WWE Battleground is just days away and we’ve got an updated look at the betting odds for each match on the card, courtesy of 5Dimes.com and WWELeaks.org:
Dean Ambrose (-260) is favored to retain the WWE Championship over Seth Rollins (+390) and Roman Reigns (+450)
Odds are even for Kevin Owens (-120) and Sami Zayn (-120)
John Cena, Enzo and Big Cass (-400) are favored to defeat AJ Styles and The Club (+325)
Becky Lynch (-400) is the favorite over Natalya.
Darren Young (-190) is slightly favored to defeat The Miz (+150) for the Intercontinental championship
Rusev (-750) is a strong favorite to crush Zack Ryder (+550)
The Wyatt Family (-290) are the favorites to defeat The New Day (+210) in 6-man tag action.
What are the odds that Randy Orton’s appearance on the Highlight Reel ends with Chris Jericho laid out from an RKO?
We’ll post an update on the betting odds prior to the show, as late shifts in betting odds are usually good indicators of match finishes.
Join us here this Sunday for our Live Coverage of WWE Battleground.
– In addition to the Booty O’s cereal that was announced at this week’s San Diego Comic Con event, Kofi Kingston revealed on Twitter that The New Day will also be getting their very own Funko Pop vinyl pop toys. They’ll be released for the holidays and will be available exclusively at Toys R Us.
– Former SmackDown General Manager Teddy Long appeared on Steve Gerweck’s podcast this week and revealed that Shelton Benjamin and MVP have both signed with WWE and will be returning soon. Pro Wrestling Sheet is reporting that former 3MB member Jinder Mahal is also in talks with the company.
– John Cena granted his latest Make-A-Wish prior to Monday’s RAW from Worcester, MA. Here’s is a photo of Juan and his family, who traveled from Texas to meet him:
Tuesday’s WWE Draft saw Brock Lesnar drafted to RAW in the second round (#8 overall), but original plans called for The Beast to be the first overall pick. The idea was to draft Lesnar at #1 to capitalize on his win over Mark Hunt at UFC 200 and the mainstream publicity that came along with it.
Then news broke that Lesnar had been notified of a potential USADA violation. Earlier this week, USADA announced that Lesnar failed a second drug test, conducted the day of his UFC 200 fight. WWE “no sold” the news, continued to promote his match against Randy Orton at SummerSlam and still included him in the draft.
Lesnar being drafted at #8 instead of #1 did not change any major plans in terms of which Superstars would go to RAW or SmackDown. Had Lesnar gone at #1, WWE Champion Dean Ambrose would have been #2 (SmackDown), followed by Seth Rollins (RAW) and John Cena (SmackDown).
Despite failing two US Anti-Doping Agency drug tests over the past month, WWE is reportedly not planning to suspend Brock Lesnar, according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio.
Earlier this week, Los Angeles Times writer Lance Pugmire reported that Lesnar tested positive for estrogen blocker Clomiphene, a substance banned by not only UFC – but also WWE’s talent wellness policy.
Lesnar returns to action against Randy Orton at WWE SummerSlam on 8/21. WWE promoted the match on RAW, even after word broke that Lesnar had failed a second USADA test.
Ring of Honor have confirmed that Kyle O’Reilly will be facing NJPW NEVER Openweight Champion Katsuyori Shibata at the Field of Honor show on August 27th. The match falls just over a week after the G1 Climax tournament has concluded and with Shibata slated to finally win the tournament this is a major bout for the ROH supershow.
— ROH – Ring of Honor Wrestling (@ringofhonor) July 21, 2016
Ring of Honor recently announced that they would be touring the UK for the first time in a decade and now the venues for their tour have officially been announced:
Friday November 18th – Liverpool Olympia
Saturday November 19th – Leicester Community Sports Arena
Sunday November 20th – Seymour Leisure Centre, London
The first confirmed names on the tour are ROH World Champion Jay Lethal, The Briscoes, War Machine, “BULLET CLUB’s” Adam Cole and the Young Bucks.
Having already signed EVOLVE star Matt Riddle for their Supershow 5 event in December, IPW:UK have now announced that Former WWE superstar Cody Rhodes will be performing at the Casino Rooms in Rochester, England on December 18th.
Rhodes’ opponent has not yet been named, however Cody alluded to having a shot at the IPW:UK World Title in his tweet hyping his appearance:
Make no mistake about what I'm attempting to do…every promotion…every title…night after night
The current interim IPW:UK Champion Joseph Conners does not yet have a bout scheduled for the event and this would likely be one of the biggest matches of his career, however the match is still up in the air as Jimmy Havoc may be fit to perform by the end of the year.
Wednesday’s Lucha Underground season finale on The El Rey Network drew 127,000 viewers for the first showing and 43,000 viewers for the replay. Last week’s first airing drew 108,000 viewers and the replay drew 56,000 viewers.
The total for this week’s episode was 170,000 viewers, up from last week’s 164,000 viewers.
Lucha Underground did not rank on the Cable Top 150 this week.
– TNA World Champion Lashley defeated X Division Champion Eddie Edwards to become a dual champion on tonight’s Impact Wrestling show. Lashley won his first X Championship inside Six Sides of Steel.
– It looks like TNA Bound For Glory will now take place on Sunday, 10/2, instead of 9/11, according to PWInsider. TNA had planned to move the pay-per-view from October to September but apparently they moved back to October to accommodate additional tapings at Universal Studios.
– Tyrus’ new “Fixer” gimmick can be seen in this vignette:
As reported, more than 50 former WWE wrestlers – including Jimmy Snuka, Ahmed Johnson, Sabu, Kamala and Road Warrior Animal – recently filed a lawsuit against the company with accusations over brain injuries. Details on the suit with all plaintiffs listed are at this link.
Former WWE talent and current ESPN anchor Jonathan Coachman ripped the lawsuit and defended the company on ESPN’s First Take this week. Video is above and Coach’s comments are below:
“This is a very, very close topic for me. 2003 was the first time I got in the ring to train to be an in-ring participant. The very first day I was in there I suffered a concussion. There’s a very good chance, I didn’t get them all evaluated, but probably between 10 and 20 concussions during my time from 2003 – 2008. The one thing I’ve always said about Vince McMahon is this: he is more loyal than any person, boss or human being I’ve met in my life. and it’s not just because he signed my paychecks for nearly a decade. I don’t like it, in fact I hate it, when a certain group of people… and this was always the case when stars would leave to go somewhere else or they’d get fired because of something stupid they did, then they would blame Vince for whatever issues they had.
Vince has recognized that, so he has paid all these guys for years and years. And all he asks, all he asks, is once a year at WrestleMania they show up, sign some autographs, shake some hands and then he pays them enough to live. In response to this, what do these 50 guys do? They go out and file a lawsuit that he was not there for them and the company was not there for them when they had all these concussion issues.
This drives me crazy because for a lot of these people this is a dream, a dream come true. It’s not an easy business, it’s a tough business but to come out and say the company didn’t take care of you because of these concussions is just wrong, it will go away and as a former employee and a person that loves that business, it just drives me crazy and I don’t like it.”
– Now that the WWE Draft is over, another round of NXT call ups is scheduled for this fall. Regarding Bayley, it is possible that she is Sasha Banks’ mystery partner for WWE Battleground but if that doesn’t happen, she’s expected to be on the main roster some time around September.
– WWE has offered deals to Cruiserweight Classic wrestlers Gran Metalik, Akira Tozawa, Cedric Alexander and Kota Ibushi. Yoshihiro Tajiri is also being considered for a deal.
Don’t you dare be sour, because you can now purchase actual Booty O’s breakfast cereal.
Your WWE tag team champions The New Day made the announcement on Thursday afternoon during a panel at San Diego Comic Con. The cereal will be available soon exclusively at FYE retail stores along with a Booty O’s t-shirt.
No release date has been announced yet, but you can pre-order now at FYE.com for $12.99.
Former WWE and WCW Champion Kevin Nash was recently a guest on Vince Russo’s Podcast One show. When Nash, who is currently retired, was asked about if he would ever return to wrestling he had two specific scenarios in mind. One scenario was if WWE ever forms a new NWO stable, and the other scenario was if he returns as Diesel to play Dolph Ziggler’s bodyguard.
Nash went into detail about what he’d like to do as “Dolph Ziggler’s Diesel.” Nash says that Ziggler should be treated as a heel instead of a face, and that he wouldn’t have to say a word because he feels Ziggler can cut a good promo. Nash says Ziggler’s character, as a heel, could use Diesel for when he wrestles physically larger competitors, like Baron Corbin.
Nash made his WWE debut as Diesel back in 1993 when he was acting as Shawn Michaels’ bodyguard, and draws several similarities between Michaels and Ziggler.
“He does the same thing Shawn Michaels did,” Nash said of Ziggler. “He takes every bump and beating, and usually they beat him. But to me, his in-ring work is as good as anyone’s in the business right now. He works so hard.”
You can listen to to the entire podcast with Nash and Russo here.
Rhyno and Curt Hawkins will be returning to the main WWE roster soon, according to a report at PWInsider.
The current plan is for the two to work for the SmackDown brand but there’s no word yet on when they will actually re-debut.
Rhyno has been somewhat of a NXT regular for the past year, most recently facing NXT Champion Samoa Joe on this week’s episode. Hawkins has also frequented the indies since being released in 2014.
IPW:UK have announced that Ex-UFC & EVOLVE talent Matt Riddle will be performing at their Supershow 5 event on December 18th. The event takes place at the Casino Rooms in Rochester, England and tickets are available here: http://www.ipwuk.com/events/2016/12/18/supershow-5
Also confirmed for the event is ‘The Righteous’ Joseph Conners who will again be defending IPW:UK World Title on behalf of the currently injured Jimmy Havoc.
– WWE Backlash, which will be the first SmackDown-exclusive PPV of this new era, is scheduled for Sunday, September 11th at the Richmond Coliseum in Richmond, VA. Ticketmaster.com is running a ticket pre-sale this Wednesday at 10am EST.
– Reddit user @TD_70 astutely noticed that Paige has removed all photos of Alberto Del Rio from her Instagram page. The two have been romantically linked in recent months and as recently as July 9th, Paige posted a message about how inspired she is by Del Rio (also deleted). Earlier this week, the two were drafted to separate brands (Paige to RAW, Del Rio to SmackDown).
– NXT and Cruiserweight Classic competitor Johnny Gargano posted a message on social media on Thursday announcing that his his 12-year run as an independent wrestler is coming to an end on September 23rd in his home town of Cleveland, OH. After teasing an important announcement about his future, here it is:
Edge & Christian spoke with Nick Hausman of 120 Sports over the weekend to promote their upcoming live stage show at Caroline’s On Broadway during SummerSlam weekend. You can listen to the full segment above, here’s what the guys said about Roman Reigns’ Wellness Policy violation:
Christian: “You don’t like to see stuff like that happen to anybody. Especially when they work hard. I don’t know what the circumstances are. I don’t want to comment on it in that respect. It’s a tough thing. You don’t want to see anybody in that situation. Like I said, it’s kind of a tough thing to put your finger on and you hope that it doesn’t affect him going forward. You hope that he can continue where he left off.”
Edge: “He’ll learn from it. Like Jay said, we don’t know all of the circumstances surrounding it and probably never will. All you can do is throw guesses at it so, why bother? To me it’s like, “He’s a good kid. He’ll learn from it. He’ll own up to it and probably won’t make the same mistake again.” I think that’s how you have to kind of deal with it. You see a guy like John Cena and there’s a reason he’s the face of the company. I think that’s the kind of model that the WWE is going to put out as their franchise player. That’s what you have to look to for guidelines to kind of aspire to.”
If you’ll be in town for SummerSlam and want to see Edge & Christian’s live stage show, visit LifestyleAuthentic.com for ticket information.
Nikki Bella revealed this week that she was undergoing an MRI to determine whether or not she’d ever be able to wrestle again after undergoing major neck surgery back in January.
On Thursday morning, she announced that she got good news from her doctor and her next stop is the WWE Performance Center, presumably to begin training for her return. Nikki was not drafted to RAW or SmackDown as a result of her uncertain future at the time, but it looks like we could see her back in the ring later this year.
It’s phenomenal news that means she’ll ultimately get to write the final chapter of her WWE career on her terms.
Roman Reigns’ 30-day suspension for violating WWE’s Wellness Policy concludes this week and we might finally know what got him in trouble.
The word going around backstage is that Reigns tested positive for Adderall, a stimulant prescribed to treat ADHD. It’s also used as a cognitive performance enhancer, but is often abused as a party drug. According to Google, Adderall is an amphetamine that cause rapid or irregular heartbeat, delirium, panic, psychosis, and heart failure. It’s unknown if Reigns had a valid prescription for the medication.
Reigns was drafted to RAW and returns to action this Saturday at WWE’s live event from in Wildwood, NJ. The following night, he’ll compete for the WWE Championship against Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins in the triple threat main event of WWE Battleground.
Join us here this Sunday for our Live Coverage of WWE Battleground.
The 2016 WWE Draft is in the books and we want to know which brand you think got the better roster. Reddit user theonlycarrot put together this badass graphic so you can visualize the talent on both RAW and SmackDown (click to enlarge). So?
Any independent promotion with an ear to the ground knows Slater would be a respectable acquisition. Rumors have even surfaced that sports-entertainment’s newest free agent has already been in talks with EVOLVE Wrestling’s Gabe Sapolsky and has reached out to William Regal regarding promotions in the United Kingdom.
Heath Slater has declared himself a free agent after going unpicked at last night’s WWE Draft. WWE.com has published an article up looking at what’s next for the former 3MB member, noting that he’s already in talks with EVOLVE and several UK promotions regarding the next stage of his career:
“Any independent promotion with an ear to the ground knows Slater would be a respectable acquisition. Rumors have even surfaced that sports-entertainment’s newest free agent has already been in talks with EVOLVE Wrestling’s Gabe Sapolsky and has reached out to William Regal regarding promotions in the United Kingdom.”
A “respectable acquisition” – you can’t get a stronger endorsement than that!
On Wednesday afternoon, he issued the following statement on Twitter, assuring fans we’ll be seeing a lot of him in the near future.
SmackDown Live is off to a great start on Tuesday nights, with the premiere episode featuring the WWE Draft averaging 3.17 million viewers.
Not only was this the best audience for SmackDown since moving to the USA Network, but it topped WWE RAW the previous night, which did 3.13 million viewers.
By comparison, last week’s SmackDown (the final Thursday night episode) drew 2.07 million viewers. We’ll see how much of that audience SmackDown can retain next week, when the new era of SmackDown truly begins.
Cesaro does not sound thrilled about how things unfolded last night at the WWE Draft and is fed up with people focusing on McMahon family drama and General Managers instead of what actually matters: wrestling.
JoJo caught up with the Swiss Superman backstage at the WWE Draft and asked how he feels about being drafted to RAW. Cesaro took offense to being drafted in the 6th round (17th overall pick) and said he expected to be at least a Top 10 pick. He then went on a rant about having to overcome hurdles throughout his entire WWE run and showed a great deal of frustration when asked how he thinks Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley will be able to get along. The tension was palpable, with Dave Meltzer confirming that this interview was in fact unscripted.
Sasha Banks, who was also drafted to RAW, gave Cesaro a virtual round of applause, sympathizing with his sentiments and letting him know she’s all to familiar with what he said.
As noted earlier, WWE revealed entirely new announce teams for RAW and SmackDown. With Corey Graves, Byron Saxton and Michael Cole calling RAW and Mauro Ranallo, JBL and David Otunga calling SmackDown, many have been wondering where that leaves WWE Hall of Famer Jerry Lawler.
WWE.com has posted an update regarding The King’s status, revealing that he and Booker T will “bring their decades of experience in sports-entertainment to recurring Pre-Shows and Kickoffs as key analysts.”
They noted that other names will be joining those panels, so it sounds like WWE is not done shaking up their broadcast teams for this latest New Era.
Not only was the recent “An Evening With Paul Heyman” UK tour a smashing success, but it also yielded several interesting news items.
First, Heyman invited British wrestling sensation Will Ospreay on stage in London and offered him a contract to wrestle for Gabe Sapolsky’s EVOLVE promotion (when he finishes up his other commitments). Footage was circulating online capturing the incredible moment, but now Paul’s Heyman Hustle website has posted exclusive video of what went down, which you can view here.
Later in the night during a Q&A session, a fan asked about the creative process behind Brock Lesnar conquering The Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak. Heyman’s answer caught virtually everyone off guard:
