Wrestlemania 20 revenue press release
WWE and Mayor Landrieu announce via press release that Wrestlemania 30 generated over $142 million for the region in April of 2014. Landrieu comments:
On behalf of New Orleans, we thank all WWE fans that came from around the world to experience all that our beautiful city has to offer. The week-long series of events helped generate a record-breaking boost to our economy, and we look forward to the possibility of New Orleans hosting a future WrestleMania.
Collaboration announcement
Marvel announces that Punk will write the story for Thor Annual project. Punk comments on the deal:
I think I just pestered all the right people and the right things kind of popped up. How exactly it came up, I can’t really, exactly remember. I can’t remember who said, ‘Hey. Wanna do Thor?’ You know what I mean? That pretty much blew my mind. I have to say, it’s been a long process.
Smackdown night change press release
WWE issues press release confirming Smackdown moving to Thursday nights. The release reads:
The show that averages 3.1 million viewers on Friday nights and beats all Friday primetime viewing on any cable network is moving to Thursday nights on Syfy beginning January 15th at 8pm ET. With nearly 800 original episodes, SmackDown is the second longest-running weekly episodic program in U.S. television history, only behind WWE’s other flagship program, Monday Night Raw®.
Writes memoir
Lopez releases her memoir, True Love. In True Love, Lopez writes that she’s felt abused in some of her relationships.
I’ve never gotten a black eye or a busted lip, but I’ve felt abused in one way or another: mentally, emotionally, verbally.
Appearance announcement
WWE announces Hogan will appear as a special guest on the October 20th edition of Monday Night RAW in Kansas City. The event’s ad reads:
Hulk Hogan returns to Kansas City for the first time in over a decade!
Handicap match street fight announcement
Stephanie McMahon announces handicap street fight main event for the October 20th edition of Monday Night RAW. The match will feature Cena and Ambrose taking on Kane, Orton and Rollins.
Maybe we see if John Cena and Dean Ambrose can act as a team against the team of Kane, “The Viper” Randy Orton let’s put Seth Rollins in there as well.
Bella vs Bella announcement
WWE announces Bella vs Bella match for the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view. An added stipulation is that the loser of the match must become the winner’s personal assistant. Nikki comments:
I’m going to do more than prove who the better Bella is. Because the loser in our match? Is going to be the winner’s bitch for the next month. Oh, and Brie? For future reference – I prefer my lattes with almond milk.
The Best in the World at What I Have No Idea
Jericho releases the third book in his memoir series. The book follows the latest chapters in Jericho’s musical and wrestling careers.
Maybe before they’ve read the first one they might wonder why you’d need another, but it’s easy to see you’ve experienced a lot of very strange things in your life and career that no one else has.
WWE Network to air commercials
WWE sends out mass email to WWE Network subscribers to inform that the web based streaming service will begin airing commercials before and during programming.
Today WWE Network will begin to run limited video advertisements. Here is what you can expect: No commercial breaks during scheduled programming, Limited advertising between shows. Occasional advertising before our video-on-demand content
Royal Rumble 2015 location announcement
WWE announces to attendees of Friday Night Smackdown’s 15th Anniversary Show that the 2015 Royal Rumble event will be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on January 25th, 2015.
Play Ball preview
The band previews Play Ball, from their new album, Rock or Bust, which is scheduled to be released on Dec 2, 2014. This is the first album from the band that will not include Malcolm Young. Stevie Young, Malcolm’s cousin, fills in for him due to his battle with dementia. Johnson:
Stevie, Malcolm’s nephew, was magnificent, but when you’re recording with this thing hanging over you and your work mate isn’t well, it’s difficult. But I’m sure [Malcolm] was rooting for us.
Cancer announcement
While on tour in Europe, Morrissey reveals he has gone through a series of cancer treatments.
They have scraped cancerous tissues four times already, but whatever. If I die, then I die. And if I don’t, then I don’t. Right now I feel good. I am aware that in some of my recent photos I look somewhat unhealthy, but that’s what illness can do. I’m not going to worry about that, I’ll rest when I’m dead.
Announces Malaysian TV deal
TNA announces SingTel mio Sports 1 will air IMPACT and Xplosion throughout Singapore and Malaysia. Dixie Carter comments:
We are delighted that wrestling fans in Malaysia and Singapore can now join those in Japan, Thailand and 120 other countries around the world in enjoying the very best in professional wrestling each and every week.
Sting DVD being reprinted
WWE reprints Sting DVD due to an error on the back cover of the disc set. One image on the DVD is of WCW’s impostor Sting and not Steve Borden himself. The mistake will be fixed on future copies of the DVD release.
Documentary announcement
Deen announces the release of a documentary that will delve into the story behind the racist remark that cost her career with Food Network and the support of several sponsors. The documentary will air on Deen’s website The Paula Deen Network.
We hope to have it out the first of the year and tell everybody the true story of what really happened. It was a painful year for me. It was a hurtful year when I found myself being labeled for something I was not.
The Endless River release announcement
Pink Floyd announces it will release new album The Endless River on November 10. The album is a tribute to keyboard player Richard Wright who died of cancer in 2008. Artwork from the album is displayed in large cities around the world including New York, London and Paris. The album includes mostly instrumental tracks written and recorded by Pink Floyd members Wright, David Gilmour and Nick Mason while working on the 1993 album ‘Division Bell’. Gilmour:
We listened to over 20 hours of the three of us playing together and selected the music we wanted to work on for the new album. Over the last year we’ve added new parts, re-recorded others and generally harnessed studio technology to make a 21st century Pink Floyd album. With Rick gone, and with him the chance of ever doing it again, it feels right that these revisited and reworked tracks should be made available as part of our repertoire.
Mason:
The Endless River is a tribute to Rick. I think this record is a good way of recognising a lot of what he does and how his playing was at the heart of the Pink Floyd sound. Listening back to the sessions, it really brought home to me what a special player he was.
Movie to air Nov 15
The Lifetime Network continues on with the Aaliyah biopic, Aaliyah: Princess of R&B , with Shipp as Aaliyah. The official air date is November 15, 2014. Lifetime had originally planned to shoot over the summer and release this fall, until Disney star Zendaya Coleman backed out of the project citing poor production values and moral discord.
FOX Sports deal
WWE pens broadcasting deal with Fox Sports Latin America to bring programming to over 56 million homes. The deal takes effect October 6th. Fox representative comments.
No doubt this long-term partnership will give us the opportunity to continue to strengthen our content line-up, offering our fans in the region a strong and consistent weekly schedule of WWE programming through our portfolio of channels.
Stanford online course
Altman announces Y Combinator will hold an online course through a partnership with Stanford University, where the class will be called CS183B, or How to Start a Startup. This opens up access to people who don’t make it into the program, and anyone else, including people in other countries:
At Y Combinator we are limited by class size, and in the people we can fund
Video game release date pushed back
2K Sports and WWE push back WWE 2K15’s release date from October 28th to November 18th for the Playstation 4 and X-Box One systems. The game will still be available in Playstation 3 and X-Box 360 format on October 28th.