We reported earlier this week that Bobby Lashley & EC3 both finished with Impact Wrestling this past weekend at the television tapings and the belief is that they could be headed to WWE.

PWInsider reports that EC3 is completely free from his Impact obligations and is free to sign with WWE at any time. Lashley won’t be free until February 1st, so that would eliminate any chances of him making a special appearance at the upcoming Royal Rumble event.

Speaking of EC3, Dixie Carter posted the following on Twitter regarding his departure:

Can’t tell you how proud I am to be the aunt of @therealec3. This guy is special. He deserves great things. Excited for your future E, whatever it holds. @IMPACTWRESTLING @wwe https://t.co/xUGkhlhKrq

— Dixie Carter (@TNADixie) January 16, 2018

The post Details on When Lashley & EC3 Are Able to Appear on WWE Television appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Dave Meltzer reported in the latest issue of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Impact Wrestling is not happy with Rockstar Spud leaving the company to go work for WWE.

The company apparently spent a lot of money helping out Spud with his via issues that were preventing him from working in the US. They spent roughly $20,000 helping him out. Two weeks after the issue was resolved, he asked for his release from the company. However, it’s worth pointing out that the visa issues were because of an error in the paperwork that Impact made during the “Dixie Carter era.”

As previously noted, Spud is expected to debut on 205 Live next week on RAW, alongside of Hideo Itami.

The post Impact Officials Not Happy with Rockstar Spud Quitting to Work for WWE appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Photo: WWE

Dixie Carter on RAW?

It was a surprise for many wrestling fans when former TNA president Dixie Carter appeared on WWE’s “24” documentary for Kurt Angle. But was it the last of Carter on WWE programming? In an interview with Sports Illustrated (SI), she was asked if an appearance on RAW is imminent. Coincidentally, the upcoming July 17th broadcast of RAW takes place in Nashville, which is nearby Carter’s home.

Carter told SI:

“I did hear RAW will be in Nashville, which is very interesting. But I wouldn’t tell you either way.”

Carter has been one of the rumored names involved in RAW General Manager Kurt Angle’s storyline, which he announced he’ll be disclosing during the July 17th show.

Mae Young Classic “Parade of Champions”

As Top Rope Press reported, the WWE will air the Mae Young Classic’s Parade of Champions, live, this evening on the WWE’s Facebook and on YouTube. With a start time of 6:30 p.m. EDT, all 32 women competing in the Mae Young Classic will be announced and briefly featured. After the Parade of Champions, the first set of tapings for the women’s tournament will occur, but the tournament itself won’t air until Monday, August 28, on the WWE Network.

The post Dixie Carter Appearing on RAW Soon?; Mae Young Classic Live Special Tonight appeared first on TopRopePress.com – Wrestling News, WWE News, TNA News, Wrestling Results.

Photo: TNA

Let the speculation begin…WWE has announced that Dixie Carter will be featured in the latest WWE 24 documentary special (WWE 24 – Kurt Angle: Homecoming) on former TNA star Kurt Angle.

Carter transitioned out of her role as Chariman of TNA in January when Anthem Sports and Entertainment acquired TNA Impact Wrestling.  She then took on a new role, serving as a member of Anthem’s Advisory Board of Fight Media Group and also remains a minority equity stakeholder with Anthem. Starting with the company in 2002, Carter has served as President, Chairman, and on-screen manager and authority figure (she was famously driven through a table by Team 3D in 2014).

Despite yet another major TNA/GFW name working with WWE, they seem to still willingly deny TNA/GFW’s existence, only noting on their site that Carter worked with Angle from 2006-2016, without directly mentioning that they worked for the Nashville-based organization.

Is this is a one-off appearance for Carter, or does WWE have bigger plans for the former Chairman of TNA? Could she be part of the “phone call” angle with Corey Graves and Angle on RAW?

WWE 24 – Kurt Angle: Homecoming premiers this Monday on the WWE Network after RAW.

The post Dixie Carter Working with WWE? appeared first on TopRopePress.com – Wrestling News, WWE News, TNA News, Wrestling Results.

While appearing on The Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast, Cody Rhodes revealed that he currently doesn’t have any dates left to appear for Impact Wrestling. He made the following remarks:

“When it comes to Impact, I usually stick to myself as far as I just try to bring what I do everywhere just to the Impact scene. It is hard to get on board with set, ‘this time, this reboot is better than the last reboot’. When I met Dixie Carter, I loved Dixie Carter! When I met Billy [Corgan], I loved Billy! When I met Jeff [Jarrett], I love Jeff. But only so many times can you hear, ‘now we’re marching on everybody. So I’m just like, ‘hey, it’s a fun show, it’s on Pop TV, and I just try to be a part of that.’ I currently have no more dates with TNA/Impact Wrestling. Currently, I have no more dates left.”

You can listen to the full interview here.

The post Cody Rhodes Says He Has No More Dates with Impact left appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

The following are highlights from Scott Steiner’s media call promoting Sunday’s Slammiversary event:

Legal issues with Dixie Carter: “I mean, [Dixie Carter] is a joke. She was basically a pain [in the butt]. Talked the truth about Hogan. She dropped the case and we’ll see what happens. It’s not over.”

Favorite TNA moment: “My favorite moment was the Main Event Mafia. The champions were all together, and that was a lot of fun because you had a lot of history in the ring every time we stepped in the ring. A lot of us had been around for a long time, so the stuff that we did backstage, the stuff that didn’t make it on TV was also entertaining and funny. To date, that’s been the highest rated portion of TNA’s existence. A lot of people bought into it because of the reality of everything. It was a lot of fun.”

The differences between Dixie Carter’s management and Jeff Jarrett’s management: “If you talk to anybody, there’s a huge difference. When people see Jeff, they know that he knows what he’s doing. Clearly, everyone knew that Dixie didn’t know what she was doing. She was a mark wanting to be on TV. It’s night and day. People wanna come to work, they’re excited about what everyone is doing, and it is a totally different atmosphere.”

What changes should occur in pro wrestling: “The first change they should make is getting rid of Stephanie McMahon and Hunter McMahon, because they’re two idiots who are running the whole place up there. It’s like, I feel sorry for the wrestlers nowadays. They’ve got to follow the instructions of these two idiots that clearly don’t know what they’re doing. They’re not watching because the ratings are down, and the reason why I call him Hunter McMahon is because she obviously wears the pants.”

Why he’s not going in the WWE Hall of Fame: “I’m not going into the WWE Hall of Fame, because I’m not going somewhere where there’s nowhere to go. GPS the WWE Hall of Fame. Where’s it at? See, I’m not going somewhere where if I get in trouble or something, I can’t call 911. I can’t have a beacon call, or call the coast guard. Cuz, who knows? It could be in Atlantis for all I know. Or it could be in parts unknown. It’s a joke. How can you go somewhere that is non-existent? I’d be better off if the WWE Hall of Fame was on the moon… cancel your reservations if you want to see me, because it’s not happening.”

The post Scott Steiner Says Triple H & Stephanie Need to Leave Wrestling appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Vince Russo published another video to his YouTube channel where he issues an apology to Eric Bischoff. Here is a transcript of what was said in the video:

Hello, my name is Vince Russo, and we are summoned here tonight in what is a serious manner. Because, as you know I just offered an apology to Jim Cornette, and now suddenly an apology feels necessary to one Eric Bischoff. Let me apologize up front if I break down during this apology because as we all know, Vince Russo is a cryer, especially in meetings, so I’m going to apologize beforehand.

But Eric, I’ve said it all along, when Vince Russo is wrong he is not afraid to say that he is wrong, and I was wrong about you Eric, so I’m going to apologize. I’m going to go all the way back Eric, because there’s a lot to apologize to you for—even in your childhood. As the story goes, your teeth rotted and your hair turned prematurely gray at a very early age, and by the time you went into the 6th grade you had to have your teeth capped and you were dying your hair jet black. I can only imagine those kids on the playground during recess that were laughing at the kid with the chicklet teeth and the shoe polish in his hair.

Eric, you overcame that, which leads me to my next apology. I want to apologize that your former boss, Verne Gagne, Mr. Gagne kept sending you back to that same Deli time and time and time again because his coffee just wasn’t hot enough. I apologize for that Eric. I also want to apologize that a man had to have his lips sewn to another man for the better part of 20 years. It sounds like a bad centipede movie to me Eric, but that was the case—the case between you and Hulk Hogan, wasn’t it, Eric? How do I know this was the case? Here’s how I know it was the case, because I want to apologize that when Dixie Carter wanted to hire Hulk Hogan you rode in on the Hulkster’s coattails and you told Dixie Carter, “Hulkster ain’t comin without me, brother. This is a two for one deal.” Which you ended up milking Dixie for an exuberant amount of money when she never wanted you in TNA in the first place.

But Eric, once you got there, I really need to apologize for a couple of things that you did. I want to apologize for you convincing Dixie Carter that we had to go head to head with Monday Night Raw—it’s time Dixie, we are ready, we got the Hulkster, we can defeat them Dixie. Yes Eric, I believe it was you and the Hulkster, who were the big cheerleaders, why? It wasn’t your money, and what did you do? You embarrassed TNA. You ashamed TNA, and you scarred TNA for life.

You weren’t done there now were you? This leads me to my next apology. “Dixie, the Monday night thing didn’t work, but I got it this time! Screw this Universal Studios. Screw where you’ve been doing the shows for decades, we’re going to take the show live on the road every week. A different venue, a different arena, live! That’ll get the ratings up.” Eric, you know what that got up? That got up TNA’s debt. A debt that they haven’t been able to overcome to this day. This is what great ideas are made of I guess.

Now Eric, I want to apologize on the topic of balls. First of all, I want to apologize that going back to DX, driving that tank up to the doors of WCW, a script written by Vince Russo by the way. When you saw them coming, you screamed backstage like a little biatch, “Shut the doors! Shut the doors! Shut the doors!” You know what Eric? You didn’t have balls then. Anybody with a pair of balls would have let them in. It would have been great for live TV, but Eric let the big steel door come down right before DX can enter the building. That was when I first realized that Eric Bischoff has no balls. Here it is confirmed 20 years later when I apologized because Eric Bischoff does not have the balls to talk to me man to man, face to face, when he has been challenged. I gladly welcome the invite on Eric’s little show on WrestleZone, but no, he’d rather talk behind my back every chance he gets, reminiscent of that steel door coming down on DX.

Now Eric, I also want to apologize that you are now involved in a lawsuit with TNA attempting to milk them for even more money despite the fact that when you were under contract with them and they paid you millions and millions of dollars of the BS that you sold them, you delivered zero. You stole from TNA. You did nothing, but that wasn’t enough, and some would call you a greedy little bastard, but I’m not going to do that, I’m a gentleman. Now, we are going to sue them for even more money because the money that I stole from them just wasn’t enough, and I apologize for that.

Eric, I apologize that you had to bury me to SpikeTV every single chance that you got because that was the only way that you can even the playing field. You had to tear Vince Russo down to build your little self up; that is how politicians do it. That is how Car Salesman do it because they are not good enough to do it the All-American way. They are not good enough to take the challenge head to head and win the game. Why wouldn’t you take that challenge, Eric? Because on that creative playing field you knew you couldn’t touch Vince Russo so the only way to bring Vince Russo down is to bury him to the Television Executives, Eric, just like how you are trying to bury me in your little podcast now; same thing.

I apologize for that Eric, I really do. I also apologize Eric for telling Vince McMahon to hire you in 2002. I did that; despite the way I felt about you, because let’s face it Eric, everyone that worked with you all thought of you as an arrogant wussy, everybody. Despite that, with business being business, I said, “Vince, you have to hire this guy. He is a great performer. You can tell great stories with him.” I did that Eric, me, Vince Russo. Even though you were my arch enemy because it was right for business. You think Vince McMahon would have ever brought you in on his own? He heard the same stories about you that everybody else knew, but it was me that put you over to him that got you the job at the WWE.

How ungrateful can you be? Let’s get to the matter at hand becuase I have two big apologies that I saved until the end. First and foremost Eric—I want to apologize for you for being the reason for being fired by WCW in the first place. You see Eric, you had such a huge astronomical lead in WCW. You were kicking our a** in the ratings week after week after week. Then Vince McMahon brings in somebody by the name of Vince Russo and outside of crying at meetings, this guy had never done anything, but what he was about to do Eric, was going to be historical. Because what he was about to do was school you. What Vince Russo was about to do was beat your a**.

It was like a magic show, Eric. WCW here [showing hand gesture aiming high], and WWE here [showing hand gesture aiming low], and within a matter of months, WCW here [showing hand gesture aiming low] and WWE here [showing hand gesture aiming high] . Eric, it wasn’t all my doing—a lot of it was your doing, so I’m going to apologize for yourself because Eric, at the end of the day, you were the kid with the chicklets; the kid with the black shoe polish in his hair; and the man with one good idea. A whole career—but one good idea.

Eric, there are many that say you stole the nWo angle from Japan; I’m going to give it to you, I’m going to give you the full credit because Eric, you were a one-trick pony. You drove that idea into the ground and you opened the door for me and you allowed me to kick it in and beat your a** and get you fired.

Isn’t that what this is all about bro? How 20 years later you still can’t get over that? Sounds very familiar doesn’t it? The last guy I apologized to had an ax to grind because two employers chose me over him. I beat you bro. A New York Italian beat you and you got fired.

Eric—I really want to apologize to you for this one; I really didn’t mean for this to happen; but you talk about adding insult to injury; not only were you fired, but Brad Siegel replaced you with me. Can you believe that, bro? Not only did I put you out of a job, he gave me your job! Here you are 20 years later whining and crying about—-who is the cry baby Eric? Who is the cry baby?

I didn’t cry at any meeting; you and I both know it, but you cried when I kicked your a**. You cried when you got fired, and you cried when I replaced you.

For all that, I apologize from the bottom of my heart, I apologize. So Eric, going forward, I hope we can turn the page and I hope this is a new beginning. Relax; maybe take some time off. I know you like some night club, stripper club, strip joint in Atlanta, maybe you go down there a couple of days, whatever you have to do.

As I told Jimmy C [Jim Cornette], when a man apologizes, there is not too much more he can do. Eric—I’m sorry for being better than you.

If I had a mic now, I would drop it.

The post Vince Russo Issues Apology to Eric Bischoff appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Russo says that WWE’s brand split is ‘atrocious’ in his opinion. When he almost returned to WWE in 2002, the first thing he said to Vince McMahon was, ‘You have to get rid of the brand split”. Eventually WWE took Russo’s advice and eliminated the brand split, but now a decade later they’ve returned to this failed concept yet again.

When he worked for TNA, he told Dixie Carter on multiple occasions that there were several performers on the roster that didn’t deserve to be there. He never thought he’d be saying that about WWE, but all these years later that’s the situation he finds himself in.

Russo decided to do a list of the 30 names that he’d want to work with, if he was writing a wrestling television show today. All of these people are stars, have the ‘It’ factor, and deserve to be on National television, unlike a lot of today’s performers.

Brock Lesnar & John Cena – He says that these two guys would have been just as popular in the attitude area as they are today, and they’re clearly in a league of their own right now. He does admit that he has an issue with the fact that Lesnar only shows up for a handful of dates a year, especially since he’s the Champion right now.

The post Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Building His Own WWE Roster, ‘Atrocious’ Brand Split, More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Anthem Sports & Entertainment, the group behind the Fight Network, purchased 85% stake in TNA earlier in January 2017. TNA’s future had been up in the air prior to that, with previous owner Dixie Carter and Billy Corgan locked in a legal dispute over money loaned by Corgan to keep the company afloat. Now that Anthem owns the company, they are trying to push the promotion in their own or rather new direction.

Total Non-Stop Action Wrestling (then known as NWA-TNA) started out in 2002 as the brain child of Jerry and Jeff Jarrett. The TNA Impact! brand has always strived to become a rock solid alternative to WWE in the United States, but for a number of reasons it has struggled to dethrone WWE from the mountain top or even be a rock solid number #2 alternative to WWE.

Now that Anthem Sports has decided that the connotations of the ‘TNA’ name are something that they want to move away from, and with them now just looking to use Impact Wrestling as the name of the promotion, this should be a beginning of a new era for the promotion.

Having held their TV tapings in the last couple of weeks, which will air on TV in the upcoming weeks, Anthem will be looking to get this new branding out there as soon as possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj6DL0mMo2M

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I will say that there were aspersions cast around that when she would be seen with certain people in the restaurant, or restaurant bar at the Double Tree after the events and they would be pouring the wine for her to tell her how great she was, but I couldn’t speak as intelligently as Scott Hall when it comes to that, because one of the aspersions that are being cast about that is a “very good friend” of his.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP7RkLCfKrg

Kevin Nash was at TNA for a year after he debuted along-side Scott Hall in the fall of 2004. When Hall left in 2005, ”Big Kev” Kevin Nash was booked to face ”King of the Mountain” Jeff Jarrett for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at TNA Bound for Glory PPV (2005) but backed out from the event due to chest issues. Shortly after, Nash left TNA and then returned in 2006 and remained with the company till 2011.

There have been reports going around that Dixie Carter had been involved with some of the guys in the TNA Locker Room.

There was also a rumor that Dixie Carter had released Kevin Nash from his contract to go back to WWE because if she didn’t, he was going to tell everyone about their “relationship.”

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