WWE SummerSlam is less than three months away and we’ve received some information regarding the top matches that have discussed for the show. The planning of these matches dates back to before Daniel Bryan’s neck surgery, however, Bryan will back in action before August so these preliminary matches could still be in the works:
– Daniel Bryan vs. Bray Wyatt for the WWE World Heavyweight Title.
– Triple H vs. Roman Reigns. This one has been rumored since around WrestleMania XXX and there’s a very strong chance it will happen. Triple H has handpicked Reigns his next big singles opponent.
– Brock Lesnar vs. Cesaro. As previously reported, Lesnar is returning this summer and WWE wants him on board for SummerSlam and Night of Champions in September, right after the 6-month mark of the WWE Network.
– As noted earlier, Roman Reigns celebrates his 29th birthday today. Reigns, whose real name is Leati Joseph Anoa’i, was born on May 25, 1985. “#HappyBirthdayRomanReigns” has been trending today on Twitter as a result.
– The latest edition of “WWE Top 10,” which you can view below, looks at the ten biggest examples of “good guys going bad.”
– Today’s wrestling birthdays include Bo Dallas (24), Roman Reigns (29) and Alberto Del Rio (37).
– Friday’s episode of WWE SmackDown saw a huge drop in social media activity from the previous week. SmackDown had 416,000 Twitter users tweeting about the show (down 50%) and 1.273 million social impressions (down 45%). Despite the drop, it still ranked #2 for the night Twitter activity.
– Next Saturday night’s Beyond The Ring special on the WWE Network will feature Chris Jericho.
– Every RAW and SmackDown of 2014 through the beginning of April have been added to the WWE Network, so it appears WWE is able to add shows to the Network a month after they air under the new NBCUniversal deal.
Currently there are three matches officially announced for the upcoming WWE Payback pay-per-view on June 1st in Chicago, Illinois. Those matches are The Shield vs. Evolution in a No Holds Barred Elimination match, John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt in a Last Man Standing match and Bad News Barrett vs. Rob Van Dam for the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
Other matches likely for WWE Payback include The Usos vs. Luke Harper & Erick Rowan for the WWE Tag-Team Championships, Paige vs. Alicia Fox for the WWE Divas Championship, Sheamus vs. Cesaro for the WWE United States Championship, Adam Rose vs. Jack Swagger, Rusev vs. Big E. and Summer Rae vs. Layla with Fandango as special guest referee.
As far as the No Holds Barred Elimination main event, a possible scenario being considered is one that would see Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins eliminated early, leaving Roman Reigns to make a huge comeback on all three Evolution members by himself.
The match will be Batista’s final match in WWE for several months, and based on plans for the future, could be one of Triple H’s last for a while as well.
Former WWE & WCW Superstar Bill Goldberg was Jim Ross’ guest on this week’s Ross Report podcast. When asked if he would consider wrestling one more match, Goldberg said he’s open to it if the money is right. He still hits the gym 5 days a week, stays in great shape and would want his young son see him wrestle live at least once.
“My last conversation with WWE brass, which was a while ago, was to the effect of I have a seven-year-old son who would love to see me wrestle and whatever differences we’ve had in the past, if you guys want to make some money and do this again, then I’d then be willing to talk about it. That is my answer.”
When asked who his ideal opponent would be, Goldberg named Brock Lesnar, Triple H and Roman Reigns.
“Hunter and I will always have unfinished business until the day I die,” Goldberg said, regarding to their behind-the-scenes issues from Goldberg’s WWE run over a decade ago.
“Brock and I have unfinished biz in the ring,” a reference to their infamous match at WrestleMania 20.
Goldberg named Roman Reigns due to their mutual backgrounds playing college football in Georgia.
“Whoever it is, I don’t care,” Goldberg said. “As long as it makes sense, then I’m in for it.”
– The WWE European tour continues this weekend with live events in Cardiff, Wales and Birmingham, England on Sunday. Despite clunking heads with Randy Orton in Glasgow on Wednesday, Roman Reigns is still scheduled to battle the Evolution member in the main event of the Cardiff show. The Birmingham show is advertising a John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt main event.
– Hulk Hogan is scheduled to make an appearance at this coming Monday’s edition of WWE RAW, which will be taped during the day at the O2 Arena in London, England.
– As previously reported, former WWE Superstar Sakamoto was at the NXT live event this past week. As of last word, Sakamoto had not been re-signed by WWE.
– Roman Reigns ended up getting multiple stitches for the cut above his right eye that he suffered in his match with Randy Orton on Wednesday in Glasgow, Scotland. As noted, despite initial concerns, Reigns reportedly did not suffer a concussion as a result of the head collision.
As previously reported, Roman Reigns suffered a devastating gash above his right eye after a bad collision with Randy Orton at the WWE live event in Glasgow, Scotland on Wednesday.
Apparently there was some concern internally that Reigns may have suffered a concussion, however those fears have reportedly subsided in the past 12 hours.
– NXT stars Bo Dallas and Adrian Neville are on the current WWE European tour. Neville defeated Dallas at the live event last night in Glasgow, Scotland.
– Triple H and Stephanie McMahon arrived in Rome early on Wednesday to do some sight-seeing before the WWE tour kicked off with the live event in Glasgow.
– With Daniel Bryan off of the European tour, the new main event was scheduled to be Randy Orton vs. Roman Reigns in some markets and Big Show vs. Kane in a “Last Man Standing” in others. With Reigns suffering an injury last night against Orton, it’s unknown whether or not those matches will continue as planned.
As previously reported, Roman Reigns suffered a bad gash above his eye during his singles match with Randy Orton at the first event on the WWE European tour, which took place on Wednesday in Glasgow, Scotland.
This video shows exactly what went down – Roman Reigns attempts a spear on Randy Orton, who attempts to reverse the move into a powerslam. Both men cracked heads and Roman Reigns was busted open the hard way.
WWE Superstar Roman Reigns suffered a nasty gash above his right eye at Wednesday night’s live event from Scotland. Reader David Cogan sent in the following live report of what went down:
“At the Glasgow live show tonight, during the main event of Roman Reigns vs Randy Orton in a steel cage, Reigns went for a spear on Orton, who looked like he was meant to counter with his power slam. Both kind of messed up and smacked into each other. Both seemed to be busted open with the ref making the X sign to the back. Reigns looked pretty out of it at the end, not sure if he was concussed or not but he looked in a bad way.
– Yoshi Tatsu did some ring announcing at the NXT live event in Orlando, Florida on Friday night. Tatsu is scheduled to do some ring announcing on the upcoming WWE tour of Japan, so he may have been practicing at the NXT event on Friday.
– The latest edition of WWE Top 10, which you can check out below, looks at the greatest spears of The Shield star Roman Reigns.
The most recent internal list in WWE for down the line had Randy Orton, Batista and Roman Reigns near the top for future baby faces, right behind John Cena and Daniel Bryan. As previously reported, however, Orton is apparently going to remain a heel going forward.
Also as noted earlier, it looks like the company is going to keep The Shield as a unit for a longer period of time than originally intended. Based on some several-month-out projections, including suggestions made to the marketing division for items that won’t hit the marketplace for several months, The Shield is apparently going to remain a baby face group.
As previously reported, WWE has plans for a Cesaro baby face push in the future. The general consensus is that when Cesaro eventually splits from Paul Heyman, he will enter into a program with Brock Lesnar, one that could possibly take place as one of the main events at this year’s SummerSlam pay-per-view.
Another idea for SummerSlam, while not yet confirmed, and is actually up in the air based on how things turn out for The Shield, is a Roman Reigns vs. Triple H main event at SummerSlam.
The idea seems to be that Cesaro goes over on Lesnar and Reigns goes over on HHH at SummerSlam, with the mindset being it would help elevate them to top-tier baby face status.
It’s worth noting that when WWE maps things out that far in advance, that plans change a lot as everything is a moving target that tends to change on a month-to-month basis.
As previously reported, there were a number of late changes made to the script for this past Monday’s edition of WWE RAW. Originally, one of the main events was going to be Daniel Bryan vs. Batista, and as late as Sunday night, that was still the plan.
There was said to be a number of different ideas for angles that the company wanted to do with The Wyatt Family and The Shield on RAW, but ultimately they went with the version we saw on Monday night.
Additionally, one of the original ideas was to go with a Bray Wyatt vs. Roman Reigns singles match for the main event of the show, however they decided instead to go with a six-man tag-team match between both factions.
There was also a plan to have Evolution as guest timekeepers, but as noted, they felt that the finish, with Evolution interfering and attacking The Shield, would be too obvious if Evolution was sitting at ringside during the match.
– John Cena’s feud with. Bray Wyatt feud is expected to continue for some time, past the June 1st WWE Payback pay-per-view.
– Another independent wrestler that was part of Adam Rose’s entourage on RAW was “Portugal’s Perfect Athlete” Shanna, who was previously a TNA Gutcheck contestant.
– As noted earlier, a version of the RAW script that was changed on Monday afternoon featured Daniel Bryan wrestling Batista instead of Kane. Another version had Batista wrestling Roman Reigns, with Reigns getting the victory. WWE announced on Monday afternoon that Evolution would be guest timekeepers during the Wyatt Family vs. The Shield main event, however that idea was nixed as well.
On paper, last night’s card seemed like nothing to write home about. After all, Daniel Bryan was defending his title against a superstar who peaked a decade ago, Bray Wyatt and John Cena were meeting in a rematch from WrestleMania, and other than Evolution vs. the Shield, the rest of the matches seemed like they could turn out to be throwaway contests. The event was basically the furthest thing from a throwaway, however, as it was a well-executed pay-per-view that was filled with worthwhile matches.
The Hounds of Justice stole the show during the match of the night.
Evolution vs. the Shield was the clear highlight of the night, as expected. Each superstar involved in the match put on an excellent show, but the star of the match was without a doubt Seth Rollins. While Triple H, Randy Orton, and Dean Ambrose were battling in the crowd, Rollins dove from the top of the entranceway to take out his Evolution foes, allowing for Roman Reigns to handle Batista in the ring and secure a Shield victory. The match was perfectly executed and is an immediate match of the year contender.
The main event between Daniel Bryan and Kane greatly exceeded expectations. This one seemed like it could be forgettable, as the outcome was never really in doubt and Kane is not exactly a main event superstar anymore. However, both superstars performed well together and the backstage spots were something that resembled contests from the Attitude Era.
In the end, the match even involved a flaming table, although the crew botched this spot a bit by running in with the extinguishers before Kane was even on fire, but hey, what can you do? Overall, it was a great culmination to the night and certainly much better than I was anticipating.
The following are highlights of a recent IGN interview with Seth Rollins:
On The Shield playing off each other well against The Wyatt Family: “Yeah, definitely. From the first time we had any sort of interaction with them, when we were over in the UK last November, there was definitely some crazy electricity that was going on. We knew that once we got into it that it was going to be awesome. I think it exceeded whatever hype it had laid in front of it, and that’s really tough to do nowadays, to have a match where people wanted to see that. They were genuinely like, “Damn, I want to see that. That’s going to be awesome.” So I was really happy we got the opportunity to do that with those guys.”
On the energy in the crowd when they had their first confrontation with The Wyatt Family: “Yeah, that’s what we live for. Those moments are what we do it for. That’s what keeps us coming back. It’s a rush every time we come down the stairs and through the crowd and get in the ring and have a great match. It’s special moments like that where you can’t describe the electricity; it’s a lighting-in-a-bottle sort of thing. That’s what keeps you coming back and really why you do it. Make people really feel something; that’s pretty impressive. That’s an awesome thing to be able to do.”
On if he’d prefer to stay with The Shield for a bit longer before the inevitable split: “I definitely do. I think there’s a lot of life left in The Shield, especially with the different direction the crowd has taken on with us. I think there’s a long way to go for us as a group — as individuals as well. There’s no reason we can’t advance in both situations. I think people assume that for whatever reason there’s an exclusivity to being a single star and a great stable. But for me it’s never about that. We can all grow as individuals, and we can all be big stars in our own right. The Shield can be as big as it’s ever been. It doesn’t have to be one or the other.”
Following Monday’s Extreme Rules “go-home” edition of WWE RAW, here is your latest official WWE Extreme Rules pay-per-view lineup for this Sunday night.
WWE World Heavyweight Championship
– Daniel Bryan (c) vs. Kane
Faction vs. Faction
– Evolution vs. The Shield
WWE Intercontinental Championship
– Big E. (c) vs. Bad News Barrett
WWE Divas Championship
– Paige (c) vs. Tamina Snuka
Steel Cage Match
– John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt
Handicap Match
– Alexander Rusev vs. R-Truth & Xavier Woods
Pre-Show “WeeLC Match”
– Hornswoggle vs. El Torito
Rumored
– Rob Van Dam vs. Cesaro vs. Jack Swagger
Make sure to join us here this Sunday night for the absolute best live WWE Extreme Rules results coverage.
Adapt or perish. That is the message Triple H has been sending to the Shield in recent weeks since reforming Evolution. The concept seems simple enough when applied to professional wrestling: either evolve your character over time or quickly become irrelevant.
However, Triple H should be heeding his own advice, because it appears Evolution is the stable that will need to adapt in the near future in order to survive. With Batista taking some time off after Extreme Rules and Triple H only working a part-time in-ring schedule, Randy Orton will be the only full-time competitor left in Evolution in a few weeks.
The ultimate goal of the entire Evolution/Shield feud is to set up a contest between Triple H and Roman Reigns sometime this fall, most likely at SummerSlam. If Batista takes a significant amount of time off and Triple H only appears to cut promos, it seems like it will be difficult to drag out the program until August.
Batista is taking some time off after Extreme Rules, leaving only one full-time competitor in Evolution.
Ric Flair is scheduled to appear on Raw this week, meaning he could also be inserted into the program for a brief period of time. I highly doubt that Flair will be around for long though, as he was not originally slated to rejoin Evolution, and considering the fact that he hasn’t shown up to a WWE event sober in months, it seems unlikely that too much importance will be placed on the Nature Boy.
Flair’s sobriety, or lack thereof, aside, he is also not someone who is going to compete in the ring, so his involvement seems rather pointless, especially when considering that Triple H is basically playing the same managerial role that Flair occupied during the stable’s original incarnation.
The following are highlights of a new SLAM! Wrestling interview with Seth Rollins:
On The Shield’s recent babyface turn: “It’s just how things happen. It’s been an interesting transformation, I suppose. But to be honest with you, we really haven’t done much different. We just started targeting different people, I suppose. By that association, the fans just started to get with us. It’s been fun. It’s been a side to take for sure, but I think it’s something that we’re all pretty excited about.”
On the young crop of WWE Superstars in the company today: “I think that with this new generation of guys, you talk about the Wyatt Family, you can talk about Daniel Bryan, the Usos, you can throw Cesaro in there. There’s this next generation of dudes who are hungry, man. The Shield, coming into WWE, we wanted to change what was going on. We had seen the business stagnate for a good five years at least. Just guys not coming in being hungry, and not wanting to make change, not wanting to ruffle any feathers, feeling like they’re walking on eggshells. Myself, Ambrose and Reigns, we were never like that. We’re all alpha males, that type personality. We all want to be the best, be number one. From the very outset, we were just going to work harder than everybody else, put on better matches than everybody else, cut better promos than everybody else, be more interesting than everybody else. We didn’t really care who that pissed off. I think that attitude resonated with a lot of other guys that we came across, especially in developmental — and they brought that attitude up here with them. It’s really a great time to be a WWE fan, because you’ve got a lot of very invested performers who are willing to make that sacrifice, to make that change.”
On Daniel Bryan’s rise through the ranks: “People say he ascended so quickly, but he’s been in WWE for what, four years now? And before that he was on the indies for over decade. He’s a guy who, if anybody’s put in the time, it’s him; if anybody’s had a slow build to where they’re at, it’s him. It definitely seems like a skyrocket, just because of all the attention the Yes Movement has gathered, the way he’s been positioned over the last six months particularly. But like I said, he’s worked so hard, and I’m super happy for him. He deserves it. I’m real proud of him as a performer and as a friend.”
On he and Dean Ambrose helping Roman Reigns: “He’s smart enough to listen. He’s smart enough to pay attention and pick up little things. He’s someone who’s a student of the game. He played football before he got here. He didn’t spend as much time doing this as we had, but it’s in his blood. His family’s a huge part of this business. He’s just a guy who’s built for it. It’s just part of him. We spend a lot of time in the car and a lot of time in the ring together, and stuff like that, so if he’s not learning, then something’s not right. But I think it’s pretty clear that over the past 18 months that we’ve been teamed up up here that his progression and his development has been accelerated, to say the least.”
You can check out the complete interview at Slam.Canoa.ca.
The following is a non-spoiler match listing for this week’s edition of WWE SmackDown, which was taped on April 22nd in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and will air this Friday, April 25th on the SyFy Network.
– “The Great Debate” between Paul Heyman and Cesaro.
– Cesaro vs. Jack Swagger
– Natalya vs. Tamina Snuka
– Curtis Axel vs. Jey Uso
– Luke Harper & Erick Rowan vs. Goldust & Cody Rhodes
– Fandango & Layla vs. Santino Marella & Emma
– The Shield vs. 11 WWE Superstars
For a complete WWE SmackDown spoiler report for this week, click ahead to page two …
When the Shield debuted over a year ago, Roman Reigns was like the shadowy muscle of the group. He was the least featured member of the trio. He was given few lines during their promos. Yet he was always there to deliver a devastating spear or triple powerbomb when needed.
With the rich indy wrestling history of both Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose, it is no surprise that they were expected to carry most of the load during the early days of the stable. After all, Roman Reigns was a former football player and started wrestling in 2010, whereas both Ambrose and Rollins had been wrestling since the early 2000’s.
Reigns does have a rich family history though, as he is a member of the famous Anoa’i family that includes past superstars such as Yokozuna, Rikishi, and The Rock, so it is not like he was a complete stranger to the world of wrestling.
After his dominating performance at last year’s Survivor Series, it seemed obvious that there were big plans for Roman Reigns.
A little over a year ago, it appeared that Dean Ambrose was the member being groomed for a breakout solo career. He was considered the de facto of the group and is the only member of the group to win a solo title while Rollins and Reigns shared the Tag Team Championships.
Something changed last fall, however, and it appeared that Reigns was the one gaining momentum in the Shield after Ambrose seemed enter a lull. Coincidentally enough, it was as soon as Rollins and Reigns lost their championships that his push began. The first hint that he was going to be a breakout star was at last year’s Survivor Series, where he was the sole survivor and dominated the competition, eliminating four opponents during the contest.
Reigns later eliminated the most competitors in Royal Rumble history during the 2014 contest and he has not looked back since. With the Shield now entering into a program with the newly reformed Evolution, there are reports that the ultimate goal of the feud is to set up a matchup between Triple H and Roman Reigns at this year’s SummerSlam. The reports make one wonder: is Roman Reigns ready for a massive solo push?