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Has there been any talk about Bayley returning?
Well, if I was WWE, I'd be thinking about next week since they are taping in Texas and she lives just a few hours away, allowing her to drive in under the cover of darkness and sneak into a venue at the last second....but nothing concrete.
I saw Tony Khan take a shot at WWE when they had to move their PPV to a smaller venue due to the UFC having a PPV in Las Vegas. Smart to call them out or childish?
As Obi-Wan Kenobi once said, "Everything I told you is true, from a certain point of view." If you are a WWE fan, you thought it was a needless shot. If you were an AEW fan, you liked that Khan jabbed them. Neither side is wrong. Personally, I never had an issue when WCW and WWF took shots at each other or ECW nailed the bigger companies. I can see people arguing that Tony Khan, from his position, doesn't need to punch up or down at WWE, but in his mind, he's in competition, so he took that shot. I don't think it was needed, but hey, none of the Monday Night War shots were needed, either, but that doesn't mean they weren't entertaining for the audience they were aiming for. Khan was trying to pop his audience by trolling WWE.
Mickie James had a great presentation at the Royal Rumble. She came out to her current theme song and not her WWE-created one, she got to wear the Impact Women's Championship and the announcers recognized her as such, She got to face off a couple of times, she eliminated a good amount of people, she lasted a pretty long time, and when she got eliminated, it was to a HOF veteran (Lita) and it was opposite the hard camera and wasn't made a big deal. So my questions are: 1) What was in it for WWE? Did Mickie James film anything such as interviews while there? 2) Did the NWA receive any benefit since Mickie James is contracted to them? They weren't mentioned at all. 3) Impact seemed to benefit the most with WWE promoting their title and presented Mickie as their wrestler. Did Impact have to give anything to WWE? And 4) Why would WWE work with another promotion? I understand they were short on wrestlers, but I do remember hearing there were some brought in and not even used.
WWE needed people to fill out the women's Rumble. That's what they needed, and that's why they reached out to Impact for Mickie. Mickie is not under contract to the NWA and I don't believe she was under contract to Impact either, but since she was their Knockouts Champion, WWE respected that. Impact didn't have to "give" WWE anything. Yes, there were alternates at the PPV, but in WWE's mind Mickie was a "name" they felt they needed for that event.
Speaking of WWE working with other promotions, that's now twice they have worked with Impact in as little as a few months, with them allowing AJ Styles to do a promo for Slammiversary. So I have to ask the same question, what is in it for WWE? If nothing, why would they want to help their competition?
I think it was as easy as this - Impact helped put AJ Styles on the map and WWE agreed to let him make the appearance out of respect to him. With all due respect to Impact, which has been damn entertaining, if you think they are WWE's competition when they are drawing 100,000 a week as their overnight audience, you are mistaken. WWE isn't looking at them in that way currently. What did WWE get out of it? They got to make one of their top talents happy, something that can yield them great results down the line. It's not like he was going there to take bumps or do a job - he sat in a chair and filmed a promo, one that also put over WWE. No harm, no foul.
Why are people making a big deal over Samoa Joe not being at Slammiversary?
The only people who are even thinking it's a big deal are ridiculous. It's not like Abyss, Chris Daniels or dozens of other talents who worked there in prominent positions were there, plus Joe is filming that Peacock Twisted Metal series. You can't have everyone involved, or else is diluted every other surprise. Joe was an important piece of Impact history, but anyone questioning why he wasn't there are being completely stupid. He's under contract to another company, one that allowed Sting to appear, plus he was working on another, far more important project. Anyone who criticizes that is, as I said, completely stupid.
Do we know if Blood and Guts will be two rings again this year?
Yes.
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