With no UFC retirement announced, former champion Brock Lesnar entered the UFC Heavyweight fighter rankings, jumping to number eight after his first UFC fight since 2011 this past weekend.
Mark Hunt, his challenger, was occupying the eighth place before his loss to Lesnar and is now in ninth place. Two of the UFC fighters who defeated Lesnar are Cain Velasquez, at number two, and Alistair Overeem, at number three.
The rankings are compiled by a voting panel of 19 journalists and reporters.
Yesterday it was revealed that USADA will continue to regularly test Brock Lesnar until he announces his retirement from the UFC.
WWE today announced the SummerSlam meet and greet details which will happen on Friday and Saturday before SummerSlam at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Tickets will be available to the general public at Ticketmaster.com starting Saturday, July 16, at 10AM EST. A pre-sale has started with the code DOTCOM to unlock the sales. Tickets cost $125 and include a professional photo with the WWE Superstar chosen, autograph, and 8×10 glossy photo.
Those appearing on Friday, August 19 at 1PM are AJ Styles and Kevin Owens. At 3:30PM there will be The New Day and Enzo Amore & Big Cass. On Saturday, August 20 it’s Charlotte and Randy Orton at 10AM. Dean Ambrose and Sasha Banks at 12:30PM, and Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins at 3:30PM. Note that each Superstar is a different session and they will not be appearing together. There will be a total of 10 sessions.
TNA President Dixie Carter announced that Impact Wrestling will be airing in China every week starting next Wednesday at 8PM on the country’s version of YouTube, titled Youku.
Launched in December 2003, Youku has more than 500 million monthly active users and 800 million daily video views, making the platform fit enough to carry Impact. Getting clearance to run on actual television is a very hard task to do in this communist country so reaching out to a video hosting service provider like Youku was the next best thing for TNA.
There will be a change for John Cena going forward as he will be now operating on a reduced schedule for WWE when it comes to non-televised live events.
The former champion will be doing overseas tours and the most important live events in the big markets in the United States but as far as the rest goes, he will be getting some much-needed time off.
“I have not ‘earned’ a slower schedule, I have ‘earned’ an opportunity to challenge the limits of work capacity,” Cena wrote on Twitter reacting to the fans’ comments. Some even questioned his loyalty to the company now that he will be off for the majority of the house shows.
“My heart, life’s work, and being has been, is, and will ALWAYS be @WWE @WWEUniverse,” Cena then wrote, addressing those comments.
For several years Cena has headlined one of the two non-televised live event tours around the world. Roman Reigns have since taken over one spot while the other one has lately been headlined by Dean Ambrose.
In his latest Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said that apart from overseas tours, Cena has only six non-televised live events till November. He will still be appearing weekly on Raw or Smackdown, depending where he’s drafted next Tuesday.
Forbes has released their annual World’s 100 Highest-Paid Celebrities list, and all put together they pulled in $5.1 billion.
Coming in #19 is none other than former WWE champion Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson with an estimated $64.5 million. The People’s Champion is now considered the world’s highest-paid actor thanks to a string of movies he was part of that generated billions of dollars.
“Greatness is never achieved alone. Surround yourself with hungry, brilliant individuals who not only buy into your philosophy, but who are all willing to work just as hard as you. Power of teamwork,” The Rock wrote in a post on Instagram after the news came out.
“And don’t ever forget where you came from. I was evicted at 14yrs old and completely broke by 23. Every day I wake up as if that eviction notice is right around the corner waiting for me,” he added.
Taylor Swift, One Direction, and James Patterson rounded up the top three on the chart.
MMAFighting.com is reporting that USADA – the UFC’s anti-doping agency – will keep drug testing Lesnar until he announces his retirement again from the UFC.
With Lesnar placed back on the UFC roster, UFC/USADA rules state that as a fighter he will be tested out-of-competition as well. “To my knowledge, Brock Lesnar has not notified USADA of his retirement from the UFC,” USADA spokesman Ryan Madden said. “Therefore, he remains subject to USADA testing and the UFC anti-doping policy.”
Mark Hunt originally complained that Lesnar was not tested months before the fight as UFC rules state that a fighter must give notice four months in advance if he intends to fight again so he – or she – can be tested out-of-competition as well. UFC waived off that rule for Lesnar, who returned in less than two months and was tested six times by USADA since his return was announced.
Lesnar is also subject to the WWE Wellness Policy so technically the former champ is subject to two different anti-doping policies.
John Cena was not the only WWE Superstar at the ESPYS yesterday in Los Angeles, California and the host of the show was joined by other fellow Superstars on the red carpet and at the event.
The Miz, Maryse, Nikki and Brie Bella, The Big Show, The New Day, Ric Flair, and Charlotte, were all in attendance and the ladies were looking pretty damn good to say the very least!
Big Show had a face-to-face with former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal during the red carpet event but the two then shook hands and hugged. O’Neal eliminated Big Show during the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania this year and then a few days later challenged Big Show to a match.
Impact Wrestling on Tuesday night on POP did a total of 358,000 viewers, and while down from last week’s 440,000 viewers, it’s still up from the usual average the show has been doing on the network. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Paul Heyman rocked Manchester last night in day two of his UK tour with a show at the Manchester Comedy Store and our good friend Liam Johnson was in attendance for the whole thing and wrote the following report for us.
The show started discussing the previous night’s show in London. Heyman mentioned his former right hand man Gabe Sapolsky who is now in charge of Evolve. This moved on to Heyman mentioning that Will Ospreay was in the audience at the London show and was invited on stage where Paul offered him a two year contract with Evolve.
Paul talked about UFC 200. Paul really put Brock over and said that Brock acted like he was going to win during the whole time up to the fight between him and Mark Hunt. Paul said that Brock Lesnar actually had diverticulitis (a gastrointestinal condition) lying dormant in his body since he was a teenager without knowing about it until his first run with UFC. Heyman put over Lesnar by pretty much asking what he could do in UFC now that Brock is healthy.
The show was divided into four separate parts. Part 1: WCW, Part 2: ECW, Part 3: WWE 2001 to 2006 and Part 4: Return of the Advocate.
Part 1: WCW
One of the crowd asked about War Games ’92. Heyman spoke about getting in the cage. Paul said that the roster of WCW around ’91 to ’92 was awesome and put over guys like Rick Rude (who Paul said was in his prime during this time), Steve Austin and Ricky Steamboat. Whilst the talent roster was amazing, the management were not and that’s why early ‘90s WCW could never compete with early ‘90s WWF. Paul said the management of WCW had no product knowledge. They had no idea how to create six main eventers and get them working with other wrestlers who needed the rub and bring them up to their level. Paul also said that Ricky Steamboat’s matches with Steve Austin really helped make Austin improve as an overall performer.
But getting back to War Games ’92, Heyman thought this was the best WCW match ever. Paul also mentioned people freaking out about Madusa getting on top of the cage and people thought she was going to legit beat Sting’s ass as she’d only just got back from Japan where she’d competed in shoot fights and also been training in Muay Thai kickboxing over in Thailand.
Paul said that there was an opportunity to go to the WWF in early ’92. Paul was going to be Bobby Heenan’s protégé where he would then go onto manage the Heenan family on his own with Heenan being a full time commentator at the time. Kip Frey who was Executive Vice President of WCW back then asked Paul what it would take to keep him in WCW. Paul said that instead of being an independent contractor like everyone else in the business was at the time, he asked to be an employee of WCW. Kip allowed this to happen so he stayed.
Part 2 – ECW
An audience member asked who was the most difficult person to manage behind the scenes. Paul said it was hard to say who the most difficult person to manage backstage was as members of the ECW roster pushing themselves to the limit was the whole point of ECW.
Paul said the Dudleys and New Jack in particular were difficult but Paul didn’t really act like this was a bad thing as that kind of behavior was encouraged. Paul said he himself might have been the most difficult to manage for allowing people who constantly overstepped the mark like Sandman, Bubba Ray and New Jack to stay. Heyman mentioned that he never reigned himself in back in ECW.
Paul said the ECW performers “drank the Kool-Aid” and would “run through walls” for him because he really believed in all of them. Paul mentioned that the WWF wanted 6’5” bodybuilders, WCW wanted athletes and ECW wanted everyone else (the rejects but the ones who could wrestle). Paul mentioned 5’8” Pete who was studying martial arts who could choke anyone out. ‘Pete’ turned out to be Taz.
Paul talked about Steve Austin and his pissed off promos after he was fired from WCW as Austin was legit pissed off at the time. Paul said he wasn’t a genius for allowing those promos. Paul said it just meant Eric Bischoff was a “stupid motherf**ker” for allowing Austin to leave. Paul also said WCW were “stupid mother**kers” for letting Mick Foley go too.
The show got interrupted by someone who went to the toilet and hit his head on a wall-mounted TV. This promptly made the host say the audience member “head-butted a TV”, which consequently made the crowd chant “ECW!”
One audience member asked if WWE should bring back “Donkey and Diddy” (meaning Doink and Dink, although how anyone could confuse WWF with Donkey Kong Country is anyone’s guess). Heyman said, “Do you want to be Dink?” (the person who asked was a midget). Paul then went onto say, “I go all the way to Manchester and I pop a midget”. Heyman then walked into the crowd and hugged the midget.
Paul concluded the ECW part of the show by saying that he’d like ECW to be remembered for everyone pulling together and the fans getting 10 dollars of value for spending a dollar. This was just an analogy for the fans getting more fun than they bargained for. Paul said that even when he couldn’t pay people, they were still good times and the wrestlers would still try for him and the fans. Paul said that ECW was all about hard work.
Part 3: WWE 2001-2006
This is where things got a bit confrontational. A member of the audience asked Paul a two parted question which Paul thought wasn’t asked very clearly. Heyman was giving the audience member a lot of stick for over-complicating the question of basically, “which retired wrestler should have been a bigger star than he was and who in WWE should be in the main event who isn’t?”.
The question wasn’t asked that simply though which is what wound Paul up. Anyway, Paul responded by saying that he would put Cesaro in the main event. Paul doesn’t understand why the front office aren’t high on him. Paul didn’t really answer the question about the stars from the past who should’ve had better careers but he did say that Raven should never have left ECW. Paul said that Raven was legit hated back in ECW and that Scotty Levy believed in the soul of Raven. Paul thought that WCW and WWE didn’t know how to use Raven because they didn’t create him. Paul said that he had no influence over Raven in WWE.
He also said Shane Douglas shouldn’t have left ECW when he did. Paul believes that Sabu should have been a bigger star than he was. Paul said Sabu’s body was destroyed in and out of the ring. Paul believes that Sabu from ‘93 to early ‘95 was revolutionary and ahead of his time but being ahead of your time doesn’t usually draw money which prompted the very clever and arguably truthful analogy of “ECW – bankrupt. Attitude Era – billionaires”, which prompted a round of applause from the audience.
Paul thought the Alliance angle was a disaster. Paul mentioned that it was Michael Hayes who suggested that Paul Heyman do the shoot promo on Vince on the go home Smackdown before Survivor Series 2001. Paul basically asked Vince how far he should go to rip an asshole. Vince’s reply was, “as far that could draw money”.
Paul said that Taz’s choke that he applied on him after the promo was pretty tight and went onto say that shooting works when in the right context with certain angles. Whilst good money was made after Survivor Series 2001, Vince didn’t share a lot of that money with Paul.
Paul was asked about an incident between himself and Vince McMahon on the WWE private plane. Paul said there was a confrontation about the December To Dismember pay-per-view. Paul thought that this was the worst wrestling pay-per-view ever. Paul said if you wanted to sabotage a promotion, that PPV was the way forward.
But as far as the incident on the plane went, Paul talked about all the scenarios and outcomes for the main event. Vince wanted CM Punk and Rob Van Dam eliminated first in the match for every scenario being suggested. Heyman felt personally offended by that. Heyman was already tired of being in WWE by then and wanted to go home. Vince has never gone public with what happened in that conversation. Paul said it was a very heated argument. Said he didn’t want to violate the confidence so he didn’t mention exactly what was said but there wasn’t a physical fight between the two of them. Paul was basically shown the door but he wanted to leave anyway.
The show started to overrun but the organizers (Inside The Ropes) and Paul went with the last part anyway…
Part 4: The return of the Advocate
Paul mentioned the CM Punk pipe bomb promo from 2011. Paul said he met Punk back in 2005 in Ohio Valley Wrestling. Punk had worked for Gabe Sapolsky in Ring Of Honor and did well which got him noticed and signed by WWE. Paul claimed that when Punk finally arrived in WWE, nobody knew what to do with him. WWE management wouldn’t allow the Pepsi Plunge (a pedigree from the top turnbuckle) as his finisher and he didn’t do “flippy-dippy” stuff like Jeff Hardy. Paul said that as a result of this, he had to fight Punk’s cause.
Fast forward to 2011 where Punk said he was a “Paul Heyman Guy”. Paul had been gone for five years by then but it reminded the long-time fans of Heyman and got the newer fans asking who Heyman was. Paul then mentioned that Brock Lesnar was back the following year. Paul also mentioned that the season premier of Raw in Chicago involved the idea of Punk turning heel (hard to do given the venue) so Vince suggested Punk turned on Cena. Vince also suggested Heyman then worked alongside Punk.
Paul was reluctant to work alongside anyone else other than Brock until Vince suggested Punk was the guy he was working with. Paul said that when it was being revealed that Punk was working with Heyman and they were sitting in a car live on Raw, they were both bent down out of sight from the camera and joked about the shit they could stir working together.
Paul then talked about the choosing between Brock and Punk angle and then went onto to talk about Brock being pitched the idea of working with Taker at WrestleMania 30. Paul said people should get over the streak being broken. Paul also said that HHH invited Heyman to NXT and not Dusty Rhodes. Paul said he loved Dusty Rhodes with all his heart and misses him on a daily basis. Paul also put Renee Young over and said she could work anywhere as a broadcaster.
Paul concluded the show by getting into the crowd and getting them to say, “My name is Paul Heyman” together for his Heyman Hustle YouTube show. Overall, this was a brilliant show and although the VIP tickets weren’t cheap, they were well worth the money.
Bray Wyatt told Matt Hardy that without him “no one would’ve been #Broken in the first place,” responding to Hardy’s earlier tweet which was a reaction to the Wyatts/New Day segment which aired this past Monday on Raw. “Go ahead LIE and say it isn’t true #IamTheWay,” he added.
Wyatt continued, “Love me or hate me, I am the single most creative thing this industry has seen this century. Constantly imitated, but there is only one me.”
Hardy called him “#BrotherNeroWyatt” and wrote that he “never asked for my #BROKEN condition,” calling it a curse. He then sent Wyatt an open invitation to his battlefield. Meanwhile, Senor Benjamin, also had a few words directed at Bray Wyatt. “Mister Hardy had dirty redneck gimmick before you were borned [sic]. Your battlefield is looking bad,” he wrote.
Matt has really excelled in this new gimmick he is portraying and his social media work to support it has been excellent to say the very least.
WWE will be making full use of the WWE Network next week, presenting a WWE Draft Center Live second screen experience and a Smackdown Live Pre and Post-show, breaking down all the news of the evening.
Starting at 7PM EST, the pre-show will kick off on the Network, airing across all digital platforms and after the live Smackdown is over at 10PM EST, the post-show will start.
The Draft Center Live will be broadcasting while Smackdown is on the air on USA Network. WWE used to do a lot of second screen experiences in the past on the WWE mobile apps but they were stopped. It’s the first time that they will be doing this on the WWE Network while a show is running live on television.
It will certainly be a busy night for WWE producers and the teams in the production trucks, maintaining two concurrent live broadcasts over a period of four hours.
John Cena will be making history tonight as the first ever wrestling personality to host the ESPYS, ESPN’s Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards.
The award show is designed to commemorate the past year in sports by recognizing the top achievements, moments and performers. It honors ESPN’s commitment to The V Foundation for Cancer Research.
The live broadcast will be held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles and will air on ABC at 8PM EST with a countdown show starting at 5PM EST on ESPN. Vice President Joe Biden will also be on the show, presenting the Jimmy V Award.
Two days ago Triple H called Cena hosting the ESPYS as “a huge step for the man and a giant step for our industry.” The fact that Cena was chosen to present the prestigious awards show tells you how much star power he carries.
On his Twitter today, Shane McMahon wrote that the Smackdown General Manager has been chosen and will be revealed live this Monday on Raw, one day before the brand splits again.
“I’m very excited to announce that terms were agreed to today with the new SmackDown GM,” McMahon wrote.
Meanwhile, if the screenshots floating around are not fake, somebody jumped the gun at WWE.COM and in one of the previews for next week’s show there was a headline that said that the YES! Movement has taken over Smackdown, implying that Daniel Bryan will be the new Smackdown General Manager.
Bryan is currently doing commentary for the Cruiserweight Classic tournament on the WWE Network with Mauro Ranallo and had not been active with WWE since he announced his retirement in February.
CMT announced that Stone Cold Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Challenge reality TV show has been renewed for season 4.
The show had its premiere in July 2014 and airs every Sunday night at 8PM EST. Each season, Austin brings a group of eight contestants, either all men or all women, to compete in a series of physical challenges. Season 1 and 2 had 10 episodes each while season 3 had a total of 18 episodes and aired for four months.
“Broken Skull Challenge set a new bar for competition series that both inspire and drive its fans,” Jayson Dinsmore, head of development for CMT said. “The series has certainly earned its rep as the toughest show on television and we can’t wait to see what Steve’s planned for this season.”
The show is produced by 51 Minds Entertainment and Endemol. Steve Austin serves as one of the executive producers as well apart from hosting the show.
Quinn Ojinnaka, the former American football player known to wrestling fans as Moose, started with TNA yesterday and made his first televised appearance during the Impact tapings.
The 32 year old played for the NFL’s New England Patriots, St. Louis Rams, and Indianapolis Colts during his career but has not played football since October 2012. Following his release from the Colts, he started wrestling training and in 2014 he made his debut for Ring Of Honor under the name Moose.
At last night’s Impact, Moose interrupted the main event match with TNA champ Lashley and X Division champ Eddie Edwards and aligned himself with “The Miracle” Mike Bennett.
WWE announced five alternates for the WWE Cruiserweight Classic series on the WWE Network just in case there are injuries or someone fails to make the 205lbs weight limit.
The five are Aaron Solow (USA), Jesus Yurnet (Puerto Rico), Jessy Sorensen (USA), Vandal Ortagun (Turkey), and Kai Katana (USA).
Perhaps the most recognizable name from the bunch is Jessy Sorensen, who wrestled in TNA as Jesse Sorensen and suffered a broken neck in a match against Zema Ion. After he recovered, Sorensen was offered a backstage job with TNA and was told he’d have a job “for life” with the company but eventually was released after a few years.
Round one of the tournament has already been filmed in Winter Park, Florida at Full Sail University with Daniel Bryan and Mauro Ranallo calling the action. The tournament officially starts airing on the WWE Network tomorrow.
Raw this week drew a total of 3,170,000 viewers, up over half a million viewers from last week’s 4th of July edition. It’s also up from the previous week’s 3.09 million viewers but considering there was the hype of the return of Vince McMahon, it was far from a home run.
Hour one pulled 3,042,000 viewers, hour two had 3,239,000 viewers, and hour three did 3,231,000 viewers. The good news is that there was not a big drop from hour two hour three and the show gained viewers from hour one to hour three.
Raw was beaten by the 2016 Home Run Derby, Rizzoli & Isles, and Major Crimes in overall viewership. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Three new matches were made official for the Battleground pay-per-view, including two title matches.
The United States title will be defended by Rusev as he takes on the former Intercontinental champion Zack Ryder in a rematch from last week’s Raw. The Miz will also defend his IC title against the winner of last night’s battle royal, Darren Young. And announced today is a six-man tag team match between The Wyatt Family and The New Day.
Chris Jericho’s Highlight Reel will also be present to welcome the returning Randy Orton, who has not appeared on WWE television since September of last year. Orton will be facing Brock Lesnar next month at SummerSlam.
WWE took a page out of TNA’s Final Deletion book on Raw last night providing a similar scenario in the latest between The New Day and The Wyatt Family feud.
It was The New Day who went to visit The Wyatts in the woods and it was all shot similar to a horror movie including a score playing in the background and creepy editing to the whole segment. In a WWE favorite, The Wyatts tried to run over New Day with a car but they were unsuccessful and slammed into a stationary truck.
The scene was a bit crazy with all six members hitting each other – or better yet, trying to – with “foreign objects” such as a wheel, ax, glass, etc.
Matt Hardy reacted to the segment on Twitter by writing, “I see that the #GreatWar has become inter-promotional.. I now have a myriad of #BrotherNeros to DELETE!”
Some WWE Superstars got an advance preview of the Final Deletion which was a pretty popular video backstage at a prior event.
WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon returned to Raw last night and appointed Shane McMahon as the new commissioner of Smackdown. His sister Stephanie will be the commissioner of Monday Night Raw.
Although they are now “commissioners,” McMahon instructed both of them to appoint a General Manager of each show next week and if they don’t he will be making the decision for them. Next week’s Raw is the last one with the whole roster together as from the day after, the brand will be split on the first episode of the live Smackdown.
The segment with all this went down at the end of the three hour broadcast and Stephanie put the exclamation point with one of her WWE-famous slaps with her brother on the receiving end. She then allowed Shane to return the favor but instead of slapping her, Shane kissed her on the cheek. In a hilarious – and not planned – moment she then nearly fell after she slipped coming down the ring steps. Oops!
