Columnist Rob Pasbani also has Raw highlights, a surprise MJF appearance at an indie show, and a recent quote from John Cena on the state of the wrestling business.
WWE superstar Seth Rollins was spotted on the new Captain America: New World Order movie set. Another WWE superstar in the MCU! While Rollins’ role hasn’t officially been announced, based on his outfit, he appears to be dressed as a member of the Serpent Society, an evil crew in the Marvel Universe. The crew is led by the character “Sidewinder” and can transform into various snakes.
Here is some footage and photos of Rollins on set from a spy in Atlanta:
Captain America: New World Order is currently scheduled to be released on May 3, 2024. The fourth installment of the Marvel franchise will be the first to star Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, the new Captain America, replacing Chris Evans in the lead role of the franchise after Evans bowed out.
Rollins was not live at Raw this week, and instead had some pre-taped segments air.
JD McDonagh is on Raw and based on this small tease at the end of his promo, he seems to be being recruited by Finn Balor to join Judgment Day.
Mustafa Ali won the battle royal to win a shot at the Intercontinental Title at WWE Night of Champions in two weeks:
Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens faced Finn and Damien Priest and after interference from Imperium, Judgment Day won. Looks like Sami and Kevin are making a lot of enemies on Raw:
Ronda Rousey returned, and she and Shayna Bayzler made a challenge for the women’s tag team championship.
See all the other highlights from this week’s Raw on WWE’s Youtube page.
We see more of that big, stinky Giant! Kevin Sullivan faces Macho Man, and Lex Luger faces Sting. We have some fun with the graphics, question Eric Bischoff’s play-by-play ability and get enamored by Alex Wright’s total package. Colin Young and Rob Pasbani are lifelong wrestling fans, and Jordan Olds is a newer fan who has never seen one episode of WCW Monday Nitro. Join the trio as we chronologically watch the entire series, week by week on our new show, Knotfest KNITRO.
WWE NXT on Tuesday at 8pm is advertising:
AEW Dynamite on Wednesday at 8pm has announced the following lineup:
ROH on Thursday on WatchROH.com will feature:
Impact has a big show Thursday night at 8pm on AXS:
WWE Smackdown on Friday at 8pm has announced:
WWE Hall of Famer “Superstar” Billy Graham has been placed on life support and is not doing well. Graham’s wife Valerie Coleman posted to Facebook: “Please urgent prayers needed for my husband. The doctors wanted to remove him from life support tonight, I refused. He’s a fighter and his will is strong even if his body isn’t. God is our hope”
AEW champ MJF made a surprise appearance at Create A Pro Wrestling’s Long Island event this weekend. The promotion is where MJF trained.
During a recent interview with Bill Apter, Randy Orton’s dad, Bob Orton Jr., was asked about Randy’s status and Bob said “He’s training so we’ll see what happens. I don’t know if he feels like going back. If he feels like he’s ready to go back, I think he might. Then again, he’s pretty well taken care of. I don’t think he needs to and I think the doctors have told him not to. But Randy is going to do what Randy is going to do, he always does.”
AEW: Fight Forever, the long-anticipated video game seems even closer to completion, as a series of achievements have leaked in the Xbox store. You can see a full list here.
John Cena was on Busted Open Radio with Dave LaGreca and Bully Ray and was asked about his WrestleMania match, as well as all the different places wrestlers can work nowadays. Cena responded “Well, I get excited with potential. I really do get excited with potential and it’s because I think in my origin story, I wasn’t exactly someone that people were betting on. I kind of got hired defensively so I wouldn’t go to WCW for peanuts. I had some people who saw me perform who were advocating to people who didn’t care about my performance, which granted me some opportunities and then I was lucky to have some people who supported me. I remember the first time I kind of experienced, I would say, the ‘WWE life’ was in Japan with you [Bully Ray] by my side and that was my — in my perspective, that was your way of saying, hey, welcome in. This is kind of what we’re about and this is where the secrets are shared and this is where the wisdom is passed and although it may not be your thing, this is our thing and if you wanna be in our family, we’d love to have you but this is kind of the way our family does it and I never got to thank you for that so thank you very much for dragging me out in the streets of Tokyo to have the beginning of what would be a wonderful ride on a lighting bolt and you know, you don’t do it by yourself which is why I don’t think anyone — you don’t pass it to anybody. You just hope to put energy out there and anyone with potential can get it. It was said that I passed the torch to Roman (Reigns) years ago and he absolutely is the face of the franchise. In my mind, he’s the greatest of all time. But, I try to do what I could and when I did it, it wasn’t the miracle, it didn’t happen. He got it on his own terms. I just like seeing people who are passionate about the business, who wanna be there, who wanna show up, who aren’t using it as a vehicle to do something else because the thing itself is awesome and it’s okay if you get other opportunities outside. That’s a testament to your work but man, I wish I was still there every day. My body can’t do it anymore. I don’t wanna give the consumer a bad product. That’s another thing I learned from those veterans at the time. Guys like Eddie (Guerrero) would just risk so much and he’s like, ‘I’m never gonna give the consumer a bad product. I don’t care how I feel, I don’t care how I feel physically, I don’t care what baggage I have mentally, when I’m on, they paid good money and I’m gonna go out there and give everything I have and sometimes find it when it’s not there’ and I’m at a point where everything I have in comparison to the bar that’s been set, boy, what I have is what you saw at WrestleMania 39. That’s what I feel confident that I can deliver and that’s really nice for here and there. That’s not every day in the WWE, that’s not every day in sports entertainment. Sports entertainment has raised the bar and I’m humble enough to say that’s awesome because you’re supposed to leave it better than you found it. The people are supposed to advance it and that’s why you’re supposed to go from smokey bingo halls to the Pontiac Silverdome to now, towns offering us financial incentives to be in for WrestleMania.” [h/t Post Wrestling]
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