– Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt vs. American Alpha has been announced for next Tuesday’s SmackDown. The winners will go to TLC on 12/4 to face SmackDown Tag Team Champions Rhyno & Heath Slater. The match was confirmed on Talking Smack, which you can see above with American Alpha’s reaction.
– Also on tonight’s Talking Smack, SmackDown GM Daniel Bryan announced Kalisto vs. Baron Corbin in a Chairs Match for TLC. Below is video from that segment:
Now that WWE Survivor Series is in the books, Randy Orton will be taking time off to be with his wife and their new daughter, who is due on Tuesday, 11/22.
Last month it looked like he might miss the PPV, SmackDown would have been missing a lot of star power since John Cena is currently away taping the second season of American Grit for Fox. Orton isn’t scheduled back until the 11/29 SmackDown Live show from Columbia, SC, according to the Wrestling Observer.
About 30 hours from now I'll have a brand new baby girl. I'm blessed.
This Sunday, Brock Lesnar looks to avenge his WrestleMania XX loss to Bill Goldberg at Survivor Series. Goldberg revealed this week that he tweaked his shoulder on RAW and his body feels “horrible,” but you can expect this one to be a very physical encounter.
According to a report from CageSideSeats, Brock Lesnar is favored to get the victory over Goldberg, with a big sendoff for Goldberg planned for after the match. Lesnar going over makes the most sense, with Goldberg declaring Lesnar is “last” – a sign that his WWE return is a one-and-done. There’s huge equity in defeating Brock Lesnar and it makes little sense to cash in on a legend like Goldberg who is at the end of his road.
While Goldberg won’t pick up the win, you can guarantee he is being paid handsomely for this comeback and his wife and child will finally get to see him do what made him famous. A Hall of Fame induction is also likely at some point, a losing effort against Lesnar this Sunday will still be a big win for Goldberg.
Last night during the nine hundredth episode of SmackDown, The Undertaker made his long awaited return to WWE television. The impact he had in five minutes of television time is a testament to the level of respect the WWE Universe has for The Deadman, but it seems he’s only just started taking souls and digging holes.
It was reported earlier today that The Undertaker will be featured on SmackDown for the foreseeable future, which will lead him onto The Road to Wrestlemania. There has been a lot of speculation about what he will be doing at Wrestlemania 33 next year, but his opponent for next year’s Royal Rumble is just as interesting.
According to a rumor from CageSideSeats, the expectation is that Team SmackDown will lose on Sunday to Team Raw. The Undertaker warned SmackDown’s five men that they’d have to answer to him if they failed, so the plan is for someone to cost them the match and for that individual to be The Undertaker’s next feud.
It can be assumed that Randy Orton or AJ Styles will be responsible for costing SmackDown the match at Survivor Series. It’s been rumored for the past few days that we could be seeing Undertaker vs. Orton or John Cena at Wrestlemania, so the next high profile Undertaker match will most likely take place at the Royal Rumble when WWE looks to sell out the Alamo Dome.
As seen on last week’s SmackDown, it appeared as if Randy Orton was joining The Wyatt Family after weeks of feuding with them. Orton said, “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” when asked about why he turned on Kane last week.
Fast forward to last night’s SmackDown house show in Allentown, PA – Bray Wyatt distracted Kane during a Kane vs. Orton Street Fight, allowing Orton to hit the RKO for the win.
After the match, Wyatt and Orton posed with Luke Harper, all three doing Orton’s signature pose.
– It looks like Randy Orton may not be working the 11/20 WWE Survivor Series PPV from Toronto. Orton’s wife Kim is expecting their first baby girl together on 11/22, two days after the PPV. The Wrestling Observer is reporting Orton has been given the week off and is not currently scheduled for Survivor Series. He was last scheduled to return on November 29th, a Tuesday for SmackDown.
– WWE has made a change to the WrestleMania 33 weekend schedule. The 2017 Hall of Fame Ceremony will now take place on Friday, March 31st and NXT Takeover: Orlando will be held the Saturday, April 1st, the night before WrestleMania. There are probably several reasons for the change, but you can bet a lot of the wrestlers will be happy they don’t have to stay out late at a company event the night before the biggest show of the year.
Speaking of WrestleMania 33 weekend, travel packages go on sale this coming Monday:
– Randy Orton’s episode of “Shooter” on the USA Network will air on Sunday, November 11.
– The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic continues on tonight’s NXT episode with TJ Perkins & Kota Ibushi vs. Lince Dorado & Mustafa Ali, plus HoHo Lun and Tian Bing vs. Ciampa and Gargano. Other matches scheduled for the show include Asuka vs. Thea Trinidad, Aliyah vs. Billie Kay and Noah Potjes vs. Tye Dillinger.
– Tonight’s Total Bellas episode will highlight more tension between Daniel Bryan and Nikki Bella. In the preview below, The Bellas argue about how they would raise their kids and things get heated after Bryan chimes in. Bryan says Nikki believes she deserves everything she has but Nikki disagrees.
– WWE taped Main Event matches after tonight’s SmackDown in Denver went off the air – Zack Ryder vs. Tyler Breeze and The Ascension vs. American Alpha.
– After the Main Event tapings, Randy Orton defeated Bray Wyatt in the dark main event of the tapings. Orton won with a RKO and celebrated with fans to end the tapings.
– As seen in this clip, Dean Ambrose interviewed James Ellsworth during a commercial break on this week’s SmackDown Live. The interview ended when WWE World Champion AJ Styles attacked Ellsworth and resumed the match.
– WWE taped The Shining Stars vs. two local jobbers and Darren Young vs. Jinder Mahal last night for this week’s Superstars episode.
– Tonight’s WWE SmackDown will feature the fallout from No Mercy plus Randy Orton and Kane vs. Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper.
– Below are backstage RAW videos with Titus O’Neil and Dana Brooke. Following her beatdown on Bayley, Dana says playtime is over because playtime is for kids and that’s exactly what Bayley is, a kid.
Titus tries to hold another “Titus Brand” press conference to address his loss to R-Truth but only Tom Phillips shows up and he has more technical difficulties.
– WWE taped Apollo Crews vs. Tyler Breeze and Kane vs. Baron Corbin last night in Cleveland to air on this week’s Superstars episode.
– Randy Orton and Dolph Ziggler defeated Bray Wyatt and WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz in the dark main event after last night’s SmackDown went off the air.
– While he wasn’t able to compete on this week’s RAW due to a rib injury, Seth Rollins says he will be back next Monday night and will be ready to fight. Rollins tweeted the following on next week’s RAW from LA:
Wrestling hurts, but that's part of the price paid to live in dreams. Crushed ribs or not, I'll be in LA for #Raw next week..ready to fight.
WWE World Champion AJ Styles recently spoke to GameRevolution.com and expressed interest in a potential SmackDown feud with Randy Orton. AJ said:
“We’re both on Smackdown! Live, so eventually that’s gonna happen. I think that’s gonna be huge, that’s gonna be fun. So there’s definitely guys on the Smackdown! roster that I haven’t had the opportunity to wrestle, and the RAW roster, and the NXT roster. I think there’s all these matches that people are gonna wanna see, it’s gonna happen eventually. And I’m one of ‘em. I want these matches to happen as well.”
AJ also said he’s looking forward in having a rematch against his WrestleKingdom 10 opponent Shinsuke Nakamura in WWE. He said:
“I don’t know when, or where, but it will happen eventually. The WWE, they’re smart, they know what they’re doing. And when that time comes, everybody will be aware of it, and they won’t wanna miss it.”
Randy Orton appeared on Booker T’s Heated Conversations podcast on Saturday night and addressed some of his recent controversial tweets about pro athletes such as NFL player Colin Kaepernick protesting the United States’ national anthem during games. With certain players kneeling during the national anthem or raising a first in response to police violence, Orton questioned the courageousness of their actions.
Sneering? More like shaking my head. Courage? Lol riiiight. Courage. Thats what it takes to stand up and fight, not raise a fist. https://t.co/DqQt11cNmS
Orton spoke with Booker T and co-host Brad Gilmore about his position, elaborating on why he feels it’s so important to respect the national anthem in light of what our troops (and their families) sacrifice. He addressed the backlash he received from his comments, including the people who pointed out his bad conduct discharge from the United States Marine Corps.
“I basically said ‘Americans are dying no matter the color of their skin. Americans are dying.’ I also said ‘courage is what it takes to stand up and fight, not kneel or raise the fist during the National Anthem.’ I got a lot of backlash.
The comment I saw the most was, ‘How can you speak about courage and stand up and fight when you got a bad conduct discharge from the United States Marine Corps. I’d like to address that first off. That was 18 years ago. I was 18 years old, went straight into the United States Marine Corps bootcamp out in San Diego, California. I graduated bootcamp with a meritorious promotion, went on tot he school of infantry where I was a squad leader and a guide. When I went to the fleet, and I’m not here to talk about all the negative things I saw that made me come to this realization, but there were things that I wasn’t happy seeing and wasn’t proud being a part of. What I realized was, I didn’t have the courage to die for my country.
But, knowing that about myself, I saw in many of the other men and women that I was down there with, young men and women, you could see in their eyes that they were of that patriotic spirit where they would put their life on the line for this country. That’s courage right there. Now here we are 18 years later and a lot of these men and women served their country well. Some of them might have lost their lives. Some of them might have come home paralyzed from the waist down, the neck down, amputees, unable to make love to their spouses. Unable to go swimming with their children, unable to walk the dog or take their kids to the park. Depression, different types of mental illness from all the stress they went through. That’s sacrifice right there and the sacrifice that their families gave for them to either die or be brutally hurt for their country, that’s why I think you should stand up for the flag.
Taking a knee, listen, everyone has their right to their opinion and I do believe that. I respect everybody else’s opinion. And all these comments I read, I went through them and a few of them I kind of laughed at, but nonetheless, they’re opinions. That’s my stance.”
Booker T asked Randy Orton how he would feel if the reason of the protest was for a different issue, such as veterans not being cared for properly when they return home. Orton said he sympathizes with what Colin Kaepernick was protesting for, but there’s a better way to go about it than disrespecting the National Anthem. Orton says Kaepernick is a superstar and a role model to a lot of kids. If he wants to raise awareness for his issue, do it on social media or in interviews. Subscribe to Booker T’s podcast on iTunes.
Brock Lesnar and Randy Orton’s SummerSlam rematch took place Saturday night at WWE’s live event from Chicago.
Paul Heyman declared that Brock wants a no-disqualification “Suplex City Death Match” with no stoppage for blood. Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley agreed to the stipulation.
There were dueling “Suplex City” and “RKO” chants throughout the match. Orton hit Lesnar with a steel chair late in the match on the outside. Back in the ring, Lesnar took Orton to Suplex City. Orton used the chair again, hit an RKO but Lesnar kicked out.
Lesnar got the win after an F5.
Brock Lessnar vs Randy Orton: The Rematch is happening right now at #WWEChicago. It's just a house show, but a PPV atmosphere. pic.twitter.com/HavDdMY8Dz
One of the big stories coming out of WWE SummerSlam was the backstage incident involving Chris Jericho and Brock Lesnar. While Lesnar was still in the ring and Randy Orton was laying in a pool of blood, Jericho asked Michael Hayes if Lesnar had gone into business for himself and gone farther than what was planned. Hayes reportedly indicated to Jericho that Lesnar may have broken from the script, which led to Jericho confronting Lesnar once he got backstage. Brock essentially told him to screw off and they got into a shoving match. Based on several reliable reports – Brock kissed Jericho on the forehead and said something along the lines of, “Either kiss me or hit me.” Triple H and Vince McMahon wound up getting involved and putting an end to the altercation.
Chris Jericho recently appeared on Chael Sonnen’s “Your’re Welcome” podcast and addressed the altercation for the first time publicly. “I just thought the finish of that match was very brutal and very violent, and I just didn’t know if Randy was ok”, he said. “I said something and he said something, next thing you know we’re nose-to-nose kinda yelling at each other and it diffused fairly quickly.” Jericho added, “Brock is a trained fighter and he’s a beast, but I’m not the type of person to back down from anybody.”
Jericho admits the finish of the match was really none of his business, but what he witnessed was unlike a typical WWE wrestling match. “When I see a friend of mine lying in a pool of his own blood, whether it’s a work or not, that’s real blood. That’s a real concussion that he suffered. So I wanna go check and see if he’s ok.”
Randy Orton continues to be outspoken on Twitter regarding matters of politics and race. Earlier this week, Orton addressed the recent trend of professional athletes protesting by kneeling during the National Anthem.
If you're sneering that it doesn't take courage to raise your fist during the anthem, then you're one of the reasons why it takes courage.
Sneering? More like shaking my head. Courage? Lol riiiight. Courage. Thats what it takes to stand up and fight, not raise a fist. https://t.co/DqQt11cNmS
A teacher in North Carolina has been suspended after stomping on an American flag while giving a history lesson. Orton does not approve of the teacher’s act of protest and says he should be fired. Some of Orton’s followers challenged his opinion, but Orton wasn’t backing down.
– The big WWE 2K17 exclusive that Paul Heyman and his Heyman Hustle websitewere hyping on Monday night was a first look at the game’s My Career mode. You can see video above, the feature looks pretty badass.
– A hot topic across the country this summer has been mainstream sports stars protesting during the National Anthem by taking a knee or raising their fists. After last night’s Chicago Bears vs. Philadelphia Eagles NFL game, Randy Orton took to Twitter and commented on the protests. The Viper tweeted the following in response to sports editor Dave Zirin:
If you're sneering that it doesn't take courage to raise your fist during the anthem, then you're one of the reasons why it takes courage.
Sneering? More like shaking my head. Courage? Lol riiiight. Courage. Thats what it takes to stand up and fight, not raise a fist. https://t.co/DqQt11cNmS
Randy Orton worked a full singles match at Saturday’s WWE house show in Springfield, MO. Orton used the RKO to defeat Bray Wyatt. Orton did take bumps but worked what was described as a conservative style.
As noted, Orton was pulled from last Sunday’s WWE Backlash match against Wyatt as he was reportedly not cleared to compete due to a concussion that happened during the SummerSlam loss to Brock Lesnar. Orton did take part in a backstage beatdown segment that night and later got physical in the ring, delivering an RKO to Wyatt during his match with Kane.
The next night saw Orton team with John Cena at a SmackDown house show but he worked a very limited role. Last night’s match in Springfield was Orton’s first singles match since the injury.
WWE had originally hoped that Randy Orton would be cleared to return to the ring in time for Backlash. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that if he would have been cleared, they likely never would have announced the news of his concussion.
While Orton has been in the mix on TV and downplaying his injury, he hasn’t done much physically since SummerSlam. Orton didn’t take much offense during his tag match at a house show on Monday where his partner, John cena, carried most of the match. Some sources say that Orton even taking the bump of an RKO could be hurtful to his brain while suffering from a concussion.
Kane ended up replacing Orton and defeating Bray Wyatt at Backlash. Kane was reportedly always the back-up plan if Orton didn’t get cleared.
Randy Orton held an impromptu Twitter Q&A late Monday night and commented on a wide variety of topics, including CM Punk’s UFC debut, Brock Lesnar, Cesaro and much more. The Twitter activity came just hours after his return to the ring at SmackDown’s live event from Fairfax, VA, where he teamed with John Cena (Results).
Here are some highlights of what The Viper said about:
Randy Orton returned to the ring at Monday night’s SmackDown live event from Fairfax, Virginia. Much like his appearance at Backlash, Orton had very limited physicality but did just enough that WWE could still advertise him. Attendance was very light for the show, likely due to the direct competition of WWE RAW and first week of NFL Monday Night Football featuring the Washington Redskins.
The following are results from SmackDown Live in Fairfax, VA (9/12):
– Dolph Ziggler defeated IC champion The Miz in a non-title match
– Baron Corbin beat Apollo Crews
– Jason Jordan & Hype Bros defeated Konnor & The Vaudevillains in a six-man tag match
– John Cena & Randy Orton beat Bray Wyatt & Erik Rowan. Our live correspondent noted that Cena worked the entire match and Orton barely got involved.
– Smackdown Women’s champion Becky Lynch & Naomi beat Alexa Bliss & Natalya when Becky made Natalya tap out.
– Smackdown Tag Team Champions Heath Slater & Rhyno beat The Usos.
– WWE World Champion A.J. Styles defeated Dean Ambrose with the Styles Clash to retain
Multiple sources have indicated Randy Orton was kept off last night’s WWE Backlash PPV due to concussion-related symptoms. Following the massacre by Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam, Orton was diagnosed with a concussion — in addition to the 10 staples he required to close the nasty gash on his head. Since then, Orton has been undergoing Impact concussion tests. He’s passed some, but not enough to the point where WWE’s medical staff was willing to medically clear him to compete.
As expected, WWE ran an injury angle at Backlash where Bray Wyatt attacked him backstage. Wyatt injured Orton’s leg on the show and there was no mention of a concussion. Orton would later appear during Bray Wyatt’s match with Kane and delivered an RKO to Wyatt. The fact that WWE is letting Orton get physical indicates they are optimistic he will get cleared sooner than later.
Randy Orton hasn’t wrestled since SummerSlam, but is scheduled to have a rematch against Lesnar in less than two weeks at WWE’s 9/24 live event from Chicago.
Randy Orton is not expected to wrestle at tonight’s WWE Backlash PPV, but is backstage at The Coliseum in Richmond, VA for the show.
Kane replaced Orton at a WWE house show in Raleigh last night (defeating Bray Wyatt) and is the likely replacement for Orton at Backlash.
Orton’s injury is said to be concussion-related, according to PWInsider. Dave Meltzer noted that he couldn’t get confirmation regarding the injury, but that was the word going around backstage today and Orton did take legitimate beating from Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam.
WWE officials were hoping Orton would be cleared to to compete tonight. His upcoming rematch against Brock Lesnar at WWE’s 9/24 live event from Chicago is up in the air at this point.
Randy Orton will not be able to compete at tonight’s WWE Backlash PPV, as first reported by James McKenna. We have since independently confirmed the news. Orton was scheduled to face Bray Wyatt in one of the top matches on the card. Randy Orton has reportedly been dealing with an undisclosed injury and has not been medically cleared.
As of this writing, WWE is still promoting the match. This indicates WWE might run an injury angle this afternoon or even during the show to explain the situation. Whatever they decide, it’s looking like Orton will not work a full match. Based on betting lines headed into Backlash, Orton was favored to defeat Bray Wyatt.
Randy Orton returned to WWE in late July after missing 9 months due to shoulder surgery. He’s wrestled only a handful of times since then, most recently at SummerSlam against Brock Lesnar. Orton is scheduled to have a rematch against Brock Lesnar on September 24th at a live event from Chicago.
Check back later tonight for our live WWE Backlash Results and live discussion.
– Dolph Ziggler is back on WWE Main Event this week, just a few weeks after his WWE Championship shot and a few days before his WWE Intercontinental Championship shot. Ziggler faced Aiden English at last night’s Main Event tapings in Lincoln while Jinder Mahal faced Jack Swagger.
– Here are the latest WWE Performance Center Combine videos with Mada benching and Jeet Rama doing chain chin-ups:
– Randy Orton’s backstage promo on Bray Wyatt at last night’s SmackDown didn’t go over well with many fans on social media. Orton had these exchanges with fans on Twitter, calling one of them an assh*le.
