WWE and The Rock today announced their first ever 3D action mobile game titled “WWE Presents: Rockpocalypse,” featuring, of course, The Rock.
The free game is available for iOS and Android devices and can be downloaded from the Apple iTunes App Store or Google Play. In-app purchases are available to enhance gameplay. The app was built in partnership with Thruster, a division of BottleRocket. BottleRocket created the WWE Active app that is plugged multiple times on every WWE show.
“This is WWE’s first ‘action strategy’ game and we’re thrilled that WWE Champion The Rock is right at the center of it,” said Perkins Miller, WWE’s Executive Vice President of Digital Media. “Our fans have come to expect compelling content from WWE on every platform and this high energy game with customizable experiences will once again deliver.”
The game takes place on the set of a fictional Hollywood studio where The Rock is filming his latest blockbuster. Without warning, everyone around him is infected with a disease and starts changing into destructive personalities. The Rock must discover the truth behind the contagion and put an end to it.
“I am excited to partner with WWE and some of the best game developers in the world to bring something cool for fans to play,” said The Rock. “Boots to Asses style app, this will be fun!”
Reid Flair’s funeral will be held tomorrow, Wednesday, April 3, at the Forest Hill Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The funeral will be open to family and friends while the burial that will follow will only be for family members.
Speaking of family, his sister Ashley, who wrestles for NXT under the name of Charlotte, wrote on Twitter the day after Reid passed away saying, “Thank you everyone for your kind words. Reider, you’ll always be my heart & soul champ…”
Any donations will be given to Charlotte’s Police Athletic League in Reid Flair’s name.
(LAS VEGAS, NV) – The Ultimate Fighting Championship presents its eighth UFC Fan Expo event on Friday, July 5 and Saturday, July 6 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. Also, slated for July 6 is UFC 162: SILVA vs. WEIDMAN at MGM Grand Garden Arena.
“We love giving UFC fans unprecedented access to our sport and athletes,” UFC President Dana White said. “This July, we are planning the ultimate fan experience that includes UFC 162, the UFC Fan Expo which will feature more UFC fighters than any other UFC fan event EVER, and a Fight Week featuring pool parties, concerts and more. This is an absolute insane week for UFC fans around the world!”
UFC Fan Expo 2013 will feature more than 300,000 gross square feet of activities for UFC fans, including meet and greets and autograph sessions with top UFC fighters, Q&A sessions with top UFC personalities, as well as grappling tournaments and other special events. More than 150 exhibitors will also be on hand, giving fans the opportunity to purchase and experience some of the best sports and lifestyle products on the market today. This marks the fourth UFC Fan Expo® held in Las Vegas since its inception in 2009, with additional UFC Fan Expos being held in Boston, London, Toronto and Houston.
On top of all the great fan activities, the UFC Fan Expo® will be held in conjunction with UFC 162: SILVA vs. WEIDMAN scheduled for July 6 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva (33-4) will take on top contender Chris Weidman (9-0) as he looks to extend his record for most consecutive wins (16), title defenses (10), most finishes (14) and longest title reign. Two other exciting middleweight bouts are confirmed for the card, as Tim Boetsch faces Mark Munoz and Roger Gracie squares off with Tim Kennedy.
Tickets for the UFC Fan Expo 2013 are on sale NOW at www.ufcfanexpo.com. Tickets for Friday, July 6 are priced at $40, while tickets for Saturday, July 7 are priced at $45. A two-day pass is also available and is priced at $60. Fans are encouraged to buy their tickets now and save, as ticket pricing will increase at the door. VIP packages for the UFC Fan Expo are also available at www.ufcfanexpo.com.
For more information on UFC Fan Expo and to purchase tickets, visit www.ufcfanexpo.com. To subscribe to the official UFC Fan Expo newsletter visit www.ufcfanexpo.com/newsletter. For companies interested in reserving space at this premier event, contact Brian Bernstein, Sales Executive at 203-840-5474 or email bbernstein@ufcfanexpo.com. Don’t wait, space is limited and will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis.
The Intercontinental title match between The Miz and Wade Barrett has been bumped off the pay-per-view and is now part of the pre-show festivities.
The pre-show will kick off at 6PM EST with the pay-per-view starting an hour afterward. In the past, pre-show matches occupied part of the 30 minutes countdown show however this time around it has been extended for an hour.
The pre-show will air on WWE.COM, YouTube, Facebook, and the WWE app free of charge.
It’s interesting to note that The Miz went from headlining WrestleMania 27 against John Cena in Atlanta to just wrestling on the pre-show two years afterward. Ouch!
Fans inside the MetLife Stadium will sit in the cold for a pretty cool five hours in total if they attend the pre-show as well. Good times!
Stephanie McMahon will be the one inducting former seven time Women’s champion Trish Stratus into the WWE Hall of Fame this coming Saturday in Madison Square Garden.
“I’d be honored if @StephMcMahon would be a part of the biggest nite of my career & inducts me into @WWE #HOF, Steph will u do me the honor?” Trish wrote on her Twitter account yesterday.
Stephanie replied on Twitter saying, “Yes!!! It would be my pleasure to induct one of the greatest Divas of all time in to the #WWEHOF #overwhelmed #honored.”
The tweet however vanished from Stephanie McMahon’s timeline on Twitter and can only be seen if you use Twitter’s search feature for part of the quote.
The two enjoyed a big rivalry during the WWE Attitude Era including sharing one of the best backstage segments when Steph caught Trish being “coached” by Triple H who were both in a rather compromising position.
Last week after an interview with Wrestling News Live, Trish expressed her desire off the air that her longtime rival Lita would be the one inducting her in the Hall of Fame.
TMZ has released the chilling audio of Ric Flair after he dialed 911 to report that his son was “out cold” inside the Residence Inn Southpark in Charlotte, last week.
The two-time WWE Hall of Famer was the one who found his son laying dead in his hotel room and frantically called 911 for help.
“He’s out cold, he’s out cold, and he’s purple, please!” Flair said as the 911 operator transferred him to a medic for assistance.
Flair got frustrated after the medic asked for his address, with Flair repeatedly saying he doesn’t know what the address is and kept asking the medic, “What are you waiting for?”
Meanwhile, Newsday got their hands on the police report which was compiled by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s South Division and lists that Flair was pronounced dead at the scene by a medic at 10:40AM.
The time of incident was very vague and had a time frame between 1:30AM to 10:35AM when Ric logged in the 911 call. Under the category “incapacity types” for Flair, “drugs” is the only word noted.
NorthJersey.com has an article regarding the economy that WrestleMania 29 will leave in the New York and New Jersey areas as thousands upon thousands of fans from around the world descent into the cities for the showcase of the immortals.
WrestleMania is estimated to give the New York City and North Jersey economies a lift of $100 million or more from spending on hotels, meals, rental cars and shopping, officials have said.
The article states that around 36 hotels within seven miles of the MetLife Stadium are all sold out for the weekend.
“For us it’s all about heads in beds,” said James Kirkos, head of the Meadowlands Chamber of Commerce.
WWE issued a press release today announcing the multiple appearances of several WWE Superstars and Divas throughout the New York area.
WWE will be taking over the city visiting the Empire State Building, the Lexington Avenue Armory, several children’s hospitals, Radio City Music Hall, Wall Street, Liberty Science Center and others.
It is going to be a wild and crazy week for everyone involved at WWE and it will take some serious management to keep up with all the appearances and media throughout the day.
The full list of the schedule can be seen below.
Empire State Building Lighting Photo Op – Tuesday, April 2, New York, NY
WWE World Heavyweight Champion, Alberto del Rio, and his personal ring announcer, Ricardo Rodriguez, will pose for photos on the Empire State Building’s world-famous 86th floor Observatory. On Sunday, April 7, the exterior lights of the Empire State Building, above the 72nd floor, will be lit in the WrestleMania logo colors of blue and yellow, starting at sunset through 2 AM ET the next day in honor of WrestleMania 29 which airs live on pay-per-view at 7 PM ET from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ.
Military Meet & Greet – Wednesday, April 3, Lexington Avenue Armory
WWE will hold a meet and greet reception for NY National Guard First Responders to 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy. WWE Superstars and Divas will participate in the event, sign autographs and take photos.
Children’s Hospital Visits – Wednesday, April 3
WWE Superstars, along with Elvis Duran, from Z-100’s Elvis Duran show, will visit St. Mary’s Hospital in Bayside. Also on Wednesday April 3, WWE Superstars and Divas will visit with patients at New York Presbyterian, Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in New York City. On the other side of the Hudson River, WWE will visit children at Hackensack University Medical Center’s Don Imus Building and Goryeb Children’s Hospital at Morristown Medical Center.
WrestleMania 29 Press Conference – Thursday, April 4, Radio City Music Hall
Days before Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson defends the WWE Championship against John Cena at WrestleMania 29, the two celebrated icons will come face-to-face at Radio City Music Hall. The WrestleMania headliners will be joined by the biggest names in WWE to offer a preview of this year’s event. The press conference will also be streamed live on wwe.com, YouTube and Facebook.
Superstars for Sandy Relief – Thursday, April 4, Cipriani Wall Street Entertainment powerhouse Sean “Diddy” Combs will co-host a Superstars for Sandy Relief (#STARS4SANDY) party with WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon and special guest Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg at Cipriani Wall Street. On March 25, WWE kicked off the largest ever global online auction to benefit Hurricane Sandy Relief efforts in New York and New Jersey at www.Charitybuzz.com/WWE. The auction features unique, once-in-a-lifetime experiences with WWE Superstars and other international sports and entertainment celebrities. During the Superstars for Sandy Relief party, a live auction will be led by sportscaster Joe Buck, where more incredible experiences will be made available for bidding. All proceeds will go to the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City and the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund.
Be a STAR Anti-Bullying Rallies – Thursday, April 4 and Friday April, 5
Be a STAR (Show Tolerance and Respect) was co-founded by The Creative Coalition and WWE in April 2011. WWE and The Creative Coalition will host anti-bullying rallies at New York and New Jersey schools. WWE will visit I.S. 51 Edwin Markham in Staten Island and Elliott School in Newark, NJ to deliver anti-bullying messages to more than 500 students. Also for the first time ever, WWE will host a Be a STAR rally at WrestleMania Axxess on Friday, April 5 at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, NJ. Students from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Manhattan and New Jersey will participate in the rally and attend WrestleMania Axxess.
WrestleMania Axxess – Thursday, April 4 – Sunday, April 7, IZOD Center
Get ready for a brand-new WWE fan experience when WrestleMania Axxess (#AXXESS) takes over IZOD Center in East Rutherford, N.J., from Thursday, April 4, to Sunday, April 7. This will be the first time in its history Axxess will be held inside an arena, giving fans the opportunity to see the full RAW stage on display during the event. This year, the WWE Universe will get unprecedented access to meet their favorite WWE Superstars, Divas and Legends, with more matches than ever before and interactive activities all throughout the arena.
NYSE Closing Bell – Friday, April 5 – New York, NY
WWE Superstar John Cena will ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange in recognition of WrestleMania 29 which airs live on pay-per-view from MetLife Stadium on Sunday, April 7 at 7PM ET. John Cena will be accompanied by executives from Susan G. Komen for the Cure and breast cancer survivors. Under Cena’s leadership, WWE worked to help raise $1 million dollars for breast cancer research and create awareness about the importance of early detection during breast cancer awareness month this past October.
WrestleMania Reading Challenge – Friday April, 5 and Saturday, April 6
On Friday, April 5, WWE, Pearson Foundation and We Give Books will host a reading celebration with students at Thomas G. Connors Elementary School in Hoboken, NJ. In addition to the reading celebration, the school will be the recipient of a book grant from the Pearson Foundation. As part of the WrestleMania Reading Challenge, a new digital reading platform was created this year in partnership with We Give Books. More than 25,000 students participated, reading over 110,000 books.
The eighth annual WrestleMania Reading Challenge Finals will take place on Saturday, April 6 in the Aronow Theater at City College in New York City. More than 1,000 libraries from across the United States and Canada participated in this year’s WrestleMania Reading Challenge through the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association. Eighteen finalists will compete to win ringside seats to WrestleMania at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, April 7 at 7 PM ET.
Make-A-Wish Pizza Party – Saturday, April 6, Liberty Science Center
WWE Superstars John Cena, Santino Marella and R-Truth will host this year’s annual Make-A-Wish pizza party for more than 40 wish kids and their families from the United States, Belgium and Australia. As part of its 30-year partnership with Make-A-Wish, WWE is also hosting the wish children and their families at WrestleMania 29. This year’s pizza party will also help launch Make-A-Wish’s World Wish Day campaign to raise airline tickets, a critical wish resource, through cash and airline mile contributions during the month of April.
WWE 2013 Hall of Fame Ceremony, Saturday, April 6, Madison Square Garden
A capacity crowd will fill Madison Square Garden for the 2013 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (#WWEHOF). WWE Superstars and global celebrities will pay tribute to icons of the past including Bruno Sammartino, who will be inducted by Arnold Schwarzenegger; Bob Backlund, who will be inducted by Maria Menounos, Donald Trump, Mick Foley, Trish Stratus and Booker T.
Empire State Building Lighting, Sunday, April 7, New York, NY
In celebration of WrestleMania 29, the exterior lights of the Empire State Building, above the 72nd floor, will be lit in the WrestleMania logo colors of blue and yellow, starting at sunset through 2:00 AM ET the next day.
WrestleMania 29, Sunday, April 7, MetLife Stadium
More than 75,000 fans are expected to converge on MetLife Stadium for WrestleMania 29 (#WRESTLEMANIA). This year’s pop-culture extravaganza, which can be seen live on pay-per-view at 7 PM ET in more than 100 countries and 20 languages, will feature the highly anticipated re-match between The Rock and John Cena for the WWE Championship. The pay-per-view is available through cable, satellite or telco providers and on Xbox consoles and Samsung Smart TVs, inside “Xbox Live” and the Samsung “Smart Hub” respectively.
WWE Monday Night Raw, Monday April 8, IZOD Center
The night after WrestleMania, WWE Monday Night Raw (#RAW) comes to IZOD Center in East Rutherford, NJ. See all of your favorite WWE Superstars and Divas as the road to WrestleMania 30 begins. WrestleMania 30 will take place at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans on Sunday, April 6, 2014.
Tonight, WWE will tape Monday Night RAW live and then tape parts of Smackdown which will air on Friday night along with scenes from Axxess later in the week.
RAW is stacked with everyone – including The Rock, Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker, and Triple H – all scheduled to appear for the final push for WrestleMania which is just six days away.
The show is sold out from the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., and fans attending the tapings are going to sit for a very, very long show.
Jerry “The King” Lawler has opened up a wrestling museum in his home town of Memphis, Tennessee, with a bunch of his wrestling memorabilia put on display.
The museum – launched yesterday – is located at Wynn Automotive at 1831 Getwell Road and has a free entrance for walk-throughs. Merchandise and other items are available for sale.
“There is a lot of stuff, you could spend a lot of time in here, so if you’re really a wrestling fan or a Jerry Lawler fan, there is a lot to see,” Lawler told WREG TV, the local CBS affiliate.
The museum will be open Mondays to Saturdays from 9AM to 6PM.
You can see the video report from WREG TV about the launch, including a talk with Lawler and a preview of the museum below.
Dwayne Johnson rocked the box office with his G.I. Joe: Retaliation movie this weekend, climbing to the top chart with over an estimated $51,000,000 in box office revenue according to BoxOfficeMojo.com.
The movie – starring The Rock, Channing Tatum, and Bruce Willis, and directed by Jon Chu – however opened less than the original G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, which did $54,713,046 in its opening weekend in 2009.
Despite opening a bit lower than the first movie, Retaliation is predicted to do much more money than its predecessor and it cost lest to produce as well. The 3D addition to the movie is also adding to the revenue since 3D tickets are more expensive.
The movie opened in several foreign countries as well and preliminary estimates for the weekend show that it did an additional over $80,000,000 million worldwide, sending its total to over $132 million.
G.I. Joe: Retaliation had a production budget of $130 million versus the $175 million for The Rise of Cobra. The first G.I. Joe movie did a worldwide box office of $302,469,017 in its full theatrical run.
WWE has been nominated for six awards at the fifth-annual Shorty Awards, which honor the best in social media, recognizing the people and organizations producing real-time short content across Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube, Foursquare and the rest of the social web.
WWE has been nominated for outstanding work in the following categories: Best Overall Brand Presence on Twitter, @WWE on Twitter; Best use of a Hashtag, WWE and Komen for the Cure team up for #RiseAboveCancer; Best Overall Brand Presence on Facebook, WWE’s Facebook Page Network; Best use of Social Media for Television, WWE’s Social Integration on WWE Raw and Smackdown; Best use of Social Media for Video Games, Be on the Cover of WWE ’13; and Best Branded YouTube Channel, WWE on YouTube. The Shorty Awards event will take place on April 8 in New York City.
“We are excited that WWE has been nominated in so many categories by the Shorty Awards,” said Perkins Miller, Executive Vice President of Digital Media, WWE. “The digital team has worked hard on all the initiatives, and we look forward to continuing to push the level of creativity and content through multiple platforms.”
There have been no new developments on the tragic death of Reid Flair, who passed away yesterday at the age of 25 at a hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Reid and his father, two-time WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair, were scheduled to be part of two events for the Big Time Wrestling promotion in Hagerstown, Maryland, yesterday night and tonight in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Obviously Ric Flair canceled his appearances due to the circumstances. Ric was also scheduled to be a part of a meet and greet on Friday, April 5, at the The Hotel Pennsylvania in New York. It’s not known if Flair will cancel all his appearances next week including those for WWE during WrestleMania weekend.
Meanwhile the mainstream media picked up on the passing of the young Flair with the Examiner, CNN, Los Angeles Times, Charlotte Observer, Huffington Post, Associated Press, and others all posting stories.
A new backstage interviewer made her debut on Smackdown last night although she has been working for WWE for a few months.
Renee Paquette, who goes by the name of Renee Young in WWE, was involved in a backstage segment on the show, interviewing Randy Orton, Sheamus and Big Show. She was signed by WWE in October of last year from The Score in Canada and in February of this year she started being featured in interviews on the WWE Active app.
“Wow!! Seriously, thanks for all the tweets about making my debut on #Smackdown. Very cool! Let’s all hug in a totally friend-zone kinda way,” she wrote on Twitter after a wave of fans congratulated her after her appearance.
She seems like she’s a permanent interviewer on the blue brand now as Michael Cole congratulated her on Twitter saying it is going to be a “fun ride on Smackdown,” while JBL wrote about she doing a great job.
Renee has previously done NXT and appeared on WWE’s international broadcasts as well on the pay-per-view pre-shows. You can see a few photos of her from our original story from last year at http://w-o.it/QlqaYU
WWE yesterday announced the hiring of Gerrit Meier as Executive Vice President of WWE International. Meier will report directly to WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon.
As the head of the International division, Meier will be a key member of WWE’s senior management team. He will be responsible for growing WWE’s brand and business outside of the U.S. with the primary focus on expanding the company’s international television distribution agreements. Meier will also manage the continued advancement of WWE’s international licensing, live events, digital and publishing operations.
Meier brings nearly 20 years of experience in this field and prior to joining WWE he held senior leadership positions and expanded the international footprint of several well-known companies such as Spotify, Clear Channel and Bertelsmann.
WWE champion The Rock was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC and unlike his Jay Leno appearance, it was mostly all about wrestling and WrestleMania this time around.
The Rock said he is currently pulling double duty, training for WrestleMania and getting in shape for his upcoming role in the movie Hercules. He said he has an insane diet regiment with 7 meals a day and a lot of training.
Kimmel asked why do all the training when he knows who’s going to win at WrestleMania? He smiled and said he might know who’s going to win but added that if he loses, it’s phony, while if he wins, it’s going to be real!
Discussion turned to his first wrestling match and Rock said it was at Corpus Christi in a dark match before RAW, wrestling the Brooklyn Brawler. He recounted a story of when he was in the Gorilla position and asked one of the producers about a theme song. He thought he’d get a cool theme but instead he got some “horse sh!t techno music” and even though the music was loud he was still hearing fans telling him that he sucked while going down the ramp.
The final part of the show then transitioned to talk about the G.I. Joe: Retaliation movie. You can see his appearance in full below.
Scott Hall, who is currently in Atlanta living with Diamond Dallas Page and Jake “The Snake” Roberts inside the ‘accountability crib,’ sat down for a small video to talk about his ongoing progress.
Hall is looking good and healthy and said he feels great. He said unlike other previous rehabs, he has no urges for alcohol and whenever he and Jake go out to eat they don’t even have any desire to drink.
He expressed his thanks to all the fans who “invested” their money in Scott Hall on indiegogo.com and said that his hip surgery is scheduled for April 9. He said he’s excited about it and they told him he’ll be walking again on the day of the surgery.
Hall said that they’re signing a lot of autographs and doing Skype calls – which is new for him – to thank the tons of fans who supported his fundraising.
Police officers responded to a call at the Residence Inn-SouthPark in Charlotte, Carolina, where they found an unresponsive Reid Flair in a hotel room at around 10:35AM today.
According to the Charlotte Observer, preliminary investigations suggest that there was no foul play involved although the cause of death is still not known and won’t be known until an autopsy is carried out.
Ric Flair’s agent, Melinda Morris Zanoni of Legacy Talent and Entertainment, issued a statement earlier today.
“We are heartbroken to confirm that Ric’s son, Reid Fliehr, has passed away today March 29, 2013 in Charlotte, NC. The investigation into the cause of death is ongoing. Reid was 25 and an incredible son, brother, friend, and professional wrestler. No words can describe the grief that Ric and his family are experiencing and they do request privacy during this devastating time.”
The Twitter world exploded with tweets just minutes after the announcement that 24 year old Reid Flair had passed away, sending his name and #RIPReidFlair trending worldwide in the top spot.
Wrestling personalities, most of whom worked with his father Ric, sent in their condolences.
“Heavy heart. Our thoughts, prayers, and sympathy to Ric Flair and family at the passing of Reid Flair. Such a sad day,” wrote Eric Bischoff, who brought in Reid in WCW years ago for a storyline with his dad.
“Been on a flight all day just heard about the passing of Reid. My thoughts and prayers go out to Ric Flair and his family,” wrote The Miz, who had been involved with Flair lately in WWE.
“Heartbroken to hear about the passing of Reid Flair. So young. I can’t imagine what Ric is going through,” said Shane Helms, who himself just became a father a few months ago.
Dixie Carter, the former employer of Ric Flair at TNA also chimed in. “Devastated to hear about the passing of Ric Flair’s son, Reid. Please join all of us at TNA in praying for Ric & his family at this sad time.”
“My heart is with Ric and Reid Flair today! Reid was my son too,” wrote Roddy Piper, a long-time friend of the Nature Boy.
Karen Jarrett, the wife of Jeff Jarrett and Kurt Angle’s ex also sent in her condolences. “So sorry for the loss of your son Reid! We love you @RicFlairNatrBoy praying for you and your family!”
Scott Hall, who had his own fair share of troubles wrote, “Just heard some disturbing news, hope its not true. Nature Boy my prayers are with you and your family.”
