SmackDown ring announcer Lilian Garcia has had a little trouble keeping her balance at recent WWE shows, most recently during Tuesday’s SmackDown taping at The O2 Arena in London, England. On this occasion, Garcia tripped over pyrotechnics equipment and stumbled to her knees while making her way ringside. WWE immediately released footage of her mishap, which features a soundtrack of Michael Cole and Booker T providing the “play-by-play.”
In an exclusive WWE.com interview, Garcia addressed her recent off-kilter moments.
“Well you know, we’re in London and they say London Bridge is falling down (laughs), actually it was me who was falling down!” she says of her ‘trip’ overseas.
“I walked in and I was looking up at the crowd and I didn’t see that they had the pyro tubes right down in the bottom and I just went right over it and tripped and fell,” Garcia explains. She then points to her bruised knee, adding, “If this is the worst thing that happens to me, I’m okay.”
Garcia suffered similar misfortune at the March 13 SmackDown taping as her shoe broke while making her ring entrance. The SmackDown Diva is asked what she plans to do to avoid similar mishaps in the future.
“I think I need to top it, is what I need to do. Like, every time it gets better and better, ’cause that definitely topped the whole shoe breaking incident,” she says. “What can I say, I like to make big entrances.”
The feud between Mick Foley and Dean Ambrose continues. In his latest blog, Mick Foley provides new insight into their dispute – and maintains that he won’t work with Dean Ambrose because he doesn’t trust him. He also says that Ambrose has “friends in high places” that could work with him to make him a star, because he’s not interested. Here’s what Foley wrote:
“Sports-entertainment has to involve a certain amount of respect and trust. It’s pretty obvious Dean Ambrose doesn’t have any respect for me, my requests, or what I have done in the wrestling business. Therefore I can’t place the slightest amount of trust in him. Has anyone wondered if I’m feeling better following the concussion I spoke of in that December 2010 TNA Impact promo with Flair? I’m not feeling too much better. I tend to have two types of days when it comes to that muted, under-water feeling I spoke of in that promo – bad and worse. I’m just not the same guy who took 11 chair shots from the Rock in 1999. I haven’t been that guy in a long time. Given my history of concussions, I would have to be a fool to place my future in the hands of someone I don’t trust. Perhaps I do have another decent match left in me. If so, it will be with a guy like Dolph Ziggler, who might well be the best worker in the business, and just needs that ONE little something to allow the WWE Universe to see how talented he really is. Or a guy like the Miz – one of the best heels of this generation. Say what you want to about Miz, but the guy is damn good at what he does.
But Dean Ambrose? No. I may not have the power I once did in the business, but I still have the power to say no to things that just flat-out seem wrong. Like trying to put Dean Ambrose on the WWE map. A few weeks ago, it seemed like an interesting challenge. Now, it seems like an insult. A few weeks ago, it seemed like cutting-edge stuff. Now it just seems like bullshit. He is a very good talent. He has those supporters in high places. Let them wrestle him. Maybe they can put him on the WWE map. Good luck.”
The following article contains a minor *Spoiler* for Friday’s SmackDown, taped Tuesday from London, England
Following the recent SmackDown debut of Damien Sandow, WWE has called up yet another wrestler from developmental.
FCW star Antonio Cesaro, formerly known as Claudio Castagnoli, will make his WWE television debut on Friday’s SmackDown in a backstage segment with Aksana and William Regal.
Cesaro, who was at SmackDown to meet with John Laurinaitis, now has a gimmick of a European Rugby player.
– Monday’s taped WWE RAW Supershow from London drew a 3.08 rating with 4.4 million viewers. This is essentially even with last week’s show, which drew a 3.10 and 4.3 million viewers.
– There are currently no firm plans for WWE to move SmackDown to Tuesdays on a regular basis, according to f4wonline.com. WWE has been running live Tuesday SmackDown specials in recent weeks, but ratings have not been strong enough on Tuesdays to warrant the change.
– William Regal wrote on Twitter that he had to leave WWE’s current Eurpean tour to take care of “family business.”
A United States Marine has challenged John Cena to a pushup contest for Charity.
In the video below, US Marine Corps Sgt. Enrique Trevino issues his challenge Cena. The challenge is being done as a fundraiser to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project, which provides assistance to soldiers wounded in combat.
Sgt. Trevino has set a goal for himself to complete 1 million pushups this year.
– WWE announced this week that WrestleMania 28 drew an estimated 1.3 million pay-per-view buys, which would make it the highest grossing wrestling PPV in history. While this is a major accomplishment for WWE and a credit to The Rock’s drawing power, it’s important to note that a more “firm” number will not be announced until May/June, when WWE releases its next SEC filing. Even then, it will be several more months until the final numbers come in.
– WWE’s Bella Twins are still expected to be on their way out of the company. Nikki and Brie are currently overseas for WWE’s European tour and defeated the team of Phoenix and Eve Torres at Tuesday’s show from Rome, Italy.
SmackDown ring announcer Lilian Garcia has had a little trouble staying on her feet at recent WWE shows, most recently during Tuesday’s SmackDown taping at The O2 Arena in London, England.
On this occasion, Garcia tripped over pyrotechnics equipment and fell to her knees while making her way to the ring for the taping. WWE released footage of her misfortune within hours, which features audio of commentator Michael Cole howling in laughter.
Garcia is finding humor in her latest accident. She posted a link to the video on Twitter and wrote, “London bridge is falling down…no, actually I’m falling down! Tripped & fell in my entrance 2night on #SmackDown! LOL.”
As WWE says, Garcia can’t seem to catch a break: it is her third embarrassing incident in recent weeks. Similarly to Tuesday’s mishap, Garcia suffered a wardrobe malfunction at the March 14 SmackDown taping as her shoe broke while making her ring entrance. As well, WWE released footage of Garcia’s blunder with Cole crowing hysterically. Garcia was ridiculed again at the following week’s SmackDown taping as John Cena denounced her ring announcing ability after having erroneously introduced Zack Ryder as “Jack Swagger.”
Marty Jannetty recently spoke to Not In Hall of Fame about WWE’s company policy to only offer rehabilitation assistance to former talent struggling with drug abuse, but not assist wrestlers with degenerative injuries caused by their time wrestling for the organization.
“It is really hard for me to say, because I am not the person in charge of something like that. But I think that if someone is working for a company full time, especially with the money that is involved if we are talking straight WWE…I may be getting myself in trouble saying this, but in my opinion; and it is just that one goofy Rock and Rollers opinion; if you pretty much committed your life to working for that company for a period of time than the answer is yes. You are going to get hurt wrestling. Every match is at least a bruise. There are fractures and breaks, and often you work through it.”
“Why does the WWE spend money on those who did stuff recreationally. I’ll use Scott Hall as an example. He is a friend, but it is out there, it was on ESPN, so it is no secret. From what I understand, he has been in and out of rehab ten times. That was from the partying and choices made that had nothing to do with what was work related.
“Using myself as an example, I have asked them (WWE) if there is anything that can be done about my ankles. I have to take a lot of pain medication for it; way more than what is an average dose. Really, no more than anyone else who is in full contact sports. We all (wrestlers) have a very high threshold of pain to begin with and we are in good condition. We can handle more than most. Where one person can take a Vicodin and have the pain go away, a highly trained professional athlete has to take four or five times that dosage, and that is where you are getting into a danger zone. If I’m trying to take care of everybody pain, and walking is something we take for granted and I need pain medication just for that and it is work related than the answer should be yes.”
TNA star Austin Aries, the only man to ever hold the ROH World title twice, recently spoke to Sports Vibe UK to promote this past weekend’s TNA LockDown pay-per-view. During the interview, Aries had a harsh critique of today’s Ring of Honor product, saying it’s a far cry from its glory days:
“I’ll be really honest with you, the Ring of Honor today is not anything like the Ring of Honor that the likes of C.M. Punk, Daniel Bryan, and myself came from. Obviously they are still operating under the same name, but the company has changed so much over the years and it’s really a shell of it’s former self in terms of the vision and thought process.”
He added, “The original Ring of Honor and the Ring of Honor today are two completely different things, I like to call it Smokey Mountain of Honor.”
Aside from the creative aspect of the company being in bad shape, Aries also thinks [the lack of] money is a big issue that could lead to ROH losing it’s most important asset – talent.
“There is no money in Ring of Honor, and that means they will only be able to secure talent for a certain amount of time before they move somewhere else.”
— The latest issue of The Wrestler has a feature on CM Punk revealing elements of his past including the origin of his ring name, why he left TNA Wrestling, the meaning of some of his tattoos and even which women wrestlers he has dated. Regarding the women’s wrestlers Punk has been romantically linked to, the magazine writes:
“We all know women love the bad boys. Though Punk isn’t really a bad boy in the traditional sense given the way he lives his life, he looks the part. Whatever the reason, he has been romantically linked to several Divas and Knockouts, including Daffney, Traci Brooks, Maria Kanellis, Amy “Lita” Dumas, and most recently, Beth Phoenix. What is Punk’s type?”
— Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has addressed the meaning behind one of his most famous catchphrases, “Jabroni.”
When asked of the meaning of the word Tuesday on Twitter, he wrote, “Jabroni was a term I started using to describe a phony, goof, punk or a ham & egger. #NoCandyAssJabronis.”
— WWE has updated the logo for their Over the Limit pay-per-view—see here. This year’s show takes place on May 20 at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina.
— Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is set to appear in The Hero, a new competitive reality series looking to find the “next great hero,” reportsVariety. Johnson is an executive producer for the show, and will be appearing in “various incarnations” to encourage contestants.
— WWE.com takes a look back at the 10 best rookie years in WWE and WCW history. Brock Lesnar is ranked number one on this list, beating out Goldberg, Kurt Angle and The Undertaker, among others. (The 10 best rookie years).
— Former WWE talent Shane “Hurricane” Helms is not a fan of WWE’s “CM Drunk” storyline. He wrote during Monday’s Raw SuperShow where Chris Jericho claimed CM Punk was spotted drinking alcohol before defending his title against Mark Henry: “I like both Punk and Jericho but I could care less about this “straight edge vs alcoholic” angle. Just wrestle.”
Helms also critiqued a WWE star’s bumping ability: “Otunga … geez. You’re on TV with the biggest wrestling company in the world. Please learn how to bump bro.”
– The bar that CM Punk walked into on RAW was The Pilot Inn in Greenwich, about a 10 minute walk from the O2 Arena. A reader who was at the pub when Punk and the WWE camera crew arrived says Punk did not have any fish & chips like he said because the bar wasn’t serving food at that time.
The WWE website continues to speculate whether Punk drank alcohol while at the bar and says we’ll find out more about Punk’s struggle to remain sober on next week’s 3-hour show.
– Kevin Nash is the latest WWE legend to publicly endorse WWE Champion CM Punk. Nash tweeted after RAW:
“just got done with Raw.Punk needs to keep the belt at least till next May”
A fan replied that WWE would never have anyone hold the WWE Title for that long. Nash replied:
“what is old is now new. let him have that love affair with the fans make them pat to see him get beat make it epic. Make a heel”
– We published a picture on Monday of Brock Lesnar’s new WWE ring gear, which consists of MMA-style trunks with sponsor logos on it. Lesnar’s new WWE t-shirt also features the logos of Lesnar’s various sponsors, including Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches. A WWE superstar wearing sponsor logos is unprecedented – so it appears Lesnar’s team negotiated a very unique agreement with WWE.
Speaking of Lesnar, WWE officials were said to be very happy with the Lesnar promo that aired on Monday’s RAW. The video was taped last week.
Lesnar has also been added to the RAW Supershow opening video.
– Tickets are still available for the RAW brand’s upcoming tour of Brazil. Tickets are also now on sale for WWE’s upcoming Over The Limit PPV on 5/20 from Raleigh, North Carolina.
– The Bella Twins were backstage for Monday’s WWE RAW Supershow in London but did not appear on television. Over the weekend, there were plans to use them on television this week. Despite the fact that the Bellas have been making various storyline-driven comments about wanting to challenge for the Divas title, they are still expected to leave WWE when their contracts expire later this month.
In his latest blog at MickFoley.Typepad.com titled, “An Answer For Ambrose,” Mick Foley says he could never work with Dean Ambrose because he does not trust him. Foley wrote:
“Look, sports-entertainment has to involve a certain ammount of respect and trust. It’s pretty obvious Dean Ambrose doesn’t have the slightest ammount of respect for me, and therefore I can’t place the slightest ammount of trust in him. Anyone wondering if I’m feeling better following the concussion I spoke of in that promo with Flair? I’m not. I tend to have two types of days when it comes to that muted, under-water feeling I spoke of in that promo – bad and worse. Given my history of concussions, I would have to be an absolute idiot to place my future in the hands of someone I don’t trust. Since I like to think I am not an idiot, I won’t be placing any trust in him. He had the golden ticket, and he blew it, because he would not honor the simple request I made – to his face – to not include my children in any way in his tweets. If I can’t trust him to honor that simple request, I certainly can’t trust him not to take liberties in the ring. It’s tough to get over in WWE. I certainly wouldn’t want to be one of the young guys facing someone like Skip Sheffield (yeah, I know he has a new name, but I don’t know it yet) knowing that the priority placed on getting over will be somewhat higher than looking out for the well being of an opponent. I went through that with The Dynamite Kid in 1986, when I was 21 years old. I could do it then. I can’t do it at 46..especialy not for someone like Dean Ambrose. To quote the original Willy Wonka movie, “You get nothing! You lose! Good day sir!”
Former WCW star Konnan recently appeared on the MLW.com podcast and stated that Alberto Del Rio was ready to quit WWE and return to Mexico before he was called up to the main roster:
“The trainers over at FCW told me that when [Del Rio] came in, he was terrible. He said basically, I’m not making any money here [in developmental], I’m going home. My wife is pregnant and I’m out. I’m going back to Mexico.”
“John Laurinaitis told one of the trainers, we’re going to be inducting Mil Mascaras into the Hall of Fame and we kind of want someone to induct him. We need to push a Latino guy. Just put him on the road and see how he does.”
– Evan Bourne is still on crutches after breaking his foot several weeks ago. Bourne, who has two Wellness Policy strikes against him, tweeted on Monday:
“Getting very good at hopping around on one foot. Friends report my crutching skills are 8/10. #mobile”
– ECW original “Tajiri” was trending worldwide on Twitter on Monday night after Lord Tensai spit green mist (one of Tajiri’s signature moves) at John Cena. Other terms that trended on Monday night were Chief Jay Strongbow, Yes Lock and fish & chips.
– Michael Cole announced on RAW that Daniel Bryan has renamed his LaBell Lock submission finisher. It will now be known as the Yes Lock.
Speaking of Bryan, he spoke to HuffingtonPost.com this week about his vegan lifestyle:
“My health is so much better. I’m bigger now than I was eating meat. My lifts in the gym are better. I’m in better shape. A lot of people thought you couldn’t be a top-level athlete as a vegan, but people like Mac Danzig and Jake Shields are proving that’s wrong. And it’s better for me as a performer. The other wrestlers just think it’s weird. They don’t understand it.”
WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin continues to tease that he’s got at least one more match left in him. During a recent interview with ZooToday.com to promote the DVD release of his latest action movie, Recoil, Austin had this to say about a return:
“If the right situation, the right opponent and the right circumstances came up for the WWE, then it would certainly be something worth considering. Could I have another match or two? Yeah. Physically I am in really good shape right now.”
“People seem to think I am half-dead!… In my movies, I do some pretty hellacious fight scenes that, maybe, a normal person couldn’t do. So my physicality is fine, my neck is fine after having it all fused-up.”
“I am not pitching for another match but if it was a win-win situation for everybody, then absolutely, I would consider it.”
Time and time again, we’ve heard CM Punk as the likely opponent for Steve Austin, should Austin return to the ring. We want to know – who do you think Austin should wrestle? Hit up the comments below.
– Earlier this week, MVP was asked by a fan on Twitter when we’ll hear him say, “I’m Comin” [to WWE]. He replied, “Never again.” MVP later clarified the tweet, saying that he was referring to using his “I’m Coming” theme song again, and not specifically a return to WWE. He wrote:
“I was actually referring to using that theme song he mentioned. I’ve never said I’d ‘never return’ to the WWE. Thanks.”
– The dark match after Monday’s WWE RAW tapings from London saw CM Punk defend the WWE Title against Chris Jericho. Daniel Bryan interfered and attacked Punk, causing a disqualification. Shamus then came out and nailed Bryan with a Brogue Kick. Cody Rhodes, Big Show and Alberto Del Rio all came out next followed by Randy Orton. The babyfaces hit their finishers on the heels to end it.
– Diamond Dallas Page’s DDP Yoga program continues to gain popularity among WWE’s active superstars. WWE Superstars Primo and Titus O’Neil are the latest wrestlers who are using the product. Primo noted on Twitter that he has been pain-free since he began the program.
Posted April 17th, 2012 in News, WWE. Tagged: DDP, MVP.
– Last Friday’s SmackDown replay drew a 1.52 cable rating and 2,300,000 viewers. The Friday replay outdrew Tuesday’s live broadcast, which did a 1.50 cable rating with 2,250,000 viewers. Friday’s replay did a better rating than the last SmackDown replay on February 20.
— WWE will hold two Raw live events in Kentucky this July: July 28 at the Rupp Arena in Lexington and July 29 at Broadbent Arena in Louisville.
— It was announced on Monday’s RAW that next week’s 3-hour special will feature an Extreme Rules contract signing between Brock Lesnar and John Cena. The two will compete in an Extreme Rules match (no-disqualification, no count-out) on April 29th.
— WWE’s Breaking News mobile alert service issued a text message to mobile subscribers Monday reading
“BREAKING NEWS: CM Punk spotted in London pub. Is it CM Punk or CM Drunk? Exclusive video on Raw tonight.”
WWE.com published an article regarding this, advertising: “What will the footage show? What does this mean for CM Punk’s longtime pledge against alcohol? How might this news affect the main event of Raw, featuring the WWE Champion against Mark Henry in a No Count-Out, No Disqualification Match for the title?”
— English wrestler Pac was backstage at Monday’s Raw SuperShow in London, England. He currently works for Dragon Gate and Dragon Gate USA.
— Ryback’s opponent on last week’s episode of SmackDown was independent wrestler Bobby Shields.
Brock Lesnar is expected to wear MMA-inspired ring gear when he steps back into the ring against John Cena at Extreme Rules, his first WWE match in 8 years.
The WWE website released a photo of Brock Lesnar on Monday his new WWE ring gear, which is clearly inspired by his days as an MMA fighter.
Lesnar’s new ring gear features MMA-inspired trunks (featuring sponsor logos), XXL Mixed Martial Arts gloves and black boots.
Hit up the comments below and tell us what you think about Lesnar’s new gear.
At Monday’s WWE RAW tapings from the O2 Arena in London, England, it was announced that WWE Extreme Rules 2012 will feature WWE Champion CM Punk defending against Chris Jericho in a Chicago Street Fight.
With that match set, here’s the updated card for WWE Extreme Rules 2012:
Extreme Rules Match: Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena
Chicago Street Fight for the WWE Championship: CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho
Best Of 3 Falls Match for the World Heavyweight Title:
Sheamus (c) vs. Daniel Bryan