– Dragon Gate USA’s next dates will be the weekend of July 28th. No word as to where they will take place.

– The promotion will not return to BB Kings in Times Square, meaning they will have a new venue when they go to New York City.

– The company has a weekly special at their website were fans can order any three EVOLVE or DGUSA DVDs for $45, a discount of 25%.

– The company announced the release of Bushido: Code Of The Warrior 2011. The following matches are on the DVD:

1) Open The Freedom Gate Title Match – YAMATO vs. Chuck Taylor
2) Open The United Gate Title Match – CIMA & Ricochet vs. Sami Callihan & Arik Cannon
3) South Philly Street Fight – Sabu vs. Pinkie Sanchez
4) DGUSA Homegrown Roster vs. Dragon Gate Veterans Match 1 – Johnny Gargano vs. BxB Hulk
5) DGUSA Homegrown Roster vs. Dragon Gate Veterans Match 2 – Rich Swann vs. Akira Tozawa
6) DGUSA Homegrown Roster vs. Dragon Gate Veterans Match 3 – AR Fox vs. Masato Yoshino
7) DGUSA Homegrown Roster vs. Dragon Gate Veterans Match 4 – Brodie Lee vs. PAC

– The promotion has a fan ballot to determine which match should be in the title for EVOLVE 12.

– The promotion released the following video:

– Here is a video of this week’s WWE Superstars:

Dark Match: Xavier Woods (formerly Consequences Creed in TNA) beat Dean Ambrose. Ambrose was very popular.

Triple H came out and cut a promo. Hunter thanked Full Sail for use of their facilities and said the first episode will air in more than 60 countries. (No date was given.)

Jim Ross and William Regal were introduced on commentary. JR introduced the new GM of NXT, Dusty Rhodes.

(1) Bo Dallas (Rotundo) beat Rick Victor with a spear.

(2) The Ascension (Connor O’Brian & Kenneth Cameron) beat C.J. Parker & Mike Dalton in a squash tag match. Ascension had an epic entrance and were impressive.

Damien Sandow refused to fight Jason Jordan. It was the same promo from his Smackdown appearances. Damien was over as a heel; funny stuff.

(3) Tyson Kidd beat Michael McGillicutty via submission. Great match that captivated the crowd and had plenty of nearfalls. Kidd won with a leg choke.

After a brief intermission, a video aired and they shot the crowd to lead into what can be assumed to be the second episode.

EPISODE #2 TAPING

(1) Seth Rollins (formerly Tyler Black) beat Jiro. This was essentially a squash. Rollins cut a promo promising to take NXT, WWE, and the world by storm.

(2) Jinder Mahal beat Jason Jordan via submission with the Camel Clutch. Boring match as indicated by the crowd chants.

(3) Leo Kruger beat Aiden English. Quick and effective establishing Aiden as a face and Kruger as a heel. Post-match, Leo talked about himself on the mic, calling himself the LEO (Lion) of NXT. So, watch out.

(4) Richie Steamboat beat Rick Victor with a big lariat. Richie wrestles a lot like his dad, Ricky Steamboat, who was ringside watching. Richie gave him a shout-out after the match.

(5) Antonio Cesaro beat Dante Dash. Afterward, Aksana declared, “Antonio is my lover!”

More to come ……… continue refreshing often!

Rock on the secret of his box office success: “I can kick ass better than anyone on the planet. And I have a decent smile.”

Garcia on his early move into acting: “When he was wrestling, he was at 270 pounds and the ruler of the world. When he went into movies he dropped to 230 pounds and they told him to stop talking about wrestling.”

On his reaction to Hollywood’s attitudes about his wrestling past: “It reached a point where I felt that ¬instead of me trying to conform to Hollywood, I needed to have ¬Hollywood conform to me and ¬embrace my past.”

Rock on enjoying doing promotion for his films: “That’s the wonderful part about being in this business,” says Johnson. “I love knowing the audience and listening to the audience.”

For what it’s worth, pro wrestling has always been looked down upon by Hollywood so that’s pretty much what The Rock had to do when he went to Hollywood – shy away from his pro wrestling past. As much as wrestling fans will likely disagree, it was a smart move by him. He was also looking at a post-wrestling future and many talents have and will turn to Hollywood. Once they do, they’ll need to shy away from pro wrestling as well if they want to land major gigs.

– WWE Studio’s Dead Man Down starring Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace has been sold to FilmDistrict at the Cannes Film Festival. Wade Barrett had a small role in the film.

– July 29th’s RAW house show has an online pre-sale starting Friday morning using the password “CENA.”

– Former TNA and WCW wrestler Konnan recently spoke to MLW.com about current WWE superstars Sin Cara and Alberto Del Rio.

Cara started to get a big head in Mexico after becoming a star according to Konnan. He went on to say that Del Rio once approached Cara backstage at a show in Mexico, and either Cara or a member of Cara’s posse pulled a gun out on Del Rio.

Konnan went on to state that he was surprised to see both wrestlers in WWE, and that he would have expected Cara to be the bigger star.

The company issued a press release (below) announcing the change and attributing the announcement to John Cena “via Twitter” during the upfront.

– As noted earlier, TNA has announced that iMPACT! Wrestling will go live this summer. The show’s first live episode will be May 31st, the same day that the show moves up an hour to 8:00 EST on Thursdays. Dixie Carter said in the press release that the show will be live from Universal Studios in Orlando starting May 31st and “continue through the summer.” According to a source, this is being done during the summer as a “test run” to see if ratings increase by going live. If ratings increase, they’ll stay live full-time. The show will still be taped in Orlando. More as we get it.

Both press releases are below:

WWE PRESS RELEASE:

WWE® MONDAY NIGHT RAW® EXPANDS TO THREE ELECTRIFYING HOURS LAUCHING WITH THE 1,000th EPISODE, JULY 23 ON USA NETWORK
@JohnCena Tweets Historic Announcement From USA Upfront Presentation
NEW YORK – May 17, 2012 – WWE Superstar John Cena® announced via Twitter today that WWE Monday Night Raw will expand to a three-hour event 52 weeks a year. The extended telecast will kick-off July 23 at 8/7C on USA Network and marks the 1000th episode of the WWE Raw franchise and a television record – no other series has ever reached this milestone.

The expanded WWE Monday Night Raw will transform television to an unprecedented level of viewer interaction. Fans will have new ways to get involved in the show through WWE.com and social media by deciding matches, stipulations and new character development. WWE will brand this unprecedented fan interaction as “#RAWactive.”

TNA PRESS RELEASE:

TNA’S IMPACT WRESTLING CELEBRATES SUMMER 2012 BY GOING LIVE!

“We are excited to take IMPACT WRESTLING Live! all summer long, and have our first Live! summer show launch our new 8:00pm/ET time slot,” says TNA President Dixie Carter. “Summer of 2012 is going to be remembered as the most momentous time in our company’s history-to-date. Stay tuned.”

“I totally understand why WWE has adopted a non-Benoit policy, that’s a business move to attempt to distance themselves from Chris’s terrible final actions. My point is that I don’t have to cater to & speak by “WWE history”, as opposed to actual, factual history. WWE can treat the Benoit situation as if he never existed, but in reality, he absolutely did.”

– Hall of Famer Jim Ross will indeed be returning to work tonight at the NXT/FCW tapings from Full Sail University in Florida. Ross wrote on Twitter this morning:

“I’m READY to saddle up! Any horses at Full Sail in Orlando? Hope fans come ready to raise hell!”

Ross added that he heard tonight’s tapings were sold out.

– Tonight’s Superstar Showdown TV taping at Full Sail University in Florida is set to include at least two weeks of NXT episodes, which will be part of the company establishing a regular taping schedule at the school. The tapings are set to include WWE Developmental wrestlers from FCW. As previously reported, HHH will appear and two matches—Sheamus vs. Alberto Del Rio and Kofi Kingston & R-Truth vs. Primo & Epico—are set for the show.

– We reported earlier that WWE’s RAW tapings will be starting an hour earlier. There is no word yet on whether the extra hour will be the rumored pre-show. It’s possible it’ll be a hype/recap show for the normal two hour 9-11EST show.

– NWA Hollywood released the following music video recap of their first house show, which was last weekend. Their next is June 10th and will feature John Morrison, Chris Masters, Chavo Guerrero, and Brian Kendrick.

– While announcing the 2013 Major League Baseball All-Star game yesterday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg touted WWE’s WrestleMania 29 as a major event coming to the area next year.

– WrestleMania celebrity Maria Menounos was eliminated from ABC’s Dancing with the Stars this week.

WWE Diva Lilian Garcia commented: “Congrats @mariamenounos 4 doing SO amazing on DWTS! I’m still in shock that u didn’t win, but wow u r quite an inspiration! Luv ya girl!”

Speaking of DWTS, they will hold their first-ever All-Star Season this coming Fall with cast members who have appeared in the past. They are keeping tight on casting for the season but it’s always possible that Chris Jericho could be invited back.