Lanny Poffo, brother to Randy Savage, talked about whether his brother should go into the WWE Hall of Fame. Ultimately I think the Hall shouldn't be about grievances behind the scenes, but who truly deserves to go in given their body of work. Glad he acknowledges that he's almost entirely known in this day and age for his brother. Savage vs. HBK would have been amazing. I definitely think WWE should have sent condolences to him and am not sure why they didn't.
WWE has signed a goalkeeper from the UK to a developmental deal. He could be down there for longer than a year. Some talents have been in the farm system for quite a while.
Here's an updated list of Slammy categories and nominees. I'm already tired of hearing about them and the show's not on yet.
Everything else from yesterday is after the break.
TNA's new business direction was profiled in Tennessee. I agree that a healthy TNA would be great for the industry as a whole. TNA might be right about the number of people who watch Impact every week if they're factoring in things like DVR and YouTube. I think Shoemaker had some good analysis there. Much better than some alarmists on the net.
Here's video of the NXT debut of Solomon Crowe, the former Sami Callihan. For those complaining about generic WWE wrestlers coming up from FCW in previous years, check this video out. I already like what I'm seeing from Kalisto. If he's as comfortable wrestling as he is speaking, he could fit into that "next Sin Cara/Rey Mysterio" mold nicely. Crowe's gimmick is interesting. It's definitely better than what some performers have made it to the main roster with. Both Crowe and Kalisto have gotten high marks for their pre-WWE work, so I'm excited for them.
Tiger Ali Singh promoted a Christmas charity. I wouldn't say I have vivid memories of him, but I do remember seeing the character.
AJ Styles' TNA contract expires on 12/16, and he has not signed a new one as of this writing. The situation came down to money, as the company was asking him to take a pay cut due to their recent financial turmoil. He's already taking outside bookings. TNA wrapped up his angle at the most recent Impact tapings, so he'll be finished as an on-screen character before the Genesis event on 1/16. It's really sad in a lot of ways to see the AJ Styles era end in TNA. He's definitely one of the top talents in the history of the company, given all his title reigns there. He was the "golden boy" for quite a while before TNA turned to performers like Angle, Sting, Hardy, RVD, Hogan, Foley, and Flair to try to make it to that "next level." I wonder what this will mean for the other homegrown stars who have been with the company for a long time, as some of their deals will be coming up in due time as well. I'm not going to proclaim the end of TNA or anything (even if guys like Daniels, Joe and Kazarian leave), but this could definitely be a blow to them and they're going to need to refocus and rebuild in his absence. There's still hope he could return to the fold, but both sides are treating this as if it's the end of his time there. I'm sure there will be a lot of speculation of him going to WWE. Never say never, but I don't know how much they'd invest in a 36-year-old talent who a lot of the audience isn't familiar with when they can use that money to build up the stars currently in NXT and sign some more indie names. I'll be sure to follow this story as it develops.
WrestleMania 32 will be in Dallas, Texas. I'm sure there will be speculation of Undertaker retiring in his home state. I wouldn't assume that to be the case, though it's something to keep track of. I think Taker will try to keep going as long as he can, but that would be a great place to have him make a sendoff, hopefully with a Hall of Fame induction the night before. Just keep in mind how far off 2016 is and how much can happen between now and then.
There will be a press conference to announce the San Francisco WrestleMania tomorrow. Media blitz incoming!
For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. I think WWE will push some of those guys eventually. I mean, they can't rely on the current crop of main eventers forever. The Takers, Brocks, etc. will have to move out some time, as will the Reys, Kanes, and Big Shows. As for Kofi, it could be that they like what he's doing in the midcard and don't see a reason to risk that by having him go to the next level and possibly fail. They're generally pretty wishy-washy when they push a talent to the next level, so the talent isn't always to blame for not catching on. I do think Kofi's missing something to become a true top guy, but I said that about Bryan, Edge and Cena before they became main eventers and proved me wrong. It's all about getting the right combination of things in play.
2. I'll leave that one to their resident ECW expert.
Nothing to add to 3.
4. This is what happens when WWE only pushes a couple acts as important. They panic because there aren't enough big acts to go around. Yeah, WWE's doing some unsustainable stuff right now and they need to change things up once those new TV contracts are set. That bubble's going to pop at some point when people get burned out on seeing Orton, Show, Cena, etc. on TV all the time.
Nothing to add to 5.
More wrestling tomorrow.
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