As seen on Tuesday’s episode of SmackDown Live, Daniel Bryan suspended James Ellsworth for 30 days and fined him $10,000 for his involvement in the Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder matches. He also added that if he violates the terms, Carmella will be stripped of her MITB briefcase.
Carmella and Ellsworth both took to Twitter and made the following remarks in regards to the suspension:
As reported earlier, WWE might be planning to split The Hype Bros after last night’s Battle Royale spot which saw Mojo Rawley eliminating Zack Ryder. Ryder was visibly disappointed over his elimination from the Battle Royale by his own best friend.
The Broski took to Twitter to react to his best friend’s betrayal:
To this, Rawley replied:
However, Ryder understood the situation and seems to have let it go:
It was reported that Bret Hart’s elder brother, Smith Hart passed away this past Sunday after a battle with terminal prostate cancer. A number of pro-wrestling personalities gave their condolences to the Hart family and wished peace for Smith’s soul. Earlier today, Bret Hart took to Instagram to give his thoughts on his brother’s death. … Read more
Justin Roberts recently talked to the Cult of Whatever about a number of topics. During the interview, Justin was asked how he felt working for Vince Mcmahon and what he thought of him.
Here’s what Roberts replied:
“He is on top of everything; he makes sure everything goes the way he wants it to go. He micromanages everyone and everything. Sometimes he isn’t clear on direction and what he wants you to do, sometimes his direction doesn’t make sense, sometimes he will tell you one thing but he wants something else. It’s not easy to work for him but you’ll learn a lot from him, I can say that much because there is brilliance somewhere in there, it’s not everywhere but there is a brilliance that is a part of it. It prepares you for when you’re done to go and work anywhere else because once you work for Vince you can go anywhere.”
What do you think about Roberts’s thoughts on Vinnie Mac? Let us know in the comments.
Kurt Angle talked about the success of GLOW on his recent interview with the Dallas Observer recently.
He talked about GLOW’s recent popularity which led wrestling into mainstream environment again, and the main event women’s matches:
I would say that GLOW’s popularity had an influence on us having women’s main event matches. But the WWE has been working on their women’s division for years, and we’ve already been leading up to having the girls main event TV shows.
A few years ago, WWE made the decision to stop referring to the women wrestlers as “divas.” When I was in WWE the first go-round, the women were having bikini pillow fights and it was all about the look of the girl. Now it’s all about their in-ring ability. GLOW is helping bring more attention to wrestling and women’s wrestling in particular. I think people who watch WWE will watch GLOW and vice-versa.
GLOW is Netflix’s latest show which is based on a promotion of the same name, called Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. The show was released via Netflix on June 23, 2017.
GFW taped the following at tonight’s Impact Wrestling tapings in Orlando, FL tonight:
– Eli Drake, Chris Adonis, & EC3 defeated Marufuji, Edwards, & Moose.
– Ishimori defeats Davey Richards to advance.
– Lashley is out for an in-ring promo. He’s not impressed with guys just asking for title shots, if anyone tries to step past Lashley he will break them in half. Lashley says he wants a world title match at Destination X and calls out Bruce Prichard to confirm it. Bruce says he addressed this last week. Lashley says he deserves the shot, Sydal out, Lashley ignores him. Lashley tries to spear Sydal but Sydal hits him with a knee and then a shooting star press.
– Sienna defeats Rosemary in a Last Knockout Standing match.
– Octagoncito defeats Trevor Lee by count out, Sonjay Dutt tries to get his belt back but Trevor escapes through the crowd.
– Time is running out for Grado, JB asking the crowd to convince LVN that marrying Grado is the right thing to do. Grado calls LVN down to the ring. Grado proposes. Braxton Sutter comes out and brings Allie to the back for no reason. Kongo Kong out and he scared Grado and Joseph Park away, LVN calms down Kongo and they leave.
– Dezmond Xavier defeats Drago to advance to the finals of the Super X Cup.
– Mumbai Cat defeats Trevor Lee. Mumbai Cat is Sonjay Duyt. Sonjay challenges Trevor to a ladder match on 8/17 at Destination X.
– Eli Drake vs Eddie Edwards never happens as Kongo Kong destroys Eddie in the back before the match.
– Moose vs EC3 for the Grand Slam Championship. Split decision, D’Amore and Dutch score a tie, Prichard scores it 10-8, EC3 wins the Grand Championship.
– Main event is Alberto vs LAX in a gauntlet match. Alberto beat Homicide in seconds. Alberto defeats Ortiz. Alberto defeats Santana by DQ when all of LAX attacks him. Dos Caras & The Veterans of War out to save Alberto. Faces celebrate to close out the show. Here were the results from tonight’s Impact Wrestling tapings which are expected to air on July 20th and 27th. Thanks to Mr. Jacob Cohen for the following results… – Mayor Buddy Dyer is announcing the following 6 man match, Eli Drake, Chris Adonis, & EC3 vs. Marufuji, Edwards, & Moose. EC3 pins Moose to win it for his team. – They just re-taped the end of Sienna vs Nova, looks like they are re-taping the whole knockout challenger promo from last night. – Ishimori defeats Davey Richards to advance, he will face his tag partner ACH in the next round. – Lashley is not impressed with guys just asking for title shots, if anyone tries to step past Lashley he will break them in half. Lashley says he wants a world title match at Destination X and calls out Bruce Prichard to confirm it. Bruce says he addressed this last week, Lashley says he deserves the shot, Sydal out, Lashley ignores him. Lashley tries to spear Sydal but Sydal hits him with a knee and then a shooting star press. – Sienna defeats Rosemary to retain in the Last Knockout Standing match. – Trevor Lee out, fighting champion, he scoured the globe, he has found the king of Mexico, Octagoncito is his opponent. Octagoncito defeats Trevor Lee by count out, Sonjay Dutt tries to get his belt back but Trevor escapes through the crowd. – Time is running out for Grado, JB asking the crowd to convince LVN that marrying Grado is the right thing to do. Grado calls LVN down to the ring. Grado proposes. Braxton Sutter comes out and brings Allie to the back for no reason. Kongo Kong out and he scared Grado and Joseph Park away, LVN calms down Kongo and they leave. – Dezmond Xavier defeats Drago to advance to the finals of the Super X Cup. – Mumbai Cat defeats Trevor Lee. Mumbai Cat is Sonjay Dust. Sonjay challenges Trevor to a ladder match on 8/17 at Destination X. – Eli Drake vs Eddie Edwards never happens as Kongo Kong destroys Eddie in the back before the match. – Grand Championship match up next, Prichard, Dutch, and D’Amore as judges. Moose vs EC3. Split decision, D’Amore and Dutch score a tie, Prichard scores it 10-8, EC3 wins the Grand Championship. – Main event is Alberto vs LAX in a gauntlet match. Alberto beat Homicide in seconds. Alberto defeats Ortiz. Alberto defeats Santana by DQ when all of LAX attacks him. Dos Caras & The Veterans of War out to save Alberto. Faces celebrate to close out the show.
As previously reported, there is speculation that the beginning to the end of The Hype Bros is currently on-going on WWE programming after Mojo Rawley eliminated Zack Ryder from the Independence Day Battle Royal Tuesday night.
Bryan Alvarez discussed the Battle Royal on today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Radio and said it’s obvious that the team is splitting up. It’s believed that Zack will be the one to turn heel on Mojo in their on-going storyline.
We noted back in May via Wrestling Observer Radio that WWE has plans to push Mojo as a single’s star. Dave Meltzer indicated at the time that the company would probably split the team once Ryder got back from injury and it now appears that those plans are in place.
As seen on Tuesday’s episode of SmackDown Live, WWE announced that John Cena would face Rusev in a flag match at the upcoming WWE Battleground event. Bryan Alvarez speculated on today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Live that the reason WWE decided to have a flag match between the two was in case they decide to have Rusev win.
“The Flag match is essentially the professional wrestling version of capture the flag. For the match two flags are placed on opposite turnbuckles, each representing a specific wrestler or team of wrestlers, and the object of the match is to retrieve the opponent’s flag and raise it while defending the flag in the wrestler’s corner.”
According to the rules (seen above), the match will conclude when a specific wrestler retrieves the flag of their opponent. This means Cena doesn’t have to actually be pinned to lose the match. Historically, WWE normally has gimmick matches as a blow-off match in a feud or as an “out” for a screwy finish.
Luke Harper took to his Twitter account to call out WWE for not acknowledging his battle royal elimination of Konnor on Twitter. WWE ended up deleting the tweet and Harper both ended up deleting their tweets. Here is the exchange:
WWE Twitter:
“#AndreTheGiant Memorial #BattleRoyal winner @MojoRawleyWWE is on a ROLL, eliminating @KonnorWWE & @LukeHarperWWE! #SDLive”
Luke Harper:
“Who eliminated Konnor? Thanks for watching @wwe. My name’s Luke Harper.”
Many can understand Harper’s frustrations as he rarely appears on Smackdown Live anymore.
Former WCW President and former RAW GM Eric Bischoff talked about the Rusev-Cena flag match on his podcast, Bischoff On Wrestling :
“I hate it. I just hate it. I haaaate it. I hate it. God, whose idea was that? Vince McMahon, if you are listening to this or someone that works for you is listening to this re-think that. That is just… gwuck. My teeth hurt just listening to you talk about this”
He continued:
“What’s a Flag Match?! What the hell is a Flag Match?! It’s like it’s been around for a thousand years and eeeeverybody knows what a Flag Match is. So, I am going to take your flag? Or, you’re going to take my flag? I am sorry… do not care. Boring. Here is what I do believe now once I take off my cynical hat. If you want to build up a story, create emotion, build anticipation, have a sense of reality, give yourself an element of surprise and wrap it all in some great action you’ve got to be a little believable. The stakes have to be a little relatable. What are the stakes?! You are going to grab my flag? Huh? You are grabbing my flag? That’s what I am going to get pissed off about and fight my heart out about? You’re going to grab my flag. I am sorry. I am sleeping through that one.”
Randy Orton lost a match against Aiden English last night on WWE SmackDown by disqualification, after Orton hit Aiden with the steel steps. Aiden took to his Twitter account and reacted to the victory, writing:
Like it or not…that is a “W” in the books over a multi-time @WWE champion and future Hall of Famer. Eat your hearts out #DramaKing #SDLive
— Aiden English (@WWEDramaKing) July 5, 2017
