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WWE is advertising Jinder Mahal defending the WWE Title against Shinsuke Nakamura for upcoming WWE Live Events for the SmackDown Live brand in July.
Randy Orton is not scheduled for these events, so it’s very possible that Nakamura could be filling in for Orton. We will keep you updated.
Hulk Hogan recently told fans at an autograph signing that he is in negotiations with Vince McMahon to return to WWE.
“Hulk Hogan did an autograph signing over the weekend in Los Angeles and when asked about the obvious question, just said he and Vince are talking,” Dave Meltzer said in the May 8, 2017, issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
“Then again, it is Hogan. The answer to the question of his returning is always about when the feeling it is a time when the company feels there will be no potential sponsor backlash.”
As noted earlier today, The Hulkster was featured on a double-sided poster in the WWE Kids magazine that was being handed out during WWE’s recent tour overseas. This is another indication of his return to the company.
Former WWE Superstar Cameron took to her YouTube Channel to discuss her release from WWE and the time leading up to it:
“For the people who don’t know, I wasn’t happy with my position in WWE. I was coming to ‘TVs’ and I just wasn’t doing anything. I know that I didn’t have the best in-ring skills, because I was brought up early. I’m really honest about that, I can keep it one-thousand percent. I wanted to go back down to NXT. I’m like ‘I know this may mean I might lose my spot. I know this may get me fired,’ but I rather walk away knowing that I did everything I possibly can, than nothing at all and I walk away with regret.”
Cameron then talked about how she found out she was getting released:
“I get this ‘ding’ [on my phone] and Mark [Carrano, WWE Senior Director of Talent Relations] says ‘Can you call me?’ And I just knew, so I called him and he told me. It was shocking, but at the same time, that’s just where we were. I’d given my all and things just weren’t progress, so, it hit me, and I thanked him for my time. This is one experience I’m never ever going to forget, unfortunately, it’s not a fairy tale ending.”
She also commented on if the release correlated with her going after fans on social media:
“To this day, I still don’t know if it’s partially because when I stirred up all the stuff with [the] IWC. That was one of my tactics, to try and get stuff stirring to potentially have a storyline and I never asked, I never asked. I didn’t want to know, because at that point what was done, was done. I never know to this day if it was that, mixed with everything that was already going on and my position with the company.”
PWInsider reports that Matt Hardy’s trademark application for the “BROKEN Matt Hardy” has been refused by the U.S. Patent & Trademark office. Matt has six months to respond to the application before it’s abandoned. The refusal reads:
“Registration is refused because the applied-for mark, as used on the specimen of record, identifies only the name of a particular character/personal name; it does not function as a service mark to identify and distinguish applicant’s services from those of others and to indicate the source of applicant’s services.”
WWE has plans to make the June 13th SmackDown Live episode in New Orleans a major show because of WrestleMania 34 taking place there.
Randy Orton vs. Jinder Mahal was announced but it’s likely that the match will be changed or made into a dark match since they are now scheduled for the Money in the Bank event. Two other matches planned for the event include Kevin Owens vs. AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Dolph Ziggler.
Plans for Rusev to return to WWE programming and go after the WWE Title have changed.
As seen on SmackDown Live a couple weeks back, WWE aired footage of Rusev saying he wanted a shot at the WWE Title at the Money in the Bank event. Rusev said he would be returning to SmackDown Live to confront Shane, which never happened and WWE hasn’t played up to that storyline at all on any of their programming.
With WWE announcing Randy Orton’s rematch for the WWE Title at the Money in the Bank event on SmackDown Live this week, it is now evident that plans have changed for Rusev and he will not be going after the Title on that show. We will keep you updated if we hear anything new regarding his return.
As previously noted, Jim Ross will be one of the announcers for the upcoming women’s tournament that will be taped on July 13 and 14th. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that Lita is being considered to join J.R. on the commentating booth.
While the show is being taped in July, there is no official announcement yet on when WWE plans to air the shows on the WWE Network. We will keep you updated.
As seen on WWE programming lately, WWE has been doing a lot of multi-person matches. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that “booking is slow” and that’s the reason the viewers are being stuck with these types of matches.
While WWE has things planned out for the upcoming SummerSlam pay-per-view event, the company doesn’t have many creative ideas for storylines until then. These multi-person matches are essentially being done as a way to fill up time.
As seen at Sunday’s WWE Backlash event, Jinder Mahal defeated Randy Orton to capture the WWE Title for the first time ever. Going into the event, the plan has always for Mahal to defeat Orton for the title, however the original idea pitched was for him to drop the title the following week on SmackDown Live after Backlash. Obviously, plans changed and the company has other plans in place for Mahal’s championship run.
We noted earlier this week that the Mahal is inline for a Lengthy run with the title. Bryan Alvarez speculated on today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Live that Mahal could very well hold onto the title until September. That is when WWE heads overseas to tour India. The whole idea on putting the title on Mahal was to create a Superstar to cater to the fans in India.
Alvarez also indicated that there is a possibility that if things go well in the India market, Mahal could even hold onto the title as late as WrestleMania 34 next year.
Shane McMahon opened up tonight’s episode of SmackDown Live announcing that Randy Orton will get his rematch for the WWE Title against Jinder Mahal at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view event.
Shane also announced AJ Styles, Baron Corbin, Sami Zayn, Dolph Ziggler, Nakamura and Kevin OWens as participants for the Money in the Bank Ladder match.
Money in the Bank will take place on June 18, 2017 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri. As always, we will be providing live play-by-play coverage of the event.