WWE Cruiserweight Classic Flashpoint Event Announced

WWN Live announced today that EVOLVE will host a WWE Cruiserweight Classic Flashpoint, a prelude to the tournament, on June 11th in Orlando, Florida. The event is designed to prepare fans for the CWC, which tapes the week of June 20th and starts airing July 13th on the WWE Network. Names already confirmed for the Flashpoint event include Johnny Gargano, TJ Perkins, Drew Gulak and Lince Dorado, who will be making his return to EVOLVE. More details on the Flashpoint will be released soon.

Update On 'WWE Kids' Project

The "WWE Kids" project that a pilot was filmed for several months back will be moving forward soon. The pilot was filmed at Full Sail University with Big Show, Heath Slater and others.

Adam Rose Faces the Judge...Wife Begs For Mercy

Shackled and sporting an orange jail jumpsuit, WWE superstar Adam Rose appeared in Florida court Thursday in his domestic violence case ... where his wife begged the judge to cut the guy a break.

Rose was arrested Wednesday morning after allegedly roughing up his wife -- and then smacking the phone away from her when she called 911. He's been charged with battery and tampering with a witness.

The judge wanted to hit Rose with a restraining order -- barring him from contact with his wife. But shockingly, she begged the court to reconsider ... because she wants him to come home.

During the hearing, Rose's wife said they have a special needs child who needs both parents.

Rose's lawyer also argued Rose's actions were "not aggressive or painful" but rather "more of a passionate, 'Hey, let's talk about this.'"

The judge mentioned a PREVIOUS domestic violence incident in March -- and expressed concern about a pattern of abusive behavior. But in the end, Rose's wife got her wish ... and the judge held off on the restraining order.

The judge also set a low bond -- $1,000 -- which means Rose will probably be out of custody by the end of the day. He's been ordered to see his pastor for counseling once a week until his next court date in June.

Click here for the video.

source: tmz.com

Adam Rose was released from the Hillsborough County, Florida jail at 4:10pm EST today.

Another WWE Veteran Released From His Performer's Contract

The Brooklyn Brawler, Damien Sandow, King Barrett, Hornswoggle, El Torito, Alex Riley, Zeb Colter, Santino Marella and Cameron were not the only 9 talents released from WWE last week as Christian was also released from his contract.

Christian's release did not have to do with his agreement to do The Edge and Christian Show and is more of a technicality of no longer having an active performer's contract, according to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Christian hasn't wrestled since his last concussion in March 2014 and WWE decided to stop using him due to his history of concussions. He remained under a performer's contract until now but he is still affiliated with the company.

ESPN And Jonathan Coachman XFL Project

Jonathan Coachman stated during today's episode of The Ross Report with Jim Ross that ESPN is currently working on a "30 For 30" special on Vince McMahon's XFL football league. Coach noted that they've been watching all the old XFL tapes, reliving the games and commentary.

Linda McMahon Among Trump Delegates to GOP Convention

The Hartford Courant reports that Linda McMahon will be in Cleveland as a delegate for the GOP Convention in July. All delegates and alternates were selected by Donald Trump's campaign and formally accepted by the Republican State Central Committee on Monday.

Adam Rose Suspended Indefinitely Following Arrest

Adam Rose has been suspended indefinitely after being arrested for misdemeanor domestic battery and felony tampering with a witness earlier today in Hillsborough County, Florida. Rose grabbed his wife's face during an argument, while screaming at her, and admitted to taking the phone from her when she went to call 911.

Rose was already serving a 60-day suspension for his second violation of the WWE Wellness policy and if he's convicted of these new charges, his contract will automatically be terminated.

Dana Brooke To Make Main Roster In-Ring Debut

As seen on RAW, NXT star Dana Brooke made her WWE main roster debut, aligning herself with Emma and attacking Becky Lynch.

Brooke will make her main roster in-ring debut this week on WWE Smackdown, where she will face off with Lynch.

Dana White Responds To UFC Sale Reports

As noted, Darren Rovell of ESPN reported this evening that the UFC was in "advanced talks" to sell the promotion. According to the report, at least four bidders have submitted offers to purchase the company, including WME/IMG, The Blackstone Group, China Media Capital and Dalian Wanda Group. It was noted that the winning bid will be in the $3.5 billion - $4 billion range, with the Chinese-based Dalian Wanda Group being in the lead. UFC President Dana White responded to the report, telling The Las Vegas Review Journal that the story is "overblown."

"The UFC is not for sale," White said. "The ESPN story is overblown. Darren Rovell is not a fan of facts. His facts could not be further off."

Rovell responded to White on Twitter, writing:

LOL: @danawhite says UFC is not for sale and that I'm not a "fan of facts." We had 5 independent sources on this.

Hey @danawhite, once you hire an investment back to give out your financials, it's hard to say you're not for sale.

We had three different independent sources that said that UFC volunteered a full year EBITDA of in between $200M & $250M to investors.

Rumor Mill - UFC Owners Reportedly Negotiating Sale Of The Company

In the middle of one of the biggest pay-per-view years in company history, it appears as if the owners of the Ultimate Fighting Championship may be selling the company.

According to an ESPN report this evening, there are at least four bidders that have submitted offers to purchase the company. Those bidders are WME/IMG, The Blackstone Group, China Media Capital and Dalian Wanda Group. The likely winning bid will end up somewhere between $3.5 billion and $4 billion, says ESPN.

UFC VP of public relations Dave Sholler wouldn't comment on the matter, saying the UFC doesn't discuss speculation.

The Fertitta brothers own over 80 percent of the company, with Flash Entertainment owning 10 percent and UFC President Dana White as another minority owner. The Fertitta's company Zuffa LLC purchased the UFC in 2001 for just $2 million. The company had financial struggles for several years before turning a corner on it's way to being a pay-per-view juggernaut.

The ESPN report says that Chinese-based Dalian Wanda Group is the leader to buy the UFC. The company's chairman happens to be Wang Jianlin, with a net worth estimated between $28 billion and $35 billion.

Longtime WWE Employee Released

From Mike Johnson at pwinsider.com:

I initially heard this last week when all the other announced WWE releases were going down, but since WWE did not (and still has not) publicly acknowledged it, I wanted to triple-check before PWInsider.com reported this - but we can confirm that last week, WWE released Steve Lombardi, 55, aka The Brooklyn Brawler and he is, after over 30 years, no longer with the company.

Lombardi has worked full-time in professional wrestling since at least the early 1980s, mostly as a preliminary wrestler for WWF, both under his given name or under different masked personas. He was Kamala's handler Kim Chee in the late 1980s and in the early 1990s, performed as Doink the Clown during the time period WWF had multiple Doinks appearing, sometimes at the same time.

Lombardi's biggest singles push as a wrestler came in 1989 when he was rechristened the Brooklyn Brawler and managed by Bobby Heenan in a feud with The Red Rooster, Terry Taylor. He performed as MVP and Abe "Knuckleball" Schwartz at times as well, doing a baseball-inspired character that never seemed to get out of the gate. In 1997, he won a Battle Royal in Madison Square Garden as a surprise, earning a WWF title match against Shawn Michaels in what was undoutedly his highest profile match in his home market, NYC.

Although he continued to make sporadic appearances over the years on WWE TV (usually at events broadcast from NYC, where he was always a cult favorite), Lombardi had been a far more valuable asset to the company behind the scenes, where he worked his way up to overseeing and producing promos. Lombardi was the person that every talent, upon trying out, had to cut promos for and his praise or criticism would factor greatly into whether the talent would get a bigger look from the company.

Vince McMahon Addresses Shane McMahon’s Return to TV, How He Feels His Son Is Doing Since His Return and Shane’s Current WWE Status

During today’s 2016 first quarter earnings call, Vince McMahon addressed Shane McMahon’s return to WWE TV.

On Shane’s current status, Vince made it clear Shane has “come back as a talent”, and that he is part of an “ongoing storyline” in which he is running WWE Raw with his sister Stephanie McMahon.

Vince did not address whether or not Shane has returned to WWE in an executive capacity, nor did Vince elaborate on Shane’s future with regards to returning to WWE as an executive. Vince did add that he feels Shane is doing “extremely well” in WWE since his return to the ring at WrestleMania 32.