Category: WWE

Alberto El Patron – Paige Incident Police Case Report Released

Image result for Paige, Alberto El Patron airport incident

Alberto El Patron’s attorney, Keith McMahon, released the police case report for the altercation between Alberto El Patron and Paige at the Orlando airport earlier this month. The report lists Alberto as the victim and the weapon being “Hands/Fist/Feet.”

“This last month was marked false reports by ‘untrained reporters’ not doing their due diligence,” McMahon wrote. “Now the official report stating what actually happened.

“I would like to thank everyone that supported my clients never read into false reports posted on the internet by reporters trying to earn a buck by defaming and hurting my clients and their families, including Alberto’s 3 innocent children. As you can see there was no alcohol or drugs and no arrests. NO physical harm to one another, just an argument between a couple that others exploited. Thank you to everyone who believed in them. God bless you all.”

As noted, the Florida state attorney’s office is still determining whether to charge Paige with battery. I asked Dutch Mantel confirmed to WrestlingINC’s Raj Giri  that El Patron is still suspended pending the conclusion of their own internal investigation.

Source: WrestlingINC

Backstage News On WWE Doing Another Superstar Shakeup, Superstars Getting Sent Back To WWE NXT?

There has been talk of doing another Superstar Shakeup after next month’s WWE SummerSlam pay-per-view, according to new reports by PWInsider and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. WWE previously held a roster Shakeup in April after WrestleMania 33.

While it might seem early for another Shakeup, The Observer notes that there is definitely talk of making a few roster moves in the fall. There has also been talk of sending one or more Superstars from the main roster to WWE NXT. The moves from the main roster to NXT would be for talents that were major stars in NXT that Vince McMahon simply is not going to push on RAW or SmackDown, even if they are over, or talents who are doing nothing on the main roster with the feeling that they could be more useful as top stars in NXT.

Source: WrestlingINC

ESPN Officially Announces Ric Flair ’30 For 30′ Premiere Date

Image result for Ric Flair ESPN 30 for 30

ESPN announced today at the Television Critics Association Press Tour (TCA) that its 30 for 30 documentary “Nature Boy,” on wrestling legend Ric Flair, will premiere on Tuesday, November 7th, at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN.

ESPN Films’ Ric Flair 30 for 30 “Nature Boy” Premieres November 7ESPN Films announced today at the Television Critics Association Press Tour (TCA) that its 30 for 30 documentary “Nature Boy,” on wrestling legend Ric Flair, will premiere on Tuesday, Nov. 7, at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN. Director Rory Karpf (“I Hate Christian Laettner,” “The Book of Manning”) will take an inside look at Flair’s story, including his triumphs, his tragedies, and his pivotal role in turning pro wrestling into mainstream sports entertainment.

Real or Fake? It’s a question that’s long shadowed professional wrestling. But for one of the industry’s most legendary performers, there’s never been any separation between the ring and the world around it. His story starts in the Midwest, when a young Richard Fliehr set his sights on rising to stardom in a unique world, and decided to do anything necessary to get to where he wanted. A character was born, along with a singular desire “to be the man,” and a drive that made him as popular and polarizing as any figure ever to step into the ring. The success took a considerable toll – on his body, and on his wives and children – and in 2013 came a tragic postscript. But today, Flair remains as defiant as ever, proud of his legacy, eager to remain in the spotlight. This is the story of a man, a character, and their unbreakable connection.

“This film was basically borne out of working with Rory Karpf on our ‘I Hate Christian Laettner’ documentary,” says 30 for 30 Executive Producer John Dahl. “Rory interviewed Ric for his take on sports villains and wanted to do a film on him next. After watching that interview for the Laettner film, we were convinced that Ric would be a fascinating subject to explore for our first feature-length 30 for 30 on a pro wrestler.”

“Nature Boy” features two in-depth conversations between Karpf and Flair over a 16-month span, surrounded by interviews with those closest to the man himself; including Triple H, Hulk Hogan, Ricky Steamboat, Baby Doll, Tully Blanchard, The Undertaker, Arn Anderson, Shawn Michaels, Sting and Road Warrior Animal as well as his first wife, Leslie Jacobs, and children along with others who know Flair best.

“I grew up a huge wrestling fan in the 1980s and I was captivated by Ric Flair,” says director Rory Karpf. “It’s been a personally rewarding experience to tell the story of arguably the greatest wrestler of all time. Ric’s story transcends the wrestling business, and my hope is that it will appeal to wrestling and non-wrestling fans alike.”

WWE On Renee Young Working Both Shows

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Renee Young revealed on Instagram earlier this week that she will now be working both RAW and SmackDown each week now that Talking Smack has been nixed as a weekly series. WWE confirmed the change for Renee and posted the following:

Renee Young to appear on both Raw and SmackDown LIVE moving forward

No, your eyes and ears weren’t deceiving you: Longtime SmackDown LIVE interviewer Renee Young appeared on Raw this week and continued her duties on Team Blue. And she will be a fixture on both brands for the foreseeable future, WWE.com can confirm.

The intrepid Young embraced pulling double-duty this week, excitedly posting on Instagram that she was thrilled to reform her “dream team” with Raw’s Charly Caruso.

Join WWE.com in congratulating Renee on this exciting new chapter in her career.

Steve Austin Frustrated With How WWE Is Booking Shinsuke Nakamura, Has Advice For Braun Strowman

Recently on The Steve Austin Show, pro wrestling great Steve Austin chatted with his long time friend and colleague, Jim Ross. Among other things, the pair discussed potential WrestleMania matches and SmackDown Live’s Shinsuke Nakamura’s ongoing slump.

During the podcast, Austin and Ross shared their thoughts on RAW’s Samoa Joe. Austin called Joe “one of the best workers in the world” and Ross suggested that he would have saved a match between current WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar and Samoa Joe for WrestleMania.

“If I was booking WWE or if I had influence on the booking of WWE, or whatever, my WrestleMania main event would be Joe and Brock and I would build it and by the time we got there, people would be going crazy to see it.”

Ross continued, “for a guy like me at my stage of life, that’s the fountain of youth because that’s back to old school, two tough, legit tough son-of-a-b—–s that aren’t out there playing a role of a pro wrestler, locking up like two invalids. Locking up like two men, like two athletes of any gender.”

Additionally, Ross claimed he most interested in seeing RAW’s Braun Strowman face off against Lesnar.

“I know that somewhere down the road it’s Strowman and Lesnar. That’s foolproof, right? And I’d probably save that till WrestleMania. I know at one point, they talked about doing it at SummerSlam.” Ross reflected, “I’m curious as tow what they would get out of that match, and how athletic the big boy would be, and how Brock would be. There’s a two-way street here.”

While Austin also spoke favorably of Strowman, saying ‘The Monster Among Men’ has a lot of potential, but cautioned him not to be too athletic in the ring.

“I don’t want Braun to be too athletic and start doing stuff that is out of his wheelhouse. No, no, no, I mean stick with the ground game! Don’t need to jump off s–t!”

Aside from fantasy booking Joe versus Lesnar for WrestleMania, Ross indicated that he would like to see a blue brand battle between Nakamura and AJ Styles at WrestleMania.

“I think Shinsuke Nakamura, we haven’t seen his best yet and I think AJ Styles may be as good of a worker as I’ve seen in years. He may be the best worker in the world right now.” Ross recalled, “you felt something in the crowd at [WWE Money In The Bank] with Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ. The fans that’ve followed their career know they’ve got a great history. And they’ve, I’ve seen it, had one of the best matches I’ve ever seen with Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ. We haven’t seen that yet in Shinsuke, but that WrestleMania match would be a great wrestling match.”

Austin agreed, stating that Styles may be the best worker in the world and could bring out the best of Nakamura.

“I know that Styles is going to bring the best out of Shinsuke because I don’t think, from what I’ve seen, we’ve seen Shinsuke’s best in [WWE].” Austin added, “I’m sure he will get the best of of that guy. I’m sure they’re great friends from way back or whatever the deal is. But from what I know of AJ, if Shinsuke’s going to really work his ass off, it’s going to be with Styles.”

Austin expressed his disappointment about WWE not getting the most out of Nakamura, saying Nakamura’s work in Japan is better than his WWE work. Austin went on to say that WWE is booking Nakamura like “another Joe Blow”.

“You bring him over and he’s going 30-minute broadways with half the damn roster. Debuted down there in WrestleMania 32, NXT, with Sami Zayn, hell of a match. Hell of a match! A lot of credit to Sami Zayn and Shinsuke, but here’s ‘The King Of Strong Style’ and all-of-a-sudden, he comes in and he’s working Dolph [Ziggler] and it took him a long time to finish off Dolph for ‘The King Of Strong Style’. Do you understand where I’m going with this gimmick? That’s booking though. What is the plan? You’ve got this guy who’s one of those talents that just don’t come around every single day. He’s special. He comes in and you treat him like he’s another Joe Blow.”

Ross reminded Austin that ‘The Ringmaster’ became ‘Stone Cold’, but conceded that Nakamura, the natural heel, is in “a little bit more than “‘Ringmaster mode’, but not quite there yet” as a finished product and more aggression is needed from the former NXT Champion.

“I’ll tell [Austin] this: there was a guy called ‘The Ringmaster’ who came in that nobody thought was going to be special. Even though [Austin] had [Ted] DiBiase and all that stuff, Teddy was uncomfortable in that role and it wasn’t a natural fit, and he’ll tell you, and [Austin] sure as hell wasn’t a ringmaster, but the thing about it was [Austin] broke loose and created a different image and ‘The Ringmaster’ went away.” Ross added, “and it seems like [Nakamura]’s just a smidge under, for me, the desired aggression than I’ve seen him execute before.”

Ross purported that behind-the-scenes factors could be making Nakamura’s transition to WWE difficult. ‘Good Ol’ J.R.’ also floated the idea that ‘The Rockstar’ might be holding back in the WWE ring.

“Getting acclimated. There [are] a lot of issues there that we take for granted, that we don’t even want to take into consideration. Moving, living in Orlando [Florida] as opposed to living in for his entire life in Japan, his promotion – he was a fixture. He’d be like [Austin] leaving WWE and going to work for them, New Japan back when you were hot.” Ross said, “I wonder if he doesn’t think that him kicking as aggressively in WWE would be tolerated based on how hard he kicked in, I saw him kick in New Japan. Different feel, different style, different expectation, I don’t know. I’m not saying the talents are tougher, nothing [like that], but maybe there [are] different expectation level, but there’s something missing, something a little bit missing, in what he does, but I am encouraged to know there is greatness there. The right person, the right situation, the right angle.”

Click here to check out the show.

Source: The Steve Austin Show via WrestlingINC

Brock Lesnar Comments On Rumored UFC Return Opponent

As noted earlier, Dave Meltzer noted on The LAW that there is definitely something to the rumors of current WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar possibly returning to UFC later this year to fight. Meltzer noted that UFC officials are looking at the December pay-per-view for Lesnar’s return, which would be several months before his WWE contract expires after WrestleMania 34 in April 2018. Meltzer noted that UFC is having a bad year and is looking for Lesnar and Ronda Rousey to return, plus another fight from Conor McGregor this year. Meltzer said on The LAW, “They’ve got a budget and this year has been terrible. They want some drawing power for the end of the year.”

Meltzer noted that he’s been told UFC wants Lesnar to go up against Jon Jones but that would depend on what happens this coming weekend at UFC 214. Jones is scheduled to face Lesnar friend Daniel Cormier for the UFC Light Heavyweight Title. Meltzer speculated on UFC grooming Jones to be a big superstar and the feeling is that there could be a major coronation if the 30 year old beats Lesnar.

Jones did a Facebook Live Q&A on Tuesday and was asked about possibly moving up to heavyweight to fight Lesnar. He said:

“I would love to fight Brock Lesnar. He’s a massive dude. I mean, it would be a massive draw. Really big for the sport. It’d be a great challenge. That’s a big ol’ boy. I doubt Brock Lesnar would take that fight, though. I definitely wouldn’t try to wrestle with him the whole time. I would … you know what, I wouldn’t tell you what I would do.”

The Associated Press contacted Lesnar later in the day for a response to Jones’ comments and The Beast had the following to say:

“Would I fight Jon Jones? Anytime, anywhere. Right now he should be worried about D.C. on Saturday night.”

Media outlets are reporting that a Jones vs. Lesnar superfight, which would bring a big payday for both fighters, couldn’t happen until after April 2018 due to Lesnar’s contract status with WWE but Meltzer speculated that Vince McMahon will allow Lesnar to fight again as they made the deal for him to fight at UFC 200 and both sides came out alright, for the most part at least. Due to the UFC 200 failures, WWE was forced to admit that they do not test Lesnar under the Wellness Policy because he is a part-time Superstar. WWE does hold the exclusive rights to Lesnar’s services while he is under contract.

There have been conflicting reports on if Lesnar has been re-added to the USADA testing pool but he must be in the pool in the next few weeks if they want him to be eligible for a December fight because he has 5 more months of his suspension related to the UFC 200 drug test failures, which was frozen when he announced his retirement from fighting last year.

Source: WrestlingINC

Backstage News On Brock Lesnar Returning To UFC To Face Major Star This Year

Pro wrestling and MMA journalist Dave Meltzer was recently a guest on The LAW to discuss rumors of Brock Lesnar returning to fight for the UFC.

“There’s definitely fire to the smoke,” Meltzer said.

Despite reports that Lesnar may be entering the USADA testing pool to fight when his WWEcontract expires in April, Meltzer reports that the UFC is reportedly targeting a Lesnar return fight for a late December pay-per-view. However, Lesnar must be in the USADA testing pool in the next couple of weeks to be eligible to fight as he has five more months of his suspension that was frozen when he retired from fighting.

“Well, UFC wants [a Lesnar fight] because UFC’s having a bad year,” said Meltzer. “I’d heard a couple weeks ago they wanted Ronda Rousey back and they want Brock Lesnar, they want another Conor McGregor fight this year. They’ve got a budget and this year has been terrible. They want some drawing power for the end of the year.”

When asked if WWE, who hold the exclusive rights to Lesnar’s services, would allow for him to fight again, Meltzer explained Vince McMahon dodged a bullet the last time they let him do it and came out alright. Because they made a deal for Lesnar to fight at UFC 200 while under WWE contract, Meltzer said he guesses they feel like they can do it again.

WWE did not come out of UFC 200 in a positive light as Brock Lesnar was hit with a USADA anti-doping violation after testing positive for the banned estrogen blocker clomiphene in an out-of-competition test and in-competition test. As a result, he was suspended for one year. When he retired, his suspension was frozen. Lesnar’s victory over Hunt was overturned to a no contest. WWE had to admit they do not test Lesnar under their Wellness Policy because he’s a part-time superstar.

As for Lesnar’s potential UFC opponent, Meltzer noted it depends on what happens Saturday at UFC 214, but a name has been mentioned.

“Their idea is Jon Jones,” said Meltzer “That’s the name I was told.”

Jones will face Daniel Cormier for the UFC light heavyweight championship at UFC 214 on Saturday. Meltzer believes UFC is grooming Jones, who pulled out of the main event of UFC 200 due to an anti-doping violation, to become a superstar. He’s 30-years-old and the feeling is it would be a major coronation if he could beat Brock Lesnar.

Lesnar remains under WWE contract through April 2018.

Source: WrestlingINC

Chris Jericho Returned To WWE SmackDown Live (Video)

Image result for AJ Styles and a returning Chris Jericho confront Kevin Owens: SmackDown LIVE, July 25, 2017

Chris Jericho made his return to WWE TV on last night’s SmackDown Live from Richmond, Virginia and interrupted a segment with AJ Styles and new WWE United States Champion Kevin Owens.

Jericho made it known that he came back for his United States Title rematch before adding Styles to The List for arguing about who was due a rematch first. SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon then booked a Triple Threat with the title on the line for last night’s SmackDown Live main event. Styles pinned Jericho to regain the United States Championship.

Jericho was written off TV back in early May so he could tour with his band Fozzy. Jericho lost the US Title to Owens before taking the time off but Owens dropped the title to AJ at the Madison Square Garden live event a few weeks back. Owens took the title back at Sunday’s Battleground pay-per-view.

Source: WrestlingINC

WWE 205 Live Preview 7/25/17

Tonight’s WWE 205 Live episodes will take place from The Coliseum in Richmond, VA.

* Rich Swann & Cedric Alexander vs. TJP & Tony Nese

* Ariya Daivari vs. WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville