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Cena returns to Smackdown Live

By Bill Hughes for The 5 min read
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John Cena returns to Smackdown Live, Tuesday night, and it will be his first WWE appearance since he wrestled at WrestleMania.

Look for Cena to announce that he is a free agent and will appear on both Raw and Smackdown moving forward.

Could this lead to a Cena match against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 34 in which Cena would break Ric FlairĢƵ all-time heavyweight title reign record?

Speaking of Raw and Smackdown Live, MondayĢƵ show is the go-home show for WWEĢƵ next PPV, which takes place in one week.

Smackdown Live will feature a battle royal to determine the top contender for Kevin Owens’ United States title, and A.J. Styles is a heavy favorite.

GLOW review

I was able to get through the entire first season of the new Netflix show, GLOW, and it gave a decent look at how things are handled behind the scenes when trying to start up a new wrestling promotion.

For those who haven’t seen it, you may want to watch it before letting your kids see it due to several adult themes, including sex and drugs.

All in all, it was a fun watch, and I am sure the second season will be an even bigger hit.

Honkytonk Man show review

Former WWE Intercontinental champion Honkytonk Man did a show at the Improv in Pittsburgh, Thursday night.

“It was good to hear how he got started,” said Bill Rouse of Grindstone. “It was not bad overall, and he topped the show off singing his entrance music and hitting the opening act over the head with his guitar.”

“The show was great, and Honky took the audience through the years of getting into wrestling to the present day,” longtime reader Yves Coltier shared via email. “The most entertaining story to me was of Hulk Hogan. As Honky said he would take a leg drop from Hogan any day because it meant 10 grand a pop.

“I laughed a lot at his stories, and it took me back to my younger years thinking about the wrestlers he spoke of.”

WWE bans another word

In the never-ending effort by WWE to completely control every aspect of its employees, the word “briefcase” has now been banned. So, when Baron Corbin and Carmella won their respective Money in the Bank matches, they secured contracts and not briefcases.

TNA becoming GFW tonight

Tonight at TNAĢƵ 15th Slammiversary card, the promotion will become known as Global Force Wrestling. A part of the reason is that the TNA brand carries such a negative stigma with it, and the higher-ups want to move in a fresh direction.

Former wrestler has another setback

One of the biggest WWE stars that never was is once again fighting health issues.

Matt Cappotelli, the 2003 Tough Enough 3 winner who was on a straight shot to superstardom, was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in his brain in 2005 and had to retire. Now 37, Cappotelli had brain surgery Thursday after doctors found another large tumor in his body.

Best of luck to Cappotelli and his family.

On this date …

In 1991, Ric Flair quits WCW, or is fired, depending on which side for the story you believe.

Even as a kid who had hated Flair (as I always supported the good guys as a fan to that point), I knew it was a huge deal.

FlairĢƵ contract had been a major focal point at that time, and he agreed to a deal with WWF the day before.

On the prior day, Flair was stripped of the WCW title, although he would still be recognized as the NWA champion until he appeared on WWE TV two months later, proclaiming to be the “real world champion” to set up a potential match against Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania VIII.

However, the match never came to be on that show.

Since we mentioned July 1, on that day in 1999 www.com announced that Chris Jericho had signed with the company and it completely caught WCW off-guard.

This weekĢƵ question

On the June 19 episode of Raw, you called Big Cass turning on Enzo, Roman Reigns challenging the Brock Lesnar vs. Samoa Joe match to a title shot at SummerSlam, and teased the return of Braun Strowman. Do you know tonightĢƵ lottery numbers?Freddie, Uniontown.

Thanks for the laugh, Freddie! I do not have any inkling of the winning numbers, but as far as what I reported, I got lucky that all three hit at once.

I guess it could be called my trifecta?

Seriously though, I have been involved in the pro wrestling business in one aspect or another for over half my life now, and I try not to spoil anything for fans.

Yes, there are times when I could give PPV results or title changes that will happen on Raw or Smackdown Live, but then that would ruin it for you, the fans. I don’t want to do that to the fans, and I have always tried to walk a fine line with giving scoops but not giving away big surprises.

And there are times when I get my info from reputable sources, and I give them credit when it is due.

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