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PWInsider reports that Tyson Kidd was backstage at Tuesday’s SmackDown Live tapings in San Diego.
Kidd has not been backstage at a WWE event since suffering his neck injury in a match against Samoa Joe back in 2015. WWE removed Kidd from Total Divas before, however it’s been confirmed that he will be back on the next season.
Pro Wrestling Sheet reports that Tyson Kidd will be moved into a non-wrestling role with WWE.
According to the report, it’s too early to determine if the role will be a backstage one such as a producer or an on-air personality. Kidd has been out of action since suffering a career-ending injury during a match against Samoa Joe back in 2015.
Speaking of Kidd, he is also set to return to Total Divas next season after sitting out the previous one.
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.”
The following are spoilers for tonight’s episode of RAW, courtesy of PWInsider:
Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe is planned for tonight’s main event.
The official return of The Revival. They are set to face Enzo and Cass
Miz TV segment – It will focus on Maryse and the Intercontinental Championship.
Check back here at 8PM ET for our live play-by-play coverage of the event.
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.
WWE has announced that Brock Lesnar calling out Samoa Joe will open tonight’s episode of RAW. Here is what they wrote on their preview for the event:
Will Brock Lesnar bring the pain to Samoa Joe?
You should never intentionally provoke Universal Champion Brock Lesnar, and you definitely shouldn’t put your hands on his advocate, Paul Heyman. And yet, Samoa Joe accomplished both of those feats last Monday night on Raw when, in a difficult-to-watch show of force, he viciously locked Heyman in the Coquina Clutch.
The Samoan Submission Machine’s message was received by the Universal Champion, who will respond to his No. 1 contender’s sadistic attack tonight when Raw goes on the air at 8/7 C on USA Network. The juggernauts’ Universal Title clash at the debut WWE Great Balls of Fire pay-per-view event is still weeks away, but someone’s going to get burned tonight. Will it be Joe or Lesnar?
Brock Lesnar will be appearing at every RAW show from now until the Great Balls of Fire event to help build for his feud against Samoa Joe. Those dates include the June 12th RAW in Lafayette, LA, June 26th RAW in Los Angeles, and the July 3rd RAW in Phoenix. He is also confirmed for the show after the Great Balls of Fire event in Houston.
It’s unclear if he will actually be participating in any matches on these shows or appearing on television for that matter. In the past he would be advertised for the event, but sometimes not appear on television. He would often work the dark match main event instead. Let’s hope that isn’t the case this time around.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
