aside, a family member of mine took part in the White Rose Movement (Germans trying to end Nazi domination), which is where my interest in the Holocaust actually stemmed from. Also, documented deeper on my Instagram from years ago are photos of me at Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany, and I noted there how disturbed I was by the entire place. Unfortunately, social media rarely notices positivity, and can be an evil place where opinion is easily manipulated to fit the circumstance.
I take full accountability for the things I did post, but those out there who are creating Twitter exchanges that never happened or have manufactured other conversations that never took place really need to check themselves and realize how much harm they are actually doing.
Everything I’ve worked for and dreamt of is gone. In an instant, I lost it all. But I can’t let this define my life. I know who I am as a person. I’m as human as anyone else. I’ve made mistakes like we all do. I hope those I’ve offended can forgive me. All I can do now is learn and move forward trying to be better every day.”
WWE World Heavyweight Champion and WWE United States Champion Seth Rollins recently spoke with Scott Fishman of the Miami Herald. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On turning his doubters into believers: “Everyone is a naysayer. Everyone has an opinion. Half the people love me and half the people hate me. A few months later and it all flip-flops, it doesn’t matter to me. I just go out there and do the best I can. I’ve been doing this a long time, so I know when things are going well and when they’re not. It’s nice to have people appreciate what you do though. Our fan base is super passionate and always has an opinion, and that’s awesome.”
On which NXT talent he would like to see called up to WWE’s main roster: “I would like to see Bayley. She is my favorite who is not up here and being used. So hopefully she gets a shot soon.”
On working with Triple H: “Triple H has been incredible to work with. Triple H is the ‘Cerebral Assassin.’ His best advice to me is to make sure you always, always come out on top.”
Check out the complete interview at MiamiHerald.com.
– WWE has announced that Samoa Joe vs. Baron Corbin will be one of the main events at the NXT event in Houston, Texas on Thursday, September 17th.
– The guest on this week’s edition of Jim Ross’ “Ross Report” podcast is former WWE ring announcer Justin Roberts. The show will be available on Tuesday at 9pm EST. at PodcastOne.com.
– As reported over the weekend, WWE has created a new three-person faction called “Cosmic Wasteland,” which consists of Stardust and The Ascension. Konnor from The Ascension recently posted the following tweet praising Stardust, who appears to be the leader of the group:
The current plan right now is for NXT Women’s Champion Bayley to feud with Dana Brooke and then Eva Marie. WWE executives apparently want to validate Eva Marie by putting the NXT Women’s title on her. The idea is that they can tell the story of how Eva Marie proved her critics wrong through hard work. While this is not confirmed at this point, it looks like Bayley vs. Dana Brooke could kick off at the NXT television taping from Full Sail University on September 10th, with a possible match at the NXT Takeover event on October 7th. Following that set of television tapings, Eva Marie could begin her feud with Bayley at the next set of tapings, with a possible title match at NXT Takeover: London in December. A three-way feud to carry them through December is also a possibility.
– The NXT DVD set rumored to be released in early 2016 is now officially set. The first-ever NXT home video will be released in March as a three-disc DVD and two-disc Blu-ray set. The working title for the project is “Best of NXT” and indicates that it could simply be a match compilation DVD, although more details should surface soon to confirm or deny that rumor.
– The Thursday, September 3, 2015 edition of WWE SmackDown scored a final cable rating of 1.42, according to Nielsen Media Research. The 1.42 final draw marks a decrease compared to last week’s 1.62 rating. This week’s show averaged 1.981 million viewers, down from the 2.195 million viewers who tuned in the previous week.
– Tickets for the October 2nd NXT live event in Nashville, Tennessee at the War Memorial Auditorium went on sale this weekend and well over 2,000 tickets have already been purchased. The ringside tickets for the event, which are priced at $105, sold out immediately.
WWE taped another match for the ongoing NXT “Dusty Rhodes Tag-Team Classic” tournament on Thursday night in Orlando, Florida.
The match featured Zack Ryder and Mojo Rawley defeating the team of Alexander Wolfe and Noah Kekoa. Originally, Wolfe was scheduled to team up with Marcus Louis, but that ended up being changed.
Below are the updated brackets for round one of the “Dusty Rhodes Tag-Team Classic.”
Bracket A – First Round Matches
Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady defeated Angelo Dawkins and Sawyer Fulton
Finn Balor and Samoa Joe defeated The Lucha Dragons
Bracket B – First Round Matches
Wesley Blake and Buddy Murphy vs. The Vaudevillians
Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder defeated Tucker Knight and Elias Samson
Bracket C – First Round Matches
Mojo Rawley and Zack Ryder defeated Noah Kekoa and Alexander Wolfe
Jason Jordan and Chad Gable defeated Neville and Solomon Crowe
Bracket D – First Round Matches
Rhyno and Baron Corbin defeated The Ascension
Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa defeated Tyler Breeze and Bull Dempsey
NXT Women’s Champion Bayley recently spoke with the official WWE website about winning the NXT title at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn and more. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On defeating Sasha Banks for the title and Vince McMahon’s reaction: “It was one of the most overwhelming moments in my life. It may be the most magical moment I’ll ever have in wrestling or life. Hearing the crowd react like that was something I’ve never heard before. After the match, Vince McMahon shook both our hands. Everyone was giving us hugs. Triple H, Stephanie and even my favorite Diva, Lita, were there to say how proud they were of us. It was just amazing.”
On getting emotional after the win: “All I could do was cry. I was crying because of everything I’ve been through to get there, how I got there, who I was in there with, how many people were there with us, how important it was and because I was literally living the dream.”
On accomplishing her mission: “I want every single person out there with a dream, no matter what it is, to know that it is possible. And it’s possible to do it your way, the way you believe in. Nobody can deny your heart. It sounds so cheesy, but Sasha Banks and I had the same dream since we were 10 years old, and wrestling brought us together to prove that anything you want to do is within reach! And it can be special. You just have to believe in yourself.”
– John Cena granted yet another Make-A-Wish prior to this past Monday’s edition of WWE RAW in Tampa, Florida. The WWE Community website has photos of Cena meeting with Make-A-Wish kid Spencer at Community.WWE.com.
– The “Dusty Rhodes Tag-Team Classic” match featuring Samoa Joe and Finn Balor vs. The Lucha Dragons has been confirmed for next Wednesday’s edition of NXT TV on the WWE Network.
– Eva Marie and her husband Jonathan Coyle are taking online clients to help them get in shape and manage a healthy lifestyle. Eva Marie posted the following on Instagram:
READ BELOW! IM NOW TAKING ONLINE CLIENTS! Ladies lets get you on track to the body you have always wanted. – Hey everyone! Jonathan and I have been getting contacted via our website and email non stop about our nutrition and what we do to stay fit year round. Your nutrition is vital, and everything you put into your body makes a difference. We’ve teamed up with @DevinPhysique and his nutritionist team to bring you the best coaching, weight loss, and muscle building guidance around. We have created a new email where you can email me personally, and I will be working with you and our nutritionist to create a custom plan that suits your goals. We all start somewhere, and we are all capable of building the body we want. Email me now, I’ll be on my laptop all night. – Weight Loss Plans Muscle Building Plans Natalie Eva Marie Bikini Plans Workout Plans Couples Plans – Email: NatalieEvaMarie@physiquemealplans.com
The following are the brackets for the NXT “Dusty Rhodes Tag-Team Classic.” The winners of the first-round bouts will advance to the semi-finals, while the winner of Bracket A will compete against the winner of Bracket B and the winner of Bracket C will take on the winner of Bracket D.
The finals of the “Dusty Rhodes Tag-Team Classic” are scheduled to take place on October 7th at NXT Takeover from Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida.
Bracket A – First Round Matches
Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady vs. Angelo Dawkins and Sawyer Fulton
Finn Balor and Samoa Joe vs. The Lucha Dragons
Bracket B – First Round Matches
Wesley Blake and Buddy Murphy vs. The Vaudevillians
Tucker Knight and Elias Samson vs. Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder
Bracket C – First Round Matches
Mojo Rawley and Zack Ryder vs. Marcus Louis and Alexander Wolfe
Jason Jordan and Chad Gable defeated Neville and Solomon Crowe (tonight)
Bracket D – First Round Matches
Rhyno and Baron Corbin defeated The Ascension (tonight)
Tyler Breeze and Bull Dempsey vs. Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa (airs next week)
– King Barrett is going to be off of WWE television for a while as he is scheduled to film a new WWE Studios movie called “Eliminators” in the United Kingdom.
– WWE has announced a new NXT date for October 2nd in Nashville, Tennessee.
– For the replays, and most likely in the DVD of this year’s WWE SummerSlam pay-per-view, two notable edits are The New Day singing “Empire State of Mind,” likely due to legalty rights, and Brock Lesnar flipping off The Undertaker in the Hell’s Gate, likely due to the non-PG nature of the content.
Schreiber is trending worldwide on Twitter after her debut on Saturday night, largely because of the fact that she debuted at an NXT show with a new character, and partially because of the fact that Schreiber posted some Instagram photos in 2012 that contained a swastika.
She has since deleted the photos, but they resurfaced shortly after her NXT debut on Saturday night, with some fans even sending the photos to Triple H and asking him for his thoughts.
Below are screen shots of the posts Schreiber made on Instagram.
Seth Rollins’ real-life girlfriend, Zahra Schreiber, made her debut alongside Solomon Crowe at the NXT live event on Saturday night in Ft. Pierce, Florida.
Schreiber is trending worldwide on Twitter after making her NXT debut as Crowe’s younger sister.
This is Schreiber’s first character role in NXT, as she has done some ring announcing for the brand in the past. Crowe will be teaming with Neville in the upcoming “Dusty Rhodes Tag-Team Classic” tournament.
The following are some photos of Zahra Schreiber’s debut from Saturday’s NXT show.
– NXT live event host Greg Hamilton announced during Friday’s NXT event in Tampa, Florida that he is being called up to the main WWE roster to work their live events. Hamilton recently worked the crowds for the WWE Tough Enough tapings and was apparently well-liked by WWE management. He will continue to work some NXT events while covering the WWE main roster live events as well.
– WWE posted the following video of WWE World Heavyweight Champion and WWE United States Champion Seth Rollins talking to Corey Graves about his tattoos.
WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross recently updated his official blog to comment on the end of this season of WWE Tough Enough, reuniting with Jerry Lawler for WWE 2K16 and more. Below are some of the highlights.
On WWE Tough Enough: “Can’t say as I’m sorry to see Tough Enough end. The show’s format never resonated with me even though the look of the show was slick. I was never enamored with the “cast” especially after Patrick was eliminated. Patrick Clark will be a ‘player’ in the biz at some point sooner than later and WWE would be well served to sign the 19 year old who is a natural heel with a terrific work ethic and product knowledge. His training at Maryland Championship Wrestling has served him well.
If Tough Enough returns to the USA Network, I’d see major changes being made in the format and the voting plus getting Steve Austin back to host the show would be a major step forward. My congrats to Josh and Sara Lee. Hope that they make it but both appear to be long shots.”
On The Dudley Boyz: “Happy to see those Damn Dudley’s back with WWE as they can be great mentors/teachers to many on the young roster. Every team in WWE will become a better duo after having worked with Bubba and Devon.”
On NXT call-ups: “Getting lots of questions on Twitter about when will WWE call up more NXT talents. I have no idea but I do know that it is more crucial on how the talents are brought in to the main roster. than who is brought in to the fold. Debuting with some degree of impact isn’t optional. It’s a must.”
On reuniting with Jerry Lawler for WWE 2K16: “We’re getting great feedback on Jerry Lawler and me reuniting for WWE games 2K16 video game due out in October. I’d guess that this will be the final time that the two of us will work together in any WWE projects at least to the best of my knowledge. I hope that the fans support our efforts on this new video game that is loaded with new innovations, whistles and bells.”
Check out the complete blog at JRsBarBQ.com. You can also order JR’s Bar-B-Q products online at WWEShop.com.
– Charlotte, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch all received either amended contracts with an increase in pay or new main roster WWE deals the day after all three made their debuts on RAW for the first time.
– Speaking of compensation practices in WWE, a perk that NXT talents get when they work WWE live events is that the company pays for their road expenses, in addition to paying them like a prelim WWE talent. For main roster talents, they have to cover their own road expenses. Also, right now, if you are an NXT star and you are called up to the main roster, WWE pays for your road expenses for the first 90 days after you make the full-time transition.
As noted earlier, NXT Champion Finn Balor and Samoa Joe defeated Lucha Dragons in a tag match that took place prior to Tuesday night’s SmackDown tapings from Providence, Rhode Island.
This was a first round match for the upcoming NXT Dusty Rhodes Classic tag team tournament and will air on an episode of NXT TV.
Balor and Joe reportedly received a massive ovation for their surprise appearances and the match itself was said to be an exciting one.
– WWE and Stephen Amell raised over $400,000 for Emily House charity by selling 15,694 t-shirts that Amell and WWE produced with the proceeds going to the charity. Stardust noted on Twitter last week that he would personally deliver the check if over 10,000 shirts were sold, which happened with ease.
– The Barclays Center took to Twitter to thank WWE for coming to their building three nights in a row for NXT Takeover: Brooklyn on Saturday, WWE SummerSlam on Sunday and WWE RAW on Monday night. The Barclays Center tweeted the following:
WWE has posted several new clips from the WWE 2K16 video game, featuring video game versions of infamous moments in WWE history, such as “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s iconic “Austin 3:16” speech at King of the Ring 1996, and current moments involving current WWE Superstars.
It appears as though WWE has signed 33-year-old Japanese women’s wrestler Kanna, who was shown on screen alongside Ric Flair and Sgt. Slaughter during NXT Takeover: Brooklyn on Saturday night.
The rumors began when Japanese wrestling news journalist Enuhito, who recently had news about Jushin Thunder Liger working NXT, noted that WWE signed her a few weeks ago. It was also noted that she did not work the WWE tryouts at Sumo Hall this summer, but WWE did get a chance to look at her beforehand.
It’s worth pointing out that she normally spells her name with one “N,” however WWE spelled it as “Kanna” at Takeover, which could be another sign that she has signed with the company.
WWE Diva and Total Divas star Natalya recently spoke with our friends at Wrestling INC to promote WWE SummerSlam weekend. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On WWE’s current “Divas Revolution”: “I think it’s something that’s been long overdue. There have been so many talented Divas in the WWE and it’s really awesome and refreshing that we’re finally getting a real chance to showcase our talent. I think it’s a testament to the fact that WWE fans across the world are pretty much demanding that the girls get treated better.
It’s not like anybody ever intended for the Divas to have one minute matches before, but if you’re silent and don’t stand up for yourself and you don’t have a voice and don’t use your reach? You can get whomped on. Nobody wants to be a doormat. Nobody wants to be treated like a doormat. As far as the voices of the Divas being heard, I think Vince McMahon is listening. I think you can really see that in the last month or so with the Divas’ Revolution. It’s something that’s really awesome. I’m really proud of all the girls.”
On her match with Charlotte at NXT TakeOver 15 months ago: “It meant everything to me. It was somebody actually believing in me and understanding that wrestling is not just in my blood. It’s something that I think about constantly. I have a passion for it, I’ve studied the history of it, I’ve wrestled all over the world before I ever came to WWE. When you look at Nattie, the character is really just someone who embodies wrestling. So, for me, to be able to show the world a masterpiece like the match I had with Charlotte, it wasn’t just about Nattie, it was about paying it forward.
And that’s what life is all about, is giving back. It’s about using what you have, your reach, your equity, and also being able to help somebody else shine, too. I’ve talked to Charlotte about this: The way that I paid it forward to her, she needs to use her skill to pay it forward to someone else down the road. So hopefully, all of the girls get the opportunity to do that at some point. That match meant everything to me and I think that people really started to look at women’s wrestling differently when they were saying ‘This isn’t just the women’s match of the year, this is one of the best matches of the year.”
Check out the complete interview at WrestlingINC.com.
Thanks to Mark Adam Haggerty and WrestlingINC.com for the following spoiler results from last night’s NXT taping;
– There are lots of “Full Sail sucks” chants before the show starts.
– Enzo Amore, Colin Cassady, Zack Ryder and Mojo Rawley vs. Dash Wilder, Scott Dawson, Chad Gable and Jason Jordan is first. Enzo and Cass got the biggest pop by far. The Mechanics were wearing Ribera Steakhouse jackets. The stars of the match are Gable and Jordan so far. Enzo, Cass and The Hype Bros. win after Enzo and Cass hit their double team finisher.
– Eva Marie vs. Carmella is next. Carmella got a moderate pop but Eva was booed like crazy. The actual match was described as “bad.” Carmella hit a few decent spots, including a hurricanrana but most of the match was one long rest hold after another. Eva won with Sliced Red. There was a lot of heat and “you can’t wrestle” chants for Eva.
– Crew members have been moving people in and out of the front rows. One of them was Eva Marie’s husband.
– Bull Dempsey vs. Elias Samson is next. Bull comes out with a new look, a robe like “Dr. Death” Steve Williams. Bull got a big pop from the NYC crowd and won after hitting a top rope seated splash. Bull hugged some people at ringside who appeared to be family.
– Emma vs. Charlotte vs. Dana Brooke vs. Becky Lynch is next.`Emma won but the finish was described as “very awkward.” Referee Drake Wuertz counted 3 and then maybe 4 seconds later the bell rang. It seemed like nobody knew what happened. The crowd started chanting “you fucked up” but at who it’s hard to tell. It seemed like the heat was on Emma but Becky didn’t kick out and Drake made the count. After the match, Charlotte attacked Emma. Dana made the save but Becky evened the odds for the upperhand and they left to Charlotte’s music.
