[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Yokozuna's WWE Hall of Fame big fat ass:


First batch are related to current Mania plans so spoiler tag used for those that want to stay surprised.

SPOILER: show

Originally Posted by Observer Sami Zayn is scheduled to be wrestling at WrestleMania at this point so he should be appearing on the main roster and on the main television very shortly.

Originally Posted by Observer With four weeks of television left, we’re told there is a complete WrestleMania card, although at this point only three matches are announced. The three, which are expected to be the show’s top three bouts, are HHH vs. Roman Reigns for the WWE title, Undertaker vs. Shane McMahon in a Hell in a Cell match for the control of Monday Night Raw, and Brock Lesnar vs. Dean Ambrose in a street fight.

Originally Posted by Observer At this point, there has been no mention of celebrities on the show. They haven’t even mentioned The Rock, although he is in a promotional videotape commercial for the show. But his being there has not been brought up in commentary since his last appearance on Raw in Miami. As noted, Rock, Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels and at least as of a week ago, Mick Foley, are all scheduled to have parts in the show at this point. The roles of all but Rock have been defined but whether all or some of the others will be announced ahead of time or do a cameo role similar to DX and the NWO last year is unknown.

Originally Posted by Observer Charlotte defending the Divas title against Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks in a three-way is currently scheduled, after two straight non-endings in Lynch vs. Banks matches to get the title shot. There will be a New Day vs. League of Nations match in some form, either a tag team or a six-man match. The hints we’ve had indicate more likely the latter. The New Day vs. A.J. Styles & Chris Jericho program is not scheduled to be part of WrestleMania. They have been pushing Sheamus & Rusev as a tag team of late. King Barrett is fully cleared and Alberto Del Rio is still being linked with Kalisto, which could lead to a blow-off match over the U.S. title but we haven’t been told of that yet.

Originally Posted by Observer There will also be a multiple person match of sorts. That is likely for Kevin Owens’ IC title although that hasn’t been confirmed. The idea is similar to last year’s IC title ladder match to load up on good workers (and The Miz). Also on the show include another singles match with top guys with an angle expected to be shot over the next two weeks, a second women’s match as well as the Andre the Giant Battle Royal for everyone else not slotted in. Aside from Shane McMahon, no surprise wrestlers are scheduled for the show, as all the legends will be in cameo roles, interview roles or as seconds or referees.

Originally Posted by Observer The original booking of WWE Roadblock was to be HHH vs. Ambrose vs. Lesnar, with HHH pinning Ambrose to win. The main event booking is interesting. The kneejerk reaction is HHH has to retain for his title defense at WrestleMania against Roman Reigns. They believe that they are going to get Ambrose over as a never quits babyface by constantly beating him down and beating him but he keeps coming back ... While Ambrose will likely always get a reaction because the crowd likes him and he’s got a great promo delivery, at some point, unless he scores a big win that this is building toward, people may lose faith in him since he constantly gets beaten up in fights he starts and always loses to the top guys.

Originally Posted by Observer Right now there are no plans on the table for Ambrose to turn heel, but they badly need contenders ready for Reigns with personal issues over the summer. If they run with Sheamus and Wyatt as his post-Mania foes, or turn Show or Kane, it’ll be a bad start to a tough reign for him. Reigns as a heel makes all the sense in the world, but that would undo years of work in planning on him for being the face of the company. But all of his “money” contenders or best personal issues would come on the face side, most notably Lesnar, Ambrose, Undertaker and John Cena.

Originally Posted by Observer Shane McMahon has not signed a contract with the company as a performer nor has he been hired for an executive position. The company noted that he is expected to be paid in excess of $120,000 for his role as a performer this year leading to WrestleMania. At this point, nobody seems to have been told anything but he’s returning short-term as a performer.

Originally Posted by Observer The story broken this past week by Mike Johnson regarding TNA looking for outside investors opens up a lot of questions. While they are categorizing it as looking for money to fund new growth, the move comes at a time when Panda Energy has pulled back on funding the company and the company seems more from the outside looking that it needs new capital ... The company had been looking for investors for some time, but it hadn’t been public. But apparently Dixie Carter has been at meetings in both New York and Los Angeles looking for funding. The public admission of looking for outside funding is a change, as all previous stories that would lead to uncertainty about the future were always denied to talent, even though historically in every case it left the company with no credibility when the stories ended up being true.

Update to TNA looking for a new investor and/or parent company news.

Originally Posted by Observer The most recent set of tapings in the U.K. runs out with the show that airs on 3/8 ... Talent had been told that they were booked for tapings back at Universal in Orlando from ... 3/15 to 3/20, with the first night being an almost live (tape delayed by about two hours) show. The taping would include doing both Impact as well as some One Night Only specials which the company is contracted to in its international television deals. Six days of tapings would enable them to tape nearly two months of television. But it’s strange that even at this late date the company hasn’t announced it, nor have any of the talent received their ticket itinerary, and there are rumblings about late payments again, which is hardly uncommon. Those used to be blamed on the outside forces in Panda, but now with all checks having to be cut from the Nashville offices with Panda not involved, the old excuses no longer hold water ... Talent hasn’t been told of any house shows or PPV dates, nor future tapings after this month. Signs aren’t good, as the audience for Impact has dropped. The 2/23 Impact show, pushed as the Lockdown card from London, did 210,000 viewers at 9 p.m., the lowest number to date by 45,000 viewers, and that’s more than a month after Pop TV added 8 million new homes. The 87,000 viewers for the replay were the second lowest since moving to the new station. They are in somewhere between 21 million and 23 million more homes than when they were on Destination America, and about 12 million to 14 million fewer homes than Spike, but their viewing audience is way down from Destination America numbers ... Now the base has eroded. While the TV show has improved, they ran off so many customers and lost customers with network and night changes that never came back ... There are a number of problems, including just the nature of TNA as WWE-lite storylines with lesser stars. Instead of forging their own direction like a number of independent groups have done to grow interest, the TNA formula isn’t unique in a business where WWE has five hours of weekly prime time television with bigger names, better matches, and an NXT product on its network as a hot alternative with a more basic style. TNA does have less scripted feeling interviews and has tried to push new characters in recent weeks. The TV has gotten better in recent weeks. But the loss of so many big names and overall negative momentum and the bad feelings among fans from all the years of bad television has left the brand with significant damage ... In addition, the relationship between TNA will and AO1 Productions looks to have fallen apart already. This stems from issues with production people for much of last year complaining about late payments

Some other bad news included the recent UK tour performing a lot worse than originally assumed, TNA having problems planning for this year's India tour, and this week's Impact being the 3rd lowest in viewers since the move to POP TV.

Originally Posted by Observer AAA has announced its Rey de Reyes show ... The main event has Mesias (Mil Muertes) vs. El Texano Jr. for the vacant Mega heavyweight title. This is the title that Alberto El Patron held when he left for WWE, and has been vacant since October. The card is pretty clear that they are no longer focusing on younger talent and more of older wrestlers with name value. Also announced is a non-stipulation singles match with Dr. Wagner Jr., who is 50, vs. Psycho Clown.

Originally Posted by Observer The Hogan-Gawker trial starts this week. According to a story in the Tampa Bay Times, when the judge read Gawker’s defense that the video was a matter of legitimate public concern, several jurors scoffed audibly. Hogan is expecting the biggest win of his career, and financially, it very well could be. Hogan Tweeted while in the court house, “Time for the real main event. I am going to slam another Giant! Hogan vs. Gawker! Watcha Gonna Do Gawker? Only Justice Brother.

All signs pretty much have it as a lock that Hogan will win. For a small laugh this was one of the questions asked during the jury pool stuff: https://twitter.com/annamphillips/st...28035696189441

Originally Posted by Observer There had been talk regarding whether to allow Styles to use the Styles Clash, because Vince McMahon had found out Yoshitatsu suffered a broken neck from the move and wanted to err on the side of caution. After Styles used it to beat Axel in his second singles match, they made the call to use the calf crusher as his finisher. Styles hadn’t used the Styles clash, nor even teased it because he was told it wasn’t going to be his finish, since that point. Jericho wanted it in their PPV match, as much as anything because the move was over and to get a reaction, and got it in, and with no issues coming from it, the move is now okay to be used. But I believe they still want the submission move to be his finisher

Originally Posted by Observer Right now the rule in creative is if there is a major cultural event, such as the Super Bowl, Grammys or Emmys, that something related to it has to be written into the opening promo the next Monday on Raw

Originally Posted by PWI Jeff Jarrett's Global Force Wrestling has signed a deal with "American Ninja Warrior" producers A. Smith & Co. Productions to partner and develop a new professional wrestling TV series, described by Real Screen, which broke the news today, as "a new wrestling format within the sport while providing viewers with dramatic storylines and exclusive access to their favorite athletes." The story notes that the series would take the GFW roster and present them in a similar "event style" to some of A. Smith & Co.'s other productions, such as FOXs "Hell's Kitchen." GFW has been taping and presenting some reality elements to videos they've released online to promote the Global Force Wrestling brand-name ... Based on the wording of the article, it would appear this project under the GFW banner would be separate from the GFW Amped TV episodes that were taped last year in Las Vegas.

Some other sheet news includes:

• NJPW's Kota Ibushi teased during a recent Japanese interview that he would like to work in the WWE in the future. https://twitter.com/enuhito_eng/stat...082368?lang=en
• Someone on SquaredCircle recently broke down the segment and wrestling times for this week's RAW with ads taking up around 23% of the show, promos and recaps types taking up around 41.5% of the show, and actual wrestling being just 25% of the show. In a non-shocker, Taker ate up the most time in regards to ring entrances. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCirc...ka_i_have_too/
• According to the Observer, NJPW is planning on expanding their presence in the US market with recently signed Jim Ross and their AXS show as the basis for it. Also currently working on getting an official NJPW wrestling game to be made.
• Update to Lucha Underground selling episodes on iTunes as it appears LU only gets paid a percentage per episode downloaded and no money up front from the deal.
• According to the Observer, current Road to Mania plans have no more tv appearances by Taker till Mania while Shane has at least 3 more dates planned. Lesnar only has 2 more weeks of dates currently planned while Reigns is set to come back next week but will skip the following week.
• According to reports, the current contract Nakaumra signed with the WWE ends in 2019.
• According to PWI, this season of Total Divas is on tract to be the worst in terms of viewers with a this week's episode being under 600k. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCirc...antly_down_to/