TPWW's Official Dirty Sheets News Thread

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Things to be Thankful For - Evil Bliss:
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The 11/22 edition of Smackdown did 2,505,000 viewers, down from last week's 2,725,000 viewers that episode 900 did.

WWE Hall of Famer and recently-retired Sting was a guest on a recent edition of WWE Network’s ‘Legends with JBL‘ and had some very interesting and rather direct remarks when discussing a potential match with the Undertaker.

“Yeah, that’s the unfinished business. I’ve always wanted to have that match. I know wrestling fans have always wanted to see it too” Sting said when referring to a match with the Undertaker. Sting hinted that his career was ending in a way he did not envision it ending.

Sting also mentioned that he has been putting off neck surgery because it would mean the definitive end of his days in the squared circle.

“I am supposed to have surgery, but I’m having so many mixed messages out there. And the one thing I keep hearing is ‘if you’re not having side effects and you’re okay, then don’t do it.’”

It appears that there is more to the JBL interview, which caused quite a stir on the internet, in regards to Sting’s desires.

According to a source, Sting has been pushing WWE to allow him to compete in one last match and that match is against the Undertaker at WrestleMania 33. Sting has brought his request to the decision makers in WWE but it is unclear just how WWE will move forward.

In an appearance on ESPN's 5ive Rounds podcast with Brett Okamoto and Brian Campbell, Conor McGregor's agent Audie Attar addressed the possibility that we could see McGregor make an appearance at WrestleMania 33.

Predictably, Attar said that they'd be willing to entertain offers from WWE if the financial terms are satisfactory.

"I think it's all about business, man," Attar said. "If they're going to come with an offer, we're willing to entertain it. We're here. So, have their people call his people -- which is me. And we can have a conversation."

Attar said that there haven't been any direct conversations with WWE or Triple H, but noted that they've heard rumors from other media members. Rumors of McGregor eventually appearing in WWE intensified when Triple H appeared at UFC 205 and spoke positively about McGregor in interviews. Dave Meltzer reported after the show that WWE is interested in McGregor making an appearance for the company.

When asked if an appearance would involve getting physical in an actual match, Attar said that would likely be determined by how big the offer is.

Four matches were added to the TLC card last night with The Miz defending the Intercontinental Championship against Dolph Ziggler in a ladder match, Becky Lynch defending the SmackDown Women’s Championship against Alexa Bliss, Nikki Bella facing Carmella in a no DQ match, and Baron Corbin vs. Kalisto in a chairs match.

American Alpha will face Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton next week with the winners getting a shot at Heath Slater and Rhyno’s tag titles at TLC. American Alpha won a six-team tag turmoil match to seemingly earn a shot at the titles, but were interrupted by The Wyatt Family after.

The World Wrestling Network is creating a WWN Championship that will span their roster of promotions (including EVOLVE, FIP, SHINE, and the recently announced Style Battle). The winner will be crowned at this year’s WWN Supershow during WrestleMania weekend and the company will reveal details of a tournament to crown the first champion soon.

ROH Television Champion Marty Scurll defending against Will Ospreay, Dragon Lee, and Bobby Fish in a four corner survival match is now official for Final Battle at the Hammerstein Ballroom on December 2nd. The show will also feature Cody Rhodes vs. Jay Lethal, Jushin Liger vs. Silas Young, and Colt Cabana vs. Dalton Castle in addition to the two top title matches with Adam Cole vs. Kyle O’Reilly and The Young Bucks vs. The Briscoes.

Professional wrestler and singer/songwriter Jeff Hardy is set to release his new EP, entitled "Spawn of Me," on Black Friday (11/25). The EP will be Hardy's debut as a solo artist and will be sold exclusively on his newly launched webstore, JeffHardyBrand.com.

The Kentucky Boxing & Wrestling Commission officially repealed a rule that required the immediate stoppage of professional wrestling matches if there was any blood (accidental or not) yesterday, paving the way for WWE to bring televised broadcasts and PPVs back to the State for the first time in years.

Obviously, WWE could not chance accidental blood causing the stoppage on TV, potentially ruining laid out plans, so the rule led to WWE only coming to the State with live events, leaving PPVs, Raw and Smackdown broadcasts to be held outside of Kentucky. The Rupp Center and The Yum! Center are already in conversation with WWE to bring televised broadcasts back to the State for the first time since 2010.

Couple of Pro Wrestling NOAH notes:

NOAH held the Global League Finals (their version of the G1 Climax) show at Korakuen Hall on 11/23:

- Killer Elite Squad (Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith, Jr.) defeated Naomichi Marufuji & Toru Yano when Archer pinned Yano to become 2-Time GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions.

- Minoru Suzuki defeated Masa Kitamiya to win the Global League. After a confrontation where he challenged GHC Champion Katsuhiko Nakajima for the title at a show on December 2, Suzuki demanded Loser Leaves NOAH rules and said his "final timebomb" will go off.
Possible sign when Suzuki could be returning back to NJPW.

Steve Corino will be finishing up with Ring of Honor in December, and will become a full-time trainer at the WWE Performance Center in January. Corino recently spent time at the WWE Performance Center as a guest trainer.

In a bit of an odd move, WWE Story Time had a last minute edit that made the episode shorter. Clocking in at under twelve minutes, the episode was originally set to be fourteen and a half minutes long. So what was edited? As it turns out, a story on the Kliq was removed from the episode prior to it being released.

The Kliq chapter, titled “Day One With The Kliq” was Triple H telling a Kliq story from his first day riding with them. The story seemed relatively tame, certainly no more extreme than any of the other stories, so its removal is a bit surprising. The story did mention Sean “X-Pac” Waltman passing out, so perhaps alluding to him passing out from being on drugs is the possible reason, however even that feels like a stretch.
Link to the article: http://www.wwenetworknews.com/2016/11/24/wwe-network-edits-out-kliq-chapter-from-story-time/


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/DavidOtunga">@DavidOtunga</a> Wow! You found the one person that enjoys your commentary. Let us know when you find one that enjoyed your in-ring work. <a href="https://t.co/5ieIcUQjrG">pic.twitter.com/5ieIcUQjrG</a></p>&mdash; Kevin Owens (@FightOwensFight) <a href="https://twitter.com/FightOwensFight/status/801159051900055553">November 22, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Some other sheet news includes:

ESPN had a recent interview with Goldberg about Survivor Series and his upcoming Royal Rumble match. http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/18120974/goldberg-discusses-match-brock-lesnar-future-wwe
RAW's viewership for this week ended up having its numbers revised from the original 3.02-3.04 million average to now an official 2.99 million average for viewers. Still the 2nd highest watched show since football started although now only one week reached 3+ million during the same period.
NXT's The Revilval may or may not have some heat within the WWE due to recent tweets by Dawson during last night's Smackdown trashing their tag division. Road Dogg was among those upset and while Dawson later apologized, Road Dogg tried to claim he was only joking in anger when people got upset at him online. For some reference, Road Dogg is the producer and Creative boss for Smackdown.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by The Chairman of WCW:
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The feeling was that Goldberg returning as the Goldberg act from WCW in 1998, beating people in a minute with a spear and a jackhammer, was the way to go. Some have speculated that because Goldberg suffered a shoulder injury in doing a physical angle taking out security guards at the 11/14 Raw in Buffalo, that the quick match was to protect him. That’s wasn’t the prime reason at all for the quick match and it would have been the same match, injury or not, once the decision was made by both sides that the program would continue.

The feeling was that a normal-length, or even a shorter-than-normal length match between the two had risks. It could be a bad match. Or it could be an okay match, but then people would have seen it. Even if it was a good match, it wasn’t the Goldberg people remembered. Plus, McMahon has a huge financial investment in Lesnar and him losing a long, grueling match to Goldberg could hurt him, and while it may help Goldberg, it would build a rematch for a match people would have already seen.

The pitch was to present this as a fight. The announcers were told, unlike everything else on the show, to call it like a fight. The feeling is the audience was mature enough and had seen enough UFC to know that a fight can be short and explosive, and that’s not ripping off the public or making them dissatisfied ...

In the end, the short match was there because of the idea of not exposing Goldberg, and instead, taking him from being a one-time nostalgia act to the biggest modern star by doing something nobody else could do. But the other key was, and this is why Lesnar was on board and then some, is because Lesnar knew Goldberg was his biggest Mania opponent, and the match that benefitted Goldberg the most in getting over, also benefitted Lesnar the most ...

The idea here is that Goldberg is now 1998 Goldberg instead of a 49-year-old trying to for one night play 1998 Goldberg after following so many younger and better wrestlers, Lesnar lost on a fluke, and the people haven’t seen the match and it’s now bigger. Evidently the idea is, to avoid giving away the match, to put both of them in the Royal Rumble, where they can tease something and build heat for Mania. Goldberg negotiated what was said to be a phenomenal single event deal with WWE for Survivor Series, and we’re told at that price, he was very willing to do as many key dates as this run takes him and they want him for.
Some more details regarding why the WWE went in the direction it did for Lesnar-Goldberg at Survivor Series.

We were told that several of the NXT match finishes were changed at the last minute. I wasn’t able to confirm which ones but from booking, since there were plans for Revival vs. TM 61 title matches on the Australia tour, it could be both of the tag match finishes.

In today's unwise tweet category, Cesaro complained about not even being on the poster for May shows in Zurich, Switzerland, his home country. He failed to make the cut behind Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, New Day, Finn Balor, Charlotte, Sheamus, Sasha Banks and Roman Reigns. Also notable is no Chris Jericho.

WWE Network also has a show called "The True Story of the Royal Rumble" at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. Hopefully there is at least a mention of the San Francisco Cow Palace annual Battle Royal, or if even better, the Honolulu version.

Pro Wrestling NOAH officially announced today the loser leaves town match between Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Minoru Suzuki for the GHC title for December 2nd at Korakuen Hall.

Chris Jericho addressed why he wore a Sin Cara mask on this week’s Raw by calling it an “FU” to internet fans who think they know everything and claimed that him and Sin Cara are good friends and Sin Cara lent him the mask.
Link to the Talk Is Jericho podcast show where he mentioned it: http://podcastone.com/pg/jsp/program/episode.jsp?programID=593&pid=1692447

Kit Parker Films has released a DVD called "Houston's Wrestling Spectacular, in which all the matches for the DVD were picked by the late Scott Williams, who grew up in Houston:

Nick Bockwinkel vs. Dick Slater (1982)
Jimmy Snuka vs. Ken Patera (1979)
Jack Brisco vs. The Spoiler (1979)
Dusty Rhodes vs. Ken Patera (1979)
Chavo Guerrero vs. Black Gordman (1981)
Dusty Rhodes vs. Ivan Koloff casket match (1980)
Dick Slater vs. Al Madril (19788)
Dusty Rhodes vs. Bruiser Brody (1977)
Bruiser Brody vs. Ivan Koloff (1980)
Tony Atlas & Tiger Conway Jr. vs. Tank Patton & Buck Robley (1981)
Johnny Valentine vs. Bull Curry (1966)
Bruiser Brody vs. The Spoiler (1979)

Figured that might be interesting for those who like classic era wrestling.

For those keeping track, New Day breaks the Demolition record for the longest tag team title run in WWE/WWF/WWWF history on December 14th.

Big Show did an interview and said he was down to 396 pounds, his lightest weight since 1995.
Link to the interview: http://wsvn.com/entertainment/wwes-big-show-talks-to-deco-teases-wrestlemania-33/

In an update on Steve Corino’s situation with Ring of Honor, Dave Meltzer noted in this week’s edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Corino isn’t officially allowed to negotiate with other companies or accept an offer until his ROH contract expires on December 31st. Corino recently spent time at the WWE Performance Center as a guest trainer.

In the Observer this week where we talked about the ICW show and mentioned it may be the Dudleys last match together for a while because of Devon working as a producer for WWE, they are teaming up against War Machine on 12/16 for VIP Wrestling in Dallas at Gas Monkey Live. The show will also feature Michael Elgin, Matt Cross, Keith Lee, ACH, AR Fox and Marshall & Ross Von Erich.

Leland Race is the 31-year-old son of Harley Race. Until recently they kept the relationship secret as Harley didn’t want anyone knowing his son was wrestling and wanted his son to make his name without using the name. He’s bounced around indies for years under the name Jason Jones in the Carolinas, as a guy trained by George South, and South was the only guy that Harley would allow him to tell that he was his son. Harley didn’t want him working in Missouri or Kansas until the last couple of years when he allowed him to use his real name on Harley’s indie shows and got him booked in Japan on this tour.

James Gibson (Jamie Noble) recovered from the stab wounds enough to return to work on 11/14 and is back on the road full-time now.

Orton had an orange bracelet on at Survivor Series for support of his nephew, five-year-old T.J., who is battling leukemia. We wish the Orton family nothing but the best. He got better news on 11/22 as his wife, Kim, gave birth to a girl, Brooklyn Rose Orton. Orton was given the week off but it could have been touch-and-go if she had given birth two days earlier.

Is there any news on the recovery of Finn Balor? Could there be a surprise return at the Rumble match?

We have heard he would return in the first quarter of 2017. Obviously, the Rumble would be an awesome way to get him back into the mix, but we have not heard he will be returning that night, yet. There's always a chance.
From a recent Q&A article PWI does weekly. Rehabbed enough recently that he was able to appear and be involved a bit during a recent ICW event.

When asked if he would appear on the new season of Total Divas, the WWE reality series on E!, TJ Wilson aka WWE star Tyson Kidd responded:

I've been taken off the show by @WWE you'll have to contact them to figure it out. You won't see me once this season. It's all good https://t.co/0ClTebOSWn
— TJ Wilson (@KiddWWE) November 24, 2016



When a fan responded to Kidd, stating they hoped that the series' new season would provide an explanation as to where things stand with him, he responded:



Oh believe me I don't think they want my situation explained. I'll leave it at that for now https://t.co/2dzqZB7PSY
— TJ Wilson (@KiddWWE) November 24, 2016

Kidd has been out of action since being injured during a dark match on a WWE TV Taping back in June 2015. He later underwent surgery to fuse the C-1 and C-2 vertebrae in his neck.
There was a rumor a while ago about the WWE considering letting his contract expire quietly since they don't want to pay him more than what he is contractually owed at the minimum any more.


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If you were on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TeamBlue?src=hash">#TeamBlue</a> you'd be on every poster... just saying <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlueIsBetter?src=hash">#BlueIsBetter</a> <a href="https://t.co/flldEN2BwV">https://t.co/flldEN2BwV</a></p>&mdash; Daniel Bryan (@WWEDanielBryan) <a href="https://twitter.com/WWEDanielBryan/status/802262221619363840">November 25, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Some other sheet news includes:

For those interested, the Wrestling Observer is holding a Black Friday sale involving getting 1 month of exclusive Observer content for $4. List of everything included in the deal: http://www.f4wonline.com/news/f4wonlinecom-sale-one-full-month-unlimited-access-only-399-202426
WWE is currently holding a Black Friday sale on their online shop with discounts going as high as 75% off. http://shop.wwe.com/Home
According to PWI, the upcoming 205 Live cruiser show might not be an hour long as previously assumed since WWE's Network schedule has Talking Smack airing at 10:45pm.
In a "TNA Did You Know" type fact, TNA gave Kurt Angle a used Rolex watch as his gift for being inducted into their Hall of Fame. Comes from a recent Something to Wrestle Podcast show where Bruce Prichard revealed how cheap TNA is with their Hall of Fame festivities. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/5esbgz/til_tna_gave_kurt_angle_a_used_rolex_for_his_hof/
According to the Observer, NJPW is currently in talks for Wrestling Kingdom 11 to be shown on ppv in the US. At the moment it is only guaranteed to be on NJPW World. https://twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/status/802046789167681536
According to PWI, WWE is currently considering Styles vs Taker for the WWE title at next year's Royal Rumble. Observer also reporting there are plans by the WWE for the match to occur at the Rumble and teasing it as a possible way to get Cena-Taker for Mania and for Cena's 16th reign.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Harley Race breaking his son in the tough way.

[Mr. Nerfect]

It's not my first pick for a match, but The Miz vs. Cesaro for the Intercontinental Title at least makes sense given current storylines.

[Black Widow]

Being in Switzerland won't suddenly make Vince get a Cena like erection for Cesaro.

[Sepholio]

He had Sascha lose the title in front of her hometown crowd and Cesaro thinks he should get extra attention just for being in his country? Good luck with that Cesaro; you may be technically right, but you aren't Vince McMahon right.

[Mr. Nerfect]

No, but come on, the dude is the hometown hero. They've got Festus on the poster. "See WWE Superstars like Roman Reigns(TM), Seth Rollins(R), WWE Universal(R) Champion Kevin Owens, WWE Women's Champion Charlotte Flair(TM) and, hometown hero, "The Swiss Superman" Cesaro(TM) and many, many more *token black Superstars added here*"

I don't think you need to put the Universal Title on him or anything. Just give him a little hometown shine.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

No, but come on, the dude is the hometown hero. They've got Festus on the poster. "See WWE Superstars like Roman Reigns(TM), Seth Rollins(R), WWE Universal(R) Champion Kevin Owens, WWE Women's Champion Charlotte Flair(TM) and, hometown hero, "The Swiss Superman" Cesaro(TM) and many, many more *token black Superstars added here*"

I don't think you need to put the Universal Title on him or anything. Just give him a little hometown shine.

He will lose to James Ellsworth.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Or Sin Cara, just to make the message clear.

[Sepholio]

I think you took me wrong noid. I agree with you wholeheartedly. I just think Vince is too blind to see the obvious choice and the one much better one in terms of marketing besides. Cesaro should realize by now that just because something is a good idea in reality does not mean Vince sees it that way and that pointing out stuff on social media is a quick way to get put in the dog house. If he had any chance of making his point to management and getting things changed that chance is gone now.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Oh, sorry, I completely agree with you too -- I caught the tone of your post. My response was more general like "Come on, Vince."

[Mr. Nerfect]

Lol, Sin Cara:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="es" dir="ltr">Cuando ni siquiera pude estar en el cartel del espectáculo en mi país.... <a href="https://twitter.com/gowinmexico">@gowinmexico</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/wwe_mex">@wwe_mex</a> <a href="https://t.co/uu6wJiqGUJ">pic.twitter.com/uu6wJiqGUJ</a></p>&mdash; Sin Cara (@SinCaraWWE) <a href="https://twitter.com/SinCaraWWE/status/802664729579700224">November 27, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Byron Saxton's joy of cereal:
http://68.media.tumblr.com/569e3f4a3ece4ed52a3d3691ad96eb51/tumblr_ohdwm1JmiB1u1ljrzo1_500.gif

As we have noted previously on PWInsider.com, there has been talk of WWE producing a women's wrestling-centric series on the WWE Network, similar to the Cruiserweight Classic. There have been early plans to produce the series in early 2017, although no specific dates have been locked in. The early plans were to tape the series at Full Sail Live.

In recent weeks, WWE has reached out to a number of female talents who worked extended tryouts at the WWE Performance Center showing interest in bringing them into the WWE fold. While no one has been officially signed yet, there has been movement in that direction for a number of talents. Over the last 10 days we have heard from multiple sources there is great interest in Heidi Lovelace, Kimber Lee, Nixon Newell and Cheree Crowley aka Evie, as well as others.

PWInsider.com can also confirm that Deonna Purrazzo and Rachel Ellering's names have also been mentioned internally in regard to tournament plans.

Anthem Sports & Entertainment and Billy Corgan announced a settlement in their legal situation. Anthem has paid an undisclosed amount to Corgan and in exchange Corgan has dropped his lawsuit against Anthem. The deal was largely agreed on a few weeks ago, but the final terms weren't settled until this afternoon. Corgan was quoted in the press release saying, "I'm pleased that an agreement is now in place that allows wrestling operations to continue. For my interest from the start was to provide support, be material or creative, to such a great roster and crew. And I plan on continuing in the business side of pro wrestling. I look forward to seeing where Anthem's leadership takes the company in 2017, and with them the best."

Remember how when American Express sued TNA for not paying their bill to the tune of $269,049.50, the summons was served to a receptionist at TNA’s old office that they were evicted from months earlier? Well, that’s about to become an issue for TNA: This coming Wednesday, American Express will be in court arguing that they are entitled to a default judgment because TNA has not acknowledged the complaint. A default judgment is exactly what it sounds like, TNA losing by default. TNA has not filed anything in the case since it was fire filed back in July, and thus are currently listed on the court docket as having no legal representation recorded by the court.

WWE Superstar Tyson Kidd says he’ll no longer appear on Total Divas … and Pro Wrestling Sheet has learned it’s because the company want details surrounding his injury to stay private.

Sources close to the situation tell us Kidd still hasn’t healed from the extremely serious neck injury he suffered last year and is still very much hurt, which led to WWE pulling him from the show.

Tyson tweeted last week saying he’d no longer be seen on Total Divas but didn’t explain why.

We’re told it appears as though the company is worried he’ll open up about the night of his injury — which Bruce Hart spoke about last year in an interview and accused WWE of treating the situation with negligence when it occurred.

Despite reports that stated otherwise, Tyson never denied what his family member said. He merely claimed to not have a close relationship with Bruce.

Now that so much time has passed though, sources with direct knowledge say Kidd wants to break his silence and talk about what went down … he just can’t due to his WWE contract.

WWE sources, however, say that the focus of Season 6 is on new cast members and their significant others who are currently on the roster — so the decision was made to not feature Tyson.
Update to recent Tyson Kidd issues with the WWE news.

WWE has ended the run of their "WWE Superstars" series, PWInsider.com has confirmed. The series has been replaced by 205 Live, which will officially debut tomorrow and air live every Tuesday on the WWE Network after Smackdown Live goes off the air on the USA Network. Internally, the change is being seen as a way of replacing one series with another that will add greater value to WWE Network subscriptions.

Main Event, which had been taped on Tuesdays, will now be taped on Mondays prior to Raw going on the air.

The Superstars series was originally a syndicated show that launched in the late 1980s that later shifted over to the USA Network in 1996. Prior to the launch of Monday Night Raw in 1993, it was considered the primary series for WWF and was used to drive storylines directions. As WWF shifted focus to cable programming in the 1993, the series became more of a magazine style show reviewing recent events. The original incarnation ended its run in 2001 on TNN, which at the time was the home of WWF programming on cable.

The most recent incarnation was originally launched as an original series for WGN America in April 2009 as well as international syndication. In 2011, the series left WGN and was streamed online on the WWE website before settling into a home on the WWE Network when WWE launched its streaming service in February 2014

The Spirit Squad‘s Kenny Dykstra has a little less to be cheerful about this holiday season … because the male cheerleader was fired from his day job for missing work to wrestle for WWE.

Sources tell us Dykstra was given the axe at the non-profit charity he was a director at due to missing an excessive amount of days. However, the 30-year-old was completely understanding.

The former tag-team champion returned to WWE last month and has been used regularly on SmackDown Live since re-appearing with his partner Mikey.

We’re told Kenny felt that missing work to try getting re-signed, as well as live out his dream once again, was worth the risk. Nothing official has been offered to him at this point in time.

Sasha Banks won the Women's Championship for the third time after defeating Charlotte Flair in last night's falls count anywhere main event on Raw. Charlotte tweeted after the match: "You need a good opponent to see how far your limits go...to test yourself. Iron sharpens iron. I'm coming back for my crown. #Raw"

Last week's Thanksgiving edition of TNA Impact was watched by 165,000 viewers
Lowest in the POP TV Era but also had a big excuse why.

WWE and Snickers announced a deal where they will be the presenting sponsor of WrestleMania on 4/2 in Orlando at the Citrus Bowl.

Moana, starring Dwayne Johnson, is projected to do $81.1 million over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday weekend. It was the second largest five-day Thanksgiving weekend movie open in history. It's three-day weekend number is projected at $55.5 million. 72% of the audience was families and 34% were 12 or under.

Chris Jericho says this run is his second favorite run of his career, behind only the Shawn Michaels feud.
From a recent interview Jericho had with ESPN. http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/18080654/love-business-fuels-chris-jericho-recent-run-age-46-wwe

Over dinner, McMahon made his offer clear to Race. $250,000 was his if he jumped to the WWF. Race knew what a coup this would be for McMahon if he acquired the services of the NWA World Champion. He also knew that McMahon would need his answer that same night. Despite the financial temptation, Race could not turn his back on the organization that had given him so much nor could he ignore his personal code of honor that demanded that he drop the title to Ric Flair as promised. Race told McMahon no, unaware that by now, McMahon was used to getting what he wanted. After the dinner, an irate McMahon launched himself at Race only to find himself caught in a crossface. Race was ready to snap McMahon’s neck but his wife provided the voice of reason that saved McMahon’s life
Wacky Vince story from back in the day.


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dear <a href="https://twitter.com/iLikeSamiZayn">@iLikeSamiZayn</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TeamBlue?src=hash">#TeamBlue</a> will never hold you back <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlueIsBetter?src=hash">#BlueIsBetter</a></p>&mdash; Daniel Bryan (@WWEDanielBryan) <a href="https://twitter.com/WWEDanielBryan/status/803438482949607428">November 29, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


Some other sheet news includes:

Ratings and viewership for this week's RAW has been delayed due to Thanksgiving related reasons.
Cody Rhodes ended up becoming GFW's new Nex*Gen champion during the weekend. https://twitter.com/CodyRhodes/status/802373028759932929
Austin Aires was revealed to be part of the commentary team for WWE's new 205 Live show.
According to website Variety, John Cena recently got hired to be in the cast of a new film called "The Pact."
Lucha Underground announced Stardom's big star Io Shirai will be making her debut tomorrow for the company. WWE was recently interested in signing her and Kairi Hojo to deals before both rejected the offers. https://twitter.com/LuchaElRey/status/803652750319853568
According to an announcement made by the host arena, WWE will be holding an Elimination Chamber ppv next year located in Phoenix, Arizona. https://www.facebook.com/tsrarena/posts/10154738978067528:0

[DaveWadding]

Can't wait to see the Japanese girls on LU.

Might go to Elimination Chamber also.

[Black Widow]

I could of sworn Mick said that match was the ending of this feud.

[#BROKEN Hasney]

We can confirm that WWE officials are planning on “raiding” Ring of Honor in early 2017 as many ROH contracts are set to expire on December 31st.

Money talks and WWE is hoping that an increase in pay will attract a few key talents and convince them to jump ship. WWE realizes that ROH is going to have offer serious money if they want to keep certain wrestlers around, which they’ve already been forced to do over the past few years. At the same time, WWE is wary about upping the pay-scale for WWE NXT too much.

Top tag team The Young Bucks are said to be #1 on WWE’s list right now.

It’s been reported how WWE has signed Steve Corino to work as a trainer at the WWE Performance Center once his deal with ROH is up next month. There’s hope that Corino coming into the company will also help attract some of the other ROH talents. The bottom line is that ROH will not be able to re-sign every talent and word is that they did not try to match WWE’s offer to Corino as they felt they could save the money for one of the other contracts that come up next month.

As expected, Triple H is the driving force behind the talent acquisitions as he feels they need to continue replenishing the NXT roster, especially for expansion in 2017.

December and January should be a very interesting time for many ROH talents."

http://www.dailywrestlingnews.com/wwe-ready-to-raid-roh-who-is-1-on-wwes-list-more-backstage-news/

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by The End of Nashvember, Eve of Triplecember:
http://i.imgur.com/Dfn6Gkd.gif

This past Monday's Raw drew its best number since last month's return of Goldberg with an average viewership of 3.107 million viewers.

The viewership is the second best number since the start of the NFL season, trailing only the Goldberg return which did a virtually identical 3.129 million viewers.

The show opened strong at 3.163 million viewers and basically retained the audience throughout the entire show, doing 3.13 million viewers in hour 2 and 3.039 million viewers in the final hour, bucking a recent trend of a third hour drop.

Tuesday night's episode of SmackDown was watched by 2.576 million viewers, up three percent from last week's total. It was the show's third biggest number since the start of the Fall TV season.

Austin Aries joined the commentary team with Mauro Ranallo and Corey Graves for 205 Live last night. He suggested possibly challenging for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship at some point in the future.

The TSR Arena in Phoenix, Arizona tweeted that Elimination Chamber is returning in 2017 and they’ll have details soon.

Linda McMahon met with President-elect Donald Trump today. When asked if she would have a spot in his administration she said, “That remains to be seen. Stay tuned," The Hartford Courant has an article on the meeting.
Link to the article: http://www.courant.com/politics/capitol-watch/hc-linda-mcmahon-trump-transition-story.html

Will Ospreay will face Dragon Lee and KUSHIDA in a triple threat match at ROH's TV taping on December 4th in Philadelphia.

Former WCW/WWE Superstar and Tough Enough trainer Bill DeMott sat down with Under the Mat Radio discussing such topics as, how he started using the moonsault, his thoughts on Brock vs Goldberg match at Survivor Series and his thoughts on Goldberg.
Link to the podcast show: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/underthematradio/2016/11/23/under-the-mat-radio-no-laughing-matter

WWE RAW from 2010 is about three quarters of the way complete, so it could be finished as early as tonight or tomorrow if they pour in with episodes. 2011 needs nearly every episode to be uploaded, plus the three missing episodes from previous years due to copyright reasons that still need to be added. Still, it is very possible within the next week we see all of these shows get added to the service. If all of that happens, RAW will be considered completely available.
Some WWE Network news in regards to RAW's archives.

In a WWE Network News exclusive, we can confirm that the WWE has obtained the Heartland Wrestling Association library. Or at least a part of it. The HWA served as WWE’s developmental territory for a brief time. And according to wrestling legend Les Thatcher, who worked with WWE to secure the library, ownership has been transferred.

More specifically, Les Thatcher told WWE Network News that the WWE purchased the entire HWA library from 2001 and 2002.. He went further and revealed that the WWE obtained 48 shows total in that time frame. This isn’t even close to being the entire library for the HWA, however it does cover a period of time from when the company was a developmental territory. As a result, video of HWA’s time as a developmental territory is now owned by the WWE.

Les would also mention that he’s not sure when or if the content would appear on the WWE Network. Naturally, this is up to the WWE. It seems likely it will appear in the future, however exactly when is anybody’s guess. Talent from that time period who could appear on the service in the future include Nick “Eugene” Dinsmore, Charlie Haas, 3 Count, Raven, former TNA star Shark Boy and even Ring of Honor’s Nigel McGuinness.

Other stars would later come out of HWA including Jon Moxley who became Dean Ambrose, Sami Callihan who had a stint in the WWE as Solomon Crowe, and Pepper Parks who currently competes in TNA as Braxton Sutter. Whether the WWE ever obtains footage from the period those individuals were involved is also anybody’s guess, however obtaining content from two years of the company’s history is certainly interesting, and the footage they obtained could very well end up being available on the service in the future.

At tonight's WWE NXT taping, there will be a three man booth for NXT TV as Corey Graves and Tom Phillips will now be joined by former NXT star Percy Watson.

Sundance announced the entries for 2017's Film Festival. In the US documentary category is this film:

NOBODY SPEAK: Hulk Hogan, Gawker and Trials of a Free Press / U.S.A. (Director: Brian Knappenberger) — The trial between Hulk Hogan and Gawker Media pitted privacy rights against freedom of the press, and raised important questions about how big money can silence media. This film is an examination of the perils and duties of the free press in an age of inequality. World Premiere

The Sundance Film Festival begins January 19.

WWE and Ric Flair have come to terms on a new contract and Flair will be a regular going forward on the Raw brand. His appearance on Raw this past Monday was actually added to the show at the last minute, just a few hours before they went on the air.

RAW Superstar Bayley has been dating independent wrestler Aaron Solow and Women’s wrestling news site SquaredCircleSirens reports the couple was engaged early last week.

Solow is a high-flyer that served as as an “alternate” stand-by wrestler during this summer’s Cruiserweight Classic tournament. He participated in the ‘CWC Combine’ at the Performance Center, but did not compete in the actual tournament.

Pro Wrestling Sheet has learned The Young Bucks have been offered new Ring of Honor contracts … and this time, the company wants to lock them down for a few years.

Sources close to the situation tell us Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson were recently presented with awesome new contracts to stay with ROH and they’re currently mulling it over.

As we previously reported … the brothers signed a deal with the company last year that also allowed them to work for NJPW, PWG and overseas companies that didn’t interfere with ROH.

It’s expected that the Jacksons will make a formal announcement in the near future, but we’re told they do have other offers on the table right now. Their current deals expire December 31st.


Some other sheet news includes:

Recent episode of The LAW: Live Audio Wrestling podcast show had Christian as its guest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUyInZkmnMQ
Newest issue of Sports Illustrated had The Rock on the cover. http://www.wwe.com/article/the-rock-sports-illustrated-cover-2016
For those interested, PWI released the newest episode of their paid podcast show for free. Billy Corgan was the guest and topics included his time in TNA, why he sued the company, and his future in the industry. http://www.pwinsider.com/article/106275/free-interview-billy-corgan-speaks-out-on-tna-legal-settlement-dixie-carter-investing-in-the-company-being-called-a-predatory-lender-whats-next-for-him-in-pro-wrestling-and-lots-more-on-his-tna-experiences.html?p=1

[#BROKEN Hasney]

FYI, ITV is a UK TV free to air channel that is bringing back World of Sport.

"WWE vs. ITV is already brewing behind-the-scenes. ITV has recently sent all their talent amendment to their contracts that wouldn’t allow anyone appearing on those shows to do television on major stations. Those contracts would not prevent the ITV talent from appearing for other companies, nor from appearing on iPPV or streaming services for other companies. However, the contracts would give ITV first dibs on the talent, similar to TNA. There is already talk of doing house shows if the first season is a success. If that’s the case, they would have the right to book the talent on their shows, and if the talent would have made other bookings on those dates, they would have to cancel.

WWE at the same time is starting to offer unique contracts to the key U.K. wrestlers who are marketable or have some name value that don’t already have deals. The deals were described as different from anything they’ve done in the past. These are not main roster deals, nor developmental deals. Those in the U.K., and for that matter even some in WWE who are friends with talent that have been offered the deals, have termed then “competition-killer” deals. They are low dollar guarantees, the talent would stay in the U.K. and be allowed to continue to work indies, but now would have a small cushion. The key would be in locking the talent down to where they can’t go to the ITV promotion, but would also not be allowed to appear for promotions like WCPW (a group that spends big money for foreign talent and does its own Internet weekly television show and iPPV shows), or with promotions that have streaming services. The contracts would give WWE the right to approve or not approve of their indie dates.

Some of the names offered deals are fairly well known in the U.K. hardcore community, while others really have no name value at all. Many had prior tryouts with WWE and they weren’t at the time interested in picking them up. A major percentage of those who tried out a few weeks ago at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow were offered these type of deals. It would enable the talent involved that is struggling to make a living in wrestling, most having other jobs, to have a little big of a cushion to pursue their wrestling, and since the dream of most is WWE since that is what they grew up on, there is that emotional leverage of a WWE offer as opposed to going with a small company with no stability or a newer company that may or may not have longevity.

The WWE has already asked for everyone’s names and started to do background checks, and have told people to clean up their social media accounts, but haven’t offered the actual physical contracts yet.

There are ideas hinted around, perhaps another television show featuring the contracted U.K. talent for that market only. The idea is that just being associated with a WWE product would increase the marketability of such talent on the U.K. scene.

At the same time, several of the key U.K. promotions have had contact from both FloSlam and WWE regarding being part of their streaming services. The key promotions, Revolution Pro, Progress, ICW and WCPW have their own streaming service. WCPW is backed by the What Culture site and thus has strong financial backing and thus would be unlikely to sign up with either side. Revolution Pro, which has some of the hottest and best action at its big shows, and uses top American indie wrestlers as well as stars from New Japan, would have at least some international appeal as a streaming show given both the names and in time, potential due to show quality. The thing working against anyone new getting past a certain level of exposure is that with the amount of product that WWE puts out, and it being the major league group, unless it’s someone who has no interest in WWE or lives and dies with pro wrestling, there aren’t enough hours in the day for even following another strong product.

At this point, neither the WWE Network nor FloSlam have reached a deal with any of the key U.K. groups. WWE did work with both Progress and Revolution Pro in qualifying matches for the Cruiserweight Classic.

At the ICW show in Glasgow, the WWE contracts were major talk, and the peer group pressure was to not sign with people calling them “mark deals,” with the idea that “They don’t want you, they just don’t want anyone else to have you.”"

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Random Olde Tyme British Artistic Combat gif:
http://i.imgur.com/EjldlpF.gif

WWE may be planning to have Roman Reigns defeat Kevin Owens at Roadblock so he can use the Universal and United States titles to proclaim himself a “double champ” like Conor McGregor was for a short-time before UFC took his featherweight strap.

Vince decided fairly recently that he does want hot Indies on the WWE Network. For a while there, they obviously didn't want that and, obviously, there's a lot of - it's interesting because a lot of Indies are doing their own stuff, obviously PROGRESS and Revolution Pro have their own streaming services.

The situation between Kidd, Natalya, and WWE is (as Kidd's tweets implied) difficult. A lot of issues regarding the company's handling of both the match with Joe and the aftermath, Kidd's lucky to be alive and not in a wheelchair, and the feeling is the only reason he hasn't sued their asses yet is the fear of how they'd treat Natalya

There's a ton of stuff going on this weekend with one of NOAH's biggest matches of the year, the Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Minoru Suzuki loser leaves town battle for the GHC title tomorrow at Korakuen Hall; Bellator shows on Friday & Saturday night on Spike; UFC on Saturday night with Demetrious Johnson defending the flyweight title against Tim Elliott, the winner of the Ultimate Fighter reality show; the NXT show in Osaka, Japan on Saturday with Samoa Joe vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the title plus Asuka vs. Nia Jax, All Japan & New Japan tag team tournaments, ROH Final Battle tomorrow night as well as WWE's TLC PPV on Sunday.

WWE also has a major house show on Saturday night with the Raw brand at Arena Ciudad in Mexico City featuring Brock Lesnar vs. Rusev.

While not official at this moment, plans have changed regarding early 2017 WWE PPV shows. Elimination Chamber on 2/12 in Phoenix was to be a Raw show and is now tentatively scheduled as a Smackdown show. Fast Lane on 3/5 from Milwaukee was to be a Smackdown show and now is tentatively to be a Raw show.

The Philadelphia Flyers want their fans to stop imitating Ric Flair and going "Whoo" during the games.

Carmella was bruised up from the brawl on Tuesday with Nikki Bella where Nikki potatoed her a few times.
Link from Carmella's Instagram account showing how bad it was: https://www.instagram.com/p/BNfCP4kgiA1/

TNA informed talents this week that they will indeed be taping at Universal Studios the week of 1/4-1/10 in Orlando, Florida. Based on the plan that was laid out to talents, it's going to be a pretty rough week that includes two days that will see the company do double tapings, which will bring them up to enough Impact Wrestling episodes through the end of March. Not even including Xplosion and 1-2 One Night Only PPV tapings, that's likely the most material any wrestling company would have filmed over the course of one set of TV tapings ever. That is going to be one tired roster at the end of that run.

Former WWE C.E.O. Linda McMahon did not get the Commerce Secretary gig from President-elect Donald Trump which had been rumored, but after a meeting with the WWE Hall of Famer in New York yesterday, she’s considered the front-runner to head the Small Business Administration in his cabinet.

The 11/30 episode of Total Divas on E! garnered 595,000 viewers. That was up from last week's 461,000 viewers.

For those of you who subscribe to Hulu Plus, WWE 205 Live has been added to the service.

WWE Main Event will now debut on Hulu Plus on Thursdays going forward, moving one day later.

Nia Jax will be challenging Asuka for the NXT Women's Championship this Saturday in Osaka, Japan

In a matter of full disclosure, no one from TNA management, thus far, has wanted to respond to Billy Corgan's interview with PWInsider.com on record.

There may be good reason for that. On 11/29, Corgan's attorneys filed a notice in the Nashville Chancery Court that they were voluntarily dismissing his lawsuit against the company without prejudice, meaning that the lawsuit could always be re-filed down the line. In his interview with PWInsider.com yesterday, Corgan said that he has released all claims against TNA Impact Wrestling, Impact Ventures and Anthem Sports & Entertainment. So, that would mean he is still considering pursuing Dixie Carter and others legally. The lawsuit has yet to be officially dismissed by the presiding Judge.

Matt Sydal (Matt Korklan) is expected to be released from Japanese prison on 12/6 and to be able to return to the U.S. and resume his career at that point. Sydal was arrested in late September for possession of liquid cannabis in a hidden pipe. He was convicted of charges in mid-October and sentenced to prison.

Pro Wrestling Sheet reported that TNA is looking at signing The Young Bucks to a multi-year deal. What hasn’t been reported is that ROH is looking at aggressively trying to keep the key talent at the end of ths year with the philosophy of trying to make ROH a destination for talent as opposed to a stepping stone to go to WWE. The belief is the top talent will be offered good increases, and the Bucks offer, which is a two-year- offer for both TNA and New Japan offer with a significant increase over the current deal, is the big one out there. The big question mark is Adam Cole, because WWE has wanted him for years, but his deal isn’t due until April.

New signings have included Ariya Daivari and Mustafa Ali for the cruiserweight division. Also agreeing to terms is U.K. woman wrestler Nixon Newell, who still has to go through all the regular procedures and if all goes well, would be reporting to Orlando around April.


Some other sheet news includes:

In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, website Atlas Obscura had a recent article pinpointing to a match in 1925 between Ed “Strangler” Lewis and Wayne “Big” Munn as the origins of when wrestling became fake or fixed. http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-1925-match-that-ensured-pro-wrestlings-future-would-be-fixed
According to PWI, Triple H vs Rollins is currently set to occur at Mania based on recent plans by the WWE for the event.
Women's indie promotion Shimmer is currently dealing with serious financial issues according to the company's owner. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/5g0art/shimmer_women_athletes_apparently_having_money/
Observer recently debunked a story going around involving a wrestler named Leland Race being Harley Race's son nor does he have any connections to the wrestler.
Observer implied Eva Marie's status in the WWE likely is at its lowest since WWE hasn't even bothered to use her on house shows since her suspension ended in September. Not even bothering to use her whenever another Smackdown women's wrestler takes time off like Naomi recently for house shows.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Emmalina is basically the Eva Marie gimmick, but with someone that can wrestle.

[The CyNick]

Observer with more dicey reporting about the PPV sked and blaming it on "plans change". The schedule is on Vince's desk, just ask for confirmation before you try to scoop everyone.

[Cool King]

Matt Sydal (Matt Korklan) is expected to be released from Japanese prison on 12/6 and to be able to return to the U.S. and resume his career at that point. Sydal was arrested in late September for possession of liquid cannabis in a hidden pipe. He was convicted of charges in mid-October and sentenced to prison.

Well, this is random.

Was this reported and I just happened to miss this news back in October?

I can't remember reading anything about him being sentenced to around two months in a Japanese prison.

[mike adamle]

I don't think anyone reported he was in prison but I def remember a report about him getting arrested. Honestly I thought he got released and just wasn't gonna ever go back to Japan, but apparently I was mistaken.

[Big Vic]

Carmella was bruised up from the brawl on Tuesday with Nikki Bella where Nikki potatoed her a few times.What a cunt

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Evil Bliss Appreciation Friday:
http://i.imgur.com/v9YCaT5.gif

A hearing was held in Lehigh County court today regarding Jimmy Snuka. His defense claimed that Snuka has terminal cancer and is not expected to live another six months. Judge Kelly Banach had declared Snuka not mentally competent to stand trial in August, but she did not dismiss the case at the hearing today. Snuka, who now lives in Florida, was not at the hearing and the court was told he is not healthy enough to travel due to numerous infections. Snuka was there via Facetime and said he didn't remember ever speaking to the judge before. Prosecutors don't want the charges dropped. The prosecution had tried to get Snuka committed to a mental health facility previously if he was not mentally competent but Banach turned down that request.

The case against Jimmy Snuka has not been officially dismissed as of the end of today's hearing. Judge Kelly L. Banach requested copies of Snuka's medical records from the past six months and wants to review them prior to making an official decision.

The WWE did another survey for network subscribers on what they are and aren't interested in regarding the network. Fans were asked about favorite performers currently on the roster, favorite performers of all-time, ranking what divisions you like the most (men, women, tag teams and cruiserweights and order them one to four), what era of wrestling are you most interested in (defined as 1982-89, 1990-95, 96-2000, 2001-2004 and 2005-to present, because as we all know, there was no wrestling prior to 1982), and asked about the different shows on the network and demographic information.
Same survey also revealed the post-Attitude Era years are no longer officially called the Ruthless Agression Era. Attitude Era itself got a year dropped from the usual range people accept for the era. Image of the survey: https://i.imgur.com/83dkmFN.jpg

Katsuhiko Nakajima beat Minoru Suzuki in their loser leaves town match for the GHC title earlier today at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Based on the match stipulations, all of Suzuki gun has to leave NOAH. Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer are still GHC tag team champions, however. They defend the titles tomorrow against Maybach Taniguchi & Go Shiozaki.

The Samoa Joe vs. Shinsuke Nakamura NXT title match which is being taped for the NXT television show, will be in Osaka very late tonight U.S. time.

John Cena will soon be making another prominent mainstream television appearance.

NBC announced on Friday that Cena would be hosting Saturday Night Live on December 10th. Cena will be the third professional wrestler in the history of SNL to host the show, with The Rock and Hulk Hogan previously handling the duties. The Rock's first appearance came in 2000 as he was on the verge of breaking into Hollywood, and Hogan hosted the show with Mr. T prior to the first WrestleMania.

Cena tweeted on Friday: "So incredibly honored & excited to host @nbcsnl on Dec. 10th. Can't wait to be live from NYC on a Saturday night!!"

The appearance comes as Cena's wrestling schedule has become considerably reduced and his profile outside of WWE has grown. It was also announced earlier this week that Cena would have a role in "The Pact," an upcoming comedy directed by Kay Cannon and also starring Leslie Mann and Ike Barinholtz.

FloSlam announced a new promotion and event for its streaming service, as it has inked IPW:UK for a deal which will start with the company's December 18th show and will continue with 12 events from the promotion in 2017.

Events will air both live and on a tape delay, with all of the promotion's 2017 Supershows broadcast live and exclusively on FloSlam.

The first event will air on a delay from the Casino Rooms Nightclub in Rochester, Kent, UK, headlined by Cody Rhodes vs. Will Ospreay ...

IPW:UK is the first promotion from outside the U.S. that has been announced for the streaming service, joining previously announced groups like EVOLVE and other WWN promotions, Beyond Wrestling, and House of Hardcore.


WWE announced that the TLC Kickoff Panel on Sunday will consist of Renee Young, Booker T and special guests including DJ Peter Rosenberg.

So no Lita and Jerry Lawler this time unless they fall under the special guests category.

Note from Mike Johnson: We are told that guests on the Kickoff Show will be a regular feature going forward as of that PPV.

The 12/1 edition of Impact did 338,000 viewers, well up from the 165,000 viewers that they did on.
Pretty much back to the same range it was for the past few months outside a show or two.

Jeff Jarrett appears on the latest edition of The Ric Flair Show on www.MLWRadio.com.

We are told that the move to put the GFW Nex*Gen championship on Cody Rhodes over the weekend in North Carolina was a "strategic move" made with eyes on the future of the company. Jarrett has been in Los Angeles quite a bit working with A. Smith & Co. Productions on getting a GFW TV project off the ground, so perhaps they intend for Rhodes to be involved there.

With the Bollywood Boyz having signed with WWE for the 205 Live series, obviously they are not coming back to drop the GFW Tag Team belts. I am told some sort of announcement will be made. If I am GFW, I don't even bother with the announcement and just crown new champions.

Alex Riley has landed a guest star role in the upcoming Netflix series based on the 1980's women's wrestling promotion GLOW. Riley has stayed away from the indies since being released from WWE in May of this year but has been pursuing an acting career.

Japanese wrestling journalist Fumi Saito joins us as well, with an update on American wrestler Matt Sydal's legal situation. Here are the highlights:

Fumi explains the most recent development on Matt: He was in jail for quite some time, over a month or so. It took them eight, nine weeks to have court set. There was finally court this week. He plead guilty right away. It was a rather simple court case procedure. The prosecutor wanted eighteen months in jail or three years probation...He's going to take the probation. That means next week he'll have a verdict, then he goes to the airport and goes home.

Fumi reveals that someone reported Matt to authorities: It was his thirtieth trip to Japan, and they didn't think it was the first time he brought something in...The reason he got caught this time though, this is where things get really mysterious and tricky, Japanese customs in Osaka were informed by somebody that Matthew Joseph Korklan is bringing in certain things.

The setup was acknowledged in court, according to Fumi: It was mentioned in the court too, that customs was informed by somebody, they're not saying who, but that Matthew Joseph Korklan from America is bringing in certain things on certain dates. They knew it.

Fumi on what's next for Matt: He's out on bail now and then the verdict is coming this coming Monday. They'll give him three years probation, no jail time, nothing, he's going home that day.
Some more details regarding Evan Bourne/Matt Sydal's prison time in Japan. Basically got busted because of his rep of bringing drugs into the country.


Some other sheet news includes:

For those interested in classic wrestling especially from Memphis, a new book about the promotion and its Top 100 matches was recently released. Book is called "Top 100 Monday Nights In Memphis Wrestling 1974-1989" with wrestling historian Mark James as the author. http://astore.amazon.com/pwincom-20/detail/1537480634
According to reports, WWE's plan of "raiding" indie talent from the UK is due to the company getting very worried about losing market share and/or top status for wrestling interest especially now that ITV is getting involved in the market.
ITV announced they will be airing the pilot episode for their new World of Sports Wrestling show on New Years Eve at 4pm (British time). http://www.itv.com/presscentre/ep1week1/world-sport-wrestling.
Lucha Underground recently revealed they expanded their merchandise buying options with Hot Topic now having their products available for purchase. https://twitter.com/LuchaElRey/status/804478022808059904
WWE is currently rumored to have promised Adam Cole a NXT title reign as part of the incentives for him to leave ROH once his current deal expires.

[Simple Fan]

Vince loves him some Adam Cole BAY BAY.

[Cool King]

WWE announced that the TLC Kickoff Panel on Sunday will consist of ... special guests including DJ Peter Rosenberg.

Who?

ITV announced they will be airing the pilot episode for their new World of Sports Wrestling show on New Years Eve at 4pm (British time).

Do they not want anyone to watch it?

What a terrible time slot for a pilot episode.

[Emperor Smeat]

According to the Observer, Young Bucks are staying in ROH. Signed a new 2 year deal with the company.

The Young Bucks, Matt & Nick Jackson, have signed a new two-year contract which covers both Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling, to continue on a similar schedule as they did this year.

The deal has a significant increase in money from both companies in both companies for 2017, and another increase in 2018, and will allow them to maintain their own merchandise. They are also going to have more input into creative, as they were the ones who set the wheels in motion for Matt Hardy's video on the show last night ...

The contracts are exclusive to the U.S. and Japanese market, but it would enable them to do overseas dates that don't coincide with ROH or New Japan bookings. The only exception is they are allowed to continue working PWG dates.

[Black Widow]

Cena had so much hate for Rock when the reality was he wanted to BE Rock. Like Enzo said, "Hate ain't nothing but love disguised by jealousy."

[Evil Vito]

The Young Bucks not being part of the 2017 talent raid is no great loss for WWE. They'd have never worked on WWE television.

[Volare]

Vince loves him some Adam Cole BAY BAY.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KgC0RW2Z8WM?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Lock Jaw]

Has Adam Cole improved? I remember seeing him a few years ago in ROH and thinking he seemed very generic.....

[Mr. Nerfect]

I'm not a big fan of The Young Bucks, so I think it's good they're staying in ROH/New Japan. With American Alpha, The Revival, #DIY, etc. there are plenty of tag teams that need to be solidified before the company goes looking elsewhere.

I can see Adam Cole going to the WWE in April though, wisely extending himself past the WrestleMania season.

[Big Vic]

Cena had so much hate for Rock when the reality was he wanted to BE Rock. Like Enzo said, "Hate ain't nothing but love disguised by jealousy."I liked how he became hypocritical in his feud with Ambrose.

[Ruien]

What did he do in the Ambrose feud?

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Gallagher Dropkick Appreciation Day:
https://68.media.tumblr.com/220da1dfad3cd1fb7121a24ad78a402a/tumblr_ohqq1jntLc1saykaxo2_400.gif

A.J. Styles suffered what WWE officials called a minor ankle injury last night in his TLC main event with Dean Ambrose in Dallas, TX.

Styles did get medical attention in the ring after the show was over. He was also being attended to after the match.

Styles retained his WWE title over Ambrose due to interference from James Ellsworth, which was to set up a Styles vs. Ellsworth title match on tomorrow night's SmackDown tapings in Houston. Ellsworth's interference was framed as a strategic decision because he thinks he has Styles' number after getting three fluke wins over him.

It is not clear at this point how Styles' injury will play into the match, or if he will be able to wrestle, or be limited in the match since it would likely have been more of an angle than a serious main event style match, or his status as far as house shows since he's the key star of the brand right now.

Raw fell from last week's high mark of 3.11 million viewers to 2.97 million viewers. The number was still above what the show had been doing most of the fall ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 3.15 million
9 p.m. 2.98 million
10 p.m. 2.80 million

Pro Wrestling Sheet has learned Mickie James was recently offered a new contract to once again compete on WWE‘s main roster … this according to sources.

Multiple sources with direct knowledge tell us James has kept in contact with WWE officials since NXT TakeOver: Toronto and they’ve let her know a deal is waiting for her should she want to accept.

Mickie faced off against Asuka at the NXT event last month and the match received high praise.

No word as to whether the deal would be for RAW or SmackDown Live, or the length of the contract, but either brand would benefit greatly from having another veteran in their ranks.

AJ Styles addressed his wardrobe malfunction from last Sunday.
Link to the Tweet: https://twitter.com/AJStylesOrg/status/805952245254778880

The WWE has confirmed today that Jerry Lawler and Amy "Lita" Dumas have been removed from regular weekly programming.

Both have been moved from full-time deals to Legends contracts and the decision was made to take them off the pre-show panels before Raw, SmackDown and PPV events.

The Lawler situation followed the pattern of Jim Ross, where, likely due to age, he was moved from Raw to SmackDown, then given a lesser role on SmackDown, and then the decision was made to remove them from regular television but keep them with the company, although Ross was later let go after controversy regarding his hosting a WWE event that went awry.

Both are still affiliated loosely with the company and may be brought back to television on the WWE Network for special occasions.

Last Sunday's TLC PPV featured a change in pre-show format with radio host Peter Rosenberg as a guest on the panel.


Tajiri on Twitter said he starts full-time with WWE in the spring.

The newest member of The Bullet Club will be announced on Saturday at New Japan's tag team tournament finals.
Cody Rhodes is currently rumored to be the newest member of the Bullet Club.

Colby Corino was arrested on Saturday night in Tennessee and taken into custody for possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and other counts, as reported by Pro Wrestling Sheet. He's being held on $40,000 bond. Corino was to start as a full-timer in the New Japan dojo in January.

Dave Meltzer noted on last night’s edition of Wrestling Observer Radio that The Young Bucks vs. Hardys is scheduled for ROH’s show in Lakeland, Florida over WrestleMania weekend after Matt Hardy challenged the Bucks in a video at Final Battle. Meltzer said that it came down to the wire whether TNA would send clearance in enough time for Hardy’s video to appear on the show.

Matt Riddle will face Katsuyori Shibata for Revolution Pro Wrestling on January 21st at York Hall in London. It was announced previously that the show would also feature Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Marty Scurll after Scurll turned on Sabre.

As WWE advertised last night on Raw, the 2016 Tribute to the Troops special will air on Wednesday 12/14. The show will be taped the night before at the Washington, DC Smackdown Live taping.

Charlotte Flair and Big Show are currently heading overseas to the Middle East to visit with servicemen and women. That visit will be incorporated into the special as well.

In an update from my original story, TNA sources have denied they will be taping at Universal Studios Wrestlemania week in Orlando. One source did concede there are talks of running "a show" that week in the area, but the venue has not been confirmed and cited that the show would not be taped for Television.

The original sourcing for the story came from a source at Universal Studios in Orlando. TNA claims that story is incorrect.
An earlier report from PWI stated TNA was planning on taping some shows during Mania week to take advantage of all the people going to the city for wrestling festivities.

Former NXT Womens Champ and WWE Divas champion Paige (Saraya-Jade Bevis) will return from suspension soon though there is no official word on what lies ahead. She is serving the second suspension for failing the WWE drug test for an alleged illegal substance. However, recent neck surgery may not see her back in the ring for a while if at all.

While the end of the 60-day suspension of Paige is good news, she may still be not fit to return to the ring. The 24-year-old girlfriend of former WWE star Alberto Del Rio underwent neck surgery. It could keep her out until 2017.

Aside from that row, there is a looming possibility that Paige may not return to the WWE because of her troubled relationship with the company. WWE could use a reliable hand and personality like Paige right now, but the strained working relationship could come to an abrupt end.

Paige has not spoken to anyone from WWE since the suspension despite attempts from them and close friends trying to reach out to her but Paige has pretty much isolated herself from the locker room and the company which has caused big concern for her.

I previewed some of the footage that we will see on TNA Impact Wrestling on December 15 on POP TV from the Hardy compound in North Carolina and it was a blast to watch and was right in line with the previously produced TV content from Hardyland. I'm very impressed with the production and creative that we have seen on these mini movies from the mind of Matt Hardy, Jeremy Borash, and others. Bravo, to all of you. Excellent.

On episode 110 of Sam Roberts' Wrestling Podcast, WWE SmackDown Live General Manager Daniel Bryan talked about whether he enjoys Talking Smack, what he seeks to accomplish with the program, and WWE Superstars do not speak their minds.

Bryan said that there are times that he enjoys Talking Smack, but sometimes he hears on his earpiece that he should not have been saying certain things.
"Sometimes, yeah. I mean, sometimes, I just say things and then, sometimes in my earpiece it's like, 'why are you saying that?' And then, it's like, 'oh…'"

Bryan added, "so my thing with Talking Smack is, I want our talent to look really good. So for example, Baron Corbin was on the show, not last week, but the week before, he was awesome. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It did great and the key is the show is not about Renee [Young] and I, like, we're just hosts - we're just there to bring stuff out of people, to help them."


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">...and here we have the domesticated zebra in its natural habitat... <a href="https://twitter.com/WWERobinson">@WWERobinson</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SDLive?src=hash">#SDLive</a> <a href="https://t.co/2ijqHMMroX">pic.twitter.com/2ijqHMMroX</a></p>&mdash; Jason Ayers (@JasonAyersWWE) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonAyersWWE/status/806281619434799104">December 6, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


Some other sheet news includes:

Canadian website Slam Sports had a recent interview with Mauro Ranallo with topics invcluding his time in the WWE and battling depression. http://slam.canoe.com/Slam/Wrestling/2016/12/02/22687537.html
According to the Observer, WWE is currently considering the idea of making NXT a weekly live show. Supposedly talks within the company are at the stage an official announcement could be made within the near future.
WWE recently added a "2016 Match of the Year" playlist on the WWE Network for those interested in rewatching some great matches from this year. http://network.wwe.com/video/v1214604683

[Savio]

such an old vacuum

[slik]

I wonder if Tajiri is wrestling or doing NXT/Performance Center stuff

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Bayley's newest gimmick, The Juggler:
https://68.media.tumblr.com/022c3e35fbac4874706649a6479f5f88/tumblr_ohqtbaPNpt1saykaxo2_400.gif

Apparently I received erroneous info re: @WWE HOFer @AmyDumas still being with @WWE. According to Amy, she's no longer with the company.
— Jim Ross (@JRsBBQ) December 7, 2016
Original reports stated just like Lawler, she was still in the company but no longer as a regular on-air personality.

Saturday Night Live released a promo video featuring John Cena for his upcoming hosting appearance this Saturday. Cena did an interview talking about hosting the show and why he isn’t afraid to make fun of himself.
Link to the promo and Cena's interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHlTofir2H0 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IH-yxZ20g8

Linda McMahon tweeted about being appointed as head of the Small Business Administration by President-elect Donald Trump: “Honored to be appointed by President-Elect @realDonaldTrump to serve as head of @SBAgov advocating for our small businesses & entrepreneurs!”

There was an angle with Heath Slater and Rhyno on last night’s Talking Smack with Rhyno walking out on Slater after blaming him for their recent losses.
Link to the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90lyaK28bqk

USA Network is advertising next week as “WWE Week” with Raw, SmackDown, and Tribute to the Troops airing on successive nights.

WWE is scouting Canadian Freestyle wrestling Olympic gold medalist Erica Wiebe.

Matt Riddle will no longer wrestle for AIW. The promotion posted the news on Twitter today: “We regret to inform you Matt Riddle will no longer be appearing on 12/30 or any dates going forward as he did not like how he was booked.” Riddle then tweeted: “Just wanna apologize to all of my @aiwrestling fans after texting with @JohnThorneAIW we decided my future with #aiw is over #kingofbros”

The former Alex Riley has resurfaced on twitter mentioning that yesterday was his first day working in Hollywood on a project with Jenji Kohan. Most probably for the Netflix GLOW wrestling project.

Grateful that on Day 1 in Hollywood I was able work on a SAG project w/ the brilliant Jenji Kohan & Phil Abraham. Stay tuned more to come...
— Kevin Kiley Jr. (@AlexRileyWWE) December 6, 2016

The Wyatt Family is evoking a rarely-used custom during their reign as SmackDown Tag Team Champions, WWE.com has learned.

While Bray Wyatt & Randy Orton captured the titles for the Family at WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs, SmackDown LIVE Commissioner Shane McMahon and General Manager Daniel Bryan have sanctioned Luke Harper as champion as well, making him eligible to defend the titles alongside Wyatt or Orton under the Freebird Rule.

There has been talk of some NXT women working the post-Christmas main Roster live event this month. Liv Morgan will likely be one of the talents used.

Once Paige’s suspension ends on December 9th, she will be back on the road with WWE, but not in a wrestling role.

JBL has blocked Mauro Ranallo on Twitter; you can see some of their back and forth below…

JBL just teased Mauro about the camera cord, but then @mauroranallo names drops Jushin Thunder Liger on #SDLive. JBL -10, Mauro +50.

— Wayward Idjit (@TigerTurtle) December 7, 2016

LOL! �� https://t.co/QXCHuLEAz0

— Mauro Ranallo (@mauroranallo) December 7, 2016

So now @mauroranallo is retweeting trolls taking shots at me!! What a great partner! Double block. https://t.co/1sNavwS5gD

— John Layfield (@JCLayfield) December 7, 2016
Aparently those two are feuding on Twitter now. Mauro had been feuding a bit with people who kept taunting him about leaving the WWE based on recent rumors which Mauro denied were true.

Pro Wrestling Sheet has obtained Colby Corino‘s arrest report and it shows cops took him into custody Saturday because he was found unconscious with multiple types of drugs in his home.

According to the report, cops got a call in regards to an unresponsive person and arrived at the residence to find Corino unresponsive on the floor. The person he was with said they took opiates.

When Colby finally woke up, he admitted the same and was transported to a local hospital.

Cops searched his residence and found a grinder, a bag of marijuana, hypodermic needles, baggies, suspected mushrooms, multiple purple pill capsules of an unknown substance, a rock like substance suspected of heroin, multiple glass vials of an unknown substance suspected to be steroids and white residue with a cut drinking straw alongside Colby’s driver’s license.

Corino and the other person in the house were hit with the resale charge due to the amount found.

As we previously reported, he’s still behind bars on a $40k bond and set to appear in court this week.

No word on whether this will affect his status with New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Probably safe to assume his NJPW deal is dead considering the strict laws and views on drugs there.

The WWE Network schedule no longer lists the Raw or Smackdown Pre Shows. There has been no official announcement regarding the status of the pre shows, which are broadcast on WWE Network and various social media platforms.


<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-Ggjxaxduoo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Some other sheet news includes:

According to reports, the WWE is currently in the process of expanding their business plans for China with the goal to make it a major market for the company within the next 5-10 years. Following a similar plan used for India when they entered that market during the Great Khali years. http://www.thewrap.com/wwe-chief-financial-officer-lays-out-timeline-for-china-expansion/
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is Dean Ambrose's 31st birthday.
According to reports, the next batch of classic content for the WWE Network will include completing the 2006 and 2007 years for Smackdown.
Rusev ended up pulling an AJ Styles TLC moment when he went to a NHL hockey game yesterday. https://www.instagram.com/p/BNs56Okhed-/
For reasons unexplained, former WCW commentator Tony Schiavone revealed he is currently blacklisted by both the WWE and Vince McMahon. He responded to a tweet about the possibility of ever showing up in the WWE Hall of Fame. https://twitter.com/tonyschiavone24/status/804830952040054784

[Fignuts]

I guess Schiavone fucked Stephanie too.

[Black Widow]

JBL&Cole needs to join Tony.

[Cool King]

WWE is scouting Canadian Freestyle wrestling Olympic gold medalist Erica Wiebe.

I love Erica Wiebe, she's such a good wrestler. I'm a big fan of hers.

However, I don't know how I feel about this.

On one hand, I think it's great and I'm really happy she's being scouted. Seeing her in the WWE would be really cool and interesting.

On the other hand, I wouldn't want to see her leave freestyle wrestling because she's just so good.

I'm conflicted. :(

[Mr. Nerfect]

http://commonwealthgames.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/images/cgc/erica.jpg?itok=qkcS-Pcr

VS

http://wtop.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Rio-Olympics-Wrestling-Women6-1621x1254.jpeg

Book it.

[Mr. Nerfect]

A more glamorous shot of Helen Maroulis:

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/734910022929506304/iueF6P_b.jpg

[Cool King]

Wiebe forever.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I'm going to have to be on the Prowlis for Maroulis, sorry CK.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Random WCW Rasslin Gif:
https://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/mnogo-renegade-briefcase-toss.gif

There will be a lot of New Japan news coming early next week. The announcement of the complete Tokyo Dome card as well as more info on the show should be announced shortly after the tag team tournament on Saturday. Saturday's show, which airs live on New Japan World, should have several angles building new matches. The main event of Saturday's show will be the finals of the tag team tournament with Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa facing Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma.

Randy Orton was interviewed by USA Today to promote his appearance on the USA Network's "Shooter" next week at this link. It's a very good read. Orton talked about a number of topics, including his five year old nephew TJ, who is fighting leukemia. “He’s a little badass,” Orton said. “It’s going to be a long journey. That’s why I wear the bracelet and will continue to wear it.” Orton also discussed his new team with Bray Wyatt.
Link to the interview: http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/12/randy-orton-shooter-wwe

Mickie James has signed a three-year deal with WWE
PWI reporting she is currently planned to be put on the Smackdown brand and her debut to occur by January 2017.

There will be a press conference on Thursday at the O2 Arena in London with HHH, William Regal and Finn Balor.

Evidently they are preparing Lana once again to wrestle. She will start working in NXT on tonight's show in St. Petersburg, FL. Not Russia. She will also be wrestling in Winter Haven tomorrow night.
Tweet from Lana about the announcement: https://twitter.com/LanaWWE/status/806693184294293504

Randy Orton will appear on "Shooter" on the USA Network this coming Tuesday night after Smackdown.

Now that Jerry Lawler is no longer under a full-time WWE deal, he's made a deal to do talk shows in the U.K. on 3/16 in London at the Leicester Square Theater, 3/17 in Manchester and the Dancehouse Theater, 31/18 in Glasgow at The Classic Grand and 3/19 in Belfast at The Empire Music Hall.

DDP and Fite TV reached an agreement that DDP Yoga will air on Fite TV starting on 12/8. The price for DDP Yoga on Spike is $64.99. The first 100 sign-ups will get a Fite TV T-shirt.

Alberto Del Rio/El Patron announced that his first ever match against Kurt Angle has been booked for 2/12/17 in Great Britain by What Culture Pro Wrestling.

WWE announced today that Gabriel Iglesias will be appearing on Smackdown Live next week as part of WWE Week.
Pretty much going to be the norm for a while with the WWE having a special guest and/or guest host every week for their shows. TLC having a guest for the pre-show panel was the start of it.

Reuters featured a piece on World Wrestling Entertainment's continued push into China, based around the signing of 22 year old Bing Wang (training at the WWE Performance Center currently) and other talents who have been signed and will come to the United States to train next year. It was noted that WWE is still working on bringing the WWE Network to the country after coming to terms over the summer to live stream programming in Mandarin via online provider PPTV.
Link to the article: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-wwe-china-expansion-idUSKBN13X2G0

Matt Hardy sent the following on Twitter:

#TotalNonstopDELETION came to me in a dream..

The #7Deities warned me of #Apocalypto..

It all becomes reality on Thursday, Dec 15th.. pic.twitter.com/pLYnfupWh6
— #BROKEN Matt Hardy (@MATTHARDYBRAND) December 8, 2016

WWE is absolutely in signing mode right now. We are told that the company is working harder than ever to evaluate and watch the independent scene, to the point that WWE is now watching iPPVs and doing complete agent's reports on them (similar to reports WWE create for their own live events to track talents and how they are improving) so they can track talents from afar. I was told you can expect a lot of talent acquisitions in the first quarter of 2017.

WWE already has a new crop of talents set to report to the Performance Center on 1/3. Heidi Lovelace, Kimber Lee, Nixon Newell and Cheree Crowley (aka Evie) are all expected to be signed and reporting on that date.

There is already another Performance Center tryout week set for early February.

Big news coming from AXSTV next week on exciting, new developments with the NJPW Friday night TV show specifically regarding Wrestle Kingdom in 2017.

Vince McMahon had given the okay in trying to make deals with at least some independent wrestling for the WWE Network, and days later, changed his mind. Still, there are talks going on behind the scenes with the idea he may change his mind again.


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">TOTAL NONSTOP DELETION IS GONNA BE FUCKING AWESOME <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IMPACTonPOP?src=hash">#IMPACTonPOP</a> <a href="https://t.co/8LKFkGC84W">pic.twitter.com/8LKFkGC84W</a></p>&mdash; Italo Santana (@BulletClubItal) <a href="https://twitter.com/BulletClubItal/status/807036183842877440">December 9, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


Some other sheet news includes:

PWI currently speculating Dixie Carter is very likely leaving TNA within the near future once everything settles in with Antheme as the new boss of the company. Pretty much said owners/founders selling the company and then stay in charge in any meaningful way never happens in business. Was part of a Q&A article they do weekly.
Observer currently debunking rumors of frustration building up in RAW's Women's division based on WWE unwilling to end the Sasha-Charlotte feud and/or not giving more time to the brand's other female wrestlers. The stuff involving Naomi for Smackdown's Women's division wasn't debunked as being meant for potential future storylines though.
Sports Illustrated had a recent interview with Edge who revealed if it wasn't for health issues, he wanted to face Christian for his retirement match. http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2016/12/07/wwe-week-wrestling-edge-shaq-bret-hart
Apparently WWE had issues with the cage used for NXT's house show in Melbourne, Australia. Cage itself ended up getting stuck during the lowering process and delayed the show as a result. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/5h6f9h/the_cage_at_nxtmelbourne_is_currently_stuck/
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, prior to being involved in the wrestling industry, Vince McMahon used to be a traveling salesman for encyclopedias. https://twitter.com/davemeltzerwon/status/806935895823650816

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by The Theory of Gable:
https://68.media.tumblr.com/2f99a92d9b4eba6f1c54dde37954bc30/tumblr_ohtdkatIbq1vtad0lo1_400.gif

It appears that Styles will go back to working on top with John Cena over the WWE title, who returns on 12/26 for a house show in Madison Square Garden, and is expected to work regularly from that point on. The storyline will revert back to the idea that Cena is attempting to tie Ric Flair’s record of 16 championships.

Vice has a great story on WWE that is well worth reading including the first time it's come out that Shane McMahon attempted to take over creative in 2012 and the reaction from HHH and Stephanie and a lot of backstage stuff. The story is extremely accurate and one of the rare major media stories that isn't either an all out mindless knock or a poorly researched shallow piece. They talked to a lot of former WWE employees including Donna Goldsmith, who was one of the leading people in the company, as well as Sally Presutto, who handled arena bookings, and Brian Gewirtz, who was head writer and now works for Dwayne Johnson.
Turns out Kevin Dunn tried in 2012 to get Shane attempt a hostile ownership takeover of the company in order to force Steph and Triple H out as future owners of the WWE. Been rumored for a while once they take over, Dunn is the first getting fired. Link to the article: https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/breaking-kayfabe-an-inside-look-at-wwes-unlikely-business-empire

But, on July 28, three and a half months after WrestleMania 32, WWE released its quarterly report—a mandatory, all-encompassing document that lets the Security Exchange Commission, shareholders, and the public know how the company is functioning, both logistically and financially. An analysis of the report shows that WrestleMania 32 attendance was not, in fact, the 101,763 figure that WWE had been throwing around. It wasn't even in the six figures. According to the documents, the actual paid live attendance for the event was between 74,000 and 86,000. "As long as they don't lie about the financials, they aren't committing fraud," said Chris Harrington, an independent WWE business analyst.

WWE has been doing this for years. There is a discrepancy between attendance numbers submitted to the SEC and those touted in press releases for every single WrestleMania dating back to at least 2008, with an average inflation of about 15,000 spectators. And in 2001, respected wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer, writing for his publication Wrestling Observer Newsletter, reported that numbers for WrestleMania III, the event's previous longstanding record, were knowingly fudged. WWE boosted the numbers by more than 13,000 spectators. Meltzer claimed that Vince told him as much—that the numbers shown on television are for "entertainment purposes only."

Inflating attendance numbers exemplifies Vince's approach to the business, doing whatever it takes to maintain a certain image. Moreover, it continues to blur the line between WWE as a real-life, publicly traded corporation and the WWE that exists as it appears on television. Much like how Vince has created a fictionalized version of his family, he seems to have done the same with his company.
Part of Vice's article about the WWE and why the WWE doesn't suffer any legal problems by constantly lying about attendance numbers.

A.J. Styles right now is not expected to wrestle on the weekend house shows. He is expected to be at television on Tuesday. There is no firm date on when he'll be wrestling again but it doesn't appear anything too long off.

The ITV World of Sport show has been moved back one hour and will air on 12/31 from 5-7 p.m., leading into Ninja Warrior UK, with the idea they'll draw from a similar audience.

There was a minor shakeup in WWE creative today. Tom Casiello, the managing lead writer, who oversaw the Raw & Smackdown writing teams, was let go. He was a key person who was very influential in the push of the women of late.

He was promoting his new album Spawn Of Me. It’s an eclectic twist of rock, country and some hip-hop all rolled in one. I highly recommend it. He also had TNA’s music man, Dale Oliver, produce the songs. They recorded them at Oliver's house over a two-day span.

He said fears of developing CTE from repeated concussions weigh heavily on him and are the inspiration for one of the tracks on the album, "Irreversible."

We also spoke about the upcoming Total Nonstop Deletion. He gave me a little scoop about who else other than the Rock ’n’ Roll Express will be popping up.

Plus he talked about his contract status in TNA, the management shakeup and his future
From a recent interview CBS had with Jeff Hardy: http://sports.cbslocal.com/2016/12/09/jeff-hardy-opens-up-about-tna-wrestling-concussion-fears-new-album/

The 12/8 edition of Impact did 303,000 viewers, down from last week's 338,000 viewers.

Paige's WWE Wellness Suspension officially ends today. We are told that the company expects her back on the road shortly, although she is not yet cleared to return to the ring following her neck surgery.

The Rock is in NYC today doing media appearances. He will be on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon tonight and this morning, was on The Today Show talking the "Baywatch" trailer that was just released, his SpikeTV Troops special and more ...

It has been announced the eighth film in the " Fast and The Furious " franchise coming next year has the title "Fate of the Furious". The film, which will feature Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson reprising his role as Hobbs, is scheduled for release next year. The first trailer will drop Sunday.

Mick Foley wrote the following on Facebook

PEACE FOR CHYNA

I had a nice talk with Joanie Laurer's mom yesterday. While Joanie had been estranged from her mother for much of her adult life, including the entirety of her WWE run, the two eventually made peace and had become quite close by the end of Joanie's life.

Joanie's mom is attempting to gain control of her daughter's estate – but is trying to do it on a very limited budget, and the legal costs are more than she can handle.

Don't be fooled by the word "estate" - there is not a lot of money left, if any. But Chyna's mom is attempting to do the right thing by allowing whatever personal effects she did leave behind to stay with the family and not with her manager, so that her family may finally be at peace with her loss.

Whatever help you can give will be much appreciated.

https://www.generosity.com/fundraising/request-to-help-protect-chyna-so-she-can-rip--2

Michael Elgin had a minor setback that delayed him getting back in the gym, but is still targeting the Tokyo Dome for his return after surgery on his orbital bone. They used some bone from his hip on the surgery and his hip had started to swell up a few weeks back and they were afraid of an infection and put him on antibiotics.

There are still no definitive dates for filming the next season of Lucha Underground past hopefully some time in the spring.

SE Scoops reported an interesting twist in TNA’s attempt to get the lawsuit filed by Audience of One Productions (which did the production at several sets of taping in 2015 and is still owed for it) thrown out. The judge turned down that motion and ordered the two sides to go into settlement talks. What’s notable is that Ron Harris, who was sued along with TNA and Aroluxe, wrote that he was never employed by Aroluxe or TNA during that time period and that “my last employment with TNA was almost ten years ago.” Jason Brown of Aroluxe also stated that they do not employ Ron Harris and he was never authorized to speak in their behalf. Of course, the Aroluxe web site had for a long time listed Ron & Don Harris both as key members of the team. In October, both Harris Brothers names were removed from the Aroluxe site, which would coincide with Anthem Entertainment and The Fight Network funding TNA’s last set of taping. Interestingly, Jason Brown himself is also no longer listed on the Aroluxe site anymore.

Jerry McDevitt filed a motion with U.S. District Court in Connecticut on 12/2 to get the lawsuit filed by Marcus Bagwell and Scott Levy (Raven) regarding royalties for appearing on the WWE Network thrown out. The WWE claim is that neither man had anything in their contract that would entitle them to such royalties. When both men signed contracts with WWE, there obviously was no WWE Network and no thoughts of a service that would essentially cannibalize PPV and home video, both of which WWE paid royalties to talent for.


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">December 15th, 2016 at 8pm<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TotalNonstopDELETION?src=hash">#TotalNonstopDELETION</a> happens at The Hardy Compound.<br><br>It will be MIND-BLOWING.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Apocalypto?src=hash">#Apocalypto</a> changes EVERYTHING. <a href="https://t.co/r08sWPT5yy">pic.twitter.com/r08sWPT5yy</a></p>&mdash; #BROKEN Matt Hardy (@MATTHARDYBRAND) <a href="https://twitter.com/MATTHARDYBRAND/status/807072547447652352">December 9, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


Some other sheet news includes:

Jim Ross was revealed to be the guest for Thursday's Observer Radio show. Being teased he will reveal some upcoming big news regarding him among the stuff discussed.
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 15th anniversary of Chris Jericho beating both Stone Cold and The Rock to become the 1st ever Undisputed WWE Champion.
Harley Race currently denying rumors on the net about him being in very poor health and getting admitted to a nursing home. https://twitter.com/8XNWAChampion/status/807380086965972992
Update to the on-going CM Punk vs Dr. Amann counter-lawsuit as the WWE officially joined the case on the side of Dr. Amann and want to use the stuff sealed in that case to be made available for the lawsuit Punk filed against them.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Kevin Dunn being gone makes me want to see Stephanie and Hunter take over, but knowing how bad things could be under the Stephanie/Hunter creative vision, I don't want that either. Part of me hopes Vince sells it out from under them all and they put someone else in charge entirely.

[DaveWadding]

Dixie Carter feat. Bram.

[Cool King]

The ITV World of Sport show has been moved back one hour and will air on 12/31 from 5-7 p.m., leading into Ninja Warrior UK, with the idea they'll draw from a similar audience.

Nah, nobody will be watching that now.

[Big Vic]

I wonder if paige will wrestle for WWE again

[Mr. Nerfect]

I'm going to guess that she will. I think that when her neck is healed up and she is away from the spotlight for a while, she'll get the itch to prove she can be relevant.

[Black Widow]

Overdose incoming.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by ... Gallagher would kindly like to announce he is interfering with today's sponsor announcement:
http://68.media.tumblr.com/9699547cc185a3c9985c446884ee0a43/tumblr_oi3pm96VQ21u1ljrzo1_500.gif

After a series of good ratings by modern standards, Raw fell back to its lowest mark since Halloween night last night, averaging 2.75 million viewers, down seven percent from last week.

The show-long New Day title record storyline didn't resonate that strongly with viewers, as there was a major second hour turn off, which partially was due to the football game ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.93 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.71 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.63 million viewers

205 Live was taped before Raw last night.
Smackdown also ended up getting the not live treatment this week because of Tribute to the Troops show messing up the normal taping schedule.

Bray Wyatt tweeted to Matt Hardy about the invitation he sent to the Wyatt Family to appear on Total Nonstop Deletion. Of course, no one from WWE was involved in the show.
Link to the tweet: https://twitter.com/WWEBrayWyatt/status/808547751424303104

Good news, all you fans of Ric Flair and chicken wings -- Flair is headed to the wing bowl in Philadelphia.
Same event that I think Mick Foley got banned from due to cheating multiple times.

ROH: Holiday shopping has never been so affordable for members of Honor Nation: ALL merchandise, including hats, t-shirts, DVDs, and more will be 10% off for all customers and 25% for RINGSIDE MEMBERS! The sale ends Friday December 16 at 11:59 PM and all orders come with FREE US SHIPPING!

Matt Sydal is starting to take independent bookings again. he can be booked via Bill Behrens at SHOWBIS@aol.com. Sydal is done with New Japan Pro Wrestling. There is no official word on where he stands with Ring of Honor going forward.

The complete lineup for Wrestle Kingdom 11, which is the biggest non-WWE pro wrestling event in the world each year, was announced at a New Japan press conference on Monday ...

The matches will go on, in this order:

New Japan Rumble -- This is a Royal Rumble match basically for all the talent on the roster not on the card, as well as surprise legends and outsiders. It's more played up for surprising old-timers and that type of pop.
Tiger Mask W (who was Kota Ibushi the first time) vs. Tiger the Dark -- This is based on the Tiger Mask anime that airs on TV-Asahi.
Young Bucks vs. Rocky Romero & Baretta for the IWGP Jr. tag titles
A Trios title gauntlet match featuring these teams:
SANADA, EVIL & BUSHI
Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Hangman Page
Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI & Will Ospreay
Champions Satoshi Kojima, Ricochet & David Finlay
Cody vs. Juice Robinson
Kyle O'Reilly vs. Adam Cole for the ROH title
Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma for the IWGP tag team titles
KUSHIDA vs. Hiromu Takahashi for IWGP Jr. title
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hirooki Goto for NEVER Openweight title
Tetsuya Naito vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for IC title
Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega for IWGP heavyweight title


The show will air live exclusively on New Japan World with Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino as announcers in English as well as a Japanese language feed. There will be no U.S. television PPV of this show.


On Tuesday's edition of Wrestling Observer Live, Jim Ross broke the news that New Japan's Wrestle Kingdom 11 will begin to air on AXS TV just one week after it happens, broken up into four weeks.

Additionally, Ross announced that the weekly show has been renewed for 50+ episodes in 2017 and will move to 8 PM EST on Fridays. He will continue to work alongside Josh Barnett.

ROH announced that Nigel McGuinness was no longer the figurehead authority person with the promotion as he's another one expected to be WWE bound for a coaching position.

The Nevada Athletic Commission will have a hearing on Brock Lesnar's drug test failure on Thursday, as well as Nate Diaz's hearing for the bottle throwing incident back in August. Jon Jones' drug test failure is on the agenda but it's already been reported they've come to an agreement on that case where Jones will get the same suspension he already got from USADA, a one year suspension, and no fine.

In a note from yesterday's update, even though Booker T announced he would be running for Mayor of Houston in 2020, that would be impossible and if he's doing so, it'll have to be 2019 because that's when the next election is.

Mick Foley announced today that he's down to 236.7 pounds, which is the lightest he's been in probably decades. Congratulations to him. The number is key because when he decided to start losing weight, he was 337 pounds, so this makes 100 pounds plus lost.

A fight broke out Sunday night backstage at a show at Arena Naucalpan involving Combate Americas figurehead president Alberto Rodriguez (the former Alberto del Rio0 and a wrestler best known as Alan Extreme, who was wrestling as Tortuga Rafy.

Rodriguez and Paige were at the show to see Rodriguez's brother Guillermo (El Hijo de Dos Caras) wrestle. They went backstage where there was a very narrow passageway and Rodriguez got hot at Extreme, believed to be because he thought he was touching Paige inappropriately.

An argument ensued. According to an eyewitness report, Rodriguez started yelling at Extreme, who blew him off. Rodriguez got hot at that and the much smaller Extreme tried to push him away, leading to punches being thrown. It was said to be very one-sided and spilled out to where fans saw it happening. Extreme was bleeding pretty badly but said this morning on Facebook that he was okay.

Oficial AK-47, one of the wrestlers in charge of the show, Oficial AK-47 made multiple Facebook posts where he threatened legal action and pretty much warned Rodriguez not to come back to the building.


Jerry Lawler was on Sports56 in Memphis yesterday and said Kevin Dunn called him and said that his salary was too large for the pre-game show and they were also getting rid of the pre-game show. Lawler said he's under contract until January and said they will talk about a new deal, and talked that he may sign a talent contract and that Vince McMahon called him and told him he's not done and told him the pre-game show was dropped as a cost-cutting measure and that he would remain the MC at the Hall of Fame ceremony. We'd been told Lawler would get a legends deal and would continue to MC the Hall of Fame and work some events for the company.

Regarding stories about Harley Race in a nursing home, he has been there because Leland Race, who takes care of him at home, was in Japan for the New Japan tag team tournament. Race is wheelchair bound.

As we reported a few weeks ago, former WCW World champion Big Van Vader noted that he was advised by doctors he only had several years to live due to congestive heart failure. Vader posted the following hopeful news today on Twitter:

I got good news this week ,seen a 4th Dr he suggest the the gloom and doom the previous3 Drs have diagnosed may not be the case
Well
— Big Van Vader (@itsvadertime) December 13, 2016

WWE Raw Tag Team champions The New Day will be releasing their own take on a self-help style book next year, titled "The Book of Booty: Shake It. Love It. Never Be It."

The book will feature all three members of New Day as authors and will be released as a hardcover in April 2017, timed for Wrestlemania 33 ...

"Fans will learn:
* The New Day’s official definition of “booty,” and the telltale signs that you or a loved one might be booty
* The proper attire and headwear for the new you
* How to twerk like a man
* What your spirit animal says about you
* How to project positivity

By the time you finish this book, you'll be a rainbow-gazing, trombone-playing, unicorn-loving soldier of positivity, ready to take on nefarious WWE tag teams with a smile on your face. Pro tip: Eat your Booty O’s every morning for added strength!"

Former WWE champion turned UFC fighter CM Punk is back training for a sophomore appearance in The Ultimate Fighting Champonship.

Punk's trainer Duke Roufus acknowledged that Punk was back training during an appearance on the "MMA Hour" with Ariel Helwani yesterday.

Punk had previously disclosed that he and UFC's Dana White had a conversation where Punk made it clear he intended to keep pursuing MMA after his loss to Mickey Gall this past September at UFC 203.


Some other sheet news includes:

Japanese publication Tokyo Times recently released the list of their wrestling awards winners for this year. https://twitter.com/reasonjp/status/808786068812099584
Sports Illustrated had a recent interview with Randy Orton. http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2016/12/12/wwe-randy-orton-shooter-chris-jericho-brock-lesnar?xid=socialflow_twitter_si
Recent episode of the Steve Austin podcast show had former WWE ref and timekeeper Mark Yeaton as his guest. Yeaton used to be the person who tossed beers to Austin in the ring. http://www.podcastone.com/pg/jsp/program/episode.jsp?programID=542&pid=1695364

[Sepholio]

Lol oh punk. Dana will be glad to make a few more dollars off of you getting your shit kicked in.

[Black Widow]

Translation: Vader just wanted attention/Sympathy.

[Big Vic]

Why would you name your son Duke Roufus?

[Cool King]

205 Live was taped?

STD is going to be pissed.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Luke Harper Appreciation Wednesday:
http://4thletter.net/wp-content/uploads//10bhbrodie.gif

The 12/13 edition of Smackdown did 2,361,000, down from last week's 2,479,000 viewers.

Since we are getting closer to the end of the year, readers have asked whether WWE will present a 2016 WWE Slammy Awards broadcast, which for the last several years, has been a special branded episode of Raw.

In asking around, we are told there are no current plans for a Slammy Awards in 2016 on any platform but the idea could always be revived sometime next year.

WWE has quietly removed WWE World champion AJ Styles from all live event advertising through 12/26 at Madison Square Garden in NYC, which appears to be his first match back in the ring after suffering an ankle injury taking a backdrop at the WWE TLC PPV against Dean Ambrose.

Styles appeared on Smackdown Live last night and will appear on tonight's Tribute to the Troops broadcast in a non-physical role. During an appearance on "Talking Smack" last night on the WWE Network, Styles stated that he felt he could go if necessary. Obviously, WWE is holding him out of action to prevent further injury while he is healing.

The 12/26 MSG event will feature Styles defending against John Cena and Dean Ambrose in what is also Cena's scheduled return to the company after taking a hiatus to work on his "American Grit" reality series for FOX.

Zack Ryder & Mojo Rawley became the number one contenders for the Wyatt Family’s SmackDown tag titles after winning a battle royal last night, but Ryder suffered a knee injury during the match.

After receiving criticism for a tweet Big E made with a picture of WWE’s five black champions and the #BlackExcellence hashtag, Kofi Kingston wrote a response explaining why the achievement is important.

While much of the feedback has been positive, there has also been a lot of negative response with regard to the picture we posted illustrating Rich, Sasha, Xavier, E, and myself wielding our championship titles. Perhaps this is because many are in question of the motivation behind the post:

It does not come from a place of malice, spite, or gloating. It comes from a place of joy and a place of happiness. We have a very strong sense of pride in being the Black People simultaneously holding championships in WWE. Historically in our nation, there was period in time where this would not have happened, followed by a long period of time where it became possible, but had not actually materialized. Now, we are in the time in which the possibility has become a reality.

Why does this matter?

It matters because even though it is hard for some to fathom, the fact is that there are many people who feel as though it is impossible to attain certain goals because of the color of their skin. This is why we must acknowledge the color of ours in this instance. It is important for people of all races, but particularly people of color, and especially the youth, to see that it is entirely possible to achieve your dreams and aspirations regardless of your race. We are a shining example who want to be a source of motivation for others to believe in themselves and do the same.

Excellence is not the same as supremacy. #BlackExcellence is not meant to be divisive. For even if you do not fall into the specific category, you can still take enjoyment in our pride, because in the biggest picture, in a society that often focuses on the negative aspects of race relations, what has transpired with the 5 of us speaks positively to the progress we've made as a nation.
Link to the tweet: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1spefsu

FloSlam has found another international streaming partner.

The service announced on Wednesday morning that Ireland-based Over The Top Wrestling would be streaming two events on FloSlam later this month. OTT is the second international promotion to join the platform after it was previously announced that IPW:UK would be a regular addition to its lineup.

OTT: The Dream Before Christmas will take place on December 17th but will stream as a FloSlam World Premiere on December 28th. The show will be headlined by the next match in the rivalry between Ricochet and Will Ospreay. The two high flyers previously faced off in EVOLVE, NJPW, and PWG, with their Best of the Super Juniors match in particular drawing online attention.

FloSlam will also debut OTT's Invasion Belfast show as a World Premiere on December 29th. That event will take place on December 18th before it comes to the service.

Both OTT shows will stream live at 8:30 p.m. ET and will be available for unlimited viewing as part of the FloSlam library.

SiriusXM’s Sam Roberts will be a guest on this Sunday’s Roadblock pre-show panel.

VICE Sports posted an excellent profile of The Young Bucks. Dave Meltzer is quoted in the piece, and the Bucks talk about making money outside of WWE and how close they came to joining wrestling’s biggest promotion. An excerpt from the piece: "When A.J. was about to leave, he pulled us aside before anybody knew anything and he asked us about our contracts," Matt recalls. "At that point, it was December and we had just signed -- we signed in November. He's like, 'You did? Ughhh.' The idea was he was going to try and get us to walk out with him and be the guys with him... If we never signed, there's a great chance we could have been walking out on Raw with those guys, I feel."

Former ECW Legend/WWE Superstar Tommy Dreamer sat down with Under the Mat Radio discussing such topics as: House of Hardcore 23 coming up in Joppa, MD, what he said about Brock Lesnar that got cut off the ECW Unauthorized special on WWE Network, and how him drinking Taker’s Tobacco spit skit came about and how much he got paid.
Link to the interview: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/underthematradio/2016/12/14/under-the-mat-radio-hardcore-dreamer

According to their website, Challenge TV in the UK will not be broadcasting Total Nonstop Deletion. Instead they will be getting a Best of 2016 Special in their regular Impact Wrestling timeslot at 9 pm on Sunday December 18th.

They list the show that aired this past Sunday as, "Final TNA Impact on Challenge: Sunday 11th at 9pm – In this final show on Challenge, new Champion Moose kicks things off, Eddie Edwards takes on EC3 and it’s The Tribunal against Snow and Shera in a Double Strap Match".

Last night, John Pollock of Live Audio Wrestling reported that Anthem Sports & Entertainment, which is the parent company of the LAW and the company now funding TNA (with the expectation that they will formally announce they have purchased majority ownership in the company coming anytime now) has been meeting with Jarrett, one of the founders of the company and certainly, the heart and soul of the promotion for much of its lifetime.

PWInsider.com can independently confirm that report and confirm that discussions between the two sides began last Monday 12/5.

We are told that Jarrett has been specifically meeting and talking with Anthem's Ed Nordholm, who is now overseeing the day to day operations of the company. Jarrett has not been at TNA HQ and we are told that the pair went out of their way to meet in secret for "exploratory discussions." We are told that the discussions took place partially so that Nordholm could get more of a background on TNA and different aspects of how the company operated over different time periods.

Pollock reported that there is no agreement at this time for Jarrett to return to the company that he helped found with his father Jerry. As of this morning, that is indeed true.

However, we are told that that should Jarrett return in some form to TNA, whether it be as a performer or in a management style role, that his fledgling Global Force Wrestling promotion would still be an active, viable component of any relationship that comes out of the discussions.
Being speculated TNA's new owners might use the GFW name as a way to rebrand the company and possibly have Jeff Jarrett help on the Creative side of the company.

We've gotten a few emails asking about this. 205 Live is being overseen by Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn directly, not Triple H. McMahon has been extremely hands on with the Cruiserweights in getting them to execute his vision. What we have seen the last three weeks is very much a Vince McMahon product, as opposed to WWE NXT, which Triple H has the last word on.

The New York Post reported late last night that a Federal Judge has signed off on the Gawker bankruptcy plan, confirming that WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan will receive a $31 million settlement from the now-defunct website before the close of 2016.

Hogan dropped the leg on Gawker this past June after a jury in Florida awarded him $140 million in damages in a civil lawsuit Hogan launched after Gawker published clips of a sex tape he was not aware was being filmed and refused requests to remove the video. The website quickly filed for bankruptcy.

Smackdown Live wrestler Curt Hawkins will soon be forced to face the facts and share his action figure collection with a young child … because the WWE Superstar is gonna be a dad.

Pro Wrestling Sheet has learned Hawkins and his wife Elizabeth are expecting a baby and he made the announcement today to friends/family. No word as to how far along she is.

Curt isn’t the only wrestler who recently learned he’s having a kid — Xavier Woods‘ wife announced on Instagram this month that they’re also having a child.


<div style="██████████relative"><iframe src="https://streamable.com/e/a3hw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen scrolling="no" style="width: 560px; height: 315px;"></iframe><script async defer src="https://v.embedcdn.com/embed.js"></script></div>
http://i.imgur.com/hE3K8Pg.gif


Some other sheet news includes:

Recent episode of Ring Rust Radio podcast show had Broken Matt Hardy as its guest. https://youtu.be/YlQFTeo19pI
Eric Rowan has been teasing on social media he's currently working on new mask designs for his return from injury within the next few months.
According to PWI, Deonna Purrazzo will be leaving NXT/WWE soon for Japan's STARDOM promotion in the very near future.
WWE is currently planning on releasing a 6-pack set of films from their WWE Studios branch on February 2017. The set includes The Condemned 1 & 2, See No Evil 1 & 2, 12 Rounds 3, and 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown.
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Zack Ryder has won 6 battle royals out of 30 attempts in his WWE career. http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=2750&page=4&search=battle

[Cool King]

After receiving criticism for a tweet Big E made with a picture of WWE’s five black champions and the #BlackExcellence hashtag, Kofi Kingston wrote a response explaining why the achievement is important.

While much of the feedback has been positive, there has also been a lot of negative response with regard to the picture we posted illustrating Rich, Sasha, Xavier, E, and myself wielding our championship titles. Perhaps this is because many are in question of the motivation behind the post:

It does not come from a place of malice, spite, or gloating. It comes from a place of joy and a place of happiness. We have a very strong sense of pride in being the Black People simultaneously holding championships in WWE. Historically in our nation, there was period in time where this would not have happened, followed by a long period of time where it became possible, but had not actually materialized. Now, we are in the time in which the possibility has become a reality.

Why does this matter?

It matters because even though it is hard for some to fathom, the fact is that there are many people who feel as though it is impossible to attain certain goals because of the color of their skin. This is why we must acknowledge the color of ours in this instance. It is important for people of all races, but particularly people of color, and especially the youth, to see that it is entirely possible to achieve your dreams and aspirations regardless of your race. We are a shining example who want to be a source of motivation for others to believe in themselves and do the same.

Excellence is not the same as supremacy. #BlackExcellence is not meant to be divisive. For even if you do not fall into the specific category, you can still take enjoyment in our pride, because in the biggest picture, in a society that often focuses on the negative aspects of race relations, what has transpired with the 5 of us speaks positively to the progress we've made as a nation.

Link to the tweet: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1spefsu

I get why Big E pointed it out and Kofi does talk sense, but reading the replies to Big E's "tweet" is just cringworthy. Like most things on the internet, it's just turned into a war, and because of the subject matter, it's a race war via Twitter.

I've seen a lot of replies from black users that would probably be deemed as being racist. For example, a few are calling Smackdown a "mayo parade" because all the champions are white. However, when a white user says something negative about Big E's "tweet" or any of the champions he has in the picture, they are being labeled as being a racist or a white supremacist by black users.

One white guy simply said he would rather see Brian Kendrick as Cruiserweight Champion and he got torn apart via Twitter by angry black users.

But that's about less than half the amount of the replies. The majority are just well wishers and people who declare their dislike for Roman Reigns.

[Big Vic]

That's because only white people can be racist. It is impossible for black people to be racist because they do not hold positions of power.

[XL]

I get why Big E pointed it out and Kofi does talk sense, but reading the replies to Big E's "tweet" is just cringworthy. Like most things on the internet, it's just turned into a war, and because of the subject matter, it's a race war via Twitter.

I've seen a lot of replies from black users that would probably be deemed as being racist. For example, a few are calling Smackdown a "mayo parade" because all the champions are white. However, when a white user says something negative about Big E's "tweet" or any of the champions he has in the picture, they are being labeled as being a racist or a white supremacist by black users.

One white guy simply said he would rather see Brian Kendrick as Cruiserweight Champion and he got torn apart via Twitter by angry black users.

But that's about less than half the amount of the replies. The majority are just well wishers and people who declare their dislike for Roman Reigns.
Aaaaaaaaaand this is why I'm not on Twitter.

[Cool King]

Ditto.

[Fignuts]

lol what?

This shit is everywhere these days. It's unavoidable.

[Sepholio]

Lol racism.

[KIRA]

Originally Posted by PWI
We've gotten a few emails asking about this. 205 Live is being overseen by Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn directly, not Triple H. McMahon has been extremely hands on with the Cruiserweights in getting them to execute his vision. What we have seen the last three weeks is very much a Vince McMahon product, as opposed to WWE NXT, which Triple H has the last word on



Well I am ready to label this one a failure just based on that.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by WWE's newest signee and future mega star, Bouncy Ladder:
http://i.imgur.com/TzYFtg1.gif

Zack Ryder's MRI report ended up being bad news as it revealed he's in need of surgery and is currently in Birmingham, AL, today for a knee operation.

Ryder was injured on Tuesday night in Washington, DC, while participating in a battle royal that he ended up winning ...

Mojo Rawley first came out to celebrate the win, but saw Ryder and could see he was hurt. Ryder had to be helped backstage, which was edited off the show because it was a rare taped episode of SmackDown. He was on crutches later that night.

There is no word yet on the nature of his surgery, as minor surgery could have a relatively quick turnaround, but major surgery would likely keep him out for six to eight months.


On Thursday, Brock Lesnar was officially fined $250,000 and suspended for one year by the Nevada Athletic Commission for his two positive tests for hydroxy-clomiphene around the time of July's UFC 200.

The term of the suspension will date back to July 9, the date of the second positive test and his UFC 200 fight with Mark Hunt. Lesnar won the fight via decision, but the results of the fight has been overturned and changed to a no contest.

The $250,000 fine represented 10 percent of Lesnar's $2.5 million purse which is actually a low amount given the guidelines for much higher fines of fighters failing drug tests in the past.

Lesnar tested positive in tests given on June 28 and July 9, but the result of the June 28 test didn't come back until after UFC 200. In subsequent interviews, Hunt has been furious that the fight was allowed to go on.

The suspension would be recognized by athletic commissions throughout North America, meaning there would be states that still license pro wrestlers where Lesnar would not be allowed to appear until July. Although, with his limited schedule, it is unlikely to affect his WWE status.

WWE will soon be crowning the promotion's first ever United Kingdom Champion.

It was announced at a press conference in London today that WWE would be holding a two-day tournament that will air live on the Network to determine the first UK Champion. The tournament will feature 16 wrestlers and will be held at the Empress Ballroom in Blackpool, England on January 14th and 15th.

Triple H made the announcement at the press conference and was joined by Michael Cole, William Regal, and Finn Balor. It was also revealed that former ROH star and behind-the-scenes talent Nigel McGuinness would be joining WWE to call the action alongside Cole and Regal.
Some more details and video of the press conference: http://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/wwe-crown-first-united-kingdom-champion-january-226546

Plans for the UK championship after the tournament:

"We’re seeing what this will become. It’s not a science yet. The hope is it becomes its own weekly show, based out of the U.K., with U.K. talent. Those talents will still be able to perform within the [independent companies] RevPros, ICWs and Progress’s. As those talents are working [in the U.K.] and moving up [in the industry], we’re helping RevPro, ICW and Progress to grow and help cultivate their talent pool as well. Before it was a pipedream that you’d make it beyond the U.K. or the indie scene to the WWE. Now there’s a clear path to do it."
Part of an interview Triple H had with Newsday about the new UK plans. http://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-wwe-triple-h-uk-expansion-linda-mcmahon-donald-trump-532455

The 12/15 episode of Total Divas on E! garnered 556,000 viewers. That was down from last week's 563,000 viewers, the third drop in as many weeks.
Already well on pace to topple last season as the lowest ever in Total Divas history.

Dwayne Johnson's Rock the Troops special on 12/13 on Spike brought in 516,000 viewers. A replay last night on BET saw the special bring in an additional 237,000 viewers.

Last night's WWE Tribute to the Troops special on the USA Network garnered 1,383,000 viewers.
Tribute to the Troops this year broke the record for least watched prime time wrestling show in USA Network history. In terms of comparisons, last year's Tribute show had around 500k more viewers.

Jerry Brisco is the special guest this week on Sean Waltman's X-Pac 1,2,360, offering insight into Brock Lesnar's WWE signing, Hulk Hogan's first reaction to Kevin Nash and more. Plus, the Hall of Famer gets emotional when discussing his son's in-ring career.

Here are the highlights from Jerry's interview:

Jerry says he didn't mind the "stooge" label, but someone else did: Pat Patterson hated hearing that word. He hated it. I used to rib Pat all the time. I said, Pat you and I worked for twenty years in our careers trying to have a reputation as good workers. Now forever in the history of wrestling we'll go down as two stooges. He'd say, don't say that! I said, man you're labeled now. You're a stooge.

Jerry confirms folklore that Vince McMahon brought Gorilla Monsoon to protect him on Black Saturday: That is true. That's exactly what happened. Gorilla made the trip down there and stood backstage, made sure the boss was OK. And he was OK...It wasn't just the WWF guys that respected Gorilla. He was respected throughout the industry as a standup guy and as a tough guy.

Jerry reveals WrestleMania I almost ended much differently: We were ready to attack WrestleMania I with [Dick] Murdoch and [Adrian] Adonis for the title and get the titles. That's when Jack [Brisco] said, I've had enough. I'm forty years old and I'm finished. And he quit. He was one of those guys that when he walked away, he walked away. He never came back ...

Jerry speaks candidly about son Wes Brisco's in-ring career: So Wes is working hard and he's trying to make it, and he's struggling like everybody else. It breaks my heart sometimes to see him, and I try to talk him out of doing what he's doing. I had a really long talk with Arn Anderson. I've got to give Arn some props on this. I was telling Arn Wes' struggles and I told Arn that I want him to quit. Arn said, what did he tell you? He told me doesn't want to. Arn said, what would you do? You know, he threw it right back at me. I'd do the same thing. He said, well there's your answer. Go for it.

Following the dismissal of Tom Casiello, the position of Managing Lead Writer had been eliminated. The lead writer on Raw is Ed Koskey, on Smackdown Ryan Ward is the lead writer. Brian James (the Road Dogg) works with him and is being groomed for a bigger role since he’s close with Triple H. Koskey & Ward report to Triple H, who reports to Vince McMahon. Dave Kapoor, a former head writer (who was once Ranjin Singh as a TV character) is currently an assignment editor for both brands, deciding which writer or writers works on which promos or segments.

On the current WWE locker room, he said:

I remember walking into our locker room [as a rookie] and there's a few guys I can't even name, but you had a crew of guys that were very intimidating and commanded respect. You could also go to them and get advice, and you would get that advice. Nowadays, a lot of the younger guys, I find myself -- and I see other guys that have been around -- having to go to them with suggestions on how to make their 'product' better. Whether it's selling or facial expressions or just slowing down a little bit. But no, they're not coming to us. And I remember just years ago, you were always seeking out that advice. It's almost like some of these guys that have been in the indies 15 years think they know everything. That's probably the only negative difference that sticks out to me.

On possible feud with AJ Styles, he added:

He's at the top of my list, as far as guys that I look forward to working with that I haven't worked with before. Most definitely, 100 percent guaranteed, me and him would kill it every night. He's one of those guys that can do anything. I have certain things that I'm good at, too, and I feel like the mixture of both of our talents would really give the people something that they would never forget.

From a recent interview Randy Orton had with CBS Sports. http://www.cbssports.com/general/news/randy-orton-talks-facial-hair-family-and-respect-in-the-wwe-locker-room/

On the Hotel Room Scene:

When I’m in the hotel room and I see Lana, it’s a “Pulp Fiction” moment. It’s John Travolta walking up to his boss’s door trying to talk himself out of it the entire time. For me, in this scenario, I was presented with a challenge that I had never seen before because for that time period, they didn’t want me to be Enzo. Enzo would have walked into the hotel room and started making Certified G jokes; with that being said, I had the mindset to go in there and just murder this right now, and be hilarious, and everyone is going to pop for it. I had an arsenal of material ready; but when I got there in the situation; the situation is that you deserve every beatdown that you receive. You walk into a hotel room with someone’s wife while she was naked. You said that you were going to stuff her turkey. I don’t remember exactly what I said, but of course he’s going to kick me in the “you know what,” so the next time I’m on television, we had to dial it back when I was put into that situation, so to garner those people’s sympathy, I started playing the shy..I don’t want to be here, and the second I walked into the situation I knew it wasn’t the right one, and I made a bad decision, and I wanted to get out of there. It wasn’t because I was scared of Rusev, it was because I didn’t want to do something with another man’s wife, and so, Enzo is a good guy at the end of the day. That was the role I was asked to play.
Part of a recent episode of the Sam Roberts podcast show with Enzo as the guest.

ITV is trying to get its guys signed since WWE is coming after their guy. They are looking at U.K. exclusive deals, at least as it pertains to television. Their idea, and this isn’t greenlit nor is the show officially picked up, but a working idea, is to tape again in mid-February and film 13 episodes in a short period of time, like TNA does, maybe 13 days or they’re even taping two episodes per day and getting it done in a week

The situation with Sexy Star and the Lucha Underground promotion has gotten interesting because they are back to backing Dorian Roldan, with the idea that people who leave AAA may not be used, which would also effect Fenix and Jack Evans. Everyone is waiting for the decision, but there is an issue as well with Sexy Star as she wants to box and they are claiming that based on her contract that they feel she needs their approval.

Since Fenix’s new name, Rey Fenix, was also trademarked by AAA even though it was the name he started using after leaving the promotion, he’s changed his name again to Fenix El Rey. If he stays with Lucha Underground, he can still be Fenix there

TNA has told Sony Six that they will do the contracted tour of India this summer. Sony Six has been loyal to them even though they violated the contract by not doing a tour in 2016 when they didn’t have money. Right now they are on a tight budget, but at least everyone as best we can tell is getting paid on time

Finn Balor said that he’s targeting a return for WrestleMania after his shoulder surgery. He said he might be ready a few weeks before that. When asked about the Rumble, he said it’s not impossible, but certainly didn’t seem like he expected that to be the case

WWE has announced it is looking to raise $175 million in debt financing and may add another $26.26 million to that figure in 90 days, working through JP Morgan Chase Bank. It’s basically selling bonds, similar to what UFC did in originally working off debt, and even more so, WME IMG did this year to raise money for its purchase of UFC. The $175 million to $201.26 million they are attempting to raise would be paid back in 2023. Interest rates are negotiable but WWE would pay interest payments to the bond holders every six months until that time. However, what was different is that the WWE said that there are conditions where the equity the bond holders have could be converted into stock. That was something of a red flag to the stock market, because that happens, it would increase the number of shares out in the company, and would dilute the value of the existing shares, which would worry the existing shareholders.

Yet another name being hired for a coaching position at the Performance Center is Johnny Saint (John Miller, 75), who was one of the greatest technical wrestlers of all-time. Saint was the master of the old European style and has committed to being in Orlando for the next six months.


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">William Regal confirmed to us that there are &quot;zero restrictions&quot; on any of the wrestlers working for other UK promotions.</p>&mdash; WCPW (@WhatCulturePW) <a href="https://twitter.com/WhatCulturePW/status/809425113573707776">December 15, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


Some other sheet news includes:

WWE announced they recently signed former ROH champion Nigel McGuinness to become a new commentator for the company.
Michael Elgin recently revealed on Twitter he has left ROH although will still appear for the company for joint NJPW-ROH events. https://twitter.com/MichaelElgin25/status/809435626730909696
Neville revealed during today's WWE UK press conference he is currently dealing with an ankle injury as the reason for his lack of tv time recently.
According to the Observer, NJPW is currently considering the idea of hosting the first 2 days of G1 Climax 2017 in the US. Long Beach, California is currently rumored to be the possible location.

[Cool King]

Plans for the UK championship after the tournament:

"We’re seeing what this will become. It’s not a science yet. The hope is it becomes its own weekly show, based out of the U.K., with U.K. talent. Those talents will still be able to perform within the [independent companies] RevPros, ICWs and Progress’s. As those talents are working [in the U.K.] and moving up [in the industry], we’re helping RevPro, ICW and Progress to grow and help cultivate their talent pool as well. Before it was a pipedream that you’d make it beyond the U.K. or the indie scene to the WWE. Now there’s a clear path to do it."

So RevPro, ICW and Progress are basically just developmental territories for the WWE in the UK now.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by WWE's warning about Renee's dancing:
http://68.media.tumblr.com/57517dfda578f460bb58f8b44c6969b0/tumblr_oi5rlwSQxO1u1ljrzo2_540.gif

Pro Wrestling Sheet has learned Mick Foley is taking the rest of the month off from appearing on WWE programming … but the company insists he hasn’t been suspended or released.

A rep for WWE tells us, “Mick is taking time off to spend the holidays with his family and do his volunteer work as Santa. He has not been released or fired.”

The move is slightly odd, considering he’s in the middle of a storyline involving Sami Zayn. Plus, he’s the main authority figure on Raw and no mention was made of this on the show this week.

WWE officials add, “He will return to Raw on Monday, January 2.”

The 12/15 Total Nonstop Deletion edition of Impact did 329,000 viewers, up from last week's 303,000 viewers.

It was announced on Wrestling Observer Live that wXw is the latest promotion to sign with FloSports. The sides inked a two-year deal which will start on 12/21 with the airing of this past weekend's anniversary show from Oberhausen, Germany that featured Jurn Simmons defending the title against both Marty Scurll and Adam Cole.

A very interesting article noting Shane McMahon no longer has any WWE stock.
Had around 2% a few years ago and sold the majority of it prior to his return to the WWE. Link to the article with more details about Shane and Vince in terms of ownership power: http://www.fightful.com/breakdown-current-wwe-ownership-how-much-does-linda-mcmahon-still-own

There will be more material taped from Cameron, NC on the next two week's of Impact, which will be mostly year-in-review shows.

After a generation, Hiroshi Tanahashi will be retiring his entrance music tonight at Korakuen Hall. He will debut a new song at the Tokyo Dome.

Ryan Phillipe will be on Smackdown this Tuesday to promote the show "Shooter" which airs after Smackdown.
Best chance for Swagger to make an appearance considering the actor plays a character also named Swagger.

Trump has claimed that McMahon helped grow WWE from a “modest 13-person operation to a publicly traded global enterprise with more than 800 employees in offices worldwide” ― a statement that appears word-for-word on McMahon’s personal website.

But the real story is more complicated — and controversial.

The World Wrestling Federation, which later became WWE, and that McMahon had a hand in running for nearly three decades, was not exactly a small business when she and her husband, Vince, took it over from Vince’s father in 1982, said Dr. Scott Beekman, a historian at the University of Rio Grande and the author of Ringside: A History of Professional Wrestling in America.

“They might have had 13 employees when they took over, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t running monthly shows at the premier palace in the nation,” Beekman said, referring to Madison Square Garden, where Vince McMahon’s father had begun staging wrestling matches even before the couple assumed control of the business. The company already controlled wrestling across the mid-Atlantic and Northeast region. “It was a far larger operation” than the term small business would suggest, Beekman said.
Link to the article that goes into more details debunking the "small business" origins of the WWE in regards to the Vince and Linda era of control. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/linda-mcmahon-business-history_us_5852efdbe4b012849c0609ca

After originally not planning to air TNA's Total Nonstop Deletion episode, ChallengeTV in the UK announced that they will indeed be airing the madcap episode on Sunday 12/18 at 9 PM Locally.

After being out with a serious concussion, Timothy Thatcher is no longer sowing any concussion symptoms and has been cleared to start training. He will return with matches on 1/27 and 1/28 in San Antonio, and there is a tease he'll defend the Evolve title against Jeff Cobb on one of those shows.

Evolve announced that Chris Dickinson, Jaka and Jason Kincaid have all signed deals with the company.

WWE announced that both shows for the WWE UK Championship Tournament has sold out.

Thank you WWE Universe. We've SOLD OUT both nights of the @WWEUKCT in Blackpool! Watch all the action this January on @WWENetwork! pic.twitter.com/tBxyln3X7J
— WWE UK Championship (@WWEUKCT) December 16, 2016

As noted, WWE Superstar Randy Orton was a guest on Tom Clark's Main Event podcast. During the show, Orton talked a bit about his future career plans.

According to Orton, he would like to continue to wrestle for 10 more years.

"For the immediate future and, s--t, for 10 more years, I would love to, if I'm able to, wrestle. This is what I enjoy doing." Orton continued, "the day of a pay-per-view when you're thinking of what you can do and then you get the payoff, the reward, that night. It's a different animal. That live audience is a different animal. You grow as a WWE Superstar and really appreciate the reactions we pull out of these fans."

When asked whether he would join in the chase to beat Ric Flair's record world championship reigns, the 12-time world champion said he definitely has a few more title runs left in him. Orton went on to say that titles are merely "icing on the cake" at this point in his decorated professional wrestling career.

"I've definitely got a few more [world title reigns] left in me. I'd say maybe even a handful. It [has] been two-and-a-half, three years since I had the big title around my waist, but being tag champs now, the last time I was tag champs and the only time before was in 2007, so going on 10 years later I get my second run as tag champ and that's cool. Do you know what I mean? s--t, I'd go fight for the I.C. title or whatever title they put in front of me, it's an honor to hold that title."

Orton added, "if I never won it again, that would be okay with me. I'm a 12-time world champion. I've accomplished so much in the WWE. I just go out there and continue to entertain people and get my kids excited because they get to watch daddy on TV, those kinds of rewards, that's what I'm doing it for now. Any gold around my waist, that's just icing on the cake."

I received so many letters, emails, and well-wishes from people everywhere telling me that I was in their prayers after I announced my battle with prostate cancer. I believe there is a lot of power in prayer, and I believe a lot of those prayers worked. I appreciate and remember everything that my fans have done for me.

People prayed for me in my battle and I can say with great pride and gratitude that I successfully beat prostate cancer. I’m looking forward to a beautiful Christmas this year in Canada, and I will always be grateful for all the fans that supported me.

My health is really good now. On my last visit with my doctor, he told me my PSA level was zero and I’d had a one-in-ten recovery. He said I was a miracle. One of the difficult aspects of my fight with prostate cancer was the decision to go public. Prostate cancer has killed a lot of people and I like to think my coming out and talking about it would encourage other men to get checked. It’s my understanding that one out of every seven men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. The key to beating this disease is early detection with regular PSA-level testing. All men over the age of 40 should get their PSA levels checked. All that entails is a simple blood test.
From a recent interview Bret Hart had with Sports Illustrated revealing he's now cancer free.


Some other sheet news includes:

A recent article by website Fightful states 2017 could end up being a huge year for wrestling in terms of streaming services bringing major changes to the industry itself. http://www.fightful.com/turbulent-year-2017-look-future-wwe-floslam-and-powerbombtv
WWE recently released a new album on iTunes called "WWE: Uncaged" which is a set of previously unreleased entrance themes. https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/wwe-uncaged/id1185077337
NJPW's owner recently teased they will be making a big announcement in the near future and its related to WWE's current quest to take over more wrestling markets. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/5irvnj/takaaki_kidani_owner_of_njpw_we_will_announce/

[Cool King]

WWE recently released a new album on iTunes called "WWE: Uncaged" which is a set of previously unreleased entrance themes.

Wow, I've been wanting the WWE to do this for years but I never thought they would ever do it. It was actually as recently as Tuesday that I was thinking about the idea, as I had Eddie Guerrero's final theme stuck in my head and I've been wanting to hear the full length version of it for years now.

Looking at the track listing and it sucks that they haven't added it (unless its actual name is "Viva La Raza" and not "Gangster Lean/Lane" as everyone thought it was) but I'm pretty happy they've added (what I assume is) Jericho's debut theme and The Mean Street Posse's theme.

There's a few others I'm happy to see too. Hopefully, this becomes a regular thing and we get "Vol. 2", "Vol. 3", "Vol. 4" and so on.

[Volare]

....but I'm pretty happy they've added (what I assume is) Jericho's debut theme....
There's a few others I'm happy to see too. Hopefully, this becomes a regular thing and we get "Vol. 2", "Vol. 3", "Vol. 4" and so on.

FUCK YES IT IS!! THE REAL DAMN THING!!

<iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/d0n0929snZY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by the Reincarnation of Xanta Claus:
http://i.giphy.com/3o6Zt6m6pICeMpITTy.gif

Getting a post-PPV bump, Raw did 2.95 million viewers last night, a solid seven percent increase from last week.

While the show started higher, with 3.06 million in hour one as compared to 2.93 million last week, the key was retaining the viewers through the three hours.

What was notable about last night's show was the different way fans viewed it. Male fans grew, particularly those between the ages of 12 to 34, where there was an amazing 19 percent growth from hour one to three. However, this growth was reversed among women, who tuned out, losing 19 percent of the viewers between the first and third hour between those same ages ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 3.06 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.97 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.83 million viewers

Though they appeared to reveal the full Wrestle Kingdom 11 card last week, New Japan Pro Wrestling announced a change in two of the show's title matches on Monday morning.

Tomohiro Ishii will now team with Toru Yano to make the IWGP Tag Team Championship match at the Tokyo Dome on January 4th a three-way bout with champions Guerrillas of Destiny defending against Ishii & Yano in addition to World Tag League winners Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma.

Yano had announced his intent to challenge for the titles at NJPW's first Road to the Tokyo Dome show last week before teaming with Ishii the next night.

With Ishii previously being scheduled to compete in the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship gauntlet at the Dome, Jado will now take his place as he joins the CHAOS team of Will Ospreay & YOSHI-HASHI. That match will also include champions Satoshi Kojima, Ricochet & David Finlay, a Los Ingobernables de Japon team of SANADA, EVIL & BUSHI, and a Bullet Club team of Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Hangman Page.


WWE debuts a new Table for 3 on Wednesday night with Jim Duggan, Sgt Slaughter and Nikolai Volkoff

Finn Balor made an appearance for OTT Wrestling in his home country of Ireland today. The show was headlined by Ricochet vs. Will Ospreay ...

People on Twitter yesterday were raving about the Ricochet vs. Will Ospreay match in Dublin. It's not available for viewing until 12/28, but there were people live who I know and who I trust who were talking about it as if it was something special.

WWE’s YouTube channel looked at five potential Undertaker matches that they’re dying to see.
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9dVuHyA3cg

Chris Hero also addressed his situation with WWE at PWG last night by saying that he really doesn’t know what’s going to happen and it may or may not have been his last time wrestling in PWG.

Pop TV posted the full Total Nonstop Deletion episode of TNA Impact.
Link to the episode: http://poptv.com/post/154555002543/impact-wrestling-total-nonstop-deletion-full

Finn Balor reflected on his injury and said that the target is still to be back in time for WrestleMania in an interview with ESPN.

Zack Ryder tweeted that he may be out anywhere from 4-9 months after undergoing knee surgery.
Link to the tweet: https://twitter.com/ZackRyder/status/810715296566824960

WWE PPVs are definitely declining in public interest. The TLC show two weeks ago was the first time I can recall a WWE show not cracking the top 20 in searches for the day. The Smackdown shows have done far worse from the start than the Raw shows. Last night's show was No. 16, with 100,000 searches, but it used to be 200,000 minimum for most shows. PPVs always have more searches than TV shows, but UFC on Saturday for a TV show had three in the top 20, with Paige VanZant (No. 5), Urijah Faber (No. 12) and Sage Northcutt (No. 18). Bernard Hopkins was No. 12. That correlated with what will likely be the best December UFC ratings in several years.
Some perspective on all the social media blabbering about how popular they are that the WWE likes to do a lot.

As of this Wednesday 12/21, E! will be moving WWE reality series Total Divas back one hour to 9 PM Eastern. The series is the midst of its sixth season and had been going head to head with WWE NXT on the WWE Network as well as Lucha Underground on The El Rey Network.
Likely also a last chance attempt by E! to try to prevent another record breaking lowest season occurring in a row for show history.

I'm not sure what will come of this, if anything, but Billy Corgan and Dave Lagana were in Baltimore a few weeks ago meeting with ROH management.

WHAT TO EXPECT THE NEXT TWO WEEKS ON IMPACT WRESTLING

This Thursday on Impact Wrestling will see the promotion's "Greatest Hits of 2016" including Kurt Angle's TNA farewell, Gail Kim being inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame and more.

The 12/29 episode will be a Hardys-centric episode featuring highlights of all of the Broken Matt Hardy storylines and moments.

TNA had Jeremy Borash at the Hardy compound last week filming new material for these episodes.

TNA will film new material the first week of January 2017 at Universal Studios to carry the company over through March 2017.

Matt Hardy announced via Twitter that "Total Nonstop Deletion" will be released to the home video market via DVD:

A Digital Video Disc of my #BROKENBrilliance has been ordered by the #7Deities.

These ILLUSTRIOUS events must be documented for POSTERITY.
— #BROKEN Matt Hardy (@MATTHARDYBRAND) December 20, 2016

We are told that you can expect some deleted scenes and the line to be included in the release next year.

"Vince McMahon had this really "exciting" thing. Sasha was about to win and retain the championship. (...) Vince thought the whole building would go crazy during the countdown and then she would tap at 2 to deflate the entire crowd. Everybody else disagreed."
From a recent Observer Radio show about the ending plans for Sasha-Charlotte and Vince only caring about Charlotte. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/5jd9ih/meltzer_on_sasha_v_charlotte_finish_vince_mcmahon/

Losing his passion for the business:
"I've had a lifelong passion, and really obsession, with professional wrestling since I was a very small kid. That passion never left me. I was always inspired to be involved and be part of good TV and do projects that would inspire me professionally. Unfortunately, in 2015 and again in 2016, I was asked to play a character and perform storylines that I found thoroughly uninspiring. After making repeated attempts to change my career trajectory and having those efforts turned down, my passion for playing the role of a WWE Superstar went away."

His Bad News Barrett gimmick:
"'Bad News' Barrett was a really fun time. The reactions from the crowd I was getting were really about my speaking and my portrayal of a character rather than my in-ring work. You can even go back to the Nexus era, when I was cutting promos every single night. People were really hanging on my every word, and I was really dictating a lot of the shows that we were doing. I've always had that confidence in my performance ability and my ability to speak in character. One of the most exciting parts of the Nexus and 'Bad News' Barrett eras were I had a lot of influence in the character and I had a lot of influence in how I was going to portray myself. When I became King Barrett, the influence I had in the character was taken away. I was told, 'This is your outfit, and here is your promo that you have to say word-for-word.' Any time I tried to tweak the storyline because I thought it wasn't working, or because it wasn't me, I was denied. The lack of control over my career reduced my passion more than anything.

"For the first time in my life, I was questioning why I was even getting out of bed and going to work. I wasn't enjoying it and it wasn't motivating me at all. For that reason, I made the decision that I couldn't re-sign a contract and continue for three more years when I knew nothing was going to change. My choice was: to take the paycheck and accept that I was probably going to get the same kind of creative that I'd had for the last couple of years, or alternatively to walk away and look for something else. So I decided to do the latter. I've always been smart with my money, and I saved a lot during my time with WWE. I'm not in a position where I'm living paycheck-to-paycheck, and I can afford to explore other avenues."
From a recent interview Wade Barrett had with Sports Illustrated: http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2016/12/19/wwe-wade-barrett-stu-bennett-interview


Some other sheet news includes:

According to the Observer, ticket sales going into Roadblock: End of the Line ppv were really bad and expected to be the worst selling ppv since the new brand split era started.
ESPN had a recent interview with Triple H regarding WWE's plans for the UK market in the near future. http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/18319884/wwe-paul-triple-h-levesque-future-wwe-uk-making-path-wwe-clearer
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, if Ric Flair followed the same pattern Charlotte is doing for title reigns, he would have had 209 recognized World title reigns for his career. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/5jdje9/if_ric_flair_won_world_championships_throughout/

[Mr. Nerfect]

I really think that the WWE would be in better shape if they dropped an hour from RAW, ended the brand split, focused their championships and only had 12 PPVs a year. The "they get paid for that third hour" is all well and good as an argument, but at some point you have to consider that they are driving away enough people that aren't going to be feeding them in other ways due to fatigue. The same with the content issue on the Network. Yes, it is good to have something happening on there, but if people can't keep up then they are going to feel disconnected and lose interest altogether.

[The CyNick]

I really think that the WWE would be in better shape if they dropped an hour from RAW, ended the brand split, focused their championships and only had 12 PPVs a year. The "they get paid for that third hour" is all well and good as an argument, but at some point you have to consider that they are driving away enough people that aren't going to be feeding them in other ways due to fatigue. The same with the content issue on the Network. Yes, it is good to have something happening on there, but if people can't keep up then they are going to feel disconnected and lose interest altogether.

This is what bothers me about people like you.

You may not like it, but the numbers say you're wrong. Revenues keep going up. Yes it is possible that the next rights fees deal nets WWE less money, but then you see that USA recently put out a press release talking up WWEs impact on their success this year. When you have ratings declining across the board, even the NFL has seen major dips this year, and you're doing better numbers than almost everything else on cable on your night, your rights fees will likely go up. As a publicly traded company, if it ever came out that WWE turned down a bucket of money from USA to add an hour of programming with no evidence of it harming the business, the stock would plummet.

I can't imagine why anyone would complain about more content on The Network. If I'm paying my $10 a month, and the content provider says here's a bunch of extra stuff for no additional cost, why would I complain about that? I don't watch 205 Live for a variety of reasons, but it's great that is there for the people who like cruisers, and I could binge watch if I got some additional free time. It's like joining a wine club and being upset that the winery started sending you four bottles a month instead of two. If you can't drink all four bottles, just leave some in the wine cellar for your next fundraiser. Or give them as gifts to your gardener, mailman, pool guy, maid staff, valet, shoe shiner, etc.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Expenses are also up. Fewer people are watching. Eventually there will be fewer people following the product and that means a smaller pool to convert into Network subscribers. Your wine analogy is not accurate. You can bombard people with an overwhelming amount of content and it can damage your consumption habits. Look at the just reported decrease in Network special interest -- and hence the rumors of your beloved Vince McMahon considering dropping the number of PPVs next year. If too much wasn't a problem, why would he even consider it?

[Damian Rey 2.0]

Is there any number to reference to confirm WWE is actually profiting? Profit and revenue are different right?

[Emperor Smeat]

Think the last fiscal report had the overall revenues up but profits down or almost no net gain because of the expenses. Also think they took a big hit on their cash reserves as a result.

PWTorch had an article about the first half of the year which showed they barely made a net profit for the period compared to last year because of the same reasons.

http://www.pwtorch.com/site/2016/07/28/wwe-financial-report-first-half-2016-vs-2015-comparison-revenue-profit-domestic-vs-intl/

[Mr. Nerfect]

Is there any number to reference to confirm WWE is actually profiting? Profit and revenue are different right?

Yeah, revenue is the gross amount of money you take in, whereas profit is your net after you pay off expenses. For example, if I were a film producer, I could make $50,000,000 on a movie, which might be my most successful film to date, but if it cost $52,000,000 to make?

Growing a business does occasionally mean you need to go into the red or increase expenses to temporarily shrink your profit margin, but the idea behind that is that these expenses will eventually go down, or the revenue coming in will increase to a rate that allows the profit margins to be wider so you can pay better dividends to your shareholders and have the appearance of prosperity.

This is why things like the WWE Network not growing as much as hoped and television ratings being down are actually important things. What CyNick says about ratings generally being down isn't technically false -- television is changing -- but that doesn't give the WWE an assured future on cable television. Last time they expected far higher rights fees than they got offered. As the USA Network shrinks, it is true to suppose that it might become more dependent on the WWE product, but it could also be logically deduced that they might have less money to spend on live content. CyNick's stance seems to be that it would be stupid for the USA Network to cut a show that is watched fourth most on cable or whatever, but what he overlooks is that it is sliding progressively down in relation to other forms of programming. That is why the demographic share is so low these days.

All it would take is a shake-up at NBC Universal and a few suits to say "we're going to try and make USA a platform for more original content" (like Mr. Robot), or for a few suits to cotton on that the WWE's influence on their network is shrinking and they could realistically make a low-ball offer. WCW was doing better than RAW is in its dying days, and the company still had worth, but because it was trending downwards it was easy for executives to say "We don't want wrestling." USA will obviously want to keep Vince on board, but what the WWE is counting on is that NBC Universal will spend more money on a product that is actually shrinking in terms of viewership just because their other programming isn't too crash hot. It's not the sure-fire plan that CyNick makes it out to be.

This is why international expansion is so important for the WWE right now. They need that Network in as many places as possible -- specifically Asian markets. This is why Shinsuke Nakamura has a place in the WWE that Kenta Kobashi never got. That's why the Bollywood Boyz and Jinder Mahal are in WWE. It's why the WWE is bringing out a UK Championship. They have given up on an aim for quality in a "if the product is hot, people will watch and spend money on us" sense, and have implemented a bulk shock-and-awe with sheer volume approach to try to get into as many homes for as cheap as possible in order to keep themselves afloat.

[Emperor Smeat]

Observer had a pretty interesting article recently about WWE's situation with tv right now and how their strong push towards streaming services could end up with the same negative effects they are currently dealing with for the tv market.

WWE is making a huge bet streaming services will overtake traditional tv as the major market within the near future and their content will be seen as more valuable to those services than it was for tv. If both happens, they are in really good shape but if only one or neither happens, going to be a rough time for the company in the future.

They already struck out on thinking the ppv industry was dead when they pulled all their ppvs in favor of the Network but UFC in recent years proved that wasn't the case. Lost a ton of potential money that the Network hasn't been able to completely cover yet.

There are issues that are the same with many sports, in the sense that the key profit driver is television and due to that, because their shows still are among the highest rated on cable, and they are producing too many hours. That is the history of television with anything popular and one of the reasons many things burn out on television.

But even with the lowest ratings in history and so-so arena business, the television revenue is fixed and continues to rise, and as long as it does, the company will remain healthy ...

It’s a weird situation because the wrestling audience is constantly changing. The current audience is more into wrestling and will spend more on it than any audience before, but it’s also smaller and has a mind of its own.

It’s harder to control, hence the multi-year failure of making Roman Reigns into the face of the company.

The problem is, that is the only audience left. If it didn’t require so much time to keep up with wrestling, would there be more of a casual audience? Who knows, but they aren’t cutting back on the hours of programming. Would there be more fans if they concentrated more on the old vision of good looking larger-than-life stars as opposed to guys who grew up as Bret Hart, Mick Foley and Shawn Michaels fans and whose goal is to put on great matches or get over taking big bumps? There isn’t a Dwayne Johnson or a Steve Austin, but John Cena is becoming a crossover star and Brock Lesnar comes across as a legitimate tough guy as much as any wrestler from any time period, and the company pushed the two as its biggest stars. These are the flaws that get talked about regularly.

And things do vary, which tells us that stuff matters. House shows have gone down with John Cena out of the mix. Ratings were at rock bottom and this fall season was looking to be a disaster from that standpoint in September, but once Bill Goldberg came back and other things fell into place, things did improve. But even if that hadn’t have happened, the way the business is structured, things are still healthy, and will remain healthy as long as they can continually increase television revenue.

If streaming services get aggressive in wanting to compete with television years from now, WWE has a large enough and loyal enough fan base that if there becomes competition for their rights that business will only boom. If that doesn’t happen, and television stations have less revenue, who knows how WWE will fit into the picture.

In the end, it is these outside market forces that will tell the future of the WWE business, not short-term creative, and not Vince McMahon. As people like to point out, the WWE brand that gets the most consistently positive reaction is NXT, which has the fewest viewers and draws the least. Smackdown is more widely praised as a television show than Raw, but Raw does more viewers and draws more fans on the road. In the end, it’s not the creative or the television show quality but the perception of what is important, which is why nobody can compete with WWE, even if they were on national television and put on a better product, because even so, the perception would be it’s not as important.

[Mr. Nerfect]

That's pretty much correct. :y:

[Mr. Nerfect]

Still fucking baffles me that they stopped charging for PPVs. WrestleMania, Money in the Bank, SummerSlam and the Royal Rumble, at the very least, should have been content you had to pay extra for on the WWE Network. Prestige pricing is a thing. By slashing the cost of these shows to $9.99, you value the product at that much. I can understand them potentially giving away Night of Champions or whatever for a reduced price, but the idea that you can buy WrestleMania for $9.99 is still just baffling. The NXT Takeovers should come with a "set your price" feature too. You see musicians, comedians and other artists slyly doing this, and it works. Set a minimum of $5 for a Takeover, because it's a big show and you need to cover costs or whatever, but you can pay up to $50, depending on how you felt about the show. Let the fan vote with their money. If you really like Shinsuke Nakamura, support the shows he is on! If you really want the Women's Revolution to take over, then support it when they headline a Takeover. You can't charge $50 for these shows, but if you left the option there, you'd get some people who would take it upon themselves because of the freedom.

But it's arguably too hard to go backwards now. I think you could manage it by saying a "WWE PPVs will soon not be included in the basic Network scheme, but you still get original programming and the WWE's archived footage -- so join now to watch the next few months of WWE action without the price tag!", but that will likely come with some sort of drop in subscribers.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by The Face That Runs the Place:
http://i.imgur.com/ZcUBYk7.gif

Last night's episode of SmackDown on the USA Network did 2,637,000 viewers, the second best number of the fall TV season. Since September 13th, the only rating to beat it was the 900th episode on November 15th, which featured appearances by The Undertaker and Edge.

Michael Cole discussed Nigel McGuinness joining WWE, Corey Graves’ performance, and why he likes working in a three-man booth in an interview with ESPN.
Link to the interview: http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/18324018/wwe-michael-cole-nigel-mcguiness-wwe-united-kingdom-championship-tournament-three-man-commentary-teams

ROH announced Jay Lethal vs. Bobby Fish vs. Dalton Castle and Cody Rhodes vs. Donovan Dijak for their February 3rd show in San Antonio, Texas. The Young Bucks will also defend their tag titles against The Briscoes in a two-out-of-three falls match in Dallas on February 4th.


A Preview of #AHardyNewYear as we invite you all to join @MattHardyBrand and the entire Hardy Family on 12.29.16 at 8/7c for the holiday! pic.twitter.com/vD5kP4q1Lv
— TNA WRESTLING (@IMPACTWRESTLING) December 21, 2016
Link to the preview: https://twitter.com/IMPACTWRESTLING/status/811704328511598592

The Fite App, which you can download for free by clicking here is now carrying weekly TV episodes for Ring of Honor, Paragon Pro Wrestling, Insane Championship Wrestling Fight Club, Fully Loaded Wrestling, Future Stars of Wrestling, GXW, WXW Shotgun and Championship Wrestling from Hollywood for free in HD ...

The App also features PPV events, including ROH's PPVs, streaming live and on demand. Currently, the ROH Final Battle PPV and the TNA One Night Only: December are available via VOD. The Fite App will carry the January TNA One Night Only PPV and the February ROH 15th Anniversary PPV live as well.

TNA announced the following:

IMPACT WRESTLING RETURNS TO UNIVERSAL STUDIOS JANUARY 5-8 & 10-12 for LIVE TV and PAY-PER-VIEW EVENTS

Be part of the adrenaline-pumping action January 5-8 & 10-12 as the Stars and Knockouts of IMPACT WRESTLING return to Soundstage 20 on the backlot at Universal Studios, Florida for seven days of televised events, including the LIVE broadcast of IMPACT WRESTLING on Thursday, January 5, airing at 8/7c on Pop AND the LIVE broadcast of January One Night Only Pay-Per-View!

Tickets for the 2017 WWE Hall of Fame will go on sale officially on 1/13/17. There will be an online pre-sale a few days before.

The UK championship commentary team, according an interview with Michael Cole with ESPN, will be Cole, Nigel McGuinness, and William Regal.

Q - I was wondering if you knew why that every time WWE bings back a big names star from the past )i.e. Goldberg, the Rock, Brock Lesnar, etc) they never are put in a program with "younger talent"and instead we get to see a rematch of Of something we saw 20 years ago (Goldberg vs.Lesnar), or something we've already seen a dozen times (Cena vs.Rock). Is it because Vince doesn't care about the younger talent and possibly seeing a potential dream match like Samoa Joe vs.Brock Lesnar or do you think Vince just wants a quick influx of money and books/rebooks the "sure thing" and gives us Cena vs. Rock in a once in a lifetime match for the 5th time.

A - I think it’s pretty clear that when Vince does that, he feels that the younger talent doesn’t have the same goodwill with the fans that the older talent has. I feel that if Vince and the creative team did a better job of establishing the younger talent in the eyes of the fans (and his own eyes) he wouldn’t constantly find himself in a position where he needs to go back to the past to create what he feels are interesting matchups.
Part of PWI's weekly Q&A articles involving why the WWE is very stubborn at using past stars to help give the rub to newer ones.

The New Day will be appearing on Friday's edition of "Let's Make A Deal", which airs on CBS affiliates. Check your local listings for when the episode will air locally.


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Let me get two claps and a Ric Flair!<br><br>Here's a 1st look at our upcoming <a href="https://twitter.com/RicFlairNatrBoy">@RicFlairNatrBoy</a> film, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NatureBoy?src=hash">#NatureBoy</a>. <a href="https://t.co/IUpgc3HyOV">https://t.co/IUpgc3HyOV</a></p>&mdash; ESPN Films 30 for 30 (@30for30) <a href="https://twitter.com/30for30/status/811679462551003136">December 21, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


Some other sheet news includes:

According to PWI, Jerry Lawler's current contract with the WWE expires at the end of January 2017.
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Vince McMahon owns a 15 foot painting of himself riding a unicorn that he hangs in his living room. Was revealed during a recent Vince Russo podcast episode and confirmed by people who went to his house for Linda political fundraiser events.
According to the Observer, Charlotte vs Bayley is currently planned to occur at the Rumble instead of Mania and the WWE to go in a different direction for RAW's Women's title match at Mania. https://twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/status/811669248703500288
Ceasro recently teased on Twitter about wanting to change his entrance theme now that he is a tag team champion. https://twitter.com/WWECesaro/status/811575027594313728
Update to reports and rumors about Mick Foley taking the rest of December off as the WWE has delayed his break till some point next month. Reason for why he's getting time off is due to health issues regarding his hip and needing surgery.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

you see this? We call this a rag sheet, BROTHEER

[Mr. Nerfect]

I'd really like it if the UK commentary team was just Nigel McGuinness and someone else. I don't really care who the play-by-play guy is. I'm not a Michael Cole fan, but I guess he adds "cred" to the team. Just make it him and McGuinness.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by A Happy Becky Christmas:
https://68.media.tumblr.com/3d791a5a0e2030880d08b8c1cecfee2f/tumblr_oim3ajZwQ21ujimkpo1_r1_400.gif

The 12/22 Year In Review edition of Impact did 209,000 viewers, down from last week's 329,000 viewers.

Though cameras were rolling when NXT made its way to Japan for the first time ever earlier this month, it wasn't entirely clear how much of the show would ever make it to TV.

But WWE announced on Friday that a two-hour version of the event from the Edion Arena in Osaka will be broadcast next week to close out the year of NXT TV. The show's main event previously aired two weeks ago as Shinsuke Nakamura regained the NXT Championship in his home country by defeating Samoa Joe.

In addition to Nakamura vs. Joe, the show also featured the return of Tajiri to WWE for the first time since the Cruiserweight Classic as he teamed with Akira Tozawa to challenge Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa for the NXT Tag Team Championship. The NXT Women's Championship was on the line as well as Asuka defended her title against Nia Jax.

Those three title matches, as well as Liv Morgan & Aliyah vs. Billie Kay & Peyton Royce and Oney Lorcan vs. Andrade "Cien" Almas, will air next week. The start of 2017 will also see another NXT house show broadcast on the WWE Network with NXT's December 8th event in Melbourne making its way to TV on January 4th. That show's Nakamura vs. Joe steel cage main event for the NXT title aired last week.


Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corporation announced the launch of the TNA Impact Wrestling app for the U.K. and Ireland called Total Access TNA Wrestling. It will be available on-line and on mobile platforms for 4.99 pounds per month. It will air weekly episodes of Impact at the same time as they air in the U.S. and Canada. There will also be a lot of library footage.

Mickie James was in Pittsburgh today doing her WWE physicals. She is scheduled to start on the Smackdown women's division if all goes right.

The Fite App ... is now carrying weekly TV episodes for Ring of Honor, Paragon Pro Wrestling, Insane Championship Wrestling Fight Club, Fully Loaded Wrestling, Future Stars of Wrestling, GXW, WXW Shotgun and Championship Wrestling from Hollywood for free in HD ...

The App also features PPV events, including ROH's PPVs, streaming live and on demand. Currently, the ROH Final Battle PPV and the TNA One Night Only: December are available via VOD. The Fite App will carry the January TNA One Night Only PPV and the February ROH 15th Anniversary PPV live as well

Former WWE star Ryback was interviewed by former WWE Creative Team member Kevin Eck this week for Eck's website.

When asked about CM Punk's comments about him on the infamous Colt Cabana podcast, Ryback commented, "Recently, Colt Cabana and myself had a talk, and he was very apologetic, even though he never said anything. But it meant a lot to me because we always got along in the few encounters we had. I will never know why [Punk] chose to say the things he did, and it definitely didn't help my career at that point. All I know is he was very banged up and miserable during the periods we worked together. I think people have to look at it this way: How many other people are out there saying that about me? I was always respectful of him in his time there, and before our runs together, he was always good to me. Working in the WWE, though, has a way to bring out the worst in everybody. I have made jokes [about Punk] over the years via social media, as it is fun to get a reaction from his followers from time to time, but if I were to ever see him, I would tell him, "If I really did ever hurt you [in the ring], I truly am sorry, but I don't think it was the right thing to do to say the things you did." Life is too short to hold grudges, and I truly wish him the best in his life."
Link to the interview: https://www.pressboxonline.com/2016/12/21/q-a-former-wwe-star-ryback-part-ii

Although it had been suspected in the cause of her death this past April, the official cause of death for former WWF Intercontinental champion Chyna was an accidental overdose on a cocktail of painkillers, a muscle relaxer, sleeping pills and alcohol, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday.

The 12/22 episode of Total Divas on E! jumped to 705,000 for the episode built around the Bellas taking an IQ test to find out who was the smarter of the pair. This jumped up from last week's 556,000 viewers. Obviously, the timeslot change to 9 PM helped the series.
Ended up being the second most viewers of the season.

Ric Flair recently spoke with Pardon My Take on a number of wrestling and non-wrestling related topics. Here are some of the highlights:

The WWE locker room environment now:
"The guys pretty much stay to themselves, lot of video games and social media. The guys don't go out like we used to in our day. It's different times...Lot of the guys are too PC, they even travel by themselves, rather than four guys raisin' hell, driving down the road, it's different times for sure."

Wrestling regrets:
"I really can't say that I did [have regrets], the problem with being an athlete, the minute you start thinking about what you're doing, or what you're about to do, or the consequences, you shouldn't be doing it and I never lived life like that."

Most painful injury:
"I can't really put anything up, I've been in an airplane crash and hit by lightning. I cracked a C5 in my neck in 1989 wrestling Dusty, but I didn't really feel the pain until the next day."

Getting struck by lightning:
"It actually hit my umbrella, but I still consider getting struck by it, it killed the guy behind me. It shot my umbrella about 30-40 feet in the air and I said 'What the hell did that?' I turned around and the lighting had gone from my umbrella and went right through his eye and killed him. Right there in the runway, I'm on a tarmac in Richmond, Virginia."

Alberto el Patron, when in Mexico promoting Combate Americas, said that he expects he’ll be returning to AAA this year. The impression we have is that talks between Alberto and the company have already started, so his missing Heroes Inmortales in October is settled. Publicly, AAA had backed Alberto’s story and always wanted to work with him since he’s charming and he’s a big star and they need big stars.

NJPW has done an interesting move to help create interest in New Japan World prior to the Tokyo Dome show. They have put up, for free, at least for the time being, every 1/4 Tokyo Dome show from 1992 to 2016, basically promoted as 25 years of free Tokyo Dome shows. There are a few exceptions as due to contractual issues, matches involving Brock Lesnar and Naoya Ogawa are not on the service. Some of the shows during the dark ages of Inoki killing the product before the recent resurgence weren’t good. But the 90s shows were huge sold out events with classic matches featuring top American stars along with Japanese legends, although not the depth of quality like the last four or five years where the shows were pretty much off the charts. There were also some incredibly horrible matches like when they were doing fake MMA tournaments and such, including the Sting vs. Tony Palmore bout

There are understandably a lot of morale issues as talent has now been told that the fourth season of Lucha Underground won’t start taping until October 2017. Originally the indications were the season would start taping this past month, and then it was moved to the spring. The current season will go through May or so. Since they aren’t likely to air a new season after this until early 2018, that also extends the time of the seven season contracts that most of the wrestlers are on.

Drew Galloway’s TNA contract expires in mid-February. He got a pretty strong offer to stay several months back ($200,000 per year) which he turned down because it was the exclusivity deal where they would be in charge of his outside bookings, and he’s all over the indies in the U.K. in particular and the U.K. scene is pretty interesting. But he’d be available at that time for companies like WWE or New Japan, where the TNA contract obviously was a tough one since New Japan doesn’t use any of the TNA guys. Plus one would think he’d be tailor-made to be a top guy with the ITV group, but there’s no guarantee that one gets off the ground. It is interesting because theoretically he’s a guy people should want, and he’s got the size, the look, the ability, and the talking ability to be a top guy

Zack Ryder underwent reconstructive knee surgery for what ended up diagnosed as a ruptured patella tendon that he suffered in winning the tag team Battle Royal on 12/13 in Washington, DC. The surgery was on 12/15 in Birmingham. He was told by one doctor he’d be out four to six months, but another said six to nine months. Either way, he’s missing WrestleMania and a return would be April at the earliest but WWE isn’t going to rush him back so June is more likely if his recovery goes as well as hoped for, and it could take longer than that


Some other sheet news includes:

Recent episode of Talk Is Jericho podcast had both Sami Zayn and Seth Rollins as its guests. http://podcastone.com/pg/jsp/program/episode.jsp?programID=593&pid=1697399
According to the Observer, the original plan regarding the Foley-Zayn-Brrrrrrraaaauuuun storyline involved spreading the motivation talks, fake trade deal, and 10 minute match over several weeks instead of being crammed within a week. Foley was planned to be out mid-December till early January but WWE decided to push back Foley's break which was meant for hip surgury. Ended up speeding up the storyline and now are doing stuff meant for when Foley would have returned.
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Roadblock: End of the Line ended up being the first WWE ppv to not get a match rated 4 stars by the Observer since TLC 2015 (December 2015).
According to the Observer, WWE is currently planning a heel turn for Sasha Banks after her feud with Nia Jax is over.

[Black Widow]

Great!!

Sasha/Bayley are gonna go back and forth now.

[Cool King]

In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Vince McMahon owns a 15 foot painting of himself riding a unicorn that he hangs in his living room. Was revealed during a recent Vince Russo podcast episode and confirmed by people who went to his house for Linda political fundraiser events.

Now this I need to see.

[The CyNick]

Expenses are also up. Fewer people are watching. Eventually there will be fewer people following the product and that means a smaller pool to convert into Network subscribers. Your wine analogy is not accurate. You can bombard people with an overwhelming amount of content and it can damage your consumption habits. Look at the just reported decrease in Network special interest -- and hence the rumors of your beloved Vince McMahon considering dropping the number of PPVs next year. If too much wasn't a problem, why would he even consider it?

First, who reported this? Is it a credible source?

Second a good businessman will always make adjustments based on data received. It's not bad to change course if the data tells you that's the move.

Network subs have only gone up each quarter on a year over year basis. Until you start to see declines why should WWE consider making changes to the product? People like you have been complaining about creative since The Network launched and every quarter we see growth from the previous year. I don't doubt that there are people like you who also don't like the product (even though you spend precious time watching every week), but clearly the paying customer doesn't agree. As for TV ratings, numbers are down everywhere. Look at walking dead, down big time this year vs last. Just ask #1 fan about it. Despite declines you just had USA put out a while piece essentially giving WWE a public blowjob for their impact on their success. You think that's going to lead to WWE getting more or less money out of them next contract negotiation.

I know I come off as a jackass to some of you, and I get it, it's hard when someone who is better educated on a subject talks down to you. I'll give you this challenge over the holiday season. Take a look at cable ratings on a daily basis. Find out how many channels have 5 hours of programming on a weekly basis (not just 10-15 weeks of the year) that's draws in the total viewers and key demo numbers that WWE does for USA. That will tell you why WWE is somewhat bulletproof when it comes to this TV rights game. Now also go back to the late 90s and look at the numbers WWE used to draw. Then circle back on old financial statements. You'll notice WWE generates more money today on far less viewers. Why? Because advertisers actually are lined up to buy time on their programs. So yeah maybe the product doesn't have the same bite, but it's put WWE in a better position. You can't argue that point, it's just cold hard facts. But hard for guys like you to wrap your head around.

Enjoy the holiday season. Your pal The CyNick

[The CyNick]

Still fucking baffles me that they stopped charging for PPVs. WrestleMania, Money in the Bank, SummerSlam and the Royal Rumble, at the very least, should have been content you had to pay extra for on the WWE Network. Prestige pricing is a thing. By slashing the cost of these shows to $9.99, you value the product at that much. I can understand them potentially giving away Night of Champions or whatever for a reduced price, but the idea that you can buy WrestleMania for $9.99 is still just baffling. The NXT Takeovers should come with a "set your price" feature too. You see musicians, comedians and other artists slyly doing this, and it works. Set a minimum of $5 for a Takeover, because it's a big show and you need to cover costs or whatever, but you can pay up to $50, depending on how you felt about the show. Let the fan vote with their money. If you really like Shinsuke Nakamura, support the shows he is on! If you really want the Women's Revolution to take over, then support it when they headline a Takeover. You can't charge $50 for these shows, but if you left the option there, you'd get some people who would take it upon themselves because of the freedom.

But it's arguably too hard to go backwards now. I think you could manage it by saying a "WWE PPVs will soon not be included in the basic Network scheme, but you still get original programming and the WWE's archived footage -- so join now to watch the next few months of WWE action without the price tag!", but that will likely come with some sort of drop in subscribers.

They could always move to a tiered pricing structure.

I can only speak for myself. Without the big events, I wouldn't Subscribe.

PPV is a tough business. UFC was going down until they found Conor and Ronda. Ronda is a basket case and likely out soon. Conor likely has enough money that he's thinking about calling it quits soon. Dave will have a harder time trying to claim WWE missed out on PPV dollars when UFCs numbers are also tanking. For right now he enjoys writing his apples to oranges comparisons and his readers are too dumb to point it out.

[slik]

The Ryback always seems like a guy who has the best attitude/perspective

[#1-norm-fan]

In this thread, too? Guys... Stop taking the bait. He's literally been peppering more over the top comments into posts to make it harder for people to not call him out on shit and keep the troll drug in his veins. Resisssssssst.

[Fignuts]

Big of Ryback to say that. Doubt we'd ever get a response from Punk, but I'd be curious to heaf it.

[Damian Rey 2.0]

I hope Ryback goes to NJPW and makes a name for himself

[Mr. Nerfect]

I think Drew McIntyre will end up being signed by the WWE when his contract comes up. I'm fine with Strowman vs. Zayn taking place at WrestleMania.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

In this thread, too? Guys... Stop taking the bait. He's literally been peppering more over the top comments into posts to make it harder for people to not call him out on shit and keep the troll drug in his veins. Resisssssssst.

Why are you trying to control people and the way they think? That's worse that correcting minor facts. That's mind manipulation.

[Ruien]

Lol

[Sepholio]

And CyNick is making a compelling argument in his last few posts on this. Even he knows he comes off as a dick. He wears it with a badge of honor. So if you look past that shit in some cases he does make good points.

[#1-norm-fan]

Why are you trying to control people and the way they think? That's worse that correcting minor facts. That's mind manipulation.

Go to your thread and explain your corrections and I will explain my mind manipulation. Deal? No, you won't agree to that deal. Because you can't explain any of your needless corrections. You fucking cock sucker.

[Mr. Nerfect]

And CyNick is making a compelling argument in his last few posts on this. Even he knows he comes off as a dick. He wears it with a badge of honor. So if you look past that shit in some cases he does make good points.

When you provide evidence and use logic, CyNick ignores it. Everyone has tried talking to him reasonably, so now you just toy with him for the laughs or ignore him. So if it looks like people aren't responding to legitimate points of his, that's just because no one is taking the bait. This is where I wish I had that hilarious racist post of his on tap like #1-wwf-fan has.

[#1-norm-fan]

For future use...

Del Rio joining Sheamus, Barrett, and Rusev would be a good group.

Not Euro enough. Then it becomes an anti American group.

Why does it not being completely European make it anti-American?

Well what do they have in common then?

Probably should have been the first sign that he was just an internet troll.

[Mr. Nerfect]

#1 onto it. :y:

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

In this thread, too? Guys... Stop taking the bait. He's literally been peppering more over the top comments into posts to make it harder for people to not call him out on shit and keep the troll drug in his veins. Resisssssssst.

Fan I love you but let people do what they want. What you are doing is extremely patronizing.

[#1-norm-fan]

I will not stop encouraging TPWW to stop feeding the Vincebot 9000.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Nah, I don't think you should take it so seriously, Dale. It's good advice, really. And Fan's doing a bit of a public service, especially if people think they are going to get somewhere with CyNick.

[Lock Jaw]

In all honesty, I find the people who argue with Cynick, or say not to argue with Cynick, much more "annoying" then I do The Cynick......

Like he in himself I can deal with, but I can't stand the constant attention he gets, even if that attention is to say to not give him attention..... if you know what I mean.....

I realize, of course, that this is an ironic post, because I say that I hate giving the whole Cynick thing undue attention and I am doing just that.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I can get what you're saying, but nothing will ever top The CyNick in terms of annoyingness. Maybe I will just start completing ignoring him because I love you so much. :kiss:

[slik]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Fun Fact: The XFL Hall of Fame is coming to NYC! <br><br>Here's everything you need to know. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ThisWasTheXFL?src=hash">#ThisWasTheXFL</a> <a href="https://t.co/ePBKFVdWEF">https://t.co/ePBKFVdWEF</a></p>&mdash; ESPN Films 30 for 30 (@30for30) <a href="https://twitter.com/30for30/status/812432360549421056">December 23, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

Nah, I don't think you should take it so seriously, Dale. It's good advice, really. And Fan's doing a bit of a public service, especially if people think they are going to get somewhere with CyNick.

people can talk to whomever they want. This is a discussion forum.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Yes, people can, but they shouldn't if they want fruitful discussion. That is Fan's point. If you're trying to reach CyNick or have a discussion about facts using logic, Fan is just letting you know that it's a waste of time. He's correct in that.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

People can draw their own conclusions about whomever they wish on the board without the histrionics.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

Yes, people can, but they shouldn't if they want fruitful discussion. That is Fan's point. If you're trying to reach CyNick or have a discussion about facts using logic, Fan is just letting you know that it's a waste of time. He's correct in that.

Even when Cynick uses facts and logic Fan just goes "RESIST." Probably isn't even reading.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Fan's just giving them a heads up. A lot of people still say "Hmm, CyNick makes good points" and then have to find out the hard way. Of course you are free to do whatever you want, but Fan is just saving people a lot of time, because he's a trustworthy bloke like that, and history usually bares him out to be correct.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

Time for you guys to do some research and steal an idea from Squared Circle Radio Gazette: the Trial of Cynick.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

The great Patriot enemies are all falling down except the Giants. Revenge is nigh.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Even when Cynick uses facts and logic Fan just goes "RESIST." Probably isn't even reading.

That's because that's the trap. When CyNick uses selected facts (he actually isn't very honest with his cherry-picking) it's to honey-coat the hook. Then when he has you, he'll say ridiculous things like the quotes above. Fan is just giving people the heads up not...to...fall...for it.

Again, it's a public service.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Time for you guys to do some research and steal an idea from Squared Circle Radio Gazette: the Trial of Cynick.

I would want to be on the defense for a challenge.

[#1-norm-fan]

STD is correct when he says that most of the time I do not actually read CyNick's posts anymore. I do not see the point for reasons Noid already stated.

[#1-norm-fan]

And @ Dale... It's pretty obvious that he's trolling at this point. Trying to make him see a point is a waste of time since his M.O. is to troll the forum, not have an actual discussion. Encouraging people not to get caught up in it is not the same as telling them what to do.

[Ruien]

people can talk to whomever they want. This is a discussion forum.

Yes, people can, but they shouldn't if they want fruitful discussion. That is Fan's point. If you're trying to reach CyNick or have a discussion about facts using logic, Fan is just letting you know that it's a waste of time. He's correct in that.

Remembere way back when I told you and Dale to stop feeding the troll and you both went apes hit over it? Dale is maintaining that point.

I still think people should stop interacting either him. I find Fan to be hilarious when he quotes stuff from other threads to shoe the idiotic path he is going to go down. No idea why Dale dislikes that (or does Dale dislike the STD correction thing?). Either way, Fan had been hilarious lately.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I legitimately do not remember that. My apologies. I can't imagine myself going ape-shit over it, because nothing on these boards emotionally effects me that much, but if I tore you apart for it, my bad -- history has proved you correct.

You are correct about Fan. Hilarious and on point.

[mike adamle]

because nothing on these boards emotionally effects me that much, but if I tore you apart for it, my bad --


:roll::roll::roll:

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

Remembere way back when I told you and Dale to stop feeding the troll and you both went apes hit over it? Dale is maintaining that point.

I still think people should stop interacting either him. I find Fan to be hilarious when he quotes stuff from other threads to shoe the idiotic path he is going to go down. No idea why Dale dislikes that (or does Dale dislike the STD correction thing?). Either way, Fan had been hilarious lately.

But like.... who cares? Why do people give a shit about any of this? Why does it have to be a thing? It's fucking wrestling. CyNick can say anything he wants about wrestling, so can you, so can fan so can anyone. I don't understand why we need forewarning about any particular poster. I find it all unbelievably silly.

I only got annoyed at your "not feeding the troll" thing because it came across as you being "one step ahead". I knew what I was doing, I enjoyed exchanging with someone who was being as ridiculous as I thought he was. Which was why I kept doing it. I don't need someone to tell me my business, it's fucking annoying. If I reply to anyone, it's because I want to and I don't care about whether people think I'm being smart or cool and I don't need to read about how "I'm doing what he wants" because I'm doing what I want.

[Mr. Nerfect]

:roll::roll::roll:

Dale, this is someone trying to tell you your business. Fan is just warning people. He doesn't even come off as having an angry tone. It's like "Lol, what are you guys even doing this for?". I get that you don't want people telling you your mind in things like mike adamle is trying to do here, but I think you're projecting a tone onto Fan. I really don't think he "gives a shit" like you think he does.

I mean, the dude can speak for himself (and has proven he will back it up with his fists for America), but I think he's just trying to help people not waste their time. I doubt someone would believe it at first, but when you realize "Hey, that guy was right," maybe you might be more inclined to believe him next time.

I pick my spots with CyNick because it is fun too, but Fan is on the right side of history here.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Nothing on these boards has ever made me legitimately angry, to clarify. Fuck, there aren't enough things in real life that make me angry. When I tear someone apart for something inane like Matt Hardy allegedly being Wrestler of the Year, I suggest no one take it as seriously as mike adamle. This is a god damn wrestling discussion board. If this place elicits a major negative shift in your emotional mood, I suggest you cut it out of your life. That goes with pretty much anything on the internet.

[Sepholio]

I'm just gonna say it. Fan and noid are coming off as pretentious asshats in this thread. You guys don't like cynicks opinion. It must annoy you something fierce that you can't force him to conform to your viewpoints. So then you demonize him to try and make it where he can't have a discussion with anyone else ever. It's petty and pathetic, almost like you are trying to run him off and that's the kind of shit that's wrong with these forums sometimes. People bitch about socks running people off and here you guys are trying it with your main handles. At least you aren't hiding it I guess.

[Sepholio]

STD is correct when he says that most of the time I do not actually read CyNick's posts anymore. I do not see the point for reasons Noid already stated.

"Everything CyNick posts is bullshit even though I don't actually read it."

[Mr. Nerfect]

Would you read fake news websites, Seph? CyNick is Breitbart coming in and saying "proof black women can't drive." Fan is someone trying to stop someone engaging in the comments section once they get offended.

Fan and I have tried to talk to CyNick. I still sometimes engage on some points for fun, but I know that he is not genuine. When Fan challenged CyNick on points, provided evidence counterpoint to CyNick's points, he ignored, ran and refused to concede. When you do engage CyNick, you eventually realize that it is not a debate that is going to come to any sort of rewarding conclusion. Fan is speaking from experience with CyNick.

Others have tried too. BigCrippyZ and Damien Rey come to mind. I even saw hb2k from SCG Radio give it a go. People who have been down the rabbit-hole are just trying to help out others. We're not suggesting others don't engage CyNick because we can't get him to conform -- how boring would this place be if everybody thought the same thing? -- it's a response to him being a clear troll.

It is sincerely nice that you are against internet bullying though. Good on your for standing up for what you think is right.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

I just don't get what the big deal is. It is one guy with his own opinions.

[Mr. Nerfect]

People seem to take things really literally around here. When Fan says "RESIST" he is not actually making an order to resist. You guys do get that, right? It's like an "engage at your own risk" warning, and it always pops up when people are getting into the circular arguments with CyNick.

[Lock Jaw]

People can't stand when someone RUTHLESSLY POSITIVE comes in to break up their negativity

Now shut up everybody, y'all ruining this fine thread.

[mike adamle]

But do you need to do that everytime the guy talks? (Directed at the Noid comment above the one above my post.)

[Mr. Nerfect]

I just don't get what the big deal is. It is one guy with his own opinions.

Lol, these boards are really starting to make me hate the word "opinion." An opinion is "I find cats cute." When someone says "all cats are dogs" it is not an opinion.

I don't think there is a big deal? I don't think Fan really cares. I mean, I can't speak for him, but I'm fairly certain he just finds it baffling and amusing people still can't work out that they're being trolled.

[BigCrippyZ]

But do you need to do that everytime the guy talks? (Directed at the Noid comment above the one above my post.)

So, Cynick can respond however he wants to anyone every time, and people can post any response they want to Cynick every time, BUT, people CAN'T respond to Cynick if every time their response warns other people that engaging with Cynick might be a bad idea?

[Mr. Nerfect]

But do you need to do that everytime the guy talks? (Directed at the Noid comment above the one above my post.)

Lol, I don't even do it. I'm going to start though. :kiss:

[BigCrippyZ]

:lol:

I love how this thread has turned into a debate about Cynick.

[Mr. Nerfect]

So, Cynick can respond however he wants to anyone every time, and people can post any response they want to Cynick every time, BUT, people CAN'T respond to Cynick if every time their response warns other people that engaging with Cynick might be a bad idea?

That would just be silly, boss.

[Mr. Nerfect]

:lol:

I love how this thread has turned into a debate about Cynick.

I honestly thought people had worked out he was a troll and were engaging with him for the fun of it...but now? I actually think people have been worked if they're casting Fan, of all people, as the heel.

[Mr. Nerfect]

CyNick is going to make an absolutely awful babyface. White-bread as fuck.

[Sepholio]

Repetition gets annoying z. Every time the CyNick posts this same argument breaks out. It gets longer and more tedious every single time. It's gettingnold. We've heard it. We get it. I disagree with most stuff CyNick posts myself. But its one thing to tell him he's wrong sometimes and another to suggest everyone just ignore him. If you are predisposed to disliking his comments then just ignore him. Quit hijacking threads to have 2 page debates over him that ruin the original topic. It's been done enough.

[Sepholio]

And to be honest, while CyNick and his point of view on things may be whack a good chunk of the time, I find that even when he does most bullshit it usually results in other posters putting in more effort to discussions in order to refute him. His bullshit is spurring better conversations from posters around him.

[Sepholio]

Also, noid, don't know whether you were being sincere or not, but I'm not against Internet bullying. I support that and trolling to the fullest. I just don't like what I perceive as a form of censorship. Telling everyone to ignore someone else because you disagree with them is akin to taking away their voice. If you want to tell him he's a waste of air and that his mother's a whore, go for it. Doesn't bother me.

[BigCrippyZ]

Also, noid, don't know whether you were being sincere or not, but I'm not against Internet bullying. I support that and trolling to the fullest. I just don't like what I perceive as a form of censorship. Telling everyone to ignore someone else because you disagree with them is akin to taking away their voice. If you want to tell him he's a waste of air and that his mother's a whore, go for it. Doesn't bother me.

That's not censorship. It's not preventing Cynick from speaking and it's not preventing others from speaking to Cynick. They still have the ability to ignore Fan and Noid's request to ignore Cynick and instead respond to Cynick if they choose to do so. If Fan and Noid's request to others to not reply to Cynick is censorship, then you are censoring Fan and Noid by requesting that they not tell others to ignore Cynick.

[#1-norm-fan]

"Everything CyNick posts is bullshit even though I don't actually read it."

Exactly how many times should I read a CyNick post before it becomes obvious he's trolling. Don't be ridiculous. If he spends 100 posts doing it and I stop reading at 101, I'M being an asshat for not giving him a chance? COME ON. Jesus, Seph.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Repetition gets annoying z. Every time the CyNick posts this same argument breaks out. It gets longer and more tedious every single time. It's gettingnold. We've heard it. We get it. I disagree with most stuff CyNick posts myself. But its one thing to tell him he's wrong sometimes and another to suggest everyone just ignore him. If you are predisposed to disliking his comments then just ignore him. Quit hijacking threads to have 2 page debates over him that ruin the original topic. It's been done enough.

I think that the same argument breaks out is kind of Fan's point.

And to be honest, while CyNick and his point of view on things may be whack a good chunk of the time, I find that even when he does most bullshit it usually results in other posters putting in more effort to discussions in order to refute him. His bullshit is spurring better conversations from posters around him.

That's an interesting take. I haven't noticed. I usually skip over what he says in the good threads, which implies to me that good conversation was already flowing. I wonder if this is false attribution a little bit? I'm not trying to say that it necessarily is, by the way, I genuinely have not noticed him improving conversations. I'm pretty thorough on this section of the board, but maybe I did miss it.

Also, noid, don't know whether you were being sincere or not, but I'm not against Internet bullying. I support that and trolling to the fullest. I just don't like what I perceive as a form of censorship. Telling everyone to ignore someone else because you disagree with them is akin to taking away their voice. If you want to tell him he's a waste of air and that his mother's a whore, go for it. Doesn't bother me.

Oh, you renegade. No, I was being sincere. I think that what you later described is pretty much what is going on. Every time Fan says "RESIST" he's basically saying "this is a waste of time." It's a nicer way of just counteracting the trolling. I don't see any legitimate censorship going on, and Crippy's post pretty much nails it.

[#1-norm-fan]

And it's not "I disagree with him so he's trolling." He's made it obvious. He peppers ridiculous shit in blatantly. He doesn't try to hide it at this point. I won't tell people what to do but if you do try the "YOU DIDN'T EVEN READ HIS LATEST POST THOUGH!" thing I will tell you that's fucking stupid. There's a point where it's not necessary.

I'm gonna make a sock that I use just to troll the forum. And if you stop reading the posts and taking them seriously eventually, that's on you guys!

[Mr. Nerfect]

I think #1-wwf-fan just went 2-0 in TPWW real fights, guys. Bam.

[#1-norm-fan]

Clearly I need to challenge CyNick to a real fight to end this once and for all. That's how I got rid of NormanSmiley. That sexist, racist shithead.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Lol, NormanSmiley did leave, didn't he? I legitimately thought he and mike adamle were the same poster for a second there, I forgot that it was NormanSmiley. History has already forgotten your enemies.

[#1-norm-fan]

The loss shamed him into early retirement.

Either that or Triple A banned him. Being winless in TPWW real fights is ban-worthy apparently. Who knew.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I don't think you are giving your fierce defense of truth and justice enough credit.

[Sepholio]

That's not censorship. It's not preventing Cynick from speaking and it's not preventing others from speaking to Cynick. They still have the ability to ignore Fan and Noid's request to ignore Cynick and instead respond to Cynick if they choose to do so. If Fan and Noid's request to others to not reply to Cynick is censorship, then you are censoring Fan and Noid by requesting that they not tell others to ignore Cynick.

I didn't tell them not to do it. I just pointed out that it's annoying. It's a negligible difference and I'm probably arguing semantics but whatever. I'll have my cake and eat it to if I want.

[Sepholio]

And it's not "I disagree with him so he's trolling." He's made it obvious. He peppers ridiculous shit in blatantly. He doesn't try to hide it at this point. I won't tell people what to do but if you do try the "YOU DIDN'T EVEN READ HIS LATEST POST THOUGH!" thing I will tell you that's fucking stupid. There's a point where it's not necessary.

I'm gonna make a sock that I use just to troll the forum. And if you stop reading the posts and taking them seriously eventually, that's on you guys!

You just made my point for me. There's a point where it's not necessary? That's exactly what I've been telling you. There's a point where your responses in regards to Cynick are no longer necessary. We got it. And most of us got it a long time ago. It's annoying now because you guys are just perpetuating the argument now. You think his shit is annoying and that he's trolling? You tell other people not to egg him on when the response a troll is looking for to get fulfillment is what he's getting from you. You're the ones that keep reacting to him and blowing the situation up. If anyone's feeding the troll it's you.

Go ahead. Make a sock account. Troll the forum behind an alias. If I see you're trolling and just saying ridiculous things for the sake it and I decide it warrants me ignoring you then that's a choice I'll make. I don't need someone else to suggest I do it every time you post and I don't need to tell anyone else.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

You just made my point for me. There's a point where it's not necessary? That's exactly what I've been telling you. There's a point where your responses in regards to Cynick are no longer necessary. We got it. And most of us got it a long time ago. It's annoying now because you guys are just perpetuating the argument now. You think his shit is annoying and that he's trolling? You tell other people not to egg him on when the response a troll is looking for to get fulfillment is what he's getting from you. You're the ones that keep reacting to him and blowing the situation up. If anyone's feeding the troll it's you.

Go ahead. Make a sock account. Troll the forum behind an alias. If I see you're trolling and just saying ridiculous things for the sake it and I decide it warrants me ignoring you then that's a choice I'll make. I don't need someone else to suggest I do it every time you post and I don't need to tell anyone else.

Yeah pretty much this.

[Mr. Nerfect]

No way does Fan feed CyNick more than those who engage with him. Get out with that nonsense.

[#1-norm-fan]

That seems like it should go without saying. Just look at the threads and see who most of his material is aimed at nowadays and you can easily see that.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I think a lot of people are still in Christmas hangover mode.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

lol

[Big Vic]

Way-ta-go guys you scared Smelly Meatball away.

[#1-norm-fan]

How the fuck am I gonna get my Meltzer fix now you assholes?

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

You only have yerself to blame

[#1-norm-fan]

I believe it actually started with you. My dealing with CyNick was not what hijacked the thread. Your taking umbrage to it did. I'll be expecting you to pay for my Observer subscription now. Do you have PayPal?

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

IOUs are as good as real money

[Emperor Smeat]

Back from getting some food for TPWW's Dirty Sheets readers. How's the thread been since ...

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ExhaustedDeficientBudgie-size_restricted.gif

[Ruien]

Lol.

[Fignuts]

People having a pointless, drawn out argument about not having pointless drawn out arguments.

Never change, tpww.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

It's what we do.

[Sepholio]

USA #1

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by American Dream mini-Teddy Bears now available at the TPWW Store:
https://68.media.tumblr.com/d8c89646b7784b4613a07339860a9d21/tumblr_oitn1hkZVB1saykaxo2_400.gif

While I have nothing to confirm this is happening, there is a belief among some that I've heard from in the last 24 hours that an official announcement that Anthem Sports and Entertainment has officially purchased TNA and its parent company Impact Ventures LLC from Dixie Carter. There's been a lot of speculation as to what this means for Carter going forward, but the expectation of all I've spoken to is that she's done with the company in terms of having any true position of power and Ed Nordholm of Anthem will be the lead person going forward. We've heard Nordholm is very business-oriented. He has been favorably talked about by several TNA talents ...

The company is absolutely moving forward with plans for house shows next year.

TNA returns to Orlando, Florida for TV tapings starting 1/5 through 1/12. The company will tape 12 episodes of Impact as well as broadcast a live One Night Only PPV and additional material.

As WWE closes out 2016, Paul Levesque (more commonly known as Triple H) spoke to ESPN's Nicolas Atkin about the future of NXT as the brand prepares to enter a new year.

In the interview, Levesque once again emphasized that NXT is more than developmental. He also had interesting comments on roster movement between brands that we could see in the future as NXT further establishes itself.

"We say that it's developmental, but at the same time it's a third brand -- 200 events this year, specials and the weekly show itself which are one of the most popular things on the Network," Levesque said. "I think over the years you're gonna begin to see Raw is its own brand, SmackDown is its own brand, NXT -- you're gonna see people move around. It's no longer gonna be just, this guy got called up, it's gonna be maybe 'this guy got moved over, she got moved here,' and see that transference of talent."

"At the end of the day, it's all content; it's all product that our fans wanna see. The difference in those products is big, but there's something there for everybody. I think that's what's exciting about it."

Levesque was asked about Shinsuke Nakamura's status and seemed confused by fans clamoring for the NXT Champion to be called up to the main roster.

"One of the things that's funny to me -- I always laugh at it -- is when people say to me, 'I watch Nakamura every week in NXT. I don't know why they don't put him on Raw so I can watch him on Raw every week,'" Levesque said. "You're getting to see him, right? You're getting to see him doing what he does, in a big way. The opportunities are there. He's got that clean path now to get here, when he gets here he might go there, he might go back."


Cody Rhodes spoke out on Twitter about last night’s Raw segment that referenced his father. In the segment, Bayley gave Goldust a Dusty Rhodes teddy bear before Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows interrupted the Golden Truth and Anderson tore the head off of the bear. Cody tweeted after it aired, “Not gonna' say something mean or blow a whistle. All I can say...is that whoever produced that, I hope they never know what this feels like.” He also later responded to the reaction he got from the tweet, “Appreciate all the kind words tonight & even the dissenting opinions. I turned something private to public. I'm not perfect. I just miss him.”

Goldberg turns 50 years old today, and it’s also the anniversary of Kevin Nash breaking his WCW undefeated streak at Starrcade 1998. Goldberg returns to Raw next week in Tampa, Florida.

Ring of Honor announced Kyle O’Reilly & Jay Lethal vs. Adam Cole & Cody Rhodes for their TV taping in Atlanta on January 14th. It’s the first 2017 ROH match that O’Reilly has been advertised for with his contract set to expire at the end of this year.

In an interview with TMZ Sports that was released today but appears to have been taped last week, Dana White was asked about Brock Lesnar and CM Punk’s futures in the UFC. White said that he doubted that Lesnar would fight again but wasn’t definitive about it. White said that he will figure out Punk’s future with him and needs to talk to him about it, though he seemed more pessimistic than Punk was recently on the MMA Hour about continuing his career in the UFC.
Link to the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RkJGaUVElQ

Former WWE Ring Announcer Lilian Garcia announced today that her father passed away after fighting a brave battle with cancer. Garcia left her job with WWE to spend time with her father as he fought the disease. We send along our deepest condolences to her and her family. You can read her tweet below.

On Christmas Day, heaven welcomed an extraordinary angel in my father, U.S. Army Retired Lt… https://t.co/MLeUaxI7Ys
— Lilian Garcia (@LilianGarcia) December 26, 2016

Ahead of his IWGP Heavyweight Championship main event against Kazuchika Okada at the Tokyo Dome on January 4th, Kenny Omega spoke to UPROXX's Austin Heiberg about that match, his career, and WWE's recent hiring spree of independent stars ...

Omega commented on those hiring practices by saying that he feels that the company is hiring people just to hire them.

"It seems as though we’re headed towards a monopoly, if I were to speak honestly." Omega said. "WWE is hiring people just to hire them. That’s fine, and I’m happy for whoever’s happy to collect a paycheck from them. A lot of my good friends are now receiving work and receiving money. But sadly, a lot of those people are signing with WWE just to ride the pine. You can’t put all these guys on TV. On one end, you have these mom-and-pop indy superstars getting TV time, and people all around the world are able to see the art of what they do. And in a lot of cases, they’re enjoying it, which is fantastic. I’m really happy about that."

While Omega said that he's happy for wrestlers who are enjoying their time in WWE, he went on to discuss the potential impact that WWE signing so many people could have on independent promotions and expressed that he wants to be an option for viewers who want more out of their wrestling programming.

"But as everyone gets picked up, as all these independent promotions have to shut down and close their doors because of WWE scooping everyone up, everyone’s going to lose an option. And that guy you saw for that one tournament, you’re not going to see him anymore." Omega said. "You can’t put him on TV, there’s only so much time. So eventually, people are going to run out of options. I want to be one of the options for people. You want to go eat a McDonald’s hamburger? That’s cool. McDonald’s can be good. Do I like them every day? Do I want to eat McDonald’s seven days a week for every meal? Probably not. Eventually, I’m going to want to go someplace for a triple-A grade steak. I may not necessarily have the traffic flow of McDonald’s, but guess what? The quality is there, and it’s for the distinguished wrestling viewer. People who are wanting something more out of their programming. That’s what I want to provide for people in 2017."


To promote ESPN’s upcoming 30 for 30 documentary on the XFL, a pop-up XFL Hall of Fame featuring memorabilia and other items from the failed football league’s brief run will be open to the public on January 14th at the Helen Mills Event Space and Theater in New York City.

ITV released a promo video for their upcoming World of Sport special that will air on New Year’s Eve. Dave Mastiff, Viper, and Danny Hope appeared on ITV’s This Morning to promote the special.
Link to the video: https://twitter.com/WOSWrestlingITV/status/812378990732333056

"That's why it was such a fight to get Goldberg because there were people who were very much pushing - 'we've got a plan, we've got a plan' ya know? And Vince ended up being convinced that Bill Goldberg was a better plan than Shane McMahon as a plan, which ruffled some key people's feathers."

He went on to say, "A lot of politics go through these decisions and a lot of people have different ideas of what will and won't get over. I'm not even saying this was personal agenda because this wasn't Shane I'm talking about although I'm sure Shane wasn't down for Goldberg vs. Lesnar at WrestleMania either but he's not in power. But the people who were, they felt that for whatever reason, that it wasn't the right idea but Vince overruled - I mean he didn't overrule them, it's Vince's rule - Vince ruled, Vince made the call and there were a lot of people against the finish of the Goldberg/Lesnar match and Vince ruled in that direction as well, so, just how things go."
From a recent Observer Raido show about Vince being the one who wanted Brock-Shane for Mania and management hating the idea which is why Goldberg was brought back.

This Thursday's Impact Wrestling will be the Hardy New Year with lots from the Hardy compound. We are told there will be something unique on the show that has never been done on pro wrestling TV before.


Some other sheet news includes:

ESPN had a recent interview with John Cena. http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/18358572/wwe-interview-john-cena-prior-return-smackdown-live
Ratings and viewers numbers for RAW got delayed till later this week due to Christmas.
WWE revealed the official logo for their upcoming UK Championship Tournament. http://www.wwe.com/shows/wwe-united-kingdom-championship-tournament/article/triple-h-reveals-uk-championship-tournament
Fox Sports had a recent article about the Top 10 worst moments in WWE this year. http://www.foxsports.com/wwe/story/wwe-s-10-worst-moments-of-2016-122516
Rumor going around the net is the WWE will not be bringing back two briefcases for the MitB ppv and instead is currently planned as a Smackdown exclusive event for next year.

[slik]

mitb being a brand exclusive for sd is fine with me

[Bad News Gertner]

Cody Rhodes is a little bitch. It's wrestling ffs.

[Sepholio]

Who the fuck is Cody rhodes? Wait was he the loser who played sin cara for like 3 years?

[Sepholio]

Nah jk I know who he is but he still needs to grow a set.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

Cody Rhodes is a little bitch. It's wrestling ffs.

he's a wrestler though probably just attention whoring so people buy tickets for his shows at the high school gymnasiums.

[Juan]

Or maybe he genuinely found it in poor taste. Just sayin'

[Juan]

It was really a pointless segment tbh. It's not like they were gonna let Goldust get some sort of revenge, since it looks like WWE is trying to finally book Gallows & Anderson with some sense of direction.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

If direction you mean calling people nerds.

[Mr. Nerfect]

That segment was clearly designed to try and take people's love for The American Dream and transplant it onto Bayley via doe-eyed pandering. In classic WWE fashion, they will probably overstep a line with it and get backlash and Bayley will get booed for it eventually.

If this were wrestling, Cody Rhodes would come back and team with Goldust against Gallows & Anderson in time for WrestleMania.

[Simple Fan]

If SD gets Money in the Bank they should bring back King of the Ring for Raw.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I was thinking about King of the Ring a while ago. Has it ever really made a star? It seems like all the winners that were going to be something never really hung their hat on winning the thing. It did give Austin a chance to cut that promo and Owen Hart some material. But I don't think it really helped anyone else except Booker T -- who let it completely transform him.

I dunno, I'm not trying to be smarmy, but I think the guys that made the best kings are just because we look back at them as former winners later, you know? There are also just so many achievements for wrestlers now -- they do Money in the Bank to make new stars, but I think that is running dry in and of itself. You've got the Andre Battle Royal winner floating around and being announced as such for the entire year. There are Elimination Chambers, CWCs and all other sorts of things.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by The Bliss Era Appreciation Day:
https://68.media.tumblr.com/6a98b55590c0f8b07fe528489b9d369c/tumblr_oivj6lE3XM1saykaxo1_400.gif

Raw on Monday did 2.85 million viewers, down three percent from last week, which has to be considered a good number since the Dallas Cowboys win over the Detroit Lions did the best Monday Night Football number of the season with 18.61 million viewers ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.97 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.88 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.72 million viewers
Good news being the hourly drops were very small compared to typical weeks and the bad news being the numbers weren't that strong to begin with. Real key is the next few weeks now that MNF is over since if RAW doesn't generate a strong rebound, could mean the streak of poor Road to Mania ratings continues next year.

In a Facebook post, Mick Foley provided an update on the status of his health and the hip replacement that he needs. Foley wrote that he had intended to get the operation at the start of 2017, but never set a date because he doesn't have health insurance. He claimed that the surgery would cost $60,000 out-of-pocket. In the post, Foley clarified that he's on a handshake deal with WWE and doesn't have a contract in his role as general manager of Raw.
Link to Foley's Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/RealMickFoley/posts/1531060633590736:0

For what it’s worth, WWE officials have not decided on WrestleMania 33 plans for current United States Champion Roman Reigns with less than 100 days to go until the big event in Orlando.

It sounds like there could be a big coronation for Reigns at the Royal Rumble next month as he faces WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens with Owens’ title on the line, according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio. That match will feature Chris Jericho suspended above the ring in a shark cage.

Regarding WrestleMania 33, Meltzer noted that there are different ideas being discussed for Reigns and one includes a big surprise that’s probably not happening. No word yet on exactly what that surprise might be. However, none of the WrestleMania plans being discussed have anything to do with another Reigns coronation.

Also on last night's show, America Alpha won their first tag team titles since being promoted to the main roster. Dissension between Randy Orton & Luke Harper was teased at the finish. Heath Slater appeared to suffer a leg injury during the match, but tweeted that everything is (mostly) fine on Wednesday.
Link to the tweet: https://twitter.com/HeathSlaterOMRB/status/814245878911422464

Chris Hero will be wrestling for EVOLVE at their two shows over Royal Rumble weekend in San Antonio, Texas on January 27th and 28th. Hero will face Zack Sabre Jr. on the 28th.

New Japan World has made every title match of 2016 free to stream through January 4th.
Link to the matches: http://njpwworld.com/c/t_0000_2016_40

Tajiri returns to main roster TV on next week’s edition of 205 Live. On last night’s episode, Neville defeated Rich Swann in a non-title match which likely sets up a Cruiserweight Championship match between the two down the road.

In a sign that relations between WWE and Hulk Hogan are certainly improving, Curtis Axel brought back his old Axelmania gimmick last night at the Royal end in St Louis. Axel wore his old "Axelmania" bandana and did the entire Hulk Hogan Greatest Hits routine including dropping a leg drop.

WWE attorneys filed a motion on 12/23 once again seeking the dismissal of the latest lawsuit filed against the company by dozens of wrestlers, some whom were contracted by WWF/WWE and some who worked on a per match basis as well as requesting the United States District Court of Connecticut sanction attorneys Konstantine Kyros, Brenden Leydon, S. James Boumil, Anthony Norris, Erica C. Mirabella, and R. Christopher Gilreath. That motion was followed by one filed personally by Vince McMahon seeking the same ...

The 12/23 motion to dismiss noted that the Amended complaint from November filed against WWE alleges, incorrectly, that "all of the deceased wrestlers who have been studied to date had CTE" and that "several hundred wrestlers died from Alzheimer’s or dementia related injuries" according to the Cauliflower Alley Club's website and "that WWE knew that wrestlers received repetitive head trauma that dramatically increased their risks of developing neurological disorders because of its relationship to the CAC."

The motion also seeks to shoot down the claims that WWE would be legally responsible and obligated to former talents of World Championship Wrestling (WCW, which WWE purchased in March 2001) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW, which WWE purchased the assets and right to via the bankruptcy proceedings of ECW parent company HHG, Inc., also in 2001) ...

On the claims made by former WWE Diva Ashley Massaro upon her joining the lawsuit several months back, WWE stated, "The Amended Complaint falsely alleges that WWE attempted to persuade Plaintiff Ashley Massaro not to report an allegation of sexual assault on a military base in Kuwait to the appropriate authorities. This baseless and inflammatory allegation is wholly unrelated to the claims in this case and was presented for the improper purpose of generating negative publicity against WWE in violation of this Court’s prior admonitions."
Link with more details (best to have an ad blocker enabled due to how bad PWI's website can be without it): http://www.pwinsider.com/article/106775/updated-wwe-fires-back-at-concussion-lawsuit-in-latest-motion-responds-to-allegations-brought-against-them-by-ashley-massaro-explains-why-they-are-not-responsible-for-claims-made-against-wcw-ecw-points-out-some-suing-are-still-wrestling-details-on-new-sanctions-requested-against-attorneys-responsible-for-lawsuits-more.html?p=1

At the house show last night in St. Louis, MO WWE announced that the 2017 Money In The Bank Pay-Per-View will be held June 18 at the Scottrade center in St. Louis.

The pre-sale password is: MITB.
Currently rumored to be a Smackdown exclusive event based on people who were at last night's house show.

WWE began building to John Cena challenging AJ Styles for the WWE championship at the Royal Rumble on 1/29/17 in San Antonio, Texas last night on Smackdown Live and Talking Smack. It is interesting to note that before there were changes to the creative team earlier this month, the pitch for the Rumble was Undertaker challenging Styles.

The Bollywood Boyz haven't been on 205 Live in recent weeks as the edict was made to keep them down in WWE NXT to allow them to get additional seasoning after their bouts on 205 didn't click in management's eyes.

Jim Ross announced that Alex Riley would be his guest on his podcast next week, Riley's first interview anywhere since departing WWE. Riley worked on the new Netflix GLOW series, although in what capacity has not been revealed.


Some other sheet news includes:

WrestlingDVDNetwork had a recent interview with DDP in regards to his upcoming DVD set planned for a March 2017 release. http://www.wrestlingdvdnetwork.com/ddp-interview-wwe-2017-positively-living-dvd-blu-ray/128167/
According to the Associated Press, Big Show was recently involved in a fake celebrity death prank after some random website claimed he recently died from a car accident. Both the WWE and Big Show himself quickly debunked the news and rumors once it became public.
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Dean Ambrose had the most moments of tv shows ending with him standing tall and/or having his music out of everyone in the WWE at 25.5 shows. Next closest was Roman Reigns with 14.5 shows overall. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/5ktl91/those_who_were_standing_tall_most_often_at_the/

[Mr. Nerfect]

Do we really need Hulk Hogan back? To what purpose does it serve except highlight how an old racist guy is more over than today's stars?

[Mr. Nerfect]

I am completely behind a Curtis Axel push though.

[Big Vic]

When does smackdowns rating come in?

[Blonde Moment]

Do we really need Hulk Hogan back? To what purpose does it serve except highlight how an old racist guy is more over than today's stars?

We might be able to use a Hogan with a smaller ego but since that is like asking for a more humble Trump........

[Bad News Gertner]

Hogan needs to come back

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Becky Lynch Appreciation Thursday:
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This week's Wild Card Finals episode of WWE Smackdown Live garnered 2,885,000 viewers on the USA Network.

This is up +247,000 viewers from the week prior and the first week ever that a first-run episode of Smackdown averaged more viewers than a first-run episode of WWE Raw.

We saw it coming as Smackdown was closing the gap and with a strong episode loaded with the return of John Cena and multiple title matches, it officially dethroned Raw. In fact, only the first hour of this week's Raw (which averaged 2,974,000 viewers) did more viewers than the average of this week's episode for the blue brand.

"Right now when it comes to WrestleMania while there are a lot of rumors and directions being stated, there are only three matches locked in, which are Brock Lesnar vs. Bill Goldberg, HHH vs. Seth Rollins and Big Show vs. Shaquille O’Neal.

John Cena vs. Undertaker is a probable, but Vince McMahon was not locked on it. Also probable was a multiple person women’s championship match on the Raw side. Right now when it comes to Undertaker, while it is likely Cena, the other opponent considered is Roman Reigns with the idea that Reigns is the future, Cena vs. Undertaker doesn’t build the future, and this may be Undertaker’s last match. If they don’t do Reigns this year, they may never be able to do it. Either way, if Cena and Reigns leave San Antonio as champions, it looks like Undertaker will challenge one of them in the main event."

Braun Strowman is also said to be a heavy favorite to win the Royal Rumble this year. Indicating that if Reigns is able to win the WWE Universal Championship and Braun the Rumble the two could be set for a collision at WrestleMania 33.

Some contract updates: Ring of Honor has come to terms with Jay Lethal for a new deal. While there were attempts to get Steve Corino to stay, all signs are he is gone as of 12/31 when his current deal expires. As of this writing, Kyle O'Reilly, Bobby Fish, War Machine and BJ Whitmer have not signed new deals.

There has been a lot of talk of Whitmer being the new color commentator with Kevin Kelly ...

If O'Reilly doesn't come to terms, I would be shocked if he retains the ROH title at the 1/4/17 Tokyo Dome event for New Japan, where he faces Adam Cole. Cole and Fish are both advertised for the 1/14/17 Atlanta TV taping, so they are going to be working with the company going forward.

One of the potentially biggest events, if it is a success and leads to a series, takes place 12/31 on ITV in the U.K. with a two-hour World of Sport wrestling special featuring some world title bouts, a ladder match, and talent including Grado, Dave Mastiff and Davey Boy Smith Jr., plus Jim Ross will be announcing the show.

AXS TV tomorrow night will air three hours from last year's Tokyo Dome show. Most of the top matches will air with the exception of the Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada match. The A.J. Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura match was edited so it wasn't nearly as good as the Japanese unedited version.

The current plan is for New Japan Pro Wrestling to run the first two nights of the 2017 G-1 Climax tournament in July at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California.

New Japan star Rocky Romero and George Carroll, a New England based independent wrestling personality who did some website work for Ring of Honor, were recently in Long Beach doing ground work for the dates.

NJPW traditionally announces major dates for the year during the 1/4/17 Dome show.

Based on conversations with numerous sources, all signs are that Anthem Sports & Entertainment will officially become the owners of Impact Wrestling and its parent company, assets, etc. on 1/1/17, so expect some form of an official announcement then. It is expected there will be an official meeting of some sort with the locker room next week in Orlando.

Anthem has continued to have conversations with Jeff Jarrett but there is no sign they have come to any form of a deal for him to return to the company in any official capacity. Jarrett's Global Force Wrestling promotion ran an event last night as part of a private function and Jarrett has been regularly going to Los Angeles for work on potential GFW broadcast deals.

Anthem are also working on locking talents who's deals expire in early 2017, including The Hardy Boys and Drew Galloway to new deals.

TNA Knockout Sienna announced the following on social media:

This Valentine's Day I will be running through freezing ass #Detroit in my skivvies to raise money for @childrenstumor - If you're still in the holiday spirit, now is a great time to donate to this worthy cause! The link is in my bio ????

#CupidsUndieRun #ImWithCupid #ChildrensTumorFoundation

You can learn more on helping the cause by going here
Link to the fundraiser for those interested in donating: https://my.cupids.org/siennatna

While they haven’t made an official offer (or at least hadn’t as of last week), WWE is more open to Matt Riddle than a few months ago. Everyone knows he’s one of the best prospects to come along in the sense not many in modern history have ever gotten so good in so few matches. Riddle is under contract to Evolve, but that means nothing as Evolve’s policy is always to release guys if WWE wants them. I have no idea why New Japan doesn’t go after him now although it probably is inevitable than he’ll be in WWE and probably a major star, at some point.

The AAA television deal in Canada with The Fight Network is in trouble. They haven’t produced a new episode since June, so they’ve been replaying the same 12 episodes. FactoryMade Ventures was at one point going to produce new shows in Los Angeles when they took over the gig as the original shows were produced by Court Bauer, who stopped working with AAA in June.

The item noted last week regarding no Lucha Underground tapings until the fall of 2017 has led to a lot of frustration. The talent had kept weekend dates free starting in February, or if they had dates, many had canceled them, and now they have to get new bookings for February, March and April. The frustration is that after all these years, they haven’t broken out, it’s only seasonal work, but those seven season contracts which, except for a few people aren’t high dollar deals, are keeping everyone from exploring working in places like WWE, New Japan and ROH.

There is top talent in Lucha Underground who are trying to see if they can legally get themselves free from the deals and explore working elsewhere. Most of the talent is still happy this company is still around because it’s a regular paycheck in season (with the exception of guys like Rey Mysterio who are on guaranteed annual big money deals, most talent is paid per television show they are on at the time the show is taped). But the hope was that by this point they’d be more of a force, be huge in the Hispanic community (in fact, they still don’t have a Spanish language outlet after having it in season one and thus are seen by far fewer than at the start of the promotion with the 200,000 to 250,000 viewers weekly in season one on Unimas), there would be house shows and people would be making merchandise money.

The wrestlers from the U.K. who just signed WWE contracts for the tournament on 1/14 and 1/15 in Blackpool, England, live on the WWE Network, signed one-year deals for 16,000 pounds or roughly $20,000 U.S. Several of the wrestlers that were signed told Wrestle Culture Pro Wrestling that they had been told they could no longer work for the promotion after 1/15. When William Regal came to the U.K., he specifically talked about no restrictions on where the talent could work, but we knew that the contracts specified the obvious like TNA or ROH, and there was no way the guys would be able to work for the ITV group, since, even though WWE says the opposite publicly, the key to this thing being done was an attempt to stop the ITV group. Wrestle Culture doesn’t have regular television. They have television tapings for an Internet show and have spent huge money for people like Kurt Angle, Jim Ross, Alberto El Patron and others. The promotions that Paul Levesque talked about when he was there that they would work with included Progress and Revolution Pro, and they sent Finn Balor to ICW and OTT, so there is a relationship there as well.

The WWE web site had a poll on who you want to be in the main event at WrestleMania. When the results went like this: 40% Styles, 12% Undertaker, 10% Balor, 7% Goldberg, 5% Cena, 4% Reigns, 3% Wyatt, Ambrose, Owens, Banks, Rollins, 1% Charlotte, Lesnar and Miz. The poll was then kiboshied.


Some other sheet news includes:

WWE's website had a recent article about their Top 25 WWE matches of 2016. http://www.wwe.com/article/top-25-matches-of-2016
According to PWI, recent updates to the TNA vs Audience of One production company lawsuit includes TNA and Aroluxe trying to get the case dismissed due to them claiming there was no conspiracy to remove AoO as TNA's production company nor purposely not paying them for work. AoO might be forced to refile their lawsuit due to the possibility of it being done in the wrong jurisdiction since they are based in Virginia while TNA is based in Tennessee. http://www.pwinsider.com/article/106792/update-on-tna-vs-audience-of-one-productions-lawsuit.html?p=1
Recent episode of the Ross Report podcast show had Kenny Omega as its guest. http://podcastone.com/pg/jsp/program/episode.jsp?programID=619&pid=1697825
According to reports, TNA once again is behind on paying talent/production with October's set of tapings still unpaid for.
Current rumor going around the net involves Vince likely wanting American Alphas to be split up sooner regardless of Smackdown's Creative plans for the team. Supposedly he's still very high on the idea of a singles run for Jason Jordan.
According to reports and rumors, Kurt Angle has informed indie companies he is no longer taking bookings after February while supposedly has been contacted by the WWE in regards to a possible Rumble appearance. Spoiler tags used since its related to a possible big 2017 Rumble surprise entrant.
According to the Observer, TNA is currently planning on holding a big tour for India next year in order to keep their tv deal active for the market.

[Sepholio]

That spoiler tag better be legit or I'm rioting.

[Droford]

He's the WWE 2k18 cover star for sure

Now to make fantasy warfare a reality again at Survivor Series..

[Droford]

Apparently the whole reason why there's a Dar/Alexander fued is because Vince thinks Dar sounds like he's saying "fucks" every time he says Fox and he gets a kick out of it.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

Its a good thing most of the feud is on the Network then.

[Cool King]

Apparently the whole reason why there's a Dar/Alexander fued is because Vince thinks Dar sounds like he's saying "fucks" every time he says Fox and he gets a kick out of it.

So is that why he elongates the word "Fox" and sounds like a retard?

[Cool King]

Meh, I don't care.

Both guys are extremely boring as shit and Alicia Fox really deserves better.

[Cool King]

In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Dean Ambrose had the most moments of tv shows ending with him standing tall and/or having his music out of everyone in the WWE at 25.5 shows. Next closest was Roman Reigns with 14.5 shows overall. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/5ktl91/those_who_were_standing_tall_most_often_at_the/

This chart is pretty interesting.

http://i.imgur.com/H49XL3K.png?1

[Cool King]

Looking at it now and it says that Ambrose closed the show in Glasgow, but I can't remember that and I was there.

I'm sure it was Daniel Bryan.

[Big Vic]

What was Kane doing on the 15th of Feb?

[Big Vic]

What was Kane doing on the 15th of Feb?

Big Show vs. Braun Strowman w/ The Wyatt Family

Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan exit the ring as Big Show enters. Lock up and Strowman breaks free. Another lock up and Strowman with a knee, big shots and more knees to Big Show in the corner. Big Show with an elbow and body shots to Strowman. Big Show with a huge chop to Strowman. Strowman responds with a big right hand. Strowman easily takes down Big Show with a huge clothesline. Strowman attempts a suplex. Big Show counters and drops Strowman with a suplex of his own. Rowan is in and gets tackled by Big Show. Harper jumps in attacking Big Show and the referee calls for the bell.

Winner via DQ: Big Show

After the match, Ryback runs out taking out Harper and Rowan at ringside. Harper and Rowan are back in as Wyatt tries to fight off Ryback. Strowman and Rowan keep Ryback down. The Wyatt’s attack both Ryback and Big Show. Ryback and Big Show are down. Kane’s pyro goes off on all four corners. Kane crawls up from under the ring. Kane pushes Rowan over the top rope. Kane with a shot to Strowman. Ryback with a clothesline on Wyatt. Big Show and Kane send Strowman over the top rope. Kane and Big Show with a double chokeslam on Harper. Big Show, Kane and Ryback stand tall as The Wyatt’s start backing up the ramp. Kane drops his arms and pyro goes off in the entrance area.

A new Stone Cold Podcast with the Big Show is live next on the WWE Network.

[Sepholio]

Looking at it now and it says that Ambrose closed the show in Glasgow, but I can't remember that and I was there.

I'm sure it was Daniel Bryan.

Maybe the Bryan bit at the end was a dark segment and the ambrose segment aired last on TV? Only thing I can think of atm

[Cool King]

If I remember correctly, the show ended with everyone doing the "Yes" chant and Bryan's music playing as he, Shane and Ambrose climbed to the top rope and joined in with the fans doing the "Yes" chant.

Here's one of my terrible photos. (Shane is behind the guy's arm)

https://s30.postimg.org/xjjl9jmn5/yes.png

After that, we got The Usos/Hype Bros. for the Main Event taping and the dark matches were Ziggler/Miz for the Intercontinental Championship and Styles/Ambrose for the WWE Championship.

[Fignuts]

I like Braun, and I'm cool with him main eventing a ppv like roadblock, but fuck off with him winning the rumble. His character is nowhere near developed or interesting enough to be winning the rumble and challenging for a title at mania.

He should have one of tne strongest showings at tne event but eventually get tossed, mayabe by a group of guys.

[Big Vic]

I like Braun because he is the only character that wins matches besides Roman Reigns.

[Cool King]

I like Braun, and I'm cool with him main eventing a ppv like roadblock, but fuck off with him winning the rumble. His character is nowhere near developed or interesting enough to be winning the rumble and challenging for a title at mania.

He should have one of tne strongest showings at tne event but eventually get tossed, mayabe by a group of guys.

Yeah, something along the lines of Braun eliminating at least 10 entrants or if the WWE want to go all out, then Braun eliminating 15, but having Braun eliminate half the entrants would mean that he would break Reigns' record and I can't see Vince & Co. wanting that record broken, at least any time soon.

But having him eliminate a good amount then to be elimated by, I dunno, The New Day, would be alright. Maybe then he could go on to face The New Day in a 3-on-1 Handicap Match at WrestleMania.

[Blonde Moment]

Sammy will be Brauns Kryptonite at the rumble

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by TPWW's Sheety Awards "Best Wrestler of the Year" Winner:
http://i.imgur.com/jznfmKN.gif

The 12/29 "Hardy New Year" edition of TNA Impact Wrestling garnered 224,000, up in comparion to last week's Year In Review edition of Impact, which brought in 209,000 viewers.

It was still down from the last episode featuring "original" in-ring content, the 12/15 Total Nonstop Deletion episode, which brought in 329,000 viewers.

So, while viewership was up for the Hardy special, they didn't crack the 300 K mark.

A major story involving the New York area is that Charter Communications (Spectrum Cable) and NBC Universal are in a dispute. As of right now, if a new deal isn't reached by midnight tomorrow, when the contract expires, then 16 million homes around the country, including much of New York, will be without not only NBC but MSNBC, Bravo, E!, USA and Syfy. I've seen some stuff to rally people against the cable company and in pushing shows people won't be able to see, they have mentioned Raw, Smackdown ad Total Divas. Usually these things get worked out because the contract would expire before Sunday Night Football which is a huge show.
Thought this was pretty interesting considering WWE would be losing their big historical hotspot if this happens.

There is a weird story as a Go Fund Me was set up for John Yurnet, who wrestled on Tuesday night's 205 Live show against Mustafa Ali and apparently blew his knee out. He's trying to raise $10,000 in medical expenses for an MRI and surgery. As of this morning they had raised $1,995. It's weird because WWE usually covers injuries to talent, but Yurnet is not under a WWE contract, although he wrestled in a WWE ring. There is also a lot of talk that Yurnet was injured before the match and not on the first spot of the match as was first said.

There was a brief injury scare with Bo Dallas last night in Boston. The report was that they stopped his match early and the ref gave an "X" sign, but he seemed okay after because his gimmick all week is that after losing in a multiple person match, he then challenges anyone from the back to come out and refuses to leave the ring. Big Show then knocks him out. And after the match was stopped, he did recover and issued the challenge spot.

New Japan announced that Masahiro Chono would be doing Japanese commentary for Wrestle Kingdom 11.

Speaking of Wrestle Kingdom 11, here is the announced lineup:

*IWGP Heavyweight champion Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega.

*IWGP Intercontinental champion Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tetsuya Naito.

*NEVER Openweight champion Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hirooki Goto.

*IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion KUSHIDA vs. Hiromu Takahashi.

*ROH champion Kyle O'Reilly vs. Adam Cole.

*IWGP Tag Team champions The Guerrillas of Destiny vs. Great Bash Heel vs. Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii.

*Cody Rhodes vs. Juice Robinson

*IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team champions The Young Bucks vs. Roppongi Vice.

*NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team champions Satoshi Kojima & Ricochet & David Finlay vs. BUSHI & EVIL & SANADA vs. CHAOS' Jado & Will Ospreay & YOSHI-HASHI vs. The Bullet Club's Hangman Page & Yujiro Takahashi & Bad Luck Fale.

*Tiger Mask W vs. Tiger The Dark.

*The usual pre-show Legends Rumble.

This past Wednesday at the Raw event in Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Owens heckled a fan in the audience by bragging about what he had made in the last week even breaking down the figures for each revenue stream, all while holding Roman Reigns in a headlock to the point that Reigns broke character and cracked up, as seen in a fan video below:

Owens was yelling at people and Roman could not stop laughing ???????????? pic.twitter.com/FxxJ6ISWQw
— jessica (@jesssberkowitz) December 29, 2016

That led to a back and forth between Owens and Reigns on Twitter in which Reigns claimed he was actually laughing at how little Owens made in comparison to what Reigns makes in merchandise sales.

John Cena stepped in this morning, lowering the boom on Reigns with the following:

While @WWERomanReigns was making fun of what people earn I was at @GeorgiaTechFB to #EarnTheDay #recognize pic.twitter.com/xbxlZuO0uR
— John Cena (@JohnCena) December 30, 2016
Reigns ended up responding to Cena's tweet against him: https://twitter.com/WWERomanReigns/status/814944037111091200

Bobby Fish vs. Lio Rush has been added to the 2/4/17 Dallas, Texas return, so obviously ROH and Fish plan to continue working together if they don't come to terms on a new contract in the next 24 hours. It's also possible they will sign an extension of the old terms as they continue negotiating, something not all that unusual.

A MAJOR toy company has denied shocking claims one of its WWE wrestler masks looks like the Yorkshire Ripper.

The Entertainer shot down concerns that the Roman Reigns mask on sale across the country resembles Peter Sutcliffe.

The infamous serial killer was convicted of murdering seven women and trying to kill seven others.

A worried parent contacted the Sun after seeing the toy gift in a Touchwood Shopping Centre in Solihull, Birmingham. He was convinced the mask looked the murderer who terrorised prostitutes during the 1970s and 1980s.

He said: “I spotted the mask in store on 25 November 2016 when with my son, who obviously had no idea why I was so interested in the mask, I even asked his mother who was with us, to take a look.

“I said to her think of a serial killer, and showed her the mask, without hesitation, and in an instant she said ‘The Yorkshire Ripper’.

“The mask looks nothing like the actual WWE wrestler, and I have shown a close up the mask to friends and they all said ‘The Yorkshire Ripper’.

“I think if this mask was taken onto the streets, and people were asked what serial killer does this mask look like, I think most would name Peter Sutcliffe, The Yorkshire Ripper.

“I do feel it should be removed from sale as the resemblance is too close to that of the Ripper, and could upset those associated with the case" ...

The Entertainer released a statement stating it had no plans to remove the mask from its store.

It read: “The Roman Reigns mask was produced for WWE by toy manufacturer, Jakks Pacific and The Entertainer toy shop is one of many retail stockists across the UK.

“We have received no other comments regarding the resemblance of this mask to other people, and there are no plans to de-list it from our shops across the UK

The manufacturer Jakks Pacific added: “The Roman Reigns WWE Mask & Muscle Dress up set includes a mask and costume based on the popular WWE wrestler, Roman Reigns, and designed with his likeness in mind. This is clearly stated on the fully WWE branded packaging of the product where an image of Roman is also displayed.”
Link to the news article: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2449564/shocked-shopper-claims-wwe-roman-reigns-wrestler-masks-stocked-in-the-entertainer-look-like-peter-sutcliffe/


Some other sheet news includes:

The Revival's Scott Dawson recently tweeted being honored about their match with DIY taking WWE's top spot for best match of the year. https://twitter.com/scottdawsonwwe/status/814884245713940480
In completely useless sheet news of the day, Finn Balor recently tweeted about today being December 30th. https://twitter.com/FinnBalor/status/814863556516708354
Recent video article by WWE's website involved their wishlist for things they'd like to see happen in the WWE during 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnzd_pibThI
Both WWE's Xavier Woods and NJPW's Kenny Omega revealed their Top 10 Games of 2016 at gaming website Giantbomb. http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/xavier-woods-and-kenny-omegas-respective-top-10-ga/1100-5539/

[Mr. Nerfect]

Yeah, something along the lines of Braun eliminating at least 10 entrants or if the WWE want to go all out, then Braun eliminating 15, but having Braun eliminate half the entrants would mean that he would break Reigns' record and I can't see Vince & Co. wanting that record broken, at least any time soon.

But having him eliminate a good amount then to be elimated by, I dunno, The New Day, would be alright. Maybe then he could go on to face The New Day in a 3-on-1 Handicap Match at WrestleMania.

I actually want Braun Strowman to be in the Andre Battle Royal and make it a big storyline that he wants to win the whole thing with him being eliminated by The New Day in that (they also have a RAW Tag Team Title match on the Kickoff, don't worry). I'm not that interesting in Strowman vs. Reigns, would rather see Jericho vs. Reigns; and while the idea of stretching out Strowman vs. Zayn was interesting to me, that ship seems to be sailing past. Put Strowman in the Battle Royal (and that seems to suit him perfectly) and have Zayn vs. Nakamura in Nakamura's first main roster match.

[Mr. Nerfect]

What role do you see Hogan playing if he came back? If I had to pick a role for him, I can see him raising American Alpha's arms in victory if they win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania. I know Vince probably does have a serious hard-on for Jason Jordan, but the team is good for him at the moment -- he was going nowhere without it. Hell, he's arguably going nowhere with it now. Let them have a decent run together and get used to negotiating the main roster style before you split them off and give each a singles push (hopefully).

[RP]

The 12/29 "Hardy New Year" edition of TNA Impact Wrestling garnered 224,000, up in comparion to last week's Year In Review edition of Impact, which brought in 209,000 viewers.

It was still down from the last episode featuring "original" in-ring content, the 12/15 Total Nonstop Deletion episode, which brought in 329,000 viewers.

So, while viewership was up for the Hardy special, they didn't crack the 300 K mark.


These are pretty big numbers for the Hardy's still. All things considered.

[XL]

What role do you see Hogan playing if he came back? If I had to pick a role for him, I can see him raising American Alpha's arms in victory if they win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania. I know Vince probably does have a serious hard-on for Jason Jordan, but the team is good for him at the moment -- he was going nowhere without it. Hell, he's arguably going nowhere with it now. Let them have a decent run together and get used to negotiating the main roster style before you split them off and give each a singles push (hopefully).

Jordan was a total lost cause in NXT before his pairing with Gable, so if for nothing more than a thank you to Gable they should stick together for a while. Not sure there's much to Jordan's personality without Gable to play off of.

[#1-norm-fan]

Haven't heard him cut a promo but from a wrestling stand-point, from a look standpoint and from a "showing emotion/personality in the ring" standpoint, Jordan is fucking fantastic.

[Simple Fan]

I just wish WWE would learn to get behind tag teams. American Alpha have all the tools to be a top tag team for years to come.

[Evil Vito]

Is Shelton Benjamin meant to be coming back to WWE once he recovers from injury? If so, American Alpha vs. The World's Greatest Tag Team needs to happen once. Have Kurt Angle do a run-in or something. I'd mark out.

[Evil Vito]

Charlie Haas is supposedly "retired" but it looks like he still takes spot bookings now and then. I doubt he'd turn down a couple of decent WWE pay dates to put over Alpha.

[slik]

Is Roman ROIDS really the right person to tell John Cena to power clean in the gym...

[Mr. Nerfect]

Jordan was a total lost cause in NXT before his pairing with Gable, so if for nothing more than a thank you to Gable they should stick together for a while. Not sure there's much to Jordan's personality without Gable to play off of.

Jordan is finding something. He always looked good, things just hadn't "clicked." As he gains confidence and develops the ability to connect to audiences he will eventually become ready to go off on his own and become, hopefully, a relative star for the company. But I don't think that time is now and I fear he'd become just another guy very quickly.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Charlie Haas is supposedly "retired" but it looks like he still takes spot bookings now and then. I doubt he'd turn down a couple of decent WWE pay dates to put over Alpha.

Absolutely not, and I'm sure he's still on good terms with the company. Isn't he really good friends with Bradshaw? I'm not sure what pull Bradshaw officially has, but Haas seems like the sort of hand they'd love to have around, especially now there would be that hopeful acceptance that he isn't going to suddenly develop the personality of The Rock or anything.

I'd actually be fine with Haas & Benjamin getting a run with the Tag Titles as crafty veterans who still have a thing or two left to teach Alpha before dropping the belts back to them.

[Fignuts]

Agree about Jordan. He's displayed a lot more charisma and intesnity since teaming with gable.

[Mr. Nerfect]

One day Jason Jordan vs. Chad Gable will be a major match at WrestleMania. I hope.

[Bad News Gertner]

Major breaking news: I'm returning to 411mania.com to write my Mr.Dufour's Wayback Machine reviews.

Some weirdo was harassing me about sending him copies of shows to the point he was trying to get my home and work phone number. He'd leave me like 5-10 messages, emails a day. It was REALLY weird.

[Fignuts]

Sorry.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by #BeatUpHBKDay:
https://giant.gfycat.com/WholePopularCarpenterant.gif

According to PWI, DDP is currently expected to be the first name announced for this year's WWE Hall of Fame class. Won't be the headliner since the WWE has a bigger name to be revealed later.
Spoiler tags used since its related to this year's WWE Hall of Fame class.

Braun Strowman, Chris Jericho, and all three members of The New Day were announced on Raw as entrants in the Royal Rumble match. They join Goldberg and Brock Lesnar (who were previously announced as the first two entrants) in the Rumble.
Add in Baron Corbin from tonight's Smackdown to make it 8 guys announced so far for the Rumble match.

All charges against WWE Hall of Famer Jimmy Snuka were officially dropped today during a hearing in Allentown, PA under Judge Kelly L. Banach, according to WFMZ TV in Pennsylvania. Banach dropped the charges after ruling that Snuka's mental health will not improve to the point that he could intelligently defend himself against the charges.

Both prosecution and Snuka's defense attorney, Robert Kirwan had pushed for a dismissal last August. Banach put that ruling off until today's hearing, waiting to see if Snuka's mental state improved or whether new evidence would be found that would cause her to rule Snuka was fit for trial. Neither happened and during an appearance via Facetime during a hearing last month, Snuka stated he did not remember ever speaking previously with Judge Banach.


Local police confirmed Monday's report in the Austrian tabloid Krone about an altercation involving Alberto Rodriguez (Alberto El Patron) and his brother Guillermo (El Hijo de Dos Caras) early Saturday morning at a party after a Friday night show in Leoben, Austria.

The report was that after a show Friday night, there was an altercation where the two brothers got into a fight and beat a guy up so badly he was hospitalized. Police were called and took them to the station where Alberto and Guillermo got into a fight with each other. Alberto knocked out his brother, who was also taken to the hospital. It took ten officers to separate them and they put Alberto in zip ties, which he broke out of. They finally subdued him by putting shackles to cuff his feet.

The story stated there was blood splattered on the walls of the police station and some furniture at the station was destroyed. The police confirmed the story, but would not release specific names, but stated the Krone article was greatly exaggerated.

Steve Corino and Kevin Kelly are in Japan to announce the New Japan events, which start late tonight after Raw with the matches at the Fan Axxess show at Differ Ariake in Tokyo. The Tokyo Dome show starts at 2:30 a.m. Eastern time late Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. The press conference airs starting at 10 p.m. Eastern time tonight on New Japan World.

Regarding the contract issues with Spectrum Cable and NBC, where the contract expired on 12/31 and the sides were apart in talks, both sides are still carrying the shows right now to keep service uninterrupted, so Raw will be available in the same amount of the country as usual.
Good news for the WWE considering how big the NY market is in terms of tv and for the company. Their potential pool for viewers would have shrunk by around 16 million if it had happened.

WWE will be trying out new Network content on Monday night with "Bring it to the Table" premiering after Raw goes off the air.

The pre-taped show will feature Peter Rosenberg as its host with Paul Heyman and JBL debating a variety of pro wrestling topics. The show appears to be modeled after similar debate-style sports programming regularly featured on stations like ESPN and FS1.

WWE is bringing WrestleMania back to New Orleans in 2018.

F4WOnline.com has confirmed that the city's Superdome will once again be home to WWE's biggest event of the year as WrestleMania 34 takes place in Louisiana. An official announcement is expected shortly.
Currently rumored to be made official during next week's RAW at New Orleans.

The World of Sport rating ... was 1.25 million viewers and a 7.3 market share. The number isn't high enough to guarantee the show gets turned into a series, nor low enough to guarantee that it doesn't. It's a lot lower than ITV did in the time slot the week before, but they were down all night, probably due to it being New Year's Eve.

Backstage at WWE Smackdown Live is independent talent Deonna Purrazzo, who portrayed La Luchadora last week and distracted Becky Lynch against Alexa Bliss. Purrazzo is there again to portray the masked character.

For the many of you who have written asking about rumors that WWE star Paige is pregnant based on stories that are floating around today, there is absolutely nothing to the stories.

The story started, based on my research, out of a Tweet Alberto El Patron sent out yesterday claiming he was pregnant, which led to Paige responding that he was her "seahorse" (as male seahorses carry babies, which by the way, the fact I am even writing about male seahorses being pregnant on a pro wrestling news site is completely ridiculous).

Somehow along the way, people who lack any sort of reading comprehension have turned the story into one that claims Paige is pregnant. That is not the case. What is the case is what was meant to be a silly comment on social media is now being used as the basis for a story on someone's medical condition, which really isn't fair, no matter who the subject is.

So, to conclude - Paige, not pregnant. Alberto El Patron, not pregnant. Male seahorses can get pregnant. Carry on.


Some other sheet news includes:

RAW's ratings and viewership has been delayed till tomorrow due to Monday being considered as part of New Year's holiday weekend.
ESPN had a recent interview with Finn Balor in regards to the upcoming UK Tournament and Will Ospreay's run in NJPW. http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/18401766/wwe-finn-balor-ospreay-journey-potential-impact-uk-championship-tournament-local-wrestling
Sports Illustrated had a recent interview with Kenny Omega as part of Wrestle Kingdom II's hype for tonight's show. http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2017/01/03/kenny-omega-new-japan-wwe-wrestle-kingdom
Northeast Wrestling announced on Twitter that Kurt Angle will face Cody Rhodes in a steel cage match for their show on March 3rd. Currently planned to be Angle's final match on the indies based on recent reports and rumors. https://twitter.com/newwrestling1/status/816099124315615232
According to Pro Wrestling Sheet, Paige was backstage at RAW yesterday as part of a routine WWE medical checkup for her current neck injury. Del Rio was also at RAW but only to pick her up after the testing was done.
Namco released a new trailer for Tekken 7 showing off more NJPW related content in the game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHWakqomVQo

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Wrestle Kingdom 11:
http://i.imgur.com/5hXvWQx.gif

Raw ratings on Monday were up to 3.04 million viewers, an increase of seven percent, likely due to a combination of Bill Goldberg's appearance keeping the third hour from too much of a decline and slightly easier football competition ...

It was the most-watched Raw since the November 28th show headlined by the Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks women's title match.

Next week, going against the college football championship game, will be the last episode against football until the fall. The traditional bounce-back show should be on January 16th.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 3.04 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.16 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.94 million viewers
Good news being this week having 200k more viewers and 2nd hour being the highest in a while. Bad news being RAW's best hour was only 8th for the Top 10 list and last year's show had 500k more viewers.

In a move expected since the end of 2016 and one discussed on this site frequently, Anthem Sports & Entertainment officially announced Wednesday night they have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a majority interest in TNA Impact Wrestling.

The media company also owns The Fight Network, a big player in combat sports in Canada and 30+ countries, as well as TNA's exclusive broadcast partner in Canada.

In a press release, Anthem announced that Executive VP Ed Nordholm will become president of Anthem Wrestling Exhibitions, LLC. He's been the managing director of the company's Board of Managers since October 2016.

As for Dixie Carter, the release said she will step down as chairman of the board to join the advisory board of Fight Media Group "which holds all of the combat sports-related assets of Anthem, where her focus will be on the global growth of the combat sports-related brands owned by Anthem." She will remain a minority equity stakeholder.

Tonight’s two-hour episode of NXT features matches from the brand’s show in Melbourne, Australia last month. The full version of the NXT Championship cage match between Shinsuke Nakamura and Samoa Joe will air in the main event. The show will also feature DIY defending their tag titles against TM61, Ember Moon facing Liv Morgan and Billie Kay in a triple threat match, Tye Dillinger & Buddy Murphy teaming up to take on Bobby Roode & Elias Samson, and The Revival vs. Tino Sabbatelli & Riddick Moss.

Seth Rollins tweeted about Wrestle Kingdom 11 today: “Pretty awesome to see professional wrestling on all levels alive and well all over the world. #wrestlekingdom11”
Link to the tweet: https://twitter.com/wwerollins/status/816695424073531400

The announced paid attendance for Wrestle Kingdom 11 at the Tokyo Dome was 26,192 people, which was up from last year’s crowd of 25,204.

NJPW announced two “G1 specials” in California at the Long Beach Convention Center on July 1st and 2nd. The tournament itself will begin on July 17th and end with three straight nights in Sumo Hall concluding on August 13th.

Matching the suspension that he got from the Nevada State Athletic Commission, USADA announced on Wednesday that Brock Lesnar has been suspended for one year for his drug test failures surrounding UFC 200.
WWE wouldn't be able to use Lesnar in any state that covers wrestling in their athletic commission and follows the same Nevada/USADA rules.

This was tweeted out late last night indicating that MLW's Ric Flair Show podcast has ended. According to comments by co-host Conrad Thompson the WWE Hall of Famer has decided he doesn't want to do it anymore.

Thanks for subscribing and listening to the show but that's all folks!

Keep up with Ric at @RicFlairNatrBoy and Conrad at @HeyHeyItsConrad pic.twitter.com/GzS6lHbcCK
— RicFlairShow (@RicFlairShow) January 4, 2017
Second time his podcast show been cancelled within the past year.

It was announced today that Pop, the home of TNA Impact Wrestling in the United States, will be added to Hulu's new live streaming TV service, which will roll out later this year.

This will allow fans who wish to watch TNA to be able to do so even if they cut the cord from cable.

Pro Wrestling Sheet has confirmed with authorities that Teddy Hart was arrested on New Years Day … and the report states he attempted to get away from officers during the encounter.

According to the Arlington Police Department in Texas, the Hart family member was stopped by police for a hazardous traffic violation on January 1st and attempted to evade a lawful arrest.

It’s unclear at this point how he attempted to get away.

The police report also says he was allegedly operating a vehicle without consent of the owner and was intoxicated, so they took him into custody.

He’s currently behind bars with bail set at $6,500.


Some other sheet news includes:

NJPW recently uploaded the Terminator bit from Kenny Oemga's entrance at lats night's Wrestle Kingdom 11 event. http://njpwworld.com/p/o_original_0068_10
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 18th anniversary of the infamous "Finger Poke of Doom" moment in WCW and Foley winning the WWF belt for the first time ever.
In another "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is Jim Ross' 65th birthday.
Recent episode of Talk Is Jericho podcast show had Norman Smiley as the guest. http://www.podcastone.com/pg/jsp/program/episode.jsp?programID=593&pid=1699235
Samckdown's ratings and viewership got delayed till tomorrow due to New Years weekend pushing reports back a day.

[Big Vic]

Smackdown rating in?

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Bliss Appreciation Day:
http://i.imgur.com/5OLBY7Y.gif

After beating Raw in the ratings last week, SmackDown fell back down to normal levels for the first episode of 2017.

Tuesday night's show on the USA Network averaged 2.596 million viewers, down nine percent from last week when John Cena's return and three title matches helped beat Raw for the first time since the brand split.

This was the lowest audience number for the show since December 13th, but it was still above the 2.492 million viewers the show has been averaging since moving to Tuesday night.

Anthem Media has come to terms for Jeff Jarrett to return to TNA, PWInsider.com has confirmed. We are told that Jarrett will be at this week's TV tapings, as will his wife Karen Jarrett ...

The re-emergence of Jarrett was pointed to this morning as a sign that Carter was completely out in terms of decision-making as the pair had at times, split the loyalty within the company between their two sides and had a number of falling outs over the years, including a time period where Jarrett took time off from the company after it became public knowledge he was dating his now wife Karen (who had previously been married to Kurt Angle, at the time the top star in TNA). During that time away, Carter let go of Jarrett's entire support staff at the time, including Dutch Mantel, Savio Vega, Jim Cornette and Brian "Roaddogg" James.

"There is no way [Carter] would have allowed Jeff to return," said one source who spoke under condition of anonymity this morning. "This is proof that she is done."
According to PWI, Jarrett will also keep running GFW on the side since he is still working on getting a tv deal for the company.

Jeff & Karen Jarrett are in Orlando for the TNA tapings, as is Dutch Mantell. Also at the tapings include Brooke Tessmacher, Davey Richards, Angelina Love and Caleb Konley. Tonight's show will also, at least theoretically, promote a PPV show that takes place on Friday night.

We got some more news on the weekend incidents involving Alberto (Del Rio) Rodriguez and brother Guillermo in Austria. This is from an eye witness who was there for both skirmishes. The version verified the police statements about the incident printed in the new issue and that some of the tabloid coverage was exaggerated. Alberto & Guillermo were actually scheduled to leave and return home for an early morning flight, and be driven at about 2:30 a.m. to Vienna for their flight home after their match on Friday. Alberto then asked promoter Chris Raaber if they could stay an extra day and he'd use his miles to change the flights and so that happened.

There was a fight between Alberto and a 26-year-old Austrian and punches were thrown. Guillermo jumped in to help his brother. It wasn't a bad fight but Alberto did deliver some damage to the guy, and he was bruised up but not hurt badly. The police were called. At the police station, the two brothers started arguing in Spanish so nobody knew what they were saying or fighting over. The belief was Guillermo was just trying to calm Alberto down and Alberto was yelling at him. Alberto did break the zip-ties and they used ankle shackles, but the shackles were around Alberto's wrists, not his ankles.

There was a back of a chair broken off and some blood splattered on the wall from Alberto and Guillermo's fight. Guillermo was not knocked out as per media reports, but he did go to two different hospitals and took a train to the airport while Alberto had already left by cab.

Suzuki Gun and Dragon Lee appeared earlier today at New Year's Dash at Korakuen Hall. Key matches set up included Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki for the IWGP title, Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. for the IWGP tag team titles, Tetsuya Naito vs. Michael Elgin for the IC title and Hiromu Takahashi vs. Dragon Lee for the jr. titles.

New Japan World picked up 5,500 new subscribers from the U.S. alone on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Overall gained around 10k more subscribers when including other regions.

As noted on the front page, Mark Andrews, whose TNA contract expired a few days ago, has signed with WWE and will be part of the U.K. championship tournament that takes place 1/14 and 1/15 in Blackpool, England.

The 1/4 episode of Total Divas, returning after a two week hiatus for the holidays, saw the WWE reality series on E! hit its highest mark of the season, bringing in 734,000 viewers frm the 705,000 viewers that watched on 12/21. This was actually the highest viewership for the series since March of last year.

It appears the move to 9 PM meant an additional 200,000 viewers to the series.

Maria Kanellis and Michael Bennett are set for this week's TV tapings. Their TNA deals expired at the end of the year. There was WWE interest in Maria dating back to last summer's Brand Split, so it should be interesting to see what their long term plans are.

Taz sent out the following to remind fans that "The Taz Show" will return from its holiday hiatus on CBS Radio tomorrow, and it certainly looks like he filmed it near WWE HQ, possibly hinting that he was there to do additional work with the company:

I spy....#TheTazShow #WeOver pic.twitter.com/5WHpLmNl1A
— TAZ (@OfficialTAZ) January 5, 2017

Perhaps he'll elaborate on this when he returns to the air tomorrow at www.TazShow.com.

Now that Anthem is purchasing a majority stake in TNA and will be running the show going forward, it’s time to lock up top talent within the promotion. That includes both Matt and Jeff Hardy, who have contracts that are coming up next month.

And WWE wants them both.

That’s according to the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscription required but recommended), who are reporting TNA has tried to sign them to exclusive contracts but it hasn’t happened just yet. With WWE interested, not to mention how much money they can make on the independent scene, especially with the Broken Matt Hardy gimmick working as well as it still does, there will be negotiations that could drag on while they try to get the best deal for themselves.


Some other sheet news includes:

Rock band Downstait recently tweeted a teaser of a new entrance them they are currently working on for Seth Rollins. https://twitter.com/DownstaitBand/status/817054240824815621
For those who follow Observer's ratings system for matches, Omega vs Okada at Wrestle Kingdom 11 ended up getting the first ever official 6 star rating from Dave Meltzer. For some reference, Meltzer's ratings are only based on his gut reactions to a match and not actually based on a real system of sorts.
According to the Observer, ITV is happy with the numbers the debut episode of World of Sport generated. Makes it more likely ITV will approve a series to be made within the near future. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C1ZbOQ7WEAAjU6J.jpg
Current rumors going around the net is Adam Cole, Kyle O'Rielly, and War Machine (Hanson and Raymond Rowe) are all leaving ROH for WWE with Cole expected to be arriving after May.

[Volare]

ADAM COLE BAY BAY!

[Mr. Nerfect]

Lol, 6 stars? That sounds a bit ridiculous. Would love to see Maria and Mike Bennett in the WWE. War Machine would be a good addition too. They're kind of like a more polished Authors of Pain at this point, aren't they?

[Heisenberg]

War Machine would wipe the floor with AoP, at least in the ring presence department. Those young big boys in Pain wonder down to the ring like they were just let out of a cage and don't know why they are in the building.

[Simple Fan]

Cole and War Machine will be great additions. Hate O'Reilly though, but they probably see him as a Daniel Bryan type or something. Really think k War Machine could go straight to the main roster but a run in NXT wouldn't be bad. Cole is obviously going to be the headliner of that group and I expect he'll be in the NXT title picture quickly.

[Evil Vito]

Lol, 6 stars? That sounds a bit ridiculous.

I don't agree with Meltzer on every rating and I'd put this match on the same level of others rather than a league of its own, but it was an absolutely spectacular wrestling match. Even with a slowish start I was on the edge of my seat by the end of it.

Unfortunately the match has been talked up so much that I think people who've not had a chance to see it are going to go into it skeptical and automatically assuming it can't be as good as people are saying. Any match, movie, etc. if the baseline set for it before you've ever seen it is "definitely the best thing ever".

[XL]

What would WWE realistically do with the Hardys?

[Simple Fan]

Nothing even remotely close to as entertaining as they have been this past year with the Broken gimmick.

[erickman]

What would WWE realistically do with the Hardys?

I want to see Jeff hardy vs Shane in a sickest bump match at mania

[mike adamle]

Wouldn't mind seeing another Jeff Hardy run at the top. Hardy vs. Lesnar would be money.

[Sixx]

can't he fucking overdose already?

[mike adamle]

Lesnar vs Hardy in a drugs on a pole match could be good

[Emperor Smeat]

Lol, 6 stars? That sounds a bit ridiculous. Would love to see Maria and Mike Bennett in the WWE. War Machine would be a good addition too. They're kind of like a more polished Authors of Pain at this point, aren't they?

Technically he's given it out on at least 2 other occasions but never as an official grade.

NeoGAF's wrestling board found the match he gave an unofficial 6 star rating while supposedly there is a women's match from Japan that got rated even higher unofficially from him (5++ stars).

Kawada vs. Misawa, 1997 AJPW Triple Crown Championship match - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1KqryNFCFg

[Black Widow]

His cancelled podcasts are gonna catch up to his divorces.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Cole and War Machine will be great additions. Hate O'Reilly though, but they probably see him as a Daniel Bryan type or something. Really think k War Machine could go straight to the main roster but a run in NXT wouldn't be bad. Cole is obviously going to be the headliner of that group and I expect he'll be in the NXT title picture quickly.

I want Adam Cole to have The Fashion Police as his Panama City Patrol. I'm not big on O'Reilly either, but maybe he could add something to NXT? They've got so many "good indy guys" that I really don't think being a "good indy guy works anymore. I want War Machine to have a kick-ass entrance, walk in, not sell anything, beat up bitches, then have a ring girl hold up a card with their current undefeated streak.

[Emperor Smeat]

Technically he's given it out on at least 2 other occasions but never as an official grade.

NeoGAF's wrestling board found the match he gave an unofficial 6 star rating while supposedly there is a women's match from Japan that got rated even higher unofficially from him (5++ stars).

Kawada vs. Misawa, 1997 AJPW Triple Crown Championship match - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1KqryNFCFg

Turns out a Flair vs Steamboat match and 2 more matches from Japan also got unofficial 6+ stars from Melzter as well. The women's match from Japan is still rated the highest in terms of unofficial stars at 8.

Misawa vs. Kawada - 6/3/94 (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rUVA5qchql0)

Toyota vs. Inoue - 5/18/92 (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9dq3XhKnEoQ)

Tsuruta vs Tenryu - 6/5/89 (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3o2hqg)

Flair vs. Steamboat - 3/18/89 (https://vimeo.com/42884643)

Tsuruta & Tenryu vs. Choshu & Yatsu - 1/28/86 (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wfRpZ-tg61A)
https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/5mg1ud/matches_rated_above_five_stars_by_won/

[Mr. Nerfect]

What would WWE realistically do with the Hardys?

Jeff Hardy has got a lot of value. If he was willing to go clean and give up the drugs for a bit of a sustained run in the WWE, I have no doubt he'd get a main event push. There's just no one that touches him in the charisma department. I could very easily see him winning a Royal Rumble and headlining WrestleMania.

Matt Hardy would be filler on his own. I think it would be better to bring back Jeff and leave Matt to do his shtick on the indies, but given how they are all about bulk, bulk, bulk and more is better, Matt would probably get signed if he wanted to and would probably make a pretty decent mid-card babyface for heels on the rise to kick the shit out of. They'd probably try to turn him heel out of jealousy for Jeff one more time and he'd get a failed run near the top because he actually can't talk well, and the sort of push Matt needs, contrary to Jeff, is one that requires him to be able to explain his motivations.

As a tag team they'd move a ton of merchandise and be an exciting act for a while. Kevin Owens & Chris Jericho vs. The Hardy Boyz would be a WrestleMania worthy match. They'd probably put out a DVD on their life and times. I do think that there is more money and fun in Jeff Hardy singles star, provided that he is in the frame of mind to be reliable -- but they are running out of part-timers to come and have short burst runs that get more over than the full-time stuff, so Jeff could be one of those.

Something more optimistic for Matt is that I could see him doing something more along the lines of his Broken Matt shtick in NXT, since it's the Hunter project and the WWE doesn't seem to mind it being a money pit in order to keep those Network subscribers high. Matt's a veteran talent who does have something to offer, and I could very easily see a serious Kassius Ohno vs. goofy Matt feud over the NXT Title. The NXT fanbase -- the hardcores -- would eat that shit right up.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Turns out a Flair vs Steamboat match and 2 more matches from Japan also got unofficial 6+ stars from Melzter as well. The women's match from Japan is still rated the highest in terms of unofficial stars at 8.


https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/5mg1ud/matches_rated_above_five_stars_by_won/

Meltzer really loved the Japanese stuff in the 90's, so I was aware that many of the matches got 5 stars and nothing American got it until Punk and Joe. But come on -- 8 stars? What the fuck is that?

[Mr. Nerfect]

Were Future Shock any good as a tag team?

[Emperor Smeat]

Meltzer really loved the Japanese stuff in the 90's, so I was aware that many of the matches got 5 stars and nothing American got it until Punk and Joe. But come on -- 8 stars? What the fuck is that?

Yeah he's more of a fan of Puro and PWG/ROH style of US wrestling than the traditional or theatrical US style like WWE and WCW. Not a big of a fan of the Lucha and British styles as well for major wrestling types.

Its why whenever anyone asks him about his ratings, he usually says or implies to not take those ratings seriously. Also those ratings are always based on how he felt right after watching a match.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Evil Emma feeding a bear:
http://i.imgur.com/Ly5GzKU.jpg

On the subject of The Corporate Ministry, Prichard said that rumors claiming that 'The Million Dollar Man' Ted DiBiase and Jake 'The Snake' Roberts were originally meant to be The Higher Power are false. Rather, Christopher Daniels was Vince Russo's pick to be The Higher Power; however, McMahon nixed those plans because he thought Daniels was too small for the role.

"The original idea was 'The Fallen Angel' Christopher Daniels. And then Vince saw him and said, 'absolutely not'. [McMahon did not like Daniels'] size. [He] just didn't see it." Prichard continued, "Chris was working out in California and Chris was working indies and different things an I was a big fan of Chris Daniels too at the time. I liked the 'Fallen Angel' gimmick and I want to say we had Chris under a developmental deal for a little while. [He] just didn't see it. He just looked at him and he didn't see it. He was dead from the get-go."

Prichard suggested that Daniels' height was the primary problem, as being "juiced to the gills" as podcast co-host Conrad Thompson put it, would not have changed McMahon's opinion.

"Height, height, height, and again, first impressions of Vince looking at him. And I don't know where Vince saw him or what the presentation was at all, but all of a sudden, it was, 'nope, not him - don't have anything for him.'"
From the recent episode of Something To Wrestle With Bruce Prichard podcast show. More highlights from the episode: http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0106/620965/bruce-prichard-on-who-was-slated-to-be-the-higher-power-and-why/

Nothing new on Kenny Omega past that he isn't on the February New Japan tour.
Omega made several vague tweets implying he was considering leaving NJPW but turns out he just wanted to take a small break to rest. Also being reported his current contract ends later this month although no status on talks regarding a new deal.

After adding Mark Andrews to the field yesterday, WWE followed up by revealing the full list of competitors for the upcoming United Kingdom Championship tournament.

Another addition was made when WWE released the participants, with Martin Stone joining the 16-person field. Stone was formerly in WWE developmental earlier this decade and is returning after gaining more notoriety on the independent scene. He'll go by his old in-ring name with WWE listing him as Danny Burch.

Missing from those who originally appeared to be possible participants are Tiger Ali, Chris Tyler, Ringo Ryan, and Jack Starz. They are presumably alternates for the tournament.

The two shows will take place on January 14th and 15th at the Empress Ballroom in Blackpool with the first UK Champion being crowned at their conclusion. Nigel McGuinness and Michael Cole will call the action live on the WWE Network.

The full list of competitors for the tournament is:

Trent Seven
Danny Burch
H.C. Dyer
Pete Dunne
Wolfgang
Jordan Devlin
Sam Gradwell
Tyler Bate
James Drake
Tucker
Tyson T-Bone
Joseph Conners
Dan Moloney
Roy Johnson
Mark Andrews
Saxon Huxley


A fan on Twitter today asked former WWE Tough Enough competitor Gabi Castrovinci aka TNA Knockout Raquel if she was still TNA and she replied that she was done with the company:

No ???? https://t.co/fOULQ7AJJg
— Gabi Castrovinci (@RaquelTNA) January 7, 2017

Raquel had been managing Robbie E and Jesse Godderz.

The 1/5 edition of Impact, which was the first under the ownership of Anthem, did 290,000 viewers, up from last week's "Hardy New Year" edition. which did 224,000 viewers.

The Hamilton Spectator reported that musician B.A. Johnston is launching a petition to erect a statue in honor of late WWF performer "Iron" Mike Sharpe in his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario.

"I almost saw him as a symbol of the city itself — kind of like an avatar, or a walking Hamilton," Johnston told The Spectator. "It symbolized the dirty grittiness. His obliviousness to the fact that he was going to get pummeled was kind of Hamilton."

For more information and to sign the petition, click here.
Link to the petition: https://www.change.org/p/hamilton-city-council-get-hamilton-to-build-an-iron-mike-sharpe-statue

With Chris Hero returning to WWE, his final independent appearances will be for EVOLVE over Royal Rumble weekend in San Antonio on 1/27 where Hero will pick his own opponent and 1/28, where he faces Zack Sabre Jr.

For those who have asked why Zack Sabre Jr. isn't in the WWE UK championship or the Cruiserweight division, it comes down to this - Sabre turned down WWE when they offered him a deal back during the CWC tournament

Here are some updates on Ring of Honor's contracts that expired as 2016 ended and 2017 began:

Christopher Daniels - Signed to new, longterm deal.

Bobby Fish - The two sides have signed an extension of Fish's previous contract and are currently working on a new longer form deal.

Frankie Kazarian - Was already locked into deal before end of 2016.

Jay Lethal - As previously noted, Lethal has been locked into a new, long term deal.

Kyle O'Reilly - His ROH deal expired on 12/31. O'Reilly is said to be reviewing his options (translation: WWE and potentially, a deal that could see him sign with Flosports and then be fielded out to wrestling companies on their streaming platform). His future is undetermined at this time. The two sides will continue to work on a per date agreement going forward until O'Reilly makes a decision.

Adam Page - A new deal is being finalized but has not yet been signed. Obviously already working for New Japan as well.

War Machine - We are told that a new deal is being finalized but has not yet been signed. There is also interest from New Japan in using them more in 2017.

BJ Whitmer - Signed to new deal before end of 2016; no definitive word on length. One source believed the contact to be one year in length.

"If WWE wants him, they will get him unless he doesn't want to work the schedule.

Ibushi didn't want to work the schedule. Sabre wasn't exactly given a monster money offer.

His value has never been higher. The only reason they don't get certain guys is the mentality that we're WWE and people will work twice as many dates for the same or less money because we're WWE, or they are guys really not making big money on the indies.

If they put $750,000 down per year on a three-year deal, I don't see them turning it down, and they could easily afford that nor would it be overpaying to do so. but for most guys, they can get them for a lot less.

I don't know Kenny but I do know WWE doesn't like anyone getting a buzz with another company."

In response to "Do you know what Omega's current contract status is?" he replied on Twitter "Not sure. His old deal expires January 31st."
From a recent Observer Radio show in regards to the potential WWE goes after Kenny Omega once his deal ends after this month.

Some key changes have been made to what was the WrestleMania show, although what those changes are isn’t confirmed. Three of the key bouts remain Brock Lesnar vs. Bill Goldberg, Seth Rollins vs. HHH and Big Show vs. Shaquille O’Neal. Aside from a Raw women’s title match, of which there are at least two different possibilities, everything else is up for grabs. The only other non-regular confirmed as wrestling on the show is Undertaker. We’re told the Mania card should be finalized internally in about two weeks, as the booking of that show will determine the booking and direction of the Royal Rumble, which takes place on 1/29 in San Antonio at the Alamodome.

At press time, John Gaburick still maintained his position as head of creative. We’re told Carter no longer has any decision making power with the company after Anthem Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of The Fight Network, officially announced the purchase of TNA Wrestling on 1/4, a deal that actually went down in October when Anthem saved the company from likely extinction by funding Bound for Glory and its final sets of television tapings. We’re told Carter no longer has any decision making power with the company.
Gaburick was the one who supposedly sabotaged Corgan's attempt to buy TNA and also responsible for starting talks with the WWE about a potential sale.

Lucha Underground is going on hiatus after the 1/11 episode. This is to stretch things out because of how long it will be before the next season is filmed (fall 2017). The ides is that next week’s show will be the mid-season finale with some of a big angle or cliffhanger. The rest of season three that was taped would start at some point but nobody has said exactly when.

Rossy Ogawa, who runs the Stardom women’s group in Japan, which is the top women’s company in that country, said that they are working on business dealings with ROH. ROH booker Hunter Johnston was at the Stardom show in Tokyo on 1/3. Stardom is the company with Io Shirai, Mayu Iwatani, Kairi Hojo and Yoko Bito. Shirai and Hojo are probably two of the three best women wrestlers in the world right now.

Verizon Fios will be dropping Pop TV as of 1/15, which takes TNA out of a lot of homes. However, Pop TV has made a deal where it will be live streamed as part of Hulu’s new live streaming TV service. Hulu announced that the CBS Network, as well as CBS Sports Network and Pop will all be part of the new service Hulu is looking at launching later this year.

Goldberg signed a three-PPV deal on his new contract, which will be Royal Rumble, Fast Lane (3/5 in Milwaukee) and WrestleMania. He will also be doing TV fairly often through Mania to promote all three of those shows.

Regarding the women’s tournament that at first was scheduled to start in January, because of the decision to do the U.K. thing coming up so quickly (even though the claim it was in the planning stages for a year, yet nobody heard anything until recent weeks while the women had been told months back about their tournament), the women’s tournament series network special is tentatively earmarked for a May start.


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Rock &quot;Its not real! That shit is fake!&quot; <a href="https://t.co/uFAgkrYrvP">pic.twitter.com/uFAgkrYrvP</a></p>&mdash; Wrestling LAD (@WrestlingLAD) <a href="https://twitter.com/WrestlingLAD/status/817405089207947269">January 6, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


Some other sheet news includes:

In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Chris Jericho has the potential this year to break the all-time WWE Rumble record for most combined time spent in the ring. Triple H currently holds the record with 3:59:37 while Jericho is second at 3:55:59.
In another "WWE Did You Know" type fact, WWE recently added a champions gallery for RAW's Women's championship and its exactly as you'd think it would be. http://www.wwe.com/gallery/raw-womens-champions-photos#fid-40076927
In another "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Roman Reigns has wrestled 18 matches since the start of the brand split and only 4 matches didn't involve Kevin Owens and Jericho.
Based on recent rumors and reports, the current WWE Hall of Fame class so far is expected to be:DDP and “Ravishing” Rick Rude
According to F4W, WWE is rumored to have changed plans regarding the main event for Mania after people in Creative watched Wrestle Kingdom 11 and want to have a main event equal or better than Omega-Okada now. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/5mdft7/bryan_vinny_bunch_of_wwe_creative_members_saw/
Shelton Benjamin recently tweeted he is still months away from recovering from his current injury and debunked all rumors hinting he's returning at the Rumble. https://twitter.com/Sheltyb803/status/817178652370673668

[slik]

Isn't Lesnar's contract up at WM as well? Would be funny is both Goldberg and Lesnar wrestled one another and left the company again at a WrestleMania.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I'm still hoping for Adrian Neville vs. Kota Ibushi for the Cruiserweight Title at WrestleMania, dammit. Nothing else will touch it as far as quality and drama goes. Ibushi has, in a way, earmarked himself as the star of the division by not signing right away and teething issues are worked out. Neville works as the spoiler right now and again, it's a different gimmick from the NXT presentation that works main roster. Well, it might be a bit premature to call Neville's heel run a success right away.

But yeah, I'm all-in for Neville vs. Ibushi in a 6-star classic at WrestleMania. Let Ibushi work limited dates. Fuck it.

I've accepted Cena vs. Undertaker as the main event of WrestleMania, and I don't think any amount of Okada/Omega is going to change Vince's mind on that. I just hope my pipe-dream of AJ Styles losing the belt and calling out HBK comes to fruition.

[slik]

@Noid Cena/Taker isn't quite as set in stone as you would think...

[Mr. Nerfect]

Isn't Lesnar's contract up at WM as well? Would be funny is both Goldberg and Lesnar wrestled one another and left the company again at a WrestleMania.

I still cannot see them actually doing Brock vs. Goldberg. It's just...too much of a blown load. With Survivor Series they set up both Brock and Goldberg to have capital within the company. I think Taker's taking the Royal Rumble, but Goldberg still finds himself in the Universal Title match against Reigns. Brock throws a tantrum and crosses paths with Shane McMahon and they do that little ditty with Daniel Bryan training Shane up. You know, give Shane a but of a kayfabe boost.

Once Owens loses the Universal Title, I think the cracks between him and Jericho will continue. I don't really see how you create something with actual drama between the two, and I don't know who you turn, since both are such heels (with no real heat), but I don't think that stops the WWE. I'd rather see them as a proper team against The New Day or something, but whatever. It's possible that Sami Zayn ends up in the match as a Triple Threat? Can Owens & Jericho put their issues aside to stomp out Sami Zayn, or will they destroy each other allowing Zayn to jet to victory?

I think Brock will re-sign, but will get paid more money to do even less work.

[Mr. Nerfect]

@Noid Cena/Taker isn't quite as set in stone as you would think...

What do you know?

If they wanted to do the match they could have done it a lot earlier when it would have meant more. I personally don't think Taker really wants to do the match and would rather face someone else. You'd think if anyone has earned the right to choose his opponent, it'd be Taker.

[Simple Fan]

Styles vs Cena is the only way to go if they want something like WK.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

Dirty grittiness and Iron Mike Sharpe does not compute. He was the cleanest wrestler ever with his OCD.. Once got locked into the Boston Garden and had to stay there overnight because they locked up the building while he was still showering.