There is certainly no love lost between Ronda Rousey and Cris Cyborg. The two have pretty much evaded each other during their MMA career but now Cyborg wants Rousey….in a WWE ring.
In a video by TMZ, Cyborg said that she would gladly accept an offer to wrestle Ronda Rousey in WWE. But Cyborg thinks that Rousey would not accept to step in the squared circle to take her on. “If she don’t fight (me) in MMA, I don’t think she gonna agree fight (me) in WWE.”
Cyborg, the UFC Women’s Featherweight Champion, was trying to get herself on the SummerSlam card last year by pushing a Twitter feud with Smackdown’s Becky Lynch.
WWE will be returning to Tokyo, Japan in June for two back-to-back events at the Ryogoku Kokugikan Sumo Arena.
The dates will be Friday, June 29, and Saturday, June 30, and the Smackdown brand will be doing this tour. Scheduled to be there are AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode, Kevin Owens, Charlotte Flair, The New Day, Naomi, and others.
With WWE rumored to have another draft sometime after WrestleMania, those appearing might change depending if they have moved to Raw.
Ticket details will be announced soon on wwelive.jp.
The Sunday Herald Sun in Australia is reporting that WWE will be announcing a mega pay-per-view at the 100,000-seater stadium The MCG.
The newspaper claims that Visit Victoria, the tourism arm for Victoria, will be signing the deal shortly and the announcement will be done during WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans on April 8.
Kosta Pandos, a spokesman for Minister for Tourism and Major Events John Eren, declined to comment on the specifics of the event. “If you want to put on a show, Victoria is the place to do it – but we don’t tell our competitors how we attract the best major events calendar anywhere in the nation,” Pandos said. “Events of this magnitude would pay massive dividends for our economy, bring new visitors to our state and support jobs.”
A Visit Victoria official also declined to reveal any information. “Visit Victoria maintains our status as the events capital of Australia by not disclosing our strategy for acquiring major events,” the spokesman said.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is the 10th largest stadium in the world and the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. The record attendance stands at 121,696 for an event held in 1970. The stadium underwent renovations since then and also configuration changes which has limited attendance to 100,024. The record since the change stands at 100,021 for the 2017 AFL Grand Final.
Impact Wrestling on POP this week did a total of 365,000, rebounding nicely from last week with an increase of 103,000 viewers. That is the best number since the July 13, 2017 episode of the show. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Filmmaker Jonny Bravo is ready to drop a big bombshell on Roman Reigns and WWE in general and said that he might have to go into hiding after the documentary is released “shortly.”
Bravo claims that Reigns was one of the many who submitted orders for illegal steroids on the Wellness Fitness Nutrition LLC website using “very creative aliases” and he went through tens of thousands of orders to get the information.
“The WWE and WFN report is complete. Along with the former WWE legend who placed over 140K in orders with WFN. Were they distributed to other WWE stars and who was aiding the distribution?” Bravo asks.
He said that this documentary will not only show the evidence that Roman Reigns was a frequent client of WFN, but will also reveal all the former and current WWE Superstars and their connection to the scheme.
“It will contain shipping info with tracking, phone records, and orders directly from the WFN database,” he added.
If the evidence against Reigns is rock solid, it will put the WrestleMania main event in grave danger as WWE would have to act to save face on a public story that could be very, very damaging to the company.
Roman Reigns has denied any involvement in the case.
Brian Flinn, WWE’s EVP of Marketing and Communications has been promoted to his new position of Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, six years after joining WWE.
Flinn will now oversee all marketing and corporate communications functions, including global consumer marketing, WWE Network marketing, creative services, special events, publicity, media relations and corporate communications. He will continue to report directly to WWE Co-President Michelle Wilson.
“Brian has been an instrumental part of our company’s leadership team and I’m thrilled to announce his much-deserved promotion,” said Vince McMahon, WWE Chairman & CEO. “In this new role, we are confident that he will continue to expand the opportunities for WWE, and further enhance visibility, brand reputation and audience engagement.”
WWE and L’Équipe, the leading French free TV channel dedicated to sport, today announced a new agreement to broadcast WWE’s flagship program Raw on free-to-air television in France.
Beginning March 10, L’Équipe channel la chaine L’Équipe will air a one-hour version of Raw at 10AM on Saturdays with an additional re-air on Saturday nights, all with French commentary.
“We are delighted to partner with WWE, renowned all over the world for its high-quality TV programs,” said Arnaud de Courcelles, L’Équipe TV Director. “La chaine L’Équipe is happy to offer Raw to its viewers, which is a mix of spectacular sport and entertainment!”
“We are thrilled to partner with L’Équipe and expand our reach on their popular channel in France,” said Michelle Wilson, WWE Co-President. “This partnership to deliver localized WWE programming allows us to provide our unique blend of action-packed, family-friendly entertainment to WWE fans throughout the country.”
Raw will also be available on L’Équipe’s TV Everywhere platform for authenticated subscribers, and on its 7-day VOD catchup window.
WWE Hall of Famer Tammy “Sunny” Sytch is once again behind bars reports PWInsider.com after she was arrested in Aberdeen Township, New Jersey on Tuesday, February 27.
The Monmouth County Sheriffs’ Office website lists eight different charges, six of them are contempt – disobedience/resistance, and two are fugitive from justice. Sytch is still locked up in county jail and has a $6,000 bond.
Her probation from the state of Pennsylvania was revoked on February 28, the day after she was arrested in New Jersey.
Sunny has been in an out of jail several times over the last couple of years and has avoided the harshest penalties so far although this time her luck might run out.
Colin Cowherd, the FOX Sports host who was present at Smackdown on Tuesday, spoke highly of WWE in the latest episode of FS1’s Speak For Yourself.
Cowherd has not been WWE’s biggest fan lately and often mocked wrestling fans, however, he came out with a positive experience after attending his first-ever WWE live show in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
“It was a hoot, we laughed for two hours,” Cowherd told his co-host Jason Whitlock. He explained how they met Stephanie McMahon backstage and labeled WWE as a professionally-run organization and likened the live event to a concert. Cowherd even posted a photo from backstage with Natalya and Smackdown Women’s champion Charlotte.
But perhaps the biggest teaser came in the final few seconds of the three-minute segment that discussed WWE, when co-host Jason Whitlock said he might get involved more in watching WWE in the future and Cowherd replied saying that it’s “coming to a network near you.”
This certainly hints at the very good possibility that FOX will be doing some heavy bidding to get WWE’s television rights from NBCUniversal. Rumors coming from those within the television industry suggest that if FOX ends up with WWE, Monday Night Raw would move to network television for the first time ever, airing on FOX, while Smackdown would remain on cable on FOX Sports 1.
In her first public comments ever since the announcement of Jeff Jarrett’s WWE Hall of Fame induction, his wife Karen said that watching the videos, reading social media posts and articles on websites brought joy to her heart.
“He is so humble and never credits himself for the good that he has done or the success he has had in this business. He ALWAYS gives the credit to someone else or puts someone else over and takes the attention off himself. But he is the first to stand up when a mistake has been made and say my fault take the blame and do his best to change or fix things,” Karen wrote.
Karen thanked every single wrestler, promoter, fan, reporter, radio station, and everyone else inside and outside the business for speaking out about her husband and what he has accomplished. “I am going to continue to enjoy being quiet watching, listening and smiling as @realjeffjarrett gets the respect and recognition he so deserves!”
WWE’s next non-televised live event in a big market, Chicago, will take place this Saturday at the United Center and WWE Universal champion Brock Lesnar will be in the house.
“The reigning defending undisputed @WWE #UniversalChampion @BrockLesnar and I fully intend to honor our contractual obligations and therefore will indeed appear LIVE at the @UnitedCenter this Saturday night in #Chicago,” Paul Heyman tweeted today.
Joining Lesnar on this show will be Roman Reigns, John Cena, Kane, Seth Rollins, Braun Strowman, Matt Hardy, Finn Balor, and all of Raw’s top stars.
When WWE runs the Chicago market, they use the Allstate Arena which technically is in Rosemont. This event at the United Center will mark the first WWE show there in 20 years.
Impact Wrestling today announced a major co-promotion show with Lucha Underground which is set for WrestleMania weekend during WrestleCon in New Orleans.
Impact stars will take on Lucha Underground stars on Friday, April 6 starting at 9PM local time for an event that will be held at The Sugar Mill located at 1021 Convention Center Blvd. The show will be streamed live and free on Impact’s Twitch channel at Twitch.tv/impactwrestling.
“We are excited and honored to expand our partnership with AAA and Twitch for this groundbreaking co-promotion with Lucha Underground,” said Ed Nordholm, president of IMPACT Wrestling. “Extensive coverage from WrestleCon will stream live all weekend on IMPACT Wrestling’s official Twitch channel as fans will have the opportunity to interact with their favorite stars.”
Dorian Roldán, General Manager of Lucha Underground, added, “We are very excited to partner with IMPACT Wrestling for this very special and unique event. We are also very excited to bring Lucha Underground to fans at WrestleCon for the first time. We think this is a great opportunity for both IMPACT Wrestling and Lucha Underground to put on a great show for all the wrestling fans who will be in New Orleans.”
Tickets for Impact Wrestling vs Lucha Underground on April 6 are available at wrestlecon.com.
WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin is coming to the biggest wrestling convention of the year, WrestleCon, during WrestleMania 34 weekend in New Orleans.
The Texas Rattlesnake will be at WrestleCon on Sunday, April 8 starting at 9AM and will only be available to those who purchased specific tickets to meet him. All tickets require a Sunday admission to WrestleCon as well. Highspots.com, who is bringing Austin to their event, immediately sold out of the two packages and if time permits they will offer single autographs or photo ops with your camera for $100 cash only at the Steve Austin booth.
Austin will join tons of other major wrestling stars such as Goldberg, Shawn Michaels, Sting, Kenny Omega, Lita, Bret Hart, Mick Foley, Trish Stratus, Diamond Dallas Page, and many more at the convention.
The advertised appearance of John Cena and a strong main event led to the second-best rating of 2018 so far for Smackdown, with the show doing 2,692,000 viewers. That is up 79,000 viewers from last week’s show. Smackdown was #1 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and #6 in overall viewership. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
UFC President Dana White admitted that the chances of Brock Lesnar returning to the UFC are “very, very, very good.” White made the declaration while appearing on the Happy Hours radio show on SiriusXM.
The photo he posted on Twitter, side-by-side with Lesnar in Las Vegas on the day of the Elimination Chamber, created a lot of speculation online especially since Lesnar’s contract will run out after WrestleMania 34. While Lesnar’s deal runs through WrestleMania, Dave Meltzer of the Observer reports that WWE has the right to retain his services in some way, shape, or form, till the end of August.
That news was also confirmed by Dana White several months ago when he said that technically, Brock Lesnar is under a WWE contract till August.
If Lesnar decides to step back in the Octagon, he still has to go through six months of suspension which was imposed by the USADA following his two drug test failures leading up to his UFC 200 fight against Mark Hunt. That suspension will resume once Lesnar is placed back in the USADA drug testing pool.
Paul Heyman, speaking to TMZ last week, said that if Lesnar decides to go back to the UFC, he would be the healthiest fighter in the company.
Sports Illustrated reporter Richard Deitsch wrote last night that two FOX Sports executives – Eric Shanks, the President, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Producer and Jacob Ullman, Senior Vice President, Production and Talent Development – were sitting at ringside for Smackdown Live in Los Angeles. Joining them was sports media personality Colin Cowherd, the host of The Herd on FOX Sports 1.
The three could be seen enjoying the show during the Sami Zayn vs Baron Corbin match when the action spilled outside and they were seated on the hard camera side so they were not visible all the time during the broadcast.
FOX is currently weighing the possibility of bidding for WWE programming and snapping it away from NBCUniversal. Execs from both companies have held talks over the past few months but there is no formal bid yet. NBCUniversal have the right to make the first offer and then match any other offer to retain WWE programming.
WWE is expected to start negotiations for a bigger television deal in the next month or so. Whatever happens, Raw and Smackdown cannot move from USA Network until Fall of 2019 when the current contract expires.
John Cena has found a way to insert himself in the Fastlane main event which has been changed yet again.
Cena arrived on Smackdown thanks to his free agent status to try and find a path to WrestleMania after he was told that his match against The Undertaker is “impossible” and was not going to happen.
Smackdown GM Daniel Bryan gave Cena a shot at AJ Styles in a non-title match with the stipulation being that if Cena wins, he would be added to the Fastlane main event. Cena eventually defeated Styles via the Attitude Adjustment and has another shot of walking into WrestleMania as a WWE champion.
The Fastlane main event has been changed several times over the past two months. Originally, the main event was set as a fatal 5-way match but that was never officially announced by WWE and only announced through local advertising. The match had Styles vs Nakamura vs Orton vs Zayn vs Owens.
After Nakamura won the Royal Rumble, plans changed and the main event was set for a triple threat match between Styles, Owens, and Zayn. Then Baron Corbin won his right to be in the match, and later Dolph Ziggler also won a place in the show, changing it to fatal 5-way again.
The addition of Cena means that this match will now be a six-pack challenge for the WWE title, with the winner going on to face Shinsuke Nakamura at WrestleMania.
Streaming giant Netflix today announced the return of their global competition series Beastmaster, with two former WWE Superstars hosting the show in different countries.
Former WWE champion CM Punk will co-host for the United States-version of the show while Stu Bennett, the man formerly known as Wade Barrett, will co-host the United Kingdom-version of Beastmaster.
As per the Hollywood Reporter, in each episode, competitors take their shot at running The Beast, one of the most physically demanding obstacle courses ever created. At the end of each installment, a Beastmaster is crowned, and in the final episode of the season, the nine individual winners from each episode will compete against one another for the chance to become the Ultimate Beastmaster.
This will be the third season of the show which starts later this year.
The post-Elimination Chamber Raw did an average of 3,180,000 viewers, down 102,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. The usual post-PPV jump was not there this time and Ronda Rousey’s first Raw appearance also did not generate any significant interest.
Hour one started with 3,407,000 viewers, followed by 3,249,000 viewers in the second hour, and then down to 2,884,000 viewers in the third and final hour. Raw lost over half a million viewers from the first to the third hour.
The show was #1, #2, and #3 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Kurt Angle was on the receiving end of a Triple H fist last night on Raw as the Cerebral Assassin decked Angle for the problems he caused on Sunday at the Elimination Chamber.
Raw’s main event segment featured Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, Ronda Rousey, and Kurt Angle as they continued their program that will lead to a WrestleMania tag team match. Stephanie demanded that Kurt Angle apologizes for what he did but Ronda Rousey answered the call and stormed down to the ring looking like she was ready to kick some ass.
Angle however calmed her down, telling her that he needed the Raw GM job and said he lied on Sunday. Steph and Triple H thanked Kurt for clearing the air but Rousey then demanded that Stephanie apologizes to her for slapping her or else she would rip her arm out of its socket!
As Stephanie charged at her, the billion dollar princess stopped and apologized multiple times, getting a laugh from the Anaheim crowd. As Steph and Triple H exited, Kurt Angle had a sigh of relief, only to be met by a right hand from The Game, who dropped Angle on the mat.
The continuation of the angle from Sunday night kept building the tension between all four and with The Rock seemingly out of the picture, it looks like Kurt Angle will be taking his spot in this mixed tag team match. Angle last wrestled on Team Raw at the Survivor Series this past November and has often stated his wish to resume his in-ring career.
