Some combination of The Shield vs. New Day is set for Survivor Series. Whether the match is two-on-two or three-on-three will depend on Roman's recovery status. That should be pretty fun.
Austin Aries was on Chris Jericho's podcast this week, confirming he didn't ask for his WWE release. The story has been that he was vocally unhappy there, and wasn't upset WWE let him go.
Magnum TA was on Jim Ross' latest podcast.
Rockstar Spud will be signing with WWE once his visa is in order, joining the 205 Live roster along with Hideo Itami. Spud recently had a farewell dinner with Dixie Carter and other Impact personnel. I'm glad Spud's getting a chance at something like that; he's quite entertaining. Spud and Hideo should really be able to contribute to WWE's cruiserweight division.
John Cena will be on Team Smackdown at Survivor Series. He was originally set to be the special referee for Brock Lesnar vs. Jinder Mahal, but Vince McMahon changed plans in a big way last week. What this means for John and Jinder going forward remains to be seen.
Shawn Michaels and Jerry Lawler will be part of Survivor Series. I wouldn't mind Shawn beating up Curt Hawkins or something for the hometown crowd.
Jinder Mahal responded to speculation about his championship loss. I don't think we've seen the last of him as a main event player; he could easily get the title back for the upcoming Indian tour and hold it as WM34 plans come together. I would be surprised if he's still champion at the end of Mania, but it's not out of the question.
Former Global Wrestling Federation star Tug Taylor passed away at 71 after dealing with a number of health issues. He was known for his work there as well as in Mexico.
Bram left Impact Wrestling due to frustrations with the company, and its utilization of him or lack thereof. He's getting more work outside of Impact than he had been through them, so now he's going back to being a free agent. There was a time when he was one of their hottest prospects, but Jeff Jarrett's regime didn't use him and it didn't look like that was going to change for the Ottawa tapings.
Kenny King vs. Frankie Kazarian for the ROH TV Championship has been booked for November 18. Also on that night, the Motor City Machine Guns will defend the ROH Tag Team Championship against CMLL's Rey Cometa and Esfinge.
Madison Rayne is returning to ROH to face Deonna Purrazzo on November 19. Rayne was recently part of Impact's Ottawa tapings, but this confirms she's a free agent.
Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn were sent home from WWE's ongoing European tour following Tuesday's Smackdown taping after the duo didn't get take any offense from New Day at the end of their segment despite instructions to do so. This was followed by Owens being vocally upset on the tour bus, which was seen as the final straw that led to the two men being pulled from the remainder of the tour. I hope everyone reconciles and the two men have bright futures in WWE; as talented as they are, they're not in a place to make these kinds of waves.
Impact Wrestling brought local radio hosts, part of a local children's wish charity, and a wounded veteran to the November 8 TV taping. While it's great they're reaching out in that way, this was almost certainly primarily a way to increase attendance for the event. Impact is scrambling to fill seats this week.
Smackdown drew 2.60 million viewers Tuesday night, a strong number for a pre-taped show. I'd like to think news of the title change helped draw people to the show. That's a good sign for AJ's reign as champion.
Ric Flair's ESPN special drew 1.83 million viewers, the biggest audience for viewers age 18-49 on cable Tuesday night. There will be replays. I'm glad it did so well.
Edge and Daniel Bryan will be at NHL's WWE Night in New Jersey.
Global Wresting Network is preparing to add the following content:
- Impact episodes from October 2004 and November 2004
- Compilations of AJ Styles, the X-Division, and Christian Cage
- "Asylum Years" (2002-2004) PPV events
- content from Rocky Mountain Pro in Colorado, Wisconsin's Freedom Pro Wrestling, Wrestlecade from North Carolina, Superkickd (sic) from Ottawa, and St. Louis Wrestling at the Chase.
-- They're off to a good start, although I don't know how much interest there is the service.
John Cena vs. Samoa Joe and Kane vs. Braun Strowman are advertised for Raw's December 26 show in Madison Square Garden. So, Kane's seemingly going to be around for a decent amount of time.
For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. Demon Balor and/or Braun and/or Roman beating Kane in a big match should end things well. Kane is a monster and a legend; it's not really so bad to lose to him as long as there's an end game in mind that elevates a younger name.
1. Demon Balor and/or Braun and/or Roman beating Kane in a big match should end things well. Kane is a monster and a legend; it's not really so bad to lose to him as long as there's an end game in mind that elevates a younger name.
2. Here's the thing: Impact has more "reach" and buzz in the sense that more people know what it is due to the years when it had a lot more television viewers. The gap is closer than it's been in a long time on that front, but Impact still has an edge there. That said, ROH is doing a lot better as far as being a touring product that can regularly draw attendance and they're not making the kind of deep cost-cutting Impact is. I wouldn't be surprised if ROH beats Impact in the reach department in 2018 if Impact continues to lose interest. ROH is gaining to a degree, but it's mainly a case of Impact stumbling so much in the past few years with the loss of the deals with Spike and Destination America, running fewer shows, losing talents, etc.
3. It's just a big Raw vs. Smackdown "which side has the better champion" thing. I guess it's like the Super Bowl or World Series done just to see which team is better instead of the winner getting a trophy and becoming top champion.
4. I wouldn't be shocked to see that at some point, particularly as a Network special. NXT is still "developmental" to a degree, though, so it would be expected that they wouldn't be able to quite hang with the other two rosters.
5. It's OK for Finn and AJ to do it because WWE insists that gesture is WWE property. It's when someone outside the company does it that they have an issue.
More wrestling tomorrow.
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