WWE: WWE Reportedly Has Significant Interest Towards Ricky Starks, Randy Orton on If He Has Talked to John Cena for Match During Cena’s Retirement Tour, More News

WWE Reportedly Has Significant Interest Towards Ricky Starks

As noted before, WWE is currently interested in signing several AEW talents to potential deals once their current AEW contracts expire. Among those interested by WWE includes Ricky Starks.

Fightful Select’s Corey Brennan reported that his sources stated that WWE NXT officials currently have “significant interest” in signing Starks to a potential deal with the company once he is available on the market. Those same sources reportedly also stated that NXT officials are currently eager to bring Starks to their brand once his contract with AEW expires.

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Randy Orton Comments on If He Has Talked with John Cena for a Match During Cena’s Retirement Tour

The Daily Mail held a recent interview with Randy Orton. One of the topics discussed included Orton’s thoughts about if he has talked to John Cena about the potential of them having a match together during Cena’s upcoming retirement tour.

“I have spoken with him. John and I, we’ve always been kind of cut from the same cloth when it comes to creative. There’s some guys that will come with a 10-page script on the next six months of the storyline and blogging them and a particular talent, and it’s like a wish list for how they see the future playing out.

We have a whole team of writers. We’ve got Triple H at the helm, and we’re very lucky to have them at the helm, by the way. And you know, whatever they give me, I’m going to do my best with, and that’s the way John looks at it, too. So me and him are two guys that are going to let it organically happen.

And the way that Triple H is doing it, he’s listening to the crowd. He knows where everything needs to end up. He can tell week to week where it’s going in it. And if the fans want John Cena and Randy Orton to face each other at some point, maybe even at Wrestlemania, then this is their last chance.

So if you want it, let’s hear it. They can go to social media, they can talk about how much they want it, they can chant at the shows. And I think that if the fans want it, then it’s definitely going to happen.

But as far as what do I personally want? I would love to wrestle John. But as far as pushing for that match, that’s never been my style, that’s never been seen as my style. And I think if it’s meant to be, if it’s in the stars, then we’ll definitely do it, and we’ll have a lot of fun doing so well. I want it, so I’ll get it started for you, don’t worry about that.”

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WWE News & Notes

Wednesday’s WWE Speed show on Twitter featured Pete Dunne defeating Joaquin Wilde to advance to the next round of WWE’s newest #1 Contender’s tournament for the WWE Speed Championship. Dunne will be facing off against Je’Von Evans in the Finals of this current tournament.

WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan was involved in a controversial incident this past Monday at the Thirsty Cowboy in Medina, Ohio. TMZ reported that this incident revolved around Hogan holding a promotional event for his Real American Beer brand and made racially inappropriate comments directed towards U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris over her Indian heritage. Besides the racist comments, Hogan is also currently dealing with potential legal issues over a 50-year old woman being injured at the event after being struck in the head by a beer can tossed from the stage. News 5 Cleveland reported that “according to a Medina Township police report, some witnesses told responding officers that Hogan was the one who threw the beer, but other witnesses said it was another crew member who ‘was throwing beers from the stage like a ‘baseball pitch.’” It was reported that no one was arrested or charged due to the conflicting information they were given.

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that former AEW talent and manager Jose The Assistant was seen backstage at this past Friday’s SmackDown show in Orlando, Florida. It was reported that Jose had traveled with Andrade to the show.

WWE reportedly drew an attendance of 14,136 for their Aug. 16th SmackDown show in Orlando, Florida and 12,700 for their Aug. 19th RAW show in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

TKO Group recently announced that TKO President and CCO Mark Shapiro will be participating in the Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Technology Conference on September 11th in San Francisco, California.

WWE recently released a new video on their WWE Vault YouTube channel featuring the WWE Universal Championship match of Finn Balor vs. Roman Reigns on the August 20, 2018 episode of WWE RAW.

English Premier League club AFC Bournemouth announced that they have recently signed a collaboration deal with Take Two for the WWE 2K24 video game. It was announced “the groundbreaking collaboration will see the Cherries be the first Premier League club that WWE 2K have formed a tag team with, consequently seeing several digital campaigns that will entertain fans and showcase the immersive experience of WWE 2K24.”

In a recent interview with the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast, former WWE wrestler Ronda Rousey gave her thoughts about Vince McMahon being the reason why she never had a singles match with Becky Lynch during her time in WWE. Rousey stated “I don’t know, Vince (McMahon) is an 80-year-old asshole.” In response to a comment made by Van Vliet about Rousey having “no love lost” with McMahon, Rousey stated “No. Vince McMahon, John Laurinaitis, Bruce Prichard. They can all suck a dick.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with FaceTurn with Candace Cordelia, former WWE ring announcer Lilian Garcia gave her thoughts about her surprise return appearance to WWE at the May 13th WWE RAW show and her interaction with Samantha Irvin. Garcia stated “It was really cool. When I heard that WWE was in Greenville, I was like, ‘Oh, wow, it’s only an hour and a half. I’d love to go by and say hi to everybody.’ It’d been like five years since I’d seen everybody. So I went by, and then it was Triple H, when I saw him and said hi, then he contacted me a few hours later. He’s like, ‘Hey, so I’d love to put you on the show and have you co-announce with Samantha. What do you think?’ I’m like, I’d love to do that. I don’t know, something came over me, when we were in the middle of the ring, that I felt it necessary to say and put her over and tell her what a great job she’s doing. It just came out spontaneously. I didn’t know that that’s what everybody was gonna be focused in on, but it was a beautiful moment. She’s such a fan, too. She’s always been very appreciative of my work and what I did to open up the doors for that. We’ve met before, we have met at ringside before. She was just so cute. She was like, ‘Oh my god, I gotta take my picture with you.’ She was so excited to do that co-announcing, too. It was a great moment.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with the Attitude Era Podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart gave his thoughts about the punch he gave to Vince McMahon backstage at WWF Survivor Series 1997 being the sweetest punch he has ever thrown and how McMahon can “rot in hell.” Hart stated “If you were in my shoes after everything that I did for them for them to do what they did to me – and I always hear this crap, like I think Undertaker said it a few days ago that they had to do what they were going to do because there were no other options or something – bullshit, I had another six weeks left on my contract, there was a million things that could have bee done. It was a case of liars and cheaters and backstabbers and guys that made that moment all happen, Shawn, Triple H, Vince McMahon and I wish I’d knocked them all out. I have no regrets, it was the single greatest thing I ever did. I was never a hothead, I wasn’t a guy who acted out and just punched everybody that he wanted to. I was a guy that if you were in my shoes that day, Vince was calling my bluff, he was going to confront me and he wanted me to back down and take the high road. And it was a gamble that he made and then he thought he was going to try and get into a little altercation with me and he wanted it to be like a pull-apart and everybody pulls us apart and then he can act like he stood his ground against me. In those fleeting seconds of having to think about this like ‘I can’t believe Vince McMahon is going to confront me.’ I didn’t charge him or anything, we actually walked up to each other and locked up like a wrestling match and then I knocked him out with one punch and it was the greatest punch I ever threw. It was an absolutely beautiful uppercut right between his arms, I lifted him about a foot off the ground, broke my hand, but it was the sweetest punch I ever threw. And I wouldn’t change anything about it and Vince McMahon can rot in hell.” (Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com)