Michael Hayes was the main advocate behind The Undertaker being the World Heavyweight Champion, even though Undertaker himself has expressed concern about being champion while having knee, elbow and hip injuries. Hayes wanted Undertaker to win the belt regardless of the perceived necessity of him beating C.M. Punk in a Hell in the Cell match. That match was not originally scheduled to open the PPV. John Morrison vs Dolph Ziggler had been planned for the opener, with even the announcers expecting it until the point that the cell was lowered as the show began. Undertaker/Punk was moved to the opening match as it was scheduled to go short. The Undertaker is currently being advertised for a WWE tour of Australia in July 2010, although there is a very good chance that he could retire before that point.
WWE SummerSlam 2009 is projected to do 369,000 worldwide and 229,000 domestic buys. That is a drop of 23% worldwide and 24% domestic from SummerSlam 2008. This is the second-lowest SummerSlam buyrate since the Attitude era began, with only the 2004 event performing worse.
Umaga may be returning to WWE soon. He had a shoot interview scheduled this week but cancelled it lest he say something in it that would scupper his chances of a return.
Yoshi Tatsu took his stage name from his father, Yoshitatsu Yamamoto. His real name is Naofumi Yamamoto.
Zivile Raudoniene, 27, a Lithuanian who won the Figure International Title at this year’s Arnold Classic, has signed a WWE developmental deal. She was due to participate in Figure Ms. Olympia, which Torrie Wilson, Kimberly Page and Lisa Varon have all competed in before, but pulled out a few months ago to go to Florida Championship Wrestling.
Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscribe here)
