[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Following a night in which Raw had its second lowest non-holiday audience in history, SmackDown was actually up five percent this week, averaging 2.072 million viewers for Tuesday's show. This matched the April 23 episode for SmackDown's highest number since April's Superstar Shake-up. The main reason for this week's increase would be the lack of competition, as both the NBA and NHL playoffs had the night off. SmackDown finished seventh overall for the night on cable, trailing only news programming, and topped the 18-49 demo with a 0.69 rating. In fact, in that demo, SmackDown beat everything on television with the exception of NBC, which was the only network to have first-run shows on Tuesday night ... Year-over-year, SmackDown was only down six percent, the second straight week the year-over-year decline was in the single digits. In fact, it was the best retention from the previous year that SmackDown has done since going back to October 30 of last year, when the decline was 0.4 percent.

Originally Posted by PWI Paul Levesque hosted a conference call with reporters today in advance of Saturday’s Takeover show. Adam Hopkins introduced HHH and we were off and running. ... Mike Johnson then got in. H said two’s not bad. Mike asked what the biggest lessons he learned from the first show until now. H said that the biggest learning curve was making the brand have its own identity, making it a stand-alone brand. He said it was about learning who the players where and what their journeys were. They have all different stories. He talked about the differences between all of the people that have come in. Some have been lifetime fans, others were folks that chose wrestling after doing something else. It’s great to see those people grow and come to love the business. To H, he has learned from all of their perspectives and where the wrestlers have come from. He said that it’s been inspiring and meaningful for him. He loves going to the Performance Center because it gives him a shot of adrenaline. It’s awe inspiring ... Jason Powell asked H saying he wants to have a six month plan for talents. It hasn’t happened. Why? H said necessity takes precedence. If the main roster needs talent, that can throw plans out the window. He said when that happens and talents get called up, he’s excited for the talents. He would like to have a plan, but sometimes that doesn’t happen. He compared it to baseball, where talents get called up due to need and circumstance. He was asked about taking jabs at AEW and them coming back. Are they good for business and will NXT do it? H said that at the Hall of Fame Billy being there was the elephant in the room and DX does that kind of thing. That is all it was. For him, he doesn’t really think about AEW, he just wants to put out the best NXT product that he can. He is focused on this Saturday at Takeover 25, putting on the best show and growing the brand ... He was asked if NXT could be used on FOX? He said they are looking at everything, there is interest in NXT. It’s also valuable to them on the Network. We will get there.

Originally Posted by Fightful Triple H speaks about the remarks made about AEW at the WWE Hall Of Fame ceremony and TakeOver XXV. “Hall Of Fame, to me, there was a moment -- Billy’s [Gunn] there. There’s kinda sorta this moment where if you don’t sort of say there’s an elephant in the room, everybody sorta goes, ‘Well why didn’t they mention the elephant in the room?’ It was nothing more than that and to be honest with DX, if you don’t do that, then we’re sorta kinda not doing what we do and trust me, a lot of that was not necessarily laid out and planned. Things kinda just went along." He revealed. "So, what they are… for me, I don’t really even think about it to be honest. For me, when it comes to this TakeOver, I just wanna put out the best product possible. I’m not focused on anybody else, I’m not thinking about anybody else’s creative or what they said or didn’t say or anything else. To me, I’m focused on this Saturday at TakeOver 25 and the brand and making everybody bigger stars coming out of it, putting on the best show we possibly can for fans and continuing to grow the brand.”

Originally Posted by PWI Major League Wrestling will debut in Dallas, Texas, the promotion announced: Are you a subscriber to the MLW Newsletter? If you were, you'd have seen this news earlier today: "It's official: MLW has closed a deal for its Dallas debut. More details on this will be available soon." Sign up for the newsletter here: https://t.co/5vtcqJjctT pic.twitter.com/lomKEzvViF — MLW FURY ROAD • JUNE 1 (@MLW) May 29, 2019 The plan is to build the debut around Ross and Marshall Von Erich

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The Chinese-based OWE (Oriental Wrestling Entertainment) group has partnered with Toronto’s Smash Wrestling to stage two events in the city over SummerSlam week this August. OWE will be part of the groups that are running at The MET (The Midtown Event Centre). OWE will be presenting shows on Wednesday, August 7th at 4 pm and Saturday, August 10th at 3 pm. They are joining Smash Wrestling, Progress, wXw, SHIMMER, RISE, and Femme Fatales, who are all running cards at the venue that week. The group will be running a total of nine events that week from Wednesday through Sunday.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Ring of Honor has announced that the main event of the Best in the World pay-per-view will feature Matt Taven defending the ROH title against Jeff Cobb in Baltimore, Maryland on Friday, June 28th. Cobb lost the ROH Television title earlier this month in Toronto in a four-way match where wasn’t pinned and Shane Taylor won the title. On the same show, Taylor will be defending the Television title against Bandido.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling I received an update on AOP, who have been set to return for a few weeks. Akam has been cleared and it’s simply a matter of coming up with a program for the duo. One of the reasons for their delayed return was the addition of the Wild Card rule, which has tied up television time. Akam has been out since January with a knee injury while Rezar has been used sparingly during that time.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling John Martin, a member of the British Columbia Legislature, took time to acknowledge Mauro Ranallo for his efforts to raise awareness and understanding of mental health. At the end of the clip, he got the members of the legislature to join and yell, “Mamma Mia”.

Link: https://twitter.com/davedotca/status...16501713440768

Originally Posted by Fightful The World title match at Best In The World has been made official. Former ROH World Television Champion Jeff Cobb arrived in Ring Of Honor in July of 2018. He went on to capture the ROH World Television Championship and on June 28th in Baltimore, Maryland, Cobb will get his opportunity at the ROH World Championship when he challenges the current champion Matt Taven at Best In The World.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc Chris Jericho appeared on Busted Open Radio today and revealed that he will do battle with "Hangman" Adam Page at AEW's All Out pay-per-view during Labor Day Weekend near Chicago. Page won the Casino Battle Royale on the AEW Double Or Nothing "Buy In" pre-show this past Saturday night to earn a shot against the winner of Jericho vs. Kenny Omega, in a match that will crown the first-ever AEW World Heavyweight Champion. It looks like AEW will be crowning that champion at All Out. All Out takes place on Saturday, August 31 from the Sears Centre Arena near Chicago, the same arena where All In was held last year. Tickets go on sale Friday, June 14.

Originally Posted by Observer At least a few have enquired about leaving [WWE] including a couple of names that would shock you. Also said that the total would take more than “two hands to count”.

TPWW Frontpage stuff:

• Tyler Breeze Is Part of the NXT Roster (For Now)
• Jon Moxley Provides Insight on Why EC3 May Be Getting Buried By WWE

This week's Observer Newsletter got delayed by a day due to Meltzer needing more time to work on it.