[Emperor Smeat]

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Originally Posted by Observer New Japan Pro Wrestling made a number of announcements today at a Los Angeles press conference covering the July 1st and July 2nd shows in Long Beach. As reported here already, AXS TV will be airing both shows. The July 1st show will air live at 8 p.m. Eastern and 5 p.m. local time. The July 2nd show will air live on New Japan World with a replay airing on AXS on July 7th with AXS airing it in a four-hour window from 8 p.m. Eastern to midnight. The first night will only be shown live on NJPW World for those outside of the United States. The IWGP Heavyweight, IWGP Intercontinental, IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team, and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team titles will all be defended over the two days. A tournament will also be held to create the IWGP United States Championship, which will be the key territorial belt when New Japan opens up a full-time U.S. outpost in 2018

In terms of roster for the show, it was revealed to be a mix of guys from NJPW, ROH, and CMLL. http://www.f4wonline.com/japan/njpw-...h-shows-235786

Originally Posted by Observer New Japan announced before its show earlier today that Hiroshi Tanahashi had a ruptured right biceps (full tear) and will be out of action until 6/9 when he will return at Korakuen Hall. Satoshi Kojima replaces him in all of his matches until then. With that injury, he really should have surgery and be out six months.

Observer's Meltzer stated Tanahashi is currently risking his bicep being permanently deformed the longer he waits to do major surgery. Same issue Paul Orndorff had when he suffered a similar injury in 1988.

Originally Posted by Observer Today's Best of the Super Junior tournament results from Korakuen Hall: Taichi (1-1) beat Taka Michinoku (1-1) Dragon Lee (2-0) beat Marty Scurll (1-1) Hiromu Takahashi (1-1) beat Jushin Liger (0-2) Will Ospreay (1-1) beat Ricochet (1-1). The next show is Saturday in Matsuzaka with: Desperado vs. Bushi ACH vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Volador Jr. Tiger Mask vs. Kushida

Originally Posted by Observer The Five Star Wrestling promotion and promoter Daniel Hinkles made a grandstand offer of $1 million to C.M. Punk for him to enter their 128-man tournament that begins on 6/10 in Liverpool's Echo Arena and ends on 12/30 at the Manchester Arena. They will be running weekly Saturday night shows starting on 6/10. Hinkles said, "We've been trying to contact CM Punk on and off for well over a year. We wanted him on the first show we did in Edinburgh in 2015. I've tried going through friends in the industry. I've gone through his website and sent dozens of emails but the opportunity has never been this big. We want to offer C.M. Punk $1 million to come and join the Five Star Wrestling tour starting 6/10. It's a genuine offer. We'd love to hear back from the man himself." Punk is currently still under exclusive contract with UFC.

5 Star previously announced John Morrison, Chris Masters, Carlito, Moose, PJ Black, and Shelton Benjamin will be in their mega tournament.

Originally Posted by Observer Impact this week in the U.K. is being moved from its usual Friday night at 9 p.m. time slot to Saturday at 10 p.m. on Spike UK. Spike UK will be airing one hour of Bellator's London show headlined by Rory MacDonald vs. Paul Daley at 9 p.m. The main bouts from London will air on Ch. 5 in the U.K. at 10 p.m. Spike UK evidently believes that there is a strong crossover and is moving Impact to another night rather than airing it one hour later.

Originally Posted by PWI Impact Wrestling touted on social media that Ava Storie, Veterans of War, Kongo Kong, Matt Sydal, Dezmond Xavier and Diamante of LAX have all signed with the company.

Originally Posted by PWI Our friends at www.ProWrestlingTees.com issued the following: 6 Years Ago We Lost a Wrestling Legend, Macho Man Randy Savage. To honor his legacy, officially licensed by his family & estate, we are releasing these Limited Edition Macho Madness High Top Chuck Taylor Converse Shoes. They will be available for PRE-ORDER starting May 19th at 12pm CT. Only 200 pairs will be made available. Only 200 Pairs 1 Per Customer Sizes 6-15 (half sizes too) 4-6 Week Ship Time $175 + Shipping Worldwide

Link to the shoes page for those interested in Macho Man merch: http://www.prowrestlingtees.com/wres...high-tops.html

Originally Posted by WrestleInc For what it's worth, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that there are still open lines of communication in regards to WWE possibly bringing Mauro Ranallo back to SmackDown commentary. This does not mean that Mauro will be returning, but The Observer notes that there is a lot of water under the bridge. There was an agreement reached where WWE is paying Mauro until his contract ends on August 12th. Mauro has indicated on Twitter that he will be pretty busy with Showtime Boxing and other non-wrestling commitments over the next few months. He's also teased possibly doing other pro wrestling work in the future.

“Drawing more money, what does that mean anymore?” Bischoff commented. “Again, I like Randy a lot and I have a ton of respect for him so I do not mean this to be any kind of a shot at Randy. But Randy has the luxury of having a very successful career with for what is in all intents and purposes — it wasn’t intentional but [WWE’s] a monopoly.” “Yes, WWE makes a lot of money and as a result so does Randy. Randy hasn’t had to change his style because he has the privilege of working for a company that is able to pay Randy a lot of money. And he doesn’t have to go out and make his living on the independent circuit. Randy doesn’t have to go out and create new fans. All Randy has to do is stay on the treadmill.” Bischoff continued on the subject by saying if he were a young worker in the indies he would take offense to what The Viper said in his comment. “[Randy] has that luxury, that privilege of getting [his] seven figures and having a check show up in the mail once a month for things [he] don’t even remember doing, and getting merchandise money because [he has] this machine behind [him] that prints that money. And a lot of people don’t, the vast majority of people don’t. It’s a little bit like the music industry where 2% of the people make 98% of the money. Well, I don’t think that 2% of the people who are making 98% of the money should necessarily look down their nose at the other 98% who are trying to craft a living.”

Eric Bischoff on the recent Randy Orton Twitter stuff against indie wrestling. Came from the latest episode of Bischoff on Wrestling podcast show.

Originally Posted by Observer [Kairi]Hojo lost her Wonder of Stardom championship on the 5/14 show at Korakuen Hall to Miyu Iwatani with a dragon suplex. Hojo still has to lose the trios championship. Hojo was given the word that she has to come up with a new finisher. A lot of people questioned that. Hojo has the coolest looking elbow off the top rope in pro wrestling, probably the best since a young ICW-era Randy Savage. She was told that’s Bayley’s move. To those in Japan, it’s considered ridiculous because that’s the move she’s known for, but it’s a different world. Hojo would walk right into WWE as technically the best of their women wrestlers, but she’s also maybe 5-foot-1, and a lot smaller than Asuka.

Originally Posted by Observer Jeff Jarrett brought up the World Cup, saying that there was talk of AAA, Pro Wrestling NOAH and Impact working together for the annual World Cup trios tournament, saying it would be in Japan in October but it’s not a done deal. It’ll be hard because the guy from Japan who was key the previous years had a falling out with AAA and was helping The Crash.

Some other sheet news includes:

• Both Jim Ross and Nigel McGuinness were sent to WWE's HQ today to record commentary for the recently taped episodes of WWE's United Kingdom show.
• While previously reported by PWI, ROH officially announced today they have signed Travis "Flip" Gordon to an exclusive deal.
• For those interested, The Rock was announced to be this weekend's host of SNL.
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 2nd Anniversary of Kevin Owens' debut on WWE RAW. Owens celebrated the occasion of beating up John Cena on Twitter. https://twitter.com/FightOwensFight/...08697521393664
• According to a report from the Observer, WWE is currently going after more stars from Stardom targeting mainly their foreign stars. Stardom expects to lose them by the time of WWE's tournament since they can't compete money-wise to WWE's offers.
• Also according to the Observer, Summer Rae is currently in an Emma-like position where she's been healed for a while but Creative legit has no plans for her.