– Former WWE employee Joey Styles tweeted Tommy Dreamer on Saturday and indicated that he wants to work some with Dreamer’s House of Hardcore promotion. As noted, Styles appeared at EVOLVE 67 yesterday and did commentary for the main event.
– Some main roster stars attended NXT Takeover: Brooklyn last night but as seen below, Sheamus, Gallows, Anderson, AJ Styles and Chris Jericho went out with TNA star Drew Galloway instead:
– WWE IC Champion The Miz and wife Maryse filmed a prom date for Total Divas while in New York City this week, apparently Maryse’s first prom ever. Apparently the date will air on the next season of the show. Miz tweeted these photos on Saturday:
After Tuesday’s SmackDown Live went off the air, WWE taped a promotional segment for SummerSlam sponsor Kentucky Fried Chicken involving Dolph Ziggler (dressed as Colonel Sanders) laying out a chicken (portrayed by The Miz).
The Miz recently revealed which athlete he would most like to see enter the WWE ring. On ESPN SportsNation, The Miz said he wants former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow to step in the squared circle.
Miz believes Tebow could be the “greatest bad guy we’ve ever had” in WWE. Back in September, Jim Ross also revealed that he had suggested Tebow to WWE on two separate occasions.
The Miz theorized that the WWE Universe would hate Tebow because he’s such a “good guy” in the real world, and says WWE fans like bad guys.
Tebow was released by the Philadelphia Eagles last September, and is now reportedly trying out for Major League Baseball.
Apollo Crews defeated Baron Corbin and Kalisto on tonight’s WWE SmackDown to become the new #1 contender to WWE IC Champion The Miz. The match will take place at SummerSlam.
Here’s the updated SummerSlam card:
WWE Universal Championship Match: Finn Balor vs. Seth Rollins
WWE Championship Match: Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler
WWE Women’s Championship Match: Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte
WWE IC Championship Match: The Miz vs. Apollo Crews
– WWE Legend George “The Animal” Steele noted on Twitter that he is now at home resting after spending 105 days in the hospital due to kidney issues. He tweeted on Wednesday:
I broke down emotionally today. JESUS let me return home after 105 days in the hospital.
– The status of Eric Young has been unclear since the former TNA World Heavyweight Champion appeared at two NXT events in late April. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, however, revealed over the weekend that the 36-year-old will continue to appear for WWE’s developmental branch.
Meltzer responded with the following after being asked about Young’s status with NXT.
– Filming for WWE Studios’ The Marine 5: Battleground, which stars The Miz, Maryse, Naomi and The Social Outcasts, wraps up this week in Vancouver. Director James Nunn tweeted the following on Monday.
The Miz will be back in action next week as the official WWE website has him listed for Tuesday’s SmackDown taping in Miami, Florida. He has an autograph signing scheduled that same day at the Cricket Wireless Store at 12530A Pines Blvd, Pembroke Pines, Florida.
– Former WWE ring announcer Eden is celebrating her birthday today as she turns 33-years-old. She was granted her release from WWE on May 24, just days after her husband, Cody Rhodes, also requested his release.
– John Cena, Seth Rollins, Sasha Banks, Sheamus and the Bella Twins will be appearing at this weekend’s ‘Wizard World Philadelphia’ convention. For more information, visit WizardWorld.com.
Rollins returns to the house show loop this weekend. Friday’s show from Odessa, Texas will see WWE World Heavyweight champion Roman Reigns defend against Rollins and AJ Styles in the triple-threat main event. On Saturday from Lubbock, Texas, the main event will be a Fatal Four Way featuring Reigns, Rollins, Styles and Sheamus. These will be Rollins’ first matches involving AJ Styles in a decade.
– Last week, WWE announced The Miz will star in the fifth installment of WWE Studios’ The Marine franchise. Marine 5 begins filming tomorrow in Vancouver, British Columbia, so it will be interesting to see if Miz drops the Intercontinental championship prior to working on the movie.
– Ric Flair is not currently backstage at the Resch Center, site of tonight’s RAW from Green Bay, WI, according to a report at PWInsider.com. Flair was written off television last week [in a “real bad” segment Steve Austin called “hard to watch.”]
WWE Studios and Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions partner for ‘The Marine 5: Battleground’
WWE Studios and Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA) today announced that the two studios will partner on the upcoming action film, “The Marine 5: Battleground.” Directed by James Nunn (“Eliminators”), the film will feature WWE Superstars The Miz, Maryse, Heath Slater, Bo Dallas, Curtis Axel and Naomi. The film will begin production this Tuesday, May 31, in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
The Miz returns as Jake Carter, an ex-Marine who served in the Middle East and is now saving civilian lives stateside as an EMT. After responding to an emergency call in an abandoned parking lot, Carter finds himself protecting an injured man from a ruthless biker gang. With the odds stacked against him, Carter utilizes his unique Marine skills to stop the bikers’ rampage before any more innocent blood is shed.
“The ‘Marine’ series is a true fan-favorite and we are thrilled to join with Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions and director James Nunn to launch this next installment,” said Michael Luisi, President of WWE Studios. “For the first time ever, we will have six WWE Superstars in one live action film to ramp up the excitement and thrill audiences worldwide.”
The film is written by Ed McHenry and Rory McHenry.
Thursday’s WWE Smackown will see a rematch from Extreme Rules as new WWE US Champion Rusev defends against Kalisto.
Another title match will take place this Thursday as The Miz defends the WWE IC Title against Cesaro, who pinned Miz in a MITB Qualifier on Raw tonight.
Join us here Tuesday night for our live coverage of this week’s SmackDown tapings.
– Expect the July 4 Raw episode to be a throw away. This is also expected to bet he lowest rated Raw of modern times, if not all-time.
– There are different beliefs on how Enzo Amore’s concussion happened at Payback. One is that Enzo was first knocked silly by a knee before his head whiplashed on the middle rope and that he was knocked out twice. The other is that Enzo’s head whiplashing off the middle rope is what knocked him out and led to his head hitting the apron. The Observer indicates that Enzo believes it’s the latter.
– The Miz participated in the 44th Annual Los Angeles Police – Celebrity Golf Tournament on Saturday, to benefit the LA Police Memorial Foundation:
– Jim Ross noted in his new blog that The Brooklyn Brawler was in good spirits and was thinking positive after being released from WWE last week. Brawler was with the company for more than 30 years.
– The Miz has been announced for the 44th Los Angeles Police Celebrity Golf tournament on May 21 in West LA. Other celebrities there include Mark Paul Gosselaar, Alan Thicke, Luke Wilson and Tito Ortiz.
– Linda McMahon will be serving as a delegate at the GOP Convention in Cleveland this July, according to The Hartford Courant. All delegates were selected by Donald Trump’s campaign.
While the announced figure of 101,763 for Wrestlemania 32 was always believed to be an inflated number, Bryan Alvarez of F4WOnline.com commented on Wrestlemania’s actual attendance number based on information he got from Dave Meltzer:
Dave got the actual number from the building, legit did just under 94,000 and $17 million gate. Legit broke fake record! #WrestleMania
Update: The Miz denies that he was injured at last night’s WWE live event from Richmond, VA. After reports were circulating that he was legitimately hurt by Jack Swagger’s ankle lock, Miz tweeted on Sunday:
Previously (3/26): The Miz sold an injury at Saturday night’s WWE live event from Richmond, VA that fans in attendance are saying looked legit. After Miz defeated Jack Swagger, Swagger went into attack mode and applied an ankle lock. Miz appeared to be legitimately injured by the hold. He left the ringside area and limped backstage. We have not heard anything about the situation beyond the live reports and what’s being said on social media, so let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope this was just part of the show. Miz will be part of the 7-man ladder match for the WWE Intercontinental championship next Sunday at WrestleMania 32.
The Miz recently appeared as a guest on Allegedly with Theo Von & Matthew Cole Weiss and spoke about Vince McMahon influencing a change in his ring gear, Tom Cruise influencing his egotistical character, getting advice from The Rock and more. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On working and getting advice from The Rock:
“I met The Rock. I got to wrestle The Rock and I remember my first movie I actually texted The Rock and he called me back and was like, ‘hey man, this is your first movie’ and he gave me the most amazing advice.”
On getting his egotistical character from watching Tom Cruise movies:
“I would watch all of [Cruise’s] interviews and just some of the stuff that he would say would just be incredible. He’d be so intense and then start laughing and then be really intense again and I’d be like, ‘I’m using this!’ This is it!”
On switching his ring gear from shorts to trunks after Vince McMahon saw him in trunks and liked the look:
“When I first started with WWE, I didn’t want to look like the quintessential wrestler. I didn’t want to wear trunks. I didn’t want to look like that. I wanted to look cool, I guess you could say, like, cooler in my mind. And I wore shorts with a bunch of different stuff. I wore a bandana with a fedora thinking it was the coolest thing ever, saying ‘ninny’. I don’t know. It was just one of those things. I got fired by Jeremy Piven because he was the guest host that week [on WWE Monday Night RAW] and so the next week I was going to come back and I was going to wear a mask and everyone couldn’t know who I was, so I wore trunks for the first time. When I got [backstage], one of the talent relations guys goes, ‘Vince loves you in trunks. You are wearing trunks from now on.’ I was like, ‘I don’t want to wear trunks! I don’t want to wear trunks!’ And it’s like, if Vince McMahon says, ‘you’re going to wear trunks from now on,’ you’re going to wear trunks from now on, so I started wearing trunks and I haven’t gone back.”
The Miz recently appeared as a guest on “Allegedly with Theo Von & Matthew Cole Weiss” and spoke about the life of a modern WWE Superstar. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On the road schedule in WWE:
“It’s nonstop, all day, every day. I mean, I leave probably L.A. on a Friday, at like 6 am usually on a flight, get in around 2 [pm]. I’ll go work out wherever it could be like, Omaha, you basically find a Gold’s Gym or a L.A. Fitness or whatever gym you can find. Go in there, work out, you go get a meal at the local Outback [Steakhouse] or Texas Roadhouse and then you go to your show. After the show you go either to the hotel or you drive on to the next city, which is usually around 3 hours away. And usually you drive with whoever, whatever Superstars you want to drive with, whoever your friends are.”
On who he travels with in WWE and learning to be humble and being willing to travel with anyone:
“I usually drive with Dolph Ziggler and Zack Ryder. They’re fun guys and Dolph has been trying to do some comedy, so he’s funny. He’s so funny. He’s so quick witted, so it’s definitely something I think he’ll be really good at.” The Miz continued, “I’ll ride with whoever. If a guy needs a ride, I’ll give him a ride. I had so much stuff when I was first coming in with the WWE that I was like, ‘alright, I will never be this. I will always try to be nice to everyone.’ You kind of learn your lesson. Back in the day, I was from [MTV’s] ‘The Real World’ and when you’re from ‘The Real World’, you’re not supposed to have any talent. You’re not supposed to be able to do anything. You’re a reality star. You’re nothing. You’re a nobody, so you have to kind of walk over into the WWE where it’s almost like a fraternity, not just with the Superstars, but with the audience as well. So it was kind of one of those things where I had to elevate myself and prove myself day in and day out and I’m still proving myself to this day.”
On his WWE career being the hardest thing he’s ever done, much more so than acting:
“WWE is probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. It’s not only acting, it’s not only athleticism, but it’s traveling, it’s nonstop, it’s eating right, working out. It’s basically a theater. It’s a big theater and you get instant gratification. You know if they’re booing you or cheering you. In a movie, you get a bunch of different takes. You only get one take in WWE.”
On WWE having a much more strict drug testing policy than professional sports:
“We are tested more than an NFL [player], Major League Baseball player, or in the NBA. I mean, we are tested nonstop, all day, every day. We’re not allowed to have Sudafed. [If] you have a Sudafed, you’re out 30 days, so it’s legit. The stuff you maybe got away with back in the day, you don’t get away with now. And kudos to WWE because they took an interest in our health. We get tested. Our hearts get tested. We get tested every six months. We get blood tested, we get our heart monitored, and it’s great.”
On ring rats:
“Back in the day, like, in the 80s, I think there was, like, people would be at the hotels, like, every hotel no matter what, wherever. The only time that people really are at our hotels in full fledged of hundreds of people is in, like, Europe. I’ve never really noticed it, I guess you could say.”
On Vince McMahon’s original vision for The Miz and working with him early on:
“I remember being in there with Vince McMahon and Vince was like, ‘we’re going to have you kind of be like the Ryan Seacrest of WWE’ and I went, ‘what? No, I want to be, like, the big star. Like, when I was a kid, The Ultimate Warrior was the man. Like, let me be him, not the host.’ But then, I was like, ‘well, they’ll give me the mic. As long as I have the mic, I know I can get this crowd to either boo me or cheer me.’ So the first thing that comes out, I have to host this Diva Search where I have to memorize a number and I wrote the number on my wrist because it was a hard number to remember. It was like seven [digits]. It wasn’t like a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. No, it was like a number, so I totally forgot it. As I was looking on my wrist, you could see me looking on my wrist and the sweat kind of made it go off, so I totally ruined, basically, that whole competition. It was bad, so I was completely worried I was going to get fired. I went backstage and I was like, ‘I am so sorry’ [and McMahon] was like, ‘oh, it happens, blah, blah, blah’ and to his credit, he kept allowing me to host that show and as time progressed, I kept getting better and better.”
On advice for aspiring WWE Superstars and Vince having him cut promos on everything:
“So is there an art to trash talk? If kids want to become a WWE Superstar, I say start cutting promos in the mirror. We did a class. Like Vince did a class for, like, seven of us. We’d have to go in there and we’d cut promos. Vince would go, ‘alright, cut a promo on armbar. Alright?’ ‘Armbar? Okay!’ And he would just say a word and we’d have to do it, so I’d practice that while I’m in traffic in L.A. Like, stop sign. Cut a promo on a stop sign.”
On if wrestlers ever crap themselves in the ring and Big Show’s notorious flatulence:
“A lot of gas. Sometimes there’s some gas and you wonder if the audience can smell it. And you’re breathing heavy, like, you’re tasting it. It’s not very fun.” The Miz added, “Big Show [is the gassiest WWE Superstar]. He is 500 pounds. He’s seven-foot tall. The best running gag that he has is like, he’ll get in an elevator and once he’s leaving the elevator and the door’s closing, he’ll just let it rip and walk out.”
The Miz announced that he will be hosting a special online edition of Miz TV this afternoon at 4pm EST. His guest will be none other than Intercontinental Champion Dean Ambrose.
– WWE posted the above video, which premiered on Monday’s TLC “go-home” edition of RAW, for this year’s special Slammy Awards edition of RAW. The 2015 Slammy Awards take place in two weeks at the RAW show on December 21st in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
– NXT will return to Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida on Thursday, January 7, 2016 for the first set of NXT television tapings of the new year. Tickets for the show quickly sold out shortly after going on sale on Monday morning.
– As seen below via WWE’s official Twitter page, Donny Deutsch made a cameo during Monday’s RAW in a backstage segment with The Miz and Neville to promote his new USA Network show “Donny!” The show airs Tuesday nights at 10:30pm EST.
– It looks as though former Neville may be undergoing some character changes in the near future. Featured above is a video clip from this week’s edition of WWE SmackDown that shows The Miz approaching the former NXT Champion backstage and offering to help by taking Neville under his wing.
– In addition to WWE Tough Enough winner Josh Bredl revealing his new WWE ring name, Bronson Mathews, during a promo segment at the NXT live event in Orlando, Florida on Thursday evening, another former Tough Enough contestant made her in-ring debut.
Daria Berenato, who was signed to a developmental deal with WWE after Tough Enough ended, worked a match at the NXT live event. Berenato is currently working under her real name, but is also using the “Jersey Devil” nickname. She was squashed by Nia Jax in her in-ring debut at Thursday’s live event.
– WWE posted the above video preview of tonight’s new episode of the WWE Network original program, “Unfiltered with Renee Young,” where her special guest will be The Miz. In the above preview, The Miz talks about his hijinx while ordering food on the road.
– One-half of the legendary Rock ‘N’ Roll Express tag-team and arguably one of the best natural babyface performers of his era, Ricky Morton, is the guest on the latest edition of WWE Hall Of Famer Ric Flair’s WOOOOO! Nation podcast. The official description for the episode reads as follows:
“Ric welcomes his friend of over 30 years, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express’ Ricky Morton! Ric and Ricky share great stories from both inside and outside of the ring! Hear about the nine one hour draws they wrestled two weeks in a row, the drinking, the women and the infamous boat story! Ricky talks about the hard lessons learned on the business end of wrestling while riding high in the 80s. Another great episode from Ric and Conrad on WOOOOO! Nation! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!”
– The latest edition of Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast, which is available now, features an interview with ECW Original Raven. The description for the episode reads:
“Raven returns to TIJ, and this time he’s talking straight on wrestling! ECW, WCW, WWE, the creation of the Raven gimmick, in-ring psychology, booking, the indie scene, Roddy Piper, Paul E. Heyman, Vince Russo, and drinking with Shane McMahon.”
– On Monday’s post-Survivor Series edition of WWE RAW in Nashville, Tennessee, a match between the current and former Zeb Colter guys was announced as WWE United States Champion Alberto Del Rio will go one-on-one with Jack Swagger in a non-title match. Featuring a Thanksgiving theme this week, WWE SmackDown will be taped on Tuesday evening at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana.
– The following matches were taped on Monday night at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee prior to RAW for this week’s edition of WWE Superstars.
* R-Truth def. Adam Rose in one-on-one competition in the first of two matches taped for this week’s show.
* The Miz def. Zack Ryder in the main event of this week’s WWE Superstars taping. The crowd in Nashville was actually pretty hot for this match, which The Miz ended up winning to finish up the taping.
– WWE posted the above video of Maria Menounos interviewing The Miz and Paige to promote their new WWE Studios film, “Santa’s Little Helper” on E! News.
– The latest edition of Jim Ross’ “Ross Report” podcast, which features interviews with Jim Cornette and Magnum T.A., is now available. You can download the show today at PodcastOne.com.
– WWE confirmed the fact that Randy Orton got married this past weekend on their official website. They wrote the following about “The Viper” getting hitched in Las Vegas on Saturday:
Former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton married fiancée Kim this weekend. The newlyweds recently appeared together on Unfiltered with Renee Young, available now on demand, only on WWE Network. Join the rest of the WWE Universe in congratulating Randy Orton and his new bride on this exciting new chapter in their lives! Send your congrats to The Viper on Twitter by tweeting @RandyOrton.