Triple H and William Regal talked at the UK tournament:
- I think it will still be a while before a main roster PPV hits the UK. It doesn't seem to be in the works.
- Unless Regal's confident in his ability to deliver a quality match, he should stay behind-the-scenes. He's more valuable backstage than spending time preparing to get in the ring one more time.
-- HHH and Regal had a full press conference after the tournament ended.
Finn Balor and Tommy End were at a PROGRESS event Sunday. I'm looking forward to seeing how End fares in NXT/WWE.
Karl Anderson discussed his rise to WWE. He's definitely put in a lot of work.
Big Show's weight loss was profiled. Show looks incredible! He's slimmed down quite a bit.
Keith Lee of the Pretty Boy Killers has signed with WWNLive. Shane Taylor recently signed with ROH, so that team has now split. It will be interesting to follow this and see who ends up being more successful in the long run.
WWE's first UK Champion is Tyler Bate, who defeated Peter Dunne in the finals of the tournament. It remains to be seen what the future holds for that title, as no "UK brand" or weekly TV show have been announced at the time of this writing.
Michael Cole tweeted about the UK tournament. If they do get a regular UK series, I wonder who will end up doing commentary for it alongside Nigel.
Triple H put over Tyler Bate and hinted at more from the UK. That's a big market for WWE. I expect they'll get more attention as time goes on.
Big Show competed on Raw live events this weekend in ten-man tag action. He's been used in a somewhat limited capacity as he prepares for the final leg of his career.
For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. NO. Time for Shinsuke and Joe to get new opponents. I think rather than jumping right to an NXT match at Wrestlemania, they should start having an NXT match here and there on single-brand PPVs during months when there's not a Takeover special. The important thing will be using those matches to add to PPVs without diluting the brand for Takeover specials. In other words, not overexposing people like Shinsuke and Joe by having them wrestle on those shows.
2. That was probably from "Total Divas," which is kind of its own kayfabe. On Raw, she's Lana. On Total Divas, she's the highly edited version of CJ Perry they want to present on that show.
3. Taker. Jericho's a good second option, though.
4. Nowadays there've been so many big finisher kickouts it's seen as a "burial" when Kevin Owens went down to two AAs, a super AA, and an STF against Cena. It started as an easy way to show one person was tough for kicking out of a finisher. Now it shows they're not "really" tough if they can't kick out of at least two. I feel the pain.
5. It's worth noting Raw has Goldberg, Brock, HHH, and Undertaker (?), so it's easier for Little Jimmy and the soccer moms to see it as the "A" show. The dirtsheet-reading audience is only a fraction of the total fan base, and the ratings reflect that. Smackdown has its work cut out for it in regularly beating Raw when the big guest stars always head to Monday nights.
More wrestling tomorrow.
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