WWE today announced the appointment of John Brody as Executive Vice President, Global Sales & Partnerships. Brody, who previously held senior leadership roles with the National Football League, Wasserman Media Group, Major League Baseball and the Boston Celtics, will report directly to WWE Chief Revenue & Marketing Officer, Michelle D. Wilson.
As head of WWE’s Global Sales & Partnerships division, Brody will be a key member of the company’s senior management team, responsible for providing strategic vision for WWE’s sales operation on a global basis while expanding WWE’s media partnerships.
“John is a recognized leader within the sports and entertainment marketplace, and I am thrilled to have him join WWE,” said Wilson. “Given the global opportunities for partners to engage with our massive fan base across TV, digital and social platforms, I’m confident that John will be successful in growing this line of our business.”
He is a three-time winner of Sports Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Award, and member of the publication’s Hall of Fame. Brody is an honors graduate of Tufts University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1995.
Former ECW champ Tommy Dreamer will be joining WWE on the several non-televised live events later this month and is booked for 9 events.
It is not known if Dreamer signed a full time deal or if this is just a temporary deal until the storyline between the Dudley Boyz and the Wyatt Family wraps up. Dreamer will start touring on December 19 with the show in Inglewood, California, and his last date listed so far is January 17 in Canton, Ohio.
In related news, Bubba Ray has hinted that tonight on Raw there will be another former ECW member who will join the Dudleyz and Dreamer to even up the odds against the four Wyatt Family members.
“Just got off phone with an EXTREME BROTHER!! DO NOT MISS @WWE #Raw,” he wrote on Twitter yesterday.
WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross used his Facebook to address the hack of his Twitter social media account this morning as his Twitter is still disabled and leads to a page not found error.
“Some one hacked my Twitter account this morning. I’m NOT dead but I am pissed! Not a good rib,” Ross wrote. “Costing me big money to repair my PC, ect. Spread the word, Jim Ross is alive & well. Don’t have time to die. Thanks to all those that reached out. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
The hack this morning led to someone releasing a statement saying that Ross has passed away and then proceeded to post several meaning less tweets related to the British football club Leeds United.
WWE United States champion Alberto Del Rio was attacked by a fan last night while wrestling for WWC – World Wrestling Council – in Puerto Rico.
The incident happened during the show at the Ruben Rodriguez Coliseum, a 15,000 seater arena in Bayamón, when Del Rio got out of the ring to get away from his opponent Ray Gonzalez. As soon as Del Rio backed up to the security railing, a fan wearing a yellow shirt started throwing punches at Del Rio with the US champ returning the shots. Around 15 security personnel quickly intervened and Gonzales ran out to get Del Rio away. Gonzales managed to move Del Rio around the ring and then threw him back in to resume the match.
The fan was quickly ejected out by the security guards. You can see the video below.
Jim Ross’ Twitter was hacked earlier today and a tweet pointed to a JR “family statement” which announced his “death.”
The statement linked to a Blogspot.co.uk entry where it said, “We are shocked and saddened to bring you the news that Jim Ross has sadly passed away. Long time friend @WhiteLeedsSite was with him at the time of his passing and it was said to be very peaceful. We will be making a further statement shortly.”
Despite the hackers spending zero time to try and make it even look credible, thousands of fans online mourned JR’s “death” with Twitter messages while others were – rightfully so – skeptical about it.
Meanwhile, an hour or so after his account was compromised, the @JRsBBQ Twitter account was removed and for now it leads to a page does not exist error.
An article in the Washington based The Dispatch has revealed that John Cena will finish filming his new reality TV show American Grit for FOX in December 16.
The series is being filmed in Eatonville, Washington, with Little Mashell Falls and Pack Forest serving as the background for most of the filming. Cena is the host of the show which is a competition testing 16 men and women in four-person teams in military-grade and survival-themed challenges with a prize of up to $1 million.
The show – which has 10 episodes – will air in Spring 2016. John Cena is expected back in a WWE ring on the day after Christmas for a non-televised live event at Madison Square Garden in New York. He was previously advertised for the house show in Inglewood, California, at The Forum on December 19 but that would have meant Cena would get no time off after finishing filming.
The Stone Cold Podcast with WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels will be airing on the WWE Network on Sunday, December 13 right after the TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs pay-per-view goes off the air.
This will be the first taped Stone Cold Podcast as all previous episodes were live right after Monday Night Raw. WWE taped two Austin podcasts, this one and another one with fellow Hall of Famer, Ric Flair. Both podcasts were taped in Austin’s ranch in Texas.
The Stone Cold Podcast is one of the most viewed programs on the Network.
As expected, the tickets for the Raw after WrestleMania went pretty fast yesterday during the pre-sale held on Ticketmaster.com.
All allocated tickets were snapped as nearly 100,000 wrestling fans are expected to be in the city for WrestleMania that weekend. The American Airlines Center seats up to almost 20,000.
The rest of the remaining tickets will go on sale today to the general public starting at 10AM CST although it will be even more harder than yesterday to get tickets. Third party ticket websites will surely have a few hundred on sale, tickets which were purchased by ticket scalpers however they will be selling for much more than their face value.
During an appearance on TSN’s Off The Record with Michael Landsberg, UFC President Dana White said that he is using his new show ‘Dana White: Looking for a fight’ to scout opponents for CM Punk.
Punk, who signed with the UFC last year, has been busy training but his rumored first fight before the end of 2015 did not happen and now the UFC is looking to 2016 to give Punk his debut. The former WWE champion is currently suffering from a shoulder injury which might push his debut even further back.
White said he never thought Punk would be ready to make his Octagon debut in 2015 but said he would be in the Octagon in 2016 “100 percent.”
TNA launched a new one hour show yesterday titled The Asylum Years that will then air every Thursday night at 7PM EST exclusively on YouTube.
The show will relive the “foundation on which Impact Wrestling was built on” at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds near TNA’s headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee. “We will start from the very beginning and you can watch along with the current stars of Impact Wrestling as they relive those early moments with you,” the description by TNA reads.
The first episode is already up on TNA’s YouTube channel as well as on ImpactWrestling.com.
An NXT panel event will be held in Manchester, England, during the upcoming NXT tour which will also include a Takeover event live from London on the WWE Network.
The panel will be held on Sunday, December 13, at The Whiskey Jar located at 14 Tariff Street starting at 12:30PM. Greg Hamilton will be hosting the panel which will include NXT champion Finn Balor and NXT Women’s champion Bayley along with NXT General Manager William Regal. A meet & greet with everyone on the panel will also take place.
Tickets are being sold via Ticketmaster.co.uk for £99 for one person or else for £75 each for a family ticket with a minimum of 4 tickets.
Following a very impeding Raw, storyline-wise, I really hope Smackdown! is much better and explains some of them, particularly Lana and Rusev.
Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, and The Usos are all still getting their championship matches at Tables, Ladders, and Chairs (again, no continuity), so what will they or their opponents have to say?
Tyler Breeze and Dolph Ziggler are one-apiece for wins/losses, so will they wrestle one more time tonight, or wait until next week or at T.L.C.?
All this and more, so read on!
Thursday Night Smackdown! TV Report for December 3rd, 2015
Introduction Segment: Video Promo and Arena Promo
A recap montage of Raw and Survivor Series with WWE World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus, Tag-Team Champions The New Day, Roman Reigns, and The League Of Nations starts off, followed by Roman Reigns, The Usos, and Dean Ambrose.
In the ring, Dean Ambrose, The Usos, and Roman Reigns stand. Reigns has the mike and talks about the history he has with the other three and how they are all either family (Usos and Roman) or like a family. The League Of Nations interrupt, and WWE World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus pokes fun at Reigns, while he delights in being the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. He announces that the four in the ring will take on the four on the stage later tonight!
Tag-Team Champions The New Day join and reveal that a stipulation has been added: Ambrose and The Usos first have to take on Xavier, Kingston, and Big E., and if they win, then they can join Roman in the main-event; if not, it will be a four-on-one match!
Tyler Breeze and Summer Rae are walking backstage, and they will be out next!
Commercials.
Match #1: Single – Tyler Breeze (with Summer Rae) VS. Neville
(Note: Dolph Ziggler is on commentary, and a video of Breeze telling us he’s “going to take out my frustrations” on Neville from his loss on Raw is shown.) Tyler flips over Neville to start, then poses on the turnbuckle. he clamps on a wristlock, which Neville gets out of and poses like Tyler on the turnbuckle too. Neville brings Breeze to the canvas with an armlock and continues to work over his left arm. He catches Tyler off the ropes with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and goes for a dive through the ropes, but Summer gets in the way.
Ads.
Tyler is now in control, after kicking Neville in the head during the advertisements. Neville counters and kicks away again, then hits a running-standing Shooting Star Press! Tyler counters a bit after with a superkick and almost takes this one! He kicks in the corner, but Neville kicks back and goes for the Red Arrow. Summer pulls at Neville’s leg while the referee was checking on Breeze. This allows “Prince Pretty” to take advantage and drop Neville with The Unprettier and covers for the victory!
Winner via Pinfall: Tyler Breeze
Segment #2: Video and Backstage Promo
Recap of the finish to Becky Lynch and Divas Champion Charlotte’s match from Raw is shown; JoJo is now interviewing Becky about the events. She insinuates “no-harm-no-foul” until Brie and Alicia Fox walk up. They poke fun at Becky, as does Lynch back at them. Charlotte interrupts and calms at first
Commercials.
Match #2: Single – Brie Bella (with Team Bella member Alicia Fox) VS. Becky Lynch
They lockup and Becky ties up Brie in a waistlock. She whips her off the ropes and knocks her down, but Brie fakes an injury to capitalize. She gives Becky multiple kicks like her husband, then delivers a running knee as Lynch laid against the ropes.
Becky starts a comeback and attempts her Disarmer Armbar, then eventually locks it on. Charlotte suddenly runs in and pulls Brie away, getting Lynch dq’ed.
Winner via Disqualification: Brie Bella (with Alicia Fox)
Post-match, Becky and Charlotte argue, but no physical contact is made.
Ads.
Segment #3: Backstage Promo
The Miz walks into Neville, and gives him advice on how to spruce up his career.
Segment #4: Backstage Promo
Rene Young talks to Lana and Rusev, and airs their reunion from Raw on MizTV, which also includes Lana getting “injured” by the steel steps with Ryback.
Lana calls “The Big Guy” a “barbarian” and puts over her fiancé, Rusev. He declares that he “can always have another match, but I can never have another one like Lana.” He vows to “crush’ Ryback, and the couple speak in Russian and kiss.
Tag-Team Champions The New Day make their entrance for the next contest!
Commercials.
Match #3: Six-Man Tag-Team – Tag-Team Champions The New Day (Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, and Big E.) VS. The Usos (Jimmy and Jey) and Dean Ambrose
Xavier begins fast with a Jimmy, then the other Jey tags in and mud-hole stomps. New Day quickly dominate, with Big clotheslining Jey hard. Woods does the same and receives a two-count, then wears Uso down with an arm/headlock.
Uso eventually makes the hot-tag to Ambrose, who is all over New Day! Big soon counters and crotches Dean on the top rope, giving the Tag-Team Champs control again.
Ads.
New Day triple-mud-hole stomp Ambrose in the corner for a bit and continue to beat him down. Big delivers a big belly-to-belly for two, but tumbles to the floor when Dean holds the top rope. Kingston is tagged and soars off the top with a crossbody, but “The Lunatic Fringe” reverses into a cover of his own for a near-fall!
Both Usos come in and it all falls apart! Dean front-dropkicks from the top turnbuckle, and dives through the ropes onto an Uso and Big E. Woods and Jimmy are left, with Xavier taking this after some trickery by the New Day, who focused on Jimmy’s injured knee.
Winners via Pinfall: Tag-Team Champions The New Day
Segment #4: Video Promo
A lantern is shown and The Wyatt Family appear. “Dudley Boyz, we’re here,” they proclaim.
Commercials.
Match #4: Single – D-Von (with Dudley Boyz partner Bubba Ray and Tommy Dreamer) VS. Bray Wyatt (with Wyatt Family members Luke Harper, Erik Rowan, and Braun Strowman)
The two slug it out to start, with D-Von hopping on Bray with a Lou Thesz press-and-punch combo. Wyatt clotheslines back and wears him down with a grounding chinlock. D-Von counters a run with a flapjack, then dives off the top turnbuckle with a headbutt. 1 – 2 – Bray gets his shoulder up! Wyatt soon turns this around and drives Dudley down with Sister Abigail and gets the 1 – 2 – 3!
Winner via Pinfall: Bray Wyatt
Post-match, Bray holds D-Von in a second Sister Abigail position, egging on Ray and Tommy. The two on the outside collect Kendo Sticks as the rest of the Wyatt Family bring in tables. Bubba and Tommy hit repeatedly with the sticks, but Strowman soon puts Bubba out with his submission. Rowan runs Dreamer through the table in the corner, then they all put Dreamer, Bubba, and D-Von on top of each other. Bray and The Family pose over the E.C.W. originals.
Ads.
The League Of Nations make their entrance.
Segment #5: Backstage Promo
Reigns is getting ready when The Usos hop (literately) to him, as Jimmy’s knee still appears to be hurt. Ambrose and The Usos still want to be out there for him, but Rene Young lets them know that The Authority has banned Roman’s friends from doing that.
Commercials.
Match #5: 4-On-1 – The League Of Nations (United States Champion Alberto Del Rio, Rusev, King Barrett, and WWE World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus) VS. Roman Reigns
Alberto begins with an elbow/collar tie-up and wrestles around with him, but neither knock the other down. Soon, The League take over and punish Reigns in their corner for a while. Charles Robinson, the referee, abruptly sends Barrett to the back, so it will now be down to three versus one!
Ads.
Rusev is the man now to beat on Roman for a bit. Sheamus is in and throws Reigns into the corner barricade, then taunts before ramming his shoulder into Reigns’ gut in the corner. Rusev is back and hammers on Roman some more, then trades again with the WWE World Heavyweight Champion.
Reigns throws Sheamus to the floor, then starts his comeback. He gives Rusev a Samoan Drop, then ducks Alberto’s running-enziguri. He repeatedly clotheslines Del Rio in the corner, then Superman Punches Rusev! Alberto brings him down with the Backstabber, but Roman gets his shoulder up on the cover!
Del Rio signals for the Cross Armbreaker, but Reigns turns it into a Spear! Sheamus stops the count, but he and Rusev are set up soon after against the apron for the Drive-By! Roman then leaps off the stairs with a clothesline on Sheamus, then chucks Rusev into the timekeeper’s corner and Del Rio onto the commentator’s table. He rolls back in the ring in time, victorious with a count-out!
Winner via Count-Out: Roman Reigns
Post-match, Barrett runs back down and Sheamus Brogue Kicks Reigns from behind. The beating begins, but Jimmy, Jey, and Dean charge down to fend of The Nations. The two sides glare at each other from the ring and aisle, respectively, to close the show.
End Of Smackdown!
Reporter’s Rumblings
This was an average Smackdown!, but the continuity was much better/explained. The wrestling-side left a bit to be desired though; onto the particulars.
Excellence: matches between Neville/Breeze, the Six-Man, and the Four-On-One. Loved the opening promo with The League (mainly Sheamus) and New Day; Sheamus was really entertaining on the mike!
Loving the new feud between Dudleyz/Dreamer and Wyatts; it’s going to be hard-hitting and thrilling! As well, the new angle between Neville/The Miz seems intriguing!
Bogus: Wyatt/D-Von and Becky/Brie could’ve been longer and a bit better, instead of constant video recaps of things we’ve seen from this past week.
I’m still thinking it’s too soon and sudden for Charlotte’s turn; this can be very interesting and she will be a very good bad girl, but since Paige just turned, then they need to finish the feud with her before turning Charlotte.
Until Raw, Be Excellent Wrestling-Online Readers and Fans!
WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley wrote a blog on his Facebook page explaining how WWE hired his son Dewey to join the WWE creative team in a position that is reported to be a writer’s assistant.
Foley wrote that Dewey was actually hired two months ago but will start in January. The reason it’s taking that long to start is because he had a prior commitment with another employer and felt that the right thing to do is to complete the job, something that Mick emphasized by adding that deep down, Vince McMahon would respect him as a man of his word.
Foley said that his son earned the job and didn’t get it because of his last name. He earned it by writing for “hundreds of hours in solitude, with no compensation,” to prove his writing. The writings were all in a blog that has been turned private ever since the news leaked that Dewey was joining WWE.
“My son will do his best to ‘bring it’ every day. He will be working long hours, in a thankless, difficult job, for entry level money – the way it should be,” Foley wrote. He also hoped that his daughter Noelle will be hired as a backstage interviewer too but said that “as of now, as far as I know, it’s just talk.”
Two Tough Enough competitors made their NXT debut last night in a non-televised live event in Orlando, Florida.
The male winner of the competition, Josh, was introduced to the crowd under the new name of Bronson Mathews. He only cut a promo saying that the year 2016 will be big for him and he has to prove he’s worth the $250,000 contract.
Later in the show, former MMA fighter Daria, who was the fourth one cut from the competition, also made her debut and wrestled her first match, a losing effort against Nia Jax.
WWE has Josh, Sara Lee, Amanda, ZZ, Mada, Patrick, and Daria under contract, which makes it a record for Tough Enough signees. Daria, despite being the first one out of the seven under a deal, was the first one who got her match.
The pre-sale for the Raw after WrestleMania 32 kicked off this morning on Ticketmaster.com.
The show will take place from the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, and the pre-sale code to purchase tickets now before they go on sale to the general public is DALLAS.
Ticket prices are $25, $35, $45, $55, $75, $95, and $125 for ringside. They go on sale to the general public tomorrow morning, December 5, at 10AM CST.
This Raw – along with the NXT show that weekend – will be the two hardest tickets to get during WrestleMania weekend due to this particular Raw getting the reputation of being the craziest and rowdiest of the whole year due to the large International audience which is present.
The round of 16 of the TNA World Title Series was completed after last night’s Impact Wrestling on Destination America and the quarter final matches have been set.
The eight individuals who moved on in the tournament and their respective matches are Ethan Carter III vs Davey Richards, Mahabali Shera vs Bobby Lashley, Tigre Uno vs Eric Young, and Matt Hardy vs Jessie Godderz.
The quarter finals will be held on next week’s Impact and will determine who will go to the semi finals.
These matches were taped all the way back at the end of July although TNA never revealed during the tapings that they were part of a tournament.
WWE Studios and Codeblack Films today announced a partnership to co-produce and co-finance a slate of films, starting with the gritty action thriller, Brother’s Blood.
Trey Songz is set to star and John Pogue will direct the film, which is written by Michael Finch, Karl Gajdusek, and Charles Murray.
Brother’s Blood takes place on the mean streets of a city in decay, where a recently released convict begins to take murderous revenge against his childhood friends, whom he believes let him take the fall for a crime they collectively committed. As the bodies start piling up, one of the friends, now a cop, will stop at nothing to put an end to the murderous rampage and to right the many wrongs of their tragically violent past.
“We look forward to working with Codeblack and expanding our tremendous relationship with Lionsgate,” said Michael Luisi, President of WWE Studios. “John Pogue and Trey Songz are exceptionally talented artists and the ideal creative team to shepherd our first co-production with Codeblack.”
Jeff Clanagan, President of Codeblack Films added, “We are excited to collaborate with WWE Studios on the production of this slate. Our stellar cast and the strategic alignment of our brands and marketing expertise set a strong foundation for success.”
Codeblack Films and WWE will collaborate on the marketing of the films under the slate. WWE Studios will leverage WWE’s extensive platforms from weekly TV shows, including WWE’s flagship programs, Monday Night Raw and Smackdown, digital, social media and WWE Network, to market the three titles.
WWE Network employees were pretty busy over the weekend as several new footage has made its way to the Vault section of the WWE Network.
Episodes from Global Wrestling Federation, Stampede Wrestling, American Wrestling Association, and Smokey Mountain Wrestling have been added, joining new episodes from World Class Championship Wrestling and NWA World Championship Wrestling.
The massive Vault section now features episodes from GWF, Mid-South, NWA, ECW Hardcore TV, Stampede, AWA, SMW, WCW Nitro, Clash of the Champions, WCCW, Saturday Night’s Main Event, Prime Time Wrestling, Tuesday Night Titans, ECW Exposed, and WWE Old School.
SEScoops.com is reporting that Mick Foley’s son Dewey will start working with WWE after the Christmas holidays on the creative team.
The 23 year old had been writing very detailed creative storylines on his personal blog which apparently caught the eye of people at WWE Headquarters. His blog at creativewwe.wordpress.com has now been set to private and cannot be accessed although the magic of Google will let you bring up cached copies of earlier entries.
This will make for an interesting scenario as Mick has been very critical of the WWE creative team over the past few weeks and last week he even said that he might stop watching WWE because of the way things are transpiring on television.
Dewey’s more popular sister, Noelle, is also rumored to be getting a WWE job down the line.
Former WWE Women’s and Divas champion Layla tied the knot last week, marrying former WWE Superstar Richard Young, better known to fans as Ricky Ortiz. The wedding was held at Christ Temple in Glendale, Arizona.
Layla announced her retirement from the WWE at the end of July of this year after being used only a couple of times on television over the past months. Her last match was against Paige on the June 13 episode of WWE Superstars.
Young was under a developmental deal with WWE between 2006 and 2008 and in June 2008 he made his WWE television debut in the ECW brand where he wrestled for the rest of the year. In 2009 he moved to Smackdown as part of the draft but his main roster gig did not last long and was released in August.
The two had been dating for a year. Congratulations to the newlyweds!
