La Sombra talked about joining WWE. Sombra has apparently talked to Alberto Del Rio, the Lucha Dragons, and the wrestler formerly known as Magno about making the jump, so he already has friends/acquaintances there. I hope WWE is able to do good things in the Latin market in the years to come; that's been a struggle for them lately.
AJ Styles remains injured. He's been dealing with back problems lately. I hope ROH has a backup plan for Final Battle. Maybe they could make Lethal vs. Moose vs. Elgin to set up Lethal vs. Elgin one-on-one on Jan. 4? Or maybe they can get another member of the Bullet Club to fill in? They could shake things up if they need to.
Update: Styles' injuries are confirmed to be related to the lower back issues he had that kept him from working ROH TV a few weeks back. The show has been missing something without the #1 Contender. He'll be on this week's show, though.
John Cena has been announced for WWE's January tour of India. I guess he'll more or less be in the full swing of things once 2016 hits.
Everything else from yesterday is after the break.
WWE is taping Tribute to the Troops on Dec. 8 to air on Dec. 11. I wonder what guests they'll have there.
Mick Foley talked about the differences between now and the Attitude Era. At least he's offering to take action this time. I think he's right about talents needing to be less constrained, and WWE needs to play to each talent's strengths and all that. That's been the story for years now, and why NXT is so refreshing. I'd love for Vince to let someone else take the reins for, say, the time between TLC and the Rumble. Vince can still set a couple of things up for Mania season, but otherwise, it'd be a worthy experiment to see what could change if he loosened up. He's been running the company for decades now. It's time to prepare for the next generation.
Bayley talked before NXT's tour of the UK:
- When fans make the show about their creative chants instead of the people in the ring, it's a problem.
- There are definitely fans who resent Eva Marie getting opportunities not given to people with more wrestling experience. I can't say I blame them, but there's a point when you at least have to let her cut a promo.
TNA's audience on DA last week was 234,000 for the initial airing and 78,000 for the replay. Unless they get bumped for the holidays, TNA has five more episodes on DA. It's possible they do a clip show to recap 2015 before starting off fresh in 2016, but it's also possible they have enough content taped to fill all that time.
ROH's audience on DA last week was 141,000. Their average for the last 18 weeks on the channel (after DA dropped their replay) was 150,000, so that's a good benchmark for when they get to Comet. Comet does reach more homes and is on basic cable, so I think they'll see an increase in viewers.
For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. I wonder what the potential audience is for those old seasons of NXT. I enjoyed them, but I don't know how many others did. It could just be something WWE doesn't see people being excited for.
2. I think a big cause of the declining ratings is that there's so much wrestling available to watch now. Raw's three hours a week, Smackdown's two hours, there's TNA and ROH also on TV, and WWE.com has NXT, Superstars, Main Event, and literally thousands of hours of wrestling from previous companies and previous era. While I agree the shows in general aren't as compelling as they were years ago, I think some of the decline was inevitable given how much content is out there to sate wrestling fans' wants. It used to be you just got Raw and Smackdown (and maybe the shows like Velocity and Heat). That was the right amount of time to where fans weren't as burned out of watching the same people over and over (especially in the brand split days). Tyler Breeze debuted on Smackdown on Oct. 22. Since then we've seen him wrestle on Raw four times, on Smackdown twice, and on a PPV. That's seven matches in less than six weeks, not even counting his NXT matches and his other appearances in the crowd and such. Everything quickly becomes just another part of the show when you have that much time to fill.
3. Booking that many characters on the main roster is way more difficult than booking a limited roster on four one-hour shows at a time for NXT. Let's keep that in mind here.
4. I could see him wrestling somewhere else if WWE doesn't clear him before his contract ends, but that's by no means a guarantee. It might be wiser for him to retire if doctors are telling him not to keep going, but it's ultimately his choice.
5. That's not a bad choice at all. I would have guessed Hideo Itami, depending on when Itami's cleared. Zayn's also possible, but they'd be crazy to not bring him to the main roster.
More wrestling tomorrow.
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