Category: WWE

Vince McMahon Sells $100 Million Of WWE Stock To Fund Alpha Entertainment, New XFL Trademarks Filed

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As we previously reported, Vince McMahon is apparently once again interested in getting into the football business. The news, which was originally broken by freelance writer Brad Shepard, was reported by Deadspin after they reached out to WWE regarding the possible relaunch of the XFL. The response from WWE is that Vince McMahon has started a company separate from WWE, called Alpha Entertainment, and is geared to “explore investment opportunities across the sports and entertainment landscapes, including professional football.” In conjunction with the trademark filing in June, the WWE spokesperson did not confirm or deny the possible resurrection.

Today Vince McMahon sold 3.34 million shares of WWE to fund his Alpha Entertainment, LLC. Here is the full SEC form detailing the sale, which will net McMahon around $100 million:

“On December 21, 2017, Vincent K. McMahon (“Mr. McMahon”), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (the “Company”), sold 3,340,000 shares of the Company’s Class A common stock in a block trade made in accordance with the provisions of Rule 144 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Mr. McMahon executed the sale primarily to fund a separate entity from the Company, Alpha Entertainment LLC, which Mr. McMahon established to explore investment opportunities across the sports and entertainment landscapes, including professional football. Mr. McMahon has informed the Company that he has no current plan to sell additional shares of the Company’s stock and that he intends to continue in his capacity as the Company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for the foreseeable future.The shares sold by Mr. McMahon represent approximately 4.3% of the Company’s total outstanding shares of Class A and Class B common stock. After the sale, Mr. McMahon beneficially owns 32,193,375 shares of the Company’s Class B common stock, which represents approximately 82.8% of the Company’s total voting power and approximately 41.8% of the Company’s total outstanding shares of common stock.”

ESPN Sports Business Reporter, Darren Rovell, also noted that Alpha Entertainment filed for five trademarks to “XFL” on December 16 with it showing up in the trademark office filing today. This is in addition to McMahon recently filing additional football trademarks, which included “URFL”, “United Football League”, “UFL”, and “For the love of football.” As noted, WWE filed for XFL trademarks back in June with the foreign filing deadline expiring on December 28.

While the initial hype of the XFL generated a strong audience, die-hard fans of the NFL began to heavily criticize the league, and numbers started to reflect the dissatisfaction. As a result, the XFL lasted only one season in 2001, with it resurfacing earlier this year on the ESPN 30 for 30 This Was the XFL documentary.

Source: WrestlingINC

WWE Announces First Hour Of Christmas Day Raw & Tuesday’s SmackDown Live Will Air Commercial-Free

Image result for Merry Christmas from USA Network and WWE: Commercial-free first hour of Raw and SmackDown LIVE announced

WWE announced that the first hour of RAW on Christmas and SmackDown live on Tuesday Dec. 26th will both air commercial-free.

WWE issued the following:

Celebrate the holidays with WWE as USA Network airs the first hour of both Monday Night Raw and SmackDown LIVE commercial-free this Monday, Dec. 25, at 8/7 C and Tuesday, Dec. 26, at 8/7 C. This also marks the first time that USA Network will air Raw live on Christmas.

Raw and SmackDown LIVE are the No. 1 and No. 2 longest-running weekly episodic programs in U.S. primetime TV history and two of the most-watched, regularly scheduled programs on cable, airing live every Monday and Tuesday night on USA.

Averaging more viewers than any cable network in primetime, WWE programming is among the most socially active shows on TV, trending on Twitter 52 weeks per year. Raw and SmackDown LIVE have aired more original episodes than some of the most popular television series of all time, including The Simpsons, Gunsmoke, Lassie and Monday Night Football.

The 25th anniversary of Raw will emanate from Barclays Center and Manhattan Center in New York City on Monday, Jan. 22, 2018, and will air live on USA Network at 8/7 C. WWE Superstars from both Monday Night Raw and SmackDown LIVE will be at Barclays Center, while the event at Manhattan Center, the site of the first episode of Raw in 1993, will feature WWE Superstars from both brands competing and special appearances by WWE Legends Undertaker, Shawn Michaels and Kevin Nash, amongst others.

 

Randy Orton To Work Lighter WWE Schedule In 2018

Randy Orton will be working a lighter schedule for WWE in 2018, at least during the first part of the year, as he is advertised for just a handful of events in January but no shows between February 6th and April 9th. He is expected to be at WrestleMania 34 on April 8th but he is not advertised for the annual WrestleMania Revenge tour of Europe in May. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that people close to Orton note that he is really happy with his life right now because WWE gives him a lot of time off, compared to other Superstars, but he’s still kept near the top of the card and is still making several million dollars per year.

Source: WrestlingINC

Batista Reportedly Considering Another Full Time WWE Run

Batista

According to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Batista (Dave Bautista) is considering another run with WWE (6-months to a year) at the age of 49. While it’s not something he needs to do, word is that this is something he wants to do. He’s doing well in Hollywood but the problem is if he signs with WWE, they own your contract and if something comes along in Hollywood, the company wanting him will have to negotiate with WWE which may be a turn off for them and cost Batista roles. Batista reportedly doesn’t want to work a limited or special attraction schedule, and is actually looking at a more of a full-time schedule. In the past he raved about how he loved working live events over TV.

Source: 411Mania

Big Names Advertised For WWE RAW 25th Anniversary

For the Raw 25th Anniversary show, WWE is now advertising John Cena and WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar. The show will take place at both the Barlays Center in Brooklyn, NY and the Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom. Also expected to appear are Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, and Kevin Nash.

Source: WrestlingINC

Dean Ambrose Underwent Successful Surgery

Image result for Dean Ambrose injury

WWE announced the following update on Dean Ambrose yesterday. As noted, Ambrose went into Monday’s RAW with a right arm injury and the beatdown angle was done with Samoa Joe and RAW Tag Team Champions The Bar (Sheamus & Cesaro)to cover the injury. Ambrose underwent surgery on Tuesday night, but there’s no word yet on when he will be back in the ring.

Dean Ambrose undergoes successful surgery

Dean Ambrose underwent successful surgery Tuesday night to repair a high-grade triceps tendon injury, WWE.com can confirm.

The procedure was performed by Dr. Jeffrey Dugas in Birmingham, Ala., and took around 40 minutes.

“He tore some of the distal triceps tendon where it attaches to the forearm bone, called the olecranon,” Dr. Dugas told WWE.com. “He basically tore about 50 percent of the triceps tendon away from the bone. So yesterday we repaired that back down to the bone where it tore off of. The surgery was very straightforward; we removed all of the extra bursal tissue — all of that extra swollen stuff around his elbow.”

Dugas added that Ambrose has begun physical therapy, starting with light range-of-motion exercises, and is expecting to leave Birmingham later today.

It is unknown at this time how long Ambrose will be out of action.

Jim Ross Returning To AXS TV In 2018 For NJPW

axs tv jim ross jr njpw announcing commentary

AXS TV announced that Jim Ross will continue calling the action for NJPW programming in 2018, despite also being under contract with WWE.

The announcement was made via press release and it notes that he and Josh Barnett will kick off the new year doing commentary for the Wrestle Kingdom 12 special on January 6.

Good Ole JR was quoted saying, “I’m excited to be returning to AXS TV and with my partner Josh Barnett we look forward to another exciting year with AXS TV and their NJPW programming. NJPW has some of the finest athletes in the world performing for them and it’s an honor to be able to add a narrative to their bouts.”

JR reportedly signed a two-year deal with WWE for a “specific number of dates” when he returned for WrestleMania this year. He also did commentary for the Mae Young Classic.

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

We previously reported two weeks ago that JR verbally agreed to a contract extension with AXS TV.

Female Wrestlers Left In The Dark Prior To Royal Rumble Announcement

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Pro Wrestling Sheet has learned WWE‘s plan for the upcoming women’s Royal Rumble was kept so tightly under wraps that even the competitors were left in the dark.

Multiple sources The Sheet that the women in the match were NOT given a heads up as to what Stephanie McMahon would be announcing on Raw, so their reactions afterward were genuine.

Only a handful of people were in the know and most on the production team were kayfabed up until the announcement went down, which was obviously done to keep the news from leaking.

Watch the video below to see Editor-in-Chief Ryan Satin list the surprise appearances he’d like to happen in the upcoming women’s Rumble.

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

NXT Preview 12/20/17

* NXT Tag Team Championship: (C) SAnitY vs. Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly

* WWE UK Championship: (C) Pete Dunne vs. Tyler Bate

* Fatal 4-Way No. 1 Contender’s Match: Roderick Strong vs. Lars Sullivan

More On Ronda Rousey – Women’s Royal Rumble Rumors,

Image result for Ronda Rousey WWE

It should be noted that Rousey is currently filming the movie Mile 22 with Mark Wahlberg in Atlanta, and filming is scheduled to run into February, after the Rumble. That is currently the only movie on her schedule, so she is free after that. It is possible that she might still appear in the women’s Rumble match, but as we’ve seen with The Rock, producers aren’t too keen on their stars wrestling when they have projects.

Dave Meltzer did state on Wrestling Observer Radio that there are women who are scheduled to be in the match that believe that Rousey will be a part of it.

Source: WrestlingINC