The former Alex Riley has seemingly moved into acting full-time. He hasn't wrestled since leaving WWE. I hope he's able to be a success there.
LAX vs. the Veterans of War has been officially announced for Impact. I'm liking the long angle of LAX vs. Alberto's family. It's an understandable shame that the storyline could be thrown out the window due to Alberto's suspension.
Robbie E is doing a weekly series of fitness videos with Muscle & Fitness. I wish he and Godderz were used more under the new regime. They're a fun undercard team.
Sienna is accusing Charlotte of stealing her gimmick. There are definitely key similarities!
GFW was shot down for a partnership with a restaurant over the Broken Hardys situation. The restaurant has a lot of fans in WWE/NXT. I understand GFW reaching out through private message, but there are definitely more formal ways to go about that kind of thing. Either way, GFW got roasted. I don't know how much that will change the legal battle, but it shows GFW has quite the hill to climb as far as public perception goes.
Taz will soon be undergoing surgery on his right hand to repair nerve damage. He will miss some episodes of his show due to the procedure. It sucks he's still hurting from his bump-taking days.
John Cena hosted Today again Tuesday morning. WWE has to hope some younger talents reach that level of mainstream attention. I worry some of the NXT names are more about being great wrestlers than big stars.
WWE promoted themselves in the latest License! Magazine, specifically showcasing their clothing. It wouldn't surprise me to see them do further partnerships like they have with Tapout.
New Jersey talents Justin Adams, Tony Graves, and The Atkins Brothers will be getting WWE tryouts. I hope they do well!
WWE Network is giving big discounts on WWE 2K17 to subscribers. "Bending over backward" doesn't even cut it anymore. WWE is practically giving things away at this point, and it's not helping them increase subscribers. It's time to make a big change to their business model on that end.
WWE Network has added more content from World Class, as well as 1980s house shows from Los Angeles and Boston. So, plenty of vintage content for fans to watch.
Jay Lethal threw out the first pitch at an MLB game. There's an obvious joke to be made with GFW running shows in minor league stadiums while Lethal is in "the big leagues." Either way, I hope it was good promotion for ROH.
Added to the War of the Worlds UK iPPV:
- Hangman Page vs. Kenny King
- Jay Lethal vs. Josh Bodom
-- ROH is seeing regular crossover with other promotions now. That's good for business.
Jinder Mahal promoted Smackdown. I'm glad he's getting the spotlight to be a prominent name.
Ric Flair discussed not being able to separate the character from the man. That can be dangerous. He definitely have a LOT to the business, more than anyone could have asked him to. I hope it was all worth it.
Tough Enough winner Sara Lee is back training to be a wrestler independently of WWE. It's weird to see the success rate of Tough Enough winners vs. other competitors.
New York Post praised the ongoing Seth Rollins/Dean Ambrose angle. Another reminder of the importance of good storylines. I'm mostly enjoying the slow build to them being on the same page. I look forward to seeing where it goes.
Billy Two Rivers has settled a lawsuit with Van Morrison for using his image on the cover of their album without permission. Yeah, you can't just make money off someone's likeness in that way.
Matt Hardy fired back at musician David Crosby for knocking "WWF." There are plenty of intelligent wrestling fans!
Jeff Hardy will be performing another concert following a WWE live event on August 27. WWE is a lot more lenient with letting people do outside projects (if you're already a big name).
Raw drew 3.24 million, somewhat up from last week. They had a big main event this week.
WWE has announced a deal to show Raw and Smackdown in condensed, Spanish-commentary versions in Colombia. That's a big first step in the market. WWE definitely wants to expand its audience South of the U.S.
Disney has purchased a majority of the company providing WWE Network's infrastructure in advance of making their own streaming channels. I wouldn't assume this will affect WWE in any way at this point. Raw and Smackdown moving to ESPN or other Disney family channels is presumably an option down the line if Disney is interested in putting the right offer on the table.
Before Smackdown, Luke Harper & Hype Bros beat Aiden English & The Ascension. It looks like the Hype Bros angle has been pushed aside for now in favor of the Breezango skits. I do really enjoy those, but part of me wants to see Zack vs. Mojo.
After Smackdown, AJ Styles & Shinsuke Nakamura beat Kevin Owens & Baron Corbin in a street fight. I imagine we'll get AJ vs. Shinsuke at some point, but I don't think either should turn heel anytime soon.
For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. I do think it makes the title more important and keeps Brock fresh, but having the WWE Champion on TV on live events and PPVs is a big deal. Theoretically, having title defenses be "Network exclusive" would help sell that, but that hasn't really seemed to push additional subscriptions as much as WWE had hoped. So, it's good in some ways and bad in others.
1. I do think it makes the title more important and keeps Brock fresh, but having the WWE Champion on TV on live events and PPVs is a big deal. Theoretically, having title defenses be "Network exclusive" would help sell that, but that hasn't really seemed to push additional subscriptions as much as WWE had hoped. So, it's good in some ways and bad in others.
2. Raw's been around longer, it's the bigger show, and for many years it was live while Smackdown was taped. And if I'm not mistaken, Monday's a bigger night for TV in general. So, it's not an arbitrary thing at all.
3. It's tough to say without having followed ECW at the time. It would be ignorant for me to judge it too harshly in hindsight.
4. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone being buried/having heat with management for their political beliefs, which is to the McMahons' credit.
5. Sometimes they decide a while after someone's called up they want to go in a different direction than HHH did with a character's name, gimmick, look, etc. This is part of that. I can see the idea it's more impactful for someone to just have one name, and to play up Charlotte's heritage.
More wrestling tomorrow.
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