Stephanie McMahon was interviewed in the Middle East:
- WWE reaching out to more more markets and demographics is a key growth strategy.
- WWE reaching out to more more markets and demographics is a key growth strategy.
- I definitely expect a live special from the Middle East at some point, but I think that might be a ways off.
- Very glad to see the women's division being more than it used to be. Girls can look up to Sasha or Bayley more than they could people in the bra and panties matches days.
- I wholly expect Steph's return to WWE TV. I think in a lot of ways she'll be the next Vince in some ways HHH won't be.
- Some are already speculating on HHH vs. Angle when Stephanie returns to TV. WM34 seems like a pretty fair bet for that.
Former WWE creative member Kevin Eck talked about ideas he had that didn't get approved:
- I love these "what if" kinds of things.
- I love these "what if" kinds of things.
- The Mark Henry angle was pretty great. He got a big last hurrah out of it.
- Holy shit Foley got worked into a shoot? I'd never heard that. He had said he was rooting for Dean to be able to succeed on the main roster and wondered why WWE hadn't used him yet. I'm split on whether Ambrose should have been brought up earlier.
- AJ and Ambrose could have been a lot of fun.
- AJ was overexposed as Raw GM. I liked her, but they put her in WAY too many segments.
- I would have been down for that version of The Shield, although I wonder what they would have done with Roman in that case. He did add something to the group Kassius wouldn't have necessarily brought.
- That Shield angle sounds AWESOME.
- Punk's heel run was pretty fun.
- Alberto just couldn't get momentum after splitting with Ricardo.
- That Alberto/Show angle could have been good.
- Oh, man. Cody and Kaitlyn would have been so much fun.
- Oh joy the Bellas!
- Oh MAN that Kaitlyn burial by Vince.
- The Cody and Brandi idea could have been pretty fun, too.
- The Stardust/Goldust feud just didn't become what it could have been. Goldust hasn't done much since.
Mark Henry beat up a mascot as part of an angle at an NBA game. That's awesome.
Attorneys representing Impact in a lawsuit brought about by a former merchandise dealer have withdrawn from defending the company, citing lack of payment. Not good. Impact needs to get all their legal issues sorted soon in order to focus on live events and other future plans.
Robbie E talked about working in Japan. I hope we see him team with Bram when he returns to the U.S.. That could be a pretty fun "odd couple" pairing.
Dalton Castle vs. Bobby Fish vs. Silas Young vs. KUSHIDA has been booked for the War of the Worlds PPV next week. I've honestly lost track of everything that's been announced at this point. It's a lot to keep track of!
WOS will try to put together tapings in July or August, pending getting an agreement settled with Anthem regarding how the project will be structured and financed. The plan is for the project to eventually become a touring promotion with live events rather than solely a TV show.
The new NWA isn't expected to run any events in 2017, as plans for the project are still coming together. The new NWA could create a show chronicling the company's prominence in the decades preceding Wrestlemania. However, a significant amount of the company's library is owned by WWE, so that might be hard to pull off. The company's legacy is its top asset, but I don't know how much that will mean to fans in 2017.
Mexico's Crash promotion is looking to create a regular show, either digitally or on the air. That will theoretically mean more work for people working with Konnan, including Impact talents by way of the working agreement between the two promotions.
NJPW's July 1 and 2 shows could air on AXS TV live. That would be pretty big for the company as it looks to expand in the U.S.
Katsuyori Shibata remains hospitalized in stable condition. I hope he's able to have a quality life after a scary health situation.
Lance Hoyt will miss six months of action. He could return to NJPW or NOAH when he recovers, which would open him up to cross over with ROH and Impact. Hoyt returning to Impact is an interesting possibility. He fit in there better than he did in WWE.
Impact's viewership for its UK TV return was similar to where they were when leaving Challenge TV, which is a plus for them. I hope they do well there.
Andrew Everett will miss time due to a head injury. Hopefully he's not out long. He's pretty much been pushed aside in the X-Division.
WWE is booking UK venues for monthly Network show tapings starting in June or July. This will mean a lot of opportunities for UK talents to get a bigger stage.
WWE's women's tournament is expected to hit the Network in the third quarter of 2017. They've got a lot of potential names to use there, and we could see a lot of future WWE stars in action there.
Jeff Cobb, a.k.a. Lucha Underground's Matanza, attended Raw. He's talked about as someone who could make it in WWE, but we won't know as long as he's signed to LU.
Impact's viewership for its UK TV return was similar to where they were when leaving Challenge TV, which is a plus for them. I hope they do well there.
Andrew Everett will miss time due to a head injury. Hopefully he's not out long. He's pretty much been pushed aside in the X-Division.
WWE is booking UK venues for monthly Network show tapings starting in June or July. This will mean a lot of opportunities for UK talents to get a bigger stage.
WWE's women's tournament is expected to hit the Network in the third quarter of 2017. They've got a lot of potential names to use there, and we could see a lot of future WWE stars in action there.
Jeff Cobb, a.k.a. Lucha Underground's Matanza, attended Raw. He's talked about as someone who could make it in WWE, but we won't know as long as he's signed to LU.
NXT is using their previous championship designs on live events as opposed to the brand new ones. I guess they don't want the new ones to get dinged up and are waiting for cheaper replicas to be made of them for use on live events.
For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. Not unless they want the cruisers to be (even more of) a niche product. Working in front of a larger crowd on the road is a big step up from Full Sail. The live audience of Smackdown can easily stay around for even more action. Even if a lot of that audience leaves, that's bigger potential exposure than they'd get working in front of the same people in Florida every time. In theory this conditions the main WWE audience to the notion than smaller wrestlers can have matches worth watching, too; they're not just there to be beat up by Braun Strowman.
1. Not unless they want the cruisers to be (even more of) a niche product. Working in front of a larger crowd on the road is a big step up from Full Sail. The live audience of Smackdown can easily stay around for even more action. Even if a lot of that audience leaves, that's bigger potential exposure than they'd get working in front of the same people in Florida every time. In theory this conditions the main WWE audience to the notion than smaller wrestlers can have matches worth watching, too; they're not just there to be beat up by Braun Strowman.
2. The only thing I've really read is speculation of it being a result of everyone involved from fans to guests getting older. We'll see if it does return in 2018 given that logic.
Nothing to add to 3. Albright hasn't worked a match since the end of 2011.
4. It's a wait and see thing. I expect he and Nikki are going to get married and have a honeymoon and all that before getting back in the ring. We will see them back, though.
5. All of that.
6. There were enough experienced veterans involved to be able to pull something like that off. Improvisation is a big part of the job. Sometimes a 15 minute match becomes an eight minute match at the last minute because three earlier matches/segments went long and so on.
More wrestling tomorrow.
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