— Please take some time today to remember those who we lost on this fateful morning 14 years ago today. I remember working the morning shift at Home Depot as we all huddled around in the break room. Fellow employees crying and just in complete shock. R.I.P to those who lost their lives and condolences to the family members who lost their loved ones. #NeverForget.
— Aubrey Sitterson, who has worked on WWE.com in the past and was the Interactive Marketing Manager for WWE Games at both THQ and 2K, posted an editorial at Geek.com talking about the formula of professional wrestling. You can check out the full column at the link; an excerpt is below.
One of the best parts of WWE’s weekly Raw show this year was John Cena’s open challenge, in which he would defend the US Title against a different challenger every week. Instead of trotting out stars of similar stature — almost all of whom Cena had feuded with in the past — WWE used this opportunity to highlight newer, younger, fresher talent. And Cena used the opportunity to show that he truly could wrestle amazingly, unforgettable matches with absolutely anyone.
Through matches with Cesaro, Neville, Kevin Owens and others, Cena showed that his style was malleable enough to fit with the type of wrestlers beloved by hardcore fans, the ones who had developed their individual styles on the faster, flashier independent scene. Just as importantly, however, he proved that even at 38 years of age, and after 13 years on WWE television, he wasn’t through learning and evolving his craft. Like Sting, Cena might not have originally intended to become a wrestler, but once he made the decision, he went all in, determined to become the best one he could be by every conceivable metric.
— Louie Gregory spoke with All Hip-Hop for a new interview talking about his transition from the music industry into wrestling and more. Check out the highlights:
On getting into wrestling after being successful in music: “First and foremost, I am humbled by the success I’ve been blessed with. Without my mentors, I would not be where I am today. Everything in this business is about how you conduct yourself and how you handle your business. At 16 years old, Prince Markie Dee took me under his wing. Shortly thereafter, I was lucky enough to cross paths with Eric B and I am thankful everyday for the lessons learned. Even after all of these years, I still call Eric B almost every day for advice and council. As for Pro Wrestling, that’s a great question. Not so east to answer though (laughing). Many years ago, Bill Goldberg and I met and at the time, I started to give him some pointers regarding social media. From there, we became very good friends; he is like a big brother to me too. Years later, Brian Knobs asked Goldberg to be involved with Legends of Wrestling. Goldberg and I got on a call with Knobs and his other partner Frank and well, after a while they decided I’d be a good fit to be the President of Legends of Wrestling, and I am forever grateful for the opportunity and their trust in me.”
On Legends Of Wrestling at Citi Field: “It was such an amazing experience to be a part of such a great team. The Wrestlers were all terrific and the Mets organization was stellar. This show literally took the work of a team of over 100 people to accomplish and when I heard that over 10,000 tickets were sold, I knew all the hardwork of everybody had paid off. A lot of the things I’ve learned through the years in music, and in entertainment in general were and are applicable to Legends of Wrestling. The only difference is, I get to take batting practice on a major league baseball field quite often now and hang out with legendary wrestlers as opposed to legendary rappers and DJs! It was great to have Shontelle Layne ringside at that show and to have Eric B at my side the entire time. I was very proud to see everything come full circle.”
On what makes Legends of Wrestling successful: “We really try to provide an “experience” rather than a “show”. There is a lot of interaction between the fans and the Wrestlers. We encourage fans to take selfies and to collect autographs. We even had a contest giving away a championship belt to the fan with the best wrestler costume. On that particular night though, I presented Marlins’ ace pitcher Jose Fernandez with a special championship belt made just for him by Rey Rey’s World Championship Belt. Major League Baseball picked up on that and it went viral. It’s one of those outside the box things that I do a lot but this time, it actually worked (laughing).”
