– Bret Hart was under the weather for his WWE television return on the “season premiere” of Monday Night Raw in his hometown of Calgary, Alberta, Canada on September 9. It was up in the air going into the show whether or not he would be able to appear as advertised. By the time the show began, he made the decision to go ahead with the appearance as planned.
– Natalya also returned on Monday’s show, and it marked the first time she was behind-the-scenes at a WWE show since she inked a new multi-year contract with the company. It also ended one of the first two-plus month absences of her entire legendary career. She was not kept hidden backstage before the show to keep the surprise, and was present throughout the day at Scotiabank Saddledome with other members of the Hart Family.
– CM Punk had been planned to miss the September 9 episode of WWE Raw for some time. This explains why he was not at the show and possibly why the injury angle took place on last week’s show on September 2. As noted, Punk makes his return on next week’s WWE Raw on September 16 in Portland, Oregon.
– Internal sources within WWE have confirmed that SmackDown will remain two hours upon debuting on the USA Network this coming Friday night. There were rumors after WWE wrapped up their five-year run on FOX that SmackDown moving to the USA Network could see the show expanded to three hours.
– Senior writer for WWE, Alexandra Williams, was credited with writing the segment on the 9/9 Raw that featured Drew McIntyre, Wade Barrett and Adam Pearce. She was spotted backstage at the WWE Draft episode of Raw earlier this year with Stephanie McMahon-Levesque.
– To promote the announcement of the ticket pre-sale and general on-sale for WWE Survivor Series: WarGames on November 30 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on the 9/9 Raw show, WWE used the Black Sabbath and T-Pain version of the song “War Pigs.”
(H/T: Fightful Select)
