Brock Lesnar Returning To MMA?; WWE Battleground Nowhere Near Sold Out
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Russo opens today’s show by commentating on the recent drama in the relationship between Paige and Alberto Del Rio. He says that he met Paige and her family before, and they’re all very nice people. He has also met Del Rio in the past and he was very nice as well. In other words, he likes both of these individuals and he really just wants both of them to be okay.
He says that he doesn’t put any weight into the headlines written by wrestling ‘journalists’, but the tweets that were sent out by Paige’s brother really caught his attention. Some people forget that Paige is still just a kid, and her family are obviously very concerned about her. He believes that there is love in that relationship and he thinks they’re both good people, so he hopes they can figure this out.
Lane mentions that there has been some criticism from dirt sheet writers, Bryan Alvarez in particular, over the fact that Billy Gunn worked the recent NJPW show from the United States. Russo says he’s glad that Gunn wrestled on that show, and he’s glad that he’ll continue to wrestle for the foreseeable future because he’s able to make money doing that. This is a business, and each time Gunn wrestles he gets paid, so what’s the problem here?
Russo says that Gunn is still a machine at his age. He adds that in a shoot fight, Gunn would give Brock Lesnar a tougher bout than Samoa Joe or most other performers on WWE’s roster.
Coming out of Monday’s RAW, there is speculation that the main event for next month’s SummerSlam will see Brock Lesnar defending his WWE Universal Title against Roman Reigns, Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman in a Fatal 4-Way match.
Dave Meltzer discussed the possibility of the match being a 3-way for the championship on Monday’s installment of Wrestling Observer Radio, however those those plans may change. The belief is that Braun will make an appearance on next week’s RAW during the #1 contendership for the Universal Title match between Joe and Roman. This will play into storyline and setup the 4-Way at SummerSlam.
One of the reasons WWE would want setup a multi-persons match is because it would allow them to have an “out” for either Lesnar or Roman. Basically, Lesnar wouldn’t have to pin Roman and Roman wouldn’t have to pin Lesnar with other competitors in the match.
With just an hour away until RAW goes live, WWE announced that Kurt Angle will give an update on the condition of Braun Strowman on tonight’s show.
It was also announced that Angle will be congratulating Brock Lesnar for his victory over Samoa Joe at Sunday’s WWE Great Balls of Fire event.
Check back here at 8PM ET for our live play-by-play coverage of the show.
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Kurt Angle announced on tonight’s episode of RAW that Samoa Joe will face Roman Reigns on next week’s episode of RAW. The winner of that match will face Brock Lesnar at the upcoming WWE SummerSlam event for the Universal Championship.
As of this writing, no other matches or segments have been announced. We will keep you updated if they announce anything.
Heading into tonight’s WWE Great Balls of Fire event, Bray Wyatt is now the favorite in the betting odds to win his match against Seth Rollins. Here is the updated odds, courtesy of PaddyPower.com:
Brock Lesnar 1/25 (favorite)
Samoa Joe 17/2
Braun Strowman 1/10 (favorite)
Roman Reigns 5/1
Bray Wyatt 1/10 (favorite)
Seth Rollins 15/2
Big Cass 1/14 (favorite)
Enzo Amore 11/2
Alexa Bliss 1/25 (favorite)
Sasha Banks 9/1
Cesaro & Sheamus 1/25 (favorite)
Matt & Jeff Hardy 15/2
The Miz 1/14 (favorite)
Dean Ambrose 11/2
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Sunday’s WWE Great Balls of Fire event has not sold out yet and this isn’t a good sign especially with the likes of Brock Lesnar appearing on the card.
According to TicketIQ there are hundreds of seats are still available on Ticketmaster with prices ranging from $25-$700. On the secondary market, tickets have an average price of $148 with cheapest ticket available costing $42.
It will be interesting to see if the event will sellout within the next six days.
WWE heads to the Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, AZ for tonight’s episode of RAW. Here are the focus point’s for the show:
How will Enzo Amore rebound?
Can The Boss knock “The Goddess” off her pedestal?
Will Roman Reigns get payback against Braun Strowman?
Samoa Joe scorches Brock Lesnar before WWE Great Balls of Fire
Check back here at 8PM ET for our live play-by-play coverage of the show.
Bischoff is joined on today’s show by his co-host Nick Hausman.
Bischoff comments on the news that Vince Russo filed a restraining order against Jim Cornette recently. He simply calls this action by Russo ‘bizarre’, and he’s getting sick and tired of talking about Russo. At first it was fun to poke fun at Russo because he’s so easy to get fired up, but at this point it’s just silly.
Hausman mentions that initially fans thought all these verbal jabs between Russo, Cornette, Bischoff and Prichard were a work, which would ultimately result in some live debate tour featuring all men. It’s obvious now that was never the case. Bischoff mentions that we was offered a pretty good pay day recently to do an in-ring segment with Russo for an indie promotion in P.E.I.,Canada. Even though the money was good, he turned it down because Russo is just too weird to be around.
Bischoff thought the Samoa Joe/Brock Lesnar segment from RAW this past week created some mystique, and that’s something that has been sorely missing from WWE’s product lately. Joe is a great character, and luckily WWE has made a commitment to Joe’s character because now Joe comes off as a believable threat to Lesnar. Bischoff thinks Joe will give Lesnar some of the best matches he has had in recent memory.
A listener calls into the show and asks Taz if he thinks WWE would throw us all a curve ball and have one of the Money in the Bank winners emerge on RAW to cash in their briefcase against Alexa Bliss or Brock Lesnar. Taz admits that would be a very shocking and surprising turn of events, and would make for a very memorable moment.
However, he doesn’t think cashing in on RAW (especially the day after the PPV) is a good idea. He has always been a fan of the Money in the Bank creative, and more often than not the goal is to get as much longevity out of that angle as possible each year. The briefcase holders can use that contract to boost themselves up throughout the year, and the constant threat of cashing in adds intrigue to the product throughout the year as well.
A listener calls into the show and says that he purchased the ROH PPV this past weekend, and this was the first PPV he purchased since 2014. He’s very happy he decided to spend the money on this PPV because it was a great wrestling show. Taz says that he’s a big fan of ROH, and there’s a lot of hard working people who make that company work on a daily basis.