Emma Returns to Action at WWE Live Event

Emma returned to action at the WWE Live Event in Jackson, Mississippi Friday night.

Emma teamed up with Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax to take on Mickie James, Sasha Banks and Dana Brooke. The match concluded with Emma submitting to the Bank Statement.

As previously noted, Emma was off WWE television after she suffered an injury at last month’s WWE Live Event in Liverpool, England. She apparently landed on her shoulder wrong after taking a double knee spot from Banks. She had just returned to action full-time after being sidelined since last year.

Rumored Matches for WWE Great Balls of Fire

The following card is rumored for the upcoming July 9th WWE Great Balls of Fire event:

WWE Universal Championship (confirmed)
Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Samoa Joe

RAW Tag-Team Championship
Shesaro (c) vs. The Hardyz

Intercontinental Championship
The Miz (c) vs. Dean Ambrose

RAW Women’s Championship
Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Nia Jax

Seth Rollins vs. Bray Wyatt

Goldust vs. R-Truth

With the event being 3 hours long and with the pre-show, it is very possible that they add one or two more under card matches.

Which Female Is The Favorite to Win Money In The Bank?

Carmella is the early favorite to win the first-ever Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match with a -140 odds, according to 5 Dimes. The odds will most-likely change several times between now and the pay-per-view event on June 18th, especially when “smart money” bets start to come in.

Here are the current bets for that match:

Carmella -140
Becky Lynch +350
Natalya +360
Charlotte Flair +900
Tamina +2500

Finn Balor Trolls Fans at Promotional Event

While doing promotional work for WWE, Finn Balor trolled the fans in attendance by mentioning Roman Reigns.

When responding to a question by one of the interviewers, Balor stated that fans had plenty of reasons to be excited, he was then quoted as saying:

“Obviously they’ll get to see Seth Rollins, they’ll get to see Bray Wyatt, they’ll get to see Finn Balor, but most importantly they’ll get to see Roman Reigns.”

As soon as Balor mentioned Reigns, a resounding chorus of boos emanated from the fans in attendance followed by “Roman Sucks” chants.

Here is footage of the incident:

Edge Says Brock Lesnar vs. Samoa Joe Should Have Been Saved for WrestleMania

During the recent installment of the E&C Podcast of Awesomeness, Edge talked about the upcoming match between Brock Lesnar and Samoa Joe and mentioned that WWE should have saved the match for WrestleMania next year.

“You want my take? Here’s my take, ok, I’m assuming that they wanna go Reigns and Brock at WrestleMania. I personally would have gone Brock and Joe at WrestleMania because it’s different, it is fresh, it is believable. You have this 300 pound Samoan you know, beast and then The Beast Incarnate. So I don’t know, I think that to me it would have been a fun match to get at WrestleMania and I think people would have been excited to see that too.”

You can listen to the complete podcast here.

Austin Aries Says He’s Not Taking Time Off

While speaking to Josh Barnett of USA Today, Austin Aries addressed reports that he was taking time off from WWE soon. He explained that the quote from the interview he was featured in was taken out of context.

“If you look at the full quote and what I said was, Everyone is dealing with various stuff,” Aries said. “I don’t think there is anyone in the locker room is 100%. We’re all nicked and banged up to various degrees. Like anything else, you pick and choose the times you need address when it needs to be addressed and some times are better than others. I figure no matter what interview I do, the real good ‘journalists’ are going to find the completely irrelevant quotes that will drum up some controversy and stick it on their page to get some clicks and completely miss the real context of what the interview is about. That’s what we do nowadays and call it ‘journalism.’”

You can check out the full interview here.

Ruby Riot Busted Open at UK Download Festival — Match Suddenly Stops

Ruby Riot’s match against Asuka at the UK Download Festival had to be stopped when she was busted open after taking a bump into the steel stairs. Ruby confirmed the incident with a Facebook Live chat with Kayla Braxton and mentioned that she had to get 5 stitches afterwards.

Samoa Joe Should Be The Next Universal Champion

Mr. Brock “The ‘Conqueror’ Beast” Lesnar will finally defend his Universal Championship at the aptly named Great Balls of Fire. His opponent is none other than Mr. Samoa “Samoan Submission ‘Destroyer’ Specialist” Joe. This has all the potential in the world to be a great match if WWE actually decides to book a proper match. It should be a hard-fought battle, but many feel that he is a placeholder contender until the proper Samoan can win the title. We still don’t know what WWE’s plans are, but hopefully, they crown the Destroyer in July. The Samoan Submission Specialist would be a great Universal Champion, and here’s why.

He’d Actually Be There Most of the Time

We can’t really fault Lesnar for wanting to work 10 times a year and get paid millions for it. He took Mr. Perfect’s advice to refrain from making wrestling his whole life. Good for him. I can respect that.

However, when Lesnar has the championship and disappears for months on end to go kill a wolf with his bare hands, it can leave Raw feeling a bit barren. Obviously, when he does show up, it’s a big deal, which adds to his star power (and to an extent, the star power of the belt).

If Samoa Joe had the title, we’d be seeing it a bit more often, what with the fact that Joe is actually a full-time Superstar. There are two groups of people when it comes to top championships. Some people prefer frequent defenses, while others want to save those for big occasions. Both are right, but there’s a fine line in between them. It’s been 69 days since the title was defended, and it hasn’t been successfully defended at all in almost 100 days. That’s kind of bad.

With the Destroyer holding the championship, we’d see it defended a bit more frequently, which could help boost the stock of the belt.

He Could Have Great Matches With the Rest of the Roster

Brock is an incredible wrestler, there’s no doubt about that. So is Joe. The problem is that ever since Lesnar defeated John Cena at Summerslam, his matches have since devolved into suplex spam. It’s like when you first learn to play Mortal Kombat and all you do is press one button and try to win. The difference is, Brock Lesnar actually wins. So there’s that.

Joe’ first/last feud with Seth Rollins sucked a whole lot, but that was because of the story. The matches were fine. There was just no real reason for the Destroyer to fight the Kingslayer other than “hurr durr Stephanie fell through a table, I’m gonna kick your ass”. Rollins defeated Triple H; that should have been the end of his story with Joe.

If the Samoan Submission Specialist got his hands on the Universal Championship, then he could put on great matches with the other big names on Raw. I wouldn’t mind seeing Rollins v. Joe again. I wouldn’t even mind seeing Balor v. Joe again. Heck, let’s put the two Samoans in one match and have them beat the hell out of each other for the Universal Championship.

It Will Boost the Championship’s Image

We are all aware of the Universal Championship’s lineage. Finn Balor was the inaugural champion and vacated the title the very next day. Kevin Owens held the title after and sucked more than a black hole during his reign. Goldberg won the belt in 30 seconds and dropped it in 28 days, and now Lesnar has the title. How many truly great Universal Championship matches can you count? Maybe 4 or 5. How many truly great WWE Championship matches can you count? Way more. Heck, even the World Heavyweight Championship (RIP) had more great matches. Randy Orton v. Christian at Over the Limit, Randy Orton v. Christian at Capitol Punishment, Randy Orton v. Christian at Money in the Bank, Randy Orton v. Christian at Summerslam, etc.

The Universal Championship hasn’t even been around for a year, so obviously, there have been less memorable matches. With Samoa Joe as champion, those matches can start happening. The Destroyer locking horns with the Demon, the Big Dog, or even the Eater of Worlds over the Universal Championship would be a sight to see.

Of course, none of this will come to pass because Lesnar is keeping the belt warm for the Big Dog. Beleedat.

Current Plans for Brock Lesnar and the WWE Universal Title

As previously reported, Samoa Joe’s opportunity for the WWE Universal Title against Brock Lesnar at the Great Balls of Fire event is expected to be a one-off match with no followup match planned. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that the company has plans for Brock to defend the WWE Universal Championship against Braun Strowman at the SummerSlam event this summer.

Speaking of Brock, he’s expected to eventually have matches with both Seth Rollins and Finn Balor before he has his match against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania next year. Market conditions and injuries could potentially change these plans.