TPWW's Official Dirty Sheets News Thread

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Rey Mysterio's alter ego ... Rey Mysterio:

Originally Posted by Observer Raw last night drew an almost identical number to the week before, up one percent to 2.70 million viewers. The ratings pattern was interesting, while not like last week where the third hour was the highest, this week the first hour was low, the second hour had a strong gain, and the third hour was down, but not badly. The third hour was actually higher than the first hour, which has been a rare occurrence in recent years ... This week was down five percent from the same week last year. The three hours were: 8 p.m. 2.64 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.82 million viewers 10 p.m. 2.66 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer/PWI Indies Roundup: Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix defend the MLW tag titles on the 7/19 show in Long Island City, NY against Aerostar & Drago. MVP on Instagram noted that he was released by MLW saying it's for reasons he said he doesn't completely understand. He was wrestling and agenting for the group. Court Bauer just said that he wishes him the best, that he is fully released to appear anywhere immediately and that this quietly took place a few weeks ago. He said his final appearance with MLW, a Boiler Room Brawl with Sami Callihan which was the blow-off of their angle, will air on television Friday night. Matt Riddle vs. Shane Strickland for the Evolve title has been announced as the main event for a show on 8/4 at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia. There will also be a show on 8/5 in Melrose, MA with Riddle vs. Austin Theory with stips to be announced and Tracy Williams & Josh Briggs vs. Catch Point. They also announced an 8/11 show in Chicago and 8/12 show in Livonia, MI. WALTER vs. Tomohiro Ishii is set for Revolution Pro Wrestling’s Summer Sizzler show at York Hall in London on August 17. WALTER booted Ishii after Ishii’s match with Minoru Suzuki on Sunday, then had a staredown with Suzuki. In episode two of “All Us,” Cody Rhodes said they’ll probably start rolling out matches week by week for All In any day now. He mentioned that he doesn’t think they’ll ever reveal a full card prior to the show. MLW World Champion Shane Strickland will defend his title against Sami Callihan at MLW’s July 19 Battle Riot event in Queens, New York. Ring of Honor posted the following : One of the most sadistic and masochistic wrestlers in the world makes his Ring of Honor debut in Edinburgh as part of Ring of Honor’s Inaugural International Cup! Jimmy Havoc has held championships from all around the globe, including the Progress Championship and CZW Tournament of Death 2016, and is the first competitor announced for the inaugural ROH International Cup!

RevPro: https://twitter.com/RevProUK/status/1013884515536826368 , Cody: https://youtu.be/LbUlPXZTZWI , MLW: https://twitter.com/MLW/status/1014142652231667712

Originally Posted by Observer The book "Eggshells: Pro Wrestling in the Tokyo Dome" by Chris Charlton will be released on 7/17. We'll have more on that as the date comes closer.

Originally Posted by Observer Shinsuke Nakamura will be out for a couple of more weeks. In an interview with Nikkan Sports, Nakamura said that it would possibly be two more weeks before he could return to the ring. He will continue to be evaluated over the next few weeks until a timetable for a return is more clear. He was injured last Monday after a police dog, who was doing a sweep before a SmackDown house show in Bakersfield, California for explosives, bit Nakamura during the inspection. His originally scheduled match against Jeff Hardy for the United States title was canceled the following day and he hasn’t been able to wrestle since. Nakamura did not wrestle on this weekend’s house show events in Asia, but did appear in front of crowds on crutches explaining that he couldn’t wrestle. Two times, Samoa Joe came out and the two got into it before AJ Styles made the save.

Link: https://www.nikkansports.com/battle/...300000337.html

Originally Posted by Observer Jinder Mahal appeared on last night’s Main Event tapings and defeated Zack Ryder. The Ascension also defeated Heath Slater & Rhyno.

Apparently that was The Ascension's first tag win since February 2016. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCirc...s_been_broken/

Originally Posted by PWI ROH tweeted the following: #SeaOfHonor Tournament match on the @jericho_cruise!@theAdamPage vs @FrankieKazarian Book your cabin NOW, maaan!https://t.co/weIdUJuRJS #JerichoCruise pic.twitter.com/Og6oVBYCIK — ROH Wrestling (@ringofhonor) July 3, 2018

Link: https://twitter.com/ringofhonor/stat...65602388697088

Originally Posted by PWI TMZ.com reported this evening that former NFL star D'Angelo Williams, who had an incredible performance at last year's Slammiversary PPV, will be returning to the company next week. Williams will be getting involved in the Moose vs. Austin Aries storyline leading into their main event match at the 7/22 Slammiversary PPV in Toronto. Williams will appear on the 7/12 episode of Impact Wrestling, helping Moose with his training for the PPV bout. Williams had an excellent first-time showing last year, teaming with Moose in a victory over Eli Drake and Chris Adonis, but announced afterwards that he intended his excursion into pro wrestling to be a one-time visit. Obviously, that has changed, although there's no official word whether he'll be stepping back inside the ring. Impact is pushing the Williams return early, potentially as a way to reverse the recent dip in their weekly Impact Wrestling audience.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Daniel Bryan was interviewed on The Gorilla Position podcast during the recent European tour in May. Bryan said it’s been tougher than he imagined being on the road and away from his daughter, mentioning that he missed her first birthday and Mother’s Day that month as well. With the WWE’s event in Saudi Arabia at the end of April and the European tour in May, Bryan stated that he was only home three days in the stretch of one month. He would prefer a schedule in the ballpark of 50-100 dates per year with the initial plan prior to his clearance being “a revised concussion protocol for a limited schedule”, and instead of a limited schedule, he is booked on everything currently.

Link with some quotes and video: http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-do-you-trust/

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Chris Jericho has announced he will be recording a special Eddie Guerrero tribute podcast with Konnan and Rey Mysterio on his Rock ‘N Wrestling Rager Cruise that takes place from October 27th – 31st and sails from Miami to the Bahamas.

Originally Posted by Observer There is a ton of news in this new Being the Elite including the tease of Chris Jericho & The Young Bucks teaming up, as well as the mock Joey Ryan funeral and all kinds of tongue-in-cheek strorylines, and the legit announcement of a Young Bucks children's book.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2iNXTXWoVU


Some other sheet news includes:

• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Sunday was the 27th anniversary of Ric Flair's firing from WCW. Flair was fired due to a contract dispute and even though he was stripped of the WCW World title, he later appeared on WWF television wearing the Big Gold belt due to the on-going dispute.
• According to the Observer, Lesnar is currently rumored to be staying in the WWE due to not entering USADA's drug testing pool prior to the July 1st deadline. Won't be able to fight in UFC's final event of the year and still has a 6 month suspension to serve if he does resume his MMA career.
• According to PWI, WWE is considering the idea of inducting Matt Cappotelli as the Warrior Award recipient for next year's Hall of Fame class. http://wrestlingnews.co/wwe-news/ear...-hall-of-fame/
• Recent episode of the Talk Is Jericho podcast show had Jericho talk about Eric Bischoff being nicknamed "ATM Eric", his proposed WCW feud with Brad Armstrong, and being "drained" while working in WCW. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...ng-drained-in/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Deonna Purrazzo Unable to Compete in “All In” Due to Signing With WWE
• Ruby Riott Injury Update
• WWE: Brief Bray Wyatt Update, Main Event Results, Owens After Raw
• Various: Ricky Steamboat Surgery, Bret Hart’s Birthday

[Mr. Nerfect]

Come on Brock and Danielson to NJPW...

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Swaggie Soaring Eagle Appreciation Day:

Originally Posted by Observer Today is the 25th anniversary of Lex Luger slamming Yokozuna in the WWF’s body slam challenge on the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier in New York. Their match at SummerSlam 1993 ended with Luger winning by countout, with him never becoming WWF World Champion.

Link: https://www.wwe.com/videos/lex-luger...na-july-4-1993

Originally Posted by Observer WWE set up a future Samoa Joe vs. Tye Dillinger match in a post-SmackDown video. It wasn’t specifically announced whether the match will be on next week’s episode or not. Joe wasn’t on last night’s SmackDown and hasn’t been on the show since the Jun 19 number one contender’s gauntlet match. Andrade “Cien” Almas, who hasn’t wrestled on SmackDown since May 22, defeated Sin Cara in a dark match prior to last night’s show but didn’t appear on television. SAnitY vs. The New Day was the post-205 Live dark match, with New Day standing tall after a DQ.

WWE legit needs to do a much better job handling SmackDown's roster. Its one thing to not use every notable star each week, its another when your making notable stars become cold due to lack of use.

Originally Posted by Observer CM Punk’s career from 2006-2008 will be the subject of next week’s season finale of Something Else to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson on the WWE Network.

Link: http://www.wwenetworknews.com/2018/0...-wwe-champion/

Originally Posted by Observer The first trailer has been released for “Miz & Mrs,” The Miz and Maryse’s reality show that will premiere on the USA Network on July 24. Miz described the show in an interview with Entertainment Weekly: “We don’t want to reinvent the wheel, we just want to make a shiny new wheel that people can look at and go, ‘Wow, this is something special, this is something nice,. What we set out to do was make this show [so that] when you watch it you don’t literally look at it and go, ‘Oh that was fake’ or ‘That was real.’ You watch it like you watch Curb Your Enthusiasm, like you watch The Office, like you watch Modern Family. You watch it, you get enthralled by the characters, you follow the stories, and you just enjoy the show. … We made a 30-minute comedy and it’s things that people can relate to and I think that’s what’s gonna set us apart from everybody else.”

Links: http://ew.com/tv/2018/07/03/wwe-the-...first-trailer/ , http://ew.com/tv/2018/07/03/wwe-the-...-first-trailer

Originally Posted by Observer Indies Roundup: ROH announced that Jody Fleisch & Jonny Storm will be wrestling as a tag team on their Honor Re-United UK tour shows in Doncaster on August 18 and London on August 19. They won’t be appearing on the August 16 show in Edinburgh. Impact will begin airing weekly on 52MX in Mexico starting on July 7. Its time slot is on Saturdays at 9:30 p.m. CDT.

ROH: https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/jo...roh-returns-uk , Impact: http://impactwrestling.com/impact-wr...exico-on-52mx/

Originally Posted by PWI On 6/29, WWE applied to register 'Dr. Shelby':

Originally Posted by PWI ROH is running a HUGE flash sale today 7/4 only with 75% off DVDs (and if you are a ROH Honorclub subscriber, you receive an additional 15% off your order). Complete details below: TODAY ONLY! Use checkout code "ROHUSA" for 75% of ALL #ROH DVDs at https://t.co/VgqPj8BfXC!#HonorClub always receives an additional 15% off!!https://t.co/vS7fcMBTTh pic.twitter.com/9IA8MpIhWo — ROH Wrestling (@ringofhonor) July 4, 2018

Link: https://twitter.com/ringofhonor/stat...58273141694464

Originally Posted by PWI We have had a number of readers ask about future WWE plans to add additional vintage content to the WWE Network's Vault section. In speaking to several different sources, we are told that the plans for the next several months are to continue to add additional content to sections that have already been established, not debut any new sections, so if you were looking for Wrestling Challenge or other older WWE series, they will not debut in 2018. The tentative plans for updates going forward include adding the remainder of Mid-South Wrestling episodes, more WWWF All-Star Wrestling, more WCW Saturday Night episodes and adding up to 75 hours of additional WWF Coliseum Home Videos from the 1980s and 1990s, specificially old VHS titles based around personalities. We are told that the initial plan for this month was to add 75 more hours of WCW Saturday Night, but with the decision to finally upload Heat after legalities involving the now-dismissed Buff Bagwell and Raven lawsuit were resolved, Heat being added changed the originally planned schedule for classic additions to the Vault. Mid-Atlantic Wrestling, which was to be uploaded in May was pushed back to this month

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Taeler Hendrix worked for ROH in 2011 and once again from 2015-2017. Hendrix announced her ROH departure on April 4, 2017, and the 29-year-old has been working elsewhere since. Hendrix made claims today that she wasn't pushed in ROH or featured on television after turning down a sexual request from now-ROH Champion Jay Lethal. At this time there is no official word on the situation, but Hendrix wrote on Instagram that her attorneys are in an on-going investigation.

Link: http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...taged-for-not/


Some other sheet news includes:

• Ratings and viewership numbers for this week's Smackdown are delayed due to today being the 4th of July.
• Update to recent Shinsuke Nakamura injury news as WWE currently expects Nakamura to return by Extreme Rules on July 15th.

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• More on Bray Wyatt Car Crash: Cited for “Careless Driving”
• Updated + Rumored WWE Extreme Rules Card After SmackDown
• WWE 205 Live Results – July 3, 2018 – Mustafa Ali vs. Buddy Murphy

[slik]

Notes from the Observer:










]


Meltzer also noted ROH's 'Best In The World' show drew 2,500 fans to Baltimore -- which is the largest crowd for a show w/ homegrown talent (not including Cody) in ROH's history.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I'd be down with Styles and Joe having a feud. The two best in WWE going at it.

David Arquette is actually credible by today's standards.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by NOTHING:

Originally Posted by Observer For the third time in five weeks, SmackDown posted its lowest viewership total of the year, as this week's July 3 episode averaged 2.013 million viewers. That's actually the second-lowest number since the brand split, trailing only a November 2016 edition of the show that went up against coverage of the United States Presidential election ... Year-to-year, the show was down 14 percent from last year's July 4 edition of SmackDown (which featured a heavily-promoted return of John Cena), the third straight week the show has been down double digits. It also retained just 74 percent of the Raw audience from the night before, which was actually up from the previous week.

Originally Posted by Oserver If you are still feel patriotic following the 4th of July, this week’s Hidden Gem on the WWE Network has your back. This week’s upload pretty much has everything regarding Lex Luger’s big push in the summer of 1993: the “I’ll Be Your Hero” music video, footage of Luger touring the United States on the Lex Express bus, b-roll footage of Luger’s babyface turn on the USS Intrepid on July 4, 1993 where slammed Yokozuna and the WWE title match at that year's SummerSlam. The footage runs slightly over the three hour mark. The patriotic push came after Luger had an initial middling run as a heel, the Narcissist. The original plan was for him to defeat Yokozuna for the WWE title at SummerSlam 1993, but the win was pushed to WrestleMania X. By the time that show rolled around, plans changed again and ultimately Luger never got over in the way WWE was hoping for. Luger jumped to WCW in 1995 and won the WCW title once before the company folded in 2001.

Link: https://twitter.com/WWENetworkChron/...52348420739073

Originally Posted by Observer WWE will be announcing its second quarter business results on 7/26. Among the key items will be the value of the WWE Saudi Arabian deal, and how well network subscriptions held up after WrestleMania.

Originally Posted by Observer/PWI Indies Roundup: The two New Japan shows from the U.K. from the weekend are now up on both the Revolution Pro and New Japan World streaming sites. River City Wrestling tomorrow night in San Antonio at the Turner Club with Nick Aldis vs. Lance Hoyt for the NWA world title and Abyss vs. Joey Spector in Monster's Ball match for the River City title, and Rebel Tanea Brooks vs. Paige Turner. AAW on 7/21 in Merrionette Park, IL at 115 Bourbon Street has ACH & Davey Vega & Mat Fichett vs. David Starr & Eddie Kingston & Trevor Lee, Kimber Lee vs. Su Yung, Dave & Jake Crist vs. Brody King & Jimmy Jacobs, MJF vs. Ace Romero in a street fight and Rey Fenix vs. Dezmond Xavier. Deonna Purrazzo faces Kylie Rae at the Rise TV tapings on Sunday in Naperville, IL. Stardom announced there will be a Stardom & Rise tournament on 7/14 in Tokyo at Shinkiba First Ring. Two matches announced are Tam Nakano vs. Kikyo and Nasuko Tora vs. Britt Baker. The Bakersfield Dome, which has housed pro wrestling for decades, is being demolished and replaced with an immigration detention center. The ITV World of Sport wrestling show looks to be debuting on 7/21 in the 5 p.m. Saturday time slot. Due to a carriage charge dispute, El Rey at press time is off Sling TV.

The latest announced Impact special set for the company's Twitch.TV channel is Sunday 7/29 at 3 PM as North Carolina's AML will host an event featuring their regulars vs. Impact stars at the Triad in Greensboro, NC. Set for the event: *Moose vs. Jaxon Stone. *Eddie Edwards vs. Chris Payne. *AML Tag Team Champions The Extreme Horsemen vs. The Heavenly Bodies. *Matt Sydal vs. Caleb Konley. *Fallah Bahh vs. Zane Dawson with George South. *Suicide vs. Brandon Scott vs. Devin Driscoll vs. Sean Denny vs. Gifted One Yanya: Fan's Choice. *Eli Drake vs. Axton Ray. *Allie vs. Kristen Stadtlander.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Lavie Margolin, who is the author of “Trumpmania: Vince McMahon, WWE and the making of America’s 45th President”, has compiled data to assess Ring of Honor’s business at the mid-way point of 2018. The statistics were compiled through the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Wrestling Data, and the Internet Wrestling Database. It compares the numbers in each category to the first six months of each year of Ring of Honor’s existence dating back to 2002. ROH’s average attendance for the first six months of 2018 is a record high 1,412 per show, greatly assisted by Supercard of Honor over WrestleMania weekend that drew ROH’s highest attendance in their history with approximately 6,000 people (Margolin has a figure of 5,879 for the show). The average is up 27.7% from the same period in 2017 and up 52% from 2016. In looking at the chart, one notable drop came in 2012. When the Sinclair purchase of the company went down in May 2011, they averaged 823 for the first six months of 2011 and one year later dropped to 671 per show. Total attendance for the first six months of 2018 is listed at 32,484 (it is listed as total attendance for the six months and not a breakdown of paid and free), which is a giant leap of 42% from the same period in 2017. Again, Supercard of Honor is a big factor for the jump as they drew 6,000 for their biggest card of all-time, which was a net gain of 2,500 from the Supercard of Honor event in 2017 in Orlando. That said, even if Supercard of Honor drew the identical number as 2017, you would still have a record attendance number this year by a substantial margin from the previous high of 24,307 in 2017.

Link: https://twitter.com/Laviemarg/status...81550016679937

Originally Posted by Observer The awareness locally isn’t there. Really, none of my friends who might be interested in the Cow Palace show had any awareness of such a show. There was a Japan Day festival in San Francisco on 7/1 and there was no presence of anything publicizing the show and that would have hit a huge audience. One of our readers went through Japan Town while there and said aside from postcards in a display rack off a side alley in one mall, a poster on bulletin wall outside a market and a full page ad on Japan weekly, there was no publicity for the show in San Francisco, and we’ve heard or seen nothing in San Jose. One of the Japanese video store owners who is a pro wrestling fan had no idea there was a show at the Cow Palace, and he knew about the Long Beach shows

Originally Posted by Observer Michael Elgin, who has done limited indie dates in months, was back doing a few dates in the U.S. this past weekend. Because of social media reaction to him, he has done very little U.S. wrestling this year. New Japan didn’t even book him on their U.S. shows with the idea of a fear of a social media backlash. Even a number of promoters who wanted him on shows, including one national office, saw the reaction and tried to steer clear of it. He had worked a few U.S. shows and several Canadian shows without any incident or crowd issues but they fell under the radar and weren’t shows pushed hard through regular social media channels

Originally Posted by Observer Regarding rumors of WWE buying Evolve and putting it on the network, there have been talks of that from the start of the relationship between the two brands. It could happen soon or it could never happen. WWE allowing them usage of Adam Cole, but not on the WWN streaming service, isn’t a signal of anything because they’ve done that before. Whether it’s ICW, Progress or Evolve, WWE will put some or all on the network as soon as Vince McMahon makes that call. He’s gone back-and-forth on it for close to two years, including many times where he said yes and then changed his mind. If you understand the mindset, what would have spurred it on is if Flo Slam was a success, because it was ITV talking about doing wrestling in the U.K. that spurred the deals there, and FloSlam when it kicked off may have sped things up, but ITV then cooled down after the first taping and seemingly disappeared, and Flo Slam didn’t get off to a big start and is no longer around

Originally Posted by Observer Rollins was interviewed by the Asbury Park Press for an upcoming show. He noted that the attempts for the full-fledged Shield reunion tour kept falling apart, first when Reigns got the mumps, injuries that changed around shows and most notably due to the Ambrose surgery for a torn triceps. “It started off great I thought. The reconciliation over the summer, myself and Ambrose winning the tag team titles, and then bringing Roman into the fold was really well done and a lot of fun and exciting. And then, the mumps happened, and there’s nothing you can really do about that, so that threw a real wrench into the plans. And Ambrose got hurt, so what can you do? That’s part of the business. That’s part of the game. One thing that’s exciting about it is I think it leaves us a lot of room for future Shield reunions, so that’s cool to see. If we get an opportunity to do that at some point down the road, that would be great. You know, we haven’t done it, and thrown it away and wasted it. It just stuff happens, you can’t predict those variables of people getting sick or injured.” He said he hoped that Ambrose would be back by the end of the year. He had surgery in December so one would think he should be back a lot sooner than that, as originally they estimated September and later I’d heard they were hoping for August

Originally Posted by Observer The top ten most-watched shows on the WWE Network for the past week were: 1. Ride Along with Rusev, English and Lana; 2. 2018 Money in the Bank; 3. NXT on 6/27; 4. UK from London second show; 5. UK from London first show; 6. Something Else to Wrestle with from 6/27 on Big Evil Undertaker; 7. The Hardys: Woken; 8. NXT Takeover Chicago; 9. 205 Live from 6/26; 10. WrestleMania 2018. I’m not sure why, if there was a podcast about it or a story, but the 1998 King of the Ring PPV cracked the top 20 and it’s rare for something in that era ever to do that

Some other stuff includes:

• Website DigitalSpy.com had a recent interview with Goldberg talking about his last run in the WWE. http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/wwe/int...-brock-lesnar/
• Rumor going around the net hints that Rey Mysterio has recently signed a 3-year deal with the WWE. Source of the rumor is a bit sketchy in terms of reliability.
• Also rumors of an official announcement regarding NXT going to FS1 were recently debunked by the Observer. According to Meltzer, the talks between FOX and WWE were only for Smackdown based on his sources close to the situation. He did hint it is possible future talks could result in a separate tv deal for NXT.
• According to the Observer, Toni Storm's WWE contract is only a WWE UK one and not also a NXT one due to her recently revealing her schedule for the rest of the year includes a lot of events in Germany.
• Recent episode of In This Corner podcast show had Bret Hart as the guest talking about CM Punk's recent defamation lawsuit and the time he punched Vince after the Montreal Screwjob incident occurred. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...vince-mcmahon/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Okada vs. Scurll and Three New Names Added to All In
• How Much Is WWE Paying Its NXT UK Wrestlers?
• Injury Updates: Nakamura, Wyatt, Riott, Lorcan, Sullivan
• Kenny Omega Says It’d Be “Missed Opportunity” if He Didn’t Wrestle in WWE

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Random Braun gif:

Originally Posted by Observer New Japan will be back in the Los Angeles area this fall with a number of events. NJPW President Harold Meij announced today at a press conference in San Francisco that the promotion will be returning to Long Beach this fall with Fighting Spirit Unleashed. It will be held on September 30 and will once again be at the Walter Pyramid. In addition, two shows featuring only Young Lion talent will take place in Anaheim on November 10 and November 11. These shows will be called The Lion’s Break, possibly similar to smaller scale young lion events held in Japan called Lion’s Gate Project. This would be the third time New Japan has ran a big show in California this year. Along with Strong Style Evolved back in March, they will be running one of their most ambitious international events yet tomorrow with the G1 Special in San Francisco event at the Cow Palace.

Originally Posted by Observer On Wednesday, former Ring of Honor wrestler Taeler Hendrix (Taeler Conrad-Mellen) said on Twitter that she was taken off TV in 2017 due to her refusing to have sex with Jay Lethal (Jamar Shipman). On Friday, ROH COO Joe Koff released a statement to F4WOnline.com via their PR company: "We were troubled to hear the allegations that surfaced last night on Twitter. We take these matters very seriously and will be investigating this situation thoroughly, reviewing all evidence related to the matter. Ring of Honor strives to provide an environment and workplace where male and female wrestlers are free from any misconduct or abuse. We will take appropriate action upon the conclusion of our findings." The statement was also provided to PWTorch who ran a story about the situation on Thursday. When asked if the company would also release a statement from Shipman or provide a timeline in which their investigation would take place, their PR firm said the statement was all they had. At this point, Shipman hasn't made any public statement.

Link: https://www.pwtorch.com/site/2018/07...nt-to-pwtorch/

Originally Posted by PWI Indies Roundup: The National Wrestling Alliance released the latest edition of their YouTube series Ten Pounds of Gold, focusing on the build to the 9/1 "All In" event where Champion Nick Aldis will defend against Cody Rhodes in Chicago MLW issued the following: BAD BOY JOEY JANELA VS. MJF FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE BOUT SIGNED FOR MLW’S JULY 12 ORLANDO FUSION TV TAPING The company announced Scorpio Sky will challenge Punishment Martinez for the ROH Television Title at the July 20 "Honor for All" event in Nashville. Also announced, Karen Q will have a Proving Ground match against Women of Honor Champion Sumie Sakai. AXS' Mark Cuban spoke to Sports Illustrated ahead of Saturday’s show at the Cow Palace, which will air live on the channel. He hyped up NJPW as the “best pro wrestling in the world” and the “best in the business at long-term storytelling that has a payoff.” He also said AXS is excited about new NJPW president Harold Meij and his goal of increasing English-language content. On the subject of live shows on AXS, Cuban said: “They are a great way to reward viewers of the weekly show and to increase the fanbase in the United States. The viewership and social engagement for live specials in the U.S. explodes as it expands the audience outside of those who will stay up all night for events from Japan.” Cody Rhodes appeared with his hair dyed black at a press conference today prior to challenging for Kenny Omega’s IWGP Heavyweight Championship at the Cow Palace tomorrow. Brandi Rhodes said that Cody dyed his hair for a role on a television show.

NWA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx5V3lpcErY , AXS TV: https://www.si.com/wrestling/2018/07...att-cappotelli , Cody: https://twitter.com/JustinBarrasso/s...35185036951553

Originally Posted by PWI When Cena and Batista both went over the top rope in the 2005 Royal Rumble, was that a legit botch? What was supposed to be the finish of that match? I thought the refs did a great job improvising on the fly. It was 100% a botch. Batista was supposed to throw Cena over the top and win but the momentum sent them both over the top to the floor, which led to Vince McMahon coming out (getting injured entering the ring) and restarting the bout. It was one of those moments where reality crept into wrestling and they had to figure out a way to get back to the planned finish.

From PWI's weekly Q&A articles involving the finish of 2005's Royal Rumble match.

Originally Posted by PWI Joe DeFalco, owner and operator of Las Vegas-based Future Stars of Wrestling posted the following on his Facebook: It's time to let the cat out of the bag. The deal is finalized to bring Impact Wrestling to Las Vegas. Clear your calendars for 3 days in November. More details regarding pricing, VIP's, Meet n Greets, Seminars and More coming soon.

Originally Posted by Observer After announcing in May that they found insufficient evidence to press charges, Phoenix Police released their report on the rape allegation that was made against Enzo Amore. It noted that Amore wasn’t contacted prior to his accuser making the claim public, which is what Amore had said himself and through his lawyers. During an appearance on the Steve Austin Show, Amore noted that a friend’s girlfriend was emailed by someone who said they were an investigator and said someone had made a claim against a wrestler. He said his lawyer looked into that in December and couldn’t find anything that was going on. Amore was released from WWE on January 23, the day after the allegation was made public.

According to a report from Fightful, the victim going public about this alleged incident actually ended making things a lot harder for her case and the police's investigation. Links: http://www.prowrestlingsheet.com/enz.../#.W0AGA9hKgW8 , https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/e...er-went-public

Originally Posted by Observer A new episode of Table for Three with Alexa Bliss, Lita, and Trish Stratus will premiere on the WWE Network after Monday’s Raw.

Originally Posted by Observer Impact Wrestling was back over 300,000 viewers this week, with Thursday night’s episode averaging 304,000 on Pop TV. The rating in the 18-49 demo was a 0.07. Last week’s 254,000 viewers was the lowest total of the year.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling The New Japan Pro Wrestling card takes place Saturday from the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California and will air on AXS TV in the U.S. and New Japan World outside the country. Below is the lineup for Saturday’s show: *Kenny Omega vs. Cody for the IWGP heavyweight title *Jay White vs. Juice Robinson for the United States title *Hiromu Takahashi vs. Dragon Lee for the IWGP junior heavyweight title *Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay vs. Tetsuya Naito & Bushi *The Young Bucks vs. EVIL & Sanada for the IWGP tag titles *Hirooki Goto vs. Jeff Cobb for the NEVER Openweight title *Hiroshi Tanahashi & KUSHIDA vs. Hangman Page & Marty Scurll *Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano *Roppongi 3K, Yoshi-Hashi & Rocky Romero vs. Guerrillas of Destiny, Yujiro & Haku

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Lucha Underground had their lowest viewership of the current season with 88,000 viewers for Wednesday’s episode on the El Rey Network. After an average of 143,000 viewers for the season premiere, the three episodes following have been unable to crack 100,000 viewers. After four episodes, the current season is averaging 106,500 viewers per episode.

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE: Miz in MLB Celebrity Softball Game, Goldberg Title Wins, Strowman
• Kane Criticized By His Opponent for Still Wrestling While Running for Mayor

[Sepholio]

I am thinking of actually moving to the Knoxville area, and if Kane wins the mayoral race, I'll be even more likely to just so that I can raise some issue with him at a council meeting, get overly belligerent and get choke slammed to HAYELL for my disrespect.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Rusev Appreciation Day:

Originally Posted by Observer Raw last night did the all-time record modern low audience with 2.46 million viewers ... The least-watched modern era episode was on September 26, 2016, which also did 2.46 million viewers against both the first Trump-Clinton Presidential debate and the NFL. Last year on the same week Raw did 3.01 million viewers, so this is an 18 percent annual drop. The show started out weak and fell throughout, meaning whatever they were hyping did not keep the audience ... The three hours were: 8 p.m. 2.58 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.51 million viewers 10 p.m. 2.32 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer The Sports Business Journal's John Ourand provided inside details on the recently completed WWE and UFC TV deals that saw the companies lock in more than $4 billion in rights fees over the next five years. Here's some of the key details from the article (subscription needed): - Due to what they believed could be a $400 million/year investment, Fox executives had resigned themselves to three options with the UFC: $200 million for less content, a split package with another network, or a complete exit. - The reason Ari Emanuel of Endeavor was removed from the WWE TV rights negotations, despite being asked by Vince McMahon to head them up, was due to Fox Sports' Eric Shanks telling McMahon it was a conflict of interest to have Emanuel negotiate both deals. CAA, a rival firm, was hired instead, which irked Emanuel. - WWE leadership met with ESPN four times from December 2017 through the spring of 2018, but giving 52 weeks to a product wasn't viable, nor was putting WWE content on ESPN+ due to the WWE Network. - CAA presented NBCUniversal with a $265 million/year offer for Raw and $200 million/year for SmackDown. After the exclusive negotiation window passed and NBCU chose to retain Raw but let SmackDown go, Fox and WWE had essentially negotiated the SmackDown deal the next day. - Turner Sports showed interest in both WWE and UFC, but due to their ongoing litigation with the Department of Justice over their prospective $84 billion merger with AT&T, they weren't a real player in either.

The irony of WWE going on a Turner channel would have been something special had the deal been made. Link with more details: https://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/d...ogether-261306

Originally Posted by Observer As noted from the story earlier today, the Jim Ross/Josh Barnett stuff with Jay White and Juice Robinson was not a work. Ross suffered a rib injury. Barnett just reacted to what was happening. Ross was upset, besides being injured, because the night before he had spoken to officials about fighting outside the ring and near the announcers desk.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc We previously reported Jim Ross was suffering from a possible broken rib after taking an unplanned bump at NJPW's G1 Special In San Francisco. Jay White heaved Juice Robinson through the guardrail outside the ring during their IWGP United States Championship match. The barricade was not properly latched together causing a chain reaction and Ross ended up being knocked from his chair. F4WOnline reports Ross has been diagnosed with issues involving his ribs and lungs after the unscheduled spot. Ross must now cancel three commitments this week due to this injury. The WWE Hall Of Famer is not happy about this spot and he assured fans this is not a work of any kind. Due to problems with his ribs and lungs, JR has also been advised by his doctors to be cautious of contracting phenomena. Ross reportedly spoke to NJPW officials before the show to make sure nobody did any spots around the announce table because he knew how much action could take place outside the ring.

Originally Posted by Observer Ronda Rousey on Instagram said she cried happy tears like a baby at the end of the show in her debut in Madison Square Garden: "There are no words.... thank you New York and MSG for a night I’ll never forget. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t cry like a baby at the end of last night... happy tears, but what a whirlwind past few days have been.... I’m humbled, grateful, and far from finished"

Originally Posted by Observer Indies Roundup: Cody & Brandi Rhodes were announced for the World Series Wrestling Elite tour of Australia in November. ROH will be returning to the UMBC Center in Baltimore for a show on 10/13. That was the site of last week's PPV show, which did one of the largest crowds in company history. Defy Wrestling on Friday night at Washington Hall in Seattle has John Morrison vs. Randy Myers, Shane Strickland & Artemis Spencer & Billy Suede vs. MJF & The Amerikan Gunz, plus Colt Cabana vs. Carl Randers, Taya Valkyrie vs. Nicole Matthews and the debut of Ricky Starks and Luchasaurus. You must be 21 or older to attend. Progress announced Jimmy Havoc vs. TK Cooper for 8/12 in Livonia, MI. The ITV World of Sport wresting show will debut on 7/28 at 5 p.m., or one week later than had it originally been talked about. Viper (Piper Niven in WWE’s first Mae Young Classic) will make her Women of Honor debut at ROH’s Honor Re-United show in Edinburgh on August 16. She’ll be wrestling in her home country of Scotland. NJPW’s G1 Special at the Cow Palace, a bit of fallout from the show, and Chris Jericho putting Marty Scurll on his List are featured on this week’s episode of Being the Elite.

Viper/Pipen: https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/vi...ited-edinburgh , Elite: https://youtu.be/TZ2bxuTtkHw

Originally Posted by Observer The storyline of Flip Gordon trying to get booked for All In will continue at Ring of Honor's show in Nashville, Tennessee later this month. At the end of a video that was uploaded by the NWA today, it was revealed that NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis' next title defense will be against Gordon at "Honor for All" on July 20. The show is taking place at the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville and will air live on HonorClub. The storyline is that Cody Rhodes won't book Gordon for All In, and Gordon has fallen short in every opportunity he's been given to be added to the show. But whoever is NWA Champion on September 1 will defend the title against Cody at All in.

Link: https://youtu.be/0KrfgsCBP_M

Originally Posted by Observer While not confirming the exact injury that he suffered, New Japan Pro Wrestling provided a few additional details on Hiromu Takahashi's condition in an update overnight. NJPW officially announced that Takahashi has been hospitalized after suffering a neck injury during his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship defense against Dragon Lee at the Cow Palace on Saturday night. They noted that Takahashi is currently undergoing a thorough evaluation but is conscious and is able to sit and talk. Dave Meltzer reported yesterday that the original belief was that Takahashi had broken his neck on the Phoenix Plex spot that went wrong when he landed on his head/neck after being given the move by Lee. The match continued for a couple of minutes after that, with Takahashi retaining with the Time Bomb.

Link: https://www.njpw1972.com/31162

Originally Posted by Observer Fans were heckling Taelor Hendrix on her Friday night booking in San Antonio chanting "Jay Lethal," "ROH" and things a lot worse at her. She lashed back at them. Hendrix claimed she stopped being booked on ROH TV in 2017 when she refused to sleep with Jay Lethal. ROH, as noted yesterday, said it was Hendrix who quit the promotion and was still being booked when she quit. Lethal also responded saying there was nothing to the story and then asked not to use his words to attack himself or his accuser. "There is already too much hate going around in this world, so let's not add to it." He said he was confident the accusations will be proven to be completely unfounded and noted ROH is doing an investigation. Here's the deal, whatever you want to believe, please don't heckle either person involved regarding this situation. It's just hurts it for the fans who want to be entertained.

Originally Posted by Observer Tessa Blanchard has officially signed with Impact Wrestling. Impact announced the news via Twitter this afternoon: "BREAKING: @Tess_Blanchard will continue to prove she's undeniable in the Knockouts Division as she has signed a long-term contract with IMPACT Wrestling." Aside from it being a "long-term" deal, the exact length of the contract wasn't disclosed. Blanchard debuted for Impact at their Redemption pay-per-view this past April and has been feuding with Madison Rayne since. On the most recent episode of Impact, she tried to interfere during Rayne & Allie vs. Knockouts Champion Su Yung & Yung's Undead Maid of Honor but was fought off by Allie.

Link: https://twitter.com/IMPACTWRESTLING/...43868044279809

Originally Posted by PWI WWE filed a copyright on the term "Top Rope" for goods and services, specifically "Clothing, namely, tops, shirts, jackets, sweatshirts, hoodies; outerwear, namely, coats; bottoms, pants, shorts, underwear, dresses, pajamas, lingerie, clothing ties, scarves, gloves, swimwear; Halloween and masquerade costumes; footwear, namely, shoes, sneakers, slippers, flip flops, boots; headwear, namely, hats, caps; wrist bands; bandanas."

Originally Posted by PWI WWE and 2K each filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit brought against them by tattoo artist Catherine Alexander in the United States District Court of Southern District of Illinois yesterday. Anderson sued each party back in April, alleging that they are infringing on her copyright for tattoo designs that she has imprinted on Randy Orton, having been his tattoo artist since 2003. Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., 2K Games, Inc., 2K Sports, Inc., Visual Concepts Entertainment, Yuke’s Co., Ltd. and Yuke’s LA Inc. have also been named defendants in Alexander's lawsuit ... In the response filed on 7/9, they 2K argued the lawsuit should be dismissed for several reasons, including that Alexander has not obtained copyright registrations on any of the designs that she has claimed to own. 2K noted that "Statutory damages and attorney’s fees are only available where the works were registered before the infringement occurred or within three months of their publication. Accordingly, statutory damages and attorney’s fees are unavailable to Plaintiff as a matter of law," basically stating that since Alexander had not filed copyrights on the designs within the allowed timeframe, she cannot retroactively claim damages. Since Alexander states in her lawsuit that she does not own those copyrights, the lawsuit must be dismissed for not meeting the standard of the law ... Meanwhile, WWE's filing yesterday claimed that the lawsuit against them should be dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction, providing a 22-page memorandum to the court that claimed Alexander has failed to prove that the court in Illinois has any jurisdiction over WWE, given they are incorporated in Delaware and are headquartered in Connecticut. WWE also argued that Alexander would have to demonstrate "specific activities that WWE has supposedly undertaken in Illinois with respect to the claims at issue" to the court in order for WWE to fall under Illinois jurisdiction and has not done that. WWE stated while they have purchased "limited quantities" of the WWE 2K videogames to sell on their website, that "cannot establish specific jurisdiction over WWE."

Link with more details: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...issed.html?p=1

Originally Posted by PWI Vernice Gabriel, a female star in the Phillipines, has been booked for the Mae Young Classic, PWInsider.com has confirmed. The second annual women's tournament will be taped on 8/9 and 8/10 at Full Sail University in Florida.

Originally Posted by PWI Major League Wrestling's Court Bauer announced that Major League Wrestling will bring Wargames, the two ring steel cage match, to their 9/6 return to Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Changed my mind. Fury Road isn’t coming to Fort Lauderdale September 6th. Instead, @MLW will be doing #WARGAMES. Tickets on sale July 23rd 10am at https://t.co/Keo5it98oQ & https://t.co/AFJrIR1xX0 See you in September… — Court Bauer (@courtbauer) July 10, 2018 The show will presumably take place at the War Memorial Auditorium. MLW had an excellent event featuring a Wargames match there back in September 2003 in Fort Lauderdale, featuring The Funkin' Army (Terry Funk, Sabu, Steve Williams, Terry Funk, The Sandman & Bill Alfonso) defeating The Extreme Horsemen (Steve Corino, Barry Windham, CW Anderson, Justin Credible & Simon Diamond.)

Link: https://twitter.com/courtbauer/statu...96414120177664

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Shinsuke Nakamura returned to the ring on Monday’s house show in Augusta, Maine following the dog bite he sustained last month. Nakamura worked against AJ Styles in the main event of the show with Styles retaining the WWE title. Nikki Cross also worked the house show Monday as she teamed with Becky Lynch and defeated Billie Kay and Peyton Royce.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc AJ Styles spent a majority of his career traveling the world and raising the value of his name before coming to WWE. His surprise appearance in the 2016 Royal Rumble as the #3 entry was met with plenty of fan excitement. Styles picked up the WWE United States Title twice since his debut and held the WWE Championship on two occasions which he still has to this day. Styles is currently sitting at 385 combined days as WWE Champion. Shawn Michaels held the title for 396 days. Therefore, if Styles can defeat Rusev at Extreme Rules, he will soon pass HBK's position of 13th longest-combined reign as WWE Champion. If AJ Styles is able to top HBK's record of combined reigns, his next target would be CM Punk who is in the #12 entry with 463 days. Styles still has a long way to go before he is close to touching Bruno Sammartino's top record of 4,040 days though with Hulk Hogan coming in second with 2,185.

Some other sheet news includes:

• Impact Wrestling's partnership with RISE Wrestling seems to be taking a hiatus soon due to RISE dealing with serious money issues at the moment. Current plans are for RISE to resume running events this October.
• According to reports, Goldust recently underwent knee surgery to fix some lingering pain and injuries he has been dealing with for a while.
• Recent episode of WWE Network's Table For 3 series featured Trish Stratus, Lita, and Alexa Bliss as the guests.
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Kevin Nash celebrated his 59th birthday yesterday.

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Brock Lesnar Re-Enters USADA Testing Pool, Eligible to Fight in January
• Ronda Rousey Will Be a Pre-Order Bonus Wrestler in WWE 2K19
• WWE: Alicia Fox Returns, No WWE2K on Nintendo, Kurt Angle Documentary
• Lesnar Challenges Cormier at UFC 226 (Video) + When They May Fight

[Damian Rey 2.0]

I watched the JR getting hurt clip. Barnett looked like he was gonna murder Juice.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by WWF Ice Cream Bars:

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Tuesday’s episode of SmackDown Live averaged 2,183,000 viewers on the USA Network.. It was up 8.4% from last week’s average, although last week was SmackDown number was the second lowest viewership average since the brand split in July 2016.

Originally Posted by Pro Wrestling Sheet Pro Wrestling Sheet has learned WWE officials are internally discussing the idea of presenting an all women’s event for main roster talent in the fall. As you may recall, women were not allowed to participate in WWE’s Greatest Royal Rumble event earlier this year in Saudi Arabia. Sources tell us the company might make up for the controversial decision, however, as the idea of an all women’s show taking place in late September or October is seriously being kicked around by higher-ups. It’s unclear if the event would additionally feature some of the women on the NXT roster, outside talent or former stars … because the show hasn’t been set in stone just yet.

Link: http://www.prowrestlingsheet.com/wwe.../#.W0aMDdhKjVA

Originally Posted by Observer Today is TJ Wilson’s (Tyson Kidd) 38th birthday. Natalya wished him a happy birthday on Twitter: “Happy birthday @TJWilson! You’re such an inspiration to so many people. The best is seeing you happy and proving that we can succeed at anything we put our minds to. We all love you!”

Link: https://twitter.com/NatbyNature/stat...65996119674881

Originally Posted by Observer Indies Roundup: Kay Lee Ray will make her Women of Honor debut in her home country of Scotland as ROH comes to Edinburgh on August 16. Viper has also been announced for the show, which is part of ROH’s Honor Re-United tour. The Young Bucks & Marty Scurll vs. The Briscoes & Punishment Martinez is also set for ROH’s show in Edinburgh. Chuck Taylor will face Bully Ray at ROH’s Honor for All show in Nashville on July 20. Dragon Lee said that Hiromu Takahashi is in his prayers, that he hopes Takahashi returns, and that he feels bad about what happened in their match. He said he loves wrestling against Takahashi and that their matches are the best and most beautiful he’s had in his career. MLW has added Barrington Hughes vs. Leon Scott and a Simon Gotch Prize Fight Challenge to their TV tapings in Orlando tomorrow.

ROH: https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/ka...untry-scotland , https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/ep...gned-edinburgh , & https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/ch...-ray-nashville , Lee: http://www.luchaworld.com/?p=84656 , MLW: https://mlw.com/2018/07/11/barringto...tt-in-orlando/

Originally Posted by Observer The infamous “Black Saturday” episode of World Championship Wrestling will be this week’s Hidden Gem upload on the WWE Network, according to a report. WWE Network News, who has broken similar stories in the past, first reported the news. While episodes of World Championship Wrestling have already been uploaded to the WWE Network, nothing has been uploaded before November 1985. Viewers were in for a shock on July 14, 1984 when their usual World Championship Wrestling action was completely overhauled. Instead of Gordon Solie and wrestling stars from Georgia Championship Wrestling, Vince McMahon and the superstars of the World Wrestling Federation filled the hour time slot instead. While the Georgia show usually featured hot in-ring action and interviews, McMahon used the Saturday time slot mainly as a recap show that only featured the occasional in studio squash match. Declining ratings due to viewership outrage over the drastic overhaul eventually led McMahon to sell the time slot to Jim Crockett Promotions, who took over in March 1985.

Link: http://www.wwenetworknews.com/2018/0...sode-featured/

Originally Posted by Observer New Japan Pro Wrestling has posted another update on Hiromu Takahashi's condition following the neck injury that he suffered at this past Saturday's G1 Special. NJPW noted that Takahashi was able to travel back to Japan today, where he will proceed with treatment. He had been hospitalized in San Francisco after Saturday's match against Dragon Lee at the Cow Palace. Takahashi injured his neck towards the end of the match when a Phoenix Plex spot went wrong and he landed on his head/neck as he was given the move. The match continued for a couple of minutes after that, ending when Takahashi hit the Time Bomb to retain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. NJPW has yet to officially confirm Takahashi's exact injury, but Dave Meltzer reported that the original belief was that Takahashi suffered a broken neck. NJPW wrote on Monday morning that Takahashi was undergoing a thorough evaluation but was conscious and able to sit and talk.

Link: https://www.njpw1972.com/31187

Originally Posted by PWI With Daniel Bryan having made public during interviews discussing his medical clearance and return to the ring that his current WWE deal was due to expire on 9/1, there has been a lot of speculation about his future and whether Bryan might leave WWE to pursue wrestling outside of their auspices. Earlier today, WWE issued an announcement to fans in the Detroit area about the Tuesday 9/4 Smackdown Live taping at the Little Caesars Arena with Bryan announced for the taping, including a dark match main event teaming with AJ Styles and Jeff Hardy against Samoa Joe, The Miz and Shinsuke Nakamura. Over the weekend, WWE also announced that Bryan would make his first appearance in Madison Square Garden in three years at the 12/26 return to the legendary venue in NYC. So, while card is subject to change, these are the first potential indications that Bryan has signed (or is expected by WWE to sign) a new deal. Stay tuned.

Originally Posted by PWI Here are the plots for the first several episodes of WWE reality series Miz & Mrs, which will debut on Tuesday 7/24: Episode One, airing 7/24: "A Simple Mizunderstanding" - Mike debates going full-frontal at Maryse's nude pregnancy photoshoot. Episode Two, airing 7/31: "Miz Takes The Cake" - Maryse plans a spectacular and expensive baby shower the couple will never forget; Mike tries to save a few bucks on an extravagant cake but ends up paying the price when his scheme fails.

Originally Posted by PWI Here is an updated schedule of WWE DVD releases: RELEASED on 7/10- The Shield - Justice For All 7/24 - WWE Money in the Bank 2018 8/14 - WWE Extreme Rules 2018. 8/28 - 30 Years of Summerslam 9/28 - WWE Summerslam 2018. 10/2 - The Showstopper Unreleased: Shawn Michaels 10/16 - WWE Hell in A Cell Tentative 2019 Plans, based on surveys released to WWE Fans: It’s a New Day, Yes It Is! The Best of Roman Reigns The Best of Andre the Giant Sgt. Slaughter The Miz: A-List Superstar John Cena: The Face that Runs the Place The Best of Alexa Bliss Million Dollar Man The Very Best of Braun Strowman The Best of NXT 2018 The Best of Pay-Per-Views 2018 The Best of Raw & SmackDown 2018 The Best of WWE Superstars Asuka: Empress of Tomorrow The History of the ECW Championship SmackDown 20th Anniversary The Greatest Matches & Moments of Goldust The Best of NXT Takeover Shinsuke Nakamura Finn Bálor I Am Phenomenal: The AJ Styles Story Four Horsewomen ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper Unreleased The Best of Ravishing Rick Rude The Best of Charlotte Flair John Cena Match Comp The Best of Trish Stratus The Best of Dean Ambrose

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

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Legendary Japanese wrestler Shinya Hashimoto passed away on this date in 2005 at the age of 40. Along with Masahiro Chono and Keiji Muto, the three were dubbed “The Three Musketeers” of New Japan as the pillars to lead the company into and through the 90s. The first G1 Climax featured the three booked prominently, including Hashimoto scoring victories over Riki Choshu and Bam Bam Bigelow in the round robin portion and Chono winning his first of five G1s. Hashimoto won his first IWGP heavyweight title in September 1993 from Muto, who had held the title for over a year. He won it twice more in his career, including a 489-day title reign from April 1996 until dropping it to Kensuke Sasaki in August 1997. Hashimoto’s record length as champion stood until Kazuchika Okada surpassed the mark with his most recent title reign.

Originally Posted by Fightful.com Fightful.com was able to obtain some information included in this week's WWE Raw and Smackdown production scripts. The conga line was instructed to be dancing as the show came back on the air for the Rawley/Jose match. WWE telegraphed the James Ellsworth shark cage stipulation in the script, as well as the fact that Shinsuke Nakamura vs. AJ Styles would be turned into a tag team match that also featured Jeff Hardy and Rusev. The James Ellsworth entrance was instructed to have him "smiling ear to ear and happy loving life." Sanity's team name is always styled as "SAnitY," even when all other team names are in caps on the run sheet. The Smackdown Live entrances were all listed as "quick" entrances, with the exception of The New Day's. The title for tonight's Smackdown Live was "It's Gonna Be Miz," which makes a whole lot more sense now than it did before the show. Raw's title was "get out of my way." Tyson Kidd produced Rollins/McIntyre, Fit Finlay the women's tag match, Finlay and Scott Armstrong for Ember Moon/Liv Morgan, Jamie Noble for Balor & Roode/Corbin & Elias, Arn Anderson for Jose/Rawley, and D-Von Dudley for Bo Dallas/Matt Hardy When twitter graphics are shown, they include the actual URL of the tweet to appear on-screen.

Some other sheet news includes:

• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 5th anniversary of WWE's opening of their Performance Center.
• ESPN had a recent interview with Rusev talking about his upcoming WWE Championship match against AJ Styles at Extreme Rules. http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/2...-extreme-rules
• During a recent episode of the Busted Open Radio podcast show with Jonathan Coachman as the guest, Coachman claimed a big reason why WWE was able to land a major deal with FOX was due to the hard work he did in ESPN to help improve WWE's image with sports fans. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...e-work-he-did/
• Sports Illustrated had a recent interview with Tama Tonga talking about his attack on the Elite at the G1 Special, his new goal for Bullet Club, and more. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...n-bullet-club/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Fandango and Goldust Undergo Surgeries, Post Pic With Each Other
• Former Divas Champ Kaitlyn Returning to WWE for Mae Young Classic
• Samoa Joe Attacks Tye Dillinger Before SmackDown + Dark Match Results

[Jordan]

LOL Coach.

[BigCrippyZ]

Coach is such a mark for himself.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Holy fucking shit at Coach. The guy sounds like an idiot every time he opens his mouth. I can't imagine him rubbing people in the business the right way. It honestly wouldn't surprise me to see him and WWE part ways sometime in the near future.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Whenever I see a WWE match I like, chances are Tyson Kidd or Arn Anderson are the agent for it.

[slik]

Same.

[slik]

From this week's Observer

* UFC's declining buyrates and losing Ronda/Conor led to FOX lowballing UFC and being more interested in WWE * The Bayley/Sasha storyline is going to continue through "at least" August. Vince thought about having them wrestle at Extreme Rules but changed his mind. * Vince directed there would be zero mentions of Lesnar on RAW, because he wants to sell the idea Brock Lesnar has walked out on WWE, as he believes it will lead to Roman getting cheered when he faces Lesnar in the future, since Roman is on TV every week. * Vince isn't sure if he wants Brock/Roman at SummerSlam or not, but Brock's contract is believed to end in August. Meltz speculates Roman/Lashley could continue at SummerSlam if Vince decides against a Brock match. * FOX is in 20 million more homes than the USA Network and SDLive is expected to draw 3 -- 3 1/2 million viewers each Friday night. WWE anticipates SD being the most watched show, more so than RAW, and will be treating it accordingly once the show moves. * FOX will air commercials for Smackdown Live during every NFL broadcast. There is early discussion about having top stars, like Roman Reigns, Bobby Lashley, Nia Jax and Alexa Bliss, appear at NFL Games and cut promos when interviewed. * Current WWE viewing demos are about 65% male each week for viewers 18-49 and 50% male for viewers 12-17. Typical breakdown of viewers in ratings is: 0.4 - ages 12-17 0.5 - ages 18-34 0.8 - ages 35-49 0.9 - ages 50 and up Currently this means 2/3 of WWE's viewers are ages 35 and up. WWE expects the move of SDLive to FOX to attract younger and newer viewers, which will allow them to cater less to older fans. Vince expects newer fans to have less baggage on certain superstars, such as Roman Reigns and Bobby Lashley, and that the move to FOX will help some top stars get better reactions as a result. * 40% of NJPW's ratings on AXS TV are from DVR, which indicates fans want to watch, even if they aren't home on Friday nights. Mark Cuban might want the show in a different timeslot in October 2019, as it would go head to head with the first hour of SmackDown Live. * Jonathan Coachman's joke about "Broken Ribs Going Around" after JR broke his ribs during the NJPW event at the Cow Palace, was believed to have been "A Vince McMahon joke" rather than a Jonathan Coachman original pun. * Jim Ross specifically asked that wrestlers stay away from the commentators the day before the show and, understandably so, is very upset about what transpired.

[slik]

Barn Burner Exclusive: #WWE Considering WCW Pay-Per-View Names. https://t.co/H6rPc3GQpf @TheBarnBurns

— �������� �������������� (@TheBradShepard) July 12, 2018

My next #WWE exclusive, which I’ll break next week, will be the granddaddy of them all...or something like that. �� #StayTuned @TheBarnBurns https://t.co/BILVTyL9JE

— �������� �������������� (@TheBradShepard) July 12, 2018

[KIRA]

* Vince directed there would be zero mentions of Lesnar on RAW, because he wants to sell the idea Brock Lesnar has walked out on WWE, as he believes it will lead to Roman getting cheered when he faces Lesnar in the future, since Roman is on TV every week.]

Lol wow. The disconnect between Vince McMahon and his audience is unreal

[BigCrippyZ]

Originally Posted by KIRA Lol wow. The disconnect between Vince McMahon and his audience is unreal

Vince is either stubborn, an idiot, or both, and I don't tend to think of him as an idiot.

If you treat your consumers as if they're stupid, by giving them a product that they'd essentially have to be stupid to enjoy, like the current WWE writing, etc., then the consumer's that have more options and exposure to other products, which "younger" people typically have more of, are going to eventually move on to a different product.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

lol Roman being on tv every week is what's leading to him getting booed.

[slik]

THE BIG DOG

[#1-norm-fan]

Breaking news: WWE nominated for 0 Emmy's.

Time for Kevin Dunn to upgrade the free video editing software he has on his laptop and shake the camera more.

[BigCrippyZ]

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Nothing:

Originally Posted by Observer Martha Hart has responded to Bret Hart’s allegations that she is erasing the memory of her late husband. The press release stems from a recent Bret Hart interview on CBS Sports' In This Corner podcast where he said that he felt Martha had done more to erase Owen Hart's memory than to preserve it. “I think Martha, Owens’s widow, she is a very obtuse, square-headed person,” he said on the podcast. “I think she’s done more to erase my brother Owen’s memory than she ever did to remember him. I think it really bothers me that the fans that loved Owen so much don’t get a chance to remember him.” Martha issued a press release yesterday defending her decisions, saying that she does not want WWE profiting off of Owen, as she blames the company for his death. “Bret’s comments are rooted in the fact that I have steadfastly refused to work with the WWE to exploit Owen’s image for commercial gain,” she says in the release. “Owen was an incredible entertainer and I know that his many fans around the world enjoyed his wrestling career immensely. I encourage them to continue to do so. But I am firm in my belief that the WWE was responsible for Owen’s death. As a result, I cannot and will not support any efforts by the WWE to profit from Owen’s memory.” “Bret Hart's comments are disrespectful and cruel,” she continued. “It is disappointing that so many in the media have chosen to report them without seeking my perspective.”

Link: https://www.f4wonline.com/other-wres...ism-her-261541

Originally Posted by Observer Brock Lesnar’s next WWE match is set for next month’s SummerSlam event. Dave Meltzer has confirmed that Lesnar will be back in the ring for WWE’s premiere summer show. It isn’t known who he will face. A five way elimination bout was originally set for Extreme Rules that would have determined the next contender for the Universal title, but that was cancelled. Roman Reigns and Bobby Lashley, who were the first two announced for the bout, will instead battle in a singles match.

Originally Posted by PWI Indies Roundup: Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW) have officially announced the return of international wrestling, TV and pantomime star Grado on night 2 of their annual Shug’s Hoose Party weekend event on 28-29 July 2018. The event will now take place at the legendary O2 Academy in Glasgow after a fire caused the closure of the city’s O2 ABC, the original venue for the event. The ROH Dojo is proud to announce its affiliation with four of the top, internationally-recognized wrestling schools in the world. The World Famous Monster Factory, Team 3D Academy, Maryland Championship Wrestling, and the Power Factory will provide a pipeline of talent and well over 150 years combined in professional wrestling among their trainers and lineages. While Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Tetsuya Naito were listed, it was somewhat notable that the other member of NJPW’s big four, Kenny Omega, wasn’t advertised along with them when ROH and NJPW announced their April 6, 2019 G1 Supercard for Madison Square Garden. It seems obvious that Omega will be added if he re-signs with NJPW. Hangman Page is the seventh announced entrant for ROH’s International Cup tournament, joining Jimmy Havoc, Joe Hendry, Mark Haskins, Kip Sabian, Jonathan Gresham, and Christopher Daniels. There’s only one name left to be announced. The tournament has a United Kingdom vs. United States theme and will take place on next month’s Honor Re-United tour shows in Edinburgh and Doncaster, with the winner challenging for the ROH World Championship in London on August 19. Santino Marella tweeted that his daughter is training to be a pro wrestler: “Today was day one of me overseeing my daughters training personally and acting as her head coach, @WWEPerformCtr is our goal for 2019”

ROH: https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...emies.html?p=1 , ROH Cup: https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/ca...world-champion , Santino: https://twitter.com/milanmiracle/sta...59193903079424

Originally Posted by Observer With the high ticket prices, this weekend's NJPW show was almost surely the largest or second largest gate ever at the Cow Palace, as the old record gate was set with 9,000 paid and 11,000 total but lower ticket prices for the 2004 No Way Out PPV where Eddy Guerrero beat Brock Lesnar to win the WWE title. WWE continued to run the Cow Palace as a regular rotation arena through 2012, and only hit 7,000 fans, roughly the same as this show, once since then.

Originally Posted by Observer According to the story, the feeling from the FOX side is the signing of Smackdown guarantees them good Friday night ratings for five years. We’ve spoken to some in television who question that, citing the numbers have fallen this year and Tuesday is a much better night to draw. They will do significantly better than they do now, simply because the move from cable to network makes the show available in 20 million more homes and it’s on a station with a much larger base audience. That should more than offset the losses of moving to Friday. The hope is solid 3 million to 3.5 million viewers. Whether that’s doable at first is a question, and at that point the key is whether, if numbers across the board continue to fall, if Smackdown falls at a slower or a larger rate than television at large. The belief is that with it being live, the drops over the five years will be smaller, and thus from a competition standpoint, it becomes more valuable.

Some more details regarding FOX & Smackdown that Slik posted earlier.

Originally Posted by Observer GLOW season two on Netflix has been a huge success. On the first three days the show was put up (6/29 to 7/1), the season averaged 700,000 viewers in the U.S. per episode, and 86 percent were between 18 and 49, the highest concentration of 18-49 viewers of any original streaming content on Netflix that Nielsen has analyzed. It also had viewership where the mean (meaning half above and half below) family income was $80,200 per year, the third highest of any Netflix series behind only “The Crown” and “House of Cards.” This is the opposite of the actual pro wrestling audience, although GLOW is not a pro wrestling but is considered by many one of the best television/streaming shows there is with the backdrop of the characters being woman wrestlers. Season two is said to be similar to season one, which several publications called one of the best television shows of 2017. Kia Stevens (Awesome Kong in TNA), a regular cast member, got great reviews for her work this season.

Originally Posted by Observer When talking about buildings that ROH or nobody but WWE can get, it appears the Staples Center in Los Angeles is another one. Cody noted this past week that he had tried to talk with them about hosting All In and was pretty much told that they weren’t interested in any wrestling that wasn’t WWE.

Originally Posted by Observer While Rey Mysterio has not signed with WWE, the discussions are close enough that they’ve talked about what commitments he has and doesn’t have left. All In is obviously a key thing. For obvious reasons, because of the nature of the show, he wants to do it and for the same obvious reasons, they would rather he doesn’t do it. He also wants to drop his Crash heavyweight title, which right now is most likely to be to Bestia 666, since that’s the direction it looks like it’s going, if he signs.

Originally Posted by Observer Jim Ross & Paul O’Brien are working on a second biography, the sequel to his “Slobberknocker” book, which would cover 1999 to the present, which includes a ton of things including his being phased out of full-time announcing, his working for WWE and New Japan at the same time, and of course, the death of his wife. Speaking of Ross, the fact he wasn’t placed as an announcer for the Mae Young Classic (which he did last year) or the U.K. show (which he did the first time) seems to indicate he’s probably not going to be doing lead announcing much if any going forward for WWE.

Originally Posted by Observer Garza Jr. and Ultimo Ninja were both supposed to have started here already at the same time as Keith Lee and Io Shirai, but actually haven’t because visa issues have to be taken care of. But they should be starting soon We heard there was interest in Lacey Lane but not sure if it’s just as someone for the Mae Young Classic or for a developmental deal, but her name was being talked about

Originally Posted by Observer Goldberg did an interview and said that nobody has contacted him about doing anything since his match with Lesnar. He said he was never asked about doing WrestleMania this year. He said he talked to Vince about the Hall of Fame, since he went on last and the place emptied out. He said it was a disservice to the people being inducted and it was a disservice to the fans at home. He said before fans wanted to be entertained at wrestling but now they want to dictate what happens. He said some fans are poison to the rest of the fans and said it’s not fair to the guys who bust their ass and are on the road away from their families trying to entertain the fans. He said he’s be interested to come back to face either Reigns or Undertaker, but that’s not up to him.

Originally Posted by Fightful.com Paul Heyman could be back working with WWE in a backstage capacity, if their own internal documents are to be believed. Heyman is currently serving as the "advocate" for WWE Universal Champion, but that hasn't exactly kept him on television much these days. Lesnar instead has focused on his quest for another UFC Championship, appearing at UFC 226. It doesn't appear that this has prevented Paul Heyman from dipping his toes back in the WWE waters. Fightful.com was informed on Monday afternoon that the former ECW owner and Smackdown Live head writer Heyman was backstage at WWE's show in Boston. WWE had Paul Heyman listed on their production script as contributing to multiple segments on the show. He was listed alongside several writers, including Ryan Ward in putting together the opening live show of WWE Monday Night Raw that featured Bobby Lashley and Roman Reigns' face-to-face backstage. In addition, Heyman was also listed for Bobby Lashley's "live shot" during segment 8, which aired after the Bo Dallas vs. Matt Hardy match. Heyman was listed under "Road" which is a road writer, along with several others. There was also a name under "home." When asked for clarity about this term from a person familiar with it, they said "writers at home will be sent assignments to write scripts for an interview or backstage altercation and then fire it back to their point person in the trenches." Fightful.com reached out to both WWE and Paul Heyman for comment or confirmation on the matter, but were told that Heyman would rather not comment, and WWE opted to instead ask me about the document as opposed to addressing the question, with one source telling me it could have been an error.

Link: https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/e...nes-raw-monday

Originally Posted by WrestleInc On the latest episode of the Pancakes and Powerslams Show, I had the pleasure to speak with Associate Producer of the new documentary, "350 Days", Evan Ginzburg. Among many other films, Ginzburg was also the Associate Producer of "The Wrestler", which was instrumental to him landing his role for 350 Days. Ginzburg was in charge of bringing in the 38 wrestlers who were a part of the documentary, which featured Bret Hart, "Superstar" Billy Graham, Lanny Poffo, Greg Valentine, Paul Orndorff, and others, with many conducting their last interviews before passing away ... Among various topics, Ginzburg discussed the origin of the Hulk Hogan character. While many are aware that Hogan and others admit that their character was inspired from Billy Graham, Ginzburg explained that it goes even further back than that. "[Hogan] had unbelievable charisma," said Ginzburg. "I mean, you'll never mistake Hulk Hogan for Lou Thesz or Billy Robinson, but the charisma was off the charts. Much of what Hogan took was from Billy Graham, who's one of the stars of the movie. Billy Graham.. I'll tell you the lineage; people are not really aware. Muhammed Ali went to a radio station. By sheer coincidence, he was on the same station as Gorgeous George. Muhammed Ali was very quiet, he was Cassius Clay at the time. Very quiet and soft spoken. "And Gorgeous George was like, 'kid, you gotta hype it up. I'll show you how to move tickets.' And Muhammed Ali was like transfixed by the charisma that Gorgeous George had. So then you had guys like Billy Graham who patented themselves after Muhammed Ali! Okay? And then Hogan and [Jesse] Ventura stole half of Billy Graham's act, okay? So, there is a lineage there, and it's an interesting lineage that people aren't really aware of."

Link: http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...he-characters/

Originally Posted by Observer Jeff Hardy spoke to the Canton Repository about toning it down on house shows and doing the swanton bomb less because his lower back has been hurting him: “Lately, my lower back has really been bothering me to the point where I haven’t been doing the swanton as much in the live events just to protect it. I think looking forward I’m gonna have to be more like that, because nothing lasts forever. I’ve been real lucky, and naturally on TV I always want to go all out, but in the live events, I might have to hold back a little. I’m glad my face paint has come back. That’s always fun for people to see, because it’s original and unique each and every night, and I love doing that. Growing up I was a huge fan of Ultimate Warrior and Sting, and I wanted to be a little bit of both of them.” Hardy has been using a Twist of Fate that ends like a stunner as a finisher lately.

Link: http://www.cantonrep.com/entertainme...rify-audiences


Some other sheet news includes:

• Maria Kanellis recently revealed on Instagram that she is heading to WWE's PC next month to get back into shape for an in-ring return within the near future. https://www.instagram.com/p/BlEiM1OhtIv/
• According to the Observer, Tessa Blanchard's deal with Impact Wrestling was reported to be 2 years in length.
• According to rumors going around the net, another indie wrestler is currently dealing with sexual harassment allegations this time involving leaking nude photos of female co-workers. The wrestler involved is named Joey Axl and already has been kicked out of two previously booked events as part of the fallout so far. Will Ospreay recently started a online campaign to get the wrestler kicked out of the industry. https://twitter.com/WillOspreay/stat...05889025667073
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Brock Lesnar (41), Sami Zayn (34) and Shane Helms (44) all celebrated their birthdays today.
• Recent episode of the Ross Report podcast show had Josh Barnett as the guest talking about NJPW's G1 Special in San Fran and Ross' recent rib injury. https://omny.fm/shows/the-ross-repor...-of-br#sharing

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• ROH & NJPW Will Have a Show at MSG After All, on WrestleMania Weekend
• Injury/Return Updates: Charlotte Flair, Jason Jordan, Dean Ambrose
• WWE Gets Zero Emmy Nominations, GLOW Gets Nine
• Rhea Ripley Announced as Second Name for Mae Young Classic

[Mr. Nerfect]

Children and young people are not as fucking stupid as WWE thinks. They make the classic mistake of thinking that kids will fall for pantomime as if it is real. More kids were watching during the Attitude era when things were "cool." Good television should be their priority; not stupid television that they think will appeal to kids, but is really only watched by the people who formed their habits and fandom long ago.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by El Idolo Appreciation Day:

Originally Posted by Observer All In has their broadcasting team set for the upcoming September event. Their Twitter account today revealed that their broadcasting team will comprise of Impact backstage interviewer Alicia Atout, Impact and New Japan color commentator Don Callis, former WWE backstage interviewer and announcer Sean Mooney, ROH announcer Ian Riccaboni, PWG announcer Excalibur, ROH ring announcer Bobby Cruise and former WWE ring announcer Justin Roberts. It wasn't announced what roles each would have on the broadcast, though the Young Bucks did ask Don Callis to do announcing when they made him part of All In last month during a New Japan's Dominion event. Cody Rhodes talked to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio this past weekend about distribution methods for All In. Rhodes mentioned that there would be both internet streaming and pay-per-view options. Despite that, no specific details have been announced as of this writing.

Link: https://twitter.com/ALL_IN_2018/stat...76659180134406

Originally Posted by Observer With four more wrestlers being announced today, the lineup for this year's Mae Young Classic continues to take shape. As expected, Io Shirai will be one of the participants in the tournament. After it was reported that she was signing with WWE, Shirai departed Stardom in June and then made an appearance at a WWE house show in Tokyo, Japan, where it was announced that she would be joining NXT this summer ... Nicole Matthews, an indie wrestler from Canada who was an alternate for the first Mae Young Classic, will be an entrant this year. She began her in-ring career in 2006 and has long been a regular for Shimmer in the United States and ECCW in Canada. Jinny, who recently signed a United Kingdom-brand contract with WWE, will also be taking part in the Mae Young Classic. She's PROGRESS Wrestling's current Women's Champion. Rounding out today's announcements, former "American Ninja Warrior" standout Kacy Catanzaro has been confirmed for the tournament. She made her debut at an NXT house show in April after signing with WWE in 2017 and reporting to the Performance Center this January. Kaitlyn, Rhea Ripley, Shirai, Matthews, Jinny, and Catanzaro are the first six wrestlers to be announced for the tournament, which will be taped at Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida on August 8 and 9. There will be 32 participants in total.

Originally Posted by PWI The 7/12 edition of Impact did 284,000 overnight viewers, up from last week's 304,000 overnight viewers.

Originally Posted by PWI Anymore on why MVP was released from Major League Wrestling? Kind of a tough blow for him to be pretty much dominated in his feud against Sami Callihan then be released. No one at MLW has been willing to comment on the situation. When WWE performers appear at comic-cons, are they paid by the con or WWE? Unless they have it in their contracts that they can make outside appearances, it usually goes like this: the third-party bringing in the talent books them through WWE, then pays WWE. WWE pays the talent. When Smackdown goes to FOX, why are they saying it will be part of FOX Sports? It will air on the FOX Network (the same network that airs the Simpsons, etc.) but they are being placed under the FOX Sports umbrella, nothing more.

From PWI's weekly Q&A articles.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling On Jim Ross’ podcast this week, he provided an update on his rib injury from this past Saturday at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. Ross bruised the left side of his ribs and lung, which also caused some issues for his sternum with concerns about contracting pneumonia. As a result, he missed two appearances this week with one scheduled Asheville, North Carolina for the Headlock for Hunger organization of which Ross is a spokesman. Ross was also scheduled to appear in Knoxville, Tennessee for Glen Jacobs’ mayoral race in Knox County. Josh Barnett was a guest on the show and felt they were being disrespected during the sequence with Jay White throwing Juice Robinson into the guardrail that led to the injury to Ross. Ross and Barnett confirmed that the two apologized afterward and were sincere, with Barnett added that he gave them a lecture. Barnett called the ring crew’s lack of care for the set up “a gross oversight” and cited the timekeeper who had the guardrail come down directly on his knee in a separate incident.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Ring of Honor COO Joe Koff spoke to the New York Post on the promotion running Madison Square Garden over WrestleMania Weekend. Koff stated that there was “correspondence” between ROH and Madison Square Garden since the date was pulled last month. On the Garden’s change in stance regarding ROH running the building, Koff stated: I think that’s a question better asked of Madison Square Garden because we were very aggressive in wanting that date and we thought we had that date, but we did what we had to do as a business. [MSG] did what they had to do as a business and I guess all of a sudden there was a phone call and we were able to work it out. That’s probably their story to tell because they made the call and said let’s get on the phone and see if we can work this out. They wanted us. They knew that we would be good promotion. I think they were just looking for a satisfactory outcome for all parties.

Link: https://nypost.com/2018/07/13/why-ww...enge-it-at-msg

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Lucha Underground saw an enormous increase this week with 156,000 viewers watching Wednesday’s episode on the El Rey Network, up from 88,000 the prior week. This week’s episode featured Mil Muertes defeating Cage for an Aztec Medallion, as well as The Mack and Ivelisse securing medallions. The closing scene featured the first appearance of Killer Kross, who instructed Paul London to murder Mascarita Sagrada, and he obliged so it appears the Mascarita Sagrada character has been written off.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Impact Wrestling has added a 5150 Street Fight between the two versions of LAX as well as a singles match between Tessa Blanchard and Allie for the Slammiversary card next weekend in Toronto. Below is the updated card: *Austin Aries vs. Moose for the Impact Wrestling title *Su Yung vs. Madison Rayne for the Knockout’s title *Matt Sydal vs. Brian Cage for the X Division title *Tommy Dreamer vs. Eddie Edwards in a House of Hardcore Match *Sami Callihan vs. Pentagon Jr. in a Hair vs. Mask Match *LAX vs. LAX in a 5150 Street Fight *Johnny Impact vs. Fenix vs. Rich Swann vs. Taiji Ishimori *Allie vs. Tessa Blanchard

Links: https://twitter.com/IMPACTWRESTLING/...61242855096320 , https://twitter.com/IMPACTWRESTLING/...81895150985216

Originally Posted by WrestleInc A new Table For 3 episode with Eric Bischoff, JBL and Bruce Prichard will air on the WWE Network after Monday's RAW goes off the air. Below is the synopsis for the thirty-minute episode: "Former adversaries turned allies Eric Bischoff, JBL and Bruce Prichard debate 'War' stories, trade insults, and pay respect to one another."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc WWE has a new poll asking fans if Ronda Rousey should get a RAW Women's Title with the winner of Sunday's Extreme Rules match between Nia Jax and champion Alexa Bliss. Rousey will be at ringside for the match. As of this writing, 64% voted, "Yes. Her first opportunity was interrupted, and she should get another chance." The rest went with, "No. She only got the first match so quickly because Nia challenged her, and she should work her way back up for the next one."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry and NWA owner Billy Corgan are wrestling stars that have been announced for the Concussion Legacy Foundation's inaugural National Advisory Board. WWE, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon have worked close with CLF, which was co-founded by former WWE Superstar Christopher Nowinski, and Triple H is a Board member. You can read more from CLF at the link below: NEW: We're proud to introduce our inaugural National Advisory Board! Read up on @TheMarkHenry, @brandichastain, and the Hall of Famers, Olympians, Philanthropists, Business Executives and many more who are helping us lead toward a safer future: https://t.co/oNvQ3QNtUy pic.twitter.com/hLcTzb3xwX — Concussion Legacy Foundation (@ConcussionLF) July 12, 2018

Link: https://twitter.com/ConcussionLF/sta...27905478463491

Originally Posted by Observer The top ten most-watched shows for the past week on the WWE Network were: 1. Table for 3 for Bliss, Stratus and Lita; 2. NXT from 7/4; 3. 2018 Money in the Bank; 4. Something Else to Wrestle with from 7/4 on Rock; 5. Ride Along with Kay, Royce, Rusev, English and Lana; 6. Hardys Woken; 7. 2017 Extreme Rules; 8. 205 Live from 7/3; 10. U.K. from Royal Albert Hall day one

Some other sheet news includes:

• NJPW recently revealed the entire list of undercard matches for this year's G1 Climax tournament. https://www.f4wonline.com/japan/njpw...-climax-261626
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 22nd anniversary of ECW Heatwave '96.
• Recent episode of The Ross Report had Kenny Omega as the guest talking about his feud with Cody and who he considers as the next big stars for NJPW. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...tars-for-njpw/
• Recent episode of the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast had Haku as the guest talking about working with his sons in NJPW, where he ranks himself in legit tough wrestlers ever, and if the legends about him are true or fake. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-him-are-true/

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Various: Rusev Campaigns w/ Kane, 3MB “Reunites,” Arquette Wrestling
• Tommaso Ciampa Debuted 13 Years Ago, Facing Off w/ Undertaker (Video)
• Rey Mysterio Returning to NJPW for G1 Climax 28

[Mr. Nerfect]

So Paul London is a murder...the signs were always there.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I hope they don't fuck around with things too much and have Io Shirai take the Mae Young Classic. When they do the inevitable match with Kairi Sane, it'll have that story behind it.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by B Team Appreciation Day:

Originally Posted by Observer Whether it was curiosity coming off the Extreme Rules pay-per-view, or more likely, over Brock Lesnar and the Universal title, Raw rebounded strongly last night to 2.86 million viewers, a 16 percent increase from last week even going up against the Home Run Derby, which traditionally has hurt Raw numbers ... The three hours for Raw were: 8 p.m. 3.12 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.86 million viewers 10 p.m. 2.62 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer During an appearance on “Conversations With Maria Menounos,” Charlotte Flair said she expects to be cleared to return on July 31 after undergoing surgery for her breast implants rupturing. Charlotte worked through the issue before having surgery.

Link: https://youtu.be/FF71dj5zKEw

Originally Posted by Observer Corey Graves tweeted that WWE Shop won’t be releasing the “Shut up, Saxton” T-shirt that they had already put up: “Sorry guys, no #ShutUpSaxton shirt. Out of my hands. We tried.”

Link: https://twitter.com/WWEGraves/status...79389789392897

Originally Posted by Observer/Post Wrestling Indies Roundup: The FIght Network, which Anthem Sports & Entertainment (the parent company of Impact Wrestling) owns, will have a daily block of programming on Showcase TV in the UK starting at 9 p.m. every night. That will include Impact airing on the channel at the same time as it does on Pop TV in the United States, along with replays on Friday and Saturday at 9 p.m. Impact’s UK and Ireland Twitter account tweeted that the show will still be airing on 5Spike as well. PROGRESS Wrestling revealed that, due to his commitments with New Japan Pro Wrestling, Zack Sabre Jr. won’t be able to wrestle at their Wembley Arena show on September 30. Sabre had been scheduled to challenge for the PROGRESS Championship in the main event. NJPW’s Fighting Spirit Unleashed show will take place in Long Beach on September 30, and Will Ospreay also had to be pulled from the PROGRESS card because of it. Jimmy Havoc vs. Christopher Daniels, Mark Haskins vs. Jonathan Gresham, Joe Hendry vs. Hangman Page, and Kip Sabian vs. Flip Gordon will be the first round matches in ROH’s International Cup tournament in Edinburgh and Doncaster next month. The winner will challenge for the ROH World Championship in London on August 19. Marty Scurll vs. Kenny King, Karen Q vs. Jenny Rose, and Jay Briscoe vs. Christopher Daniels have been announced for ROH’s TV tapings at Center Stage in Atlanta this Saturday. Evolve has announced for 8/4 in Philadelphia Matt Riddle vs. Shane Strickland for the Evolve title, Joey Janela vs. AR Fox in a non-title match, Darby Allin vs. Austin Theory and JD Drake vs. Jon Davis vs. Odinson vs. Josh Briggs. Kotto Brazil vs. Myron Reed has been added to Thursday's MLW show in Queens, NY at the Melrose Ballroom. Impact Wrestling has announced that Curtis Granderson of the Toronto Blue Jays will be appearing at Slammiversary this Sunday as the ‘title holder’ for the main event between Austin Aries and Moose. The co-promotion with the Blue Jays will also include John Hennigan throwing out the first pitch at this Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Orioles at the Rogers Centre.

Originally Posted by Observer In major wrestling news since it involves ROH TV exposure, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he has serious concerns about the Sinclair Broadcasting merger with Tribune Media and that the agency would not approve it. They felt that they had an issue with Sinclair selling a number of stations but retaining control of those stations. The decision surprised a lot of people. Those opposing the merger have the votes to keep it from happening. Had the merger gone through, Sinclair would have owned 215 stations in 102 markets, and would reach 59 percent of the country. The FCC has ruled that one company can only have local stations covering 39 percent of the country, so they were selling 23 stations to keep under that number, but the deal means they would still control the stations they were selling. The merger not being approved blocks ROH from television in places like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles unless things are amended.

Originally Posted by PWI ROH updated their Honor Reunited lineup for 8/16 in Edinburgh, Scotland at the Corn Exchange: *The Young Bucks & Marty Scurll vs. Punishment Martinez & The Briscoes. *International Cup Quarter-Finals: *Flip Gordon vs. Kip Sabian. *Adam Page vs. Joe Hendry. *Christopher Daniels vs. Jimmy Havoc. *Also appearing are Tenille Dashwood, Viper, Mark Haskins, Jonathan Gresham, Kay Lee Ray, Chardonnay and more.

Originally Posted by PWI And will he keep the same direction on where the company is going or will he have his own vision? I have said MANY times that anyone that is expecting WWE to become NXT if/when HHH takes over will be very disappointed. That won’t happen. But, what I do expect to happen is for more logic to come to the product. I also expect that there will be more explanations to things, as opposed to now when we are often expected to just accept things that often make no sense. So I expect a tighter, more logical product, but one that stays within the kid friendly confines that they are in now. And you know what? That’s OK. The Simpsons has been on for years because kids like it and their parents do as well.

From a recent PWI weekly Q&A article.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Christopher Jeter at FanSided has a piece on the WWE’s choice to get back into business with Hulk Hogan. Jeter looks at the many troubling portrayals of African-American performers in the past, as well as other minority depictions. In addition, there are the examples of others within the company using racist language either on camera or behind-the-scenes, with the Michael Hayes incident from 2008 one of the most prominent. During a WrestleMania after party, Hayes made a joke towards Mark Henry that included the n-word that was highly offensive and resulted in Hayes being suspended. Hayes also lost his title as an Executive but remained with the company.

Link: https://dailyddt.com/2018/07/17/wwe-...ng-infuriating

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling This past Sunday’s episode of Total Bellas from Paris dropped 17% with 594,000 viewers watching on E! The show was based around Nikki Bella’s bachelorette party where they traveled to Paris. It was a sizable drop from the 719,000 viewers the week prior. While there was a WWE pay-per-view airing at the same time, the show didn’t experience any viewership drop last month on the night of Money in the Bank.

The Nikki-Cena breakup stuff has been mostly a dud in terms of interest for this season and probably not what WWE, E!, and/or the Bellas were expecting coming into the season. Probably didn't help that Nikki "spoiled" the story by getting back together with Cena right before the season started making the whole thing feel fake.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc WWE has a new poll asking fans if Ronda Rousey will honor the last week of her suspension in order to keep the SummerSlam match with RAW Women's Champion Alexa Bliss. As of this writing, 60% voted, "Yes. She won't risk her Raw Women's Title Match." The rest went with, "No. She wants to fight Alexa Bliss and won't be able to stop herself."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc WWE is looking at adding more episodes of Mid-South Wrestling, WWWF All-Star Wrestling, and WCW Saturday Night to the vault over the next few months, according to PWInsider. The plan is to add the rest of those series before they start adding other classic series. They are also planning on adding up to 75 hours of additional WWF Coliseum Home Videos from the 1980s and 1990s, mainly some of the old VHS titles that were focused on various stars. They originally planned to add 75 more hours of WCW Saturday Night to the vault this month but that was delayed for more episodes of Sunday Night Heat to be added.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Above is a promo for new content on the WWE Network - Camp WWE, Ride Along, The Edge & Christian Show, Table For 3, Story Time, a WWE 365 special on WWE Champion AJ Styles, a WWE 24 special on Ronda Rousey, The Mae Young Classic, Elias Unplugged and more.

Link: https://youtu.be/XMyANfNPTyI

Originally Posted by WrestleInc There was speculation on James Ellsworth's WWE future after Asuka destroyed him following her loss to SmackDown Women's Champion Carmella at last night's WWE Extreme Rules pay-per-view. Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that Ellsworth is not currently signed to a WWE contract and is still booked for indie dates. Ellsworth was not offered a contract with the recent return at Money In the Bank.

Some other sheet news includes:

• Recent episode of The Steve Austin Show podcast had Joey Janela as the guest. https://www.podcastone.com/episode/Bad-Boy-Joey-Janela
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 7th anniversary of Money in the Bank 2011 event which saw CM Punk defeat John Cena for the WWE Championship in Chicago and "walk out" of the WWE.
• In another "WWE Did You Know" type fact, today is the 30th anniversary of Bruiser Brody's murder in Puerto Rico at a wrestling event. During an interview with Hannibal TV earlier this year, Tony Atlas shared his memories of being backstage during this infamous incident. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...-brody-murder/
• WWE recently denied reports of Hulk Hogan's recent apology backstage to the locker room being taped for a future WWE Network special.
• For those interested, PWI recently released an article about Hogan's apology to WWE's locker room and why he shouldn't be quickly forgiven. Went into details on how Hogan can actually rehab his image besides just doing PR fluff. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...k-yet.html?p=1

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Cities Currently Being Considered To Host WrestleMania 36
• WWE Introduces New Recruits, Including Keith Lee and Io Shirai
• Mark Henry Says “50/50” Split Among Black Wrestlers Re: Hogan’s Return
• NXT TakeOver: WarGames Returning in November
• Various: Daniel Bryan Contract Update, New Jericho Cruise Match, More
• Former WWF Tag Team Champion Masa Saito Passes Away

[Mr. Nerfect]

Re: The Christopher Jeter story: It has begun.

[slik]

I feel bad for ROH but Sinclair is a sh*tty company that encourages actual fake news and misdirectives, so good.

[Juan]

Originally Posted by Slik I feel bad for ROH but Sinclair is a sh*tty company that encourages actual fake news and misdirectives, so good.

This is true. Fuck Sinclair

[Mr. Nerfect]

Yeah, I don't feel bad for those folks.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by Wrestlers Against Nuts Association:

Originally Posted by Observer With a jump to 2.293 million viewers on Tuesday night, SmackDown ratings increased for the second straight week. The show was heavily promoted around Shinsuke Nakamura defending his newly-won United States title against former champion Jeff Hardy. This week's number was up from last Tuesday's 2.183 million viewers and 14 percent higher than the low-water mark posted two weeks ago ... SmackDown continues to show huge declines in the year-over-year ratings, however, as this week's episode was down 10 percent over the same week in 2017, the fifth straight week the show has had a double-digit decline.

Originally Posted by Observer One of The Rock’s earliest matches in his pro wrestling career will be tomorrow’s WWE Network Hidden Gem upload. WWE Network News reported tonight that tomorrow’s upload will be a dark match between Dwayne Johnson and Bodydonna Skip, also known as Chris Candido. The reported synopsis lists a March 11, 1996 date meaning this would be his second ever WWE match, with a dark match against the Brooklyn Brawler the day before at a WWE Superstars taping being his first.

Link: http://www.wwenetworknews.com/2018/0...r-highlighted/

Originally Posted by Observer Daniel Cormier told Instinct Culture at the Sports Humanitarian Awards that Seth Rollins texted him “Congratulations, now go kick Brock’s ass” after UFC 226. Cormier said he's friends with Rollins, and Cormier famously celebrated in the crowd when Rollins cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase to win the WWE title at WrestleMania 31. During an interview with ESPN, Cormier joked that he’ll win the Universal title from Brock Lesnar.

Originally Posted by Observer When asked about potentially wrestling in WWE, Travis Browne said he’s under contract with the UFC but would never say no to the possibility of wrestling. He said he’d love to work with Ronda Rousey and would want to be in a tag team with her. Browne is Rousey’s husband and said he’s never seen her happier than she is now.

Link: https://youtu.be/GO2ZAvnxlM4

Originally Posted by Observer The latest edition of the NWA’s Ten Pounds of Gold series focuses on the build to Flip Gordon challenging for Nick Aldis’ title at ROH Honor for All on Friday. Gordon vs. Silas Young is set for ROH's TV tapings at Center Stage in Atlanta on Saturday. TMZ reported that David Arquette had a warm-up match in Tijuana, Mexico while wearing a mask before returning to the ring for Championship Wrestling From Hollywood.

NWA: https://youtu.be/nt57c9TlUGg , ROH: https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/fl...ficial-atlanta , Arquette: http://www.tmz.com/2018/07/17/david-...-match-mexico/

Originally Posted by Observer Ayako Hamada has been placed under probation following her arrest for possession of methamphetamines. Initially, outlets in Japan and the US reported that Hamada had been sentenced to eighteen months in prison. Sister Xochitl Hamada, however, told Mediotiempo in Mexico that Hamada had been sentenced to three years probation, and that if she were to violate her probation she could face eighteen months in prison. In a statement to media in Japan, Hamada announced that she is retiring from pro wrestling due to the situation. She stated that she hopes to find work as a interpreter since she is fluent in both Japanese and Spanish. Hamada, 37, was arrested back on May 13 for possession of a banned stimulant, in this case meth.

Originally Posted by PWI The American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida began advertising WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar for the 7/30 Raw taping today. The appearance would be Lesnar's first appearance on WWE programming since the Greatest Royal Rumble event back in April and would be the episode of Raw the week after his Summerslam 2018 challenger is determined.

Originally Posted by PWI NJPW kicks off three straight days of G1 Climax at Korakuen Hall this morning. Day 4 will be live on NJPWWorld.com at 5.30AM Est/10.30AM UK with the following B Block matches: *SANADA vs. Tama Tonga *Zack Sabre Jr vs. Toru Yano *Juice Robinson vs. Kota Ibushi *Tetsuya Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii *Kenny Omega vs. Hirooki Goto

Originally Posted by PWI Brian Fritz of Sporting News is reporting that a day after she officially reported to the WWE Performance Center, ROH and STARDOM alum Deonna Purrazzo is the latest entrant into the 2018 Mae Young Classic. WWE also announced that Tegan Nox, Jessica Elaban and Reina Gonzales have been added to the tournament. Already confirmed for the tournament are Rhea Ripley former WWE Divas Champion Kaitlyn, Io Shirai, Nicole Matthews, Jinny, former American Ninja Warrior star Kacy Catanzaro and Vernice Gabriel, a female star in the Philippines. The tournament, in its second year, will be taped next month for the WWE Network.

Originally Posted by PWI Ring of Honor will return this Friday 7/20 with "Honor For All" in Nashville, TN at the Municipal Auditorium which will air live for Honorclub subscribers, which you can subscribe to by clicking here., Announced for the event: *ROH TV Champion Punishment Martinez vs. Scorpio Sky. *NWA Champion Nick Aldis vs. Flip Gordon. *Women of Honor Champion Sumie Sakai vs. Karen Q. *ROH Tag Team Champions The Briscoes vs. IWGP Tag Team Champions The Young Buck vs. The Addiction - Non-title. *Kenny King vs. Chris Sabin vs. Shane Taylor vs. Jonathan Gresham to determine top contender for ROH TV Championship. *Cody vs. TK O'Ryan. *Matt Taven vs. Marty Scurll.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Austin Aires is set to defend his title at Slammiversary on this Sunday. Aries will put his Impact World Championship on the line against Moose in front of a sold-out Toronto crowd ... The Belt Collector took part in a media call today where I had the chance to ask about other WWE Superstars who might not be happy and ready to strike out on their own. Aries said at this point there is such a vibrant array of options that it gives someone a world of possibilities outside of Vince McMahon and Company. "I mean listen, if there's a number of men and women over there who feel they're in a position where they're spinning their wheels," Aries said. "Or maybe not getting the opportunities they feel they earned that are immensely talented. I'm not gonna name names but I think anyone in that position who wants to better themselves, I think Impact Wrestling provides a platform at least that's not gonna tie you down and lock you in and give you the opportunities to actually go and prove that." While Aries declined providing specifics, he noted that talent have other options if they feel that they're not being utilized properly. "They go and do that also independently across the world. So you know it's a unique opportunity. Listen, there's a lot -- they have a huge roster and there's a lot of talent on there. There's only so many spots and so many hours of television. So you know I'm sure there are people who feel like they're getting left out or they're not getting the shots that they want, and if they find themselves free and clear, it's cool. There's a nice vibrate professional landscape right now for people to go out and apply their craft."

Link: http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...underutilized/

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Christian recently discussed the reason for his finisher's name change during a Q&A episode of E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness. Captain Charisma said the reason for this switch-up came down to how dangerous he wanted the move to appear. "The name The Unprettier kinda came as a joke between myself and The Hardys and Adam we would joke around," Chrisian said. "I don't even remember how we came up with it but I jokingly called it The Unprettier because I hate how it makes you feel so damn unpretty. We would jokingly talk about it behind-the-scene and somebody and somebody heard it, I think it might have been Michael Cole or somebody. "He said it on the air and it kinda just stuck from there. But I never thought the name matched how dangerous the move was. So when I came back from TNA to WWE I kinda wanted to repackage a few different things, the name of my finish being one of them. I had a conversation earlier that first day back with Vince and I told him my feelings on it and what I wanted to name it and he went, 'no that's great. Do it.' So that's how it got changed."

Some other sheet news includes:

• The Sporting News had a recent interview with Deonna Purrazzo talking about her recent signing with the WWE, this year's Mae Young Classic tournament, and more. http://www.sportingnews.com/wwe/news...n1d25bk6ertf7x
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, yesterday was the 38th anniversary of Verne Gagne's 10th and final AWA Championship victory of his career. Gagne defeated then champion Nick Bockwinkel for the title.
• In another "WWE Did You Know" type fact, yesterday was the 8th anniversary of the first ever Money in the Bank PPV in the WWE. Miz won the RAW brand case while Kane won the Smackdown brand case.
• NJPW's official website held a recent interview with Tetsuya Naito talking about his issues with how NJPW picks wrestlers for the G1, facing Omega and Ibushi in this year's tournament, and his thoughts on facing fellow LIJ member SANADA in this year's tournament. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...imax-entrants/
• During a recent episode of The Ross Report podcast show, Jim Ross revealed he currently expects to not be involved with this year's Mae Young Classic tournament. He stated WWE has yet to contact him for the event and also admitted he could have done a better job on commentary in last year's tournament.

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Impact: Slammiversary Sold Out, Knockout Sienna Gone From Impactt
• Major Spoiler from Tonight’s NXT Tapings
• Titus O’Neil Releases a Statement on Hulk Hogan
• Kane Injury Update, Expected to Be Off TV for a While
• The New Day Release a Statement About Hulk Hogan

[Mr. Nerfect]

That's awful news about Hamada.

[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets sponsored by NJPW G1 Climax 2018:

SPOILER: show

Originally Posted by Observer Taynara Conti defeated Vanessa Borne in a Mae Young Classic qualifying match at last night’s NXT TV tapings. Conti, who is from Brazil, was also in last year’s tournament and was one of the NXT wrestlers in the WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal this April. Conti lost to Lacey Evans in the first round last year.

Spoiler tags used since its related to a Mae Young Classic qualifier match from the recent batch of NXT tapings.

SPOILER: show

Originally Posted by CageSideSeats.com On next week’s WWE Raw, Bobby Lashley will face Roman Reigns, with the winner moving on to face Brock Lesnar for the Universal title at Summerslam. According to cagesideseats.com, the current plan is for Roman Reigns to defeat Bobby Lashley and go on to win the Universal championship from Brock Lesnar at Summerslam.

Spoiler tags used since its related to rumored plans for Lesnar's match at SummerSlam.

Originally Posted by Observer On this week’s episode of his Dinner with the King podcast, Jerry Lawler said he’s heard Howard Finkel is in really bad health and that, while he emphasized that he’s not sure of this, Finkel may have suffered a stroke.

Link: https://youtu.be/scHz1vSbBYY

Originally Posted by Observer Bret Hart continued his public back-and-forth with Martha Hart, Owen Hart’s widow, by posting a lengthy statement on Facebook. Bret responded to the statement that Martha put out after he criticized her for not allowing Owen to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Bret wrote that the Owen Hart Foundation is a wonderful charity, but he doesn’t think it should be the sole outlet to remember Owen and that his wrestling career should be acknowledged.

Link: https://www.facebook.com/25112331444...6642506929443/

Originally Posted by Observer WWE unveiled Ronda Rousey’s first action figure and other new figures during San Diego Comic-Con.

Link: https://www.wwe.com/inside/mattel/ga...s#fid-40240931

Originally Posted by Observer The G1 Climax continues at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo overnight/tomorrow morning, with Kazuchika Okada vs. Hangman Page headlining the show. The other A Block tournament matches are: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Bad Luck Fale, Togi Makabe vs. EVIL, Minoru Suzuki vs. YOSHI-HASHI, and Michael Elgin vs. Jay White. The show will begin at 5:30 a.m. Eastern time and will be available for free via the Japanese commentary live feed as part of “G1 Fan Appreciation Day.” Here’s the full card: Kazuchika Okada vs. Hangman Page Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Bad Luck Fale Togi Makabe vs. EVIL Minoru Suzuki vs. YOSHI-HASHI Michael Elgin vs. Jay White Hirooki Goto & Yoh vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Sho Kenny Omega & Chase Owens vs. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa Tetsuya Naito & SANADA vs. Juice Robinson & David Finlay Kota Ibushi & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Toru Yano & Jado Zack Sabre Jr. & Taka Michinoku vs. Toa Henare & Shota Umino

Originally Posted by Observer Indies Roundup: NJPW held a 10-bell salute for Masa Saito at Korakuen Hall at the start of today's G1 show. Pro Wrestling: EVE announced Meiko Satomura vs. Toni Storm in a no time limit match for their Global Women Strike show in London on September 27. Ayesha Raymond, who was in last year’s Mae Young Classic and lost to Toni Storm in the first round, will make her Women of Honor debut at ROH’s Honor Re-United tour show in London on August 19. Due to a scheduling conflict, Juice Robinson is replacing Matt Riddle at OTT’s WrestleRama weekend in Dublin on August 18 and 19. Stardom’s Mayu Iwatani tweeted that she wants to wrestle at ROH & NJPW’s G1 Supercard at Madison Square Garden in April 2019.

NJPW: https://twitter.com/MrLARIATO/status...74779292151808 , PWE: https://twitter.com/ProWrestlingEVE/...15104593661953 , ROH: https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/ay...h-debut-london , OTT: https://twitter.com/OTT_wrestling/st...38556867948544 , Iwatani: https://twitter.com/MayuIwatani/stat...47512506916865

Originally Posted by PWI Carmella tweeted: Two years ago today, I was the very last draft pick. From Ms Irrelevant to the FIRST ever Ms MITB & now SD Women’s Champion. A lot has changed in two years and I’m only gettin started! #MellaIsMoney #tbt ???????? pic.twitter.com/HZFVuI8IyF — Smackdown Womens Champion (@CarmellaWWE) July 19, 2018

Link: https://twitter.com/CarmellaWWE/stat...85814732845056

The original plan for the show[Extreme Rules] was for the Iron Man match to open the PPV and for the last hour to feature AJ Styles vs. Rusev, Nia Jax vs. Alexa Bliss and to close out with Roman Reigns vs. Bobby Lashley, but the match order was shifted late in the day.

Originally Posted by SEScoops.com Dreamer’s House of Hardcore promotion has collaborated with Impact, Billy Corgan’s NWA, and we’ve even seen Tommy Dreamer in Lucha Underground this year. According to Dreamer, however, WWE once offered him a lot of money to close his promotion. Dreamer commented on the matter during today’s Impact Wrestling media call. “WWE asked me to sign a contract when I went back with the Wyatt’s,” Dreamer said referring to his brief 2015 run with the company. “They offered me a lot of money to close House of Hardcore and I refused.”

Link with more details and media call: https://www.sescoops.com/tommy-dream...e-of-hardcore/

Originally Posted by SquaredCircleSirens.com We have been able to confirm that the second ever female referee in NXT who worked the tapings tonight at Full Sail in Winter Park, Florida is none other than Aubrey Edwards. Female pro wrestling referee out of Seattle, working all over the PNW Area. She joins Jessika Carr as the two female referees for WWE’s developmental brand NXT.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc There have been a lot of rumors on Daniel Bryan's WWE contract status as of late. One rumor said Bryan turned down a contract extension and another claimed he signed an extension. Dave Meltzer noted on the Wrestling Observer message board that these reports are false. Meltzer wrote, "No extension has been signed or offered, as I had figured."

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Former TNA Knockout Chelsea Green, a.k.a. Laurel Van Ness, cancelled her upcoming dates for Chaos Wrestling and IPW. Green was at the WWE tryouts a few weeks ago, however she noted on Twitter that she was having Visa issues. IPW issued the following statement regarding Green: Due to unforeseen circumstances, which will become clearer in the next couple of weeks, Chelsea Green is unable to make her scheduled trip to the UK for Pro Wrestling Chaos & IPW. We are working on a replacement at such short notice. Chelsea does send her deepest apologies also.. Green also noted on Twitter that she is still planning on working the All In event on September 1st.

Link: https://www.facebook.com/IPWuk/posts/1790151401022641

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Charlotte Flair recently took part in ESPN Magazine's Body Issue. She was in her full birthday suit in the ring for the photo shoot with nothing covering her except the ring itself and the angles the photographer used. Flair recently spoke to Instinct Culture by Denise Salcedo at the Sports Humanitarian Awards where she discussed what it was like to be a part of the shoot ... Flair admitted there were parts of the photo shoot that got a little awkward like when she had to do forty-five nude moonsaults for the camera. She said it was a nightmare come to life but the professionalism of the shoot soon removed her worry. "Doing forty-five naked moonsaults was awkward. Which it's like a backflip in the air. I'm like, 'ah this is my worse nightmare.' You know when you wake up and you have forgotten you like shoes or something for work, I forgot my ring gear."

Link: http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...had-to-do-for/


Some other sheet news includes:

• Merriam-Webster dictionary publisher revealed they are currently considering adding the wrestling term "kayfabe" as an official new word to their dictionary. https://www.merriam-webster.com/word...origin-kayfabe
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, if Cena manages to not wrestle at this year's SummerSlam event, he will break his current streak of being on the card of every SummerSlam since 2003. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCirc...rslam_it_will/
• Sports Illustrated had a recent interview with Jake "The Snake" Roberts talking about his issues with today's wrestling and his brief feud with Hulk Hogan in 1986. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...pro-wrestling/
• This week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter was delayed by a day due to Meltzer having some scheduling issues pop up.

Some stuff from TPWW Frontpage:

• Various: Former UFC Champ Trains w/ WWE, Alexa Bliss Gallery, Birthdays
• When Will Brock Lesnar Next Appear on Raw?
• WWE: WWE Denies Cameras at Hogan Apology, Hardy Tweets, Flair Update

[Bad News Gertner]

It's too bad Finkel never wrote a book. He's seen it all.

[owenbrown]

Originally Posted by Bad News Gertner It's too bad Finkel never wrote a book. He's seen it all.

I would absolutely buy that book if he had written it.

[LibSuperstar]

Originally Posted by owenbrown I would absolutely buy that book if he had written it.

Would be well worth the purchase.