The Spotlight On The Week ahead for WWE 8/10-8/16

Tom Lynch Spotlight On Raw, Spotlight On The WWE Network, Wrestling , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello everyone I hope everybody had a good week last week, as the summer continues to fly right by here in New York City and I know has officially ended in other parts of the United States, as public schools have reopened.  For my fellow New Yorkers, let’s enjoy some of this hot weather while we can because, before we know it, there will be 2 feet of snow on the ground again.  Now that I’ve bummed everyone out, as the summer continues to count down for some of us, things continue to heat up in WWE.  We are now just 13 days away from the “Wrestlemania of the Summer” as the road continues to Summerslam.  Let’s get right into some of the things you can look forward to this upcoming week in WWE.

Highlights

1) The Arrow Has Landed…and He May Have Company-  Ever since Raw emanated live from the Nassau Coliseum (A show I was at live and covered here on the site on Memorial Day) when actor Stephen Amell sat front row for the show, the tension has been building between the actor and Stardust.  This all comes to a head tonight as the actor will return to Raw, live from Everett, Washington this evening.  Whether the actor has agreed to a match at Summerslam remains to be seen, but I’d say it is likely that Amell will be at the event in some capacity.  Rumors are running rampant that Amell will don the role of Arrow for a “Superhero” type showdown with Stardust at the biggest event of the summer.  I think it would personally be a lot of fun but I believe that if Amell hasn’t signed on for a match, he’ll at the least be in the corner of Neville (who’s also been involved in this story line) at Summerslam.

Actor Stephen Amell, may not be the only person returning to WWE tonight as last night at a WWE live event in Vancouver, BC, Dolph Ziggler made a surprise appearance attacking Rusev.  While pwinsider.com is reporting that Ziggler’s return will be held off until next week, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Dolph make that return tonight to build towards his inevitable match with Rusev at Summerslam.  Another superstar on the mend is the intercontinental champion, Ryback.  We touched on Ryback’s staph infection last week on this very column and it does appear that Ryback is going to also be returning in time for Summerslam so he can continue his program with the Miz and The Big Show.  Whether, he returns to Raw tonight, remains to be seen.  Of course, will all do respect to Dolph Ziggler and Ryback, the biggest name of superstars on the way back from injury is John Cena.  Cena has not been seen on WWE television since his broken nose two weeks ago.  It’ll be interesting to see if he shows up tonight to accept Seth Rollins’ title vs. title match at Summerslam.  I for one would like to see Cena held out until Summerslam to add to the mystique of what he will look like and whether he’ll even be there, but I realize that isn’t very likely.

2) A Big Night Following Raw- While both the Undertaker and Brock Lesnar aren’t advertised for Raw tonight, there will be a special presentation profiling the big Summerslam match between the two immediately following Monday Night Raw on the WWE Network.  The special, entitled “Undertaker Vs. Lesnar: One On One” is being promoted as a preview of the main event match with thoughts and predictions from the other WWE Superstars.  I can’t remember the last time that WWE has done this but I’m excited for it, the special gives this match a big event feel and also ties in the WWE Network with the Summerslam promotion.  If WWE were smart they’d promote this special and try to get some network subscriptions out of this promotion.

Also, on the WWE Network tonight is a first look at the new Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3 Blu Ray set which will be released tomorrow.  I also appreciate these first looks and, I know in the case of Daniel Bryan, the first look got me to go out and purchase the blu ray the next day so they’re a smart idea in that sense too.  DDP is back hosting the set and I think he did a great job on the first two editions.

3) The Build For NXT Takeover: Brooklyn Continues-  WWE Summerslam isn’t the only show emanating out of the Barclays center the weekend of 8/23.  The night before Summerslam, NXT Takeover:Brooklyn will be live on the WWE Network on August 22nd (and is actually sold out which is very impressive for the NXT brand).  Well, this Wednesday the build for Takeover continues when Becky Lynch goes one on one with Bayley to determine the number one contender for Sasha Banks’ NXT Women’s championship at Takeover.  The women’s championship match will no doubt be the second biggest match on the Takeover card behind only the ladder match for the NXT World Title between Kevin Ownes and Finn Balor, so this is a match you want to go out of your way to see,  Will Bayley continue her recent winning streak towards getting a womens title match? or Will Becky Lynch get a rematch against Sasha Banks from their epic match at the last NXT: Takeover event?  The only way to find out would be to tune into NXT this Wednesday night on the WWE Network at 8:00 Pm EST.

Closing Thoughts

On top of all of this, John Cena will be appearing on WWE Tough Enough tomorrow night, as the show has reached it’s final six.  Whether he is able to return to Monday Night Raw tonight remains to be seen, but if not than Tough Enough would be John’s first appearance since breaking his nose in a match with Seth Rollins two weeks ago.  Lastly, tomorrow night on Total Divas it appears that Daniel Bryan’s health will be a big focus of the show.  Up until this point, the details behind Bryan’s injury have been kept pretty close to the vest so I wonder if this is because WWE is saving Bryan’s health update for Total Divas.  Regardless it promises to be a big week for WWE before the mega week and chaos that will commence next week.  Until then, be sure to keep yourself tuned it with all of the great coverage we have for you right here on thedailyspotlight.com.

The Spotlight On Table For 3 Featuring Roddy Piper On The WWE NetWork Tonight

Tom Lynch Spotlight On The WWE Network, Wrestling , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello everyone, big news coming from the wrestlingdvdnetwork.com today, that the schedule on the WWE Network has been changed tonight and with that change tonight comes the first piece of “Rowdy” Roddy Piper themed programming on the network.  We mentioned during our look at the week ahead for WWE feature on Monday that it was only a matter of time that WWE would be putting up some Piper tribute type material on the Network, the likes of which they did for the Ultimate Warrior and Dusty Rhodes.

Well tonight on the WWE Network, immediate following Smackdown at 10pm, WWE will be airing the first episode of a new series entitled “Table For 3”.  During last week’s second quarter conference call, WWE announced that they would be debuting some new types of programming throughout the rest of this year.  One of those new shows is the new “Table For 3”.  “Table For 3” is being promoted as “a new series that gives viewers a seat at the table with our superstars and divas”.  It sounds to me like a less formal version of the old “Legends Of Wrestling” round table discussions.  Well tonight’s debut episode is going to feature a discussion between WWE Hall Of Famers “Mean” Gene Okerlund, “Mr wonderful” Paul Orndoff, and the late, great “Rowdy” Roddy Piper.  I have no idea when this was filmed but this is an absolute must watch as it could very be the last piece of WWE orginal programming featuring Hot Rod.  The discussion is being billed as a discussion about the three men’s careers as well as their favorite pranks of all time.

We will have coverage and thoughts on the show tomorrow morning here on thedailyspotlight.com

The Spotlight On Wrestling Podcasts- Colt Cabana’s Art Of Wrestling Pt. 1

Tom Lynch The Spotlight On Wrestling Podcasts, Wrestling , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s spotlight on wrestling podcasts.  This week’s entry is going to be a 2 parter because it’s going to be This week’s spotlight is actually going to be two pronged. I’m going to get into the Kevin Owens interview from this past week’s Art of Wrestling tomorrow but first I wanted to get into a bit of my admiration for the Art Of Wrestling as this past week marked the 5 year anniversary of the show.

Over the past two years, wrestling podcasts have really exploded on the scene with the help of podcastone hosting weekly podcasts hosted by some of the all time greats in the wrestling industry.  Everyone from Chris Jericho to Stone Cold Steve Austin, to Jim Ross to the late great Roddy Piper hosts their own show.  I can say that I enjoy all of these podcasts to some extent as they usually provide us with a candid conversation with two personalities in the wrestling business while also giving us insight into the everyday life of these legends.  Well, before any of there was ever a podastone, there was Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling.
I’ve always been a fan of Colt Cabana.  Back in 2006, my friends started to beg me to join them for a Ring of Honor show and I decided to take them up on it.  From the start of the show I noticed that there were some names I knew from local shows I used to attend in the northeast a few years earlier.  Names like Low Ki, Xavier, Samoa Joe and the Briscoe Brothers were staples on this show and used to be a part of every independent show in the New York area post ECW era.   From there, there were a host of unbelievably talented technical wrestlers from around the world that were doing things in the ring that I had never seen done before,  Wrestlers like Bryan Danielson, Nigel McGuiness, Kenta and Takeshi Morishima were impressing the crowd throughout the night.  That said, there was one wrestler in particular, however, who stood out to me over the others was Colt Cabana.
With his bright colors, his Barry Manilow theme song, and one of his signature moves (the flying asshole), Colt was able to differentiate himself from the rest of the Ring of Honor roster.  With his blend of comedy and wrestling, Colt was able to carve out a unique niche on the, often too serious, ROH live events.  The other thing about Colt was that aside from being hilarious, he was also really good in the ring.  Before long, Colt caught the eye of WWE and was signed to a developmental deal in 2007.  I went out of my way to see one of Colt’s final Ring of Honor shows and told him what an inspiration he was to me (an aspiring pro wrestler at the time).  Colt was one of the nicest people I had met and I knew he was going to be a success in WWE.
Well for whatever reason this didn’t happen,  Instead, Colt was given the character of Scotty Goldman who was a character with not much depth and after only a handful of matches, was released from his WWE contract. Just two years later, I was there live at the Hammerstein Ballroom to see Colt return to Ring of Honor at their 7 year anniversary show.  While I was thrilled to see Colt back in Ring of Honor, as I’d get to see him every month, I was genuinely sad to see that Colt’s time in WWE ended so abruptly.
Fast forward to the beginning of 2011, I’m now dating a girl who lived in southern New Jersey which was an hour and a half away from where I lived in Queens, New York (this is without traffic, with traffic it was as much as 3 + hours away).  Hell bent on making this relationship work, in spite of our distance, I would travel every weekend to New Jersey and, sometimes, as many as 3 other days per week.  These drives were long, they were expensive, they were frustrating and (having such an old car with limited air conidtioning) the rides were also very hot.  Now, I should point out that I’m not a big music guy while driving.  I love music and go out of my way to discover new music of all varieties all the time, but as far as drving while listening to top 40 radio? That really isn’t for me.  I much prefer to listen to sports talk or, of course, wrestling talk.  At the time, I used to listen to a lot of the stuff on pwinsider and one day I saw that Mike Johnson had an interview up with Colt Cabana.  Interested to hear what Colt was up to, i downloaded the show.
On this hour long interview, Colt spoke about this new project he had been working on for about 9 months called the Art of Wrestling Podcast.  Immediately intrigued, I signed on to coltcabana.com and started listening to all of the episodes.  I was immediately hooked at Colt’s Do It Yourself podcast.  It was truly remarkable insight into the world of independent wrestling as Colt would detail all of his adventures and also talk to a different personality each week. What I found so inspiring about the podcast was how positive Colt was.  He would often talk about the happy bus, and discuss the importance of not getting down on yourself.  Here was a guy who lost his dream job just a year earlier, after not really getting a fair shake, and rather then getting upset about it, Colt went continued to build his brand on his own.  As for the guests, I started with the familiar names, guys like CM Punk and Curt Hawkins but I found Colt so enjoyable, that I started listening to all of his other episodes with guests I hadn’t heard of.  The podcast became a great vehicle for independent wrestlers to promote themselves and for fans to understand the beauty of the independent wrestling world.
Before long, I went from being a Colt Cabana fan to an absolute fanatic.  I started to proudly wear my Colt Cabana Jewish Star shirt everywhere, I listened to every podcast in the art of wrestling podcast archives while often singing along with Colt’s open (Live from the studio…apartment in Chicago, Illinois!).  I even had a pretty good conversation with Daniel Bryan about Colt’s documentary, the wrestling road diaries, when I met Bryan at Wrestlemania axxess in 2011. I suddenly almost looked forward to my drive to New Jersey as it gave a reason to listen to some more of Colt, and sure seeing the girl at the end of the drive wasn’t so bad either.  Of course, later in 2011, Colt Cabana’s podcast really blew up (I feel in 2011 it was all about CM Punk, Zack Ryder, and Colt Cabana) when CM Punk uttered those famous words of “Hey Colt Cabana, how ya doing?” during his famous pipe bomb promo.  Colt’s podcast gained popularity once again late last year when CM Punk was his guest on the show on Thanksgiving day, his first appearance since leaving WWE.  That particular podcast was so shocking that my current girlfriend and I spent all of Thanksgiving weekend listening to it.
So yes, it’s great to see so many different types of wrestling podcasts to listen to every week but for me the originator of the wrestling podcast and the man who launched this whole industry is Colt Cabana.  Tomorrow, I will continue this look at Colt’s podcast by taking a look at his 5th anniversary special from last week, including a really eye opening interview with Kevin Owens that everyone should go out of your way to listen to.  Until then, thankssss!

The Spotlight On The Week Ahead For WWE 8/3/2015

Tom Lynch Spotlight On Raw, Spotlight On The WWE Network, Spotlight Sports Pick Of The Day, Wrestling , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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?

The Spotlight On The Last 48 hours for the New York Mets

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I’d like to start off by mentioning that I like the New York Mets.  I’ve never been a fan per say of the Mets, being raised a Yankees fan and then adoptiong the Nationals as my new team in 2009, I actually had every reason to dislike them but I’ve just never been able to root against them.  I’ve always rooted for them to do well and fondly remember going to the Mets pepsi picnic area on Wednesdays in exchange for Pepsi can, in 2006 I remember setting up a small television as the register I worked at while working at a local grocery to watch game seven of the NLCS, and in 2008 I interned for the Mets and have kept a strong working relationship with the Mets ever since.  My respect for the team makes a bit more sense when you consider that my favorite football team is the often times pathetic New York Jets and my favorite basketball team is the often disappointing, New York Knicks, so of course I have a soft sport for the underdog Mets.

Now  that I’ve gotten my respect for the organization out of the way, I’m going to put this as bluntly as possible…These last 48 hours for a Mets fan have had to be some of the most frustrating that any fanbase has had to endure in quite some time.  Now it would be silly for me to talk about my thoughts on all of the matters with the Mets over the last 48 hours because like I said I’m not really a Met fan.  Thankfully though, I have really good friends who are Mets fans, like my buddy Bryan.  Bryan isn’t only a friend but he’s also a talented writer for http://metsinaround.com/ .  Despite, again being a Nationals fan, I gladly subscirbe to Bryan’s site and think he does a great job covering the team from a die hard fan’s perspective.  Thus, without any further ado, let me take you through the last 48 hours through a Mets fans eyes, recalling phone conversations and texts I had with Bryan throughout this time period.

7/28/2015 5:00PM- Bryan called me on the way home from work to talk about the Mets recent trade for Tyler Clippard.  He seemed pretty ecstatic and mentioned how the Mets were now set with a bullpen consisting of four closers, Bobby Parnell, Jenrry Mejia, the newly acquired Clippard and the breakout current closer Jeurys Familia, now a part of the team.  I couldn’t help but agree with Bryan…the Mets looked like they were finally going for it, but I had to be the bearer of bad news as I quickly voiced my displeasure with Mejia.  I explained how it really didn’t have to work out so well for the Mets since Mejia, the team’s opening day closer, really let down his teammates by taking PEDS, missing half of the season in the process and is now ineligible for the postseason.  Bryan, often a Mets apologist, as any true die hard fan is, was quick to say that everyone makes mistakes, stating that perhaps he really didn’t know what he was putting into his body.

7/28/2015 6:30PM– I received a text from Bryan that said “MEJIA!!!!!”.  I immeidately sprang up as quick as I could and jumped on twitter assuming that the Mets had done a smart move in shipping Mejia to a team who has no chance this year now that they already got Clippard, instead I saw this…

https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/626156278151290880%20

That’s right Jenrry Mejia had been suspended a second time, for the same exact performance enhancing drugs that he used the first time.  It’s time that the Mets cut Mr Mejia as quick as possible, you just can’t unteach stupid.

7/29/2015 8:00PM  A new day and new possibilities, the Mets fell behind early as 103 year old Bartolo Colon continued to fall apart, but it didn’t matter to Bryan who texted me this….”The Mets just got Carlos Gomez for Zach Wheeler and Wilmer Flores, Juan Lagares wasn’t even included in the deal….I think I just busted in my pants!”. Though I hoped Bryan didn’t really have to ask his wife to get him a new pair of pants, I couldn’t blame him for being excited, not at all.  The Mets have always been known for their frugality and now it appeared that they were finally going all in as they just acquired a legit all star center fielder.  For the next two hours, Bryan and I went back and forth over the possibilities for Gomez in the Mets lineup and how much he would help the team.  Yet, as the game went on something strange happened as Wilmer Flores, remained in the game.  Bryan was quick to point out that with the Mets luck, Flores would end up getting hurt and ruing the deal.  It turned out that over the course of three innings, while revewing game tape, Flores saw the report that he had been traded and proceeded to have quite the difficult time with the news.

I’ll admit, I felt awful for the kid, who has been with the Mets since he was just 16 years old, watching him openly weep on the field as Terry Collins left him in the game for only reasons he knows (hindsight being what it is, even if Terry Collins didn’t know about the deal, the Mets were down 7-1 in the game, would it have killed him to pull his distraught shortshop with Ruben Tejada on the bench?).

7/29/2015 10:30PM- ” No deal apparently the Mets weren’t happy with Carlos Gomez’s medical results…only this team!” That text from, a now frustrated, Bryan said it all, after all of that craziness, the deal for Carlos Gomez was apparently off.  It was back to the drawing board for the Mets.  No all star center fielder and now they had a shortstop in Wilmer Flores on the tea who just spent the last two hours crying his eyes out over his team not wanting him.  Onlythe mets indeed.!

7/30/2015 !2:00-3:00PM-  Bryan and I spent portions of the afternoon texting one another about both the Mets and Nationals games going on simultaneously.  It appeared the Mets had their game under control as Jon Niese was cruising.  With 2 outs in the top of the 9th, there was a rain delay and the Mets were now up 7-5 with Jeurys Familia on the mound.

7/30/2015 3:30PM- “Why didn’t you tell me the Mets gave up the lead?”  Bryan texted this to me after seeing that Familia had somehow blown the lead and the Mets were suddenly trailing 8-7.  The answer was because I figured the poor guy needed a break, the Mets had probably caused Bryan enough Angina over the last two days that I didn’t want to add salt to the wounds so I kept the news to myself.  The Mets went on to lose the game, blowing their first 6 run lead at home since 1970!

7/30/2015 5:00PM-  Exactly 48 hours after all of this downward spiral happened for the Mets, a team who had looked to be really turning a corner for their desperate fans, I received one last text from Bryan.  The text read: “Astros just traded for Carlos Gomez, I guess his medical records were good enough for them.” It seems the Mets were back to their frugal ways after all and money was at the root of the Gomez no trade debacle.

So yes that was a 48 hour period that no fan base should ever have to endure. If there is a bit of a silver lining for Mets fans, it’s this: the trade deadline still hasn’t happened. The Mets can still go out and add that much needed bat before 3 pm today. While Gomez is off the board and he would have been great, the Mets can still go for a guy like a Justin Upton or a Jay Bruce. The other bit of good news is that, even though today’s loss was one of the worst losses ever, the Mets are still just three games out of the NL East lead behind my Washington Nationals. Even better news? The Nats are on their way to New York for a three game series at Citi Field this weekend! Thus, after a horrendous 48 hours of being a Mets fan, the next 72 may see the Mets get their big bat they’ve been craving and end up tied for first in the NL East. As the old saying goes, that’s baseball Suzyn!