World Wrestling Entertainment Inc (WWE) said on Friday Executive Chairman Vincent McMahon had paid $17.4 million to the company to cover costs related to an investigation into his alleged misconduct.
McMahon, credited with transforming WWE from a regional player to a global giant, retired as CEO and chairman of the company in July last year.
He returned to the board in January, after the probe was wrapped up.
Vince McMahon Brad Barket
The Wall Street Journal had reported that he was being investigated by the board for agreements to pay $12 million over the past 16 years to suppress allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity.
WWE said in January that it would explore strategic alternatives.
McMahon said he would involve himself in the company’s media rights acquisition process as it looks to capitalize on growing demand for content and live entertainment.
There was no Daniel Bryan-like moment for Sami Zayn in his hometown and WWE delivered about as well as it could while still holding some things back at Elimination Chamber.
Zayn, despite all kinds of shenanigans and Jey Uso refusing to turn on him, did not leave an emotional Bell Center in Montreal a world champion on Saturday night. Instead, he will have to settle for taking Roman Reigns to his limit, an absolute outpouring of love from his people and likely rekindling his on screen friendship with Kevin Owens. While it wasn’t as perfect as what we saw at the Royal Rumble, the main event delivered and so did the entire show outside one major miss.
Here are five takeaways from Elimination Chamber:
In-zayn-ly Close
Sami Zayn had his moment – just not his world championship.
Late in the match, the Montreal native appeared to have Roman Reigns beat after a second Helluva kick, but the referee had been knocked out. Jimmy Uso appeared, and super kicked Zayn three times and then delivered an Uso splash. A new official raced in and Zayn got his shoulder up. After that, Reigns hit a running spear and Zayn still got a shoulder up leaving the undisputed champ besides himself. A superman punch took out a second ref, and Paul Heyman went for a chair. Jey Uso appeared this time and stood in front of Reigns – just as Zayn did for Kevin Owens at the Royal Rumble.
Roman Reigns attack Sami Zayn during their match at Elimination Chamber. WWE
“It’s either me or it’s him,” Reigns told Jey while handing him the chair just as he did with Zayn at the Royal Rumble. Jey hesitated and a frustrated Reigns took the chair back. Zayn speared Jey by mistake and gave Reigns the chance to unload chair shots on him. A spear later and it was over.
Kevin Owens eventually appeared to the delight of the crowd – Stunning Reigns, putting Jimmy Uso through a table and Stunning Heyman. Owens then moved out of the way to let Zayn deliver one last Helluva kick to Reigns but didn’t not embrace his friend, walking to the back while looking at him instead. Despite the drama Zayn and Reigns were able to create, they stuck with Cody Rhodes for the WrestleMania main event, saved Owens and Zayn from officially teaming up and Jey Uso making a final decision if he still stands with The Bloodline. Will the audience push for Zayn to get another shot is the question?
This was one of those special wrestling nights as Zayn got an insane pop coming out last and Reigns smirking and no-selling it was brilliant as the crowd showered him with ‘F—k you Roman!” chants. The champ stayed away from Zayn for around minutes to let the fans continue celebrating Zayn. After some early offense by Zayn, Reigns quickly took control of the match and began insulting the crowd. He even started telling Zayn’s wife at ringside, “This isn’t what I wanted. I wanted you to be a part of my family. … This is his fault. … He betrayed you” in a callback to the whole Bloodline feud.
Zayn started fighting back once the match returned to the ring and revived the crowd. He took Reigns outside and started pummeling in front of his family and kissed his wife. He countered a spear into an exploder, but a Superman punch stopped a Helluva Kick attempt. Zayn hit a Superman punch and the Helluva Kick but Reigns kicked out just before three. Reigns rolled out before Zayn could hit the kick again. The champ went for a spear on the outside. Zayn slipped away as the champ went through the barricade. He rolled Reign in hit a Blue Thunder bomb, but again Reings got an arm up. Zayn did get Reigns pinned with a Helluva Kick but the ref was knocked out. That was as close as he would come – likely having to settle for beating The Usos with Owens in Los Angles.
No Clowning Around
Asuka will get the chance to end her WrestleMania losing streak against Raw women’s champion Bianca Beliar, one of the most dominant title holders in the company’s history. The twisted Empress of Tomorrow, who is 0-3 at the show of shows, made Carmella tap out to win the women’s Elimination Chamber.
The entertaining match also protected the other two babyfaces by having Liv Morgan pass out in the middle of the ring to a double submission from Natalya and Asuka. After Natalya was pinning by Carmella, Raquel Rodriguez fell victim to a double pin from Asuka and Carmella. Having Morgan be the second person eliminated made the winner feel predictable, but allowed Asuka to get cheered beating Carmella.
Morgan had one of the moves of the match, running from the top of pod to sunset-flip bomb Rodriguez off the top rope, but Carmella’ pin attempt on Rodriguez was unsuccessful. Natalya and Morgan got us started, with the former tossing her opponent in the pods early on. The match moved back to the ring a bit once Rodriguez entered and started dominating both. Cross, without taking her ring jacket off, came in fourth. She did a cross-body off the pod onto the group as was later run through one by Rodriguez and Carmella kept hiding inside. It led to Cross being pinned by Rodriguez for the first elimination, which WWE cameras missed most of before showing a replay.
Asuka celebrates winning the women’s Elimination Chamber.WWE
Morgan and Rodriguez both looked great in the match and Carmella can get some momentum from her eliminations and making it to the final two. More importantly, we get the best possible WrestleMania match, with Asuka being among the toughest and most unpredictable opponents Belair has faced during this run.
Better Call (Logan) Paul
The men’s Elimination Chamber match was superb with a logical, but kind of flat finish. With an “injured” Montez Ford getting helped out of the chamber, Logan Paul ran in and attacked Rollins. A Stomp from Paul allowed Austin Theory to hit the A-Town to retain and set him on a likely WrestleMania date with John Cena and adding a little spice to Rollins vs. Paul.
This match was down-right bonkers fun and deserving of a clean finish. Ford had the move of the match filled with many memorable ones – climbing up to the inside roof of the chamber and dropping down almost Spiderman-like onto the group. He got the first elimination with a frog splash to Bronson Reed, who too three other finishers before. Ford also pinned Priest after combining with Rollins for a blockbuster off a pod. He was eventually eliminated once Theory pounced after Rollins hit the Stomp on Ford. Ford didn’t win tonight, but his star grew immensely. He has a built-in story with Rollins and Theory now.
Johnny Gargano and Rollins touched for the first time in a WWE ring to start the match before Theory — who worked under both men in factions — was the next man to enter. Theory referenced The Way in an appeal to get Gargano to work with him, but it didn’t work. Rollins and Gargano ended up locking themselves in a pod with Theory and stomping him. Reed’s night was highlighted by lifting up both Rollins and Gargano for a fall-away slam. Gargano also countered a potential power bomb of from Rollins off the pod into a hurricanrana. It was a sampling of the great action from this one.
Couples Therapy
Edge and Beth Phoenix finally got the better of The Judgement Day and we will see if it is the end of this rivalry. As the match drew to a close, Edge and Phoenix put on the Edgecator submissions on both Finn Balor and Rhea Ripley. They got free with help from Dominik Mysterio throwing brass knuckles into the ring. Edge kicked out of getting him by them.
Phoenix later slipped out of taking a chair shot on the ring steps and hit a Glam Slam instead to neutralize Ripley. After some back and forth, Edge — who is from Ontario — delivered a spear to Balor and then he and Phoenix combined for a Shatter Machine to get the win for Canada.
Phoenix and Ripley in their first-ever meeting getting to test each other’s toughness early on felt fitting — as the crowd chanted “f—k you Dominik.” The women got plenty of time in the ring, including a super-plex and later in the match stereo powerbombs from the top turnbuckle. Balor and Edge’s status for WrestleMania feels a little uncertain unless Balor wants to challenge the Rated-R superstar to a match with a special stipulation.
Liv Morgan delivers a sunset-flip bomb off the pod to Raquel Rodriguez. WWE
Rubber match robbery
What a waste of time for a pay-per-view match, again from WWE. Both Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley just kept going for their big moves — like a typical match from The Beast. After taking two spears, Lesnar pulled Lashley’s hands apart as he attempted the Hurt Lock and turned into an F5, but Lashley was able to kick out. A second F5 also did not do the trick. Lashley managed a third spear and this time got the Hurt Lock on. Lesnar could not break out and opted for a low blow to Lashley that resulted in a DQ finish to a booing crowd.
Lesnar then flipped out, F5d the ref and Lashley in the ring and then his challenger again through the announce table and then the ref onto the broken table. The finish stunk in what the commentators called the “rubber match.” Now what does this mean for WrestleMania after Bray Wyatt said he had has eyes on the winner? Does this mean we get a triple-threat match or a tag match with Lashley and Lesnar having to team against Wyatt and Uncle Howdy? This match, with this finish, was better served for TV — much like Belair vs. Alexa Bliss at Royal Rumble.
Brock Lesnar gives a F5 to Bobby Lashley.
Notes
The WWE movie parodies were unveiled, one with Seth Rollins as Joker and Becky Lynch as Batman (Man Cave…lol)
X-Pac still marvels over that one time the nWo ran the Steiner Brothers off the road.
Kevin Nash was at the wheel. Scott Hall was riding shotgun. X-Pac, whose real name is Sean Waltman and wrestling name at the time, in early 1997, was Syxx, was in the backseat recording the road-rage incident on a camcorder. Nash kept ramming Scott and Rick Steiner’s car in the segment until it flipped over in a horrifying wreck.
“This was one of my favorite things I ever did with the nWo,” Waltman told The Post with pride.
Waltman was speaking on behalf of A&E’s documentary about the nWo in their “Biography: WWE Legends” series, which debuts on Sunday, Feb. 19 at 8 p.m.
As Waltman recalls the road-rage wasn’t something with a lot of advanced planning from his perspective on “WCW Monday Nitro”
“I just showed up to work that day and they said we were running the Steiner Brothers off the road,” he said.
True believers of pro wrestling would be shocked to learn that the Steiners didn’t do their own stunt for this scene. This responsibility fell to Ellis Edwards, a longtime stuntman for WCW and later WWE. Edwards has done work in all sorts of other TV and films, including “Baywatch” and “Furious 7.”
Kevin Nash, Syxx (Sean Waltman) and Scott Hall.WWE
The scene from when the NWO ran the Steiner Brothers’ car off the road.WWE
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“All the talking in the car was ad-libbed,” Waltman said.
He doesn’t recall having trepidation that the part of the stunt they did actually do, bumping up the Steiners’ car prior to the part of the scene where it flipped, could go awry.
“It could have, but just at the time there wasn’t a lot we felt could hurt us — it’s just not something we were scared of,” he said. “I should probably only speak for myself, but I wasn’t scared. I’ve been in several car accidents, gotten f–ked up a little bit, and just what we did for a living in general, it was nothing I was too concerned about.”
The nWo essentially ran roughshod over WCW from the moment Hall and Nash left WWE (WWF at the time) and showed up in 1996, to the infamous Hulk Hogan heel turn at “Bash at the Beach.” The storyline allowed WCW to defeat WWE in the head-to-head rating and and put Vince McMahon’s company on the ropes during the famed “Monday Night Wars.” Of everything they did, ranging from spray-painting the backs of their numerous victims to throwing Rey Mysterio Jr. up against a trailer like a lawn dart, the Steiner Brothers stunt might have had the most profound feeling of true violence. It was years before the scene ever re-aired.
“It was crazy,” said Waltman, now a two-time WWE Hall of Famer with the nWo and D-Generation X. “It was attempted vehicular homicide!”
Waltman has publicly battled addiction to drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine and prescription painkillers. He attempted suicide in Mexico in 2008. In the interview, he opened up about his recovery journey and what made him realize he had to turn his life around.
Sean Waltman speaks at the memorial for Chyna in 2016.Getty Images
“Whenever I thought I finally hit bottom, or other people thought that, I would always prove myself and others wrong. I’d hit another bottom,” he said. “It’s just one of those things where for me where for the longest time I wanted to want to be better. I just felt like, ‘What’s wrong with me for not actually being able to do this?’
“It just gradully happened for me. I can’t answer what rock bottom was. Because you would think hanging myself from the roof of my apartment in Mexico, or other really bad things, would be the thing that would do it — and they weren’t. I made progress but I would fall again.
“Finally I just got around the right people, and the right resources, and I’m just really fortunate to have a lot of great people that didn’t give up on me. Or even that came into my life in recent years that felt like taking a chance on me.”
“Superstar” Billy Graham kicked out at two, but still has an tough fight ahead of him.
The WWE Hall of Famer has spent over three weeks in the hospital. His wife, Valerie Coleman, has relayed regular updates on Graham’s health on his Facebook page, including one on Jan. 10 that said his heart stopped beating before he was revived by doctors.
“Friends, Wayne (Billy) has had a very rough run lately,” reads a message on the GoFundMe page. “He coded, but God decided that it was not his time to go, and brought him back to us! He is going on over three weeks in the Mayo hospital ICU, checked into a rehab center, and is now back at the Mayo. He is dealing with a myriad of very serious health issues: a major infection in his ears and skull that may take six months of intravenous IVs, congestive heart failure, diabetes, hearing loss as a result of the infection, and the list goes on.
Superstar Billy GrahamFacebook/Billy Graham Superstar Billy Graham signs his book “Tangled Ropes” at Borders in Princeton on Feb. 21, 2006.WireImage Wayne Coleman, known as Superstar Billy Graham in WWE, remains hospitalized.GoFundMe
“He is facing a long period of rehab, and his insurance will only pay a portion of this. He is facing at least two months in a skilled nursing facility, once he is stabilized and released from the Mayo hospital. Wayne has lost 45 pounds in the last three weeks.”
The 79-year-old Graham, whose real name is Wayne Coleman, is a three-time former world champion professional wrestler, including a 1977-78 title run in the WWWF, the New York territory promotion that eventually became WWE. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004.
Superstar Billy GrahamFacebook/Billy Graham Facebook/Billy Graham Superstar Billy Graham, Sgt. Slaughter and Jesse “The Body” Ventura.WireImage
“Wayne’s wife Valerie is doing the best she can to work full time, while also doing all she can for her husband,” the GoFundMe continued. “They are facing mounting long term medical related bills. Any amount would be greatly appreciated. God Bless you and thank you. Prayers would be much appreciated!”
We miss GLOW, and think that Netflix should have given it a final season. If you’re like us, you may want to check out a new Mexican dramedy that involves women wrestlers, this time in the anything-goes world of lucha libre.
Opening Shot: Overhead shots of a working-class Mexico City neighborhood. Then we switch to a woman receiving her possessions as she gets out of prison.
The Gist: Ángela (Caraly Sánchez) has just finished a six-year prison sentence for drug possession, a charge that she has consistently denied. One of the possessions she gets is a backpack with roses embroidered on it. She said it wasn’t hers going in, and she maintains that leaving the prison.
Her mother Victoria (Carmen Ramos) picks her up; she’s been taking care of Ángela’s daughter Rocío (Alisson Santiago). Now 12, Rocío stopped visiting her mother a few years back and is not really all that interested in reconnecting. She’s not even home to greet her mother; she’s at “the fights” with her father Lalo (Cuauhtli Jimenez). Ángela goes to the local wrestling arena and sees the two of them rooting for a lucha libre wrestler named Dulce Caramelo (Scarlet Gruber). When Dulce wins her match, she dedicates it to her “daughter” Rocío.
Dulce is dating Lalo, and she’s bonded with Rocío; it’s to the point where Rocío smiles whenever she’s around Dulce and frowns in the presence of her mother. Dulce is lobbying Lalo to have him and Rocío move in with her, but he rightly wants to check with Ángela. For her part, Ángela thinks back to when her daughter was 6, and when the cops came to raid her bootleg t-shirt stand, the rose-embroidered backpack she grabbed was full of drugs. That’s memory is understandably bittersweet, because that was the last time Ángela was close to her daughter.
Ángela gets a job at a bridal shop; the owner is desperate to date Victoria, so he looks past Ángela’s prison term. Still, he keeps his eye on her; Ángela quickly bonds with the staff, which includes her former bestie Malena (María Balam). They rally around her when Lalo comes by and talks to her about Dulce wanting him and Rocío move in with her.
Ángela takes on Dulce in an all-takers match; she holds her own because her father used to be a lucha libre villain, so she knows some moves. But ultimately, Dulce beats her. But the arena owner tells Lalo that she should come back; she’d make a great villain. But she and Rocío made a deal: Ángela will let Rocío keep going to the fights; Rocío never wants to see her mother get back in the ring again, else she’ll move in with Dulce and her father. Afraid that she’s on the verge of losing Rocío, she decides to train and become an anonymous wrestling villain, with the help of her friend Refugio (Giovanna Zacarias).
Photo: Brenda Islas/Netflix
What Shows Will It Remind You Of?Against The Ropes (Original title: Contra las cuerdas) definitely gives a similar feel to GLOW, especially the fact that the ladies at the bridal shop will join Ángela in her wrestling training.
Our Take:Against The Ropes sets up a complex problem for Ángela right at the start: No one believes that she shouldn’t have gone to prison, and she wants to find the person that the backpack belonged to. But at this point, she has to realize that much of it doesn’t matter, and she has to repair what’s broken with Rocío. So Ángela has to balance rebuilding her life and her relationship with her daughter while trying to get her name cleared.
Fernando Sariñana, the series’ showrunner, and the writing staff have done a good job making that complexity clear while not making the show a drag. Even the first episode, which sets up the story, has plenty of wrestling scenes for fans to enjoy, even if it’s tough to watch Ángela get rejected by her daughter over and over.
One of the other things we appreciated is that Sariñana and company don’t dwell a lot up front on Ángela’s past; she has to deal with the here and now, and the most important thing is repairing things with her daughter, so that’s what we see.
What we’re looking forward to is seeing Ángela becoming “The Black Bride”, bringing some friends along with her, and trying to challenge Dulce once again. How she’ll do it without Rocío getting wind of it will also be fun to watch. And all of this is helped by the fact that Caraly Sánchez can act as well as make some killer moves.
Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.
Parting Shot: Ángela repairs her father’s mask and then looks in the mirror with it on, calling herself “The Black Bride” for the first time.
Sleeper Star: Alisson Santiago has a strong turn as Rocío; the kid is independent and knows that she has some emotional leverage over her mother. But she also is able to communicate how hurt she is that her mother abandoned her when she was little.
Most Pilot-y Line: Dulce actually threatens Lalo with a frying pan after he defends Ángela’s right to be a part of the decision about where Rocío lives. What decade is this?
Our Call: STREAM IT. Against The Ropes is setting up a fun, heartwarming story that should have a lot of great wrestling at its core.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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