Various: Rey Mysterio WWE Update, Hulk Hogan, Indies

Update on Rey Mysterio’s WWE Contract Talks

As noted before, Rey Mysterio has been in talks with WWE in regards to a possible return to the company for the past several months. Mysterio confirmed last month he is currently negotiating for a three year deal with WWE.

In an update to Rey Mysterio’s WWE contract talks, the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Newsletter that a deal between Mysterio and WWE has yet to be reached, with the biggest obstacle being Mysterio’s remaining indie commitments. It was reported that Mysterio still wants to fulfill his upcoming commitment for September’s All In event while the WWE wants him to back out of the event instead.

Besides All In, Meltzer also reported Crash Lucha Libre are currently working on plans for Mysterio to drop his Crash Heavyweight Championship at an upcoming event due to his on-going talks with WWE.

Film Producer Comments on the Origin of the Hulk Hogan Character

Recent episode of the Pancakes and Powerslams Show podcast had film producer Evan Ginzburg as the guest and one of the topics discussed involved the origin of the Hulk Hogan character.

“[Hogan] had unbelievable charisma. I mean, you’ll never mistake Hulk Hogan for Lou Thesz or Billy Robinson, but the charisma was off the charts. Much of what Hogan took was from Billy Graham, who’s one of the stars of the movie. Billy Graham… I’ll tell you the lineage; people are not really aware. Muhammed Ali went to a radio station. By sheer coincidence, he was on the same station as Gorgeous George. Muhammed Ali was very quiet, he was Cassius Clay at the time. Very quiet and soft spoken.

And Gorgeous George was like, ‘kid, you gotta hype it up. I’ll show you how to move tickets.’ And Muhammed Ali was like transfixed by the charisma that Gorgeous George had. So then you had guys like Billy Graham who patented themselves after Muhammed Ali! Okay? And then Hogan and [Jesse] Ventura stole half of Billy Graham’s act, okay? So, there is a lineage there, and it’s an interesting lineage that people aren’t really aware of.”

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Insane Championship Wrestling announced Grado will be making an appearance at their July 29th Shug’s Hoose Party event in Glasgow, Scotland.

ROH announced they have recently partnered with four of the top internationally-recognized wrestling schools to help develop talent alongside the company’s own ROH Dojo academy. The schools involved are The World Famous Monster Factory, Team 3D Academy, Maryland Championship Wrestling, and the Power Factory.

Former WWE wrestler Santino Marella announced on Twitter that his daughter has recently started training to become a professional wrestler.

“Today was day one of me overseeing my daughters training personally and acting as her head coach, @WWEPerformCtr is our goal for 2019”