WWE To Tease Ryback vs. The Rock On January 7th
At this time, there is a lot of discussion about the January 7th edition ofWWE Monday night RAW. On that night, not only will The Rock be returning, but WWE has also announced that CM Punk will defend theWWE Title against Ryback in a TLC match on the show.
It appears that WWE is planning to tease some interaction with Rybackand The Rock. One of the scenarios thrown out is that they would tease Rock vs. Ryback, teasing that Ryback could beat CM Punk and go on to face The Rock at Royal Rumble.
Steve Austin Speaks Out – Bret Hart, John Cena, & More
While promoting WWE 13, Steve Austin spoke about how John Cena would have thrived in the Attitude Era and more. Here are the highlights…
On Working With Bret Hart: Man, working with Bret Hart was some of the most fun matches I’ve ever had in my life. There was Chicago andWrestleMania 13, over in South Africa, in Germany — and Bret had a pretty good stronghold over in Germany. Man, I loved working with Bret. I’ve got a lot of respect for Bret as a person, and everything he did as a pro wrestler. Hell, I remember one time we were working a show somewhere and Bret was in the main event. [Bret] got a flat tire on his Lincoln Towncar, and I changed his tire while he was in the ring working. Every day you work with Bret, you could learn something. We had 100 percent trust in each other, and 100 percent respect for each other. He’s a badass guy, and I just — every night was a good night with Hart. That’s the damn truth.
On John Cena Thriving in the Attitude Era: John Cena in The Attitude Era. Man, that’s a good question. Yeah, had he been placed in it, and been dealt with accordingly, the John Cena you see now — the face of the franchise, the leader of the pack? Not so much. But I guarantee if you’d have gotten him face to face with “Stone Cold” in an interview, and you know John cuts a good interview himself, if I slapped the s*** out of that son of a b****, I think we’re off and running to make a lot of money. All he needs is to be poked and prodded in the right way. I think John Cena has a hell of a lot of fire and he needs to be in the ring with the right opponent, or the right cat, to bring that out. So in the current environment, you really don’t see that in him. Place [Cena] back 10 years in the ring with “Stone Cold”? You’d have rung the cash register, big time.
On Superstar Billy Graham: Oh man, it’s like the DVD they made of “Superstar” — “20 Years Too Soon.” He was. Man, that guy was just the perfect guy. He could have lived in The Attitude Era rather than “Stone Cold,” had he been around a little bit later. I just think everything that guy did was so entertaining back in the day — the promos he cut, the outfits he wore. His work style was a little bit different than mine, obviously, but he had such a great look. You just thought he was a badass, and he was just a highly entertaining guy. Had they known, they could have done with Billy what they did with me, had they had the wherewithal or the chance to do it back then, but they didn’t think of it back then.
The New Age Outlaws To Wrestle In WWE
The New Age Outlaws are advertised for all the RAW shows on the WWE Holiday Tour. They will be wrestling The Rhodes Scholars (Rhodes and Sandow) on all the shows, so it appears as if they are officially replacing the Sin Cara-Rey Mysterio tag team.
Ross new blog – will he call WM29 match?
WWE announcer Jim Ross published a new blog at jrsbarbq.com reflecting on past Christmas Day wrestling shows he was part of. Plus, Ross said he hopes to call at least one big match at WrestleMania 29 on Apr. 7.
The Rock Ranked Among Hollywood’s Best Actors
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson ranks among “Hollywood’s Best Actors For The Buck.”
Forbes published this article Wednesday ranking stars that offer Hollywood the best return on their investment and it is estimated that the actor/wrestler returned $22.70 for every dollar he was paid for his last three starring roles. By comparison, Natalie Portman, the best investment of 2012, drew 42.70 times what she was paid. Overall, Johnson ranked No. 8., also trailing Kristen Stewart ($40.60), Shia LaBeouf ($35.80), Robert Pattinson ($31.70), Daniel Radcliffe ($30.50), Taylor Lautner ($29.50) and Bradley Cooper ($25.00).
Randy Orton’s Shoulder Injury
Source: The Wrestling Observer Newsletter
As previously reported, Randy Orton suffered a dislocated shoulder at theWWE Tribute to the Troops tapings.
Orton suffers from a condition called hypermobile shoulders, which allows his shoulders to stretch back in a much greater range of motion than the average person. The downside to the condition is that he’s more prone to dislocating his shoulders and his shoulder joints will wear down much faster than the average person. This could also lead to more health issues as he gets older.
WWE Denies Looking For Investors For New Network
Source: The Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Last week it was reported that WWE might potentially partner with an investment company to get the WWE Network launched, due to the fact that they have invested a ton of capitol over the last three years on the project.
According to a source in WWE, those reports are false and WWE is still looking to launch the project on their own.
Update On The Rock’s WWE Return Inside Here
The Rock is now being advertised for the January 22 SmackDown tapings in Sacramento, California. Here is his updated WWE schedule for January and February…
* Jan. 7: RAW TV in Tampa, Fla.
* Jan. 8: SmackDown TV taping in Miami, Fla.
* Jan. 21: RAW TV in San Jose, Calif. (reported, but not yet official)
* Jan. 22: SmackDown TV in Sacramento, Calif.
* Jan. 27: Royal Rumble PPV in Phoenix, Ariz.
* Jan. 28: RAW TV in Las Vegas, Nev.
* Feb. 17: Elimination Chamber PPV in New Orleans, La.
* Feb. 18: RAW TV in Lafayette, La. at the Cajundome.
Here are some WWE business notes for the month of November:
* They averaged 4,786 paid fans for NorthAmericanlive events, down 12% from the 5,429 in November 2011
* European tour attendance was also down 11% from 2011
* WWE shipped 556,000 DVD units in November, up 107% from the 268,000 in November 2011. The most shipped DVD’s over the past year are WrestleMania 28 with 236,000, The Rock’s DVD with 150,000, CM Punk’s DVD at 114,000, The Undertaker’s DVD at 102,000, Greatest Superstars at 96,000, The nWo DVD at 94,000 and Royal Rumble at 89,000
* WWE’swebsitehad 11.1 millionunique visitorsin November, down 4% from 11.6 million in November 2011. They averaged 1,267 shop orders per day, the exact same average as November 2011
* Last year at this time, RAW was averaging a 3.12 rating with 4.48 million viewers. This year the show is averaging a 2.78rating and 4.00 million viewers – about a 10.9% drop in ratings and a 10.7% drop in total audience
* Last year at the same time, SmackDown was averaging a 2.05 rating with 3.01 million viewers. This year it is averaging a 1.88 ratingand 2.67 million viewers – about an 8.3%ratings drop and an 11.3% drop in audience
More Later!
