Top WWE Stars Sent Home – Two stars from the SmackDown brand of the WWE have been sent home from the European tour. Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens apparently after “going into business for themselves” during SmackDown last night. The official reason is “…for conduct deemed detrimental to the WWE.” This seems odd, and honestly I think there’s more to it but I don’t know the details of the incident as of yet.
X-Division Champ Signing Imminent – According to Dave Meltzer, Rockstar Spud was not released due to budget cuts. It seemed more to do with his standing in the company. IMPACT apparently spent upwards of $20,000 to help Spud resolve his issues, with the intention of bringing him back. However, Spud, and several others, were very loyal to Dixie Carter and haven’t been to happy with the new regimes. So when Spud returned, he asked for his release. Now it’s being reported that Spud is days away from signing a WWE contract and is expected to go straight to the WWE Cruiserweight division.
SmackDown Ratings – While I didn’t see anything about the RAW ratings, SmackDown’s however are in. With the huge title change, which saw AJ Styles win the belt again, the show went from 2.119 million to 2.603 million. A huge jump for a taped show.
For those wondering, RAW did 2.841 million; only down slightly from last weeks 2.854.
Quick Hits – Bram cites inactivity and poor booking as the reason he asked for his release. John Cena will be the fifth SmackDown wrestler for the Survivor Series RAW vs. SmackDown match. Samoa Joe joins Triple H and Kurt Angle as honorary Shield members during Roman Reigns’ absence on the house shows.