Madison Square Garden was set to hold Supercard of Honor the night before WrestleMania 35 before WWE stepped in. Reportedly, there was an agreement in place for the event, but the contract hadn't been signed yet. I can see why WWE would be upset with such a major event being in the area at the same time as Takeover.
- ROH's parent company is weighing legal options. MSG believed they could back out because a contract had not been signed yet, but Sinclair feels that wouldn't hold up in court.
- Sinclair owns quite a few FOX affiliates, and could look to preempt Smackdown Live in those markets in favor of local programming if this drags on into 2019. That could really put the two sides on a serious collision course.
NJPW will air the entire G-1 tournament in English on New Japan World, with Kevin Kelly staying in Japan the whole month. That's another big move in trying to gain international fans.
- Cody will be missing that tournament due to an acting project.
Big Cass was not originally set to lose by submission twice to Daniel Bryan, but he was being punished for, among other things, going off-script in the segment with the little person.
- Cass was fired backstage at Smackdown Live due to that segment as well as blowing off rehearsal for a promo that ended up going long. Vince thoroughly disliked that promo. There was also heat from an incident where Cass was locked in the bathroom of the tour bus in Europe and broke the door down because he thought he was being pranked.
- Indie promoters are already looking at reuniting Cass with the former Enzo Amore despite the real falling out they had after Enzo's response to Cass being injured during a match they had.
WWE Super Show-Down in Australia is being set up for 70,000 fans. The venue can seat up to 100,000. The previous records for the venue have been well under 60,000, so I don't think it's a stretch to limit the capacity that much.
NXT:UK has signed
Eddie Dennis and
Nina Samuels.
Rey Mysterio has several matches left on his NJPW contract, so he's unlikely to jump to WWE just yet.
MLW is looking to do a PPV on July 19 for a show featuring a 40-man Battle Riot in addition to Teddy Hart and Davey Boy Smith, Jr. vs. ACH and Rich Swann. That could really be notable for them!
Owen Hart and Dan Severn are being inducted into the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame in Iowa. Great to see both men honored.
Billy Gunn was recently injured, missing an independent show booking. It's amazing he's still getting work at 54.
Kota Ibushi has been announced for All In. I hope he can continue to grow as a star.
Slammiversary is seeing a big price drop on Fite TV. It's at $19.99 where Redemption was $39.99. We'll see if the streaming price will match the broadcast price. It's got to be insanely tough to get 40 bucks for one show when you can get the award-winning WWE Network for only $9.99 a month.
The Global Wrestling Network will now feature Australia's World Series Wrestling library, including shows being taped this week. That explains Impact promoting their tour.
Ronda Rousey will be the pre-order bonus character for WWE 2K19. I'm shocked she's not the centerpiece of the advertising. Rey Mysterio is also in the game. I'd like to think those names will lead to an increase in people buying the game.
Charlotte Flair had surgery for her ruptured breast implant. She'll be back in time for the build to Summerslam.
WWE and Pro Wrestling NOAH have signed a working agreement, allowing Hideo Itami to work an event on August 29. That's a really big move, and has got to be seen in some sense as competing with NJPW in the region. We'll see if this affects Impact's agreement with NOAH in any way. I expect the long-term plan is to do "NXT:Asia" or something of the sort and this is the beginning of that.
Finlay and Tyson Kidd were producers for the women's matches at MITB. The women didn't work live events that weekend so they could lay out their matches and practice for the PPV.
Japan's Meiko Satomura is set to be part of the Mae Young Classic.
She's been heavily praised for her work.
Alicia Fox has been cleared to return to the ring. We'll see what's next for her.
Jason Jordan is now tentatively scheduled to come back in July.
I hope they have something decent in mind for him. Maybe he'll feud with Constable Corbin?
WWE is considering doing an "independent" Network special in 2019 featuring talent not under contract, presumably primarily from places WWE has working agreements with. It's amazing they're essentially creating an in-house territories system.
The Authors of Pain are back on the road for Raw after their visa issue. Hopefully we see them back on TV soon.
WWE Network's latest Hidden Gem featured Chris Candido vs. Boo Bradley in Smoky Mountain Wrestling before they worked against each other in ECW.
Zack Ryder
was at Funko. I'm glad he's getting to do that role for those companies, since he's not doing a lot on TV.
The original GLOW is the subject of a Fite TV documentary hosted by Gene Okerlund. It's pretty crazy seeing a revival of interest in that product.
Summerslam weekend will
feature a live wrestling cruise, beating Chris Jericho to the punch. It's an interesting idea. I'm curious if it will become more of a regular thing in the years to come.
WWE promoted the Mae Young Classic's return with a press release.
Austin Aries will face Kenny King at Best in the World. What does it say that Impact's World Champion is so low on the card?? The match should be great, though.
KUSHIDA vs. Jonathan Gresham is official for ROH's June 29 TV taping. That should be solid, as well.
Brie Bella promoted "Total Bellas."
Cody and the Young Bucks
put together a documentary explaining the origins of All In as part of Cody launching a YouTube channel. These guys are changing the direction of the business and really making things happen.
Sami Zayn is undergoing surgery for
two torn rotator cuffs, and is expected to be out until around the time for WrestleMania 35. That's a really big setback for him. I hope these are his final injuries and he goes on to have a big career from here on out.
Tucker Knight missed Thursday night's NXT taping
due to his daughter being born. Best wishes to him and his family going forward.
For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com
questions:
1. They're focusing on going forward instead of looking back, but they can definitely use that footage at some point.
2. They're still there. Otherwise it would be a distraction for them to keep going back and forth. They presumably get directions in their earpieces during that time, too.
3. It does feel like a lot of spots are in a lot of matches, but a good deal of that comes from there being so many wrestlers having longer matches being broadcast now. And of course a lot of wrestlers now are smaller and more athletic, so they all blend in compared to when there was a greater variety of body types and styles on display.
4. Neither channel has a big enough reach to be picked up by Nielsen. That could certainly change at some point, though, as AXS in particular expands to more homes. We do know AXS is very pleased with NJPW ratings, but not specific numbers.
5. Firstly, TAKA was booked that way because Vince Russo didn't value foreign wrestlers as anything beyond lower-level jobbers. Plus, that was 21 years ago. Things have changed a lot. Anyway, for these talents, the bigger the price it will take to get each talent to WWE, the more apt WWE is to push them to get their money's worth. But specifically:
a. Okada could almost certainly do well given his accomplishments so far. I think he'll probably be better served to wait until he's an even bigger international star before coming over, but I think he stands a decent chance at having a good run, since he's already a star.
b. Tanahashi, already 41, would almost certainly go right to the main roster and probably do OK for himself. I don't think they'd push him as the future of the company or anything, but I'd like to think he could have a couple good years in him.
c. Naito could do pretty well for himself. Again, not face of the company well, but I think he'd be treated as someone they can make money from if they figure out his appeal.
d. WWE pretty much always gets behind Samoans. Haku's children would get a fair chance to show what they can do in the WWE system.
e. He'd do well in NXT, and hopefully OK enough on the main roster as something of a comedy figure who can wrestle well.
More wrestling tomorrow.
