John Cena On Who Could Be “The One”

WWE Superstar John Cena recently made an appearance at the Orlando convention MegaCon this past weekend and took questions from fans. One such question was who The Leader Of The Cenation would rather face – Velveteen Dream, Adam Cole or Ricochet.

Cena picked Dream before using a Star Wars reference, suggesting Velveteen Dream could be “the one.” Check out the video here:

Would @JohnCena rather face @AdamColePro, @VelveteenWWE, or @KingRicochet? He chooses Velveteen Dream! #NXT #MegaConOrlando pic.twitter.com/oE4ni5eJTZ

— JohnCenaCrews™ (@JohnCenaCrews) May 27, 2018

Batista On Who Is Being Misused By WWE

Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet recently posted a photo on Twitter comparing Dolph Ziggler to Owen Wilson in Zoolander. Former WWE Champion Batista took some time to respond to the Tweet.

In his response, he noted that he always believed that Ziggler was a ‘totally misused talent’ in his opinion and always enjoyed working with him:

https://twitter.com/ryansatin/status/1001289261352607744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mandatory.com%2Fwrestlezone%2Fnews%2F958889-who-does-batista-think-is-misused-in-wwe

https://twitter.com/DaveBautista/status/1001292829119930368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mandatory.com%2Fwrestlezone%2Fnews%2F958889-who-does-batista-think-is-misused-in-wwe

Vince McMahon Wishes Seth Rollins A Happy Birthday

The Chairman Of The Board took to Twitter to wish WWE Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins a Happy Birthday yesterday. The Architect turned 32-years-old:

Happy birthday @WWERollins! Burn it down. pic.twitter.com/jRZjfTnzzS

— Vince McMahon (@VinceMcMahon) May 28, 2018

WWE Superstar Roman Reigns recently did an interview with The Express where he talked about several professional wrestling topics. One of these topics included Reigns’ relationship with Vince McMahon.

Reigns said Vince has never steered him wrong, and also noted that the entire McMahon family are great people:

“All the McMahons are great people and if you know them you get to talk to them on that level. It’s very easy to see them, they’re very personal and that’s key – you have to build a relationship,” Reigns revealed. “It’s not just with the McMahons, it’s everybody. It’s just about getting to know people and a lot of people getting to know you.”

“I can’t say Vince has ever done me wrong. Regardless of all the fantasy bookers out there, at the end of the day life’s been pretty good for me in the wrestling business so I have to attribute a lot of that to the relationship that I do have with Vince and the way that he has always taken care of me. He takes care of all of us. To have that responsibility and that role is not easy – to be a provider and a protector and that’s what he is. I think along with everybody else, I can say that we are all very grateful,” Reigns said.

You can read Reigns’ full interview with The Express by clicking this link here.

WWE Superstar Daniel Bryan recently did an interview on Chris Jericho’s podcast, Talk Is Jericho, where they discussed his return to the squared circle in WWE. Bryan first discussed working as the SmackDown Live General Manager when he was unable to compete, and how he grew to hate the job:

“Then they brought me back as GM, and I still have to do a bunch of traveling with that. I have to sit around for a bunch of matches It hurt and it also was like, ‘What am I doing?’ This is the part of me where I’m like, ‘What a sissy I am!’ Lots of people go to their jobs that they don’t like and make way less money than me being the GM of SmackDown, but I could not get out of this mental state where I hate being here,” Bryan said.

“I really disliked going to work every week, and there would be times where I would fly in and get the script to the show, I would try to get as many people as I could to get in the shoot so I can leave that night and just get out of there. That was when I really started to say that I wouldn’t accept this anymore, I’m going to come back.”

Bryan then had a serious conversation with Vince McMahon about coming back to the ring. It was there that he presented an interesting idea to The Chairman Of The Board that would allow him to wrestle again:

“I had a conversation with Vince McMahon. He was pushing the hard questions about what would happen if I would get another concussion? I had answers for him and laid it out. I would have different concussion protocols than everyone else, and one of my pitches to him is that this happens in every sport, when guys get a concussion and a trainer goes over to him and they are asked if they are okay, and the guy would say that he is fine.

“They would ask if he has a concussion, and the guy would say no, he’s fine. Myself included would say that. So, stop that because that has been an issue with me before. In the past, when I would have a concussion I would just walk it off,” Bryan said. “My proposal would be that after every match I have to go to the trainer’s room and they have to do their checks, and if I don’t do it maybe I get a fine, or something like that. After every match now I get checked.

“Not even thanking my opponents, after WrestleMania, I walked to Gorilla. No thank you’s to anybody, just walked straight to the Doctor’s and then I get checked. They do basic neurological stuff, and we are revising that as we go because it is new to them too.”

McMahon then told him to send his proposal to WWE’s medical director Dr. Maroon, and the rest is history:

“He told me to type it up and put it in an email to Doctor Maroon and say this. I give Doctor Maroon a lot of credit because it is hard to reverse your decision regarding clearing me. I have a lot of respect for him because he said, okay, my opinion might not be right for this. He sent me to three Neurologists that he thought were the best Neurologists. He could have easily sent me to Neurologists that backed his opinion.

“He sent me to people that had the latest, up to date research on concussion,” he said. “He wanted to get to the right answer. I have a lot of respect to him for that. If I get hurt, it goes to Doctor Maroon because he is the Head of Medical in WWE. That was the beginning of the process.

“He said that if we do clear you, what is your schedule going to look like? Turns out, we haven’t talked about the schedule much because they pretty much have thrown me in live events, so now, I am on that full European tour, so it’s back to the full-time stuff.”

You can listen to Bryan’s full interview on Talk Is Jericho by clicking this link here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWfIz6doP_E

H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions

WWE Chairman Vince McMahon has some big plans in mind for Mandy Rose.

Pro Wrestling Sheet’s James McKenna is reporting McMahon believes that the SmackDown star would be a good fit for a character that was originally designed for now-former WWE star Emma.

If you recall, a repackage vignette was shown on Monday Night RAW for months in late 2016 teasing a “makeover of Emma to Emmalina.”

These videos would air and air, but she didn’t make her return until February of 2017. Yes, 17 weeks later, she was back. Fast forward to May, she suffered a shoulder injury at a live event in Liverpool, England. The character didn’t stick and Emma went back to her previous gimmick. Emma ended departing from WWE later in the year.

McMahon insisted Mandy Rose would be perfect for the character. He added that the entrance has the feel that WWE wanted with the Emmalina gimmick.

The pro wrestling journalist wrote the following on his official Twitter account:

“fun fact : when they figured out emma wasnt going to fit well for the emmalina bit vince was adamant that mandy rose would be a good fit for the gimmick. damned if that entrance doesnt have a feel like what they were going for with the emmalina character. #SDLive”

fun fact : when they figured out emma wasnt going to fit well for the emmalina bit vince was adamant that mandy rose would be a good fit for the gimmick. damned if that entrance doesnt have a feel like what they were going for with the emmalina character. #SDLive pic.twitter.com/DvTCdJhMZk

— james mckenna (@chillhartman) May 16, 2018

What are your thoughts on the big plans for Rose that McMahon has in store? Sound off in the comment section below.

Bill Simmons, the producer of HBO’s “Andre The Giant” documentary, recently did an interview with ESPN to discuss the project. Here are some of the highlights:

You could tell in the documentary how much Andre meant to Vince, but you could also see that they didn’t part on the best terms and that still hurts Vince. It’s pretty heartbreaking. How aware were you of the relationship they had going into this project?

“We don’t make that movie if he’s not interviewed. We made that clear. He was obviously so protective of the Andre legacy and he had a lot of conflicted emotions of how it played out, and we talked about it even before we agreed to do the movie that he has to be interviewed. We can’t do it if you’re not in it. It’s tough. It’s all genuine and what he thought at the end was Vince used him. As soon as he couldn’t wrestle anymore it was like thanks and wrestling goes on. It’s pretty complicated.

“There’s also a lot of things that could have been in the doc, but I think the pace is important. It’s 86 minutes and there’s a bunch of other stuff we could have added but then it slows down, and you have to keep things moving. One of things that could have been in it after we did the interviews was Andre’s relationship with Stephanie [McMahon]. She’s a little girl at that point, but Andre was like a big brother to her. He was unusually tight with that family, which makes things a lot more complicated.”

Could you picture the arc of this movie and building it towards that iconic match between Andre and Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania III before you even started working on it?

“The whole time I thought this is one of the easiest docs for me to sell. Even when we were selling it to Vince, the arc of it was so clear — it had to build to WrestleMania III, and it had to have the part where wrestling takes off after Andre had already peaked but they need him for this match. Even though his body was breaking down and, oh by the way, they don’t know whether he has decided if he wants to lose or not. It was so obviously a great documentary arc and it’s really hard to find those.

“We did so many at 30 for 30 and I learned so much about the arcs and where it works and doesn’t work. We were able to do some without one at all. I thought the Bo Jackson one was good, people liked it, but it didn’t really have an arc. It was like this guy was great and then he got hurt and you work around that and tell a story and make it cool but ultimately there’s not the twists and turns that a movie would have.

“We had success at 30 for 30 with things like The Fab Five and The U, where you could jump in at any time. It really captured these iconic teams. Those worked and were super re-watchable and we loved doing those. When it’s something like this Andre doc there’s an extra layer you can get to because it plays like a movie and those are my favorites ones. This easily could be a movie even though it couldn’t be because you could never get someone to play Andre that was convincing, but the arc of it is a movie.”

You can read Simmons’ full interview with ESPN by clicking this link here.

Mick Foley’s legendary Hell In A Cell match against The Undertaker back in 1998’s King Of The Ring pay-per-view (PPV) is one of the most historic matches in WWE history. On the 20th anniversary of the match, Foley spoke to Sports Illustrated to discuss the historic bout.

He admitted that had he walked on top of the Hell In A Cell earlier that day he might not have agreed to go through with the spot:

“I told Mr. McMahon two of the biggest lies of my life that day. I told him I had been on top of the cell earlier that afternoon, and I told him that I felt completely comfortable up there. Had I gone up there for a walk-through, there would be no twentieth anniversary because I would have realized that getting thrown off was a terrible idea.

“It was that that made me finally believe in my own mortality. That cleared the way for a very different Mankind character who feuded with and later teamed with The Rock. … I was really so caught up in preparation that I didn’t call home before matches, I always called home after matches. I did that on every occasion except for this one, but I thought I had a legitimate excuse for not calling home because I was unconscious.

“I later heard from WWE agent Dave Hebner, who said my family was very upset. When I did call, I got an earful from my wife, who wasn’t thrilled with my decision-making. I could have used a sympathetic ear, but what I really needed was someone to tell me that I couldn’t continue to do the things I was doing if I wanted to see my children grow.”

You can read Foley’s full interview with Sports Illustrated by clicking this link here.

What will be left off WrestleMania 34’s DVD

WrestleMania 34 has concluded this past weekend and WWE fans can expect the DVD to be hitting shelves fairly soon. A report from WrestlingDVDNetwork reveals that the DVD will not be including this year’s WWE Hall Of Fame ceremony.

The Hall Of Fame event ran nearly four and a half hours this year. In its place, the DVD will include the episode of Monday Night RAW the night after WrestleMania 34. The Hall Of Fame ceremony has been included in all WrestleMania DVDs since 2005.

It should also be noted that all matches from the pre-show will be included in the DVD, as opposed to last year.

Vince McMahon Thanks New Orleans & The WWE Universe

Days after the conclusion of WrestleMania week in New Orleans, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon took to Twitter to thank the city and the WWE Universe for experiencing WrestleMania 34 this past Sunday night:

Thank you to New Orleans and the WWE Universe around the world who experienced @WrestleMania. pic.twitter.com/e9spt5Qosw

— Vince McMahon (@VinceMcMahon) April 13, 2018

Former WWE Superstar Hornswoggle recently did an interview with Uproxx to talk about several professional wrestling topics. The former WWE Cruiserweight Champion first discussed not being brought back to WWE for the Cruiserweight Tournament:

“I get asked that so much. I think they think like, ‘Oh, he’s definitely not 205 pounds or less right now.’ I mean, it’s not close, but I can see why they’d say that. No, and I wish they would have made mention in some way.”

Having been the last person to ever hold the old Cruiserweight Title belt in WWE, Hornswoggle said he would’ve like to have kept it:

“Yeah. And they never did anything with it, ever. And I just want that real title [belt] they never gave me, ’cause they always said, ‘We’re gonna bring it back.’ I said, ‘No, you’re not. You’re not gonna do that.’ I just want the real one.”

Hornswoggle then discussed his historic Wee-LC match against El Torito and revealed he received a standing ovation from Vince McMahon and many others backstage after the match:

“Unexpected. People expected it to be us biting each other’s asses on top of ladders. Instead, we beat the piss outta each other and ourselves. It was a lot of moving parts, man. Everyone was so excited. Everyone involved was so excited, between the agents and all the guys involved, we were so excited for everything. And I remember getting … I say it at every interview.

“I get to the back and didn’t get ungeared for like two hours. I was like, ‘This is so awesome.’ Easily, maybe my only standing ovation in ‘Gorilla,’ even from Vince [McMahon], which made me feel really good about myself. It was awesome. That’s the one where, if someone asks what I do, I give them that. I’ve only watched it once. It’s one of the three matches in my career I’ve watched. I’ve never watched any more than that. I don’t watch my stuff.”

As for his Hornswoggle gimmick in WWE, it was then discussed how the company couldn’t make up their mind if the character was a child or an adult:

“It was all the time. Literally, one week it was a child, the next week I was a grown-ass adult. I was drinking beer on SmackDown, getting hammered on SmackDown backstage, ’cause they just have me keep doing the takes. And it would bust, and I would bust it on purpose a couple times just so I could keep drinking the Guinness. I finished a four-pack of Guinness during a shoot; it was awesome.

“Bruce Prichard proceeds to go, ‘Are you drunk?’ ‘No, sir. I would never drink at work. I would never get drunk.’ He goes, ‘You’re drunk.’ I go, ‘Nah. Meh.’ He goes, ‘How about we stop drinking so much and we actually do this?’ And I go, ‘Ah, okay, I guess.’ ‘Cause we just kept topping off the beers.”

You can read Hornswoggle’s full interview with Uproxx by clicking this link here.

There were reports of Vince McMahon being high on Baron Corbin last year and he even ended up winning Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal and the Money In The Bank Briefcase while many believed that the SmackDown Star wasn’t ready for the spotlight.

However, things didn’t work out in Corbin’s favor after this and following a backstage argument with WWE’s head doctor Joseph Maroon his stocks went down very quickly. He ended up losing the MITB and since then has mostly been invovled in insignificant feuds.

Though now it appears that circumstances are about to change for the former United States Champion and if reports from Wrestling Observer Newsletter are to be put together with a recent revelation, then he may once again be in line for a push in near future.

The Newsletter is reporting that from all the talents not involved in the main event scene right now, Mr. McMahon is still the highest on Baron Corbin and the Boss still sees him as a major player for the company in the future.

What’s interesting to note here is that recently a local advertisement for Extreme Rules was promoting a Triple Threat match among Baron Corbin, Shinsuke Nakamura, and AJ Styles for the WWE Championship at the event.

While at that time Corbin’s involvement in the bout seemed odd, if we put it together with this report, it wouldn’t be a big surprise if the former NXT Star starts getting involved in the main event scene of SmackDown Live very soon.

Chris Jericho discussed various topics on a recent edition of his podcast; Talk is Jericho.

Jericho has done it all under the sports entertainment banner. He has been under contract with the sports entertainment company off and on since 1999. He is also a record nine-time Intercontinental Champion.

Jericho is the first Undisputed WWE Champion, and thus the final holder of the World Championship (formerly the WCW World Heavyweight Championship), having won and unified the WWE and World titles by defeating Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock on the same night in 2001.

It’s safe to say that his opinion should be taken into consideration as he’s one of the biggest stars that has ever been created in pro wrestling. During the podcast, he explained why WWE Chairman Vince McMahon made the decision to drop numbers from WrestleMania.

For example, although the media adds the numbers to the name of the event, the WWE just references it as WrestleMania instead of this year’s WrestleMania 34.

“The reason why, and everybody at home, is that Vince does not like the numbers after the WrestleMania because he feels like it dates it.” Jericho explained, “also, you’re not allowed to call it ‘The Grandaddy Of Them All’ because he feels that it makes it seem old. So yeah, Super Bowl 75, he does not like the number, so you cannot refer to it as ‘WrestleMania 34’. You just refer to it as ‘WrestleMania’. One of those classic Vince McMahon quirks.”

You can listen to the latest episode of Talk is Jericho here:

What are your thoughts on the WWE Chairman being against the numbers from WrestleMania? Sound off in the comment section below.

Transcript courtesy of Wrestling Inc

Last night’s episode of Monday Night RAW featured a segment between General Manager Kurt Angle, and recently fired SmackDown Live stars Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn.

Owens and Zayn came to Angle in hopes of landing jobs, and Angle put the pair in a match against each other in which the winner would receive a RAW contract. The Olympic Hero was hesitant to give Owens and Zayn a chance at first, dropping the line “My tag team division is full, but I hear TNA is hiring.”

The line received a huge pop from the crowd and the professional wrestling internet community. Former WWE Women’s Champion and current IMPACT Wrestling Producer Gail Kim took to Twitter shortly after the segment aired.

Kim shared an interesting story of Vince McMahon watching a special episode of TNA backstage at a WWE event:

If I'm not mistaken, that would be the first mention of TNA on RAW.

— Jimmy Korderas (@jimmykorderas) April 10, 2018

On the show prob. Once backstage. Lol. They said they never watched and then I saw Vince’s monitor and TNA was on. #surprise https://t.co/CPeFuy78MF

— Gail Kim-Irvine (@gailkimITSME) April 10, 2018

It was the special live show when Ric Flair I believe debuted It was a special episode https://t.co/N9CqqAETV7

— Gail Kim-Irvine (@gailkimITSME) April 10, 2018

Why? Bc I stated a fact? I think it’s actually funny. Nothing bad.

— Gail Kim-Irvine (@gailkimITSME) April 10, 2018

Fans were not expecting Brock Lesnar to retain the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 34 and the events that followed were as surprising as the result of the Mania main event.

It was reported after the PPV that Lesnar got into an argument with none other than the Boss Vince McMahon backstage, which ended with the Beast throwing off his Universal title.

At that point, not much was known about the reason for this altercation, however now a new report from PWTorch might have shed some more light on the situation.

According to the site, Roman Reigns was not expected to get busted open during the show and the color on the Television was the catalyst of the dispute.

Not only this but the German Announcers were not aware that their table will be used in a spot during the bout which may explain previous reports of the Universal Champion going off script near the end of the Championship match.

As noted before, Brock Lesnar has signed a new, short-term deal with the company but there is no word yet on how or if this altercation will affect the plans Officials had for Lesnar’s future before the Show of Shows.

Things appear to be getting heated between Brock Lesnar and Vince McMahon.

Last night (April 8), WrestleMania 34 took place inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. In the main event Lesnar defended his WWE Universal Championship against Roman Reigns. The match was not what fans had anticipated.

Going into the WrestleMania headliner, many had expected Reigns to emerge victorious and for Lesnar to make his way back to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Whether fans agreed with Reigns’ fourth WrestleMania main event or not, the general consensus was that the match would be able to deliver. Those in attendance certainly didn’t feel that was the case.

Lesnar won the match after delivering a series of F-5’s. Reigns kicked out of several finishers before finally succumbing to the “Beast Incarnate.” Fans were not having it and made it clear they weren’t fans of the match. Chants of “boring” and “this is awful” echoed throughout the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Apparently, they weren’t the only ones who weren’t happy with the match.

The Heated Exchange

Ryan Satin of Pro Wresting Sheet reports that Lesnar got into a verbal confrontation with Vince McMahon. Sources told Satin that Lesnar initiated the heated verbal exchange and McMahon fired back. The argument ended with Lesnar throwing his Universal championship. Sources are split as to whether or not Lesnar threw his title at McMahon or a wall.

The report also notes that Lesnar is said to have gone off the script near the end of the match. Satin was unable to confirm whether or not that was the case. SEScoops.com will keep you up to speed as more details emerge from this reported confrontation.

Jeff Jarrett will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this Friday night. Jarrett will join Goldberg, The Dudley Boyz, Ivory, Hillbilly Jim, Mark Henry and Kid Rock (celebrity wing) as inductees to the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2018.

WWE uploaded a video today featuring Jeff and Karen Jarrett. Jeff was asked who he was excited to reconnect with during WrestleMania weekend.

Jarrett explained that it was difficult to choose one person because he was thinking about the talent that was there when he was an active performer in WWE. Jeff also brought up the Superstars that he helped nurture along and the people behind the scenes that are still with WWE that helped him in his career.

Jeff then brought up reconnecting with Vince McMahon and got emotional. Karen asked him if he was nervous and Jarrett laughed and said that he was. Jarrett got choked up and stepped away for a moment to gather himself. Karen stated that everything has happened for a reason and has brought them to where they are now.

Jarrett returned and stated that at the end of the day, Vince McMahon did not have to this. Jeff became emotional again and repeated that WWE did not have to do this. You can check out Jarrett’s reaction to reconnecting with Vince McMahon in the video below.

WWE Chairman Vince McMahon is re-launching the XFL under Alpha Entertainment. The announcement was made earlier this year during a press conference. McMahon noted that the new XFL will begin in 2020. There will be eight teams with 40-man rosters, a ten game regular season, and a four-team postseason including a championship game. McMahon made it clear that there will be no crossover from WWE to the new XFL.

The original XFL only had one season, which took place in 2001 and was produced by WWE and NBC. It took place during the NFL off-season and promoted as having fewer rules and encouraging rougher play than other major leagues.

There were only eight teams in two divisions. Some of the teams took place in major markets such as Birmingham, Las Vegas, Memphis, and Orlando. The XFL operated as a single entity, with all teams centrally owned by the league.

Although NBC signed with WWE to air two seasons of the league, NBC pulled out of its broadcast contract for the XFL after the inaugural season, citing the poor viewership. The league ceased operations entirely in May 2001. The Los Angeles Xtreme was the XFL’s first and only champions. McMahon has gone on record in the past by stating that the league was a “colossal failure.”

Triple H and Stephanie McMahon did media with ESPN on Wednesday on First take to promote WrestleMania 34.

During the interview, Triple H was asked about McMahon bringing back the XFL football league in 2020. Here is what “The Game” had to say:

“I think if anything he has proven over time that you learn from failure, much more than you learn from success,” he said. “He’s gone at this once and it didn’t work out. I think he learned a ton from that and he’s been chomping at the bit from the time to be right to do it again. I feel like he believes the time is right, now. I think he’s learned more fro that success and certainly I wouldn’t bet against him.”

“I think the time is right in the world, I think the time is right on a global basis. Social media and the ability to get it out on a digital level. Instead of playing catch up to that, you’re starting it fresh with that. I think the time is right in a lot of ways.”

H/T to Wrestling Inc for the transcript

WWE Superstar Roman Reigns was recently interviewed on The Sam Roberts’ Wrestling Podcast to talk about several professional wrestling topics. “The Big Dog,” who won last month’s Elimination Chamber match, will be challenging Brock Lesnar for the Universal Title at WrestleMania 34 next month in New Orleans.

Reigns was asked about the recent label put on him of being Vince McMahon’s “golden boy.” The former Shield member responded by saying, in a sense, all WWE Superstars are “Vince’s boys”:

You can listen to Reigns’ full interview on The Sam Roberts’ Wrestling Podcast by clicking this link here.

H/T Sportskeeda for the transcriptions

“Woken” Matt Hardy recently did an interview with TMZ Sports to discuss the Ultimate Deletion. Hardy won The Great War by defeating Bray Wyatt and tossing him into the Lake Of Reincarnation. Hardy said that the feedback from fans has been tremendous and he hopes there will be more to come soon – and it will change WWE ‘forevah’:

“I have to tell you this – it has been amazing, the feedback from The Woken Warriors and the WWE Universe, and people all across the globe. It has been met with love and with adoration,” Matt said. “I say, this is something that probably wasn’t supposed to happen on the plane known as WWE.

“I don’t know if Woken Matt Hardy was supposed to get here but he did and now that I’m here, I’m being fueled by The 7 Deities, I have introduced House Hardy, my magic, my family. I’ve introduced The Hardy Compound and now that we have the foot in the door, I believe this is only the start of many, many great things. I think this is something that will change the WWE Universe… forevah!”

WWE Hall Of Famer Mick Foley then popped into the interview and said he wonders what Vince McMahon thought of the segment. Hardy said he doesn’t know if McMahon loved or hated the segment – but the fact is his “Woken” Warriors and the WWE Universe loved it, and if McMahon has any issues with that then he will DELETE him:

“What absolutely pleasurable words from The Dude That Loves Mankind, Mick Foley, The Cactus Jackman. I’m very happy to hear from him, my friend and I know in his state of euphoria and excitement, of course he messed up the name but yes it was… The Ultimate Deletion!,” Matt said in reference to the Foley tweet.

“And that MeekMahan is a hard character to read. I do not know if he loved it or hated it but these are the facts – The Woken Warriors and the WWE Universe had much adoration for it and they loved the Woken/Broken Universe, and for that, if MeekMahan has any issues with it I certainly have a spot here at The Hardy Compound where I can delete him. Senor Benjamin would love to start digging a hole for him.”

H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions

WWE Hall Of Famer and WWE commentator Jim Ross was recently interviewed on former WWE Tag Team Champions Edge and Christian’s podcast, E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness. One top of discussion for Ross was the early days of former WWE Champion The Rock. Ross discussed Rock’s unrivaled confidence and stated that “The Great One” knew what he wanted even before he signed with WWE:

“He’s a different breed of cat, as you boys know.” Ross explained, “and he’s very special in a lot of ways. I never had anybody that basically hit me right between the eyes with a statement of, ‘I’m going to be your top guy’ when he hadn’t even made his first trip to Stamford [Connecticut] I don’t think.

“So, I mean, he had ‘it’ going for him and confidence in where he wanted to go. He had a direction. He knew what road he wanted to travel and not like anyone else who is human on the road, the road is the road, but, professionally, he knew just what he wanted and nothing was going to stop him.”

He then discussed why it’s good for Superstars to have a good rapport with Vince McMahon, and those who disrespect him will be “S.O.L”:

“I think, guys, when they come to work for WWE, the best thing that they can do, on a legitimate, organic, as real as it can be basis, have some sort of rapport with Vince. You have to have a rapport built on respect.” Ross continued, “don’t confront, converse, because if you confront him, you’re S.O.L. It’s disrespectful and it’s not the place to be disrespectful unless you’re just a dumbass. That’s how that worked out, but that’s the deal.”

Ross noted that The Rock was very good at building a relationship with Vince McMahon early on in his career:

“The Rock got to that level of having a good rapport with Vince really, really quick.” Ross elaborated, “I mean, they had their grandpas, The High Chief [Peter Maivia] to talk about, or Rocky Johnson, and The Rock himself. And, of course, Vince is a smart guy – he saw what we had. He knew. He knew. When you get Secretariat, you welcome him in the barn.”

You can listen to Ross’ interview on E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness by clicking this link here.

H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions

Vince McMahon temporarily suspended Roman Reigns in the storylines during a heated opening segment on Monday’s WWE RAW in Detroit. No word yet on when Reigns will be brought back from the storyline suspension but we will keep you updated.

This week’s RAW kicked off with General Manager Kurt Angle announcing that WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar was not there for his in-ring meeting with Reigns, his second RAW no-show during WrestleMania 34 Season. Angle did not have a solid reason as to why Lesnar wasn’t there tonight, which brought Reigns out. Reigns blamed Vince, saying Lesnar is Vince’s “boy” and saying being disrespected by Lesnar is one thing but he will not be disrespected by Vince. Reigns then marched into the Gorilla Position backstage and confronted Vince. RAW then went to commercial and came back to Renee Young outside of Vince’s office.

Reigns walked out and was in no mood to speak but Vince made it clear that Brock is not his boy or Paul Heyman’s boy, he’s nobody’s boy but he is a man, his own man. Vince admitted that Lesnar has privileges but said he believes Brock has earned those privileges. Vince also acknowledged that people often take advantage of what’s given to them and Brock may have gone too far now. Vince then gave his word that Brock would be here on next week’s RAW in Dallas and promised he would face Reigns in the WrestleMania 34 main event. Vince then temporarily suspended Reigns for his previous behavior.

We’ve noted several times how WWE’s goal for the Reigns vs. Lesnar build is to get Reigns cheered by fans, which is something that isn’t always guaranteed, which would hopefully lead to a positive reaction when he wins the title at WrestleMania. WWE officials also want the build to Reigns vs. Lesnar to come across like a shoot as much as possible.

– On this week’s episode of Monday Night RAW The Bar retained their RAW Tag Team Titles against The Revival. Sheamus and Cesaro currently have no challengers for their titles at WrestleMania 34. “The Celtic Warrior” sent out an open challenge to all tag teams via Twitter to challenge them at “The Show Of Shows”:

Who will Step Up To #TheBar at #WrestleMania34?

The Greatest Tag Team on Earth has NO worthy opponents on The Grandest Stage of Them All.

This is an Open Invitation… #StepUpToTheBar

— Sheamus (@WWESheamus) March 6, 2018

PWInsider reports that The Bar’s challengers at WrestleMania 34 are “not currently a team.”  The Young Bucks took to Twitter to declare their interest in possibly answering the call in New Orleans:

https://twitter.com/NickJacksonYB/status/971164075660009472

https://twitter.com/MattJackson13/status/971251309486727169

Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter was asked about this possibility. He didn’t seem very optimistic:

“Anything is possible, but realistically that’s close to impossible.”

– Forbes’ 2018 Billionaire List reports that WWE’s Vince McMahon is ranked number 1,394 with a net worth of $1.7 billion.

Back in May of 2015 then-NXT Champion Kevin Owens made his WWE main roster debut by answering John Cena’s United States Championship open challenge. Owens made quite the impression on the WWE Universe by laying out Cena and stomping on the United States Championship. Owens recently did an interview on Chris Jericho’s podcast, Talk Is Jericho, to talk about the debut.

Owens shared his first conversation with Vince McMahon backstage before the debut, and it was hilarious. McMahon didn’t want the other wrestlers to know what “KO” was doing at the show, and Owens wasn’t exactly sure how to accomplish this. When Owens asked McMahon for advice, his response was priceless. Here’s their exchange as described by Owens:

Kevin: “You want me in my gear right?”

Vince: “Yup.”

Owens: “When I put my gear on, and I walk in the locker room and stuff, and in the hallway, the other wrestlers will see me and ask me why I have my gear on. So, what should I tell them?”

Vince: “Well, why don’t you just tell them to go f**k themselves.”

You can listen to Owens’ interview on Talk Is Jericho by clicking this link here.

– WWE Tweeted out a clip from former WCW President Eric Bischoff’s “WWE Photo Shoot” episode on the WWE Network. During the clip Bischoff talked bout his relationship with two-time WWE Hall Of Famer Ric Flair. Bischoff talked about having an up and down relationship with “The Nature Boy” for the best 25 years, however, they were able to still put on great storylines during their time together in WCW Nitro:

"We had some of the greatest memories, but we also had difficulties…" @EBischoff discusses his up and down relationship with @RicFlairNatrBoy on #WWEPhotoshoot. @WWENetwork pic.twitter.com/492giseNVO

— WWE (@WWE) February 6, 2018

– Former WWE Superstar Rosa Mendes said in a recent interview with Sportskeeda that she planned on making a return to the ring soon. She returned to the ring this week at MCW Pro Wrestling’s Training Center in Joppa, Maryland for a few training sessions. MCW Tweeted out the following picture of Mendes at their training center:

#RosaReturns@LaRosaMendes hits the comeback trail at the #MCW Training Center! pic.twitter.com/lewkWgyQwq

— MCW Pro Wrestling (@MCWWrestling) March 2, 2018

Mendes had this to say about training with MCW:

Fell asleep early, and now I’m up thinking about how I can’t wait to get back in the ring tomorrow, being in that ring is the best feeling in the world, although I’m so sore. It’s so worth it ??

— MilenaRoucka (@LaRosaMendes) March 1, 2018

So excited!! Just getting that rust off first. It’s been a year. @MCWWrestling is the best. It’s worth the long drive.

— MilenaRoucka (@LaRosaMendes) March 1, 2018

Days after criticizing Ronda Rousey’s debut on RAW with Stephanie McMahon, Triple H and Kurt Angle, Taz spoke with Chris Jericho about his own debut in WWE.  Appearing on the Talk Is Jericho podcast, Taz explained how his transition from ECW to WWE was the best and worst moment of his career.

“When I came out, when I was in Gorilla position, Bruce Prichard was in Gorilla. When Kurt Angle was out there cutting his promo I said to Bruce that I hope they know who I am,” […] “I was afraid, because I was from ECW, the ‘small, little bush leagues.’ When they heard the heartbeat of my entrance, the crowd exploded and Bruce Prichard said to me that he thinks they know who I am. When I walked through the curtain and walking slow with a towel on my head, I had an epiphany that I was doomed, because the pop was not built by this place. It hit me walking down the aisle.”

Taz was never told that his finishing move, the sleeper choke hold that closed the match, would be described as illegal.  The first he knew about this was when watching the match over and listening to commentary from Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler.  Prior to this, Taz hadn’t wanted illegal chokes to be part of his gimmick.

“When I came through the curtain after that it was like a ghost town. Vince McMahon wasn’t in Gorilla. It was a live Royal Rumble at the Garden, I thought that I had heat. If you go back and watch it, there was a German Suplex that I did to Kurt and he landed on his belly. What happened was when I grabbed Kurt, he popped up and I took him back down. I would always say to guys to let me control them. Kurt Angle, we didn’t know each other that well in the ring. Kurt is aggressive, and I knew the timing was way off. I knew that if I went through that throw he was going to get hurt, I just knew it. I put him back down and then did the throw on my pacing. From what I feel and heard that freaked out the boss and those that were close to him.”

Before WWE, Taz was FTW (F*ck The World) Heavyweight Champion in ECW, which he created himself after not being able to challenge for the official title.  Although Vince McMahon and Vince Russo talked with Taz about his character/persona, they never mentioned anything about illegal chokes.

“Everyone knows my rep […] When I first met with Vince McMahon we had this great meeting in a conference room at a hotel on a Wednesday afternoon because it was a secret since I was the top guy in ECW. It was, me, Vince McMahon and Vince Russo. We talked about money, the deal, that took literally around 10 minutes and then we talked about an hour and a half about everything else. He knew me, and the character. He saw the FTW on my wrist, but he said that he doesn’t know we can do FTW, but that was the only thing. My concern was whether or not I can be me. I don’t want to say Vince McMahon lied to me, but he had a different vision for me once I was there.”

Taz was in good company as Chris Jericho comments about his own cursed debuts which often miss the mark as described in his books.

H/T to WrestlingINC for the transcribed quotes

Opinion:

While Taz may think this was the worst part of his career, there are many who would disagree.  The illegal choke on Kurt Angle worked well against the persistent good guy persona of the Olympic Gold Medalist, and gave Taz a good gimmick within the company.

While Stephanie McMahon may appear to have a hard-skin, no nonsense attitude in the ring, a recent interview on the Lilian Garcia podcast, Chasing Glory, gave her the opportunity to open up about her experience of bullying as a child.

Stephanie’s most recent onscreen appearance has been alongside Triple H, Kurt Angle and the newly signed Ronda Rousey.

And although she is no-longer living under her father’s shadow, Stephanie admits that it wasn’t always easy being Vince’s daughter.

“I was bullied for being Vince McMahon’s daughter, you know. People either loved me just because I was Vince McMahon’s daughter, or they hated me just because I was Vince McMahon’s daughter. It used to bother me a lot that people would treat me a certain way without knowing who I was, you know. I always felt like, if you got to know me and you don’t like me, that’s fine, but at least get to know me, you know?”

When Stephanie talked to her dad about what she was experiencing, Vince said:

‘Steph, look. It’s a fact of life. Not everybody’s going to like you, but as long as you can look at yourself in the mirror, and look yourself in the eyes and know that you’re a good person, that’s all that matters.’

The RAW commissioner explained that it could be even more tough for her children who will grow up with social media, but she hopes the same advice will see them through.

That’s one of the problems with kayfabe, some don’t know where the act ends and can take things too seriously, especially with the access given by social media and the internet.

The Advocate Apologizes In Advance

Tonight (Feb. 25) the Elimination Chamber event takes place live on the WWE Network and pay-per-view. The men’s EC match will determine Brock Lesnar’s WrestleMania challenger for the WWE Universal Championship. Participating in the match will be Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, Braun Strowman, John Cena, The Miz, and Elias.

The advocate for “The Beast Incarnate” doesn’t appear too worried about his client’s next foe. Paul Heyman took to Twitter and offered an apology ahead of time. Lesnar will be appearing on Monday Night Raw tomorrow night and he will confront the men’s EC winner.

My congratulations in advance to the winner of @WWE #EliminationChamber. And my apologies, also in advance, for what @BrockLesnar will say to the face of that aforementioned winner of the Chamber, LIVE this Monday in Anaheim on #RAW! pic.twitter.com/u50wU5ApYl

— Paul Heyman (@HeymanHustle) February 24, 2018

Vince McMahon’s Biggest Gamble

Every year on the road to WrestleMania, the WWE likes to remind fans of the humble beginnings of “The Greatest Spectacle in Sports Entertainment.” It’s no secret that Vince McMahon took a risk when he invested in the mega pay-per-view event in 1985.

McMahon did everything he could to ensure that the first WrestleMania felt like an extravaganza. That means he had to pour a significant amount of money into the event. Had WrestleMania I been a flop, McMahon likely would’ve been out of the wrestling business and the WWE would’ve gone under. Below is a preview of the WWE Network special, WrestleMania Rewind: