[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets:

Originally Posted by PWI As noted, Batista isn't booked for any WWE shows after tomorrow's Extreme Rules pay-per-view. His last night for the time being is scheduled to be the pay-per-view or RAW on Monday night. We knew that Batista would be taking some time off to promote Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy but nobody expected it to come this quick. Word is that WWE wanted to do Batista vs. Daniel Bryan for the WWE World Heavyweight Title at June's Payback pay-per-view but Batista turned it down. Batista felt that him losing to someone smaller than him, after he tapped out to him at WrestleMania XXX and right before he's going to appear in a big summer blockbuster movie, wouldn't be a good fit for him and would not be a good way for fans to remember him until he returns again. The plan was for Batista to work through Payback and then take some time off but since he turned it down, he's finishing up early because it was said that WWE has nothing else for him. No word yet on what this means for Evolution. Batista is still expected back for SummerSlam.

Originally Posted by F4W There have been discussions of making the NXT tapings biweekly instead of monthly so the last episode of the taping isn't a month old. We were told that it has to do with popularity increasing thanks to the network, but this is also on the heels of continuity issues when they had to insert new segments like John Layfield stripping Paige of the women's title into the show.

Originally Posted by F4W Sheamus' heel turn could happen during or right after the European tour. They didn't want him turning heel right before and losing momentum by getting cheered so early in his heel run.

Originally Posted by F4W The working plan for trying to get Goldberg for WrestleMania 31 is to follow a similar path that the Ultimate Warrior took: Put him in the video game, announce him around SummerSlam, and then use that to build to Mania. Being a focal point of the video game promotion on top of a WM booking is the most financially beneficial way that it can go for him, so we'll have a much better idea of whether or not he's doing anything after SummerSlam weekend.

WWE has come to terms to purchase a library of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling shot in Virginia at ringside next to the ring announcer, from Jim Crockett Promotions events filmed by George Pantas. Unlike the Mid-Atlantic material that was purchased as part of the WCW library in 2001, Pantas' footage was filmed on 8 and Super 8 cameras and was owned by Pantas. WWE first became aware of the footage when it was licensed for the Michael Elliot documentary on Jim Crockett Promotions' "The Good Old Days", which can be purchased at www.highspots.com. The footage includes perhaps the only complete match on film featuring Ric Flair vs. Buddy Rogers. Pantas recently made the purchase public in this column for Norfolk Navy Flagship, but I am told the purchase went down about two months ago.