Adrienne Reese returned to the ring at an NXT live event this weekend. Given she was working with Asuka, they could be building the former Athena as an upcoming title contender.
Justin Credible discussed "coming out of retirement," the lack of selling today and more:
- It definitely sounds like he has more important things in his life than wrestling. The match he had was a tag match where his team did the job, so it's not like he made a huge "return."
- He's absolutely dead-on about wrestling today vs. 20 years ago. A lot of wrestlers don't want to learn from veterans. They just want to show off every single move they know.
- I can somewhat forgive NXT being choreographed since it's developmental. The main roster, though? Definitely too rehearsed and too many big moves, taking its cue from the indies. I hope they don't go too far in that direction, but I think it might be inevitable given where the indies are going.
- Since Credible didn't see Ambrose in the weeks and months ahead of Mania, he would see why Dean stood a chance. I think a lot of it is how the business has changed so much to where smaller guys are now pushed as believable and threats.
Everything else from yesterday is after the break.
Bray Wyatt has been pulled from working live events for the time being due to his injury. There's no update on his condition or when we'll see him again.
NXT's June 16 show in the UK has sold out. I wonder how NXT is doing compared to TNA in that market; it's one of TNA's top sources of revenue.
WWE superstars reacted to Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson appearing on Raw. WWE using the name Bullet Club is CRAZY. NJPW owns that trademark; they need to be really careful there.
Natalya opened WWE's show in Dubai. Later, before Big Show faced Los Matadores (minus El Torito), the crowd chanted for her. She hugged Big Show and kissed him on the cheek. Public displays of affection are illegal in the UAE. I hope that doesn't lead to any backlash for anyone involved (WWE or Natalya).
EVOLVE has announced the following qualifying matches for WWE's Global Cruiserweight Series:
- Drew Gulak vs. Tracy Williams
- Fred Yehi vs. TJ Perkins (formerly Manik/Suicide in TNA).
These two matches will take place on May 7. Based on their experience in the business, I'd like to see Gulak and TJP.
PROGRESS Wrestling announced some GCS qualifiers of their own:
- Jack Gallagher vs. Pete Dunne
Either HHH jumped the gun in announcing Sabre or they're doing an angle where has to earn his way into the series. Either way, he's expected to be part of it. He's building a reputation for himself. Gallagher and Dunne both have pretty good resumes as potential WWE hires.
NXT has announced a Takeover special for June 8, as well as TV tapings for May 19 and June 9. It looks like the next month of NXT TV will be matches from WM32 weekend. They taped plenty of stuff at AXXESS before the "actual" NXT tapings.
Triple H will appear on WWE tour dates from April 20 through April 23, wrestling Dean Ambrose. I'm interested to see where he fits in as a wrestler and an authority figure going forward.
Shane McMahon has been added to Tuesday's Smackdown taping in London. It's unknown if he'll be "in charge" of the show that night.
Tommy Dreamer and the HoH roster paid tribute to Balls Mahoney before their show began. The show also ended with Balls Mahoney's ECW music playing. I'm glad they acknowledged his passing.
For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. Ohhh boy. This is the epitome of what's wrong with the fan base these days: not seeing the big picture. This is basically a ton of questions in one, but since they did answer it, I guess I have to:
1. Ohhh boy. This is the epitome of what's wrong with the fan base these days: not seeing the big picture. This is basically a ton of questions in one, but since they did answer it, I guess I have to:
a. Brock's the new "final boss" after beating Taker at WM30. The point is Dean looked like a threat despite the size disadvantage against someone seemingly indestructible.
b. Zayn and Owens are still feuding. WM32 was just one of the first chapters of their war. I expect them to have a barnburner at Extreme Rules. Rushing their feud for WM32 where it'd have to compete with the the three top matches would have been short-sighted and foolish (like the person who sent this question in).
c. Shane gave it his all against a legend and impressed Vince enough to put him temporarily in charge.
d. AJ is now the No. 1 contender to the WWE Championship. Considering he's only three months into his WWE career, that's a pretty big sign of him proving himself.
e. Becoming the new Women's Champion at Wrestlemania's a pretty big deal. They had Lita put the division and current stars over when revealing the new title. Why can't you just be happy they got that big of a stage instead of complaining about how it was set up?
f. Flair helping his heel daughter win the match doesn't mean "women can't do it on their own." That's one of the dumbest opinions I've ever heard, and that's saying a lot given some of the questions they get.
g. There's a BIG difference between legends coming in and hitting their signature spots in a big surprise vs. top teams actually jobbing to retired names. If Austin, HBK, and Foley actually beat LoN in an advertised match, I'd be as upset as others. That's not what happened. It was more or less an ambush. Rock surprised Rowan (no one was expecting Rock to wrestle), so that doesn't really count as a "burial" either.
h.The point of Mania was to give us all a long night of good action and surprises. It's a shame that's lost on the whiners.
2. They did provide great value. Honestly it was probably too great of a value for $9.99 (or free for some). They had a LOT of content that night. I do wish they would have given some kind of an indication the show was going to be longer than expected, although it was a nice surprise given how good a lot of it was.
3. As far as I know, he'll still be part of future seasons of E!'s reality show(s). He's still employed by WWE.
4. Those were some wild days.
5. Bayley deserves it, but I don't think the time's right just yet. Samoa Joe and Finn Balor are also quite deserving. And honestly I think Alex Riley should get another chance higher up at some point.
More wrestling tomorrow.
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