Originally Posted by Black Widow (Post 4845359)

The "you're not in the business so you can't comment" thing wrestlers always spew out is hilarious. It's like saying you're not allowed to dislike a movie because you're not a director, or you're not allowed to dislike a band because you're not a guitar player.

Originally Posted by Simple Fan (Post 4845209)

I bet Darren Young eventually falls for Bob Backlund and that's the first gay storyline.

Originally Posted by 411Mania

Big Show spoke with 790 The Ticket in Miami and doubled down on comments that he’s winding up his career soon. Show said that this year will be his last with WWE.

The WWE star noted that he feels better now at forty-four than he did at thirty-four and wants to be in the best shape he can for his match with Shaquille O’Neal at WrestleMania 33.

Originally Posted by Observer

An interesting business note regarding WWE and ESPN is that ESPN just purchased 33 percent of BAMTech for $1 billion. BAMTech is MLBAM, the group that streams the WWE network.

Originally Posted by Observer

One person with WWE noted to us to please tell independent talent to either stay off social media or watch what they post. It was noted WWE is very actively scouting indies right now and looking for people who are good but not with the WWE look as the mentality is completely different from two years ago about what type of people they are interested in. It was noted that there have been people recently were shot down based on content of recent tweets.

Originally Posted by PWI

The 8/11 edition of Impact Wrestling garnered 315,000 viewers. That was down slightly from last week's 317,000 viewers.

Originally Posted by PWI

We have heard that WWE started making contract offers to a few Cruiserweight Classic talents two weeks ago. Some talents will be offered full-fledged deals while others will be offered NXT/developmental type deals. Others may be brought in a per-date basis as the company. The most notable name on a per-date basis thus far appears to be Kota Ibushi, who we have heard will be in for Summerslam weekend. One would assume that means he is working the NXT Takeover show, although that has yet to be announced.

Originally Posted by PWI

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Ricochet has been announced for the 9/10 EVOLVE return to Queens, NY at La Boom.

Originally Posted by WWE

“Now fans can get an inside look at the impact these and the other ladies making an impact in WWE 24: Women’s Revolution, airing immediately follow Talking Smack Tuesday, Aug. 16, at 10:30ET on WWE Network. From female talent of the past to NXT and beyond, the episode of this documentary-style series will be a celebration of how far women’s wrestling has come.“

Originally Posted by Observer

Dean Ambrose is actually by a minor number slightly bigger house show draw than Roman Reigns. It's like for all the complaints about John Cena getting booed, he always did sell more tickets than anybody else and he always did move move merchandise than anybody else. So you can ignore the boos and all that. With Reigns he doesn't sell more merch than anybody else especially on the level of his push he doesn't sell more tickets than anybody else, especially on the level of his push ...

It’s apparent from this study that Reigns has not caught on as intended. The company invested a great of TV time trying to establish him as a new top babyface over the last two years, and has gotten little return on that investment. While Cena was booed somewhat as well during his rise to stardom, this is different. Whatever reaction Cena got on any given night, he made a positive difference to business, as evidenced in this article. You might argue Reigns is a face to some fans and a great heel to those fans who boo him, but he’s not drawing any better than Ambrose, who is a guy who often couldn’t muster wins on pay-per-views since the Shield was disbanded, while Reigns was frequently in the title picture at the same time.

Originally Posted by Observer

There is a situation to watch currently in India. TNA’s biggest international deals are Sony Six in India and Challenge in the U.K., and they are both considered the keys to survival. The Sony Six new deal requires a tour once a year and after last year’s tour was canceled at the agreement of both sides, there has been nothing said about one this year. In India, there is a situation where Sony Six would take over the Ten Network in India in a $500 million deal. Talks have reached advanced stages. TNA is on Sony Six and WWE is on Ten. The key to the deal is certain Ten contracts would move to Sony Six, including the UEFA Champions League, international cricket and the WWE. What we’re told is that if the deal goes through, there will be a call taken on how things will be done. It is possible, even though local media stories indicate it differently, that Sony Six and Ten will remain separate channels, in which case it wouldn’t affect wrestling on TV there. But if they merge into one channel, and it already being reported that WWE would move to Sony Six, it is believed only one wrestling company will remain on television in India, although none of those decisions have been made

Originally Posted by Observer

This week’s social media backlash is from fans in Anaheim because Big E and Balor were both advertised and never appeared before the audience. Fans accepted the Big E thing figuring he was off selling the injury and Balor wasn’t there. But then both posted photos of themselves on social media taking photos backstage at the show with Sean Combs

Originally Posted by Observer

So here is the G-1 update. Hirooki Goto is in the finals due to his beating Naomichi Marufuji and finishing with a 6-3 record. Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi had a 30:00 draw in the main event, leaving both tied for second place with 5-3-1 records. Bad Luck Fale had been eliminated losing to Tama Tonga.

So here is how things look for tomorrow's show:

*If Tetsuya Naito either wins or goes to a 30:00 draw with Kenny Omega, he faces Goto in the finals.

*If Michael Elgin and Kenny Omega both win, Elgin faces Goto in the finals. Doubt that's happening.

*If Katsuyori Shibata and Kenny Omega both win, Shibata goes to the finals against high school best friend Goto

*If Elgin, Shibata and Omega all win, then Elgin goes to the finals.

*The winner of Sunday's match will be in position to challenge for the IWGP title at the Tokyo Dome on 1/4.

Originally Posted by Noid (Post 4845627)

So we're looking at Goto vs. Elgin, Naito or Shibata. I can see Shibata winning his first match so that the idea of Goto/Shibata is teased, but then either Naito or Elgin takes it away from him. I can imagine Shibata winning with Naito taking it away from him and going on to face Goto.

Originally Posted by Noid (Post 4845556)

I kind of feel like Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa should lose and end up on the SmackDown roster before long. They would be great working with American Alpha. I know that it might be seem more intuitive to put them on RAW with the cruiserweights, but there's already a stacked scene there and I imagine that there will be a few new faces over there to job to the Red Arrow.

Originally Posted by Simple Fan (Post 4845801)

Hell I'd trade the whole Smackdown tag division for NXTs.

Vaudevillians for The Revival

Ascension for Authors of Pain

Hype Bros for Ciampa and Gargano

Would keep Breezeango, American Alpha, and The Usos.

Really never watched NXT Tag Team wrestling but since they have moved all the dumb teams up to the main roster the NXT Tag division is looking pretty good.

Originally Posted by Simple Fan (Post 4845801)

Hell I'd trade the whole Smackdown tag division for NXTs.

Vaudevillians for The Revival

Ascension for Authors of Pain

Hype Bros for Ciampa and Gargano

Would keep Breezeango, American Alpha, and The Usos.

Really never watched NXT Tag Team wrestling but since they have moved all the dumb teams up to the main roster the NXT Tag division is looking pretty good.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE should be very happy the Olympics are ending this week.

Raw was up very slightly, from 2.90 million viewers last week to 2.91 million viewers this week going against the Olympics. They would be the two lowest non-holiday numbers since 1997 ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.88 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.08 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.78 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer

As was announced on Raw last night, Jon Stewart will make his second consecutive appearance at SummerSlam as an invited guest of Mick Foley this year. The former Daily Show host played a significant role in last year’s show when he interfered in the Seth Rollins vs. John Cena title for title match. Stewart helped Rollins win, with the storyline reason being that he wanted to stop Cena from breaking Ric Flair’s World Championship record.

Originally Posted by Observer

Global Force Wrestling will partner with Franklin American Mortgage to help sponsor the Music City Bowl. GFW is the first wrestling promotion to partner with a bowl game. There will be a private event for players and coaches to meet the Jarrett’s, Scott Hall and more.

Originally Posted by Observer

Conor McGregor was on the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani ...

Regarding WWE stars, McGregor said they're an emotional bunch of guys who are scared of a real man. He felt like he spoke the truth, they're all dweebs, there are a few OGs there, but the majority are dweebs, and said you know the WWE wrestlers are all tuning in Saturday and he's giggling his way to the bank. Actually a lot of WWE people may be watching something else on Saturday night.

Originally Posted by Observer

Since this has been kind of overplayed in the rumor mill department, Bill Goldberg was always expected to be at the 2K Sports media party on Friday night in New York once the deal was made for him to be a key figure in marketing the video game. He's not coming to New York for WWE, but for 2K. Now, given WWE's affiliation with the media party, it is very possible there could be some talk with people in WWE, but his coming isn't anything more than one of a number of media appearances agreed to in his video game deal.

Originally Posted by Observer

Dave Meltzer has confirmed that Shawn Michaels recently began teaching a class at the Performance Center, taking over for Terry Taylor who is out after having neck surgery. The length of Michaels’ stay hasn’t been confirmed, but he moved his family from Texas to Florida for the role within the company.

Michaels has previously been involved in training wrestlers, operating the Shawn Michaels Wrestling Academy that notably produced Daniel Bryan and Brian Kendrick.

Originally Posted by Observer

Following CMLL announcing last week that they had entered into an official working relationship and talent exchange with Ring of Honor, their American partner confirmed the news on Monday afternoon.

ROH's announcement touted the relationship with CMLL as a global effort in collaboration with New Japan Pro Wrestling. The promotions had been natural partners due to their strong ties with NJPW but hadn't been officially aligned until recently.

The crossover between the promotions began last month when CMLL's Stuka Jr. appeared at ROH's TV tapings in Philadelphia. CMLL's Dragon Lee will also make his ROH debut at the promotion's All Star Extravaganza VIII pay-per-view later this year, and ROH's Matt Taven will make his way to Mexico for CMLL on September 9th.

Originally Posted by Observer

TNA is introducing a new belt, called the Grand Championship, with essentially MMA rules, with rounds, a point system and judges. So they are doing both the Matt Hardy angle and MMA scoring on the same television show.

Originally Posted by Observer

There was a disaster of a Fan Fest in Dudley, GA. The sheriff told talent that a warrant for promoter Greg Greene's arrest would be made if any of his checks bounced. Reportedly Nikita Koloff and Ted DiBiase then left. Del Wilkes was paid in cash. Ricky Steamboat reported was called by Tully Blanchard ahead of time. The wrestling show itself drew 130 fans. Ben Masters, who has been around wrestling for more than 30 years posted that guys weren't getting paid as the money guy said there was no money after he had told people he had a $10,000 advance. He noted none of the fault was the wrestlers nor fans. He said almost nobody was paid and the money from the house show was split with the guys who worked the show.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE have registered two trademark applications (performance and clothing) for Gran Metalik, who is currently competing in the WWE Cruiserweigh Classic.

Originally Posted by PWI

TMZ.com is reporting that 23 year old Edward Ferrero, the fan who jumped in the ring during the Seth Rollins promo during Raw last night, was arrested for assault and criminal trespass.

When Ferrero made contact with security, he bit one of the guards on their forearm but thankfully, the guard did not need medical attention.

Originally Posted by PWI

PWInsider Elite has an update with some more details on Kota Ibushi and his status with WWE. According to the report, Ibushi is not signing with with the WWE at the moment. However, officials reportedly still want to keep him around in nXT.

As previously reported, Ibushi is expected to work Summerslam weekend. This means he will likely make an appearance at NXT TakeOver: Back to Brooklyn. The report adds that Ibushi could be brought in periodically to be spotlighted as a way for WWE to display that they want to showcase and sign Ibushi to NXT.

Originally Posted by PWI

It’s been reported that WWE originally had plans to include the Muppets in this weekend’s Summerslam event LIVE on the WWE Network, however those plans have since been cancelled.

Originally Posted by Observer

Last night's SmackDown Live on the USA Network did 2,471,000 viewers for the two hour broadcast, virtually identical to last week's 2,455,000.

Originally Posted by Observer

Triple H confirmed that Shawn Michaels has recently been present at the WWE Performance Center, on this afternoon’s conference call with the professional wrestling media, but nothing has been decided about his long term future there.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE announced Wednesday that Alberto Del Rio has been suspended for 30 days due to a wellness policy violation, effective Thursday ...

The suspension is standard for a first-time violation, but what caused the violation it is not currently known. It is also not known when WWE was informed of the failure, but Del Rio worked on SmackDown last night in a losing effort against John Cena in the show's main event.

Del Rio returned to the company in 2015 after spending a year outside of the promotion. He was released in 2014 for "unprofessional conduct" after getting into a backstage altercation with a company employee who allegedly made a racist joke.

Del Rio was drafted to Smackdown during the WWE Draft. At this time, it isn't clear if the violation will have any affect on his immediate future.

Originally Posted by Observer

Here is an interview with Will Ospreay. He covers the Match with Vader (he’s not happy at all ), his plans to rest next year by only doing 6-man tag bookings in the UK and creating his own Trios Belt. Plus he explains his “no” to the EVOLVE contract Paul Heyman offered.

Originally Posted by Observer

On Wednesday afternoon’s media conference call ahead of NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II, Triple H further explained last week’s comments defending WWE’s booking.

Triple H was asked in that interview about 50/50 booking, but used WWE's success as a defense of their booking philosophies.

Much of what Triple H said then seemed to contradict the way he books NXT, but on Wednesday's conference call he noted the differences in booking NXT and main roster television given the different length of the shows.

“When you compare a one-hour show to a three-hour show from a writing and a booking standpoint it’s not even in the same stratosphere. It’s a totally different animal. “ Triple H said.

He reiterated that booking is a feel, and said he listens to both what the audience wants and what he wants to see as a fan when booking NXT.

“None of it is right and wrong, it’s chocolate, it’s vanilla, it’s all these different things that they’re different flavors, and at the end of the day the long-term success of your business and your company, and you can say what you want about it, but there’s a pretty good track record for a lot of it.” Triple H said.

Triple H said he books NXT the way he wants to book it, while the main roster programming is sometimes done differently and other times it isn't.

Originally Posted by Observer

As has become custom before every NXT TakeOver special, Triple H talked to the professional wrestling media on a conference call on Wednesday afternoon ...

Triple H was more than happy to talk about the Cruiserweight Classic and Raw's upcoming cruiserweight division.

Triple H said the project is something that he’s wanted to do for years ...

The first question of the call asked Triple H about the process of creating Raw's cruiserweight division ...

“We’re signing a lot of cruiserweights right now and I’m, you know, basically I’m creating a division. So, I’m going around and signing guys and I’m also keeping an eye towards the future as well, I don’t need to have every single cruiserweight right now, I just need to have a decent amount. And they will be working NXT, they will be working NXT live events, and they’ll also be working Raw as cruiserweights. The opportunity is there to do both.” Triple H said.

Kota Ibushi has been one of the cruiserweights that has earned significant praise in the CWC, and our Dave Meltzer asked about his contract status on the call.

Ibushi had insisted that he was interested in working for the WWE while continuing his work elsewhere as a freelancer, but while saying they're open to different things, Triple H seemed to reject that idea ...

Later in the call, Triple H was asked whether we would see a cruiserweight champion crowned on the CWC final but said we’d have to wait and see. He concluded the call by praising many of the competitors in the tournament, noting that they’ve created something special. He said that they’re still deciding what the next opportunity is.

Originally Posted by PWI

The updated lineup for the WWE NXT: Takeover Brooklyn II event this Saturday will feature:

*WWE NXT champion Samoa Joe vs. Shinsuke Nakamura.

*WWE NXT Women's champion Asuka vs. Bayley.

*WWE NXT Tag Team champions The Revival vs. Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa.

*No Way Jose vs. Austin Aries.

*Bobby Roode vs. Andrade "Cien" Almas.

*The debut of Ember Moon vs. Billie Kaye.

NXT will be taping matches for their 8/24 episode as well before the Takeover broadcast,

Originally Posted by PWI

Goldust announced that he and his daughter Dakota will be launching a Youtube series soon:

When tweeting @DakotaRunnels22 and I about our Dak And Dust @YouTube show, please use #DakAndDust !!! Subscribe https://t.co/L2MLo01CK5 ty.
— Dustin Rhodes (@Goldust) August 17, 2016

Originally Posted by Cagesideseats

WWE Champion Dean Ambrose picked up some backstage heat from his recent "Stone Cold Podcast" with Steve Austin on the WWE Network, according to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

The heat didn't come from any of Ambrose's answers, avoiding questions or for any of the awkward moments during the interview, but because he was being negative on creative and being negative on creative means being negative on Triple H and Vince McMahon.

Officials also were not happy about Ambrose publicly talking about how Brock Lesnar didn't want to do anything for their match at WrestleMania 32.

Originally Posted by Observer

Eva Marie was suspended by WWE for violating the company’s Wellness Policy. WWE has confirmed the story but did not release the specifics of the violation. No word on which woman will replace her in the 6 woman tag team match.

Originally Posted by Observer

Nikki Bella was cleared today to return to the ring, although not in a full-time capacity, after her neck surgery, according to Pro Wrestling Sheet.

Originally Posted by Observer

Ad Age did a story on SummerSlam sponsorships which include Cricket Wireless, KFC, Jolly Rancher, DiGiiorno and Mountain Dew. The story claimed a lot of stats, one of which was that WWE broadcasts to nearly 13 million U.S. wrestling fans a week. I don't know where 2.9 (Raw viewership) + 2.5 (Smackdown viewership) and perhaps another 1.1 (Network subscribers), most of who are the same, ads up to 13.

Originally Posted by PWI

PWInsider.com has confirmed with several sources that WWE released Radomir Petkovic, 29, who performed in NXT as King Konstantine, today. He had been signed since April 2015 and was a former amateur wrestler from Serbia who had won a number of medals in The European championship and The Mediterranean Games.

Originally Posted by PWI

Renee Young noted on social media she's getting her ankle evaluated as she may have sprained or broken it.

Originally Posted by Observer

And regarding the double standard, Lesnar’s line on the 8/15 Raw when confronting Slater and saying, “I don’t give a shit about your kids,” which was bleeped out wasn’t scripted. If it was Joey Styles who said it, or anyone underneath (Brad Maddox was fired for less for using the word prick in a dark match), they’d be gone yesterday.

As of press time, Lesnar appeared to be in no trouble nor has anything been said about it. Lesnar’s contract is unique as there are provisions regarding what he can and can’t be disciplined for, plus there is always the double standard for what a Cena or a Lesnar can get away with compared to everyone else

Originally Posted by Observer

There is talk of doing a WWE Network Takeover special when they tour Australia/New Zealand in 2017

Originally Posted by Observer

What’s notable is that on this NXT show, there is not one wrestler on the show who actually got their start in NXT. A few, Scott Dawson, Dash Wilder and No Way Jose, were all Carolinas independent guys for several years who came into NXT with no national name, and the same goes for Bayley, who started on California indies years before coming to NXT, but came in without a name. Ember Moon didn’t have a huge name on the indie scene but also had years of experience and was well known by woman wrestling fans before she ever signed. The rest of the wrestlers were genuine stars on the indie scene, the international scene or with major promotions. Next year, when WWE tells investors how NXT turned out eight new wrestlers, or whatever the number will be, and it’s due to NXT, when those people are Samoa Joe, Bobby Roode or Shinsuke Nakamura, it’s kind of a funny thing

Originally Posted by Observer

During a Matt Hardy in character interview on Chris Jericho’s podcast, he said he got a lot of his ideas from “Game of Thrones,” saying Jeff Hardy being called an “Obsolete Mule” is based on Theon, who was renamed “Reek” upon becoming a tortured slave and his talking about the “7 Golds” is also from that show

Originally Posted by Observer

Right now there is a good chance, but not a definite, that Alberto Del Rio will be leaving when he’s legally able. He is believed to have significant offers from Combate Americas and from TNA on the table, but there’s no word on anything from Lucha Underground (and he wouldn’t be able to do TNA and Lucha Underground as far as television goes) or AAA (which he could do with TNA, or at least could have before). He could make good money and have more control of his schedule, and would be pushed as a main guy outside of WWE, but he’s not going to be able to make anywhere close to what his current WWE deal was on the outside.

Originally Posted by Observer

Regarding Joey Styles, it absolutely was his interview that got him fired. The reaction was that he made it clear he didn’t care what the higher ups thought, and that’s not exactly encouraged there. There was an implied message sent to everyone by the move about what not to say in a public forum, that he “flaunted” using terms that aren’t supposed to be used, that he had talked about it being nonsense that certain wrestlers don’t get pushed because of their size, that he knocked talent for doing too many dives (the office probably wouldn’t care but WWE wrestlers don’t like to be told that from non-wrestlers), has said the web staff is underappreciated by management, knocked the name of the Universal title as well as the Reigns comments (which to me were very political and nice about everything) but just giving credence to the idea the Reigns push is a discussion subject I guess isn’t viewed well.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE has attempted to trademark various terms this past week, one of which was Colin Cassady, which is a surprise since they never call Big Cass by that name anymore. WWE also attempted to trademark “Lady Balls,” which is the idea of building a merchandise brand around Stephanie McMahon, but they were turned down with the idea that you simply can’t trademark “Lady.

Originally Posted by Observer

As of this afternoon, Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Orton is set to go on last at SummerSlam. That could change, but it's not expected to change.

Originally Posted by Observer

After Sami Zayn and Neville vs. The Dudley Boyz was added to the SummerSlam kickoff show on Friday afternoon, another match was later set featuring SmackDown’s tag division.

American Alpha, The Hype Bros, and The Usos will team to take on Breezango, The Ascension, and The Vaudevillains ...

The updated card for SummerSlam is:

• Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Orton
• Finn Balor vs. Seth Rollins for the WWE Universal Championship
• WWE Champion Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler in a championship match
• John Cena vs. AJ Styles
• WWE Women's Champion Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte in a championship match
• United States Champion Rusev vs. Roman Reigns in a championship match
• Intercontinental Champion The Miz vs. Apollo Crews in a championship match
• WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day (Xavier Woods & Kofi Kingston) vs. The Club (Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows) in a championship match
• Enzo Amore & Big Cass vs. Chris Jericho & Kevin Owens
• Cesaro vs. Sheamus in the first match of a best-of-seven series
• Becky Lynch, Naomi, & Carmella vs. Natalya & Alexa Bliss
• Sami Zayn & Neville vs. The Dudley Boyz on the SummerSlam kickoff show
• American Alpha, The Hype Bros, & The Usos vs. Breezango, The Ascension, & The Vaudevillains

Originally Posted by PWI

TMZ is reporting that the reason that Eva Marie was suspended for a failed WWE Wellness Test was due to the drug Adderall.

Eva stated that she has a perscription for the drug but didn't get the proper paperwork to WWE, leading to her suspension.

Originally Posted by Observer

New Japan World is airing both tonight's CMLL show and tonight's ROH show live, but only if you are listed as subscribing from Japan. It's blocked in the rest of the world. It's good because the CMLL talent always works harder knowing the bigwigs in Japan and Japanese fans are watching.

Originally Posted by Observer

Both UFC and WWE should be in the hunt for Helen Maroulis. This is only one in history first time American woman gold medalist in the sport, and she's got the right size and look for either professions and is clearly a superior athlete. The women's strawweight division in UFC does not have a ton of depth, although the top two are very good fighters. She'd be a publicity gold mine for WWE.

Originally Posted by PWI

The 8/18 edition of Impact Wrestling did 355,000 viewers, up from last week's 315,000 viewers.

Originally Posted by Observer

Lucha Undeground put a ton of its matches from this past season on YouTube. The most watched, by far, with 706,000 viewers as of the weekend was the Mil Muertes vs. Ivelisse match. However, no other intergender match or straight women’s match did anything special at all. The Aztec Warfare match only did 41,000 and Gift of the Gods seven way did 60,000. The Rey Mysterio Jr. & Prince Puma & Dragon Azteca Jr. vs. Johnny Mundo & Jack Evans & PJ Jack match did 33,000 viewers. The matches that topped 100,000 viewers were Puma & Pentagon Jr. vs. Disciples of Death (215,000), Puma vs. Pentagon Jr. (195,000), Fenix vs. King Cuerno ladder match (143,000), Matanza Cueto vs. Mil Muertes battle of monsters (137,000) and Puma vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. (137,000).

Originally Posted by Observer

Lilian Garcia did an interview on the Tomorrow show with Kevin Undergaro and said that her father feels super guilty about her leaving WWE. She said she wants to enjoy every second she has left with him and doesn’t want to be on the road. She said she misses not being there and wished she could have had a chance to say goodbye but things were happening quick. She said she was told the door is always open. She said if they were to call her to come back and do something special she would do it

Originally Posted by Observer

There will be a live action commercial debuting during SummerSlam for KFC, featuring Miz and Ziggler as well as their new Col. Sanders character. The commercial was taped on 8/16 in Austin, TX at the night of the Smackdown tapings where Ziggler was dressed up as Col. Sanders and they did a match with Miz dressed up as a chicken. KFC will also use it outside of wrestling. The commercial, which debuts on the PPV is a joint project of Yum Brands and WWE. It will also run on WWE Network broadcasts going forward. Also at SummerSlam, Cricket a co-sponsor of the show along with Yum Brands, will have inside and outside arena signage and a Snapchat filter. There will also be Tapout ads during the broadcast as well as Mountain Dew and video game ads at times during the six plus hour live show

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4848959)

Originally Posted by Observer

Raw had its expected big increase coming the day after SummerSlam and with no major sports competition.

Still, the number can't be celebrated too much, as the 3.30 million viewers was lower than the 3.33 million viewers the day after Battleground and 3.47 million viewers the day after Money in the Bank ...

The previous two Raws, going against the Olympics, did 2.90 and 2.91 million viewers, the two lowest for non-holiday shows in the last 19 years ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 3.46 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.37 million viewers
10 p.m. 3.11 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE received better news on the injury status of Sasha Banks.

According to Dave Meltzer, Banks is not expected to be out of action very long despite having a back injury. The injury won’t require surgery so she could be back sooner than previously feared.

Meltzer noted in Monday’s daily update that the decision to have Banks lose the WWE Women’s Championship at SummerSlam was made because of the injury to her back.

Originally Posted by Observer

The impression we have is that Samoa Joe was not injured last night and it was just storyline.

Originally Posted by PWI

Finn Balor is already in Birmingham, Alabama in preparation for the pending surgery to repair his torn labrum.

As noted, he is expected out of action for 4-6 months after surgery.

Originally Posted by Observer

Then on Tuesday morning, Lesnar got word that he's been issued a temporary suspension by the Nevada Athletic Commission as a result of his multiple drug failures following UFC 200. It's the first step in a process that will eventually lead to a formal hearing where Lesnar could face a two-year suspension under USADA guidelines.

MMA Fighting's Shaun Al-Shatti first reported the news.

The 39-year-old tested positive for hydroxy clomiphene in two separate tests, one on June 28th prior to UFC 200 and then during an in-competition test at the show.

Originally Posted by Observer

Stephanie McMahon promised that there would be repercussions for Brock Lesnar after he bloodied Randy Orton and laid out Shane McMahon at the end of SummerSlam, but Lesnar’s on-screen punishment won’t be too severe.

It was announced on Tuesday night’s SmackDown pre-show that Stephanie had fined Lesnar $500 for his actions at SummerSlam.

The relatively insignificant storyline punishment seems like it’s intended to further the tensions between the Raw and SmackDown brands, as well as increase conflict between the McMahon siblings.

Originally Posted by Observer

More additions to the WWE 2K17 roster were revealed on Tuesday, with Brock Lesnar, Samoa Joe, American Alpha, Sami Zayn, Sasha Banks, Ric Flair, Razor Ramon, The Revival and others officially announced for for the game.

Originally Posted by Observer

Chinese signee Bin Wang will make his WWE debut on the promotion’s tour of China when he faces Bo Dallas in Shanghai on September 10th. Triple H announced Wang’s debut in a video.

Originally Posted by Observer

Last night's Raw was the final appearance of Bubba (Mark LoMonaco) & D-Von (Devon Hughes) Dudley with WWE.

The team had signed a one-year contract, but had verbally agreed to a new contract several weeks ago. They had been working on an angle to split the two up for weeks on television but decisions were changed and the decision was made to not renew the contract and to drop the angle.

So instead they were given a farewell last night in Brooklyn where they got to turn babyface, set up signature spots with the Shining Stars, and then be used to get heel heat for Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows, the Raw brand's top heel tag team.

The WWE was very gracious with them on television on the way out, with the announcers pushing that they may have been the greatest tag team in pro wrestling history.

Originally Posted by Observer

Kazuchika Okada was backstage at SummerSlam last night. He's in New York for the week since he's working the ROH show on Saturday night in Brooklyn.

Originally Posted by Observer

The ending of the Randy Orton vs. Brock Lesnar SummerSlam match, which went pretty much as planned, led to a verbal and somewhat physical confrontation between Lesnar and Chris Jericho last night.

According to multiple sources, Jericho came to the gorilla position just as the match ended, apparently to see if Orton was okay and to find out what exactly happened. He asked Michael Hayes what the finish was or if that was the finish. Hayes wouldn't answer him at which point Jericho said, "That's bullsh*t."

Jericho said that just as Lesnar came back from the ring. Lesnar thought he was talking about his match, and called Jericho a pussy according to one version, or "shut up" according to another, and to mind his own business. The two got face-to-face and started exchanging words, with one version saying they were shouting at each other the whole time.

Lesnar pushed Jericho with his fingers, and Jericho did what was described as the "Rousey-Tate" foreheed press. One version also had Jericho shoving Lesnar to the wall at one point.

They got tangled up against the wall and Lesnar told Jericho to punch him or kiss him. Paul "HHH" Levesque jumped in quickly and broke it up. It was heated enough that they went back at it at which time Vince McMahon broke it up. Jericho started yelling about Lesnar and McMahon told Jericho that it was all a work and to be professional.

Levesque reportedly told McMahon that Lesnar started it, and Jericho was just standing up for himself but there were more words exchanged.

Jericho saw Orton and got mad, which everyone noted was because he was concerned with Orton's health and safety. Orton reportedly assured him that he knew the way everything was coming.

Originally Posted by PWI

After Raw went off the air in Brooklyn, NY, John Cena and WWE World champion Dean Ambrose teamed to defeat the team of Seth Rollins and AJ Styles after Ambrose pinned Rollins with Dirty Deeds. The crowd, not realizing the Smackdown talents would be there, chanted "This is awesome" before the bell had even rung. It will be the last Raw taping featuring Smackdown talents in the dark match to close out the show as Smackdown will begin running Monday evening house shows next week.

Originally Posted by PWTorch

WWE released a video clip of Sting’s new sit-down interview with JBL premiering Friday night on WWE Network.

The clip includes Sting acknowledging a rumor that he was penciled in to face Kurt Angle at WrestleMania 18 in 2002 – a year after WWE bought out WCW and Sting’s personal contract was set to expire.

Sting said he did have talks with Vince McMahon, but when attorneys got involved, things did not work out. So, Sting stayed away from WWE for 12 years until joining the company in 2014 ...

Sting also talked about not trusting WWE and McMahon at the time, believing that Vince “wanted me more to undermine WCW than he did as a talent.”

Originally Posted by PWTorch

WWE announced Monday during Raw that the Cruiserweight division will officially debut on Raw on September 19.

This is the first Monday after the inaugural Cruiserweight tournament concludes on September 14.

The first four CW wrestlers highlighted in a video package were Rich Swann, Brian Kendrick, Noam Dar, and T.J. Perkins.

Originally Posted by PWTorch

As we reported in July, Zack Sabre, Jr. was on WWE’s radar to be signed from the Cruiserweight tournament. However, the two sides have not agreed to a deal after some negotiations.

One roadblock for Sabre is that some WWE agents are not high on Sabre’s in-ring style. Fit Finlay has publicly said that he is not a fan of Sabre and William Regal also shares some of that sentiment.

Originally Posted by Observer

Today is Vince McMahon’s 71st birthday.

Originally Posted by Observer

Tuesday night's edition of Talking Smack may have been more noteworthy than SmackDown itself.

Daniel Bryan and The Miz got into a heated exchange after Bryan said he didn't like the way Miz wrestles. Miz responded by saying he beat Apollo Crews at SummerSlam, but Bryan said that Miz wrestles like a coward inside of the ring, and claimed that Miz represents what he used to think of as soft WWE style wrestling.

Miz offered an impassioned defense of his work, saying that he has never been injured in his career. He said Bryan is the real coward for promising his fans that he would come back and failing to do so.

Responding to The Miz, Bryan noted that he would come back if the WWE would let him. Miz said Bryan claims to love wrestling and should quit and go wrestle in bingo halls again. Bryan walked off of the set as the show went off the air.

Originally Posted by Observer

Maura Ranallo tweeted that the new sets featured on this week’s Raw and SmackDown are permanent.

Originally Posted by Observer

SmackDown scored its second biggest TV audience since the live draft special, garnering 2.714 million viewers on USA Tuesday night.

The number was up 10% from last week and was the highest number the show has done since July 25th.

Originally Posted by Observer

USADA announced Wednesday that Jon Jones and Brock Lesnar could be facing a maximum suspension of just one year for their recent drug test failures, and not the traditional two-year ban.

Originally Posted by Observer

In the fourth installment of WWE 2K17’s Suplex City Census, 29 WWE Superstar residents of the Business District – the fourth of five neighborhoods in Suplex City – have been announced for inclusion in the forthcoming franchise’s worldwide release on October 11, 2016. The installment brings the following Superstars to WWE 2K17’s extensive roster: Alberto Del Rio, Big Show, Bray Wyatt, Brock Lesnar, Carmella, Chad Gable, Big Cass, Darren Young, Dash Wilder, Diamond Dallas Page, Earthquake, Enzo Amore, Goldberg, Jason Jordan, JBL, Mark Henry, Paige, Razor Ramon, Ric Flair, Rusev, Sami Zayn, Samoa Joe, Sasha Banks, Scott Dawson, Sheamus, The Miz, Titus O’Neil, Typhoon and Zack Ryder.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart has been critical of Seth Rollins in the past, calling Rollins unprofessional and reckless after John Cena and Sting were injured in matches with him.

And Hart doubled down on those criticisms after Finn Balor was injured after taking a powerbomb into the barricade against Rollins at SummerSlam.

Hart released a statement (with paragraph breaks added) to Nick Hausman of Wrestlezone: "I take no great pleasure in saying 'I told you so,' but if you’re a professional wrestler and you keep hurting opponents and or yourself, clearly you’re doing it wrong. I wrestled a very realistic and physical style and not once in 23 yrs did I ever hurt one opponent ever.

Seth Rollins needs to improve his technique and become the safest wrestler in the business. I have great respect for Seth. I believe he’ll improve and hopefully stop hurting the talent before someone gets killed. Wrestlers have to trust one another. If a wrestler holds the life of another wrestler in his hands for the sake of his family, wife or children you plain and simply cannot drop it!

I saw this coming, if anything WWE producers are negligent for not speaking up about it to him already, instead they’re probably gushing with joy, slapping him on the back telling him 'great job!' Bill Goldberg was similar. When I think of Samoa Joe nearly killing Tyson Kidd, then see him continuing to use that deadly finish of his, I just shake my head. It’s not real, it’s only supposed to look real, wrestlers are not crash test dummies!"

Originally Posted by WWE

Update: Aug.23 at 10 p.m by Dr. Jeffrey Dugas
“Finn’s injury was pretty severe, more severe than normal. A really high energy injury, it did more damage than a standard shoulder dislocation where you simply tear the labrum. The prognosis is excellent, however. We were able to fix it all and put it back where it came from. I’m anticipating him getting back at full speed.”

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE NXT will tape their next set of TV episodes tomorrow, Thursday 8/25 at Full Sail Live. The next WWE Cruiserweight Classic taping will be Friday 8/26 at Full Sail Live as well ...

Jerry Lawler was spotted in Orlando, Florida today, so he may be at the tapings this week.

Originally Posted by PWTorch

El Rey Network announced a collaborative deal with Rey Mysterio to be involved in more projects beyond Lucha Underground.

El Rey and Mysterio agreed to a “one-year first look deal” that will see Mysterio “develop, produce. and consult on creative projects and series, both scripted and unscripted,” reports Deadline.com.

Mysterio will also be featured in Season 3 of Lucha Underground, which premiers September 7.

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4852167)

Dirtsheets sponsored by The Disappearance of the 1st Universal Champion:
http://67.media.tumblr.com/668e10479...ljrzo1_500.gif

Originally Posted by Fignuts (Post 4852802)

I think the move itself is more unsafe than rollins. Too many variables on how a person can land, and it can be difficult to brace yourself for it.

I ghink if rollins retires the move, then it's problem solved, because outside of that cena thing with the knee, he's never hurt anyone before, in wwe or the indies.

Originally Posted by Fignuts (Post 4852802)

I think the move itself is more unsafe than rollins. Too many variables on how a person can land, and it can be difficult to brace yourself for it.

I ghink if rollins retires the move, then it's problem solved, because outside of that cena thing with the knee, he's never hurt anyone before, in wwe or the indies.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc

Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Before going down with the shoulder injury, Finn Balor was scheduled to defend the WWE Universal Title against Kevin Owens at the September 25th RAW brand Clash of Champions pay-per-view from Indianapolis.

The Balor vs. Owens match would have ended in a way that set up Balor vs. Owens vs. Chris Jericho in a Triple Threat for the October 30th Hell In a Cell pay-per-view from Boston. As noted, Balor's original WWE SummerSlam opponent was Jericho.

Originally Posted by 411Mania

According to squaredcirclesirens.com, WWE officials were not pleased with Charlotte following her match with Sasha Banks at Summerslam. Banks went into the match injured, and after the match officials yelled at Charlotte for being careless during the match.

Originally Posted by Observer

The story behind Lesnar vs. Orton was to create a scenario where nobody knew where reality ended, and preferably where people thought Lesnar was breaking the code or script.

Orton wasn’t told until he got to the arena, as he was planning for a usual main event. He was told when he got there that he was not going to have a normal match, and that the match wasn’t about going back-and-forth and keeping both men strong, but about making Lesnar stronger. The original idea was to be a total destruction for Lesnar, where Orton would be on the ground bleeding. It was supposed to look like Lesnar “went against the script” on him and hurt him. There would be confusion and the match would end, with Orton seemingly concussed and the referee stopping the match....

There will be people denying this most likely, because they have to, but Orton was told that Lesnar knew how to graze him with his elbow to open up a cut without hurting him and was told that was what would happen in the match. As it turned out, Lesnar elbowed the hell out of him, and threw some stiff punches, and Orton was bleeding like crazy from a cut that needed ten staples to close. Orton stayed down and was acting like he was knocked out, as he was supposed to. Medical personnel and the referee acted confused, because they were. I don’t know this as a fact, but I believe the referee knew going in that Lesnar was winning, but if he did, was given a different finish, because the fact Lesnar was going over was not kept secret...

One person noted that Orton was told to do it, but wasn’t expecting it to be the way it was. He wasn’t going to complain publicly about it but also was never going to do that kind of a favor again and wasn’t particularly thrilled

Originally Posted by Observer

Regarding Daniel Bryan wrestling, while I don’t know this factually, one would presume that because he’s General Manager and working regularly again, the time is ticking on his contract, which means that at some point he would be able to leave the company and work elsewhere. Whether it is healthy or prudent for him to return as a wrestler on a full-time or part-time basis is still a question that he has to come up with an answer for, as different doctors have given him different opinions. Whether he would want to give up the financial security (which seems to mean less to him than for most, as he’s seemingly happier being an artist on his own terms than being rich) of a guaranteed WWE deal is something else, although he could make huge money away from WWE. It wouldn’t surprise me if he could make more away from WWE as a wrestler than his downside in WWE without the money you make when you wrestle as the main event level, plus he’d make all his merch money outside as opposed to just a small percentage of it.

Originally Posted by Observer

Forbes.com listed Dwayne Johnson as the highest paid actor in the world, saying between his cut of Fast & Furious 7 and San Andreas, he earned $64.5 million between June 2015 and June 2016.

Originally Posted by Observer

The WWE got a number of Twitter accounts suspended for posting SummerSlam gifs, including that of Senor Lariato, who would post highlights in gif form for wrestling all over the world. Lariato in particular was considered one of the key people in making New Japan Pro Wrestling popular to a number of American fans ...

In the new Observer, in the note on the taking down of gifs from SummerSlam by WWE, this is technically how it was explained to me. WWE hired a third party vendor, SMTS, to remove any streaming video from the show and SMTS was able to match any WWE copyrighted content that was on Twitter and the accounts were suspended.

Originally Posted by PWI

Vince McMahon turned 71 years old yesterday. In a "there's truth in humor" moment, he wrote the following on Twitter:

Thank you for all the well wishes on my 71st birthday. #LuckiestManInTheWorld #JustReachedPuberty
— Vince McMahon (@VinceMcMahon) August 25, 2016

Originally Posted by PWI

Brian Fritz did a piece for Sporting News talking with Bill Goldberg about the new WWE 2K17 game and a possible WWE return which he says is "not in my court".

Originally Posted by PWTorch

Northeast Wrestling is ending the summer in style with five shows this weekend.

Former WWE star Cody Rhodes is scheduled to wrestle on four of the shows, including a much-anticipated match against Kurt Angle on Saturday night, August 27 at “Wrestling Under the Stars.”

Also on the tour is recent WWE star Ryback (n/k/a as The Big Guy), plus Jushin Liger, the Hardys, Jerry Lawler, WWE Raw GM Mick Foley, Booker T, Mike Bennett, Velvet Sky, Mandy Leon, and more stars.

Originally Posted by Observer

The original plans for SummerSlam included a Corbin vs. Kalisto match but because of new match additions and 13 matches scheduled they ended up being the odd men out. Balor was always scheduled to make his PPV debut on the show but originally it was to be against Jericho since Reigns vs. Rollins was the scheduled title match main event. Originally Raw was to get the real title and Smackdown would get the made up title (which Styles was to have won). The Reigns drug test failure changed all the plans and the decision was to have another babyface put in the top position on Raw and Reigns be moved down as punishment. The Raw face side was very weak as with the exception of part-timers Lesnar and Show, the top faces were Cesaro and Zayn. Rather than go with them, since Cesaro has been typecast at a certain level and even though Zayn did beat Owens, clearly the decision was made not to go with him, they decided to instantly make Balor the top guy, at least until they go back to Reigns. Of course now everything is up in the air

Originally Posted by Observer

Making a brief appearance as one of the guests on this week’s Ric Flair Show, UFC president Dana White commented on his relationship with Vince McMahon.

“I’ve been working, or trying to work, with Vince for years.” White said. “It was obviously very difficult… Vince is a maniac, he’s a f*cking competitor, man. That’s what he is. If you look at what Vince McMahon has accomplished in all of his years, and to still be on top, still doing it, the guy’s got enough money, he’s in it 'cause he loves it, he’s in it 'cause he’s passionate about it.”

White was asked what it has been like to negotiate with WWE, "I would say that this last Brock deal, and when Ronda went over and did the WWE WrestleMania, I’d say those were the two, out of all the years of dealing with Vince and everybody, those were probably the two best experiences. I think that Vince, and definitely Stephanie and Triple H, Stephanie and Triple H are always great, always great, always cool to work with, Vince has been very difficult in the past, but in the last several years he’s been much better.”

But White made sure to note that he respects McMahon, “He’s a f*cking maniac, he’s an animal, he’s a competitor, he wants to win, and you know, that’s his nature, and I respect it.”

Originally Posted by Observer

In a quasi-kayfabe discussion with Michael Cole as part of WWE.com's weekly interview series, Daniel Bryan talked about his time as general manager of SmackDown, doing commentary for the Cruiserweight Classic, and why Brock Lesnar was his dream opponent.

But most notably, Bryan had interesting comments when asked about Finn Balor’s recent shoulder injury. Bryan thought that Balor should've been on the WWE main roster long before he was called up, and thinks the same for Samoa Joe and Shinsuke Nakamura.

Bryan said: "The most tragic part, that kind of stuff happens... the most tragic part to me is it happens as soon as he gets up here. And I think one of the things that really upsets me about the whole situation is that Finn Balor should’ve been up here a year and a half ago ...

So, he’s in the prime of his career right now, like he just turned 35 the day he debuted on Raw. Right? Like, he should’ve been here a year and a half ago. Samoa Joe should already be here. Shinsuke Nakamura should already be here. Those are guys in their primes and they’re down on NXT right now, and they should be here... either on SmackDown Live or on Raw.

And the longer we wait, the more bumps they take, the more bruises they get, and the more susceptible they are to injury. Everybody knows there’s a finite number of hits you can take in your career, you don’t know what number that is. And the more times you take those hits down on NXT, the less hits you’re going to be able to take when you’re here.”

Originally Posted by PWI

TNA champion Bobby Lashley will be fighting on the 10/21 Bellator card. No opponent has been announced yet.

Originally Posted by PWI

PWInsider.com can confirm that TNA recently filmed a large amount of material on Matt Hardy's compound in Cameron, North Carolina over the last several days. The material will be featured in upcoming episodes of Impact Wrestling, all building to what has been described as me as Final Deletion II, featuring the Broken Hardys facing Decay, Abyss and Crazzy Steve. The match itself will be titled "Delete or Decay."

I was told that there was some insane material filmed and that TNA bumped up the budget from the last Final Deletion match, which featured Matt Hardy "deleting" Jeff Hardy on an episode of Impact Wrestling that received positive reviews for it's unique presentation and tongue-in-cheek campiness. The episode garnered 410,000 viewers, the highest audience for an initial broadcast of Impact Wrestling since the series debuted on Pop TV earlier this year.

Originally Posted by PWI

The 8/25 edition of Impact Wrestling did 373,000 viewers, up from last week's 355,000 viewers.

Originally Posted by Observer

As of right now, while there have been various hints and rumors, talent has not been told of a schedule for taping of season four of Lucha Underground.

Originally Posted by Observer

Since there are a lot of questions regarding Paige’s contract status with Del Rio having the option to leave next month, from what we understand, Paige’s deal expires in April 2019. While nothing is certain, the betting line is that Del Rio won’t be back. As far as Paige goes, she wouldn’t be able to wrestle anywhere else unless WWE fired her

Originally Posted by Observer

In response to questions about this subject, we’re under the impression Eric Young agreed to terms with WWE some time back and they’re just waiting to debut him

Originally Posted by Observer

Because WWE was unable to get a trademark on the term “Lady Balls,” the Stephanie McMahon autobiography was given a name change to “unREAL!” It comes out next month

Originally Posted by Observer

With the show built around a four-way for the vacant Universal title, Raw did some of its best numbers in a long time for a show that wasn't the day after a PPV.

In fact, the 3.41 million viewers was up three percent from last week's show, the day after SummerSlam. Even with the lack of major competition, under normal patterns that wouldn't be the case. It was the best number for Raw since the show the day after Money in the Bank.

The key is that the viewers cared about the Universal title match and it had a week of advertising directly ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 3.39 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.44 million viewers
10 p.m. 3.41 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer

Jose Alberto Rodriguez, better known as Alberto Del Rio, will not be returning to WWE after the conclusion of his 30-day suspension for a wellness test violation.

WWE may make the announcement shortly, but Rodriguez being removed from all house shows he had been advertised for, even after his suspension was over, was WWE's indication that he is leaving.

Sources say he and WWE have come to terms on a release, leaving him free to work in Mexico and internationally imminently. He would also be free to work in the U.S. in a few weeks.

The Wrestling Observer had reported for some time that issues with Rodriguez and WWE stemmed from creative problems, and that the chances were solid that he may leave the promotion. It was considered likely last week and now, it is said to be a done deal ...

According to sources close to the situation, Rodriguez was unhappy, claiming he was given empty promises when they brought him back last year for a surprise return. He indicated he was promised a main event push which didn't materialize.

Similar issues caused him to leave Lucha Underground, because he said he was promised the main event of Ultima Lucha and was mad because his match was not in that position. There were also financial issues with that promotion, but the WWE situation has no financial issues tied to it.

Originally Posted by Observer

It looks like things aren’t quite settled between Brock Lesnar and Randy Orton.

Chicago's Allstate Arena announced on their verified Facebook page on Monday afternoon that Lesnar vs. Orton II will take place at the arena’s September 24th house show in Chicago, IL. Paul Heyman later confirmed the news on his Twitter account.

According to Dave Meltzer, WWE will announce the match today. The house show isn't currently scheduled to be a WWE Network special, but it would make sense for it to be given the profile of the match.

The match is scheduled for the day before Raw's Clash of Champions pay-per-view on September 25th in Indianapolis, IN. Neither Lesnar nor Orton are scheduled for the PPV, making the decision to put the match on a house show even stranger.

Originally Posted by Observer

On the debut episode of his podcast released on Monday, Ryan "Ryback" Reeves opened up about what led to him leaving WWE ...

He said that he was never the company's guy and wondered why they put the Intercontinental Championship on him in 2015. After winning the title, he was presented with a new contract offer. Reeves said he wasn’t happy with the offer considering what he had done for the company.

But Reeves said he didn't leave because of monetary value of the offer. "Not about a money issue, just so everybody knows, I walked away from the WWE, the contract offer that I walked away from was a three-year $1.5 million contract.” Reeves said.

Reeves mentioned that there were other things he wasn't happy about. He said that there were merchandising opportunities that didn’t pan out and noted how expensive travel expenses were, saying the way professional wrestling has always done things isn’t always right.

Reeves said that he had been lied to at many times in his career about booking and other opportunities. He claimed that Vince McMahon told him that he would be the number one heel in the company and have the title put on him if he listened to McMahon and read his promos as they were scripted. Reeves also claimed that he was supposed to face AJ Styles at WrestleMania 32, with McMahon telling him that he would "squash that little twerp."

Though he was told that by McMahon, Reeves said that he didn't necessarily believe he would squash Styles given the way he was brought into the company.

That changed and Reeves would go on to face Kalisto on the WrestleMania 32 kickoff show. He said that he was set to sign a new contract but sent a revised offer to the company after not being happy about how he was handled.

On his last day at television, Reeves said he knew that WWE wasn't going to accept the revised offer and thought the booking of the show was intended to make him look bad before he left. He claimed he told Mark Carrano to take him off television, but didn't talk to McMahon because he had been lied to too many times before ...

He claimed that he was offered magazine covers but WWE wouldn't let him do them despite allowing other talent to. He said that WWE wanted Roman Reigns to appear on a cover instead of him at one point.

Originally Posted by Observer

With Michael Elgin retaining his IWGP Intercontinental Championship in a match against Donovan Dijak at ROH’s Field of Honor show over the weekend, Elgin’s match with Tetsuya Naito at NJPW’s Destruction in Kobe on September 25th will be for the title.

Originally Posted by Observer

Ring of Honor announced that they will debut six-man tag team titles, with a tournament for the newly-created belts starting at their All Star Extravaganza VIII pay-per-view on September 30th. The tournament will feature an eight-team field, with ROH saying that The Bullet Club, The Cabinet and The Addiction & Kamaitachi are expected to compete in it.

Originally Posted by PWI

Officially added to the WWE 2K17 videogame roster are Asuka, Bayley, Big Boss Man, Blake and Murphy, all three faces of Mick Foley, Diesel, Goldust, Dusty Rhodes, Jack Swagger, Kane, John Cena, Kevin Owens, Lex Luger, Luke Harper, Road Dogg, Roman Reigns, Undertaker, Vader, Seth Rollins and Steve Austin.

Originally Posted by PWI

Sasha Banks was interviewed during the Raw Pre-Show. They acknowledged her back inury, which they stated happened during the Charlotte match at Summerslam (she actually went into the bout injured, as PWInsider.com reported that night). Banks noted that she would not require surgery for the injury and said that she is working hard to be cleared and return to the ring.

There are plans for Banks vs. Charlotte to take place on a future Raw brand PPV, PWInsider.com can confirm.

Originally Posted by PWTorch

Global Force Wrestling is planning to run 10 straight nights of live wrestling action in September.

GFW announced Monday a partnership with the Tennessee State Fair to run pro wrestling on each night of the 2016 Fair from September 9-18.

Originally Posted by PWTorch

In a battle of former WWE stars, Cody Rhodes pinned Kurt Angle in their first-ever match-up Saturday night in New York.

Rhodes defeated Angle at Northeast Wrestling’s highly-anticipated “Wrestling Under The Stars” outdoors wrestling show at the baseball stadium in Wappingers Falls, N.Y.

The finish was Rhodes reversing the Angle Slam into Cross Rhodes to pin Angle.

Originally Posted by Observer

Following on the heels of a successful Raw rating, Tuesday's SmackDown had its best ratings since the July 18th live draft special. Tuesday's show was watched by 2,835,000 viewers, up 4% from last week's total ...

Since the July 25th show -- the first without RAW talent -- SmackDown has averaged 2,650,000 viewers, well up from the 2.1-2.2 million viewers the show had been doing when airing taped shows on Thursday nights.

Originally Posted by Obseerver

On WWE's weekly SportsCenter segment with Jonathan Coachman, Daniel Bryan again addressed his heated exchange with The Miz from last week's Talking Smack.

The confrontation between the two generated significant buzz online with many questioning how much of it was scripted. And in response to Coachman, Bryan finally answered the question.

“Very little, so I just knew that Miz was going to come up, we were just going to banter back and forth. But Miz and I have known each other for a long time, and we really know how to get like at each other’s nerves. I brought up the idea that he wrestled like a coward, and he knows I don’t like the way he wrestles, right? I just don’t like it; it’s not my thing. And I called him out on that. And then he called me out on something that’s very personal to me.”

Bryan said Miz knows he’s constantly having feelings of wanting to get back into the ring because he loves wrestling so much. But, Bryan says he knows it’s not a smart idea and his wife keeps him in check. Bryan reiterated his words from this week's edition of Talking Smack, saying he sometimes thinks Miz is right and he thinks of himself as a coward for not returning to wrestling.

Bryan noted that part of him wanted to punch Miz in the face during the segment, but he figured it wasn’t such a smart idea on live TV.

Originally Posted by Observer

The WWE will be doing fund raising al month for pediatric cancer research. They will be selling bracelets and bandanas starting on Monday and through the end of the month with 100 percent of net proceeds benefiting Connor's Cure.

Originally Posted by Observer

The WWE Network will be adding an Eddy Guerrero collection called "Eddie Guerrero: Viva La Raza."

Originally Posted by Observer

ESPN’s Amin Elhassan drew the ire of Twitter’s wrestling community today after tweeting “Until someone told him it was scripted,” in response to a video of Kevin Owens’ son reacting to his father’s Universal title win. Elhassan went on to engage with wrestling fans throughout the day. ESPN’s Michelle Beadle and Jonathan Coachman have responded to his comments.

Originally Posted by PWI

Former WWE star Cody Rhodes has called upon WWE to cut bait with relationships the company has cultivated in recent years with TMZ and ESPN over transgressions against those related to WWE.

Taking to Twitter, Rhodes wrote the following:

WWE

Cut ties w/TMZ-they ran my Mother's 911 call

Cut ties w/ESPN-they insulted a child

Have balls. "'Mainstream" ain't always worth it.
— Cody Rhodes (@CodyRhodes) August 31, 2016



In regard to the TMZ comment, the website ran audio of the 911 call made when Dusty Rhodes, Cody's father, fell ill before being hospitalized and passing away last year.

The ESPN reference is in regard to a comment made by the cable network's Amin Elhassin, responding to a video of Kevin Owen's eight year old son reacting excitedly to his father's WWE Universal title win by writing, "Until someone told him it was scripted." The Tweet set off a firestorm of responses over the last 24 hours from fans of the business, many of whom Elhassin has responded to with insults. WWE has been providing ESPN with talent every Wednesday for Sportscenter.

Originally Posted by PWTorch

WWE is looking to sign more Cruiserweight wrestlers in anticipation of the Cruiserweight division starting up on the September 19 Raw episode after the Cruiserweight tournament concludes on Sept. 14.

Notably, PWTorch has learned that T.J. Perkins has signed with WWE ...

PWTorch has also learned that Noam Dar has signed, confirming his inclusion in the division after being highlighted on the August 22 Raw episode.

Another big name on WWE’s radar is Akira Tozawa, who is a potential signee ...

Top Cruiserweight Tournament Players’s Status

Kota Ibushi – signed
T.J. Perkins – signed
Gran Metalik – signed
Cedric Alexander – signed
Lince Dorado – signed
Tajiri – signed
Noam Dar – signed
Johnny Gargano (on NXT roster)
Tommaso Ciampa (on NXT roster)
Rich Swann (on NXT roster)
Akira Tozawa – ongoing negotiations
Zack Sabre, Jr. – ongoing negotiations
Brian Kendrick – status unconfirmed; highlighted on 8/22 Raw

Originally Posted by 411Mania

As previously reported, Billy Corgan is the man in charge of TNA now, and Dixie Carter is on her way out. The way that Corgan took charge, with Carter being named “Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer,” is being done so that she can save face on her way out. She did not stay for the entire tapings, and the word is that she only cares about exiting without getting egg on her face.

Corgan still faces the same issues going forward, he is running a company that doesn’t create enough revenue to cover payroll and TV production, which is why he and Aroluxe had to invest in TNA in the first place. The company has also shown an inability to create profit off both live events and PPV for years.

Originally Posted by PWI

With the Daniel Bryan-Miz confrontation pretty much blown off on this past Tuesday's Smackdown, we've been asked why did it even happen and why was the situation dropped as quickly as it began. Well, while the scene was scripted by WWE for the 8/23 episode of "Talking Smack" in that Miz and Bryan were scheduled to banter on the show, it went in a direction that the company didn't expect thanks to improvisation on the part of Miz.

During an appearance on ESPN Sportscenter last night with Jonathan Coachman, Bryan explained that while the banter between the two was planned, where it went was not something Bryan knew about in advance. He noted that Miz knows how to push his buttons and was well aware of the feelings Bryan has had towards his February 2016 WWE-imposed retirement Bryan admitted that the nerves Miz hit were very real and played off of Bryan's own conflicts about whether he should remain with WWE (and stay retired) or take his chances elsewhere, risking his potential future health. Bryan also stated that he thought of legitimately throwing a punch to Miz to close the segment but given they were on live TV, felt it wasn't the smartest move. Instead, Bryan walked off to close the segment.

Bryan noted on the 8/30 episode of "Talking Smack" and again last night on Sportscenter that WWE intended to keep he and Miz far apart while on screen going further. Bryan praised Miz's promo that was cut after Bryan walked off the set and put over Miz's passion for pro wrestling. The unspoken implication was the interaction wasn't in WWE's plans and will likely be ignored going forward.

During the ESPN Sportscenter appearance, Bryan said that he has often talked off quitting WWE after seeing the reactions of the live crowds but his wife Brie will talk him out of it. Bryan also admitted that the brain testing that he underwent in New York, which led to he retirement earlier this year, after doing additional research, should not have been the determining factor in whether he retired. Bryan said that he feels 100% and that on nine out of ten days, he says to himself he's going to wrestle again but needs to convince others (and even himself on the tenth day) that it is safe for him to do so. While he enjoys being around the wrestlers and the action, it is hard to feel the energy of the audience and then just sit at ringside. He referred to the concussion issue as "subjective."

Originally Posted by Observer

NXT TakeOver is headed to Canada.

WWE announced on Friday morning that NXT will present one of its regular TakeOver specials on Saturday, November 19th from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. The show will take place the night before WWE's Survivor Series pay-per-view in the same building.

Originally Posted by PWI

As reported earlier today, NXT will be doing a Takeover special on 11/19 in Toronto, the day before The Survivor Series event.

Because of that, the Meridian Centre in Niagara Falls (on the Canadian side), announced today that the 9/23 NXT event in their building has been canceled by WWE due to the announcement of the Takeover show. Niagara Falls is about 90 minutes from Toronto, so the company obviously doesn't want to do two shows that close together in such a short period of time.

Refunds will begin to be processed next week.

Also, the 9/22 show in Toronto and the 9/24 show in Kitchener have been canceled as well.

Originally Posted by Observer

After creating controversy on Twitter earlier this week, ESPN’s Amin Elhassan issued an apology to Kevin Owens and his family. Elhassan had originally tweeted “Until someone told him it was scripted,” in response to a video of Owens’ son reaction to his father’s Universal title win. Elhassan went on to engage with wrestling fans on Twitter after making the comments.

Originally Posted by Observer

TNA released a trailer for “Delete or Decay,” a Final Deletion-esque battle between The Hardy Boys and The Decay at the Hardy compound that will air on next week’s Impact.

Originally Posted by Observer

As was noted in today's WWN Alerts, Ricochet has agreed to “several more EVOLVE bookings” after his match against Zack Sabre Jr. at EVOLVE 69 in Queens, NY on September 11th.

Originally Posted by PWI

The 9/1 edition of Impact Wrestling did 351,000 viewers, down from last week's 373,000 viewers.

Originally Posted by ProWrestlingSheet

Ex-WWE Superstar Mike Knox has NOT been contacted by the company in regards to a return … and the Facebook page claiming otherwise is a fake.

A person claiming to be Knox on social media posted a false update this week saying he turned down a WWE return and earlier today the story began to gain steam on news sites.

According to multiple sources though, the page doesn’t belong to Knox. We’re told he’s currently in Japan and will be doing what he can to have the imposter removed from Twitter once he returns home.

In the meantime, help him out by reporting the fake account. (@Mike_Hettinga)

Originally Posted by Observer

Meltzer reported that Rhodes is going to work in both TNA and ROH -- unusual given today's wrestling environment. However, Meltzer noted both deals are non-exclusive, giving him the opportunity to work anywhere he wants.

Meltzer said Rhodes hopes to work with Mike Bennett in TNA, someone he worked with recently in an indy appearance. That would also give Rhodes' wife Brandi an opportunity to work as well as Bennett is flanked by his wife, Maria Kanellis.

With ROH, Meltzer said Rhodes hopes to work with ROH Champion Adam Cole but nothing has been determined yet. Rhodes is slated to work ROH's December Final Battle PPV which would be his first with the company.

One thing that still has to be worked out is that he doesn't have the right to use the Rhodes name on television, but is still using the Rhodes name on the indies.

Originally Posted by Observer

"To me it's like, they may have the legal right. But it feels so unfair to me that he's not going to be able to use the name Cody Rhodes on television, because they own the name. And I just feel like, they did not create Dusty Rhodes. Now, granted, Cody Rhodes only used that name in WWE. He never used it anywhere else. And usually, if you're going to have the rights to use your name, like CM Punk, going forward, you know, it's because you had prior usage before going there. And you know, he never worked for anyone but WWE. So he had no prior usage. But it's like, the frickin' Rhodes name goes back 50 years in this business. And he's a member of that family. And WWE did not create Dusty Rhodes. They did not come up with the name Dusty Rhodes. By the time he got there, Dusty Rhodes was one of the three biggest attractions in the country, before he got there in the first place. I guess they'll work things -- he's trying to work things out with them over that. I had seen stuff where he had tweeted that, I wasn't completely familiar if that was exactly the case. But that's exactly the case. If he's in ROH on television or TNA on television, he cannot be Cody Rhodes

Originally Posted by Observer

In the discussion on last night's show regarding whether Paige was threatened with being fired by WWE exec Mark Carrano if she didn't break up with Alberto De Rio, when MSL reported it, MSL never said directly that Paige had said that, although it was also obvious from how he talked that it was a source very close to the situation.

Originally Posted by Observer

The much talked about "Hidden Gems" including the October 23, 1983 Last Battle of Atlanta between Tommy Rich vs. Buzz Sawyer, a cage match blow-off of a long feud, go up on the WWE network tomorrow. Apparently the 28 minute segment was produced, but never aired on television. It was one of those old-time arena single camera shoots most likely they they'd use was filming angles at the Omni. Also going up was the 1980 WWF vs. NWA champion battle with Harley Race vs. Bob Backlund.

Originally Posted by Observer

For the first time ever, NXT is headed to Japan.

WWE announced on Sunday night that Osaka’s Edion Arena will host NXT’s first live event in the country on Saturday, December 3rd.

If he manages to hold the title until December, the show will be Shinsuke Nakamura's homecoming as NXT Champion. NXT Women's Champion Asuka is also scheduled to return to her home country for the show. She previously defended her title in Japan twice during WWE's tour of the country in July.

Not to be forgotten after recently returning from a lengthy absence due to a shoulder injury, Hideo Itami tweeted that he will appear on the show. Itami hasn't wrestled in Japan since joining WWE in 2014.

Originally Posted by Observer

Amin Elhassan of ESPN finally apologized for a stupid tweet he sent out Tuesday targeting Kevin Owens' son, after nearly a week. As bad as it was, when he was called on it by wrestling fans, instead of apologizing he attacked them on Twitter. Obviously, since he at first went to war and then waited almost a week to apologize, many feel that he was pressured into making this apology.

Originally Posted by Observer

Because of different contractual obligations, Eva Marie is filming Total Divas while on her WWE suspension.

Originally Posted by PWI

As noted yesterday on PWInsider.com, EVOLVE will be returning to the New York market this weekend with events on Saturday 9/10 in Deer Park, Long Island and 9/11 in Woodside, Queens. The Long Island show may end up being the last time EVOLVE runs that market as the advance is extremely low and if the promotion doesn't draw, they won't return to the market.

Originally Posted by PWI

"UNREAL: Inside the Crazy, Fun Show Business World of WWE", the memoir of WWE Executive Stephanie McMahon-Levesque has been pushed back to an unknown new date. Amazon has listed the release of Stephanie's McMahon book for 2020. While the book will undoutedly be released before that, it has been pushed back and will not be released next month as originally planned.

Originally Posted by TMZ

Pro wrestler Scott Hall was disqualified from a T.G.I. Friday's for being drunk, rowdy and disrespectful to the bartender.

A witness tells us Hall was at the Friday's in the Atlanta airport on Saturday ... drinking Coors Lights and tequila shots. He allegedly hit on the bartender and called her a bitch, and that's when trouble started brewing with the bartender's father ... who was at the bar.

We're told Hall didn't believe the guy was really her dad, and a manager stepped in and asked him to leave -- when he refused, someone called cops.

Law enforcement sources tell us officers responded to the intoxicated person call. They recognized Hall as his former wrestling alter ego, Razor Ramon ... shook his hand and calmed the situation. You can see in the video though, Scott didn't want to give up his beer easily.

We're told Scott left without further incident and no police report was filed.

Hall has a history with booze and drug abuse, but has said he's been sober recently. We've reached out to his rep.

Originally Posted by Pro Wrestling Sheet

Pro Wrestling Sheet spoke with Chyna’s mom, Jan LaQue, who says she talked to the Redondo Beach detective handling the case earlier this afternoon about her new request, and he was very cooperative.

Jan claims she doesn’t believe Chyna’s manager Anthony Anzaldo was completely honest in the wake of Laurer’s death, and now that time has passed, she believes some of his moves need to be further looked into. Most notably, LaQue points out that her daughter seems to have fired Anzaldo weeks before passing away.

In emails obtained by The Sheet … Chyna wrote her mom saying the manager stole money from her, so she was taking a break from the guy. Joanie added, “Please refrain from talking to Anthony at the moment.” At the time, Jan says she was worried her daughter was just dealing with personal demons.

Upon further thought in the time that has passed, LaQue fears that maybe wasn’t the case. Which is why she’s now speaking up about it.

And even worse, we’re told the manager gave away Joanie’s cello — the news of which was first brought to our attention via the Chyna for The WWE Hall of Fame Facebook page — and he’s been confrontational each time her mother has tried getting answers on who received it, where the rest of her stuff has been placed, or how the money that was donated to her estate is being used.

Originally Posted by Ruien (Post 4856032)

Just a fyi. I am so happy this was made into its own thread. You are awesome Smelly Meatballs.

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4856802)

The original title of "Lady Balls" was recently rejected due to the trademark office not allowing WWE to get the rights to either word.

Originally Posted by Observer

The combination of a poor show, Labor Day, and college football led the Monday, September 5th edition of WWE Raw to fall to 3.06 million viewers on Monday night.

The ratings pattern is noteworthy because the first hour did well, coming off the curiosity from the HHH return and title change. But the second hour, almost always the highest rated hour during the summer, fell greatly when people realized there was going to be no significant follow up, nor any explanation for the previous week's finish that they were curious about.

The third hour, fell off a cliff with 30 of the worst minutes of Raw in recent memory until the Kevin Owens/Sami Zayn match, was way down.

- 8 PM: 3.35 million viewers

- 9 PM: 3.07 million viewers

- 10 PM: 2.79 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer

In regards to Monday Night Raw ratings, the drop of 16.66% from hour 1 to hour 3 was the third biggest drop in the last 19 months and the hour 1 to hour 2 drop was the 3rd highest since RAW went to 3 hours.

Originally Posted by Observer

Cesaro defeated Sheamus at today’s house show in London to earn his first victory in their best-of-seven series. Sheamus now leads Cesaro 3-1 in the series.

Originally Posted by Observer

On his Instagram account, Jack Gallagher said his last independent wrestling date may be at PROGRESS Wrestling’s show on September 25th at Brixton Academy. Gallagher was recently featured in a video on Raw that hyped the brand’s upcoming cruiserweight division.

Originally Posted by Observer

Scott Hall tweeted a response to yesterday’s report from TMZ Sports that he was recently kicked out of an airport bar in Atlanta: “Thank you to everyone for your support and concern regarding my recent relapse. I'm back on track and doing well. #BadGuy #HallGood”

Originally Posted by Observer

Ricochet has been added to the EVOLVE 68 card this Saturday. He’ll face Matthew Riddle and Tony Nese in a three-way match.

Originally Posted by Observer

Combat Sports Law has an article on the process of CM Punk being licensed for his fight against Mickey Gall on Saturday. The Ohio Athletic Commission requires that fighters have participated in a minimum of five amateur bouts with a winning record, and the article surmises that Punk must have been granted a waiver to fight.

Bernie Profato, the Executive Director of Ohio’s commission, responded to an inquiry from MMAFighting about the situation: "CM Punk has a wrestling background similar to Brock Lesnar being permitted to fight in the past."

He also noted that the commission has confidence in the UFC's matchmaker because of previous bouts the promotion had submitted in the state.

Originally Posted by PWI

Scott Garland, aka former WWE Tag Team champion Scotty Too Hotty, has been officially hired as a full-time Coach for the WWE Performance Center and NXT brand.

Garland, who had been working as a fireman in the Orlando area, had a number of WWE trial runs working at the PC and with the NXT brand over the summer.

Originally Posted by PWI

With Ring of Honor running a tour of the United Kingdom this November under the "Reach For The Sky" banner, British promotion Preston City Wrestling announced on 9/5 that they were severing their three-year relationship with the company.

In the statement, PCW noted that they had contacted ROH on 8/21 and had not received a response to a number of issues they had raised with the promotion, including that ROH was running Liverpool the same night as PCW and that the ROH Liverpool event was also going to hurt the draw for PCW events the following weekend that were booked 40 minutes away, that PCW regulars were placed on "standby" for events and never brought to the United States and that PCW's Cruiserweight championship (held at the time by Adam Cole) was never defended within ROH, which PCW claims ROH promised would happen.

PCW then announced that planned events with ROH had been canceled and that the promotion would instead partner with Combat Zone Wrestling, Westside Xtreme Wrestling and Beyond Wrestling for a major Cruiserweight tournament.

Originally Posted by PWI

The 9/6 edition of SmackDown Live did 2,454,000 viewers, down from last week's 2,835,000 viewers. That is (barely) the lowest number since the show went live in July.

Originally Posted by PWI

Billy Corgan announced during a Facebook Live broadcast that he is "actively engaged in negotiations" to purchase TNA Impact Wrestling. Corgan clarified that he was not saying he had bought the company, but was trying to do so. Corgan referred to the process as "complicated" but that he hoped to be able to pull off the purchase. Corgan noted that he hoped to soon not only run the "culture" of the company, but the business end of the company from top to bottom. Corgan stated that if it did not happen, he would explain why as well at a future date.

Originally Posted by Observer

Alberto Del Rio will be holding a press conference in Mexico City tomorrow to discuss his situation with WWE. Del Rio has been in talks with different companies but at this point WWE has yet to officially announce a parting of the ways.

Originally Posted by Observer

It’s been reported in Mexico that Alberto El Patron (Del Rio) may be headed to Elite, as opposed to AAA. Del Rio and his reps are hearing from just about every major company aside from WWE.

Originally Posted by Observer

Stephanie McMahon has said that the reason her book isn't coming out as scheduled is because she has much more to share and that it would be released next year.

Originally Posted by Observer

On the freedom wrestlers have in the Cruiserweight Classic that he felt after his first CWC match with Da Mack:
"It felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. In 18 years, I had never been put in the ring and basically told just be yourself. It was the first time in two decades that's ever happened. It was cool to go in there and what people got to see was just very raw, like pure, organic me. It showed because you can tell I'm having fun and it just felt a lot different. It opened up a lot of people's perception of me."

On getting to work with WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels at the last CWC tapings:
"It was good to be able to spend some time with him in a working environment where I could work with him on stuff from a philosophical point of view. It was great to get advice from him, to see how he operates and it's incredible. It's also encouraging because there's a lot of like-minded philosophy and when that comes about, you get to a point where there's no advice to be given because you guys are thinking on the same rhythm, then it encourages you because your education is better than you think it was. It was awesome to be in that environment. I wanted to tell him the whole time that my Mount Rushmore is your face four times (laughs)...or maybe three times and then Eddie (Guerrero) on the end. There's not a lot of people that I would hold in the same regard. It was so cool that he's in that environment and doing that. If you were to put people in tiers, he's above every tier."

On his matchup with Kota Ibushi in the Cruiserweight Classic finals and how big of a night it will be:
"We've never wrestled before and he's amazing. He's world class - an elite guy. It is the biggest situation I've ever been in mostly because it just seems unwinnable for a guy like me because he is who he is. It's the biggest match I've been able to be a part of because of the social significance among wrestling fans.

Originally Posted by Observer

Before entering the Octagon for his first ever mixed martial arts bout against Mickey Gall at UFC 203 on Saturday, CM Punk met with his friend Ariel Helwani for this year’s edition of their annual sit-down interview.

Of note, Punk seemed to be having a difficult time dealing with having to cut weight for the fight. Helwani asked Punk how much he currently weighed, but Punk wouldn’t reveal the answer.

“When does this come out?” Punk asked. “It’s a thing I gotta do, it’s not going so well I guess.”

Punk said the process wasn’t fun, and he's never done a weight cut before. Punk noted that he hadn’t done a practice weight cut for the fight and hasn’t been working with a nutritionist. Punk claimed that the last time he weighed 171 lbs was in high school or eighth grade, but he wasn’t worried about making weight for the fight.

Originally Posted by Observer

Cody is trying to fulfill his bucket list that he put on the Internet some time back and it looks like he's going to hit every one. He said he is not looking to sign with anyone. His major goal looks to be to trying to it as an actor on television. He did an episode of Arrow (he became friends with Stephen Amell when they did the WWE angle together) and is hoping that turns into a recurring role.

Besides indies and a lot of U.K., he is going to work multiple dates starting in December with ROH and noted in particular wanting to work with Adam Cole. Rhodes is also planning on working TNA with he and his wife Brandi doing a program with Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis after they worked together for Northeast Wrestling. He feels he will be able to work both TNA and ROH, even though both have television and to this point nobody has been able to work both. He got at least one set date in New Japan to work with Katsuyori Shibata, and it wouldn't be a surprise if they also work outside of New Japan as well. Cody has gotten offers to work with Damien Sandow since they had a WWE program, but felt he wants to right now concentrate on working with people he's never worked with before.

Originally Posted by Observer

Although not announced there has been internal talk regarding a second annual Dusty Rhodes tag team tournament

Originally Posted by Observer

There was more than one performer that were very upset with the Banks promo and the idea of it. The feeling was that it was bad taste because they tried to use the emotion of the Bryan promo, which it was a takeoff of (one veteran also brought up the Edge situation) and tried to work what ended up being a bad angle off of it. The feeling is the Bryan thing was real, really too real, and happened too short of a time ago and it cheapened it by trying to copy it for an angle, not to mention how bad the Banks angle turned out. Even though there was no promo, another name mentioned was T.J. Wilson (Kidd) who hasn’t been able to return for more than a year after breaking his neck. Wilson and Bryan were both very well liked across the board by the talent. Obviously some will note that WWE already did this with Mark Henry, but the difference was that Mark Henry’s situation was a fake retirement, but not regarding an injury. It’s the fact that career ending injuries are a very sensitive subject to those who are friends of those injured.

Originally Posted by Observer

The idea right now is to do Takeovers in conjunction with the big four events. Since they have been running on a schedule of four Takeovers a year, that would either move them out of Full Sail (since Mania is in Orlando, Orlando will get at least one guaranteed NXT Takeover show) or they’ll have to add shows

Originally Posted by Observer

The story is that Paige has gotten legal representation and at press time nobody seems to know whether she’ll stay or go. WWE has outright stated that the allegation of Paige being threatened with being fired by Carrano if she didn’t break up with Del Rio is not true. The reality is they were put on different brands when everyone in decision making power knew full well they were a couple and it’s impossible to believe them being a couple wasn’t figured into the decision. Carmella and Cass were as well but that was different in the sense they wanted to get Carmella over as a wrestler on her own and not part of the Enzo & Cass team so there was a business reason and that decision was made months ago when they didn’t bring her up as part of the act. But to outright say if you don’t break up with your boyfriend you’ll be fired, that’s more questionable. It’s just difficult for me to believe someone in that position would ever say that because of the legal implications. Between her suspension and Del Rio leaving you know the situation would be tenuous anyway, but this being said only makes it more difficult for both sides, but she has not officially at least left the promotion as of press time and is still under contract for a number of years. In fact, at press time, WWE has not even acknowledged that Del Rio is no longer with the promotion which is surprising since the belief was it would be acknowledged by now.

Originally Posted by Noid (Post 4857438)

I can totally imagine the WWE trying to split Paige/Del Rio up. Didn't they get shitty at Lana posting about her wedding to Rusev. Paige put up Instagram photos of her and ADR together. It's very easy to imagine a representative going up to one or both of them and saying "Hey, we don't like the look of that" with that underlying "Stop or you're fired" subtext.