The Revival, after their win over Kalisto & Metalik on the 1/13 Raw, while still in their gear, asked for their release. As of press time they haven’t been given their release. The word we got is that nobody who asks for their release right now is expected to be given it for obvious reasons
After the Bandido situation, WWE has made it clear, at least for certain people, that they will beat anyone’s offer for talent, although they did not do so in the case of Chris Jericho. WWE has told people if you can show on paper an offer from another company, they’ll beat it, even double it on the spot provided you sign immediately.
Regarding the debuts, Vince is of the mentality right now he just wants people to see their faces on television. So the writers have to write stuff where they are in the background. They haven’t decided how to use them or on what show, but he wants people seeing them and feels what matters is when they come up with the plan how to use them and people will forget this, but they’ll know who they are, with the idea the majority of his fans don’t know who they are. Thus far EC 3 has come across as a minor league Lex Luger, Dozovic as a stocky Eugene, Cross as kind of wacky but charismatic woman with no direction and Evans likes wearing hats and is somebody’s idea of a Southern Belle from the 50s.
Ilja Dragunov heading to WWE, not officially signed yet. He'd do only NXT UK so far like WALTER
Expect Shane Strickland to come in to WWE as well. He had been attempting to get a release from both MLW and Lucha Underground to come here and evidently he officially got his releases this past week.
From Bryan Alvarez "The Canadian destroyer is no longer banned in WWE"
Apparently Vince saw it and asked why aren't we doing this kind of moves. He may not realize it's a piledriver.
-- NJPW
One of the things with Kushida which led to his leaving for WWE is that early last year he wanted to go heel and join the Bullet Club, but Gedo wanted him to stay in his place. The deal was that New Japan needed the solid junior heavyweight guy, with Will Ospreay in Chaos, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Desperado and Taka Michinoku in Suzuki-gun, Taiji Ishimori in Bullet Club and Bushi and Hiromu Takahashi in LIJ. The home team side had Ryusuke Taguchi, but he’s more comedy now and only turning it on as a serious guy for a few matches a year like Super Juniors, and Tiger Mask and Jushin Liger are legends, but they are no longer in the singles title picture. That probably isn’t the only reason but it was part of it. He handled it professionally, working until 1/29, doing his clean jobs at the Dome and Dash, and because he handled it so professionally he’s getting his first career singles match with Hiroshi Tanahashi on his last night at Korakuen Hall
Even though doctors have said that they don’t believe Katsuyori Shibata can ever be cleared, those close to Shibata have told us that Shibata is not accepting that answer and is determined and is training for a comeback.
Katsuya Kitamura’s contract was renewed for 2019 even though nobody knows whether he’ll be able to wrestle again after crushing one of his legs in an accident on a scooter. NJPW pays guys their full salaries if they are off while injured. Guys are naturally going to come back early from injuries because they are wrestlers and that’s the way wrestlers think. But there’s not an economic incentive with the idea that you have to come back early because you’ll either make far less or make nothing if you don’t
-- ROH
The latest in the land grab for top tier talent is that ROH has signed William Munoz Gonzalez, 30, better known as Rush, to an exclusive one-year U.S./Ontario market contract. The deal, believed to be for approximately $155,000 per year, is added to Munoz’s five year deal with CMLL which runs until the end of 2020. The contract takes Rush out of MLW’s attempt at the biggest match of its run, on the 4/4 show in New York a the Melrose Ballroom that was built around Rush vs. L.A. Park.
Ironically, with this new deal, he’ll be working far more dates for ROH than he would have for MLW, and ROH, and not CMLL, has priority on dates, although CMLL is supposed to have the ability to book him on all their major Friday shows. But both Rush and Bandido signed one-year deals with ROH, giving them good money for limited dates in ROH. The deal opens New Japan up for Bandido (Rush already had New Japan opened up but he’s not really a Japanese style wrestler and it wasn’t high on his priority list) and still allows them to work Mexico on their off dates. And then, if AEW is stable at the end of this year, they will both become free agents after being pushed as top guys in ROH, meaning at least three different companies will be after them.
Ironically, with this new deal, he’ll be working far more dates for ROH than he would have for MLW, and ROH, and not CMLL, has priority on dates, although CMLL is supposed to have the ability to book him on all their major Friday shows. But both Rush and Bandido signed one-year deals with ROH, giving them good money for limited dates in ROH. The deal opens New Japan up for Bandido (Rush already had New Japan opened up but he’s not really a Japanese style wrestler and it wasn’t high on his priority list) and still allows them to work Mexico on their off dates. And then, if AEW is stable at the end of this year, they will both become free agents after being pushed as top guys in ROH, meaning at least three different companies will be after them.
-- AEW
Cody says AEW isn’t hiring writers:
“We don’t need to micro-manage and we certainly don’t need to script a great deal of the product we’re planning.”
