The entire WWE roster will be gathered on stage for the opening segment of tonight’s edition of WWE RAW in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, likely for a promo segment involving The Authority — Triple H and Stephanie McMahon.
The New Day’s Xavier Woods tweeted the following about tonight’s RAW segment:
So apparently #TheNewDay and the rest of the roster has to be on the ramp at the beginning or #Raw tonight… No clue what's going on.
– WWE Tough Enough competitor Chelsea suffered an ankle injury earlier this week and visited with doctors on Saturday. WWE posted the following photo of her getting checked out.
https://instagram.com/p/5SC-oPzCZG/
– Stephanie McMahon, Renee Young, Big E., Xavier Woods and Natalya hosted an anti-bullying rally at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Stamford, Connecticut this week. Below are some photos from the event.
– The official WWE website has a new poll up asking fans to vote on which Superstar has the coolest face paint. With over 3,000 votes, Finn Balor leads the pack with 43%, while Sting is just behind him with 40 percent. Other options included Goldust, Stardust, The Usos and The Ascension.
– In the following video from Xavier Woods’ WWE-endorsed YouTube gaming channel — “UpUpDownDown” — Woods and Cesaro play the old video game “Double Dragon.”
– Former WWE Superstar Funaki was backstage at the WWE “Beast in the East” special in Tokyo, Japan this weekend. Below is a photo of him with The Lucha Dragons.
On Tuesday, WWE announced the launch of their new official YouTube gaming channel called “UpUpDownDown.”
Below is the press release with all of the details.
WWE Creates New YouTube Gaming Channel
STAMFORD, CONN. – June 16, 2015 – WWE today launched UpUpDownDown, a new YouTube channel focusing on the world of video gaming, hosted by WWE Superstar and avid gamer, Xavier Woods®. Woods, also known to online players by his handle “Austin Creed,” will be joined by YouTube celebrities, WWE Superstars and video game editors who will star in daily programming about everything in the world of gaming – from current hits like “WWE 2K15” and “The Witcher” to classic series like “FIFA” and “Grand Theft Auto.”
“By leveraging WWE’s massive influence on YouTube and tapping into a content vertical that scores highly among our fans, we’re poised to make an immediate impact with this new channel,” said Lisa Fox, WWE Executive Vice President, Content. “We’re confident that UpUpDownDown will entertain not only WWE fans, but gamers everywhere.”
WWE has a powerful presence on YouTube, having served more than 5 billion video views in the last 12 months and boasting more than 6.4 million subscribers, making it the No. 1 Sports channel on the platform ahead of the NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL, ESPN and NASCAR.
Programming for UpUpDownDown will include:
– UpUpDownDown Plays (Mondays) – A “Let’s Play” style show featuring Woods and other personalities playing through today’s hottest titles.
– For the Lolz (Wednesdays) – Woods and others explore the vast worlds of popular sandbox games like Grand Theft Auto V, where just about anything and everything can happen.
– Jump Scares (Fridays) – Delving deep into the horror genre, players push their intestinal fortitude to the limit by creeping through the industry’s most bloodcurdling games.
– Superstar Savepoint (Saturdays) – Guests are tasked with jumping into a random game totally “cold,” and must help lead Woods to gaming glory in this unpredictable co-op experiment.
– Gamer Gauntlet (Sundays) – Woods and friends challenge each other for more than gaming bragging rights, with losers suffering pre-determined penalties.
NXT star Tyler Breeze recently spoke with the folks at AfterBuzz TV about a number of topics. Below are some highlights.
On Xavier Woods: “I came to a crossroads at NXT [with my character Mike Dalton]…And fortunately for me, [Xavier Woods] is a genius when it comes to technology stuff. Saying he is a genius at one thing, he’s kind of a genius at all things. And at the time he had somehow got ahold of some video editing software…He was figuring out how to edit these really cool videos. He basically said, “We’re going to turn this around. I’m going to come over today and come up with like 5 or 10 characters. We’re going to throw them at everybody and say, ‘What about this one? What about this one?’ I came up with three different ones. One was a snowboarder. One was a darker version of Mike Dalton, which I was at the time. And one was Tyler Breeze. As we were filming it, we were laughing our heads off…but I had eight other characters ready to go. I ended up getting a couple emails back saying, ‘You might have something with this Tyler Breeze thing. None of it would have happened if [Xavier Woods] hadn’t made these videos. And he’s done a lot for other people down here too.”
On if his character is inspired by Zoolander: “Everyone thinks it must have been inspired by Zoolander, but the funny thing is it really wasn’t until later. I kind of based it off the people I had seen come in and try out. There’s a lot of people in a lot of different industries that do that. There’s people on the outside that come in and think, “Nah It can’t be that hard. I can do this.” They were actors and models and they would try to give wrestling a try and they would happen to say some funny things. At the time I was Mike Dalton. I was very much a wrestler and nobody really wanted to see it. And I thought, why not go entirely the opposite. I’m going to wrestle like I don’t know how to wrestle, I’m just this outsider looking in and from there it kind of turned into that he was a model…from there, I did this face at the end of interviews and then I started watching some Zoolander stuff and switched my voice a little bit. As I started doing more interviews it kind of turned into more of Ben Stiller from Dodgeball than it actually was Zoolander. I was this loose cannon that would get angry at anything and everything you asked me was the stupidest question I’ve ever heard in my life.”
On his wrestling goals prior to getting signed by WWE: “My goal was always WWE. When I was a kid, at 6-years-old, and that was what my dad showed me was WWE. I didn’t even know that any other wrestling exited. I didn’t know that WCW existed, I didn’t know that Japan existed. I just assumed that WWE was everywhere and that was the goal. As I went through school, everything was geared towards WWE. Once I went and trained with Lance Storm…he had this extensive collection of Japanese stuff and I started learning there’s so much more than WWE. But still my personal goal was to go to WWE.”
On training with Lance Storm: “I couldn’t ask for better training. In three months he prepared me for everything I was going to encounter. I trained with him in 2007, so he was fresh off of WWE. He had connections still and he went out of his way to talk to everybody about money, about working with agents, that etiquette was very important. I still look to him for advice on a lot of different things.”
On underrated talent in NXT: “Everybody on twitter always uses the word “underrated” or “overrated.” There are a lot of deserving people. I don’t want to say underrated, but people you maybe haven’t seen yet and that’s Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson. And we have a lot of new people in that you can see that they’re going to be good, but we have a good crop of people from top to bottom. Another one I’ll add to the list is Tye Dillinger.”
On some of his favorite matches: “There have been several that are the cornerstones or milestones for me, that have taken me to different levels. That first Takeover with Sami Zayn, that moved me to a different bracket. I’ve gotten to work with Zayn and Neville a lot. When Hideo came in, I really liked all the stuff I did with Hideo. He is such a star and has international appeal. He’s not just an NXT guy, he’s coming in and there was a lot of buzz with him. He showed that I could hang with someone that kicks the crap out of you essentially. Now even moving onto Finn [Balor], he’s another international superstar.”
On the Elimination Chamber and NXT talent being involved: “It’s good for everything. It’s intriguing. Everything in the last couple of months, with Zayn coming up and showing that he can hang with Cena. Neville just freshly debuting showing that he can hang with Cena and then we’ve got Owens coming up and laying out Cena. He’s creating a lot of intrigue. Heading into this PPV I think it’s less about the individuals [debuting] and more about NXT. It’s showing that NXT is WWE. It’s not below it. It’s side by side…We’ve had guys like Rhyno coming in, like Tommy Dreamer coming in. NXT has got this feel to it. It’s very similar to that thing ECW had. [The fans] are very loyal and they feel like NXT is cutting edge. The fact that I’m getting to be in the opportunities that I’m in…the fact we’re getting to do that is cool.”
– ESPN and FOX have both expressed interest in hiring Renee Paquette (Renee Young) to do mainstream sports news reporting for them once her deal with WWE expires. Whether or not Young is entertaining these offers is unclear as of right now.
– The talk going around backstage in WWE among the staff is that Vince McMahon has made it abundantly clear to everyone that WrestleMania absolutely has to sell out next year at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
– The ESPN E:60 piece on NXT, which focuses primarily on Xavier Woods, Corey Graves and Adam Rose, will be replaying on ABC on June 21st at 5pm EST.
New Day member Xavier Woods recently spoke with the PodNasty Wrestling Podcast about the recent E:60 feature he was a big part of it, as well as changes to his gimmicks over the years. Below are some highlights from the interview.
On why the militant stable was dropped: “Wrestling is a never-ending storybook so sometimes you start going one direction, but the beauty of it is we could go in whatever direct we want but things just changed. For what reason, I’m not exactly sure, but it’s WWE and you kind of just go with the flow.
“It ’s one of the things you learn when you get hired is it is an ever-changing and ever-evolving living breathing workism, so the best way to stay afloat is to just go along with the things that are occurring around you.”
?“I’m not sure why things changed, but in light of recent developments of New Day it’s great that they did because to me rather than someone just coming out and the character just being there, it’s nice to be able to see that character evolve over time.”
On why he thought The New Day would succeed as babyfaces: “We had a couple of different schools of thoughts. We thought this would occur, that people would be into it, because it’s maybe one of the only positive things on television, because you turn on the news and there’s death, murder, car crashes and everything,” said Woods.
“Here’s a positive thing with three guys, all college educated, all college athletes, all very eloquent so we’ll preach a positive message like ‘do well in life and go to school, make sure you work out you could be big and strong like E, make sure if you stretch a lot you can be flexible and agile like Kofi and make sure if you read your books you could be smart like Woods.’”
“And then we realized after a few months it turned into ‘people don’t like those who are happy.’
“So it’s kind of like a play on society, essentially, people of American society. Back in the 80s, if someone’s happy, someone’s doing well, someone’s getting hardships, you cheered for that person,” said Woods.
“But now it’s 2015, and they don’t like that. They want someone who’s grimy and who doesn’t like people and who doesn’t smile and isn’t happy and wants to punt a puppy across a football field. If that happened, people would be watching and it would get 3 million views on YouTube because it’s something that’s horrible so essentially society has created this thing where people like to see car wrecks, and they want to see a hot mess and they want to see a fall from grace. So if you don’t have those things people are going to boo you because that’s not entertaining to them, they want to see a mess, they want to see somebody fall on the sidewalk and bust their lip on the ground. They don’t like nice things.”
On why he’d choose a PhD over a WWE World Heavyweight Championship: “I feel like we have the opportunity as WWE Superstars to make some sort of impact on lives whether it’s one kid or whether it’s an adult,” said Woods.”
“Yes, guys have been WWE World Heavyweight champion, and it’s amazing, I take nothing from that at all. But if there’s a kid who’s out there in the world watching wrestling and they see me and they know I have my PhD while I was wrestling, that could possibly inspire them to not drop out of school, to not drop out of college, to go and obtain that type of educational status, and that to me means a lot more.”
WWE Superstar Adam Rose recently spoke with the folks at Sporting News to discuss this week’s ESPN “E:60: Behind The Curtain” documentary, which profiled Rose, Xavier Woods, Tyler Breeze and other up-and-coming NXT talents.
“I thought it was really well done,” Rose said of the documentary. “I think it was a really good look at all the different aspects of first what it takes to become a WWE superstar and secondly a personal look at what the guys go through to get there.”
Additionally, Rose admitted that it was hard for him to watch. “It makes you a little vulnerable when you see things that personal coming out,” he said. “For my wife, I think it was hard because she has been with me through the entire journey. She’s been with me through all the ups and all the downs. It’s hard for her to watch me go through all of that. And then to see it all pay off at the end of the day, I think we all share in the reward of that.”
Check out the complete interview at SportingNews.com.
Several of the wrestlers who were featured in last night’s “ESPN E:60: Behind The Curtain” documentary on NXT posted their reactions to the special on social media shortly after it concluded.
Below are comments from Adam Rose, Corey Graves, Tyler Breeze and Xavier Woods, all of whom were featured prominently in the special.
For those who missed the documentary last night, you can read a detailed recap by clicking here.
Ring Of Honor performer Cedric Alexander recently spoke with the folks at the Jobbing Out podcast and had some interesting comments to make regarding The New Day faction in WWE.
“This opens up a whole different can of worms here, because everyone I know watching WWE is offended by The New Day,” said Alexander. “Extremely offended because of the whole racial thing. It’s like, `oh, we’re three black guys, we’ll sing, we’ll dance. You’ve got Kofi Kingston, who is a phenomenal athlete. Big E Langston is a gigantic, threatening man and Xavier Woods is extremely intelligent. So why make them sing and dance when they obviously can be more serious, I guess.”
Alexander continued, “When they first started this thing, it was like two or three weeks that they did it where Xavier would come out and be like a Malcolm X type of thing. He was preaching black power, without saying black power, which I think is fantastic because you don’t offend anyone. But when you’ve got three black guys singing and dancing, stereotypes get fed too much and I hate it.”
Ring Of Honor wrestler Cedric Alexander recently spoke about the issue of racism in pro wrestling, citing WWE’s “New Day” faction as one of many examples he feels to be offensive and racist.
Regarding the WWE faction, Alexander said, “This opens up a whole different can of worms here, because everyone I know that watches WWE is offended by The New Day… extremely offended because of the whole racial thing.”
“It’s like, ‘oh we’re three black guys, we’ll sing, we’ll dance,” he continued. “You’ve got Kofi Kingston, who’s a phenomenal athlete, Big E Langston is a gigantic, threatening man and Xavier Woods is extremely intelligent. So why make them sing and dance when they obviously can be more… serious, I guess?”
Alexander concluded, “When they first started this thing, it was like two or three weeks that they did it where Xavier would come out and be like a Malcolm X type of thing. He was preaching black power without saying black power, which I think is fantastic because you don’t offend anyone. But when you’ve got three black guys singing and dancing, stereotypes get fed too much and I hate it.”
Check out the complete interview as part of the latest “Jobbing Out” podcast by going to GlennClarkRadio.com.
– Despite previous reports to the contrary, WWE is still of the belief that top Ring Of Honor stars The Briscoes will be signing with them and will be heading to NXT by mid-summer.
– As previously reported, Jey Uso is currently out of action with a shoulder injury. Due to the injury, Uso’s status for WrestleMania 31 will not be known until he is evaluated by WWE doctors, which is expected to happen later this week. The injury occurred when Xavier Woods landed awkwardly on Uso while executing a somersault plancha during a recent match on WWE SmackDown.
– The Prime Time Players, Titus O’Neil and Darren Young, have both officially been added to the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal match at WrestleMania 31. WWE is reportedly planning on having 20 Superstars involved in this year’s battle royal, down from the 31 participants who competed in the match last year. With the Prime Time Players now included, the following updated list for the match is as follows:
* Titus O’Neil
* Darren Young
* The Miz
* Curtis Axel
* Ryback
* Fandango
* Adam Rose
* Zack Ryder
* Jack Swagger
– WWE Superstar Xavier Woods recently got a new tattoo, which was inspired by the “Zelda” video game. Below, courtesy of Woods’ official Instagram page, is a photo of him getting the new ink.
– Xavier Woods is still out of action with an ankle injury. Woods was still wearing a cast on his leg during his appearances at the WWE live event in Albuquerque, New Mexico this weekend.
– Speaking of the Albuquerque live event, UFC star Diego Sanchez was backstage at the show. Below is a photo of Daniel Bryan with Sanchez, the man who originated the “Yes!” chant.
– Finally, also at the Albuquerque show was Dana Warrior and The Ultimate Warrior’s kids. Below is a photo of the Warrior family with Alicia Fox and Natalya backstage at the show.
The following is the final advertised lineup for tonight’s WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view, which takes place from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and airs live on the WWE Network.
WWE Royal Rumble Kickoff Show
– Big E., Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods vs. Cesaro, Tyson Kidd & Adam Rose
– Booker T interviews Shawn Michaels
WWE Royal Rumble Pay-Per-View
– The Bella Twins vs. Paige & Natalya
– The Ascension vs. New Age Outlaws
– The Usos vs. The Miz & Damien Mizdow (WWE Tag-Team Championship)
– 30-man over-the-top Royal Rumble match
– Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena vs. Seth Rollins (WWE World Heavyweight Championship)
Make sure to join us here at the website tonight for the best WWE Royal Rumble live play-by-play results coverage on the web!
On Monday’s WWE Royal Rumble “go-home” edition of RAW, two new matches were announced for this Sunday’s pay-per-view event.
In what will be the WWE Royal Rumble “Kickoff Show” match, the New Day faction, which consists of Kofi Kingston, Big E. and Xavier Woods, will compete in a six-man tag-team match against Tyson Kidd, Cesaro and Adam Rose.
Also announced for this Sunday’s Royal Rumble show is a Divas tag-team match, which will feature The Bella Twins vs. Paige and Natalya.
Make sure to join us here on the website this Sunday night for live WWE Royal Rumble play-by-play results coverage.
– The New Day faction consisting of Big E., Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods, ditched their normal blue gear in favor of red attire, which you can see in the following photos from this past weekend’s WWE live events.
As promised, here are the top pay-per-view events from 2014.
8. NXT Takeover
This event started off sluggish but certainly ended with a string of entertaining matches. In particular, the match between Tyler Breeze and Sami Zayn featured solid in-ring work and highlighted why both of these guys could succeed if given the opportunity.
The real treat during this pay-per-view, however, was the final two matches of the evening. The match between Charlotte and Natalya for the vacant NXT Women’s Championship was probably the most technically sound women’s match I’ve ever seen, and the main event between Neville and Tyson Kidd was the perfect way to end the show. In my opinion, this was the event that made fans realize NXT is more than simply a developmental league for the main roster.
Worst Match: Adam Rose vs. Camacho
Best Match: Charlotte vs. Natalya
7. Payback
There was some worry heading into this one, largely due to the absence of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. The event would carry on just fine without the title, however. It started off strong with a bruising contest between Sheamus and Cesaro.
From there, the Last Man Standing match was entertaining, even if it would have been nice to see Wyatt pick up the victory. With that said, this pay-per-view is all about the main event. It was an awesome 30-minute affair that featured memorable spots, brutal action, and a decisive Shield victory. This was also important because it would set up Seth Rollins’ heel turn the next night on Raw.
The new faction, “A New Day,” made their official WWE debut on Friday’s edition of SmackDown, as Xavier Woods, Big E. and Kofi Kingston defeated Curtis Axel, Heath Slater and Titus O’Neil in six man tag-team action.
After the show, Woods tweeted the following about the group finally making their television debut.
Big E Langston, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods debuted their new “A New Day” stable at Tuesday night’s WWE SmackDown tapings from Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The trio defeated Heath Slater, Curtis Axel and Titus O’Neil in a six-man match. The group celebrated around ringside and with the announcers after the match.
– According to one source, there’s a chance that the new faction, “A New Day,” which features Xavier Woods, Big E. and Kofi Kingston, may make their official debut at this Sunday’s WWE Survivor Series pay-per-view.
– In the latest edition of “WWE Inbox,” which you can see below, various WWE Superstars and WWE Divas discuss “The Icon” Sting.
– As noted earlier today, the faction consisting of Xavier Woods, Big E. and Kofi Kingston is rumored to be named “The Smart Athletic Friends,” however F4WOnline.com reports that the group will be called “Speed Force.” We also noted earlier today that each individual pairing among the three would have their own name, one of which was “Speed Force,” however the F4WOnline report claims that is the name of the trio as a whole.
– Below is this week’s “SmackDown Fallout” video, which features WWE Diva Natalya.
Xavier Woods has been referring to his stable with Kofi Kingston and Big E. as “The Smart Athletic Friends,” however it appears each tag-team combination of the group will have their own individual names. Woods and Kingston teamed up this weekend and the duo was called “Speed Force.”
As far as whether or not the group are heels, they worked last night’s live event as babyfaces against Los Matadores. They have worked as heels in the past, however lately they seem to be getting a try out as good guys.
– Goldberg’s debut on WCW Nitro was 17 years ago to the day this past Monday. As a result, Big E. and Xavier Woods paid tribute to him on the WWE App this week in a comedy segment, which you can check out at WWE.com.
– WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross recently responded to a fan on Twitter who asked him if Sting should wrestle more than one match for WWE. JR replied by saying the following:
“@JuanDeMarco4: @JRsBBQ Do u think @Sting will do more than 1 match in Wwe???”
He could but I wouldn't. One match at WM31 is the deal
– Batista recently made an appearance at the Chicago Wizard World convention to promote his new blockbuster movie, Guardians of the Galaxy. WWE Paul Heyman’s Heyman Hustle site has exclusive photos from the event.
– Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods are once again being paired together at WWE live events. After WWE seemed to pull the plug on the group that many fans are referring to as the ‘new’ Nation of Domination, Big E and Kofi (with Xavier Woods at ringside) teamed together to defeat NXT Tag Team Champions The Ascension. Big E and Kofi worked as heels.
Here’s a photo of them together after their match:
