Your Daily Source to Wrestling News
WWE announced on tonight’s episode of RAW that Brock Lesnar will be returning to RAW next week. He is expected to confront Samoa Joe in some fashion for attack Paul Heyman on tonight’s show.
No other matches or segments have been announced for next week’s show, but we will keep you updated.
Welcome to another exciting edition of Monday Night Raw!
Samoa Joe shocked the world last night at Extreme Rules when he grabbed Finn Balor in a Coquida Clutch and choked him out. Joe became the number one contender to Brock Lesnar’s Universal Championship and the Samoan Bulldozer had some words for Brock Lesnar on Raw Talk:
WWE.COM has been teasing a response from Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar tonight but I would be shocked if The Beast actually appeared. A showdown between Joe and Lesnar will be amazing, even if it is just a one-off match. Joe will also look to keep his momentum tonight with a comfortable win over some poor soul.
Two title changes also occurred at Extreme Rules last night, with The Miz winning his 7th Intercontinental Championship, and Sheamus and Cesaro regaining the Tag Team Championships from The Hardy Boyz. The Miz was able to beat Dean Ambrose, with a little cheating, to win another Intercontinental Championship and hopefully begin to restore meaning to that title again. Ambrose has been a fairly lacklustre champion every time he has held a belt, whereas The Miz thrive with a title on his shoulder. The Hardy Boyz lost their first tag match since returning last night, and thus lost their titles as well. It was a solid match and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a rematch at Great Balls of Fire.
Alexa Bliss battled Bayley in a weird match last night. I say weird because the story built around the match was that Bayley wasn’t able to get extreme, well then you would think the match would climax when Bayley finally discovered her edge. Nope, Alexa just blasted Bayley with the Kendo Stick multiple times, hit the Bliss DDT and pinned her clean. It was a really odd finish but, frankly, I’m glad to see the end of this rivalry. Nia Jax made it clear on the pre-show last night that she is next in line, no matter who the Champion is, so I would expect an altercation on tonight’s program.
Then there’s Neville, still the Cruiserweight Champion, Kurt Angle’s cryptic phone messages, and Elias Samson still singing his heart out. All that and loads more happening on tonight’s Raw. What are you excited to see? Let us know in the comments, check out the Ringside News app, and enjoy the show!
Jinder Mahal recently spoke with nishant.jayaram of sportskeeda.com for an interview. Here are some highlights:
WWE’s Plans to Expand The India Market: Yes, definitely, WWE is looking to expand in India. It already has a huge presence in India. So I believe, alongside other Indian Superstars like the Singh Brothers, Akam in NXT, Lovepreet (Kishan Raftar), I think the more Indian wrestlers come, the bigger the Indian audience becomes, the bigger the WWE Universe in India becomes, which I think would be a great thing because our Indian fans are very passionate.I would love to do more live shows in India – because I know the last two shows in Delhi last year were a huge success, they were both sold out. I would love to see WWE all across India, in Punjab, Mumbai and Delhi.
How US Fans Treat Him: Actually, it’s a very unique dynamic because the American fans boo me – and sometimes in my promos, I say that America doesn’t accept diversity, which is all character stuff. But I like this unique dynamic of how Indians really like me, even American Indian fans like me. In shows here in the USA, a lot of the crowd has Indian fans who are cheering for me, but the American fans are booing for me.I think it’s very unique. It reminds me of the time of Bret Hart, who was a huge and successful star in Canada – Canadian fans would cheer him, but when he was wrestling in the USA, they would (fans) boo him out of the building. I think it is a very similar situation.
New Finishing Move The Khallas: To be a WWE Superstar you’ve to constantly be evolving and improving. I study a lot of tapes, I watch a lot of old wrestling matches and see moves that work and moves that don’t work. I watch guys that are similar to my size, frame and body shape and the moves they do. Because it’s pointless for me to watch high-flying moves or guys that weigh 300+ pound power moves. I’m a unique blend of speed, size and light – I’m only 230 pounds but I’m very strong. I watch guys who are similar to my body type and see what kind of moves they do, and see what works and doesn’t, and based of that I try new stuff on live events. So, if they’re not successful I can scrap it and take it out of my repertoire.
The Success of 3MB: We’re proof – me, Heath and Drew (former members of 3MB) – are proof that anything is possible, it doesn’t matter where you are on the card. You could be the opening match, it is possible to get to the top of the card, through hard work. WWE is great, it gives people opportunities who deserve opportunities, Vince rewards hard work, WWE rewards hard work, so it motivates the rest of the locker room – they’ve seen me go from the bottom of the card to the top.
Dream Opponent: I think my dream opponent is Brock Lesnar. Imagine that match – Champion vs Champion, WWE Champion vs Universal Champion. He is my dream opponent because if I can knock off Brock Lesnar that would truly solidify me… I’m the best and let the world know that the WWE Champion is better than Universal Champion.
Uproxx recently interviewed the Ayatollah of Rock n’ Rolla, Chris Jericho himself. Jericho talked about a number of things, including how he balances his music career with his wrestling schedule.
When the interviewer, Brandan Stroud, asked Y2J if he would ever wrestle as a part-timer in the WWE, the self-proclaimed “G.O.A.T” had a great response and I quote: (quote credits to iwnerd.com)
“No, I won’t do it because that’s not the way it should be. When you’re there, you should go on the road. That’s how you help guys to learn. That’s how I got better. This whole year I got way better because of working with the younger guys, who then were learning from me as well. They need that. And it was a great year with just an awesome locker room, great people, lots of fun. I had as much fun out of the ring as I did in the ring. And in 2015, all I did was live events. I didn’t do TV at all. It’s like the anti-type Brock Lesnar. I wouldn’t have a problem doing that either. Maybe I’ll never go back on TV again. Maybe I’ll just do live events”
This response alone proves why Jericho is so widely respected by the wrestlers, bookers and fans alike. A legitimate legend indeed.
Taz opens today’s show speaking about the dangers of taking backdrops. A listener calls into the show and says that he’s a wrestler and actually broke his tailbone taking a backdrop at one point. He tried to take the backdrop by landing on his ass, which would have set up another spot right after. Unfortunately, this broke his tailbone and he was out of action for a while.
Taz says that a backdrop is one of the most dangerous moves that you can execute in a wrestling ring. After he had his neck injuries he would never take backdrops during his matches because it was simply too risky. He also suggests that taking a backdrop on your ass is a terrible idea and he wouldn’t recommend that anyone try that.
A listener calls into the show and asks Taz about the role of managers in wrestling, and what it means when they take a bump. Taz says that it’s rare for managers to take bumps and those spots are often saved for special moments, to enhance a certain feud or to finalize a program. He says that if Finn Balor and Brock Lesnar are in a program together, Balor dropkicking Paul Heyman would be a massive moment.
WWE has announced Brock Lesnar for the following date:
* June 12th in Lafayette, LA
* June 26th in Los Angeles, CA
* July 3rd in Phoenix, AZ
* July 10th in Houston, TX
As noted, Brock will defend his WWE Universal Title at the Great Balls of Fire event on July 9th in Dallas, Texas.
