[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Bayley's fists hugging Sasha's face:

Last night's Raw ratings had both good and bad news. The bad news is the final number, of 2.67 million viewers, which would be the lowest the show has done in the modern era except against the NFL or NBA playoffs. It was an eight percent drop from last week's show which was boosted by coming the day after the Money in the Bank PPV ... Ironically, the last time the third hour was the highest rated of the show was 52 weeks ago, on June 26, 2017. Before that, you'd have to go back to March 14, 2016. There is no television explanation for this. There was nothing that did big numbers on the networks -- and cable numbers weren't strong either. Raw was fifth on cable, trailing only news shows. The explanation is the show itself. What this means is there was lower than usual level of interest in the show, however, the show itself was good, in fact by current standards when it comes to keeping the audience, it was the best in a year. This caused the usual viewership tune-out not to happen. The lesson of the show was that, at least for this week, the idea of a nearly 30-minute main event was a huge ratings success. The three hours were: 8 p.m. 2.60 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.68 million viewers 10 p.m. 2.71 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer Just a few hours before it was supposed to happen, WWE announced that the Jeff Hardy vs. Shinsuke Nakamura United States Championship match that was scheduled to headline tonight's SmackDown has been pulled from the show. While offering few other details, WWE put out a video this afternoon noting that Nakamura suffered an injury last night and won't be able to compete today. Nakamura didn't work SmackDown's Monday night house show in Bakersfield, California, and Dave Meltzer has confirmed that Nakamura was bit in the leg by a police dog at the Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield yesterday. Whether or not Nakamura will be able to wrestle at WWE's house shows in Japan this weekend is uncertain at this point.

Originally Posted by PWI According to what we were told, a law enforcement dog was being brought around the building as part of a pre-show security check. The dog was brought past Nakamura. We are told the dog sniffed Nakamura and then, without provocation, proceeded to bite him on the leg. As a medical precaution, WWE pulled Nakamura from last night's live event, where he was slated to work a main event Fatal Four Way bout. The Bakersfield live event was headlined by Jeff Hardy defeating Samoa Joe, Rusev and Shelton Benjamin instead. WWE has not yet cleared Nakamura for action. We are told Nakamura is backstage at tonight's Smackdown Live taping in Ontario, CA but his leg is still very sore from the incident.

Originally Posted by Observer WWE officially announced what had been widely reported on for the last month: SmackDown will be moving to Fox in October of 2019, while Raw will remain on the USA Network. The company put out a press release today officially announcing the five-year agreement. SmackDown will air on Fridays starting on October 4, 2019 on the FOX network. It will remain a two-hour broadcast ... Meanwhile, WWE concurrently announced that Monday Night Raw will continue on the USA Network in what is also a five-year deal with NBC Universal. It will start in October 2019 ... These agreements increase the average annual value (AAV) of WWE’s U.S. distribution to 3.6 times that of the prior deal with NBCU.

Link: https://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/w...ackdown-260476

Originally Posted by PWI The official announcements of WWE's new television deals for Raw and Smackdown Live led to a big rise in the company's stock and it's still rising. After closing at $66.62, the stock continues to rise in after-hours trading and is currently trading at $77, which would be an all time record for the stock, the highest since WWE went public in 1999.

Originally Posted by Observer/PWI Indies Roundup: Kevin Harvey noted that Rise [Wrestling] was in trouble. He said the 6/29 show in South Gate, CA will go on as will the 7/7 and 7/8 shows. He said he doesn't want to cancel 10/19 in Berwyn, IL but ticket sales have been pulled. He said those who have tickets will be refunded if the show is canceled. Harvey said it's a real possibility that the 7/8 tapings in Naperville, IL could be their last show. New Japan has put up the legendary Stan Hansen vs. Big Van Vader match from the Tokyo Dome for free on New Japan World in honor of Vader. The 7/12 House of Hardcore show in Adelaide, Australia has been canceled. The rest of the tour is still happening. Bully Ray & Craven & ? vs. Spirit Squad was announced for a tables match on their show on 7/11 in Perth. The 7/19 Major League Wrestling BattleRiot event in New York City will air on BeIN Sports as a two hour special, MLW announced today. We are told the negotiations for the special closed earlier today just before the announcement was made. There had been an offer on the table to make the show a taped PPV event, but MLW owner Court Bauer felt that making the show a special on broadcast TV would be a stronger play towards getting attention for the brand and getting the product in front of fans. The special will air on 7/27. Here’s the updated lineup for the Battle Riot match: John Hennigan (Morrison), Pentagon Jr., ACH, Kevin Sullivan, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Teddy Hart, Rich Swann, Barrington Hughes, Jake Hager (Jack Swagger), Jimmy Yuta, Pierre Carl Ouellet, Lance Anoa’i, Swoggle (Hornswoggle), Konnan, Sami Callihan, Joey Ryan, Jason Cade, and Tom Lawlor. Anthem issued a press release today announcing the hire of Peter Einstein as the new Chief Operating Officer of Anthem Sports & Entertainment, which includes Impact Wrestling. We are told that the hiring does not mean any changes to the Impact management team, headed by Ed Nordholm, Don Callis and Scott D'Amore. Nick Gage vs. Meng is the second match to be revealed for Joey Janela’s Lost in New York in Queens on August 17, joining Matt Riddle vs. Pierre Carl Ouellet on the card.

NJPW: http://njpwworld.com/p/o_original_0075_61 , MLW: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...-27th.html?p=1 , Anthem: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...nment.html?p=1 , Janela: https://twitter.com/JANELABABY/statu...12155781050368

Originally Posted by PWI MLW announced the following: JOHN HENNIGAN VS. LOW KI SIGNED FOR MLW’s JULY 19TH NYC CARD; “FILTHY” TOM LAWLOR ENTERS BATTLE RIOT NEW YORK – Major League Wrestling’s biggest show ever is coming to New York City this summer and the card just got bigger. On July 19th in New York City Low Ki vs. John Hennigan (formally John Morrison) has been signed.

Originally Posted by PWI The Big Van Vader autobiography is still scheduled to be released later this year. It was originally slated to be released around Wrestlemania time, but Vader kept going back to add additional material to the book, which kept pushing it back. It will still be released with Jesse White’s involvement, but there is no timeline for its release as with Vader’s passing, the book is being updated once again.

More details: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...-card.html?p=1

Based on their appearances at the end of the WWE UK Championship Tournament Finale broadcast, it would appear the following talents will be part of the NXT UK roster going forward: Mark Andrews Travis Banks Tyler Bate Joe Coffey Mark Coffey Joseph Conners Noam Dar Eddie Dennis Jordan Devlin Pete Dunne Jack Gallagher Sam Gradwell Saxon Huxley Amir Jordan El Ligero Dave Mastiff Trent Seven Ashton Smith Tyson T-Bone Flash Morgan Webster Wild Boar Kenny Williams Wolfgang Isla Dawn Jinny Killer Kelly Charlie Morgan Nina Samuels Toni Storm

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Eric Arndt (formerly Enzo Amore and now going by ‘Real1’) was a guest on the Steve Austin podcast on Tuesday and went in-depth over his firing by World Wrestling Entertainment in January following allegations of sexual assault ... The firing occurred the day after the Raw 25th-anniversary episode in January. Enzo said he became aware of the allegations on that day when the accuser publicly tweeted about it. In the interview with Austin, Arndt did clarify that a friend of his contacted him in December and the friend’s girlfriend did receive an email from someone stating they were an investigator (but not identifying themselves as a police officer) and a woman had made a claim against a wrestler (not stating Arndt’s name). Arndt was made aware, contacted his lawyer, who in turn reached out the Phoenix Police Department and asked if Arndt was being charged and was told no charges had been laid. Arndt went about his business until the day of Raw 25 in Brooklyn and once the tweets came out, he immediately contacted his lawyer and then went to Mark Carrano, a WWE lawyer, and WWE official Adam Hopkins before meeting with Vince McMahon. Enzo was scheduled for several segments throughout the episode of Raw. He was supposed to be part of the APA poker game and a series of backstage segments were to be shot with Enzo losing his Cruiserweight title in the game to Ted DiBiase, leading to Nia Jax winning the title back herself and handing it back to Enzo. Enzo was also scheduled for a match with Goldust on the show that would culminate with The Dudley Boyz appearing and putting Enzo through a table. After meeting with Vince McMahon, Enzo was sent home with McMahon noting the timing of these allegations when they are promoting the women’s Royal Rumble match that weekend and the “Me Too” movement. As soon as Enzo left the meeting with McMahon, he was informed by Adam Hopkins that he had been suspended a statement had just been released by the company with Enzo responding, “I won’t forget about this” and was furious that the company didn’t have his back. Enzo proceeded to drive from Brooklyn to his sister’s house in Delaware while recording himself for the entire drive and is holding onto that audio until he thinks of what to do with it ... The way his storyline with Nia Jax was scheduled to go, was that Enzo would be caught with Alexa Bliss and revealed that he was using Jax as his “heater” to keep the Cruiserweight title while hooking up with Bliss. He confirmed in the interview that he was dressing by himself backstage and came off as having a dismissive attitude toward the culture of the wrestling locker room, with certain outdated traditions such as Wrestler’s Court not appealing to him and refusing to participate in them. Regarding a return to the WWE, he stated he can’t wrestle due to sciatica right now, adding that he broke his back for a company that didn’t have his back in the end. He has also blocked out all the numbers with a “203” area code in his phone, which is the Connecticut area code.

Link: https://www.podcastone.com/episode/Real1-fka-Enzo-Amore

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Due to an injury in the middle of the match, the WWE had to edit around Monday’s multi-person women’s match on the UK Championship Tournament show. It was originally a fatal four-way match with Toni Storm, Killer Kelly, Isla Dawn, and Jinny. During the match, Jinny is believed to have suffered a concussion and they removed her from the match and redid it as a three-way, which is what you saw on Monday’s broadcast. The lone slip up was that the announcer introduced the match at the beginning as a “fatal four-way match”, which was a minor issue but one that I figured someone would have caught in post-production. Jinny has since come out stating she wasn’t seriously hurt and thanked those that checked in on her.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The WWE is running local ads in the New York market to promote their July 7th house show at Madison Square Garden that state, “Ronda may be banned from Raw, but she is not banned from Madison Square Garden.”

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Rey Mysterio has not signed a new WWE deal as of Monday, according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio. It's believed that a deal will be finalized soon but Rey's involvement in the WWE 2K19 video game as the first pre-order bonus Superstar led to some speculation on his contract status. It was recently reported that the two sides were negotiating a three-year deal.

Originally Posted by Fightful WWE's Raw this week featured a main event that set the arena off, and Fightful.com was able to learn who produced all of the matches from the show. It should come as no surprise at this point that the main event of Monday's show was produced by Tyson Kidd, real name TJ Wilson. The match was an Intercontinental Championship rematch that saw Seth Rollins looking to regain his title against new champion Dolph Ziggler. The match received high marks by our own ratings system, as is often the case with Seth Rollins matches in general, but certainly seem to be the trend when Kidd is assigned to them. Tag team great Michael "PS" Hayes helped put together the opening match of the evening, which saw the Revival take down the "superteam" of Bobby Lashley and Roman Reigns. The barely existing match between Matt Hardy and Curtis Axel was assigned to D-Von Dudley, and Scott Armstrong was given producer duties for the Authors Of Pain's match. WCW veteran Fit Finlay and Sarah Stock split the women's matches, with Finlay getting Natalya vs. Alexa Bliss, and Stock taking care of the six-woman tag match. While there wasn't actually a Mojo Rawley vs. No Way Jose match, Dean Malenko was listed as the producer for the segment. To round things out, Jamie Noble was given the Braun Strowman and Kevin Owens vs. Constable Corbin and Finn Balor match.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc WWE has a new poll asking which is worse for Kevin Owens - 55% voted, "Being Braun Strowman's enemy because he threw Owens off a ladder." The rest went with, "Being Braun Strowman's friend because he flipped over Owens' car."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc As noted, Wednesday's "Something Else to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard" podcast on the WWE Network will feature a discussion on The Undertaker's "American Badass" and "Big Evil" days. Below is a preview for the show with Prichard and co-host Conrad Thompson. "In Taker's mind it was, if we make this change we can never go back," Prichard said of The Dead Man switching gimmicks.

Link: https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1011437393470111745

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Becky Lynch was a part of a Q&A session at the Ace Comic Con, facilitated by Lillian Garcia. Among a series of questions, Lynch was asked what is the first thing she would do if she became the CEO of WWE. After jokingly stating that she would "fire James Ellsworth," she stated that she would book a match against Finn Balor and Shinsuke Nakamura. She then stated that she would have a women's tag team championship division. Lynch was asked a follow-up question on whether she would have just one set of Women's Tag Team Champions, or if she would have them for both Raw and SmackDown Live. "So right now, numbers-wise, I don't think we have enough women to have one on each brand," said Lynch. "So, what I think would be pretty cool, is if they were traveling, and not just between Raw and SmackDown, but NXT too. And then you'd have a huge, huge range of women that you'd go against and so many possibilities. And I think that would get people excited to watch any of the brands, because you wouldn't know when people would be showing up [on] either Raw or SmackDown because it'd all be traveling." Garcia asked Becky if she pitched this idea to WWE already. "Yep. Been pitching it for a year," said Lynch. "Maybe two." Lynch stated that she knew that WWE had a women's tag team division before, but she would bring it back.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45lgJCakgSM


Some other sheet news includes:

• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, yesterday was the 42nd anniversary of the famous Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki match in Tokyo, Japan that went to a 15 Round draw.
• Developer Spike Chunsoft revealed the PS4 cover of Fire Pro Wrestling World features Kenny Omega, Kazuchika Okada, Tetsuya Naito, and Hiroshi Tanahashi. https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/sta...rc=twsrc%5Etfw

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Various: Hideo Itami Returning to NOAH, All PWG BOLA Participants
• WWE’s Twitter Follows a Young Buck
• Eli Drake Re-Signs With Impact Wrestling
• ESPN Releases Charlotte Flair “Body Issue” Photos
• Oney Lorcan Injured, Will Require Surgery