Superstar Billy Graham Says Vince McMahon Is A Crybaby & Needs to Grow Up
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Tag: vince
Who’s Idea Was For AJ Styles to Win the US Title at Madison Square Garden?
While appearing on Edge & Christian’s podcast, AJ Styles revealed that it was actually Vince McMahon’s idea for Kevin Owens to drop the United States Championship title to him at the Madison Square Garden event a few weeks back.
“To me, it’s smart. It’s something that hasn’t been done in a long time and to do it at Madison Square Garden and everybody with WWE knows that’s a big deal. I think it was awesome. I think it was very clever and I loved it.”
Styles recalled, “there was a pop, ‘he won! Yes!’ but, ‘well, who’s going to walk out there?’ and then, there was another pop because nobody walked out there. It was really cool, but it was smart to not do that every year, but every couple of years to do something like that. I think it just came down to doing something different and it was Vince’s call and no one else’s. And yeah, it was great.”
Styles went on to explain how he wouldn’t be surprised to see the WWE Championship change hands at a SmackDown Live live event.
“You never know. And who knows? When the guys wrestling, whoever it may be wrestling Jinder Mahal, they may switch it. If you’ve got John Cena working Jinder Mahal on the main event or whatever, it could possibly happen. That’s a good idea. That’s a business move to some extent.”
Former WWE Talent Claims He Came Up with the “Talking Smack Concept
Former WWE personality Armando Estrada claimed on Twitter that he was the one that originally pitched the Talking Smack concept years ago.
Estrada, who portrayed the ECW General Manager and manager, said that he pitched the idea to Vince McMahon back in 2011, with him being the host. Estrada said that nothing came of it beyond a handshake and a thank you at the time.
Here is the tweet he sent out:
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.
Real Reason Talking Smack Was Canceled
While Dave Meltzer reported that Talking Smack was cancelled because of lower viewership, Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated is saying otherwise.
According to Barrasso, WWE canceled the weekly show because Vince McMahon was not pleased with the show and felt it wasn’t best for the company’s interests. Vince apparently made the decision last week while he was present for the show.
WWE issued the following statement on Friday regarding the cancellation of the show:
“We continuously review WWE Network’s programming line-up based on a variety of factors, including viewership and subscriber research. Talking Smack and Raw Talk will air following pay-per-view events, and Tuesday will continue to feature 205 Live.”
Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap w/ Kristian Harloff – Writing for WWE, Relationship with Roddy Piper, WWE Limiting Their Talents, More!
Russo welcomes former WWE writer Kristian Harloff to the show.
Harloff says that he was always a huge wrestling fan, and his favourite performer was ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage. He moved to Los Angeles to become a writer and a stand up comedian, and he met Paul Heyman through a WWE event one evening. He asked Heyman how to get a chance to write for WWE and Heyman told him to write a letter. He told Heyman he already did that, so Heyman told him to write another one.
He wrote the company again, this time including his take on an in-depth ‘Invasion’ angle. This caught the attention of Stephanie McMahon and she flew him into Stanford for an interview.
Russo asks Harloff why he’d want to make the jump from being a stand-up comedian to writing professional wrestling. He says that he always wanted to work for WWE and he had to take the chance. Unfortunately, shortly after arriving in WWE he realized that it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows behind the curtains.
Harloff informs that he got on management’s radar quick, but not in a positive way. During his first pre-show production meeting which was led by Vince McMahon, Harloff raised his hand to ask questions on multiple occasions. Coach came up to him after that and told him to settle down a little bit, because you don’t want to be ‘that’ guy.
Conversation with the Big Guy Recap – Breeze in A Dress, Ryback vs. Ultimate Warrior, Ways to Improve Wrestling, More!
Ryback opens today’s show by revealing whether he misses being on the road with WWE full time. He says that sometimes he misses the live events and the guys who he developed relationships with, but he doesn’t miss television tapings and all the ‘shit’ that comes along with being on the road 300 days a year.
He says that last week’s show made some headlines due to his recollection of a backstage scenario featuring Tyler Breeze. Some people questioned the legitimacy of Ryback’s claims, but he says that he was there in person when Vince McMahon witnessed Breeze leaving an arena early, and Breeze’s stock within WWE immediately plummeted after that.
Nonetheless, he likes what WWE is doing with Breezango right now as they continue to produce entertaining segments every week. He’s still confused by the fact that Tyler Breeze is wearing a dress every week now, but he assumes that someone backstage at WWE gets their kicks from seeing Breeze in a dress.
Ryback says he loved the Rap Battle on Smackdown Live last week between The Usos and The New Day. He says that these types of segments are what have been missing from WWE programming lately, and the ‘R rating’ line in particular proves that anything can happen on WWE programming, similar to how fans felt about the product during the attitude era.
Eric Bischoff Rips WWE Booking a Flag Match at WWE Battleground — Says It’s Boring
Former WCW President and former RAW GM Eric Bischoff talked about the Rusev-Cena flag match on his podcast, Bischoff On Wrestling :
“I hate it. I just hate it. I haaaate it. I hate it. God, whose idea was that? Vince McMahon, if you are listening to this or someone that works for you is listening to this re-think that. That is just… gwuck. My teeth hurt just listening to you talk about this”
He continued:
“What’s a Flag Match?! What the hell is a Flag Match?! It’s like it’s been around for a thousand years and eeeeverybody knows what a Flag Match is. So, I am going to take your flag? Or, you’re going to take my flag? I am sorry… do not care. Boring. Here is what I do believe now once I take off my cynical hat. If you want to build up a story, create emotion, build anticipation, have a sense of reality, give yourself an element of surprise and wrap it all in some great action you’ve got to be a little believable. The stakes have to be a little relatable. What are the stakes?! You are going to grab my flag? Huh? You are grabbing my flag? That’s what I am going to get pissed off about and fight my heart out about? You’re going to grab my flag. I am sorry. I am sleeping through that one.”
Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – RAW’s 3-point Failure, Kevin Owens’ New Documentary, The Death of Kayfabe, More!
Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane.
Russo says that Enzo Amore cut a terrific promo to open this week’s episode of Monday Night RAW. He hopes that WWE isn’t writing Amore off after his split with Big Cass, because Amore is a machine on the mic, and he proved it again on Monday. It’s also clear to Russo that Amore is writing his own promos, because there’s no way the same writers that write the rest of the show are writing his promos. Amore’s promos are simply on another level.
In Russo’s opinion, RAW fails every week because of three points:
1. The show is 3 hours
2. They split the brands, so they don’t have their entire roster available to them to use on Monday nights.
3. They don’t even utilize the top talents that they have on that roster.
It doesn’t make any sense to Russo that WWE chose to split there roster. When he almost returned to WWE in 2002, the first thing he talked to Vince McMahon about was undoing the brand split and merging the rosters again. In addition to this, the top stars on both brands are barely utilized each week. We saw all of RAW’s top stars for no more than a few minutes each on Monday night.
Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – RAW Flashback Analysis, Undertaker Kidnaps Stephanie, Convincing Austin to Make the Save, More!
On today’s show, Vince and his co-host Jeff Lane will discuss the episode of Monday Night RAW from April 26th, 1999.
The night before this show was the Backlash PPV where The Undertaker kidnapped Stephanie McMahon. The end of that PPV ended with a cliffhanger, where Undertaker was shown kidnapping McMahon and that led right into Monday’s episode of RAW. Russo mentions how effective this cliffhanger was, and he wishes WWE would use cliffhangers more often in today’s product.
To kick off RAW, The Rock came out and cut a promo. As Rock was making his way to the ring Jim Ross was updating fans on Stephanie’s situation, mentioning that she still hasn’t been heard from. The Rock was then interrupted by Shane McMahon and The Corporation, signalling the beginning of The Rock’s babyface turn.
The Rock issued a challenge to Shane McMahon for a match later in the night and McMahon accepted which Russo really liked. McMahon wasn’t a chicken heel and he shouldn’t have been because he had two or three guys standing behind him.