James Storm on Returning to NXT – James Storm had a brief cup of coffee in NXT about two years or so ago, it was an open deal and he never signed a full WWE contract at the time. Now that his tenure with IMPACT Wrestling appears to be done for now, Storm’s looking for other avenues in wrestling. So it’s not that surprising that while he was on Cerrito Live, he spoke about whether he’d return to NXT, saying;
People always say, ‘main roster or bust type of guy,’ but if you look at NXT, it’s one of the hottest things going right now no matter what people say. And it’s one of those things where anybody would be proud to be signed to NXT and have a good run there. I mean, it’s plain and simple. They are doing as much as the people on the main roster is on the road and stuff like that right now. So, I mean, I’d definitely go and work with those guys and help them out as best I can.
Daniel Bryan Hates Being GM – The current Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan storyline has many people believing he’s returning to the ring to face Shane, but it might just be a way to write Bryan off of t.v. He spoke with Peter Rosenberg and revealed to him that his job is currently all the things he dislikes most about wrestling, saying;
I love [professional] wrestling, but I don’t love all of it, right? The hard part of wrestling is the travel and going here and there and being away from your family. The part that I love is being in the ring and wrestling. Yeah, being in there and doing it. So now, I’ve got the job that’s the part of wrestling that I don’t like.
Rey Mysterio on Why 205Live Isn’t More Popular – Rey Mysterio spoke to ESPN about a bounty of things, and one thing that he was asked was his opinions on 205Live and why it was’t more popular. He responded by saying;
I don’t know [why 205 Live isn’t more popular]. To be honest with you I can scratch my head all day and not figure it out because they do have talent. I don’t know if they’re limited to doing so much in the ring that they don’t go all out versus Lucha Underground. It’s Johnny Mundo versus Rey Mysterio and 15 minutes. We’ll go ahead and tear the house down without limitation. We’ll be coming up with new moves and still trying to innovate the game. With [205 Live] and the comparison with WCW, it was just a different time. Back then, we had no competition. The cruiserweight division had no competition. Nobody was out there doing the stuff we were doing. You have to get really creative now to blow the fans’ minds away. I think it’s gotten to that point where there’s another phase of the evolution of the sport and it’s changing right now as we speak. I see guys like Ricochet. I see guys like Will Ospreay. And I’m going, ‘what the hell, where are these guys coming up with all these moves?’ Sometimes I pause and think, ‘I was like that when I was breaking into the business.’ I was always being creative and thinking of new stuff. We’re in a new era right now. I think if they just let the guys from [205 Live] go a little bit more, feel free to do whatever they want to do, maybe they might get a different reaction. I could be wrong.
IMPACT Taping for February – IMPACT Wrestling has a show coming up with WrestlePro and will be supplying IMPACT talents to work an IMPACT branded event for the promotion on February 3rd, at the Rahway Rec Center in Rahway, New Jersey. The show will be part of IMPACT Wrestling’s t.v. taping plans.
On the card is Eli Drake, Bobby Lashley, Moose, Alberto el Patron, Sonjay Dutt, Allie, KM, Braxton Sutter, Eddie Edwards, Matt Sydal, Fallah Bah, and Mario Bokara; as well as Angelina Love, Tenille Dashwood (Emma), Dan Maff and more.
WWE Stock Takes Huge Hit – After it was announced that Vince McMahon was selling his stock to fund his new football league (presumably the XFL), the WWE stocks took a big hit. After the announcements the stock took a 7.94% hit, dropping to $29.34. The number may of dipped more since the last update. I’m told this news wasn’t unexpected by top WWE brass.
Quick Hits – Jim Cornette ripped Kenny Omega once again, but this time Chris Jericho got involved, asking Cornette to manage him against Omega. IMPACT Wrestling returned to it’s yearly average after a series low on Pop, bouncing back 67% to a 269,000. Congrats to Jeff Jarrett who has completed his rehab stint; he’s not back home with his family.