The WWE’s brightest stars will attempt to cash in at this Sunday’s Money in the Bank pay-per-view. Two ladder matches will main event the program, with one being held to declare a new WWE World Heavyweight Champion. In addition, former champion Daniel Bryan will address the WWE Universe during the pre-show.
Here are my predictions for this Sunday’s event.
Summer Rae vs. Layla (Fandango Guest Referee)
I was never the biggest Fandango supporter, but I definitely thought he would be doing something bigger than referring a divas match a year ago. He has regressed over the past year and lost a lot of momentum. This will likely be the bathroom break match of the night, and Fandango will play a major role in the outcome, of course. Summer Rae will win this one by either rejoining Fandango or using him to influence the outcome of the contest before abandoning him.
Winner: Summer Rae by pinfall
Rusev vs. Big E
These guys performed well together at last month’s Payback, even though they were given less than four minutes total. They will hopefully get a little more time during this one, allowing both superstars to showcase their strengths.
I think Rusev will ultimately win this one, but Big E will also look strong during the match. Big E cut a passionate promo on last week’s Raw, so it appears the WWE wants to showcase him a bit more. Both guys will look good, but Rusev will force Big E to tap out in the end.
Winner: Rusev by submission
Stardust and Goldust vs. Ryback and Curtis Axel
The Rhodes Brothers storyline has been moving slowly over the past few months. It first looked as if the two brothers were going to feud with one another, with Cody searching for an adequate replacement because he felt Goldust deserved better.
He eventually rebranded himself as Stardust and the two have been on a winning streak ever since. They will continue to look strong on Sunday, picking up the win after Cody hits his Diamond Dust finisher on Curtis Axel.
– It was announced during the WWE Money In The Bank “go-home” edition of RAW on Monday night in Washington, D.C. that Paige will be defending her WWE Divas Championship against Naomi this Sunday night.
– The following is the Rusev and Lana segment from last night’s RAW:
There has been talk of splitting up The Funkadactyls and having Naomi and Cameron go their separate way as part of a key story line for the next season of Total Divas.
WWE planting the seeds and started heading in that creative direction this week on television with some subtle, and some not-so-subtle booking.
It’s being said that with Brodus Clay no longer around and Xavier Woods no longer being pushed in any real way, that splitting up the duo is the direction they are headed, with plans having Naomi become the one that turns heel.
The main event for the June 29th WWE Money In The Bank pay-per-view will be the ladder match for the vacant WWE World Heavyweight Championship, which features John Cena, Roman Reigns, Randy Orton, Sheamus, Cesaro, Bray Wyatt and Alberto Del Rio. As noted recently, Cena or Reigns (and Cesaro as a long-shot) will likely come out on top, as the winner is the likely candidate for Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam.
Also confirmed for the 6/29 PPV is a WWE Tag-Team Championship match with The Usos defending against Luke Harper and Erick Rowan of The Wyatt Family.
The second ladder match, which was made official recently and will be for the usual Money In The Bank briefcase, as of right now only features Seth Rollins. Additional names rumored for the match include Dean Ambrose, Big E., Rob Van Dam, Bo Dallas, as well as Bad News Barrett and Dolph Ziggler, the latter two of which will either be part of that match or in an Intercontinental Championship match with each other.
Additionally, the direction for the WWE Divas Championship match at Money In The Bank seems to be Paige defending against Naomi of The Funkadactyls.
The following are highlights of a new Wrestling 365 interview with former WWE Superstar Brodus Clay:
On the Funkasaurus character: “Initially, I had spent the last 7-8 months to the better part of a year training with the idea that I was going to be ‘the juggernaut’, destroy all that stuff and those vignettes were a lot of hard work and then seeing me in the back, cracking jokes and just being myself or whatever, the boss [Vince] said, are you sure this is the right way we want to go. He said what if we do this instead, and I was kind of surprised and kind of nervous and didn’t even know if I could pull that off as the dancing stuff really isn’t who I am at all, but cracking jokes with a smile, I do that all day and joke around with the boys all the time.
“I’m always running my mouth and stuff, talking trash, things like that, but I never really thought of myself as a dancer. First thing I done was ask to go see ‘The American Dream’ (Dusty Rhodes) and figure things out and so I went down to him and I just happened to bump into Naomi and I said to her, I need your help, because I knew her background with Orlando Magic and then we pitched the idea to have the two girls and we picked Cameron as a second and we came up with something and played with it. The cool thing about it was that nobody knew about it, everybody was expecting this one thing and with these days of the internet, no one knew.
“A lot of people were rolling their eyes saying that it’s not going to work, but I was given a challenge and I thought I done pretty well with the challenge put in front of me, it was completely out of the box than what I had originally prepared myself for, but it worked out okay and now that I look back at it, I’m proud of it. I can always be ruthless and aggressive in the ring, but I don’t think I’ll ever have the opportunity to be ‘The Funkasaurus’ again. I’m thankful for that time, because for me, it was a chance to be a character and have fun and honestly, the reactions that I got from the kids just made me want to do more and more of it. I enjoyed seeing the smiles and the dances and the videos they would send me on Twitter. That was really cool.”
On his working relationship with Cameron and Naomi of The Funkadactyls: “Naomi and I, we trained together at Florida Championship Wrestling, so we were always cool and I’m really good friends with her husband. I went to her, because I always thought that she was so talented and being a Funkadactyl was almost a step back for her, but it was the way to go and she had helped me with the dancing and stuff, she always brings her A-game to work and she’s just really cool to be around. Cameron was, I know we had our ups and downs, but she was only new in the business.
“She had been signed around three months, so she kind of got thrown into the fire and when you get thrown in the fire, you make mistakes here and there, but overall, they’re both talented and good people and I enjoyed my time with them. They worked hard and I thought that was really apt of them. We all had our ups and downs, some of the things were blown out of proportions for TV ratings for the likes of Total Divas. The whole boyfriend thing, it was more like a joke to me. We never really had a big problem, if we had disagreements, we talked it out.”
WWE kicks off their European tour today with their first stop in Glasgow, Scotland. With Daniel Bryan off of the tour due to injury, here is the updated list of talent that is scheduled for this part of the tour: Kane, The Shield, Big E, Rob Van Dam, Bad News Barrett, Big Show, Randy Orton, Mark Henry, Ryback, Curtis Axel, Paige, Layla, Fandango, Cameron, Naomi, Jack Swagger, Zeb Colter, Sin Cara, Rusev, Lana and more.
Originally, Bryan vs. Kane in a “Last Man Standing” match was being advertised, but with Bryan’s injury, that is obviously off the table. As of right now, no new opponent or match for Kane has been announced.
Also advertised for this leg of the tour is a six-man tag-team match featuring The Shield vs. Randy Orton, Ryback and Curtis Axel.
– Daniel Bryan and Brie Bella recently launched an official Facebook page to keep up with their travels. You can check it out at Facebook.com/BryanBrianna.
– Both of The Funkadactyls — Cameron and Naomi, will be releasing their singles on iTunes later this month. WWE decided to put up a new poll to ask fans which single they will buy first, Naomi’s “Dance All Night” or Cameron’s “Bye Bye.” At last check, with around 2,000 votes cast, Naomi was leading with 75 percent of the vote.
– WWE Diva and Total Divas star Naomi announced via her official Twitter account that WWE.com will be premiering the music video for her new single, “Dance All Night” this Thursday.
– The following is the official synopsis for next week’s edition of WWE Total Divas:
“Flirting With Fandango: Summer Rae’s relationship with Fandango moves to the next level; Brie can’t enjoy being a bride; Trinity goes behind Jon’s back and betrays him.”
– The following is this week’s edition of “After Total Divas”
– WWE Diva Naomi has launched an official website. You can check it out at TrinityFatu.com.
– Lilian Garcia noted on her official Twitter account that she is in New York City working with new songwriters for her new album. Garcia tweeted the following:
In NYC working w new team of songwriters! Love this city. After living here for 16yrs, it's still in my bones! http://t.co/8YiKSvL5lk
– Zeb Colter called out Paul Heyman in a new tweet posted on his official Twitter account on Sunday. Colter tweeted the following regarding tonight’s edition of WWE RAW.
– As seen on last night’s edition of WWE Total Divas, Rikishi failed to show up at his sons wedding, as Jimmy Uso and Naomi got married without the former WWE Superstar attending. Rikishi took to Twitter to address the issue.
As previously reported, Daniel Bryan and Brie Bella were officially married on April 11th in Sedona, Arizona. The wedding ceremony was filmed for what is believed to be the final episode of the season of Total Divas that will be airing in the late spring.
Nikki Bella was the maid of honor at the wedding. Other WWE personalities that attended included Cesaro, as well as the regular cast of Total Divas, which includes John Cena, Tyson Kidd, Jimmy Uso, Naomi, Cameron, Natalya and Eva Marie.
Bryan and Bella were given the week off by WWE for their honeymoon, but are both scheduled to return on April 21st at the WWE RAW show in Baltimore.
– Xavier Woods won the annual 2K14 Superstar Challenge at WrestleMania Axxess this year. Below is a video of Woods being presented with a 2K14 Championship Belt and a Playstation 4.
– The following is a preview clip for this week’s edition of WWE Total Divas. The official description for the video reads as follows:
“Naomi’s “Dance All Night” video shoot hits some snags. While shooting the music video for her single “Dance All Night”, Naomi runs into some problems.
The following are results of this week’s WWE Main Event, which took place at the TD Garden in Boston and aired live on the WWE Network.
– The show opens with WWE Intercontinental Champion Big E. making his way to the ring. Big E. joins the announce table, where it is explained that Christian, who earned the right to challenge him for his title tonight, will not be competing due to a “slight concussion” that he suffered on Monday’s RAW.
– Dolph Ziggler def. Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio in a triple-threat match to become the new number one contender to the Intercontinental Championship. Ziggler will get to challenge Big E. for the title later tonight.
– Layla, Alicia Fox, Aksana, Tamina Snuka and Summer Rae def. Eva Marie, Natalya, Emma, Cameron and Naomi in a ten-Diva tag-team match.
– A Bad News Barrett segment takes place with Barrett talking about John Cena being freaked out by Bray Wyatt the same way the fans get freaked out when they look in the mirror. He suggests everyone should wear a sheep mask because of their bad looks.
– Big E. def. Dolph Ziggler to retain his WWE Intercontinental Championship in the main event of the evening.
WWE confirmed a few new matches for WrestleMania XXX on this week’s edition of RAW, which took place on Monday night from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
As previously reported, WWE Divas Champion AJ Lee will be defending her title on the show in a “Vickie Guerrero Diva Invitational” against Naomi, Cameron, Brie Bella, Nikki Bella, Natalya, Eva Marie, Emma, Aksana, Alicia Fox, Summer Rae, Rosa Mendes, Layla and Tamina Snuka.
Also confirmed on Monday’s RAW was the fact that Ryback and Curtis Axel will be part of the WWE Tag-Team Championship match at WrestleMania XXX against the current champions, The Usos.
Finally, WWE announced The Shield vs. Kane and The New Age Outlaws in a six-man tag-team contest for the show.
– It was announced on Monday’s edition of WWE RAW that at WrestleMania XXX, AJ Lee will defend her WWE Divas Championship in a “Vickie Guerrero Diva Invitational” match. The match will feature AJ Lee against Naomi, Cameron, Brie Bella, Nikki Bella, Natalya, Eva Marie, Emma, Aksana, Alicia Fox, Summer Rae, Rosa Mendes, Layla and Tamina Snuka.
– It was also confirmed on RAW this week that Scott Hall (aka Razor Ramon) will be inducted into the 2014 class of the WWE Hall Of Fame.
– The official WWE website recently issued a poll asking fans who they feel is the most talented Diva among the cast of Total Divas. At last check, with 13,000 votes cast, Natalya was leading the pack with 46 percent of the vote. Following Natalya, in order, was Nikki Bella with 20 percent, Naomi with 12 percent, Brie Bella with 11 percent, Summer Rae with 6 percent, Eva Marie with 4 percent and Cameron with just 1 percent of the vote.
– You can check out a video of John Cena’s recent Muscle & Fitness shoot with Cesaro, which took place recently at the WWE Performance Center above, or by going to MuscleAndFitness.com.
– Apparently Naomi wearing an eye patch is part of an angle for Total Divas. The angle plays off of the real-life injury that has kept The Funkadactyl on the sidelines for the past several weeks.
– As previously reported, the reason Rey Mysterio wasn’t on RAW on Monday night was because he’s in Spain doing some promotional work for WWE. Alberto Del Rio has also been doing promotional work, as he has been in Texas recently doing media interviews in Spanish to help promote WrestleMania XXX.
WWE Diva Layla made her return to in-ring action at the WWE live event on Friday night in Waco, Texas. Layla teamed with Alicia Fox in Divas tag-team action against the duo of Natalya and Eva Marie.
Layla’s return marks her first match since WWE RAW on September 23, 2013. The Diva was given time off from the company to deal with “personal issues.” At one point, according to reports, it was believed that she may never return to the ring again.
With her return, this opens the door for two potential WWE Diva returns at next Monday’s RAW, with both Layla and Naomi available to come back.
– WWE announcer Michael Cole incorrectly stated that WWE Diva Naomi needs surgery on her eye during the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view on Sunday night. Cole took to Twitter after the event to correct his mistake. He tweeted the following on Sunday night:
My apologies to @naomiwwe she DOES NOT need surgery. My bad. She will out of action a few weeks however. I misspoke
– Speaking of Naomi, she posted a tweet after her Funkadactyl teammate Cameron failed to win the WWE Divas Championship from AJ Lee on Sunday night. She spoke about her intentions on returning from her eye injury and defeating Lee to become the new Divas Champion. The tweet reads as follows (including a photo of her wearing an eye patch):
As things stand presently, there are no official plans for the WWE Divas Championship at WrestleMania XXX. The original plan, before Naomi suffered the eye injury at RAW, was for the Funkadactyl to face AJ Lee for the title. While not official, the likely scenario would have seen Naomi win the title as part of a story line for the second season of the “Total Divas” reality show. Even though those plans may be off the table, there is a good chance that Naomi’s injury and recovery will be used as part of a Total Divas story line.
As far as Naomi’s role at WrestleMania XXX is concerned, after the company received word last week that she will not need surgery, there is still time to factor her into plans for this year’s WrestleMania.
Naomi is expected to be out of in-ring action for four-to-six weeks. She won’t be able to appear on television unless she drives to RAW, as the pressure on her eyes from a flight would be dangerous.
“After Naomi went home she had increasing swelling and pain, which prompted a visit to a local doctor there, who performed a CAT scan. The CAT scan result showed a small, minimally displaced fracture of the eye socket or orbit on the medial wall, which is the inside part of the socket next to the nose. She is being followed closely and the swelling is being controlled at this point with oral medication.”
After visiting a specialist this past week, it was determined that surgery will not be required because “neither the nerve nor the eye muscles are trapped in the fracture itself.”
However, due to “the break that she has off the medial or inside wall of the orbital bone, [there is] communication between her sinus cavity and the back of the eye socket.”
Noami will not be permitted to return to the ring for an estimated 4-6 weeks.
Posted February 16th, 2014 in News, WWE. Tagged: Naomi.