Daniel Bryan to Strip Carmella of The Money in the Bank Briefcase?

WWE announced that Daniel Bryan would be returning to tonight’s episode of SmackdDown Live for the first time in a while. He took time off from WWE programming because his wife Brie gave birth to their new child. Bryan is expected to address the controversial finish in the Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match that saw James Ellsworth capture the briefcase only to give it to Carmella.

Bryan Alvarez discussed Daniel Bryan’s return on yesterday’s installment of Wrestling Observer Live. Alvarez speculates that Carmella will be stripped of the briefcase. There is a possibility that they may even have another match to determine a new holder of the contract that allows a shot at the Women’s Championship anytime they want.

The Taz Show Recap – Money in the Bank Analysis, Mahal Needs A New Finisher, Was the Women’s Ladder Match Historic? More!

Block 1:

Taz gets right into his analysis of last night’s Money in the Bank PPV.

He thought the opening package before the Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match was terrific. It did a wonderful job of paying tribute to women who paved the way for today’s performers, while also highlighting each woman who was participating in last night’s ladder match.

He thought all five women worked hard in the match, but in the end, Taz questions whether this match lived up to it’s ‘historic’ nature. Carmella’s victory is tainted by the fact that James Ellsworth physically climbed the ladder and unhooked the briefcase for her. Taz thinks it’s a shame that in the first ever Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match, a man was the one to retrieve the briefcase.

Taz thinks that WWE needs to address Carmella’s victory on this Tuesday’s episode of Smackdown Live and he truly believes that they will. He suggests that Shane McMahon should appear on RAW tonight to announce a Money in the Bank rematch for tomorrow night’s Smackdown Live. Having Shane appear on the opposing brand to make this announcement will make this feel like a very important moment, and Taz ultimately thinks that Carmella will lose this briefcase one way or another on Tuesday night.

In spite of all the controversy surrounding the finish, Taz thought that these five women earned a lot of people’s respect last night, and they raised the bar for all women entering a WWE ring moving forward.

Possible Spoiler for Tonight’s Episode of RAW

As previously noted, Roman Reigns will be kicking off tonight’s episode of RAW to make his SummerSlam announcement. It’s being speculated that Roman will announce that he wants to face the winner of the Great Balls of Fire pay-per-view match of Samoa Joe vs. Brock Lesnar.

With Braun Strowman now being cleared to return to action, Bryan Alvarez speculated on today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Live that Strowman will return on tonight’s show to continue his feud with Roman Reigns. It’s expected that this will lead to another match with between the two, with the winner getting a shot at the Universal Title at SummerSlam.

RAW Spoilers: Return Planned, Main Event for the Show, MizTV Segment

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.

New Stable Forms on Tonight’s Episode of RAW

The Miz recruited both Curtis Axel and Bo Dalls to join him as part of a new stable on RAW. They will be going by the name The Entourage. For those who didn’t witness tonight’s show, Axel and Dallas dressed up in bear costumes and attacked Dean Ambrose in a segment where The Miz failed to get on Maryse’s good side again.

Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Mayweather vs. McGregor, Where’s Finn Balor’s Demon? Who Gave The Big Show His Name? More!

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.

WWE Plants the Seeds for Upcoming SummerSlam Match

As seen at Sunday’s WWE Money in the Bank during the Money in the Bank Ladder Match, WWE had a spot that saw AJ Styles and Nakamura square off in a little one-on-one action near the closing moments of the match. Bryan Alvarez discussed this angle on today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Live and indicated that this spot was done to setup a match between the two at a future date — presumably at this year’s SummerSlam.

As of this writing, the following matches are being rumored for the show:

Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman
John Cena vs. Jinder Mahal
Triple H vs. Kurt Angle
AJ Styles vs. Nakamura

With WWE holding for back-to-back shows in the row at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, they are expecting to make this show as big as possible. Those events include NXT Takeover: Brooklyn III on August 19th, SummerSlam on the 20th, RAW on the 21st and SmackDown Live on the 22nd.

Kevin Owens’ Condition Following Money in the Bank

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.

Impact Wrestling Loses Three More Employees

Well, this was bound to happen but it looks like three more individuals are done with Impact Wrestling.

Shane Helms indicated on Twitter that he’s done with the company and moving on in life. He indicated in one of his tweets that he wasn’t going to “kiss ass” to anthem. This would suggest that there may have been differences between the two.

Helms had been working in a backstage capacity since joining the company in 2015. He also had a role on TV as the manager/mouthpiece for Trevor Lee and Andrew Everett.

In addition to Helms leaving the company, PWInsider reports that long-time producers/agents Al Snow and Pat Kenney are on their way out the door. The reason that they are leaving the company was a financial decision.