Reason for Dolph Ziggler’s Absence from SmackDown Live
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Tag: meltzer
Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Kurt Angle Controversy, Billy Gunn Criticism, Was Shawn Michaels A Draw? More!
Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane.
Russo says he usually gives WrestleZone and WrestlingInc. a pass when he rips apart dirt sheet opinions, but this past week both of these sites published stories that they simply shouldn’t have. Nearly a decade ago Kurt Angle was involved in a very troublesome relationship, and he has spent the years since getting over that time in his life.
This past week Angle’s ex went on a Twitter rampage, bringing up things that have been buried for years, and for some reason these wrestling sites thought it was a good idea to publish stories on this. Russo thinks this was an embarrassing thing to do, and he’d love to get an explanation as to why either of these sites chose to publish those stories. By publishing these stories they’ve given this women attention, and have jeopardized Angle’s position in WWE.
Lane plays a clip of Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez from this past week, when they were discussing who Alvarez would be able to have a good match with in NJPW. Meltzer says that Tanahashi would be a good choice because he can have a good match with anyone, except for Billy Gunn evidently.
Russo says that Billy Gunn is a legend in this business, and at 53 years of age he looks better than ever. Russo says he’d love for Meltzer to run into Gunn in the street someday, because he’d run away like a scared little girl. Russo adds that Alvarez is an independent wrestler because he’s not good enough to have great matches with anybody.
Backstage News on the Awkward Finish to AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens at WWE Battleground
As previously noted, WWE changed the plans for the outcome of AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens at the Battleground event. Styles was originally planned to retain the title prior to the show, however they made a last minute change to the match and Owens ended up capturing the title.
Dave Meltzer provided an update on the awkward finish to the match and confirmed that the change was actually made late into the match right before the referee bumped. The people that needed to know the finish were told that AJ Styles was winning and there was some commotion backstage when the finish went down.
Major Spoiler for Tonight’s WWE Battleground Event
Apparently there has been a huge shift in the betting odds for tonight’s WWE Battleground 5-Way Elimination match featuring Charlotte, Becky Lynch, Tamina, Natalya and Lana.
While Charlotte has been the majority favorite to win the bout, there was a huge shift late last night that now puts Natalya in the lead to be victorious in the match tonight. Dave Meltzer discussed the shift on today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Radio and mentioned that at one point the match was removed off the boards because all kinds of money was coming in all at once on Natalya. The odds have since then been adjusted with Natalya being the favorite.
If Natalya wins, she will be facing Naomi at SummerSlam for the SmackDown Women’s Championship.
Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Joe Going Off Script Against Lesnar, Cena Putting Over Styles, Samson’s Botched Guitar Shot, More!
Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane.
To open today’s show, Lane plays a clip of Dave Meltzer who’s discussing Jason Jordan’s upcoming push. Meltzer says that while having the spotlight on you is good, WWE is a tricky spot to receive a big push because if Vince McMahon decides you don’t get over during your big push, you have a black mark on you for the rest of your career.
Russo says that this can be said about any profession because if you have an opportunity at your workplace and you don’t succeed, you’re going to be taken out of that spot. Meltzer and these other dirt sheet writers mightn’t understand this because they’ve never worked in the real world. He also says that if you don’t want to have the spotlight on you in the biggest promotion in the world, you’re in the wrong business.
A clip of Wade Keller presents him discussing the Brock Lesnar/Samoa Joe angle. Keller says that Joe came off as someone that could kick Lesnar’s ass during the entire program, and we haven’t really seen that before. There were a couple times when Keller thought Joe might get in trouble, specifically when he told Lesnar to ‘look at me when I’m talking to you’, because that wasn’t scripted.
Possible Spoiler on the Mystery Team for WWE Battleground
As seen on Tuesday’s SmackDown Live, WWE announced that the conclusion of The Fashion Files will take place at Sunday’s WWE Battleground event.
Dave Meltzer mentioned on today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Radio that the mystery team behind the segments will possibly be revealed as Luke Harper and Eric Rowan. Meltzer mentioned that neither one of them haven’t been used on television for a while and this would be a good opportunity to bring them back.
Meltzer also said that there is always the chance that they could bring up a team from NXT such as Sanity to be revealed as the mystery team.
Vince McMahon Not the Primary Reason for Talking Smack’s Cancellation
It was reported last week via Sports Illustrated that one of the reason’s Talking Smack was canceled was because Vince McMahon was not a fan of the format, however those claims appear to be false.
Dave Meltzer received word from a source within WWE that the cancellation of the weekly show had nothing to do with Vince McMahon not liking the format but to do with the viewership numbers the show was receiving.
“Despite all rumors, Vince doesn’t hate Talking Smack. Also, he does not watch it but gets a weekly report about it every Wednesday. The one thing he didn’t like was when the New Day appeared right after Kofi (Kingston) got cleared (the 5/23 episode). That was technically their Tuesday night debut and Vince felt the first Tuesday appearance should have happened on Smackdown.”
As previously noted, the Talking Smack episodes will still air after SmackDown-brand pay-per-view events, as those numbers seem to perform well.
Plans Nixed for Top SummerSlam Match
The original plan heading into this year’s SummerSlam event would have seen Jinder Mahal defending the WWE Championship against John Cena, however that doesn’t appear to be the case anymore.
Dave Meltzer reported on the latest installment of Wrestling Observer Radio that WWE appears to be building towards a match between Cena and AJ Styles at SummerSlam this year. Meltzer indicated that the planned match between Cena and Mahal may still take place at a later date but they aren’t doing it now.