– Charlotte, North Carolina NBC affiliate WCNC did a report this week covering Ric Flair’s health scare on Monday night, where he was sent to the hospital by WWE doctors after they were concerned about his swollen foot.
– The April 8th post-WrestleMania edition of WWE RAW from the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey is sold out. Additionally, there are several WWE Axxess events that have sold out as well.
– Here’s the latest episode of WWE Inbox:
There are some strange places WWE Superstars have been asked for an autograph. Watch this’s week edition of “WWE Inbox” to find out where.
Earlier this month, WWE announcer JBL attempted to climb Argentina’s Mount Aconcagua (“Mt. Death”), but was unable to reach the summit due to bad weather. He climbed up about 20,00 feet, but got caught up in storms that took two lives. He vows to try again next year. Check out these photos he posted on Facebook of his attempt:
– There have been a lot of changes to WWE’s creative team taking place behind the scenes in recent months. Following the recent departure of Eric Pankowski, RAW’s lead writer is Ed Koskey, Smackdown’s lead writer is Dave Kapoor. WWE also recently hired a new Emmy Award-winning soap opera writer, David Kreizman. There’s a running joke backstage that WWE has so many different writers with various job titles, but the pay is not great and recent requests for pay increases have been denied.
– The official title for WWE’s upcoming War Games DVD is, “WWE: War Games: WCW’s Most Notorious Matches.”
– WWE’s upcoming In Your House DVD, which hits stores on April 30th, will have a total runtime of approximately 7 1/2 hours. The Blu-ray version will have an additional hour and a half of exclusive content.
– Dolph Ziggler tweeted the following about the Bella Twins vs. Funkadactyls match that will air on tonight’s WWE Main Event:
– WWE.com has an article up announcing that both Mark Henry and Ryback broke the NFL Combine record for the 225-pound bench press at Tuesday night’s WWE SmackDown taping from Hershey, PA. Visit the WWE.com link to find out who won the competition between the two WrestleMania opponents.
– The following matches will take place on tonight’s episode of WWE Main Event:
US Champion Antonio Cesaro vs. Kane (Non-Title Match)
– The dark main event after last night’s WWE SmackDown tapings in Hershey, PA saw Randy Orton, Ryback adn Sheamus defeat The Shield by DQ when they hit Ryback with a steel chair. The Shield was setting up Ryback for the 3-man powerbomb onto a chair, but Orton and Sheamus make the save and the babyfaces hit their finishers to end the show.
After his reported hospitalization on Monday night, Ric Flair’s agent, Melinda Morris Zanoni of Legacy Talent and Entertainment, released the following statement regarding his health:
“Ric is doing well, he feels great, and is home. WWE’s medical staff performed a physical on Ric yesterday, like they do all of their athletes, and recommended that he have a doctor take a closer look at his swollen leg.”
“Upon arriving back in Charlotte today he went to see his doctors and it was determined that there is a blood clot. He was not admitted to the hospital, rather released with medication, which the doctors are confident will work quickly causing Ric to completely heal soon.”
“Ric appreciates everyone’s concern and is looking forward to seeing fans at his next scheduled appearance in Hagerstown, MD on Friday and performing for WWE very soon.”
Here’s Part 11 of our WrestleMania Retrospective series, looking back at past WrestleMania events as we march towards WrestleMania 29 on April 7th
WrestleMania XI (1995) Tagline: None Date: April 2, 1995 Venue: Hartford Civic Center, Hartford, Connecticut Attendance: 16,305 America The Beautiful: Special Olympian, Kathy Huey The Undertaker’s Streak: 4-0 (Def King Kong Bundy)
WrestleMania XI was the eleventh annual WrestleMania pay-per-view event held by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) at the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford, Connecticut on April 2, 1995. The event featured seven matches, which resulted from scripted storylines and had results predetermined by the WWF.
The WrestleMania XI Main Event – Football Great Lawrence Taylor vs Bam Bam Bigelow
The main event was a match between NFL linebacker Lawrence Taylor, who faced Bam Bam Bigelow as the result of an argument that took place between the two at the 1995 Royal Rumble. Taylor won the match, which led to Bigelow being kicked out of Ted DiBiase’s Million Dollar Corporation. Shawn Michaels faced WWF Champion Diesel in a title match but was unable to win the championship. Jeff Jarrett retained his WWF Intercontinental Championship against Razor Ramon. Owen Hart and his mystery partner, Yokozuna challenged The Smoking Gunns for the WWF Tag Team Championship and won the title belts.
The most heavily promoted feud going into the event was between Bam Bam Bigelow and Lawrence Taylor. At Royal Rumble 1995, Bigelow teamed with Tatanka in the final round of a tournament for the WWF Tag Team Championship. Bigelow was pinned at the end of the match, which led to the crowd heckling him. He responded by pushing NFL player Lawrence Taylor, who was sitting at ringside. Bigelow refused to apologize and instead challenged Taylor to a wrestling match.Taylor agreed and trained with WWF Champion Diesel to prepare for the match.The storyline between Bigelow and Taylor brought the WWF much mainstream exposure, as the match was discussed by several news outlets.
The Undertaker goes 4-0 at WrestleMania XI against King Kong Bundy
At WrestleMania XI, The Undertaker faced King Kong Bundy. Ted DiBiase was at ringside holding the urn that his wrestlers had stolen from The Undertaker at The Royal Rumble 1995. During the match, when DiBiase was close to The Undertaker, he took back his urn. After The Undertaker returned to the ring, DiBiase called Kama, another Corporation member, to the ring. Kama stole the urn, and Bundy attacked The Undertaker in order to let Kama escape backstage.
Bundy picked The Undertaker up and powerslammed him to the mat. He then performed an Avalanche splash to squish The Undertaker against the corner of the ring. The Undertaker was unharmed, however, and performed a powerslam and a clothesline on Bundy before pinning him to win the match.
Larry Young, a Major League Baseball umpire was the referee for the match. Young, the special referee, was written into the storyline as an out-of-work sports official because of the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike, which had ended at the time of WrestleMania.
HBK vs Diesel for the WWF Championship
The other main event at WrestleMania was a match for the WWF Championship between Diesel and Shawn Michaels. Diesel had originally entered the WWF as Michaels’s bodyguard but later began wrestling and forming a tag team with Michaels. The pair held the WWF Tag Team Championship together in 1994. At Survivor Series 1994, however, Michaels accidentally kicked Diesel in the face. This led to an argument during which Diesel dissolved the tag team and vacated the championship.Three days later, Diesel defeated Bob Backlund to become the new WWF Champion.At Royal Rumble 1995, Michaels won the battle royal main event, which earned him a match against Diesel for the title belt at WrestleMania.
Bret Hart faced Bob Backlund in an “I Quit” match at WrestleMania. The feud began the previous summer, when Hart defended the WWF Championship against Backlund. Backlund mistakenly thought he won the match and began celebrating, but Hart pinned him to retain the title. After the match, Backlund turned heel by attacking Hart.This led to a title match at Survivor Series 1994, in which Backlund won the title from Hart.Although Backlund soon lost the belt,the feud continued and Backlund attacked Hart during Hart’s match at Royal Rumble 1995.
WrestleMania XI Results
• The Allied Powers (Lex Luger and The British Bulldog) defeated The Blu Brothers (Jacob and Eli) (with Uncle Zebekiah)
• Razor Ramon (with The 1–2–3 Kid) defeated Jeff Jarrett (c) (with The Roadie) by disqualification Singles match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship
• The Undertaker (with Paul Bearer) defeated King Kong Bundy (with Ted DiBiase) w/ Larry Young as the special guest referee
• Owen Hart and Yokozuna (with Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette) defeated The Smoking Gunns (c) (Billy and Bart) for the WWF Tag Team Championship
• Bret Hart defeated Bob Backlund “I Quit” match with Roddy Piper as the special guest referee
• Diesel (c) (with Pamela Anderson) defeated Shawn Michaels (with Sid and Jenny McCarthy) Singles match for the WWF Championship 20:35
• Lawrence Taylor defeated Bam Bam Bigelow (with Ted DiBiase) w/ Pat Patterson as the special guest referee.
Diesel celebrates with celebrates at WrestleMania XI
– WWE.com has announced that Wade Barrett will defend the Intercontinental Championship against The Miz at WrestleMania 29.
– Monday’s WWE Raw program drw a 3.24 cable rating, up from 3.09 the week before. The show averaged 4.62 million viewers, up from 4.26 million last week. The hourly numbers were:
Here are spoiler results from Tuesday night’s WWE Main Event & Saturday Morning Slam tapings from Hershey, PA, sent in by reader Derek J.:
Main Event:
– Kane defeated Antonio Cesaro. AJ Lee tried to distract Kane, but Daniel Bryan yelled No! to her. Kane won with the Chokeslam.
Backstage, Matt Striker talks to Sheamus about picking Big Show for the third member of his team against The Shield.
– The Bella Twins defeated Naomi and Cameron after Cody Rhodes came out and caused a distraction.
Saturday Morning Slam:
– Kofi Kingston joins Josh Matthews on commentary.
– 3MB defeated Zack Ryder and Justin Gabriel. 3MB provides a beatdown of the faces until General Manager Mick Foley comes out. He tells Kofi Kingston that he is in a match right now.
– Kofi Kingston defeated Heath Slater in what was said to be a very entertaining match.
– Mark Henry defeated Daniel Bryan with the World’s Strongest Slam.
WWE taped this week’s episode of SmackDown on Tuesday night from Hershey, PA. Thanks to Derek J. for the following results:
– Smackdown starts with the WWE Champion The Rock. Rock comes out and cuts a promo about a story when he was younger in the city of Hershey, Pennsylvania. He then cuts a promo on his opponent, John Cena. He gets interrupted by John Laurinaitis, who says he had permission from Teddy Long to come out and talk to the champion. Laurinaitis says that John Cena is the person that caused him from being fired and that he wants retribution. He says that he wants to be in the corner of The Rock. The Rock asks the crowd what they think before he ends up hitting a spinebuster and a people’s elbow on the former General Manager.
– Chris Jericho defeated Wade Barrett. The crowd was certainly behind Jericho in a really good match. Jericho would grab a microphone and say that he would love to face Wade Barrett for the Intercontinental Championship, but he is going to have to settle with facing Fandango. The Fandango stage prop drops and Jericho begins to make fun of his name. Fandango comes out only to walk away from Jericho.
– An interview that Matt Striker had with Paul Heyman is shown. He talks about Brock and Triple H’s encounter at Wrestlemania.
– Booker T comes out with Teddy Long. They have Mark Henry and Ryback’s weight lifting competition next. Ryback and Henry get the same score. After this happens, Booker T reminds them of his no contact rule. Henry drops the bar on Ryback’s neck, in which Ryback rolls around grabbing his neck.
– Team Hell No and Kaitlyn defeated Dolph Ziggler, Big E Langston, and AJ Lee. Ziggler provided most of the wrestling in the ring until Kane hit his boot to the face of Big E. Kaitlyn would end up spearing AJ and picking up the victory for her team.
The Shield cut a promo on the screen, talking about Justice and beating the trio at Wrestlemania.
– Jack Swagger vs. The Great Khali end in a countout. Swagger puts the Patriot Lock on Hornswoggle when Ricardo Rodriguez comes out and taunts Swagger to come and attack him. As Swagger is distracted, Alberto Del Rio locks in his submission hold onto Zeb Colter. Jack Swagger comes back and Del Rio hits him and knocks him out of the ring.
– Backstage interview with The Big Show, Sheamus, and Randy Orton..
– Randy Orton, Sheamus, and The Big Show defeated Cody Rhodes, Damien Sandow, and Antonio Cesaro in a very entertaining match. The faces hit their finishers on Rhodes Scholars and Cesaro. After the match, The Shield makes their way to the ring from the crowd. Orton, Sheamus, and Show attack them and beat them up into the crowd.
New York City DJ Peter Rosenberg is hosting yet another WrestleMania weekend event – an “Inside The Squared Circle” discussion with former WWE Superstar MVP. The event will take place at the Caroline’s On Broadway comedy club in Manhattan immediately after the 2013 WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony at Madison Square Garden.
“The night before wrestling’s biggest and grandest event of the year and right after thousands gather at Madison Square Garden for the 2013 WWE Hall of Fame induction, Hot 97?s Peter Rosenberg and grappling great MVP team up and for an entertaining conversation about all things sports entertainment. This unique event will offer an inside behind the scenes glimpse into the wrestling business that will include a questions-and-answers session and a meet-and-greet with MVP and other surprise guests. So come down to Carolines and hang out with the stars of the squared circle.”
– TNA announced on Tuesday that Tara and “Mr. PEC-tacular” Jessie Godderz have signed on to appear in a new scripted drama, “Tainted Dreams” –
“IMPACT WRESTLING” superstars Lisa Marie Varon, known as Tara, and five-time CBS “Big Brother” superstar, Jessie Godderz, known as Mr. PEC-Tacular, have signed on to join the cast of NYC Brand Production’s “Tainted Dreams.” This new, scripted “soap within a soap” is set to blow the lid off the behind-the-scenes comedy and drama of producing a daily soap opera. “Tainted Dreams” is a rare, realistic look at the interaction of actors, cast, and crew involved in producing a daily, scripted drama.
– TNA has released the following video, which will open Thursday’s live Impact Wrestling broadcast from Jonesboro, Arkansas:
TNA has issued the following press release announcing the next round of Gut Check voting:
The TNA Gut Check Challenge returns! Voting begins Thursday, April 4!
The Gut Check Challenge is a competition where YOU – THE FANS – decide which competitor deserves to compete on our monthly “Gut Check” on IMPACT WRESTLING on SpikeTV for the chance to earn a contract with TNA.
Starting April 4, you will need to register at challenge.tnagutcheck.com in order to vote in each bracket. IMPORTANT: You cannot change your vote. Once you vote, the bracket will be closed to you. When the next bracket opens, you can return the the voting page, sign in and vote again. Whichever competitor earns the most votes at the end of each bracket will advance to the “Winners Bracket”. Then, from June 8-15, fans will vote on which competitor from the “Winners Bracket” will get the chance to compete on IMPACT for a chance at a TNA contract!
Before voting starts, we encourage everyone to learn about the competitors by viewing their bios below! The date each bracket will be open is also listed. If you are one of the participants – make sure your friends, family and supporters know which Bracket/Dates to vote!
– After Monday’s WWE RAW went off the air, John Cena laid in the ring selling the Rock Bottom that he took. The Q&A panel setup was cleared away and then The Shield’s music hit. They made their entrance through the crowd and surrounded the ring, leaving John Cena cornered. They started attacking Cena – which is when Sheamus’ music hit. Sheamus and Ryback ran out to even the odds, which set up the dark match main event.
John Cena, Ryback, and Sheamus defeated The Shield by disqualification after Rollins used a chair on Sheamus. Ryback and John Cena hit their finishers on Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose to send the crowd home happy.
– Monday’s WWE RAW scored a Trendrr.tv social media score of 288,262, up 5% from last week. Raw ranked #1 on cable TV for the night.
– Here’s the latest episode of WWE Backstage Fallout:
How does World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio plan to get back at Jack Swagger for his actions on Raw? Find out in this edition of “Backstage Fallout.” Plus, see how Mark Henry is preparing for his weightlifting competition against Ryback.
– As recently as few weeks ago, there were plans for Ric Flair to appear on the final 3 RAW shows leading up to WrestleMania 29. Flair did not appear at last week’s RAW from Pittsburgh or last night’s RAW from Philadelphia (due to a medical issue).
Flair was checked out by WWE doctors backstage at Monday’s RAW and was sent to the hospital. He was checked out by doctors and the hospital and has been sent home to Charlotte, North Carolina for further evaluation.
– WWE will tape this week’s Main Event & SmackDown shows tonight from Hershey, PA. Advertised for Friday’s SmackDown are an appearance from WWE Champion The Rock, a weightlifting challenge between WrestleMania 29 opponents Ryback & Mark Henry and an appearance by Chris Jericho. The dark match main event will see Randy Orton, Ryback and Sheamus team up against The Shield. Check back later tonight for spoiler results.
– Last night before RAW, the WWE App aired a 30-minute RAW pre-show. One of the segments on the pre-show featured Matt Striker interviewing R-Truth, with R-Truth talking about how WWE superstars love doing the Harlem Shake.
WWE Divas Champion Kaitlyn was interviewed by Matt Striker for the WWE App on Monday night prior to her match with AJ Lee. When asked whether she thinks AJ Lee wants the Divas title, Kaitlyn said no – and that their issues are personal.
Following Monday’s WWE RAW, there is talk of Kaitlyn defending the Divas Championship against AJ Lee at WrestleMania 29.
Also rumored for the pay-per-view (likely the pre-show) is an 8-person mixed tag match featuring Team Rhodes Scholars & The Bella Twins vs. Brodus Clay, Sweet T (Tensai) & The Funkadactyls.
Angle has stated publicly that he plans to retire by age 46 (he’ll be 45 on December 9th) – and responds to reports from a “wrestling site” that says he’ll be retired in 6 months:
Wrestling Site Did a story on Where I Will Go In 6 Months. 1st of all I'm not Beat Up and Battered. I'm 110 Percent Healthy. I'm Gonna D …
The following are tweets from WWE personalities about the John Cena vs. The Rock panel segment that ended Monday’s RAW:
Jim Ross: “This is some damn good stuff. @TheRock & @JohnCena w/ ring full of legends. #WWE”
Mick Foley: “What an honor it was to share the ring with @TheRock @JohnCena and my fellow @WWE HOF’ers. We could FEEL their passion for this main event!”
JBL: “Incredible promo segment- @JohnCena and @TheRock are just awesome! @wwe Raw!”
Vickie Guerrero: “ExcuseMeWWE: Im honored to have an elite panel on #wwe.So much respect and knowledge standing together @the rock and @JohnCena @johncena listen well”
Goldust: “Big dust, say it like this. Rockkkkky , i thmelll what yo cookin if u wheeeeel. #RAW #legends #WM29 @TheRock vs @JohnCena”
Lance Storm: “While this is not an exciting segment, I sure like serious all business John Cena. This is working for me. #RAW” .. “@thehitman29: @LanceStorm Do you smell heel turn?” No just a serious turn”
– WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair is home in Charlotte, NC after being hospitalized in Philadelphia on Monday night. Flair was scheduled to appear on RAW, but WWE doctors checked him out before the show and sent him directly to the hospital due to the blood clot in his leg. Flair will be seeing doctors today and was replaced by Booker T on RAW.
– The pre-sale code for WWE’s Money In The Bank pay-per-view on July 14th from Philadelphia, PA is WWEMoney.
– Wade Barrett tweeted the following about Triple H low-blowing him on RAW:
Great news: Doc just counted and they are both still there. In addition, I am STILL the IC-Champion. #CheapShots#Plums#MoreIce
– WWE posted the following Tout video of Mark Henry responding to Ryback “upstaging” him on RAW by destroying 3 opponents (3MB) when Henry only took out 2 (The Usos):
