[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Richard "Dick" Beyer, who was probably the single biggest non-Mexican masked wrestling star in pro wrestling history as The Sensational Intelligent Destroyer, as well as Dr. X, passed away today at the age of 88 ... Beyer had been in hospice care in recent weeks and a number of his friends had called him in recent days, including Ric Flair. In particular, in Japan, The Destroyer was legendary for having beaten Rikidozan, who he was good friends with and whose death haunted him for years. Rikidozan asked him to stay an extra day after the conclusion of the final tour of 1963 in Japan, and go out with him on December 8, 1963. Instead, Beyer decided, after thinking about it, to go home to see his family. Rikidozan went out to a club that night, where he was stabbed, and one week later, passed away.

Originally Posted by Observer To show how big the Rikidozan vs. Destroyer match in Japan was, the final minute of the 61 minute draw, with the audience growing from start to finish, was a 72.6 rating. Not hare, but rating,which meant that 72.6 percent of the homes that had television sets in Japan in 1963 watched the ending of that match live. It is believed to be the single most-viewed live pro wrestling match in history.

Originally Posted by Observer With the WrestleMania press conference today, there is a reason only WrestleMania was announced. At this point they haven't figured out the schedule for the other shows because of the move to FOX and a live Friday night show. Stephanie McMahon told the Observer "We're still figuring that out right now. So we don't even know. Everything is to be determined." For what it's worth, the name Kairi Sane came up several times regarding NXT wrestlers likely to perform on next year's Mania show. Tampa got the show because of a relationship with WWE over the new XFL, which I guess shows the idea they were two completely separate entities is a little overblown.

Originally Posted by Observer The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship will be on the line in a three-way match at ROH & NJPW's G1 Supercard at Madison Square Garden. ROH announced today that Taiji Ishimori will defend his Junior Heavyweight title against Dragon Lee and Bandido at G1 Supercard. NJPW (Ishimori), CMLL (Lee), and ROH (Bandido) will all be represented in the match.

Originally Posted by PWI Jim Cornette went in-depth on the latest Jim Cornette Experience podcast on his return to commentary with MLW and his future. Cornette says he has not signed officially with the company. He is committed to the company through New York Battle Riot II event Wrestlemania weekend. Beyond that, he is not opposed to working more dates for the company, but nothing is set in stone. As for the report that he was an agent, he assisted backstage with promos for talents and helped out where talent need assistance. But he is there to be a color commentator for the most part.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE Network News is reporting that an interesting piece of AWA footage is being added today to the WWE Network. The one-hour promotional video done in conjunction with Kellogg's features four matches with wrestlers representing brands: THE BATTLE OF BREAKFAST CEREAL MAY 01, 1989 Legendary superstars such as Nutra Rockne, Total the Terrible and Hondo the Honeybee compete in this bizarre battle for breakfast supremacy. Today is National Cereal Day, so this is a tie-in to that.

Originally Posted by Fightful The latest update on Lars Sullivan. According to Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet, Lars Sullivan is “in a good place” after seeking professional help following a reported anxiety attack in January ... Satin goes on to report that Sullivan immediately began seeking help from mental health professionals and WWE has been incredibly accommodating the whole time. However, it is unclear when he will return to the company.

Link: http://www.prowrestlingsheet.com/lar.../#.XIF3KlNKjOQ

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter One of the two WrestleMania main events, the much talked-about Ronda Rousey vs. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair match for the women’s title is probably the most-discussed and really least-understood match in a long time. The idea dating back a year was to possibly have women headline the biggest show of the year, particularly when Ronda Rousey took to pro wrestling so quickly and her match stole the show at WrestleMania, and another women’s match (Flair vs. Asuka) was probably the second best match on the show ... The WrestleMania result largely depends on Rousey’s final date with the company. Right now that is the day after WrestleMania, meaning that is her blow-off. As we’ve seen, Vince McMahon can be very persuasive on people who want to leave, or perhaps some guys can be very good at making McMahon feel he’s being very persuasive, depending on Lesnar’s real goals and motives. And while Lesnar and Rousey share Paul Heyman as their main confidante and story teller, they are very different people. Most would concede from a traditional standpoint, a singles match is better than a multiple-person match, and Rousey vs. Lynch was a strong singles match. A comparison has been made to the second Rock vs. John Cena match, where they could have added C.M. Punk but didn’t. That shows the difference between the PPV model and the network model, and also the difference between doing the match for the crowd on that day, and doing the match for historical purposes ... When Rousey took the kendo stick shots, she asked for Flair to hit her as hard as she could over and over. The idea was to have real welts, bruises and blood. Of course, after that beating, she was fine and wrestled the next day on television and retained her title, which kind of defeated the purpose which is usually to make the beating look legit without welting the other party up, and then selling it the next day to give it magnitude. Similarly Lynch was told by both in the crutch angle to hit them as hard as she could. Rousey was told this past week for Rousey to do everything she would in a real fight at real fight intensity, but no punches or kicks to the face (there was a pretty brutal knee by wrestling standards) and obviously not to actually hurt her, with the idea she took Rousey’s best shots and still came to television and fought the next day.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter A report by Wrestling Inc. claimed that the firing of Arn Anderson (Marty Lunde) as a agent came because he allowed Alicia Fox to wrestle on a show when she was allegedly under the influence. We had been told a number of different stories, including that one, but all off the record. The stories varied but it was confirmed to us that Anderson was the agent in Fox’s last match which was the match in question, believed to be on 2/10 in Saginaw, MI, or a match around that loop. Nobody has denied the basics of the story as it was reported. Talent was quiet on the nature of the story but those we had heard from were still defensive of Anderson’s role in the story, even though on the surface it seems pretty open-and-shut. Fox (Victoria Crawford, 32), has not wrestled since 2/10 in Saginaw, MI, in a trios match teaming with Nikki Cross and Mickie James against Bayley & Natalya & Dana Brooke. She has not been at television of late. One person directly involved would not talk about the situation past saying that Fox was not in rehab, and that nobody knows what the situation fully is with Fox right now. The defense of Anderson from talent is that they believe and even insist he didn’t know anything regarding Fox was that bad before the match, nor did the talent at the time. The women are used to Fox behaving erratically, which she did then but has done, more of late. Anderson and Vince McMahon had previously had a tenuous relationship and it was noted Paul Levesque had saved his job in the past, and that he had a strong relationship as John Cena’s personal agent for all his major matches (and he worked with most of the top names).

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The WWE’s PPV schedule for the remainder of 2019 was released this past week. The most notable change is that Money in the Bank, the traditional June PPV, has been moved up a month to 5/19 in Hartford, CT. Because of that, the Takeover schedule has been changed. Takeovers are usually held the night before Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, Money in the Bank, SummerSlam and Survivor Series, which are now considered the big five events. While WWE has not confirmed this, the word going around is that the decision is that a May Takeover is too soon after the biggest show of the year, and that they feel June is better. The June PPV is 6/16 in San Diego, which is a fairly tough wrestling market when it comes to working two shows on successive nights. The July PPV is 7/14 in Philadelphia, which is a strong market where Takeover would do well, but that would mean Takeovers in both July and August, which is where June fits in, as it’s two months after one show and two months before the other, rather than trying to do Takeovers in successive months. The impression we were given is that the Takeover show would be held on 6/8 at San Jose State University, using the 5,000-seat arena that was where the show that spawned the Takeover concept took place when the company sold out an event the Friday night before WrestleMania in Santa Clara on March 27, 2015 ... The most notable thing about the schedule is there is no Evolution PPV. Even if the reasons, given the timing, were transparent as a make good for running the lucrative shows in Saudi Arabia, where the women performers were not allowed, the show ended up being a major aesthetic and public relations success. The Evolution PPV in 2018 was one of the best received in years. It didn’t have the interest level of other shows as searches were way down, but they did sell out the Nassau Coliseum, although it had the softest secondary market of the year. When it was over, the feeling was they had to make it an annual thing. They may be not doing it if they can get the women into Saudi Arabia, which they’ll no doubt market by taking credit for that breakthrough as justification for going there. Obviously that’s all up to the Saudi Arabian government, which, quite frankly, sort of owes them a favor, although they’ve paid big for those favors already.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Right now the belief is Reigns will be working a full-time schedule starting with the European tour in May, if not earlier, but will be on Raw every week and PPV shows from this point forward

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Regarding Bruce Prichard, he’s not the No. 2 guy in creative or anything at quite that level, but will have influence. He was described as now working full-time with the term roving consultant used, although we don’t know if that’s the official job title. He was described as being a guy in the process, but when it comes to influence, would be below Paul Levesque, Brian James, Dave Kapoor and Ed Koskey. One person who has heavily praised how Jeff Jarrett has been handling himself since coming said that he thinks Jarrett will end up more influential as well. Prichard and Dana Warrior were among four new people hired, who are not on the writing team although are consultants in some form. Dana had been looking for a regular gig in the company and wanted to be on creative, so this is a way of testing her out and she may end up on the writing team, and is being groomed for that possibility, but isn’t at this time. The line about her being able to give a women’s perspective was hers, although WWE has a few women on the writing team, who have been praised to us.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter While Styles has not signed a new contract, and his deal with WWE is due shortly, he had told friends and all expectations are that he will sign. The basic gist regards his age, and the stability of WWE at this point in his career. Styles is Kenny Omega’s dream opponent and he’s good enough friends with the Young Bucks that they have talked with him when they were considering their own futures late last year. Those in AEW had not expected Styles to consider coming although they obviously would have wanted him if he was interested

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The web site Squared Circle Sirens reported a list of names that have been contacted about being in th cast of a new Bunim-Murray reality show called “Superstar Search.” Basically it’s the old Diva Search show, but they no longer use the word divas (except in Total Divas). The show is being filmed starting later this month. Names listed were Lady Frost, who was part of a December tryout and once wrestled Asuka on television; Tasha Steelz, who is the women’s champion for New England’s Chaotic Wrestling, Dolce Delta, a model from New Jersey, Nicole Marie, a transgender Northern California bodybuilder and independent wrestler, Lexi Layne, a model and singer, Lexus Amanda, also a singer, Karissa Rivera, who had a December tryout and did an NXT loss to Lacey Evans, Hayley Jade Poston, who was part of the December tryout and is a model and fitness instructor out of Nashville, Alexis Evans, who has competed in bodybuilding and rugby and was part of the December WWE camp

Originally Posted by TPWW Frontpage via Triple A Jim Ross announced on the latest episode of his podcast that he’ll be leaving WWE when his contract expires on March 29. Ross said: “After talking a couple of weeks ago with Vince McMahon, we have mutually agreed that I need to move on. I will not be returning to WWE after the 29th of March. I’m leaving with great thoughts, very positive. I made a lot of money. Vince was amazing to Jan and myself. He set us up for life, financially, for which I can never repay him.” JR said that he’s not done and “still wants to play the game,” hinting that he could end up somewhere else soon…

Originally Posted by TPWW Frontpage via Triple A Jeff Jarrett has officially joined the WWE creative team, according to PWInsider, which described the position as a “full-time executive-level role.” Jarrett returned to WWE in January and was initially hired to be a backstage producer. He has been in that role at WWE’s production meetings for the past few weeks, but spent several days last week at WWE headquarters in Connecticut in advance of being added to the creative team, PWInsider says.

Originally Posted by TPWW Frontpage via Triple A Wrestling legend Jushin Thunder Liger announced at a press conference today that he’ll be retiring at next year’s NJPW Tokyo Dome show in January. He said that in his last year, he hoped to wrestle all over the world and hoped to be at the G1 Supercard show in April at MSG. When he retires, he’ll be 55 years old.