The Bella family can’t go very far without a great deal of drama. So, it is no surprise that a simple family photo session turned into an all out brawl.
Kathy, the Bella twins’ mom, wanted a family photo for her birthday, but didn’t want Nikki’s new boyfriend Artem to be in the picture. Understandably, considering Nikki’s history with men, Kathy, didn’t want Artem in the photo until it was certain that he was going to be part of clan.
Apparently, Kathy’s mom had needed to take down two family photos due to Kathy having two ex- husbands. More recently, Brie has had to take down her wedding photo because of Nikki’s ex being in it. Kathy’s request seemed reasonable to me but Nikki felt as though Artem’s feelings would be hurt if he wasn’t included. My thoughts would have been that either Artem didn’t need to be told about the photo, or that Kathy could have gently explained her reasoning to him.
However, Kathy’s more dramatic solution was to take two photos, one before Artem arrived from Los Angeles, and one afterward. This may have worked had other drama not occurred.
JJ, Nikki and Brie’s brother accused Nikki of favoring Brie’s daughter, Birdie, over his daughters, Vivian and Alice. He informed Brie of his feelings first, and Brie told Nikki which resulted in Nikki not showing up to a family barbecue. This further angered her brother who exploded during the photo.
He also informed Artem of how Kathy had not wanted him in the photo. In the end, the photo session was a disaster, but relationships between both Kathy and Artem and Nikki and JJ were repaired. But that doesn’t mean their won’t more drama on the next episode of Total Bellas.
Former AEW champion Chris Jericho recorded a video to wish Triple H a happy 25th anniversary. Jericho, despite working for the competition, never burned any bridges with the WWE and remains friends with many of the talent there.
“Times and circumstances might change but what doesn’t change is the amazing chemistry I had with Triple H,” Jericho said. “I just wanna wish a happy 25th anniversary to one of the greatest who ever stepped inside a wrestling ring and to a guy I had killer chemistry with. Every match we ever had was great so, happy 25th anniversary…Lemmy would be very proud of you and here’s to another 25 years of dominating the wrestling world as only The Game can do!”
Jericho then added, “If I had some water I’d spit it right now but then it probably gets on the phone so I’d have to buy a new phone…so…pretend I spit water!”
HBK then said it all changed for Triple H when he met “her.” That her is Stephanie “No Fun” McMahon. At that point, Triple H received a FaceTime call and it was Stephanie, who was livid that Shawn is making fun of her. “You tell that no-good, lazy-eye…” Steph said before her husband hung up on her.
Ric Flair then called in via FaceTime and obviously cried and told Triple H not to let Shawn super kick him during the segment. Road Dogg also called via FaceTime but his call didn’t last long as Triple H hung up on him too as Shawn told him they don’t have too much time left. But there was still more to come as Shawn said he didn’t even get to the Katie Vick segment yet!
At that point, Vince McMahon came out and said under normal circumstances he’d come to the ring and give him a big bearhug but he was going to stay at the top of the ramp for this one. He said usually in a segment like this, we would hear the WWE fans chanting “Triple H, Triple H” but in this case it would be only his family in front row doing that while the rest of the fans would be chanting “boring, boring!”
Vince compared this segment to when the Gobbley Gooker was unveiled, or the Bayley “This Is Your Life” segment, or even the Katie Vick segment. “That was bad and in poor taste,” Vince said of the Vick segment.
“Seriously, I love you,” McMahon told Triple H. “And I think tonight – I love both of you but the way (referring to HBK) – I wanna say you and your performance are God awful. It was rotten, absolutely rotten, and if you haven’t put everybody to sleep by now, I am going to say goodnight,” the boss said.
McMahon then ordered to “wrap it up” as the WWE Performance Center lights started to come down one by one. “Is he kicking us out?” said Triple H. With most lights down, the sound of crickets played over the speakers. “Do you hear crickets?” asked HHH. “The story of your career buddy, the story of your career,” responded Shawn.
Worth also noting is that when the segment started and Triple H was about to spit the water to do his usual entrance, a WWE stagehand ran and took his water, not allowing Triple H to even have a sip!
Velveteen Dream was trending on Twitter today for all the wrong reasons after a 17-year-old Reddit user made some serious allegations against the NXT Superstar accusing him of sending nude photos to him and two other friends, with one of them being underage.
“He’s genuinely sending my friends and I messages of a sexual nature. I’d like to think it’s a hacker but I don’t know. How do I begin to approach this? How do I contact WWE? I have proof,” the Reddit user with the username king_of_the_edge wrote.
After posting a photo as proof, the user asked for legal advice and said that he’s thinking of deleting the thread and forwarding all the information to the police. He revealed that his friends – both males – are 15 and 16 respectively and all of them are from Canada.
“He blocked me on Instagram after I wouldn’t send him an uncensored nude pic back,” the user continued. A video of a SnapChat conversation that his friend had with Dream was posted online too, with the WWE star sending a voice message asking which school does he go to. The Reddit user told us that the conversations with Dream took place between Midnight and 5AM today.
Asked if he reported the incident to the local police yet, the alleged victim told us, “We have not reported it to police, yet. It’s a very surreal situation to be caught in and quite frankly overwhelming. We will report it though, we have our evidence.” The user gave us permission to use his real name but we have opted not to publish it.
Dream, real name Patrick Clark, used Twitter to shoot down any allegation leveled against him in a short statement issued today. “Be assured I did not communicate inappropriately with anyone. A private photo of mine was shared without my consent or knowledge and I am working with a third party to look into this matter,” he wrote.
WWE will be celebrating 25 years of Triple H tonight live on Smackdown on FOX and while a live appearance has not been promoted officially yet, it’s probably safe to say that The Game will be on the broadcast in the flesh tonight.
Apart from the many Triple H best moments that will be replayed throughout the night, three matches have also been announced. The WWE Women’s Tag Team titles will be on the line as Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross defend their gold against the team of Carmella and Dana Brooke. Also, two qualifying matches for the Money In The Bank ladder match will take place, including Lacey Evans vs Sasha Banks and Drew Gulak vs King Corbin.
Tonight’s Smackdown is the last live WWE broadcast until at least mid-July as the company has taken the decision to revert to tape shows in advance due to the coronavirus pandemic.
HHH on making decision for the first SmackDown with no audience: “I heard the news the NBA was shut down and there was a debate happening about whether they were going to play with no fans…As I’m flying down there (the performance center) in the morning, I called Vince…and said maybe we should leave the setup up. I know it’s costly, but just in case something cancels over the next couple of weeks where we can’t go into a town, we can at least get everybody to Florida. This was before I was even thinking about no fans. I said we can pick up the phone and call the local fans here and fill this place up pretty easily and at least still put on a show. Vince said that’s pretty smart and said run the numbers and I will get back with you today and let you know. By the time we get to Tuesday night and we have our production meeting, I call Vince and said I don’t know the numbers yet, but it’s getting worse. He said, yes, it’s getting a lot worse. Let’s talk in the morning. By the morning, it’s more than likely we are coming in. It doesn’t matter what the numbers are. We leave everything up. By the time we do that live show, when that show is over, Vince is not only saying that the trucks on the way to Detroit are on the side of the road, but they are turning around and headed your way. We are going to do SmackDown there tomorrow. Everything is shutting down. For the first time, he said we may be doing WrestleMania from there.”
HHH talking about the Boneyard Match at WrestleMania: “HHH asked Vince what he needs the most help on. Vince said the Boneyard Match. I asked him what is the Boneyard Match and he said I don’t know, it’s in a grave yard. So, I find this field and turn it into a grave yard. It’s in the middle of nowhere. I said, what do you want it to be. He said, I don’t know, just make it good…We come up with this concept and ideas and we finally get to a point that we feel it will work. I get to our tech people and ask how many people do we have on the crew for this and they said we have one camera and we are trying to get a second. That wasn’t going to work…I called Vince and he said one camera won’t work. I told him I have an idea but I don’t know if anybody else is going to be in favor of this. My solution was to use the digital team from NXT, Jeremy Borash, and we have a team of digital shooters that we use there. It’s a different format. We can shoot it with them and do it cinematic style. I can bring a bunch of cameras and shoot it all at once. I can shoot it like a film in a different format and I believe we can create something special with this. I think everybody else was against it. Vince said I don’t’ see that we have much choice so that is what we are going to do.”
HHH talking about 2-day WrestleMania’s going forward: “In my opinion, I think it was more enjoyable than the 8 hour extravaganza. I think at some point that is what it should be. It has become so big that when you think about it, it started out as a concert that ended up being a festival. It’s a weeklong thing when you think about it in that manner. Thursday would have been Hall of Fame. Friday was SmackDown. Saturday was going to be Take Over. Sunday was WrestleMania. Monday would have been Raw. It’s a week-long festival and I think that big main stage attraction needs to be those two nights and be a weekend of events. I do think that’s probably a change that out of chaos comes the genius and maybe that is the genius of it. I know people have been saying that for a period of time, but that’s a major shift and it doesn’t come easy.”
HHH talking about Johnny Gargano vs Tomasso Ciampa: “The Gargano Ciampa cinematic empty arena match was shot prior to the boneyard before WrestleMania. When we realized there was going to be no Take Over, I wanted to put some of these matches on TV because who knows when we are going to get to do them. Nobody knew if there were even going to be shows after WrestleMania. So, this was one we wanted to get it done with and be done with that storyline so we can move everybody in their direction and make it different. So, the concept that came up was to do something different and cinematic and shot with a similar team, but as it came closer, all the options for doing it kept shutting down…That was done in one shot. We put a crew and there and they got it done.”
GRILLING JR 04/23/20: JOHN CENA
Ross talking about meeting John Cena: “When I got back, I had the car service take me to the office…I told him I’ve agreed to terms with a WrestleMania main eventer in 5 years.”
Ross’ opinion on the spinning title belts: “I was one of the guys who didn’t like it either. I didn’t think it was appropriate, but look, I wasn’t a big fan of the smoking skull belt. It was a gimmick to sell merchandise. I’m sure WWE did a good job of marketing and selling those replica belts…It didn’t run anybody off, I’m sure they sold a ton of those things. If they sold a bunch of them and the talent can make more money, I really can’t stop and kick too much that it wasn’t my cup of tea.”
Ross on why he thinks Cena was booed: “This is very arguable. It could have been something to do with the fact that John was overexposed. Fans thought he was being forced down their throats. It was just an uncomfortable fit at times because there was really no other reason to not like John. Then it became like a trend. When people first heard it on television, you think, that’s strange. Then you go to another market for Monday Night Raw and they are booing again. I think it was monkey see, monkey do.”
Ross talking about multiple title changes: “The frequent title change with Cena’s reign or anybody else’s is counterproductive. It is not the greatest way of booking. It’s not the greatest story telling. I don’t like it. I don’t think the fans like it.”
Ross talking about Cena’s legacy: “One of the top 5 babyfaces in the history of WWE, without a doubt, hands down. A personal favorite of mine because of his character and his work ethic and his integrity. You never had to worry about John Cena embarrassing the company outside or inside of the cocoon. Saying he is a top 5 babyface in WWE history, that includes Bruno, Hogan, Austin, Rock, Undertaker, all these dudes. He belongs in that same conversation.”
AEW UNRESTRICTED 04/23/20: DEAN MALENKO
Malenko on starting as a referee in WWF:: “Pat Patterson would call me. I would work West Palm Beach and the Tampa area. The one everybody can still see me on was Saturday Night Main Event in Tampa at the Sun Dome. I was the referee for Randy “Macho Man” Savage with Elizabeth at the time against George Steel.”
Malenko talking about Darby Allen: “We always talk about the It Factor. There are a lot of guys can do flips and tumbling acts and dive to the ropes and all that. But there is something about him. He does them different and puts his stamp on it more than anybody else. He understands the audience. He understands that part of the business and getting himself over and doing anything he can do get his name out there and face out there.”
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer is reporting that All Elite Wrestling is planning to return to Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida for television tapings starting May 6 and there are rumors that the company will be doing live shows.
While AEW has enough shows in the bag leading them up to Double or Nothing in a month’s time, they had to film at QT Marshall’s gym in Georgia with some top talent not appearing except for via video. AEW were kicked out of the Daily’s Place because the city took over their building to do coronavirus tests and then after moving to Georgia, they got shut after the state went into lockdown.
But thanks to WWE, running wrestling shows in Florida is okay again and AEW can take full advantage of the executive order that was signed by the Governor of Florida that made wrestling an essential business. While the Florida stay-at-home order expires on April 30, no fans are expected inside the tapings as the order was signed allowing production to continue only if it’s closed to the general public.
WWE got a lot of flack from industry insiders for returning to live television and ignoring their workers’ health during the pandemic so it will be interesting to see what the reaction will be for AEW.
WWE has decided to start taping shows from next week instead of airing live and will be taping mostly every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday until early July.
In the latest FORM 10-Q filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, WWE included the termination agreements of their former Co-Presidents George Barrios and Michelle Wilson.
The termination letter, effective January 30, included 20 points of what they will get and what they’re entitled and not entitled to do while collecting their severance pay.
WWE provided them with their regular salary, a lump-sum payment of the value of their accrued, unused vacation, and continued health insurance coverage for a whopping 18 months following their termination although other employee benefits were stopped. In addition to those payments and benefits, both Barrios and Wilson were eligible for a discretionary bonus payment pursuant to WWE’s discretionary bonus plan.
By signing the agreement, the two former Co-Presidents agreed to “amicably resolve potential disputes” with the company and frees WWE from any legal obligation with respect to any aspect of their employment or termination from employment.
The agreement also stated that if either of them do not notify WWE within five days of accepting an offer of employment or intention to start or take an ownership interest in a business, there would be grounds to terminate all payments.
We’re three weeks removed from the WrestleMania 36 weekend, a show which was supposed to jam pack the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, but ended up being held at the tiny WWE Performance Center in front of no crowd.
Despite the show being taped a week-and-a-half in advance, betting on the show was still offered, with 15 out of the 18 matches available. The only ones that were not offered were the two Kickoff matches because they were announced late, and the Smackdown Tag Team titles and Universal title matches, both of which had a change. The Smackdown Tag Team titles ladder match turned into a triple threat match with one member of each team and the Universal title match had Braun Strowman step in for Roman Reigns instead.
But how did bookmakers fare when it comes to predicting match winners at WrestleMania? Actually, they fared pretty good because out of 14 matches, 11 of them were correct and only missed out on three. When placing bets, the best way to simulate your potential earnings depending on odds offered is to make use of a free bet calculator which will show you instantly your winnings and profits.
Let’s take a look on what bookmakers got right at WrestleMania.
Five of the correctly-guessed matches were all for a title. In fact, the WWE, Smackdown Women’s, Raw Tag Team, Intercontinental, and Women’s Tag Team title matches all went the way it was predicted. Drew McIntyre, who had odds of 2/7, won against Brock Lesnar to dethrone the beast. Bayley, with odds of 3/4, overcame four other Superstars – Tamina, Sasha Banks, Naomi, and Lacey Evans – to retain the Smackdown Women’s title. Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross became two-time Women Tag Team champions and had odds of 3/4, while The Street Profits retained the Raw Tag Team titles and had odds of 11/50. Sami Zayn also was favorite with 8/13 odds and retained the Intercontinental title against Daniel Bryan.
The other matches which were guessed correctly included Bray Wyatt beating John Cena, The Undertaker beating AJ Styes, Edge winning against Randy Orton, Aleister Black defeating Bobby Lashley, Kevin Owens beating Seth Rollins, and Otis defeating Dolph Ziggler.
And what went wrong?
Two title matches which were predicted went the other way. Rhea Ripley had odds of 13/20 to beat Charlotte Flair and retain the NXT Women’s title but that went Flair’s way who had 11/10 odds. Shayna Baszler was also predicted to beat Becky Lynch and had odds of 11/25 but Becky won and retained the Raw Women’s title with odds of 8/5. King Corbin was also listed as favorite with 11/20 odds but Elias won with 5/4 odds.
During the conference call with investors yesterday, WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon was asked how does he predict this coronavirus will change the business moving forward and how will it effect the operations financially, and Vince had quite a surprising answer.
“Well, firstly I don’t know that we’re going to be in the live event business as we were before,” McMahon responded bluntly. “I think no one can predict what’s going to happen here. We’re ready as if it’s around, but I think that’s one of the things that going forward. I think it’s going to take a while for consumers to want to come out.”
Vince said if there’s anyone who can figure an audience out it’s them. “So we again we’re highly adaptable as you’ve seen through the years, and whatever happens we’re there, and I think that’s going to be more content oriented, heavily marketed, and in terms of not live events but more in terms of programming and social and digital media which are way up, there are a lot of things we can do there.”
McMahon added that he doesn’t consider this a problem but rather an opportunity to evolve, especially creatively.
Vince also admitted that he doesn’t know what a live audience will mean anymore when quizzed about filming at Full Sail with a live audience practicing certain social distancing. He said they could do it eventually, but it would be a challenge.
“Again we’re just waiting for it. Be okay to do that like everyone else is. I don’t know what live audience is going to mean anymore. Obviously, there’s a huge need and want to buy our audience to want to be there like live, and again I don’t know whether it’s six feet apart or whether or not – everyone’s been tested before they come in which you might could be able to do in a smaller arena type thing. If anyone knows how to do it in a safe and exciting way it would be us. Chances are we would be the first ones to do it pretty much like we’re the first ones to do everything else,” McMahon said.
There will be no new WWE video game this year as the company will skip their yearly production for the first time since 1997. The news was announced by interim CFO Frank Riddick yesterday during the conference call with reporters.
2K currently has the license to produce and distribute WWE video games around the world and following the announcement, the @WWEGames Twitter account said that details on the future of the WWE 2K franchise and “some exciting news” will be announced this coming Monday at 7PM ET.
The current game, WWE 2K20, was widely criticized as one of the worst games by both gamers and critics due to its several bugs. This was the first game developed by Visual Concepts for 2K as the previous developer, Yuke’s, decided to leave to produce its own wrestling game.
Justin Leeper, a former writer on the WWE 2K franchise, broke the news weeks ago that 2K would not be producing a new simulation game this year but would publish a different WWE game from a different developer.
WWE Network ended Q1 2020 with a total of 1.46 million paid subscribers, an 8% decrease from the same period of last year but in line with the company’s guidance. The Network – including traditional pay-per-view buys – brought in $43.5 million in revenue for the company during the quarter.
The 1.46 million figure is slightly up from Q4 2019 which had 1.42 million subscribers but with the Royal Rumble it was predicted that they’d get a bit more than the previous quarter.
One good news from the Network side is that subscribers peaked at 2.1 million on April 6 due to WrestleMania. WWE said that it was the highest amount of weekend subscriber additions in WWE Network history. While not all of them are paid, judging by figures released there are around 500,000 free accounts which signed up for WrestleMania.
During the conference call, interim CFO Frank Riddick guessed that a free tier of the WWE Network will be permanently in place in Q4 2020. WWE had tried this leading up to WrestleMania by unlocking tons of content but that free period has now ended.
NXT on USA Network did a total of 665,000 viewers this week, down 27,000 viewers from last week’s show.
NXT had a 0.18 rating in the 18-49 demographic and placed #50 in the top 50 cable chart. The difference between the two shows this week was of 66,000 viewers in Dynamite’s favor after last week NXT won by 8,000. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Dynamite regained the lead in the ratings this week, getting 731,000 viewers for last night’s show, up 48,000 from the previous episode.
The show did 0.25 in the 18-49 demographic and was good for #24 in the top 50 cable chart. Dynamite lost to NXT for two weeks in a row in total viewers but comfortably won this week. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
WWE today announced the Q1 2020 financial results ended March 31.
The company’s revenues increased 60% to $291.0 million as compared to the prior year quarter while operating income was $53.3 million as compared to a loss of $6.8 million in the prior year quarter.
“Our first quarter financial performance was strong and largely unimpacted by the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Vince McMahon, WWE Chairman & CEO. “Now we are in the midst of unprecedented times, which require us to be especially nimble, creative and efficient in order to ensure the long-term value of WWE. We are taking precautions to protect the health and safety of our performers and staff as we produce content in new ways, engage fans with a much-needed diversion and operate effectively in this evolving environment.”
Frank Riddick, interim Chief Financial Officer, added “In the quarter, we delivered revenue of $291 million and Adjusted OIBDA of $77.3 million exceeding our rescinded guidance as we offset the impact of canceled events by reducing production and other costs. Given the current uncertainties of the potential impacts of COVID-19 on our business, we have reduced employee, talent and other costs and delayed approximately $140 million in capital spending related to our new headquarters to strengthen our financial performance going forward and to ensure we have the resources necessary to execute our value creation strategy.”
The full press release can be read at the WWE Corporate website.
Diamond Dallas Page appeared on CNN with Anderson Cooper today to talk about why he is not reopening his gym tomorrow as Georgia Governor Brian Kemp announced that gyms and fitness centers will be able to open for business again on Friday.
Page said that he’s lucky in the sense that his DDP Yoga business sells DVDs and an app that you can use at home and doesn’t require you to necessarily go to his gym but being 64 years old, he’s erring on the side of caution and has no interest in mingling with other people at the moment unless there’s some concrete change or evidence that the pandemic has slowed down.
DDP added that gyms will have to rethink how they do business and will have to think outside the box to survive as civilization will take a long time to return to normal, at least until there’s a vaccine against COVID-19.
The WWE Hall of Famer said that he applied for the government scheme to get money for his gym but said he didn’t hear back and doesn’t know of any small businesses that received any money.
You can see his five-minute appearance on CNN below.
Ex-pro wrestler and yoga instructor Diamond Dallas Page says he will not be reopening his gym tomorrow despite the announcement from Georgia Gov. Kemp.
WWE acknowledged the presence of Scarlett Bordeaux for the first time on television yesterday and it seems that they have dropped her last name and she’ll be going only with the name Scarlett from now on.
Scarlett was part of a video package that aired on the show which recapped Karrion Kross’ arrival and the attack on Tommaso Ciampa last week. During that attack, we only got a glimpse of Scarlett’s leather boots as she stood over a fallen Ciampa. The previous week she was very briefly and quickly seen in a car with Kross as Gargano and LaRae exited the building.
After the video concluded, Byron Saxton mentioned that the person with Kross in the video is Scarlett. She is the real-life girlfriend of Kross and was signed to a WWE deal last year, months before Kross joined the company in February of this year. She was known as the Smokeshow in Impact Wrestling and quickly became one of the most popular stars in the company during her short time there.
On the latest episode of the After The Bell podcast with Corey Graves, Triple H revealed that Vince McMahon had no idea what a boneyard match was supposed to look like and left it up to him to figure the whole thing out.
Vince only knew that it should take place in some sort of a graveyard and told Triple H to “just make it good” for WrestleMania. Triple H said that he was only offered one cameraman because everyone else was tied up but then he decided to bring in his NXT team along with Jeremy Borash, and from one camera he got seven cameras and some drones as well and did the whole cinematic look for the match.
Filming for the boneyard match was long and went through the night with several people on location making sure everything goes smoothly. Triple H said that the crew members who were tasked with the work of building the set were very thankful for WWE because that was the only work they had that month due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The boneyard match between The Undertaker and AJ Styles main evented night one of WrestleMania and the match was liked by the majority of fans who were impressed at the movie-like feel that WWE presented.
Speaking of WrestleMania, Triple H also added that the two-night affair might be the way forward as it was better than presenting eight hours at one go. Presenting WrestleMania on two different nights will have its own challenges though, including the problem of filling the stadium twice over.
The semi final matches of the TNT Championship tournament were finalized yesterday on Dynamite.
Darby Allin advanced after he defeated Inner Circle member Sammy Guevara and then Dustin Rhodes defeated Kip Sabian to grab the other spot. Rhodes had put a stipulation that if he loses the match he would retire but that wasn’t the case yesterday as his sister-in-law Brandi helped even the odds by taking care of Penelope Ford during the match.
The semi finals will now see Cody Rhodes taking on Darby Allin and Lance Archer taking on Dustin Rhodes. Both of these matches will take place on Dynamite next week.
The final match to determine the inaugural TNT champion will take place during the Double or Nothing pay-per-view on May 23.
Baker talking to Jericho about her heel character: “There was a lot of ideas about which direction the character should go. I wasn’t feeling or connecting with any of those ideas until I cut a quick promo on Riho backstage at the New Year’s Day Show. Some twitter links had been sent to me about how it resembled Chris Jericho’s WCW self-proclaimed babyface, self-proclaimed role model, condescending. So, I watched hours of that. I texted Tony, I think January 3rd, in at an insane hour of the night, and of course he was awake. I pitched the idea going off your character and he loved it…That’s when I talked to you and asked if this would work or it would be a bust. You said yes, I think you should go for it. So, I pick your brain every week in some capacity for help to make this succeed. Cody Rhodes has been a huge help, along with you and Tony to make this heel character click and make it be something that gets over with the fans.”
Baker talking about getting her nose broken on TV and Jericho saying “as blood streams down your face” on commentary. “With the help of your quote, it became one of the first ever T-Shirt of the week in Pro Wrestling Tees history…I asked Ryan from Pro Wrestling Tees if he thought a shirt with blood would sell or is that weird and people don’t want to see women with blood. He said, no, I think it would sell…He said he would get it tonight, and he did. I don’t know who designs what there, but they are so fast. They have stuff in minutes sometimes. It was up the next day. I checked in on him and asked him if it was selling. He said let me check. He said holy shit, it’s the top seller right now.”
HALL OF FAME WITH BOOKER T 04/22/20
Booker T talking about hair vs hair match he could have had against Edge at WrestleMania years ago about a shampoo commercial: “Bruce Prichard came to me and he said, hey Book, what do you think about a hair match. I said a hair match? He said, yea, hair for hair, you against Edge at WrestleMania. I said, is Edge cutting his hair? Because, I’m not cutting mine. So, he said ok, well, we will figure something out. I shut that down immediately.”
GRILLING JR 04/22/20 DARK SIDE OF THE PODCAST: THE ASSASSINATION OF DINO BRAVO
Jason Eisener describing how he got Dino Bravo’s daughter to be interviewed for the show: “At first she didn’t want to do it. We were going to cancel the interview. Then we went out to dinner with her and her husband to talk. We got to know each other. She was trying to gage who we were as people and what our motives were for telling this story. I was expressing to her my admiration for Dino and hearing the story of how her mother is a ballerina and her father was a wrestler and how they are essentially are like two artists who came together…I thought it was a romantic and fascinating that those two people came together in that way. She (Dino’s daughter) was taken back and never heard it put in that perspective and never heard anybody talk about her father as an artist. I think she really appreciated that and saw we were approaching this in a way that had love towards her father and wasn’t something that we were just going to delve into the negative aspects of his life, but rather, show who he was as a person.”
The producers explaining why couldn’t interview Rick Martel: “We saw that shoot interview (with Rick Martel about Dino Bravo). It wasn’t our preference to show a shoot interview, mainly because we want to film our own interviews and have it look a certain way. I tried really hard. I got his contact information. I got his e-mail and wrote him a full letter, knowing full well he’s basically giving up on wrestling as far as I understand. He doesn’t want anything to do with wrestling anymore. He’s retired and has a real estate career and he wants to create that life for himself now. I knew that going in. I was basically writing him an e-mail saying the story we are doing about your friend, your former colleague, Dino Bravo, this isn’t a wrestling story. It’s about him, his death and his family. I was hoping that would be an angle in terms of him wanting to at least get on the phone to talk to me about it…He reiterated his wrestling days are over. He doesn’t want anything to do with it anymore and doesn’t want to be in the story.”
ARN 04/21/20: EXTREME RULES 2015
Arn talking about Cesaro: “The fact is, Cesaro, had he been allowed to continue doing all those things only he can do, because as time wore on, is not a favorite guy, as you know, of the front office. For whatever reason that is, they are the only reason that is, they are the only ones that know because everybody else across the planet seems to think he is a superstar. But, he continued to get leaned on to stop doing all that stuff as a heel because it was too flashy. When you can do things that no one else on the planet can do, why wouldn’t you bring that to our audience? Aren’t you cheating our audience by not giving it to them? In that more of that, I don’t give a shit what the audience thinks, you are going to do what I want and you get more of that mentality? Ok, it gets sickening when you lived it for years and years and years and seen different characters just get pummeled and squashed because I said so.”
Arn talking about Dolph Ziggler: “Dolph has a set and he doesn’t mind saying what he thinks. Even though he is right most of the time, that’s the wrong thing to do. The reality is the company wants blind devotion. Dolph had an opinion for the longest time 10 years ago. It was the fact that Dolph, who throws a hell of a superkick, the office did not want him using the superkick because that was Shawn’s finish, but Shawn was retired. Shawn was gone. You can’t retire moves. How many super kicks do you see today for God’s sakes? Probably one in every single match, in every company. That was a heated issue years ago. But Dolph had an opinion. He would voice it. The guy was never a question amongst all the producers. He worked his ass off and once we got to gorilla, no matter if he agreed with what was going on or not, he would go out and give you 100%. I’m a big fan of Dolph Ziggler. I think he is one of those guys you may bitch about him when he is on the card. I’m sure a lot of guys, the higher ups in the office, and certainly the boss got tired of dealing with Dolph. But, the fact of the matter is, Dolph is right a lot of the time. He’s been one of those performers that over the years, made everybody better than what they were. The question as to why he was not one of the top guys, I certainly don’t have it. It wouldn’t have bothered me at all. The reality is, and mark my words, but I got a feeling Dolph is frugal. I have a feeling he made some investments. He is smart. One day he will say, oh you want to give me more shit about something else. You know what? See ya. He will thump down the steps, take off his boots, walk out the door and you will never hear from him again. He will have accomplished what he wanted to in the business, left on his own terms.”
