He’s been back with the federation only a couple of months yet Batista is already ready to miss significant time?
Plus, in today’s rumors and news from the WWE, a former superstar has a slight problem with the tribute to the Ultimate Warrior, a WWE Hall of Famer is now cancer free, WWE reacts to TNA’s version of the Daniel Bryan story and Jim Ross has an opinion on who should be WWE champion.
Batista missing time for movie
Fans don’t seem to care about Batista as a singles competitor so maybe they won’t mind the fact he’ll be absent from WWE house shows for the next few months.
Batista is apparently taking some time off after WWE’s Extreme Rules pay-per-view as he is not currently being advertised for any WWE events after that show, including Raw the next night from Albany, NY. He is also not advertised for the big European tour that kicks off in May. “It was reported back when Batista signed with WWE that he was expected to take some time off to do promotional work for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, but that movie doesn’t open until August 1.
Batista’s return to the WWE has been underwhelming. His short feud with Randy Orton amounted to little more both wrestlers taking a career step backwards, ironically, to reform Evolution with Triple H. He’ll still compete on Raw, but for fans interested in see The Animal at a non-televised house event, well they probably don’t exist so nevermind.
Bob Holly discusses Ultimate Warrior tribute
The man known for some of the stiffest shots in the business is taking hard shots at his former employer. Hardcore Bob Holly did an interview recently, and when asked about his opinion on the tribute to The Ultimate Warrior on Raw, Holly pulled no punches when answering.
“It’s great to see WWE do a tribute to Warrior,” Holly said, “but I question why they only do that for certain people? Only people who’ve made that company tons of money. It’s like, in other words, his life is more valuable than a mid carder’s life.”
Williams mentioned that many of the current roster probably worked with Viscera (who recently passed away) but that maybe only 10% actually worked or knew Jim Hellwig.
“Yeah, if that,” Holly replied. “What pisses me off is that these guys that don’t get acknowledged when they pass, they sacrifice for that company, they sacrifice their body, they sacrifice their family, they sacrifice so much to work with WWE and for WWE to not acknowledge people but acknowledge Warrior, that’s a travesty to me. It’s wrong. They’re saying Warrior is more important than Viscera. Every human life is just as important as the other. What makes Warrior’s life more valuable than Viscera?”
Holly appreciated the tribute to Warrior — and spoke highly of him in the same interview — but feels all superstars who pass away should receive the same treatment.
It’s hard to argue against Hardcore’s stance.
Jake Roberts now cancer free
Newly inducted WWE Hall of Famer Jake Roberts tweeted out some good news over the weekend — he’s cancer free.
Roberts sent a message to fans stating “Must have one more surgery on spot on leg to b sure area cancer free. Have to have scans done every 3 months to monitor my body. Cancer free. Indeed cancer free and sober one day at a time. Happy Easter and God bless all.”
Good news to all now get Jake back on WWE TV in some capacity. The guy was one of the best talkers in his day. He could easily slip back into a commentator role (he did color commentary back in the day) or maybe even as a mouthpiece for a rising NXT star.
If he can stay healthy, and sober, Jake needs to be a part of the active WWE product.
TNA has their own Daniel Bryan
TNA loves Daniel Bryan and his underdog rise to the top of the WWE. They love it so much they ripped off the idea.
On last week’s edition of TNA: Impact, bearded underdog Eric Young fought in, and won, a battle royale early in the show to gain a World title shot later on that night. Valiantly braving through injuries, Young then went on to defeat title-holder Magnus to win the TNA World Championship in a big upset victory. Sound familiar?
So far, the WWE isn’t really phased by the storyline, much like they haven’t been phased by much TNA has done in the past year.
Television is the land of re-treaded ideas so this should come as no shock to anyone. For every popular television show there are three or four copycat shows on other networks. This also isn’t the first time TNA has borrowed liberally from a character idea. And vice versa. This is just another occurrence of borrowing from a successful model.
Is Eric Young another Daniel Bryan? Hardly. Young is good, and young, but Bryan has all of the intangibles and the luck of being the very first, and very talented, bearded underdog.
Now, if Young starts hitting the ring, thumbs in the air to the chant INDEED! INDEED! INDEED! well then that might be a little much.
Jim Ross has a champion in mind
Someone asked Jim Ross on Twitter who the WWE champ should be. He’s answered. “Lesnar..now cue the ‘part time’ debate.”
Really? The guy booked as an unstoppable monster and ended the Undertaker’s streak should be the champ? Clever.