WrestleMania Axxess tickets will go on sale on Saturday, January 31 at 9AM PST at Ticketmaster.com. The event will take place at the San Jose Convention Center between March 26 and 29.
General admission tickets will cost $45, VIP tickets will cost $95, and Premium VIP will cost $175. The general admission tickets will only include the entrance whereas the VIP will include autograph and professional photo with a Superstar, exclusive VIP line for entrance, an 8×10 photo of one Superstar who will be appearing that day. The Premium VIP will be the same as the VIP but will include a photo with a big name Superstar who will be on hand for that particular session.
Axxess sessions will be Thursday, March 26 between 6PM and 10PM and Friday, March 27 between 6PM and 10PM as well. There will be three sessions on Saturday, March 28, one at 8AM till Noon, one from 1PM till 5PM, and one from 6PM to 10PM which will clash with the Hall of Fame. There will be only one session on WrestleMania Sunday starting at 8AM till Noon.
WWE today announced that it has promoted Lisa Fox Lee to Executive Vice President, Content, reporting directly to WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon.
In this newly created position, Lee will be a key member of the company’s senior management team and oversee the strategic development and distribution of WWE programming and content across all platforms, including TV, WWE Network, WWE.com, WWE App and social media. In addition, Lee will oversee WWE’s Creative Writing team with all TV creative continuing to run through Vince McMahon and WWE Executive Vice President, Paul Levesque.
Lee is a seasoned television and media executive who has served in various positions during her 19-year career with WWE, including her most recent title as Senior Vice President, Network Programming. She has also held roles in Television Production, Programming, Business Strategy and Sponsorship Sales.
Monday Night Raw tonight from Dallas, Texas, will have some old school feel to it as the show is being promoted as Raw Reunion.
Scheduled to appear are Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, Jimmy Hart, Billy Gunn, Ron Simmons and the latest one announced X-Pac.
WWE champion Brock Lesnar will also be in the house and with one week away from the Rumble, more names will be announced for the Royal Rumble match.
The American Airlines Center is promoting a 30-man lumberjack match as the dark match between John Cena and Seth Rollins.
One of the greatest WWE Superstars of all time will be immortalized ahead of WrestleMania 31 when Randy “Macho Man” Savage is inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
The six-time world champion, who tragically passed away in 2011, will join other WWE legends who have recently entered the company’s hallowed hall, including Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Trish Stratus, Mick Foley, Bruno Sammartino, and The Ultimate Warrior, who passed away three days after his induction into the Hall last year.
A talented baseball catcher, who joined the St. Louis Cardinals organization shortly after leaving high school, The Macho Man broke into professional wrestling in 1973, making a name for himself in the ring during baseball’s off-season.
Savage joined the World Wrestling Federation in 1985, signing with Vince McMahon as “the top free agent in professional wrestling”, and made an immediate impact, attracting interest from several established wrestling managers, before electing to join forces with Miss Elizabeth.
The Macho Man challenged for his first championship belt in late 1985, taking on Tito Santana for the Intercontinental Championship in a bout he would lose. But much bigger things lay ahead for the Columbus, Ohio native, who eventually took the Intercontinental belt from Santana in a 1986 rematch, a title he would hold until his loss to Ricky Steamboat at WrestleMania III, a battle that would earn 1987 Match of the Year honors.
At WrestleMania IV, Savage finally got the chance he so eagerly sought, a shot at the WWF World Championship, surviving a 14-man tournament to finally claim the title by defeating Ted DiBiase – the Million Dollar Man, with the help of Hulk Hogan, the man who would eventually take the belt from Savage just a year later at WrestleMania V.
After coming out on the short end of multiple battles with Hogan over the next two years, Savage claimed the “King of the Ring” title and was later proclaimed “King of the WWF” in a ceremony where he was presented with his trademark scepter by the Million Dollar Man.
Savage retired from the WWF in 1991, but returned to defend the honor of Miss Elizabeth at WrestleMania VIII, laying a beating on champion Ric “Nature Boy” Flair to again become WWF World Champion.
Savage would later move on to the WCW, where he would once again battle his long-time rival, Hogan, eventually winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship on an astonishing four occasions.
The Macho Man eventually left pro wrestling for good in 2005, and enjoyed a brief acting career with appearances in films like Spider-Man and Ready to Rumble, as well as TV shows like King of the Hill, Family Guy, Walker: Texas Ranger and Mad About You.
Savage’s Hall of Fame induction will take place the night before WrestleMania 31, which schedule for March 29 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
The warm commemoration of Savage prior to the WWE’s biggest event comes in stark contrast to the conflict that preceded WrestleMania 30, when WWE Superstar CM Punk abruptly announced he would depart the company to pursue a career as a mixed martial artist, as reported at bettingsports.com.
Hulk Hogan, who developed a deep friendship with The Macho Man outside the ring, will be on hand to officiate at this year’s WWE Hall of Fame ceremonies.
The United Kingdom finally got the WWE Network, officially at least, starting today.
Getting the same deal as the rest of the world, minus Canada, the Network in the UK is the over-the-top service with one difference: price. In the UK, the price of the Network per month will be 9.99 GBP and those in the Republic of Ireland will pay 12.99 Euro. Both figures translate to around $15 US.
The United Kingdom is one of the largest markets that the Network was not made available in August and originally it was set to launch on October 1 but negotiations with other partners delayed the launch. A second launch in November was aborted with 20 minutes to go.
Last week WWE removed the geoblock on the UK and allowed signups. The WWE Network app was also made available on consoles and TV-connected devices. All this was probably was done to avoid any hiccups with mass signups and downloads, saving WWE from another PR disaster in the region.
The February 27 non-televised live event from Madison Square Garden is now being billed as the Hulk Hogan Appreciation Night on the MSG website.
Hulk Hogan will be returning to the world’s most famous arena for the first time in over a decade and WWE will honor Hogan at the show. Hogan sold out MSG numerous time during his long WWE career and was part of history with the first main event of WrestleMania at Madison Square Garden.
The show is so far being headlined with John Cena and Roman Reigns taking on Bray Wyatt and Rusev.
WWE is selling the Superstar VIP Experience Package and the VIP Merch Package for this show. More information can be found here.
Tickets for the Hall of Fame ceremony which will feature the induction of former WWE champion Macho Man Randy Savage went on sale to the general public yesterday morning and sold pretty big.
As of this writing around 500-600 tickets remain available, all of which are in the upper levels of the SAP Center. Seats in sections 201, 202, 203, 213, 214, 215, 216, and 228 are available on Ticketmaster.com while the rest are all gone.
So far only the late Randy Savage has been announced for the Hall of Fame with more being revealed throughout the next couple of weeks on WWE television.
Tonight’s 13th episode of Total Divas season 3 is titled Twin Leaks and will air on E! at 9PM EST.
The synopsis for tonight’s show reads, “Eva is confronted with a life-threatening medical issue, Paige gets a bit too close to Nattie in the ring and a friendly competition between Nikki and John escalates to a serious throw down.”
Lucha Underground has announced that it has signed AAA World Heavyweight champion and former WWE champion Alberto El Patron, the man formerly known as Alberto Del Rio. El Patron competed in his first set of television tapings for Lucha Underground yesterday in Los Angeles.
“We are thrilled to have Alberto El Patron join Lucha Underground” said Executive Producer and Showrunner Eric Van Wagenen. “He is a bold and exciting luchador who delivers attitude and skill. He is a very welcome addition to our roster.”
Ever since he was released from World Wrestling Entertainment, he appeared for AAA at the company’s Triplemania XXII and made his in-ring debut in September. In December he defeated El Texano, Jr. to become the new AAA World Heavyweight champ. He also appeared for Ring Of Honor earlier this month, defeating Christopher Daniels in his debut match there. In between he made a surprise appearance for Tommy Dreamer’s House of Hardcore to a rowdy crowd in Philadelphia. He was accompanied by Ricardo Rodriguez.
For over 30 years, WWE has enjoyed a fantastic relationship with one of their longest business partners, Sky. Sky has been through WWE’s ups and downs and have always remained loyal. But their partnership is showing some signs of cracks with the launch of the WWE Network in the United Kingdom.
In Europe, Sky is considered to be the biggest television broadcaster with control over the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and other markets. It’s a big company with a lot of cash and a lot of power. Basically, you want them on your side if you want to broadcast your channel.
When it comes to sports, Sky is the king. In the United Kingdom, Sky broadcasts football (or soccer) from the English Premier League and Spain’s La Liga, arguably Europe’s top two football leagues. It also broadcasts the NFL, Formula 1 racing, darts, rugby, cricket, tennis, boxing, and a lot of International football matches. Nobody does sports coverage better than them. Their Sky Sports News channel can pretty much rival ESPN or any top sports news network in the world.
Sky pays a lot of money for rights for a lot of sporting events. In 2012, the broadcaster paid a staggering £2.28 billion – around $3.45 billion – to broadcast the maximum allowed of 116 games of the English Premier League every year for three years. Oh, a whole season consists of a total 760 games – 20 teams and 38 games each. Sky is rarely outbid when it comes to sports although sometimes it does happen. In 2013, Sky lost the lucrative UEFA Champions League contract to rivals BT Sport who paid £900 million for a three year contract.
The new WWE deal with Sky which was signed in January 2014 for five years sees the British broadcaster having exclusive rights for Raw, Smackdown, and Main Event, while also gives them the right to distribute the monthly WWE specials on the Sky Box Office pay-per-view system. Financial details of the deal were never disclosed, but sources said at the time that the value is believed to be about three times that of the previous five-year agreement. The previous five-year agreement, by the way, was deemed the most expensive for a WWE International TV rights contract at the time.
Just days before the WWE announced the launch of the WWE Network in the United Kingdom in January, Sky raised their prices for the WWE pay-per-views, from £14.95 to £19.95. Besides that, starting from this year all 12 specials will air on Sky Box Office. Under the old deal, a couple of them aired for free on Sky Sports 1 for those who had a Sky Sports subscription.
When WWE announced that there will be no Network launching in the United Kingdom in August, fans blamed Sky for their tactics. When WWE said it will launch in October, and then in November, only to have both launches pulled, fans once again blamed Sky. When I talked to the head of Sky Sports over the phone the day after the second failed Network launch in the country, he said that the company had nothing to do with the Network and it was solely a WWE decision. I was also told that Sky was not in negotiations with WWE to carry the Network as a traditional channel, similar to what Canadians have. The statement raised eyebrows among WWE fans in the United Kingdom as all of them were pretty sure that that was the case despite what Sky was saying. Sky charges a lot of money for their services and a lot of people consider Sky the Antichrist.
WWE eventually bulldozed their way with the Network in the United Kingdom. Stephanie McMahon, WWE’s Chief Brand Officer, told British tabloid newspaper The Sun that they are appreciative of their partnership with Sky, but they have to understand that the Network is completely owned by WWE. Pissing off one of your longest business partners is not a smart thing to do. The United Kingdom, apart from North America, is WWE’s strongest market and that is largely thanks to Sky’s coverage of WWE.
The latest disagreement comes over the airing of Main Event on the Network. This time, Sky flexed their muscle and pretty much made WWE take the show off the Network because they own the exclusive rights in the region. And they are correct. With WWE’s inability to geoblock individual programs, this left the company no choice but to remove it and try to work with Sky for a compromise. As of this writing it does not seem that a compromise is on the horizon. I once again tired to get the 411 about the whole deal but this time, the folks at Sky Sports did not wish to comment yet.
It will be interesting where things go from here. You can certainly understand Sky’s position as well as WWE’s position. WWE wants to make money with the WWE Network. Sky wants WWE to honor their deal, a deal they paid millions for. WWE is locked to Sky till 2019 so problems are not going away anytime soon. It’s now a matter of sitting down and ironing out issues before things get ugly.
Just hours after Kevin Nash wrote on his Twitter that he doesn’t see himself appearing on WWE television again after the company suspended his Legends contract pending the outcome of his battery assault case, WWE announced that Nash is back on the Raw Reunion show.
Nash was advertised for the show along with Hogan and Hall to reprise the nWo up until Christmas Eve when he got arrested along with his son for an altercation at home. WWE pulled him from all advertising and also suspended his contract.
Joining Nash and at the already announced Hogan, Hall, Flair, and HBK, will be Jimmy Hart, Billy Gunn, and Ron Simmons as well.
Smackdown’s move to Thursday did well in the ratings, getting actually more viewers than last week’s show on Friday night.
Fueled by the return to the ring of Daniel Bryan, Smackdown did 2,675,000 viewers, up 243,000 viewers from last week. That was the most viewed show since the November 28 broadcast. (Ratings credit: PWInsider.com)
TNA Impact starts its regular Friday time slot on Destination America tonight at 9PM EST after last week’s debut on Wednesday.
Always regarded as the “death slot” in the television industry, the move to Friday night might not have been the perfect option for the company but it was most likely the only option.
Last week’s first episode of Impact on Destination America on Wednesday night drew less than 300,000 viewers live, far less than the usual approximate million viewers they did on Spike TV on a weekly basis.
Matches set for tonight include Bobby Roode vs Eric Young, The Hardys vs The Wolves, Austin Aries vs Low Ki for the TNA X Division title, and Beautiful People vs Brooke and Taryn Terrell.
John Gaburick, TNA’s Executive Vice President of Creative & Talent Relations announced on his Twitter a couple of new deals TNA have signed with its talent.
Those who have re-signed with the company include Kenny King, Manik, Jeff Hardy, and Gail Kim.
Kim was working on an event-by-event deal and could have left at anytime but has now opted to sign a deal to keep her in the company. “Soooo happy to continue my future with the best and kick butt for you,” Kim tweeted after the announcement was made.
Jeff Hardy is obviously an important part of TNA as one if its most popular Superstar on the whole roster.
The Fulton County Solicitor’s Office confirmed that assault charges against Heath Slater brought against him for an alleged incident at WrestleMania 27 weekend in Atlanta have been dropped.
A hotel security guard, Corinne Oliver, who was on duty at the WrestleMania staff party said at the time that Slater invited her to his room after the party and when she refused he put her in a chokehold and dragged her anyway. Oliver managed to escape and reported the incident to her superior the next day and only went to the police in June, two months after the alleged incident occurred.
A misdemeanor arrest warrant was issued against Slater – real name Heath Miller – in December, and WWE took Slater off the road and TV pending the outcome of the case.
Slater denied all charges and called them “completely frivolous” and said that he was innocent.
The court said the charges were dropped because the statute of limitation had expired.
WWE will hold their Q4 2014 and full year results conference call on Thursday, February 12, before the opening of the market with Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon and Chief Strategy and Financial Officer George Barrios hosting the call.
Once again, the WWE Network numbers will be up for scrutiny as the company will reveal the total number of subscribers for the year and how far they fell off their 1 million mark they set at the beginning. It will also be interesting to see how many subscribers got the Network for free in November and how many did not keep the service once the end of the month hit.
The next NXT live special on the WWE Network will be held on Wednesday, February 11, at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida.
With NXT moving to Wednesdays from Thursdays not to conflict with Smackdown, the specials will also be moving to Wednesdays whenever they are held.
The fourth NXT Takeover special will be headlined by Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens as they fight for the NXT title. The other two matches on the card so far include Finn Balor vs Adrian Neville to determine the number one contender for the NXT title and a fatal 4 way match for the NXT Women’s title between Charlotte, Sasha Banks, Bayley, and Becky Lynch.
SummerSlam 2015 will now have to move locations as the New Jersey Sports & Entertainment board voted to close down the 34 year old Izod Center facility in East Rutherford at the end of January.
New Jersey officials called the decision inevitable as the arena is state-owned and racked up $8.5 million in losses.
WWE announced last year that the show would be moving from Los Angeles, California, for the first time in six years and chose the New York/New Jersey area to hold the SummerSlam weekend similar to what they did for WrestleMania 29.
All events scheduled at the Izod Center for February and March have been moved to the Prudential Center in neighboring Newark.
Yesterday WWE officials confirmed that they were looking for an alternative site for SummerSlam and if they want to remain in the area they can always choose the Prudential Center or the relatively new Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
The Izod Center, among its different names through the years, has been holding WWE events since its inception. The venue hosted SummerSlam in 1989, 1997, and 2007, the King of the Ring in 2001, No Mercy in 2004, No Way Out in 2012, WrestleMania Axxess, Extreme Rules in 2014, and countless of non-televised live events, Raw, and Smackdown shows, including the Raw following WrestleMania 29 with one of the rowdiest crowds in the history of the show.
WWE Main Event on the WWE Network will cease to broadcast at least till later this year reports PWInsider.com.
The whole situation with Sky Sports has not been resolved yet as Sky is claiming exclusivity on the broadcast which will prevent WWE from airing Main Event on the Network in the United Kingdom once it launches next week. With the company unable to individually geoblock shows on the Network, it left them no choice but to take the show off the Network.
Sky has so far declined to comment on the situation when pressed about the subject by Wrestling-Online.com.
Main Event still airs on Hulu Plus and in many countries worldwide so tapings will still be held on Tuesday prior to Smackdown and fans in the United States who subscribe to Hulu Plus can watch the show as part of the subscription.
The show is pre-empted next week for a Royal Rumble special but will return after that.
USA Network President Chris McCumber today revealed during the TCA Press Tour that the network is bringing back the WWE reality TV series Tough Enough.
“I am pleased to announce that USA is bringing back ‘Tough Enough,’ the action-packed competition reality show from the ratings juggernaut, WWE,” McCumber said in a speech today during the Television Critics Association winter press tour. “The show will have a completely new format, with live elements that will truly make this event television.”
McCumber continued, “After signing another multi-year deal for Raw and SmackDown, this is the perfect time to bring back the series and capitalize on the enormous audience appeal of sports-entertainment.”
WWE were rumored to bring back the series for the WWE Network last year but the show was dropped due to cost-cutting measures. It was rumored to be filmed in Orlando utilizing the current crop of trainees at the WWE Performance Center.
Stone Cold Steve Austin, Booker T, Bill DeMott, and Trish Stratus headed up season 6 of Tough Enough in 2010 on USA Network.
