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Superstar Billy Graham Talks About His Health, CM Punk, Chris Jericho & More

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Arda Ocal of theScore Television Network and Layfield Report spoke with “Superstar” Billy Graham in his first interview since overcoming double pneumonia. Highlights:

-How his health is and how close he came to death.

“I was just released from the world famous Mayo Clinic Hospital just 2 days ago actually last Thursday from the flu which turned into double pneumonia, which is fluid in each lung and then congestive heart failure. I feel very good, excellent really. I’m back painting. (Doctors) told me about another 10 more days before I can get back in the gym”

-How often he works out.

-How he keeps busy with his painting.

-If his health scare affected his perspective on life. Also looking back on his life if it has changed any animosities he may of had in the past.

-Not actually having heat with CM Punk and Chris Jericho, and how he feels about his comments after going through his health scare

“I know that Chris Jericho has never really cared for me, really basically from day one, but anyway I was very shocked (by his comments), I was just trying to make a observation of how things have evolved in professional wrestling with body types. I meant no harm or disrespect to CM Punk whatsoever because he’s a hard worker and dedicated.”

-Did CM Punk contact him directly about the statements?

Here’s the interview:

Brooke & Bully’s Marital Status, Why Taz Joined Aces & Eights, Impact Opening

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– Bully Ray and Brooke Hogan are married according to TNA storylines, despite the fact that they were never pronounced husband and wife to the attack by Aces & Eights. There was reportedly a lot of internal confusion in TNA as to whether they were married in TNA storylines, with even Hulk Hogan tweeting after the wedding that even though he got beat down by Aces & Eights, “Taz screwed everyone, the one good thing was the wedding came to an immediate halt, thank God. HH.”

– The reason TNA announcer Taz turned heel and joined Aces & Eights is because the company wanted a surprise person to break up the Brooke Hogan wedding and they wanted the faction to have a strong talker on their side. The downside of Taz working as a heel with Aces & Eights is that the neck injury which ended his career also prevents him from doing anything physical in TNA.

– Here is the opening for tonight’s Impact Wrestling:

* Complete TNA Impact SPOILERS For Tonight

(Partial Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)

Vince McMahon Legitimately Having Hip Surgery, WrestleMania 30 Location, McGillicutty

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– WWE announced this week that Vince McMahon will be undergoing hip surgery as a result of Brock Lesnar giving him an F-5 on RAW. Vince has had a bad hip for several months and will legitimately undergoing surgery soon.

– WWE will be officially announcing the location of WrestleMania 30 in February around the time of Elimination Chamber. It’s almost a lock that the show will be taking place from the Superdome in New Orleans, which currently has an indoor attendance record of 73,043 for a New Orleans Saints game.

– The Rock tweeted last week that WWE superstar Michael McGillicutty (Joe Hennig) was his training partner for the Royal Rumble. Both The Rock and Triple H are strong proponent of the third generation star.

(Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)

Backstage News On The Finish To The Rock vs. CM Punk, Rock’s Media Appearances

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The Rock and CM Punk were rehearsing their Royal Rumble match on Sunday afternoon in the hours leading up to the Royal Rumble. The finish was kept top secret from the rest of the WWE locker room – with WWE even hanging a curtain around the ring so nobody else would know what the finish would be.

Some CM Punk fans were upset that Punk was pinned after getting hit by the People’s Elbow, opposed to a Rock Bottom, which is a more devastating move. The reasoning behind this is that CM Punk was ranting about how the “people don’t matter,” so The Rock beat him with the People’s Elbow.

The Rock will give the WWE Championship a ton of exposure as he makes the media rounds to promote his upcoming movie releases in the months leading up to WrestleMania 29.

(Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)

Jim Ross’ Announcing Future, WWE TV Viewership Averages For 2013, DVDs

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– There are currently no plans for Jim Ross to return to announcing in WWE full time this year. It’s possible he’ll still call the occasional match, at big shows like WrestleMania 29.

WWE recently made the decision to remove him from the announcing team at NXT, because it’s a developmental show and they want to groom new announcers.

– WWE Main Event is averaging a 1.1 rating with 1.76 million viewers so far this year, with Saturday Morning Slam averaging a 0.6 rating and 935,000 viewers. Both shows include delayed DVR viewership. Both shows are averaging a 2 share rating, which is the % of viewers currently watching TV at the time. RAW is averaging a 5 share while SmackDown is averaging a 3 share.

– WrestleMania 28 was the best selling sports DVD of 2012. WWE’s CM Punk DVD was #4 and the The Rock’s “Epic Journey” DVD was #5.

(Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)

VIDEO: The Rock’s “Got Milk?” Super Bowl Commercial

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CBS has posted The Rock’s “Got Milk?” Super Bowl commercial online –

Vince McMahon Squashes Ryback Nickname, Brock Lesnar Doing Muscle & Fitness

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– During a recent interview with the Phoenix New Times to promote last weekend’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view, Ryback spoke about his “Big Hungry” nickname, noting that he is the one that came up with it, but Vince McMahon ultimately banned it.

– WWE is currently hiring several corporate positions, including an Executive Vice President of International Business, a new Vice President of Marketing and a Vice President of Social Media.

– In conjunction with the buildup to WrestleMania 29, Brock Lesnar will be appearing on the cover of Muscle & Fitness magazine.

Rumble Fan Fest Considered A Big Success, UFC vs. WWE Ad Rates & More

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– Last weekend’s Royal Rumble Fan Fest in Phoenix, Arizona was considered a big success. The event was considered to be a test to gauge fan interest, which was very strong. Moving forward, WWE is talking about holding Fan Axxess events in the days leading up the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Survivor Series.

Discussion: Have you been to a WWE Axxess Fan Fest? Comment below and tell us what your experience was.

– Even though ratings for WWE RAW are significantly better than UFC’s live shows on FOX, WWE only gets 1/3 of the ad rates that UFC is able to charge.

– Friday’s SmackDown did a 2.03 and 3.03 million viewers, a strong showing for the final SmackDown before the Royal Rumble. It was the fourth most-watched show on cable that night.

(Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)

*Spoiler* Details On The SmackDown Brand’s Elimination Chamber Match

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On Friday’s episode of WWE SmackDown, General Manager Booker T will announce that the SmackDown brand’s upcoming Elimination Chamber match will feature 6 wrestlers that will compete to determine who challenges for the World Heavyweight championship at WrestleMania 29.

Booker T does not reveal the Chamber match participants, but they will be:

– Sheamus
– Randy Orton
– Kane
– Daniel Bryan
– Great Khali
– Jack Swagger

Swagger will return to TV on Friday’s SmackDown.

Bo Dallas News: Rumble Appearance Bumps WWE Return, Interesting Trivia Fact

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As reported earlier, one of the main reasons WWE pulled the plug on the Intercontinental Cup tournament was the last minute decision to include NXT star Bo Dallas in the Royal Rumble and immediately enter him into a feud with Wade Barrett.

Another result of Bo Dallas entering the Rumble is that he took a spot from another surprise entrant. According to a source in WWE, that spot was going to used for the return of Shelton Benjamin, who was in town for an indy show the night before the Rumble.

An interesting trivia note about Bo Dallas. He is the first Royal Rumble entrant in history that was not born when the first Rumble took place back in 1988. Dallas was born May 25, 1990.

(Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)

More On December’s TLC PPV Buyrate & CM Punk’s Drawing Power

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WWE reported earlier this week that December’s Tables, Ladders & Chairs pay-per-view did around 170,000 buys, based on preliminary data. This number is a bit off from last year’s 179,000. What’s odd is the show is listed as doing 71,000 domestic buys and 99,000 foreign. This is a very low domestic number and possibly an error. Last year’s show did 98,000 domestic.

October’s Hell in a Cell pay-per-view, which featured Punk vs. Ryback in the main event (and no John Cena, due to injury) drew surpringly strong sales. The soft buyrate of TLC is actually somewhat of a good sign for WWE Champion CM Punk, who did not compete on the show due to injury.

CM Punk not wrestling on the show resulting in one of the worst buyrates of the year is another sign that Punk was a solid pay-per-view draw during his reign as champion and his matches are a big factor in whether fans will pay $40+ on a pay-per-view.

(Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)

Detailed Ratings Breakdown From Monday’s WWE RAW

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We have more ratings data from Monday’s post-Royal Rumble episode of WWE RAW. The show drew a 3.7 rating with over 5 million viewers, making it the most-watched RAW since the RAW 1,000 special back on July 23rd.

– The number of viewers watching per home was only 1.38, the lowest we’ve ever seen for RAW. Since viewership was so high, this means that there was a very large number of homes watching.

– The best drawing quarter hour was The Rock’s confrontation with CM Punk, which did a 4.03.

– RAW was the most-watched show on all of television for the night among the coveted Males 18-34 demographic. The audience was 68.5% male.

– The show opened strong with a 3.63 for the first quarter, which featured C.M. Punk, Paul Heyman and Vince McMahon.

– The segment that featured Wade Barrett v. Bo Dallas and John Cena vs. Cody Rhodes gained 243,000 viewers over the previous segment (Ryback/Prime Time Players Make Me Laugh skit).

– John Cena’s post match interview and subsequent beatdown by The Shield Sheamus and Ryback at 9 p.m. gained 145,000 viewers to a 3.80 quarter.

– Brodus Clay and Tensai ‘s danceoff lost 157,000 viewers

– The Rock and CM Punk’s in-ring confrontation at the top of the 3rd hour gained 279,000 viewers.

– The biggest loss of the night was the quarter hour that featured Sheamus vs. Damien Sandow (tables match) and the Great Khali, Ryder and 3MB Karaoke segment, which lost 601,000 viewers.

– Chris Jericho’s return and the in-ring bit with Dolph Ziggler, A.J. and Big E Langston lost 342,000 viewers.

– The strongest segment of the show was the over run, which featured Vince McMahon’s performance evaluation of Paul Heyman and the return of Brock Lesnar. The overrun gained 750,000 viewers and broke 4.00 for the first time since RAW 1,000.

TNA Impact Wrestling Preview: Angle vs. Anderson Cage Match, Dixie’s Major Announcement

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The following is TNA’s official preview for tonight’s episode of Impact Wrestling, taped last week from Manchester, England:

– There will be a major announcement by TNA President Dixie Carter on the broadcast!

– The main event of the huge international event will feature Kurt Angle vs. Mr. Anderson of the Aces & Eights in a Steel Cage Match! British fans will get a firsthand preview of this year’s “Lockdown” when Angle goes to war with his longtime nemesis Mr. Anderson inside the confines of the steel structure!

– Hulk Hogan will make his return on the broadcast! Will he listen to Sting and Bully Ray and reinstate Bully Ray from his suspension so he can get revenge on The Aces and Eights for their attack during the big wedding? Or, will Hulk take matters into his own hands while in England? Tune in and find out!

– Joseph Park will make his official IMPACT in-ring debut! Who will Park call out to battle as part of OPEN FIGHT NIGHT? Tune in and find out!

* Complete TNA Impact SPOILERS For Tomorrow Night

Headbanger Thrasher Talks Monday Night Wars, Getting “Ribbed” By Owen & Bulldog, More

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Former WWE superstar Trasher of the Headbangers joined Kayfabe Wrestling Radio and spoke about the formation of the Headbangers, what it was like being a part of the Monday night wars, getting “ribbed” by Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith & more. Here are some highlights of what he said about:

How The Headbangers Came About “We actually got together, I was the head trainer for the world famous Monster Factory Wrestling School in New Jersey; which was owned by ‘Prett Boy’ Larry Sharp, and I was the head trainer there. I trained Chaz (Headbanger Mosh), D-Lo Brown, the Big Show among others, and me and Chaz just really hit it off and we jumped in the car and headed out on the road. We did our round in Memphis, we did our round for Smokey Mountain Wrestling where we actually became the Headbangers; Jim Cornette gave us the name ‘The Headbangers’ and when Smokey Mountain was closing, that when Cornette was trying to get all of his guys from Smokey Mountain into WWE/WWF. At that time, they were doing the part-time contracts and we were hired, just for TV, on a part-time basis. So we came into WWF as the Headbangers; that wasn’t a Vince McMahon made gimmick or anything else, and frankly, it’s not really a gimmick. That’s how we are, we’ve always had the tattoos, the piercings and everything else; I just don’t walk around my house in a skirt.”

How Much of the Headbangers Material Was Scripted: “Probably about 90% of it was ‘Hey guys, go out there and be yourself’. So, I’d have to say at that time, in that era and stuff, it was about characters and it was about being how you are and stuff like that; not everyone tried to go out there and be Stone Cold Steve Austin. We had colorful characters that people could get emotionally attached to and plainly I think that’s what’s missing from Today’s wrestling.”

Would He & Mosh Liked To Have Had Social Media Back When They Were With WWE?: “It’s funny because we’ve talked about this; I like it now because I love, and everyone knows that, on Twitter and stuff like that, if you follow me, then I’m going to follow you; If you ask me a question, I’m going to answer you. Sometimes, it might take me a little bit, I’m actually going to get to it sooner or later. But it’s funny because me and Chaz have always talked about it; we said if he’d had the access of Facebook and Twitter and all of that stuff, back then as we do now, yeah, I don’t know how many people would still be free. I think there would be some who would be incarcerated right now, I think. Because, you end up having to find ways to, when you’re out on the road, to find ways to entertain yourself and a lot of times, they might not be lawful. So, I’m actually glad we didn’t have it back then, because I’m free today.

The Monday Night Wars: “It was a really good atmosphere. You had guys competing against the other company at that same timeslot; so if you were the first match on RAW, you wanted to outdo the first match on Nitro. It was a head-to-head, really and not too far-fetched from being a real competition. I mean, you wanted to have your ratings be better for that segment than Nitro’s. So, it was a lot of fun back then because on Tuesday, you’d run up there and see what the ratings were and everything else and be like ‘Oh, man. We almost had them.’ or ‘Oh, man. We got them this week!’ It was a lot of fun. Now, I always tell people ‘Why didn’t you like WWF back then, because you didn’t like WCW? Why do you like WWE now?’; because there’s nothing else to watch. Mark my words, TNA is up-and-coming and I can see them, in the next two years, rivaling WWE for ratings. I absolutely love what TNA is doing now, more so that what WWE is doing.”

Being ‘Ribbed’ by Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith: “It was funny, because Owen used to do funny, silly stuff where the rib would last two days. I can remember him being in the locker room and taking someone’s wrestling bag and taking a padlock and padlocking it to a chair, just a steel chair. Or he would take two guys bags; he did that to me and Chaz, he took a padlock and locked our two bags together and we were just like; we walk in and catch the end of it. We’re like ‘Oh, hey. What are you doing?’ and he’s like ‘Oh, your bags are locked together. I don’t know who did that; I just came over and saw it.’ We knew who did it, because it was just Owen. Just to see what would happen tomorrow, is what he would do. Me and Chaz, we lived in the same hotel room, so the bags went together. We played along with it and lasted until Tuesday when we came to do TV and when we got there, we’d break the lock open.

“It was harmless stuff but it was just so funny and it happened so often. One time, when Mark Henry first started wrestling, he broke his ankle or his leg. So, we’re in the arena and Davey takes his crutches because he was sitting down. So he steals the crutches without Mark Henry even knowing and then Owen comes up to Mark and say ‘Hey, Vince wants you and he’s on the other side of the arena.’ So, Mark is looking around and going ‘Oh my god’ and can’t find his crutches. So, Mark Henry gets up and he starts hopping, on one leg, all the way across the arena and no Vince McMahon. It was things like that and once you know it was a joke, it was so funny.”

Preview The Rock’s New Super Bowl Commercial, SmackDown Taping Moved

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– The April 16th WWE Smackdown taping on has been moved to the Thompson-Boling Arena at the University Of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. The show was originally booked for the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina.

– The Rock tweeted the following preview of his upcoming Got Milk? Super Bowl commercial

Listen To Edge On DDP’s Radio Show, Tyson Kid Knee Surgery Update

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– Injured WWE Superstar Tyson Kidd tweeted another update on his knee:

– WWE Hall of Famer Edge appeared on DDP radio yesterday which you can hear below:

Dixie Carter Talks About Taking Impact On The Road, What She Knew About Wrestling Before Buying TNA

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TNA President Dixie Carter spoke with the UK’s The American about a number of topics. Here are some highlights:

Her Knowledge of Wrestling Prior to Buying TNA: “I watched wrestling when I was younger. I lived in Dallas, Texas so the Von Erichs were a very big deal, and my brother and I used to watch Saturday morning wrestling, but before I got involved with TNA I had not watched the kind of modern day wrestling. At that time it was only WWE that was television.

TNA’s Success in the UK: “The British market has been essential to our success – absolutely essential – because I think it’s our first market where we’ve not only been competitive with our main competitor, but have actually had more success in television ratings and things like that. The UK was our first real break-through market and it has given us so much and helped build a great foundation on which we’ve been able to build worldwide.”

Taking TNA Impact On The Road Each Week: “That is the goal starting this year. We’re close to making a big announcement, another one besides the PPVs, which I think will have a great impact on the show, pun intended. Taking the show on the road is the natural next step for us. It’s expensive touring and it’s not that I haven’t wanted to be on the road but it’s a business decision just like losing the PPVs. I’m not going to put this company in any financial trouble, so everything we have done has been very conscious, people were saying we weren’t going to stay in business for ten weeks and here we are going into our 11th year and having more success than ever and that’s because we make good business decisions.”

* Recent Pictures Of HULK HOGAN & RIC FLAIR Partying With Their Kids

Big Update On The Undertaker’s Status For WrestleMania 29

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The talk backstage at WWE’s TV tapings is that the Undertaker’s status for WrestleMania 29 is uncertain.

There were reports several months ago that the Undertaker told WWE he would be able to wrestle at the show and named CM Punk as the man he wanted to defend his streak against.

As of this week, it sounds like the Undertaker’s badly damaged hip, which was worsened last year during his Hell in a Cell match at WrestleMania, is still a major issue.

This is not the first time that the Undertaker’s health has put his WrestleMania match in jeopardy. If he decides against wrestling this year, there will need to be changes made to several planned WrestleMania matches.

Details On What Dixie Carter’s Major Announcement Will Be On Impact

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As noted earlier, TNA Dixie Carter tweeted this afternoon that a “major announcement will be made on Thursday’s episode of Impact wrestling that will “change everything for our wrestlers, company & YOU our audience!”

The announcement will be that TNA will be taking Impact Wrestling on the road in 2013. TNA will still run occasional tapings from the Impact Zone in Orlando, FL.

When Impact goes on the road, TNA will air a live episode of Impact and then tape the following week’s show right afterwards. This is a similar format to the early days of WWE Monday Night RAW.

The first taping on the road will be Thursday March 14th from Hoffman Estates, IL at the Sears Centre Arena, a venue that TNA has held live events at before.

Thursday’s Impact episode was taped last week in Manchester, England and there were no reports of an announcement made for the live crowd, so the announcement will be edited into the show.

* Complete TNA Impact SPOILERS For Tomorrow Night

More On WWE Cancelling Intercontinental Cup, Post-WM29 RAW Tickets & More

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– WWE’s decision to pull the plug on the Intercontinental Cup tournament idea less than 24 hours after promoting on RAW is just another example of the creative team changing direction on the fly. Wade Barrett will continue his feud with WWE newcomer Bo Dallas. WWE decided late last week to hold the NXT tournament at the Royal Rumble fan fest and picked Bo Dallas to win it and begin a program with Barrett.

– The USA Network won the cable TV prime time ratings race this past week, averaging 2.87 million viewers. USA beat out Disney (2.44 million) and TBS (2.17) million. to 2.44 million for Disney and 2.17 million for TBS. FX was No. 67 at 1.65 million. Last week’s 3 hours of RAW ranked 4, 5 and 9 as the most-watched hours of cable TV, which certainly helped USA.

– Tickets for the WWE RAW the night after WrestleMania 29 from the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, NJ will go on sale Saturday, February 9th. As usual, there will be an online sale a few days prior to the general ticket release.

(Partial source: f4wonline.com)

Dixie Carter Teasing A “Major Announcement” On Tomorrow’s Impact

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TNA president Dixie Carter is teasing a “major announcement” that will take place on tomorrow night’s episode of Impact Wrestling.

Dixie Carter tweeted Wednesday afternoon:

Thursday’s Impact episode was taped last week in Manchester, England.

* Complete TNA Impact SPOILERS For Tomorrow Night

Paul Bearer Talks About His WWE Status, Working With Ricardo Rodriguez, Foley’s HOF Induction

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Former WWE manager Paul Bearer recently spoke with Chris Yandek of CYInterview.com. Here are some highlights from the interview:

His Status With WWE & Outside Projects:

“People that don’t know, that don’t see me, I am still involved. I’m still under contract with WWE. I’m under a legends contract with WWE and I do things now and then with them like WrestleMania and go do signings, this, that and the other. Plus I work the independent organizations all around the country. I go out to L.A. once a month and do Championship Wrestling from Hollywood. We tape four weeks of TV once a month out there and some months I’m busy every weekend doing wrestling stuff.”

Working With Ricardo Rodriguez:

“I think a hell of a lot of Ricardo Rodriguez who manages Alberto Del Rio. He has become a very good friend of mine and I give him tips all the time and not that he needs them. And when I see things that I like, I let him know that I liked it and he’s very respectful and very, knows the history of our business and he deserves to be where he’s at and other than Ricardo Rodriguez, there really isn’t any managers, you know WWE doesn’t have any managers. … Bobby Heenan and Lou Albano and I could just go on and on and on, you know all the old school managers, there are none.”

Mick Foley’s WWE Hall of Fame Induction:

“I love him dearly. I had so much fun managing him when he was Mankind ‘cause we was going against The Undertaker. … We just had so much fun because he wore that mask, you know that covered half of his long hair and that mask and all that and we were just like kids out there all the time and I was the only one that could ever make The Undertaker laugh and he could be laughing and nobody ever knew it and the same with Mick Foley.”

Lilian Garcia’s New Music Video, NXT Release, WWE Sues PPV Provider & More

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– WWE filed a lawsuit on 1/25 against Solar Entertainment Corp. for money owed to the company for TV and PPV broadcasting rights in the Philippines.

– British NXT developmental wrestler Gavin Reid has been released.

– Former WWE Superstar Edge tweeted the following on Tuesday regarding the news that Trish Stratus will be joining him the Hall of Fame when she’s inducted on April 6th:

– Lilian Garcia has released the official music video for her song, “Over & Over.” Here it is:

Wade Barrett Announces The Intercontinental Cup Has Been Cancelled

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WWE’s 8-man Intercontinental Cup was scheduled to kick off on tonight’s episode of Main Event, however, no matches for the Cup took place at Tuesday night’s WWE TV tapings from San Diego, California.

WWE Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett has been teasing a “major announcement” regarding the Cup, and here it is:

The 3-week Cup was going to determine the #1 contender to Barrett’s Intercontinental title.

77-Year-Old Man Shot In The Face But More Upset Over Rock Beating Punk

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Syracuse, New York’s WSYR-TV has a news report up looking at one of the strangest stories we’ve ever covered here on the site.

Last Wednesday, 77-year-old liquor store owner and baseball coach Thomas Dotterer was shot in the eye during the robbery of his Salina Liquors and Wine store in upstate New York. Dotterer was hospitalized in critical condition and underwent surgery on his eye while in the hospital.

He was released from the hospital on Monday and was amazingly back at work on Tuesda afternoon. Dotterer told WSYR-TV, “Every day is great. Every day is great because every day I have an opportunity to meet new individuals and broaden my appreciation of what God has given us all to enjoy.”

Thomas says he used to be a “gloomy pessimist,” an outlook on life that’s changed over time and helped in his recovery.

“All things happen for a reason that preclude, maybe, present understanding, but you deal with the cards that you have dealt,” he said.

After this traumatic brush with death, you would think that getting shot in the eye would be the worst thing that happened to him in the past week. According to Dotterer, he’s actually more upset that CM Punk’s 434 day WWE Championship reign ended at Sunday’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view:

“That’s the worst thing that happened to me all week, the Rock beat Punk. Did you know that?”

Here’s the news report: