Taker facing another procedure, Smackdown event set, JBL responds to recent allegations, ROH match advertised, Mauro's future in the air, Alberto vs. WWE continues, superstar shakeup rumors, Impact audience, Kane to make political announcement, WWE names get outside entertainment deals, and Questions on the JBL-Mauro situation, WWE cross-promotion in Orlando, not censoring crowd chants, Waylon Mercy, and indie promotions on the Network

The Undertaker will undergo surgery at some point. He made the right decision for his future health; looking back, it was unrealistic to expect him to continue on to work with Roman again or Braun. We should all be grateful he was able to go on as long as he did, and I hope he gets a really big honor from WWE during WM34 weekend.

Smackdown will have a live event in Georgia on May 29. We'll see the effects of the superstar shakeup at that event.

JBL responded to recent allegations he was responsible for Mauro Ranallo taking time off as well as one of myriad accusations from Justin Roberts in Roberts' just-released autobiography. Roberts made a lot of claims about JBL bullying him and others during his WWE tenure. It's not like JBL has a stellar backstage reputation and these recent claims fly in the face of all that. There's "playing a heel" and then there's hazing/bullying behavior that rightfully wouldn't be tolerated in most other companies.

Silas Young vs. Bobby Fish was announced ahead of the April 8 ROH TV taping. Somewhat surprisingly, there were only two matches advertised going into the taping.

Mauro Ranallo has removed WWE references from his social media profiles, leading to speculation of him being done with the company. That would be really unfortunate given his great work there. More on this in future posts.

Alberto El Patron buried WWE again recently on Periscope. It might be time for WWE to break ties with Paige, if they can do so given her injury status. There's been nothing but bad press regarding her for some time now. That's a real shame given how much potential she had as a performer.

Some options being considered for the superstar shakeup:
- Reuniting AJ Styles with Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows on either show. That would be particularly beneficial for the latter. 
- Shifting the women's division, particularly splitting Charlotte and Sasha Banks. That NEEDS to happen. It's been the same people doing the same stuff on Raw for months.
- At least one NXT callup. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw more than one.
-- We'll see what actually happens once plans are finalized.

Impact Wrestling drew 309,000 viewers this week. I would think a change of 10,000 or so from one week to the next would be within the margin of error and not really a sign of much of anything. If they get 275,000 or 325,000, that's more newsworthy. A number of 250,000 or 350,000 would be particularly worth taking note of.

Kane will make an announcement this week regarding his political future. There's a decent chance he addresses his wrestling career as well. Kane and his wife have an insurance company, so he's all set to move into a life without taking bumps if he so wishes, regardless of how the bid for mayor turns out. He has not stepped in a WWE ring since December.

Big Show and Kurt Angle have signed talent representation deals. So, both men are looking for entertainment roles outside of WWE. Angle has been doing roles for a while, and Show's branching out with non-wrestling appearances as his WWE tenure winds down.

For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. This one's loaded! I'll break it down like they did:

- I really don't think WWE firing Mauro would be a good move, even if it wasn't illegal. That could only make the depression worse and would look REALLY bad. It's not like he just stopped showing up for work because he's lazy or something; he has a serious psychological disorder.

- There's a line between a heel wrestler getting heat on a face announcer in a way that's clearly part of the show compared with constant burials by a coworker that serve no positive purpose. I can understand a little banter here and there, but at some point it takes away from the broadcast. The announcers are there to get the wrestlers over, not try to get over themselves. And yes, at some point things go beyond "JBL the heel wrestling announcer ribbing the babyface announcers" toward "Mauro Ranallo, the human being who's trying to do his job, isn't comfortable in the working environment because someone with a long list of accusations of bullying is taking things too far." The fact JBL has been used so much despite his history behind-the-scenes should tell you a lot about the person/people keeping him there.

- Yeah, JBL the character being insulted at Mauro winning the award makes sense, but JBL the person being insulted by it to the point of burying a coworker on a "shoot" show would be very childish to say the least.

- I have a hunch WWE's higher-ups will keep JBL on-board over the new guy with an Internet following. I kind of have my doubts about action being taken, which means we'll probably be hearing more negative stories about JBL in the years to come. Again, that says more about WWE for keeping him on than anything.

- I'm under the impression the show was going to be canceled no matter what. I'm guessing it was a cost-cutting thing.

2. Pretty much that. They don't want to remind fans there are other attractions they could be going to instead of Mania.

3. I think they adjusted the crowd audio a bit, but I think they felt bleeping it would only draw more attention to what's being said and would also potentially cut out what's said by commentary.

4. Of course! I got Waylon vibes with Bray Wyatt, especially in the pre-main roster days.

5. I'm guessing they're still getting their ducks in a row on that end and didn't want to rush it. They did announce the big women's tournament, so we got some Network news during WM33 weekend.

More wrestling tomorrow.