Dwayne Johnson lost his bid for his first-ever Golden Globe award Sunday for his performance in ‘The Smashing Machine,’ losing to actor Wagner Moura for his role in ‘The Secret Agent.’ Others nominated for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama included Oscar Issac for ‘Frankenstein,’ Michael B. Jordan for ‘Sinners,’ Joel Edgerton for ‘Train Dreams,’ and Jeremy Allen White for ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.’
Emily Blunt, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in ‘The Smashing Machine,’ also lost. Teyana Taylor won the award for her performance in ‘One Battle After Another.’
The Rock played former MMA and UFC star Mark Kerr, with Blunt playing his girlfriend Dawn Staples. The film underperformed at the box office, only earning $21 million.
Future projects for The Rock include a live-action version of ‘Moana’ which is currently in post-production. Other projects include ‘Jumanji 3’, ‘Fast X: Part 2’, ‘The King’, and ‘Lizard Music’. He is also slated to be in an untitled film directed by Martin Scorcese.
The January schedule for HBO Max has been released and with it has come dates for archive AEW content in addition to The Rock’s “The Smashing Machine”.
AEW’s biggest pay-per-view of 2025 — July’s All In: Texas — will hit the streaming service on Friday, January 16 — six months after it was held at Arlington’s Globe Life Field.
On Friday January 30, Dynamite and Rampage episodes from the summer of 2022 will hit the service as “an undisputed AEW World Champion is crowned, and a future World Champion makes his return.”
At this point, there appears to be no preemptions for live Dynamites and Collisions in January.
On Friday, January 23, Dwayne Johnson’s biopic on the life of former MMA star Mark Kerr will debut on the service after initially hitting theaters this past October. The A24 film struggled at the box office with just $20 million worldwide, but the film garnered Johnson and co-star Emily Blunt with Golden Globe nominations.
Triple H praised The Rock following his Golden Globe nomination.
On Raw, the announcers took time to congratulate The Rock, who was nominated for Best Male Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama) for his role as MMA fighter Mark Kerr in ‘The Smashing Machine.’ On social media, Triple H reposted WWE’s congratulations and offered his own.
“Want to extend my congratulations on behalf of the entire @WWE family to @TheRock on his @goldenglobes nomination for The Smashing Machine. I know that he gave his all to this role and the performance on screen showed it. Today’s announcement is a recognition of that hard work,” Triple H said.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, The Rock explained what the nomination means to him and what it represents, saying he feels it’s a nod to people who have fought for things in their life.
“On top of that, I think the nomination represents the fight in everybody, especially with addictions and those demons that you battle,” he said. “Mark Kerr had it all and lost everything, and then has since become sober. He did overdose twice. Life is good because he’s sober and because he made it. Not everyone is that lucky. That’s the movie that we wanted to make: a nod to those who fight.”
Emily Blunt, The Rock’s co-star, also got a nomination for her performance in the movie.
For Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, being nominated for a Golden Globe is proof that great things can happen when you step out of your comfort zone and take a risk.
It was revealed this morning that Johnson has received his first-ever Golden Globes nomination, taking one of the spots in the Best Male Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama) category. He received the honor for his role playing MMA legend Mark Kerr in “The Smashing Machine” from A24 Films.
Along with showcasing Kerr’s story, taking on this role was about Johnson attempting to show he’s capable of more than the roles he’s often been pigeonholed into. He spoke to the Hollywood Reporter about what this award recognition means to him.
“A few things. One of them is the importance of listening to the little voice that sits behind your rib cage, that at times whispers to you, and at times pounds on your chest to say that you can do more, and there is more, and it can be scary,” Johnson said. “And it might be scary because it will require you to step out of a comfort zone. And when things are good, you don’t want to step out of that zone, because it’s going good.
“But there was more: I wanted to really push and challenge myself and chase that challenge. I had something very special to me, which was the story.”
Johnson added that, given Kerr’s inspirational story of overcoming addiction, he also views this nomination as a nod to everyone who has had to fight through difficult things in life.
“On top of that, I think the nomination represents the fight in everybody, especially with addictions and those demons that you battle,” Johnson said. “Mark Kerr had it all and lost everything, and then has since become sober. He did overdose twice. Life is good because he’s sober and because he made it. Not everyone is that lucky. That’s the movie that we wanted to make: a nod to those who fight.
“But last week, I thought, ‘Let me take a tally here.’ Over the last years, I’ve lost 15 friends who are all wrestlers and fighters to addiction. Some OD’d, some decided to check out. Life was too hard. It shook me, and then it restabilized me in a way like, ‘Okay, I’m so happy we made this film.’ It is a love letter to those that I just talked to you about. That’s why this nomination means so much.”
Johnson’s co-star in “The Smashing Machine,” Emily Blunt, earned a Golden Globe nomination for her performance as well. The film is from director Benny Safdie, who Johnson is already set to work with again.
While Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s film ‘The Smashing Machine’ didn’t knock out the box office this year, it did garner two cast members with awards nominations.
Announced on Monday morning, both Johnson and co-star Emily Blunt earned Golden Globe nominations for Best Male Actor in a motion picture drama and Best Supporting Female Actor in a motion picture, respectively.
The awards ceremony is set for January 11, 2026.
In the A24 film, Johnson played former UFC/MMA star Mark Kerr in the biopic with Blunt playing his girlfriend, Dawn Staples.
Released in October, the film did just over $21 million at the box office worldwide which was seen as a disappointment. Johnson — something Johnson claimed he never thought about at all.
Johnson’s usual busy slate will continue as the live action ‘Moana’ for Disney is in post-production while he is currently filming ‘Jumanji 3.’ Pre-production projects include an untitled film by Martin Scorcese, ‘Fast X: Part 2’, ‘The King’, and ‘Lizard Music’among others.
The TKO Board members hasn’t appeared on WWE TV since earlier this year, but always could be a surprise guest at John Cena’s final match this Saturday in Washington, DC.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson isn’t that concerned with the less-than-stellar box office performance of ‘The Smashing Machine’ and never was to begin with.
Speaking on a podcast for The Hollywood Reporter recorded for 500 film students at Chapman University, Johnson talked about why he wanted to do the movie and included a line about the box office performance for his biopic on former MMA/UFC fighter Mark Kerr based on the 2002 documentary of the same name.
“Smashing Machine also represents a turning point in my career that I’ve wanted for a long time. For the first time in my career…I made a film to challenge myself and to really rip myself open and to go elsewhere and disappear and transform and not one time did I think about box office,” he said.
Despite critical praise, the movie barely surpassed $20 million ($11.3 million domestic/$8.8 million international), the lowest-ever of any Johnson-led film.
He talked about how in Hollywood, the normal tendency is to be concerned about that and how sometimes, you wake up on a Saturday and feel good about things or sometimes you don’t. With this movie, “I had not thought about that at all.”
“And even that Friday night when we opened, I went to sleep peacefully and woke up peacefully because it represented this thing. And even though we didn’t do well (at the box office) or as well as we wanted to, it was okay because it just represented the thing I did for me,” he said, saying it did represent doing something he loves to do in telling stories and that the movie gave him an opportunity to have a place to put a lot of things he experienced growing up.
Johnson remains proud of the movie and that it completely changed my life in ways that I didn’t anticipate, because of what it represents. It represents, for me, listening to your gut, to your instinct, to that little voice. Sometimes in life, you think you’re capable of something, but you don’t quite know. And sometimes it takes people around you to go, ‘Come on, you could do this.’”
A streaming home and home availability date has not yet been announced.
The new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter is up on the site:
*In depth with the changes in ratings, are pro wrestling and MMA being undercounted, are they less popular than we thought, how the changes have happened, streaming, how this relates to baseball, football, and other entertainment shows. *John Cena’s last matches, and the surprises in current WWE booking plans for now until December. *A look at Crown Jewel and WrestleDream, the cards, how the shows look and the current interest level in them. *Favorites in the betting in all the major future matches *A look at The Smashing Machine, the heyday of Mark Kerr, the box office and what we’ve learned, comparisons with Iron Claw, the performances by Dwayne Johnson Emily Blunt and Ryan Bader and the Pride Grand Prix in 2000 with Sakuraba vs. Gracie and key what ifs that people don’t’ talk about *All In Texas attendance and how much the state will be paying AEW based on the deal, plus original plans for that week and three shows that were once thought and talked about but didn’t happen with two international promotions. *Full coverage of UFC 320, what’s next for the winners, the business side of things and match-by-match. *The most complete and detailed look at the ratings for all the major shows as well as comparisons with last year, segment-by-semgent notes, demos and more. *Expectations of when a major milestone in history of buildings that house wrestling will be reached and when 1 million fans in one specific building attending wrestling in a year is expected *King of Pro Wrestling thoughts *New Japan’s last major show looked at *40th anniversary of a landmark tag team event taking place *Hulk Hogan’s widow looking at medical malpractice suit *Death of the former Sabrina *Dave Bautista makes surprising revelation *Mistico vs. Bndido in Xalapa *Renee Dupree talks the old WWE locker room *Bound for Glory notes *Lots of injury and contract updates *The story of Ultimo Dragon’s ten belts and Mercedes Mone beating that record *Sting’s son has his first match *Advance tickets sales for the WWE & AEW shows over the next two months *The strange secret suspension of Conor McGregor *More on the White House show *MMA Fight of the year on the Dana White Contenders Series *Has the WWE boom period ended or is it ending? *The WWE product right now *Jimmy Jacobs talks differences in backstage at WWE and TNA
— Both of our weekend shows are up on the site. Our Friday show was the third and final Hall of Fame installment with John Muse, Ethan Tyler and Phil Lions talking about the non-wrestler category and other thoughts, plus we covered the rest of the news for the week. Last night’s show covered Crown Jewel, Survivor Series plans, Arena Mexico, AEW and TNA show news and more.
— WBD rejected a $20 per share takeover offer by Paramount Skydance. The sides are continuing to negotiate. The ramifications of this are far bigger than the pro wrestling world, but whatever the WBD ownership ends up being could have an effect on pro wrestling in many different ways.
— The estimates for the weekend are that Smashing Machine will finish No. 8 for the week with $1.77 million. A normal second week drop from the first is 50 percent. This was a 69 percent drop from an already disappointing first week. Conversely, Iron Claw dropped only six percent in the second week. So those were polar opposites. I wrote a story on the movie in the current issue looking back at that era and the career of Mark Kerr. Overall I thought it was a good movie but at the end of the day, it did not have commercial appeal.
— Kota Ibushi had surgery for the broken femur suffered on Wednesday night when he fell badly off the top rope in his match with Josh Alexander that aired last night. It was weird doing that impromptu post-match angle with Mark Davis. Ibushi today talked about being out 18 months, thanking Tony Khan for sending him flowers and a note and said that he was considering retirement at first but does want to come back. This is a nasty fluke injury for a guy who took years to come back from the shoulder injury suffered at a time when he was one of the best in-ring performers in history.
— TNA’s Bound for Glory takes place in Lowell, MA tonight at the Paul Tsongas Center. hey were at 6,275 tickets out earlier today so this will be one of the biggest crowds in the 23 year history of the company:
Call Your Shot Gauntlet Battle Royal
Tessa Blanchard vs. Gia Miler
Frankie Kazarian vs. Steve Maclin for the International title
Moose & Brian Myers & Eddie Edwards & JDC & Alisha Edwards vs. Mustafa Ali & Special Agent 0 & Jason Hotch & John Skyler & Tasha Steelz in a hardcore war match
The Iinspiration vs. Heather by Elegance & Ash by Elegance for the Knockouts tag titles
Leon Slater vs. Je’Von Evans for the X title
The Hardys vs. Team 3-D in a tables match for the NXT & TNA tag titles
Keliani Jordan vs. Indi Hartwell for the Knockouts title
Trick Williams vs. Mike Santana for the TNA title. They have to switch the title here, right?
BDE, a YouTuber (Brandon Collymore) will be in the Gauntlet match.
— New Japan King of Pro Wrestling starts at 3 a.m. Eastern time tonight or midnight Pacific from Sumo Hall in Tokyo. It has a hell of a lineup:
Sareee vs. Syuri for the IWGP women’s title
Shingo Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi & Titan vs. David Finlay & Taiji Ishimori & Clark Connors
Sanada vs. Drilla Moloney no DQ no count outs
Hirooki Goto (first match back since filming Street Fighter 2) & Yoshi-Hashi & Yoh vs. Ryohei Oiwa & Hartley Jackson & Kosei Fujita
El Phantasmo vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for NJPW TV title
Oleg Botin vs. Evil for Never title
Yuto-Ice & Oskar vs. Yuya Umeura & Shota Umino for IWGP tag team titles
Gabe Kidd vs. Yota Tsuji for Global title
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Konosuke Takeshita for the IWGP world title
— We are doing weekend polls for WWE Crown Jewel, TNA Bound for Glory and New Japan King of Pro Wrestling this weekend. You can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]
— We’re looking for reports from the NXT shows in Detroit and Cleveland this weekend with results, finishes and highlights to [email protected]
— For Google searches this weekend, Crown Jewel has 115,000 searches which is a little more than half of a normal show. However, the UFC show yesterday from Rio de Janeiro had virtually nothing, much lower than usual. The death of Diane Keaton was more than 10 million which speaks volumes for how well known and remembered she was. A funny one is that Logan Paul had 10,000 weekend searches due to a bogus rumor that he was killed in a helicopter crash.
— Lots of rumors that Alexandre Pantoja will defend the flyweight title against Joshua Van on the last UFC PPV for at least seven years, if not ever, on 12/13 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
— The main story coming out of yesterday’s win by Charles Oliveira as he broke his own records for most finishes (21) and most submissions (17) in a career with a win over Mateusz Gamrot in the main event. He immediately set his sights on Max Holloway next.
— In a cool touch, Jose Aldo came to the ring and left his gloves in the cage. He didn’t fight on the show but UFC allowed the Hall of Fame fighter to retire in Rio de Janeiro.
— The Philadelphia Inquirer had a story on Scott “Raven” Levy with the documentary “Nevermore” on his career having a screening in the city. (thanks to Chuck Langerman and Bill King)
— Laura Sanko will be announcing the UFC 321 PPV show from Abu Dhabi on 10/25. This will only be the third time a woman has broadcasted a UFC PPV. Sanko did it at UFC 293 and Kathy Long did it at UFC 1.
— Go Shiozaki resurfaced in All Japan yesterday as the mystery partner of Shotaro Ashino in a match with Kento Miyahara & Hideki Suzuki in Gyoda. Miyahara was disqualified quickly and this set up a 10/22 Triple Crown title match at Korakuen Hall which should sell out.
— Former NXT wrestler Yoshiki Inamura returned to NOAH and will challenge KENTA for the GHC title on 11/8 at Korakuen Hall.
— House of Glory Wrestling from Friday night in New York: Zilla Fatu b Bear Bronson to keep the Crown Jewel title, Indi Hartell b Zayda Steel to keep the women’s title, Raheem Royal b Idris Jackson, Killer Kross b Matt Cardona, Leon Slater b Amazing Red to keep the TNA X Division title, Hardys b Mane Event in a TNA vs. HOG title match so the Hardys now have three sets of belts, Charles Mason b Man Like DeReiss to keep the HOG title. The next show i s 11/15 in Long Island, NY. (thanks to Samuel Rosenthal)
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s film The Smashing Machine continued to get smashed at the weekend box office as did several other new releases.
From Variety, the movie finished eighth overall with just $1.7 million generated from 3321 venues, a drop of 70% from its opening weekend last week.
The film appears guaranteed to be a financial loser for A24 with $10.1 million in gross revenues against a cost of $50 million.
Johnson plays former UFC/MMA fighter Mark Kerr in the dramatic version of the documentary of the same name that came out more than 20 years ago. It also stars Emily Blunt and former MMA champion Ryan Bader.
The poor showing wasn’t just for Johnson’s movie as the new Disney film Tron: Ares brought in just $33.5 million on 4000 screens in North America to lead the weekend. Other new releases like Roofman the Kiss of the Spider Woman remake also failed to draw much attention or revenue.
The Rock reportedly took a paycut for ‘The Smashing Machine.’
Deadline released a story on Monday highlighting the film’s dismal drawing power, only earning $5.9 million in its opening weekend, making it The Rock’s lowest drawing film to date. The article mentions Rock, who considered the movie a personal project, took a significant paycut for the film.
“Johnson took a $4M fee, significantly below his historical $20M+ paycheck plus points. Sources say he even gave a portion of his paycheck to Emily Blunt and [Mark] Kerr,” they wrote.
The article also mentions that despite the low numbers, the film is only estimated to lose around $10-$15 million dollars due to tax credits in Vancouver and New Mexico. The losses. according to the report, will be based on how much film studio A24 would want to push the movie ahead of awards season.
Earlier on Monday, Rock wrote on social media that the film “changed his life” while pointing out the film’s less than stellar opening weekend.
“In our storytelling world, you can’t control box office results — but what I realized you can control is your performance, and your commitment to completely disappear and go elsewhere,” he wrote. “And I will always run to that opportunity. Truth is this film has changed my life.”
Smashing Machine opened third for the weekend behind ‘Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl’ at $33 million and ‘One Battle After Another’ starring Leonardo DiCaprio which opened at $11.1 million.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is expressing gratitude for everyone who has taken time to go see his new movie.
With Johnson starring as MMA legend Mark Kerr, “The Smashing Machine” opened over the weekend. The results at the box office were underwhelming, but the movie marks a significant turn in Johnson’s acting career. He has received award buzz for his performance and is looking to prove that he’s capable of more as an actor instead of just being pigeonholed into one lane.
Johnson doubled down on that path in his Instagram post, saying he plans to explore more opportunities like this.
From deep in my grateful bones, thank you to everyone who has watched ‘The Smashing Machine’.
In our storytelling world, you can’t control box office results — but what I realized you can control is your performance, and your commitment to completely disappear and go elsewhere.
And I will always run to that opportunity.
It was my honor to transform in this role for my director Benny Safdie @bowedtie. Thank you brother for believing in me.
Truth is this film has changed my life.
With deep gratitude, respect and radical empathy,
dj
“The Smashing Machine” is from A24 Films and director Benny Safdie. Johnson plays the soft-spoken Kerr in a role that explores Kerr’s MMA stardom, his battle with painkiller addiction, and his relationship with his wife Dawn.
The new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter is up on the site today: *Updates on Crown Jewel and WrestleDream, interest level , lineups and what could be added *Notes on Tuesday’s AEW/NXT head-to-head battle *Odds regarding upcoming big matches *Tokyo Dome ticket sales and notes from Hiroshi Tanahashi and Aaron Wolf *NXT No Mercy coverage *New Japan Destruction in Kobe notes *CMLL Noche de Campeones notes *Fuerza Guerrera retires with a look back at his career *Television ratings are crazy this week and what is the change *One of the most impressive attendance streaks in history has ended *CMLL’s focus on wmens’wrestilng in October *Tessa Blanchard back in CMLL *AAA goes head-to-head with CMLL featuring AEW and WWE stars on each show *Saya Kamitani becomes double champion *Go Shiozaki leaves NOAH *King of Pro Wrestling shw final.zied *Mistico vs. Bandido singles match this past week *Bret Hart talks his career and we look back at what he said *New wrestling documentaries *European star may have cost himself his career with full details as to what happened *MLW makes comment on WWE business on its TV show *Upcoming TNA TV news *Thoughts on Andrade’s return to AEW and what happened *History of pro wrestling on the SuperStation *Zuffa Boxing TV deal and notes on the promotion *Dana White on 60 Minutes coverage *How UFC went from almost dying to a $15 billion business, the moves it made and how Vince McMahon killed one of its biggest TV deals *What happened with Wanderlei Silva’s boxing match after it was over *Notes on stockholder lawsuit against TKO *WWE top star to take time off for major movie role *WWE headed to Japan for big shows *Injury updates *Updates on Edris Enofe and Jazmyn Nyx leaving the company
— My thoughts are that Friday’s Hall of Fame show with Phil Lions, John Muse and Ethan Tyler was maybe the best Hall of Fame show we’ve ever had, with the extensive look at overseas and some of Mexico. This was our second off three weeks of these shows. Garrett, myself and Paul Fontaine last night talked UFC, Hall of Fame and wrestling news. The Friday also has some ratings news stuff but we have a story up on the site that details the changes, comparisons with sports, news and entertainment properties and a lot more.
— After his quick UFC light heavyweight title win, Alex Pereira issued a challenge at heavyweight to Jon Jones. Pereira is now a three-time world champion with his quick destruction of Magomed Ankalaev in their bout last night in Las Vegas. Pereira was apparently going to challenge Jones in the ring, but because of the death of Arthur Jones, Jon’s brother, he asked for a moment of silence for Arthur Jones after the fight. Jones was very complimentary of that, obviously. It’s what UFC would have wanted as Pereira is a much better champion for business. However, Dana White was negative about that fight, feeling Pereira should stay at light heavyweight.
— White said he believes Pereira dislocated his toe or toes in the quick fight.
— JD Drake noted that he wrestled Sting in Sting’s last match ever in Charlotte, and then on Friday wrestled Steven Borden in the first match of his career in New York City.
–Right now Smashing Machine is estimated at doing $6 million this weekend, third behind Taylor Swift The Official Release Part of a ShowGirl ($33 million) and One Battle After Another (11.1 million). Garrett Gonzales talked about it on last night’s show. I’ll be watching it on Wednesday. The headlines haven’t been kind since they are based on Swift beating The Rock and Rock’s lowest opening weekend for a movie of his entire career. It was expected to do $20 million until the Swift movie was added for a debut, at which point it was estimated midweek to open at $10 million. So way below expectations. The per-screen number estimated at $1,793 is almost identical to the opening weekend of Iron Claw ($1,750) but Iron Claw was in fewer screens. Smashing Machine has publicized far heavier and Dwayne Johnson is the bigger star, but The Von Erichs, even if only huge in Texas in the 80s and other places the TV went, still are far better known than Mark Kerr..
— As far as major matches, I really didn’t hear much about anything as a must see past Bandido vs. Hechicero Friday night at Arena Mexico. There was nothing big from Japan. Dax Harwood vs. Kevin Knight from Collision was strong. Ultimo Guerrero vs. Mistico from last night’s MLW was strong as well. Jiri Prochaka vs. Khalil Rountree from last night’s UFC show was fantastic as a fight.
— Tony Khan said that Bandido will be wrestling Tuesday night after Friday’s Arena Mexico show. I’m actually not certain if that was an injury or just a storyline during the match. Bandido did leave the building in a sling and said his shoulder popped out but he put it back in. The doctor came out during the match, but it also played into the match story.
— AEW on Tuesday for a special night of Dynamite will be another two-and-a-half hour show. I guess the idea is that after NXT is over, that they’ll have 30 minutes. We’ll see if that works. Announced is Brody King & Bandido vs. Kazuchika Okada & Konosuke Takeshita with the new stip being if King & Bandido win, then the one who wins the fall will face Okada for the Unified title, but if Okada & Takeshita win, they get a tag team title match. Also Jon Moxley vs. Tomohiro Ishii, Pac vs. Orange Cassidy, Hurt Syndicate vs. Ricochet & Gates of Agony in a street fight, Kyle Fletcher vs. Kyle OReilly for the TNT title and Adam Page and Samoa Joe face to face. It goes head-up with NXT which has a men and women’s Survivor Series match with teams TNA vs. NXT, the women’s match with Jordynne Grace as referee, plus Ethan Page vs. Mustafa Ali for the North American title and Hardys vs. DarkState, with the TNA vs. NXT tag titles at stake must be a winner. 4 1/2 hours of likely very good wrestling. NXT is on its regular night so they’ll almost surely have the higher rating.
Collision, taped Wednesday in Jacksonville, has Josh Alexander vs. Kota Ibushi, Toni Storm & Harley Cameron & Kris Statlander vs. Thekla & Skye Blue & Julia Hart, Megan Bayne & FTR vs. Kris Statlander & Jet Speed, Eddie Kingston vs. Mortos and The Acclaimed vs. Big Bill & Bryan Keith.
— As far as Google searches for the weekend, the only combat sports stuff related to last night’s UFC 320 show. In all, it did 1,180,000 searches. Arthur Jones had 50,000 with people wanting to know the cause of death. It hasn’t been revealed.
— On Friday’s PFL show there was a lot of controversy regarding the Usman Nurmagomedev vs. Paul Hughes main event. Most felt it could have gone either way and should have been 48-47 in either direction. Judge Hadi Mohamed Ali had the first four rounds for Nurmagomedov and 94-46. Judge Brian Miner has been criticized like crazy with people saying his 50-45 scorecard was ridiculous. Judge Daryl Ransom had rounds one, three and four for Nurmagomedov winning 48-47. MMA Decisions only had nine reporters scores, of which four were for Hughes, but all nine it had 48-47 either direction.
— The only controversial call in UFC was in the Jakub Wiklacz vs. Patchy Mix prelim fight. Judge Michael Bell had Wiklacz winning rounds one and two and a 29-28 score. Judge Ben Cartlidge had Mix winning two and three and a 29-28. Judge Derek Clearly had Wiklac z winning one and two and 29-28. Media scores were 71 percent for Mix.
— MLW from last night in Long Beach,CA: Mads Krule Krugger kept the MLW title over Mr.. Thomas, Matthew Justice, CW Anderson, Brock Anderson and Chris Adonis, Volador Jr. vs. Star Jr. in the Opera Cup, Satoshi Kojima b Bishop Dyer in the Opera Cup (Volador Jr. vs. Kojima is next round), Austin Aries b Paul London in the Opera Cup, Matt Riddle b Alex Hammersone, Shoko Nakaima b Himawari to keep the women’s featherweight title, Mistico b Ultimo Guerrero in the Opera Cup to met up Mistico vs. Aries.
— Priscilla Kelly and Killer Kross will be wrestling in MLW very soon.
— Mercedes Mone was announced for a show on 10/10 in Greve, Denmark.
— The LFG show comes down to the finals tonight with Penina Tuliaepa vs. Dani Sekslesky and Drake Morreux vs. Harlem Lewis. The show airs tonight at 10 p.m Great Moments at 9 p.m. is about SummerSlam in the 2000s and 9:30 p.m. will be a show on The Undertaker.
— Black Gordman, on this year’s Hall of Fame ballot, turned 89 today, making him one of the oldest living wrestlers. Terri Runnels turned 59 and Michael Paris, who is Joaqun Wilde of the LWO, turned 39.
— Brian Pillman died 28 years ago today. That seems so much less time than that to me. Antonio Pena died 20 years ago today. Lorraine Johnson, a member of the generally considered best women’s tag team around late 50s and early 60s with Penny Banner, died five years ago today at the age of 90. She’s also the mother of Baby Doll (thanks to Tony Richards)
— Mistico vs. Mortos is 10/26 at the Fox Theater in San Bernardino,CA.
The Smashing Machine brought in $6 million over its opening weekend.
The Mark Kerr biopic cost $50 million to make and finished third for the weekend behind Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl (a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her “Life of a Showgirl” record), which brought in over $33 million, and One Battle After Another, which brought in $11 million.
According to an article from Variety, The Smashing Machine’s opening weekend did the lowest of any in Rock’s acting career.
“Elsewhere at the box office, audiences couldn’t smell what The Rock was cooking,” wrote Variety’s Rebecca Rubin.
“This weekend’s other newcomer, Dwayne Johnson’s R-rated sports drama ‘The Smashing Machine,’ cratered in third place with $6 million from 3,345 venues. Those ticket sales were below projections of$8 million to $15 million and marked a career low for Johnson, below his 2010 thriller ‘Faster’ ($8.5 million, not adjusted for inflation).”
The film is certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a 74 percent approval rating based on 223 critic reviews and a 78 percent audience score based on more than 250 fan reviews.
The Rock’s performance as Kerr has been well-reviewed. The movie follows Kerr’s journey in the early days of mixed martial arts. Our own Josh Nason covered the film on a recent episode of JNPO, which also features an interview with Bas Rutten. The episode is available here.
“The Smashing Machine” cratered with $6 million over the weekend. Those ticket sales were below projections of $8 million to $15 million. This marks the lowest debut of Johnson’s career, below his 2010 thriller “Faster” ($8.5 million, not adjusted for inflation). Ignominious… pic.twitter.com/BjeQmZUl68
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson stopped by “The Tonight Show” last night to promote his new movie.
“The Smashing Machine” — with Johnson playing the lead role of MMA legend Mark Kerr — will be released in theaters this Friday (October 3). Johnson has received praise, and even potential Oscar buzz, for his performance. He told Jimmy Fallon that the role required him to transform in a variety of different ways to play the muscular but soft-spoken Kerr.
“We had a physical transformation, and certainly an emotional transformation, and a vocal transformation too as well.”
“It was about 22 prosthetics,” Johnson said. “I had to put on just over 30 pounds of muscle. Which, by the way, what you realize is — you know how you have some actors who say, ‘Hey, I had to put on weight. I went to McDonald’s every day.’ Mark Kerr had just this quality of muscle, like fast-twitch quality of muscle — because he was a [freestyle] wrestler. And I had to still put on this weight, still be able to move like an MMA fighter.”
Johnson described the conversation where director Benny Safdie told him that he’d need to add muscle for the role.
“He said to me, ‘Hey DJ, I don’t know how to tell you this and I don’t know if you’ve ever heard this.’ He goes, ‘You’re going to have to get bigger.’ And I go, ‘Okay, here we go,'” Johnson said.
Now, Johnson has gone in the opposite direction and slimmed down for his next project with Safdie. Johnson will star in the movie “Lizard Music,” playing a man in his 70s whose best friend is a chicken.
Johnson’s full “Tonight Show” appearance can be watched below:
First announced two years ago, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s biopic on MMA legend Mark Kerr — The Smashing Machine — finally hits theaters this Friday.
After seeing a screening of the movie last week, Josh Nason gives you his full spoiler-free thoughts on the performances by Johnson, Emily Blunt and Ryan Bader. He also talks about whether this is a potential Oscar winner and movie critic culture he observed while in the theatre.
Then, Josh talks with one of the stars of the film: the one and only Bas Rutten. The former UFC and Pancrase champion turned broadcaster talks about his involvement in the film, whether it was difficult to go back to that time in his life, and his interactions with Johnson and Blunt.
Once you watch the movie, let Josh know what you think on X or BlueSky.
