There isn't 100% confirmation on this, but there is speculation Randy Orton has legitimately suffered an injury of some sort, hence him being pulled from wrestling. That would be problematic with Cena taking time off soon. WWE's only got a few really "made" guys, so having two out at once is an issue.
Update: Orton injured his shoulder in Mexico. There's no timetable for how long he'll be out, but he wasn't at Raw. I'm sure WWE wants him back for Mania season.
There's talk of Tyler Breeze officially becoming part of the main roster, but he is scheduled for NXT events at least through the UK tour. They could presumably write him off at Takeover:London or at the tapings following that to officially move him up.
Everything else from yesterday is after the break.
ROH has signed ACH to a new exclusive deal beginning around December. I hope that's a good move for both sides.
WWE will show the first episode of their new Breaking Ground series on YouTube and Facebook, which will hopefully get people to subscribe to the Network to check the rest of the episodes out. William Shatner will be doing the voiceover work for the show. That might be the most exciting part.
WWE made a creative decision to replace Luke Harper with Erick Rowan on Raw. Harper was not scheduled to be part of Smackdown. There are theories of Harper having heat because a number of WWE performers appeared in a Twitter photo wearing fan-made Harper shirts posted on Chris Jericho's account before it was deleted. I'm generally all about "keeping kayfabe," and yeah, they probably shouldn't have worn fan-designed shirts (that someone could buy instead of WWE's official shirts), but Stephanie McMahon posted a photo with Ronda Rousey after WM31 and is pretty open about "just playing a bad person on TV". This really sends the wrong message to the locker room. I hope Harper doesn't get buried for getting over with his peers and the fans in a way WWE doesn't endorse, but Management can be pretty bastards.
Raw's audience climbed back to 3.36 million for a loaded show. If they can't get monster numbers for Brock, Taker, Stone Cold, HBK, and Flair, it's really time to re-evaluate things.
For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. I do think they have to be really careful with how they book Brock and Taker going forward to not cheapen the Summerslam ending and keep Brock looking like a threat. There's money in Brock vs. Taker in Texas for WM32, so it was smart to make it look like Taker could feasibly beat Brock. But with it being in question whether they'll clash again in Texas, things might not have panned out as initially planned.
2. Remember last time Sheamus tried to beat Rollins with Kane around? You know, AT THE LAST PPV? I think Sheamus learned discretion is the better part of valor. He doesn't want to face the wrath of The Demon himself, and he's still got many months to consider when to cash in.
3. They only have so many male wrestlers to use! I guess they could have done Team GFW, but this adds an interesting wrinkle. We'll have to see how it plays out before determining if it was stupid or not.
4. I'm fairly positive both men will at least be under contract to TNA through the Rumble, although if they REALLY wanted to, they could probably get out of their deals. I also think unless there's a lot of money involved and the opportunity to do things they really want to do, they might just stay outside WWE for now.
5. To be fair, some fans weren't going to make the jump from Spike to DA no matter what. But it will definitely be difficult to turn things around considering how many people have left, from those in front of the camera, to those behind it, to those who have tuned out completely. It's not impossible, but it's not going to happen overnight. I think they're definitely going to stay at the indie level for the foreseeable future.
More wrestling tomorrow.
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