WWE officially announced that John Cena will be making his return to WWE programming on the July 4th episode of SmackDown Live.
To combat low ratings, WWE is planning a big show for July 4th with Randy Orton vs. Jinder Mahal, Kevin Owens vs. AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Dolph Ziggler.
WWE announced on tonight’s episode of SmackDown Live that Naomi will defend her SmackDown Women’s Championship against Lana at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view. Here is the updated card for the show:
WWE Championship
Randy Orton vs. Jinder Mahal
SmackDown Women’s Championship
Lana vs. Naomi
Money in the Bank Ladder Match
AJ Styles vs. Baron Corbin vs. Sami Zayn vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Nakamura vs. Kevin Owens
Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match
Tamina vs. Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch vs. Natalya vs. Carmella
SmackDown Tag Team Championship
The New Day vs. The Usos
Money in the Bank will take place on June 18, 2017 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri. As always, we will be providing live play-by-play coverage of the event.
Welcome to the fastest hour on television, 205 Live!
Two nights ago at WWE Extreme Rules Neville battled Austin Aries in a submission match and retained his Cruiserweight Championship. That marked the third time Neville bested Aries and the end of their series. Last night on Raw, TJP asked Neville to hold his end of the bargain and give him a title shot. Neville spoke to Kurt Angle about it, then attacked TJP before telling him he had his shot.
So, on tonight’s show, TJP gets a shot at Neville’s Cruiserweight Championship in what is sure to be a great match and take up the majority of the program. We may also hear from Austin Aries, who is in need of a new direction after losing again.
Also on tonight’s show, will Akira Tozawa join The Titus Brand? And is the drama between Rich Swann and Noam Dar really finished.
Ross opens today’s show by speaking about the fact that wrestling commentary teams continue to document the length of every Title reign. He can only assume that the higher-ups in each promotion want to have those stats discussed, but it’s starting to bother Ross because he doesn’t think it’s a necessary talking point.
He says that he was pleased to see Samoa Joe emerge victorious form the Fatal 5-way match at Extreme Rules, because he thinks a match between Joe and Brock Lesnar is a real money maker. He can’t wait to see how WWE decides to book this program because if it’s done correctly, Ross thinks this can be a massive success for Joe, Lesnar and WWE as a whole.
Ross thought that all five men in that Fatal 5-way match came out of it stronger than they went into it. All five competitors had their chance to shine and none of them were really sacrificed to highlight another. He gives each man credit for carrying their weight Sunday night and delivering a terrific match.
Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane.
Russo says that he’s absolutely sick of the millennials in this world, who are completely stuck up and can’t take a joke. During the Alexa Bliss/Bayley match on Sunday night, Russo tweeted out joking that he’d let Bliss hit him with that pole. For the next few hours he was shelled with backlash online. He says that these people just take the fun out of life, and the world is going to be a scary place when these people have to run it in 10-20 years time.
Speaking about the Intercontinental match between The Miz and Dean Ambrose, Russo thought these two guys did a poor job of making the match feel realistic. Most fans look right past these subtleties, but there were a couple occasions during the match where one of them stood still and let the other attack them when it was obvious they could have moved (Daniel Bryan kick spot for example).
He says that with the rise of MMA and legitimate fights, it’s almost as if wrestling has gone the opposite direction and has become less believable. Russo also says that the finish of this match was poorly executed, with the referee taking an awfully long time before making a decision to disqualify Ambrose. This allowed Miz to attack Ambrose from behind and pick up the pin-fall win.
Many of you may have noticed the absent of The Hardy Boyz on this week’s episode of RAW. For those wondering, Matt and Jeff Hardy had the day off and that’s the reason they were not on RAW. Matt’s wife Reby Sky is due to give birth very soon, so that’s why Matt is home.
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One of our correspondents attended last night’s RAW in Wilkes-Barre and passed along the following live notes:
They Hardy Boys, Sasha Banks and Bayley were all advised for the show but did not appear. This didn’t sit well with some fans.
Tons of people walked out on the show after the Women’s match.
Someone was spotted sleeping during the show.
The boos for Roman Reigns when he came out were incredibly loud. Way louder than they appeared on television.
Overall he said the event was fun but three hours if way too long to sit through, especially if you have people falling asleep during the show.
Ryback is joined on today’s show by his co-host Pat Buck.
Ryback recalls one night during his program against The Authority, when after RAW went off air he was being attacked by everyone in the ring. This was the one time during his WWE run when he thought an opponent was going to take off his weightlifting belt and strap him with it, and he was terrified. Jamie Noble told him after the fact that they considered it but then changed their minds.
Ryback mentions that WWE teased an angle with him versus Triple H for a couple weeks, but eventually they dropped it. Triple H came up and later told him that there was never a plan for them to work with each other, which Ryback appreciated. However, he jokes that he would have liked to work with Triple H to prove to him that he could actually wrestle.
Ryback says that WWE talents don’t get paid to film Table for 3, and they’d often be told that they had to shoot an episode before a live television taping when they’re tired and busy. For this reason, nobody ever really wants to do it, but they suck it up and try to have a good time with each other.
Buck says he’d love to see a Table for 3 featuring Ryback, Triple H and CM Punk. Ryback says he’d love to do an episode with Daniel Bryan and Vince McMahon, because Bryan would be able to keep things civil if things got out of hand between him and McMahon.
During the mailbag segment on today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer was asked about the rumors of Hideo Itami leaving WWE once his contract is up this year. Meltzer mentioned that he didn’t know for sure if Itami would leave, but he could see it happening. Meltzer explained that Itami has a lot of family in Japan and he could see him leaving WWE to head to New Japan.
As many of you are aware, Itami has had several injuries since coming to WWE several years ago. He seems to get hurt every time he builds any momentum on the NXT brand and it sets him back. Several of his peers that joined NXT around the time he did are already on the main roster doing big things while he is still trying to overcome the developmental system. It should be interesting to see how his career plays out in WWE with his contract nearing expiration this year.
As many of you noticed, Finn Balor was not used on this week’s episode of RAW. It’s believed that he was kept off television to sell the impact of the Fatal 5-Way match at Sunday’s Extreme Rules event. Balor did appear after RAW went off the air to make the save for Seth Rollins who was being attacked by Samoa Joe and Bray Wyatt.
