Two new TNA champions were crowned at the live event in Japan which was done in association with Wrestle-1 and taped as part of the TNA One Night Only pay-per-view series.
The first title change was Seiya Sanada defeating Austin Aries to become the new X-Division champion. Sanada is wrestling at Lockdown in the six man tag match featuring The Great Muta.
The second title change was the Bro-Mans regaining the Tag Team titles in a three-way match against Kaz Hayashi and Shuji Kondo and now former champs The Wolves.
WWE.COM scored an interview with the recently-returned Hulk Hogan about his come back, his relationship with Vince McMahon, meeting everyone backstage, and WrestleMania.
Perhaps the most striking question was about the Ultimate Warrior, a man who Hogan has a long history with and a person who will be in the same building with Hogan both at the Hall of Fame and WrestleMania.
“Triple H was giving me the broad strokes of The Ultimate Warrior and his concerns with Hulk Hogan. I said, “Triple H, I’m easy, brother. After everything I’ve been through, and everything I’ve learned, for me, it’s about this moment forward.”
Hogan said he told Triple H that he doesn’t have to worry about him and he would love to shake Warrior’s hand and say, “Brother, nothing but love for you. Whatever I did, I apologize for it. I don’t even need for you to apologize if there was anything on your end. Whatever it is, brother, nothing but love for you, let’s do business.”
The Hulkster said that Warrior is a good guy and it would be even better if the two could be friends again.
The legendary Great Muta will be wrestling at the TNA Lockdown pay-per-view as part of the agreement that TNA has reached with Wrestle-1 in January.
The match that Muta will be in is a six man tag team match featuring Muta along with Seiya Sanada and TNA newcomer Tigre Uno to take on Christopher Daniels, Kazarian and Chris Sabin.
In addition to competing at Lockdown on Sunday, Muta will be appearing at the annual Lockdown Fan InterAction on Saturday. Tickets are available at ShopTNA.com.
WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross will have his first “Ringside” shows in the United States tonight in New York at the Gramercy Theatre.
Ross will hold two ‘Evening with JR’ shows back-to-back, one starting at 4PM and the other one at 8PM and will also be meeting fans who purchased VIP tickets.
JR will hold two similar shows in New Orleans on Thursday, April 3, at the House of Blues, also running back-to-back during WrestleMania week.
WWE presented NXT ArRIVAL yesterday live on the WWE Network at a sold out Fall Sail University where a new NXT champion was crowned at the end of the show.
The show started with Cesaro defeating Sami Zayn in a tremendous match that went almost 25 minutes. Mojo Rawley defeated CJ Parker and then The Ascension defeated Too Cool to retain the NXT Tag Team titles. The NXT Women’s title was also defended as Paige defeated Emma to retain it in a good match that lasted almost 15 minutes. The main event saw Adrian Neville defeating Bo Dallas in a ladder match to win the NXT title.
Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, John Cena, Stephanie McMahon, Triple H, Larry Zybsko, Steve Keirn, Dusty Rhodes, and Patt Patterson all were shown on screen throughout the broadcast.
Xbox and Roku owners will soon be enjoying the WWE Network without encountering issues with the channel, at least that’s what WWE is hoping for.
Roku posted a tweet today saying that they have pushed out a fix to the WWE Network channel for all the Roku devices. If you can’t see the update, you have to force it by going to Settings, System Update, and clicking on Check Now.
Meanwhile, WWE Network sent an e-mail blast to all subscribers saying, “We are working aggressively to address the login issue for Xbox users and expect to have it resolved by this Monday, March 3, if not sooner.”
Xbox login issues have persisted since launch day.
WWE today announced that they are returning to Japan with three live events this year, two in Tokyo and one in Osaka.
The Tokyo shows will happen on Thursday, July 10, and Friday, July 11, at the Ryogoku Kokugikan while the Osaka show will take place on Saturday, July 12, at the Maishima Arena. This will be WWE’s first live event in Osaka since 2004.
“We are very excited to be returning to Japan in 2014, and especially to Osaka for the first time in 10 years,” said Sweesin Wu, WWE’s Vice President & General Manager, Asia Pacific. “These events reflect our commitment to furthering our international growth, and we look forward to showcasing our unique global brand of family-friendly entertainment in Japan.”
The NXT ArRIVAL show last night at the Full Sail University was a big success in terms of attendance but University and WWE officials did not anticipate such a huge turnout and the process to get everyone in the building was a big mess to say the very least.
The major problem was that Full Sail University oversold the building leaving a lot of people high and dry outside. Usually those who get free tickets at the monthly tapings no show, but yesterday, everybody showed up! University staff and students are allowed free entry while non-members had to purchase tickets.
To compensate for the problems, WWE and University staff handed out merchandise and tickets for an upcoming NXT show to those who didn’t make it inside the building.
The WWE Network woes continued yesterday, causing a big inconvenience to those watching the live NXT ArRIVAL broadcast, the first in-ring live broadcast on the WWE Network.
A lot of technical difficulties popped up during the show, leaving a lot of fans angry at WWE’s inability to have the broadcast running smoothly without any interruptions.
“During tonight’s live NXT ArRIVAL special, we unfortunately experienced technical difficulties, which are to be expected when launching a new digital network. We will work aggressively to solve these glitches and deliver quality service. The complete event will be available on-demand overnight,” read a WWE statement.
The NXT ArRIVAL show is already available on video-on-demand on the Network.
Certain problems with the WWE Network continued on day four as both WWE and MLB Advanced Media continue to iron out streaming problems specifically to the video on demand library.
“We are doing maintenance in order to deliver you a better experience when playing video-on-demand. During this process, you may experience errors when trying to watch video on demand over the next few hours. We expect this to be resolved by tomorrow morning,” read a statement from WWE.
The live channel will not be effected as it is completely a different stream than the video-on-demand one and that has been working pretty much as it should be since launch day. The WWE Network will air the NXT ArRIVAL event live tonight for its first in-ring live broadcast.
It was announced today that Diamond Dallas Page will be inducting Jake “The Snake” Roberts into the WWE Hall of Fame come April 5th at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. He’s the first person confirmed among those doing the honors for this year’s Hall of Fame class.
Apart from appearing at the Hall of Fame, Page will also be hosting DDP YOGA workshops at the Holiday Inn New Orleans Westbank, where attendees will learn how they can tap into the power of dynamic resistance and take control of their health, and their lives.
The New Orleans workshops will take place Friday, April 4, between 5PM and 8PM and Saturday, April 5, between 11AM and 2PM. Entry fee for each 3-hour session is $99.99 and both are open to all levels. Hotel guests at the Holiday Inn New Orleans Westbank will receive 10% off entry fee and 10% off their purchase of the Max Pack DVD set.
Here are a few highlights from the Governor Jesse Ventura interview from the 2-25-14 edition of SNS UnPlugged which airs every Tuesday night at 9PM EST exclusively on the SNS Radio Network at snsradionetwork.com with hosts “BronxZilla” Tony J. Mirabella and “Mr. Money on the Mic” Jeff Jackson.
JJ welcomes WWE Hall of Famer, actor, author, talk show host, and former Governor Jesse Ventura to the show and asks about Ventura’s latest endeavor, “Off the Grid”.
“When my pro wrestling career ended in 1990 and I left the WWF now WWE I didn’t look back. I went on to further careers and what I consider a very exciting life and I’m very happy with the life I’m leading,” Ventura said. “I’ve got my new show ‘Off the Grid’ which airs every week Tuesday through Friday over at www.Ora.tv at 3PM EST. What this is and why wrestling fans should tune in is because without a doubt I’m the greatest talker who ever talked in wrestling with my commentary and interviews and this show allows me a 10-12 minute interview every day and the only thing missing is Mean Gene from these interviews and I cover politics, sports, you name it and it’s a dream job for me.”
Ventura continued, “I do it off the grid which means I’m not told what to do, there’s no FCC involved and the topics are mine and we can move around as long as we have state of the art equipment, as long as our batteries get solar power and we have a clear shot at the satellite the show is on the air.”
JJ then asks Governor Ventura about his thoughts on the WWE Network.
“Well thankfully what it will do thanks to my federal lawsuit against Vince McMahon anytime he uses my name and likeness he has to pay me royalties. I probably one of the very few wrestlers you can count them on one hand that gets royalties…I call it my wrestling retirement and I’ve received these now for nearly 24 years and his new venture is probably going to up my royalty uptake real good. I’m very happy he’s doing this and anytime he uses my name or likeness in any way shape or form he has to pay me a percentage of royalty accomplished in the federal lawsuit against him.”
JJ asks about his current relationship with Vince McMahon:
“Well actually we are probably on better terms since I left him then when I was with him. I haven’t spoken with him at all and he is probably angry with me because when his wife ran for the Senate I wouldn’t endorse her and I said that publicly but I did say why it wasn’t because she was Linda McMahon or Vince’s wife, it was because she was a Republican. I do not endorse Democrats or Republicans, they are the problem not the solution and had she run as an Independent I very well would have endorsed her. I think Vince kinda got angry cause I had a little fun at his expense and I said, ‘Hell if he had spent that kind of money on me I’d be the President of the United States.’ It may have caused a rift between us, I don’t know I have not spoken with him.”
Ventura asks JJ about Hogan returning to the WWE to do something and JJ tells Jesse that Hogan is back in the WWE as the Host of Wrestlemania XXX.
“Well you know what I’ll tell ya I never got a shot at him, I got injured when I was in my prime. I’ll tell ya what they ought to do I’ll come out of retirement for one match ….Ventura vs Hogan today and lets see who wins.”
JJ responded to Jesse’s idea. “The problem is Jesse you’d kill him because he cant even drop the leg anymore his back is in such bad shape he need an endoskeleton of titanium to do the leg drop.”
“Well who says he has to do a Leg drop,” Ventura replied. “I’ve had my hip done so…as I said I do 4 miles a day in the desert I lift weights everyday I’m in as good of shape as I was 15-20 years ago. Look at me I’m looking good man (laughs) I’ll come back to wrestling if I get Hogan in the ring.”
JJ asks a question from Tony Mirabella concerning his attempt at organizing a wrestlers union:
“Well I tried to initiate it right before WrestleMania 2 when they had it in 3 places and I was in Los Angeles somewhere right before it and everybody from the office was gone so I stood up in the dressing room and I said, ‘Boys if we are going to unionize now is the time to do it.’ It’s a week before WrestleMania, it’s all advertised all we gotta do is bring…I had met Gene Upshaw who at that was the head of the NFL Players Association, I met him in Vegas and he looked at me and said, ‘You boys need a union.’”
“I said I know we do cause I was paying $5,000 a year for my family’s healthcare there were no retirement benefits…there’s nothing in wrestling. I stood up in the dressing room and made a big speech that we should unionize and we should all walk out unless union people were brought in so we could get union benefits like every other pro athlete gets like baseballs got a union, basketball has a union, football has a union, hockey’s got a union…they all got em except pro wrestling. Well a day later I get a phone call from Vince threatening to fire me and I had to quit anyway cause I was going to do Predator and to make a long story short I then became a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild and have been ever since and I get my retirement and my healthcare through the guild so I didn’t need a union anymore after I went to do Predator. I’m a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild Union now.”
“I fought with Vince and I told him we don’t need this to fight you, it’s to get health benefits we are not financial planners and maybe we can get some type of retirement and to make a long story short I wanted to know who ratted me out… who it was in that dressing room that went straight to Vince and ratted me out and I never found out until that lawsuit in the 1990’s when we had deposed Vince McMahon under oath in a federal lawsuit. I told my attorney the story and you can ask anything in the deposition so he worked it around to that and we found out my attorney asked Vince, ‘Well were you in the dressing room when Ventura made the speech?’ Vince said no.”
“My attorney said then how did you know and with no hesitation at all Vince said Hulk Hogan called me. Hulk Hogan ratted me…he did what was in my day of wrestling the worst thing you could be in the old days of wrestling was what was called an office stooge. That’s what he was Hogan went to the office and ratted me. Vince admitted it under oath and he went on Larry King and yet Hogan continues to deny that it happened.”
“I’m not looking to start a war with Hogan though I just thought it would be interesting to have the two of us get back in the ring and have the match we never had. The match was supposed to happen back in LA but I was struck down in San Diego with pulmonary embolism blood clot in my lungs. I couldn’t wrestle him, Big John Studd had to take my place, my good friend the late John Studd. He took my place but I was scheduled to go all over the circuit with Hogan and we never had the match. We can have it today in our 60’s if he is willing.”
“Hey it wouldn’t be the first time we have seen 2 guys in their 60’s wrestle in a main event at a PPV,” said JJ.
“Well in order for it to happen here’s the problem I’ll require that I get paid $1 more than Hogan. Just $1 more,” laughed Ventura.
JJ asks about his relationship with Eric Bischoff.
“He’s a backstabber completely….When I worked for WCW he didn’t tell me they were bringing Hogan in and I badmouthed him on the air…subsequently he took me off the air and for the last couple of months I sat at home and got paid in the last 2 months of my contract with WCW. I was one of the people that went to bat for Bischoff when they were going through all that mess in WCW where they went through Bill Watts and all these different guys who were running WCW. I went to bat for Eric Bischoff cause I thought he would be a great guy to come in there and it turned out he stuck me right in the back as soon as he got in there and got the power. He didn’t inform me and then he took out on me …and then got rid of me because he was bringing Hogan in and apparently Hogan didn’t want me there. I’m a guy who tells it like it is I don’t bow down to anybody.”
For the archive of the broadcast and the full 20 min interview with Governor Ventura which starts at the 70 min mark of the show, click here.
The future Superstars and Divas are preparing for the biggest night of their professional life as tonight NXT ArRIVAL becomes the first in-ring live broadcast on the WWE Network.
Starting at 7:30PM EST, a live pre-show will be presented with WWE Hall of Famer Bret “Hit Man” Hart, Kevin Nash, and Paul Heyman as the panel and then at 8PM EST, NXT ArRIVAL kicks off with matches including Sami Zayn vs Antonio Cesaro, Paige vs Emma for the NXT Women’s title, and Bo Dallas vs Adrian Neville in a ladder match for the NXT title. Other scheduled special appearances include Shawn Michaels and the New Age Outlaws.
Current WWE World Heavyweight champion Randy Orton has been added to the Wizard World Louisville Comic Con and will be making an appearance there on Saturday, March 29.
Orton will be meeting fans, signing autographs and posing for photos in a three hour appearance between 1PM and 4PM at the inaugural Louisville Comic Con which will be held at the Kentucky International Convention Center.
“Randy has a great following, which fans experienced first-hand in St. Louis last year. He adds a great new dimension to our stellar guest list for our first event in Louisville next month,” said Wizard World CEO John Macaluso.
Orton will be replacing CM Punk at the Comic Con. Punk was supposed to hold a Q&A panel as well but he was pulled from the event after he walked out of WWE. While his page is still up on Wizard World, attempts to buy tickets for his sessions leads to a page not found.
Microsoft has acknowledged the problems of the WWE Network app on their Xbox 360 and provided a short notice on their website.
Posted yesterday afternoon, the statement reads, “Are you having trouble using your WWE app on your Xbox 360 console? We’ve got you covered, Xbox members! Thanks for being patient while we work toward a fix. We’ll provide an update for you as soon as possible.” The status of the WWE app is listed as “limited” and says that users may experience difficulties with the app.
The service page suggests to try and delete and reinstall the WWE app if you get any errors, a fix which apparently doesn’t really work. You can follow the status of the WWE app on Xbox here.
Hulk Hogan surprised the hosts of NBC’s Today Show this morning and presented co-host – and big fan – Willie Giest with a replica of the WWE title.
Hogan said that he returned “home” to the WWE and promoted WrestleMania XXX as well as the WWE Network in his two and a half minute appearance on the show.
The Hulkster asked Giest for some hosting tips and Giest told him to do what he does during shows – rip his shirt off. Hogan then invited the four co-hosts to come to New Orleans for WrestleMania XXX.
Next Monday’s RAW which will be broadcasting live from the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois, will feature a massive main event, a rematch from the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view featuring The Shield vs The Wyatt Family.
The only other thing confirmed is the appearance of Brock Lesnar, who will be back to respond to Undertaker’s chokeslam and challenge for WrestleMania.
WWE will be bracing for a tough Chicago crowd and there’s fear that the crowd will hijack the show with CM Punk chants. The Chicago fans are notorious for being rowdy and one of the best crowds when it comes to professional wrestling and having their hometown boy absent will surely create some awkward situations with others in the ring if they decide to hijack the show.
RAW this week with the fall out from the Elimination Chamber and the return of Hulk Hogan and the Undertaker did a 3.31 rating and a total of 4,661,000 viewers, up almost 300,000 viewers from last week’s show.
Hour one which kicked off with Hogan did 4,892,000, followed by 4,778,000 in the second hour before dropping big time to 4,313,000 in the third and final hour. (Ratings credit: PWinsider.com)
If you’re a Canadian and you were using the Apple TV to watch the WWE Network you are in for bad news today: WWE has yanked the WWE Network channel from Apple TV in Canada.
Much to the enjoyment – and surprise – of Canadian fans, the WWE Network channel popped up on their Apple TV screens even though the Network is supposed to be airing only in the United States. Canadians who used their Canadian iTunes account were able to purchase six months of subscription and stream without any issues.
Apple Canada has accepted to refund customers the full amount if they don’t want to keep their subscription. Customers can call iTunes Canada at 800-676-2775 to request their refund.
A simple location change on your Apple TV settings from Canada to United States should pop the channel back up however the streams might still be blocked unless you are behind a U.S. IP address.
Jake “The Snake” Roberts underwent emergency surgery today to remove a lump on the back of his knee which doctors diagnosed as skin cancer.
The soon-to-be WWE Hall of Famer said he is scared in a video posted by his friend Diamond Dallas Page yesterday and said that whenever you hear the word cancer it shakes you up and he would be lying if he said he’s not scared.
He said doctors don’t know yet how bad it is and they will take some layers of flash from underneath it because the lump has “little fingers” growing out of it and going into his muscle tissue.
In a message on Twitter a few hours ago, Roberts said that the surgery went well but won’t know if the growth is all removed or spread until tests come back. “Doc optimistic and so am I,” he said.
