Thursday News and Notes: Suspensions, Expansion, Y2J, Maina Tickets, Batista
* While RAW, SmackDown and ECW start to look ahead to the returns of those that were suspended late last month, you can expect most of them to be at TV this next week. One return that is sure to happen asap is that of Ken Kennedy, who is expected to be involved with the program that is going on with Mr.McMahon and Triple H. As a matter a fact, many are speculating that he will be involved in their match on RAW on Monday, and that it is still going to happen where Kennedy ends up being McMahons kid.
ECW is expected to have John Morrison back on TV next week as well. Where they go with him right away is going to be interesting, as C.M. Punk has done more than enough with the ECW title that they would be making a mistake to put it back on Morrison within a few weeks of his return. Punk is a gifted wrestler, and the belt on him makes total sense. He and Morrison have had plenty of matches, and they can save that feud for down the road. For now, my plea is to keep the strap on Punk, and let Morrison get in a program with someone else upon his return.
* The WWE is going to be pushing for more exposure overseas, and put out a press release talking about its plans for international expansion. Look for branches to be open in places like Europe, Africa, China, Latin America, and Australia. This story has been talked about for sometime, so this is not that much of a shock. The company has great success across the border, so to try and cash in on that is not a surprise at all. The interesting thing to watch is to see any sort of roster tweaking in order to make fans crave wanting to go see the stars when they come to their towns, and if that roster tweaking huts the current state of the WWE at all here in the US.
* The Chris Jericho rumor mill continues to get hotter, as now his complete book signing dates are out and through October there are no October dates scheduled. It basically means that he will be on RAW, which is the obvious choice since it's the franchise show, and your not going to waste a huge comeback for a guy to go to a lesser brand. The most interesting thing about Y2J's return is that he had stated several times about not really missing wrestling. He seems to be a smart enough person to have saved his cash over the years, plus he does stay active with other outside projects. Why the time is right now for Jericho is beyond me, other than he wants the hype vehicle known as the WWE to push his book. I am excited and perplexed at this return and how it will play out.
* The date for the on-sale for WrestleMania 24 tickets is November 3rd, but like last year at Ford Field, they will have a large presale. Last year you were able to get solid seats during the Lions season ticket holder presale, and then good seats as well for the public on sale. One thing though last year that drove everyone nuts was Ticketmaster didn't have a seating chart till AFTER the presale, so in effect you didn't really know what you were buying till after you brought it. I expect the pull to be somewhat easy with the size of the Citrus Bowl. One also has to wonder if now other cities see the way Orlando is handling the event and the money brought in, if other cities will start to try and land the event. You can bet though that WrestleMania 25 will likely be at Madison Square Garden.
* Batista's new book - "Batista Unleashed" comes out on October 16th, and he will be having a tour of book signings as well. You can preorder the book at most book outlets on the web as well as on WWE.com.
Labels: batista, cm punk, jericho, wrestlemania 24 tickets, y2j
