According to an internal list that was just made in WWE, the company is projecting the following five guys to be the top Superstars, in order, going forward after WrestleMania XXX in April.
1. John Cena
2. Daniel Bryan
3. Randy Orton
4. Sheamus
5. Roman Reigns
Many found it interesting that both Sheamus came in at number two, and that Batista was not on the list at all. In the case of Sheamus, many point to the fact that Triple H has been very high on him for quite a while.
It should be noted, by the way, that this is a list of the guys they feel will be in those positions several months down the line, as opposed to where they are today. Obviously when they get to that point, things will likely have changed many times, but this is the list that the company just recently made.
– The New York Post is reporting that former WWE Diva Stacy Keibler is pregnant. Keibler married Jared Pobre on a beach in Mexico this past Saturday (3/8) after 8 months of dating. The two had been friends for years but didn’t start dating until this past fall, just a few months after Keibler and George Clooney split.
– WWE COO Triple H “no showed” this week’s sit-down interview with Michael Cole, playing up his frustration we saw on RAW due to Daniel Bryan’s #OccupyRAW movement.
The segment started with Michael Cole waiting for Triple H and recapping the events that transpired on Monday night. Hunter was supposed to explain why he gave in to Daniel Bryan’s demands and gave him a chance to wind up in the main event of WrestleMania, until Michael Cole “received an email” that Triple H was called into an “emergency meeting” related to the WWE Network.
Triple H will address the Daniel Bryan situation on Friday’s SmackDown. In light of Triple H’s absense, Michael Cole joked, “Can’t say that I’m surprised. Hopefully he’ll join us next week.”
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 has applied to trademark “Ric Flair” for performance use. One would assume this means they plan on using Flair in an on-air capacity more frequently as a result.
– The first names confirmed for the 30-Man Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal are Big E, Ryback, Dolph Ziggler, Kofi Kington, Curtis Axel and Damien Sandow.
– WWE will tape this week’s episode of Smackdown tonight from Little Rock, Arkansas after the live Main Event broadcast on the WWE Network.
“After suffering a KO Punch last week, Kane gets his shot at payback against Big Show on SmackDown.”
– Here’s the latest RAW Fallout video, featuring Dolph Ziggler, Titus O’Neil and Xavier Woods discussing Daniel Bryan occupying Raw.
Dolph Ziggler actually criticized Bryan for #OccupyRAW, saying that he wouldn’t have done what Bryan did. “I’m just really good at wrestling, walking, talking, texting and tweeting,” Ziggler said. “But I mean, when it comes down to the nitty gritty, and you need something done, just call out a bunch of fans and they’ll do whatever you say.”
On Monday’s RAW, WWE finally set the stage for Daniel Bryan to get his big moment at WrestleMania XXX. After weeks of teasing Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H, Bryan and his fans took over the show and demanded the match from the Authority.
After Triple H agreed to wrestle Bryan at WWE’s biggest show of the year, Bryan dropped his “one more thing” bombshell – if he defeats Triple H, he gets added to the main event WWE World Heavyweight Championship match. Triple H reluctantly agreed and Daniel Bryan now has a clear path to stand tall at WrestleMania as WWE champion. Here are some reactions from the wrestling world regarding this storyline development:
After taking over Monday’s WWE RAW show with “The Yes! Movement,” Daniel Bryan got Triple H to agree to two huge demands relating to WrestleMania XXX.
First up, “The Game” agreed to compete in a one-on-one match against Bryan, and second, he got HHH to agree that if he beats him, he gets added to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship mani event at WrestleMania. So, if Bryan beats HHH, the WrestleMania XXX main event will be switched to Randy Orton vs. Batista vs. Daniel Bryan for the title.
As previously reported, the current plan in WWE is to promote John Cena and Daniel Bryan as the number one and number two babyfaces in the company coming out of WrestleMania XXX. Apparently another guy that is in store for a big push is Cesaro, who is a guy that the company has been planning on getting behind lately.
Other names that are set to receive a push after WrestleMania this year are Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt, Brock Lesnar, Batista and Randy Orton.
– According to one source, the three names that were initially listed internally for opponents for Batista at this year’s WWE SummerSlam pay-per-view were Daniel Bryan, John Cena or CM Punk. With Punk no longer actively working with the company, the latest word is that it will still be either Bryan or Cena facing “The Animal” in the main event for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
– The latest word going around WWE is that there will not be a “brother vs. brother” match between Goldust and Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania XXX.
– The WWE stock closed at $27.10 per share on Wednesday, making it the highest total since shortly after the company initially went public. Additionally, WWE broke a major barrier today, as the company’s market capitalization hit a reported $2.03 billion.
– According to the North American Wrestling Rankings website, WWE Superstar Daniel Bryan received his 100th televised win in WWE when he defeated Kane on the live edition of WWE Main Event on the WWE Network on Tuesday night. They wrote:
“When Daniel Bryan defeated Kane on the 3/4/14 episode of Main Event it was his 100th televised win! That makes him only the 13th wrestler to reach this milestone [since the NAWR began keeping records] behind only C.M. Punk, John Cena, Randy Orton, Sheamus, Kane, Jeff Hardy, Kofi Kingston, Big Show, Mark Henry, Alberto Del Rio, The Miz, and Dolph Ziggler. Others knocking on the door to the century mark are Christian with 93 wins and Rey Mysterio with 92 wins as of 3/4/14.”
The following are highlights of a new ESPN Front Row interview with WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross:
On Brad Nessler: “I think “Ness” is the best all-around play-by-play guy in the business. For a guy who [last season] was doing college football and then an NFL game [for NFL Network] and then another college game like he does shows his work ethic and his talent. And he’s just as well-versed in college basketball.”
On Jonathan Coachman and Todd Grisham: ““Coach” is as multitalented a person as I’ve ever worked with. Grisham? A tall, disillusioned Alabama fan! [Ross supports Oklahoma and revels in the Sooners’ 2014 AllState Sugar Bowl win over the Tide.] I’m proud of both of those guys. [Going to ESPN] was a wonderful career move for them. They’re better fits in ESPN’s world than they were in the WWE’s world.”
On working with E:60 for a future piece on WWE: “I’m expecting a masterpiece. [E:60 producers] were allowed crazy access. . . [Producer] Ben Houser became a student of the business. I was very impressed with Ben. He asked great questions.”
On what Kendrick Perkins and Ronda Rousey have in common: “Sometimes the Thunder is too nice. Would Perkins make a great WWE villain? Absolutely. Perk has the best facial expression and demeanor. The only person in sports right now that has a better facial expression than Kendrick Perkins is Ronda Rousey. When Ronda Rousey walks into the ring to fight, she has the greatest facial expression in sports. I think our girls [WWE female performers] would probably be scared to death [if Rousey joined the circuit].”
On helping The Rock and Brock Lesnar transition into pro wrestlers: ““The Rock” was a unique case because The Rock’s grandfather and father were both pro wrestlers. He had a familiarity with the business in general… He was a third-generation guy and was also had a college degree at Miami who was also broke. You had a bright, broke guy who was also very motivated. I signed The Rock and really felt like he was going to be exceptional from Day 1. The best example would be Brock Lesnar. He came out of the University of Minnesota as a national champion All-American wrestler. He came from a farm in South Dakota. He didn’t go to the ‘U’. He didn’t grow up in the sizzle world of pro wrestling. He was a dairy farmer’s son. So getting him to develop his personality and release his natural charisma was something that took a little bit effort on his part. . . The biggest thing you work on is their personality, their TV presence. He finally got it.”
On what he feels is an indeal scenario for Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania: “I would make sure Daniel Bryan left WrestleMania with his “moment.” Every star in WWE wants to have a WrestleMania moment – meaning some bucket list dream as a professional to go to WrestleMania and steal the show. In a perfect world, just for me , Daniel Bryan would leave WWE [as] World Champion. . . Right now, Randy Orton is the champion. As the deck is currently dealt, it would be Daniel Bryan somehow against Randy Orton.”
“Or, maybe, if you really wanted to have some fun with it, you’d make it a Triple Threat Match. You have two villains – Batista [versus] Randy Orton versus Daniel Bryan. Three guys against each other. First man to score a pinfall or submission wins. The two big villains and the smaller overachieving hero. In my storytelling world, we’d have a happy ending.”
Triple H’s weekly sit down interview with Michael Cole is online now online, with the WWE COO talking about his ongoing feud with Daniel Bryan.
JBL filled in for Triple H for last week’s interview because Triple H was down in Orlando preparing for the NXT ArRival special. However, Michael Cole pointed out that it was convenient Triple H was unable to do their interview after Daniel Bryan challenged him to a match at WrestleMania.
Triple H explained on RAW why he doesn’t want to wrestle Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania, but Cole pushed the issue again, wanting to know the true underlying reason. Triple H said he’s the COO of WWE. He’s extremely busy and doesn’t have time for Daniel Bryan. Cole pointed out that Triple H has wrestled The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar in recent years, to which Triple H responded – they’re both A+ players. Daniel Bryan is nothing more than a B+ player and he’s not going to interrupt his day to day operations to lace up his boots against Bryan.
How long can Triple H deny fans a match between him and Daniel Bryan? Triple H acknowledges that fans across the world want the match. However, Daniel Bryan is Best for Business. He’s very popular with the fans, he sells a lot of merchandise, he’s a B+, he’s pretty good. Why would he want to end all that by destroying him at WrestleMania? It’s not good for business. Let the immortals wrestle at the showcase of the immortals. “Bryan is a 185 pound sawed-off midget.”
If Triple H wanted to end the Yes Movement, he’d just fire him. But Daniel Bryan has value and “people love the little guy.”
Michael Cole tells Triple H that everyone he’s spoken to believes he’s scared of Daniel Bryan – and wants to know if it’s true. Triple H says he’ll give him the same answer that he gave Daniel Bryan – NO.
After Monday’s WWE RAW in Chicago, Illinois went off the air, the WWE Network post-show opened with a look at Kane, Triple H and Randy Orton still in the ring standing over a beaten down Daniel Bryan. This led to both John Cena and Big Show coming out to make the save. Cena, of course, came to the ring with a limp, as he is continuing to sell his story line injury.
When the smoke cleared, Orton was left alone in the ring with Bryan, Cena and Big Show. All three guys hit their finishers on Orton and then led to the crowd in a big “Yes!” chant to end the show.
The following are highlights from the latest online blog by WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross:
On Paul Bearer’s WWE Hall Of Fame Induction: “Wonderful to hear that my old pal Paul Bearer also known as Percy Pringle was announced in Chicago as going into this year’s class of the WWE Hall of Fame. Very deserving honor and another product of the territory system to be honored. The loyal, Alabama football and George Jones fan will be smiling down from Heaven when he’s honored in NOLA.”
On the passing of Billy Robinson: “Condolences to the family, friends and fans of the UK’s Billy Robinson who passed away this week at the age of 74. Mr. Robinson was well known as one of the legit tough guys in the business and was the foremost expert in “Catch Wrestling” in the world. His work that can be found on You Tube is simply amazing.”
On fans not hijacking RAW: “Enjoyed many aspects of RAW Monday night. No Punk. No hijacking. The WWE folks steered the course just as I had suggested here and at on my show in NYC Saturday night. Seems like many in the IWC (Internet Wrestling Community) were pulling for a disruptive show and I’m pleased that did not occur.”
On Paul Heyman’s RAW promo: “Great promo to start the show by Paul Heyman. Heyman has no equal on the mic in today’s business. Who has more animalistic presence than Brock Lesnar? I’ve got your answer….nobody!”
On Daniel Bryan: “Liked that the villains kept the heat turned up on Daniel Bryan who was featured prominently on RAW. So prominently, in fact, that it might actually quiet some vocal fans who, based on some tweets I’ve received @JRsBBQ and some emails here, don’t know as much about building a story line as they would like to believe that they do.”
“I still believe that Daniel Bryan will walk away from WM30 as one of the primary stars of the event in the Super Dome. Don’t bet against DB stealing the show in the Big Easy.”
On CM Punk possibly returning to WWE: “As Steve Austin said on my podcast, the Ross Report, which drops later today and officially on Wednesday, I’d still not rule out CM Punk’s return to WWE in time for a WrestleMania match but my gut feeling is that ship is about to sail. Perhaps it already has.”
Check out the complete blog online at JRsBarBQ.com.
– The Usos defeated The New Age Outlaws in a WWE Tag-Team Championship match at Monday’s WWE RAW show in Chicago, Illinois. With the victory, The Usos became the new WWE Tag-Team Champions.
– It was announced later in the show that The Usos and The New Age Outlaws will be having an immediate rematch for the titles in the main event of Tuesday’s WWE Main Event show, which as noted will air live on the WWE Network.
– Another match that will take place during the live Main Event special, which was also confirmed at RAW, is a one-on-one match featuring Daniel Bryan vs. Kane.
– Also announced on RAW was the latest inductee into the 2014 class of the WWE Hall Of Fame. Legendary manager Paul Bearer will join The Ultimate Warrior, Jake “The Snake” Roberts and Amy “Lita” Dumas.
The following is from the WWE.com “RAW Five-Point Preview”
“It ain’t over till it’s over: The Shield and The Wyatt Family haven’t remotely settled their differences despite their battle at Elimination Chamber. In fact, lingering tensions between the factions have led to the rematch of all rematches this Monday on Raw, by order of WWE COO Triple H. Yet despite The King of Kings’ efforts to keep his house in order, an intriguing proposal by Daniel Bryan has put The Authority as a whole on the spot, and a just-announced match against Batista puts the submission expert in The Animal’s crosshairs. So let’s rev things up with WWE.com’s five-point preview for this week’s Raw, featuring special guest star Aaron Paul.”
WWE Legend Mick Foley was recently interviewed by Doug Nunnally for RVAmag.com to promote his April 10th comedy show at the Richmond Funny Bone in Virginia. Here are some highlights of what Foley said about:
WWE’s Booking Of Daniel Bryan: “You know what, this is the truth. I’m not pandering to Virginia right now. Not that I’m above it, but I’m not right now. I was helping my son with his Civil War homework. Luckily, unlike almost everything else my kids study in school, I do know a lot about the Civil War. When Robert E. Lee’s name came up, I said that one of the things that made him a great general was that when he signed the treaty at Appomattox Court House, he knew that the gig was up. He knew when to surrender. Literally, that night, I thought I should be like Robert E. Lee, because to fight this thing would just drag myself and the people who like me down. I’ve decided instead to look all of the positives that WWE has to offer instead of being this voice crying out in the darkness about the way I think things should be run. Besides, there’s a good chance they’ll turn it around. If they do and WrestleMania ends in 75,000 people on their feet chanting “Yes! Yes!”, I’ll be the first one to admit I was wrong.”
If Daniel Byran Is More Over Than He Ever Was: “Thank you, I will admit to that, but I was never the guy. The being really in big capital letters. He is THE guy. People are showing up specifically to cheer him on and follow him on this journey. My title victory over The Rock was importantly historically because of the number of people who switched channels to WWE from WCW during what we called The Monday Night Wars. But I was always like the third or fourth guy. I had a lot of layers to the characters and put a lot of myself into those characters so that people could make an emotional connection. I’m beyond flattered and thankful that people still remember me so fondly fourteen years after I stopped wrestling full-time, but I was never as popular at any given point or time as Daniel is right now and I will stand by that completely.”
– A fan recently asked former WWE Superstar Bill Goldberg about fans boo’ing Batista at several recent WWE events. Goldberg replied by saying the following:
Daniel Bryan held an impromptu autograph signing following Tuesday’s WWE Smackdown taping in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
After being spotted by fans at the hotel after the tapings, Bryan had them all line up for autographs. Twitter user @ImAMelFo tweeted this photo of the fans lined up:
Daniel Bryan formed a line in the hotel for every fan who wants an auto/pic. Insane pic.twitter.com/sT7INOpe5c
The following are highlights of a new blog on the official Facebook page of WWE Hall Of Famer Mick Foley:
On Monday’s RAW and Undertaker’s return: “About that RAW prediction? That “greatest RAW of the year” prediction? Well, it turns out I was wrong about that. As cool as it was to see The Undertaker, nonetheless, I was completely wrong.”
“Maybe it will all come together in the end. We’ll see. I’ll end this piece with some words from my post earlier today – a paragraph which apparently didn’t make much of a difference in the course of events.”
On WWE’s usage of Daniel Bryan: “But I think WWE needs to accept (PLEASE listen to me here, any WWE writer, exec, or power in charge) that the ability to turn the tide hinges on finding a way to make Daniel Bryan part of that main event. For me, personally, as a wrestler, a good feud was just as important as a title shot. But the WWE Universe has been on a personal journey with Daniel Bryan, and from the 1,000’s of messages I’ve read, not a single member of that Universe will feel that their journey is complete without Daniel getting a shot at the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania. PLEASE forget about the idea of Daniel Bryan vs Triple H, or Daniel Bryan vs Kane at Mania. They are both potentially great match-ups at a later time – but not for Mania. There are times when you really do need to give the people what they want…and this is one of them.”
WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross has updated his blog, which you can read in its entirety at JRsBarBQ.com. Here are some highlights of what he said about Monday’s RAW:
Fans Rejecting Batista: “Getting way too much negative feedback here about how Batista is positioned as if it is Dave’s fault. It’s really no one’s ‘fault’ as sometimes talents are simply miscast … I have always thought that Batista, because of the Daniel Bryan phenomenon, was a better fit to be a villian but that’s easy to say now. I expect that to occur later this week on Smackdown.”
Daniel Bryan’s Role At WrestleMania: “Daniel Bryan wants HHH at WM30 but will that keep or make Bryan’s fans happy? Likely not. WWE has a golden opportunity to provide Bryan and his fans a ‘magical moment’ in the Mercedes Benz Super Dome come WM30. Time will tell if that happens. It seems too obvious that it should happen for it to not occur.”
Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar “The rumblings of Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar at WM30 was made official on RAW or that’s what I got out of it. I think that these two will exceed most fan’s expectations at WM30. Not sure I can tell you why but it’s merely a gut feeling that I have. I think that they keep it basic, physical and at an old school pace which isn’t plodding but one that fans can process and ‘feel’ what they are seeing.”
There’s much more to this blog, including JR’s thoughts on The Shield vs. The Wyatt Family, Hulk Hogan’s return, the WWE Network and next week’s RAW from Chicago.
– WWEShop.com is now selling new Daniel Bryan YES! Movement hoodies, along with the t-shirts that were released last week.
WWE.com has published a video of Hulk Hogan arriving at RAW last night, meeting with Jerry Lawler, Nikki Bella and Sheamus backstage and making his entrance into the main arena from the Gorilla position.
– WWE has officially pulled CM Punk from his scheduled appearance at the upcoming Louisville Wizard Comic Con event. This was Punk’s final scheduled appearance from with the company.
Punk was removed from the Wizard World website a few weeks ago, but Comic Con officials had not addressed whether he would still be appearing.
Brie Bella voiced her displeasure over Daniel Bryan not winning the WWE Elimination Chamber match on Sunday night. She tweeted the following after the pay-per-view ended:
You have to be kidding!!!! Wow! I really thought @WWEDanielBryan was going to win! #NoNoNo
She also tweeted this one regarding him being “held down” (which has become part of his story line) and her plans to show her support for her soon-to-be husband:
Today I will wear this with pride. They keep trying to keep him down but they will never succeed. My… http://t.co/GL1Npl4Cq8