Kid Kash buries Punk, new WWE Studios exec, German WWE hire profiled, TNA star planning retirement, WWE announces weekly cruiserweight show, Heyman update, Taker returning soon, Smackdown audience, Brock's opponent in Mexico, and Questions on TNA losing its UK deal, future WWE HoFers, WWE booking then vs. now, and Sasha losing again

Kid Kash basically buried C.M. Punk while challenging him to an MMA bout. Punk has said he would have done MMA at a lower level, but took the UFC bout because of the amount of money they offered him. I can't say I blame him for taking the payday. As for Punk being handed everything, I wouldn't say that at all given the battles he had with management along the way. There was a pretty real chance he wouldn't have made it through OVW if Heyman didn't go to bat for him.

WWE Studios has promoted Stephanie Denton as Vice President of International and Acquisitions. She had been a consultant there for years.

Tim Wiese was profiled ahead of his WWE debut. He's getting something of a late start at 34, but hopefully he does pretty well for himself.

Davey Richards has indicated 2017 will be his last year as a wrestler, addressing his status. That's interesting, since he'll only be 34. But it was never his goal to be WWE Champion or anything. He's just an adrenaline junkie and wrestling has been his way to perform. I'm sure he'll be fine post-wrestling given his work ethic. It will be really interesting to see what this means for Eddie Edwards given how they're linked as a team. Especially if TNA isn't an option for him going forward.

WWE has announced a live weekly cruiserweight series will follow Smackdown on the WWE Network beginning November 29. Mauro Ranallo and Corey Graves will call the action, and HoHo Lun and the Bollywood Boyz have been announced as joining Brian Kendrick, TJ Perkins, Rich Swann, Noam Dar, Cedric Alexander, Lince Dorado, Gran Metalik, (Akira) Tozawa, and Jack Gallagher for the show. I expect Tony Nese, Drew Gulak, Ariya Daivari, Sin Cara, and others will be part of things as well. This is a big undertaking for the company, and opens up more spots for talented smaller performers. I'm sure ROH, EVOLVE, and X-Division names are taking note of this announcement with an eye toward their futures. Maybe some LU names as well?

WWE announced Paul Heyman as "suffering bruised ribs" after Raw to play off the spear from Goldberg. Brock's not going to be happy about that.

The Undertaker will appear on the November 15 Smackdown as part of the celebration for the 900th episode of the show. That's a really big move. I'm curious if it's a reaction to Smackdown's ratings. Either way, that'd be the perfect place to set up something big for the Rumble in Texas or a big showdown with Cena at WM33. I'd pop if he does something with James Ellsworth, personally.

Smackdown's audience this week was 2.19 million, another disappointing number. The boost from going live on a new night seems to have dissipated. I'm sure Cena's absence is partially responsible.

Brock Lesnar will face Rusev on December 3 in Mexico City. I wish they'd put that on the WWE Network. That match would be a war if they didn't book it as destruction by the WWE 2K17 cover star. 

For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. It's possible... POSSIBLE...  they do have something up their sleeves. They'll still be on Challenge until the end of the year, and say something new will be announced soon. We'll find out soon enough.

2. It's not really my place to judge her on that; it doesn't really have anything to do with her as a wrestling executive.

3. I'm going with Taker, HHH, Lesnar, Cena, Orton, Y2J, Show, Kane, Henry, Goldust, R-Truth (as the Godfather/Rikishi kind of pick), presumably Ziggler, Miz, Rhyno, Natalya, and Nikki Bella. We'll see about others.

4. If anything this shows WWE doesn't book on the fly, since they've kept Brock as a heel for months even when he's in front of a crowd that cheers him. As for booking a year in advance, good luck! They've got a LOT of shows each month. Injuries happen, unexpected names catch on or falter, etc.. When they only had four two-hour Raws and one PPV each month, it wasn't as tough, but now it's a very difficult task.

5. They want the spotlight on Charlotte, so Sasha's the rival who comes up short. If they end up on different shows at some point, we could see a bigger push for The Boss.

More wrestling tomorrow.