With all of the talk over the past year, it should come as a surprise to no one that WWE did more “50/50 booking” on television in 2015 than in any other year in the history of the company.
50/50 booking is when a wrestler loses as much as he wins. WWE took on the approach despite the fact that it nearly guarantees everyone on the roster is going to be perceived as average, as very few stars can stand out if everyone loses as often as they win.
Wrestling Observer Newsletter correspondent Chris Siggia examined the 2015 WWE records and as expected, there were more “Even-Steven” type booking scenarios playing out on television than ever before. Below are some of the stats he compiled regarding champions losing on television in 2015.
* World Champions did 12 jobs on WWE television last year, including nine of the 12 by Seth Rollins.
* Intercontinental Champions did 14 jobs on television in 2015, including eight by King Barrett and three by Kevin Owens.
* United States Champions did eight jobs on TV, with Rollins looking at the lights on three of those occasions.
* Tag-Team Champions did 21 tag-team jobs, ten of which were by The New Day.
* Divas Champions did nine television jobs, seven by Nikki Bella and two by Charlotte.
– Triple H posted the following on his official Twitter page on Monday afternoon to announce an additional 1pm NXT live event in Chicago, Illinois on Saturday, January 16th.
– WWE posted the following on their official Twitter page to congratulate John Cena on being on the cover of the January issue of Muscle & Fitness magazine.
– Finally, WWE posted a 26-page year-end feature on the top 25 matches of 2015 on WWE.com on Monday. Coming in as the number one WWE match of 2015 was the triple-threat match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship between John Cena, Brock Lesnar and Seth Rollins at the WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view in January. WWE posted the following to promote the feature, which features comments from the talents or those close to the talents involved in each of the matches that made the list.
Former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins, who made a surprise appearance at the Slammy Awards edition of WWE RAW last week but is still on the sidelines recovering from a serious knee operation, is facing another situation where worlds are colliding, as an issue with his ex-fiancee’ has spilled online.
Rollins’ ex-fiancee’, Leighla Schultz, known to pro wrestling fans as the woman who posted nude photos of he and his current girlfriend, former NXT Diva Zahra Schreiber, on Rollins’ social media earlier this year, is at it again in another incident that involves the Internet directly.
The starting bid for the engagement ring is $14,000. The ring was appraised for $18,420 as recently as April of 2014.
Below are some appraisal photos of the ring as well as the official description listed along with it. We will, however, avoid posting a link to the actual website they came from, as it contains Rollins’ personal home address, or at least the one he used to have.
“One ladies diamond engagement ring in stamped 14k white gold. The side diamonds are microwave set w/ 1 round brilliant cut center diamond.”
WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross recently updated his official blog at JRsBarBQ.com with his thoughts and opinions on a number of current topics. Below are some of the highlights.
On the WWE Slammy Awards:
“I think that the Slammy concept needs to be tweaked as the multiple presentations made for way too many interruptions during the three hour show which made the broadcast more challenging to watch because it had a had a tough time building momentum. Perhapslessening the number of awards being presented on Raw might be a consideration.
WWE can always also do a separate Slammy’s show for the network as well.”
On Seth Rollins’ RAW return:
“Good seeing Seth Rollins back on TV and his presentation was well done. Rollins was also deserving of the Superstar of the Year Award which says a great deal about today’s audience that an alleged ‘heel’ won the award. Times, they are a changing.”
On Roman Reigns’ promo ability:
“Roman Reigns had a positive ight but he doesn’t need be speaking as long as we heard last night. He will find his natural voice faster if allowed to ease into the ‘main eventer promo land’ than simply dumping a long promo in his lap when it clearly isn’t his strength. Nonetheless WWE is booking Reigns more strategically lately than just a few weeks ago.”
Seth Rollins made a surprise return on Monday’s RAW and received the 2015 WWE Slammy Award for Superstar of the Year. Rollins gave a passionate speech about his eventful year and vowed to return stronger than ever in 2016.
After RAW, Rollins spoke to Tom Phillips backstage and gave an update on his physical rehabilitation after undergoing major knee surgery last month. Rollins says he is recovering on schedule, maybe ahead of schedule, since he’s a superior athlete. He once again reiterated the fact that he never lost the WWE World Heavyweight championship. Right now, he plans to redesign, rebuild and then reclaim what is rightfully his.
Former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins made a surprise return to WWE RAW on Monday night at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Rollins returned on Monday’s show to accept the Slammy Award for the 2015 “Superstar of the Year,” beating out every other talent on the WWE roster, as the entire roster were eligible in the voting for the award.
Featured above is a video of Rollins’ Slammy Award acceptance speech from Monday’s RAW. For complete WWE RAW results, click here.
Johnny Mundo recently spoke with Alfred Konuwa of the PodNasty Wrestling Podcast and explained why he prefers working for Lucha Underground over WWE. He also had some words for Seth Rollins. Here are the highlights of what Mundo said about:
Having creative freedom in Lucha Underground:
“I do feel like there’s not handcuffs here, so to speak, and creativity is more encouraged and people are more receptive to ideas here. WWE is sometimes a little bit micromanaged, and backstage everybody’s dragging their feet, walking on eggshells a little bit and here I don’t think that exists.”
Seth Rollins’ knee injury:
“There’s nothing worse than being injured, especially for somebody like Seth because he’s an artist in the ring. To have a broken wheel like he’s got right now has got to be killing him. I wish him a speedy recovery because I want to kick his ass one day. And I will say that I’m sure he can talk all kinds of trash to you or whoever, as long as I’m not in the room with him. But I also think that after his interview with you—and I might have said a few things back—I don’t think he’s ever going to say anything about me again because he knows at the end of the day I’m smarter, more talented, I’ve had a much longer, better career than him and if we’re ever in the ring together it’s going to be painfully obvious how much better than him I am.”
For what it’s worth, Seth Rollins is being advertised to appear at Monday’s Slammy Awards edition of WWE RAW from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
It’s worth pointing out that Rollins is only being advertised for the show on the official website for the Target Center, as WWE’s official website does not have the former WWE World Heavyweight Champion advertised for the show.
It’s possible that Rollins appears for some of the Slammy Awards he is nominated for, although that has not been confirmed. Xavier Woods did tweet about filming Rollins vs. Jack Swagger in the Madden tournament finals for his “UpUpDownDown” YouTube channel, which some claim could be a sign that Rollins will at least be backstage at the show.
In a related note, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported earlier this week that despite not being advertised for the show, both John Cena and Brock Lesnar could possibly make surprise appearances on the show.
– As noted, the latest “Stone Cold Podcast” with Steve Austin and his special guest, Shawn Michaels, premieres on the WWE Network this Sunday night immediately following the WWE TLC pay-per-view. The official WWE Network Twitter page tweeted the above preview clip from Austin’s interview with HBK.
– Seth Rollins, the first-ever NXT Champion in history, took to social media this weekend to congratulate the current NXT crew on their first-ever international tour in the U.K. this weekend. Rollins tweeted the following photo of an old Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) event, WWE’s original developmental territory out of Florida, noting that WWE developmental has come a long way.
Major shoutout to the @WWENXT crew on their first ever international tour. "Developmental" sure has come a long way. pic.twitter.com/Hvk05RfLZJ
The crew at WrestlingDVDNetwork.com continued their week of match reveals for the upcoming NXT’s Greatest Matches Vol. 1 DVD and Blu-Ray set today by announcing that these three will be included:
NXT Championship Finals: Seth Rollins vs. Jinder Mahal (NXT August 29, 2012)
Ladder Match for the NXT Championship: Bo Dallas vs. Adrian Neville (NXT ArRival February 27, 2014)
NXT Championship Match: Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens (NXT Takeover: Rival February 11, 2015)
As of a week or two ago, there had been no real internal talk within WWE about booking Sting vs. The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32 in Texas next year. In fact, there hasn’t been any real talk of Sting appearing on the show at all, even though that doesn’t necessarily mean he won’t end up appearing at the show.
As far as The Undertaker is concerned, it appears that WWE is going forward with the plans for an Undertaker vs. John Cena match at WrestleMania 32. The idea of Undertaker vs. Cena came up a few months ago and was seriously discussed in August, and then again in October.
As far as rumors of Seth Rollins vs. Triple H taking place at the big event, it’s said that a match between those two has never actually been considered for WrestleMania, although it’s possible that a HHH vs. Rollins match eventually happens when Rollins returns at some point down the line.
Currently, there is no word yet as to who Triple H will be facing at WrestleMania 32 now that it appears that The Rock will not be able to wrestle on the show as WWE had originally hoped.
WWE posted the above video of former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins beginning rehab for his surgically repaired knee.
Rollins says the progress he has made so far is good, and he’s only getting better every day. Dr. Kevin Wilk is also featured in the video, pointing out that the injury Rollins has brings a more complex surgery and rehab.
Seth Rollins is currently rehabbing for five hours a day, which he points out are “brutal sessions.”
The doctor also spoke about Rollins being very motivated and that he expects a full recovery from the former WWE champion. Rollins points out that he is looking to get back in the ring as soon as possible and plans on taking back his WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
– There continues to be a ton of heat on Lana behind the scenes in WWE. According to Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez on the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Lana still has “nuclear heat” as a result of her leaking the news of her engagement to Rusev, as well as her recent Twitter war with Paige.
As seen last night on RAW, Rusev returned to action while Lana remained off television.
– Former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins is beginning his rehab today at Quad City Crossfit in his hometown of Davenport, Iowa. Rollins posted the following on Instagram today:
– Featured above is the latest edition of “WWE Canvas 2 Canvas,” which features an Undertaker painting from artist Rob Schamberger in honor of the 25th anniversary of “The Dead Man.”
– Brock Lesnar has been added to the January 11th WWE RAW in New Orleans, Louisiana, likely to set up a program for the January 24th WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view.
– Seth Rollins tweeted the following about the finals of the WWE World Heavyweight Title tournament tonight to crown the next champion, telling whoever wins to keep the title warm for him. He also commented on tonight being the 25th anniversary of who Rollins refers to as the “Greatest Of All-Time (GOAT),” The Undertaker.
Happy #Undertaker25 to all! Rewrote the definition of legend. #GOAT And for whoever wins that title tonight, keep'er warm for me. #reclaim
WWE Hall Of Famer Ric Flair spoke about a number of current topics on the latest edition of his WOOOOO! Nation podcast, such as his prediction for the finals of Sunday’s WWE World Heavyweight Title Tournament at Survivor Series, Seth Rollins’ injury and Cesaro’s ability to be a bigger star. Below are some of the highlights of what Flair talked about.
On Seth Rollins’ injury and when he thinks Rollins will be back in the ring:
“Actually, Seth is doing the right thing. He’s going to transfer the flag from Waterloo to Birmingham and stay there for at least two months of rehab, which is the best thing to do. That’s what Hunter did. Hunter just moved right down there when he tore his quad the last time.”
“I think they’re looking at him, praying that he’ll be back for Summerslam.”
On Cesaro’s ability and potential to be viewed as a legitimate threat to Brock Lesnar:
“I feel like Cesaro, given the opportunity and with a vehicle to convey his thoughts, whether it be through himself or through a manager, which would be me, you could get him ready for Brock Lesnar in two months and the people would believe it. He’s that strong and he’s good [of] a performer. And he’s that big. You’re not going to bounce Cesaro around like a dart.” Flair continued, “I think he could be a great opponent for Brock Lesnar. I mean, you’d need to stay on him because his work is phenomenal, he looks like a million bucks, and he’s stronger than a horse in real life. He’s really strong, strongest guy in the company, and that came right from John Cena.”
On who he sees in the finals of Sunday’s WWE World Heavyweight Title Tournament at Survivor Series:
“I don’t think they’re going to put Ambrose and Reigns [in the finals] because I don’t know how the crowd would react to that. They’re both kind of like fan favorites and it would be hard for them. I think they’d rather have a definitive good guy/bad guy [match].”
“I would say Kevin Owens [will face Reigns in the finals] because Kevin’s getting a huge reaction over here [in Europe]. We only have a couple [of] heels that are actually heels all the time. Kevin is one of them, Stephanie [McMahon] being the other.”
Neville recently spoke with The Mirror while overseas on the current WWE U.K. tour. Below are some of the highlights.
On training with actor Stephen Amell for their tag-team match at WWE SummerSlam:
“It was very cool. That’s the thing with WWE, we have such a broad variety of acts and entertainments, so hopefully there is always something for everybody. That match was meant to be the spectacle, the celebrity attraction match, and I’m very proud of how it came off. I thought we pulled it off very well and Stephen Amell did phenomenally well. He’s a great athlete in his own right and it was such a cool experience in the Barclays Center in New York City, in the center of Brooklyn, to be able to do that with him.”
On WWE having several Europeans on the current roster:
“We are taking over. It’s pretty cool huh? I feel like recently WWE has been more dominated by Americans, but in the past five years or so the British and the Europeans are starting to come through again, which is a testament to the wrestling scene over here and the talent that we are producing. We did Glasgow and the reception received for myself and other British performers was exceptional. I’m so ready for Raw and Smackdown. We’re in Newcastle on Thursday again, I’m super excited for that, I’ll get to see my family, everyone is coming out, and I get to perform in the arena where I grew up watching wrestling. Whenever I talk about it I can’t stop grinning. It’s surreal and such a highlight of the year and of my life. Being able to do that in front of my mum and my dad and my family and the city, it’s the best man.”
On the Seth Rollins injury:
“Yeah, I mean it is the nature of this business and you know when you get into it that you have to accept this happens – because it does happen and often there is no way of avoiding it. And obviously the timing of it is terrible, but Seth is one of the most naturally talented, hardest working athletes I’ve ever met, so I know he’s going to bounce right back. It’s just going to be a case of taking a few months downtime and reassessing and rebuilding, but I’ve got no doubt he will be back better than ever soon enough. It’s just such a shame it happened now when he’s on such a run.”
With WrestleMania 32 less than 5 months away, let’s take a look at where the card stands in light of a bunch of recent developments.
Originally, the top few matches were slated to be:
Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker
The Rock vs. Triple H
John Cena vs. Roman Reigns
The Rock will not be competing at WrestleMania due to his movie schedule and more specifically, movie studios having major concerns about whether they’d be able to get insurance for The Rock if he was to get back in the ring. Then things were looking like this:
Seth Rollins vs. Triple H
Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker
John Cena vs. Roman Reigns
At some point the decision was made to jump right into Lesnar vs. Undertaker at Hell in a Cell, apparently with the assumption that Vince McMahon had decided on alternate opponents for both men. Of course, Seth Rollins’ ACL/MCL surgery will keep him out of action well past WrestleMania, so he’s out of the mix now as well.
As of this week, these are the top two matches currently planned for WrestleMania 32 (via the Wrestling Observer Newsletter):
On Tuesday, former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins successfully underwent reconstructive surgery to repair ACL, MCL, and medial meniscus tears in his right knee. The surgery took place in Birmingham, Alabama and was done by Dr. Jeffrey Dugas.
He suffered the injury during a match against Kane last week at a live event in Dublin, Ireland. We have a video of him sustaining the injury here.
There’s no word on when Rollins will return to action, but it will most likely be after WrestleMania.
WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross updated his official website blog at JRsBarBQ.com on Monday. Below are some of the highlights.
On the WWE title kicking off on RAW tonight:
“WWE will apparently start their tournament tonight (Monday) to determine who will become the new, WWE Worlds Champion on the cusp of Seth Rollins needing reconstructive knee surgery to repair his ACL and MCL. Dr. James Andrews will oversee the surgery that will apparently take place Tuesday.
The key to this tournament will be making sure that all the top stars that can be made available are in the tournament because in all reality who would NOT want to be the next WWE Title holder? With that said I’d leave John Cena off and perhaps even the Undertaker even though the Deadman would be an intriguing entrant. Obviously and unfortunately Randy Orton will not be in the tourney due to a shoulder issue and one has to wonder if the Authority does not ‘invite’ Brock Lesnar to compete in it as well.”
On Seth Rollins being on the sidelines:
“No matter what is done in the tournament and because the entire presentation is so subjective, it seems likely that no matter what WWE does to address Rollins untimely injury that they will be damned if they do and damned if they don’t because so many die hard fans have a definitive view on how all this must go down where, as I’ve said repeatedly, there are several ways to skin this cat, so to speak.”
On the opportunity new talent has in the WWE title tournament matches:
“I’d love to see the talents take these matches extremely seriously and approach their matches with great focus considering that they’ll be competing to become the top guy in WWE as the WWE Champion. This is also an opportunity for a new start ala a 16th seed i n arch Madness to get hot at the right time and shock the world by winning the WWE Title only to become the #1 enemy of the Authority who wants a champion that they control.”
– On the second episode of WWE Breaking Ground, WWE Senior Director Of Talent Development Canyon Ceman played the role of the executive who had to inform aspiring talent that they were being let go. In all actuality, Canyon was just brought in to fill that role on the show, as normally NXT Head Coach Matt Bloom is the guy who does that, according to PWInsider.com.
– Next Monday, November 16th, WWE will kick off “The Undertaker Week” on the WWE Network. WWE will soon be announcing full details on the special programming scheduled for the week long theme, which is expected to be similar to the recent “Brock Lesnar Week.”
– WWE confirmed via the official NXT Twitter account that the new “NXT: Greatest Matches Vol. 1” DVD and Blu-ray is scheduled for a March 8th release. Additionally, it was announced that Seth Rollins vs. Big E. for the NXT Championship will be on that set, and the NXT Women’s Championship match between Charlotte and Sasha Banks will be a Blu-ray exclusive.
Former NXT Diva Zahra Schreiber made her in-ring debut at the Dreamwave Wrestling live event in La Salle, Illinois on Saturday night.
Schreiber teamed with four other male wrestlers to defeat her opponents in a ten-man elimination tag-team match. She used the “Curb Stomp” for her finisher during the match, the same move previously used by her boyfriend, Seth Rollins. Schreiber was the “sole survivor” for her team.
Below are some photos from Twitter of Schreiber’s appearance last night in La Salle.
Seth Rollins was interviewed by WWE.com about his knee injury and the WWE championship situation. He confirmed that the injury happened during the sunset flip/powerbomb spot in the match with Kane in Dublin and he landed on the inside of his right foot instead of flat with his feet and that’s when his knee gave out. He revealed that he will be getting knee reconstruction surgery on Tuesday.
“You know, overall, I think I’m in a pretty good spot,” Rollins said. “Physically, my knee doesn’t hurt. Like, one thing people don’t understand, a common question is, “How much pain are you in?” The ligaments don’t have nerve endings, so, that’s a good thing and a bad thing, but I don’t feel any pain, it’s just a lot of instability in the knee capsule. So, I’m doing a lot of compression to kind of reduce the swelling and stuff like that. Emotionally … could be better. Obviously it’s a tough spot to be in. I’m mostly just looking forward to getting the surgery done and getting better every day.”
He didn’t mention how long he’d be out of action, but with this type of injury you can expect him to be out until after WrestleMania.
With Seth Rollins blowing out his knee and Dublin, Ireland and vacating the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, WWE has a lot of things to get done. Of course, in the big picture, they need to figure out who will become the new champion and how. The more immediate concern, though, is how to deal with the house shows. WWE is already missing John Cena (on hiatus), Randy Orton (injured), and Daniel Bryan (not cleared due to concerns over the quantity of concussions he’s suffered), so there aren’t a lot of of options.
What did they do, then?
According to Dave Meltzer at F4WOnline.com and Mike Johnson at PWInsider.com, Kevin Owens and Dean Ambrose have been moved from the “Roman Reigns” tour to what had been the “Seth Rollins” tour. That means that the top three matches on each tour are now:
The Former Seth Rollins crew:
* Kevin Owens vs. Dean Ambrose
* Kane vs. The Big Show
* New Day vs. The Dudleys
The Roman Reigns crew:
* Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt in a street fight
* Ryback & The Usos vs. Braun Strowman, Erick Rowan, & Luke Harper
* Alberto Del Rio vs. King Barrett vs. Neville in a Triple Threat Match.
Well, that dreaded day has come. Seth Rollins is out for 6-9 months with a knee injury, the WWE World Heavyweight championship is being vacated and the main event booking plans for the next 6 months are now out the window.
WWE is scrambling to bring in big names to fill out a star-deprived roster and a new champion will be crowned in less than two weeks at Survivor Series. The fact that WWE finds themselves in such a bad spot without multiple young talents ready to fill the void is a lengthy discussion for another day.
What I want to hear from you is who you think is ready right now? Who do you think is ready to take the next step? Who is genuinely ready to carry the show?
WWE could go in a number of directions from here. We could see Roman Reigns continue on his path, win the championship tournament and stand tall as the new babyface champion. Another popular ‘fantasy booking’ scenario has Reigns turning heel, aligning himself with The Authority and becoming the new golden boy sellout champion, not unlike his old pal Seth Rollins. We could also see a dark horse champion emerge, perhaps a Kevin Owens or even Mr. Money in the Bank, Sheamus.
Comment below and tell us how you think it will all go down at Survivor Series!
