For the third straight month in a row, WWE is giving away the WWE Network for free for new subscribers for the month of June.
That means new subscribers will be able to watch tonight’s Steve Austin podcast with Heyman as well as the Money In The Bank pay-per-view for free.
Apart from January and March – for the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania – the other months were free for new subscribers. WWE had good success with the November and February free promotions and turned thousands of free subscriptions into paying ones the month after.
TNA announced today that it has signed an extension to their television deal in Italy with Nuvolari TV.
The agreement will cover broadcast rights in Italy, Vatican, San Marino, Malta, Capodistria, Principality of Monaco and Italian speaking Switzerland.
Impact will air on Thursday nights at 9PM with repeats on Sundays at 11PM. Nuvolari will also broadcast re-runs of 2014 TNA programming every weekday at 6PM, as well as the 2015 Slammiversary and Bound For Glory special events.
Fans can watch Nuvolari via digital terrestrial TV, satellite and live web streaming.
Corrado Azzolini, LT Multimedia Vice President, said. “We are really happy about renewing TNA IMPACT WRESTLING, which allows us to broadcast many more amazing matches. Our viewers are so excited about this great news and are looking forward to watching new TNA programming every Thursday, as well as some of the best action from last year. Nuvolari is the television channel for TNA IMPACT WRESTLING lovers in Italy.”
The first two matches for the Money In The Bank pay-per-view were announced yesterday with the shows just two weeks away.
John Cena will try and get his revenge in another match against Kevin Owens in a singles match which so far is not for the United States title.
The second match announced is the Money In The Bank ladder match for the WWE World Heavyweight title contract. Six Superstars have been already picked for the match which are Dolph Ziggler, Neville, Roman Reigns, Randy Orton, Kofi Kingston, and Sheamus. Usually there are eight total Superstars in the ladder match which leaves two open spots.
Here are the results from last night’s WWE Network special Elimination Chamber which took place at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas.
The New Day retained the WWE Tag Team titles defeating The Ascension, Los Matadores, Prime Time Players, The Lucha Dragons, and Tyson Kidd and Cesaro in an Elimination Chamber match; Nikki Bella defeated Naomi and Paige to retain the WWE Divas title in a triple threat match; Kevin Owens defeated John Cena; Neville defeated Bo Dallas; Ryback won the WWE Intercontinental title defeating Sheamus, King Barrett, R-Truth, Mark Henry, and Dolph Ziggler in an Elimination Chamber match; Dean Ambrose defeated Seth Rollins via DQ with Rollins retaining the WWE World Heavyweight title.
They did the Dusty finish for the main event, where Ambrose pinned Rollins with his Dirty Deeds finishing move but the original referee was knocked out after Rollins caused him to get hit by Ambrose. A second referee hit the pinfall count but afterward the original referee DQed Rollins and reversed the decision.
There are no surprises so far when it comes to online betting for the Elimination Chamber tonight although bets will likely change as the event gets closer to bell time.
Seth Rollins is favorite to retain the WWE title at 1/6 while The New Day are also favorites to retain their Tag Team titles at 1/3.
Sheamus, who’s been tipped to win the Intercontinental title since Bryan dropped it, is the favorite at 1/5 and Naomi is the front runner for the Divas title at 6/5 followed closely by Paige so it looks like Nikki Bella is set to drop the title during the show.
In the other two remaining matches, Cena is favorite at 4/9 to beat Owens and Neville is at 1/9 to win against Bo Dallas.
It was a great, great weekend for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as his newest movie, San Andreas, rocked the box office with an estimated $53.2 million opening weekend in the United States.
Initial estimates on Friday suggested that the movie will open in the $40 million range but a strong showing throughout the three days added more than $10 million to the figure.
San Andreas did an additional $60 million in foreign box office for a total worldwide estimate of $113 million.
This was Johnson’s best ever opening at a box office where he is the sole leading actor and not part of an ensemble cast. His previous personal best was in 2002 for The Scorpion King.
Live tonight only on the WWE Network, WWE presents Elimination Chamber from the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas. The full card is as follows:
Seth Rollins vs Dean Ambrose for the WWE World Heavyweight title; Nikki Bella vs Naomi vs Paige in a triple threat match for the WWE Divas title; The New Day vs The Lucha Dragons vs The Prime Time Players vs The Ascension vs Los Matadors vs Tyson Kidd and Cesaro in an Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Tag Team titles; Dolph Ziggler vs Ryback vs R-Truth vs King Barrett vs Sheamus vs Rusev in an Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Intercontinental title; John Cena vs Kevin Owens; and Neville vs Bo Dallas.
Earlier this month, WWE Superstar Dolph Ziggler performed a segment with Britney Spears during one of her shows at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.
Ziggler, who is a huge Spears fan, was asked by the hotel if he’d be okay going on stage with Spears but then on the day of the show he was told they’re not sure if it was going to happen. However Ziggler got the surprise of the night when the Spears crew picked him out from his seat and put him on stage.
Now a video from the May 13 performance has surfaced online which shows Ziggler getting instructions while the show is ongoing to keep up with the choreography. Ziggler had a collar around his neck and was led by Spears on a leash.
When Spears asked for his name on the mic, Ziggler gave her his real name, Nick. You can watch the video below.
The website HollywoodLife.com has an exclusive story announcing that Stephen Amell, who plays superhero Arrow on The CW – will be wrestling Stardust at this year’s SummerSlam pay-per-view.
The 34 year old appeared on Monday Night Raw and Stardust had a face to face with him. Amell is a huge WWE fan and has been trying to do something with the company for the past few months. The two are also in a Twitter war to advance their storyline online.
“The WWE and Stephen are deciding if he should wrestle as himself or Arrow, in the next few weeks that will be answered but what can be answered now is that he will definitely have a match against WWE Superstar Stardust,” the insider confirms.
The upcoming Owen Hart Blu-Ray/DVD which is currently in production will be titled Hart of Gold according to WrestlingDVDNews.com.
This will be the first Owen Hart feature from WWE, a home video which does not have the support of his widow Martha. Originally the website reported that the Hart family is behind the project but then Martha issued a statement slamming the website for spreading false information.
The set will contain Owen Hart’s best matches from his career plus a sit down documentary feature with those who worked with him and those who knew him. It will be released in November of this year.
Dwayne Johnson’s San Andreas movie may open with more than the projected $40 million as the movie had a strong $3.1 million opening on Thursday night and a further $16 million on Friday.
Apart from launching in the United States, San Andreas also opened in 60 other International markets playing in an additional 13,000 screens.
An opening of $40 million plus would give Dwayne Johnson, the former WWE World Heavyweight champion, the best open of his Hollywood career in a movie where he is in the leading role.
Yesterday, the Stephanie McMahon Levesque Trust filed Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission authorizing a brokerage firm to sell a number of WWE Class B shares periodically starting August 10, 2015.
The shares for McMahon will be sold when the price per share is above certain levels with the plan expiring on December 31, 2015.
The maximum number of Class B shares that can be sold over the duration of the plan is 609,733 shares. In connection with the sales, the Class B Shares will be converted into shares of the Company’s Class A common stock.
At yesterday’s value of $14.30, the 609,733 shares have a value of over $8 million.
Fight! Owens! Fight! You will be hearing more of that soon on WWE television as it’s being reported that Kevin Owens has signed a new WWE deal that will put him on the main roster going forward.
Owens will be at all the television shows and non-televised live events with the big boys starting soon and will also be doing a few NXT shows including the televised ones to build up his match against Finn Balor for the title.
Owens made his debut at the NXT TakeOver: R Evolution live special episode on December 11, 2014 and quickly won the NXT title from Sami Zayn.
The official WWE Japanese website announced that former WWE World Heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar will be performing at a non-televised live WWE event in Japan.
Fans attending the July 4 show at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo will witness something very rare, Lesnar wrestling where no television cameras are present. This will be Lesnar’s first non-televised live event since his return a couple of years ago.
The website is listing that Lesnar will be wrestling one third of The New Day, Kofi Kingston, during the show.
WWE visits Singapore and Japan in the beginning of July, with first a show in Singapore on the 2nd, and then two back to back shows in Tokyo on the 3rd and 4th.
WWE Superstar Sheamus has landed a role in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Half Shell movie which started filming this week.
Sheamus is playing the role of Rocksteady along with Gary Anthony Williams who is playing Bebop. The two fictional characters made their debut in the 1987 Turtles cartoon series and in the series they are villains for The Shredder. The Rocksteady character has enhanced condition, strength, and hearing.
This is the second movie of Ninja Turtles after the 2014 movie starring Megan Fox, and Will Arnett which did $485,004,754 in box office receipts.
You can see a photo of Sheamus as Rocksteady which was published in Britain’s The Daily Mail below.
Dwayne Johnson’s brand new movie San Andreas opens nationwide today at a total of 3,777 theaters including 3,210 3D locations.
Johnson plays the leading role of a LAFD rescue helicopter pilot who along with his ex-wife attempt to leave Los Angeles and go to San Francisco to rescue their daughter after the mother of all earthquakes hits California.
Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, Ioan Gruffudd, Archie Panjabi, Paul Giamatti, and Kylie Minogue play the other main characters in this movie.
The movie, which had a budget of $110 million, is expected to open in the $40 million region for the weekend which would make it Dwayne Johnson’s best opening ever.
While he had other better openings as part of the Fast & Furios and G.I. Joe movies, The Rock was part of an ensemble cast and was not the lead actor.
His highest grossing weekend in the leading role dates back to 2002 with The Scorpion King which did just over $36 million.
The former WWE champion has been promoting San Andreas all over the world and on his social media every day for the past weeks and traveled to New York, Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, and Beijing for the world tour.
Apart from the June 22 Monday Night Raw return for Brock Lesnar, four other arenas were notified to update their information and promote Brock Lesnar on those particular television shows.
Come July, Lesnar is booked for the July 6 Raw in Chicago, the July 13 Raw in Atlanta, the July 19 pay-per-view Battleground in St. Louis, and Raw the next night on July 20 in Kansas City.
All arenas have inserted Brock Lesnar as appearing live. It’s been a while since Lesnar appeared for three weeks in a row on WWE television.
TNA President Dixie Carter held a conference call with talent and staff yesterday that lasted well over an hour, addressing several issues that the company has right now.
PWInsider reports that Carter denied the cancelation rumors and said they have plans beyond 2015 and that involves Destination America. She did reveal that their broadcast partner has a clause in the deal that they can pull out at the end of the season.
Everyone was “assured” of their jobs and Carter apparently even said that there will be no more late checks and they will be paid on time. This was not the first time that TNA had payment issues which resulted in talent and staff being paid months later.
Carter did not address the memo that Destination America sent which says they’ll be off the network after September ends.
Former WWE World Heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar is expected to return on WWE television on the June 22 Monday Night Raw episode according to The Bankers Life Fieldhouse, the site of that night’s Raw.
The social media team for the arena posted on Twitter that Brock Lesnar has been added to the show and will appear live and in person.
“JUST ANNOUNCED! @BrockLesnar has been added to the card for #WWEIndy here on Mon., June 22,” the tweet reads.
Lesnar has been off WWE television since the night after WrestleMania 31 where he destroyed everyone in his path following his WWE title loss the night before. He was “suspended” by Stephanie McMahon afterward and him and Paul Heyman have been absent ever since.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer released the memo that was sent by Destination America to its staff regarding not renewing TNA Impact Wrestling once October 2015 rolls around.
TNA President Dixie Carter issued a strong denial regarding the rumors and said she would take legal action against those who keep fabricating lies about them and their broadcast partner. Carter held a conference call with her employees and talent yesterday and did not say anything about getting wiped from Destination America’s schedule.
“Destination America is not renewing TNA Wrestling next year. While the ratings were strong, the audience was not large enough to justify the program investment. We plan to honor the current contract and continue to air original episodes of TNA Wrestling on Friday nights through the end of the third quarter 2015,” the memo reads.
“When the up-front rate card is released, the Friday night anthology title will now be called ‘American Tales,’ which will be a combination of Paranormal and Americana programming. I hope this is good news given all of the advertisers that included TNA on their DNA list.”
One of the major problems that Destination America encountered was the lack of advertisers during the show. The “DNA list” that is mentioned in the memo refers to the do not advertise list.
Destination America yesterday announced that Ring of Honor will be added to its lineup starting June 3 on Wednesdays at 8PM EST, serving as the lead-in for TNA’s Impact.
