Despite the feeling coming out of last night’s RAW being that Bray Wyatt is in store for a babyface turn, the plan is to keep him a heel for the time being.
The thought behind The Wyatt Family right now is to keep them heel until The Shield turns heel, so the two sides will continue to remain on opposite sides of the fence, with the obvious exception of Roman Reigns, who as noted will eventually be split off and turned into a singles babyface competitor.
The official WWE website has published a new editorial piece featuring 8 bold predictions for the WWE Universe leading up to next year’s WrestleMania 31 event:
– Roman Reigns will win the 2015 Royal Rumble Match
– John Cena will join The Wyatt Family
– The Undertaker will retire
– The WWE World Heavyweight Championship will once again split into two titles
– Stephanie McMahon will target the Divas Championship
– Zeb Colter will form a stable of Real Americans
– Cody Rhodes will win (and cash in) Money in the Bank
– Cesaro will break away from Paul Heyman and challenge Brock Lesnar
Hit up the comments below and tell us if you agree with any of these picks.
The key objective in WWE doing a feud between The Shield and the reunited Evolution faction is apparently to establish Roman Reigns as a top singles competitor and get him into a match with Triple H.
As previously reported, the original idea is for the rumored HHH vs. Reigns bout to take place at SummerSlam, although there is a possibility that it won’t happen until Hell In A Cell or Survivor Series, depending on how long the story between the two plays out.
The following are highlights of a new RossOwenWilliams.com interview with former WWE Superstar Bob Holly.
On Undertaker’s streak coming to an end: “I think it was the right move with the wrong guy. Brock is a part time guy who wrestles what? Three times a year? They could have used that slot to make somebody who is full time. I think people would have accepted that more and wouldn’t have been in as much shock if it had been somebody else.”
On Roman Reigns: “I think it would have been good to have Roman Reigns go over on Taker. I think they’re moulding their next big star there and it would have been perfect to have him work with Taker instead of Brock. That would have made Roman Reigns. Right into main event status. That would have made him and once he beat Taker, his next thing should have been Randy Orton, Daniel Bryan or John Cena. Go after one of those three.”
On Undertaker’s retirement: “You know, just because he lost at Wrestlemania, everyone is speculating that it was his last match. Nowhere does it say that it was his last match. He never came out and said “this is it”. That said, I don’t think a match with the part-timer was the way to go. If Taker had been in the ring with someone else, a guy who knows how to lead a match and tell a good story, I think that would have been a better fit for Taker, whether it was his last match or not.”
– Brock Lesnar is expected to be back in WWE by SummerSlam. There’s been talk that he will challenge Daniel Bryan for he will eventually challenge WWE World Heavyweight Championship at the show.
As reported last week, Triple H vs. Roman Reigns is also planned for SummerSlam.
– WWE’s 4/12 live event from Hidalgo, Texas drew 6,000. The 4/13 event the following night from Chattanooga, Tennessee drew 5,200 fans.
– NXT star Enzo Amore returned to training this past week after being out of action since the fall with a broken leg.
Near the end of last year, it appeared the WWE would once again focus on promoting its tag team division. After the championships were practically ignored and bounced around between random teams that were comprised of young talent for over a year, Team Hell No helped legitimize the titles once again.
Kane and Bryan held the titles for nearly a year before eventually dropping the straps to Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. The division picked up even more after the Shield got their hands on the titles and was straight up stacked for months. At one point the company was even relying a lot on six-man tag matches just to get as many guys as possible on the broadcast.
Team Hell No helped spark fan interest after a dull period in the tag division.
Near the end of last year, the Rhodes Brothers, the Shield (Rollins and Reigns), the Wyatt Family (Harper and Rowan), the Real Americans, the Usos, the Prime Time Players, and the New Age Outlaws were all in contention for the Tag Team titles at some point.
Since then, nearly every one of those teams has fallen off the face of the Earth, save the Usos who are now the champions. The Rhodes Brothers are barely competing together, the Shield is beyond competing for the championships at this point, the Wyatt Family has been involved in other affairs, both the Real Americans and Prime Time Players have split, and it appears the New Age Outlaws do not want to exercise that rematch clause after all.
The dissolution and promotion of various teams has resulted in the tag team division entering into a transitional state where the company needs to develop new teams or promote others from NXT. Think about the current teams on the roster. We have the Usos who are obviously champions, but who are their challengers? The only other teams even on the roster are Los Matadores, Ryback and Axel, and 3MB, unless I am forgetting someone.
We are a little over a quarter of the way through the year. With WrestleMania behind us, the WWE will now begin its summer programs and hope to build toward its second biggest pay-per-view of the year, SummerSlam.
With that said, I felt it would be interesting to look at the top five matches from the first quarter of 2014. I included full match videos and highlights where possible, but WWE licensing restrictions made it difficult at times. (I also apologize for the terrible music in a few of the videos.)
5. John Cena vs. Cesaro (February 17 Raw) – Say what you will about John Cena’s in-ring ability, but he has put on some great matches so far this year, with none better than this matchup with Cesaro. There were a number of amazing spots during the contest, with Cesaro’s counter of the AA certainly ranking near the top. It appears the WWE is going to push Cesaro hard, and this was the week where his push began after he defeated Randy Orton and pushed Cena to the limit.
4. Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H (WrestleMania) – After weeks of begging for a match with Triple H, Daniel Bryan finally got his wish at WrestleMania. He took full advantage of it during the opening contest of the night. Both superstars really shined during the match and it was, in my opinion, the highlight of the show. It also ranks as quite possibly the best opening match in WrestleMania history, with only Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart at WrestleMania X giving it a run for its money.
– Triple H vs. Roman Reigns is currently being discussed as a top match for SummerSlam on August 17th. The seeds have already been planted for this feud, which will likely feature a Shield vs. Evolution showdown en route to this blockbuster match.
– WrestleMania XXX was just a week away, but there is already talk about who Brock Lesnar will wrestle next year in Santa Clara, California. The first rumored opponent is The Rock, who at one point was slated to face Lesnar at this year’s show.
The other big name who could face the Beast at WrestleMania 31 is Cesaro. Both men are currently represented by Paul Heyman and it remains to be seen how the two will interact when Lesnar eventually returns to television.
Brock Lesnar’s current WWE deal expires shortly after WrestleMania 31.
– Dean Ambrose appeared to have suffered a rib injury at Tuesday night’s broadcast of WWE Main Event. He wrestled later in the night at the SmackDown tapings, so the injury was either a work or not serious enough to keep him out action.
– Roman Reigns tweeted the following on Wednesday:
@TripleH Kings don’t win wars, Soldiers do. Watch your back Hunter because no one else will! #FallofTheKing
– Following the huge success of WrestleMania XXX and the impact that it had on the city of New Orleans, local television station WAFB 9 reports that city officials are strongly pushing to host the event again. New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation President Mark Romig said the city wants to host the event again as soon as WrestleMania 35 in 2019. He stated:
“We think we’ve put out a great red carpet. We’ve shown them how to really put on a great event, everything within walking distance and we hope to be part of this rotation going forward.”
– The official WWE website recently added a new video of Roman Reigns working out and preparing for this Sunday’s WrestleMania XXX. You can check that out at WWE.com.
– The latest edition of WWE Inbox features several WWE Superstars giving their predictions for this year’s WrestleMania. You can watch that below:
The following are highlights of a recent Chad Dukes Wrestling Show WrestleMania Spectacular interview with Batista:
On his return to WWE: “I left for very specific reasons and the reasons were because there were certain opportunities I wasn’t getting when I was with the company, and we were so locked down and I mean when you’re under contract with them you’re pretty much limited to the things, you can do. You really can’t do anything else in the company without their say so and they weren’t…certain guys were getting opportunities that I wasn’t getting and I wasn’t real cool with that. So I left to accomplish certain things, and I felt like once I accomplished them, I always wanted to come back. At the end of the day I love professional wrestling. I really, I really do, man. So it’s not like I never planned to come back, I wanted to come back sooner. It’s just that you know it took me longer to accomplish certain things that I really want to accomplish. I didn’t want to be working and do one movie a year. It’s just I was out there auditioning and stuff, these were the jobs I was getting, and once I landed it, you know the Marvel deals, I felt like I accomplished everything I wanted to and then some. We didn’t come back and demand a lot of money you know I didn’t say, ‘I’m not doing house shows I’m only doing Monday Night Raw.’ I mean I said, ‘I’ll do Smackdown, I’ll do house shows.'”
On being selective with film roles: “I got offered a lot of roles, coming out of wrestling, on stuff that was going straight to DVD and it wasn’t the stuff that I want to do and I really wanted like, really good projects. I really, I really had a passion for acting and I really wanted to become a better actor. So I passed up on a lot of that stuff and held out for like better roles, and stuff that will put me in the next to guys were really established actors, so I could kinda learn from, so it wasn’t easy man. I got out there and pounded the pavement.”
On his heat with Daniel Bryan fans possibly coming from a 2011 tweet: “For some reason I think people thought that I didn’t like Daniel Bryan or I had this personal thing. I said a comment, I had one comment about him when he first won the world heavyweight championship and I was like, I was in shock and I said, “Okay.” Because I just didn’t get it. The reason I didn’t get it because it was too soon and that’s my personal opinion. I felt it was way too soon and they did that constantly over and over. I thought they, they just slap the title on people like, way too fast. It’s like, I think sometimes that they used the title, I might get a little grief for saying it, sometimes I think they use the title to get guys over. I thought it just, they did it, it was premature. I never had a problem with him being you know, World Heavyweight Champion, I just thought that they did it way too fast.
You can’t convince me that some body else was a bigger supporter of Daniel Bryan cause I mean that was years ago, before everybody was you know on his jock, when they wanted me to job him out, and I was like, “Hell no.” He’s just too good. He had been coming around for years and I could never figure out why they didn’t give him a job, but he had come out and they wanted me to work a match with him, and squash him and I was like, “No, not gonna happen.” He’s way too good man, we could have a good match, and we did. I mean we gave ‘em a version of what they wanted, but we gave ‘em a hell of a match. It looked like a competitive match. When at the time it’s not with what they wanted.”
On current WWE Superstar who are impressing him: “I love Bray Wyatt. I love him. I love that whole gimmick, that whole Wyatt Family gimmick, but Bray I think he’s gonna be a huge star. I get caught up in this guy, man. When I watch him he’s one of those guys. He’s another guy, I mean he doesn’t look like a stud. He’s not a statue of a man, but he is athletic as you can get, that kid can move man. He is agile, he is a stud man. That kid is as an athlete. He gets when he cuts a promo, you just get sucked in man. He is hypnotizing. When I talk to him like personal, on a personal level, he’s one of those kids who’s not afraid to learn, he has no ego. He’s still learning and he knows he’s still learning and he’s not afraid to ask questions, and I think that’s why he’s going to be so good. Cause he’s this good right now and he still wants to learn. I love the whole Shield gimmick, everyone’s real focused on Roman, and I think he’s definitely going to be a huge star, but Dean Ambrose to me, he’s the star of that.”
The following are highlights of a new Boston Herald interview with Roman Reigns:
On meshing well with Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins: “We didn’t know we would complement each other so well. Everything from what we wear, entering through the crowd, even the triple powerbomb in itself, it’s clicked and been so organic. That’s been the most exciting part. We spend so much time together, we’ve jumped the friend stage in the past year and a half and become brothers.”
On facing legends at WrestleMania XXX: “The faces will always change, the styles will evolve. I respect what people before me have done, but my time is now.”
On wanting to headline WrestleMania: “Every single day. Somebody just asked me if I would like to take on the Undertaker and beat his (WrestleMania) streak. I would rather retain the WWE world heavyweight championship while taking out the streak. My motivation is to be the best. I have a deep responsibility to leave things better than the way I found them. I don’t want to live off potential, so the first thing I have to do is capture the gold.”
The Shield member Roman Reigns spoke to The Washington Post this week to promote WrestleMania XXX. Here are some highlights of what he said about:
The Significance Of Performing At WrestleMania: “I’s Mania first. We want to get there the right way, and we want to just tear the house down. We wanna burn it down, put cracks in the wall, just demolish that place and have an awesome match.”
“As far as the next day? There’s going to be some gaps. There are going to be a bunch of big names that are gonna compete [at Wrestlemania] and then not be there on Monday. That’s when guys like myself, the rest of the Shield, Cesaro, the Usos .?.?. there’s a bunch of guys who want this and are willing to work every single day. If I’m a fan of the WWE, I would feel safe to know that your entertainment is in the right hands.”
How Crowd Reactions Affect His Matches:
“I try to live in the moment. When you’re in a singles match, you’re in there, and the guy’s on top of you, and you’re in a hold and you’re being smothered: You’re in the fight at all times. But when we’re doing these team fights, you have a little time to take in the moment and just absorb the energy of the crowd.”
“Especially with the crowds nowadays. They’re very opinionated; you can almost sense that the crowd has taken a leadership role within their own product. This is what they take joy in and take pride in. And if they’re not into something, they’re going to let you know. If they’re into something, same thing: They’re going to let you know.”
If He Sees Himself As A Potential Main Event Singles Star:
“I’ve always pictured myself being in the main event. It’s always been my expectation to be the top guy, the face of the company, the one with all of that responsibility. But that should be everybody’s goal. I didn’t get into this to just be in the middle of the pack. If you want to do that, go work in a different line of work. This isn’t the place to camouflage yourself. I’m trying to be the most exotic animal on this safari.”
Why He Does Not Use A Samoan Ring Name:
“It was a process. Of course, immediately the thought was: ‘He’s Samoan, so let’s run with that.’ But then I think they saw my personality, being more of a cultured guy, going to college, playing ball, things like that, just the kind of guy I am, you know, just be me — don’t try and focus on a nationality or an ethnicity or anything like that. Just be myself.”
The following is a non-spoiler match listing for this week’s edition of WWE SmackDown. For complete spoiler results, click ahead to page two.
– Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose vs. Drew McIntyre & Jinder Mahal
– Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose vs. Ryback & Curtis Axel
– Damien Sandow vs. Sin Cara
– Goldust vs. Fandango
– Batista vs. Sheamus
– The Bella Twins vs. AJ Lee & Tamina Snuka
– Jack Swagger vs. Jimmy Uso
– The Miz vs. Mark Henry
– Bray Wyatt vs. Big Show
For complete spoiler results for this week’s WWE SmackDown, click ahead to page two …
Following their debut at the 2012 Survivor Series, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, and Roman Reigns, collectively known as the Shield, quickly became one of the most dominant and influential stables in recent memory.
The group primarily acted as heels throughout their successful run, although they were frequently cheered as well. In particular, Roman Reigns would frequently receive huge pops from the crowd, as seen during his breakthrough performances at the 2013 Survivor Series and 2014 Royal Rumble.
After attacking Director of Operations Kane, the group officially turned babyface and the crowd has been eating it up in recent weeks, with their celebration following their beat down of Ryback and Curtis Axel on this past week’s RAW serving as evidence of the group’s popularity.
After a tumultuous few weeks, the Shield appears to be reunited, but for how long can the Hounds of Justice keep their respective egos in check?
The group now seems to be reunited and stronger than ever after there was serious tension between the Hounds of Justice. So why did the WWE decide to turn the Shield face after it seemed they would dissolve just a few weeks prior?
The Wyatt Effect
One of the primary reasons the Shield were forced to turn face was the emergence of the Wyatt Family. There is only so much room on the roster for stables, and the Wyatt Family are without a doubt the predominant heel group on the roster today.
With the Wyatt Family serving as the main heel stable on the roster and essentially adopting the same M.O. as the Shield (appearing out of nowhere to savagely destroy unsuspecting foes), it only makes sense that creative would not want two stables acting in a similar manner, even if their gimmicks are stark contrasts of one another.
As previously reported, there is a plan in place to break up The Shield. As noted, the idea is for Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose to split off into a heel tag-team, while Roman Reigns will be used as a top babyface singles competitor going forward.
One of the reasons WWE had The Shield turn babyface on RAW was to set up The New Age Outlaws working a program with them, which they requested. Additionally, the feeling was it would better set up Reigns’ singles run.
The general consensus within WWE is that it will be better for Reigns’ singles run for Ambrose and Rollins to turn on him instead of Reigns turning on them.
Roman Reigns spoke to PressofAtlanticCity.com this week to promote Saturday’s WWE live event in Atlantic City, NJ. Below are some highlights of what he said about:
The Shield’s Rise: “We brought in an insane work ethic with us. We all trained down in the developmental system together, so the powers that be knew what kind of competitors they were bringing up. If there’s something we want, or we need, we’ll fight for it, and I think that’s pretty apparent with what we’ve done in the first couple of years.”
Hulk Hogan’s Return: “He’s such a big name, and he’s a legend. He was a part of the process that laid down the foundation for what we have now. To be such a huge part of our history, it’s important that he’s a part of our present, and a part of our future.”
The Road to WrestleMania Atmosphere: “We’re in the home stretch to WrestleMania, so there’s no time for games. There’s no playing around. Everyone’s trying to get themselves just completely polished before the biggest sports entertainment show on earth, so everybody is going to bring their A games. Everybody wants to be sharp and perfectly set for Mania. We’re coming in there to wreck shop, to tear it down, and where it starts is for these live crowds on these WWE live events. There’s no days off for a WWE superstar, especially once you get into the home stretch to WrestleMania.”
Roman Reigns spoke to Coaster Boy Josh this week to promote WrestleMania XXX. Here are some highlights of what he said about:
How he first got involved with WWE:
“Everybody’s different. For me, it was different than the next guy, and the next guy’s different than the next guy…so, coming from our family, [the WWE] already knew about me, especially playing football in a Division I college. So, I had heard before that they were interested in giving me a tryout and getting me down to the developmental system, so I kind of had that in the back of my head.
But once I knew this is something I wanted to try, I had a long talk with my dad and he made a few phone calls, and I was fortunate enough to get a tryout.”
How he trains psychologically to put on a great match:
“Well, putting on a great match can happen in so many different ways. Sometimes it isn’t psychology..sometimes it’s just fireworks. Sometimes you have two minutes and have to go out there and just do something..and ya’ did something it caught the eye and the attention of everybody and there really wasn’t any psychology, it didn’t make sense, but it still made the people stand up.
So, it’s a weird thing as far as what makes a good match, but as far as learning the mental game of it, for me, being a football player I’ve always been good at watching, and watching tape, and learning from that. But when I was down there learning psychology, it was more talking to my cousins..I talked to the Usos a good bit. I was actually neighbors with Jey Uso for my first six months down in developmental, and we’d just sit on the porch all night talking…talking, talking, talking wrestling.”
The Shield’s Debut & WWE’s Original Plan For Them:
“Yeah, we debuted at Survivor Series — the coolest part of that is we were supposed to have like shields. It was really..for lack of a better word..it was really lame. We had like, literal riot shields..fiberglass riot shields with the word “Shield” written up it. We were like..’everyone will know who we are..geez’. We just pictured..trying to get into the ring with these things.
Like, for years now..you go into the ring a certain way, and you’re not usually carrying a huge, plastic shield. So, we just had this terrifying nightmare of not being able to..like slide in and we’re like stuck..we can’t get in and we’re looking up and there’s Ryback standing over us, and we’ve completely blown the whole debut.
So, immediately, Vince was like ‘What, are you guys wussies? You need that?’ We’re like ‘No’. And he’s like ‘Good, leave them’, and we just ran in there and we beat the dog piss out of Ryback and put him through the table.”
According to an internal list that was just made in WWE, the company is projecting the following five guys to be the top Superstars, in order, going forward after WrestleMania XXX in April.
1. John Cena
2. Daniel Bryan
3. Randy Orton
4. Sheamus
5. Roman Reigns
Many found it interesting that both Sheamus came in at number two, and that Batista was not on the list at all. In the case of Sheamus, many point to the fact that Triple H has been very high on him for quite a while.
It should be noted, by the way, that this is a list of the guys they feel will be in those positions several months down the line, as opposed to where they are today. Obviously when they get to that point, things will likely have changed many times, but this is the list that the company just recently made.
As previously reported, the current plan in WWE is to promote John Cena and Daniel Bryan as the number one and number two babyfaces in the company coming out of WrestleMania XXX. Apparently another guy that is in store for a big push is Cesaro, who is a guy that the company has been planning on getting behind lately.
Other names that are set to receive a push after WrestleMania this year are Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt, Brock Lesnar, Batista and Randy Orton.
– In addition to the Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins vs. Luke Harper & Erick Rowan and Dean Ambrose vs. Big E. title unification match rumors for WrestleMania XXX, there continues to be discussion about a possible triple-threat match with Reigns, Ambrose and Rollins competing against each other at WrestleMania XXX.
– WWE ring announcer Lilian Garcia sang the National Anthem and participated in a 5K race to support the Susan G. Komen Foundation earlier today in Los Angeles, California.
According to reports, WWE is strongly considering the possibility of adding a third person to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship main event at WrestleMania XXX between Randy Orton and Batista. The latest internal lineup in the company reads, “Batista vs. Orton vs. ?”
Other WrestleMania XXX matches that have been discussed internally, but not yet decided on, include Big E. vs. Dean Ambrose in a match to unify the WWE United States and WWE Intercontinental Championships, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan vs. Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins, Sheamus vs. Christian, Goldust vs. Cody Rhodes and a match pitting two NXT wrestlers against each other in a match on the main card.
WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross has updated his blog with some thoughts about Monday’s RAW, which you can read in its entirety at JRsBarBQ.com. Here are some highlights of what JR said about:
Rising Stars Getting Exposure “For many it was a good night of exposure: Daniel Bryan, who just a few weeks ago was being eulogized by many of his fans, the Shield, who had multiple ‘moments’ throughout the broadcast, Cesaro, who is so good just ring the bell and watch him demonstrate the art form of in ring wrestling, The Wyatt’s, who are rapidly evolving as stars and who, along with the Shield, have the opportunity to turn even more heads coming up on PPV.”
Roman Reigns: “Roman Reigns winning with his spear over Mark Henry was big…no pun intended. If I had to pick an early favorite to either be the WWE World Champion at WM31 or to win the title there, it would be Reigns. How Roman Reigns is ‘built’ going forward is imperative to the long term success of WWE as it relates to constructing the next, major, WWE superstar.”
Cesaro vs. John Cena: “Loved the Cena vs. Cesaro match. One of the best matches that Cena has had in a while. Cesaro is on the cusp of breaking through. Got lots of feedback on why Cesaro did not win and certainly, as it is almost always, an argument can be made on the topic of who wins and who loses. With great commentary, the loser can come out of a great presentation better than when going into the match. I thought Cesaro was made whole after Cena pulled one out in the bottom of the 9th that could have gone either way.”
The following are highlights from a new website Q&A update by WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross:
On Antonio Cesaro: “Cesaro is a star who’s underutilized and is a stalwart in the locker room. Fans like him out of respect for his in ring work. Flip a switch on him and it’s done.”
On Justin Gabriel: “Not sure why Justin Gabriel hasn’t made more of an impact. Something is missing from the equation.”
On the possibility of Bray Wyatt vs. Roman Reigns headlining a future WrestleMania: “Sure, it’s possible. Time will tell. All must remain healthy and avoid issues.”
On whether or not Hulk Hogan has one match left in him: “If true, it’s a great idea but I don’t need to see Hulk attempt to wrestle.”
On MVP working in TNA: “He’s a positive, fresh face that should help TNA if they plan long term, utilize MVP’s skills and lessen Dixie’s presence on their show. ”
On the WWE Network: “I’m WAY out of the WWE Network loop. I’m not aware of how they will deal with the many issues that are likely to pop up for the start up. I’m hopeful that the Network is successful for many reasons even though some fans will find things wrong with it just because that’s their usual MO.”
On Kurt Angle returning to WWE: “Lots of things have to happen for Angle to return to WWE including extensive medical, etc testing. His in ring days are very limited.”
Check out more from JR’s latest website Q&A update at JRsBarBQ.com.