TNA Knockouts Champion Gail Kim recently spoke with The UK Sun about her recent jump from WWE back to TNA, turning heel and more. Here are some highlights of what Gail Kim said about:
Returning to TNA: “It was easy because I had such a great experience the first time. The way the woman’s division is portrayed here – this is what I love to do. Be in the ring, and show what I can do in that ring. The division over here is so strong, and the girls are so talented. There is a great group of women here and I just wanted to be part of it and contribute.”
Her recent heel turn: “My first half of my career I was a heel. I then stayed a babyface for a long time, five or six years, and you always want to be refreshing, to have a change. I wanted to explore that. Vince Russo talked to me about it, and I said I was on the same wavelength.”
TNA’s Knockouts vs. WWE’s Divas: “The way the woman’s division is portrayed here – this is what I love to do. Be in the ring, and show what I can do in that ring. The division over here is so strong, and the girls are so talented. There is a great group of women here and I just wanted to be part of it and contribute.”
The WWE website has a storyline-driven article up looking at Zack Ryder’s failed petition to get a United States title shot at Survivor Series.
John “Funkhouser” Laurinaitis explains why John Morrison was awarded the title shot instead of Zack Ryder, which Ryder has dubbed, the #NewYorkScrewjob:
“I think I’m being very generous because John Morrison was on a losing streak which he seemed to have broken with a victory over Dolph Ziggler in a match last week. I’m all about giving talent opportunities and I feel that John Morrison has earned an opportunity to compete for the United States Championship.”
“As far as Zack Ryder’s twitter petition goes, no General Manager in WWE history is more about social media than I am. However, I feel he is going to have to gain many more than 15,000 signatures before I consider giving him an opportunity to compete for the United States Championship. Again, I’m all about giving talent opportunities … when I feel they have earned them.”
– The latest plan for The Rock’s match with John Cena at WrestleMania 28 is that the match will not be for the WWE Championship. WWE creative has gone back and forth as to whether the WWE title will be on the line, but the general feeling is that the match doesn’t need a title defense to seem important and the company can get more mileage out of promoting a separate WWE title match on the card.
– Speaking of The Rock vs. John Cena at WrestleMania, WWE is already spending big money to promote the dream match. We’ve reported already that WWE bought a big billboard in New York City’s Times Square. Now – WWE has purchased another billboard on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, which is a pricey location.
– WWE officials are talking with SyFy about doing more live Tuesday SmackDown specials in early 2012 to build WrestleMania 28.
Due to the ratings success of WWE’s previous live Tuesday SmackDown specials, WWE has been toying with the idea of moving SmackDown to Tuesdays permanently.
Diana Hart Smith, the outspoken mother of Harry Smith (a/k/a David Hart Smith), continues to criticize WWE brass following his recent departure from the organization. She attribute his lack of success to company heads having it in for her son.
“I don’t think WWE wanted to see DH/Harry succeed there. Maybe (Davey Boy Smith) had ribbed an existing agent who took it out on Harry,” she wrote on Twitter.
“Not sure of the WWE Creative’s logic, but they didn’t want fans to see how exceptional Harry is.”
The third generation wrestler echoed similar sentiments during a recent interview with Live Audio Wrestling.
“The big complaint that I had with WWE was just that they never gave me a fair chance, ever. We had a good deal with the tag team title run and everything, but guys like Drew McIntyre and Sheamus, they’re obviously very good talents and big guys and everything, but if they had given me the rocket like they had given those two guys, I’m sure that with my family’s lineage and going over to Canada and the UK, they could have done some really good business. For whatever reason, they didn’t,” Harry said.
“I’m not gonna point any fingers at anybody, but I think that there’s people up there that probably didn’t like my family, or maybe my Dad ribbed too many of the guys that are up top now. That’s basically the way that it happened, and I’m glad to be gone really. I don’t want to be wasting my time at a place that doesn’t appreciate me, or doesn’t want to do anything with me.”
Harry is now training mixed martial arts full-time in Tampa, Florida and looking to make his debut next year. He spars extensively with Josh Barnett, a former UFC Heavyweight Champion. Diana feels they are an unstoppable force.
She tweeted, “I think Harry and Josh training would be comparable to the power of a tsunami and genius of rocket scientists, who don’t know ‘tap out’ definition.”
Goldust, who currently works behind the scenes as a producer and trainer for WWE, has begun campaigning on Twitter for a match against his brother Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania XXVIII.
He states, “With your voices heard to @WWE, goldust vs cody at wm28…..ic title versus career. For the haters can hope i lose to cody and retire, teamgoldie can hope for an ass whoopin for the ages and new ic champ.”
Goldust continues, “Here’s the deal…..the fire in me is too strong to lose to my move stealing lemmule of a brother….experience everytime.
“His ic title …..my career…..i would whoop him, take back My ic title and shatter all his dreams. Only teamgoldie can make this happen…u know how much it means to me.”
Meanwhile, Goldust has been blocking users who mention his former personas, including Black Reign and the short-lived Seven.
Speaking to The Good Man Project, Ultimate Warrior comments on the long standing rumor that he is dead. Cameron Conaway asks the legendary grappler, “Sadly, many people still think you’re dead. Can you fill us in on what you’ve been up to in the past ten years or so?”
Warrior responds, “Yes, being dead is one of the many urban legends, falsehoods, mischaracterizations, what have you, about me. Nothing much I can do if people want to remain ignorant. I’ve had an Internet presence since ’96-’97 so it has been easy for a long time to find out the truth. Of course my former employers have worked hard and spent a great deal of time and money over the years to fabricate and spread lies, all of which have helped to keep rumors and other nonsense alive.
“The quick answer to what I have been doing is that I have been doing a lot of living … GREAT living. I’m alive which seems to be an achievement all its own when you consider most of the guys I worked with are now dead, prematurely of course.
“On a practical level, I’ve stayed creative and productive as an artist. When I look back on my career creating and performing The Ultimate Warrior, in what was indeed sports entertainment, I see what I did as performance art. There are many things I loved about my time in the business and all its challenges but the engagement of creativity was certainly a vital aspect to my success, so I have continued to aspire through other forms of creativity. For me, this was natural, not something others should be surprised by.
Warrior continues, “Ultimate Warrior in action figures and video games is still today a more popular selling attraction than even most of today’s superstars.”
He comments further on the ways of the Warrior and gives his thoughts on the problems of males having “emasculated cultural role models.” The full interview is available here.
Speaking to Antelope Valley Press, Christopher Daniels says his heel character in TNA Wrestling is based off his real-life personality and therefore easy for him to portray.
“I’m a bit of a (smart-aleck) in real life and so the character I’m doing now, especially on television, is that character amped up to a degree where you would want to see me getting smacked in the mouth. But that’s part of the fun of it,” Daniels says.
“It’s a lot easier being the villain, especially for my style of wrestling. It’s a lot easier for me to be the foil than to be the dynamic focus of attention.”
In the nearly 19 years since Daniels has been wrestling, he feels the biggest change has been how accessible wrestlers and wrestling is now to fans due to the internet. Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter allow wrestlers to instantly connect with fans.
“One of my favorite things now is to get on Twitter and just say something ridiculous and just gauge the response,” Daniels said “I get people just so upset.”
Technology has also been huge boon to wrestlers looking to get noticed.
“Back in the day, if you wanted to be seen by a promoter and you wanted to get work, you had to send them a tape,” Daniels said. “There were many long hours of having two VCRs, one connected to the other, and making your own tape — record, stop, record, stop. Now, you email a YouTube link to a guy.”
He continues, “As a wrestling fan, it’s so much easier to see all of this stuff. “In turn, it sort of makes it easier on the wrestler, depending on who you are to be seen or to sort of spread your signature to the wrestling public.”
Daniels can’t pinpoint what’s made him successful in the wrestling business, but he’s hoping it continues for several more years.
“I wish I could say that there was one specific break that put me over the top, but it was a bunch of little breaks that sort of led to having a schedule where I was doing this for an actual living rather than just weekend fun,” he said. “Hopefully, I keep going. Keep those small breaks going.”
WWE.com has published a video of Paul Heyman recalling Steve Austin’s brief tenure in Extreme Championship Wrestling.
“Steve had two matches in ECW, I wish he had 2000,” Heyman says. “He wrestled Mikey Whipwreck at the November to Remember 1995 for the ECW World Title and he wrestled Mikey Whipwreck and The Sandman in a Three-Way Dance for the ECW World Title in December 1995. I wanted to build ECW around Steve Austin as the World Champion. I even pitched to Steve winning the Title at the November to Remember 1995, but he was such a fan of Mikey Whipwreck, he thought it would be better if Mikey won the match and also, Steve thought it was better for his character.
Heyman continues, “And this is where Steve was so ahead of the game, far ahead of everybody else. Steve thought it was better for his character to lose and bitch about it, cause then he had something else to be angry about. Then he had another reason to push that character all the way to the line, all the way to the wall. And he knew that in losing, he could become a bigger star than if he won the ECW World Title.
“It was just so smart. He was so far ahead of everybody else.”
Ringside Collectibles and WrestlingFigs.com were at the TNA IMPACT Wrestling Bound For Glory 2011 Fan InterAction event. Watch as IMPACT Wrestling’s biggest stars are interviewed at their most important event of the year.
THQ has announced that “Macho Man” Randy Savage will be featured in WWE ’12, which is set for release next Tuesday. Savage will be a playable character via downloadable content pack in January.
It was announced at Tuesday’s SmackDown taping in Bridgeport, Connecticut that Dolph Ziggler would be defending the United States Championship this Sunday at the Survivor Series. It was originally reported that John Morrison would challenge Ziggler for the strap on Sunday. However, other reports stated Ryder would be the challenger.
WWE.com announced Wednesday that Ziggler will defend the United States Championship against Morrison at the pay-per-view event.
Upon the news breaking, a distraught Ryder tweeted, “This Sunday Night…NEW YORK CITY…MSG…SURVIVOR SERIES…@HEELZiggler defends the US title against……..@TheRealMorrison? #makesnosense.”
Former WWE talent Serena Deeb spoke with Newsday to promote this Saturday’s Women Superstars Uncensored event in Deer Park, New York. She was originally scheduled to face Melina at the show, but is currently unable to compete after suffering a serious concussion.
“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about it right now, especially because everything just happened,” she says of her ongoing concussion issues. “I’m 25-years-old and what I always imagined was that my career would go for as long as I wanted it to, and that I’d have that in my control. Now I’m suddenly being put in the position where it’s not in my control, and where my body is maybe not going to last as long as I wanted it to and as long as I idealized it lasting. So there’s definitely a large element of worry right now.”
Despite being a tenured wrestler, Deeb was largely kept out of the ring during her stint on the WWE main roster last year. She says of her experience, “I don’t really know what was going on in their minds, in my bosses’ minds, during my time in WWE. I think that the plans were there to eventually have me break out and be in the ring. But the role that I played on television, that wasn’t part of it…
“So it was just wrong place, wrong time as far as a wrestling role goes,” she said. “It was definitely a lesson in patience and I had to know and trust that it was just not the right time, and that it was for a reason. Of course, I was very anxious to wrestle. I always wanted to. And the few opportunities I was given on the road to wrestle, I was ecstatic.”
On working with CM Punk, who led the Straight Edge Society, she says, “I could see that this guy believed in himself. I think that’s the number one thing that leads to success in this business, is that belief in yourself. If you don’t your just going to get eaten alive and you’re going to sink…Punk obviously has done the opposite of that, because he’s always known how good he is and how talented he is and he’s never doubted that.
“He’s always believed that he should be on top, and that’s exactly where he deserves to be. And he’s worked very hard to get to that point.”
Credit to SEScoops.com reader Eric for sending in these TNA Impact Wrestling tapings results from Tuesday night.
Impact Wrestling: Airing On Thanksgiving (11/24)
* They re-taped the James Storm and AJ Styles segment to air on November 17th first.
* Matt Morgan and Crimson retained the Tag Titles against Mexican America.
* Karen Jarrett comes out with Traci Brooks, Gail Kim and Madison Rayne. Karen calls out the Knockouts roster and announces a Lingerie Match.
* Kurt Angle comes out for a promo on James Storm, who eventually came out. Storm wants to fight but Daniels, Bully Ray and Jeff Jarrett come down to surround him. Storm hit Angle but he gets beat down. AJ Styles, Rob Van Dam and Mr. Anderson make the save. Bobby Roode came out towards the end and Storm laid him out.
* Velvet Sky, Tara and Miss Tessmacher beat Winter, Angelina Love and Madison Rayne in a Lingerie Match. Mickie James came out, stopped Madison from interfering and Velvet pinned her for the win. Mickie may have been injured.
* Backstage segment with former referee Rudy Charles, Eric Young, Rob Terry and Robbie E. Robbie vs. Young is booked tonight where the loser has to wear a turkey suit.
* Jeff Hardy comes out in his mask but when he takes it off, it’s Jeff Jarrett. Hardy came out and they fought. Daniels and Bully Ray made the save for Jarrett, which brought back out Styles, Anderson and RVD.
* Eric Young beat Robbie E. Young made Rob Terry put the turkey suit on after the match because Robbie was laid out.
* Jeff Hardy, Mr. Anderson, AJ Styles and Rob Van Dam beat Robby Roode, Jeff Jarrett, Bully Ray and Daniels in the main event elimination match. Angle and Storm were at ringside. It came down to Styles and Hardy winning for their team. Roode and Hardy actually didn’t start the match as Roode was doing commentary and Hardy was recovering from earlier. Angle and Storm ended up brawling to the back. After the match, Roode came out and took Styles and Hardy down to end the show.
– CM Punk will be on the Opie & Anthony Show this Friday morning to promote Survivor Series. O&A airs on Sirius channel 206 and XM channel 105.
Speaking of Punk, he was backstage at Tuesday’s Guns ‘N Roses concert in Chicago.
– Diana Hart Smith, widow of the late British Bulldog and mother of former WWE Superstar David Hart Smith, revealed on Twitter that Dave Batista recently earned his blue belt in Jiu Jitsu.
– Chris Jericho recently got some attention by announcing on Twitter that he’ll never wrestle for WWE again. While this might alarm some WWE fans expecting to see Jericho return at some point – it appears to be a joke about WWE’s policy of their talent being “entertainers” and not “wrestlers.”
Most people within WWE expect Jericho to return soon and get back to “sports entertaining” the WWE Universe.
-With the NBA basketball season all but cancelled at this point due to the lockout situation between the players association and the team owners, there has been talk in WWE about getting a big name NBA star to work an angle at WrestleMania 28. Both Lebron James and Shaquille O’Neal have worked with WWE before in the past and there’s a good chance WWE will go after one of them if the NBA season does get cancelled.
Also related to the NBA lockout – there has been strong interest from big city arenas to host more WWE events over the next year to make up for the lost revenue due to the lack of NBA games. Madison Square Garden in particular is pushing for more live events in the coming months.
– There was a lot of talk backstage at Monday’s RAW about Cody Rhodes’ physique and how he’s looking in great shape lately.
– Stan sent word that this week’s 3-hour RAW had only 35 minutes and 12 seconds of in-ring action. This is actually down from the previous week’s two-hour show.
BE HERE TONIGHT For LIVE COVERAGE of WWE SURVIVOR SERIES!
ThNEVER BEFORE - NEVER AGAIN!
The staff of SESCOOPS – Mike, Noah Mark & The Solomonster – will be at SURVIVOR SERIES tonight! Keep it locked to the SEScoops & the SEScoops Facebook Page for our first-hand LIVE coverage!
Here’s the final card for Sunday’s pay-per-view:
The Rock’s First Match In 7 1/2 Years
John Cena and The Rock vs. The Miz and R-Truth
World Heavyweight Championship Match
Mark Henry (c) vs. Big Show
WWE Championship Match
Alberto Del Rio vs. CM Punk
5-on-5 Traditional Survivor Series Tag Team Match
Team Orton (Randy Orton, Sheamus, Mason Ryan, Kofi Kingston and Sin Cara) vs. Team Barrett (Cody Rhodes, Jack Swagger, Hunico and Dolph Ziggler)
Divas Championship Lumberjill Match
Beth Phoenix (c) vs. Eve
United States Championship Match
Dolph Ziggler (c) vs. John Morrison
WWE taped Friday night’s episode of SmackDown on Tuesday from Hershey, PA. Credit to prowrestlingnet for this report:
Dark Match:
* Justin Gabriel defeated a local wrestler.
* Former WWE star Kenny (“KENNY!”) Dykstra returned to action and lost to Justin Gabriel.
WWE SmackDown (Airing Friday)
* The show started with Mark Henry assaulting Daniel Bryan backstage. He dragged Bryan to ringside and continued the attack. The refs rolled Bryan out of the ring, and then Henry cut a promo on delivering more pain to Big Show and retaining at Survivor Series.
* Dolph Ziggler defeated Sin Cara. Vickie Guerrero announced before the match that Dolph will be doing double duty at Survivor Series, as he will defend the U.S. Title against Zack Ryder. Dolph won a good five-minute match with a roll up after Jack Swagger came out.
After the match, Mason Ryan came out to even the sides. Mason Ryan beat the crap out of the heels, with Dolph Ziggler showing once again that he’s one of the best “bump men” in WWE.
* Mason Ryan defeated Jack Swagger. Ryan won with a Full Nelson Slam. Expect to see a lot of replays of Ryan throwing Ziggler. Backstage, Zack Ryder got Big Show and Justin Gabriel to sign his petition. He informed Big Show of what Henry said in the opening promo.
* Backstage Ted DiBiase was playing WWE12 with Hornswoggle. Teddy Long came in with Aksana. Long was falling all over her.
* Christian came to the stage with a neck brace, boot, and crutch. He complained a lot and said even though he can’t wrestle at Survivor Series, he’ll be there to “inspire” Team Barrett. Due to his injuries and the uncertainty that his career holds, his dream is to wrestle at leaset “one more match.” He got a lot of heat and then said good riddance and walked off stage.
* There was a backstage segment with Big Show and AJ checking on Daniel Bryan in the trainers room.
* Ted DiBiase defeated Derek Bateman with Dream Street.
* Big Show was shown backstage looking for Mark Henry.Jinder Mahal and Tyson Kidd said he wasn’t around. Mahal said something in Punjabi. Show asked Kidd if he understood what Mahal said. Kidd didn’t, and Big Show knocked out Jinder Mahal for speaking a language other than what he speaks. Kidd gingerly walked away hoping not to upset the giatn.
* Big Show came to the ring in a sweatsuit. He cut a promo on Henry and said that after Henry forced Bryan to be carried out tonight, Show is gonna force Henry to be carried out at Survivor Series.
* Kofi Kingston pinned Hunico with the SOS. Hunico cut a promo in Spanish before the match.
* A promo aired for Ezekiel Jackson.
* Beth Phoenix and Natalya defeated A.J. and Kaitlyn. Natalya made A.J. tap to the Pinup Strong hold.
* Mark Henry vs. Big Show with Booker T as special referee was announced as the dark match.
* They showed the full Survivor Series lineup and only the two world title, the traditional tag, and the Rock and John Cena vs. The Miz and R-Truth matches were shown. No sign of a U.S. Title match there.
* Randy Orton came out followed by Sheamus. Then Wade Barrett and finally Cody Rhodes.
* Sheamus and Randy Orton defeated Wade Barrett and Cody Rhodes by DQ. Christian came out on crutches during the match and hit Sheamus with a crutch for the DQ. Sheamus hit the Brogue Kick on Cody, and Orton delivered the RKO to Barrett. Sheamus hit Cody with the Celtic Cross.
– WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross tweeted on Tuesday afternoon that he’s not scheduled to be at Sunday’s Survivor Series pay-per-view:
“I’m not booked at Survivor Series @this time. I am booked in Waco to see OU-Baylor Sat. IF I set up sauce stand @ MSG Sunday, wud u come by?”
– After rocking Boston’s TD Garden on Monday night, The Rock was back on the movie set on Tuesday filming the new GI Joe movie. Rock tweeted a picture today (view here) of himself holding a gun with the caption, “On set. Handlin’ business. #WhatAreYouHandlin?”
The ratings are in for Monday’s 3-Hour “RAW Gets Rocked” edition of WWE RAW.
The 3-hour broadcast drew a 3.25 rating with an average of 4.74 million viewers. The final two hours (RAW’s usual timeslot) did a strong 3.37 rating (4.95 million viewers), up from recent weeks. Here are the hourly numbers:
Hour 1: 4.31 million viewers Hour 2: 5.00 million viewers Hour 3: 4.91 million viewers
Once again, for the 9th time in the past 12 weeks, RAW lost viewership in the final hour.
USA Network executive Ted Linhart tweeted the following about Monday’s RAW ratings:
“Key 18-49 demo 8:00 p.m.=2.1M (best 8:00 p.m. Raw hour since June 09) 9:00 p.m.=2.55M (best since May) 10:00 p.m.=2.6M (best since April)… Full Raw show=2.44M P18-49 & 4.7M total viewers making USA #1 cable ent. net by large margins, attracting more men than some bdcasters.”
– Mick Foley has addressed the Rock Bottom he took from The Rock on Monday’s RAW.
Foley tweeted on Tuesday afternoon:
“Why did (The Rock) layeth the smacketh down on my candy ass? I just wanted a hug. I bet he’s feeling quite a bit of remorse right now,” Foley tweeted.
— Maria Kanellis announced during last night’s AfterBuzzTV broadcast for Monday Night Raw that she will be returning to the squared circle on February 25, 2012 for New York City based promotion Family Wrestling Entertainment.
It will be her first match in two years and outside of WWE—she last competed at the February 23, 2010 WWE Superstars taping. She was released from her contract with WWE three days after the event and recently resurfaced on the wrestling scene to support her boyfriend, Ring of Honor talent Mike Bennett, at independent shows. She stated last Tuesday on Facebook that she had resumed wrestling training.
— The official Twitter feed of ESPN’s College Gameday announced Tuesday that John Cena, a Division III All-American center at Springfield College, will be the celebrity guest picker for this Saturday’s show at University of Houston.
— John Cena is featured on the cover of the latest issue of The Wrestler.
