The son of former WWE and WCW Superstar Rick Rude, Colton, passed away last week following a motorcycle accident. The 19-year-old succumbed to the injuries he sustained in the wreck on Floyd Springs Road last Saturday afternoon, according to Chief Deputy Coroner Gene Proctor and reported by the Rome News Tribune.
Floyd County police officer Ron Hunton said Colton Rood was traveling south on Floyd Springs Road on a 2014 Yamaha 950 motorcycle when a Toyota Camry turned into his path at around 2:50PM. The driver, a 58-year-old female, was charged with misdemeanor vehicular homicide and failure to yield and was being held in jail on a $2,600 bond.
Colton is survived by his mother Michelle, and siblings Merissa and Ryan. The funeral service was held yesterday. His father died on April 20, 1999 at the age of 40 when he suffered from heart failure. Colton was only 2 years old when his father passed away.
The Charlotte vs Sasha Banks match for the WWE Women’s title at Clash of Champions later this month seems like it has been scrapped from the pay-per-view and there’s no mention of it at all on WWE.COM anymore. There are no details yet why this match is no longer advertised for the show.
Banks returned last Monday night on Raw following her title loss to Charlotte at SummerSlam and teased a retirement, only to attack Dana Brooke and announcing the bad news she had was for Charlotte, because at Clash of Champions, she would be taking her title back.
The only two matches being advertised so far for this pay-per-view is Kevin Owens vs Seth Rollins for the WWE Universal title and The New Day vs Gallows and Anderson for the WWE Tag Team titles. The Universal title match can change to a three-way if Roman Reigns defeats Owens in a non-title match this coming Monday on Raw.
CM Punk showed his first “heel” tactic during the public weigh-in yesterday evening when he refused to shake his opponent’s hand after coming off the scale.
Punk, who weighed in at 170lbs, gave Mickey Gall a blank stare when they came face to face and Gall had to pull back his hand shake after three seconds when it became apparent that Punk was not going to return the gesture. As the two faced each other, UFC President Dana White laughed in the background as Gall kept talking smack to Punk. As Gall turned away, Punk got fired up and addressed the crowd, turning around smiling and shaking Dana White’s hand before going off the stage.
Punk got a good ovation from the crowd when he came out and the crowd “ooh’ed!” when he refused to shake Gall’s hand. You can see the video below.
Yesterday’s Impact which featured the Delete or Decay match drew 337,000 viewers, down 14,000 viewers from last week’s show. Compared to the Final Deletion episode which featured the same kind of match between Jeff and Matt Hardy, yesterday’s show had 73,000 less viewers. The show went head to head with NFL on NBC which drew 24 million viewers. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
After seven years off, Backlash returns to the WWE calendar this Sunday, as the new brand extension era kicks off… with a SmackDown PPV.
Say what you want about the logic of “Raw and SmackDown being at war with each other, but still being kind enough to promote the other’s shows…”, but there we go. WWE’s given themselves three hours for this SmackDown-only show, with a pre-match to boot. Which is asking a lot of the 30-person roster, considering how many of them have a) been tied up in the tag team tournament and b) have been subject to hit-and-miss booking (or c) are Alberto Del Rio and have been released…)
WWE World Championship: Dean Ambrose (c) vs AJ Styles
For “that belt that doesn’t get booed”. Ambrose will be looking to put on a performance after thoroughly disappointing against Dolph Ziggler at SummerSlam. In fact, thanks to a combination of performances, booking, and WWE usurping the World title’s credibility, it’s hard to not characterise Ambrose’s reign as anything less than a disappointment, especially since the draft took away the natural story of the Shield rivalry. In contrast, AJ has been on the ascent since the brand extension, picking up a decisive win over John Cena at SummerSlam. Just think, a year ago, people would have laughed at the very idea of AJ Styles winning WWE gold, but this Sunday, I’ve a feeling it’s going to happen. Prediction: AJ Styles
SmackDown Women’s Championship: Alexa Bliss vs. Becky Lynch vs. Carmella vs. Naomi vs. Natalya vs. Nikki Bella
A six-way match for the newly-created blue belt, and this is a bit of a pick ‘em, I’d say. Out of the six, only the two NXT arrivals in Alexa and Carmella would look odd with the gold already, whilst the so-called face of SmackDown’s women division, Becky Lynch, has blended into the background after the return of Nikki Bella, who I’ve got as my pick for this. Hopefully they can then start up some storylines now they’ll have something to fight for… Prediction: Nikki Bella
SmackDown Tag Team Championship Tournament… Alternates Match: Hype Bros (Zack Ryder & Mojo Rawley) vs. The Usos (Jimmy Uso & Jey Uso)
So, the Usos lose within a minute to American Alpha in their semi-finals, but took out Chad Gable afterwards. That somehow means that the Usos and the Hype Bros have a “lucky losers” match in order to get the spot that has suddenly appeared… why not include the other losing teams, like the Vaudevillains, Breezango or the Ascension? Nevertheless, the Usos just turned heel, and I don’t see WWE dropping the ball on them so early on. They’ll go to the finals. Prediction: The Usos
SmackDown Tag Team Championship: Heath Slater & Rhyno vs. The Usos or Hype Bros
The tournament final for the other newly-created blue belts… and this could go one of two ways. Heath Slater’s been fighting for a “permanent contract” ever since he was left undrafted in July, which has led to this storyline where Slater’d get a SmackDown contract if he won the tag titles. As much as the story is played out, part of me sees Slater losing out yet again, but not because of a heel turn by Rhyno; but perhaps by something underhanded like being caught cheating out of desperation? I think Heath’ll be left waiting, and we’ll have a set of heel tag team champions… Prediction: The Usos
WWE Intercontinental Championship: The Miz (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler
For Ambrose, see Miz. Despite the headline-grabbing promo on Talking Smack a few weeks ago, Miz’s in-ring has been pretty forgettable lately. His last two PPVs were far from inspiring – a nonsensical double DQ against Darren Young, and a bland win over Apollo Crews. Dolph’s become the surrogate for Daniel Bryan after that promo, and which would have worked, had Dolph not been beaten like a drum for most of the year. Miz losing the title would be so WWE-like, but I’m going for Miz to retain the belt… but not win the match. Prediction: Dolph Ziggler (by DQ)
Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt
Well, this is quite a fall. One month on from being obliterated by Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton’s being slotted with Bray Wyatt – one of a few men who wasn’t even on the SummerSlam card (or the pre-show, in fact). Given that Orton’s a part-timer, him picking up a win here would be wasteful, especially since the roster depth is pretty shallow. This feud will continue, and to do so, I’m going for a Wyatt win. Prediction: Bray Wyatt
As of the end of SmackDown, we’ve got six matches to fill a 3 hour show… with perhaps a pre-show match and something else slotted in to kill time.
On paper, there’s not much that’s making this a “must-see” show, aside from the WWE title match, which is so not the impression they needed to give to kick-off the latest era of brand-specific PPVs.
Reproduced from BackBodyDrop.com, where we’re just about recovered from an insane August… and looking forward to bringing you live coverage of this Wednesday’s Cruiserweight Classic finale!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Ian Hamilton has been a wrestling fan since 1992, and when he’s not watching WWE, New Japan or his latest wrestling love, PROGRESS, he’s usually suffering through Sunderland AFC and the New York Jets. He’s got a couple of books out on Amazon – “Wrestling’s Sinking Ship” and “Gone Too Soon”, and can be reached via his website, BackBodyDrop.com, or on Twitter @theianhamilton
After WWE announced the departure of Alberto Del Rio, the former WWE champion held a press conference in Mexico City inside a Hooters restaurant. The backdrop featured the name Alberto El Patron, a name he used before while working away from WWE. Superluchas.com was on hand to cover the press conference.
Del Rio said he did not feel comfortable anymore in WWE and said that WWE were not doing things with him so he decided to move out again. An agreement was reached and Del Rio said that McMahon did not apply the 90-day no compete clause for him so he can work immediately in Mexico and quite soon in the United States as well. Del Rio said that he has many projects and wants to do sports commentating in America and start a new business in Mexico. Del Rio said he was grateful to Vince McMahon and he has won everything in the WWE. Tomorrow he will be having meetings with different people in Mexico and made it clear that he does not want to sign any exclusive deals.
“I do not regret my second stint [in WWE]. They gave me everything I asked, but my decision was not motivated by not having championships; that is irrelevant at this stage of my career,” Del Rio told the press. He said he was losing his passion for wrestling lately and every time he boarded a plane to go to the next city he was upset. He doesn’t want to be a bitter wrestler and told Vince that he doesn’t want to lose his passion for wrestling. Del Rio said that he doesn’t exclude another WWE return down the line. Del Rio said that he plans to wrestle for two more year before retiring.
His girlfriend Paige was with him at the press conference however did not sit down with him at the table and was just to the side. Del Rio never mentioned the 30-day suspension he received for his first WWE Wellness Program violation.
You can see some photos from the press conference courtesy of SuperLuchas.com below.
CM Punk weighed in this morning along with the rest of the fighters who will be taking part at UFC 203 and the former champ made weight.
This was CM Punk’s first official weigh-in for the UFC and he came in at 170lbs. The weigh-ins this morning was only for the media and the public event will be held later on at 6PM EST. He was accompanied by his coach Duke Roufus. Punk looked really thin compared to his WWE days and will probably bulk up a little bit by the time his fight comes on tomorrow. His announced weight during his WWE career was usually around the 220lbs mark.
In an interview with MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani, Punk said that the weight cutting wasn’t going great and it was tough, although it could have been just a ploy to make it sound like he’s having a hard time when in fact everything was fine.
Mick Foley, Seth Rollins, and a surprise, Ryback, all hoped that Punk would do well tomorrow. Ryback had a history of problems with CM Punk while in the WWE and Punk accused the now former WWE Superstar for hurting him several times in the ring.
Yesterday, the lead writer for the Chris Benoit biopic Sarah Coulter revealed that Lexi Alexander has signed on to direct the movie which is titled Crossface.
“So happy to have you on board for Crossface,” Coulter wrote on Twitter. “Well, I hadn’t planned on returning to movies, but you have written a great script,” Alexander replied.
The movie was announced several years ago but nothing new came out since then. Crossface, from Let It Play, is based on Matthew Randazzo V’s book titled Ring Of Hell: The Story of Chris Benoit & the Fall of the Pro Wrestling Industry.
The 42-year-old German-born Alexander received an Academy Award nomination for the first short film she directed, Johnny Flynton, in 2003. Recently she directed episodes of the television shows Arrow, Supergirl, and Limitless.
“I was pretty certain I’d stay in TV rather than returning to the feature world, because the material just seems so much better in TV, especially in drama, but then ‘Crossface’ came my way,” Alexander said. “A heartbreaking, true story about the dark side of wrestling. I couldn’t say no to that.”
Both Big Show and John Cena avoided injury after the middle ring rope snapped during their match at the live WWE event in Manila today.
The incident happened when Big Show was going for a second rope splash and as he was gaining momentum by jumping up and down on the middle rope, the two sides of the ropes snapped, sending Big Show flat on his ass and Cena, who was underneath, moved just in time to avoid the 400lbs+ giant dropping on him like dead weight.
The Filipino crowd chanted “holy shit” and the match continued, without the middle rope. Cena eventually won the match with the Attitude Adjustment.
In a 37-minute sit-down interview with Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com, former WWE champion CM Punk said that he never prepared so hard in his life for something that potentially can only go as far as 15 minutes.
One thing that was missing from his WWE days is the lack of promos, or pipe bombs, as Helwani explained, leading up to this fight. Punk said that he does not feel the need to force an emotional response regarding his opponent as he doesn’t hate him or anything like that so there’s no emotional connection so to speak.
Helwani brought up the fact that the fight is in Cleveland, the same arena where Punk walked out of WWE back in 2014 the night after the Royal Rumble. Punk said that he hasn’t been to Cleveland since then and didn’t really think about it but it’s “poetic” that he’s having his first UFC fight in the same arena.
Asked if he feels there’s something wrong with his debut being in Cleveland, Punk said that him leaving WWE in Cleveland wasn’t a bad thing so he can’t say it’s a total curse as he’s happier and in a better place. He went over some of the stuff that happened to him in Cleveland while with WWE, including his planned debut with Mickie James that never happened and was sent back to developmental, and Bob Holly punching him really hard in the eye in the same arena. Punk failed to mention the Unforgiven pay-per-view in 2008 when Orton attacked Punk backstage, forcing him to vacate the World Heavyweight title.
When talking about Bob Holly, Punk said that the business needs more people like him right now as there’s no one in the locker room that is an enforcer. Punk mentioned that there are a lot of “slobs” in the WWE and no one cleans up after themselves and then recounted a story about Eddie Guerrero giving instructions to different people, including himself, to clean up the locker room before leaving. “But I’m not there anymore, so who gives a shit?” Punk then bluntly said.
CM Punk refused to disclose how much he weighs and said it’s not going so well at the moment. “It’s not fun,” he said about the weight cut and never even did a practice weight cut before. He has to hit the 171lbs mark, a weight that he hasn’t had since he was at high school.
When asked what song he’s coming out to, Punk said that he thought he had a pick but after listening to a few on his iPod in rotation he’s unsure again. He said there’s a top 3 and he came out to a lot of awesome songs in his pro wrestling career. Asked if Cult of Personality is still on the table, Punk said yes and Helwani said that the fans would go insane if he used that one. Punk was not sure about the statement and while he appreciates all the fans, he’s not worried this time if they boo or cheer although Cleveland historically treated him really well over the years.
Briefly touching on the WWE lawsuit against him, Punk said it’s very hard to look towards the future when you’re forced to stare at the past and people keep trying to drag you back. “Some people won’t let you go,” he said, mentioning the “silly bank-rolled lawsuit” which is designed for him to spend money. He said the lawsuit has been a source of his stress and he has his good days and bad days.
Punk finished by saying that he doesn’t think the WWE management will be watching as they made it clear to him they’re not fans of MMA.
WWE has officially announced the departure of Alberto Del Rio from the company effective today, September 9.
The former WWE champion made his return to the WWE last year at Hell In A Cell as a surprise opponent for John Cena, defeating Cena and winning the United States title. Things didn’t go as planned though as after that night, Del Rio was paired with Zeb Coulter and then thrown in the League of Nations group with Sheamus, Barrett, and Rusev.
Del Rio was suspended for 30 days last month and it then became clear that the Mexican Superstar would not be returning after his suspension is over. Del Rio has a press conference set for today in Mexico City to discuss his future and departure from WWE.
TNA followed up to the original Final Deletion with Delete or Decay yesterday on Impact, featuring Matt and Jeff Hardy taking on Abyss and Crazzy Steve with Rosemary.
The “match,” or better yet, the carefully-crafted action sequence, was taped on Matt Hardy’s lot in North Carolina and just like Final Deletion, Delete or Decay featured lots of weapons, fireworks, water, drones, and everything else in between.
The 12-minute segment started with Señor Benjamin digging the graves for Abyss, Steve, and Rosemary while the trio looked inside the house as Hardy’s wife was taking care of their baby. And then, craziness ensued. Jeff, Matt, and Reby Sky welcomed the Decay by shooting fireworks at them in a scene which would have made Hollywood director Michael Bay proud. The action then spilled to the pool where Jeff and Steve battled it out while Matt looked for Rosemary.
Jeff applied a sleeper hold while under water and emerged victorious as Crazzy Steve floated….and then miraculously came back to life to drag Jeff back underwater. As Señor Benjamin tried to bury Abyss – who earlier got zapped with a taser gun – Abyss also came back to life to fight back.
As Matt was about to grab Rosemary, Abyss attacked and then as he was about to hit him with “Janice,” Brother Nero stepped in and sacrificed himself instead. With all seems lost, the Vanguard 1 drone came out of nowhere to rescue the Hardy brothers and then stopped Rosemary from kidnapping Matt and Reby’s son Maxel. With Maxel running away, Matt showed up and confronted Rosemary, who spit green mist in Hardy’s face…but Matt sucked it all in…and spit it right back at her! Axel is then reunited with his parents.
The final moments saw Jeff still on the verge of “dying” while The Decay escape with their pickup truck with Señor Benjamin kidnapped in the back.
Sounds crazy enough? Maybe because it was! You can watch the whole segment below.
During a Facebook Live broadcast yesterday, new TNA President Billy Corgan announced that he is currently in negotiations to purchase TNA Wrestling from the other stakeholders which include Dixie Carter and Aroluxe Productions.
Noting that the process is a bit complicated, he hoped that soon he will be able to run the company completely, both when it comes to the business side as well as the creative side. Corgan took over Dixie Carter’s role last month after pumping in more money to keep the company afloat after it was evident that Carter could no longer support it.
The Smashing Pumpkins frontman is no stranger in running a wrestling company as in 2011 he founded and ran Resistance Pro Wrestling, a Chicago-based indie promotion. He moved to TNA in April 2015 as the Senior Producer of Creative and Talent Development before getting promoted to President a year later.
The currently suspended Eva Marie has just got herself cast into a Nicholas Cage movie according to EW.COM.
The movie is titled Inconceivable and has Cage and Faye Dunaway as the leading stars. Nicky Whelan and Eva Marie will also have roles in this Jonathan Baker’s film set from Chloe King’s screenplay. The movie will start shooting next month and depending how big Eva Marie’s role is, we might not see her on TV for a few more weeks following her suspension.
The synopsis from the film per Deadline.com reads, “When Katie (Whelan) moves to town with her young daughter in order to start a new life after enduring abuse in her past, she quickly befriends another mother, Angela, and her husband Brian (Cage). Angela notices odd behavior from Katie and begins to question whether Katie’s intentions are as innocent as she makes them out to be, or if something dark is lurking beneath the surface.”
Eva Marie is part of “Team Rock” and is managed by Dwayne Johnson’s business parter and ex-wife Dany Garcia.
Former WWE Heavyweight and United States champion Alberto Del Rio will be holding a press conference tomorrow in Mexico City according to SuperLuchas.com.
SuperLuchas.com says that Del Rio has invited a large contingent of Mexican media to attend this press conference and it is expected that Del Rio will announce his departure from WWE. The Mexican Superstar – who was suspended last month for his first violation of the WWE Wellness Program – has been removed from all upcoming shows and will no longer be working with WWE once the suspension is over. He received his suspension on August 18. Del Rio has an clause in his contract that he can opt to leave the company before his deal ends and the original contract ends in October. Del Rio returned to the WWE last October when he defeated John Cena at the Hell In a Cell pay-per-view however his career went downhill from there.
There are also rumors that his girlfriend Paige is also on her way out of the company. It will be interesting to see if she will be with him at the press conference tomorrow. Paige is also currently suspended for 30 days and there are those who say that she has hired attorneys to help her get out of her WWE deal. Paige is part of the Total Divas cast for season 6 so her eventual departure would mean she will depart the E! reality show as well.
Smackdown suffered a huge drop in the ratings similar to Raw this week, with the show getting 2,454,000 viewers for the Backlash go-home episode. That is down 381,000 viewers from last week’s show. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
In conjunction with their Saturday live event in Shanghai, China, WWE announced that it has signed seven Chinese individuals to developmental deals.
Six males and one female make up the list. Those signed are Big Boa (6’4”, 220lbs), a purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and the 2016 Brazilian jiu-jitsu China Open Gi/No-Gi champion; Gu Guangming (6’8”, 287lbs), an amateur boxer and winner of the National Men’s Championship in his weight class in 2014; Gao Lei (5’10”, 320lbs), a champion in various Beijing traditional wrestling promotions and was the team leader of Mongolian University’s wrestling team; Wang Xiaolong (6’3”, 243lbs) who has a background in basketball and dance; Yifeng (6’2”, 238lbs), an actor from Shanghai; Cheng Yuxiang (6’2”, 226lbs), an expert-level fitness trainer and a boxer. The only female is Zhao Xia (5’4”, 136lbs) who has trained in martial arts and is the co-founder of her own fitness studio. Zhao has also said she’s been taking Natrural Gynecomastia supplement that has helped with breast reduction. All of them had tryouts during a four-day training camp that WWE held in Shanghai in June of this year which was headed up by WWE Performance Center head coach Matt Bloom. All the Chinese signed under the deal will be relocating to Orlando, Florida and will begin training at the WWE Performance Center in January 2017.
WWE is making a big push in China and even opened offices in Shanghai to expand the brand’s reach. China is the only big market that the WWE Network has yet to launch in however strict Internet laws and other laws by the communist country makes International deals difficult and sometimes impossible.
Following his incident at the TGI Friday’s airport restaurant in Atlanta over the weekend, WWE Hall of Famer Scott Hall said he’s now doing okay following his relapse.
“Thank you to everyone for your support and concern regarding my recent relapse. I’m back on track and doing well,” Hall wrote. The man formerly known as Razor Ramon was drinking Coors Light and tequila shots when he called a bartender a bitch and then had a shouting match with her father who happened to be at the restaurant as well. Cops were called in and helped Hall out before things got escalated further.
Diamond Dallas Page, who had a major role in getting Scott Hall back in shape, also wrote on Twitter. “Just left @SCOTTHALLNWO house & I want U All to know #TheBadGuy is back on Track! I’m Proud of his bounce back,” he wrote.
With just a couple of days to go for UFC 203, the Countdown episode featuring CM Punk and his opponent Mickey Gall has been uploaded on the UFC YouTube account.
The 13-minute UFC production follows Punk and Gall as they face their final few weeks of training before their highly anticipated fight. Gall goes in with a 2-0 MMA record while Punk is still at 0-0.
“What’s the worst that can happen? Would I get knocked out in 5 seconds? I have lived most of my life in front of cameras. I have shit my pants on national television. I don’t think it can get more embarrassing,” Punk explained. He added that he does not feel any pressure and the pressure is all on his opponent.
Punk’s coach Duke Roufus said that as soon as the contract was signed, the “animal inside CM Punk” came out. The former WWE champion noted that September 10 will be one of the happiest days of life. “The spotlight is on and I’m gonna shine,” he said.
PWInsider.com is reporting that Scott Garland, better known to wrestling fans as Scotty 2 Hotty, has been hired as a full-time coach at the WWE Performance Center and will be training the up-and-coming WWE Superstars as well as helping out with NXT.
Garland had a 10-year career with the WWE starting in 1997 and his career took off when he teamed up with Brian Christopher to form the Too Cool tag team. A few years later, he teamed up with current WWE Performance Center head coach Matt “Albert” Bloom but their partnership only lasted nearly a year after Albert turned on his tag team partner.
After leaving WWE, Garland performed a couple of times for WWE during special episodes of Raw including the 15-year anniversary episode and one of the old school Raws. In 2014, Garland teamed up again with Brian Christopher, known as Grand Master Sexay, for a match on NXT Arrival against The Ascension.
During his time in WWE, he won the Light Heavyweight title once and the Tag Team title twice.
Just recently, he returned from a trip in the Middle East where he performed with other wrestlers for the troops as part of a tour by the Armed Forces Entertainment.
