[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Ryusuke Taguchi Appreciation Day:

Originally Posted by Observer One of the original homes of Raw, the Rec Center at the Fernwood Resort in Pennsylvania, burned down this past week. They taped Raw several times in the building in 1994 and 1995. Afa used to promote his WXW shows there as well.

WWE Hall of Famer Bret "The Hitman" Hart spoke with TalkSport while in the UK for his speaking tour. Below are some highlights: The currentWWEproduct: "I think I was a better storyteller than any of the wrestlers they've got today. I watched Wrestlemania this year and there's no drama anymore. They do some amazing stuff, there are some incredible athletes, but people don't know how to tell a story. "Wrestling has it's flows, it will change again as people get tired of the 'phoney' wrestling, I watched my match with Davey Boy at Wembley with some journalists in a bar and they almost bought into it like it was real. The fact that fans reacted so strongly to those two British Wrestlers (Pete Dunne & Tyler Bate) shows you it might be going back in the other direction." Owen Hart not being in the WWE Hall of Fame: "Like a lot of people, if he's not in the WWE Hall of Fame, then what kind of Hall of Fame is it? I'm embarrassed on their part they can take so many great wrestlers and not include them in the Hall of Fame. "I don't have any problem with anyone who is in there, but I think Demolition should be in there, that Dynamite Kid should be in there, that Davey Boy should be in there. I'm embarrassed Owen isn't in there. Owen was one of the most respected and admired in the business for his integrity alone. Why they won't acknowledge him is beyond me?"

Link: https://talksport.com/wwe/bret-hart-...ritish-bulldog

Originally Posted by Observer Indies Roundup: Mark Cometti challenges Nick Aldis for the NWA title on 7/11 in Perth, Western Australia on the House of Hardcore show. Cometti is the son of Australian Rules football announcer Dennis Cometti and Mark does stats for the radio commentators and also is in a television commercial. Jack Bonza will challenge Aldis for the title on 7/15 in Queensland, Australia for House of Hardcore. Mid States Wrestling on 6/23 in Harrison, AR and the Youth Center with Jerry Lawler vs. Matt Riviera with Bill Dundee and Tim Storm also on the show. New Japan When World's Collide takes place on 6/29 in Daytona Beach, CA at the Ocean Center. This will be a show promoted as part of the CEO 2018 Fighting Game convention. We'll have more on it in a few days, but announced as appearing are Kenny Omega, who is the co-promoter of the event, Kota Ibushi, Tetsuya Naito, Hiromu Takahashi, Jushin Liger, Juice Robinson, Ryusuke Taguchi, David Finlay, Dragon Lee, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, Sho, Yoh, Rocky Romero, Chase Owens and Jeff Cobb. The new season of Lucha Underground debuts Wednesday at 8 p.m. on El Rey. They are pushing the season hard around the debut of Jessie Godderz, who will be featured on the first show. Sumie Sakai & Jenny Rose & Mayu Iwatani & Tenille Dashwood vs. Kelly Klein & Kagetsu & Hana Kimura & Hazuki has been announced for the next ROH PPV show on 6/29 from Baltimore.

Originally Posted by Observer Adam Cole is set to defend his NXT North American Championship outside of WWE later this month. WWE announced today that Cole will be putting his title on the line at EVOLVE 107 in Melrose, Massachusetts on June 24th. Cole's opponent will be revealed this coming Monday. Whether Cole's match will be airing on the iPPV broadcast or not is to be determined. He previously wrestled for EVOLVE four times during the promotion's first year.

Link: https://twitter.com/WWENXT/status/1005147544215801856

Originally Posted by Observer Four wrestlers advanced to the quarterfinals of WWE's United Kingdom Championship tournament as Download Festival began today. Zack Gibson defeated Amir Jordan, Flash Morgan Webster defeated James Drake, Travis Banks defeated El Ligero, and Ashton Smith defeated Joseph Conners. They join Jack Gallagher in the next round, who advanced by defeating Drew Gulak during a set of NXT television tapings last month. With that, Gibson vs. Gallagher and Banks vs. Smith (on opposite sides of the bracket) are set for the quarterfinals. The remaining first round matches will take place as Download Festival continues over the next two days.

Originally Posted by Observer Tomorrow's New Japan show, which you could call the second biggest of the year, is actually, because of the main event and to a degree the Jr. title match, it right now feels like it's the biggest show for in-ring itself, will also be shooting angles for a number of upcoming shows including the 7/7 show at the Cow Palace. The Cow Palace card should be announced in a couple of days, as should the Daytona Beach show. There will be ads for Cow Palace tickets and promoting the show starting tonight on New Japan programming on AXS. They will start advertising the show in the Bay Area next week.

Originally Posted by Observer Steffanie Newell in NXT, who used to be Nixon Newell in the U.K., will from this point forward be Tegan Nox.

Originally Posted by PWI The 6/7 edition of Impact did 296,000,overnight viewers, up from last week's 283,000 overnight viewers.

Originally Posted by PWI What happened to the Authors of Pain? Nothing that we have heard. It appears that WWE is just holding them off TV for the time being.

From PWI's weekly Q&A articles talking about the lack of AoP on RAW.

Originally Posted by PWI Xavier Woods and Kenny Omega will face off in Street Fighter V this Thursday at the Capcom booth during the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo IT'S SET! I END @KennyOmegamanX (aka Kenneth) IN @StreetFighter ON JUNE 14 @e3 - IM ABOUT TO GO ALL IN ON THE CLEANER Kenneth, make sure you shower before the event and don’t wear that hand me down suit. You look ridiculous. https://t.co/IS1dS2NuBc — Austin Creed (@XavierWoodsPhD) June 7, 2018

Link: https://twitter.com/XavierWoodsPhD/s...30909252677637

Originally Posted by Fightful.com Game Changer Wrestling will be in New York for the new event. After two years of successful Joey Janela's Spring Break events during WrestleMania week, Game Changer Wrestling has created an August event called Joey Janela's Lost in New York. The event will take place at the Melrose Ballroom in Queens, New York on August 17th. Joey Janela tweeted the following video with information about ticket sales. Tickets are on sale at 5pm... #JoeysLost pic.twitter.com/NrSVMtc1Fh — Bad Boy Joey Janela (@JANELABABY) June 8, 2018 The song in the video is John William's Somewhere in My Memory which was featured in the 1992 movie Home Alone 2: Lost in New York which starred Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, and Macaulay Culkin.

Link: https://twitter.com/JANELABABY/statu...67185193586688

Originally Posted by Observer WWE also has signed Charlie Morgan and Nina Samuels to what are being called “extended tryout” contracts. Basically it’s a deal that they are going to give the talent tryouts but aren’t actually signing them to contracts, but it keeps them away from ITV. Mark Coffey and Wildboar are said to have deals of this sort

Originally Posted by Observer Regarding ITV World of Sport, the plan is if the TV ratings are a success for the shows, which will start airing in mid-to-late July on Saturday late afternoons, that they will follow up with touring in the U.K. That’s a big if. Martin Goldsmith, who was the promoter of the 1992 SummerSlam show at Wembley Stadium and owned Event Merchandise, which handled WWE merchandise for years, and later TNA merchandise, was mentioned as possibly being involved in the ITV promotion if it tours. He wasn’t at the ITV tapings but his son was there. ITV had the mentality of wrestlers as being athletes and actors working on a television show as opposed to wrestlers. The performers were paid $1,000 or more per day and the deals were structured like they would be for a TV show. They are looking at different venues. The talent will be receiving royalties for replay showings, although traditionally pro wrestling shows aren’t replayed so that’s in the contract but may be a moot point. They will also receive merchandise rights similar to an actor on a television show. All performers are allowed to work anywhere in the world except WWE, or for a promotion that has national television distribution in the U.K Chris Brookes was offered a WWE U.K. deal but turned it down. However, there were 12 wrestlers that were on ITV’s original list that opted for WWE. The edge WWE has is that you know they will be in business while the ITV thing is iffy. The downside is that there’s so much less exposure, in the sense while it certainly helped Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate for their indie work, and they are more over, they aren’t television stars. If the ITV thing works, the guys will be seen by maybe 25 times as many people as the biggest WWE stars are seen by, so the chance to make a name if it does make it is multiplied, and if there is touring, it would be a faster movement to stardom and making money. But it is a gamble.

Originally Posted by Observer Money in the Bank right now is an 11-match show. There’s always the chance to also add a cruiserweight title match next week. Besides the two briefcase matches, it’s Styles vs. Nakamura last man standing, Jax vs. Rousey Raw women’s title, Rollins vs. Elias for the IC title, Carmella vs. Asuka for the Smackdown women’s title, Reigns vs. Mahal, Zayn vs. Lashley, Bryan vs. Cass, Matt Hardy & Wyatt vs. Dallas &Axel for the Raw tag titles (putting brother vs. brother which is never acknowledged) and Harper & Rowan vs. Anderson & Gallows for the Smackdown tag titles. Chicago is maybe the best U.S. market for crowd reactions but it feels like a lot of matches that may not get over big all on the same show. The men’s briefcase match is always good. The women’s one has question marks. Jax vs. Rousey certainly has question marks, a does Carmella vs. Asuka. Reigns, Zayn, Bryan and Rollins should be in great PPV matches but in each case, the opponent is questionable, not so much for a good match, but for a great match

Originally Posted by Observer Regarding the disappointing ticket sales for the 6/18 and 6/19 U.K. shows at Royal Albert Hall, I’m told there are two reasons for it. The main one is the ticket prices, as the cheapest tickets are 60 pounds ($80). The belief is that the WWE audience for the most part isn’t interested in these shows, as evidenced by the lack of reaction the U.K. exclusive wrestlers get when on a WWE house show (as opposed to the reaction they get on indie shows). The main audience is the audience that attends groups like Progress, Revolution Pro and ICW, and they are used to paying far less for tickets. But even worse, is the 6/18 show goes against England in the World Cup. That’s a monumental booking mistake, because that’s like booking a house show against the Super Bowl. Still, if that was the entire reason, and it is absolutely a huge reason for 6/18, that doesn’t explain 6/19. Michaels was added in the advertising for 6/18, although just as an appearance. People who had sixth row tickets this week got notified via e-mail they were being upgraded to the front row for 6/18 without having to pay front row prices The decision was made not to air it live, so they can post-produce it and also put it out in a not so crowded period. Both shows will air on a one-week tape delay. The first night will air on 6/25 at 3 p.m. and the second night will air on 6/26 at 3 p.m. That is a Monday and a Tuesday afternoon, so it should end each day a few hours before Raw on those respective days. But it’s away from a weekend with a Takeover and a PPV plus Raw and Smackdown

Originally Posted by Observer With a lot less in the way of non-wrestling programming being released, the most-watched network shows this past week were: 1. NXT from 5/30; 2. Camp WWE Episode 5; 3. 205 Live from 5/29 (I think this show, which was the Alexander vs. Murphy show, was the highest finish the show has done); 4. Something Else to Wrestle With with Conrad Thompson and Bruce Prichard from 5/30; 5. This Week in WWE (a show that rarely even hits top 20); 6. Camp WWE Episode 4; 7. NXT from 5/23; 8. Table for 3 with Edge, Christian and Hardys; 9. Backlash 2018; 10. Something Else to Wrestle With from 5/23.

Some other sheet news includes:

• Website WrestlingDVDNetwork recently revealed some details and content listing for WWE's upcoming 30 Years of SummerSlam DVD set arriving this August. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...ealed.html?p=1
• Website WrestlingDVDNetwork also recently uploaded several clips from WWE's upcoming Women's Evolution DVD set. http://www.wrestlingdvdnetwork.com/d...ion-dvd/155709
• Recent episode of the Edge & Christian podcast show had EC3 as the guest.
• Recent rumor going around the net teases AAA's upcoming show at MSG might be a co-branded show. Konnan reportedly has been trying to get a deal made with CMLL for a AAA vs. CMLL event to occur at the venue.
• According to Colt Cabana, he strongly believes the main reason why Punk's defamation trial kept getting delayed was due to WWE's pettiness. He believes WWE pushed Amann's side to keep getting the trial delayed solely to mess with Punk's UFC fight preparations. Also believes this is why Amann's side suddenly stopped asking for delays since the next one likely would have pushed the trial after Punk's fight.

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Various: WWE Interested in Eli Drake? Daniel Bryan’s WWE Contract
• WWE: WWE UK Brand GM, Almas vs. Sin Cara? Lio Rush on 205 Live
• Billy Gunn on Apologizing to HHH; Adam Rose on No Way Jose, Retirement