Monday news update #1: Must see match on TV, exclusive news on 24/7 heading to Europe, new Bash title match and more
- Raw is tonight with the final build for this Sunday’s Great American Bash PPV. We’ll have more on tonight’s show in a second daily update which will be posted at around 10pm BST (5pm Eastern).
- Jeff Hardy will be on ECW tomorrow night, teaming with his brother Matt to take on John Morrison and The Miz in a non-title match. Given that the show has been doing a 1.4 rating for the past couple of weeks, I think this week’s show may well creep above 1.5 given that they’ve announced this match in advance.
- WWE added Mark Henry vs. Tommy Dreamer for the ECW title to the card for the Bash over the weekend.
- We’ve got nothing concrete on in-depth on this yet, but from speaking to several sources over the past week or so, WWE 24/7 could debut in Europe sooner rather than later. One source told me late last week that there has been interest in the service being made available in France and Spain.
Spain would make huge sense given that wrestling in that country is huge right now - largely because they were starved of WWE tours for a number of years. The success that the NWE promotion has had this summer is largely because of that, but as NWE learnt in their home country (Italy), that interest soon fizzled out.
At a guess, if the service was to launch in either country, it would not be until early 2009 at the earliest. Whether WWE choose to hold on and see if Spain remains a hotbed remains to be seen, although it wouldn’t surprise me.
As previously noted, its unlikely 24/7 will reach the UK until 2010 at the earliest. That is when WWE’s current contract with Sky Sports is up for renewal, and I expect it to be a factor when contract talks take place.
With TNA programming now being made available in the UK on an “on-demand” basis with Virgin Media (Sky’s main UK competition who provide services via cable rather than satellite) and with Setanta Sports constantly looking to give its own subscriber base more value for money, I wouldn’t be surprised if a bidding war takes place. Nor would I be surprised if Sky offer WWE a less lucrative deal, unless ratings pick up.
For those of you in the UK, until things change, you can always catch Vintage Collection on Sky Sports on Sundays, which is well worth checking out.
- Devin Cutting sent word that the OVW website noted that the company’s ring crew were involved in an accident while travelling to a live event in Cincinnati, Ohio. The ring crew had a blowout causing the vehicle to lose control and flip over. All five in the vehicle walked away with minor scrapes and bruises. That could have been a lot worse.










