The Taz Show Recap – Backlash Predictions, New Champion Will Be Crowned, How Would Taz Get Heat as A Heel Today? More!

Block 1:

A listener calls into the show asking Taz how he’d get heat from fans if he was still wrestling as a heel today. Taz says that first and foremost, it all depends on the type of push he’s receiving. His approach as a heel all depends on whether he is getting pushed as as ‘killer’ heel, a ‘comedic’ heel or a ‘cowardly’ heel. Braun Strowman gets heat in a far different way than someone like The Miz.

The listener also asks Taz if he thinks it’s a good idea as a performer to get some intentional heat backstage, as a way to show your confidence and move up the roster’s depth chart. Taz says that you’ll never see a new talent come into the locker room like a hotshot because quite frankly that would be career suicide. Some veterans can give their opinions and that may result in some heat with another talent, but it’s never intentional.

Tye Dillinger vs. Aiden English – Tye Dillinger
* Taz doesn’t see Dillinger losing this match. The NXT call-up is still getting established on the main roster, and Taz would be very shocked if English picked up the win here.

Luke Harper vs. Erick Rowan – Erick Rowan
* Taz thinks WWE is going to get behind Rowan for a push. He points out that Harper was the recipient of a small push for a period of time, but that has apparently slowed down. Taz isn’t sure why WWE gave up on Harper, because he thinks with a few changes to Harper’s look, he could be a gamer.

The Hardy Boyz Hint at Possible Singles Run In WWE

While speaking with SPORTBible, Matt and Jeff Hardy were asked about the possibilities of each of each of them having a singles run and/or feud.

Jeff responded, “I think the brotherly feuding might be over, I don’t think people really want to see us fight each other but when you think back to the beauty of the Final Deletion, if ever something like that comes into play again then that’s the only way I see us doing something like that but it’s inevitable that we’ll go do our solo things before we’re done but right now it’s all about the tag teams.”

Matt explain why it was necessary to return as a tag team but that eventually he could see he and his brother doing their own thing.

“I think right now our goal, especially starting, coming back, being re-introduced to the WWE Universe after being away for a substantial amount of time, really was to be a tag team,” Matt said.

He continued, “I think down the road there will be potential for both of us doing our own things; we’re both strong singles personalities in many ways, and I think as performers we’ve grown as we’ve got older, we’ve got smarter.”

“Just for starters, if we get to where we need to be, I think ‘Broken’ Matt Hardy against Bray Wyatt would be an amazing deal, and you look at him [Jeff] – him vs Seth Rollins, him vs Finn Balor, either one of us vs Roman Reigns – there’s a lot of cool, interesting combinations of guys who became stars in the last five or six years that we’ve never worked against, it’s totally like a fresh slate. So there’s a lot of potential forces as singles competitors also.”

Reby Sky Has Heated Exchange with Dutch Mantell Over “BROKEN” Gimmick

Dutch Mantell responded to a fan on Twitter that said if Matt Hardy had a case over the rights to the “Broken” gimmick, Hardy would’ve seen a judge by now:

Reby Sky responded to Mantell’s remarks with the following:

“Someone please tell me if this is this MFer’s actual twitter. So I should let our attorneys know TNA is ready & eager to go to court NOW. And I assume YOU’LL be picking up court cost$ for TNA’s team ? As cute as it is to watch @DirtyDMantell play into the naivety of most fans, no; it is not smart – financially or otherwise to take……ANYTHING ‘straight to court’ without trying to reach resolution by other means first. @DirtyDMantell, maybe you should STFU before you……COMPLETELY ruin any chance of a deal being made by the lawyers your dumbass company pays VERY HANDSOMELY per hour for @DirtyDMantell ***OR*** We can “get in front of a judge” right tf now because fcking Dutch Mantel is legal counsel all of a sudden LMAO. ! @EdNordholm, might wanna check ya boy @DirtyDMantell out here making ur uphill battle even steeper ? I won’t even charge u for that advice.”

Mantell fired back with the the following tweet:

Reby then responded:

Original Plans for the WWE Universal Title at WrestleMania

Chris Jericho revealed on Busted Open Radio that original plans for him at WrestleMania 33 saw him winning the WWE Universal Title from Kevin Owens. This obviously didn’t happen and plans got changed because Vince McMahon wanted to put the title on Goldberg instead.

According to Jericho, he would have defeated Owens and then drop the title to Brock Lesnar at the next RAW-brand pay-per-view event, Payback.

Also during Jericho’s appearance on Busted Open Radio, he revealed that he pitched the idea of wrestling a match against Shinsuke Nakamura at WrestleMania.

Becky Lynch Addresses Total Divas Rumors

While speaking to Josh Barnett of USA Today, Becky Lynch was asked about the rumors of her possibly joining the cast of WWE Total Divas now that there has a spot open on the cast.

When asked about the rumors, Lynch responded, “Honestly, you’re the first person that’s said that to me. I haven’t heard anything about that. … I think there’s a certain – not a whole lot – but a certain amount of mystery of me that I don’t really envision that as the best option for me to take part in. It’s a tremendous opportunity for those that do it, I just don’t know that it’s my thing. When I envisioned my life as a little girl, that was never in my horizons. I’m going to stay with what I want in the future. I don’t see that being reality TV.”

As previously reported, Eva Marie is done appearing on the show and Paige’s status on the show is in question. Charlotte has been rumored as one of the replacements on the show.

Reasons Why Backlash Will Be A Great Show on Sunday

This Sunday, Backlash will grace our screens. Many bemoaned the event’s lackluster build-up. Jinder Mahal is challenging for the WWE Championship. The women’s division is caught in a six-man tag team match that doesn’t look too promising. Many would even say that Smackdown has lost its groove. While it may be true, Backlash still looks exciting. Hopefully the event sets in motion a return to action and excellence for the blue brand. Even if it doesn’t, it looks like it will be hard to be disappointed with Backlash.

Luke Harper Fights Erick Rowan

This doesn’t sound too exciting, I know. Erick Rowan’s wrestling skills are quite pedestrian. It’s hard to imagine him having a match on pay-per-view. Yet here he is. The reason this match has a lot of promise, though, is because of Rowan’s opponent, Luke Harper.

Harper was on a roll on the Road to Wrestlemania. For a while, it seemed like he would be added to the WWE Championship match between Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton. He wasn’t, but fans were behind the big man, and it wasn’t hard to see why. He had an organic face turn in a well-crafted story (that bombed in the end, but it was good for a while), and he is a skilled athlete. He’s tall and heavy, but he can perform frankensteiners and suicide dives as if he was significantly lighter. He was given time to develop his character, and the fans loved it. Combine all of this with Erick Rowan’s unsettling Talking Smack promo, an you have a match with a surprising amount of potential.

Rowan is the potential perfect counterpart for Harper. Harper will shine in this match, which is what many of us want to see. Hopefully their styles can mesh well and they can deliver a good match.

Breezango Is Getting a Championship Match

People often talk about Cesaro or Sami Zayn being underutilized. They may be, but at least they appear on TV regularly. Not Breezango, though. Last month, many people even forgot they existed. Fandango has been on the roster for almost a decade. How many Fandango matches can you name?

Both Tyler Breeze and Fandango are criminally underrated performers. Wrestlers like Dolph Ziggler have praised Breeze’s skill. He was part of a 5-star match, for goodness’ sake. As for Fandango, he’s not even bad in the ring. He’s more than capable of having good matches. Together both men work well, and their charisma and charm works well. They’re also quite funny, and it’s nice to see them getting such a high-profile match.

However, standing in their way is the Usos. Many people didn’t like them, but the Usos are quite skilled at this whole “wrestling” thing. Look back at their matches with American Alpha over the Tag Team Championship. Those were TV matches, but by god they felt like PPV quality matches. It’s insane.

The two teams had an exciting contest last year on the Battleground pre-show, so there’s no reason for them not to have another good match.

Bischoff on Wrestling Recap – Orton’s Tweets, Wrestling’s Changing Landscape, Are There Too Many Titles in WWE? More!

Eric Bischoff is joined on today’s show by his co-host Nick Hausman.

Bischoff opens today’s show speaking about the tweets sent out by Rip Rogers and Randy Orton last weekend. He says that for the most part, he agrees with the points made by both men. He says that he has always liked Orton and he has a lot of respect for Orton personally and professionally.

On the other hand, for as long as Bischoff can remember, veteran performers have had an issue with the young wave of performers that were making their way into the business.

When he was working in WCW, veteran performers in their late 30s and 40s at that time were complaining about guys like Chirs Jericho and Rey Mysterio Jr., because those guys were bringing a new element to the wrestling business and it was different compared to what the veteran performers were accustomed to. Bischoff says that this cycle appears to repeat itself in 5-7 year cycles.

Lana & Sasha Banks Engage In Twitter Drama

There was some drama today on Twitter after Lana liked the following tweets made by former WWE Diva Melina:

Fans saw Lana liking these tweets and took it as her dissing Sasha Banks. Lana sent out the following tweet in regards to the backlash from fans:

Sasha then sent out the following tweet in response to Lana:

Sasha, Summer Rae and their friends then started using the “#BL2017” hashtag, which means “Block Lana 2017” after Lana tweeted on how she would block anyone who left negative comments for her:

Speculation on Sister Abigail Coming to WWE

Erick Rowan posted a cryptic photo of a female wearing a trademark Wyatt Family mask. This has led to online speculation that that individual pictured could possibly be the long teased Sister Abigail character that Bray Wyatt is always talking about in his promos.

As of this writing, we haven’t heard of any plans for WWE to have a Sister Abigail character, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that there won’t be plans in the future. We will keep you posted if we hear anything.