WWE: The Rock on His Difficult Transformation for “The Smashing Machine” Role, New Trademark for “Showdown” & Reason for WWE’s Name Change of NXT Invasion to NXT Showdown, A&E WWE Ratings for September 28, More News

Oct 2, 2025

The Rock Comments on His Difficult Transformation for “The Smashing Machine” Role

A recent episode of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon featured Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Johnson’s thoughts about his difficult transformation for his role as MMA legend Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine biopic.

“We had a physical transformation, and certainly an emotional transformation, and a vocal transformation too as well.
It was about 22 prosthetics. I had to put on just over 30 pounds of muscle. Which, by the way, what you realize is — you know how you have some actors who say, ‘Hey, I had to put on weight. I went to McDonald’s every day.’ Mark Kerr had just this quality of muscle, like fast-twitch quality of muscle — because he was a [freestyle] wrestler. And I had to still put on this weight, still be able to move like an MMA fighter.”

Johnson also gave his thoughts about his conversation with director Benny Safdie over Safdie telling him that he would need to add muscle for the role.

“He said to me, ‘Hey DJ, I don’t know how to tell you this and I don’t know if you’ve ever heard this.’ He goes, ‘You’re going to have to get bigger.’ And I go, ‘Okay, here we go.’”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com

New Trademark Filed for “Showdown” & Backstage Update on Reason for WWE’s Name Change of NXT Invasion to NXT Showdown

WWE filed a new trademark for “Showdown” on September 30th for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

This is the same name of WWE’s upcoming NXT vs. TNA special on October 7th on The CW.

In regards to why WWE changed the name of this upcoming special from its original name of “NXT Invasion,” the Wrestling Observer’s Josh Nason reported that the reason was due to backlash from Israeli fans over issues with both the show’s name and date chosen. October 7th will the second anniversary of the Hamas attacks in Israel that killed around 1,200 people and several hundreds Israelis being kidnapped. This date was also the start of the on-going Israel-Hamas war in the Palestinian territory of Gaza.

Nason reported that a report from The Jewish Chronicle had stated that some within Israel also took issue with the logo used for “NXT Invasion” that featured a red letter V that “unintentionally resembles the downward-facing red triangle used as a Hamas symbol.”

A&E WWE Programming Ratings – September 28, 2025

This past Sunday’s WWE LFG episode drew 85,000 viewers on A&E. This episode also drew a 0.02 rating in the 18-49 demographic.

The viewership and ratings for the September 21st episode of WWE LFG are currently not known.

This past Sunday’s WWE Greatest Moments doubleheader first episode drew 136,000 viewers on A&E. This episode also drew a 0.03 rating in the 18-49 demographic. This episode focused on “Macho Man” Randy Savage.

This down compared to last week’s doubleheader first episode of 164,000 viewers but equal to last week show’s rating.

This past Sunday’s WWE Greatest Moments doubleheader second episode drew 136,000 viewers on A&E. This episode also drew a 0.03 rating in the 18-49 demographic. This episode focused on Survivor Series in the 2000s.

This was up compared to last week’s doubleheader second episode of 103,000 viewers and 0.02 rating.

Source: Programming Insider

WWE News & Notes

Cultaholic reported that WWE recently released the ticket prices for John Cena’s retirement match at their WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event show on December 13th in Washington, D.C. It was reported that tickets range from $250 to $9,000 for standard seats and go as high as $11,500 per ticket for TV side Ringside package Row 1 (Row A). It was reported that ramp side seats are currently priced at $6,500 per ticket for 5th row (Row E) ramp side- WWE Champion and as high as $9,500 per ticket for 2nd row (Row B) ramp side- WWE Champion.

Grammy Award winner musician and WWE performer Bad Bunny recently announced on Twitter that he will be the headline performer for the NFL’s Super Bowl LX half-time show.

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that season two of WWE’s WWE Unreal docuseries is tentatively scheduled to be released on January of 2026 on Netflix. It was reported that filming for the season season of Unreal had started at this past June’s Money in the Bank 2025 event.

WWE LFG talent Penina Tuilaepa recently announced on Twitter that she will be known under the new ring name of PJ Vasa going forward in WWE. PJ Vasa is the same name that WWE had trademarked on September 28th for wrestling-related purposes.

WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque and former WWE co-CEO Stephanie McMahon were among those in attendance at the White House for President Donald Trump’s Executive Order signing press event for using AI to improve treatments for childhood cancer. McMahon spoke at the event praising Trump and his efforts at combating pediatric cancer with the new Executive Order. Trump’s new E.O. comes after he had previously made major cuts to research funding for pediatric and other cancers.

WWE recently released two new videos to their WCW Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was a 3-on-2 Handicap Tag Team match of Bret Hart & Ric Flair vs. Sting, Lex Luger, & Diamond Dallas Page from the September 27, 1999 episode of WCW Nitro. The second new video a singles match of Bill Goldberg vs. Hugh Morris from the September 27, 1999 episode of WCW Nitro.

WWE also recently released six new videos to their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was a WWE World Heavyweight Championship Punjabi Prison match of The Great Khali vs. Batista (c) from WWE No Mercy 2007. The second new video was a WWE Championship match of Kurt Angle vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin (c) from WWE Unforgiven 2001. The third new video was a “Wild Hardcore Championship Brawls | Mankind, RVD, Jeff Hardy and MORE.” The fourth new video was a “Superstars on the Indies | Seth Rollins, CM Punk and more before WWE.” The fifth new video was a “Story of The Undertaker | Chapter 5: Kane’s arrival (1997-98).” The sixth new video was a Vacant WWE Championship Six-Pack Challenge match of Triple H vs. The Rock vs. Mankind vs. Kane vs. Big Show vs. British Bulldog from WWE Unforgiven 1999.

In a recent interview with The Sage Steele Show podcast, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon revealed that her grandson Declan McMahon, son of Shane McMahon, had an internship with ESPN over this past summer. McMahon stated “Declan had an internship at ESPN. Declan will be a senior in college, it could lead to a career after that because you make connections. Internships are so cool, they really are.” (Transcript h/: Fightful.com)