Author: John Bass

WWE Makes New Backstage Hires For Creative And Live Event Teams

WWE hired several new writers for the creative team earlier this month, according to PWInsider. Michael James Nelson, who has worked on NBC’s Off Their Rocker with Betty White, and on the MTV Movie & TV Awards, was recently hired. Andrea Kail, who worked on TruTV’s Comedy Knockout, was also hired to work on the writing team.

WWE continues to add to the writing team after recent additions including WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett, Bruce Prichard and Dana Warrior.

Regarding the WWE live events division, WWE Hall of Famer Michael Hayes continue to oversee the live events. Steve Corino has been working on the creative side of the live event team in recent months, since coming up from working behind-the-scenes in WWE NXT and the developmental system.

WWE also recently hired two live events managers in Stefanie Stephens and Jules Rice, according to PWI. Stephens previously worked as a market manager for Cirque du Soliel and worked for Cricket Wireless. She will be working on WWE live events in the Southeast. Rice previously worked as a marketing manager for the Houston Sports Authority. She will oversee WWE live events in the Midwest.

Vince McMahon spoke about hiring new additions to the live event and creative teams during his opening statement on the WWE 2019 Q1 earnings call last week. WWE later blamed lower merchandise sales at live events on the decline in live event attendance, but they hope these new hires will help bring that business back up. Live event revenues had declined 15% in the first quarter of this year from the same period in 2018 to $26.2 million. The average attendance for the live events for the first quarter was 4,800, an 11% drop from 5,400 in the prior year quarter, while the average ticket price was $52.38, which was essentially unchanged from the same period last year.

“We’ve hired new people in writing team that are really going to help us out in terms of television ratings and digital, social, all that sort of stuff, we’ve got a new team in terms of live events that have just started now,” McMahon said, via The Motley Fool. “So we’ll see the live events going to continue on an upward trend.

“In coming latter part of September, we’re going to have, it’s almost like, it’s not quite a metamorphosis, but we’re going to have a whole new beginning, we’re going — the promotional value alone notwithstanding rights fees and what have you, promotional value alone in terms of Fox, in terms of commitments from NBCU is something we’ve never seen before, not even close, it’s extraordinary. And at the call the kick-off, I suppose and it’s going to kick us into again an element we’ve never seen before in terms of promotion with everything, WWE talent, story lines, you name it, so it’s a rising tide situation that we’re really looking forward to and having that carry on throughout the year.”

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Dana White Claims Brock Lesnar Has Retired From MMA

Looks like Brock Lesnar’s return to the octagon won’t be happening after all, as Dana White says Brock Lesnar told him he’s retired.

White told ESPN that Lesnar informed him of his decision to retire last week. “He told me he’s done, he’s retired,” said White. “We’re going to move in another direction with Cormier.”

As you may recall, Brock attended UFC 226 in July 2018 and confronted Daniel Cormier in the ring after his win. White has subsequently claimed he was trying to strike a deal with Lesnar, but that no longer seems to be the case.

Instead, the company is looking to book Cormier vs. Stipe Miocic for the Heavyweight title.

Brock Lesnar has yet to release an official statement on the matter.

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

Dean Ambrose Shares Video Hyping The Return Of Jon Moxley, Will He Be At AEW’s Double Or Nothing?

Say goodbye to Dean Ambrose, and say hello once again to Jon Moxley … because the former WWE Champion just shared a video hyping his return to his former moniker.

The video was uploaded just minutes after midnight on May 1. Ambrose’s WWE contract expired on April 30, making him a free agent. Moxley continues to trend on social media, more than two hours after the video was released.

There’s obvious speculation on this promo being for Moxley joining another wrestling company, especially due to the high production values and other hints in the video.

Ambrose published a video on Tuesday night that begins with him sitting restless in prison before breaking out. This would seem to be a pretty obvious reference to him leaving WWE.

There are hash marks shown in the video as Moxley is breaking out of prison. The portion that is lit adds up to 25, which could be a teaser for Double Or Nothing. Double Or Nothing takes place on Saturday, May 25 from Las Vegas.

Some people have speculated that Moxley is initially in an asylum at the start of the video, and it’s Jon Moxley escaping from the Ambrose Asylum.

There are dice shown in the video and that has been the main symbol in promotional material for Starrcast in Las Vegas, which also takes place on May 25 (the event runs from May 23 – 26). The numbers on the dice shown are 2 and 5.

It’s believed that Moxley would be able to appear at Double Or Nothing as he is not under a non-compete clause from WWE because those usually apply to releases. His contract expired.

In another note on the speculation, AEW Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes has “liked” the Moxley promo on Twitter.

The account that the promo was tweeted from, @JonMoxley, is the @DeanAmbrose account that Ambrose had been using, but he changed the handle, which is why the official WWE Twitter account is currently following it. It will be interesting to see if they are still following him tomorrow. The account was created in March 2012, but this is the first tweet from the account in many years.

https://twitter.com/JonMoxley/status/1123438186410205184

 

Participants For The Men’s & Women’s MITB Ladder Matches Has Been Announced.

Monday night Alexa Bliss announced the RAW brand participants for this years Money in the Bank ladder matches and last night on SmackDown Live the SmackDown brand participants was announced.

Men’s MITB Ladder Match:

  • Braun Strowman (RAW
  • Ricochet (RAW)
  • Drew McIntyre (RAW)
  • Baron Corbin (RAW)
  • Finn Balor (SmackDown)
  • Ali (SmackDown)
  • Randy Orton (SmackDown)
  • Andrade (SmackDown)

Women’s MITB Ladder Match:

  • Natalya (RAW)
  • Dana Brooke (RAW)
  • Naomi (RAW)
  • Alexa Bliss (RAW)
  • Bayley (SmackDown)
  • Mandy Rose (SmackDown)
  • Ember Moon (SmackDown)
  • Carmella (SmackDown)

Jeff Hardy Confirms He Needs Surgery, Hardy Boyz Relinquish SmackDown Tag Titles

Last night on SmackDown Live, Jeff Hardy confirmed the rumors that he will need surgery and said he will be “out for a long time”. So The Hardy Boyz relinquished the SmackDown Tag Titles.

We’ve noted how Jeff suffered a right knee injury at the April 20 WWE live event in Madison, Wisconsin when The Hardys defeated The Usos. Last night’s SmackDown segment saw Jeff blame the injury on the recent TV attack by Lars Sullivan.

This prompted “The Freak” to make his entrance and attack Matt Hardy. Jeff then acted like he was going to fight through the injury, but R-Truth appeared from behind to aid The Hardy Boyz.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work out in Truth’s favor.

 

WWE SmackDown Live Preview 4/30/19

Tonight’s WWE SmackDown Live will take place from the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio as the road to Money in the Bank continues.

* What will WWE Champion Kofi Kingston have to say in an exclusive interview following Kevin Owens’ shocking betrayal?

* Becky Lynch and Bayley to square off for the first time ever in WWE

* Which SmackDown LIVE Superstars will compete in the Men’s and Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Matches?

* How will Roman Reigns deal with Shane McMahon & Elias?

* The Hardy Boyz To Address The Rumors Of Jeff Hardy’s Status

WWE 205 Live Preview 4/30/19

Tonight’s WWE 205 Live will take place from the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio.

Daivari sets his sights on Championship gold

Returning from an injury late last year and aligning himself with Hideo Itami, Ariya Daivari has a new attitude and outlook regarding his in-ring career. His alliance with Itami eventually came to a bitter end, but Daivari has since enjoyed a string of impressive victories, including a huge win against former WWE Cruiserweight Champion Cedric Alexander. Continuing to build on his 2019 undefeated streak, Daivari defeated Oney Lorcan last week to claim a championship opportunity.

The Persian Lion’s rise and recent success mirrors that of WWE Cruiserweight Champion Tony Nese. Befriending and training with former titleholder Buddy Murphy paid dividends for The Premier Athlete, as he too enjoyed a huge string of success, winning the WWE Cruiserweight Championship Tournament and defeating Murphy for the title on The Grandest Stage of Them All.

Daivari is Nese’s first challenger since The Premier Athlete captured the championship. Will Daivari continue his undefeated streak and end The Premier Athlete’s reign?

Don’t miss WWE 205 Live, tonight at 10/9 C, streaming live on the award-winning WWE Network!

Cody Rhodes Talks AEW, Filling Out Roster, Estimates The Percentage Of WWE Talent That AEW Would Sign & More

We’re less than one month away from AEW’s first official event, Double or Nothing. The startup promotion is still going through its growth phase and that means adding new talent to the roster.

Cody joined Jim Ross on The Ross Report to talk about the new guys and girls who will fill out the AEW roster.

“I know from a talent number we are nearing 40 talents under a certain type of contract with us. So, there is more talent than a lot of people know, because you know, slow and steady on our road to Double or Nothing on May 25th ,” said Cody. “We don’t want to just put a splash page down on everybody. We want you to slowly learn about them. That is the biggest thing for me; the road to Double or Nothing series that I put on the Nightmare Family YouTube channel, where we also announced your [Jim Ross] arrival. And even those that know you [Jim Ross] so well for so many years I still wanted to treat it like it is everyone’s first day, and tell me who this is, which is especially helpful to the guys with these younger guys.

While Cody is no Vince McMahon in terms of being fascinated with wrestlers’ physiques, he did reveal that those in charge at AEW went on a “hoss hunt.” They are looking for wrestlers 6’2″ and above who can turn heads with their looks and also perform in the ring.

“We went on this big hoss hunt and we want to find some big boys,” stated Cody. “You can’t replace that if that makes any sense? If you see one of those guys or girls that walk by an airport that makes you turn your head, that is still a part of wrestling – that going to the circus scene and you look at them and say, ‘damn, what do you do?’ I believe that is going to help us. We have a young and light-heavyweight roster, but to add that buffet to big, bigger, I want it all.”

Even though many of Cody’s friends such as The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega hold executive positions, that doesn’t mean all of his friends are going to just be given jobs. He talked about having to say no to many of his friends who came knocking on his door.

“I don’t know if I had a hard time to say no as much as I have been able to say that the door is unlocked, but it’s kind of up to them to kick the door down,” admitted Cody. “The best example of all that is when I left WWE, I did that full year before I fully signed on for one year with Ring of Honor. I did a full year of every indie under the sun. The best one, the worst one, the most niche one, the most mom and pop, I did all of that. That is the type of thing that kind of thing that helped me gravitate towards Matt and Nick Jackson and getting into New Japan and the first Tokyo Dome show I did and things of that nature.”

Cody didn’t just rest on his laurels or his family connections to get where he is today, he worked his tail off. He wants the same from AEW talent and, in a way, he echoes Vince McMahon in that he wants prospective AEW talent to grab the brass ring.

“People know what opportunities exist and it all lies on putting in the work,” said Cody. “You have to put in the work, and I swear by that. My wife is the same way. In this era of entertainment in general; content is king. It’s no longer, ‘oh this great show is coming on and has a great marketing appeal, and it’s all marketing.’ Now the sizzle and the substance have to match otherwise you get a big drop-off and we want our sizzle and substance to match. To answer your question, it hasn’t been hard to say no because most people know to not ask unless they are out there doing the work. It hasn’t been hard for me yet.”

Along the lines of his gimmick, AEW strives for only elite talent. Thus, Cody says that many current WWE performers wouldn’t even be accepted into AEW.

“Honestly, I’ve kind of jokingly said that it is five percent and I’m talking Jim Ross, Cody Rhodes and Chris Jericho, maybe a few others,” Cody replied on the percentage of WWE talent that would be accepted in AEW. “It’s not the same. Having that equity with WWE is wonderful, but like I have been talking, you have to be able to cut it and meet the standard that people have into their bell-to-bell contest. That number may increase, being that this opportunity that exists for the boys and girls to make more money, whether here [AEW] or there [WWE], for the boys and girls to have options. That number may increase.

“If they can play, they are going to play, but right now the recruitment was more about…I use the term ‘Tier 1.’ It was more about freshness, if that makes sense. I want to build a new class of guys. I have been there before where nobody has my back, nobody is my ally, and I don’t want to get into sour grapes over it but I know that it is one of the things that I look forward to the most once we really get into the schedule is the fact that these fresh faces…take Darby Allin for example who was just announced. I don’t want them to feel like they were set up and that was it. I want them to feel that they were set up to win and set up to succeed and then they went out there and hit it out of the park, so yeah.

“WWE at the moment I would say five percent at the current makeup, and that may increase. But right now there are a lot of faces you have never seen, and a lot of people you would be surprised once you do see them.”

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Joey Ryan Teases Signing With WWE And Announces Farewell To Indies

Joey Ryan wrote on Twitter that his time on the independent circuit is coming to an end. Ryan even has a new “Farewell” tour shirt available at Pro Wrestling Tees.

As previously reported, WWE had talks with Joey Ryan last week to work in their developmental system after they found out he was free from his Lucha Underground contract. In the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that WWE’s offer was “nothing special” and wouldn’t be for the main roster. It is more of a case of signing him so that he wouldn’t be available for other promotions.

In The Wrestling Observer Newsletter last week, it was reported that WWE had asked Ryan to move to Orlando to wrestle in NXT for a few years before transitioning into a coaching position.

Ryan had been expected to sign with AEW, as he was a big part of All In last September and he has been regularly featured in the Being The Elite series. In his tweet, Ryan used #RAW, which could always be to swerve fans. Ryan also posted his schedule on the indies this month, which consists of 16 dates.

Ryan had a WWE tryout back in 2013. After the tryout, Ryan, who is 39 years old now, told Wrestling Inc. that the only feedback he received was that he was too old.

“I mean, it was what it was,” Ryan told us in 2013. “I don’t even know how to really describe it because it didn’t have a whole lot to even do with professional wrestling. It was more just conditioning and they focused very little on professional wrestling and very little of the drills they ran that had to do with professional wrestling. We did hours and hours of rolls and cardio and then like a minute on promos. So it was like, really different than I thought it was because I thought they’d want to focus more on seeing everyone’s acting abilities or everyone’s personalities, but they really didn’t. It was more like, let’s just have a look at everybody and see what we like. I don’t even know if there was any kind of measuring stick to be like, well if he does this well or they do this well then we’re going to have our interest in them.

“It was more kind of just them having a look at everybody and just getting everybody in one room and making their decisions based on what they personally liked or not. My only feedback from them really was that they feel like I’m too, which was kind of confusing to me, they feel like I’m too old and experienced to be in developmental. I’m in my 30s now, but my age and experience didn’t change from when they invited me to the camp, so I didn’t really understand that. To them, they’re in control of how they do their system. So that was my feedback. They just didn’t feel like it was the right time in my life to be in developmental. They’re not bringing anybody straight onto TV at the moment because they’ve got a full roster themselves. So it was what it was.”

You can check out Ryan’s tweets below:

https://twitter.com/JoeyRyanOnline/status/1123010635216736258

https://twitter.com/JoeyRyanOnline/status/1122929803638624257

Source: Wrestling Inc.

The Hardy Boyz To Address The Rumors Of Jeff Hardy’s Status On WWE SmackDown Live

SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Hardy Boyz will address rumors on Jeff Hardy’s status during tonight’s SmackDown Live.

Matt Hardy took to Twitter during last night’s RAW and announced the segment for tonight’s SmackDown.

The status of The Hardys as been up in the air since Jeff reportedly suffered a right knee injury at the April 20 WWE live event in Madison, Wisconsin when The Hardys defeated The Usos. It was rumored that Jeff may be undergoing surgery after this week’s SmackDown, but that was not confirmed.

There’s no word yet on if WWE plans to take the titles off The Hardys this week, but we will keep you updated. The Hardys just won the titles earlier this month.

Source: Wrestling Inc.