Eric Young is continuing to get regular indy bookings, so WWE isn't in his immediate future. If WWE does sign Roode, as expected, it'd only be natural for Young to eventually follow. Since neither man is officially part of WWE at this time, it's not out of the question for either or both to work the next set of TNA tapings.
Justin Credible recently returned to the ring despite announcing his retirement a few months back. I get the feeling this is something he's just doing to give back to the business and pick up some extra money while his body can still take bumps.
Randy Orton indicated he'll be back in a WWE ring in time for Summerslam during an appearance promoting this weekend's live events in the Middle East. Orton vs. Styles would be pretty interesting.
Everything else from yesterday is after the break.
John Cena discussed wanting to work with Stone Cold and more. For anyone worried about Cena replacing Flair's record, some count him as having more than 20 reigns as World Champion. I like the idea of him returning right after Payback, which should be a pretty newsworthy show if Gallows and Anderson are involved.
WWE announced a new class of recruits for the WWE Performance Center:
- I'm glad to see them hire the Polish mastadon. They need some big guys.
- I like Bianca's resume. She should be quite athletic.
- Bogojevic is a BEAST. I hope he lives up to his potential, too. Being that big with a technical background should be really cool to watch.
- Macey sounds tough. Good to hear.
- I like the former Nikki Storm's resume. Looks like another great signing.
- Another impressive looking signing in Jean-Jacques. I like the focus on amateur wrestlers.
- Rikishi and Gangrel is an interesting team of trainers. I wouldn't mind seeing them get a nostalgia run in WWE.
- TMDK's reputation speaks for itself.
- Overall, an impressive crop of new athletes. According to that site, WWE now has almost 80 (!) people training at the WWEPC.
Kalisto is uninjured following his match on Raw. He was "taken out" as part of the story they were telling, but is OK.
Raw's audience was 3.53 million. Considering WWE gave the audience big NXT debuts the previous week, Shane McMahon, the Bullet Club, and two indy dream matches in Styles vs. Zayn and Cesaro vs. Owens with no Authority segments, I figured the audience would "reward" them a little more than that. I think it's pretty telling social media excitement and big crowd reactions don't translate to big ratings. Hopefully that just means "those damn millennials" don't watch TV like previous generations, but NBCU probably isn't too happy with that direction.
TNA Management continues to meet with potential investors. The outcome of those talks are going to be big for the company one way or another.
The Impact Wrestling replay was moved to Saturdays due to not pulling in enough viewers in its previous spot. The hope is to use the new timeslot to test the waters for a secondary TNA show (presumably either Spin Cycle or Xplosion). Pop is reportedly happy with the audience Impact is getting on Tuesday evenings, so maybe they do get enough of an audience to get a second show on the network. TNA could use the extra money from a second show.
Former ECW star Balls Mahoney has passed away at the age of 44. PWInsider covered his life and career. He fit the ECW look and style to a T, and was able to do pretty well for himself in the WWE reboot version. It's a real shame he passed away at a young age.
WWE has registered the trademark "Total Bellas," indicating either a retooling or spinoff from the current E! reality show. So, we could be seeing the Diva named dropped from there as well.
For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. I think it showed the company had faith in his abilities to be able to work with the newcomers without getting hurt. That's certainly better than his bosses being indifferent about him or not trusting him in the role.
1. I think it showed the company had faith in his abilities to be able to work with the newcomers without getting hurt. That's certainly better than his bosses being indifferent about him or not trusting him in the role.
2. Because believe it or not, there are a lot of people who still enjoy the WWE product and want to be part of the big experience that is Wrestlemania week. That doesn't change just because the people who are rarely satisfied with WWE were once again unsatisfied.
3. I don't expect to get much in the way of a concrete update on Taker until WM33 season starts up. His feelings and health could completely change one way or another by then.
4. While I'm also generally more of a fan of two-person booths, I think the goal is to have Byron be under the learning tree of the more experienced commentators. From that standpoint, the current arrangement works.
5. I think a lot of the point of the series is to scout future NXT/WWE performers. I don't really see WWE considering Low Ki for that role after how his last run turned out. I assume he could get some other important gigs in that timeframe instead.
More wrestling tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment