– Rob Van Dam will be taking time off from WWE in a few weeks. Van Dam’s current WWE contract has him working 90-day blocks, where’ll tour with WWE for 3 months and then can take time off before returning for another 3 months.
– CM Punk has been working injured for several weeks now, which has often been the case for Punk over the past several years. Punk has been working a very light schedule at WWE live events lately because his knee and ankle are injured, but he’s also dealing with other nagging injuries. He’s expected to be off WWE television for another week or two in order to recover from Ryback’s recent attack and allow him time to heal up.
With Punk’s WWE contract expiring next summer, a lot of people are wondering if he’ll stay with the company or follow through on his previous statements that he’ll be retiring “sooner than later.”
Take this for what it’s worth, but local advertisements in the Boston area for the 2013 WWE Survivor Series pay-per-view are currently listing Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton as well as CM Punk “getting his hands on Paul Heyman, once and for all” as the top billing for the show.
The 2013 WWE Survivor Series pay-per-view emanates from the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts on Sunday, November 24, 2013.
Before Survivor Series, however, is WWE Battleground, which is the next pay-per-view offering from WWE. WWE Battleground emanates from the First Niagara Center in Buffalo, New York on Sunday, October 6, 2013.
Based on Sunday night’s WWE Night Of Champions pay-per-view, it appears as though Ryback is the new Paul Heyman client that has been rumored for a while now.
As noted previously, there was discussion internally in WWE of using an unknown from NXT as a new “Paul Heyman guy,” while the other options were moving either Ryback or Big E. Langston over to the Heyman crew. It appears that WWE is turning Langston babyface, and decided to go with Ryback as Heyman’s new client. If that is the case, you can expect it to be confirmed on RAW tonight.
For those who missed it, Ryback came to the aid of Heyman after CM Punk beat Curtis Axel in the Handicap Elimination match, which was also made a no-disqualification rules match during the Night Of Champions Kickoff Show.
– CM Punk’s back was bleeding after Ryback put him through a table at last night’s Night of Champions pay-per-view.
– WWE announced last night that the next live event from Detroit will take place on December 28th. Tickets are now available at Ticketmaster with the code WWEHOLIDAY.
– WWE posted the following Tout with Daniel Bryan immediately following his WWE Title win at Night of Champions:
Local advertisements currently running in Boston for November’s WWE Survivor Series pay-per-view focus on the CM Punk vs. Paul Heyman feud, as well as the Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton feud.
With Daniel Bryan’s ongoing feud with Triple H and Randy Orton, it seems logical that we’ll see a Team Bryan vs. a “Corporation” Team.
Whether this is a case of early advertisements still floating out there, or if this is an indication that both top programs will continue after the upcoming Night Of Champions pay-per-view, remains to be seen.
WWE Survivor Series takes place on Sunday, November 24th from Boston’s TD Garden arena.
SESCOOPS.COM reader Derek Gash sent along the following post-show notes from Monday’s WWE RAW in Toronto, Ontario, Canada:
The crowd was chanting “Thank You Savage” during matches as there was a fan dressed as Savage and looked just like him. The crowd kept getting live whenever he stood up.
Edge got the pop of the night being here in his hometown, followed by Santino Marella and Goldust,
During the commercial break after the RVD match, “The Macho Man” fan was spoken to by WWE staff. I’m not sure what they said to him but he toned it down from that point on. This seems like the fan incident last week on RAW where WWE staff came out and told fans dressed as Hogan, Piper, etc. to tone it down. The crowd had been distracted since the match between ADR and R-Truth due to the fan.
Damien Sandow had repeated a part of his promo that he did during the commercial break when the cameras returned live. It was the same stuff that he had already while during the break
After RAW went off the air, Curtis Axl and Paul Heyman came out. As they hit the ring, Punk’s music hit he came out with the kendo stick and hit Heyman a couple times. Heyman took off back up the stage and a match started between Axel and Punk. Punk landed a GTS on Axl and won via pinfall. Punk then proceeded to hit him with the chair and then celebrated with the Toronto crowd sending everyone happy.
-As we reported this past weekend, in addition to his return appearance on Monday’s live edition of WWE RAW in his former hometown of Toronto, Ontario Canada, WWE Hall Of Famer Adam “Edge” Copeland will also appear on this week’s edition of WWE SmackDown, which will be taped on Tuesday night in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Edge’s appearance on SmackDown was confrmed during an official commercial that aired during RAW.
-The official Tout website features a video of WWE doctor Michael Sampson explaining what happened in the ring with Paul Heyman on Monday’s live edition of WWE RAW, as well as why he decided to clear him to compete this Sunday in the handicap match alongside his client Curtis Axel against CM Punk.
WWE RAW emanates live from Des Moines, Iowa tonight for the Labor Day edition of the show.
The main focus of tonight’s show will be on the Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton feud, with all of the outside involvement from Triple H, as well as Vince and Stephanie McMahon. Also, heavy focus will remain on the storyline involving CM Punk and Curtis Axel/Paul Heyman.
There will be more follow-up on the World Heavyweight Championship program, which features champion Alberto Del Rio and his former manager Ricardo Rodriguez, who is now with Del Rio’s opposition, Rob Van Dam. They will continue the build to their title bout at the upcoming Night Of Champions pay-per-view.
The full talent roster advertised for tonight’s show in Des Moines is as follows: Orton, Bryan, Punk, Heyman, Axel, HHH, Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, Del Rio, Van Dam, Rodriguez, Mark Henry, Dolph Ziggler, Big Show, Wade Barrett, AJ Lee, Kaitlyn, The Shield and The Wyatt Family.
The scheduled dark match main event for tonight’s show is The Shield vs. Rob Van Dam, Mark Henry and The Big Show. With Henry being injured, plans for that match may be off the table.
The following is an excerpt from a recent Chris Jericho interview on Ring Rust Radio:
On taking time away from WWE and his match quality during his last run: “People are always putting words in my mouth. I never once used the word hiatus or retirement; I’m just not working there. I don’t know if it’s a long time, if it’s a short time, forever. I’m not taking a hiatus or sabbatical, my contract was up. I have a bunch of other stuff going on. As far as why the matches were great, I don’t know, man.
“It was just a really good roll. It was like every match was better than the last and I was just in the zone. Experience level wise, many don’t have the experience that I have and I also think outside the box when I’m putting together matches, which other guys don’t. It just seemed like every match I had clicked. There were probably a few that weren’t as good as others, but the majority of them I was really, really happy with. Some bona fide best matches I’ve had in a long time. The Rob Van Dam match on Raw and the CM Punk one at Payback, I thought those matches couldn’t have been any better.”
The following are highlights from a recent Carroll County Times Q&A with WWE Superstar Curtis Axel:
Did you have an input on your current ring name, Curtis Axel?
When I became Michael McGillicutty, ever since that point, I was throwing hundreds of names at them. And I’m sure Axel Curtis or Curtis Axel was in there somewhere. I was talking with a guy that works for WWE, Joey Styles, he actually brought that name up as one of the possibilities. But they didn’t want to go that route with me at first. They wanted to have me do my own thing and not even pay homage to anything to do with my family. Which, you know, is kind of nice, so I can try to do this on my own, and I tried to do the best I could with Michael McGillicutty without any TV time or whatever. But I’m sure that name was pitched as one of the hundreds I threw at them.
Any other memorable ones out of those hundreds you threw at them?
There were some ridiculous names. I just got sick of it. Most of them were Joe. Joe Able. Joe Mercer. Most of them were all Joe, you know? Able was one, I wanted to be Joe Able, like Cain and Abel, and try to do something with Kane. That was just one of them I kind of liked. I wasn’t really sold on any of them, I just wanted to get rid of Michael McGillicutty. That was my one priority.
Right before you came back as Curtis Axel, there was a picture that the Rock tweeted earlier this year, mentioning you were his workout partner when he was getting ready to face CM Punk and then I heard that you trained with Brock Lesnar before WrestleMania too. How did you end up working with them and what did you learn working with all-time greats like that?
The WWE office, they know they could trust me taking care of those guys. I was so honored. They flied me out to go train with the Rock and that guy is awesome. Training with him, he pays attention to every little detail and crowd reaction. The way he does his moves and he works, it’s so fluid. It’s amazing the way he thinks and the way he works. And just picking his brain, he actually spent time with me and asked me what I did in the ring and different moves that I did, where I could place them to get more reaction from the people and all this kind of stuff. Just picking that guy’s brain, for me, was just unbelievable. I was so honored to be picked to go up there and train with him. And then Brock Lesnar, my god, that guy is a beast. I actually, I’ve known him for many years because he started with Brad Rheingans also, in Minnesota training with my dad, so him and my dad were close friends and all that stuff, so I kind of knew him anyway, so he could trust me and he knew he could help me because my dad helped him, and he likes to give back. He’s been up and down on this road back in the WWE for a little bit now. He’s been in my head, and he’s a Paul Heyman guy, and it’s cool to spend time and have him critique little things that I’m still doing and give me some advice. So it’s pretty sweet dude.
You mention you’re both Paul Heyman guys. How’s it been working with Paul Heyman? Do you guys travel on the road together and talk shop often?
Oh yeah. He’s a genius man. He’s been around the business for years and he’s like an encyclopedia. He tells me stories, like AWA stories when he was with my dad. That’s actually how we kind of got talking because there was a pitch out where he was actually going to manage my dad in AWA but it never went through, so I’m like, “well, why don’t you start with me?” And he was like, “yeah, yeah.” He’s like Brock Lesnar and the Rock you know, I can pick his brain and the guy is unbelievable on the microphone and he’s unbelievable when it comes to the ring psychology. He’s an evil genius and I couldn’t ask for a better guy to travel with and just pick his brain.
So you pitching the idea to him, is that how this partnership got started?
We were talking about it and I brought it up to him, what do you think about this, us being together? Brock’s part-time and CM Punk was hurt at the time and I was like, Paul, WWE needs Paul Heyman on television. So that was my pitch to him. But before that, before I was even with him, he would be at the live events and this Raw and Smackdown TVs and he would come up and give me advice. So I was like, man, if this guy wants to take time out of his busy day and help me out, I would approach him with everything I had and he’d help me out, and then I approached him with this pitch and he liked it. We would talk more about it; I think he might’ve brought it up to the higher-ups in WWE and here we are.
The following are highlights from a new Jim Ross blog:
On his UK speaking tour: “Our UK Tour was a huge success. My thanks to all who attended and supported our inaugural journey especially PSI Events & @americansoda. We sold out Cardiff, London, and Glasgow while Manchester had the largest crowd vs Man U vs Chelsea in football just down the street. The Q&A’S with the fans were a blast. I had so much fun meeting the fans one on one even though our unique accents were both humorous & challenging to understand at times. :) Travel was challenging and aggressive. As a great man once told me, “Sleep is our enemy” so I think we defeated our enemy on this trip. No sleep but a lifetime of memories. Lots of plans to do more Evening With…shows on the drawing board but time will tell. Stay tuned.”
On Monday’s edition of WWE RAW: “Stayed up LATE to watch RAW but it was worth it. Bravo to @CMPunk, @heymanhustle, & AJ Lee among many for a fun show. Raw has momentum and with so many new talents and issues evolving, the future is exciting.”
On upcoming tryout at WWE Performance Center: “Working a tryout camp Thursday & Friday at WWE Performance Center. Always looking for the next star. Good luck to all. Effort is your key. Be passionate. It’s your Wrestlemania.”
Check out the complete blog online at JRsBarBQ.com.
– Sami Callihan is no more as the independent wrestling standout will be known as Solomon Crowe going forward as part of WWE’s NXT division. The 25-year-old issued the following message Wednesday evening on Twitter announcing the name change.
From the ashes of Sami Callihan, Solomon Crowe was born…. Soon the Songs of Solomon shall be sung…..
– CM Punk was in attendance at tonight’s UFC event at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. The show aired live on FOX Sports 1 as the WWE Superstar was shown seated next to UFC President Dana White.
– The official WWE website has published an article highlighting the personalized Money in the Bank briefcases of Damien Sandow, Edge, Rob Van Dam, CM Punk and Dolph Ziggler.
– Independent wrestler Christina Von Eerie turns 24-years-old today.
– Former WWE Champion CM Punk hung out with actress Aimee Garcia of George Lopez and Dexter fame at last night’s Chicago Cubs game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California. Punk tweeted this image of himself with the fellow Chicago native.
SESCOOPS.COM reader Aaron Carnevale from Monday Night Mayhem sent along the following highlights from Mick Foley’s recent appearance on their radio show:
How his “Tales From Wrestling Past LIVE” differs from a typical “stand-up comedy”: “Well there are all kinds of comedians. Most people associate comedy with jokes, and I don’t really do many set-up punch line jokes. I try to take people on a journey, where they are laughing most of the time and intently listening some of the time. I also reserve the right to say stuff that is ridiculous.”
The WWE’s reaction to his comedy shows and the possibilities of making “Tales From Wrestling Past LIVE” part of a WWE Pay-Per-View weekend (the night before or right after the PPV): “They are giving a lot of positive feedback. I think this is the year that they (WWE) will see that they don’t need to take a giant leap into this form of entertainment. They just need to take a side-step, and they are there. I have been a little disappointed that WWE hasn’t embraced it yet, but I really believe in a year’s time they will make it part of SummerSlam Axxess.”
Why he enjoys “being on the outside, looking in” and his thoughts on the current WWE landscape with Daniel Bryan and CM Punk at the helm: “One of the fun parts of being on the outside looking in is I find out things when everyone else will. I think Daniel Bryan isn’t only responding with the best wrestling of his career, but he is also reaching emotional depths that he wasn’t reaching a few short years ago. I’m also a big fan of Punk’s storyline (with Paul Heyman) right now.”
As reported earlier, the Bella Twins were the first to chime in on Twitter with their reaction to AJ Lee”s “pipe bomb” style promo on the Divas division on Monday’s edition of WWE RAW.
The Funkadactyls, Cameron and Naomi, have also tweeting their reactions, and they are as follows:
Cameron: “Aj you have “it” all because how many of the top guys have you been with? Oh and btw remember this boo, only way from top is bottom! #raw Did I forget mention @WWEAJLee I may not be a top girl but at least I can go to bed at night knowing I have a clean conscious. #girlbye”
Naomi: “@WWEAJLee congrats u r officially crazy as hell I can’t wait to show you how a #realathlete represents the diva’s championship #TotalDivas”
Additionally, the originator of the “pipe bomb,” CM Punk shared his approval on what he’s calling the “pipe bombshell.” Punk wrote:
“Okay, who’s got this promo that @WWEAJLee cut on raw? I need to get eyes on it.”
-WWE Superstar CM Punk recently made his argument for The Ultimate Warrior and Randy Savage to be inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame. In a new tweet, Punk wrote:
“Ultimate Warrior. Better be hall of fame bound. Savage too. All them Poffos.”
-WWE posted the latest edition of “Backstage Fallout” for this week’s RAW on their official YouTube channel. The description for the video reads: “Miz tangos with Fandango, and the Divas division breaks down.”
Check out the RAW “Backstage Fallout” for this week below:
On Monday’s edition of WWE RAW, new matches, with some interesting stipulations, were added to the WWE Night Of Champions pay-per-view, scheduled September 15, 2013, which will be headlined by Daniel Bryan challenging “the face of WWE”, Randy Orton, for his WWE Championship.
WWE Superstar Rob Van Dam, through the help of a quick distraction by his new manager, Ricardo Rodriguez, defeated Alberto Del Rio to earn a World Heavyweight Championship match against the champion at the pay-per-view in three weeks.
Also added to Night Of Champions on RAW was a Handicap Elimination match featuring CM Punk against both Curtis Axel and Paul Heyman. It was noted that if Heyman doesn’t fight, he will have to leave WWE.
Here is an updated look at the official WWE Night Of Champions pay-per-view lineup thus far:
WWE Championship
-Randy Orton (c) vs. Daniel Bryan
World Heavyweight Championship
-Alberto Del Rio (c) vs. Rob Van Dam (with Ricardo Rodriguez)
Handicap Elimination Match
-CM Punk vs. Curtis Axel & Paul Heyman
Stay tuned to SESCOOPS.COM for continued updates on the WWE Night Of Champions pay-per-view.
It was announced on Monday’s edition of WWE RAW that at the upcoming Night Of Champions pay-per-view in three weks in Detroit, Michigan, WWE Superstar CM Punk will battle both the WWE Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel, as well as his manager Paul Heyman, in a handicap elimination match.
The match was announced by Brad Maddox during a backstage segment on RAW. It was also noted that as an added stipulation, if Heyman doesn’t fight, he must leave WWE.
Paul Heyman recently spoke to Machinima Sports to hype WWE 2K14 and spoke about his tumultuous relationship with his former client, CM Punk.
In an interview recorded prior to SummerSlam, Paul Heyman vows to forgive CM Punk and lead him to the promised land – the main event of WrestleMania 30:
“I will forgive CM Punk, I will accept CM Punk back. I will rebuild CM Punk and I shall take CM Punk to the main event at WrestleMania.”
WWE.com recently confirmed an additional match for tonight’s edition of RAW.
Already announced, in one of tonight’s main events, is a match between CM Punk and Curtis Axel (with Paul Heyman). While the bout was announced as a non-title match originally, the latest online rumors point to it most likely being for Axel’s Intercontinental Championship.
Additionally, WWE announced a match between World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio and Rob Van Dam for the show tonight.
WWE RAW emanates from the US Airways Center in Phoenix, Arizona tonight for the first full-show without the John Cena.
Expect heavy focus tonight on the build to the Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan WWE Championship match at the upcoming WWE Night Of Champions pay-per-view in September.
Confirmed for the show tonight is a non-title match between WWE Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel, with his manager Paul Heyman, against CM Punk. Regarding the title, there are rumors that the Axel-Punk match will indeed be for the I-C Championship.
Also on tonight’s show is the latest drama from the McMahon Family Takeover, as Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon and Triple H are all advertised to appear this week.
Additional talent advertised to appear in Phoenix tonight includes Alberto Del Rio, Rob Van Dam, The Shield, Mark Henry, Big Show, Ryback, The Wyatt Family, Dolph Ziggler, Big E. Langston, AJ Lee and Kaitlyn.
Advertised for the live crowd in Phoenix as the dark match main event tonight is both Punk vs. Axel and Heyman in a Handicap Match, as well as The Shield vs. Henry, Show and Van Dam in a Six-Man Tag Match.
The following are results from the WWE live event in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The event was held on Saturday, August 24, 2013.
-The Prime Time Players (Darren Young & Titus O’Neil) defeated 3MB (Drew McIntyre & Jinder Mahal) via Pinfall. Young and O’Neil got a good babyface reaction from the crowd. The finish saw O’Neil pick up the pinfall after hitting his finishing move.
-The Great Khali defeated Hunico via Pinfall. Hunico, who was basically in his hometown here, got a decent babyface reaction from the fans. The match was said to be pretty slow, and somewhat boring. The finsh saw Khali pick up the pinfall after hitting Hunico with the Karate Chop Of Death.
-Ryback defeated Kofi Kingston via Pinfall. No Shell Shock finisher here. The finish saw Ryback, being a bully, squeezing the referee in the middle of he and Kingston for a meat hook off the top-rope for the 1-2-3.
-Natalya & Kaitlyn defeated AJ Lee & Layla via Submission. The fans got the vote for the stipulation in this one. They chose a Dance Competition over an actual tag-match. AJ refused to participate in the dance-off. Layla went all out, doing a lot of the popular dances from the 1990s for a decent crowd reaction. As much as one could expect, giving the fact it was just chicks dancing. Eventually, AJ and Layla attacked Natalya and Kaitlyn, which led to a match. In the end, Natalya put Layla in the Sharpshooter and got the tap out.
-Dolph Ziggler defeated Big E. Langston via Pinfall. Langston cut a little promo before the match on the video screen. He basically talked about how SummerSlam was a fluke and he wouldn’t lose again. The match started off slow, but eventually picked up and the crowd got with it. In the end, Ziggler hit the Zig-Zag for the 1-2-3.
–Intermission–
-Cody Rhodes defeated Damien Sandow via Pinfall. Sandow cut a small promo on his walk to the ring saying he deserved a better reception when he comes out from the fans here in Las Cruces. He bad mouthed the city a bit and then the match started. The finish came when Rhodes hit his Corss-Rhodes finisher on Sandow for the 1-2-3.
-Christian defeated Alberto Del Rio via Disqualification. Del Rio, due to the pro-Hispanic crowd, got a pretty good pop coming out. Del Rio ended up getting some heat from the crowd by trying to cower away by taking his title and leaving. Christian wouldn’t let him, however. At one point, Del Rio applied his Cross Arm-breaker after throwing the referee into Christian. Christian ended up tapping, and Del Rio started celebrating. However, it was revealed that Del Rio didn’t win. He was DQ’d for throwing the ref at Christian, so the tap that came later didn’t count.
-CM Punk defeated Curtis Axel in a No–DQ Non-Title Match via Pinfall. Paul Heyman came out with Axel and cut a promo. He said the stipulation was unfair, being a no-DQ match for Axel’s WWE Intercontinental Championship. So, Heyman revealed that he had his lawyers make sure that since it was a no-DQ match, it would not be for the title after all. Punk came out to one of the loudest reactions of the night. Punk was selling a knee injury throughout the majority of the bout. In the end, Punk got the win with a simple roll-up pin for the 1-2-3. After the match, Punk nearly got his hands on Heyman, but Axel ultimately prevented that from happening. Punk hit Axel with a GTS and sold the knee injury after hitting it. After Heyman escaped, Punk cut a promo. Punk saw a sign in the crowd and made Tony Chimel go get it for him. The sign read, “Eddie Guerrero Country.” Punk said being here always makes him think of Eddie, and got a loud “Eddie” chant going from the crowd. Punk called Eddie the “Best In The World.”
Notes:
-The arena was said to be approximately 3/4 of the way filled up.
-Crowd wasn’t the hottest in recent memory, but was alive in certain points during the show.
According to a recent report, WWE changed the originally planned finish to the Brock Lesnar vs. CM Punk match at the recent SummerSlam pay-per-view event in Los Angeles. The decision was made to switch the finish in the middle of the last week leading up to the event.
Apparently one of the main reasons WWE made the switch was because The Undertaker has reportedly agreed to work against Lesnar at the upcoming WrestleMania XXX event in 2014.
The general consensus within WWE was that if they are going to promote Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania XXX, then Lesnar shouldn’t lose to Punk at SummerSlam, as that would have been his final match before the ‘Taker bout, and would send him into WrestleMania with a 2-3 overall record since returning to the company.