News

Title Match Announced for Monday’s RAW

<p>WWE announced that <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/wrestler/sheamus" title="Sheamus">Sheamus</a></strong> and Cesaro will defend their RAW tag team championships against The Hardy Boyz on Monday’s episode of RAW. WWE wrote the following regarding the match:</p><p><em>Just one week after losing the Raw Tag Team Championship in a brutal Steel Cage Match at WWE Extreme Rules, The Hardy Boyz invoke their rematch clause against new titleholders Cesaro & Sheamus this Monday night, live on Raw.</em></p><p><em>Last Monday, The Celtic Warrior boasted that Matt & Jeff were “sitting at home, licking their wounds — Jeff gluing in his false tooth — just dreaming about their rematch.” This Monday night, the dream becomes a reality much sooner than the champions likely anticipated.</em></p><p><em>Can The Hardy Boyz reclaim the titles they won during their triumphant return at WrestleMania, or will Cesaro & Sheamus continue to raise the figurative bar in Team Red’s tandem division?</em></p><p><strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/wrestler/brock-lesnar" title="Brock Lesnar">Brock Lesnar</a></strong> has also been announced to return to the show to address <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/wrestler/samoa-joe" title="Samoa Joe">Samoa Joe</a></strong>’s attack on Paul Heyman.</p>

Finn Balor Trolls Fans at Promotional Event

<p>While doing promotional work for WWE, <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/wrestler/finn-balor" title="Finn Balor">Finn Balor</a></strong> trolled the fans in attendance by mentioning Roman Reigns.</p><p>When responding to a question by one of the interviewers, Balor stated that fans had plenty of reasons to be excited, he was then quoted as saying:</p><p><em>“Obviously they’ll get to see <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/wrestler/seth-rollins" title="Seth Rollins">Seth Rollins</a></strong>, they’ll get to see <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/wrestler/bray-wyatt" title="Bray Wyatt">Bray Wyatt</a></strong>, they’ll get to see Finn Balor, but most importantly they’ll get to see Roman Reigns.”</em></p><p>As soon as Balor mentioned Reigns, a resounding chorus of boos emanated from the fans in attendance followed by “Roman Sucks” chants.</p><p>Here is footage of the incident:</p>

Brock Lesnar to Appear for Every RAW Heading Into Great Balls of Fire

<p><strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/wrestler/brock-lesnar" title="Brock Lesnar">Brock Lesnar</a></strong> will be appearing at every RAW show from now until the Great Balls of Fire event to help <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/tag/build/" title="build">build</a></strong> for his feud against <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/wrestler/samoa-joe" title="Samoa Joe">Samoa Joe</a></strong>. Those dates include the June 12th RAW in Lafayette, LA, June 26th RAW in Los Angeles, and the July 3rd RAW in Phoenix. He is also confirmed for the show after the Great Balls of Fire event in Houston.</p><p>It’s unclear if he will actually be participating in any matches on these shows or appearing on television for that matter. In the past he would be advertised for the event, but sometimes not appear on television. He would often work the dark match main event instead. Let’s hope that isn’t the case this time around.</p>

Edge Says Brock Lesnar vs. Samoa Joe Should Have Been Saved for WrestleMania

<p>During the recent installment of the E&C Podcast of Awesomeness, Edge talked about the upcoming match between <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/wrestler/brock-lesnar" title="Brock Lesnar">Brock Lesnar</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/wrestler/samoa-joe" title="Samoa Joe">Samoa Joe</a></strong> and mentioned that WWE should have saved the match for <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/go/wrestlemania" target="_blank" title="WrestleMania">WrestleMania</a></strong> next year.</p><p><em>“You want my take? Here’s my take, ok, I’m assuming that they wanna go Reigns and Brock at WrestleMania. I personally would have gone Brock and Joe at WrestleMania because it’s different, it is fresh, it is believable. You have this 300 pound Samoan you know, beast and then The Beast Incarnate. So I don’t know, I think that to me it would have been a fun match to get at WrestleMania and I think people would have been excited to see that too.”</em></p><p>You can listen to the complete podcast <a href="https://art19.com/shows/ecs-pod-of-awesomeness" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>

Jim Ross Reacts to Lana’s Title Shot

<p>Jim Ross published a new blog entry on JrsBarBq.com. Here are a couple of highlights:</p><p><strong>WWE’s booking of Jinder </strong><strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/tag/mahal/" title="Mahal">Mahal</a></strong>: “I’m a fan of the decision to make Jinder Mahal the WWE Champ, but I feel that his random utilization of his Singh sidekicks might be overdone. Nonetheless, the former Bollywood Boys take a helluva, ass whipping. Enjoying the villains getting success, which generally adds to the build of most storylines within the genre. If I were to err in booking, and I have plenty of times, I’d suggest erring on the side of antagonist angst more often than not. ‘Heat’ is good.”</p><p><strong></strong><strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/wrestler/lana" title="Lana">Lana</a></strong>’s SmackDown Women’s Title shot: “Lana ‘earning’ a Women’s Tile match? Hmm….the pressure is on for her to deliver in <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/tag/front/" title="front">front</a></strong> of a somewhat unforgiving and discerning fan base.”</p><p><strong>Upcoming female MITB Ladder Match:</strong> “Arguably, today I’m more excited to see the women’s [MITB] bout than the men’s in a few weeks, essentially because of the unique nature of this match being the first ever Women’s MITB match ever. I see these athletic women perceiving this booking as very personal and one can only hope that they are discerning about whey they want to do in this match and remember that their safety should never be compromised, which is largely up to the talents in the match. The Gents in the their TLC bout better lace them up tight or they could be outperformed by the women here.”</p><p>You check out the full entry at <a href="https://www.jrsbarbq.com/blog/51791" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this link here</a>.</p>

Vince McMahon Says Chris Jericho Is The Only Person Who Could Get “Stupid Idiot” Over with Fans

<p><strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/wrestler/chris-jericho" title="Chris Jericho">Chris Jericho</a></strong> recently spoke with <a href="http://baileyandsouthside.com/interview-with-chris-jericho/" rel="nofollow" target="new">Rock 100.5 ATL’s Bailey and Southside</a>. Here are some highlights:</p><p><strong>The Creation of The List</strong>: “Working with this guys who’s a writer in the WWE named Jimmy Jacobs. He used to be a [pro] wrestler. He came up to me one day and said, ‘what if we do something where you put somebody on this list?’ I’m like, ‘I knew this guy once who had a list of people he didn’t like.’ I’m like, ‘oh, that sounds funny.’ So I said it and it kind of got a reaction.” Jericho said, “the <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/tag/whole/" title="whole">whole</a></strong> concept of The List went through the roof. The List is more popular than 85% of the guys on the show. The List is more popular than I am! And you just never know what’s <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/tag/going/" title="going">going</a></strong> to make an impression with fans.”</p><p><strong>Getting Stupid Idiot Over</strong>: “They’re chanting it now, ‘stupid idiot’ and I remember when I started saying that, Vince was like, ‘nobody could say this, nobody can get away with this, but you can. You’re the only guy in the world who could do this’ because when I started using ‘stupid idiot,’ it got heat. I would call the fans, ‘you’re a stupid idiots’ and they’d be like, ‘boo!’ and then, like everything else, suddenly people loved it.”</p>

Sheamus Going After the Intercontinental Championship?

<p><strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/wrestler/sheamus" title="Sheamus">Sheamus</a></strong> indicated on Twitter that he <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/tag/wants/" title="wants">wants</a></strong> to hold the Intercontinental Championship, the one title that has eluded him to date. Here is his twitter, which sparked a response <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/wrestler/the-miz" title="The Miz">The Miz</a></strong>:</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p lang="en" dir="ltr">Only one WWE title missing for the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GrandSlam?src=hash" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">#GrandSlam</a> goal I set myself many years ago… it will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine. <a href="https://t.co/pSQ0AhphvS" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">pic.twitter.com/pSQ0AhphvS</a></p> <p>— Sheamus (@WWESheamus) <a href="https://twitter.com/WWESheamus/status/872813023894921217" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">June 8, 2017</a></p> </blockquote><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p lang="en" dir="ltr">No it won't <a href="https://t.co/XWr0atHIb7" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://t.co/XWr0atHIb7</a></p> <p>— The Miz (@mikethemiz) <a href="https://twitter.com/mikethemiz/status/872876931863244801" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">June 8, 2017</a></p> </blockquote><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p lang="en" dir="ltr">Wanna bet? <a href="https://t.co/sh95L7uO4O" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://t.co/sh95L7uO4O</a></p> <p>— Sheamus (@WWESheamus) <a href="https://twitter.com/WWESheamus/status/872881374797205504" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">June 8, 2017</a></p> </blockquote>

Austin Aries Taking Time Off from WWE

<p>While appearing on Busted Open Radio, <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/wrestler/austin-aries" title="Austin Aries">Austin Aries</a></strong> mentioned that he will be taking time off from WWE to heal some nagging injuries.</p><p><em>“I’ve got some stuff <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/tag/going/" title="going">going</a></strong> on, but just to be fair you could probably say that for a lot of the locker room. It’s kind of part of what we do, I don’t think anyone is ever 100%. So I got a couple things going on and obviously at this point it might be a good time to take a little break which really could consist of two days to just adjust some of those things, try and get my mind and my body right and then come back and figure out what’s <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/tag/gonna/" title="gonna">gonna</a></strong> be next and what the direction’s gonna be.”</em></p><p>You can listen to the full interview <a href="https://soundcloud.com/siriusxmrush/austin-aries-speaks-on-how-the-wwe-is-presenting-205-live-and-the-cruiserweights-to-the-wwe-universe" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>

Lilian Garcia Makes Surprise Appearance At NXT Event

<p>Former WWE ring announcer Lilian Garcia made a special appearance at Wednesday’s NXT event in England as she sang “God Save The Queen” to help kick off the show.</p><p>The event took place at the First Direct Arena in Leeds and began with a moment of silence for victims of the Manchester bombing and attack at the London Bridge.</p><p>Garcia then surprised the crowd with an appearance and sang the British national anthem.</p><p>NXT’s event at the Manchester Arena that was scheduled for Tuesday was canceled due to the bombing and WWE instead sent Superstars to visit with victims/help <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/tag/raise/" title="raise">raise</a></strong> money. Those with tickets to the initial event were <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/tag/given/" title="given">given</a></strong> free admission tonight to the show in Leeds.</p><p><strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/tag/watch/" title="Watch">Watch</a></strong> the video of Garcia’s performance below.</p>

June 12, 2017 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Extreme Rules and Best of the Super Juniors finals reviewed, tons of news

Submitted by dave on Wed, 2017-06-07 19:13Samoa Joe won the five-way title shot eliminator at Extreme Rules on 6/4 in Baltimore to set up a WWE Universal title match with Brock Lesnar on 7/9 in Dallas. Joe winning gives the match with Lesnar an interesting aura with the idea of two tough guys going for the championship and is something of a 2004 dream match that took 13 years for it to take place. While the PPV didn’t appear to have that much interest as compared to usual Raw shows coming in, with Joe winning, clearly interest was there coming out as the first hour of Raw was way up, the best opening number in seven weeks and the overall rating for the show was up 14 percent from the week before. Plus, an angle where Joe choked out Paul Heyman, leading to a phone call where Heyman talked to Lesnar and said that he wanted the beast unleashed and to teach Joe to fear Lesnar was done to build up the 6/12 Raw in Lafayette, LA, which features Lesnar’s first appearance since the day after ..

Mojo Rawley Being Groomed As The Next Big Babyface?

Mojo Rawley Being Groomed As The Next Big Babyface?

<p>On this past episode of Smackdown Live, we saw <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/wrestler/mojo-rawley" title="Mojo Rawley">Mojo Rawley</a></strong> take on Jinder Mahal yet again on WWE programming. It was under different circumstances with Mahal being WWE champion and Mojo fighting for a chance to be in the Money in the Bank ladder match. This match was match after Mojo told Shane McMahon he wanted more opportunities on Smackdown Live. Mojo put up one great fight but failed to come away with the victory.</p><p>We fast forward to Talking Smack and Mojo is one of the guests. Instead of sitting there whining and complaining, he owned up to the lost and gave repeated thanks to Shane for the opportunity. This whole stint may not mean anything to most of you, but it spoke something to me. I could be wrong here but I do believe this was the start of the big babyface push for Mojo Rawley.</p><p>Mojo Rawley is a superstar that is easy to love. He runs around all the time on his unlimited supply of energy, he hits hard, and he loves to have fun. He’s always been an exceptional talent that had his run stalled due to <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/wrestler/zack-ryder" title="Zack Ryder">Zack Ryder</a></strong> getting injured. After that, we started seeing Mojo back in singles competition again. He would lose more than he would win, but you left the match feeling entertained by him. Then <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/go/wrestlemania" target="_blank" title="Wrestlemania">Wrestlemania</a></strong> comes along and the unthinkable happened when Mojo won the Andre the Giant Battle Royal. Sure he had help for Rob Gronkowski, but Mojo worked his tail off in that match and earned the victory.</p><p class="c2"> </p><p>Things were looking up for Mojo, until we recently stopped looking at him on our television sets. It’s like he vanished from the program. He recently showed on this past Tuesday, and there has to be a reason. We thought things were looking up for Mojo before, but this may only be the beginning. Heck with Mahal winning the WWE Championship, anyone is capable of winning some gold.</p><p>His actions on Talking Smack seemed like phase one in this plan. Although he failed to capture a spot in the Money in the Bank ladder match, big things are on the horizon for Mojo.</p><p>Sooner or later Mojo will get an opportunity at the United States Championship. Owens looks to feud with Nakamura for the time being, but he will need a new challenger after that is over with. A battle royal could be held to determine a number one contender, with Rawley coming out victorious. This would set up Rawley vs Owens for the title.</p><p>Owens won’t hold on to that title forever. Eventually he’s going to challenge for the WWE Championship. We saw with his run as Universal Champion that he can be a great heel champion. So he’s going to get a run as the top heel on Smackdown Live sometime soon. This works well for Mojo because he can be the one that swoops in and takes the United States Championship.  It’d be the first championship for Mojo, and what a celebration it will be.</p><p>The babyface push for Mojo seems to be beginning on a high note. If the crowd can stay behind him and help uplift him, then Mojo will receive all the opportunities he wants on Smackdown Live. When your moniker is “the land of opportunity”, you have to push new talent. The good thing is Mojo can be a special kind of talent and shoot up the ranks quick like Mahal did. Expect big things from Rawley, cause the hype train isn’t stopping anytime soon.</p>

Rusev Posts Cryptic Tweet

<p><strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/wrestler/rusev" title="Rusev">Rusev</a></strong> took to his Twitter account to post this crytpic tweet that has a lot of people talking on social media:</p><p>As previously noted, Rusev was set to make his SmackDown debut a while back but those plans got <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/tag/nixed/" title="nixed">nixed</a></strong> once the company decided to go all out with Jinder Mahal’s championship run. There is no new information on exactly when the company plans to <strong><a href="http://www.ringsidenews.com/tag/bring/" title="bring">bring</a></strong> him back, but we will keep you updated.</p>