Total Pageviews

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Former WWE Champion re-signs, Network adds episodes, WWE HoFer responds to Revival, Interviews with Bellas, WK14 on FITE, Primo defends Wellness failure, AEW ticket milestone, Scurll-NWA update, NXT and Dynamite make big plays, more Dynamites set, WWE Africa update, NBA team holding WWE Night, special Seth merchandise, Taz leaving radio home, top execs miss TLC, Black update, and Questions on WWE's value vs. Sinclair's, Taker's influences, Waltman in the Hall, trademarking ring names, and AEW's focus on big moves

Kofi Kingston has signed with WWE for another five years. I'm curious what that time will hold for him. He's accomplished quite a bit already.

WWE Confidential added 14 episodes to WWE Network, bringing the series up to August 9, 2003.

Stevie Ray responded to The Revival's TLC challenge. I'd totally watch that.

The Bella Twins discussed their WWE careers and more.

Wrestle Kingdom 14 will be available on FITE.TV, as well as the next night's New Year's Dash. That's big!

WWE's Primo announced he failed the company's Wellness test because he was in Puerto Rico when WWE tried to test him. Yeah that sounds like a pretty valid reason to not be able to get tested.

AEW has sold more than 100,000 live event tickets. That's very impressive for a company that new.

Marty Scurll will appear on NWA Powerrr tonight, as he was interviewed by Dave Marquez following After The Fire. It will be very interesting to see what his next moves are. Villain Enterprises are still ROH's Six-Man Tag Team Champions.

NXT this week will be commercial-free. They're really looking to prevent people from changing channels. WWE has a very deep war chest where they can take short-term hits like this in order to try to make the brand a long-term success.

- Finn Balor vs. Adam Cole for the NXT Championship will begin the show. This is a very important episode!

- This has been announced as the final Full Sail event of 2019.

Dynamite will come from Georgia on February 19 and Missouri on February 26. The former episode will be at the home of NBA's Atlanta Hawks.

NXT will have a Toys for Tots drive at Wednesday's event, specifically for wrestling action figures. That's great!

Dynamite this week will start with Kenny Omega and Hangman Page vs. the Lucha Bros. AEW noted it will be commercial-free, just as Cole vs. Balor will be. Both sides are bringing their A-game for the last live episodes of the year.

WWE will have a dedicated African channel as part of an extended TV deal in the region. That's pretty great.

NBA's Detroit Pistons are holding a WWE Night on February 20.

Seth Rollins got another "Iowa's Own" shirt before the recent WWE Supershow there.

Taz announced leaving his CBS Radio show after this week. His own show will continue.

Vince McMahon and Triple H were not at TLC, though Vince approved everything before the show aired. Paul Heyman handled everything on the Raw end, while Bruce Prichard handled all of Smackdown's matches and segments.

Aleister Black was not injured at TLC. There was speculation he had a broken nose.

For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. It's kind of a deceptive comparison as far as ROH is concerned, since that company gets such a small piece of Sinclair's resources. But it does explain why WWE didn't want to go to court over Supercard running Madison Square Garden.

2. Yes, it sounds like Taker just pays homage to Spoiler with Old School.

3. That was definitely an odd move given the other options and they blatantly retconned "Syxx" as the fourth member of the group, but Waltman's obviously part of the group's history and he's close with the people making the decision, so he's being included. There are better choices for which members to honor, but this is the direction they're taking.

4. It varies by the individual. Obviously Brodie Lee for Luke Harper is because he wants to use that name after WWE. It seems like Andrade wanted to protect himself from CMLL using the La Sombra name and that led to Charlotte making her own "just in case" trademarked ring name.

5. It absolutely feels like AEW is building itself on impressive, flashy moves, particularly in the tag team division. Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks would likely argue that's what made them stars in the first place, and that it provides contrast with the stereotypical WWE match formula. It will be VERY interesting to see how long that style can be sustainable, as one would think at some point certain moves will lose their specialness much as the DDT, superkick, and clothesline have. I think we're already seeing it with the shooting star press and moonsault, for instance.

More wrestling tomorrow.

No comments:

Post a Comment