– The latest issue of WWE Magazine looks back at the slew of grappling greats that debuted ten years ago—John Cena, Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, Brock Lesnar and Batista. In their write-up for Batista, WWE predicts that fans haven’t seen the last of The Animal. WWE states:
“Although he left the company in 2010, many see the departure as a temporary one, and it’s simply a matter of time before The Animal rises again.”
– WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross joined the Oklahoma City Thunder broadcast team during the second quarter of tonight’s NBA game between the Thunder and Portland Trail Blazers.
JR changed his signature look as he was shown on television with a grey goatee.
– Ticketmaster.com is holding a pre-sale for the March 20 SmackDown taping at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey from Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. through Friday at 11:59 p.m. The pre-sale code is ROCKWWE.
John Cena wrote the following on Twitter early Tuesday morning:
“2012 started as 2011 ended. Hate dominating the landscape. I have a feeling these next few months will be the greatest of all challenges.
I can see what kane is trying to do…and I certainly know where I stand with Dwayne. I wont falter. Stand 4 something or fall 4 everything. Rise Above Hate.”
– According to fans in attendance, the John Cena vs. Kane matches at this week’s RAW live events have been mostly one-sided for Kane until he uses a chair and gets disqualified, with Cena getting the upperhand after the match and clearing the ring.
– Cox Communications has WWE Classics On Demand still, with footage on it that won’t be removed until January 22nd. WWE was actively advertising a “Raging Rebels” theme for January; no indication has been given by WWE or Cox that the service will be discontinuing in the near future.
– FCW Champion Leo Kruger was back in action at Friday night’s RAW live event in Hartford, Connecticut. Kruger, who has previously worked as a heel, teamed with Alex Riley and Mason Ryan to defeat the team of Tyler Reks, Curt Hawkins and JTG.
– John Cena was featured on CNN during Saturday night’s 2011 Year In Review recap show, hosted by Anderson Cooper.
Cooper made mention of Cena’s announcement on the death of Osama bin Laden to the live audience at the end of WWE Extreme Rules, which included CNN playing a YouTube clip of the announcement and showing the PPV graphic.
– John Cena sent the following tweet to recognize the end of 2011 and the start of 2012:
“A polarizing 2011 comes to an end. One filled with love and hate. The struggle continues tomorrow. A new day. A new year. Rise Above Hate. “
— Participants for WWE’s annual Raw Elimination Chamber Match are tentatively scheduled to include Alberto Del Rio, CM Punk, John Cena, Kane, R-Truth and The Miz. The outcome of the bout is expected to based on whether Cena’s match with The Rock at WrestleMania XXVIII will have the WWE Championship on the line.
— When Vince McMahon told Alberto Del Rio to work stiffer and appear more aggressive in the ring, it was indicated that he was due for another WWE Championship reign in 2012.
Del Rio is expected to be sidelined for four to six weeks after suffering a torn groin during the Six-Man Tag Team Match on the December 19, 2011 Raw SuperShow.
— Darryl McDaniels, founding member of the hip hop group Run–D.M.C., was seated among the audience at Tuesday’s Raw live in New York City. McDaniels has past history with WWE as he performed the “Wrestlemania Rap” at WrestleMania V.
– John Cena was booked to appear in the 10pm and 11pm segments of Monday’s RAW Supershow, because WWE is still not comfortable with CM Punk’s ability to draw ratings. While WWE appears to be teasing a potential heel turn for Cena, there are no plans for a full turn any time soon.
– Upon a recent look at WWE’s ratings, it’s been determined that only a handful of WWE’s top stars are able to draw fans and keep them tuned in. It’s been acknowledged that Michael Cole’s commentary (specifically, the burying of midcard talent) could be hurting ratings.
– WWE has reportedly changed creative plans this week for several top stars including CM Punk, The Miz, Dolph Ziggler and R-Truth. No word yet on exactly what changed, but it likely affects what was planned for these stars through the Royal Rumble.
With a helping hand from John Cena, 40-year-old heavyweight boxer Monte Barrett participated in a week long training camp with WWE’s developmental league Florida Championship Wrestling in late October/early November. As a close friend of Cena’s, Barrett has personal insight on the WWE Superstar. He commented on the hostile reaction Cena receives from grappling fans on a weekly basis to Power Slam.
“We talked about that on [November 14, 2011] and I asked him. A lot of the fans say, “John’s not great, and he’s only got a certain amount of moves,” Barrett says.
“The Rock [left WWE] and John took over. He just told me, “I don’t take it personally, so you don’t either. It’s a job.” Me, I was bothered because the people booed him to death [on Raw]. Rock got a standing ovation. Who knows? John might take a back seat for a while.
“People got tired of Michael Jordan always winning, the Green Bay Packers too. They want different champions, like Lennox Lewis in boxing. It’s our nature to want a changing of the guard. Maybe [Cena] needs to take a back seat, then rise up again in a year or two.”
— WWE developmental wrestler Seth Rollins, who was scheduled to work this week’s Raw house show tour, will instead appear on SmackDown events this week.
— WWE officials have given thought to John Laurinaitis competing in a wrestling match in the near future. WWE’s Executive Vice President of Talent Relations was previously a professional wrestler under the ring name Johnny Ace, and wrestled for such promotions as the National Wrestling Alliance and All Japan Pro Wrestling. He is credited as the inventor of the “Cutter” maneuver, dubbed by Laurinaitis as the “Ace Crusher.”
— Commercials in the Boston, Massachusetts area are advertising John Cena vs. Kane for the March 5, 2012 Raw Supershow at the TD Garden. It was also announced that CM Punk would be defending the WWE Championship.
— The Bella Twins appear at Don Beyer Kia located at 7416 Richmond Highway Alexandria, Virginia 22306 this Thursday beginning at 2:00 p.m.
— DDP has posted a new YouTube video featuring Chris Jericho, with the two of them telling stories about the late great Eddie Guerrero. Check it out here:
— WWE’s new “Cena Sucks” t-shirt appears to be a hit, as the shirt is currently sold out on the WWEShop.com website.
— The Rock wrote the following on his Twitter last night, wishing John Cena a Merry Christmas:
“@JohnCena Merry Christmas. I have a special gift for you. My size 15 boot. #GuessWhereItGoes?”
The Rock posted the following picture along with that tweet:
– As we reported over the weekend, CM Punk’s WWE title reign could be in jeopardy due to poor ratings. Despite the ratings issue which is getting more alarming by the week, Punk has the respect of virtually everyone backstage and has been winning more and more people over in recent weeks.
– During a recent meeting of WWE’s creative team, a feud between John Cena and World Heavyweight champion Daniel Bryan was discussed.
– One of the new shows that will air on the WWE Network will be a 1-hour RAW pre-show. In recent weeks, WWE officials have also been discussing “post-game” shows for RAW and SmackDown as well.
— Alberto Del Rio has been removed from WWELiveTour.com’s talent line-up for Monday’s Raw SuperShow in Chicago, Illinois and the entire Raw Holiday Tour. He was advertised for three-way bouts for the WWE Championship with CM Punk and The Miz.
Del Rio suffered a groin injury during the main event of Monday’s Raw SuperShow and is being given time off to recover. He is not expected to be sidelined for too long.
— FoxNews.com has published photos of wrestling stars before they were famous including The Undertaker’s high school yearbook photo. Others highlighted include The Rock, Hulk Hogan, Bill Goldberg, John Cena, Kurt Angle, Mick Foley, Jesse Ventura, Randy Orton, Vince McMahon, Randy Savage and Stephanie McMahon.
— Maria Kanellis said on Afterbuzz she will be wrestling Jillian Hall at an independent event next year. Kanellis is advertised to face Tara in her return to the squared circle on February 25, 2012 for New York City based promotion Family Wrestling Entertainment.
– Shawn Michaels is scheduled to be the special referee for the Undertaker vs. Triple H match at WrestleMania. Since Triple H and Shawn Michaels have both failed twice at ending the streak, it lends something to the idea that they could work together to screw Undertaker.
Triple H might put his career on the line against the streak. The Undertaker vs. TripleH match will be promoted as the #2 match on the card, behind Cena vs. Rock.
– John Cena recently mentioned that his match vs. The Rock at WrestleMania would be even bigger if it was for the WWE championship. At the time he made the comments, WWE was strongly considered putting the title on Cena heading into WrestleMania.
The WWE title being on the line would make the match seem bigger and elevate the status of the WWE title. Additionally, if the title wasn’t on the line in this match, it doesn’t look great that the WWE title match would be billed as the #3 match on the show. That said, WWE is firmly behind Punk as champion and the Rock vs. Cena is already guaranteed to be a huge draw without the belt on the line.
– As for current WWE champion CM Punk, the latest news on his WrestleMania opponent is that he’ll be wrestling Chris Jericho, who is expected to return in early 2012. While all indications have been that Jericho will be returning on January 2nd, there’s a strong chance WWE will try to throw off all the online reports and have somebody else be the person behind the cryptic promos we’ve been seeing on RAW in recent weeks.
– In response to WWE selling “Cena Sucks” t-shirts, John Cena noted on Twitter that WWE has wanted to make the shirts since 2008 and he is not bothered by them. Sources close to Cena say that he legitimately does not mind that the shirts are being sold and gets royalties from every single one sold.
– With Linda McMahon second run for United States Senate underway, the former WWE CEO is making an effort to distance herself not only from the WWE product this time around, but the McMahon name as well. Her campaign material pushes the name LINDA with no mention of her business experience running WWE or her last name. Instead of using all her own money this time, Linda is raising funds from her supporters.
Last weekend’s 12/16 live event from Fort Myers, FL drew 5,500 paying fans for a live gate of $155,000. The next night’s Nassau Coliseum show drew 7,000 and a $285,000 live give, which isn’t good for the New York market. The New York market, however, did get three shows in a month, so that could be one of the reasons.
— After having his foot amputated last month due to complications of high blood pressure and diabetes, former WWE talent James Harris (a/k/a Kamala) was hospitalized Wednesday to remove the upper part of his leg.
Kamala Jr wrote on Facebook, “Please pray for Kamala Sr as he is back in the hospital, they are having to remove the upper part of the same leg. PLEASE PRAY FOR HIM!!!!”
— This month on WWE Classics On Demand, various WWE Superstars and Legends are giving the gift of their favorite past or present Superstar in a match. John Cena is included and reveals his favorite Superstar as Dick Murdoch. A match from 1989 pitting Murdoch against Lex Luger is then shown.
— Sean Conway, nephew of former WWE star Rob Conway, made his professional wrestling debut last week at OVW Homecoming 6. The family duo defeated Flash Flanagan and Lennox Norris in a tag team match.
— WWEShop.com is accepting pre-orders for the new “Cena Sucks” t-shirt that went on sale this past weekend at WWE live events. The shirt is officially listed as “Anti John Cena Shirt” with no preview image provided.
— A WWE camera crew visited the home of Shawn Michaels on Monday to shoot footage that will be used for programming on the upcoming WWE Network. Michaels tweeted:
“WWE Network crew is here setting up. Multiple interviews apparently for various programming. Do I have to pay to get the channel? :-)”
He followed up four hours later:
“Holy cow that was a long interview!!”
– Speaking of Shawn Michaels, Carl Dantes sent in the following information regarding four scheduled appearances for the Heartbreak Kid in early 2012;
* January 11, 2012 – from 10-11am at the Dead Down Wind booth at the ATA show in Columbus OH
* January 12, 2012 – from 1-3pm at the Carbon Express Booth at the ATA show in Columbus OH
* January 18, 2012 – from noon to 1pm at the Outdoor Channel booth at the SHOT Show in Las Vegas
* February 2, 2012 – from 1-2pm at the Outdoor Channel booth at the SCI Convention in Las Vegas
– John Cena was backstage at WWE’s TLC pay-per-view, but did not appear on television. It was decided by WWE’s creative team that it would be best to give Cena the night off and put the focus on Punk, Daniel Bryan and others.
– Everybody was very happy with the Triple Threat main event. Despite each men taking huge bumps during the match, CM Punk, The Miz, Alberto Del Rio and Ricardo Rodriguez were all ok after the match, but were understandably banged up.
– According to a source close to Kevin Nash, his match with Triple H at TLC will most likely be his farewell retirement match.
While it’s always possible he could lace up his boots again in the future, he was giving people the impression backstage that TLC was his last match. Nash tweeted after TLC:
Over the weekend, pictures were posted online of new anti-John Cena merchandise, including t-shirts that read “CENA SUCKS” and “We Can’t See You” with a picture of Cena’s face crossed out.
Cena has been responding to tweets about the new merchandise and revealed that WWE has wanted to capitalize on Cena haters for many years now:
“They have wanted too since 2008. I told them no. Finally I just said I dont care. Im fine with the way things are. Some like me. Some don’t.”
A fan asked Cena if WWE was disrespecting him by profiting off people taunting him. Cena said:
“Agreed. But WTF. Ignore it no longer. Its out there so those that wanna be like that should be able to voice their opinion. Like I said doesn’t change me one bit. Stay true..always have.. always will”
Another fan asked Cena when WWE was going to release anti-Rock shirts. Cena says there’s a double standard and we’ll never see merchandise disrespecting his WrestleMania 28 opponent:
WWE began selling their first anti-John Cena merchandise at this weekend’s live events. Late Saturday night, we posted a picture of a “CENA SUCKS” shirt. On Sunday, we received the following picture from SEScoops.com reader Chris Lock of the back of the Cena t-shirt that reads, “We Can’t See You” with a picture of John Cena’s face X’d out.
Check out these pictures of WWE’s new anti-Cena t-shirt:
– Speaking of the 12/27 MSG show, that is the next scheduled appearance from R-Truth, who is currently on suspension due to a Wellness Policy violation. Truth’s suspension ends next weekend and he’ll be cleared to appear on the 12/26 episode of RAW from Chicago.
– A fan asked Chris Jericho on Twitter his thoughts on the masked Kane returning to WWE. Jericho, who has been very outspoken about the WWE product in recent months, said:
“Dont have any cos i dont care. @sameoldshit”
– WWE is hoping that Andrew Judelson, the company’s new Executive Vice President of Sales & Partnership Marketing, will help the company land some major endorsement deals for WWE superstars.
After months of being called a Fruity Pebble by his WrestleMania 28 opponent, John Cena can no longer deny The Rock’s claims.
In a cross-promotion between WWE and the Post Cereal company, John Cena is now featured on the box of Fruity Pebbles cereal. Fans who buy the Fruity Pebbles box featuring John Cena will get a chance to win tickets to a live WWE event, exclusive John Cena merchandise and a chance to meet John Cena himself.
A fan asked Cena on Twitter this weekend if it was ironic that he was featured on the Fruity Pebbles box and he replied:
“Ironic? No. Turning a negative into a positive ..yes. rise above hate. By the way…I love fruity pebbles.”
Check out these pictures of John Cena’s Fruity Pebble box:
WWE has begun selling a T-Shirt geared toward detractors of John Cena. It reads “CENA SUCKS”. The anti-Cena garment was put up for sale at this weekend’s live events.
John Cena tweeted on Friday that he will be watching Sunday’s TLC pay-per-view “as a fan” – a strong indication that he won’t be at the show. Cena, who wrestled at Friday’s WWE live event from Fort Myers, FL, followed up on Saturday that he will be at tonight’s RAW live event in Long Island and RAW on Monday night.
During a WWE live event from Ft. Myers, Florida on Friday night, Kane appeared and had a physical altercation with John Cena. Kane unleashed hell on Cena, delivering a choke slam and tombstone pile driver.
