Category: WWE News

By Dave Meltzer, WrestlingObserver.com

– U.S. Champion John Cena was pulled from all Australian dates from 8/6 to 8/8 due to the broken nose he suffered on Monday’s RAW match with Seth Rollins.

He was also pulled from advertising this morning from Saturday’s WWE house show in Ontario, CA, where as of Thursday night, he was still being advertised for a cage match with Kevin Owens.  He was also pulled from advertising for Monday’s Raw show in San Jose.  He has also been pulled from the advertising for the 8/10 Raw show in Everett, WA, and all house shows the next weekend, but is advertised for the go-home RAW or SummerSlam in Minneapolis on 8/17.

However, he is still being advertised for Sunday’s house show in Fresno, although it is unlikely he will be there and almost certainly will not be wrestling on the show.

– In its first week of release, the Bryan Danielson/Daniel Bryan autobiography “Yes” was ranked No. 18 on the New York Times best seller list in the adult non-fiction category. 

Hulk Hogan’s legal team was in court yesterday in St. Petersburg, FL, filing a request to investigate what they called a potentail violation of a protective order by Gawker from the stories in Radar Online and the National Enquirer that have been reported all week of Hogan using racial and homophobic slurs while having taped sex with Heather Clem.

According to reports from Anna Philllips of TampaBay.com, Hogan’s lawyer claimed in court that the potential leaks from Gawker have ruined Hogan’s career and his right to a fair trial.  They have asked for a forensic electronics expert to examine Gawker’s computers and phones to see if there was any communication with The National Enquirer.

Gawker claimed in court that they have scrupulously followed the court’s order, that they did not share the confidential transcripts with the media and said that there is a long list of people who know of Mr. Bollea’s use of racist language long before Gawker did, and said that far too many people had those transcripts.  They also noted The National Enquirer denied Gawker as the source and called this claim “the last refuge of a desperate litigant.”

Hogan’s attorney said yesterday, “His career is done.  He’s been fired from WWE.”

Hogan’s attorney held up a print out from last year of an article entitled, “How to Leak to Gawker Anonymously” to show Gawker knows how to do so.

The judge didn’t rule on the motion and scheduled the trial for March 7, 2016.

By Ryan Pike

Nattie Can’t Say No To People

Nattie keeps agreeing to do people favours and it’s making TJ made. This week, she agrees to board 19 cats from an animal shelter at their home – and has to pawn the task off on her parents because she and TJ are gonna be on the road. She also agrees to let Adam Rose, Titus O’Neil and Heath Slater ride with them when their car breaks down, which turns into a disaster due to Titus being flatulent and loud, and Heath taking them to a strip club for dinner. TJ tells Nattie she has to say no sometimes, and she resolves to do so.

Paige and Alicia

Paige and Alicia are supposed to move in together, but then Paige decides to move in with her new boyfriend instead. Alicia gets mad at Paige for bailing on her, and Paige gets mad at Alicia for getting mad at her about it. They talk it out and Alicia admits she may have been a tiny bit jealous of Paige having success in her relationships.

Nikki and Bryan

Nikki thinks Bryan doesn’t like her because he keeps teasing her. She and Brie talk it out, then put Bryan on speakerphone while they’re driving. Bryan says he loves Nikki and she’s family, but there are many things he doesn’t like about her – including how materialistic she is compared to how Bryan is nothing like that. Bryan says his teasing is how he shows affection, but he says he won’t do it anymore if it bothers her.

CenaWatch Update

John Cena is mentioned but doesn’t appear, but the teaser for next week indicates that he will appear this season!

WWE’s second quarter business results showed $150.2 million in revenue and $5.1 million in profits.  This compared to last year’s second quarter, which it should be noted included WrestleMania, which did $156.3 million in revenue, but lost $14.5 million due to early spending on the network.

WrestleMana in 2014 brought in $35 million in income that was not network related, and posted a $5.8 million profit, so if you takeWrestleMania out of the mix, while not exact because of tax issues, the actual revenue would have been $121.3 million and losses would have been well over $20 million.

The key number is the network itself, which on June 30, 2015, had 939,000 subscribers in the U.S., 217,000 subscribers outside the U.S., and at that point had 71,000 people taking advantage of free month subscriptions.  The total subscriber number was 1,156,000, down from 1,327,000 at the end of the prior quarter.

The average number of daily subcribers was 1,216,000, but that’s skewed by people who signed up for WrestleMania itself who would have remained subscribers into April.

Wall Street seemed happy with these numbers since the stock has risen to $19.00 per share at press time.

It was not a surprise that there was a decline, although WWE was trying to push the idea more that at this point last year they had 700,000 subscribers.

WWE would not release info or answer questions regarding subscribers who had signed up for free months during the period and the retention rate, but the end of the quarter numbers show that, as expected, the people taking advantage of free subs are way down since it became a regular thing.

They noted that the new shows like Too Hot for TV, Swerved and The Stone Cold Podcast were among the most watched shows on the network, not mentioning the Jericho shows.  They also said Beast from the Beast, a live show from Tokyo, ws viewed more than any show to date on the network with the exception of the PPV events, beating out the Austin interview with Vince McMahon which had been No. 1.

The company announced new programs for the network:

*An NXT reality show (which was noted would be relatively expense to put together, similar to HBO’s Hard Knocks)

*Table for 3, which is like sitting at a lunch table with talent

*A studio news show (which I was surprised they didn’t have at launch)

They announced Camp WWE, the show we wrote about in last week’s issue, would be teased this year and debut in 2016. They would also produce new episodes of WWE 24, The WWE List as well as new podcasts.

They are also looking at expanding the neetwork into India, China, Germany, Japan and Thailand.  The network has already shown to have significant interest in Germany, a market that actually has propped up what are supposedly domestic numbers.

The company is projecting 1.2 million paid subscribers at the end of the next quarter, which would be September 30, 2015, likely based on a SummerSlam bump.

Live event revenue was up, and events were more profitable, if you factor out WrestleMania, due to increases in prices and slightly hurt by devaluation of foreign currency in markets played.  The WWE 2K 15 video game was a huge success, which propelled licensing revenue to increase from $5.5 million to $11.3 million.

Home Entertainment (DVDs) continue to decline as does web site revenue (due to loss of iPPV revenue which is now network revenue and lower ad rates), while WWE shop was up from $4 million to $5.8 million in revenue.

Vince did take a shot at Hulk Hogan on the way out when asked, saying the loss of Hogan “Doesn’t have any material effect on us.  We’re keen on inidividuals who can actually compete ni the ring and derive benefit from that.”

By Emerson Witner, WrestlingObserver.com

The Big News: Blake & Murphy retained their tag team titles and Jesse Sorensen, who once broke his neck on a live TNA pay per view, wrestled.

Show recap:

Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson defeated Enzo Amore & Colin Cassidy (w/Carmella)

We are starting things off in the ring as a certified G and a bona fide stud teamed up with a 7 foot tall wrestler. Corey Graves and Byron Saxton take turns on being the heel commentator, so Corey got to heel on Enzo and Cass, saying he hopes they go bankrupt.

You’ll never believe this, but they got the heat on Enzo and Colin got the hot tag and made the comeback. The match itself was fine. Dawson actually broke out Tully Blanchard’s old Slingshot Suplex. Something shocking happened on the way to the final bell. Colin got posted outside the ring and Dash & Dawson actually won a match. They used a finish where Dawson threw Enzo into the air and as he was coming down Dash gave him the Codebreaker. Despite never ever (ever ever) using this move before, the announcers already had a name for it: The Shatter Machine.

– The crowd was just as shocked as I was.

– Jason Jordan and Chad Gable were interviewed by Devin Taylor last week. Jason said they make sure to get the job done, no nonsense. Chad ran down every face team and they are Ready, Willing & Gable.

Baron Corbin pinned Paragon Pro Wrestling Champion Jesse Sorensen

Jesse is best known as the man who once had his neck broke on a live TNA pay per view. Dixie allegedly promised him a job for life and then fired him a year later. You can watch Jesse every Saturday morning at 6am on Paragon Pro Wrestling on Pop.

Oh yeah, the match. Baron became the linear PPW Champion by pinning Jesse in 20 seconds with End of Days.

– Tyler Breeze barged into Mr. Regal’s office and demanded a match for NXT Takeover: A Good Day To Takeover. Mr. Regal told him to be careful what he wishes for. I could swear it says on WWE.com who his opponent is, but I can’t find it right now.

Jason Jordan & Chad Gable defeated Elias Sampson & Levis Valenzuela Jr

Rey Mysterio, Chavo Guerrero and Ted DiBiase all had to drop the Jr, but Levis Valenzuela gets to keep it? Okay.

Chad schooled Elias after Elias demanded to wrestle him. Levis and Elias cheated behind the ref’s back to get the heat on Chad. Jordan got the hot tag and went nuts on Levis. Gable & Jordan won with Grand Amplitude, which is when Jordan tosses the guy up and Chad hits a neck breaker.

– Devin Taylor interviewed Dana Brooke. Dana said Charlotte has been running scared from her, but tonight she gets to prove she can beat Charlotte. Dana plans on serving Charlotte an eviction notice.

– A video package documenting Bull Dempsey’s battle with rampant obesity and sloth-like behavior aired. Whose Cheerio’s did he piss in? This segue wayed into him training. He was unable to life a weight bar or to climb a set of steps. He is now going to be a personal trainer? What the hell is going on?

Charlotte pinned Dana Brooke

This match was set up because Bayley wanted to wrestle Charlotte to prove that Bayley was good enough to face Sasha for the Woman’s Title. You didn’t read that wrong. That was how this match was set up.

This match was not nearly as long as I expected. I seriously expected this to go in excess of 10 minutes, but it barely went 4 minutes. Charlotte made a quick comeback, winning with a Spear and Natural Selection.

– Samoa Joe said he wants to be NXT Champion and is going to go through Rhyno next week on his way to the title.

– We finally got a follow up from last week when Owens punched Regal. After the show Kevin apologized to William and said he didn’t mean for it to happen. William took his word for it, but had that look on his face like you know he thought Kevin was full of it.

– Eva Marie is happy about winning last week. Instead of announcing her retirement, she said she wants to be Woman’s Champion, telling Sasha to look out. Oh great.

Kevin Owens pinned Martin Stone

3 weeks from Saturday, Kevin Owens will get his rematch at NXT Takeover: Live Free or Take Over as he faces Finn Balor for the NXT Championship. Owens was fined “an undisclosed amount” for punching William Regal last week.

This was just here to give Owens a win on the way to Takeover. Kevin Owens got the pin with the Pop Up Power Bomb.

– After the match Owens gave Stone the power bomb on the ring apron before mocking the Finn Balor entrance.

NXT Tag Team Champions Blake & Murphy (w/Alexa Bliss) defeated The Vaudevillians

Main event time. Blake, who recently bleached his hair so he no longer looks like Murphy, broke out a Freebird Strut. At least he knows the right people to kiss up to. Byron Saxton tried to claim that they only won the tag team titles because Alexa interfered. Thankfully Corey jumped down his throat before I could. They won the titles clean and Alexa joined them at Takeover in May.

The champs got the heat on Aiden. I was actually curious as to who they would beat down since the Vaudevillians just turned face a few weeks ago and neither have been established as the “fiery, baby face comeback guy”. Gotch actually did a pretty good comeback, leading to an “Oh My Gotch” chant. Gotch single handedly beat up both men.

Finally they set up for the Whirling Dervish on Blake, but Alexa grabbed Aiden’s ankle. As Murphy took out Gotch, Blake rolled up Aiden for the win!

– After the match the victimized Vaudevillians beat up the champs and sent them packing. Alexa looked about to slap Aiden, but they stared her down. They were about to show chivalry and let her leave, but Alexa slapped them both anyway. If this was ECW, TNA or WWE like 5 years ago I would have written “and then they laid out Alexa”, but instead they stood there and let Alexa leave with her boys. I am not justifying man on woman violence, just that it was weird for them to be slapped so hard and then just let her walk away.

So that is it for this week. We are on the road to NXT Takeover: With A Vengeance. What happens next week when Samoa Joe faces Rhyno? Only one way to find out and until then, make sure to say your vitamins and take your prayers!

Former WWE champion Brock Lesnar has been announced for the 10/3 WWE house show in Madison Square Garden — his first house show match on a WWE show in more than a decade.

Lesnar’s new WWE contact, along with a raise, calls for more matches per year including select house shows.

By Steve Khan, WrestlingObserver.com

– Air Date: July 30, 2015 (July 29 in Canada)

– Location: BOK Center in Tulsa, OK

The Big News:

Cesaro pinned Kevin Owens in a tag-team main event.

Show Recap:

Seth Rollins came out to start the show. They aired clips of John Cena beating him on Raw and footage of Rollins breaking Cena’s nose. Rollins was greeted with “You tapped out” chants.

Rollins said he reached his breaking point on Raw and his rage got the best of him, which is why he broke Cena’s nose and sent him to the emergency room. He cut to the footage again, this time in slow motion. They also showed the photos from the website of Cena’s busted face.

Rollins laughed and called it gruesome and beautiful. Cesaro interrupted because he didn’t want to hear Rollins go on and on (and on and on) like he does every week, and reminded Rollins that he tapped out. Rollins said he didn’t tap, it was a strategic move because he has bigger things to worry about than Cena’s little US Title.

Cesaro mentioned that he and Rollins have a rematch later but said he could make Rollins tap out right now. Rollins accepted his challenge. Rollins was given some pretty bad dialogue here.

Non-Title: Cesaro beat WWE Champion Seth Rollins via DQ

Cesaro tried a sharpshooter but Rollins escaped the ring and Kevin Owens sauntered out to join commentary. Phillips asked Owens about his interview from the website. Owens said he wasn’t going to repeat himself and Phillips can just go watch it.

Owens told Phillips he should call the match like he’s being paid to do. Owens said he broke his nose in his first NXT match but nobody was talking about that. Owens reminded Phillips that he was there for that but wasn’t calling Owens a hero like Cena.

As Cesaro went for the big swing, Owens asked the announcers if they remember when he said Cesaro should watch is back. Owens then left the announce table and attacked Cesaro for the DQ. Rollins looked annoyed at first but they double teamed Cesaro briefly and left. Owens was great on commentary.

8-Man Tag Match: Lucha Dragons & Los Matadores (w/El Torito) beat The Ascension & The New Day (w/Xavier Woods)

New Day cut a fun promo before match—which I can’t really do justice—saying they should be number one contenders if they beat both the Lucha Dragons and Los Matadores tonight. I believe they called Big E, “Big Wool” because he’s a heavy sweater. Prime Time Players were on commentary again and Darren Young wore glasses and had a clipboard to take notes.

Heels got the heat on Sin Cara until he made the hot tag to Kalisto. Torito took out Woods with a 619 (around the ring post). Los Matadores took out Konner with dives and Kalisto pinned Viktor with a rollup. New Day berated Viktor afterwards. They could probably make better use of Kalisto who really stands out even in limited action.

Backstage, Rich Brennan caught up with Kevin Owens who was leaving the building. Brennan informed Owens that he was teaming with Rollins to face Cesaro and a partner of his choosing. Owens didn’t know this, but said whoever teams with Cesaro is going to be sorry.

They aired a video package for Becky Lynch. She called herself the best and was gunning for Nikki Bella’s diva’s title. Lynch also said that she teamed with Paige because she’s known Paige since she was 13 years old.

Luke Harper and Bray Wyatt did a promo. Wyatt said they were going to fix a mistake and asked Roman Reigns if he could trust Dean Ambrose the way Bray trusts Harper. I think that’s what he said, anyway.

Rusev (w/Summer Rae) beat Jack Swagger via submission

Before the match, Rusev ranted about Lana and is mad at himself for falling for a backstabbing Russian-wannabe. Rusev casually told Summer that they would take Dog Ziggler for a walk after he crushes his opponent. They were about to kiss, but Jack Swagger interrupted. Rusev was great again.

Jerry Lawler asked why they named the dog “Ziggler,” and would love to see puppies on SmackDown, so he’s a little behind. A fan yelled “Get out of my country!” at Rusev. Simmer down, guy.

They had a surprisingly long match here in Swagger’s home state. It felt long and boring at first, but to their credit, it picked up and was pretty good by the end. The crowd was sort of behind Swagger was well.

Eventually, Rusev hit a superkick and applied the Accolade. Swagger almost fought out of it, but Rusev squeezed it in and Swagger tapped.

After the match, Rusev was about to kiss Summer, but he noticed Swagger getting to his feet. Rusev charged at him but Swagger countered with a slam and ankle lock. Rusev crawled out of the ring to escape. Swagger posed and they played his music. Weird.  

Backstage, Brennan asked Cesaro if he found a partner. Cesaro looked at his Tyson Kidd armband and said, “not here.” Cesaro said he has a problem with both Rollins and Owens and doesn’t care if he has to fight alone.

Stardust beat R-Truth via pinfall

Stardust won with Cross Rhodes, which he is now calling The Queen’s Crossbow, another Green Arrow reference. After the match, Stardust told Truth he’s failed this city and tried to put a Stardust mask on him (the one they sell for kids) while calling out Neville. Neville ran out and caught him with a dive. Stardust managed to bail through the crowd. The crowd didn’t care about any of this, not even Neville running out.

Backstage, Sheamus cut a nothing promo. He doesn’t like Randy Orton.

They aired a video package for Brock Lesnar/Undertaker and announced that Lesnar would be on Raw.

Cesaro & Dean Ambrose beat Kevin Owens & Seth Rollins via pinfall

Cesaro entered ready to fight on his own, but Ambrose came out before the bell rang. He ran right after Rollins, of course, and the heels bailed just in time for commercial.

The heels worked over Cesaro for a few minutes until he tagged Ambrose, who ran wild on Rollins. Owens got in Ambrose’s way allowing Rollins to hit him with a turnbuckle powerbomb. He followed with a flying knee and superkick but Ambrose kicked out. Ambrose dodged a senton from Owens and tagged Cesaro who hit a Swissblade.

Rollins tried to interfere but Cesaro got him in the big swing swing and sharpshooter. Cesaro then clotheslined himself and Owens to the floor. Ambrose took out Rollins with a superplex and clothesline. Owens caught him with a superkick and went for the pop-up powerbomb, but Cesaro rolled up Owens for the win.

Cesaro celebrated like this was a big deal, jumping on the announce table to pose to the crowd. He hugged Ambrose and the show ended.  

Final Thoughts:

Rusev vs. Swagger was the top of the hour segment, which tells you all you need to know about this show. Cesaro getting another win is nice, but this was an otherwise missable show. You could really feel how light they were on talent the way certain segments were dragged out. Despite the light crew, the main event was only about 10 minutes.

Also, no women’s match tonight. The revolution will be televised only some of the time.

The password for the 10/3 tickets in Madison Square Garden, which will include an appearance by Brock Lesnar, is GARDENWWE

The SummerSlam superstar panel presale password is SLAM15.

Tickets are available at ticketmaster.

On Wednesday, WWE.com announced that Layla El is retiring from wrestling after nine years with the company.

She said that it was time to start the next chapter in her life, and had gotten tired of the travel. She noted that she is now engaged and would be looking to start a family, as well as do other television work in the U.S. or the U.K.

El came to WWE after winning the 2006 Divas Search, and was best known for her tenure as part of LayCool, a tag team with Michelle McCool, who retired after getting married to Mark “Undertaker” Calaway.

It was a split bag last night with Total Divas showing an increase and Tough Enough showing a decrease.

Tough Enough did 980,000 viewers, down 14 percent from last week.

Total Divas did 1,083,000 viewers, up 9 percent from last week.