Nikki and Brie Bella won the Choice Female Athlete category at 2016 Teen Choice Awards yesterday, an event hosted by WWE Superstar John Cena and Victoria Justice. The show was held at The Forum in Inglewood, California and broadcast on FOX.
The Bellas won the award beating out Simone Biles, Alex Morgan, Danica Patrick, Ronda Rousey, and Serena Williams. “So incredibly happy & honored to win with Brie #ChoiceFemaleAthlete. Our surfboards are dedicated 2 you #BellaArmy,” the duo tweeted afterward.
WWE’s Total Divas show was nominated in the Choice TV Show: Reality category but did not win as Keeping Up with the Kardashians took the award. Cena himself was nominated in the Choice Male Athlete but Stephen Curry won.
Former WWE champ Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was nominated in the Choice Summer Movie Star: Male category but lost out to his Central Intelligence movie co-star Kevin Hart.
Brock Lesnar will be making his first WWE televised appearance since WrestleMania 32 tonight on Monday Night Raw.
This will also be Lesnar’s first public appearance since failing two drug tests from UFC 200, one an out-of-competition drug test and another one in-competition, on the day of UFC 200. Both tests were administered by USADA.
Lesnar’s SummerSlam opponent, Randy Orton, has been drafted to Smackdown so in the meantime most likely someone else will be fed to Lesnar as the sacrificial lamb.
There’s also a question if Paul Heyman will accompany Lesnar to the ring tonight. Heyman’s contract with WWE expired and as of last month it was not renewed although both parties are confident an agreement will be reached by the time SummerSlam comes along.
Former WWE champion Seth Rollins will be appearing in the movie Sharknado 4 tonight airing on SyFy starting at 8PM EST. Rollins will play the character of AstroTech Lopez.
Sharknado: The 4th Awakens takes place five years after the third movie and stars Ian Ziering, Tara Reid, David Hasselhoff, and Ryan Newman. Chris Jericho had a role in Sharknado 3, working as an attendant at a roller coaster ride however he ended up as a shark victim and was eaten alive.
Will Seth Rollins survive the sharks or will he suffer the same fate as Chris Jericho?
WWE Superstar Maryse and former champ Barbie “Kelly Kelly” Blank-Souray attended the Maxim Hot 100 Party at the Hollywood Palladium yesterday and set on fire the red carpet arrivals party!
The invite-only party is a celebration of Maxim’s annual survey of the world’s most beautiful women. The event was hosted by Stella Maxwell and featured a headlining performance by Iggy Azalea, a DJ set by Nick Cannon & a special performance by RedOne.
You can see some photos of the duo from the event below.
At yesterday’s NXT live event in Houston, Finn Balor paid tribute to WWE Performance Center head coach Matt Bloom for what he has done to all of the talent.
“You know who’s done more than anybody to take it to another level,” Balor quizzed the crowd. “He’s a man that goes by many names. A-Train, The Hip-Hop Hippo, Giant Bernard, Tensai, but we all know him affectionately as our coach Matt Bloom,” Balor continued as the crowd popped.
Bloom was standing in the entrance way along with the other NXT talent who came out to listen to Balor’s speech, his last one in NXT.
“And he single-handedly, from the day he took over at the Performance Center changed the way we treat NXT from the inside. Because I’m telling ya, before Matt Bloom was here it was a struggle,” Balor added. “And now, every single day, we walk into the Performance Center, we walk in with a smile and it’s thanks to that man over there.”
Balor’s comments were the first ones from a current Superstar to somewhat address the situation that haunted the WWE in the beginning of 2015 when allegations against Bill DeMott pushed him to resign.
Bloom took over from previous head coach Bill DeMott, who resigned in March 2015 after several cases were brought forward by former WWE Performance Center students who said that DeMott abused them. Allegations included no regard to the safety of the developmental wrestlers, name calling, verbally abusing the talent, and much more. DeMott refuted the allegations about him in a statement but said that to avoid any embarrassment or damage to WWE he would step down effective immediately.
Bloom was appointed interim head coach just a day after DeMott’s resignation and was then promoted to head coach on a permanent basis. He had been working as an NXT trainer since August 2014. Another well-liked trainer, Sara Amato, was appointed as assistant head coach just two months after Bloom took the reigns.
Carmella, Mojo Rawley, Nia Jax, and Finn Balor had their final NXT non-televised live event yesterday in Houston, Texas in front of a packed crowd at the Revention Music Center. All four, along with Alexa Bliss and American Alpha, were drafted to the main roster.
In their final matches, Rawley defeated Buddy Murphy, Carmella teamed up with her friend Bayley to defeat Mandy Rose and Daria, Nia Jax lost to Asuka, and Finn Balor teamed up with Shinsuke Nakamura to defeat Samoa Joe and Bobby Roode.
After the main event was over, former NXT Women’s champion Bayley took the mic and put over the four who were departing NXT for good. Finn Balor then spoke to the crowd and thanked everyone including the locker room and WWE Performance Center head coach Matt Bloom. The NXT locker room came out to the entrance way to hear Finn’s speech.
You can check out the whole 8 minute segment below.
The Rusev and Lana wedding yesterday in Malibu went off without a hitch and Mr. and Mrs. Barnyashev have now one more wedding ceremony to go in Bulgaria, a traditional wedding for Rusev’s family and friends. That is expected to take place sometime in September.
The Malibu wedding, which will air on season 6 of Total Divas, was attended by several WWE Superstars such as Nikki and Brie Bella, Daniel Bryan, Renee Young, Natalya, Maryse, The Miz, Dolph Ziggler, and even soon-to-be former Superstar, Ryback.
Central Intelligence, the movie featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart, has crossed the $200 million mark at the global box office, making it the highest-earning action comedy this year according to Variety.
The movie currently has $124 million in domestic box office receipts and an additional $76 million from International revenue. It made its debut in #2 on the box office chart with $35.5 million. Central Intelligence had a $50 million budget.
“We knew audiences would respond to the unbeatable chemistry of Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart in this fun, action-packed comedy. Central Intelligence plays big and delivers across a wide demographic,” said Veronika Kwan Vandenberg, president of worldwide distribution for Warner Bros. Pictures.
The Rock thanked his fans on Twitter for making the movie such a big success and then told Kevin Hart to go f*ck himself!
UFC has released the poster for UFC 203 featuring none other than former WWE champion CM Punk.
Punk is billed as 3rd from the top, with the main event of Miocic vs Overeem, then Werdum vs Rothwell, and then his fight against Mickey Gall. Punk is referred to by his wrestling name and his real name Phil Brooks is nowhere to be seen on the poster.
The fight was supposed to happen in June but Punk suffered an injury and it had to be postponed. Gall has an MMA record of 2-0 while Punk is still at 0-0 with no professional fights under his belt.
UFC 203 takes place on September 10 from the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, the same place where Punk had his last WWE match. You can see the poster below.
WWE today announced that the WWE Women’s title will be defended at SummerSlam with a rematch from last Monday’s Raw as Sasha Banks defends the title against Charlotte.
The match was always scheduled to take place at SummerSlam and the title switch was supposed to take place on the pay-per-view according to several insiders. It would also have marked the first time in a full year that Sasha Banks held a title after losing the NXT Women’s title to Bayley at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn the night before SummerSlam 2015.
The powers that be decided to pull the trigger on Raw for Sasha to win the title to give the show – the first one post-Draft – sort of a big feel. There were rumors that Charlotte asked for time off from the company and that’s why the switch was done but that is not the case as she’s working a full schedule till the pay-per-view.
FOX has ordered a second season of American Grit, the reality television show featuring WWE Superstar John Cena as the host, according to Deadline Hollywood.
The show is about 16 contestants split into teams led by former special forces members as they go through challenges until there’s only one man and one woman left standing, splitting a $1 million prize. American Grit, which made its debut in April, started off with 2.35 million viewers and finished the season with 2.11 million viewers last month.
Cena spent nearly two months away from WWE to film the series.
WWE Shop is running a $5 Friday promotion where many merchandise are on sale for just $5!
$5 deals include mugs, DVDs, shot glasses, picture frames, stickers, and tons of t-shirts including those from WrestleMania 32, Kevin Owens, Randy Orton, John Cena, Paul Heyman, Roman Reigns, and others.
During the conference call yesterday discussing the Q2 2016 financial results, WWE’s Chief Strategy and Financial Officer George Barrios took a question regarding a potential WWE sale similar to that one of the UFC.
UFC was sold for $4 billion earlier this month and right after the sale WWE stocks jumped due to the valuation of the company. “I think that reflects the value people put on branded live content. So we think that’s great,” Barrios said. “And as far as the private transaction look, as you know us, we are always willing to listen and all we care about is doing what’s best for our audience, for our shareholders, and for our employees. So, if someone’s got a great idea, we’re open to listening to it,” Barrios added.
There are always rumors of a potential WWE sale to bigger companies however this is the first time that a high-ranking WWE official has acknowledged that they wouldn’t shoot down the idea of a sale and would be open to discuss it.
There will be a ravishing wedding in Malibu, California today as WWE Superstars Rusev and Lana will be tying the knot with Total Divas cameras all over the place as the ceremony will be airing in an upcoming episode of the new season.
This will be one of two weddings that Rusev and Lana will do with the second one happening in Rusev’s native country of Bulgaria which will be a traditional Bulgarian wedding. The two have been together since their early NXT days and now live together in an 11.56 acre-property in Nashville, Tennessee.
Several cast members of Total Divas, including the Bella Twins, will be in attendance for the event. The Rusev and Lana wedding is the fourth one on Total Divas so far.
Lana has been updating her Instagram with several photos from the pre-wedding activities which you can see below.
WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross wrote in his latest blog that he sees no problem with Brock Lesnar not being punished by WWE for failing the UFC drug tests.
“I am not condoning PED use in any way but I do agree that WWE cannot require part time performers in a show business presentation, not a legit sport, to adhere to the same rules and regulations that they require of their full-time talents,” JR wrote.
Ross made a comparison using former NBA player Shaquille O’Neal, saying that if he ends up in the ring at WrestleMania 33 in Orlando, there’s no way Shaq will be tested because he will be considered a part-timer.
JR added that comparing professional wrestling to mixed martial arts is “somewhat eye-rolling.”
A pre-sale for the upcoming Roadblock pay-per-view is currently being held on Ticketmaster.com using the code WWEPPV. The pre-sale ends tomorrow at 11PM EST.
Ticket prices are $25, $50, $80, $135, $175, $350, and $500 for ringside seats. This will be a Raw brand pay-per-view taking place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the CONSOL Energy Center on December 18. (Thanks to Steve Alleyne for the pre-sale code)
After just two episodes from season two, Dwayne Johnson announced in an Instagram post that HBO has picked up his show Ballers for its third season.
“Congratulations to our hard working cast, crew, producers and our show’s creator Stephen Levinson. Thank you to our home network HBO,” Johnson wrote, before thanking his fans for tuning in every week.
Season two is averaging 1.3 million viewers live and HBO revealed that 5.7 million people have seen the season two premiere since July 17 using the on-demand features.
ProWrestlingSheet.com is reporting that WWE has released Zamariah Loupe, better known to fans as ZZ, from his contract.
Despite showing lack of any wrestling knowledge and reluctance to improve in the gym during his stint on Tough Enough, WWE opted to sign ZZ to a deal despite not winning the competition due to his popularity. While ZZ found himself in the bottom three for several weeks, fans always saved him and ended up being a runner-up in the show.
Everyone on the Tough Enough panel and trainers went down hard on ZZ every week but the fans seemed to enjoy his character on television. He signed a one year deal after the show was over and recently made his debut at a non-televised NXT live event.
NXT Takeover: Brooklyn II got a massive main event last night during NXT as William Regal announced that Samoa Joe will be defending the NXT title against Shinsuke Nakamura.
This will be the first title shot for the charismatic and super popular Japanese sensation and with Samoa Joe expected to be called up to the main roster soon it would not be a surprise if there’s a title switch. Nakamura is also undefeated so far ever since arriving at NXT Takeover: Dallas.
NXT Takeover: Brooklyn II will take place on the eve of SummerSlam on Saturday, August 20 at the Barclays Center. Last year’s Takeover event in the same building was one of the best Takeover events in the history of the brand and included match of the year candidate Sasha Banks vs Bayley for the NXT Women’s title.
