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Sunday, January 15, 2017

XFL updates, UK tournament notes including injury, Andrews on leaving TNA, ROH matches and dates set, FOH match, Lawler talk show on Smackdown, NXT live event notes, and Questions on Cody working multiple promotions, Tenay and West's TNA future, Cornette and the Midnight Express in the HoF, why WWE makes movies, and Aron Rex's new gimmick

The XFL Hall of Fame was on display Saturday, and the "30 for 30" special was screened at that location. The ESPN documentary will air on TV on February 2. 

The UK tournament was moved up a few months due to the recent World of Sport pilot there. There's a lot of activity in that scene lately. It looks like the original plan was to do the women's tournament around this time and the UK tournament later in 2017. Instead, the women's tournament has been postponed.

Finlay and Scott Armstrong are working production on WWE's UK tournament.

Mark Andrews discussed leaving TNA to compete in WWE's UK tournament:
- I can't say I blame him for trying something new. TNA's still spinning its tires. He has an opportunity to do bigger things with this tournament.

- Regal has been invaluable behind-the-scenes for WWE.

- The UK scene has definitely seen a lot of growth in the past few years. The CWC helped it gain exposure, too.

Adam Cole vs. Bobby Fish has been announced for ROH's March 4 show in New York.

Bobby Cruise's ROH deal was expired. It's still possible he'll work there going forward, but he's no longer an exclusive name there.

ROH/NJPW will run a show on May 10 in Michigan. The War of the Worlds show is taking shape.

- War of the Worlds will also hit Pennsylvania on May 14.

ROH has released Clutch Adams vs. Cauliflower Chase Brown as a Future of Honor bout.

Jerry Lawler will host The King's Court on Smackdown this week from Memphis. That could be interesting. I'm open to him finally having a fresh role in the company; let's see what he's still got in that capacity.

Danny Burch was treated for his head laceration at the UK tournament. It will be good for Burch to get back in the WWE system if they have a UK series.

At an NXT live event in Florida:
- Babatunde made his singles match debut, beating Chris Atkins.
- Kimber Lee (as Kimberly Frankele) and Heidi Lovelace (as Dori Prange) debuted in a loss to Liv Morgan and Aliyah. The new signings used their birth names, but will probably get "WWE names" soon.

For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. Cody's a free agent and can work just about anywhere. That said, he didn't work the recent TNA tapings. As far as I know, he's done with them for the time being. Unless an opportunity comes up to wrestle someone/do something he really wants to do there, I suspect he's going to focus on places like ROH and NJPW.

2. That will depend on how much the new regime feels West and Tenay are worth/how much influence Jeff Jarrett will have on things going forward. We'll have a better idea of what "the new TNA" will look like during the March tapings.

3. It's always possible if they're all on good terms/someone makes the pitch for it to happen. I think there are valid concerns of what Jim Cornette would do with a live mic, so WWE might not be excited about the idea of associating with such a vocal critic.

4. All that and they want to be "more than a rasslin' company." They aspire to be more like Disney in that regard.

5. Apparently that was his idea for what Damien Sandow was going to be before WWE turned it into the Intellectual Savior of the Masses.

More wrestling tomorrow.

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