[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by PWI Over the last several weeks, there have been a number of stories and rumors about WWE talents asking for releases and/or departing in the wake of the announcement of All Elite Wrestling. While we normally shy away from rumors, we've received so many emails and questions about this, I figured it was best to address what we know in one place. So, in no particular order: *Dolph Ziggler - There has been a lot of talk in the last week that Ziggler is done with WWE after turning down an offer to become a producer. His last TV appearance was the beat-down he took in a steel cage on Raw against Drew McIntyre last month. He has removed the Dolph Ziggler name from his social media and is embarking on a comedy tour soon. He has not been on the road for WWE in recent weeks after the completion of the Holiday house show tour. As of today, sources claim he remains under a WWE deal (and some there have denied he is exiting at all) but others have been pointing to 1/31 as an exit date ... *Goldust - While his name obviously would be attached to his brother Cody's due to their relationship, PWInsider.com has not been able to substantiate any rumors that Dustin Runnells has asked for a WWE release. *Mike Kanellis - We have heard from several sources that Mike Kanellis requested a release from WWE but was denied three weeks ago ... The belief among some WWE wrestlers is that Kanellis was hoping to return to Ring of Honor, but as of today, he has not been released from the company. *Maria Kanellis - Her name has floated around in the last few days as also having asked for a WWE release, but PWInsider.com has not been able to substantiate that story. *The Revival - Yesterday, Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com reported that there was "fear" within WWE that The Revival, Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder, were trying to get out of their deals with the company ... As of this morning, they are still slated for this weekend's Raw live events. Obviously, if they were able to get out of their deals, in a perfect world, they would be the perfect foil All Elite Wrestling could use against The Young Bucks, which is exactly why WWE wouldn't release them. PWInsider.com can confirm, however, that WWE officials have started approaching talents whose deals are coming up in the next year, seeking to lock them up to longer form deals now. Whether there is a cause and effect there is debatable, since WWE has been locking talents (including Kevin Owens and The Miz) to new five-year deals for some time, but the timing is interesting, to say the least.

Originally Posted by Observer Ronda Rousey was announced as voicing the role of Sonya Blade in Mortal Kombat 11.

Originally Posted by PWI WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh is reporting that WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle's sixteen-year-old niece has been recovered by authorities in a McKeesport, PA home after being kidnapped. The report states that Angle's niece was forced into a car by 19-year old Jermaine Rodgers, of East Pittsburgh, who was arrested on charges that include felony counts of kidnapping of a minor, burglary and unlawful restraint of a minor. Angle's niece was found by authorities in the living room of the same home that Rodgers was later found to be hiding in. She had bruising on her face. WTAE-TV reported that Rodgers had forced his way into her home in order to get her to leave with him. Angle's niece's location was discovered by authorities after she and Rodgers were spotted on a Facebook live video by someone, who then tipped the local police off. Rodgers had hidden himself in a coal cellar, forcing authorities to go in and retrieve him after a SWAT team was called. Another missing girl was found in the home. Angle had taken to social media asking for help in finding his niece and after she was rescued, wrote, "My niece has been found. Just wanted to say thank you to all those who have prayed and have shared posts to help locate her. My family is truly appreciative. Love you all.”

Originally Posted by PWI Major League Wrestling has signed California star Jacob Fatu, PWInsider.com has learned. Fatu, the son of former WWE star The Tonga Kid aka Tama of the Islanders, has been wrestling for several years using the "Samoan Werewolf" nickname. I've always been impressed with his work when I've covered shows he's worked. The plan is for Fatu to get a big push out of the gate as a heel with the company. There have already been comparisons internally between Fatu's work and the late Umaga, which is obviously high praise.

Originally Posted by PWI One of the most talked about stories over the last several days has been CMLL star Rush signing an exclusive deal with Ring of Honor, pulling out of Major League Wrestling and his slot in the main event of their 4/4 event on Wrestlemania week in New York City. The backstory here is that Major League Wrestling had planned a massive push for Rush in the new year, including a potential MLW Championship run. He had been offered what sources have told PWInsider.com was a $200,000 a year contract that would have seen MLW also assist him and his family financially in becoming United States citizens. The deal also would have been a conduit to Rush doing broadcast work for BeIN Sports. MLW saw him as the centerpiece going forward and was going to bend over backwards to give him all sorts of contract points that to date, they had not offered anyone else, including his father, lucha legend Bestia del Ring, being brought in to be honored at a MLW event. We are told that CMLL, which has Rush under contract exclusively in Mexico and owns the rights to book him out, was aware of the MLW deal and had given Rush approval for him to sign the deal ... Before pen was put to paper, however, Ring of Honor stepped into the picture, wanting to use Rush as part of an internal push to have more Latin stars on their programming, which is why Bandido was also signed. We are told that their deal was exclusive to the United States and Canada and actually paid Rush less financially, but with their relationship to CMLL, the decision was made that ROH was an official partner and that it was better for Rush to sign there

Observer reporting Rush's contract with ROH is for 1 year and around $155k.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Ironically, with this new deal, he’ll be working far more dates for ROH than he would have for MLW, and ROH, and not CMLL, has priority on dates, although CMLL is supposed to have the ability to book him on all their major Friday shows. But both Rush and Bandido signed one-year deals with ROH, giving them good money for limited dates in ROH. The deal opens New Japan up for Bandido (Rush already had New Japan opened up but he’s not really a Japanese style wrestler and it wasn’t high on his priority list) and still allows them to work Mexico on their off dates. And then, if AEW is stable at the end of this year, they will both become free agents after being pushed as top guys in ROH, meaning at least three different companies will be after them. In the case of Rush, he’s very close with Andrade, who pretty much warned him and Dragon Lee about going to WWE. There is the belief Dragon Lee will be making a move similarly, with the same idea of signing a one-year deal if possible, to take advantage of free agency early next year. It still could be ROH because ROH offers the line to New Japan which, at least this week, AEW doesn’t. But who knows what happens by the end of this year. MLW had also offered him their world title as part of the deal to get him to sign and multiple sources said had beaten the ROH financial deal, surprisingly enough, for what would have been far fewer dates, which shows how much the market has changed quickly when it comes to marketable free agents.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Kay Lee Ray is still booked for the World of Sport tour that starts this weekend, but she and Viper (who was in Japan and had a major match on 1/14 so coming in would be difficult) are both expected in WWE when those contracts expire. Viper reportedly got a much better offer, since AEW had interest and the market has changed, than the women in the NXT U.K. brand. Gabert would have also likely had AEW interest, and got over huge in the 2017 Mae Young Classic and was offered a contract, only to have it rescinded because of the state of her neck after being examined. She since underwent surgery.

Supposedly Viper will be making more money than any other woman wrestler in NXT UK solely because AEW was also interested in her and WWE broke their pay scale for women in order to ensure AEW couldn't have her.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter One of the things with Kushida which led to his leaving for WWE is that early last year he wanted to go heel and join the Bullet Club, but Gedo wanted him to stay in his place. The deal was that New Japan needed the solid junior heavyweight guy, with Will Ospreay in Chaos, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Desperado and Taka Michinoku in Suzuki-gun, Taiji Ishimori in Bullet Club and Bushi and Hiromu Takahashi in LIJ. The home team side had Ryusuke Taguchi, but he’s more comedy now and only turning it on as a serious guy for a few matches a year like Super Juniors, and Tiger Mask and Jushin Liger are legends, but they are no longer in the singles title picture. That probably isn’t the only reason but it was part of it. He handled it professionally, working until 1/29, doing his clean jobs at the Dome and Dash, and because he handled it so professionally he’s getting his first career singles match with Hiroshi Tanahashi on his last night at Korakuen Hall

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter There has been a lot of talk regarding who owns the All In footage. Based on the contracts signed at the time, ROH owns all of the broadcast rights to that show

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter There’s really nothing new on the Lars Sullivan story. The company is handling it about as well as could be possible and to the best of our knowledge he has been told he has the option to return when he is ready and the company is very supportive of him. He was not mentioned once on television this week. It’s probably for the best he didn’t come back this week given the way they debuted most of the newcomers

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Regarding the debuts, Vince is of the mentality right now he just wants people to see their faces on television. So the writers have to write stuff where they are in the background. They haven’t decided how to use them or on what show, but he wants people seeing them and feels what matters is when they come up with the plan how to use them and people will forget this, but they’ll know who they are, with the idea the majority of his fans don’t know who they are. Thus far EC 3 has come across as a minor league Lex Luger, Dozovic as a stocky Eugene, Cross as kind of wacky but charismatic woman with no direction and Evans likes wearing hats and is somebody’s idea of a Southern Belle from the 50s

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Although the USA Network constantly pushes the idea they were No. 1 in prime time in 2018, technically that’s far from the case. USA was actually No. 5 on basic cable averaging a 1.07 rating and 1,291,000 viewers. That number is greatly boosted by Raw and Smackdown. And it will decline significantly after Smackdown leaves and will likely fall several notches. With no Smackdown this year the average would have fallen to 1,164,000 and move it to eighth place. Fox News, ESPN, MSNBC and Home & Garden TV were the top four. TBS and TNT have a strong shot of beating USA next year and even more so in 2020 without Smackdown

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Even though Kevin Owens is expected to be cleared fairly soon, right now the decision is not to bring him back to television until after Mania

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter After the Bandido situation, WWE has made it clear, at least for certain people, that they will beat anyone’s offer for talent, although they did not do so in the case of Chris Jericho. WWE has told people if you can show on paper an offer from another company, they’ll beat it, even double it on the spot provided you sign immediately

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc Vince McMahon is the one behind the decision to air WWE 205 Live each week as a live show. The show was moved back to airing live each week mainly because Vince reportedly wants there to be live programming on the WWE Network, according to PWInsider. There was some talk online this week about how airing the show live after SmackDown killed the crowd reactions that some of the cruiserweights were getting when the show was taped before SmackDown to air on Wednesday nights. PWInsider touched on this and noted that the crowd reactions from this week's live show vs. the recent taped episodes were "night and day."

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc We've mentioned how WWE's more risque segments this week involving Alexa Bliss on RAW and the Mandy Rose - Naomi hotel room brawl on SmackDown have been garnering huge views on YouTube (5.1 million and 2.1 million as of this writing, respectively). Bliss' segment is actually now the most viewed RAW clip on YouTube since Roman Reigns announced his leukemia diagnosis last October. The same applies for Impact Wrestling this week. The segment above on the latest episode of Impact Wrestling featuring Scarlett Bordeaux in her lingerie teasing giving Scott Steiner a lapdance is at 853,000 views on YouTube. It is the most viewed clip from an episode of Impact in recent memory. As a comparison, the most viewers for a first-run episode of Impact since the show left Spike TV was 410,000 for the Final Deletion episode on July 5th.

Originally Posted by TPWW Frontpage via Triple A Dakota Kai said on Twitter that she suffered a torn ACL last month and was going in for surgery today. She suffered the injury at an NXT house show on December 7. After a running kick spot, she had trouble getting up and the referee threw up the “X” and she was taken out of the match.