news

Possible Title Match for This Year’s SummerSlam Event

It looks like Alexa Bliss could be defending her RAW Women’s Championship against Nia Jax at this year’s SummerSlam event.

Bryan Alvarez discussed plans for the RAW Women’s Championship on today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Live. Alvarez speculates that WWE appears to be moving towards a showdown between Bliss and Nia at this year’s SummerSlam event and that’s why they are doing the angles backstage between the two.

Originally the plan was for Sasha Banks to feud with Bayley over the Championship title on the show, but those plans have obviously changed as neither of one of them them are the champion.

We will keep you updated if we receive any other details…

Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Discussing his Restraining Order Against Jim Cornette, Will he Press Charges? More!

Russo was avoiding this discussion and he had no intention of talking about this on his show, but after multiple false reports from wrestling ‘journalists’, he thought he had to clear the air and get the true story out there once and for all.

Speaking about the wrestling ‘journalists’, he points out that not one of them reached out to him to get the actual story after this news broke. Instead, they all took the news and gave their own biased spin on it, which is the polar opposite of respectable journalism. This proved the point that he’s been saying for years, that if you’re paying for the opinions of these guys, you’re wasting your money.

Getting into the heart of the situation, Russo says that he has been ridiculed by Jim Cornette for over two decades. It has been a constant battle between him and Cornette, but in the past couple of weeks Cornette took things to an entirely new level by threatening violence on him and his family.

He says that he only lives roughly two hours from Cornette now, and his wife is often home alone. She was quite upset after Cornette’s recent rant, and Russo felt it was necessary to take matters into his own hands by getting this Order of Protection. Hopefully this allows his wife to relax, and keeps Cornette out of their business for the foreseeable future.

Bellator Fighter Appearing at Sunday’s Slammiversary Event

It was revealed in a 30-minute preview video for Sunday’s Slammiversary event that Bellator’s Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal will be in Lashley’s corner at the event. As noted, Lashley will take on Alberto El Patron for the unified World Championship on the show.

The Taz Show Recap – Bryan Teases A Return to the Ring, Ranallo Back in WWE, Women’s MITB Rematch, More!

Blocks 1 & 2:

A listener calls into the show and asks Taz if he thinks WWE would throw us all a curve ball and have one of the Money in the Bank winners emerge on RAW to cash in their briefcase against Alexa Bliss or Brock Lesnar. Taz admits that would be a very shocking and surprising turn of events, and would make for a very memorable moment.

However, he doesn’t think cashing in on RAW (especially the day after the PPV) is a good idea. He has always been a fan of the Money in the Bank creative, and more often than not the goal is to get as much longevity out of that angle as possible each year. The briefcase holders can use that contract to boost themselves up throughout the year, and the constant threat of cashing in adds intrigue to the product throughout the year as well.

A listener calls into the show and says that he purchased the ROH PPV this past weekend, and this was the first PPV he purchased since 2014. He’s very happy he decided to spend the money on this PPV because it was a great wrestling show. Taz says that he’s a big fan of ROH, and there’s a lot of hard working people who make that company work on a daily basis.

Two Debuts Announced for Slammiversary

Impact Wrestling has announced that AAA stars El Hijo del Fantasma and Drago will team up at Slammiversary in a 4-way match for the IMPACT Wrestling Tag-Team Championship, now held by the Latin American Xchange (LAX). The match will also feature talent from two other international promotions.

Cody Rhodes Asked About Daniel Bryan’s Challenge

While speaking with Sports Illustrated, Cody Rhodes was asked about Daniel Bryan’s challenge to a match once his contract with WWE expires. Cody made the following remarks:

“I don’t think it was a challenge, just fun. Daniel Bryan remains one of my friends. Final Countdown would be a welcomed tune, even as a competitor. I have always looked up to Dan. It would be major, major box office for all involved.”

You can check out the full interview at this link.

Conversation with the Big Guy Recap – Carmella’s MITB Win, Lesnar vs. Samoa Joe, Brainstorming PPV Name Ideas, More!

Ryback is joined on today’s show by his co-host Pat Buck.

Ryback opens today’s show speaking about the finish of the Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match from last Sunday. There has been plenty of fan backlash since James Ellsworth scaled the ladder and retrieved the briefcase for Carmella, but Ryback believes that means the finish was a success.

He believes that people need to realize that this is a fake scenario, and the events that transpire in the ring are meant to elicit a response from viewers, whether they be positive or negative. With this in mind, WWE succeeded last Sunday because the finish of this match has been a hot topic of discussion ever since.

Buck believes that the Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match should have went on later in the show instead of going first. WWE could have taken advantage of the crowd’s energy early on by having a less impactful match go on first, which would have saved the historic women’s match for later on in the show. Ryback points out that WWE needed to separate those two main event ladder matches, so that’s probably why they started the night with the women’s match and closed the night with the men’s match.

Buck also points out that this finish made James Ellsworth relevant again. It looked to be fairly certain that Ellsworth’s WWE contract wouldn’t be renewed after his one year deal was up, but now WWE creative has some options with Ellsworth moving forward. They might be able to stretch this angle out long enough to secure another contract for Ellsworth.

Quite simply, Ryback calls the finish of that match ‘perfect’.

Steve Austin Spotted at Arena for Tonight’s RAW

Our correspondent at tonight’s RAW sent word that Steve Austin has been spotted at the Staples Center. He passed along the following photo:

As mentioned earlier today, WWE is printing “Los Angeles 3:16” t-shirts for tonight’s RAW. It’s being speculated that Austin could possibly be making an appearance on tonight’s show. Austin lives in the area and sometimes attends WWE shows and conducts interviews with the wrestlers for his podcast.

Gauntlet Match Announced for Tonight’s RAW

Mike Rome announced on Twitter that Nia Jax, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Emma, Mickie James and Dana Brooke will participate in a Gauntlet match on tonight’s episode of RAW. The winner of that match will move on to face Alexa Bliss for the RAW Women’s Championship at the Great Balls of Fire event.

Also confirmed for tonight’s show is a Miz TV segment featuring Lonzo and Lavar Ball. As always, we will have play-by-play coverage of the event. Coverage kicks off at 8PM ET!