WWE acknowledges Hart passing, GFW exec misses PPV, Slammiversary bumps and bruises, Impact commentary update, Cena press, another WWE star opens wrestling school, Jeff Hardy concert after Raw, WWE Network content preview, Piper trademark notes, XFL content coming?, new GBOF matches, original GFW tapings made into PPVs, and Questions on changing the ropes for cruiserweight matches, Joe vs. Brock, punishing Ellsworth, why WWE did the NBA MizTV segment, WWE comedy, and heels backing off from fights

WWE put out a statement on Smith Hart's passing. I wish the Hart family well.

Bruce Prichard missed Slammiversary due to a family matter, but will be part of this week's TV tapings. I'm not sure why they needed to make an angle out of it on the PPV. I hope we're not in for an authority figure feud.

Jeremy Borash suffered dozens of puncture wounds as a result of landing on thumbtacks at Slammiversary. That was scary. I doubt he'll be eager to sign up for more in that vein.

Diamante got her knee checked out after her role in the GFW tag team title match at Slammiversary. More on this as the week (and its TV tapings) progress.

Jeremy Borash and Josh Mathews will do GFW/Impact commentary going forward. Hopefully their angle is over and they focus on calling the action. GFW got everything they could out of it.

John Cena got press in New York Post, discussing working out. I hope some of the NXT generation can get over with the mainstream like John has.

Heath Slater is opening a wrestling school in Georgia. He's going to have his plate pretty full between that and a full-time WWE schedule. Of course, he has all those kids to feed!

Jeff Hardy will have a musical performance next week after Raw. The Hardys have a pretty special deal for him to be able to do something like that while the show is going on. Obviously they'll still be part of Raw beforehand.

Coming to WWE Network this month:
- Kurt Angle's WWE 24 special next week after Raw.
- Table for 3 with The Godfather, Ron Simmons, and Mark Henry on July 24 after Raw. That should be AMAZING.
- Table for 3 with Corey Graves, Renee Young, and Lita after the July 31 Raw.
- Bring it to Table after the July 17 Raw. That's always great.

Roddy Piper's widow has applied to register trademarks for his ring name for wrestling and merchandise purposes, indicating WWE does not have a deal for his likeness for future action figures, etc.

WWE has trademarked XFL, potentially for a Network documentary or other series. I imagine they'll put the XFL games themselves on the Network at some point, although I doubt it's a big priority.

Added to Great Balls of Fire:
- Enzo Amore vs. Big Cass
- The Miz vs. Dean Ambrose for the Intercontinental Championship
- Sheamus & Cesaro vs. the Hardys in a 30-minute Iron Man match for the Raw Tag Team Championship

GFW will roll out four One Night Only PPVs made of the original TV tapings crowning the first GFW champions. Talent who worked those tapings include:
- WWE's Samir Singh, Sumil Singh, Mickie James, Curt Hawkins, TJP, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson
- NXT's Bobby Roode and Eric Young
- ROH's Kenny King
- NJPW's KUSHIDA
- LU's PJ Black
-- So that's the end result of those tapings two years ago. I'm pretty fine with that, because it's not like anyone was going to pick the series up with so much of the roster gone and all the title changes since then.

For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. I'm sure some the matches have been shorter than the time it takes to change the ring over.

2. Joe was originally booked as a roadblock for Brock to get a win over on the road to either Braun or Roman at Summerslam. They weren't planning on Joe taking the title from him, which may or may not still be the end result.

3. In the good ol' days, James whould have to go one-on-one with DA UNDATAKAH, but I suspect Bryan will just book him against Orton and have Randy go wild on him. Beyond that, they'll pretty much move on.

4. It was all to get press outside of the wrestling bubble, which they succeeded at. And yes, the Balls are over in L.A. WWE has been trying to get celebrity rubs since at least the Rock 'n' Wrestling Era. It's why they're sports entertainment and all that.

5. It's a sports entertainment variety show with characters that sometimes wrestle. And "those cowardly heels backing down from a fight" is one of the oldest tricks in the book to make it mean more when they finally do have to get in the ring. The dirtsheet generation is, somewhat paradoxically, really ill-informed about how the genre of wrestling works.

More wrestling tomorrow.