WWE News: Raw Commentary Team Changes, Seth Rollins on WWE Backstage (Video)
Dio Maddin has not been seen in the Raw Commentary booth since November 4th when he was brutally attacked by Brock Lesnar. It was announced last night on WWE Backstage that Madden will not be rejoining the Raw announce team and will instead be returning to the WWE Performance Cnter to continue his training to become a wrestler. Maddin tweeted the following last night about planning on returning to the ring to eventually get revenge on Lesnar.
Matt Riddle moved on to Goldberg so I’ll retire Brock.
— Brennan Williams (@GREATBLACKOTAKU) December 4, 2019
Samoa Joe will continue to temporarily fill in as the third man on the Raw Commentary team while he recovers from a broken thumb. It is unknown at this time who will be chosen as the permanent replacement once Joe is cleared for in-ring action.
Also on WWE Backstage, Seth Rollins joined the show to discuss the red light during his match with “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt, his issues with CM Punk and a portion of the audience beginning to turn on him.
On the topic of the red light that was on during the entirety of his Hell in a Cell Match against “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt, Rollins said the following.
“I didn’t know. I had no idea that it was gonna stay on. It was part of his entrance and then it just never turned off.” He added, “It was a mess for me because first of all, you’re in this dark red. The cell is also red and you’re trying to navigatearound the edges of the cell and it’s very tight quarters to begin with. It was a mess, it was very difficult to deal with especially not knowing it wasgonna happen. I for one am not a fan. I feel like it affects my performance personally.”
On Rollins’s recent issues with CM Punk, who was not on last night episode, Rollins has the following to say.
“I’m here, he’s not here and I’m not shocked about that. I think I’ve exhausted all of my energy on the subject. I just don’t think it’s going anywhere, I’m not shocked that he’s not here, so I think it’s time to maybe move on to something that matters. I wish he was here. I wish we could have a face-to-face, but it’s not in the cards.”
Finally, Rollins discussed a small portion of the audience beginning to boo him, stating that it does have an affect on him.
“I think it affects you—whether you want to fess up to it or not—you read the comments, you hear the small segment of the audiences. Let’s be clear, this is not everywhere, I do live events all over the world and I’m not getting booed. There’s small contingent of our audience that’s very vocal on social media. … This is my life, I love this business, so when you put so much into it, to feel like I get disrespected. I’m going to push back. I’m not a guy, like [John] Cena who’s gonna put motivational quotes on Twitter, or like Roman [Reigns] and kind of hang back.”
“It’s the cool thing to do is hate me. The cool thing is to hate the guy on top. I’m not going to say I’m the first, I’m not breaking ground. Roman before me, Cena was the same thing, he may have pioneered it. Bret Hart, maybe the same thing.”
Thank you to WrestlingInc for the use of the quotes.
Matt’s Musings: Dio Maddin’s career as a Raw Commentator barely began before it was ended abruptly by Brock Lesnar. Hopefully, Madden can continue his journey to being a in-ring competitor and return to Raw one day.
As for Seth Rollins, he continues to walk the line between being a face or a heel without committing fully either way. If however, he can somehow convince the people backstage to turn off that stupid red light, he will always be a face to me.