Wrestlers Called To Testify Concerning The Passing Of Perro Aguyo Jr.

Televisa, which is one of the two major broadcast groups in Mexico, is reporting that the Attorney General of Baja California have called for Rey Mysterio, Manik and Extreme Tiger to provide their testimony in the death of Aguayo. It was noted that the wrestlers aren't being investigated for wrongdoing, but that the subpoena is to follow up on the case.

ABG and WWE Launch Tapout Joint Venture

WWE (NYSE: WWE) and Authentic Brands Group, LLC (ABG) today announced a joint venture for Tapout™, a newly repositioned fitness lifestyle brand. Tapout™ is now the official fitness and training partner of WWE, and will be integrated across WWE’s global platforms including TV programming, WWE Network, pay-per-view broadcasts, live events, digital, and social media.

“Tapout was ABG’s first acquisition and it continues to be a global brand with strong sales and blue chip partners all over the world. We have a very strong commitment to the brand’s ongoing success,” said Jamie Salter, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ABG. “WWE is a media and entertainment force and we are excited to partner with them on Tapout’s future growth.”

“WWE is always looking for new opportunities to partner with best-in-class organizations, develop new products for our fans and drive shareholder value,” said WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon. “This joint venture aligns with our strategic approach, and we look forward to building the Tapout brand.”

As part of this strategic partnership, WWE will create new content featuring its Superstars and Divas in Tapout™ apparel and market the brand across all platforms. Tapout™ branding will also be featured at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, and all performers, trainers, and staff will be outfitted in Tapout™ workout apparel.

“WWE’s expansive reach provides a global platform to broaden Tapout’s presence and consumer base,” said Nick Woodhouse, President and Chief Marketing Officer of ABG. “This is a powerhouse pairing given the synergy between Tapout’s brand promise to be the premiere hard-body fitness brand, and WWE’s commitment to training and fitness.”

“Combining ABG’s strengths in retail brand development, licensing and distribution with WWE’s marketing expertise, global reach and passionate fan base, makes for a powerful partnership,” said Michelle D. Wilson, WWE Chief Revenue & Marketing Officer. “The Tapout brand will enable us to expand into new product categories and further grow our current $1 billion consumer product retail business.”

The next generation of Tapout™ preserves the original brand essence and drives a hard-body, fitness-centric message positioned around motivation, discipline and determination. An all new line of men’s and women’s performance apparel and accessories will launch at retail in Spring 2016. New Tapout™ branding and packaging will roll out in key categories throughout 2015 starting with beverages, supplements and fitness centers.

Triple H on How He Balances Both Jobs on WrestleMania Night, Ring Rust, Getting Back In the Ring

Triple H recently spoke with USA Today's For The Win blog to promote his match with Sting at WWE's WrestleMania 31. The full interview is available at this link. Below are highlights:

FTW: How hard is it to wrestle a match after such a long layoff, especially considering your WrestleMania matches are typically half an hour long. What do you do to shake off the ring rust?

Triple H: I got in the ring for the first time the other day and fell down for the first time and it felt like my body exploded when I landed. It takes a little bit. You can train, but its one of those things where ‘experts’ of our business that have never done it will say ‘oh if they gave guys time off it would be better for them’ or whatever, but it’s honestly, having done this for 20 plus years — time off is your worst enemy. It really is, it makes it so much harder to do this.

When you’re doing it all the time it’s like a callus, you’re doing it and it doesn’t bother you. You’re functioning and you can do it every night. when you haven’t done it, getting in there and doing the simplest thing, you’re like ‘oh my God, why am I doing this again?’ You’ve got to get yourself back in the process of getting back in the ring, and the hardest [part] of doing that is… it’s easy to go through that stuff when you’ve got 80,000 people screaming at you, it’s not so easy when you’re in a warehouse with a ring set up all by yourself. It hurts a whole lot more.

FTW: When did you start training for your match with Sting?

Triple H: Well I train all year round. One of the things I found, five years ago or so, I needed to make my training more functional. So I train with Joe DeFranco, Joe’s known as kind of the combine killer for guys in the NFL. I train with Joe and he keeps me in pretty good shape. I’m a gym rat anyway so I like doing that, but once WrestleMania comes around, whether I know I’m going to be working or not working — which every year I have been, but I never really know until it comes closer. I usually start around 16 weeks out, so somewhere around the holidays or right before the holidays I start really tightening up my diet and gearing myself up towards getting back in the ring.

FTW: On the night of WrestleMania, how do you balance preparing and performing in your own match with all the other work you do behind the scenes as an executive?

Triple H: That is the hardest part. WrestleMania week for me, logistically, from an executive to a talent standpoint is crazy I did a DVD a couple of years ago called Thy Kingdom Come and they documented a little bit of it. It’s literally like one minute I’m speaking at a business partner summit, where I’m speaking to our business partners from all over the globe as an executive talking about all the things that we’re doing, and literally coming off stage, changing my clothes as fast I can to jeans and a leather jacket because I have to go do an autograph signing.

They drive me over there with a police escort, I’m eating on the way, I’m signing autographs for two hours and meeting the fans and having to be on as a performer, finishing that and running backstage, changing in the car while I’m on my way to go have a meeting with a bunch of international clients. And that’s all while my department itself, talent relations, completely controls everything WrestleMania from a talent standpoint. Which, we just did the numbers this year today and I think we’re at like 850 appearances and we’re still almost five weeks out. Logistically, trying to get talent to 850 appearances, probably close to 1,000 by Mania over the course of that week. Usually if we do our jobs well nobody’s late, nobody misses an appearance. But it’s just… insanity. That’s the best way to describe that week for me.

Interview with Michael Cole

Sports Illustrated recently interviewed WWE announcer Michael Cole to promote WrestleMania 31. The full interview is available at this link, and below are some interview highlights:

How privy he will be to what’s going down at WrestleMania:

If I wanted to know, I could know everything. But I don’t want to know and especially at WrestleMania. A perfect example was last year with the Undertaker and Brock Lesnar. When Undertaker’s streak was ended by Brock, oh, my God, I was as shocked as the people sitting at the stadium that night inside the [New Orleans] Superdome. I had know no idea in a million years that was going to happen, and that was the reaction you got out of our call hopefully. I was expecting The Undertaker to kick out and I did one of my normal “One, two…” and I was expecting to say kick out and all of a sudden it was three. I looked at John and he looked at me and I mouthed to him off-air, “Is it over?” His eyes were big and wide and I said to myself: “Okay, the streak is over.” I want those moments to happen.

One of my favorite WrestleMania matches to call was the first time Rock and John Cenamet in Miami [at Wrestlemania XXVIII]. I didn’t know what would happen and it was such a great year-long build. It makes that moment so much better. At the end of the day, just like anyone else who calls any sport, we are fans of the product and we want to be as intrigued as everybody else.

Who is in his ear during RAW:

So this is the fun part of my job. People think I sit down in a chair and I look at the ring and say, “Okay there are two guys fighting and this is what they are doing” and call the match. That is, and I swear to God, so far from the truth. I sit down and in my headset when I am calling Monday Night Raw for three hours, I have my executive producer, I hear my audio technician, I hear whoever is producing us backstage whether it is [WWE Chairman and CEO] Mr. [Vince] McMahon or Triple H or whoever it may be at the time. I also have two guys I have to listen to that I am working with so we can have a conversation on the air. So at any given time I have my voice, the two guys at ring side, audio, the executive producer and whoever is producing that night. So I sometimes have six voices in my head at once while we are on the air on live television. While that is going on, someone might say that the number one trend in the world on Twitter is this and we have to hit on it. Meanwhile, don’t forget to tell people why Paige is doing this to Nikki Bella. Then John may be telling me a joke and Booker T might be laughing and I have to keep all this going and keep the train on the tracks. I am a traffic cop.

How hard it is to do three hours of RAW:

When 11:15 p.m. ET rolls around, people have said to all of us, “You guys look like zombies. And it’s true. It is mentally exhausting. And it is physically exhausting, too. I sweat through my suit sometimes. When I am done, I get in my car to drive to the next town and I completely zone out for two or three hours. But it is also rewarding every week. I love it.

E:60 Pictures Presents – WWE: Behind the Curtain (Trailer)

Above is a preview for ESPN's one-hour "E:60 Pictures presents WWE: Behind The Curtain" documentary that premieres on May 5th.

Footage for the TV special was recorded quite some time ago, so it focuses on stars like Xavier Woods and Corey Graves, as well as NXT stand-out Tyler Breeze.

WWE And NBCUniversal Launch New Multi-Platform Brand Campaign; Includes Details on Triple H’s WrestleMania 31 Entrance

Variety has a new article up on WWE and NBCUniversal’s “For The Hero In All of Us” brand campaign that was announced this morning. Below is the spot for the new campaign:

http://youtu.be/STb9Jq1FDaw

It was noted that Triple H’s “grand entrance” at WrestleMania 31 will feature imagery from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Terminator: Genisys” movie that comes out in July.

Viacom’s Paramount has partnered with WWE and NBCU under the new campaign to promote Terminator. WWE will continue to promote the movie until the release in July.

Kevin Nash Confirmed As Last WWE Hall of Fame Inductee, Nash Comments on Induction, Which Name Will He Use?

WWE and Rolling Stone have officially announced Kevin Nash will be the final WWE Hall of Fame inductee announced on Raw tonight.

Although WWE initially wanted to induct Nash as Diesel, Nash noted in the Rolling Stone article that he would prefer to be inducted under his real name. A WWE spokesperson then confirmed Nash will indeed be inducted under his real name, Kevin Nash.

Nash had the following to say about the induction:

“I’ve been called just about everything, but this is the first time I’ll be called a Hall of Famer. It’s nice. It’s been a long 25 years, but this business has been great to me. Without wrestling, there’s no way I’d be where I am today. I’d probably own a strip club someplace. I’m normally not a guy who lets the past define him, but it’s kind of mind-blowing to look back on it; all the people that have helped me along the way, friends and mentors – of course Shawn and Hunter and all of those guys, but also Rick Rude, Mike Rotunda, ‘Taker. It’s really special, and like Frank Sinatra, I did it my way. Not to let the cat out of the bag, but I’m thinking of singing a few bars of that song at my induction. I think that would be sort of perfect.”

AAA Wrestler Dies After In-Ring Spot With Rey Mysterio

Pro Wrestling Torch reports that AAA wrestler El Hijo del Perro Aguayo died early this morning after a mishap during the 619 spot with Rey Mysterio at a show in Tijuana, Mexico. News reports indicate that El Hijo took the initial move in the trachea and experienced whiplash. He was later transported to a nearby hospital. Newspaper El-mexicano.com reported El Hijo died around 1:00 AM local time. Mexican promotion CMLL tweeted their own condolences for El Hijo in a show of support for AAA.

NXT Tournament To Be Held At Axxess To Decide Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal Entrant

WWE has officially announced a tournament to take place next Thursday at WrestleMania Axxess in Santa Clara, featuring NXT Superstars Hideo Itami, Finn Balor, Tyler Breeze and former NXT Champion Adrian Neville. The winner of the tournament will earn a spot in the second annual Andre the Giant memorial battle royal at WrestleMania 31, on March 29.

This will mark the first time in history an active member of the NXT roster participates in a match at WWE’s biggest annual pay-per-view.

The company did something similar in 2013, however, when Bo Dallas won a tournament at a WWE Fan Axxess event to earn a spot in that year’s Royal Rumble match.

Video: The Authority Abandons Seth Rollins

WWE On E:60 Air Date

As we noted last year, ESPN was at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando and the NXT TV tapings at Full Sail University early last year filming for a feature on their E:60 program. Jim Ross stated last year on ESPN's Front Row that the producers of the show were "allowed crazy access," and that he expects a masterpiece. The show will air on ESPN2, May 5th.

Tatsumi Fujinami To Be Inducted Into WWE Hall Of Fame

WWE announced at this week’s SmackDown taping in Kansas City, MO that Tatsumi Fujinami will be inducted into their Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2015.

Fujinami is known for his work in New Japan Pro Wrestling and is a former 6-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion. He actually worked Ric Flair at SuperBrawl 1991.