Norwegian Rudo

As far as I know it's not more complicated than he's a local guy who's got somewhat of a name. He might even be working cheap if they give tryouts to people from his school.

Rumour is Axel Dieter Jr. has been signed. WXW announced his last show is April 30th and he is pursuing overseas opportunities. Looks like he will start at the same time as Hojo, Evie & Nixon Newell.

You definitely have a higher opinion of Chelsea Diamond then I do. Her selling and such is OK, but her offense is just so terrible. Chelsea Green is better at character stuff than in-ring, but I'd still rate her far higher than CD.

Are you sure you're not confusing her with Chelsea Diamond? Chelsea Green was supposed to do a tour, but did like 1 show before she travelled to India to do a show for Khali where she broke her collarbone. Green is a Lance Storm trainee and is fairly decent. Good mouthy heel and not bad in the ring for her experience level. She is also Laurel Van Ness in Impact Wrestling.

Surely this has to be an NXT thing and not a main roster thing? Unless they're planning a mass promotion, Raw and Smackdown has something like 6 women each, and the logistics of the taping schedule would be very tricky. Either the Raw women would need to stay on the road an extra day or the Smackdown women would miss the monday houseshow, and there are problems with international TV deals which might mean 5+ hour tapings. In NXT on the other hand they're going to have a huge bounty of talent soon: Asuka Ember Moon Peyton Royce Billie Kay Aliyah Liv Morgan Nikki Cross Kimber Lee Heidi Lovelace Mandy Rose Daria Berenato Bianca Blair Macey Estrella Sarah Bridges Danielle Kamela Andrea (Rosie Lottalove) Taynara Melo Victoria Gonzalez Zhao Xia Julie Ho + these are reporting to Orlando soon Evie Kairi Hojo Nixon Newell Demi Bennett Isabel Lahela From the Observer this week it sounded like they were planning on signing a significant number of tournament contestants as well. Just for arguments sake let's add: Io Shirai Mia Yim Rachael Ellering Toni Storm Deonna Purazzo Kay Lee Ray Shanna Tessa Blanchard I make that 8 who are currently on TV semi-regularly, 15 or so who should pretty much be ready to go, and another 5+ that aren't too far away. That's far too many for a one hour show where they'd at most get two matches. Add to that that the tapings would be far easier than for the main roster (tapings every other week, or two days of taping once a month?), it just makes far more sense.

Not sure if this was ever true, but even if it was they backed away from it quickly. As someone mentioned, they signed Kimber Lee who had one of the more infamous intergender matches of the past few years, and most of their other signees also frequently wrestle men. Haven't heard anything aboout WWE offering Mayu, but they're after Toni Storm who is basically #4 in Stardom at the moment.

If you haven't seen it you really need to catch the SPPT against Ringkampf in Progress. Fantastic match and vey different. They work heel and make Walther and ADJr look a million bucks. Dahlia is a great heel, constantly cheating, and takes a big bump at the end. Love that match. Also looking forward to seeing their match against Strickland/Callihan when it hits Demand Progress.

The 10 man tag was so choreographed that even Meltzer, whose wet dreams feature the Young Bucks, thought it was too much. The Janela show was very up and down. Some things worked for me, some things really didn't. My winners; Keith Lee, The South Pacific Power Trip (2 major shows, 2 ****+ matches, appeared at Axxess, probably got WWEUK deals) and Sami Callihan, just for the fact that he worked 10+ shows and unlike seemingly everybody else, he never phoned it in. I'm not a big fan of his wrestling, but full of respect for his efforts this weekend.

Maybe Aliyah, there will probably be several Aussies in it anyway.

I would be shocked if their recent signees like Evie, Hojo and Nixon Newell aren't in. Maybe not all, but at least some of them. Maybe even one or two trainees they really like? I hope and expect them to keep their TV regulars out though.

PWInsider reports that today may be the day we get the announcement for the indies on the network. Progress and ICW are the ones we "know". Interesting to see how they want to do it. Do we get higher priced versions of the Network, and if so, do we get the archives? Are there other indies? No American ones?

He was one of the big guys that were brought up and heavily pushed before they were ready, and soundly rejected by the fans. Both he and Chris Masters got really good, but by that time the fans were not going to see them as serious threats no matter what.

I like Veda a lot. She's a great talker, has her character down pat and is cute as hell. It's just a shame that she's so bad in the ring. I'd be very happy for them to hire her to be a commentator or even a manager, just please not a wrestler.

Veda Scott did a very good job on the Beyond show, even with a busted jaw. Plus having her there spares us from having her in the tournament. Can't believe I missed it, but if Deonna Purazzo is in she'd almost certainly be announced from Italy. Her outfit is a freaking Italian flag...

The women's division is going to be in a weird place as they'll all of a sudden have a ton of experienced workers. Pretty soon they should have somewhere around ten who are TV ready, and another five or so that will soon be ready. And that's before anybody extra they sign out of the tournament (presumably some of their recent signings, Nixon Newell, Evie, Hojo etc will debut there, but I mean in addition to them). I can't really see any way they're going to be able to fit that in in a one hour NXT along with the guys they have and are signing. Do they go to a two hour NXT? A women only show?

Both Purazzo and Ellering were at the Impact tapings, but I don't think either has signed. Ellering has stated repeatedly on her twitter that she's a free agent and Purazzo worked the Women of Honor show last night.

Here's my guesses for international talent that I posted on the Observer forum: Shanna - Portugal Alpha Female - Germany Nixon Newell - Wales Kay Lee Ray - Scotland Evie - New Zealand Kairi Hojo - Japan (hopefully also Io Shirai, and Hikaru Shida if we're being greedy) Rhia O'Reilly - Northern Ireland Jinny from England Maybe Nicole Matthews from Canada. She's been at a recent tryout. If not her, then somebody else. Could be several from Australia, like Kellyanne, Demi Bennett and Toni Storm Someone from Mexico. I was going to guess Zeuxis, but looking her up she's actually from Puerto Rico. Someone from China They'll probably cheat with some, for instance Mia Yim could be announced from Korea, or Jinny from wherever her heritage is. For the US, some seem obvious. Tessa Blanchard, Rachael Ellering and Deonna Purazzo for instance.

About the tag match. According to Rovert, Ciampa is having major surgery very soon, and with Revival rumoured to be called up the result was never in doubt. Even so I really loved the match. Only downside was the flat finish. Edit: listening to Observer Radio and Dave mentions he's heard Ciampa is hurt.

According to Meltzer that's apparently his life at the moment. He spends his days surfing and playing with his kids.

Guarantees the announcement about the network deal is imminent. No way they do this unless the deal is signed.

It's kind of pointless to discuss the women's division right now when it's going to be so different in a few months time. Even if there's no Shirai there's going to be 5 or so new faces I would assume will be booked strong from the start.

DIY is probably on the shelf after this as Ciampa needs surgery. I'd expect a Tyler Bate defense also. Most likely agains Pete Dunne again?

I've been wondering about Stardom contracts myself. It seems likely, with Hojo and Shirai seemingly able to leave for WWE anytime they want, that they only cover other Japanese promotions.

Article from WWE.com Don't see them making a big deal of it unless they expect her to sign.

Have no idea about that, but this is a proper professional TV studio. The Knights rent it occasionally, nothing more. In fact, if they try to harrass other potential customers I would think the owners wouldn't be happy with them at all. With this being a smallish TV studio (900-1500 according to setup is what I read) and them running consecutive days while their production guys are in country it seems most likely this is the first taping for the rumoured UK network show.