WWE applied for a trademark for the term “Big Red” last week, as that will be part of Erick Rowan’s new name on television.
As seen on WWE TV since The Wyatt Family has split up, WWE has been constantly making small changes to Rowan’s gimmick, as he went from a silent, goofy character who had a crush on Renee Young, and later toy kittens, to a secret genius with a rubik’s cube and high IQ.
– As of pretty recently, WWE officials were still looking at a potential John Cena vs. Randy Orton vs. Seth Rollins triple-threat TLC match for next month’s WWE TLC pay-per-view, however there has been some talk lately of holding off Orton’s first return appearance until at the actual PPV itself..
Also expected for the TLC PPV is a gimmick match of some sort between Big Show and Erick Rowan. What kind of gimmick match the two will have is not yet known, but it is believed that it will not be a straight singles contest.
Last night’s Survivor Series was full of surprises. From title changes to a devastating Scorpion Death Drop, the event pretty much had it all. However, it left many questions regarding the future of the storyline, especially now that the Authority is no longer in power. Here are five paths I believe the company will take in the coming weeks.
5. Ryback Fades to the Midcard
Let me start by saying that last night’s main event was impeccably booked. From Cena exiting early to Ziggler selling to hell out of his beating to Sting’s entertaining debut, they did pretty much everything right.
However, their one mistake was having Ryback eliminated minutes into the contest. He was the biggest story in the weeks leading up to the event, but played essentially no role in the actual match. Unfortunately for Ryback, it looks like he was simply being used as a crutch while the company waits for others to return. After Reigns, Lesnar, and Barrett return to television, the Big Guy will once again be an afterthought.
Survivor Series is mere hours away at this point. This baby is totally free, so anyone paying for this pay-per-view is doing it all wrong. In total, there are five matches on the main card, including a traditional Survivor Series tag team main event. Without further ado, here are my predictions for tonight’s Survivor Series pay-per-view.
Fandango (with Rosa Mendes) vs. TBA
Although Fandango’s opponent has yet to be announced, I’d put my money on Adam Rose serving as the punching bag. The match will likely be used to further tension between Adam Rose and the Bunny, while also allowing Fandango to pick up a victory in his return to action.
Winner: Fandango by pinfall
Alicia Fox, Emma, Naomi, and Natalya vs. Paige, Cameron, Layla, and Summer Rae (Divas Elimination Match)
This will be similar to last year’s Divas elimination match in that it will be total waste of ten minutes (and if we’re really lucky, we might get to see it again on Raw tomorrow!). This could go in many directions, but my guess is that Paige’s team wins after last eliminating Natalya.
Winners: Paige, Cameron, Layla, and Summer Rae by pinfall
The stakes have been raised at this year’s Survivor Series, as the Authority will attempt to retain power, while members of Team Cena fight to retain their jobs. The card appears to be set and will feature a total of six matches, with two championships on the line.
This event has been marketed as free, so it’s unclear whether the company will play it safe and phone in the results. If they decide to surprise fans, however, here are five ways they could potentially do so.
As we wrote earlier this week, Triple H announced at the WWE SmackDown television taping on Tuesday night that all of the members of “Team Cena” would be fired if they lost the traditional elimination match at this Sunday’s WWE Survivor Series pay-per-view..
As it turns out, the stipulation is actually one that will see all of the “Team Cena” members get fired — except for John Cena himself — if the team loses to “Team Authority” at this Sunday’s pay-per-view main event.
Apparently Triple H said that Cena is still valuable to WWE, while his team members, Ryback, Big Show, Dolph Ziggler and Erick Rowan, are replaceable.
During a match between Big Show and Sheamus on Monday’s WWE Survivor Series “go-home” edition of RAW, which featured interference from Rusev and Mark Henry, Sheamus was “injured” and is now no longer part of “Team Cena” in the traditional elimination match main event for this Sunday’s pay-per-view.
This led to the main event “contract signing” between Team Cena and Team Authority. While no contracts were actually signed, all members of the now five-on-six elimination match for this Sunday’s WWE Survivor Series pay-per-view was announced.
Team Authority will feature Seth Rollins, Kane, Mark Henry, Rusev, Luke Harper and Cesaro.
Team Cena consists of John Cena, Big Show, Dolph Ziggler, Erick Rowan and Ryback.
Make sure to join us here this Sunday night for the best WWE Survivor Series live results coverage on the web.
– Luke Harper and Erick Rowan are featured on the latest edition of WWE’s “30 Second Fury,” which you can see below.
– WWE will debut the first ever edition of SmackDown on the WWE Network next week as part of their “SmackDown Week” special, which promotes the 15th anniversary of the show. The first SmackDown episode will air after Tuesday’s edition of Main Event, and immediately afterwards, a 30-minute special on the April 9, 2003 edition of SmackDown will air. The official description for that special reads as follows:
“Rowdy Roddy Piper brings back ‘Piper’s Pit’ after 14 long years with Mr. McMahon as the featured guest.”
Since bursting on the scene last fall, Bray Wyatt has been one of the most diabolical and confusing characters on the WWE roster. Fans are likely to find him delivering a soliloquy in a dark room one minute, while serenading an audience the next.
Along the way, Wyatt has taken out a number of superstars, including Kane, Daniel Bryan, and John Cena. However, it seems as if Wyatt has lost momentum in recent weeks.
Wyatt has lost momentum since his feud with John Cena.
Everything seemed to be going fine for Wyatt and his Family during his program with John Cena. Wyatt was able to defeat Cena during one of the three matches, and although he wasn’t able to win the series, he looked strong at times and amassed more followers. At the same time, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan were challenging for the Tag Team Championships and it seemed like only a matter of time before they would capture gold.
However, the stable has seemed lost since the Cena program. Wyatt feuded with Chris Jericho in a program that was underwhelming and did little to advance either superstar. As for Harper and Rowan, they could never overcome the Usos and it now appears that they are out of the title picture for the time being. The current Wyatt Family situation begs the question: Is the stable quickly losing relevance?
In recent weeks, Wyatt has been fed to a number of superstars as they attempt to build up Night of Champions. Nowhere was this more evident than a few weeks ago when John Cena tore through the entire three-man stable just one week after being destroyed by Brock Lesnar.
This week on Raw was no different, as the Big Show delivered a double chokeslam to Harper and Rowan, once again sending the Wyatt Family running for the hills with their tails between their legs.
Feeding the Wyatt Family to the Big Show makes little sense. After all, it is not like the Big Show has a match at Night of Champions, so unlike the Cena situation, the company isn’t really building for the pay-per-view by burying the future of the company. Instead, it was just another pointless beating and loss for the Wyatt Family.
– It was announced on the WWE Night Of Champions “go-home” edition of RAW on Monday night that at the “Kickoff Show” for this Sunday’s pay-per-view, Christian will conduct a “Peep Show” talk show segment with special guest Chris Jericho.
– Also announced on RAW was a big six-man tag-team match for this week’s SmackDown, which will see Big Show and The Usos vs. Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan.
The following matches were taped on Monday night, September 15, 2014 at the Cajundome in Lafayette, Louisiana for this week’s edition of WWE Superstars.
– Luke Harper and Erick Rowan def. Los Matadores in tag-team action to open up the show. The finish saw Harper hit a side-walk slam for the pinfall victory.
– Sin Cara def. Justin Gabriel in the main event of the show. This was said to be an exciting, crowd-pleasing, high-flying style of match, the exact type you would expect from these two.
As things stand right now, the only matches officially set for the September 21st WWE Night Of Champions pay-per-view in Nashville, Tennessee are Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, Sheamus vs. Cesaro for the WWE United States Championship and Dolph Ziggler vs. The Miz for the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
According to reports, two additional matches that are all but confirmed are The Usos vs. Goldust and Stardust for the WWE Tag-Team Championships and Mark Henry vs. Rusev.
The plan right now for the WWE Divas Championship match on the card appears to be a four-way with Paige defending against AJ Lee, Nikki Bella and Brie Bella, as all four were linked together on all of WWE’s television shows this week.
Another match likely for the show, although it may not be a pay-per-view match, is Bo Dallas vs. Jack Swagger.
The key Superstars left without matches that are expected on the show are Chris Jericho (in his final match of his current run with WWE), Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan, Randy Orton, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns.
It appears WWE is going with a Reigns vs. Rollins match, so they may go with Jericho vs. Orton since the Jericho vs. Wyatt and Reigns vs. Orton matches are set for next week’s RAW to combat the season premiere of Monday Night Football. However, they could either way, with one final Jericho vs. Wyatt “blow-off” match, as well as another Reigns vs. Orton bout.
As noted in the past, the WWE Studios film “Lockdown,” which Dean Ambrose is off filming, is set to wrap up on the Saturday before Night Of Champions, so he could end up on the show if WWE chooses to go that route.
Tonight is the Labor Day edition of WWE RAW, which takes place live tonight at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa.
Confirmed thus far for tonight’s show is a “Highlight Reel” segment with Chris Jericho and special guest, Randy Orton.
Superstars advertised for tonight’s show in Des Moines include John Cena, Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, Erick Rowan, Kane, Seth Rollins and Triple H.
– What hard-hitting questions will Jericho have for Orton?
– How will Cena respond to Brock Lesnar?
– What is going on between AJ Lee and Paige?
– Will Reigns get his hands on Rollins?
– How will Brie Bella move past her sisters actions last week?
Make sure to join us here tonight for live WWE RAW results coverage.
– It was announced on this week’s edition of RAW that on Friday’s edition of WWE SmackDown, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan will take on Big Show and Mark Henry in tag-team action.
– Jeff Hardy: My Life, My Rules debuts this Wednesday on the WWE Network. Below is a video preview.
On Monday’s post-SummerSlam edition of WWE RAW, many announcements were made regarding matches and segments on several of WWE’s upcoming television shows.
First up, on WWE Main Event, which airs live on the WWE Network on Tuesday night, Big Show vs. Erick Rowan is the featured match.
On Friday’s edition of SmackDown on SyFy, which will be taped on Tuesday night, Randy Orton vs. Rob Van Dam is one of the featured matches.
Finally, on next week’s edition of RAW, John Cena will “address the WWE Universe” for the first time since losing his WWE World Heavyweight Championship to Brock Lesnar at the SummerSlam pay-per-view on Sunday night in Los Angeles, California.
The following matches were taped on Tuesday night in Seattle, Washington for tonight’s WWE SummerSlam “go-home” edition of SmackDown on SyFy:
– Dean Ambrose vs. Cesaro
– Dolph Ziggler vs. Titus O’Neil
– Mark Henry vs. Luke Harper
– Mark Henry & Big Show vs. Luke Harper & Erick Rowan
– A.J. Lee vs. Eva Marie non-title
– Jack Swagger vs. Bo Dallas
– Roman Reigns vs. The Miz
At one point, the plan for the WWE SummerSlam “Kickoff Show” match was a four-way tag-team match for the WWE Tag-Team Championships, with The Usos defending against Luke Harper and Erick Rowan, Ryback and Curtis Axel and Goldust and Stardust.
As things stand now, the pre-show match for the pay-per-view is being discussed and a decision is expected to be made at some point during the next week.
It’s worth noting that the new “Slater Gator” duo (Heath Slater and Titus O’Neil) may end up being involved if they go the tag-team route, which is expected, as the new tag-combination recently picked up a notable win over Goldust and Stardust on WWE Main Event.
– WWE stock was up yet again today by 4.41 percent, closing at $13.03 per share. The high for today was $13.07, while the low was $12.30 per share.
– Below is the latest edition of The JBL & Cole Show:
– Prior to the airing of tonight’s edition of WWE SmackDown, which was taped this past Tuesday night, Chris Jericho tweeted the following regarding the physicality of his match on the show with Erick Rowan:
The latest word going around this weekend is that the rumored Stephanie McMahon vs. Brie Bella match may be saved for the Night Of Champions pay-per-view in September, as opposed to the SummerSlam show in August. More should be known based on how they follow-up on the angle at RAW tonight.
As far as the Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins and AJ Lee vs. Paige matches at SummerSlam, it is believed that both will be a gimmick match of some sort.
Finally, there is talk of the WWE Tag-Team Championship match at SummerSlam being a fatal four-way with The Usos defending against Luke Harper and Erick Rowan, as well as two other tag-teams.
Tonight’s episode of Raw took place in Montreal, Canada and featured a total of eleven matches, including a first ever one-on-one meeting between the WWE World Heavyweight champion John Cena and Money in the Bank briefcase holder Seth Rollins.
Canadian icon and WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart graced the WWE Universe with his presence and cut a promo. Of course, he brought up the Montreal Screw Job, but it was a nice moment. Also, WWE continued to promote current on-going storylines leading up to Battleground.
Last week’s episode of Raw was one of the best and most exciting in recent history. Did this edition live up to last week’s high standards? Without further ado, here are highlights, lowlights and my random thoughts on the 7/7/2014 edition of Monday Night Raw:
BEST MATCH: The opening bout between the Usos and the Wyatt Family was the best match of the night. There were two other matches that could have stolen the show, but they failed to do so for a couple of reasons. First, Randy Orton and Dean Ambrose gave it their best effort, but it was clear to see that the two didn’t have very much chemistry, at least when it comes to singles action. Also, the Dean Ambrose botch wasn’t a crowd-pleasing moment.
Chris Jericho vs. the Miz could have been special, but the match didn’t last as long as I hoped. John Cena vs. Seth Rollins had the most promise, but they weren’t given enough time to do anything memorable and the obvious interference by Kane and Randy Orton ruined the match for me.
What was your favorite match of the night?
WORST MATCH: AJ Lee/Paige vs. Naomi/Cameron was the worst match of the night. Aside from the main event and the tag team match between the Usos and the Wyatt Family, there weren’t any real standout matches. However, this bout stood out for all the wrong reasons and it was a poor showing amongst the four Divas involved. Bo Dallas vs. El Torito was a close second for the worst match of the night award because at least the crowd was somewhat into it.
The worst segment of the night was the Nikki Bella/Alicia Fox disaster, but I don’t think there was an opening bell and nobody was declared the winner. Therefore, Idon’t consider this to be a match; otherwise, it would have won the award.
UPSET OF THE NIGHT: Kofi Kingston defeating Cesaro was the upset of the night. I know that Kofi defeated Cesaro last week on Raw, but I didn’t expect him to do it again and I don’t think the fans/crowd did either. I see Cesaro winning the Intercontinental Title at Battleground and Kingston falling into obscurity once again, but at least Kofi is living in the moment now.
To quote the great Mike Adamle, Kofi be Jamaican me crazy.
MOST SHOCKING MOMENT: I expected Randy Orton to defeat Dean Ambrose in their match tonight, but I was anticipating Seth Rollins to screw Ambrose over, resulting in Ambrose losing cleanly. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Ambrose has been really hot as of late and Rollins costing him the match would have protected Ambrose a bit more. Also, it would have spiced things up and furthered the Ambrose/Rollins feud.
– Infamous Reddit user “Dolphins1925” had one of his worst prediction outings in recent memory, as he missed several of his picks for Sunday’s event. Dolphins, who for the longest time went flawless with his pay-per-view predictions, missed on the main event, picking Kane, as well as Summer Rae over Layla and Luke Harper & Erick Rowan over The Usos.
– Below is the official trailer for the “EXCUSE ME! – A Cougar Countdown” special on Vickie Guerrero, which airs on the WWE Network this Tuesday night at 9pm EST.
The following is the final card for tonight’s WWE Money In The Bank pay-per-view:
Money In The Bank Ladder Match (WWE World Heavyweight Championship)
– John Cena vs. Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton vs. Cesaro vs. Kane vs. Sheamus vs. Alberto Del Rio
Money In The Bank Ladder Match (Briefcase For Title Shot Up To One Year)
– Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose vs. Rob Van Dam vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Jack Swagger vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Bad News Barrett*
WWE Tag-Team Championship
– The Usos (c) vs. Luke Harper & Erick Rowan
WWE Divas Championship
Paige (c) vs. Naomi
Divas Match (Special Guest Referee: Fandango)
– Summer Rae vs. Layla
Tag-Team Match
– Goldust & Stardust vs. Ryback & Curtis Axel
Singles Match
– Rusev vs. Big E.
* – Barrett suffered a separated shoulder during the SmackDown taping this past Tuesday, however WWE has yet to announce whether or not he has been pulled from his match.
Make sure to join us here later tonight for the absolute best live play-by-play results coverage of the fifth annual WWE Money In The Bank pay-per-view!