shows
The Ross Report Recap w/ Bruce Mitchell – Battleground Analysis, Fatal 4-Way Sure to Deliver, Are There Too Many PPVs? More!
Ross says that while this past Sunday’s Battleground PPV has been widely criticized by fans and critics alike, he doesn’t believe any of that should be placed at the feet of the talent who he thought worked very hard on Sunday night. He believes we’re living in a society where the glass is always half empty, when in reality it could be half full as well.
He says that sometimes WWE has the tendency to book themselves into a corner, and that might have been the case this past Sunday. With a Flag Match and a Punjabi Prison match, WWE removed the drama of false finishes and this might have been a negative to the show’s overall presentation.
He thought Kevin Owens and A.J. Styles had a very good match, but there was an intangible missing and that prevented it from being great. He says that if he was booking a territory today two of the first individuals he’d want to sign are Owens and Styles. Ross also thought Cena & Rusev worked hard in their match despite the live crowd being somewhat uninterested.
Ross thought all the women worked hard in their match as well and while Natalya winning was a surprise, Ross thinks this was a great booking decision by WWE. Charlotte is obviously the alpha female in WWE right now but she needs opponents, so Ross thinks it’s only a matter of time before this Natalya win results in a positive situation for Charlotte.
Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Battleground Analysis, Corbin’s Sloppiness, WWE Dropping the Ball with Rusev, More!
Russo is joined on today’s show by Skull Von Crush (Big Vito), his old co-host from Vicious Vincent’s World of Wrestling in the early 90’s. They will discuss Sunday’s Battleground PPV.
Russo says that without entertaining characters and in depth storylines, these shows are just full ok fake fights. That’s not what made him a fan of wrestling many years ago, and he believes that’s a big reason why so many mainstream fans have left the product over the last several years.
He thought the opening match of the show between The Usos and The New Day was a very exciting match and all the guys worked hard, but they started the show at such a high octane pace, that it almost made it impossible to follow. He also says the one superkick that was delivered to Xavier Woods from across the ring looked incredible and it looked like it should have legitimately killed him. Having him kick out of a spot like that doesn’t do anything good for the business.
Vito says that he agrees entirely and he felt that this match negatively affected the matches that followed. He thought the match between A.J. Styles and Kevin Owens was the worst match he’s ever seen Styles work, and that should never be the case because Owens is a good worker as well. The finish of this match was so anti-climatic after all the false finishes we saw in the opening match of the show.
The Ross Report Recap w/ Dave Meltzer – Mae Young Classic, Strowman vs. Lesnar, Young Bucks & Omega in WWE, More!
Ross opens today’s show speaking about his recent experience calling the Mae Young Classic, which was taped last week in Orlando. He says he had a tremendous time calling that action, and he really bought into all of the women after personally interviewing each of them prior to their matches. Their stories were very captivating to him, and it was hard to not get emotional from time to time.
Ross mentions that he spoke to his old friend Mauro Ranallo while he was in Orlando as well, and he’s very happy for Ranallo for the success he is having. Ranallo’s been given another opportunity in WWE as the lead commentator of NXT, and has recently been given the assignment of calling the upcoming Mayweather/McGregor match as well.
Ross welcomes Dave Meltzer to the show.
Meltzer touches on the Mae Young Classic as well, saying that there are fewer opportunities for women in the wrestling business outside of WWE, and that’s why this opportunity means so much to the majority of them.
Ross admits that calling 30 matches in two nights was a marathon, but the audience was terrific throughout and that kept him motivated and right in the middle of the action. He says it was a very unique experience for him, and he can’t wait for everyone at home to have an opportunity to watch it.
Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Charlotte Struggling on Smackdown, Wrestling Needs Gimmicks, Does Enzo Have Heat Backstage? More!
Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane, and they will attempt to ‘castrate the marks and their dirt sheets’.
Russo points out that this is all in good fun for him, and he doesn’t hate any of these men. Unfortunately, there seems to be some real hatred on the other side of the fence from guys like Wade Keller, Ryan Satin and Mike Johnson. To show his respect to Dave Meltzer, whose father passed away this week, Russo will not be discussing Meltzer’s comments this week.
The first clip of the day presents Bryan Alvarez ranting about the fact that WWE broke up Enzo and Big Cass. Alvarez says that there’s no wonder WWE’s ratings are declining when they decided to break up one of the more popular acts on their roster due to their constant search for ‘heat’.
Russo says that there’s something political going on in the background. He’s heard rumblings of Amore’s backstage issues stemming back to his time in NXT and that probably carried over to the main roster. Quite frankly, Alvarez is right in this case because Enzo and Cass were over, and the fans loved them. However, Russo’s smart enough to understand that heat draws money, and since Cass turned on Enzo the fans have been chanting Enzo’s name with more passion than ever before.
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.
John Cena Announced for Upcoming RAW Event
Many of you are aware now that John Cena is being billed as a “free agent” and the company plans to have him work both RAW and SmackDown brand shows moving forward.
Cena has just been announced for the first RAW-brand event for July 15th at a WWE Live Event. Cena is scheduled to face Bray Wyatt on the card. It is possible that the company starts adding him to even more RAW and SmackDown events as he gets closer to his July 4th return to the company.
The Ross Report Recap w/ John Pollock – Extreme Rules Analysis, Delivering on ‘Extreme’ Expectations, Ross to Call Samoa Joe vs. Brock Lesnar?…
Ross opens today’s show by speaking about the fact that wrestling commentary teams continue to document the length of every Title reign. He can only assume that the higher-ups in each promotion want to have those stats discussed, but it’s starting to bother Ross because he doesn’t think it’s a necessary talking point.
He says that he was pleased to see Samoa Joe emerge victorious form the Fatal 5-way match at Extreme Rules, because he thinks a match between Joe and Brock Lesnar is a real money maker. He can’t wait to see how WWE decides to book this program because if it’s done correctly, Ross thinks this can be a massive success for Joe, Lesnar and WWE as a whole.
Ross thought that all five men in that Fatal 5-way match came out of it stronger than they went into it. All five competitors had their chance to shine and none of them were really sacrificed to highlight another. He gives each man credit for carrying their weight Sunday night and delivering a terrific match.
Bischoff on Wrestling Recap – ‘Table for 3’ with Jim Cornette, Ending the NWO, Debuting as RAW GM, More!
Bischoff says that he has received very favourable reviews of his ’Table for 3’ appearance with Jim Cornette and Michael ‘PS’ Hayes from last Monday night. He says that he general consensus is that fans want more, but he’s not sure that he and Cornette have more of those shows in them.
He says that Cornette is funny, articulate and very intelligent. However, he’s very opinionated as well, so that can rub some people the wrong way at points. Before they began taping, Cornette told Bischoff that he was going to ‘come at him’ and Bischoff told him to bring it on because first and foremost he wanted the show to be entertaining.
Bischoff says that he likes Cornette. Sure, they’ve had some differences and they’ll never be best friends, but he’d embrace the opportunity to debate Cornette again at some point in the future.
Bischoff thought that Hayes did a great job as the middle man between him and Cornette during this show. The last time he did a show like this with Hayes, he was so drunk that he could barely talk. Luckily, Hayes was completely sober during this show and even though he dressed like a ‘gay hooker’, he did a great job.
Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Analyzing Bash at the Beach 2000, Getting ‘Screwed’ by Bischoff & Hogan, Shoot or Work? More!
Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane. On this episode, Russo will discuss the events leading up to and during WCW’s Bash at the Beach PPV on July 9th, 2000.
Lane says that he was 21 years old at the time and he watched this PPV live. He thought the entire thing was a shoot and even the dirt sheets reported that it was a shoot at that time. It wasn’t until years later when he was smartened up by a friend, who Russo had told that the whole thing was a work. Russo says that even to this day, people ask him if that angle was a work or not.
Russo says that he never watches his old shows because it really hurts him to do so. For so long people have criticized him for ‘killing WCW’ and while it never made any sense to him, he allowed it to get to him. After watching this show, he thinks that premise is hilarious. This PPV occurred three months before he left the company, and the audience is insanely hot and 100% into the product for the entire duration of the show.
He says that the more he thinks about it, he was completely set up by Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan. The things that he’s about to say regarding Bischoff on his show today are not new, and he’d say it to Bischoff’s face if Bischoff were to come on the show to discuss it.