– WWE has applied to trademark new logos that look similar to the Network logo that was posted here on the site a few weeks back.

• View Here: The New WWE Network Logo

WWE has also applied to trademark WWE Countdown and WWE Action Center, which will be show titles on the Network.

– WWE’s website features a new video interview with The Miz and R-Truth, who sound ready for Sunday’s Survivor Series match against John Cena and The Rock. Rock wrote the following on Twitter today:

“1977 Madison Square Garden. My grandfather wrestles for the WWE World Championship. This Sunday – I come home. #TheGarden”

– WWE’s Facebook page currently has a survey up asking fans to vote on a new t-shirt for WrestleMania 28.

– Zack Ryder tweeted on Thursday that he was headed to WWE Headquarters to film some segments for WWE Classics On Demand. He wrote:

“Headed to Stamford, CT to get some answers about this #manhattanscrewjob…just kidding…filming for WWE Classics on Demand.”

WWE insider “The Informer” (from WWE Magazine) has a new article up on the company website looking at a number of behind-the-scenes stories. Here are some highlights from this update:

* One WWE Superstar was conspicuous in his absence from WWE’s recent European tour due to issues with his travel visa. (Let’s hope he gets it sorted out before WWE’s trip to Japan in December.)

* Which WWE Diva has recently become a really big hockey fan? (It may explain her new explosive temper and penchant for fisticuffs.)

* There’s sibling rivalry, but this is taking things to an extreme. One WWE Legend wants to return at WrestleMania to face his brother in the ring! (It’s gonna be an interesting Thanksgiving in that family’s household!)

* A former WWE Champion tweeted this week that he would “never wrestle for WWE again.” (You knew I had to shamelessly work Twitter into my column this week after Monday’s Raw.)

— John Morrison’s current contract with WWE expires at the end of November, the Wrestling Observer reports. It is not known whether he has re-signed with the organization.

He was pulled from advertised for WWE’s upcoming tour of Japan, which takes place November 30 and December 1, 2011 in Yokohama. His last announced appearance takes place at the November 28, 2011 Raw SuperShow in Columbia, South Carolina.

— WWE.com has added Sean Waltman to their Alumni section. The multi-time champion is listed as Sean Waltman despite never actually performing for WWE under his real name.

The official Twitter feed of Mick Foley’s UK Stand Up Comedy tour wrote the following Wednesday, “Lots of talk about @TheRealXPac from @WWE today. What could it possibly mean? #TwoWordsForYa.” Waltman retweeted the post.

Waltman is loosely affiliated with WWE as he scouts and evaluates talent for Florida Championship Wrestling, their developmental league.

— Heath Slater’s thirty-day suspension for his first violation of WWE’s Talent Wellness Program expired on Tuesday. Therefore, he is now eligible to resume performing for the organization.

WWE announced on October 17, 2011 that the SmackDown Superstar had been suspended for thirty days due to his non-compliance with their drug testing policy.

One other wrestler is currently serving suspension: Evan Bourne. He is eligible to return to action on December 1, 2011.

— WWE held tryouts last week during their tour of the United Kingdom. Among those participating were European female wrestlers Rachel Walker and Jazzy.

— Mike Graham’s restaurant in Hernando, Florida is facing foreclosure.

— WWE announced Thursday that the Divas Championship Match between Beth Phoenix and Eve at Sunday’s Survivor Series pay-per-view will be a Lumberjill Match.

WWE explains: “The Divas Championship Match at Survivor Series should be a one-on-one affair. However, nothing in this rivalry has been evenly contested, thanks to the underhanded tactics of The Glamazon and Natalya. Now, the decks will be stacked a little more equally, as Kelly Kelly, Alicia Fox, Natalya and the rest of the WWE Divas will be ringside to make sure the action stays in the ring.”

— John Cena says family business caused him to be scratched from his scheduled appearance this Saturday on ESPN’s College GameDay.

“I want to apologize to espn’s gameday crew. I thank them for their hospitality, but I have some immediate family bizz that needs handling,” Cena wrote on Twitter.

– The latest plan for The Rock’s match with John Cena at WrestleMania 28 is that the match will not be for the WWE Championship. WWE creative has gone back and forth as to whether the WWE title will be on the line, but the general feeling is that the match doesn’t need a title defense to seem important and the company can get more mileage out of promoting a separate WWE title match on the card.

– Speaking of The Rock vs. John Cena at WrestleMania, WWE is already spending big money to promote the dream match. We’ve reported already that WWE bought a big billboard in New York City’s Times Square. Now – WWE has purchased another billboard on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, which is a pricey location.

– WWE officials are talking with SyFy about doing more live Tuesday SmackDown specials in early 2012 to build WrestleMania 28.

Due to the ratings success of WWE’s previous live Tuesday SmackDown specials, WWE has been toying with the idea of moving SmackDown to Tuesdays permanently.

(Source: f4wonline.com)

Diana Hart Smith, the outspoken mother of Harry Smith (a/k/a David Hart Smith), continues to criticize WWE brass following his recent departure from the organization. She attribute his lack of success to company heads having it in for her son.

“I don’t think WWE wanted to see DH/Harry succeed there. Maybe (Davey Boy Smith) had ribbed an existing agent who took it out on Harry,” she wrote on Twitter.

“Not sure of the WWE Creative’s logic, but they didn’t want fans to see how exceptional Harry is.”

The third generation wrestler echoed similar sentiments during a recent interview with Live Audio Wrestling.

“The big complaint that I had with WWE was just that they never gave me a fair chance, ever. We had a good deal with the tag team title run and everything, but guys like Drew McIntyre and Sheamus, they’re obviously very good talents and big guys and everything, but if they had given me the rocket like they had given those two guys, I’m sure that with my family’s lineage and going over to Canada and the UK, they could have done some really good business. For whatever reason, they didn’t,” Harry said.

“I’m not gonna point any fingers at anybody, but I think that there’s people up there that probably didn’t like my family, or maybe my Dad ribbed too many of the guys that are up top now. That’s basically the way that it happened, and I’m glad to be gone really. I don’t want to be wasting my time at a place that doesn’t appreciate me, or doesn’t want to do anything with me.”

Harry is now training mixed martial arts full-time in Tampa, Florida and looking to make his debut next year. He spars extensively with Josh Barnett, a former UFC Heavyweight Champion. Diana feels they are an unstoppable force.

She tweeted, “I think Harry and Josh training would be comparable to the power of a tsunami and genius of rocket scientists, who don’t know ‘tap out’ definition.”

Goldust, who currently works behind the scenes as a producer and trainer for WWE, has begun campaigning on Twitter for a match against his brother Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania XXVIII.

He states, “With your voices heard to @WWE, goldust vs cody at wm28…..ic title versus career. For the haters can hope i lose to cody and retire, teamgoldie can hope for an ass whoopin for the ages and new ic champ.”

Goldust continues, “Here’s the deal…..the fire in me is too strong to lose to my move stealing lemmule of a brother….experience everytime.

“His ic title …..my career…..i would whoop him, take back My ic title and shatter all his dreams. Only teamgoldie can make this happen…u know how much it means to me.”

Meanwhile, Goldust has been blocking users who mention his former personas, including Black Reign and the short-lived Seven.

Speaking to The Good Man Project, Ultimate Warrior comments on the long standing rumor that he is dead. Cameron Conaway asks the legendary grappler, “Sadly, many people still think you’re dead. Can you fill us in on what you’ve been up to in the past ten years or so?”

Warrior responds, “Yes, being dead is one of the many urban legends, falsehoods, mischaracterizations, what have you, about me. Nothing much I can do if people want to remain ignorant. I’ve had an Internet presence since ’96-’97 so it has been easy for a long time to find out the truth. Of course my former employers have worked hard and spent a great deal of time and money over the years to fabricate and spread lies, all of which have helped to keep rumors and other nonsense alive.

“The quick answer to what I have been doing is that I have been doing a lot of living … GREAT living. I’m alive which seems to be an achievement all its own when you consider most of the guys I worked with are now dead, prematurely of course.

“On a practical level, I’ve stayed creative and productive as an artist. When I look back on my career creating and performing The Ultimate Warrior, in what was indeed sports entertainment, I see what I did as performance art. There are many things I loved about my time in the business and all its challenges but the engagement of creativity was certainly a vital aspect to my success, so I have continued to aspire through other forms of creativity. For me, this was natural, not something others should be surprised by.

Warrior continues, “Ultimate Warrior in action figures and video games is still today a more popular selling attraction than even most of today’s superstars.”

He comments further on the ways of the Warrior and gives his thoughts on the problems of males having “emasculated cultural role models.” The full interview is available here.

WWE.com has published a video of Paul Heyman recalling Steve Austin’s brief tenure in Extreme Championship Wrestling.

“Steve had two matches in ECW, I wish he had 2000,” Heyman says. “He wrestled Mikey Whipwreck at the November to Remember 1995 for the ECW World Title and he wrestled Mikey Whipwreck and The Sandman in a Three-Way Dance for the ECW World Title in December 1995. I wanted to build ECW around Steve Austin as the World Champion. I even pitched to Steve winning the Title at the November to Remember 1995, but he was such a fan of Mikey Whipwreck, he thought it would be better if Mikey won the match and also, Steve thought it was better for his character.

Heyman continues, “And this is where Steve was so ahead of the game, far ahead of everybody else. Steve thought it was better for his character to lose and bitch about it, cause then he had something else to be angry about. Then he had another reason to push that character all the way to the line, all the way to the wall. And he knew that in losing, he could become a bigger star than if he won the ECW World Title.

“It was just so smart. He was so far ahead of everybody else.”

THQ has announced that “Macho Man” Randy Savage will be featured in WWE ’12, which is set for release next Tuesday. Savage will be a playable character via downloadable content pack in January.

It was announced at Tuesday’s SmackDown taping in Bridgeport, Connecticut that Dolph Ziggler would be defending the United States Championship this Sunday at the Survivor Series. It was originally reported that John Morrison would challenge Ziggler for the strap on Sunday. However, other reports stated Ryder would be the challenger.

WWE.com announced Wednesday that Ziggler will defend the United States Championship against Morrison at the pay-per-view event.

Upon the news breaking, a distraught Ryder tweeted, “This Sunday Night…NEW YORK CITY…MSG…SURVIVOR SERIES…@HEELZiggler defends the US title against……..@TheRealMorrison? #makesnosense.”

– CM Punk will be on the Opie & Anthony Show this Friday morning to promote Survivor Series. O&A airs on Sirius channel 206 and XM channel 105.

Speaking of Punk, he was backstage at Tuesday’s Guns ‘N Roses concert in Chicago.

– Diana Hart Smith, widow of the late British Bulldog and mother of former WWE Superstar David Hart Smith, revealed on Twitter that Dave Batista recently earned his blue belt in Jiu Jitsu.

• VIDEO of BATISTA’s MMA Training (Holy Hell…)

– Chris Jericho recently got some attention by announcing on Twitter that he’ll never wrestle for WWE again. While this might alarm some WWE fans expecting to see Jericho return at some point – it appears to be a joke about WWE’s policy of their talent being “entertainers” and not “wrestlers.”

Most people within WWE expect Jericho to return soon and get back to “sports entertaining” the WWE Universe.

(Partial source: pwinsider.com)

-With the NBA basketball season all but cancelled at this point due to the lockout situation between the players association and the team owners, there has been talk in WWE about getting a big name NBA star to work an angle at WrestleMania 28. Both Lebron James and Shaquille O’Neal have worked with WWE before in the past and there’s a good chance WWE will go after one of them if the NBA season does get cancelled.

• WWE Teases A Feud Between SHAQ & The Big Show

Also related to the NBA lockout – there has been strong interest from big city arenas to host more WWE events over the next year to make up for the lost revenue due to the lack of NBA games. Madison Square Garden in particular is pushing for more live events in the coming months.

– There was a lot of talk backstage at Monday’s RAW about Cody Rhodes’ physique and how he’s looking in great shape lately.

• Pictures of WWE Legends With The Classic IC Title

– Former WWE diva Maryse is said to be done with wrestling for the time being, with no plans to work for TNA.

• Pictures of Maryse’s Sexy New Race Car Photo Shoot

– Stan sent word that this week’s 3-hour RAW had only 35 minutes and 12 seconds of in-ring action. This is actually down from the previous week’s two-hour show.

(Source: f4wonline.com)

– On Monday’s RAW, Mick Foley paid homage to a classic moment from the Attitude Era and hosted a “This Is Your Life” segment for John Cena.

A fan wrote to Foley on Twitter suggesting that WWE intentionally made the “This Is Your Life” bad. Foley replied to the tweet with the following:

“Exactly – the segment with @JohnCena was so bad it was good, and @TheRock put it out of its misery. Mr Cena was CLASSIC though!”

View Here: The “John Cena, This Is Your Life” Segment From RAW

– WWE has released a video package highlighting the illustrious career of hardcore legend Mick Foley:

• BE HERE TONIGHT For LIVE COVERAGE of WWE SURVIVOR SERIES!

ThNEVER BEFORE - NEVER AGAIN!

The staff of SESCOOPS – Mike, Noah Mark & The Solomonster – will be at SURVIVOR SERIES tonight! Keep it locked to the SEScoops & the SEScoops Facebook Page for our first-hand LIVE coverage!

Here’s the final card for Sunday’s pay-per-view:

The Rock’s First Match In 7 1/2 Years
John Cena and The Rock vs. The Miz and R-Truth

World Heavyweight Championship Match
Mark Henry (c) vs. Big Show

WWE Championship Match
Alberto Del Rio vs. CM Punk

5-on-5 Traditional Survivor Series Tag Team Match
Team Orton (Randy Orton, Sheamus, Mason Ryan, Kofi Kingston and Sin Cara) vs. Team Barrett (Cody Rhodes, Jack Swagger, Hunico and Dolph Ziggler)

Divas Championship Lumberjill Match
Beth Phoenix (c) vs. Eve

United States Championship Match
Dolph Ziggler (c) vs. John Morrison

— Former WWE star Kenny Dykstra worked a dark match at tonight’s SmackDown taping in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He put over Justin Gabriel.

— A match pitting Trent Barreta against Tyson Kidd was taped tonight in Bridgeport, Connecticut for this week’s episode of WWE Superstars.

Matches taped Monday night in Boston, Massachusetts were Alex Riley vs. Drew McIntyre; Epico and Primo vs. Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso.

— John Cena is featured on the cover of the Holiday 2011 issue of WWE Magazine.

sources: PWInsider.com, ProWrestling.net

WWE SmackDown on Syfy

WWE taped Friday night’s episode of SmackDown on Tuesday from Hershey, PA. Credit to prowrestlingnet for this report:

Dark Match:

* Justin Gabriel defeated a local wrestler.

* Former WWE star Kenny (“KENNY!”) Dykstra  returned to action and lost to Justin Gabriel.

WWE SmackDown (Airing Friday)

* The show started with Mark Henry assaulting Daniel Bryan backstage. He dragged Bryan to ringside and continued the attack. The refs rolled Bryan out of the ring, and then Henry cut a promo on delivering more pain to Big Show and retaining at Survivor Series.

* Dolph Ziggler defeated Sin Cara. Vickie Guerrero announced before the match that Dolph will be doing double duty at Survivor Series, as he will defend the U.S. Title against Zack Ryder. Dolph won a good five-minute match with a roll up after Jack Swagger came out.

After the match, Mason Ryan came out to even the sides. Mason Ryan beat the crap out of the heels, with Dolph Ziggler showing once again that he’s one of the best “bump men” in WWE.

* Mason Ryan defeated Jack Swagger. Ryan won with a Full Nelson Slam. Expect to see a lot of replays of Ryan throwing Ziggler. Backstage, Zack Ryder got Big Show and Justin Gabriel to sign his petition. He informed Big Show of what Henry said in the opening promo.

* Backstage Ted DiBiase was playing WWE12 with Hornswoggle. Teddy Long came in with Aksana. Long was falling all over her.

* Christian came to the stage with a neck brace, boot, and crutch. He complained a lot and said even though he can’t wrestle at Survivor Series, he’ll be there to “inspire” Team Barrett. Due to his injuries and the uncertainty that his career holds, his dream is to wrestle at leaset “one more match.” He got a lot of heat and then said good riddance and walked off stage.

* There was a backstage segment with Big Show and AJ checking on Daniel Bryan in the trainers room.

* Ted DiBiase defeated Derek Bateman with Dream Street.

* Big Show was shown backstage looking for Mark Henry. Jinder Mahal and Tyson Kidd said he wasn’t around. Mahal said something in Punjabi. Show asked Kidd if he understood what Mahal said. Kidd didn’t, and Big Show knocked out Jinder Mahal for speaking a language other than what he speaks. Kidd gingerly walked away hoping not to upset the giatn.

* Big Show came to the ring in a sweatsuit. He cut a promo on Henry and said that after Henry forced Bryan to be carried out tonight, Show is gonna force Henry to be carried out at Survivor Series.

* Kofi Kingston pinned Hunico with the SOS. Hunico cut a promo in Spanish before the match.

* A promo aired for Ezekiel Jackson.

* Beth Phoenix and Natalya defeated A.J. and Kaitlyn. Natalya made A.J. tap to the Pinup Strong hold.

* Mark Henry vs. Big Show with Booker T as special referee was announced as the dark match.

* They showed the full Survivor Series lineup and only the two world title, the traditional tag, and the Rock and John Cena vs. The Miz and R-Truth matches were shown. No sign of a U.S. Title match there.

* Randy Orton came out followed by Sheamus. Then Wade Barrett and finally Cody Rhodes.

* Sheamus and Randy Orton defeated Wade Barrett and Cody Rhodes by DQ. Christian came out on crutches during the match and hit Sheamus with a crutch for the DQ. Sheamus hit the Brogue Kick on Cody, and Orton delivered the RKO to Barrett. Sheamus hit Cody with the Celtic Cross.

– WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross tweeted on Tuesday afternoon that he’s not scheduled to be at Sunday’s Survivor Series pay-per-view:

“I’m not booked at Survivor Series @this time. I am booked in Waco to see OU-Baylor Sat. IF I set up sauce stand @ MSG Sunday, wud u come by?”

– After rocking Boston’s TD Garden on Monday night, The Rock was back on the movie set on Tuesday filming the new GI Joe movie. Rock tweeted a picture today (view here) of himself holding a gun with the caption, “On set. Handlin’ business. #WhatAreYouHandlin?”

• MORE Pictures of THE ROCK On The Set of GI Joe

– WWE diva Kelly Kelly, who is on the cover of the new Maxim Magazine, is doing a Twitter promotion for the magazine:

“If you tweet a pic of you with a Maxim magazine with me on the cover i’ll post it on my new website. Add hashtag #kellymaxim so I can see it”

• VIEW HERE: Kelly Kelly’s Entire MAXIM MAGAZINE Photo Spread

The ratings are in for Monday’s 3-Hour “RAW Gets Rocked” edition of WWE RAW.

The 3-hour broadcast drew a 3.25 rating with an average of 4.74 million viewers. The final two hours (RAW’s usual timeslot) did a strong 3.37 rating (4.95 million viewers), up from recent weeks. Here are the hourly numbers:

Hour 1: 4.31 million viewers
Hour 2: 5.00 million viewers
Hour 3: 4.91 million viewers

Once again, for the 9th time in the past 12 weeks, RAW lost viewership in the final hour.

USA Network executive Ted Linhart tweeted the following about Monday’s RAW ratings:

“Key 18-49 demo 8:00 p.m.=2.1M (best 8:00 p.m. Raw hour since June 09) 9:00 p.m.=2.55M (best since May) 10:00 p.m.=2.6M (best since April)… Full Raw show=2.44M P18-49 & 4.7M total viewers making USA #1 cable ent. net by large margins, attracting more men than some bdcasters.”

(Sources: TVByTheNumbers.com, pwtorch.com)

– Mick Foley has addressed the Rock Bottom he took from The Rock on Monday’s RAW.

Foley tweeted on Tuesday afternoon:

“Why did (The Rock) layeth the smacketh down on my candy ass? I just wanted a hug. I bet he’s feeling quite a bit of remorse right now,” Foley tweeted.

VIDEO: THE ROCK Gives Mick Foley a Rock Bottom On RAW

– The post-WrestleMania edition of WWE SmackDown will tape on Tuesday, April 3rd from the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida.

– As we saw on RAW, WWE is pushing their Twitter promotion into overdrive. WWE tweeted on Tuesday:

“DID YOU KNOW?: @WWE #Raw had more social media mentions Monday night than the Top 5 broadcast TV shows COMBINED! trendrr.tv”

“WWE #Raw was the No. 1 program on broadcast and cable TV on Monday’s @trendrrtv #socialtv chart http://trendrr.tv/ #BootsToAsses!”

— Maria Kanellis announced during last night’s AfterBuzzTV broadcast for Monday Night Raw that she will be returning to the squared circle on February 25, 2012 for New York City based promotion Family Wrestling Entertainment.

It will be her first match in two years and outside of WWE—she last competed at the February 23, 2010 WWE Superstars taping. She was released from her contract with WWE three days after the event and recently resurfaced on the wrestling scene to support her boyfriend, Ring of Honor talent Mike Bennett, at independent shows. She stated last Tuesday on Facebook that she had resumed wrestling training.

— The official Twitter feed of ESPN’s College Gameday announced Tuesday that John Cena, a Division III All-American center at Springfield College, will be the celebrity guest picker for this Saturday’s show at University of Houston.

— John Cena is featured on the cover of the latest issue of The Wrestler.

— Tammy “Sunny” Sytch auctioned off the red gown she wore for her induction into the WWE Hall of Fame last April. It sold for $570.00 on eBay.

• Related: Tammy Sytch Falls Down Escalator

The following was also posted on her Facebook page:

“Ever wanted to sit and have lunch or dinner with Tammy and ask her anything you wanted to know and get autographed photos and photos with her at the same time? Now you can! Contact Bambi Weavil, bambi.weavil@gmail.com for more info on how you can purchase this unique and once in a lifetime fan experience! Thanks!”

— The official website of Toronto’s A.V. Club has published a review of the White House Studio Project’s art tribute to “Macho Man” Randy Savage following his death on May 20, 2011. The exhibit is open through today, which would have marked as his 59th birthday.

— WWE will hold a Raw live event at the Yakima Valley Sun Dome in Yakima, Washington on Friday, January 13, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets go on sale November 26, 2011 at 10:00 a.m.

Following Mick Foley’s return to WWE RAW on Monday, THQ announced that Mrs. Foley’s baby boy will be a downloadable character in the upcoming WWE ’12 video game.

Related News:

• Video of BROCK LESNAR In WWE ’12
• Video of BATISTA In WWE ’12

Check out this video trailer of MICK FOLEY in WWE ’12 – in stores next week: