Lawler is joined on today’s show by his co-host, Glenn Moore.

When Lawler first walked back into The Manhattan Center last Monday, he quickly realized how far WWE has come in terms of what buildings they host their shows in. The building was smaller than he remembered, but that’s probably because he’s been accustomed to working in arenas for the last several years.

He had an amazing time paying tribute to the history of RAW on this show, and it was also great seeing so many of his old friends. He points out that the WWE Universe tuned in to see a lot of the legends of days gone by, and the ratings for this show did a great number for WWE. He likes to think that he and Jim Ross reuniting had at least a small part in those fans tuning into the show.

He’s pretty sure that Triple H made a call on the fly to get some of the talents from Barclay’s Center to jump in a car and make their way to Manhattan Center, because he felt like those fans needed to get more for their money. By the end of the night, Lawler thinks the fans there were pleased and satisfied with the show.

Lawler thinks the crowd would have been happier if they weren’t even shown what was happening at Barclay’s Center. He thinks the crowd there would have been happier with constant action, and the 205 Live matches certainly didn’t give the crowd what they wanted. After RAW went off the air, Seth Rollins, The Miz and Ric Flair all showed up at The Manhattan Center, and the fans got to see those stars up close and in person.

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Taz is joined on today’s show by his co-host, Seth.

Taz opens today’s show by speaking about last night’s 25th Anniversary episode of RAW. He points out that The Manhattan Center crowd had to deal with long breaks between in-ring action, and this resulted in the live audience getting very agitated. Most fans paid hundreds of dollars to be live at The Manhattan Center, and he thinks WWE failed to book this event properly.

Seth says that the Undertaker promo was very open-ended and it didn’t really impress him. He would have preferred seeing Undertaker get physical with a full-time talent. Taz points out that WWE prostitutes their younger talent to the aging veterans enough as it is, so Undertaker cutting a promo was not a bad idea in his mind. He also adds that Undertaker may not have been physically able to have an in-ring confrontation.

Taz believes that Randy Orton definitely should have been on this show and Orton’s wife obviously agreed, since she sent out a social media post yesterday saying so. Taz informs that he wasn’t invited back for this show, and he adds that he’s too critical of WWE’s current product to be invited back for this type of show.

He informs that he was present backstage at a recent commemorative episode of Smackdown, and they didn’t even use him on camera then when he was live in the building. He adds that he’s almost happy that he wasn’t invited to this show because they would have had him walking backstage with a towel over his head or playing poker with the APA. He wouldn’t have been interested in anything like that, especially if they weren’t going to pay him.

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Today’s episode of Dinner With the King was recorded live at Lawler’s BBQ restaurant, featuring Lawler’s co-host Glenn Moore and a group of fans.

The show opens with Moore asking Lawler about his history with Ric Flair. Lawler informs that he didn’t work a lot of matches with Flair because Flair was always a travelling Champion, and Lawler was based in Memphis because he owned the promotion there. The only times he worked with Flair was when Flair came through his promotion.

Lawler points out that Ric Flair didn’t have a gimmick. What you see is what you get with Flair, 365 days of the year. Moore asks Lawler if Flair was hard to work with back in those days, but Lawler can’t recall him being stubborn or hard to deal with. He informs that they rarely interacted with each other prior to their matches. They’d work their matches on the fly in the ring, and as soon as the match was over Flair would leave the building.

Lawler recalls a huge compliment Flair gave him years ago. It occurred in their hotel room after the infamous “Plane Ride From Hell”, as all the wrestlers and flight attendants were continuing their drinking there. One of the flight attendants were sitting on Lawler’s lap as Flair passed by him and saw. Flair turned around and said, “When it comes to women, King is my hero!” That was big praise coming from the man who apparently slept with 10,000 women.

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Block 1:

Taz opens today’s show speaking about the Twitter interaction between Randy Orton and Kevin Owens this past weekend. Both men took turns taking shots at each other and Taz thought it was very entertaining, regardless of it was a work or a shoot. He says that with WWE’s current product, it’s really hard to tell whether this was a real beef between the two men, but either way it was fun.

He also points out that with Orton and Owens both working on the Smackdown Live brand, they might end up working with each other in the coming months. When that time comes, this Twitter interaction will certainly come into play in order to heighten the apparent friction between both men.

Taz says he watched the initial War Games match over the weekend, and he was so impressed by the match. Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard got heat on Dusty Rhodes for an extended period of time to start the match, and that set up the rest of the match. Road Warrior Animal made his entrance and the building exploded.

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Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane, Big Vito and Kenny Bolin.

Russo says WWE proved how dumb they are right at the beginning of RAW this week when the commentators made it known that all the doors to the arena were locked and security was surrounding the building. Russo says this made the RAW Superstars look like ‘pussies’ when in reality, the RAW Superstars should have been furious and should have been begging the Smackdown Live roster to come back so they could get their revenge from last week.

Vito says he liked that Stephanie McMahon opened the show because that was a ratings draw. Russo completely disagrees saying that Stephanie obviously didn’t pop the ratings because this week’s ratings were lower than last week’s. He also says that he hate’s Stephanie’s character because she’s one dimensional and she constantly buries talents without allowing the talents to have a comeback.

Bolin says it was great to see Samoa Joe return on this show, and he’s a big fan of Joe. Before Joe got to WWE Bolin was unaware how great he was at cutting promos, so that has been a pleasant surprise since he started in NXT. He also says that WWE has something great in Joe if they allow him to be the Joe from ROH. Russo says that’s all fine and dandy but Joe needs to stop wearing ‘clown shorts’.

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Reports of Neville walking out prior to Monday’s episode of RAW appear to be inaccurate.

According to PWInsider, Neville never actually showed up to the building for RAW this week. Neville was expected to be at RAW to face Enzo Amore in the Lumberjack match, however when he didn’t show up backstage the decision was made to have Kalisto face Enzo instead.

The belief is that Neville wants his WWE release so that he can establish his name on the indie circuit just like Drew McIntyre did. Neville apparently has several issues with the company including his t-shirt design. In addition to that, Neville was upset with his match against Austin Aries being left off the North America Wrestlemania DVD because that resulted in less royalties.

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Edge and Christian open today’s show by sending their prayers and best wishes to the family and friends of Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan, who passed away recently. Christian believes that Heenan is the best Manager of all time, and one of the greatest entertainers in the history of professional wrestling. Edge agrees and says he was heartbroken when he heard the news. He adds that Heenan could get anyone over, and he was truly one of a kind.

Edge and Christian welcome John Cena to the show.

Edge informs that he and Cena worked so well together that they began referring to each other as ‘shoe’. It was a nickname based on the saying that an old shoe always fits comfortably, because their chemistry in the ring always allowed them to pair up after months apart and effortlessly put on great matches.

Cena speaks fondly about the TLC match he had with Edge in 2006. He says the electricity in the building that night was incredible and it was so cool to be a part of. Edge says his and Cena’s parents actually sat together in the audience that night, watching their sons go to war in a TLC match. Edge admits that his emotions got the better of him on that night.

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While speaking to Al Arabiya, Finn Balor revealed that Karl Anderson (who worked with Balor in New Japan Pro Wrestling) once tried to talk him out of doing “The Demon” character prior to him using the gimmick in front of an audience.

“Honestly, the first time “The Demon” came, and it wasn’t referred to as “The Demon” at that point — I just wanted to use body paint,” Balor said. “The first time I did that, I said to my best friend Karl Anderson that I’m going to do this thing. I explained to him what I was doing and he said, ‘Do not do that, you’re going to be laughed out of the building.’”

Balor also went on to explain that the creative process for bringing “The Demon” to life is different every time.

“What happens is, on the morning — it’s like art. You can’t predict how you’re going to paint the painting in advance. If I’m going to draw something, I don’t know the day before what I’m going to draw. It’s just very much an interpretation of how I’m feeling that day, and what I think is the coolest thing in my brain at that very moment. I’ll have a couple concepts here and there, maybe I’ll do this, maybe I’ll do that, but the actual decision won’t come until about 6 o’clock when I sit down and start getting painted.”

You can check out the interview embedded in the video below:

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Drew McIntyre recently spoke with The UK Mirror. Here are some highlights from the interview:

WWE Return: It’s been a crazy couple of months. I was basically the busiest independent wrestler in the world, travelling the world back and forth. I was under contract at the time [with IMPACT Wrestling] and I elected not to sign my new contract. I had to make the best decision for my future and my family’s future. I was very, very lucky after so many people believing in me and working my arse off that I was able to take a pick of where I was going to go. But my mind was made up, if I got the opportunity… William Regal is one of my mentors and I had been talking with him the whole time I have been away from WWE. He has been giving me advice, watching my matches, so that’s pretty much where it came up. I had a good conversation with Triple H on the phone and as I say, my mind was made up where I wanted to go. NXT is the top roster in the world as far as I’m concerned, the work ethic and fans. Once I had that conversation my mind was beyond made up. That day when I showed up at the show was one of the wildest days of my life. I had a very busy day! I started at 8am, I had a signing, then a show in the afternoon, then a radio appearance, I had an additional signing, then showed up at the Evolve show at 8pm it started, I was out in the first segment, I believe I left the building at 8.20pm, drove straight to the Amway Center in Orlando, my wife was waiting with a suit at the back door. We ran in the back, I put the suit on, this was about 9pm, Orlando traffic so it took a while to get there, and I was sitting in my seat in front of 15,000 fans, and at not one point did I think to myself ‘I wonder how they’re going to react?’ until I sat in that seat, got my head down and thought ‘oh my God, I hope they remember me and have been following what I’ve been doing!’ When I showed up on camera and I saw and heard that reaction it was one of the best feelings in my life and I knew I had made the right decision.

Competing For The WWE UK Title: Absolutely. An opportunity to wrestle those guys would be a privilege. They are so talented and so young, it’s amazing the difference in the scene now, that people have so much talent to work with and get so advanced, those guys like Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne are just so unbelievably advanced for their age. I just had a match we taped for television just before the TakeOver, I was getting my gear off and watching it on my phone on the Network, and I stopped in my tracks as I was watching the match, sat in my underpants! I could not get changed, I just had to watch the entire match. I was blown away, I tweeted right away, ‘NXT UK TakeOver’ because I was shaking my head like ‘wow, when we first came over, there was nobody, just Sheamus, myself and Wade Barrett, there was nothing like this going on’. To watch the level of talent and that show-stealing performance just made me very proud of the lads and the UK scene in general.

The Rise of Jinder Mahal: I made the loudest noise in the world backstage when he won that title! I think I almost punched the roof I jumped and punched the air so much. Just to watch his turnaround is the biggest thing for me. I remember about a year and a half ago having a conversation with him. The second I was gone from the WWE, as you know, I started to write my mission statement, I just kept going, there was nothing else I was going to do. I had a clear vision and thankfully it just came out. With Jinder he went out, he wasn’t too sure what he wanted to do, and he talked about this on Chris Jericho’s podcast so I’m not speaking out of turn. He got himself out of shape, not wrestling so much. He wasn’t really sure what to do and we had a conversation when he wasn’t too sure about his future and was talking about opening I think it was a Subway franchise he was leaning towards and he’s got a couple of houses and real estate. Wrestling was pretty much off the table. Then one day he made a decision, ‘no, I’m going to get back in shape’. He started taking it seriously again, got back in shape, got the call from WWE, continued his path, worked hard, gave up alcohol, made these positive changes in his life and just started working his arse off. To watch him go from that conversation when he was out of shape to where he is today, the most in-shape guy on the roster and one of the hardest working guys, I’m very proud of my brother for earning that. That was a big moment for him and I couldn’t be prouder of him.

Being The Top Guy: I always have, 100%, I’ve never changed my opinion since I said that. He didn’t say the things he said for his health, he has done a lot with this business because of his eye for it. I wasn’t necessarily the guy he was looking for back then in a few different ways, but he certainly saw that raw talent and potential. I’ve been lucky that I’ve got myself through various opportunities and platforms and people believing in me, my wife helping in a lot of different areas, and growing up a lot, I’ve shown I am ready now to be a top guy, to hold that position for the company and show what it is to represent a giant, publicly traded company like WWE. There is so much more than just what you do in the ring and what you do on the microphone. As a kid I didn’t quite comprehend that, but now that’s something 100% I’m ready for. I’ve represented many people as the face of the company, proudly and I do it with joy and I do it with respect and make sure I elevate everywhere I go. I came to NXT to elevate it and I came back to WWE to fulfill the prophecy.

The post Drew McIntyre Says He Can Be The Top Guy appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Ross thought the two main events on RAW this week delivered, and did a good job of building towards the Fatal 5-way at Extreme Rules next Sunday. He says that this is a difficult time of year for WWE as they’re still in the shadows of WrestleMania but are also a long way from SummerSlam.

With Summer on the horizon, weather is improving and there are a lot of distractions for fans. WWE needs to do their best to keep fans interested and watching through these difficult months.

Ross finds it very interesting that India has become such a hotbed for professional wrestling all of a sudden. IMPACT are currently conducting television tapings there, and ROH have been recently approved for television clearance there. WWE’s new Champion is Jinder Mahal and they’re doing their best to build their infrastructure and brand there as well. Ross says that it’s possible for all these promotions to have success in this market, but there’s no denying that WWE holds a distinct advantage in most new markets they enter.

He says that he’s looking forward to the Fatal 5-way match which will take place at Extreme Rules this coming Sunday. He thinks that WWE has booked the build-up to this match well, because you can make the case that any of the five superstars has a legitimate chance to win.

Ross wonders how WWE came up with the idea to have a ‘kendo stick on a pole match’, and he suggests that this might have been a backstage rib on someone. In spite of this stipulation, Ross thinks that Bliss and Bayley are both very special, and if they’re both on the same page he thinks they can put together a great match.

He thinks the sleeper match of the evening will be the submission match between Neville and Austin Aries. Both of these talents are terrific, and Ross thinks this match would be a good candidate to open the show while the crowd is hot and ready for a great match.

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