[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Last night's Raw, with a post-Backlash bump and a show-long tease of the return to the ring of Christian, plus Ric Flair and Big Show returning and a more loaded third hour, averaged 1.94 million viewers, the best number since the day after WrestleMania, even beating the night Becky Lynch announced her pregnancy. The 0.53 rating in 18-49 was identical to last week even though it was a strong 12 percent increase in viewers overall. The real gains from last week were with teenagers and those over the age of 50. While the open was strong, the show kept its viewers through tons of talking and angles better than any Raw episode in a long time, with the second hour beating the first and the third hour only being down seven percent from the first. The show was down 13 percent from the same week last year and 25 percent in 18-49, both numbers better than the show had been doing ... The three hours were: 8 p.m. 1.98 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.00 million viewers 10 p.m. 1.84 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer NJPW has announced four additional events that will be part of their July schedule. The promotion will return to Korakuen Hall in Tokyo for a New Japan Road event on Monday, July 20. Sengoku Lord will then take place at Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium in Nagoya on Saturday, July 25. NJPW will be back at Korakuen Hall on Monday, July 27 and Friday, July 31 for Summer Struggle 2020 shows ... Fans will be allowed to attend the four shows, but the venues will be at a reduced capacity. "All events will take place with strict measures to counteract the spread of COVID-19. Thoroughly check our event policy," NJPW wrote. NJPW noted that further events will be announced upon careful monitoring of the developing global situation with the coronavirus pandemic.

Originally Posted by Observer WWE is dismissing allegations stemming from recent claims made by an ex-WWE star regarding last year’s Crown Jewel event. Jerry McDevitt on behalf of WWE issued the following statement to Forbes: After the Court appointed a third law firm to be lead counsel, WWE provided all three law firms with specific detailed facts from the persons with actual knowledge of the situation, including the phony allegation about the plane. The first two law firms then dropped their lawsuits to avoid sanction motions, but the third firm chose to ignore the specific facts they had been provided, and instead cited an unnamed disgruntled former wrestler with no knowledge of the facts. WWE is preparing its response to the lawsuit and will be moving to have it dismissed. The claims were made in one of several recent lawsuits by WWE shareholders, who argue that WWE has made misleading statements regarding their business dealings with Saudi Arabia. In one of these lawsuits, a former employee identified as CW-2, who performed for WWE from 2012 to April 2020, was initally told that the flight had been delayed. When he spoke to a stewardess, they were quoted as saying that “it seems someone doesn’t want us to leave the country.” CW-2 also recalled seeing guards wearing “black militia attire” staring at the wrestlers on board. He was also told by the Senior Director of Talent Relations Mark Carrano that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Vince McMahon had gotten into an argument over payments regarding the last event held in Saudi Arabia, Super Showdown. As a result, McMahaon cut the live feed for the Crown Jewel event, which had made the Crown Prince upset.

Originally Posted by PWI Bloomberg.com is reporting that the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, Long Island will be shuttered indefinitely ... WWE has been run the venue for decades, dating back to the early 1970s when the Coliseum opened. The first episode of Saturday Night's Main Event was taped in the venue and the second Wrestlemania had it's New York portion featuring Mr. T boxing Roddy Piper hosted there. The venue also hosted a number of PPVs over the years, including Summerslam 2002 which saw Shawn Michaels return to the ring against HHH, Brock Lesnar win his first WWE championship and was one of the best top to bottom WWE shows ever. The Coliseum also hosted Jim Crockett Promotions in 1987 and 1988 including JCP's first-ever PPV, the Bunkhouse Stampede in January 1987. JCP last ran the venue in April 1988. The Coliseum was shut down in 2015 with WWE running a farewell Raw taping that saw Vince McMahon pay tribute to the venue. It was remodeled and reopened in 2017 with WWE returning for TV tapings and live events. They last ran the venue in July 2019

Originally Posted by PWI With today's TV taping canceled, WWE is testing everyone for COVID-19 today. They are rotating everyone. We are told that this was a legitimate COVID-19 test via the nose ... Yesterday's taping at the PC covered yesterday's Raw, this Friday's Smackdown and this weekend's edition of Main Event. There were invited fans at the taping yesterday, which has to be worst timing ever. If/when they resume tapings, WWE would tape next week's episodes of Raw, Smackdown, Main Event and two weeks of 205 Live. The hope is to resume tomorrow but that would be pending an all clear from today's COVID-19 testing. Since all signs are this is the first time the majority of those being tested have actually taken a COVID-19 test, there's no telling what the results will be.

That last line is the scary part since WWE wasn't doing any real testing for the virus until today, even after they had the first confirmed positive test during Mania tapings and started doing crowds for their shows. Temperature checks are the least effective test for actually discovering who has and doesn't have the virus.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling ESPN has an extensive article up about the closing of Vince McMahon’s rebooted XFL football league. The league ceased operations on April 10th and the majority of the league’s staff had been laid off. The ESPN article takes a look at how the COVID-19 pandemic may or may not have been the reason for the collapse of the league, how the WWE factored into the situation and several interviews were conducted with former XFL employees to get their thoughts about how everything unfolded. Vince McMahon and Oliver declined to do an interview for the piece but it’s noted in the article that prior to WrestleMania 36, Vince McMahon began making plans for the mass layoffs/furloughs that WWE made on April 15th. “The XFL’s shared services agreement with the WWE also had raised eyebrows within the XFL offices, which were regularly interacting with WWE counterparts. In December 2019, the Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System filed a shareholders lawsuit seeking information about the exact nature of the relationship between WWE and the XFL, and whether McMahon or other senior officers might have diminished the WWE by diverting some of its resources to the XFL. The suit was dropped this spring. The WWE managed to resume content production amid the pandemic, airing a fanless but well-received WrestleMania 36 on April 4-5. McMahon was already working on plans for a series of WWE layoffs, furloughs and other cost-cutting moves designed to stabilize the company for an extended period of lower revenues. They were announced April 15. And according to Forbes magazine, McMahon’s net worth has dropped by $1 billion, from $2.9 billion to $1.9 billion, in the past year.” Randy Mueller, who was the Director of Player Personnel for the Houston Roughnecks spoke to ESPN and stated that everyone knew the failed AAF football league was “smoke and mirrors” but with Vince McMahon, everyone involved in the new venture was aware that McMahon has money and didn’t think he would step away from the $200 million that was already put into the league ... For the many XFL staff members that were cut, they were offered COBRA insurance benefits, but their dental and vision plans were cut this month. Those individuals, along with many creditors are in bankruptcy court to attempt to recover what was left on their contracts on April 10th.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling WWE Champion Drew McIntyre spoke with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated following his successful title defense on the 6/15 edition of RAW. Before Paul Levesque called McIntyre about returning to the WWE in 2017, McIntyre planned on going to New Japan Pro-Wrestling to mix it up with the likes of Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada and Will Ospreay. “Before Hunter called me to come back to WWE, the place I was going next was Japan. My style would be perfect there and I could learn so much. The two opponents on the top of my list were Tanahashi and Okada. Ospreay would be great, as well. I wrestled him outside of WWE in a couple of my favorite matches. But still, I have to go with Tanahashi and Okada.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Hardwood) did an interview with Bleacher Report Live to discuss their arrival in All Elite Wrestling and some of the memorable moments from their runs in WWE. Cash Wheeler reflected on one of those moments and the trio of Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods was a part of said moment[s]. Wheeler recalled that whenever he and Dax Harwood wrestled New Day, the two teams always tried to get one another to break character. “I don’t know. I mean, there’s a lot so it’s hard to pinpoint any of them. I’m never gonna be able to pinpoint one but I know some of the most fun we had on the main roster amongst ourselves and with other guys would be like when we worked with The New Day and we’d have some really, really fun and good matches on live events with these guys but, there’s also like this underlying contest to see who could make the others break the most. So like, I would be looking at Big E from across the ring just trying to give him the widest eyes that I could, just hoping he would catch it and every time he would finally see it, it would just break him but, those guys are so fun and so good and just getting them to break a little bit or — they get me to break all the time. Dax? Not so much. He can keep a pretty straight face but I break so easy.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The COVID-19 pandemic impacted a number of wrestling promotions across the globe and one of those promotions is EVOLVE. The last time that EVOLVE hosted a show was on March 1st which was EVOLVE 146 that was headlined by an AR Fox versus Josh Briggs match. Per a report from PWTorch, the promotion has no plans to run events going forward as they are going on hiatus. PWTorch obtained a private Facebook message board post from EVOLVE VP of talent relations, creative and marketing, Gabe Sapolsky. Sapolsky sent the message out to members of the EVOLVE roster. Sapolsky reportedly told the roster that he is going to delete the private Facebook board because there are no plans to run EVOLVE events going forward. PWTorch confirmed that the screenshot is legit, by way of WWN management and members of the EVOLVE roster. WWN will continue to operate, but EVOLVE is going on hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the aforementioned Facebook message, Sapolsky told the roster that this is just a “fork in the road” and encouraged talent to stay in touch with him.

Think David Bixenspan was the first to debunk rumors of WWN was filing for bankruptcy and selling off EVOLVE to WWE. Latest scoop from him is WWN is currently in the process of splitting into several different companies.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling On June 3rd, Bushiroad made the announcement that both New Japan Pro-Wrestling and World Wonder Ring STARDOM were in the process of starting shows back up. New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s events are already under way and they are in the beginning stages of the New Japan Cup tournament and will have their first show with fans in attendance on July 11th. As for STARDOM, it was announced today via the promotion’s social media platforms that they will be back in action on June 21st.

Originally Posted by Fightful Vince McMahon reportedly looks at Angel Garza and sees a young version of a WWE Hall of Famer. Angel Garza quickly moved from being the NXT Cruiserweight Champion to being a part of the Monday Night Raw brand. While that all happened because of happenstance and Andrade getting suspended for 30 days, Angel Garza is now being viewed as a potential future key player in WWE. According to a report by Alex McCarthy of talkSPORT, Vince McMahon sees a younger version of Eddie Guerrero in Angel Garza. On the surface, there are some basic similarities. both have a strong knack for in-ring ability, exude comfort on the microphone, and both are of Mexican descent. Prior to his tragic death in 2005, Eddie Guerrero became the first Mexican WWE Champion in history and Vince McMahon was one of the very first people to congratulate Guerrero on his victory in February of 2004. Angel Garza was called up to the brand by former WWE Raw Executive Director, Paul Heyman and Fightful Select exclusively reported that prior to being moved up to Raw, the only thing Vince McMahon knew about Angel Garza was that he was the cousin of Humberto Carrillo.

I'd believe it when I see it considering the long line of Eddie and Rey successors over the years that WWE viewed favorable at first only to get bored or lose all interest afterwards.

Originally Posted by Fightful On Monday's Raw, WWE allowed some extra personnel into the building. Along with the usual Performance Center recruits, WWE had non-employees in the crowd as well. The non-PC recruits were friends of the roster. According to Louis Dangoor of WrestleTalk, WWE talent didn't know that non-roster members would be allowed inside the Performance Center for the show.

Originally Posted by Observer Rusev talked about Impact's showing a Bulgarian flag in its Slammiversary commercial as a tease he's coming, not confirming or denying anything, saying: “As I said, any Bulgarian can go and debut. They may have another kid from Bulgaria. I keep saying that. Could be anybody. Look, I don't know why you think it's me. I understand why you think it's me, but I can't confirm or deny. Or I don't wanna confirm or deny. Maybe they wanna pay me a million dollars for one match. Who knows? Maybe I'll come in.” You can watch the clip here.

Originally Posted by PWI One question we continue to receive quite a bit at PWInsider.com is whether Drake Maverick's WWE release had always been a work. The quick is answer is no. PWInsider.com is told that Maverick was not aware he was going to be offered a new deal until the day his Cruiserweight Championship tournament was filmed at the WWE Performance Center. While there will always be some who assume the release was a work, it's important to point out that on 5/27, Maverick had filed trademark applications for "Rockstar Spud" and "Spud", the ring names he utilized in Impact Wrestling and internationally before he signed with WWE. So, as late as the end of May, Maverick was preparing for a future after a WWE exit. Maverick is instead now part of the NXT brand with the trademarks for Spud now officially in his pocket if he needs it down the line.

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc The finish to Nia Jax vs. RAW Women's Champion Asuka at Sunday's WWE Backlash pay-per-view was reportedly changed the day of the show, according to Wrestling Observer Radio. It's believed that original plans had Asuka pinning Jax to retain, but they ended up with a double count out finish after brawling on the outside of the ring. There's no word yet on why the finish was changed.

The Observer provided an update afterwards saying it was due to WWE officials wanting to keep Nia looking strong due to the lack of big name female stars and heels on the RAW brand.


TPWW Frontpage:

• Class-Action Lawsuit Against WWE Over WWE Stocks and Saudi Deal Update
• NJPW: New Japan Cup 2020 Night 1 Results, Secret Tapings Held in the U.S., Kazuchika Okada
• WWE Reportedly Prevented People in the Crowd From Wearing Face Masks
• Some Real Fans Were in Attendance at Tonight’s Raw
• WWE Developmental Wrestler Tests Positive for COVID-19, Tuesday’s Tapings Canceled
• WWE Working on Plans to Hold Shows in Other Venues With Fans By Late Summer

* Smeat's note: Not doing any sheet reports for at least the next two Wednesdays. Rather use the extra time to relax and get other stuff done than having to cram watching NJPW shows in the afternoon, the usual stuff for the frontpage, my usual daily web surfing and stuff, and getting a sheets report done all before AEW's show starts. Even worse if I oversleep like usual which means less time to do everything.