[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Fightful After days of speculation following her cancelation of the Wendy Williams Show, Wrestling Observer has reported that Sasha Banks wanted to leave WWE over WrestleMania weekend. Fightful has corroborated the story, with some additional details. Observer stated that Sasha Banks was under the impression that she and Bayley would have the opportunity to have a strong run with the WWE Women's Tag Team Titles in an effort to establish them as serious championships. It was reported that Banks was given a few weeks to think things over before making what the company figured was a rash decision, but Fightful's sources throughout the week had compared it to The Revival ... We were told that Bayley was also clearly frustrated by the entire situation. Both sources within the company that Fightful spoke to said they'd be surprised if Banks was granted a release. In addition, there was also talk of Alexa Bliss gaining the upper hand on both Banks and Bayley physically on Raw, which has been reported throughout the week. We're not told if this was just to be a physical altercation or an actual match, but Banks and Bliss ended up going back and forth on social media on Tuesday.

More on Banks wanting out of WWE.

Originally Posted by PWI Squared Circle Sirens is reporting that Rhea Ripley has suffered some ligament damage in her foot giving an explanation of why she was seen in a walking boot during Wrestlemania 35. According to their story, the inaugural NXT UK Women's Champion will be out of action for up to eight weeks.

Originally Posted by Fightful AJ Styles provides an update on his injury. Earlier this week it was reported that AJ Styles went home after WrestleMania to deal with what was being described as a hip injury. On his Mixer channel last night, Styles clarified the injury. Kofi Kingston And Becky Lynch Discuss Bret Hart Being Attacked At WWE Hall Of Fame Related Article Kofi Kingston And Becky Lynch Discuss Bret Hart Being Attacked At WWE Hall Of Fame "I sprained my SI (sacroiliac) joint. Nothing too severe. I just need the muscles to ease up and treat a sprain like a sprain. Hopefully, it doesn't take too long to heal. I'll be back in action soon. You don't know the degree of the sprain."

Originally Posted by PWI As those of you watching Smackdown this past Tuesday know, Drew McIntyre disappeared towards the end of his six man tag team match with The Bar against The New Day. PWInsider.com readers who were live in Brooklyn sent along that McIntyre exited via the timekeeper's area from ringside and returned to the back. This spurred on concern that perhaps McIntyre had been injured over the course of the match. We are told that was not the case and he is not injured. What did happen, according to a source who was backstage during the main event, was that time was cut from the bout. Since the finishing sequence was to focus on New Day beating the Bar, there was no time to explain taking Drew out of the equation. So, Drew was instructed to return to the back. 2:05 PM Update: Earlier I wrote, "One might wonder why they even booked McIntyre in the bout to begin with then, but we don't have any answer for that." Well, now we do. The original pitched main event for Smackdown this past Tuesday at WWE Champion Kofi Kingston vs. Drew McIntyre. It was changed into a six man tag as the day progressed. So, there's no injury issue.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The premiere episode of Viceland’s Dark Side of the Ring series averaged 154,000 viewers. The episode covering the relationship between Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth was the first of six episodes scheduled to air as part of the series.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling On the new WWE Untold: Sting feature on the WWE Network, Paul Levesque explained why he beat Sting at WrestleMania 31 and the plans for the following year’s show. Levesque explained that he was scheduled to face The Rock at WrestleMania 32 in 2016 and was the reason he needed to beat Sting the year prior. The two shot an angle in October 2014 on SmackDown teasing a future match, but Rock’s schedule didn’t allow the match to take place, although Rock did appear on that show in Dallas in April 2016. Levesque and others interviewed on the Untold piece all acknowledged that in hindsight (and for some, foresight) that Sting should have won the match. On the same card where Levesque defeated Sting, they did the angle with The Rock and Ronda Rousey getting physical with Levesque and Stephanie McMahon.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The draft shows are 4/15 and 4/16 in Montreal and virtually nobody knows who ends up on what brand. There may be a few top exceptions, but just about every performer on the roster has no idea where they will end up and who they will be programmed with next. The only real teases were for Samoa Joe vs. Braun Strowman, which would indicate one was switching, and Becky Lynch vs. Lacey Evans, which could be on either brand, since Lynch made it clear in her promos that she would be working both brands as double champion ... The general rule Vince has gone by in the past is you lose on your way out of the brand. So from that standpoint, people who would appear to have the best shot at switching are The Revival, Bayley, Bobby Roode & Chad Gable, The Bar, Andrade, Shinsuke Nakamura, Rusev and The Usos. They often also switch champions, so you could have a Kingston/Rollins switch, or a Balor/Joe switch, or a Hardys/Hawkins & Ryder switch.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter As far as other WrestleMania news, the only other note is that the order of the matches changed literally after the show started. The Rollins win over Lesnar was originally slotted to go right before the women’s main event. Styles vs. Orton was booked to open the main card and everything was going to go in that order. Paul Heyman and Lesnar both pushed for Lesnar vs. Rollins to go early, as it hardly took a brain surgeon to realize it’ll come off better at 7 p.m. than at 11:45 p.m. For whatever reason, Hulk Hogan, who did a segment unannounced largely to do his posing routine, at 65, no longer taking off his shirt, was never told that Heyman was going to come out at the end of his segment for the easy heat of interrupting Hogan and set up the match right away.

That solves where Rollins vs. Lesnar was originally planned for Mania's card.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Mark Briscoe started swinging wildly with a fan out of the crowd, which turned out to be the former Enzo Amore. Amore was sitting with the former Big Cass, at ringside, surrounded by some planted fans and kept disguised. The idea was to make this look like it wasn’t part of the show. Those at ringside could immediately tell it was planned because security did nothing. Security was alerted ahead of time that an angle was being planned and to let it happen but weren’t told exactly what it is. The punches being thrown were really stiff because they wanted fans at ringside to think it was real. The idea was to fool everyone but as it turned out, while some fans were, most saw through it. They went so far as to keep this a secret from almost everyone. Tonga & Loa, who had just won, were not told, nor was anyone from the New Japan side told. They saw it, looked like they were mildly disgusted by it, didn’t fall for it and just walked away. Multiple sources have confirmed nobody in New Japan was told about it ahead of time. Tonga even tweeted sort of about it, just saying Enzo & Cass jumped the losers of the match not the winner and called it “ROH booking at its finest.” A number of people complained that this angle being booked at this time took away from the impact of the double title change. The two will use the names nZo and CazXL and their tag team name will be the Free AgentZ. A big brawl ensued, none of which was shown to the streaming/PPV audience with the idea of presenting it like it wasn’t supposed to happen. In addition, they sent Bully Ray out there with the idea that he’s a big tough guy and would be the guy who would handle things for ROH if it was a real fight. Security when it was over got Enzo & Cass out. The key thing is they weren’t handcuffed or kicked out. Cass looked very out of shape, and was blown up with bloodshot eyes. He may have gotten hurt because the punches being thrown were very real because they wanted the ringsiders to believe it was a fight and he got several potatoes from the Briscoes ... Regarding this situation, while it was most definitely an angle, and will play out, the two at press time had not signed contracts with ROH and have no future dates confirmed, although obviously they’re expected to appear. Withing the company, them being there was an issue that not everyone was on the same page on.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The paid attendance for the ROH / NJPW MSG show was 16,534, the largest for any non-WWE event in the U.S. since 1999. The gate was the largest ever in North America for any company other than WWE–the first in the U.S. ever to top $1 million, something even WCW at its peak never achieved.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter What appears to be the situation here in regards to AAA at MSG is that the Oak View Group ... have made a deal to promote live events in the U.S. The goal is to start with this show, then run a second show at the Forum in Los Angeles, and then bring AAA into other major market arenas that the Oak View Group runs. Of course, the problem is whether it can draw. AAA had great success for a few years in the early 90s, mostly in Los Angeles and San Jose, and lesser in places like Chicago and New York. After the ensuing 25 years, they ran some U.S. shows, some of which drew okay and some of which didn’t, but obviously it was never successful enough to have staying power. During most of that period, the promotion had U.S. television with Galavision. If Madison Square Garden doesn’t do well, it would have a good chance to nix the rest of the tour ... The idea here is the idea of bringing traditional Mexican entertainment to New York which happens to be wrestling, as opposed to the idea of drawing 15,000 pro wrestling fans to see AAA. It sounds logical on paper with so many tourists in town, but there is no historical precedent of this working with pro wrestling. Even in Mexico, AAA coming to town isn’t drawing 15,000 fans to a show except for TripleMania. There was a lot of talk of selling out the venue, although those close to the situation said that the market research done claimed that they wouldn’t sell out, but would be able to draw a healthy crowd. The costs of running MSG are so high, far more than any other arena in North America, because you’re paying for the prestige of “the world’s most famous arena,” but it also means a show doing a $300,000 gate, which is fine just about everywhere else, is a huge money loser in MSG.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter For the TV ratings for 3/29, AAA on Friday at 4:30 p.m. for two hours averaged a 2.3 rating and 4.1 million viewers, up 24 percent from the prior week. After seven weeks, the show has ranged from a low of 3.2 million in week two to a high of 4.4 million in week one and four, and averages 3.9 million viewers ... The viewership is 52 percent male, so they have, by percentage, a higher female viewership component than the U.S. groups and also far more children, as the audience is 24 percent 12 and under, 13 percent 13/18, 13 percent 19-29, 22 percent 30-44, 10 percent 45-54 and 18% 55+. So it skews much lower than WWE where about 50 percent of the viewers are over 50. CMLL on Televisa on 3/30 at 4:30 p.m. (A better station and for a 4:30 p.m. start, Saturday is superior to Friday), cut to one hour from the usual two did a 1.1 rating and 1.3 million viewers.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter They are discounting tickets in Dallas for 7/6 now because the advance is so disappointing. There are very different views as it’s been expressed that doing so feels like cheapening the product and New Japan’s appeal is to a select group that is willing to pay for the tickets, but the issue is how many of them are in specific markets, especially now with the key American market draws being done.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter As far as the announcing team goes, Ross will do the shows, and I’m not certain if he’ll do the complete shows or just the major matches to get them over as special. The their play-to-play guys are Alex Marvez and Excalibur ... Another of Ross’ roles will be to mentor both Marvez and Excalibur.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Howard Finkel, 68, who hadn’t been seen in a long time, was at some of the WWE festivities this past week. He’s wheelchair bound. It’s been known his health situation is pretty bad although it’s largely been kept secretive what happened past Jerry Lawler saying on his podcast that Finkel had suffered a major stroke. It was described to me that everyone was very happy to see him, but also sad because of the condition he was in.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Regarding the Bret Hart vs. Tom Magee match, WWE has asked for the footage and wants to do a feature on it. Mary Kate Anthony, who has the VHS tape (Bret Hart should have the DVD) said that as long as Hart is fine with the footage being shared, since it’s his tape and she was just there to transfer it to DVD many years ago, then she would do so and send it to WWE. The thing is, Hart doesn’t own the rights to his WWE footage as far as I know, unless they made some sort of a deal, nobody owns WWE footage rights other than WWE. WWE did give Hart a copy of it for his own personal collection and then apparently somehow either lost or got rid of it. The only tapes Hart owns are the Stampede Wrestling tapes that feature him, since Ross Hart and the family were not allowed to sell anything regarding Bret, because of Bret getting ownership of it in a deal with his father, when the collection was sold to WWE. That held up a lot of the release of Stampede shows that feature Bret on them.

Originally Posted by TPWW Frontpage via Triple A Big E suffered a torn meniscus in his match on SmackDown on Tuesday night. He said that it happened while taking a crossbody and he’ll be out for “a bit.” Recovery time for a torn meniscus can be anywhere from three weeks to a few months depending on the severity.

Originally Posted by TPWW Frontpage via Triple A Brian “Road Dogg” James stepped down as the co-head writer of SmackDown Live this week. According to PWInsider, James had been growing increasingly frustrated with changes that were made to SmackDown scripts and storylines by Vince McMahon and hit a “breaking point” at this week’s SmackDown in Brooklyn. James is expected to remain with WWE in another role, according to Pro Wrestling Sheet, who said that their sources claimed that it was a “mutual decision.” They say that James could end up in a variety of flexible “utility player” positions going forward, including Arn Anderson’s old role as a road agent.