Wednesday, July 20, 2011

JOHN LAURINAITIS SPORTING BLACK EYE

 As seen on Monday’s RAW, John Laurinaitis was sporting a black eye. There was speculation that he had make-up applied for the look but word is that John Cena legitimately connected with a punch at Money in the Bank, resulting in Johnny’s shiner.

BACKSTAGE NEWS ON VINCE MCMAHON

 The long-term plan for Vince McMahon to lighten his WWE duties in real life was for his current run to end around WrestleMania 28, with Triple H taking over the day-to-day activities. Even then, Vince will still oversee everything and won’t be going anywhere.

This marks the fifth straight year that Vince has written himself off WWE TV in some form or fashion. In 2007 he was blown up in a limousine, 2008 saw the RAW set fall on top of him, in 2009 he sold WWE to Donald Trump in the storylines but still appeared some and last year, he was beat up by Nexus and put in a coma.

WWE POSSIBLY WORKING WITH RING OF HONOR??

 There are people in WWE who don’t know this for sure but strongly suspect there is some kind of working agreement between Ring of Honor and WWE. There are also people in ROH who think the same thing. At the same time, people on both sides insist there is nothing going on between the two companies.

Sources insist that some of the things CM Punk spoke about in his infamous RAW promo a few weeks back will start finding their way onto WWE TV soon. For example, Punk talked about Triple H taking over and he began that storyline on this week’s RAW. Punk also mentioned John Laurinaitis and Colt Cabana, both who appeared on WWE TV in the past week. While Cabana wasn’t named by the announcers, he was shown at ringside on Money in the Bank and was photographed with Punk and the WWE Title in Chicago after the pay-per-view. Punk also mentioned Ring of Honor, which adds to the speculation that WWE may be working with them.

For what its worth, Cabana has told at least one indy promotion that he’s worked regularly with that he’s not taking any more bookings with them after next month.

WRESTLERS RECEIVING WWE TRYOUTS

As noted before, WWE Tough Enough contestant Ivelisse Velez was spotted in the opening backstage segment on Monday’s RAW. Apparently she was also at the SmackDown tapings last night as her boyfriend, independent wrestler John Yurnet, noted on Twitter that they were headed to the tapings with Chicago wrestler Samuray Del Sol and former Ring of Honor Tag Team Champion Jimmy Jacobs.

It’s possible that Jacobs, Del Sol and Yurnet received tryouts with WWE at the tapings. A fan told Yurnet that he hopes the trip to WWE meant good things for him. Yurnet replied that he hopes so too.

ORIGINAL PLANS FOR MONEY IN THE BANK PPV

 According to a new report, the plan for Money in the Bank as recent as a few days before the pay-per-view was to have Alberto Del Rio cash in his briefcase and leave the show as the new WWE Champion, regardless of what happened between John Cena and CM Punk.

There had been several ideas tossed around for the Punk-Cena storyline and WWE decided over the weekend to give Punk the WWE Title and go from there.

SMACKDOWN SPOILERS 7/22

Dark Match:

* Michael McGillicutty beat Trent Baretta

SmackDown, Airing Friday:

* SmackDown opens with Randy Orton sitting on a chair in the ring with the mic. He talks about the current state of the WWE. He calls out Christian and here comes the World Heavyweight Champion. Christian says Randy needs to work on his anger problem. They go back and forth for a bit, until Orton gets pissed and heads up the ramp only to be stopped by Teddy Long. Long says Randy will get a rematch but not tonight as he’s already agreed to face Kane in a street fight. He asks Orton to be the bigger man and walk away but Orton goes for Christian. The officials restrain him and Long informs Christian he’ll be facing Ezekiel Jackson after the break.

* World Champion Christian beat Intercontinental Champion Ezekiel Jackson with the Killswitch after a back and forth match with mixed crowd reaction for Christian. Anyone remember when these two faced off for who would be remembered as the last ever ECW Champion? Me neither.

* Michael Cole is in the ring and invites SmackDown’s Mr. Money in the Bank, Daniel Bryan out. He comes out and Cole rips him for a while. Bryan says he doesn’t care what Cole thinks. Bryan talks about the physical sacrifices he’s made to get to the WWE. Bryan says he’s going to the first champion to announce when he’s going to cash in ahead of time because apparently he’s never heard of Rob Van Dam. He announces he’s cashing in April 1st in Miami at WrestleMania and fulfill his lifetime dream. Out comes Heath Slater for some unfathomable reason. He gives a heel promo and they start a match. I’m guessing there will be commercials during this match.

* Daniel Bryan beat Heath Slater with some submission move I didn’t recognize (not the LaBelle Lock). This was a pretty decent match considering Heath Slater was involved. The crowd liked Bryan but Heath’s involvement minimized crowd reaction somewhat.

* Matt Striker interviews Mark Henry backstage. Mark Henry says he has no regrets and everyone should fear him.

* Wade Barrett and Sheamus went to a double count out. They continued brawling after the match and eventually ended up back in the ring where Barrett ate a Brogue Kick. Seemed like Sheamus may be in the midst of a slow face turn.

* Kane gives a backstage promo saying he’ll use Randy Orton to kill his humanity and be a monster again.

* Randy Orton beat Kane in a street fight after an RKO onto a chair. Match saw Kane kick out of an RKO and Randy kick out of a chokeslam. Crowd was much more into this match than anything preceding it. Afterward Kane offered his hand and Randy shook it. Kane looked devastated by the loss.

Mark Henry came out and attacked Kane, doing the splash onto the chair around the ankle that he did to Big Show at MITB. Refs came to check on Kane and I assume this was the end of the TV taping.

WWE TO CONTINUE FEUD WITH PUNK VIA SOCIAL MEDIA

Word is that some parts of the CM Punk-WWE storyline won’t be playing out directly on WWE TV. We will likely be seeing the storyline play out over WWE’s website and CM Punk’s Twitter, like we saw last night while he was at the Chicago Cubs game.

SCHEDULE OF WWE'S TOUR OF MEXICO IN OCTOBER

 Here’s new shows for WWE’s tour of Mexico in October:


October 12th – Raw @ Arena Monterrey in Monterrey
October 13th – Raw @ Kukulcan Baseball Stadium in Merida
October 13th – Smackdown @ Arena Monterrey in Monterrey
October 14th – Raw @ Serdan Brothers Baseball Stadium in Puebla
October 14th – Smackdown @ November 20th Baseball Stadium in San Luis Potosi
October 15th – Smackdown @ Beto Avila Baseball Stadium in Veracruz

STORYLINE UPDATE OF TRIPLE H AND VINCE MCMAHON

For those still wondering, the end of RAW last night with Triple H and Vince McMahon was part of the storylines with a little bit of real life thrown in there as Triple H has been groomed for a year now to take over Vince’s duties. WWE’s website is teasing that the company’s latest evolution captained by Triple H begins next week on RAW with the crowning of a new WWE Champion.

STONE COLD COMMENTS ON HIS DVD

Steve Austin wrote the following on Twitter regarding his new WWE DVD: “WWE film crew to come down to the Broken Skull Ranch in a few days. Filming last SCSA DVD. Please send your questions to my twitter acct. Also send any suggestions on matches you would like to see from WCCW, USWA, WCW, ECW, and of course WWE. Thanks for the help. Gonna be good.”

ROCK GETS BACK TO CENA'S APOLOGY TWEET

The Rock wrote the following on Twitter last night after RAW, responding to John Cena’s apology tweet from earlier in the afternoon: “Cena – get back on your tour bus, call up your favorite yum rocket, take your apology and stick it straight up your phony ass.”