[slik]

From this week's Observer

HHH: Generally speaking, after surgery to repair a torn pec, the recovery time is close to six months. John Cena came back in half the time, but he’s not human. HHH’s recovery time from his many injuries has been more normal. Six months puts it past WrestleMania, which was slated to have HHH vs, Batista as one of the top matches. Lesnar: Lesnar’s latest short-term contract was to expire with Crown Jewel. Roman Reigns was planned to win the three-way match over Lesnar and Braun Strowman, presumably pinning Lesnar, and Lesnar was to leave for UFC. In probably the first of several major changes after Vince McMahon found out that Reigns was suffering from leukemia, he backed up the Brinks truck and signed Lesnar to a new deal and made the decision for him to beat Strowman in Saudi Arabia and regain the title. It is believed that deal went down around 10/18. Terms of the deal have been kept secret. What is known is that this is another short-term deal. The deal does go through WrestleMania. How often Lesnar will be working on the new deal is unknown. He will be at Survivor Series facing A.J. Styles. He won’t be at TLC. It is not clear if he will be at Royal Rumble, but given they are doing a stadium show, he will probably be, and he has a planned match at WrestleMania. There is a significant angle that is supposed to be part of his storyline going forward. The deal includes wrestlers other than Strowman. Seth Rollins did mention his name on Raw. Drew McIntyre is clearly being groomed for a top run. UFC wants him on the 3/2 show in Las Vegas against Daniel Cormier. Is that advisable to work the Rumble in what would be the middle of a training camp? There is a clear risk of an injury, including a concussion, in a UFC fight that would be five weeks before Mania, where his match, just by the fact of his paycheck, would have to be considered one of the biggest events on the show. Shane: Unlike with Lesnar, this storyline has been long planned. It was meant to lead to a Shane McMahon heel turn, at least in its original form. Crown Jewel: The show drew a sellout of 16,000 fans at King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh. Most tickets were priced at the equivalent of $6.50 U.S. and sold out instantly. WWE TLC: WWE informed the SAP Center in San Jose that the main event for the TLC show on 12/16 has been changed from Strowman vs. McIntyre to Strowman vs. Corbin. ROH: The subject of ROH was brought up at the third quarter Sinclair investors call. CEO Chris Ripley was asked about spending on the promotion and said, “Beyond tennis, we really haven’t spent significant dollars on content, and Ring of Honor, I think, we bought it for a couple hundred thousand dollars. And we think that’s an unpolished gem that ultimately should be something in the same light as WWE. We actually sold out Madison Square Gardens for an event next year in 11 minutes. So, we know that that brand has potential. It’s just, it hasn’t, we haven’t quite found the right dials to turn yet. But we keep increasing the grass roots support on it and it has just a very very loyal and avid fan base which is what you really need to explode the brand.” That’s very interesting because the key players people bought tickets expecting for that MSG sellout are seemingly playing out their contracts right now and ROH being owned by Sinclair is still in more of a drivers seat with established TV and an established organization and a larger company backing them than New Japan. New Japan are their business partners anyway, and any third party other than WWE. “Being the Elite” seems to indicate those guys are not expecting to end up in WWE next year. If the goal is to grow it like WWE you can’t lose the most over talent and also have to get more aggressive as far as expanding all facets both on the talent and office side