As noted, The Undertaker is suffering from long-term hip and knee damage and requires arthroscopic surgery. WWE is hoping to get him back by July in time to build up towards a major match at SummerSlam.
Meanwhile, WWE has more or less acknowledged that Jeff Hardy is leaving. They want him to work a full-time schedule until Undertaker can return because they are lacking depth on the Smackdown babyface side, yet Hardy is banged-up as well and wants to take a break from the business.
A number of wrestlers are applauding Hardy for remaining adamant that he needs to take some time off because they feel there is so much pressure on them not to do that, even though WWE states in public that their wrestlers can take time off if they need it. Internally, there is still the perception that taking time off means that you will lose your spot. Hardy has been given that impression too but is acting like he does not care about it, which again earns him more applause from the wrestlers. There is also the feeling that the fear of losing your spot for taking time off may be unfounded, since Chris Jericho and Big Show both returned to main event level pushes. Even Christian, who left as a glorified jobber, has shown that you can leave and get a push after your return if you work hard enough to get yourself over.
Hardy’s decision may also be connected to an outside venture, which is thought to be a reality TV show project with MTV. WWE remains convinced that even if Hardy left to do the show he would return to wrestling afterwards. Still, they are trying to get Hardy to remain throughout the summer so that they can have some time to get CM Punk and John Morrison over as stronger babyfaces. There have also been discussions about moving someone over to Smackdown to help out on the babyface side of things. Two names that have been talked about are Big Show, for a potential feud with Edge, and Matt Hardy, despite his recent heel turn. Batista had been mentioned as well, yet he is now locked into major programs on Raw through till SummerSlam.
Further to this, Stephanie McMahon had a meeting with the wrestlers at last week’s TV tapings and told them that WWE is looking to make new stars, that nobody is going to be held back and that they want everyone to work as hard as possible to become as popular as they can be. They are also encouraging people to come up with ideas for their own characters and storylines, which is in contrast to the tendency in recent years for the writing team to only countenance such suggestions from the top guys who have stature. A lot of the younger guys are now hopeful that they might get more mic time in order to elevate themselves with the crowd, since the perception is that the audience nowadays will not connect to unfamiliar faces through matches alone.
The company recognises that ratings may decrease during the forthcoming rebuilding period. They are also planning to bring up more guys from Florida Championship Wrestling to TV, with prepared purposes for their characters. In theory, this is going to force the writers to come up with more new ideas for more new people, although the general idea now is that the bulk of the sports-entertainment angles will be reserved for Raw, leaving Smackdown, ECW and Superstars as wrestling-heavy shows.
Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter, 11th May 2009 (subscribe here)
