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Sunday, May 20, 2018

Goldust celebrates milestone, Interview with Phillips, WWE Network content notes, top SDL bidders, new Honor United match, Aldis' ROH partner set, another MITB qualifier on SDL, and Questions on how Backlash went down, Raw's schedule vs. SDL's, NBCU hurting itself by giving up SDL, and how Swann is able to work Impact

Goldust celebrated ten years of sobriety. That's a great milestone; I hope he can continue on that path.

Tom Phillips talked about his path to WWE and more.

"Table for 3" after Raw will feature Edge, Christian, and the Hardy Boyz. I suppose they could have made it a table of three tag teams and included the Dudleys, but I don't think anyone's complaining about that lineup.

"Something Else to Wrestle With" this week will discuss Vince Russo in WWE. I hope they don't jump on the revisionist history/burial bandwagon.

FOX, Amazon, and Facebook are all in the bidding for Smackdown. That's interesting. I'm curious how much the latter two can put up for the show.

Cody vs. Scorpio Sky has been booked for Honor United:Doncaster on May 27.

Nick Aldis will team with Mark Haskins against the Young Bucks at Honor United:Edinburgh on May 24. Both Brits will make their ROH debut there.

WWE Network's Hidden Gems section will get another update on Thursday. It will be interesting to see what they dig up this time.

Naomi vs. Sonya Deville in a Money in the Bank qualifying match has been set for Smackdown Live. We'll see if Mandy Rose gets a second chance as well, or if we're already at the point of Sonya breaking out.

For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
Nothing to add to 1.

2. Dual-brand PPVs can work fine, and I think we'll see that on future shows. WWE definitely killed too much time with the Elias segment, though, and I hope they don't move forward with the idea that they need to put everyone on every show, regardless if there's much of a reason for those talents to be there. As for AJ vs. Nakamura, I think a big part of the problem is that they had to suddenly add another match between the two at Greatest Royal Rumble. So, the feud feels like it's dragging on more due to the additional PPV. Things might have been a little more tolerable if they didn't have to have Shinsuke come up short in three straight matches and still get another title shot.

3. WWE has made sure the workloads are even.

4. It's certainly possible this new deal leads to strong future relationships with WWE and rights partners. Things could change a lot for that next deal, though, as far as outlets like Facebook and YouTube potentially being able to make bigger bids for content. As for Smackdown gaining prominence, I would actually assume the opposite. Since NBCU turned it down, other bidders could make a smaller deal than the one WWE got for Raw and even further solidify the show as "the B show." If WWE's getting more money for Raw than Smackdown under the next rights deal, I fully expect them to treat Raw as the priority with booking and talent.

5. It's entirely possible he negotiated to get out of his WWE deal without a no-compete clause, giving up the pay he'd get for that period of time in exchange for being able to get back in the ring sooner. It's rare for someone to do that, but it has been done before.

More wrestling tomorrow.

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