As expected, Cody Rhodes is working as Stardust on live events now. He teamed with Goldust to beat Rybaxel this weekend.
Jey Uso was interviewed. It's pretty cool to think that Bo Dallas, Bray Wyatt, Curtis Axel and the Usos used to hang out as kids. I'm glad they're getting more comfortable and going further in WWE. It's WAY too soon to think of them splitting.
Jeff Jarrett's GFW promotion has a new working agreement in place with New Japan Pro Wrestling. So, Jarrett could be able to pull from talent from top promotions in both Mexico and Japan. That's pretty impressive, and I hope it pays off for him. He's not going to be able to top WWE from a sports-entertainment standpoint, but using talents from Mexico and Japan is a pretty big deal in forging a different identity. GFW has some good things lined up, so it could make a big splash. It's unknown how this deal affects NJPW working with ROH. As of now, NJPW and ROH are still working together.
Everything else from yesterday is after the break.
NXT's Corey Graves has been missing time due to a concussion. That's a shame. He's definitely one of the top prospects there. He'd be on my "short list" to making it to the main roster.
WWE is asking fans who they'd like to see face BROCK LESNAR for the WWE Championship at Summerslam. The poll included all seven competitors in the MITB match, but not Daniel Bryan (nor C.M. Punk, but no one should have expected that at this point). I assume they're being cautious about Bryan's return timetable now. He could still be in action at Summerslam, but Bryan vs. Brock at Survivor Series or WM31 would have more time to be built into a big deal. I don't like the idea of Brock winning the title, then not being on live events or many TV shows, but it could pay off for WWE to use him as a top attraction.
Vince Russo dished on some stories from his career. Notably Jerry Jarrett (Jeff's dad) wasn't a fan of the TNA name and concept. He wanted it to be more in the line of the old NWA it was a part of. I can only imagine what Russo would have done with early TNA if he was given even more input into it direction. I can also only imagine how some of those other Attitude Era ideas would have worked out.
For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. There are several names WWE released worth checking out. McIntyre could certainly make a splash, and Hawkins would be great at working with the less-experienced members of the roster and the X-Division guys.
2. I think most of the Daniel Bryan superfans already have the Network or at least have had ample opportunity to get it. I hope they're not screwing WWE over by getting it illegally. That doesn't hurt Vince or Kevin Dunn or whomever they're trying to send a message to as much as it hurts people lower on the totem pole and the wrestlers themselves. Where was I? Oh. I think WWE needs to be able to grab people outside of the die-hard wrestling fans who care about watching NXT and old ECW footage. If at all possible, they should be trying to grab new and different audiences and bringing them into the WWE bubble. They can only get so much from that group and from the kids with all 35 Cena shirts.
3. I hope the fans in attendance chanted "This is awesome!" for every needlessly dangerous gag in true Impact Zone fashion.
4. Original content will be key! The Network needs to feel like something every WWE fan MUST own, and the impetus for non-WWE fans to BECOME WWE fans. Also, as alluded to, it's great WWE has a bunch of classic content (and Thunder) available for fans to watch. But there's a huge portion of the audience who didn't see that stuff the first time and has no idea WHY they should want to watch a bunch of guys they've barely heard of. If the letters ECW mean John Morrison and Bobby Lashley (no knock on either of those guys), they're missing out on a lot of wrestling history. I'd like for that old content to be repurposed in a way to where it matters for Little Jimmy.
More wrestling tomorrow.
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