– Ahead of UFC 190 on Saturday night, UFC President Dana White made a comment to a fan regarding the price of a PPV event in comparison to an event on the WWE Network.
– WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross has updated the Q&A section of his blog and has answered several questions including who has the final say of who goes into the WWE Hall of Fame.
JR also discusses whether or not he believes Tough Enough or Total Divas hurt the business, whether or not Kane is underrated, if JR had issues with Hogan and much more.
– John Cena has taken to Twitter to share a video of him back in the gym after he suffered a broken nose at the hands of Seth Rollins last week on RAW.
WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross recently updated his official blog with his thoughts and opinions on a number of current topics. Below are some of the highlights.
On the passing of Roddy Piper: “Roddy was the perfect pro wresting villain because he was fearless, he had no issues putting his own safety at risk, and had no desire to be ‘cool’ back in the day but to be a truly despised individual that lived up to his casting/booking and to fulfill all the obligations his bosses and his opponent needed and that was to make the customers pay money to come see Rod get his comeuppance.
Roddy had no issues ‘retreating’ when the moment called for it and was always willing to cheat to gain an unfair advantage to win a match via unethical methods which are so lacking today by the majority of pro wrestling’s villains.
Without Roddy Piper WWF would have had a more challenging time in developing their new presentation headed by super hero Hulk Hogan in the mid 80’s with the launch of Wrestlemania 1 where Vince McMahon essentially mortgaged his company’s entire future on the success of that one event. Rowdy Roddy Piper’s contributions to Wrestlemania 1 can never be discounted.
The true art of being a pro wrestling villain is becoming a fleeting skill set that will, in time, erode the basic foundation of the business itself if it isn’t addressed.”
On John Cena hate and his broken nose: “Seems as if it’s only the most uneducated and novice of wrestling fans who can truly dislike John Cena especially after watching his performance with a grotesquely broken nose on RAW. I can see where some may not enjoy John as much as others because he is “overexposed” in their view but to verbally castrate him for any other reason is borderline stupidity.”
On Ronda Rousey: “The amazing Ronda Rousey did it again Saturday night in Brazil with a first round knock out. There have been few athletes in my life time who have been as dominate in their sport as @RondaRousey is in MMA. Michael Jordan in the NBA, Mike Tyson in boxing and Wayne Gretzky in the NHL quickly come to mind. She’s leading the way for women to strive to excel in their chosen fields of endeavor and thus creating new fans of female sports that will help countless women over time. I think that Rousey’s popularity in MMA and her stardom around the world has contributed to WWE’s renewed interest in developing the female side of their roster.”
Check out the complete blog at JRsBarBQ.com. You can also order JR’s Bar-B-Q products online at WWEShop.com.
– WWE’s Canyon Ceman, William Regal and Seth Rollins were at the PWG event in Reseda, California to scout talent last week. The three were said to be particularly impressed with AAA star Angelico, who is currently under a multi-year agreement with Lucha Underground, as long as they continue running shows, and also has a deal with the AAA promotion in Mexico.
– WWE Divas Champion Nikki Bella appeared on E! News to discuss her future with John Cena.
“Marriage and kids,” Nikki said. “I think I could sacrifice kids for him but I do want that ring one day, I want to be Mrs. Cena. Our life has become one and we make decisions together but I think I want that bling to walk around with.”
As previously noted, following the broken nose he sustained on Monday Night RAW, John Cena has been pulled from a number live events until the final episode of RAW before SummerSlam.
WWE Australia have recently confirmed that WWE Superstar Cesaro will be replacing John Cena on the tour and will now face Kevin Owens.
They released the following statement along with the matches fans can expect to see:
“Unfortunately due to an injury sustained at WWE Raw this past week, John Cena is unable to travel and will no longer be appearing at next week’s Australian events. General Manager for the Australian events, Shawn Michaels, has today announced that former WWE United States & WWE Tag-Team Champion Cesaro has been added to the tour and will appear at all three WWE Live events.”
WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match – Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins
Cesaro vs Kevin Owens
Randy Orton vs Sheamus
Neville vs King Barrett
R-Truth vs Luke Harper
Emma and Natalya vs Brie Bella and Nikki Bella
NXT Championship Match – Finn Balor vs Bo Dallas
Fandango vs Adam Rose
WWE Live™ returns to Australia this August at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Brisbane on Thursday August 6, Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne on Friday August 7 and Qantas Credit Union Arena in Sydney on Saturday August 8, 2015.
Justin LaBar at WrestleZone.com reports that John Cena underwent surgery on his nose on Tuesday to correct breathing issues resulting from Seth Rollins’ jumping knee to the face on RAW.
LaBar notes that more reconstructive surgery could be required.
As noted earlier, Cena is no longer being advertised for this weekend’s live events or Monday’s RAW. Cena has now also been pulled from next weekend’s live events tour of Australia.
Cena had been the top advertised start for the 3-night tour, which already saw Hulk Hogan being replaced by Shawn Michaels as the Guest GM for the shows.
Following the broken nose he suffered on Monday’s RAW in the main event against Seth Rollins, John Cena is no longer being advertised for this weekend’s WWE live events.
On Thursday, WWE also pulled Cena from the ‘Superstars Scheduled to Appear’ listing for next week’s RAW from San Jose, California.
John Cena is still expected to challenge Seth Rollins for the WWE Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam on Sunday, August 23rd.
According a report from ProWrestling.net John Cena has been pulled from the live event tomorrow night (Friday) in San Diego, California.
Cena, who broke his nose during the main event against Seth Rollins on RAW was due to face Kevin Owens in a steel cage match at the event on Friday.
They note that Cena has been removed from WWE’s Live Events page but is still currently advertised for the live events on Saturday and Sunday. It’s not clear if the broken nose was the reason he was pulled.
WWE has announced that Brock Lesnar will be working the October 3rd live event from Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Currently, there is no word on who Lesnar will be wrestling, however we can confirm that Paul Heyman will also be part of the show, which is Lesnar’s first domestic live event since returning to WWE back in 2012.
Also announced for the show is John Cena vs. Seth Rollins, Dolph Ziggler vs. Rusev, Randy Orton vs. Sheamus and an appearance by Chris Jericho.
WWE taped the following matches on Tuesday night in Tulsa, Oklahoma for this week’s edition of WWE SmackDown.
– Seth Rollins kicks off this week’s show by coming out to the ring. He talks about John Cena and what happened on Monday’s RAW. Eventually, Rollins is interrupted by Cesaro. Cesaro comes out for our first match of the evening.
– Cesaro def. Seth Rollins via Disqualification in the first match taped for this week’s SmackDown. Kevin Owens joined the gang on commentary during this match and became involved in the finish, which saw Owens attack Cesaro for the DQ. Rollins teased a showdown with Owens but they ended up double-teaming Cesaro instead.
– Los Matadores & The Lucha Dragons def. The New Day & The Ascension in eight-man tag-team action in the second match taped for this week’s edition of WWE SmackDown.
– Summer Rae and Rusev come out for a promo segment in the ring. They address what went down on Monday with Lana and the dead fish at RAW.
– Rusev def. Jack Swagger in the third match taped for SmackDown. Swagger got a big hometown pop since he is from Oklahoma. After the match, which Rusev won, he tried to attack Swagger some more, however Swagger ended up countering him and applying the Patriot Lock.
– Stardust def. R-Truth in the fourth match taped for this week’s SmackDown. Stardust was cutting a promo in the ring after the match when Neville ran out and attacked him.
– Cesaro & Dean Ambrose def. Kevin Owens & Seth Rollins in the fifth and final match taped for this week’s show. Cesaro picked Ambrose as his mystery partner. The finish of this match saw Ambrose counter a Pop-Up Powerbomb attempt by Owens, which allowed Cesaro to roll Owens up for the 1-2-3. This is how SmackDown will go off the air this week.
WWE has just announced that Alicia Fox suffered a mild concussion during her tag-team match on Monday night’s edition of WWE RAW in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
No additional information is available at this time.
WWE has not announced any new information regarding the condition of John Cena as of this writing as well.
WWE Hall Of Famer Mick Foley gave praise to WWE United States Champion John Cena for being tough enough to finish his main event against Seth Rollins on Monday’s RAW with a badly broken nose.
The Hardcore Legend posted the following blog on his official Facebook page:
SUPERMAN
Whatever you do, please don’t disregard what I say about John Cena – WWE Universe by mentioning that I finished a match with a tooth in my nose, or without an ear. I did those things. But after watching Cena continue a great match with ??WWE? champion Seth Rollins, despite a nose broken so badly that it looked like it had been applied by a Hollywood FX master, does anyone out there believe that John Cena, if placed in a situation where his tooth was stuck in his nose, or an ear was lost along the way WOULDN’T continue wrestling?
A week ago, I named my mid-season WWE all-star team. Today – for consistently having great matches and going above and beyond the call of duty to entertain the ??WWE Universe?, I name John Cena was my mid-season MVP.
As seen on last night’s RAW, United States Champion John Cena suffered a busted nose during his main event match against Seth Rollins.
WWE’s Dr. Steve Daquino confirmed to WWE.com that the nose was broken and Cena was hospitalized after the show.
“As you can see on television tonight, John suffered from a nasal fracture. He’s got quite a bit of displacement, so we sent him over to the local emergency room so he can be evaluated by the ears, nose and throat doctor who’s on call tonight and see what can be done to properly repair it.”
– As confirmed during RAW last night, in a non-title match, Becky Lynch will take on Divas Champion Nikki Bella in singles competition on SmackDown.
– During last night’s main event on RAW (shown above), John Cena broke his nose after taking a knee to the face from Seth Rollins who was challenging him for the United States title.
After RAW went off the air, Joey Styles posted the following photo of Cena and his broken nose, linking to various others which can be seen on the WWE website at this link:
During the main event of Monday’s edition of WWE RAW, which was billed “A Night of Firsts,” John Cena suffered a busted nose during his WWE United States Championship match against Seth Rollins.
Late into the match, which served as the headline attraction of this week’s RAW, Rollins caught Cena with a huge knee to the face that left Cena bleeding on the mat.
WWE Superstar Daniel Bryan recently spoke with Brian Fritz of The Sporting News earlier this week and was asked if he feels he has won over Vince McMahon.
“You know, yes but I don’t know to what degree,” Bryan said. “You know what I mean? Does he think I should ever main event another WrestleMania? I would say probably not. (laughs) It’s interesting. I think he likes me, he sees me as a valuable performer. He sees me as someone who makes the company money. But I still don’t think he will ever see me as ‘the guy’ in the way he sees John Cena as ‘the guy’ or in the way he potentially sees Roman Reigns as ‘the guy’. To this day, I still don’t think he sees me like that.”
Bryan was also asked how much he feels the injuries he has suffered have prevented him from being viewed as one of the top guys in WWE.
“Yeah, that has hurt me a lot as far as that goes,” he said. “It would be interesting to have seen what would have happened had I not had my neck surgery shortly after WrestleMania last year. And when I say that, when I say he doesn’t see me as ‘the guy’, I’m not blaming him. He has good reason to not see me as ‘the guy’. Right? (laughs) There’s plenty of reasons for me to not be ‘the guy’. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t see me as a valuable performer.”
Check out the complete interview at SportingNews.com.
WWE United States Champion John Cena recently spoke with FOX 411 to promote his role in the new Judd Apatow film, “Trainwreck.” Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On if he is the next Dwayne Johnson: “There is only one Dwayne Johnson. What Dwayne has done is absolutely fantastic. He had a vision when he was here at WWE. He promotes like a mad man. We’ll see how I do with John Cena before I can be mentioned in the company of Dwyane Johnson.”
On if it is odd to have his personal life open for public consumption on Total Divas: “It is weird. When they came to us with the concept of “Total Divas” it wasn’t so accepted around [the WWE]. Those girls who chose to put their lives are some of the bravest. I wanted nothing but success for her.”
On why he is so loyal to WWE: “There will be a time when I won’t be able to perform in the ring. I’m 38-years-old. So, if I’m not in the ring I want to be involved in some way. I love it! I watch every single match because I enjoy it. It’s been 12 or 13 years now, the audience is so exciting and electric. It keeps me coming back.”
On if he could face off against any wrestler, who would it be: “Past: Stone Cold Steve Austin because he was truly inspiration to me. Our audience wouldn’t mind seeing that. In the same breath there are some present stars that I haven’t faced off with. Hopefully, down the line I look forward to facing those new faces.”
– The WWE Network launch that took place in Malaysia this past week was as a regular television station, not a streaming service.
– Part-time WWE performer Chris Jericho is scheduled to work WWE live events on September 11th in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, September 12th in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, September 25th in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and September 26th in Rochester, New York.
– The movie “Trainwreck,” which features WWE United States Champion John Cena, finished at number three at the box office for its’ opening weekend, drawing $30,097,040. Industry projections had the film estimated at doing a $25 million opening weekend, so by all accounts, the project is already a success.
As seen on Monday’s post-Battleground edition of WWE RAW, former NXT Champion Kevin Owens was one of the wrestlers involved in breaking up the brawl between The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar, a spot usually designed for lower to mid-card talent.
Since beating John Cena at the WWE Elimination Chamber pay-per-view in May, Owens has not had a televised victory over a main event talent. In fact, Owens’ last win on television — excluding NXT — was at the June 16th SmackDown television taping, where he pinned Cesaro.
Wrestling Observer Live’s Bryan Alvarez reported on Tuesday that Owens has been dropped to an “upper mid-card position” due to the fact that WWE officials do not see him being on the level of Cena, Randy Orton or Seth Rollins.
Based on recent storylines, it appears that Owens will be feuding with Cesaro and Rusev for the foreseeable future.
Cesaro was Michael Cole’s guest for this week’s WWE.com sitdown interview. The Swiss Superman spoke about a number of topics, including Vince McMahon saying he doesn’t connect with fans, his relationship with Tyson Kidd, his WWE career thus far and his goal to become WWE World Heavyweight
Michael Cole revealed that WWE.com will be running a feature profiling Cesaro and asked him about Vince McMahon’s comments on the Stone Cold Podcast, where he said Cesaro doesn’t connect with fans and is lacking certain skills Cesaro said he heard Vince’s comments while driving and “white knuckled” the steering wheel. Cesaro says he walked up to Vince the next night and said, “Vince, challenge accepted.” Shortly thereafter, he and Tyson Kidd were WWE tag team champions.
Cole asks about his relationship with Kidd, who is out of action indefinitely after suffering a life-threatening neck injury. Cesaro said he’s lucky to call Kidd a good friend. They’re both very similar, had similar upbringings with a love for wrestling. They pride themselves on what they do in the ring and all they talk about is wrestling. He said you don’t find friends like Tyson Kidd very often.
Cesaro was asked about which of his WWE personas have best defined his career up to this point. Cesaro said what defines him the most is what he does in the ring. He delivers every time he steps in the ring and although its taken him time to catch on, fans appreciate his hard work.
Cole brought up Cesaro’s recent matches with John Cena and spoke about his match against WWE World Heavyweight champion Seth Rollins this week on SmackDown. Cesaro said this match is very important because everyone wants to become the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. He’s in WWE to be the best and wants to be champion. He’s here to prove that he’s the best and he delivers every time.
– Global Force Wrestling founder Jeff Jarrett and GFW talent Nick “Magnus” Aldis were the guests on the latest edition of Chris Jericho’s “Talk Is Jericho” podcast. You can download the show right now at PodcastOne.com.
– WWE posted the following Finn Balor themed preview for tonight’s edition of NXT on the WWE Network.
– WWE United States Champion John Cena posted the following video clip of himself working out with the caption, “Focus.”
TMZ Sports recently caught up with WWE United States Champion John Cena for a quick interview.
During the chat, which you can watch above, Cena claims he will never leave WWE to do movies, regardless of how successful the film work he does becomes.
Cena added that while he is open to doing more movies, he wants to remain with WWE even when he’s unable to wrestle, possibly doing some commentary or behind-the-scenes work.
– John Cena will be featured on ESPN’s Sports Center Tuesday night at 6pm (EST) as part of the “My Wish” series focusing on athletes granting wishes for sick children.
– Tonight’s WWE SmackDown main event tapings take place from Lincoln, Nebraska at the Pinnacle Bank Arena. WWE is advertising a Divas tag match featuring The Bella Twins vs. Sasha Banks and Naomi.
Join us here later tonight for live coverage of the SmackDown tapings.
WWE United States Champion John Cena spoke to Tom Phillips last night after his win over Kevin Owens at Battleground.
Cena had strong praise for the former NXT Champion, noting that Owens belongs in the ‘most elite class’ of WWE Superstars:
“Unbelievable match. After the first two with Kevin Owens, I knew I was gonna be in for something special. Being here for a while you truly become a target and I think this [US Title] makes me an extra big target. We’ve never had an influx of talent, especially with an NXT chip on their shoulder, and I mean that in the best way. These guys have proven themselves down there and feel, appropriately so, as if they belong here.
And proof positive, Kevin Owens belongs here and he belongs in the most elite class of WWE Superstars. He gave me a run for my money but the term “never give up” isn’t always when you’re down and out. When you think you got it in the bag and your opponent somehow acts like he’s made of steel, you just gotta keep going, sometimes you gotta bring it to a level you’re not used to. Man, he… that’s everything I got, that’s everything I got. I’m just glad I came out with the championship.”
Fans who follow John Cena on Instagram know that the WWE Superstar rarely posts content that goes hand-in-hand with his sometimes vanilla character on television. Although Cena has well over a million followers, he rarely, if ever, posts photos of himself.
Instead, Cena posts photos that range from the Trailer Park Boys, to boxes of Life cereal, to Bo Jackson breaking a baseball bat over his knee.
Cena revealed on Twitter that he has been encouraged to change the abstract nature of his Instagram account.
I have been encouraged to evolve @instagram into something less….abstract, thoughts? Ahh let the 140 character comedy begin
– Lana is being advertised to team with Dolph Ziggler against the team of Rusev and Summer Rae in mixed-tag-team action at the WWE live event in Hampton, Virginia on September 4th. Also scheduled for the event is Sheamus defending his Money In The Bank briefcase in one-on-one action against Neville, as well as John Cena vs. Kevin Owens in a “Street Fight.”
– The NXT Takeover: Brooklyn event on August 22nd from the Bayclays Center is close to being sold out, as more tickets for the event were released on Saturday afternoon. The event will likely end up drawing 10,000 or more fans, making it the biggest NXT event to date.
– WWE banned the name “Wade” in reference to King Barrett a while back, which is why Barrett no longer uses it. There’s been speculation that Barrett will go back to the “Bad News” gimmick after Battleground tonight, as his “Crown” is on the line in his Kickoff Show match against R-Truth.