Appearing on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson gave props to his daughter for working her ass off while trying to achieve her dream of becoming a WWE Superstar.
“She signed her contract with the WWE and it just blows my mind. First of all, what an honor that my daughter wants to follow in my footsteps,” Johnson told Fallon. “More importantly, follow in my footsteps sounds cliche. She actually wants to create and blaze her own path, which is just so important.”
The former WWE champion revealed that his daughter Simone is the youngest signee ever in the history of WWE and penned her first contract two years ago at the age of 16.
“At 16 – by the way, she’s 18 now – at 16, she was working her ass off quietly under the radar, in the ring, getting thrown around, you know, and all the bumps and bruises that come with pro wrestling. She hung in there, and I’m very, very proud of her,” the proud parent continued.
Simone Johnson was unveiled as a WWE developmental talent in February of this year.
In what seems to be a surprising move, Drew Gulak is no longer under WWE contract as his deal expired and it was not picked up again by WWE according to PWInsider.com.
Gulak has already been moved to the Alumni section on WWE.COM but there was no mention of his departure anywhere else. Gulak had just wrestled Daniel Bryan on Friday Night Smackdown and the two have lately teamed up for some pretty good entertaining segments.
PWInsider.com adds that both sides were still negotiating on a new deal but they had not reached an agreement by the time his current deal expired. Since his contract was not picked up, Gulak has no 90-day compete clause which would allow him to show up anywhere he wants and any time he wants.
Gulak has been signed to a WWE deal since 2016, participating in the inaugural Cruiserweight Classic tournament and then eventually moving to the main roster. He won the Cruiserweight title once during his time there but he really started to shine when he was introduced into an angle with Daniel Bryan earlier this year.
The 33-year-old from Philly has not addressed his departure yet and up until a few hours ago was still retweeting WWE stuff.
Martha talking about meeting Owen Hart and his family: “I met Owen when I was so young. I was only 15 and he was 17. We were in high school. I also came from a big crazy family. My family was also a bit dysfunctional so it didn’t throw me off. But, it was a bit interesting. The house was beautiful but with so many big family members and they were all giants, it was intimidating for sure. Stu was a bit scary the first time I met him. I was really nervous about meeting him. But, he smiled at me and winked, so I thought, I’m in, I think I’m ok. It was definitely interesting. It was a lot of mixed emotions. It was exciting but it was nerve racking. There were a lot of interesting characters always at the house. There was always something interesting happening there for sure.”
Martha on how Owen got into wrestling: “Owen was never going to get into the business…Owen went to the University of Calgary on a wrestling scholarship. He was a true athlete. He was a four star letterman. He was in football, rugby, track and wrestling. He got a scholarship for wrestling. We were there together. He was going to be a Physical Ed teacher…Owen was a very sensitive person and he really loved his dad. That’s all it took was that you can really help your dad. You can help the business. We are struggling and bleeding money here so could you help. Owen worked under a mask. Then he worked in the summer as himself and it really helped to rejuvenate the whole territory. He had an issue at University that he didn’t take one of the classes that he was supposed to take so then he had to wait. He had to take a semester off, not by his choice, but had to wait, I think it was English. He then stayed through the summer and into the following semester. By the end of that semester, he was this staple in Stampede so he thought I will keep going a little bit longer. It was never the long term goal or the plan to stay in it. As life picks you up and carries you away, it has other plans. Your original plans get left in the dust. He tried for a long time to get out of the business. He applied to the fire department every year for years. At that time, it was hard to get on the fire department. You need to have a University degree. It was one of those sought after jobs, especially in Calgary. His brother and brother in law were firefighters. He knew that life and liked it and tried to pursue it. He was also a Canadian and American citizen. He also applied to be a customs agent because he thought it would be ideal because he lived in Calgary and American so he can work for customs. He always regretted that he didn’t finish his education because he was actually a very bright guy.”
Martha talking about Owen staying in WWF after the Montreal screw job: “That was a really difficult time for Owen, because even though he didn’t share the same philosophy as Bret, as far as wrestling goes, he knew that was really crushing for Bret, what happened with Vince and everything. He felt bad for his brother, of course. But he was also beholding to a contract at that time. WWF, they just had introduced a few years before that, contracts, where you were locked in for 5 years. Owen was locked into his contract. He requested he be let go to when everything happened with his brother. They said no. They weren’t going to let him go. The way the contract worked was that if you don’t work, you can’t work for somebody else. You don’t necessarily have to work, but then you aren’t making any money and you can’t work somewhere else. It was a very onerous contract where it only benefited the company, not the wrestler. Owen was really in a tough situation. He didn’t have a choice. You either stay here or go nowhere. It was emotionally difficult to see his brother so upset and betrayed, and yet have to stay and fulfill his commitment that he made to the company.”
Martha on her relationship with the Hart family today: “Unfortunately, I don’t. I don’t know if people are aware of everything that transpired with my lawsuit. The family, they weren’t that supportive of my lawsuit against WWE. The worst part of it was that some of the family actively worked against me. Other ones just remained silent. That was almost as hard as the ones that worked against me. When you break the trust, and I felt really betrayed and left alone and without any support, then although I’ve forgiven them, I’m totally passive. I wish them well. Trust me, my life hasn’t been easy and I certainly wouldn’t wish harm on anybody, I hope life has been kind to all of them. But, you know, somethings, the damage is done and you just can’t repair it. That’s one of the unfortunate causalities of war. The damage is irreparable and it can’t be repaired, but I let it go and I wish them well. I really do.”
TWO MAN POWER TRIP OF WRESTLING 05/15/20: THE GODFATHER
Godfather talking about WWF allowing him to be this character: “They finally let me be me instead of making me a voodoo monster or ultimate fighter or trying to make me be a heel, they finally let me be me. They gave me so much creativity. I would come up with stuff. It was all ad lib. The Godfather was never scripted. They might want me to hit a point, but I was free to do what I want.
Godfather talking about the origins of the Ho Train move: “Shane McMahon came up with that. I was in the ring with Shane McMahon. My gimmick was starting to get over and get some ratings. He said you have to come up with something. He said how about you shoot them (his opponent) in the corner and then you wind up like a train. He asked if I remember Soul Train. He said how about if you say Ho Train. That was all Shane McMahon’s idea where I splash them in the corner.”
WHAT A RUSH PODCAST ROAD WARRIOR ANIMAL 05/15/20: DARK SIDE OF THE RING
Animal talking about if Dark Side of the Ring did a good job on the Road Warriors episode: “I think it was done more than fair. They got some parts of it wrong. I never said I’ve had enough, I’m done with the team. Hawk is the one who F’d off and left. Left us hanging like Paul Ellering said on the clip, we were in Hershey, PA waiting for Hawk at TV and Hawk never showed up. They didn’t get in the part about Hawk calling Vince’s secretary and saying I quit. They didn’t get the part of me finishing up, being a business man. They didn’t get the fact that Hawk just said, screw everything and took off to Japan and made his own deal. They didn’t get any of that in so actually Vice was very nice in the fact they didn’t do any of that stuff which they could have done very easily because that was all discussed.”
Last week’s episode ended on a bit of a cliffhanger.
Apparently, Nikki Bella’s period had been two weeks late, so her mother insisted that she take a pregnancy test. Just then, Nikki’s boyfriend Artem walked in, so, of course, he was there for the test. I thought it was kind of odd that Artem stood in the bathroom with Nikki while she took the test.
Because the test was negative, there was a question as to whether or not Nicole and Artem were sad. Nicole was relieved, but Artem was bummed. Therefore, it was no surprise that Nicole was all of a sudden concerned that she wouldn’t be able to have kids.
She chatted about her nerves with her makeup artist on a photo shoot. The artist assured Nicole that she would probably be fine, citing the example of her sister who had given birth for the first time at 46! However, Nicole was still nervous, because she asked Artem if he would still be with her if she could not have kids. Artem said he didn’t know. While this might have concerned Nicole usually she had bigger problems in this episode.
The Bella sisters were fighting again in this episode, this time it seems as though Nicole and Artem have overstayed their welcome at Brie and Bryan’s house. Bryan seemed to want them to go in order to spend more time with his wife, but she spent more time with guests. Their marriage seems to be going through a rough patch and even when the couple attempted to plan time together, Brie seemed to have other plans.
Even when Bryan attempted to plan a trip in order to spend more time with his wife, she suggested he spend with Artem as that was one of the reasons that the sisters fought. I think that the main reason that they fought was because Brie didn’t want to fight with Bryan, so fighting with Nikki was easier. However, the couple is still having problems, so that means more drama on Total Bellas.
The Wrap is reporting that an upcoming movie featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Emily Blunt has been scooped up by streaming giant Netflix. This will be Johnson’s second movie exclusively for Netflix.
The movie, titled Ball and Chain, follows a troubled married couple, played by Johnson and Blunt, who receive superpowers that only work when they are together.
Oscar nominee Emily V. Gordon will write the script based on the ’90s comic of the same name by Scott Lobdell. It will be produced by Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia for Seven Bucks Productions, Kevin Misher for Misher Films and Emily Blunt for Ledbury Productions. Executive Producers are Andy Berman for Misher Films, and Scott Lobdell.
“One of our main initiatives at Seven Bucks is to continue to find the best platforms to tell stories that entertain and inspire on a global scale. Netflix is the perfect partner to deliver this epic superhero/romantic comedy experience alongside us, and we’re excited to be back in business with the Netflix team. I’m also excited to not only reunite with dear friend Emily Blunt in front of the camera, but to also collaborate as producing partners as we bring Emily V. Gordon’s script to life,” Johnson told TheWrap in a statement.
The two Hollywood A-listers have already teamed up to star in Disney’s Jungle Cruise which will now be released next Summer.
Friday Night Smackdown on FOX this week drew 2,042,000 viewers, up slightly by just 3,000 viewers compared to the previous week. Hour one did 2,030,000 viewers and then rose to 2,055,000 viewers in the second.
This is the only second time since Smackdown moved to FOX that there was an increase from the first to second hour, with the only other time that it happened being on the October 18 episode.
Smackdown did a 0.5 and 0.6 in the 18-49 demographic, joint second and third for the night among networks but placed last in terms of overall viewership. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
The new movie Cagefighter: Worlds Collide featuring AEW champion Jon Moxley, playing the role of Randy Stone, makes its debut today on FITE TV as a pay-per-view.
Cagefighter’s cast also features Chuck Liddell as Marcus, Jason Reso (Christian) as Stephen Drake, Gina Gershon as Max Black, Alex Montagnani as Reiss, and Luke Rockhold as Tony Gunn.
In Cagefighter: Worlds Collide, Reiss is on the cusp of cementing himself as the greatest to ever step inside the LEGENDS cage. With five title defenses under his belt, a beautiful wife (Georgia Bradner), endless deals from his agent (Elijah Baker), and the support of his coach and mentor (Liddell), Reiss has it all.
But when a savvy promoter (Gershon) pits him against pro wrestling superstar, Randy Stone (Moxley) in the company’s first ever cross-promotional event, Reiss finds himself in the toughest fight of his life. Adding to the drama are a charismatic MMA podcaster (Reso) and a flashy MMA coach (Rockhold).
The movie will only be available for FITE TV users outside the United States.
Episode seven of season five of Total Bellas, titled Bella vs. Bella, did 485,000 viewers, 70,000 viewers more than last week’s episode did. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
The bracket for the Intercontinental title tournament was announced yesterday on Smackdown with the first two matches also taking place.
The left side of the bracket has Daniel Bryan vs Drew Gulak and Jeff Hardy vs Sheamus. Bryan beat Gulak in the first round and advanced to meet the winner of Hardy vs Sheamus.
The right bracket has Elias vs King Corbin and AJ Styles vs Shinsuke Nakamura. Elias already beat Corbin to advance and will wrestle the winner of the Mania 34 rematch between Styles and Nakamura.
AJ is part of the RAW roster so this is part of the “wildcard rule” that has been reintroduced until business returns to normal.
It has been eight long years since FOX has taken the #1 spot in the 18-49 demo among the networks but Deadline.com is now reporting that the network will come first when the 2019/2020 television season is over.
FOX, helped with The Masked Singer, the Super Bowl, and even WWE’s Smackdown, registered a 13% increase in that demographic compared to the previous year. Smackdown has consistently topped Friday nights in that demo but that run came to an end when viewers tuned away when the coronavirus hit and WWE started presenting empty arena shows from the WWE Performance Center.
“With just under a week to go until this season officially ends May 20, Fox has a 1.7/8 average in the key demo. Not only is that a rise of 13% for the Murdoch-owned outlet compared with its second-place showing for the 2018-19 TV season, the network rich in NFL, WWE SmackDown and unscripted is the only one up in the demo and viewers (17%) this year,” Deadline reports.
FOX acquired the TV rights to Smackdown in a five-year deal worth over $1 billion.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer is reporting that Rey Mysterio’s WWE deal is up very, very soon and the former champion has not signed another deal yet.
While all signs point towards Mysterio remaining in WWE, newer contracts are not as enticing as they were last year or the year before mainly due to the current environment. Meltzer says that Mysterio got a great deal 18 months ago but now one of the things that will keep him with WWE is some sort of guarantee for his son to be working there in the future.
The angle shot with Rollins on Monday Night Raw can serve as two things: either serves as being written out completely from TV if he decides to leave or else it serves as the perfect payback to Rollins when he returns.
Meltzer adds that there will surely be interest from All Elite Wrestling to bring in Mysterio, it will be difficult to offer him a similar or bigger deal than his current WWE one and with no gate money coming in it would be very hard to justify a seven-figure contract.
AFTER THE BELL WITH COREY GRAVES 05/14/20: CHRISTIAN
Christian on his loss of confidence after splitting up his tag team with Edge: “When I stepped away, I very much had the mind set of still being a tag team guy. When I was trying to envision matches and put these things together, I still pretty much thought that way. I put a lot of pressure on myself, maybe too much pressure. I was having a hard time adjusting. I was not confident. Once your confidence goes away, it’s tuff, it’s really tuff. I saw myself as a singles guy. I had a big opportunity with the Intercontinental Championship. I think back to when Edge and I split up, I don’t think I did myself any favors by not really changing the Christian part of Edge and Christian. I still came out as the guy that looked like Christian from Edge and Christian. I missed an opportunity there to change that part of me and be different and be accepted as something different outside of that. It also becomes one of those things with there is too many cooks in the kitchen. I was asking and listening to a lot of it instead of listening to my instincts and I had good instincts, but I forgot to listen to them. People would be giving me advise instead of taking the pieces I thought I could use and apply them, I was trying to do everything, I tried this, I tried that, and not that it was bad advice, but it might not have been the right advise for something in this instance, but it might work down the road…I was not having fun and I was not happy. I went home one day, looked in the mirror and said, this is it. If you don’t figure this out, you’re going to get fired. That’s the worst that’s going to happen to you…I have nothing to lose, so I’m going to listen to myself. I know I can do this. I know my instincts are good. I have instincts for this. I would still take advise and say thank you, but I started trusting my instincts. It all turned around quickly and I got my confidence back.”
AEW UNRESTRICTED 05/14/20: EXCALIBUR
Excalibur meeting Jim Ross in AEW: “At first he was skeptical. He saw me in the mask and he said what the hell is this? You know the announcer’s job is to put over the product in the ring, not themselves. I said I know; I hope I can earn your trust. I hope you can see the job that I do is all about promoting the in ring product. He said, ok, we will see. We called a few hours of matches that were on tape and initially he said he was going to do play by play, Excalibur you do analysis, Marvez you do color like statistics. Slowly after we did a couple matches, things started shifting to me doing the play by play, J.R. doing some color, Marvez doing the color. Depending on the type of matches, we would shift roles back and forth. I think that’s ultimately the formula that we adopted for AEW. On certain types of matches that are more traditional style pro wrestling, J.R. takes the lead and on matches that are more fast paced, 2010’s or 2020’s professional wrestling style, I’ll take the lead on that. It is not something we discussed. It is something that happened organically.”
GRILLING J.R. 05/14/20: STEVE WILLIAMS
Ross talking about managing Steve Williams in WWF: “I was not comfortable doing it. I didn’t see any reason to do it. That was another way to make J.R. uncomfortable. The issue was for me that I made it not about J.R. enough though I didn’t like the casting. I didn’t want to do that. To me, it was another step in trying to pry me out of the announcing position on Monday Night Raw, hence, the little announce table. Doc was my bodyguard. It just was silly because who was the heel? Who was the object of getting the heat? Me. I’m not going to wrestle…The wrong guy was getting the spotlight. I didn’t need it. I didn’t want it. I thought if I did this, it would help Doc. I also knew the underlying current was this was not to help Doc. This is to make J.R. uncomfortable and embarrassed, and the rib on J.R. is a continuation of previous ribs and subsequent ribs going forward because Vince enjoyed that. When the writers found out what Vince enjoys, that’s what they write.”
Ross on the Steve Williams/Ed Ferrara skit imitating J.R.: “You can’t convince me that the angle with Ed Ferrara imitating me with the Bell’s Palsy and Doctor Death being there in the same role he had in one of his last appearances in WWE as J.Rs’s bodyguard wasn’t personal. I don’t know how smart that booking really is. I know Turner finally curtailed the Bell’s Palsy facet of the impersonation. I look back at that as personal. I think that affected Doc and my relationship because I’m sure there was somebody who said, or could have said, J.R. could have saved you Doc if he wanted to. They want to ingratiate themselves to him. One way to do that is make me the bad guy again and convince him that if J.R. had wanted you to stay, he has a lot of influence with Vince. He is Vince’s right hand guy. He could have made that happen. Well I couldn’t make that happen. I tried to make it happen. But I thought that whole thing was very personal. I’m glad I made peace with Russo. I made peace with Ed Ferrara over the years…People ask If I was mad at Doctor Death…no. He was booked and this is his role. It’s like filming a movie. Here’s the movie. Here’s your script. Here’s your role. Here’s what you’re going to do. So, if you accept the terms of the creative, and except our money, then this is what we are going to ask you to do. Doc needed money. He needed a payday.”
THIS WEEK ON EXCUSE ME THE VICKIE GUERRERO PODCAST:
Vickie welcomes none other than former TNA Knockout ODB: ODB talks about her post TNA career operating a successful food truck. After a fire destroyed this truck last year, hear our she made a comeback and is back in business!
Days after Becky Lynch announced that she’s pregnant on Monday Night Raw, her boyfriend Seth Rollins used social media to thank fans for their support in his first public comments.
Posting a photo of Becky with the pregnancy test, Rollins wrote, “I took this a few moments after we got the best news of our lives and I don’t think I could have captured anything more beautiful. I can’t put into words how much it means to me.”
He added that December cannot come soon enough and also thanked the fans. “Thank you all so much for your support over the last couple of days. The outpouring of love really has lifted us even higher than we’ve already been.”
This is the first baby for both soon-to-be parents. The two confirmed that they were dating in May 2019 and announced their engagement in August 2019. They were supposed to get married this month but plans are on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
There are few bigger attractions in the world of professional wrestling than Brock Lesnar. As soon as his music hits in an arena, there is a sense that there is a huge match about to take place. Lesnar has been involved in some of the biggest matches in the WWE since he returned to the company, with the Beast also able to put over up-and-coming stars as well as claiming huge wins like the one that he did over the Undertaker at WrestleMania 30.
There is a sense that Lesnar is getting more influential behind the scenes, and his head for business is ensuring that superstars that wouldn’t typically be involved in discussions for huge spots are now in the discussions. Lesnar has already encouraged the WWE to give R-Truth a bigger spotlight after briefly working with him in the run-up to the Royal Rumble.
Kofi Kingston also revealed that Lesnar himself came up with the idea that Rey Mysterio, Kingston and Big E should team up against him for a huge moment at the most recent Rumble. But, with Lesnar’s return to the WWE likely to come in the next couple of months, who could we see the Beast coming up against in his next bout?
Drew McIntyre
There is a feeling that this feud may not be over. McIntyre beat Lesnar for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 36, but the match was ultimately disappointing given that both of these superstars could have put on a classic. The match involved a number of finishers before McIntyre hit the deciding Claymore to get the three. There is still a story to tell here, and when Lesnar returns, his eyes may be firmly set on regaining the title that he lost at Mania.
Tyson Fury
Lesnar’s return isn’t going to be for another couple of months, and the WWE could cash in by having a return to live shows by having a unique cross-over match. Tyson Fury’s rematch with Deontay Wilder isn’t likely to take place until next year now, which means that the door could be open for Fury to come back into the world of WWE one more time. Fury’s stock with the US audience would have rose after his dominant victory over Wilder this year, which means his return to WWE when it finally comes will generate mainstream attention. WWE already has a real fighter of their own under contract, and that means we could see Fury and Lesnar square off to see who is really the baddest superstar on the WWE roster.
Keith Lee
Lesnar has elevated a number of superstars since returning to the WWE, with stars such as Seth Rollins, Finn Balor and AJ Styles all benefiting from working with the beast. Should he return to the WWE and want to continue to make new stars, then Keith Lee could present a dream opponent for Lesnar. Lee and Lesnar briefly went face to face at the Royal Rumble, with the Beast being knocked off his feet by the NXT superstar.
He may not have known who Lee was before the PPV, but he certainly did afterwards. These two could put on a memorable match for the WWE Universe, and there wouldn’t be too much lost should Lee be defeated. As long as he puts in a strong showing against the former UFC world champion, then he will immediately become a main event player on the main roster. Other superstars that could benefit from working with Lesnar include Aleister Black and Bobby Lashley.
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NXT suffered another loss this week against Dynamite, getting only 604,000 viewers, down 59,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. The show placed #46 in the top 50 chart among the 18-49 demographic with a 0.15 rating. The difference between the two shows this week was of 50,000 viewers, down 19,000 viewers from last week’s battle. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Dynamite this week drew 654,000 viewers, down 78,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast but still won the night against NXT. This was the least-watched Dynamite since the show made its debut in October 2019. With a 0.23 rating in the 18-49 demo, Dynamite placed #15. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
SITTING RINGSIDE WITH DAVID PENZER 05/11/20: CROWBAR
Crowbar talking about how he got the gimmick in WCW after working as Devon Storm: “The story I got was Vince Russo was at the bar (he later cleared up it was a restaurant), I walked in with my leather jacket, my hair down, and he liked my look. He asked who that was. It was a few weeks later that Crowbar was born. I assume he checked out my work. He came up with the idea to put me with David Flair”
ARN 05/12/20
Arn talking about Enzo Amore: “Enzo was a guy that put a long time in NXT with his partner, Big Cass. Once they came up to the main roster, you go into a whole different learning phase. If you’re going to be hanging around, you’re going to go through a whole new let’s start over, here is the way we do things on RAW. Here is the way we do things on SmackDown. You can’t be too hard headed about that because there are people trying to help you. If you don’t listen to those people and you fail, then it’s on you. If you do listen to those people and do everything that you can possibly do to pull off what they are telling you to pull off, then you got a shot at it. I think Enzo might have been a little too headstrong about how he felt how things should go.”
Arn responding to why Ole Anderson wasn’t inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame: “My knowledge of what I’ve heard through the grapevine is Ole does not want anything to do with WWE in any fashion, period. Whether or not he was asked to be part of that group or not, I don’t know. If he would have, I’m sure he would not have accepted because of all the things that went down years prior when Vince got control of his television and all those things that are pretty much common knowledge. It was really a heated issue between the two of them and there was some conversations and insults that went back and forth. That was probably the biggest reason.”
GRILLING JR 05/12/20: DARK SIDE OF THE RING THE ROAD WARRIORS
The producers of Dark Side Of The Ring telling a story that Road Warrior Animal told them about Harley Race: “A fan, basically attacked Harley Race. The fan jumped the railing and started to attack him. This woman hit him over the head with a high heal shoe. Harley started beating on him. Eddie Sharkey kicked him (the fan) in the head. Eddie went in to grab the guy’s eye. I guess that’s a thing they do. Eddie goes in for the eye on this fan, but then he is quickly disturbed to know that someone has already got to the eye. Harley already gotten to this guy’s eye and it popped out. Eddie Sharkey put his fingers in the guy’s empty eye socket.”
PWI PODCAST 05/12/20: AUTHOR OF THE ANDRE THE GIANT BOOK PAT LAPRADE
Pat Laprade talking about Andre not wanting to retire from the ring: “The only place where Andre felt like a normal human being was in the wrestling locker room. That’s the only place where he wasn’t looked at as a freak or a giant. People wouldn’t point fingers at him. They wouldn’t laugh at him or be scared of him like reactions he was getting in the real world. That’s why he had some hard feelings against Vince Jr because when Vince decided to go national and to have him exclusive, Andre couldn’t go see all of his friends like he used to. Yes, he was still traveling but it was the same locker room over and over again. When he was booked by Vince Sr, he would go from territory to territory and see different people and see different friends. That’s what he like so much. That’s also why Andre never wanted to quit. When Vince finally decided not to use him anymore, Andre didn’t like that and he reacted in a way that, maybe he shouldn’t. He went to Clash of Champions in 1992. When look at, it should have been a no-no. Andre going to a WCW PPV doesn’t make any sense when you think of it. But, Andre was really frustrated that Vince wasn’t going to use him anymore. At the same time, we can’t blame Vince for that. Andre couldn’t let it go. It wasn’t about the money at all. Andre had money. It was that if he wasn’t in a wrestling locker room, he didn’t know what to do. That’s why he kept a way to keep wrestling in Japan and Mexico. Even in Japan, he was so well respected that when he started working for All Japan after working for years for Inoki and New Japan, it was New Japan who told All Japan that the way we do wrestling now is not suited anymore for Andre, but I think he can still be useful for All Japan because All Japan always did one comedy match or one with old timers.”
Laprade talking about Andre’s movie experience on Jack and the Beanstalk: “He was such in bad shape, that even for movies it was getting hard for him to do them. You have to realize that we always talk about Andre was a strong guy. When he was doing Princess Bride which was ’86 or ’87, he had such weak arms that he couldn’t even catch Robin Wright who was weighing 90 or 100 pounds at the time. He couldn’t catch her from a fall. She had to have wires to make sure that he can catch her. That’s something that people don’t realize, that yes, as much as he was strong in his younger days, the disease disorder he had made him weaker as years went by.”
Laprade discussing why Andre never got the surgery for his acromegaly: “Andre never wanted to get the surgery for acromegaly. Whether he was misinformed or he didn’t fully understand what the surgery would do to him. He said one of two things. He said either God made me this way and I don’t want to change it, or he was scared that he was going to lose what made him special.”
Laprade mentioning why Andre was billed as 7 feet 4 inches: “Lou Alcindor, who later became Kareem Abdul-Jabaar started becoming this big NBA star and won the championship with the Milwaukee Bucks. The Vachons were working a lot for Verne (Gagne) at the time. Milwaukee was one of the main towns they were being booked at. Both Vachons were watching a lot of news and interest in other stuff. They knew about Lou Alcindor and that he was 7′ 2” and was the tallest athlete at the time. When the media and Andre came, it was only normal to make Andre the tallest athlete of his era. Like Paul Vachon told us, 7 feet 4 sounded right. We could not have said he was 7 feet 9. In reality, our count was at one point he was a real 7 footer.
Speaking to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani about his new documentary, The Undertaker finally lifted the lid on that short interview he had with him at UFC 121 where he confronted Brock Lesnar cageside.
After the event wrapped up and Velasquez defeated Lesnar for the UFC title, Ariel Helwani got a few minutes with The Undertaker to talk about his take on the fight. But just as the two were talking, Lesnar walked by both of them and The Undertaker turned serious.
“You wanna do it?” Taker told Brock. After a short stare, Brock continued walking. “What did you just say to him?” Helwani asked. “It’s kind of a personal thing…” Taker replied.
Now, 10 years later, the two finally caught up to discuss that interview. “Now that we’re in the mood to break down the fourth wall, could you explain to me what happened? Was that real? What was the story behind that moment?” Helwani asked.
“I was there to pick a fight. I was unaware that Dana had no clue what was going to happen which I felt horrible about after the fact. I thought there was some kind of discussion with him and Vince, you know,” The Undertaker said.
“There was no personal animosity, really. It was basically me saying you left our world, and I’m coming to your world, and I’m gonna call you out. That was it,” he continued.
When asked if he was there to pick a real fight, as in an MMA fight, The Undertaker shot that down quick and said that while he considers himself gutsy, he knows that his fighting days were way past him 10 years ago. “I was trying to get him back in my world,” he responded.
Taker said that Brock knew that he was going to be there although he’s not sure he knew what he was going to do. He said that he got really lucky because Brock walked passed by the two of them and it was the perfect moment to do it.
Roman Reigns is part of a new Netflix movie titled The Wrong Missy which is now available inall Netflix locations worldwide.
The comedy movie has David Spade and Lauren Lapkus in the leading roles. The synopsis reads, “When Tim Morris (Spade) meets his dream girl and their relationship quickly escalates through texts, he throws caution to the wind and invites her to his company’s corporate retreat on an island resort… However, when a past blind date from hell shows up at the airport for the weekend getaway instead, he learns too late that he’s been texting The Wrong Missy.”
Promoting the movie on his social media, Reigns wrote, “So cool to see @davidspade and @laurenlapkus do their thing! Really enjoyed working with and learning from these two, hope u guys enjoy!” In the film, Reigns is credited with his real name Joe Anoa’i.
This week’s episode of WWE Backstage which took a look at WrestleMania III, pulled in 173,000 viewers, up 98,000 viewers from last week’s show. This was the most-watched Backstage since November 19, 2019.
The WrestleMania III Rewind episode at 7PM on FS1 did 157,000 viewers but there’s no number for the actual WrestleMania III broadcast yet. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
