Royal Rumble 2018 will be in Philadelphia on January 28. The show will be preceded by a Takeover special and followed by Raw and Smackdown. The Rumble is now being bid on like Summerslam and Wrestlemania. I think Survivor Series could end up in the same boat; WWE wants each of its Big Four shows to anchor four straight nights of action.
- WWE put out a press release touting the news.
Brock Lesnar will be part of a March 12 show in Madison Square Garden that's otherwise a Smackdown-brand event. I guess he's "pulling an Undertaker" and showing up where he wants when he wants.
Triple H did a conference call before Takeover:
- The international shows did shake things up, but I don't think it was to any detriment.
- A weekly UK show could be a pretty big deal.
- It's a tough situation with contracts these days. WWE wants the exclusive rights to their talents' likenesses in the media once they have a regular TV show in place.
- Having an infrastructure ready in the UK will be key.
- We'll see more tournaments going forward.
- Ultimately that Raw exposure is more important than 205 Live. It's important to think of the people who don't watch the Network.
- I see Shinsuke hitting the main roster the week after WM33.
- Whoa. The shakeup of Network rosters could be interesting. It could certainly keep things fresh.
- OH yeah. The UK thing could be a really big deal if they're planning live events. Wow. That could eventually happen in other countries, too. BIG endeavor for WWE.
- Interesting thoughts about other UK promotions as far as heel/babyface dynamics.
- Damn. I expected Meltzer to ask about Japan or five-star matches. I'm not shocked he asked a third question, though.
- HHH kind of dancing around the "Riddle likes weed" thing.
For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. It definitely looks like it! I'd like to see him in the Rumble, then Foley and Shane/Bryan try to court him to their perspective show. You see which authority figure isn't included in that. At any rate, they could do a pretty good angle of Joe choosing which show he wants to be on. How wild would it be to see Joe vs. AJ at WM33?
2. They probably have bigger concerns right now. They might consider it, but that would probably be in the hands of whomever runs the channels rather than those high up in the AT&T hierarchy. We'll see what happens if they shake things up at that level.
3. I wouldn't say it's "easy" to navigate things without knowing Japanese, but it's doable via Google Translate on the site. Hopefully they continue to branch out in English. They will have English commentary on major events going forward, so hopefully the site follows.
4. Orton deserves some privacy and the right to say "no" to being photographed. When he's Randy Orton the private citizen rather than Randy Orton the guy giving RKOs, he should be able to go about his day without being harassed.
Nothing to add to 5.
More wrestling tomorrow.
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