With all the talk about CM Punk & Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan) to AEW dominating the headlines the last few days... AEW silently made official a move that will bolster its women's division for years to come.

On Thursday... AEW announced that Thunder Rosa is now an AEW contracted wrestler... no longer a wrestler on loan from the NWA... meaning we can now get the Thunder Rosa/Britt Baker feud in earnest... as I'm sure most of us believed the only woman who would be able to take the AEW Women's World Championship off of Baker would end up being Rosa.

But back to the main stories of the week... AEW approached Daniel Bryan shortly after his WWE contract expired back in May about joining but nothing really got started then. Things really picked up the last few weeks... leading to the Wednesday report that Bryan had signed with AEW.

The talks between AEW & CM Punk seem to be a point where most believe the deal is either signed already or pretty much at the point of ready to be signed.

WWE had no interest in ever bringing CM Punk back... until the rumor winds of AEW started to blow... then there was some movement to maybe try and get him back but by then it was too late.

During the recent NXT tapings... the "Hardy" chants at Karrion Kross were so boisterous that the production crew had to run some kind of bait & switch in order to get the shots they wanted without the crowd yelling "Hardy" at Kross. Remember... the next 2 episodes of NXT TV will be on SyFy Network due to the Olympics... and thus why they were taped in advance.

"Back & Badder Than Ever" Braun Strowman merchandise just hit WWE Shop... furthering the expectations that he'll be back in WWE sooner rather than later. Yes... it's on sale but don't mind that. Strowman was released during the most recent round of financial cuts about a month ago and there had been talks of him potentially signing with AEW... but now all signs point to him returning to WWE.

Bray Wyatt's absence from TV may now be linked to a "medical issue". No word on what that issue is... but it better be healed soon b/c he is promoted for some upcoming TV shows.

Randy Orton is apparently on WWE's "disabled/inactive list". No word on why he's been moved off of active... but at least we're starting to find out things.

The hope is that Orton... like Wyatt... is back for the August 2nd episode of Raw which is in Allstate Arena near Chicago

Survivor Series is expected to be at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

It's a special dual-location edition of WWE Friday Night Smackdown tonight as most of the show will emanate from the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Ohio... while select matches will occur at the Rolling Loud hip-hop festival at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Fla.

Who else made news this week by coming back to wrestling after a long absence?? Oh yeah... John Cena. He'll be on the show tonight to start the promo battle in earnest for the SummerSlam Universal Championship match with the Head of the Table Roman Reigns.

Carmella isn't happy that Bianca Belair is allowed to use her giant arse braid as a weapon... so 'Mella gets a rematch tonight for the Smackdown Women's Championship against Belair in a match happening at Rolling Loud where surely the braid will not factor into the match whatsoever.

And after weeks of promos... former NXT UK Women's Champion Toni Storm will make her Smackdown debut tonight. Hopefully her debut goes better than Karrion Kross' debut or Keith Lee's return match on Raw.

Our new Down Under sensation... who apparently doesn't mind going down under no matter if you're male or female

This post was edited on 7/23/21 at 6:23 pm