NJPW+MLW trademark notes, Owens signs long-term deal, Y2J-WWE note, podcast notes, another Moolah colleague speaks out, more on Castle's injury, CMLL names working ROH, LU name is All In, more ROH events set, WWE TV deal updates, more on WWE Saudi payday, more on Alpha-WWE deal, Backlash note, MITB notes, Ishimori-Impact update, Brandi+Charlotte injury updates, Xavier hurt, Ronda update, NXT surgery, Keith Lee-NXT update, Neville leaves the U.S., WWE sues TV partner, Ontario getting Raw and SDL back to back, why Rosemary was written off of Impact, GWN gets boost from WWE plug, Impact names working HOH, Cruiserweight Title match set, Smackdown live event note, NJPW names in Ireland, and Questions on WWE's part ownership of Alpha, how Manya paydays work, and an ECW revival on WWE Network

NJPW's trademarks of Strong Style, King of Sports, and Strong Style Evolved were turned down due to being submitted unsigned. I suspect they'll fix that for a future filing.

MLW's trademarks for "War Games" were shot down due to confusion with the movie "Wargames," as both could be distributed on DVD. Presumably WWE was OK because they specified "War Games - WCW's Most Notorious Matches" and didn't release Takeover:Wargames as a DVD. MLW might need to change things slightly.

Kevin Owens has signed a new five-year deal with WWE, and recently said he expects to spend the rest of his wrestling career there. Hopefully that means he'll be a major player going forward.

Chris Jericho was being considered as a last-minute replacement for Shane McMahon at WM34 if Shane wasn't cleared after his bout with diverticulitis. That would have been a REALLY busy day for Chris with his Fozzy commitments.

Daniel Bryan told Chris Jericho he intended to go to NJPW, CMLL, and ROH if he wasn't cleared by WWE, feuding with Cody and Bullet Club. That would have really been a game-changer for those promotions, and honestly could still be at some point.

Jerry Lawler was on Jim Ross' latest podcast.

Another Fabulous Moolah colleague spoke out against allegations made against Moolah. I see why they wanted Vince to defend Moolah, but that would only further draw attention to the allegations instead of Wrestlemania.

Dalton Castle legitimately has a broken hand as well as back issues. It's hoped he'll be back for Best in the World on June 29.

CMLL's Ultimo Guerrero and Titan will work ROH's June 2 TV taping in New York. I've enjoyed Ultimo in previous appearances.
 
Son of Havoc Matt Cross is official for All In. He's come a long way from Tough Enough!

ROH has announced events in Texas for June 15 and June 16.

WWE's next TV deal is expected to do really well, based on how UFC's recently-announced deal performed.

WWE's Saudi Arabian deal was for $20 million this year. Holy shit! I definitely see why they don't want to jeopardize that relationship.

Alpha Entertainment's deal with WWE is that Alpha got the XFL trademarks and such in exchange for an ownership stake. Interesting.

Backlash had a number of matches cut short due to the long Elias segment. Yeah... priorities. The goal was to get a lot of people on the show and do something between matches. We'll see what they do differently at MITB after a poorly received PPV.

Brock Lesnar is not currently booked for MITB, which means his reign will continue to drag on. This is becoming painful.

A tag team MITB match is being considered. I wouldn't mind that.

Taiji Ishimori is believed to be done with Impact due to joining NJPW full-time and leaving Pro Wrestling NOAH. That's a shame. He's really good.

Brandi Rhodes is expected to miss about six weeks after surgery. I admire her durability.

Charlotte Flair's injury was before Wrestlemania, but she wanted to do the matches with Asuka and Carmella as well as the European tour and return for Summerslam. I'm glad she's able to do that.

Xavier Woods' tongue was injured from Cesaro's finisher on Smackdown. He isn't expected to miss any time.

Ronda Rousey should be back on Raw this week.

Tino Sabbatelli underwent surgery for a pectoral tear suffered from a dropkick by Velveteen Dream on April 28. He could easily miss the rest of 2018.

Keith Lee is finishing his dates at the end of May, so he should be joining NXT in early June. I look forward to seeing how he does.

Neville has moved back to the UK, so he's not expected to return to WWE. He is, however, still under contract. It could be a while before he's back in the ring somewhere, as WWE isn't likely to release him just so he can wrestle for someone else.

WWE is suing Transworld Television for $337,143 allegedly owed from TV deals in Africa and the Middle East. I hope that gets straightened out.

Raw and Smackdown will be taped in the same venue in Ontario on August 27 and August 28. Ronda Rousey and Daniel Bryan are centers of the advertising. Pretty cool.

Jim Cornette's podcasts are leaving MLW in order for Cornette to run things independently. The split was an amicable one.

Rosemary is still recovering from her torn ACL. She will miss significant time from Impact. That's unfortunate. She's one of the best characters there.

The Global Wrestling Network got a huge boost in downloads after being plugged on WWE Network. Impact probably got more from that deal than WWE did!

Eli Drake, Moose, LAX, and oVe will be part of House of Hardcore on May 19, so expect footage from that to appear on Impact at some point. Others could also be booked for the show.

Cedric Alexander vs. Buddy Murphy will take place on May 29 in Cedric's home state. That would be a big time to put the title on Buddy, with a rematch at MITB likely.

WWE will have a wrestling ring at NBC Universal's presentation Monday. There's speculation WWE will announce a new deal on USA Network that day, and this certainly plays into that.

Daniel Bryan and Tye Dillinger defeated The Miz and Big Cass at Smackdown's May 10 live event in Germany. Wow. That's big for Tye, even if the fall was Bryan tapping Cass out. I was hoping they'd protect Cass more, but clearly he's not much of a priority.

NJPW's Zack Sabre, Jr., Minoru Suzuki, Tomohiro Ishii, and Will Ospreay are working Ireland's Over The Top Wrestling's May 12 event. Interesting they're on that event instead of War of the Worlds. I'd love to see them in ROH again.

Raw will air in the Philippines beginning this weekend on free-to-air TV, joining Smackdown. Both brands will get a one-hour version.

For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. So Alpha can legally get WWE's ownership of XFL content. They're two different companies, so Vince had to transfer the assets to the other company and give WWE part ownership in return.

2. I've deliberately not kept track of the situation, since she isn't really part of the wrestling business anymore and it isn't related to her wrestling career.

3. They get paid for working the day of the show, whatever work that is.

4. His last recorded match was in 1994.

5. WWE could do a more "mature" product on WWE Network at some point if there's a serious enough demand for them to invest a significant amount of money in the idea. I think it'd be more "in the style of ECW" than anything, whether they use the letters or not. It might be worth trying out something like that, but I think it'd be more like the 2020 version of XFL is to the original XFL rather than them trying to recreate 1997. And we're a long way from such an idea actually being put in motion.

More wrestling tomorrow.