Who Is Currently the Favorite to Win the Money in the Bank Briefcase?

While the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported last week that Nakumara was the favorite to win the Money in the Bank briefcase this year, betting odds would have you thinking otherwise.

Early betting odds suggest that Baron Corbin will be leaving the June 18th as the rightful holder of the briefcase. Here are the odds for the match:

* Baron Corbin -165
* Kevin Owens +500
* AJ Styles +600
* Sami Zayn +600
* Shinsuke Nakamura +700
* Dolph Ziggler +2500

Former WWE Superstar Santino Marella Making Wrestling Comeback

It looks like Santino Marella is coming out of retirement to wrestle once again.

According to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Santino will wrestle later this year for his own Battlarts promotion. He runs the promotion out of his gym in Mississauga, Ontario.

For those not aware, Santino declared his retirement on July 6th, 2014 at a house show in Toronto, Ontario after he suffered his third neck injury. He was released in 2016 from WWE.

The Taz Show Recap – Bringing Back War Games, Special Guest Jim Ross, Where’s Rusev? More!

Block 1:

A listener calls into the show and points out that the promo graphic for Great Balls of Fire somewhat resembles a penis and two testicles. Taz says that this has been brought up online already and it’s hard to deny the resemblance. He says that WWE has a graphic design team that does all the work for PPV graphics, but Vince McMahon has to approve everything.

Taz says that he just chooses to look at that logo and see a literal ball of fire, but some people might choose to see other things. Either way, it’s an interesting piece of graphic design work without a doubt.

Another listener calls into the show and says that WWE should change the Cruiserweight division to a Light Heavyweight division. Taz says that if they did that they’d still have all the same issues that the Cruiserweight division has, because more than the name needs to change. Taz says that the specific Cruiserweight branding with purple ropes and aprons simply isn’t working.

In addition, filming 205 Live after Smackdown Live isn’t working either. Taz says that WWE needs to change their approach to the Cruiserweights and start filming 205 Live at Full Sail University. He also doesn’t mind the idea of WWE merging the Cruiserweights into the main roster, where they can also challenge for WWE Titles such as the United States Title and Intercontinental Title.

Note on Picture-In-Picture Advertising on SmackDown Live

As many of you have seen recently. WWE is now doing picture-in-picture advertising on the SmackDown Live brand on Tuesday nights. This was apparently the USA Network’s idea as they plan on doing it for other shows. The idea is to keep the viewers from changing the channel during commercial breaks.

It’s worth pointing out that WWE is only doing the picture-in-picture advertising for the non-important matches and are still doing full-on commercials for their bigger matches. This past Tuesday on SmackDown they did normal commercial breaks for the AJ Styles vs. Dolph Ziggler match and other popular matches.

Vince McMahon Says Chris Jericho Is The Only Person Who Could Get “Stupid Idiot” Over with Fans

Chris Jericho recently spoke with Rock 100.5 ATL’s Bailey and Southside. Here are some highlights:

The Creation of The List: “Working with this guys who’s a writer in the WWE named Jimmy Jacobs. He used to be a [pro] wrestler. He came up to me one day and said, ‘what if we do something where you put somebody on this list?’ I’m like, ‘I knew this guy once who had a list of people he didn’t like.’ I’m like, ‘oh, that sounds funny.’ So I said it and it kind of got a reaction.” Jericho said, “the whole concept of The List went through the roof. The List is more popular than 85% of the guys on the show. The List is more popular than I am! And you just never know what’s going to make an impression with fans.”

Getting Stupid Idiot Over: “They’re chanting it now, ‘stupid idiot’ and I remember when I started saying that, Vince was like, ‘nobody could say this, nobody can get away with this, but you can. You’re the only guy in the world who could do this’ because when I started using ‘stupid idiot,’ it got heat. I would call the fans, ‘you’re a stupid idiots’ and they’d be like, ‘boo!’ and then, like everything else, suddenly people loved it.”

Speculation on Lana Competing on SmackDown Live Before MITB

WWE confirmed on their website that Lana will not be competing before the Money in the Bank event in her match against Naomi for the SmackDown Women’s Championship. There was speculation online this week in regards to her facing in a match before hand but that obviously won’t be happening.

WWE wrote the following, confirming that her match at MITB will be her first official match on the SmackDown Live brand:

“At SmackDown LIVE’s WWE Money in the Bank pay-per-view, Lana will make her blue brand in-ring debut when she challenges Naomi for the SmackDown Women’s Championship in a match that was made following the turbulent events of the June 6 edition of SmackDown LIVE.”

CM Punk Eliminated from MTV Show

Former WWE Superstar CM Punk was eliminated on this week’s episode of MTV’s The Challenge: Champs vs. Pros. Punk lost his elimination challenge, which was against Gus Kenworthy. He received $1,000 for P.A.W.S. Chicago, his charity.

For those wondering about Punk’s future, there is no official word yet as to what the UFC actually has plans for him and if they are going to release him from his contract or not. We will keep you updated.

Sheamus Going After the Intercontinental Championship?

Sheamus indicated on Twitter that he wants to hold the Intercontinental Championship, the one title that has eluded him to date. Here is his twitter, which sparked a response The Miz:

Bischoff on Wrestling Recap – Bischoff’s Time in WWE, Kissing Linda McMahon, Hogan Returning to WWE? More!

Bischoff opens today’s show speaking about Bruce Prichard’s recent episode of ‘Something to Wrestle With’, which focused on Bischoff’s time in WWE.

Bischoff says that he thinks about his initial WWE interview quite often, when Vince McMahon asked him to interview a broom. He didn’t know that Bruce Prichard was there that day; in fact he couldn’t even see McMahon, he only heard his voice. Looking back now, he thinks this was a genius move by McMahon because by putting people in uncomfortable positions, you’re able to test their confidence and see their ability to improvise.

When Hogan arrived in WCW, Bischoff says that he and Hogan spoke often about his departure from WWE. From Bischoff’s perspective it was easy to see that there was a strong personal relationship between Hogan and McMahon. Although they had their differences, Hogan seemed to regret the way everything played out, and Bischoff didn’t sense any distain or hatred from Hogan when he was talking about McMahon. It was easy to see that there was still some affection there.

During his show, Prichard said that he believes McMahon would have done a lot of the same things Bischoff did during the Monday Night Wars if the roles were reversed, such as giving away the finishes of taped matches.

Austin Aries Taking Time Off from WWE

While appearing on Busted Open Radio, Austin Aries mentioned that he will be taking time off from WWE to heal some nagging injuries.

“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.”

You can listen to the full interview here.