WCW Hidden Gem, new HonorClub matches, Dragon Lee updates, Interviews with Roman/Jericho, Cena book released, WWE pulls celebrities after AEW appearance, AEW crashes PWTees servers, Baker update, Impact opening, new Austin project?, Draft rules and eligible talents, WWE VIP partnership, Dynamite and NXT audiences, WWE wins digital awards, WWE and MLW attendance notes, Sting note, Cain MMA updates, HIAC original ending, NWA planning PPVs, AAA Facebook series returning, DG cancels China shows, OWE leaving China, ROH using new names, NXT-Full Sail update, WWE signing official, WWE female injured, and Questions on MLW names working AEW, Rhodes' new look, and Punk's WWE status

WWE Network's latest Hidden Gem is WCW's 1999 "Festival de Lucha" pilot that never aired. That could have been an interesting side project.

ROH has announced the following HonorClub event additions:
-- For October 12's Glory By Honor:
- Shane Taylor confronting local wrestler J. Spade.
- Bully Ray appearing
- Independent wrestler Matt Lancie entering the 15-man battle royal.

-- For October 26's Honor United:
- Mark Haskins vs. Kenny King

-- For October 27's Honor United:
- Dalton Castle vs. UK star Rampage Brown

-- For November 2's The Experience:
- Tracy Williams vs. Flip Gordon with fans determining the stipulation.

ROH has signed Dragon Lee for their November 2, November 3, November 9, and November 10 events.

ROH's November 3 event will have a guest host.

Roman Reigns discussed Seth Rollins' place in WWE. Seth is absolutely carrying the torch right now.

John Cena's "Elbow Grease vs. Motozilla" has been released.

WWE pulled Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes from Friday Night Smackdown's debut after the pair appeared on Dynamite. So that tells you how seriously WWE is taking AEW!

Chris Jericho and Kevin Smith discussed AEW and more on The Rich Eisen Show.

ProWrestlingTees' website crashed following a mention on Dynamite of where to buy The Inner Circle's first shirt. PWT has been a really strong partner for The Elite, and now AEW. The partnership has allowed the new company to make and move merchandise quickly, which is key.

Britt Baker got a black eye on Dynamite due to Bea Priestley.

Impact released the opening to tonight's episode.

Stone Cold could have a new WWE Network series coming, as ideas are being discussed. We'll see what that will entail.

Friday Night Smackdown will start with Seth Rollins vs. Roman Reigns. The winner's brand will get the first pick in this year's Draft. So it looks like they're drafting half the roster on each show. For some reason I was picturing Smackdown getting picks tonight and Raw getting picks Monday, but this makes more sense.

WWE outlined the rules for this week's draft. Interesting stuff about tag teams and undrafted stars. The Heath Slater storyline last time was hilarious.

WWE has partnered with Diamond Resorts for VIP packages. That's a good move.

Dynamite drew 1.14 million viewers Wednesday night, split between 1.02 million on TNT and 122,000 on TruTV. That's a drop of almost 20%, and would have been even worse without the TruTV simulcast. A significant number of people who watched the show's first show didn't like it enough to come back a second week. Hopefully for AEW's sake things level out.

NXT drew 790,000 viewers Wednesday night, so it's seen a pretty meaningful drop from its first week, too. I'm not sure what's considered a success from USA and WWE's perspective, but I would be questioning if NXT's approach is something Raw and Smackdown should learn from or if it's the other way around.

WWE released the pool of superstars eligible for each night's draft. Smart move to spread the top names out. Not included are:
- Aiden English (primarily a commentator)
- Alicia Fox
- The Ascension
- Big Show (TV projects)
- The Colons
- Ember Moon
- Goldberg
- Jeff Hardy (injured)
- Kane
- Lana
- Lars Sullivan (injured)
- Maria Kanellis
- Matt Hardy
- Mike Kanellis
- Naomi (taking time off)
- Nia Jax (injured)
- Ruby Riott (injured)
- Sheamus (injured)
- Triple H
- The Undertaker
- The Usos
- Zelina Vega (interestingly not listed with Andrade)

-- The following 205 Live names are included to be drafted to Raw or Friday Night Smackdown:
- Akira Tozawa
- Drake Maverick
- Drew Gulak
- Humberto Carrillo
- Lucha House Party
-- That leaves Ariya Daivari, Brian Kendrick, Jack Gallagher, Lio Rush, Oney Lorcan, the Singhs, and Tony Nese as official 205 Live roster members. I would be surprised if the show continued with just those names instead of just moving those names to NXT and/or NXT UK.

WWE won the following Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts awards:
- Gold Award for Video - Video Cinematography (for "Day Of")
- Gold Award for Video - Documentary Series (for "Day Of")
- Silver Award for Video - Documentary Series (for "My Son/Daughter is a WWE Superstar" and "Chronicle"
- Silver Award for Video - Documentary, Long Form (for "Chronicle" on Paige's retirement, "Making WWE," and "Day Of" on WrestleMania 35)
- Silver Award for Video - Documentary, Short Form (for "The WWE Fan That Has Been To Every WrestleMania")
- Silver Award for Video - Web Series (for "My Son/Daughter is a WWE Superstar," "Chronicle," "WWE Day Of")
- Silver Award for Video - Live Streaming (for WrestleMania 35's Watch Along and Kickoff show(
- Silver Award for Mobile Apps/Sites - Sports (for the WWE app and WWE Network).

Friday Night Smackdown's October 4 episode legitimately sold out with 14,000 fans.

Sting was at the October 4 Friday Night Smackdown, but not used. It's clear they recruited a bunch of big names without any ideas of how to use them.

Cain Velasquez has left the USADA testing pool. More on this story tomorrow, but it was clear at this point he was at least putting his MMA career on hold for a while.

- UFC allowed Cain to do the appearance while under contract to them, interestingly enough.

Hell in a Cell's original ending was The Fiend bumping off the cell and being unable to continue. Vince McMahon chose to have Seth retain so he'd be Universal Champion for the draft. To say the ending was poorly received would be an understatement. They booked themselves into a corner, for sure.

Hell in a Cell drew 10,000 fans.

NJPW is not using Dragon Lee in their upcoming tag tournament due to their relationship with CMLL, who recently dropped Lee. Volador, Jr. will replace him. Being out of both CMLL and NJPW could really hurt Lee and open him up to seeking other opportunities.

NWA is looking to have PPVs, built by the Powerrr show. That would make sense.

MLW and The Crash's joint show drew a sellout of 4,500 fans. That's very impressive.

- This show was running against a WWE live event 17 miles away, which only drew 3,500 fans. As you might expect, MLW wants to work with The Crash more.

- Notably the show had a significant number of issues with visas, so the card was changed a lot.

AAA and Facebook will bring back Lucha Capital this week, featuring six-person tag team tournaments from both male and female teams. The series will run Wednesdays from October 16 through November 27.

Dragon Gate has canceled October 29 and October 30 events in China due to ongoing protests there. Obviously there are bigger things going on there than wrestling.

OWE is moving from China due to the promotion not drawing money there. They are expected to relaunch in Cambodia, and key names will work in Japan. T-Hawk is expected to come back to AEW, and AEW is looking at El Lindaman as well. I hope something works out for all parties.

ROH will likely use Tyler Bateman regularly going forward. Jake Atlas will also likely be used more, which is notable since he's turned down deals from Impact and ROH. So ROH is recruiting talents as always.

NXT is looking at doing TV outside of Full Sail beginning in January. They would shoot for buildings in the neighborhood of 5,000 seats to do so. That would really make things big for the group.

Scarlett Bordeaux has signed with WWE. I'm very curious to see how she does there.

Ember Moon has an unspecified ankle injury. It's not known how long she'll miss. I really hope she's able to get momentum going when she returns.

For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. MLW is letting talents appear for AEW, as it's good for those talents. It's a rare case of a promotion letting its workers take bigger opportunities.

2. That's a really odd situation.

3. It's a new side of him, more serious than Goldust but not as.... whatever you want to call Seven or Black Reign. He's paying homage to his other work but also showing character progression.

Nothing to add to 4.

5. Something pretty interesting happened today that will be covered in tomorrow's post with the rest of today's news, but still no confirmation of him being signed outright.

More wrestling tomorrow.