Austin Aries Leaving; Brock Lesnar Upcoming Plans; Stacked MSG Show

Austin Aries Taking Leave From WWE

Austin Aries will be taking some time off from WWE to deal with “nagging injuries.” That would explain his loss to Neville at Extreme Rules on Sunday. Whether or not Aries decided to take time off as a result of the loss, or the loss was a result of him deciding to take the time off, is unclear. What we do know is what Aries told to Busted Open Radio (transcript via wrestlezone.com) earlier today.

“I’ve got some stuff going on, but just to be fair you could probably say that for a lot of the locker room. It’s kind of part of what we do, I don’t think anyone is ever 100%. So I got a couple things going on and obviously at this point it might be a good time to take a little break which really could consist of two days to just adjust some of those things, try and get my mind and my body right and then come back and figure out what’s gonna be next and what the direction’s gonna be.”

Aries went on to say the following about Sunday’s opponent, current WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville.

“I think Neville; he’s at a different level right now. He’s really rejuvenated and I’ve enjoyed competing with him in there. I think we got the same chip on our shoulder and were out there to prove the same thing to the same people likely. We just have a maybe difference of opinion of how you get there right now. Our beef so to speak, to use a totally bad pun for a vegan, was really just based on respect. Respect we don’t feel we get. It’s cliché but it really was nothing personal. As much as it was, it was just two real stubborn competitive dudes to go out and prove who the best is. I will tip my hat to him, right now he’s at a different level physically. He’s in his prime and he’s found something in this reincarnated himself that’s taken him to a new level. I just have to tip my hat to him. I like to consider myself a measuring stick at points in my career and I’ve matched up with him three times and he measured up each and every time to each and every inch.”

After @SamoaJoe's controversial message, #TheBeast @BrockLesnar returns to #RAW NEXT MONDAY LIVE at 8/7c on @USA_Network! @HeymanHustle pic.twitter.com/06izHgCxWq

— WWE (@WWE) June 7, 2017

Brock Lesnar’s Upcoming Schedule

WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar is not only slated to appear on RAW this Monday (1st TV appearance since night after WrestleMania 33), but he will also appear at the 6/26 RAW in Los Angeles and the 7/3 RAW in Phoenix. That according to the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Also in the latest WON, Dave Meltzer noted future plans for WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar have not really changed, even though Samoa Joe’s win at Extreme Rules was viewed as a surprise by some. The Lesnar-Joe program is expected to be a “one-off,” culminating with a match at Great Balls of Fire next month in Dallas. Whomever won the Fatal 5-Way was going to be a “one-off” challenger.

From there, Lesnar is still slated to work against a returning Braun Strowman at SummerSlam, then Seth Rollins and Finn Balor in the fall. One interesting takeaway from that is you have a set of opponents straddling the face-heel line, so it would seem that Lesnar will be booked as a “tweener” and play face or heel depending on the opponent.

Upcoming WWE Show At Madison Square Garden

The July 7th Live Event at Madison Square Garden has been loaded up as a dual-brand show. Here is the current card as it stands now:

• Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt (1st time at MSG)
• Kevin Owens vs. AJ Styles (U.S. Title Match)
• The Miz vs. Dean Ambros (Intercontinental Title Match)
• Cesaro & Sheamus vs. The Hardy Boyz (RAW Tag Title Match + Hardyz return to MSG after 8-year absence)
• Seth Rollins vs. Samoa Joe
• Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Dolph Ziggler (Nakamura’s MSG debut)
• Finn Balor vs. Karl Anderson (Balor’s MSG debut)
• Bayley, Sasha Banks & Mickie James vs. Alexa Bliss, Nia Jax and Alicia Fox
• Neville vs. Austin Aries (Cruiserweight Title Match)*
• R-Truth vs. Goldust

*The card is always subject to change. For example, this lineup was released previous to the news about Aries discussed above.

 

 

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