WWE Monday Night Raw Preview

Tonight is going to be one of the most interesting nights in sports entertainment since the night after the Montreal Screwjob. With former WWE Superstar CM Punk coming out and speaking about his depature from the WWE, there's alot of interested in the live "Stone Cold" Steve Austin podcast with Vince McMahon. WWE didn't follow up the debut of Sting on last week's Raw, and with WWE TLC coming up in two weeks, What new matches will be announced for the annual gimmick PPV? Here's five things that I think people should look out for tonights show.

1.) The next step for John Cena and Seth Rollins 

Coming off last week's Raw, I think it's pretty obvious that Cena will be taking on Seth Rollins at TLC. Brock Lesnar is advertised for the 2014 Slammy Awards next week which is the go-home show for WWE TLC. I don't think that Lesnar will be competing at TLC, so where does John Cena and Seth Rollins go? I heard some people throw out this idea where Dolph Ziggler takes on Seth Rollins with Rollins Money in the Bank breifcase on the line. I think that would be a cool match especially for this type of PPV, but I don't see that happening. With tonight's show we may see something where it's John Cena, Dolph Ziggler and Ryback vs. Seth Rollins, Kane and Luke Harper in the main event or John Cena will take on J&J Security in a handicap match. Now are these matches that I want to see, I don't know, but being a pretty good observer of WWE programming I wouldn't be surprised if either of these matches happen. Cena vs. Rollins is the logical step with the Royal Rumble coming up. Despite Rollins taking a loss to Cena, I think to make a "statement" to Brock Lesnar, Cena defeats the top heel in the company at WWE TLC.

2.) The Anonymous Raw General Manager

Like you guys, I used to DESPISE the Anonymous Raw General Manager in 2010-2011. Now these days as I got more in tuned with the product and wrestling in general, I've come to appreciate the Anonymous Raw General Manager. I'll tell you why? Well, maybe the main reason why the Anonymous Raw General Manager doesn't bother me anymore is because it's gives people "HEAT" aka Michael Cole. Every time we here "May I have your attention please?" people cringe and boo and you don't really see alot of people these days on the WWE Roster get the type of "Real Heat" like Cole does when he reads those emails "And I Quote!" I'm just going to get a good laugh out of it because yea it may not be the best on thing on the show, but anything to get the crowd to boo the worst announce team in the history of wrestling is a pretty good day for yours truly. I can of hope that maybe since he's going to be there in Tulsa, Oklahoma, would WWE Hall of Famer "Stone Cold" Steve Austin make a LIVE appearance on Raw and mess the computer and Michael Cole up? I think that would be fantastic.

3.) Ambrose/Wyatt Program 

I'll tell you what guys, I think more than anything on this show tonigth, I'm looking forward to see what they do with Bray Wyatt and Dean Ambrose the most. Bro (Vince Russo), I think what they've been doing with Wyatt/Ambrose is great because this feud is turning into war and it was supposed to be like that since the beginning of this feud. Will we get a in-ring Wyatt promo I think so, but Wyatt will have to bring up something different in his promo instead of continuing to bring up Ambrose's daddy issues. Wyatt has been getting the better of Ambrose since this feud has started. I think Ambrose will be in a match with Cesaro or Mark Henry and than after the match he will stack Tables, Ladders and Chairs on either man. Wyatt will come up and try to attack Dean again, but this time Ambrose gets some revenge as Wyatt escpaes and runs up the ramp. I think it would be nice to see Bray Wyatt compete in the match, but who do you have him go against? With two weeks away to TLC I think WWE needs to bring their A game tonight when it comes to this feud.

4.) A New Day Is Here 

I was really happy to see Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods and Big E debut their "New Day" gimmick on SmackDown this past Friday Night. I'm happy for them because they're trying something different and at the same time entertain the WWE audience. Yes the music and pomps and circumstances of this gimmick will reminds you of Flash Funks, The Oddities, The Tons of Funks of the world, but I think we got something here with this new gimmick and it will sure add some vareity in this stagnant WWE Tag Team division. Give it a chance people, maybe it will grown on you, maybe it won't if you're a natural cynical person. A New Day is Here and as far as tonight is concern, I think we maybe seeing a run-in between with The New Day and The Dust Brothers. I wonder if they do come out with all Red thought for Monday Night Raw as opposed to SmackDown where they came out with the powder blue. Either way this a fun gimmick there's too many heels on this roster as it is, let's have some fun and enjoy a new stable on WWE television.

5.) WWE TLC's Mid-Card 

Here's the thing, if you haven't seen my previous column where I predicted the entire match card for WWE TLC, I advise you to check it out it's really cool and I think you may like it. I think tonight with the Raw Anonymouys General Manager we'll get some matches announced for TLC. With the feud between AJ Lee/Nikki Bella I WANT TO SEE A IN-RING BACK AND FORTH PROMO BETWEEN THESE TWO LADIES. Give me a reason to care about this match, I enjoyed what little of a promo Nikki had on SmackDown and I enjoyed the attempt of CM Punk AJ displayed on last week's Raw. Let them talk gives us a reason as to why this match matters. I think we'll Big Show vs. Erick Rowan tonight on Raw, but ultimately this will lead to their upcoming match at TLC. I think we'll already have the announced Ryback/Kane match, I will like to see if they announce Rusev vs Swagger at TLC, also possibly Ziggler/Harper for the IC Title would be nice and that's that for now. I think what's going to make WWE TLC a success is the mid-card for this show.

*With the live "Stone Cold" Steve Austin Podcast with Mr. McMahon, I don't think he should ask Vince about CM Punk. Don't bring more attention to somebody that continues to bring the company down in a negative light. I think it would be more important for Austin to grill McMahon about the direction of the company, maybe ask a couple of school questions like "Who came up with the idea to have Austin job to Lesnar on Raw in 2002?" stuff like that. This will be in my opinion the biggest interview in the WWE this year. DON'T MISS OUT AND WHAT CAN BE SOMETHING VERY VERY SPECIAL.

I hope you guys enjoy Raw tonight, try not to be like a Roger Ebert/Dave Meltzer wannabe and be so nit picky and try to enjoy the show as fan. That's the advise I give to people before watching Raw. I hope you guys enjoyed this preview. Let me know what you think about this article? And what would you guys like to see happen on Raw tonight?

Follow Me on Twitter @JoshLopezCSR

5 Things To Wonder About Heading Into Sunday's Hell In A Cell Event.

We discussed in our weekly podcast the Hell in the Cell event on Sunday is lacking a lot of fresh match-ups and obvious opportunities to advance storylines to something new.  Still we can come up with five things to wonder about heading into the event on Sunday. So let us get rolling with these in no specific order of importance.

Randy Orton’s health status heading into this event has been up in the air since Monday. There were some rumors that Orton came out of Raw in Kansas City a bit banged up. Nothing much has come of this after the initial speculation but being inside the Hell in The Cell is at times injuries waiting to happen. Cena has been documented as being pretty banged up the past few months. As big a question as who wins this match on Sunday might be, the condition of the winner after the match is over in a legitimate sense. If Lesnar is going to come back to do Survivor Series he will need a healthy opponent for it to be worth the WWE spending the extra money it takes to get their champion to show up. Brock is all about being paid at the end of the day.

Which Cell match ultimately will close this show? Triple H on Raw positioned the two Cell Matches as Co-Main Events but that is a lot of bunk. The last match is the real main event and everyone knows it. Fans clearly are hoping for Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins to close the show. Dean has been on an incredible roll and even had an article he was interviewed for in the Rolling Stone. He is not going be a rock star or anything but, he is starting to build the popularity of one. Complete with the gossip of his relationship with WWE announcer Renee Young. In the end, what is BEST FOR BUSINESS is to have Ambrose and Rollins close the show. This stated most expect the WWE will go with the many times over used headline match of Cena vs. Orton.

Do we see the Wyatt Family be involved on this show? Will they work alone now or still as a unit with three separate agendas? It all remains to be seen at this stage of the game. I suggested on Friday that they could screw Dean Ambrose and this would allow Rollins to move into a feud with Orton as possibility. While we are at people who we wonder if we will see, does Paul Heyman have some sort of role in this show with a potential number one contender being determined for his client champion Brock Lesnar?

Do we get Mark Henry against Big Show III at Survivor Series? The Rusev against Big Show match seems like an obvious place for Mark Henry to get involved and screw the Big Show while Rusev keeps his undefeated run in tact. Henry and Show have been an obvious pairing many times and this could be the third Survivor Series the two have worked a program against on another if Henry does turn on Show or vice versa.

Will A.J Lee keep the Divas title safe from reality television? Paige is heading to Total Divas along with Alicia Fox for the new season that will be kicking off in January. Rumors surfaced that a rule was in place that no Total Diva was allowed to hold the title. This rule came according to reports from Vince himself. Nikki Bella confirmed this rule in an interview with Peter Rosenberg a few weeks ago. Now Stephanie McMahon in here interview with Yahoo Sports claims no rule exists about the Divas title. Guess if A.J wins will consider Stephanie might have been telling a lie. The question would be if the rule were in fact true who will work with A.J going forward. Charlotte Flair might be an answer but she is booked to face Sasha Banks for the NXT Women’s Title she holds in early December.

All this said and we still have no idea who the hell is that damn bunny? In any case, Sunday’s Hell in a Cell on paper looks to have some solid in ring matches with only a couple question marks. Some how we forgot to mention the Bella vs. Bella match when we were talking about potential bad matches.  Consider it a mental block to not wanting to see this match happen.

In any case, WWE has had some surprises of late with Rock and Mick Foley recently appearing out of nowhere like a Randy Orton RKO. Perhaps we get some surprises on the show. Hogan is booked to appear on Raw the next night. Not that he is a surprise at this point. More like a waste of time brother!! However, we hope this was not for you.

Follow us on @Condoonthemoon for all the latest on Hell in a Cell heading into tomorrow night’s show.

WWE Releases Add Some Intrigue To Battle For Number Two

 Things are getting interesting in the wrestling business as the WWE lowered the boom on ten talents today. While the battle for who is number two is heating up between TNA and ROH as they both have Pay-Per-Views coming up.

At Between the Ropes they had the news of all the talents from WWE that were given their walking papers. Can’t say that any of the names surprised me but JTG remains employed for all of you that were worried about that. One day I just want to know the story of how this guy has kept a job with WWE for so long.( NOTE: See the update at bottom JTG is history too)

The one thing that springs to mind is if any of these released talents will become members of TNA or Ring of Honor. One guy that won’t be in that mix is Yoshi Tatsu who was recently injured and if memory serves tore his ACL.

Drew McIntyre might well be the most interesting name on the list. He had his issues in WWE and it involved his former wife and soon to be returning to TNA Taryn Terrell. So that might make him going to TNA something for personal reasons might not make a ton of sense. So, perhaps ROH would have some interest in him? Not sure but it seems to make some sense. Jindar Mahal also is available if someone wanted to keep the pairing together as a tag team. Not that I would recommend that personally I think they could do better as singles at this point.

A wildcard is Evan Bourne who has been missing in action and often injured. The word has been he has been healthy for some time and could fit well for either TNA or ROH if he is healthy. Bourne would be a great guy to revive the X-Division. This is assuming he could be the same talent we last saw in WWE. 

This last name I am going mention Camacho who if you do not know is the son of WWE and WCW star Haku/Meng who was one of the most legitimate tough men in wrestling. Camacho was never really used as a major singles act in WWE. He could easily be booked in TNA or ROH as a legit tough guy that could kick some butt.

Brodus Clay and Curt Hawkins may be two other guys that could garner some interest. What I haven’t mentioned is Global Force Wrestling and if they could factor into this in any way. It is hard to say what they would be willing to pay. However, given Jeff Jarrett’s history in terms of pay it would make sense that both ROH and TNA would have more money to offer if they want to spend it.

This all comes with news that TNA has been trying to lure some under contract ROH talent to come to TNA. There have also been some shady things being done in terms of advertising as well. The war for who is number two in wrestling is heating up and WWE indirectly has added some potential pieces to the puzzle.

If you like backstage drama in wrestling it is getting a little hotter for the summer months. Just today Mark Henry tweeted reminding people on Twitter about his longevity on the day ten of his colleagues were let go.  This didn’t sit well with Curt Hawkins who was one of those ten and suggesting Henry was an idiot and his comments were not exactly sensitive.

The shoot interview business just got a big boost it would appear in the next couple months. In any case things are getting interesting in all three of the major companies in North America behind the scenes.

Condo on the Moon is on Twitter and Facebook and check out our weekly podcasts Every Friday! You can find us now at Condoonthemoon.com

Update 3:45 PM JTG ERA IS OVER: Looks like JTG didn't make it as WWE released  the news on these releases and JTG is indeed on the list.