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David Otunga and Jennifer Hudson split after 10 years together

By
Colin Vassallo
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People.com is reporting that WWE’s David Otunga and his superstar girlfriend Jennifer Hudson have broken up after 10 years together.

“They have been in the process of ending their relationship for a number of months,” Hudson’s rep told E! News. “Today, Jennifer requested and received a protective order against her ex-fiancé. Jennifer’s actions are solely taken in the best interest of their son. Please respect her privacy at this time.”

The two have an 8-year-old son named David Otunga Jr and it looks like the legal fight over their child will be a nasty one in court. Otunga’s lawyer issued a long statement over the couple’s breakup and the reason behind it.

“David Otunga has been trying to negotiate the terms of an amicable parenting agreement with Ms. Hudson for several weeks now. However, when it became apparent to Ms. Hudson that Mr. Otunga would be the parent granted residential care of the child, as a result of Mr. Otunga being the child’s primary caregiver while Ms. Hudson pursues her career all over the world, Ms. Hudson decided to file a meritless Petition for Order of Protection in an effort to gain an unfair advantage in the custody dispute,” Tracy Rizzo explained.

“As a result of Mr. Otunga’s career in the WWE, Ms. Hudson felt that she could give an award winning performance in court to portray herself as the victim. Mr. Otunga has never abused or harassed Ms. Hudson or their son, and it is unfortunate, especially in today’s climate, that she would feel the need to make these false allegations against him. Mr. Otunga looks forward to his day in court and in being awarded the residential care of the parties’ only child.”

WrestleMania 34 tickets now on sale

By
Colin Vassallo
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Following two days of pre-sale, tickets for WrestleMania 34 went on sale to the general public this morning at Ticketmaster.com and at the Merdeces-Benz Superdome box office.

Tickets are priced $35, $50, $75, $100, $150, $175, $200, $250, $350, $450, $850, $1,000, and $2,000 for ringside. Seats on the main floor which go for $1,000 and $2,000 include the commemorative chair that you can take home with you.

Ticketmaster was having problems loading up the individual seats for picks when the tickets went on sale and was defaulting to the system to automatically search the best available seats for you instead.

WrestleMania XXX had 75,167 fans inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, a number which most likely be surpassed – legit or not – at WrestleMania 34.

Wrestling-Online.com is offering accommodation at the luxurious Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans with rates at nearly 50% discount from the going rate at the hotel during WrestleMania weekend. For more information go to http://w-o.it/wm34hotel.

Total Divas S7 E3 episode recap: Breaking All The Rules

By
W-O Staff
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On this episode of Total Divas, two Divas tried to revolt against the corporate system, giving a whole new meaning to the Divas Revolution.

First, WWE Superstar Lana was upset because she had just been told by WWE’s talent relations executive, Mark Carano that her brief career as a women Superstar had come to an end because WWE’s creative team had chosen to go in another direction. An angry Lana fired back at the company claiming that in her previous match against Naomi, she wasn’t legitimately pinned making Naomi’s victory over her null and void.

Lana then proceeded to post a picture of herself online proving that the pinfall didn’t happen. She did this in spite of the fact that Natalya advised her against it. Natalya felt that going against the creative team’s wishes would only cause Lana to get into more trouble. However, she was wrong. Apparently, because of Lana’s online outcry, WWE fans were demanding a rematch between her and Naomi. So, Lana was essentially being rewarded for rebelling against her bosses wishes. However, she wasn’t the only Diva who rebelled against the system this week.

Naomi also didn’t play by the rules this week. In this episode, Naomi was the Smackdown Women’s champion and in keeping with her character’s “feel the glow” gimmick, Naomi wanted to make the championship belt glow just like the rest of her ring gear. The only problem was in order to accomplish this, Naomi had to remove the belt from the possession of the WWE and have the belt secretly shipped to a shop which specialized in attaching glow-in-the-dark lights.

Getting a costume change approved by WWE can take months, but Naomi was too eager to test out her glow-in-the-dark belt. So she decided to debut the new belt at a WWE live event, assuming that WWE creative team members wouldn’t find out. However, Naomi forgot about one important aspect of today’s technology: social media.

After Naomi debuted her new belt at a live event in Corpus Christi, Texas, a fan posted a picture on their Twitter account. Needless to say, WWE was not happy about Naomi making wardrobe changes without their approval, however since the fans loved Naomi’s glowing belt, she was allowed to keep it. I guess it just goes to show, sometimes, taking a risk does reap rewards

Meanwhile, Brie and Nikki Bella had an adventure of their own. They traveled from Brie’s home in Phoenix, Arizona across the desert to San Diego, California. The Bella Twins are pretty used to traveling together because they were wrestling partners for many years, but this time they had an unusual travel companion, Brie’s infant daughter, Birdie Jo.

So the twins had to make more frequent stops while on the road, one of which was particularly interesting because Brie needed to breast feed, but the truck stop they went to didn’t have a private place where Brie could breast feed, so eventually they decided to use a large shower with Nicole standing guard at the door to make sure that truckers didn’t disturb Birdie while she was eating lunch and get a free look at Brie’s breast. Good looking out for your sister, Nikki! I guess, this will be a road trip that the girls will never forget!

Stay tuned for more from all the Divas both off-road and on the rest of the season on Total Divas.

Ric Flair announced for Starrcade appearance

By
Colin Vassallo
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WWE officially confirmed today that Nature Boy Ric Flair will be making an appearance at the Starrcade non-televised live event on November 25 from the Greensboro Coliseum.

The Greensboro Coliseum was the location of the first-ever NWA Starrcade show back in 1983 and was headlined by Ric Flair vs Harley Race in a cage match for the NWA title. The show will have two steel cage matches in a tribute to the first Starrcade, with AJ Styles vs Jinder Mahal for the WWE title and Charlotte Flair vs Natalya for the Smackdown Women’s title.

The Rock ‘N’ Roll Express will also be appearing, along with the Hardy Boyz, and Goldust will be wrestling under the Dustin Rhodes name against Dash Wilder. The Starrcade show was originally created by Dusty Rhodes.

NXT’s WarGames cage will have no roof unlike original concept

By
Colin Vassallo
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The upcoming WarGames match this Saturday at NXT Takeover will have one big change from the original concept of the gimmick match: no roof on the cage.

The original WarGames concept had two rings side-by-side covered by one giant steel cage structure, leaving no opportunity to escape. WWE has decided to deviate from that concept and while there will still be two side-by-side rings, the cage surrounding the two rings will be similar to a regular cage instead of cage with a roof. The news was confirmed by Triple H himself during a conference call with reporters earlier today to discuss NXT Takeover.

Triple H said that putting a roof on the cage would limit what the three teams can do and rebuffed the idea that the company has changed the concept of the gimmick match. HHH said that the concept remains the same, as in two rings, a cage, and the match starting only when everyone is finally in the ring.

NXT Takeover: WarGames will see The Undisputed Era vs The Authors of Pain and Roderick Strong vs SAnitY.

James Ellsworth comments on WWE release

By
Colin Vassallo
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James Ellsworth had nothing but good things to say about WWE and its fans after he was notified that he was released from his contract.

Ellsworth, who started with the company in July of last year, said that when he wrestled Braun Strowman, the match didn’t last two minutes, and with that, neither was his WWE career supposed to either. “Thanks to fans all over the world, in those nearly 2 minutes I lasted a year and a half at WWE, I’ll never forget what wrestling fans did for me, I can’t wait to meet fans all over the world,” he wrote in a post on his social media.

He also added that he isn’t done yet and it’s just getting started and he will show the world that any man with two hands has a fighting chance, quoting his promo from that July episode of Raw that led him to being signed. Ellsworth also thanked WWE for letting him live his dream.

Fellow Superstars all had great things to say about him and posted on their Twitter what a good man he really is, wishing him good luck.

STAPLES Center to host the 2018 Survivor Series

By
Colin Vassallo
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After losing out SummerSlam to the Barclays Center, the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles landed another big 4 pay-per-view: Survivor Series 2018.

WWE announced today that next year’s NXT Takeover, Survivor Series, Raw, and Smackdown will all take place at the STAPLES Center over four consecutive nights starting on November 17. Additional details about these events, including ticket on sale information and travel packages, will be announced in early 2018.

In 31 years, the West Coast has never hosted a Survivor Series and the majority of the events took place on the East Coast of the United States. The STAPLES Center hosted SummerSlam every year from 2009 to 2014 and the most recent pay-per-view from the arena was Hell In A Cell in 2015.

Smackdown rating for 11/14/2017

By
Colin Vassallo
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The final Smackdown before the Survivor Series drew 2,607,000 viewers, up just 4,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. Smackdown was #5 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and #7 overall in viewership with ESPN winning the night. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

Total Divas episode preview for tonight: Breaking All The Rules

By
Colin Vassallo
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Total Divas episode three of season seven airs tonight on E! with an episode titled Breaking All The Rules.

The synopsis for the show reads, “Trinity goes behind WWE’s back and alters her championship in order to give it a glow, meanwhile Lana pulls a similar stunt by posting a photo that could get her fired. Brie recruits Nikki to go on a road trip to San Diego with a breastfeeding infant in the car, and Carmella & Cass visit Los Angeles and live a day in the life of Maryse and The Miz.”

The Shield leads payback attack on Smackdown in chaotic segment

By
Colin Vassallo
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The Shield led an attack on the Smackdown locker room last night as the show ended in a wild brawl as the red team delivered payback to the under siege segment from a couple of weeks ago.

Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Dean Ambrose interrupted The New Day vs Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn match and then wrecked havoc on their Survivor Series opponents as the heels bolted. The Usos joined the fray to help team blue but more members from Raw, including Sheamus, Cesaro, Samoa Joe, Finn Balor, Apollo Crews, Titus O’Neil, and others provided support for Raw.

The Raw women also delivered their own smackdown, beating on Lana, Carmella, and the new champion Charlotte in the backstage portion of the segment. After a while, Shane McMahon then ran down followed by Baron Corbin, Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode, Dolph Ziggler, and other Smackdown stars but then Kurt Angle showed up, bringing Braun Strowman with him for more carnage.

Eventually the ring cleared with Shane McMahon isolated as The Shield continued its beatdown on the Smackdown Commissioner. Shane ended up eating two Shield triple power bombs and an Olympic Slam from Kurt Angle to close the show.

The video clip on YouTube of the segment proved to be super popular with already over 2.3 million views.

James Ellsworth released from WWE

By
Colin Vassallo
-

James Ellsworth’s dream run in WWE has come to a screeching halt as WWE announced that Ellsworth has been released from his contract.

“WWE has come to terms on the release of WWE Superstar James Ellsworth. WWE wishes Ellsworth the best in all of his future endeavors,” a statement read.

Ellsworth, real name James Morris, appeared as a “jobber” on an episode of Raw in July of last year and was crushed by Braun Strowman. His pre-match promo where he proclaimed that “any man with two hands has a fighting chance” went over with the fans and WWE listened to its audience, and brought Ellsworth back as a mystery tag team partner for AJ Styles against Dean Ambrose and John Cena in September.

After a few more Smackdown appearances, Ellsworth eventually defeated AJ Styles with the help of Dean Ambrose and later signed a WWE deal which was played in another ladder match with the contract hanging over the ring.

At the start of 2017, Ellsworth aligned himself with Carmella and even helped her win the first-ever women’s Money In The Bank ladder match. He did not wrestle for the rest of the year until the Smackdown in Manchester last week where he was defeated by Becky Lynch and was later dumped by Carmella.

During the WWE tour in Europe, Ellsworth was beat up by the Smackdown women every single day and was on the receiving end of several Stunners, powerbombs, and other finishing moves.

WrestleMania 33 generates $181.5 million in economic impact for the Orlando region

By
Colin Vassallo
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WWE and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer announced today that WrestleMania 33 generated $181.5 million in economic impact for the Orlando region this past April, according to a study conducted by the Enigma Research Corporation.

This marks a new record for WrestleMania’s economic impact and the sixth consecutive year that the show generated more than $100 million in economic impact for its host region.

Over the past 11 years, WrestleMania has generated more than $1 billion in cumulative economic impact for the cities that have hosted the event. WrestleMania 33 also generated approximately $22.7 million in federal, state and local taxes.

“On behalf of the residents of the City of Orlando, I would like to thank the tens of thousands of WWE fans that converged on our city to be part of WrestleMania Week,” Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said. “The week-long series of events boosted our economy by bringing guests to our restaurants, shops and hotels, and also benefited our city through community outreach initiatives. We look forward to welcoming WrestleMania back soon.”

John P. Saboor, WWE Executive Vice President, Special Events, said, “This historic result would not have been possible without the support of Mayor Dyer, the Central Florida Sports Commission and all of our public and private sector partners in Orlando that worked so hard to again welcome WWE’s global fan base. We continue to be grateful to our fans who helped us deliver unprecedented economic results for our WrestleMania host city. We now look ahead to our return to New Orleans in 2018 for WrestleMania 34.”

A record crowd of 75,245 fans from all 50 states and 62 countries attended WrestleMania, making it the highest-grossing and most-attended event in Citrus Bowl history. Key highlights from the study include: $181.5 million in direct, indirect and induced impact derived from spending by visitors to the Orlando region for WrestleMania 33. 79 percent of fans that attended WrestleMania were from outside the Orlando region and stayed an average of 5.6 nights. $24.8 million was spent on hotels and accommodations within Orlando. The economic impact derived from WrestleMania Week was equal to the creation of 1,730 full-time jobs for the area. $9.3 million was spent by visitors in Orlando at area restaurants.

Second live event added in Abu Dhabi headlined by HHH vs Roman Reigns

By
Colin Vassallo
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The December 8 date that was supposed to be a live event in New Delhi, India, has been changed to a live event in Abu Dhabi.

The Raw brand was doing a one-night stop at Abu Dhabi on the way to India on December 7 but now, a second back-to-back show at the Zayed Sports City Tennis Stadium has been added.

To push ticket sales for the December 8 show, WWE announced that Roman Reigns will be taking on Triple H in the main event and tickets went on sale this morning at PlatinumList.net. The Shield, Braun Strowman, Bray Wyatt, Finn Balor, Sheamus, Cesaro and all the other top Raw stars are on this tour.

Charlotte wins Smackdown Women’s title, Ric Flair makes surprise appearance

By
Colin Vassallo
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Right in “Flair Country,” Charlotte Flair became the new WWE Smackdown Women’s champion last night, defeating Natalya with the Figure Eight leglock.

After the match, Renee Young interviewed Charlotte, who spoke about her father and how he couldn’t be there tonight with her. She dedicated the win to him. She also vowed to beat Bliss for Team Blue on Sunday.

With the interview over, Charlotte began walking to the back and then Wooooo! The Nature Boy walked out for his first WWE appearance since being hospitalized. Charlotte ran to hug him and the two posed together at the top of the ramp.

Yes, Ric Flair cried too!

Her win alters the Survivor Series card once again as it will be now Charlotte who takes on the Raw Women’s champion Alexa Bliss. This also means that Charlotte has been pulled from the 5-on-5 traditional Survivor Series match and WWE has not announced her replacement yet.

Raw rating for 11/13/2017

By
Colin Vassallo
-

The final Raw before the Survivor Series drew a total of 3,030,000 viewers, up 189,000 viewers from last week’s show from Manchester. This was the most-watched Raw since August 28.

Hour one did 3,262,000 viewers, followed by 3,061,000 viewers in the second hour and then a drop to 2,769,000 in the third and final hour. Raw suffered a 493,000-viewer drop between hour one and three and a 292,000 drop from hour two to hour three.

Raw was #2, #3, and #6 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

NXT to hold multiple television tapings at Center Stage Theater in Atlanta

By
Colin Vassallo
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WWE today announced that NXT will be holding multiple television tapings at Center Stage Theater in Atlanta, Georgia in the first two months of 2018.

NXT has rarely ventured away from Full Sail University for its weekly television tapings unless it’s Takeover weekend so this will be a first for NXT to tape multiple shows away from Florida. The tapings will be held on Thursday, January 4, Thursday, February 1, and Friday, February 2, 2018.

Center Stage Theater will certainly ring a bell with long-time NWA/WCW fans as the location was home to WCW Saturday Night between 1989 and 1996.

Tickets for all three TV tapings will be available starting Friday, December 1 at 10AM EST at NXTTickets.com.

Two title matches on Smackdown tonight

By
Colin Vassallo
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Three matches – including two for the title – have been announced for Smackdown live tonight from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Smackdown Women’s champion Natalya will put her title on the line against Charlotte Flair and Baron Corbin also has his United States title up for grabs against Sin Cara. Any title change tonight will once again affect the Survivor Series card as the current champions are currently scheduled to take on Alexa Bliss and The Miz respectively. Also on the show tonight will be The New Day taking on Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn.

While it was logistically impossible to have a Raw invasion of Smackdown last week and the week before, tonight is the last time the they can pull it off before the Survivor Series. Raw still has to give payback to the Smackdown roster for the under siege segment a couple of weeks ago and with just days to go to the Survivor Series, tonight seems like a good night!

WWE cancels one of two live events from India for next month

By
Colin Vassallo
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India will not be getting two live events next month when WWE comes to town but only one show.

The Times of India ran a story today saying that the December 8 non-televised live event was scrapped, leaving only the one show on December 9. Both shows were going to take place at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi.

While not specifically saying that slow ticket sales was the factor of the cancellation of the first show, a WWE statement read, “To meet the requests of WWE fans in India, and deliver the biggest main event in the country’s history, WWE is combining two nights of family-friendly action into a one-night only, exclusive Supershow.”

The December 9 show will be headlined by Jinder Mahal vs Triple H, a match which is being marketed as the biggest wrestling match ever in India.

The general belief was that Jinder Mahal would be walking into the tour as the WWE champion but the fact that the first show was canceled speaks volumes of the popularity and the experiment that was Jinder Mahal as champion. Having a champion of Indian descent did not resonate enough with the public to even move enough ticket sales for two back-to-back shows in the country.

Mahal dropped the title to AJ Styles last week on Smackdown in Manchester.

WWE fan proposes to girlfriend during Heyman promo on Raw!

By
Colin Vassallo
-

A WWE fan proposed to his girlfriend while Paul Heyman was cutting a promo in the middle of the ring with Brock Lesnar by his side last night on Raw!

As the chants of “She said yes” filled up the arena, Heyman and Lesnar immediately realized what was going on, and even managed to smile at the bizarre situation. The master of the microphone then improvised and told the guy that she only said yes because she’s never been up close to a beast like Brock Lesnar, a comment which got a big pop from the Atlanta crowd and an even bigger smile from Lesnar who jumped up and down with the Universal title on his shoulder.

“Just so you know, interrupting my promo is like stepping in the ring with Brock Lesnar…you ain’t got a chance!” Heyman screamed.

You can watch the video below.

Triple H joins Team Raw for the Survivor Series

By
Colin Vassallo
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The Survivor Series 5-on-5 match got even bigger as Triple H replaced Jason Jordan on Team Raw, giving the show another big twist.

Jordan was injured during the show and pleaded with his on-screen father not to take him out of the match. Raw Commissioner Stephanie McMahon came out and pushed for Angle to take Jordan off the match and as Angle hesitated, Triple H came out and announced himself as the fifth member. He then Pedigreed Jordan much to the enjoyment of the fans.

Triple H has not appeared on Raw since WrestleMania and recently resumed wrestling at non-televised live events.

The match will now see Kurt Angle, Braun Strowman, Samoa Joe, Finn Balor, and Triple H taking on Shane McMahon, John Cena, Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode, and Randy Orton.

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