– We reported earlier that Jerry Lawler Was Injured By Mark Henry On RAW following a Worlds Strongest Slam through the announcers table at ringside. World Heavyweight Champion Mark Henry was reportedly very upset after the incident.
– Hugh Jackman was said to be a big hit in the WWE locker room on Monday night. Jackman was a big WWE fan back in the 1980’s and marked out big time for WWE producer Steve Lombardi, formerly the Brooklyn Brawler.
– WWE announced on Monday that Disney’s The Muppets Are Appearing On WWE RAW on Halloween night – and there’s said to be a lot of excitement among the WWE crew over it.
– Former WWE Champion Alberto Del Rio had the second shortest title reign of a Money in the Bank winner, at just 35 days. Rob Van Dam had the shortest reign – with just 22 days back in the summer of 2006.
— John Cena has now held the WWE Championship a record ten times following his victory over Alberto Del Rio last night at Night of Champions. He is followed by Triple H, who held the WWE Championship on eight occasions.
— WWE’s upcoming Steve Austin video release has been titled Stone Cold Steve Austin: Bottom Line on the Most Popular Superstar of WWE. The title will be be released on DVD and Blu-ray in November.
— WWE will be holding a Raw and Smackdown Supershow at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, Long Island, New York on Saturday, December 17, 2011. Bell time is 7:30 p.m.
— WWE Hall of Famer Gerald Brisco turns 65 years old today.
The WWE website has posted three backstage videos that were filmed at Sunday’s Night of Champions pay-per-view:
– Former WWE champion Alberto Del Rio was seen backstage arguing with his personal ring announcer Ricardo Rodriguez after his title loss to John Cena. WWE cameras “snuck up” on Del Rio, who slapped Ricardo before “realizing” the camera was there. The video can be viewed here.
– WWE diva Beth Phoenix was also interviewed following her second Divas Title match loss to Kelly Kelly. , Beth Phoenix cut a promo hinting she will remain in the title picture, with Natalya also adding her two cents. That video can be seen here. here.
– Awesome Truth (The Miz and R-Truth) came up short at Night of Champions in their tag title match against Air Boom and said they’ve got a conspiracy list and whoever is on it, is going to get got. Check out that video here.
— WWE has changed the structure of their creative staff with a “home team” and “road team” initiative. Road teams will travel to each week’s television tapings while home teams will work at company headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut to develop future shows. WWE creative head Stephanie McMahon, a mother of three children, and Brian Gewirtz will reportedly stay at home to avoid going on the road on a weekly basis.
— The official website of the New Orleans Arena is advertising Edge for next month’s Hell in a Cell pay-per-view event taking place October 2: “Witness the Superstars of both Raw and Smackdown live under the same roof for a PPV extravaganza live event featuring: John Cena, Randy Orton, Alberto Del Rio, The Miz, Edge, Rey Mysterio, John Morrison, The Big Show and many more Superstars live!”
WWE paid tribute to the “Rated-R Superstar” following last night’s SmackDown taping in Toronto, Ontario with “Edge Appreciation Night.” He also hosted “The Cutting Edge” with World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton and Mark Henry during the taped show. He is also advertised for next Tuesday’s SmackDown taping in Dayton, Ohio.
— WWE announced Friday that former World Heavyweight Champion Edge will appear on next week’s episode of SmackDown, which emanates from Toronto.
WWE.com’s synopsis reads: “For the first time since retiring from WWE, Edge comes home to SmackDown as the special guest Superstar. What does The Rated-R Superstar have in store for the WWE Universe this Friday night?”
— WWE has a Raw live event scheduled for Thursday, December 29 at the Verizon Center in Washington D.C. The on-sale date for tickets has not been announced.
— WWE Champion Alberto Del Rio is featured on the cover of the latest issue of Power Slam.
— Following the Eight-Man Elimination Tag Team Match on the Raw Supershow, John Cena chased Alberto Del Rio away to close the broadcast. CM Punk came down the aisle and harassed Ricardo Rodriguez, pressing him back to the ring before tossing him in. Punk and Cena stood on each side and Cena started a thumbs-up, thumbs-down game with the crowd. Rodriguez, however, escaped from the ring.
There was a long moment as Cena and Punk stared at each other and glanced to the crowd for direction. Cena offered Punk his hand, and as the fans encouraged them to embrace, they clasped hands and raised their arms together. Cena pointed at Punk and smiled to the crowd.
– In the opening segment of Monday’s Raw Supershow, WWE Chief Operating Officer Triple H fired Kevin Nash after Nash revealed that he had snuck into his office and sent a text to himself from Triple H’s phone, instigating his attack on CM Punk at SummerSlam. Nash was then shown leaving the venue with John Laurinaitis.
In accordance with the storyline, Nash’s profile has been removed from WWE.com’s Raw Superstars section. He is once again listed as a WWE Alumnus.
– WWE Hall of Famer Dusty Rhodes is advertised to appear at Florida Championship Wrestling’s Oct. 15 live event at the Suwanee County Coliseum 1302 SW 11th St. Live Oaks, FL. Belltime is 7:30 p.m. Visit FCWWrestling.com for more information.
— After missing last week’s WWE live events and this week’s television tapings, Alberto Del Rio’s work visa situation was resolved in time for this weekend’s Raw brand house shows in Puerto Rico. He appeared at Friday’s show in San Juan and defended the WWE Championship twice.
Del Rio beat CM Punk before losing to John Cena in the main event via disqualification. Punk appeared after the match to fend off a chair-wielding Ricardo Rodriguez. Cena then raised Punk’s hand and left. Punk stayed in the ring and posed with the Puerto Rican flag.
— The official WWE website has posted a photo gallery of former WCW Hardcore Champion Norman Smiley. He is currently signed to WWE as a trainer and an on–air authority figure for Florida Championship Wrestling. He worked several non-televised matches for WWE following their acquisition of WCW in 2001, but was never hired as a talent.
— WWE developmental wrestler Percy Watson appeared at Friday’s Raw live event in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He lost to Jack Swagger in the third match of the night.
– WWE Champion Alberto Del Rio is still unable to enter the United States due to issues related to his work visa. Del Rio missed last weekend’s live events as well as Monday’s RAW and Tuesday’s Super SmackDown special. Company officials are confident that Del Rio will have his visa problems sorted out in time for this week’s mini-tour of Puerto Rico, where he’s advertised to wrestle CM Punk. John Cena is advertised to wrestle the winner of the Del Rio vs. CM Punk matches in the main events of each show.
– Other matches for this week’s Puerto Rico shows include:
US Champion Dolph Ziggler vs.Primo Colon
John Morrison & Evan Bourne vs. The Miz & R-Truth
Santino Marella & Zack Ryder vs. David Otunga & Michael McGillicutty
Alex Riley vs. Jack Swagger
Divas Champion Kelly Kelly vs. Beth Phoenix
No word yet on why Morrison is replacing one-half of the WWE Tag Team Champions Kofi Kingston.
– Jim Ross was asked on Twitter this week about how much WWE spends to send past and present stars to rehab. Ross wrote:
“WWE spends thousands of dollars on former wrestlers rehab treatment annually BUT 1st wrestlers have to want help. Can’t make em go.”
A fan responded to Ross’ tweet – asking whether Matt Hardy would qualify for this sponsored rehab program. JR wrote:
“WWE’s offer is good for any alums. BUT they have 2 want 2 be helped.”
WWE Champion Alberto Del Rio was not at RAW last night (or at WWE’s weekend live events) due to issues with his work visa that have prevented him from entering the United States.
Del Rio had been scheduled to wrestle Sin Cara in a non-title match at tonight’s Super SmackDown special, but that match will likely not happen.
WWE had a video package ready to go on RAW to hype Del Rio’s match with Sin Cara, but decided against airing the footage due to this issue.
Del Rio’s name was also removed from an updated press release sent out on Tuesday hyping the live SmackDown special.
Del Rio is still being advertised for this weekend’s live events, so WWE is confident the matter will be resolved this week.
— John Cena is pictured in WWE’s advertisement for tomorrow night’s SuperSmackDown special on Syfy.
Some cable outlets are advertising a match between Cena and CM Punk for the live broadcast. WWE has not announced the match yet.
The synopsis for the event, which will feature talent from Raw and SmackDown, reads:
“The astonishing Sin Cara challenges WWE Champion Alberto Del Rio and Christian battles Randy Orton for the World Heavyweight Championship inside a steel cage.”
— The Miz announced on Twitter that he will debut a new T-shirt on tonight’s episode of Raw.
“Debuting the new Miz T-shirt tonight,” he wrote. “Buy it if your at the arena or go to wweshop.com. Cheap plug 2 of the night.”
— WWE stock closed at 9.59 today, up 0.53 from Friday.
— WWE Champion Alberto Del Rio is missing this weekend’s Raw live events because he was due to return to Mexico to renew his work visa. He will be on hand for Monday’s Raw in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
— The Score in Canada will be airing NXT on Wednesday nights at 9:00 p.m. beginning Aug. 31, 2011. College football will air in NXT‘s former spot on Thursday nights.
— “WWE Magazine’s” 2011 poster book, which hits newsstands this Tuesday, features 20 giant photos of the likes of CM Punk, John Cena, The Rock and Randy Orton. Click here to view the issue’s cover.
— The Ventura County Star has published an article on the wrestling dominated play, “The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity.” Kristoffer Diaz’s play will be performed Tuesday through Oct. 9 at the Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Los Angeles, California.
— Mason Ryan returned to action at Friday’s Raw live event in Jackson, Mississippi. The Welsh grappler beat Zack Ryder in the second match of the night.
Ryan has been sidelined since late June due to an undisclosed injury.
— WWE Champion Alberto Del Rio will face Sin Cara in a non-title match this Tuesday on SuperSmackDown.
— WWE ring announcer Eden Stiles participated in her first angle at Friday’s Raw live event in Jackson, Mississippi as she was attacked by The Bella Twins. This led to Divas Champion Kelly Kelly and Eve hitting the ring to fend off the twin duo. Kelly and Eve beat Nikki and Brie in a subsequent match.
— The Great Khali turns 39 years old today while WWE Hall of Famer Sgt. Slaughter turns 63. Also celebrating a birthday is former WWE Women’s Champion Jazz, who turns 38.
– With his big WWE Title win last night at SummerSlam, Alberto Del Rio becomes the first Mexican-born wrestler to hold the WWE Title. The late Eddie Guerrero was born in El Paso, Texas while Hall of Famer Pedro Morales was from Puerto Rico.
– Kevin Nash made a surprise return to WWE television a SummerSlam and destroyed CM Punk following his win over John Cena, allowing Alberto Del Rio to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase and leave SummerSlam as WWE champion.
It’s worth noting that Nash’s official website lists several apearances for the Awesome Wrestling Entertainment promotion in September and October. It’s unknown at this time whether Nash will keep those dates, now that he’s a key piece in WWE’s top main event storyline.
New Age Outlaw BG James tweeted the following on Monday about being with Kevin Nash this weekend when he may have got the call from WWE to appear at SummerSlam:
“We were w/Nash this weekend and he did get a phone call at one point friday night that Billy and I thought was suspicious.”
Newly crowned WWE Champion Alberto Del Rio has finally reached the top of the mountain in the world of professional wrestling – but it appears that Mexican superstar already has his plans for retirement in place.
During a recent interview with Mexican news agency Notime, Del Rio says he plans to retire in five years time – following a farewell tour that would finish in his home town of San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Del Rio said (translated):
“I already decided. I want to retire in five years and will make a farewell tour but not as many who do 250 fights. Seek a dignified farewell to a fight in San Luis Potosi, my native land and in the Arena Mexico, my home.”
“I decided to go full power and thus having managed to be the best Mexican fighter in this difficult race. I’m tired because it takes great dedication and sacrifice but also left me enormous satisfaction.”
Del Rio also talked about the significance of leaving a legacy in this business and representing his family with honor:
“To where I have arrived I have taken fully the name of my dynasty and know that my family is proud than I have done, so when the moment arrives for hanging the boots I will continue enjoying the place that I deserved myself.”
— Triple H is booked for all Raw and Smackdown television tapings in his role as Chief Operating Officer of WWE for the forseeable future.
— Rey Mysterio and Alberto Del Rio are scheduled for upcoming SmackDown television tapings in California. Both talents are scheduled for the August 9 in Sacramento, the last show before SummerSlam, and August 16 in Bakersfield.
— Curt Hawkins attended EVOLVE’s internet pay-per-view event last Tuesday in New York City.
— John Laurinaitis, WWE’s Executive Vice President of Talent Relations, turns 46 years old today.
Over the past several months, there have been various reports claiming that Royal Rumble and Money in the Bank winner Alberto Del Rio has been slated to win the WWE championship a few times this year. Thus far, those plans changed each time and he has yet to capture WWE’s top prize.
As noted in an earlier report, WWE’s original plan for Summerslam was for Alberto Del Rio to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase and challenge John Cena for the WWE title at SummerSlam. With SummerSlam taking place from Los Angeles, WWE saw dollar signs in their top heel Mexican star wrestling for the WWE title at a major pay-per-view in a strong hispanic market.
Additionally, WWE had discussed the idea of Del Rio holding the WWE championshpi heading into the company’s tour of Mexico in October.
Plans for Del Rio at Summerslam changed when the decision was made to bring back CM Punk sooner than expected.
According to Dave Meltzer, this is at least the 4th time Del Rio had been scheduled to win the WWE or World Title and it didn’t end up happening.
Monday’s RAW featured Triple H’s first night in charge as well as the surprise return of WWE title holder CM Punk.
According to Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, there were actually six different scripts written for RAW – one of which would have resulted in Triple H laying out CM Punk with a pedigree.
Although the obvious scenario would be for WWE to capitalize on CM Punk’s recent popularity and push him to the moon, most of the scenarios presented for Monday’s RAW were not to get Punk over, but to emphasize Triple H’s new role as Vince McMahon’s successor.
Prior to WWE settling on what we saw unfold on Monday night, the original plan for CM Punk’s return was for him to get attacked and pedigreed by Triple H. Alberto Del Rio then would have come out, cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase against John Cena at SummerSlam.
While this would have certainly put Triple H over as a major heel and led to an eventual program with a babyface CM Punk cooler heads prevailed and the angle of Punk getting squashed on the night of his return was scrapped.
Alberto Del Rio has once again been victimized by WWE’s haphazard booking as his long planned match with John Cena at SummerSlam was nixed hours before last night’s Raw telecast in Hampton, Virginia.
Creative overhauled the match line-up for SummerSlam Monday afternoon after deeming their creative plans for CM Punk for the event as “awful.” Del Rio was effectively removed from the title picture as a result. WWE’s braintrust felt that had Punk not been slotted in the title match, his much talked about storyline would extinguish.
Though Del Rio had the rug pulled out from under him once again, creative has the 34-year-old pegged for a title run this fall. WWE announced today they will present a landmark tour across Mexico this October and a number of high ranking officials feel the countryman returning as a conquering hero will garner a great deal of media attention.
Meanwhile, The Miz was at one point scheduled to reign supreme in the WWE Championship Tournament on Raw. Creative later changed their mind and the WWE Championship was awarded to Rey Mysterio, who got to hold the belt for approximately an hour and a half.
According to a new report, the plan for Money in the Bank as recent as a few days before the pay-per-view was to have Alberto Del Rio cash in his briefcase and leave the show as the new WWE Champion, regardless of what happened between John Cena and CM Punk.
There had been several ideas tossed around for the Punk-Cena storyline and WWE decided over the weekend to give Punk the WWE Title and go from there.
In the final round of the WWE Championship Tournament, Rey Mysterio and The Miz meet next week on Raw to determine the undisputed title holder.
Vince McMahon announced at the top of the show that eight of the top Superstars would compete in a WWE Championship Tournament and that a new titleholder would be determined that night. Before Mysterio and The Miz could compete in the final round of the WWE Championship Tournament, McMahon demanded that the ring be cleared due to important business he had to conduct. Triple H then informed McMahon that he had been relieved of his duties as WWE Chairman and that he would be taking his place.
WWE Championship Tournament Results
* The Miz defeated Alex Riley in the first round of the WWE Championship Tournament
* R-Truth defeated Jack Swagger in the first round of the WWE Championship Tournament
* Kofi Kingston defeated Alberto Del Rio in the first round of the WWE Championship Tournament
* Rey Mysterio defeated Dolph Ziggler in the first round of the WWE Championship Tournament
* The Miz defeated Kofi Kingston in the second round of the WWE Championship Tournament
* Rey Mysterio defeated R-Truth in the second round of the WWE Championship Tournament
— With The Nexus likely being dropped following CM Punk’s departure from WWE, Mason Ryan is expected to be repackaged. WWE’s creative has discussed using him as a bodyguard for either The Miz or Alberto Del Rio.
— The latest issue of WWE Magazine, which features Rey Mysterio on the cover, pays tribute to the late Randy Savage. Enclosed in the issue is a photo of every “Macho Man” outfit from WWE’s photography archive, totaling over 100.
— The Capitol Punishment DVD will feature a single extra, a backstage interview with Christian following his loss to Randy Orton.
— WWE’s creative team has broached putting Zack Ryder in a new faction with David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty.
— Alberto Del Rio’s 23-year-old brother Memo Rodriguez is now living in South Florida and has began training with former ECW talent Pablo Marquez. Marquez briefly appeared in WWE as Tiger Ali Singh’s manservant Babu.
— Former WWE Superstar Finlay is advertised to wrestle at a Top Catch event, which takes place August 29 in Dinslaken, Germany at the Dintrab Arena. He will facing former WWE developmental talent Chris “The Bambikiller” Raaber.
— WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler is advertised to appear at a Legends Of Wrestling event in Harrison, Arkansas on August 20, 2011. Butch Reed and “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton are also slated to appear. Click here for event information.
WWE star Alberto Del Rio spoke with the Miami Herald this week to promote next year’s WrestleMania 28 pay-per-view. Here are some highlights of what Del Rio, who now resides in Tampa, Florida, said about:
The Origin of His Character: “Alberto Del Rio is something Vince McMahon and I created,” he said. “We created this character. He came up with the idea of the scarf, the cars and everything. However, I developed the character from guys from the movies like ‘Scarface’ and ‘The Godfather’ or guys who I hated during my life.”
“I was like this before WWE,” he added. “I wore these kinds of clothes. I like to have nice cars when I was in Mexico, and in the United States, it’s the same. It doesn’t matter that I have a character on TV. Of course I don’t have as many cars as Alberto Del Rio, but the way I handle myself is somewhat similar.
Adjusting To The WWE Style: “A lot of people helped me adjust to the style, including Steve Keirn, Dusty Rhodes, Norman Smiley. Those guys helped me in FCW because in Mexico we wrestle on the right side, and here we wrestle on the left side. That was the main issue because, essentially, wrestling is the same everywhere. That particular area and transition were kind of hard, but in the end everything worked out well.”
WrestleMania 28: “It is going to be great,” Del Rio said. “This WrestleMania [27] was incredible, but I’m pretty sure next year’s WrestleMania [28] will be awesome. All the things we have here in Miami, it’s going to be a great event. They are going to be bringing in guys like The Rock and superstars from the past. So it’s going to be great.”
“I’m going to be defending my WWE title at WrestleMania because I see myself as champion in a few months. John Cena, I’ve worked with him in the past. I’ve never had a program with him. I think that is the way I’m going now.”
To read Del Rio’s full interview with the Miami Herald, head over to MiamiHerald.com.
– WWE is planning a feud between the Big Show and Alberto Del Rio that will begin on next week’s 3-hour “All Star” edition of RAW. The two are slated to have a singles match at Capitol Punishment on June 19th.
– Dolph Ziggler tweeted that he will be doing a “very special” photo shoot at next Monday’s RAW.
– After Tuesday’s SmackDown tapings from Roanoke, VA concluded, Randy Orton was attacked by Sheamus and Christian. Orton eventually got the upper hand and took out the heels. Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes also ran in to attack Orton but got beat up worse than Sheamus and Christian.
– A few fans who attended Tuesday’s SmackDown taping said that almost half of the seating in the Roanoke Civic Center was ‘blacked out’ and covered with tarps. Attendance for the lowest it’s been at the Civic Center in several years.
– Reader Stan sent word that Monday’s episode of RAW featured 32 minutes and 23 seconds of in-ring action, a bit more than the previous week.