Here is your news for June 13 2020 Inevitable Changes At WWE Backstage! Why Did WWE Cancel PPV? What Happened To Liv Morgan? WWE News!
And your headlines today include
When Is Matt Riddle Actually Debuting For Smackdown Revealed
Eric Bischoff Shoots On WWE Firing Paul Heyman
Expected Changes At WWE Backstage Following Heyman’s Exit!
Which WWE RAW Segment Was Pulled At The Last Minute!
WWE Cancels A Major Tournament!
WWE Wrestler Being Targeted by Russian Hackers And MORE!
We’re kicking off today with news from SmackDown, as Matt Riddle will debut next week.
After weeks of video packages, this week’s show had another video for the King of
Bros, but this one confirmed that Riddle will be debuting in person on next week’s show.
It wasn’t mentioned whether he’ll be in action, or who his opponent will be if he
is, but we do know that next week’s episodes of RAW and SmackDown will
actually be filmed this Monday on June 15th.
Fans will have to see what Riddle does on his first night on team blue, as hopefully
the former NXT Tag Team Champion will have just as successful a time on
SmackDown as he had during his years on the Gold Brand.
Speaking of SmackDown, this week’s show saw the New Day appear, and whilst
the fun-loving tag team is known for their wacky adventures, and love of cereal
and pancakes, the duo had a very serious moment in the ring during the show.
In the ring, Big E and Kofi Kingston took a knee and raised their fist, in support of
the ****** Lives Matter movement, and this was pointed out by the WWE on FOX Twitter account.
The SmackDown Tag Team Champions also wore armbands featuring the names
of people who have tragically died, including Shukri Abdi, Tamla Horsford and
Breonna Taylor, the latter of whom was shot by police whilst she was in her bed.
It was a powerful statement by the usually comical duo, and it just goes to show
how important this movement is to the New Day.
We’ve got more SmackDown news now, as after a lengthy tournament to crown a
new Intercontinental Champion, the finals took place between AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan.
After a tournmanent that saw plenty of controvery when Jeff Hardy was framed
for a DUI and Elias forced out with an injury, the finals this week saw a barnburner
of a match, but it was ultimately Styles nailing the Phenomenal Forearm on Bryan
that got him the win, and the title.
This is Styles’ first reign as Intercontinental Champion, and also means he’s one
tag team title reign away from the Company’s triple crown, and we’ll have to see
what former champion Sami Zayn has to say about our Phenomenal new champion.
From SmackDown to RAW next, as Paul Heyman was removed from his role as the
red brand’s executive director, and one person who knows how that feels is
former SmackDown Director Eric Bischoff.
On his 83 Weeks Podcast, Bischoff had plenty of praise for Heyman, saying:
He’s got his own thing, you know. Most really creative, highly aggressive people
do. Paul was a handful but in a fun and positive way for me, not in a negative or
challenging way, but in a way that kind of made you better because he made you think
Bischoff added that Heyman wasn’t perfect, but because the ECW magnate has
been put on such a pedestal by fans and those within the industry, people tend to
give him a little more credit than they should.
Speaking about Heyman’s replacement Bruce Prichard, who also replaced Bischoff
on SmackDown, Eric said:
I’m going to send Bruce Prichard a text that says congratulations, with a question mark.”
It seems Bischoff’s advice for Paul E is to lay lie for a while, and given that Heyman
on-screen works almost exclusively with Brock Lesnar, fans may have to wait until
the Beast emerges to see Heyman again.
As you can imagine, heyman’s departure from the Executive Director role on RAW
has had some huge changes backstage.
Ringside News is nothing that there is a new ‘reporting structure’ backstage, and
now writers will report to different people backstage, namely Dave Kapoor, Ed
Koskey, Johnathon Baeckstrom and Heyman’s replacement Bruce Prichard.
This restructuring also means that some writers will be assigned different
storylines, as their source noted that stories were shuffled a bit, meaning what
fans see on TV could soon drastically change.
That means that if you see stories get dropped or take off in a new direction in the
next few weeks, now you know why, as these segments could likely be written by
someone else who wasn’t on the writing team for this angle before.
Whilst fans are aware of Heyman’s relationship with Brock Lesnar, the ECW
magnate was also a supporter of plenty of stars brand, including Drew McIntyre, Ricochet, Aleister
******, Cedric Alexander, the Street Profits and more.
Now it’s being reported by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that some stars are
safe even without Heyman around, whilst others aren’t so lucky. They write:
“The belief is that McIntyre and the Street Profits are liked by McMahon and are
probably safe, although they will be more subject to the whims of booking that
may or may not protect them as well. As far as everyone else, it’s anyone’s guess.”
McMahon has already lost interest in stars like Cedric Alexander and Ricochet, and
hopefully the others who were favourites of Heyman will be more lucky.
Everything is likely to change about RAW now that Heyman is out and Bruce
Prichard is in, as although he was able to a lot of things to make RAW his own
brand over the past few months, it’s possible a lot of things will be undone by the
Excecutive Director of both RAW and SmackDown.
Back to SmackDown now, and this week’s show kicked off with a contract signing
between Jeff Hardy and Sheamus that took a strange turn.
Making their Backlash match official, Sheamus said he’d only face Hardy this
Sunday if Jeff took a ***** test, but after relieving himself, Hardy instead
through the sample all over the Celtic Warrior.
Older fans may remember this angle done in 2006, when Shawn Michaels was
forced to take a test, and instead threw his ***** over Mr McMahon, and
hopefully Sheamus will have a very thorough clean before he faces the
Charismatic Enigma this Sunday at Backlash.
One person who isn’t booked for the Pay Per View is Liv Morgan, although the
former Riott Squad member nearly got a segment on this week’s edition of
Monday Night RAW.
Sportskeeda is reporting that Morgan’s segment which would allow her to further
express her personality was cut by Vince McMahon at the last minute, as the Boss
is said to have pulled or re-ordered several RAW segments in recent weeks.
This is a blow to Morgan, who was pushed when she returned last year as the
jilted lover of Lana, but hasn’t been used for quitesome time, with her last match
taking place over a month ago, when she lost to Charlotte Flair on the May 4th
episode of RAW.
Morgan isn’t the only one to lose her spot, as a series of matches between
Ricochet and Cedric Alexander taking on Shane Thorne and Brendan Vink never
happened, and with Paul Heyman, a known supporter of Morgan, gone from the
red brand and the show undergoing restructuring, we’re not quite sure what the
future holds for the 26-year-old Superstar.
Now, we all know that things are strange in WWE to say the least lately, but not
everything being reported about the company is entirely true.
Despite reports that the company had already taped the post-Backlash editions of
RAW and SmackDown, that isn’t the case, and instead these shows will be taped
this coming Monday, with the following week’s programs being taped the day
after on June 16th.
With that said, the company has been pretaping several matches lately to be
recorded during later broad casts, include NXT TakeOver’s Backlot Brawl, the Edge-
Orton match at Backlash, and the finals of the Intercontinental title tournament
which aired this week.
Clearly, this is a strange time in WWE, and with so many changes going on behind
the scenes, it looks like things won’t be going back to normal anytime soon.
Speaking of changes, the WWE has had to cancel a lot of big plans in 2020, and
that included a tournament that a lot of fans have been asking for.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alverez revealed the next step in the
Women’s Revolution when he spoke about this year’s Mae Young Classic, as he said:
“I believe that the actual idea for this year was a Queen Of The Ring Tournament,
so not a Mae Young Classic, but a Queen Of The Ring Tournament… I believe what
you would have seen this Summer is the Queen Of The Ring Tournament.”
It wasn’t noted whether the planned Queen of the Ring tournament would be
open to main roster Superstars or if they’d bring people from outside the
company, though it’s a moot point now since the tournament isn’t happening.
WWE could always keep the tournament and go back to it when the time is right,
but for now, the crowning of a Queen of the Ring is just the latest thing fans have
lost out on due to the current ongoing situation.
From a Queen to an Empress next, as RAW Women’s Champion Asuka has plenty
of fans but some people tried to find out more about the Japanese Superstar.
In a tweet, Asuka reported that she’d been the target of hackers, and said the IP
address of the hackers had come from Russia and Qatar, though they could be
coming from anywhere if they have the right setup.
Given how Asuka is very tech savvy and has her own YouTube channel where she
goes into such things, it’s unlikely that the hackers would get the better of the
Empress of Tomorrow, but it just goes to show that everyone, even Empress’,
need to be careful online.
We’ve got news from The Undertaker next, as fans will remember the Deadman
agreeing to do Starrcast, much to the anger of Vince McMahon.
Now fans will get to have a close look at what went down between the two, as
Fightful is noting that the next episode of the Last Ride docuseries will include the
Starrcast drama, and will highlight the strain on the Deadman’s relationship with
Vince McMahon.
As if that isn’t big enough, All Elite Wrestling will also be mentioned in the
upcoming docuseries, and it’ll be interesting to see how much the opposition is
mentioned when Chapter 4 of the Last Ride airs this Sunday on June 14th, with the
final episode airing on the 21st.
And we’re finishing off this video with more news from the Undertaker, as the
former World Champion is the definition of a future Hall of Famer.
While speaking to TV Insider, the Phenom discussed his inevitable induction, and
though he said he’s not going to be inducted anytime soon, he does have an idea
of who he wants to induct him into the Hall of Fame. He said:
I have an idea. I’m going to keep it to myself at this point. I don’t think I have to
make a decision any time soon. I don’t want to give that away because I don’t
want him to come up with an excuse not to do it.
To be chosen by The Undertaker, you’ve got to be a true legend yourself, and
whilst fans will have plenty of time to speculate who it is, whether it’s Kane, Triple
H, Shawn Michaels or maybe Vince McMahon himself, only the Demon of Death
Valley knows for sure.