Speculation on Roman Reigns’ SummerSlam Announcement

It was announced by WWE that Roman Reigns would be making a SummerSlam announcement on the upcoming episode of RAW on Monday night.

Dave Meltzer discussed this topic on today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Radio. While Meltzer couldn’t confirm exactly what the announcement is, he presented a scenario that would see Reigns challenge the winner of the Great Balls of Fire match between Brock Lesnar vs. Samoa Joe.

Meltzer would go on to speculated that somehow WWE would do an angle that would setup Reigns vs. Strowman before the SummerSlam event (possibly on RAW or Great Balls of Fire), with the winner of that match facing Lesnar. Strowman would defeat Reigns and move onto the SummerSlam match against Brock for WWE Universal Championship.

Speculation on John Cena Facing Roman Reigns at SummerSlam

Following the announcement of John Cena being a “free agent” and appearing on both RAW and SmackDown, there was a lot of online speculation that the company may be setting something up between Cena and Roman Reigns for this year’s SummerSlam event. However, we can now confirm doesn’t appear to be the case.

Dave Meltzer was asked on the latest installment of Wrestling Observer Radio about the speculation between a match between the two at this year’s blockbuster summer event. Meltzer said that he was told that Cena will not be Reigns opponent for the event.

As previously noted, there is speculation that Cena will face Jinder Mahal for the WWE Title at this year’s SummerSlam event, despite Cena appearing for both brands moving forward.

Braun Strowman’s Possible Return Date

Braun Strowman may be returning at the upcoming Great Balls of Fire event, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Dave Meltzer mentioned in the latest installment that Strowman is currently scheduled to be part of the event. It’s unknown if he will face Roman Reigns at the show, but Strowman is still scheduled to face him one more time before having his match against Brock Lesnar.

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:

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.

Opening Match for Tonight’s RAW Revealed

WWE announced that Bray Wyatt vs. Roman Reigns will open tonight’s episode of RAW.

Also confirmed for tonight’s show, The Miz will be celebrating his Intercontinental Championship win after beating Dean Ambrose for the championship at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view event.

Check back here at 8PM ET for our live play-by-play coverage.

Favorites to Win at Sunday’s Extreme Rules Event

Here are the betting odds for Sunday’s Extreme Rules event, courtesy of BetWrestling.com:

Universal Championship #1 Contenders Match
Samoa Joe 4/7 (64%)
Seth Rollins 5/1 (17%)
Finn Balor 9/2 (18%)
Bray Wyatt 7/1 (12%)
Roman Reigns 10/1 (9%)

Cruiserweight Championship Match
Neville(c) 4/9 (69%)
Austin Aries 7/5 (42%)

Intercontinental Championship Match
The Miz 4/7 (64%)
Dean Ambrose(c) 5/4 (44%)

RAW Women’s Championship Match
Alexa Bliss 8/15 (65%)
Bayley 11/8 (42%)

RAW Tag Team Championship Match
The Hardys 8/11 (58%)
Cesaro and Sheamus evens (50%)

Check back here on Sunday for our live play-by-play coverage!

The Taz Show Recap – Smackdown Analysis, Is Rusev Disgruntled? What Was the Best Part of Smackdown? More!

Block 1:

A listener calls in to open today’s show, saying he’s really looking forward to watching Backlash this weekend. The caller also hopes that the United States Title match between Kevin Owens and A.J. Styles main events the show. Taz says that he can understand that opinion, because those two guys can potentially steal the show, however he thinks Randy Orton and Jinder Mahal are going to have a great match as well.

Taz says that he didn’t like WWE’s utilization of Kevin Owens last night. He doesn’t believe that Owens should be stealing Chris Jericho’s gimmicks, and he thinks that Owens should be standing on his own because he’s better than this. Taz assumes that Jericho will be returning sooner than later and these two guys will revisit their feud, but Taz wonders how long WWE can drag out this program. It has already been ongoing for multiple months, and it doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon.

A listener calls into the show and says that reforming The Shield is the only way that Roman Reigns is going to get over as a babyface with the WWE Universe. Taz disagrees and says reforming The Shield right now would be admitting defeat and would be a step back for Reigns and the company as a whole. He believes that turning Reigns full heel for a year or more would eventually result in the audience getting on Reigns’ side, then the company can flip him back to babyface.

Big Match Announced for WWE Extreme Rules

Kurt Angle announced on tonight’s episode of RAW that the the winner of a Fatal 5-Way match at the upcoming WWE Extreme Rules event will face Brock Lesnar for the Universal Title. Here is the updated card for the show:

#1 Contenders Match for the WWE Universal Title
Seth Rollins vs. Samoa Joe vs. Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt vs. Roman Reigns

RAW Tag Team Championship
Sheamus and Cesaro vs. The Hardy Boyz

WWE Extreme Rules takes place on June 4, 2017. As always, we will be providing live play-by-play coverage of the event.