Vince McMahon's Over-The-Top Move: Why The Billionaire CEO Is Betting Big On The New WWE Network

Forbes has a really good interview up with Vince McMahon. Here are some quotes:

His wealth:
“I don’t consider myself a rich person,” he says in a rare moment of modesty. “I know that I am, but it’s not like I belong to any country clubs. I have a car that goes very fast and a motorcycle that goes extraordinarily fast,” he said of his Bentley and a Boss Hoss 502. “I love speed. Beyond that, I don’t really have anything in common with anyone in Greenwich except zeros. Normally I do not like rich people.”

A McMahon running the company when he's no longer able to:
“I would like to see a degree of that. I just think as times go on, things will evaporate. Eventually Uncle Sam sees the benefit. You can’t do anything without Uncle Sam taking a huge bite of it.”

Will he ever be satisfied by his success?
“I have a voracious appetite, for life and everything in it. To a certain extent I will die a very frustrated man because I didn’t do this or accomplish that.”

From left, Chief Financial Officer George Barrios; Chief Revenue & Marketing Officer Michelle D. Wilson; Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon; Paul Levesque.

Read the full article here.

Video: Triple H Interview at the Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery Premiere

WWE's Triple H - Red Carpet Premiere

Video: Triple H vows to end the "Yes!" Movement at WrestleMania

Shane McMahon Files Lawsuit Against New York City Penthouse Complex

Former WWE executive and current Chairman of YOU on Demand Shane McMahon has filed a lawsuit against New York City's Cobblestone Lofts complex, the Andrews Organization (the complex's managing agent), and "several yet-to-be-identified design firms and construction organizations," according to LLNYC.com.

The lawsuit, which McMahon filed along with his wife, film producer and former WWE employee Marissa Mazzola-McMahon, alleges that "certain toxic, airborne contaminants" were grown as a result of water leaking into the couple's penthouse. The lawsuit claims that as a result of the contaminants, Shane, Marissa, and their three children are now suffering from "severe respiratory ailments."

The lawsuit further states that the situation "caused a potential $5 million-plus loss in property value and over $130,000 in damage to furniture, clothing, artwork, and appliances." LLCNYC.com also notes that the McMahons "have some personal possessions with them in their current rental home, but the bulk of their property remains in storage facilities, where rent costs upward of $5,000 monthly."

The lawsuit further states that as a result of the situation, "the McMahons have been forced to evacuate...and incur monthly living expenses of approximately $15,000 at a rental apartment. They will not be able to return home until the deficient conditions that have caused and will continue to cause damage related to water penetration and infiltration into [the home] are remedied."

The McMahons purchased the home in 2001 for $3.9 million and began residing in the property in 2002 before vacating in May 2012.

The lawsuit filed by the McMahons is asking for "no less than $50 million plus interest."

To read the LLNYC.com article in its entirety, click here.

Hulk Hogan Says HHH Asked Him When He Was 'Coming Home' With A TNA Exec Standing Right There

Hulk Hogan appeared on Huffington Post Live. He said that the process of him to return to the company started a few years ago when he saw HHH at a Toys R Us charity event in NYC. He said HHH came up to him and asked, “When are you coming home?” Hogan said he didn’t think Vince wanted him back but HHH told him that Vince would love to see Hogan come home. Hogan said it was weird because TNA’s then-PR guy Mike Weber was right next to him.

Hogan was asked about his time with TNA. He said they were cool and stood by him during all his back surgeries. He said that his contract expired on a Monday and the next Saturday, he was in NYC signing at a Comicon and he received a text from HHH checking in. Hogan said that he told him he was officially unemployed and planning his next move and it went from there.

Hogan said that the timing for a return was great. He said Vince McMahon is great to people personally, but if you cross the line with him on a business-level, you are done. Hogan admitted that he did cross the line with Vince in the past and said, “Honestly, I didn’t know the boundaries. There’s personal and there’s business.” He said he didn’t understand how things work as well as much as he did now. He said that if anyone crossed a line in their relationship, it was him.

Hogan said that he hasn’t wrestled in two years since he wrestled Sting at Bound for Glory and “I didn’t do much” and teased that you can never say never in WWE. He said that he had a lot of fun in the ring with The Wyatt Family last week. Hogan did say we’d never see him do a legdrop again.

source: pwinsider.com

The Next Inductee into the WWE HOF Is...

Scott "Razor Ramon" Hall. The current induction plan is for members of the Kliq to do the honor for Hall.

Video: WWE hosts the premiere of "Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery" in New York City

Total Divas Recap 3/23/14

Rumor Mill - WWE's Opinion of CM Punk Situation Reportedly Continues to Change

According to PWInsider.com, the opinion of the current CM Punk WWE situation continues to change backstage in WWE, as it has gone from "Vince is going to take care of this, everything will be fine," to a very negative tone when the subject is brought up.

The general feeling has shifted more to general resentment at this point, as many feel WWE made CM Punk a lot of money and then he just left.

This Week's WWE NXT Episode to Have a Vengeance Theme, Several Matches Announced

WWE has announced a "Vengeance" theme for this week's NXT. A promo for the show is available on WWE.com at this link. The following matches have been announced:

* Mojo Rawley vs. CJ Parker

* Tyler Breeze vs. Xavier Woods

* Natalya vs. Charlotte

* Bo Dallas vs. Adrian Neville for the NXT Title

Diamond Dallas Page Defends Triple H, Talks About His HOF Speech for Jake Roberts and More

As seen above, Diamond Dallas Page recently spoke with WrestleDope.com while he was in Ireland. He talked about Jake Roberts, Triple H getting more power in WWE, The Shield, CM Punk and lots more. Below are a few quotes sent to us:

His WWE Hall of Fame induction speech for Jake Roberts:
"Now I know it's gonna be the strongest shit I've ever said and I will have something planned that I'm gonna say. I'll know what I'm going to say before I go up there, doesn't mean I'm going to say it!"

Triple H:
"Paul Levesque aka Triple H has been one of the most solid guys I've ever met in this business so nobody can talk shit about him around me. You may have your own beef with him, whoever it is but no one who don't know ain't got nothing to say about him around me because he's always been a stand up guy to me."

Ric Flair:
"I love the guy, I don't want to have heat with him, fuck that!"

Artist Rob Schamberger Talks Working with WWE & Foley, His Work Being at Axxess, More

Acclaimed and exhibited artist, painter of the Champion Portrait series and portrait maker of your favorite wrestling stars as seen on the likes of WWEAuctions.com and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Rob Schamberger joined “Multi-time Award Winning” the Rack Thursday Night. In a nearly 25 minute interview, he discussed how he got started and how we got connected with WWE, his work being displayed at WrestleMania and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, his feelings to having work sold through WWE Auctions, who were his favorite wrestlers, what is his favorite medium to use: watercolor or acrylic, what is the biggest complement he’s gotten for his work, teaming with Mick Foley for his work with RAINN, the use of social media and how it has affected his art for the positive, his tips for other up-and-coming artists, his thoughts on the upcoming WrestleMania XXX card and so much more.

You can follow Rob through his Twitter (@robschamberger), his Tumblr (robschamberger.tumblr.com) or visit his homepage (http://robschamberger.com) for all the latest on him and projects as well as a gallery of his work; you can also see and bid on Rob’s work through wweauctions.com. You can also see Rob as part of WrestleMania with WrestleMania Axxess week; go to wwe.com or Ticketmaster.com for tickets and a list of events associated with Axxess. You can also win a chance to get a work from Rob through Mick Foley’s RAINN Charity raffle, go to www.rainn.org/raffle for a listing of prizes and for your chance to purchase raffle tickets for a great cause!

How did he come about working with the WWE: “It’s actually my first official WrestleMania with them (WWE), but I started about three years ago. I was looking at doing something different with my art; I’d been working primarily with comic books and illustration and it didn’t ever quite fully happen, you know; I’d still have a day job and everything. I just wanted to do something different and I realized that no one had ever done a serious collection of portraits of wrestlers. So then I thought, ‘Oh, it’d be cool to do every one of wrestling’s world champions going all the way back to George Hackenschmidt and that's all where it kind of started.

Then, there was Kickstarter about three years ago, where I raised $20,000 dollars in a month to pay for studio space and everything to help make that break into doing art full-time and then just built off it from there and it’s been a wild ride.”

His work being featured through the WWEAuctions.com site: “They actually came to me; Jim Ross had told them that that it would be a good fit for us to do business together, which is neat. I might actually be the last person that Jim Ross brought into the WWE; kind of a neat lineage to be part of. But we started talking about half way through last year and towards the end of the year we launched our first auctions together, right around Black Friday time and we’ve been doing it fairly consistently since then. It’s been phenomenal, I mean I have my own page on WWE.com and I don’t even have to take bumps in the ring.”

More?