The Big Guy, formerly Ryback, is looking to legally change his name to Ryback Allen Reeves. This would allow him to use the name Ryback for his post-WWE endeavors.
- The Big Guy talked to Sports Illustrated:
-- Punk presumably saw Ryback as green and unsafe. Perhaps even reckless. Considering TBG had fewer than 250 matches to his name at that point (a lot of which were tag matches or squash matches), it's not an unfair assessment to think he wasn't ready to be in PPV main events.
-- Punk presumably saw Ryback as green and unsafe. Perhaps even reckless. Considering TBG had fewer than 250 matches to his name at that point (a lot of which were tag matches or squash matches), it's not an unfair assessment to think he wasn't ready to be in PPV main events.
-- WWE did NOT want to respond to anything on Punk's podcast, period. The last thing they wanted to do was give it more attention by acknowledging it. If they reacted to the Ryback remarks, it would open them up to have to talk about the other things he discussed. Other than the potentially libelous accusations against Dr. Amann, they pretty much stayed clear of his claims.
-- WWE didn't want him acknowledging someone involved in a lawsuit with their doctor, who had left sometime before. That makes sense. They also didn't want Ryback trying to draw too much attention for a Kickoff match. He was there to warm the crowd up with a babyface win before the people WWE did want to focus on competed. That level of order to the show is what separates WWE from the indies.
-- Protecting a talent with booking is much easier said than done when there are so many other people on the card they're also trying to potentially protect.
-- Losing to Mark Henry definitely didn't do Ryback any favors.
-- They definitely had lightning in a bottle with Ryback in 2012, but I don't know if him going over Punk would have been a good move.
-- Some of WWE's writing is definitely atrocious, but I think too much blame goes to the PG rating. If you need profanity and the kinds of insults that would lose sponsors in order to be an effective heel, that says a lot about your talent level on the mic.
-- I think Ryback wanted the money and push from facing Goldberg, but if he ended up having to make Bill look strong, he probably wouldn't have been as excited about the opportunity.
WWE released a CWC bonus match with Tony Nese and Drew Gulak vs. Lince Dorado and Kenneth Johnson. I think an argument can be made for Nese, Gulak, and Dorado joining Smackdown's midcard. There are a number of other CWC names who would also fit in there or NXT.
Daniel Bryan threw out the first pitch at a recent Phillies game in order to promote Smackdown. You'd think he'd have important business to do as GM that day.
Former German goalkeeper Tim Weise has reported to the WWE Performance Center. A soccer player gimmick would have fit right in during the early '90s. I'm very interested to see how he transitions to being a wrestler.
Randy Orton worked in a limited fashion at Monday's Smackdown live event, teaming with John Cena to beat Bray Wyatt and Erick Rowan. That was his first "actual" match since Summerslam.
Matt Hardy has found and rescued Senor Benjamin. I'm a little disappointed they didn't give him more of a makeover. Also, where the heck is Bram?
WWE now has pet toys through Petmate. Interestingly, the Divas branding is still on some of these items. I'm guessing they were planned before the dropping of that moniker for female superstars
Emma was backstage at Raw. There's been no update on her returning to the ring, but maybe this is a good sign things are starting to move toward that. She had some pretty great work in NXT, but was injured before being able to contribute much upon her main roster return. I would imagine she'll be on Raw to work with Dana Brooke again, but they could drop that angle and do something different entirely. Either way, I hope she's able to return soon.
WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens and ROH World Champion Adam Cole met up. I wonder what WWE thinks of Owens posing with someone under contract somewhere else. Hopefully Cole joins guys like Owens, Zayn, Styles, and Joe in WWE when he's able to. He's been "ready" for that level for a long time.
Braxton Sutter vs. Rockstar Spud in an empty arena match will take place on this week's Impact Wrestling. That's pretty much the attendance of One Night Only tapings.
Decay will defend their TNA Tag Team Championship against the Hardys at BFG. I assume that won't be any kind of Final Deletion spectacle.
Raw drew 2.69 million viewers against the return of Monday Night Football. MNF drew nearly 13 million for their 6:55 game, and more than 10 million for their 10:12 p.m. game. That's the lowest audience since Raw expanded to three hours. WWE's got to be panicking. I hope that doesn't mean we're in for something crazy like HHH as champion or a bunch of segments centered around non-wrestlers.
ROH has announced the following matches for their UK tour in November:
- November 18: Briscoes/Kyle O'Reilly vs. Adam Cole/Young Bucks
- November 19: Alex Shelley vs. Jay Lethal
- November 20: Will Ospreay vs. Marty Scurll
Jack Swagger has been moved from Raw to Smackdown effective on the most recent Smackdown episode. The storyline is his Raw contract expired after Monday's episode and he signed with Smackdown Tuesday morning. It looks like he'll be in angle with Baron Corbin based on last night's show.
For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. I can see it being a case of it being more difficult to remember a bunch of scripted lines rather than speaking fairly straightforwardly in NXT. She has charisma when she gets to wing it more.
1. I can see it being a case of it being more difficult to remember a bunch of scripted lines rather than speaking fairly straightforwardly in NXT. She has charisma when she gets to wing it more.
2. I REALLY don't see WWE wanting to show footage of that kind of wrestling given their policy on blood and the focus on family-friendly content. For better or worse, he's not Jon Moxley anymore. He's WWE's Lunatic Fringe™ (Maggle!) I think the Asylum match is probably as hardcore as they'll let him be.
3. I guess it's like not wanting someone to fill up on bread in a restaurant before the big meal arrives. There was excitement for the live events, and I think that will only grow for Takeover. This way, they don't "burn out the market" by doing shows that close together with the same talents.
4. I mean, this is a guy who was once Mankind, Dude Love, and Cactus Jack in the same night. There's no telling what he'll do next!
5. I'm OK with him coming back to pop a big buyrate/increase in subscription numbers and going into the Hall of Fame. I wouldn't want it to be more than a few big matches, though, and I definitely don't want to see him destroy someone's credibility.
More wrestling tomorrow.
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