TNA world heavyweight champion Matt Hardy recently responded to a fan who tweeted that Triple H is closer to his prime at the age of 46 than Hardy is now at 41. Hardy came back by saying Triple H is an “OK” wrestler, and took the opportunity to take a shot at NXT as well. He criticized NXT for being on an “internet network” and not “real TV.”
Here’s what he said on Twitter:
You must have missed my 5 star match last Tuesday, internet nobody. I'm currently pro wrestling's #1 talent. https://t.co/nevxSS70Gh
Triple H took to Twitter on Friday to promote tonight’s NXT tapings in Orlando. He promoted three matches for the show, and said there will be a “huge surprise.” The tapings take place at the University of Central Florida, and we’ll have results later right here on SEScoops.com.
“The Game” also promoted three matches for the show: Sami Zayn vs. Samoa Joe, Bayley vs. Carmella, and Finn Balor vs. Neville.
BAYLEY vs. CARMELLA SAMI vs. JOE BALOR vs. NEVILLE
At WrestleMania 31, wrestling fans witnessed a site most thought they’d never see – Sting’s first-ever match in WWE. The WCW icon finally got his WrestleMania moment, but it was a losing effort against Triple H that involved arguably-excessive & convoluted run-ins from DX and the nWo. Sting losing his first WWE match was a real head-scratcher WWE Hall of Famer Scott Hall recently gave his first-hand account of how and why it all went down.
During an interview with Justin Barrasso for Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard blog, The Bag Guy said he got the impression Sting never felt comfortable during his WWE run.
“I was there and obviously involved in his match at WrestleMania last year,” said Hall. “We’re rehearsing the match in Cali last year at Levi Stadium, and it’s the Kliq and the New Age Outlaws out there, and we all know each other. And then there’s Sting, who doesn’t know anybody. He’s an outsider. I just think he never felt comfortable there. Being hurt was answered prayer for him–just let it end.
As for why Sting jobbed to Triple H when it would have made a lot more sense for the debuting legendary babyface to go over, Hall thinks Vince McMahon still needs to prove the point that he buried WCW.
“You need to remember that Vince is never going to go with something he didn’t create. But we didn’t get anything done at the rehearsal the night before, so WrestleMania day, there were tents in the parking lot set up with rings for rehearsal. So we’re all in there again, and I’m next to Hulk on the ring apron and Triple H is going over the match and then he goes, ‘OK, he’ll break the sledgehammer, then I’ll hit him with the sledgehammer, and cover him, 1-2-3.’ I looked at Hulk, and Hulk looked at me, and I was thinking, ‘Sting, what kind of lawyer do you have, bro? You’re coming in the door doing a job? You weren’t even guaranteed to go over?’ That’s Vince just reminding you who won, even if he’s going to make money the other way.”
A year later, Sting will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame during WrestleMania 32 weekend:
According to the latest issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, while there’s enough time between now and WrestleMania 32 that it’s certainly possible an arrangement can still be made, The Rock won’t be wrestling an actual match on the show for the same reason reported in the past regarding issues with concerns from the insurance people involved in the “Baywatch” movie he is working on.
As of this week, WWE has a full card in mind for WrestleMania 32, which takes place on Sunday, April 3, 2016 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and while whatever The Rock is doing is indeed scheduled to be a big part of the show, he is not included in any of the matches and is not expected to be added to any of them.
Currently, Triple H vs Roman Reigns is the main event WWE has in mind for the show, and with The Rock being related to Reigns and endorsing him in the storylines at last year’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view, coupled with the fact that he was expected to wrestle Triple H if he did work a match on this show, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that it’s possible he will play a role in that match.
WWE announced on Monday that Sting is the first inductee in the 2016 call of the WWE Hall of Fame. Several WWE stars have commented on the news, including Triple H, and Sting’s famous in-ring rival Ric Flair.
Here are some of the notable reactions on Twitter to the news of Sting’s induction:
Back in December, Sting revealed on Ric Flair’s podcast that he will require neck surgery to repair the damage sustained during his match against Seth Rollins at Night of Champions.
Ths year’s WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony takes place the night before WrestleMania 32 on Saturday, April 2nd. It goes down at the American Airlines center in Dallas, TX at 6:30 PM local time. Tickets will go on sale Friday, January 15th at 10 AM ET/9 AM CT.
Who do you think will be the one to induct Sting on April 2nd? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
Trish Stratus was recently interviewed by Alex Obert for Journeyofafrontman.com. The WWE Hall of Famer spoke about a variety of topics, including her longtime friendship with Lita, WWE Tough Enough, turning heel at WrestleMania 20, motherhood and more. Here are some highlights of what she said about:
Her Advice To NXT Women: “They have to challenge themselves and step out of the box every time they go out there. They have to stand out and give the fans somethng that intrigues them and will make them want to see more of them. I think people get used to their go-to moves and like staying in their comfort zone. But, even if its working, you still gotta mix it up. At the end of the day, it’s about going out there and making it the best damn two minutes you’ve ever made for yourself. Also spotting the opportunity to do that is important. us. I think right now is the time we are waiting for that big star from the women to break out.”
Triple H’s Vision For NXT: “Well the thing about Triple H is he’s very smart and is a visionary really. As the person in charge of talent, his job is to recognize their abilities, spot their potential, then provide them with the opportunity that could elevate them that way they can make the most of them in the company. The cool thing is that he looked at the Divas division and he didn’t just see them as women, he saw these amazing athletes and characters that could do well on the show and connect with the fans. That’s what he did, he gave them the opportunity. Once the fans connect with them, they’re golden. It’s cool to see Triple H in this role, it’s no coincidence this vision is coming from a multi-time champion who knows a thing or two about what works in the ring.”
There have been mixed reactions in WWE and NXT to Triple H making an appearance during the NXT TakeOver: London show in December only a few days after he wasn’t on RAW because he was selling the attack he suffered at the hands of Roman Reigns at the TLC pay-per-view. There was also talk about some workout footage he posted on social media that week that showed him lifting weights like a pro while he was injured in the storylines.
The majority of those in WWE felt that if anyone else was involved in a major injury angle on television and posted training footage of themselves on social media, it would get them heat with WWE management. Those same people, however, are fully aware of the fact that the regular rules generally don’t apply to top stars or anyone named McMahon.
As far as HHH’s NXT appearance goes, the consensus is that would never happen to anyone else, as they simply wouldn’t be booked on an NXT show if they were injured in the storylines.
At the same time, there were those in NXT that were upset with the wording of Roman Reigns’ promo on that week’s edition of SmackDown, as he spoke as if no one had seen or heard from Triple H since he beat him up at the TLC pay-per-view. The feeling was that Reigns’ words made it seem like he was going out of his way to act like the NXT TakeOver: London event didn’t happen, as he essentially ignored it. There were some who took it a step further and were of the opinion that Reigns’ promo made it seem like NXT is a brand that the main roster doesn’t pay attention to or watch, which could give the viewers the impression that it’s not important enough to care about.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, it was acknowledged that Triple H probably shouldn’t have made the appearance at the NXT TakeOver: London show in the first place, however the feeling was that one way or the other he was going to “take his victory bow” in front of the sold out NXT crowd.
Those on the main roster felt they had a more legitimate beef, as they did the injury angle and Triple H missed RAW on Monday to sell the TLC attack, Reigns did the promo about HHH missing in action since TLC at the SmackDown tapings, which they feel everyone knows is really taped on Tuesday, so they felt he should have purposely kept himself off of the NXT TakeOver: London show, which was on Wednesday.
Regardless of which side has the bigger argument, the feeling was that Triple H should have appeared on RAW the next week, not the NXT special, and Reigns shouldn’t have made comments under circumstances that would make the NXT brand come off as a second rate brand that isn’t worth watching, especially considering it aired on the WWE Network.
This week Triple H was in attendance for the funeral of Ian Fraser Kilmister, best known Motorhead vocalist and bassist Lemmy, who died of cancer on December 28th in Los Angeles. He was 70 years old.
Triple H and Lemmy had been friends for many years. Triple H explains that not only did Lemmy give him the gift of Motorhead’s sound (for his theme songs “The Game” and “King of Kings”), but more importantly, Lemmmy game him the gift of friendship. RIP
WWE.com published a new feature story on the rumors regarding top New Japan Pro Wrestling stars AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson possibly jumping ship from NJPW to WWE.
Their article, which they promise to continue to update with any new information that surfaces, mentions that the four are rumored to be WWE bound, however noted the following about Triple H “declining to comment” on the rumors.
“The office of WWE COO and EVP of Talent Relations, Triple H, declined to comment on the rumors for WWE.com.”
The official WWE website story also tells a bit of the story behind NXT Champion Finn Balor’s relationship with the aforementioned NJPW talents, including some of the history of the Bullet Club faction, as well as the Balor Club t-shirts.
“Additionally, the official Twitter account for the Bullet Club tweeted the NXT Champion Monday, telling him to keep more Bálor Club shirts on hand in case they need them. That tweet has since been deleted.”
The article ends with WWE.com pointing out the significance of the four NJPW talents possibly jumping to WWE simaltaneously to fans who might not be overly familiar with the international wrestling scene.
“The addition of Styles, Nakamura, Anderson and Gallows would represent one of the most significant bulk talent acquisitions in WWE history.”
Triple H announced 6 more #NXTRoadTrip shows on Monday, with events scheduled for Memphis, Nashville and Indianapolis in early February then Philadelphia, Asbury Park and Albany later in the month. Tickets for both tours go on-sale this Thursday, January 7.
Here is an updated look at NXT’s touring schedule:
Vince McMahon, Triple H, Stephanie McMahon attended Sunday’s Dallas Cowboys game against the Washington Redskins at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Of course, the venue will host WrestleMania 32 on Sunday, April 3rd.
Vince McMahon was shown on television sitting in the owner’s luxury box with Jerry Jones.
The arrest of Vince McMahon’s character on Raw last week for laying his hands on a detective from the New York City Police Department brought back memories of the time Stephanie McMahon was arrested on WWE’s flagship show.
In spring 2014, Stephanie threatened to fire Brie Bella if her injured husband, Daniel Bryan, did not relinquish the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at the Payback pay-per-view. This led Brie to quit WWE at the event before slapping Stephanie in the face. Stephanie got her revenge by putting Brie’s sister Nikki in several handicap matches in the ensuing weeks. Brie returned to WWE television the following month, appearing in the crowd on the July 21, 2014 episode of Raw to show her support for Nikki. She argued her way into a physical confrontation with Stephanie that saw her slapped and banned from ringside. Later in the show, plain-clothes detectives arrested Stephanie for aggravated battery at the urging of Brie.
While the arrest angles are quite similar, there is one major difference. WWE released a mug shot of Vince (through social media, and it was shown during Raw), but not of Stephanie. Kevin Eck, who was on WWE’s creative team at the time, explains in his latest column why there was no mug shot of her.
While tossing around ideas for the angle in a creative meeting, Eck suggested that a mug shot-style photo be taken of Stephanie and shown on television. Triple H, however, hated the idea.
Eck wrote, “Vince loved it. In fact, I think I may have gotten one of his “that’s good thinking” figurative pats on the back. However, when the creative team ran the angle by Triple H, he didn’t care for any of it, and he especially hated the mug shot idea.”
“His reasoning was that the faux mug shot of his wife would exist forever in cyberspace, and therefore if someone did a Google search on Stephanie and the photo popped up, people might think she had actually been arrested, which could be detrimental to her career as WWE’s Chief Brand Officer.”
Eck noted that Triple H stated his case to Vince, who nixed the proposal.
As announced by the man himself on Monday, The Rock will be appearing at WrestleMania 32 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on April 3rd.
Since making the initial announcement and spending some time responding to fans on social media, The Rock and others have been hinting at something big being planned for his involvement at next year’s “Show of Shows.”
After noting that he intends to “make all-time WrestleMania history” as part of his original announcement, The Rock followed up later Monday evening and mentioned that he and WWE “have a big and history making night planned.”
Whether or not The Rock will be wrestling or just appearing on the show remains to be seen. Below are some more comments from The Rock about his WrestleMania 32 appearance, including a tweet from his originally rumored opponent for the show, Triple H.
Whether or not The Rock will be wrestling or just appearing on the show remains to be seen. Below are some more comments from The Rock about his WrestleMania 32 appearance, including a tweets from his originally rumored opponent for the show, Triple H and WWE Superstar Rusev.
Rock legend Lemmy Kilmister of the band Motorhead passed away on Monday at age 70. Kilmister was best known to WWE fans as the lead singer of the band responsible for two of Triple H’s theme songs in WWE, as well as the official theme song for the Evolution faction.
Triple H, who was also a friend of Kilmister’s, who performed his entrance song live at WrestleMania 17 and 21, wrote the following about his passing just minutes before RAW was to go on the air live.
#RIPLemmy One life, lived your way, from the beginning, till the end See you down the road my friend… Thank you for the gift of your sound
– Triple H posted the following on his official Twitter page on Monday afternoon to announce an additional 1pm NXT live event in Chicago, Illinois on Saturday, January 16th.
– WWE posted the following on their official Twitter page to congratulate John Cena on being on the cover of the January issue of Muscle & Fitness magazine.
– Finally, WWE posted a 26-page year-end feature on the top 25 matches of 2015 on WWE.com on Monday. Coming in as the number one WWE match of 2015 was the triple-threat match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship between John Cena, Brock Lesnar and Seth Rollins at the WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view in January. WWE posted the following to promote the feature, which features comments from the talents or those close to the talents involved in each of the matches that made the list.
In the highlights posted below, the WWE Hall Of Famer talks about the reason Triple H didn’t contact him while he was going through recovery, his substance abuse storyline in WCW and Road Dogg’s current position with WWE after going through similar issues to Hall.
On the substance abuse angle in WCW and why he feels it was quickly shut down despite his warnings of it being “in bad taste”:
“Eric came to me and said, ‘now, I’ve got this [idea]’ because he was really big into all the mark stuff, all the dirt sheets that were online now and he’s going, ‘we’ll do this [substance abuse storyline] because the word’s out’ and I said, ‘Eric, I’ll do whatever you want because I still need them big checks rolling in.’ I said, ‘I personally I think it’s in bad taste, but you’re the boss’. I said, ‘I’ll do it and I’ll do it as good as I can even if I think it’s wrong’, so we went that way. They went with it until it came down from the higher ups at Turner, like, ‘hey, that’s not funny’ because everybody, unfortunately, knows someone who suffers from mental illness or addiction, so, obviously, one of those big shots in Turner had somebody in his family [struggling with such issues] and went, ‘that’s not funny. Stop now.'”
On the reason Triple H didn’t contact him after his initial call to Hall when he was going through recovery:
“When [Triple H] contacted me about the [WWE] Hall of Fame [induction], he called me and said, ‘hey, how are you doing? I wanted to reach out to you for years,’ he said, ‘but all the experts were saying ‘no. No, let him focus on just him getting himself together, not worrying about wrestling or being somewhere or doing this. Let him focus on getting well.’ So he said, ‘man, I wanted to reach out to you for so long,’ because one time, he did call and apparently, he said, ‘oh, I just talked to Scott’ and they went, ‘oh, don’t do that!’, so then I didn’t hear from him for a long time.”
On Road Dogg making a full recovery from similar issues and now having a prominent position in WWE:
“Well, the one thing that I’m happy about is like Road Dogg. And Road Dogg didn’t miss many parties either and now he’s like Hunter’s righthand man. He’s there. He was running Smackdown when the Tough Enough show was on because Vince [McMahon] and Hunter and Stephanie [McMahon], they would all go to the live Tough Enough broadcast and Road Dogg was basically calling the shots at Smackdown, which they tape on Tuesday and air Thursday, so he’s running the show and he said, the last time I saw him, ‘yeah, and the ratings actually went up a little bit.’ He said, ‘Vince pulled me aside and said, ‘maybe I don’t need to make Tuesdays.’ I’m just saying that Road Dogg, at one time, was right there in the same category maybe as me and now he’s doing great and he has a great mind!”
Tickets for the NXT TakeOver: Dallas event scheduled for WrestleMania 32 weekend (4/1/16) officially sold out moments after going on sale to the general public on Saturday morning. It’s another sign that the NXT brand is on fire as they continue to draw extremely well in new markets.
It’s worth noting that there are a ton of NXT tickets available on the secondary market and sites like Stubhub.com. The hype surrounding these shows drives up activity by scalpers. Fans looking to attend who got shut out initially will have to fork over well over value to see NXT live in the coming months.
Triple H touted the sell outs for NXT TakeOver: Dallas as well as NXT’s January tour:
There have been rumors online regarding Sami Zayn possibly wrestling top international independent wrestler Zack Sabre Jr. during the NXT TakeOver: London event this afternoon at the SSE Arena in England.
Apparently the rumors originated from a Wikipedia entry that was edited earlier, and until further notice, should be taken as strictly an unfounded rumor.
We can report, however, that there have been rumblings within WWE about the possibility of Sabre Jr. coming to the company, just not at today’s NXT TakeOver: London special.
As noted last week via Triple H, Zayn is scheduled to work a match at the TakeOver event itself later today, although his match is scheduled to be taped for the next edition of NXT TV on the WWE Network.
– WWE posted the above video preview of the next “Stone Cold Podcast” with special guest Ric Flair. The show premieres on the WWE Network on Monday, January 11th immediately following RAW.
– Speaking of tonight’s NXT TakeOver: London special, the official WWE Twitter page tweeted the following to promote the show, as well as the NXT TakeOver: London “Kickoff Show” hosted by Renee Young on the WWE Network immediately before the live special begins.
After the attack by Roman Reigns at the conclusion of Sunday night’s WWE TLC pay-per-view in Boston, WWE is reporting that Triple H is being evaluated for injuries overnight.
WWE.com reported the following in addition to the above video of the medical staff helping Triple H to the back after the pay-per-view went off the air.
“BOSTON – Following Roman Reigns’ vicious attack on WWE COO Triple H at the WWE TLC pay-per-view, WWE.com has learned that The Game is being evaluated by WWE medical staff and will be observed overnight.”
On Saturday, Triple H announced via his official Twitter page the official details for a NXT TakeOver special during WrestleMania weekend in April.
“The Game” posted a photo of himself holding a ticket with the caption reading, “This is the ticket you’re gonna want… NXT the takeover continues. NXT TakeOver: Dallas. April 1. [Tickets] on sale 12/19.”
“WWE COO Triple H announced on Twitter that the next edition of the highly acclaimed series of WWE Network live specials is coming to Dallas on Friday, April 1, 2016, at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas. NXT has made a huge impact in 2015 as it grew into a worldwide phenomenon, including sold-out specials in Brooklyn, N.Y., and London. 2016 looks to be even bigger for NXT, with TakeOver coming to the Lone Star State.”
Triple H held a conference call with the wrestling media on Thursday morning to discuss next week’s NXT Takeover: London live special. He spoke at length about NXT, and addressed the recent complaints from both fans and wrestlers about WWE’s current direction. Here are some highlights:
The idea of NXT replacing one hour of each RAW broadcast:
“If the thought would be to do it there that night, then you’re just doing a third hour. Then, it’s not NXT, then it’s not different and not a different feel and flavor. Is there a way to do that? Maybe. I think at the end of the day, three hours – no matter how you do it – is extremely difficult. I’ll be the first guy to admit that if I go to a movie and it’s longer than two hours, then I’m looking at my watch, no matter how good it is.”
On RAW being three-hours long, and dealing with fans’ frustrations:
“We just have to become more disciplined and more creative with how we do things, and how we operate the shows,” Hunter said. “We’ve had some unfortunate situations with injuries and everything else. It’s on us to be more creative and come up with a better format; a better show. We hear people’s frustrations and in a lot of ways feel the same way. It’s fixing it. And, trying to fix it. It is what it is. How we fix it, we’re not 100 percent sure yet. But, we will get there. Trust me.”
If WWE will call NXT talents up to the main roster to help strengthen RAW & SmackDown:
“The thing that I hate doing is, ‘Well, there’s a lot of injuries right now, so we’re going to pull this guy up,’ but then the injured guys will come back and then we’re not sure what we’ll do – now we have too many guys for the space,” Hunter said.
“I hate taking a guy as talented as Finn Balor and saying, ‘You’re the band-aid to hold us over until all these other guys come back and then we’ll see from there.’ If we don’t have that gameplan for when we call these guys up, especially for a Finn Balor, then it’s not the right time. You need to have something in your mind, and hopefully a long-term plan in place that gets them to where you want them to be. At least that would be the goal for me when guys come up.”
Triple H held his regular NXT conference call for the “TakeOver: London” special on the WWE Network next week and as usual, “The Game” dropped a couple of gems.
HHH noted during the call that former NXT Champion Sami Zayn will indeed be in action at the event live, but his match will not air as part of the TakeOver: London special. Instead, Zayn’s return match will be taped to air on the following Wednesday’s episode of NXT TV on the WWE Network.
Additionally, it appears that there will be a Fatal 4 Way and Elias Samson’s debut during the event in London, but those won’t be airing until the next NXT TV episode as well.
Triple H said WWE is looking at promoting more TakeOver specials airing in various time slots in the future, including one in Japan in 2016, due to the success of the “Beast In The East” WWE Network special earlier this year.
WWE posted the following photo on the official NXT Twitter page of Triple H taken during the NXT TakeOver: London conference call on Thursday morning.
Headlined by Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe for the NXT Championship, NXT TakeOver: London is scheduled to air live on the WWE Network at 3pm EST. / Noon PST. from Wembley Arena in London, England.
– WrestlingDVDNetwork.com is reporting that the following matches will have alternate commentary on WWE’s new “Best Of RAW and SmackDown 2015” DVD, which comes out on February 9th.
* Neville vs. Curtis Axel, RAW 3/30/2015, commentary by Neville
* Cesar vs. United States Champion John Cena, RAW 7/6/2015, commentary by Cesaro
* Paige vs. Sasha Banks, RAW 7/27/2015, commentary by Sasha Banks
– Dolph Ziggler suffered a black eye during his match against Tyler Breeze at the WWE SmackDown television taping in Jacksonville, Florida on Tuesday night. Ziggler tweeted the following photo of his “shiner” this morning.
– As noted, comedian and TV host Howie Mandel and rock band Train performed at the WWE Tribute To The Troops taping, which was also taped on Tuesday night in Jacksonville. Mandel did his stand up routine after Train’s performance. Triple H posted the following photo with Mandel and Pat Monahan at the show.