— Cody Rhodes revealed in an interview with WWE Magazine that the contents of his brother Goldust’s forthcoming book, Cross Rhodes, were surprising to him.

“I’ve heard my dad’s stories, I saw his DVD, and I’ve heard some of Goldust’s stories. But even as his brother, there was so much that I hadn’t heard,” Rhodes said. “He was very open in the writing of this book and talked very honestly about his career and his choices and how the things that have happened to him have affected it. I honestly think it’s going to shock readers.”

When asked to dish out some of the dirt in the book, Rhodes says Goldust openly discusses working and traveling with Marlena.

“Cross Rhodes is one of those ‘dirty secret’ books, and anyone who’s a Goldust fan is going to find something interesting,” he added.

— Jerry “The King” Lawler celebrates his birthday today as he turns 61 years old. “Mean” Gene Okerlund also turns 68 years old, while former WWE Champion John “Bradshaw” Layfield is 44.

— Percy Pringle (a/k/a Paul Bearer) noted in a blog post that his father was involved in an accident yesterday as his car popped out of gear and ran over his foot. After being evaluated in an emergency room, it was discovered that he had not broken a single bone.

— Via an e-mail read by announcer Michael Cole at Hell in a Cell, the anonymous Raw General Manager informed Edge that he will make a live, in-ring apology to him on Raw. He then declared that “The Rated-R Superstar” would face Jack Swagger immediately in an impromptu match. The nine-time World Champion gained the victory following a Spear.

— The dark match that took place prior to tonight’s Hell in a Cell pay-per-view broadcast was a six-man tag pitting Kofi Kingston, Goldust and R Truth against Dolph Ziggler, Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre. Prior to the match, there was an altercation between brothers Cody Rhodes and Goldust, with the WWE Tag Team Champion taunting The Bizarre One. Goldust ultimately came out on top in the brothers duel as he hit his finisher on Rhodes for the win.

— Click here to view the promotional video advertisement for WWE’s next pay-per-view event, Bragging Rights. The second annual show takes place three weeks from now at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

— The hash tag #HIAC narrowly managed to trend on Twitter towards the conclusion of the pay-per-view event.

— Cody Rhodes’ lack of major push is said to be attributed to Vince McMahon’s lack of faith in the second generation wrestler.

“Cody Rhodes is capable of a breakout, but Vince McMahon just can’t commit to him,” said a WWE source. “He thinks he overacts.”

— The writing for weekly episodes of NXT is said to be a collaborative effort. While lead Raw writer Ed Koskey heads the show’s creative effort, former Kevin Dunn assistant Jen Bloodsworth has great input in the show’s content.

— SmackDown Superstar Kofi Kingston was given a recent weekend off to get married.

sources: Pro Wrestling Torch, Wrestling Observer Newsletter

— The sister of WWE Divas Champion Alicia Fox, Christina Crawford, worked Thursday night’s Florida Championship Wrestling live event in Tampa, competing in a Divas Bikini Contest. It is not known if she has signed a developmental contract with WWE, but FCW shows are typically limited to contracted talent.

— “Dashing” Cody Rhodes debuted a new theme song on this past week’s episode of NXT. The song is called Smoking Mirror and it is performed by Matt White.

— Tickets for WWE SummerSlam Axxess yesterday morning via Ticketmaster. The event will take place Saturday, August 14 and Sunday, August 15 at Nokia Plaza at LA Live in Los Angeles, California. (Press release)

— WWE has added a new video feature to its website highlighting ‘the hottest Diva action of the week’. You can view the inaugural edition of Diva Shorts Action at the following link.

— Drew McIntyre and Wade Barrett’s respective visa issues have been resolved, reports www.F4WOnline.com. Barrett is expected to return to Raw this Monday while McIntyre will return to SmackDown once creative feels it’s right to bring him back from the deportation angle.

— The cover art for WWE’s forthcoming DVD set on the best of Monday Night Raw in 1993 and 1994, Raw “The Beginning”: The Best of Seasons 1 & 2, has been released. The cover, which features The Undertaker, Yokozuna, Bret Hart and Doink the Clown, among others, can be viewed here.

— WWE Hall of Famer Dusty Rhodes will be coming out of retirement to team up with sons Goldust and Cody Rhodes against the trio of Trent Barreta, Caylen Croft and Curt Hawkins on July 9 in Kissimmee, Florida at the Osceola Heritage Park Exhibition Hall. The Florida Championship Wrestling live event will also feature a Divas Bikini Contest.

sources: Wrestling Observer Newsletter, PWInsider.com

— WWE’s creative team is said to be pleased with the Diva pairing of Michelle McCool and Layla, known as “Lay-Cool.” Some within the company previously felt TNA’s “Beautiful People” concept made their women’s division look second rate by comparison, but now feel they’ve beaten the rival promotion at their own game.

Layla recently refuted fans’ allegations that “Lay-Cool” is copying “The Beautiful People,” writing on Twitter: “Cuz all of the tweets about this subject, For the Record, I do not watch TNA. So copy cat thing…kinda NOT!! This is All I will say. Done.!!”

Reportedly, the inspiration behind the “Lay-Cool” gimmick was due to creative watching “The Beautiful People” on TNA programming.

— Tuesday’s episode of NXT garnered a 0.93 cable rating for Syfy, an increase from last week’s 0.80 number. With that being said, viewership was actually down, from 1.21 million viewers to 1.05 (1,048,000). The all-time record viewership figure is 1.00 million viewers, which was scored on May 4.

— Today is Cody Rhodes’ birthday, who turns 25 years old.

(source: PWInsider.com)

— Kelly Kelly was cleared to wrestle at last night’s SmackDown live event in Worcester, Massachusetts, so it appears her injury from the previous night was not serious. The SmackDown Diva’s bout with Layla was prematurely concluded by the referee after she took a bad shot to either the neck or shoulder.

— To correct an earlier report, R-Truth did not suffer a knee injury at Saturday evening’s Raw live event in Youngstown, Ohio, but rather a pulled groin. He is attempting to work through the injury. Like Kelly, his match came to an abrupt conclusion as a result of injury.

— Cody Rhodes, who took a bad hit to the head at Saturday night’s SmackDown live event in Portland, Maine, is apparently fine. He worked last night’s show in Worcester, losing to Kofi Kingston. It was initially feared that he had suffered a concussion, but it is now believed to not be the case.

— Commenting on rumors concerning his status with World Wrestling Entertainment, Bret Hart claims he too is unaware of his status with the organizaiton. Hart wrote the following yesterday on his official website, also noting Martha Hart’s lawsuit against WWE:

“As far as the recent lawsuit filed by Martha, I’m working on a detailed response that I will post soon, but I think my fans might be a little surprised at my take on things. Aside from that, I know that the WWE Universe is more than curious to know what my status is anymore and the truth is nobody knows, including me. There are a lot rumors out there about me and all I can say is that they’re rarely true. I will have some major announcements forthcoming, but right now I’m going to keep the lid on things because I’m not looking for any distractions.”

— During last night’s SmackDown house show in Portland, Cody Rhodes apparently took a bad bump as a result of a double back suplex, courtesy of Kofi Kingston and Matt Hardy. The second generation wrestler would continue the match a few minutes later, but had to be helped out to the backstage area by trainers following its conclusion.

— WWE returns to the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Massachusetts on August 29th, 2010 at 7 PM. Tickets go on sale July 10th, 2010 at 10 AM. (Thanks to Devin Cutting)

(sources: Wrestling Globe Newsletter, www.f4wonline.com)

— Creative has discussed having Cody Rhodes join CM Punk’s Straight Edge Society. The second generation wrestler has sparingly appeared on Friday Night SmackDown! since being transferred over to the blue brand in April.

— A Six-Divas Tag Match pitting Divas Champion Eve and The Bella Twins against Maryse and Laycool (with Santino Marella as the special guest referee) at last night’s WWE live event in Madison Square Garden garnered a highly negative reaction from the raucous New York City audience as the “Sexy, Smart & Powerful” WWE Divas were treated with “This is boring” and “This is stupid” chants during the bout. The match, which was said to be “a mess,” concluded with Eve pinning Maryse following a spinning neckbreaker.

— For the week ending Jun 6 in the UK, TNA’s iMPACT! did 58,000 viewers, Monday Night Raw did 111,000, Friday Night SmackDown! did 125,000, WWE Superstars did 51,000, and NXT did 26,000.

– Add WWE Champion John Cena to the list of superstars injured at Sunday’s WWE Over The Limit pay-per-view. Cena posted on Twitter.com/WWEJCena this morning:

Morning CeNation. Spent last 3 hrs at dentist. Got a tooth knocked out at OTL. Mouth numb.

He later added that a fan suggested he do a “Cena after the dentist” video – a reference to the “David after the dentist” viral video. Cena replied, “Brilliant. Is this real life?”

In case you’re living under a rock and haven’t seen the “David After the Dentist” video (it’s got over 60 million views on YouTube), here it is .. Imagine Cena like that?

– The SyFy Channel sent out a press release this morning announcing that WWE superstar Cody Rhodes will be appearing on an episode of the show “Warehouse 13” in August. Rhodes will play character Joanne Kelly’s (Myka Bering) high school love interes. According to the press release:

“Rhodes guest stars as “Kurt Smoller,” the former captain of Myka’s high school football team. Charming and good-natured, Kurt shows up at the high school reunion looking better than ever and, in spite of complications brought on by exposure to an artifact, Myka finds herself romantically drawn to him.”

— Rey Mysterio is once again complaining about his pay, according to WWE sources. Though some feel he’s had legitimate gripes in the past, he’s developed a reputation within WWE for being overly paranoid over his pay. He feels he’s being short-changed compared to some of the other top performers in the company. (source: www.pwtorch.com)

— The following was issued: “And now ladies and gentleman, viewers to www.MichelleMcCool.Net of all ages we present to you *insert drum roll here* the exclusive second part to MichelleMcCool.Net’s 5th Anniversary Interview! In this half, we get a little more personal with Michelle as the questions and answers go “Beyond the Ropes.” Michelle talks about her experience at WrestleMania Axxess this year, what she thinks about support from the gay community, her body and what parts she has problems with most, who she’d like to have an on screen relationship with, which wrestling family is Flawless, her favorite and least favorite classes in school, who she enjoys doing WWE appearances with most, how she got involved with Krav Maga and much more! With questions that have never been asked before and answers never before revealed, you’ll definitely want to check out the conclusion to our two part exclusive 5th Anniversary interview with Michelle McCool!”

You can read the interview at www.MichelleMcCool.Net.

— On Twitter, Goldust commented on his brother, Cody Rhodes, being called a “legend.” He does not agree with the assessment.

“Someone said my bro was a legend. No he is far from it,” Goldust wrote. “He must pay his dues, and in time he will become a legend.”

— Plans as of early last week was that the Drew McIntyre firing angle would be held off until after Sunday’s Over The Limit pay-per-view with Matt Hardy insisting Theodore Long rehire McIntyre so he could beat him up. It was also indicated that WWE would utilize Twitter with Hardy asking his fans to spread his message. (source: f4wonline.com)

— Goldust, Cody Rhodes and Dusty Rhodes were originally scheduled to team up for the first time together at a Florida Championship Wrestling live event on Jul. 9, but plans have changed. Instead, Goldust and Cody will team up together, with the WWE Hall of Famer accompanying his sons to the ring. All three will be taking part in a meet and greet before the show.

— Sunday’s Over The Limit live chat on WWEUniverse.com will be a “Divas Night” as the winner of the Divas Championship Match between champion Eve Torres and Maryse will appear during the session. Also scheduled to appear are former Women’s Champions Melina and Beth Phoenix. Click here for more information.

— In light of Beth Phoenix’ removal from television as a result of a torn ACL, there is talk of splitting up Lay-Cool — Michelle McCool and Layla — and having them feud with each other. It’s also been said that Melina may return to SmackDown once she’s cleared to wrestle, which is expected to take place in June. (source: PWInsider.com)

— In an interview with WWE Magazine, Ted DiBiase is asked what he won’t miss from his days in The Legacy, to which he replied playing with G.I. Joe action figures. He then relays a bizarre story of Rhodes once seriously asking him to play with said toys.

“Well, he wanted to play “War,” and I thought it was some video game or card game. Then he pulled all these dolls out of his bag. He lined them up and started making noises like, “Pow! Pow! Boom!” It was just bad,” DiBiase said. “I thought it was a joke, but he told me I needed to take it more seriously. I felt inclined to play along because I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. Never again.”

— WWE was the No. 2 trending topic on Yahoo.com yesterday.

Here are some interview highlights of what “The Uncommon” Cody Rhodes told Slam Wrestling about:

Being a Second Generation Star: “It can be incredibly easy or incredibly difficult. I didn’t want to be my dad. I don’t want to be Dusty Rhodes Jr. I want to be Cody Rhodes.”

Being Drafted To SmackDown: “RAW was more of a variety show. Smackdown is more of a wrestling-based show. That’s my area. It gives me a chance to showcase myself. I feel I’ll do really well between the ropes. I think things are going to be changing for me along with the brand change. As a fan, I like to see the talent evolve and I need to evolve. I really wasn’t a character on RAW. It was ‘here we have our second- and third-generation superstars.’ Now, fans will have the opportunity to see who Cody Rhodes is.”

Legacy: “The point was to introduce us, as The Legacy, the same as when Randy Orton and Batista were brought in with Evolution. I don’t think it’d be totally bizarre if three, five or seven years down the road from now, you saw a Wrestlemania match with me and on the other side, Ted DiBiase.”

To check out the full interview, visit Slam Wrestling.

– Bret Hart worked as the special enforcer of a  triple threat match between Jack Swagger, Edge, Chris Jericho on Saturday night on WWE’s European tour. Like the night before, Swagger ended up in the Sharpshooter and Bret posed with Edge to end the show.

– Time to Shine by Saliva is the official theme song for WWE’s Extreme Rules pay-per-view.

– Cody Rhodes has been wearing amateur wrestling head gear during the WWE European tour, to go along with the punt kick he received from Randy Orton at WrestleMania.

– Shad Gaspard has new theme music now that Cryme Tyme has broken up.

SmackDown *SPOILERS*

Thanks to reader Archie for these live spoilers from Tuesday’s SmackDown tapings:

Dark Match:

* Jimmy Wang defeats Tyler Reks with a moonsault in a good match. Reks cut a heel promo before the match.

SmackDown, Airing Friday:

* Chris Jericho comes out to start SmackDown and says he will win the Chamber. Edge comes out to a big pop. He talks about spearing Taker last week. Jericho tells Edge to pick the RAW Champion for WrestleMania for his own good. The lights flicker and Edge spears Jericho.

* Kane vs. Dolph Ziggler takes place until Drew McIntyre comes down in a suit. Dolph tries to take advantage but Kane chokeslams him for the win. Drew comes in and hits his finisher on Kane but Kane reverses it.

* Rey Mysterio cuts a promo backstage and says he will win the Elimination Chamber.

* John Morrison & R-Truth vs. CM Punk & Luke Gallows is announced for tonight.

* Cryme Tyme defeated Trent Baretta and Caylon Croft in a good tag match.

* John Morrison is interviewed and says his ankle won’t make him miss the Chamber. Truth comes in and says he will win the Chamber but tonight, he and Morrison will beat Punk and Gallows.

* CM Punk and the Straight Edge Society come out. Punk cuts a promo and says he will win the belt at Elimination Chamber this Sunday. Tons of heat for Punk.

* Punk & Gallows vs. Morrison & Truth ends in a no contest. What looked like Undertaker’s pyro went off during the match, everything stopped but nothing happened. Match is restarted. Morrison was really playing up his ankle injury. The referee called for the bell when Morrison went to kick Punk but kicked the ring post and went down in pain. SES beats Morrison and Truth down until Rey Mysterio comes in for the save. They beat him down and pose in front of Rey to a ton of heat.

* Teddy Long is shown backstage. He says he will take action against Shawn Michaels for super kicking him on RAW. Mickie James comes in and Vickie Guerrero announces it will be Mickie vs. Michelle McCool next week with Vickie as the referee.

* Maria, Matt Hardy and The Great Khali vs. The Hart Dynasty is up next. The Dynasty gets the win when Natalya pins Maria. Maria walks up the ramp pissed off with Matt right behind her apologizing.

* Maria is shown backstage arguing with Matt Hardy about him letting their team down. Michelle McCool and Layla come in and make fun of them.

* Edge vs. Batista is next. No pyro for Batista, simple entrance but a big pop. Edge comes out to a big pop also. Batista stalls to start the match. Edge takes the mic and says John Cena was right about Batista. Finally they wrestle and it’s a good match. Edge spears Batista and Taker’s bell hits and he appears in the ring. Taker chokeslams Edge. Taker chases Batista off. Chris Jericho appears in the ring and hits the Codebreaker on Edge. Taker comes back out and stares down Jericho to end SmackDown after Jericho motions to the World Title.