NEW ITEMS: Warrior Award recipient announced, Warrior’s post-Katrina criticism of New Orleans, Elias on his WWE journey, Piper’s son on Rousey

–WWE announced that 15 year old Jarrius “J.J.” Robertson will receive the Warrior Award at the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony this year. He is a liver transplant recipient. At last year’s ESPYS, Stephanie McMahon presented Jarrius with the WWE Hero award. The “Warrior Award” is especially awkward this year since WrestleMania is taking place in New Orleans, and Ultimate Warrior (birth name Jim Hellwig) once said about Hurricane Katrina victims: “If we could be shown what general conditions they lived in before the hurricane, we would see they had little respect for what they did have. We would see just how unorganized, unclean, and dysfunctionally they lived. They never gave a care for order, cleanliness, or function before, but now that they can get someone’s attention who will possibly take over the responsibility of their life for them. They go on these tirades about how their life has been ruined; their lives were already in ruin – self ruin – ruined by the choices they made over and over. And they are fat. Have you ever seen so many fat people? Povery? Poverty of what? Having enough to buy so much food to eat that you become obese?… A house with a roof over your head? This is poverty? Indoor plumbing? Electric appliances? Refrigeration? Phones? Cell phones? Computers? Designer clothes made by rap stars? $200 Nikes? Free medicine and medical care if you really need it? Is having all this poverty? What the he’ll, then, do we call the scenes they shoot out of Africa that they use to lay guilt trips down on all of us. They claim New Orleans was/is a great city. Maybe once it was. I don’t know. Maybe it’s always been corrupt as it has been for years and years. Truth is, today, it was nothing more than a pornographic cesspool of decadence and depravity… You go there and drink and behave like a pervert, reprobate, and degenerate…”

-The New York Post featured an article last week headlined “Elias sung his way past WWE barriers into stardom” in which he said his inclusion with top talent on Sunday night means he’s also a top talent now. “I understand I am in there with the top quality of this company, so that says that if I am in that caliber, if I am in there in the ring with those guys, that’s exactly what I am,” Elias said. He said he tried out for WWE four times and was rejected each time before William Regal and Shawn Michaels endorsed him. He said Terry Taylor suggested he sing to the crowd and take on the Drifter persona in NXT. He spoke about his father buying him a guitar from his father when he was 15. “I think without a doubt I’d outshine The Rock because he can’t do quite what I do, but he is good at the guitar and he’s got some chops to him, so I don’t think you need to think about it too much,” he said. “I think something like that could happen in the future. I’m going to put that on The Rock. I’ll leave that up to him.” He said he sees himself possibly facing John Cena, Chris Jericho, or Braun Strowman at WrestleMania.

-In an interview with Chris Featherstone of “Pancakes & Powerslams,” one of Roddy Piper’s sons Colt Toombs said WWE contacted him to let him know Ronda Rousey wanted to pay tribute to his dad. “WWE contacted me,” he said. “They basically called me and asked if I could bring the jacket and if I could come along with it. Then, when we got there we figured out all that was going on. I didn’t really know what was going to happen when I got there but it was real easy to me because Ronda Rousey is such an incredible human being, so when we had the opportunity we figured out what we were going to do and it went perfect because she is just phenomenal, and that jacket is sacred to our family so it was a really big deal to us… WWE is the master of secrets. All I knew going in with the jackets that we were going to do something with Ronda Rousey, that was all I knew. Growing up in the business, you can kind of figure out what they are looking for in between the lines so it wasn’t a total surprise, but I mean, I didn’t know exactly what was happening… Yes, absolutely. It was a big secret. I couldn’t tell nobody.” FULL INTERVIEW LINK

Send newstips and results to pwtorch@pwtorch.com

NOW CHECK OUT THE PREVIOUS UPDATE: NEWS ITEMS: Big dream tag match official for NJPW in California next month, Hangman Page gets first title shot vs. White, Elimination Chamber poll, Impact viewership stats, Jax-Bliss