Danielson/ROH/WWE Situation, Backstage RAW/ECW Merger News

Source: The Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Ring of Honor has been pretty quiet regarding Bryan Danielson working the WWE Monday Night Raw taping on June 9 in Oakland, CA. The only thing ROH confirmed was that they gave him permission to work the taping and that was it. There was obviously more talk considering that Danielson got a pinfall victory over Lance Cade, a WWE contracted talent. As noted earlier, that doesn't happen in WWE unless they are have interest. Danielson is still under contract to ROH, so it will be interesting to see where this goes and how it develops.

As reported on earlier, upcoming WWE house show schedules starting in August are now listing the ECW brand on tour with Raw and Smackdown as having stand-alone events from that point forward. So, it appears plans are still underway to have the switch go down in late July or early August to tape ECW before Monday Night Raw. According to a reports, many backstage within WWE don't see moving the ECW brand over to Raw as a good thing because there is said to be a lot more tension on the night Raw tapes as opposed to on Tuesday night's when Smackdown tapes. The goal is to obviously put more exposure on the ECW brand with ratings at a level they clearly don't want.