[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer WWE has revealed a list of names who tried out for NXT UK this week in London, England. The camp, which ran for three days, hosted eighteen women from across Europe, Australia and Canada. William Regal, along with Sarah Stock, Jack Starz, James Mason, Joel Allen and Chris Sharpe led the tryouts. Some of the highlights of the list include: Karen Glennon, who is best known as Session Moth Martina. She has worked for a number of UK promotions including EVE, OTT and PROGRESS as well as SHIMMER and Stardom. Candy Floss, who has made appearances before on NXT UK. Valkyrie Marie Cusack, who is the current OTT women’s champion. Steph De Lander from Australia, known as the Python Powerhouse. She has played soccer and has a ballet and tap dancing background. Jamie Hayer, from Southampton, England, who has done tours with Stardom. Gisele Mayordo, who trained under Lance Storm and was a competitive figure skater before transitioning to pro wrestling. Kaydell Joyce, aka Debbie Keitel. A former powerlifting champion who has trained with Marty Jones and Emi Sakura. Chloe Smyth, who wrestles under the name Dani Luna and is the current Dragon Pro Wrestling women’s champion.

Originally Posted by Observer Dr. Wagner Jr. and LA Park will be facing off in a tag match when Wagner makes his MLW debut next month. Wagner & El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Park & El Hijo de LA Park has been announced for MLW's television tapings in Cicero, Illinois on Saturday, July 6. The tapings are being called "Kings of Colosseum" and are taking place at Cicero Stadium.

Originally Posted by Observer 7,650 people was the attendance for the BOSJ finals at Sumo Hall.

Originally Posted by PWI I noticed on Instagram that Sasha Banks is using her real name. Should WWE be concerned about another CM Punk scenario, or are we already there? No. It's a CM Punk situation when she walks out and doesn't return. All indications are that she will be returning when the time is right. Using her real name on Instagram is nothing more than her using it to differentiate herself from the persona she portrays on WWE TV.

From PWI's weekly Q&A articles.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter With less than a day to go before WWE’s Super Showdown in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, there is a story which for long-term news and propaganda purposes makes the first and probably last Undertaker vs. Bill Goldberg mach seem like nothing ... But, for real, there will be a time, and it may even be on 6/7, that WWE does host the first women’s pro wrestling match in Saudi Arabia. Natalya and Alexa Bliss are in Saudi Arabia as of this writing. WWE will take credit for changing culture. Of course, that’s silly. There are women competing in sports at schools (only in private schools, so rich has its privilege but two years ago women in public schools were allowed to at least take P.E. classes). Until last year, women were prohibited from attending any events in most stadiums. Last year that changed, although they are allowed at shows like this, although it is segregated seating. Somehow I don’t think the female Sputnik Monroe is coming from WWE to modernize this and change society, but we shall see. Women’s basketball competition dates back to 2003. By the way, it was outside forces that have led to changes for women in Saudi Arabia. It wasn’t WWE, it was the IOC. You know how they did it? Before the 2012 Olympics, they told Saudi Arabia that if you don’t have a women’s team, your men’s team is banned from competing. Suddenly, there were women, at least in certain social circles, allowed to compete in sports, private school were allowed sports teams and they’ve sent women to the last two Olympics. Going there, taking the money, and waiting as is going on at this writing for the government to decide what it’s going to do hardly qualifies. Still, will WWE at some pont, maybe next week, talk about its influence more than you ever heard watching the last two Olympics? Yes. So here’s the situation. At one point, evidently the government told WWE that they would allow them to have a women’s bout on the 6/7 show in Jeddah, which is a more progressive city than Riyadh, likely the home of the November show. That may explain why there is no All-women’s PPV show on the 2019 schedule after how successful, at least aesthetically, the first show was. But it’s gone back-and-forth. WWE never spoke a word about it, because it would be an embarrassment if they promoted it and then got the thumbs down when they arrived. But now, it’s still going to be tough. The news is out that Natalya and Bliss are in Saudi Arabia with the idea of doing a match. There is no confirmation such a match will or won’t take place. The company has hinted about it in case it doesn’t. But if it doesn’t, the company does look bad because at that point they would have been strung along, and then told no. For that reason, if Saudi Arabia looks at the big picture and doesn’t want to embarrass WWE, they need to allow it. They care enough about not embarrassing WWE that they allowed them to do the second show without spouting the propaganda that the relationship was built on in the first place. Even now, WWE has promoted the show, constantly talking about how it is as big or bigger than WrestleMania, using the city “Jeddah,” but banning the term Saudi Arabia from its own television. Of course that term isn’t banned with all the localized promos the wrestlers have done for that market. Really, there’s no reason women shouldn’t be allowed on the show. The IOC forced them to allow women to compete in sports. The Russian circus came to town and for whatever reason, they were allowed to have their women perform in tight outfits. Of course, that led to a conservative backlash and the people who okayed that ended up it hot water over it. Mariah Carey performed there on 1/31, and was heavily criticized for doing so, more covered up than se would be at a U.S. concert, but still flashingly dressed. Actually most of the criticism of her came from Saudi Arabian women, who felt a star of her stature shouldn’t endorse and do the bidding of a government that treats women the way they do. Unlike Carey, WWE is way below the line that people in the U.S., or Saudi Arabia, would care. And it was believed the government brought in Carey specifically to rebuild its image after the Khashoggi murder. It will be a ten or 11 match show, with Natalya vs. Bliss as the question mark. While the show is listed for a 2 p.m. Eastern start, the first match, the Usos vs. The Revival, will likely go into the ring about 30 minutes earlier, during the pre-show, so it’s likely a four-and-a-half hour show.

Basically WWE is going to try and take credit for changing Saudi culture by having a women's match in reality it was the IOC that told the Saudi government to ease their ban on women or else be banned from the Olympics a few years ago and the Saudi government trying to clean up its image post-embassy murder scandal.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter We have a lot more information regarding the television PPV business in the U.S. as it regards WWE, AEW and Impact ... At this point, Double or Nothing is estimated at somewhere between 98,500 and 113,000 buys worldwide. The best estimate has U.S. PPV buys at around 71,000, with almost an exact 50/50 split between television and B/R Live. That’s notable because nobody does a 50/50 split. The biggest split I’ve heard of for a television PPV and streaming was Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov, which was an 80/20 split in favor of television. Usually it’s closer to 85/15. What’s also notable is that in the U.K., the split was closer to 75/25 in favor of television, but in the U.K. the heavy marketing was on ITV 4 for ITV Box Office and there wasn’t really much of a push for streaming PPV, but still a solid percentage did get it streaming. WWE Money in the Bank did about 15,700 PPV buys. It looks like,. because most WWE fans get PPV on the network rather than television because of the lower price, it’s probably around 11 percent of the number of who would have bought the PPV at regular prices, are still buying these shows on PPV.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The 6/29 show in Melbourne, Australia will be broadcast live as a worldwide iPPV on Fite TV rather than on New Japan World. “Expanding into a new market brings with it new challenges; while we did not have the infrastructure in place in Australia for the quality of stream World viewers deserve, FITE have stepped up and offered their world class production and distribution expertise for the event,”NJPW’s General Manager of the International Department Michael Craven told Foxsports.com.au. “We realize how important it is that NJPW World has complete coverage of every single major event we put out, but also want to accommodate those fans that want to watch live, and that's what drove us to go with FITE for the timed exclusivity deal.”

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter While it’s a year away, this has been talked about for a long time, but the decision regarding the 2020 G-1 is a big one. Almost all the major arenas in Japan will be booked for the 2020 Olympics. So either they will have to move G-1 up earlier, or later, or do a G-1 outside of Japan. If their U.S. business was stronger I could see a U.S., U.K. and Australia G-1, maybe finishing in Japan after the Olympics, but this Dallas show has not been a success thus far even with the G-1 label. The loss of Kenny Omega has really hurt outside of Japan.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The New York Post ran a major story on Ashley Massaro (they actually have run a number of stories on her since her death) noting that on 5/15 she was texting Rochelle Loewen, who worked with her in WWE before later playing several seasons in the Lingerie Football League ... The Post reported that many had speculated on, that Massaro was found hanging by her 18-year-old daughter Alexis. Loewen said Massaro had talked with her about depression but she never thought Massaro would kill herself. The story also quoted Cara Pipia, said to be Massaro’s best friend since childhood, who said that when they were 15 or 16 they had lost one of their best friends to suicide and then over the past year they had lost another friend to it and Massaro supported suicide awareness hotlines. Massaro went so far as to talk about suicide prevention and suicide awareness on her weekly radio show. The Go Fund Me campaign for Alexis’ for her education has topped $45,000 over the weekend.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Since this involves one of the most famous angles in pro wrestling history, David Letterman gave some interesting history regarding the 1982 episode of his show with Jerry Lawler and Andy Kaufman as guests. The two were doing an angle in Memphis that got national attention since Kaufman was a major television star who was mocking Lawler and Memphis and Lawler gave him a jumping piledriver. Kaufman pretended he was badly injured, was hospitalized and went everywhere in a neck brace to put the angle over. Then they ended up on Letterman to supposedly make amends, but it ended with Lawler slapping Kaufman, Kaufman throwing water or coffee on Lawler and Kaufman doing an expletive laden promo on live television (it was bleeped out). Many lists of the biggest moments in U.S. television history have listed that episode of the Letterman show. Letterman was on “My Next Guest” and asked about the episode and said that Kaufman did let him know before they started filming what was going to happen. Letterman did open his show the next night and basically said it was something Lawler and Kaufman had planned, but even after saying that a lot of people believed it was real

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Pro Wrestling Revolution owner Gabriel Ramirez announced that starting with its 6/22 show, they will hire two EMTs for every event. Ramirez, who said he was close with Silver King and went to Mexico recently, said even with the added cost that he realized that if something happened to a wrestler, or a fan, at his show, he could never say he did at least what he should have been able to do to avoid a tragedy. He noted that in commission states, this is mandated, but so many states are no longer regulated and Silver King’s death came in a place where the show wasn’t regulated and it took so long before he got medical attention. He’s hoping that in California in particular, because it’s not regulated, that promoters all do the same, comparing it to auto insurance, with the idea that nobody likes having to pay for insurance, but if you want to drive a car, you really have to have it

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Regarding whether AEW will acknowledge Jon Moxley as U.S. champion on its 6/29 show in Daytona Beach hasn’t been decided. The key debate points are this. New Japan has no relations with AEW and does have relations with ROH, a competitor. However, a huge percentage of AEW fans likely subscribe to New Japan World, or if not, an Internet-driven company, they would be aware of Moxley as champion. To deny it and ignore it would be taking a page from WWE and create a needless elephant in the room. AEW is also focused on very few belts, with the idea of keeping the belts important. That’s an argument not to talk about other belts, although they did have an AAA tag title match on their first PPV show, but AAA is also a partner.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter In another change, talent being signed to new NXT contracts are getting five-year deals instead of the previous three-year deals for beginners, trying to lock people in to where it’s a long time before they can test the free agent market. It’s one thing for someone like Mysterio to be able to get an 18 month deal because WWE wanted him away from the outside and he realized he had leverage to get what he wanted, and it’s another thing for guys with no experience to try and say they don’t want to commit to five years and only want three. But really that’s the case across the board at least WWE contracts guarantee significant money unlike some other company contracts that are out there where guys are making nothing and locked up in a marketplace where WWE wants to lock up anyone they see as marketable talent

Originally Posted by Fightful More NXT name changes. At tonight's NXT live event in Largo two Independent stars who recently signed with NXT made their in-ring debuts. And have new names to boot. First, DJZ made his debut, taking on Kona Reeves. DJZ scored the victory in the contest, but the big news is that DJZ is now going by the name Joaquin Wilde. Next up, Shane Strickland made his debut in a tag team bout. Strickland teamed with Brennan Williams to take on Elliot Sexton and Jonah Rock. Strickland and Williams picked up the victory in the contest. Like DJZ, Strickland got a new name in his NXT debut and is now Isaiah Scott.

TPWW Frontpage stuff:

• Goldberg’s SmackDown Promo Was Not Scripted By WWE
• Jinder Mahal Wins 24/7 Title on an Airport Tarmac
• R-Truth Recaptures 24/7 Title on an Airplane