WWE

The Spotlight On The Week Ahead For WWE- 1/18-1/24

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It’s a new week and with that, another packed week for WWE.  Let’s get right into some of the highlights that you can expect to see and look forward to this week in World Wrestling Entertainment.

– Raw Invades Columbus- The week starts later on tonight as WWE Raw emanates live from Columbus, Ohio. This will be the final stop on the road to the 2016 Royal Rumble (other than Smackdown) and so it will likely be a stacked show designed to introduce a number of the competitors in the Rumble match itself, as there are only 13 superstars officially announced for the match according to WWE.com.  It’s been announced that Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman will appear on Chris Jericho’s Highlight Reel which should be interesting considering that both men are in this year’s Rumble.  I wouldn’t be shocked to see the McMahons further stack the odds against Roman Reigns, maybe make him the number one entrant in the Rumble?  Again only speculation.

–Legends With The Road Dogg- Following Monday Night Raw (the premier spot for new Network programming), the latest episode of Legends with JBL will air on the WWE Network featuring a sit down discussion with The Road Dogg.  If you haven’t seen the first couple episodes of the Legends series, I’ve felt that they were quite enjoyable, featuring discussions with Eric Bischoff about the Monday Night War and about the Undertaker with Triple H, Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels.  Like Austin, JBL does a good job of keeping the discussion light hearted enough to where the subject lets their guard down and so he’s able to ask some tough questions.  If you check out Legends let me know what you think.

–Total Divas Season 5- Total Divas returns to the E! Network tomorrow night for the premiere of Season 5.  There are some changes to the cast as Trinity (Naomi) is no longer a permanent cast member on the show and instead has been replaced by Rosa Mendes, who was a full time cast member for Season 3 but took off last season.  Her return to the show is likely due to her new relationship and progressions she’s made with that ( I don’t want to give away any spoilers if you don’t follow Mendes on twitter).  Also this season, former Tough Enough contestant Amanda Saccamano joins the cast of Total Divas as she begins training with WWE.  As always The Bellas, Eva Marie, Paige, Natalya and Alicia Fox will all be returning to the show.  Say what you will about Total Divas, I will always be greatful to the show for turning my girlfriend from a casual fan into someone who follows the business regularly and looks forward to attending WrestleMania each year.  Aside from that Total Divas also does a good job in following the personal lives of some of my favorite superstars such as Daniel Bryan, Tyson Kidd, John Cena and Jimmy Uso (The Usos really benefited for there exposure on the show) so I find that, coupled with the behind the scenes aspects of the show to be quite enjoyable.

– The Royal Rumble- Of course this all leads up to next Sunday night, the 29th annual WWE Royal Rumble will take place live from Orlando, Florida.  I was closer than close to attending this show live but starting a new job and already taking off so much because of my father, I decided against it.  That said, it should be a fun weekend for all of those who are attending and I’d love to hear about your experiences.  The WWE big four events continue to become a vacation destination and an all encompassing experience for all wrestling fans in attendance.  I know there’s an NXT TV Taping in town, a few Evolve shows (featuring NXT talents) and a Jim Ross one man show, to name a few.  As for the Royal Rumble itself, this year seems to be one of the most anticipated Rumbles in quite some time with the Rumble being for the actual World Title and with so many names being rumored to returning or debuting as surprise entrants in the Rumble.  I also expect that there will be a number of title matches on the show.  Already announced is a Last Man Standing Match for the intercontinental title between Kevin Owens and Dean Ambrose.  From there, Becky Lynch has issued a challenge to Charlotte for the Divas Championship and I expect that to be added to the show as well as they continue their great feud.  I also wouldn’t be shocked to see a US Title match between Kalisto and Alberto Del Rio to be added as well as a Tag Title Match with the New Day and the Usos.  The Rumble remains my favorite show of the year.

– Contest Time-  Alright I had mentioned this last week and so I figure I’ll reveal our first ever contest here on the daily spotlight.  Next Sunday, in honor of the Royal Rumble, we’re going to be giving away the brand new Sasha Banks figure as a part of the Mattel Basics Series 59 that won’t be released to stores until March of this year! Here’s what you have to do to enter into the contest.  Subscribe to thedailyspotlight.com which you can easily do to the left on the desktop site and by scrolling down below the posts on the mobile version of the site.  You do not need a wordpress site to subscribe, you can do so with any email address.  From there follow along with the dailyspotlight.com @Daily_Spotlight.  That’s it!  Once you subscribe to the site and follow us on twitter, you’re entered to win the first ever Sasha Banks figure brand new in box!  We’ll be doing the random draw on Sunday afternoon prior to the AFC Championship Game at 2:00 PM EST.  Of course, if you have any questions, feel free to inquire in the comments section below, on twitter or on our official email at dailyspotlight2@gmail.com!  If all goes well, we’ll do more contests and giveaways in the future!

That’s going to do it for now but be sure to subscribe to make sure you’re entered into our contest! Until next time, take care!

The Spotlight On Last Night’s BIG Cameo on The Lip Sync Battle

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Video Credit: Spike TV

Off the heels of one of the most talked about episodes in its 2 year history, Spike TV’s Lip Sync Battle returned last night featuring a battle between Kevin Hart & Olivia Munn. While it may not have been Beyoncé with Channing Tatum there’s quite the interesting cameo in Munn’s performance of Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood, especially for my fellow wrestling fans. Check out the video and let me know what you think.

The Spotlight On WWE on Thanksgiving

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OK so most of you know by now that WWE used to hold their annual Survivor Series on Thanksgiving Day.  But did you know that the WWE Superstars and Divas once took part in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City?  In 2002 a whole host of WWE Superstars, Divas and announcers took part in the Macy’s Day Parade complete with a state of the art mini ring float (that featured a commentator table, ladder and ring).  Aboard the float for WWE was Vince McMahon, Triple H, The Hurricane Shane Helms, Sergeant Slaughter, Victoria, The Coach, Lillian Garcia and of course JR and The King.  The video is worth a watch if for no other reason than to hear Al Roker’s bad butcher job on Jerry Lawler’s name.  I remember, as a fan, thinking this was the coolest thing ever.  For year’s the Macy’s Day Parade would promote “The Big Red Machine” appearing later in the show and I would hope it would be Kane, of course it was Santa.  Well, in 2002 it was cool to see some representation from a few of my favorites, especially the Hurricane, who was my guy!

Even though this was the only appearance, I can remember, from WWE at the Macy’s Day Parade, there were two appearances at the Chicago Thanksgiving Day Parade by former WWE Superstar CM Punk.  In 2008, Punk made his first appearance for the parade while one half of the WWE tag team champions.  It’s a cool appearance for Punk, who joked that the CM in CM Punk actually stood for Cookie Monster!

34 Seconds In For Punk

In 2012, while in the midst of his historic 400+ day run as WWE world heavyweight champion, Punk would return to the Chicago Thanksgiving Day Parade, this time as the grand marshall!

With WWE having such a big presence on NBC Universal, it’s surprising that WWE hasn’t returned to the Macy’s Day Parade.  I know I can’t be the only one who would get a kick out of it.

The Spotlight On Wrestling Podcasts- The Lapsed Fan’s Starrcade Memorial Tour

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I touched on the lapsed fan podcast a few months back here on the site but I feel like they’re worth bringing up again.  I first discovered the Lapsed Fan Wrestling Podcast almost one year ago and when I did, they were on their journey through all 30 Wrestlemanias.  Every week they would review one Wrestlemania at a time beginning with Wrestlemania 1 and all the way up to and including Wrestlemania 31 (which they did a live show immediately following Wrestlemania).  Each week they would start with their favorite moments from the show and then they would welcome in Dave Meltzer for a really unique historical perspective.  Once Meltzer was finished, they would then start their trademark “Deep Dive”  and go through each Wrestlemania from start to finish in grave detail.  The result was a podcast that lasted anywhere from 4 hours in length to, in the case of Wrestlemania 17, over 7 hours long.  People would talk about how perhaps the podcast was too long but I loved it because they paid careful attention to everything from every midcard superstar to every vignette, the lapsed fan had you covered.  I remember listening to the Wrestlemania podcasts all week long on the way to and from work and they left me both engaged and nostalgic going through each one.

Following the Wrestlemania journey, the Lapsed Fan podcast started doing listener request shows where, for a small fee, a member of the “lapsed fan solar system” would get to choose a show for Jack and JP to review.  On top of that the person who chose the show got to come onto the show and discuss the ways in which this show had effected them.  By now, you’ve read my personal stories regarding meeting certain wrestlers or having different live experiences at a variety of shows, so I really appreciate hearing different fans talk about their favorite experiences at shows.  The most recent listener request show they put up on Summerslam 1999 features a great personal story from show producer TJ DeSantis that is worth going out of your way to listen.  I had meant to getting around to donating to the lapsed fan and requesting that they review either Summerslam 2007 or Royal Rumble 2008 just because those two shows have my own personal stories that I feel are interesting but it appears that the listener request series is at least on a hiatus because…

Just a few weeks ago, the Lapsed Fan announced that Jack & JP are going on another journey, this time through all of the different WCW Starcade events through the years.  This is going to be a 17 week journey spanning from the original Starcade event in 1983 all the way through the end of WCW in 2000 (they’ve already done Starcade 1985 as a tribute to Dusty Rhodes right after he passed).  This is reay cool for someone like me because I’ve never actually seen any of the Starrcade events other than 1997.  The reason for that is because I’ve always been a big WWE fan growing up and never watched any of WCW.  My family tried to order Bash at the Beach 1994 to see Hogan and my father was unimpressed with the entire show.  Due to this, I never once asked to ever order a WCW show until Starrcade 1997, and I only pushed that because of Bret Hart.  Now with the WWE Network, I can go back and watch each one  of these events as the Lapsed Fan breaks them down, which is awesome as a new fan.  Starrcade was obviously the WCW’s version of Wrestlemania, and the original as it started 2 years prior to Mania, and is more than worthy of getting that journey treatment.  Jack and JP started their Starrcade memorial tour yesterday with the debut of Starrcade 1983.  As an added bonus, Dave Meltzer is in fact back to give that historical perspective of each one of the Starrcade events.  It’s especially cool with Starrcade because WCW is out of business so, as Jack and JP have mentioned before, they can really tell the entire story of WCW through their history of Starrcade series.

Jack and JP have made it clear that, unlike the Wrestlemania series, this may not take place every single week.  I’m glad to hear this actually as Jack and JP both have families and I’m sure that Wrestlemania series (30 episodes in 30 weeks at about 5 hours a week) had to be quite the burden on both them and their families.  The lapsed fan is also now independently owned and operated as the guys are no longer affliated with Wrestlezone.  If you’d like to support thelapsedfan podcast you can follow them on twitter @TheLapsedFan to find out how you could.  I’m excited for the new Starrcade journey to begin and would love to hear your feedback on the lapsed fan if you’ve checked it out as well.

The Spotlight On Cesaro’s Injury

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The hits just keep on coming for the walking wounded superstars of WWE.  It was announced today through an exclusive interview with WWE.com that Cesaro would be out of action for 4-6 months following a torn rotator cuff.  Cesaro explained that his injury actually occurred over two months ago but that he didn’t think it was too bad until recently.  An MRI was done for precautionary measures and it that’s when the tear was identified.

Cesaro noted that he was actually already having the surgery done this afternoon.  It’s a really tough break for one of the most consistent performers in WWE.  Cesaro was really picking up momentum with the “Cesaro Section” movement which was something that started pretty organically a few months ago in Nashville, Tennessee (Ironically enough the place of Monday Night Raw tonight).  Aside from that Cesaro was having some of the best matches in WWE over the past three years or so, most recently a number of Raw main events against John Cena.

Cesaro’s injury couldn’t have come at a worse time for WWE, who is already without Seth Rollins (Torn ACL/MCL) and Randy Orton (dislocated shoulder).  F4wonline.com reported last night that Cesaro was supposed to have been in the traditional survivor series match that aired during the pre show but was replaced by Titus O’Neil once his injury was discovered.  Once we hear any update on Cesaro’s health and possible return date, we’ll have that for you right here on thedailyspotlight.com .

To read the full interview with Cesaro about his health, you can do some right here http://www.wwe.com/inside/cesaro-injured-interview-28238589