Being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame must be an exciting thing and Mr. T is certainly feeling excited about it.
The former A-Team star has been writing on Twitter what an honor for him is to be chosen to be inducted in the Hall of Fame this year and plans to make a memorable speech.
“My speech is ready! Hand written from my heart to capture the essence of my Mother. NO speech writer here FOOL,” T wrote on his Twitter a few days ago. He also spoke how he’s already getting butterflies about the whole thing and said he hopes he doesn’t get nervous when he gets on stage.
Mr. T thanked the fans for all the encouragement and love they showed him on Twitter ever since he was announced for the Hall of Fame.
The band Rev Theory will be performing live tomorrow at WrestleMania XXX as revealed by a post on their Facebook page.
“Let the fun begin! Look out for us performing LIVE this Sunday at WrestleMania 30,” the post said, with a photo of the main event attached to the post.
The band perform Randy Orton’s theme song so it’s a safe bet to say that they will be playing his theme live when it’s time for him to walk down the long ramp.
Live tonight from the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, WWE will induct seven new Hall of Fame members as part of the class of 2014.
Razor Ramon will be inducted by someone still to be announced, although it’s rumored to be Kevin Nash, or the Kliq as a group; Jake “The Snake” Roberts will be inducted by Diamond Dallas Page; the late Paul Bearer will be inducted by at this point his sons however that is not yet confirmed; Lita will be inducted by fellow Hall of Famer Trish Stratus; Carlos Colon will be inducted by his sons Carlito, Eddie, and nephew Orlando Colon; Mr. T will be inducted into the celebrity wing by Hulk Hogan; and the Ultimate Warrior will be inducted by former WWE CEO Linda McMahon.
The 2014 Hall of Fame ceremony will be airing live on the WWE Network for the first time in its entirety starting at 9PM EST. At 8PM EST WWE Network will air the red carpet arrival as well. A one hour compressed – or should we say butchered – version of the show will air on USA Network on Monday.
An e-mail issued to Hall of Fame ticket holders warned fans that they will be ejected if they are caught acting stupid while speeches are going on.
“Please show the proper respect to the WWE Superstars and Hall of Fame Inductees when they are on stage speaking. There will be no inappropriate behavior, cat calls or chants of any kind tolerated at all. Violation of this policy will result in immediate ejection from The Smoothie King Center without warning,” the warning read.
Every year WWE warns about this before the show however certain fans still manage to get away with improper conduct. It’s very rare that someone gets ejected from the building.
It’s rather unfortunate though that certain fans make everyone look embarrassing and this will only continue to happen unless WWE moves the ceremony to a more intimate location, enforces the dress code, and increases the price of the ceremony to attract only a certain section of their fans.
During the Legends of WrestleMania broadcast on the WWE Network yesterday, the set of WrestleMania XXX was unveiled for the first time.
Last year WWE started this tradition with Vince McMahon standing in an empty, dark MetLife Stadium as he unveiled the transformed stadium before lights and music brought the stadium back to life.
This year the honor of the unveiling went to Stephanie McMahon and her husband Triple H, the apparent heirs of the WWE. The duo said that it was their distinct honor to be there to unveil the stadium to the greatest fans in the world.
The set features a huge WrestleMania XXX logo as the backdrop with a glossy stage and ramp. Since it’s an indoor stadium this year, WWE did not use any canopy over the ring so there will be no large four posts obstructing the views.
WWE will take a page out of the Academy Awards and other award shows by hosting their own red carpet even for the WWE Hall of Fame tomorrow on the WWE Network.
Starting live at 8PM EST and hosted by Michael Cole and Renee Young, the red carpet show will be interviewing WWE Superstars and Divas as they make their way inside the Smoothie King Center for this highly-anticipated event, headlined by the induction of the Ultimate Warrior.
The show will run for an hour and then at 9PM EST the Hall of Fame ceremony will air in its entirety for the first time ever on the WWE Network. A compressed version of the show will air on USA Network on Monday.
The WWE Network will be airing a roundtable discussion titled Legends of WrestleMania tonight at 10PM EST.
John “Bradshaw” Layfield, Ric Flair, Mick Foley and others will be part of tonight’s one-off special broadcast. The Legends of WrestleMania is part of the Legends of Wrestling series which airs on the Network.
It will air multiple times tomorrow as well. Check the WWE Network website for exact scheduled times.
WWE.COM has exclusive photos of this year’s Hall of Fame rings that will be given out to the seven inductees who make up the class of 2014.
The custom-made rings all have the names of each individual inside with the exception of the Warrior’s, which has his mask logo and “Always Believe” instead of his name.
The names inscribed are all their ring names apart from Razor Ramon, which funny enough while he’s being inducted as the character, his name on the ring says Scott Hall.
WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross hosted two sessions of his show Ringside: An Evening with Jim Ross yesterday at the House of Blues in New Orleans, Louisiana, in front of jam packed crowds.
The early session had a surprise guest in the form of Jim Cornette while the late night session had an even bigger surprise, Stone Cold Steve Austin.
JR recounted stories from his childhood living on a farm before going into details about his early days of professional wrestling and then moving to his eventual departure from WCW because he was “too southern” and then joining WWE.
A Q&A then proceeded and the late night session was interrupted when the host read a question from a tweet – obviously a set up – about who’s JR’s favorite Texan apart from Dr. Death.
JR said that he’d have to think about that, but not for long, and said that person is right here in New Orleans. The crowd erupted at the obvious answer and out came fellow WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin to a large ovation from the crowd.
Austin then spent the rest of the show answering questions from fans with Ross.
The Hollywood Reporter has a story online how the company has lost a fight in court to keep unauthorized merchandise from being sold in New Orleans this weekend.
The suit was file by WWE on March 26 against anonymous defendants who would be selling unofficial merchandise and the company filed for a motion to seal the details.
However on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Helen Berrigan basically told WWE to get lost as their request to control the five mile radius of the Superdome was denied.
“The problem with Plaintiff’s request is apparent once one recalls that the order it requests is not directed against a single named, identified, or even described person—all the defendants are John Does, and Plaintiff provides no particular information about the identity of any of them,” she wrote. “At best, Plaintiff defines Defendants almost tautologically: Defendants are anyone who would be a proper defendant within broad geographic and temporal limits.”
WWE yesterday filed a motion for reconsideration although it’s unlikely that the Judge will reverse the decision.
In response to the Judge’s decision, WWE issued the following statement to The Hollywood Reporter:
“It is customary practice for all touring shows to ask for a temporary restraining order to prevent their fans from being sold counterfeit, inferior goods. Merchandise sales are important to the promoter, as well as to the arena or the stadium in which they play. Sales of legitimate merchandise generate revenue for the promoter, the arena and to the local municipality. This is the first time that WWE has experienced a negative decision for a temporary restraining order by a federal judge. Caveat emptor!
Stone Cold Steve Austin confirmed to TMZ.COM that he will be appearing at WrestleMania XXX this coming Sunday.
A TMZ photographer met the WWE Hall of Famer at the New Orleans airport this morning however Austin refused to say what he’ll be doing on the show.
Earlier Austin confirmed that he would be appearing at the Hall of Fame ceremony but this is the first time that he’s acknowledging that he will be part of the show.
Austin last appeared at WrestleMania 27 when he refereed the Michael Cole vs Jerry Lawler match.
WWE Studios will be screening the new movie Oculus tomorrow, April 4, at The Ritz-Carlton New Orleans hotel.
The screening will be hosted by WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan and will start at 8PM CT. Free passes are being distributed by Relativity Media and you can sign up for one at http://wwe.me/vojgJ.
The horror movie directed by Mike Flanagan will be released in theatres nationwide on April 11.
WrestleMania Axxess kicks off later tonight with the first session starting at 6PM going through 10PM at the New Orleans Convention Center.
Superstars scheduled to appear for tonight’s opening are Kane, Roman Reigns, Dolph Ziggler, The Usos, R-Truth, Sin Cara, The New Age Outlaws, NXT Superstars, WWE Divas, and more.
Axxess then continues tomorrow with another session between 6PM and 10PM and almost all day on Saturday and half day on Sunday.
The WWE Network will air its first live WrestleMania show tonight from Axxess as WWE tries to maximise the potential of the Network giving subscribers something extra in addition to normal programming.
Josh Mathews, Booker T, and Alex Riley will be hosting WrestleMania Today starting at 6PM EST and the will be broadcasting live from Axxess at the New Orleans Convention Center.
The show will run two hours and will be replayed again tomorrow while another edition of WrestleMania Today also airs tomorrow at the same time from the same location.
The show’s format will be a sort of a discussion for the day’s activity along with special guests and obviously other WrestleMania related content.
A crew of 400 workers using 27 miles of cable and 400 rigging points are helping in setting up the Mercedes-Benz Superdome for this Sunday’s WrestleMania reports the Times-Picayune newspaper.
When Duncan Leslie, WWE’s SVP of Technical Operations, was asked how much this elaborate set-up will cost, he declined to give a specific price put said it is a lot of money.
85 semi-trucks transported all the equipment needed to set-up the Superdome for WrestleMania and crew started working last week, giving them almost two weeks time.
The crew still have a lot of work to do as they still are setting up for the Hall of Fame, RAW, and Smackdown apart from building this gigantic set for the WrestleMania pay-per-view.
You can read the article by NOLA.COM about transforming the Superdome for WrestleMania here.
Betfair Sportsbook, one of the leading websites for online betting have published their WrestleMania odds for most of the matches plus some other creative betting.
Some of the creative betting include how many times Hulk Hogan will say “brother,” how many times Hogan will drop a leg drop and CM Punk making an appearance.
Betting for Lesnar vs Taker, Bryan vs Triple H, WWE World Heavyweight title match, Cena vs Wyatt, and the battle royal are also available.
The Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar
The Undertaker – 1/50
Brock Lesnar – 11/1
Triple Threat Qualifier
Daniel Bryan – 1/33
Triple H – 10/1
How Many Big Boots and Leg Drop Combinations Will Hulk Hogan deliver?
0 – 5/2
1-2 – 1/3
3-4 – 11/2
5+ – 16/1
Under/Over on the amount of times Hulk Hogan says “brother.” Over 5.5 – 5/6
Under 5.5 – 5/6
WWE Heavyweight Title Match
Daniel Bryan – 1/8
Batista – 13/2
Randy Orton – 14/1
Triple H – 14/1
Any Other – 25/1
Will CM Punk make a surprise appearance?
Yes – 10/3
No – 1/6
Bray Wyatt vs. John Cena
Bray Wyatt – 4/11
John Cena – 2/1
The Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
Alexander Rusev – 5/4
Big Show – 3/1
Hulk Hogan – 5/1
Sheamus – 11/1
Big E – 12/1
Dolph Ziggler- 12/1
The Miz – 12/1
Mark Henry – 14/1
The Ultimate Warrior – 14/1
Chris Jericho – 16/1
Goldberg – 16/1
Christian – 18/1
Alberto Del Rio – 20/1
Cody Rhodes – 20/1
Fandango – 20/1
Mr. T – 20/1
Damien Sandow – 25/1
Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts – 25/1
Kofi Kingston – 25/1
Rey Mysterio – 25/1
Stone Cold Steve Austin – 25/1
The Great Khali – 25/1
The Rock – 25/1
Darren Young – 28/1
Goldust – 33/1
Razor Ramon – 33/1
Titus O’Neil – 33/1
Heath Slater – 50/1
R-Truth – 50/1
Brodus Clay -66/1
Drew McIntyre – 66/1
Jinder Mahal – 66/1
Justin Gabriel – 66/1
Santino Marella – 66/1
Sin Cara – 66/1
Hornswoggle – 80/1
Zack Ryder – 80/1
The WrestleMania go home edition of Monday Night RAW this week did a total of 4,391,000 viewers, up from the 4,273,000 viewers of last week.
Hour one pulled in 4,231,000 viewers, followed by an increase to 4,603,000 in hour two, but then down to 4,338,000 in the third and final hour. (Ratings credit: PWInsider.com)
The third episode of the second season of Total Divas, titled ‘On Brie’s Bad Side’ was apparently a big hit, with 1.55 million viewers in total.
That makes the episode the second highest rated show of the series including season one, only behind the third episode of the third season which drew 1.67 million viewers.
WWE has released the schedule of their full WrestleMania week, which began today in New York City at the Hard Rock Cafe for the WrestleMania XXX Press Conference.
Tomorrow, Kofi Kingston, Cody Rhodes, Zack Ryder, and Natalya will visit the Ochsner Children’s Health Center and the Children’s Hospital of New Orleans to donate WWE toys courtesy of Mattel.
Also tomorrow, Mark Henry, Eva Marie, and Lilian Garcia will be meeting the troops and military family members at the Hire Heroes USA autograph signing at the Jackson Barracks.
Rounding up the day will be a Special Olympics unified basketball game at Tulane University with athletes from Team Louisiana will be coached by Titus O’Neil, The Bellas, and Stephanie McMahon.
On Thursday, the New Orleans Museum of Art will hold the Superstars for Kids with John Cena, Daniel Bryan, The Miz, Big Show, and Bella Twins attending. New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees will also be on hand.
On Thursday and Friday WWE will host Be a STAR anti-bullying rallies with Mark Henry, David Otunga, Natalya, and Josh Mathews appearing at the Sarah T. Reed High School and then Stephanie McMahon, Alberto Del Rio, Damien Sandow, Naomi, Cameron, and Renee Young will travel to the Boys and Girls Club Westbank Unit on Friday.
The WrestleMania Reading celebration happens on Thursday at the Langston Hughes Academy with Stephanie McMahon, Cody Rhodes, and AJ Lee appearing.
On Friday, several WWE Superstars, employees and execs will be at the Woodland West Elementary School for the KaBOOM! Playground Build event where everyone will help to build a playground for the children of the New Orleans area.
A pizza party for Make-A-Wish will happen on Saturday at the Audubon Aquarium as WWE will induct 31 wish children into the WWE’s Circle of Champions. The event is hosted by Make-A-Wish superstar John Cena.
Also on Saturday there will be a Susan G. Komen Luncheon at the Windsor Court Hotel with Stephanie McMahon appearing to support Komen New Orelans’ mission. McMahon has been named the Honorary Chairperson for Komen New Orleans.
The WWE cast and crew have departed for New Orleans as their very busy WrestleMania week begins. Smackdown was taped with RAW yesterday, although only two matches were done as the rest will be footage from Axxess and WrestleMania talk.
The matches taped for this Friday’s show are Dolph Ziggler vs Titus O’Neil and Los Matadores vs The Real Americans. Hulk Hogan also appears on Smackdown.
Just about everyone will be based in New Orleans and they will be departing the city on Monday night and Tuesday morning for Smackdown tapings.
