— During a recent appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show,” WWE Chief Creative Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque built excitement for Wrestlepalooza, set for September 20 in Indianapolis, IN. The event will be WWE’s first main roster pay-per-view event on the new ESPN app.
During the discussion, McAfee noted that the Wrestlepalooza name originates from ECW, and Triple H agreed. He also confirmed that Cody Rhodes will be featured at the event. Rhodes has been absent from WWE programming since the August 8 episode of SmackDown, when he was viciously attacked by Drew McIntyre.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On if they considered WrestleFest or another name for the show: “There was a lot of thought but it was in a brief period of time, so we were sort of under the gun. As soon as we heard Indianapolis was on the table, had the date open, we were in, this place is phenomenal, so that was a no brainer for us, but we moved quick, the whole thing came together quickly, ESPN asked for the date, they wanted a mega event, we said yes, we had to pick a name and go.”
On giving ECW credit for the name: “Yeah, shout out to ECW. Lollapalooza was a big thing but now we’re gonna take that title.”
On Cody Rhodes’ status for Wrestlepalooza: “I will give you a spoiler right now..Cody Rhodes will be at Wrestlepalooza.”
— The September 1 episode of WWE RAW drew 2.4 million global views on Netflix, with fans streaming a total of 5.2 million hours. This marks a slight decline from the August 25 episode, which registered 2.6 million global views and 5 million hours viewed.
Notably, the September 1 episode is the lowest global viewership for RAW since the show debuted on Netflix in January. For the week, it ranked #8 globally among English-language Netflix TV shows and #5 in the U.S.
— Booker T has nothing but high praise for Trick Williams.
On NXT commentary, Booker T has made it clear that few superstars get him as fired up as Williams. He’s been a vocal supporter of the rising star, and now he’s going even further — calling Trick the future face of WWE.
Speaking with Esports Insider, Booker T admitted that Williams may not be the best pure wrestler, but insisted that doesn’t matter. What counts, he said, is being a standout performer, He said,
“Trick Williams is the future of this company. He’s my guy. I see myself in Trick. Every time I’d see him in TNA, he came out dressed like me when I was in TNA and doing the Black Snow. He wore the whole gimmick and everything. He’s always paying tribute to me, he even uses some of my terminology. He’s not the greatest wrestler in the world, but you don’t have to be the greatest wrestler in the world to be the biggest star; you just have to be a really good performer. I think that’s what Trick has picked up on more than anything, on how to go out there and be a really great performer and make fans watch you for so many different reasons than they watch the other wrestlers.”
— During a recent appearance on “The Rob Brown Show,” WWE NXT Superstar Ricky Saints shared his ambition to capture the NXT World Championship.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the WWE NXT Title: “The legacy of that belt is so rich. If you really go back and see the people who have held that title, it’s an insane amount of names on there, and you see them to this day still killing it. I am a former NXT North American Champion. I know in my heart that I can beat Oba and I do believe that when I beat Oba Femi, once I’m NXT Champion, I’m going to be put in a very special class of people that were North American Champion and NXT Champion.”
On the list of people who held both titles being very small: “That list is very small. To be put in that category and class, it’s incredible. It’s something to tell myself, ‘You always thought you could do it and you did it.’ I’m a very ‘proof is the pudding’ type guy.”
— During a recent episode of the “Busted Open Radio” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry shared his thoughts on potential plans for the women’s division at WrestlePalooza.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On what’s happening with the women’s division at Wrestlepalooza: “I’m thinking, where are we going? If next week, we get Jade Cargill and Tiffany Stratton, what is going to happen at Wrestlepalooza? I mean, there’s so many things that you can speculate, but they have to have something in mind, something has gotta come up to where there’s more than one matchup. And when I say that, I don’t think it’ll be a rematch of Jade Cargill and Tiffany Stratton.”
On there being a match with multiple women involved at the event: “I think there might be some Jade Cargill involved, there might be some Nia Jax involved, hell they might be able to make it a 8 to 10 woman battle royal for all I know. Like where is Charlotte [Flair] going to come into play, where is Bayley, Bayley is training like a mad person … what are you going to do with the women’s movement?”
(h/t – Fightful)
