There is talk that Triple H may be added as a special guest referee for the Stephanie McMahon vs. Brie Bella match at SummerSlam.
Additionally, there continues to be discussion about turning Nikki Bella heel at some point during the McMahon-Bella feud. The actual decision as to when she will turn hasn’t been decided yet, but it’s pretty much considered inevitable that it will happen at some point during this program.
Last night’s Raw was held in the supposedly great state of Texas. Fans in attendance were treated to the return of Mark Henry, as well as an entertaining contest between Dean Ambrose and Alberto Del Rio.
Although John Cena and Brock Lesnar were both notably absent on Sunday, the WWE did their best to promote the SummerSlam main event. As always, a few questions were answered on Monday, but many still remain. Here are five questions that need to be answered following Monday’s Raw.
5. Did Fans Witness the Burial of Cesaro?
It is no secret that the WWE has no idea what to do with Cesaro right now. Once one of the most over superstars in the company, Cesaro has been relegated to minor roles since the return of Brock Lesnar. After failing to join the Authority a few weeks back, Cesaro has been in a slump, once again losing to Dolph Ziggler in a short match on Monday.
There are rumors that Cesaro’s push is being limited because the company wants to focus on pushing Roman Reigns. It makes sense to want to promote a young superstar, but others who got over on their own should not be punished as a result. Let us hope that the company soon finds something for Cesaro instead of wasting his talent.
4. Which Stipulation Will Dean Ambrose Choose?
Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins competed in a beat the clock challenge last night, with the winner having the ability to choose the stipulation for their match at SummerSlam. Ambrose won after a long battle with Alberto Del Rio, and also assured Seth Rollins would not win his match with Heath Slater.
The Lunatic Fringe now gets to choose the stipulation at tonight’s SmackDown taping (check in tonight for spoilers if you’re too eager to wait until Friday). He will probably choose something typical like a no-holds barred match, but here’s to hoping he chooses a ladder match for the contract. Which stipulation do you think Ambrose will choose?
WWE.com has announced that Divas Champion A.J. Lee will defend against Paige at SummerSlam.
The WWE website is teasing, “With Paige apparently coming more unhinged by the day, what will be in store for the reigning Divas Champion at SummerSlam? Will AJ, seeing red, unleash her most vicious side yet? And will Paige’s plan of attack be revealed as strategic or simply a sign of dangerous instability?”
WWE SummerSlam takes place on Sunday, August 17th from Los Angeles, California.
The WWE contract of Ricardo Rodriguez, who was released by the company this past week, would have renewed the night after SummerSlam later this month had WWE not let him go.
Rodriguez had been frustrated for a while that he wasn’t being used as a wrestler in any legitimate way after they split he and Alberto Del Rio as a unit, although he has been dealing with injuries as of late.
The mindset in WWE was that they don’t necessarily “need” a three-man announce team for the Spanish television broadcasts, nor a dedicated interviewer for the Spanish-language shows, so the decision to release him was said to be a relatively easy decision to make considering the fact that the company is making some heavy talent and office cuts right now.
The following are highlights of a new Busted Open Radio interview with Paul Heyman:
On his early days in the business hustling to get press passes: “I just didn’t want to be another face in the crowd. I was a huge fan of the product. On Sunday my parents would go to the lower east side of Manhattan because my Mother likes to shop there and my Father and I would bum around before we picked up my Mother. One of the things My Father liked to do was we would pick up these radical lower New York free news papers with their own social agenda because their writing was always very passionate. Whether we agreed with their politics or not doesn’t matter, you would find great emotions in the writing. In one of these papers was a sports column and it was more of a sports gossip column and the writer mentioned that after Madison Square Garden, Vincent J McMahon would take his inner circle to lunch at Ben Bensons Steak House in midtown Manhattan.
“Now I don’t know the readership of this article, so I don’t know if a lot of old WWWF fans got to see this, so I figured this was some inside information. I found out that the office was at the Cape Cod Coliseum which was owned by Vincent Kennedy McMahon, so I called and said ‘My name is Paul Heyman. I was told to call by Vince McMahon to get my press pass for Madison Square Garden’. I’m put through 3-4 assistants until I got patched through to Vince J McMahon. I said ‘This is Paul Heyman from the Wrestling Times’ because we have The New York Times. I said ‘I was talking to you at Ben Bensons and you said to call you about a press pass at Madison Square Garden.’ He said ‘I did?!’. I said ‘Yeah you did.’ Because who else would know he dines at Ben Bensons and who would tell him that he was in a radical news paper in the lower east side of New York with a readership of a couple hundred, so I must have been real.
“He said ‘Go to the Holland Hotel at 42nd street and 8th Ave and talk to Gorilla Monsoon and Arnold Skaaland and I look forward to seeing you at the Garden.’ I got a ride down to the Holland Hotel and I saw Monsoon and Skaaland playing pinnacle with a bottle of booze, I got my press pass, BS’d my way into Madison Square Garden with my press pass and got in Vince Sr’s good graces by snapping some photos with him and Andre The Giant and bringing him some 8X10 the next month. For the rest of the time he was in charge, I would bring pictures they could use in their programs or on posters and they would give me 50 bucks for my transportation and trouble. I’ve always found that honesty is dramatically overrated.”
On Brock Lesnar vs John Cena at SummerSlam: “Brock Lesnar is going to beat John Cena. That’s not a prediction, that’s a spoiler. Brock is going to win and it will bring more prestige and box office draw to the championship title than anybody in the past 25 years. Brock Lesnar is going to make that title mean more than it ever has before and people are going to understand that when the title is on the line it is special and it’s going to mean something.”
On the shock of Lesnar ending Undertaker’s Streak and why people didn’t believe him when he announced that Taker will lose to Lesnar: “You should have listened to me. I’m gonna tell you this again, Brock Lesnar is going to deliver an F-5 that will drive Cena with such force he will pin John Cena and win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. You can believe what I’m telling you and you won’t be surprised next time you interview me and you can say ‘every time Heyman says something it comes true. He’s not Nostradamus and he doesn’t have a crystal ball or any special voodoo powers’ Brock Lesnar is going to beat John Cena. Take it to the bank.”
On where the moment Brock pinned the Undertaker ranks in his career: “As an advocate and performer, it is the moment. Absolutely. Nothing else is even close. John Cena brought it up on Monday night. 40 men have held the WWE championship. Only one man can say ‘I beat the streak’. That’s a moment. The only equivalent I can give you is if someone was announced as the President of the United States and someone comes up and says ‘I’ve been elected God’. There have been a few men who ever had the title. Only one man beat the streak.”
On his relationship with Vince McMahon today: “Strictly platonic. I think Vince McMahon serves his company well as the chairman and recognizes the talents and exploiting the ability of Paul Heyman every Monday night on Raw.”
The following are highlights of a new Busted Open Radio interview with WWE Hall Of Famer Hulk Hogan:
On Brock Lesnar and John Cena: “Well, Brock is a phenom. His credibility is over the top, but you got to realize John Cena is the man. He’s the foundation of the whole company. He’s the guy that they bet on and his attitude is he loves the company. He loves being on the road, he’s got wrestling in his blood. And for him to be so graceful when he’s tired and there’s no sleep, no food and these Make-A-Wish kids come to him even for five minutes, he’ll spend a whole day with them. His priorities are in order. No matter what whether he wins or loses he’s still the man. To me, I’ve been around for a long time and I’ve done a lot to help this business, but it fails in comparison to what John Cena has done. In my opinion, John Cena is the greatest WWE champion of all time. If Brock Lesnar was to beat him, creative storyline wise yeah you have something there. I hope he knows he’s got huge shoes to fill. I don’t think Cena’s going anywhere. I may go out there and hit Brock with a chair just so he doesn’t win.”
On Sting wrestling in WWE: “He made his debut at Comic Con and that’s all well and good. I ran into him at the airport because we’re all on the same flight. I said to him that he needs to wrestle and this is something that needs to be done. He’s never established himself on the big stage. No disrespect to his accomplishments, but he was always a southern type of wrestler and always was with NWA or WCW. He has to make that statement. He’s still got it and he can still do it and he’s still over. If it’s not The Undertaker, he needs to wrestle Cena. That’s the match. You gotta get in there and have to make your mark. It can’t be just a game or an action figure.”
There has been some talk within WWE regarding the possibility of having Sheamus drop the United States Championship to Rusev as a way to enhance Rusev and Lana’s anti-American gimmick. The feeling is that the anti-American duo holding the “United States” championship would be good for getting Rusev and Lana some added heat with the fans.
At one point, the plan was for the Sheamus-Rusev title change to take place at the upcoming SummerSlam pay-per-view. While that is no longer the direction they are headed, there is still talk of doing that angle at some point down the line.
– The Rock’s new film “Hercules” did $29,800,263 in its’ opening weekend, finishing second behind “Lucy,” which brought in $43.9 million. While the “Hercules” number isn’t spectacular by any means for an opening of a $100 million budget movie, it was higher than industry projections.
– As noted recently, WWE has added some additional dates to the schedule of Brock Lesnar. As far as the build to SummerSlam is concerned, while Lesnar is only scheduled to appear one more time on RAW, the “go-home” edition of the show on August 11th, there is a chance that he may appear on next week’s show as well.
While Sting has still yet to sign an official deal with WWE, he was able to appear the San Diego Comic Con recently with WWE involvement because of the fact that he signed a deal directly with Mattel.
It’s being said that the feeling regarding Sting’s momentum is that it is higher than that of The Ultimate Warrior, who re-entered the current WWE scene via a direct deal with 2K Sports for WWE video game promotion. Basically, because of the perception that Sting can actually still wrestle a match, whereas it was made clear in the case of Ultimate Warrior that he couldn’t, that he has more momentum going for him right now than Warrior did during similar circumstances last year.
One WWE source claims that the company is hopeful to secure an official deal with Sting by SummerSlam, since he will be coming to Los Angeles, California, the site of this year’s SummerSlam pay-per-view, for the event, even though at this point he is not scheduled to participate in the show itself in any fashion.
It looks like a match between The Usos and the team of Big E. and Kofi Kingston may take place at SummerSlam for the WWE Tag-Team Championships, as opposed to the previously reported idea of a fatal four-way match between four tag-teams for the titles.
Outside of that match and the other officially announced matches, as well as the rumored matches we have talked about here on the website over the past few days, it would seem that the lineup for this year’s SummerSlam is now finalized, perhaps with the potential addition of a “Kickoff Show” match or two.
– The latest edition of WWE’s “Five Things” YouTube series, which looks at five “incredible” SummerSlam facts, is now available. You can check that out below.
– The latest edition of Steve Austin’s “Steve Austin Show” podcast, which features part two of his interview with Ken Shamrock, is now available. The official description for the show reads as follows:
SASc – EP137 – UFC Hall of Famer & WWF’s Ken Shamrock Pt2
“It’s part 2 of Steve’s conversation with former pro-wrestler & UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock… and this time it’s about wrestling, fighting, his feud with Dana White, Tito Ortiz, the Gracies, and a few stories about the WWF lockerroom!”
At Tuesday night’s SmackDown tapings, two more matches were announced for WWE SummerSlam. Rusev will face Jack Swagger and Randy Orton will fight Roman Reigns. With those matches set, here is the updated card:
WWE World Heavyweight Championship:
– John Cena (c) vs. Brock Lesnar
– Chris Jericho vs. Bray Wyatt
– Stephanie McMahon vs. Brie Bella
– Roman Reigns vs. Randy Orton
– Rusev vs. Jack Swagger
The following matches are also expected for the show:
– Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins
– Divas Champion AJ Lee vs. Paige
WWE SummerSlam takes place on Sunday, August 17th from Los Angeles, California.
UFC Fan? Visit MMANews.com For Daily News Updates, Results & Forum
– As far as the SummerSlam panels are concerned, the VIP tickets for Steve Austin are the only ones that have sold out thus far, however, it is expected that the regular sale will end up selling out as well.
– The following is a new interview with Jerry Lawler setting up his match with Kevin Steen on August 2nd. “The King” still has it.
The script for last night’s edition of WWE RAW was said to be heavily changed late in the process leading up to the show. A number of planned matches and angles were either modified or scrapped altogether.
One of the original plans was for a Miz TV segment with Bo Dallas as the guest. Initially, one of the plans for SummerSlam was a triple-threat match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship, with The Miz defending against both Dolph Ziggler and Bo Dallas. Based on the direction of last night’s show, however, it appears that WWE will be going with a straight one-on-one match between Miz and Ziggler at SummerSlam.
– It was announced during Monday’s RAW that on this week’s edition of WWE Main Event, the featured match will be Dean Ambrose vs. Alberto Del Rio. WWE Main Event airs live on the WWE Network on Tuesday night at 8pm EST.
– Also announced during RAW this week was the confirmation that Chris Jericho and Bray Wyatt will meet again at the upcoming SummerSlam pay-per-view in August. The match was confirmed during a RAW segment that featured Chris Jericho making fun of Stephanie McMahon, all-the-while angering Triple H. As noted previously, Jericho and Wyatt are expected to work matches against each other in three consecutive pay-per-views — Battleground, SummerSlam and Night Of Champions.
While it’s possible these plans have changed, as of yesterday, Chris Jericho vs. Luke Harper and a Miz TV segment with Bo Dallas was in the script for tonight’s edition of WWE RAW.
Additionally, tonight’s RAW is expected to advance the story line behind Roman Reigns vs. Randy Orton for SummerSlam, as well as John Cena’s first “reaction interview” for his match at SummerSlam with Brock Lesnar.
The latest word going around this weekend is that the rumored Stephanie McMahon vs. Brie Bella match may be saved for the Night Of Champions pay-per-view in September, as opposed to the SummerSlam show in August. More should be known based on how they follow-up on the angle at RAW tonight.
As far as the Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins and AJ Lee vs. Paige matches at SummerSlam, it is believed that both will be a gimmick match of some sort.
Finally, there is talk of the WWE Tag-Team Championship match at SummerSlam being a fatal four-way with The Usos defending against Luke Harper and Erick Rowan, as well as two other tag-teams.
– As of right now, the plan is for a build to a flag match between Rusev and Jack Swagger at the upcoming WWE SummerSlam pay-per-view.
– There is a chance that the WWE Intercontinental Championship match at SummerSlam becomes a triple-threat match, with The Miz defending the title against both Dolph Ziggler and Bo Dallas.
It looks like Hulk Hogan will be used in some fashion at this year’s WWE SummerSlam pay-per-view. As noted in the past, Hogan is scheduled to appear on the August 11th “go-home” edition of RAW, as well as the August 16th live event the night before the pay-per-view in San Jose.
Apparently something will be happening on the 8/11 RAW show that will lead to Hogan’s involvement at SummerSlam.
Ric Flair will also be part of the 8/16 house show in San Jose, as both he and Hogan will be “co-hosting” the event.