[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by random NXT gif:

Originally Posted by Observer A few more notes regarding Bryan Danielson and some of the things going around and misconceptions. Regarding the convulsions, the story going around that he hid convulsions from doctors in an attempt to get cleared to wrestle is absolutely not true. I believe he had four convulsions after concussions, the last being about four years ago. Every doctor involved was aware, and he was given full clearance to do anything, and he was actively training hard very recently. It is logical, and probable, that one of the reasons, if not the main reason, Dr. Joseph Maroon wouldn’t clear him is because Danielson made him aware of that. But the other doctors were also made aware of that and because they were so many years ago, did not see it as a concern. Danielson’s remarks about hiding the convulsions stems from years ago, as when he did get them originally, he told nobody, not even his then-girlfriend Brie (this was before they were married, as they became a couple around early 2011), for fear they wouldn’t let him wrestle. Brie was there when he had one later. It should be noted that no doctor, with the exception of Maroon, and I don’t know what words Maroon told him past he wasn’t going to clear him, told him to retire. Doctors who were highly regarded, and the UCLA doctors were among the best concussion doctors in the country, told him he was fine to do anything he wants. The doctor who conducted the test that led to him deciding to retire never told him to retire, only pointed out that he did have an existing problem that he was previously unaware of. But he made a decision that if there was something wrong he wouldn’t continue. He did never publicly talked about having convulsions until the ESPN interview on 2/9

Update on the Bryan retirement story and details that led to it.

Originally Posted by Observer While the primary objective of the Global Cruiserweight Series is to try out the idea of a cruiserweight show, doing a “Tough Enough” type thing with undiscovered talent that are actually already good wrestlers as opposed to untrained people with good looks, a secondary objective is to send word to talent that may have thought size would hinder them in WWE to not sign with New Japan, ROH, TNA or Lucha Underground. A few months ago, when we were first told about this concept, we were outright told to get the word out for wrestlers who if are under 205 pounds and feel they are talented, not to sign anywhere.

Originally Posted by Observer Lucha Underground is once again going to have to raise money or sign deals bringing in more money for a fourth season, but they’ve got about a year to do it since they are said to have the money for the next season of tapings through mid-May. When that is done, will have all their television taped through the summer of 2017. The company is trying to get a Lucha Underground movie produced for 2018 but people are skeptical that a brand on television with barely 130,000 viewers per week (the general feeling is that the replay show is mostly people watching originally staying to watch it a second time) would be strong enough to springboard a successful movie. According to one company source, the amount of money lost thus far is, after two seasons, slightly less than half of what TNA had lost after ten years in business

Still having a big problem finding a better network to sign a deal with them in Mexico.

In expected but still exciting news, the WWE Network has began adding “ECW Wrestling” to their video on demand library! For those curious, this ECW Wrestling is ECW on TNN which many have been asking for and waiting for. It is worth noting that for now these episodes are still being added to the ECW Hardcore TV section, but hopefully the company intends to make things less messy in the future.

List of the episodes currently on the Network: http://wwenetworkchronicle.com/2016/...e-wwe-network/

Originally Posted by Observer The new English language TV show called “AAA Lucha Libre Worldwide,” will be similar to New Japan World Pro Wrestling Returns on AXS. The show, which is being put together for distribution outside of Mexico, has announcers Chris Cruise and Hugo Savinovich doing taped commentary in studio on the AAA television show from Mexico. It’s a really tricky deal because the show can’t air in the U.S. because AAA signed exclusivity with Lucha Underground, but that deal doesn’t include other English speaking countries which is where the show will be marketed. There is also some question right now regarding the talent under contract with Lucha Underground and their ability to be on the show.

The profit margin couldn’t cover the dividend payout for the year of $36,334,408, so the company’s actual cash on its balance sheets decreased from $115,413,000 at the end of 2014 to $102,476,000 at the end of 2015.

Update regarding last week's fiscal report by the WWE. Opted to not lower the dividend in order to keep the investors happy which is how they ended up losing money in the end.

Originally Posted by Observer The company’s business at this point is built around rights fees and network revenues. Rights fees, based on current contracts, will continue to increase over the next few years. They are a fixed total not dependent upon how creative or interest levels are doing currently. Obviously when current contracts are up, at that point interest levels and ratings will be key factors in new negotiations, as will the big picture state of the television industry. Network revenues are also growing, although at a far slower pace than the company projected and Wall Street expected. After the annual figures were released on 2/11, even though the news was far more positive than negative, it was the decline in WWE Network subscribers that offset most of the positive news and stock dropped below $15 per share within a few days.

Profit-wise, still below pre-Network era levels and the next tv contract could be a big problem if ratings continue to struggle in the mean time.

Originally Posted by Observer Television ratings declined significantly, which has become a hotly debated topic between those who believe the ratings are down due to a less interesting product and those who believe all television has declined and WWE’s decline just mirrors the television industry, and that with Hulu and YouTube viewership that it offsets the ratings decline. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Raw hasn’t declined as much as other programming on the USA Network, but that’s because the network has declined significantly as compared with other networks. Raw’s year-to-year decline is greater than any of the major sports, some of which, like baseball, hockey and MMA, showed significant increases over the past year. Another negative on the Raw rating is the third hour decline, when historically the 10-11:05 p.m. hour had always been the highest rated. That can’t be blamed on people consuming it in other fashions, because the decline is of people who were watching the show and then tuned out as the show went on.

Biggest take-away is that both the Network and Youtube/social media has done nothing to help improve the ratings or viewership for RAW. If anything it might be leeching away too much which could really hurt the WWE with the next tv contract talks.

Originally Posted by Observer Super Luchas reported that Mysterio had only signed a one season deal, although we had been told it was a two season deal, and have gotten confirmation of that both with someone with the company and someone close to Mysterio. Unless there is a contract breach, he will be back for the next season of Lucha Underground. There are options in place in the deal where it can be extended to four seasons. Whether they’ll be able to afford him after season two, or they’ll even be around, and given his situation and what he would want to do at the time, will all play into whether it goes forward. Everyone on both sides are working with the idea he’ll be back for the next season. The notable thing is that the Lucha Underground deals in most cases prohibit the talent from appearing on television with a rival promotion until after the season airs, not until after the tapings end. Based on that, if Mysterio is back for the next season, the earliest he could go to WWE or TNA (not that he would) could be the summer of 2017.

Originally Posted by Observer Owner Takaaki Kidani said they are going to offer Kazuchika Okada a five-year contract, from April 2016 to April 2021, unheard of historically, because they want to build around him and make sure he doesn’t go to WWE. He also said the company has earmarked a $2 million marketing budget to make Okada a mainstream star. Kidani said that they are going to have to offer longer contracts to the top stars because they don’t want to turn into WWE’s minor league feeder system.

Prior to the WWE raid, 1-year deals were usually the standard of NJPW contracts with the assumption that talent would rarely just bolt for other companies.

Originally Posted by Observer Raquel (Gabi Castrovinci) and her injuries in one of her first matches made TMZ where she said she suffered a cracked tooth and had to get a root canal and a crown on her tooth and had a hairline fracture of her jaw working an independent show in Miami when her opponent gave her a beating. She claimed she was attacked during a match on an indie show because there was jealousy of her having gotten a “huge contract” with TNA. Melissa Anderson of Lucha Underground wrote about this, “Real pro wrestlers don’t go to TMZ when they get a boo boo.”

Originally Posted by Observer They had a tryout camp this past week. The most notable names were Tony Nese and ROH’s Cedric Alexander, who is not under contract. Most of the names, including those two, were brought in were people being tried out for the cruiserweight television series. There were also several guys who aren’t well known from indies, with the only other names we heard being Alex Hammerstone of Paragon Pro Wrestling and Northeast independent wrestlers Chris Payne and David MacIntosh. There were also a lot of women getting tryouts, the most notable name being Deonna Purrazzo, who of late has worked NXT, TNA and ROH Another interesting name was Roy Sims, only because he doesn’t look anything like someone I’d think WWE would be interested in, as he’s 6-foot-5 and 375 pounds, built like if Tank Abbott was six inches taller and at his most out of shape. Sims is from Hollister, CA, not far from here, and is a sumo who has competed in Japan. He was a 6-foot-5 300 pound high school defensive lineman who briefly played at Fresno State and some other colleges. He played some arena football, including a failed tryout with the San Jose Sabrecats. He then tried MMA and went 2-0 in amateur fights as a super heavyweight. He was working as a technology technician at San Benito High School when he started sumo a year ago, placing third in the U.S. Sumo open and then first at the U.S. Sumo Nationals in his first year in the sport

Some other sheet news includes:

• WWE recently updated their website to be more mobile friendly similar to most websites and their upgrade designs these days.
• WWE had some fun recently on their website with the idea of re-imagining certain wrestlers with different looks: http://www.wwe.com/gallery/ring-gear...s#fid-40003054
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Sami Zayn's name translated from Arabic and then back to English on Google Translate will end up with "El Generico" as the result. Only works on Google Translate though. Also another small tidbit is Zayn's logo is actually El Generico's mask. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCirc...ayns_name_from
• This week's episode of Lucha Underground managed to have a 20k increase in viewers compared to last week with 152k overall. In terms of ratings, it cracked the Top 150 shows at #140 for Wednesdays.

Some TPWW related news includes:

• Newest episode of TPWW TLP podcast was recently released: http://tablesladderspodcast.podbean....st-143-021716/