– Dean Ambrose appeared to have suffered a rib injury at Tuesday night’s broadcast of WWE Main Event. He wrestled later in the night at the SmackDown tapings, so the injury was either a work or not serious enough to keep him out action.
– Roman Reigns tweeted the following on Wednesday:
@TripleH Kings don’t win wars, Soldiers do. Watch your back Hunter because no one else will! #FallofTheKing
– Following the huge success of WrestleMania XXX and the impact that it had on the city of New Orleans, local television station WAFB 9 reports that city officials are strongly pushing to host the event again. New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation President Mark Romig said the city wants to host the event again as soon as WrestleMania 35 in 2019. He stated:
“We think we’ve put out a great red carpet. We’ve shown them how to really put on a great event, everything within walking distance and we hope to be part of this rotation going forward.”
Upon glancing at this year’s WrestleMania card, fans may notice a glaring omission: championship title matches. After unifying the titles at last year’s TLC, there are a total of five championships in the WWE. Of the five, only two are being defended on the actual telecast and the tag team titles will be relegated to the pre-show.
Ignoring championship titles is nothing new in the WWE, as it has become pretty much standard in recent years, especially at WrestleMania. The previous two WrestleManias featured three championship matches on the actual telecast, and the twenty-seventh edition was even worse, with only two championship matches on the entire four-hour program.
This is a far cry from a decade ago at WrestleMania XX, where there were a whopping seven title matches and the belts were used to build up superstars and did not simply remain stagnant for months at a time.
Steve Austin and The Rock were both elevated to the main event scene after battling for the Intercontinental Title.
The perfect example of the diminished value of titles is the United States Championship. A decade ago at WrestleMania XX, John Cena won his first championship by defeating Big Show for the United States Championship. His win helped launch Cena into the main event by putting gold around his waist and making the title seem important.
Fast forward a decade and the United States Championship is completely irrelevant, with Dean Ambrose only defending the title a handful of times since October of last year.
The same holds true for the Intercontinental Title as well. During the Attitude Era, the Intercontinental Title was one of the most important ways to elevate a superstar from the midcard to the main event, with Steve Austin and The Rock’s epic battles for the IC strap serving as an illustration of how to use a midcard title to put an up-and-coming superstar over with the crowd.
Now the title is thrown around the waist of whichever flavor of the week the WWE is trying to make seem important. It was Curtis Axel for a while after he was repacked and paired with Paul Heyman. After they realized he was not getting over with the crowd, they decided to give the belt to Big E and he has done next to nothing.
The following are highlights of a recent Chad Dukes Wrestling Show WrestleMania Spectacular interview with Batista:
On his return to WWE: “I left for very specific reasons and the reasons were because there were certain opportunities I wasn’t getting when I was with the company, and we were so locked down and I mean when you’re under contract with them you’re pretty much limited to the things, you can do. You really can’t do anything else in the company without their say so and they weren’t…certain guys were getting opportunities that I wasn’t getting and I wasn’t real cool with that. So I left to accomplish certain things, and I felt like once I accomplished them, I always wanted to come back. At the end of the day I love professional wrestling. I really, I really do, man. So it’s not like I never planned to come back, I wanted to come back sooner. It’s just that you know it took me longer to accomplish certain things that I really want to accomplish. I didn’t want to be working and do one movie a year. It’s just I was out there auditioning and stuff, these were the jobs I was getting, and once I landed it, you know the Marvel deals, I felt like I accomplished everything I wanted to and then some. We didn’t come back and demand a lot of money you know I didn’t say, ‘I’m not doing house shows I’m only doing Monday Night Raw.’ I mean I said, ‘I’ll do Smackdown, I’ll do house shows.'”
On being selective with film roles: “I got offered a lot of roles, coming out of wrestling, on stuff that was going straight to DVD and it wasn’t the stuff that I want to do and I really wanted like, really good projects. I really, I really had a passion for acting and I really wanted to become a better actor. So I passed up on a lot of that stuff and held out for like better roles, and stuff that will put me in the next to guys were really established actors, so I could kinda learn from, so it wasn’t easy man. I got out there and pounded the pavement.”
On his heat with Daniel Bryan fans possibly coming from a 2011 tweet: “For some reason I think people thought that I didn’t like Daniel Bryan or I had this personal thing. I said a comment, I had one comment about him when he first won the world heavyweight championship and I was like, I was in shock and I said, “Okay.” Because I just didn’t get it. The reason I didn’t get it because it was too soon and that’s my personal opinion. I felt it was way too soon and they did that constantly over and over. I thought they, they just slap the title on people like, way too fast. It’s like, I think sometimes that they used the title, I might get a little grief for saying it, sometimes I think they use the title to get guys over. I thought it just, they did it, it was premature. I never had a problem with him being you know, World Heavyweight Champion, I just thought that they did it way too fast.
You can’t convince me that some body else was a bigger supporter of Daniel Bryan cause I mean that was years ago, before everybody was you know on his jock, when they wanted me to job him out, and I was like, “Hell no.” He’s just too good. He had been coming around for years and I could never figure out why they didn’t give him a job, but he had come out and they wanted me to work a match with him, and squash him and I was like, “No, not gonna happen.” He’s way too good man, we could have a good match, and we did. I mean we gave ‘em a version of what they wanted, but we gave ‘em a hell of a match. It looked like a competitive match. When at the time it’s not with what they wanted.”
On current WWE Superstar who are impressing him: “I love Bray Wyatt. I love him. I love that whole gimmick, that whole Wyatt Family gimmick, but Bray I think he’s gonna be a huge star. I get caught up in this guy, man. When I watch him he’s one of those guys. He’s another guy, I mean he doesn’t look like a stud. He’s not a statue of a man, but he is athletic as you can get, that kid can move man. He is agile, he is a stud man. That kid is as an athlete. He gets when he cuts a promo, you just get sucked in man. He is hypnotizing. When I talk to him like personal, on a personal level, he’s one of those kids who’s not afraid to learn, he has no ego. He’s still learning and he knows he’s still learning and he’s not afraid to ask questions, and I think that’s why he’s going to be so good. Cause he’s this good right now and he still wants to learn. I love the whole Shield gimmick, everyone’s real focused on Roman, and I think he’s definitely going to be a huge star, but Dean Ambrose to me, he’s the star of that.”
The following are highlights of a new Boston Herald interview with Roman Reigns:
On meshing well with Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins: “We didn’t know we would complement each other so well. Everything from what we wear, entering through the crowd, even the triple powerbomb in itself, it’s clicked and been so organic. That’s been the most exciting part. We spend so much time together, we’ve jumped the friend stage in the past year and a half and become brothers.”
On facing legends at WrestleMania XXX: “The faces will always change, the styles will evolve. I respect what people before me have done, but my time is now.”
On wanting to headline WrestleMania: “Every single day. Somebody just asked me if I would like to take on the Undertaker and beat his (WrestleMania) streak. I would rather retain the WWE world heavyweight championship while taking out the streak. My motivation is to be the best. I have a deep responsibility to leave things better than the way I found them. I don’t want to live off potential, so the first thing I have to do is capture the gold.”
The following is a non-spoiler match listing for this week’s edition of WWE SmackDown. For complete spoiler results, click ahead to page two.
– Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose vs. Drew McIntyre & Jinder Mahal
– Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose vs. Ryback & Curtis Axel
– Damien Sandow vs. Sin Cara
– Goldust vs. Fandango
– Batista vs. Sheamus
– The Bella Twins vs. AJ Lee & Tamina Snuka
– Jack Swagger vs. Jimmy Uso
– The Miz vs. Mark Henry
– Bray Wyatt vs. Big Show
For complete spoiler results for this week’s WWE SmackDown, click ahead to page two …
Following their debut at the 2012 Survivor Series, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, and Roman Reigns, collectively known as the Shield, quickly became one of the most dominant and influential stables in recent memory.
The group primarily acted as heels throughout their successful run, although they were frequently cheered as well. In particular, Roman Reigns would frequently receive huge pops from the crowd, as seen during his breakthrough performances at the 2013 Survivor Series and 2014 Royal Rumble.
After attacking Director of Operations Kane, the group officially turned babyface and the crowd has been eating it up in recent weeks, with their celebration following their beat down of Ryback and Curtis Axel on this past week’s RAW serving as evidence of the group’s popularity.
After a tumultuous few weeks, the Shield appears to be reunited, but for how long can the Hounds of Justice keep their respective egos in check?
The group now seems to be reunited and stronger than ever after there was serious tension between the Hounds of Justice. So why did the WWE decide to turn the Shield face after it seemed they would dissolve just a few weeks prior?
The Wyatt Effect
One of the primary reasons the Shield were forced to turn face was the emergence of the Wyatt Family. There is only so much room on the roster for stables, and the Wyatt Family are without a doubt the predominant heel group on the roster today.
With the Wyatt Family serving as the main heel stable on the roster and essentially adopting the same M.O. as the Shield (appearing out of nowhere to savagely destroy unsuspecting foes), it only makes sense that creative would not want two stables acting in a similar manner, even if their gimmicks are stark contrasts of one another.
The following are highlights of a new interview with Dean Ambrose:
On having big ambition when first coming to WWE: “On the real, from the day we started this and had this opportunity, it was ‘O.K., screw everybody else in the world. We’re going to take over this company and this business for the next 10 years, whatever it is. We’ll fight whatever battles we need to fight together and we’ll stick together and have each other’s backs in circumstances. It was an all-for-one, one-for-all mentality. And we’ve done that and it’s been successful. I think you see that and it comes off as very real, cause it is real.”
“Does that mean we have to be finishing each other’s sentences and smiling and happy, high fiving all the time? No. Did Guns N’ Roses like each other every night? No. Did the Kinks like each other? No. Ray Davies and his brother hated each other, but onstage, magic.”
“As long as the three of us can get to the ring together, that magic that happens when all three of us are together is going to happen, whether we were arguing about who gets to sit in the front seat earlier in the night. By the time we get out in front of the audience, that magic’s going to happen.”
On his love of the wrestling business: “My favorite part of the job now is – I think it’s the same for everybody – from the moment you walk through the curtain to the moment you walk back behind the curtain. It’s being in front of the audience and letting it all hang out, whether you’re on TV or not, or a live event or pay-per-view. Any time the red light of the camera’s on. It’s a great escape. That we have the opportunity to do something that’s so much fun for a living is a real blessing.”
“No matter how bad your day’s going, whether your flight’s delayed or whether you got stuck in traffic or whether you’re hurt, sore, tired, whatever it is – your puppy died – whatever’s going bad, once you’re out there in front of the crowd, feeling the energy and having fun letting it all hang out – that’s the payoff to me.”
“The work for me is traveling, getting in and out of the buildings and stuff like that. The pay is getting the chance to wrestle in front of the entire world on TV, in front of big crowds, just being in front of the audience getting to do what you love to do. Just performing. I love performing whether it’s a live event or a pay-per-view or whatever it is; any time that red light of the camera is on. That’s the fun part for me.”
On Old School RAW, Roddy Piper and Jake Roberts: “He [Piper] was from two eras before me, so he’s a guy you never think you’re never going to get a chance to work with. When I found out I was going to get the opportunity to do that, it was like ‘whoa.’ When you’re on the ride and you’re going so fast, it’s hard to stop and smell the roses. That was one of the things where you had to go ‘I’m on Piper’s Pit right now, that’s crazy. The real Piper’s Pit right here in front of me. That’s crazy.’ It’s hard to – I keep saying it – but it’s another one of those things that’s hard to wrap your brain around.”
“Seeing his thought process before he [Piper] does something – it’s much different today because back when he did it was all him and it was wild west and he just did and said whatever he wanted – so it’s a little bit different today; watching him work, watching him go through his process was really cool to me and really interesting. Working with him beforehand, just kind of sharing some back and forth in preparation for it was really cool.”
“Going out there on live TV with a mic against Rowdy Piper is like going out there and hitting against the best pitcher in baseball or going out there and fighting Mike Tyson on TV. It’s like having a loaded gun with Rowdy Piper with a mic in his hand. You’re out there against the absolute best with a mic in his hand. That’s a rush.”
“I didn’t know until very late about the Jake the Snake deal. That was cool too, another icing on the cake, bucket list thing. Everybody was giving me crap because I was laughing when the snake was on me. The reason I was smiling is because I could not stop laughing. It happened so quickly. The whole thing was like ‘O.K. Jake the Snake’s here. What? Of course he is.’ And, the whole thing was like some wacky; trippy I drank too much cough medicine reality.”
As previously reported, there is a plan in place to break up The Shield. As noted, the idea is for Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose to split off into a heel tag-team, while Roman Reigns will be used as a top babyface singles competitor going forward.
One of the reasons WWE had The Shield turn babyface on RAW was to set up The New Age Outlaws working a program with them, which they requested. Additionally, the feeling was it would better set up Reigns’ singles run.
The general consensus within WWE is that it will be better for Reigns’ singles run for Ambrose and Rollins to turn on him instead of Reigns turning on them.
– In addition to the Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins vs. Luke Harper & Erick Rowan and Dean Ambrose vs. Big E. title unification match rumors for WrestleMania XXX, there continues to be discussion about a possible triple-threat match with Reigns, Ambrose and Rollins competing against each other at WrestleMania XXX.
– WWE ring announcer Lilian Garcia sang the National Anthem and participated in a 5K race to support the Susan G. Komen Foundation earlier today in Los Angeles, California.
According to reports, WWE is strongly considering the possibility of adding a third person to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship main event at WrestleMania XXX between Randy Orton and Batista. The latest internal lineup in the company reads, “Batista vs. Orton vs. ?”
Other WrestleMania XXX matches that have been discussed internally, but not yet decided on, include Big E. vs. Dean Ambrose in a match to unify the WWE United States and WWE Intercontinental Championships, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan vs. Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins, Sheamus vs. Christian, Goldust vs. Cody Rhodes and a match pitting two NXT wrestlers against each other in a match on the main card.
Monday’s episode of WWE RAW from Denver, Colorado went off the air with participants of Sunday’s Elimination Chamber match, The Shield and The Wyatt Family brawling.
After RAW went off the air, John Cena, Daniel Bryan, Cesaro, Sheamus and Dean Ambrose were the last men left in the ring. Cesaro gave Ambrose the Cesaro Swing and got him around nearly 30 times before releasing him. A dazed Ambrose finally got up and got hit with a Brogue kick from Sheamus. Cesaro and Sheamus left the ring.
Ambrose got back up and Cena hit him with an Attitude Adjustment. As Cena left the ring, the crowd erupted with a Yes! chant for the final babyface left – Daniel Bryan.
Bryan hit Ambrose with his running knee and got a huge pop. The Yes! chant continued as Daniel Bryan celebrated with fans at ringside.
Earlier this week, WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley held a ‘Tales Of Wrestling Past’ comedy event from Nanaimo on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.
During a Q&A session, Foley explained why his 2012 online feud wtih Dean Ambrose was abruptly dropped. Here’s a recap, courtesy of Reddit user /u/TheBronynSchulze:
“Last night I went to Tales from Wrestling Past with Mick Foley in Nanaimo, BC. If you ever have the chance to go, you absolutely must go. He’s a really funny guy with a lot of interesting stories. He did about an hour and a bit of telling stories and talking about his career and for the last hour of the show he took questions from the audience. I was lucky enough to be able to ask a few questions.
‘Who is your favorite current wrestler and why is it Antonio Cesaro?’ Followed by ‘What was the reason the potential Ambrose/Foley feud never happened?’
If you aren’t familiar with the potential feud, Foley and Dean had a viral video of them having a confrontation in an airport, followed by a number of tweets back and forth between them.
Ambrose’s tweets contained threats to him and his family, saying he wanted to make his kids become homeless and orphans. The belief among dirt sheets at the time is that Foley wasn’t okay with these comments and told Ambrose to stop, and he didn’t and that’s why Foley called off the feud.
Mick explained that he did actually have a problem with the tweets directed towards his family and he texted Dean asking him to stop. Ambrose continued after the text and had several tweets mentioning his family. Little to Mick’s knowledge, Ambrose was working a UK tour and his cellphone couldn’t receive texts. So Dean continued tweeting and working the feud on Twitter.
When Dean came back from the UK he pulled the tweets and apologized to Foley. The feud was still supposed to happen until Mick failed the impact test. The doctors told Foley he should never wrestle again. Foley would then go on to his own doctors who told him the exact same thing.
Foley said he was upset that he couldn’t have the feud with Ambrose, but he believes it was best in the end because Ambrose ended up debuting with the Shield.”
There is talk within WWE right now of having a triple-threat match between all three members of The Shield at WrestleMania XXX, according to a report at F4WOnline.com
The match, which would feature Dean Ambrose vs. Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins, is expected to happen as long as WWE doesn’t pull the trigger on adding Daniel Bryan to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania.
The feeling there is that WWE wouldn’t want two high-profile triple-threat matches on the same show.
The following are highlights from a recent interview with WWE Superstar Dean Ambrose from TheClassical.org:
On the early days of The Shield concept, how it was pitched to him, etc: It wasn’t ever pitched to us. It was very out of nowhere. It was a secret kind of idea. I have an idea—I’ll save that for another time—[of] what the original, original idea was. It’s just been ever-evolving. One day, it was just like, ‘All right, you three are going to wear black turtlenecks and run in and beat up Ryback,’ and we’re just like, ‘Uh, okay.’ At the time, you’re like, ‘I don’t even care.’ I [had been] in developmental for over a year at that point and was just ready to pull my eyes out, so [with] any tiny, little bit of opening they’ll give me, I was like, ‘Yup, let’s do it.’ I’ll kick in that door if you crack it open, and I think we all felt that way. But doing Survivor Series and interfering in a WWE Championship match on one of the bigger pay-per-views that the company does, that’s like, ‘Holy crap.’ If you know what the deal is or not, you can’t ask for a better spotlight than [that].
We didn’t really know what the deal was, and they didn’t really know what the deal was with it. We were kind of making it up as we were going along. The name—it’s just a natural thing. A lot of times, we’re defenders. We’re defending what we perceive to be justice, or the good of the business, or somebody who paid us off. We can act as a shield, so we were The Shield.
The attire came naturally. The entrance came naturally because why would we be in the locker room with everybody when we’re acting as mercenaries? I remember being like, ‘Why would we ever come through the Gorilla position? Who would let us in the locker room after the stuff we pulled?’ so we came through the crowd. Then, that’s like a thing, too. That’s like a statement for us, separating ourselves from the locker room as far as we want to outwork everybody and outperform everybody. We’re not your typical WWE wrestlers and we’re going to make ourselves into more. It’s like a statement that we’re taking over this business and we don’t care.
On who he travels with and guys he’d like to feud with in the future: I travel with The Shield. We keep it very tight and travel together. I’ll travel with Claudio [Castagnoli] sometimes—Antonio Cesaro. I get along with pretty much everybody. I’m really easy to get along with. I can be pretty quiet and keep to myself. I’m a guy who just kind of sits in the back of a room [to] watch and learn and see what everybody’s doing. I’m a super laid-back, easy-to-get-along-with kind of guy.
As far as who I’d like to feud with in the future, there’s so many [people] it’s hard to count. I’m sure eventually, it’s going to happen one day where either any of the three of us in The Shield are going to be looking across the ring from each other. You know, when that happens, that’ll be a good day because hopefully, it’s in a position where we’re doing it in a high-profile scenario for a lot of money.
Randy [Orton] is a guy. I’m on the same side of the fence as Randy right now, but Randy’s a guy that I love watching work. He’s a guy [where] I’ll always stop and watch his matches.
[Voice rises enthusiastically] Christian is just so unbelievably good. I mean, I always knew Christian was really good. Working with Christian, he’s been here for so long and has so much experience, you realize his brain is a super-evolved version of my brain [with] the way he sees matches play out, the way he comes up with things, especially in tag matches and stuff like that. Christian’s a guy who I’ve only had a small sampling of working with. Christian’s a guy I want to spend a lot more time in the ring with.
It’s awesome working with RVD, too. I’m a big ECW fan, so I got to work with him on a loop in California, and he’s cool. He’s friggin’ RVD. He’s got all the RVD spots and he’s ageless and stuff. There’s just countless guys that you want to work with for one reason or the other. I’m looking forward to diving headfirst into all of them.
WWE Superstars Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose were interviewed by Glenn Moore of Cleveland.com this morning to promote tonight’s RAW. Among the topics discussed:
• Roman Reigns eliminating them in the Royal Rumble.
• Thoughts on the crowd at the Royal Rumble.
• Did Rollins really have to use the bathroom hiding under the ring?
• If they could triple-powerbomb anybody, who would it be?
• Thoughts on Ultimate Warrior being inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame.
• Traveling from city to city, especially in the snow and cold.
• First gimmicks, including Rollins as God when he was 16.
– WWE Superstar Dean Ambrose recently appeared on Colt Cabana’s “Art Of Wrestling” podcast. You can check out the full appearance at ColtCabana.com.
– Speaking of The Shield, Seth Rollins appeared on the “Talking With Soup” YouTube show, which is hosted by Dan Campbell of “The Wonder Years.” You can check out that appearance below:
– There’s a lot of talk in WWE this week that February’s Elimination Chamber pay-per-view with feature a unification match between Intercontinental Champion Big E Langston and United States champion Dean Ambrose.
– WWE is most likely be holding a big pre-show event on the WWE Network prior to the live NXT special on the Network on January 27th. As noted earlier, this show will go head-to-head with Impact Wrestling on Spike TV.
– On this week’s “WWE Bottom Line” show in the UK, which recaps RAW each week, they edited out the entire Jake Roberts return at the end of Old School RAW.
The following are highlights from a recent interview with WWE Superstar Dean Ambrose:
On what it’s like working for WWE: “It’s been a whirlwind from the day [The Shield] started on television. We come through the crowd and feel that energy night after night. We’ve worked with all the top stars – John Cena, Undertaker, The Rock, (WWE World Heavyweight Champion) Randy Orton, etc. It’s surreal to be a part of this. You get to travel the world on someone else’s dime and you’re never really home. If you like being at home, WWE is not for you!”
On what he feels are some of the biggest misconceptions about wrestling: “[The] biggest misconception is it’s fake, it doesn’t hurt and everything is scripted in and out of the ring – those are the big ones. Not everything is scripted. Things change on the fly and you have to react to think on your feet. You only get one chance to get it right since it’s live. Nothing about it is fake. It all hurts. I feel the toll of what all I’ve put my body through year after year, but hopefully I’ll come out on the better end of it.”
On why people should come to a WWE event: “The cool thing about a WWE live event as opposed to TV is the energy is totally different. You’re closer to the action and you’re part of the energy of the crowd, free to cheer or boo or do whatever you want to do. You should kick yourself if you don’t see it firsthand. It’s an unforgettable experience.”
Check out the complete interview online at DaytonCityPaper.com.
– As a bit of an update on the Hulk Hogan rumors from Wednesday, not only was he not in Las Vegas, he was in Tampa, Florida, as previously reported, and was filming something for ESPN.
– The Dayton City Paper website has a featured article up today focusing on WWE Superstar Dean Ambrose, who is from the Ohio area. The article mainly focuses on Ambrose returning home for a show in Dayton on January 20th. Ambrose is actually from Cincinnati. You can check out the article online at DaytonCityPaper.com.
– The Forbes website posted an analysis feature on the WWE Network. You can check that out online at Forbes.com.
WWE United States Champion Dean Ambrose recently spoke to The Fairfax Times about being compared to WWE Hall of Famer “Rowdy” Roddy Piper:
“I don’t see how you could not take that as a compliment,” Ambrose said. “He was a legend and a hall of famer. He was a guy who stirred the pot and drew a good amount of money. I feel like I haven’t really done anything yet. Not that I’m holding back — right now I’m just working as hard as I can in the role that I’m in. I still feel like I have a LOT of stuff in my back pocket that when the opportunity strikes … there’s a lot more to me than people have seen yet.”
He also talked about the impact The Shield has had in WWE since their debut, calling them the “backbone” of the company:
“We feel like we’re the backbone of the company,” he said. “We go out there every night and show off the work ethic that rubs off on everybody we work with. We go out there every night to have the best national show — whether it’s one or two matches, you got to work twice or whatever it is — we never take a night off.”
Just a few weeks after the unification of the WWE Championship and the World Heavyweight championship, WWE.com is already questioning whether the company should also unify the secondary Intercontinental and United States championships. Who better to discuss a possible unification than the reigning champions themselves, Big E Langston and Dean Ambrose.
Both men agreed that unification is a good idea if it means the secondary title would have more prestige, which it undoubtedly would. While Ambrose was on board with the idea of introducing an entirely new belt, Big E says the United States title should be absorbed into the IC title:
“The Intercontinental Championship should always be around in WWE. It’s very historic, and I don’t think we should lose that history.”
When asked how the belts should be unified, Langston suggested a scaffold match, while Ambrose is in favor of a steel cage match.
When asked directly if they’re ready for a Champion vs. Champion showdown, Langston says he would “welcome the challenge” and Ambrose said, “I feel that what I’ve given and sacrificed for the U.S. Title, I’d be willing to put that on the line as a pride thing. It’s just as good as the Intercontinental Title. That’s something I’d be willing to prove.”
What do you think? Vote Here:
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Comment Below and tell us if you think WWE should unify the Intercontinental and United States titles. Should WWE introduce a new title in their place – or should one of the belts’ lineage be absorbed into the other?
The following are highlights of an “Against The Mat” interview with former WWE trainer Tom Prichard:
On who he felt had the best in-ring performance of 2013: “I like thinking about the newcomers, I like thinking about the guys who come from developmental, so I really have to say that for me personally, I’m gonna go with a Dean Ambrose vote just for the fact that I’m partial and I’m prejudice and all those things combined, so as far as seeing what he can do as a team, yes, but standing out on his own and having him win the United States Championship out of that team, or out of that crew, The Shield first was a major accomplishment for him and I think there’s more to come, definitely from Dean Ambrose.”
On who to watch out for in 2014: “I have my eye on Big E. Langston. Again, for personal and biased reasons. I had the advantage of seeing Big E. from the very beginning, his first tryout and watched him progress from there. I think we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg.”
Daniel Bryan, winning three Slammy Awards competing in a match, appearing in the Championship Ascension Ceremony, was without question the star of the show. His hometown crowd chanting YES! YES! YES! and DANIEL BRYAN! throughout the beginning of the Championship Ascension Ceremony. Going back earlier in the night to his first Slammy win for Superstar Of The Year. On stage The Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels. He announces the Superstar of the year is Daniel Bryan. We were all expecting fireworks to occur during that interaction. HBK even exited stage right a perfect set-up for a “surprise” superkick from out of nowhere! But there was no Sweet Chin Music. Just a humble acceptance speech by Bryan for his Slammy Award which he refereed to as The “HB Swizzle” award, Michaels naming it that just before presenting the award. Bryan did mention if it wasn’t for Shawn he wouldn’t be in the WWE. Likewise if it wasn’t for his interference at Hell-In-A-Cell he would be the WWE Champion. Although there was no physical interaction here, that wouldn’t be the last time these two interacted on the show.
See this is why I can’t shake off fighting the Daniel Bryan cause, he belongs in the main event. Heck this article uses his YES! and NO! and lord help us all if Daniel Bryan ever appears in a “NO!” portion of this article. Some people might say, he was in his hometown and had an extra kick of support. There may be a bit of truth to that, but I feel that there are just some hot wrestling towns. Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and apparently Seattle. After what transpired later in the show who knows what will happen the next few months. I’m excited! YES!
Championship Ascension Ceremony
John Cena showing why he is in fact the face of WWE.
Former World Heavyweight and WWE Champions appeared all in the ring for the Championship Ascension Ceremony. As I said earlier the crowd was going crazy for Daniel Bryan. While Triple H was talking up the match, and the championship, the Seattle crowd chanted YES and Daniel Bryan to the point where Triple H gave them what seemed like at least a minute of chanting and Yessing and clapping. This crowd was on fire for Daniel Bryan. Triple H introduced both Orton and Cena. The crowd did not want to hear what Orton had to say. There were boos and boring chants. Then Cena took the mic. More boos and cheering mix. Then Cena begins to speak and prove why he is the face of the WWE. These days with everything being very planned and scripted, Cena played to the crowd and included Daniel Bryan in the conversation, he compared Randy Orton’s rise to success to Daniel Bryan’s. The idea was Bryan didn’t have a father and grandfather to get him in to the WWE, he did it by working. Cena turned practically the entire crowd around and behind him., shouting out his past opponents, HBK, CM Punk, and putting over that the only fair shot Daniel Bryan had was the one with him. Brilliant, this is why he is where he is. The end was something I haven’t seen in the WWE in a long time. It was an awesome chain of events excuited perfectly. Cena and Orton shake hands as the World Heavyweight Championship and WWE Championship are hoisted up. Orton gets in a cheap shot, the two are down on the mat fighting. Orton and Cena get pulled apart to their corners. CM Punk gets shoved by Orton causing CM Punk to start attacking Orton. Triple H throws down CM Punk, who retaliates with a knockdown of his on on The Game. HBK Superkicks CM Punk, setting up Daniel Bryan to
The Authority and John Cena look over A fallen Randy Orton. A great segment to end raw.
WWE Reminding us what they are capable of, a Powerful and compelling end to Raw.
deliver his running Knee on HBK. Orton tries to RKO Bryan but instead gets shoved into Stephanie McMahon knocking her down. Triple H runs to Stephanie’s aid, and then gets up and pedigrees Randy. The show closes with The Authority and John Cena looking disappointed over Randy Orton on the mat. What a great segment. This is what WWE used to do on a regular basis. Twists and turns, these chain-reaction action segments. YES!
Quick Mentions
Dean Ambrose vs CM Punk – Ambrose vs CM punk was a Pay-Per-View quality match with a great dissension in the ranks tease when Dean Ambrose wanted Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins to head to the back so he could finish the job by himself. Punk gets the win shortly after that exchange, although Punk loses out to the numbers game and gets a great spear from Reigns. YES!
The Wyatts – With a chip on my shoulder because of Daniel Bryan’s demotion, I don’t think I appreciated Bray Wyatt’s amazing performances over the last few weeks. They are great, and compelling. YES!
Hit up Page 2 below for the “NO!” of this week’s WWE RAW:
– Celebrating birthdays today are WWE United States Champion Dean Ambrose (28), WWE Hall of Famer Tammy “Sunny” Sytch (41), and former WWE Superstar Curtis Hughes (49). Plus, today would have marked as the fifty-fifth birthday of WWE Hall of Famer “Ravishing” Rick Rude; he died at the age of 40 on April 20, 1999 due to heart failure.
Sytch, who is currently undergoing treatment for cervical cancer, remarked the following on Facebook on Friday, “Well, the day turned out not as I had planned… The easiest part should have been getting my epidural, but instead, I almost passed out in the table. My pre-op appt and pre-op testing went smoother and faster than I was imaging. That shot hurt like s**t this morning!!!”
– This week’s “Raw Slam of the Week” features the return of Sin Cara, while the tandem of Big Show and Rey Mysterio are highlighted in the “SmackDown Slam of the Week.”
– Zeb Colter’s insults are in the running for “Insult of the Year” at this Monday’s 2013 Slammy Awards (with Stephanie McMahon insults Big Show AJ Lee goes off on Total Divas and Paul Heyman’s insults toward CM Punk). Colter responded to his nomination on Twitter, stating, “When did speaking the truth become an insult? #Slammy Insult of the year #RAW.”