Latest WWE news and notes

Here are some of the current goings-on in the world of WWE.

Since the last season ended, many have speculated on when WWE’s reality competition Tough Enough might return for another season. Host Steve Austin and trainer Bill DeMott have been lobbying for the show to get back up and running for another season, and it looks like it may be sooner than later. The official Tough Enough Twitter feed posted a message about WWEShop.com doing giveaways on TE merchandise, and DeMott himself stated the following on the micro-blogging site: “If I didnt know better, the band could be getting back together -just saying.

It looks like a storyline involving “instant replays” may be in the works. RAW GM AJ Lee mentioned how there are no replays in WWE, and that the company won’t be using them in the future. Any time something is pointed out like this, it’s done for a reason, and it means the company likely will be using them. Current reports are stating it is in regards to a specific match or angle, but the replays will not be used all the time.

WWE continues to push a deeper tag team division thanks to the efforts of Triple H and his new position in the company, and it certainly shows with more tag teams being featured every week, and testing the waters with new formations (such as Kidd and Gabriel’s “International Airstrike” team). While some were worried that this would cause the Divas division to get pushed to the side, reports are stating that is not the case, and Triple H has a very vested interest in rebuilding that division as well. As I reported earlier, Sara Del Rey has officially signed with the company, which is certainly a step in that direction.

On this week’s episode of Friday Night Smackdown!, Beth Phoenix will go one-on-one with Natalya. Surprisingly, despite their time together in the company and the accumulated experience of the two, this will be the first one-on-one encounter the former “Divas of Doom/Sisters of Salvation” have ever had.

During the Saturday Morning Slam tapings this week, current Smackdown! star Sin Cara wrestled and defeated a masked luchador going by the name of “El Local”. El Local is actually Alberto Del Rio‘s ring announcer Ricardo Rodriguez under a mask. For those that don’t know, Rodriguez is actually a trained wrestler himself, working the independent circuit prior to WWE as masked wrestler Chimaera. For quite a while, WWE has been talking about using Rodriguez more actively as a competitor, and this may be a sign that they are finally moving forward with that plan.

MMA Colt Toombs, the son of WWE Hall of Famer “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, has expressed interest in joining WWE down the road. Toombs is currently learning how to wrestle in addition to his MMA training, working with local legend Lynn Denton in Portland, Oregon.