Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by BigCrippyZ (Post 4964487)

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by WresteInc

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by Pro Wrestling Sheet

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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!!!"

Originally Posted by Observer

Former Tough Enough winner Sara Lee and NXT wrestler Wesley Blake are now parents after Lee gave birth to their daughter on May 1st.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by Fox Sports

"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,"

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4966347)

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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)

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by Pro Wrestling Sheet

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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.”

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by Pro Wrestling Sheet

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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!

Originally Posted by WresteInc

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

[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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Fastway (Post 4969340)

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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."

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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."

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4969481)

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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."

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Pro Wrestling Sheet

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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"

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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."

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

Mahal winning the WWE Championship was recognized by Graham Sucha in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

Originally Posted by Observer

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"

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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."

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

In a video, Brie Bella has said she wants to come out of retirement and wrestle for WWE at some point.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

Originally Posted by Observer

[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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by ROH

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!

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by Fightful.com

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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)

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

There will be a Bruno Sammartino compilation and a Ladder match compilation video that will be coming out Monday on the WWE Network.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

EVOLVE referee DA Brewer was signed by WWE and started with NXT this week as an official. He's a damn good referee.

Originally Posted by PWI

The 6/1 edition of Impact on Pop brought in 287,000 viewers, down from last week's 305,000 viewers.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

Owens posted that he has a broken thumb but said he won't miss any time because of it.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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."

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

This is as sleazy as it comes, a politician using a doctored photo of Dwayne Johnson to make it look like an endorsement.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

Impact last night did 318,000 viewers, up 11 percent for the first show from India.

Originally Posted by Observer

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."

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Obsever

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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."

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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."

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

Originally Posted by Dastardly Dale Newstead (Post 4979568)

Show was on Jerichos podcast and said flatout he hated tapings because creative sucks lol.

Originally Posted by #1-wwf-fan (Post 4979614)

Also, lol @ Cena being a free agent.

Originally Posted by #1-wwf-fan (Post 4979655)

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?

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

Pro Wrestling Sheet also reported that Rusev has been cleared to return to action. He underwent shoulder surgery in March.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE is returning to China with the company's first show in Shenzhen on September 17th.

Originally Posted by Observer

Johnny Mundo (John Hennigan) and Taya Valkyrie (Kira Forster) announced their engagement.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by #1-wwf-fan (Post 4979877)

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.

Originally Posted by #BrotherVito DELETED (Post 4979882)

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.

Originally Posted by #BrotherVito DELETED (Post 4979882)

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

There is still no planned date for when Io Shirai will start at WWE. She is still working for now for Stardom

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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"

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4982774)

In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, last Saturday was the four year anniversary of Mark Henry's fake retirement speech on RAW.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by Observer

Stardom tweeted a photo of Kairi Hojo at the airport as she heads to Florida to begin with WWE.

Originally Posted by Observer

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by PWI

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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.