Jim Ross has been released from the hospital, so presumably he's feeling better. That's good news.
Update: Ross was said to have been suffering from "stroke-like symptoms" before going in and had a minor stroke in the past. I hope he's OK going forward.
Bully Ray was pulled from his House of Hardcore bookings by TNA to appear at Spike's Guys Choice Awards alongside Velvet Sky, Jessie Godderz and Taryn Terrell. TNA could definitely use the publicity from that event. Could Spike not have used someone else from the roster, since Bully Ray was already booked?
Everything else from yesterday is after the break.
As far as the Bully Ray situation goes, he was legitimately pulled at the last minute. This wasn't part of an angle between TNA and HOH or anything. HOH using TNA performers was part of a deal going back to Dreamer working a One Night Only PPV. Bully Ray's offer to meet fans who bring HOH ticket stubs to TNA events was something he put forth for TNA to approve instead of a TNA idea. That's the least they can do after pulling someone from the main event of a show that's been advertised for a while now. At this time, Dreamer is still a producer/agent for TNA. It will be interesting to see where things go from here between Dixie, Dreamer and Bully Ray.
John Cena's eye was swollen shut after a match with Bray Wyatt this weekend. He finished the match and isn't expected to miss ring time, but there was concern about the swelling. All the more reason for WWE to be building up more top-tier babyfaces.
For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. They should refuse to answer questions without question marks. This is more of a knee-jerk YouTube comment than an attempt at getting something addressed intelligently. As was said, it's all about the WHY of Rollins' turn. If done right, it can be great. They'd beaten the Wyatts and Evolution multiple times each. What was left for them to do as a group? As for Bryan joining the Wyatts, that was never going to be a long-term thing. It was just the point of the story where Bryan doubted himself after so many beatings and he lost all hope. WWE had a LOT of time to fill between Summerslam '13 and WM30, so Bryan vs. the Wyatts went on for a while before Bryan went back to fighting for the WWE Title. There were missteps in Bryan's booking, but some of the response to it was WAY out of proportion.
2. WWE is a lot more than a wrestling company in 2014 with all the movies, reality shows, etc. Just like Marvel isn't just a comic book company anymore and Disney doesn't just do cartoons and so on. I don't think Vince ever really saw his company as wrestling as much as sports entertainment. Look at all the celebrity appearances dating back to the first WrestleMania. Look at Tuesday Night Titans. The XFL. Bodybuilding. Look at the characters throughout the years with Repo Man, Koko B. Ware, George "The Animal" Steele, Jake Roberts with a snake, Roddy Piper hitting people with coconuts... you get the idea. Sports entertainment isn't a new thing for WWE. Neither is being marketed to kids.
3. Gimmick PPVs will really only go as far as the creative effort put into them and the players involved. If it was hyped as a big deal, it could work. If it was just thrown together with no heat to sell it, it probably wouldn't do as well.
4. It's definitely good for the local promoter and the talent in question to look like they're in the league of the more established names. If your local talent looks like a jobber, why should anyone come back to see them when the big name isn't around to sell tickets? The same applies to visiting stars/part-timers in the major leagues.
5. Kurt Angle's still under contract to TNA, but he's definitely suggested he'd like to go back to WWE. I don't know how feasible an in-ring return is, but I could see him coming back into the WWE fold once his TNA contract expires. With that company cutting costs, I'd say Angle's contract is an expense they're going to look at closely.
More wrestling tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment