Former WWE head trainer Dr. Tom Prichard recently spoke with Title Match Wrestling about a number of topics, including WWE’s next big breakout stars, Sting joining WWE and the WWE Network.
Prichard says he believes WWE’s next big breakout stars are former NXT Champion Adrian Neville Finn Balor. Prichard also said WWE dropped the ball with Bo Dallas and thinks he should be given another shot.
He also thinks WWE dropped the ball with Sting’s debut at Survivor Series and gives some suggestions on how the WWE Network can gain more subscribers.
– WWE will be taping the December 26th edition of SmackDown this coming Sunday in Sioux City, Iowa. If anyone is attending the show, feel free to send in a report.
– WWE recently posted the following video to their official YouTube channel, which looks at
2014 is quickly coming to an end. With only two weeks left in the year, fans have seen basically everything the WWE has to offer in 2014, for better or worse. In particular, the fourth quarter of 2014 was filled with exciting action, unexpected debuts, and a noticeable lack of WWE World Heavyweight Championship matches.
With all four quarters essentially “in the books” at this point, we want you to familiarize yourself with our picks from all four quarters. Next week, we are going to create a poll where you can vote on your pick for 2014 Match Of The Year.
The following are highlights of a new Huffington Post interview with Global Force Wrestling (GFW) promoter Jeff Jarrett:
On Sting signing with WWE: “Finally! Very happy for him. Couldn’t be a better guy. He’s a good friend and I couldn’t be happier for him.”
On CM Punk signing with UFC: “Win, Win, Win! Win for Dana White at UFC, a win for CM Punk fans and whether CM Punk wins or loses in that octagon it’s a win for him because I’ve got a lot of respect for a guy that follows his heart and follows his passion.”
– As has been reported, Sting is now being billed as “The Vigilante.” He was referred as such by the announcers at WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs … and Stairs and Seth Rollins last night on Raw. Dave Meltzer mentioned on today’s edition of Wrestling Observer Radio that a directive was issued to both announcers and wrestlers to refer to Sting as “The Vigilante Sting.” This directive is mandatory, with no exceptions.
– In this video, which was shot Saturday after Reality of Wrestling’s Christmas Chaos event in Houston, Texas, WWE Hall of Famer Booker T explains why bringing other independent promotions such as Pro Wrestling Syndicate and Wildkat Sports to ROW is best for business.
– In this video, Cesaro interviews some of the winners and presenters backstage at the 2014 Slammy Awards.
– WWE has started shipping out re-printed copies of their new Sting DVD and Blu-ray to stores. It was reported a while back that the back-cover of the DVD mistakenly included a photo of the “fake Sting” (the “nWo Sting”), however the new copies that were sent out corrected the mistake and now features a photo of Sting and Bret Hart.
– It looks like Kofi Kingston and Big E. will be the two members of “A New Day” that will be facing Goldust and Stardust this Sunday at the WWE TLC event.
WWE will attempt to deliver an early Christmas present this Sunday during its annual TLC pay-per-view. It will be the last pay-per-view of 2014, and should also be the last special event before Brock Lesnar’s return to the ring. The card is set, but how will it play out? Here are 5 potential shockers for Sunday’s TLC.
5. Mizdow Turns on The Miz
It seems obvious that the Miz and his stunt double will be breaking up sooner rather than later, and for good reason, as Mizdow is perhaps the most over superstar in the WWE.
There was tension once again during Monday’s Slammy Awards after the Miz accepted his partner’s award on his behalf. Although their time together seems to be limited, I’d be shocked if the two break up on Sunday. It would make more sense to have the dissolution occur at the Royal Rumble, setting up a WrestleMania payoff that could be one of the top matches on the midcard.
As of around Thanksgiving, The Rock was no longer part of WWE’s plans for WrestleMania 31. Rock is said to have a very busy movie and television schedule and the speculation is that his schedule will be too hectic for him to be factored into WrestleMania in any real capacity.
There was talk at one point of doing The Rock vs. Triple H at WrestleMania 31, however WWE is apparently going with the idea now that HHH will be working with Sting.
The folks at Title Match Wrestling caught up with former WCW star Buff Bagwell at the recent WrestleCade event.
Bagwell spoke about Sting’s WWE debut at the recent Survivor Series pay-per-view. He spoke about how he wishes Sting would have made the jump to WWE sooner than he did, but was happy to see it finally happen regardless.
He also talked about the WCW “Invasion” angle back in 2001, noting that he believes WWE gave up on it too soon.
You can check out the complete video interview above.
The following are highlights of a new interview with Magnus:
His current status with TNA: “I haven’t….I’m still under contract. There’s been no discussion of any of that. I already knew I was booked for the (UK) tour. I think I was one of the first names advertised when the dates were first booked. I think it was just one of those things where when they did the finalised line-up. There’s…..as of now, as of right now, I still have a contract. That’s about as much as I’m willing to discuss.”
How Sting went to bat for him in a situation with Jim Cornette: “Jim Cornette – who I have a lot of respect for and get on with and now – he was not necessarily on ‘Team Magnus’ when I first showed up. And with good reason! I didn’t fucking belong there! I didn’t know a fucking headlock from a headlight!….Jim Cornette looked at me and was like “Alright kid, keep your mouth shut and your ears open and maybe we’ll get through this!” Sting kind of reprimanded him a little bit and was like “Actually, Jim, he’s got some really good ideas and I pretty much want to do the match that we’ve already discussed.” He was like “Eh, ok…alright then” It ended up being a good piece of business and Cornette was happy.”
What he didn’t enjoy about being part of AJ Styles’ last match in TNA: “I don’t mean to sound ungrateful – but I don’t know if it was as much them having faith in me or…or if I was an easy person to have the heat on, at least. There were some very unfortunate circumstances around the AJ thing….I suffered a concussion when I won the title in the match with Jeff…I was pretty much on auto-pilot. I was in a bad way….I’ve never had one since…..That then meant that we weren’t able to do what we wanted to do with AJ. It’s my understanding that we were to do a straight up match, but that wasn’t possible. They did the best thing they thought they could do…..It wasn’t wrestling. It was just an angle.”
His love of U.K. television in the 1990’s: “(Gladiators) was part of that Saturday night line up….Friday night was swimming, fish and chips and ‘Top of the Pops’. Saturday was football practice or a game, and then that night it would be ‘Blind Date’, ‘Noel’s House Party’ and ‘Gladiators’.”
Growing up as a wrestling fan: “When I was a kid, like a small kid, we didn’t have Sky. We didn’t have satellite TV. But I was still completely familiar with the WWF and that’s really a testament to how incredible their marketing is. Even though I never really had access to it because I couldn’t see it on TV, u still knew who everybody was. …For me, Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart was held on a pedestal with superheroes and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and stuff….He was like a real hero….Probably around 1996/97 was when I started to get back into it when Shawn Michaels and HHH started doing DX….That was where the first time it started to pique my rebellious teen interest…From the age of 13 it was formulating in ny head that that was what I wanted to do.”
As seen in many recent years, WWE generally likes inducting a local legend from the WrestleMania host area each year into the WWE Hall Of Fame. This year, one of the leading candidates for the WWE Hall Of Fame in terms of local legends, since WrestleMania 31 in Santa Clara, California, is “The Crippler” Ray Stevens, considered by many to be the best in-ring worker of his generation.
Another choice for a potential local legend induction is former pro wrestler and football player Leo Nomellini, however because WWE owns no video footage on him, his chances are said to be less than great.
As noted last week, the leading candidates in terms of “main event” inductions for 2015 are Sting and “Macho Man” Randy Savage, although Vince McMahon said during the live “Steve Austin Show” podcast on Monday that Savage may not be going in this coming year.
The following are highlights of a new Rolling Stone interview with WWE Hall Of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin:
Whose idea was it to do a live WWE Network interview with Vince McMahon? “Back in the day I’d reached out to him just in passing about being on the show. A couple of months ago [WWE] came to L.A. for SummerSlam and we were trying to put it together then, but he didn’t have the time to fit me in. Then they were going to fly me to Stamford but I didn’t want to go all that way to do a podcast [laughs]. So we’ve wanted to do this thing for a while. I guess timing is everything and so someone from WWE reached out to me and said, “Hey, what do you think about doing your podcast live on the WWE Network?” and I said, “Man, that would be awesome.” It’s a win-win for both parties.
Any time you go live with Vince McMahon it’s going to be a very interesting experience. To me this is a conversation between us about the wrestling business and the direction the WWE’s headed in. There’s a few key talent I’d like to ask specific questions about. In doing my research, I’ve started watching some of the old videos of the work we did as far as angles go and the chemistry we had in the ring, so I’m not there to be Howard Stern. My podcast is a conversation, it’s basically a bulls–t session: two guys shooting the breeze talking about the business. At the end of the day, Vince McMahon is in the entertainment business, as am I, so I want it to be entertaining and engaging. I’m looking forward to it.”
What are your thoughts on NXT? I think that show harkens back to wrestling’s past in terms of style and presentation. “You hit the nail right on the head. I haven’t watched a whole lot of it but what I have seen I liked. I like the lighting, I like the action and it just feels different. I understand what WWE’s trying to do with Monday Night Raw, they want it to look like it’s the slickest production in the world, but sometimes it’s too slick. When everyone’s got a scripted promo, it doesn’t breed the same spontaneity that the Attitude Era had. You had a lot of guys out there grabbing a microphone where they might have a bullet point or two, but their words – you can’t write that stuff.”
Ever since rumors of Sting possibly signing with WWE first began circulating, the talk has been that he would eventually work a match with The Undertaker at WrestleMania.
Once Sting officially debuted at Survivor Series, however, the focus seemed to be on a potential Sting vs. Triple H match.
Current rumors suggest Sting may end up wrestling more than one match for WWE, however as things stand now, the company clearly seems to be building towards a Sting vs. Triple H match.
RF Video’s Rob Feinstein, who has broken news stories in the past — some of which related to the Sting and WWE rumors — posted the following online hours before Sting debuted at Survivor Series:
“From what I been hearing I think Undertaker is done and the plans are for Sting and HHH at Mania…but anything can change but that is what I have been told”
– Below is Eden’s latest video blog, which features the NXT Diva showing off her holiday spirit.
– Courtesy of WrestlingDVDNews.com, below is the official cover art for the WWE Survivor Series 2014 DVD and Blu-ray, which features Sting, Triple H, John Cena and Stephanie McMahon.
– Former WWE creative team member and well-known actor Freddie Prinze Jr. underwent spine surgery last week. Prinze actually tweeted Dolph Ziggler about the news and compared his operation to the procedure that John Cena underwent back in 2008. For more information on this story, visit EOnline.com.
– WWE has posted the official Sting titan tron entrance video on their YouTube channel. You can check that out below.
– The live “Steve Austin Show” podcast with special guest Vince McMahon, which as noted will air live on the WWE Network following next Monday’s RAW, is expected to run over an hour in length.
– It looks as though next Tuesday’s edition of the “Monday Night War” documentary series on the WWE Network will focus on the impact of The Undertaker and Sting in the WWE vs. WCW battle for wrestling supremecy. The official description for the episode reads as follows:
“In an era of shifting loyalties, WWE and WCW would each build a cornerstone in order to achieve stability.”
– Although this was believed to be the case already, we can confirm that next week’s edition of RAW, which as seen on this past Monday’s show was referred to as “Cyber Monday,” will in fact have the theme where fans are able to vote on various matches and stipulations via the WWE App throughout the majority of the show.
– Sting’s WWE debut at Sunday’s Survivor Series pay-per-view was apparently not a last-minute decision at all. Sting reportedly kept the information to himself while promoting WWE 2K15 on the road, and had already filmed a lot of the pre-taped footage that aired for his entrance weeks in advance.
– The front page of WWE.com currently features a poll asking fans who win a match between The Undertaker and Sting. With over 46,000 votes cast thus far, The Deadman is leading the poll 64% to 36%.
– Paul Burchill, who competed for WWE from 2005 to 2010, is featured in latest edition of “Where Are They Now?” on WWE.com.
While planning life after WWE, Burchill says the thought of continuing to wrestle barely crossed his mind.
“Having wrestled with the best in the world, I got my fix,” Burchill told WWE.com. “I didn’t want people to remember me as the wrestler. I needed to do a little less for myself and a little more for others.”
Today, Burchill works as a firefighter-paramedic with the Jeffersontown, Kentucky, fire department, in addition to being a member of the Jeffersontown police department’s SWAT team and a paramedic with Yellow EMS in Louisville. He is also looking to become a registered nurse, with a goal of attending graduate school to earn a master’s degree and become a family nurse practitioner. To read the full article, click here.
– Three mid-1990s episodes of Raw have been added to the WWE Network vault: December 18, 1996; January 15, 1996; January 22, 1996.
The Monday, November 24th, post-Survivor Series edition of WWE RAW, the first show since wrestling legend Sting made his WWE debut, scored a final cable rating of 3.07, according to Nielsen Media Research.
The 3.07 final draw marks a healthy increase compared to last week’s Survivor Series “go-home” edition of the show, which finished at a 2.75.
Monday’s RAW averaged 4.246 million viewers, which also marked a significant increase compared to the numbers for last week’s edition of the show, which averaged 3.771 million viewers.
The hourly breakdown in terms of viewership for Monday’s RAW is as follows:
Hour One: 4.734 million viewers
Hour Two: 3.992 million viewers
Hour Three: 4.012 million viewers
The following are highlights of the latest Jim Ross blog:
On Daniel Bryan’s RAW return: “Enjoyed seeing Daniel Bryan back on TV in a unique role for the evening. I’m not overwhelmed with the entire authority concept within the business as I feel that it’s largely run its course notwithstanding the fact that no one has truly ever followed McMahon & Austin. Many have done a fine job in the RAW GM, etc role but no one will ever compare to Mr. McMahon when it comes to being the “evil boss.””
On Sting vs. Triple H at WrestleMania 31: “If Sting wrestles HHH at WM31 I think that they would have an excellent match that would be well paced an tell a clearly understandable story that would be easy to follow. Nonetheless, this matter will likely be over analyzed and worn out by the time the big event gets here. Much like the business is at times over thought it seems as if some fans are following suit and second guessing whatever is put on their wrestling plate.”
On the Anonymous RAW GM: “I’ve never been a huge fan of the anonymous, RAW GM but if it’s going to return wouldn’t it be better for JBL to read the heel emails than Michael Cole?”
Check out the complete blog at JRsBarBQ.com. You can also order JR’s Bar-B-Q products online at WWEShop.com.
Sting recently signed a performers contract with WWE. While the length of the agreement and specific details are not yet known, the deal is likely structured similar to Brock Lesnar’s, where he is getting paid a lot and is only required to make limited appearances.
While he almost certainly won’t be working live events, the feeling is that he will be wrestling more than just “one more match.”
As noted earlier, WWE reached out to Sting last Thursday to set up his Survivor Series appearance.
Following Sting’s WWE debut at Sunday’s Survivor Series pay-per-view, where he gave Triple H a Scorpion Death Drop and cost Team Authority their jobs, there’s already some buzz behind the scenes that the two legends will square off at WrestleMania 31.
Just a few weeks ago, The Rock and Triple H were teasing a WrestleMania match at the SmackDown 15th Anniversary special. With The Rock busy schedule shooting movies, it seems unlikely that he’ll be getting back in the ring next March. WWE kicking off a feud between Sting & Triple H seems to support the notion that Rock won’t be available during WrestleMania season.
While The Undertaker’s in-ring future is still unknown, Sting working with Triple H could be a sign that Taker has yet to commit to wrestling at WrestleMania 31.
Following the official WWE debut o Sting at Sunday’s Survivor Series pay-per-view, former head of WCW, Eric Bischoff, posted a congratulatory message on Twitter directed towards “The Icon.”
Bischoff tweeted the following after the show last night.
The following are highlights of the latest Jim Ross blog:
On Sting’s debut at Survivor Series: “Happy to see my old friend The Stinger debut at the Survivor Series Sunday night. Honestly, I wish I hadn’t read so much material notwithstanding writing about the rumor of his return to the ring Sunday night. I’d have liked it better if I had not allowed myself to be preconditioned about Sting’s arrival. I have no one but me to blame. Nonetheless it seemed like he got a good ovation from the St. Louis crowd that had an up and down night and has had many serious distractions the past several months which may have affected the ticket sales in St. Louis. Racially charged tragedies are obviously not the environment to promote a major entertainment event as it can’t generally get media traction in the market. It was simply unfortunate timing for WWE.”
HHH gave Sting the legend’s welcome back to large scale TV. Well done. I hope we only see Sting wrestle one time….at WM31 and vs. HHH would work for me but we only need to see Sting wrestle once and that’s at WM31 and then after that, if any matches, sparingly at best.”
On other thoughts of WWE’s Survivor Series PPV: “Thought the main event, and this show was a one match main event, was nicely done. Good work by the staff to get this 10 man tag to have some continuity and flow. Thought Mark Henry and Rusev were well protected. Big Show KO’ing Cena was a shocker but what would have been the reaction if it was the other way around and Cena turned Authority w/ ‘designs’ on Stephanie and controlling the entire McMahon empire we find out in time. Hey, just thinking out loud.
Dolph used the tights for a pin but I don’t recall it being mentioned which would have added a little more edgy flavor to Ziggler who’s had more false starts then the Oakland Raiders. Admittedly, I may have missed that reaction but it was a big moment nonetheless.
The closing moments of PPV were dominated by HHH but even more by Stephanie who was superb in the closing reaction shots of the downtrodden pair of former power mongers before the show left the air.
How big a deal with some make of Sting and Ziggler having an extra long man hug celebrating their big victory? Didn’t bother me but some will point it out in a much different way than did I.
Wasn’t surprised by AJ losing the Divas title but the story of that biz is what is AJ’s future as it relates to the WWE. She will be a big loss if she decides to take a leave. Very talented young woman. The newly wed deserves to have a life outside wresting.”
Check out the complete blog at JRsBarBQ.com. You can also order JR’s Bar-B-Q products online at WWEShop.com.
– Last night’s WWE Survivor Series PPV saw a huge spike in Twitter activity, according to Nielsen.
Survivor Series drew a unique Twitter audience of 2.823 million, up one million from the past two PPVs and slightly higher than SummerSlam back in August, which had a social media audience of 2.808 million people.
Survivor Series drew 25.216 million total impressions, nearly doubling the past two PPVs, but down slightly from SummerSlam’s 26.989 million impressions.
The show ranked #2 behind the American Music Awards on ABC.
– Following Sting’s debut at Survivor Series and his attack on Triple H, there’s now a lot of speculation that he could be competing against Triple H at WrestleMania 31.
Previous reports stated that Sting would likely just wrestle one match with WWE, but today there’s talk that he could wrestle more than once.
