Main Event:
I liked the opening segment, if for no other reason than Sandow got some time to get his character over. Could he finally be on the road to something meaningful? It's an off chance, but that's better than no chance.
I didn't expect Sandow to win given Ziggler defending his title at Night of Champions. But he's had more embarrassing defeats lately (especially on live events). So maybe this is progress?
I'm actually kind of excited for Jerry Springer on Raw. If they're going to go full train wreck, they might as well get everything they can out of it.
Not a bad Divas' match. I'd definitely rather see more of Summer Rae, Natalya, and Layla than Rosa Mendes, but that's life.
Good showing from both teams here. Stardust and Goldust are really coming into their own. I hope the sky's the limit for Stardust/Cody Rhodes.
Good post-match to keep the heel turn active.
Everything else from yesterday is after the break.
TNA has released Dewey Barnes. He worked on the merchandise end of the company and occasionally wrestled. I miss the team of Dewey and Norv Fernum. I suspect September will mean more TNA departures, possibly including Kurt Angle.
The former Ezekiel Jackson, Maxine and Savannah will be on El Rey's Lucha Underground. I really wish Maxine had been given a bigger role in either WWE or TNA. She was great.
Edit: Add former Tough Enough name Martin Casuas to the list. Kazarian and Evan Bourne have both turned down deals, which is a shame from the standpoint of seeing them wrestle on U.S. TV again.
Jake Roberts continues to recover from double pneumonia. He's still on a ventilator, but is said to be improving. He's awake and responsive, so that's good.
Matt Hardy gave his take on the state of wrestling TV in 2014. I think he's really onto something.
WWE got press for inviting Michael Sam to Raw. I'm sure that was the goal!
WWE ejected a fan with a sign promoting watching Nitro on the WWE Network. WWE's pretty picky about signs!
Update: A WWE source says the fan was ejected for behavior and language, not the content of the sign. I hope it was worth it for that fan.
Set for next weekend's WWE live events (possible spoilers for upcoming angles):
- John Cena vs. Kane in a street fight
- Big Show vs. Bray Wyatt
- The Usos vs. The Wyatt Family for the WWE Tag Team Championship
That's certainly a different direction from what's on TV now. The card is always subject to change, though.
Smackdown's audience Friday was 2.73 million. That's a great jump!
For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. Oh. boy. Firstly, not everyone's meant to be a top star. WWE needs midcarders, opening match guys, etc.. The importance of this can't be ignored. Secondly, WWE has a pretty big roster with a lot of veterans who have pretty much taken up a lot of spots. Those spots don't open up overnight. As for the specific cases: Adam Rose is doing well enough for his place on the card, Bo Dallas gets TV time pretty regularly (and has won almost all his TV matches), Xavier Woods wasn't brought up to get abig push and Big E's been IC Champion. I think Woods and Big E in particular could be booked better, but those names are hardly "flops". Bo's first run after the Rumble appearance? That's a flop. Husky Harris? More or less a flop. But those names? Not so much.
2. WWE has selective memory and they hope the vast majority of fans don't know or care about the Cena/Lesnar feud from Brock's first WWE run.
3. I suppose if they had on two TVs or something, they'd be counted twice. Other than that, ratings take into account the switching of channels.
4. I hope he's better than his run on Tough Enough suggested. Ouch.
5. I actually really enjoyed the brand split days of shows being distinct. It's tough to sit through the same kind of stuff so much in one week. But nowadays it is very much WWE the product with all the shows having more or less the same personality.
More wrestling tomorrow.
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