Wrestling

The first round of the Cageside Seats Greatest Finisher Tournament continues today with a match-up pitting number four seed the Doomsday Device, as performed by the Road Warriors, against number 13 seed the Pepsi Plunge, as performed by CM Punk. Remember, voting closes at midnight CT. In order to cast your vote, leave a comment and in the subject line make sure you adhere to the guidelines as follows: To vote Doomsday Device simply write: Vote - DeviceTo vote Pepsi Plunge simply write: Vote - Plunge Here are videos showcasing each move. Doomsday Device: Pepsi Plunge: Updated bracket:

Speculating on the rumors surrounding pro wrestling is a favored pastime of many fans, perhaps second only to actually watching the matches. In this daily column, we take a look at the latest rumors being churned out by the pro wrestling rumor mill. Important reminder: Rumors are just that -- rumors. None of this has been confirmed as legitimate news or fact; so remember to take it all with a grain of salt. Rumors for the Day: John Cena took Monday night's (May 20) Raw off to sell the injuries he sustained in his "Last Man Standing" match against Ryback at Sunday's Extreme Rules pay per view. However, he won't be missing any more time, as he is expected back next week. Curiously, if you recall about one month ago, it was announced that Cena would me missing this weekend's house show dates while WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels was being advertised for them. So it would seem that it has been part of the plan for quite some time that Cena would be missing this week's action. (Even though he isn't expected at this coming weekend's house shows, he still wrestled in the post-Raw dark match Monday night.) Brock Lesnar, on the other hand, is expected to be out for at least two months. He will likely return at some point after July's Money in the Bank in order to set up a feud for SummerSlam. There is no word yet on his possible opponent for that event, but past rumors suggested that CM Punk and Randy Orton are two guys WWE would like to set him against at some point during the next two years of his contract. Mark Henry re-injured the shoulder that kept him out for most of 2012 at Extreme Rules and is expected to miss time as a result. How much time he will miss, if any, will depend on the severity of the injury. Recent rumors have indicated that WWE would like to have Henry enter a feud with Big E Langston to set up a match at SummerSlam. If you watched carefully, you may have noticed that the Titantron read "Curt Axel" during his initial debut as Paul Heyman's newest client while the Titantron read "Curtis Axel" when he returned for his match with Triple H later in the night. Originally, he was going to go by "Curt" but a last second decision was made to go with "Curtis." The reasoning is anyone's guess. And if you listened carefully, you may have heard Titus O'Neil drop an audible "F-bomb" during his match with Sheamus. While it's unlikely that O'Neil would be fired or suspended, he will likely, at minimum, face some heat from management for violating WWE's PG restrictions. TNA's James Storm received good news last week in that his stomach injury was less severe than initially feared and would not require surgery. However, the injuries he did sustain (a torn adductor muscle and groin pull) will take 6-8 weeks to recover fully. Storm is scheduled to be part of a fatal fourway tag team match for the TNA tag team titles at the June, 2 Slammiversary event from Boston, MA. This latest diagnosis could put Storm's ability to participate in doubt, though a tag team match is a good way to protect him in the event he does wrestler without fully recovering. If you have heard of any interesting rumors that you'd like to add, feel free to post them in the comments section below. Please remember, these are merely rumors. Try not to take them too seriously, just have fun with them.

WWE SmackDown returns to SyFy this coming Friday night (May 24, 2013) from Omaha, Nebraska, but the show was taped, as usual, on Tuesday night. That means full spoilers are readily available if you're the impatient type who doesn't want to wait a couple days for the payoff. Unwrap that present early (via ProWrestling.net): -- MizTV again opens the show because WWE never seems to have an original idea anymore. Fandango was the guest and the segment played up issues between the two and Wade Barrett, who came out and set up a match with Miz for the Intercontinental championship. -- Miz def. Barrett via disqualification thanks to Fandango, who again did his gimmick where he dances during a match. -- Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter promo leads to a match against Daniel Bryan, who really isn't the weak link in the tag team with Kane, promise. -- Bryan def. Swagger with the No Lock. Kane was with him. What a confidence boost. -- Damien Sandow in-ring segment, which sounds off. Something about wearing a suit and tie, sitting at a table with a rope tied in a knot on it. Also, Matt Striker was doing an interview but Sheamus came out and threw Striker onto Sandow. This sounds ridiculous and hopefully it's not just Sheamus being a dickhead babyface again. But it probably is exactly that. -- Chris Jericho def. Big Show by count out in what sounds like a nothing match. -- Paul Heyman brings out Curtis Axel for a promo. As expected, they play up the fact that it was Axel who put Triple H out of commission, which likely means "The Game" will be returning after a few months to bury him at SummerSlam. Axel claims that his taking Triple H out means he's done more than both his father and grandfather. -- Axel def. Sin Cara in a nothing match that was designed to get Axel a win and make him look good. No botches reported. -- Kofi Kingston def. Dean Ambrose via disqualification. Ambrose, of course, keeps the U.S. title. The DQ came, of course, after interference from Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. Randy Orton and Sheamus randomly ran in to make the save, showing some continuity in the storytelling, and maybe a little boredom from two of the top stars on the blue brand. It's not like they're doing anything else. Naturally, Teddy Long jumped at the chance to make a six-man tag match for the true main event of the show. -- The Shield def. Kingston, Sheamus, & Orton with Ambrose pinning Kingston and The Shield once again stood tall with all of the titles. That's the show, Cagesiders. Still believe?

WWE gave us its latest pay-per-view (PPV) event, Extreme Rules 2013 on Sunday night (May 19) live from The Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri. The show featured an Extreme Rules Match in a Steel Cage between Brock Lesnar and Triple H; which, if you picked Lesnar, you earned TWO points. There was a total of 9 points to be had in this event, thanks to Cena vs. Ryback ending in a No Contest. So, let's talk about the scoring, shall we? SCORING FOR EVENT FIFTEEN ~ WWE EXTREME RULES '13: Reminder of all the rules for Event 15 in our inaugural PPV Pick Em Season: Extreme Rules '13 Edition ~ For each correct prediction of the undercard matches, you get one point, and for correctly predicting the main event (whichever match goes on last), you get two points. This continues for every WWE and TNA PPV event until the end of the season, which culminates just before the August 18 event, SummerSlam 2013; when the points will be added and a winner crowned. Your prize will be The Big Gold Belt, so make your picks count, folks. Now onto the line-up for Extreme Rules: No Points - NO CONTEST, WWE Champion John Cena vs. Ryback (Last Man Standing Match) 2 points - Brock Lesnar def Triple H (Steel Cage Match) 1 point - Alberto Del Rio def Jack Swagger ('I Quit' Match) 1 point - Dean Ambrose def United States Champion Kofi Kingston 1 point - The Shield's Reigns and Rollins def WWE Tag Team Champions Team Hell No (Tag Team Tornado Match) 1 point - Sheamus def Mark Henry (Strap Match) 1 point - Randy Orton def Big Show (Extreme Rules Match) 1 point - Chris Jericho def Fandango 1 point - The Miz def Cody Rhodes (Pre-Show) That is a total of 9 points available for eight matches; best case scenario is to go 9-8-0 in the rankings. Speaking of that, let's not waste any more time getting straight to the latest results from the picks for this event. THE CUMULATIVE STANDINGS: Who is the current leader of the pack? "bangarang18" all we can say to you is, yet again, "You better prepare yourself, cause Chris Hines and J-Rodzilla are coming for you, SUCKA!" Let's take a look at where everyone else stands and remember, we'll be back on Sunday, May 19, 2013, for WWE and its next PPV offering... Next up will be WWE Extreme Rules 2013, so be prepared to secure yourself some more points then! Note: If you believe there are any discrepancies present in the charts below, please notify our staff. But for now, let's not waste any more time getting straight to the cumulative standings for this season -- (click images to enlarge) OUR ILLUSTRIOUS TOP TEN: The Middle of the Pack (11-75): Those who are determined to never give up, or die trying to have fun (76-102): (click images to enlarge) ________________________ THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN ELIMINATED: NOTE: If your name no longer appears on these charts, it is because you were eliminated from the game, due to lack of participation. Our rules state: Not picking in three consecutive events (since your last picks), is grounds for removal. Also, starting with event #9-TLC, missing a total of eight events (since you made your first picks of the season), will also result in elimination from the game. ONCE YOU ARE ELIMINATED, YOU ARE NOT PERMITTED TO MAKE PICKS IN THE PPV PICK EM THREADS AGAIN *Regarding Eliminations: Anyone noticing a series of asterisks (***) after their name above, has just become eligible for elimination after the NEXT event. So, if you do NOT make picks for TNA's Slammiversary 2013 event, which airs on Sunday, June 9, 2013, you WILL be eliminated at that time, and no longer eligible to participate. *** For a list of every eliminated participant so far this season, check here *** ````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` IMPORTANT GAME PLAYER INFO: For the final schedule of remaining events in our 2012-2013 PPV Pick ‘Em Game season, check here. If you feel an error has been made, or if you wish to rem

Straight from our Cageside Features Section, we bring you the results for our fifth CSS Pro Wrestling Championship Series of tournaments here at Cageside Seats. Our latest match-up in the first round of our tourney is complete, and so are your results. Yesterday, (Tue., May 21) our number seven-seeded Top Turnbuckle Brainbuster easily defeated the tenth-seeded Buzzsaw Kick by 48 votes! Thus bringing the Top Turnbuckle Brainbuster one-step closer to being crowned the Greatest Finisher of All Time. The final tally was: (Click Image to Enlarge) Be sure to vote today (Wed., May 22) as the CSSGFT continues our next first round match: (4) Doomsday Device vs. (13) Pepsi Plunge. Voting will remain open in the comments section of the new match thread from 6 a.m. ET today, right up until midnight-CT tonight -- with the results announced tomorrow (Thurs., May 23). Our bracket will continue to be narrowed down by you, the Cagesiders, in order to determine which finisher CSS believes to be the Greatest Finisher of All Time.

This past Monday night's (May 20, 2013) episode of Raw, the fallout show from the Extreme Rules pay-per-view (PPV) that went down the evening before in St. Louis, faced no competition from the NBA Playoffs like it has for the past couple weeks. Because of that, the numbers were up from last week. But they were not up from last year. Indeed, Monday's show did a 3.0 rating for an average of 4.23 million viewers for all three hours. That's slightly up from 4.15 million last week against the Miami Heat vs. Chicago Bulls game, though it was down from the 4.89 million viewers last year's show averaged. Remember, though, that was one night after Brock Lesnar's big return match against John Cena. The more interesting aspect of the ratings for Monday's show, however, is the hourly breakdown. Just like last week, the show started slow in hour one and gradually improved throughout the evening. Hour one: 4.07 millionHour two: 4.29 millionHour three: 4.30 million If they manage to do this again next week, you can call it a pattern. This after the first 16 weeks of the year saw the third hour drop viewers from the second. Dare we say WWE has found a better formula? We'll see if it holds. For complete results and the live blog click here. For reactions to the show click here. And for a playlist of the entire night click here.

We have a super packed edition of the Bryan & Vinny Show for your listening pleasure here tonight. Full reviews of a boring Smackdown from Friday night, a fun Extreme Rules PPV, a Raw show that Vinny actually thought was excellent, plus a very interesting documentary on the life of WWE's Paige, Knight Dynasty: Fighting With My Family. All that plus new songs and drops. A fun show as always so check it out~! {radioShow dmdocuments/052113bvshow.mp3}

The following matches were taped for this week's WWE Smackdown: -A MizTV segment will air featuring Fandango and Summer Rae -The originally planned Sin Cara vs Wade Barrett IC Title match, announced for Main Event, was scrapped in favor of The Miz vs Wade Barrett for the Title on Smackdown. -Daniel Bryan vs Jack Swagger -Chris Jericho vs Big Show -Curtis Axel vs Sin Cara -Dean Ambrose (c) vs Kofi Kingston for the U.S. Title -Randy Orton, Sheamus and Kofi Kingston vs The Shield

WWE.com has posted story line updates for both Triple H and John Cena following Extreme Rules and Raw this week. As for Triple H, WWE announced that all of his medical tests came back normal, but he will be further evaluated this week to "get a better idea how he's doing mentally, as far as reaction time, thought process and so on." As for Cena, WWE announced that while he suffered multiple contusions during his match against Ryback at Extreme Rules, he is not expected to miss any ring time and he is being advertised to return to Raw next week.

Source: PWInsider.com Dark Match: Justin Gabriel beat Cody Rhodes, which makes both of them better than Zack Ryder. Main Event: Alberto Del Rio beat Big E. Langston to avenge his win from Raw. The Usos beat Jinder Mahal and Drew McIntyre. I hope they taped this out of order. We didn't get the US Title rematch that was announced on Raw. Smackdown: The show opened with Miz TV. He had Fandango as the guest. This led to Wade Barrett coming out. He was mad at Fandango for what happened on Raw. They put him in a match with Miz because he interrupted and they fought. Fandango is Teflon. Fandango went to commentary. He danced at ringside and they all went back to the ring. Barrett hit the hammer on Fandango, but it was a DQ. For the third night in a row, Jack Swagger lost in a good match. Tonight it was to Daniel Bryan. Kane was with him to counteract Zeb. Matt Striker interviewed Damien Sandow. He talked smack on Sheamus. Looks like they are setting that up. Big Show was beating up Chris Jericho when Y2J hit a Codebreaker on the floor and got back in the ring before 10 to win. Paul Heyman and Curtis Axel came out and ran down Triple H. Then, Axel beat Sin Cara. We got our ION Main Event match next as Kofi Kingston and Dean Ambrose went to a no contest when the other Shield guys attacked and Orton and Sheamus made the save. It turned into a six man that The Shield won when Ambrose pinned Kofi. After the match Team Hell No came out and the faces were left standing tall as The Shield got laid out.