The following are highlights of a new Permission Granted podcast interview with Triple H:
On the various hats he wears and the title at the top of his list: “Dad,” he said. He eventually tied it into the fitness DVD and said all the hats that he and his wife wear made them realize how difficult it is to find workout time. He said he and Stephanie rush home to see the kids before they go to bed, and it’s ten at night before the head downstairs to their home gym.
On what he looks for in a wrestler: Triple H said charisma because it’s the one X Factor that you can’t teach. “All the other things can be brought out of somebody,” he said. “That’s a tough one.” He mentioned Mick Foley as being a guy who didn’t fit the typical WWE wrestler mold, but “he is charismatic, when you watch him you can’t help but be drawn into him. He’s intelligent, he speaks well, he’s humorous.”
On WWE Network: “We took the gamble and we’re ahead of the curve on a lot of this,” he said. He noted that others are following in their footsteps. He said Netflix has their model, but they don’t have the live stream like WWE Network does. He said it takes a while to condition fans to break from their patterns. “We’re thrilled with the progress, we’re thrilled with where it’s at, and we’re just starting to scratch the surface of where it can go.”
On wrestlers who have died young: “To me, everybody makes personal choices in their life,” he said. “Even some of my closest friends, my best friends, made personal choices of how they wanted to live their life that I never chose, that I never went down those roads. And I will put the physicality of my career up against anybody. The majority of those guys made personal choices to live a certain way and you can’t live that way forever. It’s a short run, it’s fast and furious, and it’s a short run. Did it affect me? Absolutely. I’ve watched a lot of guys that I was close to and that I was friends with… There’s a certain point and time when even as your friends, you try to stop them, you try to talk them into it, and there’s no… And that’s not just in our business, that’s in any business. People are responsible for their own lives, their own personal decisions, how they live their life outside of a sport or a job or anything else. We try to protect our talent now in a way like never before with our wellness programs and our ability to try to stay ahead of them to see if there are problems or they are headed down a path or anything, but the reality of it is people have to be responsible for their own lives. I’ve seen this company tell guys listen, we can’t work together unless you get some help or whatever and they say, okay, great, I’m just going to leave then and I’m just going to go because this is more important to me. You can’t live somebody’s life for them and it’s tragic, and I’ve had to come to terms in my with that with some guys that were close friends of mine, but that’s just the way it is, unfortunately.”
On Randy Savage entering the WWE Hall of Fame: “One of the biggest stars ever in the industry,” he said. “It’s so well deserved and a long time coming. I think for a lot of fans it feels like a long time coming and they are just so overwhelmed that it’s happening and I know we are and his family is. It’s just a great thing to celebrate a career like that.”
– The WWE Network deal that Rogers finalized with Bell Canada officially starts on January 15th, and is expected to increase subscriptions for the digital service as Bell customers have reportedly requested the WWE Network in droves.
In a related note, the Rogers launch of the WWE Network has been viewed as a success thus far, and by all accounts, the Bell launch will likely be as well.
– Below are some WWE attendance figures from this month:
January 9th in Chattanooga, TN drew 4,600 fans
January 10th in Montgomery, AL drew 5,300 fans
January 10th in Sacramento, CA drew 6,000 fans
January 10th in Fort Pierce, FL for NXT drew 500 fans
January 11th in Mobile, AL drew 2,500 fans
January 11th in Shreveport, LA drew 4,000 fans
January 12th in New Orleans, LA for RAW drew 9,500 fans
WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon and WWE Chief Financial Officer George A. Barrios did in a presentation at the 17th Annual Needham Growth Conference for investors in New York City on Tuesday. A .PDF of WWE’s presentation can be found at Corporate.WWE.com. Here are some highlights:
– WWE is looking to launch the WWE Network in several new markets over the next few years, including Italy, Germany, India, Japan, China, Thailand, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates. There are 98 million ‘WWE broadband homes’ in the world. If they can get 3-4% of those homes to subscribe, the WWE Network could potentially have 3-4 million active subscribers.
– Monday Night RAW has been averaging 4.6 million viewers a week, with SmackDown doing 3.0 million.
– WWE TV rights fees have increased from $78 million in 2004 to $171 million as of September 2014. With WWE’s TV deals locked in through 2018, WWE’s annual revenue is expected to increase by $100 million by 2018.
– In addition to television production, social media and live event successes were both touted, including a live event revenue rising from $62 million to $114 million.
We’ve received word from several fans based out of the UK that the WWE Network is currently live in that region almost a full week before the official January 19th launch date.
It’s possible that WWE pushed the Network live in the UK a few days early as a “soft launch” to test out it in an effort to ensure things are smooth next week.
The @AskWWENetwork Twitter account says the official launch date is still January 19th at 9am UK time, but that hasn’t stopped fans from signing up and viewing.
@UtdNas The official launch day is Jan 19th at 9 am UK time. ^SO
– After an angle on Monday’s edition of WWE RAW, which saw Stephanie McMahon force Dean Ambrose to get papers signed by a doctor after a mental health evaluation, Ambrose is now officially confirmed as an entrant into the 2015 WWE Royal Rumble match.
– Below is a video promo for this week’s edition of NXT on the WWE Network, which airs on Wednesday, January 13th at 8pm EST.
– The next edition of “WWE Countdown” airs on the WWE Network on Tuesday and will look at the ten “most infamous Intercontinental Champions of all-time.” The list features options that were made available on an official WWE website poll that was put up back in July of 2014.
– The final episode of this season of the WWE Network original program “The Monday Night War” airs this coming Tuesday and will focus on the “shocking conclusion” to the WWE vs. WCW “war” on Monday nights.
The official synopsis for the program reads as follows:
“The war comes to a shocking conclusion, upstaged only by the talents that cross enemy lines in the years that follow.”
– Within WWE, there has been a lot of talk in regards to the manner in which Roman Reigns’ promos have been scripted as of late. Dave Meltzer reported Wednesday in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that many people in the company are under the impression that Reigns’ promos have put him in ‘quicksand’ and aren’t helping him reach the next level at all.
After comparing himself to Superman on Raw, Reigns delivered another cartoon-inspired promo on SmackDown while speaking face-to-face with Seth Rollins. Take a line from Looney Tunes character Sylvester, Reigns said “Sufferin’ succotash.” Regarding this, Meltzer mentioned on Twitter that Reigns’ promos are being scripted by Vince McMahon.
@WWMoan Vince is writing his promos. Vince is really out of touch. I hate to say it but the promos speak for themselves.
– In the latest edition of “The Rose Garden,” Adam Rose addresses the actions of Cesaro and Tyson Kidd on Raw. To watch the segment, click here.
– New additions to the WWE Network include four episodes of Raw from 1996 (April 15, April 22, April 29 and May 6), the documentary portion of the The History of the World Heavyweight Championship DVD from 2009, Tuesday Night Titans (October 1, 1984) and Prime Time Wrestling (May 26, 1986).
– In an effort to boost sales for the WWE Network, virtually all WWE content has been removed from Netflix and iTunes.
– WWE Hall of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin recently wrapped production on a new movie titled “The Echo Effect,” which was filmed in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Here’s a photo of Austin and fighter/actor Michael Jai White on set:
– After being “fired” on RAW and being pulled from this weekend’s WWE live events, Dolph Ziggler will be doing improv tonight in Hollywood California at Second City Hollywood. He’ll be joined by Lucha Underground star Johnny Mundo (John Morrison) and Ziggler’s brother, Ryan Nemeth. For ticket information, visit SecondCity.com.
– The “season finale” of the Monday Night War series on the WWE Network airs this coming Tuesday.
– The Bellas Twins will be appearing at the New Orleans Wizard World convention on Saturday.
– NXT will be holding live events in Citrus Springs, FL and Fort Pierce, FL this weekend.
– WWE and 2K Sports announced today that the WWE SuperCard mobile game has surpassed 5 million downloads since it was released back in August.
– During this week’s episode of the Monday Night War looking back at the fall of WCW, Chris Benoit was mentioned by name. While footage featuring the late wrestler is featured in its original form on the WWE Network, this may be the first time where he was mentioned by name on an original program.
The subject of Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn defecting to WWE in 2000 was addressed and a clip of the group debuting on the January 31, 2000 episode of Raw was shown with audio of Jim Ross mentioning all four by name. The accompanying clips, however, were focused on Guerrero, Malenko and Saturn.
Vince McMahon has said in the past that he is okay with acknowledging Benoit within a historical context, but not in a promotional manner.
“It’s not right to pretend he didn’t exist,” McMahon said in a 2009 interview with WWE Magazine when asked whether Benoit’s history can be acknowledged by the company. “It’s one thing to include him as part of a historical perspective, which I believe is okay, and it’s another thing to promote him, which is not okay.
“The situation is very similar to that of O.J. Simpson—despite his controversy, O.J. was still a part of the NFL scene. You can’t deny that he existed.”
– Here is a preview clip of this Sunday’s episode of Total Divas as Nikki and Brie Bella bring their personal issues to work when they get into an argument backstage.
– Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury, who have been appearing as henchman for The Authority in recent weeks, have been officially added to the current WWE roster page on WWE.com. Both are listed as members of Raw.
– On Twitter, fans can join Stephanie McMahon and @WWEmoms at 7 pm ET (4 pm PT) on Thursday as they promote the WWE Fit Series: Stephanie McMahon DVD. Click here for additional details.
– The latest updates to the WWE Network vault are as follows: Prime Time Wrestling (May 19, 1986), Raw (April 1, 1996), Raw (November 24, 2014), Raw (December 1, 2014). The April 1, 1996 episode of Raw took place the night after WrestleMania XXII, and included the in-ring debuts of Mankind and Marc Mero, as well as Vince McMahon conducting an in-ring interview with new WWF Champion Shawn Michaels.
– The latest episode of Monday Night War on the WWE Network featuring Vince Russo is getting rave reviews from fans, with many calling it the best installment of the series thus far. If you haven’t seen it yet, definitely check it out.
– RollingStone.com has published a feature looking at former WWE “enhancement talent” Barry Horowitz, who spoke about his runs in WWE and WCW as well as his beef with rapper Action Bronson.
– Mr. Money in the Bank Seth Rollins will be appering at the Adventureland Store in Philadelphia, PA on Sunday, January 25th, the day of the Royal Rumble. The event takes place from 10am-12pm. For more information, click here.
– There has been a lot of talk behind the scenes in WWE over the past couple weeks regarding “Macho Man” Randy Savage being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this year.
During an interview with Steve Austin last month on the WWE Network, WWE Chairman and chief executive officer Vince McMahon said that the legendary wrestler will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Although McMahon revealed during the podcast that Savage will receive an induction at some point, he did not say exactly when the former WWE Champion will receive the honor.
– As seen last night on Raw, Natalya rode a distraction from Paige and defeated Nikki Bella in a reverse of last week’s result, Paige then ran to her Total Divas castmate’s aid and saved Natalya from an after-the-bell ambush by the Divas Champion. Tonight on WWE Main Event, Paige will square off with Nikki in a non-title match. Following last night’s events, Nikki offered her thoughts via Instagram.
She wrote, “As I have had time to think.. To get lost in my thoughts.. Last night on RAW was a disgrace. A kick in the face is a lack of respect. It’s a dishonor to your champion, to your Queen. If you don’t have the WWE Network I suggest you get it bc tonight I will destroy PAIGES of what I thought was my next chapter. Main Event just got heated up. It just got FEARLESS! #FearlessNikki #MainEvent #RackAttack @wwe.”
It was announced on Monday’s edition of WWE RAW, the first episode of the show in 2015, that a Divas match will be taking place on this week’s edition of WWE Main Event on the WWE Network.
After an angle on Monday’s RAW that saw Paige attack Brie Bella during a match between Natalya and Nikki Bella, it was revealed that Paige will be taking on WWE Divas Champion Nikki Bella on Main Event. They did not say that the match would be for Bella’s Divas Championship.
New on the WWE Network this week will be the latest episode in the ongoing “Monday Night War” documentary series. This week’s episode will focus on WCW’s troubles. The official synopsis for the episode reads as follows:
“Backstage politics, corporate mergers, and questionable decisions would doom sports entertainment’s former powerhouse.”
This week’s Monday Night War show will premiere on the WWE Network on Tuesday.
Also new on the WWE Network this week is a new episode of “WWE Countdown.” The show will count down the top ten crybabies of all-time and will premiere on the WWE Network tonight immediately following WWE RAW.
The following are highlights of a new U.K. Sun interview with Stephanie McMahon:
On the WWE Network:“I think the beauty of the WWE Network is that there really is something for everyone. We have the most passionate fans in the world. The Network, as well as all of our programming is designed to give them a creative experience worthy of that passion.”
On her character: “I portray a villain in a storyline, because WWE is a live action adventure soap opera. WWE is entertainment, not reality. I am not the evil authority-abusing character as seen on TV – although maybe some people think I am. As well as being the Chief Brand Officer of WWE. I am a working mom to three daughters, I am a wife and I even have my own workout DVD geared towards women of all fitness levels!”
WWE.com has posted a video of Vince McMahon announcing the WWE Network is finally coming to the United Kingdom and Ireland on Monday, January 19th, 2015.
Vince joked about the multiple times the UK Network launch has been delayed, saying, “… and this time, we mean it!”
STAMFORD, Conn., January 4, 2015 – Beginning Monday, January 19, WWE Network will be available in the UK for £9.99 per month and Ireland for €12.99 per month on a direct-to-consumer basis, with no commitment and the ability to cancel any time. Fans will be able to sign up in time to watch Royal Rumble® LIVE on Sunday, January 25 and see which WWE Superstar competes for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania® 31.
WWE Network subscribers in the UK and Ireland will have access to the U.S. English language version of WWE Network with all 12 annual pay-per-view events LIVE at no additional cost, 24/7 scheduled programming and the most comprehensive video-on-demand library with more than 2,700 hours of content, including every WWE, WCW and ECW pay-per-view.
“We are thrilled to start the new year by offering WWE Network directly to our fans in the UK and Ireland,” said Vince McMahon, WWE Chairman & CEO. “I want to thank our fans in the UK and Ireland for their patience, and I’m confident it will be well worth the wait.”
Like other digital subscription services, such as Netflix and Hulu Plus, fans are able to sign up online by going to WWE.com and can watch WWE Network on their TV through connected devices such as Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku streaming devices, Sony Playstation 3, Sony Playstation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Smart TVs including Sony and Samsung.
WWE Network programming includes groundbreaking original series, reality shows, documentaries, classic matches, exclusive coverage of special events and more. The U.S. English language version of WWE Network is available direct to consumer in more than 170 countries and territories.
For a complete listing of WWE Network availability by country and device, please click here.
On the final RAW of 2014, a big segment for the final edition of WWE Main Event of 2014 was announced.
It was revealed that tomorrow night’s edition of WWE Main Event, which airs live on the WWE Network, there will be a Santino Marella New Year’s Eve party.
– The first new episode of WWE Countdown will air on the WWE Network next Monday, January 5th, immediately after WWE RAW at 11:06pm EST. The show will count down the “biggest cry-babies of all-time.”
– Regarding the upcoming RAW Reunion show on January 19th in Dallas, Texas, it’s worth mentioning that WWE is billing Scott Hall as Razor Ramon and Kevin Nash under his real name. As noted on Sunday, Nash has reportedly been pulled from the event following the recent domestic incident with his son, however he is still listed in the advertising for the event on the official WWE website. Also scheduled to appear on the show are Shawn Michaels and Hulk Hogan.
– The 2014 WWE Tribute to the Troops special is scheduled to premiere on the WWE Network on Friday, January 2nd at 3pm EST.
– Speaking of the WWE Network, the next “Beyond the Ring” special will be the documentary portion of the “Wrestling’s Most Powerful Families” DVD, which was released back in 2007.
– The next edition of “WWE Rivalries,” which focuses on the feud between The Hardy Boys and Edge & Christian, will air this coming Monday night on the WWE Network immediately following WWE RAW. It will air again on Tuesday night.
– Reno Anoa’i, who is the nephew of WWE Hall Of Famers Afa and Sika, and is the cousin of Samu, Afa Jr. and Roman Reigns, will be competing on the next season of American Idol. Reno has been singing for years and is very involved in the Samoan church in San Francisco, California.
– A tag-team rematch from NXT Takeover: R Evolution between The Ascension and the team of Hideo Itami and Finn Balor is confirmed to take place on next week’s edition of NXT TV on the WWE Network.
– As noted a few weeks ago, Matt Hardy and his wife — Reby Sky — are expecting their first child together. In the video below, they reveal that they are having a boy.
Backstage morale in WWE, which was was not very good over the past several months, was made even worse after Vince McMahon’s live interview with Steve Austin on the WWE Network a few weeks ago.
A lot of the talent felt that McMahon “crapped on just about everyone” except for Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose. There’s also a feeling that McMahon made it clear that those four names were the only ones he sees any top star potential in.
Apparently things got bad enough that Triple H tried some damage control in the form of a speech to the entire WWE roster, which reportedly backfired.
NXT wrestlers are generally very fond of Triple H, however when it comes to the main roster, whatever he said in that speech reportedly lost him a lot of credibility, especially among talent that has been with the company for quite a while.
WWE Starting To DOUBT Roman Reigns As Their Next Top Guy — WrestleMania 31 Plans CHANGING?!
(News from The Wrestling Observer was used in this post. Visit F4WOnline.com for subscription information.)