– Justin Roberts was conspicuously absent from Monday’s Raw SuperShow as Lilian Garcia instead handled ring announcing duties. It was a one-off appearance.
Garcia stated on Twitter, “Justin was on vacation. He will be back next week. :)”
It was Garcia’s first appearance on the program since 2010.
– Matches taped Tuesday night in Evansville, Indiana for this week’s episode of WWE Superstars were:
* Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso vs. Camacho and Hunico
* Sin Cara vs. Antonio Cesaro (with Aksana)
* Kane vs. Heath Slater
* Epico and Primo (with Rosa Mendes) vs. Darren Young and Titus O’Neil (with A.W.)
Brodus Clay beat Drew McIntyre in approximately two minutes in a pre-show dark match. McIntyre worked Clay’s injured knee, but Clay prevailed and won with the running splash.
– The June 11 Raw SuperShow featuring the television return of Vince McMahon’s Mr. McMahon character drew a 3.24 cable rating over the course of three hours and a 3.46 from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m.
It is the program’s highest rating since April 30 and highest rating from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. since the night following the Royal Rumble.
Raw averaged 4.62 million viewers over the course of three hours and 4.98 million viewers from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. The first hour drew a 2.73 rating with 3.90 million viewers, then a 3.34 rating with 4.88 million viewers in the second. The final hour drew a 3.55 rating with 5.08 million viewers.
– AJ is not the only WWE Diva to have had their eye on Kane. WWE.com has published an article chronicling The Big Red Monster’s romantic history.
– WWE will hold a SmackDown live event at the RBC Centre in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada on September 22, 2012. The event begins at 7:30 p.m.
— From ring announcing gaffes to shoe related mishaps, Lilian Garcia’s second go-round with WWE has been riddled with embarrassing episodes. The follies continued Wednesday night at WWE’s SmackDown live event in Poughkeepsie, New York as the Decade Diva mishandled an important ring introduction and once again had difficulty maintaining her balance.
In a recurring theme, Garcia erroneously announced the No Holds Barred Match between Randy Orton and Kane as a No Disqualification Match. The SmackDown Diva also had trouble staying on her feet as she nearly tripped while making her entrance around the ring—she was able to prevent herself from falling completely.
After Garcia tripped while making her ring entrance last month at a SmackDown taping in London, England, WWE Encyclopedia author Kevin Sullivan said based on the sports entertainment organization’s past history, he would not be surprised if she was burdened with a gimmick inspired by her series of mishaps.
“I don’t know why, but I truly enjoy following Lilian Garcia’s follies on the web. I’m really a good person, but her goofs make me laugh,” he wrote on Twitter after seeing WWE’s video of her tumble. “Some guys are goofy before becoming serious (Angle, Y2J, Double J), while others start serious and turn goofy (Santino, R-Truth, Godfather). I wouldn’t be surprised if WWE gave Lilian Garcia a tripping gimmick.”
— Former WWE Women’s Champion Stacy “The Kat” Carter has been announced to appear at Legends of the Ring 14 taking place Saturday, June 2 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Monroe, New Jersey. She will be doing photo-ops with the bubble-wrap bikini she donned for the Miss Royal Rumble Swimsuit Contest at the 2000 Royal Rumble. (Details)
Former WWE creative team writer Dan Madigan appeared on the Review-a-Wai podcast with John Pollock and Wai Ting to commemorate the anniversary of MAY 19TH when WWE released See No Evil. The full review of the film and interview with Madigan is up on The LAW website and here is an excerpt from the chat regarding an idea Vince McMahon had for Kane’s character, Jacob Goodnight:
“I get a call from Gregory Dark, the director. He says, “We’ve got a little problem here.” This call is from Australia. I said, “What’s the problem?” He goes, “Vince has a suggestion about the movie.” I said, “Well, it’s his movie.” He goes, “Vince wants this scene in the movie where Kane’s character pulls out his penis, and he wants it to be three feet long.” I thought there was a connection problem, I said “Greg, can you just back up and repeat that last line for me?” He goes, “Yes, Vince wants Kane’s penis to be three feet long, and none of the producers are saying anything about it.” So I sat there, I go, “Oh, this is not good. This is not good. This is really not good.” In the right movie, that’s genius, that’s absolutely brilliant, but not for this movie.
“When the script was finally okayed, they brought someone else in to rewrite me. As a writer, the hairs on the back of your neck stand up; it’s an ego thing to be honest. So, they brought in someone to touch up my stuff. I read their version of my script, and I’ll be honest, it wasn’t good. Every cliche that I purposely wanted to take out, they had put back in.”
— A broken arm wasn’t enough to keep WWE Chief Operating Officer Triple H down, who accompanied boxer Floyd Mayweather, Jr. to the ring for his highly anticipated bout against Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas on Saturday night, alongside singer Justin Bieber and rapper 50 Cent. Former WWE Diva Melina, who was posting messages on Twitter while watching the fight, remarked the following upon seeing “The King of Kings” on television:
“Maybe it’s the margaritas but I puked when i saw Bieber & Triple H. #TotalPukage #WhatTheWhat HHH=Pukepukepuke. Boxing at an an all time low.”
— Former WWE Superstar Perry Saturn won his first championship in over a decade on April 27 in Des Moines, Iowa as he beat Arik Cannon and Sir Bradley Charles in a Triple Threat Match to gain the 3XW Pure Wrestling Championship.
— WWE had audio issues at Saturday’s Smackdown live event at the U.S. Cellular Center in Asheville, North Carolina. Jey and Jimmy Uso’s theme song as well as a Kane promo that aired on the video screen was not audible.
WWE holds their fourth annual Extreme Rules pay-per-view event tonight at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. The following seven matches have been announced for the show:
* John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar (Extreme Rules Match)
* World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan (2-out-of-3 Falls Match)
* WWE Champion CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho (Chicago Street Fight)
* Randy Orton vs. Kane (Falls Count Anywhere Match)
* Intercontinental Champion Big Show vs. Cody Rhodes
* United States Champion Santino Marella vs. The Miz
– WWE is sending Sin Cara to Mexico this weekend to do promotional work for the upcoming WWE tour of Mexico. Sin Cara is still several weeks away from being able to return to action.
– WWE superstar Kane turns 45 years old today.
– The E! Network’s television clips show The Soup featured footage from WWE RAW once again this week. After making Daniel Bryan’s “Yes! Yes!” chant their “Clip of the Week” last week, Wednesday night’s episode featured a clip of Teddy Long’s gaffe from RAW where he introduced John Cena as a 2-time WWE Champion and a 10-time WWE Champion. Not cool, playa.
– Wednesday, April 25th, 2012 marked the 10 year anniversary since Randy Orton made his debut as a WWE Superstar. Orton wrestled his first match on the April 25, 2002 episode of WWE SmackDown against Hardcore Holly. The WWE Youtube channel posted the following video commemorating Orton’s debut –
— In a rematch from Monday’s Raw SuperShow, World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus will face Mark Henry this Friday on SmackDown. Also, Michael Cole will conduct an interview with Randy Orton to get his thoughts for his match against Kane at Extreme Rules.
— Matches taped Monday night in Detroit, Michigan for this week’s episode of WWE Superstars were Kelly Kelly vs. Maxine and Alex Riley vs. The Miz.
Antonio Cesaro beat JTG in a dark match at the show.
— The announced attendance for Monday’s Raw Supershow the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan was a sellout crowd of 16,122.
— Alex Riley, Brodus Clay, David Otunga and Natalya answer your Twitter questions in the latest episode of WWE Inbox. This week’s questions are: “Do you have any pre-show superstitions you must do?” and “If you could team up with any WWE Superstar or Diva, dead or alive, who would it be?”
— CM Punk responded to a report published here Monday stating that WWE officials are concerned with him being “too small” to adequately face Brock Lesnar in a potential match-up as well as his “battered” appearance backstage. He wrote, “Dirt sheets can call me small, skinny, beat up, road-tired, fat, ugly, no friends etc…everyone else calls me champ. Everyone.” Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson saw his message and showed his support for the WWE Champion.
“Amen,” Johnson wrote to Punk. “The credit will always belong to the man who is actually in the arena” #KeepDoingItStrongChamp.”
— The advertised main event for the June 18 Raw SuperShow at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, Long Island is WWE Champion CM Punk, John Cena and World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan, Kane and Mark Henry.
— Christian is being advertised to face Big Show for the Intercontinental Championship at SmackDown house shows in June.
Also advertised for the events is Sheamus defending the World Heavyweight Championship against Daniel Bryan in “Last Man Standing” bouts.
— Rosa Mendes, manager of WWE Tag Team Champions Epico and Primo, continues to voice her displeasure with the group being treated unfairly. She wrote on Twitter Tuesday afternoon in regards to not Epico and Primo not competing in a match on Monday’s Raw SuperShow, “We didn’t grace the #usa network last night!!! I love the fact that my alpha male partners are undefeated!! Champions 4 life!”
— WWE will hold a Raw live event on June 23, 2012 at the WesBanco Arena in Wheeling, West Virginia. The event begins at 7:30 p.m. WWE Superstars advertised for the event include John Cena, CM Punk, Kane, The Miz, Dolph Ziggler and Kofi Kingston.
— WWE has a three-hour Raw SuperShow scheduled for June 11 at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut. It is the final show before No Way Out on June 17 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. A three-hour Raw is also scheduled for April 23. (thanks to Devin Cutting)
— Shawn Michaels and Kevin Nash will participate in an autograph together on May 19 at the Frank & Son Collectible Show in 19649 San Jose, City of Industry, California. Additional details will be released soon.
— Jerry Lawler appears for USA Championship Wrestling on April 7 at the Old Burns Gym in Burns, Tennessee. The event begins at 8:00 p.m.
— Zack Ryder is the latest WWE Superstar to try out Diamond Dallas Page’s yoga program DDP Yoga (available at www.ddpyoga.com). Other WWE talent utilizing the fitness workout include Chris Jericho, Curt Hawkins, Daniel Bryan, Kane, Mick Foley, Santino Marella, The Miz, Titus O’Neil and William Regal.
— Two matches are advertised for tonight’s episode of WWE SmackDown on Syfy as Alberto Del Rio will face World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus while Randy Orton battles Kane in a WrestleMania XXVIII rematch. If Del Rio can defeat The Celtic Warrior, he will earn a chance at the World Heavyweight Championship.
Other matches airing include R-Truth vs. David Otunga and Mark Henry in a Handicap Match and Divas Champion Beth Phoenix vs. Nikki Bella. Also slated is the SmackDown debut of Ryback, who formerly competed as Skip Sheffield.
— WWEShop.com has released a Daniel Bryan Yes Authentic T-Shirt.
— Christian appears for Florida Championship Wrestling on May 18 at Orlando Armory 2809 S. Ferncreek Ave. Orlando, Florida. Belltime is 7:00 p.m.
— With WrestleMania XXVIII in the books, numerous roster changes are expected to commence in the ensuing months. Jim Ross says this is the case as “several” WWE developmental wrestlers will surface on the main roster in the near future. He wrote Thursday on his official website, “Several FCW talents are either being introduced or on the cusp of such on a WWE roster. Expect to see several new personas in the coming weeks on Raw & Smackdown. Congrats to all who’ve earned an opportunity,”
NXT star Maxine is looking forward to the company’s annual post-WrestleMania roster shuffle, which will likely result in numerous longtime wrestlers being let go to make room for the incoming faces. She wrote on Twitter on Wednesday, “Wrestlemania is now over…time for a change out with the old in with the new…hmmm Im sure I should be on that list..”
— WWE.com is advertising Booker T for the Raw brand’s tour of Brazil next month.
— WWE.com is advertising Alberto Del Rio for all SmackDown events in May with the exception of the Mexican tour.
— The advertised main event for the June 16 WWE SuperShow at the Tsongas Center Lowell, Massachusetts is CM Punk, John Cena and Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan, Kane and Mark Henry.
Randy Orton believes his upcoming match against Kane at WrestleMania XXVIII is a bigger deal than the World Heavyweight Championship bout between Daniel Bryan and Sheamus.
“I think there might be a little more people out there who want to see Kane-Orton as opposed Sheamus-Daniel Bryan,” Orton stated Friday morning on the Big Poppa In The Morning radio program promoting WrestleMania XXVIII.
He also discussed WrestleMania XXVIII taking place on his birthday, WWE recently returning to a revamped Madison Square and The Rock vs. John Cena. The Viper hopes to see Cena cleanly defeat The Rock via Attitude Adjustment.
— It was announced at Monday’s Raw SuperShow at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts that Night of Champions will take place at the same venue on September 16, 2012. There will be a pre-sale this week on Ticketmaster.com with the code WWENOC.
— Triple H will compete at WWE’s Road to WrestleMania event at Madison Square Garden on March 18, 2012 as he teams up with CM Punk and Randy Orton in a Six-Man Tag Team Match against Chris Jericho, Cody Rhodes and Dolph Ziggler.
Also announced for the show: World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan vs. Big Show vs. Mark Henry; John Cena vs. Kane in a Last Man Standing Match; R-Truth vs. The Miz; Jack Swagger vs. Zack Ryder.
— WWE Champion CM Punk shot footage for his upcoming DVD Monday in Boston, Massachusetts.
“Oh hey. Day 1 of filming for this little DVD thing I’m doing. No time like 5:30 AM to capture my true crabby essence,” he wrote on Twitter. “Man. This DVD is going to be so great. #LWF #MAW #SDW #IWA #IWC #ROH #OVW #WWE.”
— Raw Interim General Manager and WWE Executive Vice President of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis teased at the conclusion of Friday’s SmackDown that Kane would face Aksana, SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long’s assistant, in a match on next week’s show. WWE’s Board of Directors announced Tuesday that Laurinaitis will be in charge of SmackDown next week, while Long will control Raw SuperShow.
— WWE is attempting to file a trademark for the term Kayfabe. It is for merchandise use as the organization released a line of T-shirts last week labeled Kayfabe Tees.
— SmackDown Superstar Justin Gabriel turns 31 years old Saturday.
— Rey Mysterio appears at Chicago World of Wheels at the Donald E Stephens Convention Center 9301 W Bryn Mawr Ave. Rosemont, Illinois on Saturday from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
– Kane is featured on the new poster for WWE’s Extreme Rules pay-per-view, which takes place on April 29th from Chicago, IL. Below are the official event synopsis, courtesy of InDemand:
“Extreme times call for extreme rules. Don’t miss John Cena, CM Punk, Randy Orton, The Miz and all your favorite WWE Superstars put it all on the line at Extreme Rules, Sunday, live on Pay-Per-View.”
– THQ will not be releasing any more Downloadable Content for the WWE ’12 video game.
– The Miz is overseas in Poland today doing promotional work for WWE.
– Happy birthday to WWE announcer Booker T, who turns 47 years old today.
– Zack Ryder is scheduled to appear at The Steiner Sports Store in Garden City, New York at 7pm this evening. For more information, you can call 800-242-7139.
— A press conference Thursday to kick off WWE’s first-ever live event tour in Abu Dhabi “turned chaotic” when Kane attacked John Cena, according to WWE.com. Cena, however, put The Big Red Monster through a table in front of members of the media.
Video and photos of the incident are available here.
— Through Twitter, Marco Corleone has been lobbying Alex Koslov (a/k/a Peter Orlov) to return to EMLL following his release from WWE last week.
— Matches airing on today’s episode of WWE Superstars on WWE.com are Johnny Curtis vs. Yoshi Tatsu, Heath Slater vs. Justin Gabriel, Jack Swagger vs. Santino Marella and tag team action pitting Epico and Primo against JTG and Michael McGillicutty.
— In today’s birthdays, Shelly Martinez turns 32 years old while Madusa turns 49.
— The official website of the Quicken Loans Arena is now advertising The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels for the Raw SuperShow taking place at the venue on March 12, 2012.
The Rock and Triple H were previously announced for the event. A double main event is also scheduled: John Cena vs. Kane and CM Punk vs. Dolph Ziggler for the WWE Championship.
— WWE Hall of Famer Superstar Billy Graham has been released from the hospital after being admitted on Sunday for pneumonia and leg infection. He is on heavy antibiotics right now. Graham believes he caught a virus at a wrestling convention last week in Los Angeles, California.
— Wednesday would have marked as the 54th birthday of WWE Hall of Famer “Sensational” Sherri Martel. She died on the morning of June 15, 2007 at her mother’s residence in McCalla, Alabama. The toxicology report stated that Martel died of an accidental overdose with multiple drugs in her system, including a lethal concentration of oxycodone.
— The Rock is advertised for the Raw SuperShow following WrestleMania taking place April 2, 2012 at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida. The advertised main event is an Eight-Man Tag Team Match pitting John Cena, CM Punk, Randy Orton and Big Show against Chris Jericho, Daniel Bryan, Kane and Mark Henry.
— Raw Superstars are advertised to appear at the April 3, 2012 SmackDown taping at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. The advertised main event is a Ten-Man Tag Team Match pitting John Cena, CM Punk, Randy Orton, Big Show and Sheamus against Chris Jericho, Daniel Bryan, Kane, Mark Henry and The Miz.
— Steve Austin says Jake “The Snake” Roberts is worthy of the WWE Hall of Fame. He wrote the following after reading Roberts’ thoughts on entering the Hall:
“JAKE THE SNAKE ROBERTS DEFINITELY DESERVES TO BE IN THE H.O.F. AND THAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE. One of my fave all time workers.”
— This week’s WWE Classics On Demand updates are as follows: Extreme Championship Wrestling (January 20, 1998), WWF Mania (January 9, 1993), World Class Championship Wrestling (February 18, 1984).
— Last Friday’s 1/27 edition of WWE Smackdown on SyFy drew a 2.14 rating with 3,141,000 viewers, a solid number for the show.
— TMZ.com is reporting that WWE diva Kharma, who made a surprise return at Sunday’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view, gave birth to a baby boy named Jamie on December 31, 2011. Congratulations to Kharma and her family.
— Local advertising in the Milwaukee area promoting the upcoming Elimination Chamber pay-per-view are billing the John Cena vs. Kane match as their final encounter – “It comes to an end in Milwaukee.”
Cena will be moving on to his feud with The Rock after Elimination Chamber.
— The February 2012 issue of WWE Magazine features an interview with Randy Orton and he is asked how 2012 will fare differently from 2011 for The Viper.
Orton responds, “I’d like to have the opportunity to compete with Alberto Del Rio. I haven’t done that yet. I’d also like to work with Kane now that he’s back in his mask. The last few matches we contested have been kind of odd due to how the WWE Universe percieved our personas at the time. But I know that it would be really interesting for us to go at it now.”
— The official Twitter feed of WWE stated Monday that Ticketmaster is experiencing some technical issues for the WrestleMania Axxess tickets, which on sale this morning via pre-sale.
WWE adds: “Ticketmaster is working hard to resolve them. We will get back to everyone once Ticketmaster is back online.”
— WWE will hold a Raw live event at McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga, Tennessee on Sunday, May 6, 2012. The show begins at 5:00 p.m.
— On Monday’s Raw, Eve made her way to the ring ready to battle Divas Champion Beth Phoenix, but instead of The Glamazon’s entrance theme playing, the arena went red and Kane’s music played. United States Champion Zack Ryder ran to the ring to try and help her escape to his car, which suspiciously had a flat tire. The segment lost 544,000 viewers to score a 2.39 cable rating. F4WOnline.com adds that it marks as the lowest-rated quarter hour for a non-holiday episode of Raw “in perhaps a decade.”
— Former WWE Diva Stacy Keibler is scheduled to be a guest on Friday’s edition of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The talk show program airs at 12:35 a.m. Eastern/11:35 p.m. Central on NBC.
— WWE Hall of Famer “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase appears alongside Mickie James at Frank & Son Collectible Show 16549 San Jose Ave. City of Industry, California on January 14 from noon to 2:00 p.m.
— Edge stated during an interview with Aftermath on The Score Monday night that if the choice is his, Christian will induct him into the WWE Hall of Fame.
WWE announced during the first hour of Monday’s Raw SuperShow that Edge would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame the night before WrestleMania XXVIII.
Meanwhile, Christian and Shawn Michaels went on Twitter to congratulate Edge for his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame.
“A gigantic, enormous congratulations to Edge on his Hall of Fame induction. Unbelievably well deserved & I could not be happier for him!!!” wrote Michaels, a fellow WWE Hall of Famer.
Christian added, “Edge… Hall Of Fame… No one deserves it more #YouThinkYouKnowMe.”
— Following Monday’s Raw SuperShow broadcast, Dolph Ziggler cut a promo in which he claimed to have beaten John Cena. Kane then appeared, prompting Ziggler to run off. CM Punk then appeared, but was attacked by Ziggler, Kane and Jack Swagger. Big Show came out to rescue Punk, and was followed by John Cena. Big Show, Punk and Cena all took turns hitting their respective finishers on Swagger.
— This week’s WWE Classics of Demands updates are as follows: Legends of Wrestling: Renegades and Outlaws, ECW (January 6, 1998), WWF Prime Time Wrestling (July 3, 1989), World Class Championship Wrestling (February 11, 1984).
— In today’s birthdays, Buff Bagwell turns 42 years old, Brian Christopher turns 40 and Colonel DeBeers turns 67.