WWE facing lawsuit over XFL, New Day podcast note, upcoming books, WWE HoFer getting regular AEW role, Total Divas coming to Network, Interview with Lince/Kalisto, Final Battle free stream, new HonorClub match, top execs miss Raw, and Questions on more Smackdown women focus, Impact's audience on another channel, ROH declining since Supercard, NJPW-AXS, and how much freedom NXT TV matches have

WWE stockholders in Oklahoma are suing over WWE executives allegedly breaching their duties by diverting resources to fund the XFL, and WWE allegedly not conducting proper oversight of Vince McMahon's transactions. The lawsuit asks for access to internal documents regarding the relationship between WWE and Alpha Entertainment. That could really be noteworthy. The last thing WWE or XFL needs right now is stockholders casting doubt about the viability of either endeavor.

New Day's latest podcast discussed the group's initial heel turn and how it came about. Xavier Woods again staked his career on the heel turn working.

The Young Bucks' autobiography is set for a September 29 release. That's awesome.

WWE Encyclopedia's third edition is also scheduled to come out September 29.

"Wrestling With Pixels," covering wrestling video games, is set to come out in early 2020.

A Buddy Rogers biography is being worked on. That could be memorable.

Bill Alfonso is working on an autobiography. I haven't seen that name in a while.

Arn Anderson is coming to AEW as Cody's "coach" and "advisor" for 2020. All win-loss records are being reset for the new year.

"Total Divas" season nine is coming to WWE Network Friday.

Kalisto and Lince Dorado are on Isaiah Scott's latest podcast.

Final Battle 2019 will be shown on ROH's YouTube channel January 1. I like that idea to potentially get people talking about ROH again. Realistically I don't expect many people to order it off FITE or HonorClub at this time.

ROH's January 11 HonorClub event has added The Briscoes vs. Tracy Williams and Mark Haskins vs. Jeff Cobb and Dan Maff. Interesting mix.

Vince McMahon arrived at Raw shortly before it went on air. Triple H and Kevin Dunn weren't at the taping. In their absence, Paul Heyman was in charge of the show, with WWE's VP of Global Television Production taking over Dunn's duties. It's very rare for Dunn to miss a taping. John Laurinaitis was in charge of rehearsals.

For my take on yesterday's PWinsider.com questions:
1. I don't think it's a matter of him pushing things as much as there being a more consistent direction for certain stars now that there's a stable hierarchy. Also, Dana Brooke just signed a new deal, so that's probably part of why she's being featured.

2. Yeah I wouldn't think so, given the comparative buzz for NXT and AEW. They have the audience to tour live every week. Impact doesn't right now.

3. I think that's a pretty fair assessment. Losing access to AEW and top NJPW talent within such a short timeframe really hurt the company, and the majority of talents who could theoretically debut there are being signed to better deals elsewhere. It's only going to get more competitive from here for ROH.

4. The two sides have completely parted ways.

5. There was a report that NXT is doing full rehearsals of TV matches now, which wouldn't surprise me, given the importance of camera angles and such. I very much doubt there's much improvisation in the in-ring product.

More wrestling tomorrow.