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Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Rumored WM31 match, musical name at Raw, TNA house show updates, Impact lineup, Summerslam update, Henry sighting, Taker update, WWE fans support the Divas, Lesnar not at Raw, Raw audience, AJ fires at Stephanie, Network notes, Interview with Paige, and Questions on Cena "burying" people, Kane and Show turning, ousting Vince, and Rey Mysterio

A rumored match for WrestleMania is Bad News Barrett vs. Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. R-Truth for the Intercontinental Championship, possibly in a ladder match. That sounds good to me. It seems a bit like "we need to give these people something to do at Mania", but I think it can go well.

ZZ Top's Dusty Hill was at Raw. They're fans.

There are no plans to run TNA live events any time in the near future. I don't see that changing for a while. They'll hopefully be more careful in the future to avoid the incredibly low attendance figures they had in 2014.

Set for this week's Impact Wrestling:
- TNA World Heavyweight Championship: Bobby Lashley vs. MVP
- Rampage Brown vs. Noam Dor
- Austin Aries vs. Samoa Joe
- Robbie E/Angelina Love vs. Chris Melendez/Brooke
- Rockstar Spud/Mr. Anderson vs. Tyrus/Ethan Carter III

There are two really solid matches there. I think the last one should be pretty good, too. We'll see about the other two.

Everything else from yesterday is after the break.

There still isn't an official venue set for Summerslam, but they will almost definitely remain in the Northeast.

Mark Henry appeared at Booker T.'s Reality of Wrestling event this weekend. I wonder when we'll see Henry on WWE TV again. I fully expect him to retire around the time of WM32 in his home state of Texas.

Update: Here's footage. I envision an angle where he goes for the WWE Title as a face at WM32, if he can "go" at that high of a level then. I hope he gets a sendoff worthy of his years in the company.

The current plan is for The Undertaker not to appear live for WWE until WM31, in a way to build intrigue since we haven't seen him since WM30. He'll still respond to Bray's challenge. If next year's show wasn't in Texas, I'd be relatively sure this would be Taker's last Mania match.

#GiveDivasAChance trended worldwide on Twitter after the incredibly brief presence they had on Raw. Mick Foley made mention of it. I'd definitely like to see more wrestling from the Divas on the main roster shows. Silly "Total Divas" feuds don't count. I want to see them treated more seriously.

Update: Vince McMahon responded. I'll believe it when I see it.

Although Brock Lesnar flew out to Nashville for Raw, he wasn't used. It's said he was upset about something regarding his business relationship with WWE unrelated to the Creative end of things. This adds another major wrinkle into the WrestleMania story. WM31 could indeed be his last date if the two sides can't come together.

Raw drew 4.12 million viewers for the week after Fastlane. It will be interesting to see how they do during and after Mania season.

AJ Lee publicly criticized Stephanie McMahon for the disparity between male and female performers in WWE. I think it's safe to say the Brooks family isn't concerned with being on good terms with the McMahons and Levesques anymore. I can only imagine what the repercussions will be for this. I don't see it leading to a big push for AJ, if we see her back in WWE soon at all.

Update: Stephanie responded. That was pretty much what she had to say from a PR perspective. Whether this is followed up with action remains to be seen. Hopefully in pre-WM31 interviews, someone brings it up.

WWE exec George Barrios gave a forecast for WWE Network subscriptions. They definitely have high hopes! I wonder what percentage of the global WWE audience would have to be on-board for that number to be reached.

WWE put out a video celebrating the anniversary of the WWE Network. Has anyone ever eaten a cake on WWE TV without it ending up in someone's face?

Paige talked about AJ Lee and more. I'm glad AJ still keeps in touch with some of the names there.

For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. I have a question about this questioner's anxiety regarding correct sentence structure. I wish this conspiracy theory attitude itself would get buried and some better questions would go over. Anyway. Cena doesn't bury anyone. He doesn't book himself. Management rarely actually buries anyone, either. They might be less important after facing the person in the spotlight (whether that's Cena, Brock, or whomever), but generally it's not a case of someone having it out to ruin a talent's reputation.

2. I'm not even going to try to count the number of times each of them have been turned or made into a new character. Granted, they have been wrestling on TV for quite some time, so it's not all that surprising their characters keep changing.

3. That's pretty much it. They just need to get some content out there to fulfill agreements to air PPVs in international markets. They almost certainly wouldn't do those shows at all if they didn't have those deals in place where they have to show 12 PPVs a year.

4. Honestly I don't think he can be voted out or anything. I don't know anything about hostile takeovers where he could be forced from power, but it definitely looks like they'll

5. The gist of the situation, to my understanding, is Rey's contract was extended last year because he missed so much time due to injury. Rey didn't have a say in this and wants out. Presumably they can only hold him a few more months before that extension expires. It's possible something gets worked out before then and he's able to go elsewhere.

More wrestling tomorrow.

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