As widely reported, Extra! host and occasional wrestler Maria Menounos was booed heavily by fans while inducting former WWE Champion Bob Backlund into the WWE Hall of Fame at Madison Square Garden two weeks ago. This week’s issue of the Wrestling Observer reports that multiple WWE employees were upset with the crowd’s unwelcoming reaction to the television presenter and undefeated grappler, particularly since they love affiliations with celebrities and with her subsequent letter acknowledging the negative response, it got out that a strong portion of their fanbase lack proper manners, refinement and decency.

Menounos’ letter stated: Dear fellow WWE fans and members of the wrestling press,

As you know, I had the honor of inducting my friend, Bob Backlund, into the WWE Hall of Fame. The fans were a little rough as another inductee and friend, Donald Trump, would likewise experience. It’s understandable as we are not pro wrestlers and the honesty of the WWE fans is what makes it fun. However, I did the speech mainly to tell the world all the amazing things about Bob and I fear some of those things were not heard.

Below is my speech. I’m hoping you’ll print it for a good friend, a great champion, and one of the most incredible human beings I know.

Thanks and God Bless,
Maria Menounos.

===== Maria’s Hall of Fame speech =====

To induct anyone into the WWE Hall of Fame puts you in the company of the greatest artists, athletes and performers in the entire world. I CHALLENGE ANYONE who disagrees to show me another kind of entertainer who can recite monologues, in character, without the use of teleprompters and before world audiences, performing improv drama and comedy while flying through the air and taking bumps, 300 nights a year.

But for me tonight is even more special for I am not just inducting anyone into the WWE Hall of Fame. I’m inducting someone who encapsulates the word champion. Someone whom I’m a great fan of…Someone whom is my friend.

Growing up Greek and not speaking English, wrestling was one of the few things on TV I’d watch and be able to understand. I was five when Bob Backlund lost his title to The Sheik. I was 14 when “Mr. Backlund” returned. I was eighteen when I met Bob in person and I remember being in awe. It was on the set of my first movie and Bob was literally the most positive and striking force I have ever encountered. He was funny when we needed laughter – the man has an incredible and underrated sense of comedic timing – strong when we needed support and sensitive when we needed a friend.

While Working on Bob’s congressional campaign, a story came up about the Iron Shiek and his Persian Clubs. the Iron Shiek apparently had an exercise where he would swing these heavy wooden “Persian Clubs” behind his back. He had toured the nation’s gyms with the clubs and, apparently, no other strong man in the country could perform the exercise, nor could anyone on the WWF roster – except Bob, who did it….on his FIRST TRY. When I asked Bob how, he told me ‘when you believe you can do something…you can.’ The very next day, bob said he was going to perform an exercise of his own-the harvard step test in front of city hall on his election day. Twenty years earlier bob set a personal record doing the step test for two straight hours. The goal was to match that. we all thought he was crazy as he was well into his 50s by that time. Bob was not able to match that record. He made a new one. It wasn’t three hours. It wasn’t four hours. He did his harvard step test for eight hours straight!!! Once again reminding us all, if you believe you can do something, you can.

Speaking of Hollywood, one of the first days I was hosting the Today Show, John Cena and Vince McMahon happened to be guests. Of course, I’m huge fans of theirs, too, but I couldn’t help but threaten John that Bob would one day come back to put him in the chicken wing! They both had great things to say about Bob but I’m sure they thought I was a little nuts, as people have thought Bob was a little nuts. But along with everything else Bob taught me, its okay to be a little nuts.

I’m sure people thought Bob was more than a little nuts, when after an unprecedented 5 year run with the title, he refused to turn heel. He believed it would let down his fans which included many troubled youth who had looked up to him and in those days, it would have. In so doing he surrendered millions of dollars from the new age of rock and wrestling as well as the career he loved most.

Not only did Bob Backlund hold the title for almost six consecutive years – he did something perhaps even greater when he came back a decade later. He completely reinvented himself and his character. When you think of performers who’ve been able to successfully reinvent their characters, even in Hollywood, few names come to mind. Bob not only created an entire new persona he also went on to become wrestling’s number one heel and regained his title in one of the most successful comebacks in sports entertainment history.

But, most people know that. Like the greatest champions Bob Backlund carries himself with humility – which is why many of the facts I’m about to reveal are not known.

In a Pennsylvania match against Hulk Hogan, whom he pinned on several occasions, Bob Backlund picked Hulk up over his head with one arm. It’s a feat Hulk, and his own late father, often reflected on in astonishment.

Bob Backlund has only been to the doctor twice since 1973.

Bob Backlund has never done a drug. As he says and I quote, “I wouldn’t know what to do with them.”

Bob Backlund, within a three month span, won the NCAA wrestling championship and the National college football championship. He is perhaps the only man in history to hold that distinction.

In that championship football game, Bob Backlund recorded 22 tackles and 2 fumble recoveries. To give perspective, a team averages about 65 plays in an entire game.

Bob Backlund was a top shoot fighter if not THE top shoot fighter in the world of professional wrestling.

Bob Backlund intentionally NEVER squashed his opponents as he believed it would harm their future earnings.

Bob Backlund is in better condition than 99 percent of men…a third his age.

Bob Backlund has a diverse portfolio of stocks and real estate and has NEVER IN HIS LIFE PAID A DIME OF INTEREST!

Bob Backlund has a beautiful wife and daughter.

And at the end of the day, Bob Backlund justs want to help others in need.

Bob Backlund is simply one of, if not, THE greatest personal success stories for wrestlers, fans and people in general.

I know it wasn’t always easy in your career, Bob. But, in the face of shortcomings and disappointments, you never gave up or succumbed like so many of us understandably would. Instead, you continued working out, educating yourself and, always, helping others and donating your time to charity. Through it all you kept your faith and your resolve and here you are on the greatest stage being honored by your greatest peers. I’m excited for tonight, your book being published and all the amazing things you remain to accomplish in your journey. And, I believe there’s one more WWE run in that journey for you Bob, because ‘When u believe you can do something, you can.’

Some know you as Bob Backlund. Others as Mr. Backlund. I just know you as my champion, my hero and my friend. Thank you to the WWE Universe for allowing me to welcome to the stage, Mr. Bob Backlund!

Brodus Clay appeared as a guest on the latest edition of Busted Open Radio, hosted by Doug Mortman and Dave LaGreca (Busted Open Radio airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Sirius 94 and XM 208), where he addressed such topics as the evolution of his WWE character, his partnership with Tensai and the ongoing feud between The Funkadactyles and The Bella Twins.

On teaming with Tensai: “We’re kindred spirits. I don’t know if you guys have noticed and by the way, I don’t want to upset him, the name you’re looking for is Sweet T. Tensai is so angry, relax, have some fun. And everything goes with Sweet Tea, right? It’s a delicious drink and athletic big guy who can dance, why not?

“I think he’s right around 350 and I’m about 356 so seven plus. There’s a little resemblance [between us], one of us has still got his hair, which is always nice and between the two of us could pay some mortgages at a tattoo parlor but our styles are a little bit different though. Like his success in Japan and he has the Japanese influence into his work and I’m more of a suplex power guy, so the pairing of us together is actually ying and yang a little bit, which is cool. He enjoys being able to show the other side of him. As he was before, he was kind of one dimensional, you know, the angry guy, which can only go so far, I think. After a while it’s like, what is he mad about? He’s got a great job and the country is going broke and this guy is mad?”

On just having fun out there and yelling ‘suplex’: “Actually they were getting mad at me for doing that on TV. They’re like, ‘you seem like you’re picking on the guy’ when I’m telling him what I’m going to do to him, but I always thought that was the worst thing you can do to somebody, like ‘I’m going to take my hand and I’m going to put it in your face and I’m going to throw you.’ When you call it to him, it mentally gets in the guy’s head. I think I’m going to get back to that.”

The evolution of his character: “Coming out of NXT I felt that I was robbed and I finished second and I cut a pretty good speech on the crowd. I told them I was going to get some back because I was angry, and being with Alberto Del Rio was basically similar to when I was with Snoop. My role was to get his back and make him look as tough as possible and me smiling and cracking jokes wasn’t going to do that. So I had to put my personality in the back seat to take care of the job, but I knew it was a doorway for me to get my own personality an opportunity. So the time with Alberto was good in terms of learning and Alberto’s a great competitor and his experience helped me a lot, but as soon as I got a chance to be me, I never was a guy who was angry, that mean tough guy is usually the scariest guy in the room, I always noticed the guy that looked the meanest and act the meanest was terrified, that’s why he looked mean. And the guy who was smiling at you before he fought you was the guy you really worried about because he’s not sweating you. So that’s kind of like how I was, even body guarding with guys I was more of a talker and ran my mouth and smiled and stuff and it kept people off, especially if a guy’s is fired up and you’re laughing at him or smiling or winking at him it just messes with their mind. That was more who I am. Shaquille O’Neal was the same way. If you looked at him before a basketball game, he was silly, joking around, dancing, but come tip-off he was the business and I’m trying to be more like that.”

The Funkasaurus character: “I think the word is fun. I just wanted to have fun with it. I think that was something that the WWE was missing. With all the seriousness that’s going around today, people need to laugh, they need to have a good time, they need to look at somebody who’s not afraid to make fun of themselves a little bit. I mean everyone’s gotten a little too uptight. When I think of guys like the Junkyard Dog and even Hulk Hogan, when he came out and that music was playing and he was pointing and ripping his shirt and everybody got fired up and Ultimate Warrior came out and everybody was shaking ropes and they didn’t really know what they were doing but they knew they needed to be moving vigorously and it made sense and we kind of got away from that. I wanted, if anything else, Brodus Clay to be remembered as somebody who got you out of your seat and I think that’ll be remembered so you’ve got to come 100% with that. We have an open camp, Naomi and Cameron, they always have ideas and as the leader of the Funk Nation or Tons of Funk, now the official name of the tag team, it’s a big group but it’s a lot of fun and a lot of input and people come in with new ideas all the time and I always get all sorts of good ideas from Twitter, people going, ‘hey can you do this…’, and we try as much as possible to incorporate everyone’s opinion so everyone feels like they’re involved. Even the name, we went out and it came down to Lords of Funk and Tons of Funk and What the Funk and Sweet T was like, ‘I like Tons of Funk,’ I was like, ‘what are we, tipping scales?’ Next thing you know its #tippingscales, Tons of Funk. So it’s a group thing but you got to have fun with it.”

People of all ages dancing for Brodus: “I think it’s a testimony to how bad of a dancer I really am. The thing about it (the teen wolf dance) is anybody can do it, so when they see me dancing, ‘well I can do that.’ I think if I was like Fred Astaire out there or like break dance fighting and doing crazy splits and stuff like that I think people would be like, ‘ehhhh, I’m just going to watch him,’ but the fact that they’re like, ‘I can do that,’ it’s fun and I think they lose themselves. Matter of fact, at WM last year when I came out with Mama Clay and the Bridge Club I was like ‘everybody call your mama,’ there was a guy who was watching and was defiant, I was keeping him from his tough stuff, and when I was like “everybody grab your phone” he without even realizing just pulled his phone out and it wasn’t until it was up that he was like, ‘what?! No.’ Then he put his phone back down and if you watch it you can see me looking at him going like, ‘you dig? I got you.’ You can say what you want to say but you just lifted your phone up when I told you to. It can be euphoric and for tough guys it’s alright to lay back a little bit and have fun and when the bell rings still be about business but enjoy it, have fun, people are excited to see you.”

The Funkadactyles and the Bellas in the ring: “Well they’re both former Divas champions and I would argue that Naomi is the best pure athlete in the women’s division, period. Some of the stuff that she does, it just blows your mind. She’s just chomping at the bit and the more she gets out there the more things she does and Cameron makes up for her inexperience with she’s ferocious. She’s throwing blows out there and the Bellas, they’re wily veterans out there, but that’s what me and Sweet T are there for. We’re always coaching them on the sidelines. If you’ve seen me during the match, they got pom poms for me so I get up there and cheer for them as best I can but at the same time giving instructions and stuff. Experience wise you’ve got to give it to the Bella Twins but in terms of just overall effort, athleticism, and just work ethic, the Funkadactyles are there with them.”

Monday’s live 3-hour episode of WWE RAW drew a 3.08 rating with 4,149,000 viewers.

Here’s the hourly viewership data:

• Hour 1: 4,185,000
• Hour 2: 4,236,000
• Hour 3: 4,026,000

This week’s RAW was way down from last week’s post-WrestleMania 29 show, which did a 3.45 and nearly half a million more viewers.

2013 WWE Hall of Famer Bruno Sammartino appeared on The NB Show with Nick Buzzelli & Bryan Chechak this week and spoke about WrestleMania 29 weekend, his future with WWE and more. Here are some highlights of what he said about:

If WrestleMania Weekend Was What He Expected:

“No. It was even more busy. In 3 or 4 days I don’t think I had more than a couple hours of sleep. They had me going from morning to night. So many different interviews for radio, television, & magazine. They just had so many lined up, I had no idea that I was going to be that busy and not have time to mingle a little bit with some of the friends I saw there. It was just go go go, I mean it was extremely busy.”

If He Misses Being In Front of Large Crowds:

“I’ll be honest with you. Yes WrestleMania was big, they had 70,000/80,000 I was told, but it met a heck of a lot more to me to be back in Madison Square Garden. To be back in the Garden one more time after all these years, after making so many appearances for so many years that was, for me, more thrilling. It was emotional to be back there because I have so many memories of Madison Square Garden. Keep in mind, I headlined Madison Square Garden more than anyone in the history of the garden. That place is special to me. It really gave me tremendous publicity worldwide because of Madison Square Garden. That’s the most famous arena in the world.”

His Future with WWE:

“Here is what I agreed with them on. They are going to do a video game on me, they are going to do some DVDs of my best matches and all that kind of stuff. I think they are going to do some merchandise like new dolls and stuff like that. I don’t know what else. T-shirts, they are going to do all these kind of things. So I’m sure, even though I have no commitments, they will come to me about appearances here and there. But again, I wouldn’t sign any agreement to any of that because the way I worked it out with them is that I’d be willing in some areas, but all they can do is ask me and then I will have the right to say yes or no. I don’t want to be in a situation where they could call me and be like ‘hey you are going to appear on Monday Night Raw in Tennessee next Monday’ or ‘you’re going to be in Boston.’ I wouldn’t go for any of that. If they called me for one of these things, I’d have to see if I was up to it at the time and let them know.”