I can see Benjamin and Haas reuniting, probably for Jersey All Pro Wrestling. Funaki and Katie Lea are probably headed back overseas. Mickie James is probably done with the wrestling biz for now, unless her album bombs and TNA makes her a good offer. Gordy is probably also done and might try to get into acting or something. If he wrestles again, it will be for a small indie. I would be incredibly surprised if Jimmy Yang doesn’t end up in TNA, probably in a tag team with Shannon Moore (again).

Out of the six, I think Shelton and Mickie are the biggest surprises (and the biggest mistakes). Shelton was never used right in my opinion. Eventually I hope he makes it to TNA because they have a better track record with elevating certain former WWE workers (like Elijah Burke, Ron Killings before he went back, Booker T before he decided he didn’t want to be there anymore, Elix Skipper who went from a nobody to one of the best tag team wrestlers in the country) and I think they could probably do wonders with him.

Mickie James could probably go to TNA if she wanted, but I don’t think she wants to. I know she has a country album out pretty soon and might just walk away from the business, but like I said she could go to TNA if she wanted.

Without an emphasis on women’s wrestling in WWE, I’m not surprised Katie Lea was gone so soon after Paul Burchill. I also don’t think that TNA will have much interest in her because she never had any blowaway matches in WWE (like Victoria was able to have on occasion) and she hasn’t been on TV in any meaningful way in months.

However, Melina pointed out in a tweet that any of these people could be rehired by WWE further on down the line. Possible, but I doubt it for most of them.

Host Derek Coward takes at look at WWE‘s TLC Pay Per View as well as the 2009 Slammy Awards.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSAbA5bJ5m4

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBp31jtygr4

Earlier I was on pwinsiderelite.com looking for PPV results for Summerslam when I saw something I think is a very interesting development. Ring of Honor has announced that Bryan Danielson has agreed to a contract with WWE and will be leaving the company after he fulfills his September obligations.

Danielson’s size notwithstanding, I think he is a no-brainer for the company. He knows the system because he was there before under a developmental deal; was talent for Heat and Velocity;  was trained by Shawn Michaels and William Regal;  has faced people like CM Punk, John Cena, Jamie Noble and Low-Ki (who is currently in WWE developmental); and has ties to Randy Couture’s gym.

Even though the WWE higher ups like to pay lip service to how they approach their brand of entertainment as making mini-movies, as MMA gains on them even more in terms of PPV, DVD sales and most importantly, mainstream mindshare, they will continue to co-opt a lot of what they think makes MMA so popular and just introduce worked finishes and spots. I think that is why they keep exchanging wins and losses in their midcard. If they want people to get to the point where they think wins and losses matter a lot less than the performance in the ring, then I think their brand of faux-MMA is what they are building towards. If they are going to go in that direction, then Bryan Danielson is the right person to bring in. He has a mixture of styles and a such a variety of finishers that none can really be called his signature move.

I only hope the people in charge don’t write him off as a vanilla midget and waste him. If given the opportunity to have the type of matches he can have (and I’m not talking about hour long iron man matches, but rather hard hitting matches with definitive finishes), then he won’t end up like Paul London, Brian Kendrick, Billy Kidman and a long list of smaller guys who are out of the company for no really good in-ring reason.

According to wwe.com, Ricky Ortiz has been future endeavored. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone except maybe Ricky and his family. I keep hearing that he had a lot of charisma when he was in developmental, but wasn’t ready to be brought up. The charisma he had down there must have stayed down there because it always seemed like he was missing that certain something but was trying to make up for it with boundless enthusiasm. He was a very enthusiastic young man and I think that if he was given more time to mature, he might have become a solid worker and could have been one those guys like Kane, Khali and Koslov who could be bumped up the card when a main eventer needed a transitional feud while waiting for his turn at the getting a title feud.

Once upon a time I could see them bringing him back if he did things like not slag on the company or take a job with TNA, but unlike someone like Chris Masters who was recently brought back, Ricky never got anywhere near a main event on Raw or Smackdown as far as I can remember and I don’t see the world clamoring for his return. He might end up like Bull Buchanan (who I really liked during his run with the company) and just be forgotten until you watch a battle royal he was in a few years from now and you barely recognize him.

I would recommend that Tyler Reks learn everything he can, do everything they tell him to do with a smile and not rock the boat too much, because he reminds me a LOT of Chuck Palumbo and Ricky Ortiz and might be joining them on the outside.