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Music producer Jim Johnston released after three decades with WWE

By
Colin Vassallo
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Music composer Jim Johnston, who has worked with WWE since 1985 and who created some of the most iconic wrestling themes, has been released by the company after his contract was not renewed. The news was originally reported by Twitter user @ThemeTitan_.

Throughout the decades working for WWE, Johnston produced themes for The Undertaker, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, The Ultimate Warrior, D-Generation X, Vince McMahon, Chris Jericho, Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Brock Lesnar, and many others.

Apart from producing theme songs, Johnston also worked on pay-per-view themes, music that accompanied recaps or feuds, tributes, etc. His work is published on several WWE CDs that were released over the years, selling nearly 6 million units.

Unfortunately for Johnston, the arrival of the duo CFO$ meant that they were tasked with producing the new songs for the new Superstars, taking away his primary job. CFO$ are behind the popular themes of Superstars like Bobby Roode, Shinsuke Nakamura, Sasha Banks, Samoa Joe, and others.

CFO$ were brought in by WWE Music Group General Manager Neil Lawi, the former Columbia Records Vice President who has been with the company since 2005.

Spoilers from NXT TV tapings including main event for next Takeover and one title change

By
Colin Vassallo
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WWE taped several weeks worth of NXT television last night at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida. These will be the last tapings at Full Sail for a while as WWE will have a few months of NXT TV from Center Stage in Atlanta next due to schedule conflicts with Full Sail.

The tapings consisted of one title change and the main event for NXT Takeover: Philadelphia confirmed.

In regards to the title change, Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly of The Undisputed Era became the new NXT Tag Team champions after they defeated Eric Young and Killian Dain of SAnitY. The SAnitY title reign lasted just over 100 days after they won it at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn III from The Authors of Pain.

Meanwhile, four qualification matches took place with the winner of each match advancing for a final fatal 4-way to determine the number one contender for the NXT title, currently held by Andrade “Cien” Almas.

The qualification matches included Killian Dain defeating Trent Seven, Lars Sullivan defeating Roderick Strong, Johnny Gargano defeating Kassius Ohno, and Aleister Black defeating Adam Cole. Dain, Sullivan, Gargano, and Black then had a match in which Johnny Gargano came out the winner.

The NXT Takeover: Philadelphia show will now feature Johnny Gargano taking on Andrade “Cien” Almas in the main event for the NXT title.

Smackdown rating for 11/28/2017

By
Colin Vassallo
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Smackdown this week drew 2,680,000 viewers, up 18,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. The show was just 79,000 viewers short from beating Raw in the ratings this week. It was #1 on the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

CM Punk attending UFC 218 to chat with Dana White over future

By
Colin Vassallo
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During a media lunch yesterday, UFC President Dana White revealed that CM Punk will be at UFC 218 in Detroit on December 2 and the two will have a sit-down chat regarding Punk’s future.

White remarked that he is not sure about a return to the UFC for CM Punk at this point although he said that he loves Punk and he’ll see what he’s doing. The news was reported by Marc Raimondi of MMAFighting.com.

The former WWE champion was given a fantastic opportunity to make his MMA debut inside UFC’s Octagon last year. That opportunity came at UFC 203 against the young Mickie Gall, however his time in the Octagon was short as Gall put on the rear-naked choke and Punk tapped out at 2:14 of round one.

Since then, Punk has resumed his MMA training at Roufusport in Milwaukee and is adamant about continuing his mixed martial arts career.

Raw rating for 11/27/2017

By
Colin Vassallo
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Monday Night Raw drew an average of 2,759,000 this week, down 315,000 viewers from last week’s show. It’s the least-watched Raw in six weeks.

Hour one started with 2,956,000 viewers, then went down to 2,720,000 viewers in the second hour, before closing the night with 2,601,000 viewers. Raw lost 355,000 viewers between hour one and hour three.

Raw was #3, #5, and #6 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

Anthem’s Ed Nordholm working to alter contracts to allow talent leaving to use Impact gimmicks

By
Colin Vassallo
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Speaking to Sports Illustrated, Impact Wrestling’s chief Ed Nordholm said that Anthem are reworking their talent contracts to allow anyone who leaves to continue to use their gimmick even if it was created while at Impact.

Nordholm said he was aware of the development of the Matt Hardy character on Raw and said that there have been no new negotiations between the two parties or any other discussion of revenue sharing over the broken gimmick.

“Will be interested to see where they take the concept,” Nordholm said of the recent Hardy transformation. “Our new talent agreements all incorporate language that allow talent to continue to use their IMPACT persona after they leave the company. We are working with our legal team to amend our existing agreements to extend this to all of our current and former talent.”

In WWE, that is a big no no and any gimmicks created by the company remain solely within WWE.

WWE Studios expanding into TV and digital

By
Colin Vassallo
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WWE announced today that its film division, WWE Studios, will be expanding its efforts into television and digital with both scripted and unscripted entertainment.

“Given the size of our fan base and their appetite for WWE programming well beyond our core in-ring shows, this is the ideal time to further establish the WWE brand with new genres across platforms,” said WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon. “WWE Studios is open for business with this new TV and digital initiative.”

Two big upcoming WWE Studios releases are Fighting With My Family, the movie about the family of WWE Superstar Paige which features Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson both in front and behind the camera in a producer role and the Andre The Giant documentary for HBO.

“Our new expanded focus on television and digital continues to push WWE Studios as a multiplatform production company, with the ability to create original content for global distribution as we have successfully done for the big screen,” said WWE Studios President Michael Luisi. “We look forward to identifying key partners to work alongside us while creating opportunities to use our on-screen WWE talent in new and exciting ways.”

Brie Bella says Daniel Bryan “is on a mission” to return wrestling in the WWE

By
Colin Vassallo
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Appearing on the latest episode of former Raw ring announcer Lilian Garcia’s Chasing Glory podcast, Brie Bella said that her husband Daniel Bryan is on a mission to return in the ring. In a WWE ring, to be exact.

Brie said that Bryan “has flown himself all over the United States to all different doctors to figure out what he could do to help turn that no into a yes.” She added that eight different doctors who specialize in this field have not objected to her husband returning to the ring.

Brie noted that WWE is looking at the possibility of him returning and acknowledged that the topic of stepping back in the ring cause a lot of arguments at home especially when she got pregnant.

The former WWE champion last wrestled in 2015 during a WWE European tour in the United Kingdom. He has since been forced to retire due to his concussions and then returned as the Smackdown General Manager last year when Smackdown went live on Tuesday nights on USA Network.

Total Divas episode preview for tonight: The Diva Divide

By
Colin Vassallo
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After a week hiatus, Total Divas returns on E! tonight with episode four of season seven titled The Diva Divide.

The synopsis for tonight’s broadcast reads, “A fight breaks out between Lana, Nattie and Nia when their critique of each other’s wrestling skills becomes too personal. A third home robbery pushes Maryse to want to relocate immediately, but Mike refuses to move. Meanwhile, Brie begins donating her breast milk to babies in need, but struggles to keep up with the demand.”

Reby Hardy and Señor Benjamin answer the “delete” calls!

By
Colin Vassallo
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Reby Hardy, the wife of Matt Hardy, went “delete” crazy on Twitter last night after the segment with her husband and Bray Wyatt aired.

Matt, who seemed to have suffered the first stage of “broken,” started “deleting” and his wife did the same…on Twitter with animated GIFs. After posting several GIFs of delete, Reby wrote, “Now it gets fun.” Ruby has been involved in some nasty Twitter wars with Ed Nordholm and Jeff Jarrett over the whole broken gimmick and was very vocal in her dislike for both individuals. Reby even threatened to release some embarrassing tweets that Jeff Jarrett, who was still working for Impact at the time, had sent to her while he was drunk.

Meanwhile, Señor Benjamin, also got woken on Twitter. After two months of inactivity, he tweeted, “Me llamaron?” which translates to “You called me?” Señor Benjamin is the father of Reby Hardy. Reby claimed in the past that her dad was never paid a cent and was never given a contract for all the work he did for Impact Wrestling during the broken storyline.

David Otunga given temporary custody of 8-year-old son

By
Colin Vassallo
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TMZ.COM is reporting that David Otunga has been given temporary custody of his 8-year-old son after his former fiancee Jennifer Hudson voluntarily dropped the temporary restraining order against the WWE announcer. The restraining order prevented Otunga from having contact with her or their son, David Jr.

Until a permanent custody agreement is drawn up, Otunga will remain the primary custodial parent as Hudson is spending a considerable amount of time jetting between London and the United States while working for The Voice television show. Otunga has been the primary caregiver of their son since he was born due to her travel schedule.

Last week, police officers escorted Otunga out of Hudson’s house after she placed a restraining order on him. He was living there taking care of their son while still paying her the rent money. TMZ adds that Otunga will not be moving back to the Chicago house.

Riot, Logan, and Morgan in six-woman tag match tonight on Smackdown

By
Colin Vassallo
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Shane McMahon announced a six-woman tag match for tonight’s Smackdown featuring the brand’s newest arrivals from NXT.

Ruby Riot, Sarah Logan, and Liv Morgan will be teaming up to take on Smackdown Women’s champion Charlotte, Natalya, and Naomi. Charlotte and Naomi were attacked by the NXT trio on last week’s show.

Their arrival is mimicking what’s going on on Raw with Paige, Mandy, and Sonya so it wouldn’t be a surprise if the trio take out their opponents before the match like what happened last night on Raw. It is rumored that Paige will be revealed to be the individual behind Riot, Logan, and Morgan as well.

Broken Matt Hardy has been woken!

By
Colin Vassallo
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Ever since Matt Hardy, along with his brother Jeff, returned to WWE, the duo have rarely mentioned their broken characters that they left behind at Impact Wrestling. Apart from the occasional ‘Delete’ hand swing and the laugh, both have steered away from it mainly due to the legal complications over the gimmicks.

But on Monday Night Raw yesterday, Matt Hardy gave the best indication yet that the popular gimmick will be coming to WWE after all. Following his loss to Bray Wyatt, Hardy sat in the corner frustrated and started the delete hand gesture. “Are we seeing the beginning of a Matt Hardy breakdown?” wondered Michael Cole on commentary.

“YEEAAAASSSSSSSS! My dormant CONDISHTION has been #WOKEN,” Hardy tweeted, before adding, “My physical contact with Bray Wyatt on #RAW seems to have TRIGGERED & AWAKENED my PRIMAL PASSENGER.”

The Broken gimmick has been the center of a legal dispute between Anthem, the parent company of Impact, and Matt Hardy. Both claim that they own the gimmick, and both filed petitions with the USPTO for ownership. There have been rumors, and some confirmed reports from Anthem’s Ed Nordholm, that the two sides have been trying to reach an agreement that would see Hardy getting ownership of the gimmick against some kind of compensation.

It remains unclear if Hardy now owns the gimmick but considering what happened yesterday, it looks like Broken Matt Hardy is coming back!

Impact rating for 11/23/2017

By
Colin Vassallo
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Last week’s Impact drew a total of 169,000 viewers, down 103,000 viewers from the previous week. It was an expected drop considering the show fell on Thanksgiving day. The ratings were delayed due to the holiday. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

Drew McIntyre out for around four months with bicep injury

By
Colin Vassallo
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Drew McIntyre, the former NXT champion, wrote today on Twitter that while he has dealt with several setbacks before during his career but he always comes back better, and this time around, it won’t be different.

“There’s a scary thought for whomever is NXT champion come 2018,” McIntyre wrote.

McIntyre blew his bicep at NXT Takeover: WarGames during the closing stages of his match against Andrade “Cien” Almas where he lost the NXT title. Almas went for a DDT while McIntyre was on the top rope but McIntyre held on to the top rope and mis-timed the drop, causing the bicep tear. One of the WWE medical personnel attended to the Scottish star after the match was over.

Ryan Satin of ProWrestlingSheet.com reported that McIntyre will be out for a few months and is targeting a return before WrestleMania. That would put him out of action for around four months.

Goldberg to appear in two episodes of The Flash

By
Colin Vassallo
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Former WWE Universal champion Bill Goldberg will be starring in two episodes of The Flash in this new season. The news was confirmed by Goldberg himself on Titter.

Golberg’s involvement was originally reported by the Real World of Flash Instagram account. Goldberg will be the second WWE alumni to appear on the show, following fellow former champion Edge.

It’s not known when the episodes with Goldberg will air or which character he will be playing. The Flash, a DC Comics product, airs on The CW Network, the former home of Smackdown.

Nia Jax says she is body-shamed at work by fellow women Superstars

By
Colin Vassallo
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Nia Jax uploaded an Instagram post with a video running on a treadmill along with a message suggesting that she is body-shamed at work for being a big girl by her fellow WWE women Superstars.

“In this line of work and with the world of social media, I am subjected to body shaming & it’s something I have accepted,” Jax wrote. “It sucks when you get it in your own backyard around people you’re changing in front of and trust with your body.”

The comment is certainly not good PR for WWE, which runs the Be A STAR campaign for anti-bullying. Having one of your talent speaking out like that in public is certainly a cause for concern and it will be interesting to see if WWE reacts or acts on the comment.

“I am a HEALTHY bigger woman, I LOVE MY BODY. Body shaming is WRONG! I hope every person struggling with their body WHATEVER shape or size you are, do not allow someone to shame their perfectly beautiful body,” Jax added.

The former NXT star took a few weeks of leave of absence and only returned before the Survivor Series. Rumors were spreading around that she had quit the company but her real-life best friend Alexa Bliss put cold water on those rumors saying that Jax needed some time to recharge her batteries.

Arn Anderson hits the spine buster on Dolph Ziggler at Starrcade!

By
Colin Vassallo
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Fans in attendance at the Greensboro Coliseum last night for Starrcade got to see some pretty cool moments.

During the Roode/Ziggler match, special enforcer Arn Anderson got to deliver his Double A spine buster on Ziggler to a big pop from the crowd. Earlier, Ziggler flattened Anderson outside the ring but Anderson’s spine buster helped Roode win the match. The former Horseman then welcomed Ziggler “to Horsemen country.” Anderson retired in 1997 due to several beck and back injuries that left only partial mobility in his left arm.

The New Day also got to dance…and twerk with WWE Hall of Famers The Rock ‘N’ Roll Express and the Hardy Boyz. Dustin Rhodes, who came out in his Goldust robe, removed it to unveil the “Natural” Dustin Rhodes, complete with his old WCW theme song as a tribute to his father.

Ric Flair also joined his daughter at the top of the entrance following her win and strutted with the Smackdown Women’s champion.

You can see some videos from the event below.

Starrcade event results from Greensboro, North Carolina

By
Colin Vassallo
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Here are the results from last night’s Starrcade non-televised live event from the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Bobby Roode defeated Dolph Ziggler with Arn Anderson as the special enforcer; Bludgeon Brothers, Rusev, The Colons, and Mike Kanellis defeated Tye Dillinger, Breezing, The Ascension, and Sin Cara; Naomi defeated Tamina; Dustin Rhodes defeated Dash Wilder; Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Baron Corbin via disqualification; The Usos defeated The New Day, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, and Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin in a fatal 4-way to retain the Smackdown Tag Team titles; Charlotte Flair defeated Natalya in a steel cage match to retain the Smackdown Women’s title; AJ Styles defeated Jinder Mahal in a steel cage match to retain the WWE title.

Apart from the matches, Rock ‘N’ Roll Express, Hardy Boyz, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, and Ric Flair all made an appearance.

Dave Bautista wants WWE return…and not just a one-off!

By
Colin Vassallo
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Former WWE and World Heavyweight champion Dave Bautista told Jim Ross in the latest Ross Report podcast that he’s been in discussions with Vince McMahon about a possible almost-full time return to WWE.

Bautista, who last wrestled for WWE in June 2015, said, “I’ve talked to Vince recently. He knows what I want and I’ve made it very clear that I wanted to go back and run a program with Triple H.” He noted that a program with HHH would be the thing that gets him back in the business.

However, the wrestler-turned-movie star added that he does not want this to be a one-off and is not interested in a cheap pop. “I would love to go back. The reason I haven’t gone back is because I don’t want to do a one-off. I want to wrestle. I want to do some house shows and I want to be a part of the program. I love it,” Bautista said. “The ‘cheap pop’ thing just doesn’t do anything for me.”

Bautista made his return to WWE in 2014 in January, winning the Royal Rumble after entering #28. He went on to main event WrestleMania XXX with Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton but tapped out to the Yes! Lock, giving Bryan his WWE title win. After reuniting the Evolution group and wrestling The Shield twice, Bautista was unhappy with the creative direction and decided to leave and continue his Hollywood career.

Since leaving WWE, Bautista has done pretty well in Hollywood and has appeared in several movies, including playing a villain in the James Bond movie Spectre and portraying the character of Drax the Destroyer in Guardians of the Galaxy. He will also be part of the massive cast of Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War movies starting next year.

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