Category: Post Type article

STEPHEN AMELL TO GUEST STAR ON WWE® MONDAY NIGHT RAW®

STAMFORD, Conn., August 3, 2015 – Actor Stephen Amell, who plays the title role on the hit series Arrow, will guest star on WWE’s Monday Night Raw next Monday, August 10, at 8/7C on USA Network.  After several visits to Monday Night Raw, Amell will be appearing as a guest star for the first time.

Based on characters from DC Comics, Arrow tells the story of billionaire Oliver Queen who, after being gone for five years and suffering unimaginable ordeals, returned home to Starling City with a mysterious agenda and a set of new skills that he uses in a war on crime as “The Arrow” in this hard-hitting action series.

Next up for Amell is the role of Casey Jones in Paramount Pictures’ and Nickelodeon Movies’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2.  Produced by Michael Bay, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 opens in theaters Summer 2016.

Monday Night Raw is the longest-running, weekly episodic program in U.S. primetime TV history and is one of the most-watched, regularly scheduled programs on cable, airing live every Monday night on USA Network.  Each week, it is rated one of the most socially active shows on cable television and continues to be a “must-stop” for celebrities to reach WWE’s TV audience and its more than half a billion social media followers.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 3, 2015
**MEDIA ALERT**
Private Roddy Piper Memorial at The World Famous Comedy Store in Hollywood,
Planned for August 17, 2015

A private memorial is in the works for beloved pro wrestler, actor and comedian “Rowdy” Roddy
Piper who passed away last week at his home in Hollywood, California. Set to take place
Monday, August 17th at The Comedy Store, this private memorial will include friends from all
facets of Roddy Piper’s life and career which ran the gamut of wrestling, acting, stand up
comedy, live and broadcast TV, film and numerous business and charitable ventures. His
closest friends/colleagues in L.A. will share stories and experiences about Roddy over the
years.

Organizer and Roddy Piper friend, comic Steve Simeone said of the event “The Comedy Store
is the adopted home of so many ‘comic orphans’ and Roddy became like a dad or big brother to
all of us. He became family. I wanted to have a get together where we could get up and share
our favorite stories about this incredible man who we all love and will miss greatly. This is a
night for Roddy’s friends to celebrate what a great friend he was to all of us.”

Roddy Piper’s daughter, actress Ariel Teal Toombs had this to say about the memorial, “I know
a lot of people wanting something like this in L.A., especially because the funeral will be up in
Oregon and a lot of folks won’t be able to make that trip. It means a lot that Steve and the
Comedy Store family are putting this together.”

Memorial co-organizer, Pro Wrestling and Mixed Martial Arts agent, producer and longtime friend of Piper, Rick Bassman commented, “Roddy’s sudden death has hit all in the Pro Wrestling and MMA worlds pretty hard. I’m very grateful that the Comedy Store is doing this and we intend to see that Roddy is remembered in a way that would make him proud.”

Also helping to organize this send off is Mitch Ackerman, Roddy’s best friend who remarked, “I
appreciate all the love and support from all the friends and fans of Roddy’s. Other than Madison
Square Garden I don’t think there is a more appropriate place to have this memorial than at the
Comedy Store ”

The Toombs family also wants the worldwide public who can’t attend his private funeral or
memorial to know that a moment of silence is planned August 11th at 10 am PST. Details here:
http://j.mp/RoddyPiper_MomentOfSilence
###
Contact: Noelle Kim NKPR
(310) 8493444
ProducerNoelle@gmail.com

courtesy WWE.com

by Jeff Hamlin. WrestlingObserver.com 

The Big Takeaway: 

The biggest news is the Seth Rollins-John Cena match at SummerSlam will be a Title vs. Title match. Rollins made it clear that the championships aren’t being unified, just that someone was walking out of Brooklyn as the WWE World Heavyweight and U.S. Champion. Rollins and Neville had the weekly 4-star open challenge match and Paul Heyman cut his monthly candidate for promo of the year. 

Show Recap: 

The entire roster stood out on the ramp, many of them wearing “Hot Rod” shirts, for a 10-bell salute to Roddy Piper. Bagpipes played as they faded to a tribute video. All of his famous Piper’s Pit moments were shown, including several still photos of Piper with Hulk Hogan. Another wonderful tribute to someone gone far too soon.  

Seth Rollins came out. He was smiling after watching repeated highlights of him breaking John Cena’s nose last week. Rollins said he was too sympathetic for his own good, and last week was a good example when he broke Cena’s nose. He got a noticable amount of cheers and “Thank you Rollins” chants. 

He sbowed several photos of Cena’s crooked nose after the match, and asked who wouldn’t feel sympathy for a face like that? Rollins wanted to stop the match immediately after Cena suffered the injury, but his sympathy and the referee allowed the match to continue. It was his sympathy that allowed Cena to win, but he will never let his guard down ever again. 

Rollins challenged Cena to a title vs. title match at SummerSlam, winner takes all. If Cena doesn’t have the guts to show up, he can just forfeit the U.S. Championship, but someone will hold both the WWE and U.S. Championships at the same time. 

Rollins said this was the site of his WWE World Heavyweight Championship victory at WrestleMania in April, then issued a WWE World Heavyweight Championship open challenge. 

For some reason, Jojo was in the ring to interview Rollins after a commercial. Rollins changed the rules and said there were two rules for the challenger….they had to be under 6-feet tall and under 200-pounds. They played El Torito’s music, but Neville came out instead to answer the challenge. So happy Vince could remind us that he could never get Floyd Meaweather, Connor McGregor, George St. Pierre or Uriah Faber over as money drawing stars. 

Seth Rollins (C) defeated Neville to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship (13:04) 

Very good match where Neville missed a 2nd Red Arrow and Rollins hit the Pedigree for the pin. Neville hit a Red Arrow and fans thought it was going to be a title switch, but Rollins got his boot on the ropes. What was really strange was Neville didn’t look very much shorter than Rollins. Somebody watched their G1 this week, as Rollins debuted the Hiroshi Tanahashi Slingblade during the heat. Neville followed with a reverse Frankensteiner which the crowd brought for a near fall. Nevile used a jackknife cradle for another near fall, so close the referee had to noticeably hold up his count, which the fans gave him grief about. 

The “Did You Know” feature mentioned Daniel Bryan’s book being a New York Times bestseller. Wait, they promoted Bryan’s book? Isn’t that a fireable offense?  

The New Day and the Ascension defeated Los Matadores and Lucha Dragons (8:21)

Kofi Kingston pinned Kalisto after Xavier Woods distracted him, despite Toritio tripping him from the apron. Diego and Fernando hit stereo topes on Konnor and Viktor. Titus O’Neal and Darren Young were on commentary again. O’Neal asked Byron Saxton if he had a girlfriend, which he didn’t answer. 

Charlotte and Becky Lynch defeated The Bella Twins via submission (13:09)

Charlotte got the hot tag and made Nikki Bella tapout to the Figure 8. Michael Cole mentioned that Charlotte, Paige and Becky Lynch have dubbed themselves the “Submission Sorority.” Crowd was dead. The NXT Divas already feel like just another part of the show instead of something relevant. 

Jojo talked with Team BAD, who were watching from the back. Alicia Fox objected to Jojo’s question about Charlotte, Lynch and Paige taking over the Divas Division. Fox mentioned she made Paige tapout last week. Naomi said she was going to challenge Paige to a match tonight. Naomi also brought up Ronda Rousey, whose name got a huge pop. Naomi said they were the baddest women on the planet. They can’t even top Rousey on the mic. 

It was time for MizTV, and the Miz did a tribute to Piper’s Pit. He looked a little emotional about it. He went back heel and cut a promo on Ryback, saying he should forfeit the I-C title like Bryan did. Kevin Owens came out as a guest. Owens said he owned every single one of the Miz’s movies on Blu Ray.  

Owens said Cesaro was jealous of him. Cesaro came out with fans holding up “Cesaro Section” signs. Owens said Cesaro will never match his god given ability for this business. Cesaro said he was ashamed of Owens because he keeps walking away from matches. He called him embarrassment. Owens got up, and the chair stuck to Owens’ rear end. Cesaro challenged him to a fight. Owens said he’ll fight anyone, anytime, for the right price. But the price wasn’t tonight. Cesaro said Owens was about to do what he does best, which is “Walk, Owens, Walk.” Owens hit Cesaro from behind, but Cesaro recovered and tried to give him the Cesaro Swing, but Owens…well, walked.  

They showed a clip of Rousey’s postfight promo from Saturday night dedicating the fight to Piper. They keep enticing Ronda for WrestleMania.  

Rusev defeated Mark Henry (2:05)

Rusev got the pin clean with a Thurst Kick on Mark Henry. He delivered another one after the match. Summer Rae continues to do Lana mannerisms. I’m surprised she hasn’t copied the “Rusev Crush” line. 

In a clear reponse to the Investment Caller’s Call, JBL held up signs showing how much money people will save if they just watch SummerSlam through the WWE Network instead of on PPV. Then, in an attempt to entice people to buy the network, they showed a hot angle from 1985 Mid South Wrestling. Ummm….no…they really showed a scene from Swerved. Sort of like if the NBA Network debuted tomorrow, and instead of showing highlights from the 2000 Los Angeles Lakers, they showed clips from the 2015 Los Angeles Lakers. 

Bray Wyatt held a flower is a symbol of beauty, but if you remove all of its pedals, it becomes a troublesome weed. He said Roman Reigns has become their symbol of beauty, but he’s really do different from anybody else. Sheamus someone found his way into the Wyatt Liar and said he was going to drive his Brogue Kick into Randy Orton’s face tonight. Bray said the Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend, so tonight Sheamus was his friend. 

King Barrett defeated Zack Ryder (1:53)

Zack Ryder went for the Rough Ryder, but Barrett dipped under it and pinned him after the Bullhammer Elbow. Last half hour wil likely not be shown on the 90 minute versions of Raw. 

Paul Heyman was in the ring and showed the footage of the Undertaker jumping Brock Lesnar at Battleground. Heyman said Undertaker can’t live with himself because he will never be able to beat Lesnar. Brock came out and threw part of the ring steps into the ring and stood on them while Heyman cut his promo. 

Heyman said the last time Lesnar wrestled Undertaker, the Undertaker left in an ambulance, spent a week in the hospital  and took a year to recover. In fact, Heyman said Undertaker called Vince McMahon and begged him for a rematch at WrestleMania. But Vince turned him down because he was afraid of Undertaker risking permanent injury. So Undertaker had to surprise Lesnar at Battleground. Heyman said at SummerSlam, Lesnar will slap the “Repeat” in “Eat, Sleep, Conquer, Repeat.” He said Undertaker was going to Suplex City. 

Heyman was on fire at this point, saying Undertaker wasn’t going to need an ambulance this time, he was going to need Last Rites. In regards to promos in the WWE, there’s Paul Heyman and there’s everyone else.  

Paige defeated Naomi via submission (7:25)

Paige won with the PTO. Crowd was pretty dead again. For all the talk of a Divas Revolution, they don’t have a Diva on the roster half as over as Lita was in 2000 or Trish Stratus in 2004. 

Stardust did a promo about Neville’s loss to Rollins. They’re back to Stardust doing an angle with Steven Amell, who tweeted that he will be at Raw next week in Seattle. 

They replayed the Piper tribute video. This led to a promo where Dean Ambrose and Reigns repeated the Piper line from “They Live” saying they came to Kick Ass and Chew Bubblegum, and they’re all out of bubblegum. JBL said the same thing earlier. Orton told Ambrose and Reigns to leave Sheamus to him.  

Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Randy Orton defeated Bray Wyatt, Sheamus and Luke Harper (16:39)

Good match with a really good finish. Reigns cleaned house at the end, giving Luke Harper a Superman’s Punch. Orton gave Wyatt an RKO, and Reigns pinned Sheamus after a spear. Buildup to the hot tag with Reigns was good and this was the 2nd best match on the show.  

SUMMARY: Show opened well, was nothing until the Heyman promo, and was nothing after that until the main event. 

A WWE press release on tonight’s Steve Austin podcast with Paige

“STONE COLD®” PODCAST LIVE! WITH WWE DIVA PAIGE® TONIGHT ON WWE® NETWORK

STAMFORD, Conn., August 3, 2015 – “Stone Cold” Podcast Live!, hosted by WWE Hall of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, will air tonight at 11 p.m. ET on WWE Network, with special guest, WWE Diva and current judge on Tough Enough, Paige.

Dubbed the “Diva of Tomorrow,” Paige has been making waves in WWE since her groundbreaking time in NXT.  After becoming the first-ever NXT Women’s Champion, Paige went on to hold the WWE Divas Championship, becoming the youngest Diva ever to do so.  Audiences can also catch Paige every Tuesday night, as a cast member on the hit E! reality series Total Divas, and as a judge on USA Network’s WWE Tough Enough.

On each installment of “Stone Cold” Podcast Live!, immediately following Monday Night Raw, which airs on USA Network, Austin will sit down with the biggest names in WWE and the world of sports and entertainment for a no-holds-barred, in-your-face, exclusive one-hour interview.  For a clip from the last installment with special guest Paul Heyman, click here. 

By Mike Ahn

Here are the results from Stockton last night.  The match times are accurate to within 5 seconds.  A couple of changes from the previous night in Hidalgo, TX.  Fandango and Slater were added to a Six-man-tag and Natalya teamed with Cameron against Emma and Dana Brooke.  Both changes were for the better. 

Show started off with a 10-bell salute to Roddy Piper.

Eden was the ring announcer

1.  Lucha Dragons defeated the Ascension and Los Matadores in a triple-threat tag team match in 9:49 when Kalisto pinned one of the Ascension.  The Ascension had already eliminated Los Matadores a few minutes earlier.  The Ascension had the mic on their way down to the ring and were able to generate some heat.  Hard to get any kind of feeling for Los Matadores when they are in a match with the Lucha Dragons. 

2.  Luke Harper defeated Jack Swagger in 7:40.  Hard-hitting match that showcased both guys.  Harper has some true comedic talent and personality.  He did his flexing gimmick a bunch…and it got over.  WWE needs to let him open up.  The guy is legit. 

3.  6 man tag:  Damian Sandow, Curtis Axel and Fandango defeated Adam Rose, Brad Maddox and Heath Slater in 10:15 when Fandango pinned Slater.  Sandow was just in his regular trunks, but Rose and Maddox were doing their fitness/ambiguous gimmick.  They have a real chance with that.  They have chemistry already and Maddox can play this part.  The match was actually okay.  The audience knew Sandow the best, so he started the match luckily, otherwise it would’ve been pretty quiet.  Even when he was out, Sandow got the crowd cheering his team or heckling the others.  Axel really seemed like the odd man out.  No gimmick…which is not good for him. 

4.  Randy Orton defeated Sheamus with the RKO in 18:21.  Very consistent match from two great workers.  Sheamus got on the mic a couple of times and teased leaving once until Orton chased him down.  Orton also took Sheamus’s shirt and threw it into the crowd.  Orton came off as a megastar here.  Played to the crowd a bunch and after the match stayed around ringside taking pictures and signing for at least 5 minutes. 

Intermission

5.  Divas Tag match.  Before the show began the crowd had a chance to vote on a Divas single match or tag match.  The results were 97% for Tag match.  Go figure. 
Team of Natalya and Cameron beat Emma and Dana Brooke in 8:46 when Nattie hit the sharpshooter on Emma.  Dana Brooke started the match and was actually okay.  She plays heel well.  Truly, it might have been the best performance I’ve seen out of her.  No coincidence it was a tag that she didn’t have to carry.  The oddest part of the match was that Cameron jumped off the apron to avoid a Nattie tag about 7 minutes in…leaving Nattie in a 1 on 3 match?  It happened so fast that I don’t think most of the crowd got it.  Nattie threw Dana Brooke out of the ring into Cameron just before putting Emma in the sharpshooter. 

6.  Roman Reigns pinned Bray Wyatt in 14:10.  Reigns got the pin when he reversed Sister Abigail into a rollup for the win.  These guys can definitely have quality matches with each other.  Both played to the crowd a bunch.  Reigns seems to be doing more “open mouth, tongue out, islander ferociousness.”  It could just be a house show thing, but it was noticeable.  Wyatt is so much better when he doesn’t talk.  He can get over with the crowd with his actions and personality in the ring. 

7.  Seth Rollins beat Dean Ambrose in a street fight in just under 25 minutes when Bray Wyatt interfered and gave Sister Abigail to Ambrose and then pulled Rollins over for the pin.  After the match Wyatt and Rollins double teamed Ambrose until Reigns came for the save.  This match proved once and again that Ambrose and Rollins can truly entertain.  They didn’t go crazy with the weapons.  They teased chairs before using them…and then got the tables near the end.  Both Ambrose and Rollins went through tables.  Ambrose actually hit the elbow from the top rope on Rollins through the table just before Wyatt did his run in.  Solid main event. 

Notes:  This crowd was kid heavy.  I would wager that 40% of the audience was under high-school age.  This led to a lot of shrieking and screaming…but the young kids kept it up throughout the night.  Reigns was probably the crowd favorite, but Orton wasn’t far behind.  Ambrose was 3rd with Natalya 4th.  Heel heat was biggest for Sheamus….because no one likes him.  Wyatt and Rollins both got a good amount of cheers….for good reason.  They are both great.  Overall a good Sunday night show.