[Emperor Smeat]

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SPOILER: show

Originally Posted by Observer The plans at this point are that neither Kevin Owens nor A.J. Styles will be champions going into WrestleMania. Smackdown has an Elimination Chamber match, meaning six guys will be in, so if John Cena wins the title at the Rumble, and that’s being teased (although they did downplay the tying of the Ric Flair record this past week), that doesn’t mean he’ll retain it in the Chamber match. The Mania lineup at this point is looking like Goldberg vs. Lesnar, Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns, HHH vs. Seth Rollins, Jericho vs. Owens, Wyatt vs. Orton, Show vs. Shaquille O’Neal and Charlotte vs. Bayley vs. Sasha Banks vs. Nia Jax as the Raw women’s title match. The key is the Rumble winner is likely, although they could swerve, to be the person who will challenge for either the Universal title or WWE title. Among the key guys, the obvious guys not on the list of matches are Cena, Styles, Balor, Dean Ambrose and Strowman of guys that will likely be in key matches. Cena vs. Samoa Joe was definitely an idea that was pitched, and made sense based on a few things we’ve heard, but we’ve never heard a confirmation on that. There are rumors of Styles vs. Shane McMahon, and Styles did complain about the idea of the Elimination Chamber match to Shane and neither have anything going. As noted before, Goldberg agreeing to stay past one match may have saved Lesnar from this year’s Shane program and Shane pitched for that idea and they had started in that direction before it was dropped cold. Undertaker vs. Reigns is notable because Vince McMahon made the call to go from the original Undertaker vs. Cena direction to this match. On paper, this would make it a lock that nobody is coming close to the boos Reigns will be getting on this show. Regardless of the outcome, this to me only makes sense if the plan is an all-out Reigns heel turn and use this as the springboard. Otherwise, the idea of Undertaker beating him and then endorsing him won’t work, because Daniel Bryan and Rock endorsed him and it didn’t work. Undertaker losing to him unless the match is dramatically perfect will only get him more heel heat.

Originally Posted by Observer The only Smackdown match on that list is Orton vs. Wyatt, and it’s not a secret that Wyatt was scheduled for a title run in 2017. That immediately puts both of them in contention, and if one wins, the other would be favored to win the Chamber match. There’s a story that just started going around about Orton winning the Rumble and Wyatt winning the Chamber match. If that doesn’t happen, it would be because plans changed. Even though historically the booking before Mania always gets out and it almost never changed (it changes for other reasons, such as injuries or guys quitting, but that’s usually known as well), with the increase in social media, my feeling is nothing is a lock until it happens. I doubt we’ll see major destination changes, in the sense the top of the card will probably be pretty close to as is slated now, but how to get there could change.

Spoiler tags used since they relate to possible Rumble and Mania plans and spoilers.

Originally Posted by Observer WWE is bringing the Royal Rumble back to Philadelphia next year. Though much of this week's focus is on Sunday's show at the Alamodome, Philly.com broke the news on Thursday morning that the 2018 Royal Rumble will take place at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The event will be held on January 28th of next year. In addition to the Rumble, the arena will also host three other WWE shows that week, with NXT TakeOver taking place on Saturday, Raw on Monday, and SmackDown on Tuesday. Holding four straight nights of shows in the same city is WWE's plan for their "big four" pay-per-views going forward.

Originally Posted by Observer With NXT TakeOver: San Antonio taking place this Saturday, Paul "Triple H" Levesque held his regular quarterly conference call ahead of the show with members of the pro wrestling media on Thursday afternoon. Despite TakeOver being the purpose of the call, much of the agenda was focused on WWE's United Kingdom Championship tournament and what restrictions contracted talents are facing. Levesque said that you can't say enough good things about the wrestlers in the tournament. He noted that working with them was a wonderful experience, and said he looks forward to working with them in a bigger way in the future, reiterating that a weekly show from the UK is WWE's goal. The topic of conversation quickly turned to what restrictions the newly signed wrestlers face after some have been pulled from appearances in recent weeks. "There's a lot of confusion based on that." Levesque said. "A lot of the confusion is based on people's refusal to acknowledge the reality of the situation. We signed talent as a part of this UK tournament and are looking forward to doing hopefully what will become a weekly show over there. The talent knew going in what the deal was, they knew what the restrictions were, and they knew what the restrictions weren't. We're not restricting them from working for anybody, as long as it's not distributed. As long as there is no distribution outside of the live event." Levesque said that some promotions came in after the fact to add a distribution component to their shows, which wasn't what their wrestlers signed up for. "We're not heavy-handing anybody," Levesque said. "We're asking them to approve. We're asking them to work with us, to work with the groups that are, and I was very clear about this when I was over there, we want to work with groups that are cultivating talent, not groups that are just coming in and one-offing talent" ... When asked about the differences in format between the UK tournament and Cruiserweight Classic, Levesque said that what works best depends on the goal of the tournament and what they're trying to accomplish. He expressed optimism in 205 Live, but noted that incorporating the cruiserweights has been a work in progress. He said that he still believes in the show and has high hopes for it, and likes the synergy between 205 Live and Raw ... Levesque responded to a question from Meltzer about EVOLVE star Matt Riddle by noting that they saw Riddle's talent when he previously tried out for the company. He referenced the issues that led to Riddle's exit from the UFC by saying that he believes in second chances, but said that people have to go through a period of time where they prove themselves. Without getting into the details, Levesque said that he helped nudge along the process to get Riddle taken care of and to a place where he could be cultivated as a wrestler. He said that Riddle was just promise during his tryout, but he's a talented kid and is doing very well. Levesque noted in the opening of the call that the build to this TakeOver was unique because of challenges presented by WWE's strategic changes that affected NXT's schedule.

Also revealed his plans for the Cruiser division is probably going to take a few years to be fully realized and become a big part of the WWE.

Originally Posted by Observer There will be an NXT Awards show on WWE Network prior to Takeover at 7 p.m. Saturday night.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE announced on NXT last night that TM-61's Shane Thorne underwent knee surgery and will be out 7-9 months.

Originally Posted by PWI Austin Aries will be getting his first WWE action figure as part of Mattel's WWE Series 71, which will also feature Charlotte, Undertaker, John Cena, Finn Balr, Baron Corbin and Seth Rollins. The Revival will receive their first action figures as part of WWE Battle Packs 41. They can pre-ordered now at www.ringsidecollectibles.com. You can use code PWINSIDER for 10% off your order.

Originally Posted by Observer There was a story going around that Brian James (Road Dogg) had replaced Ryan Ward as the head writer of Smackdown. The story is actually that James got a corporate promotion (the official title may be head consultant but we didn’t get the exact wording confirmed) , over Ward, but they are sharing the job of pitching Smackdown to Vince McMahon, who then rewrites it as he sees fit. James has been the guy reading the show to the other producers at the production meeting for some time now. So it’s not a major change in the show, nor are rumors Ward is no longer with the show correct, only that James got a promotion and would technically be above Ward in that way, but Ward is also still technically titled the lead writer of the show. James and Ward have essentially been co-head writer of the show since it started getting praised. James is considered Paul Levesque’s emissary on the show and to be one of the major power brokers going forward, particularly if and when Levesque does take over

Matey's Big Fred, Tugboat has been in hospital for 15 plus days and not doing well. He needs all the prayers from you guys so he can be out and about shaking hands and kissing kids. As you know he's a great guy and a good friend of mine. Pray matey's and God Bless Fred.

From Bushwhacker Luke's Facebook page in regards to Tugboat's health status. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater

Originally Posted by Observer Netflix is near landing the rights to the documentary, “Hulk Hogan, Gawker and Trials of a Free Press,” the documentary that focuses on the case. Netflix reported has offered $2 million for the worldwide rights to the film

Originally Posted by Observer Eric Van Wagenen’s appearance on the Masks, Mat and Mayhem show said that the long hiatus for Lucha Underground was not something they knew about when they were filming the season. That was clear watching the show, as on TV they were giving a hard push for Johnny Mundo vs. The Mack in an All Night Long match for likely “next week,” when next week isn’t coming until probably the summer. He said they weren’t told how long the break would be and they didn’t know when they would be back on the air. His guess was that it would be after the El Rey Network up fronts, so that Lucha Underground would be running when the fall TV season starts. But that came off more like a guess.

Originally Posted by Observer Dutch Mantell is officially back on the TNA creative team with John Gaburick and Matt Conway

Originally Posted by Observer Darren Young’s injury was a hyperextension of the right elbow which resulted in a traumatic dislocation of the coronoid process of the right elbow. In other words, he hyperextended, dislocated and broke his elbow in taking a bump against Epico on the 1/16 Main Event tapings in Little Rock

Originally Posted by Observer I’m not sure if its’ because of bad quarter hours, but there has been a doctrine in recent weeks to keep the cruiserweight matches on Raw much shorter. Even this week when Swann vs. Dar went 5:00, almost the entire match was during the commercial break

Some other sheet news includes:

• CBS Sports had a recent article about the first Royal Rumble in WWE history. http://www.cbssports.com/general/new...early-failure/
• During a recent episode of the Observer Radio show, Kenny Omega revealed he is staying with NJPW once his current deal ends next week. Also revealed it to be one year in length.
• According to the Observer, WWE has recently sold almost 40k tickets for the upcoming Royal Rumble and is currently on track to become the highest non-Mania ppv in WWE history in terms of gate revenue.
• WWE recently pulled Smackdown's 6-women tag match off Rumble's main card in favor of being on the 2 hour pre-show. At the moment, Smackdown only has one brand specific match on the card compared to 3 matches for RAW.
• According to the Observer, Jerry Lawler recently signed a new 1 year contract with the WWE.