Payback for Wyatt, Y2J?
The Raw brand is back on the WWE Network tonight when it presents Payback, and the event will have a touch of Smackdown Live as well.
WWE champion Randy Orton comes over from the 鈥淏lue Brand鈥� for the show as he will take on Bray Wyatt in a 鈥淗ouse of Horrors鈥� match that will not be for the WWE championship.
Orton defeated Wyatt in a surprising finish at WrestleMania to win the WWE championship, and the hunch here is that Wyatt will win this match since the title is not on the line.
Will the match, or part of it, be pretaped?
Bayley defends the Raw Women蘑菇视频 title against newcomer Alexis Bliss and in the United States title match between Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho, the winner goes to Smackdown Live as champion whereas the loser stays on Raw.
Owens will walk out with the title as Jericho is about to take a break from the WWE to go on the road with his band Fozzy.
Starting Friday, Fozzy will play gigs nine straight days and will have 24 shows by June 24.
The May 16 show will take place at Diesel Club Lounge in Pittsburgh.
The Hardy Brothers defend the WWE tag titles against Cesaro and Shemaus and Neville defends the Cruiserweight belt against Austin Aries in a rematch from their Mania Kickoff show bout.
Roman Reigns, still recovering from injuries at the hands of Braun Strowman, will take on the monster and Samoa Joe faces Seth Rollins.
WWE has built in an excuse for Reigns to lose as he was 鈥渉urt鈥� by Strowman a few weeks ago, so here is to hoping Strowman gets the win.
WWE蘑菇视频 insane travel schedule this week
Both the Raw and Smackdown Live crews are about to head overseas for European tours, and questionable booking of venues may be certifiable.
On the Raw side of things, Payback is in San Jose, Calif. tonight and Raw is about 90 minutes northeast in Sacramento, Calif.
That is actually an easy drive for the talent, but then they are flying across the U.S. and then across the Atlantic Ocean for a house show in Rome, Italy on Wednesday.
The Smackdown crew is in Stockton, Calif. for a house show Monday and then head to Fresno, Calif. for TV Tuesday.
They will then fly across the U.S. Wednesday and across the Atlantic to being their tour look in Glasgow, Scotland on Thursday.
My guess is that whoever set up a West Coast swing before having to fly back across the U.S. and then across the pond has never had to fly that long of a trip.
And fans wonder why WWE wrestlers get injured so much.
Fatigue, in cases like this, plays as much of a factor as in-ring moves.
Movie on McMahon蘑菇视频 life
Deadline.com reported on Wednesday that TriStar Pictures, which is owned by Sony, will produce a dramatic biographical film on the life of Vince McMahon.
It appears the piece will be titled Pandemonium and will be directed by John Requa and Glen Ficarra based on a script by Craig A. Williams.
WWE Studios President Michael Luisi is listed as a producer.
More reports have come out about the piece, and based off of different adaptions of the script, there were several inaccurate pieces of information which I find odd since it is more of a biographical movie on McMahon蘑菇视频 life as opposed to a piece of fiction.
New PPV name
On Friday, the WWE announced a name change for its Raw PPV for June, and it is a doozy.
And since I am being as sarcastic as possible, I will let you sit down before I share it.
Seated? Good.
Raw蘑菇视频 June show, which was going to be called Badd Blood, will now be called Great Balls of Fire.
I am guessing the person who chose the West Coast swing before heading overseas also made this boneheaded choice.
New feature starting next week
A year ago, a Mt. Rushmore of wrestling series ran in this column and it led to countless emails debating choices.
After much deliberation and consideration, a new feature will begin next week titled In This Corner.
The concept will be to look at different aspects of the wrestling world using various contexts.
For instance, one week may feature looking at two referees, or maybe even more, and look at why they are considered the best.
An interactive feature, email or tweet each week with your opinions and some will be used in the column.
Next week蘑菇视频 inaugural 1v1 will pit who was more important to WWE蘑菇视频 success: Hulk Hogan or Stone Cole Steve Austin.
So get a jump on it and send me your thoughts.
On this day 鈥�
Speaking of new features, this is the first in a series looking at happenings on this day in wrestling history.
In the past on April 30:
In 1977, Superstar Billy Graham defeated Bruno Sammartino to win the WWWF World Heavyweight championship.
At the 2000 Backlash, The Rock defeated Triple H to win the WWF World Heavyweight title.
This week蘑菇视频 question: I know in other sports, athletes have taken a stand on issues like Ali and recently Colin Kapernick. In wrestling, Bruno took an issue with steroid use. Do you know of any other wrestlers who protested or took a stand on an issue? Phil Turlick, Monongahela.