Home Blog Page 2175

Jim Ross On Wrestling Gaining Mainstream Popularity, His Autobiography & More

Matt Boone
-
0

WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross recently spoke with Downtown Magazine NYC about a wide variety of topics. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.

On why he feels wrestling is becoming more mainstream despite a Hulk Hogan level star:

“The genre of pro wrestling – a.k.a. sports entertainment — is amazingly tenured and has been a TV staple for decades. So why wouldn’t mainstream media cover it as they do a litany of other entities? It’s a global product with millions of fans, so covering the business seems logical to me for the ESPN’s, FOX Sports’, etc. of the world. Plus, the decision-makers at many of the companies covering WWE grew up as fans, perhaps.”

On whether or not he had any investments besides his Bar-B-Q sauces during his WWE run, such as real estate or the stock market:

“We did not venture out too far with our portfolio, but have been doing organized financial planning for over twenty years with the same representative. I accumulated a great deal of WWE stock over my years there which has served us well. We had a failed restaurant concept that was derailed by the state highway department closing the exit to our location for an excruciatingly long period of time. That was the only set back that we’ve encountered financially, but it also made us some money while it was open. So we look at it as a unique experience, take the good we learned from it, and continue to move forward. Our next major move will be to continue to get our line of condiments into major grocery store chains including Ingles Markets in the Southeast, over 200 stores, that should be in place soon.”

On the status of his autobiography:

“The writing of my autobiography is certainly a process and we hope to have it finished by the holidays of 2016, but we aren’t going to compromise quality and accuracy to meet a commercial, self-imposed deadline.”

Spoiler Photos: Former TNA Star Returns At ROH TV Tapings On Friday Night

Matt Boone
-
3

https://youtu.be/r1xZkWXnF2Y

Former TNA, Ring Of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling star Alex Shelley made his ROH return at the promotion’s television tapings on Friday night in Nashville, Tennessee.

Shelley shot an angle during the taping with former Motor City Machine Gun partner Chris Sabin. Aside from an appearance at ROH’s “Final Battle 2014,” Shelley’s only appearance dating back to 2010 was at the Field Of Honor event this summer.

Below are photos of Alex Shelley’s return at the taping. For complete ROH TV taping results, click here.

https://twitter.com/MattJHenson/status/667957953304117248

*Spoilers* ROH “Road To Final Battle” TV Taping Results From Nashville

Matt Boone
-
2

Thanks to Gary Hernandez and WrestlingINC.com for the following Ring Of Honor “Road To Final Battle” television taping results from Friday evening in Nashville, Tennessee.

Taping One:

* Veda Scott defeated Heidi Lovelace in a dark match

* reDRagon defeated Beer City Bruiser and Silas Young

* Chris Sabin called out the masked KRD member, who turned out to be Alex Shelley

* Roderick Strong defeated Samson Walker. Bobby Fish was on commentary and got up to take the ROH TV Title and taunt Strong with it before they got into it

* The Young Bucks defeated The Briscoes. A big brawl with Kenny King and Rhett Titus happened after the match

Taping Two:

* Keith Lee and Shane Taylor defeated Dylan Bostic and Brutal Bob Evans in a dark match

* Adam Cole defeated Corey Hollis

* Dalton Castle defeated Mike Posey and got attacked by Silas Young after

* ROH World Champion Jay Lethal interrupted Kevin Kelly interviewing Jerry Lynn in the ring

* Matt Sydal and ACH defeated RPG Vice in the main event. Alex Shelley was on commentary

Taping Three:

* ODB defeated Taeler Hendrix in a dark match

* Caprice Coleman and Will Ferrara fought to a No Contest when they brought steel chairs into the mix

* Rhett Titus and Kenny King defeated Dijak and Ken Phoenix. Dijak beat Phoenix down after the match

* Kevin Kelly interviewed Steve Corino

* Mark Briscoe, Matt Jackson, Roderick Strong, Cedric Alexander and Moose defeated Jay Lethal, Jay Briscoe, Cliff Compton, Adam Page and Cheeseburger in a crazy main event

Money In The Bank 2016 Location, Vince Comments On Undertaker Week, SD! Viewership

Matt Boone
-
5

– Vince McMahon took to Twitter again on Friday to comment on the 25th anniversary of The Undertaker in WWE. The WWE Chairman tweeted the following:

– While the official announcement has yet to be made, WWE is planning to hold the 2016 Money In The Bank pay-per-view at the new Las Vegas Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. WWE is expected to finalize the deal next month. With the Money In The Bank scheduled for June, that would mean WWE will be running the new Las Vegas Arena before UFC takes their landmark UFC 200 event to the venue on July 2nd.

– The Thursday, November 19th Survivor Series “go-home” edition of WWE SmackDown averaged 2.229 million viewers, up slightly from last week’s show, which drew 2.294 million viewers.

Bret Hart Says WWE Isn’t The Same Without Punk & Bryan, Reid Flair Angle “Totally Wrong”

Staff
-
38

Bret Hart was recently interviewed by Justin Barrasso for the Sports Illustrated Extra Mustard blog. The Hitman said he doesn’t watch as much WWE since CM Punk and Daniel Bryan left the scene. It’s going to be tough for today’s top stars to match the interest that Punk and Bryan brought, even though he like guys like Dean Ambrose. As for Punk’s falling out with WWE, Bret makes it clear he’s on Punk’s side and doesn’t appreciate how he was denied the chance to main event WrestleMania.

“I’d have to take Punk’s side on it,” explained Hart. “Triple H is a bodybuilder nut. He goes after the bodies. He doesn’t care how good–and he can look in the mirror–guys work, he cares how guys look. Punk and Bryan are guys concerned with how they work. It’s a different philosophy. I admire Punk for taking his stand. He was the guy doing all the work, every week, going injured, and here’s a guy sitting at home–working three or four times a year–and you’re going to give him the main event at WrestleMania? I’m not buying it.”

As much as Vince has a track record of favoring muscular performers, Bret believes he also appreciates great in-ring technicians, while Triple H is still a body guy. He named Roman Reigns, Kevin Owens and Dean Ambrose as the “hardest working guys in the company.” No mention of Seth Rollins, but it was looking ahead to Sunday’s Survivor Series pay-per-view. Bret questioned the booking of Roman Reigns.

The 5-WWE Champion has a strong opinion about WWE using Reid Flair’s name during the Divas segment that closed RAW, expressing his sympathy for Ric Flair.

“How could they not see the slight there? That’s really insensitive to Ric and his family, and I totally sympathize with Ric. You didn’t see them doing that after Jerry Lawler lost his brother. Maybe someone just made a poor judgment call, but I was flabbergasted to see they did that to him. It was totally wrong.”

You can read the full interview at SI.com.

Hulk Hogan Sex Tape Police Report Analysis In Depth

David Bixenspan
-
5

Last night, I went over the key items in the report that the Tampa Police Department released released this week about the 2012 theft of DVDs from Bubba the Love Sponge Clem. These DVDs included videos of his former wife Heather Cole having sex with various men, some (like a police officer friend) who knew they were on camera and others (like Hulk Hogan) who didn’t. While there are still some unknowns, like who leaked one of the Hogan videos to Gawker and why nobody has been prosecuted, the report fills in a lot of details that weren’t public previously. I tried to outline those in last night’s article, and now, it’s time to examine them a little deeper.

So, how do you contextualize all of this?

To me, the most interesting part overall was the detailed summary of the December 14, 2012 FBI sting operation in which Hogan and lawyer David Houston pretended to go along with making a deal with sex tape broker Keith Davidson. Not only was it a detailed look at a strange, seedy backroom celebrity business deal, but Davidson made some telling comments. Specifically, the “issues” in the videos that he mentions are Hogan’s now-infamous N-word rant and Hogan saying his son Nick’s then-girlfriend’s twin sister had been coming onto him. The former has been out since July and the latter was known going back to Gawker’s October 2012 article.

I was able to confirm that, contrary to the baseless rumors about racist comments towards Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson being on one video,  there are no other comments deemed to be a threat to Hogan’s public persona. At least when it comes to the videos themselves, there’s not much more damage they could do to Hogan. He was lucky, relatively speaking, that only transcripts got out and not the audio. That the general public hasn’t heard the comments likely plays a factor in why:

  1. He’s so optimistic about being rehired by WWE.
  2. Some fans mistakenly think he got in trouble for an old radio interview where used the n-word in the context of quoting people.

Obviously, he wants to make sure that doesn’t change, and he also wants to ensure nobody else sees him having sex. But unless there’s something that came up in the FBI investigation that we have no real concept of, there may not be further skeletons this case’s closet that can ruin Hulk Hogan.

Gawker has, at times, claimed that determining if Hogan was aware of the cameras in Bubba the Love Sponge Clem’s house is why they sued the FBI. He’s always insisted that he wasn’t, with skepticism coming from Bubba talking about his security system on his radio show and Cole seemingly positioning Hogan for the camera on the video. While a friend of Bubba’s who had a tryst with Heather after Hogan was aware of the camera, Heather swore to police that Hogan was unaware. From the report (in a section that’s been redacted from the version Bubba posted on his website):

Cole stated that the sex she had with others during her marriage to Bubba was consensual. She stated that Bubba insisted on it being videoed. I asked Cole if Bollea knew he was being recorded and she said no. I told Cole that the in the videos it appears as though she is positioning Bollea for the camera. She said she did that because that is what Bubba wanted. Cole said Bubba could be very controlling. Cole said she remembers Bubba coming to the house after they had separated and requesting the DVDs sometime around the end of 2011.

One would think that issue should be put to bed at this point. Of course, that passage raises another issue, which is that Bubba comes off terribly here. It at least reads as if he heavily pressured his wife into participating in making secret videos of trysts with his friends even if she was fully into their swinger (for lack of a better term) lifestyle. That doesn’t take away from him being a legitimate victim when it comes to the DVD theft and related crimes, and he’s right to be angry at the prosecutors for not charging anyone. After all, if the police have so much evidence and are willing to name Matt Loyd in this report, why do the prosecutors think they won’t get a conviction?

There’s honestly no good answer other than that  conspiracy theories about Hogan using his influence because he’s worried about things that could come out in a trial. As I said earlier: If it’s not on the videos, we don’t know what that is. Unless it’s just not wanting anyone to hear his racist comments on the videos out loud, there’s no indication why this would be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk0ZACuiYAY

Speaking of things that Hogan doesn’t want out: One would think that Gawker as well as various interested media outlets (who have filed intervening motions in the past) may try to parlay the release of this report into the unsealing of some of the FBI documents. After all, if the substance of what was said during the sting operation is now public record, why not the word for word transcript? It wouldn’t shock me at all, and it’s something to keep an eye on in both lawsuits.

As for Matt Loyd being named as who stole the DVDs from Bubba, that’s no surprise at this point, as it had been hinted at in various lawsuit filings. But if he didn’t leak one of the DVDs to Gawker, then we don’t really have any good leads as to who it is. That is unless there’s some obfuscation going on here.

We’re still over three months away from the Hogan-Gawker civil trial, and this story is far from over.

 

Jim Ross Blog: Reid Flair Controversy, TNA’s New TV Deal, Ambrose Or Reigns Heel Turn?

Matt Boone
-
11

WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross updated his official blog at JRsBarBQ.com with thoughts on the Reid Flair controversy from RAW, TNA’s new deal with POP TV, the WWE World Title Tournament wrapping up at Survivor Series this Sunday and more. Below are some of the highlights.

On the Reid Flair controversy from RAW:

“Lots of dialog amongst fans and media regarding the use of the late, Reid Flair’s name Monday night on the closing segment of RAW by his sister Charlotte and her challenger Paige as they looked to add a personal issue element to their title match that will take place this Sunday in Atlanta at the Survivor Series on the WWE Network.

My general rule of thumb is that most promotions are usually better off staying away from using someone’s death, religion and politics in a pro wrestling storyline. I find it counterproductive in this situation that more people seem to be talking about the late, Reid Flair, who I knew his entire life, than they are about he actual title bout between Charlotte and Paige. Nonetheless I am very much eagerly anticipating that bout for which I have high expectations.”

On TNA’s new deal with POP TV:

“Congrats to TNA Impact Wrestling for finding a new, TV home in the States on POP TV that debuts with a live show on Tuesday January 5. Tuesday night will be the new night for TNA beginning in January. I am not a regular viewer of POP TV but will certainly find them to watch wrestling when it moves there.”

On the WWE World Title Tournament wrapping up at Survivor Series this Sunday:

“Thinking that it will be Reigns vs Ambrose Sunday in the finals of the WWE World Title Tournament with one of them ‘stabbing’ his friend in the back. I’d prefer it was Reigns joining the Authority as I think a long association with the Authority would position Reigns perfectly for a fan favorite turn late next year. However, depending ont he execution of that piece of business I have no major issue seeing Ambrose in that Authority Champ role.

Never say never but what if Reigns and Ambrose have one helluva physical, grueling match, one of them wins and MITB winner Sheamus comes in, picks the bones, and leaves as WWE Champion which would make the bosses happy.”

WWE Network Now The #5 OTT Service In The United States

Staff
-
13

The WWE Network is now the #5 most popular Over The Top streaming service in the United States, according to a study by Parks Associates released earlier this week.  The study notes that the WWE Network is adding subscribers year-round and is resisting the seasonality that is common with other sports-themed OTT offerings.

Here’s the top 10:

  1. Netflix
  2. Amazon Video
  3. Hulu
  4. MLB.TV
  5. WWE Network
  6. HBO Now
  7. Crunchyroll
  8. NFL Game Pass
  9. The Blaze
  10. SlingTV

Head over to ParksAssociates.com to read the full report.

Max Landis Talks About Wrestling’s Lackluster Portrayal Of Women, Blacks & Gays

Staff
-
17

Hollywood screenwriter Max Landis(@Uptomyknees) was recently interviewed for The World According to Wrestling, a new project exploring characters and stereotypes in wrestling featuring interviews with professional wrestlers and celebrity fans.

Landis says that despite WWE promoting a Divas Revolution, the presentation of women in wrestling is actually at an absolute all time low. In a far ranging interview on how wrestling is presented to audiences, Landis also talked about whether there should be gay characters, glass ceilings, racism, and how wrestling is going to get really weird. Here’s some highlights of what he said about:

The presentation of women in wrestling:

“Even with the Divas revolution, they still seem so separate from the rest of the show.  I despise that it’s called the “Divas” division. And you know what’s funny, and I really believe, for how successful Total Divas is, I think it is almost as reductive to their role in the company as a bra and panties match. It’s like an emotional bra and panties match.”

“All the Divas are presented as backstabbing, crazy, unpredictable women and they’re not really allowed to have character. They bring in Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair – three really different characters – and they put them all in little groups and then the groups fight each other. You would never see this with the men. The men are spread out and used differently. As good as it is that there’s this divas revolution, ultimately it’s reductive because it makes them just seem that they’re part of a big crowd of divas. And they have their own little space on the show. When was the last time – other than AJ Lee – that a diva had a meaningful role in one of the main storylines?”

African American wrestlers dealing with the “glass ceiling”:

“I think there is just a glass ceiling for wrestlers. If I’m being serious, I think the glass ceiling for Black wrestlers is real. 100%. But that show – WWE – is written so haphazardly it seems that when you look at the Black wrestlers who make it, they have a ton of charisma, they are good in the ring, they’re fun to watch, and people make excuses but – at the end of the day – the most successful wrestler of all time is a person of colour: The Rock. He’s half Samoan and half Black. He’s an extra minority. I think there is an element of racism, undeniably, but I also don’t see anyone on the roster right now who I believe as world champion who is a person of colour. That’s not true, I think Uhaa Nation who just joined NXT could be a Black WWE World Champion but, you know, maybe Big E?”

Gay characters in wrestling:

“I have a controversial view on gay characters in wrestling because I don’t think we need them any more than we really beat-to-beat need straight characters in wrestling.

For all we know, Heath Slater is gay. I really feel like that it’s such a Saturday morning cartoon in most meaningful of ways, that if Darren Young came to the ring and the announcers were like “And Darren Young is gay”. I’d be like “What the fuck are you talking about?!” It’s the fallacy of being gay is what it really is and for all we know John McClane is gay in Die Hard. He never kisses a woman on screen. He split up with his wife…maybe because he’s gay! Have you ever thought about that? I have plenty of friends who I would never know they were gay unless they told me. Do I think we need a Rico? A lisping gay effeminate character? I think NO! It’d be weird! If the wrestler portraying that character is actually like that, it might be fine but think about strange that would be. People online always talk about the need for a serious gay wrestler. Why?!”

Trailer For Central Intelligence Starring The Rock & Kevin Hart

Staff
-
5

Here’s the first trailer for Central Intelligence, the action comedy starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Kevin Hart, Aaron Paul and Ed Helms, due out June 17, 2016.

Triple H Believes The Public Will ‘Absolutely’ Forgive Hulk Hogan

Staff
-
12

WWE’s Executive Vice President Triple H called into the WHEB Morning Buzz radio show (Portmouth, New Hampshire) this week to promote their “Lending A Helping Can” charity auction.  When asked if WWE would ever welcome Hulk Hogan back into the fold, Triple H told host Greg Kretschmar:

“For me I hope so.

It’s about reinvigorating his brand and him as a human being and the confidence within the world as to who he is. But the one thing about people in general, when somebody is on top they love to see him fall and when they fall they love to see him make that comeback. They’re great stories and I think that’s where people are.

Do I think he can be forgiven and make amends with the world and move forward? Yeah absolutely. But at the same point in time for us in that time frame you’re putting up a message to the world of how you’ll tolerate things and how you’ll react to things. And we did what we needed to do and he’ll do what he needs to do to get himself back.

And its not, to me, at the end of the day for him, how he’s perceived by the world, him as a human being, I’m sure is a lot more important to him than anything else. And re-establishing who he is as a human being I’m sure is of utmost important to him and I’m sure he’s gonna do it and when he does we’ll go from there.”

For more information on how you can donate to the Lend a Helping Can campaign, visit WHEB.com.

Shawn Daivari Reveals “Terrible” Gimmick Stephanie McMahon Once Pitched Him

Staff
-
20

Shawn Daivari recently spoke with Chris Featherstone of Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard Blog about his time and WWE and his controversial angle with Muhammad Hassan.

Daivari and Hassan were thrust into the spotlight upon their arrivals in WWE, speaking out against Americans who were discriminating against people of Arabic descent  in light of the 9/11 terror attacks. Daivari had already had a number of WWE tryouts, so he was known by a lot of people on the roster by the time he was brought in. Hassan, on the other hand, got a lot of heat with WWE veterans.

“They treated me like gold, and they treated Muhammad like crap,” Daivari said. “It was his first time up. He looked like a million dollars, he was way bigger than I was. I wasn’t considered a threat to anybody. I wasn’t gonna take anyone’s spot because if I was gonna do anything, I was gonna end up in the Cruiserweight division, which was such a low priority to begin with, it’s not threatening anybody.”

Their angle was eventually dropped after a terror attack in London back in July 2005. Daivari reveals that Stephanie McMahon approached him with a new gimmick that he flat out refused to take part in.

“Stephanie came up to me and was like, ‘We’ve got an idea for you for like next week. We want you to debut as a character named George W. Bush, and we want you to wear Red, White, and Blue trunks, and be like a super American patriot,” Daivari said.

“I replied, ‘I would love to kind of do my own thing, but that is a terrible idea. I don’t know who came up with it, or whose idea was it to come up with the name George W. Bush, and take me from the hottest heel to wearing red, white, and blue, and what the purpose is or the explanation for it. But, I really, really, feel strongly against it.”

You can read the full interview at SI.com.

John Cena Added To First WWE SmackDown Taping For The USA Network

Matt Boone
-
10

WWE has officially added John Cena to the January 5th SmackDown television taping at the Laredo Energy Arena in Laredo, Texas. That will be the first taping for SmackDown on the USA Network.

With tickets scheduled to go on sale for the taping on November 23rd, there had been some concern that there were not enough big stars advertised for the show. The plan since WWE announced that SmackDown was moving to the USA Network has been to load up the show with star power.

The updated lineup for the 1/5 SmackDown taping in Laredo now features Cena, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Sheamus, Bray Wyatt, Alberto Del Rio, Kevin Owens, Dolph Ziggler, Luke Harper, Braun Strowman and more.

Ric Flair Predicts WWE Title Tourney Finals, Talks Seth Rollins’ Injury, Cesaro

Matt Boone
-
15

WWE Hall Of Famer Ric Flair spoke about a number of current topics on the latest edition of his WOOOOO! Nation podcast, such as his prediction for the finals of Sunday’s WWE World Heavyweight Title Tournament at Survivor Series, Seth Rollins’ injury and Cesaro’s ability to be a bigger star. Below are some of the highlights of what Flair talked about.

On Seth Rollins’ injury and when he thinks Rollins will be back in the ring:

“Actually, Seth is doing the right thing. He’s going to transfer the flag from Waterloo to Birmingham and stay there for at least two months of rehab, which is the best thing to do. That’s what Hunter did. Hunter just moved right down there when he tore his quad the last time.”

“I think they’re looking at him, praying that he’ll be back for Summerslam.”

On Cesaro’s ability and potential to be viewed as a legitimate threat to Brock Lesnar:

“I feel like Cesaro, given the opportunity and with a vehicle to convey his thoughts, whether it be through himself or through a manager, which would be me, you could get him ready for Brock Lesnar in two months and the people would believe it. He’s that strong and he’s good [of] a performer. And he’s that big. You’re not going to bounce Cesaro around like a dart.” Flair continued, “I think he could be a great opponent for Brock Lesnar. I mean, you’d need to stay on him because his work is phenomenal, he looks like a million bucks, and he’s stronger than a horse in real life. He’s really strong, strongest guy in the company, and that came right from John Cena.”

On who he sees in the finals of Sunday’s WWE World Heavyweight Title Tournament at Survivor Series:

“I don’t think they’re going to put Ambrose and Reigns [in the finals] because I don’t know how the crowd would react to that. They’re both kind of like fan favorites and it would be hard for them. I think they’d rather have a definitive good guy/bad guy [match].”

“I would say Kevin Owens [will face Reigns in the finals] because Kevin’s getting a huge reaction over here [in Europe]. We only have a couple [of] heels that are actually heels all the time. Kevin is one of them, Stephanie [McMahon] being the other.”

Viewership For This Week’s TNA Impact Wrestling & ROH TV (11/18)

Matt Boone
-
0

https://youtu.be/Uz6aS1l06zA

Viewership was down for both TNA Impact Wrestling and Ring Of Honor on Destination America this week.

TNA Impact Wrestling had a total of 280,000 viewers, down from 374,000 last week. The first airing at 9pm EST drew 202,000 viewers while the 11pm EST replay/West Coast feed after ROH TV did 78,000 viewers, up from 81,000 last week.

After seeing an increase in viewership last week, Ring Of Honor was back down this week. ROH on Destination America this past Wednesday drew 114,000 viewers, up from last week’s final total of 172,000 viewers.

Jim Ross Says Undertaker Is The Greatest Tenured Performer Of All Time

Staff
-
17

WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross has penned a new article for FoxSports.com commemorating The Undertaker’s 25th anniversary in WWE. JR says that The Undertaker will be an influence force in WWE for as long as he chooses and is the greatest tenured performer of all time.

The Deadman is alive and well behind the scenes of WWE and has been for years.  How much longer he wrestles is anyone’s guess, but without question Calaway will forever be a part of WWE … if he so chooses.

When ‘Taker retires from his in-ring career is still to be decided, but when that day finally arrives — and it will sooner than later — the sports entertainment business will never see another like him.

From my perspective, Mark Calaway has replaced Andre The Giant and all other WWE superstars as the greatest tenured performer of all time.

Head over to FoxSports.com to read the full article.

AJ Brooks Writing Memoir About Her Life, “Crazy Is My Superpower”

Staff
-
8

Former WWE Diva AJ Brooks (AJ Lee) has signed on to pen a memoir about her life titled, “Crazy Is My Superpower.” The book is due out in the Spring of 2017 and will chronicle her journey from extreme poverty to international stardom.

The following was announced by AJ Brooks’ book publisher on Thursday night:

The Leschne Agency is pleased to announce the AJ Brooks book deal!

Three-time WWE Diva’s Champion AJ Brooks’ CRAZY IS MY SUPERPOWER, a literary memoir chronicling her unlikely rise from 100-pound nerd growing up in extreme poverty and enduring years of abuse, to international sex symbol and professional wrestling champion (known as AJ Lee) who fought against stereotypes, forced the men in her industry to view her with respect, and inspired a huge fan base of over 2 Million Twitter followers with her fierce independent streak, in a significant deal, on exclusive submission, to Mary Choteborsky at Crown Archetype, an imprint of Penguin Random House, for publication Spring 2017, by Lisa Leshne at The Leshne Agency. Foreign Rights to Sandy Hodgman at Hodgman Literary.

Spoilers – New Matches For NXT Takeover London

Staff
-
5

CUQ2 n5UsAAk23F

Following Thursday night’s NXT TV tapings from Full Sail University, here is the updated card for NXT Takeover: London on December 16th:

  • NXT Champion Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe
  • NXT Women’s Champion Bayley vs. Nia Jax
  • NXT Tag Champions Dawson & Wilder vs. Enzo Amore & Colin Cassidy
  • Apollo Crews vs. Baron Corbin
  • Emma vs. Asuka

Hulk Hogan Sex Tape Theft, Leak Detailed Extensively In Police Report

David Bixenspan
-
1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od9HQpwesVM

Earlier in the week, we noted that Tampa area media, having procured a new police report, had jumped on the story that Matt “Spiceboy” Loyd was the man behind the theft and leak of the Hulk Hogan sex videos. The local TV stations mostly covered the most basic of details: That Loyd was named as the suspect, prosecutors declined to charge him, and Bubba the Love Sponge (the videos came from his security cameras after he had  given Hogan his blessing to sleep with his then-wife Heather Cole) was angry that the prosecutors were doing nothing.

What I did next was procure the entire 31 page police report from the Tampa Police Department. Since then, Bubba has released a version on his website, but it’s heavily edited and redacted, seemingly to remove the information he doesn’t want out. With that in mind, here are some of the key revelations in the report:

* This specific police investigation started separately from the Hogan videos. as in May of 2014, Loyd (using @Joshisinthecity, a now-deleted dummy/sockpuppet account) tweeted a photo of a stolen non-Hogan DVD to Bubba, who replied to attempt to bait him:

* Loyd no longer had possession of the original Hogan DVDs because they were seized by the The DVD in a 2012 sting operation targeting his “sex tape broker,” oft-disciplined lawyer Keith Davidson. The remaining DVD, labelled with the name a non-celebrity friend of Bubba’s, showed Cole having sex with said friend. The friend did say know he was being recorded, while Cole told the TPD that Hogan did not. When the TPD asked Cole why she appeared to be positioning Hogan for the camera, she replied that it was “because that is what Bubba wanted” and “Bubba could be very controlling.”

* This explains why, to a point, the FBI had stonewalled Gawker in their attempts to get a copy of the FBI’s Hogan investigation. Gawker’s first Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was filed on November 8, 2013 and rejected on privacy grounds. When they got the necessary waivers from Hogan and Cole via the lawsuit, the refiled on November 7, 2014. By the time the FBI responded on February 4, 2015, not only had the TPD investigation been ongoing for months, but they were also using the FBI file as evidence. That’s why law enforcement privilege was cited to block the release of the file but Gawker had statements stating they were not the target of an investigation: The crime being investigated had nothing to do with the leak to Gawker because Loyd didn’t make contact about the Hogan videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTLztVGd414

* The DVDs were taken from Bubba’s office, where he moved them during his divorce from Cole in October 2011. Why?  “Clem transferred the DVD’s from his home to his workplace where he believed they would be more secure.” The DVDs were eventually moved when he moved to a new studio in December 2011 to January 2012. He didn’t know they were missing until March 2012, when a screenshot showed up online from one of the Hogan videos. “Clem immediately responded to the office/storage area and became aware that each of his DVD’s were now missing.”

* @Joshisinthcity’s tweet was eventually traced to Loyd’s workplace. He claimed that the DVD was a fake and, having known of the DVDs for years, forged Bubba’s handwriting on a new blank DVD to spook him. The handwriting in the photo was consistent with other burnt DVDs Bubba had written on that he provided to the TPD. At this point, Bubba told the TPD “that the FBI had conducted an investigation involving the Bollea DVDs and he thought that case was over.”

* The FBI eventually got approval for the TPD to see the Hogan case file. On January 20th of this year, the Tampa investigators watched the Hogan videos with the FBI agents assigned to the case and summarized them as follows:

Disc marked HOGAN 7/13/07 contained Heather Clem and Terry Bollea engaging in sex. Bollea does not look at the camera. The camera appears to be on a high ledge in the master bedroom behind a plant. There is no discussion about them being recorded.

The disc marked HOOTIE 7/3/07 showed the camera to be in the same location as the previously mentioned disc. Bollea and Heather are standinganext to the bed, Heather is topless and facing Bollea as Bubba walks into view and comments about a scratch she has on her back. Bubba then leaves the room. Bollea and Heather engage in sex.

The disc marked HOOTIE with no date shows that Bubba walks in after sex between Bollea and Heather. Bollea, Heather and Bubba have conversation. Bollea leaves. Bubba makes comment about tape being used for retirement. Bubba says he is going to get the tape and walks out. Tape ends.

* The FBI also provided the TPD with audio recordings taken during the investigation into “sex tape broker” Keith Davidson when he tried to sell the original DVDs to Hogan for Loyd via intermediaries. When Davidson negotiated with Hogan attorney David Houston over the phone as part of a sting operation, they started at $1 and $1 million respectively before settling on $300,000. $150,000 would be paid upfront with two other installments of $75,000 each at the nine and 16 month marks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRpnLCvRhkw

* Perhaps the most interesting portion of the 31 page report is the detailed summary of the final meeting with Davidson on December 14, 2012 that closed the sting operation. When Houston asked which video “has the issues,” Davidson is paraphrased as saying that “tape 2 talks about his son’s twin girlfriend” while “tape 3 talks about n word, Brooke dating black guy, etc.” Obviously, the tape 3 note refers to Hogan’s racist comments that got him fired by WWE. The other note marks the video Gawker got from Loyd as tape 2, because A.J. Daulerio wrote this in the article that was originally published alongside their “highlight reel” of the video:

But Hulk has to go meet his son Nick at midnight. Then Hulk tells a story about how Nick’s new girlfriend has a twin sister who called Hulk on the phone. Hulk reveals that the young woman inquired about his divorce and, if that’s true, she would like to be the first to go out with him.

It appears that, with that story having been out for over three years now and then n-word rant leaking in July, there is no other incriminating information on the other video, described here as “tape 1.” The audio of the racist comments getting out would be harmful since nobody has heard them, and obviously he doesn’t want anyone to see him having sex, but in terms of damaging information, it’s all out there.

* Davidson, for whatever reason, would only give Houston certain details out of earshot of Hogan.  For example: “I don’t know if they were stolen and quite frankly I don’t want to know if they were stolen.” He also gave his word he would assist in having the clips removed from Gawker’s site, as they were still up at the time. While Davidson told Hogan and Houston his client knew the videos existed because he was shown them and Loyd said it was well-known that the videos existed, Bubba denies showing them to anyone at work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmPis1-wJlo

*As outlined in the Tampa media coverage, Lori Burbridge, a friend of Loyd and his wife, Tasha Carrega, handled financial transactions to shield Loyd. Loyd went to TMZ when leaking stills To TheDirty failed to generate enough buzz. She told police that TMZ put Loyd in touch with Davidson, who bragged about handling similar cases when she questioned if what they were doing was legal. TMZ paid $8,500 for the videos, which they never published for legal reasons. TMZ’s Mike Walters had spoken to Hogan on the air on their syndicated TV show about having seen the videos.

* It appears that, while Loyd did contact Gawker under an assumed name, he was not the person who leaked one of the videos to Gawker. Davidson coached Loyd, Carrega, and Burbridge to say they were the Gawker leak to ensure the deal with Hogan went through.

It’s not clear at all why local prosecutors are not charging Loyd if the Tampa Police Department has so much evidence and is willing to name him as a suspect. Tomorrow, we’ll go over some additional details and try to analyze exactly what all of this means.

Spoilers: NXT TV Tapings Results Through December 9th

Staff
-
9

WWE taped the next several weeks of NXT TV on Thursday night from Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida. These are the final shows before NXT Takeover: Lond. Here are the spoiler results, courtesy of Thomas M:

Airing November 25th

– Michael Cole opened the show with the NXT “Takeover: London” contract signing between Samoa Joe and NXT Champion Finn Balor. Cole is in charge while Regal recovers from back surgery. Balor and Joe came out for the signing. Finn attempted to leave and Joe attacked him from behind. Joe choked out Finn as referees tried to keep them apart.

– Dawson and Dash successfully defended the NXT tag titles against The Vaudevillains.  After, Enzo Amore and Big Cas ran down and attacked the champions.

– Asuka vs. Dana Brooke never happened because Emma jumped Asuka and Dana helped beat her down.

– Apollo Crews defeated Jesse Sorensen. After the match, Crews accepted Baron Corbin’s challenge to a match at Takeover.

– NXT Champion Bailey defeated Eva Marie after a Super Belly-to-Bayley. Nia Jax got involved during the match and attacked Bailey afterwards.

– Baron Corbin defeated Tye Dillinger.

Airing December 2nd:

– Nia Jax squashed Blue Pants.

– James Storm defeated Adam Rose with a superkick.

– Chad Gable and Jason Jordan defeated The Vaudevillains. Gotch and English refused to shake hands with the winners.

– Emma defeated Gionna Daddio, now wrestling as “Liv Morgan”.

– Asuka promo hyping her match with Emma at Takeover London.

– Samoa Joe defeated Tommaso Ciampa in a hard-hitting main event.

“Central Intelligence” Poster (Photo), NXT Diva Name Change, Celebrities Talk The Undertaker

Matt Boone
-
3

– As “The Undertaker week continues to roll on the WWE Network, WWE posted another video looking back, this time at The Undertaker’s theme song. Check out the above video as Jon Stewart, Sasha Banks, John Wall and other celebrities and WWE Superstars an d Divas talk about “The Dead Man’s” iconic theme song.

– NXT Diva Gionna Daddio is now going by the name Liv Morgan in NXT. Liv Morgan will face Emma on the December 2nd edition of NXT on the WWE Network.

– The Rock took to social media on Thursday to unveil the official promotional poster for his new movie with Kevin Hart called “Central Intelligence.” He wrote the following in addition to posting the photo of the poster.

WORLD EXCLUSIVE: The only one of its kind Central Intelligence teaser poster! Me and Kevin Hart teamed up to make an iconic, global action comedy the world could enjoy. As y’all know saving the world takes a Big Johnson and my friend Kevin is exactly where he belongs… behind me and sh*tting himself. We’re both excited to bring y’all this movie! Summer may never be the same… #CentralIntelligence #BigJohnson #ScaredHart JUNE 17th

Spoiler: Two Familiar Faces Return During Tonight’s NXT TV Tapings

Matt Boone
-
11

https://youtu.be/n0emUF8jDOM

Two familiar faces made their respective NXT returns at the NXT television taping on Saturday night, as Blue Pants (Leva Bates) and former TNA World Heavyweight Champion James Storm both worked matches.

A while back, it was reported that Blue Pants had backstage heat on her in WWE and would not be brought back any time soon, due to an incident involving alcohol during SummerSlam weekend in Brooklyn, New York.

Blue Pants taped a match on Thursday night with Nia Jax that will air on the December 2nd edition of NXT. Her last match with NXT was a loss to Alexa Bliss at the August 13th NXT tapings. Her last NXT appearance was at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn.

In Storm’s case, he recently made his NXT debut at the NXT tapings held October 8th. Storm beat Danny Burch that night. On the 12/2 edition of NXT, Storm will return on NXT television for the first time since his 10/8 debut, as he taped a match with Adam Rose.

A few weeks ago, it was reported that Storm had yet to actually sign an official WWE contract. Whether or not that remains the case now that he has been brought back to NXT TV remains to be seen. We’ll keep you posted.

WWE Statement Regarding Paige Referencing Reid Flair On RAW

Matt Boone
-
51

WWE has issued the following statement regarding the controversy surrounding Paige’s reference to Reid Flair on RAW:

“Subject matter this personal is only approved as a result of the strong advocacy of the talent themselves. Notwithstanding that, WWE is ultimately responsible for what airs in its programming.”

WWE To Issue Statement Regarding Paige Referencing Reid Flair On RAW

Staff
-
92

WWE will be releasing a statement to address the controversy surrounding Paige referencing Reid Flair on Monday’s RAW.  f4wonline.com reports that WWE will say Charlotte was the one who came up with the idea, they took it out of the script thinking it was too sensitive, but Charlotte insisted it be included.

To recap, Paige got extremely personal with Charlotte on RAW, telling that her brother Reid didn’t have enough “fight in him” prior to his overdose death in 2013. WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair spoke about the situation on his podcast this week, noting that he cried when he heard about it and WWE did not give him a heads up in advance or apologize to him after the fact. Flair said:

“[Charlotte’s] only been up there three months. It’s a pressure cooker and a tough spot to be in. Even though she’s the champion doesn’t mean that she goes ‘hey, this is what I wanna do or what I’m not gonna do … If you’re asked to do something, that’s pretty much the way things operate up there” …

“I never heard a word about it. I started crying when I was watching it. Nobody called me and no one’s called me today. That would indicate that they just assume that it’s good. I don’t have an answer for that.”

It’s worth noting that Flair’s podcast co-host Conrad said rumors that the whole angle was Charlotte’s idea are “100% false.”

Charlotte and Reid’s mother Elizabeth expressed her outrage on Twitter, calling WWE disgusting, disrespectful, cruel and sad.

Editorial: WWE Using Reid Fliehr’s Death Trivializes His Life, Mental Illness

Paige was bombarded on social media with fans who couldn’t believe what she said. Playing up her heel role and relishing in the heat she generated, Paige responded:

https://twitter.com/RealPaigeWWE/status/666479673761783808

Spoiler: Two More Former TNA Stars Backstage At NXT Taping This Evening

Matt Boone
-
31

As noted, former TNA and ROH star Austin Aries is backstage at the NXT television tapings at Full Sail University this evening, however he isn’t the only former TNA star at the show.

It was rumored earlier this week that James Storm would be making his NXT return after debuting a few weeks ago. As it turns out, Storm is indeed backstage at the show and is expected to wrestle during tonight’s taping.

Finally, Storm’s former TNA World Tag-Team Champion partner Gunner is backstage at the show in Winter Park, Florida as well.

In the case of Gunner, much like Aries, it isn’t exactly clear what he is doing at the show and is in no way confirmed that he will be debuting for NXT tonight.

(Partial Credit: PWInsider.com)

1...2,1742,1752,176...3,397Page 2,175 of 3,397