WWE's website has a new article up asking if the United States Title and the Intercontinental Title should be unified. It features quotes from current champions Dean Ambrose and Big E Langston. Here are some highlights:
WWE.COM: Let’s get right to it: Do you think the United States Title and the Intercontinental Title should be unified?
BIG E LANGSTON:
I’d be open to it. If it strengthens the legitimacy of both titles, then I’m all for it.
DEAN AMBROSE:
It’d be a good thing as long as they made one good looking championship for me to haul around, because I’d definitely be the one holding it.
WWE.COM: Is there a downside to unifying the titles?
AMBROSE:
On the one hand, you’d have fewer titles for people to go for. On the other, it would be a prize that people would definitely want to come after. Nobody wants to come after my United States Title, because everyone has fallen so short and felt the hammer come down from The Shield afterward. It’s a very dangerous proposition to come after my title, so maybe having the championships unified would offer a little more prize money for people to want to go after.
LANGSTON:
I can’t remark on how people would feel positively or negatively, but it would definitely bring more attention to the titles.
WWE.COM: It sounds like you’re both prepared for an eventual champion vs. champion showdown.
LANGSTON:
I’d welcome the challenge.
AMBROSE:
I feel that what I’ve given and sacrificed for the U.S. Title, I’d be willing to put that on the line as a pride thing. It’s just as good as the Intercontinental Title. That’s something I’d be willing to prove.
Roman Reigns recently spoke to The Norfolk Navy Flagship to promote WWE's Tribute to the Troops. Here are some highlights:
JM:
With so many famous family members (ie: The Rock, Afa and Sika of the Wild Samoans, Rikishi, The Usos, etc.), did they have a hand in influencing your wrestling style, or did you look to someone outside of the family?
RR:
My natural movement, it’s hereditary I’ll say. We all are able to move and do pretty athletic things. My family is the majority of the influence, but going down to FCW (Florida Championship Wrestling, now NXT – WWE’s developmental program) and wrestling all of those guys down there – Dr. Tom Prichard, Joey Mercury, Bill Demott, Norman Smiley, Steve Keirn. Even to this day, talking to Triple H and with all of these resources we have here. When it comes down to it, I try to create a different style. A little more brutal. You can watch fight scenes or MMA and see how they move. There have been a lot of things that influenced me, but I can only be me. That’s what I try to focus on, making everything my own.
JM:
You, along with fellow Shield members, have been on the WWE main roster for only 13 months now, but you’ve done a lot in that period of time. What has stood out as your favorite moment so far?
RR:
I have to say WrestleMania. I look around and there are guys who have never performed on that stage. Just to say that we did that our very first year and opened the show. That’s a big deal for all three of us. There are a lot of cool moments we have had. When we wrestled The Undertaker, Kane and Daniel Bryan in London (during a recent European tour) – there’s a shot of us flying in on a helicopter. What some people don’t know is that we did a live event earlier that day. We opened that show and then we jumped on a helicopter and flew all the way to London. We went out there and wrestled three of the biggest stars of all time. The next night, we put (The Undertaker) out. That was a surreal moment. WrestleMania and working with The Undertaker are phenomenal moments that I won’t forget for the rest of my life.
JM:
The Shield always enters from the crowd. What are the pros and cons of making your entrance from the stage (“Gorilla Position”) or from the crowd?
RR:
I enjoy the crowd. When you walk through the curtain onto the stage, you have a different point of view looking at the house. When we come down the stairwells, that’s a different view in its own right, too. It’s so unique for us. I’ve read on social media and different interviews that, now, people are specifically trying to buy tickets on that particular side of the arena. They’re trying to get seats on the row that we’re walking down because it’s such a cool moment for people to size us up and get a feel for what we look like a foot away. We’re trying to put on a show that can’t be duplicated by any other form of entertainment. I like to think that’s a staple for WWE at this point with The Shield.
JM:
Did you take notes on the Spear from Edge and Goldberg matches?
RR:
Even to this day, watching matches, I don’t watch the maneuvers. I feel like I am athletic enough to do any maneuver. It’s not the moves, but what you do between them. The mannerisms are where the money is. A spear is a spear. I’d like to think that I deliver the best one ever seen, but that’s up to the fans to judge. It did help playing football all of those years.
JM:
What do you have planned for 2014? There seems to be some dissension with you and Dean Ambrose.
RR:
As far as The Shield – for the past 13 months, it seems like we’ve done it all. People are going pretty nuts about what we’ve done, but there’s so much left to do. Whether we’re working together or fighting each other, there’s just so much more to see. It’s going to be the year of The Shield, whether we’re together or not.
His debut when he knocked Kane into Lita, causing her to miscarry:
"The whole storyline was kind of cool I thought. It was so different, it was pushing the envelope. Let's be realistic, everything's been done in wrestling that can be done, and back then it wasn't as corporate so you could get away with a little more. Nowdays, that storyline would never ever be able to take place. A lot of people don't realize, it was only supposed to be that one incident, and I was then gonna go back to OVW and keep training until they brought me back up. But it got such a reaction that it took off and had a mind of its own, so they rolled with it. I knew it was gonna be good as soon as I hit him with the chair and he fell on her, the whole crowd started chanting "baby killer". When that happened, I was like, This is great, this is gonna be good."
On the angle where he punted a baby doll:
"I don't remember exactly who came up with it, but I remember rehearsing it with everybody involved and Vince was very adamant on me kicking the baby doll, and he's like "You better not f--- it up". And I was like "Don't worry Vince, I'm not gonna f--- it up, I was an all-area punter on my football team in high school. I ain't gonna f--- it up, trust me". So after we did it and it came off so good, I remember coming back through the curtain and he gave me a standing ovation. The thing that surprised me was that it stayed in once piece; i thought for sure that the head would have popped off it or something. The little brat took it like a champ!"
His infamous encounter with Heidenreich:
"I don't think two guys ever pulled off a creepier, more homoerotic backstage segment in the history of wrestling."
Being in the company for the rise of John Cena and Batista:
"If the writers want to push a certain character, or Vince wants to push a certain character, they're getting thrown to the top, whether you like it or not. Once Vince picks his guy and goes with him, he's gonna go with him. When they made me shave my head and paint my teeth, it was Vince's idea. Once Vince gets an idea, you do it."
Why he left WWE:
"Basically it was just creative differences. I didn't like the direction my character was going, and for about six months I would go back and forth with the writers. They were always real big on incorporating your input, so I'd shoot them ideas, and week after week they'd get shot down, and I didn't really like how they were taking it. It just got to the point where it was best to part ways, but I left on good terms."
On whether he watches the current WWE product:
"I DV-R it every week, and I sort of keep up with it but I fast forward through a lot of it. A lot of it's too normal for me. I've always been an off-the-wall guy, going back to high school, I was always the guy who would do anything to get a reaction. Going to parties and running through walls and stuff like that. To me, that's fun. The stuff that you see guys doing now is kind of boring if you ask me. They don't do anything out of the ordinary any more."
His foot fetish:
"I always liked Torrie Wilson, she was always one of my favorites, and we still joke about it. I'd always tell her, you have such nice feet, and she'd just kind of chuckle. But we're still friends, I did some bodyguard work for her boyfriend Alex Rodriguez so I still keep in touch with her, she's really cool. There's a lot of them that have nice feet, but you don't walk around backstage and say 'Can I suck your toes?!'"
We noted before that Vince McMahon took a shot at President Obama taking a photo of himself at the Nelson Mandela funeral by having the RAW announcers take a "selfie" on RAW recently.
The reaction backstage was a lot of people hated it because they felt the announcers made the Big Show and Rey Mysterio vs. Cody Rhodes and Goldust match, which was to build towards a title match, seem unimportant, and that it was a "first time ever" match and those matches are so rare.
Steve Austin has no contractual ties to WWE right now. That means he can’t use the Stone Cold name, which WWE owns, although he has the rights to the Steve Austin name, which is now his legal name, as part of an agreement with WWE.
