Drew McIntyre Returning On SmackDown?, Triple H Praises Lio Rush, WWE Releases WCW Lucha Pilot

By Marc Middleton

- Above is a clip from this week's WWE Network Hidden Gem edition, featuring matches from the WCW Festival de Lucha tapings in Waco, Texas on January 27, 1999. This pilot for Telemundo never aired, and features 9 matches with a runtime of just over 2 hours. The main event featured Rey Mysterio, Konnan, Silver King and Hector Garza vs. Chris Jericho, Norman Smiley, Lenny Lane and Johnny Swinger.

- Drew McIntyre is currently in Las Vegas for tonight's WWE Draft edition of SmackDown from the T-Mobile Arena. WWE announced earlier this week that McIntyre would be included in the Draft Pool that would make him eligible for selection on tonight's SmackDown, instead of Monday's RAW.

McIntyre, currently on the RAW roster, was backstage for last Friday's SmackDown FOX premiere but he did not appear. That was his first time being backstage in a few weeks now. It was noted last week that McIntyre was ready to return to the ring, but was still waiting on WWE doctors to clear him. There's no word yet on if he's been cleared for in-ring action. McIntyre recently underwent an operation to repair a lingering injury that came up after his recent promotional tour of Mexico. The idea was to get the surgery out of the way, so McIntyre would be ready for the fall TV push and the build to WrestleMania 36 season. It was speculated that he could be kept off TV until the Draft.

- Triple H took to Twitter earlier this week and congratulated new WWE NXT Cruiserweight Champion Lio Rush on his big title win. Rush defeated Drew Gulak to capture the title on this week's NXT episode.

Triple H wrote, "Congratulations @itsLioRush... #ANDNEW NXT Cruiserweight Champion. @WWENXT Pound for pound, No one better."

You can see the full tweet with backstage photo below:

Comments

Recommended