WWE heads to the AT&T Center in San Antonio, TX for tonight’s episode of SmackDown Live. Here are the focus points for tonight’s show:
What will be the fallout of AJ Styles capturing the United States Title?
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin
Check back here at 8PM ET for our live play-by-play coverage of SmackDown Live.
Welcome to Monday Night Raw, one night removed from the first-ever Great Balls of Fire PPV!
The biggest talking-point coming out of Great Balls of Fire last night was the massive segment between Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman. Braun won the ambulance match after Roman went for a spear and missed, sending him flying into the back of the ambulance allowing Strowman to close the doors. Roman immediately burst out of the ambulance and threw Braun inside, then proceeded to drive the ambulance into the parking lot and ram it into a production truck. Roman pretty much tried to kill Braun and walked away. Paramedics and firemen arrived and opened the ambulance up, allowing Braun to emerge bloody and beaten, but walk away under his own power. It was an incredible sight that would have been right at home in the Attitude Era. Braun looked like an absolute monster, and so did Roman…for the wrong reasons. Roman was undeniably heelish and the announcers played on this, so Roman will surely have to answer to Kurt Angle tonight.
In the main event of last night’s show, Brock Lesnar defeated Samoa Joe after being beat down for the better part of the match. Joe attacked Brock before the bell even rung and smashed him through the announce table. Joe then had the majority of offence throughout the match until Lesnar caught him with an F5 and took home the gold. It was a really good match that never quite reached 5th gear. Word is that we will get a number one contender match tonight between Joe and Roman, leading to a match with Brock at SummerSlam. I think it’s fair to say Joe would be the deserving and preferable winner for most fans.
Alexa Bliss also retained her Women’s Championship against Sasha Banks last night, in a match in which she dislocated her own elbow to get a cheap shot on Sasha. In the end, Sasha won the match via count-out, allowing Alexa to retain. This certainly allows the feud to continue, seemingly into SummerSlam, where maybe Nia Jax will be inserted. There’s a lot of directions the women’s division could head in right now and it’s pretty cool.
The Miz also retained his Intercontinental Championship last night against Dean Ambrose once again. Surely this feud is over now, it’s gone on well past its peak and I think interest is pretty much non-existent. The Miz will hopefully move on to a new opponent for SummerSlam, maybe Finn Balor. Speaking of moving on, Sheamus & Cesaro beat The Hardy Boyz again in an Iron Man match last night. This has been a great feud but it’s expiration date arrived last night and it’s time for both teams to move on.
There’s a lot to be excited about for tonight’s Raw as we start our trek towards SummerSlam! Let us know your thoughts or feelings on our Ringside Talk app, or on the Ringside News app! Enjoy the show!
TMZ has leaked audio from the incident at the Orlando airport that involved Alberto El Patron and Paige.
The audio starts off with El Patron telling Paige to “call the cops.”
“Call the cops,” El Patron said. “Let’s do it. Get the cops.”
Paige starts crying before she yells, “Just stay out of my life. Leave me the f-ck alone. I’m trying to get away from you!”
El Patron would then tell her that he’s pressing charges against Paige and told a witness nearby to call the police because Paige assaulted him and needs to be arrested.
This isn’t necessarily adding up to what Paige posted on Twitter. Paige tried to play it off as if the two weren’t fighting and that they were going to call a police on someone that threw a drink at El Patron.
Judging by the audio released, that doesn’t appear to be the case.
PWInsider reports that there is talk backstage at RAW that Cedric Alexander will take on Noam Dar in an “I Quit” match on tomorrow’s episode of 205 Live.
This match is slated to be their blow off to end their feud, which has centered around Alicia Fox.
Kurt Angle announced on tonight’s episode of RAW that Samoa Joe will face Roman Reigns on next week’s episode of RAW. The winner of that match will face Brock Lesnar at the upcoming WWE SummerSlam event for the Universal Championship.
As of this writing, no other matches or segments have been announced. We will keep you updated if they announce anything.
Former WWE Superstar & current GFW Champion Alberto Del Rio was detained by police in Orlando yesterday according to witnesses. PWInsider contacted the local police and was issued this statement:
“There was an incident at Orlando International Airport at about 3 p.m. Sunday involving Jose Rodriguez (DOB 5/25/1977) The reported incident was a domestic violence battery, and it is still under investigation. No arrests have been made as of this time, but the case remains open. That is all the information we have for release at this time.”
Additionally, TMZ reports that an eyewitness said that “there was an altercation” between El Patron and a female companion. While cops have not released the woman’s identity, a witness says Paige was at the airport with El Patron.
Many of you may have aware that there hasn’t been any pyros being used on WWE television lately. It was most noticeable at Sunday’s WWE Great Balls of Fire event when Brock Lesnar was making his signature entrance to the ring and no pyros went off and all you heard was Brock’s scream.
Dave Meltzer discussed the reason why pyros haven’t been being used on WWE programming lately during the Mailbag segment of today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Radio. Meltzer claims that WWE decided to stop using pyros as a cost-cutting measure. The company believes the pyros aren’t needed so they just stopped using them.
There was a huge shift in the betting odds for the WWE Women’s Championship prior to tonight’s Great Balls of Fire event.
Sasha Banks, who was a huge underdog this morning, is now a big favorite to win the bout. Sasha is sitting at a -3250 favorite to defeat Alexa, who is a +1350 underdog.
It should be pointed out that it doesn’t necessarily indicate that she’s winning the title, as she could always win by DQ or countout.
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Tye Dillinger sent out the following tweet after The Miz issued an open invitation to anyone who wanted a shot as his Intercontinental Championship on tonight’s RAW Talk.
Unfortunately for Dillinger, he’s a SmackDown Superstar and the Intercontinental Championship is on the RAW brand. With SummerSlam being a duel branded pay-per-view there is always a chance that the match could take place but it’s not very likely.
Heading into tonight’s WWE Great Balls of Fire event, Bray Wyatt is now the favorite in the betting odds to win his match against Seth Rollins. Here is the updated odds, courtesy of PaddyPower.com:
Brock Lesnar 1/25 (favorite)
Samoa Joe 17/2
Braun Strowman 1/10 (favorite)
Roman Reigns 5/1
Bray Wyatt 1/10 (favorite)
Seth Rollins 15/2
Big Cass 1/14 (favorite)
Enzo Amore 11/2
Alexa Bliss 1/25 (favorite)
Sasha Banks 9/1
Cesaro & Sheamus 1/25 (favorite)
Matt & Jeff Hardy 15/2
The Miz 1/14 (favorite)
Dean Ambrose 11/2
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It was previously reported via Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio that Austin Aries asked for his release from WWE and the company granted it. However that doesn’t appear to be the case.
In the latest installment of Wrestling Observer Radio, Melzter claimed that it was actually WWE’s idea to release Aries from his 3-year contract with the company. The word is that a lot of the writing staff didn’t like him and he appeared to be thrilled when he was handed his release because he wasn’t happy with his current position on the roster.
In regards to his future, Aries can still use his name outside of WWE because he used it prior to signing with the company. Aries is locked into a 90-day period where he is being paid by WWE and can work dates that WWE proves during that time.
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All our Facebook pages have been hacked, stolen and unpublished.
Earlier today some hackers took over our main account that has access to those pages and are removed us from the page settings. We have submitted several tickets to Facebook regarding the hacking and are patiently waiting to hear something back. There is always the chance that we may not be able to recover the accounts.
If you follow us on Facebook, I have opened a new page called “Ringside Talk.” If you guys can all follow it on Facebook, we will be posting our normal updates on that page until we get access back to the page. Please help and spread the word about this to anyone that follows professional wrestling. If you do know someone that works at Facebook or a quick way to get the accounts back, please contact us here.