Mark Henry got destroyed.
Mark Henry got destroyed.
Yeah. It's good to see the legends.
It makes me sad to inform everyone that Mae Young has been moved to hospice care. For those of you who might not know what that means it pretty much means her life is coming to an end soon.
What illness/disease does she have?
Brock Lesnar is back, and the timing appears to be just right.
With Batista also set to return soon following a lengthy absence, WWE fans could be in store for a monumental showdown pitting "The Beast" against "The Animal."
Lesnar, who returned after a four-month hiatus, is one of the biggest draws in WWE despite a relaxed schedule that limits his annual dates. Batista also was a major draw and Smackdown's top star before leaving more than three years ago to pursue a film and MMA career.
A match between the two behemoths would be a natural.
Batista looms as a possible favorite to win the Royal Rumble on Jan. 26 in Pittsburgh. Lesnar returned last week on Raw and made his intentions known when he declared himself the No. 1 challenger to the world title. In the meantime he demolished former two-time Olympian Mark Henry.
Both are likely to be positioned in marquee matches at Wrestlemania 30 on April 6 in New Orleans.
Lesnar, 36, is expected to be this year's opponent for The Undertaker, with Taker's 21-win streak at Mania on the line. Nine months ago, however, an even higher-profile match had been penciled in for the three-time WWE champion.
Original plans had Lesnar scheduled to meet The Rock ("Brock vs. Rock") in a Wrestlemania headliner, a scenario confirmed last week.
WWE owner Vince McMahon had planned the match, but the night after last year's Wrestlemania, The Rock re-aggravated torn tendons suffered the previous evening during his bout with John Cena, jeopardizing shooting for his next movie.
Plans were changed, the match was scrapped, and Lesnar was later installed as Taker's opponent.
The Rock said last week that he won't be back for Wrestlemania 30, but did leave open the possibility for a return at Wrestlemania 31.
Batista, 44, who left WWE on good terms, said last year that he would return when the "PG stuff" blew over. He named Lesnar as one of the stars he wanted to work with when he returned, adding that he never got the chance to feud with him in WWE, and thought the two could do big business together.
Batista also said that he'd be open to fighting Lesnar in an MMA contest. Lesnar was one of the biggest draws in UFC history and recently hinted at a return despite having a WWE contract until 2015.
WWE executive Triple H said last week that 2014 could be an "epic" year for WWE.
A number of major developments are in the works, not the least of which is the planned launch of the WWE Network early this year. WWE stock also has more than doubled during the past calendar year.
Ailing Mae
Some sad news to report. Legendary WWE Hall of Famer Mae Young is in failing health and is now under hospice care.
A fixture on the wrestling scene since the 1940s, the 90-year-old icon recently was discharged from the hospital and is now receiving hospice visits at the Columbia residence she shares with former midget women's wrestling star Diamond Lil (Katie Glass).
A kidney is in the process of shutting down, and Young is breathing with the assistance of an oxygen machine, says a friend.
"She's had a good, long life," said former women's champ Susan Green. "But things start wearing out by the time you get to be 90. She's lived an amazing life. If all of us could be so lucky."
Mae Young indeed has had a remarkable life. While she only admits to being 90, some colleagues say the actual number may be closer to 94. She comes by her nickname, the "Amazing" Mae Young, quite honestly. She holds the distinction of having wrestled in nine different decades.
At one point she was scheduled to appear at this week's "Old School" Raw in Baltimore.
In 2000 Young took part in an over-the-top storyline where she (then in her late 70s) dated WWE star Mark Henry, announced that she was "pregnant" and later gave birth to a rubber hand.
That same year she was power-bombed twice by The Dudley Boyz on back-to-back editions of Raw, and was even splashed by the 500-pound Viscera.
Young, along with longtime companion and perennial women's world champion The Fabulous Moolah (Lillian Ellison), was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007. Moolah passed away later that year.
Young was a pioneer in women's wrestling, and won a number of NWA women's titles and tag-team championships.
Like Moolah, Young also was a highly respected trainer who scores of lady wrestlers break into the business.
Green, now a trainer in Columbia, recalled one of her first matches in the business against Young.
San Antonio-based promoter Joe Blanchard tried his best to discourage the then 15-year-old Green, but she was determined to make an early entree into the profession.
Green was still in high school when Blanchard sent her to Memphis. "I got in my car and drove to Memphis during Christmas break. Joe just knew I was going to come back and quit," she recalls.
One of her first opponents was Young who, by that time, had logged more than 30 years in the business.
"I was a whopping 112 pounds. Thank God Joe taught me how to take a bump," says Green.
Green, though, was undeterred.
"When can we do it again?" she asked the promoter.
"You've got to be crazy," Blanchard told her.
Green went on to have a Hall of Fame career, but it was early tests with the likes of Young that toughened her up for the grueling sport.
"She scared me to death," says Green. "I though, 'Lord she's going to kill me. If she don't kill me, I still want to wrestle.'"
Green says Young, despite her appearances in WWE's sports entertainment world, was always staunch advocate of the old school.
"She liked the old way of wrestling. She hated when she heard someone stomp their foot."
Independent wrestler Johnny Cook of Lexington, who works under the ring name Johnny Flex, trained under Young more than 20 years ago.
"She gave me that name and I kind of hung on to it," says Cook.
Cook visited his mentor on New Year's Day after learning of her failing health.
"She was very weak, but she could still carry on a conversation. But I didn't make her talk too much. I just wanted to let her know what she meant to me and so many other people over the years.
"I told her to hang in there and that I hoped she got well. She knew exactly what I was telling her. If anybody could overcome this, Mae could. She's a very strong-willed woman."
Naitch is back
It's been a while, but 16-time world heavyweight champion "Nature Boy" Ric Flair will return to Raw for this week's special old-school edition.
"I can't wait," said Flair, who turns 65 in February. "It'll be great to be back."
Voice of JYD
Longtime actor James Avery (patriarch Uncle Phil on "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air"), who passed away last week at the age of 68, also was an accomplished voice actor and performed the late Junkyard Dog's voice on "Hulk Hogan's Rock N' Wrestling" when that series aired on NBC on Saturday mornings in the mid-1980s.
Dot Net Awards 2013: Vote for the Best Tag Team
Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns 23%
Goldust and Cody Rhodes 43%
Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards 2%
Christopher Daniels and Kazarian 8%
Luke Harper and Erick Rowan 2%
Jay and Mark Briscoe 1%
Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly 1%
Alex Koslov and Rocky Romero 0%
Jimmy and Jey Uso 4%
Austin Aries and Bobby Roode 1%
Cedric Alexander and Caprice Coleman 0%
Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez 0%
Kane and Daniel Bryan 8%
Jack Swagger and Antonio Cesaro 2%
Robbie E and Jessie 0%
The Young Bucks 3%
Titus O'Neil and Darren Young 1%
James Storm and Gunner 1%
Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow 1%
The WWE Network sounds like it will be worth it.
Pro wrestling legend, WWE Hall of Famer Mae Young passes away at age 90
May she Rest In Peace.Legendary women's pro wrestling star Mae Young died early Thursday morning at her Columbia home at the age of 90.
Known to millions of fans worldwide as the Amazing Mae Young, she was born Johnnie Mae Young on March 23, 1923, in Sand Springs, Okla., although some friends insist that her actual birthdate was several years earlier.
A highly touted athlete in high school, Young broke into the pro ranks at the tender age of 15, joining a fraternity of women whose grit and toughness would be profiled decades later in "Lipstick and Dynamite," a 2005 documentary that shone a spotlight on the forgotten first ladies of wrestling who lived hard and fought even harder, blazing a trail on the wrestling circuit and paving the way for future generations.
Young, who broke into the business in 1939, was the first-ever NWA U.S. women's champion and participated in the profession over a remarkable span of nine decades.
She earned a widespread reputation for being one of the toughest, street-savvy workers in the business - and that included men and women.
Young perhaps gained her greatest notoriety when she and longtime friend, perennial women's world champion The Fabulous Moolah (Lillian Ellison), made an appearance on a WWE Smackdown show in 1999, 60 years after Young's entree into the profession.
Moolah was laid out by a guitar while Young was put in a figure four leglock. Both were in their 70s by then, but from that time on they would make semi-regular appearances on WWE television where they became fan favorites.
Although their bits on the show were mostly of a comedic nature, Young would survive power bombs from male wrestlers nearly half a century younger and would even win WWE's Miss Royal Rumble in 2000 at the age of 77.
That same year Young took part in an over-the-top storyline where she dated WWE star Mark Henry, announced that she was "pregnant" and later gave birth to a rubber hand.
Young was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007 along with Moolah, with whom she shared a home and wrestling complex in Columbia where hundreds of aspiring wrestlers - male and female -trained under two of wrestling's greatest women grapplers.
Young had helped Ellison, who passed away in 2007, break into the sport decades earlier.
"She was in California and had lost all of her family, and I told her this big place was just sitting here and she could have the whole upstairs," Ellison once said.
For years the two, both members of the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame, were delightful hosts at the Columbia estate and reservoirs of grappling history.
Turns out that she did not pass away.
So you will need to have a subscription to the WWE network to see a PPV now right?
No, they will still be available, but you will just have to pay full ppv price.
After you do a six month thing for the WWE network, if you want to continue, do you have to do another six month agreement? Or can you go month to month after that point?
When is Smackdown going to start being aired live each week?
Is there an update on her?Originally Posted by hectis
Who is going to induct The Warrior into the Hall of Fame? Hogan? lol
Is Hogan cleared to wrestle yet?
Predictions for tonight?
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