What happened after Raw, Raw dark match, Questions on Benoit, pushes, Storm's concussion, and Rock-Cena, Cabana interview, corrected Smackdown rating, Billy Gunn interview, Survivor Series ticket contest, Hogan talks Rock, Foley in WWE '12, Slaughter at Ford 300, Foley questions Rock, Cena on GameDay, Foley career retrospective, TV Champion on VGA, Jeff Hardy video, Graham update, Robinson to have autobiography, Ross not doing Survivor Series, Cena spotted, Raw rating, former WWE star works Smackdown dark match, and a Matt Hardy update

After Raw went off the air, John Cena, C.M. Punk and Randy Orton faced off against Mark Henry and Awesome Truth. After chants for him, Punk fetched Zack Ryder (in street clothes) joined the proceedings and his team picked up the win. Ryder then talked about his Internet show leading to teaming with those partners and told the fans they were the Broskis of the Week. Good to see him getting noticed.

Before Raw, Michael McGillicutty beat JTG which is interesting since at last check they were both heels. Both play their roles well, so I'd be a bit surprised if either changed sides. It'd make more sense for McGillicutty to be the one to do so.

On to my look at PWInsider.com's questions:
1. I don't think I'm seeing what they're trying to convey in their answer unless they're saying that Benoit the character and Benoit the performer were one in the same (which they're pretty close. It's not like he was playing a rapper or something). I can see the questioner's argument. It's just pretty difficult to watch his character's performance and not think of what the actor did.

2. I don't know about the first part of the theory, but I definitely think they're trying to have a number of stars instead of one megastar. I'm for that personally, because as tons of online fans will tell you just having one or two people at the top of the card being more over than everyone else is monotonous and can be boring.

After the break, I go into the rest of the day's questions and news, starting with James Storm competing with a concussion.

3 is just for them, so I'm going to 4. I disagree with that assessment. It's also possible that it shows it up for being a storyline AND shows the company up for being stupid. I think this is a case of Storm wanting to tough it out more than anything. He's just having brief matches as far as I know and not taking it TOO rough out there. Not that that's something I'd recommend for him to do.

4. Thank goodness I'm not the only one who thinks Cena should go over unless Rock's going to do more with the company. Even if he's coming back to the roster full-time (which he's almost assuredly not), Cena should be the one getting the rub here for the reasons mentioned. Passing the torch, all that kind of stuff. And this is coming from someone who was a massive Rock fan years back and still very much enjoys seeing him.

Nothing to add to #5.

Colt Cabana talked WWE among other things. I agree about WWE failing to capitalize on personalities. This is why NXT has been so entertaining lately. Superstars, Divas, and Rookies get to be in backstage segments and get mic time to stand out from the rest of the pack. I'd like to see the rest of the company's shows spend time on developing the less-featured performers so some midcard performers don't seem interchangeable and/or expendable.

Smackdown actually did a 1.98 rating. Slightly better than what was originally reported. Not really "bad" per se; I'd just like to see it higher and I'm sure WWE would as well.

Billy Gunn/Kip James was interviewed. I agree that Ziggler could really become something in due time.

The New York Post is running a contest to win free tickets to Survivor Series.

Hulk Hogan put over The Rock after his appearance on Raw.

Mick Foley has been officially announced for WWE '12. The promos for this game have been much better than in past years.

Sgt. Slaughter will be the Grand Marshal for this Saturday's NASCAR race. Presumably Survivor Series will get a plug there.

Mick Foley wants to know why he was Rock Bottomed on Raw. Lovehate relationship with those characters. Is there a way we can go back in time and have these two feud in their prime again? One of my favorite feuds ever.

John Cena will be on ESPN's College GameDay as a guest picker for the games. Another place to plug Sunday's show.


WWE put out a look at Mick Foley's storied career to educate new fans and refresh the minds of the rest of us. Ahh, memories. Truly great stuff all around. When he was on, he was on. The ECW stuff was brilliant.

Robbie E will be in a commercial for SpikeTV's Video Game Awards, my dude. He's been a guilty pleasure of mine lately.

TNA is running a split crew this weekend, with part of the roster in Mississippi and part of it in Chile and Argentina. Pretty crazy.

Jeff Hardy was interviewed before Bound For Glory. Why did this take so long to get posted? I know that at least one TNA performer didn't like the whole "Hardy's paint getting on them" thing.

"Superstar" Billy Graham has been released from the hospital. Good to hear.

Billy Robinson will have an autobiography released on 6/1/12. Its title is "Physical Chess: My Life in Catch-as-Catch-Can Wrestling".

Jim Ross is not presently scheduled for Survivor Series, which doesn't surprise me.


John Cena was caught out by the Boston Herald before Raw. 

Raw did a 3.2 rating overall for 3 hours, and a 3.4 in its normal spot.


The former Kenny Dykstra worked  the dark match before Smackdown, losing to Justin Gabriel. I thought he had quite the upside back in the day, so maybe we'll get a chance to see what he can bring to the table now.


Finally, Matt Hardy is home visiting as part of his ongoing WWE-sponsored rehab. I hope he comes out of that well.


That's all for Tuesday's news. More to come tomorrow. Thanks for reading!