- WrestleMania is coming to Arizona for the first time in twenty six years!
WWE today announced that their biggest pay-per-view of the year,
WrestleMania 26, would be taking place at the $455 million University of
Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, AZ., on March 28, 2009. The beautiful stadium
sits on more than 25 acres of land and has 63,400 permanent seats,
expandable to 72,200 seats. A press conference was held at the stadium
earlier today with Global Spectrum officials, Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs,
Arizona Cardinals representatives, WWE Superstars and Divas and Vince
McMahon to make the announcement. In December 2007, Wayne Gretzky - part
owner and head coach of the Phoenix Coyotes - was photographed for a
newspaper article sporting a black sweater which carried the slogan
'Destruction in the Desert' with the WWE and WrestleMania logos. Three weeks
later Phoenix officials confirmed that they were holding talks with WWE
regarding the show. "It's certainly not a done deal but we've had some good
dialog," said one official involved in the negotiations at the time.
- WWE today announced financial results for its fourth quarter ending
December 31, 2008. Revenues totaled $125.4 million as compared to $132.6
million in the prior year quarter while operating income was $23.3 million
as compared to $24.7 million in the prior year quarter. Net income was $13.6
million, or $0.18 per share (diluted), as compared to $21.5 million, or
$0.30 per share (diluted), in the prior year quarter. Live events, PPV
revenues, merchandise, magazines, home video and WWE.COM were all down from
the prior year quarter.
- Former WWE Diva Amy Weber announced she is expecting her first child. Weber wrote on
her blog: "It is such an exciting time in my life as I never thought that I would be one of those
lucky women to experience motherhood. I am thrilled beyond belief and anxious too..I have been so
focused on my career over the last several years, that having a family was put on the back burner,
but it is finally here and I feel so blessed and just want to do this right." She said she plans
to continue with her modelling and works for an agency that specializes in pregnant models. Weber,
39, had a brief run with the WWE between 2004-2005. She was part of the Diva Search and was later
paired with JBL on Smackdown as his image consultant. She left in 2005 claiming harassment following
an infamous flight to Alaska in which is was alleged Randy Orton poured a drink over her head. She
was also ribbed on another flight to Japan in which some fake flyers were passed abound promoting
her as appearing at a Japanese strip club.
- Raw on 2/23 scored a 4.1 cable rating. The show did hours of 3.93 and 4.27.
- On this day in wrestling history:
* 1987 - Sir Oliver Humperdink defeated Bad New Allen Brown for the
Florida State Heavyweight title
* 1991 - Jim Garvin & Michael Hayes defeated Ron Simmons & Butch Reed
for the NWA tag titles
* 1992 - Koko B. Ware defeated Kamala for the USWA Unified title
* 1997 - Syxx defeated Dean Melanko for the WCW Cruiserweight title
