– After Monday’s RAW went off the air, Bray Wyatt faced John Cena defeated Bray Wyatt in the dark match main event by DQ. The finish came when Cena had Wyatt in the STFU, but Harper and Rowan interfered and attacked Cena.
Wyatt attempted to hit Cena with a steel chair, but moved Wyatt hit Rowan instead. Cena then knocked Wyatt and Harper out of the ring and celebrated to end the show.
– The following are this week’s RAW Fallout videos from after Monday’s RAW:
Sheamus and Bad News Barrett Advance: Bad News Barrett and Sheamus discuss advancing in the No. 1 Contender for the Intercontinental Championship Tournament.
Rob Van Dam and Cesaro Advance: Rob Van Dam and Cesaro speak on advancing in the No. 1 Contender for the Intercontinental Championship Tournament.
As previously reported, it was announced on WWE RAW this week that John Cena will be squaring off against Bray Wyatt in a steel cage match at the upcoming WWE Extreme Rules pay-per-view.
Also announced for the show, which takes place on May 4th from the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey, is a WWE Intercontinental Championship match between current title-holder Big E., and the winner of the ongoing number one contender tournament. The semi-finals of the tournament takes place next Monday night and features Rob Van Dam vs. Cesaro, as well as Bad News Barrett vs. Sheamus. The Superstar who advances to the finals will challenge Big E. for the title on May 4th.
Additionally, rumored for Extreme Rules is a faction vs. faction match between The Shield and the reunited Evolution group. As previously reported, it is unclear yet as to whether or not Daniel Bryan and Kane will be added to the match.
The following news and notes were revealed during this week’s edition of WWE RAW, which took place on Monday night in Birmingham, Alabama.
– Next week on RAW, the rest of the WWE Intercontinental Championship number one contender tournament will take place. Advancing in first round matches on Monday night were Rob Van Dam, Cesaro, Sheamus and Bad News Barrett. Squaring off next week in the semi-finals will be RVD vs. Cesaro and Sheamus vs. Bad News Barrett.
– Taking place on this week’s edition of WWE Main Event, which airs live on the WWE Network on Tuesday night, will be Big Show vs. Jack Swagger.
– Announced for the upcoming WWE Extreme Rules pay-per-view, which takes place on May 4th at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey, is John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt in a steel cage match.
– Confirmed as the main event of this week’s edition of WWE SmackDown, which will be taped on Tuesday night and airs Friday night on SyFy, is “The Animal” Batista vs. Sheamus.
– Finally, it was announced that on next week’s edition of WWE RAW, the returning Daniel Bryan will square off against Kane, who is returning as a masked Superstar.
John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt in an “extreme rules” match is being advertised for the upcoming WWE Extreme Rules 2014 special event, which takes place on May 4th at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
While the match has yet to be made official by WWE, it is being advertised on the official IZOD Center website.
We are a little over a quarter of the way through the year. With WrestleMania behind us, the WWE will now begin its summer programs and hope to build toward its second biggest pay-per-view of the year, SummerSlam.
With that said, I felt it would be interesting to look at the top five matches from the first quarter of 2014. I included full match videos and highlights where possible, but WWE licensing restrictions made it difficult at times. (I also apologize for the terrible music in a few of the videos.)
5. John Cena vs. Cesaro (February 17 Raw) – Say what you will about John Cena’s in-ring ability, but he has put on some great matches so far this year, with none better than this matchup with Cesaro. There were a number of amazing spots during the contest, with Cesaro’s counter of the AA certainly ranking near the top. It appears the WWE is going to push Cesaro hard, and this was the week where his push began after he defeated Randy Orton and pushed Cena to the limit.
4. Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H (WrestleMania) – After weeks of begging for a match with Triple H, Daniel Bryan finally got his wish at WrestleMania. He took full advantage of it during the opening contest of the night. Both superstars really shined during the match and it was, in my opinion, the highlight of the show. It also ranks as quite possibly the best opening match in WrestleMania history, with only Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart at WrestleMania X giving it a run for its money.
While nothing has been officially announced at this point, the plan for the main event angle heading into the upcoming WWE Extreme Rules pay-per-view, which takes place on May 4th at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey, is The Shield vs. Evolution. The angle was shot for this rumored match during the post-WrestleMania edition of WWE RAW this past Monday night in New Orleans.
The actual match itself is unknown at this point, although it is expected that Ric Flair will not be involved in the Evolution side of things.
The only question coming out of the angle shot at RAW, is whether or not Kane or Triple H will be the third person on the Evolution side, or if both are part of the equation and Daniel Bryan will be added to The Shield team to make it an eight-man tag-team match. Based on the RAW angle, one would assume it is the latter.
Also rumored for Extreme Rules is a rematch between John Cena and Bray Wyatt.
– The reason Christian was not involved in the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania XXX on Sunday night was du to the fact that he is still recovering from a concussion that he suffered during a match on WWE RAW several weeks ago.
– The following is a photo of Bray Wyatt and John Cena rehearsing their WrestleMania XXX match this weekend.
– According to a recent draft, the matches that WWE is planning on giving ample time at WrestleMania XXX on Sunday are Triple H vs. Daniel Bryan, John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship main event. The Brock Lesnar vs. Undertaker match will also likely receive a decent amount of time. According to the draft, Bryan vs. HHH is scheduled to go longer than any match on the show.
– The following is a photo of WWE Hall Of Famer Mick Foley in the ring at the WWE NXT event at WrestleMania Axxess in New Orleans this weekend:
– The Daily Mirror in the U.K. published an article today called “13 Things You Need To Know About The Undertaker At WrestleMania,” which as the headline states, reveals 13 different things about Undertaker and WrestleMania. It’s a good read, which you can check out at Mirror.co.uk.
– John Cena posted a photo of himself front-squatting 450-pounds during one of his workouts for this Sunday’s WrestleMania XXX pay-per-view in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he squares off one-on-one against Bray Wyatt. You can check that photo out below:
Former WWE creative team member Andrew Goldstein recently published a blog talking about his growing fondness of the Bray Wyatt character in WWE. Below is an excerpt:
“I wasn’t sold right out of the gate on the Wyatt Family. Their introductory vignettes looked cool enough – almost like they were emanating from the Yellow King’s summer home long before HBO introduced us to “True Detective” – but I had once before seen a team of young upstarts light developmental on fire in 2006 prompting management to spend thousands on slick, cinematic vignettes only for the team to show up on TV with an out-of-date, hokey presentation destining them for mid-card comedy act (I’ll give you a hint: Their name rhymed and was mildly racist. Answer at the bottom of the paragraph) So, needless to say I was skeptical especially after nothing the Wyatt’s did for their first six months on TV had any impact whatsoever. Sure they took out Kane, but we never got a reason why – at least not one that I cold decipher thru all of Bray’s nonsensical Riddler-speak and back woods jargon.”
“None of it meant anything to me – not their creepy ring entrance, the abrupt crashes to break, not even their glorious beards could seduce me into caring much at all. I even initially hated Bray’s “Sister Abigail” finish. To me it was too much of a “wrestling” move for someone who was supposed to be a depraved sociopath from the wrong side of the “Deliverance” porch. (I thought something like the Heart Punch better suited the gimmick) But then the show-stealing Royal Rumble match with Daniel Bryan happened and then two weeks later on RAW he hit that now-famous running “Sister Abigail” on Rey Mysterio and the whole Bray Wyatt thing started to click for me.”
“He wasn’t just some over-wrought product of the WWE creative machine with a cool ring entrance but ultimately destined for the same shipping crate that sent the Spirit Squad packing. No, no, no… to borrow a phrase from @JRsBBQ, there was steak behind his sizzle, so much so in fact, that I finally realized just what the hell Bray Wyatt was doing that was so special: He was single-handedly bringing back a tried and true, make and model of a professional wrestler – long left for dead – from the brink of extinction.”
More Like Radio with Andrew Goldstein Host: Gary Cantrell Available at Morelikeradio.org
Bray Wyatt’s promos getting better: “My big frustration in the beginning was Bray Wyatt was saying a lot of things but none of it mattered. None of it made sense. None of it meant anything. He put Kane on the shelf and no one really cared because they never explained why. We weren’t getting the why to the Wyatt Family. We were just getting these bizarre promos and bizarre sort of black out moments. We just weren’t getting a reason why they were terrorizing who they were terrorizing and now finally their promos are starting to make sense now because they’re sort of raging against this 10 year fan favorite John Cena establishment. They’re making themselves anti-establishment in their own way.”
Serious Cena vs Comedian Cena, does it hurt the Bray Wyatt build: “In general i think that Cena shtick is so damaging to most storylines he’s in. I like that last week, that go home week to the PPV where they make Cena be serious. I thought the build to both Rock matches were really frustrating to see them both take it in a joking manner as opposed to serious. My big critique of the Cena/Rock build in those promos were like that’s just not how men talk to each other when they have a personal conflict. It was all jokes, quippy one liners and pop culture references when they could have gotten a really intense personal conflict story out there. In terms of Cena with Bray, i don’t think we needed the jokes but it didn’t affect me as much this time because we haven’t anybody approach Bray Wyatt like that yet. It was kinda cool to have Cena verbalize what a lot people sitting at home watching are sort of joking about with Bray Wyatt. I don’t think it hurt the story because he came out last week and was more serious in tone.”
Adding Triple H to the Triple Threat and “trolling” Internet Fans: “Super smart move. Especially if Triple H actually wins which i don’t think is going to happen but lets just play out that scenario. Let’s say Triple H beats Daniel Bryan. It’s the most epic trolling of wrestling nerds of all time. They would be dangling a carrot in front of every smart wrestling fan and pulling it away. I would like it just for that reason. The other thing, playing that scenario out. Triple H wins, he gets put in the match. How cool is the 3 guys from Evolution in one match? As triple threats go, i wouldn’t mind seeing that match.”
The following are highlights of a recent Chad Dukes Wrestling Show WrestleMania Spectacular interview with Batista:
On his return to WWE: “I left for very specific reasons and the reasons were because there were certain opportunities I wasn’t getting when I was with the company, and we were so locked down and I mean when you’re under contract with them you’re pretty much limited to the things, you can do. You really can’t do anything else in the company without their say so and they weren’t…certain guys were getting opportunities that I wasn’t getting and I wasn’t real cool with that. So I left to accomplish certain things, and I felt like once I accomplished them, I always wanted to come back. At the end of the day I love professional wrestling. I really, I really do, man. So it’s not like I never planned to come back, I wanted to come back sooner. It’s just that you know it took me longer to accomplish certain things that I really want to accomplish. I didn’t want to be working and do one movie a year. It’s just I was out there auditioning and stuff, these were the jobs I was getting, and once I landed it, you know the Marvel deals, I felt like I accomplished everything I wanted to and then some. We didn’t come back and demand a lot of money you know I didn’t say, ‘I’m not doing house shows I’m only doing Monday Night Raw.’ I mean I said, ‘I’ll do Smackdown, I’ll do house shows.'”
On being selective with film roles: “I got offered a lot of roles, coming out of wrestling, on stuff that was going straight to DVD and it wasn’t the stuff that I want to do and I really wanted like, really good projects. I really, I really had a passion for acting and I really wanted to become a better actor. So I passed up on a lot of that stuff and held out for like better roles, and stuff that will put me in the next to guys were really established actors, so I could kinda learn from, so it wasn’t easy man. I got out there and pounded the pavement.”
On his heat with Daniel Bryan fans possibly coming from a 2011 tweet: “For some reason I think people thought that I didn’t like Daniel Bryan or I had this personal thing. I said a comment, I had one comment about him when he first won the world heavyweight championship and I was like, I was in shock and I said, “Okay.” Because I just didn’t get it. The reason I didn’t get it because it was too soon and that’s my personal opinion. I felt it was way too soon and they did that constantly over and over. I thought they, they just slap the title on people like, way too fast. It’s like, I think sometimes that they used the title, I might get a little grief for saying it, sometimes I think they use the title to get guys over. I thought it just, they did it, it was premature. I never had a problem with him being you know, World Heavyweight Champion, I just thought that they did it way too fast.
You can’t convince me that some body else was a bigger supporter of Daniel Bryan cause I mean that was years ago, before everybody was you know on his jock, when they wanted me to job him out, and I was like, “Hell no.” He’s just too good. He had been coming around for years and I could never figure out why they didn’t give him a job, but he had come out and they wanted me to work a match with him, and squash him and I was like, “No, not gonna happen.” He’s way too good man, we could have a good match, and we did. I mean we gave ‘em a version of what they wanted, but we gave ‘em a hell of a match. It looked like a competitive match. When at the time it’s not with what they wanted.”
On current WWE Superstar who are impressing him: “I love Bray Wyatt. I love him. I love that whole gimmick, that whole Wyatt Family gimmick, but Bray I think he’s gonna be a huge star. I get caught up in this guy, man. When I watch him he’s one of those guys. He’s another guy, I mean he doesn’t look like a stud. He’s not a statue of a man, but he is athletic as you can get, that kid can move man. He is agile, he is a stud man. That kid is as an athlete. He gets when he cuts a promo, you just get sucked in man. He is hypnotizing. When I talk to him like personal, on a personal level, he’s one of those kids who’s not afraid to learn, he has no ego. He’s still learning and he knows he’s still learning and he’s not afraid to ask questions, and I think that’s why he’s going to be so good. Cause he’s this good right now and he still wants to learn. I love the whole Shield gimmick, everyone’s real focused on Roman, and I think he’s definitely going to be a huge star, but Dean Ambrose to me, he’s the star of that.”
The following is a non-spoiler match listing for this week’s edition of WWE SmackDown. For complete spoiler results, click ahead to page two.
– Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose vs. Drew McIntyre & Jinder Mahal
– Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose vs. Ryback & Curtis Axel
– Damien Sandow vs. Sin Cara
– Goldust vs. Fandango
– Batista vs. Sheamus
– The Bella Twins vs. AJ Lee & Tamina Snuka
– Jack Swagger vs. Jimmy Uso
– The Miz vs. Mark Henry
– Bray Wyatt vs. Big Show
For complete spoiler results for this week’s WWE SmackDown, click ahead to page two …
– With almost all of the key wrestlers on the WWE roster figured into the main card at WrestleMania XXX, it looks as though whatever matches they plan on adding to the two hour pre-show will be comprised of NXT talent.
– Current online betting odds for WrestleMania XXX, which at this point don’t mean a whole lot past educated guessing until the “smart money” comes in during the day of the show, have Daniel Bryan as the favorite to end the show as WWE World Heavyweight Champion at -270. This means if you bet $270, you clear $100 profit, making Bryan basically a near three-to-one favorite to walk out of the show as champion. Randy Orton is +400 to end the show as champion, Batista is +250 and Triple H is +1500.
Other odds for the show include Undertaker as a 60-to-1 favorite over Brock Lesnar, Daniel Bryan as a 27-to-1 favorite over Triple H and Bray Wyatt at -350 (a little over three-to-one) over John Cena.
The following are results of this week’s WWE Main Event, which took place at the TD Garden in Boston and aired live on the WWE Network.
– The show opens with WWE Intercontinental Champion Big E. making his way to the ring. Big E. joins the announce table, where it is explained that Christian, who earned the right to challenge him for his title tonight, will not be competing due to a “slight concussion” that he suffered on Monday’s RAW.
– Dolph Ziggler def. Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio in a triple-threat match to become the new number one contender to the Intercontinental Championship. Ziggler will get to challenge Big E. for the title later tonight.
– Layla, Alicia Fox, Aksana, Tamina Snuka and Summer Rae def. Eva Marie, Natalya, Emma, Cameron and Naomi in a ten-Diva tag-team match.
– A Bad News Barrett segment takes place with Barrett talking about John Cena being freaked out by Bray Wyatt the same way the fans get freaked out when they look in the mirror. He suggests everyone should wear a sheep mask because of their bad looks.
– Big E. def. Dolph Ziggler to retain his WWE Intercontinental Championship in the main event of the evening.
Nikki Bella appeared on ElvisDuran.com’s “Road To WrestleMania XXX” podcast and spoke about the “plastic girlfriend” comment from Bray Wyatt on last week’s RAW. She noted that Wyatt apologized to her backstage before going out to make the comment. She mentioned that everyone popped big backstage for the comment. Bella also noted that she spent $6,500 on her breast implants.
You can check out Bella’s appearance on the podcast above, or by going to ElvisDuran.com.
Bray Wyatt refers to himself as “The Eater of Worlds.” After his first few months with the company, he could also easily refer to himself as “The King of the Promo” and not many would object.
No character in recent memory has used the promo to build up his character as well as Wyatt. Starting with a series of haunting videos preceding the stable’s debut, the Wyatt Family were able to build the foundation that would allow them to become one of the top heel groups in the company.
After a perfect debut (minus the Husky Harris chants) and successful feuds with Daniel Bryan and the Shield, it was revealed that Wyatt would be entering a program with John Cena during the WrestleMania season.
http://youtu.be/x7QJruEbKL4
Many cringed at the thought of Wyatt battling Cena at WrestleMania. I personally thought the match would result in nothing more than the WWE further elevating its biggest star while taking one of the hottest superstars in the company down a notch.
After all, Cena isn’t exactly notorious for putting over stars at WrestleMania, although he has put over the Miz and the Rock in the past. I am not here to make predictions regarding the matchup, but to instead discuss how the two have used masterful promos to build the fight into possibly the most anticipated match on the card.
The Rock is the only man to ever pin Cena clean at WrestleMania? Will Wyatt be able to defeat Superman?
Cena has discussed how his legacy is at stake at WrestleMania, while Wyatt has criticized Cena for being primarily concerned with selling merchandise and achieving fame. This is certainly not a new line of criticism directed at Cena.
In fact, Daniel Bryan levied the same insults at Cena during their build-up to SummerSlam, where he said Cena was in the WWE for fame, while he (Bryan) was there because he loves to wrestle.
Bryan’s rebukes never really felt personal though, largely due to the fact that he had to hold back because he was a face. Wyatt, on the other hand, has not held back one bit, criticizing Cena for living in a castle with his plastic girlfriend during his latest promo (seen above), which is also quite possibly his best yet.
The following are highlights from the latest blog by WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross:
On the opening segment of RAW: “Loved the antagonist angst aka ‘heat’ that the show produced for the primary storyline going into WrestleMania 30 in NOLA. The opening segment was stellar. Now the winner of the HHH vs. Daniel Bryan one on one match is going into the main event, WWE Title bout with Triple Threat rules and that match now has more intrigue. Good booking from where I’m sitting.”
On the closing segment of RAW: “The last segment of RAW rocked as I like “heat” (no jokes please) and HHH got an ample amount of steam on Daniel Bryan which added a great deal to the WM30 scenario. The hay is largely in the barn for this storyline but I’m anxious to see if WWE adds any thing new to the scenario that will culminate in a couple of weeks in the Super Dome in a likely show closing presentation.”
On The Shield: “Good stuff with the Shield on RAW even though I feel that there is something suspicious about their fan favorite turn as many Tweeted me about during the show @JRsBBQ. I am intrigued by this trio and what goes down with them at WM30.”
On Bray Wyatt vs. John Cena: “Bray Wyatt had a great promo which is becoming the norm on Monday nights but it’s frightening to think how good Wyatt will be over time. Reminiscent of his grandfather Blackjack Mulligan who was a colorful promo talent in his vaunted heyday. Speaking of Bray Wyatt, I think it’s pretty cool to have a grandfather who was recruited to play college football for Bear Bryant and Blackjack’s personal recruiter was Bum Phillips, two football coaching legends. The kids got great DNA as his dad, IRS/Mike Rotunda, was grossly underrated.”
“A fresh match with an up and coming new star vs. the face of the company is an announcer’s dream. Wyatt vs John Cena is a match that certainly has my interest I think it will kick ass. I know it will be physical because that what two, former, college football offensive linemen do.”
On the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal: “The Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal with 30 men in an over the top rope rules scenario, BROTHER, is actually gaining more of my interest. The talents talking about being in it have piqued my curiosity. Funny how that works. I’m assuming that some talents will be in the Battle Royal and in other bouts at ‘Mania but that’s an assumption.”
– Following Bray Wyatt’s “plastic” comment during his promo segment with John Cena at Monday’s RAW, Nikki Bella posted the following tweet on her official Twitter account.
– Speaking of Bray Wyatt and John Cena, the song that played during their WrestleMania video package was “Legacy” by Eminem. WWE is using the track as one of the many official theme songs for this year’s show.
– WWE legend The Undertaker will be appearing live on tonight’s episode of Main Event on the WWE Network. This will be the Undertaker’s first time appearing on the show.
– WWE Hall of Famers Jim Ross and Mick Foley praised Bray Wyatt on Twitter on Monday night:
– Apparently part of the motivation behind the Daniel Bryan segment at this past Monday’s RAW, as well as the reason the company referred to it as “occupying RAW” instead of “hijacking RAW” was because the company was making fun of how the fans failed at “hijacking” the recent RAW show in Chicago.
– The plan going forward is for WWE to run RAW dark matches (which they haven’t been doing as of late due to the WWE Network) featuring John Cena and Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt.
The following are highlights from the latest Jim Ross blog:
On John Cena, Bray Wyatt and Hulk Hogan: “Cena and Hulk worked for me and Hogan’s role at WM30 seems to nicely fit the veteran who WILL get a little physical at WM30….BROTHER!”
“What if I told you that John Cena and Bray Wyatt will arguably steal the show at WM30? Roll your eyes if you want but when you pair two, athletic performers with legit football backgrounds, both offensive linemen, expect their work rate to increase and their match to be a ’10’ on the physicality chart.”
On Daniel Bryan: “Daniel Bryan had another terrific night and WWE is booking DB expertly even though some critics will micro analyze the storyline and find fault with it because that’s simply what they do.”
“As I have said for many weeks, I fully expect Daniel Bryan to have a significant “WrestleMania Moment” in NOLA on April 6.”
“Just waiting on a handful of fans to complain now that the Bryan story is now too “predictable.” Please…stop my pain.”
On the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal: “Not totally surprised that WWE is going to have a 30 man battle royal in the name of Andre the Giant as WWE usually adds a multi person match to attempt to get as many talents on WrestleMania as possible. I still remain firm that appearing on WM30 is an earned opportunity and not anyone’s right of passage. With that said, I’m not unhappy that several talents will now get in the game. Good for them and hopefully it doesn’t cause the four hour marathon to be shorted on the time needed for specific main event level bouts.”
On RAW improving: “Without question the bell to bell content of Monday Night RAW has improved significantly over the past few weeks. Yeah, I know that I[m old school and the butt of the occasional joke on RAW but I know what I like and I like physicality, believability and realism….not bad acting or failed attempts at humor.”
– WWE announced a sellout crowd of 14,841 fans in the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tennessee for Monday’s edition of WWE RAW.
– WWE is having Bray Wyatt and The Wyatt Family alter their ring entrance a little bit. Bray has been personalizing his introduction lately, as on Monday he noted, “Memphis, we’re here.” He did the same thing this past weekend, where during Saturday’s WWE live event in Madison Square Garden, Bray noted, “Madison Square Garden, we’re here.”