John Cena launches YouTube channel, WWE Tough Enough Returning? - Demott

- John Cena has launched his official YouTube channel and you can visit it here: http://www.youtube.com/user/johncenahardnocks

- Bill DeMott wrote on Twitter that he’s hoping an announcement on the next season of WWE Tough Enough will be made very soon.

RAW preview, Adamle's DUI, Stone Cold-Tough Enough

- DUI charges against former WWE announcer Mike Adamle were dropped on Friday. Back in January of 2011, Adamle was arrested on DUI charges when it was said he exhibited strange behavior after being taken into custody. But his breathalyzer test showed he was well under the legal limit, and the charges have been dropped. Adamle was recently promoted, and is now the full-time sportscaster for Chicago NBC affiliate WMAQ.

- RAW takes place tonight in Indianapolis, Indiana tonight at the Conseco Fieldhouse. CM Punk will speak out for the fist time since his return, Triple H will take care of the WWE Title situation and there will be a Divas Battle Royal to determine Kelly Kelly’s challenger at Summerslam.

- According to a source, Stone Cold Steve Austin appeared on Houston's 94.5 The Buzz Radio. He spoke about promoting his latest DVD release. Austin was asked if he likes making action movies or Disney movies like The Rock and he replied that he likes "action movies because you get to shoot people". His favorite promo in WWE was when Vince was at the hospital and hit him with a bedpan. He was also asked what his next film will be and he answered that he will be heading back to LA to film the second season of Tough Enough.

What the Tough Enough contestants were told!

For those curious, both Andy Leavine and Luke Robinson were told during a rehearsal before the season finale of “Tough Enough” (which ended up being part of the beginning of Monday Night Raw) that they would get slapped by Vince McMahon and then would take a Stunner from Steve Austin. However, they were not told who would win.

Early Three-Hour RAW Preview – Steve Austin, TE, & More

- Tonight’s edition of WWE RAW takes place in Long Island, NY. The show is a three-hour Raw and is an “All Star” theme to hype the WWE All Stars game.

- Steve Austin will be the guest GM for the night.

- Members of both the RAW and SmackDown! rosters will be appearing.

- WWE Tough Enough winner Andy Leavine announced that he would be at RAW tonight.

- Locally advertised is a dark match featuring John Cena vs. The Miz in a street fight.

- The company will also be hyping the Capitol Punishment PPV tonight. The PPV airs this Sunday.

Skip Sheffield injury update

Skip Sheffield, who has been sidelined since breaking his leg and ankle on August 18, 2010 at a WWE live event in Honolulu, Hawaii, announced via Twitter that he will be undergoing another surgical procedure this Tuesday. He wrote, “Will be having a third surgery this Tuesday and it will be the last,” Sheffield wrote. “There are a lot of people who are far worse off and this is all happening for a good reason. I wish I was back right now and doing what I love, but things are not right and they have to be fixed. I will be 100 percent very soon and back on WWE TV and I thank all of you for your support. I have kept my head held high and I cannot thank WWE enough for their support in this time. I have worked too hard too long to just give up and while it has been difficult it has only made me a stronger better person so please be patient and I will be back I promise.”

Report: Tough Enough contestant nearly signed with TNA

– WWE Tough Enough contestant Jeremiah Riggs, the mixed martial artist, met with TNA Wrestling’s Director of Talent Relations Terry Taylor about joining the promotion before he wound up on the reality program. The organization showed in interest in Riggs due to his role on VH1′s Daisy of Love and because he has prior wrestling experience. Riggs trained with Dutch Mantel before turning his focus to MMA.

– David Otunga celebrates his 31st birthday today.

Steve Austin: I Could Wrestle A Full-Time Schedule + More

Steve Austin recently spoke with Xfinity, promoting Tough Enough, here are the highlights…

On CM Punk: I really like C.M. Punk. I think he’s one of the top workers in the ring. I love his promos. I love his style. There’s no smoke and mirrors. I like the straight-edge lifestyle stuff he does. You want to start pairing that against the beer-guzzling “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, I think you’d have an interesting feud to say the least. He would push me to the limits, I would teach that kid a thing or two, and there would be some wonderful promos going back and forth. I like him a lot.

On Getting In The Ring On Tough Enough: One of the kids was pretty mechanically inclined, so I got in there with him…and shoot, I guess that means I haven’t been in the ring in seven or eight years…but I took a few bumps from him, gave him a few bumps, it was a lot of fun. I think if we do it again, I think I’ll be even more active and get in the ring a lot more.

On A Possible Return: I could still, you know if I was in a bad situation, I could still get two years out of my carcass on a full-time basis.” He then added, ” But I’m happy where I’m at. And in ten or twenty years I still want to be doing the things I’m doing with my hunting and fishing. I want to continue to do that in a pain-free fashion. And right now I’m living a pretty pain-free lifestyle.

On WWE’s Roster: They’re pretty thin on talent, they’ve had some injuries. They’ve brought the Rock in to host it. They brought me back. I didn’t know if the Undertaker was going to make it, he’s had some injuries. Triple H is getting back in the ring. Until they brought all those players out they had a lot of green guys.

Report: Matt Hardy involved in altercation at WrestleMania

Source: The Wrestling Observer Newsletter

There was an altercation between TNA Wrestling talent Matt Hardy and members of the WWE Tough Enough cast at a hotel bar in Atlanta, Georgia during WrestleMania XXVII weekend.

While details of the incident have yet to be disclosed, Reby Sky, Hardy’s real-life girlfriend, revealed on her Formspring account that she and Hardy were “banned for life” from the hotel in question.

One WWE source said that if a main roster talent had done some of the things they did, termination would be likely if they were low enough on the totem pole.

Steve Austin praises WWE Divas + Tough Enough news

– Steve Austin posted the following on Twitter, regarding Tough Enough and Melina and Alicia Fox: “Let me bottom line something right now–i meant no disrespect to Melina or Alicia on TE. both women are class acts and hard workers. cheers.”

TMZ.com caught up with Steve Austin, who gave the Rock a thumbs up and said that he was one his favorite opponents. You can check out video of that at http://www.tmz.com/

– WWE Tough Enough’s debut ratings got some attention from Multi Channel News.

– The Tough Enough Website has posted extra and deleted scenes. One of them includes Matt (M-Dogg 20) running into CM Punk. You can check that out at http://www.usanetwork.com/series/toughenough/

Jim Ross Blogs: WrestleMania Trip + Tough Enough

Jim Ross has a new blog up at http://www.JRSBARBQ.com/ Here are the highlights…

On WrestleMania: The overall experience at WM27 was outstanding. We got to see many old friends and met many new friends. The WWE fans who traveled from all points from around the world were a joy to meet except for those that wanted to pose for photos in the men’s room. :) Announcing at WM27 was an adrenaline rush but I’ll admit that I was rusty and had plenty of pre-match anxiety as I would have liked to have been able to prep more. Plus, one never knows after a long absence from WM’s just how one will respond in the heat of battle. Being able to team with The King on Sunday night and Monday, for a few minutes anyway on RAW, made things easier for me. Broadcaster chemistry cannot be manufactured and the King and I were fortunate enough to have natural chemistry essentially since early on in our announcing tenure.

On WrestleMania 28: The journey between now and WM28 in Miami could well be very compelling especially considering that a main event has already been tabbed, the Rock vs. John Cena. I have no issue whatsoever in dubbing a main event a year in advance because that provides fans with a destination and hopefully the journey to the destination will be full of twists and turns. The opportunity to build an amazing anticipation for this bout certainly exists. The other main event at WM28 would, obviously, involve the Undertaker’s Streak which is now such a part of the fabric of the event. The Streak is embedded in Wrestlemania and it is one of the most anticipated aspects of the biggest event of the year for me.

Tough Enough: Nonetheless, I loved Tough Enough and I hear that the upcoming episodes are much more compelling that the first of which I throughly enjoyed. I’m happy and proud of @steveaustinBSR as he is a genuine star who carries himself big time on the reality show that I felt was extremely well produced and edited. Beginning Monday, TE will air on Monday nights leading directly into Monday Night Raw. I hope that you will check it out. I’m DVR’ing the entire series.

Stacy Keibler speaks out (Video), Y2J/DWTS recap, More

– A source sent this report in: Chris Jericho danced again tonight on Dancing with the Stars. The theme of the evening was personal stories. The stars could choose a song that meant something to them. Chris chose The Beatles’ “Let It Be”. In the pre-taped piece, he told the story of his mother’s accident as he finished wrestling school that confined her to a wheelchair until her death in 2005. He prepared to give up wrestling but she insisted he continue to pursue his dream. He then said his real name is Chris Irvine and for the first time in 20 years in his professional life he would be performing as himself and not a character. The announcer introduced him for the dance as Chris Irvine. He danced a rumba with his partner Cheryl Burke and received a score of 21. The judges commented on some of the lack of technical skill but complimented the emotional connection and Chris moved one of the judges to tears.

– Former WWE Diva Stacy Keibler says in the following video how she will appear on the new season of WWE Tough Enough and has a bit to say about The Rock’s appearance at WrestleMania XXVII…

Triple H’s Special WrestleMania Theme, HBK’s Blog, More

– Metallica posted the following on their Facebook page: Triple H will be using one of your favorite ‘Tallica songs during his match against The Undertaker this weekend during WrestleMania XXVII.

– Day Two of Shawn Michaels’ WWE.com diary is now posted.

– Triple H attended the Georgia state legislature’s WrestleMania Proclamation yesterday with wife Stephanie McMahon. Photos are available at WWE.com.

– Entertainment Weekly has a video from Tough Enough of Miss USA Rima Fakih taking a bodyslam at http://insidetv.ew.com/

Trish Stratus Speaks Out – Tough Enough, ‘Mania, More

It’s been a busy couple of months for the legendary 7-time Women’s Champ, Trish Stratus. She’s back in the WWE fold with the USA Network revival of Tough Enough, she’s going to WrestleMania this Sunday, has a movie premiering in one week and is on the cover of Oxygen magazine! With so much going on in the Stratusphere, we decided to give the Diva Dirt Legacy Award winner a call and discuss!

In this exclusive interview, a sequel to our first interview (Diva-Dirt.com) last September, Trish dishes on her return to WWE, working with Snooki and this Sunday’s WrestleMania 27 extravaganza in Atlanta. In this one hour+ interview, we also speak in depth about the upcoming season of Tough Enough, which premieres next week, as Trish gives us her opinion on each of the five female contestants. We also touch upon her stunning Oxygen magazine cover, the world premiere of her debut movie ‘Bail Enforcers’, and the WWE release of Dave ‘Fit’ Finlay who had a big hand in Trish’s training and success in the ring as a WWE Diva.
Some quotes:

On getting the call to do Tough Enough:
“I would say it was about the beginning of February I got this call, ‘Hey, we got this new show Tough Enough which you might have heard about. We want you to be the female trainer on the show’ and of course I was just absolutely honored to be asked. [...] At first they told me, ‘We can’t really tell you the details on who’s going to be involved yet’. I was like, ‘Hmm, well, last time I accepted a show and I didn’t know who was involved, I ended up working with Erik Estrada and Latoya Jackson, so I’d like to know please’. [Laughs] They told me ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin would be the host and I said, ‘I’m in’. And then Bill DeMott and Booker T [became involved] as well, so I was like ‘Oh absolutely’.”

One of the things that made her want to come back & do the storyline going into WrestleMania:
“The opportunity came up to work with Lay-Cool which I’m so excited about. I mean they’ve done such great work. People love to hate them. As a fan, I’ve sat back and I’ve watched — especially Layla — [I've] watched them grow into these great workers. They’ve really come along, especially when you think about where both of their backgrounds are. They’ve put in the work to develop their characters. [...] I was a big fan of their work so to come back and work with them was a neat little opportunity.”

What it’s like working with Snooki:
“She’s so sweet. The first time I met her — the first Raw — she was just really excited to be there and really open minded and I love that when people come from other worlds and are just like, ‘Okay, what do you want me to do?’. Sometimes you get that resistance like, ‘Hmm, I don’t know if I could do that…’ and she was just totally into it.”

Would Steve Austin return to WWE?

ESPN.com recently interviewed Steve Austin. Here is an except where Austin discusses a possible return… “I’ll tell you what, sometimes you do, but it’s just like an itch that you scratch and it goes away. We had that ring at Tough Enough, and it’s the same WWE ring they use every week, and I got the chance to bounce around and take some bumps from one of the kids in the contest and gave him a few bumps. Could I still do it? Damn right I could. It may not be quite as good as I used to, but I got it out of my system. I hope people enjoy Tough Enough because I had so much fun doing it, but that’s about as close as I want to be to a business that I love.”

The Rock’s boot coming to ‘Mania + Tough Enough & HOF

– Michael Cole announced on RAW this week that Shawn Michaels, Sunny and The Road Warriors would be the ‘three’ WWE Hall of Famers to featured during the WWE 2011 Hall of Fame Induction broadcast on the USA Network. It airs next Monday at 8:00 p.m. before RAW. Also, WWE Tough Enough airs immediately following next week’s RAW.

– Head WWE SmackDown! writer Michael Hayes celebrated his 52nd birthday yesterday. Yesterday also marked the 24th anniversary of WrestleMania III.

– The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has published an article on WrestleMania XXVII featuring quotes from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, as well as SmackDown! Superstar Cody Rhodes. The Rock reveals his plans for the event. “What I can guarantee in Atlanta is that I will put my boot to candy [rear-ends] live in front of 75,000 strong members of Team Bring It,” Johnson told the newspaper. Also, you can expect to see a ton of WrestleMania media in the coming days from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. They are one of the biggest media outlets in Atlanta so expect to see lots of articles from them.

– Matches taped Monday night in Chicago, Illinois for this Thursday’s episode of WWE Superstars on WGN America are as follows:

* Divas Champion Eve, Gail Kim and Natalya vs. Brie Bella, Melina and Nikki Bella

* Curt Hawkins vs. Trent Barreta

Full spoilers for the show are posted here on the main newsboard.

Tough Enough cast at WrestleMania?, The Rock

– WrestleMania XXVII host Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is scheduled for Piers Morgan Tonight on CNN. His appearance airs this Thursday at 9:00 p.m. In January, the talk show filled the time slot formerly held by Larry King Live.

– The cast of WWE Tough Enough are scheduled to appear at WrestleMania XXVII in Atlanta, Georgia. They are also scheduled for the following night’s Monday Night RAW TV taping.

Cena is ready for RAW, Tough Enough plans

– John Cena wrote the following on Twitter regarding his showdown with The Rock and The Miz tomorrow night on RAW: “CeNation. Already gearing up for monday. Rock said it..and I believe it..the time for talk is over.”

– As noted yesterday here on the website, WWE Tough Enough is expected to be added to the USA Network’s Video On Demand service. Replays of the show will air late Monday night. The first episode is titled “Get Your Teeth Out of My Ring.”

Steve Austin Speaks Out: Tough Enough, ‘What’

Steve Austin recently spoke to IGN.com about how eliminations will be handled on WWE Tough Enough and more. Check out the highlights:

On the elimination process: “My job is to sort through these contestants, weed out the weak and find the strong, and look for the person who is strong enough and tough enough and smart enough to be a WWE superstar. You know, there’s a lot of people that can get in this ring at a local or independent level, but it take a real special person to compete at the level of the WWE superstars and divas do. So, it’s my job to weed through that. Some of [the contestants] are green as grass, some of them have never really been in a ring before. Some of them have quite a few years of experience. But I paid a lot of dues when I broke into this business. I want them to learn to respect what goes on inside this 20×20 ring, and just pay some dues, as much as they can, while they’re here, and to learn this business from the bottom up. I just want them to have a sense of really what are the responsibilities of a WWE superstar, and I want them to pay some dues, and I want them to appreciate the rise or fall, but I want them to have a good time while they’re here.”

On “What” chants: “I tell you what, I would have never in a million years went up to Vince and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got this thing that I’m going to do and it’s going to make people say ‘What?’ after every pause or break in someone’s promo for the next ten years. I had no idea that even these days, when Michael Cole’s in the ring cutting a promo, if he puts that pause in there, they’ll come with a ‘What?!’ – but it’s been interesting!”

WWE Tough Enough filming finished!

Steve Austin said this morning on his Twitter account that WWE Tough Enough has concluded filming. “Well…just finished with Tough Enough…it was a helluva lot of fun…thanks to @BillDeMott, @trishstratuscom, and Booker T..great cats.”

USA Network confirms The Rock on Tough Enough

USA has confirmed The Rock on Tough Enough via the following press release:

‘THE ROCK’ TO GUEST ON “WWE TOUGH ENOUGH,” A NEW REALITY SERIES ON USA
Hollywood star and former multi-time WWE Champion Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will guest on a future episode of WWE TOUGH ENOUGH, the new reality competition series premiering on USA on MONDAY, APRIL 4 at 11/10c.

In the episode, Johnson puts the contestants in full workout mode, pushing their limits and testing their boundaries. The Rock excites and electrifies as he demonstrates what it takes for a superstar to successfully “layeth the smacketh down” in the ring. One of the most entertaining WWE Superstars of all time and known to fans worldwide as “The People’s Champion,” the Rock recently announced that he’s returning to WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW and briefly trained with the TOUGH ENOUGH contestants for his pending return.

WWE Hall of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin is the host of WWE TOUGH ENOUGH, which will feature a diverse group of men and women who live, train, eat and sleep under one roof in a spectacular ranch in Simi Valley, California. Each week the contestants will battle it out in a series of unique challenges designed to test for such characteristics as showmanship, creativity, athleticism and desire, just to name a few. Viewers will witness the trials and tribulations of what it takes to be one of the best in the world’s greatest sports entertainment organization. The grand prizewinner will be awarded a contract with WWE.

Shed Media US, noted for its strong characters and memorable casting in the non-scripted arena, produces WWE TOUGH ENOUGH. The company’s previous reality credits include “The Real Housewives of New York City,” “Who Do You Think You Are,” “World’s Strictest Parents.”
After the premiere of WWE TOUGH ENOUGH on April 4, the show will move to its regular timeslot on Mondays at 8/7c on April 11.