TPWW's Official Dirty Sheets News Thread [Archive] - Page 10?login=1

Emperor Smeat

10-05-2018, 09:23 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Stone Cold Becky Appreciation Day:
https://i.imgur.com/fNUVDTv.gif

Pete Dunne is currently dealing with a foot injury, though the extent of the injury isn’t known at this time.

It isn’t known when exactly the injury went down. He last wrestled on September 30, when he took on Ilja Dragunov at the Hello Wembley show from PROGRESS Wrestling. He was noticeably limping during the match, picking up the win. The injury isn’t expected to keep him out of action at next weekend's NXT tapings, according to Dave Meltzer.

Destiny Wrestling, a independent promotion out of Canada, said that he pulled out of wrestling there this coming weekend. He was also set to wrestle CIMA before the 9/30 PROGRESS show for the second night of Fight Club Pro’s Project Mayhem on 9/29. The match did not take place as scheduled, but did appear on the first night in a non-wrestling capacity.

The next set of NXT UK television tapings will take place at The Plymouth Pavillions in Plymouth, England on October 13 and 14.

Link: https://www.facebook.com/destinywrestlingshow

Indies Roundup:
MLW made a couple of announcements at last night's television tapings in Queens, New York. It was revealed that CMLL's Rush will be making his MLW debut this fall. When and where Rush will be debuting hasn't been announced.

MLW has announced a second show during WrestleMania Week at the Melrose Ballroom in Queens, New York. The promotion will be holding a Fusion television taping on Thursday, April 4th and have booked the venue the following night on April 5th with the return of “Battle Riot”.

Impact Wrestling has announced Matt Sydal & Ethan Page vs. Rich Swann & a mystery partner for Bound for Glory. The PPV is taking place at the Melrose Ballroom in Queens, New York on October 14.

Jeff Cobb vs. Eli Isom and Flip Gordon & Kenny King vs. The Kingdom (Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan) have been added to ROH Glory by Honor night one in Baltimore on October 12.

Already announced for Joey Janela’s LA Confidential include The Great Sasuke and a match between Hardcore Holly and Brody King.

This week’s viewership of Lucha Underground fell off a clip with a 43% drop from last week. This week’s episode did an all-time low for a first run episode with 51,000 viewers on the El Rey Network, down from 89,000 last week. The season will wrap on November 6th with a two-part Ultima Lucha special on the final two episodes.
MLW: https://twitter.com/courtbauer/status/1048036393556086784 , Impact: https://twitter.com/IMPACTWRESTLING/status/1048032526005129216 , Janela: https://twitter.com/JANELABABY/status/1048357963692478464

Impact Wrestling fell below 200,000 viewers for last night's episode.

The show averaged 190,000 viewers on Pop TV, down from last Thursday's 222,000. This is the second-lowest number that Impact has drawn in 2018, only ahead of the episode that averaged 168,000 viewers on August 9 ...

For a year-over-year comparison, the October 5, 2017 edition of Impact drew 251,000 viewers.

Super Show-Down airs live on the WWE Network at 5 a.m. Eastern time tomorrow morning. It’s listed as running from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m.

Liv Morgan spoke to The Mirror about being cleared for Super Show-Down: “"I'm 100% cleared by the WWE doctors. They took great care of me. They have a very extensive concussion protocol, which we followed 100% and luckily I am feeling fantastic and we are ready to win.”
Link: https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/other-sports/wrestling/liv-morgan-says-shes-100-13363500

WWE announced the following:

A few professors at Herzing University in Milwaukee might be surprised when one of their students shouts out, "Excuse me!" during a lecture this semester.

That's because former Raw and SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero has been named as one of the recipients of the 2018 WWE Talent Scholarships.

“I am honored,” Guerrero told WWE.com. “I’ve always considered WWE my second family, and for them to recognize that I have this dream of graduating and continuing my education has motivated me even more to keep continuing what I’m doing.”

Guerrero is currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree in science and healthcare administration at Herzing University and plans on graduating next summer.

Ronda Rousey & The Bella Twins vs. The Riott Squad

Liv Morgan has been cleared to compete and will be in the match. Most of the focus is on Rousey with The Bellas and whether they turn the Bellas or they simply win the match and leads to a challenge by Nikki. I prefer the former as The Bellas have played such obnoxious characters in every scene with Rousey that it seems to telegraph a turn. I don’t know if they go through with the actual turn on this show or save it for Raw, but there is a great tie-in with The Bellas causing Rousey’s first loss in the WWE in the same city where she had her first MMA loss in 2015 to Holly Holm.
Post Wrestling on the interesting tie in WWE could pull based on Ronda's past in MMA.

In the photo below, WWE SmackDown Women's Champion Becky Lynch headed to a mural of herself in Australia. Lynch also sent a message to WWE, "You keep me off your posters, your morning shows, and your magazines while the people put me on their walls." Lynch will be defending her title against Charlotte at tomorrow's event.

You keep me off your posters, your morning shows and your magazines while the people put me on their walls. #thechamp #boothewoo pic.twitter.com/QzJ8hH7skk
— Rebecca Quin (@BeckyLynchWWE) October 5, 2018
Link: https://twitter.com/BeckyLynchWWE/status/1048320951262146560

Vince McMahon remains at the head of the WWE creative crew, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, and gives the final say for everything on RAW and SmackDown. Ed Koskey is the lead writer for RAW and currently has the most creative input of anyone next to Triple H and Vince. "Road Dogg" Brian James and Ryan Ward are the head writers for SmackDown while Joe Belcastro is the lead writer for WWE NXT.

Dave Kapoor, who previously played the Ranjin Singh character on TV, is the show-runner or the Chief of Staff for creative. The other writers, for the most part, aren't at the meetings with Vince at WWE headquarters and only work with him at TV tapings.

The Observer adds that Vince usually just dictates what creative plans he wants and the writing team doesn't get a lot through to him, with a few exceptions.

While Taz was with WWE, he was asked by Vince McMahon to return to ECW to wrestle Mike Awesome for the ECW Championship. Awesome was the ECW Champion and had made a surprise jump from ECW to WCW while holding the belt. A deal was made for Awesome to make one appearance to drop the title.

It was the first time that there was a WCW contracted talent facing a WWE star for the ECW Championship. While Taz went on to defeat Awesome for the title, he revealed that he did not want to do the match.

"It was awesome, it was a lot of fun, but I didn't want to," Taz said. "I remember coming back from the road and I get a call on the phone from WWE, and Vince [McMahon] is one of the guys on the other phone, I was at the mall with my wife pushing my kid in a stroller.

"They're like 'hey, uh, Paul Heyman needs a little help', and I'm like 'what do you mean?' Vince was like 'hey look pal, they got a guy there who is holding the title hostage and I need you to go in there and help Paul and take the title from this Mike Awesome guy.'"
Came from a recent episode of The Apter Chat podcast show with Taz as the guest. https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-apter-chat/e/56361400

WWE is promoting the upcoming nWo reunion fan event with WWE Hall of Famers Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. This is not an event put together by WWE but it's interesting that they are promoting the show.

The "2 Sweet" event will take place on Saturday, October 27 in Orlando and will also feature a live recording of the "83 Weeks Podcast" on WCW with Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson.
Pretty much just a matter of time before Hogan is back on WWE tv based on WWE's recent actions. If the rumor about the upcoming Saudi show ends up being true, he's back by next month.

Some other sheet news includes:

WWE's website had a recent article ranking the Top 15 Greatest Wrestlers in Smackdown's history. https://www.wwe.com/inside/15-greatest-superstars-smackdown-history
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 21st anniversary of the passing of Brian Pillman. Today was also the 12th anniversary of the passing of Mexico's AAA founder Antonio Pena.
In another "WWE Did You Know" type fact, 9 out of the 26 stars shown in the official poster for WWE Super Show-Down will not be at the event based on its card. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/9lnder/9_out_of_26_stars_on_the_super_showdown_poster/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

Rumor: Nikki Bella Might Turn on Ronda Rousey (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/rumor-nikki-bella-might-turn-on-ronda-rousey/)
WWE: Riott Squad Get Matching Tattoos, New Year’s SD Live, 2002 Australia Show on Network (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/wwe-riott-squad-get-matching-tattoos-new-years-sd-live-2002-australia-show-on-network/)
Various: Ellsworth Intergender Match Added to Jericho Cruise, MLW Battle Riot II (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/various-ellsworth-intergender-match-added-to-jericho-cruise-mlw-battle-riot-ii/)
Big Cass Appears at Indie Show, Cuts a Promo About WWE Release (Video) (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/big-cass-appears-at-indie-show-cuts-a-promo-about-wwe-release-video/)

slik

10-06-2018, 08:04 PM

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">WWE has confirmed to myself (after the spot by <a href="https://twitter.com/ADThompson__?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ADThompson__</a>), that there has been a venue change for WWE Crown Jewel from King Fahd International to King Saud University Stadium</p>— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) <a href="https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1048723861875904515?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 6, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Seats 25,000 normally, so I imagine will be set up for 30-35,000?

Jordan

10-06-2018, 08:10 PM

Interesting turn.

Emperor Smeat

10-06-2018, 08:22 PM

Must be really low interest for the 2nd show considering the arena for the Greatest Rumble held almost triple the amount.

Then again, the main reason why the first show sold well was due to the government buying most of the tickets and giving them away I believe.

Jordan

10-06-2018, 09:43 PM

I don't know if they had more than 30,000 legit for the last one so I think this is a good. I think the card could be incredible if they let it be. Sure it will likely be hurt by the odd audience, you know if there are couches and shit and business meetings in the ringside.

Emperor Smeat

10-06-2018, 10:29 PM

It was around 60k but the arena holds 62k-68k for wrestling which is why there was a lot of empty space at ringside.

Even with WWE's habit of fluffing the numbers, probably was close to being legit as a number due to a mix of WWE not selling tickets directly to fans and government making sure the place was packed.

Emperor Smeat

10-09-2018, 10:11 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Random Big Show gif:
https://i.imgur.com/BIghXLS.gif

If there was some good news in the ratings, last night's Raw was up from the prior two weeks. The show averaged 2.37 million viewers, which would still be the third-lowest number of the modern era.

With the combination of the NFL, where a New Orleans Saints blowout over the Washington Redskins did 10.51 million viewers (a 20 percent drop from last week), and a Yankees vs. Red Sox baseball playoff game that did 4.41 million viewers, a record low could have been set ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.53 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.39 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.20 million viewers

We were informed that last night’s angle involving Bobby Lashley and Kevin Owens was done to explain Owens’ needing time off for knee surgery. It was conveyed to us that Owens is not expected to miss too much time, so it doesn’t appear to be a major injury. During the match, Lashley attacked Owens’ knee and then repeatedly wrapped it around the post after the match. This also saw Lashley turn heel and had been something that people with the company had been pushing for. For his part, Owens was received strongly by the Chicago audience as a babyface and it will be interesting to see how he is booked when he returns and if they opt to turn him or keep him in the heel role.

UPDATE: We were informed later in the day that while the hope is Owens’ knee surgery is minor, they won’t know the full extent of the injury until the knee is assessed. There is a possibility of the injury being more serious and could require a longer recovery time.

Commenting on a promo that she cut, Lynch mentioned that she’s working with a cracked jaw.
Link: https://twitter.com/BeckyLynchWWE/status/1049749796284747776

WWE uploaded a Raw fallout video where The Bellas explained the reason for the storyline where they attacked Ronda Rousey last night. Brie Bella accused Rousey of taking their spotlight, and Nikki Bella said they’re here to remind everyone that this is a “Bellalution.”

Rousey also continued the angle in a post on Instagram: “Dante’s Inferno says the innermost circle of hell is reserved for betrayers... That each of Lucifer’s three heads gnaw on the greatest sinners of human history .... Believe me, @thenikkibella @thebriebella you’ll prefer a relaxing break in the devil’s mouth over what’s coming for you at Evolution. #RondaVsBella #Evolution #WWEevolution”
Links: https://youtu.be/jy5MgaWEu9s & https://www.instagram.com/p/BouBt-MB31n/?taken-by=rondarousey

Indies Roundup:
Tracy Williams is the first participant announced for this year’s ROH Survival of the Fittest, where the winner will receive a future ROH title shot. This will take place on November 4.

OVW's 1,000th television show will air as an iPPV on FITE TV from Fourth Street Live in Louisville on Wednesday night. There will be an OVW title tournament that will include Billy Gunn, Abyss, Tommy Dreamer and Hurricane Helms, plus appearances by Jim Cornette, Danny Davis, Mick Foley, Al Snow, Ken Anderson, ODB and Lisa Varon.

Shingo Takagi was revealed as “X” and is the newest member of LIJ. Takagi got a big response when he unmasked prior to the eight-man tag. Takagi was the star of the match and pinned SHO with the Last Falconry. It appears that Takagi will be wrestling in the junior heavyweight division. Takagi had wrestled for Dragon Gate since 2004 and his background was acknowledged on the English broadcast today. Takagi recently decided to leave Dragon Gate and work as a freelancer with his final match with the promotion taking place last weekend.

A number of new faces and teams will take part in this year’s Super Junior tag league.

Unlike previous years, this year the winners will not be determined via a single elimination tournament. Instead, it will be a round robin tournament where eight teams compete in matches against one another. The two teams with the most points will face each other in the finals at Power Struggle.

The participants for this year’s tournament include:

IWGP Jr. tag team champions El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru
SHO and YOH from Roppongi 3K
Jushin Thunder Liger and Tiger Mask
Taiji Ishimori and Robbie Eagles
BUSHI and Shingo Takagi
KUSHIDA and Chris Sabin
ACH and Ryusuke Taguchi
Volador Jr. and Soberano Jr. from CMLL

Link with event dates and matchups for this year's tag league series: https://www.f4wonline.com/japan/njpw-reveals-full-super-jr-tag-league-lineup-267466

A Intercontinental title match will headline this year’s Power Struggle.

Chris Jericho will defend the Intercontinental title against EVIL. The two have had staredowns with one another before, but Jericho took it to a new level at King of Pro Wrestling when he jumped EVIL as he went to face Zack Sabre Jr. in a singles match. Jericho, who was wearing a druid outfit, attacked EVIL as he was entering the ring and left him laying bad enough that the match was ruled a forfeit.

A NEVER Openweight title match has also been announced, with new champion Taichi defending against Will Ospreay, who scored a big win over Taichi at King of Pro Wrestling, and intends on capitalizing on his momentum by taking Taichi’s title ...

Power Struggle will take place on November 3 at the Osaka Prefectural Gym. Here is the card announced thus far:

Chris Jericho vs. EVIL for the IWGP Intercontinental title
Tetsuya Naito vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Taichi vs. Will Ospreay for the NEVER Openweight title
Hiroshi Tanahashi and David Finlay vs. The Golden Lovers
Kazuchika Okada and Beretta vs. Jay White and Bad Luck Fale
Finals of the Super Jr. Tag League 2018

Add Lacey Evans, Mia Yim, Rhea Ridley and Kacy Catanzo to the list of WWE NXT talents who will be at the 10/28 WWE Evolution PPV in Long Island, NY. There is no word yet on what their role, if any, will be at the show. As we reported yesterday, Bianca Belair, Io Shirai, Jessamyn Duke, Candice LaRae, Dakota Kai and Marina Shafir are also slated to be at the PPV. With so many NXT talents scheduled, I have to wonder if they are doing a Battle Royal on the undercard of the show.

On WWE's website, it lists that Network Collections for Sasha Banks and Rey Mysterio are slated to come to the streaming service. Usually, the site lists upcoming Collections for the next month but this just says "coming soon". So there's a possibility with Mysterio's return at Smackdown 1000 and the upcoming Evolution pay-per-view that these may come before the end of the month. Much like the Curt Hawkins and Undertaker versus Triple H in September.

ITV Studios Global Entertainment is working to license the World of Sport Wrestling product and will be exhibiting at the forthcoming Brand Licensing Europe convention.Grad

Promotional material from ITV Studios notes that seasone one odf the series, produced by ITV Studios Entertainment, debuted to more than 1 million viewers in the UK, "making it the highest-rated British wrestling show in 30 years" ...

While there has been no official word on a second season, the promotion has announced a seven event live tour for January and February 2019 in the UK and with ITV moving forward with seeking out licensing partners, there are signs that the project will continue:

EXCLUSIVE NEW NAMES ANNOUNCED FOR THE WOS TOUR!@WillOspreay @Kay_Lee_Ray @joeshendry @Robbie_X_ @Nathan_Cruz90 @Shasamuels will all be appearing!
Get your tickets now!! https://t.co/lzKnZsh9cm pic.twitter.com/BWVW7PAyws
— WOS Wrestling (@WOSWrestling) September 22, 2018
Link: https://twitter.com/WOSWrestling/status/1043545464430161920

World Wrestling has continued their recent strategy of filing trademarks on names related to older material.

As PWInsider.com broke lasr week, the company has filed trademarks on several WCW-related titles as well as All Star Wrestling.

On 10/4, WWE filed a trademark on the name "World Class Championship Wrestling", the promotion owned by Fritz Von Erich in the 1980s. On 9/27, the company had filed a trademark on the term "WCCW."

Rey Mysterio recently filed for two trademarks related to merchandise use - G.M.O.A.T. and The Greatest Mask of All Time. As noted, Rey recently signed a two-year deal with WWE and has been announced for next Tuesday's SmackDown 1000 episode from Washington, DC.

As seen on RAW last night, WWE announced that the Alexa Bliss vs. Trish Stratus and Mickie James vs. Lita scheduled singles matches for the WWE Evolution pay-per-view have been nixed. The two bouts have been combined into a tag team match with Alexa & Mickie vs. Trish & Lita.

The plan was reportedly always for it to be a tag team match, according to Dave Meltzer on the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio. Meltzer said that WWE had announced the Stratus vs. Bliss match to boost ticket sales early on, since they didn't want to announce the Ronda Rousey vs. Nikki Bella match until they shot the angle for it. Once Bella vs. Rousey was announced, they felt that they could publicly change the Stratus vs. Bliss match to a tag team bout.

WWE has a new poll asking fans which RAW tag team should be next in line for a RAW Tag Team Title shot from Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre. As of this writing, 63% voted for The Authors of Pain while 23% voted for The Revival and 14% voted for The B Team.

At Super Show-Down, Melbourne's own Buddy Murphy won his first-ever WWE singles championship, as he defeated Cedric Alexander to become the Cruiserweight Champion ...

Following his Cruiserweight Championship win, Murphy shared his thoughts on the emotional moment on Instagram.

A long, long road! When I was on the verge of closing a chapter, I seeked out the light! Taking 1 opportunity, creating a second... to 70,000 people standing up, cheering for a guy as he lived out his dream! To all those people who said I would be back in Australia after 3 months of leaving for the USA... who's laughing now! It doesn't end here! #205live will be seen by the world! And people will realize where the Best of the Best are located on a Wednesday night!

As a result of his win at Super Show-Down, Murphy is the first Australian wrestler to ever win a singles title in WWE history.

Some other sheet news includes:

In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today would have been Eddie Guerrero's 51st birthday.
Recent episode of the Sitting Ringside podcast show had Impact Wrestling boss Ed Nordholm as the guest. Nordholm revealed Anthem Entertainment seriously considered shutting down Impact last year and felt Jeff Jarrett screwed them with the deal to buy the company. https://twitter.com/TrevorDame/status/1049516223073931264

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

EVOLVE: Mustafa Ali Wrestling for EVOLVE, Championship Tournament, WrestleMania Weekend Details (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/evolve-mustafa-ali-wrestling-for-evolve-championship-tournament-wrestlemania-weekend-details/)
WWE: WWE Says Kevin Owens Is “Injured,” Cena on Daily Show, NXT UK TV Show Update (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/wwe-wwe-says-kevin-owens-is-injured-cena-on-daily-show-nxt-uk-tv-show-update/)
Matt Hardy Releases a Broken Hardys Halloween Special Teaser (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/matt-hardy-releases-a-broken-hardys-halloween-special-teaser/)

Emperor Smeat

10-10-2018, 09:37 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Austin's work beercase:
https://i.imgur.com/LJmpZmS.gif

Rumor going around the net hints at the Four Horsewomen MMA making their debut at this month's Evolution event in order to set up the long rumored MMA vs WWE Horsewomen match at Survivor Series.
Spoiler tag used since its related to rumored plans for Evolution and Survivor Series.

SmackDown ratings were up two percent this week, coming in at 2.135 million viewers. That tied the June 26 episode for the third-lowest number so far in 2018 ...

After starting the year up from 2017 totals more often than not, the show has now had a year-over-year drop in 20 of the last 21 weeks.

Ahead of him returning to the company, WWE is advertising Rey Mysterio for his first set of appearances. He’ll return on SmackDown 1000 next week and face Shinsuke Nakamura in a World Cup qualifying match. He’s also advertised for:

Hartford, Connecticut -- October 20 (house show)
Boston, Massachusetts -- October 21 (house show)
White Plains, New York -- October 22 (house show)
Newark, New Jersey -- October 23 (SmackDown episode)
Atlanta, Georgia -- October 30 (SmackDown episode)
Cardiff, Wales -- November 3 (house show)
Aberdeen, Scotland -- November 4 (house show)
Birmingham, England -- November 5 (house show)
Manchester, England -- November 6 (SmackDown episode)

Link: https://www.wwe.com/worldwide/article/rey-mysterio-returns-full-time-wwe?sf199706494=1

WWE Network News is reporting the following pieces of the content in line with Hispanic Heritage Month will be this week's Hidden Gems selection that will be added to the streaming service tomorrow:

WWWF @ MSG 08/01/1977 – Unpredictable Greatness
WWE Hall of Famers square off at The World’s Most Famous Arena when ‘The Unpredictable’ Johnny Rodz battles Carlos Colon.

WWE 01/08/1992 – The Art of War
Lucha legend Konnan makes a rare WWE appearance as Latin Fury when he takes on the former partner of Eddie Guerrero, ‘The Juicer’ Art Barr.

WWE Super Astros 11/22/1998 – When Stars Align
Before becoming an ECW and WWE mainstay, Super Crazy performed as Super Loco against El Hijo del Santo in this bout from Super Astros.

OVW 11/20/2002 – The Heat Comes to OVW
Latino Heat Eddie Guerrero makes his presence felt in his one and only OVW appearance when he takes on Nova in this match from 2002.
Link: https://www.wwenetworknews.com/2018/10/10/exclusive-this-weeks-wwe-hidden-gems-additions-revealed-four-new-uploads-coming-from-wwwf-to-ovw/

Kane (Glenn Jacobs) and Tom Prichard are opening a wrestling school in January 2019
Link: https://twitter.com/drtomprichard/status/1049828296039501827

Indies Roundup:

During a Twitch stream, Kenny Omega said he’s working with a fractured rib.

Marty Scurll is the second wrestler to be confirmed for ROH’s Survival of the Fittest tournament in Columbus, Ohio on November 4. It was announced yesterday that Tracy Williams will make his ROH debut in the tournament.

Cody Rhodes vs. Kenny King, Sumie Sakai, Madison Rayne & Jenny Rose vs. Britt Baker, Karen Q & Kelly Klein, and Jeff Cobb vs. Shane Taylor have been added to ROH’s TV tapings at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia on Sunday.

AXS TV announced that Women of Wrestling’s premiere episode will air on Friday, January 18..

Nick Gage vs. Joey Ryan is set for Joey Janela’s LA Confidential on November 16, which is the Friday of Survivor Series weekend.

MLW is planning to hold a television taping on February 2nd over Super Bowl weekend. They have not announced a location for the taping but stated that Tom Lawlor will be challenging for the MLW title on the show.

Omega: https://clips.twitch.tv/DarkPuzzledAlbatrossDBstyle , ROH: https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/scurll-competes-world-championship-opportunity-columbus , WoW: http://www.axs.tv/press_articles/jeanie-buss-wow-women-of-wrestling-makes-its-debut-on-axs-tv-jan-18/ , Janela: https://twitter.com/GCWrestling_/status/1050075354285641729

A number of independent promotions have announced they will be joining a "Collective" of events being held in Jersey City, NJ, right outside of NYC over Wrestlemania 35 weekend in April 2019.

Game Changer Wrestling, CHIKARA, Cleveland's Absolute Intense Wrestling, Pittsburgh's Black Label Wrestling and Canada's Inter Species Wrestling have all announced plans to run that weekend at White Eagle Hall.

More details, lineups and ticket information will be announced in the weeks to come.

Following an arraignment hearing this morning in Orange County, Florida, a trial date of 1/14/19 was set for Adam Birch aka Joey Mercury in one of the two current criminal cases against him in the Sunshine State.

In this case, Birch has beeng acused of allegedly using a credit card belonging to the victim to acquire $300 around 4/28. There were two incidents which Mercury was allegedly involved in, both on 4/8. The first incident took place, according to court records, in the Area of 1201 N. Lakemont Ave in Winter Park, FL between 9 AM to 1 PM and the second in the area 430 N. Orlando Ave., Winter Park, FL, between 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm.

Birch has been charged with Fraudulent Use or Possession of Personal Identification Information, Fraudulent Use of a Credit Card to obtain more than $100 in value, Grand Theft Third Degree and Petit theft.
More details: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/120870/joey-mercury-legal-update.html?p=1

NXT TV is taping this weekend in Plymouth, Great Britain. If anyone is attending, we are seeking spoiler reports. Wrestletalk in the UK has reported there is an expected TV deal to be announced for the NXT UK brand tomorrow. The company had been in talks and had pitches to a number of TV broadcasters in the market including ITV, Channel 4 and BT Sport based on the idea that it would be the company's first local content offering, made in the UK with UK talents for the UK, including Nigel McGuinness as the host. At one point, there were plans to brand the potential series King of the Ring as well.

Ed Nordholm of Impact Wrestling was a guest with David Penzer on the Sitting Ringside podcast to promote this Sunday’s Bound for Glory card. The interview featured Nordholm going through the past two years overseeing the company since Anthem’s purchase of the company and taking control at the start of 2017. The most interesting note was his assertion that the darkest period occurred in August and September 2017. During this period, Nordholm stated they had to make a lot of hard decisions whether to continue with the operation of the company and was not prepared to throw good money after bad. If you recall, Justin Barrasso of SI.com reported that Anthem was considering selling in September 2017. At the time, Nordholm went on Wrestling Observer Radio to deny the sale talk, which publicly he had to do, but regardless this new revelation validated Barrasso’s report at the time.

Nordholm stated in the interview with Penzer that last year’s Bound for Glory was a “watershed” for the company that they needed to get through that show and after that make a concrete plan for the next steps to be taken. This eventually led to the hiring of Don Callis to work with Scott D’Amore as executives, which Nordholm said in the interview was his biggest success citing their common view of the product.

More details from the recent interview Nordholm had on the Siting Ringside podcast show. Link to those interested: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/sitting-ringside-with-david-penzer/id1247126546?mt=2

After it was revealed last week that Michelle McCool will appear at SmackDown 1000, it looks like she has plans on wrestling at WWE Evolution as well.

The former WWE women's champion posted a wrestling training video of herself today on Instagram with the hashtag "#evolution."
Link: https://www.instagram.com/p/BowiuuJBVYB

WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair tweeted the following on last night's SmackDown opener between Charlotte Flair and SmackDown Women's Champion Becky Lynch. The match ended in a double count out and the two will now do battle in a Last Woman Standing match at WWE Evolution.

Unbelievable Championship Match! So Proud Of You Both! WOOOOO! @MsCharlotteWWE @BeckyLynchWWE pic.twitter.com/w7UwJO0uYZ
— Ric Flair® (@RicFlairNatrBoy) October 10, 2018
Link: https://twitter.com/RicFlairNatrBoy/status/1049823125867773953

The WWE Stats Twitter account noted that Big Show was the only Superstar to compete on SmackDown's first episode in 1999 and the 999th episode this week. Show lost to Randy Orton in the main event this week, which was a World Cup qualifier. No word yet on if Show will be appearing at SmackDown 1000 next week.

Some other sheet news includes:

In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, yesterday's Women's title match on Smackdown broke a WWE record for longest non-PPV women's match in WWE history at 23 minutes.

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

WWE: Chris Jericho Says “No Thanks” Re: Crown Jewel, John Cena on Tonight Show (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/wwe-chris-jericho-says-no-thanks-re-crown-jewel-john-cena-on-tonight-show-videos/)
Edge Officially Announced for SmackDown 1000 (Updated Lineup) (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/edge-officially-announced-for-smackdown-1000-updated-lineup/)

Mr. Nerfect

10-11-2018, 06:10 AM

Jesus Christ, who writes Ronda Rousey's tweets for her? Quite intense.

Kane and Prichard's school should be called "The Dentist and the Doctor."

Emperor Smeat

10-11-2018, 09:31 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Random Rasslin gif:
https://i.imgur.com/8VdSpPj.gif

The first four wrestlers have been confirmed for this year's Survival of the Fittest tournament.

Ring of Honor announced Andrew Everett and Jonathan Gresham for Survival of the Fittest today. They join Tracy Williams and Marty Scurll in the lineup for the one-night tournament, which will take place in Columbus, Ohio on November 4 and air live on HonorClub ...

This will be the first time Everett has wrestled for ROH since 2015. Last month, Everett announced that he had been granted his release from Impact Wrestling. He thanked the company for the opportunities he received there and noted that he felt he needed to test the waters in free agency.

As Dave Scherer and I discussed on this week's edition of The We Don't Need No Name Show, the timing of the WWE event on 11/2 in Saudi Arabia has come under additional scrutiny following the disappearance of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian national who had been critical of aspects the country in his writing and reporting.

Khashoggi, who was in Turkey at the time, entered a Saudi Arabian consulate to pick up paperwork that would allow him to re-marry and hasn't been seen since ... The Washington Post has reported that Turkish officials believe that Khashoggi was murdered, possibly during an attempt to kidnap and spirit him back to Saudi Arabia that went wrong ...

Several other American companies who have events with ties to Saudi Arabia have canceled or postponed events, including The New York Times. With WWE receiving a huge payday froim the Kingdom in exchange for running events there (which have including promotional videos touting how progressive the regime has become, including allowing women to drive), there has been a spotlght on WWE to see how they will handle the 11/2 event, which is their second event in the country as part of a ten year agreement.

WWE issued the following response to queries about the event and the situation: “We are currently monitoring the situation."
AKA "We won't do shit since $40 million per year/event > people's online complaints." Also a woman shown in a WWE ad at Greatest Royal Rumble hyping up Saudi government's plans for human rights progress was later arrested as part of a crackdown against activists. https://twitter.com/VillainessHavoc/status/1050516957760499712

BOOM! Studios issued the following:
BOOM! Studios Announces WWE: FOREVER

LOS ANGELES, CA (October 11, 2018) – BOOM! Studios and WWE today announced WWE: FOREVER #1, an all-new, over sized, one-shot special featuring action-packed stories of the greatest WWE Legends on-sale in January 2019.
More details: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/120899/new-wwe-forever-comic-special-to-focus-on-legends.html?p=1

Indies Roundup:

Ring of Honor has announced there will be a Women of Honor tag team match at Glory By Honor: Coming off of her defeat of Tenille Dashwood at Death Before Dishonor, Women of Honor World Champion Sumie Sakai feels like the newly minted addition of the word World to her Championship has been validated. In her first match since her victory, Sumie has signed to team up with the returning Dr. Britt Baker, DMD to take on two former proteges eager to test themselves in Jenny Rose and Stella Grey!

MLW TO DEBUT IN MIAMI WITH DECEMBER 13 & 14 FUSION TV TAPINGS; TICKETS ON SALE 10/19 at 10 A.M. December 13th’s event is the second MLW: Never Say Never show while the December 14th event is entitled MLW: Zero Hour.

Impact announced a deal with Kings Highway Media, LLC to assist and expand video and content distribution across all platforms. King Highway Media is the company headed by Andrew Whitaker, who headed running all international territories for WWE for years.

Pro Wrestling Revolver on 10/20 in West Des Moines, IA at the Val Air Ballroom with a Cage of Horrors match with Sami Callihan & Jake & Dave Crist & Larry D vs. Matthew Palmer & Shane Strickland & Jason Cade and a mystery partner, plus Walter vs. PCO, Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz vs. Mat Fitchett & Davey Vega vs. Dustin Rayz & Aaron Williams, Rich Swann vs. David Starr vs. Trey Miugel, Colt Cabana vs. Jake Manning, Jimmy Jacobs vs. JT Dunn, Marko Stunt vs. Ace Romero and more.

Tessa Blanchard comes to Australia for a three-way with Savannah Summer and Xema on 10/24 in Sydney for Future Wrestling Australia.

WWE Network News is reporting that 10 more episodes of the original WWE Main Event episodes from 2012-2013 will be hitting the streaming service today. It looks like WWE may be trying a new strategy when it comes to the Classic Content drops for the month. Instead of dropping all the episodes before the beginning of the month they may be doing a steady weekly rollout all throughout the month. Enticing new viewers not to be overwhelmed with the glut of content at one time.

Don Callis looks like he won’t be back as an [NJPW] announcer. Lanny Poffo was at first said to be the replacement but we’re told at this point that right now that’s just a name out there and at this point is to be a one-time deal. The idea right now is to have a rotation of color commentators through the end of the year ... Callis wasn’t called for the KOPW show and hasn’t been called about any future dates, nor has he been told he’s no longer being used so he’s really in limbo.

This came after timing of Impact work and tapings didn’t allow him to do the last three days of G-1. Those in Japan are going with the idea his schedule won’t allow him to be back, so this could be a communications issue that still could change. He wouldn’t be able to go back as frequently due to his Impact duties but probably could do four to five big shows a year. It’s notable because Callis was the guy who helped put together the Jericho vs. Omega match at last year’s Tokyo Dome that led to the big increase in attendance and even bigger increase in New Japan World subscriber numbers ...

The name Jim Ross has been talked about for the Tokyo Dome, with the idea of using the live feed on AXS rather than going in studio and voicing it over. The Tokyo Dome is on a Friday this year so they could do the show on AXS live in the middle of the night (they had done New Year’s Eve MMA and kickboxing shows live on the station from Japan) or go in the regular time slot on a 17 or 18 hour tape delay.

David Arquette is filming a documentary around his return to wrestling. He has put up a wrestling ring in his backyard and practices constantly. He lost 50 pounds getting in shape for this run and he has wrestlers over his house all the time to teach him. He’s also amazed that after all this time, there are still people mad at him personally about the WCW title run ... Whenever he’s on the road, he looks to see if there’s an independent show in the area he can attend. He’s trying to do as many indie dates as his schedule allows

Regarding the note about New Japan guys talking about coming to Impact, there was more than New Japan contracted wrestlers who had interest in working here between tours who were told that New Japan didn’t want them doing that.

WWE stock had a terrible weak, falling to $80.18 per share at press time on 10/10, giving the company a $6.252 billion market value, meaning it lost well over a billion in value over the past week ... It fell to around $86 based on an analysis piece, and the drop lower was a combination of that piece but more the overall big drop of the stock market that took place on 10/10. The analysis piece was by Dan Victor of CFA where he believed the stock was overvalued and basically thought the big run up was a bullish euphoria based on the TV deal. He said that the big TV deal masked a lot of weakness that people aren’t seeing ... He noted the bull case for greater growth is based on the idea that the move to FOX will lead to a new growth among the fan base, meaning more fans going to shows and buying the network because of placement on the bigger platform ...

He said that’s a stretch and he doesn’t buy it. It is unproven, just as it’s unproven how Smackdown will do on Fridays ... In theory, moving to FOX should raise the audience 22 percent based on new homes and slightly more based on being on a bigger station with a higher base audience. But, a move from Tuesday to Friday is going to cause a big drop ...

So after the first few week honeymoon where the shows will be promoted like crazy and they’ll no doubt do loaded shows, when they level off, anything above 2.14 million would be the value of FOX over USA. Those 3.3 million to 3.5 million weekly predictions for FOX that they’d get 52 weeks a year with WWE in that time slot are looking very ambitious right now ...

But the idea of FOX leading to a new growth period, we thought that with UFC. Its ups and downs in popularity over seven years was not FOX as much as creation of the larger-than-life stars that bring in a new audience, something WWE hasn’t done well at for a long time.

Regarding NXT, there are several different people in charge of running the house shows. Matt Bloom runs the shows near Orlando. Steve Corino runs the shows in Florida that are farther from Orlando since Bloom’s main job is running the Performance Center. Michael Hayes books the outside of Florida tours and he’s the one who also decides which talent works those shows so the main headquarters are running those events

While nothing is imminent, there is talk of opening up different Performance Centers in different parts of the world. U.K. and Saudi Arabia are high on the list and there are other places considered as well, including Japan, which surprises me since WWE really isn’t that popular in Japan as compared with other countries, but Japan culturally for a number of reasons does develop some great pro wrestlers and it’s not just New Japan but across the board, both men and women seem to adapt quickly to it

Paul Levesque was on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and talked about men vs. women and intergender matches that got a lot of comments. Right now the company’s thoughts seem to be that it’s okay for a women to get offense on a man, whether in a mixed match for a spot, or in an angle, but not the other way around as far as physical. I don’t think the portrayal of a man hitting or kicking a woman right now will do WWE any favors, and clearly, they don’t either ... Obviously other companies have different ideas but the other companies don’t have the same level of sponsors nor play before more casual audiences. Levesque said that they can do it as a shock moment and a spectacle moment but he feels women don’t need a man to make them successful or to give them credibility.

Lawler was in TMZ noting that he was inundated with hate mail after a photo was shown of him at a Donald rally in Mississippi on 10/2. Lawler was sitting behind Donald at the rally where the President mocked Christine Blasey Ford, which got tons of mainstream news. He said he was asked by some people to attend, he went and got hate mail. He said he wasn’t going to see Donald, the president, but Donald the WWE Hall of Famer
Probably doesn't help he's been showing bigoted and misogyny-like views on both social media and his podcast in recent times adding to the growing hate people have for him.

The current state of New Japan Pro Wrestling has been a hot topic of discussion amongst pro wrestling as of late. On the last episode of Wrestling Observer Radio this morning, Dave Meltzer touched on the current backstage morale in NJPW.

According to Meltzer, "There is a lot of unrest, everyone is unhappy." Apparently much of the unrest comes from the fact that NJPW is under new management. Toy magnate Harold Meij was brought on as the new NJPW President this summer.

The new management, while excellent businessmen, do not appear to be wrestling people. Before Meij came in to power the feeling backstage was reportedly that NJPW was doing great. Their business was up, the roster was, "very prideful of their work," and they were making in-roads into the US market.

Meltzer went on to note that it's not just Meij, or new GM Michael Craven, that have rubbed the roster the wrong way. It's many members of the new management. He went so far as to say that, "A lot of people that you wouldn't even think about leaving are thinking about it. People who I knew who were considering absolutely staying are questioning that commitment."

It looks like Sasha Banks could be returning to the ring in time for the first-ever all-women's WWE Evolution pay-per-view on October 28.

The WWE website currently has Banks advertised for the live event in Portland, Maine on Saturday, October 20.

Banks is not advertised for any other live events that weekend, including the WWE Supershow that Saturday in her hometown of Boston. She is advertised for that Monday's RAW in Providence, Rhode Island but only by the arena and it appears to be a dated listing ...

Banks has been advertised for Evolution since the event was announced but the current listings appear to be dated. It's worth noting that the WWE website does not have Banks listed on the Evolution event page but she is still featured on some of the promotional graphics.

Some other sheet news includes:

PWInsider's Mike Johnson recently debunked rumors of Vince McMahon purposely sabotaging Asuka's career in the WWE due to his distaste for her lack of English. Rumor was attributed to a recent PWI Elite show which did not include anything about the Vince-Asuka situation. https://twitter.com/MikePWInsider/status/1050399144114819072
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today would have been Dusty Rhodes 73rd birthday. Other notable birthdays celebrated today include Ricochet (30) and Taz (51).
Recent episode of the Women's Wrestling Weekly podcast show had former MYC and NXT star Zeda as the guests and one of the topics discussed included how WWE set up her and others to fail as part of their plans to cater to certain markets. https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2018/10/former-myc-competitor-zeda-zhang-talks-restrictions-wwe-put-646543/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

Chelsea Green (FKA Laurel Van Ness) Training at WWE Performance Center (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/chelsea-green-fka-laurel-van-ness-training-at-wwe-performance-center/)
Why WWE Turned Bobby Lashley Heel (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/why-wwe-turned-bobby-lashley-heel/)
Kevin Owens Reportedly Expected to Be Out for 4-8 Months With Knee Injury (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/kevin-owens-reportedly-expected-to-be-out-for-4-8-months-with-knee-injury/)
Weekly NXT UK Show Starts on the WWE Network Next Week (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/weekly-nxt-uk-show-starts-on-the-wwe-network-next-week/)

erickman

10-12-2018, 01:51 AM

wow looks like njpw is about to lose a bunch of talent now they boot don. I don't think jr will travel that much so he won't help much.

Mr. Nerfect

10-12-2018, 02:55 AM

Thank god, Don Callis is an awful announcer. He reminds me of Kevin Nash. Witty guy in a certain context, but when it goes to putting it into practice...yikes. Impact is doing worse since he's come around, I believe (despite people on here that are determined to say it is good), and his commentary makes him sound like they got a smark and put them in the booth and told them to act like a "cool heel."

A bit surprised to hear that about backstage turmoil in New Japan. Harold Meij sounds like a genius in everything I've read about him. Like an actual genius and not an Eric Bischoff genius. So rare to hear anything "heel" coming in about New Japan.

slik

10-12-2018, 12:01 PM

Simple Fan

10-12-2018, 12:35 PM

slik

10-12-2018, 01:38 PM

Some twitter insiders reporting Sponsors (like Snickers) are starting to 'put heat' on WWE to cancel Crown Jewel. If they cancel most matches will be moved to Survivor Series.

Vince is said to 'not want to cancel' via $$$$$$$$$ but some in company are saying to listen to the sponsors and this is 'very bad pr' for WWE.

Also if they do cancel Vince wants to make sure the SA government knows WWE pledges allegiance to them still for future shows.

A decision will be made this weekend likely.

owenbrown

10-12-2018, 01:38 PM

slik

10-12-2018, 02:11 PM

I bet they cancel this one (but keep all the rest)

slik

10-12-2018, 02:30 PM

Story starting to get more attention by national media...

Sponsors going to get more annoyed...

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tensions with Saudi Arabia could put a multi-million dollar deal for live WWE events in jeopardy. <a href="https://t.co/IdJUlVcW16">https://t.co/IdJUlVcW16</a></p>— CNBC (@CNBC) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNBC/status/1050749044526583808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 12, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

slik

10-12-2018, 03:17 PM

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov Confirms Offer From WWE <a href="https://t.co/KxcPB8srC3">https://t.co/KxcPB8srC3</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/BodySlamDotNet?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BodySlamDotNet</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MMA?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MMA</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UFC?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#UFC</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WWE?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WWE</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NXT?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NXT</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RAW?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RAW</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SDLive?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SDLive</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Khabib?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Khabib</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KhabibNurmagomedov?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KhabibNurmagomedov</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/News?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#News</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rumors?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Rumors</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Wrestling?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Wrestling</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ProWrestling?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ProWrestling</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bodyslam?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Bodyslam</a></p>— BODYSLAM.NET (@BodySlamDotNet) <a href="https://twitter.com/BodySlamDotNet/status/1050827158174801922?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 12, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

slik

10-12-2018, 03:49 PM

more heat....

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">U.S Senators Urge WWE To Hold Off On The Crown Jewel Event In Saudi Arabia<br><br>Details Here: <a href="https://t.co/8syZNdTDWd">https://t.co/8syZNdTDWd</a> <a href="https://t.co/3YRGgGwJ5y">pic.twitter.com/3YRGgGwJ5y</a></p>— IWNerd.com - WWE Predictions! (@InnerN3rd) <a href="https://twitter.com/InnerN3rd/status/1050829806294654976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 12, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Mr. Nerfect

10-12-2018, 07:09 PM

I'll agree his commentary can be cringe wothy at times. When he gets into a match and is more professional he's pretty good. As far as what he's done on the management side of Impact, he's done an incredible job.

I can't dichotomize it like that. His awfulness does not get excused because sometimes he isn't quite as awful.

TNA currently gets <200,000 viewers. Just because you like it, doesn't mean that it's working. There's a difference between a subjective statement and an objective one.

Mr. Nerfect

10-12-2018, 07:13 PM

But Vinnie Mac loves money

He loves money, but sometimes you make money with smart investments. Sometimes you don't take $500,000,000 for a shitty job that is going to get you bust and all your assets repossessed. Sometimes the job that pays far less is going to be the one you can do guilt-free and nurture into more opportunities.

That's what bothers me about the three-hour Raw thing. "Oh, but they get paid so much." Yeah, but it also helps kill interest in everything, drives down revenue streams, and helps ensure no one gets over as a star that can make you buckets more money than that deal ever could. Or even if it isn't more money, it'll be enough money to pay some nice dividends to your investors and not have to stress.

This "more, more, more" attitude they have is only going to be sustainable for so long before suddenly people, networks, investors, sponsors, etc. don't want anymore. And then it looks like they're shrinking, even if they're going back to a normal size.

Simple Fan

10-12-2018, 07:40 PM

I can't dichotomize it like that. His awfulness does not get excused because sometimes he isn't quite as awful.

TNA currently gets <200,000 viewers. Just because you like it, doesn't mean that it's working. There's a difference between a subjective statement and an objective one.

Cable viewership doesn't mean shit anymore. People may not be watching on Pop but there are many other ways to watch the show. Impact pretty much post every segment on YouTube and do a Twitter rundown live for people like you that do like to watch. As someone who's watched the product I can guarantee you its way better since Don has come in. I don't think you realize how bad 2017 was for that company. They're actually selling tickets for shows now and are even doing live events again. They haven't done that in years.

Mr. Nerfect

10-12-2018, 08:14 PM

Mr. Nerfect

10-12-2018, 08:16 PM

Raw loses Impact Wrestling's fanbase each week.

Mr. Nerfect

10-12-2018, 08:40 PM

Impact Wrestling just got its time slot knocked back to 10pm. Viewership means shit these days, right?

Mr. Nerfect

10-12-2018, 08:44 PM

Harold Meij has denied reports that talent is unhappy, but said something weird. Something about treatment of talent varies. He also praised Tama Tonga who defended teh company, and Meij said he got no prompting. It feels...odd. I don't think Meltz would make it up, and he wouldn't say "people you wouldn't think would leave are thinking about it" for no reason, but Meij's response is, like, why make a mountain?

It's going to be an interesting space to watch.

Simple Fan

10-12-2018, 09:23 PM

Emperor Smeat

10-12-2018, 09:34 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by NOTHING:

The 10/4 edition of Impact did 183,000 overnight viewers down from last week's 190,000 overnight viewers. Obviously that is not the way they want the numbers to go.

Viewership for Impact Wrestling has taken a big hit since July with their last 11 weeks of programming averaging 227,000 viewers going back to July 26th. In the 11-week period prior to that, the show was averaging 283,000 viewers and dropped 20%. While the return of Thursday night football can explain the audience being down to a degree, the plunge began in August prior to football. It’s a mystery what led to the decline because buzz for the product was its highest in years following Slammiversary but after a one-week grace period, the audience dropped dramatically.

Indies Roundup:

On the newest edition of the National Wrestling Alliance's YouTube series, Jim Cornette discusses the legacy of the NWA title, Cody vs. Nick Aldis for the championship next weekend and more leading into the NWA 70th Anniversary event, which will air live on Fite.TV

The [MLW] promotion is finalizing the location of its 2/2 Superfight which will see Low Ki vs. Tom Lawlor headline for the MLW Championship. The plan is to make this a major marquee event for the company, running Superbowl weekend every year. We are told that the first event will not be held in NYC. They are looking at venues in the Northeast and Mid-West. The hope is to officially announce the market and venue in early November.

[MLW] Management absolutely loves Marko Stunt and are planning for him to be used regularly by the company. There’s even been early discussions of building an entire division around him.

Bar Wrestling has a show on 10/17 called Breastlemania. The show will benefit the Susan Love Foundation for breast cancer research and has Tessa Blanchard vs. Brian Cage, Penelope Ford vs. Shotzi Blackheart vs. Heather Monroe vs. Indi Hartwell, Scarlett Bordeaux & Katrina vs. Ruby Raze & Sage Sin and Nicole Savoy vs. Diamante.

AAW will be running a card tonight at 9 pm Eastern from Austin, Texas and will be streaming it live on Twitch with the following card: Brody King & Jimmy Jacobs vs. Sami Callihan & Darby Allin, ACH vs. Eddie Kingston, Trevor Lee vs. Rich Swann for the Heritage title, Aaron Solow & Ricky Starks vs. Mat Fitchett & Davey Vega, Myron Reed & AR Fox vs. Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz, Thunder Rosa vs. Kylie Ray, Laredo Kid vs. Jason Cade, Steven Wolf & Pacu vs. Curt Stallion.
NWA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEuc25IpREk , AAW: https://www.twitch.tv/aawpro

BREAKING: Father James Mitchell will induct @TherealAbyss into the IMPACT Hall of Fame as it streams TOMORROW live on Twitch.

MORE: https://t.co/z9BI6KbMln pic.twitter.com/dyq4EjMqFD
— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) October 12, 2018

Impact Wrestling will live stream their Hall of Fame induction of Abyss tomorrow night on their Twitch channel, it was announced this afternoon

Jim Mitchell, Abyss' storyline father and long-time manager, will be officially inducting the former NWA Champion into the company's Hall of Fame at the ceremony, which will take place tomorrow night at McHale's Pub in NYC.
Link: https://twitter.com/IMPACTWRESTLING/status/1050732828827226114

The 12/26 WWE Live Event at Madison Square Garden, which was advertised as a Smackdown Live has been changed to a Raw brand show..

The new lineup for the traditional day after Christmas event features:
*Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman in a Steel Cage match for the Universal Championship
*Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre for the RAW Tag Team Championships
*Ronda Rousey vs. Mickie James for the RAW Women's Championship

Also advertised to appear are Finn Balor, Kevin Owens, Bobby Lashley, Elias, Jinder Mahal, Alexa Bliss, Bayley and more.

NEW JAPAN SUPER JUNIOR TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT STARTS TUESDAY AT 5:30 A.M. EASTERN FROM TOKYO KORAKUEN HALL ON NEW JAPAN WORLD
Toa Henare & Shota Umino & Ren Narita vs. Ayato Yoshida & Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Kota Ibushi & Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens
Kazuchika Okada & Toru Yano & Baretta & Chuckie T vs. Jay White & Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa
Taiji Ishimori & Robbie Eagles vs. Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask
Ryusuke Taguchi &ACH vs. Volador Jr. & Soberano Jr.
Kushida & Chris Sabin vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado
Bushi & Shingo Takagi vs. Sho & Yoh

Several major media sources including Viacom, The New York Times and Los Angeles Times have pulled out of a Saudi Arabian media conference and Fox Business is examining the situation. This puts more pressure on WWE because it makes it look like they can't make a moral stand and it will be a very bad reflection to the pubic of the image of WWE as a company.

Regarding the tweet where Khabib Nurmagomedov said he was in talks with WWE, officials at WWE say that is not the case. Nurmagomedov is under contract to UFC and UFC contracts prohibit talent from doing pro wrestling without clearing it with the company.
Link: https://twitter.com/TeamKhabib/status/1050639801769058305

Triple H believes that WWE chief Vince McMahon has never watched a full episode of his own developmental brand NXT.

The revelation will come as little surprise to fans who have criticised Vince and WWE for the treatment of NXT stars once they’re called up to the main roster.

Triple H made the comments in London while announcing the debut of NXT UK – which airs on the WWE Network next Wednesday October 17.

But Triple H also says that Vince’s outsider view of NXT is a good thing – and helps him see the brand and its superstars objectively.

He said: “I don’t know that he’s ever even watched a full episode of NXT start to finish. He’s busy.”

But “The Game” says he’s always amazed by how much insight Vince has on the product and superstars from watching just snippets.

Triple H said: “He will pick up a lot from bits and pieces from what he sees. To me it’s always amazing – his insight of things.

“I realise he just saw a snippet but what he will say about that snippet is a bigger overall arc to the entire product, and I’m like, ‘That’s really right.’ I think it’s great that he doesn’t see all of it because it gives him a different perspective. It gives him an outsider view on it.”
Link: https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/7477409/wwe-news-triple-h-vince-mcmahon-nxt

A return to WWE has been rumored for Rey Mysterio since he was a surprise entrant in the 2018 Men's Royal Rumble Match in January and it will finally happen next week.

WWE announced this week that Mysterio will square off with United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura in a WWE World Cup Qualifying Match on next Tuesday's historic 1000th episode of SmackDown LIVE in Washington D.C. Mysterio is advertised to wrestle twice on the show as WWE revealed tonight in an email to those in the D.C. area that he will also compete in a tag team match.

In updated advertising for the event, Mysterio is slated to team with WWE Champion AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan against Randy Orton, The Miz, and Nakamura. A match pitting Styles and Bryan against Samoa Joe and Miz was previously advertised.

On the debut episode of Vince Russo: Truth with Consequences with Matt Koon on the Westwood One Podcast Network, Vince Russo discussed his booking philosophy, time with WCW and more. You can check out the podcast on iTunes, they sent us these highlights ...

The decision to book himself winning the WCW World title:

"The week of the show in the creative meeting the decision was made. The people in the booking meeting all thought the same. The goal is to get as many eyeballs as possible on the show. Everybody on the creative side was looking at it as TV show rather than a wrestling show. I put the WWE title on [Vince] McMahon, the WCW title on [David] Arquette, another WCW title on [Eric] Bischoff. Why? We are looking to create stories and not for the wrestling fan, for the casual wrestling fan."
More highlights: https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2018/10/vince-russo-on-why-he-booked-himself-to-win-the-wcw-world-646684/

Jeff Cobb spoke with the Baltimore Sun on recently winning the ROH World TV title, his top career moments, picking ROH over other promotions, and if he had any offers from other companies. Here are some of the highlights ...

Picking ROH over other companies:

"I definitely want to wrestle more in New Japan. Ring of Honor has that great relationship with them. New Japan guys are on ROH TV, and ROH guys are out on New Japan shows. The schedules don't conflict that often. That's definitely a big factor that made me want to sign with Ring of Honor."
More highlights: https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2018/10/jeff-cobb-talks-why-he-turned-down-an-offer-from-impact-in-646682/

Some other sheet news includes:

For those interested, PWI had a recent article detailing WWE's current dilemma with their Crown Jewel event and Saudi contract following the recent embassy controversy. PWI's Mike Johnson looked at the situation from both a business and journalistic perspective. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/120917/wwe-crown-jewel-should-the-show-be-canceled-and-if-so-then-what.html?p=1
Update on recent NJPW low locker room morale news as NJPW's president debunked the Observer's claims of morale being near an all-time low and the person mentioned in the report being a big cause of the controversy. Meltzer responded to criticism stating it was none of the Elite guys who were his sources nor was it just a ploy to increase certain guys value in NJPW. Origin of the controversy seems to be based on Kevin Kelly blurting out Craven's name during a broadcast which some assumed was likely a simple mistake by Kelly. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/njpw/comments/9nitw0/meij_meltzer_got_the_wrong_guy/ , https://www.resetera.com/threads/october-wrasslin-ot-historic-levels-of-ultraviolence.72035/page-80#post-13739697
Recent rumor going around the net hints WWE is already planning to hold separate Takeover events for their NXT UK brand.
According to ShowBuzz Daily, this week's episode of Lucha Underground drew around 84k viewers.

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

Mayor Kane Still Planning on Wrestling in Saudi Arabia, WWE Signs Former ROH TV Champ (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/wwe-mayor-kane-still-planning-on-wrestling-in-saudi-arabia-wwe-signs-former-roh-tv-champ/)
WWE: Bobby Roode Replacing Kevin Owens on MMC, New Eddie Guerrero Documentary (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/wwe-bobby-roode-replacing-kevin-owens-on-mmc-new-eddie-guerrero-documentary/)
US Senators Urge WWE to Rethink Its Relationship With Saudi Arabia (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/us-senators-urge-wwe-to-rethink-its-relationship-with-saudi-arabia/)
Impact Wrestling Is Moving to a Different Time Slot (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/impact-wrestling-is-moving-to-a-different-time-slot/)
The Chris Jericho Wrestling Cruise Will Be Streamed Online (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/the-chris-jericho-wrestling-cruise-will-be-streamed-online/)

Mr. Nerfect

10-12-2018, 10:31 PM

My Imoact thread alone is proof more people are interested. They've been way more successful this year than in years past, did you not read the part about selling tickets and doing live events. I'm not saying their doing big numbers but the company has rebounded and are headed in the right direction.

Your Impact thread proves nothing. I bet it's mainly you talking to yourself. Selling tickets and doing live events is the bare minimum a wrestling promotion could do. I bet you they are even attended by a few hundred of the same people. Let's give them 1,000 (reports indicate 350 for a taping, but whatever). They sell tickets at $50 and run four times a week. That's $208,000 a year off ticket sales alone! That's more than $1 a viewer! These guys are clearly killing it!

What does "rebounded" even mean? They are still on Pop TV, still have no viewers, still have no interest and still have Eli Drake. It's TNA. It's beyond a joke at this point. Let it die so John Morrison goes back to WWE and...well, I think he's the only person I give a shit about there. Well, maybe Scarlett Bordeaux.

Mr. Nerfect

10-12-2018, 10:45 PM

I can explain why the Impact viewership is down. Internet wrestling fans are nerds. We live in a bubble. We talk to each other and reverberate the same, often completely misguided, opinions to each other. There are people who thought the "Woken" Matt Hardy stuff would be huge. Why? Because nerds on the nerdiest corners of the wrestling's internet forums liked it, because they have been brow-beat into liking shit just because it's not the bland vanilla they are being served up by WWE.

But they confuse dog shit with chocolate. All the time. "Broken" Matt fucking SUCKED. He was a weird-sounded goof with putting on a weird voice saying words over and over again playing with a drone. It was bush league as fuck and the only people who like that sort of thing are the only people who like that sort of thing. Wrestling nerds. Some of them are in the business, some of them are on the message boards, but NO ONE outside that cares.

Impact Wrestling SUCKS. It is awful. It has been that way for years, and it was that way when it was officially TNA, and the combined efforts of the brain trust over there literally -- fuck, not even decimated, that means destroying 1 in 10 -- they destroyed 9 in 10 of their fans. And it is awful now. Eddie Edwards and Sami Callihan had a fight to Final Cut Pro mood music. It's bush league. Hey, just like Broken Matt Hardy. That worked though, right? Wrong. They had about 300,000 viewers then, and all the people it appealed to never made a damn bit of difference. By the way, The Hardy Boyz return at WrestleMania 33 and that YouTube video has more hits in a hour than all of the Broken stuff ever got put together.

We live in a bubble. We get excited about stuff. It's cute. But it does not reflect reality. TNA is still fucking terrible. It's still burning out its audience and it still has no clue what it really wants to be, and the stuff it is sure about SUCKS. Eli Drake, Sami Callihan and Eddie Edwards, Moose, Don Callis on commentary (probably) -- it's awful. I saw one YouTube clip and it made me want to punch my computer it was that bad. And when people watch that on TV, they think "Oh, this is fucking awful. Isn't wrestling a waste of time," and they turn off their TV.

TL;DR: TNA is losing viewers because it continues to suck. Bad television turns people off.

Mr. Nerfect

10-12-2018, 10:49 PM

Fucking Vince Russo with a new podcast. I liked Matt Koon enough too. "It was all about getting ratings, bro!" How did that go for ya, you fucking dumb cunt?

Simple Fan

10-13-2018, 12:41 AM

Simple Fan

10-13-2018, 12:55 AM

Your Impact thread proves nothing. I bet it's mainly you talking to yourself. Selling tickets and doing live events is the bare minimum a wrestling promotion could do. I bet you they are even attended by a few hundred of the same people. Let's give them 1,000 (reports indicate 350 for a taping, but whatever). They sell tickets at $50 and run four times a week. That's $208,000 a year off ticket sales alone! That's more than $1 a viewer! These guys are clearly killing it!

What does "rebounded" even mean? They are still on Pop TV, still have no viewers, still have no interest and still have Eli Drake. It's TNA. It's beyond a joke at this point. Let it die so John Morrison goes back to WWE and...well, I think he's the only person I give a shit about there. Well, maybe Scarlett Bordeaux.

A year ago it was but there have been more posters poping in and talking about the show this year. Hell, Jordan X is going to BFG. As I've said they're not doing big numbers but they're making some money this year when in previous years they weren't.

As Ive also said you really don't understand how bad 2017 was. The lone bright spot for the company last year was Eli Drake. With your opinion of Eli Drake just think about that.

Mr. Nerfect

10-13-2018, 04:50 AM

No, I'm not trying to act like the company is trying to beat WWE at anything. I'm saying that internet fans blow its effectiveness as an "active" entity to proportions it is not. We will see how many paid attendance and PPV buys or whatever BFG gets. And we'll see how long this "money" experiment lasts, because running on fumes and the goodwill towards The Jackyl is not going to last forever.

And how bad 2017 was has nothing to do with how LolTNA it is in 2018. You know what's sad? It could even get good and it'd be interesting to see if it even makes a difference. Faith has been broken. TNA has well and truly jumped the shark. I'm sure Callis tries and gets Jericho in to reciprocate lending talent for the cruise and because they're buds, if Jericho can get away with it because New Japan and Vince McMahon both still hate their guts. Well, Vince might be easing up now that they are a complete non-factor. But I imagine that gets no higher than 300,000 viewers, and the moment it reminds them that they are TNA, they will tune out.

Simple Fan

10-13-2018, 12:07 PM

BFG has been sold out for weeks bro.

BigCrippyZ

10-13-2018, 12:57 PM

Is selling out a 1,200 seat theater for your "biggest show of the year" really an accomplishment and indicator of "improvement" or "success" when your company has been around for some 15+ years?

Simple Fan

10-13-2018, 02:55 PM

It is when the past few year they've been in Orlando not selling tickets at all. Trying to be WWE hurt the company so bad they were just filming 3 months of TV at a time and having 2 PPVs in the Impact Zone. Going back on the road and selling tickets has added so much more to the atmosphere around the their shows.

Ol Dirty Dastard

10-14-2018, 11:00 AM

Sepholio

10-14-2018, 12:19 PM

Welp. There you have it. Dale has decided that Noid is the deciderer on this issue. /Thread

Simple Fan

10-14-2018, 12:39 PM

they shouldn't try because Noid doesn't like them.

Nobody would be trying if we're going by what Noid likes.

Ol Dirty Dastard

10-14-2018, 01:10 PM

Welp. There you have it. Dale has decided that Noid is the deciderer on this issue. /Thread

I was just reaffirming what everybody already knew :-) #TeamToxicEngaged

slik

10-14-2018, 01:22 PM

HHH also said he has an announcement later today...

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Crown Jewel removed from <a href="https://t.co/07CGuuQYOG">https://t.co/07CGuuQYOG</a> calendar <a href="https://t.co/RpMP3SkaoZ">https://t.co/RpMP3SkaoZ</a> <a href="https://t.co/pTj7WNX3eW">pic.twitter.com/pTj7WNX3eW</a></p>— Wrestling Observer (@WONF4W) <a href="https://twitter.com/WONF4W/status/1051506444283965440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 14, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Mr. Nerfect

10-15-2018, 04:53 AM

Is selling out a 1,200 seat theater for your "biggest show of the year" really an accomplishment and indicator of "improvement" or "success" when your company has been around for some 15+ years?

:lol:

Like, I'm glad people are enjoying their wrestling. Whatever. But don't shove it down my throat as something that is changing the game when they manage to sell 1,200 tickets. They should have been doing this right from the start. That is seriously the least a wrestling promotion could do.

slik

10-15-2018, 09:31 AM

https://i.imgur.com/F9y0VgH.jpg

Droford

10-15-2018, 10:20 AM

They should air the PPV WCW did in Korea

Simple Fan

10-15-2018, 12:35 PM

:lol:

Like, I'm glad people are enjoying their wrestling. Whatever. But don't shove it down my throat as something that is changing the game when they manage to sell 1,200 tickets. They should have been doing this right from the start. That is seriously the least a wrestling promotion could do.

Who's said they were changing the game or shoving it down your throat? I've said they've went back to the basics and its worked for them.

Mr. Nerfect

10-15-2018, 09:51 PM

https://i.imgur.com/F9y0VgH.jpg

:lol:

I honestly thought that was a real tweet until I got to the end.

Mr. Nerfect

10-15-2018, 09:52 PM

Who's said they were changing the game or shoving it down your throat? I've said they've went back to the basics and its worked for them.

No, it's not. They're losing viewers and just got bumped to a later time slot. That's exactly my point. :lol:

Mr. Nerfect

10-15-2018, 11:18 PM

Attendance was down for Impact at the same venue. They couldn't get people hooked enough to come back.

Simple Fan

10-16-2018, 12:20 AM

Attendance was down for Impact at the same venue. They couldn't get people hooked enough to come back.

First time they have done that venue. What are you talking about?

Simple Fan

10-16-2018, 12:37 AM

No, it's not. They're losing viewers and just got bumped to a later time slot. That's exactly my point. :lol:

As I've said TV ratings don't mran as much anymore. Its MLB playoff and Thursday Night Football season, rating isn't going to be good. I also don't think they will be back with Pop which could be a reason for the timeslot change.

No doubt that ratings have a say in something but its not the be all end all anymore. If Pop drops them and they have nowhere to go than they'd have reason to be concerned. That's a possibility but Pop has been good to them and I imagine they'll give them time to shop around. I realize the ratings are low but that doesn't mean the product is bad. People have been turned off by the company in the past but if the current administration just said the hell with it they'd already sold the company by now. They've been committed to creating their own brand with thier own identity that can work with any company including WWE.

I

Mr. Nerfect

10-16-2018, 02:34 AM

First time they have done that venue. What are you talking about?

No it's not. They ran it the night before. You were saying how they "sold out." Not so much for Impact.

As I've said TV ratings don't mran as much anymore. Its MLB playoff and Thursday Night Football season, rating isn't going to be good. I also don't think they will be back with Pop which could be a reason for the timeslot change.

No doubt that ratings have a say in something but its not the be all end all anymore. If Pop drops them and they have nowhere to go than they'd have reason to be concerned. That's a possibility but Pop has been good to them and I imagine they'll give them time to shop around. I realize the ratings are low but that doesn't mean the product is bad. People have been turned off by the company in the past but if the current administration just said the hell with it they'd already sold the company by now. They've been committed to creating their own brand with thier own identity that can work with any company including WWE.

I

Ratings absolutely do mean something when you're only getting <200,000 people and it causes the station to move you to a later time slot. We're not talking about WWE hovering around 2.5 and 2.4 million viewers like they did for a while there. They're continuing to slip when there's barely any meat on their bones.

I've always disliked the argument of "Well, there's something better on." That's a problem. Of course major events are going to cut into ratings a little bit, but the problem is that TNA just can't get eyeballs and can't keep the eyeballs it has on its product. Sometimes great shows aren't ratings successes, but when you've got an audience and you can't keep it, then it's not working. There's not much else to it besides that.

I'm sure everybody is working hard, and that Don Callis, Scott D'Amore and Ed Nordholm or whatever his name is do care deeply about what they're doing. But it doesn't change the fact that it's not working. I don't know what working with other companies has to do with anything. That's something, like charging for tickets, TNA should have been doing years and years ago. And they've had the opportunity and burnt bridges and burnt their audience. They're "nice guys" now, but let's see how it all transpires.

Simple Fan

10-16-2018, 02:46 AM

No it's not. They ran it the night before. You were saying how they "sold out." Not so much for Impact.

Ratings absolutely do mean something when you're only getting <200,000 people and it causes the station to move you to a later time slot. We're not talking about WWE hovering around 2.5 and 2.4 million viewers like they did for a while there. They're continuing to slip when there's barely any meat on their bones.

I've always disliked the argument of "Well, there's something better on." That's a problem. Of course major events are going to cut into ratings a little bit, but the problem is that TNA just can't get eyeballs and can't keep the eyeballs it has on its product. Sometimes great shows aren't ratings successes, but when you've got an audience and you can't keep it, then it's not working. There's not much else to it besides that.

I'm sure everybody is working hard, and that Don Callis, Scott D'Amore and Ed Nordholm or whatever his name is do care deeply about what they're doing. But it doesn't change the fact that it's not working. I don't know what working with other companies has to do with anything. That's something, like charging for tickets, TNA should have been doing years and years ago. And they've had the opportunity and burnt bridges and burnt their audience. They're "nice guys" now, but let's see how it all transpires.

That's basically all I'm saying, they've started doing what they should have been doing all along. They haven't done these things in a while so actually doing it is a success. They're still the most watched promotion behind WWE. Wrestling isn't main stream and I think your standards a way too high when it comes to the current pro wrestling landscape.

Mr. Nerfect

10-16-2018, 02:57 AM

That's basically all I'm saying, they've started doing what they should have been doing all along. They haven't done these things in a while so actually doing it is a success. They're still the most watched promotion behind WWE. Wrestling isn't main stream and I think your standards a way too high when it comes to the current pro wrestling landscape.

Whoa, whoa, whoa -- that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying what they're doing is not successful. Putting my pants on to go to work should be a given. If my dick is still hanging out, it doesn't go down well at a business meeting. I actually don't know if they are the most watched promotion besides WWE, are they? I think New Japan on AXS was averaging 200,000 people in 2015. ROH is certainly beating them in attendance. I wouldn't be shocked if they are getting higher ratings. The estimation I can get is from 2015, but it has ROH at <420,000 on syndication, with 220,923 on DA, back when they chose them over TNA. I imagine their numbers have probably slipped. But this is very US-centric too. I'm sure more people watch lucha (not Underground), with a higher percentage watching Japanese promotions in Japan.

Also, if they are #2 by default, I'm not sure if that's something to be proud of, exactly, when you consider how far they've fallen as #2.

I expect too much? As in for it to be good?

Simple Fan

10-16-2018, 03:34 AM

If you want to break it down internationally than Impact has deals around the world as well and I'm not sure ROH has those type of deals.

slik

10-16-2018, 11:20 AM

BATISTA being discussed as the headliner for the HOF before WM35

http://www.bodyslam.net/2018/10/16/huge-name-considered-to-headline-wwe-hall-of-fame-next-year/

Emperor Smeat

10-16-2018, 10:06 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by NOTHING:

Going against both Monday Night Football and the baseball playoffs, Raw was up one percent from last week, averaging 2.39 million viewers.

It would be the fourth lowest of the modern era, but at the same time, the best number in a month ...

It was a usual ratings pattern with a third-hour drop, but not more significant than usual. The drop was more with both under 18 and over 50 viewers in hour three, rather than the teenagers usually holding up strong. Every demo group dropped in hour three.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.49 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.48 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.22 million viewers

A multi-promotional event featuring a number of high profile Japanese promotions will take place next February.

Tokyo Sports announced this morning that Wrestling All-Star Battle will go down on February 19 at Sumo Hall. It will feature wrestlers from All Japan Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling NOAH, New Japan Pro Wrestling, Big Japan Pro Wrestling and Wrestle-1. Broadcasting information for the event isn’t currently known, nor were any matches announced.

The event is in commemoration of two events: the 20th anniversary of Giant Baba’s death (which took place on January 31, 1999) as well as the 60th anniversary of Tokyo Sports itself.
Link: https://www.tokyo-sports.co.jp/prores/mens_prores/1157539/

ROH has announced the next three wrestlers for this year's Global Wars tour.

After announcing Tetsuya Naito for the tour yesterday, ROH has confirmed that Los Ingobernables de Japon members EVIL and SANADA will be in action on the Global Wars shows. Former IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Juice Robinson is also set for the tour ...

The Global Wars tour will begin in Lewiston, Maine on November 7. There are also stops in Lowell, Massachusetts on November 8, Buffalo, New York on November 9, and Toronto, Ontario, Canada on November 11.

Link: https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/juice-robinson-returns-global-wars-tour

According to TMZ Sports WWE, Charlotte and Ric Flair are being sued by Charlotte’s ex-husband Riki Paul Johnson for defamation. The lawsuit centers around the book Second Nature, which she and her father co-wrote and released last year. He alleges in the lawsuit that they wrote multiple false allegations regarding physical and psychological abuse and was intentionally painted as a villain. The suit also mentions WWE, saying that they should be held liable due to their marketing of the book. WWE issued a response to TMZ Sports, saying “We recently received what appears to be a meritless lawsuit and we will vigorously defend ourselves.”
Link: http://www.tmz.com/2018/10/16/ric-flair-charlotte-flair-and-wwe-sued/

WWE issued a statement to the New York Post regarding Sports Illustrated’s report that multiple members of the WWE roster (speaking on the condition of anonymity) have expressed discomfort with the idea of performing in Saudi Arabia: “As always, we maintain an open line of communication with our performers as we continue to monitor the situation.”
Link: https://nypost.com/2018/10/15/wwe-superstars-reportedly-uncomfortable-about-performing-in-saudi-arabia/

DDP is helping out at the Performance Center again this week. He posted a picture that includes Punishment Martinez, who we reported was headed to WWE after he departed ROH.
Link: https://twitter.com/RealDDP/status/1052273647770054656

The Rock tweeted about SmackDown 1000: “Huge #SD1000 congrats to my @WWE family! Fun fact, in 1998, I said to @VinceMcMahon ‘I’m gonna use the word ‘Smackdown’ tonight in my promo’. He said what’s that mean? I said it means I’m gonna whup some ass. He belly laughed and said say it! The rest was history! #IfYaSmell”
Link: https://twitter.com/TheRock/status/1052323753307332608

Indies Roundup:
Jericho also wasn’t happy hearing that Don Callis wasn’t used after classic New Japan matches were uploaded with new commentary: “Not using @CyrusOverHuge over huge for ANY AND ALL commentary is a big mistake and just plain stupid.”

ROH announced that P.J. Black and Colin Delaney would debut for the promotion as part of the Survival of the Fittest show on 11/4 in Columbus, OH.

Hangman Page has been added to the lineup for ROH’s Survival of the Fittest tournament in Columbus, Ohio on November 4. Tracy Williams, Marty Scurll, Andrew Everett, Jonathan Gresham, Flip Gordon, PJ Black, and Colin Delaney are also set for the tournament.

Laredo Kid vs. Barrett Brown in a special attraction match has been added to the NWA 70th anniversary show.

Cody vs. Brian Cage has been announced for World Series Wrestling in November in Sydney.

Jordynne Grace, one of the most popular and well liked independent female stars, will make her Impact Wrestling debut tonight during tonight's TV taping in New York City at the Melrose Ballroom.

Lanny Poffo has stated on his podcast that he will be receiving a tryout with New Japan Pro Wrestling on the English broadcast team. He is being flown to Japan on October 23rd and will be there through November 4th, so presumably, he will be calling Power Struggle in Osaka with the some of the Super Tag League shows.
Jericho: https://twitter.com/IAmJericho/status/1051655316071428096 , ROH: https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/will-hangman-earn-his-first-shot-roh-world-championship

Due to a rib injury, Will Ospreay is off New Japan Pro Wrestling's Road to Power Struggle tour.

NJPW announced the news overnight, with them noting that Ospreay will miss the tour to "focus on the NEVER Openweight Championship match" that he's having against Taichi at Power Struggle in Osaka on November 3. Taichi also won't be wrestling on the Road to Power Struggle tour because of Ospreay's absence.

The matches that Ospreay and Taichi are missing are from October 19 to November 1.

Ospreay's injury happened when he landed badly during his match against Chris Ridgeway for Revolution Pro Wrestling on Sunday.
Link: https://www.njpw1972.com/37182

WWE have registered to trademark 'Lightning Fist' for clothing purposes, likely in conjunction with John Cena's new finishing move.

In addition to Lightning Fist, WWE have applied to trademark "Shandian Quantou" for clothing purposes. They have also applied to trademark the Chinese characters for Lightning Fist.

Former ECW World Champion Taz, who now hosts a morning drive sports show for CBS Sports Radio, posted the following video message wishing WWE a happy Smackdown 1000:

Message to #SD1000 #SDLive - @VinceMcMahon @StephMcMahon @TripleH @MichaelCole pic.twitter.com/5NNrzizq1B
— TAZ (@OfficialTAZ) October 16, 2018

Of course, Taz and Michael Cole were the voices of the series for many, many years.
Link: https://twitter.com/OfficialTAZ/status/1052339189038149632

In regard to a story making the rounds over the last 24 hours that Impact Wrestling is in negotiations with Alberto el Patron to return to the company, we have been told by several that is incorrect and there have been zero discussion of his return after he no-showed an event for the company over Wrestlemania 34 weekend in New Orleans and was terminated.

There has been no sign of Austin Aries at today's TV taping, so we will see. The word making the rounds was that he flew home yesterday to Las Vegas, which was not the original plan. There were some re-writes to this week's TV tapings one source stated.

The 1,000th episode of SmackDown takes place tonight from the Capital One Center in Washington, D.C. Beyond teaching a generation of wrestling fans yet another word with a capitalized letter in the middle, SmackDown has a big impact on the WWE’s television presentation since premiering in 1999 ...

It’s funny that the WWE is promoting the first all women’s pay-per-view because the original idea was that SmackDown was going to be an all women’s show. The presentation of the female performers in 1999 was a stark contrast to today as the division was built around Sable and Debra and there were no illusions over what was being sold. The concept would have been nearly impossible to pull off, especially in a two-hour format and the outcome would have probably been a change to include everyone on the roster to save the show or would have died like Super Astros.
Part of a long article on the history of Smackdown leading to its 100th episode: https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/10/16/pollocks-news-update-the-history-of-smackdown-heading-into-episode-1000/

John Layfield was on Varney & Co. on Fox Business on Tuesday and defended the WWE’s decision to hold the Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia. Layfield cited past examples of the WWE going overseas to hold shows for the troops, the post 9/11 edition of SmackDown and that you don’t change a region of the world by isolating it.

The difference is that change is not the objective of this deal and it’s not the reason the WWE is doing this show. As complex a story as we can make this, it’s very black and white and if there wasn’t a lucrative deal in place this would be a non-issue. The WWE is not addressing this story on their broadcasts or even presented a public statement to defend their decision to run this show.
Link: https://twitter.com/Varneyco/status/1052211574939770881

The indie wrestler who played The Conquistador on last night's RAW in Philadelphia was Bill Bain. He lost to The Authors of Pain in a Handicap Match, which was supposed to be WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle under the mask. One of the security guards that The Bella Twins sent to face off with RAW Women's Champion Ronda Rousey was Icarus of CHIKARA fame.

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

Cody Rhodes Hints at a Wrestler Union, Slams “Clueless” People in Charge (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/cody-rhodes-hints-at-a-wrestler-union-slams-clueless-people-in-charge/)
WWE Brings Back References to Saudi Arabia on WWE.com (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/wwe-brings-back-references-to-saudi-arabia-on-wwe-com/)
Wrestlers Don’t Seem Happy About Being Booked in the Evolution Battle Royal (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/wrestlers-dont-seem-happy-about-being-booked-in-the-evolution-battle-royal/)
Various: Cornette Takes Shot at WWE Producer Kevin Dunn, New John Cena Movie, Mysterio Top 10 (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/various-cornette-takes-shot-at-wwe-producer-kevin-dunn-new-john-cena-movie-mysterio-top-10/)
Austin Aries Apparently Done With Impact Wrestling (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/austin-aries-apparently-done-with-impact-wrestling/)

Mr. Nerfect

10-17-2018, 06:06 PM

If you want to break it down internationally than Impact has deals around the world as well and I'm not sure ROH has those type of deals.

I don't. That's a point, but I know they got their asses cancelled hard in Australia.

Mr. Nerfect

10-17-2018, 06:11 PM

Sorry, Chris, but you're wrong re: Cyrus. He's a shit commentator and New Japan is well within their rights not to use him. If Jericho is so bummed out he stops working with New Japan, that's a real shame, but for him too, since it's been his best work where he get out of the WWE grind of "nothing matters." But honestly, there may not have been a billion other things for Jericho to do anyway. I could imagine him taking a break after Wrestle Kingdom anyway.

John Cena's relationship with China seems to be something they have been developing for a while. Apparently he was living there because he was filming a Jackie Chan movie? It's just a pretty interesting thing they are capitalizing on.

Emperor Smeat

10-17-2018, 09:35 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by NOTHING:

For just the second time since SmackDown went live in July 2016, the show has beaten Monday Night Raw in the "ratings war." SmackDown 1000 on Tuesday averaged 2.545 million viewers, the show's best number since April 24.

Unlike when Raw does these sorts of shows and brings in an audience that is almost always the best number of the year, this audience total is just above the year-to-date average and actually below what SmackDown was doing on a regular basis in the lead-up to WrestleMania ...

This was also the first week since June 12 that SmackDown's ratings increased year-over-year.

TMZ interviewed Randy Orton and asked how he feels about WWE going to Saudi Arabia for Crown Jewel. His defense was similar to the one JBL gave on Fox Business. "I think we should go. I think the only way to help with change over there is to go and not to cancel the trip,” Orton said. "That's the goal is to make things better everywhere and I think us not going doesn't help. Going helps." Like JBL, Orton brought up WWE having a women’s match in Abu Dhabi. Orton said "100 percent" when he was asked if he thinks they’ll be able to have a women’s match in Saudi Arabia at some point.
Link: http://www.tmz.com/2018/10/17/wwe-randy-orton-saudi-arabia-jamal-khashoggi/

Rey Mysterio challenging for Shinsuke Nakamura’s United States Championship is now listed for the Starrcade house show in Cincinnati, Ohio on November 24. Rusev was originally advertised as Nakamura’s opponent.
Link: http://usbankarena.com/event/2018/11/wwe-starrcade

Indies Roundup:

Beer City Bruiser, Silas Young, and Luchasaurus have been announced for ROH’s Survival of the Fittest tournament. The other wrestlers who have been confirmed thus far are: Tracy Williams, Marty Scurll, Andrew Everett, Jonathan Gresham, Flip Gordon, Colin Delaney, PJ Black, and Hangman Page.

Ilja Dragunov will be wrestling at PROGRESS’ show in Manchester, England on November 11.

The final episode of Ten Pounds of Gold before the NWA’s 70th Anniversary Show finished building to Cody Rhodes and Nick Aldis’ rematch.

MLW issued the following: MLW AND BEIN SPORTS TEAM-UP FOR HALLOWEEN SPECIAL NEXT FRIDAY NIGHT WITH MLW FRIGHT NIGHT. Next Friday night terror will rule the ring as Major League Wrestling (“MLW”) and beIN SPORTS presents their first Halloween special on October 26th at 8pm ET entitled MLW FRIGHT NIGHT.
Impact: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/121045/jordynne-grace-update.html?p=1 , ROH: https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/silas-can-earn-another-world-title-match-winning-survival-fittest-0 , PROGRESS: https://twitter.com/ThisIs_Progress/status/1052605231048138752 , NWA: https://youtu.be/spx0D1x80Mc , MLW: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/121072/mlw-to-air-firstever-halloween-special-fright-night-next-week-on-bein-sports.html?p=1

We noted last night that Dave Bautista arrived late at Smackdown 1000. One source noted that he actually arrived around 6:00 PM Eastern for a show that went on the air at 8 PM. 6:43 PM Update: Our original report listed 7:40 PM but two additional sources have since reached out to state it was actually earlier than that and that Bautista arrived around 6 PM.

The original plan was for the show to open with Rey Mysterio vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, but there was a lot of shuffling of segments in the last few hours prior to the show.

The Undertaker promo was always set in stone to close the broadcast, although it was planned to be much longer, but time was cut as the show ran long.

WWE also cut time for the Mysterio vs. Nakamura match, as well as Mysterio's entrance.

The Miz match was always scheduled to go three seconds.

Several backstage segments were cut from the show, including one with James Ellsworth, who instead shot a segment for WWE's YouTube segment.

The R-Truth segment was originally slated for later in the show.

At one point, there was talk of bringing in Christian but we have not heard he was there.

Kane was supposed to be at the taping but was not there. Obviously, he has lots of duties elsewhere these days.

Zack Ryder was backstage but not used.

The National Wrestling Alliance 70th Anniversary event will air live on Fite.tv this Sunday 10/21 from The Nashville Fairground Arena in Nashville, TN featuring:
*NWA Champion Cody vs. Nick Aldis - Best of Three Falls.
*NWA Women's Champion Jazz vs. Penelope Ford.
*Willie Mack vs. Jay Bradley vs. Mike Parrow vs. Ricky Starks - NWA National Title Match A.
*Sam Shaw vs. Colt Cabana, Scorpio Sky vs. Sammy Guevara - NWA National Title Match B.
*Match A and B Winners face to crown new NWA National Champion.
*Tim Storm vs. Pretty Peter Avalon.
*Crimson & Jax Dane (with Road Warrior Animal) open challenge.
*Laredo Kid vs. Barrett Brown.
*Former NWA Champions Jeff Jarrett, Blue Demon Jr., Tim Storm and Dory Funk Jr, will all be in attendance at the event as well.

The announcing team for the event, which will air live on iPPV (priced at $24.99) on Fite.TV, will be Joe Galli of Championship Wrestling from Hollywood and Jim Cornette, while Tony Schiavone will be calling the NWA title bout via a deal reached with MLW, where Schiavone is under contract.

WWE Network News is reporting that more classic episodes of WWE Main Event from 2013 will be added to the streaming service this Monday, October 22. According to their post as of right now it is only 10 episodes much like the last two weeks. But given that there 40 episodes unavailable on WWE Network it could be more.
Link: https://www.wwenetworknews.com/2018/10/17/exclusive-even-more-episodes-of-wwe-main-event-coming-to-the-wwe-network-archives-how-much-is-still-missing/

Vince McMahon tweeted:

Getting to 1,000 episodes is only possible if you have an entire universe behind you. Thank you, #WWE Universe, for celebrating #SD1000 with us. Here’s to 1,000 more. pic.twitter.com/fVI5B0jTWn
— Vince McMahon (@VinceMcMahon) October 17, 2018
Link: https://twitter.com/VinceMcMahon/status/1052393435364302849

Mauro Ranallo is not at tonight's WWE NXT TV tapings from Full Sail University. Vic Joseph replaced Mauro, joining Nigel McGuinness and Percy Watson at the announce table. These are the final tapings before "Takeover: War Games II" during WWE Survivor Series weekend next month. No word yet on why Mauro missed the tapings but we will keep you updated. Mauro recently tweeted at MMA promoters to let them know he's taking MMA bookings for 2019 but he noted in a later tweet that he is still with WWE.

With the major emphasis on pushing WWE in the United Kingdom, Triple H has developed an extension of the company that focuses on exclusively appealing to the UK crowd ...

As a result of this success, the NXT UK brand will debut weekly today on the WWE Network, with Johnny Saint as the General Manager. However, as reported by The Mirror, Triple H is still hesitant to host a WrestleMania in the UK, primarily because of the misconception that the 1992 SummerSlam was a success.

"The time zones are the big kicker - we have to go where the most people can watch," said Triple H. "I always hear about Wembley, I always hear it was such a massive success: It was not. From a business standpoint, it was not. That's why we didn't come back and that's why we're still trying to figure it out."
Link: https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/other-sports/wrestling/wwe-returning-wembley-triple-h-13406996

With their big win at SmackDown 1000 last night, new SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Bar joined The Usos as teams that have defeated The New Day multiple times for tag team titles in WWE. On a related note, Cesaro and Sheamus became the 9th & 10th Superstars in WWE history to reign as both RAW Tag Team Champions and SmackDown Tag Team Champions in their careers.

Week 5 of WWE's Mixed Match Challenge Season 2 saw two teams pick up wins - Bobby Lashley and Mickie James, The Miz and Asuka. Country Dominance defeated Bobby Roode and Natalya while Team Awe-ska defeated Rusev and Lana.

Live Facebook Watch viewership for this week's episode peaked at 74,400 viewers. This is up from last week's 72,000 viewers, week 3's 42,800 viewers and week 1's 52,400 live viewers.

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

Impact: Austin Aries Update, James Ellsworth, Plans for Joey Janela, Sami Callihan Re-Signs, Willie Mack (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/impact-austin-aries-update-james-ellsworth-plans-for-joey-janela-sami-callihan-re-signs-willie-mack/)
Two Former Women’s Champions Reportedly Scheduled for Evolution PPV (Possible Spoilers) (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/two-former-womens-champions-reportedly-scheduled-for-evolution-ppv-possible-spoilers/)
Kevin Owens Undergoes Surgery on Both Knees (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/kevin-owens-undergoes-surgery-on-both-knees/)

Mr. Nerfect

10-17-2018, 09:40 PM

Odd that they were going to use James Ellsworth after the BFG stuff. Like, the guy's got to work and I'm sure there wasn't "heat," but it just seems weird to be promoting a guy that might do more work with them imminently.

Uh oh for Big Dave.

Emperor Smeat

10-18-2018, 10:04 PM

Today's Dirty Sheets:

Recent survey sent by the WWE asked for fan feedback in regards to three potential match for this year's Survivor Series.

* Roman Reigns vs Braun Strowman for Universal Championship
* Rey Mysterio vs Shinsuke Nakamura for U.S. Championship
* Charlotte vs Asuka for Smackdown Women's Championship

Spoiler tags used since its related to rumored plans for Survivor Series matches and potential Evolution match spoilers.

Kevin Owens will spend the next few months out of action following double knee surgery.

On this morning's Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer gave an update on Owens’ injury status. While neither surgery was major, Meltzer mentioned that Owens’ left knee had more damage to it than previously thought. Meltzer also wrote in this week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the tentative time for Owens' return "looks to be perhaps late February, more likely early March, maybe April at the worst."

Owens had the surgery on his knees on 10/17. He posted a picture of his wrapped up knees on Twitter following the surgery, writing “They had a 2 for 1 sale going at the surgery store!”

Indies Roundup:

Two more wrestlers from NJPW have been confirmed for November's ROH Global Wars tour. ROH announced today that KUSHIDA will be wrestling at the four Global Wars shows in November. BUSHI has also been added to the tour, with him joining fellow Los Ingobernables de Japon members Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, and SANADA.

MLW and Bein Sports at 8 p.m. on 10/26 has MLW Fright Night as a special show with Jimmy Havoc vs. Sami Callihan in a spin the wheel, make the deal match plus PCO vs. L.A. Park.

MLW announced PCO vs. Brody King in a no DQ match for the 11/8 show in Chicago at Cicero Stadium.

The NWA show on Sunday in Nashville has announced an appearance of Magnum T.A. who will present the new NWA National title belt to the winner of the tournament.

AAW announced Scarlett Bordeaux & Kimber Lee vs. Kylie Rae & Marti Belle for its 10/26 show in Marionette Park, IL at 115 Bourbon Street. Also on the show is Sammy Guevara vs. Rey Fenix, MVP vs. L.A. Park, Davey Vega & Mat Fitchett vs. Bandido & Flamita.

One person noted to us that The Crash attendance being down also has to do with those living in the U.S. being less likely to cross the border for shows. It was noted it’s a combination of violence in the city being at a high point and it affecting tourism, and that the type of wrestlers people would cross the border to see, like the big name American stars like Rey Mysterio, Young Bucks or Hardys no longer being there has hurt. The biggest name to the American fans is Penta 0M, but he’s losing some of his luster to Americans from his peak due to the lessening interest in Lucha Underground.

Major League Wrestling has signed PCO aka former WWE star Pierre Carl Oulette, who now does a Frankenstein’s Monster style unstoppable beast gimmick, to a deal, PWInsider.com has confirmed.
ROH: https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/kushida-returns-global-wars-tour , NWA: https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2018/10/17/nashville-fairgrounds-wrestling-venue-hosts-nwa-70th-anniversary-show/1668264002/

A number of personalities within the pro wrestling world, including our own Les Thatcher, have sent word that former Dick Slater, who had a long run working for Mid-South, Mid-Atlantic, the WWF and WCW, has passed away. At this time, we do not have additional details regarding his passing.

Sad to hear that Dick Slater passed away this morning at age 67. One hell of a worker, and promo man. Go with God my friend.????
— Les Thatcher (@LesThatcher) October 18, 2018

Our deepest condolences to Slater's family, friends and fans.
According to the Observer, Slater died from heart complications yesterday. Link: https://twitter.com/LesThatcher/status/1052892030123302913

The WWE Network will be adding the 10/23/83 Georgia Championship Wrestling "The Last Battle of Atlanta" event from the Omni in Atlanta, GA to the Hidden Gems section for VOD viewing later today, making it the first time since that event took place live that it will be able to seen by an audience. The news was first reported by WWENetworkNews.com.
More details: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/121079/wwe-network-adding-complete-last-battle-of-atlanta-event-today.html?p=1

With the apparent link to the death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey while at the Saudi Arabian consulate, the WWE has become under fire for doing the 11/2 Crown Jewel show in Riyadh. While there was talk about backup plans and monitoring the situation, at press time the show is a go, and tickets were to be put on sale on 10/19 for the show at King Saud University Stadium. The move from King Fahd International Stadium to the smaller King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh for the Crown Jewel show had nothing to do with popularity or ticket sales (which hadn’t even started) but because the larger stadium was up for renovation.

It appears that WWE is taking the approach that they have a deal worth $450 million or so, over ten years, that they would breach by not doing the show, and that, as is almost always the case with Vince McMahon, what is going on in the real world doesn’t matter since McMahon only knows one world, which is the one he usually almost fully controls. Those in the company said that the show will happen as planned unless either President Donald or the state department orders them to do it, and that is not going to happen ...

Within WWE, the reaction has been notable in a few ways ... WWE during the broadcast, mentioned Crown Jewel, but during the three hour show, Saudi Arabia and Riyadh, and the stadium were never mentioned. On the web site, mentions of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as the site for the show weren’t there either, although that has since changed at press time as they are promoting the 10/19 on-sale date locally for the show ...

We were told by people in the company that almost all the production people and most of the talent think doing the show at this time is a bad idea. Many weren’t happy about the first show and what it turned into, but only one person, Corey Graves, even hinted that in public. Management, on the other hand, was strongly in support of doing the show.

The original emotional reaction that they are going to do a big show without women wrestlers, which was the least important part of the story, was the one they thought they had handled by doing the WWE’s first all-women’s PPV four five days earlier. There was the issue of being paid millions not to just come in and do a show, but for clear propaganda purposes and being able to slide under the radar doing it where the NFL, NBA or any other major league entertainment would be excoriated for doing so. The treatment of women within that culture making the company’s own women’s empowerment promotion being made into a farce was also somewhat explained by the idea that things were changing and they’d be part of the change. There is some change, but it’s slow, but the idea that WWE coming or not coming has even the slightest part in that is comedic at best and pathetic at worst. But it changed to a point nobody can address, which is the dismemberment of someone whose main crime was being critical of the prince, the very person who earmarked the money to WWE, and more so , there is mounting evidence from U.S. intelligence officials who believe that same prince who struck the deal with WWE is culpable in the murder.

If the company was financially struggling, perhaps it would change the equation in the “greater good” argument, in the sense that if the company went under, that affects thousands of people and millions of fans. But that’s not the case. The company is doing ridiculously well and can walk away from the deal, like many other businesses are. The attitude, which is likely to be the case, and probably something other businesses in the same position are doing, is to be hopeful the story runs its course and they can go back to business as usual. As far as strict business is concerned, the amount is significant, but not nearly as significant as the $450 million over ten year price tag would indicate. Eric Handler of MKM Partners told Deadline that if the show was canceled, it would cost the company between $2 million and $3 million in operating income in quarter four, which for a company the size of WWE is significant, but not game changing. He estimated that if the deal was canceled it would cost WWE between $12 million and $16 million in operating income in 2019.

While a number of business publications covered the story, it’s been a wait-and-see for investors. The stock on 10/17 closed at $83.98 per share giving the company a $6.549 billion market value, lower than it had over the past few weeks, but up from the lower level after the market plunge last week. It doesn’t appear the controversy has hurt the stock price. It will be interesting if the subject is brought up on the company’s investment conference call on 10/25.

Normally tend to post an abbreviated version of longer news fro Meltzer in a Newsletter but made an exception this time because of how in depth he goes on the Saudi topic.

After Johnny Impact pinned Austin Aries to win the Impact title, Aries got right up, walked out and flipped off people on the way out. He then missed the next two nights of television. The entire Aries-Impact situation has been an attempt to do a worked shoot vibe, and while other sources are reporting that what happened at the end wasn’t planned and that everything at TV was rearranged, the key people involved when directly asked would not answer, giving me the impression that the worked shoot environment leading up to the match is continuing ...

While clearly meant to build the match, the environment, similar to the Sami Callihan heel push coming off the Eddie Edwards incident, you see a company looking to take reality, or take modern topics, and weave them into storylines for mainstream attention. It’s understandable, the promotion has been frustrated with the comments that the product has improved and the wrestling is the strongest its been in a while, at the same time ratings are falling and demos are aging, basically the same as for everyone except New Japan in the U.S. right now. But for Impact, largely a TV product owned by a TV company, it’s become an issue of trying to do anything to garner talk.

As noted last week, Callis was never called to appear at King of Pro Wrestling. He had to cancel the last three days of G-1 due to his Impact schedule, and New Japan started making plans for a replacement which included the talks of Lanny Poffo. Callis has still not been called and is open to at least do big shows

Poffo, 63, addressed last week’s issue and said at he met Craven at the All In show in Chicago and Craven asked him if he would be interested in doing the color commentary on the show (this would be New Japan World in the spot Don Callis had, not AXS). Poffo said he would, that he loved New Japan and had ever been to Japan. He said he’s flying to Japan for an audition and would be doing English language commentary for shows from 10/23 to 11/4, which would include Power Struggle. Poffo said his return to wrestling all came by fate. He said he was on an airplane to New Orleans for WrestleCon over Mania weekend and sat next to Mark Brown, a producer for the ROH television show. Brown told him to contact Hunter Johnston, the ROH booker, and Johnston booked him on the 4/28 show in Lakeland. The Young Bucks, at the show, asked him to do a skit for Being the Elite and he said that turned his career around.

The company [NJPW] wanted the Omega vs. Kota Ibushi singles match to headline King of Pro Wrestling, but Omega and Ibushi have turned down requests to do the match in the past a few times because they didn’t want to do it unless it was special. Budokan Hall made sense, in the sense it was where their previous singles match took place and it would determine the G-1 finals. But they wanted the rematch to be in a bigger building, obviously the idea being the 2020 Tokyo Dome show or MSG (and likely not with a one week build), so Cody was added to basically do Omega and Ibushi but not it being the big title singles match

Wednesday's episode of WWE's Total Divas drew 340,000 viewers on the E! network. This is down 10.5% from last week's episode, which drew 380,000 viewers, and a new historic low for the show since it began airing back in 2013.

With the big drop in ratings this season for Total Divas, in as obvious an idea as possible, those in WWE are talking about approaching Rousey to become a regular cast member. The last word we’ve heard is she hasn’t been approached, but that word was several days ago and things could have changed by the time this comes out. It’s a smart move in that it ups the profile of the show, but they’d probably also have to change aspects of the show. Some of the aspects like the scripted issues could say, but a lot of the show is still about setting up gratuitous bikini shots to promote the next episode during the regular shows, and while Rousey has done her swimsuit modeling in Sports Illustrated, that feels like the wrong fit with the character she portrays on the other shows. Then again, they had Lana as Russian on the regular shows and not Russian on Total Divas so in a sense they are seen as separate worlds

Regarding FOX, because wrestling is being positioned as part of the sports block, a Thursday through Sunday thing FOX is looking at starting in 2019, especially during football season, FOX wants the Smackdown show to be less comedy and more in a sports direction. Vince is more into the comedy presentation with wrestling but they are looking at having their sports people on the different shows heavily promote it and they want to give them something athletically-oriented to promote

Three WWE NXT Superstars have been quietly released from their developmental deals - Tian Bing, Jason Cheng and Gabriel Ealy. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter adds that Gabriel's twin brother Uriel Ealy was released back in June.

New Japan Pro Wrestling reportedly has interest in bringing back three talents that are currently signed to WWE, according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio.

NJPW officials are said to be interested in signing Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson and WWE United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura. It's believed they all signed three-year contracts with WWE in early 2016 and there has been no news on renewals coming up.

It's expected that Gallows, Anderson and Nakamura will stay with WWE. Nakamura moved to the United States back when he signed with WWE and he's settled here. Meltzer noted that there's talk of Gallows possibly looking to return but that was not confirmed. Anderson will likely stay here in the States as he has a family to take care of.

Eric Bischoff was a recent guest on the Pancakes and Powerslams Show and took part of a Q&A session. Bischoff answered a number of questions, while also affirming that he will not be at Crown Jewel ...

Bischoff then revealed who he feels is the Mount Rushmore of pro wrestling.

"I think it would have to be Hulk Hogan, Vince McMahon, Ric Flair, and probably Stone Cold [Steve Austin]," said Bischoff.
More highlights: https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2018/10/eric-bischoff-reveals-his-mount-rushmore-of-professional-646867/

Some other sheet news includes:

In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 8th anniversary of WWE launching the "Stand Up for WWE" website as part of Linda McMahon's failed Senatorial campaign.
According to the Observer, Impact Wrestling sold around 900 tickets for last week's Bound for Gory 2018 event.
Also according to the Observer, WWE currently has plans for the next NXT branch to be based in Germany and be called NXT Germany.
Seems rumors of WWE debuting new Women Tag belts at Evolution were finally squashed due to the Observer reporting all unannounced main roster women for the event will be in the Battle Royale instead.
Based on recent ticket tracking, WWE's upcoming all-women Evolution event is close to reaching sell out status and likely will hit it by the day of the event itself. Observer reported Ronda vs Nikki announcement managed to cause a surge in sales.
Based on recent court documents, Charlotte could be facing her own Hogan-like situation in regards to making racist comments and having them recorded. In her case it was via police reports and dash-cam footage. https://www.scribd.com/document/391132744/Riki-Paul-Johnson-vs-Ashley-Fliehr-Charlotte-Flair-Richard-Fliehr-Ric-Flair-Brian-Shields-WWE

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

WWE: Why Mauro Missed NXT Taping, NXT Match at MSG Show, Mandy Rose’s Parents (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/wwe-why-mauro-missed-nxt-taping-nxt-match-at-msg-show-mandy-roses-parents/)
Shane McMahon Will Reportedly Be Back on TV Regularly Now (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/shane-mcmahon-will-reportedly-be-back-on-tv-regularly-now/)
Former WWF Women’s Champion Alundra Blayze Scheduled for Evolution PPV (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/former-wwf-womens-champion-alundra-blayze-scheduled-for-evolution-ppv/)
WWE Announces Seven New Signees, Including Chelsea Green and Punishment Martinez (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/wwe-announces-seven-new-signees-including-chelsea-green-and-punishment-martinez/)

Mr. Nerfect

10-19-2018, 12:04 AM

Oh shit if Charlotte actually made racist comments that get leaked.

TNA are fucking stupid.

Lol at Total Divas and Ronda vs. Nikki actually spiking sales.

Emperor Smeat

10-19-2018, 09:40 PM

Today's Dirty Sheets:

Impact Wrestling didn't get a significant ratings bump coming off Bound for Glory 2018.

Thursday's episode averaged 189,000 viewers on Pop TV, up slightly from last week's 183,000. The rating in the 18-49 demo was unchanged at a 0.04.

This was the third-lowest audience Impact has drawn in 2018 and the third straight week they've been below 200,000 viewers.

Impact will begin airing in a new time slot next week. Next Thursday's episode, which will feature new Impact World Champion Johnny Impact defending his title against Fenix, will air at 10 p.m. Eastern time.

There are plans for WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels to appear on this Monday's Monday Night Raw in Providence, Rhode Island to help build to his return to the ring at the 11/2 Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia, PWInsider.com has confirmed.

That match, featuring DX vs. The Undertaker and Kane will be Michaels' first official match since retiring after losing to The Undertaker in the main event of Wrestlemania 26.

Saudi Arabia state media has confirmed the death of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist who wrote for the Washington Post. They said that an altercation between Khashoggi and those who met him inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey led to his death. Crown Jewel is scheduled for November 2 in Riyadh.
Pretty much more fuel to fire for WWE's backlash if they still go ahead with the event following recent events. Saudis originally denied that the journalist was dead or having any role in it.

Indies Roundup:
ROH has begun announcing matches for next month’s Global Wars tour. Jay Lethal, KUSHIDA, Chris Sabin & Jonathan Gresham vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA & BUSHI) is set for Lewiston, Maine on November 7, The Young Bucks vs. KUSHIDA & Sabin vs. Lethal & Gresham vs. The Kingdom (Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan) will be taking place in Lowell, Massachusetts on November 8, KUSHIDA vs. Gresham vs. Flip Gordon vs. BUSHI is set for Buffalo, New York on November 9, and Lethal will defend his ROH World Championship against Kenny King in Toronto on November 11.

Dalton Castle and CMLL’s Stuka Jr. and Guerrero Maya Jr. have been announced for ROH’s Survival of the Fittest tournament in Columbus, Ohio on November 4.

Pro Wrestling EVE has uploaded their entire WrestleQueendom show from May 5, featuring a match between Meiko Satomura and Kay Lee Ray.

David Starr vs. Tomohiro Ishii has been added to the 11/9 Rev Pro Uprising event in York Hall. The match was made after Starr issued a challenge to Ishii.

Lucha Underground averaged 73,000 viewers this past Wednesday on the El Rey Network, which was down from 84,000 last week. The fourth season will conclude with a two-part Ultima Lucha special on October 31st and November 7th.

Jordynne Grace has announced she has had to pull out of three shows this weekend due to a lingering ankle injury she has been working with. Grace sprained her ankle several weeks back and was told it would take 4-6 weeks of recovery but worked on it anyway. She said her ankle is worse than ever and take a short break and hopes to be back in two weeks. She was scheduled to work for Nova Pro Wrestling in Virginia, AWS in California, and Innovative Pro Wrestling in New Jersey this weekend. Grace also made her debut with Impact Wrestling at the television tapings this past Tuesday and wrestled a match with Katarina.
ROH: https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/dalton-back-and-wants-roh-world-championship , PW EVE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETBcUtaO7uY , Rev Pro: https://twitter.com/RevProUK/status/1053402866247970818

There's been talk of naming the Big Show's new alliance with Sheamus and Cesaro "Showbar." The name was being used backstage at Smackdown 1000, but we'll see if it ends up on camera.

The WWE will be holding their quarterly investors call next Thursday and should have significantly more attention than usual because of the upcoming Crown Jewel event. It’s impossible to imagine that topic not dominating the questions from investors and the rationale of the company to move forward with the event and fulfill this pact over the next decade.
Based on an analyst, WWE could be looking at a $12-$16 million hit in net income for the fiscal year if they break the Saudi contract. Link: https://deadline.com/2018/10/wwe-saudi-arabia-crown-jewel-controversy-jamal-khashoggi-1202484980/

The full lawsuit that has been filed by Riki Paul Johnson against Ashley & Ric Fliehr, author Brian Shields, and the WWE can be read online. Johnson is seeking $500,000 in actual damages and an additional $5 million in punitive damages over the content of the Fliehr’s 2017 book, “Second Nature”. Johnson is alleging that falsehoods were written in the book, including that Johnson was sterile and unable to father children, physical and psychological abuse that Ashley outlined in the book along with alleged criminal misconduct that is “unsupported by any official record, medical reports or any other supporting documentation. Moreover, such conduct being attributed to the Plaintiff that is, in fact, contradicted by official police reports and police dash cam video footage depicting Defendant #1 (Ashley) being the ‘out of control’ aggressor in a physical and verbal tirade which was directed at the responding officers as well as her disparaging and racist comments being directed at the Afro-American community in Chapel Hill, NC.”
Some more details regarding the Flair's defamation lawsuit.

Earlier today a report was released that stated Chris Jericho and Jim Ross were working with a major benefactor to launch a new pro wrestling promotion. The report also noted that the two had been in talks with AXS TV about securing a TV deal. Since then AXS TV has flatly denied any involvement in the rumored project.

Chris Jericho has taken to Twitter just now to share the following, throwing even more cold water on the idea:

I'm starting my own wrestling company? AWESOME! Im also starting my own movie studio w #LadyGaga, my own carwash w #Bono & my own bakeshop!
— Chris Jericho (@IAmJericho) October 20, 2018

It doesn't seem in the cards for Jericho to be opening a movie studio with Lady Gaga, or a car wash with Bono for that matter. So, it would seem he's not going to be launching a promotion with Jim Ross.
Link: https://twitter.com/IAmJericho/status/1053444644812546048 , Link from the SEScoops report in dispute: https://www.sescoops.com/chris-jericho-jim-ross-barry-bloom-wrestling-promotion/

WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair is currently scheduled to be at WWE Evolution later this month, according to PWInsider. We also now know of more WWE NXT names that are reportedly being brought in - the injured Tegan Nox, Shadia Bseiso, Kavita Devi, Xia Li and Taynara Conti. It's possible Bseiso is working as a backstage interviewer like she has with the Mae Young Classic.

RAW Women's Champion Ronda Rousey has received a lot of props this week for her promo with Nikki Bella on Monday's RAW from Philadelphia. This strong promo by Rousey is especially interesting because she personally wrote most of the promo herself and used her own words, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Paul Heyman has been producing Rousey's segments as of late because she's most comfortable working with him, and because Heyman has the best knowledge of Rousey's career and her character.

Regarding Monday's RAW promo, Heyman gave Rousey instructions and the key parts to focus on - the line about John Cena's bedroom, The Bella Twins leeching off Cena and Daniel Bryan. He also gave The Bellas their key lines on how they were the real Superstars who started the women's revolution and the Divas Title record. With The Bellas putting over Nikki's Divas Title record, the idea was that fans consider the Divas era to be a negative point in time for the women of WWE, and The Bellas would be pushing the era like it was a good thing.

WWE has a new poll asking fans which Evolution match they're most looking forward to. As of this writing, 46% voted for the Last Woman Standing match between Charlotte Flair and SmackDown Women's Champion Becky Lynch while 20% voted for Nikki Bella vs. RAW Women's Champion Ronda Rousey, 17% for Alexa Bliss and Mickie James vs. WWE Hall of Famers Lita and Trish Stratus, 11% for the Battle Royal and 6% for Shayna Baszler vs. WWE NXT Women's Champion Kairi Sane

Next Wednesday’s episode of 205 Live is their 100th episode after premiering in November 2016 on the WWE Network. The show will feature a Falls Count Anywhere match between Hideo Itami and Mustafa Ali and Mike Kanellis will have his first match on the show against Lince Dorado. The show will be taped Tuesday in Newark, New Jersey prior to the SmackDown and Mixed Match Challenge tapings.

Some other sheet news includes:

Santino Marella announced his wife gave birth to a new son earlier today. https://twitter.com/milanmiracle/status/1053271183024578561
CZW's on-gong feud with Game Changer Wrestling took another turn recently as the company is rumored once again to have anonymously called a venue trying to get an upcoming GCW event cancelled via using Nick Gage's criminal past as the bait. Gage left CZW last year after issues with management and their attempts at restricting where talent could work. https://twitter.com/davidbix/status/1053132082275332096
Newest article by Natayla for the Calgary Sun has Natty give an interview to Lita discussing WWE's upcoming Evolution event. https://calgarysun.com/sports/other-sports/natalya-neidhart-high-flying-lita-helped-change-face-of-womens-wrestling

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

WWE Officially Announces Returns of Six Wrestlers for Evolution Battle Royal (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/wwe-officially-announces-returns-of-six-wrestlers-for-evolution-battle-royal/)
New NWA National Championship Belt + NWA 70th Anniversary Card (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/new-nwa-national-championship-belt-nwa-70th-anniversary-card/)
WrestleMania 35 Main Event Speculation + WWE Wants Drew McIntyre to Be a Top Guy (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/wrestlemania-35-main-event-speculation-wwe-wants-drew-mcintyre-to-be-a-top-guy/)
WWE: Women Who Won “Men’s Titles,” “Road to Evolution” Special (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/wwe-women-who-won-mens-titles-road-to-evolution-special/)

Mr. Nerfect

10-20-2018, 07:50 PM

Showbar is an awful name.

God, I hope there is some fire to go along with that Chris Jericho/Jim Ross story. If there was ever a time to start a new promotion, it is probably now. ROH are getting more backing from Sinclair, but it's got that stigma of its style. A new "rassling" promotion would do the scene some good.

slik

10-22-2018, 08:32 AM

slik

10-22-2018, 08:33 AM

slik note : wouldn't a more 'sports feel' basically be NJPW (or copying the NJPW style)?

Jordan

10-22-2018, 11:55 AM

slik note : wouldn't a more 'sports feel' basically be NJPW (or copying the NJPW style)?

WWE took a lot from ECW and boomed the attitude era. Nothing wrong with borrowing good ideas.

slik

10-22-2018, 01:16 PM

Tis true!

slik

10-22-2018, 01:24 PM

Undertaker dealing w/ chronic knee pain right now:

http://www.bodyslam.net/2018/10/22/the-undertaker-has-been-dealing-with-chronic-knee-pain/

Ol Dirty Dastard

10-22-2018, 02:22 PM

Undertaker dealing w/ chronic knee pain right now:

http://www.bodyslam.net/2018/10/22/the-undertaker-has-been-dealing-with-chronic-knee-pain/

well he is a geriatric.

Emperor Smeat

10-22-2018, 04:06 PM

Undertaker dealing w/ chronic knee pain right now:

http://www.bodyslam.net/2018/10/22/the-undertaker-has-been-dealing-with-chronic-knee-pain/

Considering his health issues in recent years and him looking out of shape at Super Show-Down, not surprised at all. WWE made a huge mistake not making Taker-HHH a short match like with Mania to preserve his remaining wrestling health.

Wouldn't be surprised if something similar happens with Rey Mysterio in the near future since his schedule back with the WWE barely has any real time off for rest.

Mr. Nerfect

10-22-2018, 09:54 PM

They've got this idea that main events always need to be "epics." So many featured matches at big shows would have gotten so much more out of being shorter and simply went about achieving their goals (Jerry Lawler killing Michael Cole, Bret Hart killing Vince McMahon, etc.).

The Undertaker was dealing with an arthritic knee in 1999.

Mr. Nerfect

10-22-2018, 09:56 PM

On Wrestling Observer Radio Dave Meltzer said the reason for the Daniel Cormier tryout on commentary (when it happens) is because FOX has asked for him to do play-by-play for SmackDown when it moves, as they really like him doing play-by-play for UFC.

Dave said FOX thinks Cormier will help give the product a more 'sports feel' and re-iterated that a 'sports-feel' is what FOX is indicating they want for Smackdown (translation : no more New Day/R-Truth segments)

That makes sense, but it's still a bit baffling to me that you pick up a Vince McMahon product when Vince McMahon doesn't do a sports presentation. It'd be like signing a Tim Allen sitcom and saying "Hey, can you have some modern jokes mixed with drama." Like, I get there isn't that alternative on a major level for wrestling right now, but it's just a square peg/round hole thing to me.

I give it less than six months before Cormier is in angles, by the way.

slik

10-23-2018, 12:24 PM

Meltzer reporting on WO Radio that Lashley is injured, not sure if he'll take time off or needs to yet though

Emperor Smeat

10-23-2018, 10:01 PM

Today's Dirty Sheets:

WWE once again rumored to be planning to use the main event of the all-women Evolution event just to hype up Survivor Series. Rumored to be calling up the rest of the MMA 4 Horsewomen for Ronda and debut as a group there during the match.

Currently unknown if WWE will have Nikki lead Team WWE against MMA 4HW at Survivor Series or rush WWE 4HW together as a group for Survivor Series.

Also currently rumored Charlotte is beating Becky at Evolution since WWE wants Charlotte to look strong for the potential Ronda-Charlotte Mania tease at Survivor Series.

Spoiler tags used since its related to potential plans for Evolution.

A combination of the lack of baseball competition and the shocking news of Roman Reigns' leukemia diagnosis led to Raw being up six percent last night and averaging 2.54 million viewers ...

Women stuck with the third hour at a higher percentage than men, which is different from the usual pattern, and likely related to more interest in any follow-up on Reigns.

However, in the 18-49 demo, 41.5 percent of women stayed for the Evolution special, while 42.3 percent of men 18-49 stayed for the special.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.61 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.62 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.41 million viewers

The broadcast team for Sunday's Evolution pay-per-view is set.

WWE has confirmed that Michael Cole, Renee Young, and Beth Phoenix will be on commentary for Evolution. That's the same commentary team that has called this year's Mae Young Classic.

Before the main card begins, there will be an hour-long pre-show on the WWE Network starting at 6 p.m. Eastern time. It will feature Young, Phoenix, and Paige. Lilian Garcia, JoJo, and Kayla Braxton will be the ring announcers, Braxton and Charly Caruso will be on the red carpet, and interviews will be done by Dasha Fuentes, Cathy Kelley, and Sarah Schreiber.
Link: https://www.wwe.com/shows/wweevolution/article/all-star-announce-team-revealed-for-wwe-evolution

Cody Rhodes' first IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship defense will be taking place at next month's Global Wars tour.

ROH announced today that Cody will defend the IWGP United States title against Beretta at Global Wars: Toronto on November 11. They've been building up a match against each other, which has included Beretta issuing a challenge to Cody at an NJPW Road to Power Struggle show and Cody tweeting out a poll asking if Beretta deserves a shot at the title.
Link: https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/cody-defend-iwgp-us-title-against-beretta-toronto

Braun Strowman wrote about his friendship with Reigns: “I’ve been in many wars with this man. He’s been my biggest rival on tv!!!! But behind the scenes he’s one of my closest friends!!!! He’s is one of the toughest men I’ve ever met and I have no doubt he’ll kick leukemia’s ass and and be back to battling with me soon and I can’t wait. You and your family are in my prayers. Love you Big UCE!!!!! #FUCancer”
Link: https://www.instagram.com/p/BpQhh68lv-w/?hl=en&taken-by=adamscherr99

The WWE’s “Road to Evolution” special that aired immediately after Raw averaged 1,114,000 viewers on the USA Network.

The "Road to Evolution" special that aired on the USA Network after last night's RAW did not air on the WWE Network as originally scheduled. It will now premiere on the Network this Thursday at 8pm ET. The thirty-minute special will also air on Wednesday night on the E! network after Total Divas goes off the air.

Indies Roundup:
Christopher Daniels vs. Juice Robinson has been added to ROH’s Global Wars show in Lewiston, Maine on November 7. The Young Bucks vs. Bully Ray & Silas Young is also set for Lewiston. Tetsuya Naito will face Hangman Page in Lowell, Massachusetts on November 8, and Jay Lethal vs. Chris Sabin in a proving ground match (if Sabin wins, he gets a future shot at Lethal’s ROH World title) is set for November 9 in Buffalo, New York.

Daniels is the final entrant in this year’s Survival of the Fittest tournament.

Joey Janela will have surgery on his knee this Friday. He tore a number of ligaments in his knee back on 9/21 in a match against Psicosis.

Nick Aldis will defend the NWA Worlds Heavyweight title against Billy Gunn at a CWA event in Puerto Rico on December 16.

Joey Ryan & Hornswoggle, forming a tag team called “Size Matters”, will make their MLW debut as a team in Chicago on November 8. Joey Ryan & Swoggle form a tag team called Size Matters and face the Dirty Blonds on the 11/8 MLW show in Chicago. That's the show headlined by Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix vs. L.A. Park & El Hijo de L.A. Park.

Marko Stunt vs. Ace Romero has been added to the November 8 MLW tapings in Chicago.

Not only is Impact moving from 10 p.m. to midnight Thursday on Pop TV, but there is no midnight replay this week. Impact also moves to 10 p.m. in Canada on The Fight Network. The show is also moving to 11:30 p.m. on Game TV in Canada.
ROH: https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/christopher-daniels-final-entrant-survival-fittest , Janela: https://twitter.com/JANELABABY/status/1054866083549757442 , NWA: https://www.facebook.com/cwapr/videos/1928509970778067/ , MLW: http://wrestlingnews.co/mlw-news/joey-ryan-make-their-debut-in-chicago-november-8th/ & https://mlw.com/2018/10/23/ace-romero-to-rumble-with-marko-stunt-in-chicago/

The new main event for Crown Jewel is scheduled between Brock Lesnar and Braun Strowman on November 2nd with the winner becoming Universal champion. The Crown Jewel show itself is in a state of flux. Tony Maglio at The Wrap is reporting that the WWE will decide the fate of the Crown Jewel event on Wednesday. The Turkish government was scheduled to release their findings into the murder of Jamal Khashoggi on Tuesday and it could sway the WWE’s decision to go to Saudi Arabia. Robbie Fox of Barstool Sports adds that the company is “frantically scouting locations to move Crown Jewel to. This is NOT definite confirmation that it’s out of Saudi Arabia, but the location and date are unquestionably in major jeopardy right now.”

The timing is important of the WWE’s deadline to make a decision. On Thursday, they are scheduled for their quarterly investor’s call and earnings report being released. I would imagine this subject will dominate the investor’s call and it’s going to be a tough position for the WWE to take if they stick to their plan of running Crown Jewel in Riyadh. Conversely, you will have shareholders and analysts also question the financial windfall of pulling out of the show and future repercussions to the deal with the General Sports Authority. This deal is a mess for the company and it’s a matter of mitigating rather than avoiding because any choice they make is going to have a backlash.

Robbie Fox had reported Monday that John Cena and Daniel Bryan were refusing to work the Crown Jewel. I was told that on Monday afternoon, creative was informed that John Cena was off the show and they did have a replacement in mind. On Monday’s Raw, Cena was still being advertised and mentioned in a promo by Kurt Angle as participating in the World Cup. That tells me there is still hope they can work out a deal with Cena, or if the event moves it could eliminate whatever reservations Cena has. It’s worth mentioning, I was not given the specific reason for Cena’s removal from Crown Jewel.

The only mention of Roman Reigns’ prior battle with leukemia was a vague reference by sports writer Justin Rogers in a 2015 article. The story focused on footballer player Calvin Johnson and his former Georgia Tech teammate, Joe Anoa’i. The article mentioned Anoa’i going undrafted and then, “As a free agent, Anoa’i got a shot with the Minnesota Vikings and Jacksonville Jaguars, but a serious illness forced him to take some time off.”

WWE issued a new survey gauging fan interest on possible features for an upgraded tier on the Network. They wrote: "WWE is considering a new premium tier for WWE Network, offering more content, features and perks. This tier would be available for $15 per month."

The survey stated that the new tier would include exclusive streaming content, such as live monthly Saturday Night Main Event shows, special live events, as well as current and archived ICW and Progress Wrestling events. Non-streaming features with the new tier would include free shipping on merchandise purchased on WWE Shop, a WWE rewards program where you receive points for money spent on the premium subscription or on WWE Shop, early access to live event tickets, automatic entries into WWE-themed sweepstakes and the ability to stream and download WWE content on up to 4 devices concurrently (instead of 2).

Elsewhere in the survey were questions about viewing habits, other promotions like NJPW and ROH airing on the Network, what other benefits fans would be interested in and more.

Scott Hall celebrated a milestone birthday on Saturday as the WWE Hall of Famer turned 60 years old. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson tweeted Hall a happy birthday message and said he often studied Hall's matches while wrestling in Memphis, Tennessee (in 1996 for the United States Wrestling Association, which also served as a developmental promotion for the World Wrestling Federation). The Rock said Hall heavily influenced his "work style."

I studied the f--k outta Scott's work and while working for Jarret in Memphis, I watched his matches nightly back at my apt. Big influence on my work style. Happy Birthday Bad Guy ????
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) October 21, 2018

Hall responded:

You took it to another level Rock. Thanks for the birthday wishes https://t.co/K000me5Rzu
— Scott Hall (@SCOTTHALLNWO) October 21, 2018
Links: https://twitter.com/TheRock/status/1053935376484761600 , https://twitter.com/SCOTTHALLNWO/status/1053945553606840325

Some other sheet news:

Besides wrestlers, ROH and Madison Square Garden sent messages of support for Roman Reigns in his battle with leukemia. https://twitter.com/ringofhonor/status/1054806109175926784 , https://twitter.com/TheGarden/status/1054850297632296960
PWTorch's Wade Keller reported Roman Reigns' speech last night was not something planned nor known backstage prior to the show. Creative originally had plans for him to give a different promo and same for RAW's booth being legit caught off guard with his farewell.
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 18th anniversary of the passing of Yokozuna.

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

Rumor: Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia “in Jeopardy” (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/rumor-crown-jewel-in-saudi-arabia-could-be-in-jeopardy/)
Bobby Lashley Is Reportedly Working With an Injury (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/bobby-lashley-is-reportedly-working-with-an-injury/)
Wrestling World Shows Support for Roman Reigns After Leukemia Announcement, Reigns Responds (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/wrestling-world-shows-their-support-for-roman-reigns-after-leukemia-announcement/)
Alexa Bliss Reportedly Injured Again (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/alexa-bliss-reportedly-injured-again/)

Mr. Nerfect

10-23-2018, 10:10 PM

Dammit, Dwayne -- Jarrett used to spell his name out for you and you still get it wrong and say you're friends with the family.

Mr. Nerfect

10-23-2018, 10:11 PM

WWE's tiered pricing system is basically them admitting that they can't get new Network subscribers and have to milk more money out of their current ones.

Mr. Nerfect

10-23-2018, 10:13 PM

They really should have just used the Network for old PPVs and the occasional special. I guess NXT and the Takeovers and stuff too, but NXT would benefit from being on proper TV -- or they could pitch the Takeovers to other places.

Emperor Smeat

10-24-2018, 12:26 AM

They tried that model initially but while its great for launch, its not sustainable if you want to actually grow and maintain a healthy subscription base.

Even MLB and NFL realized their vast vaults mean nothing if your not constantly supplying new content since that is what people care for the most. Same with Netflix and their constant buying of new films and shows to keep up the interest for subscribers.

LibSuperstar

10-24-2018, 01:07 PM

If they uploaded some Capitol Wrestling footage I'd be up for it.

Emperor Smeat

10-24-2018, 09:28 PM

Today's Dirty Sheets:

Coming off last week's highly-rated 1,000th episode, SmackDown viewership dropped 18 percent this week to the second-lowest number of the year. At just 2.087 million viewers, this was also the fourth-lowest number since SmackDown moved to its live format.

This came despite the fact that Raw was up this week, and was likely due to SmackDown airing opposite the World Series. Game one between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers averaged almost 14 million viewers, and ratings juggernaut NCIS on CBS cracked 11 million viewers.

SmackDown was down over 22 percent year-over-year and retained just 82 percent of the Raw audience from the night before, which may have been inflated due to curiosity about the health of Roman Reigns.

SmackDown finished eight for the night on cable in terms of total viewers, which is right in the normal range.

WWE and EVOLVE have made a couple of announcements concerning WWE wrestlers working upcoming EVOLVE shows.

As was announced earlier this month, Mustafa Ali will be wrestling at EVOLVE 115 in Livonia, Michigan on November 9 and EVOLVE 116 in Oak Lawn, Illinois on November 10. Ali's opponents were revealed today, with him facing DJZ in Michigan and Darby Allin in Illinois.

Kassius Ohno is set to wrestle at EVOLVE 117 in Queens, New York on December 15 and EVOLVE 118 in Deer Park, New York on December 16. He'll also be a guest trainer at a seminar that WWN is holding in Long Island on December 16.

EVOLVE Tag Team Champions Chris Dickinson & Jaka issuing an open challenge has been set up for EVOLVE 114 in Ybor City, Florida this Sunday. On Twitter, it's being teased that The Street Profits (NXT's Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) will be the team to face Dickinson & Jaka.
Links: https://www.wwe.com/shows/wwe-205-live/article/mustafa-ali-opponents-revealed-evolve-wrestling & https://twitter.com/AngeloDawkins/status/1054875916520841216

WWE Network News is reporting that the following Brothers of Destruction matches will be this week's "Hidden Gems" added tomorrow on the streaming service:

RAW 04/16/2001 – Destruction After Dark

The Brothers of Destruction look to put the brakes on Stone Cold Steve Austin and Triple H’s power trip in this rarely seen moment from RAW.

OVW 06/30/2001 – Destruction Comes to OVW

The Undertaker has a big surprise in store for the team of Diamond Dallas Page and Leviathan when he brings his brother Kane to OVW.

Indies Roundup:
MLW issued the following: BRIAN PILMAN JR. VS. TOMMY DREAMER IN A BATTLE FOR RESPECT ON NOVEMBER 8 IN CHICAGO AT MLW FIGHTLAND. CHICAGO – Following a violent attack on Kevin Sullivan, the Hart Foundation’s Brian Pillman Jr. wants to add the head of another legend to his mantle: the “Innovator of Violence” Tommy Dreamer… and Dreamer has accepted the challenge.

CMLL star Rush has been booked for the 12/13 and 12/14 MLW events in Miami, Florida.

In regard to rumors of European star WALTER coming in [MLW], there are no current plans for that. The two sides had contact several months ago but nothing came of it and they've had zero communication since.

Chris Jericho announced Wednesday that the Rock ‘N Rager cruise is now sold out. The cruise boards on Saturday from Miami and sails to the Bahamas and returns October 31st. There is a huge list of wrestlers and personalities that are part of the cruise, including a big tag match with Jericho & The Young Bucks vs. Kenny Omega, Cody & Marty Scurll, as well as the Sea of Honor tournament. Talent from Ring of Honor and Impact Wrestling will be on the cruise and the Bucks will have an inter-promotional match against Santana & Ortiz of LAX. Select matches will be airing on Honor Club and FITE TV on Saturday, November 3rd.

The El Rey Network will be airing an all-day marathon next Wednesday Lucha Underground’s fourth season leading into the first part of Ultima Lucha at 8 pm Eastern.

Former WWF and WCW star Samu Anoa'i publicly revealed today that he is battling stage four liver cancer and is waiting for a liver transplant.

Anoa'i revealed his battle during a Facebook post this morning addressing complaints about t-shirts he began selling this week, which some criticized as being exploitative after Roman Reigns announced the return of his leukemia.

I want to take a minute to address the situation with myself and that of my family.

I recently have posted I am selling shirts “Anoa’i Strong”

These shirts have been for sale for many years and in light of the current situation that has struck myself and my family, I have decided to change the shirts to various colors for cancer.

My cousins news has struck the world and we are all devastated at this time. What many of you may or may not know is I am also dealing with stage 4 liver cancer and am currently waiting for God’s grace to help me get a transplant.

I am an elder member of my family and in no way am I or my family attempting to profit from any serious sickness. Instead, I want to use our name in order to help doctors and researchers find ways to cure this evil sickness.

I do not endorse or will I ever endorse profit on the misfortune of others or myself or that of my family.

I want all of my friends, family and fans to know we will always remain “Anoa’i Strong.” and these shirts will remain for sale and we will be speaking with various cancer organizations on how we can help.

Until you can stand in the shoes we stand in you will never know the pain and the struggle we endure daily.

Over the course of his run in professional wrestling, Samu has worked as the third member of the Wild Samoans, headlined Madison Square Garden, worked World Class and the NWA/WCW with Fatu (later Rikishi) as the Samoan SWAT Team and then returned to WWF with Fatu as the Headshrinkers. He currently operates WXW out of Allentown, PA and has competed for MLW at their BattleRiot event in NYC.

Do you think that the reaction to Becky Lynch is similar to that of Daniel Bryan, while inadvertently, making Charlotte the female Roman Reigns?

Becky definitely has the Bryan role. The fans have gotten behind her and want to cheer her and see her reach the summit. I don’t think they hate Charlotte like they did Reigns, for the simple reason that Becky got the Title. WWE didn’t want to give the Title to Bryan so that made the fans angry at whoever got pushed in his place. Now, if that ends up being what they do with Becky, we can revisit it then.
From PWI's weekly Q&A articles on the similarities between Becky Lynch and Daniel Bryan in terms of crowd support and WWE's stubbornness.

With Roman Reigns' health issues, all early plans for Wrestlemania 35's main event picture are now out the window we are told.

As of this morning, tickets still have yet to go on sale for the 11/2 Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia.

However, the first set of WWE staff members working the show are scheduled to travel there within the next day with the remaining heading over there following the next set of TV tapings. The talk at this week's TV among staffers was about traveling to Saudi Arabia, so everyone is under the impression they are going as nothing else has been communicated to them by management.

If WWE is going to change plans, they will have to do so very soon.

Inside the Ropes has announced three speaking events with The Undertaker for 2019. The Undertaker will be doing shows on April 30th in London, England, May 1st in Glasgow, Scotland, and May 2nd in Manchester. Tickets for the three shows go on sale next Wednesday at www.insidetheropes.co.uk.

We've noted how Alexa Bliss reportedly suffered a concussion at Saturday's WWE live event in Hartford, which has her status up in the air for Sunday's Evolution match with Mickie James against WWE Hall of Famers Lita and Trish Stratus. PWInsider reports that the belief is Bliss suffered either a concussion or a broken nose as both stories are going around backstage. WWE kept Bliss off TV this week as they wanted her to heal up to make sure she's good to go for Evolution. As pointed out earlier this week, Bliss indicated that she's been at home but she's still planning on being at Evolution as she has new merchandise dropping.

Triple H posted the following to reveal the following theme songs for the WWE NXT "Takeover: War Games II" event during Survivor Series weekend in Los Angeles - "Wonderful Life" by Bring Me The Horizon, "Mariana Trench" by Nita Strauss, "Voices" by Motionless In White.

.@WWENXT's War Ensemble…@MIWband, @BMTHOfficial, and @HurricaneNita are #NXTLOUD. #NXTTakeOver: WarGames #WeAreNXT pic.twitter.com/LiI322BnD8
— Triple H (@TripleH) October 24, 2018
https://twitter.com/TripleH/status/1055190098013229058

Roman Reigns announcing on RAW this past Monday night that he was vacating the WWE Universal Championship due to his battle with leukemia continues to be the talk of the wrestling world. Reigns revealed that he's been living with leukemia for the past 11 years and it has returned.

Leukemia is a serious form of cancer with an average five-year survival rate (the percentage of patients alive five years after the disease is diagnosed) of 57% in the United States. Reigns has not specified the type of leukemia that he has. There are many types of leukemia, however acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are the most common in young adults.

According to Cancer.org, the total treatment time for ALL is 2 years. Treatment for AML varies depending on if chemotherapy is required, but in total it can be several months to a year.

While Reigns had never publicly revealed his previous battle with leukemia until this week, an article at MLive.com in June of 2015 stated that Reigns was forced to leave the Jacksonville Jaguars of the NFL because of "a serious illness" before signing with the Canadian Football League. Reigns was released from the Jaguars in August of 2007 before signing with the Edmonton Eskimos of the CFL in 2008 and playing for the Eskimos that fall.

Assuming MLive.com's report is accurate, that would mean that Reigns was out of action for about 10 months, since his last game with the Jaguars was in August of 2007 and he played for the Eskimos in the 2008 CFL season, which started that June.

SmackDown General Manager Paige was backstage for last night's TV show in Newark but she was not used in an on-camera role. The decision was made to put SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon on the show this week as he eases back into a regular TV role. PWInsider adds that WWE officials still love Paige in her role as General Manager.

Could the nWo be up for a WWE Hall of Fame induction in the near future?

Reddit user thegumpguy posted about meeting WWE Hall of Famer Kevin Nash at the Gump City Con in Mobile, Alabama this past weekend and said Nash claimed the upcoming nWo reunion is being done to gauge interest on a potential WWE Hall of Fame induction for the group.

Thegumpguy wrote on Nash, "No line at his booth, so I had plenty of time to talk to him, even gave him a cigar. ... He did a Q&A panel and discussed the upcoming nWo reunion and how it's just a bunch of Q&A parties to gauge interest for inducting them into the Hall of Fame" ...

There's no word yet on who the induction would be for but it could be for the original nWo - Hogan, Hall and Nash. The group featured more than 50 members since it was first put together in 1996.

Nash revealed at the convention that he's a big fan of Bayley and Sasha Banks, and that they would have been a welcomed addition into the nWo. Thegumpguy also noted how Nash said Jim Cornette is bitter about how the wrestling business has changed, and how he doesn't get why Joey Ryan is so popular as he thinks Ryan's gimmick is crass & not in good taste.
Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/9q7jgs/met_kevin_nash_today/

The Rock has been pretty savvy about avoiding controversy throughout his career, but a months-old social media post has inserted himself into the Saudi Arabia situation.

Six months ago, The Rock posted on Instagram that he had the pleasure of having dinner with Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. Rock described it as a "fascinating experience" and one that he "asked a lot of questions. Listened and learned."

CNN reporter Oliver Darcy uncovered that old Instagram post and blasted The Rock for it.

This Instagram post from @TheRock did not age well. Reached out to his publicist several times today to see if he has any new thoughts on MBS, but no response. pic.twitter.com/N538sD52X1
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) October 19, 2018

The Rock responded by calling Darcy's post "clickbait" and urged him to go back and read what he said in the Instagram caption.

Such a silly, clickbait post, Oliver. Im surprised you'd post this. Go back and really read my words. I listened and learned then. As I listen and learn now. C'mon man
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) October 20, 2018

Darcy responded with a tweet of his own in which he asked Rock if his opinion on bin Salman has changed over time.

You had dinner with a brutal authoritarian, playing a role in his PR campaign to convince the West that he was, as you'd say, someone with "modern views." Then you gushed about it on social media. Ppl look up to you. Do you regret giving him a platform? Has your opinion changed? https://t.co/yPHazTLIRt
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) October 20, 2018

Rock hasn't responded to Darcy's latest post but he becomes the latest member of the WWE family to appear to, in some way, defend Saudi Arabia. However, Rock's post is from April 2018 and was before journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Others who have more blatantly defended Saudi Arabia include JBL who commended the country for promoting change and Randy Orton who said going to Saudi Arabia for Crown Jewel would "make things better everywhere."

WWE has a new poll asking fans who won the war of words between The Bella Twins and RAW Women's Champion Ronda Rousey over the last two weeks. As of this writing, 77% voted for Rousey.

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

Hulk Hogan Says He’s “Looking Forward to Going to Saudi Arabia With WWE” (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/hulk-hogan-says-hes-looking-forward-to-going-to-saudi-arabia-with-wwe/)
Cody Rhodes Implies His Time With ROH Is Coming to an End + He’s Done With Bullet Club (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/cody-rhodes-implies-his-time-with-roh-is-coming-to-an-end-hes-done-with-bullet-club/)
WWE: More on Dean Ambrose Heel Turn, Future Plans for Trish Stratus & Lita (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/wwe-more-on-dean-ambrose-heel-turn-future-plans-for-trish-stratus-lita/)

Emperor Smeat

10-25-2018, 10:12 PM

Today's Dirty Sheets:

WWE took in $188.4 million in revenue in quarter three and ended with a $33.6 million profit. For a comparison, the first two quarters profit was a combined $21.8 million. Last year's third quarter had $186.4 million in revenue and $21.8 million in profits.

However, there were negative signs, in that the profit increase was due to a $15.6 million benefit provision from income taxes, so if you take that out, operating income fell from $31.1 million last year to $18.0 million this year ...

The major difference was an increase in spending which was not offset by the much smaller increase in revenue. In addition, while TV rights fees continue to increase, live events and consumer products were significantly down, to the point where the live events are barely breaking even, with just $120,000 in live event profits for the combined months of July through September.

Vince McMahon said that he has always considered live event attendance as the barometer of how well they are doing, that he knows what is wrong and said they are antiquated, that he knows how to fix it and that they will turn around.

They also said the long-term goal is to have Performance Centers all over the world in every major market and that they are working on major changes for the business. During the call, the company said that the show in Saudi Arabia was a sensitive subject and they would say nothing more than their statement earlier today.

The WWE Network had 1,615 subscribers on September 30, broken down as 1,186,000 in the U.S. and 429,000 outside the U.S. At this time last year, the numbers were 1,507,000 subscribers broken down as 1,106,000 in the U.S. and 401,000 outside the U.S.

However, that is misleading due to discount subscribers, as while during the quarter, the average for the quarter was nine percent more subscribers than last year (at the end that dropped to seven percent due to weaker performance at the very end of the three months and stronger performance in the earlier portion), the revenues were only up two percent, meaning far more people were paying lower rates ...

Arena attendance, averaging 4,500 fans in quarter three in the North American market, was the lowest in many years.

Even with the declines in key indicators of overall popularity, the television rights fees will keep the company at record profit levels going forward.

Some notes from today's fiscal report and investor's meeting by the WWE.

Kevin Kay, a huge figure in MMA history and to an extent pro wrestling, is out after more than 20 years with Viacom. Kay was running the Paramount Network, TV Land and CMT. Kent Alterman will take over Paramount, TV Land, Comedy Central, MTV, VH1 and will also be the man in charge of Bellator. Key helped create the environment where Raw could command real money in TV rights in a 2000 deal with WWE, and also green lit UFC on television in 2005, TNA on television in 2005, and purchased Bellator. He literally saved TNA which was on the verge of shutting down, may have saved UFC and basically gave it life, and made Bellator stable. He was a big combat sports fan and his being out could lead to major changes in the future with a new person in charge of Bellator.

Cody on Twitter kind of outright said he wouldn't be working the ROH/NJPW Madison Square Garden show in April. He wrote, "I am not on that show." It's notable also because the group of Cody, Young Bucks, Hangman Page and Kenny Omega have talked of sticking together.

The scheduled WWE talent appearance on today's Megyn Kelly Show on NBC has been scrapped as Kelly is in the middle of a controversy after she defended the idea of using Blackface for Halloween costumes, which as you might imagine, received an extremely negative response.

Kelly was taken to task by her fellow NBC broadcast journalists and has apologized.

NBC has distanced themselves from Kelly (who is now rumored to be leaving the Today Show) and will air a rerun instead of a new, live episode.
For some comparison on how messed up WWE has become, WWE feels being associated with someone making blackface comments is worse than being associated with someone making racist comments on tape (Hogan). Both are bad but potentially being an actual racist is less bad in WWE's eyes.

Indies Roundup:
Rey Mysterio Jr will be on the Jericho Cruise on 10/27 and 10/28.

Tom Lawlor vs. Sami Callihan in a street fight has been added to MLW's tapings in Cicero, IL on 11/8.

The Women of Wrestling promotion that debuts on AXS in 2019 will be both performing and participating in a panel at the L.A. Comic Con on 10/26 to 10/28 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. There will be matches on Saturday at 4 p.m. and a panel discussion on Sunday at 2:30 pm., and more matches after that.

ROH is putting tickets on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m. local time for shows on 12/15 in Philadelphia at the 2300 Arena, 1/24 in Dallas at Gilley's Dallas, 1/25 in Houston at the NRG Arena, and 1/26 in Austin, TX at the Austin Highway Event Center.

Big League Wrestling announced today that Neville (who is again going by the name PAC since departing WWE) will be making his United Kingdom in-ring return at their show at the Westlands Entertainment Venue in Yeovil, England on Sunday, November 18. He'll be facing Dean Allmark and Jake McCluskey in a three-way match.

Ireland's OTT Wrestling also announced that Neville is coming to their promotion soon. A date for when Neville will debut for them wasn't announced, but OTT noted that it wouldn't be in November.

The Young Bucks vs. KUSHIDA & Chris Sabin has been added to the card for ROH’s Global Wars show in Toronto on November 11. The Briscoes vs. Beretta & Chuckie T vs. Cody Rhodes & Hangman Page is set for Global Wars in Buffalo, New York on November 9. Jeff Cobb vs. Christopher Daniels and Jay Briscoe vs. Scorpio Sky have been announced for Lowell, Massachusetts on November 8.
BLW: https://twitter.com/GoBigLeague/status/1055385557000507392 , OTT: https://twitter.com/OTT_wrestling/status/1055441570391040000

Will Ospreay is off Power Struggle after suffering an injury earlier this month.

New Japan’s English website made the announcement tonight that Ospreay will not make his scheduled match against Taichi for the NEVER Openweight championship at next weekend’s event, saying that he needs more time to recover from the injury. There will not be a replacement match and instead the bout will be cancelled.

Ospreay suffered an injury to his ribs back on October 14 in a match against Chris Ridgeway on a RevPro/New Japan Global Wars UK event in Brixton, England. He landed wrong after a kick and was taken to a hospital for evaluation after the match.

A few days later, New Japan announced that Ospreay would be taken off the Road to Power Struggle tour and instead would focus entirely on the NEVER title match at Power Struggle. Obviously, things have changed.
Link: https://www.njpw1972.com/37866

The National Wrestling Alliance announced today that a new version of their NWA 70 event from this past weekend has been uploaded to FITE.tv, correcting the audio issues from the live broadcast:

We thank everyone who ordered #NWA70 on @FiteTV!

We can confirm that an updated version of the show is now available with the audio issues fixed including the 2 backstage interviews. If you bought original event, you now have this version!#NWA70 - https://t.co/2XNYx8pJwX pic.twitter.com/psC526g5Sd
— NWA (@nwa) October 25, 2018
Link: https://twitter.com/nwa/status/1055479905234825217

Nikki also did an interview with the New York Post, where she admitted she wasn't happy about the Ronda Rousey line a few weeks ago on Raw regarding Bella's relationship with John Cena. “I’ve grown thick-skinned to it,” Bella said “I just can’t wait for the day it can stop and not every promo towards me brings up my ex and I think it will [stop]. I think there will come a day for that, but maybe there won’t, but I do hope so.”
Wow so the rumor was actually true after all. Literally have thin skin when it comes to not being able to handle worked shoot or "pipe bomb" promos. Probably why they let her try one on Ronda about her mother as a makeup to keep her happy. Link for those interested: https://nypost.com/2018/10/24/nikki-bella-has-real-problem-with-ronda-rouseys-cena-taunt/

Vince McMahon was not at television, which explains his not being in the video footage the company shot of Reigns backstage after his interview hugging everyone and leaving. That was also a surprise since the show was in Providence, which is in the Northeast, closer to Stamford than most shows. But he was in constant contact. Reigns was kept on a bus all day before the show, at his own request. Vince made moves during the day to prepare people who had to know, without going into detail ...

It is believed Reigns found out about the diagnosis on or just before 10/18, because it was that night that Vince McMahon first found out. It wasn’t until the next morning when the key people knew who had to start making plans for what to do, at least temporarily, without him and how to fill the hole of his not being around ...

About an hour before the show, a few people, including both Rollins and Ambrose, were told that Reigns would be opening up the show and giving up the title, but were also given the same word we were, basically that it would all be explained when he did his promo. Reigns had told Ambrose and Rollins before the show to be ready to come out and meet him when his promo was done, but neither were told what it was about. Michael Cole also knew that the show would open with Reigns relinquishing the title, but it is believed he also didn’t know why ...

Leukemia is no joke, and getting it a second time at the age of 33 is worrisome. It would seem to indicate that even if and when he beats this again, he’s at a high risk for it to come back later. Because we don’t know what form of leukemia this is, this percentage may not be accurate, but for leukemia in general, about 57 percent of the people who get it will live for more than five years. It also should be noted that most who get it are much older than Reigns, and not nearly as strong and fit. At the same time, strength and fitness, and even age to a degree, is not a safeguard against the disease because cancer isn’t fair ...

If he has Chronic myelogenous leukemia, which he may have based on saying he’s had it in him for 11 years, then he would be lucky to the degree leukemia is lucky, which is more the best of the worst luck. Chronic myelogenous leukemia is treatable with the drug Gleevec or similar drugs and 90 percent of the people who get it will live five or more years. Hairy cell leukemia, a disease that almost exclusively hits adult males, is both incurable, but easily treatable. About 96 percent or more of people diagnosed with it will live at least ten more years. But both of those forms, while he is likely to survive for a number of years, are also high risk of giving him problems many more times throughout his life.

If it is another form, the odds greatly differ. The other reality is that if he’s got the version of leukemia we hope he has, while nothing is a sure thing, he’s probably beating it and coming back. If he can beat this and come back with most of his athletic ability, he may become the most popular wrestler in the business based on real-life beating of the disease, and coming off the expected highly visible work he’ll do in raising attention and funding for treatment and a cure. In his long-term life story, that will end up being far bigger than main eventing WrestleMania or a delayed coronation or number of times holding championship titles.

Since 2012, Reigns was the guy in the on deck circle, the handpicked replacement for Cena. He was supposed to take the spot in 2015. While it was delayed, with Cena pretty much gone as far as full-time wrestling goes, he’s had the spot since beating Cena in a program and nobody else was considered. The feeling was that it was a spot they probably didn’t have to worry about for five or more years, giving them ample time to find somebody new. The one decision they figured they wouldn’t have to worry about for years is now one they have to make.
Meltzer pretty much went down the list of stars in the main roster and NXT and pretty much came with the conclusion that WWE doesn't have anyone who could fill in Reigns' spot beyond being a temporary or transitional top star. Pretty much just Drew McIntyre and even he's not at the level yet to be an established top star. If Vince gets rid of his size and muscular fetish, the pool for a real potential successor improves by a good amount.

More details have come out on the lawsuit filed by Riki Paul Johnson, the first husband of Ashley Fliehr (Charlotte Flair), against Ashley, father Richard Fliehr, author Brian Shields and the WWE ...

The Charlotte Observer had printed excerpts regarding a 2008 fight with Johnson and Ric Flair before the book came out.

The incident in question took place on September 5, 2008, long before Ashley, 22 at the time, became a pro wrestler and before Ashley and Johnson were married in 2010. The two divorced in 2011. At the time Chapel Hill police said that neighbors called for help when they heard a commotion in the parking lot of an apartment complex. Officers found Rick, Ashley and Johnson in a room and that there was a fight that had left Ric bloodied and bruised. Richard Fliehr at the time declined to press charges against Johnson. Then Ashley allegedly kicked an officer and police used a taser gun on her. She was charged with assault on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest. The issue was quickly resolved as a family matter. She pleased guilty to a lesser charge, was sentenced to a 45 day suspended sentence, put on probation and fined $200.

Ric’s version of the story in the book, saying that his daughter and Johnson were having a fight and he tried to step in. “Your daughter,” Ric claimed Johnson said was all he heard before it turned into an altercation. “My daughter did everything for this guy. He could barely hold a job. I got up and said, `Do you think you’re a man behaving this way? You’re not a man.’ Ashley’s boyfriend exploded in a fury and started throwing punches at me. I just stood there. Police arrived, and all hell broke loose. When one of the police officers entered her space and asked her to put her hands behind her back, I heard her say, `Don’t touch me. I said don’t touch me.’ The next thing I knew, the officer used a taser to subdue her. She was brought to the floor and taken into police custody in handcuffs. Her boyfriend assaulted me. I had bruises on my face, and somehow my daughter, who tried to be the peacekeeper, was arrested.”

Ashley noted that she gave up her scholarship at Appalachian State University as a Division I volleyball player after her sophomore year to move in with Johnson, who was attending the University of North Carolina. She claimed in the book there were multiple instances in which arguments led to him become physically violent toward her and also claimed that he used to do drugs with her younger brother, Reid, when Reid lived with them. The lawsuit claimed in that incident that she was the one who went into a tirade directed at the police officers and in doing so said disparaging remarks and racist comments about the African-American community in Chapel Hill, NC.

Evolution is at about 300 tickets shy of capacity, which would be about 10,900 tickets. Some of that is because scalpers went in heavy early and they are dying now with lots of tickets out at around $9 or $10, the lowest big show price for entry in years, with about 1,650 tickets left on the market with a few days left. The show was dying until the Ronda Rousey vs. Nikki Bella angle, but even the late sales were something of an illusion as noted by the secondary market pricing.

There are a lot of interesting questions, notably how the Nassau Coliseum crowd, one of the two arenas (Pittsburgh's PPG Center being the other) that have the reputation as the hardest crowds in North America, will react. Rousey gets the biggest reactions and she and Nikki Bella are considered the company's two biggest mainstream stars. Rousey has come through in the clutch and the promo buildup for this has revitalized the show. Lynch and Flair have gotten strong reviews for their house show work and also have a heated storyline. Lynch is the hottest she's ever been, even if it's as a babyface even though each weekly they try and turn her heel.

All of the NXT women that are on television were at one point slated to appear on the show in some form. They were still listed as being there but nothing has been announced for any of them except Baszler, Sane and Shirai.

While this week's editions of RAW and SmackDown Live did very little to promote the pay-per-view, Dave Meltzer on the most recent Wrestling Observer Radio noted that the internal reaction to WWE Evolution was that nobody in the company saw it as a big show. Meltzer further noted that the event was announced for Stephanie McMahon to brag about the show, and also as a way to take heat off for the women not traveling to Saudi Arabia for WWE Crown Jewel.

Nick Aldis regained the NWA heavyweight title from Cody at the NWA's 70th anniversary show on 10/21 at the Fairgrounds in Nashville. The deal was always that Cody would take the title at All In, and then drop it back at the NWA's show. Cody is still under an exclusive ROH contract, but ROH allowed him to wrestle on this show as part of a deal that included Aldis doing some ROH shows and Cody getting the championship. The change had nothing to do with whatever may or may not be the future of Cody, The Young Bucks and others at the start of 2019. Under the circumstances, with an inability to guarantee that he would be available after the first of the year, it did make sense to move the title back to Aldis, who, along with David Lagana, are really the only people working full-time for Billy Corgan's version of the promotion ...

Corgan has a name and business connections, but hasn't been able to get a TV deal unless there is something unannounced on the horizon. It's known that he pitched the idea to TBS, and some would find something historically significant about the NWA on TBS, since a very different NWA did control the station for most of the period from 1972 to when the initials were dropped in favor of WCW around 1990. But nothing seems to have transpired from it. Most of the top talent these days is under contract to WWE, New Japan or ROH, with a few with Lucha Underground and Impact. Corgan is likely shut out of that talent, as well as CMLL, because they work with ROH, unless it's a unique deal like Cody, who was a key reason the show did as well as it did.
Apparently this show drew the largest crowd ever for a wrestling event at the venue. Crowd size was roughly around 1400.

NJPW had cracked down on usage of both GIF's of their product and on people who have produced their own videos. The argument against the move is that this only increases awareness for New Japan. The thing is, a company does have the right to control its content and they do charge for usage of their footage, as does WWE, and NJPW charges a ton to outside parties, which is why you don't see people using a lot of NJPW footage in documentaries. On the flip side, cracking down on the Showbuckle videos that explain the storylines and such of New Japan is so unbelievably counterproductive
Supposedly they are considering easing some of the restrictions but not sure if it was done yet.

Cody’s ROH contract actually ends at the end of this month, so his last contracted dates are the Jericho Cruise. However, he is expecting to continue through January but he hasn’t signed a new deal and I wouldn’t expect he would right now as he and The Young Bucks and Hangman Page really are trying to stick together and see what the open market has. Once January comes, for obvious reasons, nobody knows right now what is next. As for Cody and New Japan, nothing is concrete but he’d like to continue to work for New Japan for the rest of his career if that is possible as he loves working there. He doesn’t have a New Japan contract at this point

The only thing we were told about the Austin Aries situation is that Aries has a minor concussion and is physically beaten down that there are a lot of layers to the story and what has gone down. The company did not confirm or wasn’t aware of a concussion and that those who talked with him after the match saw no signs of one, but that he and Johnny Impact were stiffing each other with a lot of shots during the match because the early part was trying to work it as a shoot (which is very different and more tiring) and later they tried to do some hard hitting New Japan style hitting and from that style of a match something like that is possible. It is also confirmed that Aries’ contract has expired and no new deal has been signed. He was there on 10/8 in the morning on the first day of television and then was sent home. The television was rewritten to take the stuff involving him out before he was sent home. There is also a lot of Pillmanesque stuff going on with him, as we’ve seen from the entire Johnny Impact angle

In a further attempt to make the 12/26 MSG show special and get a rare sellout, they have added a ten-man NXT tag match with Tommaso Ciampa & Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong & Bobby Fish vs. Pete Dunne & Aleister Black & Velveteen Dream & Johnny Gargano & Ricochet. The whole deal among other things is with the NJPW/ROH sellout in April, the last thing WWE wants is the story to be that WWE hasn’t been able to sell out MSG in years, especially when they couldn’t last time out with both the return of the Undertaker after eight years to MSG and the debut of Rousey.

WWE sent Dana Warrior to Spirit Day to support LGBTQ youth. This is really a weird one since Ultimate Warrior was as publicly anti-gay as almost anyone ever, to the point he lost college speaking engagements and caused a stir because of just how homophobic he was. Now, just because her husband said those things doesn’t mean she believes them. However, it went one step farther as she wore Ultimate Warrior face-paint while doing so

Garza Jr., was interviewed in Mexico and talked about his WWE situation. As we reported, Garza was to be signed but because his shoulder was so messed up, after his examination, WWE passed on signing him. Garza said he will have a another shot at a contract early next year and is hoping his shoulder heals enough that he gets clearance this time, noting that he was nixed by the doctors and not by WWE. Garza is barely wrestling these days, hopeful that speeds up the healing process

Hogan in an Orlando Sentinel article when asked about holding down younger talent while on top admitted that was the case. “Once I got in the spot, to keep the spot, that’s where the politics came in. Everybody goes, `Well, Hulk Hogan was a politician.’ Well, thank God I was. That’s why I made more money than anybody, that’s why I kept the belt longer, that’s why instead of a five or six or ten year run like The Rock or Stone Cold or different wrestlers, I had a 35 year run on top.

Pretty much a noted piece of shit in wrestling basically being proud at being a big piece of shit during his career.

There was recently a pitch made to reunite Bray Wyatt and Harper on WWE TV, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

There's no word yet on if The Wyatt Family reunion is actually being considered but Wyatt and Harper have both been without programs since their partners went out of action with injuries. Wyatt had been teaming with Matt Hardy and the two had a run as RAW Tag Team Champions. Harper and Rowan had a run with the SmackDown Tag Team Titles as The Bludgeon Brothers.

We noted earlier this week how Bobby Lashley has reportedly been working through an injury.

Lashley has been working with a separated shoulder, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The injury has been causing Lashley a lot of pain but he continues to work through it.

There's no word yet on if Lashley will miss any ring time because of the injury but it was believed that he would keep working as long as he could. It could be a situation where he takes time off down the road to heal.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Vince McMahon asked about Saudi Arabia decision by Brandon Ross BTIG: <br>"We're not going to talk a lot about that it's a very sensitive subject. I think our statement says all we're going to say about that today." <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wweq3?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#wweq3</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/crownjewel?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#crownjewel</a></p>— Chris Harrington (@mookieghana) <a href="https://twitter.com/mookieghana/status/1055479370511540225?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 25, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Some other sheet news:

WWE continues to get bad press due to their unwillingness to cancel their upcoming Saudi show. The latest being an article from the Associated Press exposing the contradictions of WWE running shows in Saudi Arabia while proclaiming to be a positive force for women's wrestling evolution. https://apnews.com/d7b11ede0d1c48e28b7320d82852894a
Texas based Children's Health clinic recently offered their words of support to Roman Reigns on behalf of his kid fans fighting their own battles with illness at their clinics. https://twitter.com/ChildrensTheOne/status/1055221301944745986
For those interested, Post Wrestling will be holding a charity drive on November 2nd for their Crown Jewel post-show with them personally donating $5 for every minute discussed about the show. The charity is called Committee to Protect Journalist.

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

WWE: Ciampa Statement on Gargano’s Heel Turn, Carmella’s Parents, EVOLVE/NXT Update (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/wwe-ciampa-statement-on-garganos-heel-turn-carmellas-parents-evolve-nxt-update/)
Matt Hardy Says He’ll Move Away From Woken Persona if He Returns to WWE TV (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/matt-hardy-says-hell-move-away-from-woken-persona-if-he-returns-to-wwe-tv/)
Update on John Cena and Daniel Bryan Not Wrestling in Saudi Arabia (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/update-on-john-cena-and-daniel-bryan-not-wrestling-in-saudi-arabia/)
Sasha Banks Reveals Why She Was Out of Action for Over a Month (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/sasha-banks-reveals-why-she-was-out-of-action-for-over-a-month/)
WWE Confirms That Crown Jewel Will Take Place in Saudi Arabia (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/wwe-confirms-that-crown-jewel-will-take-place-in-saudi-arabia/)

ClockShot

10-26-2018, 05:33 PM

G1 Supercard is 6 months out. And now Cody comes out and says he's not working it?

I doubt ROH & NJPW haven't even thought about a card that far off let alone what the production setup is going to look like.

He's got plenty of time to change his mind.

Emperor Smeat

10-26-2018, 09:46 PM

Today's Sheets:

Unsurprisingly, this week's Impact drew the promotion's lowest ratings since debuting on Pop TV.

Last night's Impact averaged 98,000 viewers on Pop. This was the first episode to air since Impact moved time slots, with the show beginning at 10 p.m. Eastern time and ending at midnight. In the old time slot, last week's Impact averaged 189,000 viewers.

This week's show was headlined by Johnny Impact retaining his Impact World Championship against Fenix.

The rating in the 18-49 demo was a 0.04. That's unchanged from the past couple of weeks.

The previous low mark for Impact was 161,000 viewers for the episode that aired on December 14 of last year, which went up against WWE's Tribute to the Troops special. The previous low for this year was the 168,000 viewers that Impact averaged on August 9.
Massive loss in terms of percentage and something that needs fixing fast or else lot harder to see POP TV renew their deal even at more favorable terms to them.

On what's been a busy week of announcements concerning EVOLVE's relationship with WWE, two NXT wrestlers have been confirmed for EVOLVE 114.

The Street Profits (NXT's Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) will challenge for Chris Dickinson & Jaka's EVOLVE Tag Team titles at EVOLVE 114 in Ybor City, Florida this Sunday. Dawkins & Ford answering Dickinson & Jaka's open challenge had been teased on Twitter before the match was officially announced.

WWE.com is also teasing further NXT involvement in Sunday's show: "Sources say the upcoming match has gotten the attention of the NXT locker room, meaning there’s no telling who else could attend this Sunday’s event."
Link: https://www.wwe.com/shows/wwenxt/article/street-profits-vs-evolve-tag-team-champions-chris-dickinson-jaka

WWE stock fell to $69.78, a drop of $5.90 per share today coming off the decision to go to Saudi Arabia. It was $77.37 when the decision was made and the drop was a combo of some disappointment in the third quarter results, even though it was the most profitable quarter in company history, weak house show numbers and merchandise numbers were a concern but given that this is no longer a company about engaging consumers as much as selling product to third parties, those are metrics that define popularity but they don't define the financial future of the company which is all about the content market after 2024 and nobody can predict that.

Seeking Alpha analyzes the WWE stock and states that it’s coming back down to Earth. The stock has fallen 28% since October 1st. Analyst Kevin Cavanagh looks at the results of their third-quarter earnings report and how live events, television numbers, and social media engagement performed and has provided concern.
Link: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4214842-world-wrestling-entertainment-falling-back-earth

Indies Roundup:
Defy tomorrow night in Seattle at Washington Hall has Shane Strickland defending the Defy title against Schaff, Mike Santiago & Ethan HD defend the tag titles against Flamita & Bandido, Rey Fenix vs. Artemis Spencer, Brody King vs. Jeff Cobb and MJF vs. Randy Myers. There will also be a Halloween costume party. You must be 21 or over to attend.

Some new matches from Australia are Brian Cage vs. Bandido for the Impact X title on 11/25 for World Series Wrestling in Perth, Brandi Rhodes vs. Shazza McKenzie for 11/26 in Sydney and Rhodes vs. Erika Reid vs. Indi Hartwell on 11/23 in Melbourne.

Stokley Hathaway will return to MLW on 11/8 in Chicago at Cicero Stadium.

Tommy Dreamer, Low Ki and Sami Callihan also work behind the scenes as agents for MLW.

Konnan has risen in power in Major League Wrestling and will be replacing Bruce Prichard as the company's senior Producer and top agent behind the scenes.

Prichard, PWInsider.com has confirmed, will be leaving MLW in terms of working behind the scenes in what has been said to be an amicable departure. We are told the doors are open for Prichard to return in another role down the line should something come up and that Prichard and Conrad Thompson's uber-popular Something To Wrestle With podcast will continue on MLW's podcast network. That podcast has morphed into a WWE Network series, which is potentially being brought back for a second season.

Konnan started behind the scenes for MLW last month in Fort Lauderdale and almost immediately grew into a larger role, running the locker room at the MLW Fury Road event in NYC. He will be taking over all of Prichard's former responsibilities, which also included gorilla position. The wrestling side of MLW now has Court Bauer, Konnan and Mister Saint Laurent, who all started the first MLW podcast together years ago, as the trio heading up the wrestling side. We are told this will have no bearing on Konnan's work with AAA or Impact Wrestling.

How Triple H treats the female talents: "He's really invested in building up the women, he treats us like wrestlers,he'll talk to me like he does to Adam Cole. I wish people would understand how much freedom he gives us. Just the fact we're getting a creative say is making it different."
From a recent episode of the Breaking Kayfabe podcast show with Shayna Baszler as the guest: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/121306/shayna-baszler-reveals-why-wwe-nxt-talents-missed-the-evolution-ppv-announcement-on-raw.html?p=1

Ronda Rousey spoke to TMZ on the WWE’s decision to move forward with the Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia. Rousey brought up her own experiences at the 2004 Olympics games and running with an Iraqi athlete following the U.S. and Iraq conflict that began in March 2003 and citing how this story hits home with her sister being a journalist. While Rousey admittedly states she is an “idealist”, any defense of running this show must include the fact WWE is being paid such an exorbitant amount of money and that was the ultimate decisionmaker as opposed to the company acting as change agents. In April, this was not a show about change, and if it was, it was the WWE’s willingness to “change” how they operate with the exclusion of talent and complicit endorsement of a foreign government with a horrible track record of human rights violations. For the WWE to present a similar show in tone next week, will renew a lot of the backlash. The WWE’s defense would have less criticism if they were running a regular show that was independent of the Government, that is not what this show is. The company didn’t wake up one day and realize they need to enact change in Saudi Arabia, they were offered an enormous contract to bring a “form” of their entertainment to the country. These shows are seen as a larger commercial for Saudi Arabia to a worldwide audience and that is what they are paying for.
Pretty much the same BS type reasons as WWE, JBL, and Randy Orton had on how WWE has to hold the event there in order to bring positive change to women's rights in the country. Link with the quotes and video: https://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/ronda-rousey-defends-wwe-holding-crown-jewel-saudi-arabia-268761

As of Thursday, we were told that John Cena is still off the Crown Jewel event. A replacement for Cena in the World Cup tournament probably won’t be announced until Raw on Monday.

On today’s Super Junior Tag League show from Korakuen Hall, they tried out a new English commentary team with Shaun “Mavs” Gillis and Lanny Poffo. Gillis is a sports broadcaster that is based out of Nova Scotia.

It looks like the WWE Network will start airing two episodes of the WWE NXT UK series each Wednesday, beginning next week. The Network schedule currently has two one-hour episodes scheduled for 4pm and 5pm ET on Wednesday. The usual 3pm ET timeslot will now feature a replay of the previous week's episode. Noam Dar vs. Zack Gibson and Trent Seven vs. Saxon Huxley are being advertised for the 4pm episode. Wolfgang vs. Mark Andrews and Moustache Mountain vs. Huxley & Sam Gradwell are being advertised for the 5pm episode.

New NXT Superstar Chelsea Green (former Knockouts Champion Laurel Van Ness) is set to make her in-ring debut for the brand at tonight's live event in Largo, Florida. She was originally scheduled to debut at Thursday's show in Cocoa, FL but that show was postponed until next month due to Hurricane Michael. Green tweeted the following on tonight's debut and asked fans which side of her they want to see:

Who do you want to see tonight, @WWENXT Largo?
??????? or ???? https://t.co/ESxKweClhr
— Chelsea Green (@ImChelseaGreen) October 26, 2018
Link: https://twitter.com/ImChelseaGreen/status/1055815447206080512

Tye Dillinger is the latest WWE Superstar to play a game of "tweet & delete" on the social media platform.

Dillinger posted a #TBT tweet on Thursday and included a photo of his match with WWE United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura. Dillinger wrote, "#TBT To that time I used to wrestle."

Matt Jackson of The Young Bucks responded to Dillinger's tweet and wrote, "Money ain't everything."

Dillinger responded to Jackson's tweet with a simple, "Word."

It's interesting that Dillinger and Jackson deleted those last two replies to the original #TBT tweet. You can see a screenshot of the deleted exchange below, thanks to Reddit user ceps2111.

With the deleted tweets, it's also interesting that Dillinger left up several other tweets related to the original #TBT tweet, including fan comments on how he could potentially be released for tweeting something about how much in-ring time he gets. It looks like at least one of the fan replies could have been a reference to his "Word." tweet to Jackson.
Link to the tweets: https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2018/10/wwe-superstar-deletes-tweet-exchange-with-matt-jackson-647158/

WWE officials reportedly tried keeping Rey Mysterio from going on Chris Jericho's "Rock 'N' Wrestling Rager at Sea" cruise that sets sail this weekend, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Mysterio informed WWE officials of the cruise booking as a pre-existing commitment when he signed his new contract to return to the main roster and told them he would not be wrestling, he would just be attending as a guest. WWE still tried to keep Mysterio from going.

Mysterio was not booked for any WWE live events this weekend but it will be interesting to see if he makes Tuesday's SmackDown tapings in Atlanta, the final show before Crown Jewel. WWE currently has Rey advertised for SmackDown but the cruise does not end until the next day. It's possible Rey leaves the cruise a day early when they make it to the Bahamas on Monday.

Nearly as shocking as Roman Reigns' announcement that he's battling leukemia is the revelation that he battled the disease before. Both fans and fellow Superstars were unaware of Reigns' history with the disease but Triple H was one of the few who knew.

Triple H and Stephanie McMahon appeared on the Elvin Duran Show where Hunter discussed why Reigns didn't make public his first battle with leukemia.

"Very few people knew about [his first battle]. He and I had spoken about it and this was something that he didn't want to put out there until he had reached a certain point in his career because he didn't want people to feel like he was being pitied or given things for a certain reason," stated Triple H. "He wanted to be able to come out at the end and say, 'Look, I've dealt with this the whole time. You can do anything. This is not an end sentence.'

"As we talked about on Monday, [I told him] 'Life is what happens when you're busy making plans.' The rest of the stuff happens and it didn't work out the way he thought it would. It's back and now's the time to spread that message."
Link with more quotes and video interview: https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2018/10/triple-h-on-why-roman-reigns-didnt-make-his-first-battle-647153/

Above is this week's WWE Network Pick of the Week, featuring Toni Storm introducing her Mae Young Classic win over Meiko Satomura. Storm will now face Io Shirai in the MYC finals at Sunday's WWE Evolution pay-per-view.

It's worth noting that WWE's YouTube description for this video notes that Storm will be doing battle for the WWE NXT UK Women's Title on Sunday at Evolution. It appears this is just an error by the social media team. WWE's official match preview for Storm vs. Shirai confirms the winner will receive the MYC trophy. There is no mention of the NXT UK Women's Title.

It's also interesting that the NXT UK Women's Title match has been pulled from the official Evolution card on WWE's website ... WWE noted that there would be a NXT UK Women's Title match at Evolution when they first announced the pay-per-view several months ago.
Likely due to the inaugural winner of the UK Women's belt hasn't aired yet and WWE decided to hold that title match at the recent batch of NXT UK tapings instead even though they've been spoiling who won it at recent NXT house show events.

Some other sheet news:

According to recent tracking, WWE for some strange reason decided to release more tickets for sale for Evolution even though it seems to be around 1400-2000+ away from original sell out status.
According to the Observer, the secondary market for Evolution's tickets is at its lowest ever amount for a WWE event in a very long time at $7.64. Seems to be a mix of scalpers bought up way too many tickets and general interest being lower than usual.
Apparently Vince McMahon had a fondness for both Yokozuna's and Rikishi's ass which was the origin for Rikishi's Stink Face move, according to Bruce Prichard. https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2018/10/bruce-prichard-reveals-who-came-up-with-rikishi-stink-face-647157/
According to Showbuzz Daily, this week's episode of Lucha Underground drew around 80k viewers.

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

Alexa Bliss Pulled from Evolution Match Due to Injury (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/alexa-bliss-pulled-from-evolution-match-due-to-injury/)
Samoa Joe Injured Again (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/samoa-joe-injured-again/)
First Half Hour of Evolution Will Stream for Free on Twitter (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/first-half-hour-of-evolution-will-stream-for-free-on-twitter/)
Various: Don Callis Back on NJPW Commentary, WWE Stock Down Big, Alexa Bliss Cosplays (https://www.tpww.net/2018/10/various-don-callis-back-on-njpw-commentary-wwe-stock-down-big-alexa-bliss-cosplays/)

Mr. Nerfect

10-27-2018, 06:28 PM

Wow, TNA has almost fallen to Lucha Underground levels.

Emperor Smeat

10-27-2018, 06:50 PM

Them suffering a sizeable drop was to be expected considering its happened to them before in the past but since they were already dealing with a tiny viewerbase, that drop ended up being magnified a lot more.

Their current tv deal with POP TV expires at the end of this year so not a lot of time left for them to gain back what they lost and then recoup their viewership losses from the past couple months.

I'd still put them ahead of LU in terms of health considering El Rey is very weak as a national network in the US and they are about to take a major hit to their value once their Netflix deal expires mid-November.

Mr. Nerfect

10-27-2018, 07:03 PM

The writing is on the wall with TNA, I think. They moved them back for a reason. There is better stuff to put in that slot. They may have had a chance of surviving if they could retain their fanbase at the later time, but nope. They certainly won't be making money off their deal if they get offered a new one, and what is the appeal of TNA to other networks? <100,000 viewers? They have a history of being thrown off TV and being absolute pains to work with (say what you want about new management -- this is the legacy they have inherited).

Their parent company might try to keep them alive because of international TV deals and their presence on their app or whatever, but I'd be surprised if they end up with something better than POP given that they've scaled back their presence.

Mr. Nerfect

10-27-2018, 07:04 PM

Interesting to see if that number goes down even more.

Emperor Smeat

10-27-2018, 07:20 PM

To be fair, POP supposedly gave them no warning at all about the timeslot move and they only found out about it at the same time as everyone else. Not even WWE would be immune to that type of drop percentage-wise if they had little to no heads up.

Could see POP give them some slack like when Destination America did the same but yeah the writing is on the wall for their future on the network unless they can quickly recover from this drop and the gradual decline since the Summer.

Dixie screwing up TNA/Impact's relationship with Spike TV keeps coming back to haunt them since they would have been in a much better place had she just sold them the ownership share they wanted and listened to their "No Russo" rule.

Mr. Nerfect

10-27-2018, 08:25 PM

That POP doesn't value them enough to tell them about the change speaks loads, honestly.

The Russo/Spike TV is still absolutely boggling.

ClockShot

10-27-2018, 09:27 PM

Daaaaaaamn. WWE signed Chelsea Green?

I hope she brought along the hot mess gimmick. That was fun at All In.

Mr. Nerfect

10-28-2018, 12:59 AM

She can do a lot better than Zack Ryder.

Bad News Gertner

10-29-2018, 09:59 PM

RIP Dirty Sheets

Sepholio

10-30-2018, 05:16 AM

slik

10-30-2018, 11:10 AM

While WWE has not officially confirmed Bryan's status, PWInsider.com has confirmed that Bryan made it clear he would not be traveling to the event and WWE began making alternative plans last week.

WWE were making plans to have the Styles and Bryan bout take place at the WWE Performance Center and then airing it during the Crown Jewel broadcast on Friday. However, those plans were scrapped.

Bryan is advertised to face off with Styles on tonight's Smackdown Live broadcast, so the company has several choices in front of them. They could run an angle to take Bryan out of the match and have AJ Styles face someone else at Crown Jewel (we've heard Rusev's name mentioned as a possible replacement) or simply tape the Styles vs. Bryan match at tonight's taping to insert into the Crown Jewel broadcast. The company could also change direction and have the match on Smackdown tonight in order to close out the storyline and move Styles on to another challenger. They have several options open to them as of this writing and we are told no final decision had been made as of last night.

https://www.pwinsider.com/ViewArticle.php?id=121389

Droford

10-30-2018, 02:39 PM

Daniel Bryan not wanting to go to Saudi Arabia to wrestle for the WWE Title after going through all he went through is hilarious. Hope he never gets another title shot

Mr. Nerfect

10-30-2018, 05:52 PM

I don’t blame Bryan for not wanting to shake hands with a murderer in order to get a title shot like a mark.

Blonde Moment

10-30-2018, 06:03 PM

Can we just archive this

Droford

10-30-2018, 06:31 PM

I don’t blame Bryan for not wanting to shake hands with a murderer in order to get a title shot like a mark.

That's not the point.

Blonde Moment

10-30-2018, 06:40 PM

I would have Miz ambush him tonight or pretaped for Friday and have him wrestle and beat Styles. Have Styles get screwed out of his match at Survivor series, have Bryan beat the Miz at the RR and Styles win the RR so he can get his belt back.

Mr. Nerfect

10-30-2018, 07:03 PM

That's not the point.

What is the point?

Mr. Nerfect

10-30-2018, 07:04 PM

The only other point I could possibly gather is that you think it's funny that they only offered him a title shot in Saudi Arabia, a place no one wants to travel to right now, and that it'd be even funnier if he never got a chance to headline again? Gtfo, Droford.

slik

10-31-2018, 11:53 AM

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A source in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WWE?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WWE</a> telling me who the main draw is in the company right now: “Ronda's absolutely the main draw right now.”</p>— Brad Shepard (@TheBradShepard) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheBradShepard/status/1057450573585412096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 31, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A source in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WWE?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WWE</a> on the main event of Wrestlemania 35: “Aside from Rock formally agreeing to do a match, your main event is Ronda vs. Charlotte or a mix of Becky/Charlotte (or both in a triple threat).”</p>— Brad Shepard (@TheBradShepard) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheBradShepard/status/1057454591078473728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 31, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Ol Dirty Dastard

10-31-2018, 11:57 AM

They'll fuck it up if they try book Becky as a cowardly heel against ronda. Should book it as badass face versus badass face.

Damian Rey 2.0

10-31-2018, 12:23 PM

If they really feel that way why the fuck are they booking Becky and Ronda for survivor series? They would've booked Nia for that match

slik

10-31-2018, 12:31 PM

TLC bouts being advertised currently are (surprisingly all RAW despite it being a dual-brand show):

IC TITLE
Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose

Braun Strowman vs. Drew McIntyre

RAW WOMEN'S TITLE
Ronda Rousey vs. Nia Jax

Swiss Ultimate

10-31-2018, 12:32 PM

EVOLVE ANNOUNCES STREET PROFITS, AICHNER'S FIRST TITLE DEFENSES

After WWE-contracted wrestlers were crowned as champions this past weekend, EVOLVE has revealed the lineups for their next two events.

At EVOLVE 114, NXT's Fabian Aichner defeated Shane Strickland to win the EVOLVE Championship and The Street Profits (NXT's Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) defeated Chris Dickinson & Jaka to win the EVOLVE Tag Team titles. Their first title defenses are set for EVOLVE 115 in Livonia, Michigan on November 9. The Street Profits will defend against JD Drake & Anthony Henry, and Aichner will defend against the winner of Harlem Bravado vs. Jason Kincaid vs. Josh Briggs vs. Leon Ruff from earlier in the night.

Aichner defending his title against AR Fox has been announced for EVOLVE 116 in Oak Lawn, Illinois on November 10. The Street Profits will be in singles matches on that show. Ford is facing Strickland. Dawkins is wrestling Briggs.

As part of EVOLVE's relationship with WWE, Mustafa Ali is also wrestling at EVOLVE 115 and 116. His matches against DJZ and Darby Allin had already been announced.

Here are the cards for the two shows:

EVOLVE 115 --

EVOLVE Tag Team Champions The Street Profits defending against JD Drake & Anthony Henry
Mustafa Ali vs. DJZ
Fabian Aichner defending against the winner of the four-way freestyle match
Harlem Bravado vs. Jason Kincaid vs. Josh Briggs vs. Leon Ruff in a four-way freestyle match
AR Fox (w/ Ayla Fox and The Skulk) vs. Austin Theory (w/ Priscilla Kelly) (stipulation to be announced)
Barrett Brown also advertised

EVOLVE 116 --

EVOLVE Champion Fabian Aichner defending against AR Fox
WWN Champion JD Drake defending against Anthony Henry, Austin Theory (w/ Priscilla Kelly), and Harlem Bravado in an elimination match
Mustafa Ali vs. Darby Allin
Montez Ford vs. Shane Strickland
Angelo Dawkins vs. Josh Briggs
A special attraction match from Freelance Wrestling
Jason Kincaid vs. Barrett Brown
The Skulk also advertised

20% off orders over $40 at Warm Belly Bakery, code CHIP, exp 11/30 (https://www.shareasale.com/u.cfm?d=548932&m=77689&u=1849683)

HULK HOGAN ADVERTISED FOR WWE CROWN JEWEL

While no official announcement has been made, a notable name is now being advertised for Crown Jewel.

WWE.com's events page for Friday's show in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia now lists Hulk Hogan among the "featured superstars." The events page has also been updated to reflect the changes that were made on this week's television, with Bobby Lashley replacing John Cena in the World Cup tournament and Samoa Joe replacing Daniel Bryan in the WWE Championship match.

The names listed for the show are: Brock Lesnar, Braun Strowman, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, Kane, Randy Orton, Joe, AJ Styles, Lashley, Kurt Angle, The Miz, Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio, Seth Rollins, and Hogan.

In an interview with the Orlando Sentinel last week, Hogan indicated that he could be appearing at Crown Jewel. “There are a lot of plans in the works,” Hogan said. “I’m looking forward to going to Saudi Arabia with the WWE, looking forward to WrestleMania -- but yeah, we’re moving forward at a rapid pace. It’s exciting to have this opportunity again after all these years where I was there and gone.”

Hogan was reinstated to the WWE Hall of Fame in July and met with the WWE locker room backstage at Extreme Rules, where he addressed the situation and apologized for the racist diatribe that was made public and led to him being fired from the company in 2015.

Crazy Like A Fox: The Definitive Chronicle of Brian Pillman 20 Years Later (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079B3W5Q4/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B079B3W5Q4&linkCode=as2&tag=help50-20&linkId=4124e97c6925d6ed902f6678858685b2)

Backstage News On Possible WrestleMania 35 Plans For A Pair Of WWE Hall Of Famers

We noted before how WWE has plans to use Hall of Famers Trish Stratus and Lita in the future as big pay-per-view events like the Royal Rumble or WrestleMania. Word now is that WWE is already working on plans for Team Bestie in early 2019 as we go into WrestleMania 35 season.

WWE officials are reportedly planning on using Trish and Lita at WrestleMania 35, according to PWInsider. The idea is to use the two in a major tag team match but there's no word yet on who their opponents might be.

Trish and Lita returned to the ring together at WWE Evolution on Sunday night, defeating Mickie James and Alicia Fox. They then worked a 10-woman match on RAW the next night, teaming with Natalya, Sasha Banks and Bayley to defeat Mickie, Fox and The Riott Squad. It's believed that they will be back around towards the end of the year.

There's obvious speculation on Trish and Lita being involved with the planned WWE Women's Tag Team Titles, which are expected to be revealed soon. Stephanie McMahon spoke with Sky Sports last week and said we would see the titles "sooner rather than later" but she did not elaborate.

SPUNK Lube Pure Silicone 128oz Gallon (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077SPJN4B/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B077SPJN4B&linkCode=as2&tag=help50-20&linkId=9b7f60b663cda898411f73066a70df51)

New WWE Title Match Announced For Crown Jewel

Samoa Joe vs. WWE Champion AJ Styles is now official for Friday's WWE Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia.

The match was made after Styles retained his title over Daniel Bryan in the opening match of tonight's SmackDown. Joe returned and attacked both men after the match before celebrating with Styles' championship belt.

Bryan vs. AJ was originally scheduled for Crown Jewel but Bryan is not making the trip, presumably due to the controversy surrounding WWE's relationship with the Kingdom following the state-sponsored death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

As noted, tonight's blue brand episode saw SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon make Bryan vs. Styles after interrupting an in-ring argument between the two. This was WWE's way of working around Bryan refusing to go to Saudi Arabia. Joe attacked both men after the match and AJ later talked SmackDown General Manager Paige into making the match for Friday.

Below is the updated card for Friday's Crown Jewel event, which takes place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia at the King Saud University Stadium:

Vacant WWE Universal Title Match
Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman

WWE Title Match
Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles

SmackDown Tag Team Title Match
The New Day vs. The Bar with Big Show

WWE World Cup: One-Night Eight-Man Tournament
RAW: Bobby Lashley, WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle, WWE Intercontinental & RAW Tag Team Champion Seth Rollins, Dolph Ziggler
SmackDown: Randy Orton, Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio, The Miz

DX (Triple H and WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels) vs. The Brothers of Destruction (The Undertaker and Kane)

Roman Reigns Gets Support Aboard Jericho Cruise, The Elite Halloween Costumes, Starrcast, ROH SOTF

<iframe width="696" height="392" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/D8DXjj9PToU" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Above, The Kingdom hyped their upcoming title match against the ROH Six-Man World Tag Team Champions Cody and The Young Bucks at this Sunday's ROH Survival of the Fittest in Columbus, Ohio. The Survival of the Fittest tournament winner will receive a future ROH World Title shot. The event will stream for HonorClub members at 7pm ET. Below is the full card:

* The Kingdom vs. Cody and The Young Bucks (ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship)
* Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky vs. Jay Lethal and Jeff Cobb
* Tracy Williams vs. Jonathan Gresham (SOTF First Round Match)
* PJ Black vs. Luchasaurus (SOTF First Round Match)
* Beer City Bruiser vs. Christopher Daniels (SOTF First Round Match)
* Adam Page vs. Colin Delaney vs. Dalton Castle (SOTF First Round Match)
* Andrew Everett vs. Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Flip Gordon (SOTF First Round Match)
* Silas Young vs. Stuka Jr. vs. Marty Scurll (SOTF First Round Match)

- During "All In" weekend, Starrcast hosted multi-day events for fans coming to the show, including numerous live podcasts. The company has since changed its Twitter handle from "Starrcast" to "Starrcast Events" hinting there could be more on the way. While on the Jericho Cruise, Cody Rhodes said he was going to do everything in his power to bring "All In 2" to the fans.

#New @twitter #handle @StarrcastEvents

— #StarrcastOnFITE (@StarrcastEvents) October 31, 2018

- Below, The Elite sent out a Happy Halloween to the fans and showed off their Mario Brothers group costumes. There's been a running joke on Being the Elite that Nick Jackson is the "Luigi" of the team and that's exactly who he dressed up as.

Happy Halloween from The Elite. pic.twitter.com/adZ5mYT6GE

— The Young Bucks (@MattJackson13) October 31, 2018

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Vince and The Rock Both Included in Variety500

Vince McMahon and The Rock have been included on the updated Variety500 list, which is online at this link. The Rock's business partner and ex-wife Dany Garcia is also included on the list.

The Variety500, which was updated today for 2018, is an index of the 500 most influential business leaders that shape the global $2 trillion entertainment industry. The update revealed today reflects the accomplishments of its members over the past 12 months. The members were selected by the Variety editorial board.

WWE News: Why you must attend the 'For The Love of Wrestling' Convention in Liverpool

The heart of the matter
As of this writing, For The Love of Wrestling have already announced a very impressive list of 11 wrestling legends, with the intention of announcing up to 40 more, which will quite literately make it the biggest wrestling convention that the UK has ever seen.

With still more than 6 months to go, For The Love of Wrestling have already announced guests such as the 'Nature Boy' Ric Flair, Bret Hart, Booker T, Lita and Ted Dibiasie Sr. And joining these Hall of Famers are former World Heavyweight Champion Christian, the Honky Tonk Man, Kelly Kelly, Brutus 'The Barber' Beefcake, the Brooklyn Brawler and the ever lovable Virgil.

And while Ric Flair and Bret Hart are two of the greatest in history of the game, For The Love of Wrestling has promised more headlining talent to come. That will include the overall headliner to be announced on December 9, who FTLOW promise is someone who has never made a UK con appearance before, rarely made these kind of appearances at other events, that people will want to come just to see him and that his photo ops and autographs will all sell out online, and very quickly!

Perhaps the best thing of all is how very well priced the event is. Entry tickets start at £22.00 per adult and children over 10 and £5.50 for ages 5 - 9, with infants free. Photo opp prices and autograph prices are very well priced to. While the like of Ric Flair can often be as much as over $100 for a professional photo at an American convention, the 'Nature Boy' sits at just £40 for a professional photo at For The Love of Wrestling.

What's next?
For the Love of Wrestling takes place in Liverpool, England on the 27 and 28 of April.

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Fignuts

10-31-2018, 02:17 PM

The new guy sucks.

Swiss Ultimate

10-31-2018, 02:20 PM

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Juan

11-01-2018, 08:17 AM

Yikes

mike adamle

11-01-2018, 12:24 PM

This guy is much better than the previous dirt sheet guy

Damian Rey 2.0

11-01-2018, 01:02 PM

I appreciate the moderately intriguing adds he presents after he gives us the dirty sheets

Swiss Ultimate

11-01-2018, 02:44 PM

Are these supposed to be daily or weekly?

slik

11-01-2018, 02:57 PM

On Barnburner’s No Holds Barred podcast, Joe Peisich discussed WWE considering something big for The Rock at Wrestlemania. This is what he said:

”You may ask who would The Rock take on? Well, several sources have said that The Rock — if he does have a match could end up being — and this is huge if this does happen… Bobby Lashley.”

Ol Dirty Dastard

11-01-2018, 02:59 PM

lol wtf

Swiss Ultimate

11-01-2018, 03:08 PM

Cable viewership doesn't mean shit anymore. People may not be watching on Pop but there are many other ways to watch the show. Impact pretty much post every segment on YouTube and do a Twitter rundown live for people like you that do like to watch. As someone who's watched the product I can guarantee you its way better since Don has come in. I don't think you realize how bad 2017 was for that company. They're actually selling tickets for shows now and are even doing live events again. They haven't done that in years.

They're not doing horrendous on youtube either. They don't have the kind of reach the WWE does by any stretch, but it's not too far off either.

WWE Youtube Views
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/lTeKPrMiQvhiV6Fma4_wiZ9eiTbZQ4qh4A243ew9_gV4VN30Ken7krA5XWvhUgIx2VBF5V0CtJt4ZrN5Gljcs6DfKcKukG8rmwPR cHVMIYcxCMqYrwEuF0910rR54yJ2kTdzBURHw2ieJEfbluthoRyp5gx5E0wJ5FMb3zJ2y282iJ3d2pxD1bj4Q-A_upc2vd3DdTkLOIVD4Vku3vTMvoQXoDHYJv7QT93wzlMZ80Y9zAE5DWfRhO9DpH-NQ3_v70EFd3SkTJJvSA4S6An9DyLX4UbzGX3kz7yn6Kf31WiRTCO4kCMXQrSuCE_NEDrNzvTIn5HfupDiZCUy0Bk9gaFOGnVMer4 WnnGxp6__tCWn9eCD3vhzAd2ifXpkLVhlJ6E65l08tn_J8D_Yi8RKp28Ll4Ae12XbmwQJ5VjVjLv6Hz1mrPzZOjQzvf5VIRqhOB0 iTI18OxvyyHcIoLIdUOezgyFPuiPzkpUyS7urqHO4i-98b97JFF0RpNT6rT6xO2ecv4D5h8_jz4qaPbNsswXtMo4Q_HpWa5pmFHwZmHvLzo1WMvYJKh4L0_D4dWdbRYfXTqxXUNGP-CQxuxf-oup0GBb7lwWXOUoiPmUAg3joFaAFgXQmRbGiKZ7J_XRCexXWBrGNto6ODUmAYSxy87LL=w1289-h817-no

VS.

IMPACT Youtube Views
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/O3CjMdlkg1IjuURtvxgX3rdw5CcD_7EZG5IIiBotHcl_YSTJrFtnYC_kffqU-YDRgUIL6z3v9Lso2q016GuNlIxD6mZDee_vT5yQcq4SHytECQ0g5IrWnx39sCvhHV5MtVpu-oAGkwpkuNV8ahXP7Y8ZgXzOVKj2e0b0L9D4WaQqI8PwTg1zZq5VZZS4L0JhX6Zj72UEx1bHlRfmo6gS_dHm52-tHI5-pNAPnwOtDNhFHgmZJrVI6FHnT7exKe1zDa7_ujQpTp9F52pJRvWDLSXKCltQdNjfJFtBFHQQLbaDXwHHcc5yr6Ofv69e6DsgqsKd 4CpBOBpS4h3J7ZILu3DCNdTmqJHB_racYb6guv0_g7zd1vUYd7WcZZq2e1zW6L1xWq7VDOev8tyEyMoabIMQMKkKHUXYuc6lvigx PxIs5f_49PHdlFymRKwnMDJWou_cCcZL8bWRWXQNNTqEYtyrocWYiR61REERRSoNfwilMt9cGAouC59SgdEAZNvXxermdCcrljlz bMt3AxxylwwqJ52Xhm7kI1J5cSkqPuYQOOqOzr3dcFz8PiOhvf8U5pT-GE9pfB5THv9yjzHmWngCqK7AGEEo4VObqwGJvOe8sMVa8ZgV8oJzhdUEtxf1_01HFhCHfDXVYLkRfJksHrNO=w1311-h634-no

Let's not forget what kind of budget the WWE is working with vs. Impact too. Not to mention the fact that the WWE is promoted as a children's television show and can coast off their success in the 80s and 90s a good part of the time while TNA was always fairly obscure in comparison.

11-01-2018, 03:26 PM

How do you quantify “not too far off”?

Impact top viewed: 87K
WWE top viewed: 1.1M

Impact lowest viewed: 4.9K
WWE lowest viewed: 13K

Sepholio

11-01-2018, 03:50 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by a gallon of lube. I'll allow it.

Swiss Ultimate

11-01-2018, 03:52 PM

How do you quantify “not too far off”?

Impact top viewed: 87K
WWE top viewed: 1.1M

Impact lowest viewed: 4.9K
WWE lowest viewed: 13K

I estimated the averages and even with the outlier it wasn't tooooooo far off. Honestly, the argument isn't whether or not IMPACT can or is competing with WWE. They are not. What this shows is that many of their videos fair well with WWE videos posted around time frame for THIS week.

Nobody is arguing that they're making more money or getting more views on average, and I am being a bit hyperbolic, but for what Impact is and how much they have to work with they're generating a fair amount of buzz.

Compare WWE with someone like PewDiePie and you'll see a similar dwarfing.

Swiss Ultimate

11-01-2018, 03:54 PM

Although, XL, on second look, I missed some of the 900k view posts from WWE which makes the million view video NOT an outlier.

Simple Fan

11-01-2018, 09:07 PM

I estimated the averages and even with the outlier it wasn't tooooooo far off. Honestly, the argument isn't whether or not IMPACT can or is competing with WWE. They are not. What this shows is that many of their videos fair well with WWE videos posted around time frame for THIS week.

Nobody is arguing that they're making more money or getting more views on average, and I am being a bit hyperbolic, but for what Impact is and how much they have to work with they're generating a fair amount of buzz.

Compare WWE with someone like PewDiePie and you'll see a similar dwarfing.

Comparing their videos to ROH, LU, MLW, and NJPW would probably show more for what me and Noids conversation was about. He didn't believe they were still #2 and its not clear cut anymore but I believe they still are. ROH and New Japan are doing bigger venues and selling them out, they do better than Impact in that aspect but they just went back in the road this year. It's tough to really know what kind of ratings ROH does since they're syndicated but they don't really focus on their TV as much.

Swiss Ultimate

11-02-2018, 09:00 AM

Comparing their videos to ROH, LU, MLW, and NJPW would probably show more for what me and Noids conversation was about. He didn't believe they were still #2 and its not clear cut anymore but I believe they still are. ROH and New Japan are doing bigger venues and selling them out, they do better than Impact in that aspect but they just went back in the road this year. It's tough to really know what kind of ratings ROH does since they're syndicated but they don't really focus on their TV as much.

ROH is nowhere near Impact in terms of views. I did view count after 5-6 days for WWE and Impact. Here's view count up to ten months for ROH.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/rxgBjhovHB5AaC6UKEgV0xNe9V4Ax8mc41pSRSwFNgQRQ4txaVNVhjE3LaJECn5xcHYyfl_tZIg_LCpGC1dmk65-Q7gyvQWO9kxifjt_2nDdN7wZqpYnmM8709XUaDK0kwjDBvJ8xLuczCvtcEBR_zQEm53N0_sZxCIssDDcLMfWlylN8Hfy64aI8Ic_ ibMImIHbCsmSw-yDrd-w0gsGjNkrGIwTq5E38bX3jJ8crY3Vbq5E6M8PZcErcE_KpA-fqq4zaU0dQwUfnzuBzGv-_1e3vwONm4aIkGD7y7XzSIzJZMdokZih2q05o1K98nrfOCTFP6HocU-Ozh4fButrWhnEJE77BMmcOlDUEZ8YcvJpXZlfurElDTKcwjFmQACGa_2ieU1yDEkfKuUFkBlBDeOVJNG1rMK6du45qv5LG5dFbtl bYcHixTjY0VOLCfjnNvkxanOSy3ayF667FyIEWw4N8ukRnLnrfRQlEtMx4O4M9O_7_P0LfpA8m1uSXcAS27dLWV3c_Iqr6uV2q5x QpRjScdTjhmsrC40Q9gg9mWxTCZD6tQYJVZ8fNSI0DiVtdTQrtotiZI9EwZenEdLl2zelCN416m8bFm916JgC6oMoSgudg1CsjXB fSf0PTMJwNGiXvuBsdIdni2sjvayOGf0x=w1093-h810-no

And LU doesn't update their Youtube channel nearly as much. Here's their views from now to 4 months.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ejIYAFI6JNNL49ACpgWeTTVjjOLhHwPMBYi0MES4HaouRRgGHV1uhgIrZkuMGXKh0x-njvt-5zJg1NHktkoSoil2gzsPMGshY6zwKw3xHa6r6sXkzsFDe9gSKGfFRNVeGSyM5q0t7ZipJJmlQXCkNVGaChjjKqJm5Oacgl8Z64sg UKbTb0oGyV1LnOlmZyKnL2jPIuhkEzjakTPDT429d_BZF2GP4l9QunX4R70bJqm7eQeFfqY2JgOwR8portoyIfJoYPeN-HjG9BC3l__ngMBmwZkrcZag4HaRv-_HNGcUDaGishyHZTDXcTkTe7pnUUmI1kEMLWF7TYuC6HdNPAeZbsZUtEv1ip9osbYPnM1VLpvIpGqn6d6swX2P2bIznByA08l2Kd QGpxzrCjB8so89xj06ujk_jtLBQV-l9JvZ3Tew2FxyzEpOO0tWXRqLRe3Oh22cADZqpbzDCvRJdKyeq3n3BFBqezlQXJoXZUmovVcUGoMWGNv45JrlbL6a1nN4KzkvWrg m0PeT9M3V2lGbc2cp_Oj4-2an3gIM66XA9QniMWEpeQvfxxGt9WGguQTJvOnJJuThTGFK6u-Y9NR5bPBFJ-bd7_yD2GBR7jEEPlwIU9dFs6fCDY3GJSgf5pFNJRibMf19rea3hvKLyMZT=w1287-h819-no

NJPW average is also low and more comparable to ROH as far as Youtube views anyway. MLW's full shows regularly garner about 80k+ views, but their regular content is hit or miss.

As far as youtube is concerned, Impact is #2 and WWE is #1.

Swiss Ultimate

11-02-2018, 09:52 AM

Today's Photo:https://hulkhogan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/e950c6d1-0d74-4c88-8f8d-b39ca65e0521.png
Iron Sheik hides his massive erection by applying the Camel Clutch

Rumors for the Day: (https://www.cagesideseats.com/2018/11/2/18054822/rumor-roundup-nov-2-2018-daniel-bryan-crown-jewel-wwe-world-cup-changes-lio-rush-tough-enough)

According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Daniel Bryan’s decision not to go to Saudi Arabia was made long ago and due to the country’s treatment of homosexuals and his feeling like it was racism that Sami Zayn wasn’t allowed to wrestle at Greatest Royal Rumble.

To that end, they also report that Bryan asked to lose to The Miz at Super Show-Down, but are sure to say it’s unclear if that’s because he thought the ensuing title match would happen at Crown Jewel or not.

The WWE World Cup tournament bracket was changed after John Cena pulled out, says the Observer. They were originally going to mix the brands, including a Cena vs. Rey Mysterio first round match where Mysterio would go over.

PW Insider notes that Lio Rush made the trip to Saudi Arabia for Crown Jewel.

That site also says WWE has filed a new trademark for “Tough Enough,” leading to speculation the show may make another comeback in some form

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FIRST SET OF NAMES ANNOUNCED FOR WRESTLING ALL-STAR BATTLE

Tokyo Sports announced that the following stars would be making an appearance on the show:

Hiroshi Tanahashi (NJPW)
Kento Miyahara (AJPW)
Naomichi Marufuji (NOAH)
Jun Akiyama (AJPW)
Daisuke Sekimoto (BJW)
The Great Kojika (BJW)
Takao Omori (AJPW)
Taichi (NJPW/Suzuki-gun)
Yoshinobu Kanemaru (NJPW/Suzuki-gun)
Tomoaki Honma (NJPW)
Masanobu Fuchi (AJPW)
Kazushi Miyamoto (Free Agent)
Tomohiko Hashimoto (Free Agent)
Taiyo Kea (Free Agent)

Wrestling All Star Battle will feature wrestlers from Japan’s top wrestling promotions, including NJPW, AJPW, NOAH, BJW, Wrestle-1 and more. It will also feature the retirement ceremony for Abdullah the Butcher, who hasn’t wrestled a match since around 2010. Stan Hansen will also make an appearance.

The show is being held in honor of the 20th anniversary of Giant Baba’s passing and the 60th anniversary of Tokyo Sports' founding. It will take place on February 19, 2019 at Sumo Hall. There is no word on plans for a broadcast.

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Impact Wrestling Results (11/1): Tessa Blanchard Defends, Final Hour Hype, Mack Vs. Swann

Rich Swann vs. Willie Mack

Rich begins the match with his trademark dance moves to get the crowd clapping along. Swann starts the action by grabbing a side headlock on Willie Mack until he's reversed and bounced off the ropes. The two exchange a series of reversals, flips, dances, and dropkicks as they bounce from rope to rope. The crowd gives a solid round of applause for the athleticism that both men are showing. Suddenly, Swann delivers a stiff kick to the abdomen of Willie Mack. Mack reverses in to a big shoulder tackle and then backs Swann up in to the turnbuckle. Willie then greets him in the corner with a hard chop and a headlock takeover on to a disoriented Swann. Quick knee strikes are delivered from Mack on to Swann's back. Next, a neckbreaker off the ropes from Mack to Swann.

Rich begins to fight back with abdomen strikes but Willie stays on him with a unique, running, vertical suplex. Close 2 count! Swann counters with some nice chops but Willie returns the favor with a LOUD chop. Ouch! Swann counters Mack in the corner and connects with a sunset flip for a close 2 count. Willie answers with a spinning heel kick. He then perches Rich Swann on to one turnbuckle, climbs atop the turnbuckle on the opposite side of the ring, and connects with an awe-inspiring coast-to-coast. So impressive from Willie Mack!

THIS IS INSANE! @Willie_Mack nails a coast to coast dropkick! #IMPACTonPop pic.twitter.com/EMLihZFNDx

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) November 2, 2018

Willie stays on Rich with a diving crossbody to the outside. He drags Swann back inside the ring and Mack delivers an unorthodox facebuster for a 2 & 7/8 count! Mack audibly slaps Swann's chest until Rich finally gets in some reversal kicks, followed up by a rolling leg drop. Rich Swann hits his signature, 450 splash from the 2nd rope but he can't quite put Willie away.

.@Willie_Mack is on a roll. #IMPACTonPop pic.twitter.com/wKzWkAfd8E

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) November 2, 2018

After a reversal in the corner, Rich Swann gets a face full of Willie Mack's backside when he gets cannon balled and crushed on the turnbuckle. Mack follows with a beautiful sequence of a samoan drop, kip up, a standing moonsault, and a very close two count. Rich reverses Mack's stunner and attempts to deliver a cutter to escape. Instead, he STILL gets hit with Mack's stunner. Swann got his foot on the rope for a close 2 count! Willie Mack goes for a six-star frog splash but nobody's home. Swann hits some major kicks to Mack's head and connects with a cutter. Only a 2 count. Rich Swann climbs to the top rope and hits a phoenix splash to finally get the 1-2-3! Great match!
Winner: Rich Swann

Back from commercial break, oVe brags about how they are the only ones to ever defeat Brian Cage and how they plan to bring meaning back to the X-Division Championship. They invite Brian Cage to their turf, Ohio.

The commentators update the viewers on the rest of the card for tonight.

Gamma Singh comes out and introduces Rahj Singh as part of the improved Desi Hit Squad. This prompts a match -

The Desi Hit Squad (Rohit Raju and Rahj Singh) vs. The Beach Bums (TJ Crawford and Freddy IV)

Rohit Raju begins the match against TJ Crawford, quickly taking over with a stiff clothesline and striking TJ while he's down. Raju promptly tags in Singh and they team up, delivering a dropkick and a cannonball to TJ in their team's corner. Freddy IV finally gets a tag in but eats a mouth full of boot for his trouble. Raju then gets tagged in and the Desi Hit Squad team up to deliver more combo strikes. Singh and Raju are obviously controlling the majority of this match. More combination kicks and strikes in the corner on Freddy IV. IV finally gets a few strikes in as he tries to escape but receives a knee to the temple in his attempt and gets squashed, 1-2-3.

The Desi Hit Squad are working like a well-oiled unit. #IMPACTonPop pic.twitter.com/ZmMq1ZBcEG

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) November 2, 2018

Winner: The Desi Hit Squad
They air a promo of the OGz walking the streets while King says they're still on top and they're still untouchable.

Back from commercial break, LAX cut a promo about how they're not all about the hippie stuff that Sydal and Page represent. They also touch on what the OGz are up to as Konnan tells Santana and Ortiz to focus on their match tonight.

Video package re-caps Moose and Eddie Edward's tumultuous relationship and builds up the hype for next weeks match at The Final Hour.

We see oVe appearing live as an Ohio crowd enthusiastically chants behind them. An imitation Brian Cage makes his entrance but he's obviously not the real Swolverine. Sami Callihan cuts a promo on the impostor about how he is and always will be superior to Cage. oVe proceeds to beat the fake Cage down and Callihan claims that he's the rightful X-Division Champion.

All Seeing Eye by @TheSamiCallihan, @TheDaveCrist and @TheJakeCrist. #IMPACTonPop pic.twitter.com/u4HZMeqsWA

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) November 2, 2018

Back from the commercial, Eli Drake yells in Joseph Park's face about how he plans to sue Impact Wrestling for unsafe working conditions. Park actually likes the idea and expands on it - saying they should create a class action lawsuit with all the wrestlers. Drake calls him a dummy and exits.
Backstage, Scarlett Bordeaux greets Gamma Singh and the Desi Hit Squad. Gamma tries serenading her with a song but Raju pokes fun at him. Scarlett brings up her talent search and implores them to send her a video.

Tessa Blanchard vs. Taya Valkyrie for the Knockouts Championship

The Knockouts Championship is on the line NOW! #IMPACTonPop pic.twitter.com/SAeS2Yrfil

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) November 2, 2018

Tessa shoves Valkyrie in the face, right off the bat. The two women proceed in to a quick exchange of reversals, arm drags, and kicks until Taya connects with double knees to Tessa's back and face. Valkyrie gets Blanchard backed in to the turnbuckle for a stiff kick but Tessa rolls to the outside and reverses a kick from Taya. This brings Taya out to the floor. Tessa goes flying through the ropes with a beautiful topei suicida.

Back from commercial, Tessa has Taya in a brutal looking chicken wing maneuver that has her arms tied behind her back. Valkyrie reverses with elbows to the abdomen and delivers a crossbody off the ropes. Blanchard gets some strikes on Taya and is back in control. Tessa throws Taya face first in to the 2nd rope, does a running kick to Valkyrie's back, and then gets a close 2 count. Blanchard is staying on Taya with a perfectly executed body slam. Tessa goes to the top rope but Taya has it scouted and forearms her in the chest. She follows that up with an Irish whip in to the corner, a back elbow, and a stiff boot to the side of Blanchard's head.

Valkyrie delivers a headlock takeover and a running dropkick to a sitting Blanchard. Tessa gets a reversal in the corner but receives a spear shortly thereafter. Both women slowly up to their feet. Taya hits some loud chops on Tessa and then follows up with a huge German suplex. Close 2 count. Tessa delivers a sudden cutter and both women are back down. The crowd is so in to this match!

.@TheTayaValkyrie flies to the floor to wipe out Blanchard! #IMPACTonPop pic.twitter.com/85OYy2LGio

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) November 2, 2018

A series of reversals result in Taya taking control and she maneuvers a modified surfboard in to a stomp on Tessa's back. Huge moonsault from Taya Valkyrie connects! A 2 & 7/8 count! Taya climbs up and does a massive crossbody to the floor, landing on Blanchard. Tessa knocks out the referee in what appeared to be an attempt to save her Knockouts Championship.
Winner by DQ: Taya Valkyrie

They air a video package promoting the upcoming World Heavyweight Championship match between Johnny Impact and Killer Cross at Final Hour. Both men give solid performances addressing what their intentions are for Impact Wrestling.

Back from commercial, a video package promotes a new Knockout, Jordynne Grace. She recounts her lucha libre training she received in Mexico and confidently boasts about her strength training.

.@JordynneGrace debuts next week at Final Hour. #IMPACTonPop pic.twitter.com/uOgY6ofUg8

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) November 2, 2018

The flashback moment of the week is aired, featuring Gail Kim vs. Candice LeRae.

Fenix and Pentagon Jr. talk about how they're not pawns in the OGz and LAX's games. They promote their team, The Lucha Brothers, and threaten that they'll give the OGz what they deserve in the ring tonight.

Back from commercial, Brian Cage responds to Sami Callihan's challenge. He says that he'll travel to Ohio next week and defend the X-Division Title against Sami Callihan and anyone else from Ohio that wants a piece of him.

Commentators discuss the card for Final Hour.

Matt Sydal and Ethan Page vs. LAX

Ortiz and Sydal start the match, with Matt getting a couple quick kicks to start out. Ortiz gains the advantage and forces Sydal in to his team's corner, tagging Santana in the process. Santana with a standing moonsault and LAX does a little taunting to add insult to injury. Matt tags out and Page comes in. Santana bests him, delivering rapid arm drags, following it up with a springboard sunset flip, and then kicking Ethan right in the teeth. Santana hits Page with a few chops but Ethan is able to connect with a side slam. Matt Sydal tags in and does a running knee on Santana in the corner. They begin to battle on the outside. Sydal and Page are yelling in Konnan's face until Santana completely jumps over Konnan and hits both men with a senton splash.

.@SantanaLAX takes out Page and Sydal with a dive off the apron! #IMPACTonPop pic.twitter.com/JVgVgpQsOr

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) November 2, 2018

Back from commercial, Sydal is in control and has Santana in a heel hook/crossface submission hold. After his pinfall attempt is broken up by Ortiz, Matt tags in Page. Ethan with hard stomps on a downed Santana and a few chops. Quick tags between Sydal and Ethan Page. Matt has Santana in a chin lock at the center of the ring but Santana escapes with abdomen strikes. Matt is able to get Page back in and they're once again in total control.

More chops and strikes to Santana in the corner of Sydal and Page. The quick tags between Sydal and Page, along with their continued stomps and submission holds, have Santana trapped in the corner. Matt hits a sidewalk slam and Page connects with a big elbow drop but they only receives a two count. More quick tags between Page and Sydal, however, Santana is finally able to reverse and tag in Ortiz.

Ortiz comes in hot with a headscissor takedown on Page, followed up by a rolling clothesline. He has Ethan in the corner and hits a big splash. Ortiz hits a signature planking splash for a 2 count. LAX works in tandem and connect with a combo cutter. Santana then hits a northen lights suplex but only gets a 2 count on Ethan Page. Page tags in Sydal and Matt delivers a double stomp to the chest of Ortiz. Matt and Page do a double superkick to Ortiz but their pinfall attempt is cut off by Santana. Coninuous reversals between Ortiz and Matt Sydal. LAX hits their finisher and finally put away Matt Sydal, 1-2-3.
Winner: LAX

Video segment shows Allie apologizing to Kiera Hogan for what has been happening over the past few weeks. They have a heated exchange in which Kiera demands more information about what's wrong with Allie. Allie finally confesses that the darkness is taking over her mind. Kiera promises that they'll finish Su Yung together.

Homicide vs. Pentagon Jr.

Pentagon hits Homicide with a stiff kick and some arm drags to get things started. The two men begin exchanging counters but Pentagon comes out on top. Pentagon exposes the chest of Homicide and delivers a mighty loud chop. Holy cow that was loud! Pentagon climbs to the top rope but he misses with the double stomp. To counter, Homicide comes rushing in with a clothesline and finally gains some control. Homicide contorts and bites the fingers of Pentagon. The two men exchange running clotheslines as they travel from turnbuckle to turnbuckle.

Homicide is biting Pentagon's fingers! #IMPACTonPop pic.twitter.com/jDtnl19IDH

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) November 2, 2018

Pentagon connects with a backstabber, causing Homicide to roll to the outside. He follows it up with multiple kicks and chops while Homicide's back is against the steel barricade. Homicide regains control, rushes back in to the ring, and then dives back out and topples over Pentagon with a diving senton. More strikes and muscle manipulation from Homicide before they both roll back in the ring.

Homicide executes an exploder suplex on Pentagon Jr. and then follows it up with a beautiful spinning ddt from the top turnbuckle, causing Pentagon to barely kick out at the 2 count. Another exchange in the corner has Pentagon coming out on top, kicking the legs out from Homicide and connecting with a brutal double stomp attack. The crowd erupts in "Ole, Ole, Ole" chants. Pentagon goes for his fear factor piledriver but gets reversed out of it. A hard hitting chop battle ensues. Homicide attempts his finisher on Pentagon but it gets reversed in to a schoolboy roll-up, allowing Pentagon to get the 1-2-3.

.@PENTAELZEROM SMASHES Homicide with a double stomp in the corner. #IMPACTonPop pic.twitter.com/ztibRXbHiH

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) November 2, 2018

Winner: Pentagon Jr.

Hernandez quickly interrupts the victory and attacks Pentagon Jr. with multiple strikes. Fenix makes the save and they are able to best Hernandez momentarily, however, King sneakily attacks them from behind and regains control. The mauling ensues and the lucha brothers get lynched until they're incapacitated. The OGz stand strong as we conclude another exciting episode of Impact Wrestling!

Final video promo plays for next week's Final Hour show.

Tick tock.

Tick tock.

Tick tock.

Is time running out for @TheRealMorrison as he faces @realKILLERkross at Final Hour next week? #IMPACTonPop pic.twitter.com/nnbHO0bHAG

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) November 2, 2018

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Backstage News On Vince McMahon And The Decision To Keep WWE Crown Jewel In Saudi Arabia

Vince McMahon reportedly got word that the decision on keeping WWE Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia would be left up to him late in the day on Wednesday, October 24, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Vince then informed people who needed to know that the show was still taking place as scheduled, and then the company officially announced the decision in the third quarter earnings report the next morning.

It sounds like Vince was still determined to keep Crown Jewel in the Kingdom, even if they weren't able to host it this week as planned. The Observer reports that even if Vince was told that he couldn't go and conduct business in the Kingdom, presumably by the United States government, then he was trying to reach an assurance that he would be able to take the company to Saudi Arabia in a few weeks once the controversy surrounding the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi quieted down.

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NJPW Power Struggle Final Card For Tomorrow's Show, Live Coverage Reminder

NJPW Power Struggle will take place tomorrow in Osaka, Japan featuring IWGP Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho defending his title against Los Ingobernables de Japon member, EVIL.

Be sure to join our live coverage beginning early Saturday at 4am ET / 1am PT! Below is the final card for the event:

* Chris Jericho (c) vs. EVIL (IWGP Intercontinental Championship)

* Tomohiro Ishii (c) vs. Minoru Suzuki (RevPro British Heavyweight Championship)

* Taichi (c) vs. Hirooki Goto (NEVER Openweight Championship)

* Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Desperado vs. BUSHI and Shingo Takagi vs. Sho and Yoh (Super Jr. Tag League Finals)

* Tetsuya Naito vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

* Hiroshi Tanahashi and David Finlay vs. Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi

* Kazuchika Okada and Beretta vs. Jay White and Bad Luck Fale

* KUSHIDA, Tomoaki Honma, and Togi Makabe vs. Robbie Eagles, Tanga Loa, and Tama Tonga

* Soberano Jr., Volador Jr., Tiger Mask, and Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Toa Henare, ACH, Chris Sabin, and Ryusuke Taguchi

Check it out on NJPW WORLD (https://amzn.to/2Jx8UkV)!

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Backstage News On Impact Wrestling Still Being High On Austin Aries

The controversial lead-up to the Impact World Championship match at Bound For Glory saw the former champion Austin Aries, and the current champion Johnny Impact engage in less-than-friendly banter on social media. Aries called Impact's wife Taya Valkyrie 'husky', and tensions were high going into the Bound For Glory pay-per-view. In the end, Johnny won the Impact World Championship from Aries, before 'The Greatest Man That Ever Lived' got up, yelled at Don Callis and walked to the back.

As we had earlier reported, Aries's contract with Impact Wrestling has expired, and while the grappler still hasn't signed a new contract with the company, Dave Meltzer, in the most recent Wrestling Observer Newsletter noted that the promotion was still high on the performer. Meltzer further noted that he believed Aries would be back in Impact Wrestling soon, and that the Twitter beef between Aries and Impact was indeed a work.

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JBL Interview

JBL was recently a guest on Busted Open Radio where he spoke about various topics including who he thinks are some of the greatest heels in the history of pro-wrestling. Here are the highlights (quotes via Wrestling INC).

Best heels of all time:

“Oh yeah, I think Piper, to me, was the greatest heel of all time, most likely, I think, now, that being said, in mainstream. I think Fit Finlay was the best heel I’ve ever seen and there was no question about that. Fit Finlay, when he was in Europe, 20-something straight years of the same towns, the same territories, and he was still the top guy when he left. I don’t think people realize how good Fit Finlay was. He was the best heel and probably the best worker I’d ever seen.”

Best heels in WWE today:

“Look, I think Randy Orton, he has obviously been around a long time, but I think Randy Orton can be a terrific heel. I think The Miz can be a terrific heel. Miz enjoys being a heel and I think he’s actually very good at it. People look at him and want to hate him. That’s what you want. Someone mentioned to me at FOX, ‘what a wonderful guy,’ but on air he comes across as a guy, you just want to punch him. That’s what a heel is.”

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Mr. Nerfect

11-03-2018, 08:18 PM

TNA has dipped below the estimated number of viewers ROH was getting a few years ago.

Swiss Ultimate

11-04-2018, 10:35 AM

TNA has dipped below the estimated number of viewers ROH was getting a few years ago.

The 11/1 edition of Impact did 105,000 viewers, up from last week's 98,000 overnight viewers. (https://www.pwinsider.com/article/105785/impact-wrestling-audience-back-over-100000-viewers.html?p=1)

Sounds like the changing time slot did some damage.

What exactly were those estimate numbers and who estimated them? Was it Meltzer in 2015?

Mr. Nerfect

11-05-2018, 05:29 PM

Meltzer did suggest 350,000 homes in 2015. Brandon Howard did an article on the numbers here:

https://www.voicesofwrestling.com/2015/09/08/tv-viewership-wwe-roh-tna-lucha-underground-njpw-on-axs/

Here's a chart with their estimated viewers:

https://www.voicesofwrestling.com/2015/09/08/tv-viewership-wwe-roh-tna-lucha-underground-njpw-on-axs/

Basically, when ROH was on Destination America at the same time as TNA, more people did watch TNA, by ROH was also broadcast through it's Sinclair partners. It was being broadcast locally by 85 stations, so through that you can make a guess as to the average number of viewers who watch those stations, and he came up with that number as a low-end guess, which would be in addition to the DA number of 221,000 (with two airings).

Now, TNA continues to go down the drain, but ROH has actually seen an increase in attendance and I believe they are on in more homes now. If you took the TNA decline as an industry standard, then it would be fair to assume that ROH is watched by, like, 30,000 people. But I don't think there is sufficient reason to suspect that is the case. I imagine that ROH is probably is watched, in the United States, by probably as many people that watched it in 2015. I mean, television generally goes down, but they have more channels now. But you can also watch it on apps and on their website (I believe).

But yeah, ROH also have deals in India and Portugal, so they have international stuff on the go too. I'd wager a guess and suggest that more than 100,000 people still watch them.

Swiss Ultimate

11-05-2018, 05:52 PM

Holy shit at Brandon Howard's foot work.

Mr. Nerfect

11-05-2018, 05:55 PM

Wrestling business business is his business.

Swiss Ultimate

11-05-2018, 07:45 PM

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/45365612_10155794224421179_2811634747585855488_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&_nc_eui2=AeHcAXf7AkZnSmOahDrFGc8BGZj5vE_PlhFZZNRc_owS9BCzcS8-ZYvu51UGsKZA-860tUGR_mCUC1_iovCja2QlELHkeTgyPBSRp-uRBcXe6w&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=8accb15c91f1cde2a21baad68c31b919&oe=5C88A5B6

slik

11-06-2018, 11:46 PM

IDK about this but I guess Never say Never

Barnburner writer

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">According to my sources, Shane being Best In The World is a play to get the fans’ opinion and potentially set up Shane McMahon vs CM Punk at WrestleMania.<br><br>Roman is out and The Rock & HHH aren’t a sure thing for Mania.<br><br>Check out the No Holds Barred wrestling show for more <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WWE?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WWE</a> <a href="https://t.co/yvzQod5cBY">pic.twitter.com/yvzQod5cBY</a></p>— Giancarlo Aulino (@Gian_411) <a href="https://twitter.com/Gian_411/status/1060028302126047233?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

slik

11-06-2018, 11:47 PM

^^^

Barnburner also re-iterating Minneapolis to host WM36 again

Volare

11-07-2018, 09:58 AM

We got this dammit!! Minneapolis Woooo!!

Ol Dirty Dastard

11-07-2018, 10:33 AM

While Punk "never wants to wrestle again", the Million Dollar man had a point when he said everybody's got a price. If Punk's offered say 5 mil for a show, how could he say no? It'd make him a complete hypocrite (moreso than one could say he already is for the UFC grandstanding) so Destor would be disgusted, but it'd make him a rich hypocrite.

Ol Dirty Dastard

11-07-2018, 10:33 AM

I personally think Punk would accept no less than 10 million dollars for an appearance, of which he is not even close to being worth. He's a big draw to neckbeards, but nobody else gives a flying fuck about him.

Swiss Ultimate

11-07-2018, 10:55 AM

Punk is going to have to pay more in taxes now, so he'll probably take whatever payday he can get.

Ol Dirty Dastard

11-07-2018, 11:04 AM

lol go away

Destor

11-07-2018, 11:12 AM

Ol Dirty Dastard

11-07-2018, 11:16 AM

Mr. Nerfect

11-08-2018, 05:03 AM

I'd rather see Punk go against AJ Styles or Jeff Hardy. I suppose there is time.

The stuff with Colt Cabana and him getting booed at Chicago means he can skip the New Japan/ROH "street cred" appearances. He can come back as a massive hypocrite and milk those easily played fans. It'd be a timing issue at this point. Does he want to come back on The Rock's card to wrestle Shane? Does he have film roles that he would rather milk first?

slik

11-08-2018, 09:27 AM

From this week's Observer

HHH:
Generally speaking, after surgery to repair a torn pec, the recovery time is close to six months. John Cena came back in half the time, but he’s not human. HHH’s recovery time from his many injuries has been more normal. Six months puts it past WrestleMania, which was slated to have HHH vs, Batista as one of the top matches.

Lesnar:
Lesnar’s latest short-term contract was to expire with Crown Jewel. Roman Reigns was planned to win the three-way match over Lesnar and Braun Strowman, presumably pinning Lesnar, and Lesnar was to leave for UFC.

In probably the first of several major changes after Vince McMahon found out that Reigns was suffering from leukemia, he backed up the Brinks truck and signed Lesnar to a new deal and made the decision for him to beat Strowman in Saudi Arabia and regain the title. It is believed that deal went down around 10/18. Terms of the deal have been kept secret. What is known is that this is another short-term deal. The deal does go through WrestleMania. How often Lesnar will be working on the new deal is unknown. He will be at Survivor Series facing A.J. Styles. He won’t be at TLC. It is not clear if he will be at Royal Rumble, but given they are doing a stadium show, he will probably be, and he has a planned match at WrestleMania. There is a significant angle that is supposed to be part of his storyline going forward. The deal includes wrestlers other than Strowman. Seth Rollins did mention his name on Raw. Drew McIntyre is clearly being groomed for a top run.

UFC wants him on the 3/2 show in Las Vegas against Daniel Cormier. Is that advisable to work the Rumble in what would be the middle of a training camp? There is a clear risk of an injury, including a concussion, in a UFC fight that would be five weeks before Mania, where his match, just by the fact of his paycheck, would have to be considered one of the biggest events on the show.

Shane:
Unlike with Lesnar, this storyline has been long planned. It was meant to lead to a Shane McMahon heel turn, at least in its original form.

Crown Jewel:
The show drew a sellout of 16,000 fans at King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh. Most tickets were priced at the equivalent of $6.50 U.S. and sold out instantly.

WWE TLC:
WWE informed the SAP Center in San Jose that the main event for the TLC show on 12/16 has been changed from Strowman vs. McIntyre to Strowman vs. Corbin.

ROH:
The subject of ROH was brought up at the third quarter Sinclair investors call. CEO Chris Ripley was asked about spending on the promotion and said, “Beyond tennis, we really haven’t spent significant dollars on content, and Ring of Honor, I think, we bought it for a couple hundred thousand dollars. And we think that’s an unpolished gem that ultimately should be something in the same light as WWE. We actually sold out Madison Square Gardens for an event next year in 11 minutes. So, we know that that brand has potential. It’s just, it hasn’t, we haven’t quite found the right dials to turn yet. But we keep increasing the grass roots support on it and it has just a very very loyal and avid fan base which is what you really need to explode the brand.” That’s very interesting because the key players people bought tickets expecting for that MSG sellout are seemingly playing out their contracts right now and ROH being owned by Sinclair is still in more of a drivers seat with established TV and an established organization and a larger company backing them than New Japan. New Japan are their business partners anyway, and any third party other than WWE. “Being the Elite” seems to indicate those guys are not expecting to end up in WWE next year. If the goal is to grow it like WWE you can’t lose the most over talent and also have to get more aggressive as far as expanding all facets both on the talent and office side

Stocky

11-11-2018, 04:50 AM

What happened to the old guy?

Blonde Moment

11-11-2018, 11:32 AM

He was run off

Swiss Ultimate

11-13-2018, 09:56 AM

Bullying is not okay.

Ol Dirty Dastard

11-13-2018, 10:01 AM

He was run off

he ran himself off, in fairness.

slik

11-13-2018, 10:17 AM

I'll keep posting #scoops (both rumored and actual) in this thread 4 now

I hope Smeat returns one day tho

slik

11-14-2018, 12:13 PM

Brad Shepard Podcast Notes

Oh, You Didn't Know Podcast

* HBK - more than likely will wrestle one more match, against either Taker or an AJ/DBry type

* HHH - people backstage thing he will do roids to heal in time to face Batista at WM35

* Alexa Bliss - will be put in lots of six-woman tags when she does wrestle due to repeated concussions. WWE is still 'really high' on Bliss.

* Shane - definitely getting a 'headline match' at WrestleMania 35. A lot of people backstage refer to Shane as 'high-maintenance' and roll their eyes when he is around.

* Brock - will wrestle at WrestleMania 35

* Big Show - might be recruited by Vince to teach Nia Jax how to punch, since his finisher is a punch and he's never injured someone with it. Brad does not find Nia attractive.

* WrestleMania 36 - Brad said no site has been chosen but he has heard Minnesota is not likely to get the event. His sources keep telling him Vince wants Florida to host, despite recently hosting WM33, and the cities that keep being mentioned are Miami, Orlando and Tampa. Vince is really big on 'WrestleMania in Florida' right now and has been repeatedly vocal about it during meetings.

slik

11-15-2018, 11:01 AM

Wrestling Observer Notes

* Right now the plan is for Ronda Rousey vs. Becky Lynch to headline WrestleMania. After the injury to Lynch on 11/12, the next day, both Vince McMahon and Rousey decided that the best course of action was to do the match at WrestleMania.

* The HHH vs. Batista match is very much in question given HHH’s surgery for a torn pec. Brock Lesnar will be at Mania, and there is a direction in place, but it is not certain whether he’ll be champion or not. Roman Reign's match (which was likely to be against Dean Ambrose or Drew McIntyre) was previously scheduled to headline WrestleMania. With Roman out Vince is putting more faith into Ronda as a marquee attraction.

* The most dangerous and most reckless move on Raw was not Nia Jax accidentally potato'ing Lynch but both of Lesnar’s German suplexes on Sunil Singh. Singh somehow didn’t get hurt badly on either. Dave says talent have expressed frustration that Lesnar is pretty much bullet proof and if he does hurt someone Vince won't bat an eye over it.

* The Daniel Bryan in turn was in part a request from Bryan.

* WWE was thinking about a Daniel Bryan vs. Shane McMahon match at WrestleMania but Meltzer has heard that is no longer the plan.

* Dave was told at one point after Lesnar won the title that Strowman was a direction but not the big direction and something else would be happening at WrestleMania for Brock. Meltzer said Brock vs Braun is likely to happen at the Royal Rumble, but WWE might change their minds and do the match somewhere else.

* Shane McMahon almost bought UFC in the late 90s but Vince cancelled the deal.

* New Japan - There are a lot of changes going on. Since last week, the situation with AXS has changed again. Jim Ross and Josh Barnett will be gone after the next set of tapings. Barnett is at this point out for good. The situation with Ross isn’t clear but based on tweets by both Ross and Adam Swift of AXS, where Swift thanked Ross, it looks like he won’t be returning in April.

* Cody Rhodes wants to work more dates w/ New Japan in 2019. He hasn't re-signed with ROH and Dave speculates Cody will sign exclusively with NJPW soon and doesn't expect him in WWE.

* The new management in NJPW might forbid talent from working elsewhere, which would mean Omega, Young Bucks, etc would no longer be able to work indies in the U.S. market. Dave thinks a story could be developing here.

* Kenny Omega vs. Fenix, a battle of the IWGP champion and the AAA heavyweight champion, on 11/9 in Poughkeepsie topped a $100,000 gate with 2,700 fans at the Mid Hudson Civic Center.

* With the news that Taka Michinoku has had an affair for the past eight years going public, K-Dojo, his own promotion, announced that he was removed from the Board of Directors and would be forced to work without pay for one year.

* Major League Wrestling set its record for attendance on 11/8 in Chicago at Cicero Stadium. Dave never got a number but said it was a sellout and the biggest gate in MLW history.

* Dalip Singh (The Great Khali) and his Continental Wrestling Entertainment group has drawn crowds of 30,000 to 50,000 at shows in India. Usually the shows let people in for free and get sponsors to pay the costs.

* NWA Champion Nick Aldis will defend the title against Billy Gunn in an upcoming show in Puerto Rico.

* IMPACT - The TV contract with Pop TV ends on 12/31, but Impact will still by on Pop at least in early 2019. There was still an Arolucha commercial that played during Impact saying Arolucha was coming in 2019 but again not specifying where.

* NXT U.K. will be a part of WrestleMania weekend.

Mr. Nerfect

11-21-2018, 05:22 AM

Damn, Taka Michinoku is paying out the ass for that one. They must take that stuff pretty seriously in Japan.

It'll be interesting to see if TNA gets to keep their TV deal and whether or not anyone else will take them.

Fignuts

11-21-2018, 07:36 AM

Yeah, part of the reason Taichi got so much hate for so long was because of a similar situation. It's considered very dishonorable.

Evil Vito

11-21-2018, 07:43 AM

Damn, Taka Michinoku is paying out the ass for that one. They must take that stuff pretty seriously in Japan.

They do. Years ago Taichi was caught in an affair and New Japan suspended him for 2 months and he was forced to take a 30% pay cut. There was a lot of talk of Shibata getting suspended early last year but the affair ended up being unsubstantiated.

But it seems they only get uptight about this sort of stuff if it involves Japanese people. They don't care about stuff like the Michael Elgin incident because they don't uphold gaijin to the same ethical standards.

Sepholio

11-21-2018, 11:56 AM

How exactly would they "force" him to work without pay for a year though? That sounds an awful lot like slavery lol.

Mr. Nerfect

11-21-2018, 05:23 PM

How exactly would they "force" him to work without pay for a year though? That sounds an awful lot like slavery lol.

I think your quotation marks tell the story. I don't think it's them actually forcing him. I'm sure he could leave. I can imagine it being more of a mutual agreement in order to cleanse the palette.

Jordan

02-18-2022, 10:55 AM

Revival time!

Here is the Observer 2021 Awards... and the winners are!

WON Awards for 2021
LOU THESZ/RIC FLAIR AWARD (WRESTLER OF THE YEAR)

1. KENNY OMEGA (629) 3,755

2. Roman Reigns (90) 1,636

3. Shingo Takagi (46) 1,604

4. Bryan Danielson (127) 1,411

5. Utami Hayashishita (134) 1,310

6. C.M. Punk (24) 566

7. Syuri (21) 254

8. Adam Page (11) 199

9. Katsuhiko Nakajima (4) 113

10. Jon Moxley (1) 72

MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER

1. SHINGO TAKAGI (366) 2,767

2. Bryan Danielson (319) 2,647

3. Kenny Omega (218) 2,108

4. Will Ospreay (54) 960

5. Syuri (66) 615

6. Rey Fenix (10) 320

7. Utami Hayashishita (20) 303

8. Tomohiro Ishii (2) 184

9. Tam Nakano (24) 182

10. Katsuhiko Nakajima (17) 179

TAG TEAM OF THE YEAR

1. YOUNG BUCKS (740) 4,405

2. Penta & Rey Fenix (124) 2,485

3. FTR (111) 1,233

4. Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi (23) 649

5. Syuri & Giulia (4) ` 283

6. Usos (2) 236

7. Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus 173

8. Randy Orton & Riddle (1) 114

9. Mark & Jay Briscoe (2) 112

10. Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher (Aussie Open) 83

BEST ON INTERVIEWS

1. MJF (329) 2,641

2. Eddie Kingston (266) 2,479

3. C.M. Punk (247) 2,384

4. Jon Moxley (12) 404

5. Dan Lambert (18) 308

6. Roman Reigns (24)` 262

7. Paul Heyman (15) 248

8. Don Callis (44) 241

9. Bryan Danielson (7) 164

10. Miro (2) 138

PROMOTION OF THE YEAR

1. ALL ELITE WRESTLING (817) 4,298

2. Stardom (158) 2,070

3. New Japan Pro Wrestling (17) 1,722

4. Game Changer Wrestling (7) 695

5. UFC (42) 645

6. World Wrestling Entertainment (3) 512

7. Pro Wrestling NOAH (10) 272

8. Impact Wrestling (1) 191

9. DDT 111

10. Dragon Gate (2) 75

BEST WEEKLY TV SHOW

1. AEW DYNAMITE (908) 4,716

2. AEW Rampage (35) 2,240

3. New Japan Strong (47) 1,230

4. WWE Smackdown (4) 704

5. Impact Wrestling (2) 305

6. WWE NXT 190

7. Ring of Honor Wrestling (9) 174

8. We are Stardom (8) 146

9. AEW Dark 109

10. WWE NXT U.K. 83

PRO WRESTLING MATCH OF THE YEAR

1. YOUNG BUCKS VS. PENTA & FENIX 9/5 Chicago (288) 2,126

2. Will Ospreay vs. Shingo Takagi 5/4 Fukuoka (182) 1,539

3. Kenny Omega vs. Bryan Danielson 9/22 New York (103) 1,117

4. Bryan Danielson vs. Adam Page 12/15 Garland, TX (133) 1,093

5. Utami Hayashishita vs. Syuri 6/12 Tokyo (151) 1,088

6. Walter vs. Ilja Dragunov 8/22 Orlando (58) 796

7. Kota Ibushi vs. Jay White 1/5 Tokyo (71) 550

8. Kenny Omega vs. Adam Page 11/13 Minneapolis (39) 490

9. Will Ospreay vs. Shingo Takagi 3/21 Sendai (7) 231

10. Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki 10/15 Miami (13) 208

CATEGORY B" AWARDS

UNITED STATES/CANADA MVP

1. KENNY OMEGA 681

2. Roman Reigns 118

3. Bryan Danielson 110

4. C.M. Punk 56

5. Jon Moxley 13

6. Adam Page 12

JAPANESE MVP

1. SHINGO TAKAGI 575

2. Utami Hayashishita 223

3. Kazuchika Okada 74

4. Will Ospreay 18

5. Katsuhiko Nakajima 14

6. Kota Ibushi 13

Syuri 13

8. Konosuke Takeshita 8

Tam Nakano 8

10. Tomohiro Ishii 7

MEXICO MVP

1. EL HIJO DEL VIKINGO 391

2. Psycho Clown 185

3. Rey Fenix 138

4. Laredo Kid 50

5. Kenny Omega 24

6. Bandido 18

7. Pentagon Jr. 13

8. Ultimo Guerrero 10

EUROPE MVP

1. WILL OSPREAY 345

2. Walter 298

3. Ilja Dragunov 82

4. Ricky Knight Jr. 20

5. Zack Sabre Jr. 17

6. Cara Noir 13

7. Axel Tishcer 7

HODGE AWARD/NON-HEAVYWEIGHT MVP

1. DARBY ALLIN 366

2. Rey Fenix 191

3. Hiromu Takahashi 152

4. Desperado 136

5. Shun Skywalker 34

6. El Hijo del Vikingo 32

7.Bryan Danielson 24

Robbie Eagles 24

9. Sammy Guevara 15

10.Bandido 14

WOMEN’S WRESTLING MVP

1. UTAMI HAYASHISHITA 362

2. Britt Baker 342

3. Syuri 106

4. Bianca Belair 79

5. Charlotte Flair 33

6. Deonna Purrazzo 27

7. Becky Lynch 26

8. Miyu Yamashita 18

9. Tam Nakano 14

10. Serena Deeb 12

BEST BOX OFFICE DRAW

PRO WRESTLING

1. C.M. PUNK

2. John Cena

3. Kenny Omega

4. Roman Reigns

5. Brock Lesnar

FEUD OF THE YEAR

1. KENNY OMEGA VS. ADAM PAGE 503

2. Utami Hayashishita vs. Syuri 207

3. MJF vs. Chris Jericho 71

4. Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier 70

5. C.M. Punk vs. Eddie Kingston 55

6. Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar 49

7. Will Ospreay vs. Shingo Takagi 27

8. Nick Gage vs. Matt Cardona 20

9. Roman Reigns vs. John Cena 17

10. Giulia vs. Tam Nakano 16

MOST IMPROVED

1. TAY CONTI 187

2. Dante Martin 150

3. Saya Kamitani 57

4. Jeff Cobb 54

5. Jungle Boy 48

6. Unagi Sayaka 41

7. Maki Itoh 38

8. Britt Baker 36

9. Bianca Belair 33

10. Miro 29

MOST CHARISMATIC

1. C.M. PUNK 301

2. MJF 197

3. Eddie Kingston 54

4. Roman Reigns 52

5. Maki Itoh 48

6. Adam Cole 44

7. Giulia 33

8. Conor McGregor 32

9. Orange Cassidy 30

10. Jon Moxley 27

10. Kenny Omega ` 25

BRYAN DANIELSON AWARD

(BEST TECHNICAL WRESTLER)

1. BRYAN DANIELSON 559

2. Zack Sabre Jr. 380

3. Jonathan Gresham 95

4. Syuri 48

5. Kenny Omega 18

BRUISER BRODY MEMORIAL AWARD

(BEST BRAWLER)

1. JON MOXLEY 303

2. Eddie Kingston 284

3. Tomohiro Ishii 243

4. Shingo Takagi 111

5. Minoru Suzuki 76

6. Katsuhiko Nakajima 26

7. Walter 23

8. Nick Gage 16

9. Miro 12

Lance Archer 12

BEST FLYING WRESTLER

1. REY FENIX 619

2. El Hijo del Vikingo 151

3. Dante Martin 98

4. Will Ospreay 78

5. Nick Jackson 25

6. Sammy Guevara 14

7. Darby Allin 12

8. Bandido 10

9. Aramis 9

Shun Skywalker 9

MOST OVERRATED

1. EVIL 194

2. Roman Reigns 101

3. Omos 85

4. The Miz 65

5. Keiji Muto 42

6. Charlotte Flair 41

7. Cody Rhodes 36

Jade Cargill 36

9. Chris Jericho 35

10. Great O’Khan 33

MOST UNDERRATED

1. RICOCHET 222

2. Chad Gable 80

3. Mustafa Ali 74

4. Ricky Starks 33

5. Riddle 27

6. Daniel Garcia 24

7. Cody Rhodes 20

Finn Balor 20

9. Anthony Bowens 19

Santana & Ortiz 19

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

1. JADE CARGILL 290

2. Jack Cartwheel 99

3. Lady C 71

4. Nick Wayne 49

5. Yuki Arai 33

6. Ninja Mack 32

7. Colten Gunn 31

Kevin Knight 31

9. Ryohei Oiwa 24

10. Kosei Fujita 23

BEST NON-WRESTLER

1. PAUL HEYMAN 369

2. Don Callis 364

3. Dan Lambert 158

4. Taz 140

5. Malcolm Bivens 17

6. Tony Schiavone 12

BEST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER

1. EXCALIBUR 431

2. Kevin Kelly 311

3. Tony Schiavone 126

4. Pat McAfee 80

5. Stewart Fulton 73

6. Taz 71

7. Ian Riccaboni 56

8. Jae Church 27

9. Jim Ross 14

Jon Anik 14

WORST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER

1. COREY GRAVES 229

2. Michael Cole 193

3. Matt Striker 136

4. Adnan Virk 115

5. Chris Jericho 85

6. Beth Phoenix 78

7. Pat McAfee 50

8. Mark Henry 39

9. Kevin Gill 33

10. Byron Saxton 31

BEST MAJOR WRESTLING SHOW

1. AEW ALL OUT 9/5 CHICAGO 677

2. AEW Full Gear 11/13 Minneapolis 346

3. Stardom Queendom 12/29 Tokyo 49

4. AEW Double or Nothing 5/30 Jacksonville 18

5. CyberFight Festival 6/6 Saitama 17

UFC 268 11/6 New York 17

7. Stardom Five Star Grand Prix 9/25 Tokyo 16

8. AEW Dynamite Grand Slam 9/22 New York 13

NJPW WRestleKingdom 1/5 Tokyo 13

10. NJPW WrestleKingdom 1/4 Tokyo 11

WORST MAJOR WRESTLING SHOW

1. WWE SURVIVOR SERIES 11/21 BROOKLYN 218

2. WWE Extreme Rules 9/26 Columbus, OH 116

WWE WrestleMania Backlash 5/16 Tampa 116

4. WWE SummerSlam 8/21 Las Vegas 90

5. WWE Hell in a Cell 6/20 Tampa 70

6. WWE Fastlane 5/21 St. Petersburg 66

7. WWE Crown Jewel 10/21 Riyadh 62

8. AAA TripleMania Regia 12/4 Monterrey 35

9. WWE Elimination Chamber 2/22St. Petersburg 31

10. WWE WrestleMania 4/11 Tampa 18

BEST WRESTLING MANEUVER

1. ADAM PAGE BUCKSHOT LARIAT 233

2. Kenny Omega One Winged Angel 225

3. Shingo Takagi Last of the Dragon 64

4. Will Ospreay Stormbreaker 60

5. Will Ospreay Hidden Blade 55

6. Darby Allin tope 43

7. Darby Allin Coffin drop 32

8. Tam Nakano Uncut screwdriver 26

9. Shingo Takagi Pumping Bomber 24

10. Dante Martin double jump moonsault 21

MOST DISGUSTING PROMOTIONAL TACTIC

1. WWE FIRING WRESTLERS DURING A PANDEMIC WHILE SETTING PROFIT RECORDS 517

2. WWE continued relationship with Saudi Arabia 151

3. WWE using releases in storylines 25

WWE handling of COVID 25

5. Triller having Evander Holyfield box 19

Joey Ryan booking himself on a show claiming it was for a women’s charity 19

7. Dana White running full house shows with no masks 18

8. WWE false advertising of talent they know won’t appear 17

9. WWE Liv Morgan scripted to say Lynch’s contract is why wrestlers were fired 13

10. WWE changing NXT 12

Joe Rogan promoting COVID misinformation 12

WORST TELEVISION SHOW

1. WWE RAW 669

2. WWE NXT 2.0 170

3. Impact Wrestling 25

4. WWE 205 Live 18

5. WWE Smackdown 17

NWA Powerrr 17

7. AEW Rampage 8

WORST MATCH OF THE YEAR

1. DAMIEN PRIEST VS. THE MIZ 5/16 TAMPA 270

2. Randy Orton vs. The Fiend Bray Wyatt 4/11 Tampa 186

3. Randy Orton vs. Alexa Bliss 5/21 St. Petersburg 87

4. Britt Baker & Rebel vs. Nyla Rose & Vickie Guerrero 6/30 Jacksonville 53

5. Alexa Bliss vs. Shayna Baszler 6/21 Tampa 50

6. Sarray vs. Lash Legend 12/14 Orlando 47

7. Becky Lynch vs. Bianca Belair 8/21 Las Vegas 38

8. Charlotte Flair vs. Nia Jax 8/30 Oklahoma City 31

9. B-Fab vs. Elektra Lopez 9/28 Orlando 28

10. Chris Jericho vs. Nick Gage 7/28 Charlotte 19

WORST FEUD OF THE YEAR

1. RANDY ORTON VS. THE FIEND & ALEXA BLISS 356

2. Alexa Bliss vs. Shayna Baszler 50

3. Cody Rhodes vs. Anthony Ogogo 38

4. Shane McMahon vs. Braun Strowman 37

5. Becky Lynch vs. Bianca Belair 35

6. Matt Hardy vs. Orange Cassidy 33

7. Alexa Bliss vs. Eva Marie 30

8. House of Torture vs. Chaos 27

9. Britt Baker vs. Nyla Rose 25

10. Inner Circle vs. American Top Team 23

WORST PROMOTION OF THE YEAR

1. WWE 706

2. CMLL 83

3. Ring of Honor 64

4. Impact Wrestling 44

5. NWA 15

BEST BOOKER

1. TONY KHAN 722

2. Rossy Ogawa 232

3. Sean Shelby 37

4. Gedo 33

5. Brett Lauderdale 26

6. Nosawa Rongai 25

PROMOTER OF THE YEAR

1. TONY KHAN 748

2. Dana White 144

3. Ross Ogawa 76

4. Brett Lauderdale 56

5. Takaaki Kidani 17

6. Vince McMahon 9

BEST GIMMICK

1. ROMAN REIGNS 116

2. Orange Cassidy 106

3. Adam Page 86

4. Malakai Black 85

5. Danhausen 84

6. Starlight Kid 74

7. Matt Cardona 73

8. Miro 62

9. Hook 44

10. Kenny Omega 39

WORST GIMMICK

1. ALEXA BLISS 523

2. Nikki ASH 54

3. House of Torture 48

4. Happy Corbin 43

5. The Fiend Bray Wyatt 32

6. Roman Reigns 29

7. Joe Gacy 26

8. Cody Rhodes 24

8. Big Money Matt Hardy 20

9. Doudrop 13

10. Best Friends 12

BEST PRO WRESTLING BOOK

1. MOX BY JON MOXLEY 482

2. NJPW Year in Review by Voices of Wrestling 22

3. The Complete List of Jericho by Chris Jericho 19

4. Chosen Destiny by Drew McIntyre 18

Master of the Ring: Buddy Rogers by Tim Hornbaker 18

6. 1993 Wrestling Observer Yearbook by Dave Meltzer 16

Truth Bee Told by Brian Blair/Ian Douglass 16

8. Butts in Seats: The Tony Schiavone Story 14

BEST PRO WRESTLING DOCUMENTARY

1. DARK SIDE OF THE RING: BRIAN PILLMAN 326

2. Dark Side of the Ring: Plane Ride from Hall 96

3. Dark Side of the Ring: Nick Gage 49

4. Dark Side of the Ring: Grizzly Smith 45

5. Dark Side of the Ring: FMW/Atsushi Onita 42

6. Dark Side of the Ring: Collision in Korea 31

7. Dark Side of the Ring: Chris Kanyon 26

8. Dark Side of the Ring: Steroid Trials 21

9. A&E Bret Hart biography 12

10. A&E Steve Austin biography` 11

Dark Side of the Ring: Dynamite Kid 11