On X, Triple H posted a video of himself greeting the former WWE commentator and former governor of Minnesota backstage. Monday’s Raw takes place in St. Paul.
“Welcome home, Jesse Ventura,” Triple H wrote. “Honored to have one of the all-time greats back to #WWERaw tonight.”
Ventura, 73, revealed back in April he and WWE were “talking again” following Vince McMahon’s resignation from WWE and TKO in January. In May, he told Frank Morano of WABC 77 Radio that he was negotiating with the company regarding a WWE Legends contract.
“I’m back negotiating with them,” he said at the time. “We’re in talks right now. In fact, I have contracts with my attorney right now with the WWE. And I can only say that that’s happened because of the change of direction in the company.”
Starting his tenure with the company as a wrestler, Ventura is best remembered for his run as a color commentator in the 1980s with the WWE. Since leaving the company in 1990, he’s made several appearances since then including being the guest referee in the SummerSlam 1999 main event and also guest hosted an episode of Raw in 2009.
Jesse Ventura has offered some more information on the discussions he’s having with WWE.
The 72-year-old Ventura revealed last month that he and WWE were “talking again” now that the company is in a new era. With WWE going in a new direction and Vince McMahon no longer being involved, Ventura was willing to talk with WWE again.
In an interview with Frank Morano of WABC 77 Radio, Ventura said the negotiations are for a WWE Legends contract:
I’m back negotiating with them. We’re in talks right now. In fact, I have contracts with my attorney right now with the WWE. And I can only say that that’s happened because of the change of direction in the company.
We don’t know right now fully [what his role would be]. They want to bring me back under their Legends. You know, I’m an old guy now and you’ve got to have the legends. And, hell, if you go back to WrestleMania I, there ain’t too many of us alive anymore. It’s true. Look at — Roddy’s gone, Orndorff’s gone, Andre’s gone, John Studd’s gone. You start going down WrestleMania I and you’ve got more gone — Junkyard Dog’s gone. The list goes on and on. There’s Hogan, myself, and Tito, and a couple more, we’re the only ones left.
The door is, you know, we’re talking right now about me having some — you know, I’m getting older. I mean, I’m in my 70s now. And I guess I’d just like to open up the door at the end in the wrestling career and see what’s still left there. And it ain’t like I’m going to go back on the mic, because, if I could be honest with you, I don’t even know who wrestles there anymore.
A WWE Hall of Famer, Ventura both wrestled for the company and was an iconic voice on color commentary, working alongside Gorilla Monsoon and Vince McMahon. Ventura has made some sporadic appearances since departing WWE in 1990, including being the guest host for an episode of Raw in 2009.
From 1999-2003, Ventura was the governor of Minnesota.
With WWE in the midst of a new era, Jesse Ventura is open to being involved with the company again.
The legendary former wrestler and commentator was a guest on political YouTube show The Vanguard last week. During the interview, Ventura said he and WWE are “talking again” now that the company is going in a new direction with Vince McMahon no longer involved.
“I will tell you this,” Ventura said. “Now that wrestling has chosen this new direction, shall we call it, Jesse Ventura is in talks with them. But, again, it required them going in this new direction. And I hope you get what I’m saying about the new direction. The direction the company is now going was good enough for Jesse Ventura and the WWE to begin talking again.”
We’ve got one of our biggest news issues of the year out this week, a double-issue with a number of bios and history features, updates on all the major promotion moves when it comes to scheduling and WWE business notes.
The issue also covers:
Changes in the WWE schedule, why the company changed plans after just one week, who benefits the most, as well as AEW going back too taping and details of that. We also look at the next AEW PPV show, an employee complaints about WWE continuing, differences between what AEW, UFC and WWE are doing, what firing hurts the WWE perception and thoughts of people sitting it out, a doctor talks about what is needed to do these shows without a health risk and the WWE event schedule for the next few months.
A number of recent new WWE cuts, including some surprises, how the WWE dividend and Vince McMahon’s share fits into these cuts, projections for 2020 profitability if house shows don’t return for the rest of 2020, and why several people got cut.
The most in-depth coverage of WWE business, covering each department of the company, lots of Vince McMahon reaction to the numbers and the future, what McMahon said that is and isn’t true, the story behind the ratings and the story behind increases and declines across the board. Plus we examine the WWE network numbers.
Changes in the business going forward.
Joe Pedicino and pro wrestling, how he got in, his early innovative ideas, how Nigerian scram, his promotion of Global Wrestling, how it fell apart, stars who got breaks there and lie after wrestling.
Oliver Luck’s lawsuit against Vince McMahon, what is it all about and how much the XFL actually lost before it folded.
HHH’s thoughts on two-night WrestleManias going forward, A.J. Styles talks Gallows & Anderson losing their job, Roman Reigns update, Ronda Rousey update, Arn Anderson talks why Cesaro doesn’t get pushed, Canadian wrestling TV ratings, story on a surprise on Raw this past week who was canceled after the show started, update on Drake Maverick, the Smackdown announce team, and the most-watched shows on the WWE Network.
PFL closing down for the year, why what they said publicly was somewhat misleading and why they are still paying fighters, as well as thoughts on shutting down.
A number of new stories on Howard Finkel, both people who helped out and people who bullied him and looking back on those situations.
The first UFC fighter announced COVID-19 positive.
Brawl for All, going behind the scenes, a look at the Dark Side of the Ring coverage, examining the coverage and looking back at the entire scenario.
Look back at the Jimmy Snuka/Nancy Argentino death case, look at Dark Side coverage and add a lot more that wasn’t covered.
A back-of-the-book feature on Dick Steinborn, who was a big star in the 60s and 70s, and his father Milo, one of the strongest men in the world and a wrestling promoter. We look at Milo’s amazing feats of strength, as well as both the positive and negatives of the legacy of Dick in pro wrestling.
Full coverage of all the WWE and AEW television shows from the past week.
In-depth looks at the ratings of all the major shows, the key demos and quarters for AEW and WWE, what happened head-to-head and what can be learned from them.
Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week.
ORDERING INFO: Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to [email protected] or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected].
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MONDAY NEWS UPDATE
Bryan and I will be back tonight with Wrestling Observer Radio talking Raw and the latest pro wrestling and MMA news. You can send in questions for tonight’s show to [email protected]
Jesse Ventura is teasing running for President. He said that if he runs, the Green Party would be his first choice.
BTE today ended with the Young Bucks looking at the sky and the clouds spelled out “FTR.” So that seems to finalize what everyone expected, which is a Young Bucks vs. formerly known as The Revival feud.
The second part of Impact Rebellion will air tomorrow night on AXS with Jessicka Havok vs. Rosemary in a full metal mayhem (TLC) match, Suicide vs. Chris Bey vs. Rohit Raju vs. Trey Miguel and Joey Ryan vs. Cousin Jake. The big storyline is the announcement of what they are doing with their world heavyweight title. Tessa Blanchard is the champion but she wasn’t on the tapings and they were taping a couple of months worth of shows. Then again, the tag champs weren’t at the tapings either.
Tomorrow night on Vice will be:
9 p.m. – 30 minutes of new material on Dino Bravo
9:30 p.m. – After Dark on Dino Bravo
10 p.m. Dark Side of the Ring on David Schultz. The show will be about his persona across the board, focusing on his slapping John Stossel and his later attack on Mr. T in Los Angeles that got him fired by WWF. He’s got a long standing hatred of Vince McMahon since then which is likely to come across. He was honored last year at the Cauliflower Alley Club, and many of the honorees are very negative toward McMahon, which can be an embarrassment to the club since WWE works with them, it usually is just accepted. But with Schultz, it was so strong that a lot of people at the WWE table were very uncomfortable.
WWE
Scheduled for Raw tonight is more of the HHH 25th anniversary celebration, a contract signing with Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins and Nia Jax vs. Shayna Baszler vs. Asuka.
Rosenblatt has bumped the WWE target price up to $55 per share from its previous $52. Even though the market itself was up today, WWE dropped 71 cents per share to $44.08.
The Bella Twins autobiography called “Incomparable” will be released on 5/5 by Simon & Schuster.
UFC
Dana White told Kevin Iole yesterday that the 5/23 show will not be from Jacksonville. AEW is doing its PPV from Jacksonville that night and there was thought that they would be head-to-head less than a mile apart. White also said that he doesn’t see any live gates for shows for a long time and that his main goal is no layoffs in UFC and he would be taking care of his employees.
AEW
In Canada, the show this week will air on both TSN 1 and TSN 2. The ratings for AEW depend greatly on the station it’s on we’ve learned with TSN 2 being the key station. Often people don’t know which station it’s on and then miss the show (thanks to Jeff Zinger)
Scheduled for Dark is Jimmy Havoc vs. Shawn Dean and Best Friends vs. Lee Johnson & Musa.
MISCELLANEOUS
All Japan will be doing a show on Thursday on AJPW.tv live. Isami Kodaka & Yuko Miyamoto defend the All-Asia tag titles against Kento Miyahara & Francesco Akira in the main event.
Canadian Wrestling Elite ran a show on Friday night at their gym, closed to the public and streamed live on Facebook pushing for donations: Danny Duggan b Bradley Scott, Adrien Burton b River City Rocker, Kevin Cannon b Chad Daniels, A.J Sanchez b Johnny Malibu. There is no word on another show. They are still hoping to run shows in Manitoba in May based on governmental rulings but called the possibility “small.”
Superstar Billy Graham said that it appears both his daughter, Capella and son-in-law, who is a paramedic in West Palm Beach, have the coronavirus. Capella, who is 47, is the goddaughter of Arnold Schwarzenegger. She had a high temperature for three days and has lost 18 pounds. he belief is she got it from her husband.
DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Audio Show: 1983 was an incredible year in wrestling if you think about it. The wrestling world was about to change forever. The release of the new TEW 2016 got me to thinking back about the year in wrestling in 1983 and I talk about it on this episode. Also I answer some listener questions including pinfalls in wrestling historically and much more! This show is free today so feel free to send it around!39936511/home/tonyleder/f4wradio.com/feed/karlstern.rssDragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Audio Show: 1983 was an incredible year in wrestling if you think about it. The wrestling world was about to change forever. The release of the new TEW 2016 got me to thinking back about the year in wrestling in 1983 and I talk about it on this episode. Also I answer some listener questions including pinfalls in wrestling historically and much more! This show is free today so feel free to send it around! Contents of today’s show include:
How pinfalls in pro wrestling worked historically from the Frank Gotch era until today. Why “hooking the leg” is even a thing.
Jesse ‘The Body” Ventura as an announcer working with Gorilla Monsoon, Jim Ross, Tony Schivonie, and more.
1983 the year in pro wrestling. Who was working where and what was happening in one of the most important years in wrestling history.
The new Total Extreme Wrestling 2016 game. Everything you want to know about the text editor game and the mods to go with it.
To order the Super Stern Stick directly for just $20 and free shipping world-wide simply use this link- http://www.paypal.me/dragonkingkarl/20
There has never been a period in American wrestling history where pro wrestling has been the subject of so much mainstream media attention.
Between the shocking victory of Jesse Ventura in the race for Governor of Minnesota, which resulted in front page coverage in newspapers around the country, and the attention pro wrestling itself is receiving due to the mainstream media discovering its popularity boom, it is virtually impossible to escape almost a total bombardment of pro wrestling articles the likes of which have never been seen before.
The election of Ventura, a third party candidate from the Ross Perot-formed Reform Party, who had been running third, and up until the final week, a distant third, in the polls, came out on a national basis as the biggest individual election story, almost as much because of a third party political outsider beating the establishment as because of the novelty of Ventura as a former pro wrestler. Most newspapers gave significant coverage to Ventura on 11/5, many printing the New York Times front page story or localized versions of the same. The demand for Ventura skyrocketed, all the way to his appearing over the weekend on “Meet the Press,” where his comments on Bill and Hilary Clinton, in response to Hilary calling his campaign a “sideshow” and his responding that “I think that she maybe ought to not leave the White House as often as she used to
Bad things seem to happen when she leaves,” springboarded yet another round of front page coverage nationally for Ventura on 11/9. During the show he challenged host Tim Russert to take off his shirt and show off his chest, a challenge Russert didn’t take, but clearly clever methods to get as much media stretch out of his time in the sun as well. CNN did a one hour feature on his life over the weekend, and newspapers across the country and actually around the world were preparing major features on this improbable election result that nobody saw coming. His election inspired the “Today” show to interview Vince McMahon on 11/5 about Ventura, a subject he didn’t seem all that pleased to discuss, probably because Ventura won a much publicized $1 million plus verdict over McMahon in a lawsuit several years ago, although sensing the media tide, both McMahon and Jim Ross changed their tune from days earlier by the time Monday night came around as everyone in wrestling tried to jump on the bandwagon, none more pathetically, however, than Hulk Hogan.
