[Emperor Smeat]

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Monday’s 2/22 episode of WWE RAW drew 3.884 million viewers, up from last week’s 3.46 million. The show featured fallout from WWE Fastlane, the surprise return of Shane McMahon and several major developments for Wrestlemania 32. Here’s the hourly breakdown, courtesy of ShowbuzzDaily.com: Hour 1: 4.201 million Hour 2: 4.055 million Hour 3: 3.396 million

Around 423k more viewers than last week but the 3rd hour had a drop of around 800k. In terms of historical stuff, same week last year had around 240k more viewers. In terms of more historical stuff, it took until June of last year before one of the hours went under 3.5 million while its happened 4 times this year so far.

WWE shook things up in a big way on Monday night with the surprise return of Shane McMahon. After a memorable confrontation with Vince and Stephanie McMahon, it was announced that Shane will face The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32 inside Hell in a Cell. If Shane wins, he gets control of WWE. If The Undertaker wins, Vince’s debt to Shane for bailing him out several years ago is forgiven. Shane vs. Undertaker HIAC is one of those ‘wildcard’ matches that nobody saw coming but one that will add some much needed interest and star power to a card plagued by injuries. Here’s the latest on how this deal came together, courtesy of Dave Meltzer at f4wonline.com: Longtime fans know this “WrestleMania match for control of WWE” has been talked about for years now. Originally it would have been Triple H representing the Authority against a surrogate of Vince McMahon’s, either The Rock of Steve Austin. The plan had been nixed in the past because Vince didn’t want to be on TV. The deal between Vince and Shane was brokered just a few weeks ago. Shane currently does not have any management position in the company and is solely an on-air talent at this time. Even though he still has a major role with You On Demand (Chinese media company), he’s Shane is based out of New York and could theoretically be at television each week. Shane’s promo was very much based on real circumstances within the McMahon family. There was a time that Shane legitimately felt he was in line to take over WWE but Vince ultimately made it very clear that Stephanie and Triple H would be running the company, which is a big part of what led to his departure. Meltzer also noted cryptically that there’s something behind the fact that Triple H was not part of that opening segment.

Supposedly the Observer implied the Shane vs Vince storyline had been something the WWE wanted to do going as far back as the Road to Mania 30. Also supposedly a big reason why the real life split happened was due to Vince favoring Stephanie to be in control of Creative back in the day and refusing to split the company between Shane (business side) and Stephanie (Creative side).

In a further update to the shocking events of last night, Dave Metlzer of Wrestling Observer Radio reports the storyline was originally supposed to take place two years ago with Triple H vs. an opponent of Vince McMahon's choosing, which would have ultimately been Steve Austin or The Rock. The match would have been for power and control of WWE but Vince nixed plans for the storyline because he wasn't keen on being on television at the time. The major storyline leading into that WrestleMania ended up being The Authority vs. Daniel Bryan, who went on to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE has indeed changed their PPV schedule. WWE Payback, initially set for 5/22, will now take place on 5/1. We have not confirmed the city or venue as of this writing. WWE Extreme Rules has been pushed back from late April to 5/22 in Newark, NJ..

Some recent changes the WWE made to their ppv schedule this year.

Originally Posted by Observer Ring of Honor announced today that the way they are handling Friday's TV title situation is doing a three-way match with new champion Tomohiro Ishii facing the original two wrestlers who were scheduled to battle, former champion Roderick Strong and Bobby Fish ... There was question as to whether Ishii vs. Hirooki Goto, originally scheduled on the card, would become the title mach, or if Ishii would face Strong, since an angle on the Saturday night show at Korakuen Hall indicated that. But today they announced he three-way ... The companies 14th anniversary show will be from a sold out Sam's Town Casino Arena in Las Vegas on Friday February 26th, headlined by Jay Lethal defending the ROH title in a three-way against Kyle O'Reilly and Adam Cole.

Originally Posted by Observer There’s a presale now through tomorrow, Thursday 11:59 P.M. for WWE Payback (well, Ticketmaster is now listing it as Extreme Rules) in Newark, New Jersey on Sunday May 22nd. WWEPC is the presale code.

Figured that might be interested for those in the area and wanted to go to the event.

Originally Posted by Observer The trial in Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker is now just two weeks away. Going into the trial, a few issues are still outstanding with regards to the trial: * Hogan is trying to get anything that is the product of the original illegally made recordings of Hogan removed from the record entirely. Gawker and major media organizations who filed as intervenors, are, of course, both opposed. * Hogan filed a number of motions on both that issue as well as issues like trying to get evidence about past Gawker controversies admitted at trial, seemingly trying to get Gawker’s defense thrown out, and more, which Gawker is of course opposing and filed a number of position statements on.

Some other sheet news includes:

• Lucha Underground announced they will be hosting a live show during next month's SXSW event in Austin, Texas. https://twitter.com/luchaelrey/statu...62723468091392
• NXT tag team Dash & Dawson are getting renamed as "The Revival." Would be their third team name since forming with the original name being The Mechanics.
• Could just be a typo or possible sign of post-Mania plans but Ticketmaster recently revealed an upcoming RAW show in May is currently titled as "WWE Monday Night RAW vs WWE." Assuming its not a typo, could be looking at a possible new brand split or even "invasion"-like civil war storyline for the big post-Mania story. http://www.ticketmaster.com/wwe-mond...004F8AE1514B5C
• Xavier Woods was a recent guest for Hot Pepper Gaming and gave a review for Street Fighter V while eating a hot pepper. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bgv881gtSb0
• According to the Observer, WWE title match at Mania currently rumored to involve a guest ref with Bastista as the original option before he declined the offer. https://twitter.com/davemeltzerwon/s...62503459188736
• Recent press conference Shinsuke Nakamura had revealed he is currently trying to keep his NJPW name in the WWE although will be getting a new theme. http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/6774...-note-and-more
• New DLC pack for WWE 2k16 was released today which includes several new matches featuring WWE Hall of Famers. Online retailer Amazon is currently holding a sale for the game for $40.