Former WWE champion Alberto Del Rio posted a message on his Twitter saying he has reached an agreement with WWE for future bookings.
“Following my departure from wwe an understanding was reach with regards to my future booking opportunities, we wish eachother well in our respective future endeavors,” Del Rio wrote.
Del Rio, who now goes by the name of El Patron, was fired back in August for hitting a WWE social media manager after a racist remark. WWE tried to prevent him from wrestling anywhere else for a full year but now it seems that both parties have agreed to move on as long as none of them put each other in bad light.
Canadian-based website SLAM! Wrestling is reporting that once Smackdown moves to Thursday nights in the United States in January 2015, Canada will get the show a day earlier than anyone else in the world.
Jennifer Cram, Communications Officer Sportsnet & NHL Properties at Rogers, which has all the rights for WWE television shows in the country, confirmed that Smackdown will be airing on Wednesday nights.
“Smackdown will be moving to Wednesdays beginning January 14, 2015. Fans will be able to watch it on Sportsnet 360. It will air from 8-10 p.m.,” she wrote in an email.
Sportsnet 360 airs NHL every Thursday night and in Canada, no one messes with hockey, which forced the move to Wednesdays.
WWE Superstar Zack Ryder noted on Twitter today that he was not going on the European tour with the rest of his fellow wrestlers and immediately several websites started reporting that he was about to get fired.
“I’ll let you know why in a few days when I have definite news,” Ryder said, adding fuel to the fire.
However a couple of hours later Ryder quickly shot down all the rumors about getting the pink slip from WWE.
“The Internet people love to twist words to make a story,” Ryder tweeted again. “Here’s the deal…I tore my rotator cuff…MMMAAAYYY need surgery…relax.”
Physical therapy after a rotator cuff surgery will take months so if indeed Ryder will be going under the knife to fix his problem it will mean he will be out till after WrestleMania.
WGN America is jumping back in the wrestling programming three years after they stopped airing WWE Superstars.
This time around the channel will air a unique family docuseries titled Wrestling with Death, introducing 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.
“Wrestling with Death” is executive-produced by Brent Montgomery, David George, Alex Weresow and Jordana Hochman, alongside Bill Katz and Michelle Katz for Espiritus Productions. Bill Duncan and David Duncan serve as consulting producers. The show comes from Leftfield Pictures, the creators of Pawn Stars, American Restoration, and Counting Cars.
Twelve weekly back-to-back half-hour episodes have been ordered to premiere Tuesday, January 13, 2015 at 10PM EST.
WWE has announced a WrestleMania 31 party for Friday, November 14, at the Intel Plaza inside Levi’s Stadium for the WrestleMania 31 on-sale tickets launch.
The party will be held from 6PM till 9PM with a DJ playing music throughout the night and several WrestleMania 31 merchandise on sale.
WWE Hall of Famers Hulk Hogan, Jimmy Hart, and Booker T will be joined by Daniel Bryan, Bad News Barrett, Rosa Mendes, and NXT stars Charlotte and Tyler Breeze at the party.
WrestleMania 31 tickets will be sold on location one day ahead of the general public launch.
WWE Superstars will be doing several appearances throughout the Bay Area next week to promote the WrestleMania 31 tickets.
With the #FreeFreeFree promotion of the WWE Network this month which also includes the Survivor Series pay-per-view it’s interesting to note that InDemand will be offering the show on traditional pay-per-view for the usual price of $54.95.
This will be the first ever pay-per-view event which WWE is offering for free through their Network, a move which keeps killing their PPV business but in return there’s the possibility of fans sticking around on the Network after the month is over.
InDemand is still offering WWE pay-per-views even though Dish Network and DirecTV have stopped the shows ever since the Network came into effect.
It will be interesting to see how many people will be ordering this show on traditional pay-per-view once the numbers are released in a couple of months!
WWE’s Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer, Michelle Wilson, told Variety that with Smackdown’s move to Thursdays come January 2015, WWE is shifting NXT to a different day so it does not conflict with the show.
NXT, which airs on Thursdays, will be moving to Wednesday nights on the WWE Network, retaining the 8PM time slot. Future NXT specials on the WWE Network will also be airing on Wednesday instead of Thursday.
Variety notes that Smackdown moving Thursday good be a good move for both WWE and SyFy, listing only CBS’ Big Bang Theory as a possible credible opponent since the NFL season would have wrapped up by then.
Former WWE announcer Matt Striker who is now the play-by-play commentator for Lucha Underground with Vampiro joined Jeff Jackson and Tony Mirabella live on SNS UnPlugged this past Tuesday.
Striker joined the boys at the beginning of the show to talk about Lucha Underground and about “some of the best wrestlers in the world” who he is enjoying watching while sitting ringside with Vampiro. Striker compares himself and Vampiro to “peas and carrots” along with the “meat” which is the in-ring wrestling.
The discussion turned to the different style of backstage promos that are shot at Lucha Underground and Striker said that it’s come a long way from the days of Kamala being “in the jungle” coming to Memphis when in reality he was in Jerry Jarrett’s backyard.
Striker talked about transitioning from wrestler to announcer back in his WWE days and how it was Joey Styles who helped him make the move. He thanked the creative department for helping him and said that they unfairly gets a bad reputation on the Internet but they are the people who make the show happen. He mentioned how Jim Ross and Spanish announcer Hugo Savinovich are his favorite and how he tries to emulate Savinovich’s style while broadcasting for Lucha Underground.
He said that as the show progresses every week, story arcs will get better and deeper and fans will see some great television. Striker believes that the way the show is filmed with different camera angles attracts new viewers and he also mentioned that fans are free to boo and cheer for who they like and they don’t force them to choose a particular person. He said lucha libre is the nicest, prettiest, and smoothest wrestling style and it’s his favorite.
Before wrapping up his 20 minute interview, Striker talked about Justin Roberts, the recently released WWE ring announcer, and his time at NXT.
Next week beginning on Monday, WWE Network will present ECW Week, starting with a live special titled ECW Exposed.
ECW Exposed will be hosted by Paul Heyman and Joey Styles and will air live immediately following Monday Night Raw on November 10.
Apart from talking stories about ECW, Heyman and Styles will be answering questions which fans can submit via Twitter using the hashtag #ECWExposed.
As WWE keeps adding archive footage to the WWE Network, the company also announced that it will be putting 40 additional ECW episodes and three Supershows – Hardcore Heaven 1995, November to Remember 1995 and Cyberslam 1996 – to the video-on-demand library.
There will be no Impact Wrestling on Thanksgiving Eve as Spike TV will be preempting the show for a movie.
Spike has agreed to air Impact till the end of the year as negotiations between the two are ongoing although it’s looking less likely that TNA will remain on the Viacom-owned property come 2015.
TNA taped months worth of Impact over the Summer and has enough original first-run shows to air till November 19. After the last taped show airs, TNA was going to air “Best of” shows on Spike as there are no television tapings set.
Our friend Ian Hamilton attended the live WWE event in London at The SSE Arena, Wembley, last night and sent in the following results.
Merchandise available was really limited. Roman Reigns shirt was available, plus Seth Rollins, Paige, Sheamus and Bad News Barrett… and four different Cena shirts.
Byron Saxton handled the ring announcing tonight…. They announced a six man before the show – Los Matadores and Torito vs Slater Gator and Hornswoggle, complete with a fake twitter vote – wrestling match vs dance off. Hmm….
They have put black tape on the ring aprons, covering up any mention of the network…
1. Sheamus beat The Miz (w/ Damien Mizdow). Mizdow was absolute Gold on the outside, selling phantom bumps. Sheamus took the win with a Brogue kick after an even match.
They actually aired the Vince McMahon apology video about the UK WWE Network launch. A lot of boos for that.
2. Fans choice…los Matadores and torito vs Slater Gator (with Hornswoggle in the suit). We got a six man tag… Matadores won the comedy match when Torito hit the lionsault on Hornswoggle.
3. Mark Henry vs Xavier Woods. Henry wins with the World’s Strongest Slam in a squash.
Seth Rollins promo ahead of the street fight main event against John Cena.
4. Paige and Nikki Bella vs AJ and Brie Bella. Nikki reminded us all of the Hell in a Cell stipulation, and Brie is forced to manage the heel team. So this is now a handicap match. AJ scored the win with a roll up when Brie distracted Nikki with yes chants (after Nikki had hit the rack attack on AJ).
5. Rusev vs. Big Show. Show wins by dq after Rusev used a chair. It was what you’d expect – pray these guys don’t have a drawn our programme any time soon! Post match, Rusev put Show in the Accolade and left with the title… Only to the stopped by Mark Henry, who ignored the evil Russians so he could attack Sho, who got the upper hand with the ko punch.
Intermission…
6. Damen Mizdow vs Jack Swagger. Swagger wins when he reversed a skull crushing finale into the patriot lock. Nothing match…
7. Kofi Kingston and Big E vs Luke Harper and Erick Rowan. Big E and Kofi win with a double team Big Ending and elbow drop on Rowan for the pin. Xavier Woods ran in to celebrate… Just because!
8. Street fight – John Cena vs Seth Rollins. Pre match, Cena tried to rally the crowd by saying that London deserves a WrestleMania. A) hell will freeze over first and B) I’ve heard too many false promises in this same building by Dixie Carter…..
Your Standard streetlight – only weapons involved were chairs and a table. Rollins grabbed the mic and cut a rolling promo during the match (a la Jerry Lawler back in the day). Crowd struggled to buy into Rollins as a credible threat, despite Cena selling for most of the match. Finish came when Cena blocked a curb stomp attempt through a table, then hit Rollins with a top rope attitude adjustment for the win.
Decent show – would guess crowd was 6500… They announced a return for next April at the O2 Arena in London for the annual Raw and SmackDown tapings.
WWE and SyFy today announced that Smackdown will be moving to Thursday nights beginning January 15 at 8PM EST.
The move ends months of speculation of what was going to happen with Smackdown. First, WWE production trucks changed their decals of the show to advertise the new Thursday move but then once SyFy officially released its Fall schedule, Smackdown was left in its Friday time slot.
Last month SyFy announced that their new series, based on the movie 12 Monkeys, was going to start airing on Friday nights in Smackdown’s time slot starting mid January 2015, suggesting that this time Smackdown was finally moving to its original time slot.
“Quite simply, more young men watch television on Thursday night than on Fridays,” said Michael Engleman, Executive Vice President, Marketing, Digital and Global Brand Strategy, Syfy. “Among Men 18-49, PUTS are 15 percent higher compared to Fridays, expanding the potential audience for SmackDown. Since the majority of broadcast programming skews female, we’re also using Thursday nights to counter program.”
Smackdown moved to the Friday night “death slot” in Fall 2005 after six years airing on Thursdays.
Monday Night Raw this week drew a total of 4,040,000, considerably up from last week’s 3,745,000 number.
Hour one did 4,043,000, then it went up to 4,203,000 in the second hour, but then the show lost over 300,000 viewers in the third hour, getting 3,875,000 for the final hour. (Ratings credit: PWinsider.com)
The second WWE European tour of the year kicks off today and the WWE crew will be traveling to 9 different countries performing a total of 20 shows in the span of 10 days.
The tour starts in London at the SSE Arena at Wembley then on November 6 there will be two shows one in Cardiff, Wales, at the Cardiff Motorpoint Arena and at the 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland.
On November 7 WWE visits Belfast, Northern Ireland, with a show at the Odyssey Arena and Birmingham, England, at the LG Arena.
Next on the tour is Minehead, England, with a live event at the Butlins Arena, and then Manchester, England, at the Phones 4u Arena, both events on November 8.
On November 9 the crew stays in England with one show at the First Direct Arena in Leeds, and then another one in Nottingham at the Nottingham Capital FM Arena.
Monday Night Raw will be taped from Liverpool, England at the Echo Arena on November 10 and the second crew will perform at the Bournemouth International Center in Bournemouth, England.
Smackdown tapings on November 11 will also take place in Liverpool at the Echo Arena and at the same time there will be another live event in Brighton, England, at the Brighton Centre.
On November 12, Newcastle’s Metro Radio Arena will host an event while the other crew leaves England and goes to Paris, France, for a show at the Palais Omnisports de Paris Bercy.
Glasgow, Scotland, will welcome WWE at The SSE Hydro on November 13 and Madrid, Spain, will host the other live event of the day at the Palacio Vistalegre.
On November 14 the crew will visit Germany and Italy with one show at the Volkswagen Halle in Braunschweig, Germany, and another one at the Mediolanum Forum in Milan, Italy.
The two set of crews will stay in the same countries as the previous day on November 15 with the last two shows of the tour – one at the Festhalle Frankfurt in Frankfurt, Germany, and one in Bolzano, Italy, at the PalaOnda.
WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon recorded a 40 second video message to apologize to the UK fans over the second failed attempt to launch the WWE Network in the region.
McMahon said that UK fans are very important to WWE and the company had several great memories in the country and they are working day and night to bring the WWE Network there. He personally apologized for how the situation was handled and promises that it will be worth the wait.
WWE originally planned to launch the Network on October 1 and then moved it to November 3 before pulling the plug 20 minutes before it was supposed to go live.
The company is in negotiations with other partners to carry the Network, most likely as a traditional TV channel rather than over-the-top service. Only Canada so far gets the TV channel through Rogers while the rest of the world gets the OTT US version of the Network.
UPDATE: Sky has issued a correction saying the new deal with WWE commences in January 2015 and not as previously reported.
The failed launch of the WWE Network in the United Kingdom is still the big talk of the week on social media especially those living in the region.
Both WWE and Sky, who are rumored to have “blocked” the launch, are getting their fair share of abuse from fans especially since this is the second time that WWE failed in giving UK fans the WWE Network.
Reaching out to our Sky sources, we were told off the record that the decision on late Monday night to pull the Network was “purely a WWE decision” and Sky had nothing to do with what happened. The company had no comments when it comes to possible negotiations of carrying the Network as a traditional TV channel.
When asked about the new 5 year TV deal with WWE which was announced in January of this year, a Sky Public Relations person said that the deal goes in effect in January 2015 and when pressed if the WWE Network was offered as part of the discussions, we were told that the general company policy is that they do not discuss contract details and could not offer an answer.
John Cena was not at Raw last night and before the show started it was announced that the company would be offering refunds to those who wanted due to Cena not being there.
This is a common practice in WWE when their top advertised star doesn’t appear. Refunds are always offered and fans are allowed to stay and watch the show anyway. The majority of fans do not take the refund even though they are usually given around 30 minutes to go and collect their money.
While Cena was not there, one person who has been out of action for a while, Rey Mysterio, was there. Mysterio was flown in to talk with management as the two sides have not been on the same page for months now.
Mysterio’s contract with WWE expired while he was injured but WWE opted to exercise their clause to extend the contract for the duration that he has been injured.
SoldierSocks, a non-profit foundation focused on helping veterans, announced today that their ambassador, Dan Rose, a veteran living with paralysis, will be a special guest at WWE’s SmackDown tonight in Albany, New York.
Dan Rose was in the Army Reserves for 10 years and served in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in the Zahri District and Horn of Panjiwae in the Kandahar Province of Afghanistan until he was injured by an Improvised Explosive Device on April 27, 2011.
“I’m so grateful for my partnership with SoldierSocks and as a WWE fan, I’m looking forward to sharing my story at SmackDown,” Rose said.
“WWE has a longstanding commitment to the military and we are extremely grateful for the sacrifices of our nation’s heroes,” said WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon. “We are proud to host Sergeant Rose as our special guest at SmackDown, and humbled by his perseverance and will to push through any obstacle that he faces.”
Global Force Wrestling today announced that the first event under its banner will be in conjunction with New Japan Pro Wrestling and its January 4 show from the Tokyo Dome.
“GFW Presents New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Wrestle Kingdom 9” will air live in North America at 2AM EST on January 4. The four-hour telecast will also air in prime time in North America at 7PM EST on pay-per-view including DirecTV, Dish, AT&T U-verse, Comcast, Verizon Fios and all cable systems in the United States, and in Canada on Bell ExpressVu TV, Rogers, Shaw, Sasktel and Telus.
“This is one of the great events on the wrestling calendar every year, and for GFW to have the opportunity to bring it to the American audience is an honor and a privilege,” GFW founder and CEO Jeff Jarrett said. “This event has a history that involves not only the greatest names in Japanese wrestling history but some of the greatest names in U.S. wrestling history.”
The show will be available in English and in Japanese via the second audio program (SAP) button on your TV. GFW will reveal the North American announcers for the event in the near future.
