— The following matches were taped tonight in Edmonton, Alberta for this week’s episode of WWE Superstars:
* Sheamus vs. Heath Slater
* Daniel Bryan vs. Drew McIntyre
— Millennium Wrestling Federation announced Monday that former WWE star The Boogeyman will be returning to the ring for their Saturday, Sept. 17 show in Melrose, Massachusetts. He is replacing Al Snow at the event, which is their tenth anniversary show.
— The Miz stated the following on Twitter regarding tonight’s Raw: “#Raw 9pm est. tonight on @usa_network no more subway I’m done playing with The Game..”
During an interview with Brian Fritz of Between the ropes, SmackDown’s Money in the Bank briefcase holder Daniel Bryan spoke about his first year and a half with WWE, CM Punk’s now infamous shoot promo on RAW from a few weeks back and what he and CM Punk’s success means for other stars getting a chance.
Here are some highlights of what Daniel Bryan said about:
How he would describe the first year and a half with the company:
“It’s been a roller coaster ride. I’ve been hired, called a rookie, fired, brought back, brought back, main eventide Summerslam last year, won the U.S. Championship, wasn’t on TV much for a while, got drafted to Smackdown and now I’m Mr. Money in the Bank. (laughs) So, it’s had a lot of ups and downs.”
CM Punk’s infamous promo from a few weeks back:
“I thought it was awesome. And more so what I thought was awesome about it is that he just went out there and he just spoke his mind. That’s the great thing about CM Punk is he doesn’t care if I like his promo, he doesn’t care if the fans like what he says, he does’t care if the WWE office likes what he says. He’s just going to go out there and say what he thinks. And I think that’s what’s made this thing so captivating. That and now there’s two WWE Champions for the first time and they’re facing off in the main event of Summerslam. I think it’s going to be really exciting.”
His and CM Punk’s success and WWE and what it means for other young talent:
“What I think it says is that there are a lot of guys out there that you wouldn’t necessarily look at and say “hey, this guy would be a great WWE superstar”. But they’ve put in their hard work and they’ve gotten really good at what they do and if you give them an opportunity, they would do really well in the WWE. That’s what it says about both of us. There are a lot of guys out there who maybe because of the way they look or because people don’t think they would be very marketable that WWE may not hire them. But, I think with CM Punk … he’s not the most marketable looking guy out there but he captivates crowds. I’m not to the point where CM Punk is as far as captivating WWE crowds yet but I do a fairly good job considering how little time I’ve been in WWE.”
You can listen to audio of the entire interview here:
– Former WWE diva Melina was released from the company on Friday – but was still on the road with boyfriend John Morrison for this weekend’s live events. She tweeted @RealMelina:
“I’m driving w/ @TheRealMorrison on a WWE house show loop. I’m doing fine but i gotta admit I’m going to miss driving these loops with him.”
– Injured WWE Diva Layla started working out again this past weekend for the first time since suffering a torn ACL and MCL back in May, according to f4wonline.com.
– SmackDown’s Money in the Bank briefcase holder Daniel Bryan debuted a new theme song on last week’s show. The theme song is “Freefall” by the band Two Steps From Hell – which is the theme song that was used for last year’s Night of Champions pay-per-view. Here’s audio of “Freefall” –
— In a preview of tomorrow night’s WWE Championship Match on Raw, Rey Mysterio beat The Miz via pinfall Saturday night in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Bret Hart was the special ringside enforcer for the World Heavyweight Championship Match between Christian and Randy Orton. Towards the end of the match, Hart stopped Christian from bringing a chair into the ring. The World Heavyweight Champion was ultimately disqualified.
— WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler is advertised to appear at tonight’s Norfolk Tides baseball game tonight in Norfolk, Virginia. The game begins 6:15 p.m. at from Harbor Park.
– SmackDown’s Money in the Bank winner Daniel Bryan has been training with Neil Melanson, the head grappling coach at the Xtreme Couture MMA school based out of Las Vegas. Bryan said he’ll be incorporating some new submission holds into his in-ring offense in the coming weeks:
“Just finished a grappling session with Neil Melanson. Expect more and more submissions all the time on Friday Night Smackdown!”
– Former WWE champion John Cena wrote the following on Twitter on Thursday regarding his match against The Rock next year at WrestleMania and Vince McMahon being forced out of power by WWE’s board of directors:
“CeNation. Back to work and so happy. Rock, you got you’re wish. Ill be there April 1, just make sure you bring it. ….I also wouldn’t count VKM out yet. I know he was emotional on mon, but doesn’t seem the type to just ‘give up’. Time will tell.”
– Joey Styles noted on Twitter earlier this week that he’d be returning to the announcing booth on Thursday, which led to speculation that he’d be joining the announcing team of WWE Superstars. As it turns out, Styles is not joining Superstars – and instead called a mock match on Zack Ryder’s latest Z! True Long Island Story video show.
– At Tuesday’s WWE Smackdown tapings from Minneapolis, Minnisota, SmackDown’s Money in the Bank briefcase holder Daniel Bryan announced that he will be cashing in his contract at … Wrestlemania 28.
– In a dark match prior to Tuesday’s WWE SmackDown tapings, Michael McGillicutty defeated Trent Barreta.
– Matches taped tonight in Minneapolis, Minnesota for this week’s episode of WWE Superstars are as follows:
— Sin Cara suffered his first WWE loss last night on SmackDown as he was downed by Christian following the spear. Sin Cara picked up thirteen consecutive victories on television and pay-per-view prior to the loss.
— The Great Khali’s brother Ranjin Singh revealed on SmackDown that Jinder Mahal is their brother-in-law.
— Cody Rhodes pinned Intercontinental Champion Ezekiel Jackson in a non-title match on SmackDown, ending his ten match winning streak on television and pay-per-view.
— Wade Barrett lost to Kane last night on SmackDown, extending his losing streak to twelve consecutive losses on television and pay-per-view.
— Ted DiBiase lost to Daniel Bryan last night on SmackDown, extending his losing streak to seven consecutive losses on television.
— WWE.com is advertising the following for tonight’s episode of SmackDown: “The relentless brutality of Mark Henry comes face-to-face with World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton tonight on SmackDown. Has The World’s Strongest Man become something that even The Viper can’t stop?”
Other matches taking place include Daniel Bryan vs. Ted DiBiase, Sin Cara vs. Christian, Ezekiel Jackson vs. Cody Rhodes and Kane vs. Wade Barrett.
— Dolph Ziggler took to Twitter to comment on online reports that he took adult film star BiBi Jones on a date after meeting her at a Britney Spears concert last week.
He wrote, “Wow! To anyone it may concern: no, i am NOT dating anyone! and YES I do frequently listen to Britney Spears!”
— Yoshi Tatsu celebrates his 34th birthday today. In yesterday’s birthdays, Alicia Fox turned 25, Cody Rhodes turned 26 and WWE Hall of Famer Terry Funk turned 67.
Animal rights group PETA released the following press release and video starring WWE star Daniel Bryan, who urges children to eat a vegan diet:
WWE SUPERSTAR DANIEL BRYAN SLAPS THE LEBELL LOCK ON VEGAN STEREOTYPES IN NEW PETA2 AD Master of Technical Wrestling Says That His Vegan Diet Keeps Him in Prime Fighting Shape
Las Vegas — “As a WWE Superstar, staying healthy and having a lot of energy helps me succeed in the ring—that’s why I choose to be a vegan,” says Daniel Bryan in his brand-new pro-vegan ad for peta2, PETA’s youth division. At 198 muscular pounds, Bryan is in the best shape of life—and he says it’s all because of his plant-based diet.
In an exclusive Q&A with peta2, Bryan explained that chronic health problems since childhood led his doctor to suggest that Bryan go vegan. Now, a year later, Bryan says, “[T]his whole year, my energy levels have been great. … I’m stronger right now than I’ve ever been … I’m dead-lifting more than I ever have before.”
And Bryan’s diet isn’t just good for his health—it’s also good for the environment. “[I]t only makes sense to save the planet that you stop eating meat because it … produces so much carbon dioxide,” he explains. “[T]here’s not enough resources for everybody to eat meat.”
Why else is a vegan diet the diet of champions? Vegans can get all the protein that they need from plant-based foods without the artery-clogging saturated animal fats and cholesterol found in meat. The consumption of meat and other animal-derived products has been strongly linked to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity. In addition to greenhouse-gas emissions, meat production is also a leading cause of water pollution and land degradation. And, of course, the best way to fight the cruelty of factory farms and slaughterhouses is to kick the meat habit.
Daniel Bryan joins a long list of athletes—including Mac Danzig, Jake Shields, and Rich Roll—who have teamed up with peta2 to promote a vegetarian diet.
— Tonight’s WWE Over The Limit pay-per-view opened with a “In Memory Of” graphic paying tribute to Randy Savage, who passed away on Friday.
CM Punk performed a Macho Man style diving elbow drop during his match against Big Show and Kane, but missed. Wade Barrett also performed a flying elbow from the second rope in his match against Ezekiel Jackson.
Savage was never mentioned by the announcers during the pay-per-view broadcast, nor did any video package air.
— Daniel Bryan beat Drew McIntyre via submission in a dark match prior to tonight’s WWE Over The Limit pay-per-view broadcast.
— Paul Bearer will be appearing at Sports Heroes and Legends 10 Giffords Lane Staten Island, New York on Friday July 22 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
— “Stone Cold” Steve Austin is scheduled to appear on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Friday night. The program airs at 12:35 a.m. on NBC.
— This past Friday’s episode of SmackDown featured 44 minutes and 1 second of in-ring action, up from 39 minutes and 11 seconds the prior week. Also, 21 minutes and 59 seconds of in-ring action took place on last week’s episode of WWE Superstars.
— SmackDown Superstar Daniel Bryan turns 30 years old today while Raw Superstar Husky Harris turns 24.
— Randy Savage was a top trending topic today on Yahoo.com.
— With WWE and TNA both taping their respective television shows on Tuesday night in Orlando, it’s worth noting that TNA stars AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels wrote on Twitter that they bumped into WWE star Daniel Bryan at the airport. Daniels joked that he, Styles and Bryan wrestled an impromptu 3-way match at the airport.
— WWE diva Alicia Fox appeared to have suffered a shoulder injury at Tuesday’s SmackDown tapings from Orlando. According to live reports from several fans who were at the show, Fox took a stiff clothesline from Kharma and appeared to landed directly on her shoulder. We hope to have more on this soon.
– CM Punk has started tweeting again after taking a brief hiatus. In an apparent reference to online reports that he’s unhappy in WWE and considering leaving the company later this year, Punk wrote:
“Anybody hear any good rumors lately?”
— WWE star the Big Show is filming an episode for the USA Network show Burn Notice today. Show tweeted on Wednesday:
“On the set of USA’s Burn Notice I am playing the role of a thief! Cool fun stuff!”
Burn Notice star Jeffrey Donovan also tweeted, “Working with WWE The BIG SHOW!!! he’s REALLY big.”
— Former WWE talent Scott Hall announced last week that he would not be on hand for this weekend’s WrestleMania XXVII festivities in Atlanta, Georgia because the atmosphere would be detrimental to his quest to stay sober. CM Punk took to Twitter to praise Hall for his efforts.
“Is it true that Scott Hall didn’t attend the HOF due to it being a situation that threatened his sobriety?” he wrote last night. “If so this needs to be commended.”
— WWE.com has posted a brief video of Daniel Bryan giving his thoughts on competing in his first match at WrestleMania. He considers it a milestone as it’s always been a dream of his to compete at the event.
— Yoshi Tatsu beat Justin Gabriel in a singles bout during last night’s WrestleMania Axxess session.
— Creative plans on having The Bella Twins join forces with Sheamus in their feud with Daniel Bryan and Gail Kim. Bryan is reportedly scheduled to defend the United States Championship against Bryan at WrestleMania XXVII.
— Sin Cara was scheduled to begin wrestling training in Los Angeles, California with WWE developmental wrestler Peter Orlov (a/k/a Alex Koslov) since he has experience working Lucha Libre style wrestling as well as WWE’s style of wrestling. Orlov will also be used as a stand-in and “opponent” when they film Cara in the ring performing high-flying maneuvers for his entrance video and introductory vignettes since WWE has no footage of him.
— The WWE SmackDown taping on June 21, 2011 will be held at the Giant Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
— The January 31 episode of Monday Night Raw scored a 3.3 cable rating, down from the 3.5 the program posted the week before.
Raw averaged 4.93 million viewers over the course of two hours. The first hour averaged 4.89 million viewers while the second hour drew 4.97 million.
— WWE United States Champion Daniel Bryan commented on tagging with Jerry “The King” Lawler last night on Raw, writing on Twitter: “Did I just team with Jerry Lawler on Monday Night Raw or was that a dream? My life is surreal.”
— Big Show celebrates his 39th birthday today. Also celebrating a birthday is Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart, who turns 56 years old. Today would have also marked as WWE Hall of Famer Sherri Martel’s 53rd birthday.
— Sources within World Wrestling Entertainment do not believe Steve Borden (a/k/a Sting )has signed with the organization. That, however, doesn’t mean Borden won’t join WWE at some point, but it does not appear that he is currently signed.
Borden is still listed on the TNA Wrestling website roster page, however, those in the know are not aware of him re-signing with the company. Thus, it is believed that he is a free agent.
— WWE Hall of Famer Greg “The Hammer” Valentine said during an interview published in the latest issue of Inside Wrestling that he recently reached a new merchandising agreement with World Wrestling Entertainment. He noted that WWE plans on releasing a book and DVD chronicling his lengthy wrestling career, as well as a Mattel action figure.
— WWE United States Champion Daniel Bryan appears from 11:00 to noon on Monday, February 21 at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California.
– SmackDown star Dolph Ziggler was recently interviewed by TimesRecordNews.com. The former Intercontinental champion spoke about a number of topics, including how he got into the wrestling business, how he deals with WWE’s hectic travel schedule and his favorite wrestlers growing up. It’s a pretty good read – you can check it out here.
– Ricardo Rodriguez, Alberto Del Rio’s personal ring announcer, put over WWE developmental and second generation talent Bo Rotundo on his Twitter this week. He wrote:
“Bo Rotundo is someone to keep an eye on. Amazing talent.”
– In case you missed SmackDown or haven’t heard yet, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater and Ezekiel Jackson joined forces with Wade Barrett to form a new Nexus faction on SmackDown. From what we’ve heard, Gabriel and Slater will be joining Wade Barrett as official members of the SmackDown roster. Expect the formation of this new faction to lead to a feud with CM Punk’s Nexus group.
– Speaking of CM Punk, it’s been announced that he will be wrestling WWE United States champion at several RAW-brand live events in February. These two had some epic battles in Ring of Honor several years ago, let’s hope these matches are a trial run for an upcoming feud. Check out this clip of Daniel Bryan making Punk tap out in ROH:
Here are some highlights of what Daniel Bryan said to Slam Wrestling during a recent interview:
His Cattle Mutilation Submission Hold:
“I didn’t really believe the Cattle Mutilation would get over with the WWE Universe, and the reason why is because it’s such a TV-oriented product. There are a lot of downfalls to it. (In the Cattle Mutilation) you can’t see the other guy’s face, and on top of that, it’s very difficult to do it to big guys; I don’t have long arms. For example Ezekiel Jackson — he’s an enormous guy — there’s no way I’d be able to hook my arms through his arms like that. It was more me — no one mentioned anything to me about it. I’ll occasionally throw the Cattle Mutilation out there in places where I think there’s more of the independent fanbase, just as a tribute to them because they’re the people who got me to where I am today.”
Who He Wants To Feud With:
“CM Punk moved over to the Raw brand, so I’m actually hoping that me and him get to feud a little bit. We got to wrestle in the independents and we had some really good matches and I think the WWE Universe would be really excited about it.”
“I’d love to wrestle Tyson Kidd. We tag teamed in New Japan Pro Wrestling back in 2003 and I think we even did a singles match in Budokan Hall in Japan.” ?
His 2003 Match Against John Cena On Velocity:
“It hasn’t been brought up between the two of us, I haven’t seen it in years. The match was almost scrapped. That was the night he was going to come out in an interview and do something with Brock Lesnar. He was doing this major, main event thing, so they (WWE’s bookers) were saying, ‘We don’t want him in this Velocity match with an independent guy.’ I thought it was a good match and it gets me excited because I know we both progressed in our careers and if we ever got to wrestle again it would be really good.”
In case you haven’t seen it, here’s a video clip of Daniel Bryan’s (then Bryan Danielson) match against John Cena back in 2003:
– World Wrestling Entertainment officials reportedly did not reach out to Samoa Joe during a few day period last month he was a free agent. There were people in the organization pushing Joe to be signed, but results were not had before he reached a new agreement with TNA Wrestling. (source: PWInsider.com)
– WWE United States Champion Daniel Bryan is advertised to face Tommaso Ciampa in a Submissions Match at this Saturday’s Millennium Wrestling Federation event at Memorial Hall on 590 Main St. – Melrose, MA.
For more information on Tommaso Ciampa, click here. A video promo of Ciampa commenting on his upcoming match with Bryan is available here.
Other matches scheduled to take place include “Slyck” Wagner Brown vs. former TNA star Homicide in a MWF Heavyweight Championship Steel Cage Match, TNA star Abyss vs. “Executioner” Brian Milonas in a Steel Cage Grudge Match, and Awesome Kong vs. MWF Tag Team Champion J-Busta in a Steel Cage Inter-gender Match. Paul Bearer, “Black Machismo” Jay Lethal, “Doink the Clown” Matt Borne, “Die Hard” Eddie Edwards and John Cena, Sr., among others, are also advertised to appear.
— Reader Darren Bongiovanni has compiled a list of the best win & loss records for WWE superstars on pay-per-view for 2010. All pay-per-view matches were included in the statistics except the Royal Rumble, the Tag Team Gauntlet Match from Extreme Rules, and the Tag Team Turmoil Match from Night of Champions (because the participants were not all involved in the match at the same time.)
The WWE wrestler who had the best PPV record of the year was Daniel Bryan, with an undefeated record of 5-0. Also undefeated were Tyson Kidd (3-0), David Hart Smith (3-0), Bret Hart (2-0), Vikcie Guerrero (1-0), JTG (1-0) and Chris Masters (1-0). Other notable records were Big Show (6-2), Kane (6-3-1), John Cena (6-5), Randy Orton (5-7-1) & The Miz (6-4).
— The New York Times published an article on Sunday discussing the return of Tough Enough in April. Also in that article was an update on WWE’s planned cable network, which is currently scheduled for a launch in mid-2012 to early-2013. Kevin Dunn, WWE’s executive vice president of television production, said the ddition of “Tough Enough” on USA did not reflect any change in the company’s plans for a channel of its own. “We’re talking to partners,” he said, and those include NBC Universal.
More people affiliated with WWE tweeted on Kaval’s release yesterday:
Joey Styles: “If TNA doesn’t immediately sign Kaval (who won NXT based on wwe.com fans and wrestlers votes), I’ve no idea what they look for in wrestlers.”
Seth Rollins (a/k/a Tyler Black): “Jaw is on the floor… @oneworldwarrior gone from WWE?! I can’t believe it.”
Daniel Bryan: “Not sure what happened, but I’d always hoped I could face @OneWorldWarrior on WWE TV. He’s one of the most talented men I’ve ever wrestled.”
— Joey Styles issued an apology last night on Twitter for spoiling the elimination result of the previous week’s episode of NXT.
“I’m sorry I prematurely revealed Aksana was eliminated before it was streamed despite the fact that it happened three hours earlier. Period.”
He then added that his WWE contract expires this Friday.
“Are you fans sorry that my WWE contract expires this Friday? Goodnight and Happy Thanksgiving.”
— Fans were prematurely let into the Amway Center Monday for Raw as Vince McMahon, Triple H, members of The Nexus, John Cena, The Miz, Randy Orton and several agents were seen in the ring rehearsing rehearsing what would be the show’s main event. Security personnel subsequently ushered the fans out of the arena area for 15 minutes.
— Daniel Bryan commented on The Bella Twins advances towards him on Raw, writing on Twitter:
“What’s the deal with the Bellas? I have absolutely ZERO idea.”
WWE announced this afternoon on the company website that United States Champion Daniel Bryan will defend his title against Ted DiBiase tomorrow night at the Survivor Series.
The match was advertised on Ticketmaster.com earlier this week before WWE made the match official today.
The officially announced card is as follows:
WWE Championship Match
Randy Orton (c) vs. Wade Barrett (with John Cena as the special guest referee) Should Barrett win, Cena is freed from The Nexus. Should Barrett lose, Cena is fired from WWE.
World Heavyweight Championship Match
Edge vs. Kane (c)
WWE Intercontinental Championship Match
Dolph Ziggler (c) vs. Kaval
WWE United States Championship Match
Daniel Bryan (c) vs. Ted DiBiase
WWE Divas Championship Match
Natalya vs. Michelle McCool and Layla (c)
WWE Tag Team Championship Match
Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov vs. Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater (c)
Survivor Series Elimination Match
Rey Mysterio, Big Show, MVP, Kofi Kingston and Chris Masters vs. Alberto Del Rio, Jack Swagger, Drew McIntyre, Cody Rhodes and Tyler Reks
– Daniel Bryan posted a message on Twitter about WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross calling his match on Monday’s “Old School” RAW:
“Just watched Monday’s RAW. Jim Ross is still the absolute BEST. It was an honor and a thrill to hear him to do commentary on my match.”
– Nexus member Skip Sheffield is still on crutches after suffering a broken ankle back in August. His injury is expected to keep him out of action for at least 3 more months.
– After choosing physical rehabilitation instead of surgery to heal his torn glute muscle, CM Punk is now considered a “sure thing” for WrestleMania. He could return as soon as January. Punk will be joining the ringside announcing team on this week’s Superstars and will likely continue that function until he’s healthy.