Strongbow obituaries, Questions on Taker, Backlund, and Flair at the Hall of Fame, Hogan responds to Steiner, Before the Bell for Lockdown, Miz-MTV footage, WWE releases expected, ESPN looks at Brock, Zbyszko rumor-killer, another Mania weekend story, new 3-hour Raw set, Impact Wrestling rating, Z! TLIS #61, identity of Ryback's opponent,

The New York Times ran an obituary on "Chief "Jay Strongbow.

Update: As did the Berkshire Eagle.

For my take on Friday's PWInsider.com questions:
1.  Given how successful it's been for so long, and how it's stayed relatively constant but still fresh over the years ("biker Taker" notwithstanding), he's definitely up there. The fact that he can still get such great ovations from the gong going off and lights dimming is quite impressive.

2. To add to what they said, Backlund did wrestle in TNA for a time. I don't see much of an upside to him facing Angle in 2012. They need to be using guys like Angle to elevate younger guys, not face 62-year-olds who aren't on the road for the company.

Nothing to add to 3 other than thinking their response was a little harsh.

4. This again... WWE voluntarily gave one of their performers a prime spot of promotion. To me, it's something like McDonald's putting over how great the Whopper is. What if some of the fans in attendance or watching on TV became interested in what Flair's up to and found out about TNA? Between getting no publicity from him not appearing and even a little FREE publicity from him attending, it seems like an easy choice. I agree about their take on how Flair and Vince see it.

Nothing to add to 5, so I go into everything else from Friday after the break.

Hulk Hogan responded to Scott Steiner's recent Twitter shots at him.

Here's the Before the Bell video for Lockdown.

And here's video of The Miz on MTV.

Given the number of new and returning faces in WWE, there are strong rumors that some releases are upcoming. Let's see. Who's been there a while but doesn't get used much... Reks, Hawkins, Tatsu, Barreta, JTG, and Ezekiel Jackson would be my guesses. Possibly at least one NXT contestant, too. Just speculating here, as I've been way off before on who sticks around and who goes.

ESPN looked at the WWE return of Brock Lesnar. Good read, though I don't think the Raw crowd was indicative of WWE audiences as a whole.

Apparently there are rumors that Larry Zbyszko passed away. Nope, still alive.

The Miami Herald covered the golf outing from WrestleMania weekend.

The coach who cut The Rock from the Canadian Football League commented on the decision.

The 6/11 edition of Raw will be 3 hours long.

Impact Wrestling did a 1.12 rating on Thursday. Not bad.

Here's episode #61 of Z! True Long Island Story. Cool intro. All the AXXESS moments were good, too. Ryder owns the copyright to the Internet title, so WWE can't sell it. Good cameos, too. The "bronuts" thing was kind of lame, though. I like Ryder and Ziggler, but I wouldn't anticipate their match for a year.

Finally, the man who was defeated by Ryback on Smackdown was Florida independent wrestler Low Ryda.

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