SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
TORCH TODAY – Thursday, March 10, 2016
– Vince McMahon’s interview with Brian Fritz on Tuesday (Fritz joins the Livecast today at 5:00 EST) revealed a lot of McMahon’s personality that he usually tries to keep tucked away from the public. Ask him enough questions, and you see McMahon’s desire to amuse himself, like the McMahon Family monologues on Raw TV, and pit people against each other to see what happens. Case-in-point being bringing back Shane McMahon to interact with sister Stephanie McMahon and competing brother-in-law Triple H as part of “saving WrestleMania” since Hunter is currently booked in an uninspiring main event against Roman Reigns. The ultimate idea being that tense relationships among all involved parties will lead to better television. McMahon has to find ways to entertain all parts of his brain – the teenager, the competitor, the military aficionado, the (former?) Creative genius, and top executive of a publicly-traded company. The Road to WM32 is providing a glimpse into that, both in front of the camera and behind the scenes.
– Stephanie McMahon was recognized by Multichannel News on Thursday as part of a “Wonder Women” series on female entertainment executives. Stephanie was joined by Triple H and Linda McMahon at the conference.
– Kane dodged multiple questions about The Undertaker vs. Shane McMahon match in an interview with Talksport promoting WrestleMania in the U.K. market. Kane either stuck to kayfabe answers on Shane’s “strategy” against Taker or offered one-line answers to questions such as why Taker’s character would take the match against Shane. “He has a challenge in front of him, and that’s what it is,” Kane said. So far, WWE is sticking to a gameplan of trying to avoid talking about why this match is happening at WrestleMania.
– Mick Foley told Sports Illustrated that he plans to be part of WrestleMania 32. “There is a rumor that I will be participating in the show,” Foley told SI’s Justin Barrasso. “I’m not sure how just yet, but I’ll try to add to the excitement of WrestleMania.”
– John Morrison (Johnny Mundo) looks forward to the day when Roman Reigns “figures out how to work,” wanting to face him in about 10 years. Morrison also wants to work with Seth Rollins and Joey Mercury again after their MNM run. But, he’s locked into Lucha Underground, which Morrison says has been great for his career.
“Lucha Underground is a brand new organization. We’re in our infancy and we’re expanding and people are recognising me as Johnny Mundo as opposed to John Morrison so it’s gonna be interesting to see how much the future holds for Lucha Underground, how it fits into the wrestling world,” Morrison told The World According to Wrestling podcast.
– NXT recruit Adrian Jaoude will reportedly not be competing in the 2016 Olympics, contrary to WWE’s statement earlier this year. According to Bloody Elbow, Jaoude did not qualify in his weight division.
– Magnus (Nick Aldis) says he is not under contract to Global Force Wrestling after leaving TNA and he is looking to find a landing spot as a free agent. Aldis noted to SI’s Justin Barrasso that “Lucha Underground really interests me.”
“The biggest problem with the business right now for the boys is that the remaining market share that doesn’t belong to WWE is divided up by so many companies. TNA used to have that market share, but now it’s divided up by so many entities. Financially, it’s not a great time to be a wrestler because it’s the same portion of market share divided up by more entity, but Lucha Underground is so different that it could bring in new fans,” Aldis said.
– After WWE CEO Vince McMahon called John Cena the “Babe Ruth” of WWE, the Hall of Very Good looked up Cena’s family history in baseball. It turns out Cena’s grandfather, Tony Lupien, played six years of pro baseball in the 1940s wrapped around serving in World War II.
– Esquire published an all-caps, in-character letter from Iron Sheik to Hulk Hogan as it relates to the Gawker trial.
– “Sign Guy” Rick Achberger talked to the Dallas CW affiliate about gearing up for WrestleMania 32 in his home market and how he scores front row seats at WWE events. Note: It costs a lot of money.
– New Japan continued the march to the New Japan Cup on Thursday. Included at Thursday’s show was IWGP World Hvt. champion Kazuchika Okada issuing a challenge to the NJCup winner. (Full Results)
– KUSHIDA, the IWGP Jr. Hvt. champion in New Japan, says he wants to win the ROH World Title. “I am the Junior Heavyweight champion, but here in U.S., I can get the heavyweight title, and I’m going to prove it,” KUSHIDA told SI’s Justin Barrasso. “I want to challenge Jay Lethal’s ROH title and TV champion [Tomohiro] Ishii. It would be very cool if New Japan held all the ROH titles.”
– Finally, Mr. Anderson went on a U.K. tour this week, including a show for the ICW promotion, where he told the crowd that he does not work for TNA anymore before adding an expletive.
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