USA Network President Chris McCumber today revealed during the TCA Press Tour that the network is bringing back the WWE reality TV series Tough Enough.
“I am pleased to announce that USA is bringing back ‘Tough Enough,’ the action-packed competition reality show from the ratings juggernaut, WWE,” McCumber said in a speech today during the Television Critics Association winter press tour. “The show will have a completely new format, with live elements that will truly make this event television.”
McCumber continued, “After signing another multi-year deal for Raw and SmackDown, this is the perfect time to bring back the series and capitalize on the enormous audience appeal of sports-entertainment.”
WWE were rumored to bring back the series for the WWE Network last year but the show was dropped due to cost-cutting measures. It was rumored to be filmed in Orlando utilizing the current crop of trainees at the WWE Performance Center.
Stone Cold Steve Austin, Booker T, Bill DeMott, and Trish Stratus headed up season 6 of Tough Enough in 2010 on USA Network.
WWE today announced the launch of its new mobile video game, WWE Immortals, available for free for iOS and Android devices. It is developed by NetherRealm Studios in conjunction with Phosphor Game Studios and published by Warner Bros.
The game features WWE Superstars and Divas who are thrown into a supernatural world and turned into superheroes with mega powers. The game was designed by the makers of Mortal Kombat and you’ll see some of the resemblance of MK in this video game as well.
Superstars and Divas such as Triple H, John Cena, The Undertaker, The Rock, Hulk Hogan, Daniel Bryan, Big Show, Bella Twins and others are part of the big roster of the video game.
While the game is free, it contains in-app purchases that require real money to get.
It’s available to download from the iTunes App Store and the Google Play Store today.
Just in case you have been living under a rock for the past few weeks or so, Smackdown is moving to Thursdays starting today, reclaiming its old time slot that the show held from its inception until 2005.
There will also be a new commentary team for Smackdown, with Michael Cole, the newly promoted Byron Saxton, and WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler, who got moved himself from Raw.
The show will feature a six-man tag team match as the main event and will also have Daniel Bryan’s first match back since May 2014 against Kane.
The Rock, the individual who pretty much came up with the Smackdown word, posted a photo of himself holding the WWE title with the Smackdown and SyFy logo on his Instagram.
“It’s official… #Smackdown has moved to THURSDAY NIGHTS. It’s also official that since the show was created in my honor I’ll be happy to “Lay the Smackdown” on anyone’s candy ass on any day that ends with “Y”. Enjoy the show.. #Smackdown #ThursdayNights #WhereRockJokesLike #BottleOfSmirnoffShovedUpYourPutin #WillAlwaysBeWelcomed #PeoplesChamp,” he wrote.
WWE will have a big presence at the Arnold Sports Festival which is taking place in Columbus, Ohio, between March 5 and 8.
The company will be holding an NXT event as part of the Festival at the LC Pavilion on Thursday, March 5 with NXT Champion Sami Zayn, NXT Women’s Champion Charlotte, Ryback and Big Show, Hall of Famer Ric Flair, Adrian Neville, Kevin Owens, Finn Balor, Hideo Itami, Sasha Banks and many more all appearing.
Tickets for NXT will be available on Friday, January 23, at 10AM EST at the LC Pavilion Box Office and Ticketmaster.com.
During the weekend, WWE will hold a WWE Experience Event at the Columbus Convention Center with live matches from NXT, meet-and-greets, autograph signings, and Legends Q&A sessions.
There will also be live tryouts and a recruiting booth where company officials will meet prospective future Superstars and Divas.
A general admission Daily Expo ticket costing $10 is required to watch or participate in any of these WWE events. Visit arnoldsportsfestival.com for more info.
TNA announced the full roster that will be traveling to the United Kingdom for the three double Impact television tapings set to take place in Glasgow, Manchester, and London.
The company is taking all their biggest Superstars and Knockouts – minus Jeff Hardy – to the shows with the lineup announced consisting of Bobby Lashley, Kurt Angle, Bobby Roode, James Storm, Sanada, Manik, Mahabali Shera, Abyss, EC3, Tyrus, Rockstar Spud, Magnus, Bram, Madison Rayne, Low-Ki, Brooke, Gunner, Chris Melendez, Austin Aries, Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards, Gail Kim, MVP, Awesome Kong, Eric Young, Matt Hardy, Robbie E, Jessie Godderz, Zema Ion, Mr Anderson, Kenny King, Angelina Love, Samoa Joe, Sam Shaw, Crazzy Steve, Rebel, Taryn Terrell, Al Snow, Grado, Noam Dar, Kay Lee Ray, Mark Andrews, Dave Mastiff and Rampage Brown.
TNA’s Maximum Impact 7 UK tour kicks off on January 29 in Scotland before heading to England on the 30th in Manchester and 31st in London.
The presale for the WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony kicks off today at 10AM PST and ends tomorrow, Friday, at one minute to Midnight.
Ticket prices will range from $25 to $150 and WWE will be occupying around three quarters of the arena with three tiers of seats – floor, lower, and upper level.
We have two presale codes available which you can use today at Ticketmaster.com, one is 1LEVIS and the other is HOT1035. (Thanks to Steve Alleyne for the second code.)
The show will be held at the SAP Center in San Jose, California, on Saturday, March 28.
Kevin Nash noted yesterday on his Twitter that as of 3:30PM EST, all charges against him stemming from the Christmas Eve family altercation have been dropped.
Nash, along with his son, were arrested after the two brawled at their home when the 18 year old son showed up at home under the influence of alcohol. Nash was arrested first following a police report from his son that he attacked him but then the son’s uncle – his mom’s brother – called the police later saying that the son was threatening his mother and himself. The two ended up in a jail and were released later in the day. Nash was charged with battery assault.
WWE suspended Kevin Nash’s Legends contract pending the outcome of the investigation as per their Talent Programs and Policies and removed him from next Monday’s Raw Reunion show where he was supposed to reunite the nWo with Hall and Hogan.
Nash was critical of WWE for the suspension today, saying, “The WWE had no other action than the suspension that was placed upon me. Just difficult to always be guilty until proven innocent.” He then said that after his suspension he does not see himself returning to WWE programming.
Stories running in New Jersey media are reporting that the Izod Center, the home of this year’s SummerSlam, might be closed by the end of January.
The plan is for the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority board to approve a motion that would move all shows from February and March that are already booked to the Prudential Center in Newark.
The 34 year old Izod Center in East Rutherford has been losing business ever since neighboring arenas went up, including the Prudential Center and the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
WWE moved SummerSlam from the West Coast to the East Coast this year and the plan was the host the show from the Izod Center for the first time away from Los Angeles in six years.
“WWE is currently looking at alternatives and we’re confident we will come up with an equivalent to or better option,” a WWE statement read.
WWE has a show scheduled on January 24 at the Izod Center which should not be effected by any decision taken.
Monday Night Raw rebounded slightly in the rating, getting the best number in a month and a half. The show drew 3,905,000 viewers for the three hour broadcast, up 142,000 viewers from last week.
Hour one drew 4,095,000 viewers, followed by 3,897,000 in the second hour, and 3,722,000 in the third and final hour.
Raw, just like every other TV show in its time slot, went head to head with the CFP Championship final on ESPN which drew a massive 33 million viewers, setting ratings record for ESPN and making it the highest rated program in the history of cable television with an 18.9 rating. (Ratings credit: PWInsider.com)
The 12th episode of season 3 of Total Divas titled Baby Not On Board drew 1,295,000 viewers on Sunday night on E!
That is down from the 1,411,000 viewers that the show pulled in last week for its return. Episode 12 is the second highest rated show of season 3 so far behind last week’s episode. (Ratings credit: PWInsider.com)
Jeff Jackson and Tony Mirabella returned with SNS UnPlugged on Tuesday night with an interview with Derrick “King” Taylor, one of the cast members of the new WGN reality TV show Wrestling With Death.
King called 30 minutes prior to the premiere of the show while at a country club in Osceola, Arkansas, joined by the cast.
He explained how this show is not like any other reality TV show as this is their real life and this is what his family goes through every day. King is the son-in-law and the newest member of the Latham family, who run the wrestling promotion and the funeral home.
King talked about how he has wrestled all over the place for 21 years while the Lathams have been in the business for over 20 years as well.
Part of the show is obviously running the funeral home and King said that he doesn’t like the part of being a mortician. He said he preferred sitting in the office in front of the computer and answering calls. He added that he’s not ready for that part of the job yet, something that both hosts said they could never do themselves either.
The hosts asked about being ribbed at the funeral home and King said that in his first week his family played a rib on him while the TV crew were present. He said that he was told to go to a prep room where there was a body and the body ended up being a live person who popped up and scared the hell out of him. He said that it was the initiation at the funeral home.
You can hear this and much more on the show which you can download here.
ABOUT THE SHOW:Wrestling with Death follows The Lathams of Osceola, Arkansas: morticians by day who run the Wilson Funeral Home, and professional wrestlers by night who run the Mid-Southern Championship Wrestling League (MCW).
Taking matters into his own hands, LaFonce chose to give “death a rest and pump some life” into his community by running the Friday night wrestling show at the MCW. The funeral business and the league are both family affairs, and according to LaFonce, “a family that ‘wrassles’ together, stays together.”
As LaFonce and his family understand better than just about anyone, nothing can teach more about the value of life than death; they choose to celebrate life in a unique and inclusive way, making them pillars of their community.
Wrestling With Death airs every Tuesday at 10PM EST on WGN America.
There will be no WWE Main Event next week, and probably not even the week after as WWE’s exclusive deal for the show with Sky Sports in the UK will conflict with the WWE Network.
In the rest of the world, Main Event airs on the WWE Network but in the UK, Sky has the exclusive rights for it which prevents WWE from showing it on the Network. With WWE unable to block it out in the UK so far, it left the company no choice.
The Network officially launches on Monday and no compromise has been reached between WWE and Sky yet which means Main Event will not air for now till something is worked out with Sky.
WWE will instead air a Royal Rumble special hosted by Santino Marella in place of Tuesday’s Main Event. The show will be titled Santino’s Royal Rumble Lottery Spectacular.
We have reached out to our Sky sources for their version of the story but we have not received a reply yet.
As noted earlier, WWE has removed the geoblocking that prevented fans in the United Kingdom from streaming the WWE Network a few days earlier than the official launch date.
Now the WWE Network app has popped up on TV-connected devices in the UK including Roku and Fire TV, as well as on Xbox, Playstation 3 and 4.
Fans who have already registered for the Network can disable their VPN and DNS settings and freely stream the Network while keeping the $9.99 monthly charge. Those new subscribers who will subscribe under a United Kingdom address will be charged 9.99 GBP which is around $15.
The WWE Network in the UK and Republic of Ireland will officially launch on Monday.
Two former WWE Divas are at it again on Twitter with one accusing the other (and vice versa) of being an escort.
Tammy “Sunny” Sytch, the WWE Hall of Famer who turned to hold “dates” with her fans on Skype for money took a shot at former Diva and Playboy covergirl Ashley Massaro in one of her tweets.
“FYI: for those of you emailing me, asking to “hook up”…. Im NOT an escort, sorry. give it up. tweet to Ashley Massaro,, I heard she has a history in that field,” Sunny wrote. Ouch!
Sunny was referring to a Rolling Stone story from 2008 where the magazine linked Massaro to an escort service called Bella Models. The FBI did a raid on the service after it had one of the agents infiltrate it in 2006 and found that Massaro was part of it in 2004.
Massaro, who wrestled for the WWE between 2005 and 2008, didn’t appreciate the name drop and posted a photo of herself from 2014 and one of Sunny from 2014 where she’s nude with her legs wide open.
“Since that hoe’s runnin her mouth saying disgusting things about me here’s the photo that I wouldn’t post until now,“ she wrote. “I’m pretty sure that about sums up who’s the one who’s selling themselves…I work, love my fans, my life, my job.She sells herself to fans!”
Some fans who actually paid to Skype-date Sunny did post screenshots of the Hall of Famer posing nude for the camera and let’s just put it this way, Sunny is way gone from her best WWE days. Massaro, the former Survivor contestant, still looks pretty hot herself! Massaro’s Twitter, which includes the NSFW Sunny photo is at https://twitter.com/ashleymassaro11.
The much-praised WWE Network original series Monday Night War has its series finale tonight on the WWE Network with the last episode titled “Life After Wartime”.
The series premiered on August 22 and in total 20 episodes were produced to showcase the WWE vs WCW war that went on between 1995 and 2001.
The Monday Night War on the WWE Network looked at the rise of the nWo, D-Generation X, the arrival of the Attitude Era, ECW’s mark on the war, the cruiserweights taking over WCW, Goldberg’s streak, The Rock, the emergence of the Divas, celebrities and more.
The synopsis for today’s final episode reads, “The war comes to a shocking conclusion, upstaged only by the talents that cross enemy lines in the years that follow.”
The series is narrated by American film, TV, and voice actor Keith David.
WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross wrote a piece on Macho Man Randy Savage’s induction into the WWE Hall of Fame as his latest work for FoxSports.com.
Ross discussed the time he met Randy Savage for the first time at the WrestleMania IX weekend in Las Vegas and how they were never great friends – or even friends at all. Ross described how Savage didn’t really like him even at the broadcast booth even though he got the nod from Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan.
Ross however said that he’s proud to have worked with Savage and although he never understood him, he regrets not having a sit down with him.
“The WWE got it right and Randy Savage is going into the WWE Hall of Fame, where Randy’s spirit has resided since his passing,” he wrote.
Several movie websites are reporting that the third movie in the G.I. Joe franchise will revolve around Dwayne Johnson’s character of Roadblock.
D.J. Caruso is set to be directing the third installment after failed talks with another director Martin Campbell. Jon M. Chu directed G.I. Joe 2 which introduced The Rock’s character and basically put him in the leading role after getting rid of Channing Tatum’s Duke character which was the focus of the first movie.
Around Hollywood, G.I. Joe is touted as “Dwayne Johnson’s franchise” now and his participation pretty much makes or breaks the movie. With The Rock in the leading role, G.I. Joe: Retaliation grossed $375,740,705 worldwide in 2013, some $73 million more than the first movie did in 2009.
In anticipation for next week’s WWE Network launch in the United Kingdom, WWE already took off the geoblocking settings that prevented fans living in the UK access the Network website with a UK IP address.
While registration is not open yet for fans in the United Kingdom, those who already had an account and accessed the Network via a VPN or DNS can disable their software and access network.wwe.com or mobile.
The WWE Network will be available for £9.99 in the UK and €12.99 in Ireland with no commitment starting on Monday, January 19.
Dana Warrior, the wife of the late Ultimate Warrior, and her two kids Indiana and Mattigan, were present at Monday Night Raw last night in New Orleans, Louisiana.
“Bittersweet to be back in New Orleans but so special to finish the DVD here. Loving the chance to see our WWE family,” Dana wrote on the @UltimateWarrior Twitter account. The DVD she is referring to is the new Warrior DVD that the company is producing which will be released later this year.
The family were also presented with the Slammy Award for the Surprise Return of the Year which the fans voted for the Ultimate Warrior.
Triple H wrote that he was thrilled that he and Stephanie McMahon were able to present the Slammy to the Warrior family prior to the show and also posted a photo of Dana holding the statue.
Paul Heyman also tweeted about the Warrior family, writing, “Although it was only for a brief moment, I was honored to find out what a genuinely #ClassAct @UltimateWarrior’s children are tonight!”
Former WWE champion Macho Man Randy Savage will take his rightful place into the WWE Hall of Fame on March 28, almost four years since he passed away.
The announcement was made on Monday Night Raw last night with a beautiful video showcasing some of Savage’s best moments in his wrestling career.
Savage left the WWE in 1994 and his relationship with WWE went bust with the two sides barely acknowledging each other. Savage was kind of erased from WWE history and it was only in 2009 when WWE released the first Savage DVD collection, followed by another one late last year.
He started his WWE career in 1985 and remained there till 1994, winning the WWE Championship twice along with the Intercontinental title. He joined WCW in 1994 and spent six years there till the year 2000, winning the WCW World title on four different occasions. He also wrestled briefly for TNA between 2004 and 2005.
Savage passed away on May 20, 2011 after suffering a heart attack while driving in Seminole, Florida. He was 58 years old. His wife was in the Jeep Wrangler with him when he crashed into a tree but suffered no injuries.
