Darren Young comes out and the WWE Universe reacts, Nash bashes TNA, Interviews with Luger/Henry/RVD/Lesnar/Poffo/Ziggler, when Maria will wrestle, NXT release, DDP on HBO, and Questions on WWE releasing Young, McIntyre, Cena as a heel, Ryder, and the Bellas

Darren Young talked to TMZ, confirming his homosexuality. I think it's great that he can feel comfortable sharing that with his fans (and the world). I don't think that his sexuality matters anymore than his religion, political views, etc. In other words, it has no bearing on how I view him as a person or as a performer. I'm not going to rate his work or skills any differently as a result of this revelation, though I admire his courage in "coming out" at a time when that isn't popular with a large portion of the population.

As you might expect, there was a lot of reaction from Young's peers: John Cena, WWE Corporate, Stephanie McMahon, Titus O'Neil , Bret Hart , Triple H , Jim Ross , and Rosa Mendes all issued statements of support. That's great. In a world where so many feel that they have to stay underground for fear of bullying, etc. because of their sexual orientation, these people are showing that it's ok to be "out".

Everything else from yesterday is after the break.

Kevin Nash took some shots at TNA. My thoughts in order: It is sad that indie shows outdraw a national promotion that reaches over a million people every week. I can definitely see the complaints about Spike's influence: they view TNA much like any other TV show they have and as a tool to push Bellator. He and Scott Hall have done a good job of burying TNA on Twitter lately (though some would say that TNA does a good enough job of that by itself).


Lex Luger talked about battling his demons. I hope his story of recovery inspires others to do the same (whether that recovery involves Christianity is irrelevant to me - I'm more concerned about the "not abusing your body with dangerous substances" part). If his story gets us some new wrestlers, that's of course awesome as well!

Maria Menounos' match at AXXESS (where she'll team with Natalya against Brie Bella and Eva Marie) will be on Sunday. I'm curious as to how well she'll do.

Update: Yahoo! covered Maria returning to the ring, so maybe that will lead to more people going to AXXESS and watching Summerslam.

WWE has released NXT's Garrett Dylan, perhaps better known as the son of Kris Kristofferson (and you thought Michael McGillicutty was a weird name). Anyway, I did see some of Dylan's work. He was primarily used in a tag team with Scott Dawson along with manager Sylvester LeFort. I think a good deal of my opinion on him is based on the fact that I have seen SO many wrestlers come and go and there's so much wrestling in a week. Someone has to really stand out positively or negatively for me to think much of them. I'd say that Dylan was "ok" - nothing exemplary, but nothing bad either. I did see some things coming together in that team, especially with LeFort as a manager. But they weren't on my "short list" of who WWE should be looking at to bring up to the main roster.

Mark Henry was interviewed about the WWE Performance Center and more. I like his stance about respecting and learning from veterans. I think there should be more travel with veterans - I know that Curtis Axel travels with Paul Heyman and learns from him. I hope Cesaro and/or Swagger travel with Colter and absorb some of his knowledge. I was also happy to hear Henry put over the old tradition of meeting everyone behind-the-scenes. Without those people, the show wouldn't go on.

RVD talked about returning to WWE, taking a shot at the matches he had before his comeback. To be fair, I don't think he was as motivated during parts of his TNA run and that had an impact on his work. But yeah, I think he's got some pretty stiff competition in WWE (and more performers who are in his league talent-wise: TNA's roster's a good deal smaller).

HBO is going to profile DDP. Cool. I still love his motivational character from WWE.

Brock Lesnar was interviewed about UFC, WWE, and more. He's a scary dude.

"Leaping" Lanny Poffo talked about Randy Savage and the WWE Hall of Fame. Heck, put the whole family in if that's necessary. The other Poffos wrestled as well.

Dolph Ziggler talked ahead of Summerslam. Looking forward to his match. I'm glad that he put AJ over; I'm very high on her work (admittedly, some of it is her "rags to riches" story, but she's also very versatile and hard working). The Performance Center continues to sound amazing. And Ziggler vs. HBK in both of their primes would have been amazing. I think the world would have exploded.

For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. No way in hell will WWE, a publicly-traded company centered on PG entertainment, release Darren Young for coming out. They don't want a big scandal. Ask Punk, Michael Cole, Bully Ray, or the Briscoes what happens when you run afoul of gay rights supporters. So far, WWE's really supporting him. I don't see them throwing him under a bus for his sexuality, given their work with BA STAR, GLAAD, etc..

2. He's had some pretty good performances over the years, although they're generally on the "B" (or "C") shows. Usually WWE uses him as something of a jobber, so he can only show so much at a time.

3. I think he could be a pretty good heel, at least, given his work as a heel when he was the rapper character. I think he has potential to be a great heel. The thing is, I think he might get cheered if he does heelish things.

4. They use him fairly regularly and he probably still sells merchandise and such, so I don't see it happening any time soon. But they've had some surprise releases before, so I wouldn't be shocked.

5. Apparently the new "in" thing is to think that the Bellas are terrible and have no talent. They're far from seasoned pros, but they're not fresh off the block either.

More wrestling tomorrow.