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Monday, June 27, 2016

WWE live event notes, Vader vs. Ospreay happening, no bags in Full Sail, origins of Kliq hand signal, assorted Khali and WWE press, Interviews with Hall/Trish/Xavier, another Brooklyn sellout, no more Balor Club, and Questions on the state of ROH, the CWC, producing WarGames, a WWE overload, and WWE "silencing" Foley

Eva Marie is back working WWE live events following competing at the most recent NXT taping.  She was on the losing end of a six-woman tag where Sasha, Becky, and Summer beat Charlotte, Natalya, and Eva. No Dana Brooke for whatever reason.

Vader vs. Will Ospreay has been booked by Revolution Pro following a Twitter war between the two sides. The match will happen at their August 12 Uprising show. I'm very interested to see how that plays out. I'm definitely Team Vader regarding their issue.

WWE has enacted a no-bag policy for all future events at Full Sail. After the tragedy in Orlando a few weeks ago, I can see why they'd take precautions.

WWE.com discussed the origin of The Kliq's "too sweet" hand gesture. Pretty funny banter. Nice to see NC State get a nod, although that's not where The Kliq picked it up from.

The Great Khali's wrestling academy got press in India. Wrestling continues to pick up steam in the country.

Brock Lesnar is being advertised for the July 19 draft episode. They should definitely put him on Smackdown if they want that show to be seen as a big deal at the level of Raw.

WWE's recent signing of a Chinese superstar got press in China.

John Cena and Stephanie McMahon got press for their speech in Cannes.

Scott Hall was profiled. I'm glad he continues to do well.

Trish Stratus discussed the upcoming brand extension and the state of women's wrestling in WWE. I do think things are looking up for women in WWE compared to the "Diva" days.

Xavier Woods discussed his geek influences and more. New Day has really been a breath of fresh air in WWE.

The Raw after Summerslam has sold out, meaning WWE once again has three straight nights of sellouts in Brooklyn. That's pretty impressive.

At a WWE show in Orlando, Florida:
- Shinsuke Nakamura and Finn Balor beat Samoa Joe and Austin Aries.
- Viktor lost to Jack Swagger. No Konnor.
- Bayley teamed with Sasha Banks and Summer to beat Dana/Eva/Natalya.
- The Shining Stars beat the Prime Time Players, who haven't teamed together in quite some time.

-- So, some nice NXT surprises to shake things up. I expect some of those names to be more permanent parts of Raw or Smackdown by the end of the summer.

WWE has abandoned plans to trademark the name Balor Club, so there presumably won't be a faction by that name. Whether that means Finn's merchandise will change going forward remains to be seen.

For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. This is bad. ROH has been advertising on PWInsider for quite a while now, with an ad for Best in the World at the top of the page these questions appear on. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if this "question" was answered before BITW even happened. It's a real problem when the people who are supposed to be providing a balance to the hype of wrestling promotions are used as mouthpieces by the promotions. The general perception of BITW has been of being unimpressed with the show and with ROH's current direction. It was seen as good, but not great, with some serious missteps. Personally, I thought the show had its strong moments (Corino vs. Whitmer), some solid action (opening match), and a number of matches with very little heat that were just about cool moves/kicking out of finishers. It's a shame, because when ROH is good, it's really good. But a lot of that is countered by the "get my spots in" mentality where workrate and believability take a backseat to spectacle.

2. I think it has real potential to be impressive as a showcase for future WWE superstars. I hope we see some standout performances.

3. That sounds like a mess. Vince and KD producing two commentary teams at once, with both teams pretty much being cheerleaders for their brand, would make things worse, not better. It would be difficult to call all those shots from a TV perspective, too.

4. It's going to be REALLY tough to make that much compelling content. No matter what they do with the roster and styles to dress things up, it's still going to be a lot of wrestling in short amount of time.

5. If anything, it's the other way around. Now that WWE has hired his son and given the family a vehicle to make Noelle a star, Mick's less likely to want to bite the hand that's feeding him. That doesn't mean his opinions aren't genuine or anything. There's just the potential there for him to "hold back" considering what all they're doing for his family.

More wrestling tomorrow.

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