[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Psycho Sid forgetting how doors work:

Originally Posted by Observer The website betonline.ag has established 80-to-1 odds on Dwayne Johnson being our next president. The favorites are Donald Trump at 11-to-4, Mike Pence at 6-1, Elizabeth Warren at 8-1, Michelle Obama at 14-to-1 and Cory Booker and Bernie Sanders at 20-to-1.

Washington Post also recently covered the idea of The Rock running for President: http://https//www.washingtonpost.com...=.911b795db6c0

Originally Posted by Observer Stephanie McMahon, doing promotional work in the U.K., hinted on a future WrestleMania or SummerSlam in the U.K.

Link to the article: https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/wwe/3...-wrestlemania/

Originally Posted by PWI Ring of Honor returns to PPV this Friday with "War of the Worlds 2017" from the sold out Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City at 9 PM Eastern, featuring: *ROH champion Christopher Daniels vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Jay Lethal. *ROH TV champion Marty Scurll vs. Matt Sydal. *ROH Tag Team champions The Young Bucks vs. Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI. *ROH Six Man Tag Team champions Bully Ray & The Briscoes vs. NEVER Openweight champion Hirooki Goto & Roppongi Vice. *Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Adam Cole. *IWGP Tag Team champions War Machine vs. EVIL & SANADA vs. Jonathan Gresham & Chris Sabin (with Alex Shelley). *Will Ospreay vs. Jay White. *Adam "Hangman" Page vs. Frankie Kazarian. *KUSHIDA vs. Dalton Castle (with the Boys) vs. Bobby Fish vs. Silas Young.

Originally Posted by PWI The updated lineup for WWE NXT Takeover: Chicago: *WWE NXT champ Bobby Roode vs. Hideo Itami. *WWE NXT Tag Team champions The Authors of Pain vs. DIY: Ladder Match. *WWE NXT Women's champion Asuka vs. Ruby Riot vs. Nikki Cross.

Originally Posted by Fox Sports "As far as the performance level it's definitely a business for the young and I am on the older side of young but I don't think I'll ever not be involved with the WWE. They will have to tell me that they no longer need my services because it is my home,"

Part of an interview Cena had with Fox News on the topic of when he wants to retire. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-wrestlemania/

Originally Posted by Observer It’s uncertain how long Strowman will be out of action at this point, as the original estimates were that he could have made the July PPV. However, he’s been pulled off all shows past that 7/9 date, with Bray Wyatt being moved out of his scheduled matches to Finn Balor, to headline the Raw crew live events going forward against Roman Reigns as far as advertising goes. If Strowman is unable to work the July PPV, Rollins or Balor would be the most likely opponent for Lesnar, because Reigns is slotted to face him at next year’s WrestleMania and it doesn’t appear to make sense to do that match first and then bring it back. If anything, Reigns should be sidetracked from a title match until WrestleMania, although that makes booking tricky since Reigns is positioned as the biggest star on the brand except when Lesnar is around. Strowman at last word was expected back for SummerSlam, so he could face Lesnar there.

Current estimates are 1-2 months for Strowman's recovery.

Originally Posted by Observer AXS and New Japan closed the deal for how the Long Beach shows will be covered. An announcement will officially be made on 5/18. All indications are the 7/1 show goes live at 8 p.m. Eastern time

Originally Posted by Observer Katsuyori Shibata had another brain surgery on 5/2. Before he had the second surgery, he wrote: “It is a miracle to be alive. I had my skull removed in my last surgery. I have another surgery on May 2, 2017. I will return. Every day, using pain medications three to four times. I endure the pain. I can hardly see out of my right eye right now. Currently, the hearing ability in my right ear is not normal. The sound is broken and hard.

Originally Posted by Observer On the NWA sale front, 5/10 was supposed to be the deadline for all the papers to be signed for Bruce Tharpe to officially sell the rights to the NWA and whatever intellectual property that goes with it to Billy Corgan. What we do know is that as of 5/9, there was no word that the papers were signed and those in the NWA haven’t heard anything official

Originally Posted by Observer Regarding the cancellation of the World of Sport tapings, the public story is logistical problems and the idea the tapings were too close to the dates for the Impact tapings in India (which are 5/30 and 6/1) and they are having trouble getting new dates, but that’s a clear cover reason. The key problem is what was reported here last week regarding ITV and Impact not coming to a business agreement over their partnership. ITV wants to do it, and the feeling was that they had the structure to handle a taping for one show, but not a promotion, which is where TNA came aboard since they have experience in running a wrestling business. It’s certainly not dead that they would be able to reach an agreement and do tapings later. It also may not happen. Whether ITV would do it on their own or work with a U.K. promotion is still up in the air. The problem with the U.K. promotions is that all the talent in the U.K., besides those signed with WWE & Anthem are free agents and work everywhere, and ITV would want a crew under contract so WWE couldn’t pick them off. The Mirror reported that the shows won’t be taped until 2018 which will kill the project because I don’t see any top talent not getting signed somewhere before that. A lot of the talent doesn’t think it’s going to happen now since no new dates were announced and just the way it quietly was announced as not happening. One person key in the plans said the story they were told was they were looking at starting in the next year, which sounds a lot less promising than if they said they’d be taping in the next two months. There were several minor things done to sabotage the project but ultimately I think ITV wanted to try wrestling which used to be cheap programming in the old days, but now it’s expensive and you have to sign the talent to deals or you’ll lose them if they are good to one of many different companies, most notably WWE. There are major issues that aren’t settled. ITV supposedly has a backup plan, but working with What Culture is not something that is being considered right now based on what we’re told. A lot of the talent signed by ITV was unhappy when the word was that Impact would be taking over and wanted out, and even more disappointed when these shows were canceled. Some were told that it may not be until next year when the first tapings take place, which is where the starting back in 2018 story came from. There was actually talk among some of the guys of a Radicalz 2000 jump to WWE, which obviously would have loved to have taken the top tier talent from the project, but many of the key contracts with ITV from the first set of tapings were for one year, so they have a long way to go. There was talk of some of them being at the WWE tryouts, but I’m not sure WWE would let guys try out publicly who have existing contracts and we didn’t hear anything about the contracted guys here trying out. Others involved with the project outright told us that given how everything went down this past week, with the cancellation and not even a clue of a new tapings date, or the nebulous early 2018, that they are going with their own mentality of like it’s not happening, and it’s a big disappointment because much of the talent had high hopes for the project

Its a long read but to summarize, Impact Wrestling is to blame for World of Sport delays and issues ITV is having with its production. Several wrestlers who were interested want out because they don't want to work with Impact Wrestling. ITV is considering an early 2018 date but also likely they will drop the project by then due to rising costs.

Originally Posted by Observer Dave Bautista was on Jericho’s podcast and said he had gone to WWE and talked to Vince and HHH about working a retirement program with him and that Vince said it was an interesting idea, but they never got back to him. He said now he’s booked solid the next 18 months so it can’t happen any time soon

Originally Posted by Observer Jericho has said that his original plan was to lose at WrestleMania to Owens and that would be it. He said Vince asked him to stay an extra month, since Jericho wasn’t going back on the road until the first week of May with Fozzy. He said he was originally going to finish on 4/30, but then Vince had the idea of him staying the extra day until 5/1. Then, when the decision was made to move Owens, that 5/1 was moved to 5/2. He said he’d like to say they were geniuses this time with the “list, “it” and “stupid idiot” which got him over, but he noted none of those were planned. It just happened and they decided to run with it. He said originally he was just going to do 2016 in WWE and then go back to the music, but the Owens vs. Jericho program got strong enough so he decided to stay through Mania and blow it off there.

Originally Posted by Observer Io Shirai hasn’t signed yet and her coming to Orlando in late March to the Performance Center as WWE recruiting didn’t go swimmingly from her standpoint. Shirai is Stardom’s biggest star and Hojo was No. 2. Stardom would be able to survive losing one, but losing both, particularly if Mayu Iwatani also retires, would be devastating.

Originally Posted by Observer Henry Holmes, who is a well-known Malibu, CA, based attorney specializes in sports and entertainment, was the one who facilitated the release agreement between WWE and Mauro Ranallo. He has represented and negotiated deals for people like George Foreman (he negotiated the famous George Foreman grill deal), Hulk Hogan, Billie Jean King, Lennox Lewis, Shane Mosely, Martina Navratilova, Oscar De La Hoya, Bill Goldberg, Frank Shamrock, Buzz Aldrin, and Larry King

Originally Posted by Observer Ember Moon will be out of action for at least four to five more weeks. There was an angle done on television where Asuka attacked her on the NXT show and it was written that she suffered a grade one shoulder sprain. That aspect was storyline. People in the company have said the angle was a cover for a legit injury, similar to what happened with Strowman this week on Raw. She’s had her arm in a sling and also out of the sling at the Performance Center of late. That puts her out of action in the Takeover show on 5/20 in Chicago. The match now will be Asuka defending in a three-way against Ruby Riot and Nikki Cross

Originally Posted by Observer For what it’s worth, WWE sent out a mailer plugging Talking Smack with a new starting time of 10:30 p.m. It had been starting right before 11 p.m. due to 205 Live. WWE officials said that nothing is changing and they just listed 10:30 p.m. because 205 Live has never been scheduled for one hour and so 10:30 p.m. would be the time meaning a time slot prior to the 11 p.m. time slot

Some other sheet news includes:

• Emma recently hinted on her Instagram account about getting bad news from her medical test related to her recent shoulder injury. https://www.instagram.com/p/BT9ojqKDeQM/
• Chris Jericho is currently expected to return to the WWE by June 30 as part of WWE's tour of Japan during that week. Currently booked on the card for both June 30 and July 1st shows in Tokyo.