Category: WWE

WWE Contacting Older Stars, Several Names Revealed

Source: WrestlingINC

F4WOnline noted, with the brand split coming up next month, WWE has apparently been contacting former stars about returning to the company. Dave Meltzer recently stated on Twitter last night that the company has ironically been “calling lots of 40+ year old guys to return for the new era.”

Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio last night that Carlito, MVP and Stevie Richards have all been contacted about returning. He didn’t want to mention any other names, but did say that “everyone that’s available is getting at least inquiries.”

One wrestler that was contacted said that they are making more money now working indys than they did working for WWE full time.

WWE Money In The Bank 6/19/16 Card

WWE World Heavyweight Championship: (C) Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins

AJ Styles vs. John Cena

MONEY IN THE BANK LADDER MATCH: Sami Zayn vs. Cesaro vs. Chris Jericho vs. Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens vs. Alberto Del Rio

WWE TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP – Fatal 4-Way Match: (C) The New Day vs. The Club (Gallows & Anderson) vs. Enzo Amore & Big Cass vs. The Vaudevillains

WWE UNITED STATES CHAMPIONSHIP: (C) Rusev w/Lana vs. Titus O’Neil

Natalya & Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte & Dana Brooke

Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin

Apollo Crews vs. Sheamus

(Kickoff) The Golden Truth vs. Breezango

(Kickoff) The Dudley Boyz vs. Lucha Dragons

Nikki Bella Getting Help From Daniel Bryan With New Finisher

Nikki Bella recently revealed that she will be retiring her “Rack Attack” finisher and get a new one. She stated on Twitter that Daniel Bryan has been helping her with it:

Jerry “The King” Lawler Arrested, Suspended By WWE

WWE announced the following:

Jerry Lawler arrested, suspended

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Jerry Lawler was arrested at his home Friday morning by the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office in Memphis, Tenn.

According to a police report, Lawler and his girlfriend, Lauryn McBride, were taken into custody and booked on alleged charges of domestic assault—bodily harm, a misdemeanor.

WWE has zero tolerance for matters involving domestic violence, and per our policy, Jerry Lawler has been suspended indefinitely following his arrest.

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

Jerry Lawler & Fiance Mugshot

WWE announcer Jerry Lawler and his fiance Lauryn McBride were arrested on domestic assault charges this morning … and Lawler has been suspended indefinitely.

According to WREG.com, cops were called to the couple’s Memphis home Friday and were unable to determine which party was the aggressor.

McBride claimed that Lawler shoved and hit her in the head before going upstairs to get a handgun. She alleges he then put the weapon on the counter and said, “Go ahead and kill yourself.” Lawler claims that McBride was drunk and attacked him first, scratching and kicking him before throwing a candle at him. He also says that she got the gun from the garage and placed it on the counter.

WWE issued a statement saying, “WWE has zero tolerance for matters involving domestic violence, and per our policy, Jerry Lawler has been suspended indefinitely following his arrest.”

The King already gave an interview to wmcactionnews5.com from jail and said, “It’s just an unfortunate situation. Nobody was hit and nobody was hurt. It’s just something that happened as a result of drinking too much.”

Listen to his entire explanation below.

http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/CLIP/12533718/2016/06/17/EXCLUSIVE-JERRY-LAWLERS-JAILHOUSE-PHONE-CALL?AUTOSTART=TRUE

WMC Action News 5 interviewed WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler, who was arrested this morning with fiancee Lauryn McBride on domestic violence charges in Memphis. The interview was conducted while Lawler was in jail.

Lawler, 66, said that he had returned home from a wrestling event which was “ironically [titled] A Night At The Slammer.” He said that his fiancee McBride, 27, returned home a little later intoxicated from a friend’s house after watching Game 6 of the NBA Finals.

“We got into a little bit of a shouting match and then she wanted to leave,” Lawler said. “I was not going to let her leave in the car, because she was just not in any condition to drive. She got more and more upset, she called 9-1-1 and scratched my face in the process. The police came in and said that this was a domestic dispute and that they were ‘going to have to take both of you guys downtown’.

“It’s just an unfortunate situation. Nobody was hit and nobody was hurt. It’s just something that happened as a result of drinking too much,” Lawler said.

Lawler denied reports that he hit McBride in the head and pushed her against the stove. Lawler confirmed that he had an unloaded gun and McBride was threatening to kill herself. He said that she got the gun and threw it to him. He said that he might have put the gun on the counter, but he didn’t tell her to kill herself.

He said that he only has issues with McBride when she drinks, and said that she had an incident last week while she was intoxicated at the CMA Awards and got into a fist fight with her aunt.

“It’s an unfortunate situation as a result of somebody drinking too much. I’m saddened by it and hope we can get past this,” Lawler said.

SmackDown Preview: 6/16/16

Source: WWE.com

Chris Jericho’s Highlight Reel with guest Dean Ambrose

Dean Ambrose, Sami Zayn & Cesaro vs. Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens & Alberto Del Rio

Fatal 4-Way Match: Kofi Kingston vs. Big Cass vs. Luke Gallows vs. Aiden English

Charlotte vs. Natalya

Rusev vs. Kalisto

 

Updates On Finn Balor Coming To WWE’s Main Roster, Big Returns, Money In The Bank

Source: WrestlingINC

Sunday’s WWE Money In the Bank pay-per-view could end up being one of the most newsworthy pay-per-views of the year. WWE has been pushing the show as the biggest MITB show of all-time with two WrestleMania caliber main events – Seth Rollins vs. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns and John Cena vs. AJ Styles.

Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that there is once again internal talk about Finn Balor being called up. It’s possible his call-up is held off for the WWE Draft in July, but his debut is said to be imminent. There’s also plans in the works for The Wyatt Family, Neville and Randy Orton to return in the next few weeks. No word yet on if any of those returns will come on Sunday but The Wyatts have been rumored.

Ticket sales picked up in the past week and the company is expecting to sellout the 13,000 seat configuration at the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Subscribe to The Wrestling Observer by clicking here. Each issue has coverage and analysis of all the major news, plus history pieces. New subscribers can also receive free classic issues.

WWE Announces First-Ever Signing Of Chinese Wrestler, New Partnership & Live Event In China

WWE issued the following:

WWE® and PPTV Announce Exclusive Multi-Year Partnership in China

WWE Live Event Returns to Shanghai in September; WWE Signs First-Ever Chinese Talent to Developmental Contract

WWE ushered in a new era in China today, announcing an exclusive multi-year content distribution agreement with PPTV; the return of a WWE live event to Shanghai on Saturday, September 10, 2016 at 7 pm; and Bin Wang as the first-ever Chinese talent signed to a developmental contract. The historic announcements were made today at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai by WWE Chief Revenue & Marketing Officer Michelle D. Wilson, WWE Superstar John Cena®, WWE Vice President & General Manager of Greater China Jay Li, WWE Executive Vice President, Talent, Live Events & Creative Paul “Triple H®” Levesque, Vice President of PPTV, General Manager of PPTV Sports Stephen Zhang and CEO of Shanghai Expo Development Ltd. Ding Hao.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here.

“Today’s historic announcements further demonstrate WWE’s long-term commitment to China,” said WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon. “Partnerships with PPTV and Expo Group, as well as the signing of Bin Wang, will enable us to engage our fans in China like never before.”

PPTV

As part of WWE’s commitment to its fans in China, the company announced an exclusive multi-year agreement with PPTV to deliver its flagship shows Raw® and SmackDown® in Mandarin.

Starting June 28, for the first time ever, fans in China will be able to stream all three hours of Raw and two hours of SmackDown on demand exclusively on PPTV and PPTV Sports. Fans can download the PPTV App and watch Raw and SmackDown on Smart TV’s, set-top boxes, mobile devices and tablets, as well as on PPTV.com and Sports.PPTV.com. In addition, WWE short-form content will be available on PPTV’s digital platforms and PPTV will leverage popular digital and social platforms, including WeChat and Sina Weibo, to share WWE content with fans throughout China. PPTV will also launch and manage a new WWE website in China.

“There’s a long history between PPTV Sports and WWE in programming distribution. Now with the new exclusive partnership, these joint efforts will bring passion and family-friendly fun of WWE programing to millions of fans here in China just like in the U.S.,” said Stephen Zhang, General Manager of PPTV Sports.

WWE LIVE EVENT

WWE returns to China with its first live event in more than three years with WWE Live 2016 China on Saturday, September 10 at 7 pm at the Mercedes-Benz Arena. Tickets for WWE Live 2016 China will go on sale this Saturday, June 18 at 12 pm and can be purchased online at gewara.com and wesai.com, or by calling the Gewara ticket hotline at 1010 1068. WWE Superstars scheduled to appear include current WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns, current WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte and WWE Superstars John Cena, Seth Rollins and Sasha Banks.

“WWE’s China debut rocked Shanghai Expo in 2010, and now we are excited that deafening cheers from WWE fans will be heard again in 2016 at the Mercedes-Benz Arena,” said Ding Hao, CEO of Expo Group.

BIN WANG

WWE made history today by signing Bin Wang to a developmental contract, giving him the opportunity to train to become the first-ever Chinese Superstar in WWE history. At 6-foot-3, 220 pounds, the 22-year-old from Anhui has been training for the past two years in Japan at Inoki Genome Federation (IGF), a wrestling and MMA promotion founded by WWE Hall of Famer Antonio Inoki.

Wang will relocate to Orlando, Florida this Sunday, June 19, where he will begin training out of the state-of-the-art WWE Performance Center. With seven training rings, a world-class strength and conditioning program and cutting-edge edit and production facilities, the Performance Center will allow Wang to develop his skills through a comprehensive program that includes in-ring training, physical preparedness and character development.

“It is an honor to be the first-ever Chinese talent in WWE history,” said Bin Wang. “There are no fans in the world that show the same passion as the WWE Universe, and I look forward to training and developing my skills so I can perform for them in the future.”

Chris Warren, Singer Of D-Generation X Theme, Dead At 49

Source: WrestlingINC

Unfortunate news hits the wrestling world, as news has emerged that Chris Warren, the lead singer of the “DX Band” has died at age 49.

Few details are known at this time, but Warren passed away on Sunday. A funeral service will be held this weekend.

Warren contributed vocals to several WWE themes, including the iconic D-Generation X “Break it Down” song. Warren also was featured in X-Pac’s theme, as well as the intro do the late 1990’s edition of WWF Superstars. Triple H’s “My Time” was also performed by Warren.

Warren performed at WrestleMania 14, with a controversial rendition of America The Beautiful, in addition to playing Shawn Michaels to the ring for the main event. Warren would go on to lead the band Bro-Kin, and contribute several songs to TNA Wrestling events.

His obituary reads as follows:

Christopher P. Warren of Valley Cottage, NY, passed away suddenly on Sunday, June 12, 2016 at the age 49. Christopher was born in Huntington, Long Island, NY on May 27, 1967 to Christopher J. and Barbara Warren.He was employed by Local 638 NYC as a Steam Fitter for many years. Music was his passion. He was very artistic and was a singer for the band Bro-kin.

Christopher is survived by his mother, Barbara Spector, his three brothers, Steven (Lena) Spector, Andrew (Jill) Spector and Danny (Margit) Spector and his sister, Laura Spector. He is also survived by many nieces and nephews, aunts, uncles and cousins.

“Christopher was very well liked and will be greatly missed by all that knew him”.

He was predeceased by his father, Christopher J. Warren and step father, Paul Spector.

Visiting hours will be Friday, June 17 from 2 to 4 pm & 6 to 9 pm at the Joseph W. Sorce F.H. Inc.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:00 am on Saturday, June 18 in St. Ann’s Church, 16 Jefferson Ave., Nyack, NY. Burial will be in Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Hawthorne, NY.

Joseph W. Sorce F. H. Inc.

 

Triple H, Shawn Michaels & “X-Pac” Sean Waltman commented on Warren’s passing:

 

NXT Preview: 6/15/16

The following is set for tonight’s 6/15 WWE NXT:

Finn Balor speaks after losing at TakeOver

The Authors of Pain in action.

Carmella vs. Tessa Blanchard

TM-61 vs. Blake and Murphy

TakeOver Return Match: Andrade Cien Almas vs. Tye Dillinger

Appearance by Shinsuke Nakamura

More On WWE Possibly Holding More PPV Events

Source: WrestlingINC

We noted yesterday via a Prowrestling.net reader that WWE Hall of Famer Jerry Lawler told fans at a weekend convention that the company is planning on holding monthly pay-per-view events for RAW and SmackDown when the Brand Extension kicks off next month, with the exception of WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, SummerSlam and Survivor Series. In an update, PWInsider says that when the original Brand Extension announcement was made, there were people under the impression that the company would be doing more WWE Network specials and/or pay-per-view events to accommodate the roster changes.