wwe

May 22, 2013

Former WWE Superstar Edge talks “Bending the Rules,” “Haven,” and Wrestlemania

WWE superstar Edge may have had his last match at last year’s WrestleMania, but that doesn’t mean he is sitting at home eating donuts all day.

Well, that’s not entirely true, as Rosy and I found out when met up with the Rated R Superstar in Miami to discuss his first starring role in a film in “Bending the Rules”. In the film, which is released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 27, Edge plays Detective Nick Blades, a New Orleans cop on trial for corruption.

“I have kind of likened it to ‘The Big Lebowski’ in a way,” Edge said.
“He is the Big Lebowski, but he can kick a– I guess is kind of what sums it up. I wear a Hawaiian shirt, board shorts and flip flops and Mardi Gras beads for about a month-and-a-half down in New Orleans. A recurring theme throughout is that you will always see the character eating and a lot of donuts. We ate a lot of donuts in that movie.

“I liked the character because it didn’t take himself too seriously. I don’t really take myself too seriously, so it wasn’t that much of a stretch for me.”

Among the other cast members is Jamie Kennedy, Alicia Witt, Jennifer Esposito and accomplished actress Jessica Walter, who has recently done voice work on “Archer” and known for her role as Lucille Bluth on “Arrested Development”. Maybe we could see Edge, real name Adam Copeland, on the show when it returns next year!?

“Philip Baker Hall was big for me, especially being a ‘Seinfeld’ fan,” Edge said.
“Lt. Bookman was one of my favorite, probably my favorite character in ‘Seinfeld’ actually. So when I saw I was sharing scenes with him I thought, ‘This is awesome.’ He is a really funny guy. His delivery is amazing. He is such an underrated actor to some people, but there are some people who know what he can do.

“Jessica Walter I didn’t know what to expect. Here is this proper actor or actress who shared the screen with [Clint] Eastwood. I was like, ‘I don’t know what I am doing. She is going to be sick of me right from the get go.’ But she could not have treated me better. Everyone was very understanding to the fact that I was in way over my head and having no idea what I was doing. So they were very gracious and respectful.”

Those who have seen “Highlander: Endgame” may remember Edge’s cameo. “Bending the Rules” was shot before his recurring role on the SyFy original series ‘Haven’. He says he is returning to the character Dwight Henrickson for the upcoming season.

“By ‘Haven’ through the experience of ‘Bending the Rules’ I felt much more comfortable,” Edge said.
“Then going back this year for ‘Haven’, I will have much more understanding. Even with just the lingo like turning around. I know what that means now. I know I don’t have to stand there for 45 minutes while they switch everything out, and I can go grab a cup of coffee. Little things like that was all a learning process.

“Now that I can’t wrestle I think it would be cool to play a Viking in ‘Game of Thrones’ or something like that. I think I could sink my teeth into something like that. I also have a bit of a vampire experience or arch-villain or something. That would be fun…I just want to enjoy retirement, and at the same time, do some stuff to stay creatively stimulated.”

When the WWE legend isn’t enjoying the great outdoors kayaking or riding his bicycle or acting he enjoys a good TV show.

“I’m getting into ‘The Walking Dead’, which I’m going to start discovering,” Edge said.
“I love ‘Game of Thrones’. The first five minutes I was like, ‘This could be the best show ever.’ I was hooked, and they kept me hooked. I love ‘Modern Family’. It’s a good show and well written. ‘How I Met Your Mother’ I’ve always enjoyed too. I like laughing so ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm,’ so things like that.”

With his blonde locks, I for one could see Edge as a long lost Lannister in “Game of Thrones”. Before Edge returns to Haven, the Canadian will accept his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame during the WrestleMania 28 festivities in Miami.

- For more information on “Bending the Rules”, click here.
- Follow me on Twitter @smFISHMAN, where I post links and information. Opinions expressed reflect no other entity. I can also be found tweeting incessantly during wrestling shows weekly.

WWE Diva Natalya keeps the Hart family legacy alive!

We continue our special “Countdown to Wrestlemania” series today with a special interview with WWE Diva Natalya. The 29-year-old blond beauty has wrestling coursing through veins as the daughter of Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart, niece of Bret Hart and granddaughter of Stu Hart.

Natalya is proudly carrying on the family legacy as the first third generation diva who has gained a legion of fans with her technical prowess in the ring. Not to mention her drop dead good looks that might confuse the casual spectator into thinking she can’t whoop some behind!

Scott Fishman from The Miami Herald and I chatted up Natalya last week to learn more about the campaign Pin-Up Strong which she co-created with good friend (and WWE Divas Champion) Beth Phoenix.

(Read our interview with Beth Phoenix here!)

“Six to eight months ago we were kind of on a crusade to change the diva’s division,” Natalya said.
“Our diva’s division has so many strong and powerful girls, but we kind of felt like we broke the mold. The term diva has kind of evolved over the years from the Wendi Richter’s’ of the past like the Fabulous Moolah and Mae Young. You had Wendi Richter, ‘Sensational’ Sherri and Miss Elizabeth. Then it sort of evolved more with the likes of Trish Stratus, Molly Holly, Lita and all sorts of women. Now you have the modern day diva with me, Beth Phoenix, Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres, Alicia Fox, the Bella Twins and so on.

“We felt we still broke the mold of the modern day diva. We felt we broke the mold of even the modern day diva. The two of us together, throughout our entire careers, have been compared to each other. They say, ‘You guys are so alike.’ We get mistaken for twins. Every time we are in an elevator together people think we are twins. We are so much alike, but different in a lot of ways.”

Natalya says the ‘Pin-Up Strong’ movement wasn’t planned. Fans got behind the two’s message of breaking down barriers and standing confident in your abilities as powerful women.

“We are very different from all of the girls,” Natalya said.

“We respect the other girls, but we pretty much broke the mold and kept tradition alive. Tradition to me is very important because I come from a very long lineage of wrestling excellence, wrestling royalty. So for me, keeping the tradition alive was important. We wanted to be more than just pretty faces. We wanted our WWE Universe to see extremely competitive girls. If I’m a fan watching from the sidelines, what do I want to see? What I want to see is what Beth Phoenix and I are. We are highly competitive divas that push all the limits and are, what Beth said once, willing to suffer for our craft.

“I think the WWE Universe can connect with that. They can connect with divas like myself and Beth who have an extreme passion for our business. You can’t replace hard work for anything. There is just no substitution for it. To me, that is what being ‘Pin-Up Strong’ is all about. It is embracing the bold, bright person that is inside.”

The female powerhouses stand out among the current crop of divas because they are as much beautiful as they are physically intimidating. Natalya is under the mentality that you have to change, adapt and grow as individuals or be left behind.

“There is nothing wrong with being a beautiful Barbie doll like Kelly Kelly, but we are ready to take it o another level,” Natalya said.

“We have to continue to evolve because the WWE Universe is becoming more and more sophisticated. They want to embrace girls who are not just size zero or size two. Sexy is confidence. Being sexy is embracing what you have. There is nothing sexier than a confident woman who is willing to go to the ring and get the job done. The fans expect nothing but the best from us. Beth and I aren’t just going to stay in this same bubble where we are just like Trish Stratus. We respect Trish Stratus and all the women before us, but just like those women helped their generation evolve, we have to help our generation evolve.”

Team ‘Pin-Up Strong’ has built a close bond with each other based on the passion they have for their profession. To Natalya, Beth is a best friend and sister.

“Of course there is friendly competition, but I really look up to her,” Natalya said.

“She is a couple of years older than me, but so she is a big sister to me. She is unconditionally supportive of me, and I’m unconditionally supportive of her. We don’t always agree on everything. We don’t always see eye-to-eye on everything, but that is what I like about our relationship. We can always tell each other how we feel. I always equate Beth to being my sister because I have two sisters, and they both grew up in the wresting world with a big wrestling family like the Harts.

“We would have little arguments and then be friends five minutes later. Beth and I have never had a huge argument, but we have a relationship that she is like a family member to me. My whole family respects her very much. I feel such closeness to Beth that I can tell her how I feel. We can be a little competitive, but we also share a lot with each other too. She has helped me come up with different moves, and I have helped her come up with different submissions. We both take our own areas of expertise as Beth is more power, and I’m more submission technician…I really couldn’t ask for a better friend than Beth.”

Even though Natalya and Beth are the best of friends, you can’t help but want to see them battle it out in the ring!

My dream match would be against Beth, Natalya explained very enthusiastically! It would be like Bret v Owen!!!

But I wanted to start a bit of beef between Natalya and another Diva, so I asked her who she would like to challenge!! Someone other than Beth of course!

“I think that myself and Beth both have our eye on Kharma…I think she would more than have her hands full with myself or Beth. I would love to personally practice my new German suplex on her. I know it would be really hard to get my hands around her waist, but I would love to get in the ring with Kharma. She may be the biggest, most dominating diva in WWE, but I came from the Dungeon. My whole family was raised to be winners. It’s not the size of the dog, but the size of the fight in the dog. So maybe Kharma would be up for challenge.”

When she is not making divas cry in the ring or working out, Natalya enjoys winding down with some of her favorite television shows. It’s an interesting mix to say the least.

“I love court TV,” Natalya said.
“Anything that is Nancy Grace or Cold Case Files or Investigation Discovery, I love. I’m so interested in anything that has to do with law and court system. When this whole Casey Anthony trial was going on I was glued to my TV. I knew everything about the case. I felt like I was practically a lawyer there. I love investigative reporting and all those kind of shows. I’m also a huge fan of the ‘Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ for some reason or another. So yes, court TV and the Real Housewives interest me.”

- Watch Natalya on WWE programming each week on Raw 9 p.m. [ET] Mondays on USA Network and 8 p.m. [ET] Fridays on SyFy. WrestleMania 28 comes to Sun Life Stadium 8 p.m. [ET] Sunday, April 1 in Miami Gardens. For full details, visit their official website.

- Make sure you follow Scott via his official Twitter here, where he posts links and information. Opinions expressed reflect no other entity. He can also be found tweeting incessantly during wrestling shows weekly.

- For more wrestling news, check out the wrestling section of The Miami Herald here.

WWE Diva Beth Phoenix inspires women with Pin-Up Strong Campaign

With Wrestlemania only a few weeks away, those of us in Miami are getting pretty excited about all the great events coming into town! For those of you here locally and for all of you who will be watching from home, we want to show you the more personal side of various wrestlers that you might not even know!

So as part of a series we are dubbing, “Countdown to Wrestlemania,” AccidentalSexiness.com is teaming up with wrestling expert Scott Fishman from The Miami Herald to bring you some fun articles and coverage live from The Magic City! It’s a great honor to have Scott contribute, he is a huge wrestling fan and will get all the wrestling themed questions out there for you.

I on the other hand, will be working to find out more about them as a person. This will hopefully strike the perfect balance between the wrestling world and the pop culture insanity from this website!

I can’t think of a better person to kick-off this series with than with WWE Divas Champion Beth Phoenix. I had the pleasure to hang out with Beth during the Syfy Media Tour in 2010. She did a fantastic presentation in front of members of the press in support of the WWE and answered many questions about what it was like to be a Diva.

Afterward, we enjoyed conversation and butter beers together at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and visited Ollivanders Wand Shop afterward! She is so laid back and down to Earth, you instantly think you have known her your entire life. It’s no wonder fellow Diva Natalya, whose interview we will share on Monday, considers her a sister!

Rosy, Syfy President Dave Howe, and Beth Phoenix

Beth and Natalya started a movement called, Pin-Up Strong where they encourage others to find strength within themselves and flaunt their unique attributes without conforming to stereotypes. Beth and Natalya are the antithesis of the delicate-“size-zero”-model-type, and aim to celebrate women with curvier builds and strong attitudes, who can kick butt and look good doing it.

With her mix of beauty and brawn, WWE divas champion Beth Phoenix takes her position as a role model for women everywhere seriously. This is why the blonde powerhouse and fellow female grappler Natalya established the ‘Pin-Up Strong’ movement.
Phoenix is a big fan of classic Hollywood glam and takes a classy approach to looking great.

“I think that in combination with living a healthy lifestyle and really presenting a good role model for women is kind of what ‘Pin-Up Strong’ encompasses,” Phoenix explained.

“It’s basically just words that I wanted to put out there for young women to identify themselves with. I wanted to show them that women of all shapes and sizes can be beautiful and powerful and set a good, classy example. You can find more out of your life, find success and be classy at the same time.”

The Glamazon believes these attributes can be found in the diverse roster of WWE divas. All smart, sexy and powerful in their own ways.

“If you look at us, there is every shape and size, color, creed and hairstyle you can imagine,” Phoenix said.

“Everybody brings a different type of beauty to the table. Natalya and I of course put ourselves at the front of the line. We have the new diva Kharma, who is a voluptuous woman and brings a fearsome type of beauty. We have Eve [Torres] and Kelly Kelly, so we have all shapes and sizes. I think when you look at the WWE divas there is definitely not just the aesthetic and attractive standpoint, but everybody has something to offer.”

“Eve Torres has an engineering degree. She is a trainer for Women’s Empowered at the Gracie jiu-jitsu school. Each girl has something incredible to offer. I kind of coin the term ‘Pin-Up Strong’ to encourage women to find themselves and find beauty in a classy way and put themselves out there at any shape or size.”

Phoenix, who began training at Ron Hutchinson Wrestling Academy at Sully’s Gym I in Toronto, recently got the chance to visit the place where her journey in this business began.

“Rob Fuego still runs a wrestling school up there and I just sort of popped in there to see some of the new female students training,” Phoenix said.

“A couple of the girls approached me. It was awe-inspiring for me because one of the little girls, her name was Jessica, told me she had my poster on her wall and that she looked up to me. It blew my mind because I still feel like them. To know I have influence and can reach someone so far away, influence them to want to do this job and step out of the mold, blows my mind.
The youngster also brought back memories when Phoenix was just a young fan, born in Elmira, New York and idolizing her heroes from afar.

“I was just like her,” Phoenix said.

“I was 14 years old with Alundra Blayze on my wall. It was nuts for that to happen to me. It was surreal. I even told her that I was just like you. I was a small town girl who had big dreams. Along the way there were a lot of people who told me no, but I just really, truly believed I can do this. I had that inner confidence that I encourage other women to have.
“It doesn’t mean necessarily becoming a WWE diva. It can be anything. Maybe it’s fitting into a dress for graduation. I don’t know. It could mean meeting a significant other or wanting a certain job or career, anything in life. It’s having that inner confidence to do that and to not let anything hold you back.”

Right now its too early to tell whether or not Beth will be heading into the ring by the time Wrestlemania rolls into Miami, but you can bet she will be out here meeting the fans and enjoying the festivities!

“WrestleMania always brings so much energy and craziness,” Phoenix said.
“You just have so much going on. It’s not only a special occasion for everybody and anybody in the wrestling business, but I would say the WWE Universe shows up in droves from all over the world. I can imagine that when you put us all in a hotbed like Miami, throw on top of that the hometown of The Rock, you have a recipe for nonstop partying and celebration the entire week. I think that there are a lot of cool things going on.”

“WrestleMania Axxess this year, I kind of got a sneak peak of some of the things that are coming. I think it’s going to be the best one yet. Then there is the Hall of Fame on Saturday with great superstars going in like Arn Anderson. We have so many awesome figures that are going to be there. The Hall of Fame is always great to see highlight moments with speeches and celebrities, which is not taking away from WrestleMania. It’s all the momentum leading into the big day. People say it’s the most spectacular show of the year. I would say it will be awesome, especially in Miami. Everyone is excited about it.”

WrestleMania 28 comes to Sun Life Stadium 8 p.m. [ET] Sunday, April 1 in Miami Gardens. For full details, visit their official website here.

Stay tuned for our interview with Natalya which will come out on Monday. Make sure you follow Scott via his official Twitter here, where he post links and information. Opinions expressed reflect no other entity. He can also be found tweeting incessantly during wrestling shows weekly.

For more wrestling news, check out the wrestling section of The Miami Herald.

Photo Cred: WWE

Joe Manganiello helps kick off SummerSlam

Loving the fact that True Blood werewolf Joe Manganiello is making the rounds at all of the biggest Hollywood parties! Wearing a slim fitted, button down, long sleeved shirt, the HBO hunk greeted fellow actors and fans at the WWE SummerSlam Kickoff Party held at the Tropicana Bar at The Hollywood Rooselvelt Hotel on Friday, August 13th, 2010 in Hollywood, California.

He was joined at the party by [Read more...]

Psych fans: Join the live webchat hosted by James Roday, Dule Hill and John Cena!

USA Network has partnered with Ustream to produce a live webcast for fans on Monday, Jan 25th leveraging two of their most popular shows: Psych & WWE Monday Night Raw. Psych stars James Roday and Dule Hill will join WWE Superstar John Cena for a live webchat at 5pm with fans prior to hosting Monday Night Raw at 9pm. John Cena will guest star on the winter premiere, Wednesday, Jan 27th at 10pm.

Premiere Episode Description:

Shawn tangles with the Army when he claims that a Private’s suicide was actually murder, and suspects that Juliet’s former military/current mercenary brother is involved. John Cena, Robert Patrick and Rachael Leigh Cook guest-star in “You Can’t handle This Episode”

Meet you at the live webchat at 3:00 pm!!
Click here for the episode preview!

I’m in Miami Bitch: Dave Batista

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Dave Batista is a friggin’ monster! The WWE superstar showed off his rock hard body and many tattoo’s in South Beach yesterday. It looks like he stopped to talk to a fan, how sweet!

His fellow superstars were in town for Smackdown on Tuesday though I think Batista is still out with a bicep injury. He is expected to return to the ring in about 3 months time.


Photo Cred: Pacific Coast News

Chris Jericho visits Bonnie Hunt

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This may seem totally random for my readers to see posted here but the truth is I grew up as a bit of a tomboy and loved wrestling!  If any of you have been forced to watch WWE you can attest that its a soap opera for men.

Canadian bacon Chris Jericho was on the Bonnie Hunt Show today.  He talks about the technique he used on Mickey Rourke to piss off all the fans, his lovely grandmother who was a big wrestling fan, playing a bad guy, his band Fozzie, and his three kids.

Check out Chris Jericho on Monday Night Raw on the USA Network.