[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets:

From Giantbomb's recent interview with Pat Patterson and overall SummerSlam coverage

Originally Posted by Giantbomb ..And I asked him what standouts he likes. "Oh, I like the guy who the does the..", and he starts doing motions in the air with his hands......is it Sami Zayn? "Sami Zayn! I love that guy! The stuff he does, it's amazing! Oh my God, he's the best!". And he said he goes to Vince, "Oh, I tell Vince, I tell all the guys and I say, oh the stuff he does and they all go, "Oh no, he just does a bunch of flippy shit".

The status of WWE's stable with Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods has been a hot topic among fans this week. The group has been used at recent WWE live events and in dark matches, both as heels and babyfaces. The members of the group have been told that they will still be used together in the future. WWE officials are trying to figure out how the group will be presented and how they want to move forward with it.

Originally Posted by Observer Regarding the network in Canada on Rogers, the reason there are so small archives is because this whole thing was rushed to launch because they have to show improved numbers over the next three months. They hadn’t gotten CRTC approval yet. Rogers is discussing offering the network to other cable systems covering the rest of the country.

Originally Posted by Observer At this stage, the working idea for Prince Devitt’s name is Fergal, which is his real first name. Given that WWE wants to own rights to people’s names and give them names they can’t take elsewhere if they leave, I’m guessing that name changes before he hits the main roster.

Originally Posted by Observer Solomon Crowe, the former Sami Callihan, has been turned from heel to face in NXT. He dropped the hacker gimmick which HHH hated. He’s now trying to emphasize wrestling skills.

Originally Posted by Observer New Japan is seriously looking into doing the 1/4 show at the Tokyo Dome as a regular PPV show in North America. If so, the working idea would be to use high-profile English language announcers.

Originally Posted by Observer Regarding the portrayal of Cena on Raw this week, that was all written and put together by Vince McMahon. McMahon felt that after the one-sided match (which they never should have done in hindsight, since the follow-up was so lame and it was rendered as if it might as well have never happened), that the Cena fans would lose faith in him unless he made an immediate statement.

Raw's original plans were supposed to be this according to the Observer:

Originally Posted by Observer The original plan for Monday's WWE RAW was for Big Show and Mark Henry to face Erick Rowan and Luke Harper, which was actually taped for SmackDown. The plan was for Bray Wyatt to attack Big Show after the match and lay him out with Sister Abigail, as a way to show how dangerous Wyatt still is. The idea was to come out of RAW with momentum for Wyatt. There were a number of other changes. The package with Lesnar and Heyman that they played was originally earmarked for the 9/1 show, not the 8/25 show. Also, Rusev vs. Swagger was not on the original Raw script as the plan was to put Cesaro vs. Swagger for the U.S title shot, which Cesaro would win, with the same Dallas follow-up.

Reason for the Cena change and probably why Cena will never turn heel later got explained by the Observer.

Originally Posted by Observer With Bryan and Punk gone, Cena’s merchandise was recently and may still be outselling the entire rest of the roster combined. Heel turns kill merch sales, not to mention ticket sales to kids, which make up a strong percentage of the WWE audience and the Cena shows this year were doing more than $60,000 above the non-Cena shows in ticket sales (and shows without Cena are doing well below the usual levels for house shows in the cities they have been in while Cena shows have not). There is always the chance that Cena will get hotter as a ticket seller with a heel turn. Historically, with the exception of Hogan (whose merch sales were dead when he made the turn), modern era top babyface turns didn’t work unless you have the hotter babyface on the rise (like Austin was with Bret Hart when they did the double turn) ... If Bryan, or Reigns, or someone, is at the point as champion where they are outdrawing Cena and selling at close to the same level, you could consider a turn, but even then, you still have the issues where Make-a-Wish and other corporate partners who bank on Cena as a spokesperson or face would get upset. But today, with no Punk, no Bryan, and Reigns months from being ready, any suggestion of turning him today is up there with the ill-fated Austin turn ... When the new characters are at the point they are carrying the ball, and Reigns may already be on track getting there, you absolutely could consider a Cena turn from a wrestling standpoint. But perhaps Make-a-Wish changes the game and it won’t happen even when the storyline time down the line could be right.