The 5 News Week: WWE Setting Up An ESports League!?, Arn Anderson On Not Being Cleared For Physical Angles.

Hello, my fellow wrestling fans and welcome to the 5 news week. The post where I report 5 major or minor news of the week that I don't have time to do it separately. Sorry for not posting a Smackdown review yesterday. I got really ill and still am (getting better) but the difference was that I wasn't in the mood to write a review. Without further ado, here are the 5 news week.

WWE Setting Up An ESports League!? 

World Wrestling Entertainment is apparently getting into the ESports business aye? At least according to two trademarks being filed last Monday called "WWE SGL" and "Superstar Gaming League". Here's the full description from the United States Patent And Trademark Office about this:

"Entertainment services, namely, the production and distribution of an ongoing show in the nature of video games; gaming services in the nature of conducting online computer game tournaments; providing a web-based system and on-line portal for customers to participate in on-line gaming, operation and coordination of game tournaments, leagues and tours for recreational computer game playing purposes; organization of electronic game competitions; entertainment services, namely, production and distribution of a game show; entertainment services, namely, conducting live video games; provision of information relating to electronic computer games provided via the internet; entertainment services, namely, providing on-line computer games; providing ratings and reviews for video game content; entertainment services, namely, providing a website featuring games; entertainment services, namely, providing on-line reviews of computer games; gaming services in the nature of conducting online computer game tournaments; organization of electronic game competitions”

To give you guys a quick history lesson, the very first ESports event took place in 1972 of all times that had students participate at Stanford University with the winner getting a year-long subscription worth of Rolling Stone magazine which is the same publication that pumps out "greatest singer of all-time list" on their site leading to a divisive conversation (sounds familiar?). 

The 1990s is where winners win some prize money of $15,000 by the Cyberathlete Professional League or CPL later that decade leading to 3 separate international tournaments being formed in the early 2000s and they are World Cyber League, Electronic Sports World Cup and the well known Major League Gaming. 

This is an interesting move by WWE on two fronts. For one, this is a way of WWE targeting an audience of late teens and young adults given that their average viewer was 41.4 years old according to a breakdown in the November 2014 edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (from Uproxx) and that number has increased where it's now around the 50 year age range. 

The second and last point is that it is also a way of appealing to different audiences in order for the company to be "as big or bigger than Disney" according to Stephanie McMahon late last year. Furthermore, it is interesting how the powers that be will execute this league. 

WWE 2K's Social Media Was Hacked. 

This is just sad. WWE 2K's facebook has been under control by hackers for a bit with many pro-AEW posts and a “Chris Benoit for hall of fame” picture as the cover photo. 

Keep in mind that 2K games' social media accounts as a whole were also hacked right around the same time. WWE2k and 2K did gain control of their accounts once more and WWE2K posted a statement saying…. 

Social media accounts across the 2K label were compromised early Friday evening. Unfortunately, offensive material was posted that does not reflect the values of 2K or our partners. We condemn these posts and apologize to everyone offended by the content.

— #WWE2K20 (@WWEgames) November 16, 2019

A lesson? Everybody should be careful about their account's security otherwise, things will turn very ugly. 

Arn Anderson On Not Being Cleared For Physical Angles. 

In an interview with Sean Ross Sapp over at Fightful (shout out to them), Arn Anderson mostly talked about how he wasn't cleared for physical angles. Here are the highlights of it:

"It’s funny," Arn stated. "When you’re in corporate, whether it be a company or a conversation or whatever the deal may be, certainly there have been questions even since I left WCW and came to WWE. “You think you can work?” You think you can have a few matches?” And those questions were coming from some pretty high places. The reality is the stuff with David Flair, and anything that I did post-surgery was done without me being cleared. I tried to get cleared to do some stuff towards the very end of WCW and I actually left television one day. They had something they wanted me to do, flew back to Charlotte, my doctor / surgeon actually took the time to examine me, looked at me and said, “Arn, you don’t understand. I will never, ever clear you to wrestle. So we can end this conversation.””

Anderson went on to talk about how he was asked to do certain things even though like Arn stated earlier, he wasn't cleared to do so:

"Over the years it would come up, “Hey, we’d like you to do this. Can you do this?” Well sure, I can do it—I thought I could—but I’m not cleared. When you’re in that corporate setting and companies like that, it’s not like going at an independent show in which they would say “Hey, man, I’d love to have you this spinebuster, what do you think?” Depending on the talent, depending on the circumstances, all those variables, that might have happened over the last 18 years. But being working for those guys, they weren’t going to take on that responsibility and you can’t blame them," 

Guys, check out the interview below. It's very informative.

Elimination Chamber 2020 Date And Venue. 

This year's Elimination Chamber show was a very enjoyable PPV that had fans engaged on Kingston's path to becoming WWE champion (it was also one of my most viewed reviews ever so click here if you're curious about my thoughts on Elimination Chamber). 

2020 is coming very soon and we've got the date and the city that the Chamber show takes place in. March 8th is the date and the venue is the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA. 

Ron Simmons On His Catchphrase "DAMN!" 

There's no denying that Ron had a very notable career and he actually talked about his tenure in the wrestling business in his interview with WrestlingINC. At one point, he talked about how his well-known catchphrase "DAMN!" came to be: 


"I think whenever things were going not so well in the ring, I would always say that and the people in some of the towns would repeat it when we went back,” stated Simmons. “My voice carried so well and one night we were there and I said it and they just started chanting, ‘Damn!’ So the writers caught onto it and they said let’s just try this in a scene. So Bradshaw, Booker T and John Cena were doing an exchange and they had me say, ‘Damn!’ So that’s where ‘damn’ was born. And the rest is ‘DAMN’ history!”

What do you think about the news I just reported and follow me on the tweets @omartheplayaguy. Anyways, stay safe smarks.

Additional sources: https://britishesports.org/news/a-brief-history-of-esports-and-video-games/, https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakeoestriecher/2017/06/09/wwe-fans-are-getting-older-but-why/#53748f252059, https://screenrant.com/stephanie-mcmahon-wwe-bigger-disney/