The two-day Superstar Shake-up starts tonight on Monday Night Raw with all Superstars eligible to switch brands.
The initiative was announced by WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon last week on the Raw after Mania and both General Managers, Kurt Angle and Daniel Bryan, will be on hand to trade and make deals.
The Superstar Shake-Up will not end tonight though and things will continue shifting tomorrow night on Smackdown Live. It will be interesting to see if any champions will be trading places, especially the top two titles of each brand. The WWE Championship has been part of Smackdown since the draft while the WWE Universal title was created for Raw after it was left without a heavyweight champion.
Many of the Raw crew will be on hand for Smackdown tomorrow, a rare occurrence these days. The current Universal champion, Brock Lesnar, is not advertised for tonight’s broadcast.
With the Fate of the Furious movie set for release next week, the cast, including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson are doing several media rounds to hype up the arrival of the eighth installment of the popular Universal franchise.
Last year, Johnson voiced his frustration on an Instagram and Twitter post lashing out on one of the male co-stars, and although never mentioned by name, it was later revealed to be Vin Diesel.
Speaking to USA Today, Diesel said he and The Rock are now cool and no one knows how close they are. “I don’t think the world really realizes how close we are, in a weird way. I think some things may be blown out of proportion. I don’t think that was intention,” Diesel said.
The star of the franchise said that Johnson appreciates how much work he puts in these movies and whatever animosity there was in the past, there’s nothing now. “In my house, he’s Uncle Dwayne,” Diesel added.
Diesel said that to see another multicultural star come up is something he is very proud of and will always root for The Rock. “It’s not always easy being an alpha. And it’s two alphas. Being an alpha is sometimes a pain in the butt,” he concluded.
During the UFC 210 post-fight press conference last night, UFC Light Heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier compared himself to WWE’s Roman Reigns when it comes to crowd reactions.
When Cormier was asked about getting booed by the crowd, the champion did not mind and said as long as the crowd isn’t indifferent, it’s fine. “So as long as you’re booing, I’m fine, it bounces off of me,” Cormier said.
“I was telling a story earlier about how I was watching WWE WrestleMania last weekend and I said wow, it would be great if Roman Reigns pins The Undertaker, clean. It’s how the old school guys do business,” Cormier explained during his press conference. “And Monday night Reigns walked out to the ring and they booed him for 10 minutes, they did not allow him to talk. It was the most organic crowd that they’ve had in a very long time. He said ’This is my yard’ and he left. It was perfect.”
Cormier said that that’s pretty much him in the UFC and that is his Octagon, stealing off a page from Reigns’ script. Cormier is a huge WWE fan and has attended quite a few WrestleManias.
You can see the part of the press conference with the WWE references below.
CBS Sports is carrying an article saying that Mauro Ranallo will not be returning to WWE television and will sit out the remainder of his contract which expires in August 2017.
CBS is the parent company of Showtime Championship Boxing, which Ranallo also serve as the lead play-by-play commentator.
The article also points out that Mauro deleted a March 29 tweet in which he wished his “@WWE family another AMAZING #WrestleMania.” As noted before, Ranallo removed all WWE references from his Twitter account this week, signifying a big change in his status with the company.
Glenn Jacobs, the man behind the Kane character, has called a press conference for Tuesday afternoon at Sweet P’s at 3725 Maryville Pike in South Knox County according to NBC affiliate WBIR.
While it’s not confirmed what the announcement will be, it’s expected that the former WWE champion will be officially announcing his run for Knox County mayor. Family and close friends will be in attendance. “It’s going to be a fun-filled event,” his spokesman said.
Last month, Jacobs filed paperwork announcing he had a treasurer for a potential run as Knox County mayor in 2018. It’s a required step for candidates seeking office in the county.
When Kane isn’t donning a mask and kicking ass in a WWE ring, he operates Jacobs Insurance Associates. He and his wife, Crystal, have lived in East Tennessee since 1995, and moved to Knoxville several years ago.
ESPN’s Jonathan Coachman has said that he will no longer be involved with the WWE coverage on ESPN after a Twitter row with fans, and Wrestling Observer editor Dave Meltzer, over the lack of reporting in the Mauro Ranallo and JBL story.
Coach got called out for not covering the story by Meltzer, who said that ESPN had chance after chance “to show balls” but this will be “another time they’re showing castration tendencies.” The whole story is over the rumors, or better yet, confirmed reports of John “Bradshaw” Layfield and his bullying tactics which apparently were the cause of Ranallo being absent from television over the past several weeks.
Coach, who is a former WWE announcer himself and big friends with JBL, said that ESPN doesn’t report on rumors for any sport or company. “Reporting on a topic and actual details of a story two different things. Do you know how many this “story” came up at Mania…zero..” Coach tweeted, defending the company he works for.
The former WWE announcer was flooded with tweets from fans, many negative and some positive, saying that sometimes he likes to give the negative 10% and their leader Dave Meltzer something to do. “I put in way to much energy and content to deal with this any further,” he then wrote. “We have incredible vertical website. I am sure they will continue their fantastic coverage. Just not me.”
Deadline.com is reporting that WWE Raw General Manager Kurt Angle and WWE Superstar The Big Show have both signed a deal with the APA Agency, a talent agency based in Los Angeles.
APA represents artists, performers, brands, intellectual properties and production across all media platforms including film, television, music, theater, publishing and digital.
Kurt Angle is also represented by Traverse Media and personal manager David Hawk while Paul “Big Show” Wight is also repped by attorney Sam Perlmutter.
Signing with talent agencies will greatly increase their profile and chances when it comes to film and other television roles.
Mauro Ranallo has removed all WWE-related references in his Twitter bio adding more speculation that the lead Smackdown commentator is gone from WWE.
His bio now reads, “SHOWTIME Boxing/@rutten_ranallo/ COMBAT SPORTS CAROUSEL/ Mental Health Advocate” whereas before it had reference to being the WWE Smackdown commentator. Ranallo, who is currently out battling depression, started heavily retweeting today although most of the tweets were UFC or MMA related. Ranallo also deleted the tweet that said he would not be at WrestleMania which was sent out a few days before the big show.
Ranallo joined WWE as the lead Smackdown announcer in January 2016 when Smackdown made the transition to USA Network. He’s been absent for the past several weeks from WWE television and his broadcast partner John “Bradshaw” Layfield has been heavily criticized for “bullying” Ranallo. Recently, JBL said that he plays a heel character on television and wishes Ranallo nothing but the best.
The Superstar Shake-up next week on WWE television will be a two-night deal and will play across both Monday Night Raw and Smackdown Live.
Announced by Vince McMahon the night after WrestleMania, the Superstar Shake-up will see stars from both Raw and Smackdown trading brands to freshen things up. It will not be a full-on draft but some major stars will be working on different nights starting next week.
Both Kurt Angle and Daniel Bryan, General Managers of their respective brands, will be on hand. Bryan was not used on Smackdown last week at all.
Impact Wrestling on POP TV this week drew a total of 309,000 viewers, up 12,000 viewers from the previous show. It was the third highest rated Impact of 2017 so far. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Forbes.com has published a list of the top 10 earners in WWE for the year 2016, with surprise surprise, part-timer Brock Lesnar topping the list.
The list was calculated based on base salary as well as bonus payouts for both live performances and merchandise sales, with each WWE Superstar getting a cut from gate money and how much of their merchandise they move.
As mentioned above, Brock Lesnar was #1 with $12 million in pay for 2016. Not bad for limited appearances and the occasional match. John Cena, who was injured for a few months last year and also took time off to film, came in second with $8 million. Triple H was third with $3.8 million, and fourth and fifth places were occupied by former Shield members Roman Reigns, with $3.5 million, and Dean Ambrose, with $2.7 million.
Rounding up the top 10 are AJ Styles with $2.4 million, Shane McMahon with $2.2 million, The Undertaker with $2 million, Seth Rollins with $2 million, and Randy Orton with $1.9 million.
In this opening episode after the mid-season finale, the Divas were all nervous about the brand split which would cause the two shows of WWE, Monday Night Raw and Smackdown into separate brands with different zuperstars on each show.
The separation of the two shows would cause some Divas to be separated from their friends and unable to see them often. However, the problem that concerned the Divas most was the possible sending of people in relationships to brands apart from their significant others. Even married couples were not exempt from possible separation.
According to the head of talent relations, Mark Carano, “Sometimes business is more important than personal life.” I understand that the WWE is a business first and foremost, however, I believe that WWE needed to consider the fact that some Superstars may feel that the sacrifice of time with their significant other is not a sacrifice that they would wish to make.
In the end though, almost all of the Divas who were in relationships got to be on the same team as their Superstar boyfriends. A notable exception was Paige and her boyfriend Alberto del Rio who were placed on separate brands. Paige stormed out of draft night furious, and confided to her friends that she may have to rethink her life decisions.
Nikki Bella had more on her mind then the draft. After her extremely serious neck and spine operation, she had finally been cleared by doctors to rejoin her contemporaries in the WWE ring.
However, not everyone was sure that they wanted to risk injuring Nikki further by wrestling her again. Nikki’s friend, WWE superstar Natalya, counseled her friend that she might want to take it easy when returning to the ring. However, Nikki took Natalya’s well meant advice as criticism, and began to doubt herself based on Natalya’s comments.
This caused Nikki to inform Natalya that “if you don’t want to be my opponent then I will find someone else to work with.” Natalya was dismayed by her friend’s reaction and consulted Nikki’s sister Brie for advice.
Brie said that Natalia should support Nikki in her comeback. This is especially true since Nikki no longer has Brie around the ring for support. We will all be waiting to see Nikki come back to the ring for the first time without her sister next week on Total Divas.
Former WWE champion and current TNA star Alberto El Patron posted a long video rant on Periscope targeting WWE and the beauty of it is that he did so while being drunk.
El Patron says that they will get married in June, a wedding which was supposed to happen a week or two ago when the two announced they would be married on the Wednesday of that week.
He then starts attacking Triple H, saying that people who complain behind a keyboard always remind of that that one boss in WWE who as a “big f*cking nose” and is also a “big f*cking pussy.”
El Patron admitted that he was a little bit drunk and like everybody knows, that’s when the “good stuff” comes out. He said Paige will not come back to wrestling until he says so and then changes his version and says that she’s not coming back because she’s pregnant. Both statements were meant to be a joke, or so one would think.
He referred to WWE as a company “filled with pussies” he used to hate New York, but now New York is okay. He was filming this whole train wreck, with Paige by his side, in Times Square. He then said that since they’re close to WWE’s headquarters, he might as well go and knock on someone’s door who he referred to as someone with “big nose with a small dick.”
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson continues to be the busiest man in show business as The Hollywood Reporter today revealed that Johnson will star and also produce Disney’s Jungle Cruise movie, set to start filming in 2018.
The live-action movie is based on Disney’s iconic theme park ride which takes park-goers on a journey through a range of settings such has Africa’s Nile and the Congo rivers and the Amazon forest.
Joining Johnson in the producer roles will be his manager and ex-wife Dany Garcia and Beau Flynn, his most frequent collaborator. Johnson’s Seven Bucks Productions and Flynn Picture Co. will get the credits in the movie. A search has started for a director.
The Rock has two movies coming out in the span of a few weeks – The Fate of the Furious and Baywatch, while later this year Jumanji opens in December. He starts shooting New Line’s Rampage movie soon and then he’s off to China to film Universal Pictures’ Skyscraper.
WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross will be doing one of his Ringside shows in Chicago on the afternoon of Payback next month.
The show will be held at Zanies location on 5437 Park Pl in Rosemont and will start at 2PM, giving fans ample time to then go to the Allstate Arena to watch the WWE pay-per-view.
Tickets go on sale tomorrow morning at 10AM and will cost $30 plus two item (food/drink) minimum for general admission or $75 plus two item (food/drink) minimum for VIP, which also includes a photo and an autograph from JR.
WWE today announced that WrestleMania 33 grossed $14.5 million in gate money, the highest-grossing event in the stadium’s history. WrestleMania 32 last year did over $17 million in gate money, but that had way more fans than this year.
WrestleMania 33 was also the most social event in WWE history, according to Nielsen Social, with 5.19 million interactions on Facebook and Twitter during the broadcast alone. There were also 2.8 million tweets about WrestleMania throughout the day. The show accounted for nearly 30% of all social TV interactions on Sunday, April 2, surpassing the Country Music Awards (13%), The Walking Dead Season Finale (10%) and MLB Opening Day on ESPN (10%).
WWE generated $3.7 million in WrestleMania merchandise revenue, an increase of 164 percent or $2.3 million, from WrestleMania 24 in Orlando. It was also WWE’s second-highest grossing WrestleMania, only behind last year’s WrestleMania 32 in Dallas.
Episode 11 of season 6 of Total Divas, titled The Draft, did a total of 669,000 viewers, down 33,000 viewers from episode 10. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
SEGA announced today a partnership with WWE to publish a new free-to-play idle mobile game called WWE Tap Mania. The game is being developed by The Tap Lab, based in Cambridge, MA, and is projected for launch later this year.
“At SEGA, we like to find new ways to bring brands and experiences to a wide mobile gaming audience,” said Naoki Kameda, COO of SEGA’s mobile division in the West. “This partnership with WWE presents a fresh opportunity for collaboration. Working with WWE, a monumental leader in global entertainment, along with The Tap Lab, a studio known for crafting action-packed games that are fun at their core, we’re confident that WWE Tap Mania will delight WWE fans worldwide.”
At the time of worldwide launch, WWE Tap Mania will be released on the App Store for iPhone and iPad and on the Google Play store for Android, and will be free to download with in-app purchases available. The game will feature a broad roster of past and present WWE Superstars who will face off alongside players to dominate leaderboards during live in-game events including WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Royal Rumble.
“We are always looking to engage our global fan base in new and exciting ways,” said Casey Collins, WWE Executive Vice President, Consumer Products. “Partnering with industry leader SEGA is a great opportunity for us to continue our mobile game strategy while bringing in new fans with WWE Tap Mania.”
Streaming giant Netflix has published the first set of photos of the upcoming wrestling-based series GLOW, giving fans an exclusive peak at the cast of the show, inspired by the 80s television show of the same name.
GLOW tells the fictional story of Ruth Wilder, an out-of-work, struggling actress in 1980s Los Angeles who finds one last chance for stardom when she’s thrust into the glitter and spandex world of women’s wrestling. In addition to working with 12 Hollywood misfits, Ruth also has to compete with Debbie Eagan, a former soap actress who left the business to have a baby, only to be sucked back into work when her picture perfect life is not what it seems. And at the wheel is Sam Sylvia, a washed-up, B-movie director who now must lead this group of women on the journey to wrestling stardom.
GLOW is created by Liz Flahive (Homeland, Nurse Jackie) and Carly Mensch (Nurse Jackie, Orange Is The New Black, Weeds). Orange Is the New Black creator Jenji Kohan and Tara Herrmann are the executive producers alongside Flahive and Mensch who are serving as showrunners.
The series will launch on Friday, June 23 in all territories where Netflix is available. You can see the photos below.
In an article on the Fitness Magazine website, Eva Marie is described as former WWE Diva, adding to the rumors that the “All Red Everything” star has indeed left WWE for good.
Eva Marie is referred to as “the first female WWE star to cross over into film full-time,” mentioning she will be appearing in the upcoming movie Inconceivable, alongside Nicolas Cage and Faye Dunaway.
She has removed all WWE references from her social media accounts and was not part of WrestleMania, a show which usually brings in everybody. The 32-year-old was last seen on WWE television in August of last year, faking multiple incidents to delay her eventual Smackdown in-ring debut. On August 18, she was suspended for 30 days for failing her first Wellness Program test and has not showed up ever since.
There were rumors that WWE was not going to renew her contract which was expiring and it looks like that has been the case already. Eva Marie is still part of Total Divas although this season looks like it will be her last one. She’s been a part of the cast since the show’s inception.
Eva Marie is part of Team Rock, with Dany Garcia serving as her manager.
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