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Friday, December 29, 2017

More on Paige injury, more on Jarrett/GFW's return, Aro Lucha plans more events, Cabana changes podcast, Impact exec finishing up, Impact planning more live events, Impact changing rings?, Knockouts Champion taking independent bookings, another Impact match taped outside of Impact, why Gail is on USO tour with WWE stars, Smackdown audience, WWN-Flosports update, Rey-LU note, Bucks trademarks, top ROH team gets exclusive contracts, Rusev has happy days, wrestling legend honored, NXT name coming back soon, WWE DVD plans, Impact planning next PPV, Japanese legend working U.S. show, WWE thanks roster for working Christmas, WWE announcer doing independent signing, Jordan's win gets press, future U.S. Title tournament matches, Smackdown live event notes, and Questions on Swann's arrest, WM35's location, Vince in his own HoF, best wrestler to never be world champion, and an alternate XFL

Paige is believed to have suffered a stinger at a live event, but she wasn't hospitalized as a result. She's been pulled from this weekend's live events as a precautionary measure. We'll see if she misses any time beyond that.

Jeff Jarrett's return to the ring was posted online. Good to see him back in action.

- Jarrett followed up the appearance with a press release on the return of GFW. The promoters reached out to GFW to set things up, rather than the other way around.

Aro Lucha is focusing on more Texas shows for the first four months of 2018. I hope that project continues to go well.

Colt Cabana will be changing his podcast to be more along the lines of his "Wrestling Road Diaries" DVDs, chronicling what he does on the indie scene. This move will begin in March, to differentiate his podcast from others featuring long interviews with indie stars.

John "Big" Gaburick has departed Impact Wrestling, as was planned for the end of 2017 as Don Callis comes into the company.

Impact is looking to run live events again starting in March. I hope they can become a regularly drawing card.

Impact could return to using a four-sided ring following the departure of ring and transportation manager Bob Rosen. I would think it would be quicker and easier to put together a ring with fewer turnbuckles, which is going to be a priority with them cutting back on personnel.

Laurel Van Ness is taking independent bookings, which brings further speculation she's finishing up with Impact soon. I'm curious what her next moves are; she's getting a pretty good amount of exposure in Impact compared to outside of it, so I hope she's got options.

Impact will tape Matt Sydal vs. Petey Williams at January 21's Destiny Wrestling event in Ontario. Impact is smartly making the most of other parties' events that are willing to partner with the company.

Gail Kim is on the same USO tour that The Miz and Alicia Fox are on due to Kim's husband Chef Robert Irvine being part of the events. Kim remains part of Impact.

Smackdown drew 2.66 million viewers, a bit of a boost from the previous week's show and close to what Raw did.

WWN is still expected to file a countersuit against Flosports for money owed under the terms of the contract. Flosports as a whole has experienced major cutbacks independent of the Floslam venture.

Rey Mysterio isn't expected to return to Lucha Underground given their financial cutbacks.

The Young Bucks are trademarking "Being The Elite" and "Killing The Business" as part of a new parent company called Killing the Business. They're making a killing in the business, that's for sure.

The Kingdom have signed exclusive ROH contracts for the U.S., finishing their outside commitments a few weeks ago. It makes sense for them to be focused on ROH and vice versa.

Rusev's "Happy Rusev Day" shirts are selling surprisingly well. It's good to see that catching on like it has.

Gerald Brisco was honored as the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum Outstanding American. He's definitely a legend who has quite the legacy.

Velveteen Dream is set to return to NXT soon. He had been missing from the brand and WWE Performance Center since his loss to Aleister Black. I'm curious how he'll fit into things going forward.

Raw will get a 25th anniversary DVD on April 3. That's going to be a big moment for WWE.

WWE is planning a DVD collection of "WWE 24" documentaries. That's not a bad idea if there's demand for it, to see if people will sign up to the Network to watch future episodes.

Impact is planning a Lockdown PPV in late April or early May. That seems a little late in the year given where Slammiversary usually lands, but I guess they want to use other live events to build to that event, as in a "Road to Lockdown" tour.

The Great Muta is working the United States for the first time in nearly three years on January 19, teaming with Penta El Zero M to face Sami Callihan and Johnny Ultra on an iPPV streamed on the Fite app. That's a pretty interesting combination of workers!

WWE threw a Christmas party for its workers after Raw, and paid the hotel bills for Raw and Smackdown talents as a bonus for both sides working the holiday. USA Network made the call to do a live Raw and Smackdown that week; WWE didn't make the decision.

Corey Graves will be doing signings at the Icons of Wrestling convention during Royal Rumble weekend, as put on by Northeast Wrestling. As an announcer, he's able to do outside dates.

Jason Jordan got local press for winning the Raw tag team championship. That's pretty cool. He's being given a pretty big opportunity with Ambrose out.

Smackdown has announced the United States Championship tournament brackets. Bobby Roode will face the winner of Zack Ryder vs. Mojo Rawley, while Jinder Mahal will face the winner of Xavier Woods vs. Aiden English. Roode vs. Jinder seems like the likely title match there.

The Riott Squad have been working two-on-two tag matches on Smackdown live events, with shifting lineups taking on Becky Lynch and Naomi. Smackdown's division is a little short on the babyface side right now.

For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. The charges are in the hands of the local prosecutor at this point. Swann and his wife are back on a positive footing.

2. Whichever city/area can offer WWE the best deal! Nothing is set in stone.

3. I think he'll go in the year after he either passes away or is no longer able to run the company. And, really, he should have a class to himself if they don't just totally take a break from the Hall for a while after his induction. That's how important he is.

4. Got to go with Piper, as I consider DiBiase to have been world champion briefly when he bought the title from Andre. It's a technicality, sure, and it was immediately voided, but from the time the "sale" was completed to the time he was stripped, he was champion.

5. That sounds AMAZING, but all signs point to a football league. I would absolutely watch a Vince McMahon MMA card, though. I'm picturing bouts with no weight limits so mastadons can squash people around 200 lbs. Also a manager throws in a steel chair every now and again, and you can win by escaping the cage.

Nothing to add to 6.

More wrestling tomorrow.

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