WWE: WWE Reportedly Considering Plans for Potential New Members for Seth Rollins’ Faction, Stephanie McMahon on Vince McMahon Is Probably His Own “Biggest Nemesis”, More News

WWE Reportedly Considering Plans for Potential New Members for Seth Rollins’ Faction

Since this past April’s WrestleMania 40 Night 1 event, Seth Rollins has been leading a new faction in WWE that has been dominating the RAW brand and spilling over to the SmackDown brand. This heel faction currently consists of himself, Paul Heyman, Bron Breakker, and most recently “Big” Bronson Reed.

Bodyslam.net’s Cory Hays reported that his sources stated that WWE officials have recently held internal discussions regarding the idea of adding more potential new members to Rollins’ faction within the future.

Hays reported that those spoken to stated that two names currently being discussed as potential future members are current NXT North American Champion “All Ego” Ethan Page and Ricky Saints.

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Stephanie McMahon Comments on Vince McMahon Is Probably His Own “Biggest Nemesis”

A recent episode of the What’s Your Story? with Stephanie McMahon podcast featured WWE President Nick Khan as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Khan and co-host Stephanie McMahon’s thoughts about the concept of perseverance and if it something you’re born with or something that can be learned and how it relates to former WWE and TKO Executive Chairman Vince McMahon.

“His mindset was, if he could survive, he won. So just surviving was winning and still is winning for him today. And I don’t know how you can ever beat someone at the end of the day if all they need to do is survive to win.”

Khan gave his thoughts about how there are not many people who could have survived what Vince went through and his admiration of Vince building up WWE into a wrestling empire.

“So all credit to him. I only have admiration for him. As Paul said — Triple H said — at his Hall of Fame speech, family’s complicated. And, you know, obviously, we don’t need to get into any of that. But in terms of business, that guy’s an empire builder.”

McMahon responded giving her thoughts about her father’s business success and how his biggest nemesis is himself implying the real-life legal issues and controversies her father has been involved in.

“Absolutely he is [an empire builder]. And no one can take that away from him, no matter what, including himself, who is probably his biggest nemesis — is himself.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com

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WWE News & Notes

WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque posted a video on Twitter of a recent visit he had at the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida to meet with NXT talent Blake Monroe, former Mariah May in AEW and Stardom, and other NXT talents.

The Prudential Center recently announced that John Cena will be making an appearance at the August 1st WWE SmackDown show at their venue in Newark, New Jersey.

Besides the upcoming August 1st SmackDown show, WWE also announced that they will be holding two new WWE RAW shows that month. It was announced that the August 4th RAW show will be taking place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York and the August 18th RAW show will be taking place at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In a recent interview with the What’s Your Story? with Stephanie McMahon podcast, WWE President Nick Khan gave his thoughts about how he and WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque have been learning from their mistakes to help make WWE better in the long run. Khan stated “Same with business, and if you make a mistake in the decision, that’s okay too. Fix it. No issue. Paul (Levesque) and I, Triple H and I, we make mistakes in business every day. The good thing is we have one another, where we can say, ‘I think I did this. What do you think?’ ‘Ah, I don’t think that was the move. Maybe we could think of it the other way.’ ‘Okay, let’s try that,’ and then to the executive committee meeting — the executive committee part of me, the senior leadership team will say, ‘Hey, this got messed up. We’re gonna pivot,’ we’re gonna do X, Y and Z instead and everyone rolls in the same direction.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

During the same interview, WWE President Nick Khan also gave his thoughts about how WWE has told its creative team to book for their wider audience instead of people on social media who he claims just wants to criticize the company. Khan stated “Steph, I promise you this, I’ve never once searched my name on X, on any social media platform, on Google. If it says something positive, it has no relevancy to me. If it says something negative, it has no relevancy to me. I love hearing that Paul says that to you. I know he believes that [ignoring negative comments on social media]. And it’s something we encourage our creative team and writers. Like, don’t program for that. Program for the universe, not for a small portion of the universe who wants to criticize you. That doesn’t matter. Move on, put on a good product, the money will be there, the fans will be there, the results will be there.” (Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com)

In a recent interview with the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast, Elayna Black, former Cora Jade in WWE, gave her thoughts about how she had a gut feeling that her release from WWE was coming soon despite having a creative meeting just two days prior to her release. Black stated “I feel like, overall, yes. But if you had asked me, just because of my intuition, in those like few weeks leading up to it, I would have said no. I kind of felt that it was coming, again, not because something specific had happened. It was just that gut feeling. But I feel like, overall, I was a little bit surprised. Because two days prior to my release, I had went in and had a meeting with said person two days before and I had given so many ideas. I had set aside my personal feelings for this person, given so many ideas, was very professional, we had what I felt like was a great conversation. He’s pulling out his laptop, typing all these ideas, basically gaslighting me, and then two days later I get fired. So it was like, why even do that? Why have me give you all these ideas? You asked me to come in for this meeting. I had asked to have a meeting prior, but you asked me to come in on that day, at that time, typing in all these ideas. And then two days later, you can’t even respond to a text.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with the Busted Open Radio podcast, former WWE talent Carlito gave his thoughts about his release from WWE earlier this month and him not getting the chance to close out his storyline involvement with the Judgement Day. Carlito stated “I wasn’t too surprised or too shocked. I signed for two years and it actually went better than I thought it would go. I’m a professional. They could have told me and at least let me finish the story with Judgment Day so they can keep on going. It’s disrespectful to the fans that they just drop storylines. Honestly, I felt worse for Truth. If it wasn’t a work. I felt worse for Truth. There are certain guys that I think should have a proper send off. Everybody’s time comes. You can’t keep everybody forever. I was glad to see things work out for him.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with the WWE RAW Recap podcast, Bayley gave her thoughts about the legacy of the men’s Intercontinental Championship in WWE and if rivalries like her and Becky’s will help elevate the Women’s Intercontinental title to same those heights. Bayley stated “It’s really cool to think that people may think like that. I think to me, it’s not about the title right now. It’s just kind of like a cherry on top, to be honest. As much as I would love to win that title, as much as I would love to win the US Women’s title, because those are things I’ve never done before. Like you said, like I’ve done a lot, almost everything, but there’s two brand new titles that I’ve never won that I wouldn’t mind carrying and calling myself one of those champions one day. But I also think that the Intercontinental title for the women, it started off really well. I think the tournament was awesome. All the matches that Lyra had and defended, I think were freaking great. I think she was a perfect inaugural champion. I think like the whole workhorse title, really showcased in the women’s division as well. I think it got off to a good start, but I do believe for Becky and I to bring our experience to that championship and get the eyes on it, it’s only going to make everybody in the division hungrier to get that title, and that’s what it’s all about. That’s really like bringing in the tag titles. Like that was always the goal was to bring more eyes on more women in the division, make the women more hungry and want something bigger and better and more for themselves. I think that’s what this is going to do. If a match between Becky and I can even level it up just a little bit, then that’s what I want to do. But I’m just here to beat the living crap out of her, and my shoulder is nice and healthy now. So I think the title would fit perfectly.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)