– We reported earlier this week that Chris Jericho resurfaced at a WWE live event from Germany. It was Jericho’s first public appearance since Owens betrayed him at the Festival of Friendship. Jericho came out on crutches wearing a neck brace and once again felt the wrath of WWE’s Universal Champion. WWE posted this footage of the latest attack:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ8qEV3At68/
– Bill Goldberg has taken notice of NXT Women’s Champion Asuka’s impressive winning streak.
Congratulations @WWEAsuka on your 149th win in a row! #whosnext ????????
Chris Jericho returned at Wednesday’s WWE live event from Dusseldorf, Germany, his first public appearance since Kevin Owens betrayed him during last week’s Festival of Friendship.
Jericho came to the ring on crutches and wearing a neck brace. He cut a promo vowing revenge on his former best friend. Jericho was interrupted by Owens, who proceeded to beat Jericho down again.
Roman Reigns came out for the save, setting up the show’s main event. In a No Holds Barred match, Kevin Owens defeated Roman Reigns to retain the RAW Universal Championship.
– WWE 205 Live cruiserweight Akira Tozawa debuted on RAW last night in Portland. He defeated Drew Gulak, as seen in the video above. WWE also aired this video package with Cesaro talking about how good Tozawa is in the ring:
– To celebrate their friendship and show the world the strength of their bond, WWE US Champion Chris Jericho and WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens will be hosting a “Festival of Friendship” on next week’s RAW from Las Vegas.
WWE has also announced that Charlotte will defend the RAW Women’s Championship against Bayley on next week’s show in Vegas.
WWE had to be hoping for another mainstream media mention when they had Chris Jericho add Super Bowl 51 MVP Tom Brady to “The List” on last night’s RAW in Portland. Jericho also called the quarterback of the New England Patriots a stupid idiot and spent the first few minutes of his in-ring promo ripping on Brady.
Jericho continued the Brady jokes after RAW on social media. Jericho posted this meme on Instagram but as of this writing, the WWE United States Champion has received no response from Brady or The Patriots.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQMw70KjMu8/
Meanwhile, WWE sent the Patriots a custom replica WWE Championship belt to commemorate their historic comeback victory on Sunday night.
– Former WWE writer Brian Maxwell Mann tweeted the following about WWE’s creative direction heading into WrestleMania. There’s been some buzz going around that John Cena’s WrestleMania opponent has been decided and fans won’t be too excited about the matchup. Mann has apparently learned who Cena will be facing and agrees it’s not a good match on paper.
In reponse to a rumor of Goldberg capturing the Universal Championship from Kevin Owens and defending it against Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania, Mann thinks the title stipulation does nothing to enhance the match.
– Chris Jericho suffered a minor ankle injury while being tossed around by Brock Lesnar in Sunday’s Royal Rumble match. It was only a minor injury, as Jericho worked a 14-minute match against Sami Zayn the following night on RAW.
– After last night’s RAW went off the air, Brock Lesnar came out an issued an open challenge to anybody in the WWE locker room. Out came the Big Show. When Show went for a chokeslam, Lesnar maneuvered out of it and hit Show with an F5. Lesnar’s music hit and he left the ring while Big Show remained laying on the canvas.
– On the latest installment of the Talk is Jericho podcast, United States champion Chris Jericho revealed that he recently signed a new WWE contract.
“I’m very excited about the next few months,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of projects coming up, a lot of great WWE stuff. I’ll still be here doing as many shows as I can. I signed a new contract this week which is cool.”
Jericho has been working under short-term deals that have continuously ‘rolled over’ as he’s stuck around. This latest signing will keep Jericho through at least WrestleMania 33 in April. Drink it in, man.
– KAIT8.com reports that WWE Champion AJ Styles was robbed earlier this week in Jonesboro, Arkansas. While Styles was competing at Monday night’s SmackDown live event at Arkansas State University, a thief made off with:
A bag containing $1,000 US dollars and $7,000 in Japanese yen
His iPhone
A set of Beats headphones
A small television
An Xbox 360 and six Xbox games
Arkansas State University police are investigating the crime.
– 2K announced on Thursday that WWE 2K17 is coming to PC on February 7th.
– Steve Corino officially began working as a Coach for the WWE Performance Center this week, according to PWInsider. Corino had been serving as an announcer for ROH until his departure on 12/31.
– As noted earlier this week, Chris Jericho is now a “Grand Slam Champion” after capturing the United States Championship on RAW. WWE.com has posted a feature looking at the updated list of Grand Slam Champions and clarification on what constitutes a Grand Slam Champion.
“What exactly qualifies a Grand Slam Champion in WWE has changed several times as the roster of championships has, and only six Superstars had managed to meet the current set of criteria: Intercontinental Champion, United States Champion, any permutation of the Tag Team Championship and either active heavyweight title — as in, WWE Championship or, now, the WWE Universal Championship.”
In addition to Chris Jericho, other Grand Slam Champions include Edge, Big Show, The Miz, Eddie Guerrero, Daniel Bryan and Kurt Angle.
The Undertaker interrupted the post-RAW celebration by Kevin Owens and new WWE United States Champion Chris Jericho after tonight’s RAW in New Orleans went off the air.
Jericho and Owens worked the mic before Jericho threatened The Deadman and the segment ended with chokeslams for each man.
– The first official trailer for The Jetsons & WWE: Robo-WrestleMania! has been released and features Roman Reigns, Sheamus, Alicia Fox and others. The movie releases via Digital HD on 2/28 and on DVD/VOD on 3/14. Below is the trailer from IGN:
– Below is backstage RAW Fallout video with new WWE United States Champion Chris Jericho celebrating with Kevin Owens after last night’s RAW. Jericho brags on he and Owens before they “clink” their championships to end the segment.
– Dave Bautista took to Twitter this week and responded to the comments made by legendary actress Meryl Streep at the Golden Globes on Sunday. While voicing her opposition to Donald Trump, Streep commented: “So Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners, and if we kick them all out you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts.”
The comments brought heat from MMA fans, fighters and promoters. Batista, who tried his hand at the sport a few years back, wrote the following:
Chris Jericho is the new WWE United States Champion after he and Kevin Owens defeated Roman Reigns in a handicap match on Monday’s RAW from New Orleans.
This marks Jericho’s first run with the US Championship. He is also the 7th WWE Superstar to become a “Grand Slam Champion” – having held the US Championship, the Intercontinental Championship, the WWE Championship and a Tag Team Championship.
Other Superstars to achieve this feat includeEddie Guerrero, Edge, Daniel Bryan, Kurt Angle, The Miz and Big Show.
Last night, the WWE held a live event in Georgia that saw Universal Champion Kevin Owens losing to Roman Reigns in a United States Championship match. Owens has wrestled Roman Reigns in a singles match 18 times since the brand split and has won only two of them. His two victories against Reigns were at WWE Roadblock: End of the Line and on the September 12th, 2016 episode of Monday Night Raw. A lot of these losses happened at house shows. However, when Owens was wrestling Seth Rollins at live events after the brand split, Owens was winning regularly. Owens usually only wins matches when Chris Jericho is there to help him out. Kevin Owens and Jericho will get another shot at the United States Championship this Monday on Raw.
The WWE has posted an article listing off five dream matches they would like to see for Goldberg. The names on the list were Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman, AJ Styles, John Cena and The Undertaker. You can read the entire article by clicking here.
The WWE also released a new video of 6 Superstars to watch in 2016. The 6 names on the list were Bayley, Brock Lesnar, Jack Gallagher, Nikki Bella, Bray Wyatt and Tye Dillinger. You can check out the video below.
WWE United States Champion Roman Reigns will defend against Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens in a 2-on-1 handicap match at Monday’s WWE RAW from New Orleans, LA.
Monday’s show will also feature WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker making their returns.
Former WWE Superstar Ryback has released his book today. Ryback is still wrestling in the independent scene and has had a lot of interesting things to say about his time in the WWE on his podcast. You can purchase the book by clicking here.
Xavier Woods and Neville faced off in a game of FIFA on Woods’ Youtube channel, UpUpDownDown.
A fan on Twitter suggested that “the list” gimmick was being wasted on Jericho and should have been put on a younger wrestler. Jericho fired back at the fan in a tweet of his own.
Last night on Raw, GM Mick Foley, Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho were having an argument in the ring. Owens was complaining about having to defend his Universal Championship against Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble. Chris Jericho was complaining that he had to be locked in a shark tank and suspended above the ring during that match. Jericho referred to himself as a “sexy piñata” and thought Foley was abusing his power as the general manager of Monday Night Raw. Finally, Stephanie McMahon had seen enough and stormed to the ring. However, her entrance video didn’t play on the jumbotron. Instead, a gigantic Google home screen appeared for a few seconds before someone caught it. Kevin Owens noticed it right away.
I would consider this a crisis averted. The person that made this mistake could have been Googling something not appropriate for PG television. Better yet, they could have been Googling “when the hell is Emmalina going to show up on Monday Night Raw?”.
I’ve expressed my opinions on the Brock Lesnar and Goldberg match at Survivor Series before. To sum it up, I didn’t enjoy it. I thought it was done for shock value and that it made no sense for Goldberg, whom hasn’t been in a wrestling ring for over a decade, to dismantle Lesnar in 86 seconds. It was a snap judgement on my part. I found it cheap and was just done so that people would send out tweets about the match. Since Survivor Series, I’ve been proven wrong because the Goldberg and Lesnar storyline has continued and more weight has been put behind it. However, last night’s closing segment on Raw completely baffled me.
It was the debut of the Kevin Owens Show and his first guest was Goldberg. Owens and Jericho cracked jokes for a couple of minutes and Goldberg eventually joined them in the ring. Goldberg pretty much just said that he was going to win the Royal Rumble match and take the Universal Championship from either Kevin Owens or Roman Reigns. Paul Heyman then came out and said that Brock Lesnar was going to eliminate Goldberg at the Royal Rumble. Roman Reigns then emerged (without his United States Championship) and said that he was going defeat Kevin Owens at Royal Rumble and defeat whomever he has to face at Wrestlemania. Roman Reigns and Goldberg then had a stare down and Braun Strowman interrupted. Strowman stated that he was the one that was going to win the Royal Rumble match. The segment ended with Goldberg and Reigns hitting a Double Spear on Strowman. For some reason, everyone besides Goldberg then exited the ring and allowed him to celebrate in the ring.
I didn’t get it. The promo felt clunky and rushed. Chris Jericho also said that he was entering the Royal Rumble and Kevin Owens was upset about that. Owens was upset about that because he didn’t want to wind up having to defend his Universal Championship against his best friend, Chris Jericho, at Wrestlemania. There were just so many storylines and personalities crammed into that ten minute promo to close the show. Goldberg completely got lost in the shuffle and his presence didn’t feel special at all. I’m guessing that the WWE thought that the Double Spear with Reigns and Goldberg would be an epic moment but the crowd barely reacted.
Let’s breakdown Goldberg’s interactions to close last night’s Raw. Goldberg had a confrontation with Kevin Owens. Goldberg also threatened Chris Jericho when he announced that he was joining the Royal Rumble match. Goldberg then told Paul Heyman that he was going destroy Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble. Goldberg then had a stare down with Roman Reigns. Finally, Goldberg Speared Braun Strowman. My point is that there was just way too much going in that segment. Goldberg’s appearances are limited so they should feel special. There shouldn’t be multiple storylines all crammed into one segment that feature someone as established as Goldberg.
Discussion: What did you think of the final segment of last night’s Raw? Did you have the same reaction or did you enjoy it? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
– Chris Jericho will be on ESPN SportsCenter with Jonathan Coachman for this Wednesday’s “Off The Top Rope” segment.
– Neville vs. WWE Cruiserweight Champion Rich Swann and Ariya Daivari vs. Jack Gallagher in a “Gentlemen’s Duel” has been announced for tonight’s WWE 205 Live on the WWE Network.
– No word yet on when Emma will return to WWE TV as Emmalina but it’s not happening this week. Below is the latest vignette for her return:
Breakdown: The build to this match has mainly focused on Enzo Amore and Rusev. Enzo got suckered into meeting Lana at a hotel and Rusev beat the hell out of him. Big Cass now has his chance avenge his friend Enzo in a match against Rusev.
Prediction: This is a tough match to predict. Enzo and Cass haven’t really been in the Tag Team Championship seen at all recently. I wouldn’t be surprised if the WWE wants to start a singles push for Big Cass. I think Enzo and Cass are a solid tag team but once you get past the entrance, they have the same match every time. Enzo gets destroyed and then Big Cass gets tagged in and takes care of business. In a perfect world, Rusev wins this match but Big Cass has a good showing.
Winner: Rusev
Sami Zayn vs Braun Strowman (10 Minute Time Limit)
Breakdown: Sami Zayn has been obsessed with Strowman the past few weeks and Braun simply couldn’t care less. The two Superstars had a match a couple of weeks ago and Raw GM Mick Foley put a stop to it because Zayn couldn’t defend himself. Zayn demanded a rematch and finally Foley caved in and gave it to him this Sunday at Roadblock. Foley also put a 10 minute time limit on the match.
Prediction: I cannot come up with a scenario in which it would make sense for Sami Zayn to win this match. Obviously, Sami Zayn has been underutilized on Raw since the brand split. However, Raw has spent far too much time building up Braun Strowman for him to lose a relatively meaningless match against Sami Zayn. I think Sami Zayn will last the 10 minutes and that will piss Strowman off. The match will conclude with Strowman beating down Zayn after the 10 minute mark was reached. Foley may come out to try to put a stop to it and maybe Strowman will attack him as well. I think this would be a good way to show that Sami Zayn never quits and that Braun Strowman is an uncontrollable monster that the Raw locker room should fear.
Raw Tag Team Championship Match: New Day (c) vs Sheamus & Cesaro
Breakdown: This match was announced at Tribute to the Troops on Wednesday. Sheamus and Cesaro defeated Golden Truth, Gallows & Anderson and The Shining Stars in a Fatal 4-Way match to become the #1 contenders. The New Day are now the longest reigning Tag Team Champions in WWE history.
Prediction: A lot of people seem to believe that the New Day’s title reign is coming to an end. Sheamus and Cesaro got off to a rocky start when it came to crowd reactions but they have overcome that. They now work well as a tag team and are pretty much the only team on Raw that is ready to take the titles from the New Day. I think that will happen in due time. However, I do not think that will happen at Roadblock.
Winners & Still Tag Team Champions: New Day
Cruiserweight Championship Match: Rich Swann (c) vs The Brian Kendrick vs TJ Perkins
Breakdown: TJ Perkins lost the Cruiserweight title to Kendrick and then Kendrick lost it to Swann. On 205 Live, TJ Perkins submitted Rich Swann in the middle of the ring. On Monday Night Raw, Kendrick defeated Perkins easily. Perkins and Swann are friends but they seem ready to turn on each other. Kendrick’s strategy has been to play mind games with both Swann and Perkins.
Prediction: This is one of those matches that could go a million different ways. I don’t like the idea of Kendrick getting the title back so quickly. He really doesn’t need it. I think that the WWE has been dropping some subtle hints that Perkins is gearing up for a heel turn. His interactions with Swann backstage have been bizarre. I think Rich Swann is going to retain his title but Perkins is going to attack him after the match. Brian Kendrick may even join in on the attack or simply smile and cheer Perkins on.
Winner & Still Cruiserweight Champion: Rich Swann
Seth Rollins vs Chris Jericho
Breakdown: Rollins and Jericho have been battling for awhile now. Rollins was mainly focused on Kevin Owens but Jericho kept getting involved in their matches. Rollins hit a Pedigree on Jericho on top of a car a couple of weeks ago on Raw. Seth wants to defeat Jericho, take the Universal Championship from Kevin Owens and then fight Triple H. Jericho has a lot on his mind but mainly his beloved list and his broken friendship with Kevin Owens.
Prediction: The only way Jericho can win this match is by some sort of outside interference. I do not believe that Triple H will be showing up at WWE Roadblock but you never know. I think it is more likely that this match is earlier in the show and Kevin Owens tries to help Jericho out. Owens is desperate to fix his friendship with Jericho. If he can accomplish that, maybe Jericho will show up later in the night in Owens’ title defense against Roman Reigns. Even if Owens interferes, I think Rollins overcomes it and still wins the match.
Winner: Seth Rollins
Iron Man Match For The Raw Women’s Championship: Sasha Banks (c) vs Charlotte
Breakdown: Sasha Banks and Charlotte have essentially been trading the Raw Women’s Championship back and forth since the brand split. Sasha Bansk won the title back on Raw recently and celebrated with Ric Flair in the ring. The following week, Charlotte pretended to apologize to her father for embarrassing him back in May on Raw. Charlotte once again talked down to Ric Flair and then beat up Sasha Banks in front of him. Ric Flair stood there helplessly as his daughter beatdown Banks.
Prediction: Charlotte is undefeated at PPVs and I wouldn’t be surprised if that continues. I think this match will be excellent and will showcase how talented both Sasha Banks and Charlotte are. However, I think the ending will involve Ric Flair helping out his daughter Charlotte. I don’t think the WWE is bringing back Ric Flair as an on-screen character for him to be in the corner of Sasha Banks. Thus, the Raw Women’s Championship will once again change hands and Charlotte will leave Pittsburgh with the title.
Winner & New Raw Women’s Champion: Charlotte
Universal Championship Match: Kevin Owens (c) vs Roman Reigns
Breakdown: Roman Reigns has gotten the upper hand on Owens recently. Roman Reigns both want the Universal Championship. Reigns gets his shot on Sunday and Rollins battles Owens’ former best friend Chris Jericho. Reigns has already defeated Kevin Owens clean recently and that victory gave him the oppurtunity at the Universal Championship.
Prediction: Much like the Jericho and Rollins match, the only way Owens can win this match is by someone interfering. Owens has been booked as a paper champion his whole title reign. He has relied on Chris Jericho to help him retain his Universal Championship. If Jericho or Triple H does not interfere, there is no way Kevin Owens is going to defeat Roman Reigns at Roadblock. Roman Reigns is currently the United States Champion and that is the only thing preventing me from picking him this Sunday. I think the person that is going to take the Universal Championship from Owens will be Seth Rollins. I think Owens retains by getting himself disqualified, running out of the arena or outside interference.
Winner & Still Universal Champion: Kevin Owens
What do you think will happen this Sunday at WWE Roadblock: End of the Line? Let us know in the comments below.
Randy Orton recently spoke to Sports Illustrated about his memorable match against Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam, his guest spot on the USA Network series Shooter, John Cena’s success in the entertainment industry and more.
You may recall that Chris Jericho and Brock Lesnar were involved in a backstage altercation at SummerSlam after Lesnar brutalized Orton in the ring and Jericho thought Lesnar had been reckless. During an interview with SI’s Justin Barrasso, Orton confirmed that an altercation did take place and he thinks it’s awesome Jericho was concerned for his safety.
“Basically, what happened is Jericho saw what was going on in the ring and wanted answers as to whether my best interests were in mind as far as my health and safety,” Orton said. “I had my family there, sitting front row, and Chris knew that, as well. He was just coming up to check on his boy, that’s what it boiled down to, and I think that’s awesome.”
He continued, “You hear all these things about how they were going to fight, but I don’t think Jericho wanted to fight Brock, I’m just going to throw that out there. I think he was coming up to just make sure everything was cool. It’s unfortunate that in that small space, with the dozen bodies in there, somehow that leaked and everybody knew about it. That’s very unfortunate. It was blown way out of proportion, and Jericho just wanted to check on one of his fellow boys in the locker room.”
Orton says he’s got a lot of respect for Brock and has fond memories of their time together in OVW, one of WWE’s former developmental territories. Despite all of Brock’s success in WWE and MMA, Orton says he remains the fun and humble guy he’s always been.
It was announced on RAW that Women’s Champion Sasha Banks will defend against Charlotte Flair at Roadblock: End of the Line. Sasha and Charlotte will make history once again when they compete in WWE’s first-ever Women’s 30-minute “Iron Man” match.
It was also confirmed that Chris Jericho will square off against Seth Rollins.
With those matches set, here’s the updated card:
– WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens defends against WWE United States Champion Roman Reigns
– Sasha Banks defends the RAW Women’s Championship against Charlotte in a 30-Minute Iron Man Match
– Seth Rollins battled Chris Jericho
WWE Roadblock: End Of The Line takes place on Sunday, December 18th from Pittsburgh, PA.
On the latest edition of the Talk Is Jericho podcast, Chris Jericho talked about the finish of the Brock Lesnar vs. Bill Goldberg match at Survivor Series. The former World Champion praised the match’s shock-value and called the idea “brilliant.”
“Everyone was shocked, everyone was surprised, but after thinking about it for a minute, I think it was actually a pretty brilliant finish,” he said.
Jericho feels that the 86-second Survivor Series match helped generate buzz while protecting both performers from a “plodding” longer match. Lesnar and Goldberg’s previous 13-minute match in 2004 was nearly universally panned in reviews.
“I loved the Goldberg finish. I think it was very smart,” Jericho said. “Had they gone out there for about a 10-minute match, and kind of been a little bit plodding, or maybe somebody blows up or whatever it may be, I don’t think it would have been as effective. It was a shock-value, water cooler moment. Everybody’s talking about it. It sets up for a huge main event rematch; and we have something to talk about, so I think it was a great idea.”
Jericho congratulated Lesnar and Goldberg on a successful match, and Goldberg on making an impressive comeback.
– Somebody has created List-of-Jericho.com, so you can keep track of the stupid idiots who have made The List.
– Ahead of Sunday night’s big Survivor Series pay-per-view, John Cena says he misses WWE terribly. Cena is currently away filming season 2 of the American Grit reality competition series and wishes good luck to the men and women competing at the pay-per-view.
I miss @WWE terribly. Wishing all luck at #SurvivorSeries proud to be involved in a life changing opportunity. But damn I miss @WWEUniverse
Chris Jericho recently appeared on The LAW podcast to discuss who created The List, working with Kevin Owens and more. The guys at Live Audio Wrestling sent in this transcript of what Jericho said about when his current WWE run will be ending.
“Like I said earlier, once again I have mentioned his name quite a bit but I have a very close working relationship with Vince McMahon and neither one of us expected this. Both of us would like to sit back and think we were the be all, end all wise oracles that predicted this. I will tell you this, my original plan when I came back last January was to stay until WrestleMania, four months. Then, it started going so good, I re-signed I think until July and then I re-signed until October and then I re-signed until November. Now it’s basically a month by month thing. I’ve got a certain time frame in mind but I can’t even say that because what was supposed to be four has already been ten because I am smart enough to know this.
I’ve been doing this for a long time and to have – like you said, this could be my best run, I still think my 2008 Shawn Michaels, Rey Mysterio, Big Show might have been better but if it was, it’s not by far. This could be the best run I’ve ever had and at 45 years old, ten years ago, you would think that was old. Now, the Stones are still killing it at 74 years old so as long as physically I can go and still basically look the part, I don’t really put any limits on age or anything like that. I can still go out there and have the best match of the show on any given night and I’m working with guys that are 10-15 years younger that don’t feel that.
I love working with Owens and Rollins and Reigns and Sami Zayn and Dean Ambrose and AJ. Those guys are re-invigorating my love for the business because I have been through a lot of generations of the business. Also, keep this in mind, my generation of guys, as sad as it is to say this, my best friends have either passed away or retired so now I have this whole new group of guys who it starts with a little bit of hero worship, that’s great but now let’s get down to it, just start working and having some fun. These are like my best friends on the job right now, I love hanging out with the guys, they’re all really great guys and there’s no reason for me to stop because I’m doing something for the right reason because I love doing it and that’s why I do anything at this point. Thankfully, I don’t have to worry about any financial issues, I do something because I love it. It’s the same reason why I go back on the road with Fozzy, it’s because I love playing rock and roll and I love building my band and I love seeing how much the band has grown and the reactions we get, the tours we get with Kiss and Metallica and Avenged Sevenfold, Shinedown.
So, whatever I’m doing – the podcast, I love doing it, I love talking to people. I just finished writing my 4th book so anything I do, I’m putting 1000% effort into it, I believe in it and I enjoy doing it. Right now, in the WWE, I’m enjoying this run as much as I had anything in my entire career and I’m going to enjoy it as long as I can and continue to build it and continue to entertain for as long as I can in the WWE, for sure.”
RAW Superstar Sin Cara has reportedly been “exiled” to the SmackDown side of the current WWE international tour.
As reported earlier, Jericho and Sin Cara were involved in a fight on the tour bus while WWE traveled from Leeds to Glasgow on Sunday. Sin Cara had been annoying the bus by making noises and when everyone asked him to stop, he got louder. Jericho confronted him and was told to “fuck off,” which led to a missed punch and a scuffle. Jericho reportedly bit Sin Cara’s hand during the incident.
Sin Cara was reportedly ordered to undergo anger management classes.
Regarding being “exiled” on the current tour, PWInsider notes that WWE officials were going to send him home at one point but they reconsidered and sent him to SmackDown to finish the tour.
Monday Night Raw took place last night in Glasgow, Scotland. Raw is advertised as a wrestling show. My apologies, a “sports entertainment” show. The only problem with that is last night’s Raw contained less than 40 minutes of actual wrestling. One of the matches in the less than 40 minutes of in-ring action was between the Shining Stars and Golden Truth. Now, you can consider that a wrestling match. I’d like to call it a train wreck and a waste of everyone’s time. The crowd was silent for most of the match but mustered the energy to chant “boring!” in the middle of it.
Raw is supposed to be a three hour show but it typically goes about 15 minutes long. Lets just say that a typical episode of Monday Night Raw is between 180-190 minutes. It is completely ridiculous for a wrestling program of that length to have less than an hour of in-ring action. It could be excusable if the promos were actually entertaining. The issue is that they usually are mind-numbingly stupid and bore everyone to tears.
Last night, there was a 15 minute promo featuring the New Day dressed in kilts and bringing bagpipes down to the ring. I guess because the show was taped in Scotland that was supposed to be hilarious. Big E then recited a speech from the film Braveheart to pump up the Raw team for Survivor Series. The rest of the promo was everyone cracking jokes at the expense of Sheamus. The promo wound up leading to a quick match between the New Day and Gallows & Anderson. Amazingly, Gallows and Anderson picked up a clean victory over New Day. The WWE has conditioned their audience to view Gallows & Anderson as a joke for the past few months. All of the sudden, they are mowing through the Tag Team Champions. I don’t understand it but that is a whole other discussion.
The main point is that the match was short and hardly competitive. Big E was dominated throughout and the match. The only momentum the New Day had was when Kofi was tagged in and he got in some offense. Gallows & Anderson picked up a quick victory via the Magic Killer. There was no drama and nobody really had any reaction to Gallows & Anderson winning. It just seems like week after week, people are randomly winning matches and it is building towards absolutely nothing. The painfully unfunny promo that proceeded this match was four times as long as the match itself.
Every single promo feels like the Superstars are reading from a teleprompter. There is no life in anything they are saying. It is like the creative writing process in the WWE is to google corny jokes and assign a few of them to every Superstar to regurgitate during the show. R-Truth mistook Jimmy Buffett’s name to mean an actual buffet last night. Braun Strowman had to say the line “I’m on Team Braun!” and try to sound like a monster while doing so. It sounded ridiculous. Wouldn’t it have just been better if Strowman got up in Kevin Owens’ face and told him to get the hell out of his locker room?
Every single segment is overwritten. The idea may be humorous at first but it goes through a bunch of people with their own thoughts and what comes out is a watered down version of the original idea. There are no intense feuds anymore. The entire build to the Hell in a Cell PPV was based around jokes and lists. How was Seth Rollins going to defeat the chubby champion? Was sparkle crotch going to interfere? Rusev and Reigns had several lame promos in which people were getting tossed into a wedding cake or Rusev was showing a slideshow of his family. Meanwhile, the WWE was billing the Hell in a Cell as this demonic structure with a life of it’s own. How were people going to convince themselves they were going to see this brutal battles when the build to the show was the equivalent to a bunch of fart jokes?
I do not understand who the target audience is for Monday Night Raw. It can’t be wrestling fans because there is not enough wrestling. If it is children, why is the show three hours and what child is cracking up at a Jimmy Buffett joke? For that matter, what adult is cracking up at a Jimmy Buffett joke in 2016? It appears that the WWE is trying to cater their product to everyone. They are trying to produce a show that appeals to every gender and every age. I just picture a gigantic chart and empty suits placing segments on the chart. They put the Golden Truth in the kids section of the chart and then the main event in the adult section. They probably figure that by the time the main event airs most of the children will be asleep and the adults will be wide awake to see the match. The problem with that logic is that the ratings go down every hour because adults are changing the channel due to how awful the show is. In their quest to create a show that caters to everyone, what the WWE is left with is a show that very few people enjoy.