– WWE Hall Of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin tweeted the following during the RAW main event on Monday night, which featured Seth Rollins, Kane and Randy Orton vs. John Cena, Roman Reigns and Chris Jericho.
The following are highlights of the latest Jim Ross blog:
On the success of his Ross Report podcast: “We have had amazing success in the podcast world as of late with the Sting podcast being downloaded well over a million times which should bell any one doing market research that the wrestling public, in a large part, want to see the Stinger in a WWE ring. I’m still of the mindset that Sting only needs to do one match, a retirement match vs. The Undertaker at WM31 of which Taker wins and then faces the WWE Champion at WM32 in a title vs. retirement match in AT&T Stadium aka Jerry’s World in Arlington, Texas. Taker wins that one too and then retires the next night on RAW leaving the WWE Title vacant which would see a tournament utilized to determine the new champion.”
“This bit of fantasy booking that I first dropped on our Ross Report podcast weeks ago is obviously dependent on Taker’s health of which I do not know the status.”
“We received some of our most favorable feedback on my recent conversation with @TonySchiavone24 on our podcast which I truly appreciate but most of all I enjoyed reconnecting with Tony after all these years. We’ve bowed to stay in contact with each other as our tomorrow’s aren’t guaranteed.”
On Jake Roberts’ health: “Speaking of the DDT our best get well wishes go out to WWE HOFer Jake Roberts who’s hospitalized in Las Vegas with double pneumonia. Here’s hoping that Jake makes a full recovery. His podcast appearance on the Ross Report was one of our best down and dirty, tell it like it is shows we’ve done.”
On Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena: “Regarding Cena, I’d love to see him begin to have a mat metamorphous as he prepares to go to battle with Brock again. That could come in the form of dead serious promos, ring attire tweaks, in ring actions which could be as simple as getting himself disqualified by physically abusing a referee or even confronting his biggest ally Michael Cole. A sit down with Cole and Cena with Cena going off would get fan’s attention.”
“I do feel that a change in Cena’s persona leading into NOC is needed and to not do something would be a mistake.”
Check out the complete blog at JRsBarBQ.com. You can also order JR’s Bar-B-Q products online at WWEShop.com.
The WWE rolled through midwest tonight, as they set up shop in Des Moines, Iowa. This week’s card featured a total of eight matches, including a life changing six-man tag main event. It’s time to once again take the WWE to school, and I’ll be the one doling out the grades.
As always, matches will be graded based on usual factors such as workrate, in-ring psychology, move variety, crowd reaction, and overall impact on the storyline. Important in-ring promos will also be graded based on factors such as originality, believability, and importance. Without further ado, here is this week’s Raw report card.
Chris Jericho’s Highlight Reel
Tonight’s show started with Chris Jericho’s Highlight Reel, and featured a shitload of guests, including the Authority, John Cena, and Roman Reigns. There was some entertaining banter during the segment, including Triple H and Jericho hurling corny insults at one another as Jericho dissed Triple H’s pink tie, while the Game chose to attack Y2J’s scarf during a hilarious back and forth. Rollins was extremely over during the promo and got the biggest pop of the night in his home state. Cena threatening to sue the company was pretty lame, however, and held the promo back a bit. It was an overall decent segment, it set up the main event, and the crowd seemed to be into it.
Grade: B
Sheamus and Dolph Ziggler vs. Cesaro and the Miz
The first match of the night was a tag team match featuring the United States and Intercontinental Champions. The Miz showed up with his body double Damien Mizdow and a personal stylist, complete with chairs and makeup. Miz and Sandow were hilarious throughout the contest and the ending was solid. Ziggler and Cesaro also worked well together during the opening portion of the match, with Cesaro’s fall away slam into a pinning combination being one of the most impressive spots I’ve seen in a long time. Overall, it was an entertaining contest and was a good way to advance both feuds.
– One of the things WWE is advertising for tonight’s RAW is John Cena’s response to the pre-taped interview that aired last week from Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman. As noted earlier, Lesnar is not scheduled for tonight’s show, however that does not necessarily mean that Heyman won’t appear, or that WWE doesn’t have additional pre-taped footage of the two to air on the show.
– NXT star Kalisto taped a rare promo for the upcoming NXT Takeover 2 live special, which airs on the WWE Network on September 11th. You can check that out above.
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.
The following are highlights of a new Miami Herald interview with John Cena:
John Cena on new talents having the chance to step up: “This is their moment. They have to do their best to capture it…It’s been interesting to see the change in the business and how we recruit talent. The money and resources WWE has put forth with the Performance Center shows they are absolutely serious about finding talent, recruiting them and making them the best they can be. This way when they are called up to appear on ‘Monday Night Raw,’ they are ready to go.”
Cena on a possible match against Hogan: “I do what I love, so when you wake up everyday, it’s not a job… A dream opponent for me would be Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan and Sting. I’m not sure if I could ever get in the ring with any of them, but you have heard Hogan say in the past, if he had one last match, he would want it to be against me. I say as a Hulk-a-Maniac growing up that would be the biggest honor I’ve ever received.”
WWE has confirmed the rumored WWE United States Championship match between Sheamus and Cesaro for the Night Of Champions pay-per-view on September 21st. Cesaro became the number one contender by defeating Rob Van Dam on Monday’s edition of RAW.
As of right now, the only other confirmed match for Night Of Champions is the WWE World Heavyweight Championship rematch between Brock Lesnar and John Cena.
– The official WWE website is currently running a poll asking fans who they feel will be the next WWE World Heavyweight Champion. The options are Dean Ambrose, John Cena, Roman Reigns, Dolph Ziggler, Seth Rollins, Bray Wyatt, Randy Orton and Sheamus. With over 12,000 votes cast, Reigns is in a commanding lead with over 40 percent of the votes. After him are Cena and Ambrose, with the rest falling way behind in the vote.
– Sinn Bodhi posted the following update on Jake “The Snake” Roberts via Twitter:
With @JakeSnakeDDT at hospital, he's more worried about disappointing fans then getting better! We told him 2 shut up &beat this phnemonia!
– For all of the statistic junkies out there, it’s worth noting that when John Cena lost to Brock Lesnar at the WWE SummerSlam pay-per-view, it broke a 15-match winning streak that Cena was riding, which included television and pay-per-view matches.
– Below is the latest edition of WWE Inbox, which features several WWE Superstars and WWE Divas talking about the new official WWE logo.
The Monday, August 25th edition of WWE RAW averaged 3.973 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. That marks a decrease from the average of 4.194 million viewers who tuned in the previous week.
While RAW did have the returns of Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels and John Cena on Monday night, the show faced off against the Emmy Awards for the first time ever.
The houly breakdown for Monday’s show is as follows:
Hour One: 3.859 million viewers
Hour Two: 4.057 million viewers
Hour Three: 4.005 million viewers
We should have the final rating up on the site shortly.
The following are highlights of the latest Jim Ross blog:
On how John Cena was booked on RAW: “I wasn’t overwhelmed with how John Cena was booked on RAW as I would have been in favor of leaving him off TV another week or doing a vignette from Cena’s home where he could express himself about “Do I have it in me to beat a healthy Brock Lesnar?
When the hero says he’s not going to a major event to win his title back but to beat the champion’s ass it usually means that the champ IE Brock Lesnar retains as he should in this re-match.”
On the way Bray Wyatt has been used lately: “Bray Wyatt has been feeling main event special the past several weeks but not so much Monday night. Hopefully, he gets back on his roll next Monday. A potential Lesnar vs. Wyatt match down the road interests me if it could be presented in a compelling manner.”
On the Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman video on RAW: “The Lesnar-Heyman video was excellent and it confirmed even more my Ross Report take that Lesnar doesn’t have to be on most RAW’s to be an effective champion. If Lesnar just wrestles on PPV’s or on most PPV’s I will be just fine with that. This scenario forces all involved parties to accelerate the advancement of new main event stars and to, hopefully, try new talents in fresh spots.”
Check out the complete blog at JRsBarBQ.com. You can also order JR’s Bar-B-Q products online at WWEShop.com.
Campuses around the country are infested with returning college students this week. In honor of all the alcohol that will be consumed and the knowledge that will hopefully be absorbed, it’s time to take the WWE to school, and I’ll be the one doling out the grades.
Welcome to the first ever WWE Raw Report Card. Matches will be graded based on usual factors such as workrate, in-ring psychology, move variety, crowd reaction, and overall impact on the storyline. Important in-ring promos will also be graded based on factors such as originality, believability, and importance. Without further ado, here are this week’s grades.
Hall of Fame Forum
This week’s Raw started with a roundtable discussion regarding the upcoming rematch between John Cena and Brock Lesnar. First off, I never thought I’d see the day where Shawn Michaels was the worst dressed man in the ring, but his combination of cowboy hat, jacket, and Remington t-shirt didn’t do him any favors.
Overall, it was nice seeing the legends together, even if it did feel a bit scripted at times and offered little insight. One hilarious moment was when Michaels said everyone loves Cena, eliciting massive boos from the audience. Speaking of Cena, his promo was surprisingly compelling, and it was nice to see him own up to the beating he took at SummerSlam.
Grade: B-
Rusev vs. Jack Swagger
This was likely the last contest between Rusev and Swagger, and all I can say is, “Good riddance.” This match featured a lot of downtime that resulted in a poor workrate, and a lot of the match was spent outside of the ring with nothing going on.
The in-ring psychology was pretty good (Swagger sold the rib injury well) and the crowd was into it, so that raised the grade a bit, but it was ultimately a fitting ending to a rather pointless program that saw Swagger dominated at nearly every stage of the feud.
Grade: C
Rob Van Dam vs. Cesaro
This was a rather short match, but both superstars worked well together during the time they were given. One criticism is that the ending felt a bit rushed. One moment Cesaro was rolling outside of the ring to avoid the Five Star Frog Splash and only a few seconds later he was hitting the Neutralizer for the win in a sequence that felt a bit off.
The match also served its purpose by building a championship match between Cesaro and Sheamus – a program that looks like it could be entertaining with two of the company’s better workers.
– It looks like Goldust and Stardust may have turned heel on this week’s edition of RAW. After winning a WWE Tag-Team title match via count out, Goldust got on the microphone and accused The Usos of getting counted out on purpose. After demanding a rematch right then and there, Goldust and Stardust instead attacked The Usos in heel fashion, focusing on the injured knee of Uso and attacking it violently.
– As noted last week, WWE filmed some footage and interviews with Brock Lesnar backstage at last Monday night’s RAW. The footage is scheduled to air on some of the week’s that Lesnar isn’t scheduled for television. On this week’s edition of RAW, the first of those segments aired, which featured Lesnar talking about his destruction of John Cena at SummerSlam while clips were shown of their match. They also touched on the scheduled immediate rematch between the two at the upcoming WWE Night Of Champions pay-per-view.
– WWE stock was up by 1.71 percent today, closing at $14.89 per share. The high today was $14.99 per share while the low was $14.66.
– In addition to the matches that we reported about last week, John Cena vs.Triple H from WrestleMania 22 and Cena vs. Shawn Michaels from the April 23, 2007 edition of RAW is also going to be included in the new “John Cena: Greatest Rivalries” DVD.
– Below is a new Sam Roberts interview with Stardust.
The following are highlights from a recent online Q&A update from WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross:
On a potential Daniel Bryan vs. Brock Lesnar match: “Lesnar vs. Bryan would be a heck of a match…different in most every way and compelling w/o question. Biblical as in David vs. Goliath.”
On John Cena coming close to breaking Ric Flair’s 16-time world title record: “I don’t consider being a 16X champion a major distinction. It also means one is a 15X loser of the title. It’s not a big deal to me one way or the other but thanks for your question. Longer title reigns are more significant to me than are the number of titles won.”
On the origin of some of his famous catchphrases: “Some where things that I came up with via my life’s experiences and some from hearing old timers when I was a kid using them. Most just popped into my head for some crazy reason.”
Check out more of JR’s online Q&A at JRsBarBQ.com. You can also order JR’s Bar-B-Q products online at WWEShop.com.
The Conqueror brought John Cena’s title reign to a grinding halt at SummerSlam. Since then, he’s ditched the Big Gold Belt and disappeared from television. (He’s next scheduled to appear at the last Raw before Night of Champions.)
As most fans probably know by now, it has been announced that John Cena will invoke his rematch clause and once again try to slay the Beast Incarnate at Night of Champions.
Lesnar quickly ditched the Big Gold Belt after defeating Cena at SummerSlam.
At first thought, one might wonder if it’s really worth having these two compete again. After all, Cena was completely destroyed and the company seems to selectively choose which superstars receive a rematch anyway. (Where’s Randy Orton’s rematch from WrestleMania?)
The match is already set, however, so there is no use in arguing if the match should be booked, but instead how it should be booked. In my opinion, there are three ways to book the rematch between John Cena and Brock Lesnar.
The first option, which is the most likely, will see Cena once again be destroyed by Lesnar. He will walk away solidly defeated. He likely won’t give up, but he will lose the contest and that will be the end of Cena challenging for the title for a while. It will then be a depressing winter for the WWE Universe, as Lesnar will control the title and likely only appear once or twice a month.
In order to destroy the evil that is Brock Lesnar, the company will need a new hero to come save the children and their boxes of Fruity Pebbles. That man will be Roman Reigns and it will happen at WrestleMania. Lesnar will undoubtedly drop the title at WrestleMania, and it will likely be to Reigns, but the most interesting swerve would be to have Reigns win the title and Rollins cash in his briefcase to immediately steal it.
It would be the ultimate roller coaster of emotions for fans. Their hero finally defeats the evil villain, only to have the title stolen from him by the Authority. It would be the perfect way to end the pay-per-view and also a great way to build a main event feud for Reigns.
As noted last week, the current working plan in WWE is for Roman Reigns to challenge Brock Lesnar for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at next year’s WrestleMania 31 event in Santa Clara, California. Apparently, the decision for Reigns-Lesnar was decided upon shortly before or immediately after this year’s WrestleMania XXX event in New Orleans. While plans are always subject to change, especially in WWE, the direction right now still appears to be Reigns-Lesnar at the next WrestleMania.
Originally, Lesnar’s SummerSlam and Night Of Champions matches were scheduled to be against Daniel Bryan for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. The idea was that Lesnar, after breaking Undertaker’s streak, would continue to break the hearts of wrestling fans by killing Bryan’s big moment, continuing his dominance until Reigns saved the day and ended Lesnar’s reign at WrestleMania 31.
Obviously the plans were changed to Lesnar-Cena when Bryan went down with an injury, however the rest of the story seems to be still in place.
As noted earlier today, WWE is advertising Daniel Bryan for their upcoming European tour in November.
Current WWE advertisements list Bryan for one-half of the tour, which begins on November 6th in Cardiff, Wales and also includes Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt as the key Superstars.
Additionally, Bad News Barrett, who is also currently on the sidelines with an injury, is advertised to return during the tour. Barrett is currently advertised for the other half of the tour, which begins on November 5th in London, England and also features John Cena.
Hulk Hogan posted the following tweets on his official Twitter account on Sunday, wishing Vince McMahon a happy birthday (and challenging him to a match) and commenting on his return at tonight’s RAW.
Headed to LA for WWE Monday Night Raw brother and Happy Birthday INVINCEABLE!!!!!!!! How about we go at it one more time brother. HH
WWE RAW takes place tonight at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
The main focus on this week’s show is the first televised appearance by John Cena since he was destroyed by Brock Lesnar at WWE SummerSlam.
Also advertised for tonight is a Hall Of Fame segment, which will include Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels talking about the upcoming Lesnar vs. Cena rematch at WWE Night Of Champions.
Make sure to join us here on the website tonight for live WWE RAW results coverage.
– The official WWE website is currently running a poll asking fans which WWE Superstar they would most like to see in a WWE Studios film. The options are Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker, Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt, Seth Rollins, Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, Chris Jericho, Sheamus and Stardust. Leading the pack with a considerable amount of the vote is Undertaker, followed by Reigns and Wyatt. You can vote in the poll today at WWE.com.
– Although he has yet to be cleared to return, Daniel Bryan is being advertised for the WWE European tour in November. Matches advertised for the tour include Big Show vs. Rusev and John Cena vs. Seth Rollins on one side, with the other set featuring Roman Reigns vs. Randy Orton and Dean Ambrose vs. Kane.
– WWE will be releasing “John Cena: Greatest Rivalries” in October to coincide with the release of the new WWE 2K15 video game. Included in the set will be Cena vs. Eddie Guerrero in a #1 contender’s tournament match from the 4/3/2003 SmackDown and Cena vs. CM Punk from the 11/23/2009 RAW.
– Longtime WWE Executive Producer Kevin Dunn unloaded 30,000 shares of his WWE stock on August 21st for $433,200. Dunn still owns 242,406 shares.
– There is a strong advance for tomorrow’s WWE RAW in Anaheim, California. The arena is set up to hold 12,000 people and it is believed that the show will ultimately sell out. If not, it will likely come close, as Anaheim is considered a good “walk-up market,” which means a lot of tickets will be sold right before the show begins.
– WWE’s catering crew chief, Jen Hagopian recently spoke to FirstWeFeast.com about the company’s “bizarre world of catering” and revealed the favorite snacks of many of WWE’s top Superstars. Hagopian noted that The Undertaker likes Diet Dr. Pepper, John Cena likes diet orange soda, Dean Ambrose enjoys Oats -n- Honey granola bars and Alicia Fox likes almond butter and cocoa powder.
– WWE Chairman Vince McMahon celebrates his 69th birthday today. McMahon was born on August 24, 1945.
– As noted earlier this weekend, WWE has announced a segment for Monday’s RAW that features Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels all commenting on the upcominng rematch between John Cena and Brock Lesnar at WWE Night Of Champions. One of the reasons WWE is loading up this Monday’s show is because it is the first time in history that WWE will be going up against the Emmy Awards on NBC.