TNA roster note, more on GFW-NJPW, Interviews with Cesaro/Bully Ray, WWE tag team wrestler injured, former Knockout in WWE, other cameos, TNA announcement upcoming, Bret back in WWE, NXT injuries, NXT preview, Smackdown audience, the future of TNA's ring and Questions on Kofi, "smark" negativity, Vince's reaction to Punk, and faces vs. heels

TNA World Champion Bobby Lashley is now just being billed as "Lashley" on the TNA website, following the likes of Rusev and Cesaro in WWE. I guess it could be argued the name Bobby isn't really intimidating for a strong guy like him. But Bobby Roode was champ for a good while.

Here are the official details of the deal between GFW and NJPW. So, yes, it does look like we could see AJ Styles in Jarrett's new promotion. GFW could be a game-changer. It's too early to wonder if they're a threat to WWE or TNA, but it's definitely something to keep an eye on. If they get a national TV deal, things will get really interesting.

Cesaro talked about Daniel Bryan's injury and more. I liked the segue from Bryan getting hurt to Cesaro becoming champ.

Everything else from yesterday is after the break.
Fernando of Los Matadores left a live event this weekend on crutches. Los Matadores and El Torito were facing Heath Slater, Tyson Kidd and Hornswoggle. It's never good to have a wrestler hurt.

Update: He's expected to miss three-to-four weeks after a severe sprain of his ankle and a knee ligament. I wonder what WWE will do with Los Matadores and Slater now that Mahal and McIntyre are done.

The former Rosita of TNA fame has been making appearances as a Rosebud in the Northeast. I like that WWE brings in different wrestlers for the group, like Rose can get a crowd at any party. I would just see this as a cameo for Rosita for now, but it's possible she gets to wrestle for the company down the line.

IWF school graduates Karson Slade and Corey Havoc are also being used as extras by WWE. I wonder who the first wrestler to go from Rosebud to wrestler will be (and Summer Rae doesn't count).

The Great Muta will be making a joint announcement with Dixie Carter this week. The speculation is that they'll set up a TNA vs. Wrestle-1 show in the States. That's fine by me to shake things up in TNA. TNA's roster has really taken a hit, so it's time for some fresh names.

Bret Hart is set for the July 7 Raw in Montreal. It was special when he first came back in 2010. Now he's just another guy from the past.

NXT's Kendall Skye has a broken wrist, while both Dana Brooke and Veronica Lane have knee injuries. Lane is currently unable to train due to her injury. I don't think I've seen any of these workers in action.

Set for this week's NXT:
- Rob Van Dam vs. NXT Champion Adrian Neville
- Xavier Woods vs. Bull Dempsey
- Summer Rae vs. Becky Lynch
- Colin Cassady vs. Sawyer Fulton
- The Vaudevillains in action

I'm looking forward to RVD vs. Neville in particular.

Bully Ray gave a big interview ahead of TNA's NYC tapings. I definitely expect Bully to put Dixie through a table in NYC.

Smackdown's audience on Friday was 2.76 million viewers, a really good jump from the previous week. Glad to see it.

Following a poll on the matter, TNA will be officially returning to using the six-sided ring at their upcoming tapings in NYC. I hope the fans who wanted that are happy. I liked the ring's uniqueness for a while, but then I just saw it as gimmicky.

For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. As they said, it's the impressive visual and it gets him over as a determined babyface who will do his damnedest to avoid elimination.

2. I'm also seeing a trend to be negative and really jump the gun on things. This does seem to have gotten worse in recent years. Dave's leaving out some important details (as he has in the past when it didn't support his viewpoint). In order:

a. Bryan only ran from Kane after Kane injured him and put his wife in danger. His running was to protect her when obviously he was too beaten up to combat the seemingly unstoppable monster. Had he fought Kane instead of fleeing, he could have been seriously injured and his wife would likely not have escaped unscathed.

b. Rollins says he doesn't want to fight Ambrose because he's "moved on" from The Shield and is focused on other things. This one's harder to defend, because it does feel like Rollins is ducking Ambrose.

c. Cena-Bray went for three big matches. I must have missed where Cena squashed him three times in a row. Bray put up one hell of a fight in both defeats, and beat Cena in the second match.Hell, Bray could end up being WWE Champion after MITB. He hasn't really lost much.

I understand completely why someone would want to separate from the negativity of the IWC.

3. Vince needs the talent there to run a show. Some talents are more valuable than others, though, and he'll give more credence to Punk being upset than, say, Los Matadores.

4. Here's the thing: Austin was still mostly a babyface because he did his actions to heels. Otherwise it wouldn't have been a heel turn at WM17. Ultimately, they need to book a performer to consistently go up against babyfaces or against heels and have clear character paths for them. There can be antiheroes (and antivillains), but they shouldn't get too complicated with things to where it's hard to follow what's going on because there's so much gray area (see TNA). Faces vs. heels still works. There just need to be interesting faces and heels who aren't too one-dimensional and get good development.

5. This is more complete, utter bullshit. Punk still did "shoots" post-title win. Dave must have missed the shoots on HHH, Nash, Jericho and Laurinaitis. It's irresponsible at best to imply they changed a lot of his character, and, honestly, pretty much an outright lie.

More wrestling tomorrow.