Originally Posted by Observer

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

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

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

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

Originally Posted by Observer

New Japan announced before its show earlier today that Hiroshi Tanahashi had a ruptured right biceps (full tear) and will be out of action until 6/9 when he will return at Korakuen Hall. Satoshi Kojima replaces him in all of his matches until then. With that injury, he really should have surgery and be out six months.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

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

The next show is Saturday in Matsuzaka with:

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

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

Only 200 Pairs
1 Per Customer
Sizes 6-15 (half sizes too)
4-6 Week Ship Time
$175 + Shipping Worldwide

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

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

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Fastway (Post 4969340)

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

Originally Posted by Observer

The condition of Tommaso Ciampa is up in the air, but all things considered, the news was positive as X-rays showed he didn't suffer a broken ankle last night.

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

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

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

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Impact Wrestling Creative Consultant to Head of Creative Dutch Mantel, Matt Hardy and Matt's wife, Reby, were involved in a Twitter spat this afternoon. It started with the message below with Mantel quoting a tweet that read, "If Matt knew he had a case he'd be trying to get this in front of a judge ASAP. If Anthem was avoiding court, Reby would let us know."

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

H said if this match doesn’t work out, he doesn’t know. He will decide then. He said that he likes to look at things from a positive point of view. Itami went from being a big star in Japan to having a lot of setbacks. Part of it was Itami finding his way in NXT. It happens at times. It’s a confidence and comfort thing. But he is a good guy and has worked hard so when he got injured he felt bad for Itami. H thinks he is a big player and he will rise to the occasion. If he doesn’t, they will discuss it and he will see what Itami wants to do and they will go from there.

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4969481)

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

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

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

The three hours were:

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

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

"As far as I know, the WWE doesn’t want the gimmick, and indeed, from every conversation I’ve had with them, I’ve been told they have no interest in it," Nordholm said.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

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

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

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

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

CMLL announced today that Maximo Sexy, La Mascara and Bobby Villa have all been fired. Mascara was under the impression yesterday he was only suspended. Maximo and La Mascara were fired for being on the scene when Ultimo Guerrero's car was destroyed in the Arena Mexico parking lot. Because the video tape of the incident came out, there was a significant amount of national media coverage of this. Bobby Villa was not in the video tape but somehow was implicated, but it should be noted that Ultimo Guerrero brought Villa into the promotion.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

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

Originally Posted by Pro Wrestling Sheet

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

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

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

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

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

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

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

It will be AJ Styles, Baron Corbin, Sami Zayn, Dolph Ziggler, Kevin Owens, and Shinsuke Nakamura competing for the briefcase and a future shot at the WWE Championship. The announcement was made by Shane McMahon.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

Asuka tweeted about her undefeated streak: "I respect Goldberg so much. He is amazing. I am honored to be the undefeated champion with the longest streak in WWE history. #WWE #WWENXT"

Originally Posted by Observer

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

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

If he wants to return to work full time:

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

The issues between Impact Wrestling and the Hardys:

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

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

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

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

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

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

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

Originally Posted by Observer

The Washington Post interviewed Chris Jericho about his tour with Fozzy and when he'll be coming back to WWE. “It’ll be a long time before I go back,” Jericho claimed. “If I ever do go back, if I never go back, it’s fine. If I never wrestle another match, it wouldn’t bother me.” Jericho has made similar comments in the past in an effort to keep his WWE returns from being known in advance.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

MLW Radio announced that a podcast hosted by Sean Mooney and "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan will be debuting over the summer. It will feature the two of them looking back at their time in the WWF.

Originally Posted by PWI

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

"Registration is refused because the applied-for mark, as used on the specimen of record, identifies only the name of a particular character/personal name; it does not function as a service mark to identify and distinguish applicant’s services from those of others and to indicate the source of applicant’s service

Originally Posted by PWI

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

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

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

The reason that there are so many multiple person matches being booked in WWE is that right now the booking is slow. They have plans to heat things up in July and August for SummerSlam and know where they want to go, but really don’t have a lot of ideas for right now, so they’re just using multiple person matches to fill the time.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

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

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

Originally Posted by Observer

The Cleveland Cavaliers beating the Boston Celtics last night ended those playoffs at 4-1 and ended any shot at WWE going head-to-head on Monday with the NBA. Next week's Cavaliers vs. Warriors games are scheduled for Thursday and Sunday, and then the following two games are Wednesday and Friday, so Raw and Smackdown are clear of the NBA the next two weeks. On 6/12, if a game five is needed and there's a good chance of that, it will go head-to-head with a Raw featuring Brock Lesnar. Raw will probably take a huge hit that night. Raw will go against the Stanley Cup finals (Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Rusev & Lana's favorite Nashville Predators) the next two Mondays, but the NHL doesn't hurt Raw nearly as much as the NBA. If's Raw's ratings don't move up 250,000 viewers this week, that would be a very bad sign.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

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

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

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

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

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

Below is Gunner's tweet:

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

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


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


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

Originally Posted by Observer

[Noam]Dar will be wrestling for ICW on July 29th at Shug's Hoose Party 4 night one. He'll team with Sha Samuels against Grado & Joe Coffey.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

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

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

There is no word yet on the severity of the injury or how long Ciampa will be out of action as of this writing.

Originally Posted by PWI

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

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

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

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


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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

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

The Stanley Cup finals did 4.85 million viewers.

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

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

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

The three hours were:

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

... If they want to avoid coming to that unwanted fork, the time to make changes is now. If they don’t, this time in 2019 could be really scary for them.

Originally Posted by PWI

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

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

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

Originally Posted by ROH

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

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

Originally Posted by Fightful.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Vince never seems receptive. His response is always a couple of words. He's not that guy. He's the same guy that told me I could get a nanny (to raise) your kids," said Russo.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

The show was third for the night in total viewers on cable and was first in the 18-49 demo with a 0.77 rating.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

The Kurt Angle WWE 24 documentary will debut in July.

WWE has uploaded all but one episode of TNT, so that series is all but complete in the Vault section of the WWE Network.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

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

So if a significant percentage of those fans are former Roman booers who have finally lost the desire to try and change Vince’s mind and given up the fight, in your concession to futility you may have finally stumbled onto the most impactful way to get your message across.

Originally Posted by PWI

Impact Wrestling will debut in Staten Island, NY at Richmond County Ball Park, the home of the Staten Island Yankees on Saturday 8/5 at 6 PM. Tickets will go on sale on 6/9.

Announced for the event were Impact champion Bobby Lashley, GFW champion Alberto el Patron, EC3 and James Storm ...

This will be the first Impact live event under Anthem Media's ownership and the first live event in the United States since an event in Salem, Virginia on October 3, 2015.

Originally Posted by PWI

Chris Adonis (aka Masters) went to the hospital while Impact was in India to get an MRI on a potential injury. We haven't confirmed what the nature of the injury was at this juncture but it did not prevent him from working the second TV taping date ...

The belief internally is that the India tapings did a lot to strengthen the company's relationship with Sony Six.

LAX did not work the India tour as their material is, thus far, shot out of sequence.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

As noted, Brie Bella recently announced on her YouTube channel that she is preparing for a return to the ring now that she's given birth to Birdie Joe. Above is new video of Brie training for her return to the WWE ring.

Originally Posted by Observer

Lots of talk once again regarding a Hogan return. As noted many times, it’s a question of when, and that will be determined by when the company is reasonably sure that bringing him back won’t cause a backlash. The problem is those quotes he made were racist and can’t be sugar-coated, and they can’t make the claim that they didn’t know about them. Of course the more times goes on, the more the fans want to see him. But if he’s hired as an ambassador representing the company and doing media, the company doesn’t want him out there promoting the network and then having to defend himself on those comments and the stories on WWE bring up those comments. Still, in the WWE Kids Magazine (not available in the U.S, but available in the U.K., Spain and the Middle East) there was a Hogan poster and Hogan has said that he and Vince are talking.

Originally Posted by Observer

I don’t know if anything will come of this, but the idea of a Vince McMahon Table for 3 segment is at least being talked about for a few months down the line. Obviously the people doing the network would love it since it’ll draw an audience, so really like everything, it’s up to Vince.

Originally Posted by Observer

Those at Impact were told directly from Sony Six that the belief was that the big Mahal push was directly related to their tour this week. Whether accurate or not, the WWE’s U.K. timing and strategy changed significantly when, in a market WWE dominated, somebody else was coming in with strong television backing. Indeed, the lack of future tapings of the weekly U.K. television show after we were told about plans for monthly tapings and a weekly network show at the same time the ITV project imploded was noteworthy. At this point, WWE has nothing on the schedule for India this year, although that could change.

Originally Posted by Observer

Mayu Iwatani is no longer considering retirement, since she’s obviously going to be the top star in Stardom with the departure of Io Shirai and Kairi Hojo. Kagetsu is taking some time off, perhaps a month, to spend time with her family but she’ll be working the majority of the Stardom shows this year. Stardom is really pushing the 6/21 Korakuen Hall match with Shirai vs. Iwatani for the World of Stardom title, which Shirai has. The story is that Iwatani is the only wrestler in the promotion who has been there from the start, and she also has never won the company’s major belt. Iwatani is also the Wonder of Stardom champion and nobody has ever won both belts at the same time. Hojo’s final show with Stardom will be on 6/4.

Originally Posted by Observer

Ciampa will be undergoing knee surgery this week for a torn ACL from the ladder match at NXT Takeover when he went in and worked on a compromised ankle. While any estimate until surgery is premature, the general rule on ACL surgery is a six-to-eight month recuperation period, which pretty much kills the planned Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano angle.

Originally Posted by Observer

The reason WWE will be using Viper in the upcoming women’s tournament is that several of the ITV wrestlers asked out of their deals since there are no plans for shows.

There will be a new international class of women’s wrestlers starting together in the next few weeks of Kairi Hojo from Japan, Evie from New Zealand (Cheree Crowley, 29, a ten-year veteran who has worked in the top U.S. and Japanese women’s groups since 2013), Nixon Newell from the U.K. (Steffanie Newell, 22, who has been on the international scene the past few years) and Demi Bennett, 20, from Australia.

Right now it appears the plan is for Io Shirai, who is also coming soon, to not be in the Mae Young Classic, as she’ll be finishing up in Japan first.

Originally Posted by Observer

For whatever this is worth, there was so much money bet yesterday on Samoa Joe to win on Sunday that he was taken off the board at Paddy Power. Paddy Power has been getting a lot of smart money bet this year but Thursday is usually early since Vince often doesn't make up his mind until the day of the show. But in this case, with Brock Lesnar being the opponent of the winner and McMahon having Lesnar's stuff usually detailed out way in advance, it is possible this is legit.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

Though the main event for the show was already known, New Japan Pro Wrestling has revealed the full card for the Best of the Super Juniors finals.

That main event will have Block A winner Will Ospreay taking on Block B winner KUSHIDA in the tournament finals. The two have faced each other before, with KUSHIDA winning both times. As defending Best of the Super Juniors winner, Ospreay looks to both repeat as tournament champion and get his first win against KUSHIDA.

The winner of that match will likely get an IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship shot against Hiromu Takahashi at Dominion on June 11th ...

The show will take place on June 3rd and will air live at 4 a.m. ET on New Japan World, complete with English commentary. The full card is:

• Will Ospreay vs. KUSHIDA to determine this year's Best of the Super Juniors winner
• Kazuchika Okada & Gedo vs. Kenny Omega & Marty Scurll
• Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, EVIL, BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Satoshi Kojima, Juice Robinson, Ryusuke Taguchi, Ricochet & Dragon Lee
• Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Minoru Suzuki & Taichi
• War Machine, David Finlay & ACH vs. Guerrillas of Destiny, Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi
• Volador Jr., Tiger Mask IV & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Taka Michinoku, El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
• Hirai Kawato, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Togi Makabe vs. Jado, Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii
• Syota Umino, Tomoyuki Oka & Yuji Nagata vs. Tetsuhiro Yagi, Katsuya Kitamura & Manabu Nakanishi

Originally Posted by PWI

Earlier today, WWN announced talents for their ongoing Style Battle promotion, which features a series of tournament with competitors from different "styles" facing off at each event, with the winners moving on to a final tournament at the end of a "season." Announced for the tournament on 6/16 in Ybor City, Florida were Anthony Henry, Matt Tremont, Shlak, Maxwell Jacob Friedman and Teddy Stigma. Many of the same talents were also announced for the 6/17 FIP event in the same venue.

The inclusion of Shlak, who has worked for CZW and is competing in their Tournament of Death next week in Delaware, led to immediate complaints on social media, as fans had uncovered photos of him posing with white power band members and a photo of him giving a Nazi salute. WWN's Gabe Sapolsky (who is Jewish) immediately stated he wasn't aware of the situation and was going to investigate. In speaking to PWInsider.com, Sapolsky said that Shlak had been booked based on multiple recommendations and was going to drive down to the event as part of a contingent traveling together from the Northeast. Before Sapolsky had a chance to investigate the situation, however, Flosports (which has a deal with WWN to stream their events as part of their subscription service) informed the promotion that they had received complaints as well and would not be allowing Shlak's matches to be streamed on their service. All of this led to the promotion unbooking him. As you might imagine, Sapolsky wasn't happy about this scenario taking place at all.

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by PWI

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

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

This past Monday's episode of RAW on Memorial Day averaged 2.613 million viewers and was the least watched episode of the year. The final rating of the show was just a 1.75.

Dave Meltzer reported in The Wrestling Observer Newsletter that it was the second lowest rated episode in the history of the show. He also noted that only one episode of WCW Monday Nitro, the December 11, 2000 show, ever did lower than a 1.75.

The rating is based on the percentage of homes that get the USA Network, so cord cutting doesn't factor into the rating. It was also noted in the Observer that the USA Network is available in 91.8 million homes, while it was available in 92.7 million homes a year ago, a drop of 1%. This year's RAW rating was down 19.1% from last year's Memorial Day episode, which scored a 2.19 rating with 3.222 million viewers.

Originally Posted by Observer

The WWE got a shockingly big PPV boost from Extreme Rules, as Raw averaged 2.98 million viewers and was the most-watched show last night on cable television ...

It was the largest audience to watch Raw since the April 24th show and largest first hour since April 17th.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 3.11 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.11 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.76 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer

Pro Wrestling Sheet reported the WWE will run shows twice a month starting shortly to tape the U.K. television show and that several of the wrestlers were signed to new contracts, listing Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate, Trent Seven, Wolfgang and Mark Andrews who will be brought to Orlando at times as well as continue to work in the U.K. We had reported weeks back that WWE had contacted U.K. venues that are already well known for shows with other promotions regarding taping television at least once a month. No first date has been announced but originally the plan was to have a taping in June, but that may be rushing it.

Originally Posted by Observer

Smith Hart, 68, the oldest brother of Bret Hart, who is suffering from cancer, was moved to Hospice Care in recent days which is sad news. Best wishes to Smith right now and to the entire Hart family.

Originally Posted by Observer

Thea Trinidad has signed a WWE developmental contract according to Pro Wrestling Sheet. She debuted at the last set of tapings as a second for Andrade Cien Almas. She is the girlfriend of Austin Aries.

Originally Posted by Observer

John Cena will be on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on 6/9, likely to promote the debut of the new American Grit TV show.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

Members of the NXT roster were in Manchester today visiting those affected by last month's bombing. WWE, Sky News, and other outlets have posted articles about Bobby Roode, Nikki Cross, Mark Andrews, and PROGRESS Wrestling's Jim Smallman visiting an eight-year-old girl who was injured in the attack. Ember Moon, Roderick Strong, Trent Seven, and Jack Gallagher also donated items at a Red Cross to help with the emergency fund.

Originally Posted by Observer

Sports Business Journal has a study on how viewership for sports on television has gotten older over the past decade. The study found that the median age for those watching pro wrestling on TV was 54 years old in 2016, which is up from 28 in 2000 and 33 in 2006. Dave Meltzer noted on Twitter that the average age of those watching Raw and SmackDown is in the 40s.

Originally Posted by Observer

In an update on the situation with What Culture Pro Wrestling and YouTube, WCPW had the strike that YouTube gave their channel removed and their "Fight Back" show has been added back to the service. YouTube had given them the strike for supposedly violating their policy on spam and deceptive practices.

Originally Posted by PWI

We've had a number of readers ask whether there was a major reason that caused WWE to keep Matt and Jeff Hardy from appearing on Raw last night. Sources indicate they will be working a reduced schedule the next few weeks as Matt's wife Rebecca is scheduled to give birth to their second child very soon.

On the Impact Wrestling-Broken Hardys gimmick front, there has been very little said publicly by either side of late, which I believe is a sign that they are quietly trying to negotiate some sort of agreement. Billy Corgan had been trying to mediate, but there's no confirmation he is still involved.

We have also heard the Hardys sit-down interview with Corey Graves that was filmed before Extreme Rules in Baltimore will likely be used in some form on an upcoming edition of Bring It To The Table. WWE is filming the latest episode of that series this week to debut it next Monday following Raw.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE plans to distribute the Mae Young Classic tournament in a different way, PWInsider.com has exclusively confirmed.

The plan is to film the 32-woman tournament on 7/13 and 7/14 at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida for the WWE Network.

The Network will debut a preview special for the tournament on 8/20 with the first round of the tournament being released via Video on Demand the final week of August as a way to let fans binge the "episodes."

The second round will be released the first week in September, again via the VOD service. Initially, the plan was to release them Summerslam week but the decision was made to hold off so that the women's tournament was not overshadowed by everything else WWE had scheduled for that week, which is pretty smart.

The current plan is to hold the finals live on Tuesday 9/12. Currently, the only WWE event scheduled that day is a taping in Las Vegas for the Smackdown brand, so it may be that the finals of the Mae Young Classic will air live on the Network from Las Vegas

Originally Posted by PWI

On June 4th, former WCW Heavyweight Champion Van Vader announced that he would be retiring. His tweet read: “With great sorrow I leave my first born, my greatest love of all, for a chance to exist in the same plain of existence of my Gr Ch yet to exist”

With Great Sorrow I leave my first born my greatest love of All for a chance to exist inthe same plain of existance of my Gr Ch yet to exist
— Big Van Vader (@itsvadertime) June 4, 2017

The 62-year-old legend has been through a lot, since he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. His chances of prognosis are slim, with doctors giving him up to two years to live. Big Van Vader has gone against the grain, his willpower and strength is commendable. Sadly, he collapsed during the Tatsumi Fujinami 45th Anniversary show in April - a six-man tag team match, where he worked with Keji Muto and Akira in Japan. His original tweet “for a chance to exist in the same plain of existence as my Gr Ch yet to exit” refers to his wish to see his grandchildren one day. It was this tweet that lead fans and wrestling industry officials alike, to believe that Van Vader would be hanging up his boots. In fact, it turns out that Van Vader will not be giving up his career in wrestling and has vowed to continue his long successful career, despite his condition. He replied to his own tweet on June 5th with “As usual some one got it wrong. I have not wrestled my last match. Lord willing not for years yet. Love it when you got them guessing.”

As usual some one got it wrong I have not wrestled my last match Lord wilinng not for yrs yet Love it when u got them guessing https://t.co/0s5ozMmDK5
— Big Van Vader (@itsvadertime) June 5, 2017

Originally Posted by PWI

The United States Patent and Trademark Office partially suspended Bruce Tharpe's registration of the National Wrestling Alliance trademark (which was filed for back in March after it expired in December 2016) on 6/4 due to "a likelihood of confusion with a registered mark and under Trademark Act Sections 1 and 45 for failure to show the applied-for mark in use in commerce with any of the specified goods in Class 25. The applicant was also informed that the marks in two pending applications present a potential bar to registration under Section 2(d), if registered. In addition, applicant was required to provide an amended definite identification of goods, provide information relevant to examination under 37 C.F.R. §2.61(b), clarify the mark description, provide clarification regarding the claimed dates of first use, and provide clarification regarding the applicant’s claim of concurrent use."

It appears based on the ruling that the issue at play is related to merchandising of the NWA brand, specifically that the NWA name may come into conflict with other existing applications featuring a similar brand name and that Tharpe, in his application, did not show adequate proof that the brand was currently being used in commerce, i.e. was actually being sold.

PWInsider.com reported several weeks ago that the Billy Corgan purchase of the NWA brand was "in jeopardy" according to numerous sources but has learned that since then, the Corgan and Tharpe sides have continued discussions.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

The next "Table For 3" on the WWE Network will air on Monday, June 19th after RAW goes off the air with Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres and Maryse.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Several readers pointed out that Michael Cole said during commentary on last night's RAW that Roman Reigns "perhaps" sent The Undertaker into retirement at WrestleMania, which we mentioned on our podcast last night. While WWE isn't publicly closing the door on Taker's career, we reported last month that Taker was at the David H Koch Pavilion Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, which is one of the best in the country for orthopaedics, which would seem to indicate that Taker will be undergoing the hip surgery that he had been delaying until he retired.

Originally Posted by Observer

Ratings for this Tuesday's SmackDown were essentially even with last week, at 2.349 million viewers. That's down only 1,000 viewers from the May 30th show.

The episode was sixth for the night on cable in terms of total viewers and first in the 18-49 demo with a 0.74 rating.

There was no big sports competition last night with the NBA and NHL finals both not in action. The biggest competition was "America's Got Talent" on NBC, which did 12.5 million viewers head-to-head with SmackDown ...

For a year-over-year comparison, which will get very interesting next month when we can compare the live Tuesday night numbers, SmackDown this week in 2016 did 2.169 million viewers and a 0.69 rating in the 18-49 demo, so those numbers were up eight and seven percent respectively this year.

At this time in 2016, the show was taped on Tuesdays and then aired on the USA Network on Thursdays.

Originally Posted by Observer

Cena spoke to The Wrap ahead of the return of his "American Grit" show. He talked about claims that he's "buried" other wrestlers: "This is why I have the reputation of quote-unquote 'burying younger talent,' because I will let them do whatever they want with me -- and then after they get done, they’re not as motivated. So, it’s not that I sink their ship, it’s that they fail to operate at an elite level. And I’m on to the next person, whom I say, 'Hey man, bring your best punch and I’m gonna punch back' -- and they don’t take that attitude beyond me."

Originally Posted by Observer

PWG posted that Matt Riddle is off of their show on June 16th. He had been scheduled to team with Jeff Cobb against Chuck Taylor & Trent Baretta, but he'll be defending his WWN Championship against Martin Stone at a Style Battle show on that day instead. WWN also announced that they're allowing Riddle out of his bookings for EVOLVE on July 8th and 9th to pursue another opportunity. Riddle will be facing Tomohiro Ishii in a non-tournament match at Revolution Pro Wrestling's British J-Cup show in London on the 8th.

Originally Posted by Observer

Ring of Honor has announced more matches for their Best in the World pay-per-view. The Young Bucks will defend their ROH tag titles against War Machine, Jay Lethal will face Silas Young, and Frankie Kazarian will take on Hangman Page in a strap match. The Lowell Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, Massachusetts will host the PPV on June 23rd.

Originally Posted by Observer

Finn Balor is in Japan to do media for WWE and has been visiting with some old friends. He posted pictures with Kazuchika Okada and KUSHIDA. WWE uploaded a video of Balor talking about it being his first time in the country since the Beast in the East show.

Originally Posted by PWI

Big Show will be moderating a Bungie panel next 12 PM Tuesday at E3 2017 a part of Coliseum. The World' s Largest Athlete is a big fan of the company's Destiny franchise.

Originally Posted by PWI

In the wake of explicit and private material featuring current and former performers leaking onto the Internet over the past several months, World Wrestling Entertainment held talent meetings at this past week's Raw and Smackdown tapings to try and prevent such things from happening again, PWInsider.com has learned.

The mandatory meetings were described to us as a class on cyber security threats with an expert from a cyber security firm brought in by the company to give a presentation to the roster. The presentation broke down different ways that one may find themselves tricked into inadvertently allowing their security to be breached. Talents were warned not to even accept USB drives as gifts, even if they were from beautiful women promising naked photos, which talent were told was a scenario that has happened to celebrities in the past ...

We are told that the company also gave out an amendment to their social media policy for talents to sign, although what that amendment may have been, we have not yet confirmed. WWE also stressed that no one but the talents and WWE social media teams should have access to the talents' social media accounts.

Originally Posted by PWI

On his podcast this week, Jim Ross mentioned that he is lobbying to call the Brock Lesnar vs. Samoa Joe match at Great Balls of Fire.

Originally Posted by PWI

The 8/19 WWE NXT: Takeover Brooklyn will have an online pre-sale tomorrow starting at 10 AM Eastern using code WWENXT at Ticketmaster.com.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Speaking of Sasha, she agreed with a fan on Twitter when asked if the logo for WWE's Great Balls of Fire pay-per-view resembles male private parts. The logo has been the subject of a lot of jokes from fans on social media in the past week. You can see the exchange below:

@SashaBanksWWE do you think the Great Balls of Fire logo looks like a dick and balls? pic.twitter.com/RmzdVGH5UW
— Shane Wareham (@HuntRampaige) June 7, 2017


Yes
— $asha Banks (@SashaBanksWWE) June 7, 2017

Originally Posted by Observer

Insane Championship Wrestling in the U.K. has pulled its content from the Fite App. That's probably a sign of something involving WWE. George Barrios had already talked about an ICW and WWE deal for possible distribution on WWE Network a few weeks ago and ICW and WWE were in talks about a deal going back several months.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by PWI

Ring of Honor returns to PPV on Saturday 6/23 with "Best in the World" 2017 from the Lowell Memorial Auditorium, featuring:

*ROH champion Christopher Daniels vs. Cody Rhodes.

*ROH Tag Team champions The Young Bucks vs. War Machine.

*Strap Match: Adam Page vs. Frankie Kazarian.

*The Kingdom's Matt Taven & Vinny Marseglia vs. CMLL stars El Terrible and Ultimo Guerrero.

*Jay Lethal vs. Silas Young.

*The debut of STARDOM High Speed champion Kris Wolf.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

RAW Tag Team Champion Sheamus noted in a recent interview how the one title that has eluded him is the WWE Intercontinental Title. He said, "The only thing I haven't won is the Intercontinental Championship. Now that it's back on WWE Raw, I would love to hold both the Intercontinental Championship and Raw Tag Team titles at the same time."

As seen below, The Celtic Warrior tweeted about winning the title on Twitter today and received a response from current WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz:

Only one WWE title missing for the #GrandSlam goal I set myself many years ago... it will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine. pic.twitter.com/pSQ0AhphvS
— Sheamus (@WWESheamus) June 8, 2017


No it won't https://t.co/XWr0atHIb7
— The Miz (@mikethemiz) June 8, 2017


Wanna bet? https://t.co/sh95L7uO4O
— Sheamus (@WWESheamus) June 8, 2017

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Below is video of WWE Hall of Famers Ric Flair and Bruno Sammartino talking about their statues in this "Table For 3" video from this past Monday. Randy Orton also appeared on the episode. Bruno reveals that he went to New York for a "terrible" experience to get the mold for his statue created. Flair did not have to go through that as they created his statue using a model.

.@SammartinoBruno and @RicFlairNatrBoy had two VERY different experiences in receiving their statues! #TableFor3 @RandyOrton pic.twitter.com/ZaTURGBQGz
— WWE (@WWE) June 6, 2017

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

As seen at WWE Extreme Rules this past weekend, Austin Aries was wearing kinesio tape during his match with WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville, which saw Neville defeat Aries to defend his title. Aries has not wrestled since that match, and he joined Busted Open with Dave Lagreca and Larry Dallas yesterday to promote his new book, Food Fight: My Plant Based Journey From The Bingo Hall to The Big Time. During the interview, Aries confirmed that he has some nagging injuries at the moment.

"I've got some stuff going on, but just to be fair you could probably say that for a lot of the locker room. It's kind of part of what we do, I don't think anyone is ever 100%," Aries said. "So I got a couple things going on and obviously at this point it might be a good time to take a little break which really could consist of two days to just adjust some of those things, try and get my mind and my body right and then come back and figure out what's gonna be next and what the direction's gonna be."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Lana is supposed to be a heel now that she has made her arrival on WWE SmackDown but The Wrestling Observer Newsletter notes that it's almost guaranteed she will be a babyface with the gimmick she's being given. It was noted that Lana is basically working in the role that was slotted for Eva Marie. Eva is now focusing on her acting career and won't be returning to work for WWE.

As noted, Lana vs. SmackDown Women's Champion Naomi with the title on the line will take place at the June 18th WWE Money In the Bank pay-per-view. Unless she wrestles next Tuesday night, the title shot at MITB would be Lana's in-ring SmackDown TV debut.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Regarding Samoa Joe vs. WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar, their upcoming title match is scheduled to be a one-time thing. Joe vs. Lesnar is set to headline the WWE Great Balls of Fire pay-per-view on July 9th. The two will face off for the first time on Monday's RAW from the Cajundome in Lafayette, LA.

The Observer notes that Lesnar is then scheduled to face Braun Strowman at SummerSlam in August. WWE officials are still planning on Roman Reigns vs. Lesnar for the title at WrestleMania 34 but there are plans to do Finn Balor vs. Lesnar and Seth Rollins vs. Lesnar matches between Braun and Reigns.

Originally Posted by Observer

There has been talk of using more main roster female Superstars on WWE 205 Live as a way to try and boost interest in the show.

Originally Posted by Observer

Tomoaki Honma is continuing to improve. While he can lightly jog, there are hand coordination issues that he still needs help with. He still needs assistance at things such as pouring water or brushing his teeth

Katsuyori Shibata is now said to be in good spirits. While he probably will never wrestle again, there is talk of him staying with the company and working full-time as a coach.

Originally Posted by Observer

There is a trademark issue with the NWA name which is really what has been holding up the sale to Billy Corgan. There is also an issue because in 1998, when the NWA name was brought into WWF with Jim Cornette leading the Rock & Roll Express, Dan Severn, The new Midnight Express (Bob Holly & Bart Gunn) and Jeff Jarrett, that Howard Brody, who was running the NWA signed a deal where WWF would have the rights to use the name open-ended. They wouldn’t own the name, but they would have a legal right to use it, although they stopped using it nearly 20 years ago. Bruce Tharpe’s trademark application for the NWA name was suspended by the U.S. Patent and Trademark office which has messed up the sale because the key thing Billy Corgan was looking at buying were all the trademarks to the NWA name. Tharpe filed for the trademarks in March after his original rights to the name and the trademarks expired in December. Until it’s taken care of, he can’t transfer the ownership to Corgan, who had hoped the deal would be completed by now

Originally Posted by Observer

While in India last week they taped in a TV studio that held 500 people. Everyone in the crowd was paid 250 to 400 rupee (between $3.80 and $7.60) to attend, so even in a small studio they not only didn’t charge for tickets but paid people to attend. That’s common for television shoots in India and wouldn’t have the same stigma if you did that in the U.S. Fans were instructed who to cheer and boo, and they were very good at doing so. They were told the villains would come from the left side of the stage and the heroes from the right side. The waves that may make the air were also instructed by the M.C. and not something the audience did spontaneously. However, EC 3 did have very legit heat when he came out as E Singh 3, and the crowd really loved Mahabali Shera and Sonjay Dutt. Jeff Jarrett was telling reporters that they are scouting more talent from India.

Originally Posted by Observer

Right now, the plan for the Ric Flair 30 for 30 piece, which was originally to air early this year, is for it to run in January 2018, but that date has changed many times

Originally Posted by Observer

Regarding the questions asked why NXT has such great ring entrances on Takeovers and WWE PPVs, with the exception of Mania, usually don’t, is because Paul Levesque is in charge of the NXT entrances and the WWE entrances are Vince McMahon in the end, but really handled by Kevin Dunn

Originally Posted by Observer

An interesting story is that some time back, Mahal had decided he was looking at getting out of wrestling and opening up a Subway sandwich shop and work some real estate

Originally Posted by Observer

Swagger did an interview with John Pozarowski and said that WWE had said they wanted to offer him a raise and sign him up for another five years, but the figure they offered was way off what he had been averaging the past five years. So he said he felt he needed a change and to become the best pro wrestler he can be, but to do that he had to leave, with the idea of making a name on the outside the making the company then want him back, I guess similar to how things worked out with Drew Galloway. He said he was angry for a long time but can see that it was just a business decision and he understands their side, his side and said he left on good terms. He said he wants to show what Jack Swagger can do, and not what they would let him do. He put over how great it was to work and travel with Dutch Mantell

Originally Posted by Observer

Pro Wrestling Sheet reported that Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax will be added to the cast of next season's Total Divas show. Naomi had done an interview earlier this week saying she was also in the cast of the show for the new season.

Originally Posted by Observer

The tentative schedule for New Japan is that the participants, A and B block, and probably the top matches on the biggest shows for G-1 will be announced during intermission on Sunday. There will also be a press conference on Monday night our time with the cards for both nights in Long Beach. I believe the press conference will be in time for us to cover it on our Monday night audio show.

Originally Posted by Observer

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

Originally Posted by Observer

Regarding the political story reported in yesterday's update in Las Vegas where a Judge had a superimposed photo of Dwayne Johnson with her appearing that Johnson was endorsing her in an upcoming election, Municipal Court Judge Heidi Almase today apologized on Facebook and fired campaign manager Jennifer Barrier. Barrier is the daughter of former Las Vegas pro wrestling promoter Buffalo Jim Barrier, and she claimed that she would get written proof that Johnson was fine with the endorsement saying that Johnson was a longtime family friend. Almase was embarrassed when people questioned the endorsement and said Barrier was fired for being unable to produce written proof that Johnson was okay with the apparent endorsement. Johnson is currently in Chicago shooting more scenes for the movie "Rampage."

Originally Posted by Observer

Both Raw and Smackdown will be taking place on 9/11 and 9/12 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA. They are doing this more and more this year, with the idea that they are able to draw well the second night enough that it makes sense with the savings of production costs of running the same building two nights in a row as far as set-up costs and production not having to travel.

Originally Posted by Obsever

Highspots is about to release a documentary on the late Bruiser Brody called "Wrestling's Last Rebel." Among those interviewed in the documentary are myself, Bill Apter, Bobby Fulton, Abdullah the Butcher, Stan Hansen, Tom Prichard, Killer Brooks, Slick, Herb Simmons, Larry Matysik (who wrote a book on Brody), Barbara Goodish, Bret Hart, Ron Bass, Emerson Murray (who wrote a book on Brody), Ricky Steamboat, Tony Atlas (who was there essentially when he died), Jim Ross, Jimmy Hart and Manny Fernandez.

Originally Posted by Observer

Matt and Rebecca Hardy welcomed their second son into the world at 11:37 p.m. last night.

Wolfgang Xander Hardy was born at the Hardy home. He was seven pounds and four ounces.

Matt made the announcement on Twitter earlier today.

The Hardys were given off after Sunday's Extreme Rules pay-per-view because Rebecca was due imminently.

He wrote in his character that "King Maxel was excited to meet his healthy younger brother. Thanks all." Maxel was regularly featured on television last year when the Hardys were with Impact Wrestling.

Originally Posted by PWI

NFL.com's Michael Fabiano tweeted that former Pittsburgh Steelers' RB DeAngelo Williams will be working for TNA at their 7/2 Slammiversary PPV.

Talked to @DeAngeloRB ... he's wrestling for @IMPACTWRESTLING on July 2, but still wants to play football next season. Prefers SB contender.
— Michael Fabiano (@Michael_Fabiano) June 9, 2017

Originally Posted by PWI

Charlotte Flair was in Vancouver, British Columbia earlier this week filming scenes for the USA Network's Psych: The Movie. When the series ran on the USA Network, there were a number of WWE-related lines in the dialouge and the stars of the show, Dule Hill and James Doday each appeared on Raw. Hill recently starred in the WWE Studios film Sleight.

Originally Posted by PWI

Austin Aries knocked down reports that he was taking time off from WWE in an interview to promote his book Food Fight today with USA Today's Josh Barnett at this link.

Aries commented, "If you look at the full quote and what I said was, Everyone is dealing with various stuff. I don’t think there is anyone in the locker room is 100%. We’re all nicked and banged up to various degrees. Like anything else, you pick and choose the times you need address when it needs to be addressed and some times are better than others. I figure no matter what interview I do, the real good ‘journalists’ are going to find the completely irrelevant quotes that will drum up some controversy and stick it on their page to get some clicks and completely miss the real context of what the interview is about. That’s what we do nowadays and call it ‘journalism.'”

Aries' book was officially released today.

Originally Posted by PWI

A Ruby Riot vs. Asuka match was canceled at the Download Festival today after Riot was busted open legitimately during the match. PWInsider.com is seeking complete results from the show.

Originally Posted by PWI

The following press release, announcing that AAA Lucha Libre from Mexico:

Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide wrestling to be aired on free UK sports channel Front Runner

Mexico’s biggest wrestling promotion Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide is set to be broadcast on UK television for the first time in its history, exclusively on the free-to-air sports channel Front Runner.

The first show will be aired on Wednesday 14th June at 9:00 pm to 19 million homes across the UK and Northern Ireland on SKY ch469, Freesat ch250, Freeview ch91, Talk Talk/ BT ch91.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

This month marks 10 years since Curtis Axel started training under WWE Hall of Famer Harley Race. Axel made his in-ring debut at a WLW show on July 13th, 2007, teaming with Ted DiBiase Jr. to defeat Dinn T. Moore and Branden Tatum. Axel tweeted the following today:

Hard to believe I started training at WLW, aka Harley Race Wrestling Academy, 10 yrs ago... Been a fun ride, but the best is yet to come!
— Curtis Axel (@RealCurtisAxel) June 9, 2017

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

TJP responded to a rumor that his name was changed from TJ Perkins because Vince McMahon hates the "Perkins" restaurant changed. TJP noted that he himself had requested the change, as seen below:

Actually I just asked to be called TJP. Not very complicated. https://t.co/SLkXP8GCEY
— ????TJ Perkins???? (@MegaTJP) June 9, 2017

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Jessie Godderz is apparently done with Impact Wrestling. Godderz has been with the company since 2011 and has held the TNA World Tag Team Championship on two occasions with Robbie E.