Television Actor Stephen Amell (‘Arrow’) will be stepping in the ring at SummerSlam, teaming up with Neville in a match against Stardust and King Barrett.
After feuding with Cody Rhodes for weeks, Amell was in attendance for RAW and got physically involved with his nemesis. After Neville defeated King Barrett, Stardust ran in to attack Neville. Stardust tried baiting Amell into getting involved, which led to:
Backstage after the altercation, Amell requested the match, but Triple H initially turned him down. Amell said to call his lawyers because he’ll sign off on whatever to make the match happen. Triple H said the paperwork will be sent over to his agent by 9am tomorrow morning and the two teams will square off at SummerSlam.
WWE taped the following matches prior to the WWE SmackDown television taping on Tuesday night in Tulsa, Oklahoma for this week’s edition of WWE Main Event.
– Neville defeated King Barrett in the first match taped for this week’s Main Event. The crowd was into this match from bell-to-bell. The finish saw Neville hit the Red Arrow on Barrett for the 1-2-3.
– Becky Lynch defeated Brie Bella in Divas action, as the “Diva Revolution” continues. They gave this match more time than usual for a Divas match. In the end, Lynch picked up the win with her finisher.
– Bo Dallas defeated Zack Ryder in the third of three matches taped for this week’s Main Event. The crowd was into jeering Dallas and doing sing-alongs with some of Ryder’s stuff. In the end, Dallas scored the clean pinfall victory.
WWE taped the following matches prior to Monday’s WWE RAW in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma for this week’s edition of WWE Superstars.
– Bo Dallas def. R-Truth in a quick match to kick off the evening in Oklahoma City. The fans were alive early on, and into boo’ing Dallas. In the end, Dallas picked up the clean victory over Truth.
– King Barrett def. Jack Swagger in the second of two matches taped for this week’s Superstars. Although Swagger is a hometown boy in Oklahoma, and was cheered as such inside the arena, the “King” still pulled off the “W” to close out the taping.
WWE Superstar King Barrett recently spoke with The Straits Times about a couple of different topics. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On coming a long way from being the leader of the Nexus to being King of the Ring, and what’s next for him: “I’ve always said I wanted to be the WWE World Heavyweight champion so that’s my ultimate goal. My biggest focus right now is to enjoy my wrestling, enjoy as much as I can being a WWE superstar. It doesn’t last forever and be it through injury or retirement or getting fired, one day it’s going to end so at the moment, I’m really trying to enjoy it as much as I can. I’m enjoying the experience and coming to great places like Singapore. It’s my first trip here. I’m going to check out Orchard Road and some malls.”
On how difficult it is to get the King of the Ring gimmick to work for him, as it’s worked for some in the past and not others: “It depends on the opportunities afforded to me by our writing team. So far, I feel I haven’t been the focus of the show but hopefully, that’s going to change in the next few weeks or months. Hopefully, I get some solid storylines so that I can show what I can do.”
– Lana is being advertised to team with Dolph Ziggler against the team of Rusev and Summer Rae in mixed-tag-team action at the WWE live event in Hampton, Virginia on September 4th. Also scheduled for the event is Sheamus defending his Money In The Bank briefcase in one-on-one action against Neville, as well as John Cena vs. Kevin Owens in a “Street Fight.”
– The NXT Takeover: Brooklyn event on August 22nd from the Bayclays Center is close to being sold out, as more tickets for the event were released on Saturday afternoon. The event will likely end up drawing 10,000 or more fans, making it the biggest NXT event to date.
– WWE banned the name “Wade” in reference to King Barrett a while back, which is why Barrett no longer uses it. There’s been speculation that Barrett will go back to the “Bad News” gimmick after Battleground tonight, as his “Crown” is on the line in his Kickoff Show match against R-Truth.
– As shown in the video above, next week’s episode of Tough Enough will feature the 2015 King of the Ring winner King Barrett.
– As noted earlier, during the Tough Enough challenge for next Tuesday’s show, an altercation took place following the challenge between Patrick and Mada.
Some in attendance noted that Josh and Tanner also got involved and things got so heated that the production team had to step in to break it up.
The WWE and Chris Jericho shared photos on Instagram from the Orlando Improv where the challenge, which was focusing on the contestant’s work on the microphone.
https://instagram.com/p/44xyu0gFFq/
Orlando Improv is Jerichoooo! What can he possibly have in store for the competitors of #ToughEnough @chrisjerichofozzy
https://instagram.com/p/45BIP4GDgr/
Ladies & Germs…its #ChrisJericho LIVE at the #OrlandoImprov!! Well not quite….I was actually hosting next weeks challenge for the @wwetoughenough crew! Tune in next Tuesday to see what happened!! #promobattle #ididtellsomejokesthough #theywerehilarious
– While many of the WWE talent are in Japan for their tour – including tomorrow’s big WWE Network Live Special, they also held a special Hall of Fame ceremony.
The ceremony was held in honor of 2015 WWE Hall of Famer Tatsumi Fujinami at today’s live event in Toyko and a photo was shared online showing NXT’s Hideo Itami also in the ring.
The full card for tomorrow’s WWE Network Special the “Beast in the East” in Tokyo, Japan can be found by clicking on this link.
https://instagram.com/p/4q_CuwAFBi/
– Over on The Jakarta Post, they have an interview with WWE Superstar King Barrett who has been promoting the WWE Live event in Singapore.
During the interview he revealed that he wanted to be the first English wrestler to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
“That is definitely a goal of mine to the World Championship,” he said. “I need more time and I will wait for my opportunity and that is where I am at right now.” Read more at this link.
YouTube user Primus SJ posted the following video of Finn Balor making his grand entrance on the way to the ring during the live event in Singapore.
Finn Balor was on his way to the ring where he defeated King Barrett in front of an audience of more than 10,000 fans ahead of the WWE Network Special on Saturday.
Various reports say the match was very good, Balor’s reception was excellent, Barrett managed to insult the fans and following the match, Balor thanked the fans by bowing down in front of them.
Make sure you don’t miss the WWE Network Live Special “Beast in the East” which takes place tomorrow from Tokyo, Japan. The full card can be seen at this link.
WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross updated his official blog on Tuesday. Below are some of the highlights.
On John Cena vs. Cesaro from RAW: “Loved the Cena vs. Cesaro match but wasn’t overwhelmed with how it ended. Nonetheless the match itself was excellent and showed that Cesaro is one of he best talents in the entire business and is certainly an untapped talent within the WWE, IMO. The United States Title Open Challenge by Cena is one of the best things that WWE has done creatively in a good while. I’ve enjoyed it every week.”
On Lana: “Thought Ziggler looked uncomfortable and it seemed the audience did not know quite how to react when Lana said that she and Dolph were more than friends. Lana has a great look and displays the ‘it’ factor sporadically which may mean that she’s destined for more WWE Films in the future unless she also learns to handle herself in the ring.”
On King Barrett: “Waiting for the “King” Barrett persona to click. The question is, will it? I do like his potential bit O wish that he wold cheat more.”
Check out the complete blog at JRsBarBQ.com. You can also order JR’s Bar-B-Q products online at WWEShop.com.
– WWE Network will be airing new original programming immediately following tonight’s edition of WWE RAW. At 11:06pm EST., a new episode of WWE Swerved will premiere and will be immediately followed by a 30-minute sneak peek at the “Monday Night War: Shots Fired” DVD, which features Triple H and Sting talking to Renee Young.
– Chris Jericho reportedly received the biggest ovation of anyone on the card at the WWE live event in Reading, Pennsylvania on Sunday night. Jericho tweeted the following after his match with King Barrett.
WWE taped the following matches prior to the SmackDown television taping on Tuesday night in Toledo, Ohio for this week’s edition of WWE Main Event.
Dark Match
– Fandando def. Brad Maddox in singles action to kick off the evening inside the building.
WWE Main Event
– Neville def. Heath Slater in the first match taped for this week’s edition of WWE Main Event. This was said to be a high-paced, crowd-pleasing match that saw the finish come when Neville hit his Red Arrow to finish off Slater in what was about a five minute match.
– The Ascension def. The Meta Powers in tag-team action. The match, which lasted about four minutes, saw The Ascension pick up the win after hitting Curtis Axel and Macho Mandow with The Fall Of Man finisher.
– R-Truth def. Adam Rose in a quick singles match. King Barrett was out for commentary during this match, which saw him leave the announce table to attack Truth, only for Truth to catch him coming and blast him with his finisher. In the end, Truth picked up the “W” in the official match with Rose as well.
– Luke Harper def. Cesaro in the headline match of the evening on this week’s edition of WWE Main Event. This was another crowd pleasing match, as Harper and Cesaro put on a hell of a show in a match that lasted about seven minutes. The finish saw Harper hit Cesaro with his clothesline from hell to score the 1-2-3 and end the Main Event taping.
WWE taped the following matches for this week’s edition of WWE Main Event prior to taping WWE SmackDown on Tuesday night in Buffalo, New York.
Dark Match
– Zack Ryder def. Brad Maddox in what was apparently a quick, basic opening contest.
WWE Main Event
– The Prime Time Players def. The Ascension in tag-team action to kick off the Main Event taping. Prior to the match, the PTP taught the crowd how to do their “Millions of Dollars” dance, while The Ascension cut a promo welcoming us to “Wasteland.” In the end, Young hit the gut buster on Viktor to score the 1-2-3.
– King Barrett def. Heath Slater in singles competition. Barrett won in what was said to be a good little match. Afterwards, R-Truth came out as “King What’s Up?” He pardoned “Lil’ Jimmy” and declared Barrett “King Jackass.”
– Naomi def. Summer Rae via submission in Divas action. Tamina was in Naomi’s corner during this one.
– Ryback def. Adam Rose in a pretty quick match with Rose surprisingly enough getting in a good bit of offense. Ryback ended up winning with the Shellshock. After the match, Ryback scared Miz to the back and then celebrated with the crowd.
– Luke Harper & Erick Rowan def. The Lucha Dragons with their new 3-D finisher. This was said to be a very face-paced and entertaining tag-team contest.
– WWE Superstar Heath Slater picked up his first live event victory of 2015 at the May 25th WWE live event in Long Island when he defeated Adam Rose. Going into the event, Slater had the worst live event record in WWE with only one win and 44 losses. Other Superstars who went into the weekend with awful records were Bo Dallas with a 3-39 record, Adam Rose with a 5-56 record and Cameron with a 2-35 record.
– King Barrett noted on social media that he has been pulled from the scheduled WWE live events in Salt Lake and Pensacola this weekend, but was added to the live events in Mississippi and Louisiana.
– Pro Wrestling NOAH stars Mikey Nichols and Shane Haste were two additional independent talents who were at the WWE Performance Center for the WWE tryouts this week.
As announced on this week’s edition of NXT TV, WWE will be holding a live WWE Network special from Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Japan on July 4th. Below is the full lineup for the show.
– Brock Lesnar vs. Kofi Kingston
– John Cena & Dolph Ziggler vs. Kane & King Barrett
– Kevin Owens vs. Finn Balor (NXT Title)
– Chris Jericho vs. Neville
– The New Day vs. Tyson Kidd & Cesaro*
– Nikki Bella vs. Paige vs. Naomi (WWE Divas Title)
– The Lucha Dragons vs. Los Matadores
* – Tyson Kidd may be pulled from this match due to injury.
WWE taped the following matches for this week’s edition of Main Event prior to the SmackDown television taping on Tuesday night in Houston, Texas.
– Dolph Ziggler def. Adam Rose in singles action to kick off the show. Lana was in Ziggler’s corner and Rosa Mendes was in Rose’s. Jimmy Uso was on commentary for this one. In the end, Ziggler picks up the “W” after blasting Rose with a superkick.
– Paige def. Alicia Fox in Divas action. It’s worth noting that Jimmy Uso was still on commentary for this match. Paige picked up the win with the PTO.
– King Barrett def. Jack Swagger in the final match of the show. R-Truth was on commentary for this one. Truth distracted Barrett a few times by stealing and wearing his crown, however in the end, Barrett managed to score the pin after hitting Swagger with his Bull Hammer Elbow.
– Actor Stephen Amell of “Arrow” fame has expressed interest in guest hosting and possibly even wrestling in the past. The actor shot a brief angle with Stardust while attending RAW this past Monday night and now we can confirm that WWE is looking at doing a program of sorts between Amell and Stardust.
– WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins is celebrating his 29th birthday today. Rollins was born on May 28, 1986. Also celebrating birthdays today are WWE legend Kamala (65), former WWE Tag-Team Champion Chaz “Headbanger Mosh” Warrington (44) and Randy Orton’s uncle, former WWE Superstar Barry Orton (57).
– WWE taped the following matches this past Tuesday night for tonight’s edition of SmackDown.
Lumberjack Match: Sin Cara and Kalisto vs. Cesaro and Tyson Kidd
R-Truth vs. King Barrett
Rusev vs. Ryback
Paige vs. Naomi
Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose vs. Kane and Seth Rollins
Michael Cole interviews Kevin Owens
– Big Show is expected back on WWE TV in the next few weeks. He’s been out of action since since losing the Last Man Standing Match to Roman Reigns at Extreme Rules.
– King Barrett tweeted the following after Daniel Bryan surrendered the WWE Intercontinental championship on RAW:
What a load of horse crap from @WWEDanielBryan tonight. I think we all know I deserve my IC Title back. Pathetic scenes. Jog on.