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Saturday, February 10, 2018

Another NJPW Australia main event set, Booker vs. Graves continues, assorted wrestling press, new WWE game show?, Impact Redemption update, Knockout injury, new Impact signing, Cena videos, Liger training camp, NJPW opening California dojo, Impact audience, Impact commentary update, more on next Impact ONO show, WWE has another loaded tryout, NXT live event note, MSG mixed tag set, Anthem officially gets TNA trademarks, Impact return 14 years in the making, ROH name misses show, and Questions on Rousey-WWE, Cornette vs. Owens, and Punk's second UFC bout

NJPW's February 19 Australia event will be headlined by Kazuchika Okada and Rocky Romero vs. EVIL and SANADA. The match will not be for EVIL and SANADA's tag team championship.

Booker T. is inviting Corey Graves to call in to Booker's podcast. It looks like they're going to build to something at Wrestlemania, but I don't know what they'd really be able to do given both men are retired for good reason.

- Corey accepted the invitation.

Edge has joined Instagram.

WWE Network seems to be getting a game show. It would be good to see Renee Young get more responsibilities on the service.

Charlotte Flair was part of a signing at World of Wheels in Alabama. WWE seems to be reaching out to other audiences with these appearances.

Impact's Redemption event and the following TV tapings could end up being in Universal Studios after all, despite the original plan being for the shows to be in Ontario. It's hard to keep things straight with what's going on in Impact sometimes given all the changes they go through.

Rosemary suffered some sort of injury this week. It's unknown if she'll miss any work with Impact. That would be unfortunate, as she's one of the most entertaining characters in the company.

Impact has hired long-time fan Garrett Kidney to run their social media accounts. That's pretty cool. It will be good to have someone so enthused about the product on-board.

John Cena appeared on "The Today Show" to wed two wrestling fans. Shockingly, no one turned heel and called the wedding off.

- Cena also promoted hosting the Kids' Choice Awards. That was interesting, to say the least.

Jushin "Thunder" Liger is hosting a training seminar for Future Stars of Wrestling in Nevada on March 11. That's a big opportunity!

NJPW is opening a training camp in California in March. Another big stage in their U.S. expansion. Wow. They're definitely set to become a bigger player in North America in the years to come.

Impact Wrestling drew 294,000 viewers Thursday night. Hopefully they don't take too much of a hit with EC3 and Lashley leaving.

Sonjay Dutt and Josh Mathews will be the regular commentary team for Impact for now.

One Night Only: Canadian Clash will be on pay-per-view in addition to the Global Wrestling Network. The six-match card features James Storm, EC3, and Lashley in some of their last Impact matches.

WWE announced who attended their latest tryout, including current wrestlers:
- Austin Theory
- Kamille Kaine
- MJ Jenkins
- Kylie Rae
- Elias Evan Markopoulos
- Jarek 1:20
- Tyler Bateman
- Maverick, a.k.a. Moonshine Mantell
- Kevin Kross
- Maria Manic
- Rob Ryzin
- Dylan Bostic
- Jaxon Stone
- Rebecca McMonagle
- Brittany Quintana
- Bubblegum Princess
- Bryan Idol a.k.a. Earl Cooter
-- among a lot of other potential signees from various backgrounds. As always, it was quite the diverse crowd.

WWE promoted a trip to Universal Studios. It would be pretty funny if someone won and ended up going to watch Impact, but it's unknown if Impact will have shows there during that time.

Babatunde Aiyegbusi returned to NXT live event this weekend for the first time since December. He lost to Lars Sullivan Thursday and Killian Dain Friday.

Nikki Bella is advertised for WWE's Madison Square Garden show on March 16, teaming with John Cena against Elias and Bayley. So, the MMC pairing will at least last until that event, and Nikki's at least working one more date.

Anthem has officially taken over ownership of trademarks that were property of TNA Entertainment. It took some time to get everything in order with the new ownership, clearly.

Teddy Hart will work Impact's Wrestlecon event during Wrestlemania weekend. He last worked for the company in 2004. I didn't see that one coming at all. Wow. We'll see if he ends up doing any more dates.

Cheeseburger missed Honor Reigns Supreme due to the flu. I hope he's not out long.

For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. Clearly everyone involved expects her to do Mania. They're just getting all the fine details sorted out. The Rumble appearance was a really big deal, to the point of it being worth whatever risk there is of her not working Mania.

2. HHH and Stephanie look incompetent, at the least. WWE panics to put something else together. They'd have to really screw up to not deliver the deal, though, given that Ronda wants to come in so badly and they've already agreed to merchandise.

3. If she wants to wrestle that badly, she could, but that's a much smaller stage and there'd be a lot less money and press involved.

4. It was more like Sinclair's funding saved ROH, and Cornette got that ball rolling. It definitely wasn't a result of Cornette's booking or leadership. While certainly he didn't take the job with the intent to ruin the company, his booking and philosophies were at least a decade dated at that point. He wasn't fit to be such a prominent part of a corporate entity, and the stresses of dealing with the personalities in ROH and Sinclair eventually drove him out. Long story short, he was a territory-era booker for a company that needed a mature executive with an understanding of the changing landscape of sports and entertainment.

5. Let's just say I don't expect him to excel given how the first bout went. But he'll make a lot of money to perform in his hometown! As for working another wrestling match, it will come down to him having an opportunity to do something he really wants to do. A particular opponent in a particular place, that kind of thing. He's not going to get back in the ring just to do it.

More wrestling tomorrow.

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