Hulk Hogan Fired by WWE over racist remarks?

The latest WWE news and rumors are swirling about Hulk Hogan getting fired by WWE for alleged racist remarks he made. Hulk Hogan had recently returned to prominence with the World Wrestling Entertainment company, and had a starring role on their show "Tough Enough." However, racist remarks he made during his infamous sex tape have now been revealed and WWE decided they were going to cut ties with the Hulkster.

Former WWE star Hulk Hogan

A variety of different sites have reported on the news including the Wrestling Rumors site, indicating that Hogan made racist remarks over his sex tape involving Bubba the Love Sponge wife. Reportedly, WWE listened to the audio which came from Hogan’s sex tape with Bubba the Love Sponge’s former wife, Clem. The company heard racist remarks made by Hogan during his tirade about his 27-year-old daughter’s relationships. That included use of racist language with regards to Brooke potentially having a sexual relationship with a “black billionaire guy” who wanted to fund her music career.

Hogan (real name Terry Bolea), is currently 61-years-old, will turn 62 in early August. He had a starring role on WWE Network's "Tough Enough" as one of the three competition judges, joining current talent Daniel Bryan and Paige of the WWE Divas. Hogan has previously starred in his own reality series and on the WWE's only real competitor in the pro wrestling business, TNA Impact Wrestling. He recently returned to WWE for last year's WrestleMania to serve as the host of the 30th edition of the event.

See the Wrestling Rumors report for full transcript of what was said by Hogan during his infamous sex tape that allegedly caused WWE to fire him.

image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

WWE Releases 6 Superstars, 1 Diva on Thursday

The WWE has reportedly been cleaning house as of Thursday, June 12, with a total of seven superstars or pro wrestling talents released by the company. Among them are mostly superstars who weren’t seen much recently on Raw, Smackdown or the pay-per-view events. However, WWE diva Aksana was featured recently as part of a divas match, but was let go by the company. Brodus Clay and former GM Teddy Long were also part of the releases.

6/12 Update: Jinder Mahal and Drew McIntyre, known for their affiliation with 3MB, have both been released by WWE. Referee Marc Harris was also released, bringing the total to 10 as of Thursday afternoon.

6/12 Update: JTG has been released as of early Thursday evening, bringing the total to 11.

The full list of released superstars includes: Aksana, Brodus Clay, Evan Bourne, Camacho, Yoshi Tatsu, Curt Hawkins, and Teddy Long. Long served as GM for the Smackdown show as well as ECW/NXT for some time, and had recurring roles on Raw, as well as appearances on multiple pay-per-views. Of those named, Teddy Long appeared in the WWF/WWE since 1998, first debuting as a referee, giving him the longest tenure of anyone else let go.

Curt Hawkins is a former tag team champion along with Zack Ryder. Evan Bourne is also a former tag champion, holding the belt once along with Kofi Kingston. Bourne was sidelined by injury in March 2012 when a car accident resulted in a broken foot with five dislocated bones. Bourne was also suspended twice by WWE for failing their wellness policy testing.

As expected, WWE wished all of those released, “best of luck in their future endeavors.”

Source: NoDQ.com

John Morrison Released by John Laurinaitis After Raw

A recent report from TWNPnews.com notes that John Morrison was given the "future endeavors" treatment from WWE.  A video was posted on WWE.com featuring interim Raw GM John Laurinaitis in an interview after Raw.  Laurinaitis said to Morrison:

“I truly wish you the best.  Your contract was coming up in the next couple weeks anyway, and, looking at your win/loss record, I really wasn’t going to sign you anyway. That being said, it’s kind of a win/win for WWE and John Morrison. I hope you take some time to get your mind and body in order. Get well soon."

Monday's episode of Raw saw John Morrison get destroyed by The Miz in a "Falls Count Anywhere" match.  The start of the contest saw Miz attack Morrison's leg with a pipe.  The ending of the match saw Miz smash Morrison face first into part of the WWE set on stage, before hitting the Skullcrushing Finale up on the hard stage floor.  There was no pinfall, just the ref calling the match over due to Morrison being comatose.  Morrison was taken away on a stretcher, and probably won't be back with WWE for quite a while.  This comes not long after John Morrison was featured as part of the Survivor Series Pay-Per-View, going up against Dolph Ziggler for the United States Championship, yet coming up short.

This seems quite similar to Jeff Hardy's departure, although Morrison wasn't in the sort of outside trouble Hardy was.  Remember back to CM Punk destroying Jeff Hardy up on stage as his final send-off from WWE.  It's strange how guys are written off this show in this way, rather than some other way, like a big win.  However, a big win would be part of momentum, and a push, something that Morrison should've had.  He was in the title pictures several times and held the Intercontinental and tag titles.  Unfortunately, he never quite got there in terms of the major championships.

JMo is one talented wrestler and can certainly entertain crowds with his high-flying acrobatics in and out of the ring.  His mic and promo skills may need some work still.  For now, he gets to leave the WWE, which also released his girlfriend, diva Melina some time ago.  Hopefully for the sake of the WWE Universe, Morrison will make a return, and then capture the bigger championship he deserves.

Story source: TWNPnews.com

The Rock Answers Plus Evan Bourne & Maryse News

Last night's Raw finally brought the big answer everyone was expecting. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson will partner up with John Cena at Survivor Series 2011. Rock gave his answer at the start of the show saying he's doing it for "the people" and his dislike of Miz and Truth. This match will give a teaser of Cena and Rock in the same ring, albeit as a tag team. Most likely, they'll pull one of those sorts of finishes where each guy blind tags the other to try to show them up with finishing moves.

It's also been reported that Evan Bourne of the tag team champs Air Boom has been suspended for 30 days due to violation of WWE's Wellness Policy. This could put the tag team titles in jeopardy or not. Bourne tweeted on Tuesday: "Love you guys! I'll be back in a flash. Air Boom will not be derailed!" Bourne is the most recent start suspended for this violation, following in the footsteps of Darren Young and Heath Slater who were suspended in October.

Also, something that occurred this past weekend was the unfortunate release of WWE diva Maryse. Maryse hadn't been on TV a whole lot in recent times, with her hosting and storyline involvement on NXT among her latest roles. Still, it's a shame to see this beauty let go. However, it appears WWE is grooming divas like Aksana, AJ and Kaitlyn to be its latest eye candy. Maryse released the following statement about her release, talking about her "future endeavors."

“After six fantastic years with the WWE, I’ve decided to move on and begin the next chapter of my life. Thank you to all of my fans, colleagues and the WWE Universe.

Living in Los Angeles, I look forward to continuing my career in entertainment and creating new and exciting content!"

Best of luck to Maryse, and let's hope TNA does not snatch her away!

WWE Releases Melina, Kozlov, Masters, DH Smith & Gail Kim

WWE made several big cuts on Friday to the rosters of Raw, Smackdown, Superstars and NXT. The latest to be released from their duties with the company and wished well in future endeavors: Vladimir Kozlov, Chris Masters, Melina, Gail Kim and DH Smith.

While none of those released were in pursuit of any major championship gold, it seems Kozlov and Masters were semi-important in current roles. Masters had seemed to be on the upswing with victories over the likes of Drew McIntyre, Tyler Reks and Jack Swagger. It may have been that WWE was trying to audition Masters to see if the fans would get behind him enough. Masters just recently lost via submission to Jack Swagger on Superstars this past week.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Kozlov had two victories this past week. On NXT he defeated JTG, and then on Superstars he defeated Primo. Quite a way to go out for the Moscow Mauler, who is a former tag champion. He was involved in a mini-feud with JTG on NXT, and was a former pro mentor. Apparently, WWE had no more use for the big man, which means he'll probably wind up in TNA with the others.

Gail Kim, Melina and DH Smith. There's not much to be said of them right now as WWE just wasn't using them much at all. Every once in a while they'd show up in a match, but weren't part of any interesting stories or plots. All of these released superstars and divas were title holders at one point during their careers though, and are likely to show up with TNA at some point.

Best of luck to all five competitors with their future work, because once again WWE's loss is TNA's gain!

The good news is there are still plenty of WWE Superstars and Divas working. One of which is Maryse, as seen in her latest photo shoot video (HOT)!

WWE Releases 4 Superstars, 2 Divas

Shocking news today that WWE has released four male wrestlers and two of its WWE Divas. According to a note on WWE.com, they've released Shad Gaspard, Luke Gallows, Vance Archer and Caylen Croft as well as divas Jillian Hall and Tiffany.

This may come as quite a shock seeing as several of these individuals had been featured in recent matches and feuds. Shad was the least recently seen of those released, but Vance Archer and Luke Gallows had both been involved in recent contests. Gallows was seen on Friday's edition of Smackdown, albeit in a brief backstage appearance as Kane rushed past.

Vance Archer had been a tag team partner along with Curt Hawkins, while Caylen Croft was one half of the Dudebusters. It'll be interesting to see if they continue to announce Trent Barretta as one half of the Dudebusters, or if they will officially disband that concept.

As for the divas, the Tiffany release is less shocking than that of Jillian Hall. Hall had pretty much been a main stay to help push divas over. She had been involved in a recent feud with the Bella Twins and even released new Christmas music. According to website Diva-Dirt, it appears Jillian will be doing more work as a part of the developmental training staff. Still, her gimmick of awful singing prior to matches will be missed on Raw and other events!

Tiffany had been involved in some off-screen drama with hubby Drew McIntyre, and was suspended from WWE. This happened after a successful bit of feuding with Team LayCool and partnering up with Kelly Kelly. Tiffany has been tweeting about her release and mentioned her off-screen real life husband, WWE star Drew McIntyre:

"I am sad that I won't be able to work with Drew. He is the best thing in my life and I know he is going to do amazing things with WWE. WWE is still a major part of my family and will always be. I am so proud of my husband and will be his biggest cheerleader. If it wasn't for WWE, we would have never met. I love you Drew. Thanks for being my rock :)"

Wishing best luck to Shad, Luke, Vance, Caylen, Tiffany and Jillian in all future endeavors. Any guesses as to which of these former WWE stars will show up in TNA?

WWE fires NXT star Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan)

Just this past week we saw the NXT invasion go down on Monday Night Raw to conclude the 3-hour "Viewer's Choice Night". It involved all 8 of the NXT Season 1 competitors surrounding the ring, and then causing complete chaos, beating up John Cena and everyone else in sight, then destroying the ring. One of those guys involved was Daniel Bryan, aka Bryan Danielson. Now it appears the NXT/WWE superstar has officially been fired.

The following news note was posted on WWE.com regarding the release, about 12 hours ago:

"WWE has come to terms on the release of NXT first season rookie Daniel Bryan (Bryan Danielson) as of today June 11, 2010. We wish Daniel Bryan the best in all future endeavors."

Thirteen hours ago, the NXT rookie had posted the following on his Twitter account:

"Just changed my Twitter name to Bryan Danielson. The winds of change are stirring. about 13 hours ago via web"

There's a report going on F4WOnline which says that possibly the firing came because Danielson went a bit far with the improv attack violence on Monday Night. In particular they say his choking out Justin Roberts with his tie may have been too violent and spitting in John Cena's face. So the firing appears to be legit and not part of any storyline.

Unfortunate to see Bryan Danielson fired from WWE. This guy was talented and his story was just getting interesting with the whole Michael Cole and NXT invasion going on. It will be interesting to see if Michael Cole brings it up at all, or they just ignore it after the whole attack. I wouldn't be surprised that if they do explain Bryan's release, that they use it in relation to the Cole story.

WWE Raw Superstar Carlito released 5/21/10

Just a few days ago, longtime WWE Superstar Carlito was released from the WWE. WWE provided an official statement regarding the release on May 21, 2010 via WWE.com:

"WWE Superstar Carlito (Carlos Colon) has been released from his World Wrestling Entertainment contract as of today May 21, 2010. Carlito’s termination was due to his first violation of the WWE Wellness Program and his subsequent refusal to attend a rehabilitation facility."

Strike one, but Carlito just didn't seem happy with WWE. Ironically, they built in a storyline where he was complaining about lack of TV time on Raw. He complained to Vladimir Kozlov as well as a few of the special guest hosts. He won't be complaining to Jon Lovitz on Monday night.

In recent times it appeared that Carlito was part of the WWE Superstars roster along with a handful of others who didn't seem to get much TV time on Raw or Smackdown. In a recent storyline, Carlito stopped a match against his cousin Primo, and the two reunited to form a team. They were part of the doubleteam attack paid for by Ted Dibiase on R-Truth on a recent episode of Raw as well.

Years ago, I got the opportunity to see Carlito main event at a live episode of Raw against John Cena. The match involved Chris Jericho as special guest referee and ended up with a beatdown on Cena. Carlito is definitely a talented wrestler who will be missed by the WWE, and we can likely take a wild guess where he'll be. It's a good thing his rookie Michael Tarver was eliminated from the WWE NXT competition, or else he'd be without a pro mentor!

Best wishes to Carlito in all future endeavors, and let's hope that someone will help him get help for any substance abuse issues he may be grappling with.

WWE Releases Helms, Burchill & Maria

Earlier on Friday, WWE announced the release of three of its superstars. Former ECW wrestlers Gregory "Hurricane" Helms and Paul "The Ripper" Burchill were let go in addition to Smackdown diva Maria Kanellis. While Helms and Burchill hadn't been seen for several weeks on the air, Maria was recently seen as part of a small storyline on Smackdown involving Matt Hardy. She fought in several mixed gender tag matches along with Hardy and The Great Khali against the Hart Dynasty on both Smackdown and Superstars.

Each of the superstars' release notices on WWE.com followed the usual format:

"WWE has come to terms on the release of _____ as of today February 26, 2010. We wish _____ the best in all future endeavors."

Gregory Helms was with WWE since 2001, after appearing in WCW from 99-01. His Hurricane character was a popular superhero, which also incorporated Molly Holly, Rosey and Stacey Keibler at various times. Hurricane held the tag titles twice, once with Kane, once with Rosey, as well as holding the WWE Cruiserweight title twice, European title once and Hardcore title also one time. Helms was last seen in the ring doing an interview of Ezekiel Jackson. The interview came just a day or so after news of Helms' arrest during a drunken taxi ride with Chris Jericho and Matt Hardy. William Regal who was in the ring during the spot, commented about Helms' recent trouble. Helms noted during the interview he was going to put the incident behind him and move on. He ended up getting slammed to the mat by Jackson to end the segment. Helms wasn't seen in any matches after that.

Paul Burchill came to WWE in 2005 and played a pirate character early on. He eventually moved on from that and started appearing with his on-air sister, Katie Lea. Burchill and Helms had been involved in a rivalry on the now-removed ECW show on SyFy. It involved Burchill trying to unmask The Hurricane and expose that he was really Gregory Helms. They even had a match in which Helms retired Burchill from the show. Not long after, Burchill re-appeared as a masked villain type character named "The Ripper". The Ripper was unmasked by Hurricane and Burchill was forced to leave again. Soon after that, Katie Lea Burchill appeared as a new diva on Raw. There's no news of Katie Lea being released as of yet. It appears that with the closing down of ECW, Helms and Burchill had nowhere else to go with WWE.

The most shocking of the three releases might be that of Maria Kanellis, who was recently promoted as part of NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice" by Donald Trump. She's been with WWE since back in 2004-05 as a losing contestant in the diva search, then a backstage interviewer, and eventually a girlfriend/valet of several wrestlers including Santino Marella, Dolph Ziggler and Matt Hardy. She's been a member of the Raw and Smackdown rosters during her career which also included posing for the 2008 Playboy cover and spread. On Smackdown, Maria was introduced by Matt Hardy as his recent Valentine, and the two were considered a couple. After a loss in the ring on Smackdown, Maria blamed herself for the loss. Hardy consoled her, but Maria didn't seem happy and ended up pushing past fellow divas Michelle McCool and Layla backstage. According to her wiki entry, Mara's got a debut album called "Sevin Sins" releasing on April 13th, so that may explain her being let go to work on the music career.

With the release of these three, it seems that once again WWE's loss is TNA's gain. It won't be surprising to see one or all three of these re-surface on TNA's show in the near future.

Smackdown Superstar released 1/17/10

On Sunday afternoon it was announced that the WWE has released Smackdown brand wrestler, Eric Escobar. He made his debut back in October of 2009. Escobar was originally a heel when he stepped into his Smackdown role, as the boyfriend of Vickie Guerrero. They were together for several weeks, until Vickie chastised him for losing an Intercontinental title match. From there, Escobar made a change to face wrestler, and Vickie tormented him week after week by booking him in impossible handicap matches (versus The Hart Dynasty, JeriShow, etc).

WWE gave its standard farewell message via WWE.com:

"WWE has come to terms on the release of Smackdown superstar Eric Escobar as of Jan. 17, 2010. WWE wishes Eric all the best in his future endeavors."

Escobar, real name Eric Perez, was originally planned to be one of the five members of Team Smackdown for Bragging Rights PPV which also featured Cryme Tyme, Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler. They were eventually replaced by Matt Hardy, R-Truth, Finlay and the Hart Dynasty due to a decision by WWE creative staff based on Mr. McMahon not liking how the original team looked during a Raw segment.

Best wishes to Escobar in the future with whicever directions he choosed to go!

Smackdown's Ricky Ortiz Released by WWE

There will be no more "Big O" or ralley towel waving in the ring from superstar Ricky Ortiz. In what many people feel was a surprise move, World Wrestling Entertainment released wrestler Ricky Ortiz on Saturday. Ortiz was originally part of the "ECW Superstar Initiative" and after decent performances there, was eventually moved to Smackdown. WWE gave him the standard release statement that we have commonly seen given to other superstars and divas in the past:

WWE has come to terms on the release of SmackDown Superstar Ricky Ortiz as of today, Aug. 8, 2009. We wish Ricky the best in all future endeavors

When Ortiz first started with WWE on the ECW program, he started out on a major hot, undefeated streak, until he and Jack Swagger had a memorable first match. Swagger got the win to further propel his standing, and Ortiz sort of faded a bit after this. He was moved to Smackdown's brand in April 09' as part of the WWE draft. On Smackdown, his last match ever was a squash effort by Great Khali in under a minute. Strangely enough, The Brian Kendrick, also recently released, lost his last match in just a few seconds after the bell rang to Kofi Kingston on Raw.

According to reports from various wrestling news sites, the move to release Ortiz was a business decision rather than a cost-cutting one. The WWE has recently been trimming the rosters down by eliminating any talent they feel are not good investments. Best wishes to Ricky Ortiz, and again WWE's loss may become their competition's gain...

WWE releases The Brian Kendrick

Former tag team champion and Raw superstar, The Brian Kendrick was released by the WWE several days ago. The 30 year old Kendrick first started out as a character named "Spanky" on SmackDown back in 2003, and started campaigning for a job on the show with Stephanie McMahon. He even feuded with John Cena as both superstars used a rap gimmick. Kendrick left WWE as of 2004, but made his way back in the summer of 2005 after wrestling in independent gigs.

WWE issued the following standard statement regarding the release on WWE.com:

World Wrestling Entertainment has come to terms on the release of Raw Superstar Brian Kendrick as of today, July 30, 2009. WWE wishes Brian the best in all future endeavors.

It was a tough past several months for Kendrick since arriving to Raw, in fact he was almost ridiculed weekly, being made as a jobber for Hornswoggle, Jerry Lawler, Festus and countless others. Just a week ago, he was on the receiving end of a loss to Kofi Kingston, in less than a few seconds after the bell rang. What a way to go out huh? The Brian Kendrick had started a gimmick of looking for the best tag team partner he could find on Raw, only to end up getting into it with the ones he chose.

He did have a good bit of success on Smackdown, first with his former partner Paul London. The duo carried the tag team belts for a long period of time and were hailed as one of the top tag teams in all of WWE. Upon London and Kendrick's split up, Kendrick was re-introduced as "The Brian Kendrick", a flamboyant and cocky rockstar like wrestler who came to the ring with his bodyguard Ezekiel Jackson. At one time (probably due to the injury situation), Kendrick was even thrust into the World Heavyweight Title Scramble match last year with other top competitors. That surprised tons of fans but maybe made many fans take notice as well. Unfortunately, upon his arrival to Raw, Kendrick had no true direction for his character, and now is out of work. Best wishes to Kendrick on his future career plans wherever they may land him.

WWE releases Candice & Snuka

Today WWE released yet another member of its talent, but this time around it was one of its loveliest, veteran WWE Divas. On Friday June 19, 2009, WWE officially came to terms with the release of Candice Michelle, former WWE Womens Champion.

WWE's standard announcement via WWE.com:

World Wrestling Entertainment has come to terms on the release of SmackDown Superstar Candice Michelle as of today, June 19, 2009. WWE wishes Candice the best in all future endeavors.

Candice hadn't seen much wrestling since sustaining an injury on WWE Raw. She was moved to the Smackdown roster during WWE's 2009 Supplemental draft, but never saw much, if any action on the show. Candice had notable feuds with the likes of Torrie Wilson and Melina, and also was one of several divas to appear nude in Playboy magazine.

Candice uses Twiter and back on June 3rd mentioned she was planning to return to the ring. Her latest update says "I'm free to grow!" which may be in reference to her release from WWE. You can follow Candice at Twitter here.

Best wishes to Candice with all of her future endeavors. Will TNA recruit yet another WWE Diva to its ranks, just like Lisa Marie Varon (Victoria)?

In other news, Sim Snuka formerly a member of Deuce and Domino was also released Friday. Snuka had also been part of the Raw storyline when Randy Orton was forming the Legacy stable, yet Snuka and Manu were ousted from the group and received a beatdown from Rhodes, Dibiase and Orton. That was about the last that was seen of Snuka. WWE.com release statement for Sim Snuka

Umaga is Released by WWE

Just recently a surprise move came when the WWE released returning superstar, Mr. Kennedy from its roster in the same week he returned to Raw. No real reason was given but gossip and rumors seemed to indicate Kennedy was in hot water with Randy Orton, and even worse with Vince McMahon.

Now the WWE has surprisingly released another if its talents, the Samoan Bulldozer, Umaga (Eddie Fatu). The WWE put the following short release statement on its website just hours ago.

World Wrestling Entertainment has come to terms on the release of SmackDown Superstar Umaga as of today, June 8, 2009. WWE wishes Umaga the best in all future endeavors.

The WWE has always been bizarre but these lack of explanations not only hurt the product but the fans. Umaga was just recently in a Samoan Strap match with CM Punk at Extreme Rules, which Umaga lost. There was no serious injury and now no explanation for another superstar's release. It can always be speculated that Umaga was released for drug violations, as he was part of a massive suspension by WWE years back. He was listed in the articles by Sports Illustrated and Washington Post as one of several WWE stars to have purchased pharmaceuticals from an online pharmacy, violating the Wellness program policies.

Umaga has defintely made for one of the more entertaining and savage characters in recent WWE history, a throwback to the Wild Samoans, Kamala and the Headshrinkers. He was part of an interesting feud with CM Punk on Smackdown where he kept preventing Punk from capturing the World Heavyweight Title. Punk finally got the Bulldozer off his back so to speak, and now he really won't have to worry about Umaga standing in his way again. It's a shame to see this guy gone, and now we're most likely to see not only Mr. Kennedy but also Umaga wrestling in that six-sided ring on TNA.