TPWW's Official Dirty Sheets News Thread [Archive] - Page 5

Emperor Smeat

04-20-2017, 10:29 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Meng Appreciation Day:
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It's a well-known story that the song “Glorious” was not written for Roode, and that it was written for another wrestler, who turned it down. So it was sitting there and Roode was given it and it’s really made his career. The identity of the wrestler who turned it down hadn’t come out, but it was Nakamura. Nakamura was hands on when it came to his music, felt the song didn’t fit him, and was a big part of putting together the song “The Rising Son” which is the most played of all the current WWE themes. As it turned out, fate was good because, and maybe this is because we’ve seen it, but the song fits Roode better and Nakamura may not fit the song. In both cases, the music they ended up with have helped both tremendously, making them both superstars and allowing them to get over toning down their in-ring work with both nearing 40.
Someone on r/SquaredCircle swapped the music for Roode and Nakamura and at least for the debut entrances, Glorious fit with Nakamura's entrance but Rising Sun didn't for Roode because of timing issues. Roode would need to tweak his whole entrance routine to make it fit.

In looking at the six guys, Mahal would have probably been the least likely, but none were strong since Smackdown really only had Orton, A.J. Styles, Owens, Corbin and Shinsuke Nakamura as top singles stars. Any questions regarding who they saw as the key star on the brand is has been answered since Nakamura has been the key babyface in the dark match every week at the tapings, the old position of John Cena. The guy in that spot is the one who the company believes would be the best at keeping the crowd from leaving during 205 Live.
At least in regards to Smackdown, WWE currently sees Nakamura as Cena's successor for the brand.

The situation with Mauro Ranallo and WWE hasn’t changed as representatives from both sides were working out a settlement regarding the remainder of his contract. It is expected that a non-disclosure agreement regarding everything that happened would be part of the settlement. The story is tough because many people will openly talk about it, but few will go on the record because most are either in the company and aren’t allowed nor would want to publicly talk about it, and those who will mostly talk about the period of a decade or longer ago, where there is no debate about what was going on, since person-after-person has gone on record about it and enough stories have been told confirming things.

Mauro was told at the time they brought him in that they wanted him to be himself, because they wanted Smackdown to have a different feel from Raw and come across more like a sport. Of course, there was the usual stuff of banned words and phrases. For a few months, everything seemed fine, until Vince McMahon wanted him to be more like Michael Cole, essentially the exact opposite thing he was hired to be.

There was a very bad scare earlier today as Leon White (Vader) fainted right after his match at Korakuen Hall in Japan.

It was the 45th anniversary of the debut of Tatsumi Fujinami (one of the greatest workers of all-time) in a six-man tag with Fujinami, Riki Choshu & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Vader, Keiji Muto & AKIRA. Vader passed out right after the match ended when Antonio Inoki was coming to the ring for a ceremony honoring Fujinami.

He was okay after a while and left the ring on his own, and was at a party put on by Fujinami and his family after the show several hours ago ...

It was believed he was suffering from dehydration, though Vader posted on Twitter that it was caused by being dropped on his head at the beginning of the match and claimed that it had nothing to do with the heart problems that he's been dealing with.

A remake of GLOW called Women of Wrestling was announced today by MGM Television partners and Mark Burnett, who were behind Lucha Underground. Burnett will work with Jeanie Buss of Los Angeles Lakers fame, as well as David McLane, who put together GLOW, for the new TV series.

The former Simon Gotch, who will be now be going by Simon Grimm, did an interview with USA Today to talk about his WWE release and other things.

His WWE release being a "mutual agreement": “They brought it to me and I agreed. It was one of those things where I was unhappy, and they basically felt like the character had run its course. I said I agreed, and they said they wanted to exercise the termination clause in my contract. I agreed with that as well and we went from there. This wasn’t exactly an unwanted thing on my part. I wasn’t happy, and I actually felt that was the best move. In any situation, sometimes if you see the opportunity, you take it.”

Root of his unhappiness: “In any job, sometimes you do things for artistic fulfillment or sometimes you do things for financial fulfillment or because it’s part of your job. For some people, money is absolutely the answer … it’s the financial security they want. I’ve always felt wrestling was more of an art form. I felt at that point I was not wrestling because I loved it. I was wrestling because it was my job and that didn’t sit well with me or make me happy. I can be miserable doing anything and not abusing my body. I wrestle because it makes me happy, because I enjoy it, because I’m passionate about it, because I enjoy the game of mental chess. I enjoy trying to create something out of nothing. It’s an art form where they give us the ring as a canvas and we have to paint the audience a picture that will affect them emotionally. It’s great feeling when you do it well. Looking at the bank account and the checkbook were not the things that were driving me in the first place so I couldn’t really justify that as a reason to keep doing it when I wasn’t expressing myself as I felt like I could.”

Online reports that the night before he was released, he was involved in a incident at catering at Smackdown Live: “The actual story is that it happened at WrestleMania. I was sitting in catering and the chair I was in was kinda flimsy. I go to shift in it and it just collapses underneath me. Being a ham, my immediate reaction was to demand someone pin me. ‘Someone pin me quick.’ The guy who comes over, I think he works for us. I didn’t realize he was a local technician and was not a WWE technician. He was someone who worked on the set at ‘Mania. He came to help me up and I’m like, ‘Nope, you gotta pin me. C’mon, man.’ And he’s not going along with the bit. He thinks I just fell and he’s trying to help me. I see the bit’s going nowhere so I take the chair and I just kick it off to the side, drop it like a little punt and let it lay where it lands. That was it. I saw the story online, saying that I fell in the chair and made this big scene and was yelling and screaming. No part of that is accurate.”
Link to the article: http://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/04/simon-gotch-vaudevillains-wwe-release-simon-grimm

WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley announced that he underwent a successful hip replacement surgery yesterday with the following Tweet:

Thanks for all the well-wishes, kind words and prayers for my hip surgery. Spirits are high after a visit from Buddy the Elf in recovery! ???? pic.twitter.com/xHeiUZs5Th
— Mick Foley (@RealMickFoley) April 20, 2017

Damien Sandow was the latest guest on X-Pac 12360, which you can watch in the video above or download on iTunes. They sent us these highlights:

Who Sandow credits for the Damien Sandow character:

"There is no one I respect more than Rip Rogers. You know and in terms of the mind, that man has for the business. In terms of like just how he lays it out in just a simplistic way. And had it not been for Rip Rogers, I would have never been the intellectual savior because he, he just taught me how to simplify everything."

The backstage reaction to his first Miz stunt double impersonation:

"I remember Tyson Kidd of all people, who is a good buddy of mine and an awesome guy, goes, 'did you just put the figure four on the invisible man when Miz did?' I go, 'Yup.' He goes, 'that was the greatest thing I've seen on the show (Monday Night RAW) in a long time.' I just said, 'Well you know what, watch next week.'

"After a couple weeks, Vince( McMahon) was like, 'Well, I noticed you are mimicking Miz?' 'Yup.' 'Do whatever you want, if it gets too overboard, I'll pull you back. And I just went, 'Okay.'"
Link to the podcast show: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/x-pac-1-2-360-afterbuzz-tv/id1150124693?mt=2&i=374822005

The other key is with the network and the current business model with the lack of true superstars and the brand being the draw, with John Cena as the only proven exception and he’s not around, then it really doesn’t matter about things like booking and talent selection. The entire Roman Reigns controversy, since the fans who boo Reigns the most are believed to be the first people who buy tickets to see WWE, pretty much exemplifies the change. It means the company has little to no economic incentive to play to its audience, or listen to its audience. If its audience makes it clear they like or dislike someone, the company can look at its business numbers, see no declines, or rationalize the declines that do occur (like in TV ratings) as metrics that don’t mean anything anymore, then exactly what is the incentive of listening to the fans who buy tickets first if they keep buying tickets no matter what?
From the recent Oberser Newsletter on why the WWE is stubborn at listening to their fans.

Katsuyori Shibata, 37, who remains hospitalized after his 4/9 IWGP title match with Kazuchika Okada at Tokyo Sumo Hall, is said by friends of his to be unlikely to ever be cleared to wrestle again after surgery due to a subdural hematoma from a sick skull-on-skull head-butt spot as a counter to being hit with the rainmaker. The combination of the length of the match, dehydration and the trauma from the head-butt led to doctors advising New Japan that they would likely never be able to clear him to wrestle in good conscience. New Japan has not announced this publicly, nor has anything been said publicly about Shibata’s situation after some brief statements in the days after the match. Dr. Shunji Asamoto, who performed the surgery, noted that he would need a strict examination before being cleared to wrestle and that he’s not optimistic at all.

Goldberg’s contract has expired but they have a longer period of agreement allowing them to sell merchandise. Since there is nowhere else he’s going to wrestle at, because nobody else can pay him anywhere close to what he made on his WWE run, and WWE has no immediate plans for him, there’s no rush to make a new deal. The one thing is that in his last program, Lesnar was his angel in the sense that Lesnar always went to bat for him to have things done to make him strong because in the end Lesnar was winning the Mania match and wanted Goldberg as strong as possible for the match. The navigation may not be as easy with another opponent, because then the writing crew and creative could get involved in the ideas and direction. Because Goldberg trusted the long-term and Lesnar, there wasn’t the issues in worrying about creative. But in another program , you’re not going to have the power of Lesnar, who pretty much is going to get what he wants because he’s Lesnar and has options to make millions elsewhere in one night should he want to, which ended up making sure Goldberg came across like the old Goldberg.

Paige is not figured into any plans going forward after her neck recovers from surgery unless things change. Everything that’s happened is the reason. The only thing that could save her is the Dwayne Johnson movie. And nobody knows if she wants to come back anyway, since it’ll be tough on her relationship being constantly back on the road.

The Ambrose/Renee Young move to different brands came right after it came out about them being married. I don’t know that it’s like Del Rio/Paige when you know what the situation is. The rule of thumb is to try and keep the married couples on the same brand. It’s not as much a deal since Young doesn’t go on the road except for PPV Sundays and every Tuesday. But it is still going to be tough on their relationship. The last I heard they were living in Las Vegas. That means he’ll have to leave on a lot of Thursdays to get to the Friday house show on time, and then goes home on Tuesday mornings from the tour. She doesn’t get home until Wednesday, and he’s leaving a day later.

Some other sheet news includes:

A trailer for an upcoming documentary on the life of Chyna was recently released. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UzpzENZ5nk
Recent episode of The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast show had Jim Cornette as the guest with topics including his thoughts on the idea he hates Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/tmptow/episodes/2017-04-17T21_00_00-07_00
Sports Illustrated had a recent interview with the Young Bucks with topics including ROH Supercard of Honor ppv and the Bucks being upset at Impact Wrestling for wrecking plans they had in place with the Hardys for ROH. https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2017/04/19/news-week-young-bucks-matt-jeff-hardy
Observer's Dave Meltzer recently speculated Jinder Mahal's current push might have been originally meant for Rusev prior to him getting injured. Also as a possible reason why Jinder went all in with an anti-American gimmick for his post-match promo.

Sepholio

04-20-2017, 10:40 PM

Please don't have Jeff Hardy wrestle Brock Lesnar ever again.

Some of us remember when Lesnar squashed both Hardys in handicap matches and threw them both around at the same time.

Black Widow

04-21-2017, 03:20 PM

Bradshaw turning into JBL out of nowhere worked, let's sit back and see where this goes before the damning starts.Likely to me not watching if it's anything like Flabshaw.

#1-norm-fan

04-21-2017, 04:27 PM

... Why is Vader still wrestling if he has serious heart problems?

Emperor Smeat

04-21-2017, 09:31 PM

... Why is Vader still wrestling if he has serious heart problems?

http://i.imgur.com/BkStsHS.gif

Either he thinks the matches won't put that much stress on his body or because the last set of medical tests were good, he didn't feel the need to retire.

Emperor Smeat

04-21-2017, 11:07 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Pesos Inc.:
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Kenny Omega is only working the Toronto show on the May New Japan/ROH joint shows.

Sonjay Dutt got a swollen eye in the X division title match last night during a dropkick spot where Low Ki dropkicked Trevor Lee and in landing, the knee accidentally caught Dutt in the eye.

The FCC relaxed broadcast ownership rules yesterday that will pave the way for the deal for Sinclair Broadcasting to acquire Tribune Media. Sinclair owns 173 stations that this would add 40 more stations to Sinclair, including stations in New York, Chicago and Miami. Whether this would lead to New York and Chicago clearances for ROH, which would be significant, is unclear. The change in regulation is expected to lead to more consolidation in the TV industry.

The 4/20 edition of Impact on Pop brought in 320,000 viewers, up from last week's 302,000 viewers.

Matt Sydal aka the former Evan Bourne is slated to return to Impact Wrestling at this week's tapings in Orlando, Florida.

The WWE Network has almost completed 1987 Prime Time Wrestling episodes and has begun uploading 1988.

The newest Beyond the Ring documentary on WWE Network, "Straight Outta Dudleyville :The Legacy of the Dudley Boyz " is now available.

Maria Kanellis-Bennett and Mike Bennett joined Ryan Rider on Main Event Radio to talk about how they met and their time in Impact Wrestling.

Audio can be downloaded here: http://www.maineventradio.com/audio/MER-04-19-17.mp3

How they met:

Maria: It was actually at an independent wrestling show, Northeast Wrestling. I saw him across the room and he was wearing a Ring of Honor hat. I loved ROH at the time. So I went over to him, and this was my pick up line, 'hey so you work at Ring of Honor?' I wasn't actually trying to pick him up but I thought he was really cute.

Mike: She could've been like hey, nice face. And I'd be like yeah.

Maria: So we met there and ended up communicating through Twitter and that was our correspondence for a while.

Mike: I direct messaged her, I slid into her DM's. It was love at first sight for me.

Maria: Hey! That's gross. That's filthy. It was love at first sight for him, for me it was something. Might have taken a little bit. We were both dating other people so it couldn't be more than that. I knew after our first date, we went to Cheesecake Factory, then I knew for sure.

[Editor's note: We last interviewed Maria as she was getting photographed by Playboy in March 2008] Wanna know something funny? That wasn't a few years ago...that was nine years ago!! I'm very very ancient now. I love it on Instagram when people say I'm so old. Yeah, I'm 35 and I'm proud of all those years.

Mike: I think she gets better with age. She's like a fine wine.

Maria: It's crazy. You know I haven't been in the WWE for seven years. A lot has changed since then. I'm a married woman now. I've worked for every organization known to man. Ring of Honor, New Japan, TNA, worked for them all. It's been a good run. I took a break for one year after leaving WWE and I really thought I was done. Then I met this guy and he made it okay for me again. I was nervous; I've never been the greatest wrestler. I've always wanted to manage. And I am a real manager...I manage his bookings, rental cars, etc.

Leaving Impact:

Maria: It was wonderful there. We had a great time. We worked with the best talent in the world. They were fantastic and we really enjoyed ourselves. It was just time to go. We're excited to see where the road leads us next. Maybe the moon. Maybe I'll go back and be at manager at Jimmy John's.

Mike: It was time for a change. Leaving all the talent was the hardest part. We'll go somewhere; if not we'll be living on the street in a box.

Eric Bischoff joined Main Event Radio to talk about inducting DDP into the WWE Hall of Fame, WCW's enduring legacy, and the women's wrestling revolution.

Audio can be downloaded here: http://www.maineventradio.com/audio/MER-04-19-17.mp3

Coming back to WWE for the Hall of Fame Ceremony: It was a lot of fun. You get to meet so many people who are behind the camera. They have such a hard-working loyal, professional and dedicated staff. I was probably just as excited to see people who work behind the scenes as those in front of the camera. The woman who handles travel who has been there for 31 years. The production team, they all know who they are and they're a great staff of people.

On inducting DDP: It was a blast. It was an emotional moment. I knew how much it would mean to him. Thus it meant a lot to me to be able to do it. I felt bad in a way. I was kind of conflicted because in Page's heart he wished and still does wish that Dusty Rhodes would've been able to do that. I felt like such a distant insignificant 2nd choice as a result. I also know that Page has a lot of respect for me and I do for him. I wish Dusty could've done it. Dusty was a mentor to Dallas in more ways than just getting in the ring. He had an influence on his entire life.

WCW's enduring legacy: People are finally figuring it out that at the end of the day that WCW created some of the best talent in the history of the world. It was a great run. WCW had its moment and that's what it was; it was a moment. And we created some great stories and changed the industry to a large degree. The fact that we are watching a live Monday Night Raw every week is due to Nitro. The fact that we are watching 205 Live and the cruiserweight division is because of what we did. There are so many things that we changed in the industry that we still enjoy today. Booker T, Diamond Dallas Page, myself, and even Bill Goldberg for crying out loud main eventing Wrestlemania. That is WCW's legacy. We are still here today. The nWo is still selling merchandise 20 years later. That's our legacy.

Women's wrestling revolution: I was sitting in the front row during Beth [Phoenix]'s speech. I had never met her before and she made me cry 3 times. She was so emotional and she was speaking from her heart. She really crystallized for me the growth we are seeing now in women's wrestling. To see her talk about what it means for her as a girl, as a woman to be able to aspire to reach the level that she did in WWE and to know that same emotion and desire exists in young girls all over the world. It's possible, yes you can do it, and when you do you can now achieve that level of success.

Former Impact Wrestling Tag Team champion Crazzy Steve posted a farewell message on social media late last night, so it would appear that he has departed the company:

Thank you to everyone @IMPACTWRESTLING #prowrestlinglove pic.twitter.com/3xnJKliIZH
— Crazzy Steve (@steveofcrazzy) April 21, 2017

Charlie Haas, 45, who hasn’t been wrestling much in recent years, may have to retire as he was expected to undergo neck surgery this week. Haas was the champion of the Odessa, TX-based Old School Wrestling promotion. The promotion announced this at their 4/15 house show and it was described as possibly career-ending. Haas has had neck problems for many years. He was apparently dropped on his head in a match over the past few weeks, and had inflamed nerves and ended up with numbness in both arms. He had a procedure done on 4/13 but there hasn’t been any word about how he is doing afterwards past he’ll be out of action for a while.

Ian Riccaboni signed a contract as the new ROH lead announcer. He’d been with the company for a few years and had been doing the Women of Honor shows on YouTube before Kevin Kelly took the full-time gig as New Japan announcer (Kelly still does big shows here when it doesn’t conflict with New Japan, but Riccaboni is the new lead announcer). Riccaboni is a huge baseball fan and even wrote a book about the 100 greatest players in the history of the Philadelphia Phillies franchise.

A clarification on last week’s WWE lawsuit and BitTorrent. WWE isn’t suing BitTorrent, but suing people who distributed their content on BitTorrent. WWE used forensic software to identify IP addresses of the people who put their content up.

Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com provided some more information on Mauro Ranallo’s falling out with WWE. It appears that the first issue with Mauro Ranallo was back when Ranallo did commentary with Jerry Lawler. Lawler had started calling Ranallo “M.R.” in the same fashion that Lawler would call Jim Ross “J.R.” However, Meltzer noted that it was likely an inside rib since the term “M.R.” was used as an offensive slur that stood for “mental retard” during the period that Vince McMahon and Lawler were growing up.

Meltzer also noted that Ranallo was told he could be himself on commentary at first, but as time went on, Vince Mcmahon wanted Ranallo to act more like Michael Cole. McMahon was said to be frustrated with Ranallo’s announcing style and Tom Phillips becoming the 4th member of the announcing team was the first public sign of it.

Because Ranallo was different, Meltzer described the situation in WWE as being like high school with Ranallo being seen as the “weird kid” and being made the butt of jokes. Apparently the hazing/ribbing towards Ranallo came from far more people than just JBL. With people having different interpretations of the situation, most feel that JBL has been made a scapegoat for the people that run the company and encourage the behavior such as Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn.

One wrestler told Meltzer, “He (Layfield) f***ed with lots of new guys simply because he could. I don’t know if JBL is tough, but all these guys were scared to stand up to him in fear of getting fired.”

As previously noted, WWE is in negotiations with Ranallo’s representatives about working out a settlement for the remainder of his contract.

Some other sheet news includes:

In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 18th anniversary of Rick Rude's passing.
Fox Sports had a recent interview with Mojo Rawley talking about Mania, Zack Ryder, and Gronk. http://www.foxsports.com/wwe/gallery/wwe-mojo-rawley-interview-rob-gronkowski-smackdown-roster-zack-ryder-042117
Update to recent JBL-Mauro bullying saga news as JBL's quest to block everyone on Twitter who supported Mauro and/or anti-bullying recently included an indie wrestling promotion hosting a charity stream for mental health funding. Supposedly JBL blocked WhatCulture, hosts of the stream, once he found out Mauro was supporting their event.
WWE Hall of Famer Beth Pheonix recently teased on Twitter she is currently in the process of writing a book with Edge as the co-writer.
Observer recently speculated the reason why Lana was given a dancer gimmick was due to WWE wanting a "hot diva" type character for marketing reasons. Want to offset the current focus on athletic skills since the Women's Revolution started. Since Eva Marie is set to leave and Emmalina was a bust, WWE just moved on to the next person for the gimmick which is Lana now.

#1-norm-fan

04-22-2017, 12:49 AM

Rick Rude died 18 years ago. Jesus...

Volare

04-22-2017, 01:13 AM

I know right? Time isn't kind to anyone!

Cool King

04-24-2017, 03:45 PM

Charlie Haas, 45, who hasn’t been wrestling much in recent years, may have to retire as he was expected to undergo neck surgery this week. Haas was the champion of the Odessa, TX-based Old School Wrestling promotion. The promotion announced this at their 4/15 house show and it was described as possibly career-ending. Haas has had neck problems for many years. He was apparently dropped on his head in a match over the past few weeks, and had inflamed nerves and ended up with numbness in both arms. He had a procedure done on 4/13 but there hasn’t been any word about how he is doing afterwards past he’ll be out of action for a while.

I thought Haas was already retired.

Juan

04-25-2017, 10:21 AM

According to wrestlinginc.com, former TNA Television Champion Gunner (age 34) may be signing with WWE. The site reports that he will be taking his physical soon, and if he passes, will then start with the NXT brand. Gunner worked with TNA from 2010-2015.

04-25-2017, 05:04 PM

I thought he just started back with Impact teaming with Crimson.

Emperor Smeat

04-25-2017, 09:29 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by the Son of Blinky the Jacket:
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Raw last night fell to a near record low mark with 3.00 million viewers.

It would have been the lowest number since football season ended, and the fourth lowest number since 1997 for a show that didn't go head-to-head with football. The three shows that did worse were against a blockbuster NBA playoff game and the two weeks against the 2016 Olympics.

The audience dropped 10 percent from last week and last week had a stronger NBA game head-to-head ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 3.00 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.14 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.88 million viewers

This year's RAW on track to become the lowest ever year post-1997 and probably start dipping into New Gen territory. Only 2 weeks have been better than 2016.

A film chronicling the life of Vince McMahon could be making its way to theaters in the near future.

The Hollywood Reporter announced today that a biopic on McMahon is close to landing at Sony's TriStar Pictures. The film is titled "Pandemonium" and will be directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. The two have directed four movies together in the past and are currently involved with the NBC show "This is Us."

Perhaps most importantly, WWE is involved with the project in some capacity. President of WWE Studios Michael Luisi is attached as one of the film's producers. The Hollywood Reporter's article notes that there was hesitation among studios when the script first made the rounds last summer because WWE and McMahon hadn't signed off on it, but talks were revived in recent weeks after producer Andrew Lazar secured the rights to McMahon's life story.

Though it ultimately didn't happen, Big Show vs. Shaquille O'Neal seemed to be the first match penciled into the WrestleMania 33 card at one point.

Both O'Neal and Big Show offered explanations for the match falling through even before it was officially off, with Shaq saying that it wasn't his fault and Big Show blaming his opponent. Triple H also discussed the issue at one point and said that he didn't think either participant was serious about the match.

While recording a live episode of his podcast in Atlanta, O'Neal reiterated that WWE was to blame for the match not happening.

“Because they kept playing," Shaq explained. "First, they said it was me and Big Show. Then, they said it was going to be three and three. Then, they canceled it, so when they canceled it, I made other arrangements. And then they tried to call back and tried to get it done, and I just said, ‘I’m not going to do it.’ They messed it up.”

Mike Johnson reported that it was The Young Bucks who were to be the ROH representatives that were going to face Tommy Dreamer & Bully Ray last night at the House of Hardcore show. On the mic Dreamer had thanked Joe Koff of ROH for clearing the way for replacements, without mentioning names, but that something fell through. Nick Jackson got very sick yesterday morning and had to cancel. I was told that Vince McMahon and Paul Levesque agreed to allow the Hardys to wrestle to save the show after first not allowing it, I guess with them figuring Dreamer did everything he could to get a replacement. They were told they were not allowed to do anything physically risky but could do a match. At the show they teased Dreamer & Bully vs. Spirit Squad, the same match as the night before, and then got the pop as The Hardys came out and Matt said that they had been told they couldn't wrestle tonight, but they were going to wrestle even if it means getting fired on Monday. Besides Koff, Dreamer also thanked HHH and Vince, saying that HOH owes both of them one.

John Cena turned 40 [Sunday]today. Happy Birthday. Vince McMahon sent out a tweet calling him the Babe Ruth of WWE.

Scott Steiner was revealed at last night's Impact tapings as the mystery partner of Josh Matthews at Slammiversary on 7/2 in his tag match against Joseph Park & Jeremy Borash for the lead announcing position. LAX also won the GFW tag team titles in a tournament final over Wilcox & Mayweather (Jax Dane & former Crimson). Last night was the final night of tapings and covers all of May.

USA Today has an article on Jinder Mahal getting a shot at the WWE title. Triple H is quoted in the piece, where he says that he doesn't know if Mahal was ready for the experience when he was first with WWE and compared him to Drew McIntyre. He said that he told both Mahal and McIntyre when they were initially released to "go other places, learn more in your career, mature, and think about the business in a different way" and gave them credit for working hard and improving while away from the company.
Link to the article: http://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/04/jinder-mahal-wwe-championship

The former Andrea D'Marco confirmed that she's gone from WWE on Twitter today. Pro Wrestling Sheet also reported that NXT's Chris Atkins has been released.

Mister Saint Laurent said on today's MLW Radio podcast that Cody Rhodes has signed with Ring of Honor. Rhodes told Sports Illustrated last week that he would be making a decision about his future soon.
Link to the announcement: https://twitter.com/MLW/status/856966524090896384

WrestlingDVDNetwork.com is reporting that the WWE project Sean Mooney was filming with Charly Caruso is meant for home video later this year. "WWE Unreleased & Unseen:1986-1995" has the following synopsis:

"WWE unlocks the vault and brings you never-before-seen matches from 1986-1995. Check out these unreleased hidden gems featuring some of the greatest Superstars in WWE history."

It is currently slated for August release in the US and September in the UK.

The talk of the Impact locker room over the last 48 hours has been what was described to PWInsider as a "loud and ugly argument" between Impact executive Bob Ryder and Karen and Jeff Jarrett at the final Impact Wrestling taping this past Sunday 4/23 in Orlando, Florida that at one point, appeared to have been Ryder's exit from the company.

Multiple sources stated that Karen Jarrett confronted Ryder (who was timing out the show) and began arguing with him over what we are told was, of all things, the booking of a hotel room. Shortly after Karen "dressed down Ryder", she left the scene. Several minutes later, Jeff Jarrett loudly confronted Ryder and told him to "not wait" and to leave the taping. After his argument with Jeff Jarrett, Ryder packed up and left before completing his duties.

We are told that Ryder then had another argument with the Jarretts before getting in his car and leaving. There was a lot of sympathy for Ryder after the incident because his health has not been the best in recent months

A number of those we spoke to believed yesterday that Ryder was fired by the Jarretts or that Ryder had quit after his argument with Karen. However, PWInsider.com has confirmed that Ryder was in the Impact offices in Nashville today working per usual. It is believed that whatever sparked the issue was settled once everyone returned to Nashville.

Former Impact Wrestling star Crazzy Steve announced today he was now accepting independent bookings "for a limited time." He can be booked by emailing bookcrazzysteve@gmail.com.

The word making the rounds is that Steve has received WWE interest and opted out of his Impact deal because of it. We are told that Impact had the legal option to renew his contract for an additional year but opted to let him go when he asked for a release. He was well liked and it was an amicable departure.

PWInsider.com has heard from multiple sources that WWE officials are telling talents that are leaving contracts with other promotions that they will not enter into discussions with them for at least 90 days. This stems from a widely discussed (but never confirmed) story within the business that Ring of Honor sent WWE a legal letter warning them about discussions with talents who were coming to the end of their contracted deals.

Former TNA and ROH champion Eddie Edwards was injured over the course of the last Impact Wrestling tapings and will be undergoing surgery on his knee shortly.

Pro Wrestling Revolver announced today that Edwards was pulled from their May return to Iowa due to the injury.

Another incident regarding JBL and a non-wrestler whose name was not mentioned was discussed. Apparently the person had a close family member dying and had to miss a couple of weeks of work due to a minor operation. JBL went off on the person for taking time off and harassed the person while noting that he didn't miss shows after he had hernia surgery. He kept going on until the person was in tears, even though the person noted that it wasn't the week to do this.
Was from last week's Observer Newsletter as part of the larger JBL-Mauro bullying saga.

Some other sheet news includes:

Update to Vader collapsing after a match in Japan news as Vader ended up being healthy enough to wrestle in another show over the weekend.
Jim Ross' autobiography called "Slobberknocker" was announced to be getting released this October.
Chris Jericho announced Samoa Joe will be this week's guest for Talk Is Jericho podcast show.
Scott Hall recently had an interview with Pro Wrestling Illustrated Podcast talking about bullying in wrestling and how things have changed since he was a wrestler. Pretty much said bullying isn't acceptable in wrestling and there is a very fine line between harmless pranks and bullying. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0425/625602/scott-hall-talks-jbl/
Update to Shibata suffering a possible career ending injury news as Shibata revealed he still is suffering from some paralyzing effects but also wants to try a possible comeback if he is able to fully recover. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0425/625595/katsuyori-shibata-update-following-possible-career-ending-injury/

Emperor Smeat

04-26-2017, 09:41 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Random WCW Gif:
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/522a2049e4b0a0ce717e990c/t/58bc4dc3bf629aed77c542c3/1488735692783/?format=300w

The 4/25 edition of Smackdown Live brought in 2,493,000 viewers, down from last week's 2,544,000 viewers.
Lowest episode so far this year and lost around 600k viewers since the Shakeup two weeks ago.

Wendy Barlow, the longtime girlfriend and fiancee of Ric Flair, was in a serious automobile accident earlier today.

"Please pray for my fiance who was just in a serious car wreck. She is at the hospital" wrote Flair as he shared the news on Twitter.

UPDATE: Flair tweeted that Barlow is going to be okay and thanked everyone for their messages and prayers. Barlow is now home from the hospital and resting comfortably.

Barlow was briefly a character on television and involved in the professional wrestling business in the early '90s, where she was known as "Fifi the Maid" in World Championship Wrestling. When Flair was doing talk show segments called "A Flair for the Gold," she was doing a French maid character.

Renee Young spoke to E! News about her and Dean Ambrose's wedding, saying that they never got formally engaged (though they knew that they wanted to get married and got a marriage license six months ago) and that their wedding was a spontaneous thing where they called a 24-hour pastor. "We were going to bed and he like busted out the ring and we were like, 'Oh man I guess we should do this now.' So we ended up going on Yelp and we found a 24-hour pastor to come to our backyard," Young said. "It was so handy and his name was Pastor Pete and he lived around the corner from us, so he was there. They were very concerned by the way because it was 1 o'clock in the morning, so technically it was Sunday and they were very concerned about us calling, they were like, 'Is everything OK? Have you guys been drinking? What's happening?' We're like, 'It's fine, you can come down.' So we had to get a witness and we called and woke up a friend of ours and got it done."

The Bollywood Boyz have officially been renamed on WWE's roster page. Gurv Sihra's new name is Sunil Singh and Harv Sihra's is Samir Singh.

Though there have been reports that former Tough Enough winner Josh Bredl has been released, Dave Meltzer posted on our Board yesterday that Bredl is still with the company.
PWI also reported from their sources about Bredl still being with the WWE.

Will Ospreay will face Cody Rhodes at ROH's War of the Worlds show in Toronto on May 7th. Another ROH six-man tag title match is also set for that tour, with Bully Ray & The Briscoes defending against Hirooki Goto & Roppongi Vice at the pay-per-view in New York on May 12th. KUSHIDA vs. Silas Young will take place on May 10th in Dearborn.

Impact Wrestling star Bram was pulled off the Pro Wrestling NOAH tour, where he had been teaming with Robbie E.

Bram posted a photo of himself on Instagram laying atop of a "Family Mart" convenience store freezer ice cream display on social media on 4/24 prior to NOAH's event at Giuroku Plaza. When the photo was posted online, the promotion deemed it inappropriate, leading to NOAH's chairman Masayuki Uchida making a public apology. News of the suspension from the tour was carried by Tokyo Sports in Japan. The image has obviously been deleted.

Uchida told Tokyo Sports that Bram "sincerely" apologized and that he took the image of the company very seriously. The promotion announced they would hold a workshop with talents to make it clear what was not appropriate behavior for them when they are representing NOAH.
Image of the incident leading to the suspension: https://pbs-h2.twimg.com/media/C-P7V1sU0AAZGv0.jpg

Neville and Gentleman Jack Gallagher are advertised for NXT's UK tour in June.

Also advertised are UK Championship stars Trent Seven, Wolfgang, Pete Dunne and Tyson T-Bone.

In one of those bad timing situations, on April 21st, WWE applied to trademark Tajiri. On April 23rd, Tajiri publicly announced he was leaving WWE to go back to Japan.

WWE also applied to trademark Jack Gallagher and Big Cass.

Some other sheet news includes:

In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the DEMON Kane's 50th birthday.
Randy Orton had an interview with WWE's website mainly talking about this week being the 15th anniversary of his WWE debut and his career in general. http://www.wwe.com/article/randy-orton-15-years-interview?sf73692526=1
Cody Rhodes currently denying reports he signed a deal with ROH and is still a free agent. https://twitter.com/CodyRhodes/status/857285598746464259
Edge revealed The Young Bucks will be Friday's guest for the Edge & Christian podcast show. https://twitter.com/EdgeRatedR/status/857043943002959872
ESPN had a recent interview with William Regal with topics including WWE tryouts, WWE's work in the Chineese market, and praising Author of Pain's Rezar's development in NXT. http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/19232533/william-regal-excited-talent-ahead-wwe-dubai-tryouts
According to WrestlingDVDNetwork, WWE is currently considering releasing several new DVD sets this year from a list of 15 possible choices.http://www.wrestlingdvdnetwork.com/16-new-wwe-dvd-concepts-aj-styles-list-of-jericho/134552/

Emperor Smeat

04-27-2017, 10:34 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Random NXT Gif:
https://68.media.tumblr.com/bcbfd0c7f4d6620b53cf417b9105351b/tumblr_op1qe3xaWd1u1ljrzo1_540.gif

Mauro Ranallo at this point remains under contract with WWE until 8/12 and presumably will not be allowed to do any pro wrestling broadcasting until that time, although that has not been made clear. The date is immaterial as the only true full-time announcing job that looks to be opening up would be the World of Sport show, and Ranallo’s name had never been mentioned as being under consideration. The timing of this was because a major news outlet was working on a story on the subject, and WWE needed Ranallo to essentially absolve Layfield to either weaken or kill the story. It is not certain whether the story will or won’t run, because many interviews were already done, but the key to the story was how it related to Ranallo’s situation.

While it appears that both sides have parted ways, as Ranallo’s statement would indicate, and there is paperwork in place that they have, the idea of Ranallo coming back is not a dead issue. There has at least been preliminary dialogue on that subject, but at press time, nothing was at the serious level of discussion. Ranallo is currently in England preparing for the broadcast of the Anthony Joshua International Boxing Federation heavyweight championship fight against Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley Stadium in England for Showtime. There is always the idea of him coming back, and WWE taking credit and pushing the company as being behind mental health awareness, and using him as an advocate, and using it for public relations is a possibility. But it is far from a lock he would be returning.

Over the last 24 hours, the talk in Great Britain has been that the planned May World of Sport TV tapings, which were to film a ten episode season for ITV, bringing the World of Sport brand back to weekly broadcast television in England, have been postponed. Tapings were slated for 5/25 and 5/26 at Preston Guild Hall following a popular WOS special that aired on New Year's Eve last December. Tickets for the tapings went on sale on 4/6 ...

Sources speaking under condition of anonymity confirmed that the May World of Sport tapings have indeed been postponed. There are plans to make an official announcement next week regarding the rescheduling of the tapings. The source stated that ticket sales were not the issue and that it was a logistical, scheduling issue that is leading to the delay.

PWInsider.com has confirmed that WWE NXT talents Theophilus Agbi and Chris Atkins were released by the company this week. Agbi had been training in the Performance Center after signing last year and never made TV. Atkins had a few televised appearances but had not been given a regular role.

As we noted earlier this week Andrea Ocampo, who worked on screen as Andrea D'Marco for the NXT brand as a ring announcer and backstage interviewer, also recently departed WWE.

As noted, Chris Jericho's current WWE run is set to end as Jericho will begin touring with Fozzy in May. Jericho's last date on his current WWE run is this Monday's RAW in Sacramento, CA.

Jim Ross posted his latest blog at JRsBarBQ.com. Here are some highlights:

WWE pushing Jinder Mahal:

"The Jinder Mahal ascension on the SDLive roster including him being the #1 contender for the WWE Title seems to be being overthought to some degree by a handful of pundits. The rapid advancement up the card of Jinder has some concerned, and I get that point, but I see it as worth the chance and, fast track or not, Mahal is somewhat of a calculated risk which is essentially the same thing that most promotions deal with when advancing new talents who suddenly appear on the main event radar.

"I like this booking because it involves a deserving, hard working talent who has unique skills, is fundamentally sound and has a unique, TV persona plus he provides Randy Orton with a new opponent. Question...what if Jinder Mahal becomes the next, WWE Champion? Stranger things have happened and it's not the worse idea that I've heard lately. This shocker might be worth a bit of consideration.

"I would merely suggest that Jinder doesn't have to yell wall to wall on his promos to make his points because most of us organically/automatically tune people out who scream at us especially if they are an antagonist."

Shinsuke Nakamura:

"Anxious to see the pending evolution of Shinsuke Nakamura on SD Live especially when the gets into a serious, title oriented storyline. The only missing piece to the game of the King of Strong Style is his ability to communicate effectively to his English speaking audience which is addressable. Love Shin's upside and charisma."

As noted, Cody Rhodes recently stated on Twitter that he has not signed with any company. Wrestling Inc. has learned from sources close to the situation that Cody has come to terms on a new deal with Ring Of Honor. It's not known how long the length of the deal is.

WWE announced the following on how Charlotte Flair made history in her main event match against SmackDown Women's Champion Naomi on Tuesday's blue brand episode:

Charlotte Flair makes history by becoming the first female Superstar in history to battle one-on-one in Raw, SmackDown and pay-per-view main events

Following multiple Raw main events and a Raw Women's Championship victory against Sasha Banks at this past year's WWE Hell in a Cell event — inside the Cell itself, no less — Charlotte Flair made history once again last night on SmackDown LIVE by becoming the first female Superstar to compete in singles matches in the main event of Raw, SmackDown and a WWE pay-per-view

As seen below, Curtis Axel made another appearance at the elementary school his son attends to read a book to the 3rd grade class and talk about bullying. This would be the 2nd or 3rd time Axel has tweeted about visiting his son at school to hang out with the students.

Read a book to my son, Brock's, 3rd grade class today and talked about bullying! These kids have such awesome personalities! Very fun! @WWE pic.twitter.com/lhKhGJPxfM
— Curtis Axel (@RealCurtisAxel) April 26, 2017

Katsuyori Shibata was going to face Zack Sabre Jr., on one of the big shows on the current NJPW tour. In fact, Sabre Jr., was pulled from the tour because everything booked for him had to do with interaction with Shibata and the cards had all been made and he’d have had no spot. Shibata still has weakness on the right side and also will be undergoing another brain surgery in May.

Had the Hardys stayed with Impact, and done their planned long feud with the Young Bucks in ROH and Impact, they were also going to have a match on one of the Long Beach shows.

One indie promoter told us that Jack Swagger, who is coming on the market, has been asking for $4,000 per show coming out of the blocks, which they felt was high. That’s a big number for most indie promotions. He is working in May for FULL in Mexico in matches against Alberto El Patron, renewing their old WWE program. He’s working an overseas tour in Australia with Tommy Dreamer in June although given it’s Dreamer and it’s multiple dates, that could be a very different amount.

Sinclair Broadcasting is purchasing Bonten Media Group, which owns 14 small market stations in eight markets, for $240 million. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year. If ROH is put on the new stations, which is normally the case with Sinclair acquisitions, that would be the Tri-Cities in Tennessee/Virginia, Greenville, NC, Chico and Eureka, CA, Missoula and Butte, MT, Abilene, and San Angelo, TX.

According to those in the company, the push of Jinder Mahal has everything to do with a new strategy earmarking India. The strategy is a likely response to Impact’s deal to have a television show in the market produced in India. The push of Mahal and the former Bollywood Boys, Harv & Gurv Sihra, now named The Singh Brothers, Samir & Sunil Singh, started just before WWE announced the hiring of Sheetesh Srivastava as the new Vice President and General Manager of WWE India, indicating going stronger into the market. WWE has more social media followers in India than anywhere else, including the U.S. It’s been noted that most of the social media followers WWE has comes from countries that they don’t make much money in ...

It’s very clearly a last minute decision since they had done nothing to position him as a non-prelim guy, and then snapped their fingers and made him a main event championship contender. Sometimes this stuff works, although usually it only works with actual new characters and not someone who had been around for years. But you never know what will work on top if it isn’t tried, and the luxury of current WWE is that more than any other promotion, they take no hits if they try and fail. It’s been done before, such as the R-Truth heel turn and move into a main eventer role, which didn’t work and R-Truth wasn’t as low on the totem poll as Mahal, but people didn’t see him as a main eventer and he didn’t last in that position.

With Mahal, it’s a different issue as if they are doing it for the Indian market, even if it doesn’t click in the U.S. market, it may still be an effective international strategy. The one thing is, if he is pushed as a headliner, whether it takes in the U.S. or not, he will get over to people in India watching and he is like a million times better than Mahabali Shera or Great Khali, although obviously Khali did have the unique size to make him someone that would get over in a new market.

Another aspect of this is the company holding tryouts in Dubai 4/26 to 4/29. The key is that they are looking at getting anyone with any potential from Khali’s school. That beats Impact to the punch since Impact and Sony Six were planning a television show for India using locals as the top stars, and looking at getting the best students from Khali’s school

Regarding PW Torch reports on Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis coming in, while we can’t 100 percent confirm that, it’s been strongly hinted to us that was the case since they left TNA. The impression we have is they are just waiting to start, and the way they’ve been booked in Northeast Wrestling would seem to indicate they aren’t going to be there much longer. Right now Bennett is filming a movie in Rhode Island that stars legendary actor Ed Asner of “Lou Grant” and “Mary Tyler Moore” TV fame. Asner has a pro wrestling connection in that he grew up and was friends from high school football with Bob Orton Sr., Randy’s grandfather and they kept in touch the rest of Bob’s life, as well as he was the star of the original 1974 movie “The Wrestler,” produced by Verne Gagne, and remained friends with Gagne, even visiting Gagne several years ago.

It used to be that you could figure out who would win on PPV based on the go-home show. In the sense that the guy on top on the go-home show would lose. But they’ve been mixing things up more. So far in 2017 winners on the go-home show went on to win on PPV 53 percent, while losers on the go-home show went on to win 60 percent of the time. In specifics when they are in tags or facing each other both on Raw and the PPV, right now the winners of the TV match and losers of the TV match have this year so far each won 50 percent of the time, so there’s no predicting who wins and loses on PPV on a formula based on the go-home Raw.
Wonder if the rise of wrestling betting played a role. Maybe even as a way for WWE employees to push the odds more into their favor for bigger payouts.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Apparently, WWE has reached an agreement to buy the 'Broken' gimmick from TNA. Which explains Hardy’s increased use of mannerisms on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Raw?src=hash">#Raw</a>.</p>— pwstream (@pwstream) <a href="https://twitter.com/pwstream/status/857504838153908225">April 27, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Some other sheet news includes:

Impact's Dutch Mantel recently tweeted Impact Wrestling will be debuting a new championship belt soon.
Sports Illustrated had a recent interview with Sting talking about Sting-Taker never happening at Mania and Seth Rollins being his favorite out of all WWE's younger/newer stars. https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2017/04/26/week-wrestling-sting-his-dream-match-undertaker-mauro-ranallos-next-move-five-questions-john-cena
PWI managed to get some early details regarding the Vince film and some of the scenes planned are pretty crazy even by Vince standards. http://www.pwinsider.com/article/109283/everything-you-want-to-know-about-the-vince-mcmahon-movie-potential-spoilers.html?p=1
According to the Observer, the main reason Charlotte got traded to Smackdown was due to the WWE wanting to keep her status as the top female star but this time as a face.

Sepholio

04-27-2017, 11:08 PM

Hope WWE doesn't fuck up the broken gimmick. Let Matt do his thing....

Cool King

04-28-2017, 04:18 PM

I hope they do.

The last thing I want to hear on a weekly basis for the next eight years is "DELETE! DELETE! DELETE! DELETE! DELETE! DELETE! DELETE!"

Simple Fan

04-28-2017, 04:34 PM

Impact needs all new belts really, except Impact Grand Championship which just needs the updated logo on it.

Emperor Smeat

04-28-2017, 09:47 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by WWE's newest ppv name:
http://www.f4wonline.com/sites/www.f4wonline.com/files/field/image/C-gof8zWsAAXAsB%20%281%29.jpg

It’s being reported by Sportskeeda that Kevin Owens wearing suits and calling himself, “The New Face of America” may not just be part of his character on SmackDown Live. Apparently, the suits are WWE owner Vince McMahon’s way of hiding Owens’ physique and presenting him differently.

There is a possibility of him wrestling his matches in a suit going forward. Vince McMahon is said to be “fed up” with Owens being overweight and not lifting weights the way he’d prefer which is why he felt that the suit was necessary. Owens shaving his beard was another request from McMahon.
Sportskeeda been pretty dubious overall as a source but link to the article: http://www.gerweck.net/2017/04/28/wwe-wants-to-hide-kos-physique/

WWE is debuting a new name for Raw's July pay-per-view, and Brock Lesnar is set to defend the Universal Championship for the first time on the show.

A video released by the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas on Twitter and Facebook today brought the announcement that the building will be hosting a Raw-exclusive PPV named "Great Balls of Fire" on July 9th. It was previously rumored that the show would be called "Bad Blood."

The announcement also confirmed that Brock Lesnar will defend the Universal title on the PPV. Lesnar has yet to defend the title since winning it from Goldberg at WrestleMania 33, though a program with Braun Strowman was established on the post-Mania episode of Raw.

As noted previously, the July 9 WWE PPV, Bad Blood, was changed to Great Balls of Fire and will now take place in Dallas, Texas. The phrase not only managed to trend on Twitter, but WWE Superstars, Becky Lynch and Big E, commented on the new name:

Great balls of Fire?! What the.....
— Becky Lynch (@BeckyLynchWWE) April 28, 2017

Clearly, the most disappointing aspect of no longer being on Raw is knowing I won't be a part of the 1st annual Great Balls of Fire.
— ShinigamE (@WWEBigE) April 28, 2017

Reby Hardy on Twitter denied any stories that WWE has purchased the rights to the broken gimmick from Anthem.

Tama Tonga was injured at yesterday's New Japan show. There was fear it was a ruptured biceps which is a serious injury but that wasn't definite. So there is a chance he'll be out of action, but no announcement has been made and in Japan guys work through a lot of injuries just to get through the rest of the tour.

Ember Moon must have an injury because Natalya posted a group photo taken of a lot of the NXT talent and Moon had her arm in a sling. She was believed to have been injured on a dive at last week's TV tapings and she isn't on the main NXT tour this week.
Link to Natty's group photo: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-hre61UIAA9bfz.jpg:large

One of the biggest territorial angles of the 80s took place 30 years ago today. It was the night Jerry Lawler got his head shaved in Memphis. Lawler had won every hair vs. hair match in his career. It was comparable to Undertaker's streak. He wrestled Austin Idol, and Idol announced he would pay people back all of their ticket money if he didn't beat Lawler in the cage match. As it turned out, Lawler didn't get shaved completely bald, but Tommy Rich hid under the ring (this was one of the first times this happened) and Rich, Lawler and manager Paul Heyman (then using the name Paul Dangerly, not Dangerously) conspired to win the match and then crotch Lawler's groin against the post over and over (Lawler was actually taking time off to get either a vasectomy or a vasectomy reversed) to do an injury angle. It was one of the last huge drawing angles in that territory's history.

The 4/27 edition of Impact on Pop brought in 255,000 viewers, down significantly from last week's 320,000 viewers.

There is a "story" making the rounds that nude photos of Alexa Bliss have been leaked somewhere on the internet. We ignore these stories unless the person involved comments. Alexa tweeted the following:

Once again, the risqué photos on the Internet supposedly of me are bogus.
— Alexa Bliss (@AlexaBliss_WWE) April 28, 2017

I am offended and demand these altered photos be removed immediately
— Alexa Bliss (@AlexaBliss_WWE) April 28, 2017

TMZ Sports reported that the official cause of death for Jan Ross, the wife of Jim Ross, is traumatic brain injury.

Jan was driving to a local gym when her Vespa was hit by a car in Norman, OK on Monday night, March 20th. Jan was not wearing her helmet and suffered multiple skull fractures. She passed away days later on March 22nd.

While the cause of death has been determined, the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner told TMZ Sports that a toxicology report is still pending. It was also noted that the death has been ruled an accident, although the case still remains under investigation.

Zack Ryder noted on Twitter that he ran the ropes this week. Ryder, who has been out of action since injuring his knee last December, wrote, "I ran the ropes today...I blew up...I loved it."

Some other sheet news includes:

USA Today had a recent interview with Karl Anderson talking about WWE, tag team wrestling, and the Hardys return. http://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/04/karl-anderson-luke-gallows-wwe-payback-full-card-tv
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, this Sunday will be the 40th anniversary of the end of Bruno Sammartino's 2nd WWWF title reign. His 2nd reign lasted for around 4 years before ending at the hands of Billy Graham who owns the record for longest reign by a heel (no turns included).
For those interested, r/SquaredCircle had a recent article summing up the careers of everyone involved in the Seasonal Era of NXT with the breakdown being only half are still in the WWE, half quit wrestling, and Michael Tarver being the only Season 1 contestant to never win a title in the WWE. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/682h7s/where_every_nxt_competitor_ended_up_as_of_today/

Simple Fan

04-28-2017, 11:44 PM

Now Creature of the Night could use the NFL Draft excuse for the low Impact rating but any of his adversaries claiming that the NFL Draft had anything to do with low ratings this week are just looking for excuses. I watch Impact every week and even chose the draft over it but I have a DVR.

Cool King

04-29-2017, 09:35 AM

It’s being reported by Sportskeeda that Kevin Owens wearing suits and calling himself, “The New Face of America” may not just be part of his character on SmackDown Live. Apparently, the suits are WWE owner Vince McMahon’s way of hiding Owens’ physique and presenting him differently.

There is a possibility of him wrestling his matches in a suit going forward. Vince McMahon is said to be “fed up” with Owens being overweight and not lifting weights the way he’d prefer which is why he felt that the suit was necessary. Owens shaving his beard was another request from McMahon.

It doesn't really make a difference if he shaves or wears a suit, he still looks like a fat bastard.

Cool King

04-29-2017, 09:35 AM

I guess one positive of this "change" in appearance is that he will no longer look like some fat backyard wrestling kid.

Ol Dirty Dastard

04-29-2017, 11:31 AM

I could never see Owens agreeing to wear a suit to wrestle in.

Damian Rey 2.0

04-29-2017, 12:50 PM

They should have an injury angle with him, get him off tv but let him still work house shows, and put him thru a few months of training too tone up.

I have to agree with Vince here. I like Owens a lot. Good talker, good heel, good in the ring. But his look is awful. It's not even the t shirt and basketball shorts. That's fine. It's the bowling ball gut and not muscular arms.

He doesn't need to be ripped. But adding some muscle and leaning out a bit would go a long way.

SlickyTrickyDamon

04-29-2017, 01:38 PM

Just means that when Hardyz leave they will have to have the same fight with the gimmick with WWE instead of the Owls.

#1-norm-fan

04-29-2017, 01:39 PM

Meh. I like that he doesn't look like everyone else. Gotta have variety. Look at Vader. He looked like a fat slob but he was presented right so it worked.

SlickyTrickyDamon

04-29-2017, 01:44 PM

His gear hid it well enough but his run in WWE was pretty shit.

Ol Dirty Dastard

04-29-2017, 01:47 PM

I like him, but if the boss is putting the heat on him, he needs to drop the weight. I agree with Damo in that he doesn't need to be a body builder, but putting on a good 15-20 pounds of muscle and dropping some fat would do him good. I'd prefer he remained "stocky" kind of like The Anvil. It'd make him look more like a bruiser.

I mean if he worked for me I don't know if I cared, though it depended on what kind of feedback my audience was giving me.

mike adamle

04-29-2017, 01:53 PM

I agree with everyone here, STD needs to lose some weight

KIRA

04-29-2017, 06:54 PM

That part about heel R-Truth not being main event material is a sack of LIES.
Hope Jinder pulls off this push though.

KIRA

04-29-2017, 06:58 PM

It doesn't really make a difference if he shaves or wears a suit, he still looks like a fat bastard.

There are way too many guys walking around with shaved/bald heads as it is

It'll probably snow it hell before Owens wrestles in a suit but its good to know Vince still likes him some muscular oily, men.

Stocky

04-29-2017, 10:48 PM

I'd prefer he remained "stocky" kind of like The Anvil.

:shifty:

Damian Rey 2.0

04-30-2017, 02:26 AM

Vader didn't look like a fat slob. Not to me. Maybe it was the gear. But he looked intimidating as fuck.

Ezra

04-30-2017, 03:48 PM

As long as KO is putting on good matches I don't care about his huskiness. Gives him a different look which is good overall. I mean hell, look at Goldberg. Guy blows up in 2 minute's and he is in amazing shape.

Emperor Smeat

05-02-2017, 11:23 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Seth Rollins channeling his inner Peter Griffin:
https://68.media.tumblr.com/e968cd67e4b2101e57ebfe256bfec95a/tumblr_op94f3afa91u1ljrzo1_540.gif

Raw numbers hit a shocking low last night, even coming the day after the Payback PPV.

The three hour show averaged 2.86 million viewers, setting a new 20-year low for the show on a non-holiday and non-football time frame. The number barely beat what a lot of the SmackDown shows had been doing prior to WrestleMania. It was a five percent decline from last week's 3.00 million viewers. Traditionally the Raw after a Raw-brand PPV should show an increase ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.92 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.04 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.65 million viewers

Likely won't get better till after the NBA Playoffs are over.

TJ Perkins is now listed on the WWE roster page as only "TJP." That's what he was referred to on Raw last night as well. He'll face Lince Dorado on this week's 205 Live, with Rich Swann vs. Noam Dar also advertised for the show.

Fozzy's new song "Judas" will be one of the official themes for NXT TakeOver: Chicago.

NWA president Bruce Tharpe confirmed in a post on his Facebook page that Billy Corgan has agreed in principle to acquire the NWA brand. Tharpe said that he's excited for the NWA's future and that Corgan is putting together a strong team.

As PWInsider.com first reported last week, the scheduled World of Sport Wrestling TV tapings set for the weekend of 5/25 in Great Britain have been canceled.

An announcement on Twitter stated the tapings were postponed due to "contract negotiations" and that fans who purchased tickets would receive a refund.

No nee taping dates have been announced but one source last week stated they believed they would be rescheduled for July.
Link to the announcement: https://twitter.com/WOSWrestlingITV/status/859437495217516544

Sean Waltman (who is best known as X-Pac) missed a booking for IPW:UK last weekend because he was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport while attempting to fly out to the show.

TMZ reported today that Waltman was arrested after being stopped at customs, where it was found that he was carrying "three cannabis chocolate bars, two THC liquid cigarettes, and 38 methamphetamine capsules." Waltman was on a Customs and Border Protection watch list for narcotics, which was likely due to drug-related issues he's had in the past.

Because of the large amount of pills that he was carrying and $736.10 in cash that he had on him, Waltman was arrested on felony charges of possession of narcotics with the intent to sell.

An existing warrant was also found that stemmed from a prior DUI arrest. Waltman was released on bail after it was set at $35,000.
Waltman originally was denying his arrest was related to drugs while those in the UK were worried for his safety at the time since he wasn't answering calls checking on his well-being.

There is horrible news regarding Wayne VanDyke, a Florida wrestler known as Richard Delicious. He did a match last night for Ronin Pro and out of nowhere, just collapsed. His body was frozen (it has since been unfrozen) and he was put in a medically induced coma. According to his trainer, Chasyn Rance, he suffered three heart attacks and is in critical condition. According to his trainer, the situation sounds very serious. According to Lori VanDyke, his sister, on Facebook, they put him in a medically induced coma to give his heart and brain a rest. During the match he told his partner that he was sick and needed to tag out. When he tried to go through the ropes, he had his first heart attack. They started CPR and got him into an ambulance. His second hart attack was in the ambulance and the third heart attack was at the hospital. He also has broken ribs from the CPR, which punctured his lung and he's taking on fluid in the lungs. We won't have a good idea of his brain functions until they take him out of the coma which would be expected to be late Wednesday afternoon.
:eek:

After being out of action since last November, Sawyer Fulton returned from injury at Saturday's NXT house show in Venice, Florida. He didn't wrestle in a match, though he did lay out Yanbo Wang in a segment.

Tokyo Sports has an update on Tomoaki Honma's recovery. In the story, Honma says that he is able to walk on his own again.

The storyline update on Braun Strowman and Roman Reigns coming out of WWE Payback is that Braun tore his rotator cuff while Reigns re-injured his ribs and suffered other internal injuries. The storyline announcement was made by RAW General Manager Kurt Angle on tonight's RAW from Sacramento.

Regarding the Braun storyline announcement, Erick Rowan just returned from a torn rotator cuff after being out of action for around 7 months. Shelton Benjamin was recently cleared for the same injury and he also was out for around 7 months. There's been speculation on Strowman vs. Reigns in an Ambulance Match taking place at the June 4th WWE Extreme Rules pay-per-view.

As noted, WWE announced that their July 9th pay-per-view at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, now titled Great Balls of Fire, will feature Brock Lesnar's first WWE Universal Championship title defense since Lesnar won the strap at WrestleMania 33 last month.

Dave Meltzer noted on the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio that while Lesnar is scheduled for the July pay-per-view and SummerSlam, his other dates aren't solidified yet ...

Meltzer noted that Lesnar will be around a lot more for this championship reign than his seven month 2014-2015 run.

According to PWInsider, as of today, Adam Cole is now a free agent and is free to sign anywhere. In recent interviews, Cole has stated this will be the first time in awhile he's been able to look outside of Ring of Honor and if he did come to WWE, he would want to start in NXT. No word yet on where he plans on signing.

Some other sheet news includes:

In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is The Rock's 45th birthday.
Drew McIntyre announced he recently got added to the lineup for NXT's UK tour next month. https://twitter.com/DMcIntyreWWE/status/858355114742091776
Recent episode of Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast had Arn Anderson as the guest talking about his career, the Four Horsemen and Ric Flair. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0502/625815/arn-anderson-reveals-his-favorite-version-of-the-four-horseman/

The CyNick

05-03-2017, 04:21 PM

I wonder why Dave hasn't posted the SummerSlam lineup yet.

Simple Fan

05-03-2017, 04:46 PM

I wonder why Dave hasn't posted the SummerSlam lineup yet.

Vince doesn't want him to yet. They talked about it ovwr tea though so Dave knows.

The CyNick

05-03-2017, 08:41 PM

Vince doesn't want him to yet. They talked about it ovwr tea though so Dave knows.

Seems legit.

I guess same for the other upcoming PPVs though?

Funny how his sources seem to go dark every few months. Ah well, I'm sure there's a logical explanation.

KIRA

05-03-2017, 08:50 PM

Zayn/Harper would of been someone new also and they don't absolutely suck like this turban Fucker!

I'm sure you would have loved Scotty 2 Hotty facing Austin in 99 also.

Shouldn't you hate Sami Zayn too he is Muslim and is Syrian-Canadian.

Simple Fan

05-03-2017, 08:58 PM

Seems legit.

I guess same for the other upcoming PPVs though?

Funny how his sources seem to go dark every few months. Ah well, I'm sure there's a logical explanation.

Yeah there is, ratings are low at the moment so there's no reason to really report anything if people are not watching. Things will pick up around Summer Slam and Dave will be back at it, dont worry.

Emperor Smeat

05-03-2017, 10:07 PM

Seems legit.

I guess same for the other upcoming PPVs though?

Funny how his sources seem to go dark every few months. Ah well, I'm sure there's a logical explanation.

Meltzer only does months worth of coverage for Mania's card since its meant to be WWE's biggest event of the year. Doesn't really bother doing the same for other WWE ppvs outside of possible main events and major matches.

Only major match that's been reported since Mania was Lesnar vs Strowman as the possible main event for SummerSlam.

mike adamle

05-03-2017, 10:11 PM

BigCrippyZ

05-03-2017, 10:16 PM

I wonder why Dave hasn't posted the SummerSlam lineup yet.

I wonder why you're so fascinated with Dave's actions or lack thereof? If he's not legit, why do you care to criticize him?

Funny how sad it is that you are criticizing someone you don't even know or at least dismiss as illegitimate about their "legitimacy", or lack thereof, all based on your own "standards" as a supposed expert... yet you've never been quoted or recognized as an "expert" in television, media, sports or entertainment... or if you have been, have yet to show any proof of it.

Simple Fan

05-03-2017, 10:19 PM

I wonder why you're so fascinated with Dave's actions or lack thereof? If he's not legit, why do you care to criticize him?

Funny how sad it is that you are criticizing someone you don't even know or at least dismiss as illegitimate about their "legitimacy", or lack thereof, all based on your own "standards" as a supposed expert... yet you've never been quoted or recognized as an "expert" in television, media, sports or entertainment... or if you have been, have yet to show any proof of it.

CyNick is Pat Paterson.

Emperor Smeat

05-03-2017, 10:54 PM

That's complete nonsense, he covers wrestling and MMA year round. Just because he puts more focus on bigger shows doesn't mean he just ignores smaller shows. He either has the info and shares it or doesn't have it and doesn't share it.

You have more excuses than a knocked up nun.

Never said he ignores non-Mania shows, just that he doesn't do yearly coverage like he does with Mania.

Summerslam's card usually starts to get covered more around this time and Rumble around December for big events. Smaller events and Survivor Series usually get covered around same time WWE makes match announcements or Meltzer gets info on possible big matches being planned.

Emperor Smeat

05-03-2017, 11:01 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Random Braun Strowman Gif:
http://i.imgur.com/f8wkg8I.gif

Following the low ratings that Raw posted on Monday night, SmackDown again drew its lowest audience of 2017 this week.

The show averaged 2.300 million viewers on Tuesday night. It's the second straight week that SmackDown has set a low for the year, with last Tuesday's episode averaging 2.493 million viewers.

The most significant competition that SmackDown faced on cable came from the NBA playoffs. The Boston Celtics vs. Washington Wizards game that aired directly opposite the episode was watched by an average of 4.832 million people, and the Golden State Warriors vs. Utah Jazz game that aired later did 4.887 million viewers.

SmackDown was fourth for the night in viewership behind the NBA games and Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News. It also finished fourth for the night in the 18-49 demo behind the basketball games and coverage.
In terms of viewership and ratings, Superstar Shakeup so far has been a bust for the WWE. Didn't help Smackdown also had to delay some of their plans due to RAW's ppv because of WWE's poor timing.

As was expected given that he's going on tour with Fozzy, Chris Jericho dropped the United States Championship to Kevin Owens on last night's edition of SmackDown. There was also an angle after the match where Owens laid out Jericho to give reason for his temporary absence. Fozzy's tour runs through May 28th and there are three other dates scheduled for June.

Hideo Itami's first match on television since returning from injury is advertised for tonight's episode of NXT. The show will also have a battle royal to determine the next challenger for Asuka's title.
For some reference, this is the episode Ember Moon got injured at. Happens during an attempt at an aerial move.

Corey Graves tweeted after making a veiled reference on commentary during 205 Live to a situation from earlier this year where a woman posted messages that Tom Phillips sent her on Instagram: "If you can't bust your best friends' chops, whose chops can you bust?"

The much-anticipated rematch between Kazuchika Okada and Kenny Omega appears to be on the horizon. Okada called Omega into the ring to set up the match after successfully defending his title against Bad Luck Fale at Wrestling Dontaku. Their rematch would likely be earmarked for Dominion on June 11th, and Okada pointed to that being the direction in an interview after Dontaku.

Next year's Wrestling Dontaku will be two shows that will take place on back-to-back days at the Fukuoka International Center.

New Japan Pro Wrestling revealed the participants and brackets for the 2017 Best of the Super Juniors tournament at this morning's Wrestling Dontaku show. The lineup features a number of talented junior heavyweight wrestlers from all over the world.

Block A features New Japan regulars Jushin Thunder Liger, Ricochet, Will Ospreay, Taichi, Taka Michinoku, and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi. CMLL’s Dragon Lee and ROH’s Marty Scurll round off the list.

Block B features Tiger Mask IV, Ryusuke Taguchi, KUSHIDA, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, El Desperado, and BUSHI from NJPW. Volador Jr. from CMLL and newly independent wrestler ACH round out this block.

This year's BOSJ is the 24th edition of the tournament. It will begin on May 17th at Korakuen Hall and culminate on June 3rd at Yoyogi National Gymnasium. New Japan World’s May schedule includes live shows on the 17th, 18th, 22nd, and 29th. For the shows that aren't live, tournament matches will be uploaded to the service the next day.

Triple H tweeted that Hacktivist's "Over-Throne" will be another WWE NXT Takeover Chicago theme song.

On the eighth episode of ‘Dinner With The King’, Jerry “The King” Lawler answered fan questions during the podcast and was asked about the House of Horrors match between Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton during Sunday’sPayback show.

Lawler: "I was so looking forward to the House of Horrors match because I’m such a big horror movie fan. I’m such a fan of these kind of things. I was really, really excited about this.

The WWE, they have the opportunity and they have the people to put together some really great special effects. I guess my problem was I got my expectations up too high. I guess I expected more scary stuff.

I’m not scared of baby dolls.”

During this episode, he also talks about if his commentary during the Attitude Era led to heat from any his fellow superstars. He mentions the Goldust promo never was a problem with Dusty Rhodes and Goldust and that Bret Hart and his family didn’t mind Lawler’s insults during their feud.

He did add that Tazz didn’t like some of the commentary when he debuted in WWE during the initial ECW invasion. And that heat might still linger today.
Link to the podcast episode: http://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/5320292/height/90/width/640/theme/custom/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/autoplay/yes/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/2179bd/

The UK Sun ran an article today featuring photos of The Undertaker and his wife, the former Michelle McCool, in New York City, entering David H Koch Pavilion Hospital for Special Surgery, which is considered one of the best orthopedic hospitals in the country.

The implication in the article was that Undertaker was there for a hip surgery.
Link to the article: https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/3467896/the-undertaker-hospital-wife-michelle-mccool-new-york/

Chris Jericho has designed a special "#GOAT" t-shirt as a thanks to his fans, the Friends of Jericho, to honor the WWE run he's had over the past 16 months. Proceeds from the t-shirt will go to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

The shirt can be seen below and can be purchased for $24.99 at this link. They also have the design on a tank top, a pullover hoodie, a poster and a coffee mug. Jericho shared the link on his Facebook page and wrote, "I'll see you all again soon, but in honor of the amazing run I had over the past 16 months in WWE, I've designed this official #GOAT shirt as a thanks to you, the Friends Of Jericho! As always, proceeds will go towards the support of Juvenile Diabetes Research, JDRF! Available for two weeks only! So, get yours NOW at represent.com/goat!"
Link to buy the shirt for those interested: https://represent.com/goat/chris-jericho-wrestler-musician-writer-goat-tee-shirt-supporting-juvenile-diabetes-research-jdrf

CBS Sports has an article here about Braun Strowman's father, Rick Scherr, and his softball career. It was noted that he count "possibly the greatest slow-pitch softball player of all-time" and is estimated to have hit over 1,800 home runs.
Link to the article: http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/look-father-of-wwe-payback-2017-star-braun-strowman-is-the-best-slugger-ever/

As noted, Sean "X-Pac" Waltman was arrested this past Saturday at the Los Angeles International Airport. Waltman was flying to the U.K. for an independent wrestling appearance when he was charged with felony drug possession for allegedly attempting to bring meth and marijuana through customs.

TMZ Sports uploaded their full interview with Waltman regarding the incident, as seen in the video above. Waltman said that the substance that he had in his possession were candida cleanse capsules that he obtained from Vitamin Cottage, and not methamphetamine. He said that he was taking the capsules because he's had a yeast infection for the past year. Waltman, who has dealt with substance abuse issues in the past, said that he understood why people may not believe his tory.
Link to the video and more statements by Waltman: http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0503/625850/sean-waltman-on-his-arrest/

As noted, Adam Cole's ROH contract expired this past weekend. Cole has been with the company on-and-off since 2009.

While there has been a lot of speculation that Cole will be signing with WWE, Dave Meltzer reported on the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio that "everybody wants Adam Cole right now."

Meltzer noted that Cole going to WWE is not necessarily a lock, although he does believe that is where Cole will end up. He stated that New Japan Pro Wrestling is interested in signing him as well.

Cole is scheduled to face Hiroshi Tanahashi at ROH's War of the Worlds pay-per-view on May 12th. It was noted that even though Cole's ROH contract has expired, he may still be used for other ROH shows and work independent dates unless he ends up officially signing with WWE.

Some other news includes:

Popular video game Rocket League was announced to be the sponsor for WWE's upcoming Backlash ppv. https://www.onmsft.com/news/rocket-league-teams-up-with-wwe-for-live-event-and-more
Another indie wrestling company is currently facing backlash for running a charity show resulting in no money being sent to the charity involved. Paradise Alley Pro Wrestling is reported to have pocketed all the money raised from their recent Wrestling for Autism charity show. Also pocketed money meant to be paid to wrestlers who were contracted for the event. http://wtnh.com/2017/05/02/wrestlers-say-organizer-scammed-them-and-charity/
Recent episode of Talk Is Jericho had Samoa Joe as the guest: http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0503/625844/samoa-joa-on-if-he-has-had-a-meeting-with-vince-mcmahon/

Ezra

05-04-2017, 01:23 AM

Soon to be featured on all the news sites is the Charlotte Flair leaks. Headline will be lop sided titties.

SlickyTrickyDamon

05-04-2017, 02:11 AM

Soon to be featured on all the news sites is the Charlotte Flair leaks

Is that for true?

Ezra

05-04-2017, 03:23 AM

Yep. Surprised they haven't hit yet.

#1-norm-fan

05-04-2017, 03:37 AM

STD is drunkenly waiting with his cock in hand for these leaks.

#1-norm-fan

05-04-2017, 03:47 AM

I wonder why Dave hasn't posted the SummerSlam lineup yet.

He posted the WrestleMania card months in advance but that didn't mean anything because it was so predictable, right? So if he posts the SummerSlam card tomorrow, you'll just wait until September and say it was predictable. So what do you want, exactly? Just curious.

Ezra

05-04-2017, 04:57 AM

STD is drunkenly waiting with his cock in hand for these leaks.

They've hit the net now. I am sure he has beaten it raw to them big but lop sided titties lol.

Big Vic

05-04-2017, 09:09 AM

Out of all the divas.....Flair?

Big Vic

05-04-2017, 09:09 AM

Where's my Nia Jax nudes?

mike adamle

05-04-2017, 09:17 AM

Charlotte's tits look exactly like Ric's

JimmyMess

05-04-2017, 01:38 PM

look at that bod!

http://cdn23.us1.fansshare.com/photos/ricflair/ric-flair-hulkmania-tour-perth-australia-uyopakvxphex-hulk-hogan-770289843.jpg

mike adamle

05-04-2017, 01:44 PM

Is that one of Charlotte's nudes??

The CyNick

05-04-2017, 01:46 PM

JimmyMess

05-04-2017, 01:46 PM

Is that one of Charlotte's nudes??

are you hard? Then yes it is.

The CyNick

05-04-2017, 01:47 PM

Never said he ignores non-Mania shows, just that he doesn't do yearly coverage like he does with Mania.

Summerslam's card usually starts to get covered more around this time and Rumble around December for big events. Smaller events and Survivor Series usually get covered around same time WWE makes match announcements or Meltzer gets info on possible big matches being planned.

Seems that his info starts to pick up momentum as angles are shot on TV.

The CyNick

05-04-2017, 01:49 PM

He posted the WrestleMania card months in advance but that didn't mean anything because it was so predictable, right? So if he posts the SummerSlam card tomorrow, you'll just wait until September and say it was predictable. So what do you want, exactly? Just curious.

Proof that he has inside sources. Even post the June and July cards, the top matches are all set. Might as well post them. Just ask the same dude who Lewis the Mania card to him. Should be easy enough.

Ol Dirty Dastard

05-04-2017, 01:52 PM

I know Dave. I consider him a friend or at least an acquaintance.

ah. This explains very much.

You are in fact, Bruce Prichard.

mike adamle

05-04-2017, 01:53 PM

They've hit the net now. I am sure he has beaten it raw to them big but lop sided titties lol.

STD also has lop sided titties so he thinks they have something in common while he's in a drunken stupor off 3 bud light limes

SlickyTrickyDamon

05-04-2017, 01:56 PM

Shut the fuck up you neanderthal.

mike adamle

05-04-2017, 02:05 PM

http://i.imgur.com/ZCsRIg7.gif

looks more like a neanderthal than me

Ezra

05-04-2017, 02:20 PM

Poor Victora

Fignuts

05-04-2017, 02:28 PM

Was there some big personal arguement between adamle and std while I was gone, or is adamle just trying really hard to be like gertner by picking on low hanging fruit?

screech

05-04-2017, 02:46 PM

Gertner made a thread about STD getting drunk (based on a post that STD made). Now mike adamle mentions it every chance he gets to be "funny" or something.

mike adamle

05-04-2017, 02:47 PM

Actually I was the first to pick on STD's post

mike adamle

05-04-2017, 02:49 PM

And it's not funny that our friend STD has a drinking problem, it's even worse that you guys allow it

screech

05-04-2017, 02:49 PM

My bad. Still not funny, though.

mike adamle

05-04-2017, 02:54 PM

Alcoholism has never been funny...

BigCrippyZ

05-04-2017, 02:57 PM

I know Dave. I consider him a friend or at least an acquaintance.

:lol:

It seems like you're a shitty friend then.

I can't speak for Dave, but I know that I wouldn't consider someone who doesn't respect what I do for a living or at least who bad mouths me anonymously on the internet, to be my friend.

drave

05-04-2017, 04:40 PM

But if someone is anonymously bad mouthing you on the internet, how do you know?

Cool King

05-04-2017, 06:10 PM

Where's my Nia Jax nudes?

She doesn't have any as she's not like most girls.

Ol Dirty Dastard

05-04-2017, 07:44 PM

:lol:

It seems like you're a shitty friend then.

I can't speak for Dave, but I know that I wouldn't consider someone who doesn't respect what I do for a living or at least who bad mouths me anonymously on the internet, to be my friend.

Being part of the wrestling industry I'm sure Dave is used to those to claim to be his friends, talking shit about him.

BigCrippyZ

05-04-2017, 08:33 PM

But if someone is anonymously bad mouthing you on the internet, how do you know?

I'm not saying you would, but it's not something I would expect my friends to do about me, as I wouldn't do that to them.

BigCrippyZ

05-04-2017, 08:33 PM

Being part of the wrestling industry I'm sure Dave is used to those to claim to be his friends, talking shit about him.

True.

#1-norm-fan

05-04-2017, 08:42 PM

Emperor Smeat

05-04-2017, 10:26 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Newest member of the List of Jericho:
https://68.media.tumblr.com/52c85c4db48786157017aa8b4f18eeed/tumblr_opctcap4tO1u1ljrzo3_540.gif

WWE announced its first quarter financial results showing more revenue but with profits well down from the same period last year.

The first quarter, which doesn’t include WrestleMania, generated $188,444,000 in revenue and posted an $897,000 profit. For the first quarter of 2016, the numbers were $171,100,00 in revenue and $14,111,000 in profits.

The WrestleMania business rundown won’t be released until early August.

The disappointing profits saw the stock drop $1 per share in price to $19.79 per share and a $1.51 billion company market value. WWE had alerted investors after WrestleMania that first quarter profits would be lower than at first indicated, but even with that, Wall Street was expecting profits closer to $2.0 to $2.5 million.

The profits once again failed to cover the dividend of $9,169,320. But overall cash on hand did stay relatively even, as it was $267,140,000 at the end of 2016 (a figure bolstered by a lot of money in loans) and on 3/31 it was up to $270,683,000.

Of note, the WWE Network averaged 1,490,000 paid subscribers over the first quarter of 2017. WWE noted that the number represents a 16 percent increase over last year's opening quarter.

There were 1,574,000 paid network subscriptions as of March 31st, with 1,165,000 subscribers in the United States and 409,000 internationally. There were 1,697,000 total subscribers at the end of the quarter.

The network had 1,661,000 paid subscriptions as of April 3rd, which was the day after WrestleMania. Total subscribers fell just short of two million then, coming in at 1,949,000.

Charlotte Flair posted a statement on Twitter about nude photos of her that have been leaked online: "Private photos of mine were stolen and shared publicly without my consent. These images must be removed from the Internet immediately."

Mark Henry showed up at last night's San Antonio Spurs vs. Houston Rockets playoff game and took part in a segment where he laid out the Rockets' mascot with a steel chair.
Link to the video: https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/859956137076064256

Ring of Honor returns to PPV next Friday 5/12 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City with "War of the Worlds" featuring:

*ROH champion Christopher Daniels vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Jay Lethal.

*ROH TV champion Marty Scurll vs. Matt Sydal

*ROH Tag Team champions The Young Bucks vs. Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI.

*ROH Six Man Tag Team champions Bully Ray & The Briscoes vs. NEVER Openweight champion Hirooki Goto & Roppongi Vice.

*Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Adam Cole.

*IWGP Tag Team champions War Machine vs. EVIL & SANADA vs. Jonathan Gresham & Chris Sabin (with Alex Shelley).

*Will Ospreay vs. Jay White.

*Adam "Hangman" Page vs. Frankie Kazarian.

*KUSIDA vs. Dalton Castle vs. Silas Young vs. Bobby Fish.

The attorneys representing TNA Wrestling, LLC in the lawsuit brought against them last year by Nashville-based Fraley International, LLC (which handles importation of merchandise from overseas) over money owed from shipments of TNA merchandise being brought to the United States after it was produced in the Far East, have withdrawn as their representation as of 4/24. They filed a motion asking the Chancery Court in Nashville to allow them to stop representing TNA on 3/16, citing lack of payment.

WWE's "Bring It To The Table" will now be a monthly series on the WWE Network, according to PWInsider. The next episode will premiere after Monday's RAW goes off the air with Peter Rosenberg, Corey Graves and JBL discussing the recent "House of Horrors" match at WWE Payback between Bray Wyatt and WWE Champion Randy Orton. It appears Paul Heyman will not be returning to the series.

In a move that has to open up a lot of questions regarding the long-term of the project, the ITV television tapings scheduled for 5/25 and 5/26 at the Guild Hall in Preston, England, have been cancelled. The news was first broken by PW Insider even before talent was told shortly after the news had surfaced. Neither ITV nor Anthem Entertainment, who were working together on the project, had commented on the story. On 5/2, there was an announcement in the form of a single tweet by Anthem that the tapings weren’t taking place and that fans could get ticket refunds, with the story being it was due to contract negotiations.

That reason was actually honest, in the sense it was because ITV and Anthem Entertainment failed to reach an agreement regarding the deal to start the promotion and host the shows. That much wasn’t stated. A number of sources have said that it was due to issues involving the failure to get the contract signed or reach an agreement on contract terms. Exactly what the hold-up was isn’t clear, but it had to do with being unable to reach an agreement on how much money each side was going to put into the project. It’s not clear if the partnership has fallen apart or that there were issues each side wasn’t able to agree on at this point and it led to dates being postponed.

There will be an attempt to do WOS tapings in July or August, with the idea of the show starting on television during soccer season. There was a cultural belief that people would attend afternoon soccer matches throughout the country, and then come home and watch pro wrestling in that time slot during the 60s, 70s and 80s. ITV was looking at Anthem to fund much of the costs and them providing the time slot and build from that time slot into a promotion with live events and merchandise. They were looking at a light-hearted wrestling show, a style different from what has been popular in the U.K. on the independent level, using mostly British talent and some foreigners. When ITV was looking for an outside partner, Anthem and What Culture were the two companies suggested. They went with Anthem since they had more experience in producing weekly television.
Some new updates to ITV's World of Sport taping delays. Seems Impact Wrestling's new owner is to blame for why it occurred.

Jim Ross wrote on the AXS front that the final decision is expected this week regarding the TVs from Long Beach. He said it could end up one of three ways, either the shows aren’t broadcast live at all, that both shows go live in prime, or that one show goes live and the other show will air on a tape delay. The working idea as of this week, which is not finalized, was to show both events live with Jim Ross and Josh Barnett calling the action. Station officials seemed confident enough about it that they told Bob Magee that the plan was to do both shows live. We’re told that AXS wants to do that, that it’s the working idea, but that as of press time, New Japan had not signed off on the deal so it’s not been officially announced. New Japan World will also show both events live for those who don’t have AXS

TNA didn’t send out a press release, but internally they were thrilled with the numbers of the first week of Impact on Spike U.K. The 4/21 debut was watched by 151,000 viewers, the fifth highest rated show no the station. The last Impact show on Challenge in December did 160,000 viewers, but 151,000 was in the ballpark of what the show was doing. We do know that the 4/28 show declined from that range, but don’t have the figure

The Hardys tried to get Jeremy Borash to come with them to WWE and help since Borash was such a big part of the Broken Hardys creative. With his role as the lead announcer here and tons of the other things he’s part of like being the M.C. for Chef Robert Irvine live shows and Jim Ross live shows, he felt it was better to stay

What may be the first Lesnar vs. Strowman title match could headline the 7/9 PPV show in Dallas which is actually being called the “Great Balls of Fire” PPV. It’s the first advertised Lesnar match since he won the title. Lesnar was to face Strowman before SummerSlam, and whether that led to a SummerSlam rematch or a different opponent for SummerSlam is something unclear. Balor and Rollins both brought up wrestling Lesnar on Raw.

The company sent out another round of three month free network trials to former subscribers on 4/28. They noted that this would cover the period through the end of July, meaning six PPV shows and one Takeover special. What’s notable about this is that previously if you got a free offer, you wouldn’t get another one. However, there were people who had already just used a three month free offer, and were no longer subscribers, that were getting this offer. One person noted to us he’s now gotten nine months free based on their offers. Another, whose three free months just expired this past week, said that he went to cancel, and was the offered another free month to stay

Wendy Barlow, Ric Flair’s fiancé, was doing well after her traffic accident on 4/25. She was in a neck brace, but doing well enough that Flair did is weekend appearance scheduled for Kansas City. Barlow, who lives in Atlanta, was at an intersection, stationary, due to a red light, when another car rear-ended her. She saw it coming and turned the wheel of the are so at impact she was knocked away instead of into the car right in front of her

Some other sheet news includes:

Recent article on WWE's official website re-imagined Star Wars characters as wrestlers as part of Star Wars Day celebrations. http://www.wwe.com/article/star-wars-day-may-the-4th-reimagined-wwe-superstars
During a recent Observer Radio show, Dave Metlzer speculated the crying Aiden English segment from Smackdown might have been WWE's way of making fun of former announcer Mauro Ranallo.
Same show also had Meltzer speculate NJPW might be considering the idea of Okada vs Cody Rhodes for the G1 Climax Special in the US. Previously was speculated Omega vs Okada might be the major match for the event.
Former member of WWE's Creative team recently revealed several rejected ideas and plans for wrestlers and WWE's reasons for the rejections. One included re-imaging the Goldust character with Cody Rhodes and another involved a new Invasion type angle. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0504/625895/former-wwe-creative-writer-talks-about-rejected-story-ideas/
Stephanie McMahon had a recent interview with The National talking about the Women's Revolution, Triple H's Mania entrance traditions, and GM Kurt Angle. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0504/625888/stephanie-mcmahon-on-working-with-kurt-angle/
WWE's upcoming Women's Tournament got delayed again with the WWE now planning a late 2017 date for the event. Previously the WWE was planning an early 2017 date before going with the UK tournament instead and then somewhere between May-July before the recent delay.
During a recent autograph session, Hulk Hogan stated he's currently in talks with Vince for a possible return back to the WWE.

Lock Jaw

05-04-2017, 10:32 PM

Charlotte Flair posted a statement on Twitter about nude photos of her that have been leaked online: "Private photos of mine were stolen and shared publicly without my consent. These images must be removed from the Internet immediately."

I don't think Charlotte knows how the internet works.

Simple Fan

05-04-2017, 10:55 PM

My opinion, if she didnt want them stolen she should have deleted them. Whats the point of keeping photos like that when mirrors exist.

Emperor Smeat

05-04-2017, 11:10 PM

Very likely those photos came from the same recent batch as the Paige leaks which came from the same batch as the original Fappening event a few years ago. If so, wouldn't mater if she previously deleted the photos since Apple supposedly kept copies on their cloud servers without informing people.

Her name was also among those teased to be getting leaked after the Paige set of wrestler leaks happened.

Simple Fan

05-04-2017, 11:21 PM

Apple, the forbidden fruit. When will people realize that Apple is evil. Never had an Apple product in my life and probably wont unless they takeover the world and force me to.

The CyNick

05-05-2017, 10:20 AM

:lol:

It seems like you're a shitty friend then.

I can't speak for Dave, but I know that I wouldn't consider someone who doesn't respect what I do for a living or at least who bad mouths me anonymously on the internet, to be my friend.

I respect his work as a historian far more than I do investigative journalist. And that's only because the sources he relies on are largely junk. He's not having private conversations with the people who actually make decisions. That's the only part of his work that I am very critical of.

Evil Vito

05-05-2017, 10:24 AM

I respect his work as a historian far more than I do investigative journalist.

This is pretty much where I'm at. Meltzer has watched a lot of wrestling. Like, a lot of wrestling. I doubt anybody else on the planet has ever consumed as much wrestling as Meltzer because he's watched pretty much every televised show or PPV put out by every company over the span of 30 years.

So I wouldn't question him as a historian. I'm sure he has sources within WWE but Vince makes the final calls and has such a tight inner circle that any "dirt" his sources would have is still gonna be vague as fuck.

BigCrippyZ

05-05-2017, 11:39 AM

This is pretty much where I'm at. Meltzer has watched a lot of wrestling. Like, a lot of wrestling. I doubt anybody else on the planet has ever consumed as much wrestling as Meltzer because he's watched pretty much every televised show or PPV put out by every company over the span of 30 years.

So I wouldn't question him as a historian. I'm sure he has sources within WWE but Vince makes the final calls and has such a tight inner circle that any "dirt" his sources would have is still gonna be vague as fuck.

Well of course, I agree. That's always been the case though and anyone with a brain should view his reporting in the same way. Anyone who doesn't isn't very intelligent. That also doesn't mean his sources don't most of the time have legit, albeit vague, or not necessarily reliable info, at least at the time they pass it along to Meltzer.

#1-norm-fan

05-05-2017, 11:44 AM

I know his sources personally. I consider them friends.

Evil Vito

05-05-2017, 02:34 PM

Is it Fandango?

Big Vic

05-05-2017, 03:14 PM

My opinion, if she didnt want them stolen she should have deleted them. Whats the point of keeping photos like that when mirrors exist.

I have a nice pic of my cock I like to keep around.

Simple Fan

05-05-2017, 07:42 PM

Careful there is a leaker leaking leaks of stuff like that. Good thing you're not famous, or are you?

slik

05-06-2017, 01:08 AM

Sepholio

05-06-2017, 01:22 AM

Is that hellfire I see as his campaign logo?

Lock Jaw

05-06-2017, 02:24 AM

(WWE Kane)

#1-norm-fan

05-06-2017, 02:32 AM

Is it Fandango?

No.

But I just so happen to know him as well. I consider him a friend, or at least an acquaintance.

Emperor Smeat

05-06-2017, 01:47 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Talking Smack Gif:
http://i.imgur.com/OLYhuuV.gif

Kairi Hojo, one of the elite woman wrestlers in the world, who signed with WWE in March, but had personally kept it quiet, should be reporting to the Performance Center shortly.

Hojo, real name Kaori Housako, 28, announced at Saturday's Stardom show that she is leaving the promotion. She never mentioned WWE, because talent is not allowed to mention they are going to WWE until WWE announces it first.

We had reported Hojo's negotiations and signing as the story was playing out from last year. WWE was after both Hojo and Stardom's top star, Io Shirai. Shirai was brought to Orlando not that long ago to train, which was not supposed to go public but due to a communications issue, was briefly mentioned on the WWE website.

Shirai hasn't signed with WWE at this point.

Hojo has wrestled for just over five years and was an Olympic hopeful in yachting before getting into pro wrestling. She had worked a few shows for Lucha Underground but was not under contract with the promotion.

Ember Moon has been pulled off the advertising for the NXT TakeOver show on 5/20 in Chicago. The women's title match is now a three-way with Asuka vs. Ruby Riot vs. Nikki Cross. It had been scheduled for a four-way.

The 5/4 edition of Impact on Pop brought in 260,000, a slight rise from last week's 255,000 viewers, but still down significantly from 320,000 viewers two weeks ago.

WWE Publishing is doing a giveaway to the first 200 people who post a photo of themselves at a "Free Comic Book Day" event (May 7) on their social media and also use using hashtag #FCBDWWE. The first 200 will receive a digital copy of the first WWE comic book from Boom! Studios.

Tomorrow, @WWE is celebrating #FCBD17 with a #FCBDWWE giveaway! Find your local comic shop here and join the fun: https://t.co/CK4YDzwQc6 pic.twitter.com/fWpV3gEiw5
— WWE Publishing (@WWEpublishing) May 5, 2017

The teams for Monday's RAW Tag Team Turmoil match from London have been revealed - Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, Enzo Amore & Big Cass, Goldust & R-Truth, Sheamus & Cesaro, Heath Slater & Rhyno. As noted, the winners of the match will become new #1 contenders to RAW Tag Team Champions The Hardys.

Katsuyori Shibata is still hospitalized. He’s been in touch with some of the wrestlers via text, and the word is he’s in good spirits and making jokes to some of them about wrestling, such as how ridiculous Yoshitatsu’s new look is. He’s in stable condition, but only family members are allowed to see him. The company is looking to create a new top star feeling there is a major hole to fill, so that may happen in G-1

On April 28. 2017, TNA Entertainment registered to trademark Broken Matt, Brother Nero, Vanguard1 and Broken Brilliance.

Some other sheet news includes:

WWE recently uploaded around 120 hours worth of footage from Prime Time Wrestling to the WWE Network.
Recent episode of the Busted Open podcast show had Chris Jericho as the guest talking about his recent WWE run, Fozzy, and him trying to get newer stars over. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0506/625930/chris-jericho-on-latest-wwe-run-among-the-best-and-lasting/
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, yesterday was the 15th Anniversary of WWE's "Plane Ride from Hell" incident. For some reference, this was the incident that led to Mr Perfect and Scott Hall getting fired. A brawl broke out during the trip, Lesnar almost opened the door to the plane in mid-flight, Micheal Hayes almost pissed on someone, and Ric Flair supposedly sexually assaulted the flight attendants. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/69elg9/15_years_ago_today_a_number_of_wwe_personnel_got/
In another "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Asuka hit the 400 day milestone for her NXT Women's title reign today.
Lucha Underground's Jack Evans recently suffered a seizure during a show in Mexico according to reports. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/69kv0c/jack_evans_has_suffered_a_seizure_after_a_bad/

The CyNick

05-08-2017, 12:01 PM

Well of course, I agree. That's always been the case though and anyone with a brain should view his reporting in the same way. Anyone who doesn't isn't very intelligent. That also doesn't mean his sources don't most of the time have legit, albeit vague, or not necessarily reliable info, at least at the time they pass it along to Meltzer.

99% of his sources have 75% made up stories.

The PPV cards are the best. If he even had a low level person on the inside feeding him info, he would know the top of the card for several shows in advance because promos are cut well in advance. It's a small example of how his sources are fake news for the most part.

Big Vic

05-08-2017, 12:07 PM

On April 28. 2017, TNA Entertainment registered to trademark Broken Matt, Brother Nero, Vanguard1 and Broken Brilliance.Why?

Emperor Smeat

05-08-2017, 12:39 PM

Just them trying to get as much leverage into a possible settlement from the WWE. WWE knows Anthem is only pulling these antics to get a fatter paycheck and the WWE doesn't care because they don't want to get dragged into another legal mess with Impact again.

They just recently came off from a potential big legal mess with ROH in regards to their signing practices and don't want to deal with another lawsuit that can be avoidable.

Emperor Smeat

05-09-2017, 10:21 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Round of Claps for the Sheets:
http://i.imgur.com/DHvlFTW.gif

Raw fell to yet another non-football season and non-holiday record modern low last night with 2.68 million viewers for the show in London.

The audience dropped six percent over the previous low mark set last week of 2.86 million viewers.

The last time Raw numbers were at this point outside of football season was 1997, when it went head-to-head with Nitro ...

In the past, being taped hadn't hurt the rating but it does appear that was the case here. Next week will be more evident because if the number is in the same ballpark for a live show, that would be a very bad sign.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.83 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.85 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.42 million viewers

Emma was injured at today's house show in Liverpool, England. Banks did the double knee spot and covered Emma, who was supposed to kick out, but didn't. The ref counted to three and then waved off the call. The other four women in the match (Bayley, Banks & Mickie James vs. Alexa Bliss, Emma & Nia Jax) brawled and realizing Emma was hurt, Banks went to pin her again and the ref counted three again. She left under her own power holding her arm and shoulder ...

Emma wrote that she's off of the remaining European tour dates and headed back to the United States to get tests on her injured shoulder.
Link to the announcement by Emma: https://www.instagram.com/p/BT3IK9ajo9k/

Rusev posted a video where he said that he's coming to SmackDown next week to look for answers from Shane McMahon. An angle was set up on the show two weeks ago where he said that he would only join the brand in the roster shakeup if he got a WWE title shot at Money in the Bank. He's been out of action since having shoulder surgery in March.

Kairi Hojo, one of the elite woman wrestlers in the world, who signed with WWE in March, but had personally kept it quiet, should be reporting to the Performance Center shortly.

Hojo, real name Kaori Housako, 28, announced at Saturday's Stardom show that she is leaving the promotion. She never mentioned WWE, because talent is not allowed to mention they are going to WWE until WWE announces it first.

We had reported Hojo's negotiations and signing as the story was playing out from last year. WWE was after both Hojo and Stardom's top star, Io Shirai. Shirai was brought to Orlando not that long ago to train, which was not supposed to go public but due to a communications issue, was briefly mentioned on the WWE website.

Shirai hasn't signed with WWE at this point.

In a video that WWE posted, Scott Dawson said that The Revival plan to be back in six weeks. Dash Wilder is currently sidelined after fracturing his jaw.

Thaddeus Bullard, who works as Titus O'Neil in WWE, had a lawsuit filed against him in Los Angeles County Superior Court stemming from a incident filming the WWE Network show "Swerved".

TMZ originally broke the story.

Donald Anderson, who worked on the show as a cameraman, claimed the incident took place on May 18, 2015, and is suing for more than $1.2 million in damages.

According to his complaint, Bullard was zapped with an electric shock as part of the show. Anderson claimed that when that happened, Bullard kicked the camera out of his hands, causing serious inury to his hand, fingers, and wrist.

Anderson said that when it happened, he was told to leave the premises immediately for fear of further attacks.

Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne will once again be facing off with the WWE United Kingdom Championship on the line.

It was announced at yesterday's[Sunday] UK TV tapings in Norwich that there would be a UK title defense at NXT TakeOver: Chicago on May 20th. The participants for the match were then confirmed today, with Dunne set to challenge for Bate's title.

WWE officially announced that the NXT Women's Championship match at TakeOver: Chicago is now a triple threat with Asuka defending against Ruby Riot and Nikki Cross. Ember Moon was removed from the match due to what WWE claims is a grade one shoulder sprain.

Several standout independent wrestlers attended WWE's tryouts in the UK this week. WWE confirmed that Jurn Simmons, Flash Morgan Webster, Chris Brookes, Travis Banks, and TK Cooper were among the names there.

Jim Ross announced today on his blog that he will be the play-by-play announcer for the WWE U.K. television show, teaming with Nigel McGuinness.

The first shows were taped on Saturday and Sunday in Norwich, England, with results on the front page of the site.

As of what we've heard, the shows will be broken up into weekly one-hour shows, similar to NXT, airing on the WWE Network. At the tapings yesterday, it was announced that the first episode would be debuting before the end of the month.

Triple H also tweeted the same thing.

Ross will continue to also do weekly television for AXS and New Japan Pro Wrestling due to the unique contract situation he has, so he will be announcing for the two largest pro wrestling companies in the world at the same time.

WWE Chairman Vince McMahon took to Twitter today and wished Batista a happy anniversary. As seen below, the man behind Marvel's Drax The Destroyer responded and said he has "a f--k ton of unleashing left" in him:

15 years ago today, @WWE unleashed The Animal @DaveBautista on the WWE Universe. Happy anniversary, "Drax."
— Vince McMahon (@VinceMcMahon) May 9, 2017

I still have a f--k ton of unleashing left in me! Thanks for showing me the world boss! #DreamChaser https://t.co/ufoXLcdtWL
— Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) May 9, 2017

Earlier today, PWInsider.com noted that a source at Impact Wrestling disputed that the company had filed for trademarks related to the "Broken Universe" Hardy-related characters in April (government documents list it as 4/28/17) but had actually filed back in January.

In response to our report, Matt and Rebecca Hardy each took to Twitter, knocking that claim:

The days of "working" figures & statistics (aka lying) in this industry are OVAH.. Especially government documented records. https://t.co/CHCi0QTAEo
— The VESSEL of MMH (@MATTHARDYBRAND) May 9, 2017

Again, government records list 4/28/17.

Obviously, the situation is going to get uglier unless all sides come to some sort of agreement.

Pro Wrestling Sheet has learned Braun Strowman is scheduled to be out of action following tonight’s Raw taping to undergo a minor procedure to fix some issues with his elbow.

Sources tell us Strowman will be gone four to eight weeks due to the undisclosed injury/surgery, causing creative to re-tool plans for Extreme Rules and Great Balls of Fire.

Braun’s character on TV is supposedly suffering from a torn rotator cuff — even though he’s been wrestling Roman Reigns in street fights on the UK/European tour — and his injury angle was furthered at the TV taping tonight to officially give him time to get fixed up.

Strowman came out in a sling to wrestle Kalisto, but Reigns quickly interrupted. The segment ended with Roman hitting Braun’s arm with a steel chair on the steps.

Bring It To The Table returned to the WWE Network last night after RAW. It was the first episode since March, which was believed to have been the catalyst in Mauro Ranallo's WWE departure.

Corey Graves, JBL and Peter Rosenberg made light of the controversy during the opening of last night's show. Rosenberg noted that there has been controversy over his comments about Roman Reigns, while Graves said that there has been controversy over his own comments regarding Shane McMahon. The camera then cut to JBL, who had a humorous guilty expression on his face, who simply introduced himself before saying that he "won $24 last week playing golf."

As noted, Mauro Ranallo and WWE parted ways in late April. While Mauro remains under WWE contract until August 12th, he will be able to commentate for non-wrestling shows until then.
During the same episode JBL said he rather be captured by ISIS than ever hang out with Sami Zayn. Was done as one of those commercial cut-in type segments PTI does on ESPN but those usually have some context while JBL's statement had no context with the show itself.

WWE has green-lit a new WWE Network series starring R-Truth, PWInsider.com has confirmed with multiple sources.

WWE secretly filmed a pilot for what would be the Network's first-ever game show with Truth as the host back in March and we are told the series has been picked up for a first season.

The plan is for the series to debut in late summer/early Fall.

Some other sheet news includes:

Kane was revealed to be this week's guest for Edge & Christian Podcast show.
Deadspin had a recent article about Billy Corgan's attempts to buy the NWA. http://deadspin.com/billy-corgan-is-buying-pro-wrestlings-oldest-and-deades-1795018011
Recent episode of the Talk Is Jericho podcast show had Samoa Joe as the guest. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0509/626023/samoa-joe-talks-signing-with-nxt/

Sepholio

05-10-2017, 12:29 AM

NO NOT BRAUN >_<

SlickyTrickyDamon

05-10-2017, 12:30 AM

BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNN

:(

Emperor Smeat

05-10-2017, 10:07 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Orton's Undefeated Streak against fridges:
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Despite the near-record low WWE Raw ratings from the night before and strong competition from network fare and the NBA playoffs, SmackDown's ratings for their taped show on Tuesday, May 9th were up two percent from last week.

However, the 2.348 million viewers marks the eighth lowest number for the show since moving to a live format last July.

The show was taped earlier in the day from the UK and was heavily wrestling-oriented with a main event six-man tag match featuring WWE World Champion Randy Orton, Jinder Mahal, and more.

SmackDown finished 11th for the night in total viewers on cable but third in the 18-49 demo with a 0.74 rating, trailing only NBA playoff action and its post-game show.
Dave Meltzer thinks next couple of weeks could be another low mainly because several big shows are having their season finales during that period.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is on the cover of GQ Magazine this month and GQ's Caity Weaver wrote an excellent profile on him. It has received a lot of attention for Johnson saying that there's a "real possibility" that he'll run for President of the United States one day. Johnson answered some political questions and revealed that both the Trump and Clinton campaigns wanted him to endorse them last year, but he declined because he didn't want to make people unhappy or sway opinions.
Link to the article: http://www.gq.com/story/dwayne-johnson-for-president-cover

Braun Strowman confirmed that he'll soon be undergoing surgery: "I will return to finish what I've started and that's carving my name in history as the most destructive thing #WWE has ever seen. This surgery is just a minor speed bump I will return bigger stronger faster and even more dangerous than ever mark my words I'm the definition of unstoppable!!!"

Former Tough Enough winner Sara Lee and NXT wrestler Wesley Blake are now parents after Lee gave birth to their daughter on May 1st.
Link to the announcement: https://www.instagram.com/p/BT60Lmjgc25/

PROGRESS Wrestling revealed Tyler Bate, Zack Sabre Jr., and Zack Gibson as the latest entrants for the company's Super Strong Style 16 tournament.

Though it took longer than expected, Brianna and Bryan Danielson (Brie Bella and Daniel Bryan) finally welcomed their daughter into the world last night.

WWE.com and E! Online announced the news today. The baby's name is Birdie Joe Danielson (as was previously revealed) and she was born at 11:58 p.m. on Tuesday.

"There is no better feeling in the world than meeting your daughter,” Brianna said. “I can't even express the overwhelming joy and love that Bryan and I are feeling. Now we know what parents mean about the love you feel when you first meet your child. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers on the safety of Birdie coming into this world."

Brianna's due date was originally scheduled for April 30th, but they were told that the baby would be arriving about a week late at a doctor's appointment shortly before then.

This is the couple's first child. They announced that Brianna was expecting last October, which came after she stepped away from wrestling earlier in the year to prepare for motherhood. She was featured in a 10-woman tag on the WrestleMania 32 pre-show in her last match.

Bryan has been absent from his role as SmackDown general manager and co-host of Talking Smack over the last few weeks in anticipation of the arrival of the baby.

Vince McMahon tweeted the following to congratulate Daniel Bryan and Brie Bella on the birth of their first child, a daughter named Birdie Joe Danielson. As reported earlier via WWE, Birdie Joe arrived on Tuesday night, May 9th at 11:58pm. She was born at 8 pounds, 10 ounces and 21 inches. Vince welcomed Birdie Joe to the WWE family with this tweet:

Congratulations to Brie @BellaTwins & @WWEDanielBryan on their beautiful daughter and newest addition to the @WWE family.
— Vince McMahon (@VinceMcMahon) May 10, 2017

WWE announced today on their community affairs website that WWE exec and long-time performer Paul "Triple H" Levesque will be inducted into the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) Alumni Hall of Fame today in Dallas, Texas. The Hall of Fame honors distinguished people who got their start at their local Boys & Girls Club. Also being honored today are WNBA star Skylar Diggins, MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark, Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten, actor Anthony Anderson, Dr. Dante Lauretta and Dr. Philip Schein. Vince McMahon was inducted into the Hall in 2015.

Impact Wrestling has signed MJ Jenkins to a contract, PWInsider.com has confirmed. Jenkins is the female talent who took a hellaciously long bus ride to Orlando for a tryout a few months back.

WWE will begin taping their announced Women's tournament on Thursday 7/13 and Friday 7/14 at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida, PWInsider.com has confirmed.

The tournament, a 32 competitor event, will be taped for a WWE Network series. As PWInsider.com reported earlier this week, the current plan is to not release the episodes as a weekly episodic series but to instead release sets of episodes at once as Video on Demand programming, similar to how WWE has rolled out original series such as Holy Foley! and Camp WWE in the past. This would be the first attempt at releasing first-run in-ring programming with this strategy on the Network,.

The tournament would be similar to the Cruiserweight Classic with a big focus being on different international competitors. A number of talents are already undergoing background checks.

The current plan is to hold the finals of the tournament as a live WWE Network special on Tuesday 8/29.
Some new updates to WWE's upcoming Women's tournament.

WWE officially released the WrestleMania 33 DVD and Blu-ray this week. Each set comes with a Seth Rollins Topps trading card while Walmart exclusive sets include the trading card and a John Cena "Fathead" wall decal. You can order the set via Amazon at this link. It's worth noting that the WrestleMania 33 Kickoff pre-show matches did not make the DVD or Blu-ray in the United States. Austin Aries vs. WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville, Baron Corbin vs. WWE Intercontinental Champion Dean Ambrose and the 4th annual Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal are only included in the UK versions of the set, which will be released on June 5th.

Some other sheet news includes:

In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is William Regal's 49th birthday.
In another "WWE Did You Know" type fact, WWE once offered Observer's Brain Alvarez a contract to be a consultant for Creative prior to Alvarez turning down the offer. Occurred somewhere between 2002-2003. https://twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/status/862411255788720128
Alexa Bliss was announced to be Thursday's guest for the Talk Is Jericho podcast show. https://www.instagram.com/p/BT7TrJsF1rz/
During a recent interview with ESPN, Triple H stated he thinks Aliestar Black could become a big star for the WWE out of the current batch of stars in the NXT. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0510/626031/triple-h-on-which-nxt-star-he-thinks-will-be-a-player/
Inside The Ropes had a recent interview with AJ Styles about wrestling Shane at Mania 33 and thoughts on Taker's retirement http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0510/626050/aj-styles-on-his-friendship-with-the-undertaker/
Inside The Ropes also had a recent interview with Daniel Bryan who revealed he wants to try a return to in-ring wrestling once his contract with the WWE expires. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/6ac5f4/daniel_bryan_on_future_after_wwe_contract_ends_if/

Big Vic

05-11-2017, 02:49 PM

Why would you give your child the initials "BJ"?

Lock Jaw

05-11-2017, 02:54 PM

BJ Danielson Mania

Cool King

05-11-2017, 02:56 PM

I'll always find Birdie to be a weird name.

It always just makes me think of Birdie from Street Fighter.

Cool King

05-11-2017, 02:57 PM

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RetFVKYAiG8/Uqi4dTiHLxI/AAAAAAAAAMA/f0zkJKf78R4/s1600/birdie.gif

Emperor Smeat

05-11-2017, 11:00 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Psycho Sid forgetting how doors work:
https://68.media.tumblr.com/a6be6facd00f7bff5be813189518cf26/tumblr_oprnlsBXO61qcztrfo1_400.gif

The website betonline.ag has established 80-to-1 odds on Dwayne Johnson being our next president. The favorites are Donald Trump at 11-to-4, Mike Pence at 6-1, Elizabeth Warren at 8-1, Michelle Obama at 14-to-1 and Cory Booker and Bernie Sanders at 20-to-1.
Washington Post also recently covered the idea of The Rock running for President: http://https//www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/05/10/will-dwayne-the-rock-johnson-actually-run-for-president-its-a-real-possibility/?utm_term=.911b795db6c0

Stephanie McMahon, doing promotional work in the U.K., hinted on a future WrestleMania or SummerSlam in the U.K.
Link to the article: https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/wwe/3537108/wwe-stephanie-mcmahon-uk-pay-per-view-wrestlemania/

Ring of Honor returns to PPV this Friday with "War of the Worlds 2017" from the sold out Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City at 9 PM Eastern, featuring:

*ROH champion Christopher Daniels vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Jay Lethal.

*ROH TV champion Marty Scurll vs. Matt Sydal.

*ROH Tag Team champions The Young Bucks vs. Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI.

*ROH Six Man Tag Team champions Bully Ray & The Briscoes vs. NEVER Openweight champion Hirooki Goto & Roppongi Vice.

*Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Adam Cole.

*IWGP Tag Team champions War Machine vs. EVIL & SANADA vs. Jonathan Gresham & Chris Sabin (with Alex Shelley).

*Will Ospreay vs. Jay White.

*Adam "Hangman" Page vs. Frankie Kazarian.

*KUSHIDA vs. Dalton Castle (with the Boys) vs. Bobby Fish vs. Silas Young.

The updated lineup for WWE NXT Takeover: Chicago:

*WWE NXT champ Bobby Roode vs. Hideo Itami.

*WWE NXT Tag Team champions The Authors of Pain vs. DIY: Ladder Match.

*WWE NXT Women's champion Asuka vs. Ruby Riot vs. Nikki Cross.

"As far as the performance level it's definitely a business for the young and I am on the older side of young but I don't think I'll ever not be involved with the WWE. They will have to tell me that they no longer need my services because it is my home,"
Part of an interview Cena had with Fox News on the topic of when he wants to retire. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0511/626085/john-cena-on-being-worried-about-fan-reaction-at-wrestlemania/

It’s uncertain how long Strowman will be out of action at this point, as the original estimates were that he could have made the July PPV. However, he’s been pulled off all shows past that 7/9 date, with Bray Wyatt being moved out of his scheduled matches to Finn Balor, to headline the Raw crew live events going forward against Roman Reigns as far as advertising goes. If Strowman is unable to work the July PPV, Rollins or Balor would be the most likely opponent for Lesnar, because Reigns is slotted to face him at next year’s WrestleMania and it doesn’t appear to make sense to do that match first and then bring it back. If anything, Reigns should be sidetracked from a title match until WrestleMania, although that makes booking tricky since Reigns is positioned as the biggest star on the brand except when Lesnar is around. Strowman at last word was expected back for SummerSlam, so he could face Lesnar there.
Current estimates are 1-2 months for Strowman's recovery.

AXS and New Japan closed the deal for how the Long Beach shows will be covered. An announcement will officially be made on 5/18. All indications are the 7/1 show goes live at 8 p.m. Eastern time

Katsuyori Shibata had another brain surgery on 5/2. Before he had the second surgery, he wrote: “It is a miracle to be alive. I had my skull removed in my last surgery. I have another surgery on May 2, 2017. I will return. Every day, using pain medications three to four times. I endure the pain. I can hardly see out of my right eye right now. Currently, the hearing ability in my right ear is not normal. The sound is broken and hard.

On the NWA sale front, 5/10 was supposed to be the deadline for all the papers to be signed for Bruce Tharpe to officially sell the rights to the NWA and whatever intellectual property that goes with it to Billy Corgan. What we do know is that as of 5/9, there was no word that the papers were signed and those in the NWA haven’t heard anything official

Regarding the cancellation of the World of Sport tapings, the public story is logistical problems and the idea the tapings were too close to the dates for the Impact tapings in India (which are 5/30 and 6/1) and they are having trouble getting new dates, but that’s a clear cover reason. The key problem is what was reported here last week regarding ITV and Impact not coming to a business agreement over their partnership. ITV wants to do it, and the feeling was that they had the structure to handle a taping for one show, but not a promotion, which is where TNA came aboard since they have experience in running a wrestling business. It’s certainly not dead that they would be able to reach an agreement and do tapings later. It also may not happen. Whether ITV would do it on their own or work with a U.K. promotion is still up in the air. The problem with the U.K. promotions is that all the talent in the U.K., besides those signed with WWE & Anthem are free agents and work everywhere, and ITV would want a crew under contract so WWE couldn’t pick them off. The Mirror reported that the shows won’t be taped until 2018 which will kill the project because I don’t see any top talent not getting signed somewhere before that. A lot of the talent doesn’t think it’s going to happen now since no new dates were announced and just the way it quietly was announced as not happening. One person key in the plans said the story they were told was they were looking at starting in the next year, which sounds a lot less promising than if they said they’d be taping in the next two months. There were several minor things done to sabotage the project but ultimately I think ITV wanted to try wrestling which used to be cheap programming in the old days, but now it’s expensive and you have to sign the talent to deals or you’ll lose them if they are good to one of many different companies, most notably WWE. There are major issues that aren’t settled. ITV supposedly has a backup plan, but working with What Culture is not something that is being considered right now based on what we’re told. A lot of the talent signed by ITV was unhappy when the word was that Impact would be taking over and wanted out, and even more disappointed when these shows were canceled. Some were told that it may not be until next year when the first tapings take place, which is where the starting back in 2018 story came from. There was actually talk among some of the guys of a Radicalz 2000 jump to WWE, which obviously would have loved to have taken the top tier talent from the project, but many of the key contracts with ITV from the first set of tapings were for one year, so they have a long way to go. There was talk of some of them being at the WWE tryouts, but I’m not sure WWE would let guys try out publicly who have existing contracts and we didn’t hear anything about the contracted guys here trying out. Others involved with the project outright told us that given how everything went down this past week, with the cancellation and not even a clue of a new tapings date, or the nebulous early 2018, that they are going with their own mentality of like it’s not happening, and it’s a big disappointment because much of the talent had high hopes for the project
Its a long read but to summarize, Impact Wrestling is to blame for World of Sport delays and issues ITV is having with its production. Several wrestlers who were interested want out because they don't want to work with Impact Wrestling. ITV is considering an early 2018 date but also likely they will drop the project by then due to rising costs.

Dave Bautista was on Jericho’s podcast and said he had gone to WWE and talked to Vince and HHH about working a retirement program with him and that Vince said it was an interesting idea, but they never got back to him. He said now he’s booked solid the next 18 months so it can’t happen any time soon

Jericho has said that his original plan was to lose at WrestleMania to Owens and that would be it. He said Vince asked him to stay an extra month, since Jericho wasn’t going back on the road until the first week of May with Fozzy. He said he was originally going to finish on 4/30, but then Vince had the idea of him staying the extra day until 5/1. Then, when the decision was made to move Owens, that 5/1 was moved to 5/2. He said he’d like to say they were geniuses this time with the “list, “it” and “stupid idiot” which got him over, but he noted none of those were planned. It just happened and they decided to run with it. He said originally he was just going to do 2016 in WWE and then go back to the music, but the Owens vs. Jericho program got strong enough so he decided to stay through Mania and blow it off there.

Io Shirai hasn’t signed yet and her coming to Orlando in late March to the Performance Center as WWE recruiting didn’t go swimmingly from her standpoint. Shirai is Stardom’s biggest star and Hojo was No. 2. Stardom would be able to survive losing one, but losing both, particularly if Mayu Iwatani also retires, would be devastating.

Henry Holmes, who is a well-known Malibu, CA, based attorney specializes in sports and entertainment, was the one who facilitated the release agreement between WWE and Mauro Ranallo. He has represented and negotiated deals for people like George Foreman (he negotiated the famous George Foreman grill deal), Hulk Hogan, Billie Jean King, Lennox Lewis, Shane Mosely, Martina Navratilova, Oscar De La Hoya, Bill Goldberg, Frank Shamrock, Buzz Aldrin, and Larry King

Ember Moon will be out of action for at least four to five more weeks. There was an angle done on television where Asuka attacked her on the NXT show and it was written that she suffered a grade one shoulder sprain. That aspect was storyline. People in the company have said the angle was a cover for a legit injury, similar to what happened with Strowman this week on Raw. She’s had her arm in a sling and also out of the sling at the Performance Center of late. That puts her out of action in the Takeover show on 5/20 in Chicago. The match now will be Asuka defending in a three-way against Ruby Riot and Nikki Cross

For what it’s worth, WWE sent out a mailer plugging Talking Smack with a new starting time of 10:30 p.m. It had been starting right before 11 p.m. due to 205 Live. WWE officials said that nothing is changing and they just listed 10:30 p.m. because 205 Live has never been scheduled for one hour and so 10:30 p.m. would be the time meaning a time slot prior to the 11 p.m. time slot

Some other sheet news includes:

Emma recently hinted on her Instagram account about getting bad news from her medical test related to her recent shoulder injury. https://www.instagram.com/p/BT9ojqKDeQM/
Chris Jericho is currently expected to return to the WWE by June 30 as part of WWE's tour of Japan during that week. Currently booked on the card for both June 30 and July 1st shows in Tokyo.

#1-norm-fan

05-12-2017, 01:35 AM

Jericho has said that his original plan was to lose at WrestleMania to Owens and that would be it. He said Vince asked him to stay an extra month, since Jericho wasn’t going back on the road until the first week of May with Fozzy. He said he was originally going to finish on 4/30, but then Vince had the idea of him staying the extra day until 5/1. Then, when the decision was made to move Owens, that 5/1 was moved to 5/2.

"NO! You have to get your win back! If you just leave after WrestleMania, our US champion will look stronger than someone else on the roster! I don't care if you're an older guy and putting over a younger talent would be good, not only for business, but for a future feud if/when you do come back... EVERY FEUD MUST BE 50/50! EVERYONE MUST BE EQUAL! DON'T YOU SEE!?"

drave

05-12-2017, 06:37 AM

Emma will be future endeavored soon, sadly.

And for the first time, a NXT special sounds boring.

Cool King

05-12-2017, 10:10 AM

Stephanie McMahon, doing promotional work in the U.K., hinted on a future WrestleMania or SummerSlam in the U.K.

https://s16.postimg.org/s52c7jtlh/14477_-_The_JBL_And_Cole_Show_autoplay_gif_cm_pu.gif

Emperor Smeat

05-12-2017, 11:16 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Random Impact Gif:
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New Japan Pro Wrestling will be crowning the first IWGP United States Champion when the company comes to Long Beach, California in July.

The announcement was made in the ring prior to tonight's co-branded ROH/NJPW War of the Worlds pay-per-view at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. There will be a round robin tournament held over the two nights in Long Beach to determine the first champion.

Jay Lethal was confirmed as the first entrant in the tournament.

The shows in California will take place on July 1st and 2nd. Aside from initial announcements about which NJPW wrestlers will be appearing, this is the biggest news that has been revealed about them so far. The cards should take shape after NJPW's Dominion PPV on June 11th.

Both shows will air live on NJPW World. Jim Ross also posted that AXS TV is set to announce their broadcast plans for the events on May 18th. Ross wrote that fans will like what they hear.

Brock Lesnar, who is slated to return to defend his WWE Universal Title after a three month post-WrestleMania beak and the Great Balls Of Fire PPV on July 9, is scheduled to appear at the following RAW TVs:

June 12 - Lafayette, LA
June 26 - Los Angeles, CA
July 3 - Phoenix, AZ (Go home to Great Balls of Fire)
Jul 10 - Houston, TX (Post-Great Balls of Fire)

According to the schedule listed on the website, the first special of the UK Championship TV Tapings from Norwich last weekend will stream on WWE Network on May 18th from 8 pm to 9:30 pm ET.

Matt Hardy tweeted the following, which is a point that I made as well many times on Elite Audio recently.

If @Billy had got TNA, company/talent would've been great.

Instead, a naive @EdNordholm is now funding GFW into existence at TNA's expense. https://t.co/2ajD3OhmJr
— I AM MORE (@MATTHARDYBRAND) May 12, 2017

I have to agree with Matt, and myself, here. Perhaps Anthem has a vision for TNA that I don't comprehend but from the outside it looks like since they bought the company less than six months ago they have:

Let talent that the TNA fans loved go in The Hardys, Drew Galloway, Maria Kanellis and Mike Bennett, Jade and others.
Had their booking team denigrate the TNA brand that they had just purchased from Dixie Carter as if it wasn't worth promoting, or even watching.
Pushed a company in Global Force Wrestling, which has little-to-no national following, no television and frankly hardly any history, above the product that they just bought, which does have all of those things.

Now again, maybe they have a master plan percolating that will explain this behavior down the line but right now? I am with Matt Hardy. It seems like Anthem needs to step up and protect its investment in the Impact brand instead of promoting GFW.
Article PWI had in regards to the feeling Anthem is blundering with putting too much focus towards GFW instead of putting all the focus on rebuilding Impact.

The 5/11 edition of Impact on Pop brought in 309,000 viewers, up from last week's 260,000 viewers.

WWE Shop's latest sale is "Buy one T-Shirt, get one for $1." No code is needed for the discount. There are some exclusions that apply: Pre-order, Schamberger Art Print T-Shirts, Homage Tees, Junk Food Tees, and Clearance Items. The sale runs until May 12 at 9:59pm EST.

We noted before that Zack Ryder recently returned to the ring at the Performance Center to begin training for his return to SmackDown action. Ryder has been out of action since December with a knee injury. Ryder noted on Twitter that he was training with WWE NXT Superstar Oney Lorcan this week.

It was noted that the backstage segment on this week’s WWE Smackdown Live, which saw Charlotte acting a bit more like a heel towards Naomi and Becky Lynch, may be a tease to once again turn her heel. Meltzer speculated that this may lead to an eventual Naomi versus Charlotte feud with Charlotte taking the heel role even though she’s designated as a babyface right now. It was said that people within the company were opposed the babyface turn in the first place, and Charlotte’s recent actions aren’t unlike her father’s face turns where he still acted a bit heelish.

Some other sheet news includes:

Inside The Ropes recently had an interview with AJ Styles talking about NXT, Great Balls of Fire ppv name, and wrestling in the UK. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0512/626116/aj-styles-on-wwe-naming-ppv-great-balls-of-fire/
Sportskeeda had a recent interview with Jinder Mahal talking about his bulking body, being traded to Smackdown, Randy Orton, and the Singh Bros. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0512/626109/jinder-mahal-on-working-with-randy-orton/
CBS Sports had a recent interview with Taz talking about Braun Strowman's injury, Jinder Mahal's push, and Shinsuke Nakamura. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0512/626108/taz-on-if-braun-strowman-injury-is-a-problem-for-wwe/
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 20th anniversary of RVD's first appearance in the WWE. https://twitter.com/WWE/status/863091995933159424
Micheal Hayes recently teased on Twitter if enough public demand occurs, WWE might consider bringing back the Legends of Wrestling talk show for the Network. https://twitter.com/MichaelPSHayes1/status/860617712728498176

drave

05-13-2017, 08:16 AM

http://globalforcewrestling.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/1920.jpg

Emperor Smeat

05-16-2017, 10:17 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Titus Brand Dance School:
https://j.gifs.com/KOqNRz.gif

The rumor mill for NXT TakeOver: Chicago is about to be in full swing … because there’s a singer who claims she’s recording Johnny Gargano‘s new theme — but she didn’t mention his partner.

A singer named Hope Vista tweeted on Monday night saying, “Tomorrow I am recording lead vocals for WWE star @JohnnyGargano‘s theme for when he enters the ring. Shall be interesting.”

Before you go into full panic mode … it’s possible the singer just didn’t think about her wording and the song is simply for #DIY/Tommaso Ciampa as well.

However … the team has seemingly run it’s course. Especially if they’re unable to regain the tag titles on Sunday. So a turn, presumably by Ciampa, would only seem to make sense.
Spoiler tags used since its related to possible plans for this weekend's NXT Takeover Chicago special.

Raw last night was up only two percent from last week's seasonal all-time low number, doing 2.75 million viewers.

Last week's show did 2.68 million viewers and was taped, and that would seem to indicate that last week's lower numbers, which included a major third hour drop, were only slightly impacted by not being live ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.88 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.72 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.65 million viewers

For some reference, Observer was speculating 2.85 million or better would have been considered good for the WWE based on competition. Jump from taped to live week was pretty bad since it was just 70k more viewers and could have been worse had the Cs-Wizards game lasted longer.

Io Shirai, one of the biggest women's wrestling stars in Japan, has accepted WWE's offer to join the company, our Dave Meltzer reports.

Shirai, 27, is considered one of the top wrestlers in the Stardom promotion. She had previously attended a Performance Center tryout back in March, though WWE quickly wiped out all mentions of her in an accompanying article.

This would be a big blow to Stardom, with both of their top acts in Shirai and Kairi Hojo departing the company. Both had previously considered staying in Japan after receiving interest from WWE late last year, but it seems that both have now changed their minds.

Hojo announced her departure from Stardom earlier this month, and is expected to start at the WWE Performance Center shortly. As of right now, there is no start date for Shirai to come in.
WWE pretty much got the big star they wanted for the upcoming Women's Tournament and likely heavy favorite for it. Might still purge Stardom for at least one more big name based on recent rumors and reports.

Tye Dillinger vs. Aiden English has been officially added to Sunday's WWE Backlash PPV in Chicago, IL, airing as part of the Kickoff broadcast.

Previously announced for the PPV:

*WWE champion Randy Orton vs. Jinder Mahal.

*WWE Smackdown Tag Team champions The Usos vs. Breezango.

*Natalya & Carmella & Tamina vs. Charlotte & WWE Smackdown Women's champion Naomi & Becky Lynch.

*WWE United States champion Kevin Owens vs. AJ Styles.

*Dolph Ziggler vs. Shinsuke Nakamura.

NBC Universal plans to utilize more picture-in-picture commercials during SmackDown in the future. The show will remain playing without sound in a small box on the screen as audio and video from the commercial also airs. NBCU tried out the idea during two episodes of SmackDown last year and it tested well.

NJPW held a press conference last night in advance of the beginning of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament. Business was a topic of conversation, with owner Takaaki Kidani saying that the company wants to "find US stars, develop a dojo, and build a territory." It was also announced that Tomoaki Honma is training in hopes of a return and that there is no timetable on if Katsuyori Shibata will return.

Hiroshi Tanahashi was injured last night in Philadelphia. We don't know anything more than the doctor at the building was examining his biceps. The hope and feeling was that it wasn't a full tear, which would be a major injury. A partial tear people work through although it hurts and doesn't get better quickly unless you take a long rest.

PROGRESS Wrestling has revealed the full lineup for this year's Super Strong Style 16. The field is: Jack Sexsmith, Pastor William Eaver, Travis Banks, Trent Seven, Jeff Cobb, Jimmy Havoc, Flamita, Zack Gibson, Zack Sabre Jr., Tyler Bate, David Starr, Flash Morgan Webster, Nathan Cruz, Mark Haskins, Mark Andrews, Matt Riddle.

So there was a bunch of Twitter stuff going on the past two days. It started when Rip Rogers shared something about too many dives in pro wrestling. Then Bully Ray, who is in ROH, sent a photo of him coming off the top rope. The Young Bucks wrote something about the match described in the Rogers post with a ton of superkicks, dives and this is awesome spots and joked it sounded like a great match. Then Randy Orton, who doesn't like Bully Ray and was in Copenhagen, Denmark on the last night of his tour, wrote a tweet about indy mark, indy guys and old-timers, and bragging about the Smackdown tour doing $5 million in gates over the past 11 shows (I'd think that's a very low estimate and would be closer to $7-8 million) and kind of ran down indy guys. Then Orton apologized.

The reality is that guys looking to make names are always going to do too much for a veteran who has already made their name. And that the style has changed. And that guys in the past who have all kinds of injuries working safer want to warn the young guys for fear of them messing up their bodies. It's really a constant subject behind-the-scenes as far as risks in the ring that is very real. But it's easier to simplify this as bitter veterans or disrespectful young guys rather than address there are two sides to the story. Some guys would like to keep the profession safer, which is a noble goal, and some who aren't gifted with size and look or a promoter who likes them for that reason, want to make themselves stars and have realized through different experiences what works for them and what fans want to see from them.

There was a mistake in the translation and the New Japan U.S. title tournament that will take place on 7/1 and 7/2 in Long Beach will be a single elimination tournament, not a round-robin tournament.

Scott Hall was hospitalized last night with bad chest pain and was very agitated while in Norwich, England. He was appearing for the Knight Family's WAW promotion. He was discharged at 4 a.m. and flew back home after the word first being that he probably shouldn't be traveling. He had a big entourage with him and the ward at the hospital was shut down to accommodate him.

Jim Ross will be joining Nigel McGuinness to call the United Kingdom Championship match at NXT TakeOver: Chicago on Saturday.

Ross announced the news on Twitter today. The match will feature Tyler Bate defending his title against Pete Dunne, which was set up at WWE's tapings in Norwich, England earlier this month.

Those tapings will begin airing on Friday as WWE debuts its first United Kingdom special. Ross and McGuinness were previously announced as the commentary team for that show.

Sources close to the situation have confirmed that Billy Corgan signed a purchase agreement with Bruce Tharpe to purchase the NWA name and its intellectual property. A change in the original deal is that Corgan will now own the NWA on Demand website that has the Paul Boesch Houston tape library on it. The original deal did not include the NWA on Demand site.

Matt Hardy responded to a fan on Twitter asking Impact execs to come to terms with the Hardys over the "Broken" material today, writing:

They have a chance to. Hope they do the right thing. I adore most people there.. Hope a couple of bad apples don't spoil the bunch for them. https://t.co/kTr3smTxix
— #TheTruthTeller MMH (@MATTHARDYBRAND) May 16, 2017

No update on World of Sport and the impression from sources on the British side is that it may be some time before there is an update.

WWE reported on Monday that Braun Strowman is expected to be out of action for up to six months after undergoing successful elbow surgery ...

Dave Meltzer revealed on Wrestling Observer Radio that the six month number is a work, and Strowman is actually expected to wrestle at SummerSlam. Strowman will likely face WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar at the event and return in mid-July to start the build for the match.

Meltzer speculated that WWE will swap Brock Lesnar's original opponent for SummerSlam - which was most likely Seth Rollins or Finn Balor - for the main event of the Great Balls Of Fire pay-per-view in July. As seen on RAW last night, WWE announced that Rollins, Balor, Samoa Joe, Bray Wyatt and Roman Reigns will square off in a Fatal 5-Way at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view on June 4th, with the winner becoming the new #1 contender.

A new generation of CZW is kicking off … and Pro Wrestling Sheet has learned Sami Callihan recently took over their creative team to help lead them into the future.

Sources tell us Callihan and his team will be handling creative/promotional decisions from now on, while CZW Prez DJ Hyde will focus on managing all the back-end business aspects of the company.

The company has long been known for promoting death matches, something that was covered last year in a popular Vice documentary, and stuff like Tournament of Death/Cage of Death will still be happening — but we’re told they’ll no longer be featured as the forefront of the company.

Some other sheet news includes:

Netflix recently released a new trailer for their GLOW wrestling tv series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZqDO6cTYVY
Busted Open Radio had a recent interview with Adam Cole discussing his future now that he's a free agent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdHJYjOnbkg
Busted Open Radio also had a recent interview with Bully Ray discussing Orton's recent tweets and past issues he and Orton had in the WWE. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0515/626195/bully-ray-on-randy-orton-taking-shot-at-him/
Debut of WWE's UK show got delayed from this Thursday to this Friday with NXT Takeover Chicago as the reason since the debut episode has matches tied to the event. Also new debut time of 3PM EST with a replay at 8PM EST.
WWE was revealed to be releasing a Kurt Angle DVD/Blu-Ray set this August.
Recent episode of the Steve Austin Show had Shane McMahon as the guest and topics including his current run in the WWE, criticisms with WWE's current product, and if the backstage is afraid of speaking out or giving ideas to help their careers. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0516/626222/shane-mcmahon-on-triple-h/

Emperor Smeat

05-17-2017, 10:19 PM

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Last night's episode of SmackDown on the USA Network was down to 2.175 million viewers. That's the third lowest total since the brand split and move to a live format.

The only two shows that it beat were last year's November 8th episode, which was against presidential election coverage, and the October 25th episode, which was against the final presidential debate.

Tuesday's big competition on cable was the Golden State Warriors vs. San Antonio Spurs NBA playoff game and NBA draft lottery. Those broadcasts did 5.775 million and 3.224 million viewers respectively and both aired against SmackDown.

SmackDown was down 173,000 viewers from last week (a drop of seven percent), which corresponds with this week's NBA game being up over a million viewers from last week.

The show was 10th for the night on cable in terms of total viewers. In the important 18-49 demo, it was fourth, trailing the NBA game, draft lottery, and SportsCenter, which directly followed the game.

WWE announced an advertising partnership with the Rocket League video game. Rocket League will be sponsoring Backlash, Great Balls of Fire, and SummerSlam.

At last night's Best of the Super Juniors show, Dragon Lee, Marty Scurll, Ricochet, and Taka Michinoku kicked off the tournament with wins in Block A. The winners from Block B were Ryusuke Taguchi, El Desperado, ACH, and Volador Jr.

There will be a Block A show at Korakuen Hall tonight/tomorrow morning with the NJPW rematch of Will Ospreay vs. Ricochet in the same building where their match in last year's tournament took place. It will air on NJPW World at 5:30 a.m. ET. The tournament matches are:

Ospreay vs. Ricochet
Hiromu Takahashi vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
Scurll vs. Dragon Lee
Taka Michinoku vs. Taichi

NJPW announced that they'll be holding a "major press conference" tomorrow about the July shows in Long Beach. It will be streamed on Facebook at 7 p.m. ET. Tomorrow is the day that AXS TV is supposed to announce their broadcast plans for the shows, so the press conference could be related to that.

Al Snow attempted to clarify a story about him being arrested for "failure to appear" on Monday night. Snow wrote that he had a ticket from two years ago that he had taken care of, but due to a typo there was a bench warrant issued for him that he was unaware of. Snow said that he paid a $234 fine and was released.

This past Sunday, Adam Cole wrestled what may have been his final Ring of Honor appearance. Following the match, Cole, addressed the crowd in Philadelphia.

@AdamColePro @ringofhonor farewell! #ThankYouAdam #AdamColeBayBay #TooSweet #BulletClub #ROH #ROHWOTW #WatchROH #ROHTV #ROHPhilly (part 1) pic.twitter.com/UdI87gGb1J
— Michael Hottle (@mychael616) May 15, 2017

@AdamColePro @ringofhonor farewell! #ThankYouAdam #AdamColeBayBay #TooSweet #BulletClub #ROH #ROHWOTW #WatchROH #ROHTV #ROHPhilly (part 2) pic.twitter.com/hmJso7PKyj
— Michael Hottle (@mychael616) May 15, 2017

On the tenth episode of Dinner With The King, Jerry “The King” Lawler and Glenn Moore talk about the tweets from Rip Rogers and Randy Orton over the weekend.

Lawler on today’s indie wrestling: "I think that the problem Rip [Rogers] and Randy [Orton] have is what the young guys think they need to do to get noticed. It’s what the young guys do in these matches that bothers guys who have been in the business for a while. The young guys, like they said, they have a tendency to go out there and try to squeeze in every single move that they know. Every dive. Every flip. Every flop. Everything they can put in one 15-minute match. So in order to do that, if you are going to put all those moves in, you’re not going to have time to sell anything. It’s just going to be one move after another until the match is over. That is not the way wrestling became what it is today. Not what I think veterans look at and not what the business is supposed to be. It’s not that really entertaining for fans. I think that’s Rip’s and Randy’s point they are trying to make there.”

The King also gives insight on when he will hang it up and retire from wrestling: "When the non-wrestling appearances become more and more than the wrestling appearances. But I do not have a set end date when it comes to retiring from wrestling.”
Link to the podcast episode and more highlights: http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0517/626273/jerry-lawler-comments-on-randy-orton-ripping-independent/

Judge Vanessa L. Bryant, who is presiding over the lawsuits brought against WWE in the United States District Court of Connecticut, ordered on 5/9 that the attorneys involved meet with their clients to discuss possible settlement offers that they would be happy with. Bryant also ordered that attorneys from each side inform the court within 21 days of dates in June, July and August where all sides will be available to "commit to a full and final settlement of these matters are available to devote an entire day to settlement discussions with Judge Thomas Smith."

Meanwhile, WWE filed paperwork on 5/12 following up on their request for a Summary Judgment that would end the case against them by former WWE star Vito LoGrasso and former developmental star Evan Singleton. The court had previously thrown out all claims against WWE in their lawsuit, with the exception of the allegation that WWE was fraudulent with passing on their knowledge of potential head injuries that could happen from performing as a professional wrestler for the company. The court has allowed that allegation to stand, feeling that it was within the realm of possibility.
More details from PWInsider: http://www.pwinsider.com/article/109679/wwe-concussion-lawsuit-updates-judge-orders-settlement-discussions.html?p=1

WWE Hall of Famer Ricky Morton will be working as a guest trainer next week at the WWE Performance Center.

Pro Wrestling Sheet has learned Eva Marie will NOT be returning to Total Divas for season seven — and producers have been interviewing her potential replacements.

Multiple sources have confirmed that production is hard at work interviewing the female roster to determine the new cast member before filming begins next month.

We’re told Charlotte and a handful of others are among the women they’ve spoken with.

It’s unclear if Paige will continue to appear on the show, but our sources say original cast members Nikki Bella, Brie Bella, Natalya and Naomi are a lock.

Eva was last seen on the show’s finale dealing with her Wellness violation suspension.

As noted, it was recently revealed that Charly Caruso and former WWE announcer Sean Mooney will be hosting a three-disc "WWE Unreleased: 1986-1995" DVD on September 4th in the UK and September 5th in the United States. WrestlingDVDNetwork.com reports that there are plans to include a rare Owen Hart match from 1986 and a rare Taz match from 1993, which may be a WWE tryout match. Speculation is that the Owen match is against The Brooklyn Brawler from a July 1986 All Star Wrestling taping in Ontario, while the Taz match is against Scott Taylor at a May 1993 Wrestling Challenge taping in Portland, Maine. WDN also released this new synopsis for the set:

WWE unlocks the vault and brings you never-before-seen matches from 1986-1995. Check out these unreleased hidden gems featuring some of the greatest Superstars in WWE history.

— WWE has gone deep into its vault and uncovered exclusive content that you can only find right here on this set,

— Features Superstars such as Randy Savage, Ultimate Warrior, Andre the Giant, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Mr. Perfect and more,

— Never-before-seen matches from the years 1986 through 1995!

WWE has plans to release a "1997: Dawn of the Attitude" DVD this coming October, according to WrestlingDVDNetwork.com. The set will look at the beginning of The Attitude Era with Steve Austin, DX, The Hart Foundation, Kane, the Montreal Screwjob and more.

“Bray began with my real-life lunacy,” says Rotunda. “I’ve always been an against-all-authority kind of child. I was a big fan of Rage Against the Machine, they were a big influence on my life as a child, so when I started working with Dusty Rhodes, I began losing my mind on a very real level. I became obsessed with this character.”

When Husky Harris failed on the main roster, he went all in with the Wyatt persona. “I was going to jury duty in my hometown, and Dusty made me go to jury duty as Bray,” Bill Rotunda says. “Dusty told me, ‘This is the perfect exercise. Become Bray.’ I literally went to jury duty as Bray Wyatt. I was so immersed in the character that I didn’t break once. Obviously, I didn’t get picked for jury duty, but I had the white pants, Hawaiian shirt, the whole nine yards. There were no fragments of Husky Harris. Husky Harris was dead, and he was to stay dead. I was Bray Wyatt. We were one.”
Wacky Bray story courtesy of Hasney at NeoGAF's wrestling board and slik from TPWW frontpage.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cGlcT93IbKk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Some other sheet news includes:

Recent episode of Talk Is Jericho podcast show had Jinder Mahal as the guest. https://www.podcastone.com/episode/JinderMahal
Another recent episode of Talk Is Jericho had Batista as the guest and topics including Bray being his favorite current WWE wrestler and WWE's suspension of Titus O'Neil. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0517/626261/batista-on-which-current-wwe-star-he-likes/
SPORTbible had a recent interview with the Hardys talking about their WWE return, favorite TLC match, and possible split in the future. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0517/626279/the-hardys-on-broken-matt-vs-bray-wyatt/
Recent episode of Playback podcast show had John Cena as the guest and teased at more Southpaw Regional Wrestling episodes could be made. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0517/626287/john-cena-says-more-southpaw-regional-wrestling-is-on-the-way/
Recent rumor going around the net hints at the WWE considering plans on making Smackdown and RAW be more different from each other in the near future. http://www.cagesideseats.com/2017/5/12/15625808/rumor-roundup-may-12-2017-wwe-brand-split-raw-smackdown-brock-lesnar-braun-strowman-summerslam

Emperor Smeat

05-18-2017, 09:57 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Jamie Noble's Approval:
http://funnypictures4.fjcdn.com/funny_gifs/Wrestling_e8b6e5_5848459.gif

New Japan Pro Wrestling made a number of announcements today at a Los Angeles press conference covering the July 1st and July 2nd shows in Long Beach.

As reported here already, AXS TV will be airing both shows. The July 1st show will air live at 8 p.m. Eastern and 5 p.m. local time. The July 2nd show will air live on New Japan World with a replay airing on AXS on July 7th with AXS airing it in a four-hour window from 8 p.m. Eastern to midnight.

The first night will only be shown live on NJPW World for those outside of the United States.

The IWGP Heavyweight, IWGP Intercontinental, IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team, and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team titles will all be defended over the two days. A tournament will also be held to create the IWGP United States Championship, which will be the key territorial belt when New Japan opens up a full-time U.S. outpost in 2018

In terms of roster for the show, it was revealed to be a mix of guys from NJPW, ROH, and CMLL. http://www.f4wonline.com/japan/njpw-announces-broadcast-plans-and-roster-long-beach-shows-235786

New Japan announced before its show earlier today that Hiroshi Tanahashi had a ruptured right biceps (full tear) and will be out of action until 6/9 when he will return at Korakuen Hall. Satoshi Kojima replaces him in all of his matches until then. With that injury, he really should have surgery and be out six months.
Observer's Meltzer stated Tanahashi is currently risking his bicep being permanently deformed the longer he waits to do major surgery. Same issue Paul Orndorff had when he suffered a similar injury in 1988.

Today's Best of the Super Junior tournament results from Korakuen Hall:

Taichi (1-1) beat Taka Michinoku (1-1)
Dragon Lee (2-0) beat Marty Scurll (1-1)
Hiromu Takahashi (1-1) beat Jushin Liger (0-2)
Will Ospreay (1-1) beat Ricochet (1-1).

The next show is Saturday in Matsuzaka with:

Desperado vs. Bushi
ACH vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Volador Jr.
Tiger Mask vs. Kushida

The Five Star Wrestling promotion and promoter Daniel Hinkles made a grandstand offer of $1 million to C.M. Punk for him to enter their 128-man tournament that begins on 6/10 in Liverpool's Echo Arena and ends on 12/30 at the Manchester Arena. They will be running weekly Saturday night shows starting on 6/10. Hinkles said, "We've been trying to contact CM Punk on and off for well over a year. We wanted him on the first show we did in Edinburgh in 2015. I've tried going through friends in the industry. I've gone through his website and sent dozens of emails but the opportunity has never been this big. We want to offer C.M. Punk $1 million to come and join the Five Star Wrestling tour starting 6/10. It's a genuine offer. We'd love to hear back from the man himself." Punk is currently still under exclusive contract with UFC.
5 Star previously announced John Morrison, Chris Masters, Carlito, Moose, PJ Black, and Shelton Benjamin will be in their mega tournament.

Impact this week in the U.K. is being moved from its usual Friday night at 9 p.m. time slot to Saturday at 10 p.m. on Spike UK. Spike UK will be airing one hour of Bellator's London show headlined by Rory MacDonald vs. Paul Daley at 9 p.m. The main bouts from London will air on Ch. 5 in the U.K. at 10 p.m. Spike UK evidently believes that there is a strong crossover and is moving Impact to another night rather than airing it one hour later.

Impact Wrestling touted on social media that Ava Storie, Veterans of War, Kongo Kong, Matt Sydal, Dezmond Xavier and Diamante of LAX have all signed with the company.

Our friends at www.ProWrestlingTees.com issued the following:

6 Years Ago We Lost a Wrestling Legend, Macho Man Randy Savage. To honor his legacy, officially licensed by his family & estate, we are releasing these Limited Edition Macho Madness High Top Chuck Taylor Converse Shoes. They will be available for PRE-ORDER starting May 19th at 12pm CT. Only 200 pairs will be made available.

Only 200 Pairs
1 Per Customer
Sizes 6-15 (half sizes too)
4-6 Week Ship Time
$175 + Shipping Worldwide
Link to the shoes page for those interested in Macho Man merch: http://www.prowrestlingtees.com/wrestler-t-shirts/macho-man-randy-savage/machoman-converse-high-tops.html

For what it's worth, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that there are still open lines of communication in regards to WWE possibly bringing Mauro Ranallo back to SmackDown commentary.

This does not mean that Mauro will be returning, but The Observer notes that there is a lot of water under the bridge. There was an agreement reached where WWE is paying Mauro until his contract ends on August 12th.

Mauro has indicated on Twitter that he will be pretty busy with Showtime Boxing and other non-wrestling commitments over the next few months. He's also teased possibly doing other pro wrestling work in the future.

“Drawing more money, what does that mean anymore?” Bischoff commented. “Again, I like Randy a lot and I have a ton of respect for him so I do not mean this to be any kind of a shot at Randy. But Randy has the luxury of having a very successful career with for what is in all intents and purposes — it wasn’t intentional but [WWE’s] a monopoly.”

“Yes, WWE makes a lot of money and as a result so does Randy. Randy hasn’t had to change his style because he has the privilege of working for a company that is able to pay Randy a lot of money. And he doesn’t have to go out and make his living on the independent circuit. Randy doesn’t have to go out and create new fans. All Randy has to do is stay on the treadmill.”

Bischoff continued on the subject by saying if he were a young worker in the indies he would take offense to what The Viper said in his comment. “[Randy] has that luxury, that privilege of getting [his] seven figures and having a check show up in the mail once a month for things [he] don’t even remember doing, and getting merchandise money because [he has] this machine behind [him] that prints that money. And a lot of people don’t, the vast majority of people don’t. It’s a little bit like the music industry where 2% of the people make 98% of the money. Well, I don’t think that 2% of the people who are making 98% of the money should necessarily look down their nose at the other 98% who are trying to craft a living.”
Eric Bischoff on the recent Randy Orton Twitter stuff against indie wrestling. Came from the latest episode of Bischoff on Wrestling podcast show.

[Kairi]Hojo lost her Wonder of Stardom championship on the 5/14 show at Korakuen Hall to Miyu Iwatani with a dragon suplex. Hojo still has to lose the trios championship. Hojo was given the word that she has to come up with a new finisher. A lot of people questioned that. Hojo has the coolest looking elbow off the top rope in pro wrestling, probably the best since a young ICW-era Randy Savage. She was told that’s Bayley’s move. To those in Japan, it’s considered ridiculous because that’s the move she’s known for, but it’s a different world. Hojo would walk right into WWE as technically the best of their women wrestlers, but she’s also maybe 5-foot-1, and a lot smaller than Asuka.

Jeff Jarrett brought up the World Cup, saying that there was talk of AAA, Pro Wrestling NOAH and Impact working together for the annual World Cup trios tournament, saying it would be in Japan in October but it’s not a done deal. It’ll be hard because the guy from Japan who was key the previous years had a falling out with AAA and was helping The Crash.

Some other sheet news includes:

Both Jim Ross and Nigel McGuinness were sent to WWE's HQ today to record commentary for the recently taped episodes of WWE's United Kingdom show.
While previously reported by PWI, ROH officially announced today they have signed Travis "Flip" Gordon to an exclusive deal.
For those interested, The Rock was announced to be this weekend's host of SNL.
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 2nd Anniversary of Kevin Owens' debut on WWE RAW. Owens celebrated the occasion of beating up John Cena on Twitter. https://twitter.com/FightOwensFight/status/865208697521393664
According to a report from the Observer, WWE is currently going after more stars from Stardom targeting mainly their foreign stars. Stardom expects to lose them by the time of WWE's tournament since they can't compete money-wise to WWE's offers.
Also according to the Observer, Summer Rae is currently in an Emma-like position where she's been healed for a while but Creative legit has no plans for her.

Simple Fan

05-18-2017, 11:06 PM

Summer Rea on Raw or Smackdown? Think it Raw, not sure but they could switch her like they did Swagger. I say throw her on dispatch for the Fashion Police though.

Lock Jaw

05-18-2017, 11:24 PM

Def make her someone's valet...... maybe even toss her into the mix on 205 Live like Alicia Fox..... use her to create more "interest" in a cruiserweight.......

Simple Fan

05-19-2017, 09:05 AM

Think Summer Rea is under rated in the ring. She can have her clumsy moments same as any but the few matches she has had I was impressed by some of the things she did.

Blonde Moment

05-19-2017, 09:19 AM

I don't know why but i find Eric Bischoff's comments unexpected

Fignuts

05-19-2017, 01:30 PM

He's on point.

Emperor Smeat

05-19-2017, 02:20 PM

I don't know why but i find Eric Bischoff's comments unexpected

Could see his past experience with WCW's Cruiser division being a big factor. He played a big role in its creation and it was full of young stars trying to make a big name for themselves.

Replace indies with WCW in general and you'd get similar issues occurring there at the time.

Emperor Smeat

05-19-2017, 09:40 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Scott Hall Stunner Sell Appreciation Day:
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The condition of Tommaso Ciampa is up in the air, but all things considered, the news was positive as X-rays showed he didn't suffer a broken ankle last night.

During the match in Highland Heights, Kentucky, with Ciampa & Johnny Gargano vs. Alexander Wolfe & Eric Young, Ciampa suffered what appeared to be a left ankle injury about four minutes into the match.

Paul Levesque, on this morning's WWE conference call, said that Ciampa suffered a sprained ankle and was feeling a lot better today.

He said that as of this moment, the plans for tomorrow night's Ciampa & Gargano vs. Authors of Pain ladder match in Chicago for the NXT tag team titles are still on. But he said that it's up to the medical side if they will clear him tomorrow.

Levesque said that right now they don't have a specific backup plan in place.

For the 7/1 live show on AXS TV, it is scheduled from 8 p.m. to midnight, but if the show goes long, it's not an issue and there is no specific time cue to hit. If need be, the show can go as long as five hours as they have scheduled to replay the Kenny Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada match from Osaka at Dominion at midnight that night, and then replay the Long Beach show at 1 a.m. The Saturday night show will be geoblocked live on New Japan World, but will be available on the service the next day. The 7/2 show will be available live on New Japan World, and air on AXS from 8 p.m. to midnight on the following Friday.
Some updates to recent G1 Climax Special news.

Sean Waltman took a polygraph test live on Afterbuzz TV. Based on the results of the test, the administrator said that Waltman passed saying he did not having any meth on him and the pills taken were not meth when he was arrested at the Los Angeles airport, that he has lied previously to cover things up and talk his way out of trouble but has been completely truthful on what happened at the airport, and that he had never sold drugs or was not looking at selling anything that he had on him.
Update to recent X-Pac arrest news.

As noted, WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross did the commentary for the UK Championship Tournament and will also be calling the UK Championship match between Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne at Takeover this Saturday. JR confirmed to Busted Open Radio today that he will also be calling the WWE Women's Tournament this summer.

.@JRsBBQ confirms on @BustedOpenRadio he will be calling the WWE Women's Tournament this summer on the WWE Network! pic.twitter.com/316uktvFza
— SiriusXM Busted Open (@BustedOpenRadio) May 19, 2017

Impact Wrestling Creative Consultant to Head of Creative Dutch Mantel, Matt Hardy and Matt's wife, Reby, were involved in a Twitter spat this afternoon. It started with the message below with Mantel quoting a tweet that read, "If Matt knew he had a case he'd be trying to get this in front of a judge ASAP. If Anthem was avoiding court, Reby would let us know."
Link with more tweets and arguments between the sides: http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0519/626342/matt-hardy-in-twitter-fight-with-impact-wrestling-executive-over/

The 5/18 edition of Impact on Pop brought in 272,000 viewers, down from last week's 309,000 viewers.

How far in advance does WWE plan out their programming, their creative and the touring of their live events?

We are told they have WWE Network plans, at least tentative plans for original content they will create and add, mapped out 6-9 months in advance. WWE touring schedules are usually locked in at least 12 months in advance, if not more. Creative is week to week with a tentative long-term outlook that changes as often as Vince McMahon blinks. Everything can change on a dime based on Vince's call in all aspects of the company.
From a recent Q&A article PWI does weekly about how the WWE plans things out.

Wrestling DVD Network reported yesterday that WWE will release a "30 Years Of Survivor Series" DVD this November, featuring a countdown of the top 30 Survivor Series moments as voted by fans via an online poll.

Andrew Everett, who was seen working the Ultimate X match last night on Impact Wrestling, noted he's been working with a torn meniscus, writing on Twitter, "Best time as ever... I've been performing on a torn meniscus for 7 months. Time to fix it and come back better. See you at Slammiversary."

H was excited to see who the first caller would be. Of course, it was Mike Johnson! H said Adam just gave H ten dollars. Mike asked for his cut. H said that he should have negotiated in advance. Mike asked about this being Itami’s biggest match in the US. If this match doesn’t go well for him, is this the end of line for him?

H said if this match doesn’t work out, he doesn’t know. He will decide then. He said that he likes to look at things from a positive point of view. Itami went from being a big star in Japan to having a lot of setbacks. Part of it was Itami finding his way in NXT. It happens at times. It’s a confidence and comfort thing. But he is a good guy and has worked hard so when he got injured he felt bad for Itami. H thinks he is a big player and he will rise to the occasion. If he doesn’t, they will discuss it and he will see what Itami wants to do and they will go from there.
From Triple H's recent NXT media call hinting at Hideo Itami's future in the WWE. Link with more highlights: http://411mania.com/wrestling/triple-h-conference-call-recap-jim-ross-return-developing-new-territories-more/

Some other sheet news includes:

Recent episode of the Busted Open Radio podcast show had Chris Jericho as the guest talking about originals plans for the Owens-Jericho feud and his last run in the WWE. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0519/626345/chris-jericho-reveals-plan-for-him-to-win-wwe-universal-title-at/
USA Today had a recent interview with Becky Lynch and topics including debunking rumors of her joining Total Divas and the Ellsworth feud. http://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/05/becky-lynch-wwe-smackdown-charlotte
Recent episode of the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast show had Earl Hebner as the guest and topics including the Montreal Screwjob and chance of being in WWE's Hall of Fame. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0519/626326/earl-hebner-on-a-possible-wwe-hof-induction/
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, WWE's Creative once had the idea for Christian to parody The Rock and go by the name of The Lock before getting shut down by Vince who thought the idea was really stupid even by WWE standards. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/6c2w5b/til_in_2003_creative_in_wwe_wanted_christian_to/
Recent rumor going around the next involves WWE considering the idea of Kurt Angle's first wrestling match back in the company being at Mania 34.

Cool King

05-20-2017, 09:45 AM

In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, WWE's Creative once had the idea for Christian to parody The Rock and go by the name of The Lock before getting shut down by Vince who thought the idea was really stupid even by WWE standards.

That just makes me think of Lock Jaw.

DaveWadding

05-20-2017, 05:00 PM

Lock Jaw is Captain Charisma confirmed.

Lock Jaw

05-20-2017, 05:10 PM

The Lock would have been a bigger hit than The Rock by far

Volare

05-21-2017, 10:13 AM

lock jawwww..........LOCKK JAWWWWWWWWWW.....at last you're on your owwwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn......... (music)

Emperor Smeat

05-23-2017, 10:41 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Rusev Appreciation Day:
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Raw set its third non-football and non-holiday record low last night in the past four weeks, doing 2.61 million viewers on average for the show. The live episode actually did fewer viewers than the taped show from London two weeks ago, which set the previous seasonal record low of 2.68 million viewers.

It was a lock the numbers would be low given how many viewers the show has lost since the NBA playoffs started. However, both the NBA and NHL playoff numbers dropped from last week and Raw still declined five percent against easier competition ...

The key to the show is that there were the lowest number of viewers in the first hour dating back at least 20 years, even below shows on New Year's Eve, last year's show on July 4th (which is really scary when you think there were slightly more viewers at 8 p.m. on July 4th), and even the night of the Trump-Clinton debate last September.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.66 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.76 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.43 million viewers

Some key notes includes same show last year had around 650k more viewers and RAW is currently on a 4 week streak of being under 3 million. Worst is the streak happening before WWE starts their annual lull period usually after SummerSlam.

The legal situation surrounding the ownership of the "Broken Hardys" characters inevitably came up when Ed Nordholm (president of Impact Wrestling and Executive VP of Anthem Sports & Entertainment) sat down with John Pollock for an interview that aired on this week's episode of Live Audio Wrestling ...

Nordholm also had interesting comments regarding whether WWE is even interested in the "Broken Hardys" gimmick. He claimed that he'd be open to speaking with The Hardys and that they've been offered the opportunity to find an arrangement that would work for both parties, but said that he doesn't believe WWE is interested in their "Broken" characters.

"As far as I know, the WWE doesn’t want the gimmick, and indeed, from every conversation I’ve had with them, I’ve been told they have no interest in it," Nordholm said.
According to the Observer, Nordholm was only telling half the truth since a big reason why talks stopped was due to Impact not actually willing to sell the gimmick and still demanding royalties for its use. PWI and others recently released portions of emails sent by Impact Wrestling trying to prove their side of the issue: http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0523/626497/hardys-impact-wrestling-fight-gets-even-uglier/

This summer's WWE women's tournament officially has its name.

Triple H announced today that the tournament will be called the "Mae Young Classic." The name honors Young, who the company has long held up as a legendary figure in women's wrestling. She was 90 years old when she passed away in January 2014.

After being in the planning stages for a while, the tournament was announced at WWE's business partner summit in Orlando over WrestleMania weekend. WWE hyped that it will feature a 32-competitor field and that 17 different countries will be represented.

The Mae Young Classic will begin taping on July 13th and 14th at Full Sail University, with tickets going on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. ET. It is being taped to air on the WWE Network.

Jim Ross has confirmed that he'll be part of the announce team for the tournament, but no wrestlers have officially been revealed for it yet.

PROGRESS Wrestling revealed that they're coming back to the United States for a show at the Elmcor Center in Queens, New York on August 12th. It will be a double-header with EVOLVE, which has a show taking place at the same building in the afternoon.

What Culture Pro Wrestling announced that the weekly tapings for their "Loaded" shows will be canceled going forward starting on June 9th. WCPW noted that the model for the show is no longer sustainable due to a change in YouTube's policy where wrestling videos have been categorized as non-advertiser friendly. All of the company's other shows will go on as scheduled.

In a video that WWE uploaded on YouTube, it was revealed that Vic Joseph will be joining Corey Graves on the announce team for Main Event going forward.

Many people in WWE, including Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, have sent their thoughts to those in Manchester after last night's awful terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena. TMZ posted a statement from the company about the NXT house show that's scheduled to take place at the arena on June 6th: "WWE offers its heartfelt condolences to those affected by this tragedy. We are working with local authorities on the appropriate course of action as it relates to our event scheduled for Tuesday, June 6 at the Manchester Arena."

CMLL announced today that Maximo Sexy, La Mascara and Bobby Villa have all been fired. Mascara was under the impression yesterday he was only suspended. Maximo and La Mascara were fired for being on the scene when Ultimo Guerrero's car was destroyed in the Arena Mexico parking lot. Because the video tape of the incident came out, there was a significant amount of national media coverage of this. Bobby Villa was not in the video tape but somehow was implicated, but it should be noted that Ultimo Guerrero brought Villa into the promotion.
Link with more details on the incident this past weekend: http://www.f4wonline.com/mexico/alvarado-family-members-destroy-ultimo-guerreros-car-strange-incident-235916

Ring of Honor announced today a second War of the Worlds tour, this time in the U.K., which they stated would be a joint effort between ROH, New Japan, CMLL, and Revolution Pro Wrestling.

The tour will have shows on August 17th at York Hall in London, which is Revolution Pro's Summer Sizzler 2017 event. It will follow with a War of the Worlds branded show on August 18th in London at York Hall, an August 19th show in Liverpool at the Olympia, and an August 20th show in Edinburgh, Scotland at the Corn Exchange.

Pro Wrestling Sheet has learned WWE officials are planning to announce a women’s Money in the Bank match for next month’s event … and if all goes accordingly, we’ll be getting the first of it’s kind.

Sources tell us the SmackDown brand pay per view will not only feature the men’s MITB, but as it currently stands they’re planning to announce a women’s match as well in the next few weeks.

Thats right, 2017 is more than likely going to feature the inaugural Women’s Championship briefcase.

No word yet on participants, or if there is any added stipulations, but the fact they are having this match alone is just another large step forward in women’s equality in WWE.

This past October WWE stepped up and featured not only the first ever women’s Hell In A Cell, but also the first ever women’s PPV main event. And just this past Wrestlemania, #givesdwomenachance ended up moving those wrestlers from the pre-show to the main card.

The 7/7 WWE return to Madison Square Garden, which is a Raw brand event, has officially added a Smackdown match in the form of Dolph Ziggler vs. Shinsuke Nakamura. This will be Nakamura's official debut in the legendary "Mecca"

While WWE has announced that Braun Strowman is expected to be out of action for up to 6 months after undergoing elbow surgery, PWInsider notes that officials expect him back much sooner. We mentioned last week that Dave Meltzer reported on Wrestling Observer Radio that Strowman is expected to wrestle Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam and will likely return in mid-July to start the build for the match.

<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-version="7" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:8px;"> <div style=" background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:37.5% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"> <div style=" background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5/P8/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GP T6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAA AElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; ██████████relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div></div> <p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BUdFNGnA_lw/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">The plates have been changed...enter the @jindermahal era. #SDLive</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by WWE (@wwe) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2017-05-24T00:07:35+00:00">May 23, 2017 at 5:07pm PDT</time></p></div></blockquote>
<script async defer src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script>

Some other sheet news includes:

LAW Radio recently posted the full interview with Impact Wrestling's Ed Nordholm. http://fightnetwork.com/law/impact-wrestlings-ed-nordholm-full-interview-with-john-pollock/
Sports Illustrated had a recent interview with Becky Lynch about RAW and Smackdown's women's divisions. https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2017/05/22/becky-lynch-WWE-SmackDown-Raw
Chris Jericho announced Dean Ambrose and Jeff Hardy will be the guests for Friday's episode of Talk Is Jericho podcast show. https://twitter.com/TalkIsJericho/status/866634725473046528
Rolling Stones had a recent article praising Breezango in the WWE. http://www.rollingstone.com/sports/breezango-is-making-wrestling-fun-again-w483543

Emperor Smeat

05-24-2017, 10:47 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by WWE's Newest Mega Era ... The Maharaja Era:
https://j.gifs.com/Bgq2ZY.gif

Despite monster competition from an NBA playoff game on Tuesday night, SmackDown viewership was up seven percent over last week. The show averaged 2.328 million viewers.

Game four of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics aired opposite SmackDown for the last 90 minutes of the show and averaged 7.017 million viewers ...

The episode was eighth for the night in total viewers on cable, but it finished third in the 18-49 demo, trailing only the NBA game and the basketball post-game show.

WWE revealed the participants for this year's Money in the Bank ladder match during the opening segment of tonight's episode of SmackDown.

It will be AJ Styles, Baron Corbin, Sami Zayn, Dolph Ziggler, Kevin Owens, and Shinsuke Nakamura competing for the briefcase and a future shot at the WWE Championship. The announcement was made by Shane McMahon.
Current rumors hint at another MitB match getting announced soon for the ppv involving the women's division.

Matt Hardy responded to Impact Wrestling president Ed Nordholm's statement and the documents that he released about The Hardys' contracts and the legal situation over their "Broken" characters: "I tell the truth & I don't need to desperately overcompensate to prove my public credibility. My facts will be shared via the correct venue."
Link to Hardy's response: https://twitter.com/MATTHARDYBRAND/status/867202944747290624

The New Day made their first appearance on WWE TV since the roster shakeup on Talking Smack last night.

Mahal winning the WWE Championship was recognized by Graham Sucha in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.
Link to the speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugCZDjwHK64

Asuka tweeted about her undefeated streak: "I respect Goldberg so much. He is amazing. I am honored to be the undefeated champion with the longest streak in WWE history. #WWE #WWENXT"
Link to the tweet: https://twitter.com/WWEAsuka/status/867512342120148993

PWG officially announced that this year's Battle of Los Angeles tournament will take place on September 1st-3rd. The promotion also revealed the card for their June 16th show (which will be called "Man on the Silver Mountain"):

reDRagon vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Marty Scurll
Matt Sydal vs. Sami Callihan
War Machine vs. Brian Cage & Michael Elgin
Lio Rush vs. Keith Lee
Chuck Taylor & Trent Barreta vs. Jeff Cobb & Matt Riddle
Jake Crist vs. Trevor Lee
Jason Cade vs. Dezmond Xavier

Link to the announcement: https://twitter.com/OfficialPWG/status/867174957393911808

A watch party event for Impact Wrestling that was scheduled for this Friday in Manchester has been canceled due to the terrorist attack that took place in the city earlier this week. The company's UK Twitter account posted yesterday: "Due to the horrific terrorist attack yesterday, so close to where Friday's fan event was scheduled, we feel a party is not appropriate. Ticket holders have been emailed. Full refund are being provided and alternative plans made so they can still meet Jeff Jarrett and JB. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Manchester and the whole of the UK."

PROGRESS Wrestling announced that they'll be crowning the promotion's first Women's Champion in the main event of their show on Sunday. It will be Jinny vs. Toni Storm vs. Laura Di Matteo in the Natural Progression Series final. Kay Lee Ray will face Katey Harvey the next day to determine the next contender for whoever wins.

Jim Ross posted his latest blog at JRsBarBQ.com. Here are some highlights:

If he wants to return to work full time:

"At this stage of my career, I am much more interested in the quality of my work rather then the frequency of travel of it which translates to; I am not interested in going back on the road every week as I did for so many years. Working on events such as the U.K. special, the occasional NXT booking, etc are right down my alley and are projects that I get to work with new partners and new talents which is always fun. As I mentioned on a recent Ross Report, I love 'coming out of the bullpen' and trying to throw a few strikes whenever WWE deems I'm needed."

The issues between Impact Wrestling and the Hardys:

"Not overly conformable with official contract info, communications, etc being distributed to the pro wrestling media regarding the contract issues involving the Hardy's and Impact Wrestling. Not sure what it proves or if it helps anyone's cause other than keeping this private, business matter lingering in the eyes of the public. Just my two cents but most pro wrestling companies have bigger fish to fry than making a matter such as this click bait."
Link to the blog post: https://www.jrsbarbq.com/blog/51739

On this week's episode of Dinner With The King podcast with WWE Hall of Famer, Jerry "The King" Lawler, and his co-host, Glenn Moore, talk about Owen Hart's death, which is 18 years ago this week. Lawler was one of the first people to rush to Hart's side in the ring in Kansas City, after Hart fell from the rafters. They sent us these highlights:

The incident being 18 years ago (6:09 mark of show):

"It just seems hard to believe it's been 18 years since that night. Because that night is still so vivid in my mind. For some reason I was looking around as the promo was playing. I glanced up and was looking around. And as the promo was going, I just saw something. I couldn't say that I saw it; saw Owen actually fall. I just saw a blur."

Rushing to Hart's side (11:30 mark of show):

"Once your heart is no longer beating anymore, I could just see his face turn gray, from the tip of his nose all the way down his face as the blood was settling in his body. I knew, I realized that moment right then, that Owen was gone."

Jerry Lawler also discussed more about the pranks Owen Hart pulled and Jinder Mahal's title win.

On Tuesday, Nordholm leaked an email exchange he had with a WWE employee who stated that WWE had "no interest" in getting involved with acquiring the gimmick.

Dave Meltzer reported on the most recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio that WWE is not getting involved because they don't want to set a precedent of buying a gimmick or idea from someone else. Hardy is actively pursuing acquiring the rights to it, and Meltzer noted that if WWE was not interested in the gimmick, they would tell him to stop doing the "Broken" mannerisms that he's been using on television. Meltzer added that it's clear that they have interest in the gimmick if Hardy can get the rights for it, however they have no desire to get involved in the process.
Detailed updates to recent news regarding WWE's interest for the Broken gimmick.

Some other sheet news includes:

Sports Illustrated had a recent interview with Tetsuya Naito and topics including the WWE, NJPW's upcoming G1 Special in the US, and the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2017/05/24/tetsuya-Naito-cm-punk-wwe-week-in-wrestling
Bleacher Report had a recent interview with The Miz talking about the origins of The Miz character, MTV's Real World, and his WWE debut. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0524/626524/the-miz-on-not-being-liked-when-he-joined-wwe/
Recent podcast episode of The Steve Austin Show had Shane McMahon as the guest and topics including getting his start in the industry, Vince's feelings on Austin's walkout, and Vince being worried about Shane's safety during the famous Shane-Angle match at King Of The Ring 2001. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0524/626508/shane-mcmahon-on-vince-reaction-to-steve-austin-quitting/
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, the debut of WWE's United Kingdom show might have included the 1st ever debate on WWE tv involving the topic of wankers.https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/6cxrjp/jim_ross_whats_this_wanker_stuff_theyre_talking/
Lucha Underground announced they are returning from their Season 3 break on May 31st. https://twitter.com/LuchaElRey/status/857414011091992576

Emperor Smeat

05-25-2017, 10:45 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Jinder Mahal Appreciation Day:
http://i.imgur.com/jWSqi2F.gif

After becoming WWE Champion at Backlash, Jinder Mahal got his first shirt on WWE Shop today.
Link to the merch: http://shop.wwe.com/jinder-mahal-modern-day-maharaja-authentic-t-shirt/TC9001.html?dwvar_TC9001_color=Black#start=2

The Washington Post interviewed Chris Jericho about his tour with Fozzy and when he'll be coming back to WWE. “It’ll be a long time before I go back,” Jericho claimed. “If I ever do go back, if I never go back, it’s fine. If I never wrestle another match, it wouldn’t bother me.” Jericho has made similar comments in the past in an effort to keep his WWE returns from being known in advance.
Link to the interview: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wwe-star-jerichos-latest-smash-in-music-headlining-fozzy/2017/05/25/ceefbc16-4117-11e7-b29f-f40ffced2ddb_story.html?utm_term=.10aa7e211de8

5 Star Wrestling owner Dan Hinkles told the "Pancakes and Powerslams" show that his offer to CM Punk isn't a publicity stunt and that he may be willing to offer more than the $1 million. Hinkles said that he wants to speak to Dana White about it.

MLW Radio announced that a podcast hosted by Sean Mooney and "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan will be debuting over the summer. It will feature the two of them looking back at their time in the WWF.
Link to the announcement: https://www.facebook.com/majorleaguewrestling/photos/a.293911477306869.74886.179938308704187/1491627037535301/?type=3&theater

The 'Broken Matt Hardy' trademark application filed by Matt Hardy in March, has been given an initial refusal by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The trademark refusal was listed as:

"Registration is refused because the applied-for mark, as used on the specimen of record, identifies only the name of a particular character/personal name; it does not function as a service mark to identify and distinguish applicant’s services from those of others and to indicate the source of applicant’s service
According to PWI, Patent Office felt parts of Hardy's application were not valid or tried claiming stuff from Youtube already belonging to others.

During my interview yesterday with Billy Corgan, Corgan categorized his purchase of the National Wrestling Alliance as "97%" done and that they were working out the final points that needed to be taken care of. Corgan has signed a deal memo that he will be purchasing the brand.

During the interview, Corgan noted that Dave Lagana would be his "partner" on the venture and also noted that Jay Bradley aka Aiden O'Shea and Sherri Shaw, who had written music for Impact during the time period Corgan was President, would also be on board.

One would assume this means O'Shea is gone from Impact, which hasn't used him since Anthem purchased the company.

During his interview with John Pollock, Ed Nordholm noted that the GFW-Impact storyline "merger" would likely conclude at Slammiversary on 7/2.

Nordholm also noted the company's current deal with Pop ends in January 2018.

If you missed my interview with Billy Corgan yesterday, he revealed that Anthem's Ed Nordholm had come to him of late and asked him to act as a mediator between Impact Wrestling and the Hardys. Corgan has likely stepped away from that role after Nordholm's release of material related to the situation, including what was said to be pages from Matt Hardy's contract.

Roughly 20 percent of the tickets sold for the NJPW Long Beach shows came from the local market. That’s an even lower percentage than WrestleMania which is usually 25 percent. It’s another reason why, even though the quick sellouts were impressive, that we really didn’t learn that much about New Japan’s U.S. potential long-term from those sellouts past I expect Mania-level per head merchandise sales

The reason that there are so many multiple person matches being booked in WWE is that right now the booking is slow. They have plans to heat things up in July and August for SummerSlam and know where they want to go, but really don’t have a lot of ideas for right now, so they’re just using multiple person matches to fill the time.
WWE feels instead of using time to try out new ideas or build up people better, rather just waste time till they get closer to SummerSlam. Same happens whenever this trend occurs in the WWE, usually more-so during their yearly down period.

The Rusev returning for a title match at Money in the Bank plan also seems to have changed since Rusev hasn’t been mentioned the past two weeks on Smackdown after he was promoted as returning to confront Shane McMahon last week. There’s no spot for him with Mahal now as champion instead of Orton, which would seem to indicate a decision on Mahal wasn’t finalized two weeks ago. Mahal said he just found out the day of the show. There were odds movements from people who got every match correct that started coming in on the Friday night before the show, so that sounds like when the decision was made, although given the reasons for the decision, it seemed logical for a few weeks

The WWE will be naming its women’s tournament the Mae Young Classic. In a sense, that’s a slap in the face of Moolah, as for whatever reason, after promoting Moolah as the all-time greatest because she dominated the title that she owned and was close wit Vince’s father, they’ve moved Mae Young into the spot of the Babe Ruth of women’s wrestling in their own history. Plus, Stephanie McMahon was close to Young. Much of the tournament will be shot on 7/13 and 7/14 at Full Sail University

An interesting name who was asked to be in the women’s tournament is Viper. The reason it’s interesting is because she was on the World of Sport tapings and WWE up to the point hasn’t had interest in signing those any of those wrestlers because of their existing ITV contracts. Not sure if Viper’s situation was different or they’re going with the idea they can’t be held to those contracts since ITV has nothing going on, or if this is a sign that the project is dead. Those close to the situation say the ITV thing is still alive and ITV is considering several options to work with, with Impact being one of the options, but nothing is going to happen any time soon

Jim Ross confirmed he will be the lead announcer for the women’s tournament shows. Rumor has it that the team will be Ross and Lita

Regarding Adam Cole, we’re told that WWE has still not offered any contracts to ex-ROH wrestlers based on whatever the legal issue regarding tampering has been that gave them cold feet. That said, Cole did finish up in ROH and on the indie scene, he’s not out there taking bookings like Kyle O’Reilly, Donovan Dijak, Bobby Fish and others are, and the feeling is that unless something changes, he’ll be in WWE, probably pushed as a major star on the NXT brand. Impact is also still making a play for him because they are looking for new hot talent and he’s a free agent. Right now Cole has no signed deal with anyone. That’s been expected for more than one year

As noted before, WWE has perhaps more television viewers in India than any country. A large percentage of their vaunted social media followers and those who view YouTube videos also come from India. Network subscriptions in India are very small. However, aside from television rights fees, the company makes very little money from India. The merchandise business is very limited and the company has set up an office there with one of the goals to push merchandise. They almost never run live shows in India, and even if they did, they’d be better off financially running the shows elsewhere for the short-term because they can make more money in most places.

But like with China, the idea is that if they can make India catch on fire, because of the population, about 1.34 billion, theoretically that can be a giant difference maker. The company has the theory that social media numbers will lead to more money, but the huge numbers in India and lack of revenue from the market fly in the face of all that, and everything they have been programmed to believe in. So the idea is that, like with most booms, whether boxing in the U.K. or Germany, basketball in China, or UFC in Ireland and Brazil, the key is a native superstar. In wrestling, as a general rule, to draw from a certain demo in a big way, the guy in that demo needs to be the top guy, not a top guy. Rey Mysterio’s heyday in Mexico, when he was never the top guy, does fly in the face of that, but Mexico has a long history of pro wrestling success. India has had some success in different eras, and Great Khali was a big star there, but even so, he didn’t generate big revenue there. But the company wasn’t directly targeting India for growth when they had Khali.

The point of all this is judging Mahal is not whether it clicks in the U.S. If it does click, if ratings and attendance increases, then it’s a success, whether the main event matches are good or not. But if they don’t move, or even go down, it’s not a failure unless all forms of revenue from India are basically unchanged, and that’s a long-term play as well. In theory, there should be at least signs of merchandise growth and WWE Network increases in India over the next few months that can be talked about in late July or early August. Or there won’t be and the social media numbers they take as religion are a fraud religion. It’s all theoretical because just because something sounds like it’ll work on paper in a market you know nothing about doesn’t guarantee success, or failure.
Observer's Dave Meltzer on WWE's long term plans with India and China.

Some other sheet news includes:

Titus O'Neil and Chef Inspired Popcorn Company are currently collaborating on a "Titus Brand" flavor of popcorn with proceeds going to charity. https://www.instagram.com/p/BUf0jLABxdS/
Sports Illustrated had a recent interview with Sean Waltman/X-Pac talking about him liking Bullet Club, Val Venis once planned to join DX, and Scott Hall helping his career. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0525/626552/sean-waltman-on-who-vince-russo-wanted-to-add-to-dx-but-got/
5 Star Wrestling recently announced RVD has agreed to be in their upcoming 128-man tournament.
Emma is currently expected to be returning mid-June after recent medical tests showed the injury to be less severe than originally believed.
For those interested in a nice read, Observer's Dave Meltzer wrote an article about the struggles the WWE has had with 205 Live, why the CWC was different for reception, and why the 205 Live model can't be used for the UK show (or rumored Women's show). http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=237997335&postcount=1483
According to the Observer, Ciampa ended up making his current ankle injury worse because of the spots done at Takeover Chicago. Unknown at how severe the injury has become. Ciampa is already expected to be taking time off soon to deal with another injury needing surgery.
Recent Rumor going around the net hints at WWE currently going after another Joshi promotion to nab their top stars for the upcoming Women's Tournament. WWE is rumored to want both Sareee and Nakajima from Seadling. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/6d2ufc/according_to_numerous_fan_reports_william_regal/

Emperor Smeat

05-26-2017, 11:49 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Jindermania Runnin' Wild on the WWE:
http://i.imgur.com/zXryEJj.gif

The Cleveland Cavaliers beating the Boston Celtics last night ended those playoffs at 4-1 and ended any shot at WWE going head-to-head on Monday with the NBA. Next week's Cavaliers vs. Warriors games are scheduled for Thursday and Sunday, and then the following two games are Wednesday and Friday, so Raw and Smackdown are clear of the NBA the next two weeks. On 6/12, if a game five is needed and there's a good chance of that, it will go head-to-head with a Raw featuring Brock Lesnar. Raw will probably take a huge hit that night. Raw will go against the Stanley Cup finals (Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Rusev & Lana's favorite Nashville Predators) the next two Mondays, but the NHL doesn't hurt Raw nearly as much as the NBA. If's Raw's ratings don't move up 250,000 viewers this week, that would be a very bad sign.
WWE got very lucky for the next 2 weeks with no NBA competition and only need to worry if the Finals goes to a Game 5 since that is on a Monday. Smackdown only has to deal with Game 4 based on NBA Finals schedule.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office has dropped all charges against Sean Waltman in the airport arrest last month. Waltman was told that the lab tested all the pills and found no controlled substances after all. They dropped marijuana charges saying the amount was legal within the state.

In a video, Brie Bella has said she wants to come out of retirement and wrestle for WWE at some point.
Video of the announcement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZVnBpPN6CA

Asuka is replacing Mickie James on the WWE Japan shows on 6/30 and 7/1 at Sumo Hall in Tokyo,. Akira Tozawa and Hideo Itami will also be on the shows but Shinsuke Nakamura won't be, since they are Raw branded events. Even though Itami turned, he was listed on the babyface side for this tour.

After every round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, when the Pittsburgh Penguins have won their series, Matt Hardy, in his character comes on Mark Madden's radio show in Pittsburgh and deletes the losing team. Jeff Hardy was on the show today and sang the Obsolete song.

Impact is only taking a skeleton crew to its television tapings in Mumbai, India. Much of the regular roster won't be on television for the next four weeks. The key players in the PPV will be brought to India for four weeks of tapings which was start airing on Thursday.

WWE has decided to cancel the NXT house show that was scheduled to take place at the Manchester Arena on June 6th. The company announced the news today, noting that the decision was made out of respect to the victims of the awful terrorist attack that happened at the venue on Monday.

NXT wrestlers will still be in Manchester on June 6th to visit people who were affected by the bombing and WWE is making a donation to the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund. Those who purchased tickets to the event are being offered a full refund and can receive a free ticket to the NXT show in Leeds on June 7th.

The Manchester show was part of NXT's tour of the UK. The rest of the tour will go on as scheduled, including three dates at the Download Festival in Derby, England from June 9th to the 11th.

This Monday, immediately following RAW will be the debut of the Table for 3 episode featuring Eric Bischoff, Jim Cornette and Michael Hayes on WWE Network.

The Network schedule has Renee Young, David Otunga and Pete Rosenberg listed as the Extreme Rules Kickoff Show Panel.

Also, there will be a RAW Talk episode following the Extreme Rules PPV.

The 5/25 edition of Impact on Pop brought in 305,000 viewers, up from last weeks 272,000 viewers.

Former TNA Television Champion Gunner tweeted this week that he almost "hung it up" but that it's now "time to TakeOver."

We first exclusively reported last month that Gunner was set to take the WWE physical soon, and if he passed, he would start with NXT. Gunner has been wrestling on the independent circuit since leaving Impact Wrestling in June of 2015.

Below is Gunner's tweet:

Hard work pays off. I almost hung it up. I'm glad I didn't. World.....here I come. Time to TakeOver!
— Gunner (@GUNNER_ChadLail) May 26, 2017

Baron Corbin got into a Twitter spat with CZW wrestler Geoffrey Bravo. It started when Bravo ripped Corbin for his appearance, you can see the full exchange below:

I don't get Baron Corbin's sex appeal that women love.... Y'all likevthe balding, kinda in shape, lost look in the eyes look? Lmao
— Geoffrey Bravo (@GeoffBravo5_aka) May 25, 2017

@GeoffBravo5_aka I don't get how you call your self a pro wrestler. Wrestling for chips and maybe 5 bucks just makes you a pretend wrestler. Big difference
— Baron Corbin (@BaronCorbinWWE) May 26, 2017

@BaronCorbinWWE I'm apparently enough of a somebody to elicit a response.... and I didn't even tag you. Have a great day, brother!
— Geoffrey Bravo (@GeoffBravo5_aka) May 26, 2017

“He’s got a great look, a great body. Oh dude, [the ‘Maharaja’ nickname] has cool factor written all over it. Plus, if you play that with arrogance, it works for you. But, dude, down the road, I think that it spells money. I think the kid [has] got a great look. Like [Helms] said, he’s got the great facials. And [Helms] know[s], dude, you’ve got to bring a few things to the table, whether it’s appearance or size, looks, handsome, ugly, are you a flat-out bad ass worker, just unbelievable talker? This kid has bits and pieces of the things [one needs to be successful]. And all of these things can be graded on a scale of one to 10 on what you’re bringing to the table. But, at first, one of the big things you’ve got to bring, dude, for Vince to get in that big spot, size helps and it just does.”
From the recent episode of The Steve Austin podcast show where Austin gave his thoughts on Jinder being WWE champion. http://uproxx.com/prowrestling/stone-cold-steve-austin-jinder-mahal-champion/

Hart: They approached me about doing a voice as a wrestler, but not Bret Hart. It was the Mad Russian or something. I said, “I don’t want to be the Mad Russian, I want to be Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart!” We went back and forth for a while and they eventually said, very politely, “This is the way it’s written, take it or leave it.” I agreed, and flew down to FOX Studios. They had blocked off this huge chunk of time for my three lines, and were saying things like, “We need you more mad,” “Okay, not quite that mad!” I did my lines about 100 times in two minutes! I went outside to wait for my limo that had gone to get gas, and I signed autographs and took pictures for 45 minutes. The guy that was in charge of my episode came up to me and said, “I had no idea you were this big of a star! If we haven’t already started the artwork, we’re going to draw you in as yourself.” That’s why the voice doesn’t really sound like me, because I thought I was playing a crazy Russian
Wacky Bret Hart story from back in the day regarding his appearance on the Simpsons.

Some other sheet news includes:

ESPN had a recent article about Lucha Underground and building their new Netflix audience. http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/19462124/the-thriving-lucha-underground-built-creativity-boosted-new-netflix-audience
ROH announces tickets for their upcoming UK War of Worlds Tour will go on sale on May 30th. http://www.pwinsider.com/article/109872/roh-war-of-the-worlds-uk-tour-tickets-on-sale-next-week.html?p=1
Recent episode of the Edge & Christian podcast show had Mick Foley and HBK as the guests. https://art19.com/shows/ecs-pod-of-awesomeness
AV Club had a recent interview with Jim Ross talking about a dream match he'd like to call with WWE's current roster. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0526/626593/jim-ross-talks-if-the-rock-will-return-for-another-wwe-match/
Miami Herald had a recent interview with Bobby Roode talking about being NXT Champion, NXT in general, and his match against Itami at Takeover Chicago. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0526/626589/bobby-roode-on-being-the-nxt-champion/
PressBox had an interview with Bruce Prichard talking about Impact Wrestling, Brother Love, and origins of the Jeff Jarrett's WWE gimmick. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0526/626588/bruce-prichard-on-impact-wrestling-previous-owners/
WWE currently holding a promotion on their online WWEshop involving a "Spend $30+, Get $5 Back." Discount code is WWEWINC5.
FloSlam service was recently given a price hike from $20 per month to now $30 per month for subscriptions. https://twitter.com/brandonthurston/status/868226089197469700

Emperor Smeat

05-30-2017, 10:37 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Scott Norton Appreciation Day ..... Nevermind:
http://i.imgur.com/sXGd0a0.gif

[Noam]Dar will be wrestling for ICW on July 29th at Shug's Hoose Party 4 night one. He'll team with Sha Samuels against Grado & Joe Coffey.
Current rumor going around the net involves the WWE signing a deal with ICW where ICW joins Evolve as a "feeder" system for the WWE but for British wrestlers. Also rumored to include terms allowing the WWE to buy ICW.

The A Block finals of the Best of the Super Juniors will take place overnight in Osaka. The show airs live on New Japan World. Will Ospreay, Dragon Lee, Hiromu Takahashi, Ricochet, and Taichi all have eight points and are still alive in the tournament. Marty Scurll, Taka Michinoku, and Jushin Thunder Liger are out of contention.

The names who are in India for the Impact tapings for the next month are Bobby Lashley, Alberto El Patron, Low Ki, Mahabali Shera, Chris Adonis, Trevor Lee, Braxton Sutter, Allie, Moose, Rosemary, Laurel Van Ness, Swoggle, James Storm, Ethan Carter III, Eli Drake, Sienna, Eddie Edwards (back from his knee injury), Davey Richards, Rockstar Spud, Caleb Konley (who is Suicide) and KM, plus non-wrestlers Josh Matthews, Jeremy Borash and Bruce Prichard. The tapings are Tuesday and Wednesday with four shows taped, the first of which will air on Thursday.
In terms of spoilers, Sonjay Dutt is the new X Division champion and as Impact's way of catering to the Indian market

DSport, a new TV channel in India, has acquired broadcast rights to ROH, making the first TV deal they've ever had in that country.

ROH champion Christopher Daniels will defend against Cody Rhodes in the main event of the 6/23 Ring of Honor "Best in the World" 2017 PPV from Lowell, MA, it was announced this evening.

Several weeks ago, PWInsider.com reported that John Cena was being locally advertised for the 7/4 Smackdown Live taping in Phoenix, Arizona.

This evening, Cena seemed to confirm that date, writing the following via Twitter:

Bittersweet day today as I begin another night in Atlanta. Such a funny movie but #SDLive @WWE is so close! 7/4 can't get here fast enough!
— John Cena (@JohnCena) May 30, 2017

WWE NXT star Tommaso Ciampa is in Birmingham, Alabama this week to undergo ACL surgery, PWInsider.com has confirmed.

There is no word yet on the severity of the injury or how long Ciampa will be out of action as of this writing.
Observer previously reported Ciampa is now dealing with a worse ankle injury due to the ladder match at Takeover Chicago.

As I discussed last night in my Elite audio update, it appeared that 205 Star Lince Dorado had suffered a leg injury last night while wrestling Drew Gulak for a match taped for this weekend's edition of WWE Main Event.

While it appeared Dorado may have gotten hurt during the bout, PWInsider.com confirmed with multiple sources last night and today that Dorado is OK and was not injured.

He is backstage at the Alanta Smackdown/205 Live taping today.

HEY!!! I'M EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE THAT PRESALE FOR MY BOOK #FOODFIGHT BEGINS TOMORROW!!!#AUSTINARIESBOOKCOM #RAW pic.twitter.com/hIK76tbr4b
— Austin Healy Aries (@AustinAries) May 29, 2017

It was announced this evening that former ROH and TNA champion and current WWE 205 Live star Austin Aries will release his first book Food Fight: My Plant-Based Journey from Bingo Halls to The Big Time on 6/9 through Grey Book Publishing.

It looks like WWE is planning some sort of "Ask Me Anything" show for the WWE Network, playing off the popular Reddit "AMA" chats with celebrities and other interesting people. They tweeted the following today, asking fans to submit questions for RAW Tag Team Champion Jeff Hardy:

Have a question for @JEFFHARDYBRAND? Tweet using #JeffHardyAMA, and your question might be answered on a future @WWENetwork show!
— WWE (@WWE) May 30, 2017

WWE cut out the entire "This Is Your Life" sketch on their YouTube channel from last night's RAW before Bayley hit the ring, as seen in the video above. The widely panned segment featured Alexa Bliss interviewing people portraying Bayley's 4th grade teacher, childhood best friend Tracy Avalina and ex-boyfriend Phil Johnson. The segment ended with Tracy and Phil kissing before Bayley hit the ring.

Corey Graves and Goldust are filming a special episode of Graves' "Superstar Ink" at Luke Gallows' Painted Gypsy Tattoo shop in Georgia today. Goldust and Gallows tweeted the following:

Pumped to shoot #SuperstarInk at Painted Gypsy Tattoo today! Catch it soon to https://t.co/m1X9mIPtGp @Goldust @WWEGraves #2Sweet
— Luke Gallows (@LukeGallowsWWE) May 30, 2017

Coming Soon: #SuperstarInk, starring yours truly. (Guest appearance by @wwegraves)@wwe @LukeGallowsWWE @paintedgypstatt #TooSweet ??
— Dustin Rhodes (@Goldust) May 30, 2017

Mattel will be releasing the debut look of Randy Orton, Daniel Bryan or The Miz as an Elite Series action figure in the near future. WWE's website has a new poll asking fans which debut look should be immortalized as a figure - Bryan's 2010 look, Orton's 2002 look or Miz's 2006 look. Results will be revealed when the figure is announced.

Some other sheet news includes:

RAW ratings and viewership delayed till tomorrow due to Monday being a holiday. Smackdown's numbers also getting delayed till Thursday.
ESPN had a recent interview with Jinder Mahal talking about his recent success in the WWE. http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/19497591/wwe-jinder-mahal-embraces-new-success-sticking-got-there
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, last Saturday was the 21st anniversary of Scott Hall's debut in WCW Nitro.
WrestlingDVDNetwork recently revealed the full content list for Kurt Angle's upcoming DVD set called "Kurt Angle - The Essentials Collection." http://www.wrestlingdvdnetwork.com/full-content-wwe-kurt-angle-the-essential-collection-dvd/136304
According to the Observer, Rusev is currently in the same position Summer Rae is in regards to his return being delayed due to Creative having no ideas for him and the focus being on Jinder instead for the WWE title scene.
Also according to the Observer, Jeff Hardy still has 2 strikes for the Wellness Policy and can't get rid of a strike yet due to the terms needed. https://twitter.com/davemeltzerwon/status/869595807682514944
NDTV Gadgets 360 had a recent interview with New Day's Big E and Kofi Kingston. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0530/626673/big-e-on-how-much-creative-freedom-wwe-gives-them/

Emperor Smeat

05-31-2017, 10:13 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Taguchi channeling his inner Nakamura:
http://i.imgur.com/OsOG877.gif

The lack of NBA playoffs did not prove to be much of a benefit for Raw's ratings on Monday night as the show did 2.61 million viewers, identical to the previous week when going against the playoffs.

While Memorial Day and the NHL playoffs did hurt the number, anything below 2.85 million should have been considered a disappointment. Still, because the news stations weren't broadcasting key programming and the NHL was on NBC rather than cable, Raw was the most-watched show on cable, a spot it hasn't had in a long time.

The Stanley Cup finals did 4.85 million viewers.

Memorial Day traditionally hurts the rating by only 40,000 to 50,000 viewers, so it's a factor, but not nearly a factor to where it ties a record low. In theory, next week should be up the day after a Raw PPV, although the split crew PPVs have not been a boon to next-day ratings as it used to be.

The June 12th Raw, unless the return of Brock Lesnar is gigantic, should be the lowest rated Raw of the modern era outside of football season unless the NBA playoffs are a four-game sweep, since it goes on against game five.

The other key is Memorial Day traditionally means viewers come in later, so the second hour is always bigger than the first, but this show's second hour actually dropped.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.69 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.68 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.47 million viewers

Some news and notes regarding this week's ratings. RAW was #2 for the 18-34 demo with a show called "Street Outlaws" taking the top spot. WWE wasted the first of 2 weeks with no direct NBA competition since Observer was predicting at least an extra 250k more viewers even with the holiday to be considered as a good sign.

Fightful's Brandon Howard posted a clip of WWE Chief Financial Officer George Barrios seemingly saying on May 22nd that WWE has already announced a deal with ICW and PROGRESS to show their events on the WWE Network. No announcement about that has been made, but the deals have been reported on for months. Dave Meltzer tweeted yesterday that it was up to Vince McMahon if shows from PROGRESS would come to the Network.
Link to the clip: https://twitter.com/BrandonThurston/status/870002626716237824

The last night of A Block action in the Best of the Super Juniors came down to Will Ospreay facing Hiromu Takahashi in the main event to decide who would advance to the finals. Ospreay won and will be going to the finals for the second straight year after previously winning the 2016 tournament. The B Block winner will be decided at a show in Aichi overnight. Everyone in that block is at six points, so the winner will be decided by tiebreakers. The finals will take place on June 3rd.

In his last-ever Best of the Super Juniors match, Jushin Thunder Liger defeated Taichi to earn his only points in this year's tournament. Liger previously announced that this year would be the last time he would be entering the BOSJ. He cut a promo after his win, saying that the junior heavyweight scene in next year's tournament will be even better despite his absence.

Lucha Underground returns on the El Rey Network tonight with its season three mid-season premiere. Johnny Mundo vs. The Mack in an "All Night Long" match for Mundo's title will air on the episode.

At the most recent investors conference call, WWE management was asked about the status of negotiations towards a new television rights deal as their current contract with NBC Universal expires in 2019. Smartly, they declined to make a statement.

I say smartly because in the period leading up to the announcement of the last contract back in 2014, Vince McMahon famously guaranteed that the company would double the amount of money that they were getting from the terms that they were currently working under. Of course, that didn’t happen and the WWE stock took a large hit when the new deal was announced since part of the run up that the stock had was attributed to the promised jump in revenue rights fees ...

Even under the best of circumstances, the negotiations with NBC Universal would be a battle. Under much better circumstances in 2014, WWE couldn’t come close to doubling their rights fees. The landscape in the cable industry is, to be honest, a minefield. Cable networks are being hit hard from a number directions. Obviously, cord cutting has become a major problem for the industry. Even when they keep customers via streaming, they don’t generate the revenue that they did from having that content viewed by cable subscribers ...

If that were the only issue, WWE would probably be still standing on solid footing, but there are a few other items that could work against them as negotiations with NBC Universal near.

For one thing, back in 2014, USA Network was still creating new hit shows and being the top rated Basic Cable Network was very important to them ... Since then, they haven’t been creating the hits that they used to. They moved Smackdown to Tuesdays as a concession to that fact. If they were to change their philosophy, and choose to reset their strategy, WWE programming could be worth less to them. Maybe a lot less.

But the bigger problem that WWE has to face when dealing with NBC is one that they have completely created: Themselves. NBC could very well feel that WWE has not lived up to their end of the deal and take a hard line approach when it comes to negotiations. Why you ask?

... While WWE didn’t double their rights fees as they promised that they would, their sales pitch that WWE was “DVR proof” programming since people wanted to watch it in real time did garner them a significant increase from NBC Universal. And that increase was rewarded by losing almost a third of the viewers that were supposed to be “DVR proof”. The worst part is that the company itself, with it’s predictable booking and stale presentation, are the primary reason that the product has become DVRable! They did it to themselves.

I can’t state this for a fact but I think it’s reasonable to assume that NBC Universal didn’t pay more money for less viewers. That isn’t how business works. When you add in that the main reason that the viewers have left is due completely due to the people that told you that they wouldn’t? That could create some animus.

So in two years, WWE very well may find itself in a position where it could be facing a reduced offer from NBC, or worse. In this climate, it may be hard to even find other bidders that are willing to pay what they are getting now. After all, in 2014 NBCU put the best offer on the table and it was far less than what Vince McMahon wanted.

WWE is mature product and in the TV industry, that often works against a program. When one adds in the concerning loss of viewers, it makes a mature product an even harder sell for top dollar. There’s a real possibility that USA may tell WWE we want to work with you, but you need to take a pay cut (and if that happens PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE get rid of that third hour of Raw, for all of our sakes). It’s possible they could just walk away altogether. If either happens, it seems pretty obvious that WWE’s top revenue producer, television rights fees, would take a major hit. And that would affect the company.

At that point, their options would be limited. They could look for another partner, most probably for less money. Or they could take it in-house on the WWE Network and create a tiered pricing model where they sell you a subscription to Raw and Smackdown and they sell advertising on the programs and keep what they sell. There is no guarantee that they could even come close to making up for the lost revenue with either option.

... If they want to avoid coming to that unwanted fork, the time to make changes is now. If they don’t, this time in 2019 could be really scary for them.
Part of a lengthy article on PWI in regards to WWE's tv contract deals and possible future for the WWE. Link to a post from NeoGAF that has the whole article (because PWI's website in general is terrible) and some key dates in regards to tv contracts: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=238720584&postcount=6268

Ring of Honor announced this afternoon that STARDOM High Speed champion Kris Wolf would debut for the promotion's Women of Honor division at the 6/23 ROH Best in the World PPV in Lowell, MA.

The promotion also announced The Kingdom's Matt Taven & Vinny Marseglia will face CMLL stars El Terrible and Ultimo Guerrero. Taven has been making regular appearances in CMLL.

Previously announced for the PPV is Cody Rhodes challenging Christopher Daniels for the ROH championship after Daniels defeated Rhodes and Jay Lethal at the War of the Worlds PPV in NYC.

Across the Pacific, STARDOM has established itself as the premier women’s professional wrestling organization in the world. In March, Women of Honor and STARDOM partnered together for a tryout camp and a partnership was formed. In Lowell, MA at Best in the World Weekend, international superstar and current STARDOM HIGH SPEED CHAMPION KRIS WOLF makes her Women of Honor debut!

WWE is working on developing regular programming on Snapchat with the idea of debuting it on a monthly basis staring around Summerslam weekend.

Multiple sources have told PWInsider.com that the deal is described as "in jeopardy" due to issues regarding the transfer of the existing copyrights and trademarks for the National Wrestling Alliance.

PWInsider.com research indicates that the copyright and trademark on the brand name lapsed last year with his International Wrestling Corp, LLC applying for it again on March 30th of this year. The trademark has not been officially assigned, theoretically making it impossible for them to be transferred to Corgan.

After stints in WWF, WCW, TNA and most recently Rocky Mountain Pro, Vince Russo is looking to get back into wrestling.

The controversial Russo spoke to Fightful.com and told us that he actually contacted WWE Chairman Vince McMahon last week and offered his services to his former boss.

"I've reached out to Vince McMahon in the past week," said Russo, before stating that he wouldn't elaborate too much. "He got back to me."

Often outspoken, Russo has criticized the current WWE product for years. According to Russo, the exchange between the two was brief.

"I am still a wrestling fan at heart, going back to when I was 10, 11 years old. I hate today's product. To me, it's not professional wrestling," Russo said. "I don't want to be the guy critiquing the problem without saying 'Here's my olive branch, I think I can help you as the numbers go down every week.' I didn't use the word help. You don't tell Vince McMahon he needs help. I said 'if you want me to contribute, I'd love to once again contribute.'"

When asked if McMahon seemed open to the idea, or receptive, Russo indicated that McMahon isn't a big talker -- with him at least.

"Vince never seems receptive. His response is always a couple of words. He's not that guy. He's the same guy that told me I could get a nanny (to raise) your kids," said Russo.
Link to the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7Ee2kBL5x0

Brock Lesnar's title defense at the WWE Great Balls of Fire PPV on July 9th against the winner of this Sunday night's Fatal Five Way #1 contender's match at Extreme Rules will be a quick program. Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that the match will not lead to a rematch with Lesnar at the following pay-per-view, SummerSlam, as Lesnar is slated to face Braun Strowman at that event.

Some other sheet news includes:

OTT Wrestling announced their streaming service will be launching tomorrow. https://twitter.com/OTT_wrestling/status/869915587077697536
Musical band The Migos recently released a song dedicated to Scotty 2 Hotty. http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/7809589/migos-too-hotty-wwe-wrestler-scotty-2-hotty-stream
British promotion WCPW is currently facing serious financial problems related to loss of Youtube ad revenue according to wrestlers who have complained on Twitter about pay being late.
WWE is currently holding a sale on their official WWEShop website with select t-shirts getting a 50% discount. No special promo code needed and sale lasts till 3pm tomorrow.
Recent posting by Jim Ross on his official blog discussed Extreme Rules, Smackdown's Women MitB match, and AJ losing to Ziggler in his hometown. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0531/626721/jim-ross-blogs-on-wwe-raw-co-main-events/
The Weeklender had a recent interview with Alexa Bliss talking about being a heel and Rey Mysterio as inspiration for her gear. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0531/626720/alexa-bliss-on-wanting-fans-to-hate-her/

Emperor Smeat

06-01-2017, 09:59 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by WWE's newest indie interest:
https://49.media.tumblr.com/92645257cc65895219bba3f70cc96f45/tumblr_nprc28HGXn1sbzhteo1_400.gif

With no competition from the NBA or NHL playoffs, SmackDown was up, very slightly, to 2.35 million viewers on Tuesday night.

The show was third for the night in total viewers on cable and was first in the 18-49 demo with a 0.77 rating.
Based on recent weeks, seems Smackdown is starting to recover from the Superstar Shakeup which messed up the flow of the brand.

Dalton Castle’s ROH contract is up this month. WWE has shown great interest in him so it will take a major offer to keep him. Castle is a tremendous live show performer and would have superstar potential in WWE.

Five Star Wrestling postponed their 128 man tournament that was to start on 6/10 in Liverpool. The talent was told it was because of the bombing in Manchester, which came across as insulting since that's obviously not the reason. They now are claiming the tournament would be starting in February with a show on 2/1 in Liverpool at Echo Arena, 2/8 at the Newcastle Arena, 2/15 at the Sheffield Arena and 2/22 in London at the Copper Box Arena. (thanks to Stephen Lyon)

The next episode of Table for 3 will debut Monday after Raw, featuring Ric Flair, Bruno Sammartino and Bob Orton.

The Kurt Angle WWE 24 documentary will debut in July.

WWE has uploaded all but one episode of TNT, so that series is all but complete in the Vault section of the WWE Network.
Kurt Angle's announcement for his new documentary: https://twitter.com/RealKurtAngle/status/870353708382646272

New Japan will have a press conference on 6/30 at Marukai in the Gardena, CA location. Among those present will be the winners of the Dominion main events as well as all of the participants in the U.S. title tournament. Marukai is at 1740 W. Artesia Blvd. in Gardena and the press conference will be at 4 p.m.

Sure, if a few people boycott, it’s no big deal. He will just attribute it to normal churn. But as we have seen in the Raw numbers lately, it’s not just a few people doing it.

The Raw after WrestleMania did 3,767,000 viewers. Monday’s show did 2,613,000. If you want to say, “Well, it was a holiday,” the previous week’s show did 2,615,000. Since that April 3 show, the audience has gone down every week but one, and they are now down over 1.1 million viewers in less than two months. That, my friends, is how you send a message if that is your intention.

So if a significant percentage of those fans are former Roman booers who have finally lost the desire to try and change Vince’s mind and given up the fight, in your concession to futility you may have finally stumbled onto the most impactful way to get your message across.
Part of a longer article discussing the idea of fans are starting to get tired of booing Reigns and are leaving en masse since WWE is too stubborn to change their plans for Reigns. http://www.pwinsider.com/article/110021/giving-potential-praise-to-the-fans-who-booed-roman-reigns-you-may-have-finally-gotten-it-right.html

Impact Wrestling will debut in Staten Island, NY at Richmond County Ball Park, the home of the Staten Island Yankees on Saturday 8/5 at 6 PM. Tickets will go on sale on 6/9.

Announced for the event were Impact champion Bobby Lashley, GFW champion Alberto el Patron, EC3 and James Storm ...

This will be the first Impact live event under Anthem Media's ownership and the first live event in the United States since an event in Salem, Virginia on October 3, 2015.

Chris Adonis (aka Masters) went to the hospital while Impact was in India to get an MRI on a potential injury. We haven't confirmed what the nature of the injury was at this juncture but it did not prevent him from working the second TV taping date ...

The belief internally is that the India tapings did a lot to strengthen the company's relationship with Sony Six.

LAX did not work the India tour as their material is, thus far, shot out of sequence.
Some Impact news related to their current India tour.

As noted, Brie Bella recently announced on her YouTube channel that she is preparing for a return to the ring now that she's given birth to Birdie Joe. Above is new video of Brie training for her return to the WWE ring.
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHyWPZsC2t8

Lots of talk once again regarding a Hogan return. As noted many times, it’s a question of when, and that will be determined by when the company is reasonably sure that bringing him back won’t cause a backlash. The problem is those quotes he made were racist and can’t be sugar-coated, and they can’t make the claim that they didn’t know about them. Of course the more times goes on, the more the fans want to see him. But if he’s hired as an ambassador representing the company and doing media, the company doesn’t want him out there promoting the network and then having to defend himself on those comments and the stories on WWE bring up those comments. Still, in the WWE Kids Magazine (not available in the U.S, but available in the U.K., Spain and the Middle East) there was a Hogan poster and Hogan has said that he and Vince are talking.

I don’t know if anything will come of this, but the idea of a Vince McMahon Table for 3 segment is at least being talked about for a few months down the line. Obviously the people doing the network would love it since it’ll draw an audience, so really like everything, it’s up to Vince.

Those at Impact were told directly from Sony Six that the belief was that the big Mahal push was directly related to their tour this week. Whether accurate or not, the WWE’s U.K. timing and strategy changed significantly when, in a market WWE dominated, somebody else was coming in with strong television backing. Indeed, the lack of future tapings of the weekly U.K. television show after we were told about plans for monthly tapings and a weekly network show at the same time the ITV project imploded was noteworthy. At this point, WWE has nothing on the schedule for India this year, although that could change.
Seems WWE only cared about doing a weekly UK show because of ITV and now that ITV's plans are struggling, WWE lost almost all interest in continuing.

Mayu Iwatani is no longer considering retirement, since she’s obviously going to be the top star in Stardom with the departure of Io Shirai and Kairi Hojo. Kagetsu is taking some time off, perhaps a month, to spend time with her family but she’ll be working the majority of the Stardom shows this year. Stardom is really pushing the 6/21 Korakuen Hall match with Shirai vs. Iwatani for the World of Stardom title, which Shirai has. The story is that Iwatani is the only wrestler in the promotion who has been there from the start, and she also has never won the company’s major belt. Iwatani is also the Wonder of Stardom champion and nobody has ever won both belts at the same time. Hojo’s final show with Stardom will be on 6/4.

Ciampa will be undergoing knee surgery this week for a torn ACL from the ladder match at NXT Takeover when he went in and worked on a compromised ankle. While any estimate until surgery is premature, the general rule on ACL surgery is a six-to-eight month recuperation period, which pretty much kills the planned Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano angle.

The reason WWE will be using Viper in the upcoming women’s tournament is that several of the ITV wrestlers asked out of their deals since there are no plans for shows.

There will be a new international class of women’s wrestlers starting together in the next few weeks of Kairi Hojo from Japan, Evie from New Zealand (Cheree Crowley, 29, a ten-year veteran who has worked in the top U.S. and Japanese women’s groups since 2013), Nixon Newell from the U.K. (Steffanie Newell, 22, who has been on the international scene the past few years) and Demi Bennett, 20, from Australia.

Right now it appears the plan is for Io Shirai, who is also coming soon, to not be in the Mae Young Classic, as she’ll be finishing up in Japan first.
Some news and notes related to recent women signings by the WWE

I had absolutely no idea why Mae Young gave birth to a hand, other than assuming it was just a weird segment, until today when I was reading through threads regarding old

Wrestling Observer issues and came across this, from Dave Meltzer in the March 6th, 2000 Observer Newsletter:

Mae Young gave Crash the worst big splash ever, and then went into labor. They had her backstage with an EMT, Patterson, Brisco, Henry and Moolah for this godawful segment that ended when they pulled a hand out of her. I had no idea what this was. Luckily I do a radio show and someone explained that hands were popular sex toys in the 70s and 80s for women and I guess the idea was she was getting herself off in another decade and it had been there for a while.

Wacky Mae Young story from back in the day courtesy of r/SquaredCircle.

Some other sheet news includes:

WWE's first full-time female ref debuted at tonight's house show for NXT. https://twitter.com/JJWilliamsWON/status/870428441287557121
WWE recently signed CWC participant Raul Mendoza to a deal with the company.
According to the Observer, WWE is currently planning for Toni Storm to be the showcase star for the upcoming Mae Young Classic.
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, with RAW's recent record setting set of low shows, only 1 episode of WCW Nitro remains for having a lower rated/viewed show than RAW. Observer's Dave Meltzer mentioned it as part of his recent talks about WWE's struggles with RAW.

Frank Drebin

06-01-2017, 10:16 PM

Damn. That Ciampa injury news is weak.

Simple Fan

06-01-2017, 10:28 PM

Castle has star written all over him and pulls that type of gimmick off better than anyone I've ever seen have a flamboyant type gimmick.

Volare

06-02-2017, 03:00 PM

Castle vs Goldust.

ClockShot

06-02-2017, 07:48 PM

Dalton brings The Boys or stay on the indie circuit.

Emperor Smeat

06-02-2017, 10:40 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Random DDT Pro Wrestling gif:
http://i.imgur.com/fL8smLy.gif

For whatever this is worth, there was so much money bet yesterday on Samoa Joe to win on Sunday that he was taken off the board at Paddy Power. Paddy Power has been getting a lot of smart money bet this year but Thursday is usually early since Vince often doesn't make up his mind until the day of the show. But in this case, with Brock Lesnar being the opponent of the winner and McMahon having Lesnar's stuff usually detailed out way in advance, it is possible this is legit.
Assuming this and recent rumors regarding Great Balls of Fire are true, a potential Joe-Lesnar feud would be really short and rushed.

There will be a Bruno Sammartino compilation and a Ladder match compilation video that will be coming out Monday on the WWE Network.

Though the main event for the show was already known, New Japan Pro Wrestling has revealed the full card for the Best of the Super Juniors finals.

That main event will have Block A winner Will Ospreay taking on Block B winner KUSHIDA in the tournament finals. The two have faced each other before, with KUSHIDA winning both times. As defending Best of the Super Juniors winner, Ospreay looks to both repeat as tournament champion and get his first win against KUSHIDA.

The winner of that match will likely get an IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship shot against Hiromu Takahashi at Dominion on June 11th ...

The show will take place on June 3rd and will air live at 4 a.m. ET on New Japan World, complete with English commentary. The full card is:

Will Ospreay vs. KUSHIDA to determine this year's Best of the Super Juniors winner
Kazuchika Okada & Gedo vs. Kenny Omega & Marty Scurll
Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, EVIL, BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Satoshi Kojima, Juice Robinson, Ryusuke Taguchi, Ricochet & Dragon Lee
Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Minoru Suzuki & Taichi
War Machine, David Finlay & ACH vs. Guerrillas of Destiny, Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi
Volador Jr., Tiger Mask IV & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Taka Michinoku, El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Hirai Kawato, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Togi Makabe vs. Jado, Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii
Syota Umino, Tomoyuki Oka & Yuji Nagata vs. Tetsuhiro Yagi, Katsuya Kitamura & Manabu Nakanishi

Earlier today, WWN announced talents for their ongoing Style Battle promotion, which features a series of tournament with competitors from different "styles" facing off at each event, with the winners moving on to a final tournament at the end of a "season." Announced for the tournament on 6/16 in Ybor City, Florida were Anthony Henry, Matt Tremont, Shlak, Maxwell Jacob Friedman and Teddy Stigma. Many of the same talents were also announced for the 6/17 FIP event in the same venue.

The inclusion of Shlak, who has worked for CZW and is competing in their Tournament of Death next week in Delaware, led to immediate complaints on social media, as fans had uncovered photos of him posing with white power band members and a photo of him giving a Nazi salute. WWN's Gabe Sapolsky (who is Jewish) immediately stated he wasn't aware of the situation and was going to investigate. In speaking to PWInsider.com, Sapolsky said that Shlak had been booked based on multiple recommendations and was going to drive down to the event as part of a contingent traveling together from the Northeast. Before Sapolsky had a chance to investigate the situation, however, Flosports (which has a deal with WWN to stream their events as part of their subscription service) informed the promotion that they had received complaints as well and would not be allowing Shlak's matches to be streamed on their service. All of this led to the promotion unbooking him. As you might imagine, Sapolsky wasn't happy about this scenario taking place at all.

EVOLVE referee DA Brewer was signed by WWE and started with NXT this week as an official. He's a damn good referee.

The 6/1 edition of Impact on Pop brought in 287,000 viewers, down from last week's 305,000 viewers.

This past Monday's episode of RAW on Memorial Day averaged 2.613 million viewers and was the least watched episode of the year. The final rating of the show was just a 1.75.

Dave Meltzer reported in The Wrestling Observer Newsletter that it was the second lowest rated episode in the history of the show. He also noted that only one episode of WCW Monday Nitro, the December 11, 2000 show, ever did lower than a 1.75.

The rating is based on the percentage of homes that get the USA Network, so cord cutting doesn't factor into the rating. It was also noted in the Observer that the USA Network is available in 91.8 million homes, while it was available in 92.7 million homes a year ago, a drop of 1%. This year's RAW rating was down 19.1% from last year's Memorial Day episode, which scored a 2.19 rating with 3.222 million viewers.
Some more details regarding yesterday's "WWE Did You Know" fact regarding WCW Nitro and RAW. Meltzer also went into more details regarding this situation recently: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=238775730&postcount=284

Mark Henry’s most notable moment over the last few years since his Hall Of Pain run in 2011 was the fake retirement speech he gave on Raw in which he wore an orange suit and worked everyone into it ...

He said that he wore the orange suit simply because he thought it was cool, and he wanted people to remember that moment.

However, he had no idea that the response would be as it had been. He said that he had gotten messages from several people appreciating him and his suit, but none more memorable than that of The World's Largest Athlete, according to Henry.

“I guess the Big Show’s message was the best. He left me a message and said he is going to kill me, that he was sitting on the couch with his wife, crying, and said, that’s how you do me? You used me. You used my feelings, and I said, oh my bad.”
Wacky Mark Henry story from back in the day regarding fooling Big Show enough to mke him cry. Link to the memorable segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSMu_VU_OOg

Some other sheet news includes:

Superstar Billy Graham revealed during an interview with Hannibal TV about being cleared from Hepatitis C due to a new medical treatment given. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvoJK_jFfGo
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is AJ Styles 40th birthday.
In another "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 3rd anniversary of the Seth Rollins turning on the Shield and the group disbanding. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/6euf9o/three_years_ago_today_the_shield_imploded/
Online wrestling retailer Highspots announced they are currently holding a 33% Off sale on all shirts. http://www.highspots.com/c/Shirts-Apparel.html
Sports Illustrated had a recent interview with Rey Mysterio talking about Lucha Underground, current generation of cruisers, not wanting to work for Impact Wrestling, and a wacky WCW story from back in the day. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0602/626766/rey-mysterio-on-almost-working-for-impact/
Uproxx had a recent interview with Chris Jericho talking about his recent run in the WWE and if he wants to become a part-timer for Mania. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0602/626763/chris-jericho-on-when-he-knew-it-was-time-to-go-during-last-wwe/

drave

06-03-2017, 08:28 AM

It really is a shame they didn't build on that speech. He had legit heat for that.

mike adamle

06-03-2017, 11:11 AM

I'd rather had not seen Big Show-Henry again

drave

06-03-2017, 01:09 PM

Big Show was in no way involved in the segment. He "interrupted" Cena and they should have built that program.

Lock Jaw

06-03-2017, 08:39 PM

Didn't that whole thing lead to a Henry/Cena one month feud?

Emperor Smeat

06-03-2017, 09:12 PM

Yeah was very short and just the typical Cena-Beast/Monster throw-away type feud. Shame since it had one of the best starts ever for a Cena feud.

WWE rushed it so Bryan-Cena would happen next for SummerSlam.

mike adamle

06-03-2017, 09:27 PM

Bryan-Cena was the better overall program anyways. The match Cena and Henry match was the best match they could've had against each other. No need to water it down with more matches.

Mr. Nerfect

06-05-2017, 01:03 AM

I'm fine with Brock vs. Joe being one and done. If the match rocks, then you can always do another one later after letting fans salivate. It's going to have a big fight feel and will hopefully deliver on a completely different level to some of the other programs the WWE has put on the main roster of the show. This is Joe's chance to prove he truly belongs at that level.

06-05-2017, 01:25 PM

I was hoping for Finn vs Lesnar with Balor (sans paint) coming up just short, and building to The Demon vs. The Beast at Mania. But Joe/Lesnar should be good.

Emperor Smeat

06-07-2017, 12:39 AM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Random WCW Gif:
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/522a2049e4b0a0ce717e990c/56b30df9ab48de5330186951/56b30df9f8baf36d1ae3dde5/1454575109061/roll.gif?format=750w

The WWE got a shockingly big PPV boost from Extreme Rules, as Raw averaged 2.98 million viewers and was the most-watched show last night on cable television ...

It was the largest audience to watch Raw since the April 24th show and largest first hour since April 17th.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 3.11 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.11 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.76 million viewers

WWE has the strong chance of getting lucky with the end of direct NBA competition if the NBA Finals ends in a sweep (Warriors up 2-0 currently). If not, Game 5 is scheduled to occur next Monday.

Pro Wrestling Sheet reported the WWE will run shows twice a month starting shortly to tape the U.K. television show and that several of the wrestlers were signed to new contracts, listing Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate, Trent Seven, Wolfgang and Mark Andrews who will be brought to Orlando at times as well as continue to work in the U.K. We had reported weeks back that WWE had contacted U.K. venues that are already well known for shows with other promotions regarding taping television at least once a month. No first date has been announced but originally the plan was to have a taping in June, but that may be rushing it.

Smith Hart, 68, the oldest brother of Bret Hart, who is suffering from cancer, was moved to Hospice Care in recent days which is sad news. Best wishes to Smith right now and to the entire Hart family.

Thea Trinidad has signed a WWE developmental contract according to Pro Wrestling Sheet. She debuted at the last set of tapings as a second for Andrade Cien Almas. She is the girlfriend of Austin Aries.
For some reference, she plays AJ Lee in the upcoming Paige biopic being produced by Rock's film studio.

John Cena will be on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on 6/9, likely to promote the debut of the new American Grit TV show.

Owens posted that he has a broken thumb but said he won't miss any time because of it.
Link to the tweet: https://twitter.com/FightOwensFight/status/872218456753655808

Members of the NXT roster were in Manchester today visiting those affected by last month's bombing. WWE, Sky News, and other outlets have posted articles about Bobby Roode, Nikki Cross, Mark Andrews, and PROGRESS Wrestling's Jim Smallman visiting an eight-year-old girl who was injured in the attack. Ember Moon, Roderick Strong, Trent Seven, and Jack Gallagher also donated items at a Red Cross to help with the emergency fund.

Sports Business Journal has a study on how viewership for sports on television has gotten older over the past decade. The study found that the median age for those watching pro wrestling on TV was 54 years old in 2016, which is up from 28 in 2000 and 33 in 2006. Dave Meltzer noted on Twitter that the average age of those watching Raw and SmackDown is in the 40s.
Link to the report: http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2017/06/05/Research-and-Ratings/Viewership-trends.aspx , Link to Meltzer's tweet: https://twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/status/872180323089391616

In an update on the situation with What Culture Pro Wrestling and YouTube, WCPW had the strike that YouTube gave their channel removed and their "Fight Back" show has been added back to the service. YouTube had given them the strike for supposedly violating their policy on spam and deceptive practices.
Link to the update: https://twitter.com/AdamTheBlampied/status/872005997409304577

We've had a number of readers ask whether there was a major reason that caused WWE to keep Matt and Jeff Hardy from appearing on Raw last night. Sources indicate they will be working a reduced schedule the next few weeks as Matt's wife Rebecca is scheduled to give birth to their second child very soon.

On the Impact Wrestling-Broken Hardys gimmick front, there has been very little said publicly by either side of late, which I believe is a sign that they are quietly trying to negotiate some sort of agreement. Billy Corgan had been trying to mediate, but there's no confirmation he is still involved.

We have also heard the Hardys sit-down interview with Corey Graves that was filmed before Extreme Rules in Baltimore will likely be used in some form on an upcoming edition of Bring It To The Table. WWE is filming the latest episode of that series this week to debut it next Monday following Raw.

WWE plans to distribute the Mae Young Classic tournament in a different way, PWInsider.com has exclusively confirmed.

The plan is to film the 32-woman tournament on 7/13 and 7/14 at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida for the WWE Network.

The Network will debut a preview special for the tournament on 8/20 with the first round of the tournament being released via Video on Demand the final week of August as a way to let fans binge the "episodes."

The second round will be released the first week in September, again via the VOD service. Initially, the plan was to release them Summerslam week but the decision was made to hold off so that the women's tournament was not overshadowed by everything else WWE had scheduled for that week, which is pretty smart.

The current plan is to hold the finals live on Tuesday 9/12. Currently, the only WWE event scheduled that day is a taping in Las Vegas for the Smackdown brand, so it may be that the finals of the Mae Young Classic will air live on the Network from Las Vegas

On June 4th, former WCW Heavyweight Champion Van Vader announced that he would be retiring. His tweet read: “With great sorrow I leave my first born, my greatest love of all, for a chance to exist in the same plain of existence of my Gr Ch yet to exist”

With Great Sorrow I leave my first born my greatest love of All for a chance to exist inthe same plain of existance of my Gr Ch yet to exist
— Big Van Vader (@itsvadertime) June 4, 2017

The 62-year-old legend has been through a lot, since he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. His chances of prognosis are slim, with doctors giving him up to two years to live. Big Van Vader has gone against the grain, his willpower and strength is commendable. Sadly, he collapsed during the Tatsumi Fujinami 45th Anniversary show in April - a six-man tag team match, where he worked with Keji Muto and Akira in Japan. His original tweet “for a chance to exist in the same plain of existence as my Gr Ch yet to exit” refers to his wish to see his grandchildren one day. It was this tweet that lead fans and wrestling industry officials alike, to believe that Van Vader would be hanging up his boots. In fact, it turns out that Van Vader will not be giving up his career in wrestling and has vowed to continue his long successful career, despite his condition. He replied to his own tweet on June 5th with “As usual some one got it wrong. I have not wrestled my last match. Lord willing not for years yet. Love it when you got them guessing.”

As usual some one got it wrong I have not wrestled my last match Lord wilinng not for yrs yet Love it when u got them guessing https://t.co/0s5ozMmDK5
— Big Van Vader (@itsvadertime) June 5, 2017

The United States Patent and Trademark Office partially suspended Bruce Tharpe's registration of the National Wrestling Alliance trademark (which was filed for back in March after it expired in December 2016) on 6/4 due to "a likelihood of confusion with a registered mark and under Trademark Act Sections 1 and 45 for failure to show the applied-for mark in use in commerce with any of the specified goods in Class 25. The applicant was also informed that the marks in two pending applications present a potential bar to registration under Section 2(d), if registered. In addition, applicant was required to provide an amended definite identification of goods, provide information relevant to examination under 37 C.F.R. §2.61(b), clarify the mark description, provide clarification regarding the claimed dates of first use, and provide clarification regarding the applicant’s claim of concurrent use."

It appears based on the ruling that the issue at play is related to merchandising of the NWA brand, specifically that the NWA name may come into conflict with other existing applications featuring a similar brand name and that Tharpe, in his application, did not show adequate proof that the brand was currently being used in commerce, i.e. was actually being sold.

PWInsider.com reported several weeks ago that the Billy Corgan purchase of the NWA brand was "in jeopardy" according to numerous sources but has learned that since then, the Corgan and Tharpe sides have continued discussions.
Basically the new trademark was partially rejected due to it infringing on another company(s) NWA-like trademarks and the wording not being enough to prove the NWA itself is still an active company.

The next "Table For 3" on the WWE Network will air on Monday, June 19th after RAW goes off the air with Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres and Maryse.

Several readers pointed out that Michael Cole said during commentary on last night's RAW that Roman Reigns "perhaps" sent The Undertaker into retirement at WrestleMania, which we mentioned on our podcast last night. While WWE isn't publicly closing the door on Taker's career, we reported last month that Taker was at the David H Koch Pavilion Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, which is one of the best in the country for orthopaedics, which would seem to indicate that Taker will be undergoing the hip surgery that he had been delaying until he retired.

Some other sheet news:

Leland Race recently gave an update to his father's, Harley Race, medical status. http://www.tpww.net/2017/06/harley-race-medical-update/
Matt Hardy recently revealed the birth of his second child is expected to happen soon. https://twitter.com/matthardybrand/status/872051627963936768
Chris Jericho announced Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson will be the guests for Friday's episode of Talk Is Jericho podcast show. https://twitter.com/TalkIsJericho/status/872095805796216832
Ric Flair recently suffered an injury to his hand: https://twitter.com/RicFlairNatrBoy/status/871787917324275712
For those interested in wrestling related podcasts, Jake "The Snake" Roberts recently started his own podcast show called "Jake the Snake Unleashed": https://soundcloud.com/jake-the-snake-unleashed
ESPN had a recent interview with Raven talking about regretting leaving WCW, turning down WWE offers, and hating the Johnny Polo gimmick. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0606/626897/raven-on-why-he-turned-down-wwe-job-offers/
Georgia's Rock 100.5's Bailey And Southside had a recent interview with AJ Styles talking about the origins of the AJ Styles name, wanting to wear a mask, and idea of a name change in the WWE. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0606/626877/aj-styles-on-hating-styles-name-at-first/
During a recent episode of Jerry Lawler's podcast show, Lawler revealed WWE was threatened with a lawsuit by Jerry Lee Lewis in regards to using "Great Balls of Fire" name for a ppv. Ended up working out a deal in order for the ppv to not be renamed. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/6fo17k/jerry_lawler_lawyers_for_jerry_lee_lewis/
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Miz's newest IC title reign now puts him #2 all-time in WWE history for IC reigns and only needs 100 more days as champion to have the 3rd longest cumulative time as IC champion in WWE history. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/6flf3g/the_miz_has_surpassed_rob_van_dam_and_jeff/

Emperor Smeat

06-07-2017, 10:50 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Austin's dasterdly attack on a helpless beach ball:
http://i.imgur.com/qFEqXFU.gif

Ratings for this Tuesday's SmackDown were essentially even with last week, at 2.349 million viewers. That's down only 1,000 viewers from the May 30th show.

The episode was sixth for the night on cable in terms of total viewers and first in the 18-49 demo with a 0.74 rating.

There was no big sports competition last night with the NBA and NHL finals both not in action. The biggest competition was "America's Got Talent" on NBC, which did 12.5 million viewers head-to-head with SmackDown ...

For a year-over-year comparison, which will get very interesting next month when we can compare the live Tuesday night numbers, SmackDown this week in 2016 did 2.169 million viewers and a 0.69 rating in the 18-49 demo, so those numbers were up eight and seven percent respectively this year.

At this time in 2016, the show was taped on Tuesdays and then aired on the USA Network on Thursdays.
Outside of one show, Smackdown seems to settle in around the 2.3 million as its new average for the post-Superstar Shakeup recovery.

Cena spoke to The Wrap ahead of the return of his "American Grit" show. He talked about claims that he's "buried" other wrestlers: "This is why I have the reputation of quote-unquote 'burying younger talent,' because I will let them do whatever they want with me -- and then after they get done, they’re not as motivated. So, it’s not that I sink their ship, it’s that they fail to operate at an elite level. And I’m on to the next person, whom I say, 'Hey man, bring your best punch and I’m gonna punch back' -- and they don’t take that attitude beyond me."
Link to the interview: http://www.thewrap.com/john-cena-wwe-smackdown-miz-wrestlemania-american-grit/

PWG posted that Matt Riddle is off of their show on June 16th. He had been scheduled to team with Jeff Cobb against Chuck Taylor & Trent Baretta, but he'll be defending his WWN Championship against Martin Stone at a Style Battle show on that day instead. WWN also announced that they're allowing Riddle out of his bookings for EVOLVE on July 8th and 9th to pursue another opportunity. Riddle will be facing Tomohiro Ishii in a non-tournament match at Revolution Pro Wrestling's British J-Cup show in London on the 8th.
Supposedly not the first time during the past year of Riddle being terrible with keeping track of his bookings. Link to announcement: https://twitter.com/OfficialPWG/status/872259471178735616

Ring of Honor has announced more matches for their Best in the World pay-per-view. The Young Bucks will defend their ROH tag titles against War Machine, Jay Lethal will face Silas Young, and Frankie Kazarian will take on Hangman Page in a strap match. The Lowell Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, Massachusetts will host the PPV on June 23rd.

Finn Balor is in Japan to do media for WWE and has been visiting with some old friends. He posted pictures with Kazuchika Okada and KUSHIDA. WWE uploaded a video of Balor talking about it being his first time in the country since the Beast in the East show.

Big Show will be moderating a Bungie panel next 12 PM Tuesday at E3 2017 a part of Coliseum. The World' s Largest Athlete is a big fan of the company's Destiny franchise.

In the wake of explicit and private material featuring current and former performers leaking onto the Internet over the past several months, World Wrestling Entertainment held talent meetings at this past week's Raw and Smackdown tapings to try and prevent such things from happening again, PWInsider.com has learned.

The mandatory meetings were described to us as a class on cyber security threats with an expert from a cyber security firm brought in by the company to give a presentation to the roster. The presentation broke down different ways that one may find themselves tricked into inadvertently allowing their security to be breached. Talents were warned not to even accept USB drives as gifts, even if they were from beautiful women promising naked photos, which talent were told was a scenario that has happened to celebrities in the past ...

We are told that the company also gave out an amendment to their social media policy for talents to sign, although what that amendment may have been, we have not yet confirmed. WWE also stressed that no one but the talents and WWE social media teams should have access to the talents' social media accounts.

On his podcast this week, Jim Ross mentioned that he is lobbying to call the Brock Lesnar vs. Samoa Joe match at Great Balls of Fire.

The 8/19 WWE NXT: Takeover Brooklyn will have an online pre-sale tomorrow starting at 10 AM Eastern using code WWENXT at Ticketmaster.com.

Speaking of Sasha, she agreed with a fan on Twitter when asked if the logo for WWE's Great Balls of Fire pay-per-view resembles male private parts. The logo has been the subject of a lot of jokes from fans on social media in the past week. You can see the exchange below:

@SashaBanksWWE do you think the Great Balls of Fire logo looks like a dick and balls? pic.twitter.com/RmzdVGH5UW
— Shane Wareham (@HuntRampaige) June 7, 2017

Yes
— $asha Banks (@SashaBanksWWE) June 7, 2017

Some other sheet news includes:

UK's Mirror had a recent interview with Drew McIntrye talking about NXT's UK tour, WWE return, and Jinder winning the WWE Championship. http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/other-sports/wrestling/drew-mcintyre-wwe-nxt-interview-10577115
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 7th year anniversary of the Nexus' surprise debut in the WWE. https://twitter.com/cfosofficial/status/872485030462971904
Recent survey sent by the WWE revealed several ideas they are considering for DVD sets next year. Among the choices includes a new HBK and Macho Man sets based on unseen matches, Best of sets for Rick Rude and Andre the Giant, and a DVD set about WWE's Women's Revolution. http://www.pwinsider.com/article/110152/sasha-trish-shotgun-saturday-night-more-first-insight-into-future-wwe-dvds-.html?p=1
Sports Illustrated had a recent interview with Mick Foley talking about Cactus Jack and the importance it had on his career. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0607/626938/mick-foley-on-vince-mcmahon-not-being-a-fan-of-his-at-first/
Jim Ross posted a new article on his official blog talking about Samoa Joe's win at Extreme Rules, Alexa Bliss compared to Buddy Ross, and Cruiser matches at Extreme Rules. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0607/626916/jim-ross-on-samoa-joe-winning-at-wwe-extreme-rules/
Rumor going around the net involves the WWE being very happy with the reception to the Fashion Files skits and no plans to end them any time soon.
Also another rumor going around the net involves WWE's second tour of Japan this year might include a Network special event.

Emperor Smeat

06-08-2017, 11:14 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Shane showing off his brand new school lunchbox:
http://68.media.tumblr.com/a64bee294caca2fce7c7374e666cbc5c/tumblr_or5iby7OGz1u1ljrzo1_500.gif

Insane Championship Wrestling in the U.K. has pulled its content from the Fite App. That's probably a sign of something involving WWE. George Barrios had already talked about an ICW and WWE deal for possible distribution on WWE Network a few weeks ago and ICW and WWE were in talks about a deal going back several months.

This is as sleazy as it comes, a politician using a doctored photo of Dwayne Johnson to make it look like an endorsement.
Link to the article: https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/las-vegas/las-vegas-judge-posts-removes-doctored-photo-of-the-rock/

Ring of Honor returns to PPV on Saturday 6/23 with "Best in the World" 2017 from the Lowell Memorial Auditorium, featuring:

*ROH champion Christopher Daniels vs. Cody Rhodes.

*ROH Tag Team champions The Young Bucks vs. War Machine.

*Strap Match: Adam Page vs. Frankie Kazarian.

*The Kingdom's Matt Taven & Vinny Marseglia vs. CMLL stars El Terrible and Ultimo Guerrero.

*Jay Lethal vs. Silas Young.

*The debut of STARDOM High Speed champion Kris Wolf.

RAW Tag Team Champion Sheamus noted in a recent interview how the one title that has eluded him is the WWE Intercontinental Title. He said, "The only thing I haven't won is the Intercontinental Championship. Now that it's back on WWE Raw, I would love to hold both the Intercontinental Championship and Raw Tag Team titles at the same time."

As seen below, The Celtic Warrior tweeted about winning the title on Twitter today and received a response from current WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz:

Only one WWE title missing for the #GrandSlam goal I set myself many years ago... it will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine. pic.twitter.com/pSQ0AhphvS
— Sheamus (@WWESheamus) June 8, 2017

No it won't https://t.co/XWr0atHIb7
— The Miz (@mikethemiz) June 8, 2017

Wanna bet? https://t.co/sh95L7uO4O
— Sheamus (@WWESheamus) June 8, 2017

Below is video of WWE Hall of Famers Ric Flair and Bruno Sammartino talking about their statues in this "Table For 3" video from this past Monday. Randy Orton also appeared on the episode. Bruno reveals that he went to New York for a "terrible" experience to get the mold for his statue created. Flair did not have to go through that as they created his statue using a model.

.@SammartinoBruno and @RicFlairNatrBoy had two VERY different experiences in receiving their statues! #TableFor3 @RandyOrton pic.twitter.com/ZaTURGBQGz
— WWE (@WWE) June 6, 2017

As seen at WWE Extreme Rules this past weekend, Austin Aries was wearing kinesio tape during his match with WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville, which saw Neville defeat Aries to defend his title. Aries has not wrestled since that match, and he joined Busted Open with Dave Lagreca and Larry Dallas yesterday to promote his new book, Food Fight: My Plant Based Journey From The Bingo Hall to The Big Time. During the interview, Aries confirmed that he has some nagging injuries at the moment.

"I've got some stuff going on, but just to be fair you could probably say that for a lot of the locker room. It's kind of part of what we do, I don't think anyone is ever 100%," Aries said. "So I got a couple things going on and obviously at this point it might be a good time to take a little break which really could consist of two days to just adjust some of those things, try and get my mind and my body right and then come back and figure out what's gonna be next and what the direction's gonna be."
Link to the podcast episode: https://soundcloud.com/siriusxmrush/austin-aries-speaks-on-how-the-wwe-is-presenting-205-live-and-the-cruiserweights-to-the-wwe-universe

Lana is supposed to be a heel now that she has made her arrival on WWE SmackDown but The Wrestling Observer Newsletter notes that it's almost guaranteed she will be a babyface with the gimmick she's being given. It was noted that Lana is basically working in the role that was slotted for Eva Marie. Eva is now focusing on her acting career and won't be returning to work for WWE.

As noted, Lana vs. SmackDown Women's Champion Naomi with the title on the line will take place at the June 18th WWE Money In the Bank pay-per-view. Unless she wrestles next Tuesday night, the title shot at MITB would be Lana's in-ring SmackDown TV debut.

Regarding Samoa Joe vs. WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar, their upcoming title match is scheduled to be a one-time thing. Joe vs. Lesnar is set to headline the WWE Great Balls of Fire pay-per-view on July 9th. The two will face off for the first time on Monday's RAW from the Cajundome in Lafayette, LA.

The Observer notes that Lesnar is then scheduled to face Braun Strowman at SummerSlam in August. WWE officials are still planning on Roman Reigns vs. Lesnar for the title at WrestleMania 34 but there are plans to do Finn Balor vs. Lesnar and Seth Rollins vs. Lesnar matches between Braun and Reigns.

There has been talk of using more main roster female Superstars on WWE 205 Live as a way to try and boost interest in the show.

The return of Lucha Underground on 5/31 did a disastrous 65,000 viewers for the Johnny Mundo vs. The Mack All Night Long (Iron Man) match. A replay did 36,000 viewers. The combined 101,000 for the two airings was down 34 percent from the season three average leading up to this of 154,000.

Tomoaki Honma is continuing to improve. While he can lightly jog, there are hand coordination issues that he still needs help with. He still needs assistance at things such as pouring water or brushing his teeth

Katsuyori Shibata is now said to be in good spirits. While he probably will never wrestle again, there is talk of him staying with the company and working full-time as a coach.

There is a trademark issue with the NWA name which is really what has been holding up the sale to Billy Corgan. There is also an issue because in 1998, when the NWA name was brought into WWF with Jim Cornette leading the Rock & Roll Express, Dan Severn, The new Midnight Express (Bob Holly & Bart Gunn) and Jeff Jarrett, that Howard Brody, who was running the NWA signed a deal where WWF would have the rights to use the name open-ended. They wouldn’t own the name, but they would have a legal right to use it, although they stopped using it nearly 20 years ago. Bruce Tharpe’s trademark application for the NWA name was suspended by the U.S. Patent and Trademark office which has messed up the sale because the key thing Billy Corgan was looking at buying were all the trademarks to the NWA name. Tharpe filed for the trademarks in March after his original rights to the name and the trademarks expired in December. Until it’s taken care of, he can’t transfer the ownership to Corgan, who had hoped the deal would be completed by now
Some details regarding the current Corgan-NWA problems going on.

While in India last week they taped in a TV studio that held 500 people. Everyone in the crowd was paid 250 to 400 rupee (between $3.80 and $7.60) to attend, so even in a small studio they not only didn’t charge for tickets but paid people to attend. That’s common for television shoots in India and wouldn’t have the same stigma if you did that in the U.S. Fans were instructed who to cheer and boo, and they were very good at doing so. They were told the villains would come from the left side of the stage and the heroes from the right side. The waves that may make the air were also instructed by the M.C. and not something the audience did spontaneously. However, EC 3 did have very legit heat when he came out as E Singh 3, and the crowd really loved Mahabali Shera and Sonjay Dutt. Jeff Jarrett was telling reporters that they are scouting more talent from India.

Right now, the plan for the Ric Flair 30 for 30 piece, which was originally to air early this year, is for it to run in January 2018, but that date has changed many times

Regarding the questions asked why NXT has such great ring entrances on Takeovers and WWE PPVs, with the exception of Mania, usually don’t, is because Paul Levesque is in charge of the NXT entrances and the WWE entrances are Vince McMahon in the end, but really handled by Kevin Dunn

An interesting story is that some time back, Mahal had decided he was looking at getting out of wrestling and opening up a Subway sandwich shop and work some real estate

Swagger did an interview with John Pozarowski and said that WWE had said they wanted to offer him a raise and sign him up for another five years, but the figure they offered was way off what he had been averaging the past five years. So he said he felt he needed a change and to become the best pro wrestler he can be, but to do that he had to leave, with the idea of making a name on the outside the making the company then want him back, I guess similar to how things worked out with Drew Galloway. He said he was angry for a long time but can see that it was just a business decision and he understands their side, his side and said he left on good terms. He said he wants to show what Jack Swagger can do, and not what they would let him do. He put over how great it was to work and travel with Dutch Mantell

Some other sheet news includes:

CBS Sports had a recent interview with Naomi with her confirming reports and rumors of her and the Usos working on a tv show for Nickelodeon. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0608/626968/naomi-on-the-tv-project-she-and-the-usos-were-filming/
WrestleInc had a recent interview with Jeff Jarrett talking about Impact and GFW's merger, plans for live events, and future tours of India. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0608/626965/jeff-jarrett-on-why-impact-and-gfw-merged/
Recent episode of the X-Pac 12360 podcast show had Road Dogg as the guest talking about Women's MitB match, if the Womens MitB case can be used on RAW, and people he wants Smackdown to get from NXT. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0608/626962/road-dogg-on-wanting-bobby-roode-and-asuka-on-smackdown/
WWE recently released Killian Dain's new entrance theme on their official Youtube WWEMusic page. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwTtFGTIa6U
James Storm currently denying reports of him being this year's inductee for Impact's Hall of Fame. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0608/626958/possible-rumor-killer-on-2017-impact-wrestling-hall-of-fame/
Rock 100.5 ATL's Bailey and Southside had a recent interview with Chris Jericho talking about the "stupid idiot" catchphrase and the creation of The List. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0608/626944/chris-jericho-on-vince-mcmahon-reaction-to-stupid-idiot/

Black Widow

06-09-2017, 01:15 AM

Naomi sucks and Nickelodeon sucks!

What could possibly go wrong?

Mr. Nerfect

06-09-2017, 02:46 AM

I'd love to see Jake Hager in New Japan.

drave

06-09-2017, 10:04 AM

Re: Entrances.

Makes sense why they are fucking up Nakamura's entrance then. HHH is a amazing showman and knows how to play the crowd.

As "The Game" theme said "Keep you finger off the switch, Dunn". Seriously, GTFO Dunn.....

KIRA

06-09-2017, 06:50 PM

If we get the heel Usos for the Nickelodeon show I'm in.

Emperor Smeat

06-09-2017, 11:35 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Random UpUpDownDown Gif:
https://68.media.tumblr.com/b952d5f2e192675bd105d269e514bc49/tumblr_oqxo15SR2P1v5ue77o5_500.gif

Pro Wrestling Sheet reported that Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax will be added to the cast of next season's Total Divas show. Naomi had done an interview earlier this week saying she was also in the cast of the show for the new season.
Link to the report: http://www.prowrestlingsheet.com/new-total-divas-cast/#.WTrkv2grKM8

The tentative schedule for New Japan is that the participants, A and B block, and probably the top matches on the biggest shows for G-1 will be announced during intermission on Sunday. There will also be a press conference on Monday night our time with the cards for both nights in Long Beach. I believe the press conference will be in time for us to cover it on our Monday night audio show.

Impact last night did 318,000 viewers, up 11 percent for the first show from India.

Regarding the political story reported in yesterday's update in Las Vegas where a Judge had a superimposed photo of Dwayne Johnson with her appearing that Johnson was endorsing her in an upcoming election, Municipal Court Judge Heidi Almase today apologized on Facebook and fired campaign manager Jennifer Barrier. Barrier is the daughter of former Las Vegas pro wrestling promoter Buffalo Jim Barrier, and she claimed that she would get written proof that Johnson was fine with the endorsement saying that Johnson was a longtime family friend. Almase was embarrassed when people questioned the endorsement and said Barrier was fired for being unable to produce written proof that Johnson was okay with the apparent endorsement. Johnson is currently in Chicago shooting more scenes for the movie "Rampage."

Both Raw and Smackdown will be taking place on 9/11 and 9/12 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA. They are doing this more and more this year, with the idea that they are able to draw well the second night enough that it makes sense with the savings of production costs of running the same building two nights in a row as far as set-up costs and production not having to travel.

Highspots is about to release a documentary on the late Bruiser Brody called "Wrestling's Last Rebel." Among those interviewed in the documentary are myself, Bill Apter, Bobby Fulton, Abdullah the Butcher, Stan Hansen, Tom Prichard, Killer Brooks, Slick, Herb Simmons, Larry Matysik (who wrote a book on Brody), Barbara Goodish, Bret Hart, Ron Bass, Emerson Murray (who wrote a book on Brody), Ricky Steamboat, Tony Atlas (who was there essentially when he died), Jim Ross, Jimmy Hart and Manny Fernandez.

Matt and Rebecca Hardy welcomed their second son into the world at 11:37 p.m. last night.

Wolfgang Xander Hardy was born at the Hardy home. He was seven pounds and four ounces.

Matt made the announcement on Twitter earlier today.

The Hardys were given off after Sunday's Extreme Rules pay-per-view because Rebecca was due imminently.

He wrote in his character that "King Maxel was excited to meet his healthy younger brother. Thanks all." Maxel was regularly featured on television last year when the Hardys were with Impact Wrestling.
Link to Matt Hardy's announcement: https://twitter.com/MATTHARDYBRAND/status/873071810681552897

NFL.com's Michael Fabiano tweeted that former Pittsburgh Steelers' RB DeAngelo Williams will be working for TNA at their 7/2 Slammiversary PPV.

Talked to @DeAngeloRB ... he's wrestling for @IMPACTWRESTLING on July 2, but still wants to play football next season. Prefers SB contender.
— Michael Fabiano (@Michael_Fabiano) June 9, 2017

Charlotte Flair was in Vancouver, British Columbia earlier this week filming scenes for the USA Network's Psych: The Movie. When the series ran on the USA Network, there were a number of WWE-related lines in the dialouge and the stars of the show, Dule Hill and James Doday each appeared on Raw. Hill recently starred in the WWE Studios film Sleight.

Austin Aries knocked down reports that he was taking time off from WWE in an interview to promote his book Food Fight today with USA Today's Josh Barnett at this link.

Aries commented, "If you look at the full quote and what I said was, Everyone is dealing with various stuff. I don’t think there is anyone in the locker room is 100%. We’re all nicked and banged up to various degrees. Like anything else, you pick and choose the times you need address when it needs to be addressed and some times are better than others. I figure no matter what interview I do, the real good ‘journalists’ are going to find the completely irrelevant quotes that will drum up some controversy and stick it on their page to get some clicks and completely miss the real context of what the interview is about. That’s what we do nowadays and call it ‘journalism.'”

Aries' book was officially released today.
Link to the interview: http://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/06/austin-aries-wwe-vegan-book-luke-harper

A Ruby Riot vs. Asuka match was canceled at the Download Festival today after Riot was busted open legitimately during the match. PWInsider.com is seeking complete results from the show.
Some more details from the match: http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0609/626995/wwe-nxt-women-title-match-stopped-due-to-injury-at-download/

The following press release, announcing that AAA Lucha Libre from Mexico:

Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide wrestling to be aired on free UK sports channel Front Runner

Mexico’s biggest wrestling promotion Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide is set to be broadcast on UK television for the first time in its history, exclusively on the free-to-air sports channel Front Runner.

The first show will be aired on Wednesday 14th June at 9:00 pm to 19 million homes across the UK and Northern Ireland on SKY ch469, Freesat ch250, Freeview ch91, Talk Talk/ BT ch91.

This month marks 10 years since Curtis Axel started training under WWE Hall of Famer Harley Race. Axel made his in-ring debut at a WLW show on July 13th, 2007, teaming with Ted DiBiase Jr. to defeat Dinn T. Moore and Branden Tatum. Axel tweeted the following today:

Hard to believe I started training at WLW, aka Harley Race Wrestling Academy, 10 yrs ago... Been a fun ride, but the best is yet to come!
— Curtis Axel (@RealCurtisAxel) June 9, 2017

TJP responded to a rumor that his name was changed from TJ Perkins because Vince McMahon hates the "Perkins" restaurant changed. TJP noted that he himself had requested the change, as seen below:

Actually I just asked to be called TJP. Not very complicated. https://t.co/SLkXP8GCEY
— ????TJ Perkins???? (@MegaTJP) June 9, 2017

Jessie Godderz is apparently done with Impact Wrestling. Godderz has been with the company since 2011 and has held the TNA World Tag Team Championship on two occasions with Robbie E.

Some other sheet news includes:

UK's Metro had a recent interview with Kurt Angle talking about his past drug issues and who he would want to wrestle in a possible future match. http://metro.co.uk/2017/06/09/exclusive-kurt-angle-talks-addiction-recovery-and-wanting-to-wrestle-finn-balor-6697238/%C2%A0
205 Live star Mustafa Ali celebrated the birth of his son today. https://twitter.com/MustafaAliWWE/status/873179397964083201
Website NOLA.com had a recent interview with Kevin Owens talking about Mania 34, dream Mania match, and coming up with new ideas for using objects in matches. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0609/626999/kevin-owens-on-possibly-wrestling-finn-balor-at-wrestlemania/
PressbOx had a recent interview with Gail Kim talking about WWE's change in views on women's wrestling, plans for a return to wrestling, and Impact Wrestling's new owners. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0609/626974/gail-kim-on-triple-h-creating-change-for-women-in-wwe/

Volare

06-10-2017, 10:57 AM

Alexa will save Total Divas. :)

Big Vic

06-13-2017, 03:30 PM

Pekins reminds me of "Perkaset" or however it's spelled.

Emperor Smeat

06-13-2017, 10:49 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Samoa Joe channeling his inner HBK:
https://68.media.tumblr.com/876545c302ef2e9cf2d4b4de8ac59b8f/tumblr_orgmm8EWvM1saykaxo1_400.gif

To the surprise of nobody, the NBA playoffs led to Raw doing the second lowest number in its modern history, averaging 2.53 million viewers.

The only lower number for a modern Raw was the September 26th, 2016, show, going against the Trump-Clinton debate, which did 2.46 million viewers.

Raw was fourth for the night on cable.

Raw was down 15 percent from last week, which is no surprise. It would have likely fallen below the Trump-Clinton number had it not been for a decent first hour with the Brock Lesnar/Samoa Joe angle. The decision to do the angle earlier in the show meant more people saw it, but sacrificed the show's overall rating because they had nothing close to that level to build toward for the remaining nearly three hours.

The third hour, in particular, did poorly, but still better than it did on debate night. The debate drew far more viewers than the NBA playoffs.

The Warriors-Cavaliers game did 24.47 million viewers ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.77 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.52 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.34 million viewers

When John Cena returns to WWE television next month, he'll be doing so with a storyline that he's a "free agent" ...

What that actually means quickly became a question. And people naturally wondered if it was related to the announcement that Roman Reigns will be making on Raw next week about his plans for SummerSlam.

Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez briefly discussed the matter on last night's edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, and Meltzer noted that he was told that Cena won't be Reigns' opponent at SummerSlam. The idea is apparently for Cena to be able to appear on both Raw and SmackDown even if it goes against the brand split because he's one of the only draws that WWE has.

Paige wrote that she's getting her last X-rays after neck surgery and seemed to indicate that she could be coming back soon. She also posted pictures of herself working out on Instagram.
Link to the post: https://twitter.com/RealPaigeWWE/status/874684344748605440

The Daily Mail ran a story yesterday about Bray Wyatt's wife Samantha filing for divorce. Samantha's lawyer alleged that Wyatt was having an affair with WWE ring announcer JoJo.

As they usually do, WWE is sending the Golden State Warriors a customized championship belt for their NBA finals win. The company also sent one to the Pittsburgh Penguins for their Stanley Cup victory.
Warriors belt: https://twitter.com/TripleH/status/874666649667895303 , Penguins belt: https://twitter.com/TripleH/status/874303379366977541

Eight years ago today, Mitsuharu Misawa passed away following a match in Japan. Hideo Itami (formerly KENTA) paid tribute to Misawa on Twitter: "Never forget. We miss you."
Link to Itami's tribute post: https://twitter.com/HideoItami/status/874431666965495809

Ring of Honor has announced two more matches for their Best in the World pay-per-view. KUSHIDA will defend the ROH TV title against Marty Scurll, plus Motor City Machine Guns, Jay White & Jonathan Gresham will face The Rebellion in an eight-man tag.

When Impact Wrestling begins taping in Orlando again on July 3rd, the company will be hosting a ceremony to honor those who were affected by last year's attack at the Pulse Nightclub. Yesterday marked one year since the tragedy.
Link to the announcement: http://impactwrestling.com/orlando-united-day/

Netflix's "GLOW" series has been made available to a lot of television reviewers and has gotten very positive reviews. Entertainment Weekly gave the series an A and UPROXX's Alan Sepinwall called the first episode "very promising."

New Japan Pro Wrestling has announced many of the matches for the shows in Long Beach on July 1st and 2nd.

The July 1st live show on AXS TV will be headlined by Kazuchika Okada vs. Cody for the IWGP Heavyweight title and will also feature first round matches in the United States Heavyweight title tournament. Those are: Kenny Omega vs. Michael Elgin, Jay Lethal vs. Hangman Page, Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tetsuya Naito, and Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Juice Robinson.

The semifinals and finals of the tournament will be on July 2nd, plus a weird match with Hiroshi Tanahashi defending his Intercontinental title against Billy Gunn.

The card for July 1st is --
IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada defending against Cody
Michael Elgin vs. Kenny Omega in a US title first round match
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tetsuya Naito in a US title first round match
IWGP Tag Team Champions Guerrillas of Destiny defending against War Machine
David Finlay, Jay White, KUSHIDA & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Sho Tanaka, Yohei Komatsu, Yoshitatsu & Billy Gunn
Juice Robinson vs. Zack Sabre Jr. in a US title first round match
Jay Lethal vs. Hangman Page in a US title first round match
Titan, Dragon Lee, Volador Jr. & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Hiromu Takahashi, BUSHI, EVIL & SANADA
Roppongi Vice, Will Ospreay & The Briscoes vs. The Young Bucks, Marty Scurll, Yujiro Takahashi & Bad Luck Fale

July 2nd will have (with more matches to be announced) --
The semifinals and finals of the US title tournament
IWGP Intercontinental Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi defending against Billy Gunn
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks defending against Roppongi Vice

Mark Andrews suffered what appeared to be a neck injury earlier today in an eight-man tag match on the NXT show in Derby, UK. He was taken out on a stretcher and went to the hospital, but he is okay.

PWInsider.com has heard from multiple sources that Raw star Braun Strowman, 33, who has been out of action after suffering an elbow injury last month, is set to return soon. The word backstage at Raw was that Strowman was cleared to return to WWE action a week ago and will be back as soon as WWE Creative plots his return into Raw storylines.

Strowman underwent surgery in mid-May following the WWE European tour. At the time, WWE reported he had suffered a shattered elbow and would be out six months. That was likely stated in order to showcase Strowman making a huge superhuman comeback early.

Dash Wilder of the Revival, who had been out with a broken jaw that had to be wired shut, was involved in the big fracas between Samoa Joe and Brock Lesnar that opened Raw, so he is officially back from injury.

We have received a number of emails asking about a long-haired wrestler who was involved in the melee as well. That was Bo Dallas, who has changed his look a little by growing his hair out and is now sporting a goatee.

The Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame, a non-profit museum and Hall based in Wichita Falls, Texas applied for two trademarks for "World Class Championship Wrestling" (one for the name, and the other for the well known WCCW logo featuring two wrestlers grappling) for merchandise and toys/action figures purposes. The trademarks were applied for on 6/7.

World Class was once one of the most popular promotions in the world, empowered by the Von Erich family, The Fabulous Freebirds and Chris Adams, among others. The original incarnation of the company under that name was used in September 1982 and ran through late 1989, when the initials were replaced by the USWA name.

World Wrestling Entertainment purchased the World Class video library from Kevin Von Erich and once sold a t-shirt utilizing the WCCW logo in conjunction with their "Triumph and Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling" documentary. PWInsider.com research into the logo's trademark reveals it was abandoned in 2003.

Ring of Honor revealed the first talents set for their first-ever War of the Worlds UK tour set for this summer.

ROH champion Christopher Daniels, ROH Tag Team champions the Young Bucks, Jay Lethal, Kazarian, the Briscoes as well as CMLL stars Atlantis, Rey Bucanero, Ultimo Guerrero, and Mistico will be appearing.

The tour will consist of the following dates in England and Scotland:

August 17th – RevPro Summer Sizzler 2017 at York Hall - London , England

August 18th – WOTW UK Night 1 at York Hall – London , England

August 19th – WOTW UK Night 2 at Liverpool Olympia – Liverpool, England

August 20th – WOTW UK Night 3 at Edinburgh Corn Exchange – Edinburgh , Scotland

Sin Cara and his fans have been using the "#PushSinCara" hashtag over the past few days with Cara re-tweeting many fan comments. He pinned this tweet at the top of his account:

All #Dreams can come true, If you have the courage to pursue them! ???? @WWE @wweespanol @WWE_es TodosSomosSinCara #PoderLatino #PushSinCara pic.twitter.com/xmi2EEsPV2
— Sin Cara (@SinCaraWWE) June 13, 2017

Some other sheet news includes:

Bellator announced they have recently signed former Smackdown announcer Mauro Ranllo to a deal to be a commentator for their MMA shows. Also snagged Mike Goldberg who was rumored for a while to be a target by the WWE as Mauro's replacement. http://www.f4wonline.com/mma-news/bellator-mma-hires-mauro-ranallo-and-mike-goldberg-237201
Renee Young recently revealed on Twitter about not being on future seasons for Total Divas.
Indie promotion WrestleCircus announced they have signed a deal with Twitch and will be the first wrestling company showing live events on the service. https://twitter.com/wrestlecircus/status/874673427998797824

Mr. Nerfect

06-13-2017, 11:55 PM

I'm looking forward to those New Japan shows. I'm thinking that War Machine might win the Tag Titles.

Lol, Sin Cara.

ClockShot

06-14-2017, 03:52 PM

Please bring Braun back Monday night.

Mr. Nerfect

06-14-2017, 04:25 PM

Even if he's healthy, I'd leave him off RAW until the night after GBF. Joe beats Brock for the belt and Brock is throwing shit around on RAW, calling out Joe. Braun's music hits and the two have a stand-off in the ring -- Brock suddenly more stoic. Joe later arrives at the building and someone asks if he heard Brock calling him out, and he just shrugs.

At SummerSlam run Brock vs. Braun and Joe vs. Balor for the belt in the main event. Joe can beat Balor at SummerSlam, Clash and finally inside Hell in a Cell -- Balor getting a little closer each time. Brock vs. Joe rematch at Survivor Series where Brock can win back the belt -- assuming that you want to do Brock vs. Reigns at WrestleMania. Hell, you can probably pad Joe's reign out more and give him matches against John Cena and Jeff Hardy. I don't know why I'm throwing Hardy's name in there -- I guess because he's over. Brock should probably go over Braun if he's getting the belt back -- Braun will just look good tossing Brock across the ring. But why not consider putting Braun over and using Brock to actually get some of their newer guys over? Especially if Brock has that rematch all lined up and doesn't need to re-contend by the laws of their own canon.

Ol Dirty Dastard

06-14-2017, 05:00 PM

Show was on Jerichos podcast and said flatout he hated tapings because creative sucks lol.

Sepholio

06-14-2017, 06:05 PM

Lesnar doesn't need to lose any time soon. He has to rebuild the monster hype after that feud with Oldberg...

#1-norm-fan

06-14-2017, 07:39 PM

Between giving Triple H his win back, giving Taker his win back after ending the streak, getting squashed by Goldberg, can you imagine if Lesnar was full-time? He'd have been fucked up and re-built as a monster to a Big Show/Kane level by this point. Thank God he's a part-timer.

#1-norm-fan

06-14-2017, 07:42 PM

Also, lol @ Cena being a free agent.

#1-norm-fan

06-14-2017, 07:50 PM

Show was on Jerichos podcast and said flatout he hated tapings because creative sucks lol.

Show should be a legend at this point. I mean Andre-level. He's so fucking good if you don't factor in the way he's been booked his entire WWE career.

Emperor Smeat

06-14-2017, 08:24 PM

Also, lol @ Cena being a free agent.

Pretty much the WWE admitting they are terrible at building new mega stars and legit revolve around Cena. Unless the plan is to finally use up Cena's star power on both brands to actually rub off on new and future mega stars, just going to be the usual with Cena.

#1-norm-fan

06-14-2017, 09:50 PM

It's also the first sign of another jumbled mess of a brand split. Plus it doesn't make sense. Why the fuck is Cena a free agent?

Emperor Smeat

06-14-2017, 10:07 PM

It's also the first sign of another jumbled mess of a brand split. Plus it doesn't make sense. Why the fuck is Cena a free agent?

http://i.imgur.com/BkStsHS.gif

They half-assed the Shakeup stuff this year and all supposedly because Vince got cold feet on doing an actual trade episode(s) and some of the ideas they had for swaps.

If RAW made an announcement about resigning Lesnar to a deal or WWE mentioning stuff about free agency, could have easily spin the Cena stuff as him wanting to test the market.

Emperor Smeat

06-14-2017, 10:53 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Randy's reaction to the Smackdown News:
http://i.imgur.com/DO89ctE.gif

Following near-record low ratings for Monday Night Raw the night before, WWE got more bad news in the form of Tuesday's SmackDown numbers.

The show did just 2.072 million viewers, the second lowest number since the brand split last July. It beat only the November 8th episode, which went up against presidential election coverage on both cable and network TV.

Unlike most weeks where SmackDown is at or near the top of cable viewership, the show was just 13th on cable for the day in terms of total viewers. It was second in the 18-49 demo with a 0.63 rating, trailing only a new edition of "30 for 30" on ESPN.

Viewership was virtually identical to the SmackDown number from one year ago this week, which was 2.073 million. The bad news there is that show aired via tape delay and went up against game six of the NBA finals.
Outside of being #2 in the most important demo, complete disaster by Smackdown this week for numbers and comparisons.

WWE posted an article on their website today in an attempt to make sense of John Cena's "free agency." It notes that Cena became a free agent in storyline after April's superstar shakeup.
Link to the article: http://www.wwe.com/shows/smackdown/article/john-cena-free-agent-status

Zack Ryder returned to television on SmackDown last night and for now is being paired with Mojo Rawley again. Pro Wrestling Sheet reported that Ryder has been cleared to return to the ring. He had been out since suffering a knee injury last December.
Link to the article: http://www.prowrestlingsheet.com/zack-ryder-cleared-injury/#.WUG_JBPyvOQ

Pro Wrestling Sheet also reported that Rusev has been cleared to return to action. He underwent shoulder surgery in March.
Link to the article: http://www.prowrestlingsheet.com/rusev-cleared-return-injury/#.WUG_ZRPyvOQ

WWE is returning to China with the company's first show in Shenzhen on September 17th.

Johnny Mundo (John Hennigan) and Taya Valkyrie (Kira Forster) announced their engagement.

For some reason this evening, a rumor began spreading online that WWE Hall of Famer Bob Orton had passed away. That is not the case. Orton is alive and well and is scheduled to appear at ringside for his son Randy Orton's match against WWE champion Jinder Mahal at WWE Money in the Bank.

We normally ignore rumors but due to the sheer amount of email we have received, we felt it was important to shoot the report down.

As PWInsider broke two weeks ago in the Elite section, the following names have been confirmed for the Mae Young Classic tournament, which will tape 7/13 and 7/14 in Winter Park, Florida at Full Sail Live:

*Zhao Xia - The first Chinese woman to sign a developmental deal with WWE and was brought over as part of a group of Chinese trainees who have been working out in the WWE Performance Center. Xia has trained in martial arts and has had multiple first-place finishes in various martial arts and fitness competitions, including the Second World Traditional Chinese Wushu Championship, the Nike Challenge Competition and First China Throw Down: Battle on the Bund.

*Mary Kate- The former Rosie LottaLove in TNA, was originally trained at the Team 3D Academy, who completely remade herself on the independents and later toured in Japan.

*Bianca Blair - former crossfit and track star that was signed by WWE in April 2016

*Danielle Kamela - Trained by Rikishi's Knox Pro school in Arizona, Kamela was an on air personality for Fox Sports Arizona, an Arizona Cardinals cheerleader and a former member of the Phoenix Suns’ dance team before signing a WWE deal. She was in the top 30 finalists for the most recent version of Tough Enough as well.

*Julia Ho - Canadian model and MMA fighter, who trained with Brian Kendrick before being signed.

Kimberly Frankele aka Kimber Lee - The former CHIKARA Grand champion.

*Lacey Evans - Former Marine, who recently debuted on WWE NXT TV.

*Victoria Gonzales - The daughter of Rudy Boy Gonzales Gonzalez played basketball for two seasons at Texas A&M-Kingsville before transferring to Sam Houston State, redshirting one year and playing another before graduating in 2013. She was signed to a WWE developmental deal last year.

*Sarah Logan- The former Crazy Mary Dobson aka Sarah Bridges, who recently debuted under that name on WWE NXT TV.

*Taynara Melo - A black-belt judoka from Brazil who was signed last year.

Luke Harper tweeted that "Mohawk", a horror movie that features the Smackdown Live star, will be featured at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montréal July 20-23rd. The synopsis for the film is as follows:

"Set in 1814, MOHAWK tells the white-knuckle tale of two young Mohawk warriors and their British lover pursued by murderous American military renegades Hell-bent on blind revenge, and features a striking ensemble cast that includes Kaniehtiio Horn, Eamon Farren, Ezra Buzzington, Jonathan Huber (WWE Superstar Luke Harper), and Noah Segan. History often hurts, but sometimes it hits hard enough to kill."

Harper plays the role of Lachlan Allsopp in the film.

If you watched 205 Live last night, you saw that Vic Joseph was in Tom Phillips' spot. The move is official, as noted by Phillips' tweet below.

Very excited for @VicJosephWWE to join #205Live! Be sure to check him out every Tuesday night
— Tom Phillips (@TomPhillipsWWE) June 14, 2017

WWE officials are planning on doing a match between Triple H and WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle in the near future, according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio. No word yet on when the match will take place or how they will get there but it could have something to do with the storyline WWE has been doing with Angle and Corey Graves. RAW Commissioner Stephanie McMahon should be returning to TV soon to work with her new RAW General Manager. Stephanie has been off TV since WrestleMania 33 and Angle was named GM the next night on RAW.

Some other sheet news includes:

Fox Sports had a recent interview with Sami Zayn talking about his NXT match with Nakamura and MitB this year. http://www.foxsports.com/wwe/gallery/wwe-sami-zayn-money-in-the-bank-advice-for-himself-061317
Puma, Foot Locker, and WWE are partnering on a limited edition WWE series sneakers. https://solecollector.com/news/2017/06/puma-releasing-more-sneakers-inspired-by-wwe
Recent episode of Talk Is Jericho podcast had Big Show as the guest. https://www.podcastone.com/episode/BigShowReturns
A Music Blog, Yea? (AMBY) had a recent interview with Dalton Castle talking about his start in wrestling, The Boys, and being nervous while wrestling. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0614/627126/dalton-castle-on-dealing-with-nerves/
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, its now legally possible to bet on which matches Observer's Dave Meltzer will likely give 4+ star ratings. Irish bookies Paddy Power now accepts these type of bets for wrestling. https://sports.paddypower.mobi/#sport/58/competition/17782/event/12382739

Mr. Nerfect

06-15-2017, 04:21 AM

I bet you Orton and Lesnar are free agents soon.

Black Widow

06-15-2017, 04:38 AM

Cena is going to Superman Punch City.

#1-norm-fan

06-15-2017, 07:24 AM

So Cena became a free agent during the "Superstar Shakeup".

A) Why was that such a throwaway story that they're just bringing it up now?

B) What the fuck was the Superstar Shakeup? We were kinda left to assume it was a bunch of trades. Or maybe each brand just getting to pick a certain amount of workers from the other brand. Now it causes free agency somehow on occasion? lol

Big Vic

06-15-2017, 08:44 AM

Really wish HHH retired in 2012.

Maluco

06-15-2017, 10:25 AM

Those ratings, combined with Cena free agent story, and Angle/HHH being the best return match they can offer, shows the state of things creatively.

How can they have let things get this bad? Literally just a few years off not even having a Cena or a Brock anymore and they just can't get things together.

It's a real pity there isn't a billionaire wrestling fan around like Ted Turner today, because I despite their size and reach, the product is woeful (just look at numbers and a peak in the Raw thread almost every week), they are complacent and I don't think they have ever been so vulnerable to proper competition.

Ol Dirty Dastard

06-15-2017, 10:28 AM

It's as good as it has to be.

Ol Dirty Dastard

06-15-2017, 10:29 AM

put a product on screen that can shill the network and merchandise, and until they aren't selling out arenas, they haven't much to worry about.

Maluco

06-15-2017, 10:41 AM

That might be a possibility in the future surely? I mean, if fans are not buying into TV, and there are no real star attractions, surely, eventually, network numbers and live attendances start to take a hit too?

They can't seem to get network numbers above certain numbers, and I know for me personally, I stopped watching TV, tried again various times, then stopped completely. Eventually I just cancelled the network too. I wasn't watching and wasn't interested in what was happening. I don't really have time to watch a lot of older stuff so I wasn't using it. Even at such a bargain price point, it was competing with the likes of Netflix etc... So I just cancelled.

Maybe there will forever be enough people who get enough out of the network and enjoy the product enough to keep paying. Maybe Indian and Chinese expansion will mean they don't even care what happens in the US in 10 years time.

Just a bit sad that they obviously realise the issues, but are just banking on what you said. As long as it's good enough to make money. It sucks.

Ol Dirty Dastard

06-15-2017, 10:48 AM

Yeah I dunno. It's really fucking bad but every so often it's fun.

Ol Dirty Dastard

06-15-2017, 10:48 AM

feel like they bank heavily on nostalgia to keep their audience.

Maluco

06-15-2017, 10:54 AM

Nostalgia def helped for a long time, but I think that well is almost dry now. Undertaker looked horrible last few Manias and Rumble and is now, hopefully, gone.

Angle left for a decade...comes back, and in that decade they have built...HHH for him to face. Even when guys do come back now, they dont have opponents for them.

Big Vic

06-15-2017, 11:07 AM

They have people who can face him they just need to push HHH's ego out of the way.

#1-norm-fan

06-15-2017, 01:17 PM

I've been wanting to try to get back into Smackdown at least because from what I've read and from the reactions, it seems enjoyable. But now it seems like that may have passed.

With the exception of Fashion Files of course.

Heisenberg

06-15-2017, 01:36 PM

To add onto the KURT ANGLE storyline, it is very sad watching a man you know can rock the mic with ad-libs and delivery be relegated to the screening of PG. There was one backstage segment with him and I could just see the ideas pop into his head, but then he remembers where he is at.

Ruien

06-15-2017, 01:38 PM

Evil Vito

06-15-2017, 01:53 PM

#1-norm-fan

06-15-2017, 02:09 PM

If they're already going to start allowing Cena to float freely between shows, it won't be too long before they end up killing the whole brand split again already.

Don't worry. They'll split the roster/title once again a few years later. FOR REALZ THIS TIME THOUGH.

Emperor Smeat

06-15-2017, 04:14 PM

If they're already going to start allowing Cena to float freely between shows, it won't be too long before they end up killing the whole brand split again already.

Shit'll be right back to where it was from 2012-15 with them trying to run the same storylines with the same talent on both shows while huge swaths of the roster have nothing to do.

I mean, they still have a problem with loads of people having nothing to do, but it'll be worsened if the rosters are merged again.

Have to figure once the brand split ends, a big roster purge is probably going to happen in the WWE. Roster is really bloated right now but only feels small because of how bad WWE has used them and being spread over several brands/shows.

Mr. Nerfect

06-15-2017, 04:46 PM

People always make that out to be a bad thing. I mean, on a personal level it sucks for the guys being released, but if someone isn't going to be getting spotlight in a unified WWE, then maybe they're just not warranting of it? They could go elsewhere and develop more skills that they can bring back to the WWE one day. They could spread out their "WWE power" to the independents elsewhere and help strengthen wrestling in general.

A spring clean is not always a bad thing, even for the people released.

Evil Vito

06-15-2017, 09:56 PM

I've always been pro brand split based on the potential that it could bring. Loved the first few years of the first split because it really did give them a platform to feature new talent and give stories to people who otherwise wouldn't have had them.

This brand split I really enjoyed early on. Even Raw felt pretty fresh for a few months. But now they've gone back to just totally unfocused booking.

Emperor Smeat

06-15-2017, 10:42 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Random Doink gif:
http://i.imgur.com/66NwUvm.gif

The Independent ran an article about the possibility of WrestleMania coming to London. They referenced a survey that WWE sent out this week to Wrestlemania 33 attendees, asking their interest in future venues, which also included locations like New York City and Toronto. The article mentioned the last major show held in England, SumerSlam in 1992, which saw the British Bulldog defeat Bret "The Hitman" Hart for the Intercontinental Championship in front of over 80,000 fans at Wembley Stadium.
Link to the article: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/wwe-mma-wrestling/wwe-wrestlemania-london-pay-per-view-brock-lesnar-roman-reigns-a7789331.html

After having minor elbow surgery, reports have gone back and forth on if Braun Strowman is cleared for action by the WWE.

No matter the case, it looks like he will be scheduled to work the Great Balls of Fire PPV on July 9. It's expected to be against Roman Reigns, since that was the original plan before Strowman would go on to face Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam.

Strowman and Lesnar's SummerSlam match was - as of last week - planned to be the show's main event.

With two of Impact Wrestling's announcers involved in a match at Slammiversary, the company is bringing in both a familiar voice and a new one to call the pay-per-view.

Impact announced today that Don West and Robert Flores will be the announce team for Slammiversary. West was formerly one of the voices of Impact alongside Mike Tenay. He parted ways with the company in 2012 but returned to work with ShopTNA at the beginning of this year.

Flores works in television for both the MLB and NHL networks, which he joined after leaving ESPN in 2016. He's a longtime pro wrestling fan and was slated to serve as the co-host of "The Ric Flair Show" on the MLW Radio network earlier this year before Flair decided that he didn't want to continue with the podcast.

As we noted yesterday on PWInsider.com, WWE will release a DVD set devoted to "Unreleased Matches" from 1985-1993 hosted by Sean Mooney and Charly Caruso on 9/5.
3 disc set and the listing of the contents in the link: http://www.pwinsider.com/article/110299/complete-listing-for-wwes-unreleased-matches-19851993-dvd-set.html?p=1

Jeff Jarrett noted on Twitter he is going to Los Angeles for Impact-related meetings.

Impact has been working on bringing Naomichi Marufuji and Taiji Ishimori in for Slammiversary, PWInsider.com can confirm. Marufuji has already been announced for a date for Michael Elgin's Glory Pro Wrestling, so it would appear that he's a lock for the Impact PPV and subsequent TV tapings.

There are also plans to bring some AAA talent in to work LAX.

Ross Forman, who worked for WCW and has worked for TNA in the past, is back as Head of Media Relations for the company. He started back with the company last week.

There have been talks with Mike Tenay about coming in for Slammiversary.
Some Impact related news.

Officially added to the 6/23 Best in the World PPV is that the losing team involved in Seek & Destroy vs. The Rebellion will be forced to disband.

Gabby Ortiz, who has been competing in the Women of Honor division for ROH, is currently touring STARDOM.

A number of ROH officials are slated to be at the 7/1 and 7/2 New Japan events in Los Angeles.
Some ROH related news.

WWE posted this teaser with the Andre the Giant statue for what appears to be a new project being announced this coming Monday:

"No man can stop a giant." #BLN1 #ThisMonday pic.twitter.com/tMa8mpZxp3
— WWE (@WWE) June 14, 2017

As noted, WWE will tape The Mae Young Classic on July 13th and July 14th at Full Sail University. The following names have been confirmed for the 32-competitor tournament:

* Bianca Blair - standout at the WWE Performance Center and signed in April 2016

* Danielle Kamela - WWE developmental talent, trained at WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi's school

* Julia Ho - WWE developmental talent with MMA background, trained with Brian Kendrick

* Kimberly Frankele - WWE NXT talent, formerly known as Kimber Lee on the indies

* Lacey Evans - NXT talent and a Marine, formerly known as Macey Estrella

* Mary Kate - NXT talent and formerly known as Rosie Lottalove in TNA

* Sarah Logan - NXT talent, formerly known as Sarah Bridges in NXT and Crazy Mary Dobson on the indies

* Taynara Melo - WWE developmental talent signed last year, black belt from Brazil

* Victoria Gonzales - WWE developmental talent signed in 2016, college athlete and daughter of Rudy Boy Gonzales

* Zhao Xia - WWE's first female Chinese talent

There will also be a lot of women not under contract from all over the world. Names talked about have included Toni Storm and Tessa Blanchard, who have worked Stardom
Other names for the tournament and revelation of WWE being unable to get everyone to sign a deal for the tournament unlike with the recent UK tournament.

AXS is planning on a marathon of New Japan in three weeks. The Dominion show will be edited down to two hours, from 7-9 p.m. There will be the all-time New Japan marathon leading to the live show at 8 p.m. Eastern from Long Beach.

There will also be some sorts of a legends segment to the Money in the Bank show. Ric Flair, Bob Orton Jr., Larry Hennig (interesting since Hennig never wrestled once in his career in St. Louis), Baron Von Raschke and Greg Gagne are all confirmed as appearing on the show in some form with the idea they were former St. Louis stars. Gagne worked a few shows in the 70s in St. Louis, while Flair was one of the bigger draws in the history of the city, at least until 1983. The early years of Flair as champion were the best drawing years on a consistent basis in the city’s history, but after 1983 that was far from the case.

The NWA deal and Billy Corgan remains in a weird state. Those close to the situation say that Corgan does have a signed deal with Bruce Tharpe and they are aware of the issues in play, but the money has not changed hands and Corgan’s side hasn’t officially taken over. The NWA affiliates are pretty much on hold waiting to find out what is going to happen

Paul Lloyd Jr., 36, who works here as P.J. Black (Justin Gabriel in WWE), suffered a terrible injury base jumping this past week. He suffered a broken leg, a broken hand and lost a finger. He’s has to cancel all of his upcoming indie dates. He had suffered two broken ankles in October from an earlier base jumping accident while in South Africa

There is still no planned date for when Io Shirai will start at WWE. She is still working for now for Stardom

Tyler Bate, Trent Seven, Pete Dunne, Mark Andrews and Wolfgang either have been or are expected to be offered new three-year deals at a higher price. They had all originally signed $20,000 per year deals. The entire U.K. strategy seems up in the air. As noted, they had originally booked monthly TV tapings that would have started in June, but we’re now in June and nothing has been announced and even people in the mix don’t seem to know anything about a start date for the long-talked about weekly network show. The market changed with the ITV thing seemingly failing apart

The Hardys did an interview for the WWE Network (which ended up being the most-watched show of the week) where they talked publicly for the first time on a WWE show about the Broken gimmick. Matt said it was weird to him to go back to the old Matt Hardy after doing the gimmick and that he almost became the new personality and had morphed into it. Regarding whether they would use the gimmick in WWE he said, “I definitely think there is a chance. It’s a work in progress. Unfortunately, due to legal reasons, I really can’t go into it right now, but I find it very flattering and humbling that every time we come and wrestle in front of the WWE Universe, they chant and they address it and acknowledge it.” Regarding the “delete” chants, he told fans to please keep doing it. He used the term, “When it (the transformation) happens, and I’m not going to say if, when it happens, its doing to be the most exciting thing to hit WWE programming in a long, long time.” Matt also said that it was inevitable that at some point Jeff would go as a single

Some other sheet news includes:

According to the Observer, NJPW is planning one more match between Omega and Okada to occur prior to next year's Wrestle Kingdom.
Observer's Dave Meltzer also rated Okada-Omega II as a 6.25 star match (0.25 higher than the first match).
Chris Jericho's next possible return to the WWE will either be cut short or could occur after the next Fozzy tour currently set to start around late October or November.
Curt Hawkins celebrated the birth of his first daughter today with WWE sending a congratulations announcement. http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/article/curt-hawkins-first-child-born

Juan

06-16-2017, 07:39 AM

Possible MITB *spoiler*

According to PWInsider, Mike Bennett and Maria are expected to make their debuts for WWE at this weekend’s house shows. The two signed on back in April after leaving Impact Wrestling. It’s possible that the two could get involved somewhere at Money in the Bank; otherwise, they are expected to make their TV debuts on Smackdown next week.

This will be Bennett’s first run in WWE, while Maria is making her return after leaving in 2010. The two are expected to be put into a storyline upon their debut, though who they will feud with isn’t known.

Emperor Smeat

06-20-2017, 11:06 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Mojo Doing Something Gif:
http://68.media.tumblr.com/10bb505bf870d32958be2409f7953325/tumblr_orryw8hAfW1u1ljrzo1_500.gif

After mostly bad news in ratings during playoff season, WWE had its best numbers in two months with last night's episode of Raw averaging 3.10 million viewers.

It was the best number since the April 17th show did 3.33 million viewers, and was up 22 percent from last week's 2.53 million, going against the Golden State Warriors closing out the NBA finals. If nothing else, this shows just how significantly the NBA game and the playoffs have been hurting Raw this year ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 3.08 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.20 million viewers
10 p.m. 3.03 million viewers

Only downside was they didn't take the #1 spot for rankings due to their dreaded and unexplained Monday Night War rival Love & Hip Hop show.

Triple H also appeared on Sky Sports News while in the United Kingdom. He discussed the women's Money in the Bank match controversy and has gotten some criticism for joking that they're still trying to find out if James Ellsworth is 100 percent a man.

Pro Wrestling Sheet reported that Shelton Benjamin is in talks to return to WWE. Benjamin was scheduled to return to the company following the brand split last summer but didn't end up signing due to a torn rotator cuff that was discovered during the process.

Kota Ibushi is among the participants in this year's G1 Climax.

New Japan Pro Wrestling announced the field for the tournament during this morning's Kizuna Road show at Korakuen Hall. Ibushi was listed as one of the entrants, with him competing as himself instead of as the Tiger Mask W character that he's been playing ...

The full lineup for the 2017 G1 Climax is:

Hiroshi Tanahashi
Togi Makabe
Michael Elgin
Kazuchika Okada
Hirooki Goto
Tomohiro Ishii
Toru Yano
YOSHI-HASHI
Kenny Omega
Bad Luck Fale
Tama Tonga
Tetsuya Naito
SANADA
EVIL
Satoshi Kojima
Yuji Nagata (Nagata has announced that this will be his last G1)
Juice Robinson
Minoru Suzuki
Zack Sabre Jr.
Kota Ibushi

The tournament begins on July 17th and concludes on August 13th, with the A Block winner facing the B Block winner on the final day.

Kenny Omega posted an in-character tweet about Kota Ibushi being announced as one of the participants in the 2017 G1 Climax: "So you've finally decided to come back... It's a different world now, Ibutan, allow me to show you just how far behind you've fallen. #njpw"

Impact Wrestling made some budget cuts this week and released Al Snow, Pat Kenney and Shane Helms, who were all working as producers. Helms in particular surprises me since I'd specifically heard a lot of good things in recent months on his work.

Sources indicate it was a financial decision made as a result of the company having seven different Producers all at the same time. That lead to cuts with the company keeping names like Abyss and Sonjay Dutt, who carried different responsibilities for the company and opting not to renew the deals of those who were just working as Producers. They had not been used since this past April.
Reasoning given for the recent releases.

Maria Kanellis and Mike Bennett have arrived on the SmackDown roster.

They were introduced as Mike and Maria Kanellis on Money in the Bank pay-per-view, with the announcers mentioning that Mike had taken Maria’s last name. Maria cut a promo saying that for the last seven years, she had been looking for a partner and she ended up finding Mike. She said their goal in WWE is to “promote the power of love.”

It had been rumored that Bennett and Kanellis were heading to WWE following their departure from Impact Wrestling earlier this year. Both were spotted in St. Louis this weekend prior to the PPV.

Konnan on his podcast said that Jeff Jarrett wants the opponents for LAX to be Aerostar & Drago, who are under contract to Lucha Underground. That's notable since previously LU had been strong that none of its talent could appear on television for any other promotion, at least under their LU names. He also said that ACH and Sammy Guevara will be getting Impact tryouts.

As noted, Rhyno wrestled Kalisto before last night's WWE RAW in a match for this week's Main Event episode. It appears Rhyno and Heath Slater may be splitting up as Rhyno is booked for singles matches at RAW live events this summer.

Recently on Talk Is Jericho, sports entertainment legend Chris Jericho welcomed his favorite tag team partner of all time to the podcast. Well, it's The Big Show. Among many other things, The Big Show talked about how he still enjoys working WWE live events, but hates doing TV tapings.

According to The Big Show, he loves working house shows on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, but he hates going to TV tapings.

"I love the live events. I love the Friday, Saturday, Sunday live event shows. I hate TVs. TVs, I just want to bash myself in the head with a hammer because they're just long, useless, time-wasting, bulls--t days where you sit around all friggin day for some idea that absolutely sucks. Debating it for hours and 17,000 inputs. And one or two guys laced up a pair of wrestling boots in their life and know what they're talking about. The others have never laced up a pair and really don't know s--t, but for some reason, they're telling you what to do. So you're just sitting there baffled. We all have that same look at TV, we walk around baffled, going, 'why are we doing this?'

"I like the live events. It's not as crazy. There's not as much B.S. backstage. It's just me and the guys. I like that part and I like getting out and working. I've done a lot of stuff where I go down, I knock somebody out, and I leave. I hate that. I get it. I'm old and beat up and they want to help me out and extend me, but I like getting in the ring."

While The Big Show believes that new talent should be given the television and pay-per-view time, he does not like to wait around all day to ultimately not get used on TV.

"There's a lot of change going on. There's a lot of new talent. There's a lot of new opportunities and I'm okay with that. They should get the TV time. They should get the pay-per-view time. I'm totally fine with that. Just don't make me come to Mondays when I don't have to do anything. That s--t pisses me off. Do you know what I mean? If I'm coming, use me. If not, send me home."

John Cena has been added to the WWE Battleground pay-per-view on Sunday, July 23rd. Battleground is a SmackDown branded and is the final WWE pay-per-view before SummerSlam in August. It's not known what role Cena will have at the show.

As noted, WWE has a storyline where they are billing Cena as a "free agent" and is no longer under contract to SmackDown. We reported yesterday that Cena vs. Bray Wyatt has been added to the July 15th RAW live event in Huntington, West Virginia.

Cena is scheduled to make his televised WWE return on the July 4th episode of SmackDown Live.

Some other sheet news includes:

WWE is currently selling a new Breezango "Fashion Police" shirt AT their official online shop. http://shop.wwe.com/breezango-fashion-patrol-authentic-t-shirt/FC2002.html
Observer debunked rumors of WWE considering plans for a possible Reigns-Undertaker rematch at SummerSlam. Rumor originated with them during the weekend but after a few days managed to confirm it wasn't happening.
Seth Rollins was revealed to be this year's cover star for WWE 2k18.
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, last Saturday was the four year anniversary of Mark Henry's fake retirement speech on RAW. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxm5c2XBcXo
Newest blog posting by Jim Ross had him talk about issues with MitB match endings, Ellsworth and ending to Women's MitB match, and debut of Maria and Mike. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0620/627273/jim-ross-on-controversial-finishes-at-wwe-mitb/
Sports Illustrated had a recent interview with Daniel Bryan talking about the last time he spoke to CM Punk and wanting to return to wrestling. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0620/627286/daniel-bryan-says-he-is-working-on-returning-to-the-ring/
NBC Sports also had a recent interview with Daniel Bryan talking about current WWE feeling stale, NXT, and borrowing aspects from boxing and MMA. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0620/627270/daniel-bryan-says-it-absolutely-necessary-for-wwe-to-change/

Cool King

06-21-2017, 03:26 PM

In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, last Saturday was the four year anniversary of Mark Henry's fake retirement speech on RAW.

Bloody hell, where does the time go?

Emperor Smeat

06-21-2017, 10:30 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by The Return of RAW's Savoir:
https://j.gifs.com/k5q5Z6.gif

On the heels of the best Raw rating in over two months, SmackDown followed suit this week with its best number since April 18th. The show averaged 2.597 million viewers on Tuesday night, up over 25 percent from last week ...

After not finishing in the top 10 the last few weeks, SmackDown was up to fourth for the night on cable in terms of total viewers. The show also was back to first in the 18-49 demo with a 0.85 rating.

In year-over-year comparisons, SmackDown was up 21 percent from last year's show which aired via tape delay on Thursday night. That episode did a 0.67 in the 18-49 demo, so it was up 27 percent year-over-year. The comparisons to 2016 numbers will become more relevant in about a month when they can be compared to shows after last July's brand split.

Kimber Lee has been renamed as "Abbey Laith" in NXT. She had been using her real name (Kimberly Frankele) but noted the change on Twitter. It's interesting timing given that announcements for the Mae Young Classic are being made.
Link to the announcement: https://twitter.com/AbbeyLaithWWE/status/877557926466125825

It was announced on Talking Smack (with Daniel Bryan returning to co-hosting duties for the first time since his absence for the birth of his daughter) that James Ellsworth is banned from ringside for next week's women's Money in the Bank rematch. In addition to that, next week's SmackDown will have Naomi defending her Women's title against Lana, Sami Zayn facing Baron Corbin, and The Hype Bros vs. The Usos in a non-title match where Zack Ryder & Mojo Rawley will become the number one contenders if they beat the champions.

WWE Network News revealed that what seems to be the first two years of WWE's ECW revival will be uploaded to the Network soon. That's in addition to more classic house shows that are being uploaded this month.
Link to the article: http://www.wwenetworknews.com/2017/06/21/exclusive-extra-classic-wwe-network-content-for-this-month-revealed/

Stardom tweeted a photo of Kairi Hojo at the airport as she heads to Florida to begin with WWE.
Link to the tweet: https://twitter.com/wwr_stardom/status/877051341381681152

Jeff Jarrett told "The Miller Report" that the World of Sport project is planned to happen in 2018. He said that they initially tried to rush into it, but they're in the process of formalizing agreements for next year.
Link to the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D86ZV5-erVg

Rusev is set to finally make his in-ring return as he is advertised for this weekend's Smackdown Live shows.

On Sunday 6/25, in Everett WA, he is advertised in a 3-way Match for Kevin Owen's U.S. championship that will also include Mojo Rawley.

Monday 6/26 in Bakersfield, CA, Rusev will again be challenging for Owen's U.S. dhampionship in another 3-Way match that will include Nakamura this time.

El Hio del Dos Caras will be in attendance at the Impact Wrestling Slammiversary PPV. I'd be shocked if he doesn't end up working the post-PPV TV tapings, at least in a tryout. Hijo was under a WWE developmental deal a few years back under the name Memo Montenegro.

Speaking of Slammiversary, you can pre-order the PPV via the Fite App and receive $12 credit to use on the App.

The Fight Network in Canada announced today that it will carry the 7/1 New Japan Pro Wrestling G-1 Special Night One in Long Beach, CA live. The show will air live in the United States on AXS TV and will stream worldwide on New Japan World.
Link to the announcement: http://fightnetwork.com/law/june-21-news-update-new-japans-first-long-beach-card-airing-on-canadian-television/

Prior to going on the air this Friday at 9 PM, the ROH Best in the World PPV will feature debuting STARDOM star Kris Wolfe & Sumie Sakai vs. Deonna Purrazzo and Mandy Leon. Highlights of the match will be shown on the PPV broadcast.

However, WWE officials are still making plans for her heading into the summer. An idea has come to light for her heading into Summerslam, but it’s out of the box. Rajah has reported that the powers that be are planning a huge romantic angle for Bayley for Summerslam.

WWE officials are planning to continue focusing on Bayley’s innocence, and it’s going to come to light that Bayley has never kissed a man before. The idea is that angle will continue to be pushed heading into Summerslam with her having her first kiss after her match at the event.

There is some speculation that Corey Graves is the favorite for the role, but the powers that be have yet to make up their mind about who will play the man in this scenario. On paper, an angle like this could be cute, but there is a good chance most WWE fans will really dislike it.
Rumor going around the net about potential plans the WWE has for Bayley.

Tommaso Ciampa and Darren Young were both spotted in Birmingham, Alabama at Andrews Sports Medicine & Orthopedic Center working towards their ring returns over the past few days, according to PWInsider. Young has been out of action since January with an arm injury while Ciampa suffered an ACL injury in mid-May.

As seen on RAW this past Monday night, WWE appears to be splitting The Miz and Maryse and pairing Miz with Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel. There have been some reports attributing the change to Maria and Mike Kanellis debuting on SmackDown due to some comments made by Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio. It should be noted that it wasn't clear if Meltzer was speculating about the split or was stating it as fact.

"The end result is that they're doing Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas as Miz's new entourage and they're dumping Maryse, I guess with the idea that because they've got Maria and Mike Bennett on the other brand, they don't want another husband and wife team or something?" Meltzer said. When asked if Maryse was done for now, Meltzer replied, "it looks like it."

WWE has added some new Madison Square Garden events to their Old School section on the WWE Network.

* WWWF (8/7/76) - Featuring: WWWF Champion Bruno Sammartino vs. Stan Hansen (Steel Cage Match)
* WWWF (10/25/76) - Featuring: WWWF Champion Bruno Sammartino vs. Nikolai Volkoff
* WWWF (12/19/77) - Featuring: WWWF Champion Superstar Graham vs. Mil Mascaras
* WWF (12/17/79) - Featuring: Hulk Hogan's Madison Square Garden debut vs. Ted DiBiase
* WWF (3/17/85) - Featuring: The final Madison Square Garden show before the first WrestleMania.

Some other sheet news includes:

Fire Pro Wrestling World was announced to be arriving for Steam's Early Access on July 10th for $19.99.
WWE currently holding a 20% discount on purchases made at their online store using coupon code SAVE20. Coupon is available till tomorrow 11:59PM.
BBC Radio 1 had a recent interview with Triple H talking about Rock's People Elbow move and how it was created. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0621/627314/triple-h-calls-the-rock-people-elbow-being-the-hokiest-move-ever/
Sky Sports also had a recent interview with Triple H talking about who he feels will be the next big star in the WWE and the upcoming Lesnar-Joe Universal title match. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0621/627305/triple-h-on-which-wwe-star-may-be-the-future-of-wwe/
WWE recently had an interview with Matt Hardy talking about working on getting the Broken gimmick to debut in the WWE. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0621/627301/matt-hardy-talks-wanting-to-unleash-broken-persona-again-in-wwe/
Rumor going around the net involves the WWE considering dropping the idea of Reigns-Lesnar for Mania 34 and instead have it occur at SumemrSlam. Rumor also hints at Reigns-Cena being the Universal title match for Mania 34.

Dark One

06-21-2017, 11:01 PM

However, WWE officials are still making plans for her heading into the summer. An idea has come to light for her heading into Summerslam, but it’s out of the box. Rajah has reported that the powers that be are planning a huge romantic angle for Bayley for Summerslam.

WWE officials are planning to continue focusing on Bayley’s innocence, and it’s going to come to light that Bayley has never kissed a man before. The idea is that angle will continue to be pushed heading into Summerslam with her having her first kiss after her match at the event.

There is some speculation that Corey Graves is the favorite for the role, but the powers that be have yet to make up their mind about who will play the man in this scenario. On paper, an angle like this could be cute, but there is a good chance most WWE fans will really dislike it.
Rumor going around the net about potential plans the WWE has for Bayley.

Cannot wait for Bayley's career retrospective DVD: "The 40 Year Old Virgin: The Bayley Story"

Ruien

06-21-2017, 11:39 PM

Didn't they already bring out her ex with that Alexa segment or was that so bad we are scratching it from the record?

BigCrippyZ

06-22-2017, 12:38 AM

Didn't they already bring out her ex with that Alexa segment or was that so bad we are scratching it from the record?

Haven't you heard? Vince doesn't care enough about quality to remember what happened on his shows last week, let alone months or years ago, so he figures the viewers won't remember either.

Droford

06-22-2017, 12:47 AM

If this was 2002 bayley would be hooking up with Sasha Banks #HLA

http://www.wrestlecrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/hla11.png

Simple Fan

06-22-2017, 01:01 AM

If this was 2002 bayley would be hooking up with Sasha Banks #HLA

http://www.wrestlecrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/hla11.png

That coukd still happen in 2017 and at this point would probably make more sense than Corey Graves.

Cool King

06-22-2017, 03:48 PM

Cool King

06-22-2017, 03:48 PM

But the angle sounds awful anyway and I'm sure the fans will show their dislike for it.

Cool King

06-22-2017, 03:55 PM

That coukd still happen in 2017 and at this point would probably make more sense than Corey Graves.

Well, this is 2017 and we're living in a very "liberal world" so to speak, so we could always see (and this will take some dedication from Bayley) Bayley come out as gay with her saying "The reason I've never kissed a boy is because I don't like boys. I like girls."

The lefty media would eat that up.

The rightys, not so much.

#1-norm-fan

06-22-2017, 04:06 PM

Graves is a terrible choice.

I can't think of anyone on the Raw Roster that would be a good pick for the role.

Enzo and Jack Gallagher are the only guys I can think of that would make some sense and make the angle "cute".

Gallagher would make it "cute" because he's kinda lovably retarded ala Bayley. Enzo would be weird. He doesn't have the same innocence. Something about him getting with Bayley seems creepy. If only Hornswoggle were still on the roster. Would be a perfect role for him.

Jesus Christ, I can't believe I'm trying to fantasy book this story...

Cool King

06-22-2017, 04:10 PM

I was imagining Enzo with a bit of an image change (after he's done with his thing with Cass) when I thought of him and Bayley, just so you all know.

06-22-2017, 04:43 PM

Yeah I could see Enzo being "outed" as being "all talk" not just in the way that Cass spoke about but also in his approach with women. He talks a good game but really he's quite shy and reserved when the feelings are mutual. They could make it kinda cute with enough time.

Simple Fan

06-22-2017, 05:47 PM

Well, this is 2017 and we're living in a very "liberal world" so to speak, so we could always see (and this will take some dedication from Bayley) Bayley come out as gay with her saying "The reason I've never kissed a boy is because I don't like boys. I like girls."

The lefty media would eat that up.

The rightys, not so much.

Thats what im saying, being bisexual might appease the right a bit. With her and Sasha's friendship it makes more sense than any random guy on the roster. Sasha turns her down after the kiss and turns heel.

drave

06-22-2017, 05:51 PM

It'll never happen since they want her to be a "role model" for younger girls.

Emperor Smeat

06-22-2017, 05:53 PM

Well, this is 2017 and we're living in a very "liberal world" so to speak, so we could always see (and this will take some dedication from Bayley) Bayley come out as gay with her saying "The reason I've never kissed a boy is because I don't like boys. I like girls."

The lefty media would eat that up.

The rightys, not so much.

They'd have to be really careful on how they handle the outing and post-stuff considering the last time they did a big gay-related angle, ended up getting backlash from pro-gay groups when it was revealed to be just a big joke.

Don't trust RAW's Creative at all to pull that type of storyline off well especially now one of WWE's big sponsors is a major pro-gay organization.

Mr. Nerfect

06-22-2017, 07:58 PM

Gallagher would make it "cute" because he's kinda lovably retarded ala Bayley. Enzo would be weird. He doesn't have the same innocence. Something about him getting with Bayley seems creepy. If only Hornswoggle were still on the roster. Would be a perfect role for him.

Jesus Christ, I can't believe I'm trying to fantasy book this story...

:lol:

Mr. Nerfect

06-22-2017, 07:58 PM

They should stay away from this at all costs.

Mr. Nerfect

06-22-2017, 08:00 PM

Or have it be Batista. But not kissing. Bayley walks out of a room and Batista then sticks his head out and gives her the thumbs down -- which he moves into a thumbs up.

Emperor Smeat

06-22-2017, 09:49 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Random Hug gif:
http://68.media.tumblr.com/686489592b25692afbd50ec2bbc46be2/tumblr_orgwuqe91p1u1ljrzo2_540.gif

Despite agreeing to part ways with the company not too long ago, Mauro Ranallo is staying with WWE -- and he'll have a role on the NXT broadcast team going forward.

“WWE and I mutually agreed to end my responsibilities on SmackDown having nothing to do with rumors about disputes,” Ranallo wrote on his Instagram account. “As I remained under contract with WWE, we discussed a variety of options. Despite originally agreeing to part ways, there was always a desire to continue working together. We have come to terms on a new agreement that benefits both WWE and me, and I am thrilled to announce I will now be part of the NXT broadcasting team.”

Ranallo will be appearing at NXT's television tapings at Full Sail University tomorrow night. He tweeted that he will be the play-by-play voice of NXT.

On the Mauro Ranallo story, the talks between WWE and Ranallo returning date back to April and the deal was all but finalized a few weeks ago. The original announcement was expected to be yesterday. Ranallo signed a new multi-year contract, so he is not returning on his old contract that expires in August. The contract is to work all NXT television tapings and TakeOver specials, so it's a lot more limited deal than his prior deal which was for 52 Tuesdays, a dozen or so Sundays which also meant being on the road on Mondays the week of Sunday shows, so a minimum of about 76 dates. He'll remain with Showtime and Bellator. But any talk of him doing New Japan is pretty much dead.
Some details regarding the Mauro story above.

Vince Russo filed for an order of protection on 6/16 in Posey County Superior Court in Indiana claiming that Cornette has been stalking him since 1999. That's based on a promo Cornette cut on him on his 6/15 podcast. Cornette was served last night at his home in Louisville and ordered to stay away from Russo, Ann Russo, the home of Vince Russo and Russo's place of employment.

WWE announced today a new weekly Hindi language television show called WWE Sunday Dhamaal, which airs from 6-8 p.m. every Sunday starting this weekend on Sony MAX. It will be a combination of matches taped from WWE tapings with features done in the language with the talent. The show will also air in English on TEN 1 and Ten 1 HD on Sundays from 10 a.m. to Noon.

On last night's show we were asked if there were any women on the WWE writing team. The answer is there are no women on the traveling team, but the "home team" has at least one woman writer.

WWE has confirmed five more wrestlers who will be participating in this summer's Mae Young Classic.

In an announcement that was made by ESPN, it was noted that Tessa Blanchard, Abbey Laith, Taynara Conti, Kavita Devi, and Jazzy Gabert would be taking part in the women's tournament. They join Toni Storm, Princesa Sugehit, Lacey Evans, and Sarah Logan as names already confirmed for the 32-competitor field.

Blanchard is the daughter of Tully Blanchard and the stepdaughter of "Magnum T.A." Terry Allen. She is only 21 years old but has been wrestling since 2014. She debuted for Stardom last year and has continued to appear for the promotion ...

With her getting a new in-ring name yesterday, Laith seemed like a lock for the Mae Young Classic. She wrestled as Kimber Lee and was a standout on the indies before being signed by WWE. She had been using her real name (Kimberly Frankele) in NXT before the name change.

Conti is also a fairly recent WWE signing who has been given a new name. The Brazilian (named Taynara Melo) debuted in a battle royal at an NXT house show earlier this year. She has a background in judo and jiu-jitsu.

Devi is from India and attended WWE's tryouts in Dubai this past April. She has trained with The Great Khali and has participated in weightlifting. Her being in the tournament was first revealed by the Times of India this morning.

Rounding out the list, Gabert (also known as Alpha Female) is a veteran pro wrestler from Germany. She has wrestled for wXw, Stardom, and has done a few matches for TNA. She has also competed in MMA.

New Japan star Katsuyori Shibata took to the internet and his "Real Talk" blog to update his health status.

He stated that even before this latest injury, he has been seeing double since the beginning of his career. He stated that he's had surgery on his eyes on three separate occasion over the years.

In regards to his current situation, he stated that the treatments are a "heavy burden to his body" because it involves sending currents (presumably electrical) to the injured parts of his body (which is his skull/brain).

He stated "there is no precedent" for his current treatment and that there are only a few machines that do this treatment in the country.

He said he gets desperate when he thinks about his condition and that his best hope at this point is to be able to have clearer vision than he does now.
Link with a summary of the announcement: https://twitter.com/STRIGGA/status/877949879116472320

Impact Wrestling has been locked in a legal battle with Matt and Jeff Hardy for the majority of this year over the rights to the Broken Matt and Brother Nero gimmicks ...

What complicates matters even more is Jeff Jarrett's personal friendship with Jeff Hardy. Jarrett recently spoke to Wrestle:List about the ongoing legal battle, where he gave his thoughts on the squabble.

"I always take the high road because there is legal squabbles or potential legal squabbles but I have said this to a couple of outlets, and I say this with very broad strokes – I am from Nashville so I am around music which is intellectual property and I have been in the business 30 years," Jarrett told Wrestle:List. "Intellectual property laws are very simple, there are two sides to it; there are publishers and the writers, then there are the performers as well."

"Jeff Hardy has been one of my best friends for 20 years, you can look on my social media and their social media, and we take family vacations together but business is business," Jarrett continued. "So when it relates to IP it's real simple, there is a publisher who owns the property, there is a writer who gets credit and can monetize it, then there is the performers. There is no question that Broken Matt and Brother Nero's performances were off the charts good. But when it comes to ownership to me it's almost a silly squabble, it's never been in question. Impact are the owners."
Link to the interview: http://www.wrestlelist.com/jeff-jarrett-exclusive-slammiversary/

Today, a fan sent Reby an interview that Jeff Jarrett did recently, where he said he's taken "the high road" in legal issues with The Hardys and that there was no doubt that Impact Wrestling owned the "Broken" gimmick. Reby sent out multiple tweets about Jeff Jarrett and Impact and mentioned a DUI charge that hadn't been public:

Stop doing stupid interviews before I release your drunk texts & the DUI records that somehow haven't gotten out WAIT OOPS @RealJeffJarrett https://t.co/zmw14Y2QPF
— Reby Hardy (@RebyHardy) June 22, 2017

Don't say you wanna be done with drama in a quiet manner & then have company stooges like Jeff & Dutch give interviews spewing BS.
— Reby Hardy (@RebyHardy) June 22, 2017

If the issue was as simple & cut/dry as these morons are trying to make it seem, I wouldn't have been out here fighting for my family.
— Reby Hardy (@RebyHardy) June 22, 2017

Truth is TNA can't afford to go to court over this, so they're going to downplay it to anyone who will listen & lie to look powerful
— Reby Hardy (@RebyHardy) June 22, 2017

Money is power. Never forget that. @RealJeffJarrett
— Reby Hardy (@RebyHardy) June 22, 2017

It's not known if the "free agent" storyline is being done to allow Cena to appear at RAW events when needed, however Cena is not currently scheduled for any WWE Monday Night RAW tapings through SummerSlam, including the post-SummerSlam episode of RAW. We have learned that Cena is scheduled for every Monday SmackDown house show that he is available through SummerSlam, including the post-SummerSlam SmackDown live event in Albany, NY, so he would not be able to work RAW on those Mondays unless it was close by.

Cena is also not currently scheduled for any other RAW live events through SummerSlam other than the two we mentioned, and is scheduled to work all the SmackDown live events that he is available during that period. Cena is also scheduled for every SmackDown Live TV taping through September with the exception of the August 8th episode.

Cena will also be appearing at the next SmackDown pay-per-view, WWE Battleground, on Sunday, July 23rd, which is the final SmackDown pay-per-view before SummerSlam. He will not be appearing at the last RAW pay-per-view before SummerSlam, Great Balls of Fire.

While WWE is running with the storyline that Cena is a free agent, he is unlikely to appear on Monday Night RAW anytime soon.
Updates to the recent Cena "Free Agent" news.

The WWE sent out a survey to fans who attended WrestleMania this year in Orlando asking their preference when it comes to traveling to a WrestleMania in London, Toronto or New York

In Memphis for years there has been a movement to save the Mid South Coliseum, which was the hope for wrestling from 1971 until well into the late 90s and they even ran successful nostalgia shows long after that. With new arenas opening, the Coliseum doesn’t have much use past its nostalgia value. Jerry Lawler noted that the city was willing to sell him the building for $1. The catch is that the building’s upkeep cost is $63,000 per month

So a funny spot on the 6/13 Smackdown show is that JBL twice used the word “belt” as Lana laid out Naomi, saying the belt, which is blue, matches the dress noting fashion coordination. At that point somebody said something and JBL had his mic off but in the corner of the shot you could see him in a discussion

The mentions of Conor McGregor on Raw this week were not coincidental, and things like that never are. Paul Levesque was on Sky Sports News HQ in the U.K. and outright said that they’d love to get McGregor and Floyd Mayweather on Raw to help them promote their fight. I’m sure the idea of the deal proposed is they’d have a worldwide platform with millions of fans to sell their fight and in return WWE would get the publicity and whatever ratings boost it can from promoting both being on the show. Plus, WWE has worked with Mayweather in the past to the point HHH himself has walked Mayweather to the ring, and they negotiated for McGregor for WrestleMania and having a relationship with them and McGregor makes sense on both sides

Some other sheet news includes:

In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, NJPW star Tetsuya Naito celebrated his 35th birthday today. https://twitter.com/njpw1972/status/877720056897060864
For those interested, the PC version of WWE 2k17 is currently $15 at Steam as part of Valve's current Summer Sale. Discount is 70% off and sale itself lasts till July 5th.
Channel Guide Magazine had a recent interview with Cody Rhodes talking about Bullet Club, HBK advice, and not having plans to return to the WWE. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0622/627357/cody-rhodes-on-advice-from-shawn-michaels/
According to the Observer, Daniel Bryan still wants to wrestle and has no plans of signing a new deal with the WWE once it expires late next year. Only thing that will likely persuade him to not wrestle is if medical tests reveal his health is at serious risk. Also more likely to work for CMLL than NJPW as his first post-WWE job. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/6ittw3/wor_per_meltzer_if_wwe_wont_let_him_brian/
WWE's upcoming book about Ric Flair and Charlotte called "Second Nature" got delayed from its July release to now a September 19th release date.
Observer stated Kairi Hojo arrived in Orlando this week for the WWE while a recent press conference from Stardom stated Io Shirai will be taking some time off for rest and to heal nagging neck problems.

Mr. Nerfect

06-22-2017, 10:21 PM

I always marked out for the idea of Daniel Bryan asking for a new WWE contract to head up the SmackDown creative team, so he can craft out his own little niche for wrestling over there. But I'm not sure how realistic that is.

If Bryan is healthy enough, I say go for it. I'm happy for him to stay retired, but I'm not sure how legitimate the WWE's concussion testing is.

Simple Fan

06-22-2017, 10:53 PM

I dont want to see Bryan wrestle again but thats just because I'm not a fan of the guy. Once his WWE contract runs out I'm sure he will field offers from other companies. Now I know the guy is a huge star and fans love him but I feel like WWE knows that and are trying to cool him off before he leaves. Yes chants have already gotten smaller and once and if he does leave I dont think it will be that big of an effect.

Mr. Nerfect

06-22-2017, 11:22 PM

I don't think it will be a mainstream ripple, but it will draw eyeballs to whatever it was he was doing. Whatever Matt Hardy did in TNA many times over. On a New Japan show, it could be a good way to launch traditional PPV in the United States -- especially if it's accompanied by a 6.35 star classic, of course.

Last time I watched a SmackDown (and it was ages ago), Bryan sounded like one of the most genuinely over people on the show. He obviously doesn't feel white-hot anymore, but he seems more beloved than just about anybody else on the show. I don't think the WWE have cooled him as much as they are more comfortable using him as the sideshow attraction now that they won't let him wrestle.

Emperor Smeat

06-23-2017, 10:49 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Wacky Waving Not-Inflatable Arm Flailing Maria Gif:
http://i.imgur.com/EDdsoFa.gif

One-half of reDRagon has seemingly arrived in NXT.

Bobby Fish made his first WWE appearance at tonight's NXT television tapings at Full Sail University. His first match was against Aleister Black.

The match came after reports that Fish had been spotted at the building earlier in the day, along with Pro Wrestling Sheet noting that he'd be making his debut.

An NXT debut that was already known about happened at the tapings as well, with Mauro Ranallo joining the broadcast booth for the first time since announcing that he'll be staying with WWE. Triple H introduced him to the crowd at the start of the show.

Fish had previously reached a new short-term agreement with Ring of Honor when his contract came up at the end of last year. When that expired in March, he continued working for ROH on a per-date basis and started taking other bookings.

There has also been a situation with claims related to tampering from ROH that have at least temporarily blocked some people (including Fish and Kyle O'Reilly) who were formerly with them from signing with WWE.

Mauro Ranallo revealed on Twitter that the new WWE NXT announce team will be him, Percy Watson and Nigel McGuinness. Mauro will be replacing Tom Phillips. He tweeted the following:

Minutes away from my first @WWENXT taping with @McGuinnessNigel & @WWEPercyWatson at @FullSail MAMMA MIA! ????
— Mauro Ranallo (@mauroranallo) June 23, 2017

The trademark issues that had been preventing Billy Corgan from purchasing the National Wrestling Alliance appear to have been resolved, paving the way for the former TNA Wrestling President to purchase the NWA brand.

All interest of the trademarks related to the National Wrestling Alliance (three in the United States, one in Japan) were assigned by Bruce Tharpe's International Wrestling Corp. over to Lightning One, Inc as of 5/25. Lightning One, Inc. is a production company that lists Billy Corgan as the Director. As of 6/21, the United States Patent and Trademark Organization now lists Lightning One as the owners for all NWA trademarks.

At tonight's WWE NXT taping, WWE held a Mae Young Classic qualification matches:

*WWE NXT talent Bianca Belair (formerly Bianca Blair) defeated Aliyah to earn a spot in the tournament.

*Vanessa Borne (current NXT talent Danielle Kamela) defeated Jayme Hachey (independent talent Jayme Jameson) to qualify.

The WWE Network will be releasing a Collection next month featuring Roddy Piper's infamous Piper's Pit segments.

The 6/22 edition of Impact on Pop from India, week three, did 342,000 overnight viewers, up from last week's 327,000 viewers

WWE Network has uploaded two more Madison Square Garden shows to the "Old School" category of the Vault section. They have added the November 23, 1981 and December 28, 1982 shows at the World's Most Famous Arena.

Impact Wrestling celebrated their 15th anniversary this past Monday and former President Dixie Carter tweeted the following on the milestone:

So proud of this company and all the men and women who helped build it. @IMPACTWRESTLING #Here'sTo15More ?? https://t.co/z6WlH13QCr
— Dixie Carter (@TNADixie) June 19, 2017

ESPN posted on Twitter where Asuka's current NXT Championship reign stacks up among the longest women's championship runs ever. Today, she tied Trish Stratus' 2005-2006 run of 448 days. Only Rockin' Robin (502 days) and Fabulous Moolah (10,170 days) are longer:

.@WWEAsuka ties @trishstratuscom today for the 3rd-longest women's title reign in @WWE/@WWENXT history. pic.twitter.com/1j75rmvviC
— WWE on ESPN (@WWEonESPN) June 23, 2017

As seen on RAW this past Monday night, Roman Reigns challenged the winner of the Samoa Joe vs. Brock Lesnar WWE Universal Championship bout to a title match at SummerSlam. We've mentioned that the plan for the main event for SummerSlam was for Lesnar to defend the WWE Universal Championship against Braun Strowman.

Dave Meltzer reported in the latest issue of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Strowman vs. Lesnar for the title was still the plan as late as two weeks ago. Meltzer noted that if the plans changed, it could be because of the recent low ratings, with the idea being that Lesnar's limited schedule while holding the title could be hurting them. The original plan was for Lesnar to face Roman Reigns at WrestleMania, with Lesnar defending the title against Seth Rollins and Finn Balor before then.
Some details regarding rumors of Lesnar-Reigns getting nixed for Mania 34 in favor of SummerSlam instead.

Some other sheet news includes:

A documentary on the Gawker-Hulk Hogan legal saga called Nobody Speak was recently released on Netflix.
Impact Wrestling is currently interested in inviting Donald Trump to be in Bobby Lashley's corner for the Impact Championship match at next month's Slammiversary PPV. http://www.pwinsider.com/article/110468/donald-trump-at-slammiversary.html?p=1
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 21st anniversary of Steve Austin's famous "Austin 3:16" promo.
In another "WWE Did You Know" type fact, only 2 winners in G1 Climax history have never won the IWGP Heavyweight title since the belt's debut in 1987. Those two are Kenny Omega (2016 winner) and Hirooki Goto (2008 winner). https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/6j1v3x/til_hirooki_goto_and_kenny_omega_are_the_only_g1/
The Associated Press had a recent interview with Mauro Ranallo talking about leaving Smackdown and his current success as a broadcaster. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0623/627393/mauro-ranallo-talks-current-success/

ClockShot

06-24-2017, 10:34 AM

Bobby Fish is a nice pick up.

Evil Vito

06-24-2017, 05:50 PM

Supposedly Slater/Rhyno and the Hype Bros are the next teams in line to be broken up.

Slater's being advertised solo for upcoming Raw house shows (although given Rhyno's age maybe he just never works a full schedule). This one is whatever to me. They were a fun team when they started but they barely are featured on Raw. Slater is amazing so if splitting the team up is the only way to get him on screen, I say do it. Suppose there's a decent chance of him joining Miz's posse although he's such a wonderful goofy face he could work in either role.

The Hype Bros supposedly got put back together just to so they could be broken up and feud. Gotta assume they'll lose their #1 contenders match then and then one of them would turn. I'm torn on this one only because I actually think both men would be more interesting as heels. Just let them be arrogant dicks and be the Fashion Police's next feud while the New Day finish up their business with The Usos.

06-24-2017, 06:48 PM

Seems a bit too soon to be doing more Tag Team splits after Golden Truth and Enzo & Cass.

drave

06-24-2017, 06:58 PM

The main roster:

Where tag teams go to die.

Cool King

06-25-2017, 11:00 AM

Ruien

06-25-2017, 12:36 PM

Mojo is the perfect face. He's feds off his lukewarm reactions like no ones business.

Mr. Nerfect

06-26-2017, 06:24 AM

Want to see 3MB reform, babaaaaaay!

KIRA

06-26-2017, 04:22 PM

Thats what im saying, being bisexual might appease the right a bit. With her and Sasha's friendship it makes more sense than any random guy on the roster. Sasha turns her down after the kiss and turns heel.

Sasha already copped to sticking love notes in Bailey's lunch so they might as well go for it.

I dunno about Enzo after the Lana thing he seems kinda sleazy

For some reason I could see it being Kalisto but he's married

It would be amazing if this was also a side story for BRAUN like he's still an intense monster but he is noticeably less mean to her (while still wanting to straight up murder Roman Reigns) he would initially be gruff and dismissive but gradually she'd get to him. He'd never be goofy about it though it would be played completely straight on his end while Bailey got the more comedic cute end.

Also Finn Balor since they seem to have nothing for him atm and theyve(he and Bailey) have already shared clothes and gone dirty dancing.

KIRA

06-26-2017, 04:29 PM

Mojo is the perfect face.

Words fail me.

Emperor Smeat

06-27-2017, 10:18 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by The KinSasha:
http://68.media.tumblr.com/64a6b9c6c51aece3688e2d902a01320a/tumblr_os6u5zg9h61u1ljrzo1_540.gif

Raw fell four percent from last week's 3.10 million viewers to 2.98 million ...

The third hour, built around a long women's gauntlet match, held up better than usual, with hour three staying even in the 18-34 demo, although it did fall with viewers over the age of 35 and particularly with women.

SmackDown, with a women's Money in the Bank match and a full card advertised, should do a strong number tonight, at least in theory. If it drops from last week, it would be a sign that the Raw rating has a great effect on how SmackDown the next night does.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.89 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.09 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.95 million viewers

The segment with LaVar Ball and the Ball family that nearly went off the rails wound up with LaMelo Ball, with a live mic, at one point saying, "Beat that," and followed with the N word, while his father was running around going crazy teasing that he wanted to fight The Miz.

LaMelo is the youngest of the three Ball sons, and is a high school basketball star at Chino Hills High School in Southern California. He's committed to UCLA as part of the program's 2019 basketball recruiting class.

As you can imagine, backstage was chaos.

WWE immediately responded to the Los Angeles Times saying, "The inappropriate language used by a guest during the Miz TV segment was not scripted, nor reflects WWE's values."

According to one person backstage, the key people, notably Kevin Dunn and Vince McMahon, were very unhappy backstage when the word was audible to the crowd.

WWE ended up putting an edited version of the segment on their official Youtube channel after having no replays of it during last night's show.

Torrie Wilson, Sharmell, Christy Hemme, and Candice Michelle were backstage at Raw in Los Angeles last night.
Link to the instagram post: https://www.instagram.com/p/BV1Deb6BAyI/?taken-by=torriewilson&hl=en

While appearing on Hot 104.1 in St. Louis recently, Randy Orton explained the comments that he made criticizing dives. He clarified that he doesn't have a problem with dives if they mean something, but said there's no longevity in throwing yourself to the floor without any purpose
Link to the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL7bUOG9B38

Impact Wrestling announced during a YouTube special hyping Slammiversary that MMA fighter "King Mo" Muhammed Lawal will be in Bobby Lashley's corner for his main event against Alberto El Patron on Sunday. El Patron's father (and pro wrestling legend) Dos Caras will be in his corner. Both Lashley and Lawal are fighters with Bellator, but Lashley hasn't fought since last October. Lawal is a big pro wrestling fan and has been involved with Impact in the past.

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the company, the city of Orlando has declared July 5th as "Impact Wrestling day in Orlando." Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer will present a proclamation before the July 5th Impact tapings and will serve as a special guest ring announcer for two matches.

The company sent out another fan survey today to former WWE network subscribers. They are looking for info on their fan base on how loyal a fan they are, how familiar they are with current storylines, how much you like storylines, asking fans if they know who the current WWE champion is, the name of he next PPV, who are the members of New Day, if you watch Raw or SmackDown on Hulu, television, on-line, Facebook or YouTube, visit web sites to get info and ask why they aren't signed up at this point and why you signed up in the first place, if you'd sign up with a longer free trial period and many other things.

WWE has revealed some more details about this summer's Mae Young Classic.

In an article that was posted on WWE.com today, it was officially confirmed that Jim Ross and Lita would be calling the tournament. Dave Meltzer reported last month that they were rumored to be the commentary team after Ross announced his involvement.

The first four episodes of the Mae Young Classic will be made available on the WWE Network on August 28th. The next four episodes will be released on September 4th. Those shows will be made available on demand as WWE hopes that viewers will binge watch them.

A bracketology special previewing the Mae Young Classic and profiling its participants will air on the Network after SummerSlam on August 20th.

The winner of the tournament will be crowned at a live special on September 12th in Las Vegas, Nevada. That will air at 10 p.m. ET after SmackDown, which is also scheduled to take place at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas that night.

The Mae Young Classic tapings will begin on July 13th and 14th at Full Sail University.

In an interesting political move, Impact Wrestling will have members of warring Mexican promotions in the same tag team title match.

The company today announced for Sunday's Slammiversary pay-per-view from Orlando, that LAX would defend the Impact tag titles in a four-way match. One team announced today is Drago & El Hijo del Fantasma, who both work for AAA, the very heated rival promotion of The Crash, which Konnan, who heads the LAX group, is the booker of.

Drago's name had been bandied about since Konnan brought it up on his podcast.

At first, when Impact opened up a working relationship with AAA after already doing so with The Crash, a very unique political situation, the idea was that the talent from the two companies would never interact, but obviously that has changed. In Mexico, neither promotion allows its talent to appear on a show with anyone from the other promotion. In the U.K., there was a situation where AAA pulled a power play to force Pentagon Jr. off a show because that show was using rival talent.

Another note is that Drago and Fantasma (who is King Cuerno in LU) are both under contract to Lucha Underground exclusively for U.S. television, meaning Lucha Underground for the first time is allowing its talent to appear for another wrestling promotion on television.

Two more Madison Square Garden shows have been added to the WWE Network:

November 23, 1981: Bob Backlund vs. Greg Valentine cage match for WWF title, Pedro Morales vs. Don Muraco for IC title, Dusty Rhodes vs. Angelo Mosca, Mil Mascaras vs. The Executioner
December 28, 1982: Bob Backlund vs. Superstar Billy Graham lumberjack match, Pedro Morales vs. Don Muraco for IC title, Jimmy Snuka vs. Ray Stevens, Buddy Rose vs. Ivan Putski

For the second time since the title was created, WWE's United Kingdom Championship is set to be defended outside of the company.

Insane Championship Wrestling announced today that Pete Dunne would defend his title on July 29th at the first night of their "Shug's Hoose Party 4" weekend of shows. Dunne's challenger will be decided at an ICW show prior to that, with WWE UK's Wolfgang facing the winner of a four-way (which includes Davey Blaze, Kenny Williams, BT Gunn, and Gabriel Kidd) in a number one contender's match.

Dunne's match won't be the only WWE representation on the July 29th show, with it having been previously revealed that Noam Dar would return to ICW to team with Sha Samuels against Grado & Joe Coffey.

As we reported exclusively in the PWInsider Elite section last week, WWE is preparing to add a ton of World Class Championship Wrestling episodes to the VOD section of the WWE Network later this summer.

Eva Marie did an interview with Too Fab discussing The Rock's influence and advice on her movie career. She also discusses her role in the upcoming Nick Cage movie, "Inconceivable" opening this Friday in theaters, dying her hair and more.

On whether she would ever be willing to return for a WWE event: "Oh, my goodness, for sure. WWE, for me, is where it all started. You never know, I could show up on a Monday Night Raw, I could come down to Smackdown Live and snatch that title real quick. Never leave me out, you never know what's creeping around the corner, if you know what I mean."

On a possible return to "Total Divas": "You never know. It's definitely a possibility. I love that show and I think everybody needs a little bit of Natalie Eva Marie in their life, so why not spread it everywhere."

.@NiaJaxWWE isn"t like most girls... WHY? Because she"s BIONIC! #WWERideAlong @WWEGraves @TomPhillipsWWE @WWENetwork pic.twitter.com/R7225BxeTB
— WWE (@WWE) June 27, 2017

- Above is video from last night's WWE Ride Along with Nia Jax, Corey Graves and Tom Phillips. Nia talks about how she was a plus-size model before signing with WWE and how her cousin The Rock suggested she work a tryout at the WWE Performance Center. Nia was in a car accident before the tryouts after she and her aunt were hit head-on by a drunk driver. She now has a metal plate in her clavicle due to the wreck.

Pro Wrestling Sheet has learned Tyson Kidd, aka TJ Wilson, is making his return to wrestling … however, it won’t be in the ring — he’ll be working in a non-wrestling capacity.

According to sources, Kidd is currently being transitioned into a non-wrestling role. Since it’s still fresh, one source says it’s too early to define whether it’ll be behind the scenes — like a producer/agent — or if he’ll be used in some sort of on-air role that doesn’t require wrestling.

Some other sheet news includes:

Recent episode of the Steve Austin Show had Bayley as the guest. https://www.podcastone.com/episode/Bayley
Deadspin had a recent article about the lessons the WWE failed to learn since the decade of Benoit's murder-suicide tragedy. http://deadspin.com/10-years-after-the-chris-benoit-killings-pro-wrestling-1794183640
As part of the celebrations for the new GLOW tv series, website Jezebel had an article about women's wrestling prior to the original GLOW promotion. http://pictorial.jezebel.com/the-women-who-wrestled-before-the-gorgeous-ladies-of-wr-1796452470
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, last Sunday was the 17th anniversary of Kurt Angle's victory at the finals of King of the Ring 2000 ppv. Defeated Rikishi in the finals to become the new King of the WWE at the time.
In another "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 15th anniversary of John Cena's debut in the WWE. WWE celebrated the occasion on Twitter earlier today. https://twitter.com/WWE/status/879701191621357568
The Sun had a recent interview with Seth Rollins talking about a possible Shield reunion in the future and the idea of a Shield vs Bullet Club feud. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0627/627495/seth-rollins-talks-about-possible-shield-reunion/

BigCrippyZ

06-28-2017, 11:43 AM

The segment with LaVar Ball and the Ball family that nearly went off the rails wound up with LaMelo Ball, with a live mic, at one point saying, "Beat that," and followed with the N word, while his father was running around going crazy teasing that he wanted to fight The Miz.

LaMelo is the youngest of the three Ball sons, and is a high school basketball star at Chino Hills High School in Southern California. He's committed to UCLA as part of the program's 2019 basketball recruiting class.

As you can imagine, backstage was chaos.

WWE immediately responded to the Los Angeles Times saying, "The inappropriate language used by a guest during the Miz TV segment was not scripted, nor reflects WWE's values."

According to one person backstage, the key people, notably Kevin Dunn and Vince McMahon, were very unhappy backstage when the word was audible to the crowd.

So the only thing remotely interesting that happened on Raw was an unscripted segment. Imagine that.

Emperor Smeat

06-28-2017, 10:18 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by Dean Ambrose's reaction to RAW's Miz TV segment:
https://68.media.tumblr.com/6cf6591e99324ee65c7e13682fd1ebdb/tumblr_os72w46IWN1upyijro2_400.gif

Tuesday night's SmackDown rating was virtually identical to the previous week's, coming in at 2.603 million viewers. That number is up 6,000 viewers from last week.

The show was loaded by typical TV standards, with the women's Money in the Bank rematch headlining the episode. Naomi vs. Lana for the SmackDown Women's Championship, Baron Corbin vs. Sami Zayn, and The Usos vs. The Hype Bros were also advertised in advance.

SmackDown was third on cable in total viewers for the night and once again was first in the 18-49 demo with a 0.83 rating.

This week last year, SmackDown did 2.08 million viewers with a 0.63 rating in the 18-49 demo, so those numbers are up 25 percent and 32 percent respectively. Of course, the show was taped and aired on Thursday nights last year.

With Asuka vs. Nikki Cross in a last woman standing match for the NXT Women's Championship airing tonight, Raw, SmackDown, and NXT will all have had women's main events this week. That's the first time that has ever happened.

NXT's Mary Kate (who was wrestling under that name since being signed by WWE and was formerly Andrea on the indies) has been given a new in-ring name. She will now be called Sage Miller.

Raymond Rougeau and Jean Brassard will start as the French PPV commentary team at Great Balls of Fire.

Former Tough Enough winner Matt Cappotelli announced that the brain tumor he had removed 10 years ago has come back much more aggressively and that a portion of it is inoperable. Cappotelli wrote that he's undergoing surgery to remove a part of the tumor and that further treatment plans will be decided after doctors determine what they're dealing with.
Link to the announcement: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10102683294244004&set=a.615942639234.2182206.38312087&type=3&theater

PWG has continued to reveal entrants for this year's Battle of Los Angeles. Rey Fenix, Dezmond Xavier, and Donovan Dijak were announced for the tournament today. They join Flamita, Keith Lee, WALTER, and Travis Banks as the already announced participants.

Anthem Wrestling Exhibitions (the parent company of Impact Wrestling) officially revealed today that they've entered into an agreement to acquire Global Force Wrestling. Jeff Jarrett's official title is that he's Impact's Chief Creative Officer.

On the latest ‘Dinner With The King’, co-hosts Jerry “The King” Lawler and Glenn Moore talk about The King’s feud with The Miz in 2010-11 for the WWE Championship. They also discuss possible returns to the ring for Kurt Angle and Daniel Bryan and those two, including King, being on the WWE ‘no-touch’ list.

When it comes to predicting which would be the first to get back in a WWE ring, Lawler says Angle would win that race. But The King goes on to explain what Angle and Bryan might be feeling with their current roles in WWE.

"I can relate to both of these guy’s situation. I promise you neither Kurt Angle or Daniel Bryan go into this business and worked their way to the WWE to be general managers on Raw and Smackdown.

I can assure they are doing it, but without a doubt, they are doing it because that the WWE wants them to do right now. Because they feel like their wrestling would be a liability in the ring right now.

I know that they would both rather be out there performing in front of all the fans in the ring. And it’s gotta be eating them both up inside that the WWE thinks they are not capable of doing that anymore.”

When talking about his feud with The Miz, which led to a WrestleMania 27 match against Michael Cole, Lawler reveals his WrestleMania match payday:

"My lone WrestleMania match led to my biggest payday ever in the wrestling business. Here’s me, an announcer, having a WrestleMania match with another announcer. In a matter of a few minutes [I was out there], I got paid $130,000 for that match.”
Link to the podcast episode: http://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/5481963/height/90/width/640/theme/custom/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/autoplay/yes/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/2179bd/

Tyson Kidd was backstage at last night’s WWE Smackdown taping in San Diego, the first time Kidd has been at a WWE event since suffering his neck injury in June 2015 during a dark match. Since the injury, Kidd was quietly removed from the Total Divas reality series (even though his wife Natalya, as well as other members of her family, continued to be featured) and had not been at any official WWE events, although he had been under contract. On Twitter, Kidd noted that he would be returning to Total Divas, which is a sign that he and WWE have moved towards working together again.

Lisa Marie Varon, the former Victoria, was also at the taping last night. She noted on social media that she wanted to go backstage after the MITB match to congratulate the competitors but "the office said I couldn't go backstage."

Rusev was backstage but not used last night.

Some other sheet news includes:

Recent episode of Talk Is Jericho podcast show had Baron Corbin as the guest. https://www.podcastone.com/episode/BaronCorbin
Charlotte was announced to be this week's guest for Edge & Christian's podcast show. https://twitter.com/EdgeRatedR/status/879877441745022976
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, yesterday was the six year anniversary of CM Punk's famous pipe bomb promo. Punk celebrated the occasion on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/BV3k56iAyOw/?taken-by=cmpunk
In another "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 19th anniversary of Mankind-Taker Hell in a Cell match involving the iconic moment of Mankind being tossed from the top of the cell. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/6k09hj/19_years_ago_arguably_the_most_iconic_wwe_match/
NJPW announced the full schedule for this year's G1 tournament with arguably the biggest match of the block stage occurring on August 12th between Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada. http://www.f4wonline.com/japan/njpw-announces-full-g1-climax-2017-tournament-schedule-238196
WWE announced a new show called NXT Insider will be debuting on their official Youtube channel tonight. https://twitter.com/WWE/status/880094259256320000
In a possible LOLTNA type moment, Impact Wrestling had Scott Steiner handle one of their media calls today to help promote Slammiversary. The event quickly spiraled out of control once it got to questions involving the WWE and Triple H with Steiner going as far as ranting against Steph and her rumored incident with Macho Man being true. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0628/627559/scott-steiner-lashes-out-against-triple-h-and-stephanie-mcmahon/
NJPW recently had Kenny Omega host a media call as part of the hype for this weekend's G1 Special in the US. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0628/627557/kenny-omega-on-what-njpw-should-change-if-they-return-to-the-us/

Sepholio

06-28-2017, 10:41 PM

LOL Steiner is the MAN

DaveWadding

06-29-2017, 01:18 AM

If Fenix is announced already for BOLA, you know that Penta isn't all that far behind.

Emperor Smeat

06-29-2017, 01:53 AM

The Steiner stuff gets even better since during the same media call, he claimed to be better than Wilt Chamberlain when it came to sleeping with women.

Wilt Chamberlain famously claimed to have slept with 20,000 women throughout his life … but that ain’t nothing to Scott Steiner, because Big Poppa Pump claims to have slept with 15K in one year.

Steiner took part in a media conference call on Wednesday to promote Impact Wrestling‘s upcoming Slammiversary PPV and the 54-year-old covered a whole host of topics.

Editor-in-Chief Ryan Satin was on the call and chose to speak with Scott about one of the approved topics, “Freaks Around the World” — asking how many Steiner possesses.

That’s when the wrestler made a bold claim.

“Back in 1998-1999, I broke Wilt Chamberlain’s record with 15,000 women.” Adding, “I always thought that even though it’s not listed in the Book of World Records, I was a fan of Wilt Chamberlain and that was one world record I tried to break. In 1999, I broke it.”

For those doing the math, that would mean Steiner slept with about 41 women a day.

06-29-2017, 03:04 AM

41 cum shots a day? No wonder his chest is caved in. He had to dig deep for those loads.

Droford

06-29-2017, 03:17 AM

Kayfabe News predicts 2017 in 2012 (http://www.kayfabenews.com/jinder-mahal-only-hired-so-wwe-can-use-punjabi-prison-again/)

JimmyMess

06-29-2017, 06:16 AM

41 cum shots a day? No wonder his chest is caved in. He had to dig deep for those loads.

lol doesn't he mean like by 98 or 99 he broke it? not like in 1999 alone he did it?

Lock Jaw

06-29-2017, 12:11 PM

41 cum shots a day? No wonder his chest is caved in. He had to dig deep for those loads.

Maybe he banged them 10 and one quarter women at a time and only "came" 4 times a day.

Sepholio

06-29-2017, 12:33 PM

Time for my evening gangbang.

drave

06-29-2017, 05:12 PM

Maybe he banged them 10 and one quarter women at a time and only "came" 4 times a day.

Which then maths out to 8.74 women per day.

Emperor Smeat

06-29-2017, 09:09 PM

Wonder if Impact Wrestling regretted letting Steiner host a media call for the company. Same call that had him bragging about being better than Wilt Chamberlain in bed, trashing WWE and Triple H, and joke about the Macho Man rumors with Steph, also had him trash Hogan in general.

During the call, he was asked about being banned from the 2015 WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony due to an "ugly incident" in an airport with Hulk Hogan's wife Jennifer. Asked if anything ever came of it, other than him being denied entry into the event, Steiner commented:

"Well I had to get a, you know, I had my lawyer call the police department because he tried to get me arrested for assault," said Steiner. "You know, threatened his life, I mean, you know that's a serious, that carries 15-20 years."

"And of course WWE takes the word of a racist. You know and puts my picture all over the entrances like I'm going to go there. You know, so, no, nothing ever came of it," said Steiner (photo here). "Other than the fact that, you know, Hogan shows what a coward he really is. Lucky it happened at an airport where it had all the cameras so, you know, it was easy to prove my innocence."

Later in the call, Steiner was asked if he saw anyway that Hogan can redeem himself after his latest controversies.

"I don't know man, the guy, you have the tapes, he's racist," Steiner remarked. "You know what you've got to go watch is, go Google it, is when he was on the stand with a stupid a-- bandanna. What kangaroo court allowed a guy to testify with a bandanna on but then he talks about the size of his p---s. It's hilarious. I mean, I don't have to say it, he humiliated himself. I don't care anything about Hulk Hogan, he's a piece of garbage."

Sepholio

06-29-2017, 09:15 PM

Steiner for WWE HoF

Lock Jaw

06-29-2017, 09:19 PM

You know

Emperor Smeat

06-29-2017, 09:52 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by NXT's 1st Ever Got Your Nose Match:
http://68.media.tumblr.com/6283243e5d7f7d754beca77d1ad03afd/tumblr_osaenbnOxw1u1ljrzo1_540.gif

As noted, an Independence Day Battle Royal will take place on Tuesday's SmackDown from Phoenix with the winner going on to face WWE United States Champion Kevin Owens at the July 23rd WWE Battleground pay-per-view. The only participant confirmed as of this writing is AJ Styles.

It looks like Styles will be winning the battle royal as he is currently scheduled to face Owens for the title at Battleground, according to PWInsider. This will be Styles' second title shot from Owens after the two faced off at the WWE Backlash pay-per-view in May.
Spoiler tags used since its related to the results of next week's Independence Day Battle Royale for Smackdown.

The Miz was asked a question about the LaVar Ball segment from Raw by the Hard Hidz podcast while doing press in Singapore. He said that sometimes the guests don't totally follow scripts, but it's something that people are talking about. He said that he feels like WWE either chooses him or Chris Jericho to help guide segments with outside celebrities.
Link to the podcast: https://www.facebook.com/hardhidz/videos/1387998034619090/

The WWE Network has added two more classic MSG shows. The events are from April 14th, 1975 and March 20th, 1983. A first look at the upcoming Kevin Owens DVD was also added.

The announcement came before even 2K Sports expected it, but Kurt Angle is the official pre-order bonus character for the WWE 2K18 video game.

Angle himself announced the news on Twitter earlier this afternoon. He had posted the information early, originally using artwork ripped from speculative YouTube videos. He then confirmed the information a few hours later, using official artwork from 2K.

The WWEGames Twitter account responded by writing, "We now know what it feels like to be hit with an Angle Slam. But it's true! @RealKurtAngle is the #WWE2K18 pre-order Superstar!"

The trailer introducing Angle as the pre-order playable bonus character will air on the July 10th episode of Raw. The game will be released for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles on October 17th ...

Angle was this year's pick even before his return, but unlike with past options, this wasn't a case where 2K first made a deal with Angle and that led to him coming back to WWE.

An armed robbery in Mexico has led to a unique matchup tonight in Tacoma.

Penta 0M, who was scheduled to face Cody Rhodes in Tacoma, Washington for Defy Wrestling, was robbed this morning at gunpoint.

In a story first written by Pro Wrestling Sheet, three men on motorcycles pulled up to him and pulled out guns while he was in Mexico headed to the airport in an Uber to fly into Seattle. The three men pulled out guns and forced him to give up his wallet, keys, cell phone, and backpack.

The backpack contained things he was taking with him to the show including his mask and his ring gear, as well as his passport and paperwork. Reportedly he asked the gunmen if he could at least keep his backpack, but they refused.

He was not injured, and after the robbery, attempted to board the flight but because he didn't have his passport, he wasn't allowed on it

It's not clear when he'll be able to travel to the United States, but it is expected shortly. Defy announced that both Penta and Rey Fenix are off of tonight's show due to missing their flight.

Pro Wrestling NOAH will be represented at Impact Wrestling's Slammiversary pay-per-view on Sunday night.

Impact announced today that NOAH's Naomichi Marufuji & Taiji Ishimori will be involved in the four-way match for the Impact/GFW Tag Team Championship at Slammiversary. That match features champions LAX (Ortiz & Santana) defending against Marufuji & Ishimori, AAA's Drago & El Hijo del Fantasma, and Laredo Kid & Garza Jr.

Along with AAA and The Crash, NOAH is one of the international promotions that Impact has a working relationship with. The story is that it is a four-way match with teams from four different companies, to emphasize Impact's various business partnerships around the world. Laredo Kid & Garza Jr. are Impact regulars from The Crash.

Since Hijo Del Fantasma (aka King Cuerno) and Drago have been announced as appearing on the Impact Slammiversary XV PPV, there's been a lot of speculation that Impact has come to a working agreement with Lucha Underground. In checking with Lucha Underground sources, we are told that is not correct.

Lucha Underground has no involvement in the appearances, which was a deal set up by AAA's Dorian Rodan as AAA has the rights to Fantasma and Drago's characters and has an official working relationship with Impact.

So, if you were wondering if the appearances meant there could be additional LU personalites popping up on Impact television, that is not the case, unless AAA also owns their rights. Lucha Underground owns King Cuerno, so Fantasma could not appear under that name.

The folks over at www.WrestlingDVDNetwork.com are reporting the following content is set for the forthcoming WWE DVD set Dawn of Attitude, which will look at the importance of the year 1997 in WWE's evolutin into the Attitude Era.
Link to the entire contents: http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0629/627596/full-content-listing-and-cover-artwork-for-wwe-1997-dawn-of/

On the latest edition of his podcast at www.MLWRadio.com, Jim Cornette announced that he will be selling autographed copies of the restraining order Vince Russo took out against him at www.JimCornette.com, with half the proceeds being donated to the WHAS Crusade for Children, which benefits a number of children's charities in the States of Indiana and Kentucky.

Tyson Kidd has been officially hired by WWE as a full-time employee and will be working as a Producer.

Kidd was not just at Smackdown this past week, but Raw as well. Kidd was not the official producer for any matches this past week, but was observing and watching the process to begin to familiarize himself with the job and responsibilities, PWInsider.com was told. It was his first official week on the job.

Kidd also noted on Twitter that he would be on the next season of Total Divas.

The main event for SummerSlam has been changed, according to a report from Dave Meltzer in the latest edition of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

As seen on RAW last week, Roman Reigns challenged the winner of the Samoa Joe vs. Brock Lesnar WWE Universal Championship bout to a title match at SummerSlam. Meltzer confirmed that the main event of SummerSlam was changed a few weeks ago to Reigns vs. Lesnar.

The original plan was for the SummerSlam main event was for Lesnar to defend the WWE Universal Championship against Braun Strowman. Lesnar was then slated to lose the WWE Universal Championship to Reigns at WrestleMania next year.

With Reigns vs. Lesnar taking place at SummerSlam, it would appear that the WrestleMania main event has been changed as well, although WWE could do a third Reigns vs. Lesnar match at the show. Meltzer speculated that given John Cena declaring himself a "free agent," WWE could go with Reigns vs. Cena as the main event of WrestleMania.

Meltzer also hinted Lesnar-Joe II is also being considered as a possible option for the Universal title match at SumemrSlam and Lesnar-Strowman might still happen at a later date although as a non-title or regular match.

WWE officials have been planning a movie project on WWE Hall of Famer Mae Young, which is one of the reasons they are branding her so heavily as the pioneer of women in wrestling with the upcoming Mae Young Classic tournament. The movie would then establish Mae as the Babe Ruth of women's wrestling.

According to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the War Machine tag team (Hanson and Ray Rowe) are currently free agents. They lost the tag title match at the Best in the World PPV, but didn’t take the fall. They did lose in their only match the ROH TV Tapings that followed. They are still working with New Japan, and the are considered to be “in the driver’s seat” in terms of negotiating their future.

Lucha Underground Talent are really concerned regarding the future. Nobody has heard anything at all about future dates (some have asked me and I don’t know anything either) and it’s been a full year since they taped now. It’s all about whether the owners want to put up the money to tape another season. The TV mentality is different from the sports mentality in the sense sports are geared to last forever but TV shows only do a few seasons and 100 episodes, which have been taped, is like a magic number. El Rey will never cancel the show but El Rey doesn’t spend enough for the show to come close to covering costs. After the first season, the owners, after some time of it being up in the air, agreed to put up money for the next two seasons and the currently airing season would be it, unless they agree to fund a fourth season. We’d heard dates like November and January originally for season four filming so nobody knowing dates isn’t necessarily a bad sign since that is still far off, but a lot of the talent has been unhappy about not getting questions answered and wanting to be able to negotiate to go other places

The original test run of T-shirts for the Bullet Club and its members at Hot Topic, which were at selected stores over the past few weeks was a big enough success that every Hot Topic store has ordered a full line of Bullet Club, Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes and Marty Scurll T-shirts. They started showing up in about 15 percent of the Hot Topic stores in the U.S. last week. The original deal was to eventually market Bullet Club shirts nationwide, but the individual shirts were test marketed, with the Young Bucks in about 143 of the 800 to 900 stores and Omega & Rhodes in a slightly lower number and Scurll not in many at all. But all the shirts greatly over performed and they will all now be in all stores starting roughly 7/17. The story behind this is execs from Hot Topic were in Orlando for WrestleMania and saw Bullet Club and Elite and Young Bucks stuff all over the place, and asked WWE why those popular shirts aren’t part of their deal. By calling, they found out they weren’t WWE shirts so made the deals themselves with the individuals
Quick idea on Omega's and Young Buck's merch generating power in the indies and why they don't have any real financial incentive to sign with the WWE.

Some other sheet news includes:

Amarillo Globe-News had a recent interview with Becky Lynch talking about WWE's women's divisions, upcoming 1 year anniversary of New Brand Split Era, and a potential women's only Rumble match in the future. http://amarillo.com/pro-sports/sports/2017-06-23/qa-wwe-s-becky-lynch-talks-amarillo-smackdown-live-event
Recent episode of the Jim Cornette Experience had the Observer's Dave Meltzer as the guest talking about modern wrestling and PWG. http://www.mlwradio.com/download-the-jim-cornette-experience.html
While answering a question from a fan on Twitter, Triple H hinted at Asuka's main roster call-up likely occuring by SummerSlam.
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Sasha Banks is currently tied for 3rd place all-time in WWE history for most ppv title match losses in a row at 6. If she loses at Great Balls of Fire, she will tie Naomi for 2nd place all-time with 7 losses in a row. Lita currently owns the record at 9 title match ppv losses in a row. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/6kc3ss/a_loss_at_gbof_would_give_sasha_banks_the_worst/
According to the Observer, the new deal Mauro Ranallo signed with the WWE contained terms similar to a restraining order against JBL and others who caused Mauro problems on Smackdown. Was also revealed both Micheal Cole and Triple H played a big role in getting him to stay in the WWE.

Mr. Nerfect

06-30-2017, 06:33 AM

Tyson Kidd as a producer is a good call. Shame his career was ended. I started to really dig Kidd post finding a personality in NXT.

DaveWadding

06-30-2017, 01:04 PM

The story behind this is execs from Hot Topic were in Orlando for WrestleMania and saw Bullet Club and Elite and Young Bucks stuff all over the place, and asked WWE why those popular shirts aren’t part of their deal. By calling, they found out they weren’t WWE shirts so made the deals themselves with the individuals

LOLLLLLLL

Hot Topic: "Why don't we have rights to these shirts in our agreement? It looks like they're really popular!"

WWE Rep: "erm, yeah.....because they don't work here."

Emperor Smeat

06-30-2017, 09:20 PM

Dirtsheets sponsored by the original mayors of Suplex City:
https://68.media.tumblr.com/43c84153c8b8e86fd7c0f415b37c33cf/tumblr_nxgm62Q14V1tihmddo1_400.gif

When it was announced earlier this week that Impact Wrestling's parent company had officially acquired Global Force Wrestling, it wasn't entirely clear if that would result in any noticeable change in operations.

Now, it appears that Impact Wrestling is rebranding as Global Force Wrestling. A report from The Tennessean noted that today, with it saying that the move is to distance the company from the financial trouble and legal drama that had surrounded it under previous ownership.

The report said that the company's weekly TV show will still be called Impact and their offices will remain in Nashville.

The list of names confirmed for this summer's Mae Young Classic continues to grow.

WWE's New Zealand Twitter account announced today that Evie (who is from New Zealand) would be taking part in the tournament. She has also been given a new in-ring name, with her now being known as Dakota Kai in WWE. She changed her name to that on Twitter after the announcement.

The Mae Young Classic has added its most noteworthy name yet.

Kairi Hojo, who is one of the best women's wrestlers in the world and one of the best pro wrestlers in general, was announced for the tournament this morning. The announcement was made during a video at WWE's house show at Sumo Hall in Japan. She will be using the name Kairi Sane in WWE.

Hailing from Ayrshire, Scotland, Piper Niven is an experienced powerhouse who has competed across numerous promotions, including Shine, SHIMMER and Glasgow-based Insane Championship Wrestling. Drawn to sports-entertainment at an early age thanks to the likes of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and Chyna, Niven played contact sports in her youth, setting the foundation for her eventual in-ring debut in 2008. She is revered for her high-impact offense, which includes senton splashes, powerslams and a signature Michinoku Driver.

Bianca Belair, of Knoxville, Tenn., qualified for the Mae Young Classic with a recent victory over NXT Superstar Aliyah. Calling herself the “EST of NXT,” Belair claims to be the strongest, fastest and toughest woman on the Performance Center roster. Before joining WWE in 2016, she competed in track and field at University of South Carolina, Texas A&M and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and she is a regional CrossFit competitor who has been featured in RX Magazine. Prior to making her NXT debut, she shined in last year’s inaugural Performance Center Combine, putting up amazing numbers such as a 400-pound trap-bar deadlift and a 2.07-second 10-yard sprint.
Two more names and bios officially confirmed for the Mae Young Classic Tournament.

The list of official entrants for the 32-competitor tournament is now up to 14 names. Those are: Toni Storm, Princesa Sugehit, Lacey Evans, Sarah Logan, Tessa Blanchard, Abbey Laith, Taynara Conti, Kavita Devi, Jazzy Gabert, Bianca BelAir, Vanessa Borne, Dakota Kai, Kairi Sane, and Piper Niven.

Before the live show in Long Beach, AXS TV is doing a New Japan marathon tomorrow starting at 8 a.m. Eastern and 5 a.m. Pacific to showcase many of the best matches of the year so far. If your cable company doesn't have AXS, Sling TV is doing a free week. For the top matches, all times Eastern:

Omega vs. Okada from the Tokyo Dome will air at 8 p.m.
Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki will air at 10 a.m.
Hiromu Takahashi vs. Dragon Lee will air at 11 a.m.
Tetsuya Naito vs. Michael Elgin will air at Noon
Okada vs. Katsuyori Shibata will air at 3 p.m.
Omega vs. Tomohiro Ishii will air at 5 p.m.
Omega vs. Okada II will air at about 6:40 p.m.

Tomorrow night's Long Beach show will be blocked on New Japan World live, and only air on AXS in the U.S. It will air on The Fight Network in Canada, which also has a free week this week, and will also be replaying the show multiple times during the week. The show will air later on New Japan World. In the U.K., you can watch it on New Japan World. The Sunday show will air live on New Japan World and air on television first next Friday with a four-hour window from 8 p.m. to midnight. The live show is slotted tomorrow night from 8 p.m. to midnight, but it can go until as late as 1 a.m. if needed.

Impact/GFW/whatever the official name is at this moment announced this afternoon that NASCAR personalities Hermie Sadler and Austin Dillon will be appearing at Sunday's Slammiversary PPV.

Sadler has a long running relationship with Jeff Jarrett and at one point, he had a segment titled "Hermie's Hotseat" on Impact TV and he and his brother Elliot Sadler co-promoted live events with TNA under the UWF banner.

The 6/29 edition of Impact on Pop from India, week four, did 268,000 overnight viewers, a big drop from last week's 342,000 overnight viewers. That is their lowest number in almost two months and not great momentum heading into Slammiversary.

In regard to rumors Epico and Primo Colon are looking to leave WWE, PWInsider.com has confirmed they are booked for this weekend's live events on the Smackdown brand and are still, as of this moment, listed on the planned lineups for those shows.

In searching around, PWInsider.com has found no evidence that there is any truth to the departure rumor at this time.
Rumor started after people noticed Epico recently opened a merch shop at ProWrestlingTees which is usually something that never happens to those under WWE contracts.

Some other sheet news includes:

Eric Young revealed his mother recently passed away from cancer. Also in somber wrestling news, the Observer's Dave Meltzer revealed his father recently entered hospice due to suffering from cancer and rapid kidney failure.
In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Terry Funk (73) , Scot Dawson (33), Alicia Fox (31), and Cody Rhodes (32) all celebrated their birthdays today.
Sports Illustrated had a recent interview with Jeff Jarrett talking about recent changes to Impact's roster, legal issues with the Hardys, and the 5 year plan he has for Impact/GFW. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0630/627637/jeff-jarrett-on-legal-battle-with-the-hardys/
The Young Bucks recently sent out an invitation to CM Punk for a possible appearance and/or membership in the Bullet Club in the future. https://twitter.com/NickJacksonYB/status/880886275879845889
WrestleInc had a recent interview with Tony Schiavone talking about his favorite announcing partner, brief WWE career, and regretting leaving WWE for WCW. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0630/627631/tony-schiavone-says-leaving-wwe-was-biggest-mistake-of-his-life/
Recent episode of WrestleInc's podcast show had Shawn Daivari talking about the origins of the Punjabi Prison match and how Pat Paterson played a big role in its creation. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/0630/627620/shawn-daivari-gives-backstage-details-on-first-wwe-punjabi/