March 27, 2012
Social Media Event Of The Year WrestleMania
WWE today announced the first ever “WrestleMania Pre-Show,” simulcast live on YouTube, Facebook and WWE.com this Sunday, April 1 at 6:30 p.m. ET, as the centerpiece of its record-level digital and social media activities for WrestleMania Week in Miami. WrestleMania XXVIII broadcasts live on pay-per-view this Sunday, April 1 at 7:00 p.m. ET. “The Social Media Event of the Year” also includes:
WRESTLEMANIA INTERACTIVE PRESS CONFERENCE
To kick off WrestleMania Week, the WrestleMania press conference at the Eden Roc Hotel will live stream on YouTube, Facebook and WWE.com tomorrow, Wednesday, March 28, at 2:30 p.m. ET. The press conference will take live fan questions via Twitter, allowing online participants to get the scoop from the WWE Superstars in attendance.
PEREZHILTON.COM RED CARPET COVERAGE
WWE Divas will bring fans along for all the WrestleMania festivities as they happen, providing exclusive coverage for PerezHilton.com, including tweets and photos from the WrestleMania VIP Party on Thursday, March 29 and the WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Saturday, March 31.
MIKE TYSON: WWE SOCIAL MEDIA AMBASSADOR
This year’s celebrity WWE Hall of Fame honoree, Mike Tyson (@MikeTyson), will be tweeting live from key events, including the WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, WrestleMania Axxess and WrestleMania XXVIII. Exclusive videos, photos and articles of Tyson participating in WrestleMania events will be uploaded to YouTube and WWE.com.
TWITTER FACE-OFF: THE ROCK® VS. JOHN CENA®
WWE will also involve fans, celebrities and WWE Legends in a Twitter hashtag battle over who will win the WrestleMania main event featuring The Rock vs. John Cena, utilizing the respective hashtags: #TeamBringIt vs. #Cenation. WWE Superstars will also be tweeting throughout WrestleMania, letting fans in on all the action backstage.
EXCLUSIVE YOUTUBE VIDEOS
On Friday, March 30, WWE will post exclusive WrestleMania videos on YouTube’s home page. The series will feature WWE Superstars The Rock, John Cena, Triple H®, Undertaker®, CM Punk® and Chris Jericho®. WWE Superstar Santino Marella® will also film his popular YouTube show, Santino’s Foreign Exchange, at WrestleMania Axxess.
TEXT TO WIN WRESTLEMANIA TRIP TO NYC
Fans have the chance to win one of 100 pairs of tickets and an all-expenses paid trip to New York City for next year’s WrestleMania at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, April 7, 2013 by texting from their phones or entering online at WWE.com during WrestleMania.
WRESTLEMANIA WEEK TWITTER HASHTAGS
#WrestleMania
#Axxess – WrestleMania Axxess
#WWEHOF – WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
#WMParty – WrestleMania Premiere Party: A Celebration of Miami Art & Fashion
Text to Win Sweepstakes/Contest Rules
Sweepstakes ends Sunday, April 15. No purchase necessary to enter or win. Open to U.S. and Canada residents only (excluding Quebec), 18 and older. See wwe.com/winmania for Official Rules.
WWE Taking Over YouTube
It was announced on Raw last night that WWE will be taking over the homepage of YouTube on Friday, with both The Rock and John Cena posting special messages to fans regarding their match at WrestleMania 28.
WM 28 Press Conference Announced
WWE will hold a WrestleMania 28 press conference with John Cena, The Rock and others on Wednesday at 2:30pm EST in Miami.
This Day in Wrestling History
Happy Birthday to:
Kenta Kobashi - March 27, 1967
Charlie Haas - March 27, 1972
Randy Savage wins a 16-man tournament at WrestleMania IV to become the WWF(E) World Champion. On the same day, the first ever "Clash of the Champions" is held, featuring a 45 minute draw between Sting and Ric Flair.
March 27, 1988
March 26, 2012
Triple H Discusses WWE's Sense of Kayfabe
"We’re a unique business. If I go on the Jay Leno show, I stay in character. He wants to interview Triple H, not Paul Levesque who plays Triple H. There’s a weird line of reality that isn’t crossed."
"I know it’s confusing to the fans sometimes. Guys get fired or quit on-stage, and people aren’t sure whether it’s real or not. The best example of that, I think, was when we had Vince McMahon killed in a car bomb. Donald Trump, who’s a big WWE fan and a friend of Vince, called and said, ‘I know it’s probably just part of the story... but could you just tell me if Vince is OK?’ We’re like the last magicians: Is it real? Or Unreal? Nobody knows."
"When you look at the real world, a lot of people feel that way about their jobs. They’re thinking, ‘this is a terrible place to work, my boss is an idiot, I don’t want to work there anymore.’ But they can’t go into the office and hit their boss over the head with a GPS, which is what [WWE wrestler] Stone Cold Steve Austin did to McMahon. For blue-collar people disgruntled with their lives, it’s a great fantasy."
How Miami Landed WrestleMania XXVIII
The Miami Herald has a new article up looking at the business side of WWE's WrestleMania. They noted that to win WrestleMania this year, the committee in Miami-Dade County sent a box of stone-crab claws from the famous Joe's to WWE headquarters and a pledge of up to $2 million in cash, free venue space throughout the county and other donated services.
The Herald also noted that tickets for the charity WrestleMania Premiere party at Star Island on Saturday night run $300 while the cost for a team of three people to join a WWE star in the pro-am WrestleMania golf tournament is $2,500.
A representative from StubHub reported to The Herald that one WWE fan has paid $7,400 for a third row seat to the big event.
This Day in Wrestling History - The Last WCW Nitro
Vince McMahon simulcasts on RAW and Nitro to announce the purchase of WCW. Sting defeated Ric Flair in the last WCW Nitro match.
March 26, 2001
March 25, 2012
Rumor Mill - WrestleMania 29 Main Event
According to a report by Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer, WWE reportedly has interest in announcing next year's Wrestlemania 29 main event in the next few weeks. One belief has the company doing it the night after Wrestlemania 28 in Miami, much like they did the year prior in announcing Rock vs. Cena.
This Day in Wrestling History
The WWF(E) held their first draft on RAW, where they split their roster into two separate brands.
March 25, 2002
March 24, 2012
JR Comments on The Undertaker, Triple H & Shawn Michaels at WM28
"In my professional lifetime, I can't think of three men that I have more respect for than the men who will be locked inside Hell in a Cell at WM28. It is highly unlikely that any of us will ever see the three of them even remotely close to being in this environment ever again."
source: jrsbarbq.com
When it comes to Undertaker, don't bring up this subject around Vince McMahon
On a recent interview with Wade Keller on the PWTorch Livecast, former WWE Creative Team member Andrew Goldstein revealed one subject he learned quickly you are not to bring up around Vince McMahon when it comes to the Undertaker. Here's an excerpt of the interview where he talks about learning one of many of the unwritten rules of Vince McMahon and WWE:
"It's a machine," he explained. "You just have no perception of how much of a well-oiled machine it is and when you step in there it doesn't stop for you. It's a freight train. It keeps going. You come in there on your first day. It's not, 'Alright, welcome. Let's get to know this new guy. Let's get him up to speed.'
"It's a freight train and you're just running along side it and you jump in the side car and you're just along for the ride and you gotta catch up to speed on your own. They're not stopping to catch you up on, well, when you have a meeting with Vince don't bring up Undertaker when he was the American Badass because Vince hates that. Nobody tells you that thing, those picky things that Vince or Stephanie and Michael Hayes [don't like]. There's no guidebook. Reality was 100 percent different than I thought it was going to be.
"It's so funny. I brought it up. I was just like, 'Oh, I love the American Badass gimmick. I loved hearing Undertaker cut actual promos and come down on the motorcycle and come down with contemporary music and be sort of human.' Bruce Prichard shot me a death look that said don't ever bring that up in front of Vince because Vince is so protective of Undertaker's character and mystique. And rightly so, its money. As Triple H has been saying, there's equity in the mysterious mystique of Undertaker."
Wrestling Legend Arn Anderson and The Four Horsemen Get Their Due Honors
It happens to Arn Anderson all the time. He isn’t “The Enforcer” any more, and he’s only known as “Double A” to his pals in the wrestling business. But it still happens. He is still greeted wherever he goes with that familiar sign — four fingers, right in your face. It’s the sign of The Four Horsemen, the wrestling stable of all wrestling stables that paved the way for all the rest. That group — originally including Anderson, “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard and Ole Anderson — was a revolution in the wrestling business...More?
source: trentonian.com
Kevin Nash Reveals What Was Planned for Texting Angle and Why It Was Derailed Mid-Stream
Kevin Nash revealed for the first time the full story on why his match with CM Punk was derailed after Summerslam last year in an interview with pwtorch.com.
"I'll tell you what nobody knows about this entire thing," Nash said. "I never went into it and WWE never went into it because of the privacy issue. What happened was, because of the wellness program, because my dad died of a heart attack at 36 years old, they do beyond a thorough physical. Well, my heart and everything else was fine, but I'm on Plavix and Plavix is a blood platelet agulator; they call it a blood thinner. It's not, it stops your platelets from sticking together so you don't get cardiovascular disease and blockages in your arteries and have a heart attack. it's also for stroke. It's very common to take with a statin drug if you have anybody in your heredity who died before 50 let alone having a father who died of a massive coronary at age 36.
"So I was on Plavix. So this comes through. When the doctor sees I'm on Plavix, I can't wrestle. So now I'm supposed to wrestle CM Punk. I can't. They won't medically clear me. Triple H has to take my spot. It screws up the entire angle. That's how all that came about. WWE would never - because that's the class of the program - let that come out, but I need to make sure people realize it wasn't Creative's [fault], it was that a 52 year old guy was on Plavix and I had to go off it. I had to be off it for a certain amount of time before I could go back to work. It just so happened that I was finishing the Soderbergh film "Magic Mike" at the time, and I had to go shoot that, so it coincided with me going away for a while. I took the shot with the sledgehammer in Buffalo at Night of Champions and that got me away until I could be clear, and then I came back and we went into the match with Paul [Triple H] and I. At that point, Phil [CM Punk] and I sort of missed our opportunity to have that match. That's the true untold story that I give only Wade Keller (laughs)."
He said as a result, the entire storyline was scrambled and rewritten on the fly.
Another Set Back for Evan Bourne
From Evan Bourne's Twitter:
I hate throw out bad news but I must. I was in an accident Monday and mangled my foot. Sorry to delay the comeback, I'm down but not out!
Broken in 4 spots, dislocated in 5! Ouch! I wish I was back in the ring already.
Triple H Mentioned in the WWE Annual Report
CREATING SUPERSTARS
Supporting the expansion of our content, we maintained a heightened focus on the development of new talent. We centralized and expanded our recruiting, training and character development efforts under the leadership of Paul Levesque (also known as “Triple H”). Over the year, we held tryouts in Japan, Mexico, Australia and Europe, where we recruited new talent into our program. Our system brought promising talent to WWE, and formulated new characters, shaping our talent’s style and presence in a manner that significantly elevated their popular appeal. As we have indicated in the past, developing our talent adeptly enables us to introduce new products, take the fullest advantage of our distribution strengths, and exploit emerging markets.
This Day in Wrestling History
Happy Birthday to The Undertaker (Mark Calaway)
March 24, 1965
Hulk Hogan defeated Sgt. Slaughter for the WWF(E) Heavyweight title.
March 24, 1991
Goldberg signs with the WWE. Goldberg had been inactive in wrestling after WCW went out of business.
March 24, 2003
March 23, 2012
Photo: Stephanie McMahon at the 2012 USO Metropolitan Awards Gala
Stephanie McMahon, Chief of Staff for the Army General Raymond Odierno, & The Bella Twins at the 2012 USO Metropolitan Awards Galaphoto credit: Mick Foley
WWE Studios President Discusses New Strategy with N.Y. Times
Coinciding with WrestleMania Season, the New York Times published a report on WWE Studios's new strategy under films division head Michael Luisi. The report presents an optimistic view that Studios business will turn around after WWE reported multi-million dollar losses in previous quarters, which was not referenced in the report. Luisi was interviewed on how Studios plans to reach beyond their fanbase to find non-WWE viewers for non-traditional movies.
“To some degree we’re under a microscope,” Luisi told the Times, “because people are scratching their heads a little bit and saying, ‘What exactly are they up to here?’ Luisi said later, “It’s a different perspective than perhaps we’ve had historically, which was: ‘We’ve got this great fan base. Let’s create content for that fan base.’”
Full List of Inductors for 2012 WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
Though WWE has yet to announce who will be inducting the 2012 WWE Hall of Fame inductees, a strong source within the organization says the following plans are in place.
* Edge will be inducted by Christian
* Four Horsemen (Arn Anderson, Barry Windham, JJ Dillon, Ric Flair and Tully Blanchard) will be inducted by Dusty Rhodes
* Mike Tyson will be inducted by Shawn Michaels and Triple H
* Mil Mascaras will be inducted by Alberto Del Rio
* Ron Simmons will be inducted by John “Bradshaw” Layfield
* Yokozuna will be inducted by Jey & Jimmy Uso
Jerry “The King” Lawler will host the event.
source: wwe.com
WWE Acknowledges FCW wrestlers
WWE officially recognized their FCW developmental wrestlers on Twitter Thursday, introducing a list of Twitter accounts linking to select wrestlers. WWE typically does not acknowledge developmental wrestlers until they reach the main WWE roster, often-times with a different character. WWE tweeted, "We'd like to welcome the athletes of FCW to Twitter! See @WWE's official FCW Twitter list."
Kofi Kingston & Stephanie McMahon take part in a wreath-laying ceremony with USO at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery
March 22, 2012
