Vince McMahon may have cut back on weekly editions of Talking Smack due to not liking its unscripted nature, where talents are able to speak their mind publicly. However, the show was not doing as well as it used to as far as viewership, so there's at least some validity to the given reasoning for the show being dropped to just following PPVs.
Johnny Mundo and Taya Valkyrie have heat with AAA, so they could be looking to make GFW a more permanent home. Taya has already left the promotion. Neither wrestler is currently able to appear on another promotion's TV show or PPVs due to their LU commitments, so they might just be doing GFW live events along with other indie bookings until those deals are up.
CMLL is trying to prevent ROH names from working The Crash due to it being a rival Mexican promotion. However, since CMLL isn't booking ROH names for their own events, it would lock performers out of bookings and pay days in Mexico. The CMLL partnership is important for ROH, so this one could be tricky to navigate. It is worth nothing top ROH names should be able to get plenty of other dates outside of Mexico, but they could be making more working The Crash or at least being booked by CMLL.
NJPW will get further merchandise at Hot Topic as Bullet Club related merchandise is selling well there. New merchandise for NJPW and Los Ingobernables will hit stores in August and September. That's really good news for NJPW continuing to expand its U.S. fanbase.
Another UK promotion has pulled Alberto El Patron from its shows, following Paige's family's lead. Pete Dunne will replace Alberto on dates he has been booked for, which obviously gives WWE a nice boost at Pro Wrestling Elite.
Paige's family says the decision to vacate their promotion's world championship was a mutual decision with Alberto, and put him over for what he did to raise the company's profile.
Rey Mysterio will be a free agent in early 2018 should he not sign a new deal with LU. He's been offered a deal with GFW, and there are reports of WWE interest. Rey's son Dominick could be joining his father in the ring wherever he ends up. That's big for both Mysterios.
Magnus has turned down a GFW contract. He only came in for one set of tapings to work the angle with Alberto. Unless he's getting a shot in WWE, it's a shame we won't see more of him on Impact.
Shane Helms could be coming to WWE as a coach. That'd be a good role for him!
William Regal, Sarah Stock (formerly Sarita), and Sam Adonis were at a recent CMLL show and a Mexican indie promotion scouting talent. WWE could be in the early stages in planning something along the lines of the UK Championship for Latin America. WWE would definitely like to grow business south of the U.S.
WWE has signed a new multi-year deal to air Raw and Smackdown live in more than 50 African countries for the first time, starting after Summerslam. That's potentially a big move that could pay dividends years down the line.
Donovan Dijak will be finishing up the shows he's currently booked for as he's expected to sign a contract with NXT shortly. I've enjoyed what I've seen from him so far. I hope he can make it far in WWE.
- Dijak is expected to expected to start at the WWE Performance Center sometime in August. It's kind of funny he and Lio could start training at the same time given how they worked together in ROH.
Kevin Owens promoted a Smackdown live event. Pure banter as always. He's so much fun.
Smackdown will run a show in Ireland on November 2. I hope their UK brand wrestlers get to be part of that, too. They haven't gotten to do regular work for WWE as was originally planned.
Shane McMahon thanked those who reached out to him after his emergency helicopter landing. Shane's a real class act.
UFC is disputing Brock Lesnar coming out of MMA retirement and re-entering the drug testing pool. Interesting there are conflicting stories out there.
Alberto El Patron is stepping down as the president of MMA promotion Combate Americas, reportedly to focus on wrestling. Obviously the timing of this following his airport detainment raises some eyebrows, but the official story is him asking to step down and being open to a return after finishing his wrestling career. We'll see what happens on that front.
Jeff Hardy made another "Broken" reference on social media. There have been conflicting reports of the status of Anthem negotiating with the Hardy camp regarding the use of what the Hardys did in GFW. There has been no formal announcement of coming to terms. I think everyone's ready for this situation to wrap up. It's not helping anyone for it to continue the way it's going.
Mattel and WWE have launched a line of fashion dolls of their female performers, in an effort to target girls. They must have planned to use Eva Marie quite some time ago and got kind of "Stuck" with a doll of someone who's no longer in the picture. As best I know, Eva is still under contract but there are no plans to use her going forward.
John Cena talked about his free agency and more:
- Cena's definitely moving into a pretty high echelon in WWE. They need to use him as a special asset as he starts to change priorities.
- Cena's going to remain an important part of things for some time, I expect. He's just continuing that transition to not being just a WWE superstar.
- I assume he'll stay around as an ambassador or something once he's done taking bumps.
WWE Network has uploaded Boston Garden shows from 1986 to their vault section as they continue to feature Old School content on the service.
Brock Lesnar is advertised for the September 11 Raw. So, he won't be disappearing entirely after Summerslam. I'm very curious what his WWE future is and how it will relate to the Universal Championship.
Shayna Baszler has trademarked her Queen of Spades nickname. The speculation is she did so in order to prevent WWE from doing so should she sign there.
Buddy Murphy had an ankle injury during an NXT live event match. He was teaming with Kassius Ohno against Hideo Itami and The Velveteen Dream, and Ohno had to work a lot of the match on his own. Alexa Bliss' former partners have lost whatever momentum they had as NXT tag team champions. Neither have been on NXT TV in quite some time, and this could only serve as a further setback for the Australian.
For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
Nothing to add to 1, 3, or 5.
Nothing to add to 1, 3, or 5.
2. I like to think Sabu could have been a bigger success in the wrestling business if he could have stayed in one place. Easier said than done, I know.
4. Miz didn't just hop off Real World and get into a WWE ring. While he definitely got a big break due to how good of a talker he is, he's earned his stripes.
More wrestling tomorrow.
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