Y2J working NJPW, Flair at WWE event, Interview with Ted Sr., FITE promotes GWN, Taya-Impact update, why referees quit Impact, big Impact cutbacks, more Impact debuts this week?, HHH surprise appearance, another NJPW U.S. show, BFG hype, BFG creative notes, NXT release, Impact personnel updates, Jacobs' Impact role going forward, and Questions on Hogan at Raw 25, soft Network subscribers, not watching wrestling anymore, and WWE announcing releases

Chris Jericho will face Kenny Omega at NJPW's Tokyo Dome show on January 4 for that promotion's United States Championship in a surprise announcement for NJPW's biggest show of the year. Jericho has not wrestled outside of WWE since 1999. That's absolutely groundbreaking, and will almost certainly lead to an increase in buzz as NJPW continues to grow a Western audience.

Ric Flair will be at Starrcade on November 25. I would think he'll accompany Charlotte to the ring for her title match; her winning the title there would be a nice moment.

Ted DiBiase, Sr. discussed his documentary and more. Here are some highlights. Good interview, and I agree about the ultimate unimportance of "winning" championships.

The FITE app gave a receipt for three months of the Global Wrestling Network to those ordering Bound For Glory on that platform. I'm curious how that service is doing.

Taya Valkyrie will continue her angle with Rosemary in January. It looks like we're in for Rosemary vs. Laurel Van Ness for now, which is much less exciting.

Impact's referees quit due to being asked to take a big cut in pay to work the Ottawa shows. This is leading to concern of wrestlers also being asked to renegotiate their current rates. That's problematic. The company is stumbling along at this point from a financial standpoint.

Some Impact stars are only being booked for a number of dates so the company can go ahead and film all their material at once rather than pay them for a whole week of dates. I expect a number of names will be seeing if there's interest from other promotions given the reduction in dates rom Impact.

Impact brought in fewer crew members, from part of the production crew to the seamstress. Bob Ryder is doing his work from Tennessee. Additionally, some staff members were unable to get into Canada. These tapings are going to be pretty rough.

Devon Nicholson is expected to work this week's Impact tapings. He's based out of Ottawa, so it's not a huge shock he'll be there. We'll see if they use him when they run a different market.

Triple H made a surprise appearance at Scotland's ICW alongside Pete Dunne. WWE's continuing to build relationships with outside promotions.

NJPW has announced a California show on March 25, in the same market they ran the G1 special. Of course, we're going to see more of those talents in ROH in 2018, as well.


Bound For Glory was promoted by:
- Bobby Lashley
- Ethan Carter III
- Moose
- Alberto El Patron
- Josh Mathews
- Eddie Edwards

Alberto El Patron's role at Bound For Glory was determined a few hours before the show. It was pretty cringeworthy.

- Apparently a lot of decisions were made late in the day. That's concerning as the new creative team moves forward.

WrestlePro talents were at Bound For Glory, so we'll likely see some of them in the coming weeks on Impact.

WWNLive referee Brandon Tolle worked Bound For Glory. It's good they found some referees at the last minute.

Tough Enough winner Josh Bredl, known in NXT as Bronson Mathews, has been released. He had not wrestled in NXT since July 2016, and stopped training at the Performance Center due to concussion-related issues. It's unfortunate he got such a big opportunity and was unable to capitalize on it.

Anthony Carelli, formerly Santino Marella, was backstage at Bound For Glory before his appearance in the crowd. I wouldn't be surprised to see him on-screen again, although I wouldn't think he'd be wrestling.

Neither Homicide nor Diamante were at Bound For Glory. So, even the big planned handicap match was cut back for budget reasons. LAX might just be three people going forward.

Jimmy Jacobs is working as a producer for Impact as well as a wrestler. I'm guessing they made him a better offer than he would get elsewhere as far as being able to perform both roles. I hope his tenure there goes well.

For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. I'm OK with him coming out to address the crowd that night. He could say he's a bigger A-Lister than Miz, brother, and run off Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel, jack, and tear his shirt and all that. I don't know if him dropping the big leg is doable in his condition, but I'd be fine with him appearing in the Manhattan Center in particular.

Nothing to add to 2.

3. There a lot of people who like WWE but don't love it enough to want to watch that much content each week/month, just as there are a lot of NFL fans who get their fix from watching just one game a week. The idea that it's creative's fault that WWE makes more money from TV deals than the Network is crazy, especially when Dave says he'd focus on Raw and Smackdown, too.

4. It's almost like the 2017 product isn't marketed to the 1995 fan or something! Just like how the Xbox One X isn't meant to cater to the Nintendo 64 crowd.

5. I think it's important to announce things like that. On that level, I'd like to see them announce when talents sign new deals, too.

More wrestling tomorrow.