After returning home from the latest European tour, the WWE crew is back in the United States for tonight’s live episode of WWE RAW from Knoxville, Tennessee. Here’s a preview for the show:

– Daniel Bryan returns to address the Authority’s request that he surrender the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

– After pinning Divas Champion Paige, Alicia Fox has her sights set on the gold.

– Tension continues to build between The Shield and Evolution ahead of their showdown at Payback on Sunday.

– Additional hype for Sunday’s pay-per-view, including John Cena’s rivalry with Bray Wyatt.

– How will Fandango handle his former partner Summer Rae feuding with his current partner, Layla?

The advertised dark match main event will see John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt.

Join us here tonight for live coverage of WWE RAW.

The following are highlights of a new Journey Of A Frontman interview with former WWE Superstar Tyler Reks:

Alex Obert: For the wrestlers on the road, how does a ten minute match in the ring compare to a standard workout?

Gabe Tuft: It’s two completely different animals. There is no substitute for in ring conditioning, there’s just none. You can be overweight, you can be skinny, or you can be in super good athletic shape with a great physique, but you may not have ring shape. It’s all about being able to take bumps, there’s really intense stresses that are being put on your body in the ring. And you just cannot compare to that. But building muscle outside the ring is also completely different and it’s necessary because the idea of wrestling is to look at somebody with a decent physique. Sometimes you get guys that are bigger and heavier on purpose and that’s their character, but for the most part, we want to see athletes. So that takes a completely separate regimen. If you’re on the road, doing house shows and TV every week doing a ten, twelve, fifteen minute match, that’s gonna keep your wind up in the ring. But you still need to go and you still need to lift.

Alex Obert: Who were your favorite wrestlers to work out with on the road?

Gabe Tuft: Masters was awesome cause he didn’t miss a day. Hawkins because we rode together all the time. Curtis, currently known as Fandango, another great guy to lift with. Tyson Kidd. Just guys that are really consistent that aren’t afraid to be pushed or to push me. Alex Riley was always in the gym, good guy to work out with. Mason Ryan, obviously huge and an inspiration, I think he was one of my main motivators while I was there. So those guys, great guys to work out with.

Alex Obert: With leaving WWE and starting your own business with Body Spartan, what is your advice for current WWE and TNA wrestlers who might unexpectedly get released and need a game plan so they don’t wind up on the indies in their fifties and sixties?

Gabe Tuft: That’s a tough one. They can always come work for Body Spartan! (laughs) The door is wide open for any of my brothers in the wrestling community to come take part and be apart of the team. But on a separate note, as far as starting a business, I was lucky enough that I have a degree in civil engineering and I’ve always been an internet geek, that I was able to start something from scratch. I started an internet marketing company with my brother in law. I would just say for the guys out there, wrestling is not the end all. There is life after wrestling. You just have to stay motivated. It’s like in the book where I talk about finding motivation for being in the gym, the same goes for life outside wrestling. Gotta be motivated to go make money. Be innovative. Be entrepreneurial. Don’t get caught up in the rat race cause if you’re wrestling, you don’t wanna be in the rat race anyway. You’re meant for something different with all the ways to make money out there. I encourage guys that if that happens, call me, tweet me, I’d be happy to chat with you. I do start ups all the time and we help brand new companies with their branding and with their digital marketing. Any of those guys, man, I’m happy to have a free consult, sit down to do a phone conference, and hopefully get ‘em on the right path.

Alex Obert: Getting into your wrestling career, the first question I have, what was it like on NXT Redemption working main event programs with promo time and lengthy matches?

Gabe Tuft: It was the best thing that ever happened to us. Before, when on Smackdown and RAW, things were happening so quick, we would just sit there and hope for a match. If we got one, it was really short and there’s no time for promos. We couldn’t develop our characters. And all of a sudden, while on the C show, Vince just didn’t care about that. It was obvious because the writers were like, “Well, they don’t care so do whatever you want.” Tom was one of the main writers and he just came up with these great ideas, he came from a soap opera background, so he loved storylines. He was into writing not just a story for this week, but a story for five or six weeks, which as you saw, was something that happened. And we got tons of mic time, long matches, and I loved it. Hawkins loved it. It helped us develop our characters. And we had this miniature cult following and they loved it. Some people on social media were just saying that NXT Redemption was better than RAW and Smackdown. I don’t know if that’s true, but I had a great time. I enjoyed the fact that the fans loved it and they appreciated it and they liked the storylines and matches. We’re not Jerichos, we’re not Ortons, we’re not Cenas, we don’t have that many years under our belt, but we had a good time. And we think it was pretty entertaining.

Alex Obert: What’s your take on why WWE chose to abandon the competition format on NXT Redemption midway through the season and basically turn it into what the WWE version of ECW was?

Gabe Tuft: I think it was just a lack of anybody in a position to make decisions that cared. I just think it was kind of fallen off the radar, they had too much going on. The competition, it just started going on forever. The writers didn’t really think past this week, they never really thought into the future, it’s just what’s going on that week. “Okay, we’ve got Cena to wrestle, we’ve got Orton to wrestle, these guys wrestle. We’ll spend two minutes writing NXT.” That kind of thing. So it just kind of became it’s own different show, the whole competition just suddenly disappeared! (laughs) Nobody had any idea what was going on.

Alex Obert: A true wrestling veteran, William Regal, was apart of NXT Redemption. What did you learn from him?

Gabe Tuft: Regal is just a book of knowledge. And it was little things like ways to engage the crowd, how to pick one single person out of the crowd that was an agitator and to make eye contact, getting that person riled up so the people in the crowd would get riled up, just ways to work the crowd. How to work differently and creatively, how to build a story creatively, how to take our time. There’s a lot of stuff that the vets can offer, a lot of knowledge that you just can’t get in FCW and you can’t get unless you work with the guys in the ring, whether they’re there to compete or watch your matches and give you advice. It was not something that he just dished out. He was quiet at first and then he understood that we cared and we wanted to learn, so he gave us a little more and a little more and before you know it, he was helping us out quite a bit.

Alex Obert: You also worked a lot with Matt Striker on NXT Redemption. What was your relationship with him like backstage?

Gabe Tuft: Striker’s a great guy. He would always pull me aside and give me advice. Him and I are buddies, again, great guy. Another guy with a lot of knowledge, a great amount of knowledge for creating a story that’s interesting, not just going out there and wrestling, but telling a story. It’s just kind of a lost art. That’s what those vets have to offer. And Striker would watch every match and watch every promo Hawkins and I did. He’d sometimes pull me aside or grab me and grab Hawkins and say, “Real quick, just wanted to tell you this, this, this. Maybe try this or may I suggest you talk to the writer and try something like this? You got nothing to lose.” And ninety nine percent of the time, he was right. He just had a ton of good ideas that came to fruition for us.

Check out the complete interview at JourneyOfAFrontman.com.

– The next edition of WrestleMania Rewind, which airs this coming Tuesday on the WWE Network, will look back at Chris Jericho’s performance against the WWE legends at WrestleMania 25, as well as his showdown with Edge at WrestleMania 26.

– The next edition of WWE Countdown, which also airs this coming Tuesday on the WWE Network, will look at the top ten factions in history.

– The Washington Times recently ran a piece that noted Vince McMahon and Linda McMahon have emerged as Republican “mega-donors.” According to public finance reports, the McMahon’s have donated approximately one million dollars to Republican candidates, party committees and super PACs this year, including Karl Rove’s American Crossroads and TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts’ group Ending Spending.

– Below is the official synopsis for the next episode of WWE Legends House, which airs next Thursday on the WWE Network:

“The WWE Legends play a game of ‘How well do you know your roommates?’ Then the group receives a visit from Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels.”

– Despite making several claims to the contrary for the past few months, it looks like the original Sin Cara is finally accepting the fact that he doesn’t have legal ownership of his former WWE ring-name. The former WWE Superstar noted recently that he should probably come up with a new name to “break free from his past characters.”

– Below is the official promotional poster for NXT Takeover, which airs live on the WWE Network on May 29th:

– Despite speculation that Scott Hall’s recent trip to the hospital was a result of the WWE Hall Of Famer falling off the wagon, Hall noted on Twitter that is not the case. Hall revealed that he was at the hospital to get his heart checked out. As noted, Hall was released from the hospital with a clean bill of health.

– The following are this week’s RAW and SmackDown “Slam of the Week” videos, which come courtesy of the official WWE YouTube channel.

– WWE Hall Of Famer Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat recently visited Malaysia to promote WWE’s upcoming tour of that country. Steamboat did a lot of media and even took a tour of Kuala Lumpur, the country’s largest city.

– WWE Hall Of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin recently revealed that he recorded a new “Steve Austin Show” interview with former WWE Superstar Big Van Vader. Vader noted that their discussion, which was recorded on Friday for the podcast that will air next Tuesday, lasted almost six hours.

Potential Spoiler On Chris Jericho Returning To WWE

Chris Jericho was recently at the Accountability Crib to record a new “Talk Is Jericho” podcast with Diamond Dallas Page and Jake “The Snake” Roberts. Speaking of Chris Jericho, the former WWE Superstar recently tweeted out a link to a photo on his official Instagram account, which shows off his latest tattoo. You can check out the photo of Jericho’s new ink below.

• HUGE Main Event For Monday’s RAW + SCOTT HALL At SMACKDOWN This Week?! [>>]

– TNA recently asked fans via their official Facebook page whether they prefer a traditional four-sided ring, or the old six-sided rings that they used to use. It should be noted that most of TNA’s old six-sided rings have been converted to traditional four-sided rings.

– TNA recently gave up approximately 25-percent of their corporate office space they were renting in Nashville, Tennessee. Most of the space that they gave up was previously being used to store TNA merchandise, which is now being kept in a separate warehouse.

Below is the updated official synopsis for WWE’s upcoming “Brothers of Destruction” DVD set on Undertaker and Kane.

“Brothers of Destruction chronicles the long history of the partnership of Undertaker and his half-brother, Kane. Following Kane’s introduction to WWE in the late 90?s, he and Undertaker engaged in bitter battles, before finally uniting as a team known as the Brothers of Destruction. Their on-again, off-again partnership captured the imagination of the WWE universe throughout the next decade, with memorable battles both individually and as a team, against some of the greatest Superstars in WWE history.

This single-disc DVD contains 7 matches featuring the best action from Kane and Undertaker as a tag team spanning from their formation as a team in 2001 through some of their most recent matches in 2008.”

The following three matches are rumored to be involved on the DVD and Blu-ray:

No Disqualification Match for WWE Tag Team Championship: vs. Edge and Christian – Smackdown • April 19, 2001

Steel Cage Match for WCW Tag Team Championship: vs. DDP and Kanyon – Summerslam • August 19, 2001

vs. The Miz and John Morrison – ECW • April 15, 2008

According to one source, there was said to be strong interest from at least one sports channel in signing WWE before the company announced their new deal with NBCUniversal last week.

As the story goes, when the channel heard what WWE wanted in return, they immediately lost interest. It’s being said that WWE greatly overplayed their hand in negotiations from the word “go,” resulting in a lack of legitimate bids from other networks.

The perception within the television industry is that WWE is basically cheap programming that will help a station with ratings.

– As noted earlier, Roman Reigns celebrates his 29th birthday today. Reigns, whose real name is Leati Joseph Anoa’i, was born on May 25, 1985. “#HappyBirthdayRomanReigns” has been trending today on Twitter as a result.

– The latest edition of “WWE Top 10,” which you can view below, looks at the ten biggest examples of “good guys going bad.”

– The Miz returned to action on the final shows of WWE’s European tour and could be back on television this week. Miz was away filming The Marine 4 and is rumored to be paired with as his manager Ric Flair soon.

– John Cena and Cesaro celebrated the end of WWE’s European tour last night in Berlin by drinking beers together in the ring. The WWE crew is traveling back to the United States for tomorrow’s RAW from Knoxville, Tennessee.

– The original Sin Cara (Mistico) is now wrestling in Mexico using the ring name El Misterioso (‘The Mysterious.’) After leaving WWE, he had been telling the media that he would be retaining the Sin Cara name.

– Today’s wrestling birthdays include Bo Dallas (24), Roman Reigns (29) and Alberto Del Rio (37).

– Friday’s episode of WWE SmackDown saw a huge drop in social media activity from the previous week. SmackDown had 416,000 Twitter users tweeting about the show (down 50%) and 1.273 million social impressions (down 45%). Despite the drop, it still ranked #2 for the night Twitter activity.

– Next Saturday night’s Beyond The Ring special on the WWE Network will feature Chris Jericho.

– Every RAW and SmackDown of 2014 through the beginning of April have been added to the WWE Network, so it appears WWE is able to add shows to the Network a month after they air under the new NBCUniversal deal.

Chris Jericho could be on his way back to WWE, according to the new June 2014 issue of WWE Magazine.

One of the feature articles looks at next month’s Money in the Bank pay-per-view, which takes place June 29 in Boston, Massachusetts at the TD Garden. Four Superstars with experience in Money in the Bank matches are profiled, including  Cody Rhodes, Kofi Kingston, Christian and Chris Jericho, who is listed as a ‘current’ WWE Superstar:

“Already with a Hall of Fame-worthy career, Jericho could still use a win at this event to make us forget about some lackluster recent returns to the ring,” states WWE Magazine. A contract cash-in would be just the thing he needs to net him a seventh World title also.”

In recent weeks there have been rumors that Jericho is getting ready for another WWE run. The Wrestling Observer reported back on May 7th that WWE officials contacted Jericho to return, but he was unable to commit due to his touring schedule with FOZZY. ring,

Later that week, Jericho was interviewed by British newspaper The Mirror and spoke about his relationship with the company. “I have a good relationship with the WWE and there’s no animosity, but it’s not like we’re calling each other every day finding out what we had for dinner that night.”

When asked directly about a return to the ring, Jericho said,

“No time soon, I left last July and I’ve been working pretty much non-stop since then between Fozzy tours and doing the new Fozzy record and writing another book and doing my podcasts and a web series. There are a lot of projects in the Chris Jericho pantheon as always. That’s not to say that I won’t go back but I have no plans as of right now, just because I have so much other stuff going on that I’m enjoying. We’ll see, there’s no controversy or animosity it’s more of a timing thing; the timing has to be right for me and right for the WWE as well. When it is I’m sure we’ll both consider me coming back.”

– Hulk Hogan teased during a recent WWE App interview that he may be appearing on Legends House soon. Whether or not he was referring to the current season, which was filmed back in 2012, or a potential future taping of the series, is anyone’s guess.

– The official WWE website recently ran another ranking article, this time looking at the 25 greatest WWE Intercontinental Champions in history. The top ten of the list reads as follows:

10. Tito Santana
9. Randy Orton
8. Pedro Morales
7. Bret Hart
6. Razor Ramon
5. The Honky Tonk Man
4. Mr. Perfect
3. The Ultimate Warrior
2. Chris Jericho
1. Randy Savage

You can check out the complete list at WWE.com.

Former WWE Diva Stacy Keibler is on the cover of the latest edition of “Fit Pregnancy” magazine, showing off her “baby-bump” now that she is pregnant.

Additionally, People.com recently ran an article on Keibler, where she spoke about her pregnancy and husband Jared Pobre. “Before we met, both Jared and I had told our parents we didn’t think we’d ever get married or have kids,” said Keibler. “But when you’re with the right person, everything changes.”

The former WWE Diva continued, “My epiphany happened shortly after Jared and I started dating and, once we both knew, we didn’t hesitate — I just knew I was ready and that there’s no one else in the world I would want to do this with.”

You can check out the complete article at People.com.

– The WWE Payback post-show on the WWE Network will only be a 30-minute show next Sunday night. WWE tried a one-hour post-show for the recent Extreme Rules pay-per-view, but ultimately felt like the show dragged on without a lot happening.

– The following is another clip of the new WWE “Greatest Factions” DVD and Blu-ray. This clip features former ECW faction, “Triple Threat.”

http://youtu.be/gbhs2_fuGUg

– The WWE crew will be flying back to the United States today, as the European tour ended with today’s final live event. The crew will start back with Monday’s RAW in Knoxville, Tennessee, which is the “go-home” edition of the show for the upcoming WWE Payback pay-per-view.

– Pat Patterson appeared at the WWE live event in Strasborg, France, as he served as the special guest ring announcer for the WWE Intercontinental Championship match between Bad News Barrett and Big E. As everybody knows, Patterson was the first ever WWE Intercontinental Champion.

– While still unofficial, WWE has been planning on a Randy Orton vs. Dean Ambrose match for WWE RAW this coming Monday night in Knoxville, Tennessee.

– As we noted recently, Scott Hall checked himself into the hospital earlier this week, but has since been released. Hall will be shooting footage for the WWE Network on Tuesday in Atlanta, Georgia.

Former WWE and WCW talent Diamond Dallas Page recently appeared on The Wrestling Podcast Network. Here are some highlights of what he said about:

“The Resurrection of Jake The Snake” Documentary: “Our goal is to not just make a movie. Our goal coming into this movie is to do an Oscar nominated documentary. That’s our goal. Whether that becomes true or not remains to be seen. I would love to do something with the WWE when it comes to it.”

Teaching DDP Yoga to WWE talent: “Triple H brought me down there about four months ago. I did a seminar with the guys and girls down there and they loved it. Everybody has the program now. It’s great for healing your body. Ryback is another guy that does it (DDP Yoga) and does it consistently too. Ryback is still hitting the weights obviously so he can maintain that massive size that he has. For him, its strength and conditioning, preventive maintenance for his body so he doesn’t break down.”

Kurt Angle has published the third installment of his #MyComeback video series. On this episode, Angle travels with his family to church and addresses his ongoing recovery from substance abuse. In a voiceover, Angle says:

“This afternoon, I’m going to an AA meeting. I go a couple times a week. It really helps me to stay in recovery from addiction.”

“Going to these meetings not only helps myself, but helps others around me. And, I’ve grown stronger with my relationship with God, my family, my wife, and my kids.

“Going to these meetings and staying clean – I know that I’m going to break the cycle so that my kids don’t have to go through this when they grow older. So, this is really important to me.”

“Besides God himself, this is my #1 priority. To stay clean, to stay focused on my recovery and stay focused on my comeback.”

Update On Kurt Angle’s TNA Status: TNA Thinks He Will Re-Sign, WWE Interest?

WWE has announced that Cesaro will challenge Sheamus for the United States Championship at  next Sunday night’s Payback pay-per-view. With that match set, here’s the updated card:

No Holds Barred:
– The Shield vs. Evolution

Last Man Standing:
– John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt

Intercontinental Championship:
– Wade Barrett (c) vs. Rob Van Dam

United States Championship:
– Sheamus (c) vs. Cesaro

Join us here Sunday night, June 1st for Live Coverage of WWE Payback.

Bo Dallas made his re-debut on Friday’s episode of WWE SmackDown from London.

Dallas, who actually made his WWE television debut at the 2013 Royal Rumble, had a short program with Wade Barrett before returning to NXT and eventually becoming the longest-reigning NXT Champion in history.

Bo Dallas also appeared on SmackDown Fallout and spoke to Renee Young about his “unBOlievable” debut:

Fresh off a trip to the hospital where he was given a clean bill of health, WWE Hall of Famer Scott Hall says Triple H has invited him to attend next Tuesday’s SmackDown tapings from Atlanta:

https://twitter.com/scotthallnwo/status/469952538868207616