Hulk Hogan revealed on Twitter that he was locked out of his house earlier today in just his underwear and without a phone. When a fan called him out for being able to tweet while he was stranded outside, Hogan replied that he made it back into the house. Here is the exchange:
Steve Austin made the following remarks on the latest installment of his podcast about the big angle storyline involving Kurt Angle with Jason Jordan being revealed as Angle’s son:
“I like the fact that they are shooting a hell of a big angle. They got a lot of negative responses but hey man, it was a big-time response seemingly from everybody. Big time angle, lot of rub for the kid. He’s a good-looking guy, read about him when I was coming over here to talk to you on the podcast. Outstanding credentials as an amateur, could possibly have a bright future ahead of him and if it is done off the back of this angle, more power to the kid, good luck to him. Is this leading to a betrayal of Kurt’s trust or somebody trying to set him up to oust him from his position? And will it result in Kurt Angle returning to the ring to wrestle at a big-time Pay-Per-View?”
You can listen to the full podcast at this link.
Buddy Murphy may have suffered some sort of ankle or leg injury at Thursday’s NXT Live Event in Cocoa, Florida.
Our correspondent at the event mentioned that Murphy went down after a bad landing on his ankle in the main event tag match match. A WWE trainer came out and talked to Murphy for a few minutes. Murphy looked as if he wanted to continue the match but Referee Drake Wuertz came down shortly after and talked Murphy into going to the back to get checked out. Murphy left his partner shortly before the half-way point of the match, forcing Ohno to work the match by himself against Hideo Itami & The Velveteen Dream.
Here is a photo of Murphy before he headed to the back:
Combate C.E.O. Campbell McLaren stated in a recent interview that Alberto El Patron (Jose Rodriguez) will be stepping down from his figurehead role as the president of Combate Americas, according to The Fight Network.
“He’s probably stepping back his official roles from Combate and he’s going to focus on more on wrestling for the next year or two. It’s a very challenging enterprise and I think it’s very, very hard on the body and difficult to do. Very physical, very athletic, so I he’s kind of asked me if he can step away and with Saraya, focus on wrestling”.
As previously noted, Patron was suspended by Global Force Wrestling following reports of a domestic battery incident at the Orlando International Airport earlier this month.
Battleground is nearly upon us. After Sunday, plans will be set into motion. Summerslam depends entirely on what happens at Battleground. Will Baron Corbin be the next to fall to Shinsuke Nakamura? Will the New Day finally become Tag Team Champions? Who will be Naomi’s opponent at Summerslam?
With that in mind, who needs to win this Sunday? Which victories would be ideal? Who will affect Summerslam in the best possible way? We’re going to find out.
First off, allow me to say this. This feud is so backwards and unnecessary that it’s almost funny. Do Smackdown really want two of their top stars to fight some anti-American foreigners? Apparently so.
Rusev is capable of so much more than just “I hate America, you fatties.” Cena can cut better promos when he’s not talking about “the flag represents all of us!” I don’t care that they’re fighting again. It’s just that the feud is straight out of the ’80s. All it needs are some prayers and vitamins and the Hulkster could do it. Not good.
I firmly believe that if anyone is to walk away from this victorious, it should be Rusev. Cena’s established; feeding everyone to someone for 10 years straight will do that. Cena can lose. Rusev’s coming back from an injury.
It’s not even a standard match; Cena doesn’t need to eat a pin. Have Rusev back over him with a truck or handcuff him to the ropes or something. Just let Rusev win. If Rusev loses, where does he go from there? Nowhere. A victory will give him a little nudge up the card.
At Battleground, AJ Styles and Kevin Owens will once again lock horns over the United States Championship. Owens lost the title at a live event in Madison Square Garden, and he hopes to reclaim it. Styles hopes to hold onto the championship for some time.
While many are clamoring for Styles to move back into the WWE title picture, I would like to see him have a meaningful run with the US title. He plans on hosting an Open Challenge, and it would be interesting to see less-utilized guys have a chance to wrestle with him. Styles can make anyone look good, so this Open Challenge should be a great idea.
As for Owens, I’m not quite sure where he would go from here, but he always makes his way back. He lost his first ever feud on the main roster. As Universal Champion, he was a complete joke. But he recovered. He always does. Him losing to Styles will not be the end of his career.
While many view the result of this match as a “rock and hard place” scenario, I don’t think it is. There is only one preferable outcome to the Punjabi Prison match. Orton needs to regain his championship.
The Jinder experiment has run its course. Mahal’s been cutting the same weaksauce promos for 8 weeks now. People have stopped caring about the WWE Championship. That’s not good.
While another Orton reign is not something anyone is looking forward to, it would be a lot better. For one, Orton can cut a promo without sounding like a teen currently going through puberty while smoking two packs a day. Mahal’s voice cracks more one promo than there are days in his title reign.
Lastly, Mahal wrestles a fairly pedestrian style that doesn’t exactly light the world on fire. If Orton were to regain the championship, he could actually have good matches. If he were to defend the WWE title against Nakamura, Corbin, or Owens at Summerslam, that could be great. It sounds better than Mahal v. Cena or something.
PWInsider reports that Darren Young is expected to be cleared to return to in-ring competition next month. Darren underwent elbow surgery back in January after he suffered an injury during a WWE Main Event match against Epico back on January 16th.
Young posted the following video as he continues working towards his return:
Here is footage of Darren suffering the injury that currently has him sidelined:
RAW Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss recently spoke with Great Day Houston. Here are some highlights from the interview:
Why she chose to get into professional wrestling: “It’s such an amazing sport, I watched it growing up and it was never really something I knew I could get into, but once I got the opportunity I knew I had to get on it and I knew I had to try for it. I told my mom, I said, ‘Mom I’m going to try out for WWE.’ Her response was, ‘The heck you are!’ She was like ‘You’re are not doing that!’ So I had to try out without her knowing but know she’s like the biggest supporter and so proud of me.”
Being on Total Divas: “It’s a lot of fun I’m just starting to get into it. They filmed us all in Japan which was really cool, we got to dress up in all these really cool character outfits and it was a lot of fun. It’s really cool, except like, I myself am a very private person and I’m not as mean as I appear to be. But its been a lot of fun and its been really cool to see how everything works. I just feel bad cause sometimes they as me ‘What are you doing this week?’ And I’m like ‘I’m sitting at home with my dogs watching Netflix, what are you doing?’”
Her championship title: “This is the RAW Women’s Championship. What’s funny is – this is a little backstage information – the championship had to be shortened for me because it was so big on me, they actually had to take off size to let it fit me. But that’s why I’m ‘Five Feet Of Fury.’”
You can check out footage from the interview embedded below:
WWE Champion Jinder Mahal recently spoke to PhillyVoice where he talked about his upcoming Punjabi Prison title match with Randy Orton at this Sunday on WWE Battleground. He also talked about the hardships he faced in his career, and how he overcame them.
Speaking of his upcoming Punjabi Prison match in Philadelphia, he said:
“I love performing in Philly. The fans aren’t scared to voice their opinions. Sometimes their opinions are split, sometimes half the crowd is chanting one thing, sometimes half the crowd is chanting the other. But, you know, I look forward to it. I really don’t know how they’re going to react. That’s what’s going to make the match exciting. I don’t know if they’re going to boo me out of the building or if they’re going to boo Orton out of the building.
I do definitely know for sure they’re going to enjoy the match. It’s a Punjabi Prison match and it hasn’t happened in 10 years, and the structure is truly a monstrosity. I brought the Punjabi Prison this week on SmackDown, and it’s a spectacle. You’ve got to be there live just to appreciate the sheer size of it. It is a very risky match – for example, I went a little bit earlier and climbed the cage; it’s high and I’m scared of heights – but I know the Philly crowd is going to be rocking that night and I gotta do what I gotta do. I’m going to take the risks that I have to take to retain the WWE Championship.”
Mahal said that he was focused on improving even before his return and that he has not even “hit his prime yet”. He also added that he sees he has more title runs coming up for him in the future and how he aspires to be a future WWE Hall of Famer. He also talked about his role on NXT and how Triple H worked hard to promote NXT as its own separate brand rather than just a developmental brand.
When asked where he sees himself in a year:
“In one year, I see myself as already main eventing WrestleMania, still WWE Champion, and you know what, I see Drew McIntyre being on SmackDown. I think that Drew McIntyre will be challenging me for my WWE Championship. That’s where I see myself in one year.”
When asked about his run as part of 3MB and what he thinks of Drew McIntyre’s journey so far:
Drew’s one of my best friends. We’re always texting back and forth. Just to think a couple years ago, we were considered a joke and failures. I’ll be frank about it. I considered myself a failure when I got released from WWE after 3MB just because I didn’t live up to my potential. I didn’t live up to the expectations that I set for myself. I was going to come back with redemption and that’s exactly what I did.
And I know that’s what Drew’s doing. He took [being released] very personally and when he was on the independents, he was the hardest-working man on the independents and the most-traveled man on the independents. And you know, now he has a shot at Bobby Roode for the NXT Championship on SummerSlam weekend. I know he’s gonna do great. He’s going to become the NXT Champion. He’s going to become WWE Champion. And, you know, there’s always peaks and valleys. Three years ago, that was a valley. Now we’re at the peak and we’re still on the rise.
You can check out the full interview here.
Alberto El Patron is no longer being investigated for the airport incident that went down earlier this month.
Pro Wrestling Sheet reports that they were informed by a representative from the Orlando Police Department that El Patron is no longer being investigated and Paige is the one that will be charged with battery if authorities decide to move forward with the case. The State Attorney’s Office is currently reviewing the case before a final decision is made.
Pro Wrestling Sheet noted that they reached out to Global Force Wrestling regarding his suspension being lifted now that the charges have been dropped.
We will keep you posted if we hear anything new regarding El Patron or Paige’s situation.
While appearing at the San Diego Comic Con, Brie Bella participated in a panel that featured other female WWE Superstars and talked about the birth of her daughter Birdie. Brie also spoke briefly about making her return to WWE.
Brie mentioned that she will start training soon and Daniel Bryan will be her coach as she prepares to make her WWE comeback. She said that they plan on having a ring build at their house and her target in-ring return will be sometime next year.
You can listen to her comments in the video embedded below:
As previously noted, there are currently rumors about Nikki Bella making her return for next month’s SummerSlam event. You can read that rumor here.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that Matt Sydal suffered a dislocated shoulder at the most recent set of GFW Impact Wrestling tapings.
While there are no exact details of how the injury occurred, it’s believed that it may have happened during the last mach of the tapings. That match featured Sydal teaming with Sonjay Dutt & Alberto El Patron to take on the team of Trevor Lee, Low Ki and Bobby Lashley.
Sydal worked an indie match last week in Israel but was limited in what he was able to do inside of the ring. He is currently scheduled to face Ricochet at a UK indie show tonight.
Former WWE personality Armando Estrada claimed on Twitter that he was the one that originally pitched the Talking Smack concept years ago.
Estrada, who portrayed the ECW General Manager and manager, said that he pitched the idea to Vince McMahon back in 2011, with him being the host. Estrada said that nothing came of it beyond a handshake and a thank you at the time.
Here is the tweet he sent out: