– The return of Total Divas Sunday night on E! averaged 1.3 million viewers, according to a press release issued by the cable network. The was in line with the premiere episode in July, which averaged 1.343 million viewers. While the show has yet to be renewed for a second season, many people within the company feel it will be due to Sunday’s figure and kick off during WrestleMania season.
– In this “Rank’d” video, WWE counts down the most outrageous vignettes in company history. “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Dusty Rhodes, Mr. Perfect, The Mountie, Duke “The Dumpster” Droese, Steven Regal and Skinner are featured.
– WWE has launched a Twitter feed for UK fans at wweuk.
– Triple H and Stephanie McMahon are interested in having Shane McMahon make an appearance at WrestleMania XXX in New Orleans, Louisiana, according to F4WOnline.com on Friday. No word yet on whether the former wrestling executive is interested.
McMahon left WWE in 2010 to pursue other opportunities. In July, McMahon voluntarily stepped down as CEO of YOU On Demand, whilst remaining YOD’s principal executive officer and Chairman of the Board.
– In response to news of Mickie James appearing as a guest trainer for WWE’s female developmental talent at the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida this week, Ohio Valley Wrestling trainer Rip Rogers says the fourteen-year veteran, as well as WWE trainer Sara Del Rey, should be teaching them before live audiences.
“Mickie James can wrestle better than most of the guys- divas b in for a rude awakening,” Rogers remarked. “[James and Del Rey] should be on the road wrestling and make the girl wrestle every day in the ring on the road.”
Rogers explains that it’s not beneficial for inexperienced talent to be work with each other. “The only way to get good is have 1000 matches with vets leading u to get better – green leading green does not work,” he said.
As previously reported, WWE made some drastic changes to the executive staff at WWE Headquarters last week. These changes resulted in the release of Peter Leone and Randy Helms, both of which were Triple H’s top assistants. Nobody seems to know why they were released, especially in the case of Leone, who was Triple H’s top confidante in the company.
Leone was Triple H’s right-hand-man, to the point that he was almost always on the telephone with him if he wasn’t traveling with him and working with him directly. Leone was responsible for organizing all of Triple H’s travel arrangements, including scheduling his business meetings and handling security.
The other top executive who was released, Randy Helms, was mainly responsible for coordinating the schedules for both Triple H and Vince McMahon.
Jane Geddes, who many WWE fans have seen in a number of appearances on the Total Divas reality show, formerly worked as the Senior Vice President and Head of Talent Relations, but is now Triple H’s new key assistant. Sean Clearly, who used to work as the Senior Vice President of Human Resources, has replaced Geddes in her previous role of Senior V.P. and Head of Talent Relations.
Apparently Clearly has virtually zero knowledge of the product, and is basically a typical clean-cut younger looking executive type that WWE likes to hire. The idea behind moving Clearly into the role is to capitalize on his general business knowledge, and have Triple H teach him his style of wrestling as he works his way into the new role.
WWE “Director Of Operations” Kane filled in for WWE COO Triple H in the latest sit-down interview with Michael Cole on WWE.com this week.
The focus of the interview this week was Kane’s character change from “The Big Red Monster” to a member of The Authority who now wears a suit and tie. Kane mentioned that he is still capable of unleashing “The Monster” if and when the situation calls for it.
“Mr. Cole, there is a monster deep inside all of us. The difference is for 17 years, I chose to allow mine to run amok, to promote chaos. But, make no mistake, I was always in control,” said the WWE’s new “Director Of Operations.” Kane continued, “Unlike you and everyone else, I accept the bestial side of my nature. Indeed, I relish in it. But, it is simply one facet of my personality. A tool, if you will, but not the only tool at my disposal. So, when the appropriate situation arises, The Monster will be utilized.”
You can check out the complete video interview online at WWE.com.
The following are highlights from a recent WGD Weekly interview with former WCW star Alex Wright:
On the Chris Benoit tragedy: “Benoit was a very tough wrestler, very hard in the ring, a lot of intensity, but I liked that kind of style…It was very sad hearing about Benoit. It was shocking, you know, because I met a person that was totally different, you know, and so it was kind of unbelievable that this had happened.”
On working with Triple H before he was a big star: “Triple H, or at that time, Jean-Paul Levesque, he was very cool and a very nice guy. I had a lot of fun working with him and there was no real competition between us. We were both young and we both wanted to do our best and we both wanted to show the veterans, and of course Bischoff, that we can do it and that we have the right to be on the pay per views and the shows…(There are always) haters and jealous people, but when I met him and I’m sure it is still the same, he loved the sport, just like I did…if you look now at WWE, you see the new WWE Performance Center, and that just shows how Triple H wants to secure the future for the sport and the upcoming talent.”
On turning down WWE: “When Vince McMahon bought WCW, he couldn’t buy my contract and what WWE offered for a buyout was not enough for me to say, ‘OK, I’ll go to WWE’…WWE approached me afterwards twice and I was very honored for that and actually very happy, but on the other side, I told them thank you very much…but right now, I’m not able to do that, what you want from me. I’m a guy when I step in the ring, I want to give 180 percent, for the promotion, for the fans, and for myself also and if I can’t do that, I will not step in the ring…at the time, going straight on the road for so long, plus the backstage politics…I was married, I wanted to have kids…I said, if I don’t now use the time to regenerate, mentally and physically, I most likely will end up like some of my other colleagues…that’s why I said no to WWE.”
– A fan on Twitter wrote Jake Roberts, saying, “Each time I hear cerebral assassin I don’t think HHH I think of the legend @JakeSnakeDDT.” Roberts responded,
“You should. My gimmick.”
– The official Twitter account of WWE NXT announced today that Billy Gunn will be will wrestling at this Thursday’s live event from Tampa, Florida. Gunn will team with Bo Dallas against Adrienne Neville and Sami Zayn. For ticket information, click here.
– WWE is hiring a new Vice President of Digital Video Strategy. Some of the duties for this position include:
* Manage a team of digital video producers and editors, including a road team, while simultaneously managing multiple teams who are responsible for the entire production process
* Provide creative oversight for a variety of production projects
* Grow WWE digital audience by managing, scheduling, and implementing innovative programs & genres for digital platforms
* Manage and lead video content development process that will attract audiences and achieve a healthy return on investment
* Aggressively reach out to independent digital video creators to grow and supplement content created in-house
– On WWE RAW this week, which was taped in Manchester, England on Monday afternoon, the company announced that next week’s edition of RAW will have a country music theme. “RAW Country” emanates from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee live on Monday night.
No official matches have been announced for next week’s WWE RAW thus far, however it was announced that “The Authority,” Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, will return from “vacation” to appear on the show.
– WWE Superstar CM Punk is confirmed to appear on this week’s edition of WWE SmackDown. The announcement was made on WWE RAW on Monday night. SmackDown will be taped on Tuesday afternoon in Manchester, England.
With WWE television tapings taking place overseas, the company is playing up “The Authority” (Triple H and Stephanie McMahon) being on “vacation” to explain their absence from television.
WWE suggested that the new “Director Of Operations” Kane will be in charge of running WWE RAW from a storyline standpoint this week.
Make sure to check back here at the website later this afternoon for complete WWE RAW spoilers for tonight’s show.
– As reported last night, WWE has cut ties with developmental wrestler Kassius Ohno, real name Chris Spradlin. Some main roster talent were surprised with the news, since Triple H had praised his recent WWE NXT match against Luke Harper (it airs on this week’s show).
– WWE Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel, who often responds to fans on Twitter, continues to address criticism over his sports-entertaining abilities. During SmackDown, a fan wrote, “Yeah. CM Punk vs Broomstick would be more interesting than this match. @RealCurtisAxel have less charisma than The Broom.” He responded, “hey!!! Don’t offend broomsticks! They have feelings too.” The fan then remarked on “Mr. Charisma” responding to him, leading Axel to write back, “ur right! I have no charisma. All I do all day is stare at the wall with a blank look on my face… It’s fun!”
Earlier in the week, a fan cautioned Axel on being branded as uncharismatic again by Konnan, leading the Raw wrestler to snap back, “Who cares what that piece of crap thinks.”
Meanwhile, Konnan said his critical remarks toward Axel aren’t out of hatred. “Not hatin, just stating…#GetInformed,” he said to a fan on Twitter telling him to “stop hating.”
– Former WWE Superstar Matt Hardy issued this “Public Service Announcement” promoting two events taking place in New York tonight, “Big Event” and “House Of Hardcore #3.”
As seen on the October 21 episode of Raw during the contact signing for the WWE Championship Match between Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton at Hell in a Cell, Triple H offended WWE Superstars and fans alike with his verbal burial of the talents of Bryan, as well as Chris Jericho, Edge and Rob Van Dam. WWE’s Chief Operating Officer grouped Bryan with his three predecessors and declared that like them, he is not capable of being “The Face of WWE.” The official WWE website caught up with Edge for an interview and asked him about the WWE Chief Operating Officer’s flippant remark.
“When you look back on WWE’s history, how many guys really were “the guy”? There was Bruno Sammartino, then Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, The Rock and now John Cena. Then again, does Triple H like guys with long hair that are better looking and more athletic than him? Probably not. And I think the three of us fall into that category,” responded Edge.
“The Rated-R Superstar” previously addressed Hunter’s remarks on Twitter, stating, “I think everyone forgets it’s entertainment. Santa isn’t real either. Or the Easter Bunny(I think, rabbits are sneaky).”
The 11-time World Champion appears regularly on Syfy series Haven, which started in July 2011, as Dwight Hendrickson. In response to whether he envisioned the show lasting through a fourth season then, Edge said, “I envisioned the show [going to season four], but I don’t know if I envisioned myself going to season four. [My involvement began] when WWE got in contact with the “Haven” producers, who were interested in using a wrestler. WWE said, “We got this guy. He just retired. We think he can do it.” And it just worked out. I went out and one scene turned into four scenes, turned into four episodes, turned into being asked back for the next season. That turned into seven [episodes] and then being asked back again next season and becoming one of the focal characters of the show.”
Edge was also asked whether he will return to WWE, and replied, “I’ll use the absolute most over-used cliché, “never say never,” because when I have come back, it has been fun. If it’s fun, cool and creative and would shake things up and help some new, young talent, I would.”
Edge has been posting paintings on Twitter, and discusses this and more in the interview. To access it, click here.
Former WWE and WCW wrestler Paul Roma still harbors ill will toward Triple H, who was buried by the Chief Operating Officer years ago in WWE’s video release spotlighting the Four Horsemen-Triple H questioned Roma’s inclusion in the elite World Championship Wrestling group in 1993, and dismissively referred to him as a “job guy from WWE.” In a preview of his newly released shoot interview with RF Video, the three-time WCW World Tag Team Champion takes aim at “The Game.”
In response to Triple H’s remarks, Roma says, “If you didn’t take it in your a**, yeah you married the boss’s daughter, I get that. Something’s not right there, that I think we can all agree with. But at the end of the day, you’re not a great f****** worker. You’re not the Ultimate Warrior, jumping up on the ropes. You’re not Hulk f***** Hogan. You’ll never be as big as any of them, or Savage.
“You could write yourself into every WrestleMania, every year, every six months, you’re in another thing. But at the end of the f****** day, you are who you are.”
Roma made similar remarks during an interview in 2008, stating, “Helmsley, you suck, dude! You’re married to the boss’s daughter, who’s running the show. You’re gassed up and when you get off the gas, you shrivel and when you’re on the gas, you look like s***.”
Elsewhere in the preview video, Roma relays stories on Power and Glory, Barry Horowitz, The Rockers, Ric Flair and cheating drug tests.
Posted November 7th, 2013 in News. Tagged: Triple H.
– Former WWE Superstar Scott Hall, along with his son Cody Hall, are accepting booking requests for 2014 through their company, “HallGood Entertainment.” Promoters interested in booking either of the Hall’s can do so via e-mail at Scott@Razor4Life.com on by tweeting @Cody_Hall1.
– WWE CEO Vince McMahon will be writing the foreword to the new WWE 50th Anniversary book, which is scheduled to be released in March of 2014.
– WWE Hall Of Famer Shawn Michaels recently responded to a fan on Twitter that asked him if WWE COO Triple H would be making any future appearances on his hunting show, “MacMillian River Adventures.” HBK tweeted the following:
RT: @HellcatPerez: "Any plans to have @TripleH back on your show again?" — We've been talking about it.
Triple H was furious at Monday’s WWE RAW after timing issues heavily impacted the pacing of the show’s final segment.
When The Shield came out at the end of RAW when the show was going to commercial, Triple H was visibly upset and was seen dropping a “f-bomb” before grabbing a headset and yelling at whoever was on the other end.
The show was behind schedule by several minutes at that point and somebody in production, either Vince McMahon or Kevin Dunn, sent The Shield out to ringside as a cue for commercial. Triple H was upset because they cut before Big Show could be told he was getting a WWE title shot against Randy Orton at Survivor Series.
RAW ended up going 5 or 6 minutes longer than scheduled.
-WWE Diva and co-star of the Total Divas reality show, Brie Bella, is said to have impressed WWE officials with the improvement of her in-ring work as of late. Many are crediting her real-life fiancee’ Daniel Bryan for her improvement, as Bryan and Bella reportedly spend two hours before each show in the ring working on various things together.
Speaking of Brie Bella, there is talk of WWE releasing some “Brie-Mode” merchandise soon. Fans of Total Divas will remember “Brie-Mode” as the name her twin sister Nikki gave her to describe her behavior when she is drunk and partying.
-According to reports, a new priority for the future in WWE is tag-team wrestling. Triple H is strongly behind the idea and will apparently put additional focus on tag-teams during the next set of WWE NXT television tapings, which is scheduled for November 21st at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida.
– WWE Diva and one of the stars of the Total Divas reality show, Eva Marie, continues to be a heat magnet in WWE these days. One wrestler who works for the company was recently quoted saying, “Eva has a real nice body. That’s all I can say nice about her.”
– As we previously reported, WWE Superstar Rey Mysterio is likely to remain on the sidelines until 2014 while he waits on his knee to strengthen. Unlike in the past in WCW and WWE, where there was heavy pressure put on him to return from injuries, Triple H is said to be patient with him this time. The WWE COO is reportedly telling Mysterio not to rush things and is putting no added pressure on him to return sooner than he should.
-It was announced at the WWE SmackDown television taping on Tuesday night in Charlotte, North Carolina that John Cena will be defending his World Heavyweight Championship in a rematch against Alberto Del Rio at the upcoming WWE Survivor Series pay-per-view on November 24th. The match had been expected for a while, but was not official until the announcement at SmackDown.
-As previously reported, Triple H announced that the new “corporate Kane” has been named the “Director Of Operations” for WWE. The announcement came as part of the latest sit-down interview that “The Game” did with Michael Cole for the official WWE website. You can check out the complete video interview online at WWE.com.
WWE will tape their weekly Main Event and SmackDown television programs tonight in Charlotte, North Carolina, before heading out for their bi-annual European tour on Wednesday.
The main event for this week’s SmackDown, as announced on WWE RAW on Monday night, is Daniel Bryan vs. Luke Harper.
Also announced on Monday’s RAW was a match pitting the current Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel against Big E. Langston, in a match that was originally slated to serve as the Kickoff Show match prior to the WWE Hell In A Cell pay-per-view in late-October.
World Heavyweight Champion John Cena was advertised on RAW as appearing on this week’s SmackDown for the second time in a row, as he will continue the build to his rematch against the former champion, Alberto Del Rio, at the upcoming WWE Survivor Series pay-per-view.
In addition to the aforementioned WWE Superstars, the following names are being advertised locally for the SmackDown and Main Event television taping in Charlotte are Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, Randy Orton, Big Show, The Shield, The Wyatt Family, Dolph Ziggler and Wade Barrett.
The post-show dark match scheduled for the taping tonight is John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio for the World Heavyweight Championship. That match, which also served as the dark match main event at RAW in Greenville, South Carolina on Monday night, is subject to change.
Make sure to check back here later tonight for complete WWE Main Event and WWE SmackDown spoiler results.
Following the conclusion of the televised portion of Monday’s edition of WWE RAW in Greenville, South Carolina, trainers and medical staff came out to check on the condition of Big Show, who was triple-powerbombed through the RAW announce table by The Shield.
Meanwhile, WWE COO Triple H, “one of the principal owners of WWE” Stephanie McMahon, WWE Champion Randy Orton, the new corporate Kane and all three members of The Shield faction celebrated and posed together at the top of the ramp.
World Heavyweight Championship: -John Cena (c) defeated Alberto Del Rio
-After the Big Show chaos died down, former World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio came out. Del Rio got on the microphone and demanded a title shot rematch against current champion John Cena. This led to Cena coming out. Cena did a mock-introduction for Del Rio before defeating him in the actual match. Cena picked up the win via pinfall after hitting Del Rio with his Attitude Adjustment finishing move.
Winner and STILL World Heavyweight Champion: John Cena
And that was it from Greenville, South Carolina for this week’s RAW. Next up are the WWE Main Event and WWE SmackDown television tapings, which will be held on Tuesday night in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The following are highlights from a recent Busted Open Radio interview with former WWE Superstar Chris Jericho:
On being drunk when he tweeted his response to Triple H’s promo on RAW: “The funny thing was had I not been drinking Grey Goose vodka and not been completely loaded when I heard about it, I wouldn’t had bothered twitting about it but I was like: ‘Screw him, I’m going to tweet back.”
On his thoughts about Triple H’s promo on RAW: “That’s Triple H being Triple H. It’s just the way he is and whether he believes it or not, it’s part of the show. I don’t feel that way and I never did feel that way. It’s funny throughout our careers, Triple H and I were almost at the same level. We were always the guy that worked with ‘the guy.’ Triple H is a huge star, one of the greatest of all time but also never really ‘the guy.’ Who really has been ‘the guy’ over the last ten years? I can think of three. Rock, Stone Cold, and John Cena. There you go.”
-The official WWE website has added the latest Michael Cole interview with WWE COO Triple H. In the interview, “The Game” explains why he didn’t save his best friend, Shawn Michaels, from the attack by Daniel Bryan on RAW on Monday. Additionally, HHH reveals that Big Show is “banned for life” from WWE. You can check out the new interview online at WWE.com.
-WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross recently spoke with Cotton of Music Geeks about his past and future in pro wrestling, as well as other business-related projects he is working on. Below is a video of the new interview:
-As previously reported, the plan for the upcoming WWE Survivor Series pay-per-view is to book Randy Orton vs. Big Show for the WWE Championship. The reason it seemed like WWE was pushing a Big Show vs. Triple H match once again on Monday’s RAW is because the plan is for that match to headline the WWE TLC pay-per-view in December. Obviously plans could change as time goes on, but as of right now, that is what’s scheduled to happen.
-For those asking why Vince McMahon did not appear on RAW on Monday night, apparently there were two scripts for Monday’s show. One script had McMahon written into the show, while the other didn’t. WWE apparently went with the script that didn’t have McMahon appearing, despite the fact that he was heavily advertised locally. The plan is for McMahon to still return sometime in the near future, with Big Show planting the seeds for his return by referencing him in an around-about way in promos.
Following Monday’s post-Hell In A Cell edition of WWE RAW in Orlando, Florida, WWE COO Triple H cut a promo on all the fans in the arena.
HHH, standing in the ring with the new WWE Champion, Randy Orton, told all of the fans in attendance to get out of his building for laughing at him. The fans did the Daniel Bryan “No!” chant, which further angered “The Game.” Triple H then hired all of the fans. Seconds after informing all of the fans that they now had jobs with WWE, he told them they were all fired and again demanded that they leave his building.
At one point, the WWE COO even told JBL, who was still seated at ringside alongside his RAW broadcast partners, to call the cops and have all of the fans arrested for trespassing.
You can watch a video of the off-air happenings from Monday’s RAW below:
Former WWE & UFC star Ken Shamrock was recently interviewed by Steve and The Scum of WGD Weekly. Here are some highlights of what he said about:
Having Heat With Triple H: “I’d like to clarify that. There was a guy named Mark Henry, a strong man. He was in the locker room and there were a few guys involved. Hunter was one of them that put s–t in his sandwich and I told him. So, I think Hunter didn’t like me for that and I think Hunter didn’t like me for the fact that when I first came in Vince put me over on him. I was truly understanding that I was the new guy coming in and I hadn’t put in my dues and I was getting a push, but I was doing what I was asked to do. I think Hunter had a real hard time dealing with that, especially with me being a real bad ass otherwise and there’s nothing he could do about it. Then opening my mouth to protect another human being, I think there is ribbing and there is having fun and then there is things where you cross over the line, and so I said something.”
Why he feels “Blackballed” by WWE: “I had put out my feelers, I had actually talked to Shane McMahon, he put a call in. I thought I had a pretty intricate part in changing the face of wrestling when I was able to ref the match with Bret Hart and Stone Cold, it changed the face of wrestling. I was in all the Pay Per Views and all the house shows, and I thought I made a pretty good impact and helped change pro wrestling, not by myself, but definitely I was a part of it in the Attitude Era. There is no recognition towards me or about me and I’m kind of disappointed.”
Wanting to get into the ring with Triple H: “When it comes to Hunter, I would love to get in the ring with him and show him what it’s like… help him understand that there is a lot of people in this world that have a lot of natural ability and natural talent and just because you don’t like them doesn’t mean it isn’t so… I would love to get in the ring with him and show him exactly who I am and what I’m about.”
Following the WWE Hell In A Cell pay-per-view event in Miami, Florida on Sunday night, WWE Superstar Daniel Bryan, who failed to capture the WWE Championship in the main event of the show, was helped to the backstage area by a couple of referee’s.
The new WWE Champion, Randy Orton, who won the title by defeating Bryan with help from a super-kick by the special guest referee, Shawn Michaels, continued his celebration after the pay-per-view ended.
WWE COO Triple H, who was also involved in the complex finish on Sunday night, was in the arena with Orton after the show.
According to one fan in attendance, the “energy was sucked out of the building like a vacuum” following the finish of Orton-Bryan.