ESPN Outbids FOX To Secure UFC TV Rights With $1.5 Billion Deal

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On the heels of FOX closing in on a five-year deal with WWE’s SmackDown Live brand worth over $1 billion, ESPN has reached a second agreement with UFC, Fortune reports.

Last October, the exclusive negotiating period between UFC and FOX expired, giving the brand an opportunity to shop their television rights package to other companies. WWE started talking with FOX around that time, as executives from both parties initially met at the close of 2017. For WWE, NBC Universal decided to retain their partnership with the Raw brand, while FOX commenced a billion-dollar five-year deal to acquire SmackDown.

Just a few weeks ago, Disney’s new Direct-To-Consumer & International segment along with ESPN reached a $150 million per year agreement to exclusively air 15 full-card events on their ESPN+ platform, effective January 2019. ESPN has now struck a second $150 million five-year deal with UFC to broadcast and stream more than 30 fights a year.

According to USA Today, the broadcast deal will include 10 full UFC cards along with the preliminary card for a dozen UFC pay-per-view shows. Combined with the April agreement, the deal is said to be worth $1.5 billion. Both deals begin on January 1st.

Source: WrestlingINC

Enzo Amore Announces Interesting Live Appearance For Next Monday Night

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Former WWE Superstar Enzo Amore took to Instagram last night to thank fans for their support. The posts come less than a week after it was announced by Enzo and his attorney that no charges were being filed by Phoenix police over the rape allegations made by a woman back in January, which led to Enzo’s WWE release while he was the Cruiserweight Champion. You can read the full statement from Enzo’s attorney at this link.

Enzo also announced his first post-WWE appearance. He will be meeting fans in New York City’s Times Square next Monday, Memorial Day, at 9pm. He noted that he will break his social media silence at 9:15pm for one big Instagram post, live from Times Square.

Enzo wrote with one of his posts, “I want to engage, interact, and personally than all of you who ever supported me! IT WAS YOU WHO WISHED ME LUCK ON MY FUTURE ENDEAVORS!! BUT I WON’T NEED LUCK…. JUST YOU!!”

He wrote in another post, “THERE IS NO BETTER SUPPORT than the support of the city that I LOVE! I’LL SEE YA SOON!! THANKS FOR THE LOVE… I’ll be reciprocating it soon.”

Enzo also revealed what looks like his new logo. You can see his recent IG posts below:

I’ll be down there TO PERSONALLY THANK YOU …. Times Square 9:00 pm #MemorialDay… #HowYouDoin!?

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Source: WrestlingINC

CM Punk Was Allegedly Backstage During “All In” Press Conference

The rumor mill surrounding CM Punk making an appearance at “All In” is about to go into overdrive … because the ex-WWE champ was apparently backstage during the show’s press conference.

Jenn Sterger — who hosted the conference — spilled the beans during an interview on the latest Collider Bodyslam podcast.

“If you got your tickets at face value for this event, I’m just saying it literally might be the best in the world,” Sterger told the show. “I will only say someone wearing sweatpants and training for something walked into the back of the building that the press conference was in — with marks, mind you, lining the entire sidewalks in the front of the building — and I just kept thinking ‘if they knew you were back here, they would literally tear down the front of the store.’”

The host says CM Punk was allegedly there to pick up shirts from Pro Wrestling Tees, but none of the people involved in the event would confirm or deny if he’d be making an appearance at All In.

With a scheduled signing the day before the event, and the fact he lives in Chicago, Jenn told the show that she thinks it only makes sense for the UFC fighter to be there. Adding, “What better way — if you were going to make your return to wrestling — than the biggest indie show ever?”

Listen to a portion of the interview below, then check out the full show — AVAILABLE HERE.

https://twitter.com/attitanium/status/997598858233380864

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

Photos and Video From W.W.A. Hysteria: TO THE EXTREME! Event Featuring ECW Legends Sabu, Sandman & Raven 5/19/18 Evansville, IN

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I attended a indy wrestling promotion event Saturday night in Evansville, IN- W.W.A. Hysteria: TO THE EXTREME! – check out the photo above and the photos and video below.

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UPDATE: W.W.A. uploaded the event on YouTube. You can watch below:

Jim Cornette Reacts To Success Of ‘All In’ Event And Cody Rhodes Banning Vince Russo

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Jim Cornette talks about the runaway success Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks have had in promoting the All In indie event on his podcast Jim Cornette’s Talking Sense.

Cornette commends them on there success so far in promoting and selling out the event. He listened his previous comments about All In from his podcast.

Cornette says that All In could be the ultimate wrestling crowd funding event ever. He also went on to say that it has made WWE look pretty bad that these guys could do this that quick.

Cornette takes great joy in seeing Vince Russo being barred from All In by Cody Rhodes, who didn’t want him ruining the weekend by merely being present.

You can listen to Cornette’s comments from his podcast below:

(Strong Language Warning) 

NWA is All In, NWA Worlds Title Match

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In the latest episode of the “Ten Pounds of Gold” series, The NWA documented their championship being defended against Cody Rhodes at All In.

What you see happen in this special episode of Ten Pounds of Gold is a behind-the-scenes look at the day, their first reaction and the major announcement of how the NWA and the Worlds Heavyweight Championship will be involved in ALL IN. Including the surprising announcement by Cody Rhodes he would be challenging for the NWA Worlds Championship. Billy Corgan spoke at the press conference regarding the Ten Pounds of Gold and current NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis is approached after as well.

Riddick Moss And Tino Sabatelli Both Out Of NXT With Injury’s

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Riddick Moss suffered a torn achilles tendon, according to Dave Meltzer on the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio. He could be out of action for eight months. It’s not clear when he suffered the injury, but he was at last week’s NXT tapings on crutches.

Moss and his former tag team partner, Tino Sabatelli recently filmed an angle where they split up. Sabatelli has since had surgery for a torn pec, and may be out for eight months as well.

Moss signed with WWE in 2014 and made his in-ring debut at an NXT live event in December of that year. He began teaming with Sabatelli in October of 2016, and they recently split after suffering a loss to Heavy Machinery.

Source: WrestlingINC

Starrcast Announces New Names For All In Weekend, Cody Rhodes Bans Vince Russo From All In

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Starrcast, the official wrestling convention during the weekend of All In during Labor Day weekend in Chicago, confirmed lots of new names for the event that will be running from August 30 to September 2 at the Hyatt Regency in Schaumburg, Illinois.

Tickets for Starrcast go on sale Tuesday (May 15) at Starrcast.com.

Names advertised as of now to appear include:

Cody Rhodes
The Young Bucks
“Papa Buck” Matthew Lee Massie
Bruce Prichard
Eric Bischoff
Tony Schiavone
Billy Gunn
Kevin Nash
Shane “Hurricane” Helms
James Ellsworth
X-Pac
Ron Simmons
Scott Hall
Diamond Dallas Page
Lex Luger
Tully Blanchard
Jeff Jarrett
JJ Dillon
David Penzer
Teddy Long
Dutch Mantell
Macaulay Culkin
Jerry “The King” Lawler
Joey Janela and Penelope Ford
The Blue Meanie
Sean Mooney
Road Warrior Animal
Ron Funches
Colt Cabana
Wade Keller and Bruce Mitchell of PWTorch

Vince Russo took to Twitter noting that he is being blocked from appearing and attending the upcoming All In event in Chicago.

Russo tweeted out:

Cody Rhodes then responded with the following:

Source: WrestleView

“All In” Sells Out In Under An Hour

After months of speculation about whether a self-financed, ten-thousand-seat event put on by The Young Bucks and Cody could sell out, we finally have our answer … it’s yes.

Tickets went on-sale Sunday afternoon and it only took around thirty-minutes for All In at the Sears Centre Arena in Chicago, Illinois — which has a capacity of 11,800 people — to be considered a sell out. No word on the exact number of tickets sold as of yet.

Rhodes revealed that tickets, which went on sale Sunday afternoon, were sold out in just under a half hour officially at 29 minutes and 36 seconds.

As you may you recall, this comes about a year to the date after Cody Rhodes claimed he’d “take that bet” when Dave Meltzer tweeted saying Ring Of Honor wouldn’t be able to sell out a ten thousand seat plus arena “any time soon.”

As we first reported back in November of last yearCody and the Young Bucks had started to put together the plans for the event and shortly after a date/venue were announced. Since then they’ve put together an incredible line-up of talent for the event including Kazuchika OkadaDeonna PurrazzoPentagon Jr, Rey Fenix, Tessa Blanchard, Stephen Amell and just announced earlier today – Rey Mysterio.

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

Paige Thought She Would End Up In A Wheelchair After Accident That Ended Her In-Ring Career

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SmackDown Live general manager Paige was recently a guest on E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness. During her conversation with Edge and Christian, she discussed what led to her career-ending neck injury.

Paige officially announced her retirement from in-ring competition in April on Monday Night Raw the night after WrestleMania 34. She was forced to stop performing after suffering a neck injury at a live event in January, just a couple months after making her return following multiple neck surgeries. Paige said she thinks she pushed her body too far and it eventually caught up with her.

“I honestly felt really confident about it, but that’s the inner-wrestler stubbornness. You know how we are; we can be fine, and all believe we are unbreakable. Just coming back and it kind of humbled me a little bit,” Paige said. “I thought I was fine, and perhaps earn a championship match, but I did come back with the confidence that this was going to be fine, but I kind of felt that in a single’s match where something didn’t feel right as it was before. I had to go down to the Performance Center and take bumps by moving my neck somewhere and kicking out of a finish and moving my head to the side because it couldn’t be the same. I had to adjust in a lot of ways.”

Paige recalled the moment she suffered her career-ending injury, calling it the scariest moment of her life. She began her career as a teenager wrestling with her family in England and she said she now realizes that her body can no longer handle the grueling nature of in-ring performing.

“I felt it in a single’s match where I realized that something didn’t feel too good, but I thought that it was fine, I’m just rusty. I’m doing a 25 minute match, and I thought, ‘Okay, this is going to be fine,’ but then when the accident happened and I lost all feeling in my legs and arms, it was the most terrifying experience in my life, and I never wish that upon anyone. It was so scary,” Paige said. “I literally was done, and I thought I was going to be in a wheelchair. I had pushed myself too much. I really did. Every time I was in a match I was like, okay, I will take the bumps, I pushed myself too hard where my body was literally done. I have been doing this since I was 17, it’s like, I need to let my body grow a little bit.”

Paige was a two-time Divas Champion and also was the inaugural NXT Women’s Champion. As one of the most skilled in-ring performers of her generation, she is considered a pioneer of the Women’s Revolution as she helped show the world that female wrestlers are capable of putting on great matches. Paige said she is satisfied with her career and how much she was able to accomplish in her short time with the WWE.

“I am really, really proud. I definitely filled in a lot of stuff after my small career in WWE. I have been with WWE for over 6 years now, and I had that year and a half out which wasn’t the best year of my life, but missions were accomplished after I came back,” she said. “I even had a couple months to accomplish a little bit more, and getting to commentate the all-female Royal Rumble, it was great. It’s not ending like I haven’t done anything with my career. I actually have a couple of trophies that I have to display under my belt as well.”

Source: E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness via WrestlingINC