Chris Hero signs with WWE, R-Truth update, what happened after Raw, Questions on Benoit winning the Rumble, Rumble competitors, Riley, and sending a message to WWE, Laurinaitis update, possible note on Air Boom, Miz and Gowen interviews, WM29 location update, the Raw rating, and the pre-Smackdown dark match featuring an FCW wrestler

WWE has finally signed Chris Hero following passed medical tests. There are no plans for him to be used as a partner to his former ROH teammate, who is known in FCW as Antonio Cesaro. I'm looking forward to what the future holds for both men in the company, even if it's not working together. I don't think they "need" t team them just because they were a team beforehand, as their characters are notably different.

R-Truth is very sore but otherwise ok following a dive gone awry on Raw. The Miz was being blamed for that not going as planned, with quite a bit of heat going his way from WWE management. That's a dangerous spot in general, though there was clearly some kind of miscue that exacerbated the problem. I hope everyone survives this from a physical and political perspective. We don't need another Mr. Kennedy situation.

Update: He won't miss any ring time. HHH loudly disciplined Miz for the spot not going off without a hitch. He's taken all of the blame.


The post-Raw dark match saw John Cena defeat Kane by DQ. Nothing especially surprising.

As for my take on Tuesday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. I could be misinterpreting things here, but with the angle they worked about Heyman giving him the #1 spot in the Rumble to "screw him", it wasn't that big of a shock that he won since there was a story involved. But I can see it being a surprise he got to be in that position in the first place.

Nothing to add to 2, so let's go to 3 after the break. What's the status of the surprise Royal Rumble competitiors?

3. Duggan was booked temporarily to draw attention to his upcoming book. It looks like he'll just be used for some cameos here and there going into Mania, though I wouldn't expect many of them. Everything else jibes with where things are headed, though I don't know when we'll see Kharma again. Also of note is that Booker T still works house shows sometimes, but I wouldn't read anything too big into that since he's had focus shifted away from that area on-screen.

4. He certainly looks like he's stuck there for now. He was working hurt on Superstars, but now that he's healed it's possible we see more of him (though I wouldn't count on it). NXT seems to be what he'll be doing in the meantime, which to some degree has become another "Superstars" in the sense that lower-card wrestlers are having matches and angles instead of it just being a focus for Rookies and Pros.

5. As long as you tune back in the next week, WWE's going to write it off as a one-time thing. If ratings and buyrates consistently stayed low, they might change things. Just be aware that "changing things" could involve more reliance on what worked in the past and cameos, since casual fans will tune in for those things temporarily.  If you want certain competitors pushed and certain angles highlighted, make sure WWE knows that you support those things. They're looking at their bottom line. If more C.M. Punk and Daniel Bryan merchandise gets sold than Big Show and John Cena merchandise (and more people buy PPVs with those competitors highlighted than the status quo), then they could change their minds. If business is lower pushing those guys, they're almost certainly going to panic and go back to the "safe zone" of what fans complain about. Bottom line, if business stays relatively strong while they do ridiculous things like having announcers in the Rumble, they'll keep doing what they want to do instead of what some fans want them to do.

John Laurinaitis will be staying on as the Interim GM of Raw, as per the Board of Directors' storyline decision. I guess I'm ok with that. It depends on where it's all leading. He should be used a Macguffin to get other angles moving along and other characters over.

This is somewhat speculative, but some are looking at the fact that WWE has released a new Kofi Kingston shirt as a sign that Air Boom is done. I wouldn't jump to that conclusion just yet, but I also wouldn't assume that they'll be back together given Bourne's status.

The Miz was interviewed. He's all over the place lately. Look at how high up the card he was last year, an look at what's not going on for him heading into this year's Mania. I hope he's still part of the picture in a fairly big way after the performances he's put in since entering the WWE Title picture. All in all, pretty fun piece.

Zack Gowen was also interviewed. He definitely rubbed some people the wrong way as a young superstar in WWE.

An official announcement on the location for WrestleMania 29 will likely be made in the next 2 weeks. The frontrunner seems to be East Rutherford, NJ. That would seem to rule out MSG for WM30, which would be traditional (WM1, 10, and 20 were there).

Raw did a rounded 3.3 rating on Monday, with the show losing 362,000 viewers from hour one to hour 2. That's a very sizable drop from the previous week. And these were shows with Chris Jericho and HHH back in the fold. The number of fans not sticking around for the whole show is scary.

Brodus Clay defeated FCW's Damien Sandow ahead of Smackdown. He's another talked about performer down there, with a lengthy tenure with developmental.

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