[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer The combination of being the day after a major pay-per-view that ended with curiosity, and the show-long Brock Lesnar cash-in tease led to Raw doing 2.52 million viewers last night, up seven percent from the week before, even though last week had no NBA playoff competition. It was the best the show has done since the start of the playoffs. Even with the push of the 24/7 title and the strong tease of a cash-in, the third hour still was down 14.2 percent from the first hour. That figure is much better than recent weeks, but still would have been considered a huge drop two years ago. The same week last year, which also went against the NBA playoffs, but wasn't coming the day after a PPV, did 2.66 million viewers, so Raw held up far better than any show has done in a long time based on year-over-year comparisons .. The three hours were: 8 p.m. 2.68 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.58 million viewers 10 p.m. 2.30 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer There was a WWE talent meeting earlier today [Sunday] headed by Stephanie McMahon. It was mostly the same rah-rah type speech they do from time-to-time. The only thing notable is that they directly addressed AEW as their competition. They were pushing the WWE brand hard, the same social media and YouTube stats they always talk about with the idea of having 1 billion followers (adding every form of social media for every performer related to the company), and then said that they are having to compete with video games, movies, other streaming services as well as now AEW. In giving this speech, at no time have they ever mentioned a competing wrestling company.

Originally Posted by Observer Squared Circle Sirens reports that WWE is scouting the promotion Gatoh Move in Thailand and Singapore Pro Wrestling in South East Asia

One person beign scouted is Riho who recently signed a 5-show deal with AEW.

Originally Posted by PWI AJ Styles was interviewed by Newsweek and noted during the conversation that his current WWE contract is the last pro wrestling contract he will ever sign. Styles commented, "I can tell you that this contract that I’ve signed is my last. This is the perfect place for me to be. It’s family-oriented, I have no problem taking my family to the shows. It’s a PG product, which Ienjoy. I’m in the best place I can be for my career." Styles also commented on potential competition for WWE, commenting, "As far as the indies and whatnot, I don’t think they should ever be competitive with the WWE. They should compete with themselves to make sure they get better everyday because there’s no competition, if you want me to be honest. WWE is globally huge. It’s unbelievable to know how big the WWE is. People don’t understand it. If you want to succeed, don’t compete. Be something different, be the alternative. There’s a lot of people that have a good chance, but competition is always a great thing. I hope any company does well so they can be that competition. Competition will always make a better product."

Originally Posted by PWI Impact Wrestling saw signing Jordynne Grace yesterday as a victory. The two sides officially came to terms yesterday for a multi-year deal. There was interest from both WWE and AEW, so Impact was really pleased that Grace, despite having strong interest elsewhere, made the decision to finally lock herself into a deal wtih them. There wasn't a clear answer as far as why Grace never signed the initial deal that she was supposed to sign last October. We are told that Grace provided Impact with data, including social media engagement, to showcase why she was worth more than the initial deal that was offered. One would think that in the end, she landed a better financial deal than she was probably originally offered. Her new contract will run through May 2021.

Originally Posted by PWI Q - Is it legal for WWE to add time to wrestlers contracts when they are injured? They are still part if the company and still get paid even if they don’t wrestle. They aren’t released from their contracts when they are injured. Sounds like immature pettiness. A - They get paid their downside and it’s part of the contract that they agreed to. If they didn’t agree, they wouldn’t sign the contract.

From PWI's weekly Q&A articles on how WWE gets away with freezing and adding time to contracts.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling While promoting the Super Showdown on Raw, Michael Cole stated they were “returning to Jeddah” for an international event. We were told that at least one other international department was instructed that they could identify the show as happening in Jeddah but would not be saying Saudi Arabia, although that could change as they get closer to the event.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Starrcast put out a statement confirming Ric Flair will not be in Las Vegas this week following his heart procedure on Monday. The Roast of Ric Flair has been postponed to a later date, which was scheduled to air on Fite TV as well on pay-per-view on at least one provider in Canada. We have confirmed that the panel with Jim Ross and Ricky Steamboat (which Flair was part of) is not going to take place Thursday night due to Flair’s absence. I was told that a replacement is going to be announced for that slot at Starrcast and Fite TV. Flair had also been scheduled for meet-and-greets with the Four Horseman.

Originally Posted by Observer SCWPro tweeted that they’ve been told Flair’s appearance at their debut show in East Moline, Illinois on May 31 is still on: “We've been in constant contact w/ representatives for @RicFlairNatrBoy & we're happy to announce that we've been told his appearance at our debut event at the Rust Belt on May 31st is STILL ON!”

Originally Posted by Observer Beth Phoenix, Bruno Sammartino, Thunderbolt Patterson, Sgt. Slaughter, Brian Shields and Daniel Cormier will be inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, which will be held on July 25-27.

Originally Posted by PWI The "Bash at the Beach" trademark by Cody Rhodes was given an initial refusal by The USPTO because likelihood of confusion with WWE's registered "The Bash" trademark. His trademark for "Dusty Rhodes" has also been given an initial refusal because of likelihood of confusion to the "Dustin Rhodes" trademark registered to Dustin Runnels. All his other trademarks - BattleBowl, Bunkhouse Stampede, The Prince of Wrestling, The American Nightmare, and The American Dream have been approved to publish for opposition at a later date. Meanwhile, WWE's trademark for "Garza Jr." has been given an initial refusal because, according to The USPTO, they are just trademarking a last name/surname which is not a rare name. They supplied the WWE.com article of Garza's signing as evidence in which WWE made mention of his uncle Hector Garza.

Originally Posted by Fightful The Usos, a Raw team, won a non-title match against the Smackdown tag team champions, who had previously beaten the Usos to win the Smackdown Tag Team Championships -- a title on a brand the Usos aren't on. Charlotte Flair's reign as Smackdown Women's Champion was the shortest of all time. She now holds the longest and shortest reigns, and three of the five shortest reigns. AJ Styles and Seth Rollins worked together 25 times over the last three years in WWE, but never had a singles match against one another in the company until Money in the Bank. Combined, the three women's championship matches lasted 16:10 combined, which was less than the WWE Universal Championship match's 19:51 time.

From Fightful's stats article on last Sunday's Money in the Bank event

Originally Posted by Fightful The honeymoon between IMPACT and Pursuit is over. According to Mike Johnson at PWInsider, the hope in IMPACT Wrestling is the company can find a new, better TV outlet in the fall. IMPACT is currently on the Pursuit channel, which is also owned by IMPACT's parent company, Anthem. The company has run into problems on the network, including this past Friday when Pursuit aired 24 minutes of commercials instead of the main event. IMPACT had to issue an apology for the technical snafu. Along with this past Friday's issue, Pursuit continues to list IMPACT as four 30-minute episodes instead of one two-hour episode. The channel has reportedly been "very slow in responding to IMPACT requests and dealing with reported issues."

Originally Posted by Fightful Carmella takes down her tweet about Mandy. At the Money In The Bank pay-per-view, there was a point during the women's Money In The Bank Ladder match when former SmackDown Live Women's Champion Carmella had her leg caught in between a ladder as she was attempting to lift it up and Mandy Rose came over and kicked the ladder into Carmella's leg. Mandy attempted to wrestle Carmella to the mat but Carmella shoved Rose off multiple times and told her to back off as she was hurt. The two competitors engaged in a social media feud after the pay-per-view and Rose expressed that the Money In The Bank contract was supposed to be her's which led to Carmella chiming in and eventually noting that Rose needs to go back to NXT and learn how to be safe in the ring. Carmella has since deleted that tweet.

Deleted tweet screenshot: https://www.fightful.com/sites/defau...es/xxiue18.jpg

Originally Posted by Fightful On tonight's episode of WWE SmackDown, Big E made his first appearance since tearing his meniscus on the Apr. 10 episode of SmackDown Live. Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston welcomed Big E back with a party to open SmackDown Live. Big E's appearance included smelling his comrades and still pining after Becky Lynch's mom. However, there was a sour note on the return as Xavier confirmed that Big E has yet to be cleared to compete. It is unknown when Big E will return to in-ring competition.

Originally Posted by Fightful Speaking at the JP Morgan Investors Conference, WWE Co-President George Barrios was asked about AEW being competition to WWE. "If you're in the business of fighting for people's time....sleep is competition. Whether it's Fortnite, the NBA, kung fu novels, we are fighting for people's time. Everyone and everything is a competitor. AEW has announced (the deal with Turner). Welcome to the game. We'll see how it goes."

TPWW Frontpage stuff:

• Watch: AEW Releases Full Hangman Page vs. PAC Match
• WWE Changing Up the Look of the Third Hour of Raw
• Rey Mysterio Injured, “Future of US Title” to Be Addressed on Raw
• Ric Flair Pulls Out of Celebrity Roast Because of Surgery
• Jordynne Grace Officially Signs With Impact Wrestling for “Years to Come”