As noted, John Cena returned to the ring at the WWE live event at Madison Square Garden for the first time since taking a hiatus from WWE after his match with current United States Champion Alberto Del Rio at the Hell In A Cell pay-per-view in October.
Cena worked a match with Del Rio at the MSG event this past weekend, who he will also face on RAW tonight in his first televised match since taking some time off to focus on his acting career.
The MSG bout between Cena and Del Rio saw Cena score the victory by way of disqualification after Rusev failed to cost Cena the match by interfering twice, leading to a frustrated Del Rio hitting him with a blatant low-blow.
In addition to Cena making is in-ring return at last night’s WWE live event, Del Rio debuted new ring gear. You can check out photos of Cena’s first match back in WWE and Del Rio’s new ring gear below.
After some online speculation heading into tonight’s WWE RAW, WWE Divas Champion Charlotte revealed her status for what will be the final 2015 episode of the show.
As we reported on Monday morning, Charlotte was among those advertised to appear at the non-televised WWE live event in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which is scheduled on the same day, and as advertised, that’s exactly where the WWE Divas Champion will be.
However, Charlotte also alluded to the way WWE may keep her angle with Becky Lynch alive on the show this evening without her physically being at the Barclays Center to do so herself.
Charlotte posted the following on Twitter late Monday afternoon, which has led to speculation that Lynch and her father, Ric Flair, will keep the Lynch-Charlotte storyline alive on RAW this week.
Can't be there tonight at #Raw but this is a perfect opportunity for @BeckyLynchWWE to #DoItWithFlair. Time to go to work woman! ????
Following the announcement he made on Monday afternoon that he will be appearing at next year’s WrestleMania 32 event at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, The Rock stuck around on social media for a short while to respond to some of the fans reactions — both positive and negative — to the big news.
Below is a recap of The Rock’s replies to fans commenting on the fact that he will be appearing at WrestleMania on April 3rd.
WWE Hall Of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin has officially closed the door on the possibility of having one more match in WWE. The WWE Hall Of Famer spoke with ABC News to promote his weekly podcasts, his new beer, the new season of his “Broken Skull Challenge” show on CMT and the WWE 2K16 video game. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On his WWE exit and transitioning into acting and reality television:
“My exit strategy from pro wrestling wasn’t carved in stone. I retired because of a few neck issues, some neurological issues … and finally after about three years of hunting and fishing, I said to myself, ‘Steve you need to get off you a** and get to L.A.’ When you wrestle for 15 years, you don’t want to go back to driving that forklift. Based on the name value I had, I went to L.A. and got involved in independent movies.”
“I really don’t do too many movies any more because memorizing words on a page is painful to me, but I love the reality stuff.”
On being outspoken on his weekly “Steve Austin Show” and “Steve Austin Show – Unleashed!” podcasts:
“When I came up with the Stone Cold [image] … I pushed the envelope creatively. Maybe that doesn’t exist today as much. People are a little trepidatious, because there’s really only one company to work for. … I’m pro WWE, but also I maintain my independence and speak my true thoughts, never bashing the product. But yes, I can be critical. I’ve earned the right to be critical.”
On if he will ever return to the ring:
“Naw man, I’m done. I’d rather leave well enough alone.”
As promised, The Rock delivered the special announcement to his WWE fans prior to the final 2015 edition of RAW on Monday night, and it was actually a pretty decent announcement when compared to those who have made such promises in the past.
The Rock revealed via his official Instagram page that despite rumors to the contrary, he will be making an appearance at WrestleMania 32 on April 3, 2016 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The future WWE Hall Of Famer wrote the following on the social media account, informing fans on the three goals he has for his appearance at WWE’s biggest annual event.
IT’S OFFICIAL: People’s Champ is coming home to do 3 things with THE PEOPLE: Set an ALL-TIME attendance record, ELECTRIFY Dallas like never before & make all time #WRESTLEMANIA history. And we have FUN. Ok that’s four things but you know what the hell The Rock’s sayin’.. THANK YOU #WWEUniverse! It’s always an honor coming home and I wouldn’t miss it for the world. #PeoplesChamp4L #MakingElectrifyingHistory #SmackethLaidDownOnThyCandyAsses
Just minutes after he made the announcement, WWE.com posted an article to promote the fact that The Rock will be at WrestleMania 32, and WWE’s official WrestleMania Twitter page tweeted the following to create some buzz for the news on social media.
– Triple H posted the following on his official Twitter page on Monday afternoon to announce an additional 1pm NXT live event in Chicago, Illinois on Saturday, January 16th.
– WWE posted the following on their official Twitter page to congratulate John Cena on being on the cover of the January issue of Muscle & Fitness magazine.
– Finally, WWE posted a 26-page year-end feature on the top 25 matches of 2015 on WWE.com on Monday. Coming in as the number one WWE match of 2015 was the triple-threat match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship between John Cena, Brock Lesnar and Seth Rollins at the WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view in January. WWE posted the following to promote the feature, which features comments from the talents or those close to the talents involved in each of the matches that made the list.
Several matches have been announced for WWE’s upcoming Straight Outta Dudleyville: The Legacy of the Dudley Boyz DVD. In addition to the matches, there will be a documentary portion about the Dudley Boyz that will run for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. Tommy Dreamer, Taz, Joey Styles and others have been interviewed for the DVD, which will be WWE’s first Superstar-themed DVD of 2016.
The DVD will be released in the U.K. on April 11th, and no U.S. release date has been announced yet. Between the matches, the documentary, and the extras, there will be approximately 7 hours of material on the DVD and approximately 8 hours on the Blu-ray.
Here are the matches announced for the DVD so far:
— The Dudley Boyz Come Back to WWE
RAW • August 24, 2015
— The Dudley Boyz vs. The Ascension
SmackDown • August 27, 2015
— WWE Tag Team Championship Match
The New Day vs. Dudley Boyz
Night of Champions • September 20, 2015
— Extreme Rules 8-Man Tag Team Match
The Dudley Boyz, Tommy Dreamer & Rhyno vs. The Wyatt Family
John Cena, who finally makes his WWE television debut on the final 2015 episode of RAW later this evening, served as a guest host once again for NBC’s “Today” show on Monday morning and didn’t exactly shine when taking part in a game named after himself.
Cena played a 2015 pop culture trivia game called “Have You Cena It?” and while he was already not having the best showing, the worst moment for Cena during the game segment was him failing to buzz in quickly enough to answer a question about a movie that he was in.
The longtime top WWE Superstar faces Alberto Del Rio on tonight’s RAW, the man he lost the WWE United States Championship to in his final match before taking a hiatus from WWE to focus on his acting career and new FOX reality show “American Grit.”
Cena actually made his WWE in-ring return on Saturday night, where he defeated Del Rio via disqualification at WWE’s live event at Madison Square Garden when Del Rio hit a blatant low-blow on him after two sneak attacks from Rusev failed to secure the reigning U.S. Champion a three count.
In addition to the quick-clip at the top of the page, below are some photos and quick-clips from the official “Today” show Twitter page that include Cena’s appearance on the show earlier this morning. To watch the full “Have You Cena It?” segment, click here.
Former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins, who made a surprise appearance at the Slammy Awards edition of WWE RAW last week but is still on the sidelines recovering from a serious knee operation, is facing another situation where worlds are colliding, as an issue with his ex-fiancee’ has spilled online.
Rollins’ ex-fiancee’, Leighla Schultz, known to pro wrestling fans as the woman who posted nude photos of he and his current girlfriend, former NXT Diva Zahra Schreiber, on Rollins’ social media earlier this year, is at it again in another incident that involves the Internet directly.
The starting bid for the engagement ring is $14,000. The ring was appraised for $18,420 as recently as April of 2014.
Below are some appraisal photos of the ring as well as the official description listed along with it. We will, however, avoid posting a link to the actual website they came from, as it contains Rollins’ personal home address, or at least the one he used to have.
“One ladies diamond engagement ring in stamped 14k white gold. The side diamonds are microwave set w/ 1 round brilliant cut center diamond.”
Tonight’s episode of WWE RAW takes place from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. It will be the final RAW of 2015 and WWE will be working with a limited crew, since the company has scheduled a rare Monday night live event from Allentown, PA.
RAW will feature the long awaited return of John Cena, who has been off WWE television for over two months. Cena will challenge Alberto Del Rio for the United States Championship, a rematch from their title change at October’s Hell in a Cell PPV.
Two weeks after Roman Reigns captured the WWE Championship, Mr. McMahon will be returning tonight as well to address Reigns knocking him out with a Superman punch en route to winning the gold.
Superstars advertised for RAW include Dean Ambrose, Kevin Owens, Sheamus, Ryback, Rusev, and The New Day.
As always, join us here tonight for Live Coverage of WWE RAW.
– Longtime friends Zack Ryder and Dolph Ziggler teamed together over the weekend when Ryder’s Hype Bros partner Mojo Rawley did not attend the WWE live event from Chicago:
– Following his WWE television return at the special Slammy Awards edition of RAW last week, PWInsider.com is reporting that former WWE Intercontinental Champion Santino Marella will be appearing at the final RAW of 2015 tonight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Santino also appeared on a segment at last Tuesday night’s live Super SmackDown show in Des Moines, Iowa.
– WWE and TNA television ratings will be delayed over the next few days due to the holidays. Ratings for the Thursday night replay of the aforementioned live Super SmackDown show on Tuesday night will be available later today, while the ratings for tonight’s RAW won’t be available until this Wednesday. The ratings for TNA’s special on POP TV last Tuesday night won’t be available until Thursday.
– WWE recently applied to trademark the name “Gorgeous George” now that the long-rumored movie on the wrestling legend is finally moving forward following the news that Josh Gad and Ryan Dixon signed on to write the script for the WWE biopic.
Make sure to visit SESoops.com this evening for live results coverage of the final episode of WWE RAW in 2015!
As noted, just two weeks after his WWE television return on RAW, Vince McMahon has been officially announced for tonight’s RAW at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, and Roman Reigns is already sending subtle warnings to the WWE Chairman.
McMahon was added to the show, which faces heavy competition from the NFL this week due to the playoff implications in tonight’s Cincinnati Bengals vs. Denver Broncos Monday Night Football game. The show isn’t helped by the fact that only half of the roster is expected to be available, as the other half will be working the WWE live event scheduled for tonight in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Reigns took to social media to post the following comment on the announcement that McMahon will be appearing on the show again this week, advising the longtime owner of the company to remember what happened to him the last time he was on the show, referring to the “Superman Punch” he took from the reigning WWE World Heavyweight Champion.
WWE presents the final 2015 edition of RAW live in Brooklyn, New York later this evening, however there are several top WWE Superstars and Divas who aren’t expected to be in attendance inside the Barclays Center tonight.
WWE has a double-booking with RAW in Brooklyn and a non-televised WWE live event in Allentown, Pennsylvania today, and as a result, there will be split crews at each show.
Advertised for the WWE live event in Allentown this evening are Kane, Dolph Ziggler, Bray Wyatt, Erick Rowan, Luke Harper, Braun Strowman, Tyler Breeze, Tommy Dreamer, The Dudley Boyz, Paige and WWE Divas Champion Charlotte.
It’s worth pointing out that some of the aforementioned names working tonight’s Allentown event may still appear on RAW in the form of a pre-taped segment, but they are not expected to appear live.
Make sure to visit SEScoops.com this evening for live results coverage of the final episode of WWE RAW in 2015!
NXT star Apollo Crews recently spoke with The Mirror out of London to promote the NXT TakeOver: London special while on the recent NXT U.K. Tour. During the interview, Crews, formerly known as Uhaa Nation, spoke about working with Samoa Joe early into his WWE run in NXT, his thoughts on eventually moving to the main WWE roster, how the late WWE Hall Of Famer Dusty Rhodes helped influence his new character and more. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On working with Samoa Joe:
“It’s amazing. It’s not every day you get to be in the ring with somebody of that calibre so to be able to have that opportunity is amazing for me. It’s a chance to show not just everybody else but myself that I can hang on that level. Sometimes you get caught up in Florida, it gets stressful, and like I said you start taking it like it’s an actual job, but being here and working with guys like that… somehow in a weird way you get so relaxed and just let things happen, you know? I think it comes with him being so experienced and coaching me through certain things, the amount of things I’ve learned from him just these last few days has been really helpful. For me it’s a huge opportunity because he is somebody I used to watch before I even got into wrestling. It doesn’t even seem that way now, you see certain guys before you get here, and when you get here they become your peers and your friends, so it’s weird in that way but amazing at the same time.”
On making it to the main roster:
“I wouldn’t say NXT is a stepping stone, by no means. I think everybody has certain things they want to accomplish here and of course the goal is main roster, but when you come here, you come here with things you want to accomplish here in NXT. You get here and things start happening. It’s definitely not a stepping stone by no means. I think for me personally if you’re a wrestler, NXT is where you want to be. From being down at the Performance Center, starting getting on the road more often, travelling to Texas, Brooklyn, Louisville, Sacramento and now the UK, it’s just growing and expanding, and more and more people want to be a part of this and more people are getting onboard. The WWE Network is a major outlet for NXT and when you come to a place like this and see the support we’re getting, it just shows how big NXT really is.”
On Dusty Rhodes being a big help with his new WWE character:
“I would say Dusty Rhodes first and foremost. I got the privilege, opportunity and honour to work side by side with Dusty from the time I came into NXT until the time that he passed. It was cool, I would always go to talk to Dream in the office and end up talking to him for a couple of hours each time I went in there. I would go in and every time he would see me he would say ‘what do you want?’ ‘You know what I think, I think you’re ready, you remind me of me, now get out of my office!’ It would quickly turn into ‘just kidding, just come in and sit down baby’. He first and foremost was somebody who saw something in me. There have been some battles and Dusty has gone in to bat for me on a few things and I will always cherish that, knowing what he meant to me, and never forget anything he said to me.”
The Young Bucks recently wrapped up their final indie dates before working primarily for Ring of Honor. The decorated tag team recently revealed the details of their unique 1-year deal with ROH, which allows them to still work for PWG in California and NJPW overseas.
For Christmas, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson gave former WWE Superstar Haku (real name Tonga Fifita) a new truck.
While Tonga Fifita is known to wrestling fans as either Haku or Meng, to Johnson, he is Uncle Tonga. Johnson’s grandfather, WWE Hall of Famer High Chief Peter Maivia, helped train Fifita to become a professional wrestler in the 1970s.
Johnson shared a story on Instagram of borrowing a pair of purple trunks from Haku for his tryout match with WWE, which was also his first-ever wrestling match (he faced The Brooklyn Brawler in a dark match on March 10, 1996 at a Superstars taping in Corpus Christi, Texas).
Merry Christmas Uncle Tonga – enjoy your new truck! Cool Christmas story to share with y’all… Known my “Uncle Tonga” since I was 5yrs old. My grandfather, High Chief Peter Maivia helped train him to become a professional wrestler in the 70’s. Throughout Tonga’s illustrious wrestling career he changed his name to “King Haku” and became one the WWE’s most sought after “bad guys” and still known to this day for being one of the toughest and legit most vicious man in wrestling history.
Years later and I get a call from WWE saying “Vince McMahon wants to see you wrestle immediately. He’s flying you to RAW tomorrow and you’ll have a tryout match.” I thought holy shit that’s awesome, buuuut there’s a few problems: For me, I wasn’t just having “a tryout match”, because I had never actually HAD a real match in my life. Ever. WWE thought that I already had multiple matches under my belt, but little did they know. What they also didn’t know was that I was broke as hell and didn’t actually own wrestling gear – no boots, knee pads or most importantly.. wrestling trunks. I went to Sports Authority and bought some bright ass white volleyball knee pads, called my Uncle and asked if he had ANY trunks I could use for my tryout. He said all I have is a pair of shiny purple trunks (purple was his signature color), I told him I don’t care if the trunks are all the colors of Skittles, I’ll happily wear them. When I picked the trunks up from him I’ll never forget the monster hug he gave me, look me in the eyes and said, “I’m so proud of you. Go get ’em nephew!” Here’s the picture of me wrestling my FIRST MATCH EVER in Corpus Christi, TX in front of 15,000 people – proudly in my lucky purple trunks. And the rest… was history.
My Uncle Tonga is a family man, humble man and champion. Most importantly one of the greatest human beings I know. So we walk outside and I said “Uncle how do you like my truck?” He said, “Whoooaaa nephew it’s beautiful… I love it!” I said “Good ’cause it’s yours.” He was speechless. Thru tears (manly of course;) we monster hugged ’cause I’ll never forget what he did for me when I had nothing. Merry Christmas Uncle and ofa atu. #LuckyPurpleTrunks
WWE announcer and host of his own new WWE Network show took exception to comments made about the program, called “Legends With JBL,” from former WWE, WCW and TNA writer Vince Russo.
JBL wrote a lengthy explanation in response to comments made by Russo about JBL’s past shows with the man who helped WCW finally overtake WWE as the biggest national wrestling company, Eric Bischoff.
Featured above are the original comments made on video by Vince Russo, which were released back in September, and below is JBL’s response, which he posted on his Facebook page on Saturday.
“I saw the comments Vince Russo made about the interview I did with Eric Bischoff. I want to address a couple of points. Mr Russo said that Eric decided to appear on WWE programming-this is true, but at my request ,this was NOT Eric’s idea, it was mine. Eric is a friend and I knew he would be a great interview. To take WCW from losing $10 million to making $40+ million in five years is one of greatest stories in history. I wanted to capture this…and we did.
I am very proud of this interview. I understand Mr Russo is not happy with the content of some of Eric’s comments. I felt Eric was honest, I have known Eric for some time-I have a ton of respect for him. However, there is two sides to every story. What Eric did is incredible, I wanted this on record. For the record-I believe Eric.
It is no secret that Mr Russo and I don’t like each other, but that being said-I have no problem asking him on a show and letting him say whatever he wants. Mr Russo and I have both gotten older and hopefully wiser-would love him on a future show. I have zero animosity to Mr Russo—I am getting old:)
The other point is that Eric made money on the interview-I know his pay and it was done for history and not for money. Same as I did some other great interviews that are ‘in the can’, I want to preserve history and show honor and respect to legends with this format, it’s not about money…trust me:) It’s some of the highest watched shows on the Network.
I asked for this format to record history and honor legends-Eric fits both. Proud of my friend, Eric, for what he has done, I thought I was fair with the interview. Would be honored to have Vince Russo on the show as well-and would treat him with respect as well.
BTW, I am not asking for Mr Russo to come on the show-I am not, happy if he did, but not seeking him to come on show. He seems to be doing fine doing what he is doing, and I am happy working with at risk kids in Bermuda on my days off and certainly not asking for more work as every day I do a network show takes away from work with kids who really need my help!”
Former TNA Wrestling star and active international star Christopher Daniels recently appeared as a guest on the Pancakes and Powerslams Podcast and spoke about the end of his run as the “Fallen Angel,” the moment he knew there was nothing left for him in TNA and more. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On the end of his “Fallen Angel” run:
“I started doing the stuff with Sting, and that was the period of time where I had the face paint. It was an angle that Vince Russo had come up with. And, for some reason, I felt they never really pulled the trigger on it. Like, they had me talking about doing stuff with Sting, and they had me interacting with Sting, but I felt like they were still doing other things with Sting that never made me the focus of Sting’s attention. So I always felt like by not making me seem like the most important thing on Sting’s plate, that it sort of hurt me. It made me look like I wasn’t important enough for the fans to care about either. So that was the end of the whole ‘Fallen Angel’ character with me, just because I felt like it wasn’t working, I felt like I had gone as far as I could go in TNA with that mentality and that style of promo.”
On feeling like there was nothing left for him in TNA after his angle with Sting:
“I pitched the idea of doing Curry Man with them, and they gave me a year while I was doing Curry Man as a character. At the end of that, they got rid of the Curry Man character, they fired him, and I came back for a short period of time. First as Suicide, because the person that was doing Suicide got injured right away, and so I took his place for a couple of months. And then I was back [as] myself, then just near the beginning of 2010, they basically let me go. They said that they really didn’t have anything for me, and so they were going a different direction.”
WWE Diva and Total Divas star Nikki Bella recently revealed that she won’t know the status of her ability to make a WWE in-ring comeback until the end of January at the earliest.
The official word from WWE regarding Nikki’s current absence from TV is that she is out resting a sore back, however Nikki herself indicated on social media that she was in the process of rehabbing a neck injury. She later revealed that she is having work done on bulging discs in her neck.
Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet broke the news over the weekend Nikki’s latest injury is the result of her repeatedly performing her “Rack Attack” finisher, so we’ve likely seen the last of that move.
The former Divas Champion, who hasn’t wrestled since the October 26th edition of RAW, tweeted the following on Saturday regarding her health:
@_BellaFam @Bazing56 haha no, unfortunately was seeing the neurologist today. Will let the Bella Army know soon about my injury ?
As we reported here recently, WWE Diva and former Total Divas regular Cameron has been training out of the WWE Performance Center and working NXT live events as of late.
Below is a video that the former member of The Funkadactyls posted on Christmas day earlier this weekend, showing a brief clip of her working out in the ring with independent wrestler Carlos Cannon.
Cameron promised her fans she wouldn’t give up and would not be remembered as the girl who was eliminated from WWE Tough Enough, or the WWE Diva who didn’t know how to pin her opponent.
Below is the blog that accompanied the video on Cameron’s official Instagram page.
My Early Christmas Present
The road leading to our ultimate goals and dreams is never an easy path to navigate. Pain, criticism and disappointment are just some of the potholes along the way. How you work your way through them is what separates the believers from the achievers.
Over the past few months a lot of you have asked me where I am and why I have not shared any videos of my training. I’m currently training down at NXT and performing at NXT live shows. Unfortunately, some things are out of my control so I can’t show you much but I can share this clip of my good friend @carlocannon me training before I left for NXT.
In this business you rarely have any creative control but you do have control over how much effort and work you put into yourself. These 15 seconds are just a peek into what I have been doing to perfect my craft. To some of you out there I may be that girl who got booted from Tough Enough and to others I may be that girl who didn’t know how to pin her opponent. Regardless of how you view me I refuse to allow my mistakes to define my character and legacy. I refuse to give up because others say I can’t make it. I’m too hungry, too relentless and too ambitious to simply sit quietly and accept what is given to me. I will work my ass off and do everything possible to be the performer I know I am because that is what defines who I am. The Cameron you remember is not the Cameron you will soon see. #Cameronscomeback #MyJourney #MerryChristmas
Two weeks after being Superman Punched by WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns, Vince McMahon will make his return to Raw this Monday.
WWE.com announced in its Five-Point Preview for Raw that The Chairman will be on the show.
Breaking News: Mr. McMahon will return to Raw this Monday, WWE.com has learned.
After being Superman Punched by WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns two weeks ago, it’s safe to assume that The Chairman will have a lot on his mind.
Former WWE Women’s Champion Chyna was scheduled to appear at Maryland Championship Wrestling’s Season’s Beatings event in Joppatowne, Maryland tonight, but canceled at the last minute with her agent claiming flu-like symptoms.
Unfortunately we regret to inform you that Chyna will not be appearing at tonight’s Seasons Beatings event in Joppa, MD at the MCW Arena.
We were never informed that there were any issues and for the last couple of weeks Chyna has been tweeting on twitter and Posting on Facebook promoting the appearance and telling her fans how excited she was to be coming in to meet them.
Doing our due diligence as we always do to follow up when we have performers coming in to a show last night we checked her itinerary leading up to when she was supposed to board her flight in LA. The airline noted that the itinerary was cancelled by the passengers (one for her and one for her agent Anthony from Good Guy Entertainment).
Obviously we immediately started reaching out to her agent because no one informed us of the itinerary cancellation. We then received this text from Anthony:
“I know it’s late there. I was going to wait a bit longer before I reached out. I’m just arriving at the hospital with Chyna. It might be appendicitis. We got to the airport and she bellied over in pain. I had no choice. Once I know more I’ll let you know”
We were curious as to how he knew that “It might be appendicitis” because he is not a doctor and he never gave us clarity on that but obviously we were concerned for her health first we asked Anthony to keep us in the loop and let us know what was going on. While concerned for her health we also still had to think about our show and our fans. We pulled up other flights that would be able to still get her here and started looking at back up options.
We received no other responses to texts at all for just about 11 hours. We sent several texts to Anthony to check on her status and her condition because we saw that she was retweeting people on Twitter so we were to assume that would not be a priority of someone that was doubled over in pain in an emergency room at a hospital. Anthony did not respond to any of our texts throughout the night and into the morning.
Finally 11 hours later at about 10:30 this morning EST, time we received the following text from Anthony:
“Cannot tell you how sorry we are. But Chyna can’t make it. I know this is horrible news. Just got her home. She has a virus that they still can’t determine. Tests on Monday with her doctor but she is sick, like it’s a bad flu. Vomit, sharp abdominal pain. If you send me the 100 pieces, I’ll have her sign for free to make up for air fare you lost. She will tweet her disappointment that she couldn’t be there. I will try to grab a video message from her later today expressing her disappointment to show the fans. So sorry, our first cancellation”
That being said our focus had to immediately shift to doing whatever we could not to disappoint the fans that are coming out to the final show of 2015, Seasons Beatings tonight at the MCW Arena in Joppa, MD.
Former WWE Star Billy Gunn literally dropped everything at 11:30 this morning, cancelled plans tonight with his family, got on the phone with us and found an airline ticket that can get him from Orlando Florida to BWI in time for the show tonight, got off the phone with us, grabbed his things and headed to the airport and is now enroute to Baltimore. What a class act and we appreciate him doing this for our fans.
Also cancelling family plans for this evening and dropping everything they are doing is Former WWE Diva and MCW Women’s Champion Mickie James and her fiancé Former TNA World Champion Magnus who are also on their way to Seasons Beatings to take part in the pre-show meet and greet.
Chyna is celebrating her birthday on Sunday as she turns 45-years-old.
John Cena makes his WWE in-ring return for the first time in over two months at the WWE live event at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Saturday evening.
Cena, who last competed at the WWE Hell In A Cell pay-per-view on October 25, 2015, where he lost his WWE United States Championship to the returning Alberto Del Rio, will be competing against Del Rio once again for his first trip to the squared circle later this evening.
As noted, Cena vs. Del Rio is also confirmed for Cena’s first televised match back this coming Monday night, December 28th at the final WWE RAW show of the year. Monday’s edition of RAW emanates live from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Also scheduled for tonight’s live event at MSG is WWE Intercontinental Champion Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens. WWE talent advertised to appear at the event this evening in addition to Cena, Del Rio, Ambrose and Owens include Ric Flair and Charlotte, The Wyatt Family, The Dudley Boyz, Big Show, Ryback, Rusev, The Miz, Goldust and Stardust.
In the highlights posted below, the WWE Hall Of Famer talks about the reason Triple H didn’t contact him while he was going through recovery, his substance abuse storyline in WCW and Road Dogg’s current position with WWE after going through similar issues to Hall.
On the substance abuse angle in WCW and why he feels it was quickly shut down despite his warnings of it being “in bad taste”:
“Eric came to me and said, ‘now, I’ve got this [idea]’ because he was really big into all the mark stuff, all the dirt sheets that were online now and he’s going, ‘we’ll do this [substance abuse storyline] because the word’s out’ and I said, ‘Eric, I’ll do whatever you want because I still need them big checks rolling in.’ I said, ‘I personally I think it’s in bad taste, but you’re the boss’. I said, ‘I’ll do it and I’ll do it as good as I can even if I think it’s wrong’, so we went that way. They went with it until it came down from the higher ups at Turner, like, ‘hey, that’s not funny’ because everybody, unfortunately, knows someone who suffers from mental illness or addiction, so, obviously, one of those big shots in Turner had somebody in his family [struggling with such issues] and went, ‘that’s not funny. Stop now.'”
On the reason Triple H didn’t contact him after his initial call to Hall when he was going through recovery:
“When [Triple H] contacted me about the [WWE] Hall of Fame [induction], he called me and said, ‘hey, how are you doing? I wanted to reach out to you for years,’ he said, ‘but all the experts were saying ‘no. No, let him focus on just him getting himself together, not worrying about wrestling or being somewhere or doing this. Let him focus on getting well.’ So he said, ‘man, I wanted to reach out to you for so long,’ because one time, he did call and apparently, he said, ‘oh, I just talked to Scott’ and they went, ‘oh, don’t do that!’, so then I didn’t hear from him for a long time.”
On Road Dogg making a full recovery from similar issues and now having a prominent position in WWE:
“Well, the one thing that I’m happy about is like Road Dogg. And Road Dogg didn’t miss many parties either and now he’s like Hunter’s righthand man. He’s there. He was running Smackdown when the Tough Enough show was on because Vince [McMahon] and Hunter and Stephanie [McMahon], they would all go to the live Tough Enough broadcast and Road Dogg was basically calling the shots at Smackdown, which they tape on Tuesday and air Thursday, so he’s running the show and he said, the last time I saw him, ‘yeah, and the ratings actually went up a little bit.’ He said, ‘Vince pulled me aside and said, ‘maybe I don’t need to make Tuesdays.’ I’m just saying that Road Dogg, at one time, was right there in the same category maybe as me and now he’s doing great and he has a great mind!”
