Stone Cold Live

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

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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 Stone Cold Live!

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Last month when I sat live at Wrestlemania, I looked at my girlfriend with a look of anticipation when a commercial came up previewing all of the new original programming planned for the WWE Network in the future.  On the list I was intrigued with such new ideas as Culture Shock with Corey Graves, Unfiltered with Renee Young and the return of WWE’s mini documentary series- “24”.  However, one thing that seemed to be missing from the schedule was Stone Cold Live- a live sit down podcast/ interview hosted by Stone Cold Steve Austin.  Austin’s first two interviews with Vince McMahon and Triple H were both two of my favorite original specials on the network and I was disappointed that it wasn’t included in the lineup.  Well, today WWE changed all of that when they released a press release welcoming Stone Cold Steve Austin back into the WWE family by announcing that his live special would be returning after all.  Not only would it be returning, but it appears that Austin has signed a contract to do a new monthly sit down interview series set to air immediately following Monday Night Raw.  Here are some highlights from that press release.

1) Stone Cold is Back-  Make no mistake, the biggest thing to come out of this show being green lit for the WWE Network is that Stone Cold Steve Austin is back in WWE.  Thankfully the two sides were able to work out some sort of deal and to do so way before Wrestlemania 32  which just so happens to be in Steve Austin’s backyard of Arlington, Texas.  What better way to get 100,000+ people to fill in Cowboys Stadium than by having one more, true retirement match for the Texas Rattlesnake.  I still have my doubts that it will ever happen but at least now we can all add a bit of hope for that dream match with Austin back in the WWE family.

2) Paul Heyman on June 1st- Leave it to WWE, just when you think they’ve given you all you can handle for new subscribers in May by adding an Elimination Chamber Pay Per View on May 31st, the final day of May, they hook you to stick around in June by putting the return episode of “Stone Cole Live!” the next night on June 1st!  The guest for that show?  The man behind the one in 22 and 1, Paul Heyman!  So now not only did WWE just give you the return of Steve Austin to WWE telelvision but also the on screen return of Paul Heyman, who hasn’t been seen since Brock Lesnar was suspended the night after Wrestlemania, quite the hook isn’t it?  Regardless of the content, it’s always fun whenever these two former Dangerous Alliance Alumni get together.

3) Future Guests–  One of the things I wondered about when I started hearing about all of these live interviews on the Network was, how they’d keep up with the A-list level stars to be guests for the shows.  Certainly the first four Vince McMahon, Triple H, John Cena, and Stephanie McMahon were as big as they got but at some point there would have to be some sort of drop off, no?  Well it doesn’t appear to be happening anytime soon as the first guest is Paul Heyman and in the future guests section of that press release, the three names listed were Hulk Hogan, Sting and The Undertaker.  That means that on future epsiodes of Stone Cold Live, being promoted is a candid one on on discussion between Stone Cold Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan, Sting’s return to WWE in any capacity isnce Wrestlemania (perhaps to announce a return match?) and the first interview with the Undertaker since, well at least a decade (aside from some DVD clips).

Closing Thoughts

In the end, the big take away from this press release that I got, aside from Steve austin returning to WWE in some capacity, is that WWE still seems to be making the WWE Network a priority.  They seem to want the fans to think “whoa four pay per views in four weeks” and then still give us more with the return of Stone Cold Live.  It’s indeed a great time to be a WWE fan and as good a time as any to be a WWE Network Subscriber, after all it is just $9.99!

Below you will find the complete press release for all of those interested…

“STONE COLD®” LIVE ON WWE® NETWORK

STAMFORD, Conn., May 18, 2015 – “Stone Cold” Steve Austin will host Stone Cold Podcast, Live!, a no-holds-barred, in-your-face monthly interview series beginning Monday, June 1 at 11 p.m. ET on the award-winning WWE Network, with special guest Paul Heyman.

Each month immediately following Monday Night Raw, which airs on USA Network, the WWE Hall of Famer will sit down with the biggest names in WWE including Hulk Hogan, The Undertaker, Sting and other celebrities from the world of sports and entertainment for an exclusive interview on WWE Network.

“If you’re ready for the Stone Cold Podcast, give me a ‘Hell Yeah!’,” said “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.

Click here to see a clip from Austin’s interview with WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon from December, 2014, and click here to see a clip from his interview with WWE Executive Vice President, Talent, Live Events & Creative Paul “Triple H®” Levesque from February, 2015.

The hour-long series joins the slate of brand new original programming recently announced by WWE Network including, Too Hot For TV Presented by Jerry Springer, Swerved and WWE The List.

WWE Network, which launched on February 24, 2014, is the fastest-growing digital subscription service with more than 1.3 million subscribers as of March 30, 2015.  It is available in more than 175 countries, and was named Best Over-The-Top Content Service for 2015 at the Cynopsis Sports Media Awards.

Like other digital subscription services, such as Netflix and Hulu Plus, fans are able to sign up for WWE Network online by going to WWE.com and can watch WWE Network on their TVs through connected devices such as Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and Roku streaming devices as well as Smart TVs including Sony and Samsung. WWE Network’s one-of-a-kind programming includes all 12 WWE pay-per-view events LIVE at no additional charge plus groundbreaking original series, reality shows, documentaries, classic matches, exclusive coverage of special events and more than 3,000 hours of video-on-demand programming.

For a complete listing of WWE Network availability by country and device, please click here.