The following matches were taped on Tuesday night from Memphis, Tennessee for this week’s SmackDown:

– The Miz vs. Randy Orton

– Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow vs. Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd

– Kane and Daniel Bryan vs. Big Show and Dolph Ziggler

– US Champion Antonio Cesaro vs. Ted DiBiase

– Brodus Clay vs. Heath Slater

– Layla vs. Natalya

– Lumberjack Match: World Heavyweight champion Sheamus vs. Wade Barrett

*SPOILERS* For Friday’s WWE SmackDown

WWE sent out the following statement on Thursday:

The recent accusations and subsequent reports by Connecticut-based media that WWE (NYSE:WWE) was “caught” not paying taxes is blatantly false. Publicly traded companies often review taxes with regulatory authorities.

With regard to this recent and specific tax inquiry, WWE believed it should be classified under the single-factor approach to calculating its taxes based on the language of a statute that specifies the approach for businesses whose primary function is broadcasting activity.

WWE and the state agreed that the correct application of the statute to WWE was a bifurcated method with both approaches applying to different parts of its business.

As a result of the agreement, WWE paid the state approximately $500,000 annually over and above what WWE already had paid for the years 2005 through 2010, plus interest, and both WWE and the state have agreed to the bifurcated methodology moving forward.

Since 1982, WWE has grown from 12 employees to more than 700. WWE has paid $600 million dollars in wages to employees in Connecticut and $55 million in payroll and other taxes over the past ten years.

By any set of standards, WWE is an exemplary, CT-based, publicly traded corporation.

On the issue of tax credits, WWE has a responsibility to its shareholders to apply for tax credits when possible. When WWE launches its network (estimated to employ an additional 200 people), we hope to be considered for Governor Malloy’s Next Five Program, which provides additional economic assistance to companies like WWE.

“WRESTLING IS FAKE” – New Song From Rapper Asher Roth (Listen Here)

Brodus Clay was recently interviewed by Reyan Ali of Connecticut’s CT.com to promote WWE’s upcoming RAW World Tour live event this Sunday (10/21) at the XL Center in Hartford. Clay talks about who he travels with (Santino and Alex Riley), what Santino is like away from the ring, how he was discovered by Tommy Dreamer, what it was like to have Snoop Dogg as a boss, what his childhood was like, his current interests, and what the previous names and ideas for the Funkasaurus gimmick were.

Here are some highlights:

Q: You’ve talked before about Saddle Ranch, a restaurant in Los Angeles, where important stories involving Snoop Dogg and former WWE wrestler Tommy Dreamer took place. Were you working security or just happened to be there?

A: I was a bodyguard for the owner of the establishment. It used to be pretty crazy nights at the Universal location — 13, 1400 people. Girls dance on the stage. Pretty much everybody when they came to LA usually wanted to find out where Saddle Ranch was at — celebrities and stuff.

Snoop’s people saw me there and offered me a job. Fortunately, Tommy Dreamer observed me breaking up a fight and doing it very Funkasaurus-like. I’m not gonna tease ya — they weren’t big guys so it wasn’t like feats of incredible human strength or an awesome karate fight scene from a movie. They were about as big as my leg, and I picked ’em up like suitcases and carried ’em out, but I made jokes while I did it. [Tommy] told me I should do that on TV, which I thought was hilarious. I had already tried a few times to get into wrestling and it didn’t really work out. It was kind of funny — I had all but given up. I was bodyguarding. At the same time, I was working with kids during the day. I worked at Five Acres, where I was a recreation therapist during the day. I worked with 6-, 7- and 8-year-olds on motor development, trying to teach ’em how to be kids again.

Q: There was a period in late 2011 where they frequently referenced your impending arrival, but it kept getting delayed. Was it a situation where the delay was planned or your future was in possible jeopardy?

A:” My future? No, I don’t think so. [Chris] Jericho’s imminent return was coming, Kane’s return was coming, The Rock was coming. There were so many other things going on. In the meantime, there were these two personas that I have that are very much who I am. I’m literally split down the middle. I can either be the funniest guy in the room and life of the party, but I also can be the most uncomfortable-looking dude in the room at the same time. [With] the two personas I have, [the creative team] were really just trying to figure out, ‘Which one should he show the world?’ I’m glad [for] the wisdom that I didn’t necessarily understand at the time. Looking back, it was the right decision.”

Q: Did you come up with the Funkasaurus idea or did somebody else pitch it to you?

A: “Actually, the original nickname that I was told — it scared me to death — was Heavy G. I think the last thing you want to be known as is Heavy anything. No offense to Heavy D — rest his soul. Worked for him, wasn’t really my bag. Rob MacIntyre, who I trained with, was a big reason behind me dropping me a hundred and 50 pounds. Him and I were lifting weights and making jokes, trying to figure out better names. First it was the Funk Monster and then Funk Nasty. Then, he looked at me and [said], ‘Funkasaurus’ and started laughing, and he pitched it.”

The writer was like, ‘I’ll get ready [your] debut. What are we going to call you?’ I was like, ‘I don’t want to be Heavy G.’ He was like, ‘Look, man, I’ve got like 12 other things to do. Just call yourself whatever you want to call yourself’ so I told the announcer to call me the Funkasaurus. He looked at me like I was crazy. I’m like, ‘I don’t know why I want to be the Funkasaurus.’ So I got lucky that the swamped writer had other things going on. Luckily, it stuck.”

You can check out the full interview at CT.com.