[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by New Day and Team Pinkie Swear secret handshake:

WWE reportedly had plans at one point for Brock Lesnar to be a gay character in their storylines. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter is reporting that WWE was considering the idea of debuting a gay character in 2002 that would be a tough guy who outs himself as being guy, but would do none of the stereotypes and would be portrayed as a kick-ass main eventer. The idea was for the person to be Lesnar when he made his debut that year. Originally, the idea came from two of WWE's magazine writers, one of whom was Brian Solomon. Solomon pitched the idea directly to Stephanie McMahon that year, with the pitch being that it would blow fans away to see an unstoppable hyper-masculine bad ass revealing himself to be gay, and be pushed as a top babyface. WWE felt that they would get huge support from the gay community, as well as positive support from the media for having a "progressive character." The people who originally pitched the idea never heard another word about it and didn't know until recently that the idea actually made it to the writers room. The idea ended up being shot down by older agents in the company who thought it was a terrible idea, and it ended up leading to the Billy and Chuck thing.

Former WWE creative member Seth Mates spoke out on the situation, saying that anyone in the company could pitch ideas and were welcome to do so. He noted that such a pitch was made, but it wasn't necessarily on the table to happen. Mates also said that some of the details from the Observer report, such as Solomon's name, as well as when it was done weren't correct.

While he stated anyone could pitch ideas, he did confirm Gay Lesnar was an idea being pitched.

WWE has apparently shifted direction in terms of Lana being the female superstar of the company. Moving forward she will now just being another character on the show. The new idea is to find a Latin female star for the company, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. WWE is seeking sex appeal and Spanish speaking skills for someone who can be the front and center to expanding the Latin audience. The company has started to seek out Latin female weather reporters in Mexico who are chosen for looks. Melissa Santos, who is under contract with Lucha Underground, is ideal for someone who they are looking to put in this position. If Lucha Underground doesn't have a second season, she would be available for this role.

Originally Posted by Observer The situation regarding MVP is that TNA actually fired him over the Hernandez situation. Although we had heard he was thinking of leaving before he was fired, the decision was definitely made by TNA. He took the heat internally since it was his idea to bring Hernandez in. Shouldn’t it be the lawyers who are there to figure out if a guy has a release and if TNA can legally sign him, not the talent or somebody coming up with the creative?

Originally Posted by 411mania Last night’s Impact and ROH airings had good news for Destination America. Impact scored 343,000 viewers and a 0.11 rating in the 18 – 49 demographic, up 8% and 22% from last week’s 317,000 and 0.09 demo rating. The numbers were the highest for Impact since the June 24th episode brought in 369,000 and a 0.12 demo rating. The midnight replay garnered 64,000 viewers and a 0.02 rating, down 10% and even with last week’s 71,000 and 0.02. As for Ring of Honor, in its new single airing at 11 PM the show brought in 171,000 viewers and a 0.04 demo rating. These numbers are up 36% and double from last week’s 126,000 viewers and 0.02 in the same time slot. They’re also significantly up from the 139,000 and 0.02 demo rating from the 8 PM timeslot last week, although this isn’t a good comparison since obviously last week had two time period options to watch. The fact that the demo rating was equal to both of last week’s airings combined is certainly a good sign though.

Originally Posted by Inquisitr.com We know by now that Destination America is set to remove TNA Wrestling from it’s line-up by September. However, there are rumors that the network could remove the show by the end of the year. Now, it looks like Ring of Honor is also in danger of seeing the boot from Destination America at the end of the year as well, despite the numbers being respectable for them at their stage. According to Cageside Seats, Destination America plans to remove both promotions by the end of the year because they want to move away from pro-wrestling. This is clearly a big blow to both promotions, one of which has only had a small amount of time to really prove anything to the network. It does make sense, however, as they were hoping to see much higher numbers than what they are getting. However, this was expected by many pro-wrestling purists, as neither TNA nor ROH were capable of bringing in the kind of fans that a WWE is able to do on a normal basis.

Brock Lesnar has been announced for the October 3rd WWE live event from Madison Square Garden in New York City. No word yet on who he will be facing, but Paul Heyman will also be there. This will be Lesnar's first domestic WWE live event since returning to the company in 2012. The following was also announced for the show: * John Cena vs. Seth Rollins * Dolph Ziggler vs. Rusev * Sheamus vs. Randy Orton * Appearances by Chris Jericho and the WWE Divas

Rest of the sheets is from WWE's investor's meeting they had today:

According to WWE's earnings report filed this morning, they have 1.156 million paid WWE Network subscribers as of June 30th, 2015. This is down from the 1.327 million they announced the day after WrestleMania 31. WWE noted that from launch through June 30th, the Network has attracted more than 2 million unique subscribers with approximately 61% of those still active ... WWE would not release info or answer questions regarding subscribers who had signed up for free months during the period and the retention rate, but the end of the quarter numbers show that, as expected, the people taking advantage of free subs are way down since it became a regular thing.

Still under a million subs for the US and under 300,000 for rest of the world. Current goal is to reach 1.2 million as a stable number by the end of the year. They need a stable 1.3-1.4 million in order to be profitable with the Network.

Originally Posted by PWI For the remainder of 2015, the Company expects to add approximately 180 hours of original content to the network’s featured programming. Exciting original programming coming to the network includes a reality series following the stars of NXT as they strive to make WWE’s main roster, a new series Table for 3 that gives viewers a seat at the table with our Superstars and Divas, a studio show highlighting current events in the world of WWE and beyond, and new episodes of WWE 24, The WWE List, and Stone Cold Podcast, as well as teasers of Camp WWE, an animated adult series premiering in 2016. In addition, the Company plans to expand WWE Network’s robust video-on-demand library, which currently has more than 3,300 hours of content. Themed programming collections to be added to this library include The Raw Attitude Era Part 2: Austin/McMahon, WCW Nitro: Accelerating the War, and The 20th Anniversary of Monday Nitro.

The WWE network, besides doing overseas live specials like they did from Tokyo, is looking into doing a live show on the beach, similar to the first WCW Bash at the Beach on Huntington Beach about 20 years ago.

They noted that the new shows like Too Hot for TV, Swerved and The Stone Cold Podcast were among the most watched shows on the network, not mentioning the Jericho shows. They also said Beast from the Beast, a live show from Tokyo, ws viewed more than any show to date on the network with the exception of the PPV events, beating out the Austin interview with Vince McMahon which had been No. 1 ... Swerved is CANCELLED, reportedly due to talent complaints.