Roman Reigns

Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Family Before Wrestling, Ripping on His Son, When did Wrestlers Become Marks? More!

Russo mentions that he can’t stop thinking about the new Kevin Owens documentary, where Owens was shown backstage after his Universal Title win crying with Sami Zayn, Triple H and others. He talked about this on his show yesterday, and it’s been stuck in his head ever since. He can’t believe that ‘professional’ wrestlers are crying backstage over being scripted to win a fake Title.

Russo informs that he has worked with some of the biggest stars the industry ever produced. King Kong Bundy, Hogan, The Rock, Austin, they were all professionals. They came to work every day, did their job, and went home at the end of the night. They carried themselves perfectly, and they knew that they were working in the entertainment business.

Somewhere along the line, the wrestlers became marks. He knows that this doesn’t apply to all the performers, because he doesn’t picture guys like Braun Strowman or Roman Reigns acting this way. For the most part however, today’s generation of wrestlers are taking themselves and the business so seriously that they forget about the actual important things in life.

Favorites to Win at WWE Great Balls of Fire

Here are the current betting odds for the upcoming WWE Great Balls of Fire event, which will most-likely change several times between now and Sunday.

WWE Universal Championship: Brock Lesnar(c) -1667 (favorite) vs Samoa Joe +700

RAW Women’s Championship: Alexa Bliss(c) -278 (favorite) vs Sasha Banks +170

Intercontinental Championship: The Miz(c) -278 (favorite) vs Dean Ambrose +170

RAW Tag Team Championship: Cesaro and Sheamus(c) +125 vs Matt and Jeff Hardy -189 (favorites)

Ambulance Match: Roman Reigns -137 (favorite) vs Braun Strowman +100

Seth Rollins +125 vs Bray Wyatt -175 (favorite)

Enzo Amore +175 vs Big Cass -250 (favorite)

Speculation on Nakamura vs. AJ Styles at SummerSlam

After their teased angle during the Money in the Bank ladder match a couple weeks back, it’s being speculated that Nakamura will face AJ Styles at this year’s SummerSlam event. Bryan Alvarez discussed the possibilities of this match taking place when a listener called in asking about it going down.

Alvarez said, “I think that is the match. I would say with some degree of confidence that you’re gonna see Styles and Nakamura against each other at SummerSlam. That was the whole idea behind the tease they did at the Money In The Bank show.”

Other matches rumored for the event include Cena vs. Jinder Mahal and Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns. We will keep you updated if we hear of any other matches that are expected to be added to the card.

Possible Spoiler for Tonight’s Episode of RAW

As previously noted, Roman Reigns will be kicking off tonight’s episode of RAW to make his SummerSlam announcement. It’s being speculated that Roman will announce that he wants to face the winner of the Great Balls of Fire pay-per-view match of Samoa Joe vs. Brock Lesnar.

With Braun Strowman now being cleared to return to action, Bryan Alvarez speculated on today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Live that Strowman will return on tonight’s show to continue his feud with Roman Reigns. It’s expected that this will lead to another match with between the two, with the winner getting a shot at the Universal Title at SummerSlam.

Speculation on John Cena Facing Roman Reigns at SummerSlam

Following the announcement of John Cena being a “free agent” and appearing on both RAW and SmackDown, there was a lot of online speculation that the company may be setting something up between Cena and Roman Reigns for this year’s SummerSlam event. However, we can now confirm doesn’t appear to be the case.

Dave Meltzer was asked on the latest installment of Wrestling Observer Radio about the speculation between a match between the two at this year’s blockbuster summer event. Meltzer said that he was told that Cena will not be Reigns opponent for the event.

As previously noted, there is speculation that Cena will face Jinder Mahal for the WWE Title at this year’s SummerSlam event, despite Cena appearing for both brands moving forward.

Roman Reigns Blasts His Critics on Twitter

Some of Roman Reigns’ critics have gotten under his skin today as he took the time to blast a couple of them on Twitter. Here is what transpired:

Current Plans for Brock Lesnar and the WWE Universal Title

As previously reported, Samoa Joe’s opportunity for the WWE Universal Title against Brock Lesnar at the Great Balls of Fire event is expected to be a one-off match with no followup match planned. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that the company has plans for Brock to defend the WWE Universal Championship against Braun Strowman at the SummerSlam event this summer.

Speaking of Brock, he’s expected to eventually have matches with both Seth Rollins and Finn Balor before he has his match against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania next year. Market conditions and injuries could potentially change these plans.