Dolph Ziggler announced on the WWE Backlash Kickoff pre-show that his match against Nakamura will be the opening match of tonight’s show.
You can check out our live coverage of tonight’s show at this link. We also have our live fan discussion on our new social media site at RingsideTalk.net!
Coming out of Saturday’s NXT Takeover: Chicago event, Bobby Roode is expected to move into a program with Drew McIntyre and the two will feud over the NXT Championship Title.
Another feud moving forward will see Heavy Machinery feuding with The Authors of Pain for the NXT Tag Team Championship Titles.
Triple H mentioned in the post-NXT Takeover: Chicago Q&A on Facebook live that Tommaso Ciampa is dealing with a significant injury. It was not made clear if he was talking about the previous ankle injury that he suffered at Thursday’s NXT Live Event or if it’s something new. We will keep you updated if we hear anything new regarding his situation.
As seen on the May 8th episode of RAW, Sash Banks pinned Alicia Fox, but the the former Divas Champion had a shoulder up outside the ref’s field of vision, which led to Fox getting another shot at The Boss this past Monday night. This time around, Fox won the match.
With Noam Dar at ringside, Fox managed to muscle out of a Bank Statement attempt and nailed Banks in the small of her back with a ruthless Scissor Kick to claim the victory.
For those wondering about Banks losing to Fox, the word going around is that Vince McMahon isn’t high on her like other people are. Therefore, he won’t protect her from losing matches.
While McMahon recognizes the reaction that Banks gets from the crowd and her overall appeal, he believes that she is injury prone because of how she operates in the ring.
It’s also believed that a long title reign is very unlikely for her anytime soon.
Banks became a three-time champion last year, but she didn’t have a successful title defense against Charlotte Flair. A lot of the reasoning behind that is McMahon doesn’t trust her to hold a title for long periods of time.
Banks has a history of back problems and that is a huge huge red flag for McMahon because he sees putting the RAW Women’s Championship on her as a big risk. She’s been hurt or injured quite often and will need to have back surgery eventually.
WWE taped the following tonight for next week’s episode of NXT that will air on the WWE Network:
* Patrick Clark debuted as “The Velveteen Dream” and defeated Robert Anthony.
* Drew McIntyre defeated Wesley Blake with a running kick.
* Aleister Black defeated Curt Hawkins.
While appearing on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, The Rock discussed his new movie Baywatch and possibly running for president of the United States. While he didn’t confirm anything, Rock said that he would have “more poise, less noise” as president.
Tommaso Ciampa suffered an injury at Thursday’s NXT Live Event in Highland Heights, KY.
Ciampa and Johnny Gargano were facing Sanity and after a few minutes into the match, Ciampa dived off the ring apron onto Sanity and hurt his left leg. The match was stopped and ruled a no-contest. Ciampa hopped to the back yelling, “get me the f–k out of here.”
Ciampa and Gargano are scheduled to face NXT Tag Team Champions The Authors of Pain for the titles at NXT: Takeover this Saturday. It’s unknown at this time if that match is still taking place. We will keep you updated.
Update: Triple H brought up Tommaso Ciampa’s injury during today’s conference call and said that Ciampa turned his ankle but there was no break or fracture. The match for tomorrow night is still on but the medical team will make the final decision if Ciampa will be cleared to wrestle or not.
Russo is joined on today’s show by Jeff Lane.
Earlier this week, Dave Meltzer tweeted out that RAW’s rating last week was low due to the fact that the show wasn’t taped live since they were overseas. Russo doesn’t understand why these guys can never admit that a show sucks. The ratings are going down every week, and this week’s ratings weren’t an anomaly. Meltzer needs to stop making excuses for WWE.
Lane also points out that a fan asked Meltzer if WWE had given any thought to the Tag Team Title match main eventing the Extreme Rules PPV. Meltzer answered by saying that those meetings haven’t taken place yet. Russo says that it must be nice for Meltzer to be invited to all of WWE’s meetings. Russo says that Meltzer doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about.
Russo points out that this is the same guy who said that A.J. Styles would be moving to RAW in the latest Superstar Shakeup and that obviously didn’t happen. Meltzer didn’t issue an apologize to his error, and for the fact that he’s ripping off all of his subscribers. He says that all these dirt sheet writers just talk out of their asses.
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.
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.
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.
