– We noted over the weekend Cody Rhodes indicated on Twitter that he would be appearing at EVOLVE 66 in Joppa, MD. WWN Live issued the following on the appearance this weekend:
“The big news is that Cody Rhodes is coming to EVOLVE! Cody Rhodes will wrestle in singles competition at EVOLVE 66 on August 19th in Joppa, MD at the MCW Arena. This will be Cody’s first post-WWE match so it will be a very special night in the Baltimore area! In addition, Cody will be available for pictures and autographs. Rhodes has asked to wrestle a top talent. We are working out the details now and will have more info next week. Get your tickets now while great ringside seats remain! This event will be broadcast at www.WWNLive.com on live iPPV.”
– As seen below, Dean Ambrose’s latest Make-A-Wish meeting came at last Monday’s RAW in Green Bay:
– Former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dave Bautista is featured in the new film Marauders, which also stars Bruce Willis, Christopher Meloni and Adrian Grenier. Lionsgate Movies released the official trailer this week for the film, which will hit theaters and On Demand on July 1st. You can watch the trailer here:
– Dean Ambrose recently sat down with Tom Philips for a WWE.com exclusive interview to promote their annual Money In The Bank pay-per-view. During the interview, Ambrose also touches on SmackDown going live this Summer and says that he likes knowing anything can happen at any time and so does the WWE Universe. Ambrose says he was “screwed” out of the Money In The Bank briefcase and the World Heavyweight Title before, but he’s still confident going into the PPV. “What’s a piece of metal to represent who the champion is, I still feel like I’m the king of this place,” Ambrose said.
Money In The Bank 2016 takes place on June 19th at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada. The show airs live on the WWE Network with live play-by-play coverage and discussion on SEScoops.com.
As seen at WWE Extreme Rules tonight, Dean Ambrose beat Chris Jericho in the first ever Asylum Match and used thumbtacks to get the job done. Below are some photos and a clip from the match:
As seen below, Chris Jericho vs. Dean Ambrose will happen at WWE Extreme Rules on Sunday, in the first-ever Asylum Match. Extreme Rules takes place this Sunday, May 22nd from Newark, NJ.
This week’s episode of Monday Night RAW airs live on the USA Network from the Coliseum Complex in Greensboro, NC. Here’s what WWE is promoting for tonight’s episide, which is the go-home show for Sunday’s Extreme Rules PPV:
– The build-up for Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles at Extreme Rules. Will AJ wrestle before the pay-per-view with his ankle injury?
– More matches are expected to be added to the Extreme Rules PPV.
– How will Dean Ambrose respond to Chris Jericho’s attack on SmackDown last week?
– Primo and Epico will make their WWE returns with their new characters.
Other talent advertised to appear at the includes Kane, The Big Show, and Shane McMahon. Come back later tonight at 7:30 PM ET for our live play-by-play coverage and discussion during RAW!
After last night’s RAW went off the air, Chris Jericho called Dean Ambrose to the ring to apologize for destroying his $15,000 jacket. Ambrose came out and faked an apology and left Jericho laying with Dirty Deeds. Ambrose then elbow dropped the jacket to end the show.
@TheQueenHEEL Dean came back out to apologize only to hit Jericho with Dirty Deeds to send everyone home happy pic.twitter.com/qPGF1ccWkN
– This week’s WWE SmackDown drew 2.355 million viewers with a 1.70 rating, down from last week’s 2.444 million and 1.75 rating.
– As announced on Friday, Triple H and Shane McMahon are joining WWE’s ongoing overseas tour. Triple H’s opponent will be Dean Ambrose at the following shows:
April 20th in Newcastle, England
April 21st in Brussels, Belgium
April 22nd in Paris, France
April 23rd in Malaga, Spain
– Paige congratulated Scottish women’s wrestler Nikki Storm for being part of the new class of recruits at the WWE Performance Center:
– WWE posted the above video where their new TV host Cathy Kelley looks at wrestlers’ reactions to the Bullet Club making their debut on RAW. 27-year-old Kelley reportedly signed with WWE back on Friday, February 5th.
– The dark main event after WWE’s SmackDown taping on Tuesday was Dean Ambrose & Sami Zayn vs. Chris Jericho & Kevin Owens. Ambrose & Zayn won the match after Ambrose hits the Dirty Deeds on Owens for the 3-count.
– Dean Ambrose granted a wish on Monday before RAW in Los Angeles, CA. WWE tweeted the following photo of Ambrose with a Make-A-Wish kid:
Wrestlemania 32 is in the books and it is fair to say that there were some….intriguing….booking choices made by the company, probably the most notable was Y2J picking up the win against AJ Styles, a man who as far as I can recall is the only man to have ever performed at Wrestle Kingdom and Wrestlemania in the same year and lose at both events.
More confusing is that the next night on the Raw after Mania they gave the number 1 contendership to AJ in a match where he pinned Jericho following a Styles Clash, driving home the ‘parity’ booking mentality the company seems to rely on heavily. Jericho has certainly lost more than his fair share of matches and has been more than willing to put over newer talent, even if it leads to obscurity for said talent (….Fandango), but for AJ’s first PPV event he really should’ve picked up the win.
After the win against AJ I fully expected Jericho to be placed in a program with Roman Reigns for the WWE Championship, this feud would’ve been an ideal opportunity for Reigns to learn from a grizzled vet and you can guarantee that Y2J would’ve done all he could’ve to try and stop the fans cheering him in an attempt to get Reigns over. But now that AJ has been placed in this slot for the Payback match what is there left for Jericho to do? There are 4 opponents that I would like to see him face off against from here:
Dean Ambrose – After an underwhelming match with Brock Lesnar at Mania; Ambrose also appears to be a man without a purpose, I have no doubt that an eventual Shield 3 way match for the title is on the cards when Seth Rollins is healthy, but in the meantime I see no reason why Jericho can’t have a similar program to that with CM Punk back in 2012, both are good promos and have the ability to work in a variety of stipulation matches that could re-establish Ambrose as a main event contender going forward, his reactions from the live crowds certainly warrant a prolonged push and I felt he was put in a difficult position with Lesnar as there was no way that they could live up to the Street Fights of yesteryear without the ability to bring blood into their match and that Brock Lesnar should not be losing matches, especially at Wrestlemania.
Shinsuke Nakamura – Even if they aren’t willing to bring Shinsuke up to the main roster full time just yet we’ve seen plenty of examples of NXT talent having cross-over matches, Kevin Owens benefitted greatly from having a program with John Cena while NXT Champion. The storyline could be as simple as Jericho calling Nakamura another ‘Y2J-Wannabe’ as he wrestled in Japan first, you could easily bring up Jericho’s past in the Super-J cup tournament to create a bit of legitimacy as the company appears to be more willing to acknowledge accomplishments outside of the WWE these days, you could even have Jericho perform at a Takeover show, something I’m sure the Full Sail crowd would not complain about. Really I would love to see Shinsuke on the main roster and a feud with Jericho (the gatekeeper of the WWE ‘style’) could be a great way to introduce him to the RAW audience.
Cesaro – He had built up quite a lot of momentum before his injury but a placeholder feud before going for a title could be the ideal way to re-build Cesaro. I feel that this is really the time for the WWE to decide if they are going to really take a push in Cesaro seriously and if so they need to put him up against a heel that will go above and beyond to put them over to the next level, I can definitely see a feud between them working as both Y2J and the Swiss Superman are both well travelled veterans and have experience in the European style of grappling. These two could easily have a show-stealing performance at the likes of Payback and while I don’t see this as a multiple month feud it certainly warrants getting a PPV match out of them at least.
Sami Zayn – Out of the 4 wrestlers mentioned I would say that a program with Sami Zayn is definitely more for further down the road, once he has finished the first (of hopefully) many matches with Kevin Owens I would really enjoy seeing Zayn, who is probably one of the best babyface performers in the world right now, get a feud with Jericho; who could again impart a decent amount of wisdom onto Sami and help him move from the lighter schedule of NXT to the full 300+ days a year main roster workload he will have to adapt to.
Thanks for reading, you can check out the second episode of the R & J Wrestling podcast below looking at the 2008 feud between Jericho and Shawn Michaels:
WWE Fastlane was the least-purchased PPV in company history, according to the Wrestling Observer.
Fastlane did 18,000 PPV buys in North America and 25,000 ppv buys outside of North America with a total of 43,000 PPV Buys. In comparison, last years Fastlane did a total of 56,00 PPV Buys.
Fastlane 2016 was headlined with Roman Reigns defeating both Dean Ambrose and Brock Lesnar for the right to face Triple H at Wrestlemania 32.
Its worth noting that WWE is primarily focused on getting people signed up for the WWE Network, which would reflect the poor buy-rate numbers, but WWE still makes PPV available to fans. In a press release on Monday, WWE revealed the WWE Network now boasts 1.82 million subscribers, which is a 39 percent increase from a year ago.
Yesterday, we reported on how Chris Smith at Forbes had put together a list of WWE’s highest paid wrestlers. While lists of this kind have gone around for years, they’re usually of some nebulous origin or an incredibly unreliable source like CelebrityNetWorth. This is different, however: Not only is it from Forbes, the magazine of record for finance, but it’s also an actual Forbes staff writer as opposed to their larger contributor network. Nothing against them, but they weren’t hired with the financial angle in mind. Since it’s a Forbes article from a Forbes staffer, the list is being taken a lot more seriously than these things usually are.
In his article, Smith claims that “Over the last year we’ve pored over court documents, SEC filings and WWE’s booking contracts and spent hours speaking with industry sources, allowing us to construct the first ever FORBES list of WWE’s Highest-Paid Wrestlers.” Let’s take a look at the list again:
John Cena: 9.5 million
Brock Lesnar: 6.0 million
Triple H: 2.8 million
Randy Orton: 2.7 million
Seth Rollins: 2.4 million
Roman Reigns: 2.1 million
Undertaker: 2.0 million
Big Show: 1.5 million
Kane: 1.3 million
Dean Ambrose: 1.1 million
So, what do we know about the numbers on Smith’s list for Forbes?
The only one whose pay would come up in SEC filing is Triple H, since he’s an executive officer of WWE under his real name of Paul Levesque. This does appear to be correct: If you don’t include stock awards, and Smith didn’t, he made $2,812,629 in 2015. That’s broken down as $573,269 in salary for his executive role, $526,000 in incentive plan compensation, and $1,713,360 for his pay as talent, $1 million of which is his contracted downside guarantee. There’s a note that “Mr. Levesque has out-earned this minimum guarantee in each of the past several years.”
Randy Orton and John Cena both had divorces, though only Orton’s finances went public as a result. TMZ reported that at the time of the July 2013 divorce, Orton was making $291,666 a month, or just $8 short of $3.5 million in a year. It’s not clear if that was his total 2012 pay or what, as the belief is that WWE’s downside guarantees never top $1 million. Cena did have his annual earnings pegged as about $10 million by Wrestling Observer editor Dave Meltzer in January, while Meltzer has also reported Brock Lesnar’s pay in the past because he gets a flat fee per appearance. In the past, Meltzer has said something to the effect of how these days, it’s understood that The Undertaker’s $1 million guarantee is considered his WrestleMania payoff. With additional appearances headlining SummerSlam and Hell in a Cell last year, $2 million sounds reasonable.
It gets hazier after that as you move further down the line.
In a deposition that I cited in my January article for SBNation about Big Show’s flirtation with boxing, Big Show said that when he returned to WWE in 2008, he asked for $1.25 million and a $250,000 signing bonus…but that was eight years ago and it’s not clear in the public filings if he even got what he wanted. A deposition with his wife, who apparently handles their finances, had her testifying that she didn’t think he made any bonuses on top of his base salary. That would be unusual for a full time WWE performer, but it could also have to do with confusion over the nature of WWE contracts. WWE pay works two ways: You can just take your per-event pay and royalties as they come, or you can take your downside guarantee as a salary and get a balloon payment at the end of the year for what goes over the guarantee. Since he has little merchandise, $1.5 million doesn’t sound outrageously low, though.
Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Kane, and Dean Ambrose all have little to no information out there about their pay. Kane recently put his home up on the market and it was huge, sprawling property with a house customized to his specific needs as a very tall man, but because he’s based in Knoxville, Tennessee, the price was dramatically less than you’d think, coming in under $1 million. The rest seem realistic enough.
What do you think of the list? Let us know in the comments.
Dean Ambrose spoke with FOX Sports this week to promote his match against Brock Lesnar this Sunday night at WrestleMania 32.
The former Shield member wrestlers a very physical style, yet somehow he’s avoided the injury bug that’s plagued WWE’s roster and kept stars like John Cena and Seth Rollins on the sidelines. Ambrose said a lot of that has to do with the way he trains and takes care of himself. He focuses a lot on flexibility and makes a point of not exceeding his “normal” bodyweight by much. He says a lot of guys carry excessive muscle mass, which makes them more injury prone. He likes to keep himself lean and healthy and also admits to being lucky.
That said, he is used to dealing with pain on a regular basis and it’s just part of the job.
“On the other hand, I’m also constantly hurt. I’ve been hurt for 10 years,” Ambrose said. “It’s not like I’m not constantly dealing with a litany of injuries that I have myself. If it’s not one thing, it’s another thing but I’ve just been able to keep rolling. I’ve not had anything catastrophic happen to me. It’s a funny thing because it’s always like the crazy freak things. It’s not like ‘Oh he got hurt when he jumped off the top of the cage.’ It’s like ‘He got hurt stepping into the ring’ or ‘popped his shoulder out giving a high five’. It’s the little things you can’t plan for. It’s not anything that ever enters my mind.
Not only is he facing the toughest opponent of his life this Sunday in Brock Lesnar, but the No Holds Barred Street Fight stipulation adds an extra element of danger.
“It’s the most dangerous match possible. It’s the most hardcore stuff. It could be a flaming table, ladder, exploding ring, whatever stuff you can think of and I’ve been in all of them. But there’s no more dangerous match than just being in the ring with Brock Lesnar. He is so physically overwhelming and the attributes that he has — let alone against little old me. That in itself makes it a very hazardous and dangerous situation.”
He said that he likes to “play with fire” in what could be a foreshadowing of what to expect in their match. The idea of him and Brock Lesnar being armed with weapons excites him because it’s kill or be killed. “It’s not every day you get to play a game of legit Russian roulette,” he said. “It’s very exciting for me.”
– Sam Roberts scored an interview with Dean Ambrose this week on his Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast. Topics discussed include Wrestlemania 32, Dean’s recent match with HHH at Roadblock, dating Renee Young, winding up on Total Divas, and much more. Plus, Sam breaks down Monday’s RAW in a “State of Wrestling” segment. Definitely worth checking out:
– Cesaro arrived in Dallas, Texas today for WrestleMania week. The Swiss Superman is advertised to return to action during next month’s WrestleMania Revenge tour of the UK.
Dean Ambrose was Michael Cole’s guest for this week’s WWE.com sitdown interview. Here are some highlights:
– They talked about Ambrose’s WWE title match against Triple H this Saturday night at Roadblock. Ambrose said he had to get in Triple H’s face to get the opportunity and Triple H knows he can’t beat him. Ambrose says Triple H likes to rationalize and explain away things when they don’t go his way. When he defeats Triple H for the WWE Championship this Sunday, Triple H won’t be able to explain that away.
– Ambrose did a Triple H impersonation and said all his Triple H’s tough talk is to compensate for his insecurities. Ambrose doesn’t think Triple H is fooling anybody.
– Cole talks about how Ambrose will completely change the landscape of WrestleMania if he defeats Triple H at Roadblock. Ambrose says that’s not his problem. He feels like WWE is his company because he’s the guy on the road 300 days every year, taking whatever is put in front of him. The WWE Universe knows that even though it’s technically Vince McMahon’s company, WWE belongs to him now. Triple H have no choice but to respect him after Roadblock.
– Cole asks what WWE would look like with Dean as WWE World Heavyweight Champion and Ambrose says, “Best for business.”
– NXT stars Sami Zayn, Enzo Amore, Colin Cassady and NXT Tag Team Champions The Revival are scheduled for the March 12th “March to WrestleMania: Live from Toronto” WWE Network special.
– Dean Ambrose granted two Make-A-Wish Wishes before Tuesday’s WWE SmackDown tapings in Indianapolis. WWE Community has photos of his meeting with Wish Kids Gianna and Jonathan at this link.
– Tamina Snuka plays Street Fighter V with WWE Tag Team Champions Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston in these new videos from the “UpUpDownDown” YouTube channel:
Dean Ambrose recently spoke with The Independent to promote 12 Rounds 3, which was released in the UK on January 4th. Here are some highlights:
On AJ Styles possibly joining WWE:
“I’m down with that, this is where the best talent in the world is. I hadn’t heard about AJ coming in so that’s really cool. I think NXT has opened up the doors for a lot of guys to come in and create different opportunities.
In North America there aren’t too many big places to go, so you find that pretty much all of the best talent in the world ends up filtering through WWE. It’s a very exciting time.”
On who he would like to work with that he hasn’t yet:
“I’d love to wrestle Samoa Joe at some point, I’ve never been in the ring with him and I can picture that being pretty cool. Other than that I think I’ve wrestled everybody. That’s what comes when you’re a guy who has been around for a while and who can do it all.”
With SmackDown moving to the USA Network last week, WWE appears to be attempting to give fans more of a reason to tune in each Thursday evening.
On Monday’s RAW, WWE announced three matches as opposed to the usual one match or Superstar that they would air as a weekly commercial in the third hour of RAW for SmackDown, all of which either have a stipulation, a title on the line or a WWE title-holder involved.
The following matches were announced on Monday’s RAW for this week’s edition of SmackDown on the USA Network, which will be taped on Tuesday evening in Lafayette, Louisiana:
* The Dudley Boyz vs. The Wyatt Family (Tables Match)
* Dean Ambrose & Neville vs. Kevin Owens & Sheamus
* Kalisto (c) vs. Alberto Del Rio (WWE United States Title)
Make sure to visit SEScoops.com on Tuesday evening for a complete report from the WWE SmackDown television tapings in Lafayette, Louisiana.
WWE will be taping this week’s edition of SmackDown on Tuesday night in Laredo, Texas for the first episode of the show to air in its’ new home on the USA Network.
WWE previously announced that John Cena would be appearing on the show and that Mauro Ranallo would take over as the new voice of SmackDown on the show, and following Monday’s WWE RAW, the following title matches are now confirmed for the show as well:
* Dean Ambrose (c) vs. Kevin Owens (WWE Intercontinental Championship)
* Charlotte (c) vs. Becky Lynch (WWE Divas Championship)
WWE Superstar Dean Ambrose recently appeared as a guest on the Chad Dukes Wrestling Show for an interview. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On Roddy Piper comparisons and his favorite Piper moment:
“I don’t know how you can not take it as a compliment. I was able to have a lot of good conversations, spend a good amount of time with him through the last couple years which was, that’s a rare opportunity and I don’t think a lot of guys got that. Me and him really just kind of clicked because he just kind of sensed that we had a similar outlook on stuff. The thing I like about him, I’ve been asked about him since he passed away a few times, the thing I always say is my favorite Roddy Piper moment was one of the nights he was wrestling Hogan it was in WCW. He’s wrestling Hogan and he’s the big hero finally going to go up against the NWO or whatever and just the entrance makes you go, “Man, that’s what wrestling, that’s where you captivate people.” ‘Cause they just went out there and back raked each other for fifteen minutes, they’re both like fifty five by that point, but the entrance he just walks down, Roddy Piper music, and he just walks to the ring, down the ramp, with like this death stare at the ring, like this thousand yard, like he’s in a different mental place. He’s doing nothing but doing everything. The way he walks the ring, you know that Roddy Piper is ready to die in the ring fighting the NWO that night, he does not care, he will fight to the death. This is the end of the world fight. It’s so hard to capture that anymore because it’s such a fun, entertainment thing nowadays. We have so many shows and so much content. When is there an end of the world fight to the death anymore?”
On his current role in WWE:
“Lenny Harris was a utility player for the [Cincinatti] Reds, he’s on my favorite players because he literally played every position on every night he played a different position. First base, short stop, whatever, but he was a beloved guy because he was always there and could do anything. I think I’m one of the only guys here, I mean we have so much great talent here, but I can do anything. I can literally do anything. That’s not me being like, “oh I’m so great,” I’m just like. I know what I’m doing. I’m not some schmuck they just hired and threw down in the Performance Center and gave him an entrance or anything that like. I’ve been around enough and have enough experience, I know what I’m doing pretty much. I like to think I’m a good mechanic for the company. “Oh well, we sprung a leak? Call Ambrose, throw him in there.” I like that because I think it has really upped my value with the company and I think that they realize nowadays too another Dean Ambrose isn’t going to walk through the door anytime soon or ever. So. I kind of exist in my own little space, I kind of got my own little corner of the room carved out for myself which I like.”
WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross recently updated the Q&A section at JRsBarBQ.com, fielding questions from fans on a number of topics. Below are some of the highlights.
On Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose:
“I like and support both Reigns and Ambrose. It simply takes a while for talents to get to their destination (Get over) and both these men are still on their journey to get there. Let’s give both time. Patience.”
On Reigns’ matches always looking the same:
“I don’t have any thing for you that’s going to make you automatically like Reigns or any one else any more or any less. Connecting with a talent sometimes never occurs and for others it comes immediately or over time. If you don’t like him, it’s not a crime. I know he’s doing his best to ger there but Roman is green an still evolving with miles to go before he reaches the Promised Land.”
On Eva Marie:
“Eva has a great look but how she matures as a performer is the key to her future. I think her look has been what has appealed the most to WWE thus far.”
On why WWE ring entrances aren’t as cool as they used to be:
“Even bigger than the entrance music, accompanying pyro, is for the stars to be over and many aren’t at this time. I don’t see this as a Lilian, entrance music or pyro issue whatsoever.”
On reason why WWE doesn’t have international photographers at ringside as much as they used to:
“I don’t know but it’s seemingly been long ago except for Wrestlemania or so I think. WWE likes to own and control all their own intellectual property.”
WWE Intercontinental champion Dean Ambrose was injured on RAW during his steel cage main event match against Sheamus. Ambrose emerged victorious, but did not walk away unscathed. He suffered a laceration on the back of his head that required six staples to close.
There’s no rest for the weary (or stapled), because Dean Ambrose will be competing on tonight’s special live edition of WWE SmackDown. He’ll defend the IC title against Dolph Ziggler and the man he captured the gold from earlier this month, Kevin Owens.
Tonight’s live Tuesday edition of SmackDown is part of WWE Week on the USA Network, which continues Wednesday night with the annual Tribute to the Troops show.
– On Monday’s RAW, a second title match was announced for this week’s live edition of WWE SmackDown on Tuesday night in Des Moines, Iowa. In addition to The New Day vs. The Lucha Dragons tag-team title match we reported earlier this evening, Dean Ambrose will be defending his WWE Intercontinental Championship in a triple-threat match against Kevin Owens and Dolph Ziggler.
– It was also announced on Monday’s RAW that Big Show will be Jonathan Coachman’s guest for the WWE segment on ESPN SportsCenter tomorrow evening to promote Wednesday’s WWE Tribute To The Troops special.
The Miz announced that he will be hosting a special online edition of Miz TV this afternoon at 4pm EST. His guest will be none other than Intercontinental Champion Dean Ambrose.
For a few months, one of the lines you’d often hear about Roman Reigns was that fans didn’t dislike him per se, they just hated how he was being booked. He first built his momentum in The Shield, but it slowed down when he started cutting lengthy, John Cena-style promos. Crowds at pay-per-view events and TV tapings either booed him or went silent. Last week’s show-ending promo on Monday Night Raw was just the latest step in that direction with the infamous “tater tots” lines.
Starting at TLC on Sunday night, it all changed, and the above video is the result. While WWE did post a Reigns celebration video, it doesn’t include this part. Here, the fans in Philadelphia (the same city as the Royal Rumble in January where he got booed) not only go nuts as we saw on Raw, but break out the “You deserve it!” chant originally made famous by Daniel Bryan. Even in light of the reaction he got last night, that’s kind of a surprise.