Professional wrestling dinner theater looking for place in Kissimmee

Central Florida is home to theme parks, beaches, and all kinds of shows, but there’s an effort to combine food with professional wrestling.

Professional wrestler Bryan Smith owns the Manor Professional Wrestling Dinner Theater.

“It’s theater and I know people will say professional wrestling, that’s a sport. Yes, it is, but Manor is putting sports and theater together,” Smith said.

Smith is putting on shows at Osceola Heritage Park, but there’s a new twist.

They’ll be serving dinner during the show.

“Roasted chicken, potatoes, vegetables. And then we have a kids' menu as well,” said Smith. “Our characters are from all over, just like we expect our tourists, our local fans. We have people from all walks of life.”

They had a sold out show for a recent Friday night.

Now, they have six shows scheduled for 2014.

Smith said Central Florida is the perfect place for them to grow.

“Kissimmee, Florida, is growing. If you look at, there are a lot of dinner shows in Kissimmee. We don’t want to compete with them, but we want to have a unique brand,” Smith said.

Now he’s working with city leaders in hopes of finding a permanent building for his company.

source: baynews9.com

Update On Richie Steamboat's WWE Status

It was reported a little while back that Richie Steamboat, the son of WWE Hall of Famer Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, had been released from his WWE contract while out of action with a serious back injury. It's now being reported that Richie is still under contract with WWE but his future in wrestling is still uncertain at this point. No word on how well he is recovering from his back surgery.

WWE Status of the Original Sin Cara

Luis Urive, who was the original Sin Cara, will see his WWE contract expire on January 10th. Given that Hunico is currently working the Sin Cara character, nobody expects Urive to be re-signed to a new deal. However, the belief as of last week is that it wouldn’t be until March that he would be available to sign with a new promotion.

George Barrios News

Georgie Barrios is now working out of WWE's TV facility as opposed to the main headquarters in Stamford. He's now in charge of everything there, which is a major change. They are also doing a lot of interviews and additional hiring for the Network right now.

JBL On Working In NXT, Who He Would Call Up To Main Roster, More

Former WWE Champion John "Bradshaw" Layfield recently spoke to "The Damn Good Wrestling Podcast" about working in WWE's NXT developmental territory.

If it was up to JBL and one guy had to be called up tomorrow, who would he call up? “Adrian Neville. Not a doubt in my mind. I think he’s just phenomenal. I don’t know about his promo skills as I haven’t seen them as much, but he’s a guy who could go out there and perform on any card, anywhere in the world and be a help to that card. I would love to see him up in the WWE. He’ll be there I just don’t know the time frame.”

The English contingent in NXT: “I believe Paige will be a big star, but as far as shaking up the (divas) division goes that remains to be seen. I hope she does but you don’t know until they get there.

“Danny Burch, I saw him cut a promo the other day which I thought was phenomenal. In fact I told him afterwards that it was one of the best promos I’ve heard done in recent memory. Danny Burch, I’m a big fan of his I think he will do well it’s just a matter of finding a spot for him.”

Calling people up to the WWE: “You don’t want to bring guys in just to bring them in, you want to bring them in and make an impact with them like they have with these other guys and I think that’s why it takes longer sometimes than what people want.”

His experience at NXT: “It’s a revitalisation for me. I haven’t been around anything other than the WWE for 15-20 years and so for me to see more of how I started and the passion, not just with the performers but with the crowd down there, it’s a great environment.”

source: the damn good wrestling podcast

Rumor Mill - Backstage Talk About JoJo Offerman

JoJo Offerman's future in WWE is said to be uncertain at best. She has not been featured very much on the Total Divas show lately and she has not been used very much on other WWE programming like Raw and SmackDown either. She has reportedly been in the NXT developmental territory though. According to reports, things are not looking very good for JoJo in WWE and there is a chance that she might just get released.

Triple H to Appear on Heavy Muscle Radio

Time to play the #Game !!! Triple H joins huge285 Dave Palumbo in this weeks edition of HMR!!! WWE… http://t.co/BCY5Nh9S77

— RX Muscle (@RXMuscledotcom) December 24, 2013

This Day In Wrestling History

Ric Flair wins his first World title. Flair teams with Greg Valentine to beat Gene and Ole Anderson for the NWA World Tag Team Championship
December 25, 1976

Kevin Von Erich defeated Bruiser Brody to win the NWA American Title and Ernie Ladd defeated Ray Candy by forfeit to win his 4th Mid-South North American title
December 25, 1978

World Class Championship Wrestling holds the first "Christmas Star Wars" event at Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas, drawing a crowd of 18,000 fans (and a Texas record gate at the time) for a show that featured one of the most famous heel turns of all time, a turn that sparked arguably the greatest feud in Texas wrestling history, the Von Erichs vs. The Fabulous Freebirds.
December 25, 1982

Magnum T.A. & Mr. Wrestling II defeated Butch Reed & Jim Neidhart to win the Mid-South Tag Team Title
December 25, 1983

The Rock 'N' Roll Express defeated Ted DiBiase & Hercules Hernandez to win their 3rd Mid-South Tag Team Title
December 25, 1984

UPN airs the first ever WWE Smackdown "Christmas In Iraq/Tribute To The Troops", which was taped at Camp Victory in Baghdad, Iraq on December 20th for an audience of soldiers overseas. The show included Vince McMahon knocking down Santa Claus for not bringing him a gift, only for "Santa" to reveal himself as Steve Austin. Austin then gave McMahon a stunner.
December 25, 2003

Special Theme Announced for the First WWE RAW of 2014 in Baltimore, MD

WWE is advertising the January 6th RAW, the first RAW show of 2014, as having an "Old School" theme. The show will be held in Baltimore, Maryland at the Baltimore Arena.

The dark main event being advertised is John Cena vs. Randy Orton for the WWE World Heavyweight Title with Booker T as special referee. At this point, no other Legends are being advertised yet.

More Like First Screen - Social Media and Second Screen Engagement

Using social media and second screen technology to enhance storytelling is a given for cable networks these days. But it takes plenty of planning and pre-production to make that happen—particularly in the live sports realm, where outcomes can vary moment to moment. Here are some of the ways in which channels are currently increasing engagement using social and second screen apps to entertain viewers, as told by sports production and marketing execs at last week’s SVG Summit in NYC.

WWE relies heavily on its second screen app to engage audiences, even going as far as letting fans control the storylines. “It’s a part of our show. We don’t consider it second screen anymore,” said Rob Bernstein, WWE, vp/editorial director, digital and print. “It’s adjunct programming.” And they staff it as such. For every “Monday Night Raw” show, there are 10 people who are just responsible for managing the second screen, including writers, a producer, a camera guy, a talent wrangler and full tech support, he said. And after the show, the network evaluates what the fans thought of the programming by analyzing the social chatter. Each Tuesday morning a full report goes out explaining exactly what the fans thought about it. Then, “we take that content and it becomes a big part of the writing process,” he said.

WWE sees its highest engagement during its live shows, Bernstein confirmed. Its strategy is to provide video clips via social media, but additionally, “we want them to be able to bend the story,” he said. That’s done through polling during the show, which gives viewers a level of control. The net also brings fans into the programming and gets them to participate, thereby creating more live video content on the second screen.

Similarly, HBO Sports incorporates video, visuals and stats into its live sporting events such as boxing matches, according to Jason Cohen, director of live events. That entails pushing stats from the truck straight to Twitter, taking Instagram photos and incorporating those into visuals in the linear broadcast, and cutting video clips using Snappy TV. The goal of every network is to drive eyeballs to linear TV, he reminded the audience, so “that same philosophy has to take place with the second screen as well, especially if 90% of your audience is looking at it,” Cohen said, in reference to a recent study revealing that 90% of audiences have a phone in their lap while watching TV.

HBO pushes the content out via social channels as much as possible before the fights but it also has a social media person on the ground tweeting stats as they come in. And the social media person is right behind the talent, Cohen said, so he or she can tweet quotes from them as they happen. Additionally, cameras are set up in the locker room, the staffer snaps and publishes Instagram photos and Snappy TV is used to create a viral effect.

source: cablefax.com

WWE’s Bruno Sammartino, Triple H on MSG’s ‘The Garden Transformed’

WWE refers to Madison Square Garden as “the house that Bruno built.”

Now area pro wrestling fans will get a chance to see Bruno Sammartino receive a VIP look at the Garden being rebuilt.

Sammartino and 13-time WWE champion-turned-executive Triple H will be featured in Part 2 of the five-part MSG series “The Garden Transformed: Year Three” on Saturday at 10:30 p.m. The series will begin Friday night at 11 p.m. for the first of five consecutive nights, in conjunction with the completion of the final phase of the Garden’s $1 billion transformation.

The series will feature notable figures from some of the sports that define the Garden’s history, including the Knicks (Raymond Felton and Tim Hardaway Jr.); Rangers (Henrik Lundqvist); college basketball (coaches Jim Boeheim and Steve Lavin); and boxing (former world champs Larry Holmes and Miguel Cotto, and Long Island’s own Gerry Cooney).

But Sammartino was arguably the Garden’s biggest draw. According to WWE.com he was responsible for selling out the building 187 times during his career, which included runs as champion from 1963-71, and 1973-77.

“Even around the world, this is how they know me,” Sammartino, who along with Triple H donned a hard hat to view the construction, said in a quote released from Saturday’s episode “…In Argentina, in Brazil, I remember going to Australia, all the trips I did in Japan, you know how they’d advertise me? ‘From Madison Square Garden, Bruno Sammartino.’”

The appearance dumps yet another shovel of dirt on the hatchet buried between Sammartino and WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon. Sammartino, who wrestled for Vince’s father, Vincent J. McMahon, engaged in a longtime feud with the younger McMahon, largely for content on TV Sammartino felt was inappropriate.

Sammartino returned to the WWE fold this year -- largely thanks to Triple H helping to facilitate a truce -- and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame last April 6 at MSG, the night before WrestleMania XXIX at MetLife Stadium.

Show schedule:
Friday: Episode 1 – 11:00 p.m. (following Knicks vs. Raptors)
Saturday: Episode 2 – 10:30 p.m. (following Knicks at Raptors)
Sunday: Episode 3 – 10:30 p.m. (following Rangers at Lightning)
Monday: Episode 4 – 10:00 p.m.
Tuesday: Episode 5 – 8:30 p.m. (following Rangers at Panthers)

source: newsday.com

Raw Results 12/23/13