Stephanie McMahon, the Chief Brand Officer of WWE, will have her autobiography released August 2020 according to a report by PWInsider.
The book, which has the working title of “UNREAL: Inside the Crazy, Fun Show Business World of WWE,” will be released by Regan Arts Publishing.
McMahon initially announced the publication of the book back in 2016. It was announced in 2017 that the book was being put on hold to a later date.
Source: WrestleView
In an interview with Sports Illustrated, WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan revealed he would be undergoing back surgery next week.
“I’m going in for another back surgery next Tuesday. They’re going to fuse six levels together, so we’ll see how I feel after that.”
There is no timetable for how long the recovery will be for Hogan. Hogan had been floating around the idea as of late of doing one last match at WrestleMania 36 in Tampa, Florida, his hometown.
Source: WrestleView
Tonight’s WWE Friday Night SmackDown will take place at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England as the Road to Survivor Series continues. the show will be pre-taped beginning around around 1:15pm ET.
Vince McMahon called a backstage meeting at around 3pm ET on Monday before RAW to address the travel debacle coming out of WWE Crown Jewel.
Vince reiterated that there were no issues between the company and officials in Saudi Arabia, and that a mechanical issue prevented the plane from leaving when it was scheduled to, nothing else.
Vince opened the meeting up for questions from talents and nobody asked any questions, and nobody said anything about the story given to them on what happened in the Kingdom. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that there was a feeling that saying anything negative about the story given to them during the meeting wouldn’t do anyone good, and nobody spoke up. The Observer adds that the feeling on saying anything negative about the company’s Saudi story wouldn’t do anyone any good, was apparently the correct call.
Randy Orton said something during the meeting but he was just trying to break the tension by being funny. Vince responded and asked, “Anybody else want to just kiss my ass?”
The meeting was just about to wrap up when Triple H called out Karl Anderson for comments he made on Twitter, about who would be the locker room leader on Monday. As noted, Anderson tweeted, “Looking forward to seeing who the locker room leader is on Monday.. [popcorn emoji] [red heart emoji]”
Anderson reportedly didn’t say much of anything in response. There was apparently more heat to the Anderson situation as he and his wife also joked on Twitter about not going back to Saudi Arabia, but going back because they need a new pool or a second house. He tweeted, “Couldn’t pay me enough to go back .. Well that’s not true, I need a second pool, so…..”
Anderson’s wife responded, “2nd house!! Not a pool..but don’t ever go back AGAIN! We don’t need our daddy/papi/motherlover/absanderson/besttagteam etc. being held hostage while we’re at home worried to death [red heart emoji]”
You can see the Anderson tweets below.
WWE United States Champion AJ Styles spoke at the meeting but didn’t say much. Styles was very unhappy because the delay in the Kingdom caused him to miss one of his son’s wrestling matches. Rusev spoke some and mostly thanked Mark Carrano, WWE’s Senior Director of Talent Relations, for his work in quickly getting hotel rooms booked for everyone while they waited for a flight back to the United States. No one spoke about anything negatively, but there were some remarks about how at times during the debacle, the talents didn’t have access to Wi-Fi and were unable to contact their families.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that Sami Zayn had been having trouble with his shoulders in recent months. This is why he has been wrestling less and was put with WWE Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura as his mouthpiece.
There’s no word yet on when Zayn will return to regular in-ring action, but word now is that he’s OK and can wrestle, but the current role is what they have him doing. Zayn has worked some live events since being put with Nakamura, including losses to Buddy Murphy while WWE was in Australia last month, but he hasn’t wrestled regularly on TV since August, when he took losses on RAW to Samoa Joe and Cedric Alexander.
The O.C. (AJ Styles, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows) appeared last night on WWE NXT.
As seen below, The Undisputed Era (NXT Champion Adam Cole, NXT North American Champion Roderick Strong, NXT Tag Team Champions Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish) was attacked by The OC outside of the NXT Arena before tonight’s episode. The beatdown aired on the USA Network at 7:50pm ET tonight during Mauro Ranallo’s weekly preview.
They then came to the ring for a promo and were ultimately interrupted by Tommaso Ciampa.
Styles pointed out how Ciampa was outnumbered which prompted Keith Lee and Matt Riddle to come out in support of their brand and to setup a 3-on-3 match later on.
In the closing moments of the match … Ciampa looked to hit his finisher on the WWE United States Champion, but Finn Balor’s music hit causing a distraction. Balor then attacked Riddle on the entrance ramp and AJ Styles threw up a Too Sweet. Finn reciprocated with his finger guns.
Unfortunately, the celebration didn’t last long. Adam Cole interfered shortly after and stopped AJ from hitting the Styles Clash, causing the match to end in no contest. He also hit hit The Last Shot on Ciampa as well for good measure.
The NXT champ and Finn Balor stared each other down to end the show.
WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan will be appearing on ABC’s The Goldbergs tonight at 8pm ET. The Goldbergs executive producer Adam F. Goldberg was a huge fan of WWE growing up. As creator of the comedy series that bears his last name, Goldberg often inserts real-life moments of his youth into his show. In a press release sent to Wrestling Inc., Goldberg named attending WrestleMania IV as one of the greatest moments of his life when he was a kid.
“Growing up, I was the biggest wrestling fan,” recalled Goldberg. “One of the greatest moments of my life was attending WrestleMania IV in Atlantic City for my birthday when I was a kid. I went with my Dad and brother Barry and even though we had the worst seats in the house, we still had the time of our lives.”
In tonight’s episode, entitled Wrestlemania, Murray decides to buy WrestleMania tickets to spend time with Barry and Adam, but he buys fake tickets so they can’t get in.
“That was the day that turned my Dad into a wrestling fan, and his favorite was Hulk Hogan,” recalled Goldberg. “It was bittersweet to have Hulk guest star on the show and not have my Dad there to see it.”
Goldberg and his father bonded over that Wrestlemania experience.
“Because my Dad loved The Hulk, I chose The Ultimate Warrior as my favorite,” said Goldberg. “One of the greatest moments in making The Goldbergs was to discover that The Ultimate Warrior was a huge Goldbergs fan and shared it with his daughters before he passed away. I got to meet his family and talk about my experiences growing up with my own father watching wrestling and it was an amazing healing moment for all of us.”
Hogan is not the first WWE Superstar to appear in The Goldbergs. Bill Goldberg often appears in The Goldbergs as the school’s gym teacher, Nick Mellor.
“WrestleMania” was written by Erik Weiner with a story by Adam F. Goldberg and Erik Weiner, and directed by Lew Schneider. Adam F. Goldberg, Doug Robinson, Alex Barnow, Chris Bishop and Annette Davis are executive producers. “The Goldbergs” is produced by Happy Madison, Doug Robinson Productions and Adam F. Goldberg Productions, in association with Sony Pictures Television.
Tonight’s WWE NXT episode will air live from the NXT Arena at Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL as the build to “Takeover: WarGames 2019” and Survivor Series continues.
WWE has not confirmed any RAW or SmackDown Superstars for tonight’s show, but it’s rumored that some will appear to continue the Survivor Series build.
According to PWInsider, Jeff Hardy is scheduled for a court appearance in Moore County Court in North Carolina this Thursday. He will be facing charges of Driving While Impaired.
As noted in October, Jeff Hardy was arrested in Moore County, North Carolina. Last summer Hardy was also arrested for public intoxication and impairment in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Hardy is currently out of action for WWE. He is recovering from knee surgery and will be out of action for 6-9 months.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Last night on WWE Backstage it was revealed that Randy Orton has signed a new multi-year WWE contract.
Back in 2010, it was reported Orton signed a ten-year deal with WWE.
Late last month Orton was posting photos with “Elite” in them, teasing a possible move to AEW with his contract expiring soon, obviously that is no longer the case.
Orton also commented on Twitter and noted the deal is “at least 5 more years.”
Triple H also commented on Orton re-signing.
“I’m glad to put the rumors to rest,” Triple H stated. “For almost two decades, Randy Orton has been a cornerstone of WWE…and Randy Orton will remain a cornerstone of WWE for a long time!”
