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Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Announcers switch shows, Raw attendance note, NXT name working Raw UK shows, Impact hits big YouTube milestone, another team coming to Impact soon?, choosing Lashley's next challenger, Impact press, new team debuts in ROH, ROH sued over replica titles, Kane mayoral run official, Gotch post-WWE bout set, Superstar Shakeup Part 2, Finn hurt on Raw, and Questions on Angle's first wrestlng matches, WWE stars having insurance, AJ toning down the highspots, butt-based maneuvers, and superfans attending a lot of shows

WWE has announced Byron Saxton and David Otunga will be switching announce teams. Otunga will join Michael Cole and Corey Graves on Raw, while Byron Saxton will work with Tom Phillips and JBL on Smackdown. So, unsurprisingly, JBL will remain employed for at least the time being. I don't expect any big culture changes in WWE unless the Mauro story or Justin Roberts' book get a lot more press.

Monday's Raw was a legitimate sellout. The Nassau Coliseum has been good to WWE for a long time.

Aleister Black, formerly Tommy End, will be working Raw's European live events in May. That's pretty cool. WWE's a lot less rigid about the brand extension lately, with the crossover of UK names and such.

Impact Wrestling has hit 900 million YouTube views. That's really impressive! Their TV ratings aren't the whole story in an increasingly digital world.

Impact tried to get Monsta Mack and Dan Maff to be part of LAX in January, but those two had previous commitments. It's possible the company still uses them at some point.

Impact is asking fans who should challenge Lashley next for the World Championship, with EC3, Matt Morgan, and James Storm being the three options. I expect Alberto El Patron will go for the title at Slammiversary.

Laurel Van Ness got press at Vice Sports. I'm interested to see what the future holds for her.

Allie and Braxton Sutter promoted Impact in Toronto, which is the site of Anthem's headquarters. I expect the brand to get live events in Canada once that kicks off in a bigger way.

(ROH spoiler) Kenny and Mikey of the Spirit Squad debuted at the last TV taping, working that gimmick. They were originally going to appear at the same time as Bully Ray, but the Hardys became available for a brief run and were used instead. I wouldn't have expected that, but I'm all for some variety in the company and the tag team division.

ROH is a defendant in a lawsuit regarding replica championships. One merchandise company is suing the other regarding the use of ROH replica championships, and ROH is being targeted because they allegedly don't own the designs of those physical championships. Not a good situation for ROH to not be in control of their championship designs.

Kane has officially announced running for mayor of Knox County, Tennessee. That would be an AMAZING comedy segment.

- Kane gave an interview shortly afterward. Here are some highlights. I would watch the hell out of Kane vs. Donald Trump at WM34. You talk about a draw!

The former Simon Gotch will be wrestling in the UK come July. So he could be headed to that market regularly once his no-compete clause expires. I could see Impact and ROH being interested. We'll see.

Smackdown picked up the following names as part of the Superstar Shakeup:
- Kevin Owens
- Sami Zayn
- Epico
- Primo
- Jinder Mahal
- Tamina
- Charlotte Flair
- Sin Cara
- Rusev and Lana
- New Day
-- So, both sides saw some names moved into fresh environments. We'll see what it will mean for everyone involved.

Finn Balor suffered a concussion on Raw. I hope he isn't put right back on the shelf. I'd like to see him become an important player going forward.

For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. The first matches I can find of his were in WWE's developmental program in Massachusetts (World Wrestling Alliance), predating the NWA battle royal by a few months.

2. And thank goodness they do! That's one thing that makes the indies so rough. Quality health care is "a privilege" instead of a right in the U.S..

3. A little of all the above. That's fine. He's made it to the big leagues (Maggle). He doesn't need to do as many flips to be a top guy.

4. Take a few of them if you think they're not worth selling. They're definitely more believable as offense than some of the stuff shown on the indies.

5. Some fans are able to attend a good number of shows that are fairly close by.

More wrestling tomorrow.

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