Dirtsheets sponsored by the Balor Club's newest member, The Flasher:
Quote:
Monday's episode of WWE RAW, featuring Daniel Bryan's retirement speech in the main event slot, drew 3.726 million viewers. This is up from last week's 3.383 million viewers but down from the over 4 million they drew for the post-Royal Rumble episode two weeks ago.
For this week's show, the first hour drew 3.907 million viewers, the second hour drew 3.905 million viewers and the final hour drew 3.368 million viewers.
|
Some confusion going around the net regarding the overrun since it was a lot longer than usual (26 minutes) with some sites saying it was already factored into the ratings/viewership and others saying it wasn't. Either way the biggest surprise is the very low 3rd hour that could have been near the sub-3 range if it wasn't for Bryan's speech. Observer speculated if this was a regular RAW and not one built around Bryan, WWE could have been looking at a new historic non-football/holiday low for RAW.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by PWI
I mentioned over the weekend that the planned Braun Strowman vs. The Undertaker singles match at WrestleMania 32 may have been nixed already. While several ideas for The Wyatt Family have been tossed around lately, Taker vs. Braun was penciled in as Vince McMahon was a big fan of doing the match and has taken an interest in building Strowman.
The online backlash in the first 24 hours after the Braun vs. Taker news broke may have changed WWE's plans, according to PWInsider. A very well-placed source noted that the bad reaction to the match may have caught on within the company and the match may have been nixed within 24 hours of the news getting out. It should be noted that Vince is always changing plans and they could go back to Taker vs. Braun.
In regards to what the back-up plan for Taker would be, a source noted that those details had not trickled down to other sources yet and likely only a small circle of people were aware of exactly what those plans are. It was noted that Taker's opponent at WrestleMania will likely be someone totally unexpected.
|
Rumors about Taker not wanting to wrestle Strowman might have been true after all.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by PWI
No word yet on how Shinsuke Nakamura's WWE Performance Center visit went late last week but he also did WWE medical testing in Pittsburgh. Regarding what might happen if for some reason Nakamura didn't pass the tests and couldn't be signed, which has happened with talents in the past, speculation is that they would just bring him in for the one match that's already announced, against Sami Zayn at NXT "Takeover: Dallas" during WrestleMania 32 weekend.
|
Potential plans for NXT Dallas at the moment regarding Nakamura
Current plans are for Nakamura to lose against Zayn
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by PWI
Enzo Amore, Colin Cassady and Carmella are on the road with WWE this weekend and will be appearing at the WWE live event in San Jose, CA tonight. They are also scheduled for this week's Raw and Smackdown tapings, although whether they are going to appear before the live audience at the shows remains to be seen.
I noted last week an audio update in the PWInsider.com Elite section there has been a lot of talk lately regarding a potential move for the trio to the Raw/Smackdown roster.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Observer
On Thursday before Rumble he had more tests. That's where story ends. DB talking stems from these tests. Timing tests.
These are the tests that look at all different parts of brain. Got them back January 28th.
|
Observer on what played a big role in Bryan's retirement announcement. Hinted the tests might have came back with signs of brain damage and pasts tests only focused on the part of his brain that was unaffected. The recent test Bryan took is called the
eVox System test which focuses on a lot more areas than regular CTE type tests.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Observer
"It will be a long time before people fully understand the contributions he made to this industry, which is a far better place because of his involvement. There were things dating back to 2001 that he was involved with that changed the underground foundation of the industry, and over the past few years, significantly changed talent evaluation at the highest level of the industry.
Change is slow, to be sure, but this is a different industry and he played a huge part in it. When you really look back, from an influence standpoint, he triggered a number of changes and his contributions are actually enormous."
|
Observer's Dave Meltzer on the impact Daniel Bryan's career and retirement speech will have in the wrestling industry for the future.
Quote:
|
"So some guy ended up getting thrown out (and roughed up) by security for trying to start a chant by singing that "na, na, na, na, hey, hey, hey, goodbye" song while Daniel was talking. It was during the moment the whole place went silent while he was going over his gratitude; the guy started screaming the tune at the top of his lungs. Three security guys rushed him and just pulled him out of our row and he was out of there quick. You can tell by the look on his face that he didn't even know what was happening."
|
From a fan report about yesterday's RAW episode.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCirc...na_during_the/
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by PWI
It appears that there are problems brewing between AAA and Konnan - and perhaps others. As Kris Zellner noted in his "Lucha Report", Konnan teased on Twitter that he was going to be making "revelations" at a press conference soon. Over the past several weeks, PWInsider.com has heard from a number of people within the lucha libre and California scenes that it appears something will be coming to a head soon regarding frustrations with AAA management.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by PWI
There has been talk that Rey Mysterio Jr., obviously the biggest star in the company is at an impasse with the promotion due to issues regarding pay ... There has also been a lot of discussion lately that AAA performers who were booked for Lucha Underground's second season were unhappy about being required to pay the promotion a percentage for their LU bookings. According to multiple sources, talents booked for the first season through AAA received their pay directly from AAA after the Mexican promotion was paid by Lucha Underground. By the time wrestlers received their pay, as the story goes, AAA had taken a pretty sizable percentage.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by PWI
For the second season, wrestlers are being paid directly by Lucha Underground but sources claim there has been pressure from AAA that the talents still pay AAA the same percentage. The frustration has been enough that there's been talk of some talents looking to leave the promotion for work elsewhere. There was also a concern that since AAA has ownership points in LU, that if they did, anyone who bolted would find themselves iced out of future Lucha Underground seasons, something none of the AAA/LU talent would want since across the board, they have been very happy with the treatment they've received from LU management. We are told that while AAA has ownership in a percentage of Lucha Underground, they have no creative say in how talents are booked or used on the series, which is set in it's own "universe" so to speak.
|
Some other sheet news includes:
Some TPWW news includes:
- Smackdown results for this week will arrive very late tonight due to the tapings happening on the West Coast. For some reference, WWE Main Event only starts taping at 10pm EST.