The Authors of Pain with WWE Legend Paul Ellering, who attacked American Alpha at Takeover: The End last night, will make their NXT TV in-ring debuts next week against two local wrestlers.
On a related note, the Full Sail University fans got heat from wrestlers and other fans at Takeover when it appeared they were chanting “who are you?” at Ellering. It’s still not clear if they were chanting at Ellering or The Authors of Pain in the ring but Kevin Owens took to Twitter and voiced his opinion, as seen below:
As per the JAW podcast; Kevin Owens has been billed as Shinsuke Nakamura’s opponent for WWE’s July 2nd show at Sumo Hall in Ryogoku, Japan.
WWE announced that they would be arriving at the famous hall for a two day stint a week after the announcement that Nakamura would be signing with the company.
Others advertised for the residency are: AJ Styles, Asuka, Roman Reigns, The New Day, Sheamus, Rusev, Chris Jericho and Paige.
Nakamura v Kevin Owens has been booked for the WWE Japan show on July 2nd.
– WWE is posting a series of videos getting feedback from Superstars regarding the upcoming brand split. Kevin Owens says it doesn’t matter which show he winds up on, because it will still be the Kevin Owens show. Meanwhile, Sasha Banks knows exactly which show she wants to be a part of.
– As WWE announced on RAW, there’s a new “Rise of John Cena Collection” available on the WWE Network. The synopsis reads:
“From his “ruthless” 2002 debut on SmackDown to his historic 2005 WWE Heavyweight Championship victory on the Grandest Stage Of Them All, John Cena’s meteoric rise to Superstardom was unforgettable. Relive history with The Doctor Of Thuganomics as he faces off against Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker and more. From day one, John Cena has proven that Hustle and Loyalty earn Respect!”
– Zack Ryder tweeted this reaction after his loss to Rusev last night on RAW:
Opportunity…that's all I've ever wanted. The hard work will eventually pay off. You know it. I know it. They know it. #Raw.
– Sheamus was in Ireland on Monday doing promotional work for the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, which is why he wasn’t at RAW. WWE posted this behind-the-scenes video of Sheamus on the set of TMNT 2:
– Ahead of his return to WWE television tonight on RAW, John Cena is teasing that he’ll be wearing these shorts given to him by Ellen Degeneres during his appearance on the Ellen show last month. Cena has been out of action since undergoing shoulder surgery in late 2015.
– The GoFundMe started by Kevin Owens and Tyler Breeze to benefit the victims of the Fort McMurray fires in Canada is about to wrap with right at $71,000 raised of their goal of $100,000. They have 2,277 people that have donated in 16 days.
– Chris Jericho appears in this backstage Raw Fallout video and reveals he had 69 tacks removed from his body after Extreme Rules on Sunday. Jericho also talks about winning at MITB and going on to become a 7 time World Champion.
– Below is a new vignette for John Cena’s Memorial Day Raw return:
Kevin Owens was interrupted by Roman Reigns after Raw went off the air last night in Baltimore. The segment ended with Owens taking a Superman Punch and a Spear.
– Join us later this evening for live WWE Smackdown spoilers from Norfolk, VA with two MITB qualifying matches, Kalisto vs. WWE US Champion Rusev, Cesaro vs. WWE IC Champion The Miz and more. Click here to e-mail us if you’d like to help with spoilers.
– Emma took offense to Charlotte’s line about Dana Brooke on Raw last night. She tweeted this response:
Umm… I'm not sure what just happened there, but I do know who made @DanaBrookeWWE… And that would be ME! #WWE#RAW
— Tenille Dashwood (@TenilleDashwood) May 24, 2016
– This backstage Fallout video from Raw last night has Kevin Owens ranting about his win over AJ Styles. Owens says this is his year and he’s coming for the MITB briefcase, then the WWE World Championship:
Kevin Owens took to Twitter this past weekend to complain about a bad dining experience he had at Notre-Boeuf-de-Grâce in Montreal. The restaurant responded and they had a quick back and forth. The incident was mentioned on MMA reporter Ariel Helwani’s podcast as he knows the owners of the establishment. Owens went on Twitter tonight and explained what happened:
I thought this was over with but I guess not, so here, @arielhelwani…My side of the story:
Someone just pointed me to your podcast today where you tell the story about me and your friend’s restaurant.
I feel like I need to clarify a few things as the story you tell is not accurate.
I was there for at least 45 mins. Not 24. Your buddy is straight up lying if he is indeed saying that. I also never said I was there with my whole family. It was just me and my wife and I never claimed otherwise.
His staff also wasn’t very apologetic like he claims they were but he wasn’t there so he’s probably just going off of what they said. The waiter actually seemed annoyed when we pointed out the issue.
Also, I never called the restaurant. That wasn’t me. The issue was done for me after Thursday night. I didn’t tweet at them or about them since Thursday night. I saw what Mick Foley wrote and that was his own doing, I had nothing to do with it. Those were his thoughts on the matter.
When they tweeted the Cena thing, that was all in good fun, no problem. What I didn’t appreciate is them bringing up “the free drinks” multiple times to me and other people they were tweeting at. To me, it seems like they were trying to make it seem like I got wasted on their dime when the truth is we had a coke and some orange julep drink that we didn’t even get to finish because we had to leave. Those drinks were also free not because the staff offered for them to be free but because my wife said they should be since we had to wait for so long with no food ever coming out.
I was ready to love your buddy’s restaurant. I live 2 mins from there. I get less than 2 days at home every week. Taking my wife out to dinner is a big deal to me. We were excited to be there and try it. If we had liked it, we’d probably have gone there weekly. But your buddy’s staff handled the whole thing poorly and I took to Twitter to let people know about it, just like I would have done to praise the place if I had liked it.
Their response was fine until they kept bringing up the drinks and then lied about me only being there for 20 mins.
Finally, you’re making it seem like I was furious when I left which is also untrue. When they said it’d be another 10 mins till we got our food, I stood up, said to forget it, that we had to leave and walked out. That’s it. I didn’t ask for special treatment. I never said who I was or what I do because that doesn’t matter at all.
All I wanted to do was take my wife to dinner but we got poor service and I tweeted about it because people should know this might happen to them if they go there. That’s it. People tweet about restaurants they go to all the time. The fact that I have a lot of followers shouldn’t matter. I should be a customer just like every other customer. If this had happened to someone else there (and judging from the Yelp reviews I read afterwards, it seems like it has), that person probably would have mentioned it on social media as well but I’m sure whoever runs their Twitter account wouldn’t have handled it like that.
I blocked you because you tweeted about it without knowing anything about the situation. Then you heard your buddy’s side of the story and went and said all this crap on your podcast. There’s obviously 2 sides to every story and I felt like you should get mine as well if you are going to talk about it.
I’m sure you won’t care about my side of the story considering the owner is a friend of yours but there it is.
– Carmella and Bayley also attended the Runway For Hope charity event in Orlando on Saturday with Finn Balor, to raise money for pediatric cancer. Here they are before the event:
– Kevin Owens and Tyler Breeze are extending their GoFundMe for the Fort McMurray fire victims in Canada until midnight tonight. They are about $30,000 from their goal of $100,000. Below is a new video from the two:
– Vice Sports has an article about Ryback’s contractual dispute and ‘how things really work in WWE.’
– As part of this week’s Q1 financial report, WWE announced that the WWE Network will be getting around 6,000 hours of additional content by the end of this year. This new content will include over 300 hours of original programming and over 1,500 hours of archival programming.
– WWE.com is covering the story of Kevin Owens and Tyler Breeze raising money to help with relief efforts for the recent wildfires in Alberta, Canada. The exposure from WWE will go along way in raising awareness to the campaign. After reaching the initial goal of $30,000, the extended the campaign and are now looking to raise $100,000. As of this writing, they’re raised over $45,000. To donate to the cause, visit GoFundMe.com.
Kevin Owens was on ESPN SportsCenter on Tuesday night to be interviewed by Jonathan Coachman. Owens talked about diving into his wrestling career when he was 16, and how he adjusted from NXT to the main WWE roster.
Coachman asked Owens what the transition from NXT to WWE TV was like, and K.O. said his time in NXT was an amazing experience. Owens says he started training in a barn, so to work somewhere like the Performance Center in Orlando was “awesome.” As far as joining the WWE main roster goes, Owens made a point to remind everyone that he beat down John Cena on his first night on RAW. Owens says he believes he belongs on top in WWE, and attacking Cena, the top guy in the company, made perfect sense to him.
Owens added that making his WrestleMania debut on April 3rd this year was a “great experience.” K.O. says he looks forward to competing at the annual event for years to come. Owens vowed to win back the Intercontinental Title soon, after losing it at WrestleMania 32. You can watch part of Owens’ segment on ESPN.com.
Here are RAW Fallout videos from this week with Lana and Rusev accusing the WWE referees of a conspiracy, Sami Zayn talking about dreaming of going for the WWE IC Title since he was 10 and Kevin Owens predicting he will get “his” title back in the Fatal 4 Way at Extreme Rules:
During Monday’s RAW, a commercial aired in Hawaii promoting a blockbuster double main event for WWE’s upcoming live event from Honolulu’s Neal S Blaisdell Arena on June 29th.
Top matches advertised for that card include:
Brock Lesnar vs. Kevin Owens
John Cena vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte vs. NXT Women’s Champion Asuka
Other top stars WWE Champion Roman Reigns, Tag Team Champions The New Day, The Club (AJ Styles, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson), Chris Jericho, Bray Wyatt, The Usos and Natalya.
As seen in the tweet below, Kevin Owens and Tyler Breeze launched a GoFundMe campaign to benefit the victims of the forest fires in Fort McMurray, Canada.
They kicked the campaign off with $100 each and will be sending video messages to anyone who matches that. They currently have $9,189 of a $30,000 goal raised.
Chris Charlton of Live Audio Wrestling posted a tweet that quoted Yoshi Tatsu and how he felt about working in the WWE. Tatsu described the major difference in the backstage atmosphere between New Japan Pro Wrestling and the WWE.
Kevin Owens and his son Owen were recently on Xavier Woods’ Youtube gaming channel UpUpDownDown. Woods and Owen played Sonic Adventure as Kevin Owens chimed in from the background.
With the barrage of medical issues plaguing WWE’s roster, the last thing anybody needs at this point is another Superstar going down with an injury. In light of Bray Wyatt’s incident from earlier this week, one can only wonder how many people were wondering “Oh not again!” when Kevin Owens acted as if he was hurt at Friday night’s WWE live event from Dubai.
After evoking sympathy from the crowd (as well as his opponent, #Kayfabe), Owens showed his true colors and unleashed a vicious attack on longtime rival Sami Zayn. To add insult to injury, he danced a bit to show just how fine he really was.
In the end, Zayn got the pinfall victory after nailing a big boot in the corner. Even in defeat, Owens showed why he’s one of the best pure heels in the business.
John Cena is promoting his new reality show American Grit on twitter. He is encouraging his followers to tweet photographs of how they stay motivated while using the hashtag “#ShowYourGrit”. In the midst of all the posts sent in by fans all around the world, Kevin Owens contributed with a vicious jab at Cena.
Last night, Kevin Owens put on JBL’s hat and hit Cesaro with his own version of the clothesline from hell. The crowd erupted in Los Angeles erupted as soon as Owens grabbed the hat. After he dropped Cesaro, Kevin Owens returned JBL’s hat and apologized for getting carried away.
– According to a report by Squared Circle Sirens, WWE has signed several new female wrestlers for NXT. The newly signed talents reportedly include 22 year old fitness athlete CJ Dunning, 26 year-old independent wrestler Ruby Mobs, Scottish wrestler Nikki Storm (who appeared on TNA British Boot Camp 2) and 25 year-old crossfit athlete Bianca Blair. All four had their WWE tryouts over the last year.
– WWE.com has a new poll asking fans to vote for who is WWE’s best trash talker. Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho, Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady and The New Day are the options. As of this writing, Enzo and Cass are in the lead with 35%. Jericho is in second place with 24% and Kevin Owens is in third with 22%. The New Day has 18% of the vote.
– Edge and Christian are back to filming new episodes of their original show on the WWE Network. They hadn’t done any more filming since WrestleMania 32 Week in Dallas.
While the announced figure of 101,763 for Wrestlemania 32 was always believed to be an inflated number, Bryan Alvarez of F4WOnline.com commented on Wrestlemania’s actual attendance number based on information he got from Dave Meltzer:
Dave got the actual number from the building, legit did just under 94,000 and $17 million gate. Legit broke fake record! #WrestleMania
Zack Ryder captures the WWE Intercontinental Championship at Sunday’s WrestleMania 32, but apparently that wasn’t always the plan.
F4WOnline.com reports that the original plans for WrestleMania say Kevin Owens leaving the event with the IC title. There’s no word on why WWE decided to go with Ryder instead, but the plans were reportedly changed after Neville was injured.
Ryder won the Intercontinental Championship after winning a 7-man ladder match for the title, beating out Owens, Sami Zayn, Stardust, The Miz, Sin Cara and Dolph Ziggler.
This week AJ Styles sat down for an interview with Digital Spy to promote WrestleMania 32. Here are some highlights of what he said about:
The WWE Title picture & WrestleMania main event:
“I think that Roman Reigns is the guy for the job right now. I think him and Triple H are going to tear it up at WrestleMania. It’s a very exciting match that I think a lot of people wanna see.”
Not going to NXT:
“I wasn’t able to make that decision. But I’m very happy to be on the main roster…(Finn Balor) the perfect guy [to be holding the belt]. And he’s doing a wonderful job. He’s not the only reason NXT is doing so well but he’s definitely a big part of it.”
Facing Kevin Owens again:
“Then I go after a title and if it’s around Owens’s waist then I’m going to go after it. Kevin and I have wrestled before so we know each other very well, so it’s easy for us to get in the ring and do great things.”
AJ will be making his Wrestlemania debut against Christ Jericho this Sunday.
WWE Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens appeared on CBS Radio 106.7 The Fan DC’s Chad Dukes Wrestling Show this past week to promote Sunday’s Live Event at the Verizon Center in Washington DC and of course, WrestleMania. Here are some highlights:
– Owens has wanted to be a pro wrestler since the age of 11 when he saw a tape of WrestleMania XI. To now be a part of the biggest WrestleMania of all time is a dream come true. He plans to make an impact and get people talking.
– He’ll be defending his IC title against not just one opponent at “KO Mania” but 6 – in a ladder match. He feels like he’s elevated the prestige of the belt over the past year and he understands that everybody wants to make a name for themselves off his hard work.
“That’s all well and good,” he said. “People might think that being a seven man ladder match for the Intercontinental Title works to my disadvantage but it’s just more bodies for me to attack with ladders and once I’m standing over them proudly with the Intercontinental title raised proudly above my head, I show everybody KO Mania’s all about, I feel like all those guys will realize what a mistake they made.”
– He does have some respect for AJ Styles. He said AJ is a tremendous performer, he’s a great athlete, but he’s got the same haircut as his aunt – and that’s unforgivable. “I’m sorry but it’s true. That’s the truth. My aunt’s like in her fifties and she’s a woman. AJ Styles is not a woman and he’s not in his fifties and I feel like that haircut’s unacceptable. But I feel like it could work to his opponent’s advantage once in a while because it gets in his eyes and he can’t see.”
– Owens’ WWE heel character shines on Twitter with his funny remarks and his frequent banning of fools who talk trash to him. “I block lot of people. As many people I respond to, I block way more people. Like anybody that says anything that I feel is disrespectful in any way, I block. I’ve blocked people for saying I was their second favorite wrestler. You’re blocked.” He added that blocking people gets them even more riled up. It’s a vicious cycle, but he enjoys it.