in: WWE
WrestleMania XXVIII Competitor Maria Menounos Suffers Two Broken Ribs
By Daniel Pena
Mar 26, 2012 - 3:08:08 PM


In an injury that could affect this Sunday's WrestleMania XXVIII Divas Tag Team Match featuring Kelly Kelly and Maria Menounos against Beth Phoenix and Eve, New York Post gossip column Page Six reported Monday that the Menounos broke a rib during a recent dancing rehearsal for Dancing with the Stars.

She broke the rib during a hardcore rehearsal with dance partner Derek Hough, who was teaching her the Cha-cha-cha. A source says, "She has been in excruciating pain for the past few weeks during rehearsals, but she is staying strong and working through it. She refuses to give up."

Page Six adds Menounos is hiding a rib brace underneath her dancing gear.

Menounos confirmed the injury to Extra Monday, the entertainment news program she hosts. She says she suffered two broken ribs during a recent dance rehearsal. She will nonetheless perform on tonight's Dancing with the Stars

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EXCLUSIVE: Break these unwritten rules in WWE and be the subject of Vince McMahon's wrath

Mar 26, 2012 - 4:39:14 PM
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By Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

Earlier this weekend we published a story featuring former WWE Creative Team member Andrew Goldstein talking about how he found out the hard way about unwritten rules in WWE when you go to work there, specifically not to bring up Undertaker's "American Badass" gimmick.

On a recent PWTorch Livecast, I asked Goldstein about other unwritten rules other that he could remember. He said: "Other unwritten rules? You could do a whole one hour podcast on the unwritten rules of WWE." Then he listed these:

-Don't put your hands in the peanut jar, pour the peanuts into your hands.

-Don't sneeze or yawn in front of Vince.

-Don't email talent you're in charge of. Call them and reach them.

Over the years, many people who have worked in WWE have said there are many unwritten rules not just for writers and not just for Vince McMahon, but also locker room etiquitte around wrestlers (such as shaking hands with everyone when you get to the building, which Sean Waltman on a recent Livecast said is a tradition he would like to see go away). Newer roster members should not upgrade to first class on airplanes because first class seating is for senior members of the roster and management teams.

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“Be Who You Are and Say What You Feel Because Those Who Mind Don't Matter and Those Who Matter Don't Mind.” ~ Dr. Suess


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Nice article on CM Punk.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/celebrity/aboutlastnight/chi-interview-wwe-cm-punk-20120326,0,1838034.column

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WWE News: Former WWE head writer details response to his suggesting Randy Savage for WWE Hall of Fame

Mar 27, 2012 - 7:55:02 PM
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Former Smackdown leadwriter Alex Greenfield recently spoke with Raj Giri of WrestlingINC.com. In the second part of the interview, Greenfield was asked if he was told not to suggest ideas involving Randy "Macho Man" Savage.

"I was never told [not to do that] in so many words," said Greenfield. "I had no clue. I've heard all the same stories, none of which I will repeat. I have no clue and I know there are a ton of mutually exclusive stories which makes me think. Urban legend. But, when we were talking about Hall of Fame for WrestleMania 22, we were all asked to write lists and I absolutely put Savage on that list.

"Nobody said anything about it but it was surely made plain, 'No.' It was just a flat no. Then, I can't remember who it was, maybe it was [Michael] Hayes. He said, 'Yeah. Next year, don't do that.'"

Greenfield also talked about the backstage response to WWE exploiting Eddie Guerrero's death, Rey Mysterio being buried during his first run as champion, producing the Trish Stratus-Mickie James feud, Triple H burying the Divas and more. You can check out the full interview at WrestlingINC.com here: Former WWE Writer Talks Mysterio Buried As Champion, Guerrero's Death Being Exploited, Triple H / Divas & More

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EXCLUSIVE: Who's behind anti-Rock sentiment in WWE? What about Trish being welcome back but not Rock? [corrected]

Mar 27, 2012 - 4:14:29 PM
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By Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

Former WWE creative team member Seth Mates worked with The Rock in the lead-up to his 2002 match against Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam. He knew what Rock was like back then, and he finds it odd that some WWE wrestlers resent Rock coming back.

In a recent PWTorch Livecast interview, he reacted to the sentiment that Rock was stealing someone else's spot, and he sees the resentment stemming from an entirely different reason - jealousy that Rock took the risk of leaving and has found success outside of WWE.

"The resentment towards Rock always struck me as a little bit funny," he told me. "Because the thing about Rock is that people like are jealous of Rock not for stealing the spot but for being one of the guys who got out. You know he made it. He made it in a big way. He made a ton of money. And then he had an exit plan. And now he can come back and work when he wants. And it’s not like Rock is coming back and working with a guy who – he’s coming back to help make John Cena bigger than Cena ever was. He’s coming back to work with a guy who works house shows and who works Raw. You know. He’s coming back and he’s bringing mainstream attention. I can’t speak to the locker room leader this and whatever. I just know that wrestlers like to talk, wrestlers like to stir the pot, wrestlers like to cause trouble. Not a knock on them. Everybody does in every profession. You know every job I’ve ever had people talk you know what about other people in the room. Rock’s not stealing anybody’s spot. Rock is brining a lot of eyeballs.

Mates thinks Triple H's jealousy of Rock's success might, more than anything, be the driving force behind a lot of the negativity.

"I know that a lot of the stuff that Cena has said about Rock and his feelings towards Rock sound like something that would be coming directly from, you know Mr. Helmsley and his view. Because, again, as I said, I always sensed some insecurities as related to Rock and to [Steve] Austin and how, again, in my mind and perception, he never was at that level. And so he wanted to position himself as, well, I’m as good, if not better. Which I don’t know that he has done that."

Rock has held back in the face of a lot of fire power coming his way on Raw via Cena. For instance, Rock has a comeback that could silence Cena and Cena-backers who resent him, which is that had Rock not left, Cena might not have become the big star he has because that spot wouldn't have been left vacant by him.

Then an email from PWTorch reader Jason D was read to Mates [this is a correction from our initial report miscrediting this quote]: "Rock has one massive piece of ammo to use on Cena. Rock could argue that unlike other superstars, he left the business still on top and didn’t feel the need to hang around and take other guy’s spots. Rock could argue that by his leaving when he did it gave the opportunity for someone like Cena to be showcased. If Rock we were really selfish and didn’t respect the business, he would have hung around for more paydays and taken up a lot more main event spots, much like others who we all know. It was almost exactly around the time that Rock left that Cena started to take off. The point right here, that point right there would silence Cena and his backers. Food for thought."

Mates then replied to a comparison between Rock and Trish Stratus. Stratus was welcomed back after leaving wrestling to pursue other interests and she didn't face the same criticism. Not that Rock would bring that up in his defense, but someone else could point that out to others who have resented Rock's return after welcoming Trish back.

"You look everywhere there’s hypocrisy everywhere in the wrestling business," said Mates. "Like, oh, Vince complaining about Ted Turner stealing his stars when how did Vince take over wrestling in the 80s? You know hypocrisy is not something new in wrestling. It’s just, you know you come up with your talking point. You’ve got a billion dollar marketing company behind you to sell people on that talking point. People believe it."

The full transcript of this interview is being published on the PWTorch VIP website in installments over the course of the next several weeks. VIP members can listen to the entire interview in the PWTorch VIP Aftershow Interview section.

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“Be Who You Are and Say What You Feel Because Those Who Mind Don't Matter and Those Who Matter Don't Mind.” ~ Dr. Suess


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WWE News: C.M. Punk interview - what's his relationship with Rock?, says Rock shouldn't receive as much credit for WM27 buys & "hasn't done much else" for business

Mar 27, 2012 - 3:05:09 AM
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By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor


WWE champion C.M. Punk addressed his issues with The Rock in an interview with the Chicago Tribune's Luis Gomez promoting WrestleMania. Among Punk's comments, he said he doesn't believe Rock deserves as much credit for the WrestleMania 27 buyrate last year and he believes Rock should shoulder the blame for the poor Survivor Series buyrate in November.

Punk's quote on Rock: "I don’t think I have a relationship with The Rock. Over the past few weeks, it’s been better. Probably because I’ve been outspoken in the media. Of course, everything gets sensationalized and twisted. I don’t hate The Rock or fault him for coming back. I just think heaping credit on The Rock for ratings, buyrates – that’s where I get offended. It’s a team effort 365 days a year. Me and the entire locker room bust our (butts) and all our super stoked. Give credit where credit is due. WrestleMania had a huge buyrate last year, not because of one guy. The numbers out there prove he hasn’t done much else, like the Survivor Series buyrate."

Link: Punk's full interview can be read at ChicagoTribune.com .

Caldwell's Analysis: Three points here. (1) Punk created a stir repeatedly dogging Rock in media interviews, so it's not clear where he's coming from with the story being "sensationalized and twisted" when he created the story. (2) Raw TV ratings were flat in 2011 before Rock came in and helped boost ratings from a 3.1-3.3 range to a 3.7-3.9 range before Mania. (Then, once Rock left, ratings returned to pre-Rock levels, beyond the usual post-Mania drop-off.) At WM27, Rock was able to energize a sleepy wrestling fanbase and captivate a non-wrestling/very casual group of people to order WrestleMania. The difference in stagnant business and successful business last year was clearly Rock. Others contributed, but everything points to Rock as the #1 factor.

(3) The Survivor Series buyrate was well-below expectations for a number of reasons. To say Rock "hasn't done much else" is forgetting that WWE botched the promotion for Survivor Series. There's a long list of reasons. For starters, WWE managed to take buzz from four months before Survivor Series (when the poster was released and Rock's in-ring return was teased) and whittle it all away. Then, instead of trying to get people to want to see Rock & Cena team up, WWE reinforced what a lot of people felt beforehand that they did not want to see two "sworn enemies" team up. This was after a methodical attempt to make Rock seem not special - reducing the value of the attraction - due to WWE and Cena's pettiness.

There's also the factor of WWE's PPV business sliding so far off the page over the past few years that anything other than WrestleMania and Royal Rumble is not being bought by people outside of WWE's standard buyer pool. (Punk experienced it first-hand when the MITB PPV in July only showing a slight bump, but not at expectations - similar to Survivor Series - despite all of the hooplah surrounding Punk's "worked shoot" promo and the prospect of him leaving WWE with the WWE Title belt.) Combine all of that with Cena & Rock essentially facing broomsticks who posed no threat to Rock & Cena based on the build-up, and it was a recipe for an underwhelming buyrate.

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“Be Who You Are and Say What You Feel Because Those Who Mind Don't Matter and Those Who Matter Don't Mind.” ~ Dr. Suess


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JBL interview that was posted on 411 mania.com

- John Bradshaw Layfield recently spoke about the genesis of the JBL character, his Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw gimmick, the APA skits and more. Check out the highlights:

On the genesis of the JBL character: "Shane McMahon saw me walking to Madison Square Garden one time in a suit, cowboy hat and boots. He said ‘That's the character.' He liked the look. It took a year or two after that. I mentioned something about doing this character. I thought in my mind about the character J.R. Ewing from the TV show "Dallas." That was my idea. Vince McMahon will tell you it has nothing to do with J.R. Ewing. In his mind it was a blow up of my life, an embellishment of some of the things I was doing. For many years they didn't really want me to be a bad guy, because I was doing so much with the troops. But a lot of things happened at once. Big Show got hurt, Brock Lesnar had left the company, Undertaker was out, Kurt Angle was hurt, and they needed somebody to wrestle Eddie Guerrero, and so they said ‘Hey, let's create this character of JBL.' That's when the thing started."

On Vince's opinion of the character: "Vince McMahon always thought (the character) could be a World Champion, but other than one or two people, nobody thought it could be. I didn't know. I had no idea if it could be or not. We had it as a scheduled main event against Eddie and after about two weeks it was falling horribly flat. I really wondered if it was going to work. They needed me for that main event in Los Angeles where the Pay Per View was. We had about six weeks lead up time, which was good. They were going to push at least that Pay Per View. Thank goodness it was Eddie Guerrero."

On his feud with Eddie Guerrero: "Eddie was just fantastic. If it had been anyone else it may have been a one-shot deal. Eddie took a lot of interest in helping me with that character, and the match worked. That's why the character got extended and ended up becoming a main event character for quite a while. But it was never a sure thing. Fortunately I had the right guy to wrestle, and I had the right circumstance happen around it."

On the Justin 'Hawk' Bradshaw gimmick: "I thought it was great! But it didn't work. I was friends with Stan Hansen, and when I came in they told me ‘wrestle like Stan Hansen'. I knew that style well. I wrestled with Stan in Japan, I was a big fan of his. I pretty much had that style anyway. After three months the character was going nowhere and they said, ‘John, what are you doing? If we want Stan Hansen, we'll bring in Stan Hansen.' I said ‘OK, how do you want me to wrestle?' They said ‘Wrestle like Barry Windham.' Three months later they bring in Barry Windham! I learned a lot from Barry. I learned a lot about wrestling, about how to carry yourself, a lot of different things I learned from Barry. That really helped me."

On the backstage APA skits: "Those things were so loosely scripted. They would literally give us kind of an idea and roll the cameras. It was so much fun. Ron was so great to play off of. He has such a great presence. That thing worked phenomenally. Vince came up to me one day and said ‘I want to put that on tape'. I said, ‘What?' and he said, ‘You and Ron, drinking beer and telling stories.' That day they created the APA office. They were building it, and Ron walked in and saw just the door and said ‘Leave it like that.' They said, ‘What do you mean? There are no walls.' He said, ‘that's perfect.' It was just stupid. I love doing fun stuff like that. It was so silly. It was a lot of fun."

On tension between WCW and WWF workers during the Invasion: "Any time you have two separate entities merge together, there is going to be, inherently, some personality conflict. It's been a long time since I thought about it, but I don't remember too many problems with guys coming in. A lot of it was storyline, and a lot of it was perpetuated backstage. Rumors were allowed to grow, because we wanted it to seem like it was really happening. I never had a problem with any of those guys. People were trying to make everything look like a shoot. Some rumors got out – ‘Hey, these guys really hate each other' – but that really wasn't the case.

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Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer returns with our final show of the day and the last show in studio before heading out to Miami for WrestleMania 28! Tons to discuss including buyrate and top match predictions for the show, Raw's rating Monday, the Mania press conference yesterday afternoon, Flair's Hall of Fame deal, plus notes on the firing of King Mo, surprise UFC drug testing, your questions and more. A fun show as always so check it out~!

http://www.sendspace.com/file/kp2gwa
Click here to start download from sendspace

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Good article on Mania III

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/775 ... emania-iii

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I was going to throw this out on a possibilty for Rock-Cena, since Cena is saying that he needs to win this match, if they do the Cena Heel turn here.

DO like a Wrestlemania 17, when Austin went Heel and just bashed the Rock with a Chair a bunch of times to get the win.

Since the event is in Miami, and it seems like from what you and can wager Cena will win, would the Rock agree to get pinned or say I quit, to save face for the Rock.

If the winner of Launiaitis-Long, more than like Laurniatis makes the match a No DQ, No Countout, and near the end Cena grabs a chair and bashes the Rock for the win.

I think that may have worked a month ago, but right now Cena is a hotter babyface than he has been in a long time. I think they were expecting more people to get behind the Rock, but based on promo stuff Cena has clearly been the good guy and I think the one most fans want to cheer for - I know I do and I never thought that would be possible. Ever. I really don't think now is the time for a Cena heel turn (and I know I thought it should have been done a long time ago). Which of course means it will probably happen

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I agree with you Jackref, if this match was anywhere else, I would see the crowd possibly more on Cena's side, but being in Miami, and the way Cena won the promos, instead of 95-5, it will be Pro-Rock, possibly 80-20.

That's why I wonder if they let Cena fly with his promo's to build him more.

There is a thought, this Mania could be like Wrestlemania 3, with Rock-Cena like Andre-Hogan as the top matches, but the best one was Savage-Steamboat and this years could be Jericho-Punk.

Definitely. Some good parallels there. I now I am a dork and setting myself up for disappointment but I am really looking forward to this Mania. I think it as the chance to be really good if not great.

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I think you might be disappointed.

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I know. But dammit I have to hope. Helps me justify to myself spending $65 on it.

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I know the feeling.

Oh well.

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More than likely me too.

Big update on Martha Hart vs. WWE/McMahons lawsuit

Mar 30, 2012 - 5:51:25 PM
By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

Individual charges against WWE CEO Vince McMahon and former CEO Linda McMahon have been dismissed in Martha Hart's June 2010 lawsuit alleging wrongful use of Owen Hart's likeness in WWE material. Some charges against WWE, the company, remain in-play following a court hearing in Connecticut on Wednesday. Judge Stefan Underhill allowed Martha's claim of unpaid royalties to proceed and agreed that WWE's use of personal photos of Owen Hart "may have violated Owen Hart's privacy rights."

What's next is Martha considering the judge's decision and deciding whether to pursue the remaining charges in the case. WWE attorney Jerry McDevitt commented, "I don't know whether she wants to resolve it. We've always been willing to talk. If she wants to talk to us, she can

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“Be Who You Are and Say What You Feel Because Those Who Mind Don't Matter and Those Who Matter Don't Mind.” ~ Dr. Suess


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WWE plans to launch a third weekly TV show on an unidentified broadcaster, according to statements made by WWE management at a State of the Business meeting in Miami this weekend. The show will be one-hour, but no further details were given. WWE will also produce an hour-long Spanish-language show. Details were not provided, either.

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WWE News: WWE reveals new Network shows, including Divas reality show; WWE still guarded on business model, complete line-up for "Legends House"

Mar 31, 2012 - 1:35:51 PM

By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor


Similar to the NFL holding a State of the League meeting on the eve of the Super Bowl each year, WWE revealed more details on the WWE Network in a State of Business meeting on the eve of WrestleMania 28 this weekend.

-- WWE unveiled a new batch of Network shows to accompany the already-completed "Legends House." The list includes a reality show, "WWE Divas Tour Bus," two flashback shows, "WWE WrestleMania Rewind" and "The Monday Night War: Raw vs Nitro," and "WWE Countdown."

-- WWE remained closely-guarded on the actual business aspect and potential launch date. "We continue to evaluate the best approach," said WWE marketing executive Michelle Wilson. According to Variety, that includes carriage deals that have yet to be revealed.

-- The official cast list for Legends House is Roddy Piper, Hillbilly Jim, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Tony Atlas, Pat Patterson, Howard Finkel, Mean Gene Okerlund, and Jimmy Hart, which is also the list of Legends scheduled to appear on the live Smackdown episode in Hampton, Va. on April 10.

-- WWE executive Stephanie McMahon spoke at the meeting, noting WWE is looking for ways to package their 100,000 hours of library footage, which includes footage that has only aired once or has never aired on TV before.

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WWE rehires former producer



David "Fit" Finlay has rehired by WWE as an agent/producer. Finlay had been fired for coming up with the idea of The Miz interrupting the national anthem to get heat on a show which caused a WWE sponsor, the national guard, to complain to management.

Both Finlay and Terry Taylor, expected to be part of developmental, are in Miami working this weekend.

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