• Wrestling News & Wrestling Rumors – WWE & TNA

- TNA has reportedly received some internal heat from the Muslim community from the recent storyline on Impact which saw the character Raisha Saeed have her religious vail removed after an attack.

Historically wrestling has always played off stereotypes and “the lowest common denominator” but it is only a few months since Sheik Abdul Bashir came out to music with airplane noises and explosions, and of course it was only a few weeks ago when Samoa Joe’s “Nation of Violence” strung up Bashir, attacked him with a bat and threatened him with a knife to go back where he came from.

Although Vince McMahon who has done tonnes of questionable storylines in the past can’t wash his hands of his own WWE product, when he called TNA reprehensible he may have been on to something.

- Press Release:
WrestleMania(R) Sets One-Day Box Office Record
STAMFORD, Conn., Apr 13, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) — With $52 million in gross sales, the 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania(R) set a record for the highest grossing one-day entertainment event in 2009. The pop culture extravaganza, held in Houston, TX on April 5th, tops the 2009 highest grossing movie opening day record — $30 million opening night of Fast and the Furious and the 2008 highest grossing single-day stadium concert — Madonna’s $6.1 million Sticky & Sweet concert in Dolphin Stadium — combined. The milestone event generated an estimated $43 million in worldwide gross Pay-Per-View revenue and packed Houston’s Reliant Stadium with 72,744 fans from all 50 states, 24 countries and 7 Canadian provinces, surpassing the attendance at Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa this past February. Combined with WWE’s Sunday fanfest, WrestleMania Axxess, the sell-out crowd grossed more than $7.4 million in ticket sales and an additional $1.5 million in merchandise sales.

- Jim Ross is back with more JRSBARBQ.com blog thoughts; here are the wrestling highlights:

On The Draft:
“For the record ALL WWE talent and announcers will be front and center Monday night in Atlanta for the Draft. I have no idea what we will all be doing but all existing broadcast teams will be on hand. Who knows where everyone will land by night’s end?”

On Steve Austin:
“Got a text Sunday from Steve Austin who is going to be down in Brazil for a few more weeks doing that phase of the movie Steve is working on with Sylvester Stallone. Steve took the book “Oklahoma Shooter: The Dan Hodge Story” with him and enjoyed reading about arguably the greatest combat athlete in America’s history, Dan Hodge. Steve aptly described Danny in typical Austin fashion by telling me that Hodge was a “real badass.” Indeed he was. I hope that you will check out this book as you will be amazed with Hodge’s athletic feats on the world stage.”

On MMA Star:
“MMA fighter Josh Barnett was at Wrestlemania with D.H. Smith and we had the occasion to have a nice visit. Josh is a really bright and talented young man. Well, except perhaps when he said he was “influenced” by my announcing style. Josh wants Fedor and is not intimidated by Fedor’s vaunted rep.”

On Undertaker’s Health:
“The Undertaker is still scheduled to travel on the upcoming European tour after his “near miss” at WM25 in the instant classic versus Shawn Michaels. I would easily surmise that both future HOF’ers will be considerably sore for several days after laying it all on the line in Reliant Stadium. ”

On Josh Mathews:
“Happy for Josh Mathews to finally get a cup of coffee on a main line TV show such as ECW. Josh has earned his opportunity and has the youthful look WWE covets. I am truly happy for this hard working, young man.”