– WrestlingObserver.com’s Dave Meltzer is reporting that no more cuts are being made from the WWE roster outside of the 12 already made this week (10 already announced publicly). WWE is planning to send less people on the road to house shows, since they have not been drawing well in the US, saving on transportation and payoff costs. Most cuts were those who have not been on the road. Rumors that the company won’t be paying for surgeries for the talent that gets hurt “is total b.s.” according to Meltzer. PWInsider.com’s Dave Scherer is reporting the same, and that this rumor is thought to have come out of the TNA camp, to make WWE workers feel that TNA is a viable option for them (TNA does offer health coverage).
– The Kurt Angle-Daniel Puder (Tough Enough contestant, who has experience with Ultimate Fighting) match last night is becoming a big story on mixed martial arts message boards, as the match was a real “shoot fight,” and as Puder had Angle locked in the Kimura, or keylock as Tazz called it, he had a serious chance of hurting Angle as well as making him look bad in the context of a worked show. In fact, most MMA fighters would have tapped already, but Angle couldn’t tap for storyline reasons, so the ref rushed a three count despite Puder’s shoulders not being down fully. The commentary and editing covered it up pretty well for common WWE fans, but many MMA fans are saying WWE missed out on a golden angle of “Kurt actually losing to an unknown.” Dave Meltzer in particular feels WWE blew a huge angle opportunity. PWInsider.com’s Dave Scherer is reporting that Angle is very upset with the situation, and that overall the workers feel the Tough Enough segments being “shoots” is asking for trouble.
– Syndicated columnist Alex Marvez has a story on Carlito Colon here.
[Credit: WrestlingObserver.com, PWInsider.com]
