[Emperor Smeat]

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Ryan "Ryback" Reeves, who has been out of action since a staph infection suffered three weeks ago, posted a photo on Instagram this morning showing that his bad right leg is still badly swollen. He wrote about the photo saying, "And this is the best it has looked and felt. Wouldn't wish this upon anyone, but it will be overcome. Staying upbeat and positive even in frustration."

WWE Hall of Famer Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka reveals he is battling stomach cancer, and recently underwent surgery to have the cancer removed. The cancer involved Snuka having part of his stomach and lymph nodes removed, and although doctors told him the surgery was a complete success, he does have a long way to go.

Hogan footage was not removed from the WWE Network, nor were there any plans to do so, past the removal of the 1980s animated “Hulk Hogan’s Rock N Wrestling” shows and some home video material was also removed.

In promoting his newly released autobiography (which is very high on the honesty level, compared to most pro wrestler books), Bryan Danielson admitted publicly for the first time that his time off is not related to his neck, but is a concussion issue. While we had heard that from the start, for whatever reason, WWE had wanted it kept quiet. They originally denied that Danielson was suffering from concussion related symptoms, and were vague about his return. While Danielson has vowed that he will wrestle again, those in the company have no plans in place for a return.

Think Observer or F4W teased Bryan might try to buy out his contract as an option if the WWE tries to pull a "Rey Mysterio" with him. In Rey's case, they refused to grant his release and kept adding more time to his contract with the excuse of him being injured a lot so he couldn't leave early for AAA.

On Friday’s [PWG] show, among those in attendance were William Regal and Canyon Ceman, scouting for WWE, current WWE champion Seth Rollins and AAA co-booker Konnan. Steen himself would have been there, but for once, the show ended at 11:30 p.m., which is actually early for the group that often runs shows until nearly 1 a.m. So he wasn’t going to make it there it in time after main eventing a house show in Bakersfield that night. Reports were that the WWE officials were most impressed with Angelico, a AAA star who teamed with Jack Evans in the main event against the local stars of the group, The Young Bucks. Angelico has a multi-year contract with Lucha Underground, but that is only germane if Lucha Underground continues. We’re not certain what type of deal he is under with AAA.

Still no updates on anything [regarding Lucha Underground]. I’m told the deal with Televisa isn’t dead, and that would in theory be enough revenue to save the company, but time is running low. They have a deal on the table for a second season on El Rey, but would need to raise the necessary money for that season but it doesn’t financially make sense to spend the kind of money they’ve been spending with nothing coming in and not enough exposure to monetize the show in traditional ways. The company had gone with this idea that they weren’t looking at revenue streams, but at creating a licensing empire out of the unique characters on the show which could even lead to movies with those characters like a sci-fi franchise. But that’s not happening with the audience numbers they are drawing.

After less than two months, [ROH] lost its prime time slot of Destination America, as starting on 7/29, the show will only air at 11 p.m., between two airings of TNA Impact. Evidently, even as programming that DA isn’t paying for, they must not feel they are getting enough ad revenue for a prime 8 p.m. show. They don’t have a replacement as the next few weeks have different shows. Hunter Johnston told the talent at the tapings in Baltimore about it ahead of time, but said it was nothing to worry about, saying as far as he knows they are only being aired at 11 p.m. only for the next few weeks, although it could be permanent. There were people from Destination America at the tapings and they told him they were trying out a non-wrestling show for a few weeks, that nothing is changing, that Destination America likes them and had people at the tapings.

Regarding the concussion lawsuits, Judge Vanessa Bryant in Connecticut has consolidated the cases, which basically means that the lawsuits filed by Vito Lograsso, Evan Singleton, Ryan Sakoda, Matt Wiese and Russ McCullough are now all one. Additionally, the WWE lawsuits filed against Robert Windham (Blackjack Mulligan), Oreal Perras (Ivan Koloff), Thomas Billington (Dynamite Kid) and James Ware (Koko B. Ware) have also been consolidated into one suit.

Cena and Fox were both injured on Raw. Cena took a hard knee right to the nose in his main event match with Rollins. The knee knocked Cena silly and the doctor came out and talked with him, but Cena continued the match and ended the night with a crooked and partially displaced nose. He was taken to the hospital to see an ear, nose and throat specialist in Dallas but at press time no further word had been released. There are two forces at work here. The first is the mentality that SummerSlam is coming and guys like Cena in that position work through these things. The other is that Cena’s face is a big part of his marketability, both as a wrestling hero to kids and in his recent movie work. While having a crooked nose is fine for a guy like Barrett, it’s not so fine for Cena.

Small update to Cena's injury and why he's been pulled for a few shows. Turns out its not to recover from his injuries but the WWE doesn't want to market Cena at all if he looks different than usual. Same why they never bothered to show any images of Cena's role in the Trainwreck movie since it goes against his WWE image.

Monday's WWE Raw television show averaged 3.701 million viewers, according to Showbuzzdaily.com. Viewership was up from the 3.671 million average from last week. The first hour of Raw averaged 3.739 million viewers. Hour two drew 3.695 million viewers. The final hour of the show averaged 3.671 million viewers.