Brie Bella Not Retiring Forever

Brie Bella told WWE.com that she isn’t planning to permanently retire and will aim to return after she has raised a family.

I wouldn’t say my last match forever, just my last match that you’ll see in a while. I am here at home because Daniel Bryan and I want to start a family soon. Or I shouldn’t say soon — we want to start it now! We’re going to start having babies, so I have to put my career on hold. It doesn’t mean that I’m going to be gone. I’m going to be an ambassador for WWE. But I’m going to try motherhood.

The hardest part is that it takes a while to have a baby. So, I hate saying retirement because after I have kids, I would love to make a comeback into the ring. I feel like I could bring a whole army with me, like Trish Stratus, who’s a mother. Michelle McCool, who’s a mother. Beth Phoenix, who’s a mom. It’s a good bunch of us who could come back and have one hell of a career.

I just don’t know the timing of it. I don’t know if it will be a year and a half, two years or three years. So, it feels like a retirement. At the same time, I’m just not going to close that door.

Velvet Sky HOF Photo

Bubba’s girlfriend and former TNA Knockout Velvet Sky accompanied him to the Hall of Fame, but was not shown during the red carpet event. He often puts her over as a possible WWE recruit, but so far there doesn’t seem to be any interest.

Stylin' n Profilin' 😀👍 @VelVelHoller @MsCharlotteWWE pic.twitter.com/e3ijICttcI

— Bubba Ray Dudley (@BubbaRayDudley) April 7, 2016

Rene Dupree Suing Over Network

Former WWE star Rene Dupree has filed a lawsuit against WWE for not paying royalties for WWE Network footage. He says he signed a “booking contract” in 2003 which stated he would receive royalties for “video” including “technology not yet created,” which the Network would presumably fall under.

However WWE attorney Jerry McDevitt told The Hollywood Reporter that Dupree signed a contract in 2011 that nullified this.

This is a class-action lawsuit, so will open the door for others to join in.

Not being paid for Network content has been a big talking point backstage in WWE itself, not just among former talent.

Woods Talks Box Entrance

Xavier Woods discussed the New Day’s Booty O’s box entrance from WrestleMania, in a recent interview with IGN.com:

That was my idea. I don’t have have a problem taking credit for that one! But Kofi does like Dragon Ball Z. [Big] E wasn’t really an anime guy…he’s more of a old-school hip-hop head. But we showed him a picture of the stuff that what we wanted to wear, and he was all in. And it’s nice because there are people that caught the attention to detail. So like, their suits didn’t have tails and mine did. So you could tell that if there was a full moon, then we wouldn’t have had a problem winning the match. Or if I turned into a great ape it would have been all good. Essentially, mixing my love for cosplay into my love of wrestling and have it not be outlandish…it’s cool that people appreciate it.

He also discussed Vince’s reaction:

Oh, we didn’t see him until right before we went out. It’s funny, because we’ll always have some kind of harebrained idea, and then he sees it right before we go through the curtain, and just kind of gives a little grin and thumbs up.

It’s to a point now where we kind of have a little bit more trust than we did when we started. And they know we’re not going to go out there and do something that’s going to mess up a sponsorship or anything like that. Things we do are going to do are going to be in-bounds for our PG parameters. Still be fine for kids, but then have something that’s a little bit for adults. We liken it to Shrek: we’re in PG parameters but there’s jokes in there for adults if you’re paying attention. But they’ve kind of given us leeway in the sense that we have gone out there and are just having a good time and getting people–luckily–into what we’re doing, because you know it’s always hit or miss with the entertainment industry. But we’ve been lucky enough to kind of hit a pretty good stride right now, and so the company’s been pretty good to us for that.

SmackDown Results

– Roman Reigns and AJ Styles met face to face:

– Emma interrupts Becky Lynch’s interview:

– The Vaudevillains debuted and def. Lucha Dragons:

– Natalya def. Summer Rae:

– Intercontinental Champion The Miz def. Zack Ryder, with help from Maryse:

– R-Truth gets Goldust a huge Hollywood audition:

– Apollo Crews def. Curtis Axel:

– Dean Ambrose def. Tyler Breeze:

– AJ Styles & Cesaro def. Kevin Owens & Chris Jericho: