Seth Rollins Appears at SmackDown Event & Challenges Jinder Mahal

Seth Rollins made an appearance at Saturday’s WWE Live Event and challenged Jinder Mahal for the WWE Championship. The incident went down while Jinder Mahal was cutting an in-ring promo and Rollins made his surprise appearance and cut a promo as well. This led to a match between the two. The match ended in disqualification when the Singh brothers interfered.

You can check out footage below:

Originally Shinsuke Nakamura was scheduled to face Mahal at the event, however Rollins’ filled in as the replacement.

Best Potential Summer Feuds for John Cena

On the July 4th episode of Smackdown Live John Cena will make his anticipated return. Absent since his memorable moment at Wrestlemania 33, Cena will likely start the build for his summer feud. Big Match John’s feud is likely to be a high profile one which is equally as high in quality. The interesting caveat to Cena’s return however, is his status as a free agent.

What exactly this means is still up in the air. However logic dictates it means Cena will begin to appear on not only Smackdown Live, but also RAW. This sets up a plethora of exciting feuds and matches which are sure to create buzz this summer. Fresh rivalries and dream matches always on the mind when you talk about John Cena. With his return imminent, the buzz within WWE through July to Summerslam will be huge. Undoubtedly superstars would love to take the opportunity to collide with the Face that runs the Place. Whether it be at the Biggest Party of the Summer or beforehand.

With that, this article takes a look at the best possible feuds for the Summer for John Cena from both Smackdown Live and RAW.

Daniel Bryan Claims that Luke Harper’s Capabilities are Being Wasted on SmackDown Live

Daniel Bryan spoke to Fox Sports very recently. There he gave his two cents on the state of Luke Harper on SmackDown Live right now. Bryan admitted that the former Wyatt Family member is indeed being “wasted” on the blue brand.

Here are Bryan’s thoughts on Harper:

“I think that he is somebody that we can utilize better. When he left the Wyatt Family, I thought the fans were really starting to get behind him. And his match with Randy Orton, gosh, I loved his match with Randy Orton.”

The former 3-time World Champion didn’t stop singing Harper’s praise here, as he continued:

“Every time you see him, he’s dynamic. The crowd gets behind him, and then you just kind of lose him on TV, where we don’t really see him much. I think we’re really losing out on that.”

Alberto El Patron Says His Match Against Lashley Will Be A Thousand Times Better Than Lesnar vs. Joe

Alberto El Patron recently spoke with Sports Illustrated. Here are some highlights from the interview:

Match With Lashley Topping Lesnar vs. Joe: “Our match is going to be a thousand times better. I have deep respect for Brock Lesnar and Samoa Joe, and I know they’ll give the fans an amazing match, but they’ll be limited by the politics in that company. That company won’t let one of them give one-hundred percent to the audience, they’re going to hold them back. Impact Wrestling says, ‘Here is the ring, go do your thing.’”

Facing Bobby Lashley: “When you’re in the ring with Bobby, you feel it. You know you’re competing and performing with a guy that is not just a sports entertainer. He’s a real athlete and a real wrestler. When you combine two wrestlers with the same background and similar styles, you’re going to get magic. That’s what is going to happen at Slammiversary. We’re going to go the extra mile. We’re not afraid, and that’s just the way we were brought up in the business. If I punch him extra hard, and he kicks me extremely hard, then we’re OK with that–that’s part of what we want to offer to the audience.”

Calling Vince McMahon to Resign: “I was in a place where I was not happy. I was waking up every morning and really struggling to go to work. I got to the point where I asked myself if I wanted to continue in the pro wrestling business. I said to myself, ‘I’ve lost the passion and love for the business.’ But I was wrong. I never lost passion for the pro wrestling business. I lost respect for that other company. …I realized that it was not the business, it was the place where I was working. So I decided to call the one that matters in that company and said, ‘I’m sorry, sir. Thank you for the opportunity, and thank you for everything, but I’m not happy in this place and I need to move on.’ I am blessed and lucky to find a place like Impact Wrestling. They needed someone like me, and I needed a company like Impact Wrestling. It was perfect timing to start doing business together.”

What Happened After Tuesday’s SmackDown Live

After Tuesday’s episode of SmackDown & 205 Live went off the air in Dayton, Ohio, Randy Orton was in action against WWE Champion Jinder Mahal. This match has been done several times over the past month and much like previous bouts it ended in DQ with interference from The Singh Brothers.

Before the match took place, The Singh Brothers cut a heel promo and announced that the match would be non-title. This promo was said to be pretty decent.

Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match Announced for Next Week’s SmackDown

Daniel Bryan stripped Carmella of her Women’s Money in the Bank briefcase on tonight’s episode of SmackDown Live. He announced that there will be a rematch on next week’s show with the same competitors as Sunday night.

The following matches are confirmed for next week’s show:

Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match
SmackDown Women’s Championship: Lana vs. Naomi
Sami Zayn vs. Baron Corbin
The Hype Bros vs. The Usos

Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Money in the Bank Analysis, Formatting Issues, Corbin’s Big Win, More!

Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane and Rue from ‘Rue TV’. On today’s show, Russo will discuss Sunday night’s Money in the Bank PPV.

Speaking about the opening match on the card, Russo mentions that he was very concerned going into the match for the safety of all five women involved. This was the first ladder match for most of these women, and he was afraid that they would try to do too much. Luckily, he thought WWE did a good job of protecting the women, and he was happy to see that.

Russo says he didn’t have a problem with Ellsworth climbing the ladder and retrieving the briefcase for Carmella, but he did have a problem with how the entire segment closed. The three referees were arguing about the finish on the outside of the ring, when Ellsworth picked up the mic and announced Carmella as the winner and all of a sudden the finish was official. Russo couldn’t believe that they closed the segment like that.

He also didn’t like the fact that Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon were tweeting about this afterwards, because he believes at least one of them should have been present at the show. They could have done something as simple as a quick backstage interview with McMahon, where he mentioned how disgusted he was by the finish of the match.

Speaking about the Tag Team Championship match between The Usos and The New Day, he thought there were several sloppy parts in this match, and he particularly hated the finish. After the controversial finish to the Women’s Money in the Bank match, he thought this match deserved to have a legitimate finish. He says that the finish of this match was another prime example of why Titles shouldn’t change hands on a count-out.

The Taz Show Recap – Money in the Bank Analysis, Mahal Needs A New Finisher, Was the Women’s Ladder Match Historic? More!

Block 1:

Taz gets right into his analysis of last night’s Money in the Bank PPV.

He thought the opening package before the Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match was terrific. It did a wonderful job of paying tribute to women who paved the way for today’s performers, while also highlighting each woman who was participating in last night’s ladder match.

He thought all five women worked hard in the match, but in the end, Taz questions whether this match lived up to it’s ‘historic’ nature. Carmella’s victory is tainted by the fact that James Ellsworth physically climbed the ladder and unhooked the briefcase for her. Taz thinks it’s a shame that in the first ever Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match, a man was the one to retrieve the briefcase.

Taz thinks that WWE needs to address Carmella’s victory on this Tuesday’s episode of Smackdown Live and he truly believes that they will. He suggests that Shane McMahon should appear on RAW tonight to announce a Money in the Bank rematch for tomorrow night’s Smackdown Live. Having Shane appear on the opposing brand to make this announcement will make this feel like a very important moment, and Taz ultimately thinks that Carmella will lose this briefcase one way or another on Tuesday night.

In spite of all the controversy surrounding the finish, Taz thought that these five women earned a lot of people’s respect last night, and they raised the bar for all women entering a WWE ring moving forward.

WWE Plants the Seeds for Upcoming SummerSlam Match

As seen at Sunday’s WWE Money in the Bank during the Money in the Bank Ladder Match, WWE had a spot that saw AJ Styles and Nakamura square off in a little one-on-one action near the closing moments of the match. Bryan Alvarez discussed this angle on today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Live and indicated that this spot was done to setup a match between the two at a future date — presumably at this year’s SummerSlam.

As of this writing, the following matches are being rumored for the show:

Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman
John Cena vs. Jinder Mahal
Triple H vs. Kurt Angle
AJ Styles vs. Nakamura

With WWE holding for back-to-back shows in the row at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, they are expecting to make this show as big as possible. Those events include NXT Takeover: Brooklyn III on August 19th, SummerSlam on the 20th, RAW on the 21st and SmackDown Live on the 22nd.

Kevin Owens’ Condition Following Money in the Bank

We noted earlier today that Kevin Owens apparently got hurt during the Money in the Bank Ladder Match and was helped to the back following the bout.

In an update, Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that he is fine and there is nothing serious wrong with him. Owens is still scheduled to work this week’s SmackDown Live event in Dayton, Ohio.