Sami Zayn is finally getting called up to the main roster. The former NXT Champion is scheduled to face WWE Intercontinental champion Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 32, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Zayn will first be appearing at WWE Roadblock, which airs live on the WWE Network next weekend from Toronto. It seems that Zayn will be there to resume his rivalry with Owens.
From there, Sami Zayn will face the debuting Shinsuke Nakamura at NXT Takeover: Dallas.
After WrestleMania, Zayn is booked for WWE’s annual European tour.
WWE management has issued a new edict to the creative team regarding the opening segment of RAW each week.
The new rue is for the writers to work in references to major cultural events in the show opening promos, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
The Super Bowl, The Grammys and the Emmys were all recently cited as examples that needed to be integrated into the script for the opening segment of RAW.
This isn’t the only new instruction the creative team has received lately. Last week, it was reported that they were working on making their television product “more edgy” for WrestleMania season.
There had reportedly been talk within WWE about whether AJ Styles would be allowed to use his Styles Clash finisher or not. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that Vince McMahon found out about Yoshitatsu suffering a broken neck from the move and was concerned. As a result, the company decided the calf crusher would be AJ Styles’ new finisher.
Up until his Fastlane match with Chris Jericho, Styles had only used the Styles Clash one before, against Curtis Axel. According to The Observer, Jericho wanted the move in his match and the spot was approved by management.
It should be noted that the Styles Clash is not banned, but it won’t be AJ’s primary finisher.
Brock Lesnar was originally booked for the main event of WWE Roadblock on March 12th. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that the WWE creative team planned on having Lesnar face both Dean Ambrose and Triple H in a triple threat match. According to those original plans, the match would have ended with Triple H pinning Ambrose for the win. At some point there was a change of plans, and the match was changed to a one-on-one title match between just Ambrose and Triple H.
The Observer Newsletter noted that WWE has taken of note of Ambrose getting over as a babyface, and has no plans to turn him heel.
WWE Roadblock takes place at the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto, ON and airs exclusively on the WWE Network on March 12th at 8 PM ET.
As noted last week, Roman Reigns’ surgery looked like it was just a storyline, but he did really get surgery. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that the angle where Triple H injured him on RAW was to cover for pre-existing surgery plans. The surgery may have been for a deviated symptom.
On Wednesday it was revealed that Reigns was pulled from advertising Monday’s RAW in Chicago. It could be a strategic move to avoid having Reigns booed on TV by the Chicago fans, who are known for being vocal. Reigns has been removed from The Allstate Arena’s website but is still listed on WWE.com. As we noted earlier, Reigns is still being advertised for next Tuesday’s SmackDown taping.
The Allstate Arena is advertising Triple H, Dean Ambrose and Shane McMahon for this Monday’s Raw.
Shane, who is a former executive officer and perfomer with the company, reportedly has yet to sign a deal, but is expected to be paid in excess of $120,000 for his services. His exact services and earnings will be disclosed in next year’s proxy statement.
The report also detailed how much the company’s top executives were paid in 2015:
Vince McMahon – Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: $3.3 million
Michelle Wilson – Chief Revenue & Marketing Officer: $4.5 million
George Barrios – Chief Strategy & Financial Officer: $4.5 million
Paul Levesque – EVP, Talent, Live Events & Creative: $3.1 million
Kevin Dunn – Executive Producer & Chief Global Television Production: $4.7 million
Kevin Nash has announced that he will donate his brain and spinal cord to the CTE Center at Boston University and the Concussion Legacy Foundation after he passes away. The WWE Hall of Famer broke the news on ESPN.com, along with comments from former WWE star Chris Nowinski.
“Chris Nowinski started the program, and I’ve had several concussions throughout my life and had scans done and stuff and knew that somewhere down the line, I’ve already had short-term memory problems,” Nash told Michael Rothstein of ESPN.com. “I decided to go ahead. The only way you can diagnose this is after you’re dead.”
Chris Nowinski, co-founder of the CTE Center, said he hopes Nash’s announcement inspires other athletes and their families to do the same.
“It’s so powerful when icons like Kevin Nash are willing to pledge their brain for research and talk about it publicly,” said Nowinski. “Brain donation is really driving our growing knowledge of CTE and the long-term effects of brain trauma. And so I’m hoping that we solve this problem before Kevin’s time comes but Kevin announcing this means that other families are aware that this research is important and that if they lose somebody, they may think of the concussion legacy foundation.”
After the potential juror pool was narrowed down yesterday with the initial questionnaire, people getting hardship exemptions, and so on, things got a lot more interesting today when it comes to jury selection the Hulk Hogan vs. Gawker (officially Bollea vs. Gawker) civil trial. Today was the first day of voir dire, the session where lawyers from both sides question jurors to look for potential biases that could help or hurt their cases. There were 106 potential jurors yesterday when the dust cleared, and today, the attorneys for both sides started to question them. The result was an utterly bizarre spectacle that unfortunately wasn’t broadcast due to restrictions by the judges (the trial proper will be streamed online starting Monday/March 7th) and resulted in some amazing Twitter content.
Probably the most worrisome panelist was Potential Juror #13, a woman who said that she didn’t hold any bias against Hogan for his use of the N-word. “I don’t know how it made me feel. I may have thought, ‘Oh how sad.'” That isn’t inherently a problem. This quote, however, is: “Frankly, if I could talk about that word for a minute, it’s a double edge sword. A certain race can say it, but a certain race cannot. It’s just not right that that happens.” Somehow, she wasn’t excused, and will return tomorrow for further questioning. The other potential jurors mentioned were, while clearly less potentially malevolent, as entertaining if not much more.
On top of that, Judge Pamela Campbell, after imploring the jury pool to avoid news coverage of the case, went off on a tangent about the quality of online journalism…well, or her perceived lack thereof. “There used to be investigative journalists,” she said. To some, it sounded like a “dog whistle” rant about Gawker and it came off as wildly inappropriate.
Here are some of the highlights from 35 potential jurors being questioned:
Way less people than you’d expect had heard of Gawker.
Potential Juror #5 had information about her posted online without her consent: Her weight. Potential Juror #6 also had an ex-girlfriend smear her in some way on MySpace. Yes, MySpace.
Potential Juror #8 was the first male questioned. “I don’t follow a lot of mainstream media. I’m not a mainstream media kind of person. […] I’ve heard the word Gawker..But I don’t really know anything about Gawker.” He had, however, heard of Gizmodo, Gawker’s gadget site, as well as Jalopnik, their car site, but didn’t appear to know it was part of Gawker Media.
Potential Juror #10, a local bar employee who said that “[Hogan] seems to enjoy the circus atmosphere that follows him. Sex with a friend’s wife, although consensual, seems a bit slimy,” before adding that “I’m very opinionated.” She was excused, of course
Potential Juror #11 saw parts of the Hulk Hogan/Heather Cole sex video at the center of the case…on Gakwer…right? “No, on porn sites.” He’s a “former wrestling fan” (to quote Kludt, not the juror) who listens to Bubba the Love Sponge sometimes and said that what he’s learned about Hogan’s private life “lessen[ed]” his opinion of theHulkster. “Seems to me like a rather inappropriate arrangement. One man’s wife is one man’s wife and…should remain that way.” He also had negative feelings about Gawker, though: “The idea that [the video] was received in good faith does not seem possible to me.” He was the second to be dismissed/excused.
More jurors than you’d expect only knew Hogan from local news stories about his divorce and his son’s car wreck.
A female potential juror had “party” photos posted of her on Facebook without her consent and the offending party refused to take them down. “That makes me feel kind of victimized.”
Potential Juror #19, a self-identified “devout Christian,” singled Hogan out as a “sinner” for his infidelities.
A male who saw the edited sex tape (presumably the Gawker post) on where he found it: “I couldn’t tell you the website. Someone was like check this out.”
Potential Juror #22 was dismissed for sharing mutual friends with Bubba Clem and Heather Cole. On serving on this case’s jury: ”Probably not a good idea.”
This happened:
Attorney: Do you follow wrestling? Juror: “Yeah, when it was real back in the day." #hulkvsgawk
The day started at 9:00 a.m. local time. They didn’t find anyone who was offended by Hogan’s racist comments until Potential Juror #46 at around 3:38 p.m. “I know the plaintiff has used a word that I find abhorrent.” Also: ”I find the amount [$100 million] that’s been requested in this case to be…very excessive.” Guess what happened.
On Gawker: “It’s a fairly well known phenomenon.” On the nature of the affair, paraphrased by Anna Phillips:
Juror says the fact that the sex was extramarital bothers her. What if the husband approved? That's even worse, she says. #hulkvsgawk
One man wrote “I’m on Terry Bollea’s side” and “I like Hulk Hogan” on his questionnaire.
As paraphrased by Tom Kludt: Potential Juror #80 said that Pat Robertson’s 700 Club evangelical Christian television show was “one of his primary news sources.” A few minutes later, presumably from the same man: “I don’t know anything about Gawker. Never seen it. The name to me would imply a site that shows pornographic material.”
The day ended with a guy wearing sandals who wasn’t sure if he could be impartial because “I have a very pleasant memory of Hulk Hogan.”
That’s it for today. We’ll have more tomorrow, and remember that full coverage of the trial proper starts Monday.
On Monday, Gawker filed a motion to exclude deposition testimony of a corporate representative of MindGeek during the trial in Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against them, which starts this coming Monday, March 7th. MindGeek is the company behind a ton of different pornographic websites, including many of the “YouTube of porn” types of websites. The reason this all came up is because Hogan, is trying to determine the damages that he should be awarded if he prevails over Gawker at trial, is arguing that for each person who viewed Gawker’s “highlight reel” of the video of him and Heather Cole, he should get the “standard price to access and view” a celebrity sex video. To determine this amount, Hogan will be calling Shanti Shunn, an e-commerce expert, as a witness who will testify that the video was viewed 4.46 million times and that the views should be multiplied by the $4.95 fee to view Vivid Video’s celebrity sex website.
In a deposition, Shunn conceded that he had no experience with the pornography business and the he wasn’t aware that Vivid puts its celebrity videos on PornHub (one of MindGeek’s free sites) for free viewing. Part of Shunn’s expert report was that to see Vivid’s celebrity videos, they HAD to pay at least $4.95, so Gawker deposed MindGeek via corporate designee Brett Goldenberg just 13 days ago on February 18th. Goldenberg’s role was to establish that an explicit five minute video of Kim Kardashian and Ray J, which is owned by Vivid, had been legally streamed 105,771,119 times via the official “Vivid Celebs” PornHub channel as of March 18, 2015. The inference, of course, is that Shunn’s method of calculating damages for Hogan isn’t valid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uvEhrmhIzI
In the same deposition of Goldberg, Hogan’s lawyers tried to get information about what type of revenue is generated by videos being viewed at PornHub, though the MindGeek lawyer shut down a lot of that questioning. They also tried to get Goldenberg to answer questions about the PornHub terms of use, user-uploaded videos requiring the consent of everyone appearing in them, etc. to try to bolster the privacy claims at the center of their case.
Hogan’s side is trying to get the deposition thrown out, but Gawker argues that they were granted approval to take the deposition by the judge, that they stayed within the agreed parameters, and that there’s no reason for Hogan’s motion to be granted. The conclusion of Gawker’s pleading reads as follows:
Plaintiff has failed to offer any meaningful basis for the Court to revisit its July 2015 ruling that Defendants could secure testimony from MindGeek that celebrity sex tapes can be viewed for free at PomHub in light of the expert testimony proffered by Plaintiffs expert that a person would need to pay at least $4.95 to watch those tapes. Moreover, nothing about Mr. Goldenberg’s deposition presents the compelling circumstances to warrant the drastic remedy of excluding his testimony.
We’ll have more later going over ridiculousness of today’s jury selection process.
This week’s episode of Total Divas on the E! channel averaged 591,000 viewers. This is 31% down from last week’s episode, which averaged 777,000 viewers.
The show was ranked #39 on the Top 150 cable shows on Tuesday night. This is down from last week’s #21 ranking.
This week’s episode of Impact Wrestling averaged 258,000 viewers. This is up from last week’s 210,000 viewers. The show was headlined by Bobby Roode vs. Kurt Angle, from Angle’s “farewell tour” in the UK.
According to Showbuzz Daily, the show ranked at #150 on the Top 150 shows on cable for the night. As noted, last week’s show did not make the Top 150.
Bubba Ray Dudley says he isn’t sure what his plans for WrestleMania 32 are, but does think WWE will reach their goal of packing 93,000 people in the AT&T Stadium for the event. He recently spoke with Sky Sports about this year’s WrestleMania, and some of his previous WrestleMania moments.
“WrestleMania is the Super Bowl and the World Series of the WWE so we’re all excited at this time of year, especially since we’re heading to Dallas, Texas, for the biggest WrestleMania of all time,” Bubba said. “For me, as a kid who grew up watching all the WrestleManias, I remember WrestleMania III in front of 93,000 people. Now this year will break that record.”
“I’ve been part of two matches that have stolen the show at two WrestleManias. WrestleMania in 2000 in Anaheim, California, was the first ever Triangle Ladder match between the Dudleyz, the Hardy Boyz and Edge & Christian. Many say it was the greatest match of the night. The other was TLC II in Houston, Texas, at WrestleMania 17 which is known to be the best one ever. I’ve been told many times that TLC II stole the show.”
Bubba was asked a hypothetical question: If D-Von took the night off, who would his dream tag team partner be? Bubba said he would pick one of the all-time greats to have his back.
Road Warrior Animal,” he answered. “The Road Warriors are one of the greatest tag-teams ever and since Animal is still around, I would love to team with him one night.”
WrestleMania 32 takes place on April 3, 2016, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
WWE.com has published a new interview with WWE Hall of Famer Bret “The Hitman” Hart, who spoke candidly about his battle with prostate cancer.
Bret had his prostate removed last month as part of his treatment. His doctors believe the cancer was contained in his prostate and he should be fine as long as he gets his blood work checked every few months in the coming years.
Bret said he decided to go public about his condition to raise awareness about the illness. He encourages all men in their 50’s, 40’s and younger to get checked.
“Ultimately, I’m hoping that my voice may cause men to get checked and save some lives in the years ahead,” Bret said. “There are no symptoms of prostate cancer. If I hadn’t been getting checked on a regular basis, I wouldn’t have known. That’s where men make the mistake. They say, ‘I feel good, so I’m not going to get checked.’
If it happened to a healthy guy like me, who is physically fit and whose dad lived to be 90, it can happen to anybody. It’s easy to get checked with simple blood work.”
WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross spoke with the Wrestling Observer this week to promote his first show calling New Japan Pro Wrestling, which airs this Friday night on AXS TV.
When asked about what led him back to calling pro wrestling, JR said he never stopped loving the sport. He also never stopped loving being a broadcaster. He’s had several opportunities come along but nothing really fit what he was looking for. He called himself an “in-ring snob.” If he’s going to call wrestling, it needs to be a product he truly enjoys. After calling WrestleKingdom 9 last January, he got hooked on New Japan.
Jim Ross now calls NJPW while former NJPW English announcer Mauro Ranallo calls WWE SmackDown. JR said,
“It’s coincidental isn’t it? It’s very ironic that’s how its worked out, but I think we’ve both got wins. Mauro’s living a dream of finally working in WWE, and it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy, and so that’s good for him. He’s allowed to continue to do his MMA and boxing, so he came out on the other side really well. I think that I did as well. I think I found my gig, I found my home that I hope is in place for years to come.”
He added that he and Josh Barnett are hell-bent on building the NJPW brand in the United States. AXS TV’s upper management team loves the product and would get involved in a larger capacity if they could.
– WWE Hall of Famer Scott Hall and Ernest Miller were visiting at last night’s Smackdown taping from Atlanta, GA.
– Roman Reigns is no longer being advertised to appear at Monday’s RAW from Chicago at the Allstate Arena. As of this writing, he is still being promoted for next Tuesday’s SmackDown taping from Milwaukee, WI at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
– Australian rapper Iggy Azalea says she’s open to stepping in to a WWE ring. She had this exchange with the Bella twins on Twitter last night:
Former TNA World Champion Ethan Carter III recently appeared on Ring Rust Radio. Here are some highlights of what he said about:
The Locker Room’s Reaction To Impact Moving To Pop TV:
“I think the talents been there and the creative has been on point. A lot of the guys that are getting the chance now that might not have before are either new, or I don’t want to say weren’t getting it before, but weren’t embracing the opportunity they had. No one is bigger than the business or bigger than the company. We are all gears in the machine and these guys wanted to be gears so bad that when they got put in the machine, they have been knocking it out. The locker room as it stands right now, the morale is high, everyone is in it together, it’s a team atmosphere and we are very proud of what we are doing. I think that shows in the product. Right now there are no bad eggs per say, no downers, and no frowny faces. Everyone is very excited to go to work and achieve something.”
What TNA Is Doing Right & What They Can Improve:
“What I think we are doing great is continuity, character development and stories that are logical and make sense. We are progressing beyond the typical “boo a guy” and “cheer a guy” because they are bad or good. Characters have motivations and reasons for what they do and the talent has the opportunity to embrace that character and make it their own and run with it. I think that’s what we’re doing really well and that’s what we need to continue to focus on. To get better we cannot rest on a laurels or success. We can’t think that people are saying the shows really good now so we can stop. No we can’t. We have to work harder and we have to do better to continue improvement and continue to focus. All rolls up into a nice little package and were off to the races with a pretty good wrestling show, so rock ‘n roll with that.”
Daniel Bryan’s Retirement:
“Daniel Bryan the man is one of the best dudes ever. He is the best dude, I don’t know how to describe it. He is the most well-respected wrestler and just the best dude. Can I say best dude again because I will, he is the best dude. It’s very unfortunate to lose a guy especially because we don’t even know if he hit prime with how good he was. Concussions are scary and dangerous, this business is dangerous, and we lost one of our best, if not the best.
“It’s very sad, but I am very happy because I know that guy will succeed no matter what he does. Hope for him to have a great future which I know he will, and he’s got a hot wife so what can really go wrong? I’ll miss him dearly, but I mean what a legacy he left. A trendsetter who broke down the doors to so many different things; a model of inspiration to anyone who loves wrestling or wanted to be a pro wrestler. Bless him and Godspeed DB.”
How Working With Kurt Angle Has Affected His Career:
“I only got into wrestling because of Kurt Angle. He was my favorite at the time when I was in my early teens and I wanted to do what he did for a living. So he was a guy I was watching and studying, so someday I would have the chance to be able to work with him at a high level for a world title. That was my dream match and I got to have it. So seeing him go sucks, and it really does suck because we all respect him greatly. He’s a cool uncle in the locker room; we love him and were going to miss him.
Working with him is a great honor in my life, and not only working with him, but being able to go out there and tell a story of him symbolically passing me the torch. From the things he said to me afterwards and the care he took with me, telling me things, talking business, talking shop, he didn’t need to do any of that and he went out of his way to really help me out and stick up for me. He helped pay the way for me, so to speak. I have nothing but respect, love and admiration for Kurt Angle. I’m going to miss him and especially going to miss because I want to have one more match and I didn’t get to have it so that’s unfortunate.”
Titus O’Neil is in the midst of a 60 day suspension for grabbing Vince McMahon last month on RAW and is now publicly acknowledging that the incident will result in him missing WrestleMania 32.
Prior to Monday’s RAW, a fan tweeted that he expected Titus to be the man to answer Rusev’s bodyslam challenge. Titus responded that such crazy talk would result in the person losing credibility with their friends .
On Tuesday, WWE Hall of Famer Scott Hall said Titus is his pick to win this year’s Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Titus thanked him for the vote of confidence, but said he unfortunately won’t be there.
If you’re in the Los Angeles area and want to learn how to become a professional wrestler – this is your chance. Brian Kendrick’s School of Pro Wrestling is running another 12-week boot camp starting later this month on March 21st.
There are still a few spots available: Visit Briankendrick.net for more info.
Brian Kendrick’s School of Pro Wrestling is designed with those who wish to pursue Pro Wrestling wholeheartedly. It is a 3 hour a day, 3 day a week, 12 week course built to teach aspiring wrestlers as much as possible in a safe but rapid pace. The entire focus of the school is to bring the best out of the students. The work is hard. You will be tired, you will get in better shape, and you will become a wrestler if you gamble on yourself, pay attention and put in your best effort.
Kendrick has been wrestling professionally for the last 15 years, making a living wrestling in over 30 countries and all 50 states finding success in many of the largest wrestling organizations, including WWE, TNA, NJPW, ROH, Hoodslam, and PWG.
Dolph Ziggler appeared on ESPN’s SportsCenter Tuesday night for their weekly WWE segment.
Ziggler explained that everyone in WWE is on edge for WrestleMania 32 and that he can’t wait. When asked about his favorite WrestleMania moment, he named Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker (he didn’t specify WM25 or WM26).
When asked about winning the WWE Title after WrestleMania on RAW a few years ago, Ziggler explained that he knew it was going to be a special night for him. Ziggler talked about how if fans can get behind someone then that makes a big difference in a Superstar’s career and his for that matter.
Ziggler also said he thinks his Cleveland Cavaliers can go all the way to the NBA Championship and plugged his comedy career.
Sony Pictures Animation and WWE Studios catch a wave together in ‘Surf’s Up 2: WaveMania’
LOS ANGELES – Sony Pictures Animation and WWE Studios announced today an animated sequel to “Surf’s Up,” the 2007 Academy Award-nominated action-comedy about surfing penguins. The companies are co-financing and producing the movie, which is expected to release in 2017, in time for the original film’s 10th anniversary. “Surf’s Up 2: WaveMania” will be distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment with WWE Studios providing marketing support by leveraging its extensive multi-platform reach.
This was a lot of fun…sometimes you just have to ride the wave! Get ready for Surf’s Up 2 : Wavemania! pic.twitter.com/wHxccq0F4t
Cody Maverick, hungry for a new challenge, convinces an infamous big-wave-riding crew known as The Hang 5, voiced by WWE Superstars John Cena, The Undertaker, Triple H, WWE Diva Paige and Mr. McMahon, to let him join them on their journey to a mysterious surf spot known as The Trenches, where, legend has it, they’ll find the biggest waves in the world. Cody soon discovers that the life he left behind might be more heroic than what any death-defying wave has to offer. Genndy Tartakovsky’s protégé Henry Yu (story artist on “Sym-Bionic Titan” and both “Hotel Transylvania” feature films) makes his directorial debut with this project, which is produced by Michelle Wong (production manager on “Hotel Transylvania 2”) and features computer animation from Rainmaker Entertainment Inc. Abdul Williams (“Lottery Ticket”) is writing the screenplay.
I've done a lot of stuff…but voice Hunter the penguin? That's a first. Excited for Surf's Up 2: Wavemania! pic.twitter.com/NS3DD8szL8
“We are thrilled to be working with Sony Pictures Animation to bring Cody Maverick back to audiences for more adventures, paired with our WWE Superstars in what promises to be a fun animated film for the entire family,” said Michael Luisi, WWE Studios President.
“WWE has a proven track record with family audiences, and we couldn’t be more excited to partner with them and dive back into the fun world of our surfing penguins,” adds Kristine Belson, President, Sony Pictures Animation.
The following is the El Rey Network’s official preview for tonight’s episode of Lucha Underground:
KING CUERNO TAKES ON FENIX IN ALL NEW THRILLING EPISODE OF ‘LUCHA UNDERGROUND
In the all new mind-blowing episode of “Lucha Underground,” King Cuerno is on a mission to defend his title as the Gift of the Gods Champion against Fenix in a dramatic Ladder Match. Will King Cuerno fight hard enough to hold onto his title?
Find out on Wednesday, March 2nd at 8:00PM ET/PT on El Rey Network. Don’t miss out on new one-hour episodes of the lucha libre wrestling series from Emmy Award®-winning producer Mark Burnett every Wednesday at 8:00PM ET/PT.
LawNewz, the website founded by ABC Chief Legal Correspondent Dan Abrams, broke an interesting story today when it comes to the whole Hulk Hogan sex tape mess. Originally, when Hogan filed his lawsuit against Gawker, both Bubba the Love Sponge Clem and his ex-wife, Heather Cole were both co-defendants along with Gawker, Gawker founder Nick Denton, and then-Gawker editor A.J. Daulerio, who wrote the article about the sex tape of Hogan and Cole. Clem (who recorded the counter on a hidden security camera feeding into a DVR/DVD burner system) and Cole (who was aware she and Hogan was on camera and later told Tampa police that positioned the Hulkster for “better” shots) were dropped from the suit after Clem settled with Hogan. The terms of the settlement were sealed, and little was known…until today.
It had already come out via past filings that Clem transferred the copyright of the video (Bubba didn’t register it; all works are automatically copyrighted under United States law going back to early 1989) and had to make a public apology, which he did on his radio show. What weren’t known were the financial terms of the settlement. Today, after digging through various transcripts of hearings from Hogan’s case against Gawker, found one of Gawker’s lawyers discussing the settlement, including the financial terms and some of the other promises Clem made:
Mr. Clem got out of this case with a promise to testify to cooperate, to not disparage Mr. Bollea, and to not help us, and paid what they called the substantial sum of $5,000.
Yes, just $5,000, when Hogan is suing Gawker for $100 million. Gawker was trying to get the settlement admitted as evidence in the trial, and they felt the settlement amount was an important detail. Why? The case against Clem was dismissed “without prejudice,” meaning Hogan could re-file the case against Clem. Here’s the note about the settlement terms in context:
Then there is this dismissal without prejudice. Mr. Clem got out of this case with promise to testify to cooperate, to not disparage Mr. Bollea, and to not help us, and paid what they called the substantial sum of $5,000. But at that point, if Mr. Clem testified differently in his deposition, if he comes into court come March 7th and testifies differently in this courtroom, Mr. Bollea can restart a hundred million dollar lawsuit against him. That is the problem.
You can read that as, more or less, that Gawker is concerned by a former co-defendant and key witness changing his story after settling might have changed his story because the settlement terms were so forgiving. Especially since Hogan could just sue him again after he gets favorable testimony in the trial. The low settlement figure also makes you wonder if, by that point, Hogan was aware of the racist comments he made on one of the three videos Clem and Cole made of him (not the one Gawker had) and was willing to give Bubba a sweetheart deal to make sure Bubba wouldn’t do anything that would lead to those comments surfacing.
This week’s episode of WWE SmackDown was taped in Atlanta, GA at the Philips Arena.
– Dean Ambrose comes out to the ring to open up the show. He grabs a chair to sit on and cuts a promo. Kevin Owens interrupts and complains about not having a WrestleMania 32 opponent. Owens runs in to attack Ambrose, but Ambrose lays him out with a chair shot.
– The League of Nations def. The Usos: After the match, The Dudleys came out and beat down The Usos. They teased putting them through the table, but didn’t.
– Scott Hall is in the arena.
– Dolph Ziggler def. The Miz: Ziggler won with a small package pin in what was described as a short match.
– Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch – No Contest: Halfway through the match, Charlotte comes out and interferes. She attacks both competitors and beats them both down before walking away. No winner is announced.
– AJ Styles def. Kofi Kingston: The Phenomenal One got the 3-count after delivering a springboard elbow to Kingston.
– Dean Ambrose def. Kevin Owens: Ambrose won cleanly in a non-title match with the Dirty Deeds. After the match, Owens jumps Ambrose and sets up a table. Ambrose gets the upper hand and hits an elbow drop on Owens on the table.
Tammy “Sunny” Sytch is not happy with being mocked on The Edge and Christian Show. WWE’s parody ad for Sunny’s Miracle Drops mocked her Erratic Behavior, “Cake Fancer” and DUI’s.
Sytch has had her share of brushes with the law. Back in 2012, she was arrested five times within the span of four weeks; for disorderly conduct, third degree burglary, and three counts of violating a protective order. She was arrested a sixth time in January 2013, also for violating a protective order. She served 114 days in jail and was released in May 2013.
The Original Diva fired back with this rant aimed at Edge and Christian:
those who matter in the WWE office called to check on me in the hospital a couple weeks ago. Edge and Christian are just douchebags #ugly1s
