The Monday, July 27, 2015 edition of WWE RAW had a weak first hour, but grew to finish with 3.68 million viewers, which is about what the show has been doing all summer.
This week’s show was down three percent from last week’s post-Battleground editionof the show, which featured the Brock Lesnar and Undertaker brawl.
Below is the hourly viewership breakdown for Monday’s RAW.
Hour One: 3.42 million viewers
Hour Two: 3.75 million viewers
Hour Three: 3.84 million viewers
WWE has just announced that Alicia Fox suffered a mild concussion during her tag-team match on Monday night’s edition of WWE RAW in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
No additional information is available at this time.
WWE has not announced any new information regarding the condition of John Cena as of this writing as well.
WWE Hall Of Famer Mick Foley gave praise to WWE United States Champion John Cena for being tough enough to finish his main event against Seth Rollins on Monday’s RAW with a badly broken nose.
The Hardcore Legend posted the following blog on his official Facebook page:
SUPERMAN
Whatever you do, please don’t disregard what I say about John Cena – WWE Universe by mentioning that I finished a match with a tooth in my nose, or without an ear. I did those things. But after watching Cena continue a great match with ??WWE? champion Seth Rollins, despite a nose broken so badly that it looked like it had been applied by a Hollywood FX master, does anyone out there believe that John Cena, if placed in a situation where his tooth was stuck in his nose, or an ear was lost along the way WOULDN’T continue wrestling?
A week ago, I named my mid-season WWE all-star team. Today – for consistently having great matches and going above and beyond the call of duty to entertain the ??WWE Universe?, I name John Cena was my mid-season MVP.
As things stand right now, it looks like WWE will in fact be using actor Stephen Amell of “Arrow” fame at next month’s WWE SummerSlam four-hour pay-per-view event at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Amell is scheduled to appear at the Wizard World convention in Chicago, Illinois during SummerSlam weekend, however the signing he had scheduled for Sunday, the day of the SummerSlam show, has been canceled.
It has been reported that Amell will likely be appearing at an upcoming WWE event, possibly the RAW show in Everett, Washington on August 10th. It is rumored that Amell and Neville may team up to take on the tag-team of Stardust in The Miz.
Former NXT Champion Kevin Owens recently spoke with talkSPORT’s Gorilla Position podcast about possibly facing Brock Lesnar.
“I think there’s only one answer for me right now, and it is Brock Lesnar. I think a lot of people want to see it,” said Owens.
“I was there the night he made his debut on Raw for WWE,” Owens continued. “I was in the crowd, like the fifth row. I remember being blown away immediately by this guy, I was on board right away. I bought Brock Lesnar T-shirts and Brock Lesnar hats. My parents got a dog that summer, I named him Brock.”
Owens concluded, “Seriously, he was a blonde Lab, he was huge: ‘That’s Brock!’ I used to do the F5 when I was on the indies because of how much I admire him so I’d love to be the one to put an end to him.”
Check out the complete interview at MTV.co.uk.
AAA issued the following press release on Tuesday to announce Matt Striker and Hugo Savinovich as the english broadcast team for their TripleMania XXIII event on pay-per-view.
MATT STRIKER AND HUGO SAVINOVICH NAMED AAA’S TRIPLEMANÍA XXIII PPV ENGLISH BROADCAST TEAM
NEW YORK AND MEXICO CITY — AAA, the world’s leading Lucha Libre organization announced today that Matt Striker and Hugo Savinovich will be calling Triplemanía XXIII live on pay-per-view from Mexico City on Sunday August 9th with a special start time of 7pm ET / 4pm PT.
“Along with our established AAA announcer, Hugo, Matt allows us to provide unparalleled coverage for this very special event. Their insights from years in the ring and broadcasting will enhance Triplemanía for our English speaking fans,” said AAA EVP Dorian Roldan Peña.
“Hugo is rich in experience and insight while Matt is a tremendous analyst. We are excited to have them join the pay-per-view production,” said Court Bauer, Executive Producer for Triplemanía XIII.
Triplemanía XXIII is headlined by a double main event featuring a dream match of Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Myzteziz for the first-time ever. Complimenting this double main event is a Hair vs. Hair match pitting Alberto El Patron vs. Brian Cage.
The PPV is available in High-Definition for $29.95 in the U.S. and Canada on both cable and satellite pay-per-view carriers iN DEMAND, DirecTV, DISH and in the United States and Bell TV, Rogers and Shaw in Canada. A full listing of cable and satellite carriers can be found on AAA’s English web site: http://www.aaalucha.com/how-to-watch.html.
For more information on AAA and Triplemanía, visit:
AAALucha.com (English)
LuchaLibreAAA.com (En Español)
Follow AAA on Twitter:
@AAALucha (English)
@LuchaLibreAAA (En Español)
Like AAA at:
Facebook.com/AAALucha (English)
Facebook.com/LuchaLibreAAA (En Español)
Ring of Honor announced on Tuesday that Roderick Strong has signed a new contract with the promotion.
Roderick Strong Re-signs With Ring of Honor
(BALTIMORE, MD) – Ring of Honor announced Tuesday that Roderick Strong, aka Mr. ROH, has re-signed with the company. The “Triple Crown Champion” was most recently featured as a challenger for the Ring of Honor World Championship against Jay Lethal at Death Before Dishonor XIII in Baltimore. The spectacular match ended in a draw as the wrestlers battled through the 60-minutes of regulation time allotted for World Championship matches.
“I’ve set the bar really high for myself and anyone who comes after me,” Strong said. “I’ve got unfinished business in Ring of Honor and winning that ROH World Championship for a second time is of the utmost importance!”
Strong will once again find himself battling with champions as he takes on IWGP Champion “Rainmaker” Kazuchika Okada at Field of Honor in Brooklyn, NY on August 22nd.
September 30, 2015 will begin Strong’s 13th year with Ring of Honor, as he continues to exemplify Ring of Honor’s pride for having the best wrestling on the planet. More information about Roderick Strong, including upcoming appearances and featured products, can be found on ROHWrestling.com.
The hits keep on coming for Hulk Hogan. RadarOnline.com has released even more details from Hulk Hogan’s sex tape with Heather Clem. While most of the leaked commentary thus far has focused on Hogan’s feelings about African Americans, the latest comments have Hogan unleashing homophobic remarks, calling the man who now lives is childhood home “a big f*g.”
While laying in bed with Heather Clem on one of the sex tapes seen by Radar Online and The National Enquirer, Hogan reportedly said:
“VH1 wanted me to do a big thing and go back to the house I grew up in,” discussing the Season Four finale of Hogan Knows Best.
“So we knock on the doorand a big f*g lives there now!”
“This half-gay was enamored with Linda.”
The story also notes that Bubba The Love Sponge, Heather Clem’s husband at the time, walked into to the room while they were doing their thing. Hogan, who was married at the time, told Bubba,
“Dude, the only thing I will ever ask of you … I don’t know how you will pull this off … is, if I am ever on my death bed, you cannot let Linda come and visit me.”
Hulk was also concerned about what would happen to his $5 million Las Vegas home in the event that he and Linda would get divorced, which they were the following year. Hogan said SoBe Entertainment mogul Cecile Barker, the “black billionaire” that Hogan referred to elsewhere on the tape, would help him get the home back in the event of a divorce.
“If I get divorced, Linda will make me sell it … F**k it, Cecile will buy it and give it back to me after the divorce!”
TNA held another round of TV tapings on Monday night from the Impact Zone in Orlando, Florida. Here are spoiler results, courtesy of James Kent:
– Kenny King beat DJ Z.
– They had a huge brawl between TNA guys and Global Force Wrestling guys. Jarrett was there for GFW.
– Awesome Kong and Lei’D Tapa went to a double count out.
– Jeff Jarrett vacated the King of The Mountain title, with a tournament to be hold to crown the new champion.
– Lashley beat Jessie Godderz in a KOTM tournament match.
– Bobby Roode came out for a promo. He’s upset he’s not part of the KOTM tournament. He made Rockstar Spud come out and then beat him up for ending Austin Aries’ career.
– Matt Hardy had a promo talking about his title shot against EC3, when Tyrus and EC3 came out and attacked him.
– The Wolves beat Brian Myers and Trevor Lee.
– PJ Black is your new KOTM Champion. He defeated Lashley, Robbie E, Eric Young and Chris Mordezky to win it. After the match, Black and EC3 faced off.
– Tigre Uno beat Sonjay Dutt to retain the X Division Title.
– James Storm and The Revolution beat up Mahabali Shera.
– They set up a match with Young and Chris Melendez. In order to get the match Melendez had to put his prosthetic on the line. Seriously.
– Jeff Jarrett is named as the new General Manager of Impact Wrestling as a result of Bully Ray’s departure from TNA. Jarrett announced EC3 vs. PJ Black. EC3 didn’t want the match, but Jarrett said he’d be stripped of the TNA World Heavyweight title if he didn’t face Black.
– Matt Hardy beat Tyrus. After the match, he got attacked by EC3.
– EC3 beat PJ Black in a non-title match.
– Matt Hardy beat Bobby Roode.
– Drew Galloway beat Eli Drake in a No DQ match.
– Gail Kim beat Marti and Jade in a Steel Cage match
As seen on last night’s RAW, United States Champion John Cena suffered a busted nose during his main event match against Seth Rollins.
WWE’s Dr. Steve Daquino confirmed to WWE.com that the nose was broken and Cena was hospitalized after the show.
“As you can see on television tonight, John suffered from a nasal fracture. He’s got quite a bit of displacement, so we sent him over to the local emergency room so he can be evaluated by the ears, nose and throat doctor who’s on call tonight and see what can be done to properly repair it.”
There has been speculation over the past few weeks that a superstar will be joining the Wyatt Family, in particular, Adam Rose – or his developmental persona Leo Kruger.
At WWE Battleground Luke Harper joined forces with Bray Wyatt once again and last night on RAW the pair took to the ring to cut a promo (as shown above).
Prior to RAW going on the air Adam Rose posted a photo of himself as Leo Kruger and many hoped that during the Wyatt Family segment, he would appear, but nothing happened.
During RAW, Rose sent out a number of of other tweets with photos of his Leo Kruger character, they can both be seen below:
Ta Ta #RAW #WWE pic.twitter.com/im2nA94qOr
— Aldo Rose (@Aegis_Rose) July 28, 2015
Ta Ta #RAW #WWE pic.twitter.com/b8UCA2ilhV
— Aldo Rose (@Aegis_Rose) July 28, 2015
– As shown in the video above, WWE are holding a SummerSlam raffle with the grand prize including tickets to all three WWE events.
That’s not all as the winner will get a pizza tour with WWE legends, breakfast with WWE Superstars and much much more. More information can be found at this link.
– After the male competitors on Tough Enough came face-to-face with the Big Show, the female competitors will come face-to-face with Team Bad (Sasha Banks, Naomi and Tamina).
It should also be noted that Cesaro will be appearing on the show as well. It’s not yet confirmed who will be taking Hulk Hogan’s place at the judge’s table.
PWInsider are noting that subscribers of the WWE Network who have cancelled their accounts have been contacted with a survey.
One question in the survey asks if those who have cancelled their subscription would be interested in having the option to purchase a PPV on the Network for just $4.99.
It’s not clear whether this $4.99 cost (if introduced) would be for all pay-per-view events on the WWE Network throughout the year, or whether it would increase for the bigger events.
– Yesterday it was reported that if you pre-order WWE 2K16, you’ll get WWE Hall of Famer Arnold Schwarzenegger as a playable character – the above trailer was also released.
On the topic of WWE 2K16, Michael Cole confirmed during RAW last night that both he and JBL will be providing commentary for the game which is due out in October.
– Next Monday when RAW comes to the Sap Center in San Jose, California, Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman will be on hand to address the recent actions of The Undertaker.
– Current WWE NXT Champion Finn Balor took to Twitter to note that it was a year ago that his journey with the WWE began:
One year ago today I had my first day at the @WWE Performance Center pic.twitter.com/nmmWYFrNVv
— Finn Bálor (@FinnBalor) July 28, 2015
– As confirmed during last night’s RAW, Paige will be the next guest to appear on the Steve Austin Podcast on the WWE Network.
WWE shared the above promo for the Stone Cold podcast which will air next Monday (August 3rd) immediately following RAW.
– It was noted during last night’s episode of RAW that security had been confiscating Hulk Hogan signs brought in by a number of fans.
Wrestling Inc also note that they received a number of reports where security were asking fans to not stream anything on the Periscope app.
– This Thursday on SmackDown, former NXT Champion, Kevin Owens will be in action – as will Becky Lynch who will take on Nikki Bella in a non-title match.
– As confirmed during RAW last night, in a non-title match, Becky Lynch will take on Divas Champion Nikki Bella in singles competition on SmackDown.
– During last night’s main event on RAW (shown above), John Cena broke his nose after taking a knee to the face from Seth Rollins who was challenging him for the United States title.
After RAW went off the air, Joey Styles posted the following photo of Cena and his broken nose, linking to various others which can be seen on the WWE website at this link:
https://twitter.com/JoeyStyles/status/625879266148896768
WWE also posted a photo of Cena on their official Instagram page:
https://instagram.com/p/5qrGI8AFJH/?taken-by=wwe
During the main event of Monday’s edition of WWE RAW, which was billed “A Night of Firsts,” John Cena suffered a busted nose during his WWE United States Championship match against Seth Rollins.
Late into the match, which served as the headline attraction of this week’s RAW, Rollins caught Cena with a huge knee to the face that left Cena bleeding on the mat.
https://twitter.com/JimmyTraina/status/625865428850606081
Despite the injury, the US Champion from tapping out the WWE World Heavyweight Champion in the middle of the ring in a RAW MOTY candidate.
https://twitter.com/theredstandard/status/625865793717301248
John Cena's nose is proof that pro wrestling is no joke #sportsrants #RAW pic.twitter.com/uHYD9MkfAX
— Anthony DiMoro (@AnthonyDiMoro) July 28, 2015
WWE Superstar Daniel Bryan recently spoke with Sports Illustrated to promote his new autobiography. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On his status: “I’d like to return to the ring tomorrow. It’s not an issue of how I feel—I feel great—it’s an issue of getting cleared. That’s a process that is somewhat out of my hands. I’m trying. I don’t want to push, push, push. I’ve made my statement to WWE, but they’re going to listen to their doctors. I’m trying to do it as soon as possible, but they’re looking out for my best interests, so I’m trying to be a little bit patient with them.”
“I suffered a concussion in April, and I’m trying to get cleared back from that. It was during a six-man tag match, and I don’t remember if it happened during a particular move, but it was during the trip to Europe.”
On being inspired by Vince McMahon and Paul Heyman: “Paul’s very in touch with what’s going on in the world. He also sees the changes that wrestling needs to make to be more viable to more people. I would never describe myself as a genius, but I am not afraid to follow people who are geniuses, who know more than me about certain things. He’s just very creative, very smart, and on top of things. People say that Paul Heyman is a genius, and the same can be said about Vince McMahon. Paul and Vince just have different ideas.”
On who he thinks the best in the business right now: “Cesaro in the ring is as good as anybody out there in WWE. If you’re talking the entire wrestling world, there is a guy in New Japan [Pro Wrestling] that I really love watching named Shinsuke Nakamura. He’s awesome and really fun to watch. But in terms of the WWE, in ring, I love watching Cesaro.”
Check out the complete interview at SI.com.
– After posting a tweet on Monday claiming the entire roster was scheduled to appear on stage for the opening of WWE RAW, The New Day’s Xavier Woods later corrected himself, referring to the incorrect post as a “tweet mulligan.” Woods tweeted the following:
Actually scratch that. Taking a tweet mulligan. We don't have to be out there. #NewDayRocks pic.twitter.com/hsofJJONBB
— Austin Creed (@AustinCreedWins) July 27, 2015
– Speaking of Monday’s RAW, live correspondents have informed us that security was confiscating any signs related to the Hulk Hogan incident from fans inside the arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
On Monday, WWE announced that the “Stone Cold Podcast” with WWE Hall Of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin will soon be returning to the WWE Network.
WWE revealed that Austin’s live show will return to the WWE Network next Monday night, August 3rd, with special guest Paige. The show will air live immediately after next Monday’s RAW.
Make sure to check back here at SEScoops.com on Monday evening for a recap of Paige’s appearance on the “Stone Cold Podcast.”
In addition to the opening segment of tonight’s RAW, which will feature the entire roster on stage for a promo segment, we now know a Divas match scheduled for the show as well.
The NXT Women’s Champion Sasha Banks will go one-on-one with Paige as the “Diva Revolution” continues on this week’s RAW.
Tonight on #Raw, the #DivaRevolution rolls on as @RealPaigeWWE faces NXT Women's Champion, @SashaBanksWWE! pic.twitter.com/ZmxVr3v95I
— Diva Dirt (@divadirt) July 27, 2015
The Authority, Seth Rollins & John Cena Kick Off RAW
This week’s show kicks off with Triple H, Stephanie McMahon and Seth Rollins making their way down to the ring. Triple H gets on the microphone and welcomes us to Monday Night RAW.
HHH says tonight will be a huge night of firsts. He says he’s gonna kick off the firsts with a huge announcement. He announces that this year’s SummerSlam pay-per-view will be a four-hour event.
Stephanie puts over Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar and then HHH announces that tonight on RAW, Big Show will go one-on-one with Dean Ambrose. Stephanie then announces Sasha Banks vs. Paige for tonight.
HHH then says Kevin Owens will face Randy Orton here tonight as well. Stephanie announces Alicia Fox and Nikki Bella vs. Becky Lynch and Charlotte for tonight.
Seth Rollins gets on the mic and says if we’re talking about firsts, he knows a thing or two about firsts. He brags a bunch and then says to cap this night of firsts off, we need to involve all of us. He tells everyone to stand up and admit that he will go down as the greatest champion of all-time.
From there, John Cena’s theme song hits and out he comes. Cena calls Rollins an arrogant jackass. He mocks Rollins for claiming to be the greatest champion ever. He calls him a joke. He calls Rollins a coward for running from him last week.
Cena turns his attention to HHH and Stephanie. He talks about tonight being a night of firsts. He says tonight we need to see if Seth Rollins can become a man. He challenges Rollins to a one-on-one match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
Rollins tells Cena to do everyone a favor and for the first time, shut the hell up. He says this isn’t a little U.S. Open Challenge. He says you have to earn an opportunity at his title. Stephanie cuts him off. She says they should let the people decide.
Stephanie asks the fans if they want to see Cena vs. Rollins for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. The fans cheer and break out into a light “Yes!” chant. Stephanie says for the first time ever, she’s saying no. She says she agrees with Rollins.
HHH says he gets that. He says no one wants to see the world title defended on RAW. He says the idea is valid, so tonight in this ring, it will be John Cena vs. Seth Rollins, but it will be for Cena’s United States Championship, because that’s what’s best for business. His music plays and they walk off. From there, we head to a commercial break.
Big Show vs. Dean Ambrose
When we return from the break, Dean Ambrose and Big Show each make their way out to the ring for the first of our “night of firsts” matches.
The bell sounds and here we go. Early on, Dean Ambrose lives up to his moniker of “The Lunatic Fringe,” as he’s a madman, jumping all over Big Show.
As the match goes on, the larger Big Show starts to exert his dominance. Slowly but surely, Ambrose faded, and Big Show completely took over.
Big Show took out Ambrose on the floor. The referee counted to nine and Ambrose just barely made it in. From there, Ambrose had Big Show isolated on the floor and went to dive through the ropes, however Big Show caught him coming out with a KO punch. This time, Ambrose couldn’t make it in.
Winner via Count Out: Big Show
After The Match
After the match, Big Show sees Ambrose won’t stay down. Big Show charges at him but Ambrose moves and Big Show crashes through the barricade. Ambrose laughs and walks off. We head to another commercial break.
The entire WWE roster will be gathered on stage for the opening segment of tonight’s edition of WWE RAW in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, likely for a promo segment involving The Authority — Triple H and Stephanie McMahon.
The New Day’s Xavier Woods tweeted the following about tonight’s RAW segment:
So apparently #TheNewDay and the rest of the roster has to be on the ramp at the beginning or #Raw tonight… No clue what's going on.
— Austin Creed (@AustinCreedWins) July 27, 2015
Lucha Underground play-by-play commentator Matt Striker recently spoke about his time in WWE and his early days in NXT, as well as his current work with Lucha Underground. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On his time working in WWE NXT: “I remember sitting in LaGuardia Airport and the executive producer of WWE television, who normally files privately and I don’t know why he was flying commercially but I don’t know why he would sit and talk to me but he told me of this concept and it was given the green light. It was his brainchild and to this day. You can say whatever you want about WWE producers but the man is a television genius. Every single Cole vignette or video or any entrance that you see and love it comes from the mind of that man. So what came to me and said it I thought it was awesome. So we got a list of all the development that he had envisioned I knew that I had wrestled with him down in Deep South and my trip to OVW so when they brought up a Wade Barrett or a Brodus Clay I knew that just right away that these guys were just going to be great. I was wrong about a few guys too. Oh, what was his name? It wasn’t Eli Cottonwood. He looked like Bruce Prichard. He was very tall, Jacob something. I thought that kid was going to be a star. Tall blond, good looking and then 3 weeks later the kid was gone.
But when they brought in Bryan Danielson/Daniel Bryan, it was let’s see what this guy can do? I would snicker in the corner. I had no idea who this guy was. When they brought in Low Ki as Kaval and teamed him with Layla and Michelle, again it was like great for some of my buddies to show you guys how good they are. I came up with guys like American Dragon and Low Ki and stuff like so I was able to see who was going to be what and also able to see who wasn’t going to make it. He was in the Ascension. He isn’t a kid now but what do they call him? Was it Connor O’Brien? I mean he’s been in the system for years but I there was always something missing there and he disappeared for a while and now God bless him and all do respect and he’s got this new Ascension thing going on and all but you got see what it takes but to answer your question to see who has it I was pretty on point with just the exception of a couple of guys. It wasn’t Jacob Goodnight that was Kane’s character.”
On working in Lucha Underground: “Well the first thing was for me it was great to just sit back down, put on some headsets and just watch wrestling. Not that I didn’t like being concerned with driving storylines, the main thing with Lucha Underground was the storylines build themselves. All I was told to do was just talk about the wrestling and I can do that. That’s the first thing that stood out. The second thing that stood out was a lot of the guys at Lucha Underground are encouraged, are not afraid, go out and top the next guy, go out there and make it hard for the next guy to get a reaction and that’s not the case a lot of times.”
On competing and commentating in the indies: “Well the first thing was for me it was great to just sit back down, put on some headsets and just watch wrestling. Not that I didn’t like being concerned with driving storylines, the main thing with Lucha Underground was the storylines build themselves. All I was told to do was just talk about the wrestling and I can do that. That’s the first thing that stood out. The second thing that stood out was a lot of the guys at Lucha Underground are encouraged, are not afraid, go out and top the next guy, go out there and make it hard for the next guy to get a reaction and that’s not the case a lot of times.
So I kind of had to marry the now with the then so psychology will never change, emotional investment will never change and I’m sure the wrestling will never change and selling and registering will never change. It’s just how to get the people to believe what you’re doing because they’ve seen everything. Guys have seen power bombs on tables on fire and kick out at 1! So I mean you have to make them believe that a small package at the end of the match so they can bite here and make it believable. That was one of my biggest things. And there are a lot of great guys out there now like Curt Hawkins and all these other guys that can marry the two styles and make it into a nice potpourri.”
Check out the complete interview by clicking here.
