WWE news and notes - 29th April 2013

FILE PHOTO: Dolph Ziggler

A stipulation has been added to the triple threat match for the World Heavyweight Championship at Extreme Rules. Dolph Ziggler will still be defending the title against former champions Alberto Del Rio and Jack Swagger, but it will now be in a ladder match instead of a standard triple threat. The stipulation was added earlier tonight on RAW when Ricardo Rodriguez pulled out an upset triple threat victory against Big E. Langston and Zeb Colter, with the prerequisite that the man who won the match won the right for his charge to pick a stipulation. Later in the night Alberto Del Rio announced his chosen stipulation would be a ladder match.

WWE has formed a new partnership with internet titan Yahoo, and they will be working together to bring even more wrestling content to the fans. Already announced is a 30-minute RAW pre-show that will air on Yahoo very soon, and with the new partnership, Yahoo will have exclusive access to WWE’s archives for more future projects.

At this week’s RAW tapings, matches featuring Tamina Snuka vs WWE Divas Champion Kaitlyn and R-Truth vs Damien Sandow were filmed and will air on this week’s Superstars. Also taped was WWE US Champion Kofi Kingston defending his title against former champion Antonio Cesaro, and that will air on Main Event.

Speaking of Kofi Kingston, congratulations to to him are in order as he welcomed his first child into the world over the weekend.

Current WWE Tag Team co-Champion Kane celebrated his 46th birthday a few days ago, and a celebration was filmed at one of the events during WWE’s recent European tour. You can watch the footage here.

On this week’s Smackdown, Dean Ambrose will have his second singles match, taking on Kane in a pseudo-rematch from last night’s 6-man match on RAW. This could be a very good sign for Ambrose, win or lose, especially considering he scored the pin in last week’s 6-man main event on RAW and was featured in a main event match against the legendary Undertaker the next night at the Smackdown taping. WWE is reportedly riding high on Ambrose and he is expected to be a major player in the years to come. In addition to excellent in-ring work, Ambrose is also the main mouthpiece for The Shield, and despite his short time in WWE, is already considered one of the best talkers in the company.

Fandango recently replaced his formerly nameless valet with a blonde woman going by the name Summer Rae. Rae recently received her call-up from NXT for the role, and it appears she will be sticking around for a while. Although she remained anonymous at first, WWE looks to be sticking with the name “Summer Rae”, as Jerry “The King” Lawler referred to her as such last night on RAW.