– NXT star Blake is currently sidelined with a MCL injury, according to PWInsider. It may have happened during the April 28th NXT TV tapings match with Murphy against Shinsuke Nakamura and Austin Aries.

– Stephanie McMahon tweeted these photos from Variety’s Entertainment & Technology Summit in NYC on Thursday. Stephanie spoke during a “Hunting for Millennials” panel.

A lot of interesting insights & discussion around #millenials @Variety's #EntAndTech conference today pic.twitter.com/NBx0CE0Rzy

— Stephanie McMahon (@StephMcMahon) May 5, 2016

– WWE Legend Jim Duggan talks about Vince McMahon being a fair boss in this new clip:

Mr. McMahon announced last night at Payback that Shane and Stephanie McMahon will both be in charge of WWE moving forward, a compromise of sorts to see if the two can co-exist. There was no mention of Triple H having a formal role as part of this new regime, but there’s speculation that Shane and Triple H will eventually wrestle a match. The good news is that the era of The Authority’s death grip on RAW appears to be over and this new ‘checks and balances’ system will bring some much needed relief from completely overbearing authority figures.

Later in the show, Vince McMahon signed off on Shane McMahon’s suggestion that the main event of Extreme Rules should be AJ Styles challenging Roman Reigns in an Extreme Rules match. Stephanie agreed with Shane’s idea, so the two of them are starting off on the same page. We’ll see how long that lasts.

WWE Extreme Rues takes place in less than three weeks on Sunday, May 22nd.

Jerry McDevitt, the lead attorney for WWE, appeared on The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast for a 70-minute interview about his life and career. From originally working for WWE in 1987 as part Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart’s case against US Airways through the steroid trials of the 1990s and all of the current day issues regarding concussions and WWE Network royalties, McDevitt addresses these topics in great detail. Highlights from the interview, which you can listen to here, are as follows.

The WWE Network royalties lawsuit being dismissed:

I think (Rene) Dupree was being manipulated by the same lawyer that has been running around bringing these CTE cases against the company and in fact we know he is. That whole business started with this guy advertising on the internet looking for people to sue the WWE and that he’s made various promises and representations to these people about what he thinks he is going to get for them and all the rest of that. After the judge in the CTE cases issued her subsequent rulings throwing out two of the cases and five-sixths of the other one while expressing skepticism about whether that claim would survive, shortly after that we believe he got Dupree to bring this royalties case as kind of a way to deflect attention from what was happening in the other cases and knowing full well that frankly Dupree’s case couldn’t go anywhere. As matters turned out (Dupree) evidently didn’t tell the lawyers he recruited to bring the case and to hide his own involvement that he had signed not one but two contracts that prohibited him from bringing such claims and as soon as the lawsuit was brought to my attention I sent an email the night they filed it to the lawyer in Chicago.

I brought this to the attention of the Chicago lawyer and said I assume you don’t know this because any lawyer who saw these documents wouldn’t bring this lawsuit but here is what your client signed. And as you can see it absolutely prohibits this lawsuit that you’ve brought and that I demand you withdraw it immediately. And he wrote back saying very professionally thank you and that I was not aware of this and that he’ll look into it. And I am sure he did and as the evidence shows, he then withdrew the lawsuit which was the only proper thing he could have done frankly. He could have not continued the lawsuit at all once. I brought that to his attention and Dupree would have known it too, and it was all designed I think to create some negative publicity for the company and see if they could maybe get somebody better then Dupree to bring such a lawsuit which is kind of “trolling” if you will for a plaintiff.

How does the dismissed case differ from the Doug Somers/Gilbert Family lawsuits:

I don’t think it does. They were trying to make it different by making contractual claims but these claims have never succeeded yet and I don’t think they ever will. Gilbert, Somers and there are a bunch of cases like Freddie Dryer and a bunch of guys that opted out of the NFL and if you remember the NFL had similar cases. They had a class action case brought against them from former NFL players on the NFL Network which the NFL as they seem to do, have a lot of money to throw around and they chose to settle with that class and pay them some money. But a couple guys, including Freddie Dryer, and the rest of about twelve others opted out of that class and brought their own lawsuit alleging that the NFL owed them more money then I guess was bigger than they would have got through the class action settlement (which was kind of a dumb move). Now you have to survive motions to dismiss that can be filled to dismiss such claims and the NFL did and they lost and the court threw their claims out.

Basically, the way the law works on this stuff is pretty simple. We are the owner of the copyrights of all of these things. The WWE is the sole and exclusive owner of the copyrights. Federal copyright law rewards the people who make the investments in creating these copyrighted works and go out and hire the talent and the stadiums and the cameras and all the expense of creating these films with exclusive rights of display, reproduction and sale. So when these people come in and say you are being unjustly and I’m not getting any of this money, the defense is always that the federal copyright law gives us the exclusive right to do it and preempts any of these state law claims that you are trying to assert that would burden our rights of ownership and they get thrown out every time.

Why he feels talent from defunct promotions have no claim to royalties from the WWE Network:

Let me use ECW as an example. ECW if you recall your history went into Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Whenever you go into a Chapter 7 bankruptcy what happens is your assets and your liabilities are marshalled. The bankruptcy trustee tries to sell the assets of the bankruptcy estate to generate some cash to pay off creditors who would be for example any ECW talent that are owed money from ECW and would share any money that is available which is usually not very much because when you are bankrupt you don’t get very much and when somebody goes bankrupt like ECW does it essentially wipes out all the claims of anybody that they would have against ECW for contract royalties or contract claims against ECW. The assets of the company are put up for sale free and clear of all liens and that is part of the whole bankruptcy sale. When you think about it nobody is going to buy assets that carry with it liabilities. So what you had there was this entire film library of ECW that would have been sitting somewhere in a cardboard box right now and not being displayed anywhere, and the WWE decided it would buy and pay money to buy the films and the copyrights that go with those films and obtain from the bankruptcy court a bill of sale giving the WWE in exchange for the money we paid for those the sole right, title and interest to the copyrights of those works. That is why the WWE has the legal right to display them on the Network free and clear of any claims, plain and simple.

Is Vince McMahon preserving the history of professional wrestling?

Yes and I think you can see it by his actions. He is a custodian of wrestling history right now and it’s been his whole life. It’s been the life of his family, it’s generational. I think he cares greatly about the history of this business and has great respect for the people who have been part of it and who have helped him build it.

How would he describe Vince McMahon?

I think he is a fascinating person. One of my favorite stories about Vince is when you first undertake to represent anybody as a lawyer you form judgments about the people you are representing and whether you get emotionally invested in them or whether you don’t. Are they honest? Are they truthful? In the early days when I was forming my relationship with him back in the early 90s and during the time the government was doing all this and it was a horrible time because all of the tabloid wars and all of these horrible and sensational stories telling these lurid and false tales about people up there; it was just miserable times. What I will always remember was one day when the headlines were just terrible and lurid and false and the kind of stuff that would make everyone angry, we were walking out of his office late at night one night and there was this fella, a janitor named Nick, who I learned later that he had a need for a dialysis machine in the building in order to keep his job which they did just to keep this janitor working.

When I came out of the office I saw him standing there mopping the floor and Vince came out of the office right after me and was walking down the hallway and Vince turned around after this hellish day and goes back and starts asking how’s his family, how are you doing and took the time to care about that little guy in the building that most people probably wouldn’t know his name. But he did and he cared about him and that was such an interesting scene. And I have never forgotten that about Vince. A part from that, part of him as a business man he is fascinating to watch and I think he is a great marketer of our era and what he has done with this business is just mind boggling when you watch WrestleMania and you see the production values and the people from all over the world that come to see it, it’s extraordinary. When you see the influence on television even beyond wrestling and you see how these politicians now use sort of the ring entrance mode to build drama for themselves in various ways and how the NFL has stolen, if you will some of the camera techniques that were used in the XFL, his influence on television and marketing is extraordinary.

Billy Jack Haynes being the “lead” wrestler to sue WWE as part of the ongoing concussion lawsuits:

Billy Jack Haynes goes all the way back to the late 80s/early 90s and he was doing the same stuff then and everybody in the business knows what he is. The idea that this “trolling” campaign where this Kyros fella was out there looking for people to sue and the best you could come up with was a Billy Jack Haynes to supposedly put forward as he’s going to be the representative of a class representing all of the people to ever perform for the WWE? Do you really think for a minute that people like Rock and Stone Cold think that Billy Jack Haynes is somebody they want representing their interests? It’s ridiculous. That is basically what he would be doing in that situation.

He (Kyros) was doing the same thing with him (Billy Jack Haynes) but just trying to do it with Dupree and that was trying to make some very sensational charges that were false from the minute they were made. When they were made, we got on the phone with him and said these charges you have made are false and you know they are false and if they are not withdrawn, we are going to seek sanctions against you. They quickly withdrew much of what they said that was absolutely false. They have continued to do the same thing however and the recent opinion that the judge issued dismissing Haynes’ claim and dismissing the claims of (Russ) McCullough, (Ryan) Sakoda and Matt Wiese (Luther Reigns) is (the judge) actually made findings that they had made false allegations in the lawsuit and noted that there are sanctions and notions pending against them and went on to describe all of these totally inconsistent and sometime incomprehensible allegations through this litigation. Billy Jack Haynes is just being used and will never see one penny for anything.

The rebranding of the World Wrestling Federation to World Wrestling Entertainment in 2002:

Actually it was kind of interesting the way that transition took place pretty quickly. It was another one of Vince’s clever and genius ideas to just switch one letter. The whole ordeal with the World Wild Life Fund was kind of crazy, and I never did understand why they cared because nobody ever confused us with them and watching the whole English Court proceedings and seeing how different that was then American Court proceedings was kind of frustrating from my standpoint because it was the one big case that I couldn’t handle. The English Court would not allow American Lawyers to try cases in their court rooms and so I could only go there and watch. And it was infuriating to sit there and watch that and to not be able to do anything. But whenever they issued their orders that we couldn’t be “WWF” in the way we wanted to be anymore, it was just too burdensome to comply with the requirements of what we had to do if we were going to be “WWF” and so Vince just came up with the idea of we will change to “WWE.” And I don’t know if you remember the slogan “get the F out;” It’s kind of clever and now it actually captures what they do maybe better than the word federation anyway because they are an entertainment company and that is exactly what the business is so it was a very successful rebrand I thought.

Other topics include seeing Shane and Stephanie McMahon’s growth, the future of WWE, WrestleMania 32’s impact, his first meeting Vince McMahon and more. You can check out the interview here.

• When did Chyna and Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake date?

This Sunday at Payback, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon will announce who will get control of RAW for good – Shane McMahon or The Authority.

Stephanie returned to WWE TV on last night’s RAW. Shane called Payback the first pay-per-view of a new era in WWE.

Comment and tell us who you think will get control of RAW.

What will be the fate of #RAW? @VinceMcMahon is set to make a huge decision at #WWEPayback: https://t.co/kouEkG569u pic.twitter.com/FQn7ZMJPjk

— WWE (@WWE) April 26, 2016

WrestleMania 32 brought out a new side of Roman Reigns. As soon as he won the WWE World Heavyweight championship, Reigns came out with the title and said that he wasn’t a good guy or bad guy, but the guy.

Much to the dismay of WWE fans all around the world, he continues to say it week-after-week.

Alongside Reigns’ new attitude came even more hatred from the WWE Universe. It was the first time since The Miz’s WWE title win at WrestleMania 27. Not even the Rock could save that match.

A lot consider Reigns’ push from the WWE to be a failure. One controversial figure agrees with that logic, as former-WWE employee Vince Russo says, “It’s all Vince McMahon,” while on the Pro Wrestling Illustrated Podcast. 

“It’s Vince. In Vince’s mind, it’s Bruno. It’s Backlund. Look at his history. He’s done it over and over and over again . . . Kevin Nash was this killer who beat Bob Backlund in like 8 seconds in Madison Square Garden. I was the editor at the WWF Magazine at the time. Diesel wins the belt. The next thing I know, Vince wants a picture of him on the cover of the WWF Magazine smiling like a Cheshire cat. And I remember arguing with Vince at the time, saying ‘What are you doing? This is not the character.’ And Vince wanted the white bread babyface. From there, it was Shawn Michaels’ turn. I remember Vince had me write every single promo for Shawn when they did the house show promos. Vince wanted every single promo being that white bread babyface promo. And I sat there with Shawn for hours. And it was so difficult and hard for Shawn to do, because he wasn’t that guy.  After that it was the Rock. I’ll never forget. I was sitting in the office—me, The Rock and Vince— the day after The Rock won the title with that corporate swerve. And Vince is sitting there wanting him to go out and cut this white bread, babyface promo. And Rock kept looking at me like, ‘Is this guy serious?’ . . . Here we are with Roman Reigns 25, 30 years later. He’s doing the exact same thing, because Vince, at 70 years old, really believes that the 1970s philosophy is going to work today. . . It’s all he knows. He’s repeating it over and over again. And there’s nobody there with the balls to say, ‘Vince, this does not work in 2016.’”

That may be the most-accurate representation of Roman Reigns’ booking to date. Russo makes great points about the “white bread babyface” in the WWE. Until a few weeks up to WrestleMania, Reigns was making himself look foolish on the microphone.

He never had to pick up the mic to get over, but McMahon wanted it to happen.

Will Reigns’ style of booking change at WWE Payback? There are a lot of theories floating around that Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows will join Reigns. They are only theories, but something like that would give Roman Reigns a new dynamic that could work long-term.

It looks like Vince McMahon doesn’t hold a grudge against Donald Trump for shaving his head in the Battle of the Billionaires match at WrestleMania 23. The Stamford Patch ran an article on Monday about how Vince & Linda McMahon were the biggest donors to The Donald J. Trump Foundation from 2004 to 2014.

The McMahons reportedly donated $5 million between 2009 and 2014 to the charity named after the WWE Hall of Famer and U.S. Presidential candidate. Trump himself didn’t give any money to the foundation between 2009 and 2014, according to the Washington Post.

• Major New Details On Backstage Drama Between Vince McMahon, Shane & Triple H

“Stone Cold” Steve Austin called into TMZ Live this week and said commented on Hulk Hogan’s potential future with WWE.  Austin feels that Hogan may come return one day once his ongoing “issues” pass, but it’s entirely up to the boss – Vince McMahon.

When asked about the racist comments Hogan made on his sex tape, Austin says what Hogan did will never be forgotten – but it might be forgiven. He’s known Hogan for a lot of years and thinks Hogan was simply ‘having a bad day’ and doesn’t believe the hateful things he said.

• Video: Steve Austin’s Surprise Appearance At WrestleMania 32

Xavier Woods told IGN in a post-WrestleMania 32 interview that Kofi is the one who came up with their Dragon Ball Z-inspired outfits for the big pay-per-view. He says WWE trusts them more now than when they started to come up with their own outfits, and revealed what usually happens when Vince McMahon first sees one of their ideas up close.

“It’s funny, because we’ll always have some kind of harebrained idea, and then [Vince] sees it right before we go through the curtain, and just kind of gives a little grin and thumbs up,” Woods said.

“It’s to a point now where we kind of have a little bit more trust than we did when we started. And they know we’re not going to go out there and do something that’s going to mess up a sponsorship or anything like that. Things we do are going to do are going to be in-bounds for our PG parameters. Still be fine for kids, but then have something that’s a little bit for adults. We liken it to Shrek: we’re in PG parameters but there’s jokes in there for adults if you’re paying attention.”

Head over to IGN.com to read the full interview.

Who knows if there’s anything to this, but if there’s even a lick pf truth to it, it’s very interesting: The New York Post reported last night that John de Mol, the Dutch billionaire media mogul who founded Endemic and Talpa Media, has a standing offer to Vince McMahon to buy WWE if he ever wanted to sell. Talpa Media bought 6% of WWE’s public stock last year, but the way that WWE Stock is structured, even buying all of the public stock couldn’t enable a hostile takeover. This is because the McMahons have a different class of stock with greater voting power. Endemol is one of the biggest media companies in the world, and had a previous wrestling connection when they produced Ring Ka King, the sort of TNA spinoff that Jeff Jarrett ran for a season in India.

The Post reached out for comment on the story and got responses from both sides. First, from WWE:

WWE, controlled by founder and Chief Executive Officer Vince McMahon through Class B shares, isn’t in any discussions about a potential sale.

And here’s what de Mol’s spokesperson said:

We do not comment or give explanations on the investments of John de Mol and therefore also not with respect to his investment in WWE.

Obviously, if anything else comes out with regards to this story, we’ll keep you updated.

WWE Intercontinental champion Kevin Owens recently spoke with IndianExpress.com to promote WrestleMania 32.

The 31-year-old superstar is a longtime student of the game and is doing everything he can to learn from the two most powerful men in the industry. “I talk to Vince as much as I can,” Owens said. “He obviously is the busiest man I know. Vince, at any time on Raw, or SmackDown or on a pay-per-view, is thinking about a million things – running the show basically. I have a good relationship with him.”

He added that he’s still getting “I’m still getting to know him. I still feel like we are building a relationship.”

While Vince McMahon is naturally somewhat of a father figure to Owens, he is closer to Triple H. During his push to get signed by WWE, it was Triple H who ultimately made the call to bring him in. “I know him more on a personal level than I do Vince,” Owens said of Triple H. “We talk about our kids and stuff like that. They both are very different in a way but they have the same goal – of making WWE as entertaining as possible.”

Owens added that his favorite thing to do at RAW (besides performing) is sitting in the gorilla position to watch how Vince, Triple H, Road Dogg, Billy Kidman and the other agents make the show work. He even flirted with the idea of being an agent himself one day after his days in the ring are over.

WWE Hall Of Famer Jake “The Snake” Roberts was recently asked by the folks at Hannibal TV to give his opinion on longtime WWE Chairman Vince McMahon. Roberts, as usual, was never one to disappoint.

While Roberts admitted that McMahon has done things that have hurt the business, but gave Vince credit for being “the hardest working motherf*cker” he knows.

“Brilliant, brilliant. The hardest working motherf*cker I know,” Jake Said. “Like him or not, it doesn’t matter, he’s the hardest working son of a b*tch I know. He’s done a lot for this business, he’s done a lot of things that hurt this business. But for somebody in his position, he’s done pretty f*cking good.”

Jake is currently on the road promoting his Resurrection of Jake The Snake movie and will be doing an Unspoken Word Texas tour starting March 23rd.

TMZ Sports recently caught up with Triple H, Stephanie McMahon and Linda McMahon and asked about Vince McMahon’s workout regimen. In the video above, Triple H and Stephanie reveal that Vince hits the gym late at night after he leaves the office and is still “a machine.” When asked if he ever joins Vince for his workouts, Triple H answered “no, he’s too crazy.”

Vince’s wife Linda also declines to join the WWE Chairman in the gym, where she says you can find him “at least five days a week.” In the below video from TMZ Sports, Linda claims Vince would still put both Shane McMahon and Triple H to shame with his regimen.

Vince is scheduled to appear weekly on RAW right through WrestleMania season until May 23rd.

• New Details On Backstage Drama Between Vince McMahon, Shane & Triple H

One of the top storylines heading into WrestleMania 32 is Shane McMahon battling The Undertaker inside Hell in a Cell. If Shane McMahon is victorious, The Authority is removed from power and Shane assumes complete control of WWE.

While this is not necessarily a spoiler, it’s worth noting that Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, and Triple H are advertised for several upcoming RAW tapings after WWE’s biggest show of the year:

• April 4th from Los Angeles
• April 25th from Hartford, CT
• May 2nd from St. Louis, MI
• May 9th from Omaha, NE
• May 23rd from Baltimore, MD

Additionally, Shane McMahon is not listed for any shows after Mania.

• Latest WrestleMania 32 Betting Odds: Find Out Who Is Favored To Win

The dynamic between Vince McMahon and Triple H is reportedly something everyone is talking about internally in WWE. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that Shane McMahon’s return, and recent changes to WrestleMania 32 storylines, have both lead to an increase in backstage chatter about the McMahon family drama. The Observer reports that Vince does not like being perceived as the old out-of-touch guy who needs to step aside so Triple H can take over.

The speculation within WWE right now is reportedly that if Shane does take on an executive role in the company, Vince could be playing him against Triple H and Stephanie. It gets hard to tell how much of the Vince-Triple H tension is exaggerated, but it is known that Shane did have issues with Triple H and Stephanie that lead to him leaving the company in 2009. Shane left WWE after he found out his sister and Triple H would eventually be taking over the company instead of him.

Shane’s entire promo on Monday’s RAW was re-written at the last minute to remove mentions of him wanting to fire Triple H and Stephanie from RAW should he win at WrestleMania 32. According to The Observer, the opening segment on RAW has been changing at the last minute lately at Vince’s request. Last minute script changes were blamed for Shane forgetting a line during his return promo on RAW, but it largely went unnoticed because Vince spoke up and covered for him.

Aside from any heat he may have with Vince and Shane, Triple H also reportedly drew criticism from some WWE employees for not “selling” his beating from Roman Reigns back in December. In the days after the angle with Reigns at TLC, Triple H was making appearances to promote NXT and not selling any injuries.

• Report: Vince McMahon Doesn’t See NXT Wrestlers As “Stars”

NXT has grown into a touring brand beloved by fans around the world, but WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon is not entirely sold on its potential. According to Dave Meltzer in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Vince is largely not convinced NXT talent are “stars” who can draw money in WWE. Meltzer wrote:

“Vince isn’t going to step aside, but there is a lot of concern about the rigid decision making and limited viewpoint on who can be real top stars. While publicly HHH will say Vince loves NXT, the internal perception is very different, seeing it as a touring brand filled with so many guys Vince doesn’t believe are money.”

Several of NXT’s top stars have publicly stated they are in no rush to join WWE’s main roster. Back in December, NXT Champion Finn Balor stated on the Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast, “I feel like to get quote, unquote called up to the main roster would be, maybe, like a step back for my career right [now].”

NXT Women’s Champion Bayley echoed the same sentiment late last year, telling The Independent, “I definitely want to be a part of it but I’m not in any rush right now. NXT is so huge and we’re already doing something very special here, so if I was on the main roster right now I’d feel that I was missing out with what’s going on in NXT.”

The handling of Tyler Breeze on the main roster has been a big warning sign to NXT talent. After being a staple of NXT for years and being featured prominently on Breaking Ground, Breeze has been relegated to ‘enhancement talent’ since his debut.

Earning a spot on the main roster is still the ultimate goal of most in NXT, as it means big league money, global exposure and the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. However, it’s not without significant risk, at least under WWE’s current regime.

Vince McMahon is back on TV regularly while WWE is on the road to WrestleMania, and he’s shared on-air time with his son for the first time in over six years. The WWE Chairman told The Orlando Sentinel that it’s been awesome having Shane back, but that “it can be very difficult” working with his son.

“It’s been awesome. I was hoping that one day we might get back together. It’s difficult. Fathers and sons sometimes, in the same business at a certain stage, it can be very difficult,” Vince explained to Brian Fritz of the Orlando Sentinel. “You love each other just as much but you see things a little differently. You have the old bull and the young bull and the old bull is not ready to give it up, his horns are still sharp. It’s great that Shane is back. Whether or not there’s a corporate place, we’ll wait and see. From a performer standpoint, I so enjoy performing with him. And when the three of us are out there, Stephanie and Shane and me, and throw in Paul because that has happened in the past, oh my God! We could stay out there and entertain each other, much less the audience, for an hour. It would be easy. It’s just so much fun because we can ad-lib and entertain ourselves. I think if you are entertaining yourselves and you’re having fun, that projects and the audience is having fun with you.”

In the same interview, which took place after Tuesday’s WrestleMania 33 press conference in Orlando, Vince admitted he prefers working behind-the-scenes to being in front of the camera.

“I much prefer to produce and direct, much prefer that,” Vince said. “This storyline allowed me that opportunity and sort of pushed me that way. I don’t know how much you’re going to see of me because I’d rather be producing and directing. Again, there are only so many bumps and so forth that anybody can take. I’m willing to take them obviously. I always said to talent that I would never ask you to do anything that I wouldn’t do, which I’ve lived up to.”

• Vince McMahon: John Cena Is WWE’s Babe Ruth

Former WWE writer Andrew Goldstein was very critical of Monday’s RAW, specifically the McMahon-Undertaker storyline.

The Dead Man is scheduled to square off against Shane McMahon at WrestleMania inside Hell in a Cell. If Shane wins, he gets control of WWE. If The Undertaker wins, The Authority remains in power and Shane will no longer have any leverage over his father.

Ever since the match was announced, fans have been wondering why exactly The Undertaker would agree to do Vince McMahon’s bidding. What is The Undertaker’s motivation to keep The Authority in power?

On RAW, The Undertaker addressed the match ever-so-briefly but did not provide any explanation regarding why he has agreed to the match. Andrew Goldstein thinks WWE has failed at their job to present a straight-forward, cohesive angle. He tweeted:

Apart from initial surprise of Shane's return, rest of story has lacked logic/specifics. Basically its been like one, long Trump speech #RAW

— Andrew Goldstein (@AngeGold) March 1, 2016

Jesus @WWE you had one job: Explain why the f*ck the Undertaker would do Vince's bidding. Instead we got unimpactful melodrama. Fail. #RAW

— Andrew Goldstein (@AngeGold) March 1, 2016

Former WWE Superstar Batista is speaking out once again about Titus O’Neil’s suspension from WWE. Shortly after the incident, Batista revealed on Twitter that he urged Titus to ask for his WWE release due to the way they handled the situation.

https://twitter.com/DaveBautista/status/697585006563217408

TMZ caught up with Batista at the airport this week and the former WWE Champion did not hold back with his thoughts about the company. When asked if this whole thing could have been avoided if wrestlers were unionized, Batista said that will never happen because wrestlers are too expendable.

Batista said Vince McMahon should have simply had a man-to-man conversation with Titus about their physical altercation. Instead, Vince “f**ked him” by suspending him and then “double f**ked him” by keeping him off WrestleMania 32, the wrestlers’ biggest payday of the year. He feels that Titus doesn’t need WWE, he’s there because he loves it and it’s really not right how it all went down.

WWE shook things up in a big way on Monday night with the surprise return of Shane McMahon. After a memorable confrontation with Vince and Stephanie McMahon, it was announced that Shane will face The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32 inside Hell in a Cell. If Shane wins, he gets control of WWE. If The Undertaker wins, Vince’s debt to Shane for bailing him out several years ago is forgiven.

Shane vs. Undertaker HIAC is one of those ‘wildcard’ matches that nobody saw coming but one that will add some much needed interest and star power to a card plagued by injuries. Here’s the latest on how this deal came together, courtesy of Dave Meltzer at f4wonline.com:

– Longtime fans know this “WrestleMania match for control of WWE” has been talked about for years now. Originally it would have been Triple H representing the Authority against a surrogate of Vince McMahon’s, either The Rock of Steve Austin. The plan had been nixed in the past because Vince didn’t want to be on TV.

– The deal between Vince and Shane was brokered just a few weeks ago. Shane currently does not have any management position in the company and is solely an on-air talent at this time. Even though he still has a major role with You On Demand (Chinese media company), he’s Shane is based out of New York and could theoretically be at television each week.

– Shane’s promo was very much based on real circumstances within the McMahon family. There was a time that Shane legitimately felt he was in line to take over WWE but Vince ultimately made it very clear that Stephanie and Triple H would be running the company, which is a big part of what led to his departure.

Meltzer also noted cryptically that there’s something behind the fact that Triple H was not part of that opening segment.

WWE Chairman Vince McMahon dropped an F-bomb on last night’s RAW during his face-to-face confrontation with Shane. As Shane was jockeying for control of WWE, Vince told him straight up, “Don’t f— with me.” The profanity was censored on television, but WWE fan James Gillis got this footage from inside the arena.

WWE has released their annual report for 2015 (PDF of the press release summary), with an infographic (PDF) explaining some of the key notes. Check out Eric’s post from earlier for some of the key details.

Right now, WWE’s investor call is ongoing with Vince McMahon, George Barrios, and Michael Weitz running the show. At first, it’s mostly repeating information from the above releases, but once the investment firms start having their representatives call in, it can get interesting, and we’ll pick up ongoing coverage when that part of the call kicks off.

You can stream the conference call here.

11:19 a.m. ET Lines are open!

11:21 a.m ET Engagement levels of specific WWE Network shows? Barrios gives vague answer that they’re happy with. Will they bundle Network with over services, whether hosted by MLB Advanced Media (WWE Network partner) or otherwise? Maybe something like Crunchyroll? Barrios gives a vague answer and thinks it’s early. Makes a reference to major players vs. minor players that sounds like a shot at Crunchyroll, who was in WWE’s infographic as a top 10 paid internet streaming service.

11:23 a.m. ET Barrios not really answering anything, as usual. Vince asked how they’ll deal with the injury bug for WrestleMania. “By being creative! We’ll have an awesome WrestleMania.”

11:25 a.m. ET Oh no, it’s Laura Martin. She’s asking a weirdly specific and pointless question about hours viewed by Network subscribers and what shows they are, which Barrios happily answered because Laura Martin. She asked for India-specific numbers and of course she’s not getting them.

11:27 a.m. ET What will impact WrestleMania quarter Network numbers? No specifics. How many current subscribers were around for WrestleMania last year? Barrios refuses to discuss.

"We are not going to talk about specifics" will be the George Barrios t-shirt when he gets a store on @ProWrestlingTs

— Live Audio Wrestling (@LAWradio) February 11, 2016

11:29 a.m. ET Any correlation they’ve seen between ratings and Network churn (subscriber loss)? “Not at the granular level” week to week, but yes, in the big picture. Is WWE going to build the planned media center? Looking like a no now.

11:32 a.m. ET How should we think about the continued ratings decline? Vince: “Hours are down, but not as much as the networks we’re on.” TV is old media and important, but when you add YouTube, the audience is consuming their content how and when they want to. Which is a totally fair answer given their YouTube numbers being sky-high, to be honest. He included other social media in there, and your mileage may vary on that, but they’ve tweeted more and more GIFs, short video clips, etc. during shows as the year went on, as well.

11:35 a.m. ET Brad Safalow is unbanned. Wants NXT revenues. Barrios won’t talk about specific product lines, but they’re happy w/ the engagement. What’s on the plate for NXT live events outside of Full Sail and Florida in general? Generic answer. Top five network subscriber countries? UK is a terrific market. Canada is good. “Outside of that, in the top 10, we’ve got a nice mix of countries.” TV budget? No pre-cashflow guidance from Barrios. More seasons of Total Divas, though.

Asking about YouTube: Someone can watch a significant portion of Raw, any tension with NBC Universal over this given the huge gap from the monetary perspective? Vince; It’s a combination of valuation. We’re live programming, which adds tremendous value. Keeps saying “huge ecosystem.” Not really answering the question and he came off terribly since he effectively cited YouTube as a big reason why ratings are down.

Brad: “It’ll be interesting.”

Vince, not sounding upbeat: “It sure will…”

11:40 a.m. ET Is the cost of putting archival content on the Network de minimis (too minimal to warrant consideration) to WWE? Barrios says so. Network spending in the future will depend on subscriptions.

11:42 a.m. ET Follow-ups! Is there a way to draw more fans to the WWE app instead of third party platforms to keep them closer to the WWE Network subscribe button? App is an important part of their strategy per Barrios, but the established platforms are important. Still, continuing to invest in WWE owned and operated platforms. Remember, they dropped the live app experience fairly recently.

Could NXT be on regular TV? Depends on the market.

11:44 a.m. ET What markets does the Network need to get into? China, Phillipines, and Thailand.

11:48 a.m. ET Brad Safalow follow-up. When does the India TV deal change so that pay-per-views will air live on the WWE Network? Don’t comment on specifics of current deals. Barrios: “How the rights work, I’d like t stay away from that.” Haven’t discussed Japan lately, signing talent from New Japan, increased focus? Think about it as a really good market from a talent perspective.

11:50 a.m. ET Analyst thinks their stockholders are frustrated by flip-flopping between different criteria for network guidance (end of quarter numbers vs. average numbers). Barrios doesn’t do a good job explaining the switching back and forth. Basically said that end of quarter guidance on the subscriptions is too difficult to predict, so it’s easier to go with the average.

It’s over. Stock is $14.59 per share right now (-$1.16 which is -7.37%). Much more interesting call than usual, thanks in large part to the YouTube stuff, the return of Brad Safalow, and the YouTube stuff. SeekingAlpha should have a transcript soon.

When a fan tweeted on Tuesday thanking Triple H for making the Chris Jericho vs. AJ Styles match on RAW, Jericho replied to correct him. According to Jericho, it was none other than Vince McMahon’s idea to put him in the ring with Styles.

based @TripleH gave us @AJStylesOrg vs @IAmJericho and @LuchaElRey season 2 debuts tomorrow. The wrestling gods are smiling upon us all

— #BROKEN Mr. Lostman (@infinityxheart) January 26, 2016

Actually @VinceMcMahon gave you that match :) https://t.co/X3w65I0aM3

— Chris Jericho (@IAmJericho) January 27, 2016

Despite reports of Triple H assuming more control behind-the-scenes in WWE, back in October we reported that Vince McMahon had begun micro-managing the company more. Declining RAW ratings reportedly influenced Vince’s decision to begin overseeing all aspects of the company more than he had been previously.

Former WWE Superstar Batista was backstage at Sunday’s Royal Rumble PPV from Orlando and met with Vince McMahon about an appearance at WrestleMania 32, according to Ryan Satin over at ProWrestlingSheet.com. Batista reportedly declined Vince’s pitch for a one-time ‘guest appearance’ gig that would not have required him to wrestle a match.

The 2014 Royal Rumble winner has been outspoken about WWE’s creative process since his last run with the company went completely off the rails in part due to the Daniel Bryan YES! Movement. During an interview with HeyUGuys last April, Batista said he’s open to wrestling for WWE one day, but only at live events, since WWE’s scripts “aren’t that great.”

Barry Blaustein, the director of Beyond the Mat, appeared on the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast this week to discuss the famous wrestling documentary. Here’s some of what he had to say:

On people in the pro wrestling business rejecting the movie:

I do find it funny and as I was listening to your intro that it’s stuff they didn’t want you to see and after the movie they showed everything and went much further than I would go in showing stuff. I don’t know what I brought is a good thing or a bad thing. People would go; “It’s fake” and I’d say well it’s predetermined but the fans know that and it’s a suspension of disbelief. Wrestling fans are a lot smarter than people give them credit for. I go to watch an Action movie or a James Bond movie and I know a car can’t fly off a building and someones survives but I suspend my [dis]belief so I can enjoy it. I know that a lot of what I am seeing is planned, pre determined and everything but I know how much these guys get hurt and also the psychological implications of pretending to be somebody you are not and sometimes becoming that person.

Seeing “the real Vince McMahon” and Vince turning on the movie:

We were done shooting and the cameras had gone away, we were shooting in Sacramento and it was at a RAW taping and Vince came back and it was after he started his feud with Steve Austin and had been beaten up. He was battered and they were taking down the ring and he had a beer and was wearing a sweatshirt and he said “I LOVE this business”. That’s the Vince that I wanted to capture on camera because he does love this business. He has an incredible passion for it and I think Vince is great.

When the movie came out Vince had called me a couple months before and said this is nothing personal, I like you but I am going to do everything to stop this movie from being seen. It was simply because he wanted a piece of the movie and Universal didn’t want to give him a piece of the movie. He hated that a film company was profiting off his characters he created and I understood that and he kept saying he didn’t care and I could make as much money as I want and I said Vince you can say whatever you want and I’ll come back at you and none of it is personal.

Scouting for which younger wrestlers to feature:

I knew Droz’s history before hand. I was given a bunch of wrestlers and I said I wanted to follow a young wrestler as he was given his break. I was given him (Droz), Matt Bloom, who is now a trainer at NXT, and Edge. I remember talking to Edge and he was uncomfortable with being in it. People who were uncomfortable and I would always tell the wrestlers if you don’t want to be in it please tell me and I am not going to put you in it and Darren seemed the most comfortable.

Did I expect Vince to ask him to show up and throw up, NO. Was I surprised? No, because Vince is a performer. Like most actors who are performers you have a hard time telling the difference and the showman in him made him want to teach him to throw up. Sometimes I say, I should have gone with Edge but he was uncomfortable and I don’t know how good he would have been on camera at that point.

On still watching WWE in 2016:

Wrestling is this weird hybrid of entertainment and athleticism and that’s why I really like it. I still watch it, still watch it avidly and most of the time I can’t believe I am watching it and I can’t believe I like it but there is that 10% of me that says I can’t believe everyone doesn’t see what I see in this. I was watching RAW the other week that Vince came back to confront Roman Reigns and I thought this is great and he is such a great hammy performer. How do people not love this?

I think they lost a lot of people to the Network. People feel like it’s not that important to watch RAW. But every TV show has gone down and down and down. With internet, video games and all different sources of communication I don’t know if the wrestling ratings have gone down more proportionally compared to other TV shows proportionally. When I started at Saturday Night Live if we had the ratings that the show has now we would have been cancelled. You can’t judge (ratings) on what they were ten years ago because it’s changed and the different media available to watch is just so much more.

His thoughts on WWE Breaking Ground on WWE Network:

I like that show but it’s very reality show-ish for my taste and is a little too life and death and William Shatner.

– The new voice of WWE SmackDown on the USA Network, Mauro Ranallo, spoke with WWE.com for a “SmackDown Fallout” post-show interview. In the brief backstage interview, which you can view above via WWE’s official YouTube channel, Ranallo talks about it being a dream 30 years in the making to call a show for WWE.

– Speaking of announcers, the new NXT announce team of Tom Phillips and Corey Graves made their official debut at the NXT television tapings at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida on Thursday night.

– Vince McMahon posted the following on Twitter on Friday morning to congratulate The Rock on winning the Favorite Cable TV Actor Award at this year’s People’s Choice Awards.

Congratulations to the People's Champ @TheRock on his People's Choice Award pic.twitter.com/jetBKxJYNT

— Vince McMahon (@VinceMcMahon) January 8, 2016

• (NEW: Jan. 7): Ronda Rousey Wearing NOTHING But Body Paint!