It looks like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and his family are moving to a new location as the former WWE champion just splashed $27.8 million on a new pad according to Dirt.com.
The website says that the massive property sits in Beverly Park in Los Angeles and is 17,630 square feet, featuring six bedrooms and 11.5 bathrooms. The house is part of a lot that is 3.67 acres.
Beverly Park is a well-known luxury area in the mountains above Beverly Hills and the property’s original price was $30 million.
Johnson’s new pad includes a state-of-the-art gym, full-size tennis court, a baseball diamond, an elevator, movie theater, a music studio, and indoor and outdoor swimming pools.
The Rock will now be neighbors with the likes of Denzel Washington, Sylvester Stallone, Rod Stewart, Eddie Murphy, and Sofia Vergara.
Immediately airing following Biography on A&E, WWE will debut another brand-new series on the network titled WWE’s Most Wanted Treasures.
WWE’s Most Wanted Treasures is hosted by Stephanie McMahon and Paul “Triple H” Levesque and the duo launch hunts for some of WWE’s most iconic missing memorabilia including Kane’s original mask, Ric Flair’s Butterfly Robe, Andy Kaufman’s neckbrace, Andre The Giant’s passport and more.
In order to find these quintessential relics, the team will join forces with WWE Legends including Undertaker, Ric Flair, Mick Foley, Booker T and more to bring these items home to the WWE Archives. Tonight’s debut episode will feature the Hardcore Legend Mick Foley as he and AJ Francis go visit the home, actually a museum, of GWC – Greatest Wrestling Collector!
The WWE and A&E partnership begins tonight with Biography: Stone Cold Steve Austin airing at 8PM ET.
Biography will feature eight original two-hour documentaries produced under the award-winning Biography banner showcasing the stories behind some of the most memorable WWE Superstars of all time. The subject tonight is former WWE champion and one of the most popular WWE Superstars ever – Steve Austin.
Other Biography episodes which will air will tackle “Macho Man” Randy Savage, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, Booker T, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Mick Foley and Ultimate Warrior.
The new specials are helmed by some of the industry’s top directors and storytellers to chronicle the success of these WWE Legends and their lasting mark on both sports entertainment and popular culture.
One person who was cut from WWE on April 15 but announced late was Mojo Rawley, the former 24/7 champion who came always hyped!
Rawley, 34 years old, noted that he had nine years of “fun, passion, and pure hype” and thanked his fans for getting and staying hyped with him throughout his journey.
The former NFL player, whose real name is Dan Muhtadi, also wrote that the next chapter of his career officially begins on May 31, suggesting that he might have a shorter no-compete clause than the usual 90-day one.
He signed with WWE in Summer of 2012 and was in NXT until 2016 before he moved to the main roster. He won the 24/7 title seven times and also won the 2017 Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal with some help from his football friend Rob Gronkowski.
Just Barrasso of Sports Illustrated is reporting that WWE is targeting SummerSlam as the next show to be performed in front of a live crowd.
Last year’s SummerSlam took place at the WWE ThunderDome inside Amway Center and featured the return of Roman Reigns. There is no date yet for SummerSlam but WWE’s contract with The Yuengling Center runs till August 3, which is a few weeks before SummerSlam usually takes place.
WWE is looking into resuming touring full time in the second half of 2021 and WWE President Nick Khan confirmed that there will be no more one-off shows in front of fans until then, suggesting that SummerSlam might be the starting point.
The company successfully held WrestleMania in front of just over 25,000 fans on two consecutive nights, their first show in front of fans since March 9, 2020.
The post-Mania Smackdown on FOX pulled in 1,996,000 viewers in the overnight ratings, down 83,000 viewers from last week’s overnight. Last week, the show was adjusted upwards to 2,250,000 viewers when the final number came in on Monday.
The first hour of Smackdown did 2,001,000 viewers and then dropped to 1,992,000 viewers in the second hour. The show was second in 18-34 and 18-49 with 0.3 and 0.5 ratings and fourth in 25-54 with 0.6. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
AEW TNT champion Darby Allin has been announced as the first guest of the upcoming Comic Con Revolution Ontario (California) and will be appearing on December 18 and 19, 2021.
Allin will be available for meet and greets, autograph signings, and selfies. Autograph and selfie prices are $40 each while you can purchase autograph and selfie combos for $60. Autograph on a collectible item is $60.
This Comic Con takes place at the Ontario Convention Center and tickets are available for purchase now here.
The Queen is returning to the ring this Monday on Raw following an absence of nearly two months.
Charlotte Flair will be taking on former Raw Women’s champion Asuka in the main event of Raw next week, a match which was announced during yesterday’s Smackdown.
The former WWE Women’s Tag Team champions were scheduled to take on each other at WrestleMania but Flair was flagged as pregnant by WWE medical doctors and taken out of the program. Private tests eventually showed that she was not pregnant after all but the company did not insert her back in the program, replacing her with Rhea Ripley who eventually won the title at WrestleMania.
Flair has not wrestled since March 1 and only appeared last week to air her grievances during the show. She missed her first WrestleMania even though she was healthy and obviously was not happy about it.
There were rumors as well that Charlotte threatened to quit if Andrade did not get the release he requested. Not only Andrade got his wish, but the 90-day no-compete clause was also removed.
WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair will be refereeing a slap match tonight during the Jake Paul vs Ben Askren pay-per-view on Fite.
The match is being promoted by SlapStrike and will feature Da Crazy Hawaiian, a 6’3″, 375-pound champion versus The Bear Man, who is 6’3″ and 350 pounds himself. If you’ve never seen a slap match, well, you’re in for a treat because it’s brutal as both opponents try to take each other’s head off their necks with the hardest slaps you’ll probably ever see.
How many Wooooo’s we’ll hear from the Nature Boy?
The Triller Fight Club pay-per-view airs tonight at 9PM ET and is available to order now on Fite.TV.
Impact Wrestling did a total of 132,000 viewers this week, down 36,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. The show did 0.04 in the 18-49 demo and placed #138 on the top 150 cable chart. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Starting today, there will be changes moving forward on Wrestling-Online.com due to a legal case initiated against me and the website.
The “featured images” that occupy space at the top of each article and which populate on social media when posting the stories will be gone. There will be no images hosted on Wrestling-Online.com unless they are part of the website advertising or marketing containing mostly our logos. The same will happen with the iOS and Android apps which will have no images or thumbnails.
Why?
On April 8, 2018, I published two stories on this website regarding WrestleMania 34 and these two articles contained an image which was pulled from Google Images and used as a featured pic.
Around two weeks ago, I was contacted by a legal firm saying that the image was copyright of a certain big-shot photographer and threatened to sue on behalf of their client seeking damages of up to $150,000.
The case has been settled out of court and yes, I had to pay. I cannot give details as it’s part of the settlement but trust me, it was not nice and involved a lot of money for what it was.
Getting rid of images altogether will help this not happen again. Yes, it’s not going to look cool, but paying for something like this wasn’t cool either. And hey, the website will load faster too, so there’s that.
During the latest IMPAULSIVE podcast, Logan Paul discussed his experience from last weekend at WrestleMania.
He mentioned that people were going up to him at the airport telling him that he “sold the sh*t” out of the Stunner. Paul said he didn’t sell, he got f*cked up and it was real. “These mutherf*ckers go so hard and are literally beating the sh*t out of their bodies,” Paul said, putting over the WWE Superstars.
“This is very real, it’s a skillset, I got to witness it firsthand,” he continued, adding that one day he will get his revenge on Kevin Owens. He joked saying that when Kevin shook his hand, he didn’t know he was going to get the Stunner and got him good. “He embarrassed me in front of 25,000 people,” he complained.
His brother Jake said that it was a dream come true just to watch him perform at WrestleMania. Logan said that after taking the Stunner and walking to the back, he was giggling the whole walk as he had the time of his life.
Logan also put over Bad Bunny and his match with Damien Priest against The Miz and Morrison. “Never seen anything like it. That was the best celebrity performance ever, he’s a star.”
Just like her former tag team partner, Billie Kay issued a statement following her release, starting by thanking both Vince McMahon and Triple H for the six-year journey.
“They have fulfilled my dreams entirely from being a 10 year old girl that fell in love with WWE from the moment I saw The Rock on TV and now I’m walking away with so many incredible moments from Super Showdown in front of my friends and family, to winning the tag team championships at WrestleMania,” Kay said.
Kay thanked all the people in the locker room and those behind the scenes and said she will never forget their support and the stories they have together. In thanking the fans, Kay said that she hoped she made them smile and laugh because that’s all she ever wanted to do.
Billie referred to Royce as her life partner and said that their journey started together and it’s only fitting that it ended together as well. “I love you, I’m beyond proud of you and I’m with you forever.”
All eight quarter hours during AEW Dynamite drew over a million viewers each, something that has not been done since the first two episodes of the show.
In fact, this week’s AEW show was the second most-watched in Dynamite history, surpassing the second episode which had dropped by 269,000 viewers from the debut episode of October 2, 2020.
In numbers released by Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer, the least-watched segment on Dynamite this week was the seventh quarter which involved Christian, Taz, and the beginning of Darby Allin vs Matt Hardy which was the main event. That quarter hour did 1,170,000 viewers. Meanwhile, the most-watched quarter hour was the fifth which was Chris Jericho vs Dax Harwood with Mike Tyson as the special enforcer. That did 1,350,000 viewers and also nearly 600,000 in the 18-49 demographic. Jericho celebrated the win by resurrecting the #DemoGod on Twitter.
The show exceeded all expectations when it comes to viewership and it will be interesting to see if AEW can keep this audience week in and week out.
Peyton Royce, who was fired from WWE yesterday along with several others, thanked Vince McMahon and Triple H for allowing her the opportunity to work for them, saying she loved every moment.
“I will cherish my memories at WWE for the rest of my life. Some of my wildest dreams came true under your roof,” she wrote in a statement released on her social media.
Royce said she’ll never be able to thank her fans for showing their love throughout the years and she would have never had the opportunities without them. She also thanked the men and women who she shared the ring with over the past six years, saying all the text messages she received over the past 24 hours meant the world to her.
“My hope is that I have made my country, my family & friends back home proud. If so, I feel success in that. Without their support of me chasing my dreams since I was merely 10 years old, I couldn’t have done it. My husband has been my absolute rock & my guidance through my whole journey here. I am so lucky to have his love & support,” she continued.
In closing, Royce said that while this chapter of her life has finished, she’s not done, and this is really just the beginning and is excited to get to work.
WWE today announced that Pat McAfee has joined the Smackdown broadcast team and will be replacing Corey Graves on the announce table with Michael Cole.
The former Indianapolis Colts NFL player has enjoyed a good relationship over the years with WWE and has appeared numerous times on NXT, even wrestling twice for the black and gold brand.
“For as long as I can remember WWE has been a company that I have admired, both for its incredible staying power of creating riveting entertainment and for its ability to connect people all over the globe,” McAfee said in a press release. “I’ve been fortunate to try a lot of cool professions but working for WWE was the one I looked forward to most. I am incredibly honored and grateful for the chance to give back to the business that has given me and many others so much and having the opportunity to sit at the same table that legends have graced is truly a dream come true. Now let’s go get it.”
McAfee uploaded a video on his Twitter showing Vince McMahon saying “Pat McAfee…you’re hired” as he sat along with Michael Cole and Adam Pearce.
The charismatic athlete has done commentary on Smackdown once before when the majority of the roster was stuck in Saudi Arabia in 2019 and WWE had to quickly assemble a team for the broadcast.
WWE shook up its commentary teams this week, hiring Adnan Virk as the new lead Raw commentator along with Corey Graves and Byron Saxton. Samoa Joe, who provided color commentary for Raw, was fired yesterday.
Former WWE commentator Mauro Ranallo will be doing commentary for the Kenny Omega vs Rich Swann match at the upcoming Impact Wrestling Rebellion pay-per-view.
ESPN broke the news yesterday, confirming that Ranallo will be behind the mic only for the main event, a main event which will see both titles up for grabs. This match will give Kenny Omega the chance to carry three major titles from three major wrestling promotions as he already has the AEW and AAA Mega championship.
Ranallo has not done any wrestling commentary since he left NXT in August of last year and his involvement comes somewhat of a surprise to many.
PWInsider.com adds that Ranallo already recorded some voice-over material for the video package and pre-show which will air on AXS TV.
With no NXT competition, some free advertising during the Broken Skull Sessions episode with Chris Jericho on the WWE Network, and the addition of Mike Tyson, AEW Dynamite did a whopping 1,219,000 million viewers on Wednesday night.
That is an increase of 531,000 viewers from last week’s show which went head-to-head with NXT Takeover night one. That was the most-watched Dynamite since October 2019. The show did 0.44 in the 18-49 demographic and was #2 in the top 50 cable chart for the night. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
WWE has announced several releases today as the tradition of unloading several talent after WrestleMania continues.
Samoa Joe, Mickie James, Peyton Royce, Billie Kay, Kalisto, Chelsea Green, Wesley Blake, Bo Dallas, and Tucker have so far been announced as gone from the company, with more expected to join the list too.
“WWE has come to terms on the release of Samoa Joe, Billie Kay, Peyton Royce, Mickie James, Chelsea Green, Tucker, Kalisto, Bo Dallas and Wesley Blake as of today April 15, 2021. We wish them the best in all of their future endeavors,” read a small statement on WWE.COM.
Joe is the biggest surprise, having just done commentary at WrestleMania. Kay was also involved in WrestleMania in the tag team turmoil match while James was part of the pre-show panel of NXT Takeover: Stand & Deliver.
Invicta FC was founded in 2012 by experienced combat sports executive Shannon Knapp. Over the last nine years, the promotion has changed the face of MMA. Knapp has promoted over 400 fights across Invicta’s 46 all-women events featuring – and often discovering – a who’s who of the greatest fighters of all time including Rose Namajunas, Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino and Amanda Nunes.
Knapp will join Anthem’s executive team as a senior member of the Sports Media Group, and will continue to spearhead Invicta FC as it moves into an exciting new era as part of the Anthem family.
She said: “This is a huge moment for Invicta and for women in the sport. Invicta FC was founded to give female mixed martial artists a platform where they could compete and prove the doubters wrong. Now, as part of the Anthem portfolio and with shows on national television for the first time, Invicta’s platform will be bigger than ever, and more people will have the opportunity to see the world’s elite female athletes compete. With Anthem’s backing, it’s going to be easier than ever for our fans to catch all the Invicta action and for new fans to find out exactly why Invicta is one of the world’s most exciting fight promotions.”
Ed Nordholm, the Chief Corporate Officer of Anthem Sports & Entertainment and the President of its Sports Media Group said: “We are very excited to acquire this uniquely positioned MMA promotion, adding a new content pillar to our combat sports portfolio as part of our overall strategy to transform Anthem into a leading global content company. What Shannon has accomplished with Invicta is one of the sport’s great success stories. She will play a vital role as a senior member on the Anthem executive team and as a shareholder in Anthem, and we look forward to helping her take Invicta to new heights.”
Invicta FC events will be broadcast live on the Anthem-owned AXS TV and Fight Network. The first INVICTA FC on AXS TV card will feature a world championship fight and be broadcast live on AXS TV in the United States and on Fight Network in Canada. The Friday, May 21 event will be available digitally to Invicta’s many fans outside of North America including AXS’s digital property AXS TV NOW.
Frank Tanki, the General Manager of AXS TV, said: “AXS TV has a great legacy of supporting MMA under its AXS Fights brand and Invicta will be a centerpiece of our AXS Fights programming.”
As the world emerges from the pandemic, Anthem plans to steadily increase the number of Invicta FC shows across AXS TV, digital streaming platforms and standalone Pay-Per-View supercards. In addition to broadcasting live events featuring current Invicta headliners including Pam Sorenson, Alesha Zappitella and Pearl Gonzalez, Anthem will also celebrate Invicta’s rich legacy with regular programming showcasing Invicta’s historic fights and exclusive shoulder programming on fighters’ background and lifestyles.
“The Phoenix series is the fastest paced format in MMA,” Knapp said. “For those who’ll be witnessing it for the first time, it is an intense rapid-fire event where eight athletes compete across one grueling night. The Quarter and Semi-Final bouts consist of a single round – giving fighters no more than five minutes to either win and advance in the tournament or crash out in defeat. The two victorious semi-finalists then go toe-to-toe that same night in a three five-minute round finale match, with the winner being crowned tournament champion.”
Tanki added: “Invicta’s Phoenix Series is the perfect format for live television. It combines hard-hitting combat sport with the sort of compelling, fly-on-the-wall storytelling reminiscent of the best of live reality TV. I’m very excited a wider fanbase will get the chance to enjoy this innovative fight night for the first time on AXS.”
