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Steve Austin Reacts to Jason Jordan Being Kurt Angle’s Son
Steve Austin made the following remarks on the latest installment of his podcast about the big angle storyline involving Kurt Angle with Jason Jordan being revealed as Angle’s son:
“I like the fact that they are shooting a hell of a big angle. They got a lot of negative responses but hey man, it was a big-time response seemingly from everybody. Big time angle, lot of rub for the kid. He’s a good-looking guy, read about him when I was coming over here to talk to you on the podcast. Outstanding credentials as an amateur, could possibly have a bright future ahead of him and if it is done off the back of this angle, more power to the kid, good luck to him. Is this leading to a betrayal of Kurt’s trust or somebody trying to set him up to oust him from his position? And will it result in Kurt Angle returning to the ring to wrestle at a big-time Pay-Per-View?”
You can listen to the full podcast at this link.
Darren Young Returning to Action Soon
PWInsider reports that Darren Young is expected to be cleared to return to in-ring competition next month. Darren underwent elbow surgery back in January after he suffered an injury during a WWE Main Event match against Epico back on January 16th.
Young posted the following video as he continues working towards his return:
Here is footage of Darren suffering the injury that currently has him sidelined:
Jinder Mahal Says He Sees Himself Main Eventing WrestleMania
WWE Champion Jinder Mahal recently spoke to PhillyVoice where he talked about his upcoming Punjabi Prison title match with Randy Orton at this Sunday on WWE Battleground. He also talked about the hardships he faced in his career, and how he overcame them.
Speaking of his upcoming Punjabi Prison match in Philadelphia, he said:
“I love performing in Philly. The fans aren’t scared to voice their opinions. Sometimes their opinions are split, sometimes half the crowd is chanting one thing, sometimes half the crowd is chanting the other. But, you know, I look forward to it. I really don’t know how they’re going to react. That’s what’s going to make the match exciting. I don’t know if they’re going to boo me out of the building or if they’re going to boo Orton out of the building.
I do definitely know for sure they’re going to enjoy the match. It’s a Punjabi Prison match and it hasn’t happened in 10 years, and the structure is truly a monstrosity. I brought the Punjabi Prison this week on SmackDown, and it’s a spectacle. You’ve got to be there live just to appreciate the sheer size of it. It is a very risky match – for example, I went a little bit earlier and climbed the cage; it’s high and I’m scared of heights – but I know the Philly crowd is going to be rocking that night and I gotta do what I gotta do. I’m going to take the risks that I have to take to retain the WWE Championship.”
Mahal said that he was focused on improving even before his return and that he has not even “hit his prime yet”. He also added that he sees he has more title runs coming up for him in the future and how he aspires to be a future WWE Hall of Famer. He also talked about his role on NXT and how Triple H worked hard to promote NXT as its own separate brand rather than just a developmental brand.
When asked where he sees himself in a year:
“In one year, I see myself as already main eventing WrestleMania, still WWE Champion, and you know what, I see Drew McIntyre being on SmackDown. I think that Drew McIntyre will be challenging me for my WWE Championship. That’s where I see myself in one year.”
When asked about his run as part of 3MB and what he thinks of Drew McIntyre’s journey so far:
Drew’s one of my best friends. We’re always texting back and forth. Just to think a couple years ago, we were considered a joke and failures. I’ll be frank about it. I considered myself a failure when I got released from WWE after 3MB just because I didn’t live up to my potential. I didn’t live up to the expectations that I set for myself. I was going to come back with redemption and that’s exactly what I did.
And I know that’s what Drew’s doing. He took [being released] very personally and when he was on the independents, he was the hardest-working man on the independents and the most-traveled man on the independents. And you know, now he has a shot at Bobby Roode for the NXT Championship on SummerSlam weekend. I know he’s gonna do great. He’s going to become the NXT Champion. He’s going to become WWE Champion. And, you know, there’s always peaks and valleys. Three years ago, that was a valley. Now we’re at the peak and we’re still on the rise.
You can check out the full interview here.
Matt Sydal Suffers Injury at GFW Impact Tapings
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that Matt Sydal suffered a dislocated shoulder at the most recent set of GFW Impact Wrestling tapings.
While there are no exact details of how the injury occurred, it’s believed that it may have happened during the last mach of the tapings. That match featured Sydal teaming with Sonjay Dutt & Alberto El Patron to take on the team of Trevor Lee, Low Ki and Bobby Lashley.
Sydal worked an indie match last week in Israel but was limited in what he was able to do inside of the ring. He is currently scheduled to face Ricochet at a UK indie show tonight.
Favorites to Win at Sunday’s WWE Battleground Event
Here are the current bedding odds for Sunday’s WWE Battleground event, courtesy of Bet Wrestling. These betting outcomes will most-likely changed several times between now and Sunday.
(Note: The lower the number, the more favorable they are in winning the bout)
WWE Championship – Punjabi Prison Match
Jinder Mahal (c) -333 vs. Randy Orton +220
WWE United States Championship
AJ Styles (c) -300 vs. Kevin Owens +188
Smackdown Tag Team Championship
The Usos (c) +163 vs. The New Day -227
Flag Match
John Cena -1000 vs. Rusev +500
Fatal 5 Way for the Smackdown Women’s Championship #1 Contendership
Charlotte +120 vs. Lana +200 vs. Becky Lynch +230 vs. Tamina +350 vs. Natalya +1000
Shinsuke Nakamura -250 vs. Baron Corbin +175
Aiden English +150 vs. Tye Dillenger -200
Sheamus Talks About His Relationship With Cesaro
On the recent episode of Talk Is Jericho ‘Sheamus And Cesaro’, one-half of the WWE RAW Tag Team Champions Sheamus spoke about his relationship with Cesaro and how they got close after their team of Sheamus and Cesaro came together and how they found great mutual respect for each other:
“We had a lot of respect for each other. I don’t think we were super close or anything, but we’re both Europeans, kind of the same background, and we get here. From wrestling each other enough, we both definitely had a lot of respect. Do you know what I mean? I think there has always been a competition between us and that’s a great thing because you always want to try to one up each other.”
He also talked about how their characters evolved their relationship through time and the ‘odd couple’ kind of fighting their team did:
“It [has] definitely been an evolution from when we started, but even when we were tagging, there was that thing of like the odd couple kind of fighting each other and we wanted to push it. We didn’t get the opportunity to push it as much as we wanted because you have a segment and it’s taken away. Do you know what I mean? And so, like, people were enjoying it. Do you remember the boo/yay stuff? The boo/yay stuff was great!”
You can check the rest of the podcast here.
Possible Spoiler on the Mystery Team for WWE Battleground
As seen on Tuesday’s SmackDown Live, WWE announced that the conclusion of The Fashion Files will take place at Sunday’s WWE Battleground event.
Dave Meltzer mentioned on today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Radio that the mystery team behind the segments will possibly be revealed as Luke Harper and Eric Rowan. Meltzer mentioned that neither one of them haven’t been used on television for a while and this would be a good opportunity to bring them back.
Meltzer also said that there is always the chance that they could bring up a team from NXT such as Sanity to be revealed as the mystery team.
Bischoff on Wrestling LIVE Recap – Talking Smack’s Cancellation, Favourite nWo Member, Lesnar Returning to UFC? More!
On this special ‘1 Year Anniversary’ edition of the show, Bischoff and his co-host Nick Hausman go live in order to answer fan questions.
To start the show, Bischoff says he’s very grateful that Shane McMahon emerged without injury from a forced landing in a helicopter yesterday. He says he doesn’t know McMahon well, but he knows how much McMahon loves his wife and kids and he was certainly thinking about them during that situation yesterday. In typical McMahon fashion, Shane didn’t really sell anything during his news interview, and Bischoff says that only Shane could top his Hell in the Cell leap by falling out of the sky in a helicopter.
A listener calls into the show and asks Bischoff how WWE can get back to the days when they were doing 6.0 and 7.0 ratings. Bischoff says that things have changed so much in the world of entertainment since those days, and there are so many alternative ways to consume programming these days. He doesn’t think we’ll ever see those types of numbers again, and with respect to the current television landscape, Bischoff thinks that WWE is ‘blowing it out of the water’.
Another listener calls into the show and asks Bischoff who his favourite member of the nWo was. He says that Hulk Hogan is his best friend, but he also really enjoyed Scott Hall’s performance as a member of the nWo. Hall brought a lot to that group, and then his pairing with Kevin Nash resulted in a terrific tandem. Hall and Nash’s pairing is a perfect example of 1+1=5.