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:

• Over the past week, the rumor that Glenn Jacobs (Kane's real name) would be running in next year's primary elections for a seat in the Tennessee state senate gained some momentum. Unfortunately for those who wanted to see "The Big Red Monster" as a senator, Jacobs recently debunked that rumor in an interview, stating that "things get a little carried away on the internet."
• Yesterday, we mentioned that Rey Mysterio was visiting renowned surgeon Dr. James Andrews hoping to be cleared to return to action after his most recent knee injury. Instead, Mysterio will be undergoing a minor "clean up" surgery on the knee, pushing his potential return back indefinitely.
  
• It has been announced that Sin Cara will be getting an Intercontinental title shot against Wade Barrett on Wednesday's (May 22) Main Event. Sin Cara earned the title shot by defeating Barrett on last week's show. Miz is also expected to hang around the IC title scene in order to invoke his "rematch clause" since losing the title.
• One reason why so many NXT talents were "future endeavored" last week was to make room for the upcoming influx of new talent in WWE's developmental program. WWE has deals with, or is expected to soon have deals with, a number of Indy talents, amateur wrestlers, and even a pro weightlifter.
  
• There were some rumors swirling yesterday that Rob Van Dam was expected to return to WWE on last night's (May 20) Raw. Clearly, that didn't happen and it doesn't look like there was much substance behind the rumors. Van Dam had previously stated, following his contract expiring with TNA, that he wouldn't want to work the grueling full time schedule in WWE and would only be interested in a part time role, something WWE apparently isn't willing to give him at this time.

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.

The first round of the Cageside Seats Greatest Finisher Tournament continues today with a match-up pitting number seven seed the Top Turnbuckle Brainbuster, as performed by El Generico, against number 10 seed the Buzzsaw Kick, as performed by Tajiri.

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 Top Turnbuckle Brainbuster simply write: Vote - Brainbuster
To vote Buzzsaw Kick simply write: Vote - Buzzsaw

Here are videos showcasing each move.

Top Turnbuckle Brainbuster:

Buzzsaw Kick:

Updated bracket:

WWE returned to the USA network for Monday Night Raw last night (May 20, 2013) from Kansas City, Missouri, featuring the fallout show from the Extreme Rules pay-per-view (PPV) this past Sunday night at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

Click here for full results and the live blog from the show if you missed it. Let's get right to reactions. Remember, these were written as the show moved along with real time reactions to everything that occurred hour-by-hour.

HOUR ONE

• Ryback showing up to Raw in an ambulance would have worked better had John Cena actually, you know, went to the hospital last night. He literally refused to get into the ambulance and WWE publicized that fact many times over. They even replayed that footage shortly after Ryback came out. Oh dear god, this was all done to set up an Ambulance match between the two at Payback. "It doesn't matter if you can't get up, throwing a man into an ambulance is all that matters." Dear god, this is painful.
• Ryback going off on the fans lack of nutritional education has to be the most unintentionally hilarious thing I've seen on WWE television in some time. Maybe other than a Ryback match itself. Remember, this is a guy who was introduced on Tough Enough and frequently made fun of for the fact that all he does is eat and he'll eat anything and everything in sight.
• Yes, Michael Cole, people still go to the library. No, WWE, I don't want to spend multiple minutes of the evening listening to Jerry Lawler's old ass talking about the many ways he wants to violate Summer Rae.
• Holy shit, Wade Barrett's new music.
• Why am I supposed to care about Road Dogg cutting a promo during a match? The WWE App is not this important, is it? Do they actually want me to stop caring about the matches going on in the ring in favor of old guys in suits talking to Josh fucking Matthews? Really? Granted, Wade Barrett and Miz were involved in the match happening at the time, but still.
• Okay, so I actually marked out quite a bit when Fandango just ditched the tag team match -- seriously, fuck a tag match like this just randomly thrown together -- and started dancing, with his music playing, while the match was still going on in the ring. His bailing on Summer was great too.
• Kane and Daniel Bryan are finally showing more signs of dissension? That's nice to see. Kofi Kingston getting a bigger pop than both of them when he appeared on screen? That's just weird to see.
• Not much to say about Sheamus beating Titus O'Neil other than how much it sucks that O'Neil hasn't been put in a better position to succeed.

HOUR TWO

• Curtis Axel? Curt Axel? Ummmm ... yeah, I don't know about the name. I guess at least he got "Curt" out of the deal, although Hennig would have been better. That said, the utter and complete ridiculousness of the reaction from so many smarky fans almost ruined this. Everyone likes to bitch and moan that WWE never pushes a new guy, then they go and align McGillicutty with Paul Heyman and everyone continues bitching and moaning. It's unbelievable. This is why WWE will NEVER cater to you, EVER. You're impossible to please.
• When Triple H's music hit, the very first thought running through everyone's already cynical mind had to be the same: "Oh god, they're not going to bury this kid already, are they?" That was my thought, at least. Sure enough, "The Game" brushed him aside verbally before literally open hand smacking him in the face. Oh and now they book a match between the two for later in the night. Ugh. Yep. "The boys" would call that hazing, or making Axel pay his dues, or some other dumb shit like that, but this was stupid. Unless Axel wins later, this makes ZERO sense.
• While I'm still highly offended by Big E. Langston's ring attire, he gets a pass for using the old school rake to the eyes to beat Alberto Del Rio. And while I've always hated Hulk Hogan for his various transgressions during his time in the professional wrestling business, he always had the best rake to the eyes.
• I really loved the finish to that match, though. AJ Lee throws a bucket across the ring to distract the referee long enough for Big E. to rake Del Rio's eyes and hit the Big Ending, which got the pin. Why is that so great? Because they didn't do any instant replay for it. This less than 24 hours after they did the instant replay gimmick for Del Rio vs. Jack Swagger. Unbelievable. This is a company we actually watch on a weekly basis, folks. I just ... I just ... Yeah.
• AJ's Black Widow submission might be the best finisher going in pro wrestling right now. I'm not even going to bring up the manner in which Layla tapped out to it. I won't bring that up. This is me not bringing that up.
• Poor Zack Ryder. He jobs to Cody Rhodes, himself a glorified jobber at this point, before having to be subjected to Ryback running through him as a "statement to John Cena," according to JBL. Ryder was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, again according to JBL. Isn't that pretty much his entire career at this point? I think Ryder should just start taking pride in his work at this point. Ryder vs. Heath Slater should happen on PPV at the nearest opportunity.
• I love The Shield holding all those titles. I don't love the design to the titles they're holding. It's too bad they gave Dean Ambrose the U.S. title instead of the Intercontinental belt because that white leather would look great with the white undershirt he's rocking these days. Still, all the titles.
• "The Hounds of Justice run this yard and we carry the collars to back it up." That is an outstanding line from Roman Reigns. Great delivery, too.

HOUR THREE

• Love the story going with Daniel Bryan getting increasingly upset with the idea that he's the weak link in the tag team with Kane. He's great at playing a character, no matter what role he's working, and this more intense version, mixing anger with frustration, is a real treat.
• Bryan doing a suicide dive out one side of the ring at the same time Kingston did one out the other side was just phenomenal. Remember when we talked about Antonio Cesaro and seeing something new and how much that matters? Yeah, that.
• The Shield haven't had a bad match yet. I don't care if they're "Internet darlings" and I'm part of pushing them. They're just that damn good. I can't even stay objective anymore. When Reigns went for the pin on Kane after the spear last night, I was actively hoping he would get the three count. They've made me a mark again.
• Another reason I can't help but dig The Shield: It was pointed out to me by my sister-in-law, Talytha, that Seth Rollins was born in one of the Quad Cities in Illinois, Davenport. I was born and raised in those same Quad Cities, currently residing in Moline. I have to mark for my hometown guy, right? Right?
• I'm never happy to see a Jack Swagger match but when Randy Orton won that App poll, I was downright filled with glee imagining the possibilities. If he hurt Orton like he hurt Dolph Ziggler, he's fired or de-pushed within the next two weeks. That possibility made his match intriguing for me when that's all I was focusing on. That and Zeb Colter twirling his mustache.
• The match went really long, too, but Swagger didn't hurt Orton. So he keeps his job, though thankfully he did one for old Randall.
• I do really like the Mr. Perfect theme song remix that Axel is using.
• When Axel -- I guess we have to call him that now, and I'm having trouble not thinking Beverely Hills Cop every time I say it -- took the first punch from Triple H and went flat back the way he did, you knew he was taught the WWE style well. "The Game" even looked impressed. That's probably why he sold so big for him during Axel's first bit of meaningful offense. That's the thing about Axel too; you may not think he has the right look and maybe you think he doesn't have the right voice and maybe his mannerisms aren't on point just yet but dude can go in the ring. He got the chance to show that last night and to his credit, Triple H let him do his thing and show his skills. It was a big spot, too, the main event on Monday Night Raw the night after a PPV.
• As soon as Triple H started shaking his head out and acting funny, I thought of that old angle they ran with Shawn Michaels in the 90s when he fell out in the middle of the ring from a concussion and they stopped commentary to play up how injured he was, and how they didn't know what was going on. They did something similar here, though not exactly the same because "The Game" was concious the entire time. Still, I'm assuming this is how they write him off television for the next however long he'll be gone for. It's interesting timing to work a concussion when the current world heavyweight champion just suffered one of the worst of his career, one that gave him retrograde amnesia.
• That match didn't exactly put Axel over but he got the chance to work with a veteran hand in a big money spot and did rather well for himself. It wasn't redemption for how he was treated earlier in the night but that shouldn't hurt him in the long run. The critics of Triple H will say he still managed to make it all about him, and that's true in a lot of ways, but we know the game at this point. Trips will be gone next week and Axel will be here with the ability to claim, and you know Paul Heyman will claim he's the one who took him out. Lesnar started to oust him, but Axel finished the job. They can make it work. Take the good with the bad.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Another mostly average show that I enjoyed largely because of the work done by The Shield and Daniel Bryan. The fact that John Cena was nowhere to be found was also a big plus.

Grade: C+

That's it from me, Cagesiders. Now it's your turn to sound off in the comments section below with all your thoughts on the show last night.

Here's the video of Paul Heyman revealing his newest client, CURTIS AXEL.

Just before tonight's (May 20, 2013) episode of Monday Night Raw hit the USA airwaves at 8 p.m. ET from Kansas City, Missouri, Paul Heyman revealed he would unveil his latest client, who would join the ranks of Brock Lesnar and CM Punk as a rather elite group who doesn't actually ever interact with each other.

And the lucky guy? CURTIS AXEL!

You probably know him better as Michael McGillicutty, a former member of the Nexus who spent considerable time languishing in NXT polishing his game. He's a former tag team champion alongside David Otunga who was a member of the group when CM Punk was briefly its leader.

Axel is known mostly for being the son of the late great Curt Hennig, better known as Mr. Perfect. Fans have wondered for quite a while why WWE never gave him the Hennig name but at least he got the Curt name this time. He's a solid worker who often trained with The Rock whenever he was getting in shape for his various stints with the company.

Unfortunately, after he was introduced, Triple H hit the ring and started making him "pay his dues" by verbally smacking him down before literally smacking him down. We're talking open hand slap, too.

A match was set up for later in the night and as of this writing, it has yet to take place. We'll update you on how that goes once it does, but if "The Game" goes over, it will be an awfully odd decision to go about things in this manner.

Stay tuned.

And be sure to follow along with the Raw live blog by clicking here.

For those of you who predicted the non-finish at last night's (Sun., May 19, 2013) Extreme Rules pay-per-view (PPV) in St. Louis between John Cena and Ryback, which featured Cena doing a stretcher job but retaining his WWE championship, was just to set up an Ambulance match between the two at the very next event, congratulations, it appears you were exactly right.

That's because The Ryback opened Monday Night Raw this evening by riding out to the stage in an ambulance before cutting a promo decrying the non-finish last night and ensuring we'll get one at the Payback PPV on June 16 at the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois.

One would expect that match to be the main event of the show.

As for Cena, although he never actually went to the hospital despite doing the stretcher job last night, WWE is playing up that his condition is unknown and he's in a weakened state. Ryback, of course, is playing off as much and saying he's going to send Superman to the morgue once and for all.

We shall see.

For more on Monday Night Raw tonight click here. Cena vs. Ryback is the only match currently looking likely for the Payback PPV next month.

Hello, Cagesiders! Welcome to the Cageside Seats Week in Wrestling once again!

What happened last week? Find out below, Cagesiders.

WWE

Raw (May 13th)

• Fandango and Chris Jericho started the show with a dance off. But disaster struck when Summer Rae twisted her ankle. However, she was feigning the injury and it was a set up so Fandango could attack Jericho from behind and lay him out.
• Ryback squashed Zack Ryder with the Shell Shock.
• The Prime Time Players defeated Tons of Funk when illegal man Darren Young hit Brodus Clay in the throat with his hair pick and Titus O'Neil rolled up Clay from behind for the pinfall victory.
• Teddy Long announced that the injured Dolph Ziggler wouldn't be stripped of the World Heavyweight Championship. Instead, Jack Swagger and Alberto Del Rio would have an I Quit match for the number one contendership at Extreme Rules.
• Kofi Kingston pinned Damien Sandow with the Trouble in Paradise.
• Mark Henry demonstrated how he would win his strap match at Extreme Rules against Sheamus on interviewer Josh Matthews. This eventually led to the Irish fella coming out with his own strap and chasing Henry out of the ring with it.
• Randy Orton pinned Antonio Cesaro with the RKO.
• The Miz submitted Heath Slater with the figure four leglock.
• In a Six Man Tag Elimination Match between The Shield and Team Hell No & John Cena, the babyfaces won when Cena was the sole survivor. Kane was the first man eliminated when he was disqualified for using the cover to the announcer's table as a weapon on Dean Ambrose. Ambrose then eventually pinned Daniel Bryan with the Headlock Driver. It was then time for Superman Cena to overcome the odds. First Roman Reigns was eliminated by disqualification when he speared Cena to save Ambrose from the Attitude Adjustment, then Seth Rollins was pinned with the AA and finally Ambrose was disqualified when his henchmen saved him from Cena's STFU. After the match, The Shield took Cena out with their triple power bomb finisher, which led to Ryback coming out to opportunistically nail his opponent at Extreme Rules with a chair shot to his injured ankle.
• Jack Swagger defeated Big E Langston via count out when Langston was back dropped over the barricade when he went for a charge outside the ring. After the match, Alberto Del Rio did a run in, but Swagger beat him down and put him in the ankle lock. However, Ricardo Rodriguez made the save by hitting Swagger with a bucket, allowing Del Rio to recover and lock the arm bar on the Real American. Langston broke the hold up, but Alberto still cleaned house with an enzuigiri on Big E and a clothesline over the top on Swagger.
• AJ Lee submitted Natalya with the Black Widow (an octopus-esque hold). During the match, Kaitlyn, who was doing colour commentary with the Bella Twins, received another gift from her secret admirer.
• Chris Jericho cut a full on serious mode promo on Fandango saying that the dancing and jokes are over with.
• Triple H called out Brock Lesnar (with Paul Heyman, of course) and eventually goaded him into a stare down and a brawl inside the steel cage surrounding the ring, which Hunter got the better of to close the show.

Well, this is certainly worth getting excited about: WWE.com ran an article today wondering whether or not Paul Heyman has been "scouting talent" to add to his already legendary list of clients in Brock Lesnar and CM Punk, and that it's possible we could see a big reveal of as much on tonight's (May 20, 2013) episode of Monday Night Raw in Kansas City.

Here's an excerpt:

Might there be another Paul Heyman guy waiting in the wings?

Though CM Punk continues to languish in self-imposed exile, Brock Lesnar scored an absolutely monstrous victory last night over Triple H inside the steel cage at Extreme Rules. Perhaps as a result of that epic win, an all-out firestorm of rumors has ignited backstage at Raw in Kansas City today that Heyman is looking to expand his ranks! While the rumors are admittedly just that at this point, WWE Superstars and Divas are still abuzz over the possibility of the mad scientist's ranks increasing by one.

Most of the rumors flying around have had to do with NXT wrestlers getting called up to the main roster, and that would fit with Heyman's usual mode of operation. Sure, he could bring on an established star that he has a past relationship with, but if WWE wants to call a guy up and actually have him succeed, sticking him with Heyman is one hell of a way to do it.

Hell, imagine if Bo Dallas had him for a mouthpiece when he was beating Wade Barrett a couple months ago? Maybe he would still be on television doing his thing.

With all this in mind, I'm sure you Cagesiders have a few good ideas on who should be next to join up with Heyman. So let's hear them in the comments section below.

Go!

Also, be sure to follow along with the live blog of tonight's episode of Raw by clicking here.

If you're a daily visitor to CagesideSeats.com, first off we would like to thank you for making us a pit stop. This is quite the fun place to be most times, with a great community and a staff with interesting takes on the professional wrestling industry we all know and love.

But, if you are indeed a daily visitor, you've also noticed a lot of issues with the performance of the site over the past few days. Maybe you've had trouble logging in, or have been getting a lot of "500" errors, or haven't been able to load pages, or haven't been able to comment like normal. Well, instead of leaving you in the dark on the situation, the overlords here at SB Nation would like to explain what's been going on, offer a solution to the issues, and promise that a resolution is coming soon:

As SB Nation users, you have certainly noticed the significant performance drop across the network this week. The SB Nation team and all of Vox Media sincerely apologize for the site performance problems affecting your experience on our sites and communities over the past few days. We understand how frustrating it is for you. Given the nature of the issue, it is taking several days to fully restore performance completely. We have been working around the clock, taking incremental and comprehensive measures, to restore performance to normal levels.

Our approach to correcting the issues affecting the network has been two pronged: 1) improve performance as much as possible incrementally and 2) restore long-term stability to the system.

The first prong has been focused on improving the performance of logged-in users as these users have experienced the biggest drop in performance. Some of the improvements that we have pushed out to this point include:

-- Page load performance for logged-in users, including lower error rates
-- Commenting performance
-- Logging-in
-- Publishing content, including Fanposts and Fanshots

We have all hands on deck to complete this work and will be performing maintenance after hours this weekend to restore full service to the network. Of course, we would like to do this work sooner, but we need to be extra careful and thorough in making these changes, so as to not risk new problems.

Again, we completely understand the frustration our users have felt over the past few days and will continue to do everything in our power to restore full service to the network and ease your frustration. We greatly appreciate your patience and understanding as we've worked through these issues and bring long term stability to the network. Thank you for your dedication to and support of SB Nation and Vox Media.

And there you have it, Cagesiders. We're very sorry that problems have persisted but they will be worked out in the coming days and all will hopefully be completely back to normal very soon.

Thanks for sticking with us and have a great weekend!

The twelfth episode of Off The Top Rope...

...the CageSider's Pro Wrestling Podcast - made for you - by fans like you, has been made available to you as of yesterday (May. 16, 2013), by none-other-than your fellow CageSiders, Mike (vfn) & Rex Ivanovic (the author formerly known as Buckeye Brawler).

Each episode features the guys discussing the latest news and goings-on of note in the pro wrestling world. Plus, they review a classic professional wrestling event!

This week's episode features chatter from Mike & Rex on the mic discussing the week that was and more, in addition to talking current events, they took on CFW Battle of the Belts II...

• [0:01:00-0:20:00] - After the intros are out of the way, the guys discuss WWE, including Dolph Ziggler's concussion, Raw, John Cena vs. the Shield, and an endless amount of rematches and lack of direction in the midcard.
• [0:20:00-0:26:30] - It's Impact time, as they tackle crotches in faces, Abyss's cell phone, and the Bound for Glory Series.
• [0:26:30-0:35:00] - Jay Briscoe did something really stupid last week, and so of course they talk about it, as well as dealing with wrestling's rather checkered past with homosexuality (as portrayed on-screen) and they pose the big question, "Can a popular gay babyface ever exist in a major promotion?"
• [0:37:00-1:17:00] - CWF Battle of the Belts: This is the epitome of a one-match show, and so they talk about the Cobra Kai and which wrestlers would make great 80s Movie gimmicks. Backstage not having enough material, Olympic Wrestlers with their faces half-painted, and "Easy Lover". Also touched on, which show they're reviewing next week (Money in the Bank 2011).

Check out the show below...

Thu, 16 May 2013 Episode 12 - CWF Battle of the Belts II FOLLOW OFF THE TOP ROPE: A PRO WRESTLING PODCAST -- ON TWITTER | ON TUMBLR | ON FACEBOOK | EMAIL THE SHOW | SUBSCRIBE VIA RSS or VIA ITUNES | LISTEN ON STITCHER Direct download: Episode_12_-_CFW_Battle_of_the_Belts_II.mp3

Mike & Rex of Off the Top Rope would like to add these thoughts ~

"Don't forget to let us know what you thought of this episode, your thoughts on CWF Battle of the Belts II, or just flat out what you think about our show in general, via any of the ways to get in touch with us...

"Feel free to email us your thoughts and we might read them on the air! Be sure to follow us on social media: @Mike & @Rex on Twitter, Mike on Tumblr, and subscribe to Rex right here on SBNation.

~ Thanks for listening!"

_______________________________________

Editorial Note: This Fan-Podcast has been promoted to the front page and various sections within Cageside Seats for your enjoyment, Cagesiders! It is however, solely a production created by Fans for Fans, please remember, the opinions expressed herein are solely the subjective opinions of "Mike & Rex" and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cageside Seats Management, Editors or Staff.