Your Daily Source to Wrestling News
The following are spoilers for tonight’s episode of RAW, courtesy of PWInsider:
Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe is planned for tonight’s main event.
The official return of The Revival. They are set to face Enzo and Cass
Miz TV segment – It will focus on Maryse and the Intercontinental Championship.
Check back here at 8PM ET for our live play-by-play coverage of the event.
Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane and Glenn Gilbertti (Disco Inferno).
Russo opens today’s show speaking about the announced match between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather. Russo thinks that McGregor’s youth could play more of a factor in this bout than people think, but Gilbertti says that McGregor has no chance in this fight whatsoever. Mayweather might be 40 years old, but he’s still in terrific shape and his age will not be a factor in this fight.
Russo believes that since this fight is scheduled for August, the hype surrounding it will have a negative impact on WWE and their build towards this year’s SummerSlam. Gilbertti doesn’t believe WWE will be affected by that because they have their niche audience, and those people are going to watch the product anyways.
Even though WWE’s television ratings continue to decline, Gilbertti doesn’t think WWE really cares about the ratings at this point, as long as their WWE Network numbers are still strong. The Network is their new major revenue stream, and the television ratings have taken a back seat. Gilbertti mentions that it’ll be interesting to see what happens to WWE’s shrinking ratings once Brock Lesnar and John Cena retire, because they’re WWE’s two biggest stars right now.
We noted earlier today that Kevin Owens apparently got hurt during the Money in the Bank Ladder Match and was helped to the back following the bout.
In an update, Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that he is fine and there is nothing serious wrong with him. Owens is still scheduled to work this week’s SmackDown Live event in Dayton, Ohio.
Many of you are aware now that John Cena is being billed as a “free agent” and the company plans to have him work both RAW and SmackDown brand shows moving forward.
Cena has just been announced for the first RAW-brand event for July 15th at a WWE Live Event. Cena is scheduled to face Bray Wyatt on the card. It is possible that the company starts adding him to even more RAW and SmackDown events as he gets closer to his July 4th return to the company.
WWE announced on Friday that Seth Rollins would be making an announcement this upcoming Monday on ESPN at 10:30 AM.
Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer discussed this topic on today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Radio. Alvarez said that he’s heard that the announcement will be that Rollins’ is on the cover of this year’s WWE 2K18 video game. Meltzer seemed confused by this move by WWE, considering that Roman Reigns is considered the company guy.
Meltzer also indicated Kurt Angle will still be involved in WWE 2K18 this year in some capacity.
We noted earlier this week that WWE may have spoiled a six participant in the Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match for Sunday’s event when they mentioned on Twitter that six women would be in the match. Dave Meltzer discussed WWE’s tweet that may have spoiled the match on today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Radio.
Meltzer claims that he reached out to WWE regarding the entry of a six competitor in the match but he said hasn’t received any response back. With the company not responding back to Meltzer, it would be an further indication that a sixth member could be injected into the match. Historically if something is completely false, WWE responds back.
While Meltzer couldn’t specify who the six participant could be, several names speculated for the match include Summer Rae, Page, Lita, Asuka and among others.
The Velveteen Dream revealed on Twitter that his finishing move is called the Purple Rainmaker. This didn’t go over very well with fans from New Japan Pro Wrestling that accused him of ripping off Kazuchika Okada’s Rainmaker.
The NXT Superstar then took a shot at New Japan Pro Wrestling, writing, “They Have Wrestling in Japan!?”
Bischoff comments on the Sports Business Journal’s recent report, which suggested that the median age of wrestling fans has grown to 54 years old. In his opinion, the median age of wrestling fans is closer to mid 40’s, based on some research that he has seen over the last couple of years. Either way, that’s probably a higher number than WWE would like.
He points out that some people still wish that WWE would return to a more mature style of programming, but sponsors write the cheques, and they want WWE to target a younger demographic. Younger audiences are always preferable for sponsors, because older people don’t spend money as freely. As long as the sponsors demand WWE to continue with PG programming, that’s exactly what they’ll do.
Bischoff points out that IMPACT Wrestling’s audience is made of up mostly older male viewers. Because of this, he says that sponsors can probably get commercial time on PopTV for $49 a spot during an IMPACT showing. Older audiences, specifically males, simply don’t spend money.
Bischoff comments on the fact that ICW from Ireland has pulled their video library from the FITE TV app, and they’re the first independent promotion to be announced as moving their library to the WWE Network. Bischoff thinks this is very interesting, because WWE has always ignored all of their competition in the past. He’s intrigued to see how this relationship plays out.
Daniel Bryan, who has been off WWE television because his wife Brie gave birth to their child, announced on Twitter that he will be returning to SmackDown Live next week.
Looking forward to watching history be made at @WWE #MITB on Sunday but Tuesday it’s back to work for me at #SDLive! #YesYesYes
— Daniel Bryan (@WWEDanielBryan) June 16, 2017
