Today's News

Triple H interview:

On the move that started as a rib...

"We were all so busy in the moment, we were all so competitive, we were all so driven to succeed—that's part of what made it all work. It's funny how some of the things that were so successful started. The People's Elbow was something that Rock started doing because we were trying to make Taker laugh at live events. We were all trying to come up with the goofiest stuff we could to make him break character. I think it was Foley at TV one night who dared him to do it live. And we were all on it. 'We double dog dare you to do it.' Rock said, 'I'll do it.' And the place erupted.''

On the birth of Evolution...

"Ric [Flair] and I started watching everybody and we picked Dave [Batista] and Randy [Orton]. There's a story out there that it started with Mark Jindrak and Dave replaced him, but that's not true. The office's suggestion was Jindrak. Dave was always in it. We even shot a vignette of all of us walking down the street together. Jindrak was actually in the shot. It was the first thing we did together, and I felt like he didn't fit with us. Ric felt it too. So we shot it with all of us walking down the street together—but then I had them shoot one without Jindrak in it. I had them shoot one without Dave in it too so Mark wouldn't go, "Why wasn't I in it?" We shot all different combinations. But ultimately we went with one that had Dave, Randy, Ric and I. We could feel it with Dave and Randy right from the get-go. There was just a cohesiveness. For whatever reason, Jindrak didn't fit with us. It was nothing personal."

WWE Alum adds pressure to NXT coach:

Hardcore Bob Holly says he believes all of the claims made against Bill DeMott, and that it would not be good for him if the accusations were proven. Holly, who was not without controversy himself, says he has personally spoken to former NXT talent who have relayed stories to him that are very similar to those revealed in the past few days.

Tommy Dreamer has also shared his views on the ongoing controversy...

"I ran the WWE developmental center, I ran OVW, and I ran Deep South. I like to say that wrestling training is different. When I was trained by Johnny Rodz, I was stretched in holds to the point of crying. I remember sometimes driving back on the BQE, and my hands were literally shaking, because I was stretched. I was pushed to a peak physically. With that being said, that is training. I think there could be some merit, but it doesn't help that these accusations are coming from ex-talent. Because then it looks like its sour grapes. It would have to come from someone, and no one would speak up, if they are current talent or just walked away. I walked away from the WWE because I was not happy. I was not happy, not happy because of something that anybody did to me. I just wasn't happy at my job, so then I walked away. Training is hard. This business is very, very hard. I have my own wrestling school. I don't believe in going in and beating people up, but Bubba Ray and Lance Storm have schools as well, and they will look at it and say 'if some of these people were actually in a real fight, or beat up, they would learn how to sell.' When I was there, I had one problem with the WWE developmental center. I went down there and kicked everyone out. I said 'guys, gals, I hired each and every one of you. I need to know if something is wrong so I can fix if for you. If you don't want to tell me, you can tell me privately.' I handed every single one of them, all sixty of them clipboards with my hotel and you can meet me privately. Not one person stepped up. If there was a problem I had with Bill DeMott, or any of my trainers, I would go to my boss, who would then go to Vince McMahon. When I did have a problem with Bill, I said let's put a video camera in there. They said 'ok, no problem.' I never had a problem with Bill personally or professionally, and I do think he is a good trainer. Not all coaches like their players. I've seen on Twitter people stick up for Bill, and I have seen people not stick up for Bill. Everybody's situation is different. If there were homophobic slurs, then yes that has to be addressed. I know that when he worked for me, everything that I asked, he did. I had a problem where someone brought up racism. I said 'hey let me hear it.' Then no one said anything. I was willing to help you. There were no ramifications, no ramifications whatsoever. Let me cure this problem, then there would have been no problems."

Most notably the person that started this latest storm, Judas Devlin, has reacted to WWE's claims of investigating his complaints, and says WWE reported to DeMott what had been said, and that he was put into a dangerous position as a result...

Here are highlights of a radio interview he did today...

• He claims to have emails from talent relations that prove they did not do a full investigation.
• Talent relations wrote to him that, "the talent he named corresponded to a bottom five list to be fired." This seemed to coincidental to be true and if they (the talent) wanted to tell their story to call them (talent relations) because, "that's what real men do".
• Talent relations betrayed Judas's trust and told Coach Bill DeMott of his letter.
• DeMott interrogated Judas in his office, where Judas claims, that he held a gun inside his desk that talent such as Konnor and Rusev had also previously seen.
• Judas being alone with the man he claimed was the bully, Bill DeMott's questions in fear of his life.
• This denial led talent relations to drop the investigation into his complaint as they felt he was not speaking the truth to both sides.
• Judas claims that telling DeMott he sent documents to get him fired could have led Bill to hurt him, maybe even snap and use the gun. Judas was frightened and felt completely alone in the matter.
• Judas claims that only a handful of talent was called about the matter and afraid to come forward because their careers depended on silence.
• No talent has once denied that any of Judas's claims are true.
• Judas claims that after his first rushed surgery a talent meeting was held with DeMott and talent relations and they asked anyone with a problem to stand up. Only Paige stood up to complain about harassment from the strength coach.
• Judas Claims the month after Bill found out about his human resources letter was complete hell.
• DeMott stopped talent from riding to shows with Judas.
• DeMott began to use "Judas's HR letter" as a punchline with talent at practice.
• DeMott called Judas a "p---y" for writing this complaint.
• Judas claims to be very offended by the continual use of anti-gay language by DeMott.
• He claimed that he was pitched as a member of the Wyatt family by Dusty Rhodes but Bill allegedly said "Judas was too gay for that spot".
• Judas then was rushed into two hip surgeries without being given a full medical investigation.
• Judas was then paid to live in Los Angeles and rehab for almost 2 years and could not speak out for fear of losing his healthcare.
• Judas was on the verge of early retirement based on WWE medical's opinions but went to his own doctor and received a spinal MRI.
• This separate doctor told Judas that he had a herniated disc causing symptoms in his hip.
• Judas attempted to take this MRI to WWE lawyers but they wanted nothing to do with it.
• Judas parted ways with company this past fall and began his own rehab on his back.
• Now Judas claims he is 100 percent healthy and has a second chance at wrestling, and wants to help future talent avoid the pitfalls that he went through.
• Judas implores WWE and talent to speak up against the ongoing injustices of DeMott. Saying "Silence makes losers of us all.

Brandon Traven has declared no knowledge of the leak of his complaint to WWE, but will discuss the situation further on his podcast, and a third former NXT star has added his voice to the crowd, Chase Donovan says everything is true...

"For the record, Everything coming out in this WWE Developmental fiasco is pretty much one hundred percent true. More people would speak out if it weren't for that "maybe they'll hire me back" mentality. Not b---hing, complaining, trying to correct an injustice, looking for a handout, or anything. Just saying. A certain point comes where you just lose respect for a dude for NOT punching someone in the face. Nude top rope squats is pretty much that point. Luckily I must have missed that day."

WrestleMania:

Kane, Big Show, Titus O'Neill and Darren Young have officially been added to the Battle Royal, a match that will have 20 stars in it this year, less than the 31 of last years.

Tyson Kidd & Cesaro will either defend their titles vs The Uso's, or will have a six person tag, with Natalya and Naomi joining their respective teams.

Uso's talk fan incident:

The Uso's have discussed the post Royal Rumble fan incident...

"Here's what happened. Naomi was driving, he was in the passenger seat, I was sitting behind him. So the guy comes up with a chair, the pay-per-view chairs that we usually have, comes up to the window, back rear passenger side window of the car and hits the car, just chair shots at the car. It's snowing and it's cold and he just hits our rental car. Mind you we don't pay the insurance on this rental car because it's too expensive. So, you mark the car up it's a big bill coming up. He hit my rental car and I opened the car up to try and get him and soon as I got out the car he was like-" "He jetted, he was gone." "Three lanes over, just gone. I got hot. I ain't wrestling right now, I'm off work. They were just not letting us out. They were just crossing, wouldn't even let us move. Security was pretty bad that day they wouldn't even doing what they were supposed to be doing. But what Uce was about to say was one of 'em actually took a seat in front of Heath Slater's car."

Nikki Bella - company woman:

Nikki Bella has given a very pro WWE interview today, first defending the payscale for women, disagreeing with AJ Lee's views...

"We're all here because we're living our dreams. Whether it's two minutes or twenty minutes on TV, I'm beyond grateful for that, because there are millions of people that wish they could get two minutes in that ring, and they can't, so I'm not going to be one to b---h about it. But do I think Divas should definitely get more time on TV? 100%. But do I think pay is different? No."

She then took the blame for the recent 30 second Diva's tag match on Raw away from WWE, and claims that it was their idea...

"What's funny about that is we were given about three minutes. Three to four minutes. And we – us four girls who were in the match – we put our heads together and said look: we can either give them a two minute match, or we can give them nothing and get Brie and I so much heat and tell a great story…We're not gonna give people three minutes of BS, and it ended up being a big chance. It ended up turning into #GiveDivasAChance trending worldwide for two days. I mean, we could've gone out there, done a few moves and called it a day, but we were like, 'How do we tell a great story?' and at the end of the day, that's what we did. Brie and I got good heat at the end of it, we got trended for two days straight, and it was like, 'Whoa. We're storytelling now.' And that's what puts the Divas on the next level. Instead of just going out there and doing moves, we storytell. 'Cause that's what the boys do, and that's what we need to do."

WWE romance confirmed:

Renee Young has confirmed that she is in a relationship with Dean Ambrose. This is not a breach of the new WWE embargo on romantic relationships as they have been together for some time, but as Renee revealed to MTV, they have made great efforts to maintain their privacy, and want to keep their relationship out of the public eye, adding that she does not, and will not, post personal pictures to her social media, but gets a lot of abuse for not being more open.

SummerSlam:

WWE have named the Barclay's Center as the new venue for this years SummerSlam.