Former WWE star Rico is reportedly dealing with a variety of ailments, from severe concussions to heart problems to a collapsed lung. That's absolutely awful news. I wish him the best, and hope he gets the help he needs.
There are plans for a second season of the Edge and Christian Show, but episodes have not been written yet. The show had its great moments when taking the piss out of things that would be taboo to discuss on WWE TV.
WWE.com is turning their "Where Are They Now?" feature into an episodic video series. The first episode will feature Vladimir Kozlov.
WWE Network has continued to add ECW TV episodes from 1993.
Daniel Bryan is pushing for WWE to release a documentary they produced about him being set to wrestle a bear at Wrestlemania 32. That sounds AMAZING, even if it was just a guy in a costume. There's actually history of men wrestling (trained) bears. Someone needs to get on this. Namely, TNA via Broken Matt.
Smackdown's audience was 2.29 million this week, the lowest viewership since going live. That's really a shame considering the great Miz/Ziggler and Ambrose/Cena matches. Hopefully Ambrose vs. Styles for the title next week boosts numbers.
TNA teased a debut ahead of Impact Wrestling. It's going to be really interesting if Cody ends up appearing in TNA and ROH in the span of a few months. He isn't expected to sign a full-time deal with either promotion, or anyone else.
TNA announced the return of the Bound For Gold battle royal for this year's event. Last year's match had some fun surprises, so I hope that continues this year.
NJPW is looking to continue expanding beyond Japan, which would likely mean more international names getting contracts. That could end up having a big effect on ROH, and possibly NXT/WWE as well. NJPW has already signed a number of top ROH-level names who've made that their home promotion.
D-Von Dudley could be set to become an agent for WWE, with Bully Ray working the indie scene as a singles competitor. The duo are still set to run their wrestling school in Florida. Bully has teased coming to TNA, but there's no word on any interest from them.
David McLane, who produced GLOW, is getting back into the wrestling business. He's working with Los Angeles Lakers President Jennie Buss to create a TV series called Women of Wrestling, with actresses trained to be wrestlers. The pair are still seeking a distribution deal for the project, which they want to have live events as well as weekly national TV. It will be interesting to see if something like that can work in 2016. With the GLOW series coming to Netflix, there's possibly a market for the idea.
Billy Corgan is seen as the most likely buyer for TNA, but a deal hasn't gone through yet and other parties are at the table.
Cody Runnels is expected to work with Adam Cole in ROH once he starts at Final Battle, and is expected to just use his first name to avoid any copyright issue with WWE. I'm curious what this will mean for Cole as ROH Champion.
WWE is interested in Matt Hardy once his TNA contract ends in spring. He and Brother Nero would both be available early next year if TNA doesn't lock them up. I would think Matt would want to call his own shots and work his own schedule, but I wouldn't rule out seeing him there.
Tamina is still expected to be months away from returning. There hasn't been any word of her working out at the WWEPC or being close to being cleared.
Summer Rae is out with a neck injury, and has also had back and elbow issues. No word on how long she'll miss. I think she's been underutilized as a character and as a wrestler.
For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. I'm pleasantly surprised at Dave's answer there. I agree on all points. It concluded the story about low blows and firmly established AJ as a jerkass heel who's good enough to beat Cena clean AND become WWE Champion. People looking to complain will always find a reason to do so and this is no different.
1. I'm pleasantly surprised at Dave's answer there. I agree on all points. It concluded the story about low blows and firmly established AJ as a jerkass heel who's good enough to beat Cena clean AND become WWE Champion. People looking to complain will always find a reason to do so and this is no different.
2. The only way I would see that happening is if they taped a lot of Nitros/Thunders/whatever at once and they never aired opposite televised WWE programming. The costs of doing frequent tapings on top of Raw and Smackdown would be unreal, as well as the headaches of producing that much content and booking that many venues. Even then, the roster would probably be scarce because they weren't going to buy out some of the bigger contracts (Goldberg, Steiner, nWo). Why keep that brand running when you can use the remaining WCW assets to boost Raw and Smackdown? In other words, unless it was going to be something like NXT with its own production team, bookers, etc., I don't see them going through all that effort.
3. It definitely seems like the purpose is to have McMahons on TV as well as two other prominent non-wrestlers. In theory, though, the commissioners can overrule the GMs and even replace them if they want to. That could play out at some point.
4. I think it's definitely possible they'd continue the theme of colored championships at the top level. It's not a bad idea. I'm just glad they kept the names of the United States and Intercontinental Championships instead of Raw ________ Champion and Smackdown ________ Champion. It would have made sense to have the same name for each brand's title, but the current title names have a lot of prestige and lineage.
5. Cody asked for his release and looks to be doing something of a greatest hits/farewell tour before trying to make it as an actor. So, he's out. Sandow's now working as Aron Rex full-time in TNA, so that's not happening. The Big Guy didn't want to accept WWE's offer, Del Rio's winding down his wrestling career and wants to work more or less part-time in Mexico, and I think the former Wade Barrett wants to go into acting. As for other names, there haven't been any further indications of other released names coming back into the fold.
More wrestling tomorrow.
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