Randy Orton was attacked by a crazy fan in Cape Town, South Africa yesterday after his match against Big E. Langston finished and Orton was celebrating.
The incident occurred as Orton was celebrating in the corner, doing his usual pose and while the lights were dimmed, a fan jumped in the ring, waited a bit, and then low-blowed the Money in the Bank winner from behind.
Orton fell down and security jumped in the ring to grab the assailant. It took a while for security to pop in and probably the dimmed lights didn’t help. While the fan was down, Orton helped his eviction from the ring by kicking him in the head.
The former champion then continued to celebrate in the ring as Big E. Langston also tried to get his hands on the fan at ringside however security pushed him back.
The fan was arrested as is being held in jail pending criminal charges. You can see the video below.
Japanese wrestling legend The Great Muta met with Jeff Jarrett at the TNA offices in Nashville, Tennessee, earlier today in a business-related encounter.
The TNA website says that Muta – who know heads up the WRESTLE-1 promotion in his homeland – was in the States to discuss a potential agreement with TNA, most likely something involving a deal where TNA Superstars appear for WRESTLE-1 and vice versa.
Gravity Jack, Inc. today announced the iOS release of ‘SlamCam’, an interactive sweepstakes and multimedia-filled mobile application commissioned by WWE for a test program in the Canadian market.
Users of The SlamCam app can scan any of WWE’s ‘SlamCam infused’ marketing materials, like billboard avertising with clear channel, Facebook cover photos, and more, and instantly take part in a virtual scavenger hunt, gain access to exclusive WWE digital content and be entered in the WWE SlamCam sweepstakes.
The SlamCam experience makes use of augmented reality technology.
“WWE is committed to providing our fans with the richest interactive experience in entertainment,” said Ed Wells, WWE SVP and Managing Director, International. “The SlamCam augmented reality initiative is an exciting evolution in fan engagement, allowing our fans to unlock original content, participate in sweepstakes, and seamlessly continue on to the official WWE app to discover a virtually endless amount of up to the minute information about their favorite Superstars.”
The First Niagara Center website has released ticket information for the new WWE October pay-per-view Battleground which replaces Over The Limit in the WWE calendar.
Tickets go on sale Saturday, August 3, at 10AM EST with the prices of $402.50, $302.50, $97.50, $72.50, $47.50 and $27.50. Tickets can be purchased at the First Niagara Center Box Office and online at www.tickets.com.
A second video hyping up the August 1 mystery wrestler was uploaded by TNA Wrestling on their website and YouTube account.
“August 1 is coming. I am not signed to Impact Wrestling but you will see me this Thursday,” the man in the shadows says. He also adds that he is not Dave Bautista, eliminating one rumor which fans made up online.
The mystery man says that while Bautista is a good actor, he’d beat him up in a fight. Ouch!
You can see the second video below.
WWE and E! hit a slam dunk with Total Divas as the show delivered 1.3 million viewers for its debut episode yesterday, making the show the most watch series debut since August of last year on E!
The 1.3 million viewers translated to a 1.1 cable rating and an additional 700,000 viewers saw the replay at Midnight.
The show had a strong lead-in thanks to Keeping Up with the Kardashians which drew 2.8 million just prior to Total Divas.
USA Network will have a four-hour WWE block tonight starting with Monday Night RAW at 8PM EST and then a repeat of the first episode of Total Divas airing immediately after RAW goes off the air.
Tonight’s RAW is not live as it was taped this past Tuesday since the whole crew is on an overseas tour.
Set to air on the show tonight are Curtis Axel vs R-Truth, The Shield vs Mark Henry and The Usos, Kane vs Daniel Bryan, Fandango vs RVD, Dolph Ziggler vs Big E. Langston, Brie Bella vs Natalya, Kaitlyn vs AJ, Christian vs Alberto Del Rio, and John Cena vs Ryback in a tables match.
On Friday, Yahoo! posted a lengthy article titled ‘The resurrection of Jake “The Snake” Roberts,’ a candid look at Roberts and his ups and downs with addiction and the help offered by Diamond Dallas Page. The article was so popular that it eventually started trending worldwide on Yahoo.com for two straight days.
Written by Jay Busbee of Yahoo, the former WWE Superstar gave the journalist full access, inviting him to DDP’s ‘accountability crib,’ and straight into his room to discuss his career and where he is right now.
It’s one of the best articles you can read about Roberts and Dallas Page and you can read it at http://yhoo.it/1aN3aM0
Total Divas, the new show by WWE featuring Nikki and Brie Bella, Natalya, Cameron, Naomi, Eva-Marie, and JoJo, will debut tonight on E! at 10PM EST.
Tonight’s first episode is titled ‘Welcome to the WWE’ with the synopsis reading, “The WWE Divas begin their preparations for WrestleMania. Nikki starts to have doubts regarding her relationship with John. Cameron is embarrassed when her boyfriend ends up causing a scene backstage, with Naomi stuck in the middle.”
This is the first WWE show on E! Television and the Divas were busy promoting it on various other shows throughout the past week.
A replay of the first show will air on USA Network tomorrow following Monday Night RAW at 11:05PM.
W-O reader Geoffrey attended the live WWE event in Sydney, Australia, today and sent in the following results:
Zack Ryder defeated Heath Slater; Natalya defeated Aksana; The Great Khali defeated Jinder Mahal; Dean Ambrose defeated The Miz in a street fight to retain the U.S. title; Curtis Axel defeated Antonio Cesaro to retain the Intercontinental title; Team Hell No defeated The Shield via disqualification; John Cena defeated Ryback in a tables match to retain the WWE title.
Daniel Bryan, The Miz, Zack Ryder, and John Cena got the biggest pops of the night while Ryback and The Shield got the biggest heat.
TNA has posted a video on its website about a mystery guy who’s coming to TNA on August 1 during the live Impact tapings in Wichita Falls, Texas.
The video shows a silhouette of a male with the voice distorted talking about an August 1 warning, which TNA is trying to push on its social media with the #August1Warning hashtag.
The man in the video says that he doesn’t work for TNA or even Spike TV but he’s coming to Impact on August 1.
You can see the one minute video below.
The Smack is being laid Down for us tonight in Corpus Christi Texas.
Match #1: Randy Orton versus Damien Sandow in a Money in the Bank winner versus Money in the Bank winner.
Damien Sandow berates the crowd before the match, claiming they usually get their entertainment from cow tipping and watching bug zappers. After the bell the two men lock up and Sandow gets Orton in a headlock. Orton escapes and hits Sandow with a back elbow. The two men lock up again. Sandow reapplies the headlock and takes Orton to the mat.
Orton escapes, Sandow hits him with a kick and puts him in a headlock. Sandow hits Orton with a shoulder block and Orton responds with several strikes. Orton knocks Sandow down with a clothesline and then suplexes him. Orton stomps on Sandow’s hand and foot. Orton misses a big knee drop and Sandow stomps on Randy and steps on his neck.
Sandow hits Orton with a headbutt and Orton responds by throwing Sandow to the floor. Orton hits Sandow with a European uppercut and suplexes him onto the security barrier. The two men exchange a series of strikes in the corner until Sandow snaps Orton’s head and neck down across the top rope.
Commercial
Orton mounts Sandow in the corner and lands 10 punches to the head with the crowd counting along. Sandow hits Orton in the gut with a knee strike. Sandow beats Orton down and puts him in a body scissors. Randy escapes and lands a few strikes; Sandow responds with knee lifts to the chest.
Sandow hits a side Russian leg sweep and follows up with a theatrical elbow drop. Sandow gets Orton in a bodyscissors again. Orton escapes and they exchange punches. Sandow hits a clothesline and Orton responds with a pair of clotheslines. Orton hits Sandow with a scoop slam. Sandow lands a punch and Orton lands an uppercut.
Orton tries to give Sandow a rope hung DDT but Sandow backdrops him to the floor. Cody Rhodes comes out and steals Sandow’s Money in the Bank briefcase; Orton takes advantage of the distraction and hits Sandow with an RKO for the win. After the match, Cody leaves with the briefcase.
Commercial
CM Punk comes out to the ring to address his feud with Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman. Punk says he’s going to exploit Lesnar’s weakness, and he claims his weakness is that he trusts Paul Heyman. Punk claims Heyman’s weakness is his ego. Just as Punk is describing how he intends to repeatedly kick Brock in the head, he is interrupted by Summer Rae and Fandango. Punk knocks Fandango out with the GTS and walks away.
Commercial
Match #2: Prime Time Players and Wade Barrett versus Jimmy and Jey Uso and Mark Henry.
Darren Young start off against Jey Uso. Young gets an armlock and transitions to a headlock. Young hits Jey with a shouldr block, Jey knocks Young down and tags in Jimmy. Jimmy lands a series of chops and punches until Young tags in Titus Oneal. Titus hits Jimmy with a big boot to the face and tags in Barrett.
Wade lands a punch and a clothesline and then beats on Jimmy in the corner. Wade lands an elbow and tags in Titus. Titus lands an elbow drop and applies a chin lock. Jimmy fights back with a headbutt, but Titus picks him up and tosses him over his back. Jimmy tags in Mark Henry, and Henry flattens Titus.
All 6 men end up in the ring briefly, until Henry hits Titus with the World’s Strongest Slam for the win.
Commercial
When we return, Alberto Del Rio enters Vickie Guerrero’s office. Alberto wants the chance to pick his next opponent, just like Brad Maddox allowed John Cena to pick his opponent on Raw. RVD interrupts and says he’s the one that should wrestle Alberto for the World title.
Alberto says RVD can’t just come back for a couple weeks and expect a title shot, he has to prove himself. RVD says that’s a GREAT idea, he can prove himself tonight by beating Alberto Del Rio. RVD then thanks Alberto for the helpful tip.
In the back, Damien Sandow is still searching for Cody and his briefcase.
Commercial
Match #3: RVD versus Alberto Del Rio.
RVD lands a series of kicks and punches and Alberto retreats to the floor. Alberto takes a LONG time to re-enter the ring. RVD hits Alberto with a big spin kick. Alberto collapses into the corner clutching his ribs. Alberto tells the ref “no mas” and the ref looks like he may stop it. Alberto takes advantage and hits RVD with a superkick for the win.
Damien Sandow approaches Booker T and Mark Henry, asking if they’ve seen Cody. Damien thinks Booker should know what’s going on, since he used to be GM. Booker looks offended, but Henry calms him down. The overlord of the House of Pain has always been a model of restraint.
AJ Lee comes out with Big E Langston to discuss the state of her mind. She has heard that some people think she’s on the verge of a breakdown because of her lost friendship with Kaitlyn and the way Dolph dumped her last week.
AJ says she’s just fine though, because she is Divas champ, and will never lose the title. She also says that she still has the keys to Dolph’s house, and pulls them out. She said she was going to use them to break into his house and burn it down, but instead thinks she’s ready to give them back.
Dolph comes out and he’s all smiles. He tells AJ that he’s given keys to hundreds of girls, and he’s already changed the locks a couple times since AJ left. AJ then takes out a suitcase that she stole from him and proceeds to destroy his license and passport, and then rips up his clothes.
Dolph says he’d rather wait in line to get a new license than spend any more time with her. He also says there is a passport office down the street and the girl that works there owes him a favor. Apparently he taught her some move in bed involving one of her legs over her head.
Dolph apologizes for not being PG. AJ is enraged and the crowd chants “you’re a psycho!” Eventually AJ leaves the ring but she gets speared by her old friend Kaitlyn. Big E goes to check on AJ and Dolph takes out Big E with a Fame-asser
Commercial
Match #4: Tons of Funk versus the Wyatt Family.
Squash. Luke Harper takes Sweet Tea down with a clothesline and Eric Rowan pins him after a big splash. After the match, Wyatt hits Sweet T with a swinging reverse STO. Bray Wyatt says he thinks Kane is probably looking for him now, and tells Kane to follow the buzzards.
Commercial
Match #5: Christian versus Jack Swagger with Zeb Coulter.
Zeb does one of his anti-immigrant rants and asks if Texas is now “North Mexico.” The match begins with Christian and Swagger locking up. Swagger takes Christian down and then does pushups on his back. Swagger pushes Christian in the corner and Christian responds with a few punches.
Swagger slams Christian into the corner and stomps on him. Christian hits Swagger with a kick and Swagger responds with a backdrop that sends Christian out to the floor. Christian knocks Swagger down and climbs to the top rope. Swagger cuts Christian off and throws him across the ring and out to the floor.
Commercial
Swagger has Christian trapped in the corner but Christian hits him with a pendulum kick followed by a missile dropkick. Christian hits Swagger with several punches and a flying forearm. Christian jumps out of the ring to punch up at Swagger.
Can you hear Michael Cole yell “Vintage Christian” when you read that? You should have, because he did.
Christian again goes to the top but misses with a crossbody. Swagger goes for a gutwrench powerbomb but Christian counters it. Christian tries to hit the Kill Switch; Swagger blocks it but Christian hits a reverse DDT. Christian climbs to the second rope and hits Swagger with a back elbow.
Swagger slams Christian into the corner and goes for a Swagger bomb, but Christian gets the knees up. Swagger gets the ankle lock (or patriot lock) on but Christian escapes and whips Swagger hard into the steel post. Christian hits Swagger with the Kill Switch for the win!
After the match, Damien Sandow makes his way to the ring, looking very angry. Damien threatens to have Cody arrested for stealing his briefcase and wants Vickie to fire him. Cody Rhodes appears on the big screen at this point, holding Sandow’s briefcase. Cody explains that he’s not in the arena, he’s across the street overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, and he invites Damien to come get his briefcase.
Commercial
When we return, Damien is storming out of the building and walking across the street to the Gulf of Mexico. Damien doesn’t want Cody to do anything stupid, but Cody seems slightly insulted by that, wondering if Damien thinks he’s stupid.
Sandow says Cody was actually the smarter of the two when they were a team, and that Cody also carried the team. Sandow is really kissing Cody’s ass right now to try and save his briefcase, but I don’t think it’s going to work. Cody says all Damien has to do is come on over and take back his briefcase, because he earned it.
Cody then throws the briefcase into the Gulf and walks away laughing. Damien leaps into the Gulf after the briefcase and immediately starts screaming that he can’t swim. Damien manages to make it to a ladder going back up to the street and then collapses. Damien is still coughing up water and crying as SmackDown goes off the air.
The Laredo FOX affiliate FOX39 is reporting that a brawl broke out in the stands at the RAW tapings on Tuesday at the Laredo Energy Arena.
A police report says that the fight started when a child walked in front of another family several times, stepping on them repeatedly. After the father of the seated family drew the attention of the child’s parents about it, the conversation escalated and a fight started.
Two other family members from the child’s side assaulted the father of the seated family, leaving him unconscious.
Paramedics were called to the scene and transported the victim to the hospital. No arrests have been made as the victim has not filed formal charges.
WWE issued a press release today announcing that WrestleMania 29: The World Television Premiere will air on Saturday, August 3, at 9PM EST on NBC.
This is the fifth time in a row that WWE will air segments of WrestleMania on free TV on NBC thanks to a partnership between the two companies.
The show will have the main event – featuring The Rock vs John Cena for the WWE title – in its entirety as well as a recap of the other matches and events that happened during WrestleMania week.
Booker T was honored by the City of Houston yesterday before the Smackdown tapings at the Toyota Center with July 25, 2013, officially designated as “Booker T. Day.”
The WWE Hall of Famer was presented with an official proclamation from the City of Houston outside of the Toyota Center during a 10 minute ceremony.
WWE announcer Michael Cole hosted the small ceremony and talked about his success in pro wrestling and his work in Houston before introducing his friend. Booker T then gave a small speech thanking the fans before everyone was allowed in for the Smackdown tapings.
TNA President Dixie Carter wrote a message to fans which was posted on the ImpactWrestling.com website to address the recent events and changes within the company.
“In the 11+ years that I have been with TNA, I am still amazed by the passion of pro wrestling fans. That passion – both positive and negative – is remarkable and something that all of us at TNA values,” Carter wrote, adding that starting from next Thursday, each week, she will answer the “legitimate” questions from the #AskDixie Twitter sessions.
She did say that she will “not, however, address outrageous or hurtful questions/posts,” referring to the tons of funny questions that fans asked.
Carter addressed the recent changes in PPV business as well as taking Impact on the road as well as the “recent roster changes” without pinpointing anyone.
“Releasing talent is never easy – not for you and not for us. But, bringing in fresh faces and the best wrestling talent in the world is what you expect, and what TNA will always strive to deliver,” Carter wrote.
You can read Dixie Carter’s full message at http://bit.ly/1c6bYyf.
The world’s most famous arena and the mecca of professional wrestling – Madison Square Garden – will have to move by 2023 as the New York City Council notified the arena that it has 10 years to vacate its 45-year-old premises.
City officials are planning to expand Penn Station and MSG sits right on top, blocking any future expansion plans. This would be Madison Square Garden’s fifth move believe it or not since it opened in 1879.
MSG officials will be completing an almost $1 billion overhaul of the building by fall of this year, an overhaul which will only have a 10 year life.
WWE has a very long history at The Garden and the location was chosen as the host of the first WrestleMania in 1985. Two other WrestleManias – 10 and 20 – were hosted at MSG as well and countless non-televised live events, RAW, and Smackdown, and other pay-per-views were also held at MSG over the past several decades.
WWE and E! Entertainment today launched the first-ever Superstars for Hope fundraising initiative to support Make-A-Wish, featuring chances to win once-in-a-lifetime experiences available to anyone who makes a contribution. A Superstars for Hope red carpet party will be held in Los Angeles on Thursday, August 15, at the Beverly Hills Hotel as a part of WWE’s SummerSlam Week.
Starting today, for every $10 fans and supporters contribute through fundraising partner Omaze, they will receive five chances to win one of two packages donated by WWE and E! Entertainment.
“We are honored to be part of Superstars for Hope in support of Make-A-Wish,” said Suzanne Kolb, President, E! “This wonderful organization endlessly inspires and their incredible work brightens and enriches the lives of so many children and families.”
“We are proud to partner with E! on Superstars for Hope and continue our long-standing support of Make-A-Wish,” said Vince McMahon, WWE Chairman and CEO. “This is an opportunity for so many people to help children’s wishes come true.”
You can read about the packages and more information how to participate in the press release here.
WWE taped next week’s Monday Night RAW yesterday and will be doing Smackdown tapings tonight and tomorrow as both crews head out for another International tour on Friday.
On July 26, WWE invades Australia and take the stage at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, followed by another show the next night in Sydney at the Allphones Arena. On Saturday it’s off to Brisbane at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre and Sunday in Adelaide at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre. The tour in Australia ends on Tuesday, July 30, in Perth at the Perth Arena. The same crew will also have one show in Shanghai, China, at the Oriental Sports Center on August 2.
On July 30, the second crew flies down to South Africa for a five day tour, with two shows back-to-back at the Grand West Arena in Cape Town, and then on August 1 they go to Durban for a show at the Westridge Stadium. There are two back-to-back shows in Johannesburg at the Coca-Cola Dome on August 2 and 3 to wrap up the tour.
