Hello everyone and welcome to the week ahead for WWE.  This week WWE continues down to the road to Summerslam, which is being promoted for the first time I can remember as the Wrestlemania of the Summer.  With less than 3 weeks left until the now 4 hour show, it’ll be interesting to see how WWE continues the build this week.  That being said, there’s a whole lot more to look forward to this week if you’re a fan of WWE so let’s get right into it.

Highlights

1) The Beast Returns-  Tonight Brock Lesnar returns to Raw which will emanate live from San Jose, California in his first appearance since his big brawl with the Undertaker.  However, one man who won’t be on hand for the show is John Cena who is still out recovering from his gruesome broken nose at the hands of Seth Rollins.  I’m really interested to get an update on John Cena because it really looked like they were heading towards Cena vs. Rollins for the world heavyweight title at Summerslam.  With Cena not being able to be at Raw, it’ll be interesting to see if they decide to go a different direction with the world title picture (perhaps Kane?) or if Cena will be able to return by Summerslam.

2) Stone Cold Live!-  Stone Cold Steve Austin returns to the WWE Network tonight with his latest installment of Stone Cold Live, this time with his guest Paige.  As I’ve touched on before, this was rumored to have been Hulk Hogan in this slot, but obviously with everything going on with him, he is not going to be featured on the WWE Network anytime soon.  This is the fourth installment of the Steve Austin Podcast on the WWE Network and I’m pretty intrigued to see Paige featured in the role as she is a pretty unique guest for the show.  Certainly, with Paige being positioned at the forefront of the Divas Revolution, I’m sure the new Divas movement will be a big topic of conversation.  One thing is for sure, the Texas Rattlesnake, won’t pull any punches.

https://twitter.com/wrestleview/status/628209248325873664%20

3) Big Guy Down– One man who’s been conspicuous by his absence has been, reigning Intercontinental champion, Ryback.  Well Ryback posted a picture of his current staph infection of his right knee this past weekend and it looks awful.  It’s good that the WWE doctors were able to catch the staph infection before the damage was worse.  With Ryback, not looking like he’ll be ready to return to the ring any time soon, it’ll be interesting to see how much longer he’ll be able to go with the intercontinental championship.  I always say that WWE should take a page of out UFC’s playbook in regards to this and crown an interim champion if the champion can’t compete for an extended period of time.  This allows for their to be a champion to still be on television and sets up for a clear title rematch once the original champion is able to return to the ring.  That being said, we wish the big guy a speedy recovery.

4) RIP Roddy Piper–  I’m preparing for a longer piece on Piper later this week but obviously WWE lost one of their hall of famers, and original Wrestlemania main eventers, in Roddy Piper late last week.  It has been a really tough year already for WWE with the untimely passing of Dusty Rhodes and now this.  WWE has been doing ten bell salutes to Piper during their live events since his passing and I’m sure that will continue tonight.  One of the good things with the Network, is that when someone passes, WWE is usually very good about doing a good amount of tribute type programming to remember that individual.  While their hasn’t been any Roddy Piper material added to the schedule just yet, I’m sure the WWE Network will do the same with Roddy later in the week, like they’ve done with Dusty and Warrior.  Of course, there is already tons of great Roddy Piper footage in the on demand section of the Network for fans to go back and enjoy while celebrating the life of one of the all time greats.

Closing Thoughts

Sorry to end on such a somber note, but I figured I would be remiss not to mention this somewhere, that this morning word came out that WWE hall of famer “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka is currently battling stomach cancer.  The good news is that it appears the doctors were able to get to the cancer in time as Jimmy has undergone stomach surgery to remove part of his stomach and lymph nodes and appears to be cancer free.  We wish The Superfly, a speedy recovery.

That’s going to do it for me but keep your eyes peeled for a few more pieces coming at you real soon on the daily spotlight, including my tribute piece on Roddy Piper, the Spotlight On Wrestling Podcasts which will feature Colt Cabana celebrating five years of the Art of Wrestling and so much more.  Until then, what are you looking most forward to this week in WWE?