Wednesday, November 29, 2017
FLOSPORTS FILES AMENDED LAWSUIT AGAINST WWNLIVE, FULL DETAILS
Flosports, the parent company of Floslam, filed an amended lawsuit against
WWNLive Inc, the parent company of EVOLVE and its related sister promotions on
11/27. The lawsuit, seeking $1 million in damages, revolves around allegations
that WWN, run by Sal Hamaoui and Gabe Sapolsky, had "robbed Flosports" by
provided false information that led to the streaming provider paying inflated
prices for WWN content.
The contract between Flosports and WWNLive was revealed in the 11/27 filings, noting that it called for WWN to be paid $75,000 in 2016, $500,000 in 2017, $550,000 in 2018, $605,000 in 2019, $670,000 in 2020 and $740,000 in 2021.
The contract also called for incentives to be paid to WWN under the following conditions: "In addition to the Rights Fee described in Section 3a, FloSports will pay an incentive to Events Rights Holder if financial performance exceeds specified levels. Events Rights Holder will receive the greater of the Rights Fee listed in Section 3a or 30% of total Net Cash attributed to WWN over the course of the year. Example: Net cash in 2017 equals $1,000,000. Events Right Holder receives a total of $500,000. Net cash in 2018 equals $3,000,000. Events Right Holder receives a total of $900,000."
The contract required Flosports to promote the WWNLive events promising they would "provide $250,000 of advertising value per year on FloSports (i.e. custom digital display, email newsletters, social media, editorial previews/coverage/recaps, etc.)." How that amount of advertising value may have been tallied is not directly explained in any of the court documents, but Flosports' amended lawsuit claimed, "FloSports performed on the Agreement and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars pursuant to its terms, including on its advertising spend for WWN and in the fees paid directly to WWN—all in reliance on WWN’s breached warranty and misrepresentations."
In the Amended lawsuit, Flosports claimed that "During the first year of the Agreement’s term, FloSports became suspicious that WWN’s data was inaccurate. Over the course of several months, FloSports repeatedly asked WWN to send FloSports more detailed data to support the original spreadsheet. WWN failed to comply, alleging that the information was lost or deleted. On August 18, 2017, WWN finally emailed the detailed viewership records, which contained additional misrepresentations: the records listed customers more than once and added purchasers of DVDs to the records, rather than limiting its numbers to the broadcast subscribers as it had promised were reflected in the original spreadsheet. Even with this fraudulent inflation of its data, the records showed viewership numbers far less than those reflected in the October 2016 spreadsheet, proving that WWN’s original representations were false."
WWNLive had previously responded to that, claiming, "That data was pulled from and compiled by a now-defunct third-party company named Fineline Hosting that was based in Florida."
What is interesting is that while Flosports alleges that, "Among the promises WWN made in the Agreement was that “all data provided by [WWN] regarding past financial performance of events put on by [WWN] was accurate, reliable and truthful.” - yet there is no language regarding that data (truthful or not) in the agreement filed with the court.
The lawsuit also alleges that "WWN breached the Agreement by failing to adequately perform under its terms, including its provision of inaccurate, unreliable, and false viewership data to FloSports" yet the Agreement filed with the court lists no description of what "adequately performing" would be.
Instead, based on the two page agreement, WWN was to produce events, handling the management of the video production (at no cost to Flosports) including Planning, Logistics and Production Teams, required video equipment including a two camera shoot, an Encoder to deliver the live stream to Flosports, personnel to "manage and run the video production for all events", Internet with a minimum upload speed of 5 mbps for all events, delivery of a fully produced live stream via RTMP feed to Flosports and that WWNLive would produce and deliver five live events per month (with the exception of December, where they were only required to produce three events). The agreement noted, "The quality of the events should be reasonably similar or better than the same events in 2015 and 2016 through the Term of the Contract."
The 11/27 amended lawsuiit by Flosports was accompanied by a number of other documents, including the original spreadsheet sent by Sal Hamaoui to then-Flosports Vice President Tobey Mergler, who handled the WWNLive deal and left Flosports in August 2017.
The spreadsheet lists buys for WWNLive events held in 2015 and 2016. For EVOLVE events, buys ranged from 539-2,479 purchases with the events on the higher end being shows specifically promoted by WWE online. SHINE iPPVs ranged from 525-729 buys. Full Impact Pro events ranged from 24 buys to 288 buys.
Back in September, after news of the lawsuit broke, some news sites reported we had been "told that in actuality, in 2016, WWN (on average) was doing in the area of 1,300 iPPV buys for EVOLVE, 600-700 for SHINE and less than 200 buys for FIP events while selling those events. The year before, which they also provided to FloSports, those numbers were lower and the EVOLVE numbers were said to have been way up from the year before because WWE was promoting that brand."
It should be noted that the numbers in the lawsuit filings do match up with what WWNLive sources claimed to various sources shortly after the suit was filed.
In their 11/27 filing, Flosports alleged, "FloSports paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to WWN in reliance on this promise. But WWN’s data was false. When pressed for the data that backed up WWN’s representations, WWN originally claimed the data was lost or deleted. Ultimately, WWN sent records listing subscribers more than once and including customers who had not purchased broadcast services. Even accounting for that artificial inflation of its viewership, WWN’s numbers proved far less than originally represented."
It is also interesting to note the following language in the contract: "FloSports has the right to terminate this Agreement by providing notice during the month of January each year, starting in 2018. If FloSports exercises this option, the agreement will continue for 12 months after the date of notification before terminating."
It should be pointed out that Flosports terminated their deal with WWN in September of 2017 (well before January 2018) shortly after filing their lawsuit. So, by the letter of the contract, a judge could potentially consider an argument from WWNLive that Flosports actually breached their own deal.
While Flosports' Amended lawsuit alleges that "In fact, WWN contractually promised that “all data [it] provided . . . regarding financial performance of events [it] put on . . . was accurate, reliable and truthful.” - the legalese in the two page agreement between the two sides that was filed with the court on 11/27 does not appear to cover any other sort of termination of the deal, including whether the deal could be halted or terminated if the records provided by WWNLive Inc. actually turned out to be incorrect.
WWN had filed a motion on 11/13, requesting the lawsuit being dismissed, citing that the suit was filed in a venue (Texas) that lacks jurisdiction over WWNLive. In a response filed on 11/27, Flosports responded that WWN had induced them into paying hundreds of thousands of dollars with falsified records and that WWN had elected that their agreement, when signed in Texas, would be governed by Texas State rules.
In their 22-page filing requesting a change of venue, WWN had argued that their business was based in Florida, as are its business records and bank accounts, therefore they were not under Texas jurisdiction. They noted that their only dealings in Texas were WWN President Sal Hamaoui traveling to Texas in October 2016 and January 2017, the first trip to meet with Flosports during the courtship period and the latter to sign the deal. A copy of the deal that was filed with the court is actually dated October 21, 2016.
WWN's response noted multiple times in the filing that Flosports had initiated their business relationship, that WWN was not contractually obligated to focus their business in Texas and out of the 53 events they promoted under their deal with Flosports, only two were held in the Lone Star State. The majority of the events were held in Florida. WWN also argued that the case being heard in Texas would be a personal hardship for the company as those with working knowledge of the company live in Florida (Sal Hamaoui) and Massachusetts (Gabe Sapolsky) and would force them to travel regularly to Texas, a venue where they have no holdings, business dealings or connections to the community there.
Phil Wendler, who identified himself as FloSports' Senior Vice President of Global Rights Acquisition and Subscription filed a statement with the court arguing that the case should be heard in Texas, noting, "Discovery conducted so far has revealed at least 368 emails sent from WWN representatives to Flosports representatives based in Austin, Texas during the course of the parties' dealings, in addition to numerous text messages, several
conference calls between the parties and the in-person meetings in Texas."
Wendler also stated that WWN would have run additional events in Texas in November (Survivor Series weekend in Houston) had Flosports not revoked their deal with WWN and filed the lawsuit.
The FloSlam streaming service officially launched in October 2016, conversations with WWN began as early as January 2016. At that point, FloSlam was hoping to make deals with WWN, Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling. In the end, WWN signed with FloSports first and the other two companies passed. The majority of the content on the streaming service came from WWNLive until their relationship was severed in September 2017. Since then, despite having active subscribers, Flosports has dropped the live streaming aspect of their Floslam offerings, yet still charges $30 a month or $150 per year for the service.
The Flosports situation has obviously put a financial hardship on WWNLive as they bumped up the number of events they were running as part of the agreement to five a month and made a greater investment into talents, including signing Keith Lee and others.
Flosports had not paid WWN during the final two months of their relationship, informed WWNLive of their plans to file a lawsuit while WWNLive was streaming a SHINE Women's wrestling event and canceled plans to stream several EVOLVE events the very weekend they were to take place.
In total, WWNLive lost out on three months of expected revenue from Flosports and has greatly cut back their event schedule. Earlier this month, the company claimed in an email to fans they were negotiating with four streaming platforms, but did not specify what they may be.
WWNLive promotion EVOLVE is scheduled to run in New York and Massachusetts in December with those events being streamed on the Fite TV App, which WWN had been working with prior to their Flosports agreement.
Obviously, this is going to be a long and winding legal road for both sides
The contract between Flosports and WWNLive was revealed in the 11/27 filings, noting that it called for WWN to be paid $75,000 in 2016, $500,000 in 2017, $550,000 in 2018, $605,000 in 2019, $670,000 in 2020 and $740,000 in 2021.
The contract also called for incentives to be paid to WWN under the following conditions: "In addition to the Rights Fee described in Section 3a, FloSports will pay an incentive to Events Rights Holder if financial performance exceeds specified levels. Events Rights Holder will receive the greater of the Rights Fee listed in Section 3a or 30% of total Net Cash attributed to WWN over the course of the year. Example: Net cash in 2017 equals $1,000,000. Events Right Holder receives a total of $500,000. Net cash in 2018 equals $3,000,000. Events Right Holder receives a total of $900,000."
The contract required Flosports to promote the WWNLive events promising they would "provide $250,000 of advertising value per year on FloSports (i.e. custom digital display, email newsletters, social media, editorial previews/coverage/recaps, etc.)." How that amount of advertising value may have been tallied is not directly explained in any of the court documents, but Flosports' amended lawsuit claimed, "FloSports performed on the Agreement and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars pursuant to its terms, including on its advertising spend for WWN and in the fees paid directly to WWN—all in reliance on WWN’s breached warranty and misrepresentations."
In the Amended lawsuit, Flosports claimed that "During the first year of the Agreement’s term, FloSports became suspicious that WWN’s data was inaccurate. Over the course of several months, FloSports repeatedly asked WWN to send FloSports more detailed data to support the original spreadsheet. WWN failed to comply, alleging that the information was lost or deleted. On August 18, 2017, WWN finally emailed the detailed viewership records, which contained additional misrepresentations: the records listed customers more than once and added purchasers of DVDs to the records, rather than limiting its numbers to the broadcast subscribers as it had promised were reflected in the original spreadsheet. Even with this fraudulent inflation of its data, the records showed viewership numbers far less than those reflected in the October 2016 spreadsheet, proving that WWN’s original representations were false."
WWNLive had previously responded to that, claiming, "That data was pulled from and compiled by a now-defunct third-party company named Fineline Hosting that was based in Florida."
What is interesting is that while Flosports alleges that, "Among the promises WWN made in the Agreement was that “all data provided by [WWN] regarding past financial performance of events put on by [WWN] was accurate, reliable and truthful.” - yet there is no language regarding that data (truthful or not) in the agreement filed with the court.
The lawsuit also alleges that "WWN breached the Agreement by failing to adequately perform under its terms, including its provision of inaccurate, unreliable, and false viewership data to FloSports" yet the Agreement filed with the court lists no description of what "adequately performing" would be.
Instead, based on the two page agreement, WWN was to produce events, handling the management of the video production (at no cost to Flosports) including Planning, Logistics and Production Teams, required video equipment including a two camera shoot, an Encoder to deliver the live stream to Flosports, personnel to "manage and run the video production for all events", Internet with a minimum upload speed of 5 mbps for all events, delivery of a fully produced live stream via RTMP feed to Flosports and that WWNLive would produce and deliver five live events per month (with the exception of December, where they were only required to produce three events). The agreement noted, "The quality of the events should be reasonably similar or better than the same events in 2015 and 2016 through the Term of the Contract."
The 11/27 amended lawsuiit by Flosports was accompanied by a number of other documents, including the original spreadsheet sent by Sal Hamaoui to then-Flosports Vice President Tobey Mergler, who handled the WWNLive deal and left Flosports in August 2017.
The spreadsheet lists buys for WWNLive events held in 2015 and 2016. For EVOLVE events, buys ranged from 539-2,479 purchases with the events on the higher end being shows specifically promoted by WWE online. SHINE iPPVs ranged from 525-729 buys. Full Impact Pro events ranged from 24 buys to 288 buys.
Back in September, after news of the lawsuit broke, some news sites reported we had been "told that in actuality, in 2016, WWN (on average) was doing in the area of 1,300 iPPV buys for EVOLVE, 600-700 for SHINE and less than 200 buys for FIP events while selling those events. The year before, which they also provided to FloSports, those numbers were lower and the EVOLVE numbers were said to have been way up from the year before because WWE was promoting that brand."
It should be noted that the numbers in the lawsuit filings do match up with what WWNLive sources claimed to various sources shortly after the suit was filed.
In their 11/27 filing, Flosports alleged, "FloSports paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to WWN in reliance on this promise. But WWN’s data was false. When pressed for the data that backed up WWN’s representations, WWN originally claimed the data was lost or deleted. Ultimately, WWN sent records listing subscribers more than once and including customers who had not purchased broadcast services. Even accounting for that artificial inflation of its viewership, WWN’s numbers proved far less than originally represented."
It is also interesting to note the following language in the contract: "FloSports has the right to terminate this Agreement by providing notice during the month of January each year, starting in 2018. If FloSports exercises this option, the agreement will continue for 12 months after the date of notification before terminating."
It should be pointed out that Flosports terminated their deal with WWN in September of 2017 (well before January 2018) shortly after filing their lawsuit. So, by the letter of the contract, a judge could potentially consider an argument from WWNLive that Flosports actually breached their own deal.
While Flosports' Amended lawsuit alleges that "In fact, WWN contractually promised that “all data [it] provided . . . regarding financial performance of events [it] put on . . . was accurate, reliable and truthful.” - the legalese in the two page agreement between the two sides that was filed with the court on 11/27 does not appear to cover any other sort of termination of the deal, including whether the deal could be halted or terminated if the records provided by WWNLive Inc. actually turned out to be incorrect.
WWN had filed a motion on 11/13, requesting the lawsuit being dismissed, citing that the suit was filed in a venue (Texas) that lacks jurisdiction over WWNLive. In a response filed on 11/27, Flosports responded that WWN had induced them into paying hundreds of thousands of dollars with falsified records and that WWN had elected that their agreement, when signed in Texas, would be governed by Texas State rules.
In their 22-page filing requesting a change of venue, WWN had argued that their business was based in Florida, as are its business records and bank accounts, therefore they were not under Texas jurisdiction. They noted that their only dealings in Texas were WWN President Sal Hamaoui traveling to Texas in October 2016 and January 2017, the first trip to meet with Flosports during the courtship period and the latter to sign the deal. A copy of the deal that was filed with the court is actually dated October 21, 2016.
WWN's response noted multiple times in the filing that Flosports had initiated their business relationship, that WWN was not contractually obligated to focus their business in Texas and out of the 53 events they promoted under their deal with Flosports, only two were held in the Lone Star State. The majority of the events were held in Florida. WWN also argued that the case being heard in Texas would be a personal hardship for the company as those with working knowledge of the company live in Florida (Sal Hamaoui) and Massachusetts (Gabe Sapolsky) and would force them to travel regularly to Texas, a venue where they have no holdings, business dealings or connections to the community there.
Phil Wendler, who identified himself as FloSports' Senior Vice President of Global Rights Acquisition and Subscription filed a statement with the court arguing that the case should be heard in Texas, noting, "Discovery conducted so far has revealed at least 368 emails sent from WWN representatives to Flosports representatives based in Austin, Texas during the course of the parties' dealings, in addition to numerous text messages, several
conference calls between the parties and the in-person meetings in Texas."
Wendler also stated that WWN would have run additional events in Texas in November (Survivor Series weekend in Houston) had Flosports not revoked their deal with WWN and filed the lawsuit.
The FloSlam streaming service officially launched in October 2016, conversations with WWN began as early as January 2016. At that point, FloSlam was hoping to make deals with WWN, Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling. In the end, WWN signed with FloSports first and the other two companies passed. The majority of the content on the streaming service came from WWNLive until their relationship was severed in September 2017. Since then, despite having active subscribers, Flosports has dropped the live streaming aspect of their Floslam offerings, yet still charges $30 a month or $150 per year for the service.
The Flosports situation has obviously put a financial hardship on WWNLive as they bumped up the number of events they were running as part of the agreement to five a month and made a greater investment into talents, including signing Keith Lee and others.
Flosports had not paid WWN during the final two months of their relationship, informed WWNLive of their plans to file a lawsuit while WWNLive was streaming a SHINE Women's wrestling event and canceled plans to stream several EVOLVE events the very weekend they were to take place.
In total, WWNLive lost out on three months of expected revenue from Flosports and has greatly cut back their event schedule. Earlier this month, the company claimed in an email to fans they were negotiating with four streaming platforms, but did not specify what they may be.
WWNLive promotion EVOLVE is scheduled to run in New York and Massachusetts in December with those events being streamed on the Fite TV App, which WWN had been working with prior to their Flosports agreement.
Obviously, this is going to be a long and winding legal road for both sides
Some People leave themselves open to wisecracks...
Guess I'm the only one with enough guts to say it, since nobody else will. :) ...
As Promised, Dave Meltzer makes himself look like an idiot, again.
As you know I posted this, yesterday.
So NOW, we have this from an avid reader who had the guts to actually email Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez about this (Alvarez chose wisely to accept it and not reply).
These came from the reader's email box and are used with Jeremy Neal's permission. He wanted people to see how he's made Meltzer look like an idiot as well. Apparently it doesn't take much now to make Meltzer look fucking stupid.
ANTHEM SPORTS COMMENTS ON MATT HARDY BEING WOKEN...
Anthem Sports released the following statement to Sports Illustrated regarding WWE
using a "Broken" Matt Hardy style gimmick:
“We have seen the character development and will be interested to see where they take the concept. Our new talent agreements all incorporate language that allow talent to continue to use their IMPACT persona after they leave the company. We are working with our legal team to amend our existing agreements to extend this to all of our current and former talent".
Impact has internally decided they will not pursue ownership of the "Broken Universe", paving the way for Matt Hardy to officially trademark and own the characters.
Pretty much they said that because they had no chance in court and they don't need any more embarrassment than they already have. Like this for instance.
“We have seen the character development and will be interested to see where they take the concept. Our new talent agreements all incorporate language that allow talent to continue to use their IMPACT persona after they leave the company. We are working with our legal team to amend our existing agreements to extend this to all of our current and former talent".
Impact has internally decided they will not pursue ownership of the "Broken Universe", paving the way for Matt Hardy to officially trademark and own the characters.
Pretty much they said that because they had no chance in court and they don't need any more embarrassment than they already have. Like this for instance.
That is really, fucking embarrassing. Major federation allegedly with a cheap ass patch over on a title of a company that really isn't existing anymore? Yeah, embarrassing as all hell.
Apparently Dave Meltzer is still making himself look stupid.
I'll have more on this later today but it seems that Meltzer can't keep his mouth shut, and is currently putting his foot in his mouth with someone who is an avid reader of this blog.
So, more to come as I'm getting some 'interesting' emails on this. :) Someone really should tell Meltzer to just keep his mouth shut. He's not doing himself any favors at the moment, LOL.
So, more to come as I'm getting some 'interesting' emails on this. :) Someone really should tell Meltzer to just keep his mouth shut. He's not doing himself any favors at the moment, LOL.
Let's call this Way Back Wednesday with.. Dusty Rhodes vs Hacksaw Duggan (with Col. Buck Robley)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLJM07e5qms
A heel Hacksaw Duggan managed by Buck Robley faces "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes in a bloody contest from Houston that ends in a schmoz, with Bruiser Brody, Dick Slater, & Bob Sweetan. Followed with promo's by all.
A heel Hacksaw Duggan managed by Buck Robley faces "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes in a bloody contest from Houston that ends in a schmoz, with Bruiser Brody, Dick Slater, & Bob Sweetan. Followed with promo's by all.
Kevin Sullivan on The Ultimate Warrior in WCW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnZZ6wmNCsc
Former WCW head writer and legendary wrestler "The Taskmaster" Kevin Sullivan talks about what it was like dealing with The Ultimate Warrior in World Championship Wrestling. Why Hulk Hogan brought him into the company, what Warrior was like to deal with behind the scenes, the blunder of a match Warrior and Hogan had at Halloween Havoc and much more!
Former WCW head writer and legendary wrestler "The Taskmaster" Kevin Sullivan talks about what it was like dealing with The Ultimate Warrior in World Championship Wrestling. Why Hulk Hogan brought him into the company, what Warrior was like to deal with behind the scenes, the blunder of a match Warrior and Hogan had at Halloween Havoc and much more!
Kenny Omega On Which WWE Star He Used To Bounce Ideas Off, Wrestlers Having Heat, The Elite
Current IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega was recently a guest on The Art Of Wrestling along with ROH's Young Bucks, Nick and Matt Jackson. The self-described special interest wrestler talked about getting heat within the professional wrestling industry, took a shot at his detractors, and divulged which WWE Superstar he used to bounce ideas off before the Young Bucks came around.
According to Omega, heat comes with the territory to an extent.
"I never purposely try to get heat with anyone. I try to just be a good human being, but with the way that we carry ourselves, just the way we run our show, our matches or whatever, heat's just going to come with it."
Moreover, Omega suggested that he is fine having heat with WWE because 'The Cleaner' has not said anything he does not stand by.
"If someone says to me, 'hey, you probably have heat with this guy, or this guy, or this guy, in The Fed or The E,' or whatever you want to call it, I don't really pay too much attention to it because I know I haven't done anything directly."
Omega continued, "I'm never actually directly trying to offend anyone from any other [pro wrestling] promotion. If someone says I have the greatest match of all time, that's great. I'm going to use that to make my next match mean something or make the rematch mean something more."
Omega went on to say that the pro wrestlers who criticize The Elite cannot perform on the level of The Elite.
"Maybe I'm going to catch a lot of heat for saying this right now, but I think what all these people need to understand is whether they like it or not, and whether they'd like to admit it or not, is all three of us, we could go where they are and do what they do and do it better, but they could never do what we do."
Notably, Omega shared that before confiding in the Bucks, he would bounce ideas off of Sami Zayn, also known as Rami Sebei.
"The live house opinion is going to mean a lot, of course, because you can feel it, you can hear it. But yeah, but, like, if I ask The Young Bucks' opinion that is pretty much the opinion that counts the most to me. Back in the day, like, before I was with The Young Bucks all the time and I was in DDT, it was always Rami, 'Rami, what did you think?' and if Rami gave it a stamp of approval."
Thanksssssss. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit The Art Of Wrestling with an H/T to WrestlingINC for the transcription.
Source: The Art Of Wrestling
"I never purposely try to get heat with anyone. I try to just be a good human being, but with the way that we carry ourselves, just the way we run our show, our matches or whatever, heat's just going to come with it."
Moreover, Omega suggested that he is fine having heat with WWE because 'The Cleaner' has not said anything he does not stand by.
"If someone says to me, 'hey, you probably have heat with this guy, or this guy, or this guy, in The Fed or The E,' or whatever you want to call it, I don't really pay too much attention to it because I know I haven't done anything directly."
Omega continued, "I'm never actually directly trying to offend anyone from any other [pro wrestling] promotion. If someone says I have the greatest match of all time, that's great. I'm going to use that to make my next match mean something or make the rematch mean something more."
Omega went on to say that the pro wrestlers who criticize The Elite cannot perform on the level of The Elite.
"Maybe I'm going to catch a lot of heat for saying this right now, but I think what all these people need to understand is whether they like it or not, and whether they'd like to admit it or not, is all three of us, we could go where they are and do what they do and do it better, but they could never do what we do."
Notably, Omega shared that before confiding in the Bucks, he would bounce ideas off of Sami Zayn, also known as Rami Sebei.
"The live house opinion is going to mean a lot, of course, because you can feel it, you can hear it. But yeah, but, like, if I ask The Young Bucks' opinion that is pretty much the opinion that counts the most to me. Back in the day, like, before I was with The Young Bucks all the time and I was in DDT, it was always Rami, 'Rami, what did you think?' and if Rami gave it a stamp of approval."
Thanksssssss. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit The Art Of Wrestling with an H/T to WrestlingINC for the transcription.
Source: The Art Of Wrestling
New Jericho shirt.
Before his upcoming Wrestle Kingdom 12 match against IWGP United States Champion, Kenny Omega, Jericho has created an "Alpha Club - Jericho" t-shirt so fans can choose a side. Earlier this month, at Power Struggle, Jericho challenged Omega - via video - after Omega cut a promo asking for a wrestler to come out and face him. The tagline for their match is "Alpha vs. Omega" and the shirt can be picked up here with proceeds going towards supporting The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
RON SIMMONS HEADLINES CWE LEGENDS CON
1st Ever African American World Champion Headlines CWE's Legends Con.
DAMN!
You have patiently waited and now you can know that CWE's Legends Of Wrestling & Professional Sports Convention on February 24th in Winnipeg, Manitoba will be headlined by pro wrestling AND pro football icon Ron Simmons!
It is with great honor and pride CWE hosts one of the biggest and most inspirational names in the history of the business and hands down one of the biggest stars to ever appear for Canadian Wrestling's Elite.
Regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of Florida State University and recognized as an All American while in college Ron Simmons would go on to play in the NFL for the Cleveland Browns, in the CFL for the Ottawa Rough Riders, and in the United States Football League for the Tampa Bay Bandits before entering the wrestling business under the training of legendary trainer Hiro Matsuda
Ron Simmons would be begin his national career in Jim Crockett Promotions in 1987 and quickly became a can't miss prospect for the organization. In 1989 the world would see the dark side of Ron Simmons as he formed the infamous tag team DOOM with Butch Reed. The duo would go on to capture the NWA World Tag Team Titles and held them for 9 months defeating teams like the Rock N' Roll Express, The Steiner Brothers, and The Horseman.
The team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed solidified their names in history officially being recognized as the first ever holders of the WCW World Tag Team Titles in 1991.
1992 would be the year that would set the stage for Ron Simmons being a headline competitor the remainder of his career as he made unprecedented history by becoming the first ever African American World Champion when he defeated Vader to become the WCW World Champion which he held for 5 months.
In something a lot of people aren't overly familiar with Ron Simmons would spend time competing in Extreme Champion Wrestling in 1994 & 1995 between his long tenures in WCW and the WWF.
In July of 1996 Ron Simmons would debut for the World Wrestling Federation under the name Faarooq Asaad with Sunny as his manager. Faarooq would instantly enter himself into a very memorable feud with Ahmed Johnson that caused Johnson to forfeit the Intercontinental Championship.
It wasn't long after Faarooq would head up the now iconic Nation Of Domination super group that would become of the most hated and memorable groups of the 90s. The Nation Of Domination originally managed by Clarence Mason would begin with Crush and Savio Vega and eventually transition to members such Mark Henry, D-Lo Brown, The Godfather, Owen Hart, and of course The Rock whose role in The Nation arguably saved his career and led him to become the mega star he was destined to be.
After his time The Nation was through he would form The Acolytes with Bradshaw and become of the most dominant and feared teams in the history of professional wrestling. The Acolytes would be a featured act in The Undertaker's Ministry Of Darkness.
Once The Ministry Of Darkness disbanded The Acolytes would morph into what would could be considered their most successful, memorable, and popular run when they became The APA, The Acolytes Protection Agency. Faarooq & Bradshaw would hold the WWE World Tag Team Titles on 3 occasions.
Ron Simmons was inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame in 2012.
Be there live in Winnipeg on February 24th to shake the hand of a man who single handily changed professional wrestling history!
Autograph Photo/Signed Personalized Item- $45
Photo Op- $45
Autograph/Photo Combo- $80
Event information is as followed,
Saturday February 24th- Winnipeg, MB
Location: CanAd Inns Garden City (2100 McPhillips St.)
Time: Convention 10am-6pm, Live Event Doors Open 6pm, Bell Time 7pm
Convention Tickets: $13 in advance, $15 at the door.
Live Event Tickets: $17 in advance, $20 at the door.
*Please note that the convention legends will NOT be available for autographs & photos at the live event & only at the convention portion.
Advance Tickets Available at: Punjab Grocery & Convenience (668 Sheppard St.), Blade Hair Design (3-1341 Henderson Hwy), Video 1001 (576 Mountain Ave), Papa Murphy's (335 Dakota St.)
Purchase tickets online at cwetickets.com
This event will offer a very special "Super Ticket" opportunity that will allow a maximum 150 ticket buyers the opportunity to purchase a "Super Ticket" for $150 for special VIP Access that includes,
*FREE Convention Entry
*FREE Live Event Entry
*First Priority VIP Entry & Seating When Doors Open To The Live Event
*FREE Photo Opportunity/Signed Item From ALL 9 Official Convention Guests
*Skip The Line VIP Access For ALL 9 Official Convention Guests
*FREE Entry To ALL 6 Official Convention Guest Q & A sessions.
Vendor Space Is Available But Extremely Limited. Vendor Pricing,
$150 for 1 Table
$250 for 2 Tables
$325 for 3 Tables
$50 for every additional table
For more information on becoming an official sponsor and/or vendor for the event contact info@cwecanada.ca
For upcoming announcements on guests appearing and general convention news stay posted to www.cwecanada.ca
DAMN!
You have patiently waited and now you can know that CWE's Legends Of Wrestling & Professional Sports Convention on February 24th in Winnipeg, Manitoba will be headlined by pro wrestling AND pro football icon Ron Simmons!
It is with great honor and pride CWE hosts one of the biggest and most inspirational names in the history of the business and hands down one of the biggest stars to ever appear for Canadian Wrestling's Elite.
Regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of Florida State University and recognized as an All American while in college Ron Simmons would go on to play in the NFL for the Cleveland Browns, in the CFL for the Ottawa Rough Riders, and in the United States Football League for the Tampa Bay Bandits before entering the wrestling business under the training of legendary trainer Hiro Matsuda
Ron Simmons would be begin his national career in Jim Crockett Promotions in 1987 and quickly became a can't miss prospect for the organization. In 1989 the world would see the dark side of Ron Simmons as he formed the infamous tag team DOOM with Butch Reed. The duo would go on to capture the NWA World Tag Team Titles and held them for 9 months defeating teams like the Rock N' Roll Express, The Steiner Brothers, and The Horseman.
The team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed solidified their names in history officially being recognized as the first ever holders of the WCW World Tag Team Titles in 1991.
1992 would be the year that would set the stage for Ron Simmons being a headline competitor the remainder of his career as he made unprecedented history by becoming the first ever African American World Champion when he defeated Vader to become the WCW World Champion which he held for 5 months.
In something a lot of people aren't overly familiar with Ron Simmons would spend time competing in Extreme Champion Wrestling in 1994 & 1995 between his long tenures in WCW and the WWF.
In July of 1996 Ron Simmons would debut for the World Wrestling Federation under the name Faarooq Asaad with Sunny as his manager. Faarooq would instantly enter himself into a very memorable feud with Ahmed Johnson that caused Johnson to forfeit the Intercontinental Championship.
It wasn't long after Faarooq would head up the now iconic Nation Of Domination super group that would become of the most hated and memorable groups of the 90s. The Nation Of Domination originally managed by Clarence Mason would begin with Crush and Savio Vega and eventually transition to members such Mark Henry, D-Lo Brown, The Godfather, Owen Hart, and of course The Rock whose role in The Nation arguably saved his career and led him to become the mega star he was destined to be.
After his time The Nation was through he would form The Acolytes with Bradshaw and become of the most dominant and feared teams in the history of professional wrestling. The Acolytes would be a featured act in The Undertaker's Ministry Of Darkness.
Once The Ministry Of Darkness disbanded The Acolytes would morph into what would could be considered their most successful, memorable, and popular run when they became The APA, The Acolytes Protection Agency. Faarooq & Bradshaw would hold the WWE World Tag Team Titles on 3 occasions.
Ron Simmons was inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame in 2012.
Be there live in Winnipeg on February 24th to shake the hand of a man who single handily changed professional wrestling history!
Autograph Photo/Signed Personalized Item- $45
Photo Op- $45
Autograph/Photo Combo- $80
Event information is as followed,
Saturday February 24th- Winnipeg, MB
Location: CanAd Inns Garden City (2100 McPhillips St.)
Time: Convention 10am-6pm, Live Event Doors Open 6pm, Bell Time 7pm
Convention Tickets: $13 in advance, $15 at the door.
Live Event Tickets: $17 in advance, $20 at the door.
*Please note that the convention legends will NOT be available for autographs & photos at the live event & only at the convention portion.
Advance Tickets Available at: Punjab Grocery & Convenience (668 Sheppard St.), Blade Hair Design (3-1341 Henderson Hwy), Video 1001 (576 Mountain Ave), Papa Murphy's (335 Dakota St.)
Purchase tickets online at cwetickets.com
This event will offer a very special "Super Ticket" opportunity that will allow a maximum 150 ticket buyers the opportunity to purchase a "Super Ticket" for $150 for special VIP Access that includes,
*FREE Convention Entry
*FREE Live Event Entry
*First Priority VIP Entry & Seating When Doors Open To The Live Event
*FREE Photo Opportunity/Signed Item From ALL 9 Official Convention Guests
*Skip The Line VIP Access For ALL 9 Official Convention Guests
*FREE Entry To ALL 6 Official Convention Guest Q & A sessions.
Vendor Space Is Available But Extremely Limited. Vendor Pricing,
$150 for 1 Table
$250 for 2 Tables
$325 for 3 Tables
$50 for every additional table
For more information on becoming an official sponsor and/or vendor for the event contact info@cwecanada.ca
For upcoming announcements on guests appearing and general convention news stay posted to www.cwecanada.ca
HHMM, here's something interesting.
Yesterday, the official Facebook page
of the Florence Civic Center in Florence, SC posted the following
promotional photo to help push WWE's return to the arena on 1/20/18 for a
Smackdown live event:
UPDATE 12:41 AM: Several PWInsider.com readers who are belt
aficionados, including Eric Walker, sent word that the title belt design seen in
the artwork actually popped up online last year. Eric noted that the belt
design has been traced to a bootleg version of the U.S. title created in
Pakistan. If that is indeed the case, the question that now arises is how that
version of the belt ended up on official WWE artwork posted by a WWE venue's
Facebook page?
The following comes from PWInsider.
As you can see, that would be a new, different WWE United States championship
belt design for Baron Corbin. As of last night's Smackdown Live broadcast, that
design had not been introduced by WWE. It should be interesting to see if and
when it will be.
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