[Emperor Smeat]

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Originally Posted by PWI The following Harley Race footage will be today's "Hidden Gems" selection on WWE Network: * CWF 10/08/1974 – Harley Race & Bill Watts vs. The Brisco Brothers [Duration: 08:42] Harley Race teams with “Cowboy” Bill Watts to face the team of Jack and Gerald Brisco in this bout from Florida. * CWF 01/25/1978 – Harley Race vs. “Superstar” Billy Graham [Duration: 13:53] Harley Race and “Superstar” Billy Graham put their respective championships on the line as they face off at the Superbowl of Wrestling. * CWF 08/12/1978 – Harley Race vs. Jack Brisco for Heavyweight Title [Duration: 11:57] The World Heavyweight Championship is up for grabs as Harley Race defends the title against former champion Jack Brisco. * Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling 11/14/1980 – Ric Flair vs. Harley Race [Duration: 07:12] Witness film highlights of Ric Flair going to war with the legendary Harley Race in front of a rabid audience. * WWF 10/01/1987 – Superstars visit Napoleon’s tomb in Paris [Duration: 02:29] See exclusive outtakes of Andre the Giant, Harley Race and Frenchy Martin visiting Napoleon’s tomb in Paris.

Originally Posted by Fightful When Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff were named executive directors of Raw and SmackDown respectively, some were wondering why Triple H was not put in their position. There was a report floating around, which was quickly debunked, that Triple H turned down the role of executive director of SmackDown. On today's NXT media call, Triple H put the rumors to bed. "The way it's laid out, their scope of what they're doing is very specific to those shows. While I'm still at those shows, there are many weeks where, due to my schedule and other commitments, I can't be at every single Raw or SmackDown," said Triple H "The scope of the things that I do are way beyond that with live events and creative. In my role, creative encompasses a lot different things. It's not main roster creative, it's shirts and billboards and where everything else goes in the world. It's all the creative stuff where it's the things you don't see; they just sort of appear. And everything with talent. As our company continues to grow and our talent roster continues to grow, and talent development continues to grow and as we expand to our global localization overseas and everything else, there's only so many hours in a day. Even though the WWE and Vince are working very hard on creating an eighth day and extra hours so we can get more accomplished, there are only so many hours in a day. I already see the positive and the changes [under Heyman and Bischoff]. As this whole thing continues to grow, a lot of it comes down to organizational processes. To have somebody to spearhead the process is very helpful and smart. I'm thrilled it's those guys and I think they're gonna knock it out of the park. I'm excited to work with both of them. Heyman, I've worked with for a while. Bischoff, it's been a while, but this is the first time I've worked with him in this manner. So far, it's an exciting process. I already see positives from it. It's great."

Originally Posted by PWI On the latest edition of "Grilling JR" Jim Ross remembers Harley Race. JR mentioned that fundraising efforts in association with AEW/Starrcast to aid those affected by the tragedies in El Paso and Dayton.

Originally Posted by PWI Scottish star Joe Hendry, who was seen last year in Impact Wrestling, announced today he has officially signed with Ring of Honor

Originally Posted by PWI Several readers sent word that all four seasons of The El Rey Network's Lucha Underground series are now licensed and available to stream for free at TubiTV.com, an online streaming site. TubiTV has a Roku channel, so if you prefer to watch the series on your TV, you have that option as well.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE are in the process of trademarking Adam Cole. They were given an initial rejection on December 6th of last year, as they had to clarify whether Adam Cole identified a particular living individual. WWE responded on May 6th noting that "Adam Cole" does not identify a particular living individual. The USPTO quickly responded back with evidence from Adam Cole's Wikipedia page (which has his pre-WWE history) to show that it in fact identifies a real person, Austin Jenkins. They also provided the bio page for Cole from WWE.com for futher evidence to prove the name refers to a real person. They noted that WWE should provide written consent from Jenkins allowing WWE to trademark his wrestling name.

Probably the first time in recent years WWE wasn't allowed to trademark a name used on the indies that wasn't the wrestler's real name. Also pretty much revealed their real intentions of wanting to trademark the name so he couldn't use it after leaving the company.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter TripleMania, AAA’s biggest show of the year, was a mix of a variety of different stars and styles, and ended with a number of different headlines. In Mexico, the show was about a battle of legends, as Blue Demon Jr. beat Dr. Wagner Jr. in a mask vs. hair match before a near sellout of 18,000 fans, the largest pro wrestling crowd in the world since WrestleMania, on 8/3 at Arena Ciudad in Mexico City. But there were other headlines, including the debut of Cain Velasquez, which got great reviews, the return of L.A. Park and his family, plus the tease of a Fenix vs. Kenny Omega AAA heavyweight title match.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Pro Wrestling EVE, a women’s promotion that uses most of the top women stars in Europe and brings in Japanese (relations with Stardom, Pure-J, Ice Ribbon and has regularly used Meiko Satomura), and Americans (Su Yung, Mercedes Martinez and Jordynne Grace are semi-regulars) as well, has signed a contract agreeing to a Code of Conduct, with Equity U.K., a trade union for performers who are self-employed and work in the entertainment industry. One of the key aspects of this is insurance for competitors, because of the issues with injuries in the ring. Even though wrestling is essentially stunt performing, insurance companies who cover stunt performers were negative on covering pro wrestlers. Even at certain points companies actually said when asked that the difference is if somebody breaks a bone doing a stunt it is an accident but if they do so in wrestling, it’s done on purpose by the person they’re fighting. Which is ludicrous. Other arguments used were that stunt and circus performers were trained in their stunts while wrestlers were not. But Equity was able to convince its insurance company to change its mind and its classification of pro wrestlers and now they can get insurance that at least covers them in the event of an injury that takes place in the ring, or one that effects their ability to perform. There are many other issues that have come with this. There are questions regarding if talent should receive royalties for appearing on paid streaming services, which would happen in most entertainment forms but does not happen in pro wrestling. Those at EVE noted that this wasn’t an issue t them, but it was the last thing discussed and came to an agreement on that which was sufficient to the union. There were WWE U.K. talent that at first were publicly negative on the idea of a union, notably Pete Dunne and Mark Andrews, but after getting a negative reaction, they deleted their tweets. According to U.K. reporter Will Cooling, a rep from Equity UK was on David Starr’s podcast and said they had spoken at one point to Attack Wrestling, which is run by Dunne and Andrews, but Attack backed off and discussion ended. The next issue would be that of talent joining, because of fear that by being part of Equity UK, that would eliminate any chance of going to WWE. Other promoters have threatened not to book any talent that has joined.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter The first AEW TV show will be going head-to-head with the American League baseball wildcard game, which is usually good for six million or more viewers, so that’s very real competition. The question is now whether they can sustain this. Washington, DC, was chosen because their B/R stats showed Baltimore, Philadelphia and DC as some of their strongest markets. This sold out based on the history aspect if it being the first show on TNT, and really, the most important in some ways pro wrestling show of the year ... Week two will be in Boston at the Agannis Arena, and not the T.D. Garden where WWE would run, and it would be set up for 5,000, so it’s not a stretch to say it could be a quick sellout. Week three will be the real test as they are in Philadelphia, once again not going to the Wells Fargo Center but instead to the Licouras Center, which for a television set up would hold 7,000. The positive is that even if they don’t sell out, they’ll probably do reasonably well as far as the look for television, and no doubt these arenas are much cheaper to rent than the major buildings in the market. But there is also a stigma of establishing yourself as the secondary wrestling when the competition is running the top building where the major league acts play, and you’re not running those buildings ... Even in the late 80s JCP vs. WWE war when JCP was hot, the reality is that in the Northeast, everywhere but Baltimore (where JCP ran the big building in the market), JCP could draw well for big shows, but WWE always was considered major league by most because they played the big arena and JCP played the secondary arena ... The perception of legit selling out you can get running the Agannis Arena in Boston is if they sell out Boston quickly it’s a perception home run of always selling out for now ... To me, Philadelphia will answer a short-term question of sustainability, because it’s a good market, but it’s not that far from DC, and it’s no longer week one. It’s not the long-term, because the value of TNT won’t fully kick in until a few months in. When Nitro started, it was about four to five months in before we started seeing live attendance go up but they were also a company that had been on national TV for years, just not in as good a time slot ... Make no mistake about it, and nobody will say this publicly because they can’t, but a huge part of this story is the disenfranchised fan base which never had anyone to unify them. New Japan could have done it with their 2018 crew with the right backing. ROH had the chance. The talent was there but those groups were too conservative and in the case of New Japan, getting into a big-time fight with Vince while being based in Japan would be a tough decision. ROH could have done it, and Sinclair could have seen the signs with the 2018 success but they didn’t make the move, which left the key guys frustrated because after All In, and maybe even before that, they saw the opening. Even WWE could have nipped it in the bud, and they did try with big offers, but they way undershot and while Vince was adamant about not leaving in a crack in the bottom of the door open and being aggressive, and he did realize the Khan family’s wealth, he left the crack open and couldn’t pull the trigger on keeping Chris Jericho because he saw him as a 48 year old guy and with the exception of Kenny Omega, I don’t think he saw the others at the level that they saw themselves

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter While 10/2 will be the first live wrestling show, it will not be the first show on TNT. There is other programming yet to be announced to provide an introduction and build major shows After All Out, there will be one more PPV this year, with the plan with TV to do four PPV events in 2020 AEW will miss one week of television at least this year as the plan is to not run on Christmas night. New Year’s night, against the Bowl Games, is scheduled to be a live show head-to-head

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Pac, who is high on the list of those speculated on to be one of Jericho’s mystery partners against Young Bucks & Omega on the first TV show, suffered a leg injury in an 8/1 match for the TNT Extreme Promotion in Liverpool against Jodie Fleisch. At this point we don’t have any more info other than he finished the match, but that it looked bad visually although it appears to have been just a bad gash in the thigh Also heavily speculated on for Jericho’s surprise partners is LAX. Obviously WWE will be trying to stop that from happening. LAX starting in AAA in September would indicate they at least right now would not have a deal with WWE. Plus, if LAX comes in, the obvious program would be with the Young Bucks

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter While not announced, the NXT on FS 1 is tentatively set for 8-10 p.m. on Wednesday nights. For obvious reasons, that was the time slot expected but this was the first info we were given listing a time slot. Of course it wasn’t going to be finalized until TNT announced the time slot. Not sure when this starts or how Big East basketball on FS 1 affects this, or what this means for NXT on WWE Network, or what the start date will be. It’s not official until the announcement is made but this has been expected and as noted a few weeks ago, it’s far enough along that FOX told some affiliates already. The working idea is for a live two hour show with the feeling that a taped show will not work to head-off AEW. Where WWE feels they have the edge is they have an endless supply of main roster talent they can shuffle in whenever they want them. Whether this goes from Full Sail, which may get tough with shows weekly to keep crowd enthusiasm up int the same venue (although they’ll be using more main roster guys and the Full Sail crowd pops big for those every time out) or they tape it and tour with it is unknown. But we were told this was largely agreed to in late June. or early July. One would think WWE and FOX will heavily promote this on Smackdown each week and possibly on Raw, and FS 1 will see that they are in a war with TNT on Wednesdays which means FOX will be out there promoting it. The other psychology over who gets off stronger and how WWE reacts if they lose early or AEW reacts if they lose early will be very interesting. TNT is in more homes, is a much higher rated station, but WWE is the name brand to the masses and NXT would be promoted on the two most-watched shows In news that affects both WWE with its Hulu deal, and more UFC, Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+ will be offered in a combined streaming bundle deal for $12.95 per month. At the same time, cable companies are losing homes at a faster rate to where traditional cable and satellite homes are expected to fall to 86.5 million (the peak was 100.5 million) by the end of the year. But many of the key television cable channels are coming close to maintaining coverage through streaming services. Paul Levesque couldn’t talk about it but did somewhat acknowledge it cryptically saying about talk of counter programming another announced show on FS 1, that Wednesday has always been NXT’s night and they are doing what they see as best for the company and not counter programming. So that will be the public reaction even though all the talk internally has used the term counter programming and how Vince is certain with their resources they will draw more viewers even when pointed out TNT is a stronger station and in more homes.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter There has been talk regarding the latest WWE doctrine that its U.K. talent can no longer appear on streaming matches. This is one of those deals where the word goes out, but then its kind of forgotten about with the key member promotions. It’s more a situation where those groups, which would be ICW, Progress and wXw, and whoever else WWE has financial ties to, will all be moving to the WWE Network sooner than later so obviously they’ll be able to do programs and use the WWE U.K. guys. There has been a lot of talk of late with the decline of interest overall in the U.K. because WWE has signed most of the top talent, and the few that they haven’t are under contract to someone else outside the U.K. like New Japan or ROH, that it’s killed the indie scene and the shows overall have a much lower level of talent depth than a few years ago. But everyone knew that was inevitable and on the flip side that talent is able to make more money and work less dates to make it, and have guarantees and if hurt will still get a check, so there are two sides. But it does greatly hinder the talent development side of things that created so many of these awesome young workers because there were so many shows in short geographical distances and enough good talent around to teach them. But that’s a cycle we’ve seen as well. But the WWE itself has also declined greatly in the market which led to Sky dropping them and NXT U.K. being unable to get a television deal ... It should be noted that WWE talent believed they could still work On Demand, meaning on streaming services that weren’t airing the matches live. Because this doctrine would cut way back on their ability to get non-WWE bookings. There are promotions who have had opportunities to do live iPPVs or even Fite TV events that have had to turn those down because they use WWE talent

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter WWE has had recent interest in purchasing Fite TV to the point there are meetings upcoming regarding it. What that would mean isn’t clear, as could they just own it thinking it’s a good future business and have it run separately, or incorporate it into a higher tiered network. One thing for sure, it would make indies that work with Fite TV in jeopardy in some form, and the key is, it would for sure shut down AEW’s leading streaming partner. That said, AEW can get a new streaming partner within the Turner family and may end up that way anyway, and WWE talks to a lot of people and that doesn’t mean a deal is getting done

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter Paul Levesque on a press call mentioned plans for a 2019 Mae Young Classic. He just said with so much of a workload, you can’t get to everything and time kind of ran out to do it at the same point in the year. But he gave the impression an announcement was coming. He also noted that both McIntyre and Cesaro have talked with him about being interested in working on NXT U.K. shows

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter There have been complaints from some fans which has gotten to NXT management over the actions of a very few but local other fans based on chants and actions of those fans. The complaints have been about too many racist, sexist, homophobic and xenophobic actions from fans at the Florida shows. Because they run such small buildings, one fan being obnoxious can really hurt the show. It’s essentially something I’ve seen at other shows and have written about, which is the clash between new fans who see wrestling as an art form and artists, and old fans who think wrestling is a night out to yell and scream and being able to say what ever you want based on what was okay 15 or 20 years ago, when those kind of remarks were commonplace at every show and the product encouraged them. One fan wrote to the company and said they and a friend avoid going to Daytona shows for that reason. Another noted that crowd was chanting “kick him out” at one fan who was doing a Nazi salute to back Marcel Barthel, who broke character and basically said that was not acceptable. But his not being kicked out was a common complaint. Another fan complained that on 7/18 in Lakeland a fan yelled the N word at black referee D.A. Brewer and was not kicked out. There were complaints that on 8/2 in Melbourne some guys were yelling out profanity around children and were very disrespectful in making remarks at Tegan Nox. There was also complaints about fans chanting “build a wall” during an Humberto Carrillo match in Daytona in May. Daniel Vidot, a rookie wrestler, also complained about racial slurs by fans saying there is no humor in any type of racial stereotyping or immature displays of racial gesturing and said that they should kick fans out of venues when they try to disrupt shows with those kind of remarks.

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