WWE have confirmed that this year’s WWE Night of Champions PPV will take place on September 20th in Houston, Texas. Tickets go on sale on July 11th with an online presale also taking place.

During last night’s episode of RAW, Linda McMahon was spotted in among the fans taking notes, she later posted a photo on Twitter, backstage with some of the talent.

Backstage at #WWERAW pic.twitter.com/rl33hFI3kR

— Linda McMahon (@Linda_McMahon) June 30, 2015

Speaking of RAW, in the video above, The Miz can be seen talking to Eden about how he has worked out the weaknesses of both Big Show and the Intercontinental Champion, Ryback.

He explains that he will exploit those weaknesses to his advantage at the upcoming Battleground PPV which will take place on July 19th.

As noted, WWE filed a lawsuit in the state of California to prevent the selling of undisclosed merchandise in the area during WrestleMania 31 week. In the paperwork that was filed, WWE’s entire pay-per-view schedule through March of 2016 — including the total amount of seats available for those events — were released.

Below is a list of pay-per-view dates, locations and seating capacity:

The listed capacities for the PPV shows for the next year are as follows:

– Extreme Rules in Chicago (12,921)
– Payback on 5/15 in Baltimore (11,389)
– Money in the Bank 6/14 in Columbus, OH (13,275)
– Battleground 7/19 in St. Louis 14,569)
– SummerSlam on 8/23 in Brooklyn (13,438)
– Night of Champions on 9/20 in Houston (11,580)
– Hell in a Cell on 10/25 in Los Angles (14,240)
– Survivor Series on 11/22 in Atlanta (14,349)
– TLC on 12/13 in Boston (13,837)
– Royal Rumble on 1/24 in Orlando (13,000)
– Fastlane on 2/21 in St. Louis (14,569)

Additionally, the go-home Raw for WrestleMania next year will be on 3/28 in Washington, DC. The schedule also lists NXT specials on 5/20, 8/12 and 11/7.

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(Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)

When I was a youngster, I remember how I used to have to beg my parents to let me order a WWE pay-per-view every once in a while. The thing is, I didn’t mind doing it because I knew that if I ordered the show, whatever feuds were going on at the time would culminate in the matches on the pay-per-view.

These days? Not so much.

I can’t imagine being a kid now-a-days that has to bug your parents to let you buy a WWE pay-per-view, so that you can see your favorite wrestlers finally blow off their program in a match inside the squared circle, only to come out of the show and realize that the next pay-per-view features the same matches.

Basically, your begging and nagging ways sound something like this. “Mom, dad, PLEASE let me buy SummerSlam! It’s the second biggest WWE show of the year and I just HAVE to see John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar!!”

Let’s say you convinced them. Your begging and nagging worked. They let you buy SummerSlam.

Good stuff right? Wrong.

You come out of SummerSlam and head into the following week of WWE television, only to find out that you didn’t see the culmination of the Cena-Lesnar feud at all.

Not even close.

As it turns out, SummerSlam was only the beginning. You find out that a rematch is going to take place between the two at the next WWE pay-per-view, Night Of Champions.

Now what do you do?!

“Mom, dad PLEASE let me buy Night Of Champions! I just HAVE to see John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar!!”

Their response will probably sound something like this. “But Timmy, you said that last time!”

Poor fella.

Now let’s say you figured out a way to order Night Of Champions. You went to a friend’s house, you found an illegal stream online, you robbed a 7/11. You figured it out somehow, someway. Brock Lesnar disappears afterwards, only to re-appear and begin the build-up to what? You guessed it!

Cena vs. Lesnar III at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view in January.

Do you even bother bugging your folks to let you buy it? Do you even bother going to a friend’s house? Do you even bother risking finding an illegal stream on the internet? Do you even bother risking your butt robbing that 7/11?

At what point do you say enough is enough?

Maybe we’ll find out when the numbers come in for the Rumble, who knows. Be sure to save a couple of bucks, because hell, we might have Cena-Lesnar IV at WWE Fast Lane in February!

Unfortunately, while this isn’t anything new, it seems to be happening more and more lately. The pattern seems to be that wrestler A and wrestler B begin an issue, it boils for four weeks or so and a match takes place at a pay-per-view. Then you turn around and the very next pay-per-view look nearly identical to the previous one.

As I see it, the ONLY silver lining to all of this is this: at least these days when you throw your money down the toilet, you’re only throwing away $9.99 a month!

ZING!

What do you guys think? Let us know by posting your feedback in the “Comments” section below. You can also add me on Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBooneWZR and/or on Twitter @MBoone420.

– For those who enjoy interesting trivia facts, it’s been pointed out recently that country music band Florida Georgia Line has made more WWE television appearances than Brock Lesnar since the Night Of Champions pay-per-view. Florida Georgia Line appeared at Night Of Champions, TLC and Tribute to the Troops while Lesnar has only appeared at Night Of Champions and last week’s RAW.

– Unless the January 1st edition of NXT on the WWE Network turns out to be a 2014 “Year-In-Review” type of show, Shoot Nation leader Chad Gable is scheduled to make his NXT in-ring debut, working against Tyler Breeze on the show.

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The Brock Lesnar situation with WWE continues to become an interesting story as his contract gets closer to winding down. There is a lot of talk that Lesnar’s price tag might not be enough to justify using him for shows outside of WWE Royal Rumble and WrestleMania.

The WWE Battleground event in July did 31,000 buys on pay-per-view in North America without Lesnar on the show. By comparison, the WWE Night of Champions show in September did 30,000 buys in North America with a Lesnar vs. John Cena main event. Additionally, the worldwide numbers in recent months for shows without Lesnar actually sold more than those with him as part of the card.

The key factor with Lesnar is his price tag. The original plan, which could still be in the works, is for Lesnar to finally lose at WrestleMania 31 to Roman Reigns, making Reigns’ the new face of the company. Part of the issue with that is the concern that it won’t be as meaningful if everyone knows it’s Lesnar’s final match.

There was an expectation at one point in time that WWE would sign Lesnar to a new deal and possibly give him a big babyface run. While it could still happen, it really seems to boil down to whether or not WWE considers his price tag something that’s worth it financially in the end.

As far as Lesnar’s next match, the plan was for him to beat John Cena in January so that the win by Reigns at WrestleMania would look even more impressive. However, if WWE decides that they can’t afford to re-sign Lesnar, then the plans for the Lesnar-Cena match could be changed. The alternative as things stand now would appear to be Cena beating Lesnar, setting up a Cena vs. Reigns match at WrestleMania, which Reigns would win. They could also put the title on Seth Rollins and have Reigns beat him at WrestleMania, however the feeling is that wouldn’t be as meaningful as Reigns beating Lesnar or Cena.

Chris Jericho, who reportedly finished up his latest run with WWE at the Night Of Champions pay-per-view, is still advertised to appear at the upcoming WWE European tour in November.

According to the official WWE events page, Jericho is scheduled to appear at the November 10th, 11th and 15th shows, with the 11th being the most interesting, as that is a WWE SmackDown television taping in England.

If Jericho was a full-time guy, it could be chalked up to being a simple mistake. For example, Bad News Barrett was listed for those dates but was eventually pulled off of the advertising when word got out to the proper people. In Jericho’s case, however, the only reason he would be advertised after Night Of Champions is if he was booked to appear.

It’s also worth noting that Jericho teased that he “might be returning sooner than you think” during a recent interview.

Michael Cole’s latest weekly sit-down interview guest this week is John Cena.

This week, Cena talks to Cole about Seth Rollins interfering in his rematch with Brock Lesnar at WWE Night Of Champions, how he and Dean Ambrose have some common ground and the upcoming WWE Hell In A Cell pay-per-view.

Check out the complete video interview above.

– Last Sunday’s WWE Night Of Champions pay-per-view at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee drew approximately 11,000 fans, a few thousand short of an official sellout.

– WWE Tag-Team Los Matadores will be working the WWC 41st anniversary event in Puerto Rico on October 25th. They will be wrestling the tag-team champions, Ash and William De La Vega. The two reportedly have a clause in their WWE contracts that allows them to work certain WWC dates.

– Speaking of the WWC 41st anniversary show, former WWE Superstar Alberto Del Rio is also scheduled to work the event. Del Rio is slated to face Ray Gonzalez.

On the latest edition of his “Talk Is Jericho” podcast, Chris Jericho revealed that he was originally scheduled to wrestle Seth Rollins at the WWE Night Of Champions pay-per-view.

Jericho noted that the plan all along seemed to be Jericho and Rollins, however, Vince McMahon reportedly changed his mind and instead went with Jericho vs. Randy Orton.

You can listen to the full podcast online at PodcastOne.com.

– There is a feeling that Kevin Steen may make his WWE debut at the next set of NXT television tapings. With all of the top talents debuting at NXT, WWE officials may be staggering them so that they can maximize each one.

– The local wrestler that worked a dark match with Tyler Breeze at the WWE television tapings on Tuesday was Vordell Walker. Walker was also one of the security guards who appeared on the WWE Night Of Champions pay-per-view.

– On Monday, WWE announced and promoted a match between Dean Ambrose and Randy Orton for the post-Night Of Champions edition of RAW. An hour later, they removed the advertising for that match and ended up going a different direction. During Monday’s RAW, WWE promoted a Night Of Champions rematch between The Usos and Goldust and Stardust, however just before the taping last night, they switched the advertisements to feature a Big Show vs. Rusev match instead.

– Below is the “Top 10 Moments from this week’s RAW” video for Monday’s show.

The Monday, September 22, 2014 post-Night Of Champions edition of WWE RAW averaged 3.879 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. That marks an increase compared to the final average of 3.826 million viewers who tuned in for last week’s Night Of Champions “go-home” show.

The hourly breakdown for viewership for this week’s RAW is as follows:

Hour One: 4.000 million viewers
Hour Two: 3.790 million viewers
Hour Three: 3.847 million viewers

The final rating for this week’s RAW will be up on the site later today.

The following are highlights of a new Miami Herald interview with Sheamus:

On being face or heel: “I’m not opposed to going either way to be honest. I enjoy both sides of the coin. I’m sure it will come around again [for me to be a heel], but I want it to be for the right reason and right story. My goal right now is to keep moving forward and put on the best matches I can. I want to keep getting better and let people into who Sheamus really is. Character-wise, there was stuff I did before that wasn’t really me…I really want to reeducate people into who Sheamus really is. I can have a laugh and throw a crack in and have fun, but when it comes to the match it’s all business.”

On wanting to re-establish the prestige of the United States Title: “There was more prestige when I won it the first time back in 2010, but I will wrestle Cesaro or anyone. I just want to defend the title more. That was the goal when I won it was to bring it back up to where it had been for decades. The cool thing about Night of Champions was seeing the shots of all the former champions with the title around their waste. That was really cool to see before each match. So you see that and superstars who came before you with Harley Race and Ricky Steamboat. It gives you chills. It gives you goose bumps.”

Check out the complete interview at MiamiHerald.com.

– The latest edition of Steve Austin’s “Steve Austin Show” podcast is now online. In his latest podcast, “Stone Cold” shares his thoughts on the WWE Night Of Champions pay-per-view from Sunday night, Roman Reigns’ emergency surgery and more. You can download the show right now at PodcastOne.com.

– Below are this week’s RAW Fallout videos.

– Last week’s SmackDown on Syfy did a 1.86 rating with 2.631 million viewers, the lowest numbers in a month.

The show still ranked #1 on cable TV Friday night for viewership.

– Sunday’s WWE Night of Champions pay-per-view saw much less Twitter activity than SummerSlam last month.

NOC did a unique Twitter audience of 1.805 million with 14.655 million impressions. SummerSlam had 2.808 million unique users with over 24 million impressions (a 45% drop).

Night of Champions’ Twitter activity was in line with Extreme Rules back in May.

– Dean Ambrose is replacing Roman Reigns at WWE’s upcoming live events. Ambrose will be wrestling Randy Orton in a Street Fight at Friday night’s show from the Izod Center in New Jersey. John Cena vs. Seth Rollins headlines.

5 Superstars Who Made The Most Out Of NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS (Editorial)

It was announced on Monday night’s post-Night Of Champions edition of WWE RAW that on Friday, October 10th, WWE will be celebrating the 15-year anniversary of WWE SmackDown.

Also announced on RAW was a big Night Of Champions WWE Tag-Team Championship rematch with the new champions, Goldust and Stardust defending against the former champions, The Usos.

The following matches were taped at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tennessee prior to Monday’s post-Night Of Champions edition of RAW for this week’s edition of WWE Superstars.

WWE Superstars Spoilers (Air date: September 25, 2014)

– Naomi def. Alicia Fox in Divas action to open the show. Naomi picked up the win via submission when Fox tapped out after a few minutes in what was described as a decent little Divas match.

– Kofi Kingston def. Justin Gabriel in the main event of the show in what was said to be a pretty fun match with a lot of high-impact and fast-paced offense. In the end, Kingston nailed Gabriel with his “Trouble in Paradise” finisher for the 1-2-3.

On the post-Night Of Champions edition of WWE RAW, a big segment was announced for this week’s edition of WWE Main Event.

In the return of The Miz’s “MizTV” talk-show segment, the former WWE Intercontinental Champion will be joined by special guest — Dean Ambrose.

WWE Main Event airs live on Tuesday night on the WWE Network. Make sure to visit the website on Tuesday night for complete WWE Main Event results.

The Friday, September 19th WWE Night Of Champions “go-home” edition of SmackDown scored a final cable rating of 1.86, according to Nielsen Media Research. That marks a decrease from last week’s 1.95 final draw.

Friday’s SmackDown averaged 2.631 million viewers, which was also down a considerable amount compared to the total average of 2.821 million viewers who tuned into the show the previous week.

The number marks the lowest rating that SmackDown has drawn since the August 22nd edition of the show, however it remained the highest rated original program for Friday night.

The following are highlights from the latest Jim Ross blog:

On WWE Night Of Champions match of the night: “IMO the US Title match between Champion Sheamus and Cesaro was the match of the night. Great physicality, drama and compelling action for my taste. Congrats to both men. Cesaro could easily fill a viable fan favorite role on the depleted WWE hero side of the roster. There is money in ‘face Cesaro if it is cultivated.”

On Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena: “Enjoyed the intensity and the physicality of the Lesnar vs. Cena match but I wasn’t overwhelmed with the decision even though I understand why it was the way it was. It seems as if it was a means of facilitating getting Brock and John to the Hell in a Cell PPV in Dallas in a little over a month. As a fan of Paul Heyman, I’d liked to have seen Paul somewhat more involved in the presentation Sunday night but I’m certain that @HeymanHustle will be front and center come Raw from Memphis.”

On WWE changes: “With injuries, scheduling issues, etc one might expect WWE to somewhat ‘reshuffle the deck’ with 5 weeks to build to some new issues between now and HIAC.”

Check out the complete blog at JRsBarBQ.com. You can also order JR’s Bar-B-Q products online at WWEShop.com.

WWE has announced a match between Dean Ambrose and Randy Orton for tonight’s post-Night Of Champions edition of RAW.

The official WWE Twitter account tweeted the following moments ago:

BREAKING: @TheDeanAmbrose takes on #TheViper @RandyOrton TONIGHT on #Raw on @USA_Network! http://t.co/c1q01JJzYM pic.twitter.com/O7ZdS88Ky0

— WWE (@WWE) September 22, 2014

Just announced for #RAW, @TheDeanAmbrose vs. @RandyOrton! This is one you're not gonna wanna miss… #WWE

— Brooklyn Brawler (@brawlerreal) September 22, 2014

– Below is a post-Night Of Champions video interview with John Cena.

– Below is this week’s “After Total Divas” web episode.

The following are highlights of a new Between The Ropes interview with Sheamus:

On his match with Cesaro at WWE Night of Champions: “I had a lot of fun fella. It was definitely a blast. I needed that a lot because I felt like I’ve been just starting to hit my stride a lot more since I came back from my injury and needed that. So far, it’s been the highlight of my return to WWE.”

On whether or not his own experiences with bullying pushed him toward fitness and bodybuilding: “Yeah it did. The training and stuff, that was important to me because I wasn’t happy with my body and I wanted to do something about it. I don’t know about the bully thing, maybe. It made me more self-conscious but I think it was more of the training stuff for me, just wanting to be healthier and fitter. I was lucky enough to have people around me to help me overcome the impression I was getting with bullying to where I didn’t even want to go to school. I wouldn’t even take the school bus, I’d walk, because I didn’t want to deal with it, the hassle. But I had good friends around me and a lot of kids aren’t that fortunate.”

On Fergal Devitt and other new talent for WWE: “I think Fergal is going to thrive. I think he’s a phenomenal, phenomenal competitor in the ring and I think people are going to love him when he gets in there. When he’s in there, he’s not afraid to get hit or hit and I think he’s going to be a serious edition to the roster. It’s great and I think there’s a lot of other guys, Adrian Neville is another one, Sami Zayn, Kevin Steen. There’s a lot of guys who are chomping at the bit to get up here.”

Check out the complete interview at BetweenTheRopes.com.

– For trivia buffs out there, last night’s WWE Night Of Champions show marked the first WWE pay-per-view event since SummerSlam 2013 that Roman Reigns did not wrestle a match on. Additionally, last night was the first PPV that Bray Wyatt did not compete on since the Hell In A Cell 2013 show.

– Courtesy of Michael Moody and HollymoodEntertainment.com, below is the edited, condensed and re-released version of the main trailer for the marijuana documentary titled, ‘The Emperor, The President & The King’ which features Rob Van Dam and other celebrities.

Following the WWE Night Of Champions pay-per-view on Sunday night, the official TNA Impact Wrestling Twitter account posted the following tweet, taking a jab at WWE via social media:

While we like the #iPhone6, @SamsungMobileUS is also great. Angry with #WWENOC? You have options too. #ImpactOnSpike Wednesdays at 9/8c

— TNA WRESTLING (@IMPACTWRESTLING) September 22, 2014

BREAKING NEWS: Undertaker In VERY BAD Condition, Celeb Says “Keep Him In Your Prayers”