– In addition to Mark Henry, WWE Hall of Famer Gerald Brisco was also in Rio for the Olympics representing WWE this summer. Brisco was there to scout wrestlers for WWE.
– WWE has announced that their first Chinese acquisition Bin Wang will make his in-ring debut at the 9/10 WWE house show in Shanghai, China. He will be facing Bo Dallas. Below is a photo of the two facing off in NYC this weekend and a hype video from Triple H:
– WWE has really upped the number of mainstream sponsorships as of late. Below is the full KFC segment with Dolph Ziggler and The Miz, Miz in a new ad for Domino’s Pizza and a Sami Zayn “Resilience” vignette for Mercury Insurance:
– Seth Rollins was disappointed the Brooklyn crowd at SummerSlam last night, apparently at their rejection of the new WWE Universal Championship belt. Rollins tweeted the following after losing to Finn Balor:
More important than a title's appearance is what it represents for the men fighting over it. You really let me down tonight, Brooklyn.
– It sounds like Sami Zayn and Neville be teaming more. They spoke with Andrea D’Marco after defeating The Dudleyz on the SummerSlam pre-show and talked about making a statement of intent, and just scratching the surface of what they can do. Video is below:
– Nikki Bella has officially joined the SmackDown brand after returning at SummerSlam to guide her team to victory. Nikki spoke with Charly Caruso, seen below, and talked about looking forward to doing great things and taking the division over. Nikki also tweeted on her return, also seen below.
I'm bacckkk!! What a journey my past 10 months have been! Words can't even describe how I feel being back in that ring! FEARLESS FOREVER! N
SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan recently spoke with FOX Sports to promote SummerSlam. Running SmackDown’s day-to-day operations is a demanding job, but so far it has not been the hardest part about returning to WWE.
“The hardest part actually is not the task of being the GM, it’s moreso being around wrestling and not being able to actually wrestle,” he said. “That’s the hardest part. The other stuff is …. I feel like I’m not the greatest general manager in the history of general managers, but I do OK and I’m learning as I go. I try to just do my best with it.”
Interviewer Nick Schwartz asked Bryan if he could pick one star from RAW and bring them to SmackDown, who would it be? ” So, if you would have asked me three weeks ago I would have said Cesaro, but he’s actually got some really great opportunities on Raw the last couple weeks, this past Monday he had two matches including being in the main event on Raw, so I hope that leads to him getting a larger role.” he said.
“But, because of that, now I would say Sami Zayn. I mean Sami Zayn just had this incredible match with Kevin Owens that he won at Battleground, and fans really like him and he wasn’t even on Raw on Monday. We could really use somebody like that on SmackDown.”
Head over to FOXSports.com to read the full interview.
– While Shane McMahon will be the new SmackDown Commissioner when the show goes live next week, he’s starting a week early as he will be appearing on this Thursday’s show.
– Tommy Dreamer was backstage for last night’s SmackDown tapings in Grand Rapids, MI. This adds to the speculation that Dreamer is one of the veterans the company will be bringing back for the Draft.
– The dark segment after last night’s WWE tapings saw Dean Ambrose lead a celebration for Sami Zayn, who celebrated his 32nd birthday yesterday.
– Dolph Ziggler swerves an unsuspecting fan at an awkward audition in this new WWE Served extra:
– Dusty Rhodes will be inducted by Magnum TA into the Hall of Heroes 2016 Class during the NWA Legends Fanfest weekend in Charlotte, NC on 8/5. Cody Rhodes tweeted that his mom and sister will be there for the induction.
– Paul Heyman tweeted these details on an exclusive Brock Lesnar WWE 2K17 contest with WWE Games and Game Stop. Fans can visit their local Game Stop store to take a photo with the 2K17 Lesnar standee, then tweet that out with the proper hashtags. The winner receives two WrestleMania 33 tickets, airfare & hotel, $500 spending money and more. Full details are at this link from Heyman:
– Apollo Crews and Sami Zayn fill out their WWE Cruiserweight Classic brackets in these new videos. Crews has his friend Akira Tozawa going all the way while Sami believes Kota Ibushi has the upperhand.
– WWE has announced Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens & Alberto Del Rio vs. Dean Ambrose, Cesaro & Sami Zayn for this week’s SmackDown. Join us here later tonight for our weekly Live Coverage of the SmackDown tapings.
– WWE has registered to trademark the term “Legion of Doom.” The timing is curious, since LOD’s former manager Paul Ellering just returned to the company last week at Takeover. He will be managing the new Authors of Pain tag team, comprised of Sunny Dhinsa and Gzim Selmani.
– Chris Jericho will be Jonathan Coachman’s guest on tonight’s ESPN “Off The Top Rope” segment.
– David Otunga is no longer working the weekly WWE RAW pre-show on the WWE Network. He did commentary at last night’s WWE Superstars tapings and in the video below, confirms his new role. Otunga will now be doing weekly commentary for Superstars and Main Event with Tom Phillips.
– Bray Wyatt continues to tease his upcoming return to WWE, this time referencing “Abby.” Wyatt was seemingly in the process of turning babyface prior to his recent injury during WWE’s post-WrestleMania European tour. His calf injury had an expected recovery time of 4-6 weeks, so he should be ready to return any week now.
Here are RAW Fallout videos from this week with Lana and Rusev accusing the WWE referees of a conspiracy, Sami Zayn talking about dreaming of going for the WWE IC Title since he was 10 and Kevin Owens predicting he will get “his” title back in the Fatal 4 Way at Extreme Rules:
Here are some highlights from Sami Zayn’s recent interview with Omaha.com:
What’s next for him:
“If you caught RAW the other night, the story between Kevin Owens and I isn’t over. It might never be over. I do have my sights set on the Intercontinental Championship now. My heroes all held that title. It’s a title I always dreamed of winning. Even after a long career, I’m really only just getting started now. It’s crazy to think. I’m really looking forward to this journey. Hopefully the fans come along with me.”
How he gets ready for matches:
“The first part of my career, I tried to psych myself up. I don’t think it’s that good for you. You end up getting nerves. As I got a little later in my career, I started keeping it real loose and not getting in my head. I try to stay loosey goosey, you know? The only difference now is after tearing out my shoulder and getting surgery, I really have to warm up my shoulder.”
How the pro wrestling audience has changed over time:
“There’s people like you, like me who grew up watching Randy Savage and Bret Hart. Those are the guys we grew up watching. Then there are the guys who watched them like Steve Austin and Mick Foley. It’s funny how the generations really change and morph. You’re seeing that on the roster as well. It is completely unrecognizable to 10 years ago. That’s why it’s this new era. This is a new generation. It’s my generation. We’re gonna do it right. We’re gonna make these fans have a reason to cheer.”
Head over to Omaha.com to read the full interview.
Sami Zayn and Shinsuke Nakamura had arguably the “Match of the Year” inside the WWE at NXT Takeover Dallas.
Fans all around the world were anticipating a spectacle, and both men delivered in a major way. Millions watched as Nakamura’s WWE NXT debut was everything they expected it to be, and more. It was also Zayn’s final match in NXT, which was a somber, but exciting moment.
What’s interesting is how the match came to be behind the scenes. On a recent episode of Talk Is Jericho, Sami Zayn revealed that he and Nakamura didn’t interact before their match at NXT Takeover.
“I think I met him literally once. And we’ve had very parallel careers. He started [at] the same time as me. I think I started two months before him or something. [Him] 14 years, me 14 years. He was in New Japan. I never worked New Japan, so we never worked. We’ve met maybe once. We never touched and I remember Matt Bloom, who’s head of the WWE Performance Center now was saying, ‘Hey, maybe you guys want to get in the PC and spar a little or something like that. I don’t want the first time you guys get in the ring ever, the first time you touch, to be at this big match.’ And unbeknownst to me, Nakamura said the same thing I said, ‘No, no, no. I prefer that,’ which is a dangerous thing, but it’s what I know. Yes, I prefer for the first time to be in the show, instead of a ‘Hey, lets feel it out in the ring’ [and] feel how this guy moves and stuff. So we ended up putting something together.’” – Sami Zayn
Knowing the back story to Zayn and Nakamura’s match at NXT Takeover Dallas immediately makes it more impressive.
It’s a known fact that there are wrestlers who don’t like to outline a match move by move. Clearly, neither of those men like to either and it was one of the greatest matches in NXT history.
WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross has posted a new batch of Q&A’s at his official website, JRsBarBQ.com. Here are some highlights from the latest installment:
Sami Zayn’s Potential:
“Zayn is a main eventer in waiting and he’s likely not going to be waiting long. Talented, dedicated pro. BTW working stiff isn’t a crime but working in a careless manner is. Don’t believe all that you read or “hear.”
WWE Raiding Talent From Other Promotions:
“Nothing has changed and they are still scouting for new talents that are untrained but the plethora of skilled, indie talent is too good to pass up. Nothing has really changed in my opinion.”
With Shane running RAW, what was the point of his WM32 match against The Undertaker?
“Don’t have an answer for you…sorry. It’s obviously not that big an issue to WWE or they wouldn’t have forsaken their top WrestleMania stipulation after 24 hours.”
Head over to JRsBarBQ.com to check out the full feature.
With the barrage of medical issues plaguing WWE’s roster, the last thing anybody needs at this point is another Superstar going down with an injury. In light of Bray Wyatt’s incident from earlier this week, one can only wonder how many people were wondering “Oh not again!” when Kevin Owens acted as if he was hurt at Friday night’s WWE live event from Dubai.
After evoking sympathy from the crowd (as well as his opponent, #Kayfabe), Owens showed his true colors and unleashed a vicious attack on longtime rival Sami Zayn. To add insult to injury, he danced a bit to show just how fine he really was.
In the end, Zayn got the pinfall victory after nailing a big boot in the corner. Even in defeat, Owens showed why he’s one of the best pure heels in the business.
Wrestlemania 32 is in the books and it is fair to say that there were some….intriguing….booking choices made by the company, probably the most notable was Y2J picking up the win against AJ Styles, a man who as far as I can recall is the only man to have ever performed at Wrestle Kingdom and Wrestlemania in the same year and lose at both events.
More confusing is that the next night on the Raw after Mania they gave the number 1 contendership to AJ in a match where he pinned Jericho following a Styles Clash, driving home the ‘parity’ booking mentality the company seems to rely on heavily. Jericho has certainly lost more than his fair share of matches and has been more than willing to put over newer talent, even if it leads to obscurity for said talent (….Fandango), but for AJ’s first PPV event he really should’ve picked up the win.
After the win against AJ I fully expected Jericho to be placed in a program with Roman Reigns for the WWE Championship, this feud would’ve been an ideal opportunity for Reigns to learn from a grizzled vet and you can guarantee that Y2J would’ve done all he could’ve to try and stop the fans cheering him in an attempt to get Reigns over. But now that AJ has been placed in this slot for the Payback match what is there left for Jericho to do? There are 4 opponents that I would like to see him face off against from here:
Dean Ambrose – After an underwhelming match with Brock Lesnar at Mania; Ambrose also appears to be a man without a purpose, I have no doubt that an eventual Shield 3 way match for the title is on the cards when Seth Rollins is healthy, but in the meantime I see no reason why Jericho can’t have a similar program to that with CM Punk back in 2012, both are good promos and have the ability to work in a variety of stipulation matches that could re-establish Ambrose as a main event contender going forward, his reactions from the live crowds certainly warrant a prolonged push and I felt he was put in a difficult position with Lesnar as there was no way that they could live up to the Street Fights of yesteryear without the ability to bring blood into their match and that Brock Lesnar should not be losing matches, especially at Wrestlemania.
Shinsuke Nakamura – Even if they aren’t willing to bring Shinsuke up to the main roster full time just yet we’ve seen plenty of examples of NXT talent having cross-over matches, Kevin Owens benefitted greatly from having a program with John Cena while NXT Champion. The storyline could be as simple as Jericho calling Nakamura another ‘Y2J-Wannabe’ as he wrestled in Japan first, you could easily bring up Jericho’s past in the Super-J cup tournament to create a bit of legitimacy as the company appears to be more willing to acknowledge accomplishments outside of the WWE these days, you could even have Jericho perform at a Takeover show, something I’m sure the Full Sail crowd would not complain about. Really I would love to see Shinsuke on the main roster and a feud with Jericho (the gatekeeper of the WWE ‘style’) could be a great way to introduce him to the RAW audience.
Cesaro – He had built up quite a lot of momentum before his injury but a placeholder feud before going for a title could be the ideal way to re-build Cesaro. I feel that this is really the time for the WWE to decide if they are going to really take a push in Cesaro seriously and if so they need to put him up against a heel that will go above and beyond to put them over to the next level, I can definitely see a feud between them working as both Y2J and the Swiss Superman are both well travelled veterans and have experience in the European style of grappling. These two could easily have a show-stealing performance at the likes of Payback and while I don’t see this as a multiple month feud it certainly warrants getting a PPV match out of them at least.
Sami Zayn – Out of the 4 wrestlers mentioned I would say that a program with Sami Zayn is definitely more for further down the road, once he has finished the first (of hopefully) many matches with Kevin Owens I would really enjoy seeing Zayn, who is probably one of the best babyface performers in the world right now, get a feud with Jericho; who could again impart a decent amount of wisdom onto Sami and help him move from the lighter schedule of NXT to the full 300+ days a year main roster workload he will have to adapt to.
Thanks for reading, you can check out the second episode of the R & J Wrestling podcast below looking at the 2008 feud between Jericho and Shawn Michaels:
Bret Hart, WWE Hall of Famer and current host of the Sharpshooter Show Podcast, gave his opinions on Wrestlemania 32 yesterday on his show. As he has shown in the past, Hart is not afraid to tell people what he really thinks. Here are some of the more interesting highlights:
Disappointed with WrestleMania booking. Says “logic didn’t prevail” and the booking “wasn’t up to snuff”
Says he was the man who brought ladder matches to the WWE and can’t believe what a “piece of shit match” it’s turned into
Disappointed in the IC Title ladder match. “A lot of bullshit, a lot of wasted moves, too much laying around”. Calls it a prop match. “Stupid spots that make no sense”. Still calls the match the best match on the card
Says he’d line all the bookers up against the wall and shoot them
“Real wrestling is almost dead. CM Punk, Daniel Bryan and Bret Hart, that kind of wrestling is almost dead”
Says he hates the Styles Clash. “Looks like you just gently brush someone’s stomach on the ground”. However, he calls it the Calf Crusher (got the two moves confused)
Really likes Barrett. Says he’s done the best with the lame gimmicks he’s been given. Thinks Japan may be “his cup of tea”. Compares Barrett to Drew Mcintyre. Both really good talents that were never used correctly
Nakamura vs Zayn was the best match of the whole WrestleMania weekend. Asuka vs Bayley was better than any match on the WrestleMania card
NXT is bringing “real wrestling” to the surface. RAW and WM is “a bunch of morons that sit around creating wrestling. Just writers from Hollywood who don’t know anything about the business. Just Vince Russo’s in a different uniform”
Everything about Nakamura vs Zayn (from entrances to handshake) was “beautiful wrestling”. Made Bret stand and salute. Said the finish to Asuka vs Bayley was also beautiful
Thought Sasha Banks should have won the title. It was her night and it was another bad booking decision
Regarding The Rock’s segment: “For me it was just another example of dweebs sitting around a table writing wrestling”. Called the whole segment “overly scripted bullshit”
To get every episode as it is released, subscribe to Wrestlezone Radio on iTunes, Soundcloud or Stitcher.
It looks like Shinsuke Nakamura will just be known as Nakamura to the WWE/NXT universe. The King Of Strong Style is listed by his last name only in the Wrestlemania 32 program being sold at the WWE Superstore and considering Chad Gable, Jason Jordan and Apollo Crews are on the same page with their full names — it seems like the name drop will happen.
It’s interesting to note that Nakamura is listed with NXT talent in the program, leading many to think he will spend more time than most believed on NXT programming. There is not much known about Nakamura’s direction with NXT/WWE, but this could be a good indication. Or it simply could just be they have him in the NXT section because he is debuting with NXT.
Nakamura is set to debut at NXT TakeOver: Dallas in a match against Sami Zayn . It has been one of the most talked about and highly anticipated matches on both NXT and WWE’s weekend events. The event is live on the WWE Network, Friday April 1.
Former NJPW star Shinsuke Nakamura will make his NXT debut at Takeover: Dallas against Sami Zayn. On this week’s episode of NXT, Zayn was talking about losing to Samoa Joe the previous week and failing to become #1 contender to Finn Balor’s NXT Championship. General Manager William Regal interrupted Zayn and announced that Zayn’s Takeover opponent has been determined.
A pre-taped video played showing Shinsuke Nakamura, who issued the challenge. The crowd knew exactly who Nakamura was and his arrival in WWE has been anticipated since the first week of 2016.
It was also announced that Bayley will put the NXT Women’s championship on the line against Asuka.
With those matches set, here’s the updated card for NXT Takeover Dallas, which takes place on Friday night, April 1st from Dallas, Texas at Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. The show airs live on the WWE Network.
NXT Champion Finn Bálor vs. Samoa Joe
Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
NXT Women’s Champion Bayley vs. Asuka
NXT Tag Team Champions The Revival vs. American Alpha
Monday’s RAW from Chicago saw the surprise return of Sami Zayn, who saved Neville from an attack by Kevin Owens and resumed their longstanding feud. Zayn is now a member of the main roster and will be competing on this week’s episode of SmackDown. He’ll team with Neville against the team of Kevin Owens and The Miz. (SmackDown Spoilers)
In response to fans asking him on Twitter about his status on the main roster, he wrote:
Zayn still has several big NXT matches scheduled for the coming weeks. On tonight’s episode of NXT on the WWE Network, Zayn will face Samoa Joe in a #1 contender’s match. The winner earns a shot against NXT Champion Finn Balor at Takeover: Dallas. Whether or not Zayn is victorious tonight, he will be involved in a huge match at Takeover.
– Following his surprise return to WWE TV on last night from Chicago, Sami Zayn appeared on RAW Fallout and said his feud with Kevin Owens will never end. The two are expected to square off at WrestleMania.
– Thursday’s SmackDown will feature Sami and Owens on Miz TV. Plus, Chris Jericho be on hand to explain why he turned on his partner AJ Styles on RAW. Speaking of Jericho’s heel turn, WWE posted these photos of fans reacting with shock:
NXT star Sami Zayn made a surprise appearance on Monday’s WWE RAW from Chicago, IL. Zayn came to the rescue of Neville and attacking longtime rival Kevin Owens, reigniting their feud.
Zayn will face Samoa Joe on this week’s episode of NXT to determine which of them will challenge Finn Balor for the NXT Championship at Takeover: Dallas. He’s also been advertised for Saturday night’s Roadblock live special on the WWE Network.
Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens at WrestleMania has a nice ring to it – we can only hope.
Sami Zayn is finally getting called up to the main roster. The former NXT Champion is scheduled to face WWE Intercontinental champion Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 32, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Zayn will first be appearing at WWE Roadblock, which airs live on the WWE Network next weekend from Toronto. It seems that Zayn will be there to resume his rivalry with Owens.
From there, Sami Zayn will face the debuting Shinsuke Nakamura at NXT Takeover: Dallas.
After WrestleMania, Zayn is booked for WWE’s annual European tour.
– NXT stars Sami Zayn, Enzo Amore, Colin Cassady and NXT Tag Team Champions The Revival are scheduled for the March 12th “March to WrestleMania: Live from Toronto” WWE Network special.
– Dean Ambrose granted two Make-A-Wish Wishes before Tuesday’s WWE SmackDown tapings in Indianapolis. WWE Community has photos of his meeting with Wish Kids Gianna and Jonathan at this link.
– Tamina Snuka plays Street Fighter V with WWE Tag Team Champions Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston in these new videos from the “UpUpDownDown” YouTube channel:
Last night, Wrestling Twitter was abuzz over something that had been discovered when a fan was playing around with Google Translate. Apparently trying to figure out if there was some special meaning to Sami Zayn’s name (or more likely just playing around), someone translated “Sami Zayn” from English to Arabic. Remember, Rami Sebei, the man behind Sami Zayn, is of Syrian descent, so it’s not like this was the most random thing in the world. So then, when you translate the Arabic text back to English, it says…El Generico??!?!?
Clearly, there’s a big wrestling fan at the Google Translate team as no, that’s not any kind of real translation. Other machine translation sites, like the one on Bing, turn it into “Zain Sami,” and El Generico was, of course, Rami Sebei’s pre-WWE gimmick. Officially, though, they’re friends, as opposed to the Hideo Itami, Finn Balor, and Asuka treatment of acknowledging their past with different names.
It wouldn’t be a huge surprise if there were more wrestling relate Easter eggs like this within Google Translate, but since this one is so perfect, it may be best if they just stopped with this one. They can’t top it.
