[Emperor Smeat]

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Originally Posted by Observer This week's episode of WWE Backstage drew the show's second-best viewership since it premiered in its regular time slot. Backstage averaged 169,000 viewers on FS1 last night, which was up 74 percent from the 97,000 viewers it did last week. The rating in the 18-49 demo was a 0.06, up from last week's 0.05. This week's Backstage began at 11:15 p.m. Eastern time and had a strong lead-in. The second and final day of this year's Westminster Dog Show averaged 1.089 million viewers on FS1 and did a 0.17 rating in 18-49.

Originally Posted by Observer Teddy Hart, former MLW roster member, frequent indie wrestler, and New Hart Foundation member, was arrested Tuesday in Richmond, Virginia, on drug related charges. The 40-year-old born Edward Annis was charged with possession of a Schedule III narcotic (a Class 1 misdemeanor) and possession with intent to sell or distribute. According to PW Insider, Hart was incarcerated at the Richmond County Jail after being booked at midnight. It's unknown if he has been released on bail, but he does have an April 23rd court date. Schedule III drugs include codeine, anabolic steroids, hydrocodone, and others in that family. Hart faces up to a year in jail and up to a $2500 fine for the misdemeanor while the possession with intent charge also carries jail time of between 1-10 years in prison or up to a year in jail with a fine to not exceed $2500.

Originally Posted by Observer Ring of Honor is replacing their Women's title with a new championship. Following the departure of champion Kelly Klein at the end of last year, ROH has revealed how they're handling their Women's title situation. A tournament to crown a new champion will begin at Quest for Gold in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Friday, April 24. The show is taking place at the 2300 Arena and will feature eight first-round matches in the tournament. The winner of the tournament will receive the ROH Women's World Championship, with that title replacing the Women of Honor World Championship.

Originally Posted by PWI Paul Levesque met with reporters on a conference call this morning in advance of Sunday's Takeover Portland event ... The first question came from Jason Powell. He asked about why NXT isn’t doing as well as AEW in the key demos on Wednesday nights. He said he think it’s all about the long game. What they have to do is get to the people in the younger demos. He said when you are promoted and viewed in the younger demos, those are the people that you will attract. He said that the NXT numbers are similar to a basic USA number. The long game is building up the brand. He said that they have proven the product in a hardcore, wrestling action sense. Now they need to start add in different things, entertainment wise. They have established that it’s great wrestling. Now they can work on other aspects. He said he is happy with the show and its trajectory and now they have to go in the direction they wanted to go ... Why wasn’t there a Halftime Heat this year? Did it sneak up on you? He said they were aware of when the Super Bowl was. He said FOX is their partner now and you don’t do that. Last year the timing was right. This year it wasn’t. He said he was glad they didn’t. He was at the Halftime Show live and it was spectacular. It was mind boggling how they did it. Has Shayna Baszler officially moved to Raw? That will play out. He said that Becky’s rise has been insane but you still need great opponents. He hopes it turns into something massive for both of them. Right now, he looks at it like sports teams making deals. He said right now he sees her as an NXT talent until they make a deal for her to go somewhere else ... On the potential of taking NXT TV on the road, HHH said Full Sail is one of the most valuable partners they have in WWE. He sees it as more of a family relationship more than a business relationship. He said he couldn’t even comment on whether they have a contractual relationship. Their partnership doesn’t just train talent but producers and directors doing Wrestlemania now who cut their teeth in Florida. They have camera guys who are doing that now who started in Full Sail. The amount of stuff that they do that we see and don’t see – and the people who are inside the gears of the machine are from inside in Full Sail. They aren’t just renting a facility every Wednesday. Full Sail is family and part of that partnership. They will always do what’s best for business if there’s an opportunity. He noted that there’s a week coming up where they can’t run Full Sail that week because Full Sail had a prior commitment so NXT will be on the road that week. He reiterated each side is super committed and will help each other. On the Matt Riddle-Brock Lesnar story, Vince McMahon has never issued his disapproval of what was said by Riddle. There was a conversation between Riddle and Lesnar and that’s between them. They are grown adults and whatever they decided amongst themselves is what it is. Sometimes he reads things and wonders if it’s a shoot or a work but he’s entertained by it. He said that it is what it is. Riddle is an incredibly talented performer. He has his own viewpoints and that’s his own thing. He said he thinks Brock probably thinks don’t write checks you can’t cash and he thinks Riddle, in his mind, is writing checks he can cash.

Originally Posted by PWI ESPN featured a piece on WWE's media day yesterday in Los Angeles to promote Wrestlemania 37. In the piece, it was noted that Roman Reigns pushed the idea of himself vs. The Rock at Wrestlemania in 2021, commenting, ""Hey, DJ, check it out. Not bad, right? I mean, the weather is good. Everyone is always talking about a dream match, me and him. First of all, we're family, so it's all love. If there was gonna be an event for him to compete in, to perform in, a venue to hold that mass scale of attention he's gonna bring? It's right here in your backyard. You ain't gotta go far."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling While appearing on the Swerve City Podcast with Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, Teasy and AEW’s Big Swole, Breeze opened up about his days in WWE’s developmental brand. He talked about how he was also cutting it close when it came to being let go from the company and later revealed that he and former WWE star Big Cass were supposed to be fired from WWE at the conclusion of ESPN’s E:60 documentary about NXT that released in 2015. Breeze accredited him and Cass not being fired to both men coming up with creative ideas for their respective characters. “I get brought into a room, and it was me, Corey Graves, Xavier Woods, Colin Cassady [Big Cass] and somebody else… Adam Rose, and we’re told that we’re doing an ESPN thing. We’re doing an E:60, and so of course we’re all like, ‘Awesome. This is great, this is really cool.’ So they follow us around, they do some interviews, they do all this other stuff. Little did I know, I find this out after. After Tyler Breeze comes into existence, and I end up being on NXT and it took like a year or whatever it was… after I came into existence and Cassady, the same thing. Enzo and Cass went together and they became a thing. Hunter’s in front doing the post-NXT chat and he’s talking to everybody, and he goes, ‘Alright, just so you know, on this E:60, there was supposed to be guys that made it and guys that did not make it.’ Me and Colin Cassady were supposed to be the guys that did not make it and got fired at the end of this thing. We had no idea. We thought it was like, ‘Hey, these are the guys we want to showcase.’ Not the case whatsoever. We were supposed to be fired. Hunter’s telling everybody that we were supposed to be fired and now because we came up with stuff, our job is saved. Six months before that, I’m about to get fired again so, we do the E:60 thing. I guess they’re supposed to fire me but they can’t fire me until the episodes come up.”

Not surprised WWE would do something as stupid as have a documentary made about them and actually plan to fire people in order to fit the film's narrative.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling All Elite Wrestling Co-Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes appeared on Wrestling Observer Radio ... While talking about storylines, Rhodes said that he specifically likes to have things planned out six months in advance. There are things that come up that alter certain people’s timing but with him, Chris Jericho and those alike, things are mapped out months in advance. “I’d say not a full year but maybe six months. Not everybody likes to talk about six months from now. It’s not the conversation that everyone wants to talk about now and this week, but I think one of the keys to what we do is gonna be having an advanced plan and to be honest, some of the stuff we do, have kind of a thought process [of] one year — ‘What does this look like?’ For example, Double Or Nothing. Not this year but what will Double Or Nothing look like next year. I think we’ve gotta stay to that and we haven’t had any signs that we won’t be able to accomplish that. With a weekly show, we’ve kept it at six months at minimum for certain stuff. There’s certain guys that flow a little bit more improvisationally, and move like maybe every — they’ve got four weeks mapped out. Guys like Jericho and myself I guess, who I got it mapped out pretty far in advance. That’s a part of what I was telling you. Again, real inside baseball here but, this is the Observer but, I like to have everything well mapped out for me. It just gives me something to work for, and something to flow off of and it’s wrestling. Stuff can change, at any minute, at any second. I’m used to that. I’m used to change. It’s nice to have that structure. That’s a big thing. AEW is the renegade wild company but, it’s amazing how much real structure exists here and I love the fact that that’s the way it is.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Charly Caruso posted on her Instagram story that she’s going to be working on an official XFL show.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling On the most recent edition of Eric Bischoff’s 83 Weeks podcast, he talked about the creative control that Paul Heyman really has in WWE and explained that no one truly has creative control and people on the outside have a misconception that Heyman and/or Bruce Prichard are running things. “There’s one guy who has creative control. It’s not Paul Heyman. I hate to break your bubble, and I love Paul by the way. Conrad, you and I talked about Paul a little bit when I visited you last week and I shared with you how highly I regard Paul’s creative abilities and things like that so this is not meant to be any kind of half-assed attempt to take a shot or anything like that, but Paul Heyman doesn’t have creative control, and anybody that thinks he does is kidding themselves. I know Paul doesn’t, and neither does anybody else. One guy has creative control, and we all know who that is. So when I said, while I was there, I didn’t have creative control, I was being honest. I didn’t, because one man did. Paul Heyman doesn’t, Eric Bischoff didn’t. Nobody who follows in either my footsteps including Bruce Prichard — you know how much I love Bruce… or Paul Heyman, have creative control.”

Originally Posted by Fightful Kurt Angle is very impressed by the NXT product but still feels that it can't be said NXT is a better product than Raw or SmackDown. Speaking to Sportskeeda, the 2017 WWE Hall of Famer says he is very impressed by what his former rival, Triple H, has put together but to him, it is still the training ground for one of WWE's more traditional television shows. “I think NXT is a great brand. I think Triple H has done an incredible job with that. But you know what? It is still the 'training ground' for RAW and SmackDown,” Angle said. “These guys might have a little more leeway than the guys on RAW and SmackDown. They get more time in their matches than the guys on RAW and SmackDown. If you watch any NXT TakeOver, every match is 30 minutes. Guys and girls on RAW and SmackDown, they don't get that kind of time so I wouldn't say they are the better product, I would say they have more freedom on what they want to do. "But when you get up to the big show, you've got to make the time cues and you've got to listen to your boss, you have to do things specifically and I don't think that NXT has to do that. That's probably the reason why a lot of the guys want to stay there and I don't blame them for that - but would I say it's a better product? No, not by any means but I would say that they are doing an excellent job and Triple H has done an unbelievable job of making that an entity. Basically a product of its own. It could survive on its own. So it has become huge and there are a lot of fans that follow it.”

Originally Posted by Observer TJPW announced that Yuka Sakazaki will miss their March 1 card at KFC Hall due to scheduling reasons. AEW Revolution takes place a day prior

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