— The Sun conducted an interview with Randy Orton during his time in the UK last week. During the interview, Randy Orton revealed which wrestlers he likes, as well as who he dislikes. Orton praised Ric Flair, Undertaker and Triple H, but took aim at Hardcore Holly, Bubba Ray Dudley (TNA wrestler Brother Ray), and former WWE star Test. “I never liked him,” Orton said of Bubba Ray. “I never liked what he did because he only thought of himself. In the match my foot was broken, it was his fault… Bubba Dudley is the most out of shape, fat, non-work-ethic-having person I knew. And you had a bad taste in your mouth when you met him.” He was also happy that he suffered a broken collarbone. “It is really great that I got hurt,” Orton said. “I thank God that I broke my collarbone. At the time I wasn’t thankful. I missed work, but being home with my wife the last two months of the pregnancy and witnessing the birth of my baby, which could have missed if I was on the road, that would have been horrible.” Orton also talked about his bad behavior in the role, how he’s adapting to his new role as a husband and father and why he likes it when the fans chant “boring” during his matches. Orton also mentions that he took up motorcycle riding as a hobby related to his anger management. Orton also teased returning at or around SummerSlam, but of course this interview was conducted before the motorcycle accident reported on WWE.com last Monday. You can listen to the interview at this link. They should be publishing the transcript soon.
— To clarify, Brad Attitude, who was released by WWE along with two other developmental wrestlers on Tuesday, is actually “Campus Legend” Brad Allen. Allen was a regular on Florida Championship Wrestling shows before his release. He’s a wrestler from the Carolinas that was signed to a developmental contract last fall. Upon his debut, he bleached his hair blonde and started doing some sort of fratboy gimmick in which he’d sometimes come to the ring in a beer hat. 2006 Diva Search contestant Milena Roucka was his valet in recent months. You can see Allen’s MySpace page at this link. Another release came in the form of a wrestler by the name of Matt O’Neal. You can see his picture at this link. He’s another wrestler that WWE hired based on size as he’s billed at 6-3 and 275 pounds. Hard to tell what his gimmick was, other than wearing sunglasses. He appeared on some FCW shows earlier in the year, but disappeared. Before FCW relaunched the company website last month, his picture was up on the roster page. Following the relaunch, his picture wasn’t up anymore, so it seems like even they forgot about him. Also, the website has since removed the pictures of “Campus Legend” Brad Allen and Charles “The Hammer” Evans from the roster section, which should confirm their departures from WWE. WWE.com sometimes announces the releases of developmental talent, but they didn’t make an official announcement this time around.
— Shane McMahon was in Mexico this past week having meetings with Televisa, the leading network in the country, which broadcasts both CMLL or AAA, reports Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Should WWE programming get on the station, you’d have to think that CMLL and AAA would get booted off the network.
See pics of Randy Orton and his wife Sam at this link! (>>)