NEWS

Planned Title Match Nixed from SmackDown Live Next Week

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WWE had originally planned to have Jinder Mahal defend his WWE Title against Randy Orton on the June 13th SmackDown Live event, but those plans have been nixed.

While the match is still being advertised locally, it will now be only be a dark match at next week’s show and will not take place during the broadcast. They have been doing this match up as a dark match at recent SmackDown tapings. The match would normally end by DQ with interference from The Singh Brothers.

Hideo Itami Say He’s Not Going Back to Japan

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We reported yesterday that there was rumors that Hideo Itami could be heading back to Japan when his contract with WWE expires this year. Itami denied those rumors in a short clip that WWE published on social media.

“No, I worked hard to get here,” said Itami. “One loss doesn’t mean going back to Japan. I’m not done yet.”

Rusev Posts Cryptic Tweet

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Rusev took to his Twitter account to post this crytpic tweet that has a lot of people talking on social media:

As previously noted, Rusev was set to make his SmackDown debut a while back but those plans got nixed once the company decided to go all out with Jinder Mahal’s championship run. There is no new information on exactly when the company plans to bring him back, but we will keep you updated.

Dinner with the King Recap – Creating ‘The King’ Gimmick, Opinions of McMahon/Ross/The Rock, Great Balls of Fire! More!

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Lawler is joined on today’s show by his co-host Glenn Moore.

Lawler informs that he injured his knee recently and it might require some attention in the near future. He recently visited a doctor with his son and the doctor told him that his son’s knees are three times worse than his, and his son is looking at a double knee replacement surgery. Lawler considers himself lucky to have been wrestling for 46 years and he has never required a knee surgery.

Lawler worked a cage match recently and had ‘The Mouth of the South’ Jimmy Hart in his corner for the match. He says that the cage was actually a very stable structure which surprised him, because he has worked in some pretty sad looking cages during his career. He informs that Hart threw his megaphone into cage at one point during the match and that reminded him of a cage match he worked against ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage many years ago.

Savage had Miss Elizabeth accompany him to the ring, and at one point she jumped into the cage. When she tried to climb back out of the cage, Lawler grabbed her skirt and the whole skirt came right off. The Memphis crowd got quite a show that evening. Lawler says that Elizabeth was a tremendous talent both as a valet and as an in-ring worker.

Backstage Update on the Mae Young Classic

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As previously noted, WWE will head to Full Sail University on July 13th and 14th to tape the Mae Young Classic. Here are some notes regarding the show, courtesy of PWInsider:

WWE has already locked in a number of talents for the tournament. There is expected to be around 32-women total.
The WWE Network will feature a preview special for the tournament on August 20th.
The first round of the tournament will be released on VOD the following week.
The second round of the tournament will release the week after that, which is the first week of September.
The finals of the live special are expected to air on Tuesday September 12th. SmackDown runs that night in Las Vegas and it’s being speculated that they could hold the finals there, instead of Orlando.

Alberto Del Rio Removed from Events Next Month

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Pro Wrestling Elite announced today that Alberto El Patron will no longer be appearing on their July 21st and 22nd events. They posted the following on their Facebook page:

***BREAKING NEWS – MAJOR CHANGE TO JULY EVENTS***

It is with regret we have to inform our fans that Alberto El Patron will no longer be appearing at our 6 Year Anniversary weekend of events on Friday and Saturday the 21st and 22nd of July.

It is due to various factors that we are unable to bring you the advertised appearance and match with Alberto, and for this we are very sorry. We would like to wish Alberto El Patron well, and hope that we may be able to work with him in the future.

Please be assured we are working round the clock to bring you suitable changes to combat this disappointment and we kindly ask your patience and understanding at this time.
Thank you.

The Taz Show Recap – RAW Analysis, Heyman & Joe Steal the Show, Mae Young Classic Info, More!

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Block 1:

Taz opens today’s show by saying RAW was really good last night on the whole. He says the Paul Heyman and Samoa Joe segment was fantastic and he loved a lot of the subtleties from Heyman and Joe in that promo.

When Heyman makes his way to the ring he does it nice and slowly, and he always asks the performer in the ring if he can step through the ropes before doing so because he respects the ring and the performers who stand in it. Heyman’s promos are always tremendous, but an underrated part of Heyman’s delivery is his facial expressions.

Taz says that he didn’t anticipate Joe attacking Heyman but once Heyman turned his back to Joe, Taz could see the writing on the wall. He actually anticipated Joe choking Heyman from behind because that would have been a real heel, scumbag thing to do. However, he liked what WWE chose to do by having Joe corner Heyman and threaten him while the handheld mics picked it up.

Taz thought this was very well done, and he has been asking WWE to do this type of thing for a while now. The focus should never be on the live audience, because the millions of viewers at home are the priority. For this reason, it was very cool to see Joe cut this promo right to Heyman’s face which made it more realistic, and only the fans at home knew what he was saying.