WWE Closes Down Talent Management Group

Last year, WWE began looking to fill positions for a Talent Brand Management department that would help develop WWE Superstars’ brands both in and outside of WWE. This included third party bookings for film, TV, sponsorships, among other things.

The group was short lived as WWE has already shut it down, according to PWInsider.

Below was a description from WWE of what the department would bring to the table.

“WWE Talent Management Group will deliver best-in-class 360-degree support of Talent across all internal lines of business and key external partners, amplifying Talent brand value and maximizing monetization opportunities for Talent and WWE.”

The report noted the decision to end the group was made a few weeks back and the it only existed for four to five weeks.

The division’s creation likely stemmed from WWE looking to tighten up its hold on talent working individually with third parties, like Cameo or Twitch (or even mentioning them on social media).

For several months now, WWE has not allowed talent to create unauthorized content through third party providers. Going on the guise that the contractual ownership of the likeness of their performers includes all social media accounts, regardless of whether the accounts use the stage names or the real names of the talent.

ECW Original New Jack Passes Away

ECW Original New Jack (Jerome Young) has reportedly passed away at the age of 58.

New Jack passed away this afternoon after suffering a heart attack in North Carolina. His wife Jennifer informed PWInsider of the passing. The passing was also confirmed by Jack’s official Facebook page.

Jack is most known for his run in the original ECW, but he also had notable stints with SMW, XPW and various indie promotions. He also multiple made appearances for TNA. He was a three-time ECW World Tag Team Champion. The hardcore star has been retired for a few years now.

Steve Austin Comments On Working With Triple H, Reflects On The Two-Man Power Trip

Steve Austin appeared on Drew McIntyre’s “Drew & A” interview series which aired on Peacock and the WWE Network this week. During the episode, he shared his thoughts on Triple H.

“I love working with Triple H,” Austin said. “We hit it off when he came down to WCW way back in the day. We didn’t travel roads together but we were on the same page. We both loved bodybuilding, powerlifting. He’s a great worker, good mind for the business.”

“But Triple H, a great mind for the game,” Austin continued. “I picked his opinion on many different things, and asked his opinion on many different things when I was on my run, and one of my ideas as a heel that I wanted to do was form a tag team with him, and call it The Two-Man Power Trip. We were really, really trying to get some heat, laying some heavy steel chairs down on The Undertaker, Kane, Hardys, Lita, my God.

“We were doing everything we could in my alliance with him, which kind of ensured that I was headed in a heat direction, and then fate hit one night in a tag match on Monday Night RAW, and he blew out that quad, and that was the end of that, And he made a successful comeback, obviously he’s had one of the greatest runs in the history of the business, but a guy that’s a lot of fun to be in the ring with.”

AEW Dynamite Viewership Fell Back Below 1 Million Viewers This Week

AEW viewership dropped this week following last week's highly anticipated Blood & Guts match.

The two-hour broadcast on TNT this week pulled in 936,000 viewers, which is down from 1.090 million last week, according to PWTorch.

The episode scored a 0.66 cable rating, which is also down from 0.72 last week, and delivered a 0.38 demographic rating in the 18-49 category, down from 0.42 the week previous.

Ric Flair On Bret Hart, 'God He's Bitter'

Ric Flair recently addressed Bret Hart’s criticisms of others in the wrestling business on a Jeff Jarrett's My World podcast. He called his fellow WWE Hall Of Famer "bitter"

“What I do wanna do is be able to walk into the building and not have people say, ‘God, he’s bitter, he’s old, and he’s gonna continue to knock people. I couldn’t live like that. And calling Roman Reigns the next Triple H or cracking on him… I mean, how uncomfortable is that for people in the family to walk around in front of Hunter [Triple H]? And Shawn [Michaels], who is an integral part of the company. NXT, that’s part of the company, right? What else? Jerry Lawler… ‘Jerry Lawler hit me with a chair too hard.’ Wow, okay… I don’t understand it. I don’t ever wanna be that lonely.”

“I don’t know what happened there [Hart’s problem with Eric Bischoff], and now he’s blaming Eric for everything. Eric made him rich. I don’t know how you blame Eric. I was talking to Eric the other day. I said, ‘It’s the flavor of the week. He’s mad at Goldberg one week, mad at me the next, something I didn’t do, I was repetitive.’ Well, you wrestle an hour every night 280 times [a year], which he wouldn’t know nothing about, and you’re gonna get slammed off the top, that’s called taking a bump. How many press slams did you take, Bret? None.” 

Source: sportskeeda.com

Zelina Vega Reportedly Returning To WWE

Zelina Vega (Thea Trinidad) is reportedly headed back to WWE.

Vega was at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando on Thursday of this week, according to Fightful Select. Word is that Vega was at the Performance Center for some sort of filming with the company.

Wrestling Inc. recently learned that Vega’s WWE return has been planned for a while now, before WrestleMania 37.

There’s no word yet on when Vega will be back, but we will keep you updated on her status. WWE recently started airing vignettes for the return of Vega’s husband, Aleister Black.

Vega was released from her WWE contract back on November 13 after issues with the company related to their edict on third party activity with sites such as Twitch. Her 90-day non-compete clause expired in mid-February, but, she has focused on acting and video game streaming since leaving WWE, and has not worked with any other wrestling promotions.

Booker T Denies Triple H Segment Was Pulled From A&E Biography; Clears The Air On Racial Overtones of WM Match

Earlier on Sunday, professor and writer David Dennis Jr., who was interviewed by A&E to cover Booker T’s career, tweeted that he was brought in specifically to talk about the controversial WM19 storyline – but the footage didn’t make the final cut in the two-hour documentary.

While speaking on his Hall of Fame podcast, Booker T cleared the air on the situation.

“Ok, you [Dennis Jr.] talked about it [the storyline] but how can it be pulled from the biography? It was never supposed to be in there,” Booker T said. “It makes it seem like there was a whole lot of meat and potatoes on the bone of the story of Booker T vs. Triple H at WrestleMania 19.

“And personally, I’ve never given that story a whole lot of credence. To me it was just a championship match that I lost. I understand where some fans are coming from, since as a young black kid, I looked up to my heroes as well. But I’ve never looked at my career and framed it around any one match.

“I got paid more money for that one match than I got paid for any other match in my life. I am not going to complain about that. End of the day, it’s about taking care of my family. When people try to make stuff out of something such as a racial issue… for me, that was not what my story was about.”

Booker T went onto confirm that he never saw Dennis Jr.’s interviews – talking about WrestleMania 19 – on the rough draft he reviewed a year ago.

“My documentary was not just about one match or one angle,” stressed Booker. “It was about taking whatever I had [in my career] and turning it into something. I never cared if I was on the mid card or I was doing GI Bro opening the show, or if I was in the main event.”

credit: Hall of Fame podcast Wrestling Inc.

Peacock Pins John Cena’s ‘WWE Evil’ Series

Peacock is diving into the sporting life for a pair of new series. The NBCUniversal streamer has ordered WWE Evil, from creator/exec producer John Cena, along with a multipart docuseries about legendary quarterback Joe Montana.

WWE Evil is described as a “psychological exposé” into the minds of the most diabolical antagonists in WWE history and their impact on mainstream culture. Wrestler-actor Cena is writing the project and also will narrate and exec produce.

Cena has a number of projects in the can or in the works, including playing Peacemaker in James Gunn’s upcoming The Suicide Squad and the DC character’s own eponymous spinoff series at HBO Max. He also is set to star with Idris Elba in Heads of State and opposite Meredith Hagner and Lil Rel Howery in Vacation Friends and also co-hosts TBS’ Wipeout revival.

source:  Deadline.com

AEW Announces Return To Touring, Tony Khan Comments

AEW has announced that they are returning to live touring with upcoming Dynamite tapings on the road.

AEW will run Dynamite on July 7 from the James L. Knight Center in Miami; July 14 from the H-E-B Center in Cedar Park, Texas; and July 21 at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, TX.

Tickets for all three Dynamite shows will go on sale this Friday, May 14, and will start at $30. Each event will be held in compliance with COVID-19 protocols.

AEW has also announced two re-scheduled live event dates for St. Louis, Missouri and New Orleans, Louisiana. The June 23 taping at the Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis will now take place on Friday, November 5, and will be a TV taping to air on TNT, but apparently not as a Dynamite show. The event scheduled for the UNO Lakefront Arena in New Orleans will now take place on Wednesday, January 12, 2022, and will be a Dynamite taping.

“We’re so appreciative of our fans in Jacksonville who have been with us these past nine months,” said AEW President, CEO, General Manager and Head of Creative Tony Khan. “Their support and incredible energy have lifted us week after week, and viewers have fed off their enthusiasm and support. Daily’s Place will always be our home.

“Looking ahead, we’re thrilled to welcome our fans back to become part of the action in Miami, Austin and Dallas. We’ve missed touring cities, meeting the fans and hearing their roar during our live shows. Please be assured, we are working closely with the venues to comply with state and local regulations in each city. Miami, Austin and Dallas are the first of many as we gear up the trucks to travel around the country again!”

How Much of the WWE do Vince, Linda, Shane, Stephanie and Triple H Own in 2021?

Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics.com revealed  information about WWE’s shareholders. According to him, the McMahons own class B shares, which give them ten times more voting power than other shareholders. These class B shares can only be transferred to Vince and Linda McMahon’s descendants, i.e. Stephanie and Shane McMahon.

Paul Levesque, Vince’s son-in-law, owns 67,571 class A shares, valued at $3.7 million. These class A shares aren’t like class B, which the McMahons own.

What is shocking is Shane McMahon used to own over a million class B shares but hasn’t been listed as a shareholder since 2013. Rumour has it that he sold his stock a while ago.

According to Thurston’s assessment, Vince owns 38% of the shares and 81% of the voting units. Other major shareholders include Lindsell Train Limited, The Vanguard Group, Stephanie McMahon, and Linda McMahon.

From WWE's 2021 Proxy Statement:

SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT.

The following table sets forth certain information known to us with respect to beneficial ownership of our Common Stock as of March 30, 2021 by (1) each stockholder known by us to be the beneficial owner of more than five percent of either Class A common stock or Class B common stock; (2) each of the Directors and named executive officers; and (3) the Directors and executive officers as a group. 

Class B1  Vince McMahon         92.3%

Class B1  Linda McMahon           1.0%

Class B1  Stephanie McMahon   6.0

Stephanie McMahon Named to Variety's 2021 New York Impact Report

New Vince McMahon TV Project In The Works

“No Chance: The Vince McMahon Story and The Rise of the New Wrestling World Order” is the working title for the project. Joseph Krueger is the director.

The only position they are casting for as of now looks to be the “Host” role, indicating what kind of TV show this may be, something along the lines of a for-TV-documentary. The production synopsis noted that this is a “review retrospective” and not a movie.

It should be noted that this does not appear to be affiliated with WWE.

Stay tuned for more on the project. Below is the production synopsis provided with the casting call:

“For decades, there were many professional wrestling territories across the United States. Each regional promotion was locally owned and offered it’s own distinct brand of wrestling and home grown superstars . Promoters would often cross-promote their wrestlers with other wrestlers in other promotion under the cooperation of the National Wrestling Alliance which made it easy for wrestlers to go from one territory to the next to improve their craft.

The territories had this system in place that worked well between the 1950s to late 70s. Then by the early 1980s, the rise of cable television began to raise the bar on wrestling territories in putting out a product that would appeal to a large audience. Few tried and had limited success until one third-generation entrepreneur saw the power of Cable TV as his weapon to turn his regional promotion into a national promotion .

Fueled with a bold creative flair of re-imagining pro wrestling as sports entertainment gave Vincent Kennedy McMahon the esteem edge over his adversaries. It was his art of the hustle that led him to raging war on the top territories (AWA, Jim Crocket Promotions, WCCW Mid-South, and many others) and stunting their growth by raiding all of their top talent . It was his novel and bold approach to pitch the Super Bowl of Wrestling Shows , ‘WrestleMania’ into the Pay-Per View stratosphere that wrestling would forever be changed forever.

This isn’t a movie but a review retrospective that will dig deep in learning not only about Vince McMahon’s adversaries but how he outsmarted them all in associating USA Pro Wrestling with the World Wrestling Federation. Learn more about other noteworthy promoters who dared tried to oppose the Young Conqueror in which we will focus on each territories noteworthy plays and embarrassing mistakes made on their wrestling shows.”