Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4942683)

Originally Posted by Inquisitr.com

According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Ranallo’s absence was not due to the weather. Host Dave Meltzer wrote that while WWE claimed Otunga was filming a movie and Ranallo was held back by the weather, “at least half of that was true, since Otunga was out filming a movie.” Co-host Bryan Alvarez asked what he meant, and Meltzer replied that he could not talk about it.

Because Ranallo’s contract is supposedly running out, many suspect that he has stopped caring since he is on his way out. Others have noticed he had become a lot more flustered in recent weeks, often flubbing lines or getting names wrong. He constantly called the Elimination Chamber match “Hell in a Cell,” and has repeatedly referred to WWE Superstar Curt Hawkins as “Chad Hawkins.” Many also feel that the presence of Phillips at the announce table is throwing Mauro off his game. Phillips is seen as a replacement for Ranallo and a “message,” although it is much more probable that he is there to learn and eventually replace either Ranallo or play-by-play announcer Michael Cole.

His absence was also met with criticism from some former WWE commentators. JBL also took a shot at his broadcast colleague, writing on Twitter:

.@mauroranallo I made the show, everyone made the show, everyone. Maybe he shouldn't have bashed me if he wasn't going to show up.

— John Layfield (@jclayfield) March 17, 2017

.@0fficialtaz @mauroranallo Great video-trying to shock me-We could have talked about it but you didn't show up for work. Everyone else did.
— John Layfield (@jclayfield) March 17, 2017

Originally Posted by PWI

Earlier today, explicit photos and video of WWE star Paige leaked onto the Internet and have been passed around on a number of social media platforms and forums. Paige issued the following via her Twitter account this evening:

Personal and private photos of mine were stolen and unfortunately they were shared publicly without my consent.
— PAIGE (@RealPaigeWWE) March 17, 2017

Originally Posted by PWI

A site on the internet "reported" that Alexa Bliss had heat on her from WWE management. I hadn't heard anything like that one.

On Twitter, Joe Cronin (@JoeCroninJCS) tweeted WWE's Brian "Road Dogg" James to ask if the story was true.

James shot down the "story" tweeting:

@JoeCroninJCS hell no! She is adored by EVERYONE. She's a star dude and everyone knows it. This is what's wrong w/the internet lol #bull????
— Brian G. James (@WWERoadDogg) March 17, 2017

That is such a loaded question Road Dogg! Seriously though, that's what you get with NEWZ site.

Alexa Bliss responded:

And this is why @WWERoadDogg is the best !!! #Awesome #lovewwe https://t.co/Dk72zK2WGn
— Alexa Bliss (@AlexaBliss_WWE) March 17, 2017

Originally Posted by PWI

The 3/16 edition of Impact on Pop brought in 344,000 viewers, well up from last week's 292,000 viewers. That is great news for them.

Originally Posted by PWI

The reunited APA, Ron Simmons and JBL, will be inducting Teddy Long into the WWE Hall of Fame on Friday 3/31 in Orlando, Florida.

The updated WWE Hall of Fame class of 2017:

*Kurt Angle, inducted by John Cena.

*Rick Rude, inducted by Ricky Steamboat.

*The Rock N' Roll Express.

*Beth Phoenix.

*Teddy Long, inducted by The APA.

*Diamond Dallas Page.

*Warrior Award: Eric LeGrand, inducted by Dana Warrior.

There will also be new "Legacy" inductees.

Originally Posted by Observer

The company was nominated for some Social Media Shorty awards. The award winners will be announced on 4/23 in New York:

Best in Entertainment - WWE and WrestleMania
Best Integration with Live TV - WWE
Best Overall YouTube Presence - WWE
Best Use of Comedy - John Cena Prank on the Cricket Wireless ad
Best Brand Identity - Xavier Woods UpUpDownDown

Originally Posted by Observer

Rusev will be out of action for about two months due to surgery on his left shoulder which I believe was on 3/9, although it was confirmed it was this past week. That continues the shoulder epidemic in the company. He’s been needing the surgery for some time and I guess it couldn’t go any longer since the timing of it, where he’d be off the biggest payoff show of the year, couldn’t be worse. That’s why Show squashed him so badly at Fast Lane and why they broke he and Mahal up for no reason without doing a feud. That’s also why Lana did a match in Florida a week ago

Originally Posted by Observer

Women have been contacted for a new WWE tournament for the Network. This was the one originally set for January through March, but moved back when WWE prioritized the U.K. tournament due to the ITV television show. Talent has been called about clearing their calendars for a first round of tapings in the latter part of May

Originally Posted by Observer

There has been a lot of talk around wrestling over the past few weeks that Jim Cornette will be the one to induct the Rock & Roll Express into the WWE Hall of Fame on 3/31. Some will be surprised about Cornette being at a WWE function, but I’m not in the least as he wasn’t going to turn down being part of honoring the team. Neither the WWE nor Cornette would confirm or deny the story

Originally Posted by Observer

The WWE’s annual stockholders meeting will be on 4/20 ...

It’s interesting that in management goals for 2017, the stated goal is not based on adding new subscribers to the network, but based on adding the average hours consumed per subscriber, which was a number that declined in 2016 from 2015 ...

Listed as the company’s key goals in 2017 are to grow the WWE Network, although as noted, the main goal listed is to grow the average amount of hours consumed per subscriber, and not grow subscriber numbers; increase international revenue; increase “certain television ratings, social media metric; sponsorships and net promoter score,” increase revenue from new product initiatives and come up with actionable business initiatives to generate new revenue and social media followers in certain new markets.

Originally Posted by Observer

Dalton Castle, who is under an exclusive ROH contract, is believed to have that deal expiring a few months. Independent promoters have noted that word has gone around that Castle will be available for dates later in the year, although that could be testing the waters. Castle's act will get over in NXT if WWE has interest in it. As far as the WWE main roster, who can tell anymore because the WWE main roster booking has marginalized so much good talent.

Originally Posted by Observer

Last night's Raw broke the record for the lowest audience to watch the show since 1997 on a night when they weren't facing major sports competition or it being a major holiday, with 3.04 million viewers.

The previous record low outside of shows during football season, or going against either the NBA playoffs or the Olympics, or on a major holiday, was 3.07 million viewers for the February 13th show.

What's bad is that leading up to WrestleMania, and before the NBA playoffs, ratings are often at their highest marks of the year ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 3.16 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.12 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.87 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE posted a teaser for upcoming WWE 24 specials, which will be focused on Finn Balor, Goldberg, the 2016 Raw after WrestleMania, and Kurt Angle.

Originally Posted by Observer

Vince McMahon was involved in a car accident near WWE headquarters today, though TMZ reports that the accident was relatively minor and everyone is okay.

Law enforcement sources told TMZ that "something went wrong" when McMahon was driving his Bentley less than a mile from WWE's home base in Stamford, Connecticut.

On the 911 call, someone who witnessed the accident noted that the other car was a Toyota Camry. McMahon can briefly be heard on the audio when he was asked what type of car he was driving.

The witness called it a "big" accident and both cars seemed to be significantly damaged.

Originally Posted by Observer

Some of the best European-based wrestlers in the world will be appearing in a WWE ring for the first time during WrestleMania weekend.

WWE announced on Tuesday that wrestlers from NXT, 205 Live, PROGRESS Wrestling, and ICW, as well as some from the UK tournament, will be wrestling in matches at WrestleMania Axxess. NXT matches have been part of the attractions at Axxess over the last few years.

Of those that WWE is advertising, Jimmy Havoc, Mark Haskins, the South Pacific Power Trip (TK Cooper, Travis Banks & Dahlia Black), Toni Storm, and Jinny are from outside of the company. They will be in Orlando for the show PROGRESS is running on March 31st, which is part of WWN's weekend of events.

Originally Posted by Observer

Following yesterday's announcement of Jim Cornette inducting the Rock 'n' Roll Express into the Hall of Fame, WWE revealed on Tuesday afternoon that Eric Bischoff would be doing the honors for Diamond Dallas Page.

Bischoff and DDP have been longtime friends, working together in the AWA and again when Bischoff was in control of WCW.

“I’m honored,” Bischoff said about inducting Page. “It puts a smile on my face because I know how much it means to him. This is the Holy Grail for him.”

“His journey [in life] is similar to his journey in the ring,” Bischoff said. “DDP was the common guy, the everyman, a blue-collar guy from New Jersey. He represented something that the average person could believe in, in a way that was a little unique. [People thought] ‘That could be me. If I could just get that break, work a little harder, I could be that guy.’ That’s a very inspirational quality to have.”

WWE hasn't yet confirmed who will be inducting Beth Phoenix, but all other members of the company's 2017 Hall of Fame class are accounted for.

Originally Posted by Observer

Jan Ross, the wife of Jim Ross, was in a terrible accident yesterday and received multiple skull fractures.

Jim Ross tweeted late last night, "My wife Jan, my little angel, was hit while rising her Vespa and has multiple skull fractures. She's in surgery now. We need a miracle."

The Norman, OK, police department reported that Jan Ross was driving at 9:33 p.m. when she was struck from behind by a 2000 Mercury Grand Marquis driven by a 17-year-old and was thrown from her Vespa. The car and her scooter caught fire.

Jan was going to the gym, and was not wearing her helmet, and landed on her head causing multiple skull fractures. She was listed in critical condition before surgery.

Originally Posted by Observer

At yesterday's Rey de Reyes show in Monterrey, Jeff Jarrett was introduced during the show and AAA announced they established a working agreement with Impact. Also at the show, they unified all of their major singles titles in a three-way as Latin American champion Johnny Mundo beat AAA Mega heavyweight champion El Texano Jr. and AAA cruiserweight champion El Hijo del Fantasma (King Cuerno) and he now holds all three belts.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE also announced that Shinsuke Nakamura would be on the June tour of the U.K. He was not originally scheduled for the tour. Nakamura is also scheduled for NXT house shows after WrestleMania. That doesn't necessarily mean anything but being added to an overseas tour as late as June would be a surprise if he was to be touring on the main roster.

Originally Posted by Observer

ROH announced that Jushin Liger and Yoshi-Hashi are off the 4/1 show in Lakeland, FL. The company posted on Facebook that due to delay in U.S. visa processing, the wrestlers will be unable to attend the show as planned. They announced that Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa would take their place in a six-man tag, teaming with Hangman Page against six-man champions Mark & Jay Briscoe & Bully Ray. They also announced Volador Jr. & Will Ospreay vs. Dragon Lee & Jay White for the show, which sounds like a potentially great match.

Originally Posted by Observer

Peter Kaasa posted on Facebook that he's taking a hiatus from wrestling due to medical evaluations taken after he was injured by the middle rope breaking during his match against Jaka at EVOLVE 76 in San Antonio. Kaasa wrote, "I have decided to take a hiatus from professional wrestling. I won't say retirement as I am not sure right now. Because of the rope breaking, I have a moderately bulging disc in my cervical spine that has been causing a lot of discomfort and pain and stiffness on a daily basis since the accident. To actually have gotten up after what happened in the ring that night was a miracle in itself let alone finishing the match and being able to still do all I am doing now." There were three incidents with the ring at that show, with the ropes also breaking twice during the Chris Hero vs. Keith Lee main event.

Originally Posted by PWI

Matt Hardy took to Twitter today to comment on the situation between his family and Impact Wrestling. You can read his words below.

My Soldiers have been loyal & supportive throughout my existence. Thank you.

They know the truth--That the #BROKEN Universe is my PROPERTY.
— #BROKEN Matt Hardy (@MATTHARDYBRAND) March 21, 2017

The sincere, respectful & appreciative tweets I posted when my TNA contract was up- https://t.co/yJkKZF39Te & https://t.co/ZF0AzYmPKK pic.twitter.com/i3bt3eiZ1M
— #BROKEN Matt Hardy (@MATTHARDYBRAND) March 21, 2017

The condescending & disingenuous tweets posted by @EdNordholm when my TNA contract was up- https://t.co/tup39takni & https://t.co/Lsod77I1eY pic.twitter.com/sPJWhD60oK
— #BROKEN Matt Hardy (@MATTHARDYBRAND) March 21, 2017

FOLLOW the journey of #BrotherNero & I, LOYAL SOLDIERS..#HouseHardy will continue to make MAGIC & HISTORY while DELETING the opposition. pic.twitter.com/Wdd0JC96PU
— #BROKEN Matt Hardy (@MATTHARDYBRAND) March 21, 2017

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Paige's father, Ricky Knight, commented on Facebook on Paige being hacked and her private photos and videos being leaked. He noted that he was worried for her mental well being. He wrote:

"my last say on the scandal surrounding my daughter I have just spoken to her over facebook and I am worried for her mental health or worse ffs world get a grip she has not killed anyone robbed anyone she was having sex in a private situation between consulting adults and then has been betrayed by some low lifes as her dad I urge people to back off as I say I am very worried for her it will be no good backing her when its too late like many other celebrities who have left us."

Paige's mother, Saraya Knight, echoed similar sentiments on Twitter, noting that their family was devastated and wrote that "the business we love will kill us it seems."

Sat with my husband, he is sobbing, he can't even speak. I'm losing everything I love, the business we love will kill us it seems
— SarayaKnight (@RealsarayaK) March 20, 2017

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Tonight's WWE SmackDown in Uncasville, CT was called by JBL, Tom Phillips and David Otunga as Mauro Ranallo missed the show for the second week in a row. Tom noted that Mauro is out sick this week. Last week it was noted that he missed the show due to the winter weather in the Northeast part of the country.

There's been speculation on Mauro's status with the company after many questioned his excuse for missing last week's show.

Mauro is usually pretty active on social media but he's been quiet since before last Tuesday's SmackDown.

Originally Posted by Pro Wrestling Sheet

Pro Wrestling Sheet has learned that new contract offers have officially been extended to Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy by WWE — and all signs point to an inevitable return.

We first reported that the two sides were in talks last month and The Sheet can now confirm that an actual deal is on the table for The Hardy Boyz to make a comeback in WWE.

As we previously reported, Broken Matt is currently battling with Impact Wrestling over the use of his name/gimmick. The wrestling company believes they should be paid when it’s used, but Hardy doesn’t agree. The brothers are also the current ROH tag champs after signing a short-term deal.

Still no word on whether WWE creative is looking to use their “broken” characters, but the legal side of things probably doesn’t bode well for a chance of that happening immediately.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

We noted before that Paige was the apparent victim of a hack on Friday as some of her private photos and videos were leaked online.

There was a closed-door meeting backstage at Monday's RAW in Brooklyn to discuss the matter, according to PWInsider. Vince McMahon, Triple H, officials from Talent Relations and others were present. No details regarding what was discussed were revealed.

On a related note, Dave Meltzer reported on Wrestling Observer Radio that the company will not be taking action against Paige or Xavier Woods. Meltzer added that the company will just wait for the situation to blow over but if it doesn't, some sort of action could be taken if a sponsor or someone else prominent complains.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

PWInsider confirmed reports that Matt and Jeff Hardy have been in talks with WWE, and noted that "it's a matter or when, not if" the brothers return to the company. As noted, Pro Wrestling Sheet had reported that the Hardys and WWE were in "deep talks."

According to PWInsider, the deal is only for Matt and Jeff, and not for Reby or Senor Benjamin. It was noted that one major issue that would have to be worked out is the schedule, as the Hardys likely don't want a full time schedule.

Originally Posted by Pro Wrestling Sheet

Pro Wrestling Sheet has learned WWE and Sinclair Broadcast Group have recently discussed a potential buyout of Ring of Honor in secret … this according to sources.

Multiple sources with direct knowledge tell us the companies have been talking since January and things have been slowly progressing, with the plan being a full takeover if the deal is made official.

This would include the weekly TV show beginning to air on the WWE Network. No word at this point on whether every wrestler on the roster would continue working in ROH if it happens.

Keep in mind, there’s no actual deal on the table right now and discussions are simply that. This means the buyout could always fall through if both sides can’t agree on specifics.

Case in point, WWE had discussions with TNA last year about a buyout that never came to fruition.

Originally Posted by Observer

Tuesday night's episode of SmackDown on the USA Network averaged 2.647 million viewers, up about one percent from last week's rating ...

The numbers may have been helped by the fact that both ABC and CBS ran repeat programming on Tuesday and ratings in the 8-10 p.m. block were down about 30 percent from normal levels.

Originally Posted by PWI

John Cena will be on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon tonight on NBC.

The Big Show will be on Conan with Conan O'Brien on TBS promoting Wrestlemania 32.

Shane McMahon will be on ESPN Sportscenter at 9 PM Eastern tonight promoting Wrestlemania as well.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE continued to make Hall of Fame announcements on Wednesday by revealing that Natalya would be inducting Beth Phoenix.

The two are good friends and teamed together in the ring before Phoenix retired.

“There’s nobody that I can think of that deserves to be in the WWE Hall of Fame more than Beth Phoenix,” Natalya said in an interview with WWE.com. “She’s a pioneer for women in our division. Beth did extraordinary things for women in WWE.”

Phoenix tweeted about the news, "When it comes to friends, she is the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be. @NatbyNature thank you #DOD4Ever"

Originally Posted by Observer

Paul Heyman and his Heyman Hustle website are partnering with Yahoo to produce content leading up to WrestleMania.

Originally Posted by Observer

Zack Sabre Jr. will face Drew Galloway at EVOLVE 82 in Queens, New York on April 22nd and Lio Rush at EVOLVE 83 in Brooklyn the next night. Those matches will be for Sabre's EVOLVE title if he's still champion after WrestleMania weekend.

Marty Scurll will face Kyle O'Reilly for Revolution Pro Wrestling on May 7th.

Will Ospreay vs. Jimmy Havoc at PROGRESS Chapter 46 this Sunday will be a "Fans Bring the Weapons" match. PROGRESS posted details about what the procedure for the match will be.

Originally Posted by PWI

Former WWE announcer Arda Ocal aka Kyle Edwards announced he was launching a new podcast for the MSG Network today. Since leaving WWE, Ocal has been one of the hosts of The Hockey Show on the cable network:

Announcing new podcast! Drops every Wed on @iTunes & @MSGNetworks website. Check out ???????????????? 1st guest, @FlaPanthers lawyer @WWECreative_ish! ???? pic.twitter.com/ZPQm8e6H1c
— Arda Ocal (@ArdaOcalTV) March 22, 2017

Originally Posted by PWI

On the second episode of Dinner With The King, hosted by Jerry “The King” Lawler and Glenn Moore, The King gives an update to the possibility of the Memphis wrestling library being available on the WWE Network in the near future.

“Yes, I do own [the library]. There’s just some controversy about USWA footage, which would have been from ’88 to ’96. But all the other, from ’77 to ’88 and from ’96 on, yeah, I own that footage.”

When asked about the library being on the WWE Network, his answer was, “Yes, absolutely. Without a doubt.”

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE has released WWE 24: Wrestlemania Monday on DVD and Blu-Ray. Listed as a "director's cut", promotional material for the 3/21 release notes, "The Raw after WrestleMania has become one of the most anticipated nights in sports entertainment. New Superstars emerge, familiar faces return, and the WWE Universe feels the fallout from The Showcase of the Immortals. For the first time ever, get a behind-the-scenes look and follow both WWE Superstars and spectators alike as they experience one of WWE’s most exciting events of the year."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

At tonight's SmackDown Live, WWE announced to the live crowd that their next show in the state of Connecticut will be the return of the Bad Blood pay-per-view. It will be a RAW exclusive show, and it will take place on July 9th at the XL Center in Hartford, CT. This marks the first WWE pay-per-view to take place at the XL Center since Vengeance in 2004.

The first Bad Blood pay-per-view took place on October 5, 1997, and marked the first-ever "Hell In A Cell" match, which saw Shawn Michaels defeat The Undertaker after Kane made his debut and interfered. There were two more Bad Blood pay-per-views - in 2003 and 2004 - which were RAW exclusive shows.

Originally Posted by Observer

Michaels later said on the podcast that he'll be involved with the WrestleMania 33 pre-show on the WWE Network, but called it unlikely that he'll be doing anything else on the show unless something changes at the last minute.

Originally Posted by Observer

Joe Koff had something sent to ROH talent to tell them that the discussions with WWE regarded licensing old footage from their library.

Originally Posted by PWI

It should be noted, however, that according to a WWE source, there have been off and on conversations between the companies in recent months but those talks were surrounding the possibility of the WWE Network carrying the Ring of Honor TV show, similar to deals in place that will eventually see PROGRESS Wrestling and Insane Championship Wrestling broadcast as "independent wrestling" content on the WWE Network.

While no deal has been signed, the idea would be that WWE license that material from ROH, something ROH COO Joe Koff has said in the past he would be open to, if it was the right deal for Ring of Honor. In the past, WWE licensed material from Sinclair for a number of projects, including the CM Punk documentary. We are told there has also been interest in licensing material for future DVDs, which makes sense considering there are Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins DVDs set for release in the coming months.

If a deal goes through, ROH TV would air on the WWE Network just as it airs currently on COMET TV, The Fite App and on Sinclair affiliate stations, but again, no deal has been completed as of this writing.

Originally Posted by PWI

The new ITV World of Sport series will hold its first TV tapings on 5/25-5/27 at Preston Guild Hall.

The plan is for the series to have a late Saturday afternoon/early evening timeslot on ITV.

Originally Posted by Observer

Anthem has put a TM over all its YouTube videos that involve the Broken Hardys gimmick.

Originally Posted by Observer

Konnan has said that he will have nothing to do with the AAA talent if they appear on Impact and that the Crash talent will not be in the same matches as the AAA talent.

Originally Posted by Observer

On the WWE conference call today, Paul Levesque said that there will be no specific television tapings done at Fan Axxess this year. All the matches will be taped but not for specific television shows. Last year they did an NXT taping in Dallas at Fan Axxess, but since they're in Orlando, this year they are doing it at Full Sail University on 4/5.

Originally Posted by Observer

More names added to the WrestleCon roster at WrestleMania include Jeff & Karen Jarrett, Moose, Kevin Sullivan, Shane Douglas, Tommy Rich, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Matt Morgan, King Mo Lawal, James Storm, Adam Rose and MVP.

Alberto El Patron has pulled out of all gigs in Orlando that weekend stating it's due to the invasion of privacy involving his fiance.

Originally Posted by Observer

Ring of Honor announced that its April 1st Supercard of Honor show from the Lakeland Civic Center will be broadcast live as an internet PPV and almost head-to-head with the NXT TakeOver show on the WWE Network.

The iPPV will cost $29.99 and will air on both ROHWrestling.com and FITE TV starting at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time.

The show has the biggest advance ticket sales in the history of the company.

There will also be a live Facebook pregame show with SoCal Val.

FITE TV will also be airing a show on March 31st and April 1st from WrestleCon.

The ROH show is headlined by The Hardys vs. Young Bucks for the ROH tag team titles in a ladder match, plus Christopher Daniels defends the ROH title against Dalton Castle, Marty Scurll defends the TV title against Adam Cole, and The Briscoes & Bully Ray vs. Tama Tonga, Tanga Roa & Hangman Page, as well as Volador Jr. & Will Ospreay vs. Dragon Lee & Jay White.

Originally Posted by Observer

The former Tommy End will be making his televised NXT debut over WrestleMania weekend.

A few weeks of videos hyped the arrival of Aleister Black before it was announced on Wednesday night's episode of NXT that he would be debuting against Andrade "Cien" Almas at TakeOver: Orlando.

After signing with WWE, Black wrestled on the Network for the first time under the name Tommy End against Neville on the second night of the UK tournament ...

The current card for NXT TakeOver: Orlando is:

NXT Champion Bobby Roode defending against Shinsuke Nakamura
NXT Women's Champion Asuka defending against Ember Moon
NXT Tag Team Champions The Authors of Pain defending against DIY and The Revival in a triple threat elimination match
Aleister Black vs. Andrade "Cien" Almas

Originally Posted by PWI

Kyle O'Reilly has officially come to terms with EVOLVE. O'Reilly will not be working the Wrestlemania events in Orlando but will be working post-Wrestlemania dates for the company. The two sides had been in discussions of late, but as we reported, they were unable to terms. They reconvened today and were able to make a deal for O'Reilly to come in.

Originally Posted by PWMania

We noted earlier this week how Summer Rae was apparently training for her return at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando. Summer has been out of action since last summer with a knee injury.

While Summer has not appeared on WWE TV since the Draft after being sent to the RAW roster, The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that there’s talk of bringing her back to the SmackDown roster with an appearance at WrestleMania 33 in the SmackDown Women’s Title match.

Regarding that match, graphics have confirmed that it will be Alexa Bliss defending against Becky Lynch, Mickie James, Carmella and Natalya but it’s possible we also see appearances by Naomi, Tamina Snuka, Eva Marie and Summer. There’s also been rumors of a stipulation being added to the match.

The Observer adds that it’s also possible we see former WWE Superstars return for the SmackDown Women’s Title match. We’ve noted how the company contacted several women from the past about appearing at WrestleMania 33 for an angle or match that has been kept secret. Kelly Kelly and Lisa Marie Varon (Victoria) were among those contacted about working for the company in Orlando that Sunday.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Triple H did a media call today to promote WWE NXT "Takeover: Orlando" and WrestleMania 33. You can check out the full call in the video above or the audio player below, here are some highlights ...

* He called the passing of Jan Ross tragic and unfortunate. He noted how Jim Ross has always been a part of the WWE family and he can't express how sad they are. He says they all knew Jan very well

* Regarding Takeover ... He feels Shinsuke Nakamura vs. NXT Champion Bobby Roode is lining up what NXT will be after WrestleMania - will it take Roode's Glorious path or the Strong Style path of Nakamura that we've seen for the past year or so. He says NXT Women's Champion Asuka continues to evolve and get better. They knew she was a game-changer when they brought her in and that's what she's been. He also praised Ember Moon, saying it took her a while to hit her stride but now she has and it's amazing. He called her an incredibly talented performer and believes Ember vs. Asuka has the chance to steal the whole week ... Regarding Aleister Black vs. Andrade "Cien" Almas, he says Almas has sky-rocketed in the last few weeks or last month. He believes Almas' comfort level as a heel has hit his stride and the match against the debuting Black should be phenomenal ...

* Triple H is asked about comments he made on a recent call about not being happy with where NXT was at that point, and how he feels about improvements the brand has made. Triple H says he will probably never be happy with the product because you always want it to be better and to be more than what it is. He makes it clear that his unhappiness had nothing to do with talent - it had to do with his end, with creative, production and other aspects. He says there were reasons for all of it as the Performance Center was designed to create everything they do, not just in-ring performers, and it did that very well. As those talents were moved up, it "strip-mined" NXT and around the same time they lost a lot of their performers, specifically with the WWE Draft, they had to start over in many ways. They also started over behind the scenes. He talks about how they had to reinvent everything but he's much happier with where they're at now, not because it's where he wants NXT to be but because he's on a path to get there. There's nothing worse to him than saying he's unhappy with something and not having the abilities to fix it, or he's not on the way to fixing it ...

* Regarding the NXT, WWE UK, 205 Live, PROGRESS and ICW matches at WrestleMania Axxess possibly airing at a later date, he says there are not doing actual TV tapings at Axxess this year

* He's asked what he thinks about the development and starts of some of the younger talents, including some we haven't seen yet ... Triple H is really happy with the system they have and how talents are progressing. He talks again about how The Authors of Pain have progressed. He also talks about the NXT women's division with younger talents like Ember Moon, Peyton Royce, Billie Kay and Nikki Cross with experience but you also have talents like Aliyah, Liv Morgan, Daria Berenato and Macey Estrella. He says Mandy Rose will also have a big impact soon. He says it's really impressive to see these talents grow and become something more, thriving in the environment.

* Triple H was asked about possibly branching out the Performance Center in other key markets, such as locations in the UK, Los Angeles or Toronto. He says he's been having those conversations since the moment he first thought up the Performance Center. They've talked about what is the best way to execute those plans. He says they are currently maxed out with around 100 talents at the Performance Center and he's out-grown the space a little bit and would love for it to be more robust ... He says as they expand, there is probably a logical point where there will be the need for other facilities but it is something they look at all the time.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

As noted, Mauro Ranallo missed WWE SmackDown for the second week in a row this week. Last week it was announced that Mauro missed the show due to the winter weather in the Northeast but this week it was noted that he missed the show due to being sick.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that Mauro has been out of contact with people he's known for years dating back to March 13th, which was the Monday before the first show he missed. However, two of Mauro's closest friends noted to The Observer that he's okay and resting up. Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that Mauro is doing better but he also speculated that there's more to the story that he's working to confirm.

Originally Posted by Observer

Based on T-shirts that have been printed, these are the Legacy Award Hall of Famers for the WWE Hall of Fame this year:

• Judy Grable -- One of the female stars of the 50s. She took her name from Betty Grable. She wasn't one of the top tier women in her era but she was a legitimate star.
• Toots Mondt -- Mondt was a former shooter who worked with Strangler Lewis and Billy Sandow in the 20s and controlled the world title for a time and bounced from place to place. He was Vince McMahon Sr.'s business partner and some said the wrestling brains behind the outfit into the 1960s. He was considered a very controversial person in the industry.
• Rikidozan -- The father of Japanese pro wrestling and easily the single most influential pro wrestler in history. No wrestler was ever such a major cultural figure, in both Japan and in North Korea after his death. On a cultural basis, he would be far closer to Muhammad Ali than to Hulk Hogan.
• Farmer Burns -- A world champion in the late 1800s, Burns was the coach and promoter of Frank Gotch, the first true superstar pro wrestler and mainstream sports figure to come out of wrestling.
• Luther Lindsay -- A noted shooter. He was a star, but not a major star. Like Art Thomas, this is what it is.
• Dr. Jerry Graham -- Vince McMahon's childhood favorite pro wrestler. The Graham Brothers (Jerry & Eddie, who were not brothers) vs. Argentina Rocca & Miguel Perez was a huge program in Madison Square Garden. The Doc was a colorful figure, whose problems with alcohol prematurely ended a run that should have had a lot of legs left in him. Vince McMahon and his father tried to bring him back a few times but it never worked out.
• June Byers -- Byers claimed the women's world title from 1953 to 1964 although there were other claimants. Most of her era considered her the best of the women wrestlers after the retirement of Mildred Burke.
• Haystacks Calhoun -- Billed at 450 to 600 pounds, Calhoun was a great touring attraction in pro wrestler, similar to what Andre the Giant later would be, but not on the same level as Andre.

Originally Posted by Observer

ITV and Impact Wrestling announced today officially that World of Sport will return to ITV with tapings at the Preston Guild Hall on May 25th and 26th.

The announcement was of a 10-episode series. ITV greenlit the series which would be largely funded by Anthem Entertainment, which would run the wrestling end, with Jeff Jarrett in charge of the wrestling.

They announced tickets would go on sale on April 7th at Gigsandtours.com, Ticketmaster.co.uk, and prestonguildhall.co.uk.

There will be a launch announcement on March 27th at 2 p.m. in Manchester where more details will be announced, including the roster, as well as a Q&A ...

While no deal has been closed, Jim Ross had been earmarked as the host of the show. Officially, only Alex Shane, who co-hosted the pilot with Ross that aired on December 31st, is an announcer. Grado will enter the tapings billed as the World of Sport champion based on the first episode.

Originally Posted by Observer

Kyle O'Reilly's first matches for Evolve are set for 4/22 in Queens, NY against Keith Lee, 4/23 in Brooklyn against Fred Yehi, 5/20 in Chicago against Matt Riddle and 5/21 in Livonia, MI.

Originally Posted by Observer

There will be a new Undertaker collection added on Monday to the WWE Network. It will likely be a collection of his WrestleMania matches, that are already up in other forms.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE announced that Corey Graves' interview with Kurt angle would air Tuesday night after Talking Smack on the WWE Network.

There will be another Bring it to the Table with Corey Graves, JBL and Peter Rosenberg on Thursday at 8 p.m.

Maria Menounos will again host the Hall of Fame red carpet ceremony at 7 p.m. Friday night.

Originally Posted by PWI

The 3/23 edition of Impact on Pop brought in 305,000 viewers, down over 10 percent from last week's 344,000 viewers.

Originally Posted by PWI

Any chance WWE does Big Show vs. Shaq at Wrestlemania next year?

No. Show has made it clear his current deal expires in February 2018 and has openly talked about quietly fading away at that point. Shaq in Florida would have meant something. I don't know the match has the same appeal in New Orleans.

Originally Posted by PWI

The debut episode of Edge and Christian's Pod Of Awesomeness with WWE Universal champion Bill Goldberg was really good.

During his appearance, Goldberg mentions the new attitude of the locker room saying that there are no big characters in locker room. Edge questions if the guys are handcuffed. Goldberg explains that things are more structured now and that management may not have the faith in the current roster to do whatever they want.

They obviously talk about Goldberg facing Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania 33 and the challenges that are involved when it comes to fans' perception. Goldberg promised a knockdown, drag-out "blood fest" at Wrestlemania and said they are both going to do things beyond the constraints of their previous encounters. Goldberg implied that they were not allowed to do very much in the first few encounters in order to garner interest in a third bout and to play on people's nostalgia of his character.

Goldberg mentioned how physically taxing this current run has beenfrom travel, training , balancing work and family. He even mentioned the problems with picking up Rusev due to excessive training, busting himself open before going out on live TV, his relationship with Vince McMahon and more.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE NXT episodes have been completed on WWE Network going back to the June 2012 reboot of the brand under Full Sail University. This includes early 2014 episodes before the Network.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Matt Hardy commented on Kurt Angle being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this year, writing on Twitter:

So proud & happy for my amigo @RealKurtAngle for achieving this HONOR. Kurt has overcome & defeated all of life's obstacles.

100% deserved. https://t.co/BDTls2WN01
— #BROKEN Matt Hardy (@MATTHARDYBRAND) March 24, 2017

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

- WWEShop.com now has Southpaw Regional Wrestling merchandise available. Also, for today only, select WWE merchandise is only $5. There is no code required.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

The official store for the Hardys officially closed down yesterday. It had been running for 5 years. The Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer was asked on Twitter if WWE is "maybe the reason" for the store closing down, to which he replied, "Not maybe definitely."

Originally Posted by Observer

There were meetings this past week with New Japan officials and AXS officials. Nothing official has been announced but they were working on ideas to work together for New Japan’s entrance into the U.S. market on 7/1 and 7/2 in Long Beach, as well as attempts to get the television more caught up like it was for the Tokyo Dome show.

Originally Posted by Observer

The Young Bucks and Hardys program has been agreed upon to be a major deal on Impact television until the Hardys situation changed. Both ROH and Impact had signed off on working together where there would be multiple dates for months in both companies, going back-and-forth, where the Young Bucks would have debuted on the April tapings. It would have run the gamut to matches on each other’s PPV shows as well as a match at the Hardy compound and eventually to the ladder match as the likely final match. Impact was still interested in the Young Bucks, as Jeff Jarrett showed interest in everyone who he thought had a name that could help the company. Even if the Hardys leaving wouldn’t have killed the idea, and realistically, it probably did, the legal threat that cost ROH the Dish Network PPV buys would have certainly killed it dead.

Originally Posted by Observer

It also appears that they are trying to keep the participants in the Smackdown women’s title match a secret, as well as if there is a stipulation involved. The graphics and angles continue to suggest Alexa Bliss defending against Mickie James, Carmella, Natalya and Becky Lynch. But they are pushing that all Smackdown wrestlers available that night will be involved, which could include Naomi, if she’s recovered from her knee injury; Summer Rae, who is training right now in Orlando for her return; Tamina, who has been on the road full-time doing house shows but hasn’t been put on television; and Eva Marie, who hasn’t been on television since she’s been doing acting gigs.

It’s also possible the teased surprises could be women stars of the past. Several were contacted many weeks ago about appearing on the show as part of a scenario that has been kept secret. Kelly Kelly is the name that has gotten out and others have been called as well. Lita recently wrestled an independent match and Lisa Varon (Victoria) is another name out there. Maria Kanellis is in the category of going somewhere in secret and most of the time when there is a destination that has to be kept a secret, that means WWE.

Originally Posted by Observer

With time running out and no talk for several weeks, it appears that WWE and Conor McGregor couldn’t come to a financial deal. That is also likely the reason the Big Show vs. Shaquille O’Neal match fell through, leaving the show right now with 14 matches. Show was announced for the Battle Royal, killing the idea of a singles match, but Paul Levesque, on ESPN, when asked about the match and O’Neal, tried to tease that something was still alive.

Originally Posted by Observer

Brandon Howard at Fightful.com got a report from the Arlington, TX police department that the actual number of people who went through the turnstiles at AT&T Stadium for WrestleMania last year was 80,709. That’s greatly under the 101,763 plus number that WWE claimed. The stadium itself told us there were 97,769 people in the building, but that included everyone from the wrestlers and office people to ushers and concession stand people. I was also told 93,770 was the number of paid and comps of people, both ticket holders and box holders, not actually working at the show by the stadium, and the paid was in the 79,000 range.

The difference between 80,709 and 93,770 I can’t really explain because it was made clear that 80,709 number included party passes, which, if legit (the only question is if a Wifi failure screwed up the turnstile count) means they the entire stadium was set up for 67,000 and all those 80,000 and 100,000 figures they’ve used in the past for other sports events in that stadium were heavily worked numbers. That also explains the low legitimate paid number for a show that didn’t appear to be heavily papered.

Originally Posted by Observer

The go-home Raw for WrestleMania, with Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker, Bill Goldberg, and Seth Rollins all known to be attending in advance, did 3.29 million viewers, an increase of eight percent from last week ...

It was still down 13 percent from the 3.76 million viewers for the go-home Raw last year.

The third hour decline was consistent with all the key demos across the board.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 3.25 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.43 million viewers
10 p.m. 3.20 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE announced that Neville vs. Austin Aries for the Cruiserweight title, the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, and the SmackDown Women's Championship match will be airing on the WrestleMania 33 pre-show, which will be two hours and begins at 5 p.m. ET on Sunday. Renee Young, Jerry Lawler, Booker T, and Shawn Michaels will be on the panel, with the first hour airing on the WWE Network and other platforms before the second hour airs on the USA Network in addition to those.

Originally Posted by Observer

On a day that should bring more announcements for WrestleMania (including the addition of Triple H vs. Seth Rollins to the card on tonight's go-home episode of Raw), WWE revealed some of the celebrities who will be involved with WrestleMania 33 on Monday.

It was announced that Pitbull would be performing at WrestleMania after the main card broadcast kicks off. He'll be joined by Flo Rida, LunchMoney Lewis, and Stephen Marley. Pitbull, Flo Rida, and Lewis' song "Greenlight" is the official theme of WrestleMania 33.

As was noted previously, Tinashe is set to perform "America the Beautiful" on the show.

Originally Posted by Observer

Add former women's champion Eve Torres Gracie to the list of those being brought in for WrestleMania according PW Insider. As noted here, a number of former women's stars were contacted months ago about being part of the weekend.

Originally Posted by PWI

Wrestlecon tweeted that due to health reasons Terry Funk will not be able to make it to Orlando, Florida:

Just got off phone with Terry Funk. Due to health reasons, he's unable to travel. All preorders will be refunded in 24hrs.
— WrestleCon (@wrestlecon) March 28, 2017

Originally Posted by Observer

A WWE title will be defended on another promotion's show during WrestleMania weekend.

PROGRESS Wrestling co-owner Glen Joseph announced on Facebook Live today that Tyler Bate would put his WWE United Kingdom Championship up for grabs against Mark Andrews on March 31st at PROGRESS: Orlando ...

The UK title match won't be the only collaboration between WWE and PROGRESS in Orlando, with PROGRESS wrestlers also featuring in matches at WrestleMania Axxess.

Originally Posted by Observer

The site of WWE's Battleground PPV, which will be a SmackDown show, will be the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

The WWE made the announcement live during last night's Raw show at the building.

Battleground takes place on July 23rd and will be one of two PPVs that month. The Raw brand will run on July 9th with the Bad Blood show, the day after what is expected to be UFC's biggest event of the year, the annual International Fight Week major show.

Originally Posted by Observer

In an interview with The Sporting News, Bobby Fish made it clear that he is going to be continuing to work with ROH for the time being, but he didn't sign a new contract (his short-term deal expired today) but said he's no longer exclusive to ROH but is open for offers from anyone.

Originally Posted by Observer

In an attempt to boost Monday's announcement of numbers, WWE has sent out another mailer offering former subscribers three months free as long as they sign up by Monday, which is when the announcement will be made. The push is if you sign up now you get WrestleMania, Payback, Backlash, Extreme Rules and Money in the Bank free.

Originally Posted by Observer

Paul Heyman did a talk show today promoting WrestleMania where he pushed that Charlotte Flair could become the first woman to close the show at WrestleMania. Don't think he meant this year, just that it could happen during her career.

Originally Posted by Observer

Jan Ross, who passed away on Wednesday, was an organ donor and all of her internal organs were in good shape. The one silver lining out of the tragedy of her death is that four people are going to be able to live better lives due to it. If anything, this is a message because sometimes this is no preparing and age and health and don't guarantee anything but if you are an organ donor, you can help someone who was often dealt a bad hand live a better life.

Originally Posted by PWI

Former WWE star Jack Swagger announced he would be making his first post-WWE appearances this weekend:

I'm excited to announce I'll be signing at #WrestleCon on Friday and Saturday . #WethePeople come say hi.
— You Dont Know Jack (@RealJackSwagger) March 28, 2017

Originally Posted by PWI

During media appearances yesterday in Great Britain, Jeff Jarrett stated that the World of Sport revival would debut on ITV in July.

Jarrett told The Mirror in the UK that the plan is for the World of Sport group to be a "full on promotion", not just a TV series.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Mauro Ranallo missed WWE SmackDown for the third week in a row tonight. His WrestleMania 33 status appears to be up in the air after missing tonight's go-home episode. As noted, Mauro's absence is related to his battle with depression, which he has fought since he was a teenager. Mauro's friend and podcast co-host Bas Rutten commented on Mauro's status and Mauro being bi-polar during an appearance on The Luke Thomas Show last week. He said:

"Yeah, he's doing OK. As everybody knows, he's very vocal about it but Mauro is bi-polar and sometimes, a few times a year, things are going too fast and he needs to just simply slow down. But he's doing good and I talked to him... he's sending me funny video clips, he just sent me something... It's all in good spirits, I think he will be back to normal very soon."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

ESPN has a new interview with Triple H. Below are a couple of highlights:

People wanting to cut Enzo Amore:

"There's been guys that have made it that over the course of a couple of years that were constantly on the cut list. Enzo Amore, when I brought him in, everyone at the tryout was saying, 'Get rid of this kid!' I was like, 'He's got a huge personality. If he can annoy us all this bad here, imagine what he can do on TV.' ... Every time he'd get his review, they'd be like, 'I'd cut him.' Dusty [Rhodes] and I would be like, 'Keep him.' Look at him now. ... Is he ever going to make you money from an in-ring performer standpoint? Probably not. But he's money on the mic."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

With Wrestlemania just days away, there has been some speculation about Eva Marie being a part of the SmackDown Women's title match this Sunday. Eva has not appeared on television since being suspended for 30 days on August 17, 2016 for her first violation of the company's Wellness Policy.

After asking around, a source at WWE informed me that the company will not be renewing Eva's contract. Eva had been with the company since 2013 and was a featured cast member of Total Divas for the show's six seasons. No announcement has been made by either side, but Eva is apparently done with the company.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Kenny and Mikey of The Spirit Squad have both been removed from the SmackDown LIVE roster, thus officially ending their return stint in WWE.

Their profiles on WWE.com were recently removed from the SmackDown LIVE roster page and placed in the WWE Alumni section ...

The duo worked together through November, at which point WWE stopping using them on SmackDown LIVE without explanation.

Kenny and Mikey weren't signed to WWE contracts, hence their quiet departure. Both wrestlers are continuing to work on the independent circuit. They will be wrestling together this Friday in the UK.

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4947975)

According to the Observer, WWE currently doesn't have plans for Asuka to be among the upcoming batch of callups from NXT.

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4947975)

Originally Posted by Observer

The WrestleMania go-home episode of SmackDown was watched by 2,698,000 viewers, which is up two percent from last week.

Originally Posted by Observer

After missing SmackDown again last night, Mauro Ranallo tweeted: "Feeling love from everyone. I am stronger. I want to wish my @WWE family another AMAZING #WrestleMania #KeepUpTheGoodFight #MentalHealth"

Originally Posted by Observer

The Usos were added to the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal on SmackDown last night, which means that there won't be a SmackDown Tag Team Championship match scheduled for WrestleMania.

Originally Posted by Observer

Jim Ross opened up about the death of his wife Jan on this week's episode of his podcast. Ross also explained why he's still fulfilling his commitments in Orlando, saying that being around his friends and working is what he needs and what his wife would've wanted. Ric Flair and Goldberg were the guests on the podcast, with the Goldberg interview having been taped before Jan's passing.

Originally Posted by Observer

New Japan Pro Wrestling's weekly TV show in Japan is moving up an hour to 2 a.m. and has been extended to a full hour from the previous 30 minutes.

Originally Posted by PWI

On this week's NXT, they announced that Sanity (Alexander Wolfe, Killian Dain, Eric Young, and Nikki Cross) will face Roderick Strong, Tye Dillinger, No Way Jose, and Ruby Riot in an Eight Person Tag Match at Takeover on Saturday night from Orlando.

Originally Posted by PWI

On the fourth episode of Dinner With The King, hosted by Jerry “The King” Lawler and Glenn Moore, The King hints that WWE might limit the amount of Hall of Fame inductees per year in the future because the speeches have gotten longer and longer.

He also gives insight on being backstage with Vince McMahon during the Hall of Fame ceremony and his willingness to let presenters/inductees speak longer than expected. He also tells a story about Mr. T going long and Kane having to come out as “the hook”.

Finally, The King tells some stories about the Rock ’n’ Roll Express and Rick Rude from their days in Memphis, including creating the Rock ’n’ Roll Express gimmick.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

As previously noted, the WWE Network is sitting at about 1.5 million paid subscribers as of January 31 of this year. We reported last week that WWE will host a conference call the day after WrestleMania to provide an update on the number of subscribers to the WWE Network following WrestleMania.

PWInsider reports that the aim for WWE is to break the 2 million threshold.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

As noted, WWE sent an offer to people on their mailing list who have never subscribed to the Network for three months of the Network for only $9.99, then the regular $9.99 price after this period is over. This includes WrestleMania 33, NXT Takeover, Payback, Backlash, Extreme Rules and Money In The Bank. For inactive subscriptions of former members, WWE offered a deal where they can get three months for free, and then come back and pay 9.99 after this period was over.

Of course, this is to meet the goal of passing 2 million subscribers, even if it is inflated, in order to look good to stockholders on Monday's conference call.

Originally Posted by Observer

According to a report from the New York Post, WWE tryout attendee James 'Rude Boy' Riley has been arrested on child pornography charges. The local Staten Island professional wrestler was taken into custody earlier today after having his stash of child pornography found, which included photos of infants.

The 25-year-old was busted after the New York Police Department found the stash on his iPhone. He was arraigned on 'charges of promotion and possession of a sexual performance by a child' and made a $3,500 bail. Riley had also reportedly uploaded some of the photos to his Google and Tumblr accounts.

He had attended a WWE tryout back in February ... He was also scheduled to wrestle tonight and Friday for Punk Pro Wrestling. The promotion soon made the following announcement shortly after his arrest:

"Due to circumstances James Rudeboy Riley is being pulled from this weeks events. This is only statement we have concerning it."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

As noted, Adam Cole's contract with Ring of Honor expires at the end of April and there have been rumors that he may sign with WWE when it's up. Cole joined Busted Open with Dave LaGreca and Doug Mortman today and commented on his current contract situation with Ring of Honor and what the future might hold for him once his deal is up.

"I've discussed this before and I totally don't mind talking about because it's a very talked about thing," Cole said. "I have about a month left on my Ring of Honor contract where at that point, I kind of have to make a decision. And the truth of the matter is, I haven't made my decision of what I would like to do yet. Because, obviously, there are a lot of options I have to consider. There are a lot of situations I have to consider. So for me to make my best possible decision, I need to know all the avenues that I can take.

"So as of right now, again this kind of sounds like a cliché answer, I have big match after big match every single weekend. So I have to focus on this next month that I have: challenging for the Ring of Honor Television Championship this weekend, I'd like to get back over to New Japan. Right now, all of my focus is on making as much of an impact in Ring of Honor as I can. When it comes to May, that's something that's kind of up in the air at this point."

Originally Posted by Observer

The Hardys are coming to WWE, and soon. The only question is what day and what brand. One would think Smackdown is the brand that needs the most help in the tag team division. As far as the Broken gimmick, Matt is claiming ownership of it. Impact’s case was at least strong enough for ROH to state that the Hardys will not be doing the gimmick on their iPPV show the night before WrestleMania. The Hardys are also scheduled for morning activities in Orlando for WWN as part of a tailgate party, so they will be in the area hours before the show. Contractually, they can debut whenever WWE wants them to debut. The only question is the legal aspect of the gimmick and where that stands.

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4948215)

Originally Posted by Observer

Shelton Benjamin announced on Twitter Thursday that he has been cleared to return to the ring following a torn rotator cuff injury.

After 9 of the hardest months of my life, I'm happy to announce I have been OFFICIALLY CLEARED to return to action. Effective Immediately!

— Shelton J. Benjamin (@Sheltyb803) March 30, 2017

Originally Posted by Observer

The SmackDown Women's Championship match is no longer listed as being on the WrestleMania 33 pre-show on WWE's website and as of now is grouped with the rest of the main card matches.

Originally Posted by Observer

SAnitY (Eric Young, Alexander Wolfe, Killian Dain & Nikki Cross) vs. Tye Dillinger, Roderick Strong, No Way Jose & Ruby Riot was officially added to the NXT TakeOver: Orlando card last night. There are five matches scheduled for the show, with Bobby Roode defending the NXT Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura, Asuka defending the NXT Women's Championship against Ember Moon, The Authors of Pain putting their tag titles on the line against DIY and The Revival in a triple threat elimination match, and Aleister Black vs. Andrade "Cien" Almas in addition to the eight-person tag.

Originally Posted by Observer

Goldberg tweeted a message clarifying comments that he made about being "miserable" during his current WWE run on the Edge & Christian podcast. Goldberg had said that he was miserable due to the training that's required in his role but reiterated that his time in WWE since returning has been an awesome experience.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE officially unveiled a WWE Hall of Fame statue for Ric Flair at the opening session of Wrestlemania AXXESS this evening.

Appearing at the ceremony were Sting, Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, Arn Anderson, The Rock N' Roll Express, Ricky Steamboat, Shawn Michaels, Flair's girlfriend Wendi aka former WCW star Fifi The Maid and all of Flair's children.

Originally Posted by PWI

For those who have asked about these two talents, we are told Kane is slated to be in Orlando Wrestlemania weekend while Eva Marie is not. Marie not coming in says a lot about her standing with the company going forward.

Originally Posted by Observer

Another name has been added to the list of entrants for the 2017 Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.

WWE announced on Thursday that Tian Bing would be making an appearance at WrestleMania 33 as part of the battle royal. Bing previously made a brief cameo on NXT TV alongside HoHo Lun in the first round of last year's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic and has been wrestling on NXT house shows.

Bing signed with WWE last summer as part of the company's ongoing plans to enter the Chinese market. He later made his debut at a house show in Shanghai, China in September against Bo Dallas.

As Dave Meltzer noted in this week's edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, this will be the first year that WrestleMania is available to watch live in China. It will be offered as an iPPV by PPTV since there is no WWE Network availability in the country

Originally Posted by Observer

In addition to Tian Bing, WWE announced Mark Henry for the 2017 Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal today.

Originally Posted by Observer

FloSlam officially announced that OTT's ScrapperMania 3 show at National Stadium in Dublin, with Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks vs. Will Ospreay, Ricochet & Ryan Smile in the main event, will air live on the service on April 15th.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

It was noted in this week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy are returning to WWE soon. No word yet on exactly, but it was noted that the only question is regarding the legal issues over the gimmick and where it stands. There's been a lot of speculation on The Hardys appearing at WrestleMania 33 on Sunday, perhaps to challenge SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos as they do not have a match. We do know that they will be in Orlando on Sunday as they are hosting a tailgate party near Camping World Stadium earlier in the day. The Observer adds that Matt and Jeff can legally debut whenever WWE wants them to.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

WWE Hall of Famers Ric Flair, Sting and Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat will be filming a "Table For Three" episode during WrestleMania 33 Week in Orlando. WWE Network content is expected to be filmed all week long. As noted, another "Table For Three" filmed this week will feature Eve Torres, Maryse and Kelly Kelly.

Originally Posted by Observer

There is nothing really new from the lead story last week on ROH sale talks. It should be noted that there were reports that Flo Sports at one point had attempted to buy ROH, and also had attempted to make a big money deal to stream all of the ROH events on Flo Slam (the latter is very much true), which were turned down. It’s also notable that even though WWE was attempting to buy the company as well, that ROH had gotten WWE to back off on deals with a number of wrestlers, names we know of being Donovan Dijak, Ray Rowe, Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish, threatening WWE with tampering charges

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4948678)

Originally Posted by PWI

Fans will be hearing a familiar voice calling at least part of Wrestlemania 33, PWInsider.com has learned.

WWE has signed a new deal with WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross that will commence will Ross returning this Sunday at Wrestlemania 33 to commentate Bill Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar.

We are told that the deal will see Ross used in something of a Legends deal for material on the WWE Network, documentaries, etc. while occasionally appearing on WWE TV to commentate bouts post-Wrestlemania. How often Ross would appear on WWE television remains to be seen.

The new WWE deal would mean that Ross could not be involved the World of Sport revival when that series tapes its first episodes this May in Great Britain. Ross called the pilot on New Year's Eve last year and was involved with a lot of the creative and production. It appears that the possibility of Ross calling a series for ITV prompted the new WWE deal.

For those wondering about Ross calling New Japan on AXS TV, we are told that his status with that series would not change with this new WWE deal.

We are told that the new deal was offered and signed prior to the recent passing of Ross' wife Jan. One source stated the deal was done five weeks ago.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

As noted, the plan for WrestleMania 33 this Sunday was for the Brock Lesnar vs. WWE Universal Champion Goldberg match to close the show. WWE officials have apparently changed their mind.

Dave Meltzer noted on the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio that The Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns will most likely be the last match at WrestleMania. WWE apparently made the change after gauging fan interest for the event, and Taker vs. Reigns is the most anticipated match on the card. Obviously Vince McMahon can always change his mind, but as things stand, Reigns vs. Taker will main event the show.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

It was confirmed on tonight's WWE Hall of Fame pre-show that the SmackDown Women's Title match was moved from the WrestleMania 33 Kickoff pre-show to the main card. Cathy Kelley noted that the change was made after fans took to social media and demanded it. The match will see Alexa Bliss defend against Carmella, Mickie James, Becky Lynch, Natalya and Naomi.

Originally Posted by PWI

In what will be a must see show, Michael Hayes just announced the following.

Just did Table for 3 with Bischoff and Cornette, 1st time Eric and Corny had spoke in over 24 years!!! Never been a Table for 3 like this!!!
— Michael PS Hayes (@MichaelPSHayes1) March 31, 2017

Originally Posted by Observer

There were a lot of technical issues with today's PROGRESS Wrestling iPPV, which was offered on WWNLive.com. WWN's Gabe Sapolsky tweeted that their website had a "denial of server attack" and apologized for the problems. Sapolsky said that they would offer free VOD to everyone who ordered the live only option and would extend another make good to those who ordered it with VOD. He told those who wanted refunds to stop watching it if they were and to send an email asking for one.

Originally Posted by Observer

Jeff Hardy played down talks of an imminent WWE return in an interview with CBS Sports. He said that The Hardys' contracts with ROH run through the summer and that signing with WWE would be a long process with all of the testing that they do. If and when they do return to WWE, The Hardys obviously wouldn't confirm it in any interviews.

Originally Posted by Observer

Tomoaki Honma underwent surgery for his cervical spine injury within the last few days and has begun rehab.

Originally Posted by PWI

The 3/30 edition of Impact on Pop brought in 297,000 viewers, down from last week's 305,000 viewers.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Daniel Bryan spoke with Gorilla Position about wrestling at WrestleMania 34 and facing The Miz. You can also hear his comments in the video above.

"Okay, if you can convince these guys [WWE] to let me do it, like, I'd love to do it." Bryan was asked about facing The Miz at that show.

"Uh, yeah, although- I don't know if I'd really want to go against The Miz. [Laughs] Okay, just look at the people around here, you got Nakamura over there. AJ Styles. Ya know, ya got, all the different people, ya know? So, yeah, great story and that might be the match that people would most want to see because they'd love to see me punch him in the face, I'd love to punch him in the face, but they don't let me punch people in the face anymore. It's not my deal anymore."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

As noted, Sting, Ric Flair and Jim Ross were at the WrestleCon Kickoff Q&A yesterday. Wrestling Inc. was on hand for the event, below are some highlights from Flair:

* Flair said that he has no problem with John Cena tying his record.

* He argued with Vince McMahon about wrestling Sting on the last WCW Monday Nitro because he was not happy with his appearance.

* The original Black Scorpion was supposed to be Al Perez, but he didn't want to get beat.

* He said that he'd never get back in the podcast business again after the backlash he received for saying that Finn Bálor would never main event a WrestleMania.

* Flair said that if Sting would've gone to WWE before Hulk Hogan, there would've never been a Hogan because Sting would've been so over. Jim Ross added that Sting was reliable and very athletic.

* He feels that Jay Lethal should be in the WWE, and thinks that Seth Rollins is a better heel than he is a face.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Above is video from tonight's live "Bring It To The Table" with JBL, Peter Rosenberg and Corey Graves. The episode was shot from inside Camping World Stadium in Orlando, the site of WrestleMania 33. After making positive comments about Roman Reigns before, JBL says he's now hot about how the fans reacted. The SmackDown announcer said:

"For all these internet fans out there that want to hate Roman Reigns and say, 'No, we're standing up because we don't like him...' Few people in the history of this business walk into an arena and everybody stands on their feet - everybody. I've seen it night after night after night. That to me is an absolute Superstar. Whether you love him or whether you hate him, Roman Reigns has earned his spot and I'm hot at all these little crybabies out there going, 'We just stand up and boo him because we really don't like him.' Oh, really?"

Originally Posted by Observer

There are a ton of moves being made behind-the-scenes regarding WWE in the U.K. market in particular. I’ve noticed a number of people in the U.K. who were very happy with how the market was going who are worried about how the obvious war with ITV and WWE will change things. Again, the key is we don’t know ITV is in for the long haul. But if they are, the idea that promotions are going to have to choose sides like happens in Mexico. In Mexico, local promoters can book guys from one promotion but not the other is possible, if not likely to happen. WWE has put rules in play regarding its contracted talent, but the no streaming services may mean something for some companies, but for other companies, they can use the WWE talent with no restrictions

Originally Posted by Observer

Bully Ray did an interview with The Sporting News and said the reason he never appeared as Bully Ray (a name he took out ownership of) in WWE was because of a character of a bully when WWE was working with Be a Star. That sounds weird because you could just do the character and not use the name Bully, since many of the heels in WWE and notably the heel authority figures are all bullies. He said Impact came at him hard with a significant money offer and he considered both ROH and Impact. He said that if Impact had communicated with him a little better he may have ended up there but his heart was with trying ROH and at the last moment he made the call

Originally Posted by Observer

At press time, with more seats opened up after production has moved in, the only actually sold-out WWE events for the weekend are the NXT show on 4/1 and Raw on 4/3, both at the Amway Arena. Some seats were added for WrestleMania. On 3/28, there were 1,500 tickets left for WrestleMania, but by the next afternoon, more than 600 were sold and there were about 900 left. They put most of those new tickets on sale for $80, the lowest ticket price yet on the primary market.

Smackdown has 500 tickets left. The Hall of Fame has 400 tickets left. What hurts the sales for the latter two is that it’s a soft market for those shows, in the sense that ticket speculators had assumed demand would be higher and they’d be able to get a good return on the tickets. You can get a better deal on the secondary market for all three shows and there are a ton of secondary market tickets out. The reality is the demand is lower than the supply for everything but the two sold out shows.

The price of entry at press time for WrestleMania is $109, well under the previous lowest ticket price of $160. For Raw it’s $75, above the lowest ticket price. Takeover is $53. The Hall of Fame is $15 and Smackdown is down to $11. Last year’s hottest ticket on the secondary market by far, was the NXT show because WrestleMania was in such a large stadium that getting tickets wasn’t nearly as difficult. But that was all about the debut of Shinsuke Nakamura, who exploded the secondary market. This year, with Nakamura having had a year in the company, his title match with Bobby Roode is strong enough that NXT has exceeded the demand in the same building of both the Hall of Fame and, more impressively, Smackdown. It also shows that the reputation of the Raw after WrestleMania is not there at all at this point for Smackdown.

Originally Posted by Observer

The Raw after WrestleMania, in what is traditionally the most-watched show of the year, did 3.76 million viewers, which is up from the 3.61 million for the show the day after the Royal Rumble. It was down eight percent from last year's 4.09 million on the similar show, but that's good in comparison since Raw most weeks is down double digits from the same week a year earlier ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 3.83 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.89 million viewers
10 p.m. 3.58 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer

While things are still pretty vague, WWE.com has revealed some details about the "superstar shake-up" that was announced for next week on Monday night. Raw and SmackDown will be allowed to "make trades, deals and other moves that they feel fit." It appears that changes will be relatively limited rather than a full draft, but no other information has been given.

Originally Posted by Observer

Diamond Dallas Page appeared on the Dan Le Batard show today on ESPN Radio and got mad when Le Batard kept asking about real life arguments DDP had with Ric Flair and Scott Steiner. DDP tried to explain that things are good between them now without going into the past, but the interview was cut off when Page swore after Le Batard kept looking for details about a past fight with Steiner.

Originally Posted by Observer

Nikki Bella tweeted today: "This isn't goodbye, just need time to heal. When the day is right I will be back and hopefully then....BRIE MODE will be ACTIVATED! Can't wait for the day I can lace up my kicks throw on my jersey put on my SnapBack & come back home. Until then..Stay Fearless Bella Army!" She's scheduled to take time off to heal her neck injury while John Cena will also be absent to film a movie.

Originally Posted by Observer

The New England Patriots reportedly gave Rob Gronkowski permission to get involved with the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 33.

Originally Posted by Observer

Chris Charlton translated a tweet from New Japan Pro Wrestling owner Takaaki Kidani about the G1 preview shows in Long Beach selling out so quickly: "New Japan in LA sold out in two hours. Our pickaxe has struck a vein of gold. This will be a pivotal year in wrestling history."

Kazuchika Okada, Tetsuya Naito, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Kenny Omega have been officially announced for the shows in Long Beach. An article on NJPW's website noted that they were looking for ways to add some more seats.

Originally Posted by Observer

Taeler Hendrix indicated that she's left Ring of Honor on Twitter today. She wrote: "Want to thank @ringofhonor for all the opportunities given to me! I'm forever grateful. I wish you well, and I look forward to the future!"

Originally Posted by Observer

The WWE released its subscriber information today regarding the WWE Network and the WrestleMania build and season was more successful in growth than last year.

Concentrating on actual paid subscriptions, the network has 1,661,000 subscribers as of today, broken down as 1,237,000 in the United States and 424,000 over the rest of the world.

With all the different free offers to bring back older subscribers and create new subscribers, there were 280,000 free subscribers as of today between the one and three months free numbers, which breaks down as 215,000 free in the U.S. and 65,000 free outside the U.S., meaning total subscribers were 1,949,000.

There were also some lower priced bargain subscriptions and actual revenues and how that all ads up won't be available until the quarterly conference call that will take place toward the end of this month or first week of May.

Last year on the day after WrestleMania, the network had 1,109,000 subscribers in the U.S. and 345,000 outside the U.S. The greater outside the U.S. increase was because of adding new markets, but now the network is available worldwide everywhere except China, which got Mania for the first time on iPPV. George Barrios was asked today about the China numbers but didn't answer that question.

Originally Posted by Observer

We have notes on the network number. The number of paid was slightly above what I had listed to be a success based on last year's growth patterns. Even with all the push to get former subscribers to subscribe free, that number was down. The stock fell 37 cents per share today to $21.85, which is still a strong number historically, way up from the same period last year. Overall the company is a very stable business which will increase in profitability this year and continue to do so unless something bad happens to the TV rights market, which is possible, or they reach WCW levels of acumen on the television product, which I seriously doubt can happen.

Originally Posted by Observer

Impact has inked a television deal with Game TV in Canada to air the shows in the same time slot as on Pop TV in the U.S., at 8 P.M. Eastern on Thursday nights. Game TV is in 9.5 million homes, which is in more homes than The Fight Network, which Anthem owns. Impact will also remain airing at the same time on The Fight Network.

Originally Posted by Observer

Saturday's biggest surprise news involved Drew Galloway, back as Drew McIntyre, signing. This was said to have been a late put together deal as Galloway was scheduled in the main event of the WWN Super Show in a six-way title match and had to be "injured" early in the show and left. Matt Riddle won the WWN title which was the guy I had expected to win. McIntyre will be in NXT, not WWE, likely as they are looking for some potential singles main events to replace Shinsuke Nakamura. We talked a lot about Galloway and Jim Ross on the show we did last night and how these moves are U.K. market related. The indication we were given is Galloway will be able to drop the What Culture title in the ring, but Galloway was the key guy in plans for a number of different U.K. groups.

Originally Posted by Observer

Galloway will be allowed to finish up his bookings as he's on the 4/22 and 4/23 Evolve shows, facing Zack Sabre Jr. on the first night in Queens and Matt Riddle in an I Quit match on 4/23 in Brooklyn.

Originally Posted by Observer

WrestleMania 33 won't be the last we've seen of Jim Ross on WWE television.

In an article that Fox Sports ran about his weekend in Orlando, it was noted that Ross has signed a two-year contract with WWE to return in a variety of roles.

"It has a specific number of dates that I’m obligated to work, which I think is good for me,” Ross said. “So look at it this way: I got my jersey back. I got brought back to my home team, and my opportunities back in WWE, I’m sure, will be multi-fold."

Originally Posted by PWI

Gabe Sapolsky announced that the EVOLVE show on May 20th in Summit, IL oroginally scheduled for 8 pm Central time will move to an afternoon timeslot so fans can make it a doubleheader with NXT Takeover: Chicago.

Originally Posted by PWI

Matt Hardy posted the following via Twitter, giving some storyline explanation as to why he is no longer "Broken" upon returning to WWE:

The sheer NIRVANA of coming home to that DEAFENING ovation at #Wrestlemania seems to have contained my CONDISHTION.

If it CAN be contained.
— #BROKEN Matt Hardy (@MATTHARDYBRAND) April 4, 2017

Originally Posted by PWI

Edge tweeted the following indicating that this week's Edge and Christian Podcast will feature his wife and new WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix, Wrestlemania hijinks and thoughts on the Undertaker's retirement.

This week @EandCPod explodes in your face with our guest @TheBethPhoenix (my get), the results of #MockMockMania and thoughts on Undertaker
— Adam (Edge) Copeland (@EdgeRatedR) April 4, 2017

Originally Posted by PWI

While appearing at Jim Ross' One Man Show as a surprise on Sunday, Foley said that he was originally not going to attend any WWE events Wrestlemania weekend in order to cement the finalist of his "firing" as Raw GM but Stephanie McMahon pushed for him to attend. He said that he was no longer being paid by the company and joked that it felt like a real firing.

Foley wrote on his Facebook Page that his hip replacement surgery is set for 4/19. He will be taking off bookings through July, except for one appearance that he has scheduled in Queens, NY on May 13.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross recently spoke about the WWE's current Hall Of Fame standards and if Chris Benoit should be inducted one day during a Q&A, covered by Hannibal TV. JR noted that he doesn't think that Benoit should ever be in the WWE Hall of Fame.

"You know Rock is gonna go in, right? Owen Hart, you got to have it balanced - so what are we gonna do have a whole posthumous Hall Of Fame? Here's your Hall Of Fame folks. Ironically based on the voting everybody's deceased.

"Chris Benoit, I don't think he'll ever get in. I don't think Chris Benoit should get in, and I'm okay with my opinion. If you differ I respect that. I was the guy that hired Chris Benoit, nothing Chris Benoit does wasn't right there that wasn't already with him. If there was a line to him, wherever he is, you say, 'hay should you be inducted into the Hall Of Fame?' Who do you want to induct you? I think he'd say it'll create too much publicity, it'll take the importance off of everybody else who's going in, it's gonna be the talk of the town. The WWE is inducting into the Hall Of Fame a murderer and suicide victim. That's the story. You guys know how the media are. That'll be the story. Can you imagine him going in with The Rock? All of a sudden let's forget about The Rock, it's about that murderer guy. So that's what I think. His talents, skill, accomplishments in the ring match a Hall Of Fame career. Absolutely. But I think he took all those opportunities away with the last 24 hours or so of his life."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

David Penzer of Hannibal TV catches up with Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart at WrestleCon in Orlando this past week. Penzer mentions Neidhart having a Hall of Fame career and that's when his tune changes. Anvil said, "Excuse me, Hall of Fame? I'm not in the Hall of Fame. I am not good enough to be in the Hall of Fame. ... You would think with everybody around me in the Hall of Fame, you would think I would be in the Hall of Fame. I was the one that started this pink thing in the first place."

In regards to his daughter Natalya working WrestleMania 33 this year, Jim said he feels good about it and commented on her being a good wrestler. Penzer said he hopes Anvil makes it into the Hall of Fame one day but he replied, "I'm not going to keep the light on at night waiting for that thing. I don't think that'll ever come. In fact, I don't think I want to be in the Hall of Fame."

Originally Posted by Observer

The post-WrestleMania edition of SmackDown on the USA Network drew an audience of 2.885 million viewers, tying the highest viewership the show has done since the WWE draft.

It matched the final episode of 2016, which featured the return of John Cena after a lengthy absence and three title matches.

Originally Posted by Observer

Simon Gotch is gone from WWE.

News of his release was announced on WWE.com today, with it being noted that the company and Gotch mutually agreed to part ways. Their statement: "WWE has come to terms on a mutually agreed upon release with Simon Gotch as of today, April 5, 2017. WWE wishes Gotch the best in all his future endeavors."

Originally Posted by Observer

Matt Hardy announced on Twitter that WWE is allowing The Hardys to fulfill previously booked independent wrestling dates. They'll be wrestling for IWC on April 8th, House of Hardcore on the 21st and 22nd, and Pro Wrestling South on the 29th.

Originally Posted by Observer

Lana appeared on the Busted Open radio show on Sirius XM today. She said that Rusev has recently started working out again after undergoing shoulder surgery and should be back in 2-4 months. She also claimed that her and Rusev didn't get heat from WWE for announcing their engagement.

Originally Posted by Observer

The former Damien Sandow revealed in an interview with Title Match Wrestling that he's no longer working for Impact Wrestling. He had wrestled there as Aron Rex and seemed to indicate that he might be done with wrestling now, but later tweeted that he's not retiring and is just doing other stuff for a while. He also wrote, "I am not retired. @lmpactWrestIing was some of the most fun I have had in my career, great company. Just exploring other opportunities."

Originally Posted by Observer

Ricochet tweeted that "there's an underground fighting company holding me back" when asked why he hasn't signed with a major promotion.

Originally Posted by Observer

Joey Janela and Game Changer Wrestling will be running another event in New Orleans during WrestleMania week next year after the success of Joey Janela's Spring Break.

Originally Posted by PWI

On his latest podcast, Jim Ross noted that for the next set of New Japan on AXS TV episodes, which he will be voicing over in July, it looks like AXS will be handling the editing, as opposed to NJPW, who traditionally have handled that aspect.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Former ROH World Champion Adam Cole, whose ROH contract reportedly expires this month, posted this cryptic message on Twitter:

Well...no looking back now... pic.twitter.com/j21NnVxiD8
— Adam Cole (@AdamColePro) April 5, 2017

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Former WCW booker Kevin Sullivan was interviewed by Hannibal TV to discuss his time with WCW and regrets throughout his career. Here are some of the highlights:

His proudest achievements with WCW:

"The thing was, I have to thank Vince McMahon because it was his talent I was using. Really he got them over. I had Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, a guy that's over looked, Syxx Pac. The only person that was in The Kliq, DX, and NWO. He's a guy that gets looked over. We had them all and it just worked. Hogan turned heel, Randy [Savage] turned heel. It was a great run and I had great baby faces. Sting, Luger, the Steiners."

Convincing Hulk Hogan to turn heel:

"He was at my house. I had to keep him in my house. Everyone was telling me you can't do it, you're going to kill yourself. It revitalized Hulk because at that time Mean Gene did something amazing. One night in Chicago Hulk came down for an interview and they were booing him out, and Gene said 'You can hear the somber mood here.' So I went to him and I said, 'you gotta turn'. Hulk stayed in my spare bedroom and I wouldn't let his agent sleep in the bed, I made him sleep on the couch, because till the last minute he was trying to keep him babyface. I arrived at the building, during the semi-final I didn't want anybody to get to him, and he did the job and history was written back then" ...

His thoughts on Goldberg headlining Wrestlemania after having created him in WCW:

"I was the one that started Bill Goldberg, I saw the streak, I changed him into Mike Tyson with the short boots with the tights. Before that he was just an Atlanta Falcon. I am very proud of Bill and God bless him, I hope he wrestles another 12 years."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

As seen at WrestleMania 33 this past Sunday, The Undertaker seemingly wrestled his final match in a losing effort to Roman Reigns. Dave Meltzer reported on the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio that Taker "is getting more surgeries now," noting that he had held off on hip surgery. As noted, Taker likely needs a full hip replacement and has been holding off on that surgery until he retires.

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4953079)

Originally Posted by Observer

Regarding the “Superstar shake-up,” when we first heard about it, the talk was that the key moves would be Roman Reigns to Smackdown and A.J. Styles to Raw. This was months ago. This past week we were told that Reigns isn’t going anywhere and the key moves were said to be Styles to Raw and The New Day to Smackdown. The latter makes sense since the tag team division in Smackdown has been weak from day one. However, with Cena leaving for a while, moving Styles also, which is taking the two most over guys on that side off the table, makes no sense. Smackdown gave you the impression that Styles will be moving over. He wasn’t booked for any program going forward and settled his issue with Shane McMahon.

Originally Posted by Observer

Michael Paris (Impact's DJZ) was injured last night at The Crash show in Mexico City. He has undergone major surgery due to issues with his colon rupturing and internal bleeding stemming from that. He was in great pain. He took a 450 splash in a match with Rey Horus, Laredo Kid, Mr. 450, Septimo Dragon and Ultimo Ninja and couldn't continue. He's doing better today and the surgery was successful. Sexy Star was also apparently injured an in great pain and taken out of a title match. Not sure if that was just a way for her to lose her title without doing a job or it was a real injury. Fans thought it was real.

Originally Posted by Observer

Sonjay Dutt has signed a deal with Impact. He's been tight with Jeff Jarrett for some time so that's not a surprise. He had spent a week as a guest instructor for WWE at the Performance Center and also worked the ROH show in New York last month.

Originally Posted by Observer

The WWE Network has added a lot of 1981 and 1982 Mid South Wrestling shows, including a stream of them in a row so they can be viewed in context. They've also posted old episodes of Tuesday Night Titans, 1997 episodes of ECW that build up the Barely Legal PPV, and older episodes of NXT.

Originally Posted by Observer

The WWE will be releasing a three disc DVD called "Kurt Angle: The Essential Collection" this summer according to Wrestling DVD Network. It will feature Angle matches with Steve Austin, The Rock, John Cena, Edge, Shawn Michaels, HHH and others.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE announced a partnership today with SEGA for a free-to-play idle mobile game called WWE Tap Mania. It's developed by The Tap Lab in Cambridge, MA for launch later this year.

Originally Posted by PWI

Our friends at www.ProWrestlingTees.com announced the following:
April 17th is Your Last Day To Buy Hardy Tees At ProWrestlingTees

DELETE DELETE DELETE
Last Chance To Get Your Hardy Boys Merch

Originally Posted by Observer

A.J. Brooks (A.J. Lee) has been doing media promoting her autobiography. Her main point was that she is suffering from bipolar disorder, as does her mother. She said WWE wanted to do an angle based on that and she said she wasn't comfortable with it and they took her off TV for two months after that.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross will present his "Ringside with Jim Ross" show on Sunday 5/21 at 2 PM with Chicago, IL before the WWE Backlash PPV at Zanies.

Tickets for the event will go on sale this Saturday at 10 CT.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

The latest episode X-Pac 12360 is now online, which you can watch in the video above or download on iTunes. Ron Funches returned to join Sean Waltman and his crew for the show this week, which also featured highlights from the Kliq Q&A over the weekend.

They sent us these highlights:

The Big Show upset about the Braun Strowman spot during the Andre the Giant Battle Royal:

"Before thing was even over, Big Show had a bunch of guys that were in the Battle Royal back in the back and he was going off… I think it was over the stuff with him and Strowman. Because they had a moment there and I think the moment got taken from them too quick."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

As noted, WWE announced on Wednesday that Simon Gotch of The Vaudevillains had been released from the company after he apparently requested his release.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that former partner Aiden English is scheduled to receive a push coming out of the breakup of The Vaudevillains.

Regarding Gotch's departure, there had been speculation on his release ever since the backstage fight with Sin Cara in the summer of 2016. That fight was said to be a "one-sided destruction" by Cara and it was reported at the time that "Gotch's mouth sometimes gets people mad at him." The Observer noted this week that Gotch's personality rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

Originally Posted by Observer

One of the funniest Vince-isms of the week was the decree that the term Camping World Stadium, the site of the show, couldn’t be used. So it was the Citrus Bowl, the old name of the stadium.

Originally Posted by Observer

Expect a bigger role for Matt Taven in ROH. His successfully main eventing Arena Mexico as a single and doing well in title matches there has upped his stock.

Originally Posted by Observer

DDP did an interview and noted it was WWE that chose Bischoff to induct him. He said that he would have wanted Dusty Rhodes to do so, but since Dusty passed away, he listed five people, Jake Roberts, Scott Hall, Bischoff, Austin and Foley and the company went with Bischoff. It’s notable that Angle also wanted Austin to do so but they went with Cena. Austin was not in Orlando all weekend. From what we understand, although nothing has been said about it, the contract with Austin and WWE for putting regular podcasts on the network has expired. People have asked about it since the one he did with Ambrose, which got a lot of negative reviews. The Austin podcasts at first were the highest rated shows on the network other than the PPV shows. They went with Jericho at one time after there was an issue with WWE and Austin, but then went back to Austin, and then to JBL, and even though the JBL shows were good, for whatever reason, the company made the decision not to do them.

Originally Posted by Observer

At the Wrestlecon kickoff party, Ric Flair said he was out of the podcast business completely because he can’t stay objective about WWE due to his daughter’s position and his statements affecting her career. He said that straw that broke the camel’s back with the company was saying that he thought Balor would never main event at WrestleMania due to his size. He said he got so much heat from the company for that comment that you wouldn’t believe it. Can you imagine the equivalent of this in any other sport? The company very much doesn’t want the perception that they are all about size, even though if you look at the top three matches and where the 205 Live match was at Mania, it’s is still a strong attribute. One of the reasons Bret Hart gave up his podcast was his feeling that it wasn’t worth it due to the reaction if he said anything negative about the company, although in his case he also noted time and the fact he wasn’t making significant money with it as reasons for giving it up.

Originally Posted by Observer

The reason the original women’s storyline for this year, which was to culminate in Bayley beating Charlotte to win the four-way at Mania and take the title was changed to having Bayley win a TV match earlier was the feeling that they needed more ups and downs in the story to get from January to Mania so did the title change earlier.

Originally Posted by Observer

One of the strangest statements of the past week came in an article about Kurt Angle in the National Post of Canada. He talked about his four DUI’s between 2007 and 2013, and said that there was actually a fifth DUI, but he wouldn’t say where or when, and that he paid a judge off $800 in cash and he threw the case out. Considering how completely illegal that is both from his perspective, let alone a judge’s perspective, that’s something amazing that he would say it. If it’s true, he committed a federal crime and the judge should be disbarred. If it’s not true, why would you ever make up a story like that.

Originally Posted by Observer

Now, Ranallo was known for re-tweeting positive comments, perhaps to the extreme, but many people do the same with Twitter. I try not to a lot, but if you work your ass off and mentally spend yourself to do an issue or a big story, and people thank you, you really do like it and you really do want to say “Thank you.” Many do it because of the idea it promotes your brand and such, but if you’ve watched Ranallo do any sport, whether it be pro wrestling, boxing, kickboxing or MMA, you can tell, like his style or not, that he works extremely hard in preparation.

The actual subject is the company hired somebody well known to have a mental health issue, and has worked for years to educate people on that subject and be almost a public spokesperson for it. It’s a company that has a strong public stance against bullying, yet people who have worked and do work for the company one after the other will tell you internally it’s very different. This won’t turn into a subject like the bullying of women based on being overweight (and the company’s version of overweight when it comes to women is quite unique as many who have worked there have noted) or appearance that the company would never do today because what did get people upset were essentially non-real life portrayals in television angles. This isn’t a television angle. There are many people in pro wrestling who privately battle similar issues, perhaps not as bad, but very few go public, and none would to the extent Ranallo has to essentially try and be a spokesperson and an advocate for it. Most people know someone, and many know a lot of people in the same situation. And everyone knows how tight Layfield is with Vince McMahon. The belief across-the-board is Layfield’s weeding out those who can’t take it comes from above. I think the other aspect is knowing people who have known Ranallo for years and essentially being told exactly how this would probably play out right before it did also makes this situation so upsetting. There was a terrible lapse of judgment here, and the fact WWE continued to replay the show indicated a lack of remorse and understanding of the issue.

The company is in a very weird position right now because Ranallo not being there makes this a public issue. But it’s a story that will probably not get them any negative publicity even though it’s real. So corporately, they don’t have to react and haven’t. Hopefully, this is the wake-up call to change and realize the old days are over. In most modern wrestling companies, they are over. There really may only be one left. As much as that one company despises the old days of carny rasslin, in reality, behind-the-scenes, they may be the last major one left with the same mentality.

Originally Posted by Observer

Ranallo deleted all references to being a WWE announcer on his Twitter account. As of right now, he is under contract to WWE through 8/12.

Originally Posted by PWI

This morning, WWE star JBL responded to several allegations that have been levied against him in recent days via Twitter.

One of those allegations were that JBL sparked Mauro Ranallo's recent depression issues with comments made about Ranallo on the air. JBL responded:

@JoeCroninJCS No Joe, and I won't-I shouldn't commenting on Internet stuff. I play a heel. I sincerely wish Mauro nothing but the absolute best.
— John Layfield (@JCLayfield) April 7, 2017

JBL also responded to an allegation made by Justin Roberts about bullying Roberts endured while touring with the Smackdown brand as a ring announcer, including his passport being stolen. In his excellent book Best Seat In The House, Roberts tells many stories about JBL's behavior on international tours when it came to hazing and bullying Roberts. JBL responded:

I won't answer Net rumors-but I didn't take Justin Roberts passport. Could have been anyone/he was hated by the whole crew. He's an idiot.
— John Layfield (@JCLayfield) April 7, 2017

However, it should be noted in Roberts' book that he never accuses JBL of the theft. He simply recounts the story about how his passport disappeared, leaving him stuck in Great Britain when it was time for the rest of the crew to depart. Nowhere in the book does JBL get blamed for that passport disappearing, although there are many other antics that Roberts specifically recounts JBL as being responsible for.

Originally Posted by Observer

John Layfield may have put his foot in his mouth this morning. When asked about Justin Roberts and when they stole Roberts' passport while he was in Europe, Layfield said, "I won't answer net rumors, but I didn't take Justin Roberts passport. Could have been anyone. He was hated by the whole crew. He's an idiot." In an article hours later, John Hennigan (Mundo) was quoted as saying that on that trip, Layfield asked he and Joey Mercury to steal Roberts' passport. Hennigan talked in the article about how he knew if he did it he'd no longer be bullied, but he wouldn't do it because he wouldn't have wanted something like that done to him, and figured he got heat for not doing it. There's more on that in this Deadspin story about Layfield. Forbes has a story on Layfield as well.

Originally Posted by Observer I have gotten texts and DM's as well as spoken personally to 15 different Justin Roberts who all contacted me after the article I wrote. Justin was the only one without any interest in going back who would speak publicly. The rest were just thanking me because they went through the same thing. It's way worse and well known that I had imagined. Only one of them knew Mauro, only their own experiences.

Originally Posted by PWI

The 4/6 edition of Impact on Pop brought in 309,000 viewers, up from last week's 297,000 viewers.

Originally Posted by Observer

Michael Paris (DJZ) wrote about his surgery in Mexico that it went well, that they fixed his colon (which was ruptured in taking a 450 splash in a match Wednesday night in Mexico City) and will make a full recovery in a few weeks. He said he'll have to take time off from the ring but was scared at one point that his career was over. He said he's not happy to have a sweet scar on his stomach, but he's glad to be alive.

Originally Posted by Observer

Glenn "Kane" Jacobs is expected to announce on 4/11 officially that he's running for Mayor of Knox County, TN. He will be running as a Republican as opposed to a Libertarian.

Originally Posted by Observer

Deadline reported that Kurt Angle and Paul "Big Show" Wight have signed with the Agency for Performing Arts for potential acting roles.

Originally Posted by PWI

With all the talk of the Superstar Shake-up this Monday at the Nassau Coliseum, obviously there is going to be a lot of talk of who should move brands.

As I discussed last month in the Elite section of PWInsider.com, the two major names that had been talked about when it came to "trades" between Raw and Smackdown were AJ Styles and Roman Reigns. In the case of Styles, there was a desire within the company to reunite him with Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows. In recent days, there's been more talk of Gallows and Anderson moving to Smackdown and Styles remaining where he is, however.

There's also been a lot of talk about greatly changing the Women's roster. There's been a big pitch to move Sasha Banks to Smackdown in recent days. Last week, there was a pitch to shift Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss and have them switch brands.

As we discussed Wednesday morning on the We Don't Need No Stinkin' Name Show, there has also been talk of bringing Andrades "Cien" Almas to the main roster, so it's possible that could happen shortly as well.

Originally Posted by PWI

There's been a lot of talk this morning about Alberto el Patron going live on Periscope knocking WWE, while standing next to Paige, who is still under contract to WWE and was trying to "ssh" him, including Patron saying that everyone who works for WWE are "p****ies" especially the guy "with the big nose", obviously a reference to Triple H. One WWE source believed Patron's recent shots at the company came from WWE trying to book Paige to appear at AXXESS Wrestlemania week but telling her they did not want Patron in Orlando with her. Obviously, she did not appear at AXXESS.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

ODB, who recently returned to Impact Wrestling, spoke to The Roman Show this past weekend. She noted that she had been away from the business to start her food truck business, which is called "The Meat and Greet".

"It's stationed in Daytona Beach," ODB said. "I am working with WWE Hall of Famer Jimmy Hart. It's located at Jimmy's bar. I'll be traveling all over the Florida area selling my sides and cooking."

She noted that she has not been keeping up with pro wrestling during her time away.

"I've been out of the scene for the past three years," she said. "I've been going to barbecue festivals not wrestling shows. I am ready for whomever. I got a couple of more years left."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

The A.V. Club has a new interview with WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross, who was promoting his "Ringside" show in Chicago at Zanies Rosemont on May 21st. Below are some highlights:

His new deal with WWE:

"I think I'm going to do 30-40 dates in my first 12 months of my deal. Those dates are to be determined. There's nothing they can assign me that I haven't done before. How many wrestling matches you think I've called in my lifetime—100,000? If they want me to do U.K. or NXT or Main Event, I don't care. It's all good to me. My days of being the lead guy, the No. 1 voice—all that is way yesterday. Guys who've had those issues like I have had in my career, they have self-esteem and confidence issues. I have both those. Totally happy to admit it, but I ain't got them no more. I'm 65 years old. I feel great, I just lost my wife, I'm trying to get back on my feet here, and I've said this and I truly mean it: I'm happy to get my jersey back. I'm happy to re-sign with my old team. Whatever role I need to play, I'm fine with."

Originally Posted by Observer

The women’s tournament was officially announced as a new special WWE network show. The 32-woman tournament will feature women from 17 different countries, so the idea is to give it an international flavor. Most of the best women who do not have an existing contract with WWE or another promotion are expected to be invited, including American and U.K.-based women who tour for Stardom. The tournament was originally scheduled for January, but moved back when WWE prioritized a U.K. territory and proposed television show getting off the ground due to ITV airing a wrestling product ... The idea was to be similar to the cruiserweight classic, which would mean a ten or 11 or so week television show taped at different intervals at Full Sail University most likely, although that is not official. We are aware that women had been contacted a couple of months ago and told to clear their schedules for late May, although that could change. We do know that Toni Storm, the top foreigner from Stardom, who was wrestling at Axxess (and the general response we got was the U.K. contingent both men and women were much better than the NXT regulars) and Io Shirai have been contacted for the tournament. People like Storm and Tessa Blanchard have been considered a lock all along. I’d expect Jinny from the U.K. based on her doing matches at Axxess and getting good reviews for them. The belief is Shirai has also agreed to go, although nobody in Japan seems to know for sure what her situation is. Nixon Newell, who was to start about that time, would make sense and she and Kairi Hojo, also scheduled to start around that time, makes sense ... A number of women set for the tournament are getting contract offers, so the idea seems to be to sign at least the key people they are looking at pushing as the winners up ahead of time so the cruiserweight situation doesn’t repeat itself. Even though it seems kind of weird because women are a key part of NXT, Raw and Smackdown, but the working idea is to come out of the tournament with a one hour weekly show for the network, like 205 Live. The only way I can see that is to drop Main Event on Monday and tape the women’s show before Raw. It’s a different dynamic because for women, the indies aren’t as lucrative and there aren’t the options like for Ibushi where there’s no need to sign a full-time deal, so the odds of one of the top women they want to push turning down a contract offer are a lot lower. I was told that the field is about 90 percent booked right now.

Originally Posted by Observer

With a show based around talent movement, Raw ratings, while falling from last week's 2017 high point for the Raw after WrestleMania, remained strong, doing 3.42 million viewers ...

For a comparison, the same show one year ago did 3.52 million viewers but that was a regular Raw episode and not a show built around talent changing brands. But a three percent year-to-year drop is far below the usual double-digit drops that have been the case with most weeks this year ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 3.43 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.60 million viewers
10 p.m. 3.26 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer

Glenn Jacobs (better known as Kane to wrestling fans) is officially running for political office.

Jacobs launched his campaign to become mayor of Knox County, Tennessee at an event at Sweet P's BBQ & Soul House in Knoxville today. The announcement was a formality given that Jacobs had filed paperwork to appoint a campaign treasurer last month, which would allow him to begin raising money.

At the event today, Jacobs promised to keep taxes low and make Knox County somewhere that people can be proud of.

Though he's labeled himself as a Libertarian in the past, Jacobs will be running as a Republican. The election to replace current Republican mayor Tim Burchett, who can't run again due to term limits, will take place on May 1st, 2018.

Originally Posted by Observer

Wrestling DVD Network posted the content listing for the DVD that WWE is producing on Kevin Owens that will be released in July. The first disc will be a documentary, the second will have special features and matches, and the third will have more matches.

Originally Posted by Observer

Mark Haskins will face Mark Andrews in a number one contender's match for PROGRESS Wrestling on April 23rd. The winner will get a shot at Pete Dunne's title.

Originally Posted by Observer

The angle at Raw last week where The Revival took out Kofi Kingston's leg was to cover for the fact that he needed ankle surgery.

WWE reported that Kingston had ankle surgery and will be out of action for several weeks.

Dr. Chris Amann gave what may have been the real diagnosis, although obviously was not the actual reason for the injury on the WWE.com website saying:

"During the attack by The Revival, Kofi injured his right ankle and heard a crack, and was unable to put weight on his leg following the attack. Further evaluation and an MRI revealed that the attack had caused fragments of bone to break off the ankle bone (talus), requiring arthroscopic surgery to remove the bone chips from the damaged joint."

Originally Posted by Observer

Regarding the situation with Katsuyori Shibata and surgery that was reported on the New Japan web site for a subdural hematoma suffered in the match with Kazuchika Okada, that may be storyline to put over the brutality of the match.

Originally Posted by Observer

For fans of old Mid South Wrestling, the WWE Network has added more new shows this week and now every show from December 1981 through January 1983 is up, in order, so it actually can be watched as is. That was some of the best episodic television of its era, or really, any era. That would be the Junkyard Dog heyday but before the real boom in 1984.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE Studios filed a lawsuit against BitTorrent in a copyright infringement claim in U.S. District Court in Connecticut on Thursday alleging they distributed their movie "Eliminators." They are asking for $150,000 per infringement plus court costs in a jury trail.

Originally Posted by Observer

Several news outlets including USA Today, the Indianapolis Star and Pro Wrestling Sheet have reported that Ric Flair was kicked out of a bar, the Deck at the Gas House in Fort Wayne, or calling a bartender a "fat ass," when she poured a new drink into his old drink. This was caught by someone's camera phone and because of Flair's celebrity status got covered in a lot of places. The Indianapolis star reported that Flair was only there for a few minutes before being kicked out.

Originally Posted by Observer

After involving himself in the Ranallo situation yesterday by claiming that ESPN doesn't report on "rumors," Jonathan Coachman said that he's done covering WWE for ESPN, noting that he doesn't have the time and has a big project coming up. He also said that there's no bullying culture in WWE.

Originally Posted by Observer

Jim Ross confirmed that he'll still be calling NJPW on AXS even after returning to WWE. As Dave Meltzer has reported in the Observer, Ross has a non-exclusive deal with AXS and officials from the station expected him to continue.

Originally Posted by PWI

Numerous sources have confirmed to PWInsider that Finn Balor suffered a concussion last night against Jinder Mahal on Raw, his first singles bout back since returning to WWE TV.

There is no word yet how long Balor may be out.

WWE has not officially acknowledged the injury as of this writing.

Originally Posted by PWI

As noted in TV taping results for Ring of Honor, Kenny Dykstra and Mike Mondo debuted doing their Spirit Squad team. The original plan for their debut was to have them challenge The Young Bucks at the last Hammerstein Ballroom event, but those plans were changed when Matt and Jeff Hardy left TV and became available to ROH for a short run.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

The Miz spoke with The Wrestling Compadres about the time he went on Talking Smack and completely lit up General Manager, Daniel Bryan. He also talked about how he has "no filter," once he gets going.

"You guys are getting an exclusive here, I don't think I've ever told this. So here was my day up to that point: I wasn't written on the episode that day and I'm the Intercontinental champion. This is the title that I've loved since I was a child, and I don't want to be the guy who says, 'I'm going to make it great,' and then not do anything. I want to make it great. So I told them to put me on 'Talking Smack.' They asked, 'Well what are you going to do?' And I said I'm going to rip into Daniel Bryan. And then I guess I kind of went overboard. And when I go, I have no filter. It's everything that is fueling inside of me and I just black out.'"

The Miz also indicated that Bryan's response wasn't scripted:

"He actually left. I didn't expect him to leave — I expected him to hit me. The things I was laying in to him on were very below the belt and very mean and very rude, but when I go, I just go."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

There has been a lot of interest in signing former Ring of Honor star Lio Rush for the WWE NXT brand, according to PWInsider. Rush recently finished up with ROH and was backstage for the post-WrestleMania 33 RAW in Orlando last week. Rush previously held the Maryland Championship Wrestling Tag Team Titles with current NXT Superstar Patrick Clark.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

As noted, Mauro Ranallo returned to social media this weekend and has been very active on Twitter after removing any WWE mentions from his profiles. While Mauro received a ton of support on Twitter yesterday, it was noted on today's Wrestling Observer Radio that JBL was blocking people that were tweeting the well wishes. JBL also blocked people that were following both he and Mauro on Twitter.

Originally Posted by Observer

Tuesday night's "Superstar Shakeup" edition of SmackDown on the USA Network averaged 3,105,000 viewers, the best number for the show since the WWE draft last July.

That number was up eight percent from last week's post-WrestleMania SmackDown and well above the 2.57 million the show has been averaging since the brand split.

Originally Posted by Observer

The situation between Mauro Ranallo and John "Bradshaw" Layfield has continued to get more media attention today. The New York Post ran a story asking how long WWE can ignore reports of JBL's bullying, Brandon Howard of Fightful.com compiled an oral history of JBL and WWE's culture of hazing, the Dayton Daily News wrote about Jonathan Coachman stopping his SportsCenter segment amid complaints about ESPN's coverage of WWE, and David Bixenspan's latest article for Deadspin also focused on Coachman's coverage.

Originally Posted by Observer

There were some signs of support for Ranallo in the crowd at the SmackDown tapings in Boston last night, as well as some negative chants towards JBL. Ranallo thanked fans for their support but also tweeted, "Please support the men & women who put their bodies on the line. I am gonna be fine. No one buys a ticket for an announcer."

Originally Posted by Observer

Lana posted on Twitter this morning that inappropriate behavior by TSA agents at Logan Airport in Boston made her feel violated. She later tweeted an update, saying that police helped resolve the problem.

Originally Posted by Observer

Braun Strowman responded to a petition that called for him to be fired after the angle on Raw where he destroyed Roman Reigns: "I do what I want when I want and your stupid petition won't change that!! #NoOneIsSafe #EveryoneWillFall #YourTearsHydrateMe"

Originally Posted by Observer

EVOLVE's show in Chicago on May 20th has been moved to 2:30 p.m. with NXT TakeOver taking place in the city that night.

Originally Posted by Observer

Another WWE couple has tied the knot.

Renee Young confirmed on Twitter this morning that her and Dean Ambrose have gotten married. She wrote: "Marriage is nice. Thanks for all the love."

Speculation about their marriage began when Ambrose wore a ring on his finger on this week's episode of Raw. Young also wore a ring on Talking Smack on Tuesday, with both Dolph Ziggler and Kevin Owens making references to her marriage.

Originally Posted by Observer

Next Tuesday's episode of Smackdown Live will not air live in Canada.

Sportsnet 360 in Canada will air Game 4 of the NHL playoff featuring the Pittsburgh Penguins vs. the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Smackdown live will be broadcast on Sportsnet 360 Wednesday night at 7:30 PM.

Originally Posted by PWI

On the fifth episode of Dinner With The King, hosted by Jerry “The King” Lawler and Glenn Moore, The King shares his opinion on the recent JBL controversy, including how ribs and joking around are prevelant in pro wrestling’s culture. He also thinks JBL won’t lose his job over something like this.

“I’m a JBL fan. Here’s the thing about JBL; you have to know the guy. And if you don’t get an opportunity to really know JBL, you can be offended. JBL is a funny guy. He’s a big guy. He’s boisterous. He comes across as, sometimes, crude and loud. But you gotta know him. That’s just JBL. He’s the same guy on commentary as he is in catering.”

When it comes to JBL losing his job, Lawler adds, “I don’t [think so], but hey, that’s my opinion. I don’t think he will, not over something like this."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

WWE Network has added three episodes of Prime Time Wrestling from March and April 1987. The episodes were taped in Baltimore, Maryland and are hosted by WWE Hall of Famers Bobby Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Bray Wyatt going to the RAW brand in the "Superstar Shakeup" may have been a late change as his "House of Horrors" match with WWE Champion Randy Orton had been planned for the May 21st Backlash pay-per-view from Chicago, according to PWInsider. As noted, the match will take place at the April 30th Payback pay-per-view from San Jose.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

As noted, new SmackDown Superstar Kofi Kingston suffered an ankle injury last week and is expected to be out of action for several weeks after having surgery. He posted the following update to fans on Instagram Tuesday:

Thanks to everyone for all the well wishes! I'm doing just fine! I'll be back when the time is right!Thanks to everyone for all the well wishes! I'm doing just fine! I'll be back when the time is right!

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4955867)

Originally Posted by Observer

At press time, neither Mauro Ranallo nor WWE have made any statements on the case past WWE saying Ranallo is under contract through 8/12. Ranallo’s contract doesn’t allow him to give unauthorized interviews on WWE and the belief is that WWE is working hard to come to a settlement that would include an agreement that he not publicly talk about the issue.

Originally Posted by Observer

Layfield going off on Ranallo on the WWE Network show “Bring It To The Table,” which was the final catalyst for what happened, while positioned and purported to be an unscripted show, that’s not exactly the case. The show isn’t exactly scripted, but the topics, the tone, the parameters and where to go and not to go are all discussed in advance. It is Chris Chambers who puts together the show and Kevin Dunn is the person responsible for the show. Because of that, Layfield’s attack on Ranallo was not something done off the cuff or out of the blue. Chambers had to know about it and Dunn had to know about. Vince McMahon may not have known about it, but after it became an issue, he would have known about it and the show was re-aired without the segment being edited off. Whether or not it was Layfield’s idea to do it, what they could and couldn’t do was up to Chambers. The insults, at least the tone or degree of them, had to have been approved in advance.

Originally Posted by PWI

The JBL situation has continued to get more and more mainstream media attention. There was an article in the New York Post this morning. It has become a big talking point locally in Fairfield County, CT where WWE HQ is as well. As I wrote a few weeks ago, I didn't expect WWE to make any moves or comment on the situation unless it started to pick up momentum in the mainstream press or with their corporate partners. It appears that momentum has started.

As an aside, Justin Roberts couldn't have timed his book to come out at a better time when you think about it, as all of this is only help fuel attention to his book.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

WWE Hall of Famer Kevin Nash took to Twitter and defended JBL as the heat continues for the SmackDown announcer over his issues with Mauro Ranallo. Nash wrote:

JBL broke in in an era of 300 pound bad ass men. So his psychological thoughts are very real. Everyone could go. He's shifted to our new era
— Kevin Nash (@RealKevinNash) April 13, 2017


JBL is one of the most thoughtful on air personalities WWE has. He's a mans man. But looking to always advance talent. #dont' be a b---h
— Kevin Nash (@RealKevinNash) April 13, 2017

Originally Posted by Observer

They apparently haven’t decided on what a House of Horrors match is yet. In fact, they’ve actually done a survey at the WWE Fan Council this past week asking them what they’d like it to be, bringing up various weapons and such. The question asked people to check what elements they’d like in the match, listing cage, darkness, fire, pitchforks, mirrors, projected images (that worked just great at WrestleMania), fog, a match done outside the arena, creepy scary venue, music, “Sheepie” and “nothing different.” Well, it can’t be a straight match after they’ve already named it House of Horrors.

Originally Posted by Observer

An update on the situation with Katsuyori Shibata. Unfortunately the news appears to be very bad and that the injuries are not storyline. This is not 100 percent because there are many situations historically where this could be just storyline or a cover for something else, but it appears this is the case and that a combination of dehydration and the trauma of the legitimately skull-on-skull head-butt hospitalized him and at this point it is believed he will never be cleared to wrestle. He is currently in the hospital and is awake, can carry on a conversation, has some memories of the match itself. He initially had some right side paralysis but that is getting better.

Originally Posted by Observer

There is a major story that affects independent promotions and WWE as well who made revenue from YouTube. By doing this, almost all wrestling channels will be losing virtually all ad revenue, which in cases of companies that pushed product consumption on YouTube as a significant part of their business plan, that's a major hit.

Originally Posted by Observer

Producer Mike Ryan said on Dan LeBatard's show in the third national hour yesterday that he believed WWE had banned them from getting guests, saying, "They don't trust us, and you know what, that's probably a good call by them." Ryan is a big fan. They had DDP on last week and he seemed to get mad when LeBatard tried to press him on a fight he had with Scott Steiner in the 90s.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Despite the storyline injury from the Braun Strowman attack at Monday's RAW, Roman Reigns is still scheduled to work weekend WWE live events. F4Wonline.com adds that live event listings for this weekend have Superstars scheduled to work with the brands they were on before the "Superstar Shakeup" roster changes made this week.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

In the video above, Mojo Rawley talks to TMZ Sports about WWE possibly signing good friend Rob Gronkowski of the NFL's New England Patriots.

Gronk helped Mojo win the fourth annual Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 33 and assisted him again on SmackDown. Regarding Gronk possibly coming to WWE to team with Mojo, he said:

"Oh man, are you kidding me? Of course we've explored that opportunity but Gronk's focused on his career right now. He's been training real hard and yeah, he's been having a little but of fun with us the past couple of weeks but he doesn't let that take away from his NFL career, from the Patriots, so he's staying focused. We don't want to rope him in too far because he's really in the zone right now but hey, you never know what the future will hold."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

As noted, David Otunga's RAW commentary debut has been delayed for six weeks as he's off filming a lead role in an action movie. That movie is titled "Katrina" and is set in 2005 New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Otunga stars as edgy DEA agent James "World" Lawson. No word yet on when the movie will be released.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

As noted, Jonathan Coachman stated this past weekend that he would no longer be covering WWE on ESPN. Coach had been hosting the Off the Top Rope segment on Wednesday nights on SportsCenter, which featured an interview with a WWE star and clips from WWE programming from earlier in the week. Coach cited a big project that he's working on as the reason for why he is no longer hosting it, and said that ESPN would still be covering WWE. It's not clear if he meant that ESPN would continue to do the segment or just cover it in general, but there was no mention of it or WWE on last night's SportsCenter.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

We've noted how Stephanie McMahon has been kept off WWE TV to sell the table bump from Triple H vs. Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 33. According to Dave Meltzer, the table bump spot wasn't so much to get Rollins over, but because Stephanie had a family vacation scheduled at the Turks & Caicos Beaches Resort in the Caribbean.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

As noted, WWE parted ways with Simon Gotch of The Vaudevillains last week after he apparently requested his release.

This may not have anything to do with the departure but Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that there was an incident with Gotch at catering before the April 4th SmackDown in Orlando.

Gotch reportedly tipped over his own chair and got mad when he went over. The Observer notes that the fall was bad enough that it caused a scene.

Originally Posted by Observer

From someone on the WWE side with full knowledge of the particulars of how the negotiations were going, at least as of right now, all talks about WWE buying ROH are considered dead. ROH and WWE are still in talks about licensing old content on the WWE Network, but no deal has been made on that.

Originally Posted by Observer

Drew Galloway had never agreed to appear on the ITV project but the Impact side claims that Jim Ross was on board to do the show but hadn’t signed. He backed out after getting the WWE offer, which was about five or so weeks ago. The offer was said to be extremely strong. The one thing we’d heard was that Ross’ view is that the ITV project was only guaranteed for ten episodes, while his WWE deal was for two years and that WWE would always be around.

Originally Posted by CageSideSeats

Randy Orton was a guest at his home town of St. Louis’ recent Wizard World convention, held last weekend, April 7 - 9. During his Q & A, the WWE World champ was brutally honest about his entrance at WrestleMania 33, which saw him walk down the 80 yard ramp while a “Viper” was projected beneath his feet

As Orton told the crowd, including one pre-teen boy who asked him about it, he’s often “screwed out of entrances” like the ones Triple H gets. He particularly disliked this year’s because “The snake looked like giant sperm”.

He reiterated his thoughts on the ‘Mania 33 entrance when he told the crowd he loved “Big 4” pay-per-view (PPV) events, but WrestleMania can have downsides like having to “ride a giant sperm” to the ring.

Originally Posted by Observer

The WWE has initiated settlement talks with Mauro Ranallo's representatives. It was pretty much incumbent that was going to have to happen.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Former WWE Stars Ken Anderson and Shawn Daivari appeared once again on the Pancakes and Powerslams Show and discussed whether WrestleMania 33 was The Undertaker's last match, as well as backstage JBL stories. They sent us these highlights:

How to stop JBL's hazing backstage:

Anderson: "I read something where he told Justin Roberts to go kill himself, everyday. He would say stuff like that, but the minute somebody would fire back at him, or just no-sell it, [they'll] be fine. He wouldn't keep hammering... I'm not saying that his way is right, but people are really, really sensitive nowadays for that reason."

Daivari: "Whenever I hear about John being a bully to whoever, and the specific names that come out, it's because the person he was quote-unquote bullying was trying so hard to get over with him. Like, dude, not everybody is gonna like you. Maybe [John] doesn't like you, you don't have to prove a point and defend [yourself]. If he says you're a dork and he hates you, you don't have to prove to him that you're not a dork and he should like you. Just let it go."

Anderson shares a time where both Edge and John Morrison stood up to JBL:

"Paul Heyman told me this story about how JBL was needling Edge on a bus, overseas. Edge was pretty new to the company, and [JBL kept needling him]. JBL had a beer in his hand, Edge just stood up, and swatted the beer out of his hand, and said 'Let's go right now. I'm sick of it.' From that point on, JBL said 'Oh calm down, sweetheart.' Everything was smoothed over, and he didn't mess with him again.

"[John Morrison] stood up to him one night. JBL didn't like the way him and Miz had sold at the end of their match. They hadn't celebrated enough. [JBL was getting on him], and Johnny basically just snapped on him, and told him to mind his own business. They almost went at it."

Daivari shares a story when he stood up to JBL:

"John came [backstage] and just picked me as his target. A bunch of people weren't watching [his main event match from backstage], and he goes, 'Shawn Daivari doesn't need to watch the main event! Shawn Daivari knows everything about everything in wrestling! Shawn doesn't have to watch the main event! He's good, he's got it!' And I said, 'No. You've been doing the same match 17 nights in a row. I can call every single move you did, I can tell you exactly what happened, I can tell you what heat you did to the crowd to get them involved, I've seen it! No, I don't need to watch it tonight!'"

Originally Posted by Observer

Booker T will be returning to WWE commentary for a limited time.

Though it was announced that David Otunga would be joining the Raw announce team and swapping places with Byron Saxton as part of WWE's roster shakeup, WWE.com noted yesterday that Otunga would be absent from the show for the next six weeks because he's filming a movie.

The website teased the announcement of a replacement for Otunga during that period, then revealed Booker T as the choice today. He'll be calling Raw alongside Michael Cole and Corey Graves.

Originally Posted by Observer

The company's quarterly report will be on 5/4. That will cover the first three months of the year, prior to WrestleMania. The report that would cover WrestleMania wouldn't come out until late July or early August.

Originally Posted by PWI

The 4/13 edition of Impact on Pop brought in 302,000 viewers, down slightly from last week's 309,000 viewers.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE's website ran a story noting that New Day's Big E will be officiating weddings in Los Angeles next week. Big E tweeted a few days ago that he would be officiating weddings the weekend of 4/20-4/22 and he can be contacted for wedding bookings at MarriedbyBigE@gmail.com.

Speaking of New Day, there's been talk of keeping them off TV for their official "debut" on Smackdown until Kofi Kingson is ready to return to action.

Originally Posted by PWI

Alexa Bliss was interviewed by FOX Sports about her move to the Raw brand. Bliss said she learned officially that day she was moving to Raw and even when she got travel, she didn't know if it meant she was moving or they were bringing some talents to the show to throw fans off.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Raven spoke with Title Match Wrestling during WrestleMania weekend to talk about a number of topics. In this video, they focused on Goldberg and his time in WCW. Here are some of the highlights:

Wrestling against Goldberg:

"Havin' that match with Goldberg was great for both of us - not at the time, for me, because I was just one more number on the train - but the quality of the match, when Goldberg wasn't having the most outstanding level of matches, and continued not to have them. Which he'll admit, he'll be very frank about it, that he didn't have great matches."

Bad booking decisions with Goldberg's WCW run:

"I think the problem with the run of Goldberg at the end, wasn't that the matches weren't longer, but was that they beat him. Ya know? They never should have beat him, he had the whole company on his back. I mean, I think that was a purely ego-driven decision and it wasn't based on business...I would have definitely kept him undefeated a lot longer. I think the mindset was - besides being slightly ego-driven - was the fact that, 'Well, we have to beat him, it'll be to give him sympathy,' but it just wasn't time for it yet. I mean, he was a unique thing that didn't apply to the rules, he was an exception, and sometimes that's why there are exceptions to rules."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

During a Q&A, AJ Lee was asked about one specific time when she was walking to the ring with Big E and Dolph Ziggler. It was when Big E was stretching his arms back and mistakenly hit her hard in the chest. AJ said afterwards she played it up that she was hurt for the week and even told Big E her sternum was broken before eventually saying she was fine. At the Q&A she said:

"He's like the most - also, I can take a lot of pain, so I was just like 'Whatever,' - but he's the most gentle giant and so, we got the back and he's just like 'Oh my god! Oh my god!' He was on the verge of tears and was like 'What can I do? Are you okay?' and so I thought it would really - you know, to be a really good friend - I was like 'let me make him feel so bad about this.'"

@AJBrooks talking about the time @WWEBigE almost broke her sternum pic.twitter.com/MdlsoHOgz6
— Cynthia (@FactsAJ) April 14, 2017

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

WWE issued a Fan Council Survey this past week and asked fans which elements would interest them for a "House of Horrors" match. The elements listed were:

* Cage
* "Sheeple"
* A match set outside the arena
* Darkness
* Mirrors
* Creepy/Scary
* Fire
* Projected images
* Music
* Pitch forks
* Fog
* Other
* Nothing different

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

We noted before that Bray Wyatt's "Superstar Shakeup" move to the RAW roster appeared to be a late decision as his "House of Horrors" match with WWE Champion Randy Orton, now announced for the April 30th Payback pay-per-view, was originally being planned for the May 21st Backlash pay-per-view. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter notes that a lot of the changes were last minute but some of the changes had been locks for some time. Wyatt apparently replaced AJ Styles, who had been penciled in for a move to RAW going back several months ago.

Besides Styles, there was also a plan to move Roman Reigns and that move was still being discussed as of late. It was noted that moving Reigns to the blue brand would also require them to move Braun Strowman and WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar as top summer storylines involve Strowman working against Reigns to get to Strowman vs. Lesnar while keeping Reigns vs. Lesnar alive with the idea of keeping them apart as long as possible. WWE officials are still planning on doing Reigns vs. Lesnar at WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans.

Originally Posted by Observer

Raw last night was down from the past two weeks but the 3.33 million viewers has to be considered strong for a regular show with NBA playoff competition.

The show only dropped three percent from the Superstar Shakeup episode, even going against two strong NBA games on TNT, the Indiana Pacers vs. Cleveland Cavaliers game that did 3.58 million viewers against the first half of Raw, and the Memphis Grizzlies vs. San Antonio Spurs game that did 3.17 million viewers against the second half of Raw ...

Still, in this day and age, any Raw number over 3.2 million viewers for a regular show has to be considered successful ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 3.41 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.47 million viewers
10 p.m. 3.17 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer

From Chris Aiken on why Steve Austin wasn't at WrestleMania this year: "Steve Austin sold his Broken Skull Ranch property outside Tilden, Texas. He revealed the news about the 2,100 acre ranch on his podcast. In going public with the news, Austin also dispelled rumors related to him not appearing at WrestleMania 33 in Orlando. He said any rumors of him being at odds with WWE are false, and added that he missed attending WrestleMania because he was too busy with the process of selling the ranch property, among other reasons related to his schedule and workload. Austin went on to say he and his wife would like to buy another ranch closer to where they live in California. He said the traveling distance between their home in Marina Del Ray to Tilden was too far. In selling the property, Austin retained rights to the 'Broken Skull Ranch' name as his intellectual property and the new owners will rename the ranch."

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE is running a sweepstakes where people who are current WWE Network subscribers and have subscribed since before August 1st, 2014 are entered to win a trip to WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans. Those eligible for the sweepstakes have already been entered automatically and will receive one entry for every day that they've been subscribed to the Network.

Originally Posted by Observer

Ken Anderson will be wrestling for Ring of Honor for the first time on April 28th in Hopkins, Minnesota. He'll be challenging Marty Scurll for the ROH World Television title.

ROH revealed that EVIL and Hirooki Goto are set to appear on the upcoming War of the Worlds tour. KUSHIDA and Tetsuya Naito were announced for the tour yesterday.

Originally Posted by Observer

Officials from both Impact Wrestling and AAA detailed how the promotions plan to collaborate in the future at a press conference in Mexico today.

It was announced that they would be exchanging talent, with wrestlers from AAA working Impact's Slammiversary pay-per-view on July 2nd and wrestlers from Impact working Triplemania XXV on August 26th.

Bobby Lashley, Eddie Edwards, Davey Richards, and Moose have been confirmed for Triplemania. Jeff Jarrett said at the press conference that the AAA wrestlers appearing at Slammiversary haven't been decided on yet.

One of Impact's titles will also be defended at Triplemania.

The promotions revealed in a press release that they plan to run "co-branded live tours" in the fall as well.

Impact and AAA officially announced their working agreement at Rey de Reyes in Monterrey last month. Since Anthem Sports & Entertainment took over the company, Impact has struck a deal to partner with ITV on the World of Sport revival in the UK, announced an alliance with Pro Wrestling NOAH in Japan, and also began a working relationship with The Crash (which is a rival promotion to AAA) in Mexico.

Originally Posted by Observer

Matt Anoa'i, who was best known in wrestling for his time as Rosey in WWE, passed away yesterday at 47 years old.

News of his death was announced on social media this morning, with Anoa'i's ex-wife noting in a Facebook post that he was aware that his health was fragile. He was previously hospitalized for congestive heart failure in 2014.

Originally Posted by Observer

On Twitter, Mauro Ranallo, when plugging his calling Showtime boxing this coming weekend, said, "You best believe I'll be calling pro wrestling again, too."

Originally Posted by Observer

One half of The Revival will be out of action for the next several weeks after suffering an injury.

WWE.com announced today that Dash Wilder fractured his jaw at an NXT house show over the weekend. Wilder last wrestled when he teamed with Scott Dawson against Shinsuke Nakamura & Hideo Itami in Spartanburg, South Carolina on Friday night.

Originally Posted by PWI

Impact Wrestling (formerly TNA) admitted before the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia that the company indeed breached their deal with former production company Audience of One Productions, LLC and that their Repayment Agreement with AO1 was a "valid and enforceable" contract in a filing on 4/14.

As part of that admission, Impact Wrestling agreed that the remaining balance they owed AO1 would be paid immediately, plus interest. Impact agreed to pay AO1 $336,602. The court officially closed the lawsuit yesterday with prejudice, which means that as long as AO1 is paid in full, they could not bring new claims against the company.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

As noted, Shelton Benjamin will be returning to action this week for the first time since undergoing surgery for a torn rotator cuff last fall. Benjamin was scheduled to return to WWE until the shoulder issue was found while taking the company's physical.

Benjamin took to Twitter to clear up any confusion regarding his WWE status. He noted that he never actually signed with WWE because of his injury and he is currently a free agent.

"Let me clear this up now. I am not signed to @WWE," Benjamin wrote. "I never signed due to injury. While that could change, as of 4-16-2017 I am a free agent"

Benjamin will be wrestling Mike Orlando at this Friday's "World War 360" Brii Combination Wrestling event in Elmhurst, NY. It is his first match since last July.

@MFSteveHere @TheSonOfMuta @JoyOfBearding Let me clear this up now. I am not signed to @WWE. I never signed due to injury. While that could change, as of 4-16-2017 I am a free agent
— Shelton J. Benjamin (@Sheltyb803) April 16, 2017

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

The two major WWE pushes for this year are Baron Corbin on the SmackDown side and Braun Strowman on the RAW brand. While both are being groomed as top stars and the top heels on their respective brands, Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that WWE officials have higher hopes for Corbin as a main event talent.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Maria Kanellis is set for a WWE return and her husband Mike Bennett is coming with her, according to a report on Monday by SportsKeeda.

Mike and Maria are reportedly headed to WWE's SmackDown brand. PWTorch reported today that a return to Impact Wrestling was a possibility but WWE's offer was more appealing to the couple.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

WWE is reportedly planning on using the "Broken" character for Matt Hardy. Dave Meltzer reported on Wrestling Observer Radio that WWE is working on a deal with Impact Wrestling to use the character on television, which has yet to be finalized.

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4957873)

Supposedly happened from a stiff strike by Itami that nailed Wilder's jaw.

Originally Posted by Observer

After last week's post-brand split high-water mark of 3.11 million viewers for the second night of WWE's Superstar Shakeup, SmackDown ratings came crashing all the way down to 2.54 million this week.

That's the lowest number the show has done since January 10th and well below what SmackDown has been averaging since moving to its live format on Tuesday nights.

Originally Posted by Observer

Daria Berenato and Macey Estrella both got new names at the [NXT]tapings. Berenato is now known as "Sonya Deville" and Estrella's new name is "Lacey Evans."

Originally Posted by Observer

After they moved over from Raw in the Superstar Shakeup, Primo and Epico were repackaged as "The Colons" on television this week.

Originally Posted by Observer

What Culture Pro Wrestling announced that Drew Galloway would defend his WCPW title in a 30-man Championship Rumble match at an iPPV on April 29th. His final date for the promotion will be the next day as he fulfills his commitments after re-signing with WWE.

Originally Posted by Observer

Continuing to add members of Los Ingobernables de Japon to the War of the Worlds tour, Ring of Honor announced SANADA and BUSHI for the four shows. Tetsuya Naito and EVIL were both previously announced for the tour. The stops are in Toronto on May 7th, Dearborn on the 10th, New York on the 12th, and Philadelphia on the 14th.

Christopher Daniels will defend his ROH World Championship against Matt Taven on the show in Dearborn.

Originally Posted by PWI

On the sixth episode of ‘Dinner With The King’, Jerry “The King” Lawler talks with co-host Glenn Moore about his feud with Andy Kaufman. This episode if the first of a multi-part series about the famous pro wrestling vs. entertainment battle early 80s.

The subject of Andy Kaufman and the WWE Hall of Fame came up and The King proclaimed that Kaufman rightfully deserves to be inducted.

"I think that without a doubt he does. Probably the main drawback, or main hold up, or resistance to that is the fact that Andy never had a match in WWE. There’s definitely a place for Andy, at least, in the celebrity wing of the WWE Hall of Fame.

That match that Andy and I had, it almost supersedes any organization. It was just about wrestling, in general. If you look back and really consider all the facts, that match was so important in the way wrestling evolved after.

That was the beginning of sports entertainment. That was the first time that wrestling and the entertainment world collided head-to-head and wound up working together.”

He also talks about how Vince McMahon Sr. turned down Kaufman’s idea, and later was told by Vince K. McMahon that he was jealous that Lawler was able to work with Kaufman and gained all the publicity. He goes on to share audio from the beginning of his feud with Kaufman and how the match came to fruition.

Originally Posted by PWI

World Wrestling Entertainment filed a motion seeking a summary judgment that would end the lawsuit brought against them by former WWE performer Vito LoGrasso and former WWE developmental talent Evan Singleton on 4/17 in the United States District Court of Connecticut.

To review, previous lawsuits against WWE involving Billy Jack Haynes, Ryan Sakoda, Russ McCullough and Matthew "Luther Reigns" Wiese have all been dismissed (all are currently appealing that decision) while a lawsuit brought by Vito LoGrasso and Evan Singleton saw all of their claims against WWE tossed from court, with the exception of one claim - one alleging that in 2005, WWE "became aware of and failed to disclose to its wrestlers information concerning a link between repeated head trauma and permanent degenerative neurological conditions" - was allowed to move forward. Since WWE had created it's Wellness Policy in 2005 and LoGrasso and Singleton had wrestled during that period, the court ruled it was within reason that there was a possibility that WWE had a "greater knowledge" of the dangers via information cultivated via Wellness Policy data. So the court has allowed that aspect of the case to move forward so the matter can be determined, although depositions involving the Plaintiffs in that case have revealed holes in those claims.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

As seen in the video above, TMZ Sports caught up with Tommy Dreamer and Bubba Ray Dudley, who spoke about Shane McMahon. Bubba was asked if Shane was a good wrestler, and while Bubba said Shane isn't necessarily "in the traditional sense," Shane is great at "creating that holy sh-t moment." Bubba added that Shane is crazy and is always looking to steal the show.

Dreamer added that Shane is technically sound, citing Shane's match with AJ Styles at WrestleMania 33. He also said that Shane should enter the UFC because he "is a real badass" and would fare well and would choke people out or knock them out. Bubba agreed, saying that Shane is like a rabid pitbull that would fight to the death and that "you would have to kill him to beat him."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

As noted, Jinder Mahal won the Six-Pack Challenge and became new #1 contender to WWE Champion Randy Orton thanks to an assist from The Bollywood Boyz. It appears they have dropped that gimmick and are now being called The Singh Brothers, Gurv and Harv. WWE posted this photo of the group backstage after the match:

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Ember Moon may have suffered an injury at tonight's WWE NXT TV tapings from Full Sail University.

A battle royal to crown a new #1 contender to NXT Women's Champion Asuka was taped for the May 17th episode ...

During the match, Ember was knocked from the top rope to the floor. Our correspondent noted that she essentially did a suicide dive and nailed the guardrail with her shoulder. The match soon ended while Ember was seen crying at ringside. She was helped to the back by referees and medics.