Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane, and Glenn Gilbertti.

Russo begins today’s show by speaking about Vince McMahon’s newly re-launched XFL. He says there’s no doubt in his mind that Donal Trump is a part of this. He points out that the McMahon family are very close with Trump, and Trump has had a long-standing rivalry with Roger Goodell and the NFL. In addition, Trump likely won’t be President when the league kicks off in 2020.

Gilbertti doesn’t disagree with that point, but he also mentions that it’s going to be tough for McMahon to find quality football players. All the great players are going to go to the NFL for bigger money, and the XFL will always be left with the scraps. He’s just not sure how this is going to work, because everything that’s ever competed with the NFL in the past has failed.

Russo mentions that there were a lot of upset fans who attended RAW25 at The Manhattan Center this past Monday. Apparently there were only 25 minutes of live action at The Manhattan Center, and this made a lot of fans feel like they didn’t get their money’s worth, especially since a lot of them paid upwards of $800 to attend that event.

Gilberti points out that it’s stupid to pay $800 to watch professional wrestling in any era, and those fans shouldn’t be upset that the show sucked, because the shows have sucked for the last several years.

The post Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Trump Involved in McMahon’s Re-launched XFL? Enzo Amore Released, Thoughts on RAW 25, More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

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.

The post Dinner With the King Recap – RAW25 Thoughts, Royal Rumble Preview, McMahon Re-launches XFL, More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Russo is absent from today’s show, so Jeff Lane and former WWE Superstars, Bin Hamin and Stevie Richards will handle the RAW25 and Smackdown review show without him.

Beginning with their thoughts on Smackdown, Hamin points out that he has no idea who’s writing the promos on Smackdown Live recently, because they’ve been absolutely brutal. He feels that the creative team has taken great performers such as Kevin Owens and A.J. Styles and turned them into ‘D’ players with some of the content they’ve provided them.

Hamin also wonders what Sami Zayn is supposed to be right now. They’re trying to make him a main-event talent by pairing him with Owens and having him jump up and down during his entrance, but it’s just not working. He says that Zayn is just an annoying heel right now, and not in a good way.

Richards points out that WWE continues to book Nakamura in strange positions. They had him cut another uncomfortable backstage promo during this show, and he wasn’t able to understand a word that Nakamura said. He also didn’t understand Randy Orton attacking Nakamura during his match with Baron Corbin because it was only a couple of weeks ago that those two guys were tagging together.

Moving over to RAW, Hamin thought The Manhattan Center looked great and he had high hopes for the event until roughly 10 minutes into the show. He thought WWE really paid respect to old school programming with how much effort they put into the decoration of The Manhattan Center but after the Austin segment the show took a nose dive rather quickly.

The post Vince Russo’s the Brand Recap – RAW25 & Smackdown Analysis, WWE Already Ruining “Woken” Hardy, Reigns Set to Win Rumble? More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Following the DX segment on tonight’s 25th Anniversary show at The Manhattan Center, Ric Flair came out as a surprise.

Flair said that he was here for the first three RAW shows before making the mistake of going back to WCW. Flair said he was lucky to come back and to be here with his friends. He said he got the best sendoff of any athlete ever thanks to Shawn Michaels. Flair said he was lucky to be here and said all that matters is being with people who love and respect you. Flair put over Michaels, Road Dogg, Scott Hall and Triple H.

This segment went over well with the fans in attendance.

The post What Happened After the DX Segment at Tonight’s RAW appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

– Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Reports that Ronda Rousey’s dinner meeting with Triple H that was reported by TMZ was a plant. It’s believed they did the story to get publicity for her pending arrival to WWE.

– The 25th Anniversary of RAW is expected to have two-hours from the Barclays Center and one-hour from the Manhattan Center. It’s believed that some talent may appear at both locations.

– There is talk that WWE may be filming backstage at the 25th Anniversary show for a documentary for the event.

– Ticket demand for the Royal Rumble event in Philadelphia is said to be an “all time record high.”

The post RAW 25th Anniversary Plans, Did WWE Plant the Ronda/Triple H Story?, Rumble Tickets appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Lawler is joined on this week’s show by his co-host Glenn Moore.

Lawler informs that it’s 99.9% certain that he and Jim Ross will be reunited at the commentary booth for the 25th Anniversary edition of Monday Night RAW on January 22nd. He points out that part of the show will broadcast from the original home of RAW, The Manhattan Centre, so he assumes that he and Ross will be calling that part of the show.

He points out that he has so many great memories of working in The Manhattan Centre, including his interactions with Stu and Helen Hart as well as the initial ECW invasion. He’s very excited about the thought of reuniting with Ross, and he hints that he might wear his old King outfit, the jacket and crown that he wore during the initial years of RAW.

Moore mentions that he was at Monday Night RAW this past week where he was able to see one of his all-time favourite performers, Kane. Lawler points out that Kane is in the middle of a push right now, working a main event angle on RAW, and this will probably be his last big run before moving into his career in politics full time.

Lawler thinks Kane will make a great Mayor in Knoxville, and he recalls the time when he ran for Mayor in Memphis. He says that not winning that mayoral race was the best thing that never happened to him, because he’s sure that would have impacted his career greatly, and he loves the career that he went on to have after losing that race.

The post Dinner With the King Recap – Reuniting with Jim Ross, Kane Making Most of Latest Run, Personal Issues Draw Money, More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

According to PWInsider, WWE has been contacting former Superstars and personalities to film video messages for the upcoming RAW 25th Anniversary show. The company expects to either use these during the live broadcast or use them for promotional material for the event.

As previously noted, WWE is considering this show a “all-hands-on-deck” show, and they are bringing in many names for the show. The Undertaker is one of the big names being advertised for the January 22nd event, which will be simulcasted from The Manhattan Center and The Barclays Center in New York City.

The post Backstage Update on the RAW 25th Anniversary Show appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.