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Friday, November 4, 2016

Big internal TNA changes, Raw and ROH PPVs sell out, how 205 Live changes things, speculation on ACH's future, WWE interested in Rousey and other UFC names, WWE women tournament coming soon, top Japanese women to WWE?, Tozawa-WWE update, WWE live event notes, Corgan wants his money, upcoming NXT main events, Cena set for MSG, Aries' surgery goes off, indie name starting at NXT soon, upcoming Raw matches, Interview with Bryan, and Questions on ACH's ROH status, Goldberg's workrate, TNA's defense against Corgan, TNA leaving Challenge, and ROH growing to two hours

Dixie Carter, her husband Serg Salinas, and TNA COO Dean Broadhead are expected to remain salaried employees in TNA after a sale, even if they won't maintain the power or positions they had prior to Anthem Media (Fight Network)'s investment. It will be very interesting to see what changes come about with Anthem in control.

- The indication is Dixie is remains in TNA as a figurehead role, with Anthem's Ed Nordholm make the decisions.

If Anthem Media shuts TNA down (which there are currently NO PLANS TO DO), they'll maintain control of the video library and be able to use the content for their networks. Whether that fact will change WWE's amount of interest in the company remains to be seen.

Jason Brown of Aroluxe is now in charge of TNA, as part of a deal with Anthem to invest in the company. This is essentially acknowledgement of the investment Aroluxe has put into the company so far.

Hell in a Cell sold out the TD Garden. That's great! They had some really big brawls that night.

Cruiserweights will continue to work Raw, as well as NXT live events in addition to the new 205 Live show. It will be an interesting balancing act getting names over between WWE Network content and the larger audience of Raw.

Once ACH finishes with ROH, he could end up working Japan more regularly. I'm sure WWE would be on his radar if they're interested. With NXT and the expanding cruiserweight division, the two sides could definitely come to an agreement.

ROH Final Battle has sold out with 1,800 tickets. That's great! A really sizeable crowd for them.

WWE is considering using a UFC name soon, with Ronda Rousey, Conor McGregor, and Paige VanZant being the most likely options. I'm curious how they'll make use of any of those names. McGregor could definitely get a lot of heat.

- Stpehanie McMahon discussed wanting to sign Rousey to WWE following Rousey's announcement of her MMA career wrapping up soon. That could be pretty interesting, although the question would be how they would book her.

WWE's proposed women's tournament in the vein of the CWC is in the works for early 2017. Women from around the world will compete, and I'm sure a decent number will end up joining NXT or the main roster as a result. WWE could certainly make use of a number of talented women.

There's talk of Stardom's Io Shirai and potentially Kairi Hojo joining WWE once their current deals end around the time of WM33. Both are very highly regarded for their work.

(Akira) Tozawa has finished with Dragon Gate and will soon be stateside to join the cruiserweight division. I'm ready to see him! Ditto for Gallagher and Dar. They each add some real variety to things.

Emma worked as special referee for Bayley/Alicia Fox beating Dana Brooke/Nia Jax at a live event in Germany. So she's a face for now, but that can all change when they finally use her on the main roster.

Tim Wiese appeared in a special segment at a live event in Germany, a night before his successful in-ring debut.

Anthem and TNA officially announced Anthem's investment in the company, indicating Billy Corgan is no longer involved there. There was no mention of Aroluxe Marketing's role going forward, but I wouldn't read anything into that.

Billy Corgan indicated he hasn't been paid for his loan in a series of tweets: Tweet 1 Tweet 2 Tweet 3

- Fight Network responded: Tweet 1 Tweet 2

- Corgan responded to their response: Tweet 1 Tweet 2 Tweet 3

-- Looks like this is going to get uglier before anything gets resolved. I just hope things end up well for the wrestlers and fans. 

Aroluxe Marketing is taking a bigger role in TNA Creative in order to make tapings efficient and cost-effective. They're really running a tight ship there.

TNA is planning out its future stages now that they're secure financially. I expect Anthem's reach in media will play a big role in that.

TNA wrestlers have been caught up on pay after their checks had been due amid the ownership crisis.

WWE will likely utilize even more cruiserweight free agents/EVOLVE names with the arrival of 205 Live.

Shinsuke Nakamura and #DIY vs. Samoa Joe and The Revival has been announced for NXT's shows on November 16 and November 17. I expect we'll see Ciampa and Gargano used in the cruiserweight division regularly after Survivor Series weekend.

John Cena has been announced for Smackdown's December 26 show in Madison Square Garden. It's unknown when he'll be back on TV and be back full-time, but he is currently set for that big event.

Austin Aries' surgery was a success.

The former Tommy End is set to start working NXT live events this week. I hope he does well.

Kevin Owens vs. Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship and Seth Rollins vs. Chris Jericho are advertised for Raw's December 28 live event, so that could be the way things are headed on-screen. I'm curious what that will mean for the U.S. Title (if anything).

Daniel Bryan discussed what NXT names he'd like to see on Smackdown and more. I expect we'll see some of those names on Raw and Smackdown in 2017.

For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. There's apparently some ambiguity about this. We know he won't be part of ROH come January; it's possible they let him out of his exclusive deal but he'll continue to work for them through the end of the year for stuff he's already been booked for.

2. I'm expecting it to be more of a spectacle of big moves, etc. than a competitive, long match. They'll get by as best as they can.

3. TNA's argument is Corgan basically held the company ransom because he knew they needed his money to keep things going.

4. Unless they replace it with something as good or better by the time the new year comes around, it's definitely going to make a dent in things. What changes that will mean remain to be seen. It looks like they're going to cut back tapings to only three or four a year, but they might need to make other cutbacks, too.

5. Certainly not before Sinclair's sports channel gets off the ground. With syndication, going from a one-hour show to a two-hour show presents a significant problem since each individual channel makes the choice of when to air the show. They'll each have to rearrange their schedules to fit the expanded show. With the cable channel, it's only one schedule that needs changing.

More wrestling tomorrow.

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