Over 30 athletes, including independent wrestlers, boxers, former NFL players and collegiate grapplers, attended a talent tryout this week at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.
WWE PC Head Coach Matt Bloom ran the three-day camp which saw individuals from the U.S., Canada, Russia, Australia, China, India, and Brazil.
Former Knockouts champion Madison Rayne is also featured on the WWE.COM article about the tryout with a photo and addressed by her real name Ashley Lomberger. The post does mention her former Impact name.
You can see the full list of names of those who participated at WWE.COM.
It is intriguing to see how the virtual world reflects the physical in terms of our favourite sports and pastimes. Today, the focus is more on MMA than wrestling, and gamers are flocking to online casinos and sports betting sites to back their favorites, if you want to make money play agen poker online the best way to earn money. The game is even recognized as one of the most popular games among the Huge List of All the Casino Games you can play online.
This is unsurprising in the smartphone era. We are, on the whole, far more knowledgeable about gambling and betting odds than back in the 1980s and perhaps it is as well that in years gone by, our gaming experience had more to do with imitating the heroes of the ring on PCs and consoles than putting real money on them. The Bitcoin exchange rate does not depend on the central bank and there is no single authority that governs the supply of CryptoCurrency. However, the Bitcoin price depends on the level of confidence its users have, as the more major companies accept Bitcoin as a method of payment, the more successful Bitcoin will become. More people have accepted the use of Bitcoin and supporters hope that one day, the digital currency will be used by consumers for their online shopping and other electronic deals. Major companies have already accepted payments using the virtual currency. You can click here for more about the about the leading digital currencies news which is used in casino.
The information age brings casino game education
According to what they say on https://bestsitesuk.casino, today’s gamers have a wealth of online information at their fingertips, both in terms of how to play games, and developing a winning strategy for casino games and sports betting. This kind of casino game education by no means guarantees beating the house, but it certainly improves the odds, and at the same time leads to a richer gaming experience.
Here, however, we will take a step back in time to a less informed age. A time when few people had even heard of the internet, and the only education was trial and error along with a couple of paragraphs of the instructions on an inlay card. Prepare for a nostalgic trip down memory lane as we revisit three wrestling classics from yesteryear.
WWF Wrestlefest
From the days when the best gaming experience meant a trip to your local arcade, Wrestlefest featured cartoon style interpretations of Hulk Hogan an all the rest. With four player mode, it was one of the earliest forms of the multiplayer phenomenon that is so familiar to us today.
Of course, it looks a little clunky and limited by today’s standards, but 30 years ago, it was the best way to get that smackdown experience without risk of hospitalization.
WWF Raw
Of course, we couldn’t spend all our time putting money into arcade games, and the advent of early consoles like the Sega Mega Drive brought the gaming experience into our homes. WWF Raw is immensely important in the history of wrestling games, as it set the standard for all that would follow, right up to the present day.
Users loved the “mega moves” that varied between characters, and there is still immense affection for this ground breaking game on the classic gaming circuit.
WWE Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain
With the arrival of the new millennium features such as 3D graphics and detailed player rosters became par for the course, but when this game was released on the PS2 console in 2003, it ushered in a new era more than any other.
The gameplay and the realism were all taken up a notch, but even more important was the sheer depth, which made the game so engaging. The storylines were created by the same team who wrote the scripts for TV, and the game was an instant success.
WWE has signed Shadia Bseiso from Jordan to a developmental deal, making her the first Arab woman from the Middle East to have signed a deal.
She came on WWE’s radar after attending the talent tryout in Dubai earlier this year in April and will be reporting to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida in January 2018. She is a trained Brazilian Jiu Jitsu athlete and CrossFit enthusiast.
“It is an honor to be the first-ever woman from the Middle East to sign with WWE,” Bseiso said. “Working with WWE is an incredible opportunity. I have visited the Performance Center and attended the Mae Young Classic. I have personally witnessed the power of WWE and the passion of WWE fans. I look forward to starting on my path to becoming a WWE Superstar.”
Bseiso is a television and live events presenter as well as a voice over artist, careers that she will put on hold to follow her WWE dream.
Duke Roufus, the man who runs the Roufusport MMA gym in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, posted a photo with CM Punk on his Instagram saying that Punk is getting ready for his second MMA fight.
Roufus wrote that Punk is “working hard and getting better every day” as they work on his next fight. The former WWE champion made his UFC debut in September 2016 at UFC 203, losing to Mickey Gall in the first round. He was paid half a million dollars by the UFC for his effort.
Ever since that day, Punk has kept a relatively low profile both online and in the traditional media to concentrate more on his MMA work. UFC President Dana White suggested in the past that Punk should look elsewhere for his second fight although it’s more than likely that he will once again fight under the UFC banner when time comes for fight number two.
Impact on POP this week drew 279,000 viewers, up 28,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. It was the best number since the August 24 episode. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
In a Facebook Q&A session, Raw General Manager Kurt Angle hinted that we might soon see an all-women Elimination Chamber match for the title.
When he was asked why we have not seen a Chamber match with just the women, Angle replied, “Patience. You will.”
Ever since the women’s revolution started in WWE two years ago, the female WWE Superstars have participated in Hell In A Cell and Money In The Bank ladder matches, main evented numerous Raw and Smackdown shows and also a pay-per-view.
The Elimination Chamber and Royal Rumble are two matches which the women have still yet to conquer.
WWE Hall of Famer “Superstar” Billy Graham was not a fan of Shane McMahon doing the jump from the top of the Hell In A Cell and branded him an “idiot” in a post on his official Facebook page.
“I consider Shane McMahon to be nothing more than a rich man’s foolish son,” Graham wrote. He said that WWE attempted to “deceive” its fans by first saying that “daddy’s little son” was fine after jumping from way up high and then they changed their tune saying he is hurt.
“Disgusting and I have no sympathy for this spoiled brat and maybe he won’t try to defy gravity ever again for a worthless, meaningless, and dumb as Hell cheap pop,” Graham said.
The theme of this week’s Total Bellas episode seemed to be anything you can do I can do better, as the episode began with a bet between the Bella family matriarch, Kathy, and her son JJ.
Because JJ’s wife, Lauren, writes a successful blog and has thousands of followers on Instagram, Kathy made a bet with JJ that he could not triple his number of Instagram followers within two weeks. First of all, let me just say that I wish that I had a thousand bucks to spend on something as trivial as a bet! Determined to earn the thousand dollar payday, JJ immediately about doing whatever he could to gain as many followers as possible. I have to admit that some of JJ’s ideas were pretty ingenious.
I particularly enjoyed watching him get his chest hair waxed because he has an extremely low pain threshold. However, Lauren felt that JJ’s newfound interest in Instagram was something that he was nearly using as a vehicle to make fun of her and degrade her job. At the family dinner, Nikki confronted JJ and showed him the error of his ways. She suggested that JJ apologize to Lauren and tell her how much he admired her for working so hard on her blog. I think that this is good advice on Nikki’s part especially considering JJ and Lauren’s marital problems recently. It just goes to show that sometimes sister really does know best.
In the end, JJ called off the bet with his mother and bought dinner for the family. Way to go JJ!
Meanwhile, Daniel and Brie discussed middle names for the baby girl that they are expecting. Brie wanted her daughter’s middle name to be Jo in honor of her late grandfather, but Daniel wanted to give Birdie a Scandinavian middle name in honor of his supposed Viking heritage.
Because Brie didn’t believe that Daniel was genuinely of Viking dissent, Daniel suggested taking their DNA and having it analyzed to determine their true ancestry. Brie thought that she already knew her own ancestry, believing herself to be half Mexican and half Italian. However, when the ancestry results came back they revealed that Brie is in fact partially Jewish, Welsh, and Native American!
Once Brie discovered that she was descended from several different cultures; she began to try to explore all of them. She made Hala bread to honor her Jewish heritage and visited a Native American Museum in order to explore her Native American ancestry. However, when Daniel suggested that they learn more about Viking ancestors Brie didn’t take the suggestion seriously.
When it became apparent that Daniel’s feelings were hurt by her dismissal, Brie planned a family celebration of both of their heritages complete with Viking hats, even buying an infant size hat for Birdie to wear. Daniel also announced that their daughter’s middle name would be Jo in honor of her grandfather. The party ended with the entire family raising a toast to the new addition.
It looks like celebrations will abound on the reason finale of Total Bellas.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer is reporting that the current planned main event for the Survivor Series is Jinder Mahal vs Brock Lesnar in a champion vs champion match…but none of the titles will be actually on the line.
During brand splits, the Survivor Series always had Raw vs Smackdown matches in some way or form, either one-on-one or in a traditional Survivor Series elimination match. It’s also highly likely that some individuals will be appearing on both shows leading up to the Survivor Series to build their respective matches.
Last year, there were three Team Raw vs Team Smackdown matches, including a women’s match, a men’s match, and a big 20-men tag team match. The men’s match lasted nearly an hour with Team Smackdown winning.
If Lesnar vs Mahal ends up being the main event, it would be the second Survivor Series in a row that Lesnar has main evented after last year’s 1 minute 26 second headline match against Goldberg. Brock was not originally booked for the Survivor Series but plans changed over the last few weeks.
Impact Wrestling today announced that Alberto El Patron will officially return to the company at the Bound For Glory pay-per-view next month in Canada.
El Patron was suspended by the company in July following the incident with WWE Superstar Paige at the Orlando airport which led to him being shortly detained by police. Eventually it was later revealed that Paige was the offender, and not him, and the investigation against him was dropped. This, however, was not enough for Impact to bring him back, and left him suspended following an internal investigation.
The suspension also meant that he was stripped off the title that he won when the Impact and GFW titles were merged.
Tickets for the NXT Takeover: WarGames went on sale today on the Toyota Center website.
Tickets are priced $20, $30, $40, $65, $75, $105, and $300 for ringside. Alternatively, you can purchase the NXT Takeover tickets in a combo package with the Raw and Smackdown for that week, also taking place at the Toyota Center. Combo package prices for all three shows are $75, $105, $150, and $225.
You can purchase tickets from toyotacentertix.com.
PWInsider.com is reporting that former five-time TNA Knockouts champion Madison Rayne is at the WWE Performance Center this week and is taking part in a tryout for a possible spot on the WWE roster.
Rayne worked for TNA between 2009 and 2017, first making her debut as a wrestler and joining The Beautiful People and later in her stint there, she joined the creative team to work on the Knockouts division.
Before joining TNA, Rayne wrestled for Shimmer Women Athletes under the name of Ashley Lane and in July of this year she made a return to the company.
The 31-year-old is married to Impact – and former WWE – commentator Josh Mathews.
The NXT Takeover: WarGames WWE Network event will indeed have two rings, as WWE will be keeping the NWA/WCW tradition.
The two rings will mean that less floor tickets will be available with the sections directly across the two rings suffering the most according to the seating chart.
This will be the first WarGames match in 17 long years, with the last one taking place on an episode of WCW Monday Nitro in September 2000. Previously, the match has been the main event of WCW Fall Brawl for six years.
A total of 31 WarGames matches have been held in the NWA/WCW era, with the first one taking place at The Great American Bash in July 1987. That match featured The Road Warriors, Nikita Koloff, Dusty Rhodes, and Paul Ellering taking on The Four Horsemen and JJ Dillon.
Interesting enough, Paul Ellering is now managing The Authors Of Pain who are part of this WarGames revival. Ellering took part in a total of seven WarGames matches during his NWA/WCW career.
Tom Casiello, the former WWE Managing Lead Writer who was fired in 2016, jumped to the defense of fellow writer Jimmy Jacobs in a series of tweets.
Jacobs was fired last week after posting a photo with the Bullet Club during their parody invasion of Monday Night Raw in Ontario, California.
Casiello is an Emmy-Award winning writer and producer who worked on several popular soap operas, including As the World Turns, Days of Our Lives, One Life to Live and The Young and the Restless, before joining WWE in 2011. Casiello was Jacobs’ supervisor during his time in WWE.
“He doesn’t know I’m tweeting this. I have no interest in campaigns, in gossip, in speculation. Not my thing,” Casiello wrote. He recounted how after a tough hiring process, Jacobs – real name Chris Scoville – quickly proved himself to be an invaluable team player, something that Castillo said never happens.
He wrote that it takes months to win over the talent backstage and prove to them you know what you’re doing and you’re constantly tested with different assignments every single day.
“But this guy can do it all. Book shows. Write a hell of a seg. Direct backstages. Produce in-ring promos. No learning curve. He NAILS it,” he said, adding that Jacobs was well-respected by his peers backstage.
“You put the ‘it’ in idiot & the festival in friendship. You shared more of that brilliant mind with the WWE Universe than they’ll ever know,” Casiello wrote. He thanked him for all the contribution he made to WWE and said he was honored to work with him there. “Welcome to the list. You’re in good company!”
Episode six of season two of Total Bellas titled The Wrong Move did a total of 552,000 viewers, up 13,000 viewers from last week’s episode. (Credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
WWE Intercontinental champion The Miz will be hosting the MTV show The Challenge: Champs vs. Stars which will feature fan favorites from the MTV program duking it out against a diverse line-up of stars.
This will be an eight-week event which kicks off on Tuesday, November 21 as The Miz goes back to the network which made him famous in the first place.
The show will have the winning team from each challenge who nominate their most valuable player to receive money for their charity, be safe from elimination, and choose their team’s least valuable player to go into elimination. The losing team will nominate their own least valuable player to go into elimination, and the two will compete to keep their spot in the game and ultimately, their share of $150,000 to donate to their charities.
The Miz won’t be the only wrestling star on the show though as Ariane Andrew, the artist formerly known as Cameron, will also be part of the show joining the Stars group and she will be playing for the Black Girls Rock charity.
The Sun tabloid newspaper in the United Kingdom published a story this week saying that Conor McGregor was in negotiations with WWE to appear at WrestleMania, a story which was picked up by several media outlets in the United States as well.
Appearing on Good Day New York on FOX5 this morning, UFC President Dana White addressed these rumors and flatly denied that it’s happening. “It’s not true. It’s absolutely not true.”
The hosts were not happy with just that answer and White said that he texted WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon before he got on the air to ask him about it. The hosts then demanded to see the proof, so Dana White got his cell phone and showed them the message which read “News to me” written by McMahon.
White then replied saying that WWE is great for always talking and clearing stuff with him before things like that happen and McMahon replied saying, “It might be good someday, but not now.”
Conor McGregor is not the only mixed martial artist who might pop up on WWE television in the future. Big WWE fan Ronda Rousey is also on the radar, and that might happen sooner than anything.
When TMZ caught up with Rousey and her husband Travis Browne at the airport, Rousey was asked when or if she will be joining WWE. “If you were a real fan, would you really want to know?” she asked. The TMZ reporter said yes, he would, but Rousey had a different opinion. She said she doesn’t want to ruin anything and smiled, suggesting that something is truly brewing.
Meanwhile, when Browne was also asked if he would follow Ronda to WWE, he said he’s not going to say no to the idea as he’s still making decisions on what his next move will be.
Rousey is currently undergoing wrestling training and appeared at the Mae Young Classic finale in Las Vegas last month to support her friend Shayna Baszler.
Conor McGregor’s manager Audie Attar is not shutting down the idea of his client appearing on WWE television in the future.
When UK’s Sky Sports News asked Attar about the rumors of McGregor possibly moving to WWE, Attar said, “There are all these different things that pop up in the media – some true, some not true,” adding that what he is going to do next is still to be determined.
Attar said that they are just starting to talk and explore the options following the Mayweather/McGregor successful boxing event, but the Irishman is for sure returning to the UFC to defend his title.
“But Conor is a draw. He does record-breaking gates and pay-per-views. At the end of the day, it does not matter what he does – whether it is WWE or the UFC – he is going to have a record-breaking event,” his manager said.
Jimmy Jacobs, the former ROH star who in 2015 joined WWE as a writer, was fired from his position after posting a photo with his former ROH colleagues The Bullet Club during their parody invasion of Raw a couple of weeks ago.
Ryan Satin of ProWrestlingSheet.com broke the story late yesterday saying that Jacobs exited the company last week and there was “major heat” for posting the photo on his Instagram. Jacobs posted the pic outside of the arena in Ontario, California with The Young Bucks, Adam Page, and Marty Scurll writing, “Pleasant surprise to se old friends in lovely California,” adding the hashtags #BCInvasion, #BulletClub, and their respective names.
The parody invasion, which also involved Cody Rhodes, led to WWE sending a cease and desist letter to The Young Bucks for their continued use of the “Too Sweet” hand gesture.
