Home Blog Page 1491

WWE hits back at CM Punk and his back lump allegation

By
Colin Vassallo
-

WWE has fired back at CM Punk and his allegations regarding the WWE medical staff in a post on the WWE.COM website.

WWE said that while Punk claimed to have a baseball-sized lump on his back near the waistband of his tights, WWE investigated the issue and came out with four answers:

“CM Punk did not discuss this alleged condition with WWE’s team of physicians and trainers, nor did he discuss it with anyone in our Talent Relations department; Subsequently, WWE has no medical records documenting this alleged condition; The first time WWE was made aware of this alleged condition was when we received a letter from CM Punk’s attorney on August 22, 2014, after WWE terminated his contract; There is clear video evidence from the 2014 Royal Rumble, which allows all to decide whether there is any appearance of a baseball-sized growth on CM Punk’s back.

For video evidence, WWE put up several videos in slow motion of Punk at the Royal Rumble showing him – and zooming in – on his back, clearing showing no lumps.

WWE said that it “continues to have the utmost confidence in the ability and expertise of our world-class team of physicians, including Dr. Amann.”

You can see the video here.

TNA returning to German, Austrian, and Swiss television this month

By
Colin Vassallo
-

TNA is finally returning to German, Austrian, and Swiss television later this month after the company reached a deal with DMAX to air Impact every Saturday night on free television starting at 11:15PM local time.

DMAX is owned by Discovery Communications, which is also the parent company of Destination America, TNA’s broadcast partner in the United States. TNA says that this is a part of a new global multi-year partnership between TNA and Discovery.

Oliver Nowotny, VP Programming & Content Discovery Networks Deutschland, said, ”Wrestling has a huge fan base in Germany. The deal between Discovery and TNA means we can now offer fans the very latest, most explosive feuds, produced to the highest standards. We are confident of winning new viewers for the sport, and are also looking forward to comparing notes on Facebook, Twitter and other social media.”

Play-by-play on the show will be dubbed in German and will be handled by the commentary team of Nic Heldt and Mike Ritter.

Impact starts airing on February 28.

Jim Ross announces WrestleMania 31 weekend RINGSIDE show in San Jose

By
Colin Vassallo
-

It’s better late than never for Jim Ross as the WWE Hall of Famer finally announced his ‘RINGSIDE: An Afternoon with Jim Ross’ show for WrestleMania weekend.

The show will be held at the Rockbar Theater on Saturday, March 28, on Saratoga Avenue in San Jose, California, starting at 1PM. Tickets will be $20 for general admission and $65 for meet and greet VIP tickets. There will be only 100 VIP tickets and the meet and greet will start at 11AM.

The event is locally promoted by PinUp Productions. Tickets go on sale tomorrow at Ticketweb.com.

Dwayne Johnson ready to rock the 87th Academy Awards ceremony

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will be at the Academy Awards this weekend as he has been chosen to present one of the awards although he stopped short of revealing which one it will be.

“Truly an honor to step on the Oscar stage again this Sunday. Thank you @TheAcademy,” Johnson posted on Twitter along with a photo of the first time he presented an award at the Oscars.

In 2008, Johnson was chosen to present the Best Visual Effects award during the ceremony.

The 87th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, will honor the best films of 2014 and will take place February 22, 2015, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 8:30PM EST.

Jon Stewart fires back at Seth Rollins after diss on Raw

By
Colin Vassallo
-

The soon-to-be ex-host of the Daily Show, Jon Stewart, recorded a video message to Seth Rollins who this past Monday on Raw said that he could easily replace him as host on the popular Comedy Central show and actually make the show watchable again.

Stewart, who is a big wrestling fan himself, called Rollins a turncoat for abandoning the Shield and mentioned some mistakes Rollins has made during his career, including being unable to choose what color his hair should be, but dissing him on Raw was the biggest mistake he ever made.

“You just stepped in a world of hurt my friend, a world of friend that not even your buddies at J&J Security aren’t going to be able to save you from,” Stewart said. He said he’s coming after Rollins with “160 pounds of dynamite,” at which point, Stewart pauses and says, “Well not actually dynamite, my bone density is not what it used to be.” The video was posted on WWE’s social media accounts as well on The Daily Show Facebook page.

Meanwhile, Seth Rollins hit back at Stewart again after appearing on TMZ Hollywood Sports and made fun of Stewart, calling him ancient and said probably his writers wrote the promo for him.

“If he thinks he can hang with the best, Mr. Money In The Bank will be waiting for him,” Rollins said. The video can be seen below.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkp5rJjvgQI&w=700]

WWE’s Dr. Chris Amann sues CM Punk and Colt Cabana

By
Colin Vassallo
-

WWE physician Dr. Chris Amann has filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court in Illinois against Phil Brooks and Scott Colton – better known as CM Punk and Colt Cabana – for their comments they made about him during the infamous interview Punk had on Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast.

The lawsuit alleges that both former WWE Superstars made false statements about him which were defamatory as well as insinuated that he has lack of integrity and lack of competence as a doctor. Amann states that Punk attacked his reputation when he said that he misdiagnosed the lump in his back as just fatty deposit and ignored requests by Punk himself to remove it. During the podcast, Punk said that the fatty deposit ended up being a life-threatening MSRA which was later treated by a different doctor. Amann is saying that Punk never asked him to treat it nor did he ever show him any lump. Punk also went into a fierce attack on the doctor saying that he prescribed him the antibiotic Zithromax Z-Pack left, right, and center, something which Amann is also disputing.

The case against Colton is because during the same podcast, Colton called Dr. Amann “lazy” among other things and said words which Amann said they both know they are false.

Amann is suing for compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $2 million. The Chicago-Sun Times featured a short story about the lawsuit and noted that Punk and Cabana could not be reached for comment.

TNA and Grado in race against time to use Madonna’s song on Impact

By
Colin Vassallo
-

TNA’s British wrestler Grado, who was a cast member of the latest British Boot Camp, is getting TNA some major publicity as the fight is on to get Madonna to let TNA use the “Like A Prayer” song as his theme song for tomorrow’s Impact episode.

Grado used the song during the Impact tapings in Glasgow a few weeks back but TNA does not have the right to use the song on broadcast television. In a video posted by Grado himself, he said that negotiations between TNA and the network have been ongoing to see if they can use the song but they have now got a response from Madonna’s reps that have denied their request to use the song.

So Grado took it to Twitter and managed to get the #SayYesMadonna hashtag trending worldwide with a lot of media outlets picking it up, including CNN’s Time.com website and other British-based media websites.

You can see the video Grado did including an entrance he did for Insane Championship Wrestling in the UK using Madonna’s song as his theme and the crowd participation to highlight why it’s important for him to use this song below.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA7neG7KR8s#t=193&w=700]

Rhyno makes NXT debut

By
Colin Vassallo
-

The episode of NXT where Rhyno made his NXT debut aired last night on the WWE Network and WWE uploaded the whole segment on YouTube.

Rhyno, who hasn’t wrestled for the WWE since June 2005, came out to a massive pop and “holy shit” chants from the rabid NXT crowd at Full Sail University and then started a “Gore, gore, gore” chant. Rhyno did not take long to give the fans what they want and finished his opponent, Elias Samson, in a minute with the gore.

Two of his closest friends, and former WWE Superstars themselves Edge and Christian, also welcomed him back on Twitter.

“Christian…” Edge wrote, to which Christian replied, “…Get the Rhyno!! #WWENXT.”

You can see the segment below.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/4QeZJ3bMSlE&w=700]

Big Daddy V / Viscera’s widow sues WWE for wrongful death

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Cassandra Frazier, who is the widow of the late former WWE Superstar Mabel/Viscera/Big Daddy V, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against World Wrestling Entertainment in Shelby County Circuit Court in Memphis, Tennessee.

The lawsuit states that her husband, Nelson Frazier Jr, passed away due to the effects of punishment he endured while wrestling, mentioning brain trauma and several concussions from hundreds of matches inside a WWE ring.

Frazier claims that her husband had short-term memory loss, migraines, depression, difficulty performing simple tasks, disfiguring scar tissue, and more.

The lawsuit alleges that Vince McMahon and WWE have failed to protect its wrestlers from harms created by performing in the ring and that they have ignored and disregarded risks of harm to its wrestlers. In the lawsuit there’s also photos and information about former WWE Superstars who passed away due to heart attacks, suicide, etc, and also lists tons of matches that Nelson Frazier participated in.

The lawsuit accuses WWE of nine counts – negligence, negligence misrepresentation, intentional misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment, fraud by omission / failure to warn, vicarious liability, wrongful death, punitive damages, and loss of consortium suffered by the plaintiff.

Nelson Frazer Jr passed away on February 18, 2014, after suffering a heart attack. He wrestled for the WWE starting in 1993 and then back in 1999 and 2004 up until 2008.

You can read the full 124 page lawsuit here.

Raw rating for 02/16/2015

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Monday Night Raw this week drew a total of 3,997,000 viewers, up 339,000 from last week’s show.

Hour one did 4,138,000 viewers, followed by 4,026,000 viewers in the second, and then down even more to 3,828,000 viewers in the third and final hour. (Ratings credit: PWInsider.com)

Sky to air Fastlane for “free” on Sky Sports instead of Box Office

By
Colin Vassallo
-

In an interesting twist and change to their contract, Sky in the United Kingdom will be offering the WWE Fastlane pay-per-view “free” on Sky Sports 1 to all Sky Sports subscribers instead of Sky Box Office.

With the new deal that kicked in last month, all twelve WWE pay-per-views were supposed to air on the Sky Box Office platform and for a price of £19.95, a £5 increase for each show. With the old deal, Sky showed four out of those twelve shows on Sky Sports and not on pay-per-view.

WWE now shows all their pay-per-views on the WWE Network in the United Kingdom which sells for £9.99 a month, half the price of what Sky charges on their Sky Box Office platform.

Co-workers of Samoa Joe react to his TNA departure on Twitter

By
Colin Vassallo
-

The departure of Samoa Joe from TNA Wrestling led to several of his peers write about him on their Twitter feed today.

Leading the compliments was Kurt Angle, a man who had some epic feuds with Joe himself when he arrived in TNA.

“To @SamoaJoe – 1 of the very best I’ve ever had the privilege to wrestle. Many Blessings to you and your future. I will remember the feuds,” Angle wrote.

WWE’s Paul Heyman also had his say – somewhat – by retweeting Joe’s original tweet and adding, “Hmmm” in the front, a tweet which will certainly start some speculations.

Velvet Sky said she was shocked to hear the departure of Joe from the company as he’s a TNA original and one of the major players. “@IMPACTWRESTLING ain’t what it used to be,” she wrote.

Magnus added that he was “pretty devastated” that Joe won’t be there next time he goes to work but assured fans that Joe will “be more than fine” as he is all pro.

Also, WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin said that WWE “should pick him up” when asked by a fan about his opinion about Joe leaving TNA.

TNA has already moved Joe’s profile from the active to the Alumni roster section on their ImpactWrestling.com website.

10-K SEC filings reveal more WWE Network numbers

By
Colin Vassallo
-

In their latest 10-K filings with the Securities Exchange Commission, there were some very interesting numbers revealed about the WWE Network.

Ever since the Network was launched on February 24, 2014, WWE had approximately 1,490,000 gross subscribers by the year end but a whopping 674,000 decided not to keep the service. In total, WWE generated $69.5 million in Network revenues throughout the year.

As far as money spent by WWE on the Network, the company incurred $14 million in additional programming and production costs while advertising and promotion expense increased to $16 million to support the Network launch and subscriber acquisition efforts.

An additional $13 million in customer service costs associated with the Network were also spent during the last calendar year.

Total Divas season 3 episode 16 rating

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Episode 16 of season 3 of Total Divas which was titled ‘All Hail Brie Mode,’ did the lowest rating of the second half of the season, with 914,000 viewers tuning in. That is down 166,000 viewers from the previous week.

The show faced some stiff competition from the 40th anniversary of Saturday Night Live during its time slot like anything else on television on Sunday night. (Ratings credit: PWInsider.com)

Samoa Joe leaves TNA Wrestling

By
Colin Vassallo
-

TNA has lost one of its longest serving employees as Samoa Joe announced yesterday that he is no longer working for the company in a short tweet.

“I have decided to part ways with @ImpactWrestling. My very best to them moving forward, and my eternal thanks to the fans,” Joe wrote. He did not elaborate further as to why he’s leaving.

Joe worked for TNA for ten years, making his debut in June 2005 at the Slammiversary pay-per-view. He was in several high profile feuds during his time there, including ones with Kurt Angle, Main Event Mafia, Bobby Lashley, and others. During his time there he won the TNA World title once, the TV title once, the X-Division title five times, and the Tag Team titles twice.

Joe was in the recent Lethal Lockdown match which aired on February 6 on Destination America teaming up with MVP, Low Ki, and Kenny King against Kurt Angle, Bobby Lashley, Gunner, and Austin Aries. Prior to leaving, Joe was part of the Beat Down Clan but now the group will be missing one member.

Samoa Joe also served as a mentor on the recently finished second season of TNA’s British Boot Camp along with Al Snow and Gail Kim.

Wade Barrett and MUFC player Wayne Rooney in Twitter “battle”

By
Colin Vassallo
-

WWE Intercontinental champion Wade Barrett. a Brit who is a big football (soccer, for Americans) fan saw his home town team Preston North End crash out of the English FA Cup this past Monday and used Twitter to get at Manchester United’s captain Wayne Rooney for his role in ending Preston’s chances of advancing.

“How about that @WayneRooney dive vs @PNEFC? He won’t need to dive when I catch up with him.. #BullHammer #BNB,” Barrett wrote after Rooney was accused of diving in the penalty box to get a penalty which he eventually scored.

The Manchester United and England captain replied to the tweet two hours later saying, “@WadeBarrett ill get stone cold Steve Austin out of retirement for you. Haha.”

Barrett loved the idea and shot back, “@WayneRooney you and @steveaustinBSR Vs me and @Kevin__Davies at Wrestlemania in 6 weeks. Get it booked @VinceMcMahon.” Davies is a player for Preston who also was part of Monday’s match. Davies replied to all of them saying, “Let’s get it on,” and even Steve Austin got in on the lighthearted Twitter war, with his own dig at Wayne Rooney.

“Embrace the baldness. And that’s the bottom line…” Austin wrote. Rooney was going bald but then underwent a hair transplant procedure a couple of years ago. “@steveaustinBSR that’s the bottom line. Cause stone cold said so,” Rooney replied.

The Twitter exchange was picked up by most British tabloid newspapers.

WWE stocks have another good run on Wall Street today

By
Colin Vassallo
-

WWE stocks had another good day today on Wall Street, adding 4.49%, or 75 cents, to its value, ending the day at $17.34 a piece after opening at $16.65. Stocks reached a high of $17.47 and a low of $16.59.

With today’s 4% addition, WWE stocks increased 26% since last Thursday when the company released its Q4 2014 and year end results.

Eddie Edwards suffers broken heel at TNA tapings

By
Colin Vassallo
-

TNA’s Eddie Edwards is facing a few months on the sidelines after he suffered an apparent broken heel during one of TNA’s One Night Only pay-per-view tapings on Sunday afternoon.

Edwards flew back home yesterday missing the last set of PPV tapings and will be getting his injury checked and date set for his surgery. Edwards was wrestling his tag team partner Davey Richards when the accident happened, reportedly after doing a flip off the top rope and landing badly on his feet.

Edwards and Richards have been wrestling for TNA since January 2014.

Is Brock Lesnar staying in WWE or leaving after WrestleMania?

By
Colin Vassallo
-

In his latest blog, Jim Ross said according to sources it’s looking more likely that Brock Lesnar stays with WWE past WrestleMania 31.

According to these sources, the apparent change of heart is due long term health affects of fighting, specifically concussion oriented issues.

Lesnar’s WWE deal is set to expire after WrestleMania 31 and the general feeling has been that Lesnar was going back to the UFC for round two of his mixed martial arts career. Lesnar was a box office mega star for the UFC and made the company millions and millions of dollars in pay-per-view revenue.

Ever since coming to WWE a couple of years ago, Lesnar has made millions himself, having one of the most lucrative WWE deals ever which includes very limited TV appearances during the year, no non-televised live events, no media, and the ability to showcase sponsors on his ring gear.

Wyatt and Cena slightly injured during Raw dark match

By
Colin Vassallo
-

According to eye witness reports, Bray Wyatt vomited during his dark match with John Cena after Raw went off the air last night.

Other reports don’t mention Wyatt getting sick however the one thing in common is that Wyatt botched a spot with Cena when he he lost his grip and both were reportedly hurt, with Cena even getting cut in the face. The referee then wore his gloves to check on both and medical staff attended to Wyatt after Cena pinned him following an Attitude Adjustment to send the crowd happy.

1...1,4901,4911,492...1,674Page 1,491 of 1,674