randy Orton

The Spotlight On Seth Rollins’ Injury and The WWE World Heavyweight Championship

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Just about 30 minutes ago via his official twitter page, ESPN’s own Johnathan Coachman released the tweet above, confirming that last night at a WWE live event in Dublin, Ireland, World Heavyweight Champion, Seth Rollins suffered a bad knee injury while wrestling Kane. The reports on what happened seem to indicate that Rollins suffered the injury on a sunset flip gone awry, as what is being described as something of a freak accident.  This obviously couldn’t come at a worse time for Rollins who was in the midst of the biggest push of his career, coming up on 7 months to his reign as the WWE World Heavyweight Champion.

From a WWE standpoint, this confirms that Rollins will miss Wrestlemania 32, news that comes just weeks after it was announced that Randy Orton will also miss Wrestlemania due to requiring shoulder surgery.  Furthermore, WWE will be without John Cena for all events until, at least, December 26th as he takes some time off due to personal reasons.  As for what this means for the WWE World Title, WWE announced that, obviously the match between Seth Rollins and number one contender Roman Reigns is off, and instead a tournament will take place at the Survivor Series on November 22nd to crown a new champion.

While one would assume that Reigns would be one of the superstars to compete in the tournament, WWE.com has not confirmed any of the superstars in the tournament, nor how many superstars will compete in the tournament altogether.  This will be the first time in which a tournament takes place for the World Title at the Survivor Series since 1998 when the Rock won his first World Heavyweight Championship.  With so many of the top superstars in WWE now on the shelf (along with Orton, Cena and Rollins, Daniel Bryan has still not been cleared to return to action and it seems as though Brock Lesnar is on a bit of a hiatus following Hell In A Cell), this really does open up the opportunity for somebody to step up and make a name for themselves on the WWE roster.  Aside from Reigns, I would look for the recently returning Alberto Del Rio, Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens, Reign’s best friend Dean Ambrose,  and long time fan favorite, Cesaro as possibilities to take this opportunity to step up.  I’d also look for some of the superstars down in NXT, namely NXT Champion, Finn Balor to potentially get an opportunity on the main WWE roster.

This again is really an unfortunate situation for Rollins, who was one of my favorite Superstars to watch each week on Raw, and we wish him a speedy recovery.  Be sure to continue to check for any updates on this situation right here on thedailyspotlight.com.  We will update you as soon as we know anything.

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The Spotlight On Raw for 8/10/2015

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Monday Night Raw emanated live from Everett, Washington last night and I found the show to be quite enjoyable.  WWE is steadfast on the road to Summerslam and we found out a few more of the matches for the “Biggest Event Of The Summer”.  Let’s get right into some of the highlights on the show.

Highlights:

The MVP Of The Night: Goes to Randy Orton!  Orton not only competed in two different matches for over 30 minutes of the night but he was on absolute fire having the top two matches of the night.  The guy is just so fluid in the ring and I don’t think it’s possible for him to have a bad match.  Orton first competed in a number one contender triple threat match against both Cesaro and Kevin Owens.  The three men pulled out all the stops until Orton pulled out the win laying out both men with an RKO in about 18 minutes.  This led to Orton getting a title match later in the evening against Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship and those two had another great match.  Orton and Rollins have undeniable in ring chemistry and go so fast in the ring, they may very well be the two best in ring performers in WWE today.  There were so many near falls that I started to think that Orton was going to win the championship, especially after the impressive RKO out of nowhere.  Sheamus costing Orton the championship win did a good job of presenting Sheamus as a despicable heel.  That said, I then actually thought Sheamus was going to cash in and win the championship in his own right.  A great non finish there and this continues the program between Orton and Sheamus heading into Summerslam.  That said, with Orton and Sheamus both having the champion beat, you could theoretically have a believable three way in the works if John Cena can’t go at Summerslam.  I expect Cena to be there, after all he is Big Match John, but it’s good to know there’s a believable back up match if he can’t go.  Of course, if Cena can go, then there’s a great match in place for Orton and Sheamus with a ton of momentum behind them after last night.  All around good stuff overall.

Miz TV- I absolutely loved the Miz TV segment last night in so many ways.  Between his work on tough enough and his work in the ring, really since the Mizdow stuff, the miz has been on quite a roll.  To me, he is getting closer to the level he was at in 2011, when he was in the main event of WrestleMania, then he’s been in quite some time.  As for this particular segment, it was, first off, great to see Daniel Bryan get a chance to shine in front of his hometown crowd and good to see Bryan back on Raw in general.   It’s amazing that, this day in age with books being so much less popular, that Bryan’s book is a New York Times bestseller and it’s good to see him getting the attention he deserves for this feat.  I also felt Bryan did a good job in not backing down from the Miz but using what the Miz was doing, in putting him down, to focus that onto Miz’s current opponents for Summerslam.  Lastly, Ryback’s return came off very well as he looked about ready to kill the Miz.  After this segment, i not only wanted to see Daniel Bryan return to get revenge on the Miz for his remarks but also can’t wait to see the triple threat match at Summerslam for the intercontinental championship between the Miz, Ryback and The Big Show.

Celebrities Done Right- The third highlight this week, and it was tough as there was a lot I liked about this show, goes out to Stephen Amell.  It’s a strange comparison but to me this reminded me of the way Lawrence Taylor was used prior to Wrestlemania 11 in that Amell was referenced a few times throughout the night as being a guest until being baited by a Stardust pie shove.  In the end, I like that Amell knows getting into a WWE ring is going to be very tough but feels like he has no choice because he has to defend himself.  Triple H was great in also looking at Amell like he had a death wish and demanding lawyers give him signed documents before agreeing to let Amell compete at Summerslam.  There was also added intrigue by Triple H announcing Amell as Arrow, getting you to think Amell may appear at Summerslam in character.  In the end, my favorite part of this is that WWE is using Amell’s appearance to help give a bit of spotlight (pun intended) to King Barrett, Stardust and Neville.

Closing Thoughts

It’s not easy to have three hours go by so fast that you’re left wanting more but, for me, Raw did that this week.  Aside from the highlights mentioned, I also really enjoyed the New Day segments, those guys continue to get the most of their new roles and they’ve been a joy to watch.  The same thing can be said for the Divas who looked great again this week and had the crowd hooked their entire time out there.  Lastly, I also liked that Undertaker and Brock Lesnar were both not on the show this week.  Thier brawl was so good coming out of Battleground that it makes sense to hold both of them away from one another until their big showdown for the final Raw before Summerslam next week.

That’s going to do it for me this week but coming up later today I’ll have coverage of the Undertaker, Brock Lesnar special that aired on the WWE Network right after Raw last night.  Until then, what were your thoughts on Raw?  Did you are agree with my highlights of the show?  Let me know in the comments section below and be sure to hit the subscribe button so you can get continued coverage of all of the reviews right here at thedailyspotlight.com

The Spotlight On Raw 7/6/15

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WWE Raw just went off the air and I have to say I really enjoyed this show as it did a good job in continuing the build for Battleground while also delivering with a great main event. Let’s get right into some of the highlights of the show. 

Highlights:

1) Chicago Made- It’s not easy for me to admit it, as a proud New Yorker, but the best WWE fans belong to the city of Chicago. This crowd was into everything on the show and remained lively for the whole three hour show. The crowd was a lot more than CM Punk chants as they showed support for everyone and respect for everyone not named John Cena (though I think with Cena its a little tongue in cheek and he won the fans over in the end). I hope WWE also heard the support for Bo Dallas. As I say on a weekly basis, they have something in that guy, I just hope they realize it.,

2) What a Main Event- Another week of raw, another show where the John Cena US Title Open Challenge has stole the show. John Cena and Cesaro tore down the house for over a half hour pulling out innovative moves and reversals while going move for move with each other. In the end I found myself torn as, while I wanted to see Cesaro get the win, I don’t want to see the John Cena Open Challenges end. Cena continues to reinvent himself with new opponents each week and knows how to work a crowd like none other. He knows he’s hated in Chicago and has no problem embracing the hate as a bit of a heel. I also like the nice tough of Cesaro wearing the Candian armband out of respect to Tyson Kidd. A very classy touch from Cesaro, who I hope to only see grow from here. 

3) Brock Lesnar Vs The Cadillac- Right when Seth Rollins rewarded J & J Security with a brand new Cadillac last week, you knew it was only a matter of time before Brock Lesnar got his hand on the $55,000 automobile. Well this week Brock didn’t disappoint as he destroyed the car as only Brock could. I also liked that he was able to take out Noble and Mercury. They’re doing a great job in building up the Lesnar-Rollins title match at Battleground as Brock continues to take out Seth’s support system. 

4) Rusev Crush- Maybe it’s just me but ever since Dolph Ziggler started hooking up with Lana, I started to feel a bit bad for the Bulgarian Brute. Every week Rusev would show up to Raw, broken foot and all, and every week he’d have to see his ex girlfriend kiss another man. This week when I saw Dolph and Lana kiss right in front of Rusev, I was hoping Rusev would take him out..and did he ever! Thankfully, Rusev revealed that he had healed and destroyed Dolph (Who did a stretcher job to boot). Maybe Rusev isn’t supposed to be the baby face here but I like the shades of grey of all the characters involved here that allows fans to support who they’d like to. This slow build between Rusev and Ziggler can lead to a fun match at Summerslam either with just the two or a mixed tag with the ladies involved.

Closing Thoughts:

You know as much as I loved the period in May and June where every two weeks there was another pay per view, WWE has done a good job building Battleground with a little extra time to do so. We’ve known the big matches for that show for a while and each week of television has nicely built to those matches.  This week was no exception as if you have some extra time, I’d suggesting checking out this weeks Raw as it was a really fun show. On top of the highlights mentioned above, you also had a nice return by Randy Orton and I also thought Titus O’Neil, of all people, did a great job on commentary during the New Day-Lucha Dragons match. 

That’s going to do it for me but I’ll be back with the Tough Enough Power Rankings and a whole lot more tomorrow. Until the. Let me know what you thought of this week’s Raw in Chicago and be sure to subscribe to the Daily Spotlight below. Thanks for all of your support!

The Spotlight On WWE Payback 

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WWE Payback was presented live tonight on the WWE Network and on pay per view from Baltimore, Maryland. The show kicked off a four week stretch for WWE in which they have four different live event pay per view style events on the WWE Network with WWE Payback, NXT Unstoppable (Wednesday night at 8PM  EST), the Elimination Chamber two weeks from tonight and then Money In The Bank on June 14th. It’s an exciting time to be a fan of WWE to say the least. With that said lets get into the highlights of tonight’s show in chronological order. 

For those looking to avoid spoilers Id stop reading now as the show has already aired. If you’re looking for a recommendation, I’d suggest going out of your way to watch the show. The show was a lot of fun with no match being bad & everyone making the most of their time. With their only being 7 matches I felt that every match got time to develop & kudos to the superstars & divas who did the most with that time. 

 1) Ziggler vs Sheamus- Lets be honest the build for Ziggler & Shemus has been a bit silly with all of the kiss me arse stipulations. The truth is the kiss me arse stuff just isn’t necessary as these guys have good to great matches every time out. Tonight was no exception as the two gave 110% and had a great match to start off the show. The finish where Ziggler legitimately spilt his head open by head butting Sheamus & taking a Brogue Kick was brutal. Since each guy got a win I actually hope they are both kept out of the Intercontinetal title match at the chamber & we get a rubber match.   2) The New Day Vs Kidd & Cesaro- To me this was the second best match on the show as both teams looked so strong. All four men worked so hard to put on an exciting 2 out of 3 falls match. The New Day are also continuing to do a great job in their role. Having the New Day go out there and trying to encourage the Baltimore Orioles to finally win a World Series, made them even more hated in Baltimore and was a great way to utilize the players in attendance. I just hope that Kidd & Cesaro stay together as a team. They are both so strong in the ring & should be big single stars but have worked hard to perfect their tag craft that they’ve become an integral part of the tag team division. I personally can’t wait for the tag team elimination chamber match.   3) The I Quit Match- I figured that the finish here would have either been Lana quitting for Rusev or Lana in on it with Rusev all along and the two getting one over on Cena. In the end, Lana did in fact quit for Rusev but I didn’t take it that she was screwing Rusev at all. Rather, I took this to mean that she was actually in love with Rusev and couldn’t stand to see him suffering in the STF, I could be completely off by the way. Regardless this match was great! Total brutality that you would expect to see in a match blowing out off the feud, as I assume this was the end. Both men came off strong in that neither man quit and, as unpopular as this may be, John Cena continues to have great matches week in and week out while helping to make younger stars shine so kudos to him. The only thing I thought was a bit off was that I would loved for one guy to get a clean win & thought Rusev winning by knock out would have been cool as that’s how the feud started. Regardless if Cena winning means more Open Challenges than sign me up because those have been great.   4. What a Main Event!- I do these chronologically but if I had to pick one match that stood above the rest it would have to be that main event. There was so much that went on in that match, it was just so much fun. Even though I feel some of the interferences make Rollins look weak, WWE is doing a great job in making him absolutely hated in that he continues to find a way to keep the title. (Though I will say that this has to be the end of whether Kane is going to turn because he’s made it clear he’s loyal to Triple H).  Moment of match for me had to be the shield reunion and the return of the triple powerbomb through the table. (Especially since it was at Payback last year when the Shield had their defining win, as a unit, in sweeping Evolution) It was also nice to see Ambrose & Reigns going at it without one turning on the other. As we saw in the shield documentary these guys are friends & so it would make sense for them to work together and then admirably go at it. I felt this was another strong showing for Reigns, who’s gotta be winning over even his most passionate of haters at this point. In the end Orton is the right guy to take the pinfall here as he’ll always be a bonafide main eventer, so it’s good to protect Reigns & Ambrose. 

Closing Thoughts

Overall this was a really fun show with a strong main event that had everyone I was watching with jumping with every near fall. I try to limit these posts to three or four highlights but if I extended it to one more I would have added Wyatt & Ryback, those guys also worked hard especially with Ryback pulling out a version of a frog splash. In the end they also had me excited to see where they go from here and interested to see who Rollins and Cena defend their respective titles against in two weeks at the Chamber. However, before we even get that far, the guys & gals on NXT have one helluva show to follow. I can’t wait! 

The Spotlight On WWE Raw Albany- 4/20/2015

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Hello Everyone and welcome to the spotlight on WWE Raw where every Tuesday we’ll have your highights and lowlights from the previous night’s episode.  Now I shoud make it clear that highlights include anything that I personally enjoyed and that I feel like you should go out of your way to see.  Lowlights, on the other hand, can either be something on the show that didn’t work for me whether it be a bad match or bad booking, something you won’t miss much of if you decided to skip that portion of show or maybe just something that all around left an overall bad feeling for whatever the reason.  With that out of the way let’s get into Raw.

The highlights 

1) RKO Outta Nowhere- I loved the use of Randy Orton last night as I felt that by delviering a promise in the beginning of the show that Rany would RKO everyone before finally getting to Rollins, then hitting people with an RKO throughout the course of the night before finally delivering an RKO to Rollins at the end of the night was all great.  It gave fans tuning in at 8 pm that hook, then kept them engaged throughout the show wondering where he would show up next (the highlight for me being catering) and then delivering that payoff at the end of the show was a great way to lay out Raw and get everyone ready for Extreme Rules on Sunday.

2) The Big Red Machine–  I really enjoyed the Kane stuff last night especially his passionate promo against Seth Rollins.  I felt this was the best thing Kane has done since he feuded with Bray Wyatt.  Say what you will about Kane but it seems like the people really want to see him in a babyface role.  I even thought his match with Cena was pretty good and I like that Cena acted very serious for his match with Kane as he had with every US title open challenge.  I’m just hoping like anything that this is not some kind of Authority setup because we just went through that with Rollins a weeks before Wrestlemania.

3) Ambrose and Harper– These guys are just a joy to watch and they remind me to the days of the hardcore division that has been missing from WWE over the last several years.  Ambrose and Harper are both so good and fearless in some of the things they do.  I liked that they brawled around the arena and appreciate the sacrifices both of them take seemingly every time out. 

The Lowlights

1) The Battle For “The Miz”- I’m not sure what I was expecting but it was more than this. Miz & Mizdow had been, what I thought, a great feud with tons of momentum behind them following their breakup at the Royal Rumble. Fast forward just a little more than three weeks & their first blow off match doesn’t even happen on a pay per view and is given just a little more than five minutes here. The ending was also predictable as I don’t think anyone believed Summer Rae was going to be featured against her Marine 4 co star. Then in the end the Miz (who I really feel can be a main event heel for WWE) became a bit player in Randy Orton’s onslaught & did quite possibly the silliest face after taking an RKO. In the end, I just hope these two don’t get lost in the shuffle now that their feud is done, especially Sandow who I thought was on the verge of something good. 

2) Bo Dallas- I liked his promo, I always have, but to me it’s just a shame that their isn’t more to be done with Bo Dallas. I’m in no way suggesting he should have gotten one over on Roman Reigns but to me there’s more to Bo than a comedy heel. Prior to NXT’s rise on the Network, Dallas was a focal point of the brand and I hope he gets a little more juice moving forward. It’s especially sad that while Sheamus got months of build for his return, that Dallas got nothing at all. He’s young, he’s great on the mic & solid in the ring. I hope WWE notices all of this as well. 

3) “Kiss Me Arse”- Sheamus has been on fire since his return to the company as a badass heel. Likewise, Dolph Ziggler has also looked like a cranked up a notch star since the two have been feuding over the last several weeks. I’m sure that the two of them will have a great match on Sunday but that “Kiss Me Arse” stipulation is rubbing me the wrong way. That is a stipulation that should be reserved for the likes of Santino Marella or Henry Godwin, not two former world champions. 

That’s going to do it for me this week but before I go I would like to wish a speedy recovery to Daniel Bryan. I hope that the injury is minor as I would hate to see Bryan go through anymore turmoil in his life.