WWE revived Raw Talk earlier this year and now latest reports suggest that the company is planning to bring back its SmackDown counterpart, Talking Smack very soon as well.
According to reports from PWinsider, WWE officials are considering to bring back the SmackDown aftershow and it could return to WWE programming as soon as later this month.
This is not the first time we are hearing about the possible revival of Talking Smack as there had been talks of the show being brought back in June when the company launched the free tier of the WWE Network.
While WWE only brought back the Raw aftershow at the time, the report reveals that the talks of bringing back Talking Smack go as far back as January this year and the officials have not pulled the trigger on it yet.
Both Talking Smack and Raw Talk were originally introduced when WWE brought back the Brand Extension in 2016 and separated the rosters for Raw and SmackDown.
Out of the two shows, the SmackDown aftershow made more headlines due to its unscripted nature. It allowed the stars to show more personality and the Network exclusive had many iconic moments.
The SmackDown episode after SummerSlam will be an ideal time to bring back the show and it would be interesting to see if the company makes the announcement for the same anytime soon.
WWE has made the strange decision to hold this year’s Payback PPV on August 30, just a week after their second-biggest PPV of the year in SummerSlam, leaving fans wondering about the reason behind this call.
Dave Meltzer talked about this schedule recently and the wrestling journalist mentioned that it’s “just an experiment to see how it works.”
Meltzer speculates that the officials have an idea for a major angle coming out of the SummerSlam PPV which will require an immediate follow up with the Payback event.
One of the top rumors about the major angle is that RETRIBUTION will invade the PPV and interfere with a big match, leading to the stars uniting against the faction and getting their payback at the PPV of the same name.
The idea stems from an angle on this week’s episode of Raw which saw the WWE Champion Drew McIntyre trying to unite the locker room against the group in a backstage segment.
There is also a belief that holding two special events in a row is just a way to saturate the PPV market and potentially hurt the buys for AEW’s All Out PPV which will take place just 6 days after Payback on September 5.
Though whether or not any of the speculations turn out to be true will be revealed this Sunday and it will be interesting to see if RETRIBUTION gets involved with the show in any way.
Monday’s edition of WWE RAW averaged 1.643 million viewers with a 0.48 rating in the key 18-49 demographic. This was mixed from last week, which did 1.722 million viewers and a 0.47 demo rating.
Just one year ago, RAW averaged 2.534 million viewers. This was the go-home show for Sunday’s SummerSlam pay-per-view event and the third week of RAW Underground.
Last week’s third hour did 1.601 million and 0.46 in the 18-49 Demo. RAW also went up against the Democratic National Convention that aired on various stations.
Here’s the hourly viewership breakdown for Raw, courtesy of Showbuzzdaily.com:
Hour 1: 1.730 million, 0.52 in the 18-49 Demo
Hour 2: 1.697 million, 0.49 in the 18-49 Demo
Hour 3: 1.502 million, 0.44 in the 18-49 Demo
This week’s RAW featured an appearance by Shawn Michaels in the final segment of the show to be taken out by Randy Orton. Top matches included Asuka & Shayna Baszler vs Bayley & Sasha Banks, MVP, Shelton Benjamin & Lashley vs. Mustafa Ali, Ricochet & Apollo Crews, and Montez Ford vs. Andrade. This was the last show to be taped from the Performance Center.
SmackDown Viewership
Friday’s SmackDown averaged 2.002 million viewers on FOX. This is up from the 1.962million viewers that the show did for the previous week.
SmackDown averaged 1.979 million viewers in the fast nationals, which was up from the 1.956 million viewers a week ago. This number measured the top metered markets.
The first hour drew 1.932 million viewers while the second hour did 2.025 million viewers. For comparison, the first show of last week’s show did 1.924 million viewers while the second hour did 1.880 million viewers.
SmackDown pulled in a 0.50 rating in the 18-49 demos, the same from the 0.50 rating as last week’s show.
Early Sunday morning Sonya Deville was forced to flee her Florida residence after an intruder broke in. Early reports stated Deville fled the premises with a friend before calling 911. According to court documents obtained by the Tampa Bay Times, Mandy Rose was the friend who was at Deville’s home when the intruder broke in.
Deville described the sequence of events in recent court documents.
“What are doing, what do you want?” Deville wrote. “That is when I realized this person was not here to rob me, he was there to hurt me.”
After Deville learned the person’s name from police, she searched her social media history and found countless messages from the suspect, Phillip A. Thomas II.
“The nature of the messages from this account were obsessive, suicidal, idolizing, saying, ‘You are the only person I will ever love,’ ” Deville wrote in court documents.
“Look outside, baby, by your pool. I’m here. I’m gonna kill that little b—- you have inside with you,” Deville said the last message she received from Thomas reads.
Deville also said in court documents that she had not seen his messages as her accounts are filled with thousands of unread messages from people she does not know.
The arrest report for the incident states that Thomas intended to keep Deville hostage until after SummerSlam. Deville is scheduled to face Mandy Rose in a Hair vs Hair match on the show.
“He stated that he intended to keep Mrs. Bernato hostage, preventing her from attending a planned event schedule for the following week, and that he was not going to leave her residence without her answering all of his questions,” the arrest report reads.
WWE Superstar Naomi recently appeared on WWE’s The New Day: Feel The Power podcast. The tenured Superstar discussed a number of topics from her career with the company, from FCW, to Team Bad and her current run with her ‘Glow’ gimmick.
New Day member Kofi Kingston discussed the ‘glow’ styling that Naomi has in her entrance, saying how it is possibly the “best entrance in the company.”
“You embraced the whole ‘feel the glow thing’ and like reinvented yourself in that respect” Kofi Kingston began on the podcast. “And your entrance was/is amazing.”
Kofi would then reveal that the ‘Glow’ gimmick may have actually been his way back in 2010…if he took it. “Funny story about that” Kofi began. “That was, I think back in like 2010? I was with the merch team, they were trying to come up with like different shirts. They have all these terrible designs, and one of them was like this weird, like silhouette of me? There was like this weird body paint.”
Kofi Kingston as the ‘Black’ Jeff Hardy?
Kingston would elaborate further, saying “and the dude at merch was like pitching me this idea. And he’s like, ‘oh, you could maybe you come out and you have black light body paints on? You can kind of be like the Black version of Jeff Hardy?’ And I said ‘what are you talking about!? Coming out painting myself glowed in the dark!? THAT’S STUPID!? Why would anyone ever do that!?”
Kofi Kingston would then reveal that he might’ve made a mistake when he saw how great Naomi’s entrance actually was. “I’m like ‘this could be the best entrance on the roster’ right? I look back at it now and I think like maybe I should have embraced it! What you (Naomi) are doing is probably what they were talking about.”
“But if they described it to me in a better way than being the ‘black version of Jeff Hardy?’ I might have like got into it!” Kofi would finish.
Last week on WWE RAW, Randy Orton punted Ric Flair to close the show. This week on RAW, Orton did the same to Shawn Michaels. According to a report from Fightful, however, the segment with Orton and Flair was edited for television.
Those in attendance at the tapings say several minutes of content was filmed for the segment but never aired. Evidently, there was much more to Orton’s promo than what was shown on television. Sources within WWE are reportedly saying the segment was cut for time and did not have anything to do with the quality of the segment or the material that wasn’t used.
Since WrestleMania, Orton has punted Edge, Christian, Big Show, Ric Flair, and now Shawn Michaels. This is something of callback to Orton’s run as the Legend Killer earlier in his career.
Orton will challenge Drew McIntyre this Sunday at SummerSlam for the WWE Championship.
Highlights from the segment between Orton and Flair from last week can be viewed in the player below:
Orton is a perfect 6-0 since losing to Edge at WrestleMania. He’s defeated Edge, Christian, R-Truth, Big Show, and Kevin Owens in singles competition. He also teamed with Andrade & Angel Garza in a victory over the Viking Raiders and Big Show.
Impact Wrestling presents the first night of its 2-week branded event, Emergence, tonight on AXS TV and Twitch. The company recently finished taping several weeks of television from Nashville. According to Fightful Select, the company filmed episodes to take them all the way up to October’s Bound For Glory PPV.
News coming out of the tapings says that Sami Callihan is also not expected to play a major role in the company’s storylines leading up to the October PPV. It is unclear why this is, however. Callihan has been a featured performer with the promotion for some time now. At Slammiversary, he teamed with Ken Shamrock in a loss to the North. He has since been involved in an angle with Rob Van Dam and Katie Forbes on recent editions of the weekly show.
Some new faces were also present at the tapings. These are not big names from WWE or ROH, however, but rather independent wrestlers getting another look, possibly on episodes of Xplosion. Alex Shelley recently posted a photo of some of the names Impact is currently looking at:
When I said today was a big day for independent wrestling, I meant it. Thank you, @IMPACTWRESTLING for recognizing hard work, drive, talent, and doing things the right way. Chambers, roll out. pic.twitter.com/Qz1psec0pJ
WWE will present its first show from the “Thunderdome” in Orlando’s Amway Center on Friday. RAW, Smackdown, and PPVs will emanate from the venue for at least the next 2 months. According to Fightful Select, however, episodes of NXT will still continue to air from Full Sail University. This includes Saturday’s TakeOver XXX event.
WWE’s upcoming filming schedule now looks like this:
Friday, August 21 – Friday Night SmackDown, Amway Center, 8 pm ET on FOX
Saturday, August 22 – NXT TakeOver XXX, Full Sail Live, 7 pm ET on WWE Network
Sunday, August 23 – SummerSlam, Amway Center, 7 pm ET on WWE Network
Monday, August 24 – Monday Night Raw, Amway Center, 8 pm ET on USA Network
Wednesday, August 26 – NXT, Full Sail Live, 8 pm ET on USA Network
Friday, August 28 – Friday Night SmackDown, Amway Center, 8 pm ET on FOX
Sunday, August 30 – Payback, Amway Center, 7 pm ET on WWE Network
Monday, August 31 – Monday Night Raw, Amway Center, 8 pm ET on USA Network
Additionally, it is being reported that WWE has created a temporary training facility for its developmental talent. It is not clear if they will be moving back to the Performance Center as WWE’s main roster moves to the Amway Center, however.
Orlando-based reporter Jon Alba has been covering WWE’s agreement with the Amway Center. He is speculating that a possible reason WWE’s deal with the venue runs only through October is due to the possibility of the Orlando Magic returning to the arena in December.
Perhaps a reason the City of Orlando has not commented on WWE potentially extending its lease at the arena could be the uncertainty of the next #NBA season. The #Magic are the primary tenants and would get priority.
The #NBA has reportedly targeted beginning next season as early as December. The current #WWE lease at Amway Center for the #ThunderDome runs through October.
Bill Goldberg is under contract with WWE through 2022.
His deal calls for two matches per year and he’s already wrestled twice in 2020.
Bill Goldberg’s last match in WWE came at WrestleMania 36. He dropped the Universal Championship to Braun Strowman on the show. It was his 2nd match in the company for 2020. His 1st was a victory over the Fiend to win the Universal title at Super ShowDown in Saudi Arabia.
According to comments Goldberg made recently on the Pop Culture Show, those two matches were the only he is contracted for in 2020. He is under contract with WWE for 2 matches per year through 2023.
“I am contracted with the WWE for the next two years through 2022/23. I’ve got two matches per year,” Goldberg said on the show. “I’ve exhausted my limit this year quite early on April the 5th with WrestleMania under these really weird circumstances.”
Goldberg also spoke about how his other projects in the entertainment industry are on hold due to the pandemic.
“I’ve got a couple other extremely interesting projects right on the cusp, but as you guys know in the entertainment business right now everything’s on hold unless it’s a production of 10 or under pretty much. We got a lot of cool things that people are going to find out about pretty soon. My WWE commitment is still going strong.”
You can listen to the full podcast episode in the player embedded below or at this link.
Arn Anderson recently spent some time on the Arn Show talking about if there was ever heat within the 4 Horsemen. According to Arn, the faction probably got on each others nerves sometimes but it was never serious.
“Oh I’m sure we all did, I’m sure we all bit each others heads off because we were all together too much of the time. But whatever it was it would have been short-lived, probably didn’t last over a day, probably was about something that didn’t matter. We were pretty close during those days because it was kind of us against the world.”
Anderson continued to talk about how the faction was a tight-knit group that worked together for the good of the company.
“There was some animosity in that locker room, if you could imagine, the way egos are and should be. There was some jealousy and there was all kinds of things going on so we kind of knew that we had to watch each others backs and work together for the good of the company.”
Anderson did say, however, that the group enjoyed ribbing each other.
“If anything that we got into it was more ribbing on the square. I used to rib the guys all the time and they would rib me back. Probably some of it started out good-naturedly.”
In terms of disagreements about how to do business, however, Arn says he can’t recall there ever being a disagreement.
“I don’t think we had very many, if any, business arguments that would have been because we saw things all differently. I don’t recall anything like that.”
During the peak of WCW Nitro in the 1990s, fans would often throw trash in the ring. In particular, NWO members Hollywood Hogan and Eric Bischoff would often get pelted with debris thrown from live crowds. Bischoff addressed the fans tendency to throw stuff in the ring during a recent edition of his 83 Weeks podcast.
“We didn’t encourage it but we loved it,” Bischoff said on the show. “With a small handful of exceptions, there were some people especially when things got really hot. When people started throwing quarters from the cheap seats, you know?”
Bischoff also spoke about how he and others would do their best to not react to the trash being thrown or even hitting them.
“The no-sell, that just made it better, that just encouraged people to do it more cause they wanted to be the ones to get your attention. It was kind of fun, I enjoyed that when that happened. Sounds weird, doesn’t it?”
Bischoff and Conrad then agreed throwing stuff in the ring is not something fans should do now, however.
WWE has released a number of long term employees in recent months due to the coronavirus pandemic and it appears Chris Jericho is not a fan of one such recent firing.
The former AEW Champion talked about a number of things on the latest episode of his Saturday Night Special stream including things like his ongoing feud with Orange Cassidy and more.
Talking about the recent WWE release of long time referee Mike Chioda, Jericho blasted the company asking them what Chioda is supposed to do now.
“I mean, come on, seriously? 35 years the dude has been at your company and you’re going to fire him? Besides the fact that the dude is a great guy and such a talented performer, and can run the whole backstage, but after 35 years, what’s he supposed to do? Go get a job at freaking 7 Eleven?
Like, shame on you WWE.” said Chris Jericho “They did it to Mark Eaton, a famous ringside guy that they still haven’t been able to replace him yet. When I was looking for time cues, Mark was always the guy.”
Mike Chioda showed up at last week’s episode of AEW Dynamite to officiate a couple of matches which included the TNT title match and the match between Y2J and Orange Cassidy.
During the episode, Chris Jericho also revealed that it was him who gave the idea of bringing the WWE veteran for the show and he and Cody convinced Tony Khan that it was the right move.
WWE has a rich history of former UFC stars coming to the company and the list of people who successfully made the transition from the MMA world to the world of wrestling include people like Ken Shamrock and Ronda Rousey.
Now latest reports are suggesting that WWE officials are interested in bringing in another former UFC Champion to the promotion, though this time not in a wrestling capacity.
Dave Meltzer mentioned on Sunday Night’s Main Event podcast that WWE has interest in signing UFC veteran Daniel Cormier to the commentary team after he announced his retirement.
Though WWE officials are not the only ones interested in bringing Cormier into the company and Fox officials are also said to be interested in signing the UFC star for the SmackDown commentary team.
This is not the first time we are hearing about the company’s interest in Daniel Cormier. Similar reports surfaced online in 2019 and Daniel himself had confirmed that he even had talks with the promotion.
Although this doesn’t necessarily mean that he will make the transition as UFC also wants to keep the former champion around and Cormier has done some commentary work for the MMA league in the past.
The 41-year-old star announced his retirement from the MMA World on Saturday night after losing his fight against the UFC Heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic.
Despite all the talks, there is no word yet on what Daniel Cormier himself is planning for his future and it would be interesting to see where the retired star ends up.
The final episode of WWE RAW before WWE SummerSlam aired from the Performance Center in Orlando. Shawn Michaels returned to address Randy Orton and Mickie James returned to action against Natalya. It was also revealed that Zelina Vega was the one who poisoned Montez Ford a couple weeks back.
MVP, Shelton Benjamin & Lashley def. Mustafa Ali, Ricochet & Apollo Crews
Shelton Benjamin won the 24/7 Champion
Montez Ford def. Andrade
Here are 6 takeaways from this week’s RAW:
RETRIBUTION Invaded The Production Truck
Retribution has arrived in WWE
WWE Champion Drew McIntyre kicked off the show. McIntyre said it was unforgivable what Orton did to Ric Flair last week. Drew noted that Flair was Orton’s mentor for twenty years and that last week Ric told Randy that he wanted him to beat his title record. McIntyre called Orton pure evil and that at SummerSlam, Randy is not facing an old man, he is facing a Scottish fire-breathing dragon.
McIntyre vowed to severely hurt Orton at SummerSlam as a bunch of graphics appeared on the screen. RETRIBUTION was then shown in the production truck and they forced the show to go off the air.
McIntyre went to the locker room and suggested they band together and stomp out RETRIBUTION. Seth Rollins laughed and told McIntyre that RAW already has a Messiah that is capable of the leading the locker room. Rollins boasted about beating Dominik down last week and Ricochet interrupted and said Rey Mysterio is going to be here tonight.
Shelton Benjamin & Lashley Are Banned From The US Title Match At SummerSlam
MVP, Lashley, and Shelton Benjamin came down to the ring and called out RETRIBUTION. MVP said that he has learned to always follow the money and wondered who benefits the most from the actions of RETRIBUTION. MVP suggested that Apollo Crews, Ricochet, Mustafa Ali, and Cedric Alexander benefit the most and Crews probably came up with the idea while he was home on the couch.
MVP pointed out that RETRIBUTION showed up during their US Title match and Apollo was able to steal the United States Championship that he paid thousands of dollars for. Crews interrupted and told MVP that it was low of him to try to accuse him of being behind RETRIBUTION.
Crews accused MVP of not being able to beat him without any help. MVP joked that Crews’ career had more starts and stops than an old used car and as soon as he loses the title it is back to catering for Apollo. Crews admitted that he does fear that and that is why he is fighting so hard to keep the title. Apollo suggested that if he beats Shelton Benjamin tonight, Lashley and Shelton will be banned from ringside at SummerSlam.
Match Recap: Shelton dominated the action early but Apollo battled back with a Spinebuster for a near fall. Benjamin connected with a DDT and went for the cover but the United States Champion kicked out at two. 24/7 Champion R-Truth was chased around the ring by ninjas and Apollo capitalized on the distraction with a roll-up for the pinfall victory.
The Hurt Business beat Apollo down for a bit after the match before Ricochet, Ali, and Cedric Alexander made the save. R-Truth ran back around the ring and Shelton Benjamin attacked him. Benjamin then pinned R-Truth to become the new 24/7 Champion. MVP told Crews to find two tag partners for a 6-man Elimination Tag Team match later tonight.
WWE is slated to lease the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida as its new residency to air weekly television shows – Monday Night RAW and Friday Night SmackDown.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer confirmed just hours after WWE announced that the company will run the venue for the next two months for RAW, SmackDown and pay-per-view events.
Orlando reporter Jon Alba tweeted a video from the press conference. It was noted that no fans will be allowed into the arena and additional COVID-19 safety and cleaning procedures in place.
Channel 13’s Jeff Allen reported that the Amway Center will make about $450,000 from the residency, which the city of Orlando owns. Alba provided the following updates:
More news: My @MyNews13 colleague @News13JeffAllen says City of Orlando officials tell him Amway Center will be making about $450,000 off #WWE's residency.
Given WWE has been off the road for most of the year, that's a bargain for the company, and good money for venue.
I asked City of Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer if #WWE would eventually be able to extend its lease at Amway Center or allow fans, but he just reiterated the lease runs for 60 days and they plan to tape events on Mondays, Fridays, and Sundays (PPV). #ThunderDomepic.twitter.com/lVMbjAxNqQ
Seth Rollins did an interview with Bleacher Report to his WWE goals and how he thinks WWE could improve its product.
It’s no secret that WWE’s popularity has been declining for years. Although WWE is making more money than ever due to TV rights, investors have started to notice the problems the company is dealing with.
“There’s always stuff to work on and, gosh, I think it’s so hard to pinpoint one thing or two things really. I think things are tough creatively right now in the sense that we don’t know where this whole thing is going to fall and we’re in the Performance Center, so we’re doing the best we can as far as what the aesthetic looks like, trying to get a crowd in there to make noise.”
Rollins continued by noting that from a viewers’ perspective they aren’t the same. He thinks making it more fan-friendly, more aesthetically pleasing to an audience of a television show might go a long way.
“That’s just pulling a rabbit out of a hat because there’s so many things we all need to work on every day. Not just the company, but myself, the talent around me, everyone in the back, the writers, the consistency, the conversations, the communication, everything could be better. It’s so hard to pick just one thing and say, ‘Ah, that’s going to be the ticket, that’s going to do it.’ It’s a work in progress, and I think going out there and consistently doing your job the best you can and helping other people out would be the best way to move this thing forward.”
Rollins noted that he would love for Raw to be at the top of the cable rankings every single week and be the most talked about thing going on. He added that he loves wrestling as he’s dedicated his whole life to it so he wants to do anything I can to make it the best it possibly can be.
Rollins also talked about staying in contact with Jon Moxley, Becky Lynch’s pregnancy, and more, which you can out here.
Triple H gave some interesting comments about the absence of The Velveteen Dream from NXT TV as well as the sexual misconduct allegations.
The NXT star was accused by underage fans of sexual misconduct in April and then again during the Speaking Out movement in mid-June.
He denied the first accusations but didn’t comment on the second allegation. Dream was also involved in a car accident in late June as well.
Speaking to CBS Sports, Triple H addressed Dream’s return.
“You know, in this day today, accusations are made and you take them all very seriously. You look into them the best you can, and you find out what is there and what isn’t. In this situation, [Clark] was also involved in a car accident. That’s what took him off TV.”
He continued by noting that at the moment, you look into it and find out there is a situation that people bring to everyone’s attention. He said that when you look into and then find that there’s nothing there.
“Everything that we have done, we are comfortable with him continuing to do what he does and everything else. But he had a car accident. It stemmed down to people thought we removed him from TV for different reasons. We didn’t. He was in a car accident. Once he was medically cleared to be able to return to the ring from his car accident, we continued forward the way we did. We looked into what was there and we didn’t find anything.”
Dream had been off television since NXT TakeOver: In Your House on June 7. That changed last week on NXT when he worked the main event.
This coming Wednesday, he’ll take on Finn Balor with the winner moving on to NXT TakeOver XXX to compete in the ladder match for the vacant NXT North American Championship.
Rusev recently appeared on Ryback’s podcast and detailed Vince McMahon’s reaction to the “Rusev Day” chants. According to Rusev, Vince McMahon told him that fans were mocking him when they were chanting “Rusev Day.”
“I had a conversation with Vince and he told me that with Rusev Day, they were just mocking me, they didn’t mean it,” Rusev said on the show.
“In my mind, I knew it wasn’t true,” Rusev continued. “They started putting my segments early so the ‘Rusev Day’ chants would go away. I was not even supposed to be on WrestleMania, the year I lost to Jinder.”
Aiden English also recently commented on his reaction to hearing Vince McMahon’s interpretation of the crowd chants.
Maria Kanellis also responded to news about Vince’s reaction to the Rusev Day chants.
This doesn’t surprise me. We were the most watched segments when we were doing the 24/7 storyline and Vince still pulled the rug out from under us. I begged them not to use my personal life, if they were just gonna drop the storyline. But, they did it anyways. https://t.co/pbB15lvQHA
Maria, Aiden English, and Rusev were all released from their WWE contracts in April during an ongoing global pandemic.
Rusev then continued to talk about Vince’s reaction to the Rusev Day shirts selling out. According to Rusev, Vince believed they only sold out because they didn’t make enough.
“When Vince said the second time, ‘they’re fucking with you,’ I said, ‘Vince, we have sold out all of our merchandise.’ ‘What do you mean?’ ‘The shirt is sold out.’ ‘Well, maybe they didn’t make enough.’ ‘They didn’t make enough shirts, that’s why it’s sold out? Not because we’re doing good? Really?'”
Seth Rollins recently took part in an interview with PEOPLE and discussed his reaction to finding out his fiancé Becky Lynch is pregnant. Rollins said he was thrilled as soon as he found out.
“We got the test back and it said pregnant and she was more shocked and I was just hyped,” Rollins said. “I was so excited, I think, right out of the gate. I wish we had a camera on because I threw my arms up in the air, I was so excited about it.”
Rollins also spent a portion of the interview talking about Lynch’s reaction. He noted how many women are able to continue working during their pregnancy, but certainly not wrestlers. After going hard in WWE for a year, it was an adjustment for her, it seems.
“With this, it was just like, she’s going 100 miles an hour, had the busiest year of her life, and then ‘Bam!’ shut down. Done. You can’t do your work anymore. And ‘Bam!’ Hollywood is shut down. No meetings because of the pandemic, because of COVID. So that’s all out the window, too.”
Lynch vacated the RAW Women’s Championship in epic fashion following the Money in the Bank PPV. She surrendered the belt to Asuka and then announced to the WWE Universe that she was going to be a mother. Even Asuka, a heel at the time, couldn’t help celebrating the news.
“She’s the hardest working person I’ve ever met, so she wants to always be productive,” Rollins continued. “That’s what gives her purpose on a day-to-day basis. So it’s been crazy for her, but she found some cool things that hopefully she’ll be able to share in the future.”
Rollins will face Dominik Mysterio Sunday at SummerSlam. The match was recently made a street fight. WWE is teasing that Rey Mysterio may show up tonight on RAW as well.
Crews are currently working on the new WWE ThunderDome interactive viewing experience at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida.
One worker noted on Instagram that crews have been working 13-hour days since Sunday. They expect to be finished with the construction by Wednesday of this week. WWE noted in today’s announcement that the ThunderDome experience will go live beginning with Friday’s SmackDown on FOX episode, which is the go-home show for SummerSlam.
Below is the first video of construction inside the Amway Center, courtesy of Pro Wrestling Sheet:
WWE ThunderDome goes with WWE’s new longterm residency at the Amway Center. The viewing experience will be used for all RAW, SmackDown and pay-per-view events for the foreseeable future.
ThunderDome features a state-of-the-art set, video boards, pyrotechnics, lasers, cutting-edge graphics and drone cameras. WWE is using almost 1,000 LED boards to feature virtual fans live via video streaming. There will be rows and rows of fans on the boards, and the idea is that they will be able to recreate the arena experience fans are used to seeing with the WWE product. Full WWE ThunderDome details can be found here.
Below are photos of crews turning the Amway Center into The ThunderDome:
Tama Tonga recently took part in an interview with Chris Van Vliet. During the discussion, he revealed the name that was originally proposed for the faction before it was ultimately decided to call the group Bullet Club.
“I didn’t have no say in the name, I was just like ‘alright, tell me what to do and I’ll do it,'” Tonga said on the show. “Prince Devitt was thinking of calling it the ‘Bullet Brigade’ and Fale was like ‘brigade sounds…what if you called it club?'”
“Fale is from New Zealand and played professional rugby and ‘club’ is a thing. So, that’s where Bullet Club came from. So, took that and ran with it.”
Bullet Club is a faction in New Japan Pro Wrestling that has produced multiple IWGP Heavyweight Champions. AJ Styles, Kenny Omega, Jay White, and now EVIL have held that title while a member of the faction.
Tonga was also asked his opinion of WWE’s version of the club.
“It’s just like anything else, just like Mexico’s LIJ that became LIJ of Japan. Just like the Hurt Business or the Mob whatever. When you are doing something so good, everybody wants to copy it. That’s a nod to us, I’m okay with that but you aren’t going to do it like us,” Tonga said.
Arn Anderson recently spent some time on the Arn Show discussing WWE’s attitude towards tag-team wrestling. According to the Enforcer, WWE soured on tag-team wrestling during the Attitude era.
“They went through a time up in the WWF, I can’t specifically tell you when it was when they went through all these factions,” Anderson said. Conrad and Anderson then nailed down 1997 as the year he is talking about.
“Taker had the APA and all those guys with him, you had the guys from Puerto Rico, you had all these different factions, you had D-X, all those guys. Just guessing, when you start paying all those groups when you have the big shows and you had a lot of those factions on there, you had a lot of sets of trans (payment for transportation).”
Anderson then continued to say that the additional costs associated with tag-teams and factions likely played a role in WWE’s decreased use of teams.
“If you add all those transportation costs to pay and all that, I imagine it did get expensive and it was probably overwhelming so when he decided to peel back from factions and all that, he probably just included tag matches in the equation and that was a mistake.”
Conrad then asked Arn if AEW will try to feature tag-team wrestling in main events and in a bigger role.
“I certainly think it can,” Anderson said. “They have some tremendous tag-teams.”
Former WWE personality and booker Jim Cornette recently commented on the Dexter Lumis injury from a recent episode of NXT. In a triple threat match with Finn Balor and Timothy Thatcher, Lumis would suffer from a ‘Osteochondral Lesion of the Talus.’ Or in layman’s terms, an ankle injury.
The injury occurred during the spot where Lumis flipped out of the ring between his opponents for a stare-down. The spot had to be filmed twice and the edit does not actually show Lumis landing from the flip itself.
Jim Cornette would be critical of the ‘stunt,’ mainly because he felt that the “risk-reward ratio” didn’t warrant such a throwaway spot during a televised match. With the injury, Lumis has now been pulled from the NXT Takeover XXX North American Championship ladder match.
Jim Cornette on Dexter Lumis
“It’s not just me saying ‘f*ck all the new guys and this is stupid'” Cornette began on his Experience podcast. “This is business and this is common sense.”
“I understand guys wanting to do different things to get over. Everybody wants to get over, to get over on TV, get over with the office. Get over with the booker or get over with the writers/creative team and get over with the fans” Jim Cornette continued. “Everybody wants to get over, and to get over you have to do different things and things that other people don’t do. You have to look impressive and make an impression.”
Cornette would then discuss how performers now need to work ‘smarter, not harder.’ “Get over smarter, not harder. The risk reward ratio of something like that for that spot in an empty arena television match? If he had nailed it and the camera had not cut through the whole thing and you saw he obviously did it? You would have said ‘wow, holy sh*t that was a heck of a flip.'”
“But the whole idea was not for him to wipe out his opponents” Cornette would continue. “Just a flip and stand in the middle of them to freak them out. And for that? He [Lumis] dove headfirst toward a concrete floor, padded, but he risked blowing out his knees, his ankles, his f*cking crotch whatever you could blow out. Pick your spots!”
Do you agree with Jim Cornette’s assessment of Dexter Lumis’ injury? Let us know in the comments
Bret Hart is currently promoting his Confessions of the Hitman web series which features interviews with the Excellence of Execution himself.
The legendary grappler has been posting excerpts from the shows recently on Instagram. In one teaser clip, Bret details his father Stu Hart teaching him how to fight after finding out he got into a scuffle at school.
“I remember my Dad giving me all these pointers on where the head goes, the body follows. I remember him telling me that,” Bret said about pointers his father gave him on how to fight. “He’s telling me all this stuff and he goes wrestle him down and stuff like that.”
“I remember he told me this too in this same little moment he had to teach me to fight. He told me that if you ever get in a really tough spot, bite that guy on the tip of the nose if you’re close enough and get him right on the tip. He won’t bother you again.”
WWE has announced a groundbreaking new viewing experience for fans that will premiere this Friday on SmackDown, WWE ThunderDome.
WWE sent out a press release Monday morning detailing ThunderDome as a “state-of-the-art viewing experience featuring video boards, pyrotechnics, lasers, cutting-edge graphics, and drone cameras. “
Thunderdome will also involve fans being virtually projected into Orlando’s Amway Center via massive LED boards. Fans who would like to participate in this aspect of ThunderDome can sign up at WWEThunderDome.com.
The launch of ThunderDome coincides with WWE moving regular television production to the Amway Center arena in Orlando, FL. Both SummerSlam and TakeOver XXX will take place from the venue this weekend.
Amway Center, Orlando, FL
WWE ThunderDome
The company sent out a press release today to announce the news.
“WWE has a long history of producing the greatest live spectacles in sports and entertainment, yet nothing compares to what we are creating with WWE ThunderDome,” said Kevin Dunn. “This structure will enable us to deliver an immersive atmosphere and generate more excitement amongst the millions of fans watching our programming around the world.”
“As WWE takes residency at the world-class Amway Center, we have reimagined our live event experience for today’s environment,” said Brian Flinn, WWE Chief Marketing & Communications Officer. “In partnership with The Famous Group, we will virtually bring our fans back into the show and recreate the interactive in-arena atmosphere that has been a staple of WWE events for decades.”
