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Daniel Bryan, who has been off WWE television because his wife Brie gave birth to their child, announced on Twitter that he will be returning to SmackDown Live next week.
Looking forward to watching history be made at @WWE #MITB on Sunday but Tuesday it’s back to work for me at #SDLive! #YesYesYes
— Daniel Bryan (@WWEDanielBryan) June 16, 2017
As previously noted, John Cena will be making his return to weekly WWE programming on the July 4th episode of SmackDown Live and will be billed as a “free agent” moving forward. Dave Meltzer discussed Cena’s return on today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Radio and speculated what his schedule could be like when he returns to the company.
While none of this is confirmed, Meltzer presented a scenario that could see Cena work only RAW and SmackDown televised events on Monday’s and Tuesday. He would not work WWE Live Events later in the week. This scenario would leave Cena plenty of time to fulfill his non-WWE commitments and Cena would still have a strong presence on WWE programming. Cena would of course work both pay-per-view events for the RAW and SmackDown Live brands each month. So basically, he would work Sunday-Tuesday and have Wednesday through Saturday off.
Welcome to our coverage of SmackDown Live for the 13th of June 2017!
The Money in the Bank competitors will square-off tonight in a huge six-man tag team match, with AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Sami Zayn, taking on Kevin Owens, Dolph Ziggler, and Baron Corbin. Tonight’s match gives a couple of guys a chance to gain some much-needed momentum heading into the all-important match on Sunday night.
Ahead of their huge title rematch at Money in the Bank, Randy Orton comes face-to-face with Jinder Mahal. Sunday’s show is set in Randy’s hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, so can he win his 14th World Heavyweight Championship. I would expect fireworks to happen tonight with Orton taking the fight to Mahal and The Singh Brothers!
Also on tonight’s show, Breezango will tag with The New Day to take on The Uso’s and The Colon’s. Naomi is set to face Tamina in singles competition, which is a big opportunity for the second generation star. Naomi’s challenger at MITB, Lana , could cost her the match and give Tamina some huge momentum. On top of that, Natalya also faces Charlotte ahead of their big ladder match.
All that and more to look forward to on tonight’s SmackDown Live! Are you excited to see the show? Let us know in the comments and be sure to check out the Ringside News app, and enjoy the show!
The following are spoilers for tonight’s episode of SmackDown Live, courtesy of PWInsider:
Zack Ryder is backstage and is expected to make his return on tonight’s show. Ryder has been out of action with a knee injury since December.
There is talk that American Alpha will return.
Charlotte vs. Natalya
Naomi vs. Tamina
Usos/Primo/Epico vs. Breezango/New Day
Check back here at 8PM ET for our live play-by-play coverage. Also, you can join us on RingsideTalk.net for our live fan chat.
On a recent episode of his podcast, Conversation with the Big Guy, Ryback let out his thoughts on Nia Jax’s controversial tweet about the WWE Creative. Jax had tweeted criticizing the red brand’s creative team by pointing out how RAW doesn’t use all it’s women wrestlers while its rival brand, SmackDown LIVE does.
The tweet was then quickly taken down by Jax herself as it was garnering a lot of attention and possibly made the creative look really bad.
Here are Ryback’s comments on the said issue : (quotes credit ewrestlingnews.com)
“Everybody is frustrated there, from top to bottom. She’s been handed a lot early on, in my opinion. It’s very early on to make a comment like that and when I saw that I totally understand it, like, if you are not on TV a couple of weeks is frustrating. With her character on TV, it’s not like they can just throw her in random. It could be a good TV that you’re not on TV every week. If you’re being booked for live events, who the f**k cares? You’re making money until they find something good for you, but when you go and make comments like that, there’s no good that comes out of that because it’s not like real sports where you control the outcome. It’s writers and Vince, they control your character and they can write her and job her out every week. She has to either go do it or not do it and get released, so she put herself in a real bad position by making comments like that on social media. It reminded me of that guy with Lord Tensai, Sakamoto. I remember there was Japanese heat for another Japanese guy coming on the roster, Yoshi had gone on social media and made a comment. If we were in UFC it’d be cool, you may have gotten yourself booked for a big fight and a big payday, but in pro-wrestling you can’t go on there and say that. A week later he got Jobbed out on RAW. That is what it reminded me of because no good ever comes out of it, but she’s young, so it is what it is.”
You can check out all our other podcast recaps from Jim Ross, Taz, Ryback and many more at this link.
Jinder Mahal has received a substantial pay increase since his push to the top of the SmackDown Live card, according to Dave Meltzer.
When asked if the now-WWE Champion was getting paid more for his current position in the company, Meltzer responded with the following on Twitter:
John Cena spoke with WSVN-TV promoting the upcoming second season of American Grit. Highlights are below:
If he wrestled the entire match at WrestleMania 33 with the engagement ring in his pocket: “There are some secrets that should be kept secret my friend. That one’s for me to know. I like the fact that a lot of folks ask me where I kept the ring. I know where I kept it and I think that’s a secret I’ll keep with me.”
What to expect from his WWE return: “I just want to get back in the fray. I think it’s a wonderful time to be a fan, to be a member of our WWE Universe. The rosters on both sides, SmackDown Live and Monday Night Raw, is packed with very capable, unbelievable superstars and I’m just waiting to get back into the mix and try to prove my worth once again.”
His interaction with Ric Flair immediately after tying his record at the Royal Rumble: “I have a longstanding friendship with Ric Flair. He’s been a mentor to me over the years. It was very important to me that he was there for me that night. He was nothing but encouraging, so honorable and so inspirational. He’s a wonderful guy and a lot of fun and I’m really happy that he was there. It was a great moment for all of us.”
How many more title runs he thinks he has left: “I truly don’t look at it like that. I just want to be able to be able to perform at an elite level. I know that at 40 years old and 15 years in the WWE now it’s been a long journey, longer than most. I have to find my grit every day to keep working hard to keep up with all of these young, strong guys. It truly is a young man’s game but I feel really good. I look forward to July 4th and I think everybody will see that I haven’t lost a step yet.”
Who he thinks he should pass the torch to: “I think it’s been passed without me. There’s a lot of folks who are currently doing a lot of damage on the roster. The show is thriving in my absence. I think it’s extremely competitive. I did win the 16th Championship at the Rumble but I was unfortunate in my first defense at Elimination Chamber and before that I hadn’t really been in the Championship picture for a while. I think the company is moving on quite well. I don’t know if there needs to be a formal anointment but they’re really doing well without me.”
As many of you have seen recently. WWE is now doing picture-in-picture advertising on the SmackDown Live brand on Tuesday nights. This was apparently the USA Network’s idea as they plan on doing it for other shows. The idea is to keep the viewers from changing the channel during commercial breaks.
It’s worth pointing out that WWE is only doing the picture-in-picture advertising for the non-important matches and are still doing full-on commercials for their bigger matches. This past Tuesday on SmackDown they did normal commercial breaks for the AJ Styles vs. Dolph Ziggler match and other popular matches.
This may seem an odd petition to many, but hear me out. WWE, please give Mojo Rawley more screen time. There, I’ve said it.
You may be wondering just why I would request such a thing. After all, who cares about him? Well, I do, apparently. I also believe that with the right circumstances and time, Mojo could turn into a big deal. He has most of the tools needed, and with some improvement, he could be very, very good. But these things will not happen until he gets more screentime.
Right now, Mojo isn’t exactly setting the world on fire, particularly with his move set. Power-based repertoires are hardly the most exciting, but if they are done right, then they look spectacular. Mojo is quite far away from being spectacular.
Was he called up too early? Probably, but he was brought in to bolster the tag team division. He was going to be the hot tag, cleaning up while Zack Ryder wowed the audience with his 450 splashes. However, Ryder got injured. They didn’t want to leave Mojo hanging around like a bum, so they pushed him as a singles star, where his flaws and limitations were exposed.
What’s done is done. However, this can be corrected by giving Rawley more matches, which means he’d be on our televisions more often. It worked for Strowman. He couldn’t wrestle to save his life back before the brand split. Fast forward to not even a whole calendar year, and he’s one of the best parts of Raw. Some people just need to be put in a sink-or-swim scenario. Corbin wasn’t exactly good when he was called up in April. At the end of the year, he had one of the best Chairs matches against Kalisto, had an entertaining match with Jack Swagger, and was in one of the best matches of the year against AJ Styles and Dolph Ziggler.
If WWE wants Mojo Jojo to improve, then they’ve got to have him fight more people, even if its jobbers from the city.
When Mojo first appeared on Talking Smack as a singles guy, I was pleasantly surprised to hear him speak. He was quite well-spoken, a far cry from the man in the ring screaming for hype or whatever. I knew he was the youngest graduate from the University of Maryland or something like that (that’s what the graphics in his entrance told me). Well, I thought to myself, Talking Smack really can make anyone sound good. There’s less scripting, more creativity, etc. Then I heard his backstage promos.
We still came off as an eloquent speaker. He showed he could hang with the likes of Dolph Ziggler, who is no slouch on the mic either. Even with that weird, pointless segment where he gave some kids a tour and told them how hard Andre could kegstand, he sounded very natural. Yeah, the segment kinda sucked, but Mojo did his best.
When I saw/heard his promo on Smackdown with Shane, I genuinely felt for the guy. I’m probably just weak, but he seemed so sincere. He had been a ghost, he had been doing a whole lot of nothing. He just wanted one opportunity.
Then he lost to Jinder. I get it. You can’t have lower card guys beating the champ, and Jinder’s gotta get that Heel Heat™. But still, I felt bad, and I think that’s the most important part.
Right now, a lot of people don’t like Mojo Rawley. He’s got a limited move-set, and his hype shtick can rub people the wrong way. I get that. With some time, though, he could really turn some people around. Give him more promo time to show how genuine he is. Give him more matches to improve his move-set. This can be easily fixed.
In a show that runs for a whole year, you can’t tell me there’s no time for Rawley. This is the same company that made Jinder Mahal champion, has shown the Fashion Files for a month now, and had R-Truth challenge for the WWE Championship. These things aren’t bad; they’re just some of the more “out there” things WWE has done.
Lots of people say Mojo is a nice guy, whether it’s because they saw him on Breaking Ground, or because they follow him on Twitter. Give him a chance to show that he could be a big deal. If it fails, then that’s alright. These things happen. However, if it does take off, then you can make damn sure that I will be the conductor of this Hype Train.
PWInsider reports that WWE held talent meetings at this week’s RAW and SmackDown tapings to discuss ways to prevent explicit and private material from leaking on the internet.
The meeting was mandatory and was basically a class on cyber security threats. The company brought in an expert from a cyber security firm and give a presentation to the roster. The expert went over different ways that talents could be tricked into inadvertently allow their security to be breached. One of the things discussed was not the accept USB drives as gifts, even if they were from beautiful women promising naked photos. This one was scenario that happened to several celebrities in the past. They also went over ways to as to how the talent should handle themselves online, as they are in the public eye.
The meeting closed with the company gaving out an amendment to their social media policy for talents to sign and stressed that no one but talents and the WWE social media teams should have access to their social media accounts.
