Hogan Backlash? – With The New Day and Titus O’Neil essentially not buying into Hulk Hogan’s apology, Finn Balor has now added his two scents by conveniently tweeting ‘I love Titus’ on Twitter.  The word going around is that some believe that Hulk Hogan’s apology was lacking true earnest and emotion for his racial rantings back in 2007-2008.  Booker T and Mark Henry have come out in favor of Hogan’s apology and both believe, while more is needed, the apology was a good start.  So publicly it’s a bit split as to how wrestlers see Hogan at the moment.

Eric Bischoff, the ever changing fact machine, addressed his long time friend’s reinstatement by saying;

I was really happy when I got the news because I know how much it means to him.  We’ve discussed the potential of this scenario for a long time.

You’re going to have haters no matter what you do. You could cure every disease known to man and, still, someone’s going to hate you. But I don’t think people value that kind of negative input as much as they used to because people recognize it for what it is, and that’s people who want to be noisy and get attention.

Professional wrestling, the WWE, and being in the Hall of Fame represent such a large part of Hulk’s life, as does his connection to the audience.  For that to not be there for him, it hurt. So I think the news is great for Hulk as a person and for wrestling fans. To many generations of fans, Hulk Hogan really represents the beginning of what became this amazing industry that we have.

Why Did Mikey Whipwreck Turn Down NXT? – Mikey Whipwreck was a guest trainer for the WWE’s NXT training center a while back and apparently was offered a gig to come in full time as a trainer.  Whipwreck is most well known for being the former ECW ring boy who ended up becoming ECW World Champion, while working in WCW and eventually WWE’s ECW for a few one-off appearances.    When pressed why he didn’t take the NXT Coaching, he revealed;

They asked, I said no. It was one of those that I had to uproot my family to Florida, which I was okay with that, but I didn’t want to move down there and then they decide to fire me, so the uprooting my family; my wife had a good job then as did I, but it wasn’t for me.  To be a guest trainer for a week would have been okay, but it wasn’t worth to go down there and take the risk. Maybe it could have worked out great and ended up like Billy Kidman, but I could have also went down there and stayed for a week and thought how terrible it was, so I didn’t pursue it. I have no regrets about it.

Quick Hits – Big E has revealed that there were originally talks about adding more members to The New Day early on, but he’s glad they stayed as just a trio.  Indy wrestler Keith Lee made his NXT debut last night.  Former UFC Champion Cain Velasquez is training with NXT for the interim, no word on if this is a permanent transition from MMA to pro wrestling.  The former Laurel Van Ness has pulled herself from an indy show over seas, leading many to believe she’ll be in the Mae Young Classic.