WWE inserted a pre-taped segment during tonight’s NXT broadcast on the WWE Network, announcing a live special with a major title match in Japan.
On tonight’s show, it was announced by William Regal that there will be a live special from Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Japan on July 4th that will feature Kevin Owens vs. Finn Balor for the NXT Championship.
The show is scheduled to start at 6:30am EST., which would be 8:30pm in Japan, so it’s possible that only part of the show will air on the WWE Network, since the show is scheduled for a 7pm start-time.
The event will also include the previously reported Brock Lesnar vs. Kofi Kingston match, and will also feature a John Cena main event, as well as a match including Chris Jericho.
– WWE Hall Of Famer Bret Hart is the guest on this week’s edition of Jim Ross’ “Ross Report” podcast. You can download the show right now at PodcastOne.com/The-Ross-Report.
– NHL Hall Of Famer Bobby Hull is the guest on the latest edition of Chris Jericho’s “Talk Is Jericho” podcast. You can check that one out at PodcastOne.com/Talk-Is-Jericho.
– WWE recently released the following clip of Kevin Owens backstage at this past Sunday night’s WWE Elimination Chamber pay-per-view.
During his recent appearance on Chris Jericho’s “Talk Is Jericho” podcast, WWE Superstar Sheamus told a story about how Shelton Benjamin offended him during their 2009 feud in WWE.
“I’ve got no problem with Shelton, he’s an amazing athlete. But every time we were sitting down he was calling me rookie. I don’t know what it was. I’d never been anything but nice to him and I just wanted to make the feud good,” said Sheamus during the podcast.
Sheamus noted that shortly after his feud with Benjamin, he was moved to RAW, where he won the WWE Championship from John Cena. “The Celtic Warrior” pointed out that the victory made him feel validated and made him feel like he proved a point.
Meanwhile, Shelton Benjamin caught win of the story, and while he claims he doesn’t remember doing it, he did extend a sincere apology to the WWE performer.
“If in fact I offended you by repeatedly calling [you] rookie, please accept my sincerest apology. But I personally don’t recall one time,” noted Benjamin on Twitter. You can check out the tweet below.
@WWESheamus if in fact I offended u by repeatedly calling rookie, please accept my sincerest apology. But I personally don't recall 1x
Part-time WWE Superstar Chris Jericho has landed a role in the upcoming TV movie Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!
Jericho, who is returning to WWE this summer for a series of live event appearances, will play the character of Bruce, a roller coaster attendant.
The official synopsis for Sharknado 3 reads:
Run like the wind! Hide where you can! The Sharknado is back and this time, the entire east coast is in the eye of the storm. Shearing winds of teeth and death will ravage the Eastern Seabord from Washington D.C. all the way down to Orlando, Florida. It’s up to Fin, April, David Hasselhoff, and a horde of celebrity cameos to save the entire country!
Sharknado 3 premieres on Tuesday, July 22nd on Syfy.
– As noted earlier today, Rusev’s status for tonight’s Elimination Chamber Intercontinental Championship match is still in question. If he is unable to work an actual match, however, he is still expected to appear on the show.
– The Rock’s new movie “San Andreas” is up to $55 million for its’ opening weekend, doing better than most estimates and giving Rock his biggest movie opening weekend numbers excluding the “Fast & Furious” franchise.
– The Tampa Tribune has a new piece up today on Chris Jericho, which focuses more on his career outside of the pro wrestling business. You can check it out at TBO.com.
– The Thursday, May 26, 2015 edition of WWE SmackDown drew 2.574 million viewers. The show, which is the final edition of SmackDown before Sunday’s Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, was actually down from last week’s show, which drew 2.589 million viewers.
– The new WWE DVD project on Owen Hart will be titled, “Owen Hart – Hart of Gold.” The set is scheduled to be released in November.
– NXT Champion Kevin Owens is the guest on the latest edition of Chris Jericho’s “Talk Is Jericho” podcast. You can download the show right now at PodcastOne.com.
– AVClub.com is reporting that Hulk Hogan told fans at the Body Power Expo in the United Kingdom earlier this week that he’s been in talks with Sylvester Stallone about appearing in “The Expendables 4” movie. Hogan is reportedly in talks to play a villain in the film, one described as “the most evil man in the world.”
– On Monday, Chris Jericho’s Twitter and Instagram accounts were hacked. After getting help from WWE and other social media savvy people, Jericho was able to recover both accounts. Unfortunately, Jericho’s Instagram account continued to get attacked on Tuesday, but everything appears to be back in working order right now.
– Chris Jericho’s official Twitter and Instagram accounts were hacked today. There’s no details on who did the hacking or why, however Jericho is said to be in the process of restoring both accounts.
– WWE Chairman Vince McMahon tweeted the following about the Memorial Day holiday today.
Let's not forget the true meaning of #MemorialDay and those that paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.
– The apron elbow drop that Adam Rose hit Tyler Breeze with at the NXT television tapings last Thursday was a tribute to Mick Foley, the man Rose claims is the reason he wanted to become a pro wrestler. Rose tweeted the following:
An ode to a the man that made me wanna be a pro wrestler! @realmickfoley thanks to who ever got this pic! #Rawpic.twitter.com/xvxJtFG35a
A wrestling fan has set up a GoFundMe account for former ECW star Axl Rotten and due to mentions from Jim Ross and Chris Jericho, the account has raised $1,055 of the $12,000 goal in just three weeks.
Rotten had an issue with his back in October of 2014 and since then he has been hospitalized at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, Maryland to receive daily physical therapy.
Rotten originally hoped he could continue his wrestling career and walk again, however doctors have since told him that surgery is unavoidable. Rotten is in need of two spinal surgeries and if they are not a success, he could spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
The reason fans are rallying around Rotten for financial help is due to the fact that the former ECW star has exhausted all of his medical coverage, and because he can’t work.
In addition to the medical bills, the GoFundMe account is seeking funds to help make his home wheelchair accessible for when he leaves the hospital.
The GoFundMe page notes that Rotten is clean of all non-medically prescribed drugs and that he is ” both emotionally and mentally in the best place he has been in years, Unfortunately he is though physically at his lowest ebb.”
Rotten recently tweeted the following about his current situation. For those who would like to contribute to his GoFundMe account, click here.
So when you been sitting in a hospital for close to 7mons it's time to speed this process up. I need to get the spinal surgery. #ecw@WWE
The format of the returning WWE Tough Enough reality show is going to be completely revamped compared to past seasons.
There will be training and in-house footage shot during the week, which will air on the Tuesday show. So when you watch an episode, the training and drama in the house we see will be from the previous week, very similar to The Ultimate Fighter season that they tried to do semi-live, as well as the UFC Primetime and “Embedded” specials which they try to keep up-to-date.
The television show will air each Tuesday, with footage shot during the week as well as a live show in front of a studio audience.
While Chris Jericho is scheduled to be the host of the show, it’s said that he will have somewhat of a “Ryan Seacrest role,” and won’t be hosting the show in the style that WWE had “Stone Cold” Steve Austin do several years ago.
As far as the rest of the cast, Hulk Hogan, Paige and Daniel Bryan will serve as panelists, mentors and judges, while Booker T, Billy Gunn and Lita will serve as the actual trainers for the contestants. Each week on the show there will be a judges vote and an audience vote to decide who goes home.
WWE has reportedly gone out of their way to recruit certain people to be cast members on the show, including Tessa Blanchard, daughter of WWE Hall Of Famer Tully Blanchard. It’s also said that they badly wanted Moose on the show.
Apparently WWE is telling people that they are recruiting to be on the program that they will be guaranteed a spot on the show, however the actual winner of the season will not be pre-determined and will be completely legitimate based on the fan voting.
Steve Austin and WWE are officially back in business together, with his “Stone Cold Podcast” returning to the WWE Network on June 1st with special guest Paul Heyman.
The show will air on the night after the free month of May ends, as historically, the two most-watched shows in WWE Network history, aside from live pay-per-view events, were Austin’s two podcasts with Vince McMahon and Triple H.
Apparently Austin and WWE working together again came as a result of whatever issue Vince McMahon had being mended somehow.
One of the other reasons Austin is coming back is because of the busy schedule of Chris Jericho. Between hosting Tough Enough, doing house shows and touring with Fozzy, Jericho won’t be available to do podcasts on the WWE Network as often as might be necessary.
After Heyman, Austin’s next three guests on the WWE Network podcast will be Sting, The Undertaker and Hulk Hogan.
– Chris Jericho noted via social media that his rock band Fozzy will be going on tour with legendary rock and roll group Kiss as part of their “The Kiss Kruise V” tour. Jericho tweeted the following:
– After teasing that he could be the ECW surprise at the NXT live events in Philadelphia and Albany this past weekend, Bully Ray is back to leading fans to speculate with his latest social media appearance. On Twitter today, Bully teased a potential feud with NXT Champion Kevin Owens. He tweeted the following:
Part-time WWE performer Chris Jericho recently appeared as a guest on Busted Open Radio to talk about a couple of subjects. Below are some highlights from the interview.
On TNA signing Billy Corgan: “I respect Billy immensely because for me he is the only guy besides me that made it in wrestling and in music beyond what we expected. We are the only two guys that can honestly say we are in a rock band and in the wrestling business at a high level, obviously in reverse roles. Billy is coming into this for the right reasons. A lot of people might think “well Billy is not from the wrestling business, how can he be a booker? How can he be a writer?” Let me give you one name if you’re a hockey fan…Scotty Bowman. Scotty Bowman is the greatest coach in NHL history and he never played an NHL game in his life. So if Scotty comes to coach you team you’re going to go “he never played a game, what does he know?” It’s stupid. Billy knows wrestling. He understands wrestling. He is a student of the game and not just figuratively and literally. He has that ability to see things. I learned a lot from talking to Billy Corgan about how to build homegrown talent, about how to restructure the roster and repair some the damage that was done. I was just really enthralled by him. Being in the business for 25 years and listening to how he spoke and I’m sure he might feel the same way if I told him my theories on rock and roll. I’ve used a lot of the things I learned from wrestling in rock and roll and he is using a lot of the things he learned from building The Smashing Pumpkins into TNA. I will also say this. I think TNA got him just in the nick of time. I know for me, I wouldn’t say I gave up on TNA, I never really watched it. I was never interested. It was there, I wished it well, but I didn’t participate. Now I am interested. I want to see what Billy does. I am curious to see what kind of changes he can make. I hope they give him the opportunity to do that. There is nobody there to kind of pee in his oatmeal. There is no Eric Bischoff or Hulk Hogan, or those type of really dominant personalities. They don’t have that there. They have a lot of young people. They have an office that is pretty green. I mean Dixie knows a little. She has been running the company for ten years, but it’s not like Vince McMahon. John Gaburick , not like a Pat Patterson. They have got a lot of newer type of people there. I give them credit for bringing Billy in and I’m really excited to see what he can do. I believe in him as a creative element to that company that they never had before. Just because he hasn’t been an actual wrestler, I don’t care. I think he is the right guy at the right time for them.”
On Daniel Bryan vacating the Intercontinental Title: “I feel bad for Daniel because I am a huge Daniel Bryan fan in the ring and out. I’m not just talking personally, but I’m talking about his love for wrestling. He loves wrestling. He is a guy that fans can look up to as far as someone who made it even when the powers that be thought he had nothing. I knew he would make it from the moment he walked in because he made it in other places before. When you get over, it doesn’t matter that you get over in John Schwartz’s Sunday Night wrestling at the Vermont Auditorium on a Sunday afternoon or if it’s the WWE. If you get over, you know how to do that, and he has done it. He got over huge, huge, huge. More than anyone thought. He is a great performer and he has a great mind for the business. Now it seems like his body is breaking down. When you have to give up two major titles basically within a year of each other, especially with the way we think as wrestlers. If you’re hurt, you go out there and the show goes on, no matter what. Daniel is like that, I mean he worked with a detached retina. If he is being told to stay home, it’s worse than you think in my opinion. Because I know me, if someone told me to stay home, I would be like “F that, I’m coming back.” I don’t know what he does. Does he go away like Shawn Michaels did for a couple of years? Now with the Network, there is a lot of ways to still be involved. He can still do a show, or still be involved with Tough Enough, or do commentary, because it seems like he is not ready to come back. If he is vacating the title, this is not a month injury. This is something deeper and more serious than that. I have heard nothing or know nothing. I just know how we think as performers in the business, and the last thing we want to do is vacate a title again. Something is wrong and I hope that he can go away for maybe a year or two like Shawn Michaels did and maybe that will heal him.”
– In addition to the previously reported Chris Jericho vs. Finn Balor match scheduled for an upcoming WWE live event, Jericho is also officially booked to work a match against “King” Bad News Barrett at the San Diego live event on Friday, July 31st.
– Tommy Dreamer, who worked the NXT live events in Philadelphia and Albany this weekend, losing to Baron Corbin at both shows, acknowledged the fact that he appeared on a NXT show and a TNA show (Impact Wrestling) on the same night this past Friday. Dreamer compared it to Rick Rude appearing on RAW and Nitro on the same night during the Monday Night Wars. He tweeted the following:
I appeared on @IMPACTWRESTLING & @WWENXT last night. I'm just like Rick Rude minus the muscles & abs. What I'd like to have right now is..
– Speaking of the NXT Albany event on Saturday night, Triple H tweeted the following photo of Kevin Owens making his entrance for the triple-threat main event with Finn Balor and Tyler Breeze, which he went on to win via pinfall.
WWE had a large presence at the NBCUniversal “Upfronts” in New York City on Thursday.
Representing WWE at the NYC upfronts were Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, Chris Jericho, Hulk Hogan, Roman Reigns, Titus O’Neil, The Bella Twins, Eva Marie and Natalya.
Below are photos of the WWE Superstars and Divas at the NBCUniversal Upfronts:
– NXT’s Shoot Nation stable is now simply a tag team with Sawyer Fulton and Angelo Dawkins. They will continue using the Shoot Nation name, while the former leader Chad Gable is going solo.
– Below, in order, are the top five most-watched shows on the WWE Network for the past week:
1. WWE 24: Roman Reigns
2. Chris Jericho interviews Stephanie McMahon
3. WWE NXT, May 6th episode
4. Jerry Springer Too Hot for TV: Love Hurts
5. Extreme Rules
– Other shows that drew well on the WWE Network include the special on Floyd Mayweather vs. Big Show, the previous week’s NXT show, the Culture Shock show with Corey Graves, Unfiltered with Renee Young, Mick Foley’s “Cheap Pops” special, the sneak peek at ECW Uncensored Volume 3 and Jerry Springer’s new show.
– On the other side of the coin, two shows that aren’t getting a lot of views at all are the Cinco de Mayo special with Los Matadores, and pretty much any episode of WWE Superstars.
Chris Jericho will be wrestling Finn Balor at the upcoming WWE live event in Tokyo, Japan on July 4th.
Originally, Jericho requested to work with Hideo Itami because he wanted to work a match that would be special to the Japanese fans. When Itami went down with an injury, Jericho then asked to work with Balor.
Speaking of Itami, despite his injury, he is still scheduled to head to Japan at the end of May to do some promotional work for WWE during their tour.
As noted earlier this month, Chris Jericho is returning to WWE this summer for another set of live events, with the possibility of some TV appearances.
WWE has now released the lineups for the company’s tour of Japan and Chris Jericho will be squaring off with none other than NXT star Finn Balor on July 4th. Balor will be replacing Hideo Itami, who is out of action for the remainder of 2015with a shoulder injury.
While it’s unfortunate that Itami won’t get a grand homecoming this summer, Balor is no stranger to Japan, having led the Bullet Club faction in New Japan Pro Wrestling prior to signing with WWE.
Here are the top matches currently advertised:
July 3rd:
US Champion John Cena vs. Rusev
Dolph Ziggler vs. King Barrett
July 4th:
Cena & Ziggler vs. Barrett & Rusev
Chris Jericho vs. Finn Balor
WWE Tag Team Champions New Day vs. Tyson Kidd & Cesaro
Other top stars appearing on the tour include NXT Champion Kevin Owens, Neville, Luke Harper, Lucha Dragons, Los Matadores, Bella Twins, and Naomi.
– “The Lunatic Fringe” Dean Ambrose Chris Jericho’s guest on this week’s Talk is Jericho podcast, which you can listen to over at PodcastOne.com.
– Former WWE writer Court Bauer of MLW Radio is Steve Austin’s guest on this week’s Steve Austin Show: Unleashed at PodcastOne.com.
– Former WWE, WCW and TNA writer Vince Russo is back with his latest blog. In his latest online piece, Russo takes aim at Sami Zayn, ranting and raving about why he feels Zayn will not “equal ratings.”
“RAW is a television show and Sami Zayn is NOT a television star—nor—will he be anytime soon. Sami is an exceptional wrestler on a wrestling show, and the only people who care about him are those die hard wrestling fans who are looking for 5-star matches that the massive don’t give a !@#$% about.
That’s why as champion Seth Rollins isn’t drawing no matter how hard they push him. Seth Rollins is a great wrestler, who only appeals to those purists who watch RAW for quality matches. The casual masses don’t care about that. What they care about are characters and storylines that ENTERTAIN them like the other TELEVISION shows they watch.
RAW wasn’t a GREAT show because Sami Zayn was on it—and the numbers clearly back that up.”
Russo admits Zayn is one of the best wrestlers on WWE’s roster, but “wrestling doesn’t draw.”
Part-time WWE Superstar Chris Jericho and comedian Nick Mundy stopped by the AfterbuzzTV studios this past Thursday to talk to Christian Rosenberg, Kaori Takee and George Hermoza about WWE and their new Comedy Central show ‘Nothing to Report’.
Jericho spoke about a number of topics, including the reason Vince McMahon doesn’t like tournaments, the new season of Tough Enough and who was supposed to be revealed as the person behind the GTV angle from the Attitude Era. Here are the highlights:
Why Vince McMahon Does Not Like Tournaments:
‘Vince McMahon does not like tournaments. I think because Wrestlemania 4 was a tournament for the title and it didn’t do a good ppv number and the show wasn’t very good. And ever since then he does not like tournaments.”
The New Season Of Tough Enough:
“It’s a whole new Tough Enough, it’s not like you’ve seen before. I think from what I understand it’s gonna be more like ‘The Voice’ where there’s mentors you know like if you had Christina Aguilera and Blake Nelson? Shelton or whatever cats are on there. And that’s what Hogan and Paige and Daniel Bryan will do. I’ll be the host.”
The Person Who Was Supposed To Be Behind GTV:
“When I did the Live with Chris Jericho with Stephanie at the Titan Studios WWE Studios. GTV was supposed to be Tom Green. Yes. And I just found out about it the other day. I didn’t know! GTV. And remember doesn’t it fit because remember Tom Green used to film stuff you know, pranks, stuff and all that shit and then what happened was they started planting the seeds for GTV and then Vince actually saw Tom Green’s stuff and said this guy is not funny. Done.”
Chris Jericho announced on Thursday that he will be hosting the new season of WWE Tough Enough, which premieres on the USA Network on Tuesday, June 23rd.
WWE also issued a press release giving tons more information about the new season, including details on judges, trainers and more.
– Hulk Hogan, Daniel Bryan and Paige will be judges on the series.
– Booker T, Lita and Billy Gunn will be the trainers.
– Tough Enough will be filmed out of the WWE Performance Center and Full Sail University, home of NXT.
– The official Tough Enough app will be launching on May 25th.
– There will be a lot of fan interaction, including the ability to vote via the Tough Enough app and texting to interact with various live elements
– Contestants in the series will “come face to face” with Vince McMahon, Triple H, Stephanie McMahon and John Cena over the course of the series.
– Samoa Joe is Jim Ross’ guest on this week’s Ross Report podcast. During the interview, JR talks to Joe about him possibly coming to WWE, his thoughts on CM Punk and more. You can download the show right now at PodcastOne.com.
– Smashing Pumpkins front man and the newest member of the TNA creative team, Billy Corgan, is the guest on the latest edition of Chris Jericho’s “Talk Is Jericho” podcast, which is also available for download right now. You can check out the show at PodcastOne.com.
– Finally, Ric Flair’s brand new podcast is out, with his first special guest, Olympic gold medalist and longtime WWE and TNA veteran — Kurt Angle. That show is available right now at Play.it.
For more on Flair’s new podcast, check out the following press release:
WRESTLER RIC FLAIR JOINS “PLAY.IT®”
“WOOOOO!™ Nation” Launches Today with special guest, world champion Kurt Angle
CBS RADIO and CBS Local Digital Media today announced the addition of “WOOOOO!™ Nation” to its Play.it® podcast network. The podcast features two-time Hall Of Famer, 16-time World Heavyweight Professional Wrestling Champion, Ric Flair, also known as The Nature Boy®. In the debut podcast, Flair interviews his long-time friend, 13-time World Heavyweight Professional Wrestling Champion Kurt Angle, who talks about his time in the industry with Flair and his history with the Pennsylvanian Foxcatcher Club. The podcast will be released every Wednesday. Fans can listen to “WOOOOO!™ Nation” on Play.it or through iTunes.
Widely recognized as the greatest professional wrestler of all time, Flair discusses pro-wrestling and sports, tells stories like only he can, and interviews a range of personalities – no topic is off limits for him during his weekly podcast.
“We are excited to welcome Ric to the Play.it podcast network,” said Ezra Kucharz, President of CBS Local Digital Media. “His addition to our lineup reinforces our commitment to providing podcasting fans the best content available.”
Together with Booker T’s “Heated Conversations” and Taz’s award-winning “Human Podcast Machine,” Play.it provides a great representation of professional wrestling for fans to enjoy across a variety of platforms.
Launched in January, Play.it offers more than 400 premium content podcasts by bringing together digital-exclusive programming from major brands and publishers as well as content from CBS RADIO shows on demand. Play.it also offers podcasts from CBS RADIO’s Boomer Esiason & Craig Carton, Carson Daly, and Kevin & Bean, in addition to well-known personalities like Tom Joyner, Jeffrey Hayzlett, Paulie Malignaggi and Marilu Henner, as well as content from leading news, lifestyle, sports and media brands including 48 HOURS, 60 MINUTES, CBS Sports Radio, Deadspin, Simon & Schuster and Foursquare.
Play.it is advertising supported and uses the latest in dynamic ad insertion technology as well as native and sponsorship advertising. Brands can buy campaigns across platforms in a simple one-stop-shop manner including over-the-air, live streaming and podcasts. Additionally, brands can deliver targeted messaging to specific fans of a particular show or across the entire network of hundreds of programs.