TPWW's Official Dirty Sheets News Thread

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Jindermania Runnin' Wild on the WWE:

Originally Posted by Observer The Cleveland Cavaliers beating the Boston Celtics last night ended those playoffs at 4-1 and ended any shot at WWE going head-to-head on Monday with the NBA. Next week's Cavaliers vs. Warriors games are scheduled for Thursday and Sunday, and then the following two games are Wednesday and Friday, so Raw and Smackdown are clear of the NBA the next two weeks. On 6/12, if a game five is needed and there's a good chance of that, it will go head-to-head with a Raw featuring Brock Lesnar. Raw will probably take a huge hit that night. Raw will go against the Stanley Cup finals (Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Rusev & Lana's favorite Nashville Predators) the next two Mondays, but the NHL doesn't hurt Raw nearly as much as the NBA. If's Raw's ratings don't move up 250,000 viewers this week, that would be a very bad sign.

WWE got very lucky for the next 2 weeks with no NBA competition and only need to worry if the Finals goes to a Game 5 since that is on a Monday. Smackdown only has to deal with Game 4 based on NBA Finals schedule.

Originally Posted by Observer The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office has dropped all charges against Sean Waltman in the airport arrest last month. Waltman was told that the lab tested all the pills and found no controlled substances after all. They dropped marijuana charges saying the amount was legal within the state.

Originally Posted by Observer In a video, Brie Bella has said she wants to come out of retirement and wrestle for WWE at some point.

Video of the announcement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZVnBpPN6CA

Originally Posted by Observer Asuka is replacing Mickie James on the WWE Japan shows on 6/30 and 7/1 at Sumo Hall in Tokyo,. Akira Tozawa and Hideo Itami will also be on the shows but Shinsuke Nakamura won't be, since they are Raw branded events. Even though Itami turned, he was listed on the babyface side for this tour.

Originally Posted by Observer After every round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, when the Pittsburgh Penguins have won their series, Matt Hardy, in his character comes on Mark Madden's radio show in Pittsburgh and deletes the losing team. Jeff Hardy was on the show today and sang the Obsolete song.

Originally Posted by Observer Impact is only taking a skeleton crew to its television tapings in Mumbai, India. Much of the regular roster won't be on television for the next four weeks. The key players in the PPV will be brought to India for four weeks of tapings which was start airing on Thursday.

Originally Posted by Observer WWE has decided to cancel the NXT house show that was scheduled to take place at the Manchester Arena on June 6th. The company announced the news today, noting that the decision was made out of respect to the victims of the awful terrorist attack that happened at the venue on Monday. NXT wrestlers will still be in Manchester on June 6th to visit people who were affected by the bombing and WWE is making a donation to the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund. Those who purchased tickets to the event are being offered a full refund and can receive a free ticket to the NXT show in Leeds on June 7th. The Manchester show was part of NXT's tour of the UK. The rest of the tour will go on as scheduled, including three dates at the Download Festival in Derby, England from June 9th to the 11th.

Originally Posted by PWI This Monday, immediately following RAW will be the debut of the Table for 3 episode featuring Eric Bischoff, Jim Cornette and Michael Hayes on WWE Network. The Network schedule has Renee Young, David Otunga and Pete Rosenberg listed as the Extreme Rules Kickoff Show Panel. Also, there will be a RAW Talk episode following the Extreme Rules PPV.

Originally Posted by PWI The 5/25 edition of Impact on Pop brought in 305,000 viewers, up from last weeks 272,000 viewers.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Former TNA Television Champion Gunner tweeted this week that he almost "hung it up" but that it's now "time to TakeOver." We first exclusively reported last month that Gunner was set to take the WWE physical soon, and if he passed, he would start with NXT. Gunner has been wrestling on the independent circuit since leaving Impact Wrestling in June of 2015. Below is Gunner's tweet: Hard work pays off. I almost hung it up. I'm glad I didn't. World.....here I come. Time to TakeOver! — Gunner (@GUNNER_ChadLail) May 26, 2017

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Baron Corbin got into a Twitter spat with CZW wrestler Geoffrey Bravo. It started when Bravo ripped Corbin for his appearance, you can see the full exchange below: I don't get Baron Corbin's sex appeal that women love.... Y'all likevthe balding, kinda in shape, lost look in the eyes look? Lmao — Geoffrey Bravo (@GeoffBravo5_aka) May 25, 2017 @GeoffBravo5_aka I don't get how you call your self a pro wrestler. Wrestling for chips and maybe 5 bucks just makes you a pretend wrestler. Big difference — Baron Corbin (@BaronCorbinWWE) May 26, 2017 @BaronCorbinWWE I'm apparently enough of a somebody to elicit a response.... and I didn't even tag you. Have a great day, brother! — Geoffrey Bravo (@GeoffBravo5_aka) May 26, 2017

“He’s got a great look, a great body. Oh dude, [the ‘Maharaja’ nickname] has cool factor written all over it. Plus, if you play that with arrogance, it works for you. But, dude, down the road, I think that it spells money. I think the kid [has] got a great look. Like [Helms] said, he’s got the great facials. And [Helms] know[s], dude, you’ve got to bring a few things to the table, whether it’s appearance or size, looks, handsome, ugly, are you a flat-out bad ass worker, just unbelievable talker? This kid has bits and pieces of the things [one needs to be successful]. And all of these things can be graded on a scale of one to 10 on what you’re bringing to the table. But, at first, one of the big things you’ve got to bring, dude, for Vince to get in that big spot, size helps and it just does.”

From the recent episode of The Steve Austin podcast show where Austin gave his thoughts on Jinder being WWE champion. http://uproxx.com/prowrestling/stone...ahal-champion/

Hart: They approached me about doing a voice as a wrestler, but not Bret Hart. It was the Mad Russian or something. I said, “I don’t want to be the Mad Russian, I want to be Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart!” We went back and forth for a while and they eventually said, very politely, “This is the way it’s written, take it or leave it.” I agreed, and flew down to FOX Studios. They had blocked off this huge chunk of time for my three lines, and were saying things like, “We need you more mad,” “Okay, not quite that mad!” I did my lines about 100 times in two minutes! I went outside to wait for my limo that had gone to get gas, and I signed autographs and took pictures for 45 minutes. The guy that was in charge of my episode came up to me and said, “I had no idea you were this big of a star! If we haven’t already started the artwork, we’re going to draw you in as yourself.” That’s why the voice doesn’t really sound like me, because I thought I was playing a crazy Russian

Wacky Bret Hart story from back in the day regarding his appearance on the Simpsons.


Some other sheet news includes:

• ESPN had a recent article about Lucha Underground and building their new Netflix audience. http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/1...tflix-audience
• ROH announces tickets for their upcoming UK War of Worlds Tour will go on sale on May 30th. http://www.pwinsider.com/article/109...-week.html?p=1
• Recent episode of the Edge & Christian podcast show had Mick Foley and HBK as the guests. https://art19.com/shows/ecs-pod-of-awesomeness
• AV Club had a recent interview with Jim Ross talking about a dream match he'd like to call with WWE's current roster. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...her-wwe-match/
• Miami Herald had a recent interview with Bobby Roode talking about being NXT Champion, NXT in general, and his match against Itami at Takeover Chicago. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-nxt-champion/
• PressBox had an interview with Bruce Prichard talking about Impact Wrestling, Brother Love, and origins of the Jeff Jarrett's WWE gimmick. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...evious-owners/
• WWE currently holding a promotion on their online WWEshop involving a "Spend $30+, Get $5 Back." Discount code is WWEWINC5.
• FloSlam service was recently given a price hike from $20 per month to now $30 per month for subscriptions. https://twitter.com/brandonthurston/...26089197469700

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Scott Norton Appreciation Day ..... Nevermind:

Originally Posted by Observer [Noam]Dar will be wrestling for ICW on July 29th at Shug's Hoose Party 4 night one. He'll team with Sha Samuels against Grado & Joe Coffey.

Current rumor going around the net involves the WWE signing a deal with ICW where ICW joins Evolve as a "feeder" system for the WWE but for British wrestlers. Also rumored to include terms allowing the WWE to buy ICW.

Originally Posted by Observer The A Block finals of the Best of the Super Juniors will take place overnight in Osaka. The show airs live on New Japan World. Will Ospreay, Dragon Lee, Hiromu Takahashi, Ricochet, and Taichi all have eight points and are still alive in the tournament. Marty Scurll, Taka Michinoku, and Jushin Thunder Liger are out of contention.

Originally Posted by Observer The names who are in India for the Impact tapings for the next month are Bobby Lashley, Alberto El Patron, Low Ki, Mahabali Shera, Chris Adonis, Trevor Lee, Braxton Sutter, Allie, Moose, Rosemary, Laurel Van Ness, Swoggle, James Storm, Ethan Carter III, Eli Drake, Sienna, Eddie Edwards (back from his knee injury), Davey Richards, Rockstar Spud, Caleb Konley (who is Suicide) and KM, plus non-wrestlers Josh Matthews, Jeremy Borash and Bruce Prichard. The tapings are Tuesday and Wednesday with four shows taped, the first of which will air on Thursday.

In terms of spoilers,

SPOILER: show

Sonjay Dutt is the new X Division champion and as Impact's way of catering to the Indian market

Originally Posted by Observer DSport, a new TV channel in India, has acquired broadcast rights to ROH, making the first TV deal they've ever had in that country.

Originally Posted by PWI ROH champion Christopher Daniels will defend against Cody Rhodes in the main event of the 6/23 Ring of Honor "Best in the World" 2017 PPV from Lowell, MA, it was announced this evening.

Originally Posted by PWI Several weeks ago, PWInsider.com reported that John Cena was being locally advertised for the 7/4 Smackdown Live taping in Phoenix, Arizona. This evening, Cena seemed to confirm that date, writing the following via Twitter: Bittersweet day today as I begin another night in Atlanta. Such a funny movie but #SDLive @WWE is so close! 7/4 can't get here fast enough! — John Cena (@JohnCena) May 30, 2017

Originally Posted by PWI WWE NXT star Tommaso Ciampa is in Birmingham, Alabama this week to undergo ACL surgery, PWInsider.com has confirmed. There is no word yet on the severity of the injury or how long Ciampa will be out of action as of this writing.

Observer previously reported Ciampa is now dealing with a worse ankle injury due to the ladder match at Takeover Chicago.

Originally Posted by PWI As I discussed last night in my Elite audio update, it appeared that 205 Star Lince Dorado had suffered a leg injury last night while wrestling Drew Gulak for a match taped for this weekend's edition of WWE Main Event. While it appeared Dorado may have gotten hurt during the bout, PWInsider.com confirmed with multiple sources last night and today that Dorado is OK and was not injured. He is backstage at the Alanta Smackdown/205 Live taping today.

Originally Posted by PWI HEY!!! I'M EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE THAT PRESALE FOR MY BOOK #FOODFIGHT BEGINS TOMORROW!!!#AUSTINARIESBOOKCOM #RAW pic.twitter.com/hIK76tbr4b — Austin Healy Aries (@AustinAries) May 29, 2017 It was announced this evening that former ROH and TNA champion and current WWE 205 Live star Austin Aries will release his first book Food Fight: My Plant-Based Journey from Bingo Halls to The Big Time on 6/9 through Grey Book Publishing.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc It looks like WWE is planning some sort of "Ask Me Anything" show for the WWE Network, playing off the popular Reddit "AMA" chats with celebrities and other interesting people. They tweeted the following today, asking fans to submit questions for RAW Tag Team Champion Jeff Hardy: Have a question for @JEFFHARDYBRAND? Tweet using #JeffHardyAMA, and your question might be answered on a future @WWENetwork show! — WWE (@WWE) May 30, 2017

Originally Posted by WrestleInc WWE cut out the entire "This Is Your Life" sketch on their YouTube channel from last night's RAW before Bayley hit the ring, as seen in the video above. The widely panned segment featured Alexa Bliss interviewing people portraying Bayley's 4th grade teacher, childhood best friend Tracy Avalina and ex-boyfriend Phil Johnson. The segment ended with Tracy and Phil kissing before Bayley hit the ring.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Corey Graves and Goldust are filming a special episode of Graves' "Superstar Ink" at Luke Gallows' Painted Gypsy Tattoo shop in Georgia today. Goldust and Gallows tweeted the following: Pumped to shoot #SuperstarInk at Painted Gypsy Tattoo today! Catch it soon to https://t.co/m1X9mIPtGp @Goldust @WWEGraves #2Sweet — Luke Gallows (@LukeGallowsWWE) May 30, 2017 Coming Soon: #SuperstarInk, starring yours truly. (Guest appearance by @wwegraves)@wwe @LukeGallowsWWE @paintedgypstatt #TooSweet ?? — Dustin Rhodes (@Goldust) May 30, 2017

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Mattel will be releasing the debut look of Randy Orton, Daniel Bryan or The Miz as an Elite Series action figure in the near future. WWE's website has a new poll asking fans which debut look should be immortalized as a figure - Bryan's 2010 look, Orton's 2002 look or Miz's 2006 look. Results will be revealed when the figure is announced.

Some other sheet news includes:

• RAW ratings and viewership delayed till tomorrow due to Monday being a holiday. Smackdown's numbers also getting delayed till Thursday.
• ESPN had a recent interview with Jinder Mahal talking about his recent success in the WWE. http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/1...king-got-there
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, last Saturday was the 21st anniversary of Scott Hall's debut in WCW Nitro.
• WrestlingDVDNetwork recently revealed the full content list for Kurt Angle's upcoming DVD set called "Kurt Angle - The Essentials Collection." http://www.wrestlingdvdnetwork.com/f...ion-dvd/136304
• According to the Observer, Rusev is currently in the same position Summer Rae is in regards to his return being delayed due to Creative having no ideas for him and the focus being on Jinder instead for the WWE title scene.
• Also according to the Observer, Jeff Hardy still has 2 strikes for the Wellness Policy and can't get rid of a strike yet due to the terms needed. https://twitter.com/davemeltzerwon/s...95807682514944
• NDTV Gadgets 360 had a recent interview with New Day's Big E and Kofi Kingston. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...we-gives-them/

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Taguchi channeling his inner Nakamura:

Originally Posted by Observer The lack of NBA playoffs did not prove to be much of a benefit for Raw's ratings on Monday night as the show did 2.61 million viewers, identical to the previous week when going against the playoffs. While Memorial Day and the NHL playoffs did hurt the number, anything below 2.85 million should have been considered a disappointment. Still, because the news stations weren't broadcasting key programming and the NHL was on NBC rather than cable, Raw was the most-watched show on cable, a spot it hasn't had in a long time. The Stanley Cup finals did 4.85 million viewers. Memorial Day traditionally hurts the rating by only 40,000 to 50,000 viewers, so it's a factor, but not nearly a factor to where it ties a record low. In theory, next week should be up the day after a Raw PPV, although the split crew PPVs have not been a boon to next-day ratings as it used to be. The June 12th Raw, unless the return of Brock Lesnar is gigantic, should be the lowest rated Raw of the modern era outside of football season unless the NBA playoffs are a four-game sweep, since it goes on against game five. The other key is Memorial Day traditionally means viewers come in later, so the second hour is always bigger than the first, but this show's second hour actually dropped. The three hours were: 8 p.m. 2.69 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.68 million viewers 10 p.m. 2.47 million viewers

Some news and notes regarding this week's ratings. RAW was #2 for the 18-34 demo with a show called "Street Outlaws" taking the top spot. WWE wasted the first of 2 weeks with no direct NBA competition since Observer was predicting at least an extra 250k more viewers even with the holiday to be considered as a good sign.

Originally Posted by Observer Fightful's Brandon Howard posted a clip of WWE Chief Financial Officer George Barrios seemingly saying on May 22nd that WWE has already announced a deal with ICW and PROGRESS to show their events on the WWE Network. No announcement about that has been made, but the deals have been reported on for months. Dave Meltzer tweeted yesterday that it was up to Vince McMahon if shows from PROGRESS would come to the Network.

Link to the clip: https://twitter.com/BrandonThurston/...02626716237824

Originally Posted by Observer The last night of A Block action in the Best of the Super Juniors came down to Will Ospreay facing Hiromu Takahashi in the main event to decide who would advance to the finals. Ospreay won and will be going to the finals for the second straight year after previously winning the 2016 tournament. The B Block winner will be decided at a show in Aichi overnight. Everyone in that block is at six points, so the winner will be decided by tiebreakers. The finals will take place on June 3rd. In his last-ever Best of the Super Juniors match, Jushin Thunder Liger defeated Taichi to earn his only points in this year's tournament. Liger previously announced that this year would be the last time he would be entering the BOSJ. He cut a promo after his win, saying that the junior heavyweight scene in next year's tournament will be even better despite his absence.

Originally Posted by Observer Lucha Underground returns on the El Rey Network tonight with its season three mid-season premiere. Johnny Mundo vs. The Mack in an "All Night Long" match for Mundo's title will air on the episode.

Originally Posted by PWI At the most recent investors conference call, WWE management was asked about the status of negotiations towards a new television rights deal as their current contract with NBC Universal expires in 2019. Smartly, they declined to make a statement. I say smartly because in the period leading up to the announcement of the last contract back in 2014, Vince McMahon famously guaranteed that the company would double the amount of money that they were getting from the terms that they were currently working under. Of course, that didn’t happen and the WWE stock took a large hit when the new deal was announced since part of the run up that the stock had was attributed to the promised jump in revenue rights fees ... Even under the best of circumstances, the negotiations with NBC Universal would be a battle. Under much better circumstances in 2014, WWE couldn’t come close to doubling their rights fees. The landscape in the cable industry is, to be honest, a minefield. Cable networks are being hit hard from a number directions. Obviously, cord cutting has become a major problem for the industry. Even when they keep customers via streaming, they don’t generate the revenue that they did from having that content viewed by cable subscribers ... If that were the only issue, WWE would probably be still standing on solid footing, but there are a few other items that could work against them as negotiations with NBC Universal near. For one thing, back in 2014, USA Network was still creating new hit shows and being the top rated Basic Cable Network was very important to them ... Since then, they haven’t been creating the hits that they used to. They moved Smackdown to Tuesdays as a concession to that fact. If they were to change their philosophy, and choose to reset their strategy, WWE programming could be worth less to them. Maybe a lot less. But the bigger problem that WWE has to face when dealing with NBC is one that they have completely created: Themselves. NBC could very well feel that WWE has not lived up to their end of the deal and take a hard line approach when it comes to negotiations. Why you ask? ... While WWE didn’t double their rights fees as they promised that they would, their sales pitch that WWE was “DVR proof” programming since people wanted to watch it in real time did garner them a significant increase from NBC Universal. And that increase was rewarded by losing almost a third of the viewers that were supposed to be “DVR proof”. The worst part is that the company itself, with it’s predictable booking and stale presentation, are the primary reason that the product has become DVRable! They did it to themselves. I can’t state this for a fact but I think it’s reasonable to assume that NBC Universal didn’t pay more money for less viewers. That isn’t how business works. When you add in that the main reason that the viewers have left is due completely due to the people that told you that they wouldn’t? That could create some animus. So in two years, WWE very well may find itself in a position where it could be facing a reduced offer from NBC, or worse. In this climate, it may be hard to even find other bidders that are willing to pay what they are getting now. After all, in 2014 NBCU put the best offer on the table and it was far less than what Vince McMahon wanted. WWE is mature product and in the TV industry, that often works against a program. When one adds in the concerning loss of viewers, it makes a mature product an even harder sell for top dollar. There’s a real possibility that USA may tell WWE we want to work with you, but you need to take a pay cut (and if that happens PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE get rid of that third hour of Raw, for all of our sakes). It’s possible they could just walk away altogether. If either happens, it seems pretty obvious that WWE’s top revenue producer, television rights fees, would take a major hit. And that would affect the company. At that point, their options would be limited. They could look for another partner, most probably for less money. Or they could take it in-house on the WWE Network and create a tiered pricing model where they sell you a subscription to Raw and Smackdown and they sell advertising on the programs and keep what they sell. There is no guarantee that they could even come close to making up for the lost revenue with either option. ... If they want to avoid coming to that unwanted fork, the time to make changes is now. If they don’t, this time in 2019 could be really scary for them.

Part of a lengthy article on PWI in regards to WWE's tv contract deals and possible future for the WWE. Link to a post from NeoGAF that has the whole article (because PWI's website in general is terrible) and some key dates in regards to tv contracts: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost...postcount=6268

Originally Posted by PWI Ring of Honor announced this afternoon that STARDOM High Speed champion Kris Wolf would debut for the promotion's Women of Honor division at the 6/23 ROH Best in the World PPV in Lowell, MA. The promotion also announced The Kingdom's Matt Taven & Vinny Marseglia will face CMLL stars El Terrible and Ultimo Guerrero. Taven has been making regular appearances in CMLL. Previously announced for the PPV is Cody Rhodes challenging Christopher Daniels for the ROH championship after Daniels defeated Rhodes and Jay Lethal at the War of the Worlds PPV in NYC.

Originally Posted by ROH Across the Pacific, STARDOM has established itself as the premier women’s professional wrestling organization in the world. In March, Women of Honor and STARDOM partnered together for a tryout camp and a partnership was formed. In Lowell, MA at Best in the World Weekend, international superstar and current STARDOM HIGH SPEED CHAMPION KRIS WOLF makes her Women of Honor debut!

Originally Posted by PWI WWE is working on developing regular programming on Snapchat with the idea of debuting it on a monthly basis staring around Summerslam weekend.

Originally Posted by PWI Multiple sources have told PWInsider.com that the deal is described as "in jeopardy" due to issues regarding the transfer of the existing copyrights and trademarks for the National Wrestling Alliance. PWInsider.com research indicates that the copyright and trademark on the brand name lapsed last year with his International Wrestling Corp, LLC applying for it again on March 30th of this year. The trademark has not been officially assigned, theoretically making it impossible for them to be transferred to Corgan.

Originally Posted by Fightful.com After stints in WWF, WCW, TNA and most recently Rocky Mountain Pro, Vince Russo is looking to get back into wrestling. The controversial Russo spoke to Fightful.com and told us that he actually contacted WWE Chairman Vince McMahon last week and offered his services to his former boss. "I've reached out to Vince McMahon in the past week," said Russo, before stating that he wouldn't elaborate too much. "He got back to me." Often outspoken, Russo has criticized the current WWE product for years. According to Russo, the exchange between the two was brief. "I am still a wrestling fan at heart, going back to when I was 10, 11 years old. I hate today's product. To me, it's not professional wrestling," Russo said. "I don't want to be the guy critiquing the problem without saying 'Here's my olive branch, I think I can help you as the numbers go down every week.' I didn't use the word help. You don't tell Vince McMahon he needs help. I said 'if you want me to contribute, I'd love to once again contribute.'" When asked if McMahon seemed open to the idea, or receptive, Russo indicated that McMahon isn't a big talker -- with him at least. "Vince never seems receptive. His response is always a couple of words. He's not that guy. He's the same guy that told me I could get a nanny (to raise) your kids," said Russo.

Link to the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7Ee2kBL5x0

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Brock Lesnar's title defense at the WWE Great Balls of Fire PPV on July 9th against the winner of this Sunday night's Fatal Five Way #1 contender's match at Extreme Rules will be a quick program. Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that the match will not lead to a rematch with Lesnar at the following pay-per-view, SummerSlam, as Lesnar is slated to face Braun Strowman at that event.

Some other sheet news includes:

• OTT Wrestling announced their streaming service will be launching tomorrow. https://twitter.com/OTT_wrestling/st...15587077697536
• Musical band The Migos recently released a song dedicated to Scotty 2 Hotty. http://www.billboard.com/articles/co...2-hotty-stream
• British promotion WCPW is currently facing serious financial problems related to loss of Youtube ad revenue according to wrestlers who have complained on Twitter about pay being late.
• WWE is currently holding a sale on their official WWEShop website with select t-shirts getting a 50% discount. No special promo code needed and sale lasts till 3pm tomorrow.
• Recent posting by Jim Ross on his official blog discussed Extreme Rules, Smackdown's Women MitB match, and AJ losing to Ziggler in his hometown. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...o-main-events/
• The Weeklender had a recent interview with Alexa Bliss talking about being a heel and Rey Mysterio as inspiration for her gear. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...s-to-hate-her/

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by WWE's newest indie interest:

Originally Posted by Observer With no competition from the NBA or NHL playoffs, SmackDown was up, very slightly, to 2.35 million viewers on Tuesday night. The show was third for the night in total viewers on cable and was first in the 18-49 demo with a 0.77 rating.

Based on recent weeks, seems Smackdown is starting to recover from the Superstar Shakeup which messed up the flow of the brand.

Originally Posted by Observer Dalton Castle’s ROH contract is up this month. WWE has shown great interest in him so it will take a major offer to keep him. Castle is a tremendous live show performer and would have superstar potential in WWE.

Originally Posted by Observer Five Star Wrestling postponed their 128 man tournament that was to start on 6/10 in Liverpool. The talent was told it was because of the bombing in Manchester, which came across as insulting since that's obviously not the reason. They now are claiming the tournament would be starting in February with a show on 2/1 in Liverpool at Echo Arena, 2/8 at the Newcastle Arena, 2/15 at the Sheffield Arena and 2/22 in London at the Copper Box Arena. (thanks to Stephen Lyon)

Originally Posted by PWI The next episode of Table for 3 will debut Monday after Raw, featuring Ric Flair, Bruno Sammartino and Bob Orton. The Kurt Angle WWE 24 documentary will debut in July. WWE has uploaded all but one episode of TNT, so that series is all but complete in the Vault section of the WWE Network.

Kurt Angle's announcement for his new documentary: https://twitter.com/RealKurtAngle/st...53708382646272

Originally Posted by Observer New Japan will have a press conference on 6/30 at Marukai in the Gardena, CA location. Among those present will be the winners of the Dominion main events as well as all of the participants in the U.S. title tournament. Marukai is at 1740 W. Artesia Blvd. in Gardena and the press conference will be at 4 p.m.

Originally Posted by PWI Sure, if a few people boycott, it’s no big deal. He will just attribute it to normal churn. But as we have seen in the Raw numbers lately, it’s not just a few people doing it. The Raw after WrestleMania did 3,767,000 viewers. Monday’s show did 2,613,000. If you want to say, “Well, it was a holiday,” the previous week’s show did 2,615,000. Since that April 3 show, the audience has gone down every week but one, and they are now down over 1.1 million viewers in less than two months. That, my friends, is how you send a message if that is your intention. So if a significant percentage of those fans are former Roman booers who have finally lost the desire to try and change Vince’s mind and given up the fight, in your concession to futility you may have finally stumbled onto the most impactful way to get your message across.

Part of a longer article discussing the idea of fans are starting to get tired of booing Reigns and are leaving en masse since WWE is too stubborn to change their plans for Reigns. http://www.pwinsider.com/article/110...-it-right.html

Originally Posted by PWI Impact Wrestling will debut in Staten Island, NY at Richmond County Ball Park, the home of the Staten Island Yankees on Saturday 8/5 at 6 PM. Tickets will go on sale on 6/9. Announced for the event were Impact champion Bobby Lashley, GFW champion Alberto el Patron, EC3 and James Storm ... This will be the first Impact live event under Anthem Media's ownership and the first live event in the United States since an event in Salem, Virginia on October 3, 2015.

Originally Posted by PWI Chris Adonis (aka Masters) went to the hospital while Impact was in India to get an MRI on a potential injury. We haven't confirmed what the nature of the injury was at this juncture but it did not prevent him from working the second TV taping date ... The belief internally is that the India tapings did a lot to strengthen the company's relationship with Sony Six. LAX did not work the India tour as their material is, thus far, shot out of sequence.

Some Impact news related to their current India tour.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc As noted, Brie Bella recently announced on her YouTube channel that she is preparing for a return to the ring now that she's given birth to Birdie Joe. Above is new video of Brie training for her return to the WWE ring.

Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHyWPZsC2t8

Originally Posted by Observer Lots of talk once again regarding a Hogan return. As noted many times, it’s a question of when, and that will be determined by when the company is reasonably sure that bringing him back won’t cause a backlash. The problem is those quotes he made were racist and can’t be sugar-coated, and they can’t make the claim that they didn’t know about them. Of course the more times goes on, the more the fans want to see him. But if he’s hired as an ambassador representing the company and doing media, the company doesn’t want him out there promoting the network and then having to defend himself on those comments and the stories on WWE bring up those comments. Still, in the WWE Kids Magazine (not available in the U.S, but available in the U.K., Spain and the Middle East) there was a Hogan poster and Hogan has said that he and Vince are talking.

Originally Posted by Observer I don’t know if anything will come of this, but the idea of a Vince McMahon Table for 3 segment is at least being talked about for a few months down the line. Obviously the people doing the network would love it since it’ll draw an audience, so really like everything, it’s up to Vince.

Originally Posted by Observer Those at Impact were told directly from Sony Six that the belief was that the big Mahal push was directly related to their tour this week. Whether accurate or not, the WWE’s U.K. timing and strategy changed significantly when, in a market WWE dominated, somebody else was coming in with strong television backing. Indeed, the lack of future tapings of the weekly U.K. television show after we were told about plans for monthly tapings and a weekly network show at the same time the ITV project imploded was noteworthy. At this point, WWE has nothing on the schedule for India this year, although that could change.

Seems WWE only cared about doing a weekly UK show because of ITV and now that ITV's plans are struggling, WWE lost almost all interest in continuing.

Originally Posted by Observer Mayu Iwatani is no longer considering retirement, since she’s obviously going to be the top star in Stardom with the departure of Io Shirai and Kairi Hojo. Kagetsu is taking some time off, perhaps a month, to spend time with her family but she’ll be working the majority of the Stardom shows this year. Stardom is really pushing the 6/21 Korakuen Hall match with Shirai vs. Iwatani for the World of Stardom title, which Shirai has. The story is that Iwatani is the only wrestler in the promotion who has been there from the start, and she also has never won the company’s major belt. Iwatani is also the Wonder of Stardom champion and nobody has ever won both belts at the same time. Hojo’s final show with Stardom will be on 6/4.

Originally Posted by Observer Ciampa will be undergoing knee surgery this week for a torn ACL from the ladder match at NXT Takeover when he went in and worked on a compromised ankle. While any estimate until surgery is premature, the general rule on ACL surgery is a six-to-eight month recuperation period, which pretty much kills the planned Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano angle.

Originally Posted by Observer The reason WWE will be using Viper in the upcoming women’s tournament is that several of the ITV wrestlers asked out of their deals since there are no plans for shows. There will be a new international class of women’s wrestlers starting together in the next few weeks of Kairi Hojo from Japan, Evie from New Zealand (Cheree Crowley, 29, a ten-year veteran who has worked in the top U.S. and Japanese women’s groups since 2013), Nixon Newell from the U.K. (Steffanie Newell, 22, who has been on the international scene the past few years) and Demi Bennett, 20, from Australia. Right now it appears the plan is for Io Shirai, who is also coming soon, to not be in the Mae Young Classic, as she’ll be finishing up in Japan first.

Some news and notes related to recent women signings by the WWE

I had absolutely no idea why Mae Young gave birth to a hand, other than assuming it was just a weird segment, until today when I was reading through threads regarding old Wrestling Observer issues and came across this, from Dave Meltzer in the March 6th, 2000 Observer Newsletter: Mae Young gave Crash the worst big splash ever, and then went into labor. They had her backstage with an EMT, Patterson, Brisco, Henry and Moolah for this godawful segment that ended when they pulled a hand out of her. I had no idea what this was. Luckily I do a radio show and someone explained that hands were popular sex toys in the 70s and 80s for women and I guess the idea was she was getting herself off in another decade and it had been there for a while.

Wacky Mae Young story from back in the day courtesy of r/SquaredCircle.


Some other sheet news includes:

• WWE's first full-time female ref debuted at tonight's house show for NXT. https://twitter.com/JJWilliamsWON/st...28441287557121
• WWE recently signed CWC participant Raul Mendoza to a deal with the company.
• According to the Observer, WWE is currently planning for Toni Storm to be the showcase star for the upcoming Mae Young Classic.
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, with RAW's recent record setting set of low shows, only 1 episode of WCW Nitro remains for having a lower rated/viewed show than RAW. Observer's Dave Meltzer mentioned it as part of his recent talks about WWE's struggles with RAW.

[Frank Drebin]

Damn. That Ciampa injury news is weak.

[Simple Fan]

Castle has star written all over him and pulls that type of gimmick off better than anyone I've ever seen have a flamboyant type gimmick.

[Volare]

Castle vs Goldust.

[ClockShot]

Dalton brings The Boys or stay on the indie circuit.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Random DDT Pro Wrestling gif:

Originally Posted by Observer For whatever this is worth, there was so much money bet yesterday on Samoa Joe to win on Sunday that he was taken off the board at Paddy Power. Paddy Power has been getting a lot of smart money bet this year but Thursday is usually early since Vince often doesn't make up his mind until the day of the show. But in this case, with Brock Lesnar being the opponent of the winner and McMahon having Lesnar's stuff usually detailed out way in advance, it is possible this is legit.

Assuming this and recent rumors regarding Great Balls of Fire are true, a potential Joe-Lesnar feud would be really short and rushed.

Originally Posted by Observer There will be a Bruno Sammartino compilation and a Ladder match compilation video that will be coming out Monday on the WWE Network.

Originally Posted by Observer Though the main event for the show was already known, New Japan Pro Wrestling has revealed the full card for the Best of the Super Juniors finals. That main event will have Block A winner Will Ospreay taking on Block B winner KUSHIDA in the tournament finals. The two have faced each other before, with KUSHIDA winning both times. As defending Best of the Super Juniors winner, Ospreay looks to both repeat as tournament champion and get his first win against KUSHIDA. The winner of that match will likely get an IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship shot against Hiromu Takahashi at Dominion on June 11th ... The show will take place on June 3rd and will air live at 4 a.m. ET on New Japan World, complete with English commentary. The full card is: Will Ospreay vs. KUSHIDA to determine this year's Best of the Super Juniors winner Kazuchika Okada & Gedo vs. Kenny Omega & Marty Scurll Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, EVIL, BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Satoshi Kojima, Juice Robinson, Ryusuke Taguchi, Ricochet & Dragon Lee Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Minoru Suzuki & Taichi War Machine, David Finlay & ACH vs. Guerrillas of Destiny, Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi Volador Jr., Tiger Mask IV & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Taka Michinoku, El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru Hirai Kawato, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Togi Makabe vs. Jado, Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii Syota Umino, Tomoyuki Oka & Yuji Nagata vs. Tetsuhiro Yagi, Katsuya Kitamura & Manabu Nakanishi

Originally Posted by PWI Earlier today, WWN announced talents for their ongoing Style Battle promotion, which features a series of tournament with competitors from different "styles" facing off at each event, with the winners moving on to a final tournament at the end of a "season." Announced for the tournament on 6/16 in Ybor City, Florida were Anthony Henry, Matt Tremont, Shlak, Maxwell Jacob Friedman and Teddy Stigma. Many of the same talents were also announced for the 6/17 FIP event in the same venue. The inclusion of Shlak, who has worked for CZW and is competing in their Tournament of Death next week in Delaware, led to immediate complaints on social media, as fans had uncovered photos of him posing with white power band members and a photo of him giving a Nazi salute. WWN's Gabe Sapolsky (who is Jewish) immediately stated he wasn't aware of the situation and was going to investigate. In speaking to PWInsider.com, Sapolsky said that Shlak had been booked based on multiple recommendations and was going to drive down to the event as part of a contingent traveling together from the Northeast. Before Sapolsky had a chance to investigate the situation, however, Flosports (which has a deal with WWN to stream their events as part of their subscription service) informed the promotion that they had received complaints as well and would not be allowing Shlak's matches to be streamed on their service. All of this led to the promotion unbooking him. As you might imagine, Sapolsky wasn't happy about this scenario taking place at all.

Originally Posted by PWI EVOLVE referee DA Brewer was signed by WWE and started with NXT this week as an official. He's a damn good referee.

Originally Posted by PWI The 6/1 edition of Impact on Pop brought in 287,000 viewers, down from last week's 305,000 viewers.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc This past Monday's episode of RAW on Memorial Day averaged 2.613 million viewers and was the least watched episode of the year. The final rating of the show was just a 1.75. Dave Meltzer reported in The Wrestling Observer Newsletter that it was the second lowest rated episode in the history of the show. He also noted that only one episode of WCW Monday Nitro, the December 11, 2000 show, ever did lower than a 1.75. The rating is based on the percentage of homes that get the USA Network, so cord cutting doesn't factor into the rating. It was also noted in the Observer that the USA Network is available in 91.8 million homes, while it was available in 92.7 million homes a year ago, a drop of 1%. This year's RAW rating was down 19.1% from last year's Memorial Day episode, which scored a 2.19 rating with 3.222 million viewers.

Some more details regarding yesterday's "WWE Did You Know" fact regarding WCW Nitro and RAW. Meltzer also went into more details regarding this situation recently: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost...&postcount=284

Mark Henry’s most notable moment over the last few years since his Hall Of Pain run in 2011 was the fake retirement speech he gave on Raw in which he wore an orange suit and worked everyone into it ... He said that he wore the orange suit simply because he thought it was cool, and he wanted people to remember that moment. However, he had no idea that the response would be as it had been. He said that he had gotten messages from several people appreciating him and his suit, but none more memorable than that of The World's Largest Athlete, according to Henry. “I guess the Big Show’s message was the best. He left me a message and said he is going to kill me, that he was sitting on the couch with his wife, crying, and said, that’s how you do me? You used me. You used my feelings, and I said, oh my bad.”

Wacky Mark Henry story from back in the day regarding fooling Big Show enough to mke him cry. Link to the memorable segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSMu_VU_OOg


Some other sheet news includes:

• Superstar Billy Graham revealed during an interview with Hannibal TV about being cleared from Hepatitis C due to a new medical treatment given. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvoJK_jFfGo
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is AJ Styles 40th birthday.
• In another "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 3rd anniversary of the Seth Rollins turning on the Shield and the group disbanding. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCirc...ield_imploded/
• Online wrestling retailer Highspots announced they are currently holding a 33% Off sale on all shirts. http://www.highspots.com/c/Shirts-Apparel.html
• Sports Illustrated had a recent interview with Rey Mysterio talking about Lucha Underground, current generation of cruisers, not wanting to work for Impact Wrestling, and a wacky WCW story from back in the day. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...ng-for-impact/
• Uproxx had a recent interview with Chris Jericho talking about his recent run in the WWE and if he wants to become a part-timer for Mania. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...ring-last-wwe/

[drave]

It really is a shame they didn't build on that speech. He had legit heat for that.

[mike adamle]

I'd rather had not seen Big Show-Henry again

[drave]

Big Show was in no way involved in the segment. He "interrupted" Cena and they should have built that program.

[Lock Jaw]

Didn't that whole thing lead to a Henry/Cena one month feud?

[Emperor Smeat]

Yeah was very short and just the typical Cena-Beast/Monster throw-away type feud. Shame since it had one of the best starts ever for a Cena feud.

WWE rushed it so Bryan-Cena would happen next for SummerSlam.

[mike adamle]

Bryan-Cena was the better overall program anyways. The match Cena and Henry match was the best match they could've had against each other. No need to water it down with more matches.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I'm fine with Brock vs. Joe being one and done. If the match rocks, then you can always do another one later after letting fans salivate. It's going to have a big fight feel and will hopefully deliver on a completely different level to some of the other programs the WWE has put on the main roster of the show. This is Joe's chance to prove he truly belongs at that level.

[XL]

I was hoping for Finn vs Lesnar with Balor (sans paint) coming up just short, and building to The Demon vs. The Beast at Mania. But Joe/Lesnar should be good.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Random WCW Gif:

Originally Posted by Observer The WWE got a shockingly big PPV boost from Extreme Rules, as Raw averaged 2.98 million viewers and was the most-watched show last night on cable television ... It was the largest audience to watch Raw since the April 24th show and largest first hour since April 17th. The three hours were: 8 p.m. 3.11 million viewers 9 p.m. 3.11 million viewers 10 p.m. 2.76 million viewers

WWE has the strong chance of getting lucky with the end of direct NBA competition if the NBA Finals ends in a sweep (Warriors up 2-0 currently). If not, Game 5 is scheduled to occur next Monday.

Originally Posted by Observer Pro Wrestling Sheet reported the WWE will run shows twice a month starting shortly to tape the U.K. television show and that several of the wrestlers were signed to new contracts, listing Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate, Trent Seven, Wolfgang and Mark Andrews who will be brought to Orlando at times as well as continue to work in the U.K. We had reported weeks back that WWE had contacted U.K. venues that are already well known for shows with other promotions regarding taping television at least once a month. No first date has been announced but originally the plan was to have a taping in June, but that may be rushing it.

Originally Posted by Observer Smith Hart, 68, the oldest brother of Bret Hart, who is suffering from cancer, was moved to Hospice Care in recent days which is sad news. Best wishes to Smith right now and to the entire Hart family.

Originally Posted by Observer Thea Trinidad has signed a WWE developmental contract according to Pro Wrestling Sheet. She debuted at the last set of tapings as a second for Andrade Cien Almas. She is the girlfriend of Austin Aries.

For some reference, she plays AJ Lee in the upcoming Paige biopic being produced by Rock's film studio.

Originally Posted by Observer John Cena will be on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on 6/9, likely to promote the debut of the new American Grit TV show.

Originally Posted by Observer Owens posted that he has a broken thumb but said he won't miss any time because of it.

Link to the tweet: https://twitter.com/FightOwensFight/...18456753655808

Originally Posted by Observer Members of the NXT roster were in Manchester today visiting those affected by last month's bombing. WWE, Sky News, and other outlets have posted articles about Bobby Roode, Nikki Cross, Mark Andrews, and PROGRESS Wrestling's Jim Smallman visiting an eight-year-old girl who was injured in the attack. Ember Moon, Roderick Strong, Trent Seven, and Jack Gallagher also donated items at a Red Cross to help with the emergency fund.

Originally Posted by Observer Sports Business Journal has a study on how viewership for sports on television has gotten older over the past decade. The study found that the median age for those watching pro wrestling on TV was 54 years old in 2016, which is up from 28 in 2000 and 33 in 2006. Dave Meltzer noted on Twitter that the average age of those watching Raw and SmackDown is in the 40s.

Link to the report: http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/J...ip-trends.aspx , Link to Meltzer's tweet: https://twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/s...80323089391616

Originally Posted by Observer In an update on the situation with What Culture Pro Wrestling and YouTube, WCPW had the strike that YouTube gave their channel removed and their "Fight Back" show has been added back to the service. YouTube had given them the strike for supposedly violating their policy on spam and deceptive practices.

Link to the update: https://twitter.com/AdamTheBlampied/...05997409304577

Originally Posted by PWI We've had a number of readers ask whether there was a major reason that caused WWE to keep Matt and Jeff Hardy from appearing on Raw last night. Sources indicate they will be working a reduced schedule the next few weeks as Matt's wife Rebecca is scheduled to give birth to their second child very soon. On the Impact Wrestling-Broken Hardys gimmick front, there has been very little said publicly by either side of late, which I believe is a sign that they are quietly trying to negotiate some sort of agreement. Billy Corgan had been trying to mediate, but there's no confirmation he is still involved. We have also heard the Hardys sit-down interview with Corey Graves that was filmed before Extreme Rules in Baltimore will likely be used in some form on an upcoming edition of Bring It To The Table. WWE is filming the latest episode of that series this week to debut it next Monday following Raw.

Originally Posted by PWI WWE plans to distribute the Mae Young Classic tournament in a different way, PWInsider.com has exclusively confirmed. The plan is to film the 32-woman tournament on 7/13 and 7/14 at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida for the WWE Network. The Network will debut a preview special for the tournament on 8/20 with the first round of the tournament being released via Video on Demand the final week of August as a way to let fans binge the "episodes." The second round will be released the first week in September, again via the VOD service. Initially, the plan was to release them Summerslam week but the decision was made to hold off so that the women's tournament was not overshadowed by everything else WWE had scheduled for that week, which is pretty smart. The current plan is to hold the finals live on Tuesday 9/12. Currently, the only WWE event scheduled that day is a taping in Las Vegas for the Smackdown brand, so it may be that the finals of the Mae Young Classic will air live on the Network from Las Vegas

Originally Posted by PWI On June 4th, former WCW Heavyweight Champion Van Vader announced that he would be retiring. His tweet read: “With great sorrow I leave my first born, my greatest love of all, for a chance to exist in the same plain of existence of my Gr Ch yet to exist” With Great Sorrow I leave my first born my greatest love of All for a chance to exist inthe same plain of existance of my Gr Ch yet to exist — Big Van Vader (@itsvadertime) June 4, 2017 The 62-year-old legend has been through a lot, since he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. His chances of prognosis are slim, with doctors giving him up to two years to live. Big Van Vader has gone against the grain, his willpower and strength is commendable. Sadly, he collapsed during the Tatsumi Fujinami 45th Anniversary show in April - a six-man tag team match, where he worked with Keji Muto and Akira in Japan. His original tweet “for a chance to exist in the same plain of existence as my Gr Ch yet to exit” refers to his wish to see his grandchildren one day. It was this tweet that lead fans and wrestling industry officials alike, to believe that Van Vader would be hanging up his boots. In fact, it turns out that Van Vader will not be giving up his career in wrestling and has vowed to continue his long successful career, despite his condition. He replied to his own tweet on June 5th with “As usual some one got it wrong. I have not wrestled my last match. Lord willing not for years yet. Love it when you got them guessing.” As usual some one got it wrong I have not wrestled my last match Lord wilinng not for yrs yet Love it when u got them guessing https://t.co/0s5ozMmDK5 — Big Van Vader (@itsvadertime) June 5, 2017

Originally Posted by PWI The United States Patent and Trademark Office partially suspended Bruce Tharpe's registration of the National Wrestling Alliance trademark (which was filed for back in March after it expired in December 2016) on 6/4 due to "a likelihood of confusion with a registered mark and under Trademark Act Sections 1 and 45 for failure to show the applied-for mark in use in commerce with any of the specified goods in Class 25. The applicant was also informed that the marks in two pending applications present a potential bar to registration under Section 2(d), if registered. In addition, applicant was required to provide an amended definite identification of goods, provide information relevant to examination under 37 C.F.R. §2.61(b), clarify the mark description, provide clarification regarding the claimed dates of first use, and provide clarification regarding the applicant’s claim of concurrent use." It appears based on the ruling that the issue at play is related to merchandising of the NWA brand, specifically that the NWA name may come into conflict with other existing applications featuring a similar brand name and that Tharpe, in his application, did not show adequate proof that the brand was currently being used in commerce, i.e. was actually being sold. PWInsider.com reported several weeks ago that the Billy Corgan purchase of the NWA brand was "in jeopardy" according to numerous sources but has learned that since then, the Corgan and Tharpe sides have continued discussions.

Basically the new trademark was partially rejected due to it infringing on another company(s) NWA-like trademarks and the wording not being enough to prove the NWA itself is still an active company.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc The next "Table For 3" on the WWE Network will air on Monday, June 19th after RAW goes off the air with Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres and Maryse.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Several readers pointed out that Michael Cole said during commentary on last night's RAW that Roman Reigns "perhaps" sent The Undertaker into retirement at WrestleMania, which we mentioned on our podcast last night. While WWE isn't publicly closing the door on Taker's career, we reported last month that Taker was at the David H Koch Pavilion Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, which is one of the best in the country for orthopaedics, which would seem to indicate that Taker will be undergoing the hip surgery that he had been delaying until he retired.

Some other sheet news:

• Leland Race recently gave an update to his father's, Harley Race, medical status. http://www.tpww.net/2017/06/harley-race-medical-update/
• Matt Hardy recently revealed the birth of his second child is expected to happen soon. https://twitter.com/matthardybrand/s...51627963936768
• Chris Jericho announced Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson will be the guests for Friday's episode of Talk Is Jericho podcast show. https://twitter.com/TalkIsJericho/st...95805796216832
• Ric Flair recently suffered an injury to his hand: https://twitter.com/RicFlairNatrBoy/...87917324275712
• For those interested in wrestling related podcasts, Jake "The Snake" Roberts recently started his own podcast show called "Jake the Snake Unleashed": https://soundcloud.com/jake-the-snake-unleashed
• ESPN had a recent interview with Raven talking about regretting leaving WCW, turning down WWE offers, and hating the Johnny Polo gimmick. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...we-job-offers/
• Georgia's Rock 100.5's Bailey And Southside had a recent interview with AJ Styles talking about the origins of the AJ Styles name, wanting to wear a mask, and idea of a name change in the WWE. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...name-at-first/
• During a recent episode of Jerry Lawler's podcast show, Lawler revealed WWE was threatened with a lawsuit by Jerry Lee Lewis in regards to using "Great Balls of Fire" name for a ppv. Ended up working out a deal in order for the ppv to not be renamed. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCirc...rry_lee_lewis/
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Miz's newest IC title reign now puts him #2 all-time in WWE history for IC reigns and only needs 100 more days as champion to have the 3rd longest cumulative time as IC champion in WWE history. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCirc..._dam_and_jeff/

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Austin's dasterdly attack on a helpless beach ball:

Originally Posted by Observer Ratings for this Tuesday's SmackDown were essentially even with last week, at 2.349 million viewers. That's down only 1,000 viewers from the May 30th show. The episode was sixth for the night on cable in terms of total viewers and first in the 18-49 demo with a 0.74 rating. There was no big sports competition last night with the NBA and NHL finals both not in action. The biggest competition was "America's Got Talent" on NBC, which did 12.5 million viewers head-to-head with SmackDown ... For a year-over-year comparison, which will get very interesting next month when we can compare the live Tuesday night numbers, SmackDown this week in 2016 did 2.169 million viewers and a 0.69 rating in the 18-49 demo, so those numbers were up eight and seven percent respectively this year. At this time in 2016, the show was taped on Tuesdays and then aired on the USA Network on Thursdays.

Outside of one show, Smackdown seems to settle in around the 2.3 million as its new average for the post-Superstar Shakeup recovery.

Originally Posted by Observer Cena spoke to The Wrap ahead of the return of his "American Grit" show. He talked about claims that he's "buried" other wrestlers: "This is why I have the reputation of quote-unquote 'burying younger talent,' because I will let them do whatever they want with me -- and then after they get done, they’re not as motivated. So, it’s not that I sink their ship, it’s that they fail to operate at an elite level. And I’m on to the next person, whom I say, 'Hey man, bring your best punch and I’m gonna punch back' -- and they don’t take that attitude beyond me."

Link to the interview: http://www.thewrap.com/john-cena-wwe...american-grit/

Originally Posted by Observer PWG posted that Matt Riddle is off of their show on June 16th. He had been scheduled to team with Jeff Cobb against Chuck Taylor & Trent Baretta, but he'll be defending his WWN Championship against Martin Stone at a Style Battle show on that day instead. WWN also announced that they're allowing Riddle out of his bookings for EVOLVE on July 8th and 9th to pursue another opportunity. Riddle will be facing Tomohiro Ishii in a non-tournament match at Revolution Pro Wrestling's British J-Cup show in London on the 8th.

Supposedly not the first time during the past year of Riddle being terrible with keeping track of his bookings. Link to announcement: https://twitter.com/OfficialPWG/stat...59471178735616

Originally Posted by Observer Ring of Honor has announced more matches for their Best in the World pay-per-view. The Young Bucks will defend their ROH tag titles against War Machine, Jay Lethal will face Silas Young, and Frankie Kazarian will take on Hangman Page in a strap match. The Lowell Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, Massachusetts will host the PPV on June 23rd.

Originally Posted by Observer Finn Balor is in Japan to do media for WWE and has been visiting with some old friends. He posted pictures with Kazuchika Okada and KUSHIDA. WWE uploaded a video of Balor talking about it being his first time in the country since the Beast in the East show.

Originally Posted by PWI Big Show will be moderating a Bungie panel next 12 PM Tuesday at E3 2017 a part of Coliseum. The World' s Largest Athlete is a big fan of the company's Destiny franchise.

Originally Posted by PWI In the wake of explicit and private material featuring current and former performers leaking onto the Internet over the past several months, World Wrestling Entertainment held talent meetings at this past week's Raw and Smackdown tapings to try and prevent such things from happening again, PWInsider.com has learned. The mandatory meetings were described to us as a class on cyber security threats with an expert from a cyber security firm brought in by the company to give a presentation to the roster. The presentation broke down different ways that one may find themselves tricked into inadvertently allowing their security to be breached. Talents were warned not to even accept USB drives as gifts, even if they were from beautiful women promising naked photos, which talent were told was a scenario that has happened to celebrities in the past ... We are told that the company also gave out an amendment to their social media policy for talents to sign, although what that amendment may have been, we have not yet confirmed. WWE also stressed that no one but the talents and WWE social media teams should have access to the talents' social media accounts.

Originally Posted by PWI On his podcast this week, Jim Ross mentioned that he is lobbying to call the Brock Lesnar vs. Samoa Joe match at Great Balls of Fire.

Originally Posted by PWI The 8/19 WWE NXT: Takeover Brooklyn will have an online pre-sale tomorrow starting at 10 AM Eastern using code WWENXT at Ticketmaster.com.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Speaking of Sasha, she agreed with a fan on Twitter when asked if the logo for WWE's Great Balls of Fire pay-per-view resembles male private parts. The logo has been the subject of a lot of jokes from fans on social media in the past week. You can see the exchange below: @SashaBanksWWE do you think the Great Balls of Fire logo looks like a dick and balls? pic.twitter.com/RmzdVGH5UW — Shane Wareham (@HuntRampaige) June 7, 2017 Yes — $asha Banks (@SashaBanksWWE) June 7, 2017

Some other sheet news includes:

• UK's Mirror had a recent interview with Drew McIntrye talking about NXT's UK tour, WWE return, and Jinder winning the WWE Championship. http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/other-...rview-10577115
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 7th year anniversary of the Nexus' surprise debut in the WWE. https://twitter.com/cfosofficial/sta...85030462971904
• Recent survey sent by the WWE revealed several ideas they are considering for DVD sets next year. Among the choices includes a new HBK and Macho Man sets based on unseen matches, Best of sets for Rick Rude and Andre the Giant, and a DVD set about WWE's Women's Revolution. http://www.pwinsider.com/article/110...dvds-.html?p=1
• Sports Illustrated had a recent interview with Mick Foley talking about Cactus Jack and the importance it had on his career. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-his-at-first/
• Jim Ross posted a new article on his official blog talking about Samoa Joe's win at Extreme Rules, Alexa Bliss compared to Buddy Ross, and Cruiser matches at Extreme Rules. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...extreme-rules/
• Rumor going around the net involves the WWE being very happy with the reception to the Fashion Files skits and no plans to end them any time soon.
• Also another rumor going around the net involves WWE's second tour of Japan this year might include a Network special event.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Shane showing off his brand new school lunchbox:

Originally Posted by Observer Insane Championship Wrestling in the U.K. has pulled its content from the Fite App. That's probably a sign of something involving WWE. George Barrios had already talked about an ICW and WWE deal for possible distribution on WWE Network a few weeks ago and ICW and WWE were in talks about a deal going back several months.

Originally Posted by Observer This is as sleazy as it comes, a politician using a doctored photo of Dwayne Johnson to make it look like an endorsement.

Link to the article: https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/p...o-of-the-rock/

Originally Posted by PWI Ring of Honor returns to PPV on Saturday 6/23 with "Best in the World" 2017 from the Lowell Memorial Auditorium, featuring: *ROH champion Christopher Daniels vs. Cody Rhodes. *ROH Tag Team champions The Young Bucks vs. War Machine. *Strap Match: Adam Page vs. Frankie Kazarian. *The Kingdom's Matt Taven & Vinny Marseglia vs. CMLL stars El Terrible and Ultimo Guerrero. *Jay Lethal vs. Silas Young. *The debut of STARDOM High Speed champion Kris Wolf.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc RAW Tag Team Champion Sheamus noted in a recent interview how the one title that has eluded him is the WWE Intercontinental Title. He said, "The only thing I haven't won is the Intercontinental Championship. Now that it's back on WWE Raw, I would love to hold both the Intercontinental Championship and Raw Tag Team titles at the same time." As seen below, The Celtic Warrior tweeted about winning the title on Twitter today and received a response from current WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz: Only one WWE title missing for the #GrandSlam goal I set myself many years ago... it will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine. pic.twitter.com/pSQ0AhphvS — Sheamus (@WWESheamus) June 8, 2017 No it won't https://t.co/XWr0atHIb7 — The Miz (@mikethemiz) June 8, 2017 Wanna bet? https://t.co/sh95L7uO4O — Sheamus (@WWESheamus) June 8, 2017

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Below is video of WWE Hall of Famers Ric Flair and Bruno Sammartino talking about their statues in this "Table For 3" video from this past Monday. Randy Orton also appeared on the episode. Bruno reveals that he went to New York for a "terrible" experience to get the mold for his statue created. Flair did not have to go through that as they created his statue using a model. .@SammartinoBruno and @RicFlairNatrBoy had two VERY different experiences in receiving their statues! #TableFor3 @RandyOrton pic.twitter.com/ZaTURGBQGz — WWE (@WWE) June 6, 2017

Originally Posted by WrestleInc As seen at WWE Extreme Rules this past weekend, Austin Aries was wearing kinesio tape during his match with WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville, which saw Neville defeat Aries to defend his title. Aries has not wrestled since that match, and he joined Busted Open with Dave Lagreca and Larry Dallas yesterday to promote his new book, Food Fight: My Plant Based Journey From The Bingo Hall to The Big Time. During the interview, Aries confirmed that he has some nagging injuries at the moment. "I've got some stuff going on, but just to be fair you could probably say that for a lot of the locker room. It's kind of part of what we do, I don't think anyone is ever 100%," Aries said. "So I got a couple things going on and obviously at this point it might be a good time to take a little break which really could consist of two days to just adjust some of those things, try and get my mind and my body right and then come back and figure out what's gonna be next and what the direction's gonna be."

Link to the podcast episode: https://soundcloud.com/siriusxmrush/...e-wwe-universe

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Lana is supposed to be a heel now that she has made her arrival on WWE SmackDown but The Wrestling Observer Newsletter notes that it's almost guaranteed she will be a babyface with the gimmick she's being given. It was noted that Lana is basically working in the role that was slotted for Eva Marie. Eva is now focusing on her acting career and won't be returning to work for WWE. As noted, Lana vs. SmackDown Women's Champion Naomi with the title on the line will take place at the June 18th WWE Money In the Bank pay-per-view. Unless she wrestles next Tuesday night, the title shot at MITB would be Lana's in-ring SmackDown TV debut.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Regarding Samoa Joe vs. WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar, their upcoming title match is scheduled to be a one-time thing. Joe vs. Lesnar is set to headline the WWE Great Balls of Fire pay-per-view on July 9th. The two will face off for the first time on Monday's RAW from the Cajundome in Lafayette, LA. The Observer notes that Lesnar is then scheduled to face Braun Strowman at SummerSlam in August. WWE officials are still planning on Roman Reigns vs. Lesnar for the title at WrestleMania 34 but there are plans to do Finn Balor vs. Lesnar and Seth Rollins vs. Lesnar matches between Braun and Reigns.

Originally Posted by Observer There has been talk of using more main roster female Superstars on WWE 205 Live as a way to try and boost interest in the show.

The return of Lucha Underground on 5/31 did a disastrous 65,000 viewers for the Johnny Mundo vs. The Mack All Night Long (Iron Man) match. A replay did 36,000 viewers. The combined 101,000 for the two airings was down 34 percent from the season three average leading up to this of 154,000.

Originally Posted by Observer Tomoaki Honma is continuing to improve. While he can lightly jog, there are hand coordination issues that he still needs help with. He still needs assistance at things such as pouring water or brushing his teeth Katsuyori Shibata is now said to be in good spirits. While he probably will never wrestle again, there is talk of him staying with the company and working full-time as a coach.

Originally Posted by Observer There is a trademark issue with the NWA name which is really what has been holding up the sale to Billy Corgan. There is also an issue because in 1998, when the NWA name was brought into WWF with Jim Cornette leading the Rock & Roll Express, Dan Severn, The new Midnight Express (Bob Holly & Bart Gunn) and Jeff Jarrett, that Howard Brody, who was running the NWA signed a deal where WWF would have the rights to use the name open-ended. They wouldn’t own the name, but they would have a legal right to use it, although they stopped using it nearly 20 years ago. Bruce Tharpe’s trademark application for the NWA name was suspended by the U.S. Patent and Trademark office which has messed up the sale because the key thing Billy Corgan was looking at buying were all the trademarks to the NWA name. Tharpe filed for the trademarks in March after his original rights to the name and the trademarks expired in December. Until it’s taken care of, he can’t transfer the ownership to Corgan, who had hoped the deal would be completed by now

Some details regarding the current Corgan-NWA problems going on.

Originally Posted by Observer While in India last week they taped in a TV studio that held 500 people. Everyone in the crowd was paid 250 to 400 rupee (between $3.80 and $7.60) to attend, so even in a small studio they not only didn’t charge for tickets but paid people to attend. That’s common for television shoots in India and wouldn’t have the same stigma if you did that in the U.S. Fans were instructed who to cheer and boo, and they were very good at doing so. They were told the villains would come from the left side of the stage and the heroes from the right side. The waves that may make the air were also instructed by the M.C. and not something the audience did spontaneously. However, EC 3 did have very legit heat when he came out as E Singh 3, and the crowd really loved Mahabali Shera and Sonjay Dutt. Jeff Jarrett was telling reporters that they are scouting more talent from India.

Originally Posted by Observer Right now, the plan for the Ric Flair 30 for 30 piece, which was originally to air early this year, is for it to run in January 2018, but that date has changed many times

Originally Posted by Observer Regarding the questions asked why NXT has such great ring entrances on Takeovers and WWE PPVs, with the exception of Mania, usually don’t, is because Paul Levesque is in charge of the NXT entrances and the WWE entrances are Vince McMahon in the end, but really handled by Kevin Dunn

Originally Posted by Observer An interesting story is that some time back, Mahal had decided he was looking at getting out of wrestling and opening up a Subway sandwich shop and work some real estate

Originally Posted by Observer Swagger did an interview with John Pozarowski and said that WWE had said they wanted to offer him a raise and sign him up for another five years, but the figure they offered was way off what he had been averaging the past five years. So he said he felt he needed a change and to become the best pro wrestler he can be, but to do that he had to leave, with the idea of making a name on the outside the making the company then want him back, I guess similar to how things worked out with Drew Galloway. He said he was angry for a long time but can see that it was just a business decision and he understands their side, his side and said he left on good terms. He said he wants to show what Jack Swagger can do, and not what they would let him do. He put over how great it was to work and travel with Dutch Mantell

Some other sheet news includes:

• CBS Sports had a recent interview with Naomi with her confirming reports and rumors of her and the Usos working on a tv show for Nickelodeon. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-were-filming/
• WrestleInc had a recent interview with Jeff Jarrett talking about Impact and GFW's merger, plans for live events, and future tours of India. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...nd-gfw-merged/
• Recent episode of the X-Pac 12360 podcast show had Road Dogg as the guest talking about Women's MitB match, if the Womens MitB case can be used on RAW, and people he wants Smackdown to get from NXT. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-on-smackdown/
• WWE recently released Killian Dain's new entrance theme on their official Youtube WWEMusic page. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwTtFGTIa6U
• James Storm currently denying reports of him being this year's inductee for Impact's Hall of Fame. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-hall-of-fame/
• Rock 100.5 ATL's Bailey and Southside had a recent interview with Chris Jericho talking about the "stupid idiot" catchphrase and the creation of The List. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-stupid-idiot/

[Black Widow]

Naomi sucks and Nickelodeon sucks!

What could possibly go wrong?

[Mr. Nerfect]

I'd love to see Jake Hager in New Japan.

[drave]

Re: Entrances.

Makes sense why they are fucking up Nakamura's entrance then. HHH is a amazing showman and knows how to play the crowd.

As "The Game" theme said "Keep you finger off the switch, Dunn". Seriously, GTFO Dunn.....

[KIRA]

If we get the heel Usos for the Nickelodeon show I'm in.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Random UpUpDownDown Gif:

Originally Posted by Observer Pro Wrestling Sheet reported that Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax will be added to the cast of next season's Total Divas show. Naomi had done an interview earlier this week saying she was also in the cast of the show for the new season.

Link to the report: http://www.prowrestlingsheet.com/new.../#.WTrkv2grKM8

Originally Posted by Observer The tentative schedule for New Japan is that the participants, A and B block, and probably the top matches on the biggest shows for G-1 will be announced during intermission on Sunday. There will also be a press conference on Monday night our time with the cards for both nights in Long Beach. I believe the press conference will be in time for us to cover it on our Monday night audio show.

Originally Posted by Observer Impact last night did 318,000 viewers, up 11 percent for the first show from India.

Originally Posted by Observer Regarding the political story reported in yesterday's update in Las Vegas where a Judge had a superimposed photo of Dwayne Johnson with her appearing that Johnson was endorsing her in an upcoming election, Municipal Court Judge Heidi Almase today apologized on Facebook and fired campaign manager Jennifer Barrier. Barrier is the daughter of former Las Vegas pro wrestling promoter Buffalo Jim Barrier, and she claimed that she would get written proof that Johnson was fine with the endorsement saying that Johnson was a longtime family friend. Almase was embarrassed when people questioned the endorsement and said Barrier was fired for being unable to produce written proof that Johnson was okay with the apparent endorsement. Johnson is currently in Chicago shooting more scenes for the movie "Rampage."

Originally Posted by Observer Both Raw and Smackdown will be taking place on 9/11 and 9/12 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA. They are doing this more and more this year, with the idea that they are able to draw well the second night enough that it makes sense with the savings of production costs of running the same building two nights in a row as far as set-up costs and production not having to travel.

Originally Posted by Obsever Highspots is about to release a documentary on the late Bruiser Brody called "Wrestling's Last Rebel." Among those interviewed in the documentary are myself, Bill Apter, Bobby Fulton, Abdullah the Butcher, Stan Hansen, Tom Prichard, Killer Brooks, Slick, Herb Simmons, Larry Matysik (who wrote a book on Brody), Barbara Goodish, Bret Hart, Ron Bass, Emerson Murray (who wrote a book on Brody), Ricky Steamboat, Tony Atlas (who was there essentially when he died), Jim Ross, Jimmy Hart and Manny Fernandez.

Originally Posted by Observer Matt and Rebecca Hardy welcomed their second son into the world at 11:37 p.m. last night. Wolfgang Xander Hardy was born at the Hardy home. He was seven pounds and four ounces. Matt made the announcement on Twitter earlier today. The Hardys were given off after Sunday's Extreme Rules pay-per-view because Rebecca was due imminently. He wrote in his character that "King Maxel was excited to meet his healthy younger brother. Thanks all." Maxel was regularly featured on television last year when the Hardys were with Impact Wrestling.

Link to Matt Hardy's announcement: https://twitter.com/MATTHARDYBRAND/s...71810681552897

Originally Posted by PWI NFL.com's Michael Fabiano tweeted that former Pittsburgh Steelers' RB DeAngelo Williams will be working for TNA at their 7/2 Slammiversary PPV. Talked to @DeAngeloRB ... he's wrestling for @IMPACTWRESTLING on July 2, but still wants to play football next season. Prefers SB contender. — Michael Fabiano (@Michael_Fabiano) June 9, 2017

Originally Posted by PWI Charlotte Flair was in Vancouver, British Columbia earlier this week filming scenes for the USA Network's Psych: The Movie. When the series ran on the USA Network, there were a number of WWE-related lines in the dialouge and the stars of the show, Dule Hill and James Doday each appeared on Raw. Hill recently starred in the WWE Studios film Sleight.

Originally Posted by PWI Austin Aries knocked down reports that he was taking time off from WWE in an interview to promote his book Food Fight today with USA Today's Josh Barnett at this link. Aries commented, "If you look at the full quote and what I said was, Everyone is dealing with various stuff. I don’t think there is anyone in the locker room is 100%. We’re all nicked and banged up to various degrees. Like anything else, you pick and choose the times you need address when it needs to be addressed and some times are better than others. I figure no matter what interview I do, the real good ‘journalists’ are going to find the completely irrelevant quotes that will drum up some controversy and stick it on their page to get some clicks and completely miss the real context of what the interview is about. That’s what we do nowadays and call it ‘journalism.'” Aries' book was officially released today.

Link to the interview: http://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/06/aust...ok-luke-harper

Originally Posted by PWI A Ruby Riot vs. Asuka match was canceled at the Download Festival today after Riot was busted open legitimately during the match. PWInsider.com is seeking complete results from the show.

Some more details from the match: http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...y-at-download/

Originally Posted by PWI The following press release, announcing that AAA Lucha Libre from Mexico: Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide wrestling to be aired on free UK sports channel Front Runner Mexico’s biggest wrestling promotion Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide is set to be broadcast on UK television for the first time in its history, exclusively on the free-to-air sports channel Front Runner. The first show will be aired on Wednesday 14th June at 9:00 pm to 19 million homes across the UK and Northern Ireland on SKY ch469, Freesat ch250, Freeview ch91, Talk Talk/ BT ch91.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc This month marks 10 years since Curtis Axel started training under WWE Hall of Famer Harley Race. Axel made his in-ring debut at a WLW show on July 13th, 2007, teaming with Ted DiBiase Jr. to defeat Dinn T. Moore and Branden Tatum. Axel tweeted the following today: Hard to believe I started training at WLW, aka Harley Race Wrestling Academy, 10 yrs ago... Been a fun ride, but the best is yet to come! — Curtis Axel (@RealCurtisAxel) June 9, 2017

Originally Posted by WrestleInc TJP responded to a rumor that his name was changed from TJ Perkins because Vince McMahon hates the "Perkins" restaurant changed. TJP noted that he himself had requested the change, as seen below: Actually I just asked to be called TJP. Not very complicated. https://t.co/SLkXP8GCEY — ????TJ Perkins???? (@MegaTJP) June 9, 2017

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Jessie Godderz is apparently done with Impact Wrestling. Godderz has been with the company since 2011 and has held the TNA World Tag Team Championship on two occasions with Robbie E.

Some other sheet news includes:

• UK's Metro had a recent interview with Kurt Angle talking about his past drug issues and who he would want to wrestle in a possible future match. http://metro.co.uk/2017/06/09/exclus...6697238/%C2%A0
• 205 Live star Mustafa Ali celebrated the birth of his son today. https://twitter.com/MustafaAliWWE/st...79397964083201
• Website NOLA.com had a recent interview with Kevin Owens talking about Mania 34, dream Mania match, and coming up with new ideas for using objects in matches. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-wrestlemania/
• PressbOx had a recent interview with Gail Kim talking about WWE's change in views on women's wrestling, plans for a return to wrestling, and Impact Wrestling's new owners. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-women-in-wwe/

[Volare]

Alexa will save Total Divas.

[Big Vic]

Pekins reminds me of "Perkaset" or however it's spelled.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Samoa Joe channeling his inner HBK:

Originally Posted by Observer To the surprise of nobody, the NBA playoffs led to Raw doing the second lowest number in its modern history, averaging 2.53 million viewers. The only lower number for a modern Raw was the September 26th, 2016, show, going against the Trump-Clinton debate, which did 2.46 million viewers. Raw was fourth for the night on cable. Raw was down 15 percent from last week, which is no surprise. It would have likely fallen below the Trump-Clinton number had it not been for a decent first hour with the Brock Lesnar/Samoa Joe angle. The decision to do the angle earlier in the show meant more people saw it, but sacrificed the show's overall rating because they had nothing close to that level to build toward for the remaining nearly three hours. The third hour, in particular, did poorly, but still better than it did on debate night. The debate drew far more viewers than the NBA playoffs. The Warriors-Cavaliers game did 24.47 million viewers ... The three hours were: 8 p.m. 2.77 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.52 million viewers 10 p.m. 2.34 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer When John Cena returns to WWE television next month, he'll be doing so with a storyline that he's a "free agent" ... What that actually means quickly became a question. And people naturally wondered if it was related to the announcement that Roman Reigns will be making on Raw next week about his plans for SummerSlam. Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez briefly discussed the matter on last night's edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, and Meltzer noted that he was told that Cena won't be Reigns' opponent at SummerSlam. The idea is apparently for Cena to be able to appear on both Raw and SmackDown even if it goes against the brand split because he's one of the only draws that WWE has.

Originally Posted by Observer Paige wrote that she's getting her last X-rays after neck surgery and seemed to indicate that she could be coming back soon. She also posted pictures of herself working out on Instagram.

Link to the post: https://twitter.com/RealPaigeWWE/sta...84344748605440

Originally Posted by Observer The Daily Mail ran a story yesterday about Bray Wyatt's wife Samantha filing for divorce. Samantha's lawyer alleged that Wyatt was having an affair with WWE ring announcer JoJo.

Originally Posted by Observer As they usually do, WWE is sending the Golden State Warriors a customized championship belt for their NBA finals win. The company also sent one to the Pittsburgh Penguins for their Stanley Cup victory.

Warriors belt: https://twitter.com/TripleH/status/874666649667895303 , Penguins belt: https://twitter.com/TripleH/status/874303379366977541

Originally Posted by Observer Eight years ago today, Mitsuharu Misawa passed away following a match in Japan. Hideo Itami (formerly KENTA) paid tribute to Misawa on Twitter: "Never forget. We miss you."

Link to Itami's tribute post: https://twitter.com/HideoItami/statu...31666965495809

Originally Posted by Observer Ring of Honor has announced two more matches for their Best in the World pay-per-view. KUSHIDA will defend the ROH TV title against Marty Scurll, plus Motor City Machine Guns, Jay White & Jonathan Gresham will face The Rebellion in an eight-man tag.

Originally Posted by Observer When Impact Wrestling begins taping in Orlando again on July 3rd, the company will be hosting a ceremony to honor those who were affected by last year's attack at the Pulse Nightclub. Yesterday marked one year since the tragedy.

Link to the announcement: http://impactwrestling.com/orlando-united-day/

Originally Posted by Observer Netflix's "GLOW" series has been made available to a lot of television reviewers and has gotten very positive reviews. Entertainment Weekly gave the series an A and UPROXX's Alan Sepinwall called the first episode "very promising."

Originally Posted by Observer New Japan Pro Wrestling has announced many of the matches for the shows in Long Beach on July 1st and 2nd. The July 1st live show on AXS TV will be headlined by Kazuchika Okada vs. Cody for the IWGP Heavyweight title and will also feature first round matches in the United States Heavyweight title tournament. Those are: Kenny Omega vs. Michael Elgin, Jay Lethal vs. Hangman Page, Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tetsuya Naito, and Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Juice Robinson. The semifinals and finals of the tournament will be on July 2nd, plus a weird match with Hiroshi Tanahashi defending his Intercontinental title against Billy Gunn. The card for July 1st is -- IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada defending against Cody Michael Elgin vs. Kenny Omega in a US title first round match Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tetsuya Naito in a US title first round match IWGP Tag Team Champions Guerrillas of Destiny defending against War Machine David Finlay, Jay White, KUSHIDA & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Sho Tanaka, Yohei Komatsu, Yoshitatsu & Billy Gunn Juice Robinson vs. Zack Sabre Jr. in a US title first round match Jay Lethal vs. Hangman Page in a US title first round match Titan, Dragon Lee, Volador Jr. & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Hiromu Takahashi, BUSHI, EVIL & SANADA Roppongi Vice, Will Ospreay & The Briscoes vs. The Young Bucks, Marty Scurll, Yujiro Takahashi & Bad Luck Fale July 2nd will have (with more matches to be announced) -- The semifinals and finals of the US title tournament IWGP Intercontinental Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi defending against Billy Gunn IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks defending against Roppongi Vice

Originally Posted by Observer Mark Andrews suffered what appeared to be a neck injury earlier today in an eight-man tag match on the NXT show in Derby, UK. He was taken out on a stretcher and went to the hospital, but he is okay.

Originally Posted by PWI PWInsider.com has heard from multiple sources that Raw star Braun Strowman, 33, who has been out of action after suffering an elbow injury last month, is set to return soon. The word backstage at Raw was that Strowman was cleared to return to WWE action a week ago and will be back as soon as WWE Creative plots his return into Raw storylines. Strowman underwent surgery in mid-May following the WWE European tour. At the time, WWE reported he had suffered a shattered elbow and would be out six months. That was likely stated in order to showcase Strowman making a huge superhuman comeback early.

Originally Posted by PWI Dash Wilder of the Revival, who had been out with a broken jaw that had to be wired shut, was involved in the big fracas between Samoa Joe and Brock Lesnar that opened Raw, so he is officially back from injury.

Originally Posted by PWI We have received a number of emails asking about a long-haired wrestler who was involved in the melee as well. That was Bo Dallas, who has changed his look a little by growing his hair out and is now sporting a goatee.

Originally Posted by PWI The Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame, a non-profit museum and Hall based in Wichita Falls, Texas applied for two trademarks for "World Class Championship Wrestling" (one for the name, and the other for the well known WCCW logo featuring two wrestlers grappling) for merchandise and toys/action figures purposes. The trademarks were applied for on 6/7. World Class was once one of the most popular promotions in the world, empowered by the Von Erich family, The Fabulous Freebirds and Chris Adams, among others. The original incarnation of the company under that name was used in September 1982 and ran through late 1989, when the initials were replaced by the USWA name. World Wrestling Entertainment purchased the World Class video library from Kevin Von Erich and once sold a t-shirt utilizing the WCCW logo in conjunction with their "Triumph and Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling" documentary. PWInsider.com research into the logo's trademark reveals it was abandoned in 2003.

Originally Posted by PWI Ring of Honor revealed the first talents set for their first-ever War of the Worlds UK tour set for this summer. ROH champion Christopher Daniels, ROH Tag Team champions the Young Bucks, Jay Lethal, Kazarian, the Briscoes as well as CMLL stars Atlantis, Rey Bucanero, Ultimo Guerrero, and Mistico will be appearing. The tour will consist of the following dates in England and Scotland: August 17th – RevPro Summer Sizzler 2017 at York Hall - London , England August 18th – WOTW UK Night 1 at York Hall – London , England August 19th – WOTW UK Night 2 at Liverpool Olympia – Liverpool, England August 20th – WOTW UK Night 3 at Edinburgh Corn Exchange – Edinburgh , Scotland

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Sin Cara and his fans have been using the "#PushSinCara" hashtag over the past few days with Cara re-tweeting many fan comments. He pinned this tweet at the top of his account: All #Dreams can come true, If you have the courage to pursue them! ???? @WWE @wweespanol @WWE_es TodosSomosSinCara #PoderLatino #PushSinCara pic.twitter.com/xmi2EEsPV2 — Sin Cara (@SinCaraWWE) June 13, 2017

Some other sheet news includes:

• Bellator announced they have recently signed former Smackdown announcer Mauro Ranllo to a deal to be a commentator for their MMA shows. Also snagged Mike Goldberg who was rumored for a while to be a target by the WWE as Mauro's replacement. http://www.f4wonline.com/mma-news/be...oldberg-237201
• Renee Young recently revealed on Twitter about not being on future seasons for Total Divas.
• Indie promotion WrestleCircus announced they have signed a deal with Twitch and will be the first wrestling company showing live events on the service. https://twitter.com/wrestlecircus/st...73427998797824

[Mr. Nerfect]

I'm looking forward to those New Japan shows. I'm thinking that War Machine might win the Tag Titles.

Lol, Sin Cara.

[ClockShot]

Please bring Braun back Monday night.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Even if he's healthy, I'd leave him off RAW until the night after GBF. Joe beats Brock for the belt and Brock is throwing shit around on RAW, calling out Joe. Braun's music hits and the two have a stand-off in the ring -- Brock suddenly more stoic. Joe later arrives at the building and someone asks if he heard Brock calling him out, and he just shrugs.

At SummerSlam run Brock vs. Braun and Joe vs. Balor for the belt in the main event. Joe can beat Balor at SummerSlam, Clash and finally inside Hell in a Cell -- Balor getting a little closer each time. Brock vs. Joe rematch at Survivor Series where Brock can win back the belt -- assuming that you want to do Brock vs. Reigns at WrestleMania. Hell, you can probably pad Joe's reign out more and give him matches against John Cena and Jeff Hardy. I don't know why I'm throwing Hardy's name in there -- I guess because he's over. Brock should probably go over Braun if he's getting the belt back -- Braun will just look good tossing Brock across the ring. But why not consider putting Braun over and using Brock to actually get some of their newer guys over? Especially if Brock has that rematch all lined up and doesn't need to re-contend by the laws of their own canon.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

Show was on Jerichos podcast and said flatout he hated tapings because creative sucks lol.

[#1-norm-fan]

Originally Posted by Dastardly Dale Newstead Show was on Jerichos podcast and said flatout he hated tapings because creative sucks lol.

Show should be a legend at this point. I mean Andre-level. He's so fucking good if you don't factor in the way he's been booked his entire WWE career.

[Sepholio]

Lesnar doesn't need to lose any time soon. He has to rebuild the monster hype after that feud with Oldberg...

[#1-norm-fan]

Between giving Triple H his win back, giving Taker his win back after ending the streak, getting squashed by Goldberg, can you imagine if Lesnar was full-time? He'd have been fucked up and re-built as a monster to a Big Show/Kane level by this point. Thank God he's a part-timer.

[#1-norm-fan]

Also, lol @ Cena being a free agent.

[Emperor Smeat]

Originally Posted by #1-wwf-fan Also, lol @ Cena being a free agent.

Pretty much the WWE admitting they are terrible at building new mega stars and legit revolve around Cena. Unless the plan is to finally use up Cena's star power on both brands to actually rub off on new and future mega stars, just going to be the usual with Cena.

[#1-norm-fan]

It's also the first sign of another jumbled mess of a brand split. Plus it doesn't make sense. Why the fuck is Cena a free agent?

[Emperor Smeat]

Originally Posted by #1-wwf-fan It's also the first sign of another jumbled mess of a brand split. Plus it doesn't make sense. Why the fuck is Cena a free agent?

They half-assed the Shakeup stuff this year and all supposedly because Vince got cold feet on doing an actual trade episode(s) and some of the ideas they had for swaps.

If RAW made an announcement about resigning Lesnar to a deal or WWE mentioning stuff about free agency, could have easily spin the Cena stuff as him wanting to test the market.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Randy's reaction to the Smackdown News:

Originally Posted by Observer Following near-record low ratings for Monday Night Raw the night before, WWE got more bad news in the form of Tuesday's SmackDown numbers. The show did just 2.072 million viewers, the second lowest number since the brand split last July. It beat only the November 8th episode, which went up against presidential election coverage on both cable and network TV. Unlike most weeks where SmackDown is at or near the top of cable viewership, the show was just 13th on cable for the day in terms of total viewers. It was second in the 18-49 demo with a 0.63 rating, trailing only a new edition of "30 for 30" on ESPN. Viewership was virtually identical to the SmackDown number from one year ago this week, which was 2.073 million. The bad news there is that show aired via tape delay and went up against game six of the NBA finals.

Outside of being #2 in the most important demo, complete disaster by Smackdown this week for numbers and comparisons.

Originally Posted by Observer WWE posted an article on their website today in an attempt to make sense of John Cena's "free agency." It notes that Cena became a free agent in storyline after April's superstar shakeup.

Link to the article: http://www.wwe.com/shows/smackdown/a...e-agent-status

Originally Posted by Observer Zack Ryder returned to television on SmackDown last night and for now is being paired with Mojo Rawley again. Pro Wrestling Sheet reported that Ryder has been cleared to return to the ring. He had been out since suffering a knee injury last December.

Link to the article: http://www.prowrestlingsheet.com/zac.../#.WUG_JBPyvOQ

Originally Posted by Observer Pro Wrestling Sheet also reported that Rusev has been cleared to return to action. He underwent shoulder surgery in March.

Link to the article: http://www.prowrestlingsheet.com/rus.../#.WUG_ZRPyvOQ

Originally Posted by Observer WWE is returning to China with the company's first show in Shenzhen on September 17th.

Originally Posted by Observer Johnny Mundo (John Hennigan) and Taya Valkyrie (Kira Forster) announced their engagement.

Originally Posted by PWI For some reason this evening, a rumor began spreading online that WWE Hall of Famer Bob Orton had passed away. That is not the case. Orton is alive and well and is scheduled to appear at ringside for his son Randy Orton's match against WWE champion Jinder Mahal at WWE Money in the Bank. We normally ignore rumors but due to the sheer amount of email we have received, we felt it was important to shoot the report down.

Originally Posted by PWI As PWInsider broke two weeks ago in the Elite section, the following names have been confirmed for the Mae Young Classic tournament, which will tape 7/13 and 7/14 in Winter Park, Florida at Full Sail Live: *Zhao Xia - The first Chinese woman to sign a developmental deal with WWE and was brought over as part of a group of Chinese trainees who have been working out in the WWE Performance Center. Xia has trained in martial arts and has had multiple first-place finishes in various martial arts and fitness competitions, including the Second World Traditional Chinese Wushu Championship, the Nike Challenge Competition and First China Throw Down: Battle on the Bund. *Mary Kate- The former Rosie LottaLove in TNA, was originally trained at the Team 3D Academy, who completely remade herself on the independents and later toured in Japan. *Bianca Blair - former crossfit and track star that was signed by WWE in April 2016 *Danielle Kamela - Trained by Rikishi's Knox Pro school in Arizona, Kamela was an on air personality for Fox Sports Arizona, an Arizona Cardinals cheerleader and a former member of the Phoenix Suns’ dance team before signing a WWE deal. She was in the top 30 finalists for the most recent version of Tough Enough as well. *Julia Ho - Canadian model and MMA fighter, who trained with Brian Kendrick before being signed. Kimberly Frankele aka Kimber Lee - The former CHIKARA Grand champion. *Lacey Evans - Former Marine, who recently debuted on WWE NXT TV. *Victoria Gonzales - The daughter of Rudy Boy Gonzales Gonzalez played basketball for two seasons at Texas A&M-Kingsville before transferring to Sam Houston State, redshirting one year and playing another before graduating in 2013. She was signed to a WWE developmental deal last year. *Sarah Logan- The former Crazy Mary Dobson aka Sarah Bridges, who recently debuted under that name on WWE NXT TV. *Taynara Melo - A black-belt judoka from Brazil who was signed last year.

Originally Posted by PWI Luke Harper tweeted that "Mohawk", a horror movie that features the Smackdown Live star, will be featured at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montréal July 20-23rd. The synopsis for the film is as follows: "Set in 1814, MOHAWK tells the white-knuckle tale of two young Mohawk warriors and their British lover pursued by murderous American military renegades Hell-bent on blind revenge, and features a striking ensemble cast that includes Kaniehtiio Horn, Eamon Farren, Ezra Buzzington, Jonathan Huber (WWE Superstar Luke Harper), and Noah Segan. History often hurts, but sometimes it hits hard enough to kill." Harper plays the role of Lachlan Allsopp in the film.

Originally Posted by PWI If you watched 205 Live last night, you saw that Vic Joseph was in Tom Phillips' spot. The move is official, as noted by Phillips' tweet below. Very excited for @VicJosephWWE to join #205Live! Be sure to check him out every Tuesday night — Tom Phillips (@TomPhillipsWWE) June 14, 2017

Originally Posted by WrestleInc WWE officials are planning on doing a match between Triple H and WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle in the near future, according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio. No word yet on when the match will take place or how they will get there but it could have something to do with the storyline WWE has been doing with Angle and Corey Graves. RAW Commissioner Stephanie McMahon should be returning to TV soon to work with her new RAW General Manager. Stephanie has been off TV since WrestleMania 33 and Angle was named GM the next night on RAW.

Some other sheet news includes:

• Fox Sports had a recent interview with Sami Zayn talking about his NXT match with Nakamura and MitB this year. http://www.foxsports.com/wwe/gallery...himself-061317
• Puma, Foot Locker, and WWE are partnering on a limited edition WWE series sneakers. https://solecollector.com/news/2017/...nspired-by-wwe
• Recent episode of Talk Is Jericho podcast had Big Show as the guest. https://www.podcastone.com/episode/BigShowReturns
• A Music Blog, Yea? (AMBY) had a recent interview with Dalton Castle talking about his start in wrestling, The Boys, and being nervous while wrestling. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...g-with-nerves/
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, its now legally possible to bet on which matches Observer's Dave Meltzer will likely give 4+ star ratings. Irish bookies Paddy Power now accepts these type of bets for wrestling. https://sports.paddypower.mobi/#spor...event/12382739