Lana and Paige took a photo together after Smackdown, suggesting there's no more heat between them (as a previous Lana tweet months ago suggested there was). It's good to get along with your coworkers, although that's easier said than done.
SportingNews covered WWE's new partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. That's important for WWE Corporate.
Nikki Bella successfully underwent surgery yesterday for her neck issues. It will be several months before she knows if/when she'll be able to get back in the ring. If she does return, I wouldn't expect her to do the Rack Attack anymore.
Everything else from yesterday is after the break.
Everything else from yesterday is after the break.
Following last night's taping, NXT now has footage up until Takeover in Dallas the night before WM32. So, Triple H can focus on his main roster duties as WWE Champion for the next few months.
Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows are expected to be signed to main roster deals, as opposed to working NXT first. I can't say I'm surprised at that. It's entirely possible we see them team with AJ at WM32, but they're not officially on-board yet.
Brian Knobbs of the Nasty Boys was sitting ringside at Smackdown. Thank God he doesn't work for WWE.
Update: There were reports of Hulk Hogan being backstage at Smackdown. There's nothing to those stories. WWE's remaining distanced from Hogan while his trial continues.
Update: There were reports of Hulk Hogan being backstage at Smackdown. There's nothing to those stories. WWE's remaining distanced from Hogan while his trial continues.
Wale was at Raw. He's been at a number of WWE shows over the years.
WWE is preparing the rest of ECW Hardcore TV and the entirety of ECW on TNN for the WWE Network. Content from that era is definitely sought out by fans. Digitization is a time-consuming process, though.
WWE's Connor's Cure charity has raised close to $900,000 to combat pediatric cancer. That's really amazing. Hopefully those funds are really helping the cause.
Impact Wrestling drew 339,000 in its first timeslot and 103,000 for its replay. The first showing was slightly up from last week, but the replay and overall audience were down. It will be interesting to see where they are by Lockdown. Hopefully they can pass 500,000 a week regularly and keep growing from there. One step at a time.
The most recent episode of "Total Divas" drew 939,000 viewers, a notable drop from the previous week. I'm not sure how many seasons the show is contracted for, or what kind of ratings E! wants.
Sinclair Broadcasting, owners of ROH, are officially purchasing the Tennis Channel. I mean, if WWE can be on SyFy, I don't see why ROH can't be on the Tennis Channel. There's no talk of that at this time, but it could easily happen if Sinclair wants it to.
Naomi addressed her health. It looks like she won't be out much longer.
"Legends with JBL" with Ron Simmons will air after Raw. Obviously those two have a lot of history.
The Rock talked about his appearance on Raw. I hope it meant good things for New Day.
Sinclair Broadcasting, owners of ROH, are officially purchasing the Tennis Channel. I mean, if WWE can be on SyFy, I don't see why ROH can't be on the Tennis Channel. There's no talk of that at this time, but it could easily happen if Sinclair wants it to.
Naomi addressed her health. It looks like she won't be out much longer.
"Legends with JBL" with Ron Simmons will air after Raw. Obviously those two have a lot of history.
The Rock talked about his appearance on Raw. I hope it meant good things for New Day.
WWE has announced Shinsuke Nakamura for NXT: Takeover: Dallas. I'm a little surprised they "jumped the gun" and made that announcement before Nakamura has even left NJPW. And using a photo from ROH? Whoa. Both sides are obviously really confident in him passing medical tests and coming to terms on an official contract. This is a really big signing for WWE given his prestige in Japan. I'm excited to see what he does. Now we're just waiting on Gallows and Anderson to officially finish up their NJPW dates.
For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. PPVs used to be a REALLY big deal. Heck, title changes in general used to be saved for important occasions like that. The title changed hands because it needed to, not because they "needed a title change." Then ratings became more important, and the competition with WCW meant they put more big matches on TV. Instead of four big PPVs a year, there are now 12, in addition to specials like Beast in the East. So, yeah, things have changed from when PPVs were king.
2. Some of Dave's wording is confrontational, which probably would put Vince on edge and make him defensive instead of getting the answer he wants. Here are my three:
a. What would your father think of what you've done with his company? If you could talk to him about anything, what would you discuss?
b. What do you want your legacy to be? How do you want to be remembered in 50 years, and how do you think you will be remembered?
c. Do you wish there was a "WCW" around today? How would you change things if there was another company going up against WWE like they did?
3. Probably smoking weed and waiting for someone to "recognize his greatness" enough to offer a big-money contract so he can be the center of attention and go over younger talents. Pushing him as anything higher than a credible IC Title-level veteran (who shouldn't actually win a title on a 90-day contract) wouldn't be wise, and he'd probably want more than that.
4. Vince would absolutely try to get a new TV home for Raw and Smackdown. And NBCU wouldn't keep three hours of Raw and two hours of Smackdown if they didn't like the ratings. WWE is a flagship brand for them. Obviously Raw ratings are down from 15 years ago, but they're in no danger of being dropped anytime soon.
5. I doubt he watches old footage on the Network. He's incredibly busy. And, honestly, he probably wouldn't care about how they did things back in the "rasslin'" era. He's doing sports entertainment, and he's not going to change that unless he faces real pressure to do so.
More wrestling tomorrow.
1. PPVs used to be a REALLY big deal. Heck, title changes in general used to be saved for important occasions like that. The title changed hands because it needed to, not because they "needed a title change." Then ratings became more important, and the competition with WCW meant they put more big matches on TV. Instead of four big PPVs a year, there are now 12, in addition to specials like Beast in the East. So, yeah, things have changed from when PPVs were king.
2. Some of Dave's wording is confrontational, which probably would put Vince on edge and make him defensive instead of getting the answer he wants. Here are my three:
a. What would your father think of what you've done with his company? If you could talk to him about anything, what would you discuss?
b. What do you want your legacy to be? How do you want to be remembered in 50 years, and how do you think you will be remembered?
c. Do you wish there was a "WCW" around today? How would you change things if there was another company going up against WWE like they did?
3. Probably smoking weed and waiting for someone to "recognize his greatness" enough to offer a big-money contract so he can be the center of attention and go over younger talents. Pushing him as anything higher than a credible IC Title-level veteran (who shouldn't actually win a title on a 90-day contract) wouldn't be wise, and he'd probably want more than that.
4. Vince would absolutely try to get a new TV home for Raw and Smackdown. And NBCU wouldn't keep three hours of Raw and two hours of Smackdown if they didn't like the ratings. WWE is a flagship brand for them. Obviously Raw ratings are down from 15 years ago, but they're in no danger of being dropped anytime soon.
5. I doubt he watches old footage on the Network. He's incredibly busy. And, honestly, he probably wouldn't care about how they did things back in the "rasslin'" era. He's doing sports entertainment, and he's not going to change that unless he faces real pressure to do so.
More wrestling tomorrow.
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