The second guest of Stone Cold Steve Austin on the Broken Skull Sessions WWE Network series is none other than former WCW and Universal champion Goldberg.
The episode, taped in Los Angeles on Austin’s ranch, will premiere on Sunday, December 15 immediately following the conclusion of the TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs pay-per-view.
While the first episode with The Undertaker ran close to two hours, it’s not known how long this will go for. Goldberg will surely make for an interesting guest as he was often referred to as an Austin clone when he started in WCW. The two never had a one-on-one match and rarely were in the ring together apart from when Austin refereed the Goldberg vs Lesnar match at WrestleMania XX.
As has been pointed out numerous times on this site, the popularity of pro wrestling betting has risen in recent years. One of the reasons for the surge in popularity, perhaps surprisingly, is technology. Essentially, bookmakers were put off in the past of offering wrestling odds due to a fear of being pummelled by punters who acquire some inside information. But the tech and speed of communications is so fast now the sportsbooks can quickly suspend the markets if anything leaks.
Anyway, we had a look at where the sportsbooks are finding an interest over the coming year, and below we have listed what looks the most interesting:
CM Punk is One of the Favorites to Win the Men’s Royal Rumble
There are two clear favorites with William Hill for the 2020 Royal Rumble: Roman Reigns at 7/2 (+350) and CM Punk at 9/2 (+450). Everyone else is way out behind in double figures. Punk’s potential return has been discussed to death, of course, and we aren’t going to go into that too deeply. However, we would be cautious about this one, as often bookmakers can set the prices of these kind of betting lines without really having any more insight than the rest of us.
Ronda Rousey Looks a Great Pick for the Women’s Royal Rumble
It’s almost certain that Ronda Rousey goes back to WWE at some point, and that makes SkyBet’s 7/2 odds for the former UFC champion to win the Royal Rumble look pretty decent. The bookies are also hot on Kari Sane, Shayna Baszler, Sasha Banks and Charlotte Flair, all of whom are 10/1 or below. However, the logic seems to be that if Rousey is in the match, she wins it. Those odds will tumble if her participation is confirmed.
Bookmakers Simply Adore Tyson Fury
Tyson Fury is quite the showman. And, as a consequence, he tends to draw a lot of interest from bookmakers. It’s not just wrestling, of course: Free bets, tips and promos for his boxing events can be found at sites like https://www.freebets.co.uk/sports/boxing/. As for his nascent WWE career, Betway have several special markets: 7/2 he enters the Royal Rumble, 5/1 he holds any WWE title throughout the year, 25/1 to headline WrestleMania and 50/1 to win the Rumble.
Nobody Has a Clue Who Will Headline WrestleMania
SkyBet has plumped for Roman Reigns vs The Rock has the favorite for WrestleMania main event status. But the odds of 10/1, plus the raft of other matches cited at similar relatively close odds, suggests that nobody really has an inkling. Interestingly, SkyBet, who also list CM Punk as the second favorite for the Royal Rumble, don’t have him listed anywhere in their markets to headline WrestleMania. That really doesn’t add up, and it backs up our assertion that you should always take wrestling odds with a grain of salt.
Interesting Suggestions for Men’s Money in the Bank
Baron Corbin, Braun Strowman and Brock Lesnar were the last three holders of the Money in the Bank contract. Fine choices, perhaps, but not exactly creative. The list of favorites from William Hill is arguably a bit more intriguing, with Velveteen Dream, Adam Cole, Finn Balor and Big E all listed at 10/1 or under. The fact Big E is included is particularly interesting, as it has been rumored for a while that he is due a big singles push. Seth Rollins is also among the favorites, but we will reserve judgement until we see how his recent heel turn plays out.
AEW’s Dynamite pulled off its worse number to date, registering only 663,000 viewers last Wednesday, losing 230,000 viewers compared to the previous week. The show was #15 in the top 50 chart among the 18-49 demographic, getting a 0.26 rating, just 0.02 more than NXT. While last week the difference in viewership was of just 70,000 viewers, this week NXT beat AEW by 147,000 viewers. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Coming off a strong Takeover and the Survivor Series pay-per-view, NXT registered its second win in a row in the ratings, getting 810,000 viewers, down 153,000 viewers from the previous week. The show was #19 in the top 50 chart among the 18-49 demographic, getting a 0.24 rating. This was the first time that NXT beat AEW without the help of Raw and Smackdown Superstars appearing on the show. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
It is being reported that Charlotte Flair and Andrade have trademarked four names associated with their wrestling personas and they have registered them as individuals.
Charlotte filed to trademark the name Ashley Flair and The Queen of Wrestling. Charlotte’s real name is Ashley so it made sense to trademark that one. Meanwhile, her real-life boyfriend Andrade trademarked the names La Sombra and El Idolo. All four applications were filed under apparel and entertainment services on November 27.
What’s interesting is that both of them used the services of attorney at https://www.tomkileylaw.com/ , the same attorney who helped Cody file for several personal trademarks including Bash at the Beach, Dusty Rhodes, and others.
Arrow star Stephen Amell will be appearing on WWE Backstage on FS1 tomorrow night in the promo school segment.
The huge wrestling fan has a WWE match under his belt when he teamed with Neville to take on Stardust and Wade Barrett at SummerSlam 2015. He is big friends with Cody Rhodes and that led to him also teaming up with The Elite at a Ring of Honor show in 2017 and wrestled Christopher Daniels at the All In pay-per-view.
The Hollywood star will be starring in a new television series based on professional wrestling called Heels which will air on Starz.
During the latest episode of Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia, former NXT champion Tommaso Ciampa revealed that he informed WWE that he doesn’t want to go to Raw and Smackdown and if he’s forced to move, he will end his career and transition to a producer or coach at the WWE Performance Center instead.
Ciampa explained that his body won’t be able to do the travel that the main roster schedule demands and he does not want to stay away from his family either so staying in NXT is the only option for him. Ciampa said that Shawn Michaels was amused that he and Gargano refused to move, saying that he never met someone turning down more money to stay where they are.
The 34-year-old officially joined NXT in April 2016 after first making his debut there eight months earlier. Ever since then, he and his on-and-off tag team partner Johnny Gargano have been staples in the NXT brand. Ciampa was out for seven months due to neck surgery earlier this month, returning in October defying the odds of an early return.
Here are the results from last night’s Starrcade 2019 event, held at the Infinite Energy Center in Duluth, Georgia.
Seth Rollins defeated Erick Rowan; Shinsuke Nakamura defeated The Miz to retain the Intercontinental title; The Street Profits defeated Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson; Asuka and Kairi Sane defeated Sasha Banks and Bayley, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, and Nikki Cross and Alexa Bliss in a fatal four-way match to retain the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles; Bobby Lashley defeated Kevin Owens via disqualification; Aleister Black defeated Andrade; Ricochet defeated Andrade; Randy Orton defeated AJ Styles; Roman Reigns defeated King Corbin; The Fiend Bray Wyatt defeated Braun Strowman in a steel cage match to retain the Universal title.
There was also a Kevin Owens Show segment with the “Nature Boy” Ric Flair. Owens also substituted Rusev in his match against Lashley after Lana said she had a restraining order against Rusev in Duluth. Rusev showed up during the match and attacked Lashley, causing the DQ ending.
So what really comes to your mind when you hear of the draft? Is it good? Great? Alternatively, it’s just a waste of time. Well the way we see it, it actually falls between decent and could be so much better we reckon. The WWE has tried to adapt the draft, actually, it is the NFL draft style and it was for the good reasons.
Each and every year, a lot of football fans flood their way to the nearby sports bar as well as draft parties. As reported by some top NFL betting sites, somehow, the NFL has actually turned the Draft into a must-see kind of event. Most fans have been glued across the entire NFL Network, ESPN, ABC as well as some top digital channels. And it is not actually surprising why the NFL Draft has attracted an average of 6.1 million viewers.
And it’s actually a fact that the WWE will never surpass or even reach those numbers. Therefore, what it means is that they have a lot to learn from the NFL Draft.
Promoting The Draft Early Using Your Own Analysts
If there is one thing that the NFL is good at when it comes to the Draft, is making sure that they promote and market the event. Therefore, if the WWE wants to reach the same levels as the NFL when it comes to having a successful draft real marketing strategies is what they need. Even at most best usa casino online sites we have witnessed top casino marketing and promoting their brands by highlighting the games and bonuses they offer to players.
Make the Picks Feel More Important
The WWE missed the ship this year on how announced the picks during their Draft. Doing five selection all at the same time is actually not the way to go. When Becky Lynch was number, 1 it didn’t seem like a big deal. It should have felt like one big deal, unfortunately, it did not.
Looking back when Johnny Manziel was drafted by the Cleveland Browns back in 2014. It is something that wasn’t buffed. He simply came up to the stage and he gave his speech got his hat and hugged the commissioner. It was just an iconic moment for the NFL Draft, which went on and turned into a great event.
Well, you don’t have to stress about the Draft when you play online casino. Just place your bets and start winning big.
A new episode of WWE 24 airs tonight immediately following the conclusion of Starrcade on the WWE Network.
Titled WWE 24: Trish Stratus, this new episode follows the WWE Hall of Famer as she prepares for the final match of her career against Charlotte Flair at SummerSlam 2019. With seven WWE Women’s championship reigns to her name, the now 44-year-old had one of the most impressive wrestling careers which started in March 2000.
This is the sixth WWE 24 episode of 2019, two more than WWE typically produces in a year. This year, WWE 24 spotlighted Kofi Kingston, Batista, Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch, and WrestleMania New Orleans.
WWE will be holding its third Starrcade special event live tonight from the Infinite Energy Arena in Duluth, Georgia. A one-hour live broadcast from the event will air on the WWE Network starting at 7PM ET. The card is as follows:
Bray Wyatt vs Braun Strowman for the Universal title; Shinsuke Nakamura vs The Miz for the Intercontinental title; The New Day vs The Revival for the Smackdown Tag Team titles; The Kabuki Warriors vs Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair for the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles in a Texas Tornado match; Roman Reigns vs King Corbin; Rusev vs Bobby Lashley; AJ Styles vs Kevin Owens; Seth Rollins vs Randy Orton; and Kevin Owens with the The Kevin Owens Show with special guest Ric Flair.
WWE resurrected the Starrcade name three years ago for the post-thanksgiving non-televised live event. The pay-per-view was a staple during the NWA/WCW era and was the company’s biggest pay-per-view of the year.
WWE held a combined-roster supershow yesterday in Mexico City which also featured the second match of former UFC Heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez.
Velasquez has not showed up on WWE television ever since the Crown Jewel pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia where he tapped out to Brock Lesnar in his first WWE match. On this Mexico City show, Velasquez teamed up with Humberto Carrillo to take on Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, a match which Carrillo and Velasquez came out on top after Carrillo pinned Anderson.
Talking after the match, Velasquez said that it’s always a blessing for him to come back to Mexico. “Whether I’m competing or just doing whatever here. I think the people and the fans they are the best. Obviously, they’ve been some of my dearest most die-hard fans I’ve had throughout my whole UFC career and now my pro wrestling and WWE career,” he said. “So to come here and perform which I’ve done a couple of times and I always feel great coming here and doing it in front of the fans who were behind me since day one.”
Así reciben a los grandes 😎🙌
Así fue la entrada de Caín Velásquez a la Arena Ciudad de México 🏟️🇲🇽 en la WWE MÉXICO 2019. pic.twitter.com/a9sF4Q2Ujl
On Smackdown last night, The Fiend Bray Wyatt debuted his own version of the Universal title which includes a replica of his mask created by Tom Savini Studios.
Now, WWE Shop is selling a replica of the title…for a whopping $6,499.99. Yes, that’s six-and-a-half grand for the custom hand crafted title.
The title is 64″ long and 12″ in height and carries 7 lbs and 8 oz in weight. It’s designed and hand crafted by Tom Savini studios with a highly detailed mask made of a latex skin and acrylic eyes that capture the intense stare of The Fiend. Each title is individually numbered and certified authentic and will receive a certificate of authenticity hand-signed by Tom Savini. Due to the hand-made sculpting process, no two titles will be identical. The title is mounted on a genuine leather strap.
Since this is a hand-made object, payments will be processed up front and no returns or exchanges will be accepted. Titles will ship on December 20th and Christmas delivery cannot be guaranteed. Shipping is only available to the United States.
Despite most networks running repeats, Smackdown still suffered in the ratings this week and had its worst viewership since moving to FOX with 2,336,000 tuning in off hours 2,350,000 and 2,322,000.
That is down 264,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast and Smackdown only beat viewership on The CW to finish fourth out of five networks. Smackdown won the 18-49 demographic with a 0.7 rating. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
WWE is presenting one of their combined-roster supershow tonight at the Arena Ciudad de Mexico in Mexico City which will also feature Cain Velasquez’s second WWE match.
The show is headlined by a steel cage match for the Universal title between Bray Wyatt and The Miz. Other matches announced for the show include The Kabuki Warriors vs Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair for the Women’s Tag Team titles, Seth Rollins vs Randy Orton, AJ Styles vs Kevin Owens, Cain Velasquez and Humberto Carillo vs Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, Roman Reigns vs King Corbin, Braun Strowman vs Shinsuke Nakamura, The New Day vs The Revival for the Smackdown Tag Team titles, and Rusev vs Bobby Lashley.
Card is subject to change. Interesting to note that Rey Mysterio is not advertised for a match although the arena has been advertising his name for an appearance. Originally, Mysterio was tag teaming with Cain Velasquez but the plan later changed. Styles vs Owens was also originally for the United States title so it’s not known if that match is still on.
David Sahadi, the long-time producer who worked for WWE and Impact, has returned to the business and is now working full time with Impact Wrestling.
“After a long hiatus, I’ve decided to jump back into ‘the game.’ Full time. @IMPACTWRESTLING is arising! And the best is yet to come…” Sahadi wrote on Twitter.
The Brooklyn native worked for WWE between 1992 and 2003 as Creative Director of On-air Promotions and was the brains behind several awesome-looking vignettes and opening videos to shows and pay-per-views. He was eventually promoted to an executive role in the later years but decided to leave in 2003. The next year, Sahadi joined Impact Wrestling, heading up their production department and after nearly 13 years, he left the promotion.
The 58-year-old is often praised for his creativity and is known for making Vince McMahon cry when he showed him the Legends Attitude Era promotional video featuring Patt Patterson, Gorilla Monsoon, Ernie Ladd, Killer Kowalski, and Freddie Blassie.
“I remember playing the spot for Vince, and halfway through the spot he was saying, “Damn.” I had no idea whether he liked it or not. Vince actually left the room,” Sahadi said in an interview several years ago. “I had asked Shane whether Vince liked it or not, and Shane said, “you got him.” I went outside to see tears in Vince’s eyes and he hugged and thanked me. Vince always had a soft spot in his heart for his dad and the legends. The spot meant so much to him that even a while later he was still visibly shaken by it.”
Three WWE Superstars returned to Smackdown last night, one in a video segment and two appearing live on the show.
First to make his return was former champion Sheamus. The Irishman has been out of action for eight months, having last wrestled during the post-WrestleMania Smackdown show. Sheamus was suffering from spinal stenosis and needed to have a lengthy break. Sheamus, who was last seen on TV cheering on his Liverpool football team on NBCSN a month ago, was back to his old look.
Another one who returned was former Raw and Smackdown Women’s champion Alexa Bliss. Bliss has been out since the Hell In A Cell pay-per-view and while her injury was said to be minor, her previous several bouts with concussions led to many speculations. Little Miss Bliss came to save her tag team partner Nikki Cross after she was attacked by Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose on the show. Bliss is expected to wrestle tomorrow at Starrcade.
And the third individual who popped up on Smackdown was Elias. Elias was supposed to be part of the King of the Ring tournament a few months ago but he was replaced in the semifinal match after WWE said he suffered an ankle injury and was not cleared to compete. He had not been seen on WWE television since the first round match nearly three months ago. Elias showed up in a backstage segment singing a song to Drake Maverick who just seconds earlier tried to kiss Dana Brooke.
On Saturday, December 7, former WWE champion Alberto “El Patron” Rodriguez will step back into the cage for a winner-take-all fight against former UFC champion Tito Ortiz. The show, airing live on pay-per-view from the Payne Arena at the U.S.-Mexico border in Hidalgo, Texas, is promoted by Combate Americas.
The two will each put their prized possession up for grabs: Alberto is putting up his WWE title while Tito has his UFC title on the line, with the winner taking the loser’s belt, hence the winner-take-all tag.
Rodriguez, who last had a mixed martial arts fight in 2010 losing to Yamamoto Hanshi, has a 9-5 professional MMA record and went on a six-fight winning streak between 2003 and 2010 before eventually losing his last fight via TKO at Cage of Combat 4: Spanish Bombs in Madrid, Spain.
But the former WWE and Impact champion is shaking off his proverbial “ring rust” by going back to basics: spending hours in the gym and train the way he used to train years ago and learning the new styles of fighting.
Alberto credits his boss, Combate Americas CEO Campbell McLaren, with coming up with the idea of him fighting Ortiz. “That is how we started on this fight. We have an excellent working relationship, and he is also my friend,” Rodriguez told Wrestling-Online.com. “This company has become my family, and my home. It started to grow the way we always wanted to do. This was the moment – to do one last fight.”
Campbell, who is the co-creator of the UFC, recruited Rodriguez to be the President of Combate Americas in 2016 but he has since stepped down from the role and is now part of the Spanish-language Univision broadcast team.
Rodriguez said that like every fighter, it was hard to be on the sidelines talking about the sport while not getting a piece of the action. “You get so close to the fighters, you see how much they want it – it gives you the feeling to be in the fighting game to do it again.” he said.
But this is a one-and-done deal for the 42-year-old who said he has no plans of stepping back inside the cage again. “I have been fighting to continue a legacy – to help the amazing athletes to be part of a pay-per-view card,” Rodriguez said. “Like Rocky…just take the beast out of the basement and to go home and see my children…to go back to San Antonio.”
Rodriguez is a busy man and while training for this fight, he’s also running Nación Lucha Libre with his good friend Chavo Guerrero Jr., a new wrestling promotion based in Mexico. “It started in my homeland,” he explained. “We have fighters and wrestlers from part of the world, but mostly, in Mexico – hopefully we will be as successful as Combate Americas someday.” Their first show aired in July in Mexico City and it was broadcast on the Mexico channel Imagen TV. There hasn’t been a second televised event so far.
Despite his early MMA career, Rodriguez is obviously best known for his time in professional wrestling. As Alberto Del Rio in WWE, he won the WWE title twice, the World Heavyweight title twice, the United States title twice, and won both the Royal Rumble and Money In The Bank in the same year. He also won the GFW Global title and the Unified GFW World title while working for Impact Wrestling.
Alberto confessed that he doesn’t watch any wrestling shows anymore but knows what’s going on. “When I get home, I get home to be a daddy and do to other stuff. But I know who is doing OK and not doing OK,” he said, adding that he still keeps in touch with a few individuals, namely Sin Cara and Drew McIntyre. “This is a difficult business and hard to keep real friends and real people.”
His exit from both WWE and Impact have been well documented, getting in trouble with both promotions during the last few months he was with them. He was released from WWE in 2016 and then had some interesting videos posted about the company while also in a turbulent relationship with former WWE Divas champion Paige.
But despite the very public separation between WWE and Rodriguez, when asked if he would take a WWE call, he answered, “Yes, of course. It’s been awhile since I have spoken to WWE, I know for this or any organization in pro wrestling that my door is always open.”
And his wrestling issues didn’t stop there. Moving to Impact in 2017, he was fired just a year later after he no-showed an Impact vs Lucha Underground live show in New Orleans during WrestleMania weekend.
He said he had no regrets on his exit from Impact Wrestling, although admitted that both sides could have done things differently. “But we both spoke at length and buried the hatchet. Recently, I talked with one of the owners and the door is open for me at Impact and also other companies,” Alberto said.
But before entertaining any wrestling offers, Tito Ortiz – the 44-year-old who has a 20-12-1 MMA record – stands in his way and Rodriguez is looking forward to take Tito’s belt away.
“I have my trophy room with my title belts at home in San Antonio. My wrestling…WWE titles. All the blood and sweat your put in that belt and it has so much meaning to me. I know what that UFC title means to Tito.”
If you’re interested in watching Combate Americas, live television programming airs regularly on both broadcast and cable television platforms: Univision and TUDN in Spanish and beginning in December on AXS TV in English.
Just like every other shop on planet earth, WWE Shop launched their Black Friday deals this morning with saving up to 75% plus an additional 25% at checkout when using the code FRIDAY and free shipping for orders over $15. The offer expires at Midnight PT today.
But a similar offer kicks off tomorrow and will run through December 1 at Midnight PT with up to 75% off and extra 20% off orders with the code FRIDAY at checkout and free shipping for orders over $40. Cyber Monday will have the exact same offer as Black Friday but using the code CYBER and that deal will last till Midnight PT.
Pretty much everything is on sale including replica title belts, video games, caps, t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts and hundreds of other items. You can shop at http://w-o.it/wweshopcom.
WWE Backstage drew 121,000 viewers on Tuesday night on FS1, down 59,000 viewers from the previous week’s show which featured the arrival of CM Punk. Punk was not part of this week’s episode. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
