– Lana announced that she’ll be lacing up the boots this week and competing for NXT once again. She’ll be working tonight’s live event from St. Petersburg, FL and Friday in Winter Haven, FL. Check back later tonight for photos of Lana wrestling.
– Ahead of John Cena hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend, SNL released this hype video showing Cena threatening to destroy the SNL cast, except for one particular cast member.
– WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens ripped SmackDown announcer David Otunga on Twitter today, following Otunga’s fat joke during the WWE Survivor Series pay-per-view on Sunday. You can see Owens’ Twitter assault below:
– Below are Total Divas previews for tomorrow with Jim Neidhart teaching Lana to shot put, Naomi visiting the PULSE Night Club in Orlando with her uncle and The Bella Twins shooting the cover for Latina Magazine:
– Smackdown Superstar Carmella noted via Twitter that she’ll be unveiling brand new merchandise available this Tuesday on WWE Shop.
– An upcoming issue of “Inside Weddings” magazine is scheduled to feature WWE RAW Superstars Lana and Rusev. Lana will appear on the cover of the magazine, as she noted below:
Lana recently spoke with CraveOnline to promote WWE Studios’ “Interrogation” movie with Hall of Famer Edge and expressed interest in getting back in the ring. After wrestling her first match earlier this year at WrestleMania 32, Lana says she’d love to wrestle again – when the time is right.
“It was always a dream for me to do my debut match at WrestleMania and people would laugh at me. People would laugh at me all the time for my crazy ideas. Reach for the stars and at the very least, you will get the moon and so I would say my first match is going to be at WrestleMania and people would laugh at me and sure enough it happened. So right now I’ve been filming a lot of things for Total Divas and focusing on my weddings so when all of that passes, I’m sure you will see a lot more of me in the ring.”
She also commented on her experience joining the cast of Total Divas. “You can expect ratings to go through the roof with Lana on TV,” she joked. “We’re manifesting to be the highest rated season yet. I have had an incredible experience. It has been so fun being on Total Divas. I have got a lot closer to the girls. I guess it’s the Russian side of me that takes me a long time to get close to people. It took about two and a half years for me to finally make friends with some of these girls.”
Lana said it’s going to be a unique opportunity for WWE fans to see what she and Rusev are like outside of WWE. “You’ll see his humor, you’ll see my in-ring debut, and the challenges I faced with ‘Do I valet or do I wrestle?’ You’ll see a lot of stuff of us preparing for the wedding and you will learn a lot more about what has defined me. Lana is an extension of myself.”
– WWE posted the following clip featuring Maria Menounos along with WWE Superstars Summer Rae, Renee Young, Natalya, Lana, Alexa Bliss, Alicia Fox and Naomi appearing at the Tapout workout in New York City over Summerslam weekend:
– Mojo Rawley is scheduled for an upcoming David Alan Clothing fashion show to benefit the American Cancer Society. Rawley noted on social media that he’ll be wearing a Zubaz suit and says big things are on the horizon after speaking with Dan Stock, owner and founder of Zubaz. Below are tweets from Rawley regarding this opportunity:
Lana recently spoke with the WWE website to discuss her and Rusev’s traditional Bulgarian wedding ceremony. For those following the story, you know Rusev and Lana were first married on a beach in Malibu, California before heading to Rusev’s native country for the traditional ceremony. Lana says the two weddings were completely different.
“My dad, who is also a minister, led the [beach] ceremony, but it was not a traditional ceremony versus the Bulgarian one, which was in an Orthodox church and everything was very traditional,” she said. “I also learned very quickly that Rusev doesn’t know all his traditions; it’s really his mother that knows all the traditions. So I quickly had to learn them if we wanted to carry them on.”
Lana and Rusev honeymooned in Sychelles and Dubai, which she called fantastic.
WWE Superstars Naomi and Natalya were on hand for the Bulgarian wedding, serving as Lana’s bridesmaids. Footage will air on the upcoming season of Total Divas. “I was really excited to have them there and you actually see how Natalya has been such a big mentor to me,” Lana said.
“You’ll see throughout the entire season how she helps me plan my wedding. I’m so glad she was there in Bulgaria, because some of the traditions were hard for me to accept and go through, but she helped me [learn] to let things go and not worry. That was really cool for me, because I’ve become really close friends with them. I’m really glad they got to be there and witness all these crazy Bulgarian traditions. I’m really excited for the WWE Universe to see it.”
She gushed that Rusev is “such a special person” and loves the Bulgarian traditions.
– In addition to Becky Lynch defending the SmackDown Women’s Championship against Alexa Bliss at No Mercy, another women’s match in the works is a grudge match between Nikki Bella and Carmella.
– We’ve heard Lana go in and out of her Russian accent on WWE television before, but she’s dropping the accent entirely for the upcoming WWE Studios film Interrogation. The movie stars Lana along with WWE Hall of Famer Edge. The synopsis reads:
“After the FBI receives a threat that endangers the entire city, an interrogator (Edge) and an I.T. specialist (Lana) are plunged into a series of mind games with a criminal mastermind, desperately racing against time to uncover the villain’s true agenda as they fight to protect thousands of lives.”
Lana’s character in the movie speaks with her natural American accent, which you can hear below. She, Edge and the director get creative in explaining why she’s not using her her WWE television character’s trademark Russian accent.
– Luke Harper is back at the WWE Performance Center this week as he tries to get cleared to return to the ring. Harper spent all of last week at the Performance Center doing rehab work.
– WWE United States Champion Rusev and wife Lana are scheduled to return to WWE action at the 9/24 house show in Chicago. They are then scheduled for the 9/25 Clash of Champions pay-per-view in Chicago but we have not heard confirmation on Rusev defending. Rusev was not joking when he tweeted about having a 20+ day honeymoon. Here’s the latest from their honeymoon:
– WWE recently applied to register the trademark “Skull King” for performance use. The company applied for trademarks of the same name back in 2014 but only for merchandise use.
– It looks like Lana and WWE US Champion Rusev may be off RAW for even longer than originally expected. After their traditional wedding ceremony in Bulgaria over the weekend, the happy couple flew to Dubai for their honeymoon. Based on the following tweet from Rusev, they’ll be enjoying their honeymoon for the next 3 weeks.
– Below are recent episodes of “Rock The Promo” from The Rock’s YouTube channel, featuring guest judges Tommy Dreamer, Christian, Shane Helms and Rey Mysterio. Kurt Angle and Vickie Guerrero previously appeared as judges.
WWE Superstars Rusev and Lana were married once again on Friday in Bulgaria, native country of the United States champion.
Rusev and Lana’s first wedding was in July on a beach in Malibu, California. Like the first wedding, Total Divas were on hand for today’s traditional Bulgarian ceremony. Footage will air this fall when Total Divas returns for its sixth season.
As a result of the travel associated with the Bulgarian wedding, Rusev and Lana missed Monday’s RAW from Houston, Texas. They’ll also be taking off next week’s overseas tour, which includes stops in London, England, Manila, Philippines and Shanghai, China.
Check out these photos and video from Rusev and Lana’s Bulgarian wedding:
– Rusev and Lana are heading to Bulgaria next week for their second wedding ceremony, so they won’t be at RAW. The first wedding took place on a beach in Malibu, California back in July. Footage from the wedding will be shown on the upcoming season of Total Divas.
This private ceremony will be for their friends and family. Additionally, Rusev and Lana will not be part of the RAW brand’s overseas tour next week, which will include stops in London, Manila and Shanghai.
– SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan will be Jonathan Coachman’s guest tonight on ESPN SportsCenter.
– Insane Championship Wrestling has announced Noam Dar will be making his final appearance for the promotion on Sunday, September 11th from Glasgow, Scotland. Dar is expected to be part of the RAW brand’s new Cruiserweight Division, which launches the following week (9/19).
– Renee Young filmed new interviews with Becky Lynch, Enzo Amore & Big Cass on Monday night for future episodes of her Unfiltered show on the WWE Network.
– Lana is teasing a more aggressive side of her character. Following Roman Reigns’ attack on her husband at Summerslam, she tweeted:
You know what they say…If you want something done right you got to do it yourself…Someone has to be a leader. Back to micromanaging #Raw
– On Monday Triple H announced new NXT house shows for the East Coast: Norfolk (10/6), Richmond (10/7) and Baltimore (10/8). Tickets go on sale this Friday at NXTTickets.com.
– The Rock is getting a lot of mainstream media attention for an update he gave on the “Jumanji” movie he’s working on. To calm some of the criticism and speculation, Rock stated that the movie will not be a remake or a reboot of the original, but a continuation that takes place 20 years later. He wrote the following on Instagram this week:
WWE United States Champion Rusev and Lana were married on Friday evening on the beach in Malibu, California. Footage of the wedding will be featured on the upcoming Season 6 of Total Divas, when the Ravishing Russian joins the cast.
Many WWE an NXT personalities were on hand for the intimate ceremony, including the Bella Twins, Renee Young, Natalya, Veronica Lane and Devin Taylor. Here are photos from Lana and Rusev’s wedding, congrats to the happy couple!
– Lana and Rusev recently revealed to BCSN in Orlando that their weddings will take place on July 29th (in the US) and September 2nd (in Bulgaria). The first ceremony will feature the celebrities and will be filmed for Total Divas while the second ceremony will be a traditional Bulgarian wedding, but will also be taped for Total Divas.
– Finn Balor was at WWE HQ filming material last week. No word yet on what exactly he was filming but that adds to the speculation that he’s getting called to the main roster soon.
– WWE recently applied to trademark “Intercontinental Champion” for toys & action figures and clothing & merchandise.
– Tyson Kidd, who has been out of action with a neck injury for just over one year, recently confirmed on Twitter that he will not be on the upcoming season of Total Divas:
– Rusev and Lana are still scheduled to have two weddings this year, according to TMZ. The first will be held on a beach in Malibu this July and will be filmed for Total Divas. Lana’s bridesmaids will include actresses Brittany Snow and Kelley Jakle. The second wedding will be held in September at a 1,000 year old monastery in Bulgaria as Rusev felt it was important to get married in front of family.
– It looks like Enzo Amore is working on new music as he posted the following this past week:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BF17yTKLXsM/
– Xavier Woods’ “UpUpDownDown” YouTube page posted this clip of Tyler Breeze and Byron Saxton playing ping-pong:
– With the WWE brand extension taking place in just over a month, there’s obviously a ton of planning that’s taking place behind the scenes. One thing that appears to be decided on is that SmackDown will run live events Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays during RAW. SmackDown performers will end their weeks on Tuesday nights after the live taping.
– Rusev and Lana’s wedding is currently scheduled for September 2nd. The wedding will likely be filmed for Total Divas, , according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
– Taz was interviewed for Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard blog this week to discuss Seth Rollins’ return to WWE, this summer’s brand extension and more. Taz hosts a popular daily radio show (not a podcast!) on CBS Radio and revealed that he had talks with WWE about bringing the show to the WWE Network
“People tell me every week that ‘The Taz Show’ would be great on the WWE Network,” Taz told Sports Illustrated. “They had interest in it and we did have talks with them. The talks didn’t go far, but you have to understand that my bosses [at CBS Radio] are not going to allow my content to be tweaked or tainted with, and the show is not the show with me having a filter. The show is the show because it’s unfiltered. I’m speaking from the heart and giving my true opinion. That doesn’t mean I’m right–I’m just giving my opinion built on three decades of experience in every facet of the wrestling business. My opinion is formed off experience, and I don’t think WWE wants that, at least not to that degree. I criticize their booking a lot, but I also praise their booking a lot. I sometimes promote their brand better than their announcers do.
The WWE Network is an online, video-streaming network, and that is exactly what I am on with CBS. I don’t need to be on WWE’s network. It would be awesome to bring ‘The Taz Show’ there, but I don’t fall in line. I’ve never fell in line, and Vince [McMahon] knows that. I wouldn’t bash their content if I was on their network, but I would critique it. I don’t think they want that, but that’s exactly what their network needs. Someone on their show sometimes takes a shot at the internet hardcore fan, but that’s who is paying for the WWE Network–the internet wrestling fan. So why not give them a real unfiltered show? So it’s one of those things where we talked a couple of times, but it never really took off. Maybe it eventually will.”
Check out the full interview with Taz over at SI.com.
– It took Murphy a few minutes to get to his feet after being knocked loopy in his loss to Tye Dillinger at Friday’s NXT house show in Cocoa. Murphy was checked on by a doctor and a referee before leaving on his own.
– Lana spent the week training at the WWE PC in Orlando and thanked coach Del Rey with this tweet:
I love learning ? Thank you @WWEPerformCtr & @TheSaraDelRey for this week !!!
– Seth Rollins has been added to tonight’s WWE Smackdown tapings in Norfolk, VA. A No DQ match with Roman Reigns and The Usos vs. AJ Styles and The Club is also advertised locally.
– No word yet on when the movie will be released but the poster for WWE Studios’ “Interrogation” has been released. The film stars Lana and Hall of Famer Edge:
– John Cena’s first match back from injury takes place on the May 30th edition of Raw in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
According to the official website of the Resch Center, Cena will team up with WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose to take on the team of AJ Styles, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. This will likely be a dark match.
– According to this week’s issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, there is talk within WWE of finding a woman to team with Kalisto to face Rusev and Lana in mixed tag team matches. Lana has been wrestling more frequently at live events in case the idea transpires.
Lana made her NXT in-ring debut at last Friday’s show in Lakeland, Florida. Teaming with Mandy Rose, the blonde bombshells lost to Carmella and Daria Berenato.
Lana made her NXT in-ring debut on Friday night from Largo, Florida. WWE’s Ravishing Russian teamed up with Mandy Rose in a tag match against Carmella and Daria. Despite the fact that Carmella and Daria picked up the win, fans in attendance noted that Lana looked good in the ring and was very over with the crowd.
Just last month, Lana spoke to WWE.com about getting in the ring and revealed that she has great aspirations to be remembered as one of WWE’s greatest female competitors in history.
“I know I can fight. I know I have kicks that can destroy people. Just because I haven’t gotten in the ring in my career, that doesn’t mean I’m not capable of crushing people …”
“I will be the greatest woman to ever enter WWE, and I will leave the greatest legacy that WWE has ever seen.”
Here are some highlights from Lana’s NXT debut:
My first promo with @RusevBUL was at #NXTLargo & my first @WWENXT match was there tonight! #Thankyou for being fierce I had so much fun ??
– Actor Stephen Amell talks to entertainment reporter Chris Van Vliet in this video and says his WWE SummerSlam experience was one of the most frightening things he’s ever done. Amell also talks about having another match and says a part of wrestling fans always want the celebrities to fail when they appear, but he thinks he got through everything at SummerSlam.
Here are RAW Fallout videos from this week with Lana and Rusev accusing the WWE referees of a conspiracy, Sami Zayn talking about dreaming of going for the WWE IC Title since he was 10 and Kevin Owens predicting he will get “his” title back in the Fatal 4 Way at Extreme Rules:
– John Cena will be back co-hosting the “Today” show on NBC Monday, May 9th, Tuesday, May 10th and Friday, May 13th. Cena returns to WWE RAW on Memorial Day later this month.
– Hornswoggle tweeted the following on taking bookings after his WWE departure was announced yesterday:
Well no time is better than now. Wrestling shows, conventions, signings, bat mitzvahs, whatever you'd like…bookhornswoggle@gmail.com
Rusev and Lana were Michael Cole’s guests for this week’s WWE.com interview. Here are some highlights:
– Cole asked them how their wedding planning is going. Rusev says it’s expensive, unlike Cole’s wedding, but he’ll do anything for his bride to be. Cole said he hasn’t received a ‘Save the date’ card yet and volunteered his address in case they need it. Lana said they don’t, because he’s not invited.
– Cole congratulated Lana on joining the cast of Total Divas cast and asked how the show has changed their lives. Lana said nothing has changed simply because cameras follow them. It’s an honor for Total Divas to have them, because Rusev is a hero and she’s the definition of a true woman. Lana predicts ratings will go way up when they’re on the show.
Cole asked if it concerns them to have cameras filming their personal lives. With a smile and a wink, Rusev replied, “I could care less. I have cameras in my house anyways. Filming some stuff, you know what I mean?”
– Regarding Rusev becoming #1 contender to Kalisto’s United States championship, Rusev says he’s been #1 contender for more than a year and winning the battle royal on RAW was simply a formality. Lana says Kalisto is a small man, almost like a little child. She’s happy for Kalisto overcoming the odds as champion, but says Rusev is going to eat his heart.
– Cole shared his observation that Lana has been around a lot more since the League of Nations broke up. Rusev said the whole League faction started over a card game they were playing backstage. Lana tried warning him that joining forces with the other guys was a bad idea – and she was right. Rusev says they backstabbed him. Lana knew from the start the League of Nations would be a failure and that’s why she waited in the wings for the group to implode.
– Back to Kalisto, Rusev says it’s simple: he’s going to eat Kalisto’s heart and take his title back. He’ll be seeing Kalisto soon and when he does, he will crush him.
